The Act of Settlement

I went away yesterday for a few days, so here's a quick one. Gordon Brown has discussed royal succession reform with the Queen, backed by strong public support. At present, succession to the throne is weighted in favour of males, and you cannot succeeed to the throne if you are a Catholic, or married to one. This goes back to the Act of Settlement of 12th June 1701 (time unknown).


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In the natal chart, we see Pluto conjunct North Node in Leo: the power (Pluto) of the King/Queen (Leo). And Sun in Gemini: the split between men and women, Catholics and Protestants.

The Progressed Moon is currently somewhere in Sagittarius, the opposite sign to the Sun, bringing change to that Sun. By transit, Uranus is squaring that divisive Gemini Sun. So a quick result is possible.

I'm in favour of the monarchy because it takes some of the pressure to be a superstar off the PM and lets him get on with his job. I think the US could also do with a monarch. Look at the way they love their celebrities, including that foreign royal, Princess Diana. Again, it would mean less nonsense around Barack Obama. With Sun in Leo square to Neptune, the more glamour that can be diverted away from him the better.

I do not know how radical Pluto in Capricorn is going to prove when it comes to our attitude to the economy. It may simply involve a recession followed by a more regulated economic era. Or – and this is probably what a lot of us would like to see – it may involve a serious look at the resources available to us, and an end to the model of continuous growth as the hallmark of a healthy economy.

This was on BBC news today:

Retail sales growth almost stalled in February as consumers cut back on spending, official figures show. Sales growth slowed to 0.4% last month when compared with February 2008. High Street chain Next and others say price cuts have not attracted shoppers. The heavy snowfall in February, as well the worsening economic climate, hit companies already hurt by the deterioration in shopping last year.

So the attitude is still firmly there. In any sane economy that is able (like ours) to meet people’s basic needs and more, what you would be looking for is a band within which retail sales fluctuate: some years they go up, and some years they go down, but not drastically. A bit like farmers growing crops.

But no, the economy is structured in such a way that sales only growing very slightly is seen as a bad thing. We think so much in terms of growth that even contraction is called ‘negative growth’. This way of thinking has been around a long time, but perhaps with Pluto in expansive Sagittarius it has got worse. Pluto in Capricorn is a good antidote, but unless something prolonged and world-shaking comes along, we will only see a bit of a corrective.

However, with Pluto having only just entered Capricorn, and with the Uranus-Pluto square still to come, I am hopeful that this recession is the start of something much bigger, a much more radical reappraisal than the tweaking of bank rules. Also, Neptune and Jupiter will be moving around each other in Aquarius for the rest of this year. I think it indicates some big new dream (Jupiter-Neptune) for our collective future (Aquarius) coming in.

Incidentally, the BBC reported quite definitely the other day that those AIG executives would be giving back their bonuses. Since then there has been nothing in the news. So I’m thinking that it may unfortunately not be true. So much for my last blog!

Pope Converts to Islam; Bill Clinton Vows Celibacy

Nine of the 10 executives who received top bonuses from US insurance giant AIG have agreed to return them. This is amazing news. It’s the sort of thing that just doesn’t happen. Mind you, we’ll probably never know what sort of leverage was used on these executives.

But it’s a great example of the current Venus-Pluto dance at its best. (And probably Saturn-Uranus as well. And Jupiter-Neptune!) Venus is retrograde in Aries, 10 days off an exact square with stationing Pluto. Money-men do not behave like this, period, never, never, never. Unless the review (retro) of remuneration (Venus) leads to a huge power shift (square to Pluto.) There was no legal requirement for them to return their bonuses – and one of them did not – but the cultural requirement had become huge, and eventually they had to bow to it.

In my piece on March 20th I wrote about the mass-protest against the bonus-culture being a defining moment for Pluto in Capricorn, a point at which we can see that the culture really is beginning to change. These executives returning their pay shows that we have moved beyond demands for a change of culture and into an actual change of culture.

What’s encouraging about it is that it didn’t move into a personalised witch-hunt followed by a bloody battle through the courts to extract it from them. With Venus in Aries square to Pluto, it could easily have been like this. The vote by Congress to impose a retrospective 90% tax on these people – which Obama has reluctantly declared unconstitutional – would have taken us down the nasty road. But it hasn’t happened like this. It’s the US business culture saying OK, we’ll change without a war.

Whatever the legal situation, those executives were up against the collective in a big way, there was a tide carrying everything before it, and Pluto had to be yielded to.

So if the Venus-Pluto square is affecting you, this shows what can happen. Your big issues around money and relationships don’t have to result in a prolonged struggle. The way Pluto works is that events reach a certain point, the pressure has been there for some time, and you realise there is an inevitability there, a necessity, or a fate if you like, that can’t be fought against. And with Venus backing into Pluto, now is the time when these shifts can happen.

In my piece on March 10th I wrote about the period up to April 3rd (the exact Venus-Pluto square) being a defining moment in the attempts by the US government to get the economy moving again. And it is proving to be so. Timothy Geithner has just released his latest bail-out plan to get the banks lending again, without which the US economy cannot begin to recover. The plan seems to involve the government subsidising the buyout of 'toxic debt' (a whole pile of nearly worthless mortgages) that are currently owned by the banks. These shaky assets are heavily compromising the banks' balance sheets, and so restricting their ability to lend, because you need a stable capital base from which to lend.

Geithner's reputation is on the line over this issue. It would seem that his plan has to succeed in order to keep his job. If it doesn't work, it is hard to see what the US government can do next, under the present economic paradigm, at any rate.

I suspect, for astrological reasons, that it won't work. His solution effectively belongs to the old Sagittarian economy: throw government money at the problem. But we are no longer in that era. And Venus (the economy) retrograde in Aries square to Pluto says this is not a time for initiatives but for becoming aware of the new power, the new reality governing the economy, and bowing to that. This may indeed mean that the banks are stuffed for a lot longer, and that the recession deepens. And this is very difficult for a politician who is expected to produce results. The astrology is saying we need to sit and wait and take our time, because this is such a new situation. The public and Congress want results right now.


