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February 11, 2022

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Crisis and Change

In the previous post I discussed the six crises that have beset American history with the sixth currently happening. Perhaps you haven’t seen the current crisis yet — to paraphrase Gil Scott-Heron, the crisis will not be televised, or for this day and age, the crisis will not be YouTube’d. It is only in hindsight that you can truly judge the strength of the crisis; who could predict the full scale of World War Two from the Japanese invasion of China. And even with a marked start of that crisis — Germany’s invasion of Poland — hindsight is better.

But there is another historical/astrological cycle that is important — what I’ve called in this blog in 2018 a Zeitgeist Change; these are shown by a midpoint configuration involving the three outer planets. This happens two or three times a century, with usually Uranus or Pluto as the apex planet.

There have been three zeitgeist changes in the Twentieth Century; each marked a major shift in the reality of the world. The German word zeitgeist means the spirit of the age and when the zeitgeist changes a new reality becomes dominate, so much so that people begin to forget that the world was once different than it is now — perhaps the current is a New Normal.

First Zeitgeist Change of Twentieth Century

In the first decade of the Twentieth Century such a midpoint configuration existed with Uranus as the apex planet. This period involved a change into the “Modern” world and in fact is a movement called Modernism, seeing for example the development of relativity and quantum mechanics, two theories that completely changed the scientific view of the universe. That decade saw the rising renown of both Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung; after their theories became popular the view of human behavior changed for good. Many artists such as Pablo Picasso and Wassily Kandinsky changed what was accepted as art. And while the automobile was invented in the latter part of the Nineteenth Century, the automobile became popular in this decade with especially the Model T Ford in America. Also invented in the previous century but became extremely popular in the new century were both personal photography with the recently introduced Kodak film camera and motion pictures which allowed everyone to see a new reality. And this first decade of the Twentieth Century also saw the first powered flight that changed the world forever and made it seem much smaller.

Second Zeitgeist Change of the Twentieth Century

The second zeitgeist change of that century was at the end of World War II. This was marked by the explosion of three nuclear weapons — two dropped on Japanese cities — which seemed to cleave time in two and marked the beginnings of a new world. This period has been described as the birth of the Anthropocene Age where so many things changed in a short period of time, the consequences of which would not be known for some time. The direction of many trend lines, such as that for the use of plastic or pesticides, took a rapid upward slant starting after the War. This midpoint had
the apex planet of Pluto which is totally appropriate for the beginning of the atomic age.

Third Zeitgeist Change of Twentieth Century

The third zeitgeist change was in the late seventies and marked the rise to dominance of the political philosophy known as neo-liberalism. Briefly, this is the philosophy that the markets are everything and that (to quote one proponent of neo-liberalism) there is no alternative. The apex planet in this case was Uranus. We now forget that time after World War II and before 1980 when the markets were not so all-consuming as they are now and the United States had the highest tax rate of over 70%.

The last time both events – crisis and zeitgeist change — happened in close proximity was at the end of World War II. With both these events occurring at the same time, the scale of the change was tremendous. Did this fifth crisis caused these massive changes that followed it or was it a coincidence? One can argue either way.

Crisis and Change in the Twentieth Century

Here is a chart that shows both the midpoint configuration zeitgeist change and the fifth crisis with Neptune near the MC and Uranus near the Descendant of the US. The date is that of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Normally Uranus or Pluto are the apex point of the configuration, but once in every 500 years the apex planet is Neptune; this is the type of midpoint we are having this decade. The previous zeitgeist change 500 years ago brought us the modern world and all that entails with the printing press and the New World, a place that would be totally unrecognizable to a citizen of the Middle Ages or of the ancient world. This was the start of the 500 year party. We could say that we will move into what could be called the “Post-Modern” world if that term were not already in use. Perhaps a better term is a post-party world. As I’ve said before, after a party you have to clean up all the messes made and replenish all the items used up during the party.

Major Zeitgeist Change Sixteenth Century

The midpoint configuration 500 years ago lasted 1503-1507, about half as long as the midpoint this time lasts. We are moving into the Post-Party world, but unfortunately manfy people do not want the party to end. We will see a major conflict as this zeitgeist change takes place.

Major Zeitgeist Change Twenty-First Century

I have previously sketched out the opposing forces in this drama. One side has already let it be known what they want this zeitgeist change to be in books such as the Great Reset by Klaus Schwab (a Bond villain if there every was one) and in the slogan adopted in many places: Build Back Better. Several people have named this side of the drama with such names as Global Capitalism or Mr. Global, but I prefer the more inclusive term (as spelled out previously) of Pluto. ` But for the other side — called by some the Greek word demos (which is not short for demonstrations) which means the people and from which we derive the word democracy and for which I use the symbol Uranus — there is no plan for what the zeitgeist change should bring, no plan B at all. Some ideas have been floated, such as the People’s Reset, but the demos — Uranus — had better get its act together to fight against the plans that Pluto brings, because never in history have the Pluto people had the concerns of the Uranus people in mind. As George Carlin put it: “It’s a big club and you ain’t in it”.

Another way of looking at this split is in how people think about dealing with the upcoming problems of the world that we now hear so much about from political leaders to individuals such Greta Thunberg. It is now the end of the 500 year party but most people only recognize some symptoms rather the underlying problem. One way of dealing with these problems is more technological fixes where all vehicles become electric and we eat meat that is grown in a lab or insects also grown in a lab because those in nature are dying. This proposes a techno-industrial future where we will only live in a virtual world because the natural world is so toxic. This future has been prophesied for a long time — see the story “The Machine Stops” written by E. M Forster over 100 years ago. But at least (from the perspective of Pluto) things do keep on growing and there is money to be made so that is a good outcome. The people who support these ideas are called Bright Greens or as I call them the Pluto Greens.

The other greens (Uranus — the people’s — Greens) believe that only by de-centralizing the governments and de-industrializing the world, returning to the natural, and a policy of de-growth and embracing natural health do we have any hope of saving the planet. One can see this is directly opposite to the Pluto Greens: more growth and “green” industry (an oxymoron), escape from nature, and industrial medicalized health. But there is not as much money made from following the Uranus green ideas. Again we see this basic split in humanity, one that I have referred to often as Pluto versus Uranus or Global versus Local.

Another term I have heard about what the change could be from the Uranus side is called the Great Awakening, perhaps an echo of the Great Awakenings in American history (at least two) that appear to be associated with Uranus-Neptune conjunctions. Note that in the second half of this decade we have a Uranus-Neptune sextile, an aspect not nearly as dynamic as a conjunction, though in this case Pluto is closely involved. I’ve heard that there is a move to form alternative institutions to the current ones which have proven time and again to be hopelessly corrupt. The biggest area of accomplishment seems to be an alternative to the mainstream media; the term I’ve heard used for this alternative is New Media, the kind you won’t find on YouTube or as these folks call it GooTube.

For thousands of years people have lived in a hierarchical society where those at the top, perhaps called kings or patricians (Pluto), had a say over those at the bottom, perhaps called commoners or plebeians (Uranus). That is the same separation into two groups that we see in modern times though now those at the top are so much more powerful than those at the bottom than ever in previous history. Perhaps a real change of the zeitgeist would be to have a real democracy where there is no longer a hierarchical society, so this may be a time for a call for the end of Hierarchy.

The world is heading for disaster (bad stars) in so many ways — a library could be filled with books describing the ugly futures (dystopias) now in store. End of the world books and movies have been around for a while, see for example When Worlds Collide from 1951 (based on a 1933 novel by Edwin Balmer and Philip Wylie), but now the number of these has increased dramatically.

Note that this division between Pluto and Uranus — Up versus Down — is different than the more classic Jupiter versus Saturn — Left versus Right — which is a concept that originated in the French Revolution. People make a mistake if they conflate these two polarities. Supporting Uranus issues is neither necessarily Republican or Democratic though both political parties like to pretend they do.
`
The world has been under the leadership of Pluto for all these millennia. The wagon is racing out of control under the guidance of Pluto and it is demanding (to Uranus) that it be permitted to right the wagon. Pluto wants Uranus to believe that the problem is not with Pluto itself but rather it’s all the fault of Uranus and that Pluto has ways to keep the wagon on the road. Uranus must seize the reins of the wagon before it goes into the ditch. Pluto wants to keep the factions of Uranus separated and fighting among themselves so that Pluto has free reign. It is a long standing dogma of Pluto and why they fear real democracy (cf James Madison): those folks really don’t have the wisdom that Pluto has and so as their betters Pluto must lead them as if they were children.

To sum up, the world is seeing a huge crisis in this decade, one bigger than World War II, more geographically widespread, and involving more death and destruction, followed by the biggest change in (at least) 500 years. This is not surprising since a crisis as big as this one is expected to be will alter society so much that a huge change should be expected. What we are also seeing in this ten year decade is the biggest conflict in world history, something that has gone on for millennia, but, I feel, is coming to a historical climax. This crisis is very big and I believe it is the crisis itself that will change radically how people think of themselves and their so-called leaders. But since this crisis has just begun things have a long way to go. Or as a Scottish friend once said to me: “Hold on to yer hairdos laddies a big storm is coming”.

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April 30, 2021

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With a Side of Uranus and Pluto

While Neptune is very important for its prominence at Zero Aries, both Uranus and Pluto are also prominent, each being sextile to aforementioned Neptune and in fact, trine one another. This is the opening trine of those two planets whose conjunction defined the decade called the Sixties, and a trine is a very positive but soft aspect. While hard aspects like the square are overt and demand attention, soft aspects are covert. That means that while the the Uranus-Pluto energies will be dominant in this decade, people will have to work to see them manifested since the trine is, unlike hard aspects, not visible at first glance.

This aspect configuration will be more noticeable as the decade moves on in 2025 and later with Neptune at the midpoint of the Uranus-Pluto trine and will be seen to mediate between those two planets. What this will mean can more clearly be seen by looking at the symbolic representation of the planets Uranus and Pluto. Not only do we have the midpoint configuration discussed previously in a series called Zeitgeist Changes but also what is called a mini-grand trine, both involving these three outer planets.

The mere shaping and positions of planets can often provide an important insight into the chart without even considering signs, houses, aspects, or planets. For example, once someone unfamiliar with astrology saw my chart, and they immediately wondered why all the planets were on one side of the chart. The astrologer Marc Edmund Jones conceived of seven planetary patterns that describe the general tenor of the chart, and one of those fits my chart. These planetary patterns are so famous that for his 90th birthday, Jones was presented with a birthday cake covered with those patterns in frosting. Locations of prominent planets can also tell a story. In the chart of United States, the position of Uranus at the Descendant can be seen as representing the frontier as described by historian Frederick Jackson Turner in his famous “Frontier Thesis”. Turner said: “At the frontier, the bounds of custom are broken and unrestraint is triumphant.” There are even physical manifestations of astrological configurations. The Statue of Liberty is a Uranian figure and the Port of New York, where the outer world meets the country, acts as the Descendant of the United States, so the placement of that monument is the physical manifestation of Uranus on the Descendant. Similarly, Neptune at the Midheaven is a reflection of the eye at the top of the pyramid (and all its esoteric meanings) on the back of a dollar bill, and for this decade, we will see a powerful example of the positions of the outer planets suggesting the major conflict of this decade. These positions apply to the whole world and not just the United States.

In this astrological configuration involving the three outer planets as seen in the above charts, one can think of a teeter-totter or seesaw with Uranus on one end of the teeter-totter and Pluto on the other end, each one trying to be dominant. The fulcrum of the seesaw is Neptune with all the symbolic meanings we discussed previously; how those issues play out in the upcoming decade will help determine which end of the seesaw becomes the most powerful and controls the world.

All planets are symbols that encompass many meanings, and it is difficult if not impossible to assign an exact translation between the symbols (planets) and an English word or even phrase. These planets represent two opposing forces in this context, and it is difficult to specify exactly what they represent since they are symbols and not readily translated into English words. The best one can do is to give some keywords that conjure up images of what the concepts mean. Remember, they are symbols, and the best one can say is that they are Uranian and Plutonian principles.

Uranus was discovered in the late eighteenth century at the height of the Enlightenment, right before the French Revolution and near the end of the American Revolution. Uranus was the first planet discovered by use of the telescope. It can be seen as representing the people, the popular will, and populism among other things in this context. Uranus was discovered by British astronomer William Herschel; the symbol of Uranus, a stylized H, is in commemoration of the discoverer though there is another symbol sometimes used that is somewhat like the Mars symbol. Uranus mythologically does not fit into the astrological meaning of the planet. Uranus and Gaea (who may have been his mother) were the parents of the Titans, who were the parents of the Greek gods. As the author Richard Tarnas points out, Uranus more like Prometheus, the Bringer of Fire than like the father of the Titans. In Holst’s composition The Planets, Uranus is called The Magician. It was discovered during the Enlightenment, which means the bringing of light, something that Prometheus did; however, for bringing the light to human beings, Prometheus was condemned to have his liver torn out continually after it regrew each night. Astronomers and speakers of Latin pronounce the name of this planet as Yer Anus since that is how the ancient Romans said it, but astrologers call it Yer a Nus, perhaps to avoid scatological meanings. Either pronunciation is correct.

Pluto was discovered in the thirties, the decade of the twentieth century that saw the rise of fascism, large-scale organized crime, and the development of atomic energy. Atomic energy resulted in the the bombing of Japanese cities thus setting the stage for a new world. The Great Depression had started just four months before the planet was discovered by comparing two photographs of the night sky and noticing that something had moved. The twentieth century is the century of blood, with two world wars and many smaller ones. It was a century that saw the appearance of fascism (though one proponent of that belief, Benito Mussolini, thought it should be called corporatism instead). Now corporatism is called neoliberalism; Zen economist Rob Urie reminds us that neoliberalism is fascism with good manners.

