The Shoe Throwing Incident Unfolds

Back in December, on his last visit to Iraq, President Bush had some shoes thrown at him by a journalist. Uranus was in Pisces: unexpected events (Uranus) around feet (Pisces). Uranus was also part of a t-square with Mars in Sag (it was a religious insult) and Saturn in Virgo - the shoes were aimed (Virgo) at a figure in authority (Saturn).

Now 6 weeks later we read:

A sculpture of a shoe erected in Iraq to honour a journalist who threw his footwear at George W Bush has been dismantled, reports say. Foreign media say the bronze-coloured fibre-glass shoe was removed from its site in the city of Tikrit on the orders of the local authorities. It had been erected in the grounds of an orphanage. The monument was reportedly taken down just a day after being unveiled in the late Saddam Hussein's home town.

When he threw the shoes, the journalist shouted: "This is from the widows, the orphans, and those who were killed in Iraq." Hence the orphanage connection.

Uranus in Pisces is still opposite Saturn in Virgo. But instead of the action coming from Mars in Sagittarius, this time it is coming from Mars in Capricorn, which is again aspecting Saturn-Uranus. Capricorn describes the established authorities, the government clamping down.

Both events are part of the Saturn-Uranus opposition, which classically describes rebellion against authority, or authority putting down a rebellion. The journalist who committed the original deed is still locked up awaiting trial. What they decide to do with him will also be part of this Saturn-Uranus mini-drama.

Astrological Association: Obama's Inauguration shows astrology working - by Roy Gillett

Astrological Association: Obama's Inauguration shows astrology working - by Roy Gillett

The Presidential Void Moon: The Final Word! :)

Void Moons are somewhat controversial. I think it is because their meaning has not been properly dragged out of medieval astrology and put into a modern context. So they come across as fated events – or non-events – with little psychological explanation behind them, neither of which suit our modern tastes. I’m not going to try to drag the Void Moon idea up to date here. I’m just going to say a bit more about US Presidents being inaugurated under a Void Moon.


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Lynn posted a piece last week which she promised would be her final look at the Presidential Void Moon. Does this mean I get the last word? Anyway, she quoted research done by Rodney Smith, showing that an inaugural Void Moon has no noticeable effect on whether a President completes his term.

His premise, however, is that VOC (Void of Course) Moon is a medieval concept, and since they did not then have the outer planets, we should not use them when considering whether the Moon is VOC. Now I don’t know medieval astrology, but we have plenty of astrological concepts that go back to then and beyond. Such as the Ascendant. But we don’t say Oh no, the Ascendant is a medieval concept, and they didn’t have outer planets then, so we can’t consider it in conjunction to Pluto, for example.

And the same in my mind goes for the VOC. It would be inconsistent not to consider the outer planets. In my previous post I just looked at Presidents over the last 100 years. I thought I’d better do the lot.

There have been 64 Inaugurations. 9 of those did not complete their term. That is 14%.

There have been 9 inaugurations under VOC (excluding Obama). 3 of those did not complete their term. That is 33%.

The number of VOCs is probably too small to be statistically significant. But the numbers so far point towards there being something in it, rather than there not being something in it.

We can broaden the meaning of the VOC to include a major disruption of the Presidency like debilitating health, impeachment or something that threatens to disrupt like a serious assassination attempt i.e. one that could have worked. (This is Void Moon also, but not in a deterministic, ‘has-to-happen’ sense).

What we find then is that out of 64 Inaugurations, 18 corresponded to this broader definition i.e. 28%

Out of those inaugurated on a VOC, there were 7 correspondences, giving us 78%.

This is still a small sample size, but it’s starting to look quite significant to me.

This is my list of VOC inaugurations (where there are private and public inaugurations, I choose the public).

James Polk – debilitating health
Andrew Jackson – assassination attempt
James Monroe – nothing
Tyler – nothing
Roosevelt – died
Kennedy – died
Nixon – resigned
Ford - assassination attempt
Clinton – impeached

The non VOC Presidents who meet the criteria are:

Died in office: Harrison, Taylor, Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Harding
Impeached: Johnson
Debilitating health: Wilson and Arthur
Credible Assassination attempts: Reagan, Truman

So I tend to come down on the side of there being something in the idea of VOC in mundane astrology. And in the case of Obama, I think there is therefore a fair chance that there will be a disruption, or a serious attempt to disrupt, his current term as President.

Who Will Win the Next UK Election?

Back in November I wrote a post predicting that Sarah Palin would enter, but not win, the 2012 US Presidential race. I began with a quote from political astrologer Nancy: “I have always maintained that to win a presidential election, especially a first term, Venus, the planet of love, is key.” And I went on to show that Palin’s Venus would not be in good shape for that election.

