Nuclear Culture 7: Nuclear Sun Sets in Japan, Surrounded by Lunar Symbols

Image Source: AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye via Yahoo.

Caption for the above photo: A traditional "Koinobori" carp-shaped banner for Children's Day flies at a rally protesting against the usage of nuclear energy in Tokyo, Saturday, May 5, 2012. Thousands of Japanese marched to celebrate the last of this nation's 50 nuclear reactors switching off Saturday, shaking banners shaped as giant fish that have become a potent anti-nuclear symbol.

Perhaps the universe, or our legendary version of it, is trying to tell us something.  Signs of a tension-filled, but passionate and ultimately beneficial, turn of the tide are everywhere this weekend. In Japan, all the nuclear power plants were shut down on May 5. Nuclear power, humanity's attempt to harness a 'little Sun,' has been roundly countered by spring's super-lunar symbolism. This symbolic solar-lunar opposition has been evident throughout May 5 and 6.

Image Source: Weekends in Paradelle.

The Supermoon on 5 May 2012 coincides this year with Buddha Jayanti day (Vesak, or Vesākha), the most important holiday in the Buddhist calendar, which celebrates Buddha's birth, life, death and his enlightenment (nirvāna). It encompasses the full circle of Buddha's life journey. Candles are lit to confirm that life is fleeting, and Buddha is honoured as people endeavour to bring happiness to others.

Beltane in the Wheel of the Year, from Celtic tradition (Beltane is celebrated in New Age belief systems, such as paganism and Wicca). Image Source: Patricia Telesco/Llewellyn's Magical Almanac (1994) via Red Moon Musings.

This Supermoon also marks the Celtic festival of Beltane; it is the midpoint on the calendar between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. The day celebrates the Sun god, Bel, and is associated with passion, Maypoles and wild fertility rites around springtime bonfires.

The Taurus sun conjuncts this weekend with the planet Jupiter, named for the Roman sky deity analagous to Quetzalcoatl in Mesoamerican tradition. Image Source: Astrolosophy.

In Mexico and America, this weekend marked Cinco de Mayo.  This holiday celebrates Mexican pride and culture, as well as the historic Mexican victory against the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. The fiesta may involve a drink or two.

Aquarius: radiant of this weekend's meteor shower, the sign of technology, innovation, air-borne water and electricity.

Astronomers point out that the Supermoon occurs on the same days as the peak, on May 5-6, of the Eta Aquarid meteor shower, as the earth passes through traces left behind by Halley's Comet. The radiant of the meteor shower is the constellation Aquarius, near one of the constellation's brightest stars, Eta Aquarii. The constellation's Zodiacal meaning is associated with electricity, borne through water in the air. Aquarius is a fixed air sign defined by innovation and technology. That is, as a fixed sign, it is reluctant to change; and at the same time, it is the sign which defines change. It makes a curiously nuclear picture.

Supermoon in Scorpio. Image Source: Astrolosophy.

Western astrologers observe the Supermoon in the passionate sign of Scorpio, which stirs the emotions, while the sun is in Scorpio's opposite sign of Taurus, which affects will and intention. Astrology Work provides a picture of tension-filled, reluctant, but ultimately beneficial, change:

This full moon will not be easy. … Many of us are struggling with these specific issues which seem to cause so much pain: sense of no power, lack of resources, and relationships that are based on anything other than love (lust, energy steeling, power struggles, and compromises).

Scorpio and Taurus are fixed signs. These are the two signs that never give up, never forget, and go for what they want, no matter what the consequences are. There is no need to reform any of them, the only thing that needs to be considered with these energies at play, is WHAT DO THEY WANT? If any Scorpio or Taurus aspires and strives for anything that has real value in it, they can change the world for the better. If they aspire to selfish materialization and ego glorification, than they can hurt themselves and those around them. Nothing wrong with determination and not even with the enjoyment of material comfort – it’s the motivation that counts.

There are so many issues that come to the surface with this Full Moon in Scorpio /Taurus. Many of them have been highlighted in the past few months. Besides the Sun/Moon opposition, there is the Mars /Neptune opposition which have been with us for a few months by now. Our actions are still not where we want them to be. We make plans, we try hard, and yet for some reason when it’s time to actually manifest, we end up with a diffused product. We are angry and we don’t know why, we want to change things and we don’t know where to start. We feel tired unexpectedly, and many have the feeling of loosing trust with themselves and with the world.

The good news about this Full Moon is that this configuration is about to finish in the next few day, and that overall this full moon does have a lot of positive building energies in it. The Sun is conjunct Jupiter and in a very wide orb is in a grand trine with Pluto and Mars. This is the time to stop waiting for other people, and start helping ourselves.

Thus, astronomers feel that the stars indicate a moment of clarification and resolution after a tough, lingering power struggle, marked by back-stepping, futility and disillusionment. These ideas point to epiphany. Mystic Mamma quotes Cathy Lynn Pagano:

This potent full Moon, which is also another superMoon, meaning it is close to the Earth and therefore exerts a stronger pull on us, calls us to give birth to the powerful destiny seeded within each of us. This is the year to do it and now is the time to let go of the fears and the demons that keep us caught up in the delusions of our patriarchal society. We can band together with like-minded people (Venus in Gemini) and create a life that is meaningful, creative and strong (Mars in Virgo).

This Taurus/Scorpio Full Moon asks us to become aware of the people and things we give the highest value to, and to look at the emotional trauma that keeps us apart. It’s time to question our values and beliefs about money, power, happiness and our connection to each other and to the Earth. There are powerful forces at work determined to keep the old system alive, regardless of how many people and places it destroys. But we are equally powerful, and the Cosmos is lending us energy to break-through our paralysis and stand up for our beliefs.

The shutdown of the last nuclear plant in Japan, and the difficult turn of the generational wheel in that country, suits May 5's revolutionary symbolism. For the first time in 42 years, Japan is without nuclear power. There are no indications (yet) that the plants might be turned on again. In Tokyo, a rally of citizens celebrated the historic moment (see pictures at HuffPo here).

The power plants will likely be turned on again.  It is a good moment to ponder the eerily prescient vision of the path Japan has already partly trodden, "Mount Fuji in Red." This clip is from one of Japan's greatest directors, Akira Kurosawa, in his 1990 movie, Dreams (夢, Yume, aka Akira Kurosawa's Dreams, I Saw a Dream Like This, or Such Dreams I Have Dreamed). The film's magical realism depicted actual dreams which the director had had over the course of his life.  Kurosawa, who died in 1998, was ranked by CNN and Asiaweek as "one of the [five] people who contributed most to the betterment of Asia in the past 100 years." The 6th dream, curiously unsettling now in hindsight, is below.

Excerpt from Dreams (1990) © Warner Bros. All Rights Reserved. Reproduced under Fair Use only. Video Source: Live Leak.

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