Pluto was the ruler of the underground kingdom, and it is not much of a stretch to believe that Pluto rules what is now being called the Deep State, which is called many things from the military industrial complex to the national security state to what must be the most complete — MICIMATT, a term created by former CIA analyst Ray McGovern; this is an abbreviation for the Military Industrial Congressional Intelligence Media Academic Think Tank Complex.

The key word I use for the Pluto is corporations, but so much more is contained in the concept of Pluto, many which start with the adjective “big”: Big Tech, Big Banks, Big Pharma, Big Agriculture, Big Government, and Big Medicine. The Uranian side of the conflict refers individual and groups of people as well as small businesses owned by them. This can also be seen in the dichotomy global versus local, and of course people are very small compared to corporations.

We have two different forces, the Uranian and the Plutonian, which can be simplified as the forces of the people versus the forces of the plutocracy. Of course, this plutocracy (wonder where that word came from?) is much larger than just rule by the wealthy, which is the standard definition. These two forces have between them the various attributes represented by Neptune as mentioned in the previous post. This is the conflict that will play out in this decade, and the outcome of this conflict will determine the future of the world. To put it in simple terms, will the people control the world or will the corporations control the world? Neptune will determine the answer to this question.

Corporate media continues to use the term “conspiracy theory” to denigrate any opinion that differs from what they want you to believe. Calling something a conspiracy theory is like saying, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” Anyone who has not already drunk the Kool Aid of the standard narrative will suspect that this conspiracy theory is something that the corporations don’t want you to believe. The corporate media never seem to learn that censoring something just makes it more attractive. Perhaps the elite feel that they have the masses so well trained after years of indoctrination that it doesn’t really matter what they do.

The two major political parties in the United States pretend to be more or less associated with the Uranian principle, that is with people and their concerns. They do this because they still need the votes of the people since we still pretend this is a democracy. A study by professors Gilens and Page should have disabused us of that myth long ago. At one time, fifty years ago, one could even claim with a straight face that the Democratic Party was more associated with the Uranian principle than with the Plutonian one (after Uranus-ruled Aquarian Franklin Roosevelt set the direction of the party), unlike the Republicans (whose first President was Aquarian Abraham Lincoln), but that has long ceased to be true. At present, we have two political parties that do the bidding of the corporations (Pluto), but the Democrats are much better at pretending that they really support the people (Uranus), so in this fundamental way, they are less honest than their opposing party. This is not really a new concept: Just search for ‘Malcolm X foxes wolves’ to see that this concept was alive and well in the sixties.

In the last five years,he Democratic Party has become incensed at even the mere thought of Donald Trump, so much so that this extreme hatred was even given a name: “Trump Derangement Syndrome” (TDS). Trump made “the people” a Republican issue even if it was as phony as that of “Lunchbucket” Joe of the alternate party. The main problem is that the Democrats have a lock on “the People”, and they do not allow anyone else to drive in their lane — they do not like competition for the Uranus vote — that is not allowed!

Perhaps as a result of all the Sturm und Drang of this decade, a political party will be formed that truly represents the Uranian principle since right now both parties support Pluto. Perhaps this will be called the Populist Party even though that term is now met with great disrespect. This disrespect can be traced back to consensus historian Richard Hofstadter and his book The Age of Reform, which was a history of reforms in the United States between 1890 and 1940. Hofstadter was not always so much a liberal; as a younger person, he flirted with the Communist Party of the USA and once wrote a book calling prominent antebellum southern politician John Calhoun (Andrew Jackson’s Vice President in his first term) “Marx of the Master Class”. For an alternate view of Populism see the new book The People, No by Thomas Frank.

The most important question of this upcoming decade is which of these two principles — Uranus or Pluto — will dominate. Since the Pluto side controls the media which sets the narrative, those who get their information solely from the corporate media will, if only unconsciously, reflect the corporate talking points. Since the main alternative media outlets on the Web are being censored or bought out by the corporate masters, it becomes increasing difficult to get a perspective that does not reflect the corporate viewpoint. People must continue to try or else all is lost. One simple rule of thumb is to disbelieve whatever the corporate narrative is; assume everything they say is a lie. To be more refined, look at each individual item. If the story reads, “More people are moving than ever before” that likely does not involve the desires of the elites, so it may well be true. However, if the headline reads, “Designated enemy of this country attacks this country”, it is almost certainly a lie. Judging the truth of a corporate statement is increasingly difficult; In the sixties, the phrase was “Question Authority”; now it is “Distrust Anyone Who Questions Authority.” It is easier to get your truth from the corporate media since they mostly agree on each story. This is the narrative that you are supposed to believe, but if you go to alternative media, there may be different interpretations for each story, so it is harder to know what to believe or what the truth is. This is where research and the use of critical thinking comes in handy. It takes more work to not accept the corporate line, but if you want to support the Uranus side, it is necessary to think for yourself.

The censoring of dissident views is similar to in an earlier era the Catholic church censoring and excommunicating the early scientist Galileo. He was obviously promoting a conspiracy theory that the Earth revolved around the Sun even though all authorities agreed that the Sun revolved around the Earth. Nowadays, the way of communicating information is much different and much faster than it was in the seventeenth century when all they had were printed books; now the means of censorship is much faster.

Sometimes Satan Comes as a Man of Peace

We must be skeptical of the pronouncements of “authorities” because the Devil often wears a mask so that we are unable to see the truth behind those statements. Satan (Pluto) is called the Father of Lies and Bob Dylan put it more poetically in the quote above. Authorities may give people something they really want, for instance, a guaranteed annual income, but beware of the fine print. Corporations currently disguise themselves with all of the companies declaring that they are feminist or that they support Black Lives Matter. In a simpler time, there was the practice called “greenwashing” where a company portrayed itself as environmentally conscious to cover up some very unsavory practices. Now we have large-scale “Uranus-washing” where Pluto dominated organizations pretend that they are actually Uranus-oriented. Seen astrologically, this is Pluto dissembling (Neptune) as Uranus.

Uranus by its very nature consists of many who disagree about one thing or another. It would not be Uranus if all the people agreed on everything; that would be Pluto. This is the weakness of Uranus as far as Pluto is concerned. This divisiveness is helpful for Pluto, allowing it to keep the various factions apart and warring. One way of keeping the populace (Uranus) from joining together to fight the powers of the corporations (Pluto) is by getting those same factions of the people to fight among themselves, so they will not turn on their true enemy; if the people were united against the Plutonian forces, those same forces would be in trouble. Pluto know this and will spend much energy keeping the Uranian forces divided. One popular strategy is to get white people and black people to fight each other so that don’t see who is really controlling things.

The corporate owned network MSNBC (the MS stands for Microsoft!) convinces Democrats — their target audience — that all dissident beliefs are those of Republicans, Trumpists, or QAnon follower; the corporate owned network Fox convinces Republicans — their target audience — that all dissident beliefs are those of Democrats or the Left or Marxists. Democrats (not elites) and Republicans (not elites) are kept fighting between themselves, so the elites can go back to their business of plundering the world and making as much money as possible even as they destroy the planet. When different factions start to talk to one another, you will hear many say things such as “I never thought I’d be talking to people with those beliefs, but we do agree on this one important thing.” Now they are allies.

It has been said that there are two dimensions, not one, in political discourse: ‘Left’ versus ‘Right and ‘Up’ versus ‘Down’. The terms “left” and “right” were developed during the French Revolution when the supporters of the King sat on the right, and the supporters of the Revolution sat on the left; that spectrum is older than the French Revolution, and the ‘Right’ can be seen as Saturn and the ‘Left’ as Jupiter. Starting at that time, there have been more planets discovered, and that discovery has symbolized the expansion of human consciousness. What was considered in the aphorism given above as ‘Up’ and ‘Down’ can now be seen as Pluto and Uranus. What will be most important in the upcoming century will not be Jupiter versus Saturn but Uranus versus Pluto.

In this new century, we will see that Pluto (elites) are extremely worried that the masses will try to take (back) the power that is supposedly theirs to give. The elites (Pluto) are scared that people will wake up from their Neptunian illusions; all dissent must be extremely limited if not banned. Of course, that is suspicious; thus a certain amount of dissent will be allowed, but only if it stays within acceptable bounds. They don’t want the Overton window (explained in the previous blog entry) to get too large; Pluto defines the terms of debate.

Pluto holds most of the cards. It controls the means of communication and propaganda. Occasionally, a leader arises who could possibly unite the various factions of Uranus; however, these leaders such as Huey Long, Malcolm X, John Kennedy, Fred Hampton, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy have all had accidents that prevent them from leading. It now appears that Uranus will have to merge its many elements itself instead of depending on a leader. Pluto’s problems are that it believes its own lies. If a scheme of Pluto becomes so big and even grandiose, there could be a breakdown and people would see that the emperor is not wearing any clothes. This could be a moment that awakens Uranus.

Note: After this was published, I noticed that Sun was conjunct Uranus with an orb of three minute at the time; that is a hopeful sign.

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February 26, 2021

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Neptune Part One

Neptune opposes its natal position in 2021 and 2022, and by observing previous conjunctions/oppositions, we will see the strong impact these positions have on the US. However, I am not suggesting a cause and effect: As with much of astrology, the relationship between planetary positions and events is symbolic and metaphoric and synecdochic.

The original Neptune conjoined its natal position in 1774, 1775, and 1776 with the natal return being the last of a series; it was during those years that the build-up of tension that finally resulted in the writing of the Declaration was growing. But of course the writing of the Declaration only indicated that the colonists were totally fed up with Britain. The Revolutionary War is considered to have started with the Battle of Lexington and Concord, on April 19, 1775, between the third and fourth exact conjunction.

Neptune then conjoined the IC of the United States, the only other time since the United States was declared a country, which was one Neptune cycle ago in the period 1857 through 1859 right before 1860-1864. That period marked the Civil War, a very important conflict, the most violent on American soil, one that had repercussions for the rest of the century, and one whose lessons we seem not to have learned. This war was between the Northern States and the Southern States, and it has often been said that the North won the war, but the South won the Reconstruction that followed.

The five exact demi-returns of Neptune were 5/24/1857, 7/27/1857, 3/14/1858, 10/31/1858, and 1/4/1859. The main cause of the American Civil War can be considered to be chattel slavery, which was practiced in the southern part of the United States. Those states were attempting to expand the number of states which would allow slavery. The immediate cause was the firing on the Union at Fort Sumter, but two important causes, which spokesmen for the South proclaimed, were the publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (published March 20, 1852) and John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry. This raid took place between October 16 through 18, 1859. This was following the last exact pass of Neptune and was an attempt to start a slave rebellion. Though John Brown was executed by the United States, he was considered a martyr by many in the North, and a popular song was composed at the time: John Brown’s Body. That song was later renamed The Battle Hymn of the Republic and different lyrics were added by Julia Ward Howe. One can only imagine the fear invoked in Southerners to see many in the North so praising someone that the South considered a fiend and often singing a song dedicated to him. It was reasonable for them to assume that even though Brown’s attempt failed, there would be more actions like that, and eventually the South would be faced by a slave rebellion supported by many in the North.

Last Demi-Return before John Brown’s Raid

Moving on to the next Neptune return and the first since the birth of the country, we see the following: The three exact transits of Neptune to its natal position were on 10/28/1938, 2/24/1939, and 8/30/1939. These dates are obviously just before World War II broke out, and the last date is one day before Germany invaded Poland, which officially marks the beginning of World War Two. While I am not suggesting that a Neptune transit will be quickly followed by an event whose significance will be immediately apparent, it is interesting to note the strong correspondence. When looking back at the Civil War demi-return, the transits ended several months before John Brown’s raid, not as close to the significant event as in the case of World War II, but of course, there were certainly other events presaging the Civil War that took place closer to the date of the last return.

We can see the equivalent positions of Neptune opposite its natal position in this year and the next: May 1, August 21, and March 1, 2022. The opposition is very close to exact now in the beginning weeks of 2021. On the first of the new year, Neptune was four degrees away from its demi-return and closing.

By now, we can see that the dominant trend setter of the next decade will be the response to Covid-19. People tend to personify possibly non-living entities like viruses, but those entities actually do nothing except be a virus. It is the human response that causes large scale changes to society. A famous example of this type of personification is the book with the title The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. Genes do not know lust, pity, selfishness, or any other of the seven deadly sins, and to describe them thusly is extreme personification — ascribing human characteristics to the non-human. This is often done with animals, but to do such personification with micro-entities stretches the bounds of the acceptable.

As of early 2021, the death toll for the Covid-19 pandemic is just over one-half million for the United States, and slightly over 2.5 million for the world. And a death is a binary activity, a person is either dead or alive (unless you inhabit a zombie movie), so one would think the numbers are quite clear in describing the scale of the crises. But in March 2020, after a suggestion from the World Health Organization (WHO), the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued a directive on filling out a death certificate for deaths from Covid-19, overriding the method of filling out such form that had been in place for 17 years. In this new method, deaths was no longer considered to be “from Covid” but rather “with Covid” which meant having a positive (usually PCR) test within 28 days of death. As both the WHO and Doctor Fauci have recently admitted, a PCR test is inaccurate if the Cycle Threshold is too big. The PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) test, which earned its inventor a Nobel Prize (he was also into astrology, but I don’t know if there is a connection!!) works by taking small bits of genetic material and magnifying them a number of times, and that number is a called the CT. Tests with a CT of 17 are 100% accurate, and the WHO states that those with a CT over 35 provide mostly false positives. Most commonly tests were performed with a CT of 38-45 before WHO spoke. As anyone who has magnified a low-resolution forty times and seen the huge numbers of artifacts that resulted has seen how this problem works.

