small world 2000New Millennium
1999/2000 PART ONE! May I wish all of you, receiving Small World all around the globe, a blessed New Year as we start on our collective journey through the 21st century... and also, from today's Sun-eclipsing New Moon, an epochal and enlightening Year of the Dragon! (which by happy coincidence has brought onto the shelves my new book "The Draconic Chart", available from Flare Publications in London - see below) Should we anticipate Interesting Times?... The season is already extraordinary; so many accounts are being settled privately and publicly bringing closure to one phase of growth so that a fresh start may be made. In Ireland for a while we appeared to have a miracle - though as I write, on the day of the Aquarius eclipse, the peace process teeters on the edge of extinction. Prophecies are being fulfilled - the warnings of catastrophic floods and the deaths of thousands, received by many of us recruited as useful channels, have proved to be serious and accurate. Natural disasters have frequently hit our world, but at the end of the 1990s they were repeatedly targeting large centres of population, even entire countries such as Honduras and now Venezuela. These warnings have in so many instances been reported to come directly from Jesus, and from Mary his mother, that it would be wise of the cynic, the sceptic, the agnostic and especially the atheist to reconsider their indifference to these extraordinary beings, who are indeed our friends, and desperate now to help us get out of the appalling mess we are making of our lives and of this beautiful world. Why has Venezuela succumbed to such terror and misery over this winter? There are two possible charts for the country, according to Nick Campion's database; the first on July 5th 1811, the second on September 22nd 1830, both set for local noon at Caracas. The first was its declaration of independence, the second Venezuela's final separation from Colombia. There is no doubt now which is the active map, as only the second for 1830 gives us a descriptive Solar Return for 1999. This chart has Chiron rising on the country's Sagittarius Moon, close to a Scorpio Asc. The Return Moon/IC is almost opposite the country's Saturn. By daily converse progression, the Midheaven spent the critical week successively joining Jupiter (e. square Sun), radix Neptune, converse Neptune and converse Mars. There is a terrible inevitability about many of these converse progressions; this human tragedy may be the appointed outworking of a great deal of accumulated karma - or it may have taken home the souls of those whose tasks here are over, leaving the rest of the population to deal with the aftermath of both the physical chaos and the unfamiliarity of a new Constitution - agreed the very day the mudslides struck. The disaster will put this to an immediate and gruelling test; it has been a firm plank of Sr. Chavez' presidency that he intends to give help to the disadvantaged mass of Venezuela's people. If he is to pull them through this, it will demand far greater sacrifices than he may have imagined. And what is going on in Northern Ireland? The first session of the new Stormont government began when its members arrived in the chamber at 3h00 pm UT (Belfast). At first glance the chart looks quite promising, with its setting Mercury, Mars with Neptune in the S.Node potentially abandoning hostilities, and a happy configuration of Moon with Uranus and the 7th-house trio of Chiron/Sun/Pluto. BUT she is quincunx a lurking 12th-house Saturn, the Mercury is without major planetary aspects, and the Sun could soon be in trouble when it closes by progression on that Pluto. At the same time, Chiron would move to it by Solar Arc. That process is inexorably taking place. The 5th February Solar Eclipse has hit the Uranus/ASC/Desc/Mercury T-square; Neptune has transited onto the Aquarius Mars. Suddenly the structure is fracturing at its weakest spot, and a treacherous obsession with the Arms issue is pulling the whole enterprise backwards into the destructive Dragon's Tail. If you look at the Helio chart for the Stormont Parliament its changed - and uncomfortably truthful - perspective shows the Earth-Pluto opposition squared cruelly by a Pisces Mars. Debilitating Saturn is much closer to the Ascendant. A fragile peace is shown by the opposition of Venus-Uranus square the Asc/Desc. Only Mercury in Virgo in 5th, trining Jupiter, holds out hope that creative and detailed negotiation can persuade this unpromising political seed to grow. Peter Mandelson, born October 21st 1953, can play "good cop - bad cop" with consummate skill, with that Libra Saturn/Sun/Neptune trine Gemini Jupiter of his; and it is mightily enhanced in power and fluency by the conjunction of Draconic Pluto and Sidereal Mercury with the Sun, also honeyed Venus warmed by the early Libra Sidereal Sun. What a persuader! But Transiting Jupiter has stepped away from Mandelson's power-line as it gets ready to enter Taurus, Neptune has left the trine to his Venus, and the best opportunity for a lasting resolution of Ulster's problems may have gone. Closer to home, the Ospringe Saga continues! I was posting some letters last month when a neighbour down our narrow, busy main road drew me into a small group agonising about the incessant, traumatising roadworks we are enduring thanks to the proliferation of international telecommunications. She looked so ill. A town Councillor was present. I said to her, "if you ring our MP, I'll phone Meridian Television. We've got to stop this. It's unbearable." So we did: and at 8h30 am on Friday January 28th the MP, the TV, the local paper, half the Council, the Fire Chief, and a crowd of residents crammed into our front room to pour out Ospringe's woes and search for a solution. The MP waxed empathetic and supportive, vowing to do his utmost, and all present declared the meeting a success. The Daily Progressed Angles should surely reflect such an energetic day, and ratify the Ospringe chart to boot. They are indeed Great Stuff! The DPMC in late Leo has conjoined p.Mars and p.Mercury opp. p.Uranus - yes it was a high-level, very civilised discussion about noise, shaking, stress, new technology, and the democratic need for a change. The Daily Converse ASC lay with the Converse S.Node - classically a group encounter, and also an appointment carrying karmic/spiritual implications. The p.Moon, interestingly, had arrived in the radix S.Node close to Mars in 4th (of course) and on my own Draco Mars opp. Trop.Sun. There lay the pattern of the initiative. Interesting! ... and in the Scorpio Garden there has been more drama: Gerard and I decided we'd had enough of the sad triangle of dying lawn under our Pussy Willow (or Goat Willow - more suitable for this Capricorn!) which has met and engaged itself to the dazzling Robinia Frisia. So we asked an extremely