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With Sun, Mercury, Node, Uranus conjunct in Leo, Geithner has the brilliance and originality to see what the new situation requires. He is the right man for the job, but his political skills may let him down. His natal Venus - popularity - is opposite Saturn, so he needs to learn (Saturn) how to present himself. Obama has had to step in and help with the presentation of the current plan, because Geithner has shown himself not to be adept in this department.

So it's tricky. Geithner could be the man to guide the US - and to some extent the rest of the world - into the new economic era. But he is under intense pressure to produce quick results, and he needs better presentational skills. Neptune and Chiron are currently opposing his Leo Sun, so this could go either way. He could heal the nation, or Obama might have to sacrifice him when the Americans do not get the quick result they want.


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Obama was born 2 weeks before Geithner. He has MC at 29 Scorpio, and Node at 25 Leo. So both he and Geithner are strongly affected by this year's Jupiter-Neptune conjunction in Aquarius, which also strongly affects the US people (Moon at 27 Aquarius). So there are big hopes and dreams resting on Obama and Geithner, their fates are intertwined. These hopes and dreams are going to be tested for their reality as both Neptune and Jupiter circle around each other from May onwards in late Aquarius. The first test will be between now and then, as the world waits to see if Geithner's latest economic measure works. With natal Sun square Saturn, the US is not a patient nation. I don't think the Obama team is incompetent, so with any luck the outcome of the Jupiter-Neptune conjunction will be more realistic expectations about Obama and Geithner, rather than a premature sense of disillusionment.

The sky has been particularly intense for the last couple of days, due to the Sun entering Aries while making an applying square to Pluto; and at the same time Venus is in Aries, starting to make a retrograde applying square to Pluto. The pressure will start to ease in another day or so when the Sun’s square to Pluto begins to separate.

Venus describes popular appeal, and the British reality TV star Jade Goody died of Cancer last night aged 27. That’s Venus square Pluto for you. We don’t have a birth time for Jade Goody, but she was born 6 June 1981. Her Gemini Sun is ruled by Mercury at 4.36 Cancer. This Mercury is being hit hard by the Sun, Venus and Pluto combination.

I say good on her for taking her chances and going for the wealth and fame that were on offer, given the car-crash of a background she comes from, and the car-crash that her own life continued in many ways to be. People enjoyed her for being, in a way, refreshingly honest and down to earth. But she was also famous because she was stupid, big mouthed and liable to bully others (Mars in Gemini opposite Uranus in Scorpio.) She was one of the band of celebrities like Paris Hilton and Victoria Beckham who are famous for being famous. Yes, they have their personal qualities – often including a shrewdness about how to stay famous – but no particular talent.

I don’t know where this cult of stupidity comes from, but George W Bush cashed in on it. When most politicians make a gaffe, it counts against them. With GWB, it seemed to add to his folksiness and trustworthiness. The footballer David Beckham has genuine talent which he is rightly well-known for. I don’t know how stupid he actually is, but stupidity is, or was, also part of his appeal. Maybe it’s to do with Uranus being in Pisces. Uranus is the higher octave of Mercury, and describes intellectual insight. Vague and watery Pisces is not his natural element. And Neptune-ruled Pisces can tell us what is fashionable. So there it is!

Venus was also involved in the death of the actress Natasha Richardson last week, being almost exactly opposite her Libra Ascendant (Venus ruled) at the time of her accident.

Back to Venus-Pluto. We are in the middle of a 2 month process of Venus making 3 squares to Pluto: 2 direct and one retrograde. So I can guarantee you know people who are currently sorting – or avoiding – big stuff around money and relationships. Well, people are always sorting this sort of stuff. But it is particularly intense right now, and has an unusual depth and level of significance. This 2 month period is going to sort a lot of stuff for a lot of people. Some of the divorce cases right now must be horrendous! I think the Venus-Pluto dance is also describing the present phase of the attempts to sort the world economy, along with the furore around bonuses for executives who failed.

The direct square in early Feb put the issues firmly on the table. The Sun in Aries is now activating the retrograde Venus-Pluto square, which will be exact on 3rd April, with Pluto exactly stationing. Retrograde is a time for sorting issues, ready for moving forward again when the planet goes direct. So the next 12 days are a period when those issues which you know are on the table will need to be addressed and sorted. Sometimes we will need to take the initiative, sometimes that is exactly the wrong thing to do, and events need to be left to take their course. The Pisces New Moon in late Feb was also an eclipse, and so is involved in this Venus-Pluto process. Being Pisces, what it says to me is that the emphasis needs to be on letting events unfold – even letting others hang themselves if necessary! Venus in Aries likes to take action rather than watch and wait, so this retrograde period is a time when Aries has to learn patience!

Venus will not go direct again until the 18th April. She will then be in Pisces. Wait until the 24th when she is back in Aries. There will then be a 10 day period when Venus is in an applying square to Pluto. That is the time to act, to move things forward in a new and creative way.

The Rebellion against the Fat-Cats; Fred the Shred deconstructed

There is currently a rebellion on both sides of the Atlantic against the bonuses paid to executives of failed companies such as AIG and Royal Bank of Scotland, which had to be bailed out by the taxpayers. And it's right there's a rebellion, though it seems to me that both the US and UK governments were caught on the hop by not addressing the issue of bonuses when they did the bail-outs, and were in a position to set conditions. In the case of RBS, Sir Fred Goodwin being signed off by Lord Myners with his £705,000 yearly pension stinks of cosy cronyism. ‘Something queer about the Knight and the Peer’ (quote from me).

Only the other day Lord Myners was saying how much he admired Fred the Shred (as he was known for his cost-cutting measures) for the ‘dexterity’ with which he negotiated his vast pension. That’s like saying you admire Bernard Madoff for running such a big scam for so long.

