Blair the Fundamentalist

There’s a series of programmes called ‘The Blair Years’ on TV at the moment, and I managed to catch part of one of them the other night. It was dealing with 9/11 and Iraq. What struck me was Blair’s position on it, after all this time and after he has left office. What we have, he convicted, is “a visceral struggle between what is right and what is wrong.”


Yes, he really does believe this. The man has learnt nothing from the war, all it has done is give birth to his latent fundamentalism. When there is a war, you have to look at it from both sides if you are going to make any sense of it. And it seems pretty obvious to me that the War on Terror is rooted in Arab resistance to western influence. It’s as simple as that. A bit like how many European tribes must have felt at the time of the Romans.

The West needs the Arab oil, and they’re going to make sure they have enough control and influence in the Middle East to safeguard their supplies. You can’t expect the West to behave otherwise. Nor can you expect the Arabs not to resent this influence in their homeland (for which they get nicely paid). This tension is going to continue for as long as we need their oil. Of course, it isn’t put like this by either side. America is ‘The Great Satan’, and the West is struggling against ‘Evil’.

If anything is ‘evil’, it is the fundamentalism you find on both sides that makes any sort of understanding of the situation impossible. If anything is ‘evil’, it is the way Bush and Blair see the ‘war’ as a battle of good versus evil, with themselves of course on the side of ‘good’.

It is hard to believe that Tony Blair is so foolish and superficial, so psychologically primitive. But he is, and we elected him 3 times to run the UK. Which doesn’t say much for we the British people, or for the American people who elected Bush twice.

Before the Iraq War, Tony Blair went to see the Pope to try to get his blessing. Yes, he really did do this. You couldn’t make something like this up, it is priceless comedy. It also makes it clear that Blair was unknowingly engaged on a medieval crusade against Islam. To the Pope’s credit (and I’m not inclined to give Popes much credit), he didn’t give his blessing.


It is gradually coming out that Blair was always much bigger on God than he let on. He was afraid, rightly, of being seen as a ‘nutter’. He has for some years been close to converting to Catholicism, the main barrier appearing to be political considerations.

Tony Blair was born 6 May 1953 at 6.10am in Edinburgh. He has Moon in 10th House Aquarius in a t-square with Sun in Taurus and Pluto in Leo. The challenge of Pluto is to find your own inner power, your own independent sense of confidence and strength. If you are unaware, if you are not up to this challenge, you will look for this sense of power and authority outside of yourself, and this is exactly what Blair has done with his religious certainty and crusade against ‘evil’. And through his need to be in a position of power. Unlike many leaders, he went straight from being PM to being a Middle East envoy on behalf of the major powers.

Aquarius at its worst can be rigidly ideological, which is where his Moon comes in, and we also see it in his Jupiter-Mars conjunction on the ASC. The fixity of his t-square doesn’t help either.

It was Neptune which liberated the fundamentalist within. Up until 9/11, Blair had been a bit timid as PM, trying to please everybody. After 9/11, and particularly in the run-up to the Iraq War, he became the opposite, he was going to do what he believed regardless of popularity. Neptune made its first exact crossing to his Moon a month before the Iraq War, and since then has squared his Sun and is now in the final stages of opposing his Pluto. As it was Neptune that was activating his chart, we can see what happened in terms of what he would have felt to be an Enlightenment, a waking up to his true mission of battling evil in the specific form of Islamic ‘terrorists’; from the outside, many of us would see Neptune as having created delusion and guru-inflation. As an astrologer, my job is to describe both sides rather than say which is ‘correct’. As an opinionated blogger, I have no doubt which is correct!

They say there is no-one so ‘ex’ as an ex-Prime Minister, and I was slightly taken aback when I realised that Tony Blair still has transits going on, that he is not in suspended animation. Neptune is still finishing with his t-square, and what it seems to be creating is this mad fundamentalist, reminiscent of his hero Margaret Thatcher after she had finished as PM.


Her time as PM was characterised by a series of major Pluto transits, and there were more to come in the 5 years following her demise. The same applies to Tony Blair, who will have Neptune squaring his Mars-Jupiter-ASC in 5-6 years time. It will probably mark his appointment as Archbishop, on his ascent towards the Papacy! At any rate, it would not surprise me if, like Thatcher, we see him becoming more rigid, more of a caricature of himself, over the coming years.

VENUS CALLING

For the last 2 years, the Venus Express (launched by the European Space Agency) has been orbiting Venus. It has added to what we know about the planet.


"The surprises have continued to emerge from the data sent back. Venus's atmosphere is extremely fickle and changes its structure from day to day. Images sent back show that at both poles there is a giant double-vortex, each 2000km across, similar to the eye of a hurricane. The vortices rotate in opposite directions, and the southern vortex changes its shape rapidly. In addition, the planet emits a glow of infra-red radiation..."


Anyone got any symbolic takes on all this? I'm sure I haven't!

P.S. As I write, Venus is in Libra and in a close Grand Trine with the Moon and Neptune. It doesn't come much nicer than that!

Oh Darling, what have you done?

On 20 Nov 2007 at 15:30, Alistair Darling began his speech to MPs announcing the loss of 2 CDs contain data on 15 million British citizens: names, birth dates, addresses and bank details. It’s been the mother of all cock-ups, and it came into the public domain just as Mercury in Scorpio was beginning to square Neptune in Aquarius. The electronic (Aquarius) loss (Neptune) of private (Scorpio) information (Mercury). The Scorpio Mercury also reflects the power to misuse this information if it falls into the wrong hands. I mean, imagine if an astrologer got hold of it. He’d spot your Neptune-Sun transits, and know when to steal your identity. And then under Neptune-Venus he'd steal your money. Or your wife.