The point of this long and technical discussion is that we really don’t know how many deaths have been caused by SARS-CoV-2 that can be compared to deaths caused by such things such as heart disease, cancer, or influenza. Thus Neptune has seeped into what should be a simple binary decision. Since both my parents died of pneumonia, though one had lung cancer and the other had just had a heart attack, I’m very sensitive as to how the cause of death is determined and the problems that can occur in such determination.

It is slowly becoming clear that the response by various governments and other bodies around the world to the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19 is having the greatest impact on the world since World War II. This will color the rest of the decade and perhaps years after that. This of course is right on time. As we’ve seen before, these Neptune returns/demi-returns corresponded to the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and World War II, with each disaster (which means bad stars) being more widespread than the one before. So we now know what the disaster described in the book The Fourth Turning (Neil Howe and William Strauss) will be. Since we are just at the beginning, there are many more derived things to come down the pike. The response of people to the response to the virus will be large and will play out in unexpected ways. Stay Tuned! For example, what is the origin of this virus? Many claim that the virus was created in a lab, and there has been a huge campaign to deny this, but whatever the truth, there have been experiments to increase the potency of viruses in a laboratory called “gain-of-function” research for many years, and sooner or later, one of these experiments will escape into the human population. There needs to be more awareness of this dangerous research.

For the various crises that will develop in this decade, people will use a code word or synecdoche; I have heard several, such as the obvious Covid-19, or the Great Reset (™ World Economic Forum) or Covid-1984 or Flu D’état. The reason so many terms have already been created is that people realize, perhaps unconsciously, that the implication of what has happened the previous year are great and will effect the course of history. I hope everyone is paying attention because we live in historic times.

I have tried to construct a Covid chart. I first looked for Patient Zero, the first patient to get the disease. I then tried to look for when the disease was first identified. There is much confusion (Neptune again) about these things as well as the actual origin and what animals it moved through before coming to humans. But one date kept being mentioned over and over: March 11, 2020. That was the date that the WHO announced that Covid-19 was a pandemic after changing the definition of a pandemic a few years earlier. More Neptune. As he opened the news conference, the Director-General of WHO said “Good Afternoon”, so we can surmise that it was not in the morning.

Looking at the chart, we should first note that Mercury went direct on the previous day. It was as if the authorities could not announce this pandemic until Mercury had turned around. Since we don’t have an exact time, the angles are meaningless, but the several clusters of planets are not. As has been written about before, the three planets that defined the year of 2020 — Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto — are all conjunct in the chart with the addition of Mars to make it more energetic. Then, to again emphasize Neptune, we see that that planet is closely conjunct the Sun, indicating it is a Neptune day, and both are in Neptune ruled Pisces. Perhaps the conjunction is at the Midheaven if the news conference did indeed start in the early afternoon. The Moon was below the horizon for the next six hours, showing that the public (the Moon) was kept in the dark. There is also a conjunction of Venus and Uranus, and the statement Ebertin gives about this conjunction is worth quoting in full: “A strong and hardly controllable tension in emotional life, a self-willed and obstinate disposition, strange urges and inclinations”. It seems like the perfect chart.

There have been some trends in the past few years for a more progressive, more equitable future. All these trends have now been reversed. I’m sure many who have opposed this movement for a more equitable future will be pleased with these outcome. Consider some of the outcomes that we already see: This last year has seen the greatest upward transfer of wealth in history. Many small business ceased operation, and more sales were seen by Amazon and other massive businesses. In addition, most of the “stimulus” in America was given to large corporations while individuals got $1200 or $600 if they were lucky. The stock market is booming while many struggle to get enough to eat since their jobs are gone.

Since many people were without jobs or income, they found it difficult to pay their mortgage or rent. There was an eviction moratorium that temporarily suspended the prospect of losing one’s home, but eventually, the moratorium must end with a huge lump sum payment due and the strong probability of many evictions in the upcoming months. I personally know a large family with a new baby who had just closely avoided being burned out by last year’s fires, who were just evicted since there are many loopholes to the eviction moratorium. We already have a huge homeless population — a noticeable phenomenon of neoliberalism. With all the upcoming evictions, the population of homeless will increase.

Developed countries such as the United States and the members of the European Union will be relatively lucky unlike poorer countries which will not be so fortunate. Oxfam International estimates a potential death of 150,000,000 in the developing countries as a result of the response, and fewer people have jobs in these areas that can be done from home. Many are in what is called the “informal economy”, which is not covered by any government mandates or restrictions. I saw an estimate of 10,000 extra monthly deaths in Africa because much less aid is coming from the developed countries, which currently have their own problems.

Partially because of the lack of affordable childcare, four times more women than men have exited the workforce, thus fulfilling the dream of some to keep women at home and in the kitchen. Once these changes happen, it is difficult to override them in a short time frame.

Middle class people often work in offices, and the mandate to work from home was easily met for those who used to commute to the office. So many have decided that working from home is easy and productive that office real estate is seeing a difficult time. If people don’t need to work in a standard office, what becomes of all those buildings that were rented for a high price?

Many people in the working class do physical work (as opposed to shuffling papers), which requires them to be physically present, and they cannot “work from home”. These are the people who will more often lose their jobs during this time. Those who can work from home are often considered members of the Professional Managerial Class — PMC — and that has become the primary constituent of the Democratic Party, which supposedly represented the working class, so you can imagine how the working class will be more angry that they are being ignored by the PMC-loving elite.

Many of the businesses that require people to be present that are not just office work are run by non-white people, more than would be expected by their share of the population. Black owned business were twice as likely to be shut down as white owned businesses during the lockdown, thus further increasing black poverty. This reverses trends that have been going on for several years. It may be considered cynical to point out that this increasing black unemployment and poverty goes along with a celebration of black culture by the PMC.

Speaking of poverty, the upcoming world will see levels of poverty not seen since WWII. Again, while the United States will see increased poverty for many of the reasons outlined above, the non-rich countries that are called the developing nations, and which got aid from the developed countries that has now ceased, will see even more increases in poverty, again reversing trends of the last decades.

In today’s highly-industrial society, mental health has been precarious, and now prisons are one of of the few institution housing those with mental health problems. The constant bombardment by fear and the increasing isolation from friends and support groups has led to increased mental problems in people. At one point, the daily calls to a suicide hotline were approaching the number of calls normally seen in a month. In San Francisco, at one point, a year’s worth of suicide was seen in a month. That area also saw more drug overdose deaths than Covid deaths, and there is much more consumption of alcohol with foreseen consequences.

There have been warnings of increased mental health problems for youth who normally would be in school where potential problems can be observed, where counselors are available, and where free lunches can be provided. Since most children were sitting at home and staring at screens (if an Internet connection was available), mental health problems are not being caught in time, and there are more cases of physical abuse of children who are now with their parents for long stretches of time. Recently the CDC reported a 400% increase in adolescent depression. A sign of this is the fact that schools in Nevada had to resume classes after a spate of student suicides.

Because of isolation and containment, we have seen increased domestic violence and child abuse. Children had their classes curtailed, so many children are fearful and mistrustful; and children are behind developmentally where they normally would be at their age. The whole “Covid generation” of children who have gone through this will reverberate down through the years as a group of people behind where they should be socially. These children, with Pluto in Sagittarius or Capricorn, will be marked for life, especially since they witnessed the Great Recession of 2007-2009 or the aftermath of it.

With the greatly increased unemployment numbers, some observers estimate that the unemployment will be greater than that of the Great Depression; there will be more deaths. For a long time, the unemployment figures have been deceptive since they only counted as unemployed those looking for work; the discouraged workers who had dropped out of searching were not even counted as unemployed, and the numbers of discouraged workers has been increasing for a decade. It has been estimated that for every one percent increase in unemployment, there is an additional 36,000 deaths in the United States.

There will be many deaths from other causes such as heart attacks and cancer that were not caught by early detection because hospitals and doctors were busy dealing with the pandemic. In the early days, many people would avoid the ER or A&E (in the UK) because they thought they would get the virus if they went in. In addition, many children did not get their scheduled vaccinations because they were at home, and of course many people locked in their homes missed exercise, sunshine, and fresh air, all of which helps build a strong immune system.

All of these massive changes to society will not be overcome or reversed in a few months, but rather — as more authorities are now saying — will take the rest of the decade or more to be reversed if that is even desired by our leaders. That of course is if it is possible to imagine that things could possibly go back to what they were after so many things have happened. If you observe the upcoming transits for the decade, which have been talked about incessantly in this blog, you will see that the changes have only started. Those items mentioned above are only the beginning; the reactions — political, cultural, social — will be far reaching and haven’t really started yet or at least have not been publicly recognized.

This Neptune cycle that also corresponds to the first Pluto Return for the United States suggests even more “fun and games” for the U.S. Note also that the Pluto demi-return happened in the years 1935-1938, just before Neptune conjoined its natal position and the world was in the throes of the Great Depression. You may wonder why one full Neptune cycle corresponded to half a Pluto cycle, and the second half of the Pluto cycle corresponds to just half a Neptune cycle; this is because Pluto slowed down during the second half of its cycle, and was even inside the orbit of Neptune for 20 years recently.

This past year has seen the beginning of a crisis which will mark this decade as an important time in the history of the United States and the World. This period will be a crtical change to the world and in the next two posts we will show how a conflict will determine what that change will be.

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dak1024

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October 16, 2020

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Current, United States

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DIY Presidential Election

People often ask “Where have the moderate Republicans gone?” The answer is obvious, they are still here but now are called “Democrats”. Former President Obama once gave the ploy away by saying that in the 1980’s he’d be considered a moderate Republican, and in fact he got a Republican health care bill passed, one designed by the right wing Heritage Foundation. These “Republicans” have gone on for forty plus years, and it was more accented in the current Democratic “convention” where many named Republicans spoke to unify the image that the Republicans have joined the Democrats. So essentially we have two Republican parties, the “Real” Republicans (TM) for a full-bodied Republican experience, and a Republican-lite Party, that will give you much the same treatment but with soupçon of progressive values. So whichever candidate wins the election, which is planned for November, a Republican will be our next president, beginning the 53rd year with a Republican President.

An interesting phenomenon of this recent election cycle is the number of Republican elites showing their allegiance to the Biden-Harris team. There are two ways of looking at this. Even though these elites could make more money under the corporate-friendly Trump administration, the risk is too great that the people might revolt since Trump is too up-front about his actions; it is better to have a more subtle corporate-friendly administration in charge so that the populace does not get too riled up and actually do something about their horrible so-called leaders. On the other hand, perhaps these elites know that one of the draws of Trump in 2016 was that since the elites hated him the people voted for Trump as a way to give the middle finger to said elites, and when the populace sees even more elites turning away from Trump they will support him even more, so that these elites actually want Trump to win. It is really hard to tell what their plan is.

And in the current situation where every question about the suitability of the Democrats can be answered by “but Trump” Biden can be even more Republican since he assumes the progressive have no one else to vote for.

Since this quadrennial exercise in something they call democracy has only two candidates that can win the election, we will inspect the charts for those two people.

As Paul Simon put it many years ago: “Laugh about it, shout about it/When you have to choose/Any way you look at it you lose”. Harry Truman also had something appropriate to say many years ago: “Given the choice between a Republican and someone who acts like a Republican, people will vote for the real Republican all the time.” But now the question is, who is the real Republican.

The current atmosphere is so intensely partisan that I will not pick a winner. Rather I will point out the relevant charts — election and inauguration transits and solar returns — and allow you to make whatever judgement most closely aligns with your politics. But whoever wins, the United States will have a Republican President, that I know with certainty.

First lets look briefly at the natal charts. There are three of them. The first is the standard chart for Donald Trump, the birth time most commonly used. It gives him an Ascendant of 0 Virgo, and as someone who has a Virgo Ascendant, I find that very hard to believe. After the other chart — an hour earlier — was promoted, many astrologers used it as an excuse for their incorrect prediction of a win for Clinton in 2016. In this 10:54 chart we see Mars near the Ascendant, but since he is the first president not to start a foreign war in 40 years this seems a bad example of Mars on the Ascendant. But perhaps Mars being in the Twelfth house explains it: he wants to start a real war like other presidents, but the hidden effect of Mars in the twelfth house forces him to just apply many sanctions instead. But in both charts we will see Sun opposite Moon (that is a Full Moon birth) with the North Node of the Moon closely conjunct the Sun. Donald Trump was born under a lunar eclipse, something that has seldom been talked about, but it is certainly important. Eclipses have for millennia been considered significant and special. He also has Uranus conjunct the Sun, suggesting that he is an agent of change, whether he does the change or causes others to make the change.

As far as I know there is only one given birth time for Joe Biden. In his chart all planets but one are above the horizon, suggesting a person directed towards the outer world, very comfortably in the public. The Sun-Venus conjunction (one degree in Scorpio) suggests an affectionate nature and willing to show this. Perhaps this in an indication of his famous “handiness” and preference to smelling the hair of young girls. Note that his Uranus is right on the Descendant (it is actually half a degree below, but if the birth time were off by just a couple of minutes, not unlikely, then Uranus would be above the horizon). Uranus here indicates that he attracts rebels or revolutionary people. Perhaps he is a closet Marxist? Note that he is a heavy Scorpio with four personal planets in that sign. The previous Democratic candidate also was a Scorpio. Perhaps his candidacy is the Scorpio revenge, since the sign was denied victory last time. The Sun sign of Scorpio is the most common sign for Presidents, along with Aquarius.