I think this issue will be come to be seen as a turning point in the transition from Pluto in Sagittarius to Pluto in Capricorn, from an age of economic boom that became bloated and decadent to an age of common sense and prudence. It will prove to be a turning point because ordinary people and politicians are en masse rejecting and condemning the princes of the age we are leaving, the fat-cat financiers. The past is increasingly a place we do not want to return to, rather than a prosperity that we have lost. Values other than material gain are re-entering the arena.

This is perfectly in line with the main outer planet configuration of 2008-10, Saturn opposite Uranus. This particular configuration, probably more than any other, stands for a rebellion against the old way of doing things. And we are certainly encountering a rebellion, one that is clearly not going to go away. And it is peaking as Pluto begins to station, which suggests these events are particularly characteristic of the Capricorn Age we are entering. People are furious that these financiers at the top of the tree are being rewarded for failure, and that it is taxpayers money – there’s the rub – that is being used. What we want, what the collective is now yearning for, is a return to proportion and fairness and just financial rewards. And what the collective wants, it gets.

It will be interesting to see if the US government finds a way of clawing some of the money back off these financiers. In the UK we seem to have failed, and maybe for good reasons, because what is the point of a contract if it can be re-written when it no longer suits?

Having written this piece, news came through of the US House of Representatives vote to levy a 90% tax on bonuses of the employees at many of the companies bailed out by the government. It still has to be agreed by the Senate, who have their own draconian measure, but it's a big step in the right direction. There are questions about the legality of the measure, but I can't see that standing in the way for now, such is the public mood. This may embolden Gordon Brown to take similar measures in the UK. Brown has 12th House Mars in Pisces, and is not known for being bold.

However, I object to the scapegoating of Sir Fred Goodwin. He has had to take his children out of school because the government has made him its target, and the press has been only too willing to join in. The reason the government have targeted Sir Fred is to conceal their own failings in letting the situation happen in the first place. Sir Fred Goodwin is just a greedy banker doing what greedy bankers do. He is a jungle beast acting in character. There always have been and will be plenty of people like him. That is why Russia went the way it did after Communism collapsed – they all came out of the woodwork after a 70 year chill. The job of government is not to eradicate the Sir Freds, for they will always be there, but to control them. Properly controlled, these beasts can generate a certain amount of wealth for the nation, as well as for themselves. I think it’s generally better to let people have their head to some extent rather than sit on them, unpalatable as these types often are.

Sir Fred Goodwin was born on 17 Aug 1958. He has Sun in Leo, trine to Saturn and sextile to Jupiter. So in a way it was always easy for him. He chart oozes talent and leadership, but also hubris. His Mars in Taurus square to Uranus gives him brilliance with money. Venus square Neptune gives the possibility of getting caught up in collective financial delusions, as well as more star quality. His Moon is most likely in Virgo and square to Saturn. So underneath the star quality is a deep sense of lack of self-worth, like however much he achieves he can’t sit back and feel good about himself. In one way he knows how brilliant he is – the Sun – but on a deeper, more emotional level, he doesn’t. And with Moon in the critical sign of Virgo, he gives himself a hard time over any perceived failings: they just go to prove his lack.


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His Sun also has its difficulties: widely conjunct Pluto and opposite Chiron. Leos often have fathers who are absent in some way, so that they have to find their own way, their own connection to life. Stick that opposite the Chiron wound, and it gives the sense that Fred Goodwin found this very difficult to come to terms with. The Sun-Pluto-Chiron combination, and Moon-Saturn (of which I have both: I wasn’t aware of the similarity until just now!), give someone who has a lot of inner work to do, sorting through a sense of pain and inadequacy, but also innate wisdom and compassion that are encountered if you do the inner work. What is noticeable about Sir Fred, not just in his life-story but also in his manner, is how ‘out-there’ he is, just how much he is identified with being the extraverted super-hero. Pluto and Chiron on his Sun give a deep need for regeneration, for dying and being re-born as a more authentic being, but still carrying the unknowable Chironic pain that is always teaching you and deepening you. (Chiron was primarily a teacher.) So it is not surprising that what has happened to him has happened. He is the Chiron scapegoat, the one who all his life was desperate to belong but who has ultimately shown himself to be not ‘one of us’. And it occurred because he ignored the authenticity that Pluto demands, and the inner work that Chiron and Moon-Saturn need. What I find amazing is how long he kept it up.

He is doubtless conscious of his talent. What he is probably not conscious of is the lack of self-love, the inner need. The combination of Sun-hubris and Moon-neediness produced the driving ambition for which is he is well-known, and which almost destroyed the bank he was running.

It’s like a Greek tragedy. In Buddhist cosmology, it is the gods who suffer most when they fall, for they have known nothing other than success and happiness. And what a fall Sir Fred has had, from hero to national scapegoat. He is not showing it, not one inch. He’s not the sort. But what has happened must on an emotional level feel like the confirmation of the bad love for himself that he has always felt.

He was known as Fred the Shred, and this is described by his Moon in Virgo (analytical and efficient) square to Saturn (cold). But Moon in Virgo also, through its analytical ability, gives the capacity to understand one’s emotions. Fred is now unemployable, but well-off. Neptune is currently opposing his Sun, while either Uranus or Pluto is hard-aspecting his Moon. He has no personal water in his chart, so he doesn’t understand emotions easily. But watery Neptune and the transit to his Moon are taking him there, if he is willing. And he needs to think of others: Libra North Node and Neptune dissolving his self-obsessed Leo Sun and the attitude of service his Virgo Moon needs to feel happy. He’s the sort of guy who will always pop up again, so it will be interesting to see if the next few years, with time on his hands, change him.