The story is still developing. To start with we were assured it was just a junior civil servant who’d made the cock-up, in clear breach of the rules. But with Mercury in Scorpio square to Neptune, there cannot but be a cover-up. And the square won’t be exact until late Saturday. So there is more to come. At present, claims are being made about an email involving a senior civil servant. And there has also been a story that improvements to basic security were not made on the orders of a senior civil servant to save money – in particular, the ability to remove inessential information from the CD, which isn’t exactly rocket science.

Alistair Darling is having a difficult time of it, particularly after the Northern Rock meltdown, when we had the first run on a bank in over 100 years. The government has had to bail them out to the tune of £23 BILLION so far, in order to maintain confidence in the banking system. Personally I think Alistair Darling probably did the best that could have been done with that one, but that isn’t how public perception works. You start to look accident prone, and if this is happening to the most senior minister of all (bar the PM), it shakes the whole government.

Charles Clarke had to go as Home Secretary a couple of years ago, not because he was doing a bad job, but because he inherited a department in sore need of an overhaul and updating, and he had to take the flak for the inevitable cock-ups that occurred.

I think a lot of it is happening because we are moving into a new age where a lot more can be done with information, and the public expects the government to be fully on top of the new possibilities and all the new security measures required. And they aren’t.

Alistair Darling was born 28 Nov 1953. If you Google his birth date at the moment, you don’t get anywhere, because all the results are telling you how he’s lost everyone else’s birth dates! He has Sun at 6 Sagittarius square to a Virgo Moon. So Saturn in early Virgo is giving him a hard time, and will continue to do so for a while yet. But he is probably learning from it, so let us hope the public allows him to learn from his/others’ mistakes.

He also has Venus at 21 Scorpio square to Pluto at 25 Leo. Power (Scorpio) over other people’s (Scorpio) money (Venus)! An interesting aspect for a Chancellor to have. And a difficult one, with that square to Pluto – he can easily get disempowered dealing with other people’s money. And unfortunately for him, this is exactly what has been happening, reflected in Neptune currently hard aspecting his Venus-Pluto, and which will continue doing so for the next couple of years.

So it may be that however hard he tries, these sort of unfortunate events are going to keep happening, and he will gradually lose credibility – and so will the government. Partly because he is the Chancellor, but also partly because Gordon Brown is not surrounded by ‘big-hitters’ who can take the blame when things go wrong: it all comes back to him.

New Labour has been in power since 2 May 1997, and it was 3.17am when victory was declared. The Solar Return for this year is very difficult, with every planet being part of either a t-square or a Grand Cross. In particular Venus, the planet of popularity, is in a t-square with Uranus, Pluto and Mars: not very auspicious. And Labour has again begun to do consistently badly in the polls, just like before Brown took over as PM.

However, if we look at next year’s Solar Return, Venus is very favourable: in Taurus, on the DESC (both places it likes to be) and in a Grand Trine with Saturn and Pluto! It looks like the government is going to get popular again, and it will be both earned (Saturn) and empowering/renewing (Pluto). Neptune makes its final exact square to Darling's Venus in January, so the worst may soon be over for him, if we are to believe next year's New Labour Solar Return.

Astrology as the Art of Bullshit

From Astrology as the Art of Bullshit by Eric Francis (of Planet Waves):

"I have a client who has repeatedly commented to me that when she is having serious problems, she comes to see me rather than her therapist because I don't have a button on my desk--the one that he could push for the guys in white to cart her off to the locked ward upstairs. That is not therapy, that's death. But modern astrologers are not so far from this.


Crudely put, when we use dead astrology from dead eras and dead myths, our minds turn to bullshit. Astrology ends up being static and stuck and theoretical rather than being alive and creative, growing and changing and experimental. We might as well have a button on our desks. When we explore astrology creatively, from within our present context and knowledge, and from what our senses and intuition are telling us, we create a new world view based on the circumstances and events of our reality as we experience them. This is a creative process.

Anything else is dead.

The astrological charts we use, for example, abound with lies: The planets move in ellipses, not circles. Everyone knows this, yet the chart is drawn in a circle. Because the Sun is moving around the galaxy, the planets actually move in elliptical spirals through space and time. You would never know this from an astrological chart. On a typical chart, it appears that Saturn comes back to the same place every 29 years, but it really does no such thing. Because the Sun is moving and Saturn is following it, Saturn might show up at the same point in seven or 27 or 3,000 galactic years--calculated at about 250,000,000 Earth years each.

We still use a geocentric model almost exclusively, and rarely do we ever dare to look at a heliocentric chart. Yet, word got out in 1609 that the Sun is actually at the center of the solar system, and old Copernicus and Galileo and a lot of other people have been hassled immensely for showing us this. They did good work, but we have ignored them. Perhaps we should all join the Flat Earth Society, an actual group that believes the Earth is flat.

And then there is the small question of the Milky Way galaxy. Oh, that thing. Can anyone point to the galactic center on their natal chart? Have you ever considered its meaning? What about the black hole at its center--that's really wild. When I was a kid, black holes were a theory. Now we have one as our neighbor, the central Sun. Why isn't the galaxy a factor, a major factor, in our astrological considerations? I've only seen it listed in one ephemeris and the only person to mention it who stands out in my memory was Barbara Hand Clow. Like Trudeau's Boopsie, she's never afraid to get cosmic.

Then, after already having been grossly distorted beyond recognition, except to the most abstract thinkers, our whole cosmos gets smashed onto a sheet of paper by a computer printer. Ouch. The planets in space are three-dimensional, colorful, extremely strange and positively magnificent, not boring and flat, black and white.

