I continue to be sick of the boring bickering back and forth that has consumed our culture. I have written about gaslighting for nearly two decades.
I’ve also written about how important it is to control your own mind. That was the dominant topic around here, circa 2007-08 with Saturn in Virgo.
Last week I wrote about reconnecting with the mystical world. I’m actively studying now, with a particular interesting in psychological programming.
This is not a new area for me. I’ve written about overcoming destructive thought patterns, created by abusive parents…
This is similar but different.
In that piece and others like it, the damage caused by the abuse is assumed to be incidental. But what if the programming is deliberate and malicious? What if it’s intended to destroy you or your family or your relationships? At that point, we enter a whole other realm.
This new realm is familiar to me in that it might be psychopathic (tag – psychopaths).
It would also be “tactical” and “effective”.
Having Mars conjunct Mercury in my natal chart, I’m bound to be interested. These are also things I’ve written about for 20 years.
I’m adverse to being controlled and I’m keen on defense. Saturn! It’s easy to see how I’ve been seduced into this area of study at this point in time. I’ve been abused! I don’t want to fall prey to anything like this!
The comments on “Reconnecting With The Mystical World” have been interesting. I used a picture of Donald Trump in that post. I also used his name. This triggered people!
I’m not saying they are triggered – they are saying they are triggered. So much so, the discussion on that post was hijacked.
https://elsaelsa.com/astrology/reconnecting-with-the-mystical-world/
I like how Libra Noir put it: “It’s impossible to even mention Trumps name these days and have a neutral, objective conversation.” Others agreed with her.
I should be detached about this but being a hot-headed, Italian, who loves discourse, it pisses me off that we’re in this situation (collectively speaking).
I’m writing this so people might ask themselves why they react to a man’s name like this. Have you been programmed to react like this?
I’m not talking about people who react one way or the other. Love/Hate. The word “trump” triggers both sides, which also pisses me of because I grew up playing Pinochle! I love that game and the “trump card” is a feature of it.
I used to be able to use this term to provide supportive insight to people trying to navigate the sticky situations in their life. Do you know how many card tables I sat at, hand full of trump cards, discerning and deciding when to play them? Tactics, baby! I have them. So have you lost your mind? This is a serious question.
Have you come to the point where a word can trip you up and cause you to react in certain way?
If so, should you try to regain control?
This leads me to this:
It’s not my fault. I don’t run your mind or your reactions to things.
Maybe you can see how this relates to the mystical realm and psychological programming. If you’re caught on a track as described in the “Abusive Childhood” track above, you’re liable to be caught there forever if you don’t take steps to free yourself.
What could you be doing instead of going ’round and ’round?
Don’t miss the “deliberate, malicious” mention here. If we’ve crossed the line into that, this is far darker than anything I have written about before.
Do you feel your reactions have been programmed or manipulated in some way? What about the idea this was done intentionally?
I’m curious about the childhood abuse component here as well. Did you have a parent who had the specific intention to harm you? Not just bad parenting, but along the lines of, “I don’t like this kid and I am going mess them up?
Great post!
Good point. I’d say almost everyone has been programmed and manipulated in some way. All sides. This is unfortunate. I think things asking for strife & destruction is all suspect now.
And I’m tired.
A question is whether a person is willing to call out who others see as “one’s own people” to do better…. A potential litmus test to see if I’m still an individual. A reminder that I belong to myself, (and at the same time no one at all). The right thing is internal internal internal. Sometimes a person you like / see as a friend (Aquarius) saves you because they bring you good info, sometimes they’re leading you down a way that’s going to hurt you. (Groupthink) This is all sides.
When we don’t react the same way to things though, not sure. I feel like people attack you for not being exactly the same, without explaining the problems they’re having personally with it. I have to constantly think & reflect that I could be wrong about this, so I catch myself, so I don’t get into it.
Disagreement is natural. But destroying others and cutting out all constructive criticism is not. Are there any common goals anymore? Just wondering. People are having a hard time listening in general. And we’re having completely different conversations…
if you’re old enough to remember drive-in movies, that’s what this reminds me of. You can be watching a comedy; the people behind you are watching a horror flick. People to the left might be watching a love story or nothing at all, because they’re having sex in the back seat of the car!
