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May 9, 2014

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The Wars of America – Part I

In general, American history is divided into four periods: before the Revolutionary War, from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War, from the Civil War to World War II, and after World War II. This division is not just arbitrary. Obviously there was a big change to the country after it declared itself independent from Great Britain and successfully fought a war to achieve that end. The Civil War allowed former slaves to “vote” and the many industries who had made a profit during the war, and specifically the railroads, were able after the war to continue to get very big and dominate the country – the appropriately named (First) Gilded Age was the result. And after the Second World War the defense industries that were empowered during the War were able to continue their growth with the convenient rise of the Cold War. Many technologies that were developed for the war were put to peace-time use which resulted in a more technological-oriented society.

So below we will look at the astrological patterns that existed during all three of these boundary events, the three wars that defined America. One can think of the first period as one of youth, the second period as one of adulthood, and the third period, the one we are in now, as the period of maturity.

The official dates for the Revolutionary War are from the Battle of Lexington and Concord (April 19,1775) to the surrender at Yorktown (October 19, 1781). The dates for the American Civil War are from the firing on Fort Sumter (April 12, 1861) to the surrender at Appomattox court house (April 9, 1965). The dates for American participation in World War II – the Americans were definitely late to the party – is measured from the attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941) to the surrender of Japan (Germany had surrendered 4 months earlier) on September 2, 1945. One notices that the wars got larger – more participants and over a larger area — and more bloody over time.

This first image for June 23, 1777 is not, as far as I know, a stand out date in the Revolutionary War. Notice that all three outer planets are near their birth locations. This is not surprising, considering that this chart is less than a year after birth. What the chart does show is that Uranus is passing over the Descendant and on this date is exactly opposite the Ascendant for the first time since birth. Again, not surprising since the natal position of Uranus is close to the Descendant. Whereas the Ascendant relates to the personal projection – a good synonym is persona – the Descendant is the opposite point, and indicates how we relate to the outside world. In personal astrology, this often is used to refer to the partner or people one draws to oneself or open enemies. In either case, it refer to energy coming to us from outside, which can easily be seen as a war which also comes to us. In the second chart, for November 23, 1778 we see that Neptune has come to the Midheaven of the United States. The Midheaven refers to the way the country relates to the outside world, one can see it as a public persona as opposed to the private persona of the Ascendant. I am at a loss for an interpretation of Neptune on the Midheaven that would relate to a war. The symbolism would suggest that our public image is unclear, uncertain, foggy. Perhaps this is just an effect of Neptune having almost exactly twice the period of Uranus (84 vs. 165 years) and Uranus-Descendant is the operative aspect.

Let’s move on the the Civil War. Here there is only one chart, for March 11, 1962. The war had started almost a year earlier. We see both Uranus opposite the Ascendant as in the first Revolutionary War chart, and Neptune conjunct the IC (Imum Coeli – the Bottom of the Sky) of the United States chart, opposite the Midheaven. This is about one Uranus cycle, 84 years, after the first chart. The fact that Neptune is now opposite the earlier position (the second chart for November 23, 1778) is not surprising since the period of Neptune is almost exactly double that of Neptune. Note also that since the natal Uranus is close to the Descendant and the natal Neptune is close to the Midheaven, these periods are also close to a Uranus return and a Neptune bi-return. But we do see a pattern.

Let’s look at World War II. The first chart is for November 5, 1942, the first time Neptune conjoined the Midheaven of the United States on this cycle. Then the second chart for World War II for August 6, 1944, one year to the day before the dropping of the atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, the first pass of Uranus to the Descendant of the United States. Also Neptune is very close – one degree beyond – the Midheaven. This was again one Uranus cycle and one-half a Neptune cycle since the Civil War. The pattern repeats itself.

The Descendant is where energy comes in to you from outside, and so Uranus on the Descendant suggests disturbance, upset coming into the country, like for example as war. At least it was in the three cases we looked at. Since we have only the United States a an example, and only three cases to draw upon, we can’t draw an overwhelming conclusion. But in every case there was, the correlation was definite.

In part two of this subject, we will look at examples of Uranus on the Descendant before the birth of the country to see if the patten holds. And we will look at the obvious – when will this pattern repeat again.

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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.

