Food, peace, war, daughters and sons

Taurus 2022

Taurus time – one that should be associated with peace and quiet. Lots of green – here in the north anyway – and enjoying a lie down under a tree. A time for many crops to develop and for the planting of others. For the flowers of spring to give way to early summer blooms. And, for some of us, it is a time we can appreciate. But sadly not for all.

Sadly, no peace or green

I associate Taurus with Ceres, a green goddess who provides food and protects the earth and all her creatures. This includes her attempts to take care of us. But we appear to be unwilling to take her hints. She is having an uphill battle at the moment. So perhaps she has resorted to different tactics. More on that later.

While war rages in Ukraine, hunger is at frightening levels and women’s rights are being put under stress yet again (Didn’t we already fight that battle?) The opinions of ordinary people seem to be totally disregarded. Roe v. Wade, giving abortion rights to women, is being challenged in the US and the Taliban are insisting that women cover up again.

It’s an age old problem

I blame the Romans and the Greeks! Well not really. But their myths, along with most religions, reflect and confirm the place of men and women in society. It has been said that religions which are strongly opposed to abortion and women’s rights, are those where women can’t be priests or leaders.

From the beginning these Greek and Roman myths, recount family struggles. Fights between fathers and sons. Saturn, who castrated his father, Uranus, ate his own children, to avoid being overthrown. Did this set the scene for men being suspicious of each other? For them wanting to destroy any younger men who might reach power? It sometimes seems that way in war, when older men are the strategists in power, and the younger ones are dying.

Some children are more special than others

Saturn and Ops (Cronus and Rhea) had six children – three daughters and three sons. Rhea saved favoured son Zeus (Jupiter) from being consumed giving Saturn a stone, instead of the baby Zeus. This caused Saturn to vomit, thus releasing Zeus’s five siblings: Vesta, Ceres, Juno, Pluto and Neptune. Zeus was then able to overthrow his father. And so it goes on.

Zeus/Jupiter becomes the supreme god and as such he is given the biggest planet! His domain is the sky, and one of the things he is responsible for, apart from thunderbolts, and ruling things, is providing rain for growing crops. But perhaps now he is too busy somewhere else to water crops. His brother Neptune is given dominion over the waters, and his other brother, Pluto, gets the underworld. The girls?? They get nothing. Certainly not a planet. In some accounts Ceres is referred to as ‘plain’! The girls get food, wifely duties and the home. They get stuff done. Sound familiar?

A sense of entitlement

It seems natural that men in these myths give orders and seem to rape at will if the mood takes them. Jupiter was also the overseer of battles, encouraging and praising heroism as an ideal men need to live up to. Of course he has his good sides, but he nonetheless expects to be obeyed, as do all the domain rulers.

So what about now?

We see the world displaying many of the negative sides of masculine planetary archetypes. Saturn fighting over country borders, such as in Ukraine. Fear of attack – Finland and Sweden applying to join NATO. Mars – war, defending, raping and yet more mass shootings in the US. We see Jupiter in the top players making decisions, such as Putin and Biden. We see it too in the decision-making of the WHO, who are attempting to gain more power in pandemic situations.

We see Mercury, the trickster, at work, even though he is currently going backwards, in the role of highlighting what we read and hear. He might be entertaining us (think Johnny Depp and Amber Heard) while serious developments are going on under the radar.

We see Uranus blowing things up, and Neptune, known for his uneven temperament, making water supplies and gas unpredictable. And Pluto is in full destruction mode, withdrawing oil, abusing power, and cruelly destroying people, animals, buildings and crops.

Antidotes

Recently, I have been thinking about planetary archetypes operating as antidotes. These are often masculine/feminine pairings. We need the calm reflection of the Moon to counteract too much Sunny self-importance. And we need the Sun to help put us centre-stage if we are doing too much Moony caring for others. Likewise, Mars needs Venus to disarm him, while Venus needs Mars to light her fire. But it is another pairing I wish to discuss here, that of Ceres and Pluto. One to which I have alluded before, for example here and here.

Too much Pluto?

