Pussy Riot has been one of the biggest stories during this time of Aries Uranus square Capricorn Pluto. The energy of Aries in Uranus is reflected in the image above, the energy of Capricornian Plutocrats attempting to control and repress this same energy, below:

There is more going on with the cosmic archetypes relating to Pussy Riot besides Uranus and Pluto, but they are two of the main ones. Aries Uranus in a first quarter square to Capricorn Pluto directly reflects the radical energy of Pussy Riot meeting the harsh backlash of totalitarian power, as the first quarter square aspect indicates there may be a push of some radical energy at this time, but there will be at least as strong of a push back, and that we are only at the beginning of a process of change happening.

The revolutionary image and group collective aspects of Pussy Riot also evokes the coming Age of Aquarius, with the beginning shifting into the Age of Aquarius meeting the prideful power stances of Leonine authority figures. The masked neon attire of Pussy Riot is the group collective hero archetype of a masked figure that could be anyone; and as Putin’s regime has attempted to blot out Pussy Riot, there are new members of Pussy Riot popping up all over the world in neon masks, crying out in protest. We are still dealing with issues of the Age of Pisces, however, and Pussy Riot emerged into international spotlight as Neptune shifted into Pisces. The misunderstood sign of Pisces is very much a part of Pussy Riot energy, made all the more evident by their performance of “Punk Prayer: Mother of God, Chase Putin Away!” on February 21, 2012 during a New Moon in Pisces that was conjunct Neptune in Pisces, Pallas Athena in Pisces, and Chiron in Pisces; not to mention Vesta was at the end of Pisces, and Mercury was strongly in mid-Pisces at this moment:

There are various translations of “Punk Prayer: Mother of God, Chase Putin Away!” but this is one by Sasha Dugdale, a published translator of Russian poetry:

Virgin Mary Mother of God
Chase out Putin
Chase out Putin
Chase out Putin

A black robe with stripes on the shoulder
All your parishioners crawling to the altar
A ghost of freedom up in the skies
But Siberia in chains for Gay Pride

The Head of the KGB is their big saint man
Loading the protesters in a prison van
If you don’t want to insult the most Holy Lord
Women! Know your place is in the birthing ward

Shit shit holy shit, shit shit holy shit

Holy Mary Mother of God
Be a feminist to us
Be a feminist to us
Be a feminist

The Church pays homage to degenerate bosses
A black limousine in the procession of the crosses
If a Priest comes to your school today
Take in your purse – you’ll have to pay.

Patriarch Gundyaev believes in Putin –
The dog would be better off believing in God!
The Virgin Mary’s belt – no replacement for protest
The most holy Mother of God is at the rallies with us

Virgin Mary Mother of God
Chase out Putin
Chase out Putin
Chase out Putin

Here we can see the full polarity of the Pisces-Virgo axis, integrating the Virgin Mother with a call for a personal sense of Spirit to work on the behalf of the oppressed, the true work of Jesus, instead of being used as an instrument of a totalitarian regime. As a Pisces with strong Aquarius energy in my chart, I always love the Aquarius to Pisces time period shifting of February 21 that Pussy Riot staged their direct action in, a time period of birth for famous figures who took Piscean explorations of radical fringe concepts into mainstream popularity, such as Kurt Cobain and Anais Nin. Pisces is often portrayed as being submissive, but that can often be an outside perception of the disassociated connection with reality many Pisceans maintain because of feeling a total lack of connection within our Patriarchal and Hierarchical cultural context today; in fact, Pisces can become as angry as Posiedon brewing up a huge storm on the seas, especially from a sense of outrage over oppression against natural law. In their actions Pussy Riot is expressing a Piscean anger against oppression from their own sense of inner divinity, with a Scorpio drive of Pluto and Uranus intensity.

The birth charts of the three members of Pussy Riot put on trial involve strong archetypal themes of Pisces/Neptune, Uranus/ Aquarius, Pluto/Scorpio, and Saturn/Capricorn. All of these archetypal themes can be found in the generational aspects of two of the members who were born with Pluto in Scorpio with a conjunction involving Saturn (Capricorn), Uranus (Aquarius), and Neptune (Pisces). Pussy Riot is one of the most publicized actions to come from the generation coming of age now who were born with the conjunction of Uranus and Neptune in Capricorn (1988-1996), a time period that coincided with the development of the riot grrrl punk feminism in Olympia, Washington and that Pussy Riot draws inspiration from. In the momumental Cosmos and Psyche, Richard Tarnas tracked Uranus and Neptune cycles throughout history and found themes that included “spiritually inspired political activism (p. 363),” and “new art forms and new media of expression for the cultural imagination (p. 364)” amongst many other themes involving epochal shifts of psychological, spiritual, and cosmic understanding amongst humans on our planet. Punk Rock is a perfect expression of Uranus-Neptune energy, utilizing Piscean musical expression of a strident Aquarian value system. In her closing statement on trial, Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova described the instrument of punk music possessing “yurodstvo,” which translates as “holy foolishness,” a perfect description of Uranus-Neptune archetypal energy.

