Corporations have birth charts just like people do, and are subject to transits in much the same way. If you know much about astrology, and I told you I knew someone who was experiencing transiting Pluto square their natal Saturn, transiting Saturn square their natal Pluto, and transiting Jupiter opposite natal Saturn and transiting Uranus conjunct natal Saturn, you’d think “wow, things probably suck for that guy lately, don’t they?” And of course, you’d be right… except that guy in this case is United Airlines.
United was “born” December 30 1968 at 9:30 AM (the opening of trade) in Chicago Illinois. In that chart, Saturn (which is under so much stress from the transits) is the ruler of the Sun (the company’s “life spark”) and Mercury (communications). If you use traditional rulerships, Saturn is also the ruler of the Ascendant and Venus, which is conjunct the Ascendant: public image and how well (or not) the company is liked.
Thus, it is to be expected that United Airlines would be having some difficulties of late… but no one saw recent events coming. First, the airline took some heat last month for making three young girls change out of their leggings because they were considered to be a violation of the airline’s dress code for passengers. Did you know that United Airlines has a dress code for passengers? No, neither did I. After the incident, United bungled the PR, coming across as arrogant and unsympathetic.
That, as you’ve probably heard by now, isn’t the end of the story for United’s public-relations problems. On Sunday, an overbooked United Airlines plane sat on the runway in Chicago, and all of the previously-mentioned transits were in full effect — joined by the degree of United’s natal Pluto on the local Ascendant and the transiting Moon was closely conjunct United’s natal Jupiter. Thus, the common practice of airline overbooking plus someone’s decision to eject four random people off the place plus an overly-enthusiastic all added up to the violent ejection of 69 year old Dr. David Dao being physically dragged off the plane. There are plenty of pictures of the blood on his face (courtesy of the airline cop who dragged him off the plane) elsewhere if you’d like to look at them.
And United’s initial response? CEO Oscar Munoz kind of… apologized? “Our employees followed established procedures for dealing with situations like this. While I deeply regret this situation arose, I also emphatically stand behind all of you, and I want to commend you for continuing to go above and beyond to ensure we fly right.”
Yeah. Same to you, pal. Same to you.
***
Somewhere, at this very moment, I’m sure someone who specializes in writing about corporate overreach has much more to say about this than I do, or someone who writes more eloquently about police violence (perhaps against minorities)… not that I’d know anything about that, personally.
I’m just an astrologer. So I’ll just leave this here.
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
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