MORE THEMES FROM SATURN-NEPTUNE

One way of putting the current Saturn-Neptune Opposition (which is exact tomorrow) is ‘God helps those (Neptune) who help themselves (Saturn)’. Or as Margaret Thatcher put it, “You create your own luck”. While there’s a certain amount of truth in it, for me it smacks too much of the Protestant work ethic, that there’s some kind of moral obligation laid on you by God to work hard, and if you do, you will go to heaven. A corollary of this is that wealthy people are good guys who will go to heaven, because they have worked hard and helped themselves. And if you’re not so well off, you’re probably not such a good guy, because you’re not so good at helping yourself. By the way, I’ve got nothing against people enriching themselves for its own sake. Particularly if they’ve got nothing more interesting to do, why should I want to deny them a life? It’s just the attaching of a moral superiority to this drive, or ability, that I balk at.

OK, I admit it, with my 2nd House (values, wealth) Moon (security) in Sag (faith) conjunct Saturn in Sag (insecurity, faith and hierarchy issues, drive to achieve), this is a personal, even raw issue for me. But if it wasn’t, I wouldn’t have anything to say!

I think I’d rather put it the Sufi way: ‘Put your trust in God (Neptune)and keep your camel tethered (Saturn)’. There’s no connection here between tethering your camel and God looking after you: he’s going to do that anyway, whether or not you keep your camel tethered. There isn’t the sense that you ‘ought ’ to be keeping your camel tethered: it’s just a bit of sensible advice, and a reminder that God can’t do everything. And it’s certainly not saying that the more camels you tether, the more God will look after you.

All that said, I am not a believer in God, and never have been. I have a sense of, and a trust in, a power that is bigger and wider than the 3-D box that everyday concerns often keep us in. I won’t say this power is ‘beyond the material’, because I don’t consider material reality to be separate from divine reality, that ‘spirituality’ is anywhere other than in front of our noses.

But it’s a good sort of contemplation for a time of Saturn opposite Neptune.

By sign, this opposition is Leo versus Aquarius. So we have the hard-working, achieving, independent individual (Saturn in Leo) versus the sense of divinity and connectedness that we can experience through being a part of the human tribe (Neptune in Aquarius). With the opposition reaching a pitch of intensity, one of the UK government ministers has suggested that some of our City high-earners might consider giving some of what he sees as their excessive bonuses to charity. It’s like this Opposition is addressing some of the excesses of the modern spirit of individualism.

Which, synchronistically, is the theme of a novel I’m reading, ‘Independent People’, by an Icelandic author, Halldor Laxness. This guy, after many years struggle, manages to purchase a piece of farmland in a traditionally haunted valley. You have to admire him for his independence of spirit, but you can see it all unravelling because he won’t pay his dues to the spirit of the place. His wife is sensitive to these things, but on principle he won’t let her put a stone on a cairn at the entrance to their valley, that marks the burial place of the demonic woman who haunts the land.

This novel was written in the early 1930s, and I’m only at the start, but it does seem to be a good example of the current Saturn-Neptune opposition. And it’s a theme that’s even more relevant now than when it was written. Neptune in Aquarius is not just about our connectedness to humanity but to the whole of life, whereas modern life values the lone heroic individual who achieves success for him/herself. The cost to the greater whole is undervalued. Hence the environmental crisis, the addressing of which has been such a big theme of this Saturn-Neptune opposition. It is about a re-assertion of the claims of the greater whole of which we are a part, something that in a smaller society would be harder to ignore.

MORE GEO-POLITICAL ASTROCARTOGRAPHY

In my blog of 16 Feb, I looked at some of the astrocartography of the US Chart, which yielded some fascinating results, such as the Pluto-MC line of the US Sibly Chart running right through Baghdad. Pluto is where you meet your undoing. The US also has a North Node-IC line close to Tehran: another appointment with fate!

I’ve since looked at some of the astrocartography around Iran, Iraq, George Bush, Tony Blair etc, and here's some more results:

IRAN
The Mars-ASC line for Iran runs past Washington. This is the April 1979 revolutionary chart, and indicates that there will always be at least the potential for conflict with the USA until Iran enters another incarnation. (It seems that in general these lines are potentials, and sometimes, as in this case, they get activated.)

The Chiron-MC line for Iran runs past Tehran. This suggests something damaged and out of balance in the government of Iran. This possibly reflects the fact that the present system arose not out of a steady evolution, but out of a violent reaction to the artificial, US backed regime of the Shah.

The Pluto-IC line runs just East of Israel, suggesting the potential for Iran or Israel to meet destruction (Pluto) of its homeland (IC) at the hands of the other.

ISRAEL
The Pluto-MC line is 4 degrees off Tehran, and Saturn-MC is 6 degrees off Tehran. This is not just about hostility, which would be a Mars line. It is about Israel seeing its survival (Pluto) to be under threat from Tehran, and Saturn gives them the ability to do something about it. I think we have to view these lines as operating over a wide area – in this case, much of the Arab world, which would like to see Israel annihilated. Israel has its Moon-MC line also running through the Middle East, so this is where the Israelis feel at home, even though they are under this extreme threat.

In Israel’s natal chart, the Moon at 4 Leo is either unaspected, reflecting their history of homelessness, which in a sense continues, or widely conjunct Pluto (8.17 degrees): their home is a place in which they can be destroyed.

Israel’s Neptune-IC line runs past New York. Could we put this the other way round and say that for many New York Jews, Israel is their spiritual (Neptune) home (IC)?

In the Composite astrocartography between Israel and Iran, there are Mars, Pluto and Uranus lines to be found in the area between the 2 countries. This Composite has Uranus at 7 Virgo, Mars at 12 Gemini and Pluto at 15 Virgo, all in a t-square, which could hardly be more warlike. Uranus has been transiting this lot for a couple of years, and will be opposing Pluto all of this year. So the situation will remain explosive throughout 2007. I can only think of one realistic reason for it to possibly stop being explosive – military strikes on Iranian nuclear installations – and the astrology suggests this year.

GEORGE W BUSH
The Saturn-Neptune opposition has been clearly affecting GWB for some time. By transit, it is hitting his Venus at 21.30 Leo. Venus is associated with army generals, so I suppose this is part of it. But then I found that his Venus-MC line runs between Tehran and Baghdad, and it became more convincing. He also has Pluto-MC 5 degrees west of Baghdad (and 2 degrees east of Moscow).

Back home, he has Sun Rising through Texas (which is where his political Sun first rose). He has a Moon-Jupiter line going right past Washington, and not too far away are Chiron, Pluto and Mercury lines. So considerable potentials for him in Washington.

Here’s an interesting one: his Neptune-IC line passes within one degree of New Orleans. The sea (Neptune) in his homeland (IC), but also an absence (Neptune) of compassion (Neptune) for his homeland.