Venus reflects popularity in a politician, so it makes sense that you need it in good shape to win. In the UK, we probably won’t have an election until Spring 2010, the latest time possible. Gordon Brown has ruled out an election this year, and seems to mean it. Since becoming PM in 2007 he has had a mixed ride in the polls. But having come in at the tail-end of a long period of Labour government, he has always tended to lag behind.

There was initially a ‘Brown bounce’ in the polls, and he nearly called an election in autumn 2007 on the strength of it. But then the Tories pulled out the stops at their conference, Brown backed down, and he acquired a reputation for indecisiveness and lack of boldness that has dogged him ever since. His efforts to tackle the financial crisis have, however, helped him in the polls. He has at times drawn ahead of the Tories on the economy, though remaining behind overall. Recently, the Tories have drawn ahead again on the economy.

So who is going to win the next election? I will first declare my interest: I don’t find either leader very inspiring, Cameron because I think he is lightweight, Brown because he caused much of the economic mess in the first place. Overall, though, I prefer Brown, because I think he is more substantial than Cameron.


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In April/May 2010 we find the following transiting Venus aspects for Cameron: Mars sextile, Venus trine and the big one, Pluto square.

For his Prog Venus we have the following transits: Mars trine, Venus opposite, Jupiter trine and Neptune square.

We also find natal Jupiter trine prog Venus.


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For Brown there is a much simpler picture: we just find Jupiter conjunct natal Venus and tr Venus conjunct natal Venus.

So what can we make of all this? Brown does not have anything transformational going on around his Venus next year. Saturn, the planet of earned outcomes, will have finished opposing it this coming autumn. So I think the public will have made up its mind about Brown by then, based on 2 and ½ years of his leadership – and a lot of that public opinion, presumably, will centre on his handling of the economy.

Widening the Brown picture, Pluto will just have made its first crossing of his MC. So it will be a very significant time for him in terms of his career (MC) and whether he loses power (Pluto) or gains it through being, for the first time, voted in. He is currently experiencing Pluto conjunct Chiron, which is important because natal Chiron is conjunct his MC. To start with this transit floored him, and he has had to pick himself up off the ground. But he has done so, and as Pluto makes its final conjunction, he is no longer the hopeless, wounded leader that he seemed for a while.

All the same, it does not look that exciting or promising by the time of the probable election.

As for Cameron, we have the start of a big transit to Venus, the Pluto square. Technically this is difficult and not too promising. But Obama was going through a Pluto opposite Venus transit when he was elected, and it forced certain issues (e.g. Rev Wright) that he successfully addressed. Cameron’s transit won’t be yet exact, but it will still be operative.

I think, however, that with the favourable minor transits working around his Natal and Prog Venus, the Pluto transit is more likely to be an empowerment, rather than a disempowerment, of his popularity.

A Spring election would more generally be a powerful time for Cameron, just as it will be for Brown. The Saturn-Uranus opposition will be hard-aspecting all his Angles. So it will be a very dynamic time for him, as he balances Conservatism (Saturn) with the need to stand for the future (Uranus).

The British electorate will be in the mood for a change after 13 years of Labour, however competently Brown manages the financial crisis. Putting this together with the astrology, my money is on Cameron. Besides, electorates always go for the more sexy, energetic one.

The Pope takes a pot shot: this time it’s the Jews

Pope Benedict has done it yet again. First in 2006 it was the Muslims: “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”

Then just before Christmas he announced that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behaviour was as important as protecting the environment.

And then last week he reversed the excommunication of a bishop who is a holocaust denier.


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With his natal Mars at 29 Gemini, Pope Benedict is a crusader who sees life as a battle between light and dark, good and evil. And with Gemini communicativeness, he is not afraid to say so. A sign gathers momentum as you progress through it, so the end of Gemini is one of the most war-like places to have this planet. No doubt it is related to the idea we find in Arabic astrology, that Moon in late Gemini is a good time to start a war: this was the placement of the Moon on 11 Sept 2001.

This theme of opposites, of light versus dark, is also reflected in the Pope’s Moon in Libra, another sign that can be belligerent (e.g. Margaret Thatcher). His Moon is square to tribal Pluto in Cancer, and he also has the Sun in war-like Aries.

Naturally he or his spokesmen always deny that these attacks are such. But the astrology tells a different story.

The above quote about the Muslims was by a Christian Emperor, which the Pope then quoted, and twice pointed out it was a quote and not his own words. But he still found them useful to say. At the time (12 Sept 2006) Pluto was starting to oppose his natal Mars, and Mars had just finished squaring his natal Mars.

When he made the comment about gays and transsexuals (22 Dec 2008), Mars was opposing natal Mars, as was Pluto.

And when he reinstated the bishop last week (21 Jan 2009), Mars had just finished hard-aspecting his natal Moon square Pluto. And Pluto, of course, is still opposing his natal Mars.

So the underlying astrological theme of these attacks has been transiting Pluto opposing his natal Mars, and the trigger in each case has been transiting Mars. While transiting inner planets act mainly as triggers, transiting outer planets transform. And this transformation is not necessarily evolutionary. If the person involved is not very aware, outer planet transits can release primitive, barbaric elements in the psyche that then get acted out.