nice man to lay crazy paving there, and while he was about it to level off the concrete switchback that had once been our path. Came January 10th, Y2K, all was going smoothly as I busied myself with charts and making tea - till a yell from my favourite Sagittarius brought me tumbling down the stairs. Where I found myself staring in disbelief at a second large hole in the garden! Our new and conscientious friend had shifted a cracked stone paving slab (the one where the frost had always melted ...!) and uncovered a clean, intact and capacious well. 18 years we've been here, and despite Brian at Poulders pumping his own well during the last drought, and June next door nearly doing an Alice in Wonderland down something much larger than a rabbit hole that shockingly opened up under her feet in the middle of her lawn, we never suspected we were similarly blessed (having already had a number of perilous encounters with the large cavern down by the Elder tree, as already recounted.) Pipes run into it from 3 or 4 directions, obviously from the known soakaways, but one of these is, on reflection, working as an overflow, as it points significantly in the direction of said crumbling and perilous cavern! It's the fine-tuned astrology of this that is especially interesting: the utter surprise is vividly signalled twice, once by an exact conjunction of Contrascion Asc with radix Uranus (and of course vice versa), and again by the exact conjunction of draconic dwad Uranus with tropical dwad IC - all these being in mid-Aquarius. And there's lots of water!... in the draconic dwad a quintet of Pluto/Desc (what else?)/Mars/Venus/Chiron cluster round the radix tropical Desc all in Scorpio, and the draconic dwad Sun/MC conjunction in Pisces aligns deliciously with the tropical dwad's conjunction in Pisces of Moon and Neptune.Well, well ... ........................................................................................................... 'Mr. Hyde' You may recall that in one of last year's issues I had a stab (unintentional choice of verb!...) at guessing the birthdate for Britain's most alarming serial killer, Dr. Harold Frederick Shipman. It turned out that in principle I had been on the right lines (watching the change of reported age in the press) but in practice the media are sloppy, and he had already had his 53rd birthday while they were still referring to him as 52. But not long before! In fact he was born in Nottingham on January 14th 1946, time unknown to us and open to speculation. For the benefit of my overseas readers who may not have caught up with this extraordinary and painful story, this man may have been responsible for the deaths of as many as 150 elderly patients (some speculate even over 1000), mainly women - between the years 1984 (when on September 21st his first suspected victim died) and June 24th 1998 when he killed former Hyde Mayoress Kathleen Grundy. His method was to stockpile over-prescriptions of di-morphine and typically to inject the patient on the pretext of taking a blood sample. He would then dispassionately watch her die in her own chair, on her own bed, on his consulting couch, before calling relatives and ambulance to say that they had suddenly and unexpectedly died. He would go on to doctor his computer records to show a false medical history of heart disease etc (unsuccessfully, of course! He was unaware of software history trails!) and find a co-signatory to expedite the necessary cremation that would destroy the chemical evidence. His motive was not pecuniary. What do you make of this disturbed mind? As you would anticipate, he has a very difficult pattern. His own history includes the death of his own mother, Vera, from cancer in June 1963 in her mid-forties. The attending doctor managed her pain with morphine injections. He married Primrose Oxtoby on November 5th 1966. Her date of birth is 19th April 1949 to parents George and Edna who farmed near York. They have four children - Sarah, born in Harrogate in February 1967, Christopher in 1971, David (March 20th 1979 in Mottram), and Samuel (b. in Mottram, 4th April 1982.) He qualified in 1971, and was hired by a group practice in Todmorden, Yorkshire on March 1st 1974. Here he won the trust of his women patients, and became involved with water in at least two ways - restoring local canals, and dinghy sailing. Shipman started over-prescribing and hoarding drugs early in his medical career (initially Pethidine, for his own use) and was convicted of forging prescriptions and stealing drugs, on February 13th 1976...but not struck off the medical register! Shipman was eventually charged with the first of the15 murders on 7th September 1998, appearing in court the next day; the major interview took place in Ashton-under-Lyne police station on October 5th, ending at 5h12 pm when he cracked, wept in his cell, and refused to utter another word except flat denials. The trial at Preston Crown Court began on October 5th 1999. He was convicted on January 31st 2000 when the jury stood to give their verdict at 4h37pm. Shipman was led to the cells at 5h07pm that day, for Life several times over - and at least 23 further police investigations planned. Let me know what you think lay behind his compulsion to murder. ........................................................................................................... People are not yet beating swords into ploughshares. Far from it - a number have been running riot with a variety of long, lethal knives in recent months, including one Robert Ashman, 49, who entered the Liberal Democrat HQ in Cheltenham at about 4h30 pm and attacked the MP Nigel Jones. His aide and best friend Andrew Pennington threw himself between Jones and the attacker and tragically was killed by the sword. The extraordinary fact is that the asteroid 'Damocles' was setting with the Sun and Mercury/Uranus ... "the Sword of Damocles" you recall ... in 11AQ25. The killing took place 4 days before Pennington turned 40 - which meant that t. Damocles - squared by Taurus Saturn - was right on his Sun. Then I looked at his birthdate of 1st February 1960 ... and there was Damocles again at 11AQ30 right on Pennington's Sun!!! The Sword of Damocles had been hanging over him ever since he was born.My goodness, we'll have to look sharp and check our key asteroid returns! Still in the eventful world of British politics, have you checked out Frank Dobson, he lately in charge of health and hospitals, and now solely concerned with ambitions to be London's Mayor? And if you have, would you want this man anywhere near your Capital City, its transport, finances, policing, practical daily affairs? To his credit, he has Draconic principles of service, attention to detail, care of the underdog - but nothing can alter the overwhelming impression of ultimate unreliability in that fantastic Sun/Neptune/combust Mercury opposite