Australia Says Sorry

As a perfect trine formed between the transiting Moon in Taurus and transiting Saturn in Virgo, both trining Saturn in the chart for Australian Federation, the prime-minister of Australia issued an official apology to the stolen generations of indigenous Australians for the hardship, brutality and suffering that they were subjected to at the hands of racist white men between the 1860s and the early 1970s. Saturn in the Federation Chart is significator of the executive, or prime-minister, and with Saturn now in Virgo, how fitting it is for the current incumbent to be a strongly Virgoan type, with Sun, Mercury, Mars and Pluto in the sign. Indeed, with Pluto in the second degree of Virgo, in many ways he ushers in a new generation of leadership in this country, perhaps more prepared to admit fault and make correction.

Transiting Neptune is squaring the Federation Chart’s Moon in Taurus, perhaps symbolic of the sense of shame and guilt on behalf of the majority, or even the emotional expressions of relief and disbelief on behalf of the indigenous people that this time has finally come. Yet still there linger stubborn suspicions that it is all merely an empty gesture, a hyped-up symbolic statement with little subtantial promise of reform behind it. One can’t help but think that there is a deeply buried sense of guilt among the majority over the actions of white Australians towards the indigenous population, but that this emotion is so profoundly unacceptable that it is denied with the most stubborn and resolute determination to remain ignorant of the truth. This is perhaps a manifestation of the negative side of the Moon in Taurus; so long as I’m comfortable and secure, I see no reason to change my outlook or my values.

Uranus is also squaring the Federation Chart’s Uranus-Pluto opposition, currently closer to the Pluto end; this configuration also ushered in the new government and is generally suggestive of a desire for radical change and open examination of deeply buried but controversial collective traumas.

Interestingly, the 1788 settlement chart seems strangely mute to significant transits or progressions at this time. Perhaps this indicates that today’s events are taking Australia out of the era of colonisation and into the future of reconciliation and acknowledgement of past racist policies and arrogant imperial attitudes.

Finally, the coming lunar eclipse in the second degree of Virgo (on 21 February 2008) is exactly square the Federation Chart’s nodal axis, and lands exactly on Kevin Rudd’s natal Pluto. What this suggests is that our current prime minister took a step forward in our nation’s path of growth, and did so with the strength and conviction of an individual who profoundly understands the power of humility.