From BBC News:
A pair of bloomers that once belonged to Queen Victoria have been sold for £4,500 at an auction in Derby.

The knickers have a 50in (127cm) waist and date from the 1890s, which indicates the monarch had a large girth as she approached her old age.

Auctioneer Charles Hanson said: "These pants, considering their provenance and pedigree, are very exciting... we know that they are hers [Queen Victoria]."

Do you have exciting pants?

Fashion and Michael Caine’s Mum

It’s the late sixties in London, the era of mini-skirts. Michael Caine recalled taking his mother down the Kings Road to see what all the fuss was about. “I said, here’s one now, and this girl walks by with a mini up to here. She goes by and my mother looked at her. So, we walk on a bit. She never said a word. So I said, what do you think, mum? She said: If it’s not for sale, you shouldn’t put it in the window.”

This was the time of Uranus conjunct Pluto (cultural revolution/iconoclasm) sextile to Neptune (fashion) in Scorpio (sex).

The Cult of Celebrity

“The contemporary cult of celebrity was born in the sixties. All developed societies lavish attention on a small number of favoured people, rich, beautiful or talented. In eighteenth-century Europe it might be duchesses and court composers, in classical Rome orators and gladiators, in nineteenth-century Japan, warriors and courtesans. Details of their clothing, personal lives, foibles, family successes and disasters are gossiped about and vicariously enjoyed. They form a fantasy extended family, prettier and wickeder and more brightly coloured than the rest of us.

What has changed in recent decades is the scale of celebrity devotion, this cargo cult of modern Britain.It has elbowed aside rival forms in television entertainment, invaded and occupied popular newspapers and produced racks of magazines breathlessly following the face-lifts, marital break-ups, boob jobs and births of celebs. All of this originated in the mid-sixties. The cloying, ingratiating tone of contemporary magazines such as Hello! and OK! when interviewing or describing some frozen-faced doll can be found in the write-ups of the young set in British newspapers, supplements and the arch glossies of the sixties. The origins of ‘Big Brother’ television exhibitionism are buried in game shows and agony aunt columns half a century old. The raising of footballers and musicians from being tradesmen-servants of the public to misbehaving gods began then too.

Celebrities are often mocked for being talentless. Some are, some are not. A tribute paid to the young and beautiful by the rest of us, the circle of celebrity is paradoxically both very small and very open.From the outside the celebrity world seems to be a closed, charmed place, a marquee guarded by men with shaved heads and sunglasses inside which rock stars and footballers, actresses and princesses, all magically turn out to know one another. Yet what the sixties discovered was that celebrity must be open too in the sense of letting in new people from the streets, or it congeals into a resented elite. Modern celebrity has no time for a Samurai class or for haughty duchesses – it must be a fantasy island we could all paddle our way to, at least in theory. Cultural democracy rules, even while parliamentary democracy struggles.” (From A History of Modern Britain by Andrew Marr).

I think the cult of celebrity has been given extra power in recent years by the mutual reception of Neptune in Aquarius and Uranus in Pisces. Each planet is in a sign that the other rules and Neptune and Pisces are both associated with celebrity. And Aquarius/Uranus reflects the increasing democratisation of celebrity. An aspect of this is that it almost becomes a virtue to have no talent (e.g. Victoria Beckham and Jade Goody): it shows that we could all do it.

Taking Obama's Astrology Seriously

Berlin, 1930s. An enthusiastic crowd of 200,000 gathers to hear a political leader. “It is time to stand as one…we must reclaim the future for our children.” The messages of hope and triumph, devoid of content, roll forth, and the crowd roars its approval.

Whoops, I got the date wrong, it was actually last week, and the speaker was Barack Obama at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin: he certainly also knows about symbolism, like our friend from the 1930s.

With Barack Obama it’s so important to look for content when he speaks, and weigh it coolly, and look at his voting in Congress. The way he is able to sway huge crowds with non-specific messages of hope is no different to what our friend from the 1930s was able to do, and the Germans seem just as vulnerable to it now as they were then.

One of Obama’s points was this: It was the moment, he said, to "renew the goal of a world without nuclear weapons" and not "stand idly by and watch the further spread of the deadly atom". Fine words, wonderful words, completely free of content. Remember he recently said that with himself as President, America would do take “no options off the table” to stop Iran getting nuclear weapons? That means he would be prepared to use the nuclear option.

Germany had fallen on desperate times when the Nazis rose. Hitler was able to play on this with promises of a better future. Nowadays we are not economically desperate, but many of us feel desperate about the future of the world – the materialism and consumerism, the destruction of the ecosystem and the beautiful rainforests, the lack of a sustainable economic future when the oil runs out, nuclear proliferation…. The list continues, and many of us are rightly desperate for a new type of politics.

Barack Obama plays on this brilliantly. Those Germans do not know the man, he is not even German, he was making them non-specific promises of a better future and they were falling all over him. Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.

I feel that some astrologers do not take Obama’s astrology seriously like they would with a client. The man has Sun in Leo square to Neptune and Moon in Gemini square to Pluto. In any normal reading one would be delving into the unresolved issues and life-challenges that these aspects represent, the talents and contradictions and dangers. But like the Germans, some astrologers have fallen in love with Obama and what he seems to stand for. In their analyses they skim over those squares. We are bound to have different opinions about Obama. But those squares are central to him, they are deep character issues, and they need treating as such.


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Neptune and Pluto are both collective planets, they are strongly keyed in, in a challenging way, to his Sun and Moon. So he has a powerful relationship with the collective (and his Saturn-Jupiter in the 12th is almost like a world ruler!) But it is also problematic. Much as we may want to love him, the astrology forces us to be circumspect, to wait and see how it all unfolds.

In a documentary I saw a while back, a woman was saying that as an 18-year old she had met Hitler and looked into his eyes “and all I could see was goodness.” I do not think Obama is like Hitler, but people are seeing what they want to see, what they need to see. And there is that intoxicating feeling, which has gone international, of belonging. So let’s at least take the astrology seriously.

This morning I dreamed of a Grand Trine between Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. I think something big may be about to happen, all I've got to do is put my feet up and enjoy it! See you in a few days.

The 2008 Neptune-Chiron-Node Conjunction

For much of this year Neptune, Chiron and the North Node have been hanging out near each other in Aquarius. I’ve scratched my head at this one, because there isn’t an obvious answer to what it might mean. And I’ve never really thought about the mundane significance of the Node, what it means for the world generally when the North Node is in a particular sign.

In Jan 2008 the North Node reversed into Aquarius, where it will remain until July 2009. So collectively we are needing to learn about Aquarius. Our collective karma is at a point where, to move forward, we need to become Aquarius at its best: humane, with a vision for the future that perhaps involves technology, a sense of brotherhood between nations. What we need to move away from is negative Leo – self-centredness, complacency, a sense of entitlement and domination over the planet.

It’s hard to generalise for the whole world, because even though we live in an age of globalisation (given impetus by Pluto in Sag and the Uranus-Neptune conjunction of the 1990s), it is still made up of many different parts. This recognition itself is North Node Aquarius: that while we need to feel interconnected, globalisation should not be a matter of making the whole world like the West, of aspiring, for example, to turn the ‘lost continent’ of Africa into something resembling ourselves.

Having scratched my head to apply the Node-Chiron-Neptune conjunction to the whole world, I found I could at least apply it to the USA, which isn’t a bad start, given its influence on the world.

You can see the North Node theme politically. There is the old guard, Bush Republicanism, that has been characterised by negative Leo. And there has been something new coming in strongly via Obama, which could be characterised as positive Aquarius. Obama’s Ascendant is at 18 Aquarius, which the North Node is currently hovering around. He is therefore very much the man of the moment, a public person through whom the current placement of the North Node seems to be crystallising, the Aquarian sense of brotherhood and a new vision for the future.

