Israel is a modern country and so it has an accurate birthtime. The downside is that there are three birthtimes. Fortunately these times are all`within an 8 hour period. I have a birthtime that is half way between the first and the second which I prefer and when we look at the attacks of October 7 you will see why.
Israel 4pm
Currently Israel is much in the news because of the attack by Hamas on October 7 and the ongoing war with the Gaza Strip. This incident illustrates that the effects of Neptune are still quite prominent. Israel has what is probably the best intelligence service in the world and the Gaza Strip is one of the more heavily surveilled regions and still the Israeli government missed this attack which had been two years in planning according to Sky News; also Hamas had trial runs in the preceding weeks which were not noticed by Israeli intelligence. And they were warned several days in advance by Egypt and the United States — which also has a well developed intelligence service — that something big was coming. This intelligence failure was so large that some conspiracy theorists have suggested that Israel wanted this attack to happen so they would have an excuse to go into Gaza with big weapons. So October 7 illustrates the delusions of Neptune writ large.
Israel 4:17pm
But there is also something called “The Fog of War” which occurs in every war since it is difficult to see the truth with so many conflicting opinions and a tendency by each belligerent to slant their own truth in a way that is beneficial to them. I thought the ongoing conflict in Ukraine was very foggy, but this current conflict in the Levant far outdoes that war in the fog arena. But again, this is strongly Neptune.
Israel 4:32pm
So here are the three possibly charts for Israel. The first for May 14, 1948 is for the start of a speech declaring the state of Israel at 4 pm; the second is for the end of that speech at 4:32PM; the third is midnight the following day, May 15, when Britain gave up control of that area. For reasons that will be clear later, I prefer a time of 4:17PM on that same day.
Israel Midnight
There are three incidents that we will look at: the Hamas attack early in October, the Six-Day War of 1967, and the Yon Kippur War (also known as the October War), which lasted some twenty days, in 1973. Those last two are by now ancient history, but Israel astrologers consider them shown by that Israeli chart.
Let’s first look at the most recent event, one that is being referred to as Israel’s 9/11 and I’m sure the date October 7 or 7.10 (like much of the world Israel uses day first in dates) will be immortalized in that nation’s history. At 6:35 in the morning the airraid sirens announced the initial attack by Hamas on a music festival or rave and so that is the time we used for this event. I’m still seeing conflicting accounts of what exactly happened but the time is what counts. Perhaps in the future people will look back at this event as they now note the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand 110 years ago.
Attack on Israel 4:17 chart
It is true of this chart and in fact all charts set in this period that Uranus is conjunct the Sun of Israel. Uranus is about one degree away and since it is retrograde it is separating. Was this a Uranian event? With Uranus expect the unexpected.
At the end of August 2023 Uranus went stationary retrograde at about one-half degree from the Israel Sun, which is the same no matter what chart you use. On October 7 Uranus was a little over a degree from the natal Sun. One suggested meaning of this transit is “expect surprises” and that is certainly what happened. Uranus Sun contacts suggest change and upset, things that we are seeing right now. But note that there was much protest before October 7 because the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was attempting to make the Israeli Supreme Court subservient to the Knesset (Israel’s unicameral legislative body – unlike every US state but Nebraska Israel does not have a bicameral legislature) instead of its equal. And currently there are many citizen who charge Netanyahu with bad response to these attacks.
Here is the chart of Israel with the transits for 6:35; the only difference between the four possible natal charts is the angles and with the 4:17 chart Mars for this incident is exactly on the Ascendant. This position exactly describes what happened — an attack with violence (Mars) aimed at the self-image (Ascendant) of Israel. In addition this natal chart puts Pluto opposite the MC and thus conjunct the IC — the foundation of Israel. Remember on 9/11 the United States had Pluto on the Ascendant so we can see where the idea of 7.10 being Israel’s 9/11 comes from.
Six Day War
The Six Day War was in the Sixties and we can see the familiar Uranus-Pluto conjunction in the eleventh house. Venus, the lesser benefic, is conjunct the MC and Jupiter, the greater benefic, is conjunct the Moon so we can expect that this war will be short and successful for the Israelis. This was indeed the case. Israel was attacked by Egypt and other Arab countries and as a result Israel took possession of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights. However, note Neptune opposite the Sun at a little over one degree. This suggests that the government of Israel was a bit deluded about the meaning and outcome of the war. One can see the connection between that war and the current one because of of the areas in play now were captured then.
Yom Kippur War
For the Yom Kippur War the natal Venus — the judiciary — seems to be the focus of interest. Not only is Pluto square Venus but Saturn is conjunct the natal Venus; so there is a Saturn-Pluto square that is almost exact. Saturn-Pluto hard aspects are not favorable (a Saturn-Pluto conjunciton was at the start o the Covid crisis), especially when the are configured with the natal chart. If we look at the 4pm chart we find Uranus on the Ascendant within a quarter degree.
In the upcoming years we will see in Israel as well as the Western world a developing split between what I call the Pluto Jews — represented by the government of Israel and Zionism – and the Uranus Jews – represented by groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace. As a result of this split seen around the world we may possibly see true democracy for the first time in history
Note the connections between this period — what I’ve called the Sixth Crisis — and the previous Fifth Crisis which was World War II. The Nazis were obviously quite important during the Fifth Crisis. But at this time we see that the concept of ” nazis ” is increasingly becoming prominent. Not only were the citizens of Israel traumatized by the horror inflicting by the original Nazis, but they have called Hames Nazis, while some think that the behavior of Israel’s government is like that of the Nazis. And in fact one Israel polymath — Yeshayahu Leibowitz — has warned of Judeo-Nazi behavior among the Zionists.
Suggested reading. Since one of the elements of this blog is history, I find that a real problem is that many are not aware of the history of any given case. For Israel and Palestine a fairly short and comprehensive history is found in the book Ten Myths About Israel by Ilan Pappe, an Israeli historian, which contains references to many source documents for a situation that has been developing for hundreds of years.
Uranus-Pluto Square
Something changed in Israel about 10 yeas ago according to people who live there which has led up to the current Netanyahu government which we are repeatedly told is the most “right-wing” in Israeli history. This is when there was the Uranus Pluto Square the effected the whole world. In Israel’s case Uranus was opposite the natal Neptune and Pluto was square that same Neptune, thus making a T-square between the outer planets though a hybrid one combining both natal and transiting points. These days most of the younger Israels are acting very jingoistic while the dissenters are mostly older Israelis who remember the older Israel that had socialist roots.
As another example of how Neptune plays such a prominent role in this conflict, consider that the Jews have PTSD from, most recently and most intense, the Holocaust during World War II. People with PTSD tend the overreact to minor threats, and in this case the Palestinians now too have PTSD from their treatment starting with their expulsion from their native lands — called the Nakba — in 1948. So we have two groups of people both of which have PTSD — not a good situation. Recently psychedelic drugs have been suggested as helpful to people with PTSD. In fact several cities and states in the United States have legalize psychedelic drugs for treatment of disorders. So perhaps a solution to this middle east problem is widespread use of psychedelic drugs in Israel and Palestine or as Bob Dylan said “Everybody must get stoned”.
15 years of Israeli History
Looking at the next few years for Israel shows many challenges coming up for the country as can be seen by the graphical ephemeris. Pluto squared the Ascendant-Descendant axis in 2019 and 2020 and that planet goes on to oppose the Midheaven in 2020,2021, and 2022 (1). These are the years that Israel became a laboratory of Pfizer and their vaccines. Finally Pluto will oppose the Moon of Israel in 2025,2026,2027 (2). This is a difficult decade for Israel even without considering the general problems the world will face as has been outlines here for months. The response to the events of October 7 will continue to plague the government and the people of Israel for the rest of this decade. Following these transits Israel will undergo the Pluto demi-return in 2030 through 2032 (3). Notice that it took the United States 250 year to see its Pluto Return, while Israel has a demi-return in only 82 years, one third of the time for the US instead of half as one would expect. This is because Israel was born while Pluto was speeding up as it moved closer to the Sun in its very elliptical orbit so the last 80 years have seen the fastest motion of Pluto. The US had its Pluto demi-return in the Thirties when the Great Depression was happening and there were many radicals organizing against the government Israel will also get a Neptune demi-return in 2029 and 2030 (4). Israel is undergoing some similar transits to the United States only a few years later but still in this decade in which many important global events are happening to all countries of the world.
And finally we will close this blog post with some singing from Israeli children:
In the month of March there was a celebration of sorts for the invasion by the United States of the country of Iraq twenty years earlier. Shown below is a chart for the moment (or one of the moments) when the invasion began but that is not the important thing. The invasion is one of a series of events that share the same long term transits and that set the context for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 as well as the invasion of that other Asian country Afghanistan. First lets look at the chart for when explosions were first heard in Baghdad, the capital city of Iraq.
Invasion of Iraq
This invasion started in the early morning hours — as you can see the Sun conjunct Mercury had not risen — at about the Spring Solstice — Sun would be at 0 Aries in one day. The Moon was two or three days after Full and was high in the western sky. There was a Grand Trine (Moon, Venus, Saturn) which suggests that things flowed well, which was certainly true for the Americans if not so much for the Iraqis.
American were told that Saddam Hussein, the leader of Iraq, was responsible for the destruction of the World Trade Center less than a year and a half before and that the government of Iraq contained Weapons of Mass Destruction which could be used on America so that this was only a defensive action. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned that the smoking gun would be a mushroom cloud if this invasion did not happen.
Many Americans at the time supported the invasion. Now twenty years later many who supported the war at the time no longer think it was a good idea; some who supported the war at the time claim that they had grave doubts about the war at the time; and a few who supported the war at the time still think it was a good thing.
But before we look at the chart for the invasion of Iraq we need to look at the chart for the attacks of September 11, 2001, not only because that attack was the putative reason for the invasion by the United States (and some allied countries) of Iraq but also there is a clear astrological connection between the two events, one that I did not realize until I did a chart for the invasion of Iraq.
9/11
Before 9/11 I seldom thought about a birth chart for the United States, but if I did it was the “Gemini Rising” chart which is set at two in the morning. Of course I read Dane Rudhyar’s book (The Astrology of America’s Destiny) that tries to rectify the Sibley chart made by an English astrologer — Ebenezer Sibley — for the time that he thought the country was “born” but set in England where he was. But on 9/11 I became convinced of the validity of the Sibly chart. If you were to pick a chart representing 9/11 for America you could best come up with that chart that really is. Hard Saturn Pluto aspects, as we’ve talked about before in this blog, are especially serious (Tarnas has a whole chapter about this). The last conjunction of those two planets was in January 2020 and we know what happened then. 9/11 was the previous opposition, and furthermore Pluto was on the Ascendant of the United States, and it isn’t just an expression that we were blasted by Pluto. I don’t think there has been such a clear attack on America’s homeland since the War of 1812. The whole outward expression of the United States (but not its essence) was transformed on that date.
Remember the Maine!
Clinching it further, the explosion of the battleship Maine in the Havana Harbor and thus the beginning of the Spanish-American War saw the same opposition of Saturn and Pluto on the US angles of the Sibly chart but this time Pluto is on Descendant and Saturn is on the Ascendant, just the opposite of 9/11. Instead of the explosion happening at home – on the Ascendant — it happened abroad – on the Descendant. The Spanish-American War marked the beginning of the American Empire (see for example the book Empire by Gore Vidal for a fictionalized account); I call these two events “bookends of the American Empire”. After 9/11 it was pretty clear (to those who were not captives of American propaganda) that the American Empire was over, and of course that is time time when an empire is at its most dangerous.
