small world 2011March 2011
Pluto hits Japan If you chanced to read the Small World entry for June 2010 on TheHolyTwelve website, you may recall that I noted the vulnerability to up-coming Pluto transits of anyone or anything born or begun on or close to the 1st of each calendar quarter - ie 1st January, April, July and October... "And we haven’t even got to the transits of Pluto over the New Year point ... that is going to wallop every country, every town, every organisation that has chosen to start its collective life at the beginning of January, in early April, early July or early October. The list is massive. It includes many countries of the EEC, and Britain of course, the Queen (draconic Sun) and many of our institutions, already running into serious fiscal and environmental trouble. The USA and numerous countries around the globe are on Pluto’s hit list. The transits over the archetypal Cardinal Points have begun to shake the world out of its complacency - but we ain’t seen nuttin’ yet!" I have just been online to look at the cities and towns destroyed by the magnitude 9 quake off Honshu. What has happened there is heart-breaking. Sendai City - founded 1st April 1889. Sendai City - official city status 1st April 1989. Fukushima City - founded 1st April 1907. Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant - commissioned 26th March 1971. Minamisanriku Town - founded (in a merger with another town) 1st October 2005. Minamisoma City - founded 1st January 2006. Soma City - founded 31st March 1954. Miyako City - latest merger - 1st January 2010. Rikuzentakata - founded 1st January 1955. Ofunato City - founded 1st April 1952. Natori - town founded 1st April 1955; city status 1st October 1958. Only a few of the most affected places were not founded or merged on the 1st of a civil quarter. Pluto is currently transiting in 7+ Capricorn, very slow now, and nearly stationary. This suggests that even more than Mars, whose effects are often strongest 2 degrees before its exact aspect, Pluto's impact can be very strongly felt up to 3 or 4 degrees beforehand. There will be pressure on all 1st-of-the-month degrees until 2014, when Pluto finally leaves 10 Capricorn and moves on to the next set of targets. Note that Christchurch, New Zealand was named (in advance of settling) on March 27th 1848, so its 6+ Aries Sun is now being squared by a ruining Pluto. This year, too, we have Partial Solar Eclipses on 4th January and especially 1st July 2011, as the Moon's North Node moves back over the Capricorn-Sagittarius cusp. This position means that draconic Pluto is square its tropical radix from the cusp of draconic Pisces-Aries, and inflicting additional (karmic?) damage. As I write in March 2011 it stands at 8 Aries, and will hit the following Suns by hard aspect at the end of this month and the beginning of April. Other places and institutions in the Pluto firing-line (among many others) are: 1st Public Electricity (Lighting) - 26th September 1881, London, UK. Sun at 3 Libra opp. Mars at 1 Cancer. Pluto has already revolutionised the UK's approach to electricity generation and use in the home. 1st scheduled passenger flight - 1st January 1914 (USA) 1st Telephone Directory - 1st January 1880 (the 2011 edition is radically changed in the UK) 1st UK Census - 29th June 1801 (the 2011 Census 'form' is as big as a magazine!) 1st Weather satellite - 1st April 1960 999 Emergency Service, UK - 1st July 1937 (changes are already afoot to try to stamp out abuse of the service.) Arlington, Virginia - 1st January 1932 Australia (swearing-in) - 1st January 1901. (floods - fires - cyclones ...) Automobile Association, UK - 29th June 1905 BBC, 1st Transmiussions - 30th September 1929 (already in the throes of massive economic cuts and reorganisation.) Big Ben - chimes first broadcast - 31st December 1923 Blackpool Illuminations (UK) - 1st lit on 26th September 1925 (and currently being drastically pruned by the cash-strapped Council). Brighton, Sussex, UK (Incorporation) - 1st April 1854. Charles becomes Prince of Wales - 1st July 1969, Caernarvon, UK Chesapeake, Virginia - 1st January 1963 Cheshire county, East and West, UK - 1st April 2009 China (Republic) - 1st January 1912 China (Communist) - 1st October 1949 Coca-Cola 1st sold - 29th March 1886 Coca-Cola bottle launched - 1st July 1916 Dalai Lama's exile from Tibet - 31st March 1959. He is currently arranging for his succession. Dearborn, Michigan - 1st April 1833 Edison Lamp Company - 1st October 1880 Eiffel Tower inaugurated - 31st March 1889 Electric Chair adopted, USA - 1st January 1889 Ellis Island, NY, Immigration Center - 1st January 1892 EURO currency - 1st January 2002 Evolution Theory 1st presented - 1st July 1858 Falkland Islands, UK sovereignty - 1st January 1833 Freedom of Information Act, UK - 1st January 2005 Greenwich, UK (London Borough status, grant of Arms) - 1st October 1965 Guildford, Surrey, UK (charter) - 1st July 1488 Haiti - 1st January 1804 Health & Safety at Work Act, UK - 1st October 1974 Health & Safety Executive, UK - 1st April 2008 Heathrow (London) Airport, Terminal 5 opened - March 27th 2008 Hong Kong, returned to China - 1st July 1997 Human Rights Act - 2nd October 2000 Identity Cards, UK - 30th September 1939 (recent plans for ID cards are being scrapped) Istanbul (named) - 28th March 1930 Kosovo - 30th September 1991 London - Greater London Council - 1st April 1965 London Eye - 1st April 2001 Louvre Pyramid, Paris, France (opened) - 29th March 1989 Lyme Regis, UK (charter) - 1st January 1283 or 1284 MacDonalds (burger chain) - 1st October 1974 Manchester (City) UK (Council grant of Arms) - 29th March 1853 MENSA - 1st October 1946 Mercedes car named - 31st March 1901 Model T Ford (1st mass-production car) - 1st October 1908 Money Orders - 1st October 1792 Morecambe, Lancashire, UK (Incorporation) - 1st October 1928 Nashville, Tennessee - 1st April 1963 News Of The World (UK paper) - 1st October 1843 New York City - 1st January 1898 Newfoundland, 10th Canadian Province - 1st April 1949 Nashville, Tennessee - 1st April 1963 Ottawa becomes capital city of Canada - 31st December 1857 Patent Office, UK - 1st October 1852 (temporary) and 29th December 1852 (permanent) Penicillin - 30th September 1928 Pentecostalism - 1st January 1901 Port Talbot UK Borough Council - 1st January 1986 Rome becomes capital city of Italy - 2nd October 1870 Royal Air Force, UK - 1st April 1918 (already facing cuts in the economic crisis) Royal Albert Hall, London, UK - 29th March 1871 St. Louis County, Missouri - 1st October 1812 Stoke-on-Trent, UK (Incorporation) - 1st April 1910 St. Pancras Station, London, UK - 1st October 1868 (has just finished total refurbishment) Teeside County Borough Council, UK - 1st April 1968 Territorial Army, UK - 1st April 1908 Texas, USA - 29th December 1845 Tower Bridge, London, UK - opened - 30th June 1894 Trades' Unions legalised in UK - 29th June 1871 Turin Shroud; new evidence for authenticity broadcast on UK Channel 4 - 30th December 2009 at 20h00 UT Tuvalu (tiny and low-lying Pacific island) independence - 1st October 1978 UK and Eire join the EEC - 1st January 1973 UK Diplomatic Service - 1st January 1965 UK Fishing limits extended - 1st January 1977 UK Police Force (1st patrols) - 30th September 1829 (currently facing massive cuts and reorganisation in the economic crisis) United Kingdom - 1st January 1801 Universal Time (UT, decided by IAU) - 1st January 1956 Value Added Tax, UK - 1st April 1973 (recently hiked to an unprecedented 20% in the economic crisis) Virginia Beach, Virginia - 1st January 1963 Western Samoa (Independence) - 1st January 1962 Westminster Cathedral, London, UK - 29th June 1895 (foundation stone). 28th December 1903 (Daily Mass begun), and 28th June 1910 (consecration)... venue for wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, 29th April 2011. Worcestershire, UK (newly constituted) - 1st April 1998 Worksop, UK (Incorporation) - 1st October 1931 It is interesting to note that many key USA charts, including the Declaration of Independence, fall between the 2nd and 4th of the 'cardinal months'. This implies that where the rest have been obliged to lead, the USA will surely and very shortly follow - for good or ill. Much Pluto activity is ultimately beneficial, as its spiritual message is readily heard by the more discerning 'movers and shakers', moving them to show initiative in re-making global culture, hopefully for the better; and the trials that it brings to the mass of humanity tend to force changes of values, attitudes, behaviours and habits which will in turn offer the world a fresh lease of life. Volcanic in nature, Pluto's impact is surrounded in time by foreshocks and aftershocks like the geological disasters we have been experiencing year after year. We are warned of the consequences of our actions, and if we continue to make the same mistakes we have to be jolted out of complacency. And the jolts can be very cruel, whether globally or individually. But we then have the chance to wake up, and to change our ways. In some cases it will literally be, "Change, or die." The historians among you may like to research what happened on previous transits of Pluto (the definitive Mover and Shaker!) through these 1st-of-the-month degrees. Whatever happens, whether tragedy or temptation, Pluto's events will critically test the integrity and vision of every person or community involved. Pam Crane, March 13th 2011 .................................................................................................................. March 2011 More on the Japanese tragedy | Notes on Japan in crisis Before we look at the patterns, may I express my own profound and heartfelt sympathy and grief for the nation of Japan at this time of great loss and unimaginable suffering. My prayers join those of the millions around the world who wish you well, and long for your healing. Japan - the National Charts Campion has three charts; I have chosen two that precede them, (1) for the Convention of Kanagawa (now Yokohama) on March 31st 1854 when Japan was obliged to open up to the West (Source, Wikipedia and National Archives), and (2) the crowning of Emperor Meiji in Kyoto on October 12th 1868 (Source, Wikipedia). In each case I have given the Land of the Rising Sun a sunrise chart, surely the most symbolically correct, and which turn out in fact to be more vividly descriptive than the patterns at noon or midnight. 