An American epiphany – and more to come

Def: Epiphany – a moment of sudden and great revelation or realization. Wednesday (Jan 6) was a public holiday here in Italy, being a religious celebration. In the Catholic world it is the Day of the Epiphany, the Christian feast day that celebrates the revelation (theophany) of God incarnate as Jesus Christ. It was the day when the Magi paid a visit to the Christ child, the day also known as the Three Kings Day. It Italy it is also known as the day of Befana, who is a broomstick-riding old woman who brings gifts or a lump of coal to the kids. Yeah, it’s like a 2^nd Christmas morning for the kids. She missed out on the Magi thing, so she has to work hard through the night bringing gifts to the other kids as a penance. But yesterday also had a great significance to the United States, and we watched all the goings-on here in Italy from across the pond. It was certainly a day of great realization for America, and a day of epiphany. The rest of the world looked on in disbelief.

So, what happened ‘that day on Capitol Hill’, exactly, and why was yesterday an epiphany – or should have been – for the US? We start with a few details of the events. We won’t go into a large exposition, as they have been thoroughly covered elsewhere. What interests us most is firstly the astrology that would indicate such a turn of events and secondly, what it has meant to the American psyche and the world view of America.

To begin, on Jan 5^th and 6^th there were large rallies in Washington in support of Trump, to protest the result of the 2020 election and to support Mike Pence and Congress to reject Joe Biden’s victory. Trump called for these rallies, claiming the election was stolen from the American people and repeating his claims that he won the election in a landslide. He didn’t, but a true believer will never be convinced otherwise.

On the morning of the 6^th on The Ellipse (sometimes called the President’s Park South  – an interesting symbol) the crowd heard speeches from Trump, Rudy Giuliani and Trump, Jr. During his speech that morning,it was said that Trump incited the crowd to “fight like hell” and “take back our country”, and asked his supporters to march to the U.S. Capitol. Taking Trump at his word, they did exactly that, starting at around 1:00 PM EST. What we are not generally told is that Trump also told the crowd that he knew they would make their voices heard “peacefully and patriotically” once they arrived at the Capitol. With experience as a guide, people generally hear what they want to hear. When they started to march to the Capitol, that was when events began to take a more serious turn. The chart is below (bigger), which we will get to:

At around 2:30 that afternoon there was a mob of hundreds from the crowd of thousands who stormed the Capitol Building, where Congress was in session, in process of debating the Electoral College results. That was when events took a violent turn. At that point the members of Congress were told to put on the gas masks under their seats (Who knew they kept gas masks under the seats?) because tear gas was being fired on the mob, and the members were whisked out of the room to safe locations. For a brief period, the mob occupied the Congressional chamber and offices of members of Congress, including Nancy Pelosi’s office, taking selfies. Once they were in the building the rioters generally seemed to have little sense of purpose and direction other than to disrupt the Congressional proceedings and get some good pics for memories’ sake.

While this was happening the news media in the US were busy with coverage, with some commentators and politicians calling the event an attempted coup, some calling it an act of terrorism while others called it an insurrection. It was a weak insurrection if so, certainly not a coup, and there were a few extremists, but it was quickly put down by the combined police, FBI and National Guard forces, as per the 2^nd Amendment. (That amendment was originally intended for putting down insurrections.) At the end of the chaos, 52 people had been arrested and four people died – a woman shot and killed by officers on the scene and three others in separate medical emergencies. Later on a member of the police died of injuries sustained in the riot.

The people who overran the Capitol on the 6^th were not terrorists, though. If you want to see terrorism, look at Daesh/ISIS in Syria and Iraq, the ones whom we have promoted, funded and armed as ‘moderate rebels’. The people in the Capitol were mostly people like I grew up with and worked with, except for a few like Bison Boy, the so-called ‘Q’ shaman. They weren’t running around cutting people’s throats and the like. They just thought the election was stolen from them and were egged on by a President who is facing some rather stark realities when he leaves office at noon on the 20th, hence his strong push to overturn the election. The violence that day was the wrong approach, but on the whole, the mob didn’t torch Washington. They weren’t out to kill people. But we are told they ‘defiled the Capitol’.

No, these were largely family men, however misguided, who will have tales of that day with which to endlessly bore their children and grandkids. Perhaps one, via Getty, will tell his tales from a podium. In the end, far more harm came to or will come to them than they brought to anyone else, except for one policeman. This is not to excuse what they did. It was a criminal act. They could face criminal prosecution and up to ten years in prison, especially if they brought a firearm onto the premises.

