Behind the Barricades

Here's to love and solidarity
And a kiss behind the barricades.

As the Sun found itself between the awakening energies of Jupiter and Uranus at the first quarter Moon, we were treated to a mind-blowing show of the Northern Lights a lot further south than usual.  Sadly, I didn’t actually see it but, after the event, it made me think of John Wyndham’s book Day of the Triffids.  I’ve written about this book before, just because it had a bit of an effect on me as a teenager.  The book begins as a meteor strike hits Earth, bringing most of the population out to view its spectacular light show.  However, those who watched it were rendered blind!   At the same time a robotic type of plant called a Triffid was triggered to begin to roam, striking and killing those in its way with a swiping, stinging leaf.   The sight of wind turbines, especially the ‘dead’ and rusty ones always makes me think of Triffids.

 On May 23rd we have a Full Moon in early Sagittarius.  The Sun now has moved into Gemini, beyond Jupiter and Uranus and finally we are being shown a point after several months where we break through and we come out of the ‘barricade’ of the bookending of all the planets by fixed signs that I have spoken about in previous blogs.  Slowly, slowly we can begin to move forward rather than being hemmed in.  This Full Moon falls across the Gemini/Sagittarius axis, the axis of the mind; Sagittarius reflects the higher mind and Gemini the curious lower mind that spurs the higher mind into action.  Sagittarius seeks both truth and freedom.  The Sun in Gemini at the Full Moon sits alongside Venus and Jupiter (both still in Taurus), reflecting the potential for an expansion of love and benevolence, with these three planets making a trine (harmonious aspect) to Pluto (strength and transformation).   The Moon sextiles Pluto, bringing an opportunity to transform and grow through love and good thoughts.   Not a bad start!  Neptune, Jupiter and Venus, however, are all at the anaretic 29th degree and may, therefore, be tempted to show their more shadow sides. 

 The Sagittarius/Gemini axis and their ruling planets encompass our minds and our whole belief system - our ability, our curiosity and our desire to increase and expand our knowledge.  In the case of this Full Moon both ruling planets are in Taurus – so there is a fixity to our belief systems.  Change and adaptability is difficult when fixed signs are in play, but by the same token there is a desire for practical solutions and to see things through till the end.  Jupiter, however, follows Venus and moves into much more knowledge seeking Gemini on May 26th, just as Mars meets the solar eclipse degree.  Note this date – it could be interesting.  By the next New Moon we have 5 planets in Gemini including Mercury, Gemini’s ruler, so very soon the background energy becomes lighter, and more highly charged with adaptable changeable energy. 

 Our belief systems are the key to absolutely everything in our lives - our reactions, our behaviours, our past, our futures, our health.   And in turn our health affects our minds.  A weakened body is much easier to control and influence.  Humans naturally want to be part of a group or tribe; they seek to belong and to fit in.  Our minds have always been influenced to think and act in certain ways; by our cultures, our family, our status within society and the types of people we mix with, for instance.  But nothing compares to life today.  Not only do we have a heavily controlled media and social media, we also have some very slick mind influencing techniques used to market products and to influence behaviours via TV, Hollywood and the internet.  Edward Bernays (1891-1995), a nephew of Sigmund Freud, came to realise that the principles of war propaganda could be applied just as well to marketing.  The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the masses would not only be used by business but by so-called democratic governments.  Bernays was the author of the book ‘Propaganda’ and was regarded as ‘the father of PR’.  Bernays’ great nephew, Marc Randolph, interestingly went on to be the co-founder and CEO of Netflix.   The Cold War in particular became the period when the lines between investigative journalism and government propaganda became markedly blurred, as the media became a tool for manipulation.  Should those pulling the strings be devoid of moral compass, such a tool could indeed become a ‘weapon of mass destruction’.

 Founded in 2010, the Behavioural Insights team has grown from a seven person ‘nudge unit’ at the heart of the UK Government to a global ‘social purpose company’.    In 2021 they produced a document to guide the media on how to best promote the net zero ideology in the knowledge that it is ‘a powerful tool of persuasion’ which can be used for social modelling so that viewers ‘can learn how and what to do’, using role models, celebrities and trusted ‘experts.  It was called The Power of TV: Nudging Viewers to Decarbonise their Lifestyles.  I don’t think I need to say any more than that.

