Censorship in Saturn-Pluto Times

I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.

The above quote, attributed to 17th Century Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire, reminds us that freedom of speech and the attempt to suppress it – censorship - is an issue that spans back centuries, probably ever since humans first felt the urge to share their opinions and push the boundaries of their creative expression.

I was reminded that censorship is well and truly still with us when I attended FrightFest, a festival showcasing new fantasy and horror films, which takes place every August at the Empire Leicester Square in central London.

FrightFest is in its 11th year and the 2010 edition was the first time that official bodies have ever queried any of the titles in the festival’s line up. Two films were affected, the remade I Spit On Your Grave and the controversial A Serbian Film. Both were due to be shown as unedited, unrated versions, the norm for this type of film festival. However, Westminster Council, under whose jurisdiction the Empire Leicester Square falls, queried the content of both movies and stipulated that they be rated and passed by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) before they would allow them to be shown.

Echoing this censorship theme was the airing at FrightFest of new documentary Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape, which looks at the UK government and media reaction to the widespread, unregulated distribution of so-called ‘video nasty’ movies in the early 1980’s.

The censorship debate at this year’s festival seems very fitting, astrologically speaking, when you consider that the final exact alignment of the current Saturn-Pluto squares that begun in late 2009, occurred just four days before the start of the event.

Saturn and Pluto are two of the most heavy-hitting of the planets in astrology and when they line up in an angular relationship (such as a conjunction, square or opposition), it is reflected in the collective as restriction, control, oppression, conservative reaction and censorship. Restraints tend to be placed on collective freedoms by authority figures, their rationale often being that they are doing it ‘for our own good’. Collectively, we are made very aware of moral boundaries and taboos, but we are also asked to find the moral courage to face our darkest fears. This is because during Saturn-Pluto times, metaphorically speaking, we are visited by the devil, come to take us to hell and back, stealing our innocence along the way.

Following screenings at other major film festivals around the world,  A Serbian Film, was due to get its first public UK screening at FrightFest. Undoubtedly, the movie deals with ‘taboo’ subjects, containing graphic depictions of pedophilia, rape, necrophilia and incest.

When Westminster Council, which in this context can be seen as a Saturnian authority figure, queried this movie, FrightFest’s organisers duly submitted the film to the BBFC, who asked for 49 cuts, amounting to 3 minutes and 49 seconds of content. This occurred just a couple of days before the festival was due to start and festival organiser Alan Jones made the decision not to show the movie, telling the FrightFest audience, “I am not going to stand here and tell you that you are going to watch a heavily censored version of a film.” He added that the film had already been shown at many other film festivals around the world without a problem, although he acknowledged that the film was challenging and would be disturbing to some. In a media release Jones explained “Film4 FrightFest has decided not to show A Serbian Film in a heavily cut version because, as a festival with a global integrity, we think a film of this nature should be shown in its entirety as per the director’s intention," [1]

According to director Srđan Spasojević, the movie “is a diary of our own molestation by the Serbian government... It's about the monolithic power of leaders who hypnotize you to do things you don’t want to do.” [2] I cannot comment on the movie, as I did not view it, but you can read a plot synopsis on Wikipedia [2], but be warned, it makes for disturbing reading.

The reviews offer a flavour of how the film has been received and undeniably describe a Plutonic experience, with one review by Tim Anderson of Bloody Disgusting likening watching the film to having one’s “soul raped”. He goes on to say, "if what I have written here is enough to turn your feelings of wonder into a burning desire to watch this monstrosity, then perhaps I haven't been clear enough. You don't want to see Serbian Film. You just think you do." [3]

Another reviewer, Scott Weinburg says, “[the] film seems aggressively intent on delivering some moments that, indeed, you will never forget, even if you want to…I believe it's one of the most legitimately fascinating films I've ever seen. I admire and detest it at the same time. And I will never watch it again. Ever." [4]

Furthermore, user reviews on at imdb.com say that this movie is extreme, disturbing and hellish, exploring dark themes of evil, power and control. Most agree that watching this film is an experience you will never forget and urge prospective viewers to approach it with extreme caution. Reading these reviews makes it sound like watching the movie is akin to experiencing a condensed Saturn-Pluto transit, to the power of 1,000! [5]

Interestingly, the film chosen to replace A Serbian Film was Buried [6], a tense, claustrophobic piece, limited to just one point of view throughout, that of a man buried under the ground, confined in a wooden box. It seemed there was no escaping those Saturn-Pluto themes!