Neptune from Pisces both Tropical and Sidereal - private and public - lined up pompously for good measure with Draco Jupiter, and the unguessable tight Mars/Uranus of March 15th 1940. Assuming he is as unlikely as any politician to achieve sainthood, but rather settle into the usual rut of human frailty, Dobson is a ripe candidate for Inflation followed by the usual burst balloon. BUT! not only is asteroid 'Franke' nicely snuggled up to his Sun, but a conjunction of 'Jack London' and 'Mayrhofer' awaits him in the N.Node ... so maybe this is a challenge which will after all bring out the best in Frank Dobson. But it won't bring our hospital back. Another piece of event data for you before returning to lighter things - the dreadful train crash at Bruhl, just South of Koln in Germany, when the night sleeper from Amsterdam smashed into the station, killing several passengers and injuring over 100. This happened "Just after Midnight" CET on February 6th 2000. Coordinates for Bruhl: 50N48, 6E54. On the face of it, Libra rising and an Aries Jupiter setting seems too happy, although the nodes and Neptune (See below!) are on the meridian, and the Sun is with Uranus. No, you need to look deeper. First, the draconic solar stellium swings into the radix 12th house, removing consciousness from the waking world; then draconic Mercury falls on the radix Asc opposite the Jupiter. Maybe this signals a slow reaction time to events that were suddenly moving too fast as the train was forced to switch tracks. But the real impact comes from the helio chart, where Saturn is in place to form a very tight, nasty T-square with Earth and Uranus. Tropical only ever tells a part of the story. Now let's cheer up! I always enjoy the way new TV shows are described in the Sky - on Friday 4th February at 20h30 London time "My Hero!" took off, with its Superhero 'Thermoman' alias health shop owner George alternately rescuing plummeting maidens, saving Belgium, and failing to grasp the intricacies of mundane existence. Delightfully, a triple conjunction of "George", "Galahad" and "Siegena" (victory!) hugs the Sun, with an opposition of "Heracles" and "Belgium" at work on Mercury. As befits pure off-the-wall entertainment, the Aquarian 5th house is stuffed with the next day's New Moon energies, and of course My Hero is romantically badged with a setting Pisces Mars! He immediately gets The Girl, so we have this Aquarian New Moon, which Draconically is all sweetness in Libra. The superheroic Mars/Desc swings into sidereal Aquarius, lines up with tropical Mercury, and sends the modern Heracles at light-speed through the air! And his lady is happy - sidereal Moon holds hands with tropical Venus. Draconic Jupiter is at the Sag. IC - it is funny and charming and brings chuckles into our homes. A few months ago I succumbed and bought Beanie Babies. For my episcopal best-beloved there was "Hope" the Prayer Bear, and for yours truly (understandably) "Scorch" the Dragon! And the Seahorse, "Neon", as it is another creature that means a lot to me. Now, you probably already know that each dear little squashy creature comes with a heart tagged around its neck, in which is written its name - and its date of birth!!! Have you done your BBs' charts yet? After the usual trial and error, Sunrise charts yield the most eloquent patterns, and I've set them for Gosport in Hampshire, UK, as this is the location of the UK supplier, 'TY Europe.' Scorch was 'born' on July 31st 1998, a brown, furry, friendly little Dragon with wonderfully iridescent red wings - and lo and behold, here is an opposition of asteroid "Iris" to asteroid "Drakonia" in 13 Cancer, right on his Venus/fire-breathing Mars conjunction and famous Sidereal Sun/Ascendant! "Wurm" is at the IC - and anciently a dragon was often referred to as a Worm! The Tropical chart pattern itself is archetypally Fierce, with its Scorpio Moon/Chiron in a fixed Grand Cross with Saturn and the Sun-Uranus/Neptune opposition. What better description of a sweet and soft little baby fire-breathing dragon can you get? Neon the rainbow-coloured Seahorse is tropical Aries - but Sidereal Pisces!... April 1st 1999. And it's that Sidereal mid-Pisces Sun/Asc that collects most of the ID badges, as, first of all, it's full Moon (closer in England than Illinois) aligned with Draconic Neptune, then the Sun is with asteroids 'Iris' and 'Prisma' (as close as the heavens can get to 'Neon'!). Helio positions of 'Maritima' and 'Poseidon' (God of the Seahorses) join the Pisces conjunction, and interestingly also Draconic 'Drakonia' ...after all, a seahorse looks very like a very small watery limbless spiny dragon, and the dragon you will find in my chapter-headings looks for all the world like a seahorse with feet! To complete the picture, 'Epona' (goddess of horses) is at the IC, and Sidereal 'Seaborg' sits on the Tropical Desc lined up with the Aries-Libra Full Moon. Hope the Prayer Bear is also Aries-cum-Pisces, 'born' March 23rd 1998. Wouldn't you know, it's the Sidereal Pisces Sun/Asc that is busy again? Pisces is the natural sign of prayer - and here the religious intent is enhanced by a conjunction with Tropical Pisces Jupiter with the S.Node in the 12th. Clearly 'Hope' is offering selfless supplication for the sins of the world!... In the Virgo N.Node opposite is Draconic Venus - it is an act of loving service. Apart from an exploration of my huge 'Holy' file, there are only five asteroids I can think of at the moment that really fit this little bear: 'Ursa', 'Ursina','La Spezia' (a very recent acquisition actually meaning spice - and we know where to try this one! - but whose root is very close to 'Spes', the Latin Hope), 'Pia' - obviously pious - and, legitimately if more eccentrically, 'BobHope'! Aha - I have just discovered another, 'Hoppe', which is maybe stretching the spelling, but just you watch what they do... 