 I’ve written before about our three brains – the head brain, the heart brain and the gut brain.   The heart brain is more the emotional, love centre, whilst the gut brain leads our instinctive behaviour.   The head brain, however, seems to function much more like a programmable computer; it can’t tell the difference from the reality we inhabit or an imaginary reality that we act out and is, therefore, highly suggestible.   Therefore, the power of the media, TV, film and computer games over our brain should not be underestimated.  

 The head brain is also the seat of some important structures such as the pituitary, the pineal and the hippocampus.  The pituitary is like a master gland, regulating growth and metabolism.  The pineal gland is important for the regulation of the circadian cycle but is also said to influence our intuition and our third eye.  The hippocampus is the seat of memory and past memory and is an area where unusually we continue to produce new neurons until we die – dementia is not necessarily a product of old age.  

 In terms of media influence, once the first cinema movie was shown in 1895, the power of such a tool was seen.  Then the first TV demonstration took place in Soho, London in January 1926, and for the first time propaganda and brainwashing techniques could be beamed into every household, as almost every home came to have its own ‘cinema’.  We need to put a protective barricade around our head brains to protect them from these powerful media influencing techniques. 

 ‘Behind the Barricades’ is a song from Les Miserables.    Based on Victor Hugo’s novel Les Miserables or The Wretched, the story is about the transformative power of love against a background of social injustice.   Hugo was born in 1802 just after the French Revolution, a period of extreme social injustice.  The revolution was sparked by a growing political inability to manage rising debt, alongside an increasing population, as the lower classes were suffering at the hands of the elite ruling classes.  Sounds somewhat familiar to where we are now.

When it's madness all around
You can see this at a glance
We will cry and we will sing
And we will laugh and we will dance…

We will seize the moment
For a kiss behind the barricades

Set in Paris in the early 1800’s during a brief uprising against the restored monarchy following the French Revolution, the main thread is the story of Jean Valjean, a French peasant recently released from prison where he served 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving niece.   His spirit has been almost broken and his thoughts are of complete hopelessness.

They will try to break our spirit
And at times they may succeed
But our love for the world
Is stronger than their greed

And it surely is a relentless greed that we see in action now; the greed of the already wealthy elites for yet more money, yet more power and yet more control.  What is highlighted here though is the counteraction of being with others – singing, laughing, dancing loving, sharing emotions, thoughts and beliefs.

As we entered a new 20-year Jupiter/Saturn Air cycle in 2020 I asked – are we at a point of a new type of civilisation?  This had already been suggested in 2012 by the end of the Mayan Long Count.  The world did not end, but instead it is highly likely that 2012, a tumultuous period of change in itself, marked a turning point in our civilisation.  It is highly likely that we are now just over halfway through a 20-year transition cycle (the Mayans counted in 20 year segments called atuns) in between civilisation types ending in 2032.   And now it is almost as though we are straddling two worlds – our old world is dying, and we are in the conception phase of the new world with the spectre of AI looming over us all.  I have said before that eventually an intelligent AI that learns to overrule its corrupt leaders may well become our saviour, but in the meantime I feel we have large bumps in the road to overcome, because a digital world could easily become more like a digital concentration camp

As the movement grows
There will be hills and bends
But at the center of the struggle
Are your lovers and your friends
The more we hold each other up
The less we can be swayed
Here's to love and solidarity
And a kiss behind the barricades

Another song – Through the Barricades by Spandau Ballet – also talks about love in a strife ridden community – this time the divided community of Belfast. 

Born on different sides of life 
We feel the same and feel all of this strife 
So come to me when I'm asleep 
We'll cross the line 
And dance upon the street

So as we enter the thick of an AI world how should we protect ourselves?   Firstly be aware and informed.  WiFi radio signals are just like radar and sonar, facilitating the 3D mapping of the environments, and real-time sensing and monitoring of movements.  With the integration of radar and mobile phones, radio signals will tell the difference between various materials and pinpoint locations.  At 6G even vital signs can be monitored using nano particle technology.  Interestingly the widespread introduction of LED lighting coincides with the development of LiFi, a wireless system that transmits data via LED or infrared light.  Unlike WiFi, which uses radio frequency, LiFi technology only needs a light source with a chip to transmit an internet signal through light waves.  Operating at a frequency spectrum about 10,000 times higher than WiFi, LiFi offers potentially higher data transmission speeds.