You might glance at another screen, or catch a peek of a different film in the rearview mirror of your car, but that’s about it.
That’s our country right now. We in the same space but we’re not united.
I keep thinking about that image that could either be a vase or two faces. You can’t see both at the same time.
Also, what you say makes me think about the importance of the information that is ingested. It colors ones thought process! We are not all getting the same info, so we are truly all living in our own realities. There’s even more than two movies, there’s really billions, but for a long time there was just one playing.
Agree with the above comments! Great post!
I am taking a subject on visual studies right now, and this post reminded me of some of the themes we have discussed. Over time we absorb pictures, make them our imaginings, and remake them for others to consume too…not being conscious of ideas we are perpetuating with them.
I don’t think there has to be a source, like of malintent for things to pick up speed or be deeply ingrained in the collective consciousness.
I can see how I have fed or imposed ideas on a separate issue with old baggage, and I am doing it more during covid, like the judgement of others is somehow more vital to holding onto my existence. Ugly feelings.
I was going to comment on the Reconnecting post! And then didn’t, lol, because it did provoke something in me. In the end, it felt what i wanted to say would create more heat than light.
It sounds like an exciting enlivening new chapter on a personal level regardless though so I want to say that 🙂
I guess it’s one thing to be triggered, but then there’s what do you do about it? How do you work with those feelings and thoughts? Also, there is earned wisdom here too (I loved the ‘I keep the knife’ analogy) – you’ve experienced/witnessed something like this before so there’s always the aspect of assessing potential and actual danger. It’s a skill in your toolkit – sometimes I wonder if people are kinda using the political situation now and before to sharpen, fine tune or clean up their rusty tools – and maybe they’ve needed to – I know I have in these last few years.
But when things get foggy, I try to keep it simple – to look at the direct source, in this case Trump / Biden or whoever/whatever. What are they saying? Where is their focus placed? What is their tone? Does that person seem to care about people in general?
Words matter. There is such as thing as ‘speech acts’; that is by speaking, people are also acting (taking action – not pretending).
There have also been neurological studies which show that when experiencing pain, the same part of the brain is activated regardless of whether that pain is emotional or physical. The thing is that we can’t seem to recall the memory of actual physical pain but we can recall emotional pain. The possibility of all that blew me away in terms of current events.
I read a bumper sticker about six years ago in the depths of my Pluto sq Sun transit, that was probably a message from my higher Self and definitely changed my life. It said, “Don’t believe everything you think.”
Through a series of events and guides (mostly human), starting on that day, I have learned to vet the thoughts that run through my head and found that few were truly original to me. I always assumed that my mind was telling me the truth, but when I looked at the places being a slave to it led me, I had to admit that my mind was not always my friend and I hold all my beliefs very loosely. I have them, but I’m not afraid to abandon them.
Now, as a practice I periodically fast from media (as I am now) or what I call “wiping my mind clean” and when I do that two things magically happen. One is that I realize that all judgements and opinions are actually very limited and all of them can easily be challenged. And two, a deeper, realer voice emerges from the Silence. I can tell the difference between the two because indoctrination thoughts make me feel like shit and small and the True Voice makes me feel connected, expansive and in love with life. Meditation has been integral in this way for me, because it allows space.
I also kind of experience the programmed thoughts as coming down from somewhere or from far away and they are thin. Very one dimensional and truly make no fucking sense and generally has either fear or shame as a feeling attached. That’s not my voice. The ORIGINAL voice of my soul rises UP from within (Solar plexus) and it is full, rich, resonant, INCLUSIVE, embracing, and is fearless.
Now, I will from time to time “try on” another’s thought structure when I wish to understand. I guess that’s a Libra thing- the Socratic method as a practice. But inevitably and ultimately, I reach a point with any belief structure where I literally cannot add onto it in any functional way and I set myself freeeeeeee!!! That’s the fun part. I think everyone should try it. If you identify as a Republican try being a democrat (or vice versa) for a week, defend that position with as much sincerity as possible but promise yourself it’s just a game so that you don’t feel that you have to commit yourself. And then after that week try to go back to where you were mentally. What do you have to lose but ideas?