His 2001 Presidency has Chiron on the IC running through Pakistan and Afghanistan. This is Bin Laden territory, the home of the man who damaged his Presidency by luring him into the War On Terror. There is also a Mars-DESC line running not too far from Washington, indicating his aggression (Mars) towards enemies (DESC).

His 2005 Presidency has Chiron-MC running through Washington – a damaged Presidency. It has Uranus-MC running through Baghdad, showing the unstable nature of the situation there. And it has Moon-MC running through Tehran. In the inauguration chart, the Moon is at 9.19 Gemini – right on what has been called the nuclear axis – and opposite 8th House Mars, which is itself conjunct Pluto, and squaring the Iranian Mars at 26 Pisces. So it’s all there if you link the astrocartography line to the natal chart. The 2005 Presidency Chart also has Saturn-IC line running close to Washington, reflecting the problematical, difficult nature of this Presidency.

TONY BLAIR
His natal chart has the Sun-IC line one degree off Washington: this is where he feels at home! He has Mars-Jupiter Rising running through London, a very good place for him to be in action. And he has a Uranus line Running 5 degrees off Tehran and through Moscow: these 2 potentials have both activated in the last 2 or 3 years.

The Composite between GWB and TB has Sun-Moon-Mercury-Venus-Uranus running past Washington and nothing going near London. If anyone needed proof of the inequality of the relationship, here it is!

Incidentally, the Neptune-ASC line of the 2001 Presidency chart passes through London, maybe reinforcing the point. Tony Blair got Neptuned. He thinks GWB is a great guy. And they prayed (Neptune) together. And deceived (Neptune) the world together over Iraq.

So in reference to their prayers, the Composite chart needs to be dubbed ‘The Unholy Alliance’. It has Uranus-MC passing through western Iraq: an unstable (Uranus) achievement (MC). Mars-MC passes through Iran – as if we needed telling – and a Neptune-Node line passes close to Tehran.

UK 1801 CHART
This chart has Pluto and Neptune lines passing through Iran, and Mars, Saturn and Neptune lines passing through Iraq . (Saturn and Neptune cross each other, making it more powerful.) So the UK involvement is all there as well. Plenty of Neptune (lies and deception, and also a desire to redeem the area), Pluto (possibility of both annihilation and transformation), Saturn (difficulties, paternalism) and Mars (war).

It is interesting that the UK Saturn and Neptune lines cross in Iraq, and that the UK’s involvement there should be coming under such pressure during a Saturn-Neptune Opposition. Only 2 days ago, with the exact opposition only days away, Tony Blair announced that we would be withdrawing a load of troops from Iraq. But being Neptune it wasn’t quite what it seemed: he was also paving the way for an announcement a day or two later that more troops would be going to Afghanistan.

MERCURY RETROGRADE, SATURN OPPOSITE NEPTUNE

Mercury is currently Retrograde, so I suppose it was inevitable that I should get a puncture on my bicycle a couple of days ago, and equally inevitable that I should be at the furthest point away from home on the circuit I do. Before you get the wrong idea, I am not the sort who wears an anorak and bicycle clips and steals the washing off clotheslines. But I did manage to fix the puncture, which levelled the score with Mercury.

Not only is Mercury Retrograde, but Saturn and Neptune are 5 days off their second exact opposition: the 1st was last Sept, the 3rd and the final one is in June. So this could be a hard time for some of us. I think the Saturn-Neptune pressure is at its peak, and things may seem as confused and unclear and as blocked as they can get. But I think precisely because of that sustained pressure, it is a time when breakthroughs can be made. There’s only one way to go, and that’s up. It’s time for a paradigm shift. It’s time to realise that you’re going to stay confused (Neptune) unless you look at things differently. And that you’re not going to be able to make things happen (Saturn) if you carry on trying to do things in the same old way. The final phase of Saturn-Neptune, between now and June, can then be about building on this paradigm shift.

ASTROLOGY, SCIENCE, RATIONALITY AND EVOLUTION

One of the things I like about astrology is that while it demands a lot of use of the rational faculty, there is no rational explanation (as far as I can see) for why astrology should work. The furthest I can get in explaining how astrology works is to say that somehow there is a connection between symbolic reality and experiential reality.

Enduring symbols emerge from the depths of the mind, a level of consciousness where we are no longer separate from the rest of the cosmos. In this way symbols, and hence astrology, connect our everyday experiences to the deeper purposes of the cosmos.

Well, that makes sense to me, anyhow, but I’ve switched over into a non-rational explanation. On a purely rational level, I don’t think astrology can be explained. But because astrologers need to have a developed rational faculty, I think the practice of astrology gives us a gradually deepening insight into the limitations of rationality. Rationality, at any rate, as understood in our culture, which tends to be scientific and ‘objective’. So I think that the practice of astrology is a very good antidote to the mindset that says that knowledge has to be rational and scientific to be real. It is an informed antidote, not a blind one, because astrologers need a good rational faculty.

Even on a non-rational level, I don’t think astrology can be adequately explained. Rather, it gives us a sense of wonder at how mysterious and incomprehensible yet connected and purposeful the universe is.

So scientists see themselves as ‘objective’. In a sense they can be right. They do this by excluding personal emotional response as a valid source of knowledge, as well as by having a rigorous methodology and theoretical framework which can yield some stunning results. It is well-known, however, that scientists can be irrationally resistant to theories that challenge the accepted canon of knowledge. Their capacity for ‘objectivity’ goes out of the window. Or if something happens for which there seems to be no possibility of a scientific explanation. Such as Lynn’s example of putting a bar of soap under your bedsheets to relieve pain. Or the evolutionary theory of “the inheritance of acquired characteristics”, for which there is increasing evidence, but which has been a no-no for 100 years, because no scientific mechanism can be thought of.

What this closed-mindedness demonstrates is a strong attachment to a particular way of seeing the world. This is a strongly emotional characteristic, there is nothing rational or reasonable about it. I refuse to accept that scientists are any more rational than the rest of us. You could argue that because they do not take emotion seriously in their methodology as a way of knowing, they are more likely to be victims of unconscious emotion. I personally do not see rationality as an exclusively logical function. I think that a rational person also has a sense of whether or not their feelings are appropriate to the situation, and whether or not to be guided by them. There is rational and irrational emotion. And I think that scientists are being highly unreasonable human beings when they dismiss outright astrology, homeopathy, bars of soap, or unconventional scientific theories because they don’t ‘understand’ them. It’s like the natives who couldn’t see the sailing ships because they’d never seen anything like it before. But worse, because it’s more wilful.

