01/06/2025
2025–5‑11 Radio Show Transcript — A New World (Aired May 11, 2025)
Astrological Musings — A New World
(If you wish to listen to the show instead, here is the link on Astrologer Bill Attride Radio Show or Apple Podcasts, Spotify)
As many of you know, I have been speaking and writing about, well for many years now, about our spiritual journey, and in particular about the United States and World history. By examining the planetary cycles that frame our journey and history over many, many years and centuries, you can see that we and our time in history are part of a greater story of human spiritual awakening. Though no one planetary cycle or series of planetary alignments ever repeats, we are able to discern patterns, themes and meanings that echo down through the ages, and these signs in the heavens may help us to understand the circumstances we are encountering now, and that these eternal truths may also provide some guidance for us as to how to make our way in the world going forward.
Turning Point in History
For many years now, I have been writing and talking, repeating myself over and over again, that we were entering a very critical period in history. I continually said that we were at the end of age, an age that had begun in the 1700’s, and that the world we knew and the way we understood it was going to seemingly fall apart. And indeed, even before 2008, and accelerating ever since, the institutions and order of the United States, and indeed of the whole world, have been tested, and they have cracked, and they are indeed somewhat or very broken. I, like so many others, could not see or predict what exactly would happen, all I knew was that it was time for a particular world order to give way, and that some kind of new order would be coming into existence.
But now the question before us is this, where are we now, right now? Well, I think that most of us would agree that it is not at all clear what is happening, we are faced with so many conflicting and contrary experiences. We cannot see through the fog of broken dreams, half-truths, lies and delusion. We do not know what this is, nor what we are moving into, and we need to understand what kind of world we can and should be creating for one another now.
2025
It feels as if we find ourselves, especially in 2025, to be in some kind of interval, some kind of space, a transition between what was and what will be, a tipping point where the winds are swirling with no clear way ahead. To better understand the way forward, I believe that it is essential to have a review of where we have come from, of how we got here, so as to better understand what we must do to create the better future we all want.
Not the Stars but ourselves, this is what makes History
But we must remember a fundamental and unwavering Truth, that the why and the what that has happened, and what we are facing now, that the content of human history generally, and for the United States specifically, our past and our present, that these realities were not created or formed by the planets. We need to remember that the planets hold the Energy-Forms that inspire, inform, and guide our journey on Earth, but the actual content of what is formed, the choices we made and the actions we took, of what happened and will happen, that it is our reality that we made through the complex combinations of energy-forms that we humans forged on Earth, made by the living spirit of we humans, by our ancestors, and today by you and me. The fault lies not in the stars but in one another for the world we have made, and that gives me hope, because it means we can choose the kind of world we will be making now.
The Triad of Spirit: Pluto, Neptune and Uranus
First, I want to remind us of the importance of the three outer planets as the major inspirers and influencers in our journey in Spirit. I call these three, the “Triad of Spirit”, of Pluto, Neptune and Uranus. Pluto is the vessel of the Will and shapes and molds every Energy-Form into a definite or defined Container of Spirit, (whether that be a monad, atom, cell, organism, planet, or star). Neptune is the vessel of the Universal Energy-Form of Unconditional Love, which is the Energy-Substance at the root of all, the One made manifest. This Love of the One is the root source of the Spirit-Life-Consciousness for every particle of Creation. And Uranus is the vessel of the Quintessence of Spirit held as Consciousness, because each and every particle of Creation is also an Individual monad, a spark of consciousness on a journey of becoming fully illumined. By this we also know that all of Creation is formed by the innumerable individual sparks of the Divine, every one of which is following their Swabhāva, so as to be and become a unique instance or expression of the One Divine Light.
From these three we can forge a living faith, that we will forever walk the path of awakening in order to fulfill our fundamental purpose and destiny. It is by Uranus and our Higher Mind that we align our Lives with the Path of the Divine, and by Neptune that we feel ourselves and hold one another in Unconditional Love, so that we may remain true and steady, and by Pluto as our will becomes ever more aligned with the Will of the One.
Given our essential nature, that we are all sparks of the Divine, or as I like to say, “ones of the One”, and given this root essence is true for the entirety of Creation, we are here to learn and to be, to be what we are made of, and to simply love one another. And it equally follows that we must approach every life-form in Creation as special, precious and deserving of our love and gratitude as well.
Certainly, throughout our human journey there have been times when we have drawn closer to this foundational truth of love and drifted further away from it too; yes, it has been a long and winding road of love and of loss, a long and challenging journey of becoming what we all will be, a fully awakened, unconditionally loving, one of the One.
Spiritual Truth – We are all created Equal
This foundational truth of spirit, that we are all created “equal”, is woven into the many histories of cultures, communities, faiths and nations. There have been sublime moments in history where the living spirit among humans has reached a relative equality and communal love for one another, in a community, in a people and somewhat even in a nation. Then one might well wonder, if that is so, why are we still faced with such disorder, and crime, and violence between individuals, communities, and nations today.