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April 25, 2014

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Constitution Summer

The Constitutional Convention was called for on February 21, 1787 to start May 14, 1787 but there wasn’t a quorum. A quorum was reached on May 25. It was finally signed on September 17, 1787. So you can see that that summer in Philadelphia was spent planning, writing, and arguing about the document that would eventually be called the United States Constitution.

The Constitutional Convention was called as a way to amend the Articles of Confederation under which the country operated up to then. The Article of Confederation required a consensus of the states to amend it. However, only nine states had ratified the Constitution when it took effect, and two states ratified it after the first President was elected.

If we look at the chart erected for the opening of the Convention on May 25 we see that Saturn is on the Moon. By looking at the graphical ephemeris for that summer we see that Saturn went back and forth over the moon, and back and forth sesquiquadrate to the Sun of the United States. Now the United States is a very Saturnine nation, as we shall talk about at a different time; one indication of this is Saturn square Sun in the U.S. Chart. But the Constitution is also a document seeped in Saturn. What does this mean for the country and our system of laws, based on that Constitution? Saturn is limits, definitions, concrete reality. It is by nature conservative, possibly pessimistic, expecting the worse. Saturn in this case covers three area: conservative, lawyers, property. We shall discuss each in turn.

Constitutional Convention

Of the 55 men (no women allowed!) at the Constitutional Convention, fully 35 were lawyers or trained in the law, or 63%, almost two-thirds. So from the beginning America was dominated by lawyers. (Insert any lawyer jokes you have here.) And it has only continued that way. A majority of the members of Congress are lawyers, and many have commented on the litigious nature of our society. There are so many laws (written by the lawyer-dominated Congress and state legislatures) that one needs a lawyer to navigate it all. As one who has availed himself of lawyers from time to time, they are extremely valuable and helpful. But again, many have commented by how lawyers dominate our society.

Many think that the Constitution came from God, especially the Second Amendment which Moses brought down with the Ten Commandments, and so it can’t be criticized. But in reality the Constitution is a conservative document that was designed to slow down the process of law making (consider checks and balances) which has lead to many of the problems with government we face today. Just think of the Electoral College, two Senators from every state so that Wyoming and California have the same number of Senators, and lifetime appointment of Supreme Court justices. Daniel Lazare in his books The Velvet Coup and The Frozen Republic has outlined well the problems with the Constitution, and George Kenney on electricpolitics.com has talked often about the need to rewrite the Constitution.

Harmonic 8 Graphical Epheremis
Constitution Summer

An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States by Charles Beard is possibly the most controversial history book of all time. Beard, a Progressive historian of the early Twentieth Century, gives an alternate view of why the Constitution was created, to protect the economic interest of the Founders and their friends, most of whom were wealthy. John Hancock, for example, was one of the wealthiest men in the colonies. Another alternate view is that of Staughton Lynd in Class Conflict, Slavery, and the United States Constitution, that argues that protecting slave owners was an important part of the Constitution. (Interestingly, George Kenney just interviewed Staughton Lynd about this book. Kenney’ s show – electric politics – is interesting because he not only covers politics but also less mainstream topics such as UFOs, ESP, and reincarnation. I suggested to Mr. Kenney that he interview Richard Tarnas about subjects similar to what is covered in this blog. Tarrnas is an academic who has written a standard undergraduate textbook, The Passion of the Western Mind, and who was introduced to astrology by Rob Hand when they were both at Esalen. I was shot down and realized that among the intellectual class interest in astrology is considered only slightly above an interest in child pornography.) The theories of these books go in and out of fashion; sometimes they are condemned and at other times a restatement of them is published.

Another important aspect of Saturn-dominance of the United States is the high esteem property is held in these United States, one can almost say worship. Even though the term “property” is not used in the Constitution, its function is hard to miss. The Commerce Clause (Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3) is the most obvious, but there are others that relate. And this worship of property is put in so-called Free Trade Agreements, such as NAFTA and the current Trans Pacific Partnership – TPP — which allow business to sue for loss of value of their property because of, for example, environmental regulations. And of course the whole subject of regulations of business is considered as evil because they interfere with the right of property, which are considered to have higher rights than that of people. Many Supreme Court decisions relate to the rights of property such as the Citizens United decision. As I write this there was recently a standoff in Nevada between a cattlemen and the Federal government that comes down to property rights.