This pairing of Ceres-Pluto, who are siblings, is concerned with the balance between:

• sister vs. brother
• girls vs. boys which leads to women vs. men
• democracy vs. totalitarianism
• peace vs. war
• food vs. starvation
• nature vs. control
• sunflower oil vs. oil
• natural vs. man-made
• Roe vs. Wade

Ceres faces an uphill battle

As women and other members of disenfranchised groups continue to gain positions in governments, fight for their rights, and demand a place at the table, I think the ‘pale, stale, males’ are trying to cling on to power. They are thus becoming increasingly controlling and cruel. As Ceres energy in both men and women is being called upon, the problems of balance in the list above are becoming clearer.

Democracy challenged

Ceres, in my view, is the democracy goddess. See my earlier posts on this. Democracy is being openly challenged in many countries, and in ‘democratic’ countries, citizen’s rights have been severely tested, due to the Coronavirus restrictions imposed from on high. The wars in many countries have highlighted the lack of global peace, particularly in Ukraine. Due to war, food supplies are threatened. And as is usual in war, starvation is one of the weapons used. I covered this topic in a 2020 post ‘War, peace and food‘. Ceres is not happy!

Ceres needs peace

Ceres calls for peace. Not for the sake of a life without conflict as Venus might desire, but because she needs people to stay in one place to grow her precious crops. Food shortages are becoming increasingly troubling. The power (Pluto) of the stock market has frequently fallen because of crop shortages. I’ve written before that this year will be a reckoning for financial systems in the US, and therefore for all of us. Ceres is incredibly important in this story.

Ceres-Pluto cycle

In my post Pluto strikes the US, I also discussed the Ceres-Pluto cycle. Now, we can see how this cycle is working in all Ceres areas, not only in the fields of vaccines and finance. Plutocrats are making billions from weapons. Gas and oil suppliers are looking after their own. Women’s rights are being threatened. Peace seems to be a long way off, not only in Ukraine. The number of displaced people is horrendous. And major decisions are being taken out of our hands.

Ceres is still trying to wake us up

In mythology, Ceres could withdraw food to get her point across. There has been a spate of strange happenings in the US where several food processing plants have been destroyed. And Biden has used a ‘war act’ to increase the production of baby formula in the US, as shortages are reaching crisis levels. Ceres can make it difficult for her male counterparts, Jupiter (greed, arrogance and entitlement) and Pluto (power). It is really clear to the world now that Ukraine and Russia are major grain and fertiliser suppliers, and that Ukraine is a very important sunflower oil producer.

Ceres might have a hand in this. Is she making it difficult so we can see that there are huge consequences for all of us because of our dependence on these countries? We can no longer feed ourselves through naturally available, local food. The ability, or wish, to breastfeed is also decreasing, so baby formula is big business. In 2021 the industry was worth over 52 billion dollars. Interesting perhaps, is the fact that Bill Gates has invested in the firm Biomilq, which is researching ways to produce milk from cells taken from human breast tissue and milk. Arggggh. I wonder what Ceres would say to that!

A day of reckoning?

Eventually people in power will be harshly judged because of current conflicts. When people are starving, especially children, rebellion is rife. There is nothing to lose. Hopefully this will cause change to our governing systems, but not before some difficult times, I fear.

We need to help Ceres

We need to do all we can to get the balance between these two archetypes right for Ceres to act as an antidote for Pluto’s dominance. Since 2006, Ceres at least has a planet, so that’s a start. We can help her by supporting rights for everyone, and by supporting truly democratic processes. By demanding more natural products, local food, supporting the earth and her creatures, and by just saying ‘no‘ to controlling demands.

New myths?

Perhaps we need to upgrade to new versions of the myths, or in the case of Ceres, focus on the part of the story of her daughter Persephone’s abduction, after she gets her daughter back. That’s when she reclaims her power.

Timing

The heavens show us the best time to go for it! In my post on the Ceres-Pluto cycle, I discussed crunch points. The start of this current cycle was within days of the first announced COVID death in January 2020. I discussed how April 2021 brought the first crunch point, when the Astra Zeneca vaccine rollout was temporarily halted due to blood clotting issues.