Echoing the censorship debate over A Serbian Film, the festival had already lined up a premiere of a documentary about historical censorship, Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape, [7] [8] which looks in-depth at the “Video Nasty” phenomenon of the early 80’s, a time when video was relatively new and totally unregulated. This left the field wide open for small film makers and distributors to find a brand new market for their movies. Not surprisingly, many of these films were low budget, violent horror movies designed to shock and so the “Video Nasty” was born. The public outcry in the UK was fuelled by pro-censorship lobbyists and widespread media campaigns, which feared that these films would deprave and corrupt the minds and morals of children and young adults. This eventually led to the government pushing through the Video Recordings Act 1984 which imposed a stricter code of censorship on videos than was required for cinema release. The Act also birthed the BBFC.

The push for censorship of these films began in earnest in 1982, its timing bang on for the exact alignment of the early 80’s Saturn-Pluto conjunction, which marked the beginning of the current Saturn-Pluto cycle. The timing of the Video Recording Act in ’84, synchs with the end days of the influence of that same conjunction.

The timing of this new documentary represents perfect closure for that particular slice of historical censorship, coming as it does at the tail end of the last major Saturn-Pluto alignment of the current cycle.

Ironically, but not surprisingly, the Director of Public Prosecution’s list of designated ‘Video Nasties’ soon became the list of must-see movies for teenagers all over the land! One of the films on the ‘Nasties’ list was I Spit On Your Grave, a film that remains controversial to this day due to its depiction of gang rape, followed by graphic depictions of violent revenge subsequently taken by the rape victim on her attackers.

An unrated version of a remade I Spit On Your Grave, [9] its European premiere, was scheduled to be shown at this year’s FrightFest, but like A Serbian Film, Westminster Council, expressed concern over the movie’s sexually violent content and insisted that the festival organisers have the film passed by the BBFC before they would allow it to be screened. The BBFC found that a total of 17 cuts (amounting to 43 seconds), needed to be made, in order for it be classified as an 18 certificate (roughly equivalent to the US ‘R’ rating) and shown at FrightFest. [10] In this case, the festival organisers made the decision to show the cut film, stressing that the cuts made, which were all to the rape scenes in the first half of the movie and not to the gory revenge scenes that followed, did not compromise the film’s artistic integrity.

Again, it’s interesting to note that a movie that came to notoriety at the start of the current Saturn-Pluto cycle has been remade for a new generation of horror fans during the last square, the final quarter, of the same cycle.

The film was on the whole well received by festival goers. I for one thought that is was very well done and while the rape scenes were very dark and difficult to watch, I took grim pleasure in seeing the rapists get their bloody comeuppance. It will be interesting to see the reaction it gets when it goes on general release

The chart for FrightFest 2010 [11] is telling, because the Saturn-Pluto square is very prominent, with Pluto, here representing horror, on the Ascendant and Saturn, representing the boundaries set by official bodies and authority figures, in the dark house of sex and taboo, the eighth. Saturn and Pluto also connect in hard aspect to Jupiter and Uranus, symbolising the unexpected shocks and surprises at this year’s festival, events which in retrospect, may seem a little exaggerated.

Communication planet Mercury is Retrograde in Virgo and also in the 8th, another indicator that the festival’s schedule would need to be reviewed and re-jigged. Certainly, the event was dogged with a few Mercury Retrograde-esque technical issues at the start.

Meanwhile, Neptune, the planet which symbolises movies and represents illusions and fantasies, opposes the Sun, also in the 8th, reminding us that for all the fuss, these films are merely works of fiction, no matter how challenging their themes and their images might be.

Or to put it another way, “to avoid fainting, keep repeating "It's only a movie...It's only a movie..." [12]

Notes and References

[1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/aug/27/a-serbian-film-frightfest
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Serbian_Film
[3] http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/film/4501/review
[4] http://www.fearnet.com/news/reviews/b18477_sxsw_2010_review_serbian_film.html
[6] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1462758/
[7] Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape is released on DVD in the UK on October 11th: http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/15903775/Video-Nasties-The-Definitive-Guide/Product.html
[8] You can see a clip of the Q&A/debate that followed the screening of Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape at FrightFest, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P2T-nuGTts  
[9] For more on I Spit on your Grave see http://www.ispitonyourgravemovie.com/  The film is due for general release this fall. At the time of writing, it is intended that the movie shown in its uncut version in the US.
[10] You can read the BBFC’s ruling on A Serbian Film and I Spit on your Grave http://www.bbfc.co.uk/press/newsreleases/bbfc-cuts-a-sernian-film-and-remake-of-i-spit-on-your-grave 
[11] Chart set for 26 August 2010, 5pm, London. The time used is the advertised start time of the first day of the festival.
[12]Tagline for banned “Video Nasty” The Last House on the Left, the first film by noted horror director Wes Craven http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_House_on_the_Left_(1972_film)
For more on the censorship issues at FrightFest see: FrightFest: return of the censor? http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/newsandviews/festivals/frightfest-2010-nasties.php
For more on the current Saturn-Pluto cycle see: http://mandilockley.blogspot.com/2009/11/saturn-pluto-part-3-politics-economics.html