'Ursa' - bear - is on the MC. Draconic Ursina - little bear! - is on the tropical IC. On the Draconic IC is (with sidereal Venus) Tropical Pia. Helio Pia is on the Tropical MC. So twice you find the 'phrase', "Pia Ursa', pious bear! Then right on the Tropical Asc is sidereal 'La Spezia' with 'Hoppe' close by in the last degree of Pisces, while Tropical 'Hoppe' and Helio 'BobHope' lie oopposite the Draconic Libran Sun and Ascendant... and sidereal Chiron, offering an intercessory healing prayer. Now, having also checked the 'Holy' list, what do we find but, delightfully, 'Beate' conjunct the rising Sun! With it are 'Maria', 'Tempel', 'Eucharis', 'Paradise' ... and 'YiXing!' ... while on the Meridian axis lie 'Angelina', 'Gabriella', 'Roma', 'Canterbury', 'Luthera', 'Peter' and 'Sophia'. Clearly this is an Ecumenical Bear, a messenger for the New Age! The Millennium Dome is in trouble - far too few folks are willing to shell out the sponduliks to be hustled unceremoniously through plastic bowels and sustained by even faster 'food'. It is uninspiring. It is neither fish nor fowl, neither fun nor food for thought. Are we surprised? Did we not observe as it took shape beside the historic river that it was twelve-fold, and should be a fitting reflection not just of the millennial earth but of the heavens? So they fill it with fourteen zones, none of which is even erogenous, and succeed in making a thorough dog's breakfast of something that could have been sublime. Serves them right. The Millennium Wheel, however - properly known as the London Eye - after taking off a full month late, is another story! Again, few asteroids to describe this, and only one that I could think of that referred to eyes, namely 'Stereoskopia' - so this, together with 'Gondola', 'Riverside', 'Jack London ' and the long shot 'Szmytowna' (why not?) had to do. Bingo! at the 11am kickoff (term not mine but employed by one enthused journalist) on the south bank of the Thames on February 1st 2000, where was Stereoskopia but conjunct the Aquarius Sun - the big Eye in the sky! - and opposite draco Chiron, as Gondola in Capricorn rode the Midheaven! This in turn was joined to the Sidereal Sun and Stereo', while the draconic Sun/Stereo' in Libra was with sidereal Szmytowna opposite sidereal Riverside. 'JackLondon' enjoyed a square to the horizon from a conjunction with Mercury, opposite that other Eye, the draconic Moon. The ride is proclaimed a wonderful view, a crowd-puller, a feast for the eyes; and unlike the earthbound rotunda of the Dome, truly an education. Suppose it had opened after all on Millennium night, unhampered by safety concerns? Well it couldn't, could it, with Stereoskopia sacrificed to the S. Node and Neptune! In five years by solar arc in the helio frame, Earth will come to the squares of Saturn and Uranus. 5 years is the period of the Eye's official licence. Maybe it won't arch over the London skyline for another 50, after all. Neptune is in Aquarius, and still with the Moon's South Node. People are vanishing from the world in groups of 7, or 30, or 170, even several thousand at a time. Two people are working, walking, sleeping side by side; one is taken, the other remains. Sound familiar? This is the scenario preached by enthusiasts of The Rapture, the End Times when the 144,000 elect will be swept into the heavens leaving the rest of the sinning world to stew in its self-inflicted hell. Well. We are, as earlier discussed, experiencing apocalyptic floods (South Africa now - worst for 50 years) and earthquakes; there has been a spate of plane and train crashes. The serial murders committed by Dr.Shipman and others have made away with tens, scores, hundreds of innocent people. Purely for argument's sake, if God wants to get people Home in a hurry, isn't He going to use the tools at hand? It is far more likely that any of us is going to be propelled out of the mortal body by ageing, illness, or one of a catalogue of sudden lethal impacts, than by a Paradisal hand extending from the clouds to whisk us into invisibility. These poor, dear, drowned, crushed, suffocated souls may be the lucky ones; we may be the transgressors left behind to suffer! Or maybe there are no Elect, just a worldful of ordinary fallible but well-intentioned human beings making a lot of mistakes and having, as usual, to cope with the consequences - and grow a little wiser in the process. And some have Gone Home early; and will no doubt be back again for another bite at the cherry. Could do better. Eventually we all get to re-sit the exam. ...Which leads me to another tantalising speculation - As Above, So Below. We all know that. Ok - so, what about mankind's recent success in manufacturing almost perfect diamonds? So perfect, that De Beers have had to place a Lilliputian logo on their lovely natural gems to distinguish them from the fast-track beauties coming onto the market. There is a structural difference, observable by those with the technology - the manufactured diamond contains cubic as well as octahedral lattices, a structure also found in salt. But even inclusions and off colours are being eliminated, so skilled are the makers now. So, if the Diamond - at the heart of the Lotus - is the symbol of spiritual perfectedness attained after aeons of trial and error under the pressures of earthly incarnation, what does this rapid creation of the diamond mean? Does humanity now have an accessible Fast Track to sainthood? Does it mean that among us now are more and more who are nearly ready to go - and never return? Or does it simply mirror the growing global addiction to the Instant Spiritual Fix that in reality is a sham, and though sparklingly attractive, ultimately worthless? Think on. THE ASTEROID AGE Another phenomenon of which we need to be mindful is the headlong rush of the sciences - and our global culture - into the Small. Consider the advance of forensics into routine DNA screening and its rapid acceptance into criminal evidence. In medicine an explosion of knowledge has resulted from the Human Genome Project, enabling the biochemists to target designer drugs - 'magic bullets' - at specifically offending cells or cell receptors, aborting disease and even correcting defects (the ethics of a lot of this are of course an increasingly hot and urgent debate; we all know or can all think of physically disadvantaged people who bring great gifts into the world... and we risk abolishing one more route to the clearing of karma. Unless this is the whole idea, and we really are on the Diamond Fast Track.) The Hubble Space Telescope, and the terrestrial arrays too, are now so fine-tuned that the faintest objects in unbelievably remote reaches of space are revealing themselves in their complexity, beauty and majesty. Precision is everything; the lesson was painfully learned when initially Hubble failed to focus. This huge scientific, financial and political embarrassment was eventually traced to a minute fleck of black paint that had flaked off a 1 cm diameter rod in the telescope testing equipment, exposing barely a pin-prick of shiny steel that threw the light-path and its exacting computations disastrously out of alignment. If ever there was a graphic illustration of the developing Chaos mathematics, this is it! For 'The Butterfly Effect' read 'The Hubble Paint-Flake Effect.' Sensitivity to Initial Conditions.... also the fundamental principle of astrology. Furthermore, SETI has recruited thousands of ordinary folk into a world-wide computer array that is becoming a uniquely sensitive ear on the universe to catch the briefest of fleeting messages in the search for ET. Atomic physics has long refined into particle physics, and now at CERN in Geneva the accelerator has with apparent success detectably separated quarks and gluons in an atomic burst. There are plans next to replicate this in the USA. The acceleration of