See this as part of this week's newsletter.
Over at the blog, TMC points out that last week’s Tea Party chart is a bucket, with the south node, or rather, Saturn as the handle. Which brings up planetary patterns. Planetary patterns were first developed by Marc Edmund Jones and expanded upon by Stephanie Clement. You look at the overall arrangement of the planets in a chart to find various patterns, among them, Splay, Splash, Teeter-totter, Bundle, Bowl, Locomotive, etc.
The See-Saw, for example, is all or most of the planets in a chart forming two groups which are more or less opposed to each other. If you have a cluster of planets in Aries and Taurus, for example, with another cluster in Libra and Scorpio, you have a Teeter-Totter, aka Seesaw chart. Clement describes a Seesaw as,
[T]he two groups of planets polarize the energy so that the individual tends to swing from one general point of view to the other instead of experiencing the flows of energy through the pattern. In psychology, extreme mood swings are sometimes described as bipolar mood disorders, and the Seesaw pattern reflects a tendency toward such a split in a person’s energy. (Aspect Patterns, pg. 93)
This is from the second paragraph in the chapter on Seesaw (the first paragraph was a physical description of the Seesaw chart itself) and already we see the author reaching for a specific conclusions that are far in advance of what her generalized astrology can support. One of her Seesaw examples is the chart of Anwar Sadat, former Egyptian leader. As is often the case when working beyond one’s means, Clement’s delineation of Sadat’s chart tells us nothing whatever about the man himself. She instead projects her concepts and then searches Sadat’s life for an event to justify them.
When reading a chart, you have an enormous range of tools at your disposal. Here are just a few of them:
There are:
Specific planets.
Specific houses.
Specific signs.
Specific relationships between all of them.
Signs can be:
Cardinal, which is to say, active
Fixed, or unchanging
Mutable, or changeable
Signs can be:
Fire, which is to say, active
Earth, practical or slow
Air, impractical, or mental
Water, emotional, or sensitive.
Houses can be:
Angular, which is to say, prominent
Succeedent, which is to say accumulative
Cadent, which is to say, chaotic
Degree positions can be early (1-10), which is to say, young.
Middle,10-20, representing maturity.
Late, 20-30, which is to say, old and worn out. The very first and very last degrees of a sign (0-3, 27-30), which is to say, childish or senile, are especially critical in this regard.
Houses are not the same as signs. I don’t care if Robson himself said otherwise. Angular is not the same as cardinal, succeedent is not the same as fixed, cadent is not the same as mutable. Signs are qualities. Houses are drivers. A cardinal planet in a cadent house has a hard time punching its way out of a paper bag. Punching, an activity, is the cardinal planet. The paper bag represents the limitations of the cadent house.
A mutable sign, such as Pisces, on an angular house magnifies the instability of the mutable sign. Exactly what kind of instability will be determined by the nature of the sign, in particular, its element. Sagittarius on the ascendant will magnify its (mindless: opposite Gemini, fall of Mercury) fiery energy and boundless (Jupiter) enthusiasm, in the direction of and to the aims of the house of its ruler, wherever Jupiter may be.
Signs have rulers. They come as pairs. Libra is always dressed as Venus would have her. Leo always radiates the Sun. The planets in the houses they rule are of the nature of tenants in a rented house. The ruler always remains the landlord.
By contrast, houses DO NOT have de facto planetary rulers. Nor is any house associated with any particular sign. Houses are like slaves. They are like beasts of burden. No. 2 is a slave for money. No. 5 is a slave for romance and children. Houses must work with whatever planets and signs they are given. Which are their masters. Some masters are good, some are not, all are unique. Realize these subtleties and you will vastly enhance your delineations.
For example, if you have a chart with Sagittarius rising and the ruler of Sagittarius, which is Jupiter, if Jupiter turns up in, say, Cancer in the 8th, it will actively work (Cancer) to get lots (Jupiter) of money from others (8th house). As the chart ruler, this will be the reason for the individual’s existence, whole cloth. Everything else is detail.
Could this also be about sex? Well, yes, but that will depend on the condition of the Moon (ruler of the 8th) as well as of Mars, ruler of Aries on the 5th. Sex a lot more personal than money-grubbing. Sex is like a hot-house plant. It won’t grow just anywhere. And it could also be about death. Money, sex and death, all three are 8th house matters.
The house containing the ruler of the chart is the dominant house of the chart. In mundane matters, this particular chart, with Sagittarius rising, Jupiter in Cancer in the 8th, could turn up as the chart of an international (Sag rising) investment house, or as the opening gavel for a convention of undertakers. Or an international porn expo.
Mundane charts must be read according to the group which has claimed it. If there is an opportunity for close examination, you may find that undertakers can be quite sexy, that porn operators are well-known for luscious vampires, that very stuffy investors often consort with high class prostitutes (the best money can buy, baby!) and that in his short life Jack Kennedy, with a stellium in the 8th, had brushes with violent death (in WWII, and his ultimate demise) as well as with young starlets.
Further in your research, you will eventually come across ruling planets which are themselves in their debility. Which is to say, in one of the signs opposite to the ones in which they rule. One fine day you will be looking at such a chart, such as Bill Clinton’s, with a debilitated Saturn in Leo ruling his (otherwise empty) 5th house of adventurous and fun Aquarius. And you will suddenly realize why he is always caught out in his petty extramarital affairs: Saturn literally jumps across his chart, from its debility in the 11th, to its rulership in the 5th, and exposes him. Catches him with his pants down around his, well, ankles. Aquarius rules the ankles. I miss Bill, we all do. I want a leader who’s overtly lusty and fun. I want a guy with his head screwed on straight. Not moralistic and dour, or petty and evasive.
And having made this observation, of a debilitated planet jumping across the chart, you will then excitedly apply it to other charts. And to your amazement, find that it always works. Elsewhere I read that planets, in general, have effect in the houses that are opposite and square to their natal domicile (which is to say, where the planet is physically located, not the houses with the signs it rules), but I have never seen this to actually work. Debilitated planets work in the house opposite. It’s in the nature of the debility itself. Whereas planets in rulership or exaltation are self-centered. They ignore the rest of the world.
On top of all of this you have triplicities (10 degree sections of signs, see Anrias), as well as Terms and their rulers, but I’ve never seen a need for that much detail.
In sum, you have So Many Tools! But so many astrologers limit themselves to aspects and orbs, aspects and orbs, aspects and orbs. Astrologers have learned aspects to the exclusion of almost everything else. It is self-evident that aspects can give only fragmentary results. Most people don’t have a lot of aspects. Some people don’t even have their Sun and Moon in aspect. Does that mean they are primitive and undeveloped, or warped and demented? Of course not! Judging merely on the basis of aspects is to severely short-change the individual. Astrology is better than that!
Every chart, every individual, has 12 functioning signs, 12 functioning houses, and 10 planets and two nodes, which interact in many dynamic ways. Aspects do in fact highlight important details, but as these details are fragmentary at best, aspects usually miss all the important parts of a chart. As a result, too many astrologers are accustomed to a vague and incomplete astrology. They literally do not know any better. When real astrology is put in front of them, they can find it disorienting.
So let us return, again, to the Tea Party chart, of February 19, 2009. As you can see, above, it is the bucket sort. Of buckets, Clements says,
[T]he Bucket personality has a specific outlet—the handle planet. The nature of the handle planet and the house and sign it occupies will define the quality and direction of the individual’s structured, directed activity. The Bucket personality is driven to dig deeply into the area of life defined by the handle planet. Much energy is put into figuring out how to get the best results from focussed activity. (Aspect Patterns, pg. 68)
Which is a logical development of theory. Clement’s example chart is Albert Schweitzer (January 14, 1875, 11:50 pm, Kaysersberg, France). This is a chart with Libra rising, ruling planet Venus in Sagittarius in the 3rd. Which gives a love of adventure, frankly. It is in contrast to Sun, Mercury and IC all in dreadfully boring Capricorn, spurred on by an irritating Moon in Aries in exact square. Schweitzer started life as his father’s religious tool (the family had a long history of religion and music) but gave that up for adventures abroad: Chart ruler Venus in expansive Sagittarius in a very mobile 3rd house. Acting against his father’s express wishes, as shown by Sun in Capricorn in the 4th. That medicine was not his first career, that he had to struggle to become a doctor and go to Africa, is shown, quite clearly, by Jupiter’s remote position in the first house. Schweitzer’s Jupiter contradicts my usual delineation, of a planet outside the house with the same sign on the cusp.
In this case, Jupiter is in the first house, not trying to get into the second. The reason? Jupiter is barely 0 degrees of Scorpio. And while it’s as much a Scorpion as your newborn baby boy is a Smith (just like you), it is not nearly mature enough to know that it should want to be in the second. “Inertia,” if you will, still has it in the first. This is what I learned from this chart: That a planet at 0 degrees won’t necessarily associate with its proper house cusp. This bears investigation.
Once abroad in Africa, Schweitzer found his life’s work. The chart is clear: Jupiter in Scorpio (the sign of intensity), somewhat stranded in the first, slowly but powerfully acts through the sixth house of medicine and healing, which happens to have Pisces, ruled by Jupiter, on its cusp. Jupiter also rules Venus, the chart ruler. Here, Jupiter has equal power to bring 3rd house Venusian dreams (Sagittarius, travel) to reality.