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April 18, 2014

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The Shot Heard Around the World

The phrase “The Shot Heard Around the World” most often refers to the Battle of Lexington and Concord, which was the opening battle of the American Revolutionary War. I’ve noticed that events in colonial America, before the “birth” of the country on July 4, 1776, also show up as relevant transits to the birth chart of the United States. I’ve even gone back as far as Columbus’ first sighing land and seen that that also shows up in the chart of the United States. But in this case the event in question took place a little over a year before the birth. This particular chart is an example of what I call “astrological cliché” since it appears to have been made up to fit the event in question. Another example of an astrological cliché is the life of that Libra President, Chester A. Arthur, who was called “Gentleman Boss”.

From accounts, it appears the first shots were fired shortly after sunrise, about 5 AM on April 19, 1775. The first chart is an event chart, set for the time of the event. We see that the sun has just risen and is about five degrees about the horizon, about 20 minutes after sunrise. The tightest aspect – Sun sesquiquadrate Moon – is almost exact, presages the Sun-Moon sesquiquadrate in the natal chart and thus the continuing conflict between the people and the government, as can be seen in many things such as the rise of the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists at the Constitutional Convention.

Lexington Event Chart

But what is really interesting is the second chart, the transits of this time in the natal chart of the U.S. Since this event is near the birth, the outer planets are already in the position or close to the positions they will occupy in the natal chart. The first thing you may notice is that the Moon is on the Ascendant and rising as this event happens. This suggests the beginning of a process, as the Moon is suddenly visible and its visibility will only increase. This event is a beginning of the Revolutionary War, which is the beginning of the country of America.

Battle of Lexington and Concord

But notice the position of Mars opposite the natal Moon. Mars is literally gunfire – a shot – and its position opposite the Moon indicates that this is something that the people will be aware of. But then look at Mercury, representing communication, which can be read as “heard”. This is opposite the Midheaven, which represents the public impression of the country in the outside world. So the chart of the start of the Battle of Lexington and Concord, when looked at with the natal chart of the United States, says this event is the shot heard around the world.

Now I hear some critics asking could you predict what event happened with this chart before the event. Of course not. If you notice these minor transits at all – Mars goes around the zodiac every two years and Mercury in less that one year – this is not what you would have predicted. But of course the fact that both Marts is in that position and Mercury is in that position at the same time is much more rare. But not even if you did notice this could you predict the corresponding event. But is is very interesting that on hindsight the astrological conditions were so prefect that the event is called by what the astrological configuration suggests.

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April 11, 2014

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The Vietnam War: Another Fiftieth Anniverary

Another fiftieth anniversary is coming in August, the fiftieth anniversary of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that passed the Senate on August 7, 1964 with famously only two senators, from Oregon and Alaska, voting against it. The Vietnam War was a multi-administration project, with the start of our involvement under the Truman administration, as he increased support for the French in Vietnam at the same time as he engaged in the Korean War; and it picked up under Eisenhower; and all the basics of the Vietnam War we know and love were set by the Kennedy administration; but the “crossing the Rubicon” moment is the passing of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in the first year of the Johnson administration. Supposedly the North Vietnamese attacked two U. S. destroyers that were near the country, and this was the casus belli need for the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, but it was later revealed that the two destroyers were spying on North Vietnam and that at least one of the attacks did not happen. As has happened so often in American history (cf. USA PATRIOT Act) things are rushed through Congress in the heat of the moment with no reflection of the consequences.

The tightest aspect in the chart of the United States is Pluto semisquare Ascendant. The epithet I give to this aspect is “My Way or the Highway”. It is worth quoting at length what Ebertin says about this combination of planets. Keep in mind that Ebertin was basically talking about human beings, and with a semiquare the negative interpretation is the more likely one: Ebertin’s mother famously did a horoscope for Hitler so he knew what he was talking about.

Will-power, ambition, the striving for power, the utilisation of magic or psychic forces. The display of an unusual personal influence.

Dictatorship or rule by force. The desire to bring other people under the rule of one’s own will. A repulsive behavior.

The striving for the attainment of power and authority. The tendency to suppress or to oppress others. The attainment of success in life by brutal and ruthless means.

This is not the type of behavior any politician will admit to in this, the most exceptional of all nations. While this behavior was demonstrated early on, it did not reach full maturity until after the Second World War. The Dulles Brothers in that period most demonstrated this behavior and the Vietnam War was one of the most obvious early manifestation. A recently published book The Brothers by Stephan Kinzer details the strong involvement of the Dulles Brothers with the growing Cold War, including Vietnam.

