"Facebook Is A Mirror"

‘The word Facebook means it’s a mirror. You’re actually looking for a mirror. And you need a mirror because you haven’t got a picture (of who you are). You need a mirror to tell you who you are... You only exist if you tell people you are there." AS Byatt in an interview with the Guardian on August 27, 2010. 

pic courtesy of the Palo Alto Lions.

To see the rest of this interview with that intellectual giant Antonia Byatt click here. What she has to say is always fascinating even if you don't agree with her.

I think Byatt has put her finger on something profound  and true – and if you watch the interview, you'll see that the idea comes to her as she is speaking. The truth is revealed to her. So is Facebook a mirror? What do the planets say?

Here is the chart for the night Mark Zuckerberg made the book. I've set it for 9 pm but actually I have no idea what time it was that night. However, even without the exact time the answer is a simple and resounding: YES, Facebook is a mirror.

Here is is how the chart tells this story. 

• Facebook was born on a Full Moon, when the two "lights" face each other across the sky. The Moon reflects the Sun's light.
• The Moon is in Leo, the sign of ego - I am. The Sun is in Aquarius , the group - we are.
• Sun is Leo's ruler, so also the heavenly body associated with ego. So we find the ego, the I, in a social sign, the sign of the group, Aquarius. It's worth noting that the Sun is traditionally ill placed here. The ego gets lost in the group, is unable to express itself. What AS Byatt suggests is that we need the group in order to know who we are, because we have lost a sense of our own identity. Facebook is a way of bolstering our own fragile egos.
• Sun is conjunct Neptune, Pisces ruler. Neptune is a mirror in astrology. It's the planet of illusions, Hollywood, dreams. Neptune holds up a mirror and shows our dreams and our nightmares. And sometimes we see just what we want to see.
• There's one more opposition worth noting Venus in Pisces opposite Jupiter in Virgo. If the movie, Social Network is to be believed, Zuckerberg invented Facebook because he felt left out. Venus is the planet of sociability (and of girls) and she's shimmering and exalted in Pisces. She's on a pedestal opposite the king of Olympus, reflecting back his glory.

When Facebook was invented, Uranus was in the second degree of Pisces - and Uranus stayed in the sign of the fishes for the next seven years until March 11, 2011 . Uranus is Aquarius' ruler and the planet associated with new technology. So the web (represented by Uranus) was in Pisces.. Pisces is Neptune's sign, the collective unconscious, the mirror, the ocean. 

Meanwhile, Neptune was in Aquarius. So these two planets were in mutual reception, bolstering each other across the two most powerful signs of the collective. Aquarius is an air sign - mental, logical, humane; Pisces is a water sign - emotional, intuitive. They've been harnessed together for seven years. Or you could say, they've been mirroring and magnifying each other.

Now Uranus has broken the traces and set off on his own.

When the internet itself really took off in the late 90s, Uranus was in its own sign for seven years. Aquarius, like Pisces is a collective sign. Now things are going to change - Aries is all about the self, the individual. It will be interesting to see what develops. Things could get very strange when Neptune goes into it's own sign later this year.


So if Facebook is a mirror, what is it reflecting back to you? Do you need Facebook in order to know yourself?