On The Book Nickel and Dimed: An Astrological Analysis

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On The Book " Nickel and Dimed " : An Astrological Analysis

 

2:49 AM 1/4/05 Tue

 

One of the most oft-metioned " books to read " last year was " Nickel

and Dimed: On NOT Getting By in America " , by Barbara Ehrenreich.

Ehrenreich is a prolific journalist, writing many articles and giving

many lectures around the country on the themes of family, work,

feminism and poverty. She has written upwards of ten books; but this,

her latest work, is perhaps the best of the lot, because of the way

in which she approached it.

 

I say that because in " Nickel and Dimed " Ehrenreich decides to " go

undercover " as a low-wage worker in three states - Florida, Maine and

Minnesota - as a waitress, maid and sales associate (Walmart)

respectively - to see whether the " boom " of the 1990s really held up

for the Working Poor. She soon finds herself on The Dark Side of The

Boom, where if you're a low wage earner, you're invisible, expendable

and largely held in contempt not only by the rest of society, but by

the very people you work for, the bosses. Ehrenreich comes into

contact with people who have to live inside their cars or pay

hundreds of dollars a week at out of the way motels because they

cannot save enough money to get (and maintain) an apartment on what

they earn, even though they may work 40 hours a week - and in many

cases, often work two jobs, 7 days a week. Hers is a raw, starkly

realistic and even painful account of what its like to live among the

Working Poor in this, the greatest nation - if not the richest - the

world has ever seen. Her book sticks a huge pin in the ballooning

notion that Welfare Reform has solved all problems, that

merely " having a job, any job " and " hard work " would pull people up

out of poverty, and that the Poor's real problems lie in their

unwillingness to work, their supposed moral (and even, some

argue, " cultural " ) laspes of judgement and propriety.

 

Along with her real-life accounts as a low-wage worker, Ehrenreich

also packs a great deal of very useful info into her book to give

sociological, economic, political and even historical context to what

she sees and experiences firsthand; for example, she points out that

the majority of all working age Americans - 60% - earn less than $14

an hour. Put another way, most people in the USA make under 30K per

annum - which is what you would need to meet your basic survival

needs if you're a single parent with two kids. No wonder they're so

many two-parent homes where both have to " hit it " , so to speak. She

also points out the huge affordable housing shortage, where a low-

wage worker has to spend, depending on where they live, upwards of

70% of their monthly income or more, just to keep a roof over their

heads - not including such trifles as utilities, food, clothing and

so on. Her book talks about the fact that our society is becoming

more and more segregated all the time - not only in Racial terms but

as well, in terms of Class (and, as is so very often the case, Race

and Class are very closely related). The affluent rarely if ever come

into contact with the poor - they live in faraway suburbia, shop in

exclusive stores, send their kids to private schools. So it's easy

to, as Ehrenreich puts it, have a sort of blindness when it comes to

seeing the poor and the way they live, if you're among the affluent

classes.

 

This book (first published in 2001) comes along at an interesting

time for us astrologers, all of whom have witnessed the coming and

going of the Uranus-Neptune conjunction in Capricorn and the Saturn-

Pluto square in Fixed Signs that heralded the " end of Welfare as we

know it " - which occured during Bill Clinton's watch. One of the most

pressing concerns of clients falls in the career/working world/job

related areas. This is nothing new, of course - since the days of

Lilly and even before that, astrologers were busy divining the fate

of people's places in the world. But this applied mainly with respect

to those in power - royalty, aristocracy, the landed gentry. Indeed,

astrology, Eastern and Western alike, abound with chapters and maxims

and aphorisms about what combinations make one a king, a queen, a big

shot, a general, etc. Not much is written about the average worker in

society. Then - or now.

 

Although Modern Western Astrology talks a great deal about the

importance of the individual, about how the times have changed with

respect to work conditions and career choice, and the great

opportunities that have arisen since the advent of the 20th Century,

its acutal practice belies such lofty ideals; like its ancient

counterpart, Today's Astrology mainly still concerns itself with a

sort of " lifestyles of the rich and famous " approach, charting the

career ups and downs of celebrities, political figures and notables.

Rarely, if ever, do you find among the " case studies " in modern

astrological textbooks, meaningful analyses and discussion with the

charts of those who are say, service workers, or those in the blue

collar sections - skilled or not. There is a real contradiction here,

one that I hope is not lost on those reading these words. In real

terms, Modern Astrology has yet to speak to the areas that Ehrenreich

talks about in her book.

 

It looks like the Humanistic stargazers have missed a step.

 

Perhaps this is because of the fact that, like the rest of society,

if astrologers acknowledged in a serious way the facts presented by

Ehrenreich do indeed exists, then perhaps the way in which we have

pursued our craft simply does not work for everyone - that there's a

sort of " fine print " that should come with the astrological session,

you know, like those " warning statements " that are on the sides of

cigarette packs:

 

WARNING: Astrological counseling may not be helpful to those who did

not go to college and lucked out with a decent job, grow up in an

affluent family of relative wealth, influence and privilege, have

tremendous prodigious atheletic and/or artistic talent, or otherwise

hit the Lotto. If you do not fall into one of these catergories,

you're basically screwed, and nothing any astrologer can say is

likely to help you for real.

