Throwing shoes of protest in the collective subconscious

January 11, 11:30 AMAstrology ExaminerMaria Barron

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Ecuadorans protest against Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
(AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Some things are such perfect reflections of the Signs of the Times that they come at you like shoes aimed at your head, thrown from the collective subconscious. And so it is that the throwing of shoes, a non-lethal but still quite aggressive form of protest, is becoming a symbol of these transitional times.

In London and Scotland Saturday, people protesting Israel’s war on Gaza threw shoes at an Israeli Embassy and a U.S consulate office. The gesture of contempt that Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi directed at President Bush in December is clearly gaining ground as a symbol of antiwar protest. Similar protests have taken place in cities across Europe, Scandinavia and South America, often replete with shoes.

Beyond the specific cultural meanings al-Zaidi and the protesters in various countries might attach to throwing their shoes, the symbolic act itself suddenly has global significance. As it happens, that kind of shoe-throwing is an apt reflection of the astrological sign of cultural change we’re all under. In my mind from here on out, this transit of Saturn in Virgo opposing Uranus in Pisces is dubbed “the shoe-thrower.”

The transit is in play in your chart and in the world, and this isn’t the first time I’ve written about it. After hanging around into 2010, the opposition of these planets in these signs won’t occur again for hundreds of years. It is an important sign of the times, and it is worthwhile to have a sense of the energies involved.

Uranus, the rebel, the shoe-thrower, isn’t about destruction; he’s about shocking us into change. In Pisces, the changes Uranus demands arise from subconscious longings and spiritual realms. The “shoes” are coming from the Piscean feet of faith, a place where people will make a stand for humanity in a universal sense, whether based on God or reason or ethics or some other sense of ultimate reality.

In the case of how this shoe-thrower transit plays out in a person’s individual chart, expect deep intuitions from your soul and subconscious about how you need to be rather than what you need to do. Pay attention to the specific areas of your life where these feelings show.

In terms of how this transit works in the wider world, the demands for change are coming out of the collective subconscious – which is to say, our sense of what we believe we know about one another – as well as a deep, spreading concern about what’s fair for all.

Both within us and out in the world, the demands for change and fairness are being directed against our traditional structures and ways of managing in the material world, which are represented by Saturn. Saturn is government, internal or political. It is the place where our internal and external rules and traditions reside. Saturn in Virgo believes that it exists for our own good and for the good of the people. But it also values its power to clean up and wipe out.

On the world stage, specifically in regard to the literal shoe-throwing Saturday, Uranus in Pisces is demanding that governments resolve their conflicts in ways that don’t require the slaughter of innocents and civilians trapped in war zones. Despite those demands, the Israeli government appears to be relying on its Saturn-in-Virgo power of enforcement, of cleaning up and wiping out. In December, the Iraqi government responded to the journalist who threw his shoes in much the same way.

The struggle for and against change is playing out in many significant ways on the world stage, and the developments in the Middle East are only one example.

The way the energy of the times affects your individual chart is different for each person. The injection of competing energies – deeply-felt calls for change vs. loyalty to the way it is – when overlain on your own chart could be stimulating you to action and allowing you to change or to be a force for change. Or it could be reinforcing your resistance to change. Again, pay attention to your intuition.

If you stymie the internal changes suggested by your intuitions, I’m willing to predict that Uranus in Pisces will throw shoes, in the way of jarring dreams, uncomfortable realizations or intrusive thoughts. Take the time to ponder where you stand in terms of your deepest inner sense of spiritual connection to ultimate reality. Try to bring your subconscious thoughts and intuitions into the light of your consciousness. Consider whether the current structures of your life, the inner and the outer, support your spiritual stand in terms of your fellow woman and man.

If not, you need to work to change those structures, those rules, those governments. That’s the message of this shoe-throwing astrological opposition. And its reflections are everywhere.