The European Union is a bloc of 27 member states that has developed in stages from the original Treaty of Rome in 1957, which established the European Economic Community (EEC) or ‘Common Market.’ Following the humanitarian, economic and infrastructural destruction of the Second World War, the nations of France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg agreed to pursue common policies in areas of mutual concern, such as trade tariffs, fisheries, agriculture, mining and atomic energy. The original intent of the organisation was to facilitate the free movement of goods, capital and labour throughout the signatory member states, to promote economic growth in a mutually beneficial way.
The EEC underwent successive waves of expansion over subsequent decades. The UK, Ireland and Denmark joined in 1973; Greece, Spain and Portugal joined in the 1980s and Sweden, Finland and Austria in the 1990s. Progressively more cohesive and broad-ranging treaties were signed by member countries over the years, bringing member states ever closer to full political union, such as the Single European Act and the Treaty of Maastricht. By the early 1990s, around the same time as the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the EEC had become the European Community (the EC) and had adopted a flag (twelve gold stars in a circle on a blue background) and an anthem (Beethoven’s Ode to Joy).
On 1 November 1993, at midnight in Brussels, Belgium (the home of the European Commission, the main executive body) the EC became the EU (European Union). The chart for this moment is shown here, because in my view it is a crucial chart for the political future of Europe, superceding the chart for the Treaty of Rome in significance. Since the formation of the EU, more member states have joined, firstly Sweden, Austria and Finland, and then a large swath of what used to be Soviet-bloc countries such as Poland, the three Baltic States, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Malta, Bulgaria and Romania.
The common European currency, the euro, was adopted in electronic format in 1999, and was rolled out in notes and coins in 2002, although not all member-states currently use the euro. Still, a common currency was a core objective of the EU as a political entity, in order to facilitate the original objectives of free trade amongst its members.
Looking at the chart for the EU, we can see the strikingly exact t-square in fixed signs involving a Mars-Pluto conjunction in Scorpio, the Moon in Taurus and Saturn in Aquarius. All of these planets have lots of essential dignity and are also strongly placed in the angular houses. Mars-Pluto in Scorpio in the fourth house symbolizes the origins of the European political project in the intense conflict and destruction of the First and Second World War and the holocaust, like an unmentionable and powerful stain on the continent’s recent history which must never be allowed to happen again. The exalted Moon in the tenth house represents the wealth and economic largesse of the European people, the wish of the people to live a peaceful but rather materialistic lifestyle with a liking for luxury, protected by common external tariffs. One can imagine the infamous grain and butter mountains and wine lakes resulting from the over-subsidization of agriculture and the common agricultural policy, which has resulted in farmers being paid not to actively use their land in order to stabilise prices throughout the union and compete more powerfully with other parts of the world. While promoting the wealth and financial security of its population, the EU’s policies in this regard seem to promote morally dubious material excess.The tension between the Scorpio conjunction and the Taurus Moon, playing across the fourth/tenth axis represents the purpose of the EU in trying to funnel the historic nationalistic rivalry between closely situated neighbours into a common strength and a common sense of ‘supranational’ identity and belonging as European citizens. This opposition is exactly squared by a strong Saturn in the seventh house, which can be seen as the political institutions that subserve the diplomatic and deal-making processes to thrash out agreements across member states. When transiting Uranus conjoined the Saturn in 2002, the euro became a reality in notes and coins amongst the majority of member states.
The other important aspect structure in this chart is the exact Uranus-Neptune conjunction in Capricorn, which is in the sixth house. This is probably related to the fusing of boundaries, the melting away of border controls, the lack of clarity in the systems of governance, the pervasive sense of political decisions being taken without popular consultation at a level once-removed from national parliaments. The square to Venus is suggestive of the deep unpopularity of the EU as a political entity, as a system of continental government, as well as a prevalent suspicion of the impracticality of such unwieldy institutions of governance in reaching meaningful agreements. Equally, the sixth house placement of this powerful conjunction may represent the harmonization of standards, of efficiencies, of units of measurement, of health services and labour force law and worker’s rights, all of which were important objectives of the original European integration project. Could it also suggest the emergence of a common European police force, or military force used in foreign engagements?
Most recently, the latest revamp of the political institutions that govern Europe has been developing in the past 4 years. This has involved the proposed adoption of a European Constitution, complete with revised voting rules – introducing population-based weighted voting, and hence directly challenging national soveriegnty – and an EU president and foreign affairs minister, amongst other reforms. The original formulation of the Treaty of Rome was updated in 2004 and put to the people in a number of member states in referenda, but was rejected by a number of states. This led to a widespread sense of the Union floundering in a rather directionless fog of confusion with little sense of a common understanding or a shared vision of the future. Over the period 2005-2007, the transiting Saturn-Neptune opposition straddled the first and seventh houses, with Saturn crossing the Ascendant – suggesting a depressing sense of disappointment and frustration in defining the terms of the agreement that is the EU, but also perhaps pointing up the reality of the out-of-touch idealism and – to many of its citizens – confusing nature of the EU in its purpose and goals.
A new treaty was negotiated in Lisbon in 2007, in a further effort to improve the clarity and efficiency of the EU’s governance. Strangely – and perhaps ominously – only one of the 27 member-states put this treaty to its people for ratification, this being Ireland, a country of 4 million people (in contrast to the 500 million people in the whole EU). All other states either ratified the treaty or planned to ratify it purely within their exisiting governmental mandates. With transiting Neptune sitting exactly on Saturn, Ireland voted clearly to reject the treaty, once again throwing the EU’s structures of governance and its very authority and capability as a collective political structure into confusion. The absurdity of a supranational collective which preaches the fundamental value of democratic process as one of its guiding principles being frustrated in its attempts to change its core political processes by a tiny member-state, which is the only member-state to actually present the treaty to its people in a fair democratic manner, has not been lost on commentators continent-wide. Such is the effect of the undermining and tragi-comic Neptune-to-Saturn transit.
However I have concerns that this time around, events may conspire to push the new treaty provisions through regardless. In the next year, the progressed Sun reaches the Mars-Pluto conjnuction, and hence sets off the t-square pattern, bringing the tensions between the more powerful ‘core states’ like Germany and France, and the more peripheral or smaller states, like Ireland and Denmark, into bold relief. Also, transiting Jupiter is conjoining the Uranus-Neptune conjunction throughout this year, supported by a trine from transiting Saturn later in the year, giving an extra impetus to pushing through the vision of collective governance. In addition, progressed Venus has reached the Sun, symbolising the front-and-centre importance of powerful leadership in bringing agreements to bear, even if such agreements may involve a two-tier system of membership (Venus has progressed from Libra to Scorpio, from its dignity to its detriment). As Pluto enters the sixth house this year in the course of its ingress into Capricorn, the true power of the EU may come to be seen for the force that is really is, in managing the crises that are already developing in the services that keep society running, and the revolt of popular labour movements against the constraints of declining resources and escalating costs. The health and welfare of older people especially (of which there are a large population, thanks to the early retirement brought about by widespread wealth) will become a major financial and social burden which will require considerable ingenuity in terms of solutions in the face of the increasing cost of living.
