Originally written January 2002
Like unconscious ants swarming around a sand hill with abundant food, we pack ourselves into theaters screening movies that best express and resonate with archetypal themes that flavor and suffuse a particular zeitgeist. Our current time is exemplary of this action. Lord of the Rings, with its heroic quest; its epic and intensely dramatic battle between light and dark; its exploration of the right use of and attraction to power; and the compelling seriousness of the storytelling all resounding amplify the archetypal configuration currently active globally and mirrored in the opposition of Saturn and Pluto. We pack the theaters that show Lord of the Rings not only because it is the product of great movie-making, not only because of the book's tremendous popularity, and not only because the film "coincidentally" parallels the themes of "good versus evil" occurring across the globe, but on the deepest level, we are drawn to the film because of its profound embodiment of an archetypal matrix that is currently active in the collective psyche.
This brief essay is an examination of the patterns and motifs of the Saturn-Pluto archetypal combination as seen through the themes and experience of viewing The Lord of the Rings. When a trilogy of films such as The Lord of the Rings so perfectly embodies an archetypal combination such as Saturn-Pluto, it is often an indication that the history, creation, and pivotal figures surrounding the work are also endowed with the mark of Saturn and Pluto in significant angular relationship. The Lord of the Rings is no exception. With the movie at the hub of a wheel, we can observe a series of peripheral spokes that connect movie-makers, pivotal periods in history, Tolkien aficionados and predecessors all through Saturn-Pluto archetypal themes and planetary alignments. Hence, the essay will explore key periods in the evolution of The Lord of the Rings and main players in the The LOTR saga and legend: Ralph Bakshi, Robert Plant, Peter Jackson, and Richard Wagner.
The Lord of the Rings and the Saturn-Pluto film
Dark, heavy, serious, and epic in scope, films that best exemplify the Saturn-Pluto archetypal matrix are often the great, memorable dramas that speak to the supreme conflicts of the human condition. Saturn-Pluto movies exploring collective themes are often powerful, gripping films of an intense and mature subject matter, investigating-unearthing and probing, rather-the great eternal conflicts and tragedies: war, political intrigue and scandal, the corruption and abuse of power, times of crisis, and larger-than-life struggles against impending doom or threats to survival.
On a personal scale, Saturn-Pluto movies penetrate to the heart of the human shadow. Protagonists in these films often endure burdens of guilt, self-judgment, self-doubt and inner torment. These are often confessional films, in which main characters acknowledge shame, humiliation, and display brutally honest self-assessment. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Saturn-Pluto movies often illustrate how external circumstances often force, forge, and sculpt one to live up to one's greatest potentials in the face of almost insurmountable odds. Saturn-Pluto as an archetypal complex is a soul-making complex that kneads its potential hero through a long journey, a via longissima, in which discipline, fortitude, strength and moral character are forged trial after trial after trial.
These movies are compelling; they often serve to inspire us to our own greatness. We may leave the theater with multiple and somewhat paradoxical feelings. On the one hand, we may be inspired to face our fears with honesty and feel absolutely compelled to improve our situations in life with renewed resolve. However, as these movies speak directly to our superegos, we may also feel heightened self-criticism and shame that we have not matched the true greatness just witnessed on-screen.
Movies created and released during Saturn-Pluto oppositions and conjunctions of the 20th Century include: Birth of a Nation(1915; Saturn-Pluto conjunction); All Quiet on the Western Front and M (1930 and 1932, respectively; Saturn-Pluto opposition); Hamlet (1948; Saturn-Pluto conjunction); A Man For All Seasons (1965; Saturn-Pluto opposition) and Das Boot, Reds, Gandhi, and television's The Day After (all films created and released under the Saturn-Pluto conjunction of 1981-1983.)
The Lord of the Rings trilogy, produced and released under the current 2001-2002 Saturn-Pluto opposition, is the latest set of movies to carry the torch of this profound and significant archetypal combination. Although couched in fantasy, The Lord of the Rings is not lightweight fare but a deep and weighty epic tome that speaks to a fundamental theme of humanity: strength, resilience, and perseverance in the face of almost insurmountable evil, temptation, and hardship. Moreover-and what makes the film a prime exemplar of the Saturn-Pluto phenomenon-is that it is a wonderful exploration of the fundamental and assumed battle between "light versus dark," and "good versus evil" in this world.
