{"id":2785,"date":"2019-06-03T11:08:59","date_gmt":"2019-06-03T10:08:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.astrowow.com\/blog\/?p=2785"},"modified":"2026-03-18T16:22:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T16:22:17","slug":"the-truth-is-not-the-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astrowow.com\/blog\/the-truth-is-not-the-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"The Truth is not the Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four days after the election of Donald Trump, sales of 1984<\/em>, the dystopian novel written by George Orwell, rocketed (Note 1), and it became a No. 1 bestseller. Clearly people were unsettled by the election of an obvious demagogue, and the puzzling resonance he found in democratic America. What may also have prompted this interest was the immediate manipulation of facts, which took place. For example, there was the extraordinary claim, made by his press secretary, Sean Spicer, that Trump\u2019s Inauguration crowd was the \u201clargest audience to ever witness an inauguration \u2013 period \u2013 both in person and around the globe\u201d<\/em>. Photographs showed that this was demonstrably false \u2013 the audience was relatively small \u2013 but the lie was compounded by a subsequent interview with Trump\u2019s advisor, Kellyanne Conway, when she asserted that this description was true, it was simply \u201calternative facts.\u201d<\/em> (Note 2).<\/p>\n

USA, Autocracies and Truth<\/strong>
\nWith a President who is a congenital liar, partly indicated by his sun sign ruler Mercury square Neptune, USA is now a country where truth has become a relative matter, no longer something objective and provable. Alternative facts can now prove anything. Probably this tendency to play with facts has always been a facet of national character, partly because of the foundation chart (July 4th, 1776 at 17.11 Philadelphia) has itself Mars in Gemini square Neptune (a country that talks peace and democracy, but is involved in conflict worldwide), and partly because Mercury is retrograde in the 8th house opposing Pluto \u2013 the fascination with secrets and conspiracy theories, and the manipulative power of the moneyed elite.<\/p>\n

As USA\u2019s Mercury is at 24 Cancer and Pluto is returning to USA\u2019s natal position, we can expect an extraordinary upheaval as actual, provable truths surface during 2020, not least when Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn oppose Mercury in the early months of the year.<\/p>\n

For powerful people and institutions, the truth is not something that has first priority. What is more important is that supporters embrace their world view. The people around Donald Trump support, at least outwardly, the statements he makes, and for him this is a reassuring proof of their loyalty. His lies become \u201calternative facts\u201d and he measures his power by the number of people who back him up. It is quite normal in autocracies for \u201calternative facts\u201d to be propagated and believed by rational and intelligent people. Nazis promoted the idea of Arian superiority which was backed up by theories that were clearly pseudoscience, but it did not stop them making advanced scientific discoveries. People have the capacity to compartmentalize their minds into the rational and non-rational.<\/p>\n

Fake News<\/strong>
\nHow else could you explain Trump\u2019s current lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who is clearly an intelligent man, making the extraordinary statement \u201cThe Truth isn\u2019t the Truth\u201d<\/em> when comparing Trump\u2019s account to FBI director James Comey\u2019s account of a conversation? (Note 3.) George Orwell would have loved this. In Orwell\u2019s book Nineteen Eighty-Four<\/em>, there were three major slogans: War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength<\/em>. By believing and repeating these statements, the population confirmed their loyalty and adherence to Big Brother, just like Giuliani sold his allegiance to Trump. Born on May 28th, 1944, Giuliani has the same Sun-Uranus conjunction in Gemini as Trump, but his Mercury is in Taurus square Mars\/Pluto in Leo\u2026 his communication is weaponized. The truth is not the truth, and everything is subject to lawyerly discussion.<\/p>\n

