The Curious Case of the Misbehaving Octopuses

 I was lucky enough to catch some of the recent glorious sunshine we have had in the UK down by the sea.  Sitting by the harbour beach and chatting to the local fisherman – ‘Big Dave’ as he is affectionately known by all – I was fascinated to learn that the catch of crab and lobster was being decimated by invading octopuses.   (And yes ‘octopuses’ is correct because the word octopus derives from a Greek word rather than Latin.)  The fish catch has been pretty low anyway in this neck of the woods for quite some time, in part due to the huge trawler boats that almost ‘hoover’ up the fish.

Octopuses are sneaky, weird creatures – they slither silently around, their tentacles reaching into every corner.   They are members of the cephalopod family and have certain characteristics that set them apart from other marine creatures.  They have nine brains – a main donut shaped one in the head and one in each tentacle.   Each ‘arm’ is capable of acting independently, able to taste, touch and move without being directed, but the head brain is also able to exert top-down control.  They have three hearts – a main heart that circulates blood to the body and two smaller hearts that pump blood through the gills.  As masters of camouflage, they can change their skin colour, their texture and create patterns to match their surroundings.  They can even alter their body shape, lengthen their arms and expand their mantle to appear larger or to mimic other creatures like sea snakes.  When threatened they can release a cloud of ink to confuse predators and escape.   They have been found to be able to navigate mazes, problem solve, remember and even open screw-top jars.  The area of their brain dedicated to vision is huge and they seem to be able to recognise faces.  Intriguingly, octopuses share a quality that is often given to royalty – their blood is blue, because the protein haemocyanin which carries oxygen around the octopus’s body contains copper rather than iron.  I leave you to make of this link between octopuses and the monarchy what you will.  

 So how is this peculiar creature able to begin to decimate crabs and lobsters.  According to ‘Big Dave’ the fisherman, this phenomenon has happened just four times in his lifetime, the problem being the sheer number of octopuses invading further into shore.  The octopus can enter the crab pot via the tiniest of gaps.   It will then wrap its tentacles around the legs of the crab and squeeze tighter and tighter and tighter until the protective shell cracks under the pressure.   Then the octopus can feed on the exposed meat. 

 Why am I even doing a blog on this?  Because ‘Big Dave’s’ story instantly intrigued me – it felt like an allegory on what is happening in everyday life.  When I was writing the ‘monster under the bed’ series at the Full Moons, I always imagined the monster as a type of octopus, whose tentacles could silently reach into so many parts of our lives.   And, as I was writing this, I looked at the astrology and lo and behold it was right on the Full Moon!   It’s very similar to the idea of the big corporates who just grow and grow and grow, morphing into organisations like BlackRock that eventually infiltrate governments and influence both political, national and international policy.   They squeeze the lifeblood from the ordinary people and the small businesses that have formed the backbone of the UK, their tentacles penetrating everywhere.   The UK has Uranus on its Libra Ascendant, symbolic of a country that is action oriented, with a leaning towards the entrepreneur. 

 Today in the UK, however, small businesses are finding it increasingly difficult to function and survive under the financial pressures put upon them.  Top-down control from ‘the larger central donut brain’ has enabled the swallowing-up of the everyday small business owner within the big boys.  The tentacles were first directed, and then independently targeted themselves, to travel into every area and wrap themselves around whatever they could find, eventually entrapping their victims and then literally using their lifeblood as their energy source.

 The fishing industry in particular in the UK no longer attracts young people trying to better themselves; instead it is the province of those who can afford the vessels that cost several million pounds.      A combination of this and the sheer number of invading octopuses out there could be a final nail.   That part of the allegory almost links to the huge number of people who are being brought our shores – legally and illegally – who undermine the very culture of the nation, feed off their money and yet are royally looked after by the people.