computers' speed and global usefulness has demanded tinier and tinier CPUs and therefore incredibly minute printed circuits on the barest flake (again!) of silicon. Even working machinery is heading toward the sub-atomic. It is destined to be woven into our very clothing as well as the structures and furnishings of our houses, and is already implanted in living tissue, deep body or under the skin. Communications are rapidly going digital, transforming the phone call, on-screen entertainments, music, photography, publishing, broadcasting, banking, trading, even everyday reading. The explosion of the Internet and WWWeb has brought the Individual back with a vengeance into the post-Plutonic world of mergers, financial and political gigantism and the corruption of corporate power. These are now challenged by the uniting voices of spontaneous, organic global communities that (with obvious exceptions) largely transcend the ethnic and cultural barriers of millennia. It is harder for the would-be dictator or plutocrat to resist the tide of digital democracy, which given time will eventually embrace even remote, currently unsophisticated communities. Consequently language itself is back in the frame, its history, its structures, and its refurbishment to deal with a world in which increasing numbers of disparate nations and individuals need to be able to communicate instantaneously and with absolute clarity. After Saturn, Uranus - the awakening in politics, science and technology. After Uranus, Neptune - social meltdown, aesthetic and spiritual experiment, and the re-examination of cultural and personal relating. After Neptune, Pluto - Big is beautiful, humanity's powers become godlike, organisations gigantic, Mammon all-powerful, and wars apocalyptic. But meanwhile, and increasingly after Pluto, the crowds and crowds of the asteroids - multum in parvo, the celebration of the role and identity of the individual within the collective; the whole that is more than the sum of its parts. They don't make diamonds as big as bricks, and we can each have our 15 minutes of fame!... We are in the Asteroid Age. So, astrologers, relish what they offer, refine your knowledge, examine the tiny, explore the harmonics, dare to be specific, target the need. A whole, huge, precise astrological language is opening up; we now have a lexicon of nearly 8000 words! -So I am happy to include the following message in this issue, from reader Marianne Alexander at Pandora Publishing: "I would appreciate it if you would announce my new address. It is [email protected]. The 1999 Asteroid Ephemerides are now available from Pandora Publishing: they come in two volumes, one in alphabetical and one in zodiacal order, comprising zodiacal positions once a month for over 5,500 asteroids. They are priced at $25.00 apiece, but if you order both volumes they are $40.00 for the two. Additionally your own natal asteroids are included as a free gift - alternatively a list of asteroid positions for any one date you choose - in both alphabetical order and zodiacal order. These books are very handy even if you have Mark Pottenger's program, because you can see at a glance the approximate positions of any asteroids. The zodiacal positions are ideal for checking asteroids on the angles of solar and lunar returns. To mail them airmail to the UK it would cost an extra $32.40, or at airmail book rate $24.00. Also available is a variety of small books, such as Asteroid Midas (Were you born to be rich?) ($5.00); Asteroids of Fate ($10.00) and others. Also, The Centaur Pholus (a large book that sells for $25.00)." If anyone has the facilities, and is interested in helping Marianne distribute these excellent books in the UK, Europe or elsewhere, do contact her the above address. As promised, here is the address from which you can order copies of "The Draconic Chart" at £16.99 (plus £2 P&P in the UK): Flare Publications Email: [email protected]. So - what's next? The rejuvenated Hubble continues to send back data illuminating earlier and earlier states of the observable universe, and confirming the presence of planets orbiting distant stars. As Above, So Below. After the Asteroids ... ET? or God? Watch That Space! Blessings to all, Pam .......................................................................................................... November 2000 Neptune Special! Well - here we are, well on the other side of our latest annihilation date and largely still alive to tell the tale ... (sorry to be incommunicado for so many months, but it was time for a sabbatical.) As I write, the US Presidential election is in meltdown! Asteroid 'Teller' is tellingly square Neptune...thousands of Gore voters are claiming ballot confusion, overseas votes aren't in, and nobody knows which man has the slender Floridian margin for victory! Most if not all of you will be well aware that the same Neptune is painting utopian pictures all over Al Gore's Descendant - but it's not far from George Walker Bush's, also! Now both these men's charts will have been analysed half to death by now, but I wonder how many have pressed on into Interdimensional territory? If you do, you will be rewarded by a splendid sight - George W. Bush (who, with asteroid 'Walker' doing that right now through his rising degrees, is pushing his 'W' for all it's worth!) now blessed with a Sidereal Ascendant in Cancer 13, right on his crafty, patriotic 12th-house Sun, and the Draconic Sun in unstoppable Aries right on the Tropical Midheaven. This is hit head-on by his Current Draconic Mercury-Pluto on Inauguration Day, January 20th 2001. If you do a 'Q' (quotidian) chart for that day at Bush's birth-time of 07h26 the Sun is exactly rising, and load-shouldering Saturn on the IC. His father had Saturn on the MC in his own inaugural Q chart. Al Gore's natal 4-wheel is by comparison undistinguished, the chart of an also-ran, even though he has intrinsically some excellent qualities. He just doesn't appear destined for the highest profile in the land. For that, Suns on Angles have everything going for them. But if you ever forgot which man was the Democrat, all you have to do is check out asteroid 'Demokritos' - smack on Gore's MC! A check on Bush's direct and converse progressions for this year would support a victory: He has a direct conjunction of Asc and N.Node, with a converse conjunction of MC and N.Node! Time to do what you came to do. You're on your Path. And p. Jupiter has been stroking his natal Ic, now joined by converse Moon. What is more, by January 20th 2001 the transiting Node itself is nearly on his Sun. If you then work a composite of his chart with that of the 2001 Inauguration on January 20th at Noon (the approximate anticipated time) you are presented with the c. Sun on his Midheaven and c. Jupiter on his Ascendant. What more can a presidential hopeful ask for? Al Gore has none of