I am constantly asked what I think is going on. I don’t have a good answer for a question this broad but it’s made me think about it. And think, and think, and think.
I have an answer now. I don’t know if it’s any good but I’m going to try to write this. I actually have two answers but one fits inside the other so it’s pretty cool. Yes, I like my own idea(s).
I think we’re contained, truth be told, and in more ways than one. People don’t travel like they used to and I’m not talking about the pandemic, which only accelerated and advanced trend that was already in place.
As an example, a lot of people stopped flying or flew less, back twenty years ago when TSA started patting people down. You can also think about the point in time when the cost of a car (and hence the cost of driving) soared. I mean, you need 10K for a reasonably reliable used car; maybe more. 1K used to do it.
Point here is we quit moving around so much. “Tooling around” is what we used to call it back in the day. You’d grab some friends, get in the car and tool around with the music blaring and everyone singing. Seems unheard of today. No one is that happy!
So now we have the internet for company and for entertainment. At this point, I see it as a series of Holodecks. You can enter the space and spend some time interacting with other entities who may or may not be real. Or they may be real but lying. Old man says he’s a teenage girl. That sort of thing. It’s fake but you don’t know how fake.
So you get bored and hit another Holodeck. They’re talking about X or Y or Z in this space. The conversation rarely matters. I mean, you can go get your fix but it lasts about as long as the peace a heavy smoker feels after a cig. You may as well start twitching right away. The satisfaction you get from this stuff is fleeting. I think it’s because it’s just not real.
There is nothing tactile; there are no smells… this is funny; it just occurred to me, it works as birth control – why? Because you’re cut off from actual pheromones. You may be able to feel a person but you’re mostly cut off from the person’s energy and they from yours.
You’re living in your head, really. It’s not the same as… getting in the car and crankin’ up the music and bonding with another person(s). This is especially true if your friends are bots and you don’t know it. Point here is Holodeck girl is not actually in your life.
I visualize this as if I am standing the the middle of a small room. If I face out and turn, 360 degrees, doors to Holodecks surround me. “Where would you like to go today?”
The people who own the Holodecks know this is lonely, so they stock the environment with twinkly things. It’s no different than what many bars would do, pre Internet. They’d pay attractive, engaging people to mull around, chatting up the customers to keep them at the bar.
There are enough Holodecks, before you know it, you stop going anywhere. You have people bring you everything. Food, clothes, tools, drugs, everything. It’s surreal if you think about it, especially if you compare it to life before the internet when no one could have imagined this.
Comparison? When I was in high school, I routinely escaped though my bedroom window to attend keg parties in the middle of the desert, with my heart pumping, seeing what I could see and looking for love! Had someone told me I could stay home and look at a screen instead, I’d have thought them mad. I mean, that’s funny.
So this is part one of what I think is going on. I feel we’re contained and distracted from this fact by the Holodecks. It’s gone on long enough, it’s more as if we’re connected via something akin to an unbiblical cord.
As for the astrology, I’m looking ahead at Saturn in Pisces. It’s a prison and you are stuck.
I’ll be back with part two. Meantime – What do you think is going on?
I agree 100%. I never thought about the visceral parts specifically but I do miss hanging out with real human beings other than my partner.
Not happy about the Pisces in Saturn being stuck in Prison because it’s kind of like that now for me. Stuck already in an area I would have never chosen, in a home that my partner inherited but is an endless and thankless task of him fixing everything that needed fixing 20 years ago. So if we are stuck here when Saturn goes into Pisces…ugh!
As much as I like using the internet some days I pray for it (the whole artificial damn thing) to collapse and for people to start talking to each other again, face to face, actual bodies meeting. Online life and social media is still a form of madness to me even if I have gotten used to it mostly. It’s just that some days I remember the good old days…the days before all of that and how good it felt. But who could imagine the age of Aquarius without technology?
I do like connecting to other people online, the ideas, the different kinds of lives they lead or what they believe, but as soon as you get with a group of people doesn’t it feel like it all falls away? And there are faces, and voices, and all the body language and vibes, and all the subtleties that color our world and bring it into 3D.
Yes, this is exactly what I meant. The possibility for misunderstanding someone’s comment online is phenomenal. Have witnessed so much bullying and rude behaviour online (Facebook) that, I’m sure, the perpetrators would not dare to dish out if actually facing someone in the material world. And even with the best of intentions it’s often very difficult to understand someone’s comment, even with the use of emoticons to convey their mental state/intention.
I have no answer to this dilemma other than, for me, to limit my online exposure, stay away from discussing things that matter online due to risk of misunderstandings, and pour my energy into my actual in-the-flesh relationships.