Lacking these essential tools, Clement can only say,
If Pluto in the 8th house is viewed as the high-focus planet, then the emphasis of the pattern is more on transformation and less on philosophy. Because Pluto disposits Jupiter in Scorpio, Jupiter has a strong inclination toward the transformative nature within his personality, so the difference is not as dramatic as it would be if the dispositor relationship did not exist. (Aspect Patterns, pg. 73)
Which is a complete muddle. Pluto happens to be prominent, to Clement, because it is the trailing edge of the bucket. Clement bypasses a structural analysis presumably because her astrology is not strong enough to give her results she can actually use. Instead, she substitutes theory. Which results in strong inclinations. Which neither describes the man in front of us, nor gives us any useful means for our own work. To quote Robson, [t]here is too great a tendency nowadays to float about in a comfortable haze of so-called esotericism. The first need of Astrology is accuracy and definition, not pseudo-religious speculation. (Beginner’s Guide, pg. 113)
Dare to use the tools in front of you, and you will achieve the promise of astrology. So what can we find out about the Tea Party’s bucket chart? Let’s start at the beginning and see where we go:—
In Rick Santelli's Tea Party chart, the ruler of the first is Jupiter, in Aquarius, in the 12th house. The 12th can represent horses, Aquarius can represent rebellious groups, we could say the Tea Party concerns an abundance (Jupiter) of wild mustangs. Metaphorically speaking, we would not be far wrong, though physically we’d be in outer space.
In this chart, Jupiter in Aquarius in 12 is itself ruled by Saturn in Virgo in the 7th. When we trace rulerships from one planet to another, we are following a natural and logical progression. In a mundane chart, the 7th is our enemy, as it very often is in a natal chart as well. (Sex as a lubricant helps us to overlook that, though never quite forget it entirely.) So when we see the chart ruler’s ruler end up in the 7th, we know we have a dynamic chart, so to speak.
For its part, Saturn is ruled by Mercury, which is in the same sign as Jupiter. “Same sign” means “same party” or same group. Same sign also means same house. Saturn and Mercury are in mutual reception, which means the two planets are effectively conjunct and the two houses, 12th & 7th are effectively fused. As the two houses are in fact inconjunct, and as inconjuncts are aspects of invisibility (sorry to throw that at you), we can say the Tea Party is angry at things that it cannot quite get to grips with.
So, from a standing start (the Ascendant), rulerships have now led us both into the bucket, as well as directly to its handle. The Tea Party chart is therefore a bucket chart, with all rights, duties and privileges pertaining thereunto. Having gone about finding the bucket by backwards means, a guess is that it won’t turn out exactly as Clement would imagine.
Clement would have Saturn in Virgo in the 7th as the primary planet in the chart. Since Saturn has led us to Mercury, can we use our tools to determine which planet, Mercury or Saturn, is stronger?
While Saturn and Mercury are in mutual reception, which should make them more-or-less equal in strength, Mercury is exalted in Aquarius, whereas Saturn is merely stuck in Virgo. (In one set of terms, Saturn at 19 degrees Virgo is in its own terms. In another set of terms, it is not. To me, terms are one whole subset below rulers and exaltations. Which is to say, not on equal footing: Subtenants.)
With its exalted knowledge (of being superior, of course), Mercury in Aquarius can pounce on Saturn in Virgo, blaming it for the mess it’s making.
It’s useful to remember that Saturn is not always the stronger planet. Virgo is Mercury’s bailiwick, Virgo is Mercury’s responsibility. Mercury doesn’t take kindly to Saturn making a mess in its sign. On crude levels—and mundane astrology is always crude—Saturn makes a mess wherever he goes.
Saturn in Virgo is all about not being neat. Not being tidy. Not getting the job done. Not being on time, etc., etc. Or, in Santelli’s own words, not paying your bills, not keeping your house in order, and suffering the consequences. Astrological delineations must closely mirror the subject of the chart itself. As this does.
Backing up a bit, you could say that Pisces rising puts a spotlight on Jupiter in Aquarius in 12, who then passes the baton to Saturn in Virgo in 7, who throws it to Mercury in Aquarius in 12. All of which are straightforward rulerships. No hocus-pocus, no magic show, nothing up the sleeves. Mercury and Saturn then monopolize the game (i.e., the chart) by throwing the ball back and forth between themselves, shutting everyone else out. Mutual receptions tend to do this.
In this chart, as Mercury is the stronger of the two, it’s Mercury railing against Saturn, and Saturn who finds he cannot get out of the way and that he has no good reply. Mercury, the planet of words, is giving Saturn a good scolding. Which, again, was precisely what Santelli was doing. So far as buckets are concerned, in the Tea Party chart, the primary planets are Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury.
I do not mean to speak ill of Stephanie Clement. She has worked and studied very hard, for very many years. I can trace her as far back as the days she worked at Michael Erlewine’s Heart Center Library, in Big Rapids, MI (no web page). I feel like Thoreau, in Walden, who told a story of Indians and their baskets. Thoreau meant them no ill-will. He simply found it frustrating they had spent their time with baskets, when there were more interesting matters at hand.
Learn to use all the tools at your disposal and your astrology will go from crude sketches, to technicolor movies. Astrology is a powerful thing. I am accused of bias, and while this is true and unavoidable, it is also true that astrology describes the world as it is. Not how we imagine it to be. There are charts I cannot present because their delineations will contradict commonly-held beliefs and ideas. But this is the sheer terror of astrology, that it sees all and knows all. No one, no thing, can hide.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
More on the Tea Party
Hello Tom,
My thanks for your note. Blogger won't let me post this as a comment, so I'm making it a separate entry. It just might turn out to be next week's newsletter. So here is more on the Tea Party Chart. For those of you just tuning in, see the previous entry.
"We the People" refers to the ascendant and the first house. The exact "people" in question are determined by the ruler of the first, its house and sign placement, and the house and sign placement of its ruler, if any.
This is a rule. In Rick Santelli's Tea Party chart, the ruler of the first is Jupiter, in Aquarius, in the 12th house. The 12th can represent horses, Aquarius can represent rebellious groups, we could say the Tea Party concerns an abundance (Jupiter) of wild mustangs. Metaphorically speaking, we would not be far wrong, though physically we'd be in outer space.
In this chart, Jupiter in Aquarius in 12 is itself ruled by Saturn in Virgo in the 7th. When we trace rulerships from one planet to another, we are following a natural and logical progression. In a mundane chart, the 7th is our enemy, as it very often is in a natal chart as well. Sex as a lubricant helps us to overlook that, though never quite forget it entirely. So when we see the chart ruler's ruler end up in the 7th, we know we have a dynamic chart, so to speak.
For its part, Saturn is ruled (I often say, "disposed") by Mercury, which is in the same sign as Jupiter. "Same sign" means "same party" or same group. Same sign also means same house. Saturn and Mercury are in mutual reception, which means the two planets are effectively conjunct and the two houses, 12th & 7th are effectively fused. As the two houses are in fact inconjunct, and as inconjuncts are aspects of invisibility (sorry to throw that at you), we can define the Tea Party as being angry at things that it cannot quite get to grips with.
So far as which planet, Mercury or Saturn, is stronger, note that Mercury is exalted in Aquarius, whereas Saturn is merely stuck in Virgo. With its exalted knowledge of being superior, Mercury can pounce on Saturn, blaming it for the mess it's making in Virgo. It's useful to remember that Saturn is not always the stronger planet. Virgo is Mercury's bailiwick, Virgo is Mercury's responsibility. Mercury doesn't take kindly to Saturn making a mess in its sign. On crude levels - and mundane astrology is always crude - Saturn makes a mess wherever he goes. Saturn in Virgo is all about not being neat. Not being tidy. Not getting the job done. Not being on time, etc., etc. Or, in Santelli's own words, not paying your bills, not keeping your house in order. Astrological delineations must closely mirror the subject of the chart itself. As this does.
Backing up a bit, you could say that Pisces rising puts a spotlight on Jupiter in 12, who then passes the baton to Saturn who throws it to Mercury (all straightforward rulerships) who then monopolize the game by throwing the ball back and forth between themselves, shutting everyone else out. Mutual receptions tend to do this. In this chart, as Mercury is the stronger of the two, it's Mercury railing against Saturn, who finds he cannot get out of the way and that he has no good reply. Mercury, the planet of words, is giving Saturn a good scolding. Which, again, was precisely what Santelli was doing.
So far as Pisces being universal, Pisces is a great many things. This is not a strongly Piscean chart, which means there's not a lot that's universal about it. The ruler, Jupiter, is not in Pisces. Venus, which is exalted in Pisces, is instead in fall in Aries (which, by the way, gives the chart an aspect of ugliness). Neptune, which doesn't really rule much of anything, is in Aquarius. The Sun is in Pisces, but for the most part, the Sun in Pisces simply muddles. Sometimes I think the Sun in Pisces is even weaker than the Sun in Aquarius or Libra. In Aquarius & Libra the Sun KNOWS things aren't going his way. In Pisces he doesn't even know that.
Also realize that signs are not houses and that houses are not signs. Pisces is universal, but the 12th house is about secrets, large animals, institutions and being trapped in general. Only in superficial ways are the 12th house and Pisces in any way related.
Buckets and bowls and locomotives and steamshovels, etc. They're all places to begin a delineation. Not final destinations. In very broad terms, you've got a 12th house dominant chart with Saturn being a sore point. When you get into the chart and look at it, you find Saturn to be a lot more than just a sore point. In this chart, Saturn gets paired up with Mercury, which makes Mercury and Jupiter the two most prominent planets in the bucket.
In delineating a chart, there are:
Specific planets.
Specific houses.
Specific signs.
Specific relationships between all of them.
Signs can be:
Cardinal
Fixed
Mutable
Signs can be:
Fire
Earth
Air
Water
Houses can be
Angular, which is to say, prominent
Succeedent, which is to say accumulative
Cadent, which is to say, chaotic
Degree positions can be early (1-10), which is to say, young.
Middle,10-20, which representing maturity.
Late, 20-30, which is to say, old and worn out. The very first and very last degrees of a sign (0-3, 27-30) are especially critical in this regard.
Angular is not the same as cardinal, succedent is not the same as fixed, cadent is not the same as mutable. Signs are qualities. Houses are drivers. A cardinal planet in a cadent house has a hard time punching its way out of a paper bag. Punching, an activity, is the cardinal planet. The paper bag represents the limitations of the cadent house.
