The Kathy Griffin Scandal
I have been struggling a bit with this Kathy Griffin scandal. It is abundantly clear that people on all sides of politics are outraged over the image of her taken by Tyler Shields, holding an imitation of Donald Trump’s bloody head. Personally, I did not have any reaction to this picture at all. I did not find it upsetting nor did I did think it was cool. I saw it and continued moving through my social media feed. What that says about me, I don’t know. Full disclosure, I think Donald Trump is the worst, most dangerous president of the United States in history. Do I want to see his bloody, decapitated head; absolutely not. Was I appalled and upset when I saw various iterations of President Barack Obama hanging from trees; absolutely.
Whether or not Kathy Griffin’s life has been ruined by this scandal remains to be seen. I have no doubt actually that her claims the Trump family are going after her personally are true. They have proven themselves to be just that vindictive and small minded. She is losing work. CNN fired her from their New Year’s Eve show and several venues have canceled her shows.
But this new thing where people’s lives can be ruined by a tidal wave of social media vitriol disturbs me. As upset as I was over the picture of poor Cecil the lion, I also found it disturbing that his killer, Walter Palmer, had to close his business due to the backlash. I am not defending him or his actions at all, but it is just plain weird that social media has the power to close someone’s business.
Kathy Griffin is making statements that her life has been ruined and I find that to be a sad state of affairs.
One could defend Kathy Griffin because political satire is considered to be an important part of the resistance to this administration or any administration for that matter.
There is also a case to be stated in her defense that the photo was art and that provocative art is extremely important during these tumultuous times. Free speech should be defended; offensive or not. Tumultuous times beget tumultuous art. It is to be expected and encouraged in my opinion.
But across the board we are seeing a tidal wave of celebrities, politicians, and average Joe’s (thank you Facebook) making grand statements on social media that this photograph was offensive and wrong. Even people defending her preface it by saying that they thought it was terrible. Maybe so, the first rule of comedy is, be funny. This joke simply didn’t land.
I highly doubt this was her idea by the way. You are never going to convince me she walked into that photo shoot with this big idea. Tyler Shields convinced her to do it and she got caught up in the moment. I have not seen a social media tidal wave of bile pointed in his direction. Yes, her image is absolutely her responsibility. But does she really deserve this venom?
I wonder if Tyler Shields had convinced another celebrity, a man or even a woman with a different persona, would the reaction have been different?
Kathy Griffin’s entire shtick has a decided Rodney Dangerfield bent. This woman gets no respect. She has made a career out of telling stories about her weird interactions with celebrities. Her act celebrates the resistance and dislike she encounters on a regular basis. It seemed to me that about 70% of her podcast with Marc Maron was her describing how she was never accepted by other comedians and that this and that acquaintance in the business did not like her. She regularly talks about being banned from one television show or another.
This got me thinking. So I ran her Human Design chart.
Forgive the left turn but stay with me. Human Design is a discipline similar to Astrology. In fact, it utilizes both western and eastern astrology along with the Chinese I-Ching, the Kabballah Tree of Life, and the Hindu Chakra system. Don’t ask me how, but Quantum Physics are involved as well. It’s a fairly new system developed in the late 1980’s. I stumbled across it first from a Vedic astrologer I follow and thought it was interesting at the time. Months later, my new chiropractor requested the date and time of my birth on my intake form and after I asked, admitted she used that information to run my Human Design. I was intrigued. So I started reading book after book on the subject and then started running the charts of all of my friends. Almost two years later, I think the system is remarkably accurate. Better yet, all judgement falls away when you run someone’s Human Design and start to understand they are who they are. People’s behavior is rarely personal.
Kathy Griffin’s date and location of birth are readily available. Her time of birth however is not. So I ran her chart every two hours for the entire day. Some things change, but several aspects stay the same the entire day so I will focus on those consistent items in her design.
Kathy Griffin is what they call a Projector. Approximately 20% of the population are Projectors so you don’t necessarily come across one every day. Energetically, Projectors are here to tell people what to do. It is incredibly important however for Projectors to wait for the invitation to share their wisdom. If a Projector goes through life sharing what they think without invitation, they will consistently experience resistance and negative reactions along the way. It is an energetic thing where people will react negatively whenever the Projector approaches them without invitation. Not having an awareness of this over time, understandably results in bitterness.
Kathy also has an open sacral (all Projectors do), which means she never knows when enough is enough. This is a life-long theme of someone with an open sacral; whether it means doing too much and wearing themselves out or saying too much and alienating everyone around them.
Additionally she has the channel 63/4 of Logic which consists of the gates of Doubt and Answers. This means she can be full of doubt about herself and others. She is suspicious of things until they are proven. This could also be why she has always been able to see past a celebrity’s image when she is around them and observe them in unique ways. Her resulting defined Crown and Mind also mean she has a fixed way of thinking and can tend to be in her head. In other words, she has a specific point of view that colors her observations as a comedian.
Another prominent channel in Kathy Griffin’s chart is the 10/20 channel of Awakening, also known as “The Verbal Gunslinger.” People with this channel can be extremely cutting and hurtful with their words. Gate 10, The Love of Self, is often referred to as the “blame gate.” The highest expression of this gate truly is the love of self and the empowering example of this for others, which is why this is also called the Buddha Channel. The low expression however of this gate is constantly blaming other people for what is wrong in their life. Gate 20 connects this energy to the throat, hence “the verbal gunslinger.” If you’ve seen any of her specials, you know her comedy is all about saying mean, but funny things about celebrities.
Finally, the other channel that is consistently in her chart is the 28/38 Channel of Struggle. This is the channel of someone who never takes the easy road. They are extremely stubborn and do things the hard way. So, despite knowing this photograph would be highly controversial, she decided to do it anyway. Kathy Griffin is not someone to shy away from difficulty. She thrives on the struggle.
So there you go, Kathy Griffin may think that her career is over today and that Donald Trump broke her. But her Human Design tells me that she can handle this difficulty and she will not stop telling it like it is regardless of the consequences. She is used to the consequences. Kathy is comprised of the Individual and Logic Circuits which means she is a unique, mutative person who simply doesn’t care. This is her Human Design.
Kathy Griffin’s chart at 2am and 2pm: