Libra 2004: Sex Legislation and Child Pornography.
Keynote
“I choose the way that leads between the two great lines of force.”
Over the past few days (October 2004) a nationwide operation resulted in the arrest of over 200 men in Australia for child pornography offences. Several hundred more arrests are pending. The nation has been shocked not only by the high numbers of offenders but the fact that they are from all walks of life, from the police department to education, the clergy to the unemployed, medical doctors and in one case, the owner of three day-care centres for children. Of course Australia is not unique and it is a scourge that exists in all western nations, most notably and recently in Belgium where it is alleged that offences permeated to some of the upper echelons of society.
As noted in a recent newsletter, Australia has her Capricorn Sun in the fifth house as she is Virgo rising esoterically. The fifth house is amongst other things the house of children – children also representing that which is infinitely creative in each one of us.
The Tibetan has told us that Libra will come into major prominence in the planetary horoscope at the end of the twentieth century. He also said:
“A certain relationship or configuration of stars – of which one is the star Regulus, in Leo – will bring about a situation wherein the re-orientation of the attitude of the legal profession will take place; its functions and duties will be centralised for the purpose of world usefulness, and in this process legislation for children will assume great importance and be the motivating power. This legal step will be primarily advocated by Russia and endorsed by the United States of America. Before 2035 A.D. such legislation will be universal in its sphere of influence and control.
All this will come about because Libra rules the present interlude and might be regarded as “the master of no-man’s land,” as one of the Masters of the Wisdom called it lately.”1
It is interesting today (as this Libran writes) that transiting Venus is conjunct Regulus. It is also interesting that Russia has been mentioned as one of the motivating forces in this latter passage, considering her recent awful ordeal in the Beslan siege where so many children were killed. Iraq only in the last few days had her “Beslan” with dozens of children blown up by bombs.
The two primary signs related to sex are Libra and Scorpio, the latter more well known to the lay public and indeed, the police “sting” operation was called “Operation Scorpion”. This may be a term or sign well suited also to such perpetrators as the Russian mafia and other underground activities. As universally the deepest dark precedes the dawn, perhaps Russia’s dark side precedes her prophesised championing of children.
Yet it was just after Jupiter’s ingress into Libra that these arrests took place, in fact whilst four planets in Libra squared the Australian Sun and Saturn in the ninth house of the law. Justice to children has been effected to some degree, yet it is probably the start of a long process which involves healing many causes behind this phenomenon.
What are the causes? One conservative politician in this country recently said that it was all a result of the “swinging sixties” and the “permissive society” where, “if it feels good, do it” applies. Others point the finger at the breakdown of marriage (Libra), the failure of relationships (Libra), repressive childhoods or just plain lust. Perhaps it is a combination of some of these and yet other factors too.
There is a certain morbid and obsessive mental state that pervades all those taken in by porn. Indeed, it is not an unheard of occurrence in the field of esoteric students (and teachers in some cases) and constitutes for some their greatest testings as does sex in general at various stages of the Path.
Pornography is a kind of Atlantean voyeurism, – sight being the major sense developed then – and through which Atlanteans learnt more directly – than their mentally undeveloped discrimination would allow at the time. Sex abuse and magic were some of the main factors which led to the end of Atlantis and it seems that we are going through a recapitulation of that period2 – at least in expression, though not necessarily the accompanying destruction. This comes hot on the heels of the major recapitulation of the Atlantean war in both world wars of last century.
What is it that attracts those to child pornography? Is it the obsessive youth culture of the West, yet one would think that would apply to post-pubescent children? It is fascinating that the west promotes youth culture like the so-called “tweenies”3 (pre-pubescent) and making them “sexy”, yet it recoils in horror when confronted by child porn. The public does not seem to make a connection between one cause and its indirect effect. As usual, there seem to be double-standards working where one thing is forbidden and the other is OK, yet they are both related through exploitation of one kind or another.
No wonder society is confused or offenders rationalise that it is OK to do what they do. Advertising bombards all societies with sexual messages and it is a major area to address causes before they become effects.