So let’s take a look at the chart for this event.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

Since this event only occurred a few months after the Beatles concert, several transits are the same: There is the approaching Uranus-Pluto conjunction – it is the Sixties after all – almost exact in another three months, and there is the Uranus square natal Uranus, showing that it is a quarter Uranus cycle after World War II. It might be tempting to relate outbreaks of hostility by the United States to Uranus hard aspects with its natal position, but since the United States is involved in so many violent conflicts this is a unhelpful search. Then there is the loose Saturn conjunct the natal Moon – the people are still depressed – Kennedy was assassinated nine months previously, as we also saw in the Beatles chart. And Pluto is still sextile the Sun of the United States.

This event took place at a New Moon. Minor perhaps, but New Moons signify the start of a new project. And the project we started at this New Moon turned out to be a doozy! The New Moon was exact at about three that afternoon.

And then there was a transiting Sun square transiting Neptune. This quadrature – squares, opposition, conjunction – to transiting Neptune happens four time a year, fairly common. The Sun moves so fast that the keyword for it is “day of” (just as aspects from the Moon are “hour of” and from the transiting Midheaven are “minute of”) so this particular day could be called the day of deception or the day of illusion. This aspect was exact at about the time of the New Moon. Thus the Moon was also square Neptune. Only two Senators saw that, but in retrospect it is obvious. And to further emphasize this we also have Neptune loosely trine the Sun of the United States. And indeed the government was deceived but few knew it at the time. Neptune was also semisquare the Midheaven, which represent the outward expression of the United States.

Another minor point is that Mars – the planet of war – was conjunct natal Jupiter, suggesting “lots of war”. Jupiter is part of the important Sun-Venus-Jupiter triple conjunction that is so important to the American Character. Mars is also square the Midheaven, again emphazing War into the world.

But the “money aspects” are the Mercury-Pluto conjunction square the the Ascendant and sesquiquadrate to Pluto. These tight aspects emphasize the Pluto Ascendant semisquare mentioned at the beginning, the aspect that strongly defines America. The Pluto aspect was exact two weeks before the vote, and it was still quite close. The fact that it is Pluto even more highlights the Plutonian nature – big, brutal – of the whole Vietnam War, and the fact that Mercury is closely conjunct Pluto – less than half a degree — suggests the nature of the war. The Vietnam War is considered the first television (communications, Mercury) war, where the nightly news had graphic images of soldiers wounded and bodies counted. Just what you want to see when you are eating dinner! This turned many people off to the war, and some even consider a “stab in the back” from the media, which is why we lost the war. The end of the war is assumed to have come when preeminent nightly newscaster Walter Cronkite denounced it.

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April 4, 2014

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Thoughts on Astrology as a Revolutionary Science

In the summer of 1984 I attended a NCGR (National Council for Geocosmic Research) conference at Mills College in Oakland. One of the speakers was astrologer Rob Hand. After one dinner he gave a speech about the differences and similarities of science, religion, and astrology. It was one of the most important speeches given about astrology in the modern world. He later extended his arguments into an article called “Astrology as a Revolutionary Science” and it was finally published in a book very few ever saw. It is a very important paper, and it is available here. After reading this article, I was inspired to write down the following ideas. The data in this entry were drawn from Albion’s Seed by David Hackett Fischer and the newer American Nations by Colin Woodard.

In this article Rob Hand compares what he calls Type I religions and the newer Type II religions. Science, he says, is a Type II religion. But the distinction of Type I and Type II religions can be extended further, and applies to the origins of the United States.

American society is widely thought to be divided into two main factions. In contemporary parlance, these are the red states and the blue states. But this dichotomy goes back much further than our current political divisions.

A major split within the United States, seen throughout its history, has been between the Yankees and the Confederates. While there are other factions within the United States, such as the Scotch-Irish people who settled in Appalachia and the Dutch based colony that formed in New York, these other groupings would join one or the other with the Yankees or the Confederates. In general, those states considered blue were settled by Yankees and those states considered red were settled by Confederates or their allies, such as the Scotch Irish.