And then, for the grand finale, we assume that this 89th degree abstraction actually says something about us, and with this as our most trusted tool, we set about practicing psychic surgery on our friends, neighbors, children, pets, clients, and ourselves. The funny thing is, it often somewhat works--though I think we can work a lot better."

And while you're about it, it's worth visiting Eric Francis' Book of Blue. Here's an interesting use he says we can make of mirrors:

"A friend recently sent this to me, describing her experience of witnessing her core-self:

As my orgasm started, it was just me on my own, looking into my eyes, fully present in the moment. My orgasm was so deep and strong that I started groaning out loud. My eyes were deep wells with an animal look in them. I leaned forward, my face right close to the mirror; I kept looking into my face and my eyes, noticing that I had the paradoxical nymph look of innocence and deep knowing with an earthy sexuality on my face, and I kept looking until it faded away and I saw the face again that everyone else sees.

Without going into too much theory, I would propose that most of us live in erotic prisons that are built of walls consisting of the ways we refuse to allow others to see our real selves. The walls can be turned transparent and eventually tumble, if we’re willing to allow that real self into our relationships.

That real self has a relationship with itself; like any other relationship, it involves mixed feelings. The people we are intimate with, I believe, need to allow us to exist within those mixed feelings, nd be present as we integrate ourselves – and we need to do the same for them.

VESTA holds space for this experience. The mirror-bearer is creating space and embodying as a kind of psychic light, akin to being near a fire. The presence of another person reaches into the darkness of shame and the light of one mind can reach into another."

Pluto and the World Economy

There are a lot of jitters in the world economy right now, because it’s so centred on what the US economy is doing, and the US economy is in need of some good housekeeping after living beyond its means for years and the huge scam of the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Yes, it was a scam that all these blue-chip banks got involved in, selling mortgages to people who could never have afforded them and misusing their good name to sell on the dodgy debt to unsuspecting third parties all over the world. So no-one knows who’s liable, and no-one’s going to lend anyone else money just in case they are, so we have a credit crunch.


So will there be something like the Wall St Crash of 1929? After all, we have a Cardinal Uranus-Pluto square coming up, which is what we had then. I don’t reckon we will. The deity presiding over all this is Pluto, who is just about to make his move from Sagittarius to Capricorn. Now Sagittarius certainly can be about scams and bubbles, particularly when Jupiter is hanging about as he is now. We had the first Sagittarian bubble in 2000 – the dot.com bubble – and the present bubble is partly a result of that, Bill Clinton and others having told the American Public to spend their way out of the dot.com hangover.

But Capricorn is not about crashes, which are just as unrealistic as bubbles. Capricorn can be about recessions, in the sense of a well-earned hangover, but that’ll be as far as it goes.

If we look at the chart for the moment that Pluto enters Capricorn at the end of Jan 2008, we see a stellium of Pluto at 0 Capricorn, Venus at 2 Capricorn and Jupiter at 8 Capricorn. So a restraint (Capricorn) on monetary (Venus) excess (Jupiter) is certainly a theme of Pluto’s 15 year transit through Capricorn, but so is an expansion (Jupiter) of wealth (Venus/Pluto) on solid foundations (Capricorn). Initially, however, we will be dealing with the end of the party. In New York, Pluto enters Capricorn within 1/4 of a degree of the IC (see Chart), so it will be a very powerful Ingress for Wall St.

No doubt it will be painful, but it could be worse. If we head over to some traditional astrology, Pluto will be trine to the ruler of Capricorn (Saturn) and opposite to the exaltation ruler of Capricorn (Mars). So it fundamentally looks quite nice. We just have to come down to earth and do a few years basic housekeeping.


With Pluto in Capricorn for 15 years or so, it will be a time of thrift, of traditional economic values, but what we have will be much more firmly rooted in what we are actually producing, instead of what we can spend, or what might be possible. We have been told it’s OK to build up debt, that in some strange way it makes you a successful human being if you have debt, but deep down we all know it’s not so. Pluto in Capricorn will help restore a sense of financial security that is real. And probably a delusion that we can take it with us when we die. Expect mausoleums stuffed with gold and share certificates.

If you’re investing money, forget about property just now. That isn’t going anywhere. I think we are in an unusual situation, reflected by the Pluto-Venus-Jupiter stellium in Capricorn in January, where a defensive position (Capricorn) can also provide significant long-term growth (Venus conjunct Jupiter).

I think good places to invest are oil, gold, silver, copper etc, wheat, mining companies, mining equipment. These are all fairly safe, we will always need them, they are not luxuries. But at the same time, via China and India, demand for them is increasing, and is very likely to continue increasing, so these stocks are likely to be both safe and providing growth over the medium to long term. For now, avoid US stocks, because the dollar is likely to decline in value for a while yet. If you buy gold, it is priced in dollars, so this needs weighing up. If you are buying US stock, you could do worse than buy into firms that will be involved in rebuilding the infrastructure – roads, bridges etc (Saturn in Virgo). If you’re American, you can take advantage of the likely slide in the dollar by buying foreign stocks. Try Canadian oil sands companies.


One factor in the slide of the dollar is the strength of the Eurozone, which is economically bigger than the US, and whose currency, the Euro, stands a good chance of replacing the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Some Arab countries have recently started putting their money into Euros rather than into dollars.

The US Progressed Saturn went retrograde for the first time ever about 10 years ago, pointing to a long-term decline in US pre-eminence. It looks like it is starting to bite. The coming shift is seismic.

CALIFORNIA

I was emailed this article, which I subsequently managed to find at Skywatch.