In the chart for the invasion of Iraq — Operation Desert Storm — we still have that the Saturn-Pluto opposition strong, but now this opposition is along the MC-IC axis of this event. Pluto on the Midheaven well describes this event: the Plutonian explosion is on their government, their public image.
The war in Iraq was intimately involved with 9/11 and not merely because George Bush and company used 9/11 as an excuse to go into Iraq, something that had been a big neocon agenda item ever since George Bush father had withdrawn from that country ten years earlier. And the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) was the outgrowth of neoconservative desire. At the time the neo-cons were mostly in the Republican Party, unlike now where they have taken much real estate in the Democratic Party, their original home.
Republic of Iraq
The chart for the Republic of Iraq, which was the nation before the invasion of that country by America — it now has a new birth chart — was for July 17, 1958, even though there was a coup in 1968 that saw Saddam Hussein put into power. A prominent feature of this chart is the Saturn opposition to the Moon-Venus conjunction with the Saturn opposite Venus being almost exact. It looks difficult for women in that country.
Iraq at time of Invasion
At the time of the American invasion of Iraq the Saturn Pluto opposition that was prominent in both the 9/11 chart and the event chart for the invasion was again important. In this case that opposition fell on the Moon-Venus opposite Saturn configuration of the Republic of Iraq with the transiting Pluto being also exactly opposite the Moon; surely this invasion was difficult but transformative (in one way or another) for the people of Iraq. Twenty year later they are still living with the results of that invasion and a new country (with a new chart) has been born.
Last time we talked about the first two of the three Interesting Times (IT) the world is experiencing in the third decade of the Twenty-First Century and tied them in to current events. The first was the Pluto Return of the United States and that was tied into the increasing division in that country. The second Interesting Time was the change from a Unipolar to a Multipolar world represented by the war in Ukraine between NATO and Russia. This time we will talk about the third Interesting Time, which is itself three-fold.
First Zeitgeist Change of Twentieth Century
I’ve previously written about a Zeitgeist change which happens with a transiting midpoint configuration of the three outer planets. In a zeitgeist change the culture of the world changes so much that people born after the change can’t believe things were ever so different then they currently are. These changes happen two or three times a century with Uranus or Pluto as the apex planet of the midpoint. (There is one exception to this which I was going to deal with in short paragraph but instead I’d like to write an entry about this.)
Second Zeitgeist Change
The first one of the Twentieth Century happened in the first decade and saw the rise of Modernism that affected art, psychology, and physics among other things. The second took place at the end of World War II and saw the birth of the Anthropocene. The third was about 1980 and saw the take over of the world by neoliberalism.
Third Zeitgeist Change
But once every 500 years there is an outer planet midpoint with Neptune as the apex planet, and that is the type we are having now. Thus this zeitgeist change will be bigger by far than just a normal change which would only be a simple IT. The last time Neptune was at the midpoint was 500 years ago — see graphical ephemeris of this period below — and I think most would agree that the world at the time changed in very significant ways, with among other things the newly invented printing press and the discovery of the New World.
Uranus-Pluto Midpoint on Neptune
In the above graphical ephemeris the transiting Uranus-Pluto midpoint is in orange and the transiting Neptune is in purple. They first come in contact at One and that connect ends at Two for a period of two years. Compare that to the one shown later for the current period.
The Midpoint in 1504
The keyword I give here is the “COVID pandemic” and all the other associated things such as censorship and propaganda which became so enlarged at that time. I see this change, with Neptune at the apex, will lead to one of two possible outcomes, broadly speaking, though of course it is much broader than that. One outcome will lead to a downgrade of the Cartesian rationalism that has grown up in the previous 500 years and a resurgence of a more spiritual, less “rational” viewpoint which I have discussed several times in the past, a move beyond the Enlightenment that came at the midpoint of these 500 years, thought it had been forming for many years before. Natural systems, which have been increasingly ignored as the industrial and global world-views have taken over the world starting 500 years ago, are on the ropes. This is obvious to the leaders of the world, but they don’t realize that THEY are the problem, or perhaps they do and don’t want anyone to figure this out with an increasingly controlled information flow. The groundwork was laid in the previous centuries.
Current Uranus-Pluto Midpoint on Neptune
Again see the midpoint starts at One and ends at Two for a period of three and a half years.
The other possibly outcome is talked about world “leaders”. There will be a one-world global government and it will be totalitarian but of course it won’t be called that. One can already see this forming with for example the WHO’s –World Health Organization — One Health program. The natural will be abandoned as we seek refuge in the artificial virtual reality world (cf the novel Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson published in 1992 when the world wide web was just a gleam in Tim Berners-Lee’s computer.) We will eat artificial food if we can’t find insects and the basic details of our lives will be known by that world government which will control us. This is the plan for us that Pluto has, and they are not shy about telling us of it: “You will own nothing and be happy” is one statement that has become popular.
This coming Midpoint Configuration
This is probably the most far ranging of the three ITs because there are so many things covered — as I’ve detailed before — by the term Neptune. Pandemics, vaccines, diseases, all things medical which the pharmaceutical companies are such a major player. As oil companies were the major players in the fossil fuel age, the pharmaceuticals corporations are a good symbol in the medical industrial age which is being planned out.
Another important thing that is covered by Neptune is the Virtual World which is now so much of the Real World (called IRL in the virtual world). This is the Internet or the (World Wide) Web or the Metaverse, or even the Fourth Industrial Revolution, terms which are very popular with the World Economic Forum who are gung-ho for this future.
Neptune in its guise of propaganda will be a big part of this IT. This has been the golden ago of propaganda. There was a good effort under WWI (Wilson was masterful) with Bernays who took ideas from his uncle Sigmund Freud. So the use of propaganda has been growing since the Zeitgeist Change of the early twentieth century.
There are several novels that forecasted facets of this future from the past. One thinks of George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, and Philip K. Dick. Many writers covered this subject, but one who did but is little noticed is the first novel by Kurt Vonnegut called Player Piano. But the author who seems very prescient and from the Nineteenth Century was H. G. Wells with his novel Time Machine, made in to a movie several times. In this novel the Morlocks live beneath the ground and service the Eloi (Wells take on ultimate class reduction) so the world is divided into two races: In contemporary terms essential workers and the laptop class or in the astrological terms I’m using, Pluto can enjoy life while Uranus supports them. We have become increasingly alienated from the natural world and as a result the natural world has become alienated from us, leading to massive problems with nature. We will no longer be human and thus natural but rather transhuman and so not really connected to the earth which could just as well die because we will all be happy in the Meteverse.
Some people want to bring the scientific paradigm further so that the next 500 years will see the results of the Fourth Industrial Revolution ™ and we will be transhuman, the ultimate goal of the Scientific worldview, what astrologer and historian Bruce Scofield calls the reductionist-mechanistic-materialist view. So that is the conflict: will the next 500 years be more of the same rationalism (that has so obviously almost turned the world into a pardise!!!!!) or is it time to try something new. We certainly can’t follow a different path with Pluto (the same old leaders) running things. Are we are looking at a future where the rich drive electric vehicles only they can afford while the plebs live in their 15 minute cities? Where the rich will eat organic food while the commoners live on artificial or industrial food? It has already started with for example King Charles III of England who travels with an organic cook while urging others to eat industrial food.
One thing that makes it so much harder to break free from Pluto is that Pluto convinces people to see reality on left-right spectrum. These terms are associated with the planets Jupiter (left) and the Saturn (right) that was developed during the French Revolution. While at the time Jupiter and Saturn were the outermost planets — Uranus was discovered earlier in the same decade (not a coincidence) — there are now outer more planets that could/should be used to indicated a new paradigm. The spectrum now should be considered up and down or globalist and populist or industrial and natural or in astrological terms Pluto and Uranus, planets for the new century. Pluto was discovered less than 100 years ago.
In a stroke of genius Pluto has convinced many people that if you don’t believe everything it supports you are somehow a right wing conspiracy theorist. It has helped do this by supporting many agenda items that liberals support and mouthing the proper phrases. We all know them. And no liberal wants to be considered a RWCT so they will support the agenda of Pluto with all their hearts, even if in a simpler time they would oppose it. On the other hand Pluto has convinced the conservatives that the policies Pluto supports have been adopted by Communist China thus the conservatives accuse this agenda of Pluto as being Communism and so they consider people like Klaus Schwab and Bill Gates to be Communists or at least Marxists! So to satisfy their hatred of Communism they oppose this agenda with all their hearts. And when they see liberals supporting these Communist ideas they are further incensed at their enemies. And then the liberals see the conservatives opposing this agenda they support they are even more incensed at the conservatives. Thus both “sides” get something to make them happy and keep them fighting one another and thus they won’t look at the puppeteer that is really pulling the strings. It’s a win-win situation for everybody except the people but they of course don’t realize it.
The pull of corporation profit and money has biased science so that it is no long something Newton would recognize. There is currently one great example of this. One of the domains ruled by Neptune is the rapidly developing medical-industrial complex, represented most clearly by large pharmaceuticals companies. That monopolization of medicine and even science by large corporations have biased the expansion of knowledge in this case with the germ theory which allows pharmaceutical companies to make big money but leaves other area of interest unexplored. Our view of reality has been shaped by our means of thought which have been shaped by corporations. As they say follow the money, but this also shapes reality.
We are seeing the Ultimate capture of government by that scientific world view that has developed over the last 500 years. For example the Pharmaceutical companies now dominate medicine and direct that field to study germs. Germ theory is seen as the only conceivable theory of how the world works and how people get sick. The germ theory was created by Louis Pasteur but he rejected it on his death bed and gave support to the alternative vision called terrain theory. A simplification of the difference between the two is that germ theory posits very small enemies out there which we must avoid or defeat with scientific weapons; this is masculine view similar to war. Terrain theory on the other hand has it that if the terrain of your body or environment is weak, caused by among other things bad diet (non-nutritious ultra-processed foods are much more profitable) and toxins in the environment (that earn a profit because people believe they must be used) makes you open to the bad things that otherwise your body would ignore or quickly deal with. Use of terrain theory — improved sanitation — has resulted in the greatest reduction of human death in history long before the pharmaceutical industry came into existence, but this is often forgotten.
With this emphasis in germ theory other modes of medicine such as for example energy medicine (Suggested reading: Invisible Rainbow by Arthur Firstenberg and The Body Electric by Robert Becker) were overlooked or ignored thus as a people we are much poorer. Science has been captured by corporations.
What we are seeing now is the end of the 500 year Party and people are going crazy because they can’t wrap their minds at all that is happening. Unfortunately, and I’ll get a lot of criticism here, people are focusing on one symptom — climate change — of this end of party instead of what is really going on so the outcome will be much worse than if people had dealt with the real problem, but of course doing that would draw attention to some very sacred cows in society that we are not allowed to even “see”. It is to the benefits of the corporations (and other parts of Pluto) that we go around chasing climate change. It is like the old magician’s trick that has been used a lot recently: Don’t look over here, look over there. It is always dangerous to treat the symptom rather than the problem because it only gets worse. Bur climate change can be measured by a simple number and thus is easy to follow even though the problem is much more complex. It is also important that climate change can be solved by technological fixes (more technology is always good!) and new products that corporations can sell us. Suggested reading: Climate: A New Story by Charles Eisenstein and Overshoot by William Catton.