The Yankees of New England arrived in this country from England starting about 1630 and came from the Southeastern part of England. These were the Roundheads or Puritans – supporters of the Parliament — side of the English Civil War, and they came to American to start a colony based on their beliefs, since they wanted more freedom for their religion than they felt they got in England. In England, the Roundheads were against the absolute monarchy of the King.

Death of Charles I

The Confederates came over from the South and West of England starting about 1649. These were the Cavaliers, the other faction of the English Civil War. In 1649 their King, Charles I, was executed by the Roundheads, and it was seen as an inhospitable time to be a Cavalier in England, so they decided to emigrate. In the chart of the United States, which was part of England at the time, 1649 shows Pluto conjunct Saturn near the Descendant of the United States (Sibly chart), showing that a powerful event had taken place external to the incipient United States; it was certainly lese majeste when the King was executed. This conjunction was opposite Uranus-Neptune conjunction on the Ascendant. (I have found that the natal chart of the United States responds to transits before its birth, as well as after birth. While I hypothesize that this also applies to humans, it is difficult to find much evidence to support this.)

But these two factions of the English Civil War — the Roundheads and the Cavaliers — go back even further. The Cavaliers – the upper classes of English society, close to the aristocracy and even the king – gave royal names to colonies in America, such as New York which was initially a gift to the Duke of York from his brother King Charles II, son of the executed King, after it was liberated from the Dutch; Maryland was named after the wife of Charles I; and Virgina was named after Queen Elizabeth. The Cavilers are descended from the Normans who invaded England in 1066 from France. These were Christians – Catholics – a religion that came from Rome.

The Roundheads are descended from a different group, however. They are the descendants of the Angles, Saxons, and others that were in England before the Normans invaded. Theses people practiced a nature religion that was common in the British Isles before the Normans invaded, and was also practiced by many people as an underground religion thereafter, as witnessed by the witch burning of the Sixteenth Century and later.

The Normans go back to Rome and the original Christianity; In the Fourth Century Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, solidifying for all time the impact of the Roman politics on the new religion. Rome was interested in the republic, and many of the founders of the United States were deeply interested in the Republic as a form of government and with a House and Senate they were drawing ideas from the Roman Republic. Even a statement on the Great Seal of the United States is drawn from an epic poem of Rome. To this group what was important was liberty, something that was given to you.

The Anglo-Saxon and earlier English were however using a different form, a democracy that is still practiced in New England with the town meetings. This sprang from the belief that all individuals were born free, that this is not something that could be given to you, and so the concept of freedom was important to these people and their descendants.

Thus we have the conflict in the United States between freedom and democracy, which many of the founders were afraid of and tried to prevent, and liberty and a republic, which was seen as protection from having too many people with a say in the running of government. But we see that these two forms go back native people of England, many who came from Europe, who were pagans, and to the Normans from France and Christians which ultimately came from Rome. So the two are extensions of Type I religion, the paganism of the settlers of the British Isles, and Type II religion, the Christianity of the Normans who invaded England.

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March 28, 2014

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The Nodal Problems

Technically the nodes of the Moon are the positions on the ecliptic – the sun’s path through the heavens – where the path of the Moon crosses. There are two: the North Node of the Moon where the Moon crosses going north, and the South Node where the Moon crosses going south. These nodes travel backwards through the zodiac at about 3′ per day.

But I want to discuss the symbolic meaning of the North and South nodes of the Moon. The North Node, also called caput draconis or the head of the dragon, is where we get nutrition, sustenance, energy. The South Node, also called cauda draconis or tail of the dragon, is where waste products are expelled. These can be seen as input and output. Or, to use terms from physics, source and sink. And they must be in balance. Too much input without corresponding output can lead to bloating and expansion – excess. Too much output can lead to emaciation, wasting away – limitation. And we can have a Jupiter problem or a Saturn problem at both ends. It is like the alimentary canal, where input takes place at the top and output at the bottom. In the Unix/Linux world the term /dev/null (pronounced dev null) is considered a source and sink for any process.

In terms of the world system, the meanings of the nodes should be obvious. The North Node is where we take in food, water, energy, minerals, whatever we need to keep running the world. The South Node is where we get rid of the wastes, which can be the exhaust of your car, the plastic bag you throw away, or the spent fuel of a nuclear reactor.

