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April 13, 2018

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Skripal Poisoning

Now that L’affaire Skripal is staring to unravel, it is time to look at the astrology of the event. This incident occurred in early March, when a Russian double agent and his visiting daughter were found unconscious on a park bench. Almost immediately the Prime Minister of England, Theresa May, declared that they were poisoned by a potent military grade substance she called novichok that could only be created in Russia. Expulsion of Russian diplomats from Great Britain were followed by the same from several European countries and the United States. This all happened before any evidence was provided. Interestingly, Sergei Skripal lived only seven miles from Porton Downs, Britain’s top secret chemical weapons laboratory.

Skripals Found

Here is the chart for when the couple was found on a park bench in Salisbury, England. The most noticeable thing is the exact — less than a quarter of a degree — conjunction between Sun and Neptune in Pisces; Neptune is said to rule Pisces, thus increasing the Neptunian effect of this conjunction. This can be read two ways, both of which are true. Neptune rules poisons and deception. This tight conjunction says that on that day (Sun) there was both a poisoning and a deception. This blog has pointed out before that Neptune plays an important role these days, with transiting Neptune squaring the Ascendant of the United States, Neptune trining the Sun of the same nation, Neptune at the Ascendant for the Washington, DC Capricorn Ingress (see chart below) last December — a forecast for the next year, that is 2018 — and of course the four year period at the end of the second decade of the Twentieth First Century has a transiting semisquare (chart below) of Uranus and Neptune, the opening semisquare of those two planets after their conjunction in the early Nineties. So Neptune is writ big in these current times. While Neptune can be read as spiritual for evolved beings, for the wold as it is now, Neptune always plays outs as illusion, deceptions, lies.

Capricorn Ingress 2017

Exact Semisquare Between Uranus and Neptune

The other noticeable aspect is Jupiter at the Nadir, opposite the Midheaven, in other words at the lowest point of the chart. To me this says clearly that whatever Jupiter represents — expansion, enthusiasm, optimism — is at low ebb at this time. Since at this time there is much talk about a war with Russia starting in Syria occasioned by another suspicious poison attack, I would say that is right on the money.

After this event was reported I felt cheapened. In previous years, when a false story was reported to drum up action at the international level, at least those who made up the story attempted to make it believable. Now days, they don’t even try. Perhaps they think that whatever evil deed they accuse the Russians of doing will be instantly believed by the consumers of such news. And unfortunately they are right. With their accomplices in the media willing to spread any news desired by, as the current term has it, the Deep State, there is no trouble getting the public to believe any outlandish story. Consider the antecedents:

The Mexican American War started when President Polk sent troops beyond the border recognized by Mexico and got the response he expected. The first major anti-war movement spread in America as a result, consisting of among others the young Whig Congressman Abraham Lincoln. As a result of this war the United States got California and several other states.

When an explosion occurred on the cruiser Maine in the Havana Harbor, it was considered done by the evil Spanish and thus led to an American War in Cuba. Subsequent research has suggested that the explosion was internal, perhaps exploding boilers, but we still really don’t know. And there were few to offer an alternative at the time.

There are some who suggest that FDR instigated the attack on Pearl Harbor that led to America getting into World War II. But in any case after America restricted oil that Japan needed for its activities, it was only a matter of tie before Japan struck back at America. But this information wasn’t widely reported at the time.

In Korea in 1950 it was questionable whether the North would invade the South or the South would invade the North first, because of a series of provocations going back and forth, but of course this wasn’t reported at the time in the relatively small news environment that existed in the early Fifties.

When North Vietnamese ships attacked American cruisers off the shore of North Vietnam, there was no alternative (except I. F. Stone’s Weekly, the “Alternative News” of the era) to suggest that maybe we had attacked North Vietnam first, or perhaps not all the attacks that the US reported actually occurred. And after all, the attacks that America claimed could certainly have happened.

But as we get closer to the present, the stories used to start war seem more fanciful. In Serbia, there were claims of major genocide, but in fact the killings were greater after America intervened. The stories of the Iraqis dumping babies from incubators at the start of the First Gulf War have been widely ridiculed, but still the war happened. Then the “weapons of mass destruction” myth used to get us into Iraq has been debunked throughly since then, and have been used as a model of how false stories can lead America into War. The claim that Gaddafi was handing out Viagra to his troops so they would rape even more of their opponents I thought was unbelievable, but American news consumers seem to be very credulous. But the Skripal poisoning incident takes the cake for unbelievability.

Consider the fact that a weapons grade nerve agent, ten times more deadly than VX or sarin, was smeared on the door handle (this is the latest version of the story of how the poisoning happened) of the Skripal home, and then after being exposed the two residents of the house were able to go about their business for seven hours before succumbing to effects of their exposure. Perhaps this shows that Russian genes are that superior. This nerve agent, we are told, acts immediately, is almost always deadly, and causes a loosing of the bowels and bladder. Nevertheless the Skripals were able to enjoy a seafood meal before collapsing on a park bench 20 minutes later where they were found at the time listed on the chart. But with a military grade poison many of the locals near to the infected area should also have been stricken (according to a local hospital there were no poisoning cases), but perhaps there is something in the water of Salisbury the imparts an immunity to the citizens of that town, preventing a nerve toxin from harming. And now we have news that both have recovered from this deadly nerve agent, and Yulia has been released from the hospital, just in time for Easter! And they say there are no more miracles in the modern age!

Sergei Skripal was a washed up double agent who had been returned for Britain almost a decade ago in a spy swap, where he now lives. An axiom of spycraft is never kill a spy swap person, because it could queer any further spy swapping, something that is always needed. One can be sure that Vladimir Putin knew this, but perhaps Theresa May was not aware of this doctrine. And the obvious question is why would Putin want to kill a retired spy with an agent which screamed “Russian” shortly before an election and a World Cup tournament to be held in his country. There are many easier way to kill an ex-spy than using a military weapon.

And what is this special agent novichok anyway? The world means “newcomer” and if any existed in the Soviet Union (some are doubtful that it ever existed) it was eliminated long ago, and in fact Britain recently congratulated Russia for having eliminated its stock of chemical weapons, something that the United States has yet to do. But a British-American thriller called Strike Back, which played as recently as the end of 2017 in Britain, has a story line where the term novichok is mentioned several times as a plot device. Perhaps that is where Theresa May got the idea for using that term.

The best explanation I have heard is that the Skripals succumbed to food poisoning from the seafood meal they consumed a short time before they were found. It is well know that there is a condition called paralytic reaction to shellfish poisoning (PSP) that causes symptoms very similar to what the Skripals underwent. In fact, seafood can produce a neurotoxin call saxitoxin (STX) which is the most potent neurotoxin produced by nature, and the United States experimented with the substance for chemical war possibilities back in the Sixties. Since they had eaten at a seafood restaurant shortly before they were found, the timeline fits an attack by STX.

I’m old enough to remember when the news media of a country would investigate and uncover facts like these. But this information comes from a Norwegian blog, by way of a German blog. Perhaps the reason these stories aren’t more believable is that there are many alternative sources that uncover the truth. So what we see now is an attempt to censor alternative news sources, called “fake news”. There are already reports of many fewer referrals to left wing sites since Google changed their search algorithm; I’ve heard that YouTube (owned by Google) is censoring a video. And of course Facebook is now restricting what can be shown. Last November the Washington Post (blog of Jeff Bezos) published a list of “suspicious” websites which you should not trust. What we see now is that the “Wild West” days of the Internet are over, and the Internet is being tamed for the good of all right thinking people.

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July 28, 2017

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Odds And Ends

I was asked to look at the Cancer Ingress chart for a Solstice potluck I attended recently. I drew the chart for when the Sun is at 0 Cancer and thus when the first instant of Summer, in the Northern hemisphere, officially starts. The chart’s location is Washington, D.C. because it is the capital of the nation. I did not know what to expect, but the chart only emphasized what we have seen before, and so I will refer you to previous entries. In this chart the most prominent planet near an angle (Ascendant, Midheaven, etc) is Neptune rising and just a few degrees below the Ascendant and in the first house. The second most obvious is Saturn in the tenth house and a few degrees from the Midheaven. If one were born in, say, Jamaica, New York, Saturn would be even closer to the Midheaven. As has been talked about before Neptune indicates that the next half year, at least, will be very Neptunian; it is as if vaseline were spread over America’s perception of the world, even more so now than usually. This manifests itself most clearly in the Russiagate scandal, which polls show is greatly favored by politicians and the mass media, whereas the general public believes there is really nothing there and wishes that politicians would show interest in things like health care and the lack of good-paying jobs. From a distance, it appears that America has gone crazy.

solstice17

Saturn at the top of the chart is simply an indication that things will not go smoothly in the public arena, and the the world will see the country as somewhat hidebound (insert your favorite Saturn world here). For a person born in Jamaica the next six months will only be really bad, with everyone attacking him, as they have been doing since even before the election.

