Welcome to Sky Scraping - the retooled Galactic Times. Your subscription will not change and no action is required on your part. This is just a rebranding of something I’ve been writing under the same title since 1977, and it feels like a little fresh energy in these posts is needed.
The theme of this Sky Scraper addresses the Internet and social networking. Of course, the topic also relates to any protocol, rule or campaign that either includes people or excludes people. And if you really want to add a wrinkle, consider whether those inclusions/exclusions are done with/without a person’s knowledge.
The astrological reasoning behind this post originates with opposition of Saturn to Eris that occurs in late June (June 25) as Saturn stations, moving direct. The opposition is five minutes of an arc from exactitude. Is it worth discussing now? Absolutely. The effects are clearly in place.
Given that Saturn holds symbolic dominion over rules, protocols, firewalls and certainly security mechanisms to preserve and protect an individual’s identity and credibility, this opposition has significant importance in Internet security and social networking. Just yesterday I received a series of blogs from my Internet security software company pointing out that Java is very susceptible to hacks and “your computer is infected” scams. In fact, they recommend deleting it if you really don’t need it. Last week it was reported that a major search engine found a way to bypass an individual’s privacy settings in the popular Internet browser, Safari. The search engine company claimed it was a glitch in code - and they fixed it - after they had been called out on it. Facebook is a popular hacking target, too. Ask Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, if his account has ever been hacked. While you’re at it, ask him if his first act in the series of steps to create Facebook consisted of an illegal hacking and invasion of privacy violation.
You also might want to find out how Facebook became psychic. Isn’t it cool and creepy that you keep getting ads from companies that you recently visited or posted that you might check out? The practical Saturn commodity of most social networking is based upon data mining and selling your information and online habits for a pretty price.
But the commercial viability of a direct presence on Facebook is questionable. Recent business news sites report that several major retailers who established stores on Facebook, quickly abandoned them. The Facebook sites did not increase revenue and since these retailers already had a strong online presence in their own website, their online business was stable. Why reinvent the wheel and include an unprofitable Internet venture that eats up time and resources to maintain? If I’m not mistaken, that is the voice of Saturn.
With Saturn in aspect to Eris, there must be rules regarding social networking. A few years ago, I was e-mailing with a well-known astrologer about comments posted in a forum. He replied he had given up on them because people often do not think clearly before posting and a lot of the time people are mean spirited, especially if they are not identified in their posts. In my pueblo, Tucson, since the start of the school year (August, 2011), fourteen teenagers have committed suicide because of bullying, largely spearheaded on Facebook.
Will Saturn regulations be able to do anything? Can a social network site such as Facebook successfully monitor the content posted? Probably not, even if they combine forces with the search algorithms used by the Department of Homeland Security to seek out keywords that might signal terrorists threats. Maybe, as Saturn suggests, individuals might need to be responsible for their Internet involvement. And the jury is out on the success of this matter... maybe a poll can be taken after the opposition in June to see how we’re doing.
Eris contributes to the social networking craze in a big way; maybe her thin-skinned nature underwrites it. In mythology, she was excluded from the wedding of the century - largely because she hung out with Ares and Typhon, both noted as discordant, hair-triggered disruptive sorts. In retaliation for the snub, she unleashed a chain of events that targeted the vanity of Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. But the point here, Eris could not stand to be excluded, or in today’s terminology not receiving a friend/link request. Worse yet, Eris will not take kindly to being “unfriended.” Eris was discovered in the year that MySpace, the predecessor of Facebook and Linked In appeared on the Internet. The lust of the quest to accumulate connections is clearly Eris. As well, the spiteful discourse executed in social networking is also Eris. If scorned, she knows no limits as she is the goddess of discord, spite, chaos and strife - sadly the source of vitriolic comments posted on social networking, forums and following news stories. It appears these negative trends are manifestations of Eris.
Perhaps a series of questions posed to Saturn and Eris can confirm or improve the way any person uses their Internet presence and social network.
Saturn questions:
How much time do I spend on the Internet and involved in social networking?
Is my time spent contributing to my professional evolution, an increase in real life social status, and furthering my spiritual growth?
How many of the people in your network would you invite over for dinner?
How do you feel after a lengthy social networking session?
Is online activity truly a good use of time?
Does the Internet improve your resourcefulness?
How does the Internet affect your personal relationship and/or family life?
Eris questions:
Is your personal stock, self esteem and/or consciousness enriched by your online presence?
Are you contributing to the good of humankind?
Is this fun?
Does the Internet cause stress or ease?
Do you race to check the number of invites, likes and comments received?
Are these electronic acquaintances folks with whom you share a soul-based connection?
Does your online involvement stress you out?
Does the Internet directly contribute to betterment in your life?
Now, given those questions, I suspect super-posters, master bloggers and turbo-texters will likely disagree with my contentions, especially those born after 1962. But consider the following planet transit “generations” and the transiting influences of the year.
This year, Uranus ranges between 0 Aries 51 and 8 Aries 32 (not chronologically). At some point in the year, Uranus will directly align with the natal Eris of those born between 1929 and 1956. The big questions: Does the Internet further your humanity and your participation in it? Or are you more inclined to yell, “Get off the grass!” than ever?
During the course of 2012, Pluto ranges between 6 Capricorn 57 and 9 Capricorn 34, which squares the natal Eris of folks who incarnated between 1947 and 1962. Okay folks, can you cite how the Internet empowers your life? Use the things that do empower your life and develop them further. Online “resources” that deplete, drag down, debilitate or depress need to be dropped like a hot potato.
Next year, Pluto and Uranus will continue to impact generations of people born later and later. And the year after that, yet again. Does this suggest that there may be age-based statistics of changes in Internet behavior? Yep, it certainly seems to be the case. But more important, there is an astrological motivation for revisiting how and why one enjoys cyberspace.
As for me, I far prefer hyperspace. You know, all those unpopular pesky new planets, galactic entities with their accompanying realizations that can shift people beyond mainstream culture and into a place where the spirit enjoys a better fit with the body.