The members of Pluto obviously don’t really believe climate change is a problem, because otherwise why would we see incidents like these: a major climate catastrophe happened when the Nordstream pipeline was exploded but if it were really a big deal certainly someone official would investigate who perpetrated this incident (probably some climate denier!) so they could at least be blamed and shamed; but all we got was one report and no investigations. Then we are told that climate change is so bad we should reconsider flying but many higher echelon (i.e. members of Pluto) people have their own private jets — you would think if climate change was really a problem they would at least fly commercial along with the common folk if only to appear they believe their line. And third: if the US defense establishment were a country it would be the fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gasses and so a good first step would be to greatly reduce the defense budget of the United States — 40% of the world total — presently larger than that of the next 10 countries combined, which includes arch enemies Russia and China — but instead they keep increasing it. Either climate change is not a problem or those most responsible for the problem don’t need to worry about it.
But Wait, There’s More
While I have described a Zeitgeist Change as being denoted by a midpoint of the three outer planets, in this particular case it is not just a midpoint but also an aspect pattern — called a mini-grand trine — which consists of a trine and two sextiles joining the two planet in trine — Uranus and Pluto — with the center planet Neptune. In the graphical ephemeris below — in the sixth harmonic to show all three planets together — we can see how Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto all bunch together for at least four years — 2025, 2026, 2027, and 2028 — starting their tight combination around the Aries point. This formation doesn’t last as long as the transiting midpoint but is still dominates the second half of this decade. An aspect formation, even without the underlying midpoint, would be of significance but this combined with the other features again points to this being a very significant time.
Mini Grand Trine
So in a way this third interesting time is in itself threefold, what with the outer planets midpoint and the apex of the midpoint being Neptune and there also be a astrological formation happening at the same time.
Graphical Ephemeris Mini Grand Trine
Axial Age
The only comparable time in history that I can think of is when all three planets were conjunct in 576 BC or thereabouts. They also formed a midpoint configuration but it is only because they are conjunct — each three is at the midpoint of the other two. This was the axial age (Karl Jaspers) when most religions originated such as Confucianism, Lao Tzu, Zoroastrianism, Mithraism, Judaism (Babylonian Captivity).
Axial Age Graphical Ephemeris
The world has really changed in big ways and most people don’t realize it: They are still stuck either worrying about the awfulness of Donald Trump and his fascist band of followers who are the greatest threat to Democracy ever or praising the savior Donald Trump who will rid the world — or at least the United States — of the Communist Marxist fascism that dooms the USA.
There is supposedly an old Chinese blessing/curse which is “May you live in interesting times”. Interesting times are more eventful than uninteresting times, but whether that is good or bad, hence a blessing or a curse, is the question. An interesting time is like for example the early Twentieth Century (UR=NE/PL) or the time right after World War II (PL=UR/NE). Those were interesting times to be alive.
Currently we are living in a three-fold interesting time (IT) as if we had won the trifecta. The current term de jour is poly-crisis. I’ve explored all these three before but here I want to put them all together and associate them with keywords from the popular press and talk which may give you some insight into what is taking place. Some people think that there is some nefarious actor behind all three changes happening but I believe it is just that all three are happening at the same time. So those of us who are alive now need to know that these times are unique or special; in a way all times are unique, just as all astrological charts are unique, but some are more unique or special than others. We live in such a time. Just as keywords for the planets hide ideas that are associated with those symbols the keywords that I give will hide ramifications of these three events. Use your own imagination to complete the meanings.
The keywords and tendencies of each IT will reflect on to the other ITs so each keyword constellation will effect the others. Each IT will influence/reinforce the other two ITs so they will be different and perhaps more interesting than if each were happening by itself. As they say the sum is more than just the parts.
Last Pluto Return
The first of these three ITs is associated with the Pluto Return of the United States. No country has existed with one Constitution as long as the US so this return is unique. And since the United States is the most powerful country in the world currently, whatever happens to it will effect the entire world. But we really don’t know for sure where Pluto was 250 years ago so we can’t be sure this is the actual Pluto Return. But as astrologers commonly do for a birth charts with birth time unknown a process called rectification is used to determine the birthtime; this process is essentially if you know the answer (some momentous event in the person’s life) what was the question (chart that would show that event) or astrological Jeopardy(TM). We can judge if this is a Pluto Return by seeing if what is happening in real life (IRL) is what would be expected for a Pluto Return and so far many are talking about the breakdown of United States society, from both a blue and a red perspective. America seems to really be in a quandary. I can can see as possibilities a breakup of the country, a change in the way the Supreme Court is run, a realignment of political parties, the birth of new political parties, and other outcomes that would not have not seemed conceivable in the last century. Division is the keyword on everybody’s lip currently. More than once I’ve heard someone say that they haven’t seen a division like this since the Civil War.
Another way that this Pluto return manifests itself is in the huge involvement of the National Security State with our politics. Recent example abound but I should point out that the Russiagate saga over the last part of the last decade is a prime example (see long article by long time journalist Jeff Gerth in a recent copy of the Columbia Journalism Review and the article in the online magazine Tablet by Jacob Siegal called “The Hoax of the Century”) and the CIA’s debunking of the Hunter Biden laptop story — which was later shown to be as it was claimed to be before the 2020 election — at the request of a Biden campaign official who later became Secretary of State.
Pluto Return
The popular term for this time is Civil War, which some people think will actually happen. I don’t know about that but anyone can see there is an increasing division between one group of people (call them Team Blue or the elite establishment or team reality or whatever term you are most comfortable with) against another group of people (call them deplorables or MAGA Republicans or anit-vaxxers, or populists or team reality or even Team Red). Essentially there are two basic viewpoints of reality and each group thinks the other group is crazy or deluded or evil. But the members of each group are not all the same, for example “anti-vaxxers” are not the same as Team Red — President Trump, the mascot of the MAGA Republicans, oversaw operation warp speed which was the epitome of anti-anti-vaxxer! — and the elite are not the same as Team Blue but the omnipresent “they” wants you to believe this. But there are two somewhat hazy groups that are somewhat opposite and spreading. I believe this split will see a new political realignment at least as significant as when the Republican Party formed out of third parties that existed in the time before the (first?) Civil War. What will be the Fort Sumter moment this time? Both sides would probably nominate Jan 6 but for very different reasons. And these traits are common but it is more wide spread then the cliches. Other possibilities could be a new constitution, a modification of the Supreme Court, or even breakup of the united States into several regional blocs, sort of like a re-Europization of the EU (caused for example by the next IT).
The graphical ephemeris above illustrates the whole of the Pluto return. We see the first actual return of Pluto to its natal position at point 1 in early 2022. It happens again at point 2 and 3. Finally at point 4 later in this year Pluto is stationary on the US natal Pluto for the last return.
But this conflict is not between the “left” and the “right” as it is between two world views which more or less correspond to the astrological terms I use in this blog: Pluto and Uranus or globalist and populists or up and down or the 1% and the 99% or artificial and natural.
Transiting Neptune Opposite Natal Neptune – a Demi-Return
The second IT is what I have called previously the Sixth Crisis. Since the founding of this country every 80 to 90 years there has been a crisis; these crises started very small and local to part of North America and each crisis has become larger and more global. This is discussed from a non-astrological perspective in the book the Fourth Turning by Neil Howe and William Strauss. Howe has a new book coming out called the Fourth Turning Is Here whose title says it all.
The keyword concept I give for this is World War III, otherwise known as the war in Ukraine but perhaps expanding into a war with China. But another concept that is certainly important here is a change from the unipolar world, a world with one dominant power, to a multipolar world with some powerful countries but none are considered the “top dog”. The world has never experienced the multipolar world before in human history; before it was unipoloar the world consisted of separate nations; this was before the Europeans had expanded to colonize the whole world. Globalism and the Unipolar world started 500 years ago with Spain being the first Single Pole. Since the US has the conjunction of Sun, Venus, and Jupiter which I’ve described before as double plus good the country has been very very lucky in its expansion so the United States is currently the Single Pole.
The unipolar world could only exist once Columbus discoverd America as far as Europe was concerned and the cat was out of the bag that there was a large undiscovered part of the earth that could be exploited by the the nations of Europe. That is what the last 500 years have been about and that is about to come to an end. I am reminded of the original Dylan who wrote a famous poem as his father was dying: “Do not go gentle into that good night Rage, rage against the dying of the light”. The American Empire is dying and that empire is certainly raging against its dying of light. The country must realize there is life after death.
Multipolarity is an entirely new way of running the world. For the West the feudal world gave way to the modern world 500 years ago and to what brave new world to (coin a phrase) will this period begat? Pluto already knows the type of brave new world it wants. Will Uranus figure its reply to this?
The Sixth Crisis
I’ve listed five factors that determined the crisis, factors that have reoccurred every 80 to 90 years since the beginning of this country. The first crisis was very local — Jamestown — but each succeeding one got larger and more geographically widespread. The fifth crisis was World War II. These five factors are all illustrated in the graphical ephemeris above. The first was Neptune making a demi-return to the natal Neptune of the United States (Number 1). Then there was Neptune over the MC or IC of the US and Neptune at either 0 Aries or 0 Libra (Number 2 and 3). Finally there was the Uranus return (Number 4) and Uranus crossing the Descendant of the US (Number 5). These five events occur during the whole decade from 2021 through 2029. The Neptune demi-return — illustrated above — started early in 2021 and the final pass of Uranus over the U.S. Descendant — illustrated below — happens in early 2029.
Watching the behavior of the United States at this time is like watching a divorce where it is obvious to everyone except one of the principles that the relationship is over and he/she struggles to keep the marriage together (often by doubling down) and as a result the outcome of the divorce for that person is much worse that otherwise would have been the case. Is this a real life “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe” (a play/movie by Edward Albee) but with less alcohol? The situation could go so much better for the United States if the country had better leaders. I believe this current situation should be a chapter of a newly updated version of Barbara Tuckman’s March of Folly, a masterful book about what the title says: How stupidity and hubris (something the Greek dramatists were aware of 2500 years ago) leads to downfalls, starting with the Trojan War with the Wooden Horse. (I imagine the conversation at that time went something like this: The Greeks left this beautiful wooden horse before they departed; Wouldn’t it be a good idea to bring this into the city so we can play with it? What could go wrong? There’s some chick named Cassandra who thinks that is a real bad idea but she is so into conspiracy theories I don’t believe a word she says.) America is so besotted with war propaganda (hello, Neptune) that is difficult to find any public figure commenting clearly.
Uranus at Descendant
We’ll talk about the third IT in Part II — this third IT is a threesome also.
The theme of the last year has been Neptune and this post will be also about Neptune but in a more “traditional” sense. Some of the keywords for Neptune are disease, illness, gas, and earthquakes. That last keyword may need some explanation but it comes from the mythology concerning Neptune (the Roman god) or Poseidon (the Greek name for the same god). It seems that earthquakes were considered to originate when Neptune stamped his trident in the earth.
I once had a student who was a Pisces and she would get upset whenever I mentioned difficult manifestations of Neptune. But I did not mean to defame Neptune. I have a strong Neptune myself and in fact the planet makes a close minor aspect to my Ascendant.
In all of these charts to be discussed below Uranus is prominent. One chart has only an approximate time, one time I got from news accounts, while the other has a time to the nearest second. The charts for two of the events have a strong Neptune aspecting either the Ascendant or Midheaven.
The first (two) charts are for the multiple explosions on the Nordstream underseas pipelines that were designed to carry gas from Russia to Germany and thus to the rest of Europe. These explosion are considered the greatest act of industrial terrorism in history, caused the largest release of methane in a single event, and an act of war against Germany and Russia. Certainly a very big deal but it does not get talked about much.