1. Treaty of Kanagawa March 31st 1854 An orderly, dignified and populous nation, modern Japan's first chart has dwad Saturn/Venus on radix Aries Sun/Asc, square dwad Moon/Mars in Cancer. (All these in the 2011+ Pluto firing-line.) Dwad Sun/Asc opposes dwad Mercury/Desc with radix Jupiter. Pointedly, in the dwad we again find Uranus/IC in 8 Virgo. As a people, disciplined, skilled, assertive and subject to continual shocks. The Q chart for quake time gives us a dwad Asc con Uranus, Chiron and Moon, all with radix IC/SN. In coelo, Mars rises as Saturn culminates, and the Moon/Uranus conjunction is exact within 9' of arc. Dwad Saturn is with the radix Sun in 10 degrees of Aries, squared by the Pluto transit, like most of the Suns of towns and cities obliterated by the tsunami. 2. Emperor Meiji Crowned in Kyoto, October 12th 1868 Fourteen years later, the Emperor's Sunrise chart has Uranus square the Libra Sun/Asc and stting Neptune. Pluto is joined by the dwad Sun, Asc and Moon opposite dwad Pluto/Desc. In coelo, Ceres is in the SN opposite a NN Leo Moon. Here is another chart that graphically depicts a nation at constant risk from earthquake and sudden inundation, which will constantly have to renew itself through catastrophe and loss. With the mid-Taurus dwad 'New Moon', through everything Japan will maintain an ethos of stability and inner power ... so long as it keeps its spiritual integrity. That dwad Asc-Desc is resonant with the two great Royal Stars, Aldebaran and Antares, giving the Emperor and his land a high profile and a privileged position. If this is abused, the conequences can be dire. The Q chart for the earthquake at this crowning also has Saturn at the Midheaven. Added to this, Ceres and the Moon's South Node are rising, and in the dwad Uranus is near the MC, Mars, Neptune and Ceres surround the Ascendant. The dwad IC conjoins radix Mars. Like the earlier Q chart, another pattern of shock, people suffering, loss of family and environment, and fire. Cities and Towns destroyed by the Quake at 14h46m23s JST on March 11th 2011, and the subsequent Tsunami: Rikuzentakata The transiting pattern at Rikuzentakata - one of the coastal towns which was swept away: Uranus con ASC in the dwad con radix Neptune + Ceres in Aquarius. Sudden bereavement of many people by a mass of seawater. (The same is found for Kesennuma, destroyed by the sea in 7 minutes and then finished completely by a huge fire.) At its foundation, the 0h00 chart's dwad shows Neptune con Desc with SN (and Venus). Dwad Ceres nr dwad IC and radix SN. The 12h00 chart has Neptune setting with dwad Mars opp Sun; dwad Desc con radix Pluto, dwad MC/Ceres con radix SN. Rikuzentakata Q the Quake - IC con Pluto, Ceres setting. ASC con dwad Pluto/IC. Asteroid Poseidon is conjunct Neptune in coelo on the day of the disaster. He is the Sea-god who also sent earthquakes to punish mankind. Sendai At quake of 11th March 2011, Sendai Incorporation chart (April 1st 1889, 0h00 taken) - dpMC con natal SN and SR NN; dconvASC con SR Saturn, opp SR Uranus. Kesennuma Kesennuma was founded 1st June 1953. Q the quake, Saturn con Neptune rising with Moon at IC; dwad Asc con radix Mars, Ceres con IC in the dwad. Destruction by sea and fire, with loss of life. At 0h00 Chiron sets; Mercury and Mars nr IC in 4th, Dwad Neptune/MC conj. con radix IC. At 12h00 same pattern is on MC; SN just below ASC. 0h00 chart and reflex - Ceres/Uranus to MC, Saturn/Neptune-Venus to Desc-Asc, Moon to IC. Danger of loss through shock and water. SR of 0h00 chart - Sun sets, Saturn nr MC and con dwad Sun. Dwad Asc con dwad Pluto and radix Neptune/Chiron opp dwad Moon, radix Mars on dwad Desc. Mars con MC in dwad. Total destruction by quake, sea and fire. SR of 12h00 chart has Saturn nr IC in 4th, SN Asc, dwad Neptune and Ceres Desc. Mars exactly on IC in dwad. Bereavement, sea and fire again. Fukushima The Fukushima nuclear power plant was commissioned 26th March 1971. The 12h00 chart has Uranus at IC opp Chiron on MC with dwad Mars; dwad Chiron on Asc. Fukushima City was founded 1st April 1907. The 0h00 chart has Mars rising, Pluto setting so that MA/PL=AS. This is all aligned with the dwad Nodes, and radix Pluto is e square the dwad Asc-Desc and radix Saturn con dwad 7th. The Quake's reflex Pluto is at 22+ Gemini, conjunct Fukushima's radix Pluto... a quasi-Return. The Solar Return on March 30th 2010 has Uranus at the IC opp dwad Jupiter (hope?), and a dwad Pluto/Asc. The sidereal chart's SR for April 2010 has all the same signatures as the above charts, but in a historic context. Events at the four reactors of its nuclear power plant are becoming dangerous. In the dwad, IC/SN/Moon/Ceres all conjunct in Aquarius with radix Jupiter. Bereavement, loss of population; again, does Jupiter offer hope? dwad Asc con radix Saturn, dwad Desc/ Neptune 20' from radix Uranus. Ceres sets near Pluto. Everywhere the Earth Mother goes with her abysmal son-in-law there are traumas to meet, bereavement to endure, and environmental lessons to learn. Most of us are taking, or are soon to take our turn. Patterns at Tokyo Tokyo, previously known as Edo, was renamed on 3rd September 1868 (source Wikipedia). More recently it became a Metropolitan Prefecture, on July 1st 1943 - again placing it in the front line of the current Pluto transits, which oppose the Tokyo Sun. The Solar Return for July 2010 is most powerful in the sidereal, where quake, fire and grievous loss are shown in the opposition of Saturn with Uranus and dwad Mars across the dwad Asc-Desc, squared by Ceres opp Jupiter. Also in the dwad is a tight conjunction of neptune/IC, flanked by Mars and Pluto. The whole picture reflects not only the material impact of the 2011 quake on the capital, but of course the entire national emergency with which the Japanese Government now has to engage from its center. .................................................................................................................. Libya and the SuperMoon | At 18h10 UT on March 19th 2011, we had a 'SuperMoon'. This happens when a full moon occurs with the Moon at or close to perigee, at her nearest approach to the Earth. This one was special, as perigee was only about an hour off the time of the lunation. It was much commented on in the media, including a piece online in Universe Today, citing Richard Nolle's predictions (http://www.universetoday.com/83960/march-19-2011-supermoon-or-superhype/) - unusually quite a fair and balanced commentary. My take on this is that the lunation has to be angular to have the greatest impact on a locality, and here in the UK this major astronomical phenomenon lined right up with our horizon, placing intense focus and potential strain on all our interrelationships, including that between Government (setting Sun) and people.(rising Moon). The fact that the Sun was also approaching its conjunction with Uranus implies shocks, surprises and changes of attitude and direction. We have a budget coming up .... be prepared for anything! More to the point, the dwad has to be added to see the picture in more depth. And this turns the sky pretty dark. Dwad Pluto, Saturn and Chiron all join to impact the Full Moon and Uranus from the Descendant. The period following the lunation thus holds a great deal of drama, pain, constraint, major changes, and some steep learning curves. We have just joined with an international coalition to bomb Libya's Gaddafi into democratic submission; and as usual the UK is being manoeuvred onto the front line of attack. Where is this taking us, I wonder? There is rich story-telling in the asteroid belt: rising at Virgo 28 is asteroid Nemesis; setting is asteroid Victoria with sidereal Miles (soldier). Tropical Libya, 3 Pisces, is right on the sidereal 7th cusp. On the 28 Gemini MC is a conjunction of Populus and America opposite sidereal Hybris. On the sidereal IC is tropical mischief-maker Loke; precisely on the sidereal MC is tropical Pyrrhus. In the dwad, Jupiter and the Ascendant are conjunct. Is right on our side? Are we justified in any optimism? Are we winners? Or do we just think we are? In this situation a pyrrhic victory is horribly likely. Even though T Pluto is close to the IC at Libya's SuperMoon, and is right on Gaddafi's draconic 7 Capricorn Sun bringing him face to face with his karma, (and the lunation hit his Neptune-Ceres/Jupiter-Mercury T-square) I can't imagine anyone coming out of this without serious damage. The dwad Sun in Aquarius highlights issues of democracy and human rights, but with the arrival of Spring the Aries Sun is also Aries in the dwad, and will tend to act less reflectively. It will be interesting to see how things go every 2.5 days as the dwad Sun moves from sign to sign, impulse to impulse, idea to idea. The air strikes, initially inflicted by France, are reported to have begun at 16h45 UT on March 19th, under two hours before the full moon. In the chart at Tripoli, Mars has not long set, and the horizon is held by the sidereal oposition of Saturn and Mercury. The sidereal Desc is conjunct tropical Ceres/Neptune .. there is much grief and chaos in store. Pointedly, the global motives for this punishment are pinned to the angles by the asteroids: Demokritos rises at 24 Virgo and conjoins the draconic MC, Paine (revolutionary author of 'The Rights of Man') is setting at 24 Pisces, conjunct the draconic IC. United Nations conjoins the sidereal IC, and sidereal Bellona (war) is on the tropical Midheaven with draconic Mars. This major conflict has deep idealogical and spiritual roots. Karma is being worked out on all sides. If a new world is trying to be born, it seems that surgery at this point has become inevitable, God help us. (Muammar Gaddafi born June 7th 1942 at Sirt, Italian Libya according to Wikipedia.) .................................................................................................................. May 2011 The Death of Bin Laden. | REVENGE Well, it's four days after the event, and we'll all have been trying to pin down the exact time of Osama bin Laden's demise - with some difficulty, as reports have been often vague, or the understanding of time zones woefully lacking (eg the Daily Telegraph who had the impression that Pakistan was on also on Summer Time. It's not.) Piecing the jigsaw of accounts together it would seem that his shooting by US Navy Seals occurred about 20 minutes into the 38-minute operation at Abbotabad in Pakistan. This is said to have begun at 00h30 Pakistan standard time, 20h30 BST, so the Al Qaeda leader met his end at around 00h50. This is the time when President Obama and his security staff are said to have seen the live video footage; but the Telegraph says there was a 20-minute delay on the image stream. So either the '15h50' or '15h55' EDT refers to the realtime death of bin Laden, or the death occurred almost as soon as the Seals entered the compound at 15h30 