At the other end of the scale, and I may be wrong, but I think the whole ‘dark matter’ theory is a desperate attempt to hang on to an outdated way of seeing the universe. Apparently, gravity as it is understood is not strong enough by a long way to hold galaxies together. Therefore, it is said, there must be another source of gravity, so called ‘dark matter’, which constitutes 90% of the universe, which we cannot see or detect and have no evidence for. They may be right, but I suspect it is more akin to the ‘ether’ that matter was supposed to reside in, but for which there was no evidence, until Einstein came along and said no, what you can see is all that is there, it’s just that you need to look at it differently.

I was very pleased to see a programme on Lamarckian inheritance about a year ago. This is the theory that, for example, if a giraffe has to stretch its neck to get leaves off trees, its offspring will tend to be born with longer necks than they would otherwise. This is the “inheritance of acquired characteristics” that I mentioned earlier. Without something like this, evolution seems to me to be not only incredibly slow, but random: it is purely a matter of chance if you have advantageous characteristics. Whereas I think there is some sort of direction going on, some sort of participation by consciousness.

I can’t remember too much about the programme now, but one finding was that a people who had gone through famine 100 or so years ago were more likely, several generations later, to have certain physical characteristics associated with famine. A crucial time for the passing on of acquired characteristics was if the famine – or whatever else – occurred at the time the individual’s reproductive capacity was forming. For women, this is at a certain point when they are in the womb, when all the eggs are formed. For men, this is at puberty. So now they are doing an experiment with a number of women who were pregnant in the vicinity of 9/11, and seeing if that anxiety is in any way passed on to their children, and presumably to their daughter’s children, if their eggs were being formed at that time in the womb. (They kind of have a mechanism for all this, in terms of genes being switched on and off).

Something else I was pleased to read a couple of months ago was an experiment that had recently been done with lizards. Some were introduced to a neighbouring island, where there was a larger, predatory lizard. Within 6 months, the descendants of the new lizards had generally longer legs, so that they could outrun the predatory lizard. Within another 6 months, their legs had shortened again, and they had become climbing lizards, another way of avoiding the predatory lizards.

This suggests that evolution can happen incredibly quickly, which I’ve thought might be the case for some time. Given that evolution has produced incredible structures like the brain, I don’t think it’s asking too much for there to be some sort of feedback system between the demands placed on the body and the reproductive organs.

WAS 9/11 A CONSPIRACY?

Am I the only person left who still believes that 9/11 was caused by a small group of Arabs who hijacked some airliners? And that their efforts were facilitated by government incompetence in the run-up to the events, of the sort you’d find anywhere? The BBC is doing a series on conspiracy theories at the moment, beginning last night with 9/11. Some people think it ridiculous that I should take the BBC seriously on this sort of thing. But it needs pointing out that while the BBC can be craven in its dealings with the British government, it can also be independent and outspoken.

The most recent major example was its contention in 2004 that Tony Blair had “sexed up” the intelligence about Saddam’s WMD programme. In a time of war you just don’t do this, but the BBC did, and as everyone knows (except Tony Blair), they were right. The government responded with fury and set up an inquiry that was a whitewash and which pointed the finger at the BBC. The governors of the BBC rolled over and axed their 2 top people. So the BBC can be both courageous and cowardly.

What struck me watching this documentary was the tone of the people they interviewed. The people who accepted the airliner explanation of 9/11 were kind of bemusedly shrugging their shoulders: “I went to the Pentagon to help in the rescue work, and there were bits of airliner lying about.” It wasn’t a big deal, just ordinary people describing what they had seen. The conspiracy theorists, on the other hand, had a fervour about them, we were dealing here in CERTAINTIES, there was no room for doubt, and they didn’t attempt to engage seriously with evidence that cast doubt on their theories. I know which group I’d rather hang out with. Which doesn’t make them right. Just more reliable.

Belief in conspiracy theories on a wide scale seems to be more American than British, and maybe I’m just betraying my cultural limitations in my belief that a small group of Arabs brought about 9/11. But fervent believers aside, it still seems to me that a lot of intelligent Americans will treat as straightforward fact unproven theories that cast doubt on the truthfulness of authorities. Whether it’s Liz Greene’s allegedly faked PhD, or the Bush administration’s alleged conspiracy to bring about 9/11. These are not facts, they are opinions. My belief is an opinion, too.

As the guy who co-wrote The FBI Files was saying, Americans have had the experiences of Vietnam and Watergate, and this has gone deep, these events are always lurking large in the background. And Bush himself has clearly lied big-time. If you’ve been lied to and betrayed enough, it will rightly make you distrustful. But I think it’s important to come out the other side of these experiences, with a loss of naivety, yes, but with common sense intact.

Let’s look at the chart for 9/11, based on the impact of the first jet into the World Trade Centre at 8.46 am, 11th Sept 2001, New York.

If there were a secret conspiracy behind it, I would expect to see a strong 12th House, Neptune or Scorpio emphasis. What we find is an exact Mercury Rising, 4 minutes into the 12th and ruling the 12th, and Sun in the 11th, in Mercury-ruled Virgo, 46 Minutes off the 12th House Cusp. So a conspiracy is arguable.

On the other hand, Eris, the Goddess of Mischief, who uses one event to set off something much bigger – in this case, 9/11 leading to the War on Terror – Eris is at 20 Aries, square the Midheaven, and in the 7th conjunct the DESC. The 7th House is the House of Open Enemies, which Al Qaeda certainly is. Using astrocartography, the Pluto-MC line for 9/11 runs through western India and Pakistan and through eastern Afghanistan. All Bin Laden territory. The Saturn-IC line runs through here as well. And the Saturn-Pluto opposition of the time was the biggest astrological factor of all.

So the single biggest factor – Saturn-Pluto – points to Al Qaeda. Does Sun conjunct 12th House cusp suggest the US authorities were also secretly involved? Or does it suggest their powers of analysis (Sun in Virgo) had gone to sleep (12th House)? Because there was plenty of evidence in advance, if they’d put it all together. And you don't need a conspiracy for them not to do so - all you need is argy-bargy between the CIA and FBI, just like you get between the different branches of the British Armed Services.

The people who carried out the attack, the Moon, is in the 9th House of foreigners, and appropriately opposite Mars, and in late Gemini: in Arabic astrology, a favourable time to start a war. I’m thinking from the astrology that Al Qaeda was definitely involved. I don’t think US government involvement can be ruled out, though that’s not my personal belief.

The Composite Chart between George Bush and 9/11 has a 12th House stellium of Sun-Venus-Moon-Jupiter in Leo. This strongly suggests a Presidential cover-up - but we don't know whether before or after the event. Similarly, the Composite between the Defence Dept and 9/11 has 12th House Pluto, in a t-square with Saturn and Eris. Again, something murky going on, but we don't know if it was before 9/11 or after or both.