 In addition to being the seat of memory and past memory, the hippocampus may also be the seat of our soul, linking us to our soul-mate family.  Michael Nehls in his book The Indoctrinated Brain says that without the hippocampus we would be mere empty shells.  And, in fact, the hippocampus is the one area of the brain that continues until death to produce new neurons during the phase of deep sleep; dementia because we age is not inevitable – it is more a product of our lifestyles.  So in a Brave New World scenario the hippocampus is a prime attack target if a group wanted to take over humanity.   Indeed in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series the Dementors were deployed by the Ministry of Magic to suck out people’s souls.  The Dementors fed on fear and depression but had no effect on those who are truly happy.

 Nehls asks the question is it actually a Great Reset that is desired by those such as Klaus Schwab, head of the World Economic Forum, or is it rather the Great Mental Reset that is happening, without any realisation by the majority that there has been a real attack on our minds and thought processes?

 So how do we protect ourselves and stay mentally strong and resistant, particularly as we enter an AI world?   We have been taught to keep our bodies strong but not really how to keep our minds strong.  During WW2 it was well known that the best way to control the populace was through fear.  We need to be aware of what is happening around us but not allow ourselves to go into a state of fear, particularly as we face renewed threats of war as well as threats of new diseases.  What we don’t necessarily have so much of now is community camaraderie.   People used to gather around a radio to hear propaganda broadcasts.   Now we sit in our homes often alone watching the television.   The lockdowns showed how damaging social isolation really was.   Recognise these mind influencing techniques for what they are and strive to resist this onslaught.  If we know what our enemy is, we have a chance of resistance.

Being part of a supportive community is vital, with that community being representative of a cross-section of multi-generational individuals of high frequency and vibration.  Human beings want to ‘belong’ but somehow we must remain individually authentic within the group, consciously responsible for our own decision making.   Therefore, recognise the ‘quality’ of the herd we align with.   We live within a web of indoctrination where obeyance of ideologies such as adherence to ‘net zero’ is highly likely to only lead us to the queue of lemmings as they jump off the cliff.    We need good sleep, good nutrition and good hydration.  We also need to be curious, well read and have investigative, questioning minds whilst mindful of what we are feeding into our brains, ensuring that our thoughts are positive not negative because our brains can’t process the word ‘not’.  We must process our thoughts in the positive. 

It will not be cruelty that is responsible for our extinction …..  but weakness, the lack of responsibility of modern man, his false submissive acceptance of any order from above’ [1]

Even Rishi Sunak has recently said that we are facing some extremely difficult years with more change likely in the next 5 years than we have had in the last 30.   He was using this statement to retain public support, but he is clearly aware of huge changes coming in down the line.   We, however, know that we are at an evolution point within human consciousness, so it is important to link the two. 

 Humanity in essence is basically good and not evil, and the destiny of humanity lies with us.  If we are to go forward holding on to what makes us human, with individuality and authenticity, then we must understand that a technocratic leadership will impose its own ideology upon the whole of society in full knowledge of how to do exactly that.  This Full Moon reminds us that Sagittarius seeks truth and knowledge through curiosity without fear of censorship. 

Now I know what they are saying
As hearts go to their graves
We made our love on wasteland 
Oh, and through the barricades

Again this reflects the same idea of a community breaking through barriers, coming together and supporting each other and lifting spirits through song and dance.  Be authentic, have a purpose in life and pursue happiness.  Don’t be afraid to be different.

What the herd hates most is the one who thinks differently … something that they do not know how to do.[2] 

Postscript:  As I was about to publish three issues came to light.  The first is that Julian Assange has won his right to appeal against extradition to America.   And the second and third reflect the huge destabilising energies we have at the moment.  Firstly there was a failed assassination attempt on the outspoken Prime Minister Robert Fico and now we have news of the death of President Raisi of Iran along with four of his ministers.   Whatever the cause, this will undoubtedly fuel tensions within the Middle East.

[1] George Bernanos (1888-1948)

[2] Arthur Schoppenhauer (1788-1860)