Washington time. The latter isn't possible, as they first had to fight their way through the building to bin Laden's room. Anyway, I've gone with 00h50, which is less obviously exciting than my initial chart that was based on duff information! But I've done the dwad of course... Once again, the dwad is fully descriptive of the death at that moment. The dwad Ascendant conjoins the dwad Dragon's Tail; and these points are at 19/20 Pisces, right on bin Laden's natal Sun, robbing him of his life. Right opposite in 19 Virgo stand the Sun of 9/11, its rising sidereal Mercury and all the pain of draconic Chiron. Over nine years on, a half-turn of the Dragon, at last the perpetrator has paid. The Birth of Osama bin Laden There have been many speculative birth charts for this man over the past decade, but March 10th 1957 was both the date obtained from Interpol and the date that bin Laden apparently gave in an interview. When you put a chart up for true Noon that day in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with 19 Pisces on the MC you find the Moon exactly rising - the classic Fame Pattern of double angular Lights on the birthday. And right on that Moon/Asc in 0 Cancer is helio Mars. When you enter into bin Laden's nativity the times of the attacks he master-minded against targets in the West, over and over again Mars, Saturn and/or Pluto are found on these Q-chart angles. The time of the Madrid train bombing, 07h39 CET, in Spain the day after his birthday in 2004 puts his Mars so close to the Ascendant that it is still angular in the dwad, where also Uranus 'sets' opposite - violently explosive. Not only this, but at the actual time of the detonations his Sun-degree had just risen, and transiting Mars in 23 Taurus was conjoining that natal Mars and Q Ascendant in Taurus 25. At the time London was hit on 7/7/2005, 08h50 BST, his Saturn was setting with Pluto at the IC; dwad Mars was in the Midheaven and the dwad Saturn/Desc conjoined radix Mars/S.Node. At 08h46 EDT, the hour and minute the first plane smashed into the North Tower in New York on 9/11/2001 the MC - approaching his S.Node and Mars - picks up bin Laden's dwad Saturn, and radix Saturn is on the dwad MC. The time the second plane hit the South Tower - 09h01 EDT - brings the MC right onto his S.Node, closer still to Mars, and a dwad Asc/Saturn within a couple of degrees of completion. There is also a dwad Chiron/IC conjunction. At 09h59 EDT the first of the towers fell; at this time on bin Laden's birth day the dwad Uranus-Mars opposition straddles the Asc-Desc, the radix Mars/S.Node is on the dwad Desc and Saturn, and radix Chiron is on the dwad IC. 10h30, when the second tower collapsed with such heart-breaking loss of life Ceres and the IC were exactly conjunct in the dwad closing on dwad Saturn, and in the radix Saturn was right on the IC. Evil moments and evil deeds of an evil man. On the day of bin Laden's death, Saturn was reflexing onto his Sun from 11+ Libra (contrantiscion); and at the moment of death by gunshot his natal Mars/Dragon's tail conjunction in 21-25 Taurus was at the transiting IC. There was also a transiting Mars/S.Node conjunction on 911, close to Ceres - the bereaved woman. This was right opposite bin Laden's 12h00 Moon. The dwad Mars of his death in 3 Capricorn was only 4' from that radix Mars of 911. And at the death time of 00h50, zone -5h00, on the day of his birth in Riyadh, the Q-chart of that day with his death, his natal Mars was exactly setting with the South Node close by, opposite his reflex Uranus and dwad Neptune on the Ascendant. At the same time Pluto hit the Midheaven together with his reflex Neptune and dwad Leo Ascendant, right opposite dwad Mars and Descendant,with reflex Ceres at the radix IC. His enemy's gunshots ended bin Laden's reign of terror and brought some satisfaction to thousands of the bereaved. "Whosoever lives by the sword shall die by the sword". Whosoever lives by violence shall die by violence. Violence, extremism and the hatred born of inflated self-righteousness were always going to be the eventual undoing of Osama bin Laden. On September 11th 2001, I put a videotape into my bedroom TV/VCR and found myself in a waking nightmare; I had inadvertently switched on live coverage of one of the greatest tragedies to hit the civilised world. Yesterday, May 5th 2011, I popped downstairs at 6 pm to tell Gerard something - and witnessed in real time the historic laying of a wreath at Ground Zero by President Barack Obama, an act of commemoration and of closure for the thousands of families of nearly 3000 of bin Laden's victims. Please God let this be the end of the nightmare. .................................................................................................................. July 2011 News of the World: Interesting Times ... Oh boy! Is Pluto having a field day! In Small World for October 2008 I wrote a piece about Pluto's potential impact on world affairs (particularly Europe) as his track through early Capricorn was going to hit 9/10 degrees of Cardinals - the area covering the 1st day of four key months in the civil calendar, January, April, July and October. So many countries and organisations choose one of these as their inceptional date that when a major planet (yes, Pluto IS a major planet!) hits one of them they tumble like