Yes, online has to be handled differently, so that you can get the best out of it.
I think it’s a neutral tool that can be used to learn and connect but also for a centralized entity to divide, or cause it to grow and multiply and become a monster of its own.
A lot of what I also see is the division created by something to divide the real people, in real life, in the streets, so to speak. And to put faces and identities on the things that people fear, are taught to fear, the things that people are furious and feel helpless about. So the anger is directed at that.
But also, people can feel unheard, powerless, and helpless against powerful institutions and they want to direct their anger towards that directly, anonymously, even.
Think about how we remember life before this. And now children who won’t know or imagine a life without one message, constant surveillance. Remember when it was possible to go off the grid, entirely? Currently, today and for people born since this technology was in our hand, it’s normalized.
Holy crap this is amazing. Remember road trips? Yes! Sometimes I’d even go off by myself on a drive.
I remember driving on one of the country roads where I grew up. The car ahead of me was weaving and weaving, clearly drunk. This was the 80’s. I tailgated her, honked at her, waved out the window and finally she pulled over. She was so drunk. I think I convinced her to sleep it off in an industrial parking lot.
I used to go off into the woods and fields, be gone all day, build forts, go play on the farm near me, go play with other kids, kickball. Our parent didn’t hang around us, nor we them. We didn’t want them to! When we got older, we did things like listen to music, go roller skating, say we were going to the movies but really going to the train tracks to drink beer and make out, if it was your boyfriend.
I noticed that kids don’t seem to just be outside very much in my neighborhood, unsupervised or unscheduled very much. Even my granddaughters, I don’t know if there are kids their age in the neighborhood. Nearly everything is scheduled. They cannot imagine not getting a program, or anything, on demand.
I think somewhere not long before cell phones became more affordable for people were convinced that the world is so absolutely terrifying that they keep their kids on a leash, give them devices (because their friends have them, because the parents can’t imagine not being able to contact them and vice versa), put on the kids entire terrorizing scenarios. Basically we have created our own prisons. And this continues to feed upon itself, making it the consensual reality. This is in part due to the information feed and the people who make entire industries off the fear it fuels.
In addition, demographics have become cash cows. Children, especially, and parents. Programs on demand. Remember when kids’ shows were only certain times, adult content was on after 9, the tv went off the air at some point in the night.
I absolutely sound like an old fart. But this stuff has been rolling around in my head for a long time and this post connects, I hope. And I want to know more, where my thoughts are wrong or where they can be expanded upon!
I agree with all of this. Being young, exploring the world alone, or with like-minded souls, parties, gigs, all of the fun stuff! But I go to a concert now, and everyone’s got their phones up, filming the music, rather than actually being there and experiencing it – it’s like they can only relate to it if it’s played back on a screen or something?
Yes, kids are missing from my neighbourhood, too. I used to set up a slide, sand pit etc. in the front garden for my son, and kids would appear like magic! They all made friends and started hanging out with each other. But, one by one, they started getting mobile phones and came out less and less. Couldn’t tell you where they are now, it’s sad.
I think the crux of it, for me, is that people are living their ‘lives’ online, i.e, out here in the real world doesn’t count for anything anymore.
You reminded me of the quote, which I do not exactly recall, which is we must “be in the world, and not of the world”.
I spoke of exactly this today. The world is too convenient. This is no accident. There are many empty influences, resources, and those who seek money, prestige, and such.
Agree!
“in the world, not of the world” –
it’s funny, I have this same quote at the end of my permanent grocery shopping list on android notes 🤣
Where I got it from I can’t recall because it’s been there for a good while now…
Bravo!! you nailed it like no other has- I posted this on FB.
Thank you!
Same! I am going to put this on FB too!
Thank you, Pippa!
So true Elsa I love the connection to real people being a Gemini sun/Mars and Asc with Aquarius moon might have something to do with it and Saturn in Pisces nataly
But lately have been absorbed by the internet will start connecting with real people again so Thankyou bringing this to my attention , looking forward to the real world
I was (in-person) Christmas shopping this week, looking at jackets. An older gentleman was trying them on. I commented to him, “that one looks really nice on”. He smiled and shrugged, seemingly undecided. Another man, a rack behind us, also commented. “That what I told, him, too.” And then he felt the need to add: “Sorry, don’t mean to be creepy guy chiming in like that.” I smiled and laughed at him, but I thought, is this what we’ve come to? Do we need to add a disclaimer to make polite conversation in a department store? Have we become so paranoid of coming across offensive/pushy/nosy/pedophile/creepy that we apologize for attempting to compliment another human? Meanwhile, is chuck full of unabashed commentary of all kinds of offensive. I can’t figure this all out. Perhaps I should have apologized, too.
