The Olympic Torch in Australia

The Olympic Torch touched down in Canberra on 23 April 2008 to begin the Australian section of its world tour. Already having attracted large numbers of protestors in support of the cause of Tibetan separatism while on its way through major European and North American cities, the Olympic Torch relay was expected to require a strong security presence on its arrival in Australia. As it turned out, there was a perhaps unexpectedly strong show of support for the Chinese state along the route of the relay, with ranks of large red flags somewhat drowning out the yellow and blue sunrays of the Tibetan flags. There were relatively minor scuffles but at the end of the day, peace prevailed and the relay was not derailed.

This was all taking place as a powerful t-square was perfecting in the cardinal signs: Mars in the 22nd degree of Cancer opposite Jupiter in the 23rd degree of Capricorn, both square Venus in the 23rd degree of Aries. Note that Venus is in its detriment, but Mars and Jupiter are both in fall, but in mutual reception by exaltation and triplicity. Hence all the relevant planets in this tense aspect formation are in a sense in the wrong place. It is like they are playing out a drama but the real substance of the drama refers to a completely different location.

The Tibetan/Chinese conflict was being played out in Canberra, with the symbol of international competition being used as the vehicle to bring this to worldwide attention. Not only is Jupiter in the 23rd degree of Capricorn in the chart of the People’s Republic of China (1 October 1949, 15:15 (GMT+8), 39N55, 116E25, Beijing, China), but is also at this same degree in the Davison Relationship Chart for Australia and China (17 May 1925, 17:25 GMT, 3N10’10, 134E31’44).

Ian Thorpe, whose ruling planet Saturn is in the 25th degree of Libra (completing the grand cross pattern), was the last person in the torch relay to light the flame before its departure to Japan where it is due to arrive on 26 April 2008.

Turbulent Times for the American Economy

Following on the sub-prime mortgage crisis of the second half of 2007, economic indicators in the USA continue to slide. In recent weeks the US Dollar hit new lows in value compared to the Euro, and oil prices climbed above $110 per barrel. Most recently, a major investment corporation, Carlyle Capital, which features some very famous political figures on its board of directors, has essentially gone bankrupt, and another two banks, Citibank and Countrywide (both of which widely involved themselves in securitization of sub-prime mortgages) followed suit. This was then immediately followed by the US Federal Reserve bailing them out with a $200 billion loan in an effort to keep some of the banking system afloat. Hence a decision was made to inject solvency into the bankers’ operation, despite the prey of those same bankers’ predatory loan practices (who are in the large majority African-American and Hispanic) not being offered the same assistance. If this sounds unfair, well that’s the game the Federal Reserve likes to play, ever since its foundation in 1914, when it usurped the power to provide paper money to the people of the USA, including its government, at interest that it knows can never be repaid. This is debt peonage, and has been a simple yet powerful tool of financial elites of European origin for about the last 400 years.

The problem, however, is that we are fast approaching some externally imposed limits to wealth creation on our planet, such as peaking oil supplies and carbon-fuelled climate change. Additionally, increasingly people are starting to wake up to the grossly unfair and piratical system of international finance which has been operating to enrich the few at the expense of the many. The US economy is almost certainly in recession, and mortgage foreclosures are rapidly mounting not just in the USA, but in European countries too. Only two months ago, the British prime minister announced that a UK bank would be nationalised. Only 2-3 years ago this would have been regarded as unthinkable given the unquestionable assumptions of globalisation and free-trade capitalist economics. Bubbles are bursting and stock-markets are falling fast. There is increasing talk of a major depression over the next few years.

The upcoming Full Moon, which occurs at 5:40 AM AEDT on 22 March 2008, Melbourne time, is shown here. Note the remarkably exact square the full moon makes to Pluto, only 24 minutes out of orb. Now examine the chart for the opening of the Federal Reserve (16 November 1914, noon chart, at Washington, DC) and compare. Transiting Pluto in the Full Moon chart opposes natal Pluto (45’ orb) and natal Saturn (17’ orb). Transiting Neptune squares the Sun (orb 21’) and transiting Saturn is on the South Node (1º02’ orb).

It seems to me that this lunation, so close after the Aries equinox, is a potent suggestion of major problems hitting the Federal Reserve, problems that will become very public or at least affect the public at large, and may well sound the death-knell for this entity, or at least indicate the need for radical changes and transformations in its purpose and function. Neptune squaring the Sun suggests lack of confidence, an aura of deception and corruption and disillusionment with the role of the Federal Reserve. Saturn on the South Node is always a bad sign of past realities coming back to be dealt with and acknowledged and mistakes to be corrected (particularly with Saturn and the South Node being in Virgo).



