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March 2012Justice: Part 3, Luck, Leverage and The Stakes By
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To send books for review in this column
email Jacqueline Lichtenberg,jl@simegen.com
for snailing instructions or send an attached RTF file. Find these books. Find TV fandoms online Leverage TV Series
on TNT network Hangman by Faye
Kellerman, Wm Morrow HC, 2010 Messiah: Apotheosis: Bk
Three by S. Andrew Swann, DAW Feb 2011 Hit List by Laurell
K. Hamilton, Berkley HC June 2011 In Astrology, “Justice” is usually associated with
Jupiter, Court proceedings, judgments handed down from a high bench.
Jupiter rules Sagittarius, the natural 9th House of
publication, globe-trotting, world girdling events, events leading to the
career shaping decisions ruled by Capricorn, the Natural 10th
House, associated with Saturn. Jupiter and Saturn are considered to be opposing
forces, Jupiter “expanding” and Saturn “contracting.
But both are deeply associated with the entire concept of Truth. The Sagittarius ruled person generally has trouble
learning the social grace of the “White Lie” and will always tend to blurt
out the truth. With grace,
though, the Sagittarius can become the master of flowing gossip, the kind of
true but reputation (Saturn is reputation) enhancing gossip that builds
community. Saturn delivers the kind of Justice that King Solomon
was famous for – cut the baby in half.
The one who gives the baby up then is revealed (Saturn reveals truth)
to be the true mother. The baby
never had to be cut in half; mere threat revealed the truth. Jupiter delivers the kind of Justice that winning the
lottery is famous for. It’ll
multiply your fortunes until your fatal flaw is revealed, and you’re poor
again. Thus when Saturn strikes, the Event seems like “bad
luck” while when Jupiter strikes, it seems like “good luck.” Both deliver Justice personified.
“Luck” is what we call the pattern formed by events
precipitated in the wake of our passing through life, or in the “side-bands”
around us in our current position, events we generally consider to be
governed by random chance rather than the exercise of our Free Will. “Art” such as the story, the novel, the TV Series,
strives to reveal the connection between our Free Will choices and our Luck.
By “Luck” I don’t mean the obvious cause-effect chain
of a plot sequence that is the backbone of any novel.
I mean the way a Hero plows through a dicey situation, stumbles,
spins, gropes, and keeps on striving no matter the odds, and somehow
magically the disasters that would have happened if you or I took such
risks, don’t happen. You can shrug and say, “It’s just a story.”
But if you study the biographies of famous people, you’ll see the
“Luck” illustrated by correlating Saturn and Jupiter cycles to their natal
charts. You might begin to
wonder if you really do understand how the world works.
The TV Series on TNT titled
Leverage illustrates this point in almost every episode.
You can catch up with them on the TNT website or Amazon Prime.
Leverage brings
together a team of characters as conspicuously unique as real people are,
with the avowed purpose of protecting the least and the helpless among us.
Each week they commit egregious crimes against the law of the land
(various countries) and sometimes even against the known Laws of the Divine,
the laws of White Magic. The people the Leverage
team protects usually have no money to pay for the help they need (poverty
is associated sometimes with Saturn but often with Neptune), and they are
always the victim of someone who is rich enough to be privileged above the
law, or who used nefarious means to gain wealth that is pure power. The team pits their criminal skills against the abuse
of power, and often puts their lives on the line for the “least or the
helpless” among us. The course
of events is always along the least probable line, not the way you’d expect
things to go for you. The team
always wins. Is this show pure fantasy?
Or does it reveal a higher truth?
The team wins by violating not just the finer points
of the law, but the basic moral principles by which a White Magician lives.
They use their skills and “power” to manipulate people, trick people,
to lie, to pick locks, to steal, to pick pockets, to hack government and
other secure databases, and one who is a martial arts specialist often hits
people with intent to draw blood, knocks people out (and never gets sued for
ruining someone’s life via a concussion.) But the series as a whole portrays these wrongful
deeds as adding up to Justice.