In the period from 9/11 through to the start of the Iraq War, for example, Neptune was making an opposition to George Bush’s natal Pluto Rising, which is one of a number of loose cannons in his chart. The Iraq War particularly was started for reasons that did not add up, and with little thought as to what to do afterwards. This strongly suggests unconscious, atavistic elements at work.

This also seems to be what is happening in the case of Pope Benedict XVI. Pluto is revealing a deeper level of his natal Mars which, as Pope, he has the scope to act out in an atavistic way if he so chooses. And he does so choose. The Pope is known for being a considerable intellectual, and his Sun, Moon and Mars all back this up. Mercury in Pisces might seem surprising, but Pisces has a great power to absorb information and make connections. So he is a classic case of someone who can seem civilised and advanced because of their intellectual accomplishments, but in whom the emotional depths remained untouched by all this learning. His Moon in civilised Libra but square to crab-like Pluto in Cancer expresses this perfectly.

What the Pope is doing is different to just not being politically correct, and thereby offending people. I have no objection to that. It does us good to get offended occasionally, as the late John Mortimer pointed out. Political correctness is usually about guilt-ridden liberals creating ‘rights’ for others and imagining ways that minorities might get offended. Like imagining that black people want to be called people of colour, or American Indians want to be called Native Americans (they don’t: they like being called Indians). It’s patronising, and it’s often insisted on in an intolerant way. The cardinal rule of PC is that no-one from a minority or another grouping must ever get offended.

But this isn’t what the Pope is doing. He’s not offending people in a healthy way, like making fun of the Jews’ pretensions to being the Chosen People, or of Americans for thinking they have the world’s best political system. He is using his position to demonise whole groups of people who are not Catholics, or who do not follow the Church’s teachings.

What we have at the heart of the modern Catholic Church is old-style barbaric medieval religion. And it’s not just this Pope. Ratzinger (the present Pope) was the enforcer for the sainted Pope John Paul II (Dare I say it, but as Rahm Emmanuel is enforcer for the sainted Barack Obama.) At least it’s now all out in the open.

It was under the present Pope that Tony Blair, who also has Mars Rising in Gemini, converted to Catholicism. In an interview some months after stepping down as Prime Minister, Blair was asked if he had any regrets about the Iraq War. He didn’t (though he hadn’t managed to get the previous Pope’s blessing for it!) What we have, he continued is “a visceral struggle between what is right and what is wrong.”

Ratzinger became Pope under Pluto in Sagittarius, a period which saw a rise in fundamentalism worldwide. Now with Pluto in Capricorn, we are seeing the Church establishment (Capricorn) reverting to a more primitive form (Pluto).

Pluto in Capricorn: Underworld Goats

From BBC News

Police in Nigeria are holding a goat handed to them by a vigilante group, which said it was a car thief who had used witchcraft to change shape. A police spokesman in Kwara State has been quoted as saying that the "armed robbery suspect" would remain in custody until investigations were over.

But another police spokesman told the BBC the goat was being held in case its owner claimed it.

The belief in witchcraft and the power to change shapes is common in Nigeria.

Police reform activists have condemned the "arrest", saying it highlights the low education levels of many Nigerian police officers. Nigeria's Vanguard newspaper has a picture of the goat and reports that police paraded it in front of journalists in the Kwara state capital Ilorin on Thursday.

But this was denied by national police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu. "The vigilante group arrested the goat and took it to the police, then they told the media." The next morning journalists turned up demanding to see the goat, he said. "But of course goats can't commit crime."

The 2 Presidential Inaugural Charts

It was Barack Obama who began the cock-up over the Presidential oath by interrupting the Chief Justice before he had finished the first sentence. From there it all went pear-shaped. It was good for human reasons to see Obama making a mistake, because he is normally so sure-footed. He looks and behaves very much like a Capricorn. His only planet in Capricorn is Saturn, which is one reason I think Saturn is very important – along with Jupiter – when considering Obama as President.

This cock-up meant that Obama took the oath for a second time a day later, out of “an abundance of caution”, and only then began signing Presidential documents.

So which oath-taking should we use as the chart for his Presidency? This question will no doubt occupy astrologers for decades to come.

It seems clear to me that we have 2 charts, each with its own validity. It is useful to compare them with the July 2nd and the July 4th charts for the USA itself. On July 2nd 1776, Congress voted for Independence, and so this is when the US legally came into existence. On July 4th 1776, Independence was publicly declared, and this was the point at which, as far as the people were concerned, the US was born.

The same applies to the 2 Presidential oaths. After the first oath, Obama was President as far as the people of the nation were concerned. After the second oath, he was President in a legal sense.