The fact that he has to take his children out of school is interesting, for it was his own hubristic actions which created the situation. It’s like a clash between his business values and his family values, and these clashes can be creative. And also his own childhood is being activated. His Sun in Leo is in the sign of the child, and the Moon is associated with childhood. Both have outer planet transits, and he is also completing his Chiron Return, and natal Chiron is opposite his Sun. I think the later part of his life could be so much more satisfying for him, albeit far less ‘successful’.

Too Big to Fail

Here is a recent excerpt from from political astrologer Nancy's blog. Nancy is a great astrological micro-manager, which usually means we get a blow-by-blow account of what's happening - and going to be happening - in US politics. Here she turns her astrological talents - and her inimitable way with words - to some of the big US corporations:

Once upon a time, capitalism performed much like an economic version of the natural selection described by Charles Darwin. Well-run small businesses flourished and grew profitable; poorly managed ones eventually failed. In the world of Economic Darwinism, the strong and adaptable prevailed, while the weak and brittle fell by the wayside, their unemployed remains eventually absorbed into the larger order. But that was before an entire species of natural predators, known as regulatory overseers, was systematically eliminated by a handful of deluded Free Market worshippers. This upset capitalism’s unwieldy balance and left the increasingly gluttonous beasts at the top of the food chain free to gorge themselves on addictive and very toxic derivatives, as well as indulge themselves in various other forms of profligate, risk-taking behaviour. Ultimately, these corporate titans morphed into an impotent and pathetic form of dysfunctional giantism. This new species of bloated and bumbling creatures, unfortunately, had far-reaching tentacles that connected them to every corner of the global financial system. When they inevitably became ill from derivative poisoning and generic gluttony, the contamination began to spread exponentially. In short, a once-balanced, if brutal, economic ecosystem had become profoundly impaired, with the various governments reduced to the role of propping up the falling giants with massive monetary transfusions in order to prevent a worldwide cascade into collapse.

Many of these “too big to fail” players have received billions in taxpayer-subsidized bailout funds in the past year. In the last week, amidst the news that some of the miscreants may have improving health after months of radical intervention, the Stock Market soared. Whether this is just an anomalous week or a new trend is yet to be determined. From an astrological perspective, Jupiter, the planet of expansion, is now within 10 degrees of its exact conjunction with Neptune, the planet of delusion, an aspect that will be growing in strength through July 10, and likely to bring a period of unrealistic exuberance and a far more promising economic prognosis than may be legitimate. I have predicted on numerous occasions my concern that, following a period of exaggerated optimism in the spring and early summer, a renewed, sharp contraction of the economy will occur in early November 2009, stretching through at least the following August. This is due to the coming Saturn/Pluto square impacting significant points in numerous national charts including the US Venus and US Midheaven. A look at the charts of three of the biggest financial titans suggests some corroboration with this theory. (More...)

We've just had a big line-up of planets in Aquarius, so here is a robot news item. Having read a bit of sci-fi, I find it strange and wonderful, like the things in your imagination turning out to be real.

Japanese scientists have unveiled a humanoid walking robot at Tsukuba City, north east of Tokyo.

The Idiot's Guide to the Credit Crunch

If like me you get confused by how it all happened, visit this 5 minute Audio Slideshow: A guide to the credit crunch by Robert Peston of the BBC. I still don’t understand why it is so crucial for banks to lend money to each other, though I can see why they wouldn’t in the present climate.

Robert Peston, who has become a prominent economic commentator in the UK, is a Taurean. (He’s got a fantastic chart for his job: born on a New Moon in Taurus in a grand earth trine with Jupiter and Pluto.) Vince Cable, a leading liberal politician who has also recently become prominent as an economic commentator, is a Taurean. George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, is a Gemini, but with Sun conjunct Saturn in Taurus and a Mercury-Venus conjunction in Taurus.

So the people who seem to be most visible in commenting on the government’s handling of the economy are all strong in a sign that understands money: Taurus. Meanwhile the people who are actually handling the economy, Gordon Brown and his Chancellor Alistair Darling, have no planets in Taurus. One is a Pisces, the other a Sagittarius. These are both Jupiter-ruled signs that belong to the reckless age that we are now leaving.

Neptune and the Zeitgeist

Being the outermost planet, Pluto is generally used as the strongest significator of the age we live in. And his recent move from Sagittarius to Capricorn has seemed to justify this.

But what about Neptune? Most of the time, Pluto is further out than Neptune. But because Pluto’s orbit is so elliptical, there are periods such as the present when Pluto is, or was until recently, within the orbit of Neptune. You can check this through the ephemeris. The further out a planet is, the more slowly it moves. If you compare the distance through the signs travelled by Neptune and Pluto between say 1st Jan 1981 and 1st Jan 1985, you will see that Neptune moved about 8 degrees in that time, and Pluto moved 10 degrees. So Neptune was the outermost planet in that period.

Currently there doesn’t seem to be much in it. There has been a loose sextile between the 2 planets that has lasted since the late 1940s. This has occurred as Pluto increased his speed from Leo through to Sag, as he always does. He is currently slowing down again, and drifting further from the Sun.

So for the last 60 years, we would be justified in saying that Neptune has been just as strong a significator of the Age, and more so at times, than Pluto. Pluto is more noticeable at present because he has just changed signs, but Neptune will also change signs in 2 years.

One astrologer said to me that Pluto being within the orbit of Neptune means that transformation (Pluto) comes within the bounds of the imagination (Neptune). This has certainly been a new emphasis within astrology during this period.

For a start, astrology has become more Neptunian. Traditionally, astrology is associated with Uranus: insights from another dimension, and primarily an intellectual craft. But in recent decades we have learned to feel our way into the symbols and let them speak to us; we have started treating the planets as gods. Also, astrology has become a transformational craft as insights from psychology have been brought on board. So we could say that in astrology, at least, transformation has been brought within the bounds of the imagination.

Pluto is now slowing down, and we are at the end of this 60 year period where Neptune and Pluto have been moving at comparable speeds.

But it is interesting to look back and characterise the times according to Neptune, and treat this planet as an equally strong indicator of the zeitgeist as Pluto has been.