Orwell would have been particularly impressed by Trump\u2019s appropriation of the expression \u201cFake News\u201d<\/em> and turning it against authoritative newspapers who originally used it to describe Trump\u2019s dance with facts as well as Russian interference on his behalf in social media. In late July 2018 \u2013 this was the time when Mars was retrograde in Aquarius square Uranus in Taurus (a loose cannon) \u2013 Trump went into his usual diatribe against the news media saying: \u201cWhat you\u2019re seeing and what you\u2019re reading is not what\u2019s happening.\u201d <\/em>(Note 4) Those who were familiar with George Orwell\u2019s Nineteen Eighty-Four <\/em>were reminded then of the line: \u201cThe party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The Life of Eric Arthur Blair<\/strong>
\nOrwell, whose actual name was Eric Arthur Blair, was born in India in a colonial family, and returned to Britain for his education. Aged only 8, he was sent to boarding school, which he thoroughly hated. His family was well-connected but not well off, but with the support of family friends he later went to Eton, where his natural writing talents were encouraged. At the age of 19 he travelled to Burma as an officer in the colonial police. There he got ill, and returned to Britain five years later.<\/p>\n

Orwell was a man who lived his beliefs. He spent long periods as a tramp to get material for his book Down and Out in Paris and London<\/em>, and even got himself arrested, so that he could write about what life was really like in prison. He worked down a mine to better describe the appalling conditions of miners, and in the mid-1930\u2019s he travelled to Spain, newly married, to fight on the Republican side against Franco. He was a committed socialist, but in Barcelona he experienced first-hand the monstrous machinations of the Soviet Union, who exported their ideological purges and executed socialists and anarchists alike, completely undermining the Republican cause. Orwell got shot in the throat but recovered quickly. What was more dangerous is that he got on the list of Soviet undesirables, and he ultimately fled the country. His highly-acclaimed books Animal Farm<\/em> and Nineteen Eighty-Four <\/em>were in many ways expos\u00e9s of the shadow side of Communism.<\/p>\n

The Horoscope of George Orwell<\/strong>
\nOrwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four <\/em>whilst seriously ill with lung disease, living on a remote Scottish island. The book came out in 1949 and one year later he was dead only 46 years old.<\/p>\n

\"George<\/p>\n

George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair) 25th June 1903, 14.30. Motihan, India. AS 5.18 SC.<\/em><\/p>\n

Orwell was born with a new moon in Cancer conjoining Neptune and the 9th house cusp, which reflects his committed idealism and instinctive identification with suffering populations. His Saturn is strong in Aquarius in the 4th, which partly shows his upbringing abroad, and his sense of responsibility towards society. This is what he wrote about \u2013 Mercury is strong in Gemini in the 8th house \u2013 and he was obsessed with exploring the shadow side of society. The fact that Mars forms a grand trine with Saturn and Mercury gave him the resilience and determination to deny his physical needs in the interest of uncovering facts. As his Ascendant ruler, Mars, conjoins the 12th house cusp and the North Node in Libra, social justice was what motivated him.<\/p>\n

Nineteen Eighty-Four<\/strong>
\nIn his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four<\/em>, the main protagonist is Winston Smith, who works in the Ministry of Truth<\/em>. His job was to rewrite the past, so that it corresponded with what was happening in the present. If a Party leader fell out of favor (i.e. \u201cvaporized\u201d), then every reference in past news had to be edited. The Ministry of Truth was a huge building with thousands of workers constantly rewriting the past. With no evidence of anything having existed in the past contrary to Party propaganda, there was no longer anything which could be considered as objectively true. In this way history, and memory, was obliterated.<\/p>\n

The dystopia of Nineteen Eighty-Four<\/em> is probably indicated by the opposition of Uranus in Sagittarius to Pluto in Gemini from the 2nd to the 8th house in Orwell\u2019s chart. With Jupiter making a T-square to this opposition, we can see the recipe for ideological terrorism which Orwell was such a keen observer of. He was writing after 50 million people had been killed in Soviet purges and Nazi ravages, so totalitarianism was a real and present danger. Mercury in Gemini and the 8th house conjoined Pluto, activating the T-square, so that is what he wrote about.<\/p>\n