dominos. The EEC (January 1st 1958 at 0h00 CET in Brussels) and its members are right in the firing line - including the Euro, which was launched as legal tender on January 1st 1999, its first trade being three days later. On January 1st 2002 the first notes and coins appeared in participating countries including France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, The Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Greece, and Luxembourg. Already the economies of Greece, Iberia and Ireland are dangerously unstable, and the IMF (December 27th 1945, 0h00 EST, Washington DC) has been busy baling them out ever since Pluto first moved over its Sun early in 2010; the planet is now back in there Capricorn 5 for a leisurely stroll which won't end until November/ December 2011. Then Pluto heads rather too rapidly for comfort to Capricorn 9/10 where he dallies throughout 2013-2014. So this will be crunch time. England, the 1801 UK, the Queen (draconic Sun), the Prince of Wales (investiture 1st July 1969 at Caernarvon), air travel (1st scheduled passenger flight 1/1/1914), freedom of information (Act 1/1/2005), the Health & Safety Executive (1st April 2008 and still a joke), human rights, UK (Act 2nd October 2000), ditto USA (Act 2nd July 1964), Ottawa, capital of Canada ( 31 December 1857), Rome, Italy's capital (2nd October 1870), the Pentecostal Church ( 1/1/1901), the UK and Eire memberships of the EEC (1/1/1973), the UK Diplomatic Service (1/1/1965), and the London Metropolitan Police, 'the Met' (29th September 1829) among many other key institutions. In world affairs as in private life, Pluto is all about the use and abuse of power. 'Power corrupts; and absolute power corrupts absolutely.' So there will be spectacular acts of hubristic self-destruction; and occasionally extraordinary rewards for some individuals or organisations who have used their power well, without arrogance, without greed, without playing God. Pluto has been here twice before in the past half-millennium; in 1520 the enslavement of black Africans was permitted, and in the mid-1760s Europe - particularly the UK - was kick-starting the Industrial Revolution. Do-as-you-would-be-done-by, or else Be-done-by-as-you-did! (Charles Kingsley's delightful embodiments of Karmic Law. I always loved 'The Water Babies'.) Inevitably we have stored up trouble for ourselves. But of course it can be argued that as Pluto was unknown to us until 1930, it is only in recent times that we have been consciously aware of the powers at our disposal, and therefore morally obliged to act with the altruism and responsibility that should go with them. Which may well be why so many things are going so catastrophically wrong now. The News of the World (1st October 1843, Sun 7 Libra) has already gone to the great newsroom in the sky having seriously blotted its copybook. Its owner Rupert Murdoch, now in for a serious grilling, has Pluto coming up to oppose his Piscean Sun's co-ruler Jupiter at 10 Cancer; it has already been over his Ascendant, inviting him further up the Primrose Path to BSkyB and further media domination. His Sagittarian son James' reflex Sun is at Cancer 8. (James' Moon is in Pisces, where the Moon is today as both men appear before the Commons Select Committee to answer for themselves. Murdoch Junior's responses have been a master-class in Piscean evasiveness and Sagittarian self-justification!) There has been a double resignation of the two top men in the Met with the revelation that police were taking money from News International journalists; Sir Paul Stephenson the erstwhile Police Commissioner was born on September 26th 1953, nearly sharing the Met's birthday, and was first to go. His Sun is at 3 Libra, on Murdoch's 7th cusp; this trouble has been brewing for some time. Sir Alex Ferguson (31st December 1941) will have to be very careful too, now that a filmed connection to a Thai businessman (Channel 4, 'How to buy a football club' July 18th 2011) may be calling into question his management ethics in the 'beautiful game'. The Territorial Army (April 1st 1908, Moon 8 Aries, Sun 10 Aries), which has presumably been keeping its collective nose clean, is about to be awarded several million pounds to expand its activities and fill the gaps left by the UK's shrinking armed forces. In 2008 I wrote, "When he (Pluto) gets to 5 Capricorn the IMF’s Sun will be in the firing line after all the alarming activity of the past two years (Venus, Ceres, S. Node... ) so it may be staring at emptied coffers by then, Heaven help us all, and going through ‘death and rebirth’!" See above. "Crunch time will be when Pluto hits the English/UK/EEC Sun in 2012/13, also impacting Australia (which, like the IMF, has been having an eventful time lately and may be ready to say Cheerio to the Queen)" still up for debate,"the British Diplomatic Service, and The Times." Not as yet! But certainly its sister paper. "Will we have got our collective act together to celebrate a memorable Olympics? Or will it be another failure of planning and imagination, a damp squib to match the River of Fire and the Millennium Dome? Will we give the cold shoulder to Europe? Or will our benighted islands reluctantly embrace the Euro?" No, thank heaven, but we may get sucked into Europe's and the Euro's economic morass even further simply by being a