Like Robin Hood, the team is in the “right” because they are going up
against the big bullies who use wealth as a weapon, not against other
wealthy people, but on the little guy.
I haven’t yet noticed a wealthy person in this series
who uses their wealth for Good, nor is it common for a wealthy person to
change their behavior after an encounter with the Leverage team.
The series keeps its message clear and simple: if the
stakes are big (Jupiter) enough, all the usual rules (Saturn) that constrain
the use of Power are swept aside by the expanding (Jupiter) need (Moon
represents the reigning need of the natal chart) for Justice. Last month, we talked about the “False Hobson’s
Choice” – ending off with this: It’s a “False Hobson’s Choice” when someone insists
this is your only viable option.
“There are always alternatives,” as Spock pointed out in the
Star Trek: The Original Series episode,
Galileo Seven. So what has Hobson’s Choice to do with Justice?
What does the Hero facing a Hobson’s Choice feel about risk?
The adversary (livery stable operator) makes it seem safer to take
what’s offered (a nag). If you
risk trying to find another livery stable in time to get where you’re going,
you must rely on Divine Providence, or the tendency of the universe to
harmonize events into Poetic Justice.
Do you trust the universe to do you Justice?
Do you dare reject Hobson’s Choice? You can find these prior columns on lightworks.com or
simegen.com/reviews/ Is the TV Series Leverage
presenting a false Hobson’s Choice?
When fighting for really high stakes, against overwhelming odds, you
have no choice but to turn to the Dark Side Of The Force?
Do nothing, and you lose? That is the issue discussed in the long-running novel
series, The Dresden Files, which was also a
TV Series. We explored that in
January, in Part I of this series on Justice, while discussing Jim Butcher’s
novel Ghost Story. And of course, it’s the issue at the heart of the
popularity of Star Wars. Is it possible to be either rich or powerful and not
mash down the least or helpless among us when you think the stakes for you
are very high? Here are three novels you can breeze through, enjoy a
relaxing good read, and still find exciting possibilities when the stakes
are sky high, but the only acceptable tool is from the very brightest side
of The Force. Hangman, by Faye
Kellerman, is another in the fabulous long running Decker/Lazarus Detective
series. Here Decker is chasing a
murderer who hangs his victims.
There’s a sociopath on the loose, and the stakes get very high when his own
family is in danger. Will he
break the law? Will he use the
power of his badge to his own personal ends? S. Andrew Swann, a terrific worldbuilder, brings us a
galaxy embroiled in millennia long wars, doomsday devices, and a few
beleaguered almost-humans who stand against colossal forces.
Messiah:
Apotheosis Book Three poses very deep and sticky questions of
morality. I recommend all of
Swann’s novels if you want to read about very personal stories set against a
huge tapestry of morally knotty events. Here’s another entry in the
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, series that I’ve been following here.
Hit List is #20 in this series, all
in tight chronological order, depicting the breakdown and re-formation of
Anita Blake’s sense of identity as she faces moral and ethical questions
that can be posed only in a universe where magic, necromancy, lycanthropy,
and vampirism are simple realities incorporated in the legal system.
Anita is a consultant for the legal authorities, a detective, but she
works with a world class hit man and a psychopath.
The three of them face down threats the
Leverage team couldn’t imagine.
When faced with a False Hobson’s Choice, Anita, like
any science fiction hero, creates new alternatives.
The trick all these fictional characters have
mastered is the ability to see when someone is attempting to control their
behavior by defining a problem in an artificial way.
Faye Kellerman’s Decker character is a cop, now a
Detective in charge, a man with legal power.
Swann’s main characters are in the middle of the power hierarchy, but
some are rich, some in charge of worlds.
Anita’s power is inherent in her Talent, but she has rich friends.
Saturn may make you “least and helpless” or Jupiter
may expand your power. Will that
change how you define problems and what’s at stake in your life?
To send books for review in this column email Jacqueline Lichtenberg, jl@simegen.com for snailing instructions or send an attached RTF file.
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