So, for example, Neptune was in Capricorn from 1984 to 1998. Recent decades have been characterised by a growth in globalisation, in terms of both trade (Capricorn) and culture (Neptune), and this configuration also describes the dissolution (Neptune) of national boundaries (Capricorn) involved. As Pluto has entered Capricorn recently, so there are signs that this globalisation may be going into reverse, economically at any rate, as countries move to protect themselves in difficult times.

More recently, since 1998, we have had Neptune in Aquarius, but it has been Pluto in Sagittarius, from 1995 to 2008, that has really grabbed the astrological headlines: Pluto in Sag describes the continued globalisation that has occurred, the rise of fundamentalism and the war on terror, and the sustained global economic boom, culminating in a huge bubble and its consequences. All that is pretty hard to ignore, but I think we have to take the influence of Neptune in Aquarius as equally significant.

In a way Neptune in Aquarius began back in the early 90s through Neptune’s conjunction with Uranus, the ruler of Aquarius. As that ended, so Neptune moved into Aquarius. Neptune in Aquarius is also a strong indicator of globalisation, but more in the sense of nations working together for common social and political goals, rather than the trade emphasis of Neptune in Capricorn. In the European Union, we had the Treaty of Maastricht in the early 90s, which was a huge step towards closer integration. As Neptune moves towards the end of Aquarius, so there are signs that the attempts at union are starting to unravel: firstly in the rejection of a Constitution by a number of countries; and secondly through the division between rich and poor countries that the economic crisis is opening up.

The international criminal court was agreed by treaty in 1998, as Neptune entered Aquarius, and brought into existence in 2002.

Perhaps the over-riding event of Neptune in Aquarius has been the internet, and the cultural impetus and further globalisation developing through that. The internet began at the tail-end of the Uranus-Neptune conjunction, and just as Neptune was about to enter Aquarius. The importance of the internet is widely understood; but if we put Neptune on a level with Pluto, then the internet’s influence and potential perhaps become even more significant. Instant electronic communication (Aquarius) with no boundaries (Neptune) - one more piece of technology, but still in its infancy, and with a transformative effect that is still too early to see.

Behind our understanding of the world lies mythology. It’s all about stories. Christianity was – is – a bunch of stories about the universe. Not a very good bunch, in my opinion, and what’s worse they get taken literally. Science is also a bunch of stories about the universe. Quite a good bunch in my opinion. Like Darwinian Evolution - a good 1/2 story. Like Christianity, however, their listeners think they give the whole picture and tend to take them literally. But we need these stories to give us a sense of the universe we live in.

Jupiter is stories. But I’d say Neptune is the ground, the metaphysical womb from which they come, particularly the big, mythological stories. So the sign that Neptune is in would indicate the stories, images and symbols that lie behind our understanding of the world. These come first, and the world we live in becomes an expression of those stories.

The 80s and 90s were the peak of relativism and deconstructionism, particularly in the academic world. That is, we came to realise more fully that there are many truths, none of them absolute, and that ‘objectivity’ is very hard to achieve, as we are all arguing from a particular set of assumptions and cultural conditionings. This is very different to a traditional mind-set, whether Christian or Muslim or even Scientific, which assumes it has the absolute truth, and judges other viewpoints according to that light. Of course, we can then get absolute about relativism, and many people did.

But I think that Neptune in Capricorn – the dissolution (Neptune) of the traditional mind-set (Capricorn) – describes well what happened. Neptune was actually outside of Pluto during much of this period, appropriately making the point that it is mythologies that come first, and that that is what accepted religions and philosophies are: mythologies, not facts. (This period was also a peak in feminist activism, and again we have the dissolution (Neptune) of rigid male authority (Capricorn)).

This process prepared us well for Neptune in its next sign of Aquarius and the cultural diversity of the internet.

So Neptune in Capricorn, the Uranus-Neptune conjunction and Neptune in Aquarius have created a great open-mindedness among people. I imagine that people must have experienced something like this in the old empires, before the rise of modern nationalism, where you had people of all sorts of nationalities and religions living side by side in the big cities.

But it is not easy to live like this without a certain inner security and sophistication. It is a threat to simpler minds, and that is why we have had a concurrent rise in religious fundamentalism worldwide (wow, I sound like a real elitist here, but I’m prepared to be when it comes to fundamentalists!) This was Pluto in Sagittarius, pulling in the opposite direction to Neptune in Capricorn/Aquarius. And now Pluto in Capricorn, where we are starting to see religious fundamentalism go mainstream, particularly in the Middle East. (Guess what - I don't like the 'Rev' Rick Warren! Puffed up, smug, authoritarian, anti-gay creationist...)

I don’t think that Islamic fundamentalism is just a response to ‘western cultural imperialism’, for we have seen a similar rise in religious fundamentalism in the USA. It is certainly a response to cultural values that have arisen in the west, but I think they are part of an organic process that has a lot to do with science, and modern science has its roots in a more civilised Islamic world hundreds of years ago. So up yours Osama!

In 2 years time, Neptune will enter Pisces and a new mythological age will begin. At present we have a coming together of different mythologies from around the world, as well as conflict between them and a retreat into fundamentalism. Neptune in Pisces looks to me like a continuation of the process of globalisation of mythologies: not just having them side by side, but more of a blending, and a recognition that all mythologies have the same source - spontaneously arising out of the depths of the Mind in response to a world for which we need explanations as well as a sense of enchantment.

It is Mind, in a sense, that comes first, as the Buddhists would say. This is why science can never achieve the objectivity it aspires to and pretends to. It is just another myth, good in some ways, but a very partial one.

The chart for Neptune’s entry into Pisces is very nice.


