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Monday, Feb. 27
Bush and Clinton
President
Bush's Venus is at the same degree of Leo as Senator Hillary Clinton's
Saturn. I guess you might say they don't like each other very
much. Hillary Clinton will be experiencing her second Saturn return
at the same time that Bush's Golden Boy Venus takes a hit from
transiting Saturn. Clinton's Saturn return will occur shortly
before the 2006 midterm elections, in which Senator Clinton is
up for easy re-election. She says she is not running for president,
but her recent stance on the port security issue puts her out
in front on the terrorism issue--which is where any Democrat who
wants to get elected president has got to be. Bush, of course,
will not be running for anything, but his pre-election Saturn-tarnished
Venus may rub off on other Republicans.
Right
now, Saturn just retrograded back over Bush's Ascendant--more
image problems. Clinton has Mars and Pluto conjunct at 14 degrees
of Leo. What will happen in her life when Saturn hits that power
conjunction in August?
Sunday,
Feb. 26
Iraq
War or Civil War?
The
Iraq War continues to slide out of control--as it has from the
very beginning. It will end badly. I wrote in The Mountain
Astrologer in the fall of 2003 about the astrology of the
Iraq War and how hard it would be for the U.S. to ever "win" this
conflict. You can read excerpts from my article here.
In more
recent comments, posted in the fall of
2005, I wrote the following:
"A
composite chart for the
U.S. and
the Iraqi constitutional referendum on October 15, 2005, is
very alarming [see
horoscope by following this link and
then scroll to the bottom of the page--the time of the Iraqi
constituion was figured at 8:00 PM when the polls closed]. It
shows a Grand Cross involving almost all the planets. The composite
Moon—the people, in mundane astrology—is in exact
opposition to Saturn, the planet of law and administrative control.
Mars opposes Neptune. The constitution appears destined to fail,
especially since a last-minute allowance was made for the Iraqi
constitution to be changed later. This U.S./Iraq constitutional
horoscope seems to be instead a planetary code for civil war."
Tuesday,
Feb. 21
Neptune
in Aquarius and TV Ratings
First,
“American Idol” beats out the Grammy Awards show,
then the Winter Olympics (see
news story). This is Neptune
in Aquarius in action. Neptune is the glamorous planet
of fan worship and Aquarius is egalitarian—everyone has
an equal chance. On “American Idol,” the fans and
stars have merged into one seamless egalitarian fabric. It’s
a show where stars are made by the audience of fans. The “American
Idol” stars are just like you and me, except they probably
sing better—at least in the finals. Ironically, one of
this year’s big Grammy winners, Kelly Clarkson, was also
a previous winner on…“American Idol.”
Neptune in Aquarius has meant
that we no longer crave the distant celebrity. We want them
up close, which accounts for the popularity of celebrity magazines
which disclose stars’ all-too-human blemishes; X sports
like skateboarding; and bluegrass music festivals where fans
get to talk to the headliners after the performance.
Bird
Flu and Astrology, Part III
There
has been a great deal of recent discussion within the astrological
community regarding the planetary signature for a bird flu
pandemic. While many claim that the Saturn-Neptune opposition
is “it,” this is only part of the developing picture.
I
believe that mundane Saturn-Neptune configurations can often
symbolize trance states which sweep through culture. This
is what happened in the early part of the 1950’s during
the Saturn-Neptune conjunction, when Senator Joseph McCarthy
helped to lead a modern witch hunt to root out Communist sympathizers.
The most recent Saturn-Neptune oppositions occurred during
the years 1936-1937 and 1971-1972. There was a certain mass
blindness to historical reality during both those time periods.
In 1936, Hitler staged the Berlin Olympics while continuing
to court world opinion. The world, mired in a Great Depression,
chose to look the other way. In 1972, Richard Nixon was re-elected
American president while voters looked the other way and chose
not to see behind the curtains. The currently forming Saturn-Neptune
opposition, of course, coincides with the U.S. war in Iraq
and surging Islamic fervor. This begs the question: What reality
are we not seeing this time?