But America defines itself as being ruled by the will of the people. This is why it is the Sibly Chart of July 4th that is the main chart for the USA, rather than the legal chart of July 2nd. And this is also why, in my view, it is the chart for the first oath-taking that will remain the principal chart for Obama’s Presidency: because it was from that point that the people considered him to be their President.

I wrote about this chart on 16 Jan and 21 Jan and it means, in my view, that the Void Moon of the first chart remains important. Obama's Presidency may therefore be interrupted in some way, but he may also initiate great things in the time that he has. The historical evidence points strongly to this pattern, but in astrology nothing is ever a certainty. With mundane charts, however, there is a greater collective presence, and so less free will, and predictions from such charts therefore have a greater degree of certainty about them.


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I have had a couple of further thoughts on this chart, which found their way into my comments section. Firstly, a Vedic astrologer considered the Mercury retrograde to be a bad thing. Vedic astrology seems to operate in a more fatalistic way than modern western astrology, and I do not necessarily view Mercury Retrograde as a hindrance. It certainly seems to be a hindrance if you are beginning a venture, which is what Obama is doing. BUT… look at the Houses that Mercury rules in the Inauguration Chart. It rules the Second House of the economy, and the Sixth House of jobs. Obama is not primarily embarking on a major new initiative in these areas: rather, he has a big fixing and sorting task to do first before he can get to the point of new growth. And this is exactly what Mercury retrograde is good for. It’s crap for starting things, but good for fixing things. We could hardly have asked for a better placement!

My other thought, which came to me while having a nap, was to do with Sun in Aquarius sextile Moon right at the end of Scorpio. Here we see the leader (the Sun) in a good relationship with the people (Moon), but particularly the black people, due to Scorpio’s association with the unacknowledged shadow side of the psyche, and therefore with the historical place of black people in US society. But the Moon is right at the end of Scorpio. So we have this leader with his vision for the future (Aquarius) leading his people out of their long sojourn in Scorpio and into the bright expanded horizons of Sagittarius. Wonderful!

Monday's Eclipse

On Monday 28th Jan there will be an annular solar eclipse. Below is some of what Lynda Hill has to say about it, from a Sabian Symbol perspective. It is very interesting, given events in the USA this week. If you have anything around 6.30 Aquarius, this eclipse will impact on you:

This solar eclipse has a very Aquarian energy with Jupiter, the Moon, the Sun, the Moon's north node, Chiron and Neptune all in that sign. Jupiter's contribution, especially, will magnify its effects enormously. The Sabian Symbol for this solar eclipse is Aquarius 7: A Child Born Out of an Eggshell. This degree signals the birth of an entirely new, creative and original impulse and it ushers in the urge to individuate and to give birth to our creative and spiritual ideas. It seems that Jupiter has a big hand at our backs; pushing us forward. The Sabian Symbol for Jupiter is Aquarius 5: A Council of Ancestors Has Been Called to Guide a Man.

First the degree of the solar eclipse: A Child Born Out of an Eggshell, from my book 360 Degrees of Wisdom: Charting Your Destiny With the Sabian Symbols:

This Symbol signifies innovative ways of doing things, with new directions and new solutions. You need to find a unique approach that will give you the ability to follow unusual and original paths leading to a new emergence. There's the possibility of unleashing rebellious energy, so make sure that this beginning doesn't start off with any precocious or "spoilt" attitudes. It is important to provide nourishing environments in order to grow and learn, and nourishment must be provided to last through the course of the development. There can be an uneasy or unsure feeling about the viability of your situation. Many ideas or projects die because they don't have enough initial capital or support or dedication to last the distance. It may be something out of the ordinary or slightly odd. Don't let this scare you; try to recognize the potential rewards and see what you can learn from it. This Symbol can also show prejudice or fear of things that are different. There may be the need to be more consciously tolerant towards people or situations no matter their origins or backgrounds. This can also represent the gestation of an idea, process or project that's outside your direct influence.

For Lynda Hill’s free b-monthly newsletter, email her at sabiansymbols@gmail.com

The Presidential Void Moon

Steve commented on my Obama Inaugural Chart posting that: “The Void Moon at 29 Scorpio terrorises me - I understand why astrologers worldwide say [Obama] won't serve a full term. Bearing in mind the coming Ju/Ne conjunction to his chart in May, I'll be pleased to see him in June still compos mentis.”


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At first I didn’t pay too much attention to this. Void Moons* come and go, there’s one every 2-3 days, and sometimes they seem to mean something and sometimes they don’t. I was more interested in the transit of Uranus to Obama’s natal Sun in 2013/14 because, remarkably, it was under such a transit (whether hard or harmonious) that all of Presidents Lincoln, McKinley and Kennedy were assassinated, as well as Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy.

So I thought I’d test this Presidential Void Moon idea, assuming it would probably turn out not to hold. But it does hold, and very well!