The Node has also been conjunct Chiron. So this sense of a need for a new vision is fuelled by the mistakes of the past. The chart for the Iraq War has a (wide) Mars Chiron conjunction, which is kind of perfect. In 2003 George Bush was about to have Chiron start to hard aspect his Angles; in the UK, Tony Blair was about to have Chiron conjoining his natal Chiron-MC conjunction.

So Chiron was an important part of the picture around the Iraq War, both for the War itself, and more personally for its leading protagonists. The current hunger for change in the US, the longing for a new idealism, has been partly fuelled by the tragic, drawn-out fiasco of Iraq. This connects Chiron and the North Node.

The centaur Chiron was primarily a wise teacher who educated young heroes, rather than the ‘wound’, which came later, but which has become the reflex word we apply to him; and as far as I know, he was never a healer. So there is a certain type of wisdom to be gained from encounters with Chiron, and also an ability to attempt impossible tasks. Negatively, there is a certain type of foolishness allied to a quixotic, ‘fools rush in where angels fear to tread’ mentality.

The particular type of wisdom and folly around Chiron is associated with insight, or lack of insight, into how things are: the insight that certain things cannot be changed, they are part of how humans are, the ‘incurable wound’ that frustrates all our naïve idealism. In the case of Iraq, you had three tribes – the Sunnis, Shias and Kurds – that had been artificially roped together as a country, and forcibly stopped from slaughtering each other by a ruthless dictator, Saddam Hussein. George Bush (unlike his father) and Tony Blair thought they knew better, they would bring ‘democracy’ to such a country. This was quixotic Chiron. We all know what the result has been, and 5 years on there would still probably be mayhem if the Americans left. The long-term result is likely to be a dictatorship by the majority Shias instead of by the minority Sunnis.

So this is Chiron teaching us that between competing human tribes there will always be a struggle for power, you cannot hope for ‘democracy’ where there are such differences. Even in the US, the attitude of many Republicans towards the opposition Democrats can be such that it is hard for democracy to happen. Look what happened to Bill Clinton while in office, and then the dirty tricks that came afterwards in the 2000 election. Democracy is not a permanent state of grace that certain ‘advanced’ nations attain to. In 1000 years time, it will probably be seen as a quaint phase that some countries went through for a while. So Chiron in the sign of Aquarius, which is associated with democracy, is asking us to make these sorts of reflections.

Chiron is also associated with attempting the impossible, which we saw with Iraq, and which we are also seeing with Barack Obama, with his promises to heal divisions, to bring the country together. Politicians love to make these sorts of promises. Remember George Bush’s promise to be bi-partisan (which he remarkably had been as governor of Texas - unlike Obama, he actually had a track record in this respect)? To what extent Obama will succeed in this very difficult task, and to what extent it will be exposed as naivety on his part, remains to be seen. He has used very fine words, but has not been very concrete. Regarding Israel and Palestine, and his wish to see Jerusalem become the undivided capital of Israel, Obama’s attitude will do anything but heal divisions.

Neptune has also been hanging out with Chiron and the North Node, and in the case of American politics, this describes the powerful longing for redemption, for a figure who will bring some idealism back to the country after the dirty, dispiriting Bush years. This is all happening in Aquarius, which is the sign of the American people, the Moon, in the Sibly chart. That Moon at 27 Aquarius is closely conjunct Obama’s South Node, and Neptune will cross this point over the next couple of years. So it is a very heady brew for America to handle.

Astrologically, Obama connects powerfully with this current American longing for a saviour. A point to watch out for is that it is his South Node, not his North Node, that connects him with the American people. His way of connecting with the people is an easy game for him to play. It points towards his past rather than towards his future, and is therefore not a creative act for him.

So Chiron-North Node-Neptune is this combination of learning from past mistakes about the limitations of democracy, the need to broaden the Aquarian sense of brotherhood to include all nations and interests, and the longing for a new world and even a saviour figure. This combination of factors has been powerfully apparent in the US political scene this year.

I think that the reflection on the nature of democracy which Chiron and the Node are pointing to has another aspect for Americans: don’t kid yourselves that you have left monarchy behind. From a British point of view you have a monarchy in a much more real sense than we do. Ours is symbolic, it has no real powers, and our Prime Minister is not elected separately to the party that predominates in Parliament. The US elections are focussed on the choosing of one person to lead the country to a much greater extent than we have over here. That, to me, is like electing a King or Queen, and it shows in the way that the Kennedys, Bushes and Clintons have become like Royalty.

While we are currently seeing this need for Royalty through the lens of Neptunian longing and Obamania, it can also be seen through the US 10th House Saturn. The American astrologer Jessica Murray notes in her book Soul-Sick Nation: “The Jungian astrologer Liz Greene has made bold to suggest that in sharp contrast to its self-image, the United States – deep in its collective soul – yearns to return to a monarchy (an opinion, perhaps, only a British writer could get away with.) Saturn’s elevated placement in the 10th House bespeaks a strong-arm father-figure shored up by long tradition, against which the Jupiter/Sun square incessantly rebels – as the colonies did from the English king. Without a Big-Daddy form of government, Greene argues, the country does not know what to do with itself and founders like a teenager without parental guidance. Further insight about the US Saturn dilemma can be gained from George Lakoff’s Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think, which presents a model of the patriarchal dynamic between citizens and the state.”

My only comment here is that Liz Greene grew up in the US, though of British immigrant parentage, and has lived in Europe for decades. So she is an American commenting on the Americans, but from a distance!

Though we have had the North Node conjunct Chiron and Neptune this year, the exact conjunction between Neptune and Chiron won’t occur until Jan 2010 (though they will be within ¼ of a degree next May), very close to the US Moon. Last time this occurred was in Sept 1945, in the sign of Libra, another airy, civilised sign like Aquarius. This is a whole other subject, but it did correspond with the beginning of post-war reconstruction, in which the USA played a remarkable and civilised role. So maybe this time we will also see an America at its best.

Time For Some Campaignin'

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Saturn-Uranus and new energy technologies

We are only a few months away from the first exact opposition between Saturn and Uranus. As is well known, it will occur on Election Day in the USA, 4th November.

In 2006/7 we had the Saturn-Neptune Opposition: in terms of exact oppositions, this only lasted for about 9 months. The Saturn-Uranus opposition is going to take about 18 months to complete 5 exact crossings, so we will be under the influence of this transit for much longer. (See also my posts of 17/6/7 and 18/6/7).

I am glad about this, because what we need more than anything at the moment are technological breakthroughs so that 7 billion people can continue to live in a world of limited resources. Uranus is associated with scientific/technological advances, and Saturn helps them manifest, become concrete. Pluto’s entry into Capricorn and Saturn’s entry into Virgo have forced us to acknowledge, or at least begin to acknowledge, that the world’s resources are limited and that we have a responsibility to take care of the planet. The old paradigm of endless growth, in which the real purpose of economic activity has been lost sight of, will have to change.

Necessity is the mother of invention, and it is the underlying limitation on resources which will be providing the push to make technological advances. The other day I was reading about developments in solar cell technology, in which US researchers, by treating glass above the cell in a particular way, were able to direct something like 10 times more light into the cell. This is exactly the sort of thing I expect to see more of. The economic argument for alternative fuel sources is only just starting to be made. It is this argument more than anything that will create advances. So far we have just been tinkering around, and one or two alternative sources – e.g. wind turbines – have started to become economically viable.

I think that developments so far will be as nothing compared to what is to come over the next few years as Saturn opposes Uranus, and the price of energy continues to stay very high for simple supply and demand reasons.

The exact opposition on Election Day in the US suggests that there may be a lot of political will behind technological developments in the next few years. Barack Obama has repeatedly highlighted the need to reduce dependence on foreign oil.

I’ve always thought that while the US is the biggest waster of energy, the country that has most lost sight of what work and economic activity are really for (Sun-Jupiter square Saturn in the US chart), it will also make the greatest contribution, when the time comes, to finding technological solutions to the problem of limited resources. The US has Saturn trine Angular Uranus in Air, so inventive ideas come easily to the US as a nation. And the country has historically proved to be enormously resourceful and effective when it needs to be. This is the dynamic upside of its Sun square Saturn. The Sun is also conjunct Jupiter, which gives the wastefulness and excess, but also the ability to grow and to think big.

Here’s a Saturn-Uranus item from BBC News, on the ‘most powerful physics experiment ever built’ – and it’s not American!

“A vast physics experiment built in a tunnel below the French-Swiss border is fast becoming one of the coolest places in the Universe. The Large Hadron Collider is entering the final stages of being lowered to a temperature of -271C: colder than deep space.

The LHC has thousands of magnets which will be maintained in this frigid condition using liquid helium. The magnets are arranged in a ring that runs for 27km through the giant tunnel.

Once the LHC is operational, two particle beams - usually consisting of protons accelerated to high energies - will be fired down pipes running through the magnets. These beams will then travel in opposite directions around the main ring at close to the speed of light.

At allotted points along the tunnel, the beams will cross paths, smashing into one another with cataclysmic force. Scientists hope to see new particles in the debris of these collisions, revealing fundamental new insights into the nature of the cosmos and how it came into being.

The most powerful physics experiment ever built, the LHC will re-create the conditions just after the Big Bang.”

The major outcomes of a transit often do not occur until after it is over. The 1973 Oil Crisis, for example, occurred a year after the Saturn-Neptune opposition of the time had finished. We are seeing the same thing with the current soaring of oil prices, occurring well after the end of last year’s Saturn-Neptune Opposition. (Neptune is associated with oil and Saturn with practical limitations.) It is a bit like the exact crossings of a transit constitute the stirring of the pot, the gradual build-up of inner transformations, which eventually lead to a new life or to a changed world after the transit is over.

In the same way I would expect the Saturn-Uranus opposition of the next couple of years to lead to intensive technological research, but it may only be after that period that we start to see some real results. Quite logical, really.

There are, of course, many other dimensions to Saturn-Uranus, like new political ideas, which are almost inevitable if we are having to change our economic paradigm. And these new ideas belong as much to the 2012 square of Uranus in Aries (new vision) to Pluto in Capricorn (transformation of governmental structures) as they do to the slightly nearer-at-hand Saturn-Uranus opposition. It’s as though whatever new political ideas/ideals that come in over the next 2 years (Saturn-Uranus) will precipitate a much deeper revolution as we move in to 2011/12 (Uranus-Pluto).

In the Shadow of the Moon

I’ve just been watching In the Shadow of the Moon, a documentary about the Moon landings that contains extensive and personal interviews with the Apollo astronauts. They are now old men, and the only people to have been on an alien world and to have seen the earth from that perspective. It was an event that not only boosted America at the time of the Vietnam War: it united the whole world, people were not saying that the Americans have landed on the Moon, but that we have landed on the Moon. When before or since has there been an event that united the whole world?

We can set a chart for Washington, the capital of the USA, for the moment Neil Armstrong took his first step. The chart remarkably has no hard aspects – it is all trines and sextiles. It was, you could argue, a purely positive event, one that uplifted and inspired humanity. This is also described by Sun in Cancer (earth based humanity) trine to Neptune Rising (epiphany). Mars is Rising in Sagittarius, describing the courage and adventurousness of the Moon landing, even the spiritual/religious dimension to it. The MC in Virgo, and the 10th House Nodal Pluto in Virgo, describe the technological (Virgo) power (Pluto) involved. Pluto is conjunct Uranus and Jupiter, emphasising the technological breakthroughs and advancements of the mission.


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You could also say that Neptune Rising describes the subsequent doubts that arose over whether the Moon Landings occurred, doubts that become absurd when you listen to the astronauts talking.

Neil Armstrong has a close conjunction in his chart between the Galactic Centre and guess which body? You got it, the Moon!

With Pluto completing his time in Sagittarius, the film's release (in 2006) is timely, a last look back at these events whilst those who participated are still alive.

So here are some quotes from the astronauts talking personally about the journey to the Moon and back.

Charlie Duke I was able to look out the window to see this incredible sight of the whole circle of the earth. The oceans were crystal blue, the land was brown and the clouds and the snow were pure white. That jewel of earth was just hung up in the blackness of space.

The only people that have seen the whole circle of the earth are the 24 guys that went to the Moon.

Edgar Mitchell When you see the earth like that it’s powerful. Not any bigger than that.

Mike Collins Peaceful and quiet and calm and serene and how fragile it appeared, that was oddly enough the over-riding sense that I got looking at the Earth. My God that little thing is so fragile out there.

Edgar Mitchell You get to see the earth receding, you get to see the Moon coming towards you, and it’s awe-inspiring. And you start to identify hey we’re going to be up there pretty soon, bye-bye back there.

Edgar Mitchell The biggest joy was on the way home. In my cockpit window, every 2 minutes, the earth, the moon, the sun and the whole 360 degree panorama of the heavens, and that was a powerful, overwhelming experience. And suddenly I realised that the molecules of my body and the molecules on the spacecraft and the molecules in the body of my partners were prototyped and manufactured in some ancient generation of stars. And that was an overwhelming sense of oneness, of connectedness. It wasn’t them and us, it was that’s me, that’s all of it, it’s one thing. And it was accompanied by an ecstasy, a sense of Oh my god wow yes, an insight, an epiphany.

Gene Cernan I felt that I was literally standing on a plateau somewhere out there in space, a plateau that science and technology had allowed me to get to, but now what I was seeing and even more important what I was feeling at that moment in time, science and technology had no answers for, literally no answers, because there I was, and there you are, the earth – dynamic, overwhelming, and I felt that the earth had just too much purpose, too much logic, was just too beautiful to have happened by accident. There has to be somebody bigger than you and bigger than me. And I mean this in a spiritual sense, not a religious sense. There has to be a creator of the universe who stands above the religions that we ourselves create to govern our lives.

Mike Collins I think if you do something as drastically different like flying to the Moon and coming back again, everyone tells you how important it is, how wonderful it is and how important, important, important, then by comparison a lot of other things that used to seem important don’t seem quite as much so. And I’m not saying that I’m able to face life with greater equanimity because I’ve flown to the Moon, but I try to. And maybe some of our terrestrial squabbles don’t seem quite as important after having flown to the Moon than they did before.

Jim Lovell We learned a lot about the Moon, but what we really learned was about the Earth, the fact that just from the distance of the Moon you could put your thumb up, and you could hide the Earth behind your thumb, everything you have ever known, your loved ones, your business, the problems of the Earth itself, all behind your thumb. And how insignificant we really all are, but then how fortunate we are to have this body and to be able to enjoy living here amongst the beauty of the Earth itself.

Dave Scott The Earth truly is an oasis, and we don’t take very good care of it. And I think the elevation of that awareness is a real contribution to saving the earth, if you will.

John Young Earth has changed a lot since we started flying in Gemini, there’s a lot of things like urban pollution, and you can see that when you orbit now. The big cities all have their own set of unique atmospheres. We ought to be looking out for our kids and our grandkids. And what are we worried about? The price of a gallon of gasoline. In the United States they’re worried about 3 dollars a gallon gas, how awful that is.

Alan Bean Since that time, I have not complained about the weather one single time. I’m glad there is weather. I’ve not complained about traffic, I’m glad there’s people around. One of the things that I did when I got home, I went down to shopping centres, and I’d just go there, get an ice-cream cone or something, and just watch the people go by, and think boy we’re lucky to be here, why do people complain about the Earth? We are living in the Garden of Eden.

Mike Collins As I look back I would use one word, luck. I just feel very lucky. Neil Armstrong was born in 1930, Buzz Aldrin was born in 1930, Mike Collins was born in 1930. I mean, how lucky can you get? We just happened along at the right time.

Alan Bean I feel blessed every single day. Not a day goes by that I don’t think this is great, this was wonderful. Somebody had to go and they happened to pick me, so it is great.

Uranus, Pluto and the Credit Crunch; Pluto, Wiretapping and Barack Obama

Uranus continues to be pretty much stationary in the sky. He has started moving backwards, but very slowly as yet. He is within 6 minutes of the stationing point of 22.39 Pisces. So his effects continue to be very noticeable. Uranian events are shocking and sudden, surprising and disruptive and destabilising, but can also be progressive.

As I wrote in my last post, Uranus has been the main factor behind the recent escalation in the Iran crisis, which should recede soon, as Uranus picks up speed. I think he is also the main factor in the latest financial crisis to hit the USA, as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the 2 giant mortgage companies, threaten to go bust. It has suddenly come into the news, rather than gradually building, and is very destabilising and disruptive for the US. So it’s very Uranian. The shares in the 2 companies halved in value the other day, which is extreme.

Meanwhile, as BBC News reports: ‘One of the largest US mortgage lenders, the California-based IndyMac Bank, has collapsed amid a growing credit crisis. Federal regulators seized the bank's assets, fearing it might not be able to meet withdrawals by depositors. It is the second-largest financial institution to fail in US history, regulators say.’ And the fifth US bank so far this year.

The credit crunch keeps coming back, amid sporadic reports that the worst is over. The worst is not over, for good astrological reasons, if nothing else. Uranus is kicking off the bouts of instability, but the underlying and bigger theme is Pluto. With his move into Capricorn, underlying structural change to the financial system is needed. This has begun to be recognised, indeed it has been recognised for some time now. But it hasn’t been done. It will take time. So there will continue to be these bouts of instability, which may even escalate into much larger crises, until this change has been effected.

In June of 2007 there was the following item in the New York Times, which I wrote about: “The entire international economic architecture established after World War II – the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and what is now called the World Trade Organisation – is today facing questions about its relevance in a global economy.

The three institutions are buckling under the weight of globalisation, trade disputes and the ambitions of rising economic powers in Asia and elsewhere, experts and policy makers said.” This was even before the credit crunch came along.

Pluto in Sag revealed the inherent tendencies towards excess, recklessness and wastefulness within the western economic model, which Pluto in Capricorn will have to address. Pluto is currently having one last journey through the final degrees of Sag. He is currently retrograde. Retrograde motion forces us to look inwards and reflect in order to make the planet work well. And this retrograde Pluto is forcing us to look at the excesses and recklessness of the Sag period. We keep attempting to bandage up the situation and hope all will be well again (false Sag optimism). And then something like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac threatening to collapse reminds us yet again that there are these underlying structural issues. At the beginning of the current Pluto retrograde period we even saw the stockmarket recovering. Many people rightly did not trust this. It was Sagittarian false optimism. It is good that the stock market is low (but not unrealistically so). It means that somewhere we are looking steadily at the actual problems.

Pluto in Capricorn also concerns national security and governmental control. It is worth remembering, before we get too spooked by the spectre of Big Brother, that governments are often pretty inefficient, like any large organisation. Like last year, when the UK government managed to lose benefit data on 25 million people! More than anything, we need a sense of humour around governments and their blundering attempts to organise our lives. And we also need to remember that organisations, particularly large ones, are not very conscious. There is not some malign efficiency at the core of them, rather semi-conscious shuffles and bodges in various directions, which are beyond the ability of any single individual to do much about. I think that animal-herd behaviour is much the best model to describe collective humanity, however intelligent and aware the individuals within it may be.

So this is what I mean when I say that Pluto in Capricorn will involve increased governmental control. It means that the herd will be shuffling in that direction for a while, there ain’t much we can do about it, but we can at least be aware of it and study it and above all have a sense of humour about it. OK, we see individuals who are able to manipulate that herd behaviour – like George Bush manipulating people’s fears after 9/11 – but he is still as much part of that collective as anyone, more so if anything, because he is functioning as a mouthpiece for certain aspects of that collective. Beware of a leader with an outer planet on an Angle, like Bush and his Pluto Rising!

This move towards greater government control was seen a couple of days ago when the US Senate approved a Bill to broaden wiretap powers.

The Bill also included immunity for phone companies who had illegally wiretapped at the behest of the Bush administration. A lot of people aren’t happy about this. I think it is a bit like the torture at Abu Ghraib, where the junior soldiers were the ones who took the rap, and those further up, who had greater responsibility, got off. With the wire-tapping, the companies were going to get prosecuted, while the government, who had ordered it, was going to get off.

I’m sympathetic to the phone companies, because what do you do if you are an executive with a career and a mortgage and a family and the heavy-handed Bush government leans on you to wiretap? What are the consequences for you personally if you don’t comply? Wiretapping ain’t great, but it is not in the same league as torture. I couldn’t say that in the same position I would not have complied with the government. Of course, Bush isn’t giving the companies immunity for this reason. So it’s the right move, but for the wrong reasons.

It’s taken a long time to get this Bill through, during which time a temporary surveillance measure expired, ‘prompting accusations from Mr. Bush that the nation’s defenses against another strike by Al Qaeda had been weakened.’

This is where the whole surveillance thing started – 9/11. Get over it, will you! That was 7 years ago, and there hasn’t been a single further attack on the US mainland since. Even concerning 9/11, the USA could have avoided that if it hadn’t been asleep on the job and ignored obvious clues like Arabs taking flying lessons, but not being interested in learning to land! The government didn’t need any extra powers even then. For geographical reasons the US is remarkably safe from foreign attack.

So this is Pluto in Capricorn as government control for its own sake, based on fear rather than an accurate reading of the actual situation.

Barack Obama voted reluctantly in favour of the Bill, not because he didn’t want increased surveillance, but because he didn’t want the phone companies to have immunity. He wanted the increased powers because he says the world is becoming an increasingly dangerous place. I think he is right about that, but I also think it is a change in foreign policy which is the answer, rather than sitting on the population at home.

Barack Obama is a superb performer and a very talented politician. This lies behind much of his popularity. I think the election in November will be a no-contest. But you get a deeper sense of someone when you look at their policy decisions and the reasons behind them. Barack Obama is hard to get a personal sense of, which you would expect from Aquarius Rising. But decisions like this give me the sense of someone quite conservative, who is not able to think ‘outside of the box’, who is quite determined by the world he finds himself in. Also his comment to the Jewish lobby that he wanted to see Jerusalem remain the undivided capital of Israel. That is a conservative, right-wing thing to say, that can only inflame the Arab world.

Obama is very good at standing for something. That is a huge asset as a politician, and it has given people huge expectations for him. I think his Aquarius Rising does give him a genuinely progressive approach will result in some good developments. But Aquarius is ruled by conservative Saturn as well as revolutionary Uranus. I think in many ways he will prove disappointingly conventional. Mixed in with all the talent and vision I can’t get out of my head the image of a kid (Sun in Leo) who is hungry for power (Moon square Pluto.) But that is politics as usual, and people as usual, so I’m not going to damn him for that, and he may well prove quite good as Presidents go.

The Iran Crisis

The Iranians are currently demonstrating to the world their long range missiles, which would be able to reach Israel. It is presented in the press as a bellicose act by Iran, and it is easy as westerners to accept this and not see it from Iran’s point of view as well. Recently Israel very publicly conducted its own military exercise, designed to show that it has the capacity to reach Iran with air-strikes. Israel sabre-rattled, and Iran sabre-rattled back.

It must be interesting being a Sunni Muslim in the Middle East just now. On the one hand you have the minority Shia Muslims threatening to make a nuclear bomb, and threatening the balance of power, which has been tipped towards the Sunnis for many years. On the other hand you have these fellow Muslims standing up to Israel and to the West, like Saddam Hussein did.

Sabre-rattling apart, the tension has been escalating in recent weeks between Iran and the major western powers. The main astrological signature for this has been Uranus, which has been stationing for some weeks, and this increases its power. It has been stationing at 22-23 Pisces, which is conjunct the Iranian Mars at 25 Pisces, and square to the American Mars at 21 Gemini.