The tightest aspect is a trine between Pluto and the Moon. For this aspect, Ebertin says “striving for power” to which one can only add “well, duh!!”. We already see jockeying for the 2018 midterm elections, of which Russiagate is the Democratic attempt to win back a populace increasingly turned off to their love of the elites.

There was some excitement recently over the fiftieth anniversary — fiftieths are always a big deal, as are a hundred year anniversary — of the release of the Beatles album Sargent Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which is considered a landmark, for among other things the year it was released — 1967 — the so-called Summer of Love in San Francisco. Since I had already looked at the release of the Bob Dylan album Slow Train Coming I knew how to handle album releases. It turns out that this album was released on two separate dates, one in England and later one in the United States.

Sargent Pepper released USA

For the release date in the United States, drawn at 12 noon, we have Sun at the MC and the Uranus-Pluto conjunction, which so defines the Sixties, at the Ascendant and thus loosely square the Sun for the day of the release. Since this album was an epitome of Sixties-culture, the fact that the Sun was in aspect to that conjunction on this day is only appropriate. Venus is conjunct Jupiter, suggesting good (sweet) music. On that day the transiting Moon went over Saturn, suggesting that there were some disappointments in the future (see for example the Manson murders (supposedly he rallied his “troops” by using a Beatles song from a later album) and the concert at the Altamont Speedway, for starters) .

Sargent Pepper released in USA

For these transits within the USA chart, we see that that Uranus Pluto conjunction is right on the natal Neptune and straddling it. Neptune reminds one of the mystical experience that that era promised and sometimes delivered, and also drugs, which featured prominently in the album in question. We already saw that Moon-Saturn transiting conjunction, but here the transiting Mars is exactly on Saturn of the United States.; this Mars-Saturn combination has been described as “Driving with the brakes on” but of course nobody realized that at the time. Also interesting is that the Sun for the day is exactly on the Descendant of the United States. It was an important day that people would recognize and remember, but also symbolically the Sun was setting. That June also was the fabled “Summer of Love” where so many young people would be going to San Francisco (with or without, as the popular song of that summer had it, flowers in their hair). Fifty years is a long time ago.

Sargent Pepper released in UK

The album was released in Great Britain on May 26, and I used a natal chart for the United Kingdom for 1801 with the union of Britain and Ireland as a background for the transits of the day. In this chart we see a Jupiter return for the United Kingdom, and certainly the Beatles, and the other bands of the “British Invasion” were good for the bottom line of the country. England was swingin’ in the Sixties! Transiting Venus is conjunct the Moon of the UK — music for the masses indeed. But Saturn is also prominent in this chart, being just above the Descendant. This suggest much the same as the prominence of Saturn in the US charts mentioned above.

But there is another fiftieth anniversary which this summer sees that is not discussed as much, that is of the shooting of a US ship Liberty by the Israelis less than a week after this album was released in the Sates. The USS Liberty was a research ship for the US Navy, and it was attacked by Israeli Air Force planes and torpedo boats. All told, 34 sailors were killed, 171 injured, and the ship was damaged considerably. This incident has never been adequately explained, and there were several “conspiracy theories” that rose up about it. In the wake of the 50th anniversary, Haaretz, often considered the most important newspaper in Israel, published a major article investigating the incident, something that American newspapers shy away from. Men on the Israeli ship realized at the time that they were about to fire an an American vessel, but the order was to continue firing at the Liberty. US troops that were in the water were also fired upon. Later Israel apologized and United States President Lyndon Johnson accepted their apology and the matter was let drop.

USS Liberty Fired Upon

In the chart for the event, which took place about 25 miles northwest of the Egyptian city of Arish, just after a New Moon, where the Moon was less than three degrees beyond the Sun, about six hours after the exact New Moon. And of course we see the signature Uranus-Pluto conjunction in the twelfth house. Mars in the first house is opposite Saturn, and indeed it was a martial adventure, with Mars Saturn problems since there has been a Saturnian coverup of this event in the 50 years since. Jupiter and Venus were closely conjunct — less than one degree — at the beginning of Leo, and semisquare the New Moon, but this event did not bring any of the promises of Venus-Jupiter (great beneficence) to the sailors on the Liberty, but it did for the Israel, since they escaped with only an apology for what could have been an international incident: an ally killing many US troops in a a totally unprovoked attack.

liberty_usa

The chart for the transits to the USA chart for this instant are not that much different than for the release of Sargent Pepper less than a week before, except that the Moon and Sun have moved during the interval. The New Moon is now on the USA Mars — gunfire, violence — and the meaning should be clear as regards this incident.

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June 16, 2017

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Yet More Neptune

Neptune has pride of place in the birth chart of the United States. It is conjunct the Midheaven of the US (a wide conjunction, 8.5 degrees) and is the most elevated planet in the chart. This prominence of Neptune is very visible in the United States, and even manifests itself in US currency. This placement of Neptune is articulated by the term “American Dream” and displays itself in the concept of Manifest Destiny, a term popularized in the 1840s and illustrated by this famous painting. manifest-destiny-3-638

America has been the birth place to many religions and in fact there is a region of Western New York State which is called the Burned-Over District (details are in Whitney Cross’s book The Burned Over District first published in 1950) where many religions erupted, including Mormonism, seemingly after a controversy involving the death of a Mason and the birth of the first third party in America. People new to America are amazed at the strength of religion in the society. Imagine the extreme difficultly of a Non-believer running for any public office, and compare this to any European nation, most especially France. And look at the back of a one dollar bill. There you will see an eye on top of a pyramid, a physical representation of the position of Neptune in the birth chart of the United States. That position was determined in 1935, and was suggested by then Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace, who probably had more knowledge of esoteric symbols than any other government official since, though of course the founders of this country were mostly Masons, and I am told the amount of esoteric symbolism to be found in Washington, DC is considerable. This eye on the pyramid was the reverse of the Great Seal of the United States which originated back from the birth of the country.

As has been talked about before the United States is currently having a Neptune transit, with Neptune square the Ascendant of the United States. This has manifested itself in many ways, but two stand out as being featured prominently in the news media, and demonstrating once again that the media is also under Neptune’s influence. In general, people are now disillusioned with the charade of politics as usual, and this plays out in many ways. The key word is disillusioned, a word of Neptune.

Neptune Square US Ascendant

Neptune’s hard transits, since Neptune is a slow moving outer planet, are relatively rare in the history of the country. What we are seeing now is an opening square of Neptune to the Ascendant. As can be see in this graphical ephemeris, it was first exact in early summer of 2016 (black arrow), was then exact in March of 2017 and will make its final passes of an exact square at the end of this year and the beginning of the next year.

Neptune Conjunct US Ascendant

The previous conjunction was exact in 1975 and 1976, forty years ago. In the United States this saw a rise of born-again Christians (“Jesus People”) — at this time my astrology teacher became a “Jew for Jesus” and threw away all her astrology book., It seemed to be a time when many who had believed in political change in the Sixties gave up on that idea and turned to spiritual pursuits. While it is difficult to chose an exact chart for this event, a milestone is the release of Bob Dylan’s first Christian album Slow Train Coming on August 20, 1979. Though this was some years after the exact conjunction, it astounded many Dylan fans at the time since he was not known as a Christian (but rather into his Jewish heritage) even though such a song as “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine” from the album John Wesley Harding may have suggested differently (though of course that album was released after his supposedly almost fatal motorcycle accident and showed a distinct change from what had gone before). But the album was also surprising because his previous album, Street Legal, contained a number of reference to Tarot (“between the King and Queen of Swords”) and other esoteric matters.

slow_train_coming_usa

In the chart for the release of this album, seen as transits to the United States chart (left), Neptune is past the Ascendant but still close and in the First House. What stands out is the triple conjunction of Sun, Venus, and Jupiter in Leo opposite the Moon of the US. That day represents some type of culmination of trends in America, and the beginning of something new. As we can see from the event chart for the release (right), Uranus was midway between Neptune and Pluto; This period in history represented the beginning of the Rise of Neoliberalism, discussed at length elsewhere in his blog, in the world whose effects have become obvious by now, almost forty years later. It was indeed the beginning of a new trend.