In the Starlight -- California

by Lance Ferguson

California's birth chart is an extraordinarily complicated and powerful design. But at heart, you must have guessed this state is a Virgo - born Sept 9, 1850. Picky about everything, health conscious to the max, but also the home of master craftsmen from movies to rockets - you can easily see Virgo's practical and sometimes overzealous attention to details in the fabric of life all across the Golden State . The craziness everyone also attributes to LA and "the California kooks," as they say in Texas , appears in the chart as an exact conjunction between wild man Uranus and extremist Pluto at 29 degrees of Aries. This is the most explosive, unpredictable, creative and powerful pairing you'll find in the heavens - and it only shows up in a birth chart once every 100 years.

The positive side of this conjunction makes California the most vibrant, progressive state in the Union . The dark side organizes as gangs, master crooks and businesses that are experts at deception and manipulation. That's how movie stars turn into governors. And where the Hell's Angels got so much attention.

Natural disasters also become much more likely with this pair of planets due to the Jupiter position in California 's birth chart at 29 degrees of Virgo. But fiery Aries and analytical Virgo inconjunct and don't get along. And that's the case with California - when things go wrong, they tend to go very wrong - abundant Jupiter raises the stakes with earthquakes, fires, floods and all kinds of calamities.

Moreover, it's rare that you would find three of the ten planets in a birth chart in the same number, 29. They form a choir and sing at the same time whenever any planet reaches 29 degrees of any sign. Although it's not unusual to have two planets on the same degree in your birth chart, it is a bit rare to have three planets on the same exact degree. And especially to have three big boys, Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto, all lined up on 29.

FAST FORWARD to Dec, 2007. Lucky Jupiter will reach 29 degrees of Sag in the heavens around Dec 14 and connect with all three planets in 29 over the next five days. Jupiter will agree with Uranus and Pluto and form a trine - Sag and Aries are fire signs and get along. But Jupiter will square his home position at the same time. The trines suggest good news and success; the square encourages excesses in spending and expansion. Winners and losers all at the same time will show up in the headlines. Pay attention to what happens these days, because --

THE BIG EVENT: Pluto enters the 29th degree of Sag on Dec 28 and makes the same pattern as Jupiter. But slow moving Pluto will stay on the 29th step an entire month suggesting events of great magnitude occurring in California at years end and throughout 2008, as Pluto will retrograde and back over the 29th degree two more times next year.

FORECAST: Major winners, big time business and financial news will be in the SF Chronicle's headlines as Pluto in 29 Sag exactly trines the natal Pluto and the natal Uranus in California's chart - two very rare and exceptionally powerful positive markers suggest brilliant scientific breakthroughs, and large scale enterprises that are incredibly successful with the power to change the world originating in California. No kidding. This is the perfect wave coming. And sets up 2008 as a potential turning point in the state's history, and perhaps the Earth's.

Pluto rules all forms of healing - he is the alchemist who changes lead into gold. Uranus is the ruler of computers, high tech, cars and electricity. He is also a genius and unpredictable. What is certain is that progress and developments in the Golden State can have a global impact and lead some to riches and fame beyond their wildest dreams as these two planets trine over and over again in 2008.

THE RUB: Pluto will square Jupiter at the same time he makes the positive trines. Too much will be way too much. Jupiter rules the law, education, travel, foreigners, expectations and expansion. There will be problems here. Likely some major financial players in the state will go under and disappear. And the value of things will change as Pluto redistributes the wealth. The darkest side of this square includes natural catastrophes, chemical/oil spills, bankruptcy, a spike in the crime rate, and/or negative events that affect a large number of people at once -Pluto.

ADVICE to all my California friends: 99% of you will not be troubled by the Pluto square to Jupiter and will profit from the trines and changes ahead. However, don't ignore safety advice or push your luck in unknown situations that are dangerous over this next year. Things will not go on as they have. But the genius and power of California will likely be reborn and extended into the future and beyond as this powerful Uranus Pluto pairing lights up in the state's birth chart.

NOTABLE: This dynamic, rebellious and brilliant pair of planets, Uranus and Pluto, did meet again in the heavens in the 1960's. Were you around? It was the "Summer of Love" - a time like no other. And if you were born then, from 1962 to 1968, you have this Uranus Pluto conjunction in your natal birth chart. Yup, you've got a touch of California and the Hell's Angels in you - no wonder you never fit in with the family! And yes, in your own way, you are really a genius, and maybe one part kook? Both ruled by Uranus.

If you were born in this era, your chance to take the stage, claim your mantle, and show people what you can do appears in 2008 as Jupiter will enter Capricorn and trine this rare and powerful energy source in your chart in the months ahead.

And if you live in California , don't ignore the warnings of officials if some extreme condition suddenly appears - pay attention. Keep informed and be prepared - play it safe in 2008.

TEACUP

I was just sent this story by someone who's had a load of major Pluto transits in recent years:

THE TEA CUP

There was a couple who used to go England to shop in a beautiful antique store. This trip was to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. They both liked antiques and pottery, especially tea-cups.

Spotting an exceptional cup, they asked "May we see that? We've never seen a cup quite so beautiful."

As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the tea-cup spoke to the couple:

"You don't understand," it said, "I have not always been a tea-cup. There was a time when I was just a lump of red clay. My master took me and rolled me, pounded and patted me over and over and I yelled out, "Don't do that. I don't like it! Let me alone!", but he only smiled, and gently said, "Not yet!!"


Then. WHAM! I was placed on a spinning wheel and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. "Stop it! I'm getting so dizzy! I'm going to be sick!", I screamed. But the master only nodded and said quietly "Not yet."

