Astrological Aspects for Chicago

We will begin by taking an archetypal perspective, looking at how the sky was gathered for the premiere of Chicago (Marshall, 2002) on December 10, 2002, [link to Chicago premiere chart] and also at the time period that the movie portrays—the early spring of 1929. [link to Chicago porrayal chart] After that, we will go on to see how the world was gathered at those two times as well. In this section, I will first briefly describe again the Saturn and Pluto planetary archetypes and then the Saturn-Pluto planetary archetypal complex, as this archetypal complex has the starring role in this turn of the cultural kaleidoscope. Then we will explore how the Saturn-Pluto planetary archetypal complex plays out in culture at these two different times, in the movie Chicago itself and in depth psychology. This broad brush look at the archetypes at play will allow us to see more deeply into both popular culture and the movie Chicago when we turn to them in turn.

Archetypal Actors Again

First, we will reacquaint ourselves with our planetary players, and then look at them in combination. As Saturn-Pluto alignments do not last as long as some of the other outer planetary combinations, they did not get as much airplay in the turn of the Twentieth Century section, so let us put them in the spotlight again. Saturn is associated with conflict, polarity, tension, and contradiction, as Tarnas (2006) describes:

The Saturn archetype encompasses all that involves boundaries and limits. It defines and grounds, constricts and solidifies. It expresses itself in discipline and control, rigor and rigidity, repression and oppression. It rules judgment, guilt, the consequences of past actions, error and fault, defeat and failure, deflation and decline, depression and sorrow. Saturn is, in Nietzsche’s phrase, the “spirit of gravity,” both heavy and dark. In Freud’s terms, it is the “reality principle,” the delays and resistances to gratification, the obstacles and diminishments presented by life’s exigencies. Saturn is the conveyer of the hard truth—naked, unadorned, instructive, sobering, often painful. It is the bottom line, the workings of necessity, the inevitable and inescapable. (p. 211)

Tarnas (2001, online), in an article about the astrological significance of the events of 9/11, succinctly describes Pluto's archetypal qualities:

Pluto is in certain respects the most potent archetypal principle in the planetary pantheon: it is the archetype of power itself, as it embodies the primordial forces of destruction and regeneration, the underworld in every sense, the secretive and subversive, the shadow, the id, the broiling cauldron of the instincts, the violent and the demonic, the fiery and volcanic, the elemental energies of nature: Pluto-Hades-Dionysus in Greek mythic terms; in Indian terms, Kali and Shiva in both their destructive and regenerative aspects. Whatever Pluto comes into alignment with, it greatly intensifies and compels that second archetype, deepens and makes more profound, destroys and transforms. It brings a titanic, overwhelming elemental potency, on a mass scale.

The most recent Saturn-Pluto opposition occurred between late 2000-2003. In an article written shortly after the 9/11 tragedies, Tarnas (2001, online) described the complex:

Saturn is archetypally associated with order, Pluto with chaos—the chaos of destruction, of annihilation, but also the chaos of nature’s depths from which regeneration and new structures emerge. The Saturn-Pluto combination is profoundly embodied in the dialectic between order and chaos. Each constellates the other, each secretly contains the other, like the yin/yang symbol, as in chaos theory and complexity theory. Chaotic phenomena always mask a deeper order, evolution’s chaotic unfolding spontaneously self-organizes, every order masks and gives way to underlying chaos . . . . Saturn-Pluto brings both the repression of the id and the return of the repressed—the id’s eruption out of the repressive containment of the ego and superego, the compensatory backlash, the karmic return, the consequences of past actions, the wages of sin.

These historical periods, when Saturn and Pluto are in hard aspect (forming a square, an opposition or a conjunction) are also characterized by conservative (Saturn) empowerment (Pluto), and death (Saturn) often on a massive scale (Pluto). Also as Saturn seems to bring out the problematic side of different archetypes, we see the shadow side of Pluto being brought out with an emphasis on manipulation, control, and sex.

Two Similarly Shadowy Saturn-Pluto Periods

This Saturn-Pluto alignment, at the turn of the Twenty-First century, was distinctly different in character than the turn of the Twentieth Century. The United States saw conservative empowerment in the chaotic election of 2000, and a rise in religious fundamentalism, that brought death and destruction on a massive scale in the events of September 11, 2001, and the ensuing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. America experienced the shadow side of power and institutions, from the Catholic Church, to numerous corporate and financial scandals, to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. The underworld was glamorized in the TV show The Sopranos and while Robert DeNiro and Billy Crystal Analyzed This and That at the movies. The movie Chicago debuted during this Saturn-Pluto opposition, and looks back on the approach of another Saturn-Pluto opposition as well.