The very gifts of the spirit, of Will and Sacred Space, of Love and Compassion, of Intelligence and Knowledge, can be and have been twisted by the ancient curse of division, and that formation of otherness is rooted in ignorance, pain and fear. Whenever a human, or a group of humans, looks upon another as the “other”, and makes them into the vessel for the projection of their pain or fear, well that has been the root source of the tragedy and misfortune for much of human history too.
American History of Equality/Inequality
Turning to our own story, we find that in American history, this expansion yet limitation for the range of how equal and unequally we have treated our fellow humans has followed a rather uneven path of extension and contraction. In 1789, in our original Constitution, the very definition of who was granted the right to create and establish the laws, and equally what range of persons would have the protections of “due process” fell far short of what our original Declaration had proposed, “that all men are created equal”.
But of course, what was held up as the founding ideal of the USA was never made real at that time, or even now as we approach our 250th Birthday. From the moment of “first contact” by Christopher Columbus in 1492, to the final massacre of native people at Wounded Knee in 1890, the near extinction of the native peoples was the first of the broken promises of equality and justice for all.
The other original sin for the USA was the enslavement of African people until 1865, and the denial of their full citizenship by one means or another even down to the present day. The Karmic Question the USA faces today is quite simply this, “How do we make right over 500 years of Genocide; how to we make right over 400 years of Racism?” For we have not made it right, we have not done this sacred work at all.
Here are the significant planetary alignments of Pluto, Neptune and Uranus in the chart of the USA that framed and shaped the advances and retreats in the march to justice and equality to our present moment of destiny.
Framing History: Pluto and Neptune alignments in the USA Chart
1840’s‑1850’s
In the late 1840’s, Pluto squared Pluto, and the imposition of Will by one part of the nation upon the other, was defined by the seizure of Mexican territories by war, which heralded the final push by the slaveholding states to make their vision of a United States that would have slavery enshrined in every state, north and south, east and west. During this period, the slaveholders in the South attempted by their control of the Presidency, Congress and Judiciary, to bring this horror to its fullest realization, which was enshrined in the Dred Scott decision of 1857 by the Supreme court, which declared that a black person could not and would never be free in the United States.
But by the late 1850’s the opposition of Neptune to Neptune, the planet of love and compassion, framed the surge in the abolitionist movement leading to the creation of the Republican party and the election of Abraham Lincoln, leading to the Civil War between the North and the South.
The end of the Civil War and Southern secession was followed by the attempt at reconstruction in the South and the temporary extension of self-determination to millions of newly freed black men. But by 1877, this brief flowering of the greater promise of America was broken by a deal between Southern Democrats and Republicans in the North, with their self-interests focused upon the rise of Industrial Capitalism in the North, and the promise of freedom and equality was firmly broken and not to be met again until the 1960’s.
1890’s
By the 1890’s the concentration of wealth, the rise of labor unions and the stirrings of the progressive movement were heralded by the next turning in our destiny by Neptune squaring its natal position, as a series of measures were enacted that began to reign in the corruption of the federal government by wealthy industrial interests. Equally, this period witnessed the extension of the right to self-determination of the people the United States culminating in 1920 with the right to vote being finally granted to women, the greatest advance in democracy since the Civil War, and then the granting of citizenship to Native Americans in 1924.
1930’s
But these reforms did not contain or constrain the unregulated financial markets and by the late 1920’s the Great Depression struck. Once again, the principal influencers of our history, Neptune and Pluto, had reached critical moments in their cycles too, with Pluto opposing itself, and Neptune making its first return to its natal position. The reforms of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal forged a restatement and rebirth for the United States, and this set in motion one of the most sustained periods of general growth of economic well-being in the United States from the 1940’s into the 1970’s.
But in this same period, the resurgence of the unmet promise for the freedom and self-determination of black Americans gave rise to the Civil Rights movement, which via Supreme court rulings and eventually by laws passed in the US Congress, the karmic stain of racial injustice began to be corrected as Pluto and Neptune made alignments once again.
1970’s‑1980’s
By the late 1970’s and into the early 1980’s, the United States was at another major turning point, like the 1850’s or the 1930’s, as Pluto squared Pluto and Neptune squared Neptune, and the Keynesian economy was broken by the adoption of a neo-liberalist ideology and the deregulation of markets. This led to a huge surge in financial wealth and power for the few, and the divide between the wealthiest Americans, the 1, 2 or 3 % and the rest of the population exploded. This shift in wealth and power, led to the re-corruption of the US government, much as it had in the late the mid 1800’s and the late 1800’s, with both the Republican and Democratic parties becoming beholden to the siren song of monies in order to fund and secure their hold on the seats of power in the House, Senate and Presidency.
Where we are today is at the end result of that entanglement and corruption of the body politic, where pay to play from the local level to the highest reaches of government has pushed many Americans, on both the left, middle and the right to lose faith in their government and its institutions.
