“I Am Alive” The Inside Story

“Nando looked mr in the eye and said,  ”Carlitos, I want to eat the pilot.’”

–Carlitos Baez, from the documentary, “I Am Alive” airing tonight, October 20, at 9 PM EDT on the History Channel

“…what is without question the finest survival documentary I have ever seen on TV.”

LInda Stasi, TV Critic, New York Post

‘Alive’ & well: Andes plane crash survivors tell their tale” 

 

This chart reveals a mythology (Neptune elevated in Sagittarius) of the Hero's Journey connected with survival (Jupiter conjunct the Moon in the 11th house) under the sign of the chart co-ruler, Saturn, ruling the North Node in tension with the Uranus/Sun in Libra. A human condition in which the transformation (8th house) of ego (Pluto conjunct Mars in Libra) resulted in the most brilliant inspirational (Uranus conjunct Sun/Ceres in Libra) tale of human survival (North Node in Capricorn in the 11th house of the collective consciousness) ever told (Saturn in Gemini in the 4th house of personal myth trine the Uranus/Sun in Libra.

On Friday, the 13th of October, 1972, a charter plane carrying 45 passengers, including a college rugby team, vanished over the desolate, snow-covered Andes Mountains. For 72 days, the world thought they were dead. But for 16 survivors, including 20 year-old Nando Parrado, what they experienced was worse than death.  (the text in blue, here and below is from the AMS website)

Eduardo Strauch, survivor with Andrew Streitfeld, Executive Producer, before the memorial marker at the crash site of flight Uruguayan Air Force # 571

When my brother, Andrew Streitfeld, told me he was making a documentary on Nando Parrado, I was reading Drunvalo Melchizedek’s Serpent of Light which relates a new mythology of the Earth’s kundalini axis shifting from the Himalayas to the Andeas.  I was intrigued, to put it mildly, that my brother, who never subscribed to my father’s mysticism, would be embarking on a documentary in the Andean Mountains, home to my father’s first guru, the Andean mystic Oscar Ichazo, founder of Arica.

According to www.alchemyrealm.com, the earth’s kundalini is from the core of the planetary sphere that can be described as a large iron crystal.  This force enters the body at the base chakra.

Ouroboros surrounding the hexagram symbolizing the 21st century archetype of Self

The base chakra is precisely what was activated in the tale of survival in the Andes.  Which is what the documentary reveals.  The power of the survival instinct and the communal spirit made tangible in the physical ingestion of the body as the group (Aquarius) contributing to the individual (Leo) heroic journey.

“I Am Alive” is, therefore, the story of the self-devouring Ouroboros made real, revealing a quantum leap into a multidimensional reality.

Nando Parrado, who rescued his fellow survivors through a miraculous ten day trek in his rugby shoes over the Andes, wrote a 2006 autobiography Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home that brings us up to date on the lives of the survivors.

Filming the documentary "I Am Alive"; photo by Daniel Streitfeld

Trapped in the sub-zero degree temperatures for over 72 days, the survivors faced circumstances that no human should ever have to endure. Fighting just to stay alive, hope was a cruel mirage in a landscape that offered nothing but despair and death. Against all odds one man led an expedition into the mountains in a desperate attempt to reach civilization. For the first time ever, the hero of Uruguayan Flight 571, Nando Parrado, tells his story in its entirety.

Nanda Parrado telling his story for the documentary "I Am Alive"; photo by Daniel Streitfeld

Parrado, who lost his mother, sister, and scores of friends among the 29 victims of Uruguayan Flight 571, shares a complete, candid and unflinching account of the 72 days of suffering that followed the crash, including factors that led to his courageous decision to climb out of the mountains and—together with fellow survivor Roberto Canessa—save 15 others.

Nando Parrado, natural chart, birth time unknown

Today, Parrado is a highly sought inspirational speaker in demand throughout the globe.  The documentary reveals in his gentle persona, that when he speaks his Truth,  he holds the audience in rapture.  The key to his character  is the North Node in Aries (“I AM ALIVE!”) inconjunct Saturn/Mars in the feminine sign of the body, Virgo, and the incredible masculine will of his Sun/Pluto trine.  He claims that his struggle to survive was his quest to reunite with his father, revealed in his natal chart by his Mars/Saturn in a tense square to his Sagittarius Sun which pushed him to scale the heights of the Andes.   A declared atheist, he deferred to the rule of Saturn, personal endurance, rather than faith, for survival (defined in the accident chart by the Moon/Jupiter conjunction in the survival sign of Capricorn) which propelled him from the crash site over the Andes to his father.  His method of self-transformation (Sun trine Pluto) to reach his goal was in the practical detail, one step at a time on treacherous mountain peaks.  His inspirational philosophy of “taking each moment as it comes” and “I’ll keep going as long as I am breathing” is revealed in the chart by the inconjunct from Saturn/Mars in Virgo to the North Node in Aries. the apex of a yod.  Having the detachment  to view (Venus/Jupiter in Aquarius) the bodies of his dead companions as sustenance  (Ceres) for the living (Aries North Node), he was able to motivate (Mars) the resilience (Saturn) of  body ( Virgo) into a miraculous (Jupiter conjunct Venus in Aquarius) act of Ouroboroic self-devouring in which the group (Aquarius) serves the heroic (Leo Moon) quest.

