| Where can you meet like-minded people from all over the world, market your music, book or artwork and simultaneously get back in contact with old friends, share your newest pictures with family and make plans for tonight without a single phone call? The answer is online. Myspace, the most popular worldwide networking site, is a modern phenomenon. This free, interpersonal website is now the most frequented hangout on the internet, with about 70 million subscribers and as many as 260,000 new users each day! Registered users can, at no cost, message each other, market their work, share photos and blogs, join specialty groups, and download music. A venture into a MySpace profile is a trip into an individual’s world complete with songs, pictures, artwork, poetry, journal entries and whatever personal information one desires to share. MySpace gives creative space for self-expression. Once you create a profile, your own personal page, a collage of your interests, talents, experiences, and thoughts becomes available to anyone who wishes to “open the box”. Intimate. Extroverted. Expressive. Any guesses about the astrological influences involved when MySpace began?
If you recognized the networking power of the Leo/Aquarius polarity and the creative nature of Pisces, you were right on. Some of the dominant astrological forces at play in July 2003, the birth month of MySpace as we know it today, included Mercury, Jupiter and the Sun in Leo, and planets Mars and Uranus in Pisces all month long. Neptune was well into a tour of Aquarius, across the zodiac from Leo planets all summer and directly opposite the planet of communication, Mercury, mid month. The environment was ripe for an outlet like MySpace and the astrological timing was in place. A bit more history illustrates the growth of this interpersonal megalopolis.
MySpace.com was once an online storage and file sharing firm that failed in 2001 due to lack of funds and poor service. Prior to that, the domain was home to a web design firm. As Uranus moved into Pisces for a seven year stay, the present incarnation of MySpace began. In July 2003, the site launched as the brainchild of Tom Anderson, a musician with a film degree. This Libra, who co-founded the site with business partners and remains a visible part of the site, is every MySpace user’s first “friend”. Born October 14, 1975, Tom grew up meeting friends and chatting online, and his vision was to create something better and more efficient than the networking sites he had frequented. Another mission of the new MySpace was to give musicians, artists and bands an active online presence for networking and for communicating with a wide audience of potential fans. His idea filled a niche and succeeded wildly! MySpace Music now has its own division where bands, record labels, and promoters post news, information, and music for users to sample and post on their own sites. Meanwhile, MySpace has become the top social networking site in the world and is the 5th most popular English language site of all.
Back to the astrological timing…early in 2003 Uranus moved direct in Pisces, sign of the 12th house of privacy, sufferings and secrets. Planet of technology and ruler of Aquarius, Uranus is also a higher octave of Mercury, the messenger and communicator. Uranus’s role is to shake things up, push for new methods, and expand global consciousness. In Pisces, Uranus impacts music and the arts, self-expression, intimacy, fantasy, and secrets. Clearly, MySpace is a Uranus in Pisces breakthrough; shattering the norm and changing the way we communicate and make friends! In the MySpace world, one expands their number of contacts by adding friends or family already known, and by inviting or accepting friends of these friends to create a larger network. Uranus is computers, connections, and large groups, while Pisces is a personal and reflective sign. Combine these two, and you get MySpace users sharing intimate feelings and experiences through their blogs and bulletins to friends. From recalling a bad day to sharing poetry or song lyrics to honoring a loved on who passed on with video or photo tributes, MySpace has given users license to express and reveal in a way that was never possible before. In the privacy of one’s own space, a profile is created for “friends” to view and for anyone who may stumble on it to discover! A MySpace profile is basically a public journal made available through technology. And in the nature of Uranus, MySpace is disturbing the status quo, stirring the waters, and creating controversy as it grows, breaks down barriers and allows this kind of intimacy in such a free, accessible domain.
The Leo influence is also strong in the MySpace chart. Jupiter and Mercury are extroverted and creative in Leo. Check out random profiles, and you’ll see that people go to great lengths to individualize their cyberspace homes in grand Leo style. Graphics, both borrowed and original, help illustrate the interests and personality of the user. From “Which Tarot Card Are You?” to “What Color is Your Heart?”, you can find quizzes, surveys, celebrity photos and other ways to “pimp” your site in a variety of online locations. MySpace has few technological or content restrictions, so basically if you can find it or design it, you can post most anything on your space.
The Leo “showbiz” personality is also part of the attraction, or in some cases addiction, to the site. MySpace users can add musicians, authors, athletes, teams, radio and television personalities and other “famous” friends who have profiles. Interaction with a “star” can range from receiving general updates to bulletins or messages about secret, “friends” only events to accessing their blogs or, in some cases, maintaining contact through personal comments and messages. A MySpace profile is practically a must now in the entertainment industry, and entertainers and artists benefit from the free and extensive promotion a site provides.
Like all good things, MySpace also has a dark underbelly. The site’s users are free to create their own fantasy worlds, which can include altering their ages or using false identities. For example, there are many sites where pranksters pose as famous people and seek legions of “friends” falsely. A common deception is the age change where the young increase their age or older users opt to age down by entering false birthdates in the signup process. Whenever Neptune is involved, there’s a sense of illusion or fantasy present, and in the case of MySpace, Mercury opposed Neptune at the time of inception. Some of this fantasy is harmless, though other more destructive forms of misrepresentation have been cited. Sexual predators may target young or vulnerable victims through the service. According to newspaper accounts, there was at least one case where an adult sought sex with a minor during a meeting arranged on the site, and another report of a 24 year old arrested for having sex with a 15 year old he met in the same manner.
Those who are too forthcoming could run into the most problems, considering users can post a calendar of planned events and away messages that could indicate their whereabouts when not online. Neptune opposite Mercury is a warning to use communication wisely to avoid scandal, gossip or danger. MySpace users are wise to protect themselves from poseurs, predators or known detractors who could use information with harmful intent.
Do the pros outweigh the cons in the MySpace debate? I believe Jupiter in Leo gets the final word. Jupiter is ambitious and large, and particularly dynamic in Leo when entertainment, promotions, and public relations are involved. Since a primary use of MySpace is to promote music and entertainment, the site should continue to grow and prosper. On a closer, personal level, Jupiter in Leo is warm and engaging. With Mercury conjunct to Jupiter the month MySpace was born, optimism, big ideas and communication on a grand scale is most likely to be the result. Jupiter in Leo is a sign of beneficial and influential alliances, which is especially interesting since that’s what MySpace is all about! Old friends, new friends, and most of all more friends! The far-reaching appeal of Jupiter in Leo seems to assure that MySpace’s exponential growth and success is more than a passing trend.
Bio: Robin Ivy is a radio dj, astrologer and writer in Portland, Maine. Find her on MySpace at www.myspace.com/robinszodiac! |