This second chart is for the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. It is considered by many to be the worst environmental disaster in recent American history. There have have been other disasters such as the BP oil well explosion but that was in the Gulf of Mexico and not the continental United States. There have been other train derailments but this one was carrying several toxic chemicals and so was worse. As I understand it, the vinyl chloride — used to make PVC — that the train was carrying was burned so that the track would be quickly available. It is normal for spillage from trains to be cleaned up and taken away; it is very unusual for this mess to be burned. Because it was burned more toxic substances were produced, including dioxin which is a known carcinogen.
The third event is the first of several earthquakes to hit Turkey (or Turkiya) and Syria with the epicenter in Turkey. While Turkey is a original member of NATO Syria is one-third occupied by the United States and it is under sanctions which makes helping that country much more difficult.
Nordstream explosions happened in four different locations (see map) but three were close together and the first explosion happened somewhat distant so the location is the center of the three explosions closest together and the fourth has its own location.
First Nordstream Explosion
From the chart we can see that this was a New Moon (about two hours after the exact conjunction of the Sun and Moon) which was below the earth so it was very dark at the time. The second chart was 17 hours later so that the New moon was almost a day old. Jupiter was opposite the Moon closely (see the fourth harmonic chart later for a graphic illustration of how close).
Second Nordstream Explosions
In a pattern we will see repeated, the Sun was in hard aspect — a sesquiquadrate in this case — to Uranus at about half a degree in the first chart but in the second chart this aspect was almost exact. One quick interpretation of Sun-Uranus hard aspects is that something unexpected happened this day.
Notice the shape formed by Uranus, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Sun. It looks like a kite with the tail pointing to the Sun. In astrology there is a planetary formation called a kite which looks much the same except the aspects holding the kite together are trines and sextiles. So I will call this formation a Hard Kite.
First Nordstream Explosion Harmonic 4
Finally note that Mercury is opposed to Neptune, and indeed this whole incident has Neptune writ large. No one will take responsibility for this huge terrorist act and most governments say they have no idea who did it. The mass media seems uninterested who finding out what happened. Perhaps relevant to this lack of interest is the fact that there are six planets retrograde: the five outers and of course Mercury. This incident is a huge mystery that no one is interested in. Of course, remember the old statement: Don’t ask a question if you don’t want the answer.
Second Nordstream Explosions Harmonic 4
This case was discussed previously (Midterms and Minor Aspects) and the fourth harmonic chart is interesting to look at since it reveals that Pluto is tightly configured with Moon/Jupiter and Uranus/Saturn.
Neptune is involved: though most consider this an act of sabotage and not a natural phenomenon there is much uncertainty about the perpetrator. A few weeks ago noted journalist Seymour Hearst posted an article telling how the United States, along with Norway, blew up the pipeline. He indicated that this was an act requiring a major player or a state to perform. There was absolutely no mention of this in the major media. Then more recently the New York Times and a prominent German newspaper published separately details from intelligence sources that the explosions were from explosives planted by a pro-Ukraine group of six from the fifty foot yacht Andromeda. This seems similar to the plot of a episode of the Sixties sitcom Gilligan’s Island where the Professor makes a coconut bomb which is planted underwater by Ginger and Mary Ann. Then there are claims that Russian ships were seen in the vicinity of the explosion a few days before it happened. Thus there is uncertainty of the perpetrators and at least two very conflicting stories, thus a Neptunian haze surrounds this event.
The next case to look at is a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, a small town near the Pennsylvania border. The train was carrying several toxic chemicals including vinyl chloride which is used to make the very common PVC. But the derailment would not have been nearly as bad except that a controlled burn of the spilled contents took place later, thus exposing the toxic chemicals to a much wider group of people and also hiding the local effects since they were spread over a larger population. This chart is based on the time given by the sources I checked. Neptune is exactly on the Descendant and also square the Midheaven. There is an exact Sun square Uranus at the time, saying again that something unexpected would happen on that day. Not only does Neptune rule the toxic chemical spilled, but there is also uncertainty about what caused the accident and why it was made worse by the “controlled’ burn. Another problem was caused by lack of safety equipment; for example the train had the same type of brakes as used during the Civil War instead of newer brakes that could have prevented the derailment but cost more money. Also, more engineers on the train could have noticed the forming problems before the accident.
Train Derailment
Making this incident even more interesting is that Don Delillo wrote a novel in 1985 called White Noise that had been floating around Hollywood for many years until it was finally made into a movie with the same title released in 2022. The novel/movie concerns an airborne toxic cloud from a train derailment and the movie was filmed in East Palestine. The movie seemed to capture the disaster that happened in that town and some of the residents of the city were even extras in the movie. Certainly a case of life imitating art.
Earthquake in Turkey
The third incident to look at is the Earthquake in Turkiye/Syria. The time and location are exact (which is usually the case with earthquakes and seismographs). This earthquake took place about six hours after the Full Moon. Neptune is exactly square is Ascendant and there is a wide square of Sun and Uranus, not surprising since this earthquake took place three days after the derailment.
Number of Earthquakes in Turkey per Year
As shown in the graph Turkey has had a huge number of earthquakes in the Twenty-First Century compared to the time before. As of this writing there are about 53,000 casualties and 26 million displaced persons. While certainly not the deadliest earthquake in a century the death toll is high because it was early in the morning when most were asleep.
There is some contention that this was an artificial earthquake: a Romanian legislator brought this out in a speech before her Parliament. She maintains that since there was no true epicenter and many earthquakes occurred along the same line it was caused by something like HAAAP (High-Frequency Active Auroral Program) which of course was immediately denied by fact-checkers. Thus Neptune shows the doubts over the true origins.
I did not pick these three events expecting anything in common; they were large scale events that seemed to be important and with long term consequences. But there are some things in common. Two of the charts have tight aspects between Neptune and one of the angles, either the Ascendant or the Midheaven. All three have hard aspects between the Sun and Uranus. And all three are Neptunian in the more traditional sense.
We will soon see the first of three major sign changes for outer planets. Anytime an outer planet changes sign it is considered significant. There are many articles available that describe what has happened throughout history when, say, Neptune goes into Pisces or Pluto goes into Capricorn. A few years ago I discussed what happened when Pluto entered Capricorn. That occurred in 2007 through 2009 and the world saw what is called the Great Recession (as opposed to the Great Reset which is coming up). The previous time that Pluto entered Capricorn saw Britain become the dominant power in the (unipolar) world, which lasted until World War I when the USA took the reins of power even though it took the country another world war to act on this and believe it. And the time before that saw the Reformation start after Martin Luther supposedly nailed his theses to the church door. We will soon see all three outer planets — Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto — change sign within a 3 year period. One can see that if one change of sign is important, then three changing at almost the same time will be very very important.
In the book Astrology of Sustainability the astrologer J.Lee Lehman, PhD. talks about the transits of outer planets and mention this while discussing Pluto moving from Capricorn : “…cluelessness is a general characteristic of a period with a change in outer planet sign: the people who have benefited from the Old Regime often are slow to notice that the rules have changed.” Imagine what three changes of signs in three years for the outer planets will mean to those members of the Old Regime, that is Pluto, in the upcoming years.
Signs are, like house systems, a way of dividing 360 degrees by that ever popular number twelve starting of course at zero Aries. So whenever a planet changes sign it is making a multiple of 30 degree aspect to the Aries point. Thus when Pluto goes into Aquarius it will be sextile the Aries Point; when Neptune goes into Aries it will be conjunct the Aries Point; and when Uranus goes into Gemini it will be also sextile the Aries Point. Uranus has a period of 84 years so few are still alive who remember when Uranus last went into Gemini which was in 1942. The period of Neptune is twice that of Uranus so the last time Neptune entered Aries was 1862. Note that at that time Uranus was also in Gemini having entered that sign 1858 and 1858. The last time Pluto was in Aquarius was in 1778 when the United States was fighting its Revolutionary War. It is fairly obvious the commonality of those three periods: both 1778, 1862 and 1942 saw the United States involved in a war. I wonder what will happen this time.
The last time all three planets changed sign at about the same time, and into the same signs as they are changing into now, was 500 years ago, as illustrated above. Uranus went into Gemini about 1524; Neptune went into Aries about 1534; and Pluto went into Aquarius about 1531 — the same three ingresses we are seeing now. Since Pluto has a period of 250 years we see that this upcoming entrance of Pluto into Aquarius is only the second time since 1531 that Pluto entered Aquarius. In the Sixteenth Century Uranus was the first to change sign and Pluto went into Aquarius seven years later; Neptune was the last to change sign. By the time Pluto entered Aquarius Uranus had moved into Cancer and shortly after Neptune entered Aries Uranus moved into Leo, two signs after Gemini. Not all three ingresses happened as close together as they do this time.
Thus 500 years ago the spread for all three ingresses was about 10 years so there was not much overlap. To say that the period 1524 to 1534 was important to the shaping of the modern world is not hyperbole. One can see that the three outer planets changing into the same three signs this decade is an echo of what happened 500 years ago. At the intermediate time 250 years after that early 16th century period, Uranus went into Gemini about 1775, Neptune went into Libra — opposite Aries — about 1779, and Pluto went into Aquarius about 1777. The timing of these sign changes with the birth of the United States is quite obvious. These three ingresses also mark the Enlightenment, though that had more to do with the grand trine of the three outer planets that century. The Enlightenment is that time when rationalism replaced religion as the dominant force in societies. I have predicted previously in this blog that we will see irrationalism (that is the opposite of rationalism) replace rationalism after this change the world is going through this decade. This may be hard if not impossible to believe if you were raised in the scientific paradigm that dominates this society and has seen the adulation of scientists after World War II (they gave us the atomic bomb that ended that war was a popular outlook in America at that time) and it has only grown since in our technically dominated world. And according to the rational mindset astrology is the ultimate in irrationalism.
One way to see when all three outer planets change sign visually is by using a graphical ephemeris in harmonic six because all three of the signs being changed into are positive: Pluto into Aquarius, Neptune into Aries, and Uranus into Gemini. The heavy horizontal line is 0 Aries or in this case the positive sign boundry. Looking at the image above we see that Pluto first moves into Aquarius in the Spring of 2023, just dipping its toe in so to speak and then goes back into the safer confines of Capricorn until late winter of 2024 when it moves seriously into Aquarius until it returns briefly to Capricorn in Fall of 2024 but finally moves into Aquarius for good at the start of 2025. Neptune goes stationary at the Aries point in Summer of 2024 (to be discussed in more depth in a later post) before returning to Pisces for winter of 2025-26, finally moving into Aries for good in early 2026. Finally Uranus moves into Gemini for late Summer, Fall and Winter of 2025 and finally moves into Gemini for good in Summer of 2026.
Summarizing, Pluto moves into Aquarius in 2023 and 2024, Neptune moves into Aries 2024, 2025, and Uranus moves into Gemini in 2025 and 2026.
As mentioned previously in this blog, the interpretations that I use of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto in the current context can be laid out as follows: Note these planets have multi-variant meanings (I believe that term was used by Richard Tarnas) and so those planets have different meanings in different circumstances. But for the current crisis of this decade I think the following meanings are most useful. Uranus represents the individual people and the local and natural world as well as the desire and need for freedom. Neptune represents deception and illusion and propaganda as well as diseases and vaccines and that virtual world we call the “Internet” as well as a sense of a spiritual world. Pluto represent the opposite of Uranus in the current sense, big tech, big media, big pharma, global and the not natural — that is to say the technical and industrial.