Uranus has an obvious connection to nuclear energy through the element Uranium, and the association of Uranus with ‘splitting’. Indeed, the chart for the first man-made nuclear reaction took place under a Uranus (splitting) –Saturn (form/matter) conjunction. (2 Dec 1942 16.25 Chicago). When the first atom bomb exploded over Hiroshima, Uranus was on the Midheaven, so the planet is strongly associated with nuclear weapons.


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While Uranus has been stationing, Mercury has moved in to an opposition with Pluto over the last week, adding to the brew. It is no longer applying, but it is still quite tight. This opposition has described the war (Pluto) of words (Mercury) that is going on, the power-positioning (Pluto). It doesn’t look like actual war yet. Israel seems the more likely to strike, and while they have made it absolutely clear that they will, they have also said that they want to continue with diplomatic channels for now.

In a week Uranus will be moving, and Mercury will no longer be opposite Pluto, so we can expect the present intensity of exchanges to recede, even though the underlying issue will remain as strongly there.

Pluto is also connected to nuclear power, as it stands for the principle of small causes leading to disproportionately large results – as in the tiny nucleus of an atom containing something like 50,000 times more energy than the chemical energy contained in the orbiting electrons. In the chart for the first man-made nuclear reaction, Pluto was conjunct the IC. In the Hiroshima chart, it was conjunct the Sun. In both cases it was in the sign of Leo, ruled by the Sun, which is itself powered by nuclear reactions.

So Pluto as well as Uranus is a significator of nuclear issues, and so it is appropriate that they should both have been part of the astrological signature of the current phase of the Iran nuclear crisis. And they are (widely) square to one another. Now that we are in the nuclear age, it is arguable that any hard aspect between Uranus and Pluto is going to activate nuclear issues, whether militarily or for peaceful uses. So this is perhaps an early, mutable taste of the coming Uranus-Pluto Cardinal square of 2012.

I think the next flashpoints in the Iran crisis are likely to be firstly in August/September, when Pluto stations square to the Iranian Mars: during September Mars will cross the Israeli Ascendant at 23 Libra, and its Progressed Moon at 27 Libra, so this is a possible time for an attack. The following flashpoint will be in December, when Uranus stations at 19 Pisces, preparing itself for its first actual crossing of the Iranian Mars; and Mars will station at 20 Leo, very close to the Israeli Mars-Pluto midpoint. This I think is the more likely time, as the US election will be out of the way, which Israel would not want to be seen to be attempting to influence or disrupt.

Israel has a powerful natal Mars – in Leo, trine to Jupiter in Sagittarius, and square to the Sun. Their Sun is in the 8th, Pluto’s House, so their government is oriented towards survival. Neptune is currently squaring that Sun from the 4th House of homeland. Transiting Neptune describes the weak (Neptune) leadership (Sun) that Israel has at present, but also the threat to its existence, the threat of dissolution, that Iran represents for them.

Countries, as collectives, tend to behave in predictable ways. This makes astrological prediction quite easy sometimes. There seems to me to be a certainty that Israel will sooner or later attack the Iranian nuclear installations.

This Neptune transit to the Israeli Sun, coinciding with the Iranian nuclear crisis, is going to re-shape the country. Over the next 4 years the progressed Israeli Sun will be approaching the natal MC at 25 Cancer. This could well mean that, for better or for worse, we will see a nation emerge that is more confident of its place in the world.

As for the current incarnation of Iran, with Sun in the 9th in Aries opposite Pluto, they are always likely to have a leader who is bellicose towards foreigners, whether it is the Ayatollah Khomeini or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Natally Iran has a Chiron-MC conjunction, suggesting that there is an inherently flawed institution of leadership in the country. Currently there is a conjunction between the natal MC and progressed Chiron and Sun, suggesting that this flaw is particularly apparent at the moment through its actual leader (Sun). The Progressed Sun will move out of range of Chiron in the middle of next year, as well as across the natal MC. So it is possible that Ahmadinejad will no longer be leader by then, though whether that would be because of the humiliation of an attack, or because the mullahs get rid of him because of his confrontational attitude, is hard to say. Certainly Ahmadinejad does not represent the full range of opinion in the Iranian government, and occasionally – like the other day – you read the odd muttering from a mullah about him.

In 4 years time the Iran Prog Asc will conjoin the Prog North Node, and then 2 years later the natal North Node. So there is something important that Iran needs to learn over the coming years. It’s North Node is in Virgo, which is a sign of analysis and discrimination and humility. At present it is coming from its South Node, Pisces, because there is no discrimination and no appropriate boundaries in its nuclear policy: it is a path that can only lead to destruction and humiliation for the country. As this Nodal lesson is activated in 4 years time, so too by transit will we see Pluto squaring the natal Aries Sun in the 9th, taming and mellowing its natural bellicosity (Aries) towards foreigners (9th).

6th House Uranus: Bats in Bras

From BBC news: A teenager who thought movement in her underwear was caused by her vibrating mobile phone found a bat curled up asleep in her bra. Abbie Hawkins, 19, of Norwich, had been wearing the bra for five hours when she plucked up the courage to investigate. When she did, she found a baby bat in padding in her 34FF bra. The hotel receptionist said she was shocked but felt bad for removing the "cuddly" bat. "It looked cosy and comfortable and I was sorry for disturbing it," she said.

"I did not notice anything as I put my bra on. The night before I had had one or two drinks and I was getting ready quickly. The bra was in my drawer but it had been on the washing line the day before. When I was driving to work, I felt a slight vibration but I thought it was just my mobile phone in my jacket pocket." The bat was captured by one of her colleagues and released.

I looked at the chart for the moment I read this. In the 6th House (small animals) was Uranus, a planet associated with both the unexpected and with flight. Uranus was trine the Sun in Cancer, a sign associated with motherhood and breasts.

History

I’m reading Andrew Marr’s ‘A History of Modern Britain’. Here’s an extract from the prologue:

If, by an act of science or magic, a small platoon of British people from 1945 could be time-travelled sixty or so years into the future, what would they make of us? They would be nudging one another and trying not to laugh. They would be shocked by the different colours of skin. They would be surprised by the crammed and busy roads, the garish shops, the lack of smoke in the air. They would be amazed at how big so many of us are, not just tall but shamefully fat. They would be impressed by the clean hair, the new-looking clothes and the youthful faces of the new British. But they would feel shock and revulsion at the gross wastefulness, the food flown here from Zambia or Peru then promptly thrown out of houses and supermarkets uneaten, the mountains of intricately designed and hurriedly discarded music players, television sets and fridges, clothes and furniture; the ugly marks of painted, distorted words on walls and the litter everywhere of plastic and coloured paper. They would wonder at our lack of church-going, our flagrant openness about sex, our divorce habit, alongside our amazingly warm and comfortable houses. They would then discuss it all in voices that might make us in turn laugh at them – insufferably posh or quaintly regional. They are us. The cropped-haired urchins of the forties are our pensioners now. The impatient lean young adults of 1947 with their imperial convictions or socialist beliefs are around us still in wheelchairs or hidden in care homes. It was their lives and the choices they made which led to here and now. So although they might stare at us and ask, ‘Who are these alien people?’ we could reply, ‘We are you, what you chose to become.’

The US 2008 Solar Return; and proof that 9/11 was not a government conspiracy!

This looks like being a very significant year for the US, which has just celebrated its birthday: with Pluto having recently begun its time in Capricorn, the world economy is reaching a moment of reckoning, while politically we can all sense change in the air. Both the economy and government are Capricornian themes, and Pluto is going to change them both in fundamental ways over the next 16 years.