I am loosely using for now this description from Wiki: “In astrological terms it is a period when human judgement is impaired, ventures are bound to fail, business deals collapse, journeys are delayed, and historic events during such periods have an unusual impact on cultural evolution.” Here is a link to a Void Moon article, based on research, from Mountain Astrologer Magazine.

Over the last century we have had the following Void Moons at Presidential Inaugurations:

In 1917 Woodrow Wilson began his second term. Half-way through he suffered a debilitating stroke, but not before he had initiated all sorts of major developments such as women’s suffrage, income tax and the League of Nations. Some scholars see him as one of the greatest Presidents. So here we see both meanings of the Void Moon: the unusual level of cultural evolution, and the disruption of the Presidency due to a stroke.

In 1945 Roosevelt was inaugurated for the 4th time, and died a few months later. His main achievements had come earlier, so it is the failure of the venture, through his death, that obviously applies here. However, the huge changes that immediately followed under Truman - the end of World War II, the new world order that followed and the start of the nuclear age - were a direct consequence of Roosevelt’s Presidency, and in a sense governed by the same chart.

In 1961 JFK was inaugurated, and we see both meanings of the Void Moon here: the big changes in America that he initiated, and his untimely death.

Then we have Nixon, who was inaugurated under a Void Moon for his second term in 1973. Again we see both meanings of the term, for the events surrounding his resignation as President had a huge effect on the nation.

Finally, Bill Clinton’s second term in 1997 was ushered in with a Void Moon.The meaning is maybe not quite so striking here, but the Monica Lewinsky scandal and his subsequent impeachment (only the 2nd President to be impeached, though it was later withdrawn) dramatically disrupted his second term as President, and made him more of a lame duck than is usually the case in his final 2 years.

So in all cases we see a major disruption of the Presidency that makes it ineffective, whether through death, ill-health or political scandal. In most cases we also see huge cultural changes.

So it is quite reasonable to expect both of these outcomes from the Obama Presidency. He is already seen as a Great President in advance, so to speak, and the Void Moon suggests that he will at least initiate, if not follow through, major cultural change. Astrology never works by direct cause and effect, it rather describes the type of events you are likely to see around a particular heavenly configuration. So we can by no means be certain that his Presidency will be disrupted in some way. He does, though, have Neptune squaring his MC over the next 3 years, which could describe such a disruption – as well as a host of other meanings!

So let us hope Obama hits the ground running – as he seems to be – just in case he doesn’t complete his Presidency. These youthful bright flames, from Icarus through to the Romantic Poets, JFK and any number of rock stars, have a way of departing early. It is as if such intensity cannot be sustained. With natal Sun in Leo square to Neptune, and his meteoric and glittering rise, an early departure remains a possibility on an archetypal level for Obama.

*A Void-of-Course Moon occurs when the Moon has no more exact major aspects to make within a particular sign. It is then Void-of-Course until it enters the next sign. The Moon in medieval astrology, being the fastest moving planet, transmits the energy of the other planets via aspect. When it is Void it is not doing this, so anything started under a Void Moon cannot, in theory, come to anything or turn out as expected.

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

I was watching Question Time the other night, and inevitably the Israeli assault on Gaza was raised. None of the panellists seemed able to respond in a way that took both sides of the story into account. A liberal peer was one-sidedly, and with outrage, attacking the Israelis. The editor of the Jewish Chronicle, an otherwise intelligent man, couldn’t stop talking about Hamas’ commitment to killing every Jew in the world. The nearest we came to impartiality was from a Tory MP.

It’s no wonder you get endless battles like Israel versus the Palestinians. Their situation is not something ‘other’. It reflects the same tendency towards partiality, towards our own loyalties, towards our own point of view that we saw in the panel that was agonising over the dispute. The seeds of the conflict were, ironically, there in front of us in the collection of the Great and the Good called upon to shed light on it.

I’ve never been able to follow all the ins and outs of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But that doesn’t mean I can’t try to use some astrology to understand it. Below is the chart for Israel. Some astrologers use a time 32, or even 37 minutes later.


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Either way, Israel has Libra Rising or Sun in the 7th, Libra’s House. This suggests that it is basic to Israel to operate in partnership with another country. And there are 2 obvious candidates: its relationship with the USA, which itself has 7th House Sun and Libra MC; and its struggle to the death with the Palestinians, an endless situation that seems to have no solution for either side.

Palestine does not exist as a state. The nearest we have to a chart is Yasser Arafat’s declaration of Palestinian Independence on Nov 15 1988 at 00.40 in Algiers (chart relocated to Jerusalem, the capital.)


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Again we see Libra Rising. Palestine too is locked into a partnership, in its case with Israel. For each country, it is part of who they are. This relationship is felt as one of survival on both sides, and we might therefore expect to see Pluto/Scorpio at work. What we find is that Palestine has a loose conjunction between the Sun and Pluto in Scorpio, which widely squares the Israeli Saturn-Pluto-Moon in Leo stellium. So for Palestine it is an existential Sun struggle: Palestine has yet to come into being as a country, it does not yet have a true identity. Whereas for Israel it is the Moon, the sense of home and homeland for which it feels it is having to fight.

