Polarity is a continuum of a particular energy with two extremes – poles. The tai chi symbol is a polarity and teaches that when energy is extreme it becomes its opposite.

Polarity is not duality. Duality is the “fake news” of polarity and creates artificial divides and calls them opposites. The American two-party political system is a perfect example of a dualism where the political landscape is split in two which forces the populace to pick “a side” of two factions that are a mishmash of beliefs that have no particular consistency but are under the guise of certain principles (which have also lost meaning) of “conservative” and “liberal.”

The Western world and the United States in particular are extremely dualistic in thinking. The United States splits much into two great divides with smaller players hanging on the edge: political parties (Republican/Democrat); carbonated beverage (Coke/Pepsi); toothpaste (Colgate/Crest); and big box stores (Target/Walmart).

Dualism creates the attitude of “you’re with me or against me” and also feeds a sense of superiority, regardless of which side of the dualism is preferred. Dualism is the “divide and conquer” strategy of olden times and continues to work effectively even at these times of extreme change when unity is required.

The astrological polarities being activated now are in the cardinal square. Cardinal signs are Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn. Aries and Libra are one polarity; Cancer and Capricorn the other. The Aries-Libra polarity is the first polarity of a horoscope and a good place to start with polarity.

Aries is “self” and Libra is “other.” Aries establishes the self and self-esteem, the positive energy needed to wake each day with energy and optimism. The “other” is Libra, those people “out there.” Libra’s focus is relationship, its skill is charm and its way to maintain relationship is to constantly adjust to the needs of the other. Libra energy reflects off of the other to define self, the self that Aries establishes on its own.

Too much Aries is too much self-centeredness which leads to harm to others. Too much Libra is loss of individuality and manipulation of others to get needs met. All “others” who exist out there come from individual “selves” so self and other are contained within each other. And what human is happy without a connection to others?

This is polarity.

After Aries learns to balance self with others, it moves to the Cancer-Capricorn polarity. Cancer is the personal consciousness, the emotional self that wants to nurture, and be nurtured. While Cancer is personal consciousness, its motivation is to find its family or group to which it emotionally “belongs.” Cancer can feel “motherly.”

Opposite Cancer is Capricorn or the social consciousness. This is where we decide what we want to be in the world, what it means to be successful and how we are going to take care of our family and society through proper laws and social structure. While Capricorn can be coldly ambitious, its motivation is to earn respect from others. Capricorn can feel “fatherly.”

Who benefits from duality?

Currently there are three planets transiting Capricorn, planets that describe social and generational changes: Jupiter, Saturn (just went back into Capricorn), and Pluto. Mars, the planet that rules Aries, just went into Aries for a long six months as it will go retrograde (backwards) during this transit.

The polarities of self/other and personal/social are activated at this time. If Americans weren’t dualistic in their thinking, instead of arguing about a constantly-changing “this” and “that,” we would discuss the polarities: How far do personal freedoms go when they affect others? What is public and what is private? How and when do you cut into private to promote public?

Air is public in its nature – you can’t section off a bit of air (yet). So if I (self) pollute the air, it affects the public (others). This is obvious but when we discuss public health, we can’t seem to create the same foundation of understanding that built highways, airports, and sewage systems.

In the United States, duality has created great ironies. An authoritarian Capricorn system is removing safeguards (rather than putting them in place) in the guise of Aries/Cancer private “freedoms.” Capricorn’s goal is to protect public rules and laws.

Dualistic thinking keeps people arguing while neither private nor public wins. No one wins in a duality. A dual is not a duel where one man dies.

You can’t eradicate half a duality

The lesson of polarity (and astrology) is balance. Polarities are managed by staying in balance. After all these years I understand why the ancient Chinese called it the “middle way.” Stay in the center of yourself and you stay in the balance with your own polarities. There is the path to peace.

By making polarities dualities, the dualistic sides are continuously trying to eradicate each other, as they’ve done throughout history. The most notorious are dualities based on religious or philosophical belief that decided to eradicate the duality, people had to die.

It never works and never will.

In the United States, we want to eradicate racism. But how can we eradicate racism without eradicating the other side of the racism duality which is white superiority which defines the very culture? And how can we eradicate racism when the races are split into two different, dualistic neighborhoods?

Those that promote duality are watching their fellow humans destroy each other and the earth for their own gain. Every time we engage in duality, we give our energy to those that promote duality. They win and we lose energy (and money and property). Duality is like a bipolar disorder that is fed by those that like to watch us swing back and forth draining our life force.

Balance is the key to the horoscope. Some are born with more natural balance; some have to work very hard to achieve it.

We can try to achieve balance and then discuss rationally how to protect public health and also maintain people’s livelihoods at the same time. Or we can continue our historical attempts to eradicate half of a fake duality.