With other offenders, there certainly seems to be a sense of power over totally powerless children. For many, child sex/porn may fulfill some deep cleavages in their own (abused) lives and lack of an ability to relate. The impersonality and anonymity of the web provides a detached way of getting sex without having to engage directly with another human being.
Web child-porn has depersonalised (and dehumanised) to the extent that very few offenders question the forces or sources that have brought into being what they are consuming. This goes for porn in general. Web surfers “innocently” download without taking into account the chain of karma into which they are subscribing; the criminal forces that perpetrate the industry, the force, coercion, manipulation, subversion, kidnapping, degradation and fear so many children (and adults) have been subject to.
After the mass arrest in Australia, four of the men charged committed suicide in different parts of the nation within a few days. This is pretty radical stuff and the shame factor must have been unbearable for these individuals. There are probably thousands of others out there who live these “double lives”, who, although perpetrators, are also victims in a different way to children – to the “succubus”4 of child pornography.
Yet while these events are unfolding, various individuals, including priests are being extradited from foreign countries back to Australia to face child sex charges. The infamous Pitcairn Island, scene of “Mutiny on the Bounty” is going through a major prosecution it seems, of half the island’s inhabitants regarding child sex offences going back decades.
The Catholic Church and other denominations are all going through some major house-cleaning – it seems almost upon a weekly or daily basis depending upon how many newspapers you read. The “sex holidays” for westerners in south east Asia, India and Indonesia are getting more sophisticated, with many living in these places promoting their lifestyle. Where will it all end?
“Through the legal minds and through right legislation, sex will be seen eventually to be a proper and divine function and will then be safeguarded by right education of the young and the ignorant, and the right action of the young and highly intelligent emerging generation – the children and babies of today.”5
Libra is a sign of the Law and legislation, the judicial mind that brings about a fair outcome. It is interesting that the earlier mentioned “swinging sixties” was when Uranus transited through Libra, bringing what many see as a sexual liberation that addressed sexual repression going back to Victorian times.
Another factor emerging as the Age of Aquarius bears down, is the waxing influence of the seventh ray of Ceremonial Magic or Order. With its ruler Uranus (soul ruler of Libra), it tends to heighten sexual activity in general through its stimulation of the sacral centre (which it rules) and the perfection of the form.
Yet though its role of bringing spirit into matter, Uranus is a harbinger of new ideas (crown and throat centres) that find their “grounding” through the sacral centre. Australian Germain Greer (The Female Eunuch), was a revolutionary champion of women’s rights and sexual politics. She is a Uranus-ruled double Aquarian with the Moon conjunct Uranus in Taurus.
Through Uranus’s influence on the unredeemed form, it can produce many of those quirks of human nature which we may label as “bizarre, eccentric, kinky or weird”. Yet at its highest, and if humans are so equipped, Uranus can provide us the blueprints to living which emanate from the mind of God.
Hence these recent events are positive in terms of bringing the problems further out in the open, raising awareness and making people ask questions. Yet it is not just child-porn but the whole sex saturation by media in general that needs to be ultimately addressed.
Closely allied to this is a deeper sense of values in need of cultivation. The abuse of sex is partially a symptom of deeper causes – of recognising the true value of a human being and the respect that goes with that. In this period of Libra may we reflect upon the Tibetan’s forecast:
“The vision in men’s minds today is that of the Aquarian Age, even if they recognise it not. The future will see right relationships, true communion, a sharing of all things (wine, the blood, the life and bread, economic satisfaction) and goodwill.”6
Appendix
Marketers have a lot to answer for
New Zealand Herald 23 February 2004
By Carolyn Moynihan
The issue of under-age sex in this country has been highlighted by a report from the organization End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes – known as Ecpat.
The group did a study at the request of the Government following the Second World Congress against the Commercial Exploitation of Children, held in Yokohama in 2001. Its research revealed almost 200 known cases of juvenile prostitution and individuals who were as young as 9 when initiated into sex-for-hire.