Neither the Sibly nor the 2nd July US charts have much that indicates a cover-up when composited with the 9/11 chart, suggesting that any cover-up/conspiracy mainly concerned George Bush and the Defence Dept. And Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, both of whose composite charts with 9/11 are significantly Neptunian.

So I think I'd definitely go for a neo-con conspiracy after 9/11, in order to use the events to their advantage, and to cover-up a lot of what went on. But I think 9/11 itself caught them napping.

MARS AND THE PRESIDENT

For a very good article on what’s likely to be happening with George Bush, Congress and Iraq/Iran, see Nancy’s blog of 10th Feb. Meanwhile I’ve got one or two other bits of astrology to chuck in. By and large, though, it’s about stating the obvious: Bush is at odds with Congress over his Middle Eastern policy, that’s going to carry on, and God knows what he’ll try next.

The Democrats were sworn in as the majority party in the House of Representatives at 12 midday on 4 Jan 2007. The composite chart with George Bush’s natal chart has Sun in Aries opposite Pluto, and Mars in Scorpio opposite Uranus-Node in Taurus. Mars is conjunct Mercury in Libra, which is in turn widely conjunct Pluto. So their basic relationship is one of power-struggle and hostility. As if we needed astrology to tell us this.

By transit, Mars is currently at 25 Capricorn. Mars will be squaring the composite Mercury exactly on 21 Feb, and will successively square composite Mars, Uranus and Node over the following 10 days, taking us through to 3rd March. So the rebuke over Bush’s Iraq policy that has just been voted through is going to provoke a lot of hostility over the next 10 days or so, even though it may or may not make it to the news. And we may well see outbursts. In the middle of this, on 24 Feb, Retrograde Mercury in Pisces will cross the composite Midheaven at 2 Pisces. Clarity will not be the order of the day! It is likely to be a very messy, confused political situation, with plenty of lies being told.

The Democrats, with the public behind them and a majority in the House, have the stronger hand – I think their job is to push steadily and calmly and let the President hang himself. The chart for Democrat rule in the House has Saturn trine to a Mars-Pluto conjunction in the 9th, which means it will be easy (Trine) for them to exert authority (Saturn) over this foreign war (Mars-Pluto in the 9th). And I don’t see why we shouldn’t include Iran in that as well. Which is re-assuring.

If we look at Bush’s Progressions and Presidential inaugural charts, we can see that Mars has played a central role in his Presidency. At the 2001 inauguration, Mars was in Scorpio conjunct the DESC, and in the 2005 inauguration, Mars was conjunct Pluto in Sag in the 8th House. Meanwhile, since 2002 Bush’s progressed Mars has successively squared his natal Sun and then conjoined his natal Chiron, Moon and now Jupiter. His Progressed Mars will be moving in on natal Jupiter until the end of next year. We can expect ongoing fantasy and swagger around his Middle East 'policy'.

Remarkably, the US Prog Mars is also conjunct Bush’s natal Jupiter at present. What this also means, of course, is that BUSH’S PROG MARS IS CURRENTLY CONJUNCT THE US PROG MARS. So it is not just Bush that the Democrats are having to oppose: Bush’s attitude to war and to Iraq/Iran says something about America herself and where she currently stands as a nation.

Bush’s natal Mars at 9 Virgo is unaspected. I’m never quite sure in advance what an unaspected planet is going to mean. I think in this case it means that it is not integrated into his personality, and as such is unusually susceptible to Collective influences (which Sun in the 12th, weakened by a square to Chiron, and Pluto Rising, also suggest). Which could be seen as quite worrying in a President.

As Bush’s Prog Mars is currently conjunct the US Prog Mars (they are moving in opposite directions), I think his warmongering is an excellent opportunity for America to get know certain sides of herself. George Bush is like a sub-personality within the American psyche, that ideally would have emerged only on the psychiatrist’s couch. With the US Prog Mars having recently gone retrograde – or about to, depending on which chart you use – this is an excellent time for the US to get to know that Mars, which by natal transit will be squared by Uranus over the next couple of years, another helpful awakener to self-knowledge.

ASTROCARTOGRAPHY AND THE US CHART

In previous posts I have argued a case for both the Gemini Rising and the 2nd July Scorpio Rising charts for the USA. What would I get, I thought, if I tried some astrocartography?

I put up the Sibly Chart – the one most commonly used for the USA – and there was Pluto on the MC going right through Baghdad! And then down past Mogadishu, scene of the 'Black Hawk Down' episode.

As far as I understand it, astrocartography works by plotting where on the earth all the planets were on the Angles, and therefore most active, at the moment you were born. For example, though you might not have Venus overhead (on the MC) in your chart, there would be a whole line of places on the earth where Venus would have been overhead at the moment you were born. These might be good places for you to get married!

Similarly, the places where you have Pluto on the MC are where you are likely to very publicly meet your nemesis, as is happening to the US in Baghdad.

With Pluto on the MC running not just close to Baghdad but virtually through it, I think that the Sibly Chart has to be included as one of America’s charts, at least one that describes its foreign policy. The Sibly chart is for the moment America declared its independence to the world, so this fits.

That said, the 2 July Scorpio Rising chart has Chiron on the ASC, Saturn on the DESC and Sun on the IC all crossing each other within 40-50 miles of Baghdad, which is another very good hit. So we have to include this chart as well. Chiron and Saturn describe what is happening now, but what about Sun on the IC? I was reading only the other day that the US has involved itself in the Middle East since the start of the 19th century, beginning with missionaries and later building schools and hospitals, well before all the oil stuff started. So there is a sense in which it has been making a home for itself in the Middle East (Sun-IC) for a long time now.

What about the Gemini Rising Chart (also for the Declaration of Independence)? That has Mars on the MC crossing Neptune on the DESC passing halfway between Baghdad and Tehran. So this chart works as well!

If we look at Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, the 2 July Chart has Mars passing fairly close by, which fits. But the other 2 charts don’t seem to work very well. The Sibly has Venus and Jupiter, and the Gemini Rising Chart has the Moon on the IC – all perhaps describing different aspects of US involvement in Vietnam?

As probably with all countries, I think there is more than one chart for the USA. It doesn’t mean that all the charts are valid, but that those that are valid are coming at the USA from different angles, and need to be used as such. For America’s ideals and how it likes to see itself, for example, the Sibly or the Gemini Rising Charts would seem to be the best ones to use. For its government, the 2nd July chart, when Congress voted itself independent of Britain, might be the best one to use.

For my other 3 blogs on the US Chart, see my postings USA: Gemini or Sag Rising?, Born on the 2nd of July? and Scorpio Nation .