Neptune Closing Square to US Ascendant

The closing square of Neptune to the Ascendant was in 1933 though 1935, the depths of the Great Depression when Franklin Roosevelt had just taken office. Father Coughlin, a Catholic priest who used the radio to reach a large audience, posed a challenge to Roosevelt whom he first supported; Coughlin later became anti-semitic and began to support some policies of Fascist leaders. Huey Long, the governor of Louisiana, was another early supporter of Roosevelt who split with FDR and offered a “Share our Wealth” program that was more radical than the new Deal of FDR. He was associated with Father Coughlin and was assassinated in the middle of this transit. And of course the Communist Party of the USA saw much gain in its membership as people saw the problems with capitalism. In all these cases, and others, people were all too clearly disillusioned –a Neptunian word — with capitalism. In the graphical ephemeris for this period we can see the squares of Neptune to the US Ascendant; the first exact square is shown by the black arrow.

Neptune Square US Sun

Neptune transits are also very prominent to the United States chart during the bout of McCarthyism in the late Forties and early Fifties. Neptune was on the MC of the US during the first half of that decade, as the country entered and fought World War II. Neptune then was prominent in the US tenth house at the end of the war and shortly thereafter. Then, as shown in the graphical ephemeris above, Neptune was square the Sun of the United States starting at the beginning of 1948 (black arrow shows first exact square) and the last exact square was in late 1949, though the effects continued into 1950. As mentioned in the above link, the late Forties was the period when the Cold War was really started. Truman was laying the foundation of the Cold War (e.g. the Truman Doctrine) and instituted a loyalty oath for government workers which was then ramped-up by the Republicans, as is their wont, and the forerunners of McCarthy, such as Richard Nixon, were practicing their witchhunting of Communists

One prominent example in the current square of Neptune, which has been mentioned before, is now going under the sobriquet of “Russiagate”. This is the belief that Russia and its demonic leader Vladimir Putin are behind most of the troubles in the world today, and that Putin’s noxious influence has determined the winner of America’s last Presidential election. This is a feature of the ongoing New Cold War, which really came into prominence (though it started with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991) with the violent coup in the Ukraine (though of course it is not called a coup in the mass media, though the President of what has been referred to as the private CIA (Stratfor) has called the event the most obvious coup in recent memory), which took place of February 22, 2014. This was the beginning of a difficult time for the world, and was indicated astrologically by the Grand Cross on April 22, 2014, which can be seen as the starting gun for a dangerous race.

Grand Cross

The charges in Russiagate have filled the news, and most seemingly liberal people, those who supported Clinton’s campaign for the Presidency in 2016, assuredly give credence to this belief of Russiagate. But there is really no evidence for this, as former President Obama, former director of the CIA Michael Morell, and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper have all said. People need to realize that there is no there there. Certainly there are many sins that they can get Trump on, but instead many people chase this chimera; that alone should suggest that this is part of the plan to further demonize Russia and avoid any possible detente. But this has not stopped the belief, which is featured prominently in the major newspapers and news channels. As I’ve said before, this is Neptune writ large. This is surely a projection by American officials since the United States has “influenced” the elections of other countries more than once. One example was so famous, involving a President of Russia who was far behind his opponent, that Time magazine even had a cover story celebrating the exploit. One wonders if afterwards Moscow was filled with complaints about “Clinton hacked our election”.

Time-Yeltsin-227x300

In fact, now almost any meeting with someone from Russia is suspect, innocent contacts with Russian officials are considered a sign of treason, and academic researchers are urged not too seem to close to Russia. Full disclosure: I had a meeting with two Russian women over the Memorial Day weekend of 2012 in a bowling alley in New Orleans, so perhaps I too have been infected.

But recently something else has gripped the news media, and is strongly related to “Russiagate”: the charge, uniformly accepted by the aforementioned mass media, that the government of Syria attacked and killed many people (including beautiful innocent babies) with a poison gas, identified as sarin. As a result President Trump sent Tomahawk missiles to pound Syria, thus proving he is Presidential by committing a War Crime, as all Presidents of the United States, at least as far back as Harry Truman, have done, and turned around the almost universal hatred of him into much (temporary) adulation. Having committed a war crime was always the advantage Hillary Clinton had over him in being presidential.

But the nature of this chemical attack is very hazy. Note that Neptune rules both poison gas and hazy. Several things not mentioned: Syria has no poison gas, according to the United Nations which destroyed those weapons several years ago. Then, as in any crime, one must asked cui bono — who profits. Since Syria was winning the war and about to engage in a gathering to settle the war (in Brussels) this was surely the absolutely worst time to let off an attack by a chemical bomb, even if Syria’s government had them. But of course the opponents to the government of Syria have much to gain from the attack. Then there is the report, also unmentioned in mass media, by a expert in national security and weapons of mass destruction from MIT that the explosion was from a bomb on the ground and not dropped from the air. And of course there is doubt that the gas used was even sarin, since pictures of first responders show them not using any protections that are required for dealing with sarin.

But this bombing certainly gave a boost to the lagging presidency of Donald Trump. In fact, some commentators at MSDNC have suggested that Putin arranged the chemical attack so that his buddy Donald Trump could appear decisive by his response. The Russians themselves believe that Trump certainly knew this was not an attack by the government of Syria, for the obvious reasons given above, so they think that he is still open to talks with them, and that this was just an action he needed to take since he had been so weakened by the Russiagate attacks. So whichever way you look at this incident, it is totally Neptunian. When an crazy idea seems to take control of otherwise rational people, you can be sure Neptune is involved. As we saw previously, there were strong Neptune contacts to the US chart at the beginnings of the Cold War in the late Forties.

Watching these events happen with a knowledge of Neptune allows one to observe the action of Neptune at first hand. It seems like a fog has swept over America, and the fact of Russian interference with American (and those of other countries) elections is taken as fact by so-called reputable news services. Between Russiagate and President Donald Trump, America must be the laughing-stock of other countries, or at least those who are not swept up in the American bubble. And since almost all people — liberals — concerned with civil liberties hate Donald Trump with a passion, they don’t notice what looks at a distance as if the organizations such as the FBI, CIA, and NSA — the so-called Deep State — are attempting a soft coup to replace the elected President of the United States, just as if the USA were a “banana republic”. They have much practice at replacing elected leaders in other countries, and now their skills are being applied closer to home. It is a fitting close to the American Century. Liberals should remember the famous saying from World War Two: First they came for the Communists and since I wasn’t a Communist I said nothing….

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May 19, 2017

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History Repeats

An obscure journalist in the Nineteenth Century, who became better known through his books and manifestos, once said that “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce”. We are now seeing the truth of this dictum played out before us.
The Nineteenth Century journalist Karl Marx wrote a book called The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon. People in the present mostly don’t recognize “Eighteen Brumaire” which for the educated European of the Nineteenth Century would be as recognizable as is 9/11 is today. It all has to do with the end of the French Revolution; perhaps if we called that date sixteen years ago the twentieth of Virgo it would not be so recognizable either.

After the French Revolution, many things were changed. For example, the customary methods of weights and measures were replaced by a more reasonable system based on units of ten, which was called the metric system and which I believe it is still in use in a few countries. And the calendar was changed. The French Revolutionary calendar had months corresponding to zodiacal signs, and Brumaire is Scorpio, so 18 Brumaire is 18 Scorpio or November 9. The year in question was 1799.

So What happened on November 9, 1799? It was well known again to European intellectuals of the Nineteenth Century. There was a coup in France by Napoleon Bonaparte against the Directory of the French Revolution that ruled France, essentially installing Napoleon as a dictator in France and ending the French Revolution. This was a big deal. So the date 18 Brumaire was when the French Revolution ended. Let us look at the chart for that date.

Eighteen Brumaire

In this char Sun is conjunct Neptune, and it had passed over Neptune two days earlier, possibly when the planning for the coup took place, This conjunction suggest confused days in Paris. And it certainly was. The tightest aspect is the sesquiquadrate between Pluto — revolution, transformation — and Venus – justice. And it certainly was that.

History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.

One of the contentions of this blog is that every time there is a midpoint configuration involving Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto – – at most three per century — there is a major change in the zeitgeist of society, which could be called it a soft coup. We are living now under the combined impact of the three coups from the Twentieth Century, since the first from the Twenty First hasn’t happened yet. The one closest to us in time, and so the one we most notice since many are still alive who remember life before that event, is what I call in shorthand the Neoliberal Coup, even though the previous one, called the National Security State coup, is also very strong, and will be discussed in a later post, though it has been discussed before.