As many commentators have alluded to, Tolkien's purpose in writing The Lord of the Rings was not allegorical or a proselytizing of his own Christian faith, however, he was using the vehicle of myth and story to connote transcendental and perennial truths. One of these transcendental truths that Tolkien believed was that it was metaphysical reality that the world polarizes itself into light and shadow in order to realize its own redemption and rebirth, what Tolkien called "eucatastrophe"-an unexpected and joyous outcome resulting from tests of faith and struggle. The Lord of the Rings holds little or no ambiguity in its relationship to good and evil: Orcs, Saruman, and the Ringwraiths are wicked to the core as Frodo, Gandalf and the elves of Rivendell are virtuous, good-natured, truthful, and defy temptation.
During periods in which Saturn and Pluto make significant angular relationships to one another, the global situation, it would appear, makes it greatest polarizations, with each faction declaring the other corrupt or evil and each camp holding its own claim to truth, morality, and righteousness. Like in the world of The Rings, there is little ambiguity between "good" and "evil" during Saturn-Pluto configurations. During the 1914-16 Saturn-Pluto opposition, Europe split itself between a battle of "the Hun" and the "Barbarians" of Germany as troops of the Fatherland fought against the Allied forces. Under the 1939-1941 Saturn-Pluto Square, the final solution was devised as the "Master Race" intended to annihilate an entire people. As the Cold War peaked under the 1981-1984 Saturn-Pluto conjunction, "The Evil Empire" that was the Soviet Union threatened the solidarity and freedom of the Western world. And currently in our own time, under a Saturn-Pluto opposition, the world once again divides itself into "good and evil," as each side in the multiple global conflicts see themselves as the bearer of all that is good and true with the opposing force as the sum aggregation of all evil. (For more about Saturn-Pluto themes in the twentieth century, read the essay entitled, September 11, 2001 and the Saturn-Pluto cycle of the 20th Century).
More than just a brilliant exposition on the themes of Saturn-Pluto configuration, the look, feel, and experiential quality of The Lord of the Rings is highly indicative of the archetypal tenor of Saturn and Pluto in combination. There is both an incredibly dark, heavy, and "steely" experiential quality to Saturn and Pluto as there is also a deep and penetrating infernal sense to the combination. This is the archetypal combination of fire and brimstone; grotesque monsters, killing machines, and terminators; "heavy metal"; puritanical authority; steel and concrete; bricks and mortar; dungeons and armor; impenetrable fortresses;sweatshops and slave labor; "do or die" confrontations, Battle Royale a la Armageddon. With Saturn and Pluto, eroticism, seduction, evolutionary power, and life force (Pluto) collide with lead, darkness, density, and gravity (Saturn); this is indeed the heaviest experiential combination in astrology and imagery of this type pervades throughout all of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: the satanic mills of Saruman, the mysterious evil of the Dark Riders, the demonic Balrog, the powerful face-off between Gandalf and Saruman, the dense and colorless architecture; the substantial ale steins, battle axes, and steely chainmaile.
Perhaps, however, the single greatest expression of Saturn-Pluto in The Lord of the Rings is the ring itself. Forged in the bowels of Middle Earth, the ring glows with a mysterious, dark, and gothic eroticism that holds an incredible seductive force through its mere presence. This concentrated power, however, promises two things: one, the corruption, emptiness, and destruction of those who choose to wield its power, or two, ultimate redemption and freedom by those who transcend and destroy its force. In the ring, we see the bipolar, or two-sided, nature of the archetypal combination: the all-consuming destructiveness of a certain type of power and the promise of moral strength, character, and heroism if the temptation to use the power falsely is avoided.
Saturn-Pluto correlations and The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings not only embodies the themes of the current Saturn-Pluto opposition but the work has had quite a history with Saturn-Pluto alignments. The completion, publication, and sudden rise in popularity of The Lord of the Rings all occurred when Saturn and Pluto were in "hard aspect" (a conjunction, square, or opposition) to each other. We might say that the Saturn-Pluto constellation is the invisible field or magnet which constellates the motifs found within this dark fantasy.