this. Only the busyness of an angular Mercury and Moon in the progressions, and the dubious glories of a composite Sun/MC and Moon/Desc on Inauguration Day ... which of course are totally undone if the time slides away from Noon. Nothing more solid backs him up. Only his fleet of lawyers - good luck to them! He could save himself the expense. MY BOY BILL Now, while checking out the inauguration Q's, I had a look at Bill Clinton's. Yes, there in 1997 is Saturn on the IC again. Not so in 1993, but on January 20th the Sun falls on his 7th opposite rising Leo Saturn, which will do nicely. Pardon??? I said his rising Leo Saturn. Yes, I know you have in mind a chart with Libra rising, universally accepted now, quoted as coming from his mother; but way back a time was given of 3h44 am which I used happily for ages until it appeared to be superseded by 8h51... and I have just fished it out of the file to double-check and this is what I get. There is nothing in the 8h51am Q chart. How do these two charts get on with Hillary, I wondered? First, a look at the composite - 8h51 puts Pluto near the Asc, Jupiter near the IC ... but 3h44 gives the combined chart an exactly angular Sun, on the IC, the mark of prominence, riches and success as a couple. Add the two natal charts in triwheels with their composites, and you find at 3h44 a classic pattern for marriage, trebled: composite Moon on Bill's MC (she is his wife), composite MC on Hillary's Moon (he makes her a wife and mother), composite -angular - Sun opposite her Moon (he is her husband.) And for 8h51? There is still the classic Sun/Moon of course, but not angular; otherwise Hillary's Sun near but not right on the composite IC. BUT Hillary's data is not secure; she is also reported as being born in the early hours of the morning. So let's take a look at synastry with Chelsea, whose recorded data is known. Only Bill's 3h44 chart has a Moon/MC conjunction (she is his daughter), and to put the cream topping on, her Desc neatly picks up his early morning Moon less than a degree away, while her birth brought Venus onto his Aries Midheaven. 8h51 cannot compare. The Other Woman! As for Monica Lewinsky, the composite with Bill at 3h44 develops an otherwise missing Wow factor: the conjunction of her Leo Sun with his Saturn and the c.Mercury is now also dazzlingly on his Ascendant; she drives an angular Uranus/Mars,Chiron right onto his MC. The composite Sun/Moon square is at its tightest. At 8h51 he has nowhere near this intensity of fatal attraction, which is perfectly dramatised by c. Pluto conjunct Asc at 3h44, and was bound to come unstuck with her Neptune at the c. IC. And Gennifer Flowers? At 8h51 there is zilch. At 3h44 they are staring fatefully at each other, as rapt as Narcissus by the pool, destinies locked by their shared Leo Ascendant, their shared Aries MC, brandishing respectively Flowers' setting Sun and culminating Moon. He made her feel powerful ... and as good as married! C. Sun conjunct S.Node and square Pluto decreed otherwise. When Saturn hit their c.Moon in its square to the fateful early Leo axis, she was not a happy bunny, and no help to the US President at all. Both women, in a Q chart for 3h44, acquire an angular Saturn. He can only bring trials! Another country Saturn has been passing over the same degree sidereally this year, and returns to it in 2001; this is the time that Bill Clinton has been working so hard, and so far in vain, to restore the hard-won peace to the Middle East. Neptune, tropical, undermines his efforts, ruins his dreams, from its opposition to his committed Leo Saturn/Asc. If you check the two Q charts for the original Middle East Peace Accord and the Irish Peace Deal, at 3h44 both charts have the N.Node on the IC signalling that for Bill Clinton this day marks an especially important contribution, something he was born to attempt and hopefully achieve. 8h51 again cannot match this. His Current Draconic for his election in November1992 puts Jupiter on his natal Descendant with the Moon on his birth Sun. (Current Draconic, for those of you who haven't met it yet or have bought a copy of "The Draconic Chart" and not tried it out, simply means replacing the Moon's True Node in the normal natal chart with the currently transiting N.Node, and doing a Draconic chart with it. It yields extremely important Directions that move the chart around at the same rate as the transiting Nodes.) Methinks we may have been victims of Misinformation ... WATER, WATER, EVERYWHERE ... An Island is a chunk of land entirely surrounded by water. Neptune Rules OK. I suppose Neptune Rules UK... well he certainly does these days! Poor Britannia no longer rules the waves because Neptune waives the rules and all our boundaries are dissolving in rivers of rain and mud. There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune, and a small fibreglass firm is about to make it very big in domestic flood-proofing! It also leads on to horoscopic fortune, as we are privileged to observe the wonders of the Sidereal chart at work. Remember Ron Davison's words to me in the tea queue? "I think it's something to do with History". Yes, folks, the flood god is laughing un-noticed in our faces! On the Capricorn Sun of the UK, and William's England, and our Queen's Draconic Sun, and for that matter the new century, the new millennium, the execrable Dome, the EEC, and all things beginning at the cusp of the year ... is Sidereal Neptune, swamping almost every riverside city in our islands, inundating cottages, retirement homes, toy-shops, flats, supermarkets, cathedrals, offices, luxury pads, garages, railways, factories and farms rich and poor without discrimination. It's going to rain again on 11th, tomorrow. Hard. It will be Full Moon at 7h26 am here as Neptune sets, and Kent is in for a drenching. I'll keep you posted. Neptunian chaos rules over the UK transport system as not only floods but sudden, urgent country-wide railtrack repairs are throwing timetables into disarray, and thousands of hauliers and farmers and other disgruntled road-users protest the ever-rising price of fuel. This is also happening in Australia, whose Commonwealth birthdate was 1st January 1901. Our North Sea fishing limits were last extended on January 1st 1977 - and now there is an international row brewing over the fish stocks, with our favourite cod almost fished out of existence, our national dish in jeopardy!!! As for the Millennium Dome, on 9th November the whole enterprise was officially slammed for its basic unfeasibility and mind-boggling mismanagement, while eight out of a reported twelve merry men are behind bars for trying to steal the de Beers Millennium Diamonds from the Dome exhibit at 9h40 on Tuesday morning. These sad individuals must have watched too many crime caper movies; the fantasy of pulling off the hugest, most famous diamond heist in history disintegrated