A cadent sign on an angular house magnifies the instability of the cadent sign. Exactly what kind of instability will be determined by the nature of the sign, in particular, its element. Sagittarius on the ascendant will magnify its (mindless: opposite Gemini, fall of Mercury) fiery energy and boundless (Jupiter) enthusiasm, in the direction of and to the aims of the house of its ruler, which is Jupiter. If Jupiter turns up in, say, Cancer in the 8th, it will actively work (Cancer) to get lots (Jupiter) of money from others (8th house). As the chart ruler, this will be the reason for the chart's existence, whole cloth. Everything else is detail. Could this also be about sex? Well, yes, but that will depend on the condition of the Moon (ruler of the 8th) as well as of Mars, ruler of Aries on the 5th. Sex being a lot more personal than money-grubbing. And it could also be about death. All 8th house matters. The house containing the ruler of the chart is the dominant house in the chart. This chart, Sagittarius rising, Jupiter in Cancer in the 8th, could turn up as the chart of an international (Sag rising) investment house, or as the opening gavel for a convention of undertakers. Or an international porn expo. The chart must be read according to which group has claimed it. Undertakers can be quite sexy, and porn operators are well-known for luscious vampires.
By contrast, aspects and orbs, which astrologers learn to the exclusion of most everything else, can give only fragmentary results. Not everybody has a lot of aspects, but every chart has 12 functioning signs, 12 functioning houses, and 10 planets and two nodes, which interact in many dynamic ways. Aspects can highlight important details, but as they are fragmentary at best, aspects usually miss all the major ones. As a result, too many astrologers are accustomed to a vague and incomplete astrology. They literally do not know any better. When real astrology is put in front of them, they can find it disorienting.
So far as, Am I expressing personal opinions? Of course I am. It's my newsletter. It's my blog. They exist for me and I freely admit to being craven, like everyone else. There are charts I cannot publish because my delineations contradict established opinions, which are firmly held. This is the beauty and the terror of astrology, that it goes its own way, revealing truth where it finds it, without regard to reputation or opinion or belief. If, when you read a chart, it does not reveal new and surprising things to you, then you are simply not reading it. I can publish many interesting charts when there is at least one other person who can do this sort of delineation. Until then, it's all one-sided, alas.
My thanks for your note. Blogger won't let me post this as a comment, so I'm making it a separate entry. It just might turn out to be next week's newsletter. So here is more on the Tea Party Chart. For those of you just tuning in, see the previous entry.
"We the People" refers to the ascendant and the first house. The exact "people" in question are determined by the ruler of the first, its house and sign placement, and the house and sign placement of its ruler, if any.
This is a rule. In Rick Santelli's Tea Party chart, the ruler of the first is Jupiter, in Aquarius, in the 12th house. The 12th can represent horses, Aquarius can represent rebellious groups, we could say the Tea Party concerns an abundance (Jupiter) of wild mustangs. Metaphorically speaking, we would not be far wrong, though physically we'd be in outer space.
In this chart, Jupiter in Aquarius in 12 is itself ruled by Saturn in Virgo in the 7th. When we trace rulerships from one planet to another, we are following a natural and logical progression. In a mundane chart, the 7th is our enemy, as it very often is in a natal chart as well. Sex as a lubricant helps us to overlook that, though never quite forget it entirely. So when we see the chart ruler's ruler end up in the 7th, we know we have a dynamic chart, so to speak.
For its part, Saturn is ruled (I often say, "disposed") by Mercury, which is in the same sign as Jupiter. "Same sign" means "same party" or same group. Same sign also means same house. Saturn and Mercury are in mutual reception, which means the two planets are effectively conjunct and the two houses, 12th & 7th are effectively fused. As the two houses are in fact inconjunct, and as inconjuncts are aspects of invisibility (sorry to throw that at you), we can define the Tea Party as being angry at things that it cannot quite get to grips with.
So far as which planet, Mercury or Saturn, is stronger, note that Mercury is exalted in Aquarius, whereas Saturn is merely stuck in Virgo. With its exalted knowledge of being superior, Mercury can pounce on Saturn, blaming it for the mess it's making in Virgo. It's useful to remember that Saturn is not always the stronger planet. Virgo is Mercury's bailiwick, Virgo is Mercury's responsibility. Mercury doesn't take kindly to Saturn making a mess in its sign. On crude levels - and mundane astrology is always crude - Saturn makes a mess wherever he goes. Saturn in Virgo is all about not being neat. Not being tidy. Not getting the job done. Not being on time, etc., etc. Or, in Santelli's own words, not paying your bills, not keeping your house in order. Astrological delineations must closely mirror the subject of the chart itself. As this does.
Backing up a bit, you could say that Pisces rising puts a spotlight on Jupiter in 12, who then passes the baton to Saturn who throws it to Mercury (all straightforward rulerships) who then monopolize the game by throwing the ball back and forth between themselves, shutting everyone else out. Mutual receptions tend to do this. In this chart, as Mercury is the stronger of the two, it's Mercury railing against Saturn, who finds he cannot get out of the way and that he has no good reply. Mercury, the planet of words, is giving Saturn a good scolding. Which, again, was precisely what Santelli was doing.
So far as Pisces being universal, Pisces is a great many things. This is not a strongly Piscean chart, which means there's not a lot that's universal about it. The ruler, Jupiter, is not in Pisces. Venus, which is exalted in Pisces, is instead in fall in Aries (which, by the way, gives the chart an aspect of ugliness). Neptune, which doesn't really rule much of anything, is in Aquarius. The Sun is in Pisces, but for the most part, the Sun in Pisces simply muddles. Sometimes I think the Sun in Pisces is even weaker than the Sun in Aquarius or Libra. In Aquarius & Libra the Sun KNOWS things aren't going his way. In Pisces he doesn't even know that.
Also realize that signs are not houses and that houses are not signs. Pisces is universal, but the 12th house is about secrets, large animals, institutions and being trapped in general. Only in superficial ways are the 12th house and Pisces in any way related.
Buckets and bowls and locomotives and steamshovels, etc. They're all places to begin a delineation. Not final destinations. In very broad terms, you've got a 12th house dominant chart with Saturn being a sore point. When you get into the chart and look at it, you find Saturn to be a lot more than just a sore point. In this chart, Saturn gets paired up with Mercury, which makes Mercury and Jupiter the two most prominent planets in the bucket.
In delineating a chart, there are:
Specific planets.
Specific houses.
Specific signs.
Specific relationships between all of them.
Signs can be:
Cardinal
Fixed
Mutable
Signs can be:
Fire
Earth
Air
Water
Houses can be
Angular, which is to say, prominent
Succeedent, which is to say accumulative
Cadent, which is to say, chaotic
Degree positions can be early (1-10), which is to say, young.
Middle,10-20, which representing maturity.
Late, 20-30, which is to say, old and worn out. The very first and very last degrees of a sign (0-3, 27-30) are especially critical in this regard.
Angular is not the same as cardinal, succedent is not the same as fixed, cadent is not the same as mutable. Signs are qualities. Houses are drivers. A cardinal planet in a cadent house has a hard time punching its way out of a paper bag. Punching, an activity, is the cardinal planet. The paper bag represents the limitations of the cadent house.
A cadent sign on an angular house magnifies the instability of the cadent sign. Exactly what kind of instability will be determined by the nature of the sign, in particular, its element. Sagittarius on the ascendant will magnify its (mindless: opposite Gemini, fall of Mercury) fiery energy and boundless (Jupiter) enthusiasm, in the direction of and to the aims of the house of its ruler, which is Jupiter. If Jupiter turns up in, say, Cancer in the 8th, it will actively work (Cancer) to get lots (Jupiter) of money from others (8th house). As the chart ruler, this will be the reason for the chart's existence, whole cloth. Everything else is detail. Could this also be about sex? Well, yes, but that will depend on the condition of the Moon (ruler of the 8th) as well as of Mars, ruler of Aries on the 5th. Sex being a lot more personal than money-grubbing. And it could also be about death. All 8th house matters. The house containing the ruler of the chart is the dominant house in the chart. This chart, Sagittarius rising, Jupiter in Cancer in the 8th, could turn up as the chart of an international (Sag rising) investment house, or as the opening gavel for a convention of undertakers. Or an international porn expo. The chart must be read according to which group has claimed it. Undertakers can be quite sexy, and porn operators are well-known for luscious vampires.
By contrast, aspects and orbs, which astrologers learn to the exclusion of most everything else, can give only fragmentary results. Not everybody has a lot of aspects, but every chart has 12 functioning signs, 12 functioning houses, and 10 planets and two nodes, which interact in many dynamic ways. Aspects can highlight important details, but as they are fragmentary at best, aspects usually miss all the major ones. As a result, too many astrologers are accustomed to a vague and incomplete astrology. They literally do not know any better. When real astrology is put in front of them, they can find it disorienting.
So far as, Am I expressing personal opinions? Of course I am. It's my newsletter. It's my blog. They exist for me and I freely admit to being craven, like everyone else. There are charts I cannot publish because my delineations contradict established opinions, which are firmly held. This is the beauty and the terror of astrology, that it goes its own way, revealing truth where it finds it, without regard to reputation or opinion or belief. If, when you read a chart, it does not reveal new and surprising things to you, then you are simply not reading it. I can publish many interesting charts when there is at least one other person who can do this sort of delineation. Until then, it's all one-sided, alas.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
We're not going to take it anymore! All hail the Tea Party!
My intention is not to pass judgement on the US political mess (who am I?), but to demonstrate how you can use astrology to know more about the world in which you live. Learn how to fully read a chart, how to organize planets, houses and signs to make your own conclusions, your own realizations. Will your results be the same as mine? Of course not! The goal is to use my techniques (Morin’s techniques, frankly), not to agree with my personal beliefs.