He spun, poked and prodded and bent me out of shape to suit himself and then......he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat! I yelled and knocked and pounded at the door. "Help! Get me out of here!" I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips as he shook his head from side to side and again said, "Not yet".

When I thought I couldn't bear it another minute, the door opened. He carefully took me out and put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. Oh, that felt so good!

Ah, this is much better, I thought. But, after I cooled he picked me up and he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. Oh, please; "Stop it, Stop it!!" I cried. He only shook his head and said "Not yet".

Then suddenly he put me back in to the oven. Only it was not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I just knew I would suffocate! I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. I was convinced I would never make it. I was ready to give up.


Just then the door opened and he took me out and again placed me on the shelf, where I cooled and waited------- and waited, wondering what's he going to do to me next? An hour later he handed me a mirror and said "Look at yourself." And I did.

I said, "That's not me, that couldn't be me. It's beautiful! I'm beautiful!"

Quietly he spoke, "I want you to remember", then he said, "I know it hurt to be rolled and pounded and patted, but had I just left you alone, you'd have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled. I know it hurt and it was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn't put you there, you would have cracked. I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn't done that, you never would have hardened. You would not have had any color in your life. If I hadn't put you back in the second oven, you wouldn't have survived for long because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. Now you are what I had in mind when I first began with you." ~ Author Unknown

IRAN: THE ENDGAME?

The chart I use for modern Iran is that of the proclamation of the Islamic Republic on 1 April 1979 at 3pm. This was 2 months after the revolution that brought the mullahs to power, but it seems to work well. It is particularly good at describing the nuclear crisis of the last couple of years since Ahmadinejad came to power.

Iran has Mars at 25.37 Pisces in the 8th House and square to Neptune. It is square to the American Mars at 21 Gemini, which is no surprise, as the 2 governments – or is one a regime? – have been enemies from the start.

Mars in the 8th is good for a secret (8th) weapons programme (Mars), and the sign of Pisces, along with the square to Neptune, describe the ongoing attempts at deception around it. And, perhaps, the delusion that they'll get away with it.


By transit, Saturn is about to enter Iran's Second House (wealth), reflecting the US economic sanctions that have just been imposed.

Also by transit, Pluto has been squaring Iran's natal Mars: the first exact square took place in Jan 2006, 5 months after Ahmadinejad became President in August 2005. In terms of Iran’s international relations, his Presidency has so far been the story of this Pluto-Mars transit.

Pluto has finished making exact squares to Mars – the transformative process that has turned Iran into the centre of an international crisis – and what we are seeing now is the endgame. In one month, Pluto will permanently move 3 degrees from the exact square, and this is the stage of the transit when outcomes start to happen.

(People sometimes get impatient at the end of Pluto transits, wanting big changes to happen: but shedding a skin is a slow process, and it can easily be a year or two after the exact crossings have occurred that the next phase of life can really begin.)

This observation about the timing of the Iran endgame can be backed up in other ways. Progressed Mars was exactly opposite Prog Pluto in March this year, and will oppose natal Pluto next April, bringing another cycle to an end.

And here is a strange one: In Arabic astrology, the Moon in late Gemini is supposed to be a favourable time to start a war. The attacks of Sept 11th 2001 took place with the Moon at 28 Gemini. Over the next 7 months, Iran’s Progressed Moon will move through the last 7 degrees of Gemini.

So we may get to the point of war. However, Ahmadinejad does not have absolute power, he is an elected President. It is hard to know what the politics are in Tehran, but if we look at the Solar Return for 2007-8, we see the Saturn-Neptune opposition running along the IC-MC axis respectively. I interpret this as the dissolution of the present government (Neptune-MC) by the forces of caution and conservatism (Saturn). Mars, a few degrees further away, is the threat of war bringing about this change. Iran is just starting its first Saturn Return, which also suggests realism rather than recklessness. It is a time of growing up, when you need to learn to live with how the world is.

Time for a few stars while I’m about it. In particular, the Heliacal Rising Star, which is the last star to rise before the Sun, and which is in a sense the ruling star.

For Iran itself, the Rising star is Deneb Algedi, the ancient Law Giver. This is very appropriate, given that the modern country is the product of an Islamic Revolution, a return to ancient laws. If you are a westerner, it probably appears as a negative manifestation of the star; if you are a Shia Muslim, it would appear as positive. But as astrologers, our job is just to say that it is the ancient law giver.

Ahmadinejad was born 26 Oct 1956, and his Rising Star is Spica, one of the most major stars, indicating someone who has great gifts that he needs to develop. You often find these major stars in the charts of people who achieve prominence.


And then his Presidency, which began on 5th August 2005, has the brightest star of them all rising, Sirius. This star is known as the scorcher, and it can consequently be difficult to handle. It suggests that actions by the individual can have far-reaching effects on the collective, and there is no doubt that this has been the mark of his Presidency. In this context, it also provides an eerie reminder of the blinding light of nuclear energy. I think that the result of Sirius in this case will probably be the scorching and destruction of Ahmadinejad, rather than the rise of Iran as a nuclear power.

DID THE FOUNDING FATHERS USE ASTROLOGY?

The other day I wrote about the stars relating to the inauguration of the US President, which occurs every four years at 12pm on Jan 20th. From 1793 to 1933 (with the occasional exception), the date was 4th March. Diana Rosenberg wrote that she’s always reckoned changing the date was a mistake. Matthew the Astrologer commented that he’s always reckoned the Founding Fathers used more astrology than they were letting on, because they made the date a fixed thing.


I reckon they could both be right.