It is somewhat reassuring, in the light of these sad statistics, that our Government and agencies with such comprehensive titles as Ecpat’s are tackling the commercial and, specifically, sexual exploitation of children on a global scale. It sounds as though they really mean business.
But are they casting their net widely enough?
The Wellington brothel-keeper and receptionist charged in court last week with having under-age girls provide sex for payment are easy targets.
The law on prostitution – which otherwise takes a benign view of the activity – prohibits anyone under 18 selling sexual favours. Establish the age of the “sex worker” and you can throw the book at the madam.
The same beautiful simplicity will soon apply to nightclubs using young girls as strippers. After the case of a 15-year-old working in a Nelson club came to light late last year, the Government introduced legislation banning sexual exploitation in the form of employing anyone under 18 for the purpose of performance and display.
Now, this is a very interesting law because it takes us a little nearer to an arena of exploitation which, though increasingly obvious to ordinary citizens and newspaper columnists, appears to expand without any fear of pressure group attention or official control. I refer to the entertainment and fashion industries which base their whole sales pitch to the young on sex.
Such advertising propagates an image of young girls as precociously sexual and encourages them to think of themselves in that way.
But it is not merely a question of images. Marketers use young girls to sell sexy fashions because they want girls to wear the gear and they want them to wear it young. Remember Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen’s bra for 8-year-olds, the “Bitch” T-shirts for tweenies launched by Supré before Christmas and all the crop tops, low-rise jeans and mini mini-skirts aimed at the same 8-14 market.
Remember, too, how the pornification of youth is modelled and stoked by a pop celebrity culture whose idol, in the eyes of tweenies, is the aggressively sexual Britney Spears; or for older girls bored with softer soap, by the explicitness of Sex and the City. (I’ve never seen the thing, but the New York Times reported last year it had a small, devoted audience among teenage girls.)
From one point of view the reason for the trend is quite clear. The present cohort of adolescents is the largest in world history and the richest in terms of spending power, which the younger ones exert through “pester power” over parental purse-strings.
They are also the age group most susceptible to fads. Add to them younger kids who inevitably ape their older sisters and brothers, and you have an unprecedented commercial opportunity.
What is unclear is why the sales pitch should be so relentlessly about sex. But it is, and in view of all the inducements it is no wonder that some young girls decide to try themselves in the core sex market.
Ecpat finds that young prostitutes come predominantly from backgrounds of sexual abuse and family dysfunction, which is what you would expect. But that may be changing.
Newsweek reported last August that teenage prostitutes in the United States come increasingly from middle- to upper-class backgrounds, and many of them have not suffered mental, sexual or physical abuse.
The article, citing FBI and child advocacy sources, said some teens were willingly engaging in sex for money in order to purchase clothes, jewellery or luxury items – and for the thrills.
One girl interviewed for the article said, “Potentially good sex is a small price to pay for the freedom to spend money on what I want.”
Here we see the connections between mainstream marketing and prostitution closing a loop inside which young girls are becoming trapped. They “must have” the consumer items that will make them look sexy, and they think of themselves as ready for the sex that will provide the cash.
Teenage prostitution feeds off that wider exploitation of young people – of their “sexiness” in particular on which so many of today’s commercial initiatives are founded. Until we tackle this connection, preferably by voluntary restraint on the part of the entrepreneurs, efforts to prevent the sexual exploitation of young people in other forms will be ineffective.
Phillip Lindsay © 2004.
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- Esoteric Astrology, Alice A. Bailey, p.238. [↩]
- See also essay: “Libra, the Mystery of Sex, and the Reversal of the Wheel.” [↩]
- See Appendix for newspaper article. [↩]
- An entity, an “incubus” or “succubus” (“demon that preys sexually on others who are asleep”). Unawakened humanity is asleep, and so this unredeemed aspect of humanity preys upon itself. [↩]
- Esoteric Astrology, Alice A. Bailey, p.235. [↩]
- Destiny of the Nations, Alice A. Bailey. p.49. [↩]