Some updates. So far as the Little Red (actually white) Schoolhouse in Ripon, WI and the meeting of February 28, 1854, I have been corrected. That meeting took place in a local church. I think my analysis of the probable time (in the evening) will stand. During the day, people attend to business. In the evening there are meetings, rallies, revivals, concerts, casual romances between strangers, etc. The second meeting, of March 20, 1854, was held in the school, very likely about the same time of day, which advances all the house cusps by one sign. Mars should rule.
Numerous people have emailed dates of other meetings, each claiming to be the “origin” of the modern Republican Party. It seems clear that by the summer of 1854 that something was afoot. In particular, the March 20th meeting has been called out as the true founding date of the Republican Party. Of that day, March 20, 1854, The Wisconsin Historical Society has preserved an account, which includes,
It was a cold and windy night. On the desk where the teacher was accustomed to preside, was a single candle. And on the benches were the men who sold goods over the counter, the minister, the blacksmith and the farmer whose horses stamped in the chill outside the candle-lighted building.
This was not a meeting for debate. Every man present knew why he was there—it was to dissolve the local organizations of the old parties, to organize and adopt such measures as the inauguration of a new party required. — The Milwaukee Journal, June 2, 1929 (my emphasis).
Read this carefully. If there was no debate as to the need for a new party, then March 20 was not the inception of the Republican party, but its first organizational meeting. Distinctions matter. Of the February 28th meeting, the same report says,
In the meantime came the “Nebraska question,” with every Whig and Democrat in the country lined up. Should Nebraska and Kansas be admitted as territories with power to do as they pleased about slavery, despite the Missouri Compromise and its guarantee that there was to be no slave north of 36-30?
“No,” said the community on the hill, and hastened, men and women, to attend a meeting in the Congregational Church, called by Bovay and held on the last evening in February, 1854. The burden of the speeches concerned the subserviency of the old parties to the slave holders and the necessity of a new party. A resolution was adopted that if the Nebraska bill should pass, they would “throw the old party organizations to the winds and organize a new party on the sole issue of the non-extension of slavery.” (emphasis mine)
Which makes the Tuesday, February 28th meeting, not the one of Monday March 20th, the do-or-die meeting, the one at which the necessity of a new party, and its fundamental identity, was debated and finally decided upon. Is there overlap between these two meetings? Yes, a great deal. History is messy like that. But we cannot understand the actions of March 20th without reference to the previous meeting of February 28.
TEA parties have been a venerable tradition on both sides of the Atlantic. In America we go out of doors and rant. In England tea parties are picnics attended by oversize animals and demented local businessmen. As a form of political protest there have been various informal “tea parties” in recent years, none of which amounted to anything much.
This changed on February 19, 2009, when Rick Santelli, a CNBC business news reporter, gave a most amazing rant from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The video clip is available on-line and you will see that it is clearly time-stamped: 8:11 am Eastern, 7:11 Central. Chicago is Central, thus the time: Thursday, February 19, 2009, 7:11 am, Chicago.
The gist of Santelli’s rant—and it is a rant—is that the government is wrong to help underwater homeowners stay in their homes. That the government is wrong to “subsidize losers,” that there are plenty of people who would be happy to buy these properties on the cheap. Rather than tax everybody else to pay for bad mortgages. He was interrupted by one of his hosts who pointed out the mob rule aspect of his rant. Santelli then continued by saying that before Castro everyone in Cuba lived in mansions and that since Castro they all have to drive around in very old American cars. Santelli concluded by claiming that the 5% of the trading floor that was there with him at the moment (7 am CST) was a representative cross-section of America.
Santelli was born in Chicago on January 12, 1953, the grandson of Italian, not Cuban, immigrants. He graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and, age 26, began a career at the Chicago Mercantile. In 1999 he joined CNBC as a business reporter. He is an expert with the Chicago Mercantile, which is why he was hired. In stressful times one often hears such rants. One remembers the classic “love it or leave it” of the Vietnam war. Which in the past the media has noted, and then moved on to a discussion of possible solutions for the problems which gave rise to the rant. But that was when the Republicans were in their post-FDR slump, and the Democrats, always and forever feckless, were still basking in his glow. The Republicans are now back up to speed and the Democrats have slithered back into the shadows they love so well. It’s 1928—or 1860—all over again.
While there had been various “tea party” events over the past decade, in the days after Santelli’s outburst, many “tea party” events were quickly organized. Which makes his televised statement a founding moment.
The Tea Party Chart
IN mundane maps the signs of the zodiac are not much used. The Tea Party chart has Pisces rising, which is an aspect of religion. On the first house cusp, with the Sun nearby, Santelli’s rant was one of religious belief. Watch and listen to the video clip: He certainly believes what he says.
Chart ruler is Jupiter, in Aquarius. Pisces-Jupiter-Aquarius combinations to me are indicative of preachers (Pisces) haranguing their congregations (Aquarius). Jupiter conjunct Mars gave him a great deal of energy, self-confidence and zealous, warlike expression.
I am coming to view the north node, when there are planets in close aspect, as granting a degree of self-righteousness. I note the universal belief that the north node is “where we should be going,” so if there is a planet conjunct the node, then the north node must make that planet’s actions to be right and true and proper, at least as far as the individual is concerned. (You as observer may want to disagree.) When the north node is on the ascendant, or conjunct the ruler of the ascendant, then whatever the chart signifies would have the connotation of being right.
Which was certainly the feeling that everyone had at the time. That Rick Santelli had spoken Truth, however unpleasant. There is no profit in my pointing out that “truth” that distorts history and victimizes people is not a very useful truth. As I know well, there is no such thing as absolute truth, or, indeed, any sort of “truth” at all. “Truth” and its opposite, falsehood, are relative terms. To a weary, long-suffering, mentally addled public, such as America, what Santelli said was true enough. Just as Howard Camping’s fantastic dream of the end of the world last May 21st rang true for countless millions. By contrast, Jimmy Carter’s warning of energy dependency, on April 17, 1977, while certainly “true” was also most unwelcome. Truth is relative, it might even be a relative of yours or mine, but this is not something easily judged with a chart alone.
The house in which we find the ruler of the chart, along with Mars (for energy), the righteous node, as well as know-it-all Mercury, was 12. Here we have an enormous set of problems.
The twelfth house is perhaps the most slippery in the entire chart. It rules prisons and workhouses and insane asylums and institutions of all kinds. It also rules secret affairs and intrigue, which can include sex. A moment ago I went to the shelf and looked through Rex Bills and Lee Lehman’s rulership books. I was looking to find the astrological rulership of corporations. I did not find corporations in Lehman’s book, which did not surprise, as hers is a compilation of late medieval sources. Bills, a modern work, gives corporations as Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus. He does not give a sign, nor a house, but you will note that in the Tea Party chart, the chart ruler is one of Bills’ rulers of corporations, another of his rulers, Neptune, is nearby, and the third, Uranus, is in the first house.
You will also note that both Jupiter and Neptune have natural 12th house and Piscean connotations, and that Uranus is associated with Aquarius and the 11th. I am of the opinion that corporations, which are, essentially, large organizations of (oftentimes) addled people, are 12th house creatures. Corporations are largely secretive as well as beyond individual control. This is important because, although Santelli’s words were taken up eagerly by the public at large, it is very clear that he was, in fact speaking on behalf of the world in which he has lived, quite comfortably (or so I imagine) for more than 30 years. Which is the world of corporations. Not the general public.
Note the position of Mercury. If corporations are 12th house, then Mercury in the 12th may be said to speak on their behalf. Mercury in Gemini is glib. Mercury in Aquarius, another powerful placement, is a smart-aleck. The on-line dictionary defines smart aleck as “an obnoxiously conceited and self-assertive person with pretensions to smartness or cleverness.” I myself have Mercury in Aquarius and recognize the tendency. Aquarius is, in fact, a sign of smartness and intelligence and, in its strange and aloof nature, also quite conceited. You will note the node is very nearly at the midpoint of Mercury, the obnoxious, and Jupiter, the chart ruler. You will also note the south node, symbol of “all that is wrong” is in the 6th.
Raphael III defines the 6th mundane house as ruling, “the public health and the general condition of the working classes and servants. It also governs national service, Army and Navy, the Soldiers and Sailors, Battleships, etc. The nature of the sickness affecting the country generally can be deduced from the planets in this house, or ruling over it according to the parts of the body ruled by such sign, etc.”
The nodal signs are, north, in Aquarius, in the 12th, indicating We the Corporations who are Right, vs: the south node, in Leo, representing you, the petty and mean and hopeless and drowning serfs (ruler Sun in Pisces, which is wet), who have no rights, no rights at all. On this point, Santelli was explicit: Pay your bills and be happy, or shut up and take the consequences. (And for that, he was cheered?)
It is at this point that the analysis becomes grim. The past two weeks I have shown the Republican chart, with its strong, albeit warped 6th house paternalistic aspect. This week we have a hectoring, Aquarian/Piscean corporate chart. In both cases it is working people who are being beaten up, first by a government (retrograde Venus leading to Jupiter in Capricorn) and now by corporations, direct from the trading floor.
You will note in the Tea Party chart that the chart ruler, Jupiter, not only rules the 12th of corporations, but also the 10th (Sagittarius) of the presidency itself. In the Tea Party chart we again see the government, now subservient to the corporation, making war against the workers, to the profit of the corporations.
Which is reinforced, yet again, by Saturn in Virgo in the 7th house. As Virgo is ruled by Mercury, it is therefore Saturn which was the aim of his rant. Saturn in the 7th normally signifies trouble in foreign affairs, but the target of Santelli’s rant was not foreigners, but poor Americans. Sakoian and Acker tell me that Saturn in Virgo makes people who are practical, exacting and hard working. They are perfectionists, they tend to over-work, they do not get on well with others. They tend to be austere and gloomy and in poor health.