CONSPIRACY THEORIES

Next Sunday BBC2 is showing a programme about conspiracy theories. This morning they interviewed a psychologist involved in making it. His observation was that people who tend to believe in conspiracy theories often have trust issues on an interpersonal level, and this easily gets extrapolated to mistrust of governments and big institutions. Another angle raised was that when an event happens that has a huge impact – such as 9/11, or the death of Princess Diana – people often want a reason for the event of comparable magnitude. It’s not enough, despite the evidence, that Diana’s death was an accident, or that 9/11 was caused by a small group of Arabs: there have to be bigger causes, so that, for example, the British government ordered the death of Princess Diana. There are, of course, such things as real conspiracies, as they were quick to point out, examples being Watergate and the Iran-Contra affair.

All good Saturn-Neptune stuff. These 2 planets make an exact opposition in 2 weeks, so the programme is timely. Conventional, grounded reality (Saturn) versus deception, illusion, trust/mistrust (Neptune). What we don’t always know is which end of the opposition is the real one! Are we being deceived (Neptune) by the Government (Saturn), or do we need a reality-check (Saturn) on our paranoid illusions (Neptune)? Maybe we can never be 100% sure.

What I have noticed with people who tend to believe in conspiracy theories is that they really want the conspiracy to be true, and there’s no arguing with them. They think you’re just naïve because you haven’t woken up to what’s ‘really’ going on. It often has the flavour of religious conversion.

I like to be open-minded about these things. I’d be really fascinated if some of them were true, but I don’t NEED them to be true. I find it’s a bit of a balancing act in remaining open to these possibilities without involving myself in the crazy, paranoid minds of the David Ickes of this world.

MERCURY RETROGRADE AND THE VALENTINE YOD

Mercury will be going backwards for 3 weeks starting 14 Feb. Don’t let anyone tell you that ‘really’ it’s going forwards in its constant orbit around the Sun. That’s just Science trying to disempower you by telling you that your experience isn’t real. If Mercury wasn’t really going backwards, then there would be no observable effect, and we astrologers know that there is. Rant over.

I think as long as you’re a bit internal about it, Mercury Retrograde can be a great time. It’s a vehicle, like any other aspect, but humans find it hard to drive this one. It’s about time and patience and getting a sense of things having their own flow and rhythm. If you’re result-oriented, Mercury retrograde will work against you. But if you’re process oriented, you can get a sense of knotty problems moving on in their own way.

The chart for this MR is right out there: Mercury in Pisces, conjunct Uranus and square to Jupiter. Mercury is tricksy anyway, but this one looks like it’s going to be completely over the top. All bets are off. There are going to be some really bizarre things going on. And some things sorting in completely unexpected ways.

The Valentine’s Day Yod (see last posting) is also part of this chart, with Venus at one end of a Pisces stellium of Mercury-Uranus-Node-Ceres-Venus. This yod of Venus and Mars at the base, with Saturn at the apex, is easier than some because Mars and Venus are both in their favourite signs of Capricorn and Pisces respectively. OK, Saturn is technically in its fall in Leo, but I can think of much worse signs for Saturn to be in.

I don’t really know how Yods work. I can give you some of the theory, and I can probably get a bit mystical about it into the bargain. But I don’t seem to get round to them when I do readings, because there’s so much else to talk about. So I’ll give myself some practice by looking at the composite chart of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, which has a yod with Mercury at the apex and Neptune and Pluto at the base.

This one really works well. These 2 have been fated to work together over a long period in a really difficult relationship, full of power struggles (Pluto) and, we are told, broken promises (Neptune). It has dominated British politics, and it has got as bad as things can get. Yet neither of them can get out of it. Even after an attempted coup last September, there was no way Tony Blair could have sacked Gordon Brown. They have had to compromise and compromise and put up with it and live with it. It is not about them learning to be friends or willing colleagues. They never will be. As Rory Bremner said of them, “It’s not exactly Brokeback Mountain.”

The sextile is supposed to be the nice bit. Here there is Neptune sextile to Pluto, and they have been working together on a vision for the collective. That bit hasn’t been too bad, in the sense that policy hasn’t been the main issue. At least they have had that. Like any challenge, they may or may not learn from it. There will no doubt be plenty of mutual loathing by the time it’s over. But one or both of them might have learnt that life is sometimes about accepting difficult conditions, there’s nothing you can do about it, it’s not what you would have wanted, it is of such a nature that you baulk at it, you can never fully realise your ‘dream’. But from a deeper perspective, it’s maybe not such a limitation as it appears to be.

So back to the Mars-Venus-Saturn Valentine’s Day Yod. The nice bit is Mars sextile Venus, both exalted. The potential for a harmonious romantic involvement in which there is plenty of mutual attraction. And then the hard bit: Saturn. Saturn is about learning anyway, and so is the apex of the yod. And Saturn is also frequently to be found in long-term relationships, he is what binds people together (for better or for worse). So I think this Yod is about keeping the romance and appreciation alive in long-term relationships. As it’s Saturn, it’s not just about keeping it alive, which sounds rather desperate, but actually building it. And that’s not necessarily easy when you’re both gradually falling apart and there’s things about the other person that you don’t like, never have liked and never will like. A bit like Tony and Gordon. But it’s real. It’s a compromise, or seems like one. But that’s maybe because we’ve got some ideal relationship in our heads. So I think this Yod involves all these sorts of issues. It’s a good time for deepening long-term relationships, and for those of us who back off from them (again, Saturn), a good time to look at why. Or why they just don’t seem to work for us.

Saturn is also about age. I seem to regularly do readings for women around 40 who are single and who fear they are getting too old to be attractive. I’m always having to point out that people of a similar age continue to find each other attractive. It’s easily observable. And old people’s homes are full of romantic jealousies! So here’s another issue for that Yod.

Back to Mercury Retrograde. As I said, this one looks like being really out there and over the top. And it stelliums onto the Yod Venus. Now I’ve got to provide an interpretation. I suppose it could mean that a theme of this MR will be stuff getting sorted or exposed in long-term relationships in unexpected, creative, maybe crazy ways. Issues around commitment being suddenly thrown up. But I’m not sure how wise it is to try and second-guess tricksy Mercury Retrograde and tricksy Uranus.

THE VALENTINE'S DAY YOD

There is an amazingly apposite configuration in the sky for a day or two either side of Valentine’s Day on Wednesday: Mars in its favourite sign of Capricorn sextile Venus in its favourite sign of Pisces. They make a yod with Saturn, the ruler of Capricorn, while half way between them, and opposite Saturn, is Neptune, the ruler of Pisces. This yod will be most active when the Moon conjoins Mars on the 14th or 15th of Feb, depending on where you live.

The North-Node is in there as well at 16 Pisces, so I think we are looking at 'meant' encounters, and a deepening sense of why you're together if you're already hooked up. It's a yod, so it's not easy, and compromise will probably be necessary. But at the same time, because of the exaltations and rulerships, it may be an easier yod than most.