We have seen this played out in the present. The commanding issue of this time is Neoliberalism, since it originated with the midpoint configuration of the late Seventies discussed earlier. These midpoint configurations indicate such a large change in society that much is different afterwards, so much so that we find it difficult to believe that another world was once possible and may be again. This Neoliberaism coup finally crashed with the so-called Great Recession of 2007-2009, when Pluto crossed the cardinal axis and into the sign Capricorn. The hero designated to slay the dragon of neoliberalism was Barak Obama. And he appeared to suggest that he was the Champion who could do so — remember Hope and Change? I’ve discussed before the strong influence of Neptune in the election of Obama. But he proved not to be the Champion people wanted him to be, and this was the tragedy.

income_dist

These two graphs illustrated what has been happening. The first one shows allotment of income in economic recovery — after each economic downturn there is a recovery when incomes increase. In the recovery after World War II, under President Harry Truman, 80% of the income increase went to the bottom 90 % of the population and only 20 % went to the top 10%. This ratio kept falling during subsequent recoveries after other downturns, and by the recovery under President Reagan the upper 10% got 80% of the income increase, leaving only 20% for the bottom 90% of the population, the reverse of what happened under Truman. But at least the bottom 90% got some income increase. This changed under the last recovery, under President Obama. In that case the bottom 90% lost about 15% of their income, while the upper 10% gained almost 120%, or in other words got some income from the bottom 90%, thus increasing the already massive inequality. This is unprecedented in the last 70 years.

wealth_dist

The next graph shows the distribution of wealth — assets — of families over the last 100 years. We can see that the top 0.1%, that is the upper one tenth of one percent of the population, reached a height of 26% of the total wealth in 1929 right before the start of the Great Depression. Their share of total wealth then fell until the late Seventies and the beginning of Neoliberalism; at this point their share was only 7%. That share started to increase, but still the share of the wealth owned by the 90% increased until it was 36% in the mid-Eighties under President Reagan. It then began to fall, and of course the share held by the upper tenth of a percent increased until now they have almost met and crossed. We await newer figures with anticipation! But one can see from these two graphs that things have gotten worse for the bottom 90%, and this was foretold when newly elected President Obama told a group of assembled bankers, who expected the worst, that he was the only thing between them and the pitchforks. And now that he is ex-President he has been rewarded by those same bankers with two $400,000 speaking engagements and of course a $65 million book deal, and in early May he made a $3.2 million for a speech in Milan, showing clearly that he is not a part of the 90%

A recently published book by a Professor Emeritus in Economics at MIT called The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy by Peter Temin lays in out. He says that American society is dividing into an upper 20%, in the finance, technology, and electronics sector, and the lower 80%, and that those two groups are increasingly divided from one another. Those in the two groups live in different countries, and do not communicate. Needless to say, those running the media – newspapers, television — live in only one of those worlds, unlike many years ago before the Neoliberal Revolution when many journalists were from the 80% that are not in the FTE sector.

Barack Obama was chosen to run since he was a much better mask to hide America, a biracial mask that was more glamorous than the one offered by George W. Bush, whose behavior had damaged Brand America. And he promised Hope and Change (TM) which people believed somehow would solve the problems that Neoliberalism had brought into their lives. But as we have seen by these graphs, and many studies, not only did things not improve, but they got worse. Inequality increased over the last eight years. So the mask has been ripped away, and America is seen as it truly is. Now things are blatant with a louche businessman as the face of America.

Pluto Opposite Sun

One clear sign that the current populace of the United States is not happy with the current government, current President, and in fact all of what was called in a simpler time the “Establishment” was shown obviously by the transit of Pluto opposite the United States Sun, depicted above by a chart for an exact pass and below by a graphical ephemeris for a five year period. The Sun represent the President, etc. and revolutionary, transformative Pluto is opposite it. The last time this opposition happened the Sun represented the King of England, Georrge III; the result was the American Revolution.

pl2sutg

So next comes the Farce. In a farce, situations are often exaggerated so that people understand what is going on, since the situation under the tragedy was somehow too subtle for people to comprehend, or the influence of Neptune was too strong. Often the protagonist in a farce is indicated by some outward comical characteristic, say to pick an example totally at random, flaming orange hair. The real problem in this farce is that people may not understand that it is a farce, and they will either attack the messenger — always a bad idea — or believe if only the farce stops things will go back to normal and everything will be as it should be. One can imagine people demanding that the previous mask be returned to them, that if only the mask comes back things would be well. One would think by now people would realize that the farce is just an exaggeration of what was the situation before. To be more specific, Donald Trump is not sui generis, but rather an exaggeration for emphasis, as is usually the case in a farce. But of course the Powers behind Neoliberalism are only too happy if you attack the Protagonist of the farce rather than the men behind the curtain, themselves.

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February 24, 2017

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The Inauguration

Donald Trump is the gift that keeps on giving. His name is everywhere, filling the newspapers. If you live on the West coast or in the Northeast it is mandatory that you hate him, even though we are told that love trumps hate. A friend suggested that I look at the chart of his inauguration. As you can see from the event chart below, the Inauguration of out 45th President started at 11:45 in the morning of January 20. I’m not sure if this started before noon because the Vice-President has to be inaugurated before the President, and the President must take the oath at Noon, or this was just a bit earlier than noon for some other reason. However, the chart drawn for noon has the Moon well below the Descendant, by almost 5 degrees, though it is above the horizon a degree and a half. This illustrates that the horizon — which people had an instinctive knowledge of –` and the Ascendant/Descendant` are not the same

Chart At Noon

Note: Because of limits of the software, the whole word “Inauguration” can not be spelled out at the top of the charts, so one character is missing.

Inauguration

The most prominent aspect to note is that the Moon is opposite the Ascendant, Mars is sesquiquadrate the Moon, and Saturn is semisquare the moon. And in fact you can see a “cats-cradle” formation between the Moon, Saturn, Mars, and the Ascendant, indicated by the arrows. Jupiter is square the Midheaven, promising good fortune but not without difficulty (square)and because Jupiter is also opposite Uranus, we have a loose T square with the MC at the apex of that opposition. Ebertin says for this “optimism, a love of change and variety”. Looking at the fourth harmonic chart (below), we see Mars-Saturn is opposite along the Ascendant and the Moon, Jupiter is very tight to the Midheaven, and of course the Venus Pluto sextile in the first harmonic chart is now a trine in this fourth harmonic chart. The Moon = Mars/Saturn midpoint combination is not too pleasant: Ebertin says a ”a fit of depression”. And for the Ascendant = Mars/Saturn he says “obstacles caused by other people”. Mars Saturn is a difficult combination. Some have compared this combination of planets to driving with the brakes on: Mars wants to go fast, and Saturn wants to hold back. It can suggest difficult progress on actions that are taken hastily. Since this combination is connected with two personal points, the Ascendant and the Moon, it is very powerful. And as we can especially see in the fourth harmonic chart that this whole configuration — Moon, Mars, Saturn, Ascendant — are tightly bound together, as is Jupiter to the Midheaven. It suggest slow progress but with much depression and anxiety amongst the populace, perhaps especially women (Moon). But this is cause for optimism with Jupiter so tightly connected to the Midheaven.

Inauguration Fourth Harmonic

Looking at the transits of the time with the US chart (below), we see that the two tightest aspects are both trines — harmonious — with the transiting Mars trine natal Mercury, and, almost as tight, transiting Sun — the day — is trine the US Midheaven. These are both very tight, as can easily seen in the third harmonic chart (also below), where trines come out as conjunctions. We can also easily see from this chart that there is a tight Moon-Neptune trine (conjunction in the third harmonic), both transiting. Since the Moon represents the minute, the exact time of this event since the Moon moves so fast, at this moment in time the populace (Moon) were confused (Neptune) or self deceiving (Ebertin). Also note the sesquiquadrate between Neptune and the USA Mercury, which says much the same thing. The trine from the transiting Sun to the US MC is beneficial, promising that this President will be very purposeful in achieving his objectives, which of course may not be good news to many people. The other trine — Mars to Mercury – – suggest much the same, forceful movement towards a goal, an active mind and many angry (Mars) thoughts (Mercury). The media of the United States (Mercury) will find forceful pressure from the incoming President. Finally we have transiting Mercury opposite Jupiter, the third tightest aspect: There will be lots and lots of things to talk about with this upcoming administration.

USA at Inauguration

USA at Inauguration Harmonic 3

That of course is assuming Donald Trump is President for very long. It is no secret that many are out to get him, including the National Security Establishment and the Democrats. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer warned on the cable news channel MSDNC that Trump is “really dumb” to criticize the intelligence community since they have “six ways from Sunday of getting back at you.” As I write they have already drawn first blood, with the firing/resignation of Michael Flynn as his National Security Advisor. As anyone who has watched nature movies knows, when a predator smells blood they go in for the kill. Now that one member of the administration is down, and Trump has shown that he won’t support his representative, and thus looks weak, there will be attempts to pick off other members of the administration, starting of course with the weakest, aiming for the big prize, dislodging Donald Trump himself. The chart below show what I believe is a critical time for him, and it could be a fatal time: This is August 21. 2017.