The December 21, 1972 alerted the world to this Andean feat of the kundalini charged 10 day trek over 30 miles of mountains.  This 29 degree Sun on that day of rescue is being eclipsed by the Moon on December 21, 2010.  Is this the manner that the collective consciousness is being alerted to the energy shift on the planet — an inspiring story of love and life (Neptune/Venus/Mercury/Midheaven in Sagittarius) which confounds experts even today.

Could the shift of the Earth’s Kundalini and the Rise of the Female Light be connected to this affirmation of life on the peaks of the Andes?

The Earth’s Kundalini is always attached to a single location on the surface of the Earth & stays there for a period of about 13,000 yrs. Then it moves on to a new location for the next 13,000 yrs, based upon cycles of 9, or what we call the Precession of the Equinox. When it moves, our idea of what “Spiritual” means changes. It transforms according to the new energies of the future cycle leading us into a higher spiritual path.

The bigger picture is this. The Kundalini has 2 poles, & 1 is in the exact center of the Earth. The other is located on the surface somewhere & anywhere in the world. It is the consciousness of the Earth herself that decides where it is to be.

There is a pulse of exactly 12,920 yrs when the polarity of the Earth’s Kundalini changes to the opposite pole, & it simultaneously changes location on the surface of the Earth. This new location not only rapidly wakes up the people living near this sacred point on Earth, but also sends a frequency into the electromagnetic grids surrounding the Earth. This in turn, affects those consciousness grids in ways that are determined by the Earth’s DNA. We grow according to a set plan & design!

To the few that know of this event & what is occurring all around us, a wisdom is transferred, & a peaceful state of being becomes their inheritance, for they know the awesome truth. In the midst of chaos, war, starvation, plagues, environmental crisis & moral breakdown that we are experiencing here on Earth today at the end of this cycle, they understand the transition & know no fear. This fearless state is the secret key to the transformation that, for millions of years, has always followed this sacred cosmic event.

On 1 level this means that spiritually the Female will now have her turn to lead humankind into the New Light! Eventually, this Female spiritual light will permeate the entire range of human experience from Female leaders in business & religion to Female heads of state. By 2012-2013 this Female spiritual light will become so strong as to become obvious to all who live on this dear planet & will continue to grow for 1,000′s of yrs.

For many of you, none of this will probably make any sense until you read chapters 2 & 3. Chapter 2 is the Cosmic Knowledge of what is actually occurring in nature & in the stars & how it relates to this new cycle of light. Chapter 3 is the history of what the ancient cultures understood about this sacred event up to this present time. This prepares you for the content of this book.

Beginning with Chapter 4 will be the stories of my personal experience & involvement with this “Serpent of Light” & the 100′s of indigenous tribes/cultures that have secretly helped guide this spiritual energy from Tibet to its new home in South America! Coming out of Tibet into India, it then moved in a snakelike manner to almost every country in the world until it reached Chile, the new home of the Earth’s Kundalini, the new “Tibet”.

What has occurred in the world along this path that the Earth’s Kundalini has taken has been almost unbelievable. People from different cultures & countries all cooperating together “as though” they were coordinated by a higher power simply for the good of human life. Without this spiritual assistance, I believe, humanity will be unable to evolve to the next level of consciousness, crucial to our very survival.

There are 10s or 1,000s of people, mostly indigenous people, who have been led by a deep inner guidance, from 1949 to the present, to help bring this unyielding White Snake to its new location high up in the Andes Mountains in Chile, where it now finally resides. Not only is this a shift of spiritual power from the male to Female, but it is also a spiritual power shift from Tibet & India to Chile & Peru. The Light of the World that has been nurtured & expanded with the Tibetan & Indian cultures is now completed. Its new reign has just begun in Chile & Peru, & soon it will affect the hearts of all humankind.