A quick look at the Astrocartography map for this lunation shows a prominent confluence of lines on the Mexico/USA border near the states of New Mexico and Arizona. The Uranus on MC line intersects with the Pluto setting line and the Mars rising line. Could this be indicative of a major explosive incident in the Southwestern USA, perhaps riots in the major cities? Only time will tell.

This lunation is one of a series of difficult astrological configurations due to hit the charts for the USA in the coming year. The major one in coming months will be the exact Saturn-Uranus opposition occurring on Election Day. I will write more about this in coming weeks.

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.

Pluto enters Capricorn

At 3:34 PM, AEDT on 26 January 2008, Pluto moved out of Sagittarius and into Capricorn. It was last in Capricorn in the years 1762-1778, and last changed signs (from Scorpio to Sagittarius) in 1995.

I have cast a chart for the ingress moment, at Melbourne, but with natural angles. Notable patterns in this chart are:
(1) Jupiter-Saturn trine in earth
(2) Mercury-Neptune conjunction, trine Mars in air
(3) Stellium of Sun, Chiron, Neptune, Mercury (and North Node) in Aquarius
(4) Moon-Uranus opposition

Before trying to see what this may mean, let us first review previous ingress charts for Pluto and compare them to the events that took place in their aftermath.

Pluto’s ingress into Virgo took place at 4:23 PM AEST on October 20, 1956. Symbolizing the entire sixties generation, this chart shows a grand cross in fixed signs involving a Moon-Neptune opposition and a Chiron-Uranus opposition. Mars is opposite Venus, and Saturn is exactly square Pluto. This is suggestive of the ecological activism, esoteric mysticism and perhaps the strong desire for escape that fuelled the psychedelic movement throughout the decade. The Mars-Venus opposition evokes a potent sexual tension throughout the period, and the square of Saturn to Pluto (especially with Saturn in Sagittarius) may represent the struggle for human rights and law reform.

The Libra ingress took place at 4:30 PM AEST on October 5, 1971. This chart is interesting because of the extraordinarily airy emphasis. Libra itself contains a stellium of Pluto, Mercury, Sun, Uranus and Venus. The close Sun-Uranus conjunction in Libra trines Mars in Aquarius, and Saturn in Gemini. The Aries Moon opposes Venus, and the Jupiter-Netune conjunction in early Sagittarius sextiles Pluto. I see this as a sort of turning point or re-balancing of the power between opposing sides of conflict. A fundamental will to restore fairness in all dealings between groups. The seventies was a period notable for the rise of feminism and gay rights, as well as the advent of the most notable work of philosophy in the area of justice since the utilitarian writings of Mill: John Rawls’ Justice as Fairness. The swashbuckling escapades of space-age science-fiction as portrayed by the Star Wars series brought the real-world binary division of the Cold War into archetypal resonance with the imagery of two great powers battling for supremacy in the cosmos. Despite the Libran penchant for peace, the Aquarian Mars trine Uranus, together with the Sun-Uranus conjunction, correlated with militancy amongst those who felt unfairly dealt with, whether they were nationalists in Northern Ireland, trade unionists in Britain or ideological radicals in South-East Asia and the Middle East. The oil crises of 1973 and 1979 reinforced the reality of the way power could see-saw between different interests depending on their willingness to achieve a diplomatic compromise.

Pluto entered Scorpio at 8:41 AM AEDT on 6 November 1983. This chart also has a stellium, this time in Scorpio (Pluto, Saturn, Sun, Mercury and Moon). Jupiter conjoins Uranus in Sagittarius, and a Mars-Venus conjunction in late Virgo squares Neptune. The heavy Scorpio stellium at a new Moon was perhaps a warning of a new era in matters of sexual and financial exchange, one tinged with themes of responsibility and death of old ways. AIDS and the transformation of attitudes to sexual behaviour that it brought in its wake, although first described in 1981, did not become a widespread epidemiological concern until around 1984. A harder-edged, less forgiving approach to financial management in the business and corporate worlds became noticeable as market liberalisation and privatisation of state assets swept through western capiltalist economies, spearheaded by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. A new level of development and popular availability of microcomputers took off in the early 1980s and was perhaps correlated with the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction, preset at this ingress. The ideological struggle of the previous decades finally resolved itself in the death-throes of the communist states in Europe and the triumphant merging of the two alienated halves of the continent, as if in a chain of events in an unstoppable biological reflex. By the time Pluto left Scorpio and entered Sagittarius in 1995, the political landscape was utterly transformed.