It is noteworthy that each of the three women have conjunctions between Saturn and at least one of the outer planets, and in balsamic conjunction. This points to each having a deep soul history with issues of power they are resolving in this lifetime, and they have the courage and discipline to take strong stands integrating energy that may make them look like lunatics to the status quo. In addition, within the three women there is a bridge from the Pluto in Libra generation to the Pluto in Scorpio generation, as well as the Uranus and Neptune in Sagitarius generation to the Uranus and Neptune in Capricorn generations:

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (11/07/1989) born with Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune conjunct in Capricorn, as well as her Scorpio Sun conjunct Mercury in balsamic conjunction to Pluto in Scorpio, represents the Capricorn Uranus-Neptune generation just now beginning to step into their power, as well as carrying some strong energy for the Pluto in Scorpio generation! With a Capricorn Saturn that is balsamic to Neptune and new phase with Uranus, she has the power to ground the idealistic energy of Uranus-Neptune into direct action. In combination with her strong Scorpio energy, she represents a femininity that is not going to back down to oppressive power structures and will integrate and merge anger against that system into creative and artistic protests that will be instantly communicated across the wide ranging social network of the Internet that was developed during the Uranus-Neptune time of her birth. Nadezhda in particular embodies the strong Scorpio energy carried by Pussy Riot, seeking to test taboos of culture in order to create a transformational shift of status quo cultural values that have become fixed- such as are involved in orthodox religious viewpoints linked into oppressive power structures.

In her closing statement at trial, Nadezhda stated, “Pussy Riot’s performances can either be called dissident art or political action that engages art forms. Either way, our performances are a kind of civic activity amidst the repressions of a corporate political system that directs its power against basic human rights and civil and political liberties. The young people who have been flayed by the systematic eradication of freedoms perpetrated through the aughts have now risen against the state. We were searching for real sincerity and simplicity, and we found these qualities in the yurodstvo [the holy foolishness] of punk.”

Maria Alyokhina (06/06/1988) was also born with a Saturn-Uranus-Neptune conjunction, but in contrast has Uranus at the last degree of Sagitarius and Saturn at the first degree of Capricorn, both in balsamic conjunction to Neptune in Capricorn. Maria also has a Pisces Mars that is conjunct her north node of the Moon in Pisces, and both Mercury and Venus retrograde and conjunct at the very end of Gemini and therefore in opposition to her Sagitarius Uranus. Like Nadezhda, she also has a Scorpio Pluto, in her case in a trine aspect with her Pisces Mars. With a retrograde Venus-Mercury conjunction in Gemini opposite her Sagitarius Uranus, at the final degrees of each sign, she represents a culmination of the Uranus movement across Sagitarius that includes many with deep connections with Natural Law. She also carries strong Pluto in Scorpio energy that she can channel through her Pisces Mars, expressing the anger against oppression of women and other infringments upon Natural Law that must be overpowering for those growing up within the totalitarian regime of Putin.

Maria’s closing statement is notable for also integrating the difficulties those reflecting Neptunian energy can have with their mental health growing up in a culture they cannot relate to, while possessing a conception of Spirit that is in contrast to the mainstream spiritual groups and educational system dominating their personal development. Maria explained, “Today’s educational institutions teach people, from childhood, to live as automatons. Not to pose the crucial questions consistent with their age. They inculcate cruelty and intolerance of nonconformity. Beginning in childhood, we forget our freedom…I have personal experience with psychiatric clinics for minors. And I can say with conviction that any teenager who shows any signs of active nonconformity can end up in such a place. A certain percentage of the kids there are from orphanages…In our country, it’s considered entirely normal to commit a child who has tried to escape from an orphanage to a psychiatric clinic. And they treat them using extremely powerful sedatives like Aminazin, which was also used to subdue Soviet dissidents in the ’70s…This is especially traumatizing given the overall punitive tendency and the absence of any real psychological assistance. All interactions are based on the exploitation of the children’s feelings of fear and forced submission…I would like to note that this method of personal development clearly impedes the awakening of both inner and religious freedoms, unfortunately, on a mass scale. The consequence of the process I have just described is ontological humility, existential humility, socialization. To me, this transition, or rupture, is noteworthy in that, if approached from the point of view of Christian culture, we see that meanings and symbols are being replaced by those that are diametrically opposed to them. Thus one of the most important Christian concepts, Humility, is now commonly understood not as a path towards the perception, fortification, and ultimate liberation of Man, but on the contrary as an instrument for his enslavement…When I was involved with organizing the ecological movement, I became fundamentally convinced of the priority of inner freedom as the foundation for taking action. As well as the importance, the direct importance, of taking action as such.”

