Twitter-shaming forced the supposedly compassionate Christianity of a mega-rich Houston megachurch to belatedly open its door to flood victims. The pastor Joel Osteen, 5 March 1965, who is worth some $50 million and lives in a $10.5 million home, preaches a prosperity gospel. This promises that God blesses good Christians with material wealth. So he argues the Lord has rewarded him because of his piousness; the converse being if you’re poor then it’s your fault for lacking faith. CNN writes: ‘It’s no coincidence that the most religious states in America also have some of the worst social services, spending little on welfare, health care and education, and as a result, letting high proportions of their populations languish in poverty and ill health.’ And allowing developers free rein to build on green land which exacerbates flood problems.
Osteen is a Sun Jupiter in Pisces trine Neptune perhaps trine a Cancer Moon. So a Watery, self-protective chart, which can be healing but also overly self-contained blocking out real empathy. If it is a Water Grand Trine then it is formed into a Kite by Sun opposition Pluto, which seems likely – giving him a driving need for control and influence. His Mars in flamboyant Leo opposes Venus in Aquarius which will make him not always sensitive to others’ needs. With Saturn Mercury also in Aquarius square Neptune. Certainly a very Neptunian/Piscean chart which can be spiritual, sometimes sympathetic but also evasive. The clash in his chart between Water and Air will make for inner conflict which may send him off into fantasy escapism. Though with his gold-plated life style he’s made his dreams come true.
His what-gives-him-pleasure 9th Harmonic is strong and lucky. His 11th harmonic is also heavily aspected – it brings an obsessive dream, can be idealistic but its downside can be fanaticism, irrationality, dishonesty, greed, self-indulgence.
Strongest of all is his 10th harmonic – the wheel of Fortune”, bringing prosperity and abundance, but also containing the seed of both rise and fall, of the good and the bad. His healer’s 12 doesn’t say much at all.
He’ll certainly find out about Neptune’s undermining tendencies as it is conjunct his Sun this year till the end of 2018, and catches two of his midpoints as well through this September and in January 2018. Regrettably once clear of these blips her looks to be forging ahead with tr Pluto sextile his Jupiter in 2019/2020. Although, although he also has Solar Arc Pluto square his Mars by 2019 as well which will grind him to a halt, no doubt temporarily. He does have a good deal of activity around his North Node in Cancer – with tr Uranus square at the moment into 2018; then Solar Arc Uranus square in 2019 when the tr Saturn Pluto will be in opposition. The lessons of this node are about losing pride and an over-developed sense of arrogance, moving away from materialism and extravagance towards genuine emotional connection. One can but pray.
Gospel of St Matthew: “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
Check the eyes and I am a Christian.
The older he gets, the more he looks like the living dead.
There’s that Mars in Leo again which has popped up in the news a number of times over the past few weeks. It seems to be shining a brutal light down on their ugly, hubristic nature (obviously these people have really taken it to an extreme at the expense of others). Really annoys me that these types tend to fly so high in terms of success yet clearly, they have quite dark, controlling, and deeply empty souls.
Clearly Mars in Leos got rattled up by the Eclipses, tho’ Osteen’s is really too early to have been in aspect. But that bombastic, self-important energy must be in the eye of the zeitgeist storm just now.
Do you think there is a lesson being shown for us under this zeitgeist, Marjorie? Are the arrogant meant to learn from their behaviour or are we to look at our own? We put these people up there on their perches. I personally don’t think the vast majority of arrogant-natured people actually ever learn from their shortcomings. Isn’t it just a sort of narcissism that masquerades as confidence? I think the universe is holding up a mirror for us to take a long hard look at ourselves, the decisions we make, and how we connect as a species, instead of being lead by charlatans and criminals and we, like silly children, look to them as if they were mummy and daddy who will solve all our problems. They often don’t.
I don’t know what it’s supposed to be telling us. It’s all the celebrity/materialistic culture thing, which Mars in wannabe-absolutely-magnificent and v rich Leo fits to a T – and everyone wants to be like them. All that confidence and glitter, and ordinary people hope some of it might rub off on them. Empty lives which they’re trying to fill with dreams of money. Except Osteen’s parishioners should have religion to fill their empty space and give them meaning. But their belief system has got perverted.
Greed is at the core of it. Maybe that’s the lesson. Realising that gold makes a very cold bedfellow. Some is undoubtedly helpful but wanting more and more ends up destroying genuine emotional connection. Lottery winners lose friends, fall out with their family, never know whether potential partners really like them or just the money.
And the whole fan culture is very odd – you feel like saying ‘get a life, your own,’ instead of living vicariously through a celebrity you don’t know who in reality is staggeringly different from the glossy image you’ve been fed by the media and PRs. That’s lack of self-worth and lack of a meaningful life.
You’re right the bombasts never learn. Even if they get consummately humiliated as Trump was when bankruptcy hit, they usually bounce back. Too depressing.
Thanks for the post.
Osteen represents the worst of American Christianity: all talk, no walk. (I’m an American, attended Catholic school, catechized Lutheran, now happily free of any belief system). While empathetic for Houston (their rebuilt life will not look like what it was before the storm), the fact that Americans rally around Texans for flood damage but disregard the Middle Eastern civilians we kill every day in a war we *know* we can’t win, is just another version of Osteen’s behavior.
Hate to beat a broken theme, but humans are a broken species.
Homo sapien may well be broken – some of us still work toward making a true difference, without the avarice and gold-lamé. God favors “me” cuz I have money, a beautiful house, a gorgeous Ivanka-like wife who spontaneously-budded my properly-trained children? Don’t think so. They’ll have a surprise waiting for them at the top of the escalator.
“Osteen? Osteen? Nah, you want the other escalator…going down.”
Engaging, thorough reading as usual. Thank you, Marjorie. Although I was hoping you’d say it was going to be all downhill from here for Rev. Joel. Such an obvious b.s. artist he is. As Jennifer observed, people will “just find an excuse to make for him and keep on following.” So true. His luck lies with people who have the I.Q. of a gnat. And he knows it.