But many of the mob thought they were patriots. Instead, they were used as pawns, by a scared President. And as insurrections go, it was rather more like a circus than a purposeful attempt to upend a government or change its direction. And at the latter, they certainly failed. It was, in reality, a spur of the moment event and unorganized. But the hyperbole of the media and some members of Congress was over the top.

At the height of the violence, Trump tweeted a video where he told the mob to go home, be peaceful and that they were all special people, that he loved them, reiterating his claim the election had been stolen. This, after he had fired up the crowd at the rally and egged them on to the Capitol. He was promptly censored by Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for at least twelve hours.

A curfew was imposed on Washington for 6:00, the National Guard was called in and all is quiet there now. The Guard will be deployed there for the next 30 days. So we can probably also forget any large violence at the inauguration. Some of the mob stated afterward they were proud of what they did, whereas the great majority of comment after the fact condemned the actions of the mob. Joe Biden stopped short of calling it sedition.

At 8:00 the next morning the Congress confirmed Biden’s electoral victory. Trump has since promised a smooth transition of power on the 20^th. The effort to upend the November 3^rd result is over. Trump will leave office on the 20^th of this month, but the US will be anything but calm. With the background in mind, what shows in the chart, above?

In past articles we have looked at the solar arc of Pluto to the US Midheaven and what that might mean, noting it is often seen in coups when other factors also indicate the possibility – the subversion and perhaps overthrow of the sitting government. Those other factors are not present here. That direction will be in effect throughout this year. We can expect changes in government over the course of this year, too – some good, some not so. We can also expect much in the way of projection onto the government, Pluto ruling psychological projection. Millions of voters will not accept Joe Biden as their President.

Rebellion is shown by Uranus, on the other hand, and it is square the US nodal axis by transit: “a political association advocating reforms, industrial or technological team-work. – An excited family.” We certainly had an ‘excited family’ in the US in the past 48 hours. And it is a period wherein reforms are needed, noting as well the nodal axis lies across the financial axis of the US – 2^nd to 8^th houses. That is where the root of the troubles in the US is – financial/economic. Jupiter will soon cross the south node of the US, 3 days before the inauguration, followed quickly by Saturn on 11^th of February. Then, reality will start to bite. Saturn on the south node is often associated with the working out of heavy karma. Uranus goes direct on the 14^th, in a week, at which time governmental transition will be going on in earnest (Uranus representing change).

On the 20^th, Inauguration Day, Mars will be conjunct Uranus, squaring the US nodal axis: “The demonstration of excitement in the presence of other people, the experience of sudden events shared together with other people, the execution of extraordinary and unusual enterprises.” The implication here is for Biden to announce new initiatives, which we hope will be positive. Or, the day can represent something like we saw last night, which in a way would be exciting, depending on how one looks at it. I will be doing a post on the new administration when we know the make-up of Biden’s cabinet for certain.

But on the 6^th during the ruckus, what we also saw was Mercury on the Antivertex, squared by Mars, with the transiting MC also at the Antivertex, all showing the argumentative tone, the call by an official (MC) to strident action and an act that had a deep impact on the public view (Vertex axis). These preceding combinations, coupled with the directed Pluto to the American MC, gave shock value to the event, which has been needed to illustrate certain points, and which has shown up the darker side of the sitting government, including Congress.

Mercury can be a trickster, though, and there was some funny business associated with this event. People are asking how it was so easy to get into the building, why the police did little at the beginning, why it took so long for the National Guard to be called in, and so forth. Police were shown taking selfies with some of the mob. They were also videoed taking down barriers, allowing the protesters into the building. Protesters commented that the police just let them in. Comment after the fact said the police were surrounded and had little choice, noting there were already protesters behind them.

Then, there were the photo-ops during the occupation of the Capitol. The bison-headed man (Bison Boy), one Jake Angeli, an aspiring actor and singer, was a sensation on social media. He’s a sensation here in Italy now, too, with folks here initially believing him to be an Italian-American, based on his pseudonym. He was later photographed with Michiel Vos, attorney and husband of Nancy Pelosi’s daughter, a filmmaker. He is called an Antifa poseur on Parler and Twitter, leading some comment to call the whole event a setup by Antifa and the Democrats. Snopes has another take on the photo, saying Vos was there covering the event as a reporter and that Angeli is in fact a Trump supporter. The reader can decide. But it illustrates the sort of back and forth and divisions that exist across our society and media of various kinds, and how a picture seen out of context to lead to a lot of wild speculation.