Trump At the Solar Eclipse

The first thing to notice is the both the Sun and Moon are conjunct and on his Ascendant. But notice that the Node of the Moon is there also, meaning that this is a Solar Eclipse, and indeed it is the one famously visibly in America. This is a tremendous omen for the president. For those who use Fixed Stars, Regulus, the Heart of the Lion, is also at this point, and that suggests a downfall of epic proportions. But also notice the position of Saturn, exactly conjunct his Moon and opposite his Sun. On this day Saturn is stationary but the exact point where it turns direct is four days off. Saturn has been on his Moon and Sun all of 2017 and it has not been a pleasant time for him. And because of Saturn’s retrograde travels it has been a very, very long time: Donald Trump is getting hit by Saturn as long as is possible. I’m sure he’s hurting, but he won’t show it.

Here are few keywords for the fixed Star Regulus: Brave, bloodthirsty, ambitious, egotistical. You get the idea. More can be found by a search on line. Sound familiar? Now keywords for Ascendant conjunct the Ascendant: Great wealth but troubles, benefits do always last. Again, you get the idea, this describes a person very successful but with an ultimate downfall. As I said in the previous paragraph, the end of August looks like a most problematic period for Donald J. Trump — too many people are after him!

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November 18, 2016

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Donald J. Trump

This will be an Interpretation of Donald Trump’s chart, as if he were just a person and not the Donald. There is a wide range of opinion on our President-elect, and since most astrologers these days are liberals, I assume most astrological opinion is extremely negative about this person. I thought it would be interesting to look at his chart not knowing who the chart actually belongs to. While we have discussed this chart previously, and compared it to the United States chart, this will cover new material.

No Aspects to Angles

A first thing to notice when looking at a chart is the general shape. In this chart all planets but one are within the trine between Jupiter and Uranus, all on the Ascendant side of the chart; opposite is the Moon which exists all by itself on the Descendant side of the chart down in the fourth house (which is considered the ruling house for the Moon). There is much emphasis on the Moon. This man uses the Moon and the things symbolized by it to guide his behavior. Among the things ruled by the moon are feelings, emotions, intuition. Perhaps this man feels denigrated because he relies on his feelings more than rational thought to guide his behavior, unlike many men in Western society. The Moon also represents women. This male has a very strong feminine component and perhaps because of this he feels forced to brag about his sexual conquests in order to make other men think that he is “manly”.

Donald J. Trump

When I looked at Barack Obama’s chart I was amazed by the lack of aspects in his chart. This person also has few aspects. The main core of the chart is the opposition between the Moon and the conjunction of Sun, Uranus, and the North Node of the Moon (the South node is conjunct the Moon). (For Uranian astrologers, Vulcanus (21 Gemini 11) is also tightly conjoined to the Sun and Uranus and exactly opposite the Moon, adding even more emphasis to this opposition.) This planetary complex shows that this man is a very Uranian person, the bringer of Change. Uranus is named after the ancient god Urania, who is the grandfather of the standard Olympian gods and goddesses we know from Greek and Roman mythology. But as Richard Tarnas points out, the planet Uranus has a Promethean cast. Prometheus stole the fire from the gods and gave it to humans, and act for which he was condemned to have his liver eternally plucked from his body. Some think Prometheus was the principle that allowed humans to become fully human.

This man was born under not just a Full Moon but a Lunar Eclipse. With Sun and Uranus in the Tenth house near the midheaven, he is seen by the world at large as a Uranian (eccentric, revolutionary) person, one that upsets the normal order of things. This is a very powerful chart, even more so because it is a eclipse chart. The Sun and Moon opposition suggests a conflict between his Conscious (Sun) and Unconscious (Moon) sides, and this conflict can lead to a surprising, even contradictory range of opinions. Some may even suggests that this person has two completely different sides, something that is also heavily suggested by his Sun being in Gemini, the sign of the Twins. This conflict may come from the conflicting opinions of his two parents which he saw while he was growing up. It can not be emphasized enough that this is a hugely Uranian person, for better of worse.

Jupiter Trine Uranus

The boundary aspect of the nine planets opposite the Moon is the trine between Jupiter and Uranus, which is also conjunct the Sun. This person is very lucky! Perhaps he will gain wealth and possibly even a high political office. For this combination of planets Ebertin says optimism or a lucky chance. Being a trine suggests that this is something that the native could draw on but is not causing him any problems. It also suggests someone who does not like to be fenced in, who does not like restrictions on his behavior.

Venus conjunct Saturn, tight

Saturn does not have a good reputation, and when conjunct Venus it suggests someone unlucky in love. He may act as a father figure (Saturn) to the women (Venus) in his life, someone who gets involved with younger women. This tight conjunction suggests he may have trouble with women, even thought, or perhaps especially because, he has such a strongly (prominent Moon) female nature. (For Uranian astrologers, Hades (25 Aries 24) is tightly square this Venus-Saturn conjunction, adding more difficulty to his relationships with women.) Of this combination of two planets, Ebertin says a sense of duty, suffering through love.

Mars at the Ascendant

Mars is in the Twelfth House, but conjunct the Ascendant. Since the Ascendant represents the part of your personality that is visible to others (keywords are personae or environment) people may see this person as martial, angry, or violent. They may withdraw in fear from his angry side (Mars is a very masculine planet) further upsetting his strongly feminine nature.

Unaspected Neptune or Very Wide Square between Mercury and Neptune

There is a very loose square between Mercury and Neptune, so wide that I would not call it a square. The orb is one minute over the maximum I use in natal work. But some people may like a wider orb. The nature of Mercury and Neptune is a loose connection for the truth, or in more brutal words the tendency to lie. It may also suggest that the words of this person are not believed. Some astrologers give emphasis to unaspected planets. It is considered a “dumb” note, and thus it becomes important. In the case of this man, Neptune has no aspects. (Jupiter has a strong aspect to Pluto in the Fourth Harmonic chart, as we will see below.) Neptune, as has been mentioned before, rules delusion, illusion, spirituality, and drugs. Perhaps this man abstains from using drugs, perhaps he is not strongly religious.

Donald Trump Harmonic 4

Jupiter square Pluto in Fourth Harmonic Chart

The fourth harmonic chart, also known as the 90-degree dial because 90 is one-fourth of 360, can show us details of the chart that are not noticeable in the normal chart, especially hard aspects that are whole fractions of a square. In this case we see a strong square between Jupiter and Pluto, which is actually 67 1/2 degrees, which could be called, if you want a name, a demi-semi-octile. Whenever I see Jupiter and Pluto together I think of money and plutocracy (which obviously involves Pluto). This combination suggests, as Ebertin says, a desire for power. But also, in a negative sense, the pursuit of fanatical aims, the desire to exploit the masses. But it also suggests the transformation (Pluto) needed to make money, (Jupiter) to achieve abundance.

Finally, I want to stress again that the main driver of this chart is the Sun/Node/Uranus opposite the Moon, a lunar eclipse. This is a unconventional man who is very powerful and lucky.

With Hypothetical Planets

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September 30, 2016

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Election 2016

In this election season I am reminded of a story Rob Hand told about astrologers in the Thirties. Astrologers at the time, unlike now, tended to be conservative. Even though there was an accurate chart for Franklin Roosevelt, which put his Uranus in the Twelfth House and thus not prominent, many astrologers refused to accept that and were sure his Uranus was in the First House, because such a radical person must certainly have a prominent Uranus. They were letting their political beliefs overrule their astrological knowledge and thus they drew the wrong conclusion.

I need to do a lecture in this month about the election, and make some charts, so this will just be a display of those charts and a brief interpretation of them. I will try not to draw any conclusions — and you can draw you own. This is the most controversial election in recent memory, as several commentators have said, and since I value my life and friends, I will not take a stand.

ploppsu_tg

The first thing we must do is look at the overall tenor of the times. From this graphical ephemeris we can see that Pluto was running opposite the Sun of the United States between 2013 and 2017 (top of graph), with the tightest periods 2014 and 2015; there is a close pass in October of this year right before the election. Also note that Uranus was square the Sun and thus Uranus was square Pluto, both transiting during part of this period. Also note (just to the right of the center bar and in the lower half of the graph), and to make it even more interesting, that there is a Saturn square Neptune (discussed previously) happening during 2016, and exact a couple of months before the election. The Sun in the US chart represents the government and the President; the Pluto opposition indicates that the people of the country are not happy with the government and this has been growing for awhile. One can see this in the primary elections candidates of both major parties — people are unhappy. Even though this has been going on for decades, since the beginnings of neoliberalism it has now reached a critical point. Politicians who pretend that things are rosy and even getting better are ignoring the mood of the country. While the news media can’t totally ignore such a crisis, they do their best to put on a positive face. While the Pluto transit is just about over, this crisis of confidence has reached a critical stage during the passage of Pluto, and it will have to be dealt with. When things are left hanging, they often work themselves out finally in ways that are not pleasing to most people, but that seems to be the way things operate — ignore a crisis for as long as possible and then try an ineffective way of squelching it.