member state. "Will we realise we no longer have ‘human rights’, only debts?" The tide may be beginning to turn. "Will we bring back the real spirit of competition in which we re-learn the art of losing gracefully?" This is looking more possible. "Limits will have to be set - flights grounded" - yes, we have volcanoes for that! - "populations controlled" (there is talk but little action), "behaviour schooled, promiscuity checked, standards raised, purse-strings tightened, freedoms curtailed." Oh, more and more voices are being raised against our decades of profligacy! "Will we see the end of the throw-away society, and a return to older, more lasting values?" recycling is now being practised with missonary zeal all over the industrialised world; "Or will it be the end of Freedom Food and the hope we still had for the planet? It could be the new age of the entrepreneur - or a field day for the ruthless." Watch and wait. There are billions of us. And we're all hungry. So, my friends, we are living in more and more Interesting Times!!! There has never been a more important time to examine one's conscience, as world events inevitably touch all of us, and a lot of light is needed to overcome the encroaching dark. Even without the corrupt practice of so many entangled in the sticky, seductive webs of commerce, our own poor choices, our unconsidered habits, can help in the ruination of this once glorious and diverse planet, and the impoverishment of our souls. .................................................................................................................. Massacre at Utoeya | Anders Behring Breivik Where do these people come from? What nasty corner of the etheric spawns or shelters these souls? Why is such ruin visited on the innocent as has just happened, last Friday evening, July 22nd 2011, in the peaceable country of Norway? One maverick man has coldly, deliberately taken the lives of at least 76 people, creating misery for hundreds, maybe thousands more who knew and loved them. The general public were the targets of Anders Behring Breivik, and specifically young people including girls and women. In his horribly distorted mind this massacre in the heart of Oslo and on a tiny holiday island was supposed to start a 60-year war that would eventually drive Islamism out of the West. Uranus is also part of the transiting picture: it has reached Aries 4 and squared brutal Pluto from the IC as the gunman set about the slaughter. Q-Charts, Returns and Progressions Do look at the remarkable Q-charts for Anders Breivik. I have no birth time for him yet, but when you set up his nativity in Oslo on February 13th 1979 for the times of the bomb and the shootings respectively, at 15h26 CEDT his Jupiter rises - and sidereally the position is Cancer 7, in orbs of tropical Pluto's opposition. At 17h25 CEDT his Mars has only just set. In his precessed Solar return for February 2011 not only does the sky look alarmingly like his own with Sun/Mars and Mercury/Ceres all in Aquarius, but Jupiter sets. At the actual moment when the bomb rocked Oslo Jupiter was again angular, setting as Mercury culimated opposite Neptune at the IC, reflecting the delusional ideology that planned and implemented the attack - and also that much of the time this man was laughing with delight at his strategic success. The 2011 Returns are dominated by a Grand Trine of the Aquarius stellium with Moon and Saturn; he knew how easy it would be to carry out his carefully-laid plan. The SR for the bombing Q-chart has the nodes at the MC/IC. It is quite extraordinary how these Q-charts behave. I have just progressed Breivik's Q for the shootings, and on his birthday in 2011 there is an exact and grievous opposition of Saturn and Ceres across the Asc-Desc. From this pattern you can also see that 9 years ago his p. Sun went into his South Node (more about that below); it was around this time that he founded an anti-Muslim group which he claims to be the restoration of the original Knights Templar. He considers himself a Christian crusader and a hero!!! Whatever happened to "Thou shalt not kill"? Whatever happened to "Love thy neighbour as thyself"? His lawyer considers that Breivik is insane. Hard to disagree! The Dwad It is profoundly helpful to translate any chart into its dwad - that special and precise variant of the 12th harmonic that follows the sign-sequences of the decanates - and in Breivik's case you will not be surprised to find that behind this cold, political Aquarian is a Sun-Scorpio, and that this inner Sun forms a T-square with Pluto and Jupiter. The Anders Breivik you cannot see, who lives behind his eyes, is in love with cataclysm. In the dwad of his Q-chart for the moment of the bomb blast that started his campaign of terror, this T-square exactly configures the dwad Ascendant. In the same dwad chart the Midheaven draws to itself the Moon and Ceres at the end of Sagittarius, promising the grief of mothers robbed of their children. Ceres and Uranus were at the IC in coelo as he began his hour of mass murder. Breivik's second Q-chart, for the shootings, moves the radix Moon to conjoin Saturn, the dwad Moon to 11 Capricorn right opposite Uranus, and again in the dwad the Moon's Nodes onto both his meridian and horizon. He is reported as insisting that what he did was "gruesome but