–Drunvalo Melchizdek, introduction to Serpent of Light: Beyond 2012

The Subtext of George Clooney

George Clooney on Capitol Hill. Photo credit: Lisa Paul Streitfeld

…is in the stars.

The subtext  of George Clooney is not in any particular work of art he has had a hand in creating – whether as actor, director, writer, producer or all together — but rather  the evolution of an on-screen persona.  Rare for an actor, his core character strength is a work in progress that leaves artifacts – films, public appearances, mischievous pranks – for us to decode.

In overcoming the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, Clooney becomes an extremely hospitable guide to the paradigm leap.  That he manages to do so while challenging his audience’s expectations, yet without self-conscious irony, indicates he is hooking into something beyond the postmodern.

The precise and even calculating manner that this artist — who labored for so long in the shadows under the burden of a consciousness of the very pitfalls of fame – chooses his vehicles for public expression is fascinating against the backdrop of his natal astrology chart.  This has been true ever since his starring role in Steven Soderbergh’s 2002 remaking of Solaris, which reinterpreted the Stanisław Lem science fiction novel about an oceanic consciousness in outer space into the Ouroboric passage into the sacred marriage, via the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.  While many films are about the anima, it is rare for a film to work out the anima problem as Solaris does within a non-linear story with a self-contained aesthetic.   In the film, the beloved Rheya (derived from Rhea, the patriarchal mother goddess who destroys her children at the command of her husband, Cronus) evolves from seductress to conscious collaborator.  The message is that conscious action in regards to relationship (Saturn in Libra) is an evolution into the eternal union of the sacred marriage.

The shift from the patriarchal to a new partnership model is the door into Clooney’s chart.  Notice the fixed cross (in red) as the dominate configuration in the chart; this pattern connotes a surrender of previous patterns upon a new set of conditions that are both personal and universal (his Sun in the fixed cross with transcendental planets Uranus and Neptune).

His first house is shared by Pisces and Aries, so the Jupiter/Uranus conjunction passing between these two signs, the first and last of the zodiac, indicate that the lasting power of George Clooney’s celebrity is a  harbinger of what is to come.

When Clooney was born, Venus, suddenly in view, had just begun to move forward after retrograding in the independent minded sign of Aries.  While making no planetary aspects, it formed an EXACT conjunction first house conjunction with Vesta, the keeper of the Kundalini flame.  This reveals a containment of the Kundalini via the route of evolving (Vesta) the anima principle (Venus) publicly through the labor (North Node in Virgo in the Sixth House)  of expressing (Mercury) his talent (conjunct the second house Sun).

ICON AS SUBTEXT

At the moment of this posting, the archetype of the hieros gamos is constellating.  The signature is the conjunction of Venus/Mars in Scorpio as Venus moves into a retrograde station.

In Clooney’s chart, the configuration triggers his eighth house Neptune while Saturn/Sun conjuncted ( Sept. 30)  the partnership sign of Libra.  It is quite an amazing pattern, given that Jupiter (in conjunction with Uranus) in Pisces is EXACTLY on the ascendent!  Also, the Moon is in Leo opposing Neptune in Aquarius, making the personal (Leo) anima complicit in the universal (Aquarius) quality of the sacred marriage!

See below, how the sacred marriage (Mars/Venus conjunction) hits Clooney’s chart: (1) Transiting Sun/Saturn (seventh house of partnership) opposing his  Venus (first house) (2). Venus/Mars conjunct his Neptune in Scorpio (eighth house of marriage) opposing his Taurus Sun.

George Clooney natal with Venus/Mars conjunction of October 3, 2010

ANIMA CONTROL

Solaris (2002) set the tone for this new terrain: man in control of his anima.  Subsequent films he participated in extended this idea,

Elevating the Anima: "Men Who Stare at Goats"

notably the innovation Frances McDormand character whose female proactive desire drives the action in the film, and the joke is that this desire stems from the urge to fit the societal female idea via plastic surgery, yet the Clooney character accepts her as she is.