“Meanwhile, is chuck full of unabashed commentary of all kinds of offensive.”
*meaning, social media*
I hope he bought the jacket.
Thanks for this antidote, this is indeed a sad commentary on our current state of things. At least all of you were “brave” enough to talk to each other. So often, people don’t bother or are afraid of the reactions of others. Maybe this is the start of the trend going back to real human connections again. I like to think that everyone is getting sick of living their lives online and the pendulum is swinging the other way. There is always a reaction.
If you were an alien from another planet viewing human beings on Earth right now, you would notice very quickly, “they are all looking into something they are holding in their hands”. They are “glued to it”. If the alien had visited a few decades earlier they wouldn’t have seen this, perhaps they would have reported, “they are running around all over the place looking here, there and everywhere”. So from this perspective we have entered a period of “looking for something” in a certain place, it’s not entirely “outside/external” as in the previous decades. What will we find by all this looking? How will the process of looking change over time? Do we need help finding what we are looking for? I feel positive about this period of searching, albeit it’s at a rudimentary stage where there is a lot of fragmentation being reflected back and lack of discrimination, but the activity has the possibility to transform over time so that people can find something about themselves that is meaningful. There are other means of doing this (self-realization) which are more focussed and conscious, but we are viewing the general collective at work, so for the most part this process is unconscious and moving at its own pace.
I like that description of the aliens looking at us. Or a time traveler. That puts a new perspective to it.
I have Lilith at 0* Aquarius, I think I might be the alien lol!
lol I’m a 0 Aquarius sun BEEP BOP BOOP 👾
Lol!!
I have natal Saturn in Pisces and have felt imprisoned most of my life. Will this coming transit indicate a way out?
Thank you!
Saturn return! Is this your first one? Elsa has lots on the site to do some research OR it’s a great time for a reading! Best of luck 🤣
I am grateful for the information I have discovered on the internet. People share their feelings, experiences, outcomes and knowledge in a way that I would never have learned without it. I feel far less isolated in my experiences of life knowing that it’s universal – we all have troubles and joys, and are all here to learn. I have found sites such as this and several others (not necessarily astrological) invaluable – circumstances may not be altered, but others sharing their stories and knowledge, has helped me feel that I ‘fit in’ – and accept the world. That’s huge for an Aquarian. I thank every single one of you who has shared themselves, and I read between the lines that we are all seeking the balance and acceptance of ourselves in order to move on to be the loving humans we want to be.
Agree we don’t move around, or just “hang out” with other people as we once did. Kids aren’t like That 70s Show, hanging out in the basement–what kid has that kind of time?
But on the other hand, after the first 2 years of Long Covid and having to rest whenever I’m not at work, finding the metaverse was a blessing. And the relationships I’ve developed are authentic.
I’m sure not everyone has that experience in the metaverse because they don’t want it, don’t choose repeated events with others who share interests, they just wanna play games.
I’m just saying it’s like any social media, it is what you make it–er, bring to it.
I’m not sure the world will ever change back to the way it was. But we can remember what was valuable in our childhoods and exemplify it in the digital experiences we can’t avoid.
Sun conjunct Uranus here. ☺ Post-grad degrees in medieval subjects, advertising my novels in metaverse worlds. 😄 HAPPY HOLIDAYS everyone.
Great article and really on point. You nailed it. Since all of the digital world began, I’ve never wanted to be tied down by a phone or computer. I’ve done quite the opposite. I appreciate the ability to carry a phone for safety purposes and a computer can allow one to work from anywhere…other than that I shut it off and get in the real world. I can’t imagine living through a screen and not interacting with real people. Thanks Elsa!
Elsa, you might enjoy listening to Disturbed’s song In Another Time. You can YouTube it with Lyrics 🤘
Perhaps Part II will be discussed and heard live this coming Sunday.
I agree Elsa.
I deleted my Twitter account in November (after 12 years) and I just bought “100 cards with ideas for Digital Detox” for my BF this Christmas.
I recently had Saturn traveling my 12th house of Capricorn. I met my BF during that time. He is Cap rising.
Saturn has a big finger in my love life due to his placement in my 8th house, onto Pluto, in Libra.
This fishy thingy will be in my 1st house at least. Out in the open.
But what I am and what I have is actually pretty good. It will at least trine my Sun/Venus/Jupiter/Mercury in Scorpio, compared to its square now.
Harvest time, baby!