eclipse, dracula, astrology
the other eclipse
27/Jun/10 17:48
While we are between two eclipses, it is perhaps a good idea to reflect on the more popular eclipse, the one at the box office.
Eclipse is the latest installment of the Twilight Saga, a series of stories about vampires. I don’t really know much about it, but the posters and trailers give off a vibe that reminds me more of 90210 than
Dracula.
Ever since Tom Cruise starred in Ann Rice’s Interview with the Vampire (and maybe before that), the undead have become a strangely sexy symbol in popular culture. Teen books are full of vampire stories. Buffy was hot. But why?
Dracula, back in the day, was scary stuff. The novel by Bram Stoker is a winner, and very cleverly written. The classic film starring Bela Lugosi debuted in 1931, right around the discovery of the planet Pluto. No one thought Bela was sexy, just scary.
Dracula was one of the classic horror monsters for years, together with Frankenstein’s monster, The Mummy, and The Wolfman. All but the last made it to the big screen within two years of the discovery of Pluto.
The planet Pluto is closely associated with death and rebirth. Pluto, after all, was the Roman god of the underworld, the equivalent of the Greek’s Hades. On a good day, Pluto is all about dying and being reborn, as in the story of Persephone, who spends half of each year in the underworld (causing winter) and half in our world (summer).
But if things go awry, there can be problems. Pluto is associated with some fearful transits, largely because unprocessed emotional experiences can resurface years after they were buried. In this way, they become the “undead,” just like the Count. There is indeed something creepy about repressed emotional material when it resurfaces, especially if it isn’t processed as it emerges from the grave.
The tendency is for that energy to go amuck, wreaking havoc all over the landscape of our lives, at least until we acknowledge it and work to incorporate it back into ourselves. Like Dracula, it can sap our life’s energy. Like Frankenstein’s monster, it can do harm equally when in the midst of anger or while trying to be gentle.
With anger bubbling up within the collective like the oil in the Gulf (see the post about the protests at the G20 summit for an example) it is no wonder our attention turns to vampires. The oil spill itself is an example of the undead, a grisly reminder that we power our light-filled world with the corpses of beings that were around millions of years ago. And like Frankenstein’s monster or the mummy or Dracula, we can’t stop the 100,000 barrels of oil that are spilling forth each day. It is so much a time of feeling out of control.
So why would the undead become sexy? For one thing, the Pluto-in-Scorpio generation is now in their twenties, and they have a decidedly goth outlook on life (and death). A group which was born back in the day when sex and death were equated so strongly in the public’s mind (via AIDS) is sure to be comfortable with the dark side.
But if we’re feeling that things are out of control and the undead cannot be stopped... I guess we might be tempted to join ‘em...
Eclipse is the latest installment of the Twilight Saga, a series of stories about vampires. I don’t really know much about it, but the posters and trailers give off a vibe that reminds me more of 90210 than
Dracula.
Ever since Tom Cruise starred in Ann Rice’s Interview with the Vampire (and maybe before that), the undead have become a strangely sexy symbol in popular culture. Teen books are full of vampire stories. Buffy was hot. But why?
Dracula, back in the day, was scary stuff. The novel by Bram Stoker is a winner, and very cleverly written. The classic film starring Bela Lugosi debuted in 1931, right around the discovery of the planet Pluto. No one thought Bela was sexy, just scary.
Dracula was one of the classic horror monsters for years, together with Frankenstein’s monster, The Mummy, and The Wolfman. All but the last made it to the big screen within two years of the discovery of Pluto.
The planet Pluto is closely associated with death and rebirth. Pluto, after all, was the Roman god of the underworld, the equivalent of the Greek’s Hades. On a good day, Pluto is all about dying and being reborn, as in the story of Persephone, who spends half of each year in the underworld (causing winter) and half in our world (summer).
But if things go awry, there can be problems. Pluto is associated with some fearful transits, largely because unprocessed emotional experiences can resurface years after they were buried. In this way, they become the “undead,” just like the Count. There is indeed something creepy about repressed emotional material when it resurfaces, especially if it isn’t processed as it emerges from the grave.
The tendency is for that energy to go amuck, wreaking havoc all over the landscape of our lives, at least until we acknowledge it and work to incorporate it back into ourselves. Like Dracula, it can sap our life’s energy. Like Frankenstein’s monster, it can do harm equally when in the midst of anger or while trying to be gentle.
With anger bubbling up within the collective like the oil in the Gulf (see the post about the protests at the G20 summit for an example) it is no wonder our attention turns to vampires. The oil spill itself is an example of the undead, a grisly reminder that we power our light-filled world with the corpses of beings that were around millions of years ago. And like Frankenstein’s monster or the mummy or Dracula, we can’t stop the 100,000 barrels of oil that are spilling forth each day. It is so much a time of feeling out of control.
So why would the undead become sexy? For one thing, the Pluto-in-Scorpio generation is now in their twenties, and they have a decidedly goth outlook on life (and death). A group which was born back in the day when sex and death were equated so strongly in the public’s mind (via AIDS) is sure to be comfortable with the dark side.
But if we’re feeling that things are out of control and the undead cannot be stopped... I guess we might be tempted to join ‘em...