So I thought it might be worth taking a look at the US Solar Return for this year, using the Sibly Chart. This chart is based on a symbolic time for the Declaration of Independence, but it seems to work well. I have this theory that if you use a particular chart long enough for a person or a country, then it becomes the actual chart, even if the birth time is open to question. Somehow the two merge, gradually we learn to read the person’s character accurately through that particular set of tea-leaves, even though it may be the ‘wrong’ set of leaves. This is because astrology is one of the divinatory arts, where everything can be read in anything, if you know how to do it: the microcosm always contains the macrocosm, you can see the world in a grain of sand.

Anyway, let’s first see if the Sibly Solar Return works as a method. Here is the chart for 1974, the year which revolved around Nixon’s resignation.


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The Sun (leader) conjunct Saturn (he is constrained and accountable) square Pluto (loses power) in the 12th House (he is in disgrace, outside of the usual bounds of society). Moon in Capricorn (the people) opposite MC (they oppose the leadership.) The Moon also refers to Nixon because his Sun in Cap conjoins that Moon. Moon and MC square to Uranus Rising – sudden change in the leadership, and a lot of instability generally for the country.

I read the Sun as the leader, and the MC as the institution of leadership/the government. So Uranus square the MC suggests it was an upset for the whole institution of leadership in the US, which indeed it was.

Now we’ll look at 2001. This year revolved around the 9/11 attacks.


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We see a conjunction of Pluto (terrorist)-Mars (attack) in Sagittarius (foreigners) in the 7th House (Open Enemies). Spot on. The fact that Mars-Pluto is in the House of Open Enemies and in the sign of foreigners is a strong astrological indicator that it was, after all, a bunch of Arabs who proudly and openly admitted to it, rather than a secret government plot, which would be an 8th House event, the House of Secret Enemies.

The government was caught asleep (Neptune conjunct Midheaven), but used the event to create its own illusions (Neptune conjunct Midheaven again) and a surge in popularity (Venus conjunct Asc). The leader (Bush, who’s natal Sun conjoins the US Sun) was in strong relationship with the people (Sun opposite Moon). But this hard aspect also suggests the relationship was not entirely healthy, that in fact he was going against their real interests. The Sun is in the 2nd (Bush asserting his own values, which one expects of a leader) opposite the Moon in Capricorn (fear, control) in the 8th (control, manipulation). Of course these are my value judgements colouring my interpretation of the Moon’s placement, but you can read Bush playing on people’s fears into this placement.

The Sun-Moon opposition conjoins the nodal axis, so there is something very significant here in the relationship between leader and people. You could say it was a defining moment: the American people will be able to look back and see that democracy alone is not enough to protect you from the manipulations, the playing on fears, of a demagogue. (For a good novel on this theme, see Philip Roth’s ‘The Plot against America’.)

So the Sibly Solar Return (SR) seems to work as a method. And the 2008 Return looks like another strong one, because Pluto in Sagittarius is conjoining the Ascendant. Astrology apart, it looks to me like the year will revolve around the election of Barack Obama as President.


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Taking the 3 main parts of the chart – the Sun, the Moon and the Angles – the Sun is by definition in its natal position by sign and degree. The Angles are all in their natal signs, which is interesting, and the Moon is unaspected in Leo in the 8th. You could read this as the people (Moon) engaging in soul-searching and acknowledging past mistakes (8th) to create a new sense of identity (Leo), and in some ways reconnecting to what they used to be (Angles same sign as natally). With Pluto on the ASC there is a deep transformational journey for the USA to go through, after losing its way in the Bush years, but also due to the economic moment of truth that is arriving on the West’s doorstep. This journey involves beliefs (Sagittarius) as well as aspirations and ideals (Pluto rules the 11th in the SR chart). The Plutonic, transformational tone of this chart is also emphasised by the Mars-Saturn conjunction in the 8th, trine to Pluto.

The chart ruler, Jupiter, is in opposition to the Sun. Natally Jupiter conjoins the Sun, and expresses American buoyancy and optimism and sense of expansion, as well as the sense of purpose the country acquires through continuous expansion (Sag Rising gives a similar theme). But in the SR chart we have Jupiter in Capricorn opposite the Sun, which to me indicates a reality check on that continuous expansion, particularly American beliefs about it. This theme is repeated more strongly by Pluto conjunct Sag Asc.

So I think that there is going to be a serious questioning of the dogma of endless expansion. This is such a fundamental belief in America, that it becomes clearer why we saw that search for identity earlier in the reading through the Moon in Leo in the 8th. That Moon was unaspected, so it may not be an easy journey: America may feel at sea for a while about who she is, what she believes. With natal Sun conjunct Jupiter and Sag Rising, beliefs are at the core of the US sense of identity, and it is precisely these that are being called into question over the next year.

In the SR chart, we also see Uranus square to the Pluto/ASC. The next big outer planet transit is the cardinal square from Uranus to Pluto, which will be exact in 4 years time. So this wider, mutable Uranus-Pluto square in the SR chart is a sign of things to come, it will give a foretaste, for those with eyes to see, of the bigger changes coming in a few years time. It also means that the transformational journey around beliefs of 2008-9 will be taking America reluctantly (square) into the future (Uranus), and in ways we cannot predict (Uranus).

The Sun is in the 7th House of partnerships conjunct Venus. So I think we will see America starting to become more popular again (Venus) with other countries. The Sun and Venus are opposite Jupiter in Cap, so this improved popularity will occur particularly if she is more practical and realistic (Cap) in her self-appointed mission (1st House Jupiter).

Mars is conjunct Saturn in Virgo, so we are likely to see more military restraint, consideration and responsibility, and a renewed sense of service to the world (Virgo), the US more genuinely as a peacekeeper.

The single element of the chart that jumps out most to me is Pluto conjunct Asc. Here are a couple of extracts from Lynda Hill’s book on the Sabian symbols as applying to these 2 points.

Asc at 26th degree of Sag. Image: A Flag Bearer in Battle

"Nowadays the Flag Bearer can be anybody with an issue to stand up for, to represent or promote. The issue can be anything from a worthy cause to political issues… All these may attract flack from outside pressure. You may feel that achievements have been made that should be acknowledged in some way. It could be that duties and responsibilities have been piling up on you lately, and the struggle has not been easy. Don’t worry, although people around you are probably busy, they are most likely noticing your leadership abilities. You could be the linchpin of the whole situation. It takes guts to get out front, putting yourself directly in the firing line, but it may be time for you, or somebody near you, to go for it and stand up for what you believe."

Pluto at 30th degree of Sag Image: The Pope Blessing the Faithful

"There is often a need to create or assign someone as the physical representation of what is believed on the spiritual plane. This person of authority performs actions that give our beliefs a feeling of reality and draws the community together. When you do things that are true to your inner self there is a feeling of connection to a higher power. This feeling is like a Blessing and is a reminder of the spiritual purpose of life. In a group situation, it may be that someone in the group needs to take on the role of spiritual representative, and reward the group with his/her words of wisdom and experience. This will help maintain their focus, motivation and faith in what they are trying to achieve."

Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and the August Total Eclipse

In ‘The Astrology of Fate’, Liz Greene uses the story of Parsifal to provide a mythic context for Leo. Parsifal is a young man who has been brought up without a father, and goes on a quest for the Holy Grail. She writes: ‘This beginning which has no father (or no father-principle, although there may be a physical father present) is something I have seen in many Leos lives. The father is either absent of wounded on some more profound level, and he cannot provide the sense of creative renewal of life which the son or daughter needs; and so the child must go out seeking this principle, in the form of his life’s adventure.’

I have certainly seen this absent/wounded father principle myself in the lives of Leos. And it is interesting that both Bill Clinton, the old Democrat President, and Barack Obama, the probable next Democrat President, are both Leos. Bill Clinton’s father died in a car crash 3 months before he was born. Obama’s father separated from his mother when he was two, and he only met him once again. Obama senior also died in a car crash. Clinton lost his father through accident, but in the case of Obama Snr it was a conscious act.