 

I'm being extreme in my comments above, but you get my point - and

hey, there are many astrologers who would agree with what I just

said. But again, that belies the prevailing philosophy that so many

astrologers - often the very ones who were nodding their heads just a

second ago - claim to hold so very dear: that Astrology deals with

something *beyond* what the normal person can perceive; that

Astrology's sole purpose is to help the human being live a more

productive life; that Astrology is meant to, can and should be a

vehicle through which to give hope, insight and practical

understanding of a person's past, present and potential future.

 

Again, you can see the contradiction between what we preach - and

what we practice.

 

In any event, when it comes to what I like to call Astrological

Career Building - if you have any interest in such a thing at all -

then you owe it to yourself to read Ehrenreich's book. It's the Real

Deal on the jobfront for the vast majority of Americans. Most

astrologers are caught up in focusing on the smaller but influential

40% of the American population - the rapidly shrinking Middle and

Upper-Middle Class - and the textbooks they write certainly reflects

this. No wonder Astrology today is so limited.

 

Barbara Ehrenreich was born on Aug 26 1941 in Butte, Montana,

according to a Google internet search looking for her birthdate. No

time is known, of course. On the day she was born, the Moon was

changing Signs, from Libra to Scorpio; from what we know of

Ehrenreich, she would definitely have the Moon in Scorpio, quite

possibly square Pluto. The Sun-Moon energies, then, would focus on

keen observation, refinement, investigation, analysis.

 

The rest of her Solar chart features a Venus-Mars Quindecile (her

focus on sexual issues in her writing, specifically with regard to

child bearing, birth control, abortion and women's rights, as well as

gender roles - Venus in Libra, Mars in Aries), Mercury Peregrine in

Virgo (strong cerebral focus, writing, journalism); Sun square Uranus

(strong individualism, ego focus - " worker's rights " with the Sun in

Virgo); and the midpoint picture Uranus=Neptune/Pluto, a rather rare

contact, suggesting strong sociopolitical themes and an " up with the

people " vibe that, if Uranus (or for the matter, any of these

planets) ties itself into one of the angular houses of her actual

timed birthchart, gets even stronger. More than any

other " traditional " planet - even Jupiter or Saturn - the Outers

represent Sociopolitical trends, issues and themes of a given

generation (just as " off the top of the dome " examples, both Ralph

Nader and Queen Noor of Jordan have Outer Planet natal

configurations, and both have been heavily involved with

Sociopolitical causes). That they are so fused together within

Ehrenreich's makeup, makes perfect sense in light of her reality and

development.

 

Some of her most ardent critics have accused Ehrenreich of being a

Marxist/Socialist - and in her Solar chart, there is some basis for

these allegations. Saturn is trine Neptune, with Neptune disposed by

the all-powerful Mercury (Neptune+Mercury=Ideology) - and - as Liz

Greene points out in her wonderful book " Neptune " - Saturn and

Neptune have a special role to play in the rise and fall of

Communism. Greene also points out that the Saturn-Neptune

relationship also speaks to the Welfare State in general, and in the

trine/sextile relationships, this is how it is likely to manifest, in

a more benign socialist orientation, rather the more hardcore

communist one (symbolized by the conjunction, square and opposition).

 

Still, by her own admission, Ehrenreich's " down with the people "

approach only goes but so far - in her book, she makes it very clear

that she has every intention of rejoining the very upper-middle

classes that she is so critical of, and at various points in that

same book, she brings her class-orientation analysis to bear on her

co-workers, why they do the things they do. Checking the declinations

on the day she was born, Ehrenreich has Jupiter and Pluto parallel.

Jupiter+Pluto=Money, Success, Wealth, Power.

 

At the time Ehrenreich began her " undercover low-wage worker "

project, in the latter half of 1998, she was having her second Saturn

Return; since she has Saturn in Taurus natally, and since, in 2000,

the Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction would take place in the sign of Taurus

(money, prestige, class), I find this particularly relevant with

respect to Ehrenreich's focus - the themes and issues of Class and

the Working Poor. Additionally, transiting Neptune (in latter 1998)

was probably square her Moon and opposed her Pluto, suggesting a

dimunition of status, being " invisible " - living among, and as,

temporarily - the poor.

 

At the time her book, " Nickel and Dimed " came out, in 2001, transit

Saturn was applying conjunction with her Solar 10th House Jupiter in

Gemini (also disposed by the super strong Mercury in her chart) with

transit Pluto building up its opposition to her Jupiter (fame,

noteriety). This happened largely in the years 2003-04, with the

transit of Jupiter square its natal position in 04.

 

In closing, again I highly recommend Barbara Ehrenreich's

book " Nickel and Dimed " ; it's a sobering look into the lives of

millions, and forces us astrologers to keep our feet on the ground

while keeping our eyes on the prize.

 

Salaam,

Mu