The epic writing and revising of The Lord of the Rings which is only surpassed by Frodo's journey in terms of heroic quests was completed in 1948 after 16 years of meticulous attention given to the tale by Tolkien. (see chart) However, there was no initial blitzkrieg of enthusiasm for what some would later call the "book of the 20th century". Publication and popularity would only sprout years after the final completion of the trilogy. After his publishers, Collins, agreed to release The Lord of the Rings, the final installment of the Lord of the Ring's trilogy was published in 1955, under a Saturn square (90 degree angular relationship) Pluto aspect. (see chart) Hibernating, it would take ten years before the phenomenon of the Tolkien cult caught flame. Tolkien's popularity would not come entirely from ivory tower intellectuals, but the bulk of his avid readership came from the youth of the countercultural explosion of the 1960's. An unauthorized, but affordable, paper back version of the trilogy was released in 1965, and, in that very same year, sales and popularity of the work soared. Once again, Saturn and Pluto correlate with release of this myth, this time in the form of an opposition. (see chart)
Although lodged in the memories of The Lord of the Rings connoisseurs, many casual fans seeing the current film release do not realize that there was a previous attempt at creating a version of Tolkien's classic onscreen. In the late 1970's, gifted animator Ralph Bakshi painstakingly rotoscoped live action into an admirable rendering of the fantasy. The film divided opinion, and the fact that Bakshi was unable to complete the whole story due to financial reasons almost automatically discounted the film from being labeled a masterpiece. However, many images from the film, particularly the rendering of the Dark Riders, remains indelibly stamped upon the imagination of youth who saw the film. Bakshi-the anti-Disney that he is-is the king of underworld animation, and everything in his films-from the setting, themes, and style-is dark and mature. It is no surprise that he had a certain resonance with The Lord of the Rings as he was born under a Saturn-Sun-Pluto t-square. (see chart)
Peter Jackson, the New Zealand director who landed the awesome responsibility of bringing a live action version of The Rings to screen, might have seemed an unlikely choice to do justice to the Tolkien opus. Little doubted his ability to render the profane side of The Lord of the Rings, as his vivid imagination in his personal films like Bad Taste and Meet the Feebles displayed an uncanny ability to craft horrid creatures of all shapes and sizes. However, the gravity of the subject matter in The Lord of the Rings and the sheer size of the project demanded a director who was cut more from the mold of David Lean or D.W. Griffith than John Carpenter or Tod Browning. However, Jackson quelled the doubting voices of Ring fandom upon initial release of Fellowship of the Ring and received near-unanimous approval ratings from Tolkien groupies. Although not born with a significant Saturn-Pluto aspect, Jackson's progressed* Sun, Mars, and Mercury in Sagittarius formed a tight conjunction under the current Saturn-Pluto opposition. (see chart) As the progressed chart is a transcendental reflection of his inner and outer conditions, Jackson not only was in a subjective mood that was congruent with the themes and motifs of the trilogy, but the strength and determination that the archetypes Saturn and Pluto can forge no doubt correlated with the energy needed to helm one of the largest filmings in history.
The Zeppelin Connection
Deciphering the true intentions of Led Zeppelin lyrics ranks with the "Paul is Dead" controversy of the Beatles and the "Dark Side of the Rainbow" synchronicity of Pink Floyd as all-time mysteries of classic rock. Allusions to Tolkien's work are scattered throughout Led Zeppelin's oeuvre. "Over the Hills and Far Away," "Misty Mountain Hop," "Battle of Evermore," and "Ramble On" are songs that not only make direct lyrical references to Tolkien's classic works but could very well be the soundtrack that accompanies Frodo and the fellowship on their long journey. Zeppelin's lead singer, Robert Plant, was an unabashed Tolkien fan, as Tolkien synthesized Plant's love of fantasy, nature, Celtic and Norse myths, and magic into one complete package. Robert Plant was born with a Sun, Saturn, Pluto conjunction in 1948, the year that Tolkien finally finished his fantasy masterpiece. (see chart) As Plant's personal identity, symbolized by the Sun, was interconnected with the archetypal matrix of Saturn and Pluto, it is fitting that there would be a certain attraction and resonance to the themes, characters, and settings of Tolkien's landscape.