This configuration will be part of my next solar return chart, which starts on Monday evening. It should make for an interesting year!

For a fuller account of this yod, see Melody Zindell’s blog Valentine’s Day Love Triangle

OLD PEOPLE

I have a Canadian Indian friend who visits us once or twice a year, and he’s an accomplished story-teller, teacher and ceremonial leader. He’s in his mid-sixties, and he tells me that when he’s back home on the reservation, he’s not considered to be an elder. That’s reserved for the people in their 80s or 90s, who are considered to be the ones with the real wisdom.

This obviously contrasts hugely with attitudes in our modern, western society, where the oldest people are hardly taken seriously at all. If there’s a political crisis, for example, one or two old politicians may be wheeled out to make a comment, but what they say doesn’t carry much weight. Rightly so, I think, in the case of some of them, like Margaret Thatcher, who became even more opinionated (if that were possible) and closed down as she got older. But when some others comment, like Dennis Healey or Michael Heseltine, you feel that here is someone talking who has the benefit of a lifetime of experience, has seen it all before, and is therefore worth listening to, even though they still get quite partisan when it comes to their own party. And I think this applies generally to old people. Some remain foolish, and some have stuff that’s really worth listening to.

With this sort of perspective, someone like Barack Obama, the US Presidential contender, is just a kid, and why are people taking him seriously? Sure, he may be a good guy with some sense and judgement, but he’s only in his mid-forties, there’s so much important stuff that he can’t know yet. However bright you are, there’s no substitute for having lived the full cycle of life. Obama may be better than some others, but he will make mistakes that an older person with sense and experience wouldn’t make. If Bill Clinton had been a bit older, he might have exercised a bit more judgement over Monica Lewinsky (I don’t think he did anything morally wrong there, it was just bad judgement). And Tony Blair might not have rushed headlong behind George Bush into Iraq: Harold Wilson in the 1960s avoided getting Britain involved in Vietnam, despite US pressure.

Both Churchill and Roosevelt are remembered as great leaders, and neither of them reached that position until they were in their sixties. Churchill was elected at a time of need, and it’s as though people instinctively knew that it was time for a real leader (despite his well-known flaws). The same happened in Russia during the Napoleonic Wars. The leadership of the army was riddled with in-fighting and ineptitude. But when Russia was in real danger, they promptly appointed Kutuzov, an old general who had been cast aside, but who everyone knew had the maturity and disinterest to succeed, which he did. His two greatest weapons (according to Tolstoy, at any rate) were time and patience. He could often achieve more by doing nothing than by engaging, and maybe defeating, the enemy. But he had nothing to prove by his age.

THE PEOPLE WE ELECT AS LEADERS HAVE EVERYTHING TO PROVE, AND THEY SHOULD WORKING OUT THIS NATURAL IMPULSE SOMEPLACE ELSE.

It’s all about Saturn and the sign he rules, Capricorn. The gifts of Saturn are not those of the brilliant youth, which is Leo, or the God-given talents of Neptune, but the wisdom that comes with age and experience: where anything we know is because we have earned the right to that knowledge, we have lived through it, we have made mistakes and learned from them. The first Saturn cycle takes us through childhood and the early experiences of adulthood. The second Saturn cycle takes us from the ages of 29 to 58, and it is only then that we will have experienced the full cycle of adulthood; it is only then, at the earliest, that we can possibly have the experience to take on a task as onerous as guiding a whole nation.

Attitudes towards old people have started to change in the last few years, if only because they have had to. We are living longer, there are more old people, we can’t afford to give them pensions ad infinitum, and so people are starting to have to work until they are older – in the UK, at any rate, but the same issue is arising throughout the West. Employment law is starting to change so that you can’t discriminate against old people. In my local supermarket checkout, there’s a lot more old people working at the tills than there used to be.

In the UK last month, three ageing actors - Judi Dench, Helen Mirren and Peter O’Toole, were all nominated for awards. This was unusual, and seemed to me to be significant, particularly as it was occurring under the current Saturn-Neptune opposition: illusions (Neptune) around the worth (Saturn) of old (Saturn) actors (Neptune) are dissolving (Neptune). Even James Bond was up for an award in the person of Daniel Craig, who is not young.

Pluto’s transit through Capricorn, which starts next year will, I expect, continue the trend. I think you get a foretaste of a transit well before it ‘officially’ starts, so we have both Saturn-Neptune and Pluto almost in Capricorn reflecting this change of attitude. And to a large extent it's brought about by the economic necessity (Capricorn) of bringing older people (Capricorn) back into the marketplace (Capricorn), resulting in a transformed (Pluto) appreciation of their worth and earned authority (Capricorn).

How far the change will go is impossible to say. Pluto in Capricorn will bring about an upheaval in our attitudes to authority, which can go either way: it can also mean rebellion. Along with a change in attitude to earned authority, one might expect a healthy disillusion with false authority, with charismatic politicians (OK, a bit of charisma is necessary), such as Ronald Reagan, who was a fake grandfather to his nation, and what is worse, everyone knew it, and still they elected him. During his time in office, Neptune entered Capricorn: Neptune-fake; Capricorn-grandfather. We might also expect to see disillusion with instant, talentless celebrities who are treated as role models.

Pluto in Capricorn may also change our attitudes to government itself(Capricorn). What I have particularly in mind is the Bush-Blair-Iraq fiasco. It has been such a huge blunder, and went against the advice of so many experienced people, that it will at least make a lot of people think “How did this happen?”, and at best will lead to formal enquiries about how we govern ourselves. “How did we, the American people, with all our power and foreign policy experience, allow such a fool to lead us?” In the UK, it was the lies that have caused the biggest breach. This new insistence on truth from politicians is a Pluto in Sagittarius issue, but dealing with it will happen mainly under Pluto in Capricorn.

THE LAST DAYS OF TONY BLAIR

Tony Blair’s 10 years in power has been accompanied by continual major transits of Neptune to his natal chart. Beginning in 1996, the year before he was elected, Neptune has successively conjoined his MC and then his Moon, squared his Sun and is now opposing his Pluto. (Tony Blair: 6 May 1953, 6.10am, Edinburgh, Scotland).

He has just about got a natal Sun-Moon-Pluto t-square, and it has seemed to me for a few years that his time in power would end when Neptune got around to opposing his Pluto, which does seem to be what is happening. While Neptune was activating his MC, Moon and Sun he was able to put his ideas and vision into action – for better or for worse – but now all that is left is Pluto, power itself, and as Neptune comes up to its first exact opposition in March, the power is draining away from him, literally day by day.