With those meanings in mind we can see that these three different ingresses represent three different currents taking over the world . The first current will be of Plutonian energies, something that we can already see though the actual ingress won’t happen until the Vernal Equinox of 2023. The energy following that will be Neptunian which suggests there will be even more uncertainly about what is happening in the world and more propaganda supporting the narrative of Pluto so it will seem like the forces of Pluto will be all-powerful since it will appear at that time that that is the only energy available, but it will be hard to know for sure. But to paraphrase a common statement, Uranus bats last. The Uranian energies will finally come in after everyone is confused and believing that Pluto has triumphed. This will be discussed in a later post. This will see the biggest change in the direction of the world for a least 500 years. As the Romantic poet Shelly said a little over 200 years ago in the poem The Masque of Anarchy — “Ye are many, they are few” or to paraphrase Uranus is/are many and Pluto is/are few.
There is also a fourth change of sign at almost the same time as the first ingress of Pluto into Aquarius and so this should actually be considered the first of the many changes of sign in this short period, and this is one for a planet that for most of humankind’s existence was the outermost planet; Saturn is changing sign from Aquarius to Pisces in early March about two weeks before Pluto makes its first foray in Aquarius. This suggests a changed from the scientific viewpoint ruled by Aquarius to a more “non-scientific” viewpoint ruled by Pisces. In fact it has already started. The last two years have seen the popularity of the phrase “Trust Science”; I see it on lawn signs in richer neighborhoods above mine. This is a profoundly anti-science statement. You trust religion but science needs controversy and a variety of opinions in order to grow. I say this as someone who actually has a degree in science even though it is only BS. A more accurate statement would be Question Science since that is what scientists are suppose to do. But I guess that belief is so Twentieth Century.
So perhaps Science is dead but we just don’t realize it and may not realize it for many years.
Since Saturn is a relatively fast moving planet we will see it’s entrance into Aries within this decade also. And that time will be also important, but that is a subject for another post.
The midterm election in the United States is greatly looked forward to by political junkies because it is the first obvious election mandate for the Joe Biden presidency. Because of the interest, I have decided to look at this chart and it is indeed interesting.
Midterm Election
The first thing one notices is that a full moon is happening on that election day November 8, 2022. Mercury is conjunct the Sun tightly and Venus is widely conjunct it also. At the other end of the opposition Uranus conjoins the Moon as well as the North Node of the Moon. Expect the unexpected. This latter conjunction should be a big flag, and sure enough this Full Moon is also a lunar eclipse. Unlike a solar eclipse which last only an hour or so, a lunar eclipse lasts several hours. There are four retrograde planets at the time of this full Moon: Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune. Mars is one of the least often retrograde planets and it is near to its natal position and thus a Mars return for the United States. The Sun and the Moon make an almost exact semisquare/sesquiquadrate with the US Midheaven. Clearly this election will influence the standing and appearance of the United States within the wider world, which is something the Midheaven represents.
Midterms – USA
One can say that the outcome of the election will be a surprise. This can be taken many ways. In the United States the first midterm election after a new president has been elected two years previously there is traditionally a loss for the President’s party, what President Obama called in the 2010 midterm election a “shellacking”. So on one hand this midterm might present a huge loss for the Democrats, even more that would be expected. On the other hand, it could be a surprise in that the ruling party suffers no defeats unlike what happens normally. Because of Neptune’s prominence perhaps we will not know the final result for some time after election day since the results will be obscured by Neptunian haze.
And of course, as is true for this year, Neptune is opposite its natal position and Pluto is conjunct its natal position. The last time there was a similar configuration was the late Thirties when Pluto was opposite its natal position and Neptune was conjunct its natal position. At that time the world saw the beginnings of World War II and the Great Depression had been going on for several years.
A brief discussion of aspects and orbs is needed for an introduction to minor aspects. Aspects are the angular separation between two planets or other points. The validity of aspects was shown decades ago by John Nelson of RCA in that the aspects of planets (in a heliocentric manner) could affect the quality of radio signals, something that RCA was very interested in. Hard aspects caused more interference with radio signals. Orbs are the distance from exact — called partile — in which an aspect is said to still be effective. One easy way to get an argument among astrologers is to question the size of orbs. Some astrologers use what I consider to be huge orbs, so big that meaning ceases to exist. I once did computer work for an astrologer who insisted on using a ten degree orb for what is usually considered a minor aspect, an inconjunct or quincunx of 150 degrees.
Aspects are based on numbers — the numbers which divide a full circle to give the aspect which is a fraction of a circle. The three most important aspect families are based on the first three numbers — called whole numbers in mathematics because that is what they are, not fractions of a number. The first number is one and that gives the conjunction which I consider the mother of all aspects just as the number one is a divisor of all other numbers. The next number is two which gives the opposition, square, and so forth which are based on octaves of two. The number after that is three which gives trines, sextiles and so forth.
Note that the much used number twelve belongs to both families of two and three and of course one but then all aspects are derived from the conjunction. And the number twelve occurs in many areas for example in Judeo-Christian religion where we have the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles of Christ. In both cases each of the twelve have been assigned to a particular zodiacal sign. Both the day and the night have twelve hours so this is a very well used number and has been for millennia.
The families of two and the families of three are most often described respectively as hard aspect and soft aspects, though I prefer the terms overt — in the open — and covert — not out front. Everybody can feel an aspect of series two, it knocks you over the head; these are called event-oriented, but series three aspects are present but do not force themselves on you. Traditionally they are easy, but all of World War II saw a transiting trine of Uranus and Neptune so they are not necessarily pleasant.
We normally just use what are called the Ptolemaic aspects (after Second Century astrology Claudius Ptolemy who wrote early astrology books Tetrabiblos and the Almagest). These are conjunction, sextile, square, trine and opposition. If one is a little more daring they would throw in the semisquare — the name indicates that it is half of a square — and the sesquiquadrate — a square and a half which are also called minor aspects. They can also be called the octile and trioctile, indicating that they are based on the number eight. Continuing the series, half of a semisquare is a demisquare of semioctile. These aspects are 22.5, 67.5, 112.5, and 157.5 degrees. Like the square and the semisquare, the demisquare can be powerful if it close to exact. But the question occurs what orb should one use for a demisquare?
A question about orbs is what is the shape of the orb, that is how does the strength of the aspect fall off as distance from exact — called partile — falls off. Is the orb a sawtooth, where it falls off rapidly as the aspect becomes less than partile? Is the aspect of the same strength if within the orb after which it falls off immediately, like a tooth shape? Or is it like a normal curve when the strength falls off slowly at first as the aspect is less than partile and then falls off faster. I tend to believe in the normal curve since many things operate based on a normal curve.
Normal Curve from Wikipedia
With a normal curve you have something called the standard deviation (represented by the Greek letter lower case sigma). Most of the area under the normal curve is contained within two standard deviations on either side of the center, so I will consider the orb value as being two standard deviations. But remember that there is life outside two standard deviations, which suggests that occasionally an aspect can be active outside its orb, but this is not usual.
The next question is what orb to use. It seems obvious (to me) that as the aspect becomes a greater harmonic the orb should decrease, that is the orb for a square is less than an orb of a conjunction. I have always liked what are called harmonic orbs, in which the orb is proportional to the number on which the aspect is based. So for example if we consider the orb for a conjunction to be twelve degrees — and twelve is a number used often in astrology — then the orb for an opposition is six degrees, or twelve divided by two, and the orb for a square is three, or twelve divided by four. So an orb for semioctile or demisquare would be 12/16 or 45 minutes.
The following section on the October Surprise was written weeks ago but Mercury Retrograde got in the way. I used to think that “Mercury Retrograde” was just an excuse astrologers used when something did not come together but since that time I’ve experienced many Mercury retrograde periods during which many things did not come together, more so than in non-Mercury Retrograde periods. (But note that the periods for a couple of days before and after the retrograde — when Mercury is moving slow — are also problematic.) This just concluded Mercury Retrograde period — from September 10 to October 1 — was brutal.
October Surprise Graphical Ephemeris Harmonic 16
While looking at the current transits I noticed planets coming together in late September but in minor aspects so that one would usually not see it. Demisquare aspects are not often noticed but can be seen in a what is called a fourth harmonic chart — aka ninety-degree dial — where all positions are multiplied by four and then 360 is subtracted until the total is under 360. While looking at a graphical ephemeris I noticed an interesting lineup of planets in late September. Notice how the lines for Jupiter, Uranus, and Pluto come together in late September. Shown below are the first harmonic of this date– 9/26 — where we notice Sun, Mercury, and Venus conjunct and oppose Jupiter, Mars trines Saturn, Jupiter semloadisquare both Uranus and Saturn which are square and Sloadun tightly semisquare Uranus. But then look at the fourth harmonic chart. Pluto is square the Sun-Jupiter opposition to Saturn-Uranus and Mars is trine/sextile both ends of the opposition. The squares in the fourth harmonic chart are demi-squares and the oppositions are actually semisquare/sesquiquadrates. There are a lot of plloadanets connected and I thought that this indicated an “October Surprise”.
October Surprise
This is not just a theoretical discussion: It is almost a tradition in American politics to have what is called an “October Surprise” before an election in November, something that is unexpected and causes changes in voter’s minds. The term originated in 1980 during the Carter-Reagan campaign when the Reagan team prevented the hostages in Iran from being released until after Reagan was elected, thereby denying a win to the Carter campaign; the Carter campaign was certain that a release before the election woulloadd have helped his election chances. During the summer people’s mind are consumed by other things than electoral politics, but after Labor Day and the return of students to their school people become more concerned about facts on the ground. So it is after Labor Day that an “October Surprise” can occur — October Surprise Season begins. By looking at astrology, it appears many planets will come together in minor aspects late September to set the stage for an October surprise.
October Surprise Harmonic 4
In the fourth harmonic chart (above) we see a T-square with Saturn-Uranus opposite Sun-Jupiter all square the apex point Pluto. Remember that in a fourth harmonic chart the square is in actually a demi-square.
Notice other timings. The transiting Sun goes over natal Neptune just after Labor Day and then goes over the MC on September 26, the same date as was pointed out above.
Looking back one can see things — obviously — that one can not see looking forward. With the benefit of hindsight we can see what happened about September 26. Much to the surprise of many — but not the CIA which warned Germany of this possibility (https://www.reuters.com/world/cia-warned-berlin-about-possible-attacks-gas-pipelines-summer-spiegel-2022-09-27/) — several bombs went off on the Russia to Germany pipelines Nordstream 1 and 2 which were supposed to deliver gas to Germany from Russia. The first explosion occurred at 2:03 CEST (Central European Summer Time) on September 26. Protests had been happening in Germany demanding that that country drop its sanctions against Russia and allow gas to flow through the pipelines, something that could not happen after bombs blew holes in the pipelines.
Nordstream Explosion
Looking at the chart for the first Nordstream explosion, we see that it happened about two hours after the New Moon with Jupiter in Aries opposite this New Moon. This perhaps indicates the explosion of gas that burst from the pipelines when the explosion hit, and the result has been captured in a photograph. Some are saying that this was the biggest one-time release of methane. When you look at the chart it appears like the is an arrow pointing at the New Moon, commanding your attention.
I’ve also included the fourth harmonic chart of this event so that you can see how similar it is to the chart earlier displayed that only suggested an “October Surprise”.