http://www.mandilockley.com/

Saturn-Pluto Part 3: Politics, Economics & War

While many individual lives will be reflecting the themes of Saturn Square Pluto, described in Saturn-Pluto Part 1, astrologers believe that aspects such as this, between the outer planets, also reflect world events. This branch of astrology, which studies countries, world leaders and economic cycles, is known as World or Mundane Astrology.

In Mundane Astrology the way planetary movements are reflected in world events is tracked by studying the bigger cycles of the outer planets, the current Saturn-Pluto Square being just one aspect in a Saturn-Pluto cycle which began with a Conjunction aspect in the early 1980’s. From the Conjunction, Saturn and Pluto have gone on to make every conceivable aspect together along the way. However, I will only look at the Conjunction, Squares and Oppositions of the cycle, firstly to keep things simple and secondly because these aspects mirror the lunar cycle, providing a useful reference point for interpretation.

Richard Tarnas, in Cosmos and Psyche, summarises Saturn-Pluto as follows:

“…[the Conjunction, Square and Opposition] alignments of the Saturn-Pluto cycle coincide with especially challenging historical periods marked by a pervasive quality of intense contraction: eras of international crisis and conflict, empowerment of reactionary forces and totalitarian impulses, organised violence and oppression, all sometimes marked by lasting traumatic effects. An atmosphere of gravity and tension…a widespread sense of epochal closure: “the end of an era”, “the end of innocence”, the destruction of an earlier mode of life that in retrospect may seem to have been marked by widespread indulgence, naiveté, denial, and inflation. Profound transformation was a dominant theme…through contraction, conservative reaction, crisis and termination.” Pg.210.

Tarnas goes on to discuss in great depth how these themes have played out throughout history, for example linking the Saturn-Pluto cycle to World War 1 and World War 2.

The Conjunction of the current Saturn-Pluto cycle took place between 1982 and 1983, with a wider period of influence spanning 1980 through 1984. This Conjunction marked the end of the previous cycle and the beginning of the new one and like a New Moon, was a seeding time, when the themes that would come to define the current cycle began to emerge. What was planted during this time determined what would blossom and bear fruit later in the cycle.

By the early 80’s the Cold War had escalated and when the Soviets went to war in Afghanistan, the Islamic side was covertly supported by the US, a move which of course contributed to the eventual ascendancy of the Taliban. At the same time, the West was supporting Saddam Hussein in the Iraq-Iran war and we were also seeing a rise in state-sponsored terrorism in many parts of the world.

This was also the time of the global arms race amidst widespread fear of nuclear apocalypse (membership of CND peaked in 1984) and was the era of Thatcherism and Reaganism. Economically, it was a time when the idea of deregulation, the limitation of government control over market forces, really took hold, leading to the ‘me first’, ‘greed is good’ culture and the rise of the Yuppies, with their stratospheric salaries and bonuses. This period also marked the start of the privatisation of state-run firms in the UK.

The First Square of the current Saturn-Pluto cycle occurred in 1993/4, with a period of influence spanning 1992 through 1995. Like a First Quarter Moon, this Square represented a time when the seeds that were sown at the Conjunction had now grown into young plants, but were yet to flower. This was the time of the early warning call, the first crisis. Any bad seeds planted at the start of the cycle, should be weeded out at this point in the cycle.

This was the time that the Taliban came into power in Afghanistan and also the time of Osama bin Laden’s first jihad against America and the first attack on the World Trade Center.

Politically, these were the years of the Clinton administration, but with a notable move towards political conservatism, with the Republicans taking control of Congress. In the UK, while the Conservatives were still in government, we saw the beginnings of “New Labour” with Tony Blair taking over the leadership of the Labour Party in ’94, moving the Party towards the political ‘Centre’ and distancing it from Labour’s radical socialist roots. Eventually, New Labour dropped their resistance to many of the economic policies implemented under the Conservatives, a move which proved to be a vote winner.