Mary Trump, Trump’s niece, tweeted that the event was planned and coordinated with police, claiming that right-wing extremists had infiltrated the police, the inference being that was why it was so easy to get into the Capitol building. That can be called into question, too, in that Capitol Police were caught off guard and outnumbered by the sheer number of the mob and gave way to avoid giving fuel to claims of suppression of protests and to avoid more serious injuries among police and protesters. Police officers across the nation had many questions as to how events got so out of hand so quickly, too. Again, the reader can decide.

Actually, like them or not, RT had a fairly unbiased review of the proceedings (1^st half) on the 6^th and commentary on it. People know the system is broken and they feel government does not address their concerns. So much of what we hear is about ‘us’ and ‘them’, especially on social media. But is that really the case, or are events like what we just saw opening us up to a wider point of view that is neither us nor them, but in reality American society of all persuasions? We need to open out the meaning of this event and what might come of it.

For starters, Trump is now under scrutiny. If he tries anything else and acts in an ‘un-presidential manner’, he will be sequestered. It is doubtful at this late stage that Congress would try to remove him. That would only make Trump a martyr to his more extreme base, would tie up valuable time in the transition and confirmation processes, which are already going on behind the scenes, and further divide the nation. There are less than two weeks remaining in his term. There are ways to rein him in without impeachment or removal. And in what would probably be the worst thing for his ego, people will tend to ignore his outbursts now.

There is another very good thing that has come out of Wednesday night in terms of Trump being under scrutiny, in that all talk of a war with Iran is off the table now. I listened to a BBC broadcast this morning and there was mention of a Pentagon official saying any hint of adventurism overseas now in an effort to distract attention by Trump will not be tolerated. There is no proof of the statement, but given Trump’s about-face from fighting the election outcome to the bitter end, to now saying there will be a peaceful transition of power on the 20^th, it would appear he has had to see the light.

With several White House officials resigning Wednesday night, to staff being advised to avoid him lest they be charged with a federal crime for being complicit in the riots, Trump is finding himself isolated. And so, too, are many of his supporters. For liberal readers, consider that for four years Trump’s supporters saw their President lambasted and ridiculed on the MSM networks. If there was an attempted coup, it wasn’t on the 6^th. It is the one that has been attempted for the last four years against Trump via the media and the shameful Russia-gate debacle, the latter which many liberal voters still believe. There was similar hatred projected toward the Clintons and Obama by Republicans along other lines during those administrations. But the liberal media in the US has been particularly excoriating of Trump. There is most always more than one side to a story.

Alastair Crooke called what is happening in the US an American epiphany in a recent article, relating specifically to ‘Red America’ (Trump supporters), with the following:

“…Now, with the U.S. courts having abdicated their role in adjudicating suits in connection with the 3rd November election, it seems that President Trump will make a last effort to change the course of events between 6–20 January [which he did]. At point of writing [4 Jan], some 140 Republican Representatives say they will challenge the outcome of certain elections on 6 January. Whether this challenge will succeed (in all its dimensions) is moot [It didn’t, as expected].

What then? Well, Red America – whether rightly or wrongly – sees that 20 January may prove to be ‘the end of the line’ for them. Eight out of ten Republicans believe the election stolen; that the crucial Georgia Senatorial race likely will be ‘stolen’ too; that the destruction of small and mid-sized businesses through lockdown was a premeditated strategy to further consolidate Big Business Oligarchs; and that ultimately Red Americans will face ‘cancellation’ by an incoming woke ‘soft-totalitarianism’, orchestrated by Big Tech. This is their perspective – their Epiphany revelation. It is, to say the least, bleak.”

Emphasis added. The first part of the bolded text is true to an extent, because it is clear Congress has not supported Main Street, which includes liberal voters (‘Blue America’) by the way, in deference to Wall Street and the donor class. The latter bolded part may prove to come true to a degree as well, and must be avoided. Crooke goes on to say the following:

Yes, many American (and Western) myths about American identity and politics lie shattered on the ground. Many still are in a state of shock. They had imagined their elections as somehow sacrosanct. They had imagined the courts as arbitrators. And they never imagined to see a U.S. President ridiculed and humiliated so, by the MSM. Reality has arrived as a slap in the face.

And yes – TINA [There Is No Alternative, as in liberal democracy and capitalism] is over; a market for alternatives is now open for business. The ripples from this unexpected shock of an American epiphany will cascade into the European Union (though European leaders presently, are presenting a Nelsonian (blind) eye to the telescope), and the European media is compliant in simply ignoring anything, save the Tech narrative of reality.