For a long time we’ve had a Jupiter problem at both ends of the nodal axis. We were using our resources, water, oil, et cetera, et cetera, like there is no tomorrow. We’ve also thrown away trash assuming that it would somehow disappear, that there was no consequences for producing all that garbage. We have assumed that both the source and sink were infinite – we’ve thought we have a real /dev/null on the physical earth.

We are now moving to a Saturn problem with both ends of the nodal axis. The Saturn problems with the North Node are often prefixed with the term “Peak”. People often assume that peak means that you have run out of some resource, as in the term Peak Oil. But of course it doesn’t. If you are climbing a mountain and reach the peak your journey is not over, but rather half finished. If we have reached the peak (of oil or whatever) it does not mean we have exhausted that resource, but rather that we have used half of the supply, the low hanging fruit as it were, and after that we have to work harder to get the second half, as can be seen with the non-conventional oil we are hearing so much about now, as in tar sands and shale oil. So we have a peak of fossil fuels, water, edible fish, minerals, land, and so forth.

The Saturn problem with the South Node is a little different. We’ve produced so much waste – the Jupiter problem – that now there is a limit to how much more waste can be disposed of easily. We have an excess of waste with no place to put it. The most obvious example is t-he CO2 that has been produced by the burning of fossil fuels for the last several hundred years. This has left much waste in the atmosphere which has lead to the greenhouse effect. But there have been many other problems. Think of all the plastic waste which has now created islands of plastic scrap in the seas. Or radiation in the ocean, which are often the repository of our junk. Or all the toxic chemicals that are now found in every human being. Or all the fertilizers that have run off the land and caused dead zones at the months of major rivers. The list can be extended.

This was all predicted before. Think of the book Limits of Growth – the title sums up our situation – which appeared in the early Seventies. At first it was praised but later the backlash came on, and now it is widely assumed to have been nonsense. But the trends predicted by the book mirror closely what is happening in the world now. But still very few want to hear the message.

Parties do basically two things: consume stuff and produce waste, just like a human being but on a larger scale. After a party one needs to clean up and replenish supplies. This is relatively simple when you have a vacuum cleaner and a corner store. The longest party I have been involved in was four days long over a Thanksgiving Weekend. At the end our large propane tank was empty – we ended up cooking the turkey in the fireplace – and the septic system had to be replaced because it had been so overloaded. But a 500 year party is different, so much larger and longer. It started out slow, with not many at the party. The first thing was to expand the room for the party, and then allow more for the party-goers to consume. Then more and more people came to the party. As time went on the party got bigger and bigger. There are three big themes of the party which we will later explore in detail: Capitalism, Industrialism, Rationalism.

These nodal problems have been the result of the 500 Year Party. In the next 500 years we will be dealing with these nodal problems so we can find a way to to continue to live on this Earth, since it should be obvious to most intelligent observers that the methods of the last 500 years are not sustainable. We are now in a position like Wile E. Coyote in the Road Runner cartoons who has just been chased of a cliff. As long as he doesn’t look down he believes that nothing has changed. But eventually….

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March 21, 2014

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500 Years — Part I

The title of this blog contains the words “500 Years” so we need to show why 500 years is an important period of time, what I call a basic cycle. It is long enough to be a period where many changes happen, and short enough that we have had several during recorded history.

First let’s consider the periods of revolution of the outer planets. This is similar to the Moon rotating about the earth, though in this case these planets are rotating about the Sun. The Moon takes about 27 1/3 days to go around the Earth, as measured from, say, 0 Aries to 0 Aries.

Planet	Period	Number of Periods	Total Years
Jupiter	11.86	42	498.12
Saturn	29.42	17	500.14
Uranus	83.75	6	502.50
Neptune	163.74	3	491.22
Pluto	245.33	2	490.66

The average of the five cycles is 496.53 years. This is not to say that all these planets return to the same position in about 500 years, but only that their relative positions return. Also note that the inner planets not mentions have such small cycles that they of course fit into this scheme. The longest cycle of those not mentioned is Mars, which is only two years.

Next let us consider the synodic period of two planets. This is the period between one conjunction of the two planets and the next conjunction. After the first conjunction the two planets move and so the next conjunction takes place after, and perhaps long after, the faster moving planet returns to the spot where the first conjunction took place. This is similar to the period from one New Moon to the next New Moon. As the Moon moves during 27 1/3 days the Sun moves almost one-twelfth of its total rotation (as seen from the Earth) and so the Moon needs to move a little more after it returns to the spot of the first conjunction – New Moon. That is why consecutive New Moons advance through the zodiac. The synodic period for the Moon-Sun is about 29 ½ days.