However, in addition to this, in April 2021 the World Food Program announced: “More than 31 million people across West and Central Africa may not have enough to eat in the coming months as hunger rises due to an “explosive mix” of skyrocketing food prices, conflict and fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.” The WFP stressed then that “immediate action is needed now to avert a catastrophe.” 31 million people represents a rise of 30% from the previous year. The Ukraine situation is making it even worse for many countries.

Wasting our time

But meanwhile, we are worrying about what our Prime Ministers have done wrong. Boris Johnson getting fined for breaking Corona rules and Mark Rutte, our PM here in the Netherlands, deleting some SMS texts. The amount of time devoted to these issues is frankly ridiculous. Both of these men have not changed since before they were elected, yet they still won the vote. That’s democracy for you. Can we please get on to something more important!

The second crunch point

This is when we need to fight even harder for Ceres. In July 2022, Ceres and Pluto will be opposite each other. A chance to say a big ‘NO’ to abuse of power. As I mentioned in my Pluto strikes the US post, this date coincides with a very important astrological transit for the US Sibly chart. Therefore the power that the US wields needs to be severely challenged at this time, especially concerning wars and the economy. However, we need to put food insecurity above oil and gas on the top of the global agenda – and way above the controversial ‘Great Reset’ plans.

Other countries

Interestingly, this planetary aspect also affects a couple of other countries in the news. Finland and Ireland.

Finland

Finland has been in the news as it has applied to join NATO, due to fears concerning its neighbour, Russia. I will use the chart for the independence of Finland that arose out of the Russian Revolution, when a proposal was tabled and accepted for independence in December of 1917. This chart shows the Ceres-Pluto crunch point triggering the MC-IC axis, points which have to do with a realignment of Finland’s mission. Pluto at the MC point means they have gone ‘black-and-white’, and chosen a side. Ceres at the bottom of the chart probably indicates that it was a democratic choice ‘at home’, which this point represents.

Because of Turkey’s objections, it may not yet be a done deal, but Finland, (along with Sweden), has made its intention clear. Incidentally Ceres in the NATO chart is also triggered by this crunch point, perhaps highlighting how voting should be done within NATO, but that’s a discussion for another time.

Ireland

Ireland and Northern Ireland have again been in the news, mainly because of Brexit aftershocks. Using the chart for the full independence of Eire in April 1949, this year’s Ceres-Pluto crunch point triggers their Sun, Venus connection in Aries. The Sun represents Ireland’s leaders, and a couple of the things Venus represents, apart from the economy, are cooperation and mediation. Leadership in the Republic of Ireland has always been in the middle of the Northern Ireland-Brexit situation. Perhaps this will highlight the power they have in this question again. Can Irish leaders help negotiate a settlement for Brexit? Or perhaps lead the way for a united Ireland?

Short but important

Although this Ceres-Pluto trigger is short, it is very important in this cycle as it is the halfway point on our way towards 2024, when this cycle starts again. I hope we can use the wake-up call and the celestial timing to set us on a better path for the future. It’s up to us – let’s face it –we can’t leave it to those at the top.

Faye Blake

Interesting websites

Geoengineering is being seen as a possible solution to climate change. Here a some of the dangers at Geoengineering Watch

A short podcast on Yemen and food insecurity.

A timeline of Roe v Wade

And a shorter piece on Roe v. Wade

And in Dutch an interesting short talk on democracy and human rights by prof. dr. Cees Hamelink

Quote of the Month

“A boy doesn’t have to go to war to be a hero; he can say he doesn’t like pie when he sees there isn’t enough to go around.” E. W. Howe, American novelist and newspaper editor.

For Astrologers

US Sibly: 4 July 1776, 17:10, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

From Nicholas Campion’s World Horoscopes

Finland Independence: 6 December 1917, 15:00, Helsinki, Finland.

Eire Independence: 18 April 1949, 0:00 Dublin, Ireland.

A piece I wrote on Antidotes will appear in the AA journal July/August 2022.