Click to Enlarge

Not only is Neptune conjunct Venus and Chiron (‘healing mythologies’), but there is also a New Moon in Aries involving Jupiter. If anything is about a new start, a new vision, it is a New Moon in Aries, and Jupiter emphasises that and brings self-belief, good fortune and….. stories! Uranus conjunct Mars in early Aries and square to Pluto adds exceptional dynamism to this chart. 6 planets in Aries!

The world as we know it is being destroyed as Pluto (destruction and regeneration) begins his journey through Capricorn (tradition), and as disruptive and liberating Uranus approaches a square with Pluto. That process of destruction has only just begun, so much so that we are collectively still attempting to recreate the old through fiscal stimuli, renewed commitments to free trade etc.

This economic destruction is just Pluto’s entry point, and the coming square with Uranus will affect us on all levels. In 2 years time it will perhaps be clearer that the past is the past and that it is time for a new way of looking at the world, a new myth to replace the old one of endless economic expansion and technological progress – a form of progress that we mistook for progress in human consciousness itself. Pluto in Capricorn, as well as being a retreat into tradition, is also likely to take further a process of destruction of tradition that has been going on for hundreds of years in the west.

On another note, Neptune indicates fashion. We are passing through a period where cat-walk models, and therefore our idea of womanhood, have become an expression of Aquarius at its worst - a disembodied ideal. It's worse than that, because it seems like an attempt to keep women physically adolescent or even child-like, while at the same time we have moved into a time of greater awareness of, but also demonisation of, paedophiles. Yet these fashion gurus want us to find these anaemic sticks sexually attractive. It's sick! It's been said that a lot of the main fashion designers are gay men who naturally prefer a boy-shape. It's probably also got something to do with the shadow side of feminism, in which women feel they have to compete with men on men's terms, and that means no curves!

Neptune is on home territory in Pisces. Pisces also doesn't have a problem with eating plenty - no boundaries - when they remember to eat! So it may be fashionable to be a proper woman again - or a mermaid!

Mars in Gemini square Neptune: best eyeglasses commercial ever

Lynn has made a good point about Chiron and Neptune:

In the Daily Skywatch for March 9 I wrote of the spike in violence that was occurring all over the world, and since then there have been even more shocking mass murders in Germany and Alabama. This dramatic rise of violence occurred as Mars (aggression) passed over the approaching conjunction of Chiron (wounding) and Neptune (blurring reality). Read more here

Greener Grass

Saturn in Taurus


Sometimes you can reach too far!


And when you find yourself over-extended and you're stuck in a situation that you can't get out of.....


there is one thing you should always remember.......



Not everyone who shows up......


Mars in Taurus


Is there to help you!!

Venus-Pluto and the World Economy

Venus is currently doing a dance around Pluto. On 6 Feb she was at 2.27 Aries, exactly squaring Pluto at 2.27 Capricorn. Last Friday Venus went retrograde at 15 Aries, and will square an exactly stationing Pluto on 3rd April. The final square will be on 2nd May as Venus retraces her steps through Aries.

I think this series of squares will provide a time of reckoning for the world economy. Both planets have monetary associations. With Venus, the emphasis is on our personal attitude to money, money as a necessary part of life, and the sense of pleasure, prosperity and abundance that money can give. With Pluto, the emphasis is on riches and on the power of money.

So these 2 planets making a series of cardinal squares in the middle of the biggest economic crisis for generations has to be saying something.

What has characterised the crisis so far is the degree to which it is out of control. The politicians have to look as though they are in control, and be seen to be taking remedial measures. Obama hit the ground running in January with proposals for a huge fiscal stimulus to the US economy. He got it through, but the news keeps getting worse.

Sometimes life is like that. A ship in a storm just has to ride out the storm, and when it’s over the damage can be surveyed and repairs begun.

Cardinal signs like to initiate action and to control. So a cardinal square from Venus to Pluto is either a dynamic time of seizing control of one’s economic destiny; or it is a time when all attempts to take control are foiled – when the power of Pluto overwhelms the economic strategies of Venus.

In the 11 days leading up to the first Venus-Pluto square, the Icelandic banking system collapsed, and the IMF issued its worst outlook for the world economy in 60 years. This was at the height of Obama’s attempts to get his fiscal measures through Congress.

So I think the theme of this series of squares will be about economic planners bowing to the power of Pluto, rather than gaining any measure of control. The period leading up to the square of 3rd April is likely to be particularly defining. Pluto will be at his EXACT stationing degree – 3.18 Capricorn – when that square happens. So Pluto will be unusually powerful.

And Venus is Retrograde, and will be until 17th April. So this is a time for economic reflection, rather than bold new measures. All we have had are bold new measures for the last 6 months. They don’t seem to be working. As of last Friday, 6th March, a period of reflection has begun. Venus is telling us it is time to stop and look. No more hubris.

The economic responses so far have been worthy and traditional. They are not working because Pluto has entered a new sign, and a different sort of economy is therefore called for. We astrologers can say in broad outlines what that new sort of economy needs to be, that it needs to be more Capricornian and therefore more considered and prudent etc etc. But specifically what is needed right now, I’m not sure anyone knows the answer. The outlines of the new paradigm are still very hard to discern because we are still in the storm, even in the early stages of it.

So I think the message of this very timely series of Venus-Pluto squares is that the economy will continue to appear out of control if we keep acting as though Venus is Direct. Venus is not Direct for now. It is time to stop and to look and to listen for as long as is needed. Then Pluto will be on our side. He will give us the power to see, instead of just overwhelming us.

The US Venus is at 3.06 Cancer. What happens in the US economy defines what is going to happen in the rest of the world. This series of squares, and Pluto’s station, are happening in particularly tight aspect to the US Venus. So this time of reckoning applies very strongly to the USA.

To end on a very different note, Venus is also relationships. Something I have noticed in readings is that many people, even most people have issues to do with being pushed around by partners, letting their partner have their way inappropriately. (And vice-versa, though this is harder to admit to.) Men and women tend to have different ways of doing this or of letting this happen. So Venus Retro square to Pluto (power) is a very good time for reflecting on this in our own lives and making changes.