Writing Nineteen Eighty-Four<\/em> in 1948, Orwell was amazingly prescient. Omnipresent in 1984<\/em>-society were telescreens, which constantly droned propaganda. Telescreens could also see and hear you \u2013 so everyone was under constant observation, much like what surveillance cameras do today, and indeed what our smart phones can potentially do (when they are hacked). However, his concept of the past being rewritten is not what is actually happening today, despite the efforts of Trump and autocrats worldwide. What is happening is that there are so many sources of information, and that audio and video can be so easily manipulated, that people gravitate to the truth they choose to believe. Factoids are tailor-made to appeal to specific psychologies, which then becomes the chosen reality which people embrace according to their character, living in their own information bubble together with other people of like mind. In this way, it is hardly different from divergent religious beliefs of the past which different population groups embraced and fought over, (none of which were actually provable).<\/p>\n

1984 in the 21st Century<\/strong>
\nDespite the best effort of the current US president, democracy is alive and well in the USA; in fact, it is more vibrant than ever. As autocrats are voted into power in major countries worldwide, mostly because of the deliberate arousal of deep-seated fears in the populace concerning employment and immigration, and the promotion of nationalism, there is an extremely active counter movement focused on climate and inclusion. Nevertheless, the danger is there, and as Orwell said, speaking of Fascism in 1936: \u201cIf you pretend that it is merely an aberration which will presently pass off of its own accord, you are dreaming a dream from which you will awake when somebody coshes you with a rubber truncheon.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Rather than in the USA, the worst fears of George Orwell are coming true in other countries, not least in China. In Xinjiang, which has a large Muslim Uighur population, it appears that up a million people have been sent to internment camps to be \u201cre-educated\u201d and made into good Chinese citizens. This is a kind of cultural genocide, similar to the eradication or control of Buddhism in Tibet, which has been taking place with varying intensity since the 1950\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Rather more insidious in China, is the control the central government has over the media and the internet. China is of course a country with a collective (rather than individualistic) culture, like most Asian cultures, so the population is more sanguine about government control. However, the omnipresence of government censors on social media as well as the Great Firewall, is almost an exact parallel with the Thought Police<\/em> in Nineteen Eighty-Four<\/em>.\u00a0 Currently the Chinese Communist Party is implementing an assessment system of its citizens based on what they write, who they meet and what they do. In 2020, they plan to roll out their social credit score<\/em> system. People with low scores \u2013 which can arise from bad behavior on social media, financial mismanagement, legal issues, and anti-social beliefs \u2013 risk not being able to travel, stay in certain hotels, or get the jobs they want. It is not unlike methods for assessing creditworthiness in the West, but extended to many other areas. The potential for misuse is obvious.<\/p>\n

As we progress into a more digitalized world, with artificial intelligence systems making decisions which deeply affect our daily life, when we have little recourse to change things, populations will become more easily manipulated. This is something we seem willingly to accept. As a Facebook lawyer said in court: \u201cThere is no invasion of privacy at all, because there is no privacy<\/em>\u201d on Facebook or any other social media site. Most people opt for comfort and convenience, and business systems are there to provide it. New generations brought up in this environment will breathe its air and will be familiar with the territory in a way older generations cannot. Digital power rests with them, and can be used equally well for good as for bad. In this transitional period, what is crucial is that systems are not hijacked by power-hungry populists who thrive on evoking anxiety in ordinary people. It\u2019s a delicate tightrope.<\/p>\n

Adrian Duncan \u2013 April 2019<\/em><\/p>\n

1. According to an article in the Guardian by Dorian Lynskey, author of The Ministry of Truth: A Biography of George Orwell\u2019s 198,<\/em> published by Pan Macmillan
\n2. Alternative Facts by Kellyanne Conway: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VSrEEDQgFc8
\n<\/a>3. The Truth isn\u2019t the Truth by Rudy Giuliani: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CljsZ7lgbtw
\n<\/a>4. What you read and what you see is not happening by Donald Trump: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6QPH0Q7ceR0<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Post-truth politics and Neptune \u2014 how the astrological age of illusion and deception is reshaping democracy and public discourse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adrians-articles-2000"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astrowow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astrowow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astrowow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astrowow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astrowow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2785"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.astrowow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3527,"href":"https:\/\/www.astrowow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2785\/revisions\/3527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astrowow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astrowow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astrowow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}