necessary". Sidereal - the bigger picture This is horribly echoed when we place his sidereal chart around his tropical Q-chart for the start of the shootings. This gives us insight into the character and actions that bring him to public attention - indeed, how he instinctively combines his private self with his public life at a key moment in time. Now we can see how his setting Aquarius Sun flanked by Mars and Mercury/Ceres conjoins the tropical Dragon's Tail. This is always the picture of someone whose present life is strongly connected to their past, and who risks losing everything if the S.Node karma is bad and they insist on repeating old destructive patterns. Breivik's pull to repeat a quite probably idealogically violent past is extremely strong at this moment, and exacerbated by the unpredictable sidereal Uranus at the tropical IC, with the sidereal Moon/Saturn and Dragon's Head in Leo on his tropical Q Ascendant. The exhortation of Leo to love has been utterly over-ruled by his maverick world-view and compulsion to act it out. Reflex Action Take the Reflex chart, too. (For those of you new to this term of mine, I find it a quicker and easier way to refer to Contrantiscia!) Outstanding here is the direct contact between Chiron and the Sun, which occupy two corners of the 24+ Aquarius-Leo, 5+ Taurus-Scorpio rectangle. This is the classic sign of a maverick individual who will risk self-destruction in following their own uncharted path or taking a sometimes desperate leap of faith. Such people are very difficult to socialise. Many are utterly benign and set a wonderful and unique example to the rest of us; a few like Anders Breivik are extremely dangerous. I understand that he may be charged with crimes against humanity, which carries a far more severe penalty than others that might be levelled against him. Faulty Wiring? We need also to see what is going on in his heliocentric chart. I have never been able to settle my mind on the essential nature of the helio pattern as it suggests two main possibilities: 1 - it reflects the real hidden agendas of the person, the authentic motivations, and thus something about their moral status. 2 - it certainly has a lot to say about in-built physiological conditions, and thus potentially about the 'wiring' of the brain and nervous system. Maybe both. Bear both in mind. Breivik's helio chart has an opposition of Saturn to Pisces Mercury, and a fixed square between Aquarian Mars and Uranus. If the patterns refer to his genetic make-up, then he would seem to have a brain that is soft- rather than hard-wired, responses and thought-processes that are uncritical, suggestible, chaotic, and which can only structure themselves around fantasy. It would mean that his reactions would also be unpredictable, his responses habitually at risk of being violent. Or all this may go deeper, expressing the real state of a being whose chaotic and fantastic ideas obsess him, who reacts in unexpected ways and can deliberately lash out at society when angry; all this then determining the physiology of the body into which he incarnates. Maybe. We all tend to think and talk a lot about the things symbolised by our Helio Mercuries. The Pied Piper of Utoeya Whenever I hear a survivor tell how Breivik lured the youngsters with smiles and lies I keep thinking of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Referring to the legend in Wikipedia I find that in 1284 when the events are supposed to have happened the transit of sidereal Pluto was in Capricorn 10-12. ! So close to the current tropical position! Or the tale may be a mis-remembering of 'The Children's Crusade' of 1212, which in turn may be a confusion of various semi-related facts. I recommend you read the online articles - you'll see what I mean. But a Christian assault on Islam! I had no idea until just now that this idea might be behind the story. Did it influence Breivik at his mother's knee? (Which he hadn't entirely left.) That progressed Sun in his South Node back in 2002 is very telling - it suggests that he may well have gone through an incarnation during the Crusades, that it has got stuck in his psyche, and left him with a set of cruel and deluded ideas. Modern Knights Templar are genuine Christians, kind, inclusive and actively charitable. So are their ecumenical brothers the Freemasons. I am relieved that the Oslo Masonic Lodge has summarily expelled Breivik for violating everything this humanitarian brotherhood stands for. What he has done in coldly, deliberately taking the lives of over 70 people in pursuit of his insane and intolerant vision is both totally anti-Christian and utterly inhuman. No democratic, charitable group could tolerate such a perpetrator of evil in their midst. And because he still thinks he is right, he won't change. His shocked and bewildered family need our prayers. So now we wait to see when the trial will take place; probably not until some time next year according to the BBC today. Breivik's Q-chart Solar Return for February 13th 2012 places Saturn firmly at the IC as the Sun sets. This will be a very high-profile incarceration. July 28th 2011. .................................................................................................................. At this point my own life became somewhat busy and Small World has had to go on the back burner! |