This is the Neptune war, and Neptune is a good symbol for the pharmaceutical and telecommunication industries that are so important these days and the defining industries of the age. Another important Neptune concept is propaganda. Though propaganda has a negative connotation, it merely means information in general. The propaganda you agree with is information but the propaganda that you disagree with are lies, or in today’s speak MDM or misinformation, disinformation, and malinformaton. Of these three the worst is the last item, which means information that is true but will get the hearer of such malinformation to take unorthodox opinions different than of the government.
In an important way this war differs from others before it, and this is due to the Internet being available. This is another reason I call this the first Neptune War, since the Internet (which I mean the Web) had just started when the Afghanistan and Iraq wars started. Now there are many independent reporters from countries which are not associated with either side. An example is Gonzalo Lira, a Chilean-American who has been reporting from the Ukraine and caused an online stir when he was captured by the Ukrainian SBU (their FBI). He has released independent reports from the Ukraine War on his YouTube channel that have nor pleased the Ukrainian authorities. Anybody can watch his reports which are still on YouTube. This kind of reportage did not and could not exist during the wars of the Twentieth Century. These external reports can certainly change our perception of reality. Thus you can see why the powers that be want to restrict the exposure of the independent sources.
Let us look at the astrological charts for some of the major participants of this Neptune War. There are several charts for the current Russia, but my favorite is for the actual lowering of the flag of the Soviet Union and raising the flag for Russia. This obviously bears huge symbolic meaning. This chart suggests a strongly introverted — all planets below the horizon — country and one with deeply held values — Venus conjunct Pluto. With the Moon in the first house and conjunct the Ascendant it is easy for it to be/feel insulted and take every thing personally. I’m sure Russia right now feels like the Rodney Dangerfield of countries, it just can’t get no respect and it craves that.
Russia
The transiting Sun was on the Russia MC on April 30 of 2014, just after the exact grand cross and just before the Odessa massacre, mentioned previously and below. Note that by 2020 transiting Uranus was coming to the MC showing that the country could be very excitable and upset at the time. At the start of Operation Z Uranus was a degree and a half away from the Midheaven on the tenth house side. Certainly the country would exhibit some Uranian tendencies to the outside world.
Invasion of Ukraine
Back in 2014 most western commentators agreed that there were far-right or even neo-Nazi forces in the Ukraine, as this article for Reuters makes clear; and here is one from the Washington Post . At the time people were worried about neo-Nazis from the US and other countries going to train in Ukraine. But since the Russian invasion these forces have disappeared, a purge of Neo-Nazis from Ukraine, a real denazification. But since we are talking about 2014 we can still admit that these dark forces existed. One of the more egregious acts of those forces occurred in the first week of May in 2014 as was mentioned in the last post. The memory of that action is so strong in the country that a curfew has been instituted for the first week of May in Odessa. It was then, about a month after the Maidan coup, that a group of people who were opposed to the coup were driven into union hall after which the doors were barricaded and the building was set afire. Those few who managed to escape were set upon by the neo-Nazi mobs who had started the fire and killed. The day is important because of the chart for April 22: this event was less than 10 days later.
Americans do not understand the meaning of the word “Nazi” to the Russians. In America “Nazis” are something that existed in World War Two and there was something called the American Nazi Party headed by George Lincoln Rockwell that existed a long time ago. And you can call people you disagree with a Nazi — remember the Soup Nazi in the comedy Seinfeld back in the Nineties. But to the Russians the term is more immediate. The Soviet Union lost over 25 million people to the armies of Nazi Germany and almost every family has relatives that died in the war. Every town still has monuments to the men lost in that war. Putin himself lost an older brother to the Germans in World War Two.
NATO
NATO — the North Atlantic Treaty Organization — is a big actor in this war, even though it is not considered a participant. Even though the name suggest that it involves countries centered around the North Atlantic, we now see observer status for Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Some suggest that this is actually a war between Russia and NATO. The original purpose of NATO was “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down” according to the first secretary general of NATO. NATO was formed shortly after the start of the Cold War and while we don’t have a birthtime, one can safely assume that the meeting where the agreement was signed was sometime during the day, and in that case 12 noon is a reasonable guess. Of course the Sun in on the MC which is true by definition; the designation AM and PM stand for ante-meridian (before the sun reaches the meridian) and post-meridian (after the sun has reached the meridian). NATO is an Aries with Mars and Venus closely conjoined and also conjunct the Sun. NATO is a very hot-blooded, passionate organization. You have to wonder if a staff astrologer picked the birth date for this organization. I’ve heard it argued that for organizations noon is the correct time.
Jupiter is essentially the only planet on the west of the chart and is in the seventh house conjunct the Descendant. This of course changes with an afternoon birthtime. To the outside world, NATO appears to be very positive and enthusiastic but self-contained. The First house Pluto further accents this directness. Neptune is conjunct the IC, suggesting that NATO is somewhat uncertain about its foundation and purpose in life, but with all those planets up at the top of the chart (in Aries no less) it is headstrong and aiming to make a mark in the world.
NATO in 2014
Uranus of the Grand Cross — April 2014 — is on the Sun of NATO and thus all of the planets of the formation are aspecting NATO’s Sun (and loosely the MC),and much like that of the United States it is strongly hit by the transits of 2014. The Mars-Uranus opposition of those transits lie on the Sun-Neptune opposition of the natal chart, suggesting that what was happening at the time of the Grand Square involved NATO as well as the United States. Notice that the transiting Mars conjunction to Neptune is exact.
NATO and Z
At the time of the Russian invasion, Pluto was closely conjunct the Descendant of NATO — the “force majeure” that NATO feels is coming from outside the organization. Also transiting Neptune is tightly square the Moon of NATO — the organization is still unclear on how to deal with this crisis; this is an echo of the Neptune on the IC of the natal chart which was mentioned above. This transiting Pluto is conjunct the natal Jupiter suggesting that NATO’s sense of optimism and benevolence is feeling crushed by the force of Pluto (Russia). Pluto was on the Ascendant of the US on 9/11 and Pluto makes me think of the falling/flaming tower in the Tarot major arcana.
Ukraine
As with Russia, there are several charts for Ukraine. This chart is drawn for when independence from the Soviet Union was declared. With many planets above the horizon it is much more outgoing than Russia. Quite noticeable is Pluto near the Midheaven and Uranus exactly on the Ascendant. It is a country undergoing transformation (Pluto) and with a strong sense of independence; I would guess it does not like being told what to do. One notices first the cluster of planets around the Sun. Next we see Pluto at the Midheaven and much tighter Uranus conjunct the Ascendant at under two degrees.
Ukraine at Russian Invasion
In the transits during the Russian invasion Uranus is prominent also. Uranus is opposite the MC and trine the Ascendant. For April 22, 2014 we see that Pluto is conjunct the natal Neptune and in the first house of Ukraine. In 2012 and 2013 Pluto conjoined the Ukraine Ascendant which would suggest the powerful changes or transformations were coming to the country.
Ukraine and Grand Cross
And of course here is the standard chart for Vladimir Putin though I’m a bit hesitant to discuss it. This invasion of Ukraine is being personified — at least in the West — as being a war by Putin. We also hear that it is Putin’s price hike that is causing prices in the United States to rise. America has done this in other wars, such as attaching Sudam Hussein to the invasion of Iraq and Ho Chi Minh to the invasion of Vietnam, but the connection of Putin with this war is so strong it is scary. There are other people in the government of Russia whose opinions are important. We do not consider, for example, that the American invasion of Iraq is “Bush’s War” since we know many others were involved. The demonization of the leader of a foreign country can come to no good, but the demonization of Putin stated at least in 2015 with Russiagate. And indeed other Russians than Putin are being banned, such as Russian cats and Russian composers. Try to get an America symphony orchestra to play the 1812 Overture or Pictures From an Exhibition, and Christmas time will be without the Nutcracker Suite. We should also recognize that the birthtime is considered of a low level of reliability and I have been told there are even doubts about the year of birth.
Note the stellium of planets with his Sun in the Twelfth house. If the date is correct even without a good time that stellium still exists. Closest of the planets to the Sun is Saturn. Though being a Libra he is in some ways a Capricorn, and that is good for being a politician. People with a strong Saturn tend to feel much responsibility, and I am sure this sense of responsibility to the Russian people was one factor in his decision to take a “crossing the Rubicon” step of invading another country.
The most obvious feature of this chart is Pluto on the Midheaven, even tighter that with the Ukraine. The standard interpretation in the West is that this positioning shows how aggressive and overwhelming Putin is. But another interpretation is that it shows what a transformational leader Putin is. But of course with such a dubious birth time such interpretations are almost cartoons.
Those using the Transneptunian planets may point out that Putin has Zeus, the planet of directed energy (or war), conjunct his Pluto making him even more ruthless — the standard meaning for this conjunction is “to start something new” and with the invasion of Ukraine we certainly saw that. In the chart of the invasion discussed in the first part we say Mars square Zeus. But of course Putin also has Poseidon, a higher Neptune, conjunct his Sun which suggests a wise person. But the United States also has Poseidon conjunct its Sun, and the spirit of that conjunction inspires the popular belief of a “City on the Hill” but unfortunately other things have overwhelmed that, like a tight Pluto semisquare the Ascendant.
When the invasion of Ukraine happened, transiting Uranus in his Seventh house was opposite his Venus — a challenge to his sense of self worth coming from outside his country. He is well beyond his second Saturn return and transiting Saturn is trine his natal Saturn, more sense of responsibility.
There is one other participant whose chart we should look at, and he has an actual birth time, thought it is from memory. That is for the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. In the source I checked (a company run by the person who provided the data) it is given as very good data but that depends on Zelensky’s memory.
V. Zelensky
Jupiter rising in the first house is a good sign — he displays optimism to the people seeing him. The conjunction of Sun and Venus at about three quarters of a degree shows him as someone who identifies his self with how he displays, on how he is seen by others. The opinions of others are important to him. He has a tight Moon trine Neptune which indicates he is either an actor or a politician. Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts had Neptune conjunct his Moon, and water (Moon) led to his downfall. Zelensky’s birth was just after Full Moon (as was that of another possible politician, Donald Trump) and if his time is close to correct his birth was one day after full Moon at the bottom of the sky, the symbolic lowest point in the chart, his foundation. There are some deeply personal things possibly with his mother that I’m not privy to. The least often retrograde planet — Mars — is retrograde and loosely opposite his Sun — good for a Churchill in a T-shirt, as he has been dubbed. At the time of his birth Mars was halfway through its retrograde cycle.
Zelensky Russian invasion
At the start of the Russian invasion Saturn was right on his Midheaven, the only time this happens on this Saturn cycle. This indicates that he will have burdens places on him at this time which I realize is self evident.
Zelensky and the Grand Cross
At the time of the Grand Cross mention previously — late April 2014, the real start of the war — Pluto was on his Mercury, but there was nothing as impressive as that Grand Cross on the US Chart or even on the NATO chart.
Ultimately, these massive changes in society are because of computers and especially the Internet — Neptune truly represents the virtual as opposed the real. When the World Wide Web was first introduced under the Uranus- Neptune conjunction of the early Nineties it was believed that this would lead to true world-wide democracy and other optimistic visions of the future. What was unrealized by most at the time is that the Internet could lead to the ultimate totalitarianism since the Internet can also be used for ultimate control. What we see now is a world wide conflict between this two possible futures through the use of the Internet and computers.
