Starcatsastrology’s Blog

Pluto & Irrevocable Change – The Big Three

If Pluto points to irrevocable change, and the sign Capricorn is associated with big business, the three automakers, Ford Motor Company (June 16, 1903, Dearborn, MI) General Motors (September 16, 1908, Flint, MI) and Chrysler Corp. (Jun 6, 1925, Detroit, MI) are solidly in line for transformation of the kind that is not negotiable.

So too the great state of Michigan (January 26, 1837, Detroit, MI). It has been reported that one out of ten American jobs is related to the automotive industry. The fate of these workers, the various states that depend upon the car industry to keep them in jobs (including the tire and rubber industry) are engaged in a fight for survival.

The life and death struggle of what once was a testament to innovative technology (Henry Ford’s streamlined mass production lines) affording millions of Americans access to mobility and reinvented social status and massive cultural change, is apparent when looking at the aforementioned horoscopes.

Although the charts for the Big Three are solar charts (no birth times known), a lot can be learned by noting the elemental balances. Ford has no earth in the chart. Hence, it is difficult for this corporation to “ground itself.” The company’s longevity is further undermined by it’s natal Chiron positioned at 21 Capricorn retrograde. The Chironic wound to a solid corporate structure, success and good reputation, as well as product integrity (remember the exploding Ford Pinto?) has been set off throughout the decades everytime one of the weighty ones such as Saturn through Pluto make a stressful aspect to natal Chiron. We’re now looking at the approach of transiting Pluto and also Saturn to Ford’s natal Chiron from 2019 to 2020.

Ford’s natal Pluto at 19 Gemini is conjunct the USA’s Mars and is in square to the USA’s natal Neptune of dissolution. Without earth, at the time when Pluto transiting Sagittarius opposed the USA’s Mars and formed up a t-square to the natal Neptune (2002-2003), the “ground” under Ford Motor Company began melting out from under it.

We can note similar transits through Chrysler Corporation’s chart. Chrysler has Jupiter in it’s fall at 21 Capricorn, the very degree of Ford’s Chiron. Chrysler’s Plutonic dismantling (years after the era of Lee Iaccoca)  began back in late 2000 into 2001 with Pluto’s transit in opposition to it’s natal Sun (15 Gemini). Pluto-Sun contacts can signal identity as well as health crises. A complete regeneration of the self (whether individual or corporation) is required. There are no guarantees on this side of the River Jordan of success, however encounters with survival are baked int he cake and emergence from the dark night of the soul depends upon one’s ability to endure.

It is not looking good for Chrysler. Chrysler also has the “earth” problem. As cited above, it has only Jupiter in it’s fall in Capricorn. If the company endures, it will probably be because it merges with GM or is bought by another auto manufacturer overseas. Chrysler’s Pluto-Mars conjunction (12 and 17 degrees of Cancer) are conjoined to the USA’s Sun, which will take the opposition from transiting Pluto in Capricorn from 2014-2017. Pluto in Capricorn dismantles what’s solid whether it be a manufacturing plant or a reputation.

General Motors chart is low on water. It has dissolving Neptune at 16 Cancer. Rick Waggoner (CEO) isn’t known for much sympathy but then neither are the other honchos who flew to D.C. to beg for taxpayer dollars in their corporate jets. (Robert Nardelli of Chrysler and Alan Mulally of Ford Motor). Pluto in Capricorn brings a sense of entitlement (Pluto is raw power) that arises out of corporations and institutions favored by old guard Capricorn. Plutocracy. Plutocrats. Mulally, CEO of Ford, says he’ll now work for $1.00 a year, but it doesn’t appear that the other two CEO’s are willing to make any concessions. Ah. I almost forgot to tell you that GM’s Uranus is at 12 Capricorn. Transiting Pluto will be conjoined to it in 2014.

President Bush granted the Big Three a bailout of $17bn on December 19th. This mere stipend will tide them over until March 31, 2009. We’ll have to see who’s left standing at the time 2009’s first two eclipses roll out. January 26th’s Solar eclipse finds angry Mars and talkative Mercury retrograde (fighting words) closely conjoined to the USA’s Pluto, Chrysler’s Jupiter and Ford’s Chiron.

The Lunar eclipse of February 9 reinvigorates spirited talk as Mercury, then in direct motion hovers at 24 degrees Capricorn. At both eclipses, transiting Mercury opposes the USA’s natal Mercury in the 8th house of loans. The January Solar eclipse’s Jupiter, Sun and Moon conjoin the USA’s South Node in Aquarius at the time the country is experiencing a nodal reversal (natal North Node is conjoined by transit by the South Node and vice versa).  There are similar nodal contacts found in the February Lunar eclipse as both take place in the sign Aquarius. Eclipses are wild cards that bring massive change suddenly and dramatically. Nodal reversal phases indicate a struggle with instincts that cry out against the necessity of change. Dire circumstances such as those facing the Big Three call for a Plutonic amputation of everything that no longer works to sustain the life.