Oh and there are definitely forces that do NOT want us to listen to the true voice, because then we can’t be controlled. I remember this: they need us- we don’t need them.
I wish there was a Like button for your posts Libra Noir. Really resonated!
I really like this.
The issues are not invalid. People are suffering. Disagreements are just over where it comes from, what the problems are, and how to solve them. Gahh. Then no one wants to work together.
But this practice is good
Absolutely. I think values and desires come into play too. We don’t all want the same things. Some want freedom, some security, etc. and often both are not possible (supposedly). These are dialectics that are present in reality but especially in our current systems. Supposedly democracy is supposed to rectify those conflicting desires in society lol.
Libra noir, very well said. Being aware of where our own thoughts/beliefs come from is the only way to free ourselves from being influenced by propaganda – the past five years have been a lesson for us all in how to tune into what’s ‘real’ for us and how to protect ourselves from being manipulated. The media, and social media, are utterly complicit in this seduction, this divisive, hateful attempt to make us hate our friends, family, and neighbors. We have been lied to on a scale that is only just now becoming publicly known. A reckoning has been coming, and it’s now here. It is to our own fears we must tend, and hold ourselves accountable for the energy we are putting out there.
My sister sent a family text saying, “ I love each of you and hope we can all get past this election” . I responded and said, of course, family, to me trumps politics any day. Wow, that caused a reaction! I said, it’s a word, anyways…I could not believe it, but Elsa you are right on point, people’s minds are being programmed and it’s via an insidious manner. Phew! hope I can keep myself straight and not allow myself to get into apologizing and feeling like I have to be so careful with my words.
Sipping A BIG GLASS OF wine while reading this post I CAN’T EVEN MENTION THIS WORD (Trump) WITHOUT BEING ACCUSED OF this that and the other thing and I AM CANADIAN for goodness sakes! Canadian living in the US with Canadians coming after me. I am completely baffled at what is transpiring not because I am new to this but because I had so much more invested in the human capacity to see truth and to see darkness to be able to discern and to contextualize everything that is happening. Things will never get better until we are able to discern…. whatever transit will bring that…well it hasn’t happened yet in all these thousands of years so …I think we are shit outta luck!
Hazel, this has been difficult for me too: the realization that so many people around me are so closed-off and fearful, and because of that, so easily led. I think it is because the media lies and propaganda have been emotionally-based – intensely so. When people are made afraid, on a very profound level they stop thinking. This makes them even more susceptible, they close themselves off in echo chambers, and then they begin to project. It’s been an eye-opening year.
I couldn’t agree more!! But what are the nuts and bolts that make common sense be the magnetic north pointing needle within the compass for some and for sooooo many not. In other words I get the media thing but at some point doesn’t life experience around you and curiosity, discernment and assessment kick in!!?! Apparently, not for many and so discouraging. At least for me that’s what’s been the most discouraging to see in the last yrs particularly in the last 9 months.
I am just going to leave this here for those interested in the psychology aspect.
A great book: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PERSUASIAN by Robert Cialdini
There are companies out there that make a living with this
Behavioral Dynamics Institute- “”the leading international centre of excellence for research and development into persuasion and social influence. The output of the institute’s work is fundamental to the effective application of public diplomacy, information operations, civil contingency and all aspects of strategic communication.” Wiki
Cambridge Analytica Ltd- “a British political consulting firm that was involved in influencing hundreds of elections globally and that came to prominence through the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal.” Wiki
Hazel, I think people in general (as I was until only a few years ago and I am almost 60) are unaware the extent to which commercial and political organizations as well as nefarious individuals study that psychology of persuasion – and they use it, a lot. We are being worked upon, on a level that most people are unaware of, mostly because they themselves are generally good people just trying to get on with their lives. I used to think this way too: why would anyone go to such effort and bother to influence me? I mean, *I* am not like that, so why would they be? This is a fundamental mistake that good people make about others – they believe that if they are good, then only good things will happen to them. In their hearts they do not believe that others could wish them harm. Sometimes I think it takes living through the experience of being attacked or abused to wake up to this, that we sometimes must fight evil. As the saying goes, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing.” Evil knows that, and works upon our perceptions.
Yes this is true very good points!