“Job Losses Hint at Vast Remaking of Economy”

I have read contradictory accounts by competent astrologers of what a stationing planet (i.e. standing still) means. It is perfectly plausible to say that when a planet stations, it is weakened in its effects, because its movement, its dynamism, is no longer there. It is also plausible to say that when a planet stations, it is as if it stops and stares at us, and this increases its power.

I prefer the latter interpretation. A planet beginning to station is a time of reckoning, you see the outcome of the previous months of direct or retrograde movement. The planet’s effects intensify for a while.

Pluto is beginning to station. He will stand still on April 3rd, and is now within ¼ of a degree of his stationing point. And we read the above headline in today’s New York Times.

Pluto’s entry into Capricorn has been quite remarkable. There has been no gradual build up as he moves through Capricorn. Pluto has hit the ground running, and begun his demolition work immediately.

I think the intensity can be explained by Pluto’s interaction with the concurrent Saturn-Uranus opposition: Saturn rules the sign that Pluto has entered, and Uranus is in the early stages of a square to Pluto (they will move within 6 degrees of the square this summer).

Anyway, here is an extract from the article headlined above:

As government data revealed that 651,000 more jobs disappeared in February, a sense took hold that growing joblessness may reflect a wrenching restructuring of the American economy… In key industries — manufacturing, financial services and retail — layoffs have accelerated so quickly in recent months as to suggest that many companies are abandoning whole areas of business.

“These jobs aren’t coming back,” said John E. Silvia, chief economist at Wachovia in Charlotte, N.C. “A lot of production either isn’t going to happen at all, or it’s going to happen somewhere other than the United States. There are going to be fewer stores, fewer factories, fewer financial services operations. Firms are making strategic decisions that they don’t want to be in their businesses.”

This dynamic has proved true in past recessions as well, with fading industries pushed to the brink during downturns before others emerged to create jobs when economic growth inevitably resumed. But with job losses so enormous over such a short period of time, some economists argue that the latest crisis challenges the traditional American response to hard times.

“The current pace of decline is breathtaking,” said Robert Barbera, chief economist at the research and trading firm ITG. “We are now falling at a near record rate in the postwar period and there’s been no change in the violent downward trajectory.”

This rapid deterioration has prompted talk that some industries are being partly dismantled. Layoffs are multiplying because of dysfunction in the financial system, which is prompting even healthy companies to shed workers and shut down operations out of concern they may soon lose access to credit.

We are living in extraordinary times. No one knows how far this thing is going to go. No amount of government intervention in any country seems to make any difference. In the UK, the government has just decided to print £75bn of new money (‘quantitative easing’) to try to stimulate the economy. But even they admit they don’t know if it will work. This crisis has a mind of its own.

And Pluto stationing points to the start of a new phase. The frightening extent to which the US economy is being dismantled is becoming clearer.

Saturn and Uranus have done just 2 of their 5 exact oppositions. Pluto is only 1 year into Capricorn, and only a few months into Capricorn on a full-time basis. Uranus and Pluto have begun sparring, but the real fight is a couple of years away. The world is changing, and even the politicians are no longer pretending to be in control. The next few years will see the biggest changes in any of our lifetimes, except for those of us who were around in the 1930s and 40s.

I don’t know why, but I have an OK feeling about it, like the world is being taken on a necessary journey, and we need to trust in that. Maybe it is because Pluto’s entry into Capricorn was nice: Pluto conjunct Venus and Jupiter, and trine to its ruler Saturn.

Afghanistan - past and future

Here's another new article by Adrian Duncan, this time on the astrology of Afghanistan and Nato:

When I arrived in Herat, the most easterly city in Afghanistan, in June 1970, it was, or seemed to be, an idyllic kingdom, ruled by a king called Zahir Shah. Coming from the oppressive desert of Iran, with an equally oppressive regime, it was like entering heaven from hell. Suddenly there was music in the air, colorful horses and carriages ringing with bells, and people selling their wares to young people on the hippy trail… and many people enjoying those wares. Cool, friendly, laid-back, with little trace of extremist religion. Behind the scenes the religious fundamentalists chafed under the reforms the king had instituted under the years, and, as always, in the mountainous areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan, most men bore weapons, which could be bought in the local markets. Afghanistan has a reputation for being able to look after itself, as the British discovered in 1842. At this time they sent out an expeditionary force of 16,000 men from India to pacify Kabul. These men were slaughtered in less than a week, and one man lived to tell the tale.The Soviet Union were also ultimately defeated in the 1980’s by Afghanistan resistance, which had considerable support from the USA in the form of advanced anti-aircraft missiles, conventional arms and dollars. Osama bin Laden was a prominent recipient of this support. A complete withdrawal of Soviet forces took place under Gorbatchev on February 15th 1989, with Mujahideen attacks wreaking havoc on Soviet troops until the last moment. (more...)

World of Wisdom

There are a couple of new articles at Adrian Duncan's site, World of Wisdom:

The Wild Transition from 2008 to 2010

Planets seem to like to mark their territory, and when that territory covers the cusp of a sign, then border issues are always a major theme. With a flurry of outer planets changing sign over the next couple of years, establishing borders is going to be very difficult indeed. Generally borders are fiercely defended, but just as often they are very fluid, defined at different points of history by the geopolitical forces of the time. An example of the porous nature of a border was at the end of January 2008, when a border barrier established by Israel between Gaza and Egypt was blown up and over ½ million Gaza residents flowed into Egypt to buy goods. Venus and Pluto simultaneously moved from Sagittarius to Capricorn at this time - Venus being the reason why people came back loaded with goods. (more…)

Trends for 2009

The year ahead promises to be more exciting than most as outer planets line up to bring preliminary fireworks, where we can expect an even bigger show in 2010. The big players in 2009 are the Saturn/Uranus opposition, which as Barack Obama intimated, is to bring “change we can believe in”. The first opposition took place exactly on the US election, and two more follow: on February 5th at 20.37 Virgo/Pisces and September 15th, 2009, at 24.43 Virgo/Pisces. Seen from a sun sign viewpoint, this will be a very major influence for Aquarians in regard to their economy, emotional life and security. Capricorns are also likely to experience this opposition as a period of seismic change, especially in connection with their convictions and beliefs and in relation to travel and education. But of course Virgos and Pisces will profoundly feel the pull of this opposition in relationships, as they strive to bridge a gap that seems intercontinental in expanse. (more..)

