Dark Gods and Dark Arts, Part 1
Doug Valentine’s “Pisces Moon: The Dark Arts of Empire”
An Astrological Analysis of the Book, the Dark Gods and Three Men
(In Part One, I discuss the Dark Gods (the dark planets). In Part Two, I discuss Doug’s book. In Part Three, I discuss these elements in the context of the birth charts of Doug Valentine — the author of Pisces Moon — his father [also named Doug Valentine], whom the book is about, and William Colby, the former director of the CIA who assisted Doug Jr. in his investigations and ultimately sabotaged him. In Part Four, I discuss why astrology. In Part Five, I discuss world events affected by the Dark Gods. And in Part Six, I discuss the charts of two pairs of men on the world stage today in relation to the dark planets: Putin/Zelensky (and the invasion of the Ukraine by Russia) and Trump/Smith (and the indictment of Trump by Smith).)
When Doug Valentine sought someone to analyze his most recent book, “Pisces Moon: The Dark Arts of Empire,” through an astrological lens, I readily — and perhaps foolishly — volunteered. Foolish because dark forces take few hostages and usually leave a string of deaths in their wake. Foolish because in taking on this subject, I was taking on the gods of the dark arts themselves — Neptune, Pluto, Saturn, and Uranus. These gods are not often kind to us mere mortals. You must pay the piper when you grapple with any of them — especially if you want to reveal any of their closely kept secrets. (This, in fact, is something Doug himself has certainly learned in his long journey through the writing of his five nonfiction books on his father (a POW in the Philippines during WWII), the CIA, Vietnam and the Phoenix Program. And Doug has paid with his health and his livelihood.)
And finally, I was foolish because when you take on these gods, they like to mess with any collaborations or alliances you may have, such as that between Doug and me — a respectful relationship that goes back almost twenty years now.
Suffice it to say, progress on such a supposedly simple project has been slow. And here I am still, not quite sure how to say what I see. So, I’m going to try the same off-the-cuff approach I use in doing natal astro charts of individuals. I’m just going to blurt it all out and hope I say something that makes sense.
Let me start by saying that I know these gods of the dark arts well from personal experience. I have them all interacting in my own birth chart in difficult ways. These gods will not let us rest and they do not give up control. Even in “easy” charts or easy configurations in charts, these gods force us little beings to grapple with forces much greater than us, things well beyond our control or understanding. As one astrologer put it, it’s like standing on a beach and trying to control the ocean. You can’t. All you can do is dive in, do your best to swim with the tide, and hope you don’t get pulled down by an undertow.
The dark gods are represented in modern astrology by the outer (transpersonal) planets — those whose orbits are farthest from the sun.
The Dark Planets
In astrology, the dark arts are practiced by the gods of the outer planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Of these five planets, Jupiter is the only one considered relatively benevolent (in astrology “benefic”).
The Dark Gods
WHO ARE these gods?
To make my task here a little easier — since I’m already essentially throwing myself to the wolves by having agreed to this foolish endeavor — allow me to answer this question by quoting from a 2009 article I wrote about the Bush Administration — “The Beast from the Depths of Chaos: Astro-Mythology & the Bush Gang.” (Citations removed). (That article appeared in Saptarishis Astrology, Vol 6, May 2009, p.93.)
Pluto was the god of the Underworld. Pluto, also known as the prince of darkness, governs the kingdom of the dead. While the planet Pluto is a tiny body and its existence was not confirmed until 1930 (and it was recently demoted to planetoid), taking about 250 years to circle around the Sun, it is considered to be the ruling planet of the sign of Scorpio, which has been a recognized astrological sign for thousands of years. It’s a reasonable assignment, since the theme of both Pluto and Scorpio is the cycle of birth and death.
Pluto’s father was Saturn, also called Kronos, the keeper of Time. Saturn, the second largest planet in the solar system, which takes almost 30 years to orbit the Sun, is the most remote of the seven visible planets. It was discovered in the 19th century. According to Greek mythology, Saturn overthrew his father, Uranus, by castrating him, and then [Uranus] ate his children, among whom were Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto.
Jupiter, who was rescued by his mother, Rhea, made Uranus disgorge all of the other children. Jupiter then exiled Saturn to Italy, where Janus gave him a home. There, Saturn introduced such widespread prosperity that his reign was remembered as the Golden Age, and the Romans celebrated this era each year at the end of December, with a festival known as Saturnalia.
That’s one version of the story of the interplay between these gods. The point is, they are all related — often working in tandem — but they aren’t very nice guys and don’t exactly have a healthy family relationship.
Some key words associated with each planet: Saturn — self-discipline, inhibition, hard work, rule-making, jealousy, resentment, two-faced; Pluto — denial, suppression-eruption, obsession, deep investigation, introspection, living with death; Uranus — eccentricity, independence, need for freedom, originality, revolt/rebellion, extremism; Neptune — deception, secrecy, illusion, imagination, defamation, conspiracy, magic, theater.
How these planets play out in individual charts or in the world differs depending on what signs and houses they are in and what aspects (angles) they form with each other or other planets (namely the inner or personal planets of Mars, the Moon, Mercury or Venus, and the Sun). Much also depends on what we choose to do with what we are given.
I should add that I construe this subject (dark arts of empire) broadly. Along the lines of my 2009 article “Beast from the Depths of Chaos” on the Bush Administration, my interest is in how these dark gods affect both the personalities of the individuals under scrutiny and their political actions — and thus how the dark gods affect politics. I have found again and again that Saturn and Pluto in particular (along with help from Uranus and Neptune) are operating in the charts of people who have been most deeply involved in nasty business — either as victims, witnesses and survivors, or as perpetrators, movers and shakers, leaders.