Some planet points of interest:

Ford Motor companies Neptune at 3 Cancer conjoins the USA’s Venus. It’s natal Chiron at 21 Capricorn was the Ascendant sign and degree of the Big Three automaker’s meeting with Congress. Humbly with asses in hand, the humiliated big shots (Chiron in Capricorn) face Congress (governmental institution) to mewl and pewl for alms.

GM’s natal South Node at 1 Capricorn was hit earlier in 2008 by Transiting Pluto when it first dipped into the Saturn-ruled sign. It’s now taking its second slam (middle phase of the process) and will have one last nodal encounter with Pluto in early November 2009.

GM’s progressed Sun (3 Capricorn), Mercury (4 Capricorn) and Uranus (16 Capricorn) are promised intense encounters with the underworld God of do or die for some time to come. If GM survives the several Plutonic hits to it’s natal South Node, and progressed Sun and Mercury, it will have to gear up for what could blind-side it once Pluto hits it’s Uranus.

Looking back to the late 60’s when Uranus and Pluto conjoined in Virgo may be helpful. The era of largesse, broad freedoms and anything goes — the cultural revolution in America — is being revisited but this time with an eye towards restructuring not only our understanding of freedom, but towards a new definition of freedom.

Green vehicles, green technology, and recovery from fossil fuel addiction are the new cultural revolution. This “revolution” will be forced to manifest at the time transiting Uranus (now in Pisces) moves to Aries (May 2010) and squares transiting Pluto in Capricorn. The big transit in the sky will resonate with Pluto’s transits across GM’s progressed planets mentioned above.

Beleaguered Chrysler Corp. shares nodes in close proximity. At the time the corporation was created (out of the remains of Maxwell Motor Co.), the USA had experienced a nodal return. Chrysler’s lunar nodes are less than a degree from the USA’s. Chrysler is in orb of it’s Uranus return and it’s progressed Pluto is less than a degree past the USA’s natal Sun. It is easy to identify the disintegration of a core part of American identity with strong Pluto-Sun signatures.

What is even more moving is how the Big Three meltdown is affecting the State of Michigan. It’s 6 Aquarius Sun (identity linked to technology and innovation) is conjoined to it’s natal Neptune (the dissolver). The two are spot on the USA’s South Node. Keep in mind what I said about 2009’s first two eclipses (above), and it’s easy to see that the already hardpressed automotive state is set to unravel. It will take a long, long time for Michigan to find the will and the ability to rebuild itself. I suspect it will take until transiting Uranus reaches Michigan’s natal Pluto (14 Aries) for a rebirthing.

Michigan is also experiencing another Saturn return (precise Virgo) and the experience of it is grim. It’s Venus at 8 Capricorn close in opposition to the USA’s Venus, Jupiter and Sun will take the deep impact of Pluto’s transit through the sign. Venus in Saturn has often signaled economic downturns for Michigan, particularly Flint, MI (home of General Motors) which has been memorialized by the iconic Michael Moore in his film ROGER & ME where he “Director Michael Moore pursues GM CEO Roger Smith to confront him about the harm he did to Flint, Michigan with his massive downsizing.”

Michigan’s progressed Sun at 24 Cancer is conjoined to the USA’s Mercury. By Progression and Solar Arc Direction, Michigan’s Sun will come to 27 Cancer to oppose the USA’s natal Pluto. It’s progressed lunar nodes at 27 Aries/27 Libra, respectively, are already in square to USA Pluto. The dismantling of Michigan, the state the birthed the iconic automobile and the innovative technology that produced them, are collapsing under their own weight. Capricorn’s shadow is the Senex, or (in brief) Crusty, immovable, stubborn, entrenched Chronos/Father Time who becomes ever more rigid because he can’t move with TIME, the very thing he is in charge of. Pluto is decay. It takes that which has outgrown it’s usefulness and rots it. At the end of the process, the entity under this assault either rebirths like the phoenix or disappears into the pages of history.

TRIBUTE TO EARL WILLIAMS:

Tribute to Earl Williams, long time family friend who worked 35 years for Chrysler Corporation in Indianapolis, Indiana. Mr. Williams passed away of a massive heart attack on December 17, 2008. He was 76 years old. Mr. Williams and his wife Shirley raised a family, had a beautiful home, put their children through college, and had settled comfortably into retirement. Mr. Williams always made sure to get bread to the food banks at his church and in his neighborhood so that those less fortunate than he would be able to eat.

Starcats, December 20, 2008