The Dissolution of the European Union

Like many Englishmen, I’ve always felt a bit ambivalent about the European Union. I’m not particularly impressed by the economic advantages, because I think that in the West we are wealthy enough already without setting up protectionist blocs against poorer countries. Nor do I like being part of a much bigger, and more remote, political collective. My vote, and my ability to exercise influence, is small enough as it is, without it being diminished further.

What I like about the EU is that it potentially brings different countries and cultures closer together, particularly countries that have a recent history of war.

A lot of English people may well think the opposite to me: they like the economic advantages, but are happy to keep the frogs and krauts and spics and eye-ties at a healthy distance. And I think that is pretty much how it works. We are an island state, and mainland Europe seems just as foreign as it ever was. Britain has always been the odd man out in the EU. Geographically, this has a lot to do with our physical separation. Astrologically, this is because we have Uranus Rising, and our Uranus also hard aspects either the Angles or the Sun of the 2 charts for the EU.

It does not seem to me that there is a lot holding the EU together. The economic advantages are a significant binding factor. But there seems to be no pressing necessity for the social and political union that we have also been moving towards for some years, and a number of countries have voted No in recent years to the various attempts at creating a Constitution. It’s not just Britain anymore who is being the ‘awkward’ one.

A comparison might be the 13 states that originally created the USA. If they hadn’t pulled together politically and militarily, they would not have been able to defeat Britain in the War of Independence. It took a lot of haggling to get the 13 states to form the USA, but they had a strong reason to do so. The EU has no such reason. And our various states have been separate cultures for a lot longer than the various states of the USA ever were. It was hard enough getting the states of the US to form a union, even with pressing reasons for doing so. So I don’t see why the EU should ever get much beyond a loose economic union.

The deepening world economic crisis will, I think, prove make or break for the EU over the next few years, and I think it will be ‘break’ as countries worldwide increasingly retreat into protecting themselves.

In the New York Times yesterday was an article headed: Growing Economic Crisis Threatens the Idea of One Europe. It continued: The leaders of the European Union gathered Sunday in Brussels in an emergency summit meeting that seemed to highlight the very worries it was designed to calm: that the world economic crisis has unleashed forces threatening to split Europe into rival camps… The traditional concept of “solidarity” is being undermined by protectionist pressures in some member countries and the rigors of maintaining a common currency, the euro, for a region that has diverse economic needs. Particularly acute economic problems in some newer members that once were part of the Soviet bloc have only made matters worse… “The European Union will now have to prove whether it is just a fair-weather union or has a real joint political destiny,” said Stefan Kornelius, the foreign editor of the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. “We always said you can’t really have a currency union without a political union, and we don’t have one. There is no joint fiscal policy, no joint tax policy, no joint policy on which industries to subsidize or not. And none of the leaders is strong enough to pull the others out of the mud.”

For now, the problem centres around some of the newer and poorer members being in financial crisis, and the richer members being reluctant to bail them out.

The EU (or EEC as it then was) came into being as a result of the Treaty of Rome. As an organisation, it came into being later the same year. Below are the 2 charts.


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Either way, the EU is being powerfully hit by Uranus and Pluto in the coming years. The Treaty of Rome has both Sun and Angles being exactly hard aspected from 2010 through to 2013, and the EU as an organisation from 2008 through to 2014.

So there are very strong transformative pressures already under way in both charts. Pluto takes us down to bare necessities, to that which we need for our survival and continued evolution: anything else is dross, and has to go. Uranus can bring sudden separation and disintegration. The EU, as I have said, does not have a reason to stay together on a survival level. The astrology is telling me quite unambiguously that the EU is going to unravel in the coming years. The most that I can see being left is a protectionist bloc made up of some of the richer countries.

In the Treaty of Rome chart, there is a strong Uranus - in the 10th, trine the Sun, sextile the ASC and in a t-square with Neptune and a Uranus-ruled Moon. So the EU has a progressive idealism at its root that would bring countries together, that would result in civilising co-operation instead of conflict and war. But Uranus is also unsettling and unstable and likely to lead to disintegration.

This pronounced Uranus reminds me of the current Iraq chart, based on the handover of power on 28/6/4 at 9.26am in Baghdad. There is a Sun-Moon-Angular Uranus Grand Trine. So you can see the impulse towards a democratic future (Uranus). But it also introduces instability: it would be easy (trine) for this US supported government to disintegrate (Uranus). I think this probably will happen after the Americans have gone. And I think the pronounced Uranus in the Treaty of Rome chart also holds the possibility of eventual instability and disintegration.

The Treaty chart has unaspected Pluto in the 11th: this suggests that power struggles between the member nations, that are hard to contain, could prove the EU's undoing. Prog Pluto is currently square prog Sun and exactly conjunct Prog MC, highlighting this issue right now. The EU's Nodes are on the Scorpio (North)-Taurus (South) axis. So its lesson is about sharing resources and power (Scorpio North Node) versus retreating into material self-interest, which is the easy path (Taurus South Node). Over the next few years, Prog Asc will conjunct the prog and natal North Node. So again we have a time of reckoning: will the EU continue to share resources and power between its members, or will it withdraw into separate units of self-interest?

In the EEC chart, Prog Sun has recently moved into Pisces, and is opposite Prog Pluto. So the themes of dissolution (Pisces) and power struggle (Pluto) are here also.