I think we can also see the theme of renewal of life in Obama. He is very much someone who has made himself what he is, and he has taken this further into having a vision of renewal for his country. And in the process the early Leo theme has repeated itself, as first of all there has been a necessary separation from his spiritual father, Rev Jeremiah Wright; and now the person who should be a political father-figure, Bill Clinton, is having a childish Leo tantrum and supporting Obama only very reluctantly.

These betrayals can undermine some people, but in others it is a spur to growth and to individuation. Some years ago Obama wrote his autobiography, in which he did not whine on about how his father left him; rather, he called the book ‘Dreams from my Father.’ So it’s as if these events have been necessary for Obama to become who he is, and even when running for President the same archetypal theme keeps throwing itself at him, demanding that bit more independence and individuality.

Incidentally, in my last post I was looking at Bill Clinton’s compulsive sexuality. Liz Greene also has a take: ‘In the brightness and nobility of [Leo’s] aspirations, he will not permit the lowly shadow, his own flawed humanness, entry. That rejected shadow strikes back from the unconscious through the disintegrating effects of uncontrollable eroticism.’

In Bill’s case, we see only one earth planet (the Moon) and no water planets, exacerbating the disconnection from his human feet of clay. Obama has a similar emphasis on Fire and Air, but there is more Earth and Water than in Clinton’s chart, so perhaps less of a tendency towards disconnection from his ordinary earthly self.

So the big issue at present is getting Bill on board (see my last post). Obama and Bill have good synastry. One of the connections between the charts is Bill’s Pluto at 11 Leo conjunct Obama’s Sun at 12 Leo. At present this is coming out as a power struggle, as Bill continues to withhold his support. But the connection could also be very empowering for Obama. Obama is Bill’s political heir, and Bill should be having the deeply satisfying experience of passing on the flame, and making his experience available. Instead Obama has this big kid to deal with (classic Leo at its worst). Bill needs to change his outlook, from selfish dreams of dynasty to something broader and less personalised. Pluto rules the 8th House, the House of Inheritance. And it is Obama’s Sun that touches Bill’s Pluto, not Hillary’s.

On August 1st there is a total solar eclipse. These events are powerful if they hit your chart. The eclipse is at 9.32 Leo. Bill’s Pluto is at 11.51 Leo, Obama’s Sun is at 12.32 Leo. Some astrologers only use a 1 degree orb for eclipses, but I experience them as operative within a wider orb, certainly the 2-3 degrees we have here. So the eclipse is going to do something powerful to the relationship between Bill and Obama.

Eclipses are part of long-lasting (Saros) series. The nature of the series can, naturally, be read from the chart for the 1st eclipse. The series of which the Aug 1st eclipse is a part began on March 10 1179 AD. Bernadette Brady has this to say about it:

‘This Saros Series concerns itself with breaking out of a very negative situation where no hope can be seen to a more positive space containing many options. A worry that may have been affecting a person will suddenly clear. The solution is shown by the Cosmos and needs to be taken up without too much delay.’


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So there we have it. It looks like Bill will come on board properly in August. This is further indicated by the fact that, at the moment of the Eclipse (which will only appear to be total in certain parts of the world), the Sun-Moon conjunction will just have risen in Washington DC. So it not just powerful and activating (Eclipse) but also suggestive of a new beginning (Sun-Moon Rising) for Obama and Bill.

I don’t envy Obama having to deal with the Clintons in their defeat, or even having them around anyway. But if he can get it to work, and get them campaigning hard on his behalf, I’d expect a landslide win for the Democrats in November.

Bill Clinton is Mightily Pissed Off

Last week Bill Clinton issued a statement through a spokesman that "he is obviously committed to doing whatever he can and is asked to do to ensure Senator Obama is the next president of the United States ". He then proceeded to miss the public show of unity in New Hampshire between his wife and Barack Obama. The statement alone was enough to say that actually he doesn’t want to support Obama, and that he is miffed.

The headlines yesterday were: ‘Obama and Bill Clinton end chill’. The basis for this seems to be that Obama rang Bill Clinton and had a “terrific conversation” according to an Obama spokesman. According to the Clinton spokesman, “he said he was keen to campaign for Mr Obama.”

So Clinton is still going through the motions, he has yet to say anything personally, let alone anything fulsome. He is still miffed.

According to the Telegraph yesterday, they have “learned that the former president's rage is still so great that even loyal allies are shocked by his patronising attitude to Mr Obama, and believe that he risks damaging his own reputation by his intransigence.

A second source said that the former president has kept his distance because he still does not believe Mr Obama can win the election.”

Again we have: “But his lingering fury has shocked his friends. A senior Democrat who worked for Clinton told the Telegraph: "He's been angry for a while. But everyone thought he would get over it. He hasn't. I've spoken to a couple of people who he's been in contact with and he is mad as hell.

"He's saying he's not going to reach out, that Obama has to come to him. One person told me that Bill said Obama would have to quote kiss my ass close quote, if he wants his support.

"You can't talk like that about Obama - he's the nominee of your party, not some house boy you can order around.”

Bill Clinton is mad on behalf of his wife, who seems to be getting over her disappointment a lot better than he is. It is absolutely necessary that she does so, and quickly, if she wants to have a political future, and if she cares about the Democrat party.

These kinds of big disappointments are very interesting. There is something you desperately want to have, you have spent years working towards it, and just when it seems to be within reach it is snatched away from you. It is such a big experience. You may spend years, even the rest of your life, feeling betrayed and bitter.

Ted Heath, the Tory PM from 1970-74, spent the rest of his life in a sulk after Margaret Thatcher won the leadership of the party off him. Right to the end he did not have a good word to say about her. He never got over it, he seemed to have learned nothing. He certainly showed the Cancerian ability to bear a grudge.

Gordon Brown, the current UK PM, never got over the fact that Tony Blair beat him to the leadership to which he, with Moon-Pluto in Leo, felt entitled. He spent the next 13 years treating Blair as a provisional and temporary leader, until he finally got his way last year. Since then the leadership has quickly turned to ashes for him.

Personal ambition is natural and human, but in the end we have to get over it, because it conflicts with the nature of life itself, which is not always going to deliver us what we want. If we want to be happy, if we want to be real, we need to align ourselves with how things are, not how we want them to be. It is natural yet deluded to try to control reality. And it’s very hard work.

Politicians who get to the top tend to have unusually intense desires – or they wouldn’t be there – and it can be correspondingly difficult for them when those desires are thwarted.

So these times of deep frustration are also correspondingly the times when we can change the most and learn the most, because so much of us is engaged and so passionately. I feel glad for Bill Clinton. He has had his share of success, and now he has an opportunity to purify his motivations. The raw egotism that is one of his drives has been revealed, if he cares to look at it. He may well be dealing with this disappointment for the rest of his life, as self-knowledge does not seem to be a natural attribute of politicians. But it may eventually mellow him, he may come to recognise that you can’t control these events, and that what matters most is that the right things happen, rather than who it is that gets them to happen.

For now, it is just as well that America is a democracy, because I don't have much doubt that in other times the Clintons would have had Obama despatched, and would have felt quite justified in doing so. Bill Clinton as Lady Macbeth?

With Neptune Rising, Bill Clinton is not easy to know, nor is it easy for him to know himself. But the present situation I think tells us a lot about him. He is a Leo. What we are seeing is the classic case of wounded pride, of the Leo sense of entitlement being frustrated. OK it is his wife and not him, but he is the alpha-male Lion, and she belongs to his Pride. It seems to me that he is treating her as a sort of possession, as part of his own dreams of dynastic glory. OK, you may be disappointed on your wife’s behalf, that is understandable. But if anyone is going to have a trauma about it, it should be the person it is happening to, not the spouse. There is a strange psychology here, but as we have always known, the Clintons have a strange relationship.

I think the answer probably lies in Bill’s 8th House Moon in Taurus, which is square to his Sun. Venus is the planet we use to attract partners and to keep romance in the relationship. But in a long-term relationship, the woman becomes the Moon in the man’s chart, and the man becomes the Sun in the woman’s chart.