Entering Sagittarius at 9:52 PM AEDT on 17 January 1995, Pluto was in conjunction with Jupiter and Venus, and square Mars and Saturn. The Sun was conjunct Uranus and Neptune and opposite the Moon. Two major developments took place in the common understanding of power and the collective will during the Pluto in Sagittarius era. Firstly, there was sense that moral hypocrisy had reached new levels. Western political leaders developed a sense of incorrigible arrogance and infallible righteousness that persisted in the face of widespread popular knowledge of evidence that contradicted their claims. Starting with the shenanigans surrounding the Clinton impeachment in the US, and continuing through the manifestly undemocratic 2000 US Presidential election, the inadequately invesitigated 9/11 events and the subsequent manufacture of lies and deceptions leading up to the invasion of Iraq, which still continues to this day, it was the sheer breathtaking scale of the audacity of judicial and political corruption that was suggestive of the workings of Pluto in Sagittarius. I associate this development with the T-square involving Mars, Saturn and Jupiter-Pluto.

The second major development was the dawning understanding of the power of global networks, whether instantiated through the internet, the common atmospheric perturbations of climate change, or the giant casino of global capital exchange and speculation. I associate this aspect with the Sun-Uranus-Neptune conjunction in late Capricorn. The difficulty with such pan-global structures, or, moreover, their essential characteristic, is that they are decentralised, and therefore lack leadership or management hierarchies. And it is precisely this idea that acts as a perfect segue into the Pluto in Capricorn era.

For it is during the next 16 years that the reality of the pan-global networks and communities and interdependencies will no longer be doubted; not only will it be the everyday reality for everyone on the planet, it will require leadership and reponsibility to maintain it and to ensure its ongoing viability. There will ensue a transformation of what it means to be in an executive position. To lead will no longer be synonymous with capitalistic, exploitative and wasteful enterprise, for this notion of leadership dies with the deep acceptance of limits to our existence. Rather, leadership will be more associated with the development of a sense of responsibility to contribute to the public good, but in a manner that is flexible to change, that is willing to forge new paths, to try alternative courses of action. Pragmatic adoption of what works and what is sustainable will be the order of the day. Older hierarchical structures depending solely on values of deference and respect of authority for authority’s sake will not survive, because they have become too crystallised to respond to the rapidity of the changes affecting our globalised systems. Ultimately a new sense of personal autonomy and citizenship will emerge, one which may strip away the power of nationalism and tribalism, but promote the power of individual achievement, duty and reward.

I think the emphasis in both Capricorn and Aquarius bears out these themes. The Jupiter-Saturn trine in earth is suggestive of future growth and prosperity being brought about by means of restriction or shrinkage, perhaps shortage. The Mercury-Neptune conjunction in Aquarius is redolent of the new faith in collective problem-solving, but also perhaps the fraud and deception that may emerge in such global efforts as carbon-trading and emissions reduction. Trine Mars, this Mercury may also symbolize a quantum leap in speed and complexity of communications, taking connectivity in the collective to a new level.
With Venus conjunct Pluto, and Jupiter not far off, all in Capricorn, perhaps the most immediate and obvious issue for everyone in the next few years is the diminishing pool of wealth and resources available for the members of our species to survive. Throughout the next 16 years, it is the duties that we individually shoulder towards our overpopulated and fouled environmental matrix, and the actions we take to discharge these, that will determine how we deal with the shifts of collective will during this time.

Mars in National Horoscopes and Recent World Unrest

That the god of war holds dominion over civil unrest and national forces of strife should be fairly obvious. What is not so easy to acknowledge is that such breakdowns of civilised social intercourse are in many ways necessary in the greater scheme of things. I tend to the view that there is a natural need for conflict and competition within us and within all of nature, just as there is a need for stability and peace.


Within the past few months, especially centering around the Capricorn Solstice (see chart), there has been an emphasis on disputes, disagreements and outright violence in a variety of internationally prominent settings. This has been associated with the prominent opposition between a retrograde, fallen Mars in Cancer and the Sun-Pluto-Jupiter-Mercury stellium sitting astride the Sagittarius/Capricorn cusp.

Probably the most reported and likely the most crucial event that correlated with this picture was the summit of world environmental ministers which took place in Bali, charged with developing a framework for a new climate agreement for the world. We can see in this event, which took place from 3 December to 15 December 2007, and which actually over-ran into an unplanned extra day because of difficulties coming to a compromise, the last-minute pressure of international diplomacy in the face of vast looming disaster, symbolised by the Jupiter-Pluto conjunction in the very last degrees of Sagittarius, soon to move into Capricorn, the sign of worldly reality and limitations. Mars opposing represented the recalcitrance and resentful negativity shown by a variety of national interests who seemed to be unwilling to pursue any meaningful joint and flexible agreements about emissions. I think the sensitivity of the 0º Capricorn/Cancer axis to major internationally significant events is again highlighted here.