The other time for Donald Trump, about an hour earlier, comes from who is know as the Trump family astrologer, Marilyn Briggs. In this chart we have Jupiter closely trine Uranus with the Ascendant sextile both, and thus also a midpoint configuration. Ebertin says of Ascendant equals Jupiter/Uranus “The ability to shape one’s environment according to one’s own ideas…Shared happiness with others”. Uranus and Jupiter together suggest a real love of freedom, a don’t fence me in attitude, optimism. This is the only real difference between the two charts, since most planets don’t move that much in an hour. In this chart his rising sign is in the middle of Leo. Ask yourself is Trump an example of Virgo rising or Leo rising?

Let us look at the transits to these three charts on election day. For the first chart for Trump there is nothing very spectacular, and the only important transits are those that also occur in the other chart, since the angles, the only thing that really changes in an hour, are not affected. The important Jupiter-Saturn-Pluto conjunction, discussed in the previous post, is opposite the Venus-Saturn conjunction in the natal chart. Specifically, Saturn is opposite Venus — traditionally trouble with women (who knew!) — and Jupiter-Pluto is more strongly opposed to his natal Saturn, perhaps energizing his sense of responsibilities indicated by Saturn.

For Joe Biden on election day, we have that same triple conjunction opposite his natal Jupiter, perhaps emphasizing Biden’s sense of victory and optimism. Most notable is that the transiting Sun for this day is one degree from exact conjunction to his natal Mars: Joe Biden will feel particularly energized on that day, but hopefully he will not feel violent. Neptune is on his IC, opposite his Midheaven, and from the graphical ephemeris for this year we can see that the opposition was exact in April of 2020, about the time he was sewing up his command of the Democratic Primary, the middle of August — about the time of the convention — and finally for the third pass early February of 2021, shortly after the inauguration of the President. The only case I know off-hand of this transit of Neptune over the IC was a twenty-some male who “experimented with psychedelics” under that transit. I’ll go out on a limb and say that this will not be the Biden experience. Neptune in this position could indicate the spiritual underpinning of Mr. Biden’s campaign to save the soul of America, or it could indicate that his foundation (which is what the IC represents) is a delusion.

The other chart for Trump is quite different. In this case the Midheaven has moved enough so that Uranus is at the Midheaven with an orb of 2 minutes (relocated to Washington, DC, where he currently lives; at his birth place the conjunction is not as tight). As we can see from the graphical ephemeris, this conjunction was exact in June 2020, May 2021, as well as November 2020. This conjunction could presage a surprise or upset. Since natally Uranus conjoins his Sun, Mr. Trump is a agent of change, and this election will emphasize it. To some, this election will bring in the fascist shock-troops, and a less partisan belief might say this election will cause major, perhaps even revolutionary, changes to the country.

Also of interest are the transits on inauguration day, which will be January 20, 2021. Interestingly, on the date of inauguration the transiting Sun has just entered Aquarius and is conjunct the spot of the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction that happened a month before. While both Jupiter and Saturn have moved on, they are still loosely conjunct the Sun. There is also on inauguration day a tight — five minutes — conjunction between Mars and Uranus. Mars Uranus hard aspect are an astrological cliche, suggesting accidents. Ebertin says “Obstinacy, brutal frankness.. intolerance… premature action”. Sounds like what many people are predicting as a result of the election no matter who wins.

Looking at the Trump 10:54 chart, the conjunction mentioned in the previous paragraph is widely making a hard aspect – a semisquare — to Trump’s Sun-Node-Uranus conjunction and a wide sesquiquadrate to his moon. These aspects will remain for his other chart, since only the angles really move in the hour between those two charts. Other that a Venus sesquiquadrate his Ascendant, there is little action to his angles — Ascendant and Midheaven — just as in the chart for the election.

For Joe Biden, that loose conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn, and the Sun is sesquiquadrate his Midheaven and square his Moon. This Saturn action may indicate that he is assuming serious duties, that of a President. Neptune is still on his IC, opposite his Midheaven, as in the election day chart, but it is closer, only one degree away.

Finally we have the inauguration chart for Trump born at 9:51. While the Mars-Uranus conjunction doesn’t do much in the other natal charts, for this Trump chart that conjunction is on his MC, not surprising because Uranus is on is MC for much of the year, as shown in the graphical ephemeris. This may indicate the uproar if Trump — with this natal chart — loses the election. Or it could indicate the uproar among the Democrats and their media if Trump — again with this chart — wins the election. If you thought the pushback in 2017 was something, wait until you see the response in 2021. Also this will be a good test of which natal chart is more accurate. Stay tuned.

We also have two solar returns to look at for each candidate, once because Donald Trump has two charts, and the other set because Joe Biden’s birthday is three weeks after election so that the return right after the election is possibly more relevant than the one almost a year before the election.

Then there is the age old question of which solar return to use, the one for the birthplace or the one for the place of location. Since both these men were born close to their current residence, this does not make much difference. But to some this is important. I knew a person once who spent the night in my house on his way to an obscure location in Eastern Washington because he thought he would have a favorable return at that location.The other question is should the tropical or precessed (similar to sidereal where an adjustment is made for precession of the equinox) zodiac be used for the return.

I once did an experiment with two friends, both astrologers, who had life changing health occurrences in a year. I drew up four return charts for the appropriate year: precessed and non-prrecessed for both the birth location and the current location, and these two locations for both people differed by over 1000 miles. We then looked at all charts, and without coaching by me they picked out the most relevant chart. I then made a judgement and chose the same charts as they did — it was quite evident which chart suggested the upcoming year properly. In both cases the non-precessed chart for the birth location was the one that worked. So that is what I have used for these two candidates.

The return for Trump for the 10:54 chart is not especially noteworthy. Nothing really stand s out to me. In this chart all planets except for the Sun are above the horizon, and the Sun is in the first house, the house of self projection. The Sun is square Mars-Neptune-Moon conjunction. That conjunction is important also in the Solar Return based on the 9:51 chart where we will talk about it. The Jupiter Pluto (and also loosely Saturn) conjunction is right on his Descendant. Powerful forces (indicated by those three planets) which have been building up during 2016 are most likely coming for him from the outside environment, thought some make suggest that he will have a dominating control over his environment. My belief is that the Descendant (as opposed to the Ascendant) indicates the external environment for the human being whose projection is represented by the Ascendant. Most of the planets above the horizon indicate that the year in question will be very public for him.

The return of the 9:51 chart shows that all of these planets are above the horizon, more so than in the 10:54 return. That would suggest that in the year to come June 2020 to June 2021 — he will be in the public eye. As in Joe Biden’s 2020 return, Mercury on the Ascendant indicates speaking to the public. The Mars – Neptune conjunction on the Midheaven is problematic. Mars-Neptune usually indicates unfocused or confused action — witness the Mars-Neptune square in the US chart. According to Ebertin, this conjunction on the MC suggest failure and a sense of inferiority, something that Mr. Trump feels from his childhood in Queens, an “inferior” borough compared to Manhattan. Or perhaps it suggests his sense of rejection at having lost the election. The Moon is also on the Midheaven but in the Tenth house suggesting that the public will be very aware of him, but of course that is a given.

The return for Biden for 2019 show most of the planets below the horizon. Only Uranus, Neptune, and the Moon are clearly about the horizon. Perhaps this indicates how he has been kept in the basement both literally and figuratively. The Sun is clearly at the lowest point of the chart reinforcing his actions from home. The Moon conjunct the Ascendant suggests his connection with the American people, at least Democrats, and is indicative of his amazing comeback in the Democratic primary, from almost dead to a front runner almost overnight.

The return for Joe Biden drawn for November 2020, shortly after the election, has of the planets below the horizon except Venus with Mercury slightly above and exactly conjoined the Ascendant. Perhaps this shows that he will not be the “real” president, but only a figurehead, and that others, like his vice president and other people that he has surrounded himself with even before the election, mostly retreads from the Clinton and Obama administration as well as some neoconservative Republicans, will be the ones really running his administration. In fact, I’ve already seen talk about the Harris administration, with Joe Biden. Uranus is on the Descendant, suggesting progressive forces trying to push him from the outside.

So there you have it, a look at the 2020 presidential election through the lens of astrology. Perhaps in a month or so we will know the results.

Posted by

dak1024

Posted on

September 18, 2020

Posted under

Current, Future

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These Two Years

Periods of time — for convenience we will use years, a standard measure of time for humans and also an astrological base unit of time — can be defined by the primary planetary pattern which dominate that period. This has been discussed before with the measure of larger periods of time, the one-half of a Jupiter-Saturn conjunction, a decade. So as mentioned before, the decade called the Sixties is defined by the Uranus-Pluto conjunction that was exact in 1965 and 1966, and the decade called the Nineties is defined by the Uranus-Neptune conjunction of 1992 and 1993. But years also have their unique astrological signatures, and in this post we will look at the year 2020 and next year 2021, though of course the trends started in those years can carry forward to succeeding years.

The year of 2020 saw three important conjunctions: Saturn-Pluto (single conjunction January 12), Jupiter-Pluto (three conjunctions April 5, June 30, and November 12), and Jupiter-Saturn (single conjunction December 21). Each is important by itself, but when all three occur together that is more notable. I’ve looked at these combinations over the last 500 years and they occur about once a century.

Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions occur every twenty years, like clockwork, and over the last few centuries have happened at the beginning of what I’ve called a bi-decade, a twenty year (two decade) period that starts in the year starting with zero or one and an even decade number. For example a bi-decade started in 1960/61, 1980/81, 2000/01, and now 2020/21. Even for those without the astrological knowledge, these twenty years periods are recognizable as different from each other. Most would agree that the period 1960-1979 is different from the period 1980-1999 and is different from the period 2000-2019 because of political and social trends, among other things. We are starting a new bi-decade (officially with the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction of December 21) now, and I’m sure most would agree that this year is different from the preceding year.

The period between successive Jupiter-Pluto conjunctions and Saturn-Pluto conjunctions is more variable because each conjunction involves Pluto, the wild-card of the Solar System (and some believe that Pluto is not a true planet) which has an extremely eccentric orbit so that sometime it is within the orbit of Neptune and thus is not the outermost planet of the Solar System. The last time Pluto was inside the orbit of Neptune, which occurs once ever 250 years, was in the twenty year period 1979-1999, which closely corresponds to the bi-decade of the Eighties and Nineties. In this new century Pluto again moved outside the orbit of Neptune and is gaining speed.

Sidebar for nerds: Johannes Kepler is considered one of the founders of modern science and his laws are considered the basis for calculating ephemerides. His second law (of planetary motion) says that as a planet travels around the Sun, its radius vector (an imaginary line from the Sun to the planet) sweeps out equal areas in equal time, which implies that when the planet is closest to the Sun it travels faster than when it is further away from the Sun. While most major planets have relatively circular orbits, Pluto is the one that does not, so it travels much faster when it is closer to the Sun and thus inside the orbit of Neptune. I found a nice diagram of this at https://www.britannica.com/science/Keplers-laws-of-planetary-motion. Kepler made his living at one point of his life by reading astrological charts, mostly for rich clients, and he probably would not have developed his planetary laws if he were not already into astrology. A recent book A Scheme of Heaven: The History of Astrology and the Search for our Destiny in Data by Alexander Boxer discusses the connection between astrology and modern science in more detail.

Saturn Pluto conjunctions and oppositions have long been associated with dire events, often wars. This is discussed fully in Section V of Cosmos and Psyche by Richard Tarnas, and has been discussed in this blog several times. For example, the preceding Saturn-Pluto opposition corresponded to the attacks of 9/11, the conjunction of those two planets in 1947 corresponded to the start of the Cold War, the conjunction of 1914 corresponds to the start of World War One, and the opposition of 1898 corresponded to the Spanish-American War.

I’ve long tried to get a fix on Jupiter-Pluto conjunctions, which occur more often that Saturn-Pluto conjunctions. The best I have been able to come up with for an interpretation of these two planets together is that the conjunction emphasizes what is already going on, like a cosmic exclamation mark. For these two planets Ebertin says “A desire for power” and “The qualities of leadership”. For the three planets together it is worth quoting Ebertin in full: “Plainness and simplicity, excessive modesty, the inclination to sacrifice oneself for others, religious and social fanaticism, difficulties caused through illness.” Ahem!

It is important to note that the period encompassing these three conjunction is less than one year, from January 12 to December 21. For comparison, let us look at the previous times when all three conjunctions occurred together. All of these graphical ephemerides are shown for a three year period. This is important to note, since they all have the same scale one can compare them easily.

The conjunctions of these three planets for the Twentieth Century occurred in 1982, corresponding to the rise of Neo-liberalism, a philosophy which has dominated the modern world. The Jupiter-Saturn conjunction of January 1981 was the first of the three different conjunctions to occur in this period. The last was a Saturn-Pluto conjunction in November 1982 though there is a close approach of those two planets in July 1983. But the period between first conjunction and the last is 21 months.

The conjunctions of the Nineteenth Century occurred in 1883 as the world moved into modernity. The first conjunction in the series was a Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in April 1881. The last conjunction was of Saturn-Pluto in May 1983. Thus the period in question was 26 months.