That Santelli had innocent poor people in mind would have been more clear, his rant would have had more focus, had there been an actual opposition between Mercury and Saturn. Virgo and Aquarius are inconjunct, which Valens describes as “turned away”, in other words, not able to “see” each other. For those of you who are accustomed to working exclusively with aspects and are having a hard time with rulers, this kind of distinction is important. If the two planets had actually been opposed, Santelli’s target would have been clear. But as they were not, the target of Santelli’s rant was perceived to be more general, more diffuse.
And it’s here where we find the power of astrology to reveal. Reviewing the analysis as a whole, I find that Santelli was speaking on behalf of corporations and against the working poor.
Where’s the money? Funny you should ask. In the Tea Party chart, both money houses are empty, though a debilitated Venus in Aries (remember the retrograde Venus in the Republican chart) is trying to get into the 2nd, but really wants to be in the 8th, which it rules. Ruler of the 2nd, Mars, is conjunct the chart ruler, Jupiter. Mars also rules Venus. Both Mars and Jupiter are located in the 12th house of corporations. One way or another, so far as the Tea Party is concerned, all the money belongs to the corporation.
The Moon in this chart is in the last minutes of Sagittarius, in the 10th. Tenth house Moons resonate well with the public. Moon in Sagittarius represents ideas we can all believe in. That it is void in the 29th degree means these ideas are old and burned up (Sagittarius is a fire sign) and no longer valid. You will note the Moon is less than three degrees from a conjunction with Pluto, and that the aspect is applying, in other words, the two planets are getting closer by the minute. This is another example how rulership astrology differs from aspect astrology. Aspect astrology says the Moon and Pluto are in aspect, must be in aspect, because not only are they physically close, not only are they moving towards each other, but the Moon itself has an overly large orb of aspect. And while it is true that Santelli’s rant galvanized the country (which Moon and Pluto will certainly do), it did not produce intense riots and civil disorder, which a true Moon/Pluto conjunction on the MC will do. Even when the planets are only three degrees apart, aspects are sign-based. Subordinate to that, intensity of aspect is degree-based. Out-of-sign aspects have the underlying value of the signs themselves, and adjacent signs, which are innately conflicting, have little if any relationship.
The Part of Fortune. In my work with Valens I am coming to value Fortune more and more. You will note Fortune in this chart is in Capricorn, the sign of government. It is ruled by Saturn, which is ruled by Mercury. Which again takes me back to Santelli’s words, much of which were a rant against the government for mistakenly helping “losers.” Valens says to look at the 10th house from Fortune, to see what and where that is. In this chart, the tenth from Fortune is the 8th, of, I hate to remind you, Wall Street (other people’s money). Ruled by Venus, ruled by Mars, which is conjunct the chart ruler in the house of corporations.
It is a sad commentary on the country of my birth that such a moment as this became symbolic of hope, when there is no hope in sight. I am asked what I think may happen in the future, as if my opinion had merit, which it does not. Personally I would like to see a general strike, led by cunning operators. I am fearful of widespread riots, which will be suppressed with loss of life. I have no hope whatever for the elections of 2012.
Meanwhile the country grows ever angrier. This has recently come to the attention of the President, a wise and caring leader, who is said to be selecting a suitable scapegoat. Rumor says it will be Mr. Geithner, who I presume will be well-paid for his participation. The Old Farmer’s Almanac for 2012 is now on sale. For the Chesapeake, where I live, winter is forecast to be dry with normal temperatures and above normal snowfall (light dry snow, I presume), but the Farmers do not consider the effects of human rage upon overall weather patterns. Two years ago I got a roof rake, but not in time to actually use it. I suggest you prepare for more bad weather.
See this, as part of the week's newsletter.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
More Republican Mayhem
I missed a retrograde Venus? No fair blaming lousy Solar Fire printouts, there is no excuse for not checking the obvious. A retrograde Venus changes the Republican chart in fundamental ways. So let’s have another look at the Republicans, and the planets themselves:
First, what are the chances of a chart with both Mars and Venus retrograde? I turned to Neil Michelsen’s Tables of Planetary Phenomena. (I have books, I will use them.) On pg. 108, I learn that Venus is retrograde 7.2% of the time, and that Mars is retrograde 9.5%. Multiply those two and they are both retrograde .6850% of the time. That’s 68 hundredths of one percent. In theory, that’s some 250 days per century.
Then I got out the ephemerides and counted. As I don’t have a 19th century ephemeris, I checked 1900-2100, a total of 201 years. Here is what I found. Mars and Venus were both retrograde:
42 days in 1905
26 days in 1918
23 days in 1937
8 days in 1950
4 days in 1969
For an actual count of 103 days for the 20th century. Barely more than one day a year.
For the 21st century, as follows:
10 days in 2037 – a 68 year gap
12 days in 2057
30 days in 2069
2 days in 2076
14 days in 2082
28 days in 2089
1 day in 2095
For a total of 83 days in the 21st century. Less than one day a year.
So far as 1854 is concerned, Venus went retrograde on February 6th. It went direct on March 21st, a total of 54 days. Mars was retrograde the entire time. For most of that period, the two planets were within a degree or two of exactly opposed. None of the mutual retrogrades of the 20th & 21st century were that severe. In all the other cases, the two planets’ retrogrades merely overlapped. In 1854, the Martian retrograde ate the Venusian whole.
The normal delineation of Venus/Mars opposed says that if Venus is the stronger, then the native is hypersensitive and prone to abuse. It is the female who cannot stand to be “hit on”, who is fearful of being stalked, who hides from the world.
When Mars is the stronger, we get the abusive male. Super macho, women are his for the taking, their feelings, their beings, of no interest to him. So long as he gets his way.
Critically in these traditional delineations, it is presumed that Mars is retrograde. Except for lunar oppositions, virtually all oppositions have one retrograde planet. It is as if there are two fighters in the ring. One—the direct planet—comes out of his corner swinging. The other—the retrograde one—emerges from the opposite corner, cowering. Ma! He’s picking on me! Does victory then go to the direct planet? No. It’s not so simple. When pushed the retrograde planet may well lash out: The cornered animal. I wish I could tell you there were simple mechanical rules for astrology, but there are not. You must look at each individual case.
When both opposing planets are retrograde—which is rare—it is as if the fighters have torn up the rule book. They are both in the ring, but they are there despite themselves. When both cower, victory goes to the better placed, better aspected planet. Since whatever planet that squares one, will square the other, and whatever planet that trines one, will sextile the other, tightness of orb is critical. As well as any planet that conjuncts one and opposes the other.
In the Republican chart, retrograde Venus, being well placed in Pisces, does not want icky Martian interference. Only one degree separate from the Sun, she is still within its warm rays. So far as retrograde Mars is concerned, he has his plans carefully laid. He will do what he wants. He is not responsible for Venus’ serfs or slaves or whatever she is calling them this week. So far as he is concerned, the best defense is a good offense.
As I mentioned last week, the Virgo-Pisces opposition is the main source of power in the Republican chart, and it is a curious sort. Venus has its ideals. It is the chart ruler, it is backed up—quite powerfully—by the Sun. Neptune and Mercury, both of questionable motives, are in Pisces and along for the ride, but that’s okay. All four planets in idealistic Pisces, in the house of slaves, serfs, workers, doctors and even small animals, surely Team Venus can be trusted to take care of us!
But it is precisely because Venus is retrograde that the Republicans are, and have been, unable to deliver on their grand promises.
What, in fact, was the Republican plan to end slavery? Answer: There never was a realistic plan. Not at all.
The most likely plan, simple-headed, muddled, highly dangerous, a plan that was endorsed by Abraham Lincoln himself, was to simply ship the slaves to some other country. There to fend for themselves. By 1860, slave repatriation had been on-going for some 40 years. One result is known today as the nation of Liberia, which was formally founded in 1847.
Upon taking power, all the Republicans needed to do was send the army to the South to round up eager slaves. Up to 1863, Lincoln’s actual plan (opposed by all freed slaves) was to strand them in Haiti or Central America. A slam-dunk. Nothing could be more simple. Why do you suppose that immediately upon Lincoln’s election, the Confederate states seceded, even before he was sworn in? Fearful the Yankee army would invade, fearful the slaves would rise up to greet them, why do you suppose the South attacked Fort Sumpter? Southern backs were against the wall. Throw the Yankees out, everything else was negotiable.
In this respect, the Republicans are paternalists gone sideways. They come with impractical plans (retrograde Mars in Virgo) that cannot actually be put into action (opposition to the chart ruler, a retrograde Venus), but which can result in unintended consequences. Such as being forced into a Civil War.
Or shutting down the government in 1994 to make some petty point. Or stopping the Florida recount in 2000. Or holding the nation hostage over a debt ceiling.
Such Republican plans “for the good of all” are imposed on the unwilling serfs/slaves/workers, to the profit of institutions (12th house: corporations are people, too) and their financial backers (Mars trine to Saturn in Taurus in the 8th).
Which Venus, in league with Saturn in Taurus, permits. Elsewhere, Mercury, not very bright in Pisces, is smart enough to know it wants to be on the other side of the chart, in Virgo, with Mars.
Hardly anything in astrology is more rare than a political party with both Venus and Mars retrograde. Surely this cannot be human! At first I thought, the Republicans are really ALIENS FROM OUTER SPACE, sent to infest unsuspecting earth creatures!
But then I thought, God sent the Republicans to Smite America back into the stone age where it belonged. The Avenging Angels of Amerika, one and all. And, well, they’re just taking their time at it. Nobody ever said that God was in a rush. I can make out a case that he enjoys slow torture.
But, heck, well, no, that weren’t it, either. Lookie here: From a standing start, the Republicans were running the country seven years after they were founded, and went on running it, in a more or less unbroken streak, until the economic system as a whole collapsed in 1929.