We have an accurate timed chart for Donald Trump, which was discussed before. Unfortunately we do not have the same accuracy for his opponent, Hillary Clinton. One would think that after all the years she has been in the public eye there would be a accurate chart. The best is a time from her mother’s diary, about 8AM. I will use 8:02. There is also an 8PM chart floating around so that is a possibility. With two charts 12 hours apart, the actual chart time could be anything.

October Surprise

Traditionally, there occurs before a Presidential election what is called an “October Surprise” which is exactly what it sounds like. And from astrological indications, there will be an October Surprise this year. In this chart for October 19 (this is only the day it is exact), we have a Mars Pluto conjunction opposite the Sun of the United States and also square natal Saturn. Also transiting Saturn is conjunct the Ascendant of the United States, Neptune is sesquiquadrate Mercury and square Uranus, and even transiting Uranus, the third outer planet, is making a loose aspect to natal Mercury and Uranus. A lot is happening. The Mars-Pluto conjunction is problematic to say the least. Some think that this portends some type of terrorist incident, while others think this chart suggests the long-rumored financial meltdown which is the second act of the Great Recession of 2007 and 2008. But of course a war could break out between the United States and Russia or China since we seem to be itching for one, or a war between India and Pakistan. Or it could be a surprise, something that we can’t see happening. Since Clinton has a tight Mars-Pluto conjunction in her natal chart, this transiting conjunction could be a harbinger of her success in the upcoming election. The hard aspect between Mercury and Neptune suggests deception or outright lying, but predicting that at this time is like shooting fish in a barrel, as the saying has it. Finally, Saturn on the Ascendant has been talked about before, and says that America’s self-image could take a hit.

US Lunar Return

It turns out that election day in the United States is also a lunar return — the transiting moon returns to the position of the natal moon — and so I thought it would be interesting to look at the lunar return for the US, to get an idea of what the next month for the country has in store. In the lunar return, the Sun is at the Midheaven, indicating the importance of the month starting with the election. The other important feature is Mars and Pluto conjunct the Ascendant, with their midpoint on the Ascendant. I’ve already talked about Mars and Pluto before, and this location in the lunar return only emphasizes the point and again the importance of this month following the election, and that there may be a (unpleasant?) surprise in store.

Clinton Solar Return

Hillary Clinton has a solar return — where the Sun returns to the position it was at birth, and is a forecast for the next year — just before the election, so I decided to look at it to see if there is any indication of her success in the election less than two weeks after her birthday. Note that these solar returns are done for the place of birth. I’ve done experiments with solar returns and been convinced that the return at the location of birth is accurate whereas the one set for the current location is not.

In the solar return for Clinton, less that two weeks before the election, we see the Moon closely conjunct the Ascendant and Neptune just above the Descendant in the Seventh house, and square Venus. Moon on the Ascendant does not seem terribly strong for taking office. Since the Moon represents women, it could signify her role as the first woman candidate for President of a major political party. It may also show the emotions she has invested in this candidacy. Neptune near the Descendant may indicate the deceptive nature of her race for the position of President, or that she is being deceived by people close to her.

Trump Solar Return

Having done the solar return for one candidate I decided to do one for the other candidate, Donald Trump. In this one the most obvious significator is Uranus on the Midheaven. The obvious meaning of this is a change (Uranus) in career (Midheaven). It was suggested that this could indicate being sent to prison. There are always alternate ways that an astrological forecast can work out, so one can interpret this however one wishes, or whatever your political desires demand. Every election season reality is interpreted according to one’s political leaning, more so than at other times when the cues are not as obvious.

One idea that has been used to predict a successful election is to see if there are transits involving Saturn to a personal point, Sun and Moon, of the candidate after the election. While Saturn gets a bad press by many astrologers, it is obviously a needed planet, like all the others. In this case, the Saturn transits indicate the responsibilities incurred upon taking office. An alternative explanation is that Saturn would indicates that the candidate is extremely depressed upon losing the presidential election.

trumptr1

trumptr2

trumptr3

We previously discussed the position of Saturn in Donald Trump’s chart after the election, but I will go over it again. Saturn crosses his moon, and thus opposes his sun, shortly after the election. In the first image we see Saturn exactly on his Moon at the end of 2016. After it has moved a ways beyond his Moon, it turns retrograde in April of 2017, as shown in the second image, and then moves back to a close conjunction with his moon again. In the third image we see that finally Saturn turns direct on his moon in August of 201 7, having been stationary on his Moon, and opposed his Sun, for a while earlier in 2017. It then moves away. All told, Saturn is on both his personal points for many months following the election. Either Mr. Trump has an awful lot to learn (Saturn) about the office he has just assumed or he is extremely depressed about having lost the Presidency.

Trump Election Day

On election day, transiting Jupiter is approaching its natal position, and is only five degrees away. The exact return is almost a month after the election. A Jupiter return is a time of opportunity. Jupiter was on his Neptune in early October (as is Clinton’s Jupiter on election Day) and is half way between the two planets. This suggests a change from the delusion of Neptune to the promise of luck that is Jupiter. On election day it is at the midpoint of the two planets; perhaps this suggest his delusion about his fortunes in the election that day.

Clinton Election Day

For Hillary Clinton, Saturn hangs out in her first house for the end of 2016 and much of 2017, making no obvious aspect except an opposition to her Uranus, which is not considered a personal point. In general, Saturn opposite Uranus indicates a conflict between the old and the new. Clinton also has a hard aspect between Pluto and her Ascendant, in this case it is a semisquare and it is to her relocated (Washington, DC) Ascendant and not her natal Ascendant. This is similar to the Pluto semisquare Ascendant in the natal US chart and perhaps reflects her paeans to American Exceptionalism, most notably in her speech before the American Legion. Saturn is making a trine to her Mars-Pluto conjunction. Perhaps this will give restraint to her bellicose proclivities that are indicated by that conjunction and in that speech. But here again neither Mars nor Pluto are considered personal planets. Mercury has come to her Ascendant on election day, and Venus is opposite her Uranus — perhaps this indicates change in fortunes for a woman.

On election day, Clinton has Jupiter conjunct her natal Neptune. Apparent happiness is what Ebertin says about this combination. Neptune tends to delude one about whatever it touches; it this case the good times promised by Jupiter is what is not seen clearly. Perhaps she sees a victory but it is just an illusion. Hand also suggests happiness (Jupiter) through seclusion (Neptune) for this conjunction.

I imagine whichever candidate loses there will be an awful lot of bloodletting going on. As I write, the consensus of the chattering classes is the Clinton will win, and the loss by Trump will further weaken the Republican Party, but his loss is expected. Her victory will assure the elite classes that their program for America is going swimmingly. Conversely, if Clinton loses it should strike many Democratic leaders that perhaps they put their money on the wrong horse and perhaps they should change their ways. Possible, but not likely. They will consider that all those deplorables who voted for Trump just didn’t like a woman. Or perhaps it will be blamed on Putin interfering with the election. Since every pundit has predicted a Clinton victory, her loss should provoke a major rethinking of America’s democracy.

Looking at the transits on Election Day, we see that Trump has hard aspects between Pluto and the Ascendant: Trump has a sesquiquadrate between Pluto and his Ascendant, with orb of 25 minutes. Pluto is stationary and right on his Ascendant for all of September and the first part of October and then it gets farther away though still by election day it is less than one half degree from exact. Pluto Ascendant hard aspects can either be read as charisma — someone who is immediately noticed when he walks into the room — or increased bellicosity and a desire to control things. Both seem to be playing out for Mr. Trump.

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November 25, 2015

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The Massacre in Paris

The attacks in Paris on Friday the thirteenth are much in the news now, and, as I write this, it seems that the Islamic State is responsible for the attacks. My favorite term for the IS, used by among others the Kurds, is fascist, since they seem to subscribe that mindset rather than Islamic mindset. It is not clear what exactly will be the response of the various countries to this attack, but it will involve more violence. As we saw after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United states, after an atrocity, people do not think clearly but only want a immediate attack on who they think are the guilty parties. It looks like that will also be the response after the Friday the thirteenth atrocity.