Both the decade of the Sixties and the decade of the Nineties had a very important conjunction of two of the three outer planets — Uranus and Pluto in the Sixties and Uranus and Neptune in the Nineties. The third possible conjunction — Neptune and Pluto — happened in the early 1890s — a good lead in to the eventful Twentieth Century. But we have been fortunate to witness two out of three outer planet conjunctions within 30 years. But the Sixties are more highly regarded in popular culture than the Nineties, even thought, to name just one item, the development of the World Wide Web was more significant than anything that happened in the Sixties, even than the Beatles!! But the Internet was born in the Sixties even thought it would not become popular until that other decade. Perhaps this loving of the Sixties is because the generation of the sixties, the Boomers, still control the media. But as explained previously, there is twenty year Jupiter-Saturn cycle overlaid over the decades, and the Sixties was a waxing decade (as is the current decade) while the Nineties was a waning decade and the nature of the decade effected how we would respond to events of that decade. Waxing decades are just considered more important and eventful, witness the Twenties, the Forties and the Eighties.
There is much worry expressed in the United States about Russian disinformation. There was even a proposal for a Disinformation Governance Board to oversee the spread of disinformation, especially Russian disinformation about the war in Ukraine. This board was to have been overseen by the self-described Mary Poppins of Disinformation (there is a video of her singing about this and she has good pipes). And of course disinformation is itself ruled by Neptune. This particular organization has been halted, at least temporarily, probably because of all the bad press it garnered and the reference to the Ministry of Information in a novel by George Orwell, but I’m sure that the spirit lives on. But since all forms of Russian information (such as the television service RT) has been banned from the US airways it is unclear what amount of Russian information/disinformation is allowed into this country. Perhaps it is anything Russia says that happens to reported on. It seems a move is afoot to label history of Ukraine and the Maidan Revolution as Russian disinformation, which immediately makes what was once the truth now suspect. The banning of RT currently is reminiscent of England cutting the overseas cables from Germany shortly after the start of World War I. The result of those overseas cables being cut was that America could not get the German view of things but only the British view. Thus there were reports of Huns raping Nuns and stories of crucifixion. These very horrific stories increased the desire for war in America. But the amount of United States propaganda supporting the Ukraine war which the United States is theoretically not involved in is more that I have ever seen; the propaganda supporting the Iraq War in 2003 pales in comparison. Those who are old enough to remember the propaganda during World War II confirm that the current level is higher than ever.
I like to noticed the connections between this sixth crisis and the previous fifth crisis that was World War II and its aftermath. Two things stand out: World War II was the real thing that ended the Great Depression for Americans, and so the leaders of America realized that the defense spending necessitated during the war needed to be kept going to avoid a return to the Depression. As a result the Military Industrial Complex that Eisenhower warned about was continued with increased defense spending for the new Cold War that started within a couple of years after the end of World War II, under the Saturn-Pluto conjunction of 1946-1948. The MIC is certainly reaping benefits under this current war. Recently the US Congress has passed a $40 billion bill to send arms and other aid to Ukraine, but most of that money will go to defense industries such as Raytheon. The thought that this has any connection to the fact that the current Secretary of Defense was previously on the Board of Raytheon is only from the minds of cynics or conspiracy theorists.
Cold War
It is clear — since they say it — US wants regime change in Russia. At first it seemed in the West that we must support Ukraine but with no boots on the ground. Later it became clear that there were US boots on the ground of Ukraine and had been for awhile, probably since 2014, and this included people from CIA and NATO giving support and training to Ukrainian troops. Any talk of a negotiated settlement was considered nonsense since the US wanted to wear down Russia much like the (US instigated) Russian invasion of Afghanistan wore down the Soviet Union. However to many it seems that war is wearing down the United States and Europe more than Russia.
Recently but before this invasion year Voldemort Zelensky pondered if Ukraine should get nuclear weapons since those in Ukraine were given up with the break-up of the Soviet Union. The image of “Nazis With Nukes” was certainly a good way of getting the Russians riled up.
Few who are not historians remember the Cuban Missile Crisis since they don’t teach it in school. Fewer than 20 years ago when there was a big protest world wide to the Iraq War there were many more who remembered that crisis. In that case of Cuba 60 years ago the United States invaded that island nation “only 90 miles from our shores” when Cuba became friendly to the Soviet Union, and almost had a nuclear war because the Soviets tried to put missiles into Cuba. Up until this time that is the closest the world has come to nuclear War since World War 2. Kennedy agreed to remove missiles from Turkey that were already scheduled to be removed in exchange for the Soviet Union removing their missiles from Cuba. Since President Biden has shown that he is more of a peacemaker than JFK I’m sure we have nothing to worry about! ` The example of Cuba shows how antsy major powers become when they see a possible threat very close to them. Imagine if Canada wanted to be have a Russian military base on Vancouver Island how disturbed the United States would be. But of course since many Americans consider Russia as a gas station disguised as a country (a joke John McCain told often) it is not really allowed to get upset. But since Russia has nuclear weapons on the scale of the United States, perhaps it is due a little more respect. As we can see from the chart of Russia, it is a country that wants this respect. Maybe we can send them that famous Aretha Franklin song instead.
From a wider perspective what we are seeing now is the end of the 500 year period that was a unipolar world. First it was Spain, then Holland, the England and finally the United States for the last 100 years as the dominant power. We are now moving into the multipolar world, where several countries are important. If the United States recognized this then things would go much better that what is currently happening: the US is fighting to hold onto its crown as the single most important power instead of being satisfied as being one of the important powers. Fighting this trend will only reduce the power of the United States in the long run.
It won’t be called that in the history books of course. Maybe the Cyber-war (from cybernetics) or the Social Media War or the Propaganda War. But Neptune in its various meanings very well represents this war. Neptune or Neptune inspired things seem very important at this time in history. While there has always been an important place for propaganda in the midst of war — consider stories of Huns raping Nuns in Germany in World War I — the use of propaganda in this war is magnified because there are now many high tech means of creating and transmitting it.
FDR
The famous American astrologer Rob Hand tells how the astrologers of the Thirties, who were mostly Republicans — unlike today’s astrologers — could not believe the accepted chart for FDR because he had Uranus in the twelfth house and those astrologers could not believe that such a extreme radical as FDR didn’t have Uranus in the first house where it would be much more prominent. One may think that since astrologers reject the standard narrative that astrology is a pseudoscience they would be more likely to contest other standard narratives — such that FDR was a radical — than most people, but human nature does not always work like that.
A more recent example of this blindness is the 2016 election where most astrologers thought that Hilary Clinton would be elected President even though a couple of fairly standard methods for predicting the winner showed Donald Trump elected. See for example the book Astrology: Worlds Visible and Invisible by Everett Blackman for a discussion of one method of determining the President.
Below is a chart for the speech by Vladimir Putin announcing the invasion (or special operation) of Ukraine. The actual invasion happened a short time later. This was called Operation Z, the Russian name for the invasion of Ukraine, though you can’t call it that in Russia. This was the beginning of Putin’s speech (at 6 in the morning) announcing the upcoming invasion. I don’t find it very compelling for the start of an event that will change the world and may even destroy it. At the start of the Covid Panic we had a Saturn-Pluto conjunction, which time after time has indicated something important happening.
Operation Z
Just look at the Saturn Pluto opposition at both the start of the Spanish-American war and 9/11. And both of those opposition were on the Ascendant-Descendant axis of the United States, indicating that both events would impact the U.S. In this chart for Operation Z we have not even a minor aspect between Saturn and Pluto. We have a tight semisquare between Jupiter and Pluto, and a square between Mars and the hypothetical planet Zeus, which can suggest an outbreak of hostilities but still is not world shaking. That square does suggest the invasion — the meaning given is “military technique, officer, firearm” — but I was hoping for a lot more. There is also a conjunction of Venus and Mars in the first house near the Ascendant which suggests that the Russians feel passionate about this war.
And then I realized that that was not the true start of the war. Getting the correct birth time is important to astrology. Once a German doctor measured several events, such as crowning, first breath, and cutting the umbilical, to find which birth time gave the best chart. This is discussed in the book Recent Advances in Natal Astrology. The first breath was the winner. We must do the same thing with world events.
When did this war start? It could have been when a recently formed CIA decided to train ex-Nazi Ukrainians to combat the Soviet Union; it could have been when in 1991 representatives for America said to Gorbachev that NATO would not expand “one inch eastward” if East and West Germany could reunite and join NATO, but that promise wasn’t in writing so it didn’t count. By 1998 other countries joined NATO and by now there have been fourteen additional countries in NATO that have certainly pushed the organization more than an inch towards Russia; we will discuss the chart of NATO in the next post. Experts such as George Kennan, who could be said to have started the Cold War with just one telegram (though it was a Long one) warned about this expansion of NATO just before he died at 101. He thought expansion of NATO a really bad idea.
No the war started in 2014 as evidenced by this chart.
Grand Cross
In late April of that year the following formation occurred: a grand cross with Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, and Pluto. It was part of the Uranus Pluto square of that period in the early teens. Notice how tight this grand cross is: each orb is less than 20 minutes of arc — this is almost perfect. This was the dominant astrological formation of the year (or any other year for that matter).
David
Charts with distinct patterns can be significant. For example a man named David who lived 3000 years ago had a chart with a six pointed star, which was difficult to do before the outer planets were discovered. Back then they used wider orbs than I do. The grand trine between the Moon, Mercury and Jupiter is clear, but also imagine another grand trine between Venus, Mars and Saturn. He put that star on his shield to warn his competitors of his awesome chart. That star still appears in many places currently and even appears in the flag of a country. The formation is even named for the man who had that star originally.
Grand Cross Within USA
Also interesting is how this grand cross fits into the US chart like a hand fits into a glove. (We’ll see in a later post that this chart fits into the charts of the other participants as well.) Jupiter is conjunct the U. S. Sun at a half a degree and all the other three planets of the grand cross are as tight or tighter to the U.S. Sun. Thirteen degrees of cardinal signs has been energized by this grand cross. Certainly something important happened within/to the US in 2014 but it wasn’t obvious (at least to me) at the time what that was. That period was half way through the second term of Obama and his viceroy for Ukraine, his vice president, was involved with that country. For example, his son had a job with a Ukrainian oil company that paid him well even though he had no experience with the oil business or with Ukraine. And Ukraine was still important under Trump: one impeachment for President Trump involved his call to Ukraine and he was slow to send weapons to that country even though his predecessor thought that would be a bad idea. Ukraine has been involved in American politics for at least eight years.
And here is a graphical ephemeris for that period and you can see clearly how all four planets cross at one point of time. Astrologers knew about this formation long before it happened. Note that it is part of the Uranus Pluto square the effected much during the start of the second decade of the Twenty-First Century, for example the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street in the United States occurred at the time. And I have a personal story about the events under that square. At the time I was in the habit of riding my bike through several towns in my valley and back again, a total distance of about 50 miles every weekend. The trips were always fairly uneventful. But the trip I took on the weekend before April 22 stands out in my memory for several events. The first was a large pickup truck parked on the bikepath three miles from my house. Later there was a minor accident. After that on the return trip I avoided another accident but got into skirmish with a pedestrian on the bike path. It was obviously memorable.
The year of 2014 was special in Ukraine. That was when an event called the Maidan Revolution, which had been forming the previous year, took place in Kiev’s Square of the same name. This followed several months of demonstrations against the then current democratically elected President of Ukraine. Some people think that the United States was involved in that protest, even though the U.S. has never done anything like that before except in South America (remember the Monroe Doctrine) and in Iran and perhaps a few other places. During the protest some US government officials – such as Victoria Nuland, who holds a high position in the Biden administration — were handing out cookies to the protestors. For Americans an analogy would be if on the insurrection of January 6 there were representative of the Duma, the Russian parliament, handing out cookies to the protestors while admitting that they thought Trump would be a better President. If that happened you can see that some people would be a tad suspicious.