Whereupon Franklin Roosevelt rescued us—and them—and after 40 years of licking their wounds, Ronald Reagan brought the Republicans back from the dead. There is no difference between what the Republicans are now, and what they ever were. The nice, kindly, sympathetic Republicans of the 50’s and 60’s, the Republicans I grew up with, were simply a party in disarray.
With this kind of success, we should be honest and admit the Republican Party to be the true face of America. Maybe the shock of self-recognition will encourage us to do better. Do you see another Franklin Roosevelt in sight?
In his email Peter also remarked that the purpose of the Republican Moon in Aries in the 6th, ruling the 10th of Cancer, was to use its public position (MC) to push workers (6th) around. Which is another excellent observation. Do the Republicans treat us any better than they treated the slaves? Don’t just think of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, as that was the work of one man. Think of the horror of Reconstruction and its aftermath. Or the fate of Liberia.
Mark emailed to ask where I get the keywords that I use. While there are two excellent sources for this sort of thing (J.Lee Lehman and Rex Bills), I never quite got on with either one. In part I am guided by 25 years of study, but when I’m stumped, or unsure or just want a second opinion, I turn to Sakoian and Acker, Alan Oken, Charles Carter and Vivian Robson. All of which are basic introductions-to-astrology books. There are many others. You should have three, if not four, such books in your library, each carefully chosen.
The technique I use can be found in Morin’s Book 21, or in Patti Tobin Brittian’s Planetary Powers. It was best expressed by Vivian Robson, in A Beginner’s Guide to Practical Astrology:
Having found the significator of the matter concerned interpret all aspects to it as things and people affecting it. Suppose Jupiter were chief significator of money and afflicted by Saturn. We should judge that money matters would be hampered by poor conditions, depressing surroundings, ill-health, or whatever Saturn signified in that horoscope. In other words, we should give Jupiter the chief consideration as significator of the matter enquired into, and interpret the action of Saturn in its relation to Jupiter, and not vice-versa. On the other hand if Saturn were the significator we should judge that fits of generosity or extravagance would affect the finances, because Jupiter is expansive in its action, and its afflicting aspect would cause trouble and loss. This general judgment is then refined by taking into account the sign and house occupied by the aspecting planet, and the houses it rules. Thus, suppose with Saturn as significator that Jupiter threw an adverse aspect from the 5th house. Then we should judge that the extravagance would arise from too much indulgence in pleasure, or from gambling, or other matters ruled by the 5th house. This would be modified by the sign containing Jupiter. A water sign would incline more to self-indulgence, a fiery one to gambling, a sign ruled by Venus to expenditure on women, and so on, thus enabling us to enlarge on the judgement obtained from the house position alone. We should next look to see what houses Jupiter ruled. If it ruled the 3rd we should judge expense and extravagance over journeys, relatives and other third house matters, and by blending the influences, that gambling losses (5th) would come through the advice of relatives (3rd) or some other appropriate blending. . . .
This, however, is not the only way the influences would work. . . .
There is method to be used, and it is one which needs considerable practice, but it is well-worth the trouble involved, and the student will himself be amazed to find how accurately the most trifling details may be predicted.
As a word of advice to the beginner I would say — Do not be afraid to let yourself go in this way. You will make many mistakes to start with, but it is the only way to make your Astrology of practical use. There is too great a tendency nowadays to float about in a comfortable haze of so-called esotericism. The first need of Astrology is accuracy and definition, not pseudo-religious speculation, and it is only by concentrating on the practical and scientific side that we can really make Astrology of service, and obtain for it the recognition it deserves. (Dave’s emphasis)
I wrote a great deal more this week, chiefly on how slavery really worked, but it was too much of a rant. (You want the real story of slavery? Female slaves were forcibly bred/mass raped on an annual basis, the majority of male slaves castrated at birth. The slave-owner himself did the siring/stud work/raping (pick your term). Such is how field slaves came to be. Because, as is well-known, slaves will not breed. “Let slavery end with me” is their bedrock belief. What do you think of Jefferson, now? House slaves were the product of the owner’s slovenly daughter and an unexpectedly fertile black male. Presumably for every house slave, there was one dead black male. The real story of slavery is still well-hidden.)
Consider also Rosemary’s Baby, which, metaphorically speaking, is what can come about when both Venus and Mars are retrograde. Just plain creepy.
America is, in sum, an extraordinary country. It has an extraordinary chart, the chart of the founding of the Republican Party. Next year I expect it to sweep the elections and by its misrule further advance its mission of self-destruction through greed. The rest of the world is trying to distance itself from us, by whatever means as come to hand. It is just that bleak.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
The natal chart of the Republican Party
FROM Penelope, I have the chart for the Republican Party: February 28, 1854, Ripon, Wisconsin. Penelope gave the time as “noon”. I decided to see if I could do better.
I first went to the Wiki site for Ripon, WI, where I learned the meeting was held at a schoolhouse, which still stands, though not at its original location. Since schoolhouses are usually in use during most days of the week, I needed to find out what day of the week February 28th was. I got that from Ancestor Search, though an ephemeris of the period would have done as well.
Turns out, the day was a Tuesday. A school day. I presumed the school day in small towns in Wisconsin was more or less the same as it was when I was in school in Kansas, from, say, 8:00 am to, say, 3:00 pm, give or take half an hour on either side. Thereafter kids came home to their waiting mothers, and if that sounds like the Cleavers, well, it’s supposed to.
Ripon was a new town, only having been settled six years earlier. The school house was perhaps a year old. The community presumably served the surrounding farmers. In February most farmers are inactive, except the dairymen, who work year round, generally at sunrise and sunset. And there would have been dairy.
So our next question is what time the sun sets in Ripon on February 28 of any given year. Which a standard astrology chart will give us: Set the sun on the 7th house cusp, read off the time. More or less, that’s sunset. Which was about 5:40 pm (CST, as I forgot to set things in LMT).
So the setting was a schoolhouse, the day was a school day as well as a work day. School ends late in the afternoon, children return home, the evening meal is prepared, the head of the house returns, food is eaten, the dairy men milk the cows and put them away for the night, and only then can evening activities begin. The first meeting of what was to be the Republican party thus begins no earlier than 7:00 pm.
I am unable to determine what, if anything, happened during this epochal meeting. Some thirty people attended. Presumably there were speeches, comments from the floor, debates, motions that were defeated or approved, etc.
In other words, time passed. Presumably once a final resolution of some sort had been agreed upon, the meeting ended. For a meeting starting around 7:00 pm, an hour does not sound long enough. If the meeting was brief, it would most likely have been noted as such. On the other hand, meetings that last three hours or longer are generally remembered as tiresome and, oftentimes, contentious. Presuming the people who met were more or less like-minded (people in small towns are often like-minded), two hours, more or less, is often enough to get the job done.
By this method of deduction, it is reasonable to take Penelope’s noon chart and set it for 9:00 pm, the approximate conclusion of the meeting, the time when a final result, whatever it may have been, was agreed upon.
Other details: The dogs that did not bark. Snows in Wisconsin can be fierce. If there was snow, there would have been no school, which means the men could have met at any time of the day, except that if there was no school, there would not have been much of any activity in Ripon on the day. So we may presume the streets were clear and that classes had previously been held.
Second, these men were presumably godless heathens, as you will note the meeting was held in a schoolhouse, rather than a church. I am glad they did not meet in a church, as it would have been nearly impossible to establish the time of the meeting if they had. It was a new town and there may not have been a suitable church building, or it may be the promoters were not associated with any of the local clergy, or it may be they were serious about Church/State separation. It is said they took the name of their new party, Republican, from the Declaration of Independence. Which is as much a list of grievances as a statement of principles, but it might be they had the First Amendment in mind as well.
With these preliminaries out of the way, we can now examine the chart, the result of these men’s work on that night.
Set for 9:00 pm — which is an approximation — the chart has cardinal signs on the angles, indicating great strength and dynamism. Libra rises, showing a desire for equality (these were anti-slavery men), but underneath a placid exterior, Libras will manipulate others to get what they want. This should be kept in mind.
Chart ruler Venus is exalted in Pisces. Which, by comparison to the signs it actually rules (Taurus and Libra), Venus in Pisces is over the top, overdone, over-ripe, excessively idealistic. With Venus in Pisces are the Sun, Neptune and Mercury. Which is a pronounced religious fervor and a willingness to sacrifice, even face martyrdom, even in defiance of common sense, which a debilitated Mercury in Pisces notably lacks.
Now look where this falls in the chart: At 9 pm, as well as at 8 pm, Pisces falls on the cusp of the 6th, and 8 pm and 9 pm, Venus and the Sun fall outside of the 6th. I have said before that planets falling on the wrong side of the cusp are ne’er-do-wells, that they will try all the harder to prove their bona fides. Which is the case here.
What is the sixth house? S L A V E R Y . The men who met that night were ideologically driven to rid the world of that scourge, even at the cost of their own lives, as shown by the Sun’s own position. Cardinal signs on the angles, they would do whatever was necessary. Chart ruler Venus, as well as the Sun in Pisces, they would be indiscriminate as to the means, as well as tend to excuse themselves with endless religious rationalizations.
Now look across the chart and find Mars opposing from Virgo. They knew they would be confronted, they expected to pay the ultimate price. They could rationalize and say that as Mars was in the sign of Mercury, and as Mercury was on friendly terms with Venus, that they had a “spy in the enemy camp,” which so far as the Civil War went, may well have been true. People do not consciously rationalize their actions with astrology (as I have done here), but, knowingly or not, they invariably make full use of their charts.
This chart may be analyzed for its role in the Civil War (the election of Abraham Lincoln as the party’s first president may well rectify it precisely), but my immediate goal is the present day. Just as Venus wants to be in the 6th house, Mars wants to be in the 12th. Mars in the 12th is a strategist. The best military men, the best chess players, invariably have Mars in the 12th: It keeps their plans secret.