But of course, the French are more like the Americans and so deserve our sympathy and response more than, say, the recent attacks in Lebanon, also attributed to IS, because after all, those people killed are not “like us”. The Paris attacks are more deserving of grief than the recent downing of a Russian airplane, also due to IS, since the Russians are the official enemy of the West. It’s the difference between deserving and undeserving victims, of which there is a long history.

But there is much context and history missing from most accounts of this incident, which really hinders a proper response. This is certainly not unexpected. Whenever a “terrorist” incident happens to a Western country, it appears to most people that this just came out of thin air, that “those” people just hate our freedoms, to quote a previous president. Because of this lack of any historical memory, these incidents will continue to happen and the responses will continue to be much the same. It reminds one of any of the recent mass shooting incidents and the responses to them. Most people, either conservative or liberal, react from scripts, which is certainly much easier that analyzing the situation and trying to understand why it happened. Such a response also makes one safe from criticism or public shaming, thinking that you somehow sympathize with those others, those evildoers. As a well-known communist agitator once said, it is easier to complain about the speck in someone else’s eye than to recognize the spike in one’s own. But at least “He” wasn’t a Muslim!

Eclipse on Spring Equinox

At the time of the Paris attacks, Mars was on the Cardinal axis, showing a connection between martial activities, like violence or gunfire, and the world as a whole, represented by the cardinal axis, and Mars also conjoins the North Node of the Moon. This point was especially energized because of the total solar eclipse last March 20 at the Aries point. Notice in the chart for this eclipse, set up against the chart for the fifth republic of France — October 4, 1958 — that both Mars and Uranus are on the Ascendant of France, indicating sudden violence in the immediate environment. Note that this eclipse was visible in most of the Middle East and Europe, but not in the Western Hemisphere. In Paris, it was 80% visible. The eclipse path went between Scotland and Iceland through the North Atlantic. Also note that Mars and Saturn were sesquiquadrate at the time of the eclipse; besides Mars being conjunct the France Ascendant, it was also square the Moon of the Fifth Republic, and Saturn was sesquiquadrate that same Moon.

Paris Attack

If we now look at the chart of the actual event at 9:17 Friday evening Paris time, we see Mars near the Cardinal axis, thus activating the promise of that solar eclipse. In this chart, we see transiting Saturn square transiting Neptune, and both are making a sesquiquadrate to the natal moon, representing the people of France. Uranus is still at the Ascendant of the chart, suggesting unexpected events. And Pluto is square the sun of the chart, the will and character of France.

There are also, interestingly, two tight trines from the fastest moving planets: Sun trine Moon (orb 8 minutes) and Moon trine Uranus (orb 17 minutes). Trines are not normally thought of as “bad aspects”; they are soft, considered easy or harmonious and not noticed; I prefer to think of the third harmonic aspect as covert or not obvious. Unlike hard aspects, which force you to notice them, soft aspects are present but are not usually noticed without conscious effort.

Fourth Harmonic

The next chart shows the fourth harmonic of the event on the Fifth Republic. Here you can see how close the Pluto-Sun square (conjunction in the fourth harmonic) is and the Neptune-Saturn conjunction (square in first harmonic), which opposes (sesquiquadrate in first harmonic) the French Moon.

Event of Paris Attacks

Finally, we have the event chart itself. The one thing that leaps out at is Mars at the Nadir opposite the Midheaven: violence at home threatens the foundation of society.

However, this is not the worst massacre in France since World War II, as some are proclaiming. Back in the Sixties, on October 17, 1961, during the Algerian War between France and the citizens of its colony in North Africa, Algeria, there was a large protest by Algerians in Paris. At the time, the head of the French National Police was a man by the name of Maurice Papon (not to be confused with George Papoon, who was the Firesign Theatre [all four members had fire sun signs] candidate for President), who was a member of the Vichy government in occupied France during World War II. Papon sent many Jews to their death during that period. During a pro-Algerian demonstration in Paris on that date involving 30,000 demonstrators, police attacked the protesters, killing 200 and arresting thousands; the French government finally admitted to the killings in 1998, but only to 40 deaths.

Massacre of Algerians

In the chart for the event, against the Fifth Republic natal chart, we see a Jupiter-Saturn conjunction near the top of the chart; this was the beginning of the Sixties bi-decade. Saturn is opposite the Moon, indicating the suffering of the people, and there is a Mars-Neptune conjunction, which suggests the misguided or confused use of energy, of gunfire or violence, which was the case here. This conjunction is very tight, a quarter degree and sextiles the natal Saturn, representing the forces of law and order, the French National Police, who did the shooting. There is also a close trine as we’ve seen before between Pluto and the MC. Uranus — change, sudden or unexpected events — is semisquare the natal Sun-Mercury conjunction, representing the government and media of the Fifth Republic.

Paris Commune Massacre

There was also another well-known massacre in Paris 90 years before that one as described in the recent book Massacre by John Merriman. This involved the Paris Commune of 1871, which lasted only for two months and was brought to an end in what is called the Bloody Week, starting Sunday May 21, 1871. The French police cracked down on the communards, and 20,000 of them were killed and many more arrested. Here is a chart for the start of the Bloody Week. Two things stand out: the opposition between Saturn and Venus, which is the conflict between law and order and obeying the rules (Saturn) and justice (Venus). We can see which side won. There is also a trine between Mars, gunfire, and the Mercury-Pluto conjunction, the communication of radical socialist ideas, which is what the Paris Commune was about. It is interesting to note how often trines occur in the charts above.

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January 30, 2015

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Massacre in Paris

The latest example of retail terrorism in Paris has inspired a huge wave of outrage and indignation. Retail terrorism is what is know as “terrorism” in the United States and involves a small group of perpetrators; wholesale terrorism is that preformed by governments and is usually not recognized as terrorism except to those to whom it is applied. The terms retail and wholesale terrorism are from Wharton economist Edward Herman, and were dealt with by Saint Augustine in Book IV of City of God. In there he describes an encounter between Alexander the Great and a pirate: Alexander asks the pirate how he can bear to molest the sea; the pirate replies indignantly “When I molest the sea they call me a pirate, but when you molest the whole world they call you an emperor.”

Shortly after this massacre there was a large march, one of the largest in French history, to show that people of that country and of the world would not stand for this threat to freedom of speech, which was considered inviolable. Many world leaders were present in the front row of the march to show how highly they valued the freedom to say anything no matter how controversial or offensive. Other leaders spoke directly to support the marchers and freedom of speech, such as the leaders of Saudi Arabia — where a journalist is receiving 50 lashes a day for criticising the government, whose leader just died and President Obama made haste to Saudi Arabia to show his condolences — and Egypt — which currently imprisons three journalists for Al Jezeera, whom they consider to “pro-Muslim”, and whose country gets one of the greatest shows of military support from the United States. Leading the March was the President of France, a country that shortly thereafter imprisoned someone for “glorifying terrorism”. This is a country where denying the Holocaust can result in a prison sentence. France has a checkered history with Jews. After Jewish people were allowed full freedoms during the French Revolution, and Catholics were not treated as highly as they had come to expect (several popes lived in France for awhile), anti-Semitism arose again under the French, as shown in the Dreyfus Affair of the 1890’s, where Alfred Dreyfus was wrongly accused of treason, and during World War II when France sent many Jews to Nazi death camps. After the attack France cracked down of hate speech, speech glorifying terrorism, and anti-semitic speech. I’m surprised no one’s head exploded at the contradictions. It seems freedom of speech is only acceptable if a marginalize people is being attacked. One wonders if offensive cartoons about black people were published in a major magazine in the United States if the Congress would support that publication, or if MSNBC and Fox would agree that that was a good thing showing how expansive is the freedom Americans enjoys.

We have a fairly exact time for the attack and so we can do an exact chart; I don’t have a chart for the founding of Paris so we will look at just the event chart. The first chart is at the time of the event.

Charlie Hebdo Massacre

In this chart we see that the tightest aspect is Mars sextile Midheaven, suggesting something involving gunfire (Mars) will be noted by the world. Also tight is Sun semisquare Saturn, suggesting disappointment or limitations. Mars is opposite Jupiter by a wide orb, and suggests much (Jupiter) gunfire (Mars). Sun is conjunct Pluto, suggesting Plutonian events on that day. Another aspect is Moon sesquiquadrate the MC, suggesting that the public will know what happened at that hour. Finally, let us not forget that the overriding aspect of this period is the Uranus square Pluto — change, revolution.