The Israeli and Palestinian Suns oppose each other: each country feels the other to be a hindrance to its own identity. Yet it is shadow boxing, for opposite signs contain the other. Israelis and Palestinians are more similar than they would like to think, and each is almost certainly guilty of what it accuses the other side of being.

For now it is Israel which is the main perpetrator of violence. But I have no doubt that the Palestinians – and much of the Arab world – would more than return the favour given the chance. A lot of ethnic conflicts are like this. The victims now were often the perpetrators before and could easily become so again. Israel itself is almost the classic case, the Jews having been the victims of the holocaust, and now the Chosen People (cf Master Race) have created a ghetto out of Gaza. This is not an anti-semitic point, just a simple psychological truth. If you are a victim of abuse, you need to deal with what has happened to you, or you may find yourself acting it out.

So Israel and Palestine both have charts that describe the partnership they are locked into, and the existential nature of the struggle it involves. Their composite chart has the nodal axis running along the Asc/Desc, showing how this struggle is part of their mutual destiny or karma.

Countries can re-incarnate and acquire a different chart. It seems to me that the patterns run so deep in the 2 countries, the struggle has become so much part of who they are, that re-incarnation is needed on both sides. It is not a matter of a negotiated settlement with agreed boundaries. It requires a new Israel and a new Palestine.

This is easy to say, but I don’t have any answers. One thing I do wonder about is whether the problem can be dealt with under the eyes of the western democracies. Take Iraq. They had a dictator like Saddam Hussein for a reason. The country was composed of potentially warring tribes, and democracy often only serves to deepen such divisions. Brutal as the old Iraq was, there was probably a lot less carnage than has happened, and continues to happen, since the US invaded and attempted to impose a democracy. The same, in my view, goes for Africa. You have problems there because they are artificial countries made up of competing tribes. Ireland 1000 years ago was like that: a bunch of warring tribes. You have to either give them separate countries, or you need a dictator to stamp out the local warlords. In Afghanistan the Taliban were awful, but the country was for the first time governable.

In my view the Israeli-Palestine conflict needs a dictator to sort it. Maybe you enlarge the West Bank and move everyone from the Gaza strip there. The Israelis move any settlements they have from the West Bank, they settle Gaza, and they let the UN control East Jerusalem. Gaza can never work, it is an anomaly. Something like this would be pretty grim to carry out, but it might eventually work. But it’s never going to happen.

The Turks and Greeks did this in 1923. They had a population exchange in which 1.5 million Greeks were forced to leave Turkey (they had been there for centuries or even millenia and only spoke Turkish), and 1/2 a million Turks likewise left Greece. It was an awful thing to have happened. But we live in a nationalistic age, and what might have occurred since if they hadn’t exchanged populations is possibly a lot worse.

The Palestinian chart has a Chiron-Neptune opposition running along its MC/IC axis. This perfectly describes the lack/loss (Neptune) of traditional homeland (IC in Capricorn) and the hopeless aspiration to create one (Chiron/MC in Cancer). Neptune has been squaring the Sun for the last couple of years, describing the rise of Hamas in the Gaza strip and the dissolution (Neptune) of a unified Palestinian leadership. Pluto has been squaring natal Mars over the last year, describing the rocket attacks and general aggressive stance of Hamas towards Israel. Uranus and Pluto will be hard aspecting the natal Angles in a few years. So we can expect to see a lot of instability. With Uranus hitting the natal Mars Uranus-Square over the next couple of years, the rocket attacks and other asymmetrical warfare methods are likely to continue.

But with Pluto also coming in hard in 3-4 years, we are likely also to see a profound change of some sort. This ties in with a Progressed New Moon for Palestine in 4 years time: some big new beginning will be seeded.

As for Israel, they were at the beginning of a Neptune-Sun square in 2006 when Ariel Sharon went into a coma. This square is still very active, and I think describes the lack of clear, decisive headway in its foreign policy and wars, and the lack of confidence in the leadership (Sun) that has resulted. This was particularly so with the 2006 Lebanon War, where Israel was not able to dominate its enemy in its customary fashion.

And even now in its invasion of the Gaza strip, Hamas was still firing rockets after Israel declared a ceasefire. Hamas has now declared a ceasefire for a week to enable Israel to withdraw. So again, the clear victory that Israel so much felt it needed has been denied to them.

Neptune is still at work, and with natal Mars at 28 Leo, Israel probably has a few more years of this to go. Israel's enemies have found a way to get at them through asymmetrical warfare - rockets and suicide bombs - which while limited in physical destructiveness, have a big psychological and political impact. It means Israel can no longer obtain the decisive victories of old. The continuation of the Neptune transit onto Mars would suggest Israel having to accept and adjust to this new military reality over the next few years.