The Art of persuasion …and abuse for that matter!
So perhaps those that have witnessed the great lengths that those powers that be have gone to in order to cull the human psych are a little ahead of the game! Perhaps those that have experienced themselves or witnessed such blatant evil forms are also ahead of the game in relation to the ‘now’. I get that!!
I come from a city where the capacity to break the human soul and spirit was studied. We heard about it in the news only years later (of course) but the horrible stories of how one of our top Edu University studied how to break the human soul was happening right before us. To step back and simply fathom the capacity of action is disturbing to say the least!!!
It was called MKUltra. Reports in the news of hundreds of innocent people subjected to these studies was plastered in our newspapers and all over our evening news for years. The CIA made a deal with our Prime Minister etc. to use one of our top Universities in Canada for these studies in conjunction to other American universities like Cornell where folks where shuffled around like guinea pigs if they could even still walk and breath. This was not a lone wolf story…a crazy person behind the button…no this took a vast enormous team of people to make this happen and people went along with it.
We have been studied and picked apart from every possible angle…they are implementing all of those studies in their highest form right now on us…how to persuade us, break us and tear us apart from ourselves and others.
Ugh, I am aware of MKUltra – if your town was a part of that, no wonder you are more vigilant about these things than most. The CIA (and many people in government service) lost the plot a very long time ago – in fact that particular agency was likely created by psychopaths. There are good guys in the intelligence services, but evil has been allowed to take over control and that must stop. It should be disbanded and all of its programs ended. Now.
You are so right: the division and fear they have sown among us has worked extremely well – so many of us are sleep-walking through life, bouncing like pinballs off each “news” story. Be afraid! Be angry! See something, say something! The Russians are coming and you need us to save you! They have used our own human nature against us: our clannish tendencies, our love of stories, our desire for faith. Even our love they have used against us – perhaps especially our love.
The wonderful, magical thing is… I am seeing people all around me who are waking up to this. It is an extraordinary time, and I see things happening that I could never have anticipated a year ago. I have to try really hard to remember this when I talk with friends and family, when I go to the mask-and-sanitizing-crazy grocery store. I wish you peace as well – there ARE many of us out here!
Wonderful!! Thank you Sara for taking the time to chat and exchange… it helps with grounding and bringing back some balance amidst our crazy times.
Have a wonderful day and a Happy Thanksgiving! 🙂
Replace Trump with the word Hitler and see how you feel. The birth of facism, plain to see. Again. It seems 70 million people are united. For their love of Trump. That’s a lot of people.
We seem to cause trouble when we express our political opinions on the website so plainly 🙂 especially with the Hitler comparison.. but I sure am anxious too
I watched ‘The Social Dilemma’ recently. Every year I get dumber.
I asked my daughter if she thought that common core math might be designed to make people dumber. She’s got a young child so this is relevant to her. She said she felt it was.
This is the malice I’m talking about. That it be intentional.
I did not see that movie.
It’s true. The education is way weaker than in other countries, on purpose. There’s the classic George Carlin routine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNXHSMmaq_s
To me the issue is, if someone knows that people will be triggered,why bring it up. I don’t know that that is discourse if the instigator knows the reaction. It’s a dead end. Why does one say things to get a certain reaction and then question the reaction like something is wrong. It’s redundant, it’s the same every time. Over and over again. That’s dumb to me. I was once manipulated over and over by the instigator in my bio unit until I wasn’t. But every once in awhile she and the instigator wanna be jr. catch me off guard. It’s not so much what they are saying, but that they want to hurt me that concerns me.
Why do people “bring it up”? Because everyone has a right to their own thoughts and beliefs. And because other people’s reactions to those beliefs are not their responsibility. We are all different, and that is a good thing. It is up to each person to manage their own feelings about the world. We cannot control other people, nor should we try. We can only control ourselves.
Uranian individuality and neutrality is purchased thru work with Pluto. Without destroying within ourselves that which we need to destroy – we project it and require a scapegoat.
This has absolutely been my experience!
I got thinking about this some more. It’s well and widely known that facebook experimented with people’s emotions. They wanted to know if they could make people feel bad or sad or depressed or happy.
