86: NEVER MIND THE BALLOTS....
THU 12 NOV 05.12 - Mooning Monthly on its way to the Polling Station
Season's greetings dear Mooners
A momentous Gemini Full Moon rises at dawn on Polling Day this coming Thursday in the UK. We here at Mooning HQ have been deeply disappointed by General Election proceedings thus far. There seem so few politicians capable of thinking for themselves; so few arguments of real substance and the floating vote seems more susceptible than ever to the insidious virus of social media targeting and fatuously falsified misinformation. We hope our withering assessment is challenged at the full moon ballot box.
Full moons are seen in astrological circles as a five day period (two days before and two after full moon itself) in which one's mental and emotional energies are heightened. Our state of mind, the dominant force behind our emotional and physical responses to circumstance, can find itself subconsciously influenced by the powerful gravitational pull of the moon in the same way that the highest, most forceful tides of our planet's seas and oceans occur at full moon. Comprised of 60% water, our sensitively balanced biological form is bound to feel that lunar pull. An astrologist takes note of various subtle alignments of other planets and stars at the time of the full moon to gain a greater awareness of the potential behavioural consequences of that celestial, gravitational influence. In simple terms, under a full moon, our highs often reach for the sky and our lows can plummet as deep as they go.
With informed, self awareness comes greater choice over our responses to circumstances in thought, word and deed. We move from being subconscious victims of circumstance (essentially neutral occurrences, however extreme) to more engaged, empowered authors of our own destiny, taking responsibility for our thoughts, words and actions relative to what is unfolding around us. As circumstance evolves, it is we humans that perceive and label our experience through the dualistic filter of our culturally defined, psychological schemata - ie our baggage: the stuff we have come to believe about the world or what we think is good and what's not.
Every thought, word and action is a creative, energetic input which contributes to the sum whole of existence but which simultaneously defines, through contextual repetition, the belief system or mental prism (schema) through which we personally create and experience our own 'reality'. Each human reality is therefore a completely individual construct. We like to hang around in groups where our constructs are mirrored by other similar constructs but ultimately each human view of the world is unique.
With that in mind, the Gemini Full Moon can traditionally be a fun filled festive family frolic but this one's astrological aspects suggest something of an unpredictable yuletide ride. A lot of issues (finance, romance, families) hang in the balance and the chances of a divisive holiday hangover are high. Gemini, represented by the icon of the twins, is often considered a contradictory star sign, slightly air-headed and open to influence. Yet it is dynamic, passionate, creative and excitable. Gemini wants to start something new before properly completing the previous project and certainly won't be clearing up the mess it's left behind in the process.
Perhaps the overriding Gemini trait is the tension that exists between the twins, both pulling in different directions. This occasionally schizophrenic duality can, ironically, lead to all that vibrant Gemini energy going nowhere. Stasis, through the inability to make a focused decision and see it through, can regularly become order of the day. Gemini makes a lot of noise that often comes to nought.
Transpose this to the options available to voters in the UK General Election and there are some fairly obvious readings. There has been a lot of noise and posturing, not much of which has any real substance and most of which, in the cold, post election, light of a Gemini Full Moon, will lead to the same political stagnation that this election was set to challenge.
If, in the aftermath, we successfully deduce that the system is not fit for purpose then it has to be the system and its underlying values that need challenging. What we have been led to believe is the 'freedom' of democracy in the UK has, in recent years, presided over the decimation of our natural biodiversity; record levels of homelessness; increasing levels of poverty and the associated need for food banks; rising numbers of children in care; increased domestic and sexual violence against women; deteriorating levels of mental health and, unforgivably, a rise in the numbers of reported child deaths from preventable illness. (Office for National Statistics avoidable death report here). The 'freedom' experienced by those affected is minimal. All this while the numbers of billionaires in the UK has doubled and the 6 richest individuals control as much wealth as the 13 million poorest (report here).
We live in a divided society full of Ferraris and food banks. Is that what we want? Is that what we vote to maintain when all votes reside in a system that appears to be accelerating like a run away train toward inexorable social and ecological disaster?
So what's a Mooner with an equitably minded moral construct to do? To vote or not to vote? Does one dice with tactical voting or stay true to an ideological stance knowing it has little chance of being heard?