Things are confused around him – we’re not sure when he’s going, some senior Labour people are saying it’s time for him to go, others that he should stay, and the cash-for-honours probe is slowly paralysing his government. I’m sure he didn’t mean it to end like this, but he should have looked at his transits!

Of course, he hasn’t just got Neptune opposing his Pluto, he has got Saturn conjoining it as well. And these 2 planets are coming up for an exact opposition at the end of the month. The first exact opposition, at the start of last Sept, coincided with an attempted coup (a week later) by Gordon Brown, and Tony Blair being forced to give a date by which he would be gone. This in itself constituted a major leaking away of his power.

So we can expect to see a further major leakage of power over the next month or so as Saturn and Neptune square up to Pluto for the second time. It seems to me that all he is left with now is not much more than the trappings of power – he certainly can’t undertake major new initiatives. Any more significant seepage – which the astrology is saying is inevitable over the next month – and I can’t see how he can go on.

The chart for New Labour in power is set for 3.17am, on 2nd May 1997, in London. The MC is at 15.23 Sag. You could say the MC stands for the leadership and the direction of New Labour. Along with Saturn-Neptune exactly opposing each other near Blair’s Pluto at the end of Feb, Uranus will exactly square this New Labour MC in mid-March. I think the chances are he will be gone by then.

We have been led to expect an orderly transfer of power from Blair to Brown sometime in the summer. With a hard transit from Uranus governing this transfer, it's probably not going to be like this. It may be quite sudden, and quite soon.

A RAMBLE AROUND SKIRTS, PRIESTS AND CATWALKS

I think I need to point out for those who didn’t spot it that my blog of 14th Jan, Dharmaruci’s Advice Column, was actually a spoof. The “Christian arms dealer” who wrote to me with his problems was a satire on George Bush, and the chart I analysed in response was Bush’s.

I was down the local hospital the other day, giving a lift to a friend who’d bust his Achilles tendon chasing a school kid who’d lobbed something into his class, and I noticed that the nurses were all wearing trousers. It wasn’t their choice, it was their uniform. It looked quite good, and you could see they felt good in them. What I want to know is, why hasn’t there been a corresponding move by men towards wearing skirts? Unless, of course, you’re a Scotsman or a Roman Catholic Priest, who’ve worn them for centuries anyway. And as long as they’re not wearing underpants, there are no insinuations about the Scots’ manliness- if anything, the opposite, with those cold northern winds blowing around them. As for the priests, my lips are sealed.

There was a programme on TV a few months ago in which it became clear that a lot of the problems around RC priests and their sexuality lies in the fact that they have always been celibate and are suffering from arrested development. Celibacy is given a lofty spiritual status, but what these poor suckers don’t realise is that it was introduced by the church for financial reasons: it was cheaper to support a priest who didn’t have a family.

I was chatting to the same friend the other day, who teaches Religious Education, and he reckons the idea of renunciation in Christianity came ultimately from Hinduism, and God knows where they got it from. Some of them have practiced really extreme asceticism for thousands of years. Which brings me on to Ruth Kelly, a British Cabinet Minister. She’s in her thirties and is a member of Opus Dei. It’s pretty normal amongst them to practice some form of mortification like whipping yourself or wearing metal spikes that rub into your thigh. She’s one of these ghastly New Labour women who talk in earnest soundbites from behind a huge defensive wall. She makes me think that maybe David Icke is right, we really are ruled by 14ft bloodsucking reptiles. “I do not like her, she is not a man and she is not a woman,” as President Giscard D’Estaing once said of Margaret Thatcher.

These hosepipes that you get on the fashion catwalks aren’t women either. They’re NOT sexy, and I don’t know why they’re held up as an ideal. It must be to do with Neptune in Aquarius. Neptune is fashion, and Aquarius isn’t exactly the most embodied of signs. There it is: it’s currently fashionable to be disembodied, it’s sexy to be unsexy.

With Saturn currently opposite Neptune, there has been protest building against this trend. Spain and Italy – Latin nations that aren’t hung up about sensuality – are prohibiting girls who are too thin from going on the catwalk.

Neptune will move into Pisces in 4 years time, a sign that can also be disembodied, and which easily expresses this by getting overweight. The problem in Aquarius’ case is a detached or superior attitude to the body and instinct; in Pisces case, it is lack of boundaries, lack of a grounded awareness of what they’re doing.

So instead of hosepipes we can expect to see great balls of female blubber being hauled along the catwalk by teams of white stallions. Fat will be the new thin. These models, unable to move, will be waited on hand and foot by male eunuchs. Pete Doherty, himself a Pisces, will encounter Kate Moss’ fury as he has a string of affairs with these creatures.

I find it odd that while on the one hand the models get ever thinner, there is a growing problem of obesity within the population. I don’t think the obesity is a Neptune/fashion thing. It is more like Pluto in Sagittarius: death (Pluto) by expansion (Sag, another sign that gets fat). Is there anyone normal out there, anyone with a healthy covering of flesh who doesn’t feel bad about themselves?

ASTROLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTALISM

There could hardly be a more important subject than that of climate change and the environment, and yet I haven’t been able to find an astrological take on it via the internet or anywhere else. I’d been occasionally pondering this one for a couple of years, and I finally came upon a way in last December through my blog on The Uranus-Pluto Generation. I was talking about David Cameron, the leader of the UK Conservative party, who has been attempting to make the environment for the first time a major issue in British politics, and I realised that this guy has the 1960s Uranus-Pluto conjunction in his chart, probably conjunct his ASC, and despite him being a Tory, his environmentalism is therefore probably for real.

And the conjunction is in VIRGO. Virgo is concerned with the cycles of nature (through her presiding goddess Astrea) and with technology (Virgo is Mercury-Mind ruled, an earth sign, analytical and perfectionist). And what technology has done is to disrupt the cycles of nature, leading to our environmental issues. So it is a very Virgoan issue. Eureka! It’s obvious when you think about it.

During the 1960s, when David Cameron was born, Pluto was in Virgo (1956-1972). For most of the 1960s, depending on what orb you use, Uranus was in conjunction with Pluto. During that period we saw the beginning of environmentalism as a radical protest movement (Uranus-Pluto).

In Sept 1962, for example, Silent Spring was published, a book that “claimed detrimental effects of pesticides on the environment, particularly on birds” and which “is widely credited with launching the environmentalism movement in the West.” (Wiki). Uranus was at 1-2 Virgo, Pluto was at 9-10 Virgo and both were opposite Chiron! The Sun may well have been in Virgo as well.

The two international environmental protest movements that we have probably all heard of, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, were founded in 1969 and 1971 respectively, though Greenpeace arose out of protest movements that were around a year or two earlier. So these two are also offspring of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction as it came to an end, with Pluto in late Virgo and Uranus in early Libra. The World Wildlife Fund was founded on 11 Sept 1961, with Sun and Pluto in Virgo, and Uranus 11 degrees off in late Leo. (I have heard it said that outer planet conjunctions are so far reaching on a mundane level that we need to consider them as operative up to 15 degrees apart).