Synodic Planets	Period	Number of Periods	Total Years
Jupiter-Saturn	19.86	25	496.50
Jupiter-Uranus	13.81	36	497.16
Jupiter-Neptune	12.78	39	498.42
Jupiter-Pluto	12.46	40	498.40
Saturn-Uranus	45.36	11	498.96
Saturn-Neptune	35.87	14	502.18
Saturn-Pluto	33.42	15	501.30
Uranus-Neptune	171.00	3	513.00
Uranus-Pluto	126.94	4	507.16
Neptune-Pluto	492.33	1	492.33

The average is 500.60 years. This is a relative return of all these cycles.

To sum up, there is a basic cycle of 500 years in which all the planets of the solar system return to their same relative position. This 500 year cycle is the basis of the title of this blog, The 500 Year Party. The next question of course is when does the 500 years start. This is similar to the question of when the 20 year Jupiter-Saturn cycle starts. The Jupiter-Saturn cycle has long been used in astrology; I have seen it in a book of ancient Persian astrology, where it was said to rule the rise and fall of kings. In present times, the cycle starts near the beginning of an even decade, so I call this period the bi-decade and it consists of an outgoing half – from conjunction to opposition – like the lunar cycle from New to Full Moon, the waxing cycle. Then the odd decade – from opposition to next conjunction – like the phase from Full to New Moon, is the waning period. So waxing decades are the Sixties, the Eighties, and the Oughts, whereas the waning decades are the Seventies, the Nineties, and this current decade. I’ll leave it to the reader to find the differences between the waxing and waning decades.

There is another large astrological cycle called the Great Year, based on the Precession of the Equinoxes whereas the first point of Aries – the Vernal Equinox – moves backward through the zodiac at a rate of approximately one degree every 72 years. This causes the Pole Star to change through the ages, and results in the charmingly named Age of Aquarius, which is due any time now. The Great Year is about 26, 000 years. The actual year consists of 12 months, but 52 weeks or 13 4-week periods. This difference between 12 and 13 is the result of attempting to merge the lunar – moon-based – and solar – sun-based calendars. But the ratio of a week to a year is about the same as the ratio of 500 years to the Great Year, so I call this 500 year cycle the Great Week.

From: Astrology: Worlds Visible and Invisible Everett Blackman AFA 1974

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March 7, 2014

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Remember the Maine!

The Spanish-American War is widely considered to mark the start of the American Empire. The event that touched off the war was the explosion of the U.S. cruiser Maine in the Havana harbor the evening of February 15, 1898. At the time it was widely assumed, helped by the jingoism of the press, that it was an attack by the dastardly Spanish. Now it is thought to be an explosion on board the ship, but still conspiracy theories abound. This act led America to invade Cuba – which had long been considered “ours” – and the other Spanish colonies, most notably the Philippines, leading to a bloody war which featured American water-boarding.

The last Indian wars were past, the frontier had been declared closed, and many American thought it was time to expand beyond our borders. The Spanish-American War came about at a convenient time. In fact, America was itching for war. Back in December 1895 the United States almost got into a war with Great Britain over Venezuela. Many of the “leaders” of the country, such as Theodore Roosevelt, were for it as a way of increasingly America’s manhood. It had been so long since this country had a war, and it was time for another one.

Looking at the chart, it seems like a mirror image of the 9/11 chart. We have the notorious Saturn-Pluto hard aspect, again an opposition, along the Angles. But in this case Pluto is on the Descendant and Saturn is on the Ascendant, the opposite of the 9/11 chart. This makes sense: on 9/11 the explosion was in the Homeland – the Ascendant – whereas the explosion on the Maine was in a foreign country – the Descendant. Pluto was also on the Descendant during the earlier war scare.

Notice by looking at the graphical ephemeris that Pluto was again stationary about to turn direct and Saturn was slowing down about to turn retrograde. The exact opposition took place a couple of weeks later, on the Ascendant and as both were stationary. At the time discussion was happening in Congress and the newspapers about the upcoming war. Also notice the year long conjunction of Neptune with natal Mars, repeating a similar Neptune-Mars theme which we saw in the 9/11 chart.