But much more than this, the tear to that oppressive TINA canopy allows other civilisational-states assertively to reject criticisms, or policies, which have been weaponised against their value-systems. If Red America can utterly reject woke values, and vice versa, then why should other civilisations not reject western Enlightenment values?

The ultimate bolded point above is what will face the Biden administration and will not be easily offset, if ever. There is another epiphany that came as a result of the riots on the 6^th – The US lost any high moral ground to preach about democracy and human rights to other nations. Of course, many people throughout the world have known that for years, but the evidence was clearly on display on the 6^th.

What happened in Washington resembled what took place in Hong Kong and Venezuela when protesters and opposition parties – both of them backed, encouraged and funded by Washington – stormed their respective Parliaments. Washington cheered them on. Nancy Pelosi called the storming of the Hong Kong Parliament, “a beautiful sight to behold”. The Chinese just reminded her of her statement, and the government in general of Washington’s double standards.

World leaders roundly condemned the violence in Washington, with comments ranging from ‘sad’, ‘disgraceful’, ‘an attack on democracy’, ‘horrifying’ with many saying they hoped for a peaceful transfer of power. These are the sorts of comments that come out of Washington when there are riots in other nations’ capitols, often inspired by us.

The event on the 6^th marked a definite shift in the world’s view of the US. This was the international epiphany – that America is not so exceptional any longer. Some nations are celebrating it, while others are rather shocked and saddened by it. As mentioned previously, new alternatives are opening and will be accelerated by this event. It has put in doubt ideas like the Great Reset, mandatory vaccinations and so forth. But more than anything, it has highlighted the deep discontent within American society. Now both sides, ‘Blue’ and ‘Red’, are venting their frustrations. Both sides have demonstrated they will resort to violence. Both sides are being gamed to think outside influence is pushing leadership decisions. For the ‘Blues’ it is Russia and for the ‘Reds’ it is China, with a sub-focus on Iran. Neither trope is correct. Perhaps we see a pattern there.

Our ultimate epiphany as Americans – what some prefer to call ‘The Great Awakening’ – will come when we look across the street at our alleged foes, Blue and Red, and realize we have all been had. It’s not about how wrong we think the ‘other side’ is or the sanctity of our own supposed virtues. It’s about the fact that all of us have seen our own standards of living deteriorate over years while a few people just seem to get richer and richer, all the while those same people are telling us all we need to do is to work harder and maybe, just maybe, we can attain their status. Sure.

Our ultimate epiphany as Americans will also come when we look across the ocean at nations we are told are our erstwhile enemies, where they are lifting all their people out of poverty, where they own their own homes, where their infrastructure is first-rate, where their technology is going ahead full speed, and – despite their supposed oppressive governments – seem to be doing a pretty good job of running their nations and progressing along quite nicely, thank you very much.

“Don’t go to Rome”, we are told. There is nothing there we would like. (That’s an open invitation to go!) Some of us have been to ‘Rome’, though, and think it’s pretty nice. If enough of us do, even on the internet, we’ll be looking at each other thinking to ourselves, “Why can’t we do that?” Well, we can, and have, and we can do so again. That is the real threat to America – that we will seek to remake ourselves in an image other than what we are spoon-fed on a daily basis. The threat is not to us and our security from these other states. The threat is to the vested interests in our own nations. There is no law of nature that says big government and individual liberties, along with opportunities for everyone, cannot coexist. In fact, they do coexist in other nations. Yet, we are told TINA, “There is no alternative”. Bollocks!

As mentioned in the general outlook for the year, Mercury went in bounds and a midpoint ceased activity on the 5^th, the day the rallies started and the Georgia elections took place. The forecast was for the rhetoric to die down quickly, which it has, but the realizations that came of the violence of the 6^th have stuck, and will bear fruit in the coming months with any luck. Biden will have his work cut out for him, with nations who will no longer look up to America and see us as a shining city on the hill, with a divided, disgruntled and disillusioned populace at home, and with foreign states rising in power and challenging our sense of exceptionalism, openly and strongly. And that will be a good thing for us. It’s time for our nation to have a reality check. That will come for Europe next.

People will look back on 6 Jan 2021 in the years hence and in conversation will say, “You remember that day on Capitol Hill? You, know, when there was all the ruckus about the election results?” Oh, we will remember it well. It was the day when the rest of the world looked at America and said, “Now you are one of us.” As much as Biden and his supporters would have it, now is not time to move on from the past four years, or the past 20 or so. Now is the time to get down to business and clean house. The American epiphany is upon us, and is progressing quite well with each passing event. The sooner we fully realize it, the better off we will be.

Featured pic from The Indian Express