#TakeAKnee
Peaceful protest: Colin Kaepernick & chums. (This is from last year I think.)
I couldn’t help but note that on the day American footballers staged a peaceful protest across the country, Neptune, the higher octave of Venus (planet of peace) and Mars, the planet of warriors, came into perfect opposition.
The athletes chose to kneel when The Star-Spangled Banner was played. The idea started last year when 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, knelt during the national anthem, explaining that he did so to highlight racial and social injustice in his country.
Before today’s protests President Trump spent the weekend sneering at athletes choosing to do this.
I guess they just showed him.
The visuals are moving — and strange. Indeed they highlight what an odd spectacle an American football match. Heavily armoured men — who seem to be mainly African-American — clash on a field of green and stop every few minutes. Women — who seem to be mainly white — wearing the opposite of armour (i.e. not much) sort of pose around and then do gymnastics with pompoms. Indeed there seems to be a huge amount of razzamatazz and hardly any actual sport. (Give me baseball any day — or cricket, for that matter.)
In Detroit today, the artist singing the national anthem ended on bended knee. The semiotics of this picture are…. (This is from this year.)
Still, you’d expect a lot of glamour and some photo ops with Neptune involved. Mars meanwhile is being pursued by Venus (perhaps in the form of a cheerleader) through Virgo (a sign that we do associate with ritual and body consciousness!)
American football is stylised combat, obviously. Cheerleaders play the role of chorus. It’s a mixture of art and sport — both are the province of the 5th house in astrology, a place of pleasure and fun. Now, just for a bit of astrological fun, we could stretch this further. The only major celestial object to change signs today was Ceres, an asteroid which I suspect is associated with civilisation, citizenship and civitas (because of Ceres status in ancient Rome). She sailed into Leo, natural ruler of the 5th.
And how about “Take A Knee”, the phrase itself? Well, Saturn rules knees (and bones), of course, and he is in the sign of broadcasting, publishing, spreading the word. But Capricorn is also associated with knees, and, of course, Pluto is in that sign this decade. Pluto — in the white imagination at least — has been associated with a Black man. Pluto is stationing right now — and will turn direct on September 28. Maybe a line has been drawn in the sand… or on the football field. The next major aspect that Mars will make is a perfect earthy trine to Pluto.
Great commentary – hadn’t thought of these events in terms of astrology, but you made a great case!
I think they are being sardonic and highlighting the historical dynamic of kneeling to the master [Pluto in Capricorn as you said] while maintaining an internal resistance.
Peaceful intelligent activism/resitance, which makes sense with Mars in Virgo opp Neptune in Pisces, which is so associated with Christianity and Jesus.
So ‘turn the other cheek’ turned on its head, or rather, knee.
It occurs to me that there is something quite churchy about the kneeling itself. It reminds me of the resistance from black churches in the civil rights movement.
Also, Mars in Virgo is going across those “Civil Rights” degrees in mid-Virgo (where Pluto and Uranus were in the mid-1960s).
That Mars in Virgo across the “Civil Rights” degrees is critical to this whole thing. As you outlined in the article, Kaepernick’s original protest last year was to highlight all the BlackLivesMatter stuff around police brutality and so on. It’s Civil Rights all over again.
Kaep started this a year or so ago under his Saturn return at 18Sag. Since leaving the 49ers in March, he’s not been picked up by any team and there are potentially solid football / financial reasons why he’s not been picked up but equally there is a belief that he’s been blackballed by the league.
Today’s new is reporting that “he’s won”. He wanted a conversation about the injustice and Trump has started one. Kaep’s Mercury is at 28Libra and has just been opposed by t-Uranus and will continue to be for the next year or two. Time to talk!
I also got this from the Washington Post about Kaep — shows he’s got a better average than a lot of quarterbacks who are still running.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/sports/kaepernick-tracker/?utm_term=.706ac367e562&wpisrc=nl_todayworld&wpmm=1
I’m a follower of the NFL and I can impartially make a case either way as to why he’s not in the league.
He may statistically be better than most but he’s just not that good a quarterback. He got benched last year for poor play to be replaced by Blaine Gabbert who is the butt of most jokes.
There’s a white QB – Jay Cutler* – who also wasn’t picked up in the offseason and he has been since 2007. They’re similar age but neither has shown himself to be a dead certainty as a QB like a Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers. There are huge doubts about Kaep as a QB-passer that have nothing to do with taking a knee.
Kaep has said he is willing to take a backup job but hasn’t revealed his salary demands. He’s denied reports that it’s $9-10million but that’s a lot higher than the average backup QB who earns $5-6 million at most. Teams have become very focused on sticking to the salary cap. They aren’t going to overpay a guy to be a backup and I’m sure he’s asking for more as an ex-starter with Super Bowl and playoffs experience.