But there was also another conjunction set for that century, in 1820, which corresponded to the rise of rationalism as mentioned in previous posts. There were a lot of important aspects happening at the time, as can be seen from the graphical ephemeris with all the curves representing transiting planets near zero Aries — the solid horizontal black line. The first conjunction of the three under discussion was the Saturn-Pluto conjunction in May 1819. The final act in that play was the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction of June 1821, so the whole play was 26 months. Note that in this period of time, besides other important events I’ve pointed out recently, saw the Congress of Vienna which marked the final defeat of Napoleon and started what is known as the century of peace in Europe (relatively speaking) which was only ended by the outbreak called World War I in 1914 which started the bloody Twentieth Century.

Since there were two of the triple conjunction periods in the Nineteenth Century, there were none in the Eighteenth Century. The next conjunction set was in 1680, corresponding to the rise of Science, also mentioned in the previous posts. The whole period was started out with the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction of February 1678 and ended with the Saturn-Pluto conjunction of July 1680. The whole period lasted 30 months.

The conjunction set before that was in 1585. This is when the New World was being conquered by white Europeans and colonies were being set up. The first conjunction of this period was the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in May 1583; the last was the Saturn-Pluto conjunction of March 1585. Thus this whole period lasted 22 months.

The conjunction set before that was in 1446. As mentioned previously, this marked the development of the printing press, a invention that was to have profound implications for the world. The first conjunction was the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction of July 1444. The last was the conjunction was Saturn-Pluto in May 1446. The whole period encompassed 22 months.

If we compare these previous six periods of Jupiter-Saturn, Jupiter-Pluto, and Saturn-Pluto conjunctions, we can see that the current one is shorter — more compressed that any of the six others, but it also takes place conveniently within one calendar year, that being 2020, with the first conjunction in January and the last conjunction in December of this year. Thus this time the cycle takes 11 months, by far a record for this 500 year period. You can judge for yourself what the tone of 2020 has been like. I think most people would agree that 2020 has been important, and standout, and possible unique. If I had to use one word it would be “crazy”. We are all so caught up in the daily headlines that is is impossible to have a perspective of what this year has wrought, so I think our correct judgements need to be postponed until we have a little hindsight, which can only be obtained by one method, sans a time machine. The year of 2020 has had the intensity of the triple conjunction of the three planets Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto, which as we’ve seen happens once a century but this time compressed to only eleven months so much more intense than previously. Previous examples of this triple conjunction presaged an important change in world progress; imagine what the outcome of this compressed one will be when seen from ten years in the future.

The year of 2021 will be different. I’ve previously discussed that for the United States, that year will see the transiting Pluto opposite the natal Mercury, which suggests a conflict with the media, and a Neptune opposition (demi-return) which suggests increasing bewilderment at what is happening. But those are for the United States. The dominant transit (what is called a “world transit” since it does not require a natal chart) will be the square of Uranus and Saturn. I discussed the opposition of the two planets in the Red Summer of 1919. This aspect highlights the conflict between normal consensual reality, the establishment that controls of the world (Saturn) and the impulse to rebellion and revolution, the new, the nonordinary (Uranus). My feeling is this year will see a growing opposition to the craziness of the previous year and the forces that helped it happen. This aspect hits a personal point of the United States chart —the node of the Moon —and so this world transit will also be strongly felt by the United States tying in with the growing distrust of the media symbolized by the Pluto Mercury opposition but disguised by Neptune.

These squares of Saturn and Uranus take place in March of 2021, July, and December, pretty much filling up the year of 2021 much like those three conjunctions filled up 2020. Note that in October of 2022 — as the US Pluto return is exact –the square is very close but not exact. So after the year 2020 ends, and after the final conjunction which is Jupiter and Saturn on the Winter Solstice as the Sun enters Capricorn and as the conjunction takes place at zero Aquarius, a new year will start, and also a new bi-decade officially starts. The election madness in the United States will possibly be over, and the repercussions to that and to the other craziness of the ending year will fill up the year of 2021. May I be the first to wish you a Happy New Year!

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July 24, 2020

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The Disenchantment of the World – Part II

We have seen the growth of a materialistic viewpoint over the last 500 years. It started very slowly but with the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions and the Enlightenment, that worldview has become dominant. Scientists were praised as gods after the dropping of the Atomic bomb 75 years ago and that has not really abated in the years since. And even those religions that claim to be rooted in the older worldview have subscribed to the modern materialism. Everyone has so bought into the Cartesian worldview that any alternative is quickly banished or mocked.

In the current world, science is the new religion, and scientists are looked to as authorities just as in an earlier age religious figures were sought for guidance. This is a direct example of Uranus killing Neptune. In the modern age, science has been bought out by Capitalism whose handmaiden it has become, totally prostituted by Mammon. As an example see how many medical organizations are funded by pharmaceutical companies who support a certain theory of disease. It is no wonder that the promptings of science are increasingly disbelieved by the populace. Consider such subjects as nuclear power, genetically modified organisms (GMO), vaccines, various psychiatric drugs for whatever ails you, wireless transmission for cell phones and WiFi and especially 5G, geoengineering, fluoridated water, even astrology. I’m sure you can add or subtract from that list. And for almost all of those items, corporations stand to make much money from the use of them. Though l’m not aware of any astronomers who make more if people disbelieve in astrology, astrology is such obvious nonsense to the scientific world view that scientists disbelieve and criticize the belief in astrology as a freebie, to show that they are honest. Many years ago 86 scientists signed a letter condemning astrology (I remember this since my mother would send me newspaper clippings of this story). Carl Sagan refused to sign that letter since he had not studied astrology. That was a true scientist.

Science has been corrupted by corporations; as long as that is the case science will cease being believed even though it has truth to share. In fact, a scientist recently wrote that “The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness… The apparent endemicity of bad research behaviour is alarming. In their quest for telling a compelling story, scientists too often sculpt data to fit their preferred theory of the world. Or they retrofit hypotheses to fit their data.” That was a statement of the editor of the prominent British medical journal The Lancet, Richard Horton, in 2015.

A recent article published and then retracted by The Lancet (with the same editor) shows that this problem has not gone away. The President of the United States has touted the long used anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) (with zinc, it is important to add) for Covid19. The drug has been used without safety warnings for 70 years. Soon after the recommendation a study documenting the health risks of such a regimen appeared in The Lancet. The report was so dodgy one wonders why it was accepted in the first place. Since HCQ is inexpensive ($20 for a two week supply), its use is a threat to the large profits that can be made by a vaccine. It appears from analysis of the report that it was an obvious fraud. This kind of scandal will again darken the name of science and medicine, being yet another example why science will not be trusted in the future. So again Capitalism has bought out Science. A sad day for science. (On a personal note, as a college undergraduate I took many lab courses in both physics and chemistry and one of the first things a student figures out is how to fudge results. Just sayin’.) Doctor Horton explained this fault by saying that pharmaceutical companies are so powerful, and have so much money, that it is difficult to withstand their onslaught.

Technocracy is another word that indicates this over-dominance of the rational. Technocracy was a political movement of the early Twentieth Century that has since become unpopular as a word but very popular in reality. Both former President Obama and all of Silicon Valley are heavily technocratic. The basic philosophy behind technocracy is that only scientists really know what is happening and so scientists should rule the world. People think you must listen to science (Greta Thundberg on the occasion of Earth Day said exactly that) which is a direct statement of technocratic thinking. But technocracy is not a new concept. Francis Bacon, the father of the scientific method, wrote New Atlantis, a utopian novel published in 1626. In this novel a Pacific island is discovered — this being the time when new lands were being found — that is run by scientists and where everyone on the island is morally superior.

Technocracy is an example of technological fundamentalism: technology will save us, which has been called (James Howard Kunstler) the Google mindset – ‘Dude, we’ve got technology so no worries’ and so we don’t have to change our way of thinking. One example of this belief that technology will save us is the current negative reaction (and censorship) among environmentalists to the recent film The Planet of Humans produced by Michael Moore, who once was a darling of the Green Set. Many in the green energy movement believe that once everything is electrified we will be be free to continue our previous lifestyle. Many who don’t think of themselves as “climate deniers” nevertheless don’t really see that they deny the magnitude of the “problem”, which is not a problem but rather a predicament (John Michael Greer). A problem needs a solution; a predicament needs a change so you can live with it, since the predicament will not go away once a (not the) solution is found.

Transhumanism is another concept promoted by technocratic oriented individuals, especially those around Silicon Valley. Loosely, this is the idea that human beings can avoid illness and even death through technology, though one may wonder if the resulting being can still be considered human. A current streaming show called Upload illustrates this belief in overcoming death through technology. Expect to see more news about transhumanism in the future as the wealthy geniuses of Silicon Valley reveal more of their plans to the public, worked up about health threats from the latest pandemic.

Rationalism

While it is hard to produce a date and chart for this overriding event of the last 500 years, a good chart for the crux of this turning is found in 1821, just as the Industrial Revolution was reaching a wider world than just Great Britain. It has been a doctrine of this blog that the outer planets and their angular relations are important in historical events. Aspects of the three outer planets, such as the conjunctions of Uranus and Pluto in the decade of the Sixties or the conjunction of Uranus and Neptune in the decade of the Nineties were defining of the nature of that decade. Even more potent are aspects involving all three outer planets, especially midpoints. Also important for world events are aspects to the cardinal — Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn — points, as in for example the conjunction of Pluto with zero Capricorn as signifier of the Great Recession. So it interesting to look at the aspects of the third decade of the Nineteenth Century, with Pluto a 0 Aries square the Uranus-Neptune conjunction at 0 Capricorn. Many charts could be drawn for this period of time; the one I chose has Uranus and Neptune conjoined at zero Capricorn square Pluto at zero Aries; Mars is opposite the conjunction at one Cancer forming a T-Square with Pluto at the apex; Jupiter and Saturn are a few days past a conjunction showing the start of a new twenty year cycle. There is also a Full Moon. This is an important time for humanity. And if you graph the per capita GDP for the world over time, it continually grows at a steady rate with only two upwards bends: around 1820 and just after 1945.

The Romantic Movement was a large reaction to the rise of rationalism in the Eighteenth Century indicated by the Enlightenment, the rise of laissez faire capitalism, and the Industrial Revolution. This too is signified by this chart. The Romantic Movement was an intellectual fashion during the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth centuries in literature, art, and many other fields that emphasized emotion, intuition, nature, and a return to historical roots. The planet Neptune is almost synonymous with the Romantic idea, as opposed to Uranus, a good symbol for the Rational, Enlightenment period. Uranus was discovered in 1781 just as these trends were getting started, whereas Neptune was discovered near the End of the Romantic Movement in 1846.

Cinema

In every case over these many centuries with hard aspects of Uranus and Neptune, Neptune was bent to Uranian principles, because that is what served the direction of society. The way this manifested itself is what I call “Electronic Drugs”, the Electronic part suggesting Uranus and the Drugs part suggesting Neptune. For example, in the conjunction of 1821, the “Electronic Drug” was photography. We can not imagine, since photography is so common these days and many people take photographs many times a day, what an immense change this was from the norm of the preceding millennia. The only fixed representation of a scene known by people before that time was a painting. Then for the opposition of the early 1900’s the electronic drug was moving pictures, which again was a huge change from what had gone before. Previously only in a stage play could one see life recreated, but with cinema this could happen often. Also at this time George Eastman introduced the box camera so that individuals and not just professionals could create photographs. Radio also was developed in this time frame. Then for the square of those two planets in the middle Fifties the electronic drug was television, which had existed before but by that period became immensely popular. Again this was a huge change where people could watch moving pictures in their home. This also changed politics, for example in the Kennedy-Nixon debates of 1960. Then, with the conjunction of the early Nineties, the world saw the rise of the World Wide Web, the Internet brought to the masses. Video and more are now streaming. Many more ideas are now set loose on the world, it could be a hard time for orthodoxy. The web will be seen to have huge implication of most everything in life, and we are only beginning to see some of the changes. You can see this with the censorship of the web becoming more and more popular.

Television

But notice in every one of these hard aspects, Neptune has not really been manifested in a Neptunian way, one that is gravely needed. Perhaps when Neptune goes to zero Aries and at the apex of Uranus and Pluto, these totally Neptunian manifestation will be shown.

World Wide Web

The development of the industrial world and all that implies was made possible by these scientific inventions of the last 500 years, and especially made possible by hydrocarbon based energy, first from coal for the first 100 years and then by oil. This made growth the watchword of the industrial world. Some have called the Nineteenth Century the Coal Century and the Twentieth Century the Oil Century; what energy source will define the Twenty-First Century?

Growth is the mantra that all government systems – fascism, capitalism, socialism, communism, whatever — follow wholeheartedly. This system of growth practiced by all governments worldwide is what is breaking down. This was highlighted almost 50 years ago by a book called The Limits (Saturn) of Growth (Jupiter) which was immediately rejected by many “serious” thinkers upon publication in 1973. What seemed as a fantasy by many people back then now seems like a description of the world. The book’s projection of the world in 2000 is now seen as hewing closely to reality. That book’s lessons on exponential growth is something everyone should know.

So this is the result of 500 years of rejection of an ancient way of looking at the world and thus disenchantment.