The common factor in all of this is Pluto in Virgo: this was the period when humanity’s protest against environmental destruction (Virgo) first became empowered (Pluto). And Uranus was the protest, sometimes out of sign.

30 years later, from 1995 onwards, Pluto moved into Sagittarius, squaring its position in the 1960s, and so re-empowering the environmentalism that began in those times. And that re-empowerment consisted in the fact the environmentalism moved from being a protest issue to a mainstream political issue.

Probably the most significant move in this direction was the Kyoto treaty, which assigned mandatory targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to signatory nations. The treaty was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan in December 1997, opened for signature on March 16, 1998, and closed on March 15, 1999. The agreement came into force on February 16, 2005. (Wiki) It originally came out of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, established in 1992. So Kyoto and what led up to it takes us through virtually the whole of Pluto in Sagittarius.

Even though George Bush notoriously opted out of Kyoto, environmentalism as a real political issue has still progressed in the USA, through eg. the Gubernator’s initiatives in California and even in GWB’s recent State of the Union Address. So with Pluto at the very end of Sag, the issue is still being empowered politically.

As Pluto finishes squaring its 1960s Virgo journey, so is Uranus in Pisces now working its way through an opposition to Virgo, but some years behind. So out of this Pluto re-empowerment we can expect to see all sorts of interesting and radical and unexpected developments, both political and technological. There may well be a major leap forward as soon as the end of next year, as Saturn moves into opposition with Uranus, a combination which is well-known as a signature of technological breakthrough. As well as, politically, the bringing of radicalism (Uranus) into the status quo (Saturn).

And ironically, it may well be the USA, the worst polluter of all, and the last to come on board, which will come up with many of the breakthroughs. The USA has historically proved very inventive and able to rise to a challenge, and its natal Saturn-Uranus Trine can only help.

Incidentally, Barack Obama, the rising star of the Democrats and a contender for President, has Uranus in late Leo and Pluto in early Virgo, so I think we can see him as a member of the 1960s Uranus-Pluto generation who may be central to addressing the environmental crisis. When there is a pressing collective need like this, leaders will tend to get elected who are instinctively in tune with it. This is a point in favour of him winning the next US election. The Saturn-Uranus opposition, at 19 Virgo Pisces, will be hitting his Mars at 22 Virgo, and all at election time in Nov 2008. This is again a favourable pointer, not just to him winning, but to him having the dynamism to bring something new into politics that breaks the mould and which also addresses the environmental issue.

The Uranus-Pluto Cardinal square of 2010 onwards is the opening square of the cycle that began with the Virgo conjunction of the 1960s, so we should see the issues that began to be raised in those days receive new impetus from 2010 onwards - and probably even now.

Back to Pluto. Its square since 1995 from Sag to its 1960s Virgo journey is also relevant by sign, because Sag, for all its questing and enthusiasm, is well known for its lack of interest in mere earthly, ordinary matters. (In the system of esoteric rulerships, the earth is the ruler of Sag, suggesting what this sign needs to do to function at its best). And in this case it has been disastrous. We have our ever expanding quest for knowledge and know-how (Sag) based on a dismissive and exploitative attitude (Square) towards the cycles of nature (Virgo). This current transit is on the one hand a square in the worst sense, in that our destruction of the environment is accelerating; and it is also a square in the best sense, in that we are slowly beginning - in some countries - to rise to the challenge of addressing the issues it raises.

In my December blog on Pluto and the Galactic Centre, I made a connection with the Pluto-GC cycle and the environmental issue. Pluto last conjoined the GC in about 1760, as the steam engine which was crucial to the Industrial Revolution, which powered (Pluto) it, was being invented. Now, as Pluto conjoins the GC again last year and this, we are unavoidably faced with the environmental consequences of that Revolution. The GC’s involvement suggests that this issue is an important part of humanity’s evolution. It is not just a technological problem we have to solve. It has all sorts of deeper ramifications to do with our attitude to the planet.

Incidentally, the 1760 Pluto-GC conjunction also had Eris involved a few degrees away. Little Miss Mischief. Yes, here’s this wonderful opportunity to live as you have never lived before and generate untold wealth. There’s going to be this little problem 240 years from now, but I’m not telling you about that. What we have done to the environment is an externalisation of what’s in our own psyches, and Eris set us up for that. It’s horrible, but it’s been necessary, that’s how transformation sometimes works, and it points to part of Eris’ function in the transformational process. She sets us up for a necessary fall. 240 years later, with Pluto again conjunct the GC, Eris has turned up trine to the conjunction, ensuring we know that she has also been part of the picture – and maybe even to help us sort the mischief, while she creates some more for the next Pluto-GC conjunction.

So far we have Virgo and Pluto-GC-Eris as the main players in the environmental crisis. I think that Ceres also needs to be brought in. Ceres was promoted to the status of dwarf planet last year, so she obviously wants us to look at her. The promotion took place on 24 Aug, with the Sun in Virgo. As the goddess of growing plants she has a strong connection to Virgo. And through her daughter Persephone, who was a virgin (until Pluto got his hands on her) there is another strong connection to Virgo.

Ceres goes through all the signs every 5 years, so is bound to have aspected Uranus-Pluto during the 1960s. There were still some interesting ones, though. On 9 Nov 1965, Pluto and Uranus were between 18 and 19 Virgo, and Ceres was opposite at 18.32 Pisces. There were other occasions as well where Uranus and Pluto were very closely conjoined while Ceres was making a very tight aspect to them. So I think we can draw her in to the environmental issue as well.

Ceres and Astrea are both goddesses who love nature, which I think all humans also do, when they think about it. In looking at Ceres we also need to look at the main myth surrounding her, which is the abduction of her daughter by Pluto, her grief and her eventually finding Persephone, but only having her back for 6 months of the year – which became summer – while the other 6 months her daughter spent in the underworld with Pluto, and this became winter, Ceres’ time of sorrow.

So Ceres becoming prominent now suggests to me that we are entering the initial winter where Ceres has lost her daughter and doesn’t know where she is. We have lost our innocent, and unknowing, attitude to nature, as we collectively realise we are destroying her. But we can never go back to how we were – our technological advancement cannot be undone: Persephone has lost her virginity. To solve the problem, some sort of arrangement has to be made between the Ceres of Nature and the Pluto of destructive technology, just as Ceres and Pluto in the myth have to come to an arrangement. Ceres is resigned to it, but as a mother she is never happy with it. In the same way, Nature will probably never be as wild and bounteous as before humanity became technological. But at least an arrangement can be made to the benefit of both.