Several summers ago a friend and I saw the movie Jaws. In the weeks after we saw the movie, there were numerous shark attacks in the news.

Then this same friend was near the Louvre Museum in Paris this summer and since that time the museum has experienced the theft of the French crown jewels, a water leak that damaged hundreds of books, and now a worker’s strike.

Coincidence?

I think not.

Karma, now that’s different. Let’s see what’s occurring in the horoscope of the Louvre that is creating this difficult energy.

The Royal Presence

“Born” August 10, 1793, the Louvre is a regal and royal Leo sun with Uranus also in Leo. That makes sense as the building was once a royal palace. The Louvre is also the most visited museum in the world, bypassing even the Vatican according to a recent search. That’s some Leo popularity! Very center-of-attention.

Venus and Mars are both in family-oriented, emotional Cancer. Again, the royal palace was “home” to many a family and folks living there probably did get emotional both in sticking together to fight enemies while at the same time keeping vigilance against ambitious relatives. Family! The best and worst of human connection. But the food was probably good (Cancer rules the stomach).

Neptune in 29 degrees of artistic, pleasure-seeking Libra meshes well with both royalty and art museums. It’s the ultimate in physical art expression. It’s beautiful. Wipe your feet at the door and please comb your hair before entering.

The Physical Experience

Natal moon is in Virgo – that squirrely, mental earth sign that takes notes, studies hard, and worries about the test. Who doesn’t get sensory overload in a museum such as the Louvre?

How many pieces of art can you look at before you get a little punchy? How many placards can you read in a day before your eyes hurt? How much history can you absorb in one visit? How many “Louies” were there?

Virgo overload causes nervous exhaustion and health responses such as headaches and rashes. Don’t get a Louvre rash!

What’s up with all the trouble?

Let’s talk about that wide grand fixed cross with sun/Uranus in Leo, Saturn in Taurus, Pluto in Aquarius, and Jupiter in Scorpio.

Let’s start with Pluto in Aquarius, which in about 15 years will “return” to its 1793 placement which was during the French revolution. The workers strike of today with Pluto in the early degrees of Aquarius is a direct energetic link to that time. In 1793 when the museum opened to the public was also the “Reign of Terror” when revolution led to chaos and violence.

It’s interesting in these early days of Pluto in Aquarius how the desire for fraternal connection leads to a very cold and detached attitude toward those not in the fraternity. It’s inadvertently cruel (although there exists always the deliberately cruel).

Pluto is evolution. We’re at the beginning of this evolutionary cycle. So over time we will hopefully move from detached and disassociated cruelty into Aquarian polite (even if detached) rationality.

Pluto in Aquarius opposite sun in Leo is group self-expression versus personal self-expression. Much art is personal expression. T-shirts at the concert are group expression. Individuals can’t achieve social change alone which leads to group expression.

The next polarity is Taurus – Scorpio which involves body, material goods, self-esteem, and values. Taurus created the word “mine” while Scorpio created the word “intimacy.” Taurus is boundary and Scorpio is where we cross boundaries. If we separated the Taurus and Scorpio bankers, Taurus manages the savings accounts and Scorpio the loans. The savings are yours; the loan is owed to the bank. Taurus is your earned income. Scorpio is the tax taken out.

This is an interesting polarity for one of the largest museums in the world. How many objects in the largest museums (British, Met, etc.) were acquired through conquest, invasion, or political dominance? How many “mines” were “theirs?” (Museum junkies know that some countries / peoples want their stuff back from museums).

Saturn also rules karma, or cause-and-effect. Rather than a brownie-point system, it’s more about cosmic law and energy exchange. How many of the peoples migrating to Europe are from countries that were affected by those same countries in past conflicts? Maybe they are following the trail of their art objects.

Uranus recently transited Taurus and the Louvre’s Saturn-in-Taurus so theft is a bit of karma. It’s not nice to take other people’s stuff. We all want to share in the viewing of these Neptune-in-Libra beautiful objects.

Jupiter in Scorpio is the magnetism of the museum, its allure as the largest and most beautiful and precious collection. And Scorpio is “our” stuff or other people’s stuff. Scorpio is a water sign so maybe it was Jupiter that created the water leak, Jupiter being the planet of expansion.

Art Karma at the Louvre

Pluto will be in Aquarius for quite a while – it takes up to 20 years to transit a sign. Through this evolutionary transit the grand square will continue to be energized. Possibly there will be more repatriations of objects. Or maybe financial changes from how the museum is supported to additional donors.

As my friend won’t be visiting France for a while, the “troubles” may decrease. The British Museum and Metropolitan in New York beware!