The star that rules a day, the Heliacal Rising Star, is the one that is last to rise over the eastern horizon before the Sun rises.

For the 4th of March in Washington, the Heliacal Rising Star is entirely appropriate: Deneb Algedi – the Ancient Law Giver, which is to be found in the tail of the constellation Capricornus. Bernadette Brady says: “Deneb Algedi is linked to the symbolism of the law-giving, justice orientated ancient god who is trying to civilise his people. Therefore, matters of justice are a theme of your life, and you are a person who is trying, in some way, to use wisdom and knowledge to protect and help the people around you.” Yes, there is a good case that they were using astrology!

Then we move on to 1933, and those foolish people who no longer consulted the heavens. And what do we find for 12pm Jan 20 every four years? Menkar conjunct the ASC - one of the most difficult stars, that makes the President vulnerable to the worst of the collective. And the Heliacal Rising Star is Acumen: ‘Suffering at the hands of others; subject to rumours.’ “Aculeus and Acumen are the tail of Scorpio, the sting, and are linked to attacks, not only physical, but also mental, verbal or spiritual. Acumen leans towards the small, irritating attacks that can slowly weaken you. So with Acumen in such an important position on the day of your birth, you will feel that your life-path may be filled with attacks or hindrance. It is therefore imperative that you learn to overcome obstacles on your path, whether placed there by yourself or others.”


I think Acumen accurately describes what it’s like being a leader in a modern democracy. You are constantly subject to attack through an up-to-the-minute media that reaches everyone’s home. Indeed it is seen as a healthy part of the democratic process that the leader is constantly under such attack. And you are ‘weak’ if you can’t handle it. Which means having a skin so thick that there isn’t much room left for a brain.

SKY STORIES

Fixed Star astrology is based on what can actually be seen in the sky, although an element of abstraction is introduced when Parans are used, which are equivalent to aspects: they occur when you find a star on an Angle and a planet on an Angle at the same time, any combination of Angles. But they are still real entities (unlike the zodiac signs), even if you can’t always see them, because e.g. the Sun is up.

(PS The stars are called 'fixed' because they are fixed in relation to each other, unlike the planets which are 'Wandering Stars'.)

There are ways of looking at the stars that have no abstraction. One way is where you see a planet and a constellation coming together, and you’re left wondering, in an ancient way, what this might portend. This idea has, for me, a lot of power.


Confession: I haven’t actually done this yet, because I only just got my Starlight software that shows you what’s out there, and I’m waiting for a clear night with the Moon up, so I can orientate myself.

That said, there are some beautiful ‘Sky Stories’ (as Bernadette Brady calls them) in the night sky at the moment.

What you have is Jupiter at the foot of the constellation Ophichus, the Serpent Bearer, the Healer; and you have Venus on the tip of the left wing of Virgo, or Demeter the nature goddess. These 2 stories are nearing their end, and until yesterday Mercury was also in Virgo, on her sheaf of corn next to the star Spica, which bears great gifts.


Now I don’t know what all this might mean, but it’s certainly nice! Jupiter with Ophichus points to a good time for healing - the feet? Mercury with Spica is a time for intellectual brilliance. Meanwhile Venus, love, can take wings. Anyone who’d like to comment with possible interpretations or experiences from the last few days would be welcome.

OF PRESIDENTS and SEA MONSTERS

The President of the USA is inaugurated on the same day and at the same time every 4 years, giving certain enduring qualities to the institution that are possible to analyse astrologically. The date and time are 20 Jan at 12pm in Washington DC. There are occasional exceptions, and before 1937 the date was the 4th March.


This consistency of time and date gives almost the same Angles and Sun for every inauguration. The fixed Sun (c.1 Aquarius) and ASC (c.14 Taurus) suggest the stability and endurance of the institution. Aquarius indicates the democratically-elected nature of the job, that the President is not there as a tyrant but as someone who ideally works with all the different groupings of people and interests. America is known for its wealth, which it does not have by accident, and Taurus Rising shows the importance of the President managing the economy well, perhaps also a need to express (ASC) his polices in economic, even materialistic terms. And the Capricorn MC shows that the President is there to achieve something and to leave a legacy. (Hence e.g. the Presidential libraries).

This consistency in the chart means we can also bring some of the stars into the equation. The strongest stars are those which are found on an Angle, and in this case, since the 1949 election, the star Menkar has been conjunct the ASC (using a 1 degree orb).

So more than any other star, Menkar describes the modern US Presidency. It is the brightest star in the constellation Cetus, the Whale. In ancient times, whales were not eco-friendly super-intelligent beings, but human-eating monsters from the depths. The Babylonians referred to this area of the sky as "the chaos of the deep". It is known as one of the most difficult stars to live with, because it makes you so open to the unconscious depths, to collective forces.

Menkar, or Alpha Cetus, is in the nose or jaw of the whale

All leaders tend to be an expression of the fears, desires and aspirations of the people, but Menkar here suggests that in post-war America this sort of identification has been unusually close. Positively, this can be a leader who is aware of, tuned into the collective but not unconsciously identified with it, and able to move it in a creative direction. An example of this is perhaps Roosevelt, who managed to get the economy out of the Great Depression and win two major wars with the country coming out thriving, as well as lay the groundwork for a really intelligent and successful reconstruction of Germany and Japan (cf Bush and Iraq). Menkar was just out of its 1 degree orb during this period, but you could argue that it was actually very active, with the wideness of the orb providing the possibility for self-awareness in a President, allowing him to be aware of and creatively use the collective forces.

The other possibilities with Menkar are that the President becomes an expression of the worst of the collective, or is a victim to it. Since 1949, with Menkar in orb to the ASC, this scenario would seem to have been more likely.


