Painfully Perfect Symbolism

The 9/11 symbolism was perfect for Saturn opposite Pluto: that which is near, Saturn in Gemini (Twin Towers), transformed by fanatics from a faraway place, Pluto in Sagittarius. Astrologers didn't predict passenger planes crashing into the Twin Towers—who would want to see that coming? Besides, an astrologer who published such a prediction would likely be held in an undisclosed location.*

In the year since the attacks fear has risen and freedom has fallen, but not much else has changed. Heroes have emerged, but by and large Americans are the same, only more frightened, angry and aggressive than before. We've drawn up Saturn's wall around our own local reality (Gemini) and projected all the darkness (Pluto) on the religious fanatics from faraway lands.

The contracting forces of Saturn and Pluto have not engendered much openness or many new ideas. We are, rather, hunkering down in the USA instead of seeking alternative ways of working with our fears. If Saturn's walls stay up around our own perceptions, Pluto will continue to knock on our consciousness in frightening forms. Terror wins.

Saturn in Gemini: Open Your Eyes

The necessity, with Saturn in perceptive Gemini, is to open, not to close our eyes. Saturn is the planet that says "no," but means "yes." It shows where the boundaries and blockages are, where old forms have crystallized and where new ones are needed. Pluto in Sagittarius has come in a murderous form, yet it contains meaning despite the wreckage it has left behind.

When Saturn in Gemini opens us to seeing other perspectives, and listening to a multitude of voices, the terrible single-minded fanaticism of Pluto in Sagittarius loses its precious fuel: self-righteousness. But with it, the tyranny of one absolute truth, one religion or one economic system scorches our human landscape with the terrible fire of intolerance. Lines are drawn, sides are taken, we separate ourselves from our enemies and, thus, from ourselves.

Saturn in Gemini reveals how we have been split off from our senses by trivia packaged as entertainment or education. America's shortsightedness diverted its attention from the larger world in which it exists. Individual myopia keeps each of us in a hamster cage of ideas, information and activities that fill our heads with more words than meaning.

Changing the World

To change the world we must change ourselves. We can do this by changing old patterns of perception, the layers of habit that get between us and the world around us. Moving through multiple levels of sight, sound and touch, instead of holding fast to a single reality, allows Saturn in Gemini to lead to new forms, rather than reinforcing the limits of the old ones. Saturn, the planet of duty, obliges us to split the atom of the mind and build new twin towers of alertness and objectivity. Knowing how to be in more than one place at a time is essential for us now. When we stand in judgment we stand in ignorance, because judgment seeks the one right road, while reality dances along multiple paths.

Pluto in Sagittarius is here to transform the truth, to show the corrosive shells of ideologies gone bad with age and arrogance. The world has grown too small to clearly separate the winners from the losers. It is up to each of us to break down internal barriers between opposing forces, to stand apart from right and wrong and see how one is yin to the other's yang—inseparable parts of one whole.

Oppositions are about awareness, illuminating the night like the full moon. When two heavies like Saturn and Pluto face one another, light is shined on the darkest of places. We want to scurry for safety rather than face our own shadows. We want security, so we close our ears and eyes and shut our minds to the uncertainty of new information. But flight from Pluto, from shadow, is impossible because the darkness is within each of us. When we encounter our inner fundamentalism, our judgments and fears, we may be able to view them through Gemini's prism and free ourselves from these limited means of measurement.

Each of us is a node in the human network, an antenna in collective consciousness. When we grow as individuals, humanity grows. Our ability to process information on all levels expands the field of awareness, perhaps even enough to help us create a sustainable future on this planet.

*Well, not exactly. For successful predictions of 9/11 by astrologers see:Lynne Palmer and others and
Robert Zoller.

Jeff Jawer is a founder of StarIQ.com. He has been a professional astrologer since 1973 and is well-known as a writer, counselor and lecturer in North and South America, Europe and Australia.