Misappropriating Counterculture Iconography During The Pluto-Uranus Square

Just. Don’t. Do it.

…..Especially in the name of consumerism!

Here’s why this really doesn’t fly now: The counterculture icons used during Pluto-Uranus conjunction of the mid 1960’s actually *mean something* to people on a visceral level. When you try to “brand” it and commercialize it during the Pluto-Uranus SQUARE of 2012-2015, well, it just winds up pissing people off because it cheapens and commercializes the spirit of what it originally stood for. A cropped-top T-shirt for teenyboppers? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Yeah, I’m sure that’s EXACTLY what the Black Panthers envisioned their image being used for….!  *eyeroll*

*snort*

Now it’s a FAR different story when something begins its life as sort of commercial icon but then later on becomes adopted as a symbol for the counterculture movement…..!

One of these represents corporate greed deliberately trying to leech off of the zeitgeist because it’s marketable; the other represents The People adopting an image as mascot because they find its symbolism resonant.

Astrologically speaking, this is a pretty clear-cut example of Pluto in Capricorn squaring Uranus in Aries. Pluto in Capricorn not only represents the corporate greed angle, but the corruption/manipulation of a public image to serve a calculated agenda (i.e. profit!) – the Lo-Fi expression of Pluto in Cap is definitely the misappropriation of an *image*. Now the square from this planet to Uranus in Aries is why we’re seeing an attempt to capitalize on that revolutionary, incendiary spirit (precisely what Uranus in Aries represents)….which we last saw during the conjunction of these two planets during the mid 1960’s. Is it any wonder we’re now seeing this re-cycled, re-hashed, re-packaged image regurgitated into something very commercialized? In my opinion, this kind of attempt to put lightning in a bottle (and sell it) is a massive #fail.

And yes, that hashtag use was quite deliberate and very tongue-in-cheek!  😉

04/18/2014