Today
Which brings us to our moment in history, and once again we find these framers of our journey, Pluto and Neptune, are at major historic turning points as well. Pluto has just made its first ever return to its natal position, and Neptune has just made its second opposition to its natal position. That means to me that we are in a period more like the 1850’s and 60’s, but really in some ways this is not comparable to any time, given this is the first return of Pluto ever.
Echoing that earlier time, once again the question, “who is truly a citizen of this country” is being raised once again, of who is or is not protected by the laws of the republic is being asked again. And equally the promise of a government “for and by the people” has been rendered meaningless when the most basic right of selecting representation is overwhelmed by a cacophony of half-truths and lies, fueled by the tidal wave of uncontested power held by the few with unlimited funds to shape and sway primaries and elections, destroying even the semblance of free and fair elections.
Democracy Broken
And just like in the 1840’s and 50’s, when the wealthy elite of the southern slaveholders, whose “wealth” was held by enslaving other humans, and then in the 1880’s and 90’s and really on up to the 1920’s, when the monopolists and financiers bent and twisted the formation of laws to suit their profits and not the people, we find ourselves once again faced with the challenge of being without the means to have a consequential political influence over our destiny. Why? Because the division between the wealthy and the rest of the population has created an America that is divided between those who can shape the power of the government to serve their ends only, while the vast majority know that their future is being shaped by the rule of the few over the many. We are not in a democracy at this time, we are seeing what it means to live in an oligarchy of the wealthy, and which now seems to be devolving into a Kleptocracy like Russia or Hungary.
As I have noted more than once, from 1980 to 2020 the gross domestic product of the United States rose by 80% in those 40 years, it almost doubled. But the distribution of that growth was far less equal than our previous period from 1940 to 1980.
In the last 40 years, the bottom 20% of the USA population gained 20% more wealth; the middle portion of about 40% of the population gained 50% more wealth; but the top .01% gained 420% more in their wealth. Those top accumulators live in a world that does not even understand, or for the most part probably care, for the rest of us at all.
Here are two graphs of that redistribution of wealth since 1980:
Productivity-v-Worker's-Compensation
CBO-Average-Income-by-Household-Group
The Wealth of a Nation
As I have said many, many times, the wealth of a nation is in its people, who are the living spirit and the creators of all and every kind of value. There has been no problem for the United States in creating wealth, which is made by us all, the problem is the unequal and unjust distribution of that wealth made by the people.
In terms of wealth distribution, the United States is one of the worst of all the so-called “advanced societies” and this inequality is even greater when defined and distributed by race and ethnicity. This is the principal reason why the USA has appalling life expectancies and health outcomes compared to many of the advanced nations in the world.
So, the question we face now is how, how do we fix this? How do we reclaim and restore our democracy, how do we restore our ability to not only live but to make a better life for one and for all?
Despite what we see and hear about every day, I believe we are at the beginning of the rebirth of our country. But it will not come, certainly not at first, from one party or another, because both parties have contributed to bringing us to this moment.
And as we watch the events of each day, we see individuals, and groups of individuals, we see organizations and institutions pushing back against the myriad attempts to twist and break the rule of law, to erase the sacred truths that we are made of, the love we are that holds and protects one another, as those who swore an oath and were entrusted to protect and faithfully execute these laws try to replace them with rule by fiat or command.
We must face the forces of fear and darkness with a fierce and loving faith in one another, to speak, to write, to demonstrate and to organize so that we are the change that we wish to create in our world.
A New Covenant
What we must do is build a new “way of being”, we must be the creators of a new covenant with Life and Spirit. Yes, the problem is poverty; yes, wealth inequality is the problem; and they are both made by one another, and they are forged and maintained by a system that is destroying the diversity and sustainability of life on this planet.
We must expand our understanding of the real problem, which is that the very Political-Economic and Social systems that were formed to meet our needs in the 1700’s is killing us. And not only us, because life is leaving the planet at a rate that is growing exponentially. Life on Earth is becoming less diverse, less vibrant, less beautiful, less possible, and we only need to look in the mirror to see the cause.
We must forge our new covenant of spirit with one another based upon universal Equality and Justice. We must reallocate the wealth that we all produce so that every person has what we owe to one another in our human family: Equal Education, Equal Healthcare, Equal Housing, Equal Opportunity, so that every child and adult has an Equal chance to achieve Self-Fulfillment.
This is the beginning of the Age of Aquarius, and no individual can be truly fulfilled, not a single one of us can be truly happy, if so many of our brothers and sisters live in fear and poverty.
We must immediately change the way we produce our Energy, change the ways in which we Source our Food, change the ways we Create our Shelter. We must change our way of living, which has been formed by “destroying in order to create” and instead forge a way of living where we are “Creating to Thrive”.
The choice we face is between Love or Fear, between Truth or Lies.
The choice is ours.
Let it be love.