You also have to question whether he really is willing to be a backup or whether he’s just saying that publicly to get an opportunity. No team wants to start a QB controversy between its chosen starter and a backup. He tried out with Seattle and Pete Carroll said “He’s a starter in this league”. Unfortunately most teams already have their starter decided either due to current contract or drafting.
So when you throw in the take-a-knee stuff as well, it all adds up to not being a surefire certainty.
Or he may just be get blackballed for what he did.
* Cutler retired to become a TV broadcaster when he’d had no playing offers. Then he came out of retirement when Miami lost their starter in training camp. But Kaep was never getting that call. Firstly because Miami’s headcoach had been Cutler’s coach in Chicago, and secondly because Kaep is seen as a supporter of Fidel Castro. In Miami, that’s worse than taking a knee!
I wonder if this will affect the Winter games. Feb 2018. Could/Would Americans take the knee on an international stage–ps. North Korea–will there be an Olympics this year.
The Olympics are the site of many athletic protests over the years.
Famously, Jesse Owens in Berlin 1936 (a black runner wins during the games that Hitler was in power during… imagine how that went over) and the one in 1968 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Olympics_Black_Power_salute] (all three medal winners did some form of support, with the Australian wearing a badge instead of raising a fist)
So Americans have done so in the past. If anyone does so at the 2018 Games does remain to be seen.
Here are pictures of many of the teams kneeling or locking arms. http://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/24/us/nfl-trump-take-knee-protests/index.html
The players maybe doing this, but the fans are not impressed. There have been calls by the fans to be there for them.
In the first reported case of corporate blowback involving the ongoing Trump vs NFL feud, the WSJ reports that DirecTV is letting some angry customers cancel subscriptions to its Sunday Ticket package of NFL games and obtain refunds “if they cite players’ national anthem protests as the reason”, according to customer service representatives. While DirecTV’s regular Sunday Ticket policy doesn’t allow refunds once the season is under way, the representatives said they are making exceptions this season, which began in September, in response to the player’s growing protests, either kneeling or linking arms during the national anthem.
DirecTV service representatives contacted by The Wall Street Journal had different understandings of the policy. One said refunds to those concerned about the anthem protests were only offered to subscribers with certain offers or plans. One representative said full refunds were available for those who complained about anthem protests. Another said such people could only get prorated refunds for the remainder of the season.
Blowback? NFL Ticket Sales Crash 17.9% As Owners Lose Control Of Players
Probably just a coincidence… or just transitory, but The online ticket reseller TickPick told The Washington Examiner that sales have dropped 17.9 percent, far more than the usual Week Three fall…
17.9 percent decrease in NFL orders this week compared to the previous week.
Last year the drop was 10.8 percent in orders on Monday & Tuesday following Week Three games.
“We have seen a massive decrease in NFL ticket purchases this past week in comparison to years past. Week 3 seems to usually have less ticket orders than week 2, but this year ticket purchases are down more than 7 percent from this time last year,” said TickPick’s Jack Slingland.
“While we can’t specify if this decrease is due to the president’s comments, player and owner protests, play on the field, or simply the continued division of consumer’s media attention, the conversation around the NFL this week has focused on the president’s comments as well as the players’ and owners’ reaction. As viewers continue to abandon their NFL Sunday habits, both the number of ticket sales and the purchase price of tickets will drop,” he told us. … http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-10-01/blowback-nfl-ticket-sales-crash-179-owners-lose-control-players
American sports figures have a long history of civil rights displays. Notably the (much lauded posthumously) boxer Muhammad Ali. Even MLK took the knee at one point.
I take some minor exception with your view of it being all Neptunian razzmatazz, while certainly being an element of the other national pastime,and really, almost all American televised sports at this point, it is by no means all bluff and no bite — it is a contact sport, and a very brutal one at that. Certainly with the attention to the severity of concussions that has been brought to light recently with the newly named CTE, the chronic damage that many such concussions have on a brain, over a lifetime of sport playing and sports injuries.
Trump once again clouds the issue at the heart of the matter — police brutality and the precarious space in American society that black and brown bodies must inhabit due to that very real threat — with the red herring of respect for the flag and soldiers.
Further, many such athletes like the ones in the NFL and the NBA come from the very population most affected by police brutality — black and brown men, from 18 to early middle age(some college athletes). Compare them with the owners of these teams, many of whom are older white men.
We have a long overdue examination of racial politics to reckon with, not to mention the health impacts of such a high contact sport and indeed, the institution of football is not so rarefied that the Pluto in Capricorn transit will overlook it.
Another twist on Sunday.
Vice President Mike Pence flew from California to Indianapolis to watch the Colts play. He walked out when players knelt for the national anthem, as apparently directed to do by The Donald. He then flew back to his fundraiser in California.
The cost of this stunt to the taxpayer – $242,000.