The early ‘90s also saw a huge increase in national debt and GDP in the US, as well as the massive growth of the stock market, a direct result of deregulation. A dramatic increase in income inequality also became evident. For the UK, it was also a time of similar growth, but with a notable crisis point, Black Wednesday in 1992, when a disastrous run on the British Pound called into question the credibility of the economic policies of the incumbent Conservative government.

The Opposition occurred in 2001-2002, its influence spanning 2000-2004. Like a Full Moon, the Opposition represents a time when what we planted at the start of the cycle comes into full flower. With full awareness of what we have created, we are compelled to react and respond.

International terrorism blossomed into what we know it as today, marked most clearly by the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the phenomenon of the suicide bomber. The response of the West was the war on terror, including the invasion of Afghanistan in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden, destroy al-Qaeda and remove the Taliban regime, a regime it had helped into power during the war with the Soviets. In 2003, a US led coalition invaded Iraq under the premise of fighting terrorism and unearthing weapons of mass destruction. This would eventually lead to the demise of Saddam Hussein, a figure previously supported by the West at the beginning of this Saturn-Pluto cycle.

Before the Opposition began, we were in a period of low inflation, high output and low unemployment, a situation directly resulting from the economic conditions of the early ‘80s. Government had assured us that the boom-bust cycles of the past were over for good. The stock market soared, but it became increasingly obvious that the dot-com bubble had to burst eventually and when it did, in 2000, it triggered a dramatic fall in share prices, forcing many companies out of business. The terrorist attacks of 2001 only added to uncertainty over the economy, with many predicting the worldwide recession we are seeing today.

The Last Square of the current Saturn-Pluto cycle is occurring now, exacting in 2009/10 with a wider period of influence spanning 2008 through 2011. Like a Last Quarter Moon, the plant has borne fruit and we must now clean up the mess and then begin to prepare the new seeds for future planting. With the Last Square, comes another crisis point. The party is over and we realise that the way things have been done in the past will not work in the future, so we must prepare new structures to carry us forward into the next cycle.

Politically, Bush is out and Barack Obama is in. Labour is still in government in the UK, but doing very badly in the polls and is predicted to lose power at the next general election. In Europe as a whole we are seeing a move towards the political right.

The war against terror rumbles on, most notably in the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan. The Taliban were removed from power during the first invasion, but they are still fighting back. Meanwhile the number of lives lost in the conflict continues to rise and calls for closure continue to grow steadily louder. In the US, the 9/11 suspects have been held for years in Guantanomo Bay without trial. However, just a few days before the current Saturn-Pluto Square first exacts, Obama has announced that they will soon finally stand trial. [Update: in late November '09 the Inquiry into the 2003 Iraq War began in the UK. The Inquiry is set to last at least until the end of this current Saturn-Pluto Square.]

This part of the cycle also sees us in the midst of a worldwide financial crisis. Those that have been able to benefit from the deregulated economy have become rich, but the majority of people are poorer in real terms. The credit crunch has revealed what we were beginning to suspect, that many individuals and companies and indeed the banks themselves, have been living on credit and now the credit has run out. What we are witnessing is full on recession, the dying embers of the current economic model. UK and US governments now own large stakes in some of the top banks, but despite the unprecedented bail-outs, many small to medium size businesses are finding it nearly impossible to get credit and going out of business, thus forcing unemployment to rise dramatically.

New structures are being prepared as governments try to set reforms in motion, including reform of the healthcare system in the US (the cost of healthcare being the single most common factor in personal bankruptcy), reform of the expenses system for politicians in the UK and calls for government intervention to curb the excesses of the bonus culture of the banks and other financial institutions. Much more needs to be done.

The next Saturn-Cycle starts with a Conjunction in 2019-2020, but we should start to see its themes emerging from around 2018. Until then, we must take what we have learned and remould our world into a fairer, safer, saner, more sustainable place. The seeds that are falling from the fruit right now need to be carefully sifted and stored to ensure that only the best seeds are planted at the start of the next cycle. This is not just the responsibility of leaders and governments, it is the responsibility of every last one of us.

Namaste:
"I honor the place in you in which the entire Universe dwells, I honor the place in you which is of Love, of Integrity, of Wisdom and of Peace. When you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, we are One."
http://www.mandilockley.com/

Reference: Cosmos and Psyche, Intimations of a New World View. Richard Tarnas, 2006, Viking.

Additional research http://www.wikipedia.org/
Namaste quote from http://www.yogahealsus.com/