This falls in the realm of having intent to do harm in my mind. A person wakes up, they are having a perfectly good day. They (unknowingly) sign on to facebook, which fills their feed with content designed to cause distress.
Next thing they know, they are having a bad day, a sad day. They lose productivity, they are a worse parent, a worse friend, a child becomes suicidal or whatever.
This is the kind of thing I am trying to better understand. I don’t want to be tricked into having a bad day.
Elsa you have perfectly described what we have all been up against. It’s an insidious and evil influence. It took me a long time to realize it, and it was oh-so-easy to have let them take my power away. I have finally learned to closely guard my head-space, as I learn to get that power back.
Harmful intent is everywhere. Reshaping the implicit evil “out there” seems unproductive.
Building personal power is more intriguing – it makes us less vulnerable to malice where ever it shows itself.
“Building personal power is more intriguing – it makes us less vulnerable to malice where ever it shows itself.”
I agree and this is my goal. But I also write things like this, hoping it helps others.
I was triggered by the Trump/Patton post. I didn’t say anything because I’m worn out. I’m glad he’s soon out of office simply because I’m tired of talking about him. I do not think the media has brainwashed my opinion of him. I don’t have cable, and I don’t watch the news. Him speaking triggers me, so much so that at some point in his presidency I could not watch him speak. I still wanted to know what was going on and would read the transcripts of his speeches (his literal words) and they pissed me off. Trump is a genius at manipulating the message and for good or bad monopolizing the media. I hear that Patton was crass and outspoken, but when I looked up both their charts they really don’t have much else in common. Patton had Mars on his IC. I love that. He fought for his home. You can’t make that stuff up. He also had Gemini rising similar to Trump having a Gemini Sun. But, again, a much stronger Mars influence with a Scorpio Sun in the 6th house. Both men had/have Saturn in Cancer, but Trump also has Venus in Cancer conjunct while Patton had Venus in Capricorn opposite. Honestly, I think of Patton as a hard ass and Trump as a marshmallow King with a big mouth. My mom, who is turning 60 this year asked me the same question, why does Trump trigger you so bad? He doesn’t effect her. I don’t have an answer. I will say she had an abusive upbringing and I did not. I don’t have a conventional upbringing, but I was surrounded by love and people who believed in me. My mother made sure of it after the very difficult childhood she has being abused by her brother and having an alcoholic father. I honestly think that is why she can more easily shrug off Trump’s lies and his feeding the fires of division and violence. She’s not a Trump supporter, but he’ll say someone that supports violence, and my mom will say “oh, he doesn’t mean that.” I’m sorry, words matter. Wars have started over words. I have Mercury in Capricorn in the 10th square Mars in Libra in the 7th.
I told my mom, Trump is a reincarnated King, that’s why democracy annoys him. Like Henry the 8th. If you can believed it, I found a chart for Henry the 8th. Both he and his Trump have their MC one degree apart in Taurus. Henry the 8th has Venus close to his MC, which is interesting because he’s known for his wives. I think Trump will go find a show (radio or television) when his presidency is over and do that. He’s having his model return right now (in the karmic 10th house). That’s what he’s meant to do. He’s just wants a mountain to project his voice from. He has similarities to Patton, but I just don’t see any evidence of courage or integrity that Patton had winning a big war. What war has Trump won? The war on media? He comes from the same cloth as the media. As Marshall McLuhan says “the medium is the message.”
I’m sorry for all the typos in my post. ?
I’ll also say, that 2020 has been the biggest opportunity, probably in our lives, for shadow work (or, learning your triggers, owning them). Scapegoating through Trump, BLM, or who ever you’ve decided to blame is avoiding the work. Just like in a one on one relationship, change starts with YOU. That can also mean changing what your willing to tolerate. With all the Capricorn, you also have to recognize YOUR responsibility for yourselves and how your actions impact others and the whole.
In real life I find myself triggered with the blatant imaging delivered in media. They are force feeding us a ultra consumering agenda. Reality is being marginalized and undefended. The hand gestures and made up faces seem alien to me. Am I crazy? Chiron MarsMercury Venus Pisces at Midheaven. I’m pretty sure I trigger people as well. Aries Sun.
Not crazy! If you can see this, you’re on your way to breaking through.