There are signs that the materialistic worldview in Science is changing, that there is a recognition that mysticism has something to teach science. There are bookshelves of volumes indicating this, and the rush was started by the publication in 1975 of the book The Tao of Physics by physicist Fritjof Capra. That field of study has only expanded in the last 45 years. Those interested should check out the works of physicists David Bohm (“implicate and explicate order”) and biochemist Rupert Sheldrake (“morphogenetic fields”). Many of the ideas expressed in these books extend from quantum mechanics, a major scientific revolution that started in the first decade of the Twentieth Century which I most closely associate with German physicists Max Planck and Albert Einstein, but many others contributed to the study. These developments started under under the midpoint of Uranus (at zero Capricorn) at the apex of Neptune and Pluto, the first major zeitgeist change of the Twentieth Century that I pointed out previously. That these developments in what could be called “meta-physics” started with the ferment of the Sixties is nakedly indicated by the book called How the Hippies Saved Physics by David Kaiser.

Quantum Theory

I’ve discussed previously the predominance of Neptune in the next 10 years. Combining this with the above discussion of Neptune as the irrational, one may read this as the end of the over reliance on the rational, that is a growth of irrational or Romantic in this decade as one possible interpretation of Neptune. One of the trends we may see in this decade, still new and according to some not starting until 2021 (the argument being that there was no year zero) is an increasing respect for the irrational, the right brained, the feminine, the lunar. We need to make the world whole again by bringing back the irrational. We need a re-enchantment of the world. Another useful book in this regard is by Morris Berman called The Reenchantment of the World published in 1981, which lays out another argument along the lines of this post.

But Neptune can play out in many ways. For example, the powers in charge of the world are currently trying to form a Dickian (after the science fiction writer Philip K. Dick) world (called the Great Reset by the World Economic Forum) if we let them, and they are using Neptune to hide what they are doing from us. Hyper rationality is being used as a cover. (You don’t want to argue with Science; are you some kind of Luddite??) Will we see through the illusion in time to wrest control back into peoples’ hands and restore democracy? Neptune can go several ways and so which one will it be? This dominance of Neptune also suggests (self) deception so we must be eternally skeptical of pronouncements and always look beneath the surface truths. But Neptune also represents the Irrational as shown above, and perhaps this prominence of Neptune over the next 10 years represents the return of the irrational for a more balanced position in the world. Perhaps this coming decade will see the re-enchantment of the world after 500 years of the growth of the rational.

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March 27, 2020

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Prelude to the Pluto Return

Mercury rules mentation — the use of the mind — and communication, and other related topics. But when you consider the chart for an entity, in this case the United States, the meaning of Mercury subtly changes but still has the same core meaning. For a nation, Mercury represents the press, formerly just the printed press, but now also the cable news networks and news carried on the Internet in places such as Facebook and YouTube. As the means of communications have expanded, so have the referents of Mercury. This brief discussion of the meanings of Mercury is a foreword to the discussion of a transit of Mercury coming up in the next two years.

In the natal chart of the US, Mercury is opposite Pluto with an orb of a little over three degrees, not terribly tight. This suggests that the press has been a transformative medium in American history. For example, with the rise of political parties in the late Eighteenth Century, newspapers were also created simultaneously to support the parties being formed and that press did much to support the birth of those political parties. And even today most of the press, while perhaps called “non-partisan”, are closely associated with political parties: the New York Times is associated with the Democratic Party these day, and so are the cable channels CNN and MSNBC, so much so that it is often called MSDNC. Fox Cable news channel is a mouthpiece for the Republican party.

Pluto Opposite Mercury

But coming up will be a transit of Pluto opposite the natal Mercury just before the Pluto return, as can be expected from the geometry of those two planets as just mentioned. This is likely to change our relationship to the press. First, lets looks at a graphical ephemeris showing the whole period of the opposition. We can see that the opposition first becomes close in early 2019, where the red curved line representing transiting Pluto comes close to the dashed horizontal gold line representing natal Mercury. The first exact opposition happens shortly after the Saturn Pluto conjunction of January 2020. The exact opposition continues to happen throughout 2020 and 2021, including a stationary period in the Fall and Winter of 2021 about three quarters into the graphical ephemeris. Finally, in 2022 as the actual Pluto return happens, the opposition is ending but still as close a it was in 2019. So we have Pluto opposite natal Mercury being effective for at least four years, 2019-23, if not extending even further. Perhaps it can be considered to be happening now, with the rise of the term “Fake News”. If so, it will grow, though the standard theory of time suggests that it will be more powerful after the aspect than before.

One can see that as soon as Pluto went away from the opposition of the Sun, which continued on at least through 2017, it began approaching the opposition to Mercury and the shouts of “fake news” began to be heard. Since in the current times the Sun represents the government and especially the President of the United States, this opposition to the Sun represented the animosity toward whomever was President before 2017, resulting in the obvious upset election in 2016. Not only were people angry with the government and its representative, but they were also mistrustful of the press. Jim Acosta from CNN being booed should have been no surprise.

Today in America — and perhaps other places in the world, witness the UK, Spain, Brazil — “truth” is a very partisan issue; depending on your political viewpoint a thing is either black or white (or perhaps in America we should say blue or red), with no shades of grey allowed or even an expression of a wrong color viewpoint. And if you believe white then black believers are a spawn of demons and deserve to be in a low circle of Hell.

But here we are talking about Pluto opposite the US Mercury, so let’s restrict our comments to the United States. This opposition suggests some major changes in store for the press and their connections to the bigger world, and the way we believe in truth in the United States.

According to Democrat partisans it is only because of the brave American press that we know of the nefarious crimes of President Donald J. Trump, such as his attempts at bribery of the new president of the Ukraine, a place that we need to help fight the Russians so that we don’t end of fighting them in America, as one Democrat-sponsored witness in Congress said, later quoted by the Congressman from Hollywood California. If this sounds familiar, it is because George W. Bush said that we had to fight terrorists in Iraq so we did not have to fight them here. To the Republican partisans Trump is a brave man who is trying to stand up to the nefarious doings of the Deep State which thinks him a bad spokesman for the American agenda: he’s not smart enough (or politician enough) to know he should put lipstick on the pig, and the press is not telling this story of the Deep State coup.

Currently there are several extremely important issues that a free press should be reporting on, but we hear mostly nothing about them in the prestige press. This lack of reporting of vital matters that could be of use to Americans in seeing the world represents a big problem for citizens who want to understand the true relationship of their country to the world.

The Washington Post recently published what is called the Afghanistan Papers that reveal that throughout America’s longest war, which is still happening, Americans were lied to with great regularity, that the people running the war did not know what was going on, and that the press pretended that all was going smoothly. This has been compared to the release of the Pentagon Papers in the Seventies that disclosed similar stupidity in regards to the Vietnam War, which at the time held the distinction of being the longest war of the United States. The Pentagon Papers were a phenomena at the time. Newspapers published excepts, and there was much talk about them. They even played a role in the Watergate crisis, whereas the President sent people to burgle the office of the psychiatrist who was treating the person who released the Pentagon Papers. But in today’s world, these newly released documents which expose a similar malfeasance for a recent war don’t get any respect. Perhaps now that we only have an economic draft so that only the children of the poor end of fighting the wars it is of little concern to Democrats to represent families with children killed in the current iteration of what has been called regime changes wars.

The UN commission called the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) released a report in 2018 accusing the Syrian government (a putative enemy of the United States) of using poison gas on its population, even though this did not make sense since the Syrian side was winning and had no reason to do something that would bring international condemnation with no upside for them. In response the US, UK, and France bombed Syria. But in recent weeks there have been several whistle-blowers from inside the OPCW and a document dump from Wikileaks that have shown the the OPCW report was contrary to the opinions of its staff and was oriented to align with US government beliefs and so that the report (and thus the OPCW itself) has no credibility. One would expect this to be a big story, that a UN commission lied and thus several countries committed war crimes as a result, but there is no news of this.

The third major story that is not given coverage is the unlawful imprisonment and torture of a man who is considered by many independent observers as the most important journalist in the world today, whose reports many mainstream newspapers published once upon a time, but who now can not give that journalist the time of day. The extradition trial of Julian Assange has been truly a kangaroo court that is happening in Great Britain, a travesty that has been compared to the Dreyfus case that eventually roiled France at the end of the Nineteenth Century. But if the press reports about Assange at all, it is to deposit calumny on him. Many Democrats consider him — in cooperation with Vladimir Putin — the reason Hillary Clinton lost the election in 2016.

Around the world at the time we are seeing a huge number of protests against the government of each country. When looked at from above, all these protests are against the neoliberalism that has dominated the world for the last forty years. But some protests get much more coverage in the American press than others. The coverage of the Hong Kong protests against an official US opponent, even though they have been quite devoid of deaths and injuries, has been given very great media coverage, as opposed to the limited converge of the Yellow Vest movement against the government of a US ally, even though many have lost limbs or eyes from the activities of the French police, who apparently are more violent than the Hong Kong police.

Jupiter-Pluto Conjunction

The first Jupiter Pluto conjunction on April 4, 2020 is interesting because it is right opposite the natal Mercury, so this conjunction will have something to do with the media. Pluto on this date is opposite natal Mercury with an orb of less than one degree. The transiting Sun is opposite the natal Saturn, and to further accentuate Saturn, transiting Saturn is trine the US MC, as is transiting Venus (and thus transiting Venus and Saturn, both at the beginning of air signs, are trine), and thus the transiting midpoint of Venus and Saturn is on the Midheaven. Venus and Saturn together talk about a limitation of justice, a concept that can be applied to many issues effecting the world today. One of the meanings Ebertin gives for this midpoint is “the urge to seek solitude” which I’m sure we can all relate to.

What I have called the mainstream media in the United States, for example the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, is being increasing paid attention to only by older readers and watchers, while younger people, those who grew up more in what can be called The Internet Age, get more of their news online. This has caused a spilt in the Democratic Party which I call the split between the MSNBC Democrats — who get there news from the cable TV channel MSNBC — and the Jimmy Dore Democrats — who get their news from the YouTube channel The Jimmy Dore Show. This dynamic can also be seen in the current Democratic primaries across the country, playing out in the dichotomy of the two remaining candidates. As the population ages and people born before 1960 continue to die, one can expect more and more news to be gotten online, which causes much worry among those producing legacy media. But they also have themselves to blame: if they better reported the truth instead of what their owners want, there would be more trust of them among younger people.

A good source showing that media criticism is nothing new is the book Manufacturing Consent by Edward Herman (the main author, which is why his name came first on the title page) and his long time collaborator Noam Chomsky, published in 1988. There is also a YouTube video. After the book was published, Herman (who was an economics professor at Wharton) edited a magazine called Lies of Our Times, specializing in debunking the lies of the New York Times, which is indeed a full time job.

And of course before that were truth telling journalists such as I. F. Stone (who reported about what was really happening in Korea or Vietnam and whose Weekly newsletter was a must-read for Vietnam War protestors), A. J. Liebling (who famously said the press is free only for those who own one), Wilfred Burchett who was the first reporter at Hiroshima after the bomb was dropped, despite an embargo of Japan by the United States, and George Seldes, a critic of the press in the Thirties and Forties (even though he died at 104 in 1995) who said “The most sacred cow of the press is the press itself”.

So among the great changes that we will see in the upcoming decade will be changes in the media landscape of America and citizens’ relationship to it. As the story “The Boy Who Cried Wolf’ reminds us, after you fail to tell the truth for a long time you will be disbelieved even if what you say is now true.

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January 24, 2020

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And Just in Time For The Election

The dominant story of 2020 involves the three planets Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto. Each pair of these planets has a conjunction during the year, and there is much expectation of what those conjunctions will bring. The first is the Saturn-Pluto conjunction on January 12. Then the first of three Jupiter-Pluto conjunctions takes place on April 4. Finally the Jupiter Saturn conjunction occurs on the solstice of December 21, 2020.

Saturn Pluto Conjunction

Jupiter Pluto Conjunction

Jupiter Saturn Conjunction

But I want to point out a combination of the three planets with Mars added in just to give the whole thing some spice. That is, as illustrated in the chart below, on or about October 16, 2010, less that three week before the Presidential election in the United States.

New Moon Before Election

Does this chart portend anything interesting? It’s hard to pick the best date here, but I chose this one because there is also a new moon, which indicates new beginnings. In this chart we have Jupiter conjunct Pluto conjunct Saturn within a total spread of about six degrees. Pluto is at the midpoint of Jupiter and Saturn. Mars is square Pluto and most especially Jupiter. The New Moon is opposite Mars and square Saturn and closely square Pluto and thus there is a T-Square with that triple conjunction of those three planets that are the stars of 2020 at the apex. Completing the picture we have Venus opposite Neptune (romantic love/deceptions in justice) and Uranus opposite Mercury (changes in the way of thinking). So the two other outer planets, Uranus and Neptune, are aspecting two personal planets, Mercury and Venus. On that day every planet is making an aspect.

oct162020us

Furthermore, looking at the US chart, the triple conjunction is opposite the US Mercury, representing the press of the nation, and the New Moon is squaring Mercury and sesquiquadrate Uranus, completing the natal Mercury semisquare Uranus, which represents a basic theme of the United States, freedom. I am sure that basic issues about the nature of America will come up at this time. And this year will bring up many issues regarding the press, which will be discussed in another blog post soon.

Last Quarter Moon

Another interesting chart is for the last quarter moon just before this new moon. In this one retrograde Mars is exactly square Pluto, the Moon is opposite Jupiter and thus completing a T-square with the Sun at the apex, Neptune is sextile Jupiter and trine the Moon thus forming half a kite formation that shares a base opposition with the T-square.