The elder of this trio, Yekaterina Samutsevich (08/09/1982) has been having quite the Saturn return! Born with Saturn in balsamic conjunction to Pluto in Libra, she carries a different generational energy than her two comrades. Yekaterina has a Uranus that is at the very beginning of Sagitarius and a Neptune toward the end of Sagitarius. In fact, Uranus was stationing direct at zero degrees Sagitarius when she was born! Although she does not have a Scorpio Pluto like her two bandmates arrested with her, she does have some strong Scorpio energy as she has Mars and Jupiter conjunct in Scorpio, at the beginning of Scorpio. So, as Maria was born at the very end of the Uranus journey through Sagitarius, Yeketarina was born at the very beginning of it. She also represents the Pluto in Libra generation, a group who can become sidetracked at times with relationship issues, but carries a deeply ingrained sense of social justice that can be channeled into powerful direct action that draws on the strong drive this generation has for cultivating relationships.

In her closing statement, Yekaterina clearly and succinctly described the reasoning behind their choice of location: “That Christ the Savior Cathedral had become a significant symbol in the political strategy of the authorities was clear to many thinking people when Vladimir Putin’s former [KGB] colleague Kirill Gundyayev took over as leader of the Russian Orthodox Church. After this happened, Christ the Savior Cathedral began to be openly used as a flashy backdrop for the politics of the security forces, which are the main source of political power in Russia….In our performance we dared, without the Patriarch’s blessing, to unite the visual imagery of Orthodox culture with that of protest culture, thus suggesting that Orthodox culture belongs not only to the Russian Orthodox Church, the Patriarch, and Putin, but that it could also ally itself with civic rebellion and the spirit of protest in Russia.”

Tragically, recent events have taken an even more tragic turn than the two year prison sentence each woman received, with ghastly murders being committed and made to look like they are linked with supporters of Pussy Riot. There has been the other side of Pisces Neptune, the side of delusion and illusion, very much at work during recent events as well as the trial that evoked a witch hunt. Just yesterday in an interview, Russian President Putin described past actions by the collective Voina that Nadezhda and Yekatarina have been linked to as follows: “First, in case you never heard of it, a couple of years ago one of the band’s members put up three effigies in one of Moscow’s big supermarkets, with a sign saying that Jews, gays and migrant workers should be driven out of Moscow. I think the authorities should have looked into their activities back then.” In actuality, the reasoning behind this past protest was to “draw attention to government policies encouraging anti-Semitism, xenophobia and homophobia, not endorsing those sentiments” according to the New York Times. There are conspiracy theories that some of the ghastly murders that left evidence in blood linked to Pussy Riot were orchestrated by Secret Police in Russia. An article by Robert Mackey in the New York Times yesterday describing a recent interview of Putin concluded that when Putin was “[a]sked later in the interview about new restrictions on the Internet described as an attempt to suppress dissent by the opposition, Mr. Putin again cast himself as a defender of Russia’s moral majority, insisting that his only concern was to “ban child pornography” online. “Any steps we take are in the interests of the Russian people, and our children need this kind of protection,” he said. “No one is going to use this as a tool to restrict the Internet or online freedoms, but we have the right to protect our children.”

Pussy Riot has been victorious in bringing attention to the polical activist potential of punk rock and direct art action on an international level. The intense astrological energies of these times suggests that there will continue to be a massive power structure backlash against any attempts of radical revolutionary energy, utilizing the illusionary aspects of Pisces Neptune to control and manipulate information to the mass public. The stage is set, and we are a long way from any resolution to these intense energies.

But- one glimmer of hope in the stars is an asteroid, but she is also a Goddess- Pallas Athena. Pallas Athena was in Pisces and conjunct the New Moon (Sun & Moon), Neptune, and Chiron on the day Pussy Riot performed their “Punk Prayer.” Today she is moving retrograde in Aries and is conjunct Uranus, so she is moving against the cultural mainstream with her creative intelligence on the side of Uranus in this struggle of star energy. Pallas Athena, who was co-opted by the Patriarchy who re-wrote the myths in a delusional Pisces Neptunian way to place her on the side of their takeover of the Matriarchy. Pallas Athena, who was put in a military headdress by the Patriarchy and evoked in their military strategies of war and plunder. Pallas Athena, who is now garbed in a neon mask of Pussy Riot! May we all use our creative intelligence to devise ways to help break others out of oppressive situations.