Mars had passed over Pluto a week before. I jokingly call this the sign of mass murders (Ebertin says force, brutality), which doesn’t please those with this common configuration; the conjunction happens every two years, but one can see why I call it that: The killer at Virginia Tech had this conjunction. Also notice that Mars passed over the Moon of the United States in another month as people were getting agitated for war, and by late April when war was declared, Neptune was stationary on natal Mars and transiting Mars was opposite natal Neptune and square natal Mars, thus accentuating the problematic Mars-Neptune square in the U.S. Chart.

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February 27, 2014

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Remember 9/11!

The collapse of the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City was an event that is memorable and has an exact time, if it did not “Change Everything.” It was such an important event for the United States that it must surely show up in the chart of the U.S if astrology has any validity whatsoever. And the transits should be appropriate for an event of this magnitude and nature. A Jupiter or Neptune transit would not cut it. As you can see from the chart below, there is no need to worry. Not only is the transit appropriate to the nature of the situation, but in fact these are the most appropriate transits possible. In fact, this one event caused me to accept the Sibly chart. Further work with it only increased my certainty.

Let’s look at the most obvious first: Transiting Pluto on the Ascendant. Pluto is 17′ from exactly on the Ascendant. But if you look at the graphical ephemeris you will see Pluto went stationary direct right on the Ascendant, and had been there for over a month. Pluto is big events, explosions even – remember it was discovered in the Thirties – transformation, things from the underworld that we would rather not think of. And it took place here, in the Homeland, hence the Ascendant.

But wait, there’s more. Notice the Pluto-Saturn opposition across the Ascendant-Descendant axis. Fourth harmonic aspects of Saturn and Pluto are notorious. These were involved at the start of the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, the Cold War and now the War on Terror. Also notice that at the time Saturn was slowing down and turned retrograde in two weeks, as can be seen from the graphical ephemeris.

One other minor point: Notice Neptune opposite the North Node of the Moon and thus conjunct the South Node. The Nodes, among other things, represents the connections among people. But the North and South nodes also have opposite meanings. Neptune on the North Node suggests a lack of community-sense (Ebertin). I hypothesize that on the South node it means the opposite, since immediately after 9/11 there was an increased sense of people being together.

But notice also Uranus slowly conjoining the Moon – the people will be excited. Uranus got closer and went exactly over it while the people were being prepared for the War in Afghanistan. The previous time – 84 years before – when Uranus was in the same position the people were getting prepared for our entry into World War I. Americans were against an entry into World War I, and Wilson was reelected in 1916 on the pledge that He Kept Us Out of War. But that changed quickly as a propaganda campaign took place to get us to hate the Germans – the Huns. Hamburger was called Salisbury Steak and saurkraut was called Liberty Cabbage. This time around French Fries were renamed Freedom Fries because the French (who were responsible for our victory in the Revolutionary War, even though it caused them to lose theirs) did not support our War on Terror.

Notice transiting Neptune sesquiquadrate natal Mars (almost exact) and also sesquiquadrate natal Neptune. This highlights the natal Mars square Neptune for the United States. This square is problematic, and I will write in detail about it later, but let me just say now that it indicates that this country’s use of violence is somewhat hinky. Mars and Neptune are not compatible planets, and the square can be a difficult aspect. With transiting Neptune’s accentuation of that square and adding its own delusional nature to the mix, one can well understand why our reaction to the event was so misdirected.

If we look at the fourth harmonic chart, we see a close opposition of natal Pluto and transiting Pluto, reflecting the semisquare of natal Pluto to the Ascendant in the chart of the United States. I will write more about that aspect later, but for now I will quote the words of a famous agitator about that Pluto-Pluto aspect: Those who live by the sword (natal Pluto) will die by the sword (transiting Pluto).

I consider this event, along with the Pluto ingress seven years later (Pluto ingresses to Cardinal Signs have to do with the rise and fall of nations, among other things) a bookend of the American Empire. This will become more clear when I talk about the other bookend and compare it to this one.

500 Year Party

An astrological study of history and politics

Tag Archives: astrology

The Wars of America – Part I

The 2008 Election

Constitution Summer

The Shot Heard Around the World

The Vietnam War: Another Fiftieth Anniverary

Thoughts on Astrology as a Revolutionary Science

The Nodal Problems

500 Years — Part I

Remember the Maine!

Remember 9/11!