How to Outshine the Moon: A History Lesson For Astrologers
notes on electric moontowers & the arc of the ejaculate
For a time, we thought we could outshine the moon — and we did.
In her 2013 essay for The Atlantic, “Tower of Light: When Electricity Was New, People Used It to Mimic the Moon,” Megan Garber begins: “First they tried to make moons.”
It’s a story that’s haunted me ever since I read it.
In the late 19th century, when electricity was new and expensive, cities across the US erected moonlight towers. These monstrosities acted as supercharged full moons, flooding the land with light.
For the first time, humanity had conquered darkness to experience full brightness on any given night.
Garber writes:
“And so, for a brief and literally shining moment early in the days of human-harnessed electricity, the future of municipal lighting was glowing orbs suspended high above cities — towers, resembling oil derricks, capped with 4 to 6 arc lamps with a candlepower of 2,000 to 6,000 each. These manmade moons made the ultimate promise to the people below them: that they would never again be in the dark.”
The problems, of which there were many, soon surfaced.
Such a powerful, singular source of light creates shadows that are equally powerful and disorienting. These shadows became a great place for crime. The bigger issue, however, was that neither human nor animal was designed for nonstop light. As crime rates rose, people went mad under the brightness. Animals, denied the blanket of night, started dying off from sleep deprivation.
Eventually these moon-towers were replaced with the arguably more efficient and more pervasive lighting we have today. The only surviving towers now stand in Austin, Texas — monuments to the moment we thought we could outshine the moon without repercussion.
The Arc of the Ejaculate
As it goes in my world, I was thinking about the implications of these electric moons when I received a voice message from my mentor.
I’ll share the most relevant fragment here:
“When you’re in theater school or learning how to dramaturgically create good theater and performance, the rising action becomes really important. There’s this arc that gets repeated over and over and over again — one to two to three to four to five to six to seven to, whoa, climax!
And then it comes down. It’s this unilateral thrust of release…”
They go on to compare this thrust of release to false narratives of linear process, A-to-B thinking, concluding that “this kind of patriarchal ejaculation myth of Western modernity has corrupted all of our imaginations.”
Bringing Down the Moon
It’s easy to hear a story of electric moons and think we would never be so foolish, but this modern impulse for climax is pervasive in the way most of us think about our lives.
At the level of astrology, we talk about zodiacal release periods as centered around a peak, or we put so much emphasis on the progressed full moon or that really good transit that’s about to hit our charts.
In reality, our lives are not ever-expanding. Nor do we experience them in periods of boom or bust. We’re so much messier than that.
I may feel stifled in my career, but I have a life I enjoy living: full of people who love me and things I enjoy complaining about.
Have I peaked? Am I declining? Yes? Maybe? I don’t know. It’s complicated.
Like the moon, none of us were made to go full blast all the time.
Astrology, however, shows us that our lives are about so much more than the moon. Traditionally, there were five planets and two luminaries. These bodies are in an ever-shifting dance, creating multiple timelines for each of us.
So, the peak is real. It’s just not singular. And it’s definitely not meant to be sustained.
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