Certainly in recent times, I think we have seen that with both Clinton and Bush, both of whom interestingly have an outer planet on their ASC – Clinton has Neptune and Bush has Pluto – making them personally open to collective forces, for better or for worse. Clinton, via the Monica Lewinsky scandal, became a victim of the collective, of the right wing Republican mentality that could not stand him. But he was also able to use his connection to the collective more positively, so that he became known as ‘The first black President.’ Whereas Bush’s connection seems more one-sidedly negative, through his appeal to the rednecks and his ability to whip up the fears and prejudices of the collective to serve his own purposes.

Menkar will be conjunct the inauguration ASC for many more years. With the Uranus-Pluto square just around the corner, and with the forces for change gathering pace in the world, and with all the insecurity that brings, these are the sort of times we are most likely to see the collective rising up from the deep like the sea monster of old, and electing leaders that suit its purposes.

CITY HEADS ROLL

The sign Saturn is in tells us the direction leadership is going, and as Saturn has moved from Leo to Virgo in the last few months, we have been moving away from the grandstanding Bushes and Blairs, and towards low-key, practical leaders like Gordon Brown in the UK. In the US Presidential election next year, what people will be looking for is track record, not grand visions. This perhaps explains the current ascendancy of Hilary Clinton, as against the new-boy on the block, the Leo Barack Obama.

Saturn is leaders of all kinds, and in the last few days we have seen heads starting to roll at the biggest investment banks, which have seen profits diving in the wake of the US sub-prime mortgage crisis.


At present we have Jupiter and Pluto in Sagittarius, as well as Saturn in Virgo, and it is the wealth bubble of Jupiter and Pluto in Sag that Saturn in Virgo is addressing. With Jupiter and Pluto about to leave Sag, there is a sort of culmination going on, this sub-prime crisis will probably come to be seen as paradigmatic of a financial era.

We’ve seen it all before, and will see it again. You get a sustained period of financial growth, and people start getting over-confident and doing risky or stupid things that will eventually lead to trouble.

What amazes me is how stupid and dishonest these banks and their leaders have been. If you lend money to people to buy their house, and they can’t really afford to do so, sooner or later there is going to be trouble. And nor is it fair to the people who you have persuaded to buy their own house.

But it was also a big-time scam. The investment banks were setting up these dodgy mortgages, and then selling on the debt to international investors, while effectively lying about the quality of the debt. As reality kicked in, these banks were left with loads of dodgy mortgages that they hadn’t yet conned ‘international investors’ (read naïve Japanese) into buying, and they’ve had to take huge hits from their profits.

It’s all good Jupiter and Pluto in Sag stuff, but it does leave me puzzled as to why these intelligent people at the top – and they wouldn’t have got there if they had a record of making daft decisions that lost money – acted so recklessly and stupidly. The only thing I can think of is that they got caught up in a trend because everyone else was involved in it. It was making a lot of money for a while, and if their bank missed out on the bonanza, their job would have been on the line. A combination of pressure along with losing their heads in a collective madness.

I find the ability not to get caught up in collective madness far more impressive than the ability to be brainy and shrewd and get to the top. It’s about the capacity for self-awareness, and we all have a choice about exercising it, and I think without it we’re not fully human. And the chart doesn’t tell you if someone has it, because it’s part of having free will.

THE HELIACAL RISING STAR

In Fixed Star astrology, the Heliacal Rising Star is the last star to rise before the Sun rises. It rules the day on which you were born and is therefore, in a sense, the ruler of the course of your life. Bernadette Brady is a bit ambiguous about some of the stars in this respect: in her book she says, for example, that Acumen is too faint to be a herald of the dawn, and yet in the computerised Fixed Star report I received from Astrologos, Acumen is down as my Heliacal Rising Star. My calculation is that it is the much luckier Sadalmelek which is my Rising Star. And it actually works much better!

But I’m not here to blurb on about my own chart. In my last blog, I didn’t include the Heliacal Rising Star of Gordon Brown, which is (as far as I can tell) FACIES. This is one of the difficult stars, for while on the one hand it suggests someone who is very strongly focussed and forceful (as Brown has always been), it is also strongly associated with ruthlessness and violence. One of the civil servants under Brown when he was at the Treasury spoke of his “sheer Stalinist ruthlessness.” The presence of this star in this position, combined with Brown’s history, suggests to me a brutal element to his leadership that will become clear to the public over time. He may also be more ready to go to war than we think.


On one of those literal notes that astrology sometimes strikes, Facies is in the constellation Sagittarius, the Archer (not to be confused with the Zodiacal Sagittarius, which exists in our imaginations, but not in the heavens). Archers have very keen eyesight (hence the ‘focus’ of the star). I guess because it is a ‘difficult’ star, a number of the older commentators have associated this star with blindness and eyesight problems. Brady disagrees with this, associating Facies rather with keen eyesight. She may be right in general, but in Gordon Brown’s case, he got kicked in the head while playing rugby aged 16 (there’s Facies for you), lost one eye and eventually nearly lost the sight of the other. I don’t want to sound callous, but I love astrology when it is so literal, it gives me a sense of the raw power it can have.

GORDON BROWN'S FIXED STARS

I started looking into Fixed Stars a week ago, and I’ve worked out much of how it works technically; however, I haven’t tried any interpretation. So I thought I’d inflict a bit on the blogosphere, using the chart of Gordon Brown, the UK Prime Minister.