On 27 December 2007, Benazir Bhutto, the leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, and twice former prime minister of Pakistan, was assassinated during a political rally in Rawalpindi. She had recently returned to the strife-riven country from exile, and was intending to contest the planned general elections planned for February 2008. Pakistan (see chart) has had a stormy history since its foundation on 14 August 1947 at 9:30 am IST, in Karachi (this was when the British viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, addressed the constitutional assembly to declare independence from the British). Its foundation chart has a fallen Mars at 0º Cancer on the MC, conjunct Uranus – which is hardly suggestive of stability, especially considered together with the Venus/Saturn/Pluto triple conjunction in Leo in the eleventh house, the house of political assembly.

Bhutto’s assassination threw a fragile process of return to civilian democratic rule into chaos again, only months after the military junta headed by Pervez Musharraf had been finally persuaded to transfer powers back to a democratically elected parliament. The country has been torn apart by a powerful resurgence of fundamentalist Islamic militias in opposition to more moderate pro-Western forces, echoing the greater regional conflict which has spread throughout many countries in South-West Asia over the past decade and longer.

When Bhutto was assassinated, there was a partile transiting Mars-Jupiter opposition in the second degree of Cancer/Capricorn. This was clearly hitting off Pakistan’s natal Mars. Transiting Pluto was also closely opposing Mars, and will continue to do so throughout 2008. Incidentally, transiting Neptune was in partile opposition to Pakistan’s natal Sun, perhaps reflective of the chaos and confusion surrounding the country’s leadership.

The third international crisis recently in the news was in Kenya, where presidential elections were thrown into turmoil with allegations of electoral fraud and violence between supporters of the re-elected Mwai Kibaki and the main opposition candidate, Raila Odinga. The violence emerged along well-established tribal faultlines which have undermined Kenya’s unity since before its emergence as an independent nation on 12 December 1963 (see chart). In this chart, Mars is exalted in Capricorn in the fourth house. Between the end of December 2007 and January 2008, transiting Jupiter has been conjoining natal Mars while transiting Saturn has been stationing on the Ascendant. It looks like Kenya will be undergoing some major transformative convulsions in its government and national identity through 2008 as the Saturn-Uranus opposition sets off the natal Uranus-Pluto conjunction in the first house and squares the Sun in the house of the people.

Australian Federal Election - November 24 has been called

Well the Australian Federal Election has finally been called, after what many have considered to be a long-running false election campaign over the past few months. Although I have been looking at the charts for possible election dates since earlier this year, I had thought the chart for a November 10 election looked very strong for Rudd. But now that the date is confirmed for November 24, we can finally examine the correct chart. I have learned from the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) website that all federal elections start at 8 am, Canberra time (which will be AEDT). Casting the chart for Canberra, the national capital, we find 4º Capricorn rising, with its ruler, Saturn, at nearly 8º of Virgo in the ninth house. What is this event about? It is about the serious business of cleaning things up in our country, particularly our sense of morality as a people. Restoring accountability in matters of justice. Not backing out of our duty to stand and defend our rights to speak the truth.

In the blue corner, we have Mercury, the trickster. In the red corner we have Jupiter, the greater benefic.

While Mercury can be secretive, controlling and manipulative when in Scorpio, it can also be strongly persuasive and certainly unwilling to admit defeat. But in this chart, Mercury’s master, Mars, is badly (but prominently) placed retrograde in the sign of its fall; hence Mercury is not terribly happy either in how it expresses its Martian qualities. Mars is in the house of foreign affairs – a symbol of solar Cancerian Bush, the guy who has only had to say jump and Howard has asked how high? Mars ruling the houses of risk-taking and gambles, and prison camps?

Mercury is very close to perfecting a square to Neptune, and has recently been opposed by the Moon. And the Moon is a very strong one – it is in its exaltation in Taurus, and has only 11º or so to go before it reaches Full. The Moon is always symbolic of the people, the great unwashed masses, the vast sea of collective need. In Taurus, the people are strong, know what they desire, and are determined to have it. They have their minds made up. And they are about to demonstrate their power decisively.

Look at Neptune. There’s always something missing about Neptune. It gives things an aura, an atmosphere, a hint of something about to be but not quite certain. The sense of ‘things appear slightly unreal, things aren’t quite right in some undefinable way.’ Mercury is heading straight into square with Neptune, so Howard will struggle with his image, his ‘on the nose’ and ‘past sell-by date’ persona.