with the bull-dozed doors as a battalion of armed police jumped them. And it could have been legendary - as the gang rammed the Dome, Pluto and Chiron rose opposite setting Jupiter, conjoined by Draconic Mars on the Descendant. Sidereally that filthy rich horizon lined up with the Scorpio Sun, and the Moon lay on the Sidereal IC. But our friend Neptune, draconic in Libra, spoiled the whole party from the Tropical MC. The day before, the multi-million pound dazzlers had been replaced by fakes. Even all the ballyhoo of the Millennium has fizzled out like a damp squib. Amid the chimes, the crowds, the singing, the fireworks, the same sidereal Neptune in Capricorn bathed the Sun and the IC of every nation with the fragrance and imagery of its sweetest dream. That night the world felt spiritually united; every human heart was full of hope. Now look at it. Neptune. Disappointment. But it's our fault; we are too weak to realise the Vision. Scientists and other pundits have gloated quietly over the inevitable failure once again of millennial prophecy to prophesy - yet they should think again. Although the world is just as sweet and sour, as full of love and war as it always was, we have inexorably driven ourselves to an unprecedented brink, which was graphically pictured in the extraordinary, hence epochal stellium of May 4th/5th 2000. Serious floods have been prophesied for this epoch by seers and scientists alike over the centuries. In the UK we are beginning to reap the whirlwind. "No man can serve two masters .... you cannot serve God and Mammon." If ever a zodiac sign underlined that statement it must be Taurus. We all know that the second sign with all its fixity and earthiness and Venusian charms is concerned with income and possessions, with getting and spending; but now we have been shown that the Nativity of Jesus, who brought God more purely to Earth than any other incarnate being, took place with the Sun in Taurus, it is also emphasised as the Sign of Peace, of sweetness, of constancy, of Love. And the degree of Taurus under which the Prince of Peace, author of that uncompromising statement, was born, is 14 TA 17. May 4th 2000 was Jesus' 2004th Solar Return. This year every time I have turned on the radio or TV I have repeatedly heard stuff like " Railtrack couldn't afford the ATP safety system; it had to pay its shareholders" (so 31 people are burnt to death and 400 badly injured at Paddington); "The disabled have to move into community care, away from their safe home and all its facilities" - because the NHS want to sell the site to private developers and make a heap of money. "The elderly are being forced to leave their retirement home/nursing home with its peace, friendships and security because the local authority will no longer fund it" or some similar excuse. "Farmers are having to sell their sheep at a loss and see the meat on supermarket shelves at 100 times the price they were paid". "A man had to visit doctors 22 times with his sore throat before they would believe he was ill. His throat cancer is now inoperable". "The local school has to close. It is no longer financially viable." "This factory has to close and the business sold," and thousands of dependent families lose their incomes, because it will be more profitable in this way to cut out British competition with a European product. Etcetera. Over and over again you hear of vulnerable people being sacrificed on the altar of profit. No-one has priority over the Share-holder (except the Executive and the Board.) So the people who are thereby deprived of funding and therefore of their livelihood, whether individuals or organisations - hospitals, farms, libraries, schools, post offices, small banks, local shops, transport links, orchestras, sports facilities, sheltered accommodation, nursing homes, maternity wards, small businesses - are driven to fight for their lives, and so tempted to fall into the very trap that has swallowed their persecutors. We can all be persuaded to chase after Mammon when we get desperate - or even for the pleasure of the chase! The idea of the Big Win is so seductive. So many enticing get-ups and gadgets can be ours, such a glossy image, such self-empowerment, such praiseworthy self-esteem. Remember Narcissus? Go take another look at him in the newly opened Tate Modern (officially by the Queen on 11th May 2000 11h06; public let in on 12th May "a little after 10 am".) See what Dali did to him. He didn't just turn into a pretty flower, and we certainly don't! The biggest lottery win in American history has followed the Taurus stellium; after the draw on May 9th about 550 million dollars dropped into the lives of two people, only one of whom immediately came forward for his share. What will it do to him, I wonder? "The labourer is worthy of his hire" said Jesus; and a long time before He came, another prophet reminded us that "the love of money is the root of all evil." Taurus gone wrong is the root, the polarity, of the worst of Scorpio. If you are wondering where Scorpio is in this stellium, take a look at spring 2000's opposing Sidereal conjunction of Pluto and Chiron. ... opposite Jesus' asteroid Yeshuhua on His own Descendant degree close to Siva and just 2 degrees from His Sun and the stellium New Moon. This also conjoins Agnia, the god of fire, and Nemesis. His other asteroid, Christa, conjunct FiveSparks, is sidereally opposite these and the Taurus Mars. Motive is everything. Another of the Bible's pointed sayings - "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he." More than at any time in human history, for the sake of our souls and our world, we desperately need to cultivate a loving heart. "Whatever you do to another, you do to me." "As you sow, so shall you reap." Christ's teaching is centred firmly in unsentimental, selfless love and what we know as the laws of karma. If ever there was a time when the modest printed collection of Jesus' stern but compassionate guidance should be re-read by all literate people and introduced to the unchurched, it is now. We all need reminding of the things that really matter - and it's not Matter. Denmark won the Eurovision Song Contest this year with "Fly On The Wings Of Love." It's a start! New Moon in New Mexico Let's go back to that stellium on May 4th, with its awesome Sidereal - therefore culturally/historically significant - alignments. There were destructive asteroids, including Siva and Yeshuhua (Jesus), lined up with the Chiron/Pluto conjunction, and this same conjunction was crushing the Ascendant at Los Alamos as the New Moon perfected. (It was late on May 3rd at the nuclear laboratory.) The patterns are reminiscent of those that blasted York Minster several years ago. "I can no longer stay the arm of my Son" said Mary to her visionaries in Bosnia in 1992. God loves - but like a parent with no options left open, may sometimes