I happened upon this excerpt from Bill Tiierney’s Dynamics of Aspect Analysis which sums up the solitary position of Clooney’s Venus:

Usually our estimations of how any planet might act out its impulses are prompted by the presence of aspects to that planet.  But with no aspects to consider, what is an astrologer to expect in terms of that planet’s expression?  There are probably other unknown factors in existence that regulate the manifestation of life principle beyond what is presently realized through the structure of astrology as it has now evolved.  Astrology is as subject to the evolutionary process as is everything else (which should be evident every time a new planets is discovered and added to the structure).  We should not assume that all that is is exclusively contained within solar system based astrological archetypes (as we do when describing life processes indicated by the Zodiac).  What if earth-based astrology is simply the necessary springboard for human beings to eventually tap into completely alien concepts of being?  What if even more powerful galactic archetypes unknown to us nevertheless direct the mechanism of earth-based astrological phenomena?  Frankly, we just do not know if the astrological formulae we apply to our human condition are unconditional.  Thus, if an unaspected planet tends to show a periodic lack of control in its actions or moments of oscillating expression that are hard to account for, it could be prompted to activate this way due to the processes that we are not ready to know about yet.  These planets have been shown to undergo periods of spurtlike activity for no apparent reason (i.e. not

because of transits or progressions).  With our limited knowledge, it is hard to explain how these planets are generated into expression without any aspect stimuli.  (p. 173)

COLLECTIVE TIMING

Because the art world is both stymied by its commercial sellout during the boom years and comatose as a result of the economic downturn, there is an urgency for the celebrity/movie star to fill the void.  After all, what does the term movie star mean but an archetypal constellation patterned in a human being?

If the August 20^th Mars/Venus/Saturn gathering in the sign of Libra could bring the Palenstinians and Israelis together for peace talks, then couldn’t we expect to see some bold strokes from the arts of the paradigm leap catalyzed by the cardinal T-square of the last month?

Could it be that the popular culture is too corporate controlled to allow for self-examination?

Which makes George Clooney all the more valuable, and explains his universal appeal.  A movie star who reminds us of our own humanity through his very public humanitarian persona.

Fortunately, along with his grey hairs revealing the maturity separating him from other leading men, Clooney has developed his innate gift of timing.

Just three days after his acceptance speech for winning the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award, The American hit the theaters.  Why was a film based on a book titled An Extremely Private Gentleman re-titled as The American?  Good question that the score of reviews of The American undoubtedly failed to probe.  But for an astrologer it was a crucial clue to the super consciousness that appears to be guiding George Clooney.  The comparison of Clooney’s chart with the USA Sibly chart reveals a karmic connection related to his widespread appeal: Clooney’s Jupiter is EXACTLY conjunct the USA South Node.

Modernism dictated genius as a singular work, a masterpiece.  Under the paradigm shift that artists, like everyone else, must acknowledge today, the requirement for art is the sacred marriage of opposites:  the shedding of the personal subconscious and then accessing the collective unconscious and finding the vehicle of containment (Saturn) for that dose of super-consciousness (Uranus).

We can’t forget that two planets, Saturn and Uranus, rule Aquarius, the sign of genius, which is placed in Clooney’s chart by way of the ruler of his mid-heaven, Jupiter.  This dictates that his very calling demands that he hold the tension of the opposites — the Leo-Aquarius polarity — during this crucial time of transition between the breakdown of patriarchal archetypes and rise of the Aquarian Age icon, the sacred marriage.  In fact, the very ability to maintain a center is how the sacred marriage icon takes hold!

With this insight regarding is position in the collective consciousness (Jupiter in his 11th house), the title of his most recent film is a form of coding.  That the character of Jack  is an American in a foreign country is obvious.  But what about “the American” as the archetype our forefathers coded into the American nation?

Let’s look at the charts in comparison.

Here we discover that George Clooney’s Jupiter is EXACTLY on the USA South Node while his Mars in Leo opposition conjuncts the USA North Node.  Here is the opposition of Aquarius/Leo, the human and the movie star.

What is more significant is his Moon in Capricorn EXACTLY on the USA Pluto, with his Saturn only two degrees away.  What this signifies is an uncanny instinct (the Moon) to uncover deep state (Capricorn) secrets (Pluto).  We will see how he has been going about this in his recent films.

Moreover, Jupiter makes this highly karmic position a stellum, so this archetype of heaven/earth, human/celestial is imbedded into Clooney’s persona (Moon) as a sense of personal duty.  The position in the  11^th (Aquarius) house only adds to a personal narrative that is reflected in the collective: a commitment (Saturn) to truth (Aquarius) seeking (Jupiter ruling the Midheaven, the calling).