The Moon, however, has already perfected the square and is now moving on. The people have been deceived enough and are leaving it behind them.

At the very least, I think this t-square pattern suggests that Howard has quite seriously disillusioned the people, they are not willing to believe him any more.

Incidentally, the people are on Venus’ turf: a strong yet pleasant insistence on fairness and temperance.

OK, what about Rudd?

Jupiter is ensconced in its very own daylight domicile, beholden to nobody. Except, of course, the power that he is on the verge of entering. Its only aspect is the conjunction with Pluto. It is in the Sun’s triplicity (leadership), and Saturn’s term and face (authority).

But in the Twelfth House? OK, it’s a bit far from the Ascendant, and it’s in a different sign from the Ascendant anyway. So I don’t think it’s possible to get out of it that way. No, there’s just no other way to say it, folks: Rudd is in prison. But so is the Sun in this chart, the identity of the people, who they follow, the leadership of the nation. Almost like it is with Rudd that their sympathies lie.

Notice wi-fi iPhone iPod myspace facebook world-of-warcraft Uranus in Pisces, sitting directly on the IC (the people). And Uranus stations direct around 9pm on the night of the election! Do you reckon the people might be getting a bit restless? Perhaps in the mood for a change. A change that is yet more surprising for the media through which it is being propagated – no longer at the beck and call of journo hacks, people are sharing their own views directly with vast numbers of others on blogs, and telling each other the truth about how they really feel about things. This is such a beautiful symbol of popular revolutionary feeling.

Now the other interesting thing we can do, is compare this chart to that for Australia, i.e. the 1-Jan-1901 1325 Sydney chart. Let’s see where the chips fall, so to speak. And look at that! Rudd’s significator in the Election chart, Jupiter, is just under 2º away from conjoining Australia’s Jupiter. With Pluto sitting right on Australia’s Mercury (which is Howard’s significator in the Election Chart).

And the Moon in the election chart, is exactly conjunct Australia’s Moon. The people are deciding on their representation, what better synastric aspect describes Election Day in Australia?

These are strong suggestions of radicality in these charts.

Like so many have been doing in the last few months, I call it for Rudd.

The Jupiter-Uranus Square

A comment from Agent 12 about what's happening in Burma right now got me thinking about the current Jupiter-Uranus square. This has already reached exactitude twice, on January 23 and May 11, and the final pass will occur on October 10. As Agent 12 observes, in the chart for Burma (January 4, 1948, 4:20 am 6+E, Rangoon, Burma [16º47'N, 96º10'E]), Jupiter, which rules the chart, is placed conjunct the Ascendant in the first house, at 15º46' Sagittarius. Because the MC/IC axis is at 14º54' Virgo/Pisces, Jupiter closely squares the meridian. The degree of the final pass of the Jupiter-Uranus square will be 15º35' Sagittarius/Pisces, with transiting Jupiter on Burma's Jupiter, and transiting Uranus on Burma's IC.

Now Jupiter I feel shows the general sense of morality within the nation, the prevailing sense of justice, the sense of right and wrong, of just intervention by the gods, so to speak. I think Jupiter has a lot to do with politics, for this reason, and it is not accidental in this regard that it finds its exaltation in the sign of the Moon. Squaring Uranus, there is tremendous restlessness, a strong desire for change, a spirit of justified revolution. But it is revolution with a real sense of righteousness, of battling against the forces of evil, of bankrupt ideology. I think, given the fact that it is the closing square, there is also a feeling of 'last chance' about this time - a sense of having to kill something off, something that seems to be dead and needs burial.

So the alignment is fitting Burma's chart like a key in a lock, Uranus transiting the 4th cusp of the people, Jupiter transiting Jupiter, representative of the country's image, the monks and religious beliefs of the nation, and also the people (ruling the 1st and 4th cusps).

But it also made me think of current events in Australia too. In Australia's chart (1 January 1901, 1:25pm, Sydney), natal Uranus is at 14º19' Sagittarius, so it is being conjoined by transiting Jupiter and squared by transiting Uranus. In Australia's chart, Jupiter is ruler of the 9th (intelligentsia, media, judiciary & moral sense) and the 11th (parliament and political networks). Hence the almost unbearable tension at present in the run-up to the Federal Election. There is certainly, judging by the rock-solid polls all year, a strong feeling that there will be a change of government, but given Mr Howard's delay in calling the election, this seems to be causing considerable restlessness and impatience.

I will post a more detailed article on the transits to Australia's chart in November 2007 (when the election is likely to occur), in the next day or two.