The
Saturn-Neptune opposition may also point to the onset
of a “mass psychosis” alluded to in a recent
news article about the bird flu’s entry into Europe.
If Saturn-Neptune is a sort of mass trance state (and perhaps
descriptive of reactions to a pandemic), then what is
the astrology of an actual pandemic? Jupiter is “spreading”
and Pluto is the god of the Underworld. Initial outbreaks
of the following pandemics—wherein there were widespread
deaths—were all characterized by the Jupiter-Pluto conjunction:
- The
Black Plague began in 1347 during the Jupiter-Pluto conjunction
in Aries.
- The
global flu pandemic of 1918 began during the Jupiter-Pluto
conjunction in Cancer.
- AIDS
was first identified in 1981. From Wikipedia: “The
official date for the beginning of the AIDS epidemic is
marked as June 18, 1981, when the U.S. Center for Disease
Control and Prevention reported a cluster of [illnesses]
in five gay men in Los Angeles.” Five months later,
the Jupiter-Pluto conjunction became exact in Libra.
In 2006-2007, the Jupiter-Pluto conjunction will be in
Sagittarius.
Bird
Flu and Astrology, Part II
Deadly
avian influenza—bird flu—has now
spread to Greece and Italy,
where it was found in wild swans. At this time, avian influenza
can only be transmitted to humans from birds, particularly
poultry, and even then it is still rare. The symptoms of this
disease, known officially as H5N1, are the following, according
to the Centers
for Disease Control: “…fever,
cough, sore throat, and muscle aches…eye infections,
pneumonia, severe respiratory diseases (such as acute respiratory
distress), and other severe and life-threatening complications.”
The avian flu virus presents flu symptoms which are not amenable
to any treatment and often prove fatal.
More background information from the CDC
website:
“Of the few avian influenza viruses that have crossed
the species barrier to infect humans, H5N1 has caused the
largest number of detected cases of severe disease and death
in humans. In the current outbreaks in Asia and Europe more
than half of those infected with the virus have died. Most
cases have occurred in previously healthy children and young
adults. However, it is possible that the only cases currently
being reported are those in the most severely ill people,
and that the full range of illness caused by the H5N1 virus
has not yet been defined.
“So far, the spread of H5N1 virus from person to person
has been limited and has not continued beyond one person.
Nonetheless, because all influenza viruses have the ability
to change, scientists are concerned that H5N1 virus one day
could be able to infect humans and spread easily from one
person to another. Because these viruses do not commonly infect
humans, there is little or no immune protection against them
in the human population. If H5N1 virus were to gain the capacity
to spread easily from person to person, an influenza pandemic
(worldwide outbreak of disease) could begin.”
I wrote in yesterday’s blog about Richard Saunders,
the 17th Century physician-astrologer. He noted, in The
Astrological Judgment and Practice of Physick,
that Saturn’s transits, as one would expect, relate
to serious illness outbreaks. He relates a contemporaneous
Black Plague outbreak to Saturn’s passage through Cancer.
Perhaps more surprising, especially to one not grounded in
Renaissance medical astrology, is his correlation of Jupiter’s
transits with various illness symptoms. Jupiter takes about
one year to go through a zodiac sign, so annual worldwide
outbreaks of the common influenza virus ("flu season")
might be marked by Jupiter’s sign transits (the latter
is my own theory, not Saunders’).
Next blog: Jupiter-Pluto and pandemics.
Bird
Flu and Astrology
I
am going to engage in a series of blogs about the spread of
bird flu (see
a recent news article, “Spread of Bird Flu Boosts Pandemic
Chances”)
and attempt to understand it astrologically, thus hoping to
gain insight into its next phases. I’ll be looking at
astrological connections between the plague of the mid-13th
and late 16th Centuries, the flu pandemic of 1918-1919, the
AIDS pandemic, and finally the present incipient outbreak
of avian virus (“bird flu”). See
my website article on “Astrology of the Bird Flu Epidemic”
for some background.