After these demonstrations in the square there was a coup in Ukraine, the most obvious coup in history according to the founder of the private CIA, Stratfor. Some people think the coup was supported or even instigated by the US; the NYT thought so at the time. Nevertheless, the current President of Ukraine was replaced by someone who in a strange coincidence happened to be the person Ms. Nuland thought would be perfect for the job.
One of the most odious acts of this period is when at least 40 workers who were against the Maidan revolution were driven into a union house in Odessa by some who were called at the time Nazis and burned alive or killed if they tried to escape. This happened on May 2, 2014 a couple of months after the coup. This year the government of Ukraine has set a curfew for May 2 because they were afraid of protests or riots on that day to draw attention to the event. In certain ways that massacre of Russian citizens in Odessa can be considered the start of this war, the Kristallnacht of this war, and the astrological conditions are extreme. You will seldom see an exact grand cross involving several outer planets. And of course the Uranus-Pluto square during that three year period set up the conditions.
Now that we have established the chart for the beginning of this war that I am calling the first Neptune War, we will look at the charts of the participants next time and see how the chart for late April 2014 was involved with them. But I’ll end by noting on effect that chart had on the internal manifestation in the United States.
The Sun square Saturn in the US chart was highlighted by this grand cross since Mars is conjunct the natal Saturn. Normally Sun square Saturn would suggest an inferiority complex, a certain restriction on one’s life force. No one would say that applies to the United States. Of course, having Sun conjunct Jupiter and Venus, the “Greater Benefic” and the “Lesser Benefic” in traditional astrology certainly helps counteract this tendency. But deep down the country has an inferiority complex involving how it has treated other people, especially black and native people, but it has tried hard to ignore that square for a long time. That repressed Sun square Saturn is now coming into the fore because of the emphasis given to it by the grand cross and you can see all of this in discussions involving racism, white privilege, etc. The people and the government of the United States are acting out this square but not really dealing with it.
As has been discussed many times recently in this blog, Neptune is a most important planet in today’s world. As I write this, Neptune is in the third decan (third of a sign – 10 degrees) of Pisces approaching Zero Aries, the cardinal point that everyone in the world shares. By 2025 and 2026 Neptune will finally cross the cardinal axis, so Neptunian conditions will prevail for a while.
Neptune at 0 Aries 1
Recently I have been exposed to two different opinions on how Neptunian energies are already playing out in the world. These two large assumptions regard the mental state of the world: they suggest that certain groups of people are in fact very deluded and attempting to force their delusions on others making life difficult for them. In just what I have written you see that Neptune — the master of delusion — applies to this phenomena. Neptune is the fulcrum or pivot point around which these two hypotheses revolve.
One branch of this is shown by this headline from the online magazine Salon.com: “Is America experiencing mass psychosis?” and the subhead adds :”Psychologists say that America is going through what Carl Jung warned us would happen eventually”. Jung warned that societies were in danger of a pandemic of delusional ideas. The author of this article sees signs of mass psychosis everywhere she looks: many people doubting reality, such as skepticism that for the last two years the world has been beset by a dreadful plague and the only salvation is to use drugs provided by pharmaceutical companies. Others signs of delusion are from those who doubt that the 2020 national election was won by Democrat Joe Biden. And though she does not add in the followers of QAnon it certainly is a illustration of delusion. And the author of this piece — which of course reflects a wider viewpoint among those who read Salon — thinks that the recent eruption of the Covid pandemic has brought such feelings to the fore. As the author explains, when you have lost your job and are gripped with a fear of dying from a deadly disease, and hold anti-government beliefs or lack a college education, you are especially prone to such delusional (Neptune again) thinking. One prime example of this thinking is that of Covid-deniers who reject scientific knowledge and turn to purveyors of misinformation such as Robert Kennedy or Joseph Mercola. Some of these miscreants even believe that the Covid vaccines can kill them instead of being safe and effective.
The author references Carl Jung when she suggests that people who are into conspiracy theories or followers of New Age religions are acting out against their parents, or in this case the surrogate for parents, the state. People need myths and in an increasingly secular society that need is not met. New Age religions or QAnon, which the author considers as similar but opposite, draw those who need some myths in their life. These two are mirror images of one another, one ignoring the shadow and the other being only shadow. I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure out which is which.
A related link in that article is to one about the “Disinformation Dozen”, twelve people whose anti-vax propaganda is the most spread by Facebook. The top two of these 12 are the above mentioned Mercola and Kennedy. But their closed feedback loop is closer than just being the top two. Mercola was a pre-publication reader of Kennedy’s recent book about Anthony Fauci, and Kennedy’s website often publishes articles by Mercola. Facebook denies that most anti-vax posts are from these dozen, saying that only a small percentage of the relevant posts are from those twelve. In this case the “Disinformation Dozen” is more figurative than literal, though Facebook (now Meta) only interprets the statement in a literal fashion. The Center for Countering Digital Hate, the creators of the meme Disinformation Dozen meant, or should have meant, that these twelve are major fountainheads of the misinformation that influence many others, the head of the anti-vax snake as it were. And here is a good take down of Robert Kennedy from a left viewpoint which shows this is the attitude of those to the left of the readers of Salon.
Some even believe that the vaccines were planned to harm people and that many doctors are purposely denying that the vaccines are dangerous for fear of losing their jobs, income, and well-respected position in the community.
And just in time for the New Years, everybody’s favorite podcaster Joe Rogan (whose listener/viewership is at least 10 times that of CNN) interviewed Dr. Robert Malone (who did work leading to mRNA vaccines while in graduate school, is double-jabbed, and gave money to the Biden-Harris campaign). Malone is a true apostate since once he was truly part of the medical establishment and has rebelled against it. Melone mentioned the subject of the alternate Neptunian hypothesis presented below, and this link for the Salon article which covers one view of this other hypothesis, which Salon considers totally fallacious. This article about the most popular podcast from a most popular podcaster highlights the personage who the readers should hate.
This alternative Rogan podcast was not allowed to exist without quickly drawing criticism. 270 “medical specialists” demanded that Spotify, new home to Joe Rogen, ban this current podcast because it contains so much misinformation (hello, Neptune). The upset at the brazen Joe Rogan podcast is previewed by this Salon article. And since this article appeared, the pressure on Joe Rogan has only increased after Neil Young gave Spotify the ultimatum either withdraw that Joe Rogan podcast or stop using his music.
Neptune at 0 Aries 2
The opposing or complementary thesis is proposed by Belgian Professor of clinical psychology Mattias Desmet (University of Ghent) and is called mass formation. He has a book out in English called The Psychology of Totalitarianism describing this. Mass formation is a psychological condition that applies to the collective (mass) just as hypnosis applies to the individual. When a person is hypnotized they are capable of believing such things as the onion they eat is a sweet apple. For the collective the groups can believe that the leader that tells them to hate certain groups or nations is a wise and peaceful person. Previous examples of mass formation are the witch trials (Salem and earlier in Europe), Dutch tulip mania in the Seventeenth Century, parts of the French Revolution, the Dreyfus case in France, the Communist Revolution in Russia, the Nazi rule in Germany, racial massacres, and of course Jonestown, which added the phrase “Drinking the Koolaide” to our vocabulary. But in the future, if Desmet’s thesis is correct, this term could be replaced by “Taking the Jab”.
Desmet divides the population into three groups depending on how they respond to the mass formation. The largest group, 40% to 60%, go along to get along, that is to say they agree with the dominant narrative because that is much easier to do, they win the approval of their friend and neighbors, and they don’t have to think for themselves . The next group are the true believers who accept the dominant narrative fully. This group is smaller at about 30% to 40%. Finally the remaining group are the apostates or dissidents. He found that the more educated are the most susceptible to mass formation despite what some (the highly educated) might believe. Professor Desmet thinks that in the current world those who believe that their leaders are correct in thinking that the largest pandemic in a century has engulfed the world and only by the injection of certain drugs can this pandemic be eliminated are suffering from a mass formation. He doesn’t use the term psychosis to avoid the suggestion of severe mental problems, though some do use that term.
The link to a YouTube is not allowed here, but the video is “youtube.com/watch?v=CRo-ieBEw-8&list=WL&index=10&t=14s”
There are four conditions that Desmet considers necessary for the formation of a mass formation: A feeling of isolation (such as from a strong lockdown); the sense that things are meaningless / they no longer make sense / that there are too many contradictory messages; a free floating anxiety, one that doesn’t have a true center of focus, and a free floating frustration, one that can be directed towards a common enemy, those who in some way do not conform or an opposing state that the rulers condemn.
But of course it would not take long for an official denunciation of anything such a a mass formation: both Reuters and AP report that there is no such thing according to the experts they interviewed. And the Salon article mentioned above concerning Joe Rogan makes it clear that this theory is not accepted.
Neptune at 0 Aries 3
In either case there is the thought that a mass psychosis is engulfing the world, either to make the masses doubt the wisdom of their leaders or to make the masses accept the wisdom of their leaders. In any case, Neptune is highlighted. As mentioned above Neptune is approaching the zero Aries point, the first time in 168 years. Previously Neptune crossed 0 Aries in 1861 and 1862 and crossed 0 Libra in 1941 and 1942. The commonality is clear. As mentioned in the previous post, both these were crisis times. This time Neptune will cross 0 Aries in 2025 and 2026 as illustrated. There is already talk of a civil war in America between the two factions indicated above witness all the protests around the world that are never mentioned in the mainstream media but are still there.
Perhaps a civil war is desirable to those at the top with a civil war keeping those at the bottom involved fighting one another while those at the top can keep making money and taking power for themselves. Seems like a win-win situation!
Postscript. As this cartoon shows, the Covid Narrative was replaced by the Ukraine Narrative without missing a beat. But Neptune still rules.
The fog of War is a common expression in wartime (and also the title of a book by Robert McNamara who was Secretary of Defense during many years of the Vietnam War and so knows a thing or two about wartime fog) and this is the foggiest war at least since World War I. This term refers to how difficult in wartime it is to see what is really happening. Both sides in the conflict have reason to support their arguments with propaganda. And journalists, who at one time were considered arbiters of truth, during war they side with whatever government they are under. So as a result of this “fog” it becomes very difficult to tell what is going on. Note how Neptune obviously rules fog (air and water) in both the literal and figurative meanings. Another appropriate saying to keep in mind is that in war truth is the first casualty. Truth is missing, it has disappeared in good Neptunian fashion. The propaganda level is very high and truth is hard to come by. Propaganda, as I set out a few posts back, is also signified by Neptune. The safest course is not to believe anything which is said about a war.
And Nazis are again in the foreground as they were in World War II. While Nazis have been referred to before, like the American Nazis marching in Skokie Illinois in 1977 which was a great test for the ACLU and caused distress among many Jewish people, but somehow this is different, not wannabe Nazis in America but actual Nazis in a county that helped support Hitler back in the last crisis. So in this current time we hear that either Putin is fighting the Nazis in Ukraine or the President of Ukraine is Jewish so how can there be Nazis. In either case, there are Nazis being mentioned.
This is a Twenty-first Century world war and not a Twentieth Century world war so expect it to be a lot different. Our expectations of “world war” is based on the two that we know. Einstein is reputed to have said “I don’t know with what weapons the third world war will be fought but the fourth will be fought with sticks an stones”.
500 Year Party 