I’m just going to look at the stars that are active through the MC, the prime of life, when your ‘career’ is at its height. Gordon Brown has been in this phase for many years now, arguably since he became an MP in 1983, and certainly since he became Shadow Chancellor in 1992. It was during his time as Chancellor from 1997 to 2007 that we came to know him: a man who on the one hand is highly competent, driven, with deeply held ideals; and who on the other hand is authoritarian, ruthless, vengeful and socially ill-at-ease.

Brown has, as one might expect, several of the great stars guiding the prime of his life: Aldebaran (one of the 4 Royal Stars) and Rigel and Bellatrix (from the constellation Orion).

ALDEBARAN gives glory and success linked to integrity and honour. It is linked to Jupiter in his Chart, which would seem to be a happy aspect. The link to integrity is the test of this star, and I think that is why Brown was so popular when he was first PM: here was someone who, unlike Blair, had not lied to us, who made a point of standing on his integrity. In September it fell apart to a great extent when he made a shamelessly political visit to Iraq, and was equally shameless about deciding not to have an election because it didn’t suit his party. In a way he was behaving like any politician would, but he was seen to be doing so, and after Blair it didn’t go down well. But I think that success linked to integrity has been a keynote of Brown’s career: he has always been dedicated to his work, out of a genuine desire to improve the country and help those in an unfortunate position, and he has had personal success for many years now.

BELLATRIX also gives success, but only through personal growth, only if personal weaknesses are addressed. This star is linked to Venus in Brown’s chart, suggesting it is his relationships with other people that he needs to look at (or money: but in his case I think it is people). This area has always been his undoing, not so much because of his social awkwardness, but because of his reputation for authoritarianism, for not taking the views of others seriously, for plotting, for endlessly coveting Blair’s job and for holding grudges. Bellatrix linked to Venus is saying that in Brown’s case his success will always be limited unless he can transform his relationships with other people.

RIGEL gives the desire to teach, to bring knowledge to others, and it does not have a problematic side. While Brown was Chancellor, a lot more money went into education, and higher education was expanded. Rigel is connected to Mars in Brown’s chart, suggesting that education is something he will fight for. In 2000, Brown started a political row about higher education when he accused the University of Oxford of elitism in its admissions procedures, describing its decision not to offer a place to state school pupil Laura Spence as "absolutely outrageous". (Lord Jenkins, then Oxford Chancellor, said "nearly every fact he used was false.”)

There are 5 stars that are particularly difficult, and Brown has 2 of them, Algol and Zosma, affecting the prime of his life. What makes them even more difficult is that both have ‘curtailed passage’ i.e. he was born at a place/time where neither of them rose or set, so they do not have any contact with the earth, with human affairs, and are therefore more likely to manifest in a fated sort of way.

This is even more the case with ALGOL, because it is linked to his Sun, his very identity. Early writers all viewed Algol as the most malefic star in the heavens. This star contains immense female passion and power, but easily manifests in its outraged, demonic form. She represents “a strong consuming passion that may devour you with anger and rage.” We certainly saw this in the case of Brown’s ongoing lust to be Prime Minister while Blair had the job, a lust which was at the heart of the Blair government for 10 years, and which led to endless feuding. (I’ve always thought it was to Blair’s credit that he managed to work with Gordon Brown, who could so easily have destroyed the New Labour government under Blair.) Now that he at last has the job, the government may not be subject to this side of Brown – until he is thwarted. Gordon Brown is also passionate in a more positive way about people who are disadvantaged, whether in the UK or abroad, and this could also be seen as the influence of Algol. But with the star having curtailed passage, it is very difficult for Brown to work with or contain his lust for power, as we have seen. And it can cause a LOT of trouble, not just for him, but for the government and for the country.


Finally we have ZOSMA, which is linked to Brown’s Jupiter. This star is connected to those who are victims, who have been made powerless by society, as well as the compassion to help them. Being linked to Jupiter, I think that it generally comes out favourably for him, and it repeats the theme of his desire to help the disadvantaged. Zosma in its compassionate form does not seek fame or recognition, it just quietly gets on with helping, and I have heard that Brown also has this aspect to him: he will take the time to lend his personal support to certain compassionate causes, but you never read about it in the papers.

But Zosma also has its victim side, and it seems easy for people to feel sorry for Brown, like he is struggling, and you sense that in some ways he is wounded, he can’t quite pull it off. And it may be that after a lifetime’s struggle to become PM, he ends up the victim of the political cycle, managing just a couple of years in the job before the electorate tire of New Labour after 12 years in office.

So that is a snapshot of some of the Fixed Stars affecting Brown’s prime. There are other, more minor, stars which would round out the picture, as well as considerations such as the Heliacal Rising Star (which rules the day he was born). RIGEL is stronger than it appears because it is also tied in with another star, Diadem, which rose at the moment Rigel culminated (i.e. was on the MC). Similarly, ALDEBARAN is linked with Antares, one of the Royal Stars, which was on the Nadir when Aldebaran culminated, emphasising the success that has come to him. BETELGEUSE, the star which has the most unobstructed success, had a strong influence over his youth, via Jupiter, and his early life was broadly one of steady, even precocious ascent.

It would also be possible to predict the course of his later years through the setting stars. And we do find 2 of the major stars here: Regulus and Spica. The Royal Star Regulus – “success if revenge is avoided” – is in Parans to his Sun, so this is a very strong position for his later life, and seems quite appropriate given what he’s like now. Yes, he will be a sort of Grand Old Man of British politics, as long as he doesn’t spoil it by taking against whoever causes his downfall, which was the story of Ted Heath. In Heath's case, he had Zosma influencing his later years: he saw himself as the 'victim' of Thatcher, who he never forgave for ousting him from the leadership of the Tory party.