Where Did All The Passion Go?
Soon after the Second World War, techniques to influence mind and behaviour began to accelerate and grow more sophisticated, coinciding with the rise of television. In 1950 only about 350,000 homes had a TV – by 1954 that number had grown to one third of households, and by 1960 nearly three quarters of UK homes owned a television.
The post-war period was a global reset. 70 to 85 million lives had been lost and the world was weary. As two new superpowers emerged in the form of the USA and the Soviet Union, so also the world re-organised into a Cold War scenario with a landscape of new competing ideologies and tensions. Societies transformed. The ‘baby boomer’ generation began, and new civil rights programmes gained momentum. New global financial systems, such as the Bretton Woods system, were introduced as nations reset and rebuilt. At the same time new technologies were quietly developing that would bring profound change.
After years of war people longed for levity. 1953 was a turning point – the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and a new Saturn/Neptune cycle. Prior to 1950 TVs had been the realm of the wealthy and privileged, but they were made more affordable - and many bought one specifically to gather as a family and watch the Coronation. By 1960 they had become a standard household item. The Saturn/Uranus conjunction of 1965 ushered in the counter-culture revolution and the rise of the celebrity status. Figures such as the Beatles were broadcast into homes, shaping identity, aspiration and mass attention.
With the arrival of UK television advertising and consequently the development of marketing persuasion techniques, the 1950’s also marked the beginning of the human mind becoming ‘contested space’. Programmes emerged with the explicit aim of influence - Project Artichoke, the predecessor of MK Ultra, began in 1951, with its target to see if it was possible to make an individual commit an assassination against his will. It was a CIA project but though it seems more the stuff of entertainment and films (Neptune), it was real (Saturn). Later developments – from Directed Energy Weapons DEWs and Voice to Skull pulsing techniques – expanded this frontier, culminating in claims of integration with nanotechnology and advanced neuro-technological interfaces (Jupiter/Saturn/Pluto 2020 and Saturn/Neptune 2026).
The rise of the celebrity culture introduced a powerful new force. Money and fame became objects of reverence - almost a religion in itself, but without depth or spirituality. Until we reached a point where everything began to feel shallow, fake and broken. Wealth was no longer earned; it was desired without, it seems, the feeling that one needed to work for the end goal. Celebrity status and money became false idols, appealing directly to the ego.
When Neptune entered Pisces in 2011 followed by Saturn in 2023, the sense of illusion intensified. By the time both finally left Pisces to begin a new civilisation era in Aries, the world appeared fundamentally altered. Politics had become performative – a system that sustained itself, while elevating those willing to prioritise profit and ideology over principle. The food industry had shifted toward mass production, filled with pesticides and preservatives and no longer pretending to be natural. Food became manufactured to sustain consumption rather than nourish life, feeding a culture where people broadcast their lives to an unquestioning audience.
Our news is fake commented upon by fake experts, wheeled out to reinforce the prevailing narratives. Illness too has been commodified, rising in ways that sustain industries built upon treatment rather than prevention. Even illegal immigration is big business for some.
And then came AI that could take ‘fake’ to whole new levels. The unsuspecting consumer can now no longer trust what he sees in front of his eyes. Deep fake pictures and videos can now be created and altered in real time. Anxiety levels are rising, and mental health has become a defining issue of our time. Yet we haven’t evolved far enough to forget what life once felt like; when a handshake irrevocably sealed a deal, when food was real, when things we bought were made to last rather than be replaced at the next upgrade.
Something within us, however, still remembers. Like a quiet echo, the Soul seeks meaning and purpose - the reason we were given life. What happens to the Soul in an AI world? How do we keep our Souls alive in a landscape that can feel increasingly artificial, devoid of meaning?
Great Britain is a Capricorn country – it has a ‘stiff upper lip’ reputation, but it also has a deeply emotional Moon in Cancer. We are a Christian country but, in the interests of accommodating and pleasing others, it has disconnected from its own source of passion. In contrast in Spain, where I was just before Easter, religious and cultural festivals are lived with passion. Sense of family is everything for most and, if one cared for one’s elderly parents it would not be a fact for comment – it is simply understood as part of life.
But something happened to our once oh so Great Britain – it was led down a different path; one that became over time increasingly artificial and at times toxic. We began to live in an age of ‘managed perception’ and engineered chaos. The West has almost become the Great Satan, where arrogance greed and ego dominate, producing shallow lives. Experimental systems for remote mental influence have turned ordinary lives into covert testing grounds of behavioural manipulation and control (Saturn/Neptune), where we can no longer trust what we see before our eyes.
And yet at our core we remain connected. Whether one calls it God, universal consciousness or something else – the underlying truth is simple: love. Once we were bound by a need to survive, connected to the land and the Earth and to each other. Our nervous systems in a deeper sense resonate with this wider universe, guiding us toward becoming the best version of ourselves. In a new era, however, the frame must change. Old methods cannot solve new problems. The answer lies in how we communicate– the words we choose, how we say them and how we truly listen.
Where does real wealth lie? Is it really the last purchase – the dress, the watch? Will that sustain us? Is it really the ‘celebrities’ we crave to be seen with? Or is it the people who are there for us? The people who show up – those who care, give their time and who remain when everything else falls away?
When the curtain lifts – when illusion, corruption and superficiality are exposed – we are left with stark truth: a fake, contrived world. And once seen, it cannot be unseen. What remains - our thoughts, beliefs, consciousness, passions and our emotion – all that makes us human – are beyond any price tag. Neither can a price be put on living in a world that lives by truth, compassion and being the best possible person we can be, contributing to a community.
Some of us can still remember when society was much closer to this.