 In my last blog I spoke about the First Axial Age that began around the time of 577BCE – a point where all the outer planets met and aspected each other.  This is a rare phenomenon that won’t repeat until around 3370 AD.  It was a time that was symbolic of a change within civilisation and a growth in consciousness, with the appearance of the great thinkers such as Confucius, Sun Tzu, Plato, Socrates and Aristotle.  It was also the time of a growth in religious consciousness with the appearance of the monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, rather than a worship of the Gods and Nature.  It marked the beginning of Athenian democracy which would spread to much of the western world.  The word democracy combines the root parts demos (people, towns) and kratos (force, power) to symbolise people power.  Cleisthenes in 507 BCE is credited as the father of democracy and, although this particular Athenian democracy would survive for only two centuries, it is regarded as one of ancient Greece’s most enduring contributions to the modern world. 

However, there is evidence suggesting that democratic government, in a broad sense, existed in several areas of the world before the turn of the 5th century, arising naturally in well-bounded groups of hunter/gatherers who were the early humans.  If the group were sufficiently independent of control by outsiders and had a substantial number of members, such as tribal elders, who could make decisions for the group as a whole, this may well have been the most ‘natural’ political system.  However, greater inequalities in wealth and military power between communities, together with a marked increase in the typical community’s size and scale, may well have encouraged the spread of hierarchical and authoritarian forms of social organization. As a result, popular governments among settled peoples vanished, to be replaced for thousands of years by governments based on monarchy, despotism, aristocracy or oligarchy, each of which came to be seen - at least among the dominant members of these societies - as the most natural form of government.

The words monarchy and oligarchy contain the root part arche (that which comes first, the chief) and what we today consider to be a democracy, many of our predecessors might actually have termed an oligarchy.   In Ancient Greece an oligarchy was a place where a council oversaw affairs rather than an elected assembly.  In Gnosticism, "archons" are a term for rulers or powerful beings that are believed to have created and controlled the material world, including humanity.  They are often depicted as malevolent, negative or limited beings, contrasting with the higher spiritual realm and the divine creator. While the term "archon" is not used directly in the Bible itself, it is used in Gnostic literature to describe these powerful, often negative, beings.  Democracy is said to have four pillars - the Legislature, Executive, Judiciary and the Media, with each pillar required to act within its domain but without losing sight of the larger picture. In this way the strength of a democracy depends upon the strength of each pillar and the way each pillar complements the other.

 We think we live in a democracy - but do we?  Are we instead controlled by an oligarchy or maybe a monarchy, encompassing the negative alien beings – the archons – who behave with the blue-blooded confidence that they are the chosen royalty, their tentacles designed to invade and devour every part of communities.  In the recent fiasco in America, when tariffs were put on with immediate effect and then in a U-turn paused for 90 days, the oligarchs were able to take advantage of rapid falls on the stock market and increase their billions, whilst the middle classes were lamenting their losses on savings and the poor were worried about higher pricing.   Humanity’s basic need is food and water.  On land and on water both are currently under attack, either by design or by nature.  There may come a day when it is no longer realistic to fly our food in from the four corners of the world.    Just as the crabs become the energy and food source of the octopuses, so we may come to understand that we are the same for the archons.

 The astrology augurs a subtle but seismic change, as I spoke about in my last blog.  This summer we begin a rare alignment of the outer planets, from Saturn outwards, in a very harmonious triangular alignment.   It is even more auspicious when we take into consideration that the apex of the triangle – Saturn and Neptune – meet and aspect the others at the world point of zero Aries.  The outer planets represent societal change, symbolic of the collective conscious and unconscious.   This upcoming alignment has the opportunity of a rise within our conscious awareness, bringing with it a change within our whole civilisation.  The presence of Saturn indicates that this will take time and will require effort and the desire to overcome obstacles and difficulties – Saturn demands resilience, respect and responsibility for one’s own life.  Within that change in our conscious awareness it is so important that the four pillars of democracy are rightfully upheld, alongside an ability to see the bigger picture.  This is a huge opportunity for the collective consciousness of society as a whole, but first we must become aware of what is really happening so that humanity can take steps towards a rise in conscious awareness.