We turn to Plato, a fellow Mooner back in the ancient Greek day, for disconcerting opinion:
"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."
Such a view energizes the imperative to become politically active for fear of inadvertently bringing to power those without the credentials to exercise it wisely. On a fundamental, historic note, it was not until 1928 that all women in the UK were given the right to vote. As recently as the late 1960s, black Americans were vilified and evicted from their homes for voting, the historic vestiges of which have emerged again in widespread voter suppression in southern states of the US during recent presidential elections.
"When I joined the freedom movement in Mississippi in my early 20s, it was to come to the aid of sharecroppers, like my parents, who had been thrown off the land they'd always known - the plantations - because they attempted to exercise their 'democratic' right to vote." Alice Walker
And although those rights to vote were hard won, did the resultant voting demographics really alter the political landscape, one that remains steadfastly male dominated to this day?
"The militancy of men, through all the centuries, has drenched the world with blood, and for these deeds of horror and destruction men have been rewarded with monuments, with great songs and epics. The militancy of women has harmed no human life save the lives of those who fought the battle of righteousness. Time alone will reveal what reward will be allotted to women." Emmeline Pankhurst
The Male disaster is evident all around us. Daddy's ideology is coming home for Christmas and none of us should be that happy at the catastrophic prospect. His insatiable greed, feuding and misplaced entitlement have raped planet and people - mostly women and children. The self sustaining, natural biological infrastructure of Earth is at the point of collapse yet the men in power continue to behave like "children fighting over toys" as they strive to plunder even more of the world's natural resources in pursuit of fiscal profit. (BBC radio 4 interview with fellow Mooner and 2nd oldest man in the world, Bob Weighton, broadcast 10th June 2019 link here)
Internationally, the world has seen an even greater increase in deaths from preventable illness than in the UK, the majority of which have been small children. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recently estimated that the number of deaths worldwide from Measles alone has risen three fold since this time last year to an astounding 142,000 people. We repeat, the majority of those eminently avoidable deaths were small children living in poverty and many thousands more have suffered disabling pneumonia and brain damage as a result of this single illness (article here). At the eve of 2020, an easily preventable, life threatening disease has been allowed to kill helpless infants through the inaction of the predominantly male leaders of the most prosperous world economies. Increasing Foreign Aid apparently doesn't equate to votes but perhaps it should.
We here at Mooning HQ encourage those who have a vote to exercise that right, not least because of its symbolic significance. A vote is our opportunity to make our voice, however small, heard and recorded by the society that it has a hand in composing. A democratic election is a representation of those that vote but a democracy represents both those that voted and those that did not.
"Elections aren't just about who votes but who doesn't vote." Michelle Obama
Those disenfranchised by the current political and economic systems are often unable to vote: the displaced, the homeless, the children, the disabled, the disadvantaged, fearful or uneducated. They are the significant silent minority most at risk of poverty and traumatic harm that any civilised society should perhaps pride itself in protecting, yet they do not have a democratic voice. It is those of us in the privileged majority who are complicit in supporting a system whose ideology predates on notions of winners and losers. The silent minority are, apparently, a necessary, if unfortunate, byproduct of a system that rewards those that trample the opposition in their quest to reach the top of the pile. Perhaps, instead of winners and losers, we should be voting for more sustainable, equitable win-wins that benefit all.
On Polling Day, under this unpredictable Gemini Full Moon, we here at Mooning HQ advocate a slightly different approach to casting our vote than that which we have typically been encouraged to exercise. Instead of voting with a view to securing our own status and benefit, particularly if they sit within the parameters of social privilege, we recommend bringing to mind those without a voice and choosing to vote in their place, from that perspective of need. This, we may suggest, is a compassionate vote; giving voice to those previously unheard and poorly represented; an act of true charity, wisdom (for it benefits All) and the greatest of Christmas gifts one can bestow.
Once again, we turn to the great sage of our time Saint Noddy of Holder for moral guidance:
So here it is, Merry Christmas Everybody's having fun Look to the future now It's only just begun Merry Xmas Everybody - Slade - 1973 Vote with and for Love in every thought, word and deed dear Mooners Please share. Festive love 'til next time