If we compare this with the earlier chart Mars is even tighter in a square to Pluto and the Moon is opposite Jupiter and thus the Sun is square Jupiter, forming a T square. Pluto is closely at the midpoint of Jupiter and Saturn chart on October 9, the last quarter moon before the New Moon on October 16. In this chart the square of Mars and Pluto is almost exact.

tg2020

These various permutations of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto are obvious in the graphical ephemeris for the period in question. Starting in August Mars (red line) crosses in order Jupiter (blue line), Pluto (dark red line), and then Saturn (light blue line), turns retrograde and the again crosses Saturn, Pluto and Jupiter before turning direct and crossing those three planets — Pluto, Saturn, Jupiter — again at the beginning of 2021; Mars squares Jupiter for the last time when Jupiter is square Uranus in January. At the date in question — center line of the graphical ephemeris — as you can see Mars is exactly square Pluto.

So I see October as the month when Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto are set up for action by Mars crisscrossing those planets in late summer and early fall of 2020, just in time for the US election that many people are looking forward to with hope or trepidation or both.

Election Day

And for future reference, here is the chart for election day. There is still the conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto opposite the US Mercury. There are four retrograde planets: Neptune, Uranus, Mars, and Mercury. Having a national election when Mercury is retrograde (stationary turning direct) suggests that the early elections reports shouldn’t be trusted. Mars — the least often retrograde planet — retrograde as well as opposite the natal Saturn suggests that the outcome will be delayed or that questions will arise (quelle surprise!!). And of course that triple conjunction that has been featured above suggests problems in communication. An election to remember!

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dak1024

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April 26, 2019

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These Four Years

Over the last four years of the second decade of the Twenty First Century there have been a couple of significant transits to the United States chart and an important world transit — one that affects everyone. All these transits involve Uranus and Neptune. The transits can most easily be seen in the first harmonic chart for the United States at a given moment, but to examine the activities of these transits over the entire period we must examine the twenty-fourth harmonic. How do we come to the twenty-fourth harmonic?

The twenty-fourth harmonic represents all aspects that are multiples of fifteen degrees, such as 45 (3×15) and 120 (8×15). These “minor’ aspects have been used by German astrologers for years. One of them, Edith Wangeman, used all aspects that are multiple of 7.5 degrees to the Ascendant to determine various features of the subjects face. So “minor” aspects have long been used in astrology. In this case we have on the surface a square (harmonic 4) to the Ascendant from Neptune, a sesquiquadrate (harmonic 8) from Uranus to the Ascendant, and a trine (harmonic 3) from Neptune to the Sun. The lowest common denominator of those harmonic is 24 (3×8).

Uranus and Neptune Active in US Chart

Here is a example chart from September 24, 2017 when the square from Neptune to the Ascendant, the sesquiquadrate from Uranus to the Ascendant, and the trine from Neptune to the Sun were all within orb. But since the planets move those three aspects were in and out of orb over the period stating from summer of 2016, as you can see from the graphical ephemeris. The first approach of Neptune square the Ascendant happened at the black arrow. Notice that both Neptune and Uranus hit the Ascendant, but Neptune hits first. The last approach of both Uranus and Neptune to the Sun is indicated by the green arrow. Notice how both the Uranus transit line (blue) and the Neptune line (violet) are close together during the whole period. Black arrow points to Neptune line, red arrow points to Uranus line.

2015-2020

Neptune involved with both the Ascendant and the Sun has been displayed over the last two plus years in the faux scandal known as Russiagate. A prominent Neptune also appeared in several Capricorn Ingress charts set in Washington, DC that project the year ahead. Some people are comparing this to the ruse that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMD) before the second Gulf War (eg. Matt Taibbi). But disinformation campaigns have always been used when America has wanted to go to war against someone who is not overtly aggressive (which is usually the case), witness the Tonkin Gulf activities that got American full bore into Vietnam and the current attempt at regime change in Venezuela. Russiagate is of a different order of magnitude, something that doesn’t happen often. The best discussion of this type of event is in the book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Scottish journalist Charles Mackay published in 1841. These delusions that sweep a country (like a Neptunian fog) occurred in for example the Dutch Tulip Mania, the South Sea Bubble, and the Salem Witch trials. Also similar is what is called the Great Disappointment which occurred in America at about the same time as Mackay was publishing his book. The followers of preacher William Miller, called Millerites, expected Christ to return to earth on October 22, 1844. When somehow that did not happen, the date was advanced, but the return still did not occur. After that many followers of Miller gave up even though more excuses were offered. This incident also reminds me of the book [Invasion of] the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney first published in 1955 and obviously influenced by the McCarthyism that had swept the United States in the years before. The book has also been made into two movies. The protagonist of the book discovers a town where all the citizens have been replaced by “pod people” that resemble the former citizens but hold strange beliefs. Claiming that the President of the United States is a traitor and taking instructions from a foreign country with which we are at war is not something that has been been done before in American history, at least not by people considered reliable. It is amazing that various Democrats echoed claims similar to that of the John Birch Society that President Eisenhower was a Communist agent, and they are not in the least bit embarrassed by that.

Russiagate says essentially that 1) Russia interfered in the American election of 2016 to get its favored candidate — Donald J. Trump — elected president of the United States, and 2) that Trump and his associates “colluded” ( a non-legal term) with the Russian government to take advantage of their aid. After the Mueller Report makes clear that there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians the argument still goes that the Russian government sought to put Trump in the White House and is interfering with elections around the world in the past and future. There is no evidence of this, and in fact the primary evidence — a server or servers of the DNC that contained emails — has not been examined by the FBI, even after three years. This attack by the Russians has been called another Pearl Harbor, 9/11, or Kristallnacht. And it appears the Mueller Report accepted this “attack” as a given, so the news media is running with it, not realizing that the show is over and that most citizens have moved on, thus displaying once again how cut off the elite are from the concerns of ordinary people. That kind of ignorance can leads to serious consequences, as Louis XVI found out with the French Revolution.

Russiagate is a similar delusion, but the ramification are stronger. When boiled down, one can see that the intelligence communities, the Democratic Party, and the news media attempted to prevent a President from being elected, and when that failed attempted to prevent him from governing. He was prevented from having his own foreign policy (cries of treason certainly effected the notoriously thin-skinned Trump). The ramifications are chilling. What if some other President is elected, for example Bernie Sanders, who also displeases the intelligence and defense communities. I hope he watches his back.

An interesting question, which will be fodder for many books and PhD theses in the future, is why did this happen. The transits of Neptune did not cause this, but only symbolized what happened. Previous relevant examples are displayed in the collection of essays called The God That Failed about ex-Communists disillusionment with Communism, and also in the Millerite saga mentioned above. After all of the media told voters that Clinton was a shoo-in to win the election and that Trump was the new Hitler, there had to be some explanation for Trump winning. And since Clinton was such a desirable candidate, a great campaigner, and the previous eight years brought roses and ponies to all of the electorate, it could only mean that some external force put their thumb on the election scales. And since Clinton had previously said that Trump was Putin’s puppet and it was decided (see the book Shattered by Jonathan Allan and Amie Parnes) to blame the lost on the Russians, it was a slam dunk to force that outcome. Essentially we see that a political party used a coverup story for the fact that their candidate lost to a reality tv show host and that they rigged their primary to prevent a competitor to the anointed one from winning. Neither items are much discussed anymore with everyone fixated on the Russians. The result, represented by Neptune which can be illusions or delusion, is what has been called Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) wherein normally intelligent people lose all critical faculties. There was always a bit of religious mania/obsession (Neptune) in the support of Russiagate, witness the Mueller prayer candles and other tchotchkes. Everyone was waiting for the Mueller report which would turn all things right, just like the Millerites thought.

Another pernicious result of Russiagate, though it had been aborning for years, is an increase in Russophobia wherein things are said about the Russian people (for example, that they are almost genetically driven to co-opt or penetrate — James Clapper) that if said about any other group would produce instant rebuke. Since much that needs to be managed in the world involves cooperation with the second biggest nuclear power, this Russophobia puts brakes on any attempts to deal with many situations confronting society, such as terrorism and nuclear proliferation.

Trump promised to “drain the swamp” while campaigning, something that resonated to many, but instead he invited the swamp in, with neocons like John Bolton, Mike Pompeo , and convicted liar Elliott Abrams running things. As during the Eisenhower administration many decades ago, it seems like the Secretary of State is calling the shots as far as foreign policy is concerned. Would he have hired these rogues without the pressure from Russiagate? One can only speculate.

And what was most disappointing is that liberals in the Democratic Party, who are “supposed” to be concerned about such affronts from the intelligence community, were the strongest backers of Russiagate. One remembers a time when the CIA was thought as a band of liars — as ex-CIA director Mike Pompeo recently admitted — and the FBI was known for setting up Muslims as terrorists. And now it appears to many — but not those hard-core Democratic loyalists — that they were trying to bring down an elected President. That does not set a good precedence for future Presidents.

One feature is the hardcore dedication of major news media — New York Time, Washington Post, CNN, MSDNC — to Russiagate, so much so they would report false stories if it helped the narrative. After this it seems obvious that the major media is compromised by the intelligence services. The legacy media was suffering from layoffs and lack of readers/viewers until Donald Trump energized their reader/viewership; one wonders what the result will be if they lose their golden goose. One guess is that the media will continue with some variant of Russiagate as long as they can. They will probably find something in the Mueller Report that they can run with.

One repercussion is that the news media won’t be believed after this, especially when they report something about President Tump. They have squandered their credibility, just like in the tale “The boy who cried wolf”. In fact so many in the media were such strong supporters of the Russiagate narrative that many people will not trust any of those sources ever again about anything. Perhaps the media bosses don’t care, as long as their readers will believe what they print. And after Trump complained about “fake news” and was proven so fully right, one wonders if the media will survive among those who still practice independent thought.

That mostly Democrats pushed Russiagate is a big win for Trump in the next election. I don’t remember when a political party gave such a big boost to the opposition party’s presidential candidate. After they derided his complaints about a witch hunt and his statements that he did not collude with the Russians and he was rebuffed and laughed at by the opposition party and the media, Trump has now been proven correct, and to say the media now has egg on its collective face is a understatement. But will anyone apologize, or just continue to try and gin up some controversy? One consequence is the demonstration that liberals can be just as malleable by deception as conservatives. Perhaps partisan politics overrules the truth.

First Pluto Return

As I have mentioned before this scandal will not die down, but the ramifications of it will be the cause of our Pluto Return. Since there has never been a Pluto return for a country before, we do not know what to expect. But it seems like a Saturn return — which indicates a new maturity — but more Plutonian, which suggests transformation of the entity in question, the United States and its government. In fact, the Pluto Return is already starting, we just don’t notice it yet without the benefit of hindsight. Here is a chart of the first of three Pluto returns, where transiting Pluto returns to its natal position. There is also a close passage of transiting Pluto to its natal position without being exact at the end of 2023.

But Uranus is also making aspects to Ascendant and Sun, though in this case the aspect to the Sun is not commonly recognized, an aspect of 75 degrees (eg., 28 Aries to 13 Cancer). We can also see the Uranian influence though this has been drowned out by the hubbub about Russiagate.

Uranus Conjunct Ascendant

Uranus aspecting to the US Ascendant have long indicated progressive trends. Uranus transited the US Ascendant at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, and this period is called the Progressive Era because of Progressive politicians like Theodore Roosevelt, Progressive architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, Progressive composers like Aaron Copland (who was born at this time) and Progressive historians like Charles Beard, changed the way America operated after the Gilded Age of the latter Nineteenth Century. When Uranus next transited the US Ascendant in 1984, we saw such things as the Nuclear Freeze movement, Harold Washington as mayor of Chicago (1983-87), Jesse Jackson running for President (1984, 1988), and the agreement by Soviet Premier Gorbachev and American President Ronald Reagan banning a type of nuclear weapon in the INF treaty (signed December 8, 1987).

Uranus conjunct Ascendant

So here we have another hard aspect of Uranus to the US Ascendant, not as strong as a conjunction but nevertheless things are already changing in a more “progressive” direction. Some examples on the political front include the election of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a representative from New York and Ilhan Omar from Minnesota. A Congresswoman from Hawaii has been calling out the many wars America is fighting abroad. People in Congress and, surprisingly, even in newspapers are beginning to talk about Israel in less than flattering terms. And then there is the #MeToo movement that has developed and grown over the last couple of years.

But the controversy and investigations spawned by Russiagate will cast light on the strong influence of what has been called, among many other things, the Invisible Government (book by David Wise and Thomas Ross 1964), a powerful force in the country that is not elected. Eisenhower referred to it as the Military Industrial Complex. This is something that has been growing since the Second World War, and finally people are starting to recognize how strong an influence it plays even in elections. This “organization” involves the intelligence community, the defense industries, and the mass communications. More people should become aware of the noxious influence of these organizations.

Also because of Russiagate there is increasing skepticism of the national news media, something that should have been obvious after the Iraq War debacle, but somehow (perhaps the stars weren’t aligned properly!) those lessons were forgotten.

And part of the progressive shift is a result of President Trump, who has Uranus conjunct his Sun and opposite the Moon — truly Uranian. For a long time, America has been guilty of crimes against its own citizens and the rest of the world, but those were always covered up by “politicians”. But finally the mask has been removed and people can see what is really going on, as I discussed previously. Few realize that Trump is merely a symptom of the rot that has infected America and instead believe that it is only he that is rotten. Some think that all will be well if we return to the good ol’ days when they did not have to look at crimes of their own country and fully believed in American Exceptionalism. Ignorance is Bliss, as George Orwell didn’t say.