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So Hillary is Bill’s 8th House Moon in Taurus. The 8th is Pluto’s House, and so it is not surprising that he has attracted a Scorpio wife. Hillary is to a considerable extent an externalisation of his Moon, and the square to the Sun shows that it is not an easy relationship.

Leo shines, it is optimistic and life-giving and talented and individual, all qualities that we can see in Bill. But Leos can also coast on their talents and their brilliance: it can come too young and too easily, and they can come to feel that as long as they keep getting the applause and recognition, everything is OK. They can, in this sense, be emotionally superficial.

And this is what that square is about, for Moon in the 8th demands emotional depth and intensity. Hillary, as a Scorpio, acts out this intensity for Bill while he shines in the limelight. He is the one who is seen as the feel-good factor through his Sun in Leo and Venus-Neptune Rising in Libra. She is the one who is seen as hard and ambitious, the Scorpio. But this defeat of Hillary by Obama has revealed the Scorpionic side to Bill. It is not just the wounded pride of the Leo. It is the frustrated desire for power of his 8th House Moon, as embodied in Hillary.

There is a complicating factor, which is Mars. Bill is known for his temper. This is not surprising, as he has Mars (anger) Rising (easily and immediately expressed) conjunct to Neptune (hard to control). Hillary has a buttoned up Mars-Saturn conjunction, though no doubt in private she can give vent to Scorpio rage (Sun in Scorpio; Mars conjunct Pluto). So I think that Bill probably ‘does’ anger for Hillary on a regular basis, and part of his anger about the Obama defeat is actually Hillary’s anger which is going unexpressed – partly, of course, for political reasons.

Bill has not always honoured his Moon. Being 8th House, the theme of sexual betrayal is possible. As President, and on the road to it, he dragged Hillary through the greatest possible public humiliation in the exposure of his affairs. And it expressed the square from his Sun to his Moon, it was almost like it was an ongoing attempt by his Sun to keep his Moon subservient. But you don’t do this to Scorpio/8th House, for sooner or later revenge will be exacted, fully commensurate to what has been perpetrated.

This square perhaps also explains the compulsive nature of Bill’s sexual behaviour. Yes, as a Leo you feel you have a right to a harem, and with Venus-Neptune Rising in Libra you can pull the girls and end up in bed without quite knowing how it happened. But on its own this doesn’t have to be compulsive, it may be something you can take or leave. I think it is the Sun square to the Moon, the basic war in Bill Clinton’s personality, that explains the compulsiveness. As a talented and shining Leo with Neptune Rising in Libra, you don’t want all the dark nasty stuff, especially if it turns out to be your own. So shove that Plutonic Moon out onto your wife and then keep dishonouring it to keep it in its place. And let others see her as the hard, ruthless ambitious one. With her Node at 24 Taurus conjunct Bill’s Moon, Hillary has a lot of necessary learning through being part of all this.

Bill Clinton’s Moon is also square to Hillary’s Mars-Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Leo, which expresses her personal political ambitions. This square suggests that while on the one hand he is very involved in her ambitions, that involvement is not entirely healthy, as we have seen.

On the one hand Bill wants Hillary to succeed. On the other hand he has more than demonstrated a capacity, even perhaps a desire, to repeatedly and publicly humiliate her. He doesn’t quite know what to do with his Moon. He wants to use it, if he can, to further his own dynastic ambitions. Yet he also feels a need to keep it in its place.

Bill has viewed Hillary as an adjunct to his own ambitions. This is a large part of the reason they have stayed together. (And remember it has suited Hillary also in this respect, she is not simply the ‘wronged’ one). With the possibility of her ever being President now seeming remote, does he have any more use for her? Will their marriage last? This seems a brutal thing to say, but we are in ruthless Scorpio territory here, where there is no room for pretence. And what will Hillary want to do with her life?

Certainly from Bill’s point of view the relationship with Hillary is changing, whether or not he yet knows it. Neptune is this year concluding a squaring transit to his Moon at 20.18 Taurus, and the outcome has been what feels to him like a betrayal of his wife by Barack Obama (his rationalisations about Obama not being able to appeal to voters ring hollow in the light of the opinion polls.) With Sun in Leo and Moon in Taurus, Bill Clinton is a very fixed personality. And the long-term, fixed hopes and ambitions of political power and dynasty are being dissolved by Neptune, firstly through his wife (Moon), and then more consciously and personally over the next few years as Neptune makes an opposition to his Sun at 26 Leo.

Also over the next few years Pluto will square firstly his Desc at 5.30 Aries, and then his Venus at 11 Libra. So there is and will be deep change in his relationship to Hillary, and I think we have to see the failure of her presidential ambitions as the starting point of that. Eventually, maybe, he will blame Hillary rather than Obama. Perhaps one day he will not blame anyone and see it just as something that happened. Then he will have learned something, and probably also be less divided in himself between his Sun and Moon.

In the early to mid 90s it was Pluto which hard aspected Bill’s Moon and Sun. This reflected his rise to power, and also the public humiliations of Hillary. 15 years later, as Neptune moves in for another round, Bill is feeling humiliated and disempowered. There is a kind of justice in that: like I said, when Pluto/Scorpio is involved, sooner or later there will be commensurate retribution. But it is not divine whimsy, it is natural law, so we can learn from it.

The Obama-Bill-Hillary nexus is riddled with Leo and Scorpio/Pluto: the pride and desire to be eminent of Leo, the lust for power, and knowledge of its workings, of Scorpio. Hillary has Sun and Venus in Scorpio, and a Mars-Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Leo. Bill has Sun in Leo and Moon in the 8th. Obama has Sun in Leo and Moon square to Pluto. So it is the same archetypes that are active in all 3 of these people in a drama that probably has years to run.

Bill is less Scorpionic than Hillary or Obama because his Scorpionic component is Moon in the 8th. House placements do not in themselves give us the quality of that House: it is rather that we find ourselves in that arena, and so need to learn its ways. If Bill had Moon in Scorpio instead of sensual Taurus, his relationship with Hillary would be less projective, for he would find it easier to own his ruthlessness and lust for power. Hillary and Obama are probably less complicated in this respect; though with his Moon in airy Gemini square to Pluto, we may find that Obama also has a complex relationship with his wife. People talk about how strong and solid she is; so maybe also he lets her wear the trousers in certain unwholesome respects. She may come to be seen as being a power behind the throne in ways we’d rather she wasn’t.


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Whatever happens to Bill and Hillary’s marriage in the next few years (we don’t have a birthtime for Hillary, so it’s hard to judge from her side), what we can feel sure of is that Bill will continue to have an intense relationship with Obama, for better or for worse. This is due to their strong synastry. Apart from them both being Leos with Air Ascendants, strong Neptunes and Scorpionic Moons, we find the following:

(1) Remarkably, Bill’s Sun widely squares Obama’s Moon, and Obama’s Sun widely squares Bill’s Moon. (This is strong, somewhat difficult, but the looseness makes it workable and possibly creative.)

(2) Bill’s Sun conjunct Obama’s Node-Uranus (this thing’s ‘meant’ to be.)

(3) Bill’s Sun conjunct (wide) Obama’s Desc, from the 7th (there’s a partnership possible here.)

(4) Obama’s Sun conjunct Bill’s Pluto (power is involved; maybe Bill will come to see Obama as a political heir.)

(5) Bill’s Moon conjunct (wide) Obama’s IC. Obama's Moon trine Bill's Asc-Venus-Neptune (they’ll be able to schmooze with each other!)

(6) Obama’s Venus conjunct Bill’s MC (Bill, as we know is both Venusian and susceptible to it, so it won't be too hard for Obama to get Bill on board.)

(7) Obama’s Venus opposite Bill’s Mars (I won’t go there!)

(8) Bill's Prog Asc is at 27 Scorpio, and will be moving in on Obama's natal MC at 29 Scorpio over the next few years (personal involvement by Bill in Obama's career).

So get over it, Bill! You have a job to do!