Richard Saunders was an eminent Renaissance physician and
astrologer, highly regarded by his contemporary, the great
astrologer William Lilly. In his book, The
Astrological Judgment and Practice of Physick,
Saunders wrote an extensive astrological analysis of a plague
outbreak in 1593 (while Saturn was in Cancer). He noted symptoms
of the disease and related those to Saturn’s transit
through a watery sign. Saunders believed, however, that plagues—the
old-fashioned word for epidemics or pandemics— were
generally ruled by Jupiter. This makes sense because Jupiter
would be something widespread. It is a bit counter-intuitive,
however, because Jupiter is a benefic being used to describe
a malefic process.
We can begin our own inquiry into bird flu by looking at the
symptoms of bird flu in those who have contracted it from
infected poultry—so far, there has been no human-to-human
transmission of the disease--then go back to Saunders and
look for possible explanations of this disease. From there,
we can look at how Jupiter might figure in the spread of bird
flu.
Next blog: What are the symptoms of bird flu and how do they
relate to planetary transits?
Sunday,
Feb. 5, 2005
The Discovery and Symbolic Meaning of UB313
What’s
a planet? 2003 UB313—nicknamed Xena—is a newly discovered
“Scattered Disk” object (that’s its technical
designation). The International Astronomical Union, the gatekeeper
for new planets, is currently debating the planetary status
of UB313—and reviewing Pluto’s classification as
a planet. Both decisions will have enormous implications for
astrology. From a recent
New York Times
article:
“The
discovery of 2003 UB313 has intensified a debate over the definition
of a planet, which has swirled about Pluto since the late 1990's.
Pluto is by far the smallest of the nine planets, and 2003 UB313,
while larger than Pluto, is still smaller than Earth's moon.
According to one definition, a planet has to gravitationally
dominate its surroundings. That would exclude both Pluto and
2003 UB313. Some astronomers contend that any object in the
solar system large enough that gravity has shaped it into a
sphere should be called a planet. But that would also add quite
a few asteroids and other Kuiper Belt objects. Another possibility
is to arbitrarily call anything larger than Pluto a planet.
The debate has kept astronomers from bestowing a formal, more
memorable name for 2003 UB313. If planet status is bestowed,
2003 UB313 will probably be named after a Roman or Greek deity,
like the other planets except Earth.”
See
a horoscope set for the exact time—as
reported by one of its discoverers in an online Cal Tech diary—of
the discovery of UB313. UB313 takes almost 560 years to complete
one orbit around the Sun, roughly half a Millennium. This would
give the planet significance in the large movements of history,
climate, nations, cultures, and religions. Because astrologers
have been struggling to explain global warming with the tools
of astrology, this new planet—if indeed it even is a planet—may
be connected to climate change. It is often described in press
accounts as an “ice ball.” When Neptune
was discovered, its “gas giant” character gave it
rulership over gas and Uranus’ strangely off-kilter shape
led to its association with quirkiness and non-conformity.
When
placed in a zodiac house, UB313 has personal significance. Individuals
born since the mid-1920’s have UB313 in Aries. See
an online ephemeris for UB313.
Saturday,
February 04, 2006
Media
Vs. Religion--A Pluto in Sag. Crescendo
The recent depiction
in European media of satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed
has resulted in expressions of violent outrage by Muslims. Pluto
in Sagittarius will continue for another two years and appears to
be venting more fiery steam. Pluto is the planet of raw power, and
Sagittarius is the sign associated with both religion and the press.
We thus have a powerful confrontation between these two.
There is merit in both a free press and in religious tolerance.
In Europe, expecially, there is a sensitivity to religious intolerance
borne of Nazi Germany's anti-Semitic caricatures. And yet a free
press is one of the cornerstones of democracy. Speaking personally,
tolerance of others is one of my most dearly-held values and it
pains me to see others being hurt by words or pictures. While I
value also our freedom of the press--such as it is in this age of
political spin, manipulation, and big business--I value even more
respect and tolerance of others. These cartoons suggest a form of
intolerance which is beginning to envelop much of the world. |
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