In Virgo, these plans are detailed and precise. Mars retrograde, they are wrong. Opposed to Mercury, they run counter to logic. Opposed to the Sun, they are hostile to life itself. Opposed to Pisces, they are ugly and contrary to religious principles.
But, using whole sign aspects (and why not?), Mars is supported by trines from Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Pluto. The trine from Saturn, while wide, is particularly telling: Even my enemy likes me. (Saturn and Mars hate each other.) The Pisces-Virgo opposition is the major source of dynamic energy in the Republican chart.
A chart with cardinal signs on the angles, ruled by Venus in transcendent Pisces, backed up by the vitality of Sun, deluded by Neptune, saddled with a debilitated Mercury, forever irked by Mars (off in his own corner laughing at them), is, in sum, a chart that believes in its divine right to rule, regardless of the opposition it engenders.
Once the issue of slavery had been dealt with (no, it was not really, it is still an open sore, but enough of this!), the chart of the Republican party takes on an interesting new life.
All the planets that want to be in the 6th house shift from the issue of slavery, to the unwashed workers, the serfs. As in, We know what’s best for you. Which makes the Republican party a neo-Church, with all the rights and trappings of a proper religion. Party members become True Believers, party ideology is unquestioned, people find a “home” in their political church, etc.
Critically, as with the Church itself, moral welfare becomes more important than physical well-being. Having the right beliefs becomes more important than being well-off. The Republican party thus fundamentally confuses the role of the Church with the role of the State. You will note the intensely religious fervor Lincoln’s Republican government generated during the Civil War.
This should be a minor thing, that even with a religious orientation (note debilitated Mercury in religious Pisces ruling the 9th house of religion) the overall aim of a political party is, in the end, political rule, and it would have come to pass, but for the critical position of Saturn.
In the Republican chart, Saturn is in Taurus in the 8th. Saturn in Taurus is insecure and greedy and grasping. If it were in the second house it would toil ceaselessly for a pittance, eventually rising to great wealth.
In the 8th, Saturn steals. Okay, you know this already, but look what happens when we set the chart in motion:
Saturn has rights in Libra, as chart co-ruler. As such, Saturn rationalizes his theft as the way things should be. He looks immediately to his proper ruler, Venus. In exaltation as well as sextile by sign, Venus gives her assent.
Which is to say that workers (6th house) should be happy (Pisces) with ideals, not money (Taurus/8th). Money belongs to Saturn, not to them. Why do Republicans hate trade unions? Because Pisces, as a sign, is
disorganized. That’s the way workers should be. Good little fish. A school of fish.
Saturn is then nudged by Jupiter. Jupiter is in Capricorn. Which is Saturn’s own sign, as well as the sign of Jupiter’s debility. Capricorn is the sign of the government. Whatever the government (Jupiter) has, is properly Saturn’s, as, debilitated in Capricorn, Jupiter cannot claim it as its own. Thus we see the Republican tendency to grab the government’s money. Which they were just as good at in the 1880’s as they were in the first decade of the 21st century.
Where does this money come from? Two sources. First, the 4th house is land, including real estate and mines. Secondly, just as Saturn has rights in Libra, Venus has somewhat lesser rights (or perhaps, obligations) to Capricorn. Venus in Pisces in the 6th permits money to be taken from workers and given to the government, which Jupiter then eventually gives to Saturn. If Saturn and Venus were in true mutual reception, and if Venus was not lost in a weak cadent house, there would be “revenue sharing” between the two of them. There is, instead, only a vague “noblesse oblige.” A “trickle down,” if you will. This is the best that can be done, the best the Republicans can do.
I have not spoken of the Moon in the chart, which is in Aries in the 6th. Unless the degree on the ascendant should prove to be 5 Libra or less, the Moon has no rights in the 7th house. Nor, being in Aries, is it properly part of the 6th. Moon in Aries in the 6th is “mommy knows best,” even though, lacking support from elsewhere in the chart (square to a weak Jupiter, that’s it) she rarely does. Her ruler is Mars, who wants to take both her, and himself, and hide away in the 12th. Which makes the Republicans devoid of warmth, of emotional support, of caring. The Republican religion is solar. It is the Savior, dying on the Cross so that you, young worthless serf, might be spared. Be happy with that. The Virgin (the Moon) is nowhere in sight, but the Magdalene’s tears (Venus) might wash your feet (Pisces).
For a party that was founded with the Declaration of Independence in mind, there is a temptation to make the party’s ascendant match the July 4, 1776 Saturn, at 14-something Libra. This is not necessary and would probably not be accurate. There is the question in my mind, could the Republican party evolve into something a little less heartless, a little more generous? At the age of 157, I am not hopeful. Having lasted this long and having remained largely unchanged for its entire history, it looks set to continue. Regardless of the fate of the country and people it rules, the party itself continues to go from strength to strength. I say this, not as a party member (I am not), but as a realist.
See this as part of the newsletter for the week of September 6, 2011.
I first went to the Wiki site for Ripon, WI, where I learned the meeting was held at a schoolhouse, which still stands, though not at its original location. Since schoolhouses are usually in use during most days of the week, I needed to find out what day of the week February 28th was. I got that from Ancestor Search, though an ephemeris of the period would have done as well.
Turns out, the day was a Tuesday. A school day. I presumed the school day in small towns in Wisconsin was more or less the same as it was when I was in school in Kansas, from, say, 8:00 am to, say, 3:00 pm, give or take half an hour on either side. Thereafter kids came home to their waiting mothers, and if that sounds like the Cleavers, well, it’s supposed to.
Ripon was a new town, only having been settled six years earlier. The school house was perhaps a year old. The community presumably served the surrounding farmers. In February most farmers are inactive, except the dairymen, who work year round, generally at sunrise and sunset. And there would have been dairy.
So our next question is what time the sun sets in Ripon on February 28 of any given year. Which a standard astrology chart will give us: Set the sun on the 7th house cusp, read off the time. More or less, that’s sunset. Which was about 5:40 pm (CST, as I forgot to set things in LMT).
So the setting was a schoolhouse, the day was a school day as well as a work day. School ends late in the afternoon, children return home, the evening meal is prepared, the head of the house returns, food is eaten, the dairy men milk the cows and put them away for the night, and only then can evening activities begin. The first meeting of what was to be the Republican party thus begins no earlier than 7:00 pm.
I am unable to determine what, if anything, happened during this epochal meeting. Some thirty people attended. Presumably there were speeches, comments from the floor, debates, motions that were defeated or approved, etc.
In other words, time passed. Presumably once a final resolution of some sort had been agreed upon, the meeting ended. For a meeting starting around 7:00 pm, an hour does not sound long enough. If the meeting was brief, it would most likely have been noted as such. On the other hand, meetings that last three hours or longer are generally remembered as tiresome and, oftentimes, contentious. Presuming the people who met were more or less like-minded (people in small towns are often like-minded), two hours, more or less, is often enough to get the job done.
By this method of deduction, it is reasonable to take Penelope’s noon chart and set it for 9:00 pm, the approximate conclusion of the meeting, the time when a final result, whatever it may have been, was agreed upon.
Other details: The dogs that did not bark. Snows in Wisconsin can be fierce. If there was snow, there would have been no school, which means the men could have met at any time of the day, except that if there was no school, there would not have been much of any activity in Ripon on the day. So we may presume the streets were clear and that classes had previously been held.
Second, these men were presumably godless heathens, as you will note the meeting was held in a schoolhouse, rather than a church. I am glad they did not meet in a church, as it would have been nearly impossible to establish the time of the meeting if they had. It was a new town and there may not have been a suitable church building, or it may be the promoters were not associated with any of the local clergy, or it may be they were serious about Church/State separation. It is said they took the name of their new party, Republican, from the Declaration of Independence. Which is as much a list of grievances as a statement of principles, but it might be they had the First Amendment in mind as well.
With these preliminaries out of the way, we can now examine the chart, the result of these men’s work on that night.
Set for 9:00 pm — which is an approximation — the chart has cardinal signs on the angles, indicating great strength and dynamism. Libra rises, showing a desire for equality (these were anti-slavery men), but underneath a placid exterior, Libras will manipulate others to get what they want. This should be kept in mind.
Chart ruler Venus is exalted in Pisces. Which, by comparison to the signs it actually rules (Taurus and Libra), Venus in Pisces is over the top, overdone, over-ripe, excessively idealistic. With Venus in Pisces are the Sun, Neptune and Mercury. Which is a pronounced religious fervor and a willingness to sacrifice, even face martyrdom, even in defiance of common sense, which a debilitated Mercury in Pisces notably lacks.
Now look where this falls in the chart: At 9 pm, as well as at 8 pm, Pisces falls on the cusp of the 6th, and 8 pm and 9 pm, Venus and the Sun fall outside of the 6th. I have said before that planets falling on the wrong side of the cusp are ne’er-do-wells, that they will try all the harder to prove their bona fides. Which is the case here.
What is the sixth house? S L A V E R Y . The men who met that night were ideologically driven to rid the world of that scourge, even at the cost of their own lives, as shown by the Sun’s own position. Cardinal signs on the angles, they would do whatever was necessary. Chart ruler Venus, as well as the Sun in Pisces, they would be indiscriminate as to the means, as well as tend to excuse themselves with endless religious rationalizations.
Now look across the chart and find Mars opposing from Virgo. They knew they would be confronted, they expected to pay the ultimate price. They could rationalize and say that as Mars was in the sign of Mercury, and as Mercury was on friendly terms with Venus, that they had a “spy in the enemy camp,” which so far as the Civil War went, may well have been true. People do not consciously rationalize their actions with astrology (as I have done here), but, knowingly or not, they invariably make full use of their charts.
This chart may be analyzed for its role in the Civil War (the election of Abraham Lincoln as the party’s first president may well rectify it precisely), but my immediate goal is the present day. Just as Venus wants to be in the 6th house, Mars wants to be in the 12th. Mars in the 12th is a strategist. The best military men, the best chess players, invariably have Mars in the 12th: It keeps their plans secret.