The 1920s had similarly shadowy times. Saturn-Pluto alignments “book-ended” the decade, occurring in 1921-1923, and 1929-1933, and with the conservative movement of Prohibition at the beginning of the 1920s and the Great Depression at the end of the 1920s beginning with the stock market crash in October of 1929. Prohibition backfired, essentially encouraging what it sought to prohibit. Underworld activity skyrocketed, with gangsters becoming all the rage and very powerful. Al Capone and other gangs were fighting over the city of Chicago, and bootleggers and speakeasies were cashing in on the dry decade. The St. Valentines Day Massacre occurred in early 1929, as a foreshadowing to the Saturn-Pluto alignment, occurring in Tarnas’s (2006) penumbral period. The repressed were returning with a vengeance, soaked in bathtub gin and listening to hot jazz licks. The planet Pluto was discovered, and shortly thereafter, the atom was split, ushering in the nuclear age. Tarnas (2006) reveals that “highly characteristic of Saturn-Pluto historical periods, in psychoanalytic terms, was an intensified dialectic on the collective level between the repression of the id and the return of the repressed, often in a covert form” (p. 236)

As we will soon see, the movie Chicago (Marshall, 2002), superbly captures this period, the culmination of the Jazz age. Chicago is all about shadows. Fittingly almost the entire movie takes place in jail (Saturn), which is run by Matron Mama Morton, who is as corrupt as she is buxom (Pluto). Lawyer Billy Flynn, in a piece of fancy footwork, liberates the lovely murderesses—Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart, as he manipulates (Pluto) the justice system with his trickster “Razzle Dazzle” (Uranus).

The Saturn-Pluto opposition was part of the “Depression T-square” as Uranus joined the dance and was square to both planets during this period. Thus the shadow side of these different institutions is illuminated, and liberation occurs by shadowy means. "Cell Block Tango" exquisitely expresses the Saturn-Pluto dynamic—rageful incarcerated murderesses, while "If You’re Good To Mama/Reciprocity" shows the shadowy prison matron strutting her stuff, and "Razzle Dazzle" shows trickster lawyer Billy Flynn lawyer in action. Tarnas (2006), in discussing the Saturn-Pluto alignment, mentions Chicago in a footnote to his discussion of Hitchcock at the turn of the Twentieth Century:

Such correlations were evident even in a genre as unlikely to be reflective of Saturn-Pluto archetypal themes as musical comedy. The film musical Chicago, produced and widely viewed during the most recent Saturn-Pluto opposition in 2002-03, was saturated with Saturn-Pluto motifs: murder and revenge, ruthless ambition, corruption, the criminal and sexual underworld, prison and death row, trials, judgments, guilt, executions, with a view of human motivation as dominated by relentless selfishness, and with a pervasive aesthetic of blackness and shadows, dungeons and guns. The original Broadway play was conceived and produced during the Saturn-Pluto square of 1973-75. (p. 520)

Astrologically, both of these time periods had Saturn-Pluto oppositions, although in the spring of 1929, the opposition was at 16°, in the penumbral range. In December 2002, Saturn was in Gemini, ruling communication and the mind, while Pluto was opposite in Sagittarius, which rules institutions, and the shadowy side of institutions indeed began to show at that time.

In the spring of 1929, Saturn was in Capricorn, while Pluto was in Cancer, and as discussed previously in the "Introduction to the Kaleidoscope of Culture" chapter regarding the turn of the Twentieth Century, these are the signs of the zodiac associated with the solstice and the archetypal birth of the king (Capricorn) and death of the king (Cancer), mythologically. Pluto’s placement in Cancer lets us see the shadowy side of women as they mercilessly manipulated in order to gain power (L.D. Miller, personal communication March 15, 2005). Uranus, in the spring of 1929 was in Aries, square to both Pluto and Saturn, and Grof has these planets in the same houses, since he was born in July 1931. The movie portrays a shadowy rebirth of the two main characters, Roxie and Velma, who represent each other’s shadows. Tarnas (2001, online; 2006) reminds us that transformation through contraction, conservative reaction, and crisis are a dominant theme of Saturn-Pluto alignments and in the movie Chicago, these two women have to transform their enmity and self-centeredness and work together. While their transformation is not as profound as one might hope for, it is after all a shadowy movie produced by Miramax which is owned by Disney.