A Tale of Two Rings
Tolkien disliked assumptions that he had written The Lord of the Rings in direct reaction to World War II, but he took greater umbrage at comparisons to Wagner's Ring Cycle and that his world of fantasy was merely a repackaging of Wagner's four famous operas. In a letter to his editor, Tolkien wrote of the comparison, "Both rings were round, and there the resemblance ceases." Personal dislike aside, the comparisons are unavoidable and have been the subject of many academic essays and research. Although the philosophic motivation for these two epics did differ, the themes, motifs, and experiential feel of these grand epochal narratives are highly resonant. The theme of incredible power concentrated in a ring, the appropriation of Norse mythology, the moral trials of the ring's original possessor, and the joyous, surprising, ending after a battle between light and dark forces are all there in both narratives.
Equally important, the feel and imagery of Wagner's ring bears resemblance to The Lord of the Rings. The orchestrations of these operas are heavy, dense, and at times bombastic. The onstage singers are burdened with breastplates, horns, and armor. One leaves an opera house drained, exhausted and inspired as the condensed angst and brooding of witnessing the apotheosis of man in his overcoming of teutonic Godhead is quite a burdensome spectacle. Interestingly, Wagner initiated and completed his operatic tetrology in an entire Saturn cycle, conceptualizing the operatic cycle as Saturn conjoined his natal Pluto placement in 1848 (see chart) and premiering his masterpiece at the Bayreuth Festival in August of 1876 as Saturn "returns" within orb of its original placement. (see chart)
Conclusion
Fantasy and myth are not only accurate reflections of our lived experience, but good fantasy and myth can also inform our realities as well. If indeed Tolkein struck gold with a profound metaphysical truth of the "eucatastrophe"-the unexpected twist of rebirth after antagonistic forces battle each other-then we can assume that art and myth are telling us something quite significant about our current global situation. The Saturn-Pluto cycle, as witnessed in our own time-these times of epic battles, deprivation, and forging of character-must not been seen in isolation but be seen in the light of a greater context. It appears that these times of war, economic contraction, national defense and security are part of a continuum of natural processes that are needed for subsequent rejuvenation, rebirth, and renewal. Although this may be as simple as saying that for every spring there first comes a winter, collectively, it appears, we have become unconscious of this truth, somehow assuming that our global situation has no correlation with and has transcended these very real and very natural processes.
This is not stating that war, conflict, and factitiousness are predetermined and foregone conclusions when Saturn and Pluto make angular relationship to each other. On the contrary, by becoming conscious of the repetition of archetypal cycles we enhance our freedom of choice and create a wider palette to express the spirit of the times. In an astrologically-informed cosmology it may be held true that the collective unconscious, archetypal ground of being, or anima mundi-all related concepts alluding to the same thing-may be inflected by certain patterns at certain times, but there is an incredible degree of potential free will surrounding the expression of the this energy. It is not surprising, then, that the higher the collective consciousness, the more rarefied the expression. The Lord of the Rings-the movie and book-are wonderful outlets for allowing the dark drama, epic heroism, and the allure and seduction of deep power of the Saturn-Pluto combination to shine through all while not succumbing to dilution or sanitization of this powerful archetypal complex.
*Progressions, or secondary progressions, is a technique whereby the planetary positions for each day after birth represent a year after birth. So, planetary positions at 45 days after your birth will reflect, partly, your psychological experience and state of affairs at 45 years of age. Generally speaking, progressions are subtler and do not have as much of an impact as transits; their patterns are a little less discernable.
End Note: OUT OF LOVE
Why do they want power? Those who are neither good looking, nor sexy or charming have only one tool and one choice to get loved and appreciated by others (and by society at large): to get rich or powerful, or both at the same time. And those who, in spite of all that, do not succeed at getting loved, will then try through power to get people's attention nevertheless.
They take their revenge from a world that doesn't like them in sowing hate and destruction. You don't like me, then I will kill you; this is the Law of compensation.
But when the Conqueror will have the whole world in his hand and ask himself: Now, what will I do with it ? Why then conquer the whole universe ?, only one answer will come to mind: I did it to show them that I exist, that I am someone important, that I am worthy of being either loved or hated.
The Conquest of the World by one man is an Act of affirmation of oneself, all together of one's existence and importance as an individual. When this goal is reached, the Conqueror generally acknowledges the uselessness and futility of his endeavour: conquest, empire foundation and all the rest. In reality, the Quest for Power is an Act of Love, and War is one committed by a broken Heart !
Tolkien, Wagner, Nationalism and Modernity