zodiac movie and scorpionic america

Zodiac Movie and Scorpionic America

I had initially resisted going to see the new movie Zodiac because I

was concerned that it would portray astrology in a negative light.

However, after reading some of the movie's positive reviews, I went to

see it over the weekend and found it to be an excellent film.

Astrology is barely mentioned in the movie, and a passing reference to

eclipses and solstices around the time of the Zodiac murders turned

out to be another red herring lead that went nowhere. The killer

probably took the name Zodiac from a totally innocuous, and

non-astrological, source.

What made the movie so good was the way it captured the cultural

zeitgeist of the late 60's and early 70's. The Zodiac killer began his

serial murder spree shortly before the Charles Manson killings shocked

the nation. At the time, Neptune was, appropriately, in Scorpio, and

the film itself is about obsession without resolution, a lifetime

without answers.

Zodiac is parsed into chronological segments that give the illusion of

progress. Some of the segments last just a few seconds. At

such-and-such a time on this date, this happened: short, two-line

re-enactment. The movie begins in 1969 and ends in irresolution 23

years later; yet I found the plot totally engrossing. This seems very

Saturn-Neptune. Time passes. The obsession with finding meaning slowly

dissolves the very meaning it seeks. It's very existential, like

Sisyphus pushing his huge rock up the mountain, only to have the

boulder roll back down every time.

More than that, however, Zodiac showed something about American

culture that is reflected in the national horoscope. The movie opens

with a Zodiac murder that was committed on July 4. The film maker did

not make that up--it's the actual date. The opening shot of the movie

is of Fourth of July fireworks over small-town Vallejo, California.

The movie constantly presents various icons of American culture: the

intrepid gumshoes; the quietly devious psycho on the loose; the

crime-obsessed media driving the citizenry into a mad frenzy;

government offices' dirty, bare, and beige walls; a cityscape of

nameless, faceless, grey multi-story storage buildings (what exactly

do these "12th houses" store?) and sad neon store lights that speak

only of anonymity; the old-fashioned city press room; referential

homages to cop shows and Dirty Harry--our common language of violence

and protection.

Thanks to Dharmaruci over at AstroTableTalk, I've started to pay more

attention to the Scorpionic America chart (the link is to

AstroDataBank's explanation and data for the chart; I have posted the

horoscope with this blog). The Scorpionic America chart is rectified

for the supposed time of the passage of the U.S. Articles of

Confederation in 1777.

Neptune, at the time of the early Zodiac murders, as well as the

Manson murders, was moving over the U.S. Sun in the Scorpionic America

chart. (Neptune has lately been moving over the Ascendant of this U.S.

horoscope, dissolving our national image, while Saturn will soon cross

over the Descendant). Of course, there was a lot more happening in

1969 and the early 1970's than the Zodiac murders--the Vietnam War,

for one, with America's secret bombings of Cambodia.

The Scorpionic America 12th house of secret enemies and the collective

unconscious has Capricorn on the cusp and it is ruled by Saturn.

Saturn in the 9th house conjuncts Mercury, planet of communication. As

a nation, our "free" press (Mercury in the 9th house) is controlled

(Saturn) by a symbiotic need to both feed and reflect collective fears

(12th house). In addition, Pluto is in the 12th house of the

Scorpionic America chart, adding to the symbolism of hidden violence

and serial killers operating behind the scenes until brought out into

the open by 12th house ruler Saturn in the 9th house. Sure, other

countries have their serial killers, but no other nation has so many

guns and so many nuts who own them.