Every breath you take Every move you make
Every night you stay
Every game you play
I’ll be watching you
A quintessentially modern love song inhabiting the somewhat murky ground between desire and stalker-like obsession. Justifying the claim on our love interest, "oh can’t you see, you belong to me", because of the anguish that not having quite enough of them causes "how my poor heart aches, every step you take."
As Sting himself once said, “I think it’s a nasty little song, really rather evil. It’s about jealousy, surveillance and ownership.” The enduring popularity of Every Breath You Take is not due to it being evil in nature perhaps but it does tap into something that is very Devil like (in Tarot terms). It gives voice to our often deeply buried inner insecurity and the attachment we form to the objects of our affection that shield us from it.
As alluded to in Part I,
...in our culture there is a contagion of co-dependency that attempts to deal with this insecurity by affording excessive meaning to others at the expense of individual authenticity. We are over attached to people pleasing, to conformity and compliance, even to"finding our tribe" whilst at the same time, worshipping celebrities and artists that stand out as one-offs, as if they are Gods.
The Dutch photographer Hans Eijkelboom has been documenting this cultural contagion visually in the way that we dress increasingly identically across the globe. Fashion is an interesting example since our culture also worships haute couture; uniqueness being a pre-requisite of style for the elite.
This contrast of extremes is captured in the zodiac sign Libra. Whilst Libra represents balance, compromise, justice, fairness, considering others not just oneself as symbolised by the weighing up of scales, (i.e. all the sorts of things that need to happen once you enter into relationships with others), as Libra is Cardinal it begins a new cycle. Balance can therefore be the aspiration but not the reality, far from the reality in fact. What may tend to happen is that the extremes manifest so that Libra feels more like a see saw than evenly weighted scales.
Living out this see-saw in the everyday are the relationship oriented, Pluto in Libra generation. Born between 1971 and 1983 and now aged somewhere between their early 40s to early 50s, this is the generation whose parents were the first to divorce en-masse, who have had to navigate the pleasing of not just a single set of parental expectations but those of step-parents, sometimes multiple times over in blended family set ups, the generation where the concept of conscious coupling and uncoupling was coined. Sting (although Pluto in Leo himself) has a stellium (three or more) of planets in Libra including his Sun and Moon conjunct Neptune (governing amongst other things art and music) so is it any wonder that Every Breath you Take has become a cultural icon especially to those that grew up in the 80s when it was first released?
As the Aries/Libra eclipse cycle continues (I'm writing this 9 days after the full solar eclipse in Aries on April 8th 2024), I think Sting’s own journey across the Rubicon of this axis can be a helpful guide.
In fact, Sting may well be a talisman for this Pluto in Libra generation, now undergoing its mid-life crisis crossing its own Rubicon, the threshold into the second half of life. For the polarity point of Libra is Aries; trusting one’s instincts and essential needs, learning how to say no as well as yes and bringing forth one’s own authentic voice and contribution.
Sting has Jupiter in Aries on the Midheaven with Libra on his IC. At root, in his heart or emotional centre (IC), he is a seeker of harmony and for the need for everyone to get along (Libra). Sting is well known in the music industry for having a diplomatic and consultative approach to being in a band, something that his own personal astrologer, the amazing Debra Silverman has attested to whilst on tour with him (coolest job ever!). Yet Sting takes very public (Midheaven) risks that are instinctual and independent (Aries) leaving others open mouthed at their apparent trail-blazing audacity (also Aries).
At the height of his worldwide fame with the rock group Police, he quit the band to take a completely new and decidedly unfashionable direction with a bunch of exceptional but largely unknown black jazz musicians from around the world. This huge risk paid off launching a career as a solo artist that has seen Sting become of the most successful artists of all time, ploughing his own unique furrow further with the release of albums devoted to medieval lyre songs and winter themed madrigals and hymns.
We cannot all be as successful (Jupiter on the Midheaven) and artistic (Leo Ascendant) as Sting, nor would many of us want to be, but no matter our vocation or gifts, Sting is an example of how it’s possible to collaborate and strike out on one’s own at a time where the world badly needs us to do both.