Israel's acceptance of this may well mean it has to mellow in its negotiating stance. And this may pave the way for the big changes we see in the Palestinian chart in 3 to 4 years time, just as Neptune finally finishes with Israel.

There's probably no God...

200 buses in London have recently begun carrying the slogan "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

Hanne Stinson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association (which sponsored the ads), said: "We see so many posters advertising salvation through Jesus or threatening us with eternal damnation, that I feel sure that a bus advert like this will be welcomed as a breath of fresh air.”

Meanwhile a Christian bus driver has refused to drive a bus with the slogan on it. But Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, has backed the posters.

This ad campaign began in October, as Pluto moved from Sagittarius, the sign of religion, to sceptical, earthbound Capricorn. In some ways they are probably as bad as each other! But for now I'm on the side of the Capricornians.

The 2009 Presidential Inauguration Chart

Well I’ve had no inclination to write a blog for some days, and I usually trust that and slightly fret about it at the same time. Mercury is retrograde which, whatever else you might say about it, is a good time for sorting practical things that have been hanging around, particularly involving transport. So I’ve sorted out a key for a friend’s car and finally sorted, I think, a damp problem that has bedevilled my car since the summer. I’m just about to sort a CD system for my car. And I’m in the process of buying a water pump (that transports water) to save a lot of leg-work taking water out of the river for our horses.


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Anyway, Barack Obama will be inaugurated (crowned) at 12pm on 20 Jan in Washington. This gives a chart for the first term of his Presidency. I like the Mars, in the 9th House of foreign policy. It is in its favourite and most effective sign of Capricorn, sextile to Uranus/Venus and trine to Saturn. And Venus is in its favourite sign of Pisces in the 11th House, the community of nations. So America will not only achieve its foreign policy aims (Mars), it will be popular too (Venus). What a combination, exalted Mars sextile exalted Venus!

Hillary Clinton, the new Secretary of State, has a Mercury-Venus conjunction in Scorpio. So she has an ability to communicate (Mercury) on difficult issues (Scorpio) while staying on friendly terms (Venus). Her Mercury-Venus makes harmonious aspects with the Mars-Venus of the inauguration chart. So she looks set to be very effective.

That said, Hillary's Sun at 3 Scorpio squares the inauguration Sun, as well as widely hard aspecting Obama's natal Sun square Neptune. So there may be a wider context of a power struggle with Obama's administration, which comes as no great surprise.

Slightly worrying is unaspected Pluto in Capricorn in the 8th House of secret enemies. The last inauguration chart had a Mars-Pluto conjunction in the 8th in Sag, aspecting the Moon and Jupiter. So it was a lot more pronounced, with the obvious interpretation being the insurgency in foreign places (Sag) – i.e. Afghanistan and Iraq. In Iraq, however, this Mars-Pluto was put to good use via the ‘surge’ (Mars in Sag!)

I’d find, say, an unaspected Mars in the 8th more worrying than Pluto, for it would be almost certain to express itself in an unpredictable manner. I’d say an unaspected outer planet has more chance of just disappearing for a while. But it would be advisable for the administration to keep an eye on what secret enemies might be getting up to within the boundaries (Capricorn) of the USA.

There is a tight sextile between the Sun (leader) and the Moon (the people). So Obama will be creatively in tune with the American people. It is also, however, an out-of-sign sextile. So there will be a disjunction between the people’s focus on economic survival (Moon in Scorpio) and Obama’s forward-looking approach (Sun in Aquarius). Because of the close sextile, however, he should be able to carry this off: i.e. dealing with the economic mess while ploughing money into e.g. education and renewable energy.

The inauguration Moon, however, is right at the end of Scorpio, and will progress into Sagittarius before the end of January 2009. This suggests that Obama may be effective at quickly shifting the mood of the American people from survival (Scorpio) to something a bit more optimistic and expansive (Sagittarius).

The inauguration Moon is in the 7th House of partners and open enemies. So again the mood may quickly shift from the us-against-them (Scorpio) attitude of the Bush years to the generosity of spirit for which America at its best is known.

The inauguration Mercury is retrograde and very closely conjunct the Sun, suggesting a President who speaks his mind in a considered manner (contrast this with the 2005 and 2001 charts for the Bush years, with Mercury at least 15 degrees from the Sun). In early August this Mercury will move by Progression from Aquarius to Capricorn, suggesting a change in Obama's tone from visionary possibilities to practical matters concerning economic security. Many people consider that the recession will get a lot worse this year, and the Presidential Mercury shift perhaps reflects this.

If we look at the condition of Obama’s Presidency via the Solar Returns, we see favourable aspects to the Sun up until the final year. 2009 has Sun Conjunct Jupiter and sextile Moon; 2010 has Sun conjunct Venus, sextile Moon and trine Saturn; and 2011 has Sun conjunct Mars and sextile to Jupiter and Uranus.

