Botched Horary: TV

17 02 2010

This is the horary chart of the invention of television. I was thinking about how much time I´ve wasted in my life watching any old crap, in order to fill the meaningless time while munching on crisps, chocolate and indulging in “down time” or probably more to the point a sort of banal, everyday escapism.

I try not to come to this question with my mind made up. It was just something I thought about analysing and since there is no real “birthdate” for TV, then I may as well make a horary. I have loved many programs throughout my life, during my younger years I watched all the cartoons, during my teens I became interested in sci-fi, and I loved comedy shows, as well as the occasional soap. Later on I moved more into the line of documentaries and nature programs that my Dad always loved since I was small.

Cancer Rising

It is interesting that this mode of communication can provide and reflect dreams for so many countless numbers of people. And indeed we find Cancer (the people) rising in the chart, Cancer ruler of the home and of home comfort is obvious for TV considering that it is placed in our homes as a complement to any relaxing sofa, or even in front of the bed in a bedroom. Ascendant ruler Moon in the 9th then gives more of a focus, TV is an invention which involves mass communication but also being 9th house is without doubt involved in politics, morals and people´s religious or belief systems. Aries Moon is peregrine here. We might hazard that TV is primarily concerned with Aries energy, it is an aggressive medium, and it wouldn´t be far out to say this, since everyone knows that watching TV is a passive experience.

It is curious, TV is just an invention, it is just technology. So it´s not really anyone´s place to judge what it is or what it ought to be used for. But this chart gives us a very powerful 9th ruler conjunct an exalted Venus on the cusp of the 9th house of religion, travel, law, and dreams. Perhaps TV is still in its infancy, with regard to its programming, since that 9th ruler is yet to make it over the cusp of the 9th and into its rightful house.  Pisces is said also to pick up the dregs and institutionalise them, bringing in outcasts and absorbing them as with prison. TV then is without a doubt a political, and a moral instrument having power over peoples´s (9th house) dreams and their unconscious belief systems.

The 8th house

It is said that the 8th house is the house of fear. And I can confirm that there have been times when I have found TV a little unpalatable. (What I mean specifically by this is that while watching something I might have found myself questioning the right of  them, the broadcaster to put whatever images in my head without my own chosing.) Of course, there is something for everyone, and you have to just be selective. But there is no escaping in this chart, Moon is opposed by 8th ruler Saturn T-square with subliminal Pluto in cardinal signs. There is also no escaping the Sun-Neptune-Chiron conjunction in an anaretic Aquarius. Sun as ruler of the 2nd house puts values, along with 9th house beliefs, into the churning 8th, house of fear, house of death. Neptune´s conjunction denotes the grand illusion that is hidden in plain-view.

The 8th house and the Pluto dimension is something we ought to remind ourselves when thinking about the spread of TV and its acceptance into the mass consciousness which really began in the 1930´s. Fascists were the first to use TV for propaganda and for persuading people to fall in line. The most pervasive TV moment of the 21st century is not some soap scene, nor some film preview, nor is it the final of any world cup. What´s the most pervasive and seen bunch of TV images? These are images of Sodom and Gomorrah, these are images which can only describe 9th house beliefs in the house of death and destruction. Hence all of that instinctual uneasiness has firm basis in this horary. The power of TV is great, and it´s use or abuse must be guarded against, it is part of the arsenal of social cohesion which makes nations unite under one language and culture, just as totalitarian dictatorships and democracies alike found out in the 1930´s.

TV has no plan, has no political agenda of its own. This is not something I am arguing over. However, newspapers have always been 3rd house daily events ever since the printing press revolutionised the world back in the 15th century. But obviously in the chart that I have done, TV as a 9th house (mass-communication) invention has more than just the ninth as part of its reach. The large concentration of planets focused around the Sun in the 8th and the 8th ruler in direct opposition with ASC ruler emphasises the 8th house to a great degree.

11th house ruler

According to the chart then it would be fair to say that TV is an aggressive medium, the peregrine ASC ruler and detriment Sun are indicators that it´s not the noblest of inventions. However, the Jupiter Venus conjunction brings together 9th house of beliefs with the 6th of daily routine and also the 11th of hopes and wishes. TV is a great comfort clearly, with the conjunction of those benifics in Pisces. In summary, the great focus on the 8th house is symbol of TV as an invention which controls collective resources and beliefs, it acts in a transformational fashion.

People who control TV have huge power, we can´t argue with this, and power is one of the big 8th house themes, power to transform and change, power over life and power, potentially to influence people without their comprehension. What we ought to be asking is not whether TV is good or bad, that question is superfluous since the genie is out of the bottle. What we ought to be asking is, who controls the airwaves, and what their moral and political agendas are. These are questions that we ask of our politicians, but our politicians are not allowed access to our living rooms the way the media moguls are…