In Virgo, these plans are detailed and precise. Mars retrograde, they are wrong. Opposed to Mercury, they run counter to logic. Opposed to the Sun, they are hostile to life itself. Opposed to Pisces, they are ugly and contrary to religious principles.
But, using whole sign aspects (and why not?), Mars is supported by trines from Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Pluto. The trine from Saturn, while wide, is particularly telling: Even my enemy likes me. (Saturn and Mars hate each other.) The Pisces-Virgo opposition is the major source of dynamic energy in the Republican chart.
A chart with cardinal signs on the angles, ruled by Venus in transcendent Pisces, backed up by the vitality of Sun, deluded by Neptune, saddled with a debilitated Mercury, forever irked by Mars (off in his own corner laughing at them), is, in sum, a chart that believes in its divine right to rule, regardless of the opposition it engenders.
Once the issue of slavery had been dealt with (no, it was not really, it is still an open sore, but enough of this!), the chart of the Republican party takes on an interesting new life.
All the planets that want to be in the 6th house shift from the issue of slavery, to the unwashed workers, the serfs. As in, We know what’s best for you. Which makes the Republican party a neo-Church, with all the rights and trappings of a proper religion. Party members become True Believers, party ideology is unquestioned, people find a “home” in their political church, etc.
Critically, as with the Church itself, moral welfare becomes more important than physical well-being. Having the right beliefs becomes more important than being well-off. The Republican party thus fundamentally confuses the role of the Church with the role of the State. You will note the intensely religious fervor Lincoln’s Republican government generated during the Civil War.
This should be a minor thing, that even with a religious orientation (note debilitated Mercury in religious Pisces ruling the 9th house of religion) the overall aim of a political party is, in the end, political rule, and it would have come to pass, but for the critical position of Saturn.
In the Republican chart, Saturn is in Taurus in the 8th. Saturn in Taurus is insecure and greedy and grasping. If it were in the second house it would toil ceaselessly for a pittance, eventually rising to great wealth.
In the 8th, Saturn steals. Okay, you know this already, but look what happens when we set the chart in motion:
Saturn has rights in Libra, as chart co-ruler. As such, Saturn rationalizes his theft as the way things should be. He looks immediately to his proper ruler, Venus. In exaltation as well as sextile by sign, Venus gives her assent.
Which is to say that workers (6th house) should be happy (Pisces) with ideals, not money (Taurus/8th). Money belongs to Saturn, not to them. Why do Republicans hate trade unions? Because Pisces, as a sign, is
disorganized. That’s the way workers should be. Good little fish. A school of fish.
Saturn is then nudged by Jupiter. Jupiter is in Capricorn. Which is Saturn’s own sign, as well as the sign of Jupiter’s debility. Capricorn is the sign of the government. Whatever the government (Jupiter) has, is properly Saturn’s, as, debilitated in Capricorn, Jupiter cannot claim it as its own. Thus we see the Republican tendency to grab the government’s money. Which they were just as good at in the 1880’s as they were in the first decade of the 21st century.
Where does this money come from? Two sources. First, the 4th house is land, including real estate and mines. Secondly, just as Saturn has rights in Libra, Venus has somewhat lesser rights (or perhaps, obligations) to Capricorn. Venus in Pisces in the 6th permits money to be taken from workers and given to the government, which Jupiter then eventually gives to Saturn. If Saturn and Venus were in true mutual reception, and if Venus was not lost in a weak cadent house, there would be “revenue sharing” between the two of them. There is, instead, only a vague “noblesse oblige.” A “trickle down,” if you will. This is the best that can be done, the best the Republicans can do.
I have not spoken of the Moon in the chart, which is in Aries in the 6th. Unless the degree on the ascendant should prove to be 5 Libra or less, the Moon has no rights in the 7th house. Nor, being in Aries, is it properly part of the 6th. Moon in Aries in the 6th is “mommy knows best,” even though, lacking support from elsewhere in the chart (square to a weak Jupiter, that’s it) she rarely does. Her ruler is Mars, who wants to take both her, and himself, and hide away in the 12th. Which makes the Republicans devoid of warmth, of emotional support, of caring. The Republican religion is solar. It is the Savior, dying on the Cross so that you, young worthless serf, might be spared. Be happy with that. The Virgin (the Moon) is nowhere in sight, but the Magdalene’s tears (Venus) might wash your feet (Pisces).
For a party that was founded with the Declaration of Independence in mind, there is a temptation to make the party’s ascendant match the July 4, 1776 Saturn, at 14-something Libra. This is not necessary and would probably not be accurate. There is the question in my mind, could the Republican party evolve into something a little less heartless, a little more generous? At the age of 157, I am not hopeful. Having lasted this long and having remained largely unchanged for its entire history, it looks set to continue. Regardless of the fate of the country and people it rules, the party itself continues to go from strength to strength. I say this, not as a party member (I am not), but as a realist.
See this as part of the newsletter for the week of September 6, 2011.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Money
I had a thought yesterday. What relationship does US currency have to what’s in my pocket? What’s in my pocket? A debit card & a $10 bill. The $10 I’ve set aside as I don’t have a use for it. I know! I’ll go to a gentleman’s club & use it for stuffing!!! Yes, Virginia, there’s still a cash economy out there!
I haven’t handled physical money in more than ten years. I run a mail order business. 98% of my income comes as 16 digit numbers with expiration dates. 100% of my expenses are checks or debit card transactions.
How would gold relate to this? Except as a token, or as barter, I can’t see that it can.
All my money is digital. Why not simply admit the banks are coining digital money & then pass a Constitutional Amendment relegating that power exclusively to the government?
In olden times governments made as many coins as they had physical stocks of gold & silver to make them with. But that hasn’t been true in the US since at least the Civil War.
What am I missing here?
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
A postmortem: An Eclipse & an (astrological) election
Yves Smith, at Naked Capitalism, chose that moment to file her petition, “Citizens call for tough regulation of mortgage servicers.” In America, home mortgages have been sold to investors. Banks, now termed “servicers”, collect the monthly payments & pass them on to the investors. Since we’re all now broke, banks-cum-servicers are making ends meet by foreclosing for trivial reasons, kicking the residents out, selling the property for whatever they can get, thereby rendering people homeless on one hand, and stiffing the investors on the other. It has gone on for more than two years & so far has been ignored by federal, state & local authorities. This is not good & most likely illegal. Criminally. And yes, some (though not all) of these homeowners were behind, but homelessness as a penalty for minor mortgage arrears is as cruel as amputation for purse snatching. I’ve been homeless.
So Yves Smith & friends circulated a petition, collected 12,000 signatures, and to my dismay, electronically submitted it to the US government officials, including Timothy Geithner, Ben Bernanke, Mary Shapiro, Sheila Bair, Ed DeMarco & John Walsh, early last Tuesday morning. During the eclipse itself. (Yves is active in the wee hours before dawn.)
Since this was clearly an elected event, and as we’re A*S*T*R*O*L*O*G*E*R*S, let’s have a look at it. We will use the eclipse chart, set for Yves’s locale of New York: January 4, 2011, 4:03 am EST. I get a chart with 29 Scorpio rising.
The chart is radical & can be judged, as we find the Moon, which rules the common people (the governed), in Capricorn, the sign of government.
Which is not good, as the Moon in Capricorn is debilitated & hence, weak. Eclipsed, it is by definition combust the Sun, which is to say, burnt up. In such circumstances we would not expect the People’s Voice to be heard.
I went to Robson for the details, chapter 3, The Moon in Electional Astrology. Do not elect for the new moon, Robson says. Avoid doing things with the Moon in debility. As for the outcome of an elected event, judge by the first aspect the Moon makes after the election.
For a moment, I was hopeful. Yves means well, and has a notable book to her credit: Econned, on the economic collapse of 2008. The Moon’s first aspect would save the day.
But it didn’t.
The Moon’s first aspect after the eclipse, occurring well after I saw her post, was at 10:00 am EST: square to Saturn. Saturn, ruler of Capricorn, enemy of the Moon, is the symbol of government itself.
Given the Moon’s already weakened state, Saturn’s square made the immediate conclusion, that Yves’s petition, with its thousands of signatures, was Dead On Arrival.
Squares indicate stress, but what sort, exactly? Was Saturn-as-government unable to help? Good intentions but powerless to act? Or was the government contemptuous, but unwilling to speak openly (which would be the opposition, as oppositions are always overt)? I decided to look at terms.
At 16 Capricorn, the Moon was in terms of Mercury. It wants to talk, but, debilitated, it can’t. Saturn at 16 Libra was in terms of Venus: Wants to help but can’t (the square gets in the way). With faces, Saturn’s face is Saturn. No means no. The Moon’s face is Mars: Don’t tempt me, I might hurt you.
Such was the Moon’s first aspect after the eclipse. The second aspect? Conjunct Mars. Which is to say, underlying the petition is the People’s Rage. Lots of rage – Mars is powerful in Capricorn. Government indifference to homeowner distress is dangerous. Mars is the ruler of the eclipse chart, but with 29 degrees Scorpio ascending, the chart as a whole has no room to maneuver. It is boxed.
That the first two aspects the Moon made after the eclipse were with malefics shows how sour the eclipse was. The very next day, Morgan Rose, an 81 year old Wiccan, rang to ask about the upcoming super conjunction in Aries, in May: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, with the Moon on the 1st & 2nd of the month. All opposed by Saturn & squared by Pluto. Find them all in the Equinox chart (March 20, 2011, 7:21 pm EDT, Washington), with Moon a day past full & Aries on the 7th. Get set for fireworks.
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Welcome to AstroAmerica's new daily blog. Initially this blog will start as a repackaging of AstroAmerica's weekly Newsletter, which appears on Mondays. See it here: AstroAmerica's Newsletter for the Week
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