Another thing driving this move in a progressive direction is the rise of Internet. There are now blogs, podcasts, and YouTube videos that explore themes that are not allowed in the mainstream media. While this ability always existed since the invention of the printing press — witness the phenomena of the Underground Press in the Sixties and Seventies — with the Internet these sources are available to many more. But in a twist of historic irony, those who read the Underground Press back in the day are now the age group that is the biggest consumers of cable news and eschew the Internet news offerings that conflict with the tales on cable news. And so we turn to what may be the largest consequences of Russiagate, the censorship by private entities of what can be seen on YouTube or read about on Facebook or Twitter. And since these are private companies the First Amendment doesn’t apply. For example, Facebook is using the Atlantic Council to give them guidance on what is “Fake News”. The Atlantic Council is essential a Think Tank for NATO. What could go wrong?

Opening Uranus Semisquare Neptune

The larger context to all this is the Uranus-Neptune opening semisquare that is the overriding aspect of the these four years. The corresponding closing semisquare was in the early Seventies — 1971 through 1975 — as shown in the graphical ephemeris below. This was the aspect just before the conjunction of those two planets in the Nineties.

Uranus Semisquare Neptune Early Seventies

Many things happened in this period, for example the US went off the gold standard, the Watergate scandal, China was recognized by the larger world, and there was a pushback against “too much democracy” (Trilateral Commission) as a legacy of the Sixties. That grew into the neoliberal revolution. There was the “oil shock” in industrialized countries. We did not know how much changed until much later.

When looked back from the next decade, we will see these four years as a forerunner/ precursor just as the four years of the early Seventies was a precursor, but in this case the opening semisquare will see a reversal of some of the changes set in motion with the closing semisquare of the Seventies.

One big case that determined much of the ensuing years of the closing semisquare was the Pentagon Papers, released by Daniel Ellsberg and first published in the New York Times on June 13, 1971. The Pentagon Papers was an official inside view of the history of the Vietnam War. The chart for that date, below, shows Mercury at the Descendant; Mercury represents the press, and in this case the press was highly visible to the public (Descendant). Pluto was near the MC, and was conjunct both before and after this date; Uranus was widely square the US Sun and was exactly square both before and after this date. This indicates a major upheaval in the government — Watergate and the Church Commission were direct results of the Pentagon Papers being released. And finally transiting Sun was conjunct natal Mars, showing that on this day something involving War happened, which certainly describes the release of the Pentagon Papers.

Pentagon Papers Published

The decision which allowed the newspaper to publish the Pentagon Papers was a landmark in press freedom. And now, in the opening semisquare, we have shaping up what will be another major press freedom case, with the removal of Julian Assange from the Ecuadorean embassy. If the removal, quick sentencing, and his imprisonment in what has been called the UK’s Guantanamo was done by an official enemy (eg Russia or Venezuela) the outcry would be deafening, but since it was done in the friendly UK, there are hosannas for his capture. This is after he was illegally expelled from the Ecuadorean embassy, but at least that country got more than 30 pieces of silver for this act. Despite protests that “he is not a journalist” (ask Danial Ellsberg about that) this has grave consequences for whatever journalism still exists in the United States. Assange embarrassed the elites and that is unforgivable.

But this case also ties into Russiagate directly. One notices that Democrats, who one would expect to be protective towards First Amendment rights, are vehemently hostile to Julian Assange in this case. Again Russiagate has moved the supposedly liberal party further to the right. Assange is blamed for being an instrument of Vladimir Putin and the person who single-handedly caused Clinton to lose the 2016 election. And the media, which will lose big-time if this case goes successfully for the government, would rather defend some newsclown (to use Philip K. Dick’s phrase) like Jim Acosta than support a real journalist whose scoops should embarrass them all. So even if Trump did not collude with Putin, they think, it is entirely his fault and that of Julian Assange that Clinton lost that election. So the madness goes on. Some people are so tied to the myth of Russiagate (see previous references to religious obsession) that they are unwilling to give the idea up.

Collateral Murder

The main case which the US government says it wants Assange for involves the release of a video called “Collateral Murder” which was obtained by Chelsea Manning and showed pilots for the US military committing an obvious war crime, the shooting of civilians — including reporters for Reuters — on July 12 , 2007. This is the release that put WikiLeaks on the map, gaining them much attention. Fortunately we have the time of the release, courtesy of WikiLeaks: Here is a chart for that event. The thing that stands out is transiting Saturn on the US MC — restrictions on the display of government. Transiting Sun is also opposite natal Saturn, further emphasizing that planet. Neptune is the US Moon, illusions among the populace. There is a transiting Moon-Pluto conjunction (this is a timed chart) opposite the US Jupiter — changes to the enthusiasm of the US. Notice that transiting Uranus is almost to the IC of the US. These Uranus transits of the angles show long term trends. In this case it is internal (IC) reflection of what was happening when Uranus transited the MC, in 1968. The Uranian characteristics that were so prevalent in that watershed year — there are probably more books with “1968” in their title than any other year — have now been internalized. Unfortunately those who most breathed the air in 1968 have become conservative and unable to smell the Uranian air of this decade.

Another positive outcome of this whole process will be a greater disbelief of the mainstream media, which has long been stenographers for power (see for example Manufacturing Consent by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky), but now it has become so obvious that only those willfully blind would fail to notice it.

Will these four years be an example of the influence of Neptune as people descend further into their rabbit hole of delusion, or will it provide a wake-up call that the elites, which journalists have now become the handmaidens of, are more and more limiting the knowledge we can get, and thus showing the influence of Uranus, which as Richard Tarnas reminds us, is best symbolized by Prometheus, the Bringer of Light?

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July 20, 2018

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The Trump-Putin Summit and the Pluto Return

The meeting between United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin occurred on July 16, 2018 and the reaction from the Anglo-American press (I have yet to become familiar with the press of other countries in this matter) was immediate, vociferous, and uniformly hostile. Many called Trump’s acts treasonous. The term “traitor” was bandied about frequently. If we look at the chart of the US with transits of the time of the summit, we can shed a little light on why the reaction of the political classes were the way they were.

Here is a chart for 6:20 in the morning eastern time, which means it was 1:20 pm Helsinki time, the start of the summit. Since the aspects we will be looking at are not terribly dependent on the exact time, timing is not important. Three aspects stand out.

tr-pu_summit_correct

Saturn is opposite both natal Venus and Jupiter, and in fact Saturn is almost exactly (one minute of orb) opposite the Venus/Jupiter midpoint — black arrow. Jupiter and Venus are conjunct, and both conjoin the Sun of the US in the natal chart; this triple conjunction is very important in determining the basic self image of the United States. I’ve discussed this at length in an early post about the Virtuous Nation. It is difficult to imagine a “nicer” conjunction than that of Jupiter (the “greater benefic”) and Venus the (“lesser benefic”) and since that conjunction is conjunct the Sun of the United States, the country’s sense of self and vital energy, and all the other characteristics of the Sun, are modified by Venus and Jupiter. The United States has a self image as a beneficent noble country that started with the shining city on the hill, as John Winthrop (Massachusetts 1630) said of the United States, long before the country actually existed. That line is from the Sermon on the Mount and has been used by many others, such as Ronald Reagan. So we see that this Jupiter Venus conjunction is extremely important to the US self-image, and the county’s leaders are always shocked when other people do not believe or accept that self image.

But on the day of the summit Saturn was opposite those two planets, and exactly opposite the midpoint of the two planets. Saturn and Venus/Jupiter are not exactly good buddies. The placement of Saturn there casts a shadow on Venus/Jupiter, on that self image that America holds so closely to. Saturn indicates a threat to the image that America is an exceptionally good country. American does not like that! That aspect suggests why the reaction was so rabid; deep down, the wonderful self image of the United States was threatened, and that is not good.

Notice that both an aspect and a midpoint are involved in this configuration, suggesting that it is stronger than if only aspects or only midpoints were involved. We will see in a future post how this applies in other areas.

This next planetary configuration of importance also involves aspects and midpoints: Transiting Mars is sesquiquadrate natal Mars and natal Neptune (red, green arrow), and is exactly on the Mars/Neptune midpoint. In the US natal chart, Mars and Neptune are square, with an orb of one degree. This square is also very important to the behavior of the US. Mars and Neptune are difficult planets together, and the square is probably the hardest of major aspects between the two planets. Mars – Neptune suggests deceptive uses of energy, or more to the point for a country, the US is under a delusion that its use of energy, war — the most clear manifestation of Mars for a country — is always good, for obviously the US is the shining city on the hill which only has the best interests in mind when it goes to war. There are many other things that could be said about this aspect, but that is a discussion for another time. While the country believes that its action are of the highest moral purpose (Neptune), there is much delusion or incorrect belief about the real purpose of those wars. If one delves truly into the motives and outcomes of various US wars, such as the Vietnam War or any war in Iraq, that is quite obvious.

With transiting Mars involved with the two planets and that aspect, much anger (another Mars term) is brought out. Everything represented by that Mars-Neptune square is energized. How dare anyone try to claim that the new Cold War between the United States and Russia (which of course is only due to the bad actions of Russia and the demonic Putin) is not fully warranted, journalists howl. This is very threatening. As former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray titles it on his blog, detente bad, cold war good is a current American mindset.

A third aspect of note is that the transiting Sun — representing the day of the event — is conjoined the natal Mercury, representing the press in all its many forms (blue arrow). There was a Twitter explosion over this summit, and mostly invective. The major mainstream media fell over themselves in condemning Donald Trump for his treasonous behavior.

A lot of this is the manifestation of Russiagate, the scandal that has engulfed Washington over the last two years. At first I thought it would eventually die out, but it seems to be sticking around and is gathering even more energy.

Since Watergate, the scandal that brought down President Nixon, occurred during the closing semisquare between Uranus and Neptune, I had long though that the opening semisquare of those same two planets which we see now would see another Presidential scandal. And I’m beginning to think that this extremely large scandal, perhaps the largest in American history will, when it resolves, be the basis of the Pluto Return of the United States.

As far as I know, no country with any type of constitution has survived long enough for a Pluto Return — the return to the natal position — at about 250 years. Look at how often even England, not to speak of France or Italy, have formed a new birth chart because of a new government or Constitution. But the United States keeps ticking along with the same old Constitution. (For examples of how the Constitution, which is revered by many as almost the Ten Commandments, has been the cause of many of the problems that bedevil this country, see The Frozen Republic and The Velvet Coup both by Daniel Lazare.) If you are over thirty, you realize how important the Saturn Return — when transiting Saturn returns to the place it occupies at birth — is to our own growth as an adult. And the effects of the Saturn Return are noticed several years before the event. I’ve known of marriages, divorces, and major moves that have happened in the run up to the Saturn Return. The Pluto Return is even more powerful. And we will soon get to see one of the World’s first examples!

plret_tg

Here is a graphical ephemeris of the three and a half year period for the Pluto Return. We see Pluto first comes close to its natal position in early 2021 (black arrow); the first exact conjunction is at the beginning of 2022; the last pass is a the end of 2023 (red arrow); and the last near conjunction is at the end of 2024, though of course that period could be extended. I believe what we are seeing now will result in a major shakeup in the government, more powerful than what occurred after Watergate.

There are two basic theories of what we are seeing that is called Russiagate. Either one is unprecedented in the history of the county. And of course the people that are supporting either narrative differ from the standard Democratic-Republican or even left-right dichotomy that we usually see. One side is backed by “Establishment” Democrats and Republicans, along with (of course) the intelligence services and all the media outlets, newspapers and television news channels. The other side is backed by the “extreme” left and right along with corresponding blogs, since there are no mainstream outlets for such divergent voices. Also, several prominent experts in Russian history support this position, but of course they are never heard from in mainstream sources.

The official narrative goes something like this: The Russians conspired to fix our election of 2016 (along with many other elections and movements around the Western World) so that their chosen candidate would be elected, and that candidate likely colluded with them to do so. Thus we have the President of the United States working for a foreign power. When in the Fifties the John Birch Society, a conservative anti-communist organization, charged President Eisenhower with being an agent of the Soviet Union, most people laughed it off. But this time all the press (Mercury), or at least the “prestige press”, are uniformly in agreement and in fact broadcasting the scenario. To have an actual traitor running the government who is in thrall to a foreign leader is something no one believed would occur in this country. Many are calling this the new Pearl Harbor or bigger than 9/11. When the proof of this is final and that traitorous candidate is eliminated, a major shakeup in the government and in election procedures will occur.

The counter narrative has it that the Deep State (what I called the National Security State in a previous entry) conspired to put its chosen representative, Hillary Clinton, into the White House, and when the unimaginable happened and the candidate they were sure would lose became President, they conspired to prevent the current president from doing much and hopefully driving him from office, either through impeachment or other less sanguine means. The whole Russiagate narrative is like a snipe hunt for America. The Deep State has much practice in regime change for other countries, and now it is applying those techniques here at home. This too is unprecedented and when it comes out that this is happening a major shake up of the United States government will occur.

So there you have it, two mutually exclusive scenarios, both of which are beyond what has happened to the American Republic since its birth and both of which will require major changes in the laws of the land and perhaps even the Constitution to prevent such a thing from happening again. In either case we have a major shakeup coming, fitting exactly with the meaning of a Pluto Return.

500 Year Party

An astrological study of history and politics

Category Archives: Current

Crisis and Change

With a Side of Uranus and Pluto

Sometimes Satan Comes as a Man of Peace

Neptune Part One

DIY Presidential Election

These Two Years

The Disenchantment of the World – Part II

Prelude to the Pluto Return

And Just in Time For The Election

These Four Years

The Trump-Putin Summit and the Pluto Return