materially punish a child for its repeated wrong-doing. Christ is saying, "I have become Siva, destroyer of worlds." Does that ring a bell? It is what J. Robert Oppenheimer said at Los Alamos, as he witnessed his own child, the Atomic bomb, overwhelm with killing light the sky and the desert. It's a rather grim note to end on, but it does need saying. I promise to cheer you all up again next time! Happy Remembrance Day, Pam .......................................................................................................... December 2000 A Very Joyous Christmas to you all! May you find peace and fulfilment in 2001. BILL CLINTON'S BIRTH-TIME I am indebted to one regular subscriber (who may wish to remain private) for sending the following extremely helpful background information, which should clarify much for us all: In Lois Rodden's data base on Bill Clinton, a 3:44 a.m. birth time was prevalent until late fall 1992, when Clinton's mother, Virginia Clinton Kelley, and others started speaking of 8:51 a.m. CST. Mrs. Kelley gave this time personally over the phone to astrologer Rob Hand, and sent a handwritten note to Lois Rodden verifying this data. A photo of Bill Clinton's birth certificate, showing a 3:44 a.m. birth time, was seen by a number of people, including astrologers. It was contained in a Bill Clinton biography in the Arkansas State Library. Unfortunately, no one made note of the title, and by the fall of 1992, when hundreds of astrologers called to verify the data, such a book was not to be found. It is interesting to note that the 3:44 a.m. time was being reported right through the spring of 1992, when it was not yet clear the Clinton candidacy was strong enough to beat the incumbent, President Bush. (Clinton declared his presidential candidacy October 3, 1991.) Could it be that the Clinton camp got wind of the astrological interest and fabricated a time that appeared better than the original? Some politicians are known to alter their birth times, especially when they know public prestige, status and electability can hang on them. In India, where astro-political forecasts are commonplace, politicians are known to be secretive about correct birth times. In the U. S., President Ronald Reagan, for one, a long-time user of astrology, was famous for throwing off astrologers on this point. The October, 1995, issue of the magazine ‘Mercury Hour' printed a letter astrologer Rowena Wall ([email protected], http://www.starflash.com/starstuff) wrote in June, 1995, excerpts of which I quote here with her express permission. The beginning of the letter: "Edith, (Edith Custer, the editor of ‘Mercury Hour') I've been meaning to write for a couple of years now about Clinton's birth time. Ann Requa's letter (85/X/4) has finally prompted me to get with it. In January, 1992, when Clinton started his campaign, I asked my mother, who lives in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, to see if she could get his birth data. She is, by the way, a double Virgo, and a retired accountant, and never forgets numbers or birth dates. A few days later she called me with this information: Born August 19, 1946, 3:44 A.M. CST, Hope, Arkansas. I asked her how she got this so quickly and she said she had gotten her friend at the library to find it for her. There was a book there with his Birth Certificate in it, and the time was on it. This was apparently one of the official type biographies written about the Governor (of 12 years) of Arkansas. I quizzed her several times about the time, and she had absolutely NO doubt she had written it correctly. (If you knew my mother you would realize she just doesn't make errors in this type of thing.) I subsequently gave this information to several sources, including WTPE (Welcome to Planet Earth) Magazine. While this was going on, Clinton received the nomination and and was running hard. It was at about this time that the 8:51 time started being used. When Clinton got the nomination, I asked mother to go back to the library and get a copy of the birth certificate from the book. When she got there, the friend at the library said they didn't have that book anymore. Subsequent visits and calls were met with disclaimers of ever even HAVING the book by the supervisor of the area. It is unfortunate that mother didn't get the exact title; all she knew is that it was a book about Clinton's life. (Most states have such books about their governors, especially those who have served such long terms.) By this time, I had discussed this situation with a number of astrologers, and of course we all wanted the birth certificate. I've been told HUNDREDS of astrologers have called the library in Pine Bluff along with the library in Little Rock trying to get a copy of the book that mysteriously vanished. The Arkansans were mystified as to why these people would even want such information! Lois Rodden was given the 8:51 time at some point and this has been the time that has been used officially. Now comes Ann Requa with a statement that more closely matches the 3:44 A.M. time. I would hypothesize that that the doctor was finished a bit after dawn, but the actual birth would be 3:44 A.M. Of course, even the 3:44 time could be off a few minutes. Now I realize that the "evidence" is gone, and of course this time would come into question. But throughout the years, many leaders have lied or misled about their birth data, including Ronald Reagan who was most secretive about his. Apparently leaders believe that if their enemies should have the correct time that they could use it against them. Therefore, they don't make it available. If you will work with this chart, I think you will be surprised at how well it fits him; progressions to it also fit his life very accurately. I know several groups that are using this and they find it to be most accurate. I hope that you will at least give it a try.": the end of the letter. My thanks go not only to Edith Hathaway and Rowena Wall, but also to my friend astrologer Mikki Sligh for her logistical work on my little project here. To my mind it is too conspiracy-theoretical to think that the Clinton team would have *already* doctored the birth time in the governor's biography, and many of us have already read on this group more than once that Bill's mother first gave 6:30 AM, second 7:30 AM (a time which allegedly Bill at least once also gave publicly), and third 8:51 AM --certainly not *all* from birth certificate nor from clear memory! We could argue endlessly over which one of these times better fits Bill Clinton's true astrological circumstances. Stick with 8:51 AM if you wish, but I, for one, have not done so! Happy astrologizing, all! Yours in the Cause of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness, Ben Mabry. .......................................................................................................... |