Astrology is just one of the many symbolic means to view the world in a multitude of ways. Literature, religion, art and culture are other ways we can look at the view in front of us and interpret.

For example, while blogging about the Federal Reserve and US income tax, search lead me to the year 1913. Astrologically I thought I would find something money-oriented such as earth or a year of represented by Scorpio where we had “others” taking our money.

Looking at a year or era of time in astrology leads one to the outer planets which take several years or a decade even to pass through a sign.

Looking at 1913 I didn’t find the Scorpio energy that I expected. Instead I found air – Pluto transiting Gemini and Uranus transiting Aquarius. Neptune, however, was in the home-loving, mother-loving, comfort-loving sign of Cancer.

What does finance have to do with air? Where is the earth? Where is the Scorpio?

1913: Communication Revolution

Governments always try to collect taxes through a variety of means – sales taxes, import taxes, property taxes and income taxes. Taxes are not new.

In the US, the Revenue Act of 1862 established the first income tax in an effort to fund a war (surprise!). The income tax was to be collected “at its source.”

Clever.

Unfortunately, this tax didn’t collect enough revenue and was deemed unsuccessful. Over 50 years later in 1913 the 16th amendment was ratified allowing the federal government to collect income tax at its source and continues, quite successfully, to this day.

What changed in 50 years?

The Revenue Act of 1862 was passed with Pluto in Taurus (earth, finally!), Uranus in Gemini and Neptune in Aries.

There’s Gemini, again.

Possibly what changed over 50 years is represented by Gemini. Gemini rules communication.

In between the Revenue Act of 1862 and the 16th Amendment of 1913 these communication devices were being invented:

1. Telephone
2. Radio (called “wireless”)
3. Television

While these devices weren’t completely functional by 1913, they represent a revolution in both personal and mass communication.

For money systems to function properly, such as the Federal Reserve, there must be a belief and trust in those systems. Belief in money doesn’t come through the traditional belief infrastructures – family and church. In fractional reserve banking, believing the money you put in the bank exists and trusting you can get it back takes public education and cultural training.

While communication devices were being invented and refined, two of our largest existing newspapers were founded: The New York Times in 1851 and the Washington Post in 1877.

Compulsory education laws, according to this Wikipedia site, occurred in the US between 1852 and 1917.

Phone, radio, television, newspapers and education are all in the realm of Gemini.

What changed in 1913 wasn’t banking and taxes, but communication and the ability to disseminate information more effectively.

2013: Digital Revolution

If the advent of communication tools brought such massive changes in governmental control of banking and finance, what is the Digital Revolution bringing?

The Digital Revolution, according to the Digital Revolution’s own messenger – the Internet – began in 1947 with the invention of the transistor. The rise in personal digital use began in the 1990s. At that time, Uranus and Neptune were traveling closely through Capricorn then Aquarius while Pluto was in Sagittarius.

If the Communication Revolution was Gemini, the Digital Revolution is Aquarius. The radio, television and newspapers (and education?) are one-way communication devices. Aquarius brought us two-way, multi-way communication methods (aka “social media”) through the Internet.

Somewhere between the Communication Revolution and the Digital Revolution we changed from a manufacturing society into an information society. Although we don’t make the products we love to consume here in the US, our economy is still dependent on buying those products.

George Orwell

George Orwell, author of the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (written in 1948), had sun and moon in the sensitive water sign of Cancer. He also had Mercury and Pluto conjunct in Gemini (wide conjunction) opposite (wide) Uranus in Sagittarius.

In his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (from what I recollect having read it in 1983), television-like devices were used to communicate to and control the populace. In the morning, the television would guide the people through exercises (sound familiar?). People were constantly monitored. Words were used contrary to their meanings (“doublespeak”).

Author and journalist Orwell may have had his own control issues with communication represented by Pluto/Mercury in Gemini. In his novel, communication tools are methods of control, not enlightenment. I’ll have to find a biography on Orwell and get a sense of what drove him to write Nineteen Eighty-Four.

It’s interesting to glance back at Orwell’s vision of communication technology to see how he viewed it and what is has become.

As in Orwell’s novel, today we are constantly taped, our movements monitored from security badges to time clocks to checking ourselves in on social media.

What’s interesting is that today we are active participants in our own monitoring.

Is this bad?

What’s interesting is now there is so much information, it’s called “Big Data” and companies are trying to figure out what to do with it.

In 1913 we still trudged to the library and found information using the card catalog. Today we receive a tsunami of information everyday. Possibly too much information has the same effect as too little – we ignore most of it. Finding the accurate and relevant is increasingly difficult. We are also inundated with trivia which can distract from other, important, information.

There are no more secrets, but what’s real is increasingly up for debate. Posting your birth certificate on the Internet is not enough to prove your birth facts. How does one prove something in world of ever-changing bytes?

Scientists remind us that reality is just a bunch of molecules floating around. It seems they are right.

A common reality may become a problem as Neptune transits Pisces and we increasingly wonder what is true in the fog of information.

Maybe the next revolution will involve not just the devices of communication, but the content.