Tarnas (2006) although speaking about the dominant motifs of Shakespeare’s dark comedies, which were produced under a similar Saturn-Pluto alignment, perfectly describes Chicago, too: “Murderous ambition, jealousy and revenge, crime and retribution . . . are all reflective of the Saturn-Pluto gestalt” (p. 284). As previously discussed in the "Introduction to the Kaleidoscope of Culture" chapter, Pluto brings us the "underworld" aspects of the self, all of which are prominently featured in Chicago.

Depth Psychological Considerations

The Saturn-Pluto alignment also figures prominently in depth psychology, as was previously mentioned regarding the turn of the Twentieth Century. Jung’s notion of the shadow is one example of this. In his 9/11 article, Tarnas (2001, online) articulates the Saturn- Pluto dynamic’s Freudian flavor:

Intrapsychically Saturn-Pluto expresses itself as the superego and ego structure controlling and repressing the id. Yet it is a true dialectic, for the superego is not only antagonistic to the id, the id drives and can even control the superego . . . . Each increases the reality and high-pressure potency of the other.

Tarnas (2006) notes that Freud published Civilization and Its Discontents in 1930, when Saturn was opposite Pluto, and Freud had published The Id and the Ego in 1923 during the Saturn-Pluto square. Tarnas adds:

In both cases, Freud emphasized the intense conflict and intricate interaction between the id and the superego, between Pluto and Saturn, whether played out on the battlefield of the ego and the individual life or the battlefield of civilization and history. (p. 248)

As previously noted, both Jung [link to Jung's chart] and Grof [link to Grof's chart] have Saturn and Pluto in a T-square configuration with Uranus. Jung conceived of the notion of the shadow and Tarnas (2006) relates that the notion of the shadow

represents a synthesis of the two planetary principles: from Saturn, the motifs of judgment, guilt and shame, suppression and repression, splitting and separation, denial, the inferior, that which is regretted and negated; and from Pluto, those aspects of the self that constitute its "underworld." the instincts, the dark depths of the personality, the animal-like, the often ruthless and ugly, serving impulses for power, domination, lust, and other drives, yet also representing that healthy instinctuality from which healing, wholeness, and a higher consciousness can ultimately emerge. (p. 263)

Grof, being born in 1931, shares the same T-square as the time period portrayed in the movie Chicago. [Link to Grof's chart] And as previously mentioned, Grof's work has largely centered on illuminating the death-rebirth process which he found in his LSD research was what the “Cosmic Game” was all about. That Grof himself has Saturn and Pluto in opposition in his birth chart, in the signs that also represent death and rebirth, and that Uranus is in Aries, gives us insight into his expression of this recurring death-rebirth pattern as “The Cosmic Game.” Before we go on to explore Chicago, we will again turn to Tarnas (2001, online) and his elegant depiction of the Saturn-Pluto combination at the conclusion of his 9/11 article, and give Tarnas the last word on the subject:

Saturn-Pluto is the collective psyche in a contraction of death that is also, at another level, a contraction of birth, a hard labor of transformation within the alembic compression chamber: Saturn-Pluto periods bring evolutionary contractions, historical epochs that bring about a great death, the destruction of an old order, deep transformation, and the establishment of a new evolutionary structure. Through suffering and experience, deeper and wiser forms of consciousness emerge.

Saturn-Pluto is the aspect of patriarchy—the evolutionary empowerment of the stern Father archetype, of authority, hierarchy, control, law and order, tradition and stability, discipline, domination, oppression, structure, maturation—and at another level, it is the aspect of the Great Mother’s hard birth contractions pressing and impelling new life and a new form of being. Thus patriarchy is the birth canal of the Great Mother Goddess, just as History is the birth labor of Nature. "All creation groaneth in travail" for the birth of this new being.

Saturn-Pluto is . . . is the hard structure of death and rebirth. It is the sacrifice that transforms reality. It is the dark and brutal storm which brings in its wake, in the fullness of time, slowly but inevitably, the luminous serenity of a new dawn. This is the essential insight of the death-rebirth mystery: that every death is on another level actually a birth. Thus Saturn-Pluto hard aspects . . . are the death contractions of history, but also its birth contractions.

Now that we have an idea about the Saturn-Pluto planetary archetypal complex, let us first see how it plays out both at the turn of the Twenty-First Century, when the movie Chicago was in production and premiered, as well as the spring of 1929, which the movie portrays.

End of section, continue to A Tale of Two Times