SYMBOLS, CYCLES & ARCHETYPES

What is uncanny about The American is the use of the symbol and archetypal characters drawn from the Spaghetti western (the priest and prostitute both offering redemption from opposite ends of the chakra spectrum: spirit vs. the body).   The physical  labyrinth, representing the journey of self-discovery with its unknown twists and turns — is embedded in the streets of the Italian village where the assassin is hiding out.  Along with its geographical isolation, this elevated landscape conveys the mood of the yearning for transcendence of a new archetype.  This is personal for the character but also pertains to the American nation, with its two primary exports revealed in the film: munitions and culture (the spaghetti western on the restaurant TV).  The primary symbol of the film is the butterfly, which connects the physical body image (the tattoo on the assassin’s back) with the ethereal concept of the sacred marriage.  This newly emerging archetype was to be located in arcadia by early American spiritualists (the Theosophists) translated into the film as a paradise where Jack would bring the  female anima figures of death (the female assassin) and rebirth (the prostitute); both women gave him the nickname farfalla (butterfly).

On one level, the butterfly, along with the film’s premise, is a cliché about the quest for transcendence.  In this case, however, the butterfly is a live presence in arcadia  where the trained assassin is confronted with two females.  The first will be his killer.  And the other?  The Beloved.

On a more mundane level, the butterfly is the quest for the freedom to be human, an emotional being.  But in a hidden coding that illuminates the ambiguity of plot, butterfly references Project Monarch in which CIA operatives are subject to mind control, which makes them slaves to an external authority.

When a person is undergoing trauma induced by electroshock, a feeling of light-headedness is evidenced; as if one is floating or fluttering like a butterfly. There is also a symbolic representation pertaining to the transformation or metamorphosis of this beautiful insect: from a caterpillar to a cocoon (dormancy, inactivity), to a butterfly (new creation) which will return to its point of origin. Such is the migratory pattern that makes this species unique.

Occult symbolism may give additional insight into the true meaning Psyche is the word for both “soul” and “butterfly” coming from the belief that human souls become butterflies while searching for a new reincarnation. (source: Project Monarch: Nazi Mind Control by Ron Patton)

Was this association intentional or the unconscious at work?  The American, rather than butterfly, was the assassin’s nickname in the book.  Could this film character be symbolic of the illuminati mind control of the American masses by the collusion of government intelligence and the corporate entertainment media?

In fact, the cyclical manner that violence is treated in the film – the very gun that the hitman so meticulously crafts is the instrument of his own death – is a mirror in which America’s exportation of violence has turned back on ourselves, creating technological slaves immune to emotion via America’s two largest exports: our entertainment culture and munitions industry.

Could this be a higher intelligence working through the Clooney subtext that the star himself isn’t even aware of?  A message informing Americans to connect with our humanity so we may together evolve into a liberating new archetype — or otherwise making us unwitting victims of illuminati mind control?

It seems that the true guerilla approach to creating a revolution in a media driven society is to use the mechanisms of the globalization of culture to mirror the very process by which the unquestioning adherence to the American dream is undermining the very freedom guaranteed by our constitution.  How does this bear out with Clooney and the emergence of a new icon out of the postmodern decay of the patriarchal archetypes?

SUBTEXT IN TRAJECTORY

the highflying American puer eternus encapsulated by George Clooney in "Up in the Air'

An early Clooney film was a 1996 formulaic romantic comedy with Michelle Pfeiffer about a social dilemma — the frazzled life of the single parent.  One Fine Day cast Clooney in the light of the archetypal puer aeternus.  He returned to this archetype with his indelible 2009 characters in Burn After Reading and  Up in the Air, where the insecurities of age transform puer into senex.  These portraits reveal the puer/senex polarity as crucial to the American myth, the innocence coupled with cynicism stemming from an inability to evolve  –whereas consumerism has filled the void left by the non-emotionalism of the American male.

Confronting the Shadow: George Clooney in “Men Who Stare at Goats”

In Men Who Stare at Goats he takes the shadow by the horns, so to speak (the goat is the symbol for Capricorn, the mythological Cronus or patriarchal shadow).  We are served in this film an antidote, the surrender to the feminine in a common goal of caring for the Earth.  Such a whooping message is delivered, as it only could be in the entertainment culture, with characteristic Clooney humor.  But even his humor is a vehicle for revealing the overblown violence in media, which, as Michael Parenti states in his Make-Believe Media: The Politics of Entertainment“… violence cultivates exaggerated notions about danger in the real world.  The exaggerated sense of risk may lead to increased demand for protection and increasing pressure for force by established authorities.”

But The American was a departure from the humorous vehicle for shattering a consensus reality so ingrained in the American psyche that no film critic could even detect it, despite the freedom of thought supposedly allowed by the Internet.  It was deadly (excuse the pun) serious examination of the American character that has become completely desensitized.  America’s penchant for violence, manufactured and exported in our military industrial complex and entertainment industry, will — like the carefully hand crafted weapon of George Clooney’s assassin — be turned on ourselves one day.

Perhaps it already has