But 2012, election year, has Sun in a t-square with Saturn and Jupiter. So it will be a time of reckoning (Saturn), as one would expect, but being a t-square it has the possibility of being very creative. Obama has a natal Saturn-Jupiter conjunction, which I have previously said is a good lens through which to view his Presidency. So it is interesting that it should be these 2 planets that will impinge upon him as he comes up for re-election.

In fact I have just spotted something remarkable: Obama's Saturn in Capricorn is within one degree of the inauguration MC; and his Jupiter in Aquarius is within a few minutes of the inauguration Sun. The Sun and MC are almost the same in all inauguration charts, they are part of the institution of the Presidency. This shows conclusively the importance of Obama's Saturn-Jupiter, and the 'destined' quality of his rise to the Presidency.

Tarnas on the Zeitgeist

Here’s a piece from Richard Tarnas’ Cosmos and Psyche, pp 482-3. It’s good stuff, albeit relentlessly profound and in need of a few jokes:

If we consider, then, the unfolding cycles of the 3 outermost planets – taking into account the current [sextile] alignment between Neptune and Pluto, the number of years since the most recent Neptune-Pluto conjunction a century ago, and the completion of the subsequent Uranus-Pluto and Uranus-Neptune conjunctions of the 1960s and 1990s respectively – our present moment in history is most comparable, astronomically, to the period exactly 500 years ago… that brought forth the birth of the modern self during the decades surrounding the year 1500. This too was an epoch of extraordinary turbulence and uncertainty, and also of great cultural creativity and dynamism. It was the moment of the High Renaissance of Leonardo and Michelangelo, Erasmus and Thomas More, in the immediate aftermath of Pico della Mirandola’s new vision of human possibility in the Oratio and Ficino’s Platonic Academy in Florence – a period shaped by the rapid spread of a powerful new medium of universal communication, the printed book; the first expeditions to a vast new world that, at enormous human and ecological cost, led to the opening of the global community to itself; and the immense spiritual and cosmological transformations, still unfolding, represented by Luther’s start of the Reformation and Copernicus’s conceiving of the heliocentric hypothesis.

Our postmodern age of ceaseless flux and irresolvable complexity, for all its metaphysical disorientation, and despite the collective entrancement induced by the mass media and corporate marketing, has nevertheless brought forth new conditions and possibilities that could prove invaluable for our future. As a result of the many extraordinary changes – cultural, psychological, spiritual – that have unfolded in the past half-century, the collective psyche has undergone a pervasive and in certain respects deeply benign transformation that cannot easily be measured and yet, for all its subtlety, is no less pregnant with historical significance. The rapid dissemination during this era of a fundamental new openness to the perspectives and realities of different cultures, eras, religions, races, classes, genders, sexual orientations, age groups, even different species and forms of life has been an essential characteristic of our time. It is perhaps not too much to say that, in this first decade of the new millennium, humanity has entered into a condition that is in some sense more globally united and interconnected, more sensitised to the experiences and suffering of others, in certain senses more spiritually awakened, more conscious of future alternative possibilities and ideals, more capable of collective healing and compassion, and, aided by technological advances in communications media, more able to think, feel and respond together in a spiritually evolved manner to the world’s swiftly changing realities than has ever before been possible.

Full Moon in Cancer

It has long been known that a Full Moon is when you’re most likely to get trouble, whether you’re a policeman walking the streets or working in a mental hospital. The Moon represents instinct and emotion, and a Full Moon is when they are at their height. Particularly when the Moon is in its own sign of Cancer, as it is now.

Last night around 11pm, 4 hours before the Moon was exactly full, a bunch of us were sitting around the table when Crash! - our front window had been smashed. I ran outside in my socks and managed to catch a neighbour in the act of closing her front door. She is in the process of splitting up with her partner, who was round at my place, and had clearly been listening at the window and heard something she didn’t want to hear! Anyway, having a few glasses of wine inside me, the window of her front door didn’t last very long.

The neighbour concerned has spent the day in hiding, and her sister approached me in the supermarket like the world had ended. But I realised I found the whole incident hilarious, much to the relief of the sister.

Not only were instinct and emotion heightened and in a way unleashed, at the moment the shovel came through our window Mars and Pluto were straddling the IC at about 6 Capricorn: revenge (Pluto) attack (Mars) on my home (IC). The strength of Mars and Pluto suggests this was a pretty heavyweight attack, even though only a window got broken. And my friend who is the now ex-partner knew straightaway who’d done it, but also in the moment experienced it as a sort of spirit message, as something trying to wake him up, as we have all been trying to do for months! He’s at the start of a Neptune square Venus transit.

Of course, the Mars-Pluto-IC also applies to me, as I’d retaliated in less than a minute, and the IC was conjunct my natal Mars. With this astrology, it was just as well that the attack wasn’t more serious, because there may not have been limits to what I’d have done! So there it is, instinct ruling during the Full Moon!