Charlie Hebdo Massacre Fourth Harmonic

Let’s look at the fourth harmonic chart, which shows squares, opposition, and conjunctions as conjunctions. The most prominent aspect is Sun opposite Saturn which is very tight. This is the same as the semisquare between those two planets we saw in the first harmonic chart. We can see how wide that Mars-Jupiter opposition is by noticing that the conjunction of those two planets in the fourth harmonic chart is very wide, whereas the Uranus-Pluto conjunction (square in the first harmonic chart) is very tight. We also notice something not apparent in the first harmonic chart, a tight square between Pluto and the Ascendant. This is an aspect of 67.5° in the first harmonic chart, a hard aspect. Also notable is the Mercury-Mars square (extremely tight), perhaps gunfire at a newspaper office.

Charlie Hebdo Massacre Fourth Harmonic Midpoints

This final chart shows the midpoints in the fourth harmonic, which is the same as the traditional 90-degree dial used in German schools of astrology. We see that Pluto is at the midpoint of three pairs of planets, and the midpoint Pluto = Mars/Jupiter is exact. Ebertin says about this midpoint “a great loss”. Another tight midpoint is Midheaven = Sun/Neptune for which Ebertin says “A negative outlook” which is certainly something we’ve seen in the world after this terrible event.

From looking at these three charts of the same moment, the overriding conclusion is that Pluto is by far the dominant planet. This was indeed a Plutonian event, happening during an important Pluto aspect and we can expect other things to follow.

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May 2, 2014

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The 2008 Election

Below are four views of election day 2008 in the United States, but they all have a single message. That election will be remembered for all time as the one in which a black man (but interestingly one related to slaves only through his white mother) was elected President of a country whose founders were slave owners. But the campaign and election will also be remembered for other things, as discussed below, which may well set the standard for upcoming elections in the United States.

Obama on Election Day

Neptune on Obama’s Ascendant

The first chart is that of the winner of the election, Barak Obama, on election day. The most noticeable feature of this chart is Neptune prominently in the first house and near the Ascenant. Neptune was conjunct the Ascendant since Mr. Obama speech to the 2004 Democratic convention that first gave him prominence on the national stage. Neptune can be handled successfully but with difficulty by an individual, but collectively it usually turns out negatively. Neptune represents illusions, delusions, not seeing things clearly. Neptune on the Ascendant is great for actors since it allows them to easily pretend to be someone they are not, the hallmark of a good actor. With someone in the public eye, it allow the person to appear to be something that he is not. Obama himself described this in one of his campaign autobiographies, saying that people see in him whatever that think he is. Neptune in this position means exactly that. And in fact Mr. Obama got an award from Advertising Age as the best marketing campaign for 2008, beating out Apple that usually won. Neptune on the Ascendant definitely helped him win this award.

The second chart, a graphical ephemeris of Mr. Obama from June of 2004 to June of 2009 (mistakenly labelled as 6 years) shows clearly that transiting Neptune was dancing around his Ascendant — near the bottom of the graph — during this entire period. By noticing how slowly Neptune move — it appears to move only 15º in five years — one can judge that it is near his Ascendant for all of his first term. See also Definition section for Graphical Ephemeris for more details.

Comparison of USA & Obama

The third chart is a comparison of Mr. Obama’s chart (on the inside) and the chart of the United States (on the outside). Several things stand out. First we notice that the Obama Venus is conjunct the US Venus. Love at first sight! If this were two people they definitely should get together. Then Obama’s Uranus is opposite the Moon of the US. The people in the US see this person as being unconventional, maybe even revolutionary. Obama’s Mars is conjunct the US Neptune and square the US Mars. Remember that the tightest hard aspect in Obama’s chart is the Mars semisquare Neptune that now we see fits into the US Mars square Neptune. As mentioned before, Mars-Neptune hard aspects are difficult to maninifest positively. They tend to indicate poorly planned action, deception about violence. Obama fits right into the violence of the US. Obama’s Midheaven is sesquiquadrate the US Sun and his Ascendant is sesquiquadrate the US Venus. Here again are two more indicators that these two were meant to be together. A further indication, his Jupiter is trine the Midheaven of the US, his Sun is trine the Ascendant of the US, and is Venus is square the Midheaven of the US – Obama and the United States: a Match Made in Heaven!! Of course, as in all relationships, hate is the other side of love, and so there can be deep animosity in this relationship between Mr. Obama and the United States as well as love. And one more: his Satun is conjunct the Pluto of the US. We’ve talked about Saturn Pluto aspects before, and will talk some more later, but this does not bode well.

United States on Election Day

Neptune and the Moon of the United
States

The fourth chart is that of the United States on Election Day. Neptune is loosely conjunct with the Moon of the United States, and it will be drawing closer and going over the Moon over the next four years. In fact, for the 2012 elections Neptune was about the same distance from the Moon but on the other side of it, leaving orb. Here again we see Neptune, as was described above, effecting the people (the Moon represents the people of a country) of the United States. As I mentioned before, Neptune is very difficult to handle in a positive manner for individuals (spiritual adepts are an exception) but for a collective group of people – that is the citizens of the United – it is almost impossible to manifest positively. In its negative manifestation Neptune represents illusion, delusion, deception. The old Roman proverb qui vult decipi, dicipiatur is most appropriate: those who wish to be deceived, let them be deceived. The people of the United Stats were going through a period where they could not see things clearly, there was much denial. We could also see this in the increasing denial that humanity is causing climate change.

The fifth chart is another graphical ephemeris for the period September 2008 to September 2013, showing that Neptune flirted with the Moon of the United States over all of this period. We also note that Uranus crossed the Aries point — the heavy black horizontal line — during this period.

Neptune on the Sun/Midheaven Midpoint

One final chart. This shows that on election day, and for a while thereafter, Neptune was at the midpoint of the US Sun and Midheaven. The Sun-Midheaven midpoint, written as Sun/MC (MC stands for Medium Coeli, Latin for middle of the sky) can be seen as the way the US is seen by the rest of the world. With Neptune there, the rest of the world can be deceived (witness the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Mr. Obama shortly after he took office) and many believed that the US was now something other than it once was under the previous administration.

Another issue was pointed out to me by Canadian astrologer Audra Stenger (yellowlotusarts.com). She points out that Obama accepted his nomination under a void-of-course moon. (The void of course moon concept, popularized by New York astrologer Al Morrison and used now by Oregon astrologer Jim Maynard in his calendars, is that period of time after the Moon makes its last ptolemic aspect and before it enters the next sign. It is suggested that events occurring in this period do not come to fruition. See write-up in any of Jim Maynard’s calendars for further details.) She writes of this:

Nothing has come of it. That is what a VOC moon means. I am being a bit existential, so I will elaborate: he has gone back on every single campaign promise and we might as well have kept George W. in office or elected a Republican (as Chomsky says- there is no real difference between the two parties. We really have a one party system here in the US).

Obama promised to end extraordinary rendition, close overseas blackop sites, gitmo, end the war in Iraq (never did say he would end the war in Afganistan- hum), end torture, he promised initially to give us Medicare for All, to end domestic spying. what we have instead is illegal drone wars in Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia, troops just sent to Nicaragua, and troops in Australia. Additionally, he declared WikiLeaks an enemy of the state just as if Assange were Osama bin Laden.

So, I for one, existentially speaking, do not see really where the US is in a different place had a Republican like Sarah Palin been sworn in. At least we all knew she was a dumb as a box of hammers. Obama is a lawyer- he’s smart. To me, Obama is a perfect example of a VOC president. Nothing has come of his presidency that is any different than before, and every political analyst worth their salt agrees.

Change you can believe in was his slogan. Well, the more things change, the more things stay the same should be his second campaign slogan.

Blogs at the time of this election also reflected this Neptunian theme: The terms used were “hopium”, Obama Derangement Syndrome (ODS) and “drinking the Kool-Aid”. The latter was a reference to the massacre at Jonestown where the followers of Jim Jones drank Kool-Aid and Flavor Aid containing poison and died.

500 Year Party

An astrological study of history and politics

Category Archives: Current

Skripal Poisoning

Odds And Ends

Yet More Neptune

History Repeats

The Inauguration

Donald J. Trump

Jupiter Trine Uranus

Venus conjunct Saturn, tight

Mars at the Ascendant

Unaspected Neptune or Very Wide Square between Mercury and Neptune

Jupiter square Pluto in Fourth Harmonic Chart

Election 2016

The Massacre in Paris

Massacre in Paris

The 2008 Election