Egypt: Mubarak and Beyond

 Egypt's Announcement that Mubarak has Stepped Down

February 11, 2011 - Cairo, Egypt - 6:02pm (EET/-2)

One of the more interesting things about the chart for the announcing of Mubarak’s relinquishing of the Egyptian Presidency is the fact that fixed star Regulus is at the Ascendant.

Every one of the Royal Persian stars, promises great success IF a certain human trait can be avoided. In the case of Regulus, that trait is vengeance.

Anyone who has listened to the protests in Egypt can think of how this very much embodies the lack of violence on the part of the protesting thousands. It also says a lot about astrology and how charts work; Regulus at the Ascendant is the ‘now’ of what ‘happens’ – the reward for having not gone another way.

And for those less than astrologically inclined, the 28 Leo Ascendant isn’t known as ‘now’ for any airy-fairy reason. The Ascendant represents the point on the eastern horizon – directly east of wherever the chart is cast for. That eastern point is where the Earth is rotating “forward,” which is why the Sun rises in the east. The Earth keeps turning, that eastern ‘moment’ keeps moving on ‘into time.’ It is Now.

With Orcus (consequences) at 2 Virgo standing with Regulus at 29 Leo, this is the ‘idea/ideal/will to create’ (Leo) becoming a tangible (Virgo) reality. For what has been done (Orcus), now there is born a new moment (Regulus/Ascendant).

Yet let's be basic and real. As Mubarak leaves, and the Egyptian people undertake to reorganize themselves and their nation, the country is under the guardianship of the Armed Forces Supreme Council. And anyone who has watched world politics for any amount of time knows that the old saying ‘power corrupts: absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ So while the Egyptian military seems to be an organization loyal to the people of Egypt, until things are more settled down, there well may be good reason to wonder.

The reason to bring this up is that this chart is not only that of Mubarak leaving, but of the military taking over. So they need to act with a high regard for what has gone before, too – which we certainly hope they do!

With Neptune (at 28 Aquarius) exactly at the Descendant of this chart, it’s natural the people of Egypt are jubilant – and that people around the world are happy and hopeful for them. With Amphitrite (overwhelming) positioned with Neptune we get the very picture of the jubilation being caught by cameras beaming image streams out and around the world.

The flip of this symbol is how ‘other things’ may or may not still be getting out of Egypt. Or how this moment of elation may very well cloud the very real work Egypt now need to undertake in reorganizing its country.

This work would be symbolized by the 6th house of this chart, a 6th house which pictures mentalist Mercury with Hel at 12 Aquarius, nurturing Ceres with universalist poet Sappho at 15 Aquarius, Mars (energy/assertion) and the Sun (will/intellectual thought) at 21 and 22 Aquarius with Nessus (poisonous jealousy) and Charybdis (continuous effort).

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 Sappho by Gustave Moreau (1893)

There’s a LOT of hard work ahead. That Ceres/Sappho stands at cross-quarter point (15 Aquarius) seems particularly apt as all cross-quarter points mark the moving from the ‘building up energy’ point to the ‘moving ahead with it’ sector of that astrological quadrant. The quadrant here being the 4th, the subject matter is social, societal, humanistic, governmental – and we certainly understand that application.

But let’s remember that the 6th house of any chart is also the native realm of jobs, the civil service and the military. Thus, though we love this moment of such happiness, it’s obvious (on the astrological level) that there are still problems and hidden pockets of dismal, dreadfully vicious feeling (Nessus) hidden and yet to be dealt with.

Because Nessus is traveling within range of Damocles (LINK to article) we know that some of these problems will not be encountered until things move ahead.

And when will that happen?

Well, there are a lot of ‘1’s implied in this chart. We’ve already seen the first: the Ascendant being at 28 Leo with Regulus at 29.

There’s another pictured at the fabulously apt image of the IC (Nadir – the chart’s foundational point) standing at 25 Scorpio with Sphinx at 26. Scorpio being a fixed sign of ‘joint emotionality,’ and the IC/Nadir and 4th house it leads into being the house of the homeland and native population, there is hardly any better image of the Egyptian people having stood solid as the Sphinx, holding out for what they wanted.

Another “1” – The Midheaven (MC) at the opposite point to the Nadir being at 25 Taurus is conjunct the Taurus Moon at 26 Taurus. This is great display of the people’s values (Taurus) having won out in reasonably short order – the Moon in 10 always indicates something which is quicker than it might have been otherwise. So though Mubarak may have been an unpopular leader for many years now, in terms of the populist movement to oust him which began at the January 2011 Saturn station, having Mubarak leave office not even a month later is pretty quick work.

Moon/Algol images the passion of the Taurus values which went into this effort. It also – like as not – pictures the passion with which both sides of this event (Mubarak and the people) viewed each other.

With the Moon being not just values but resources and thus money and business money at that, set here set in the 10th house of government, commerce and the world we should also not wonder that almost as soon as Mubarak was out the Swiss Confederation (Switzerland) ordered its bankers to look for what may be national Egyptian assets siphoned off by its now-deposed leader.

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 Switzerland

August 1, 1291 - Bern, Switzerland

Maybe the fact that Switzerland’s 29 Leo Mercury conjuncts this Ascendant tells us that Switzerland is with the Egyptian people? Did they know this was coming? Had they been forewarned from within or without?

That, we don’t know. Will we ever know? Maybe.

Meanwhile, back to Algol…often thought of as a difficult star, Algol represents the kind of passion and intensity which can be useful or destructive. That it is strictly reactive (yin) by nature tells us that the measure of what we do where Algol is concerned must be tempered and thought through. In Taurus, this is possible. Yet because Algol is in Taurus’ third decan where it tends to represent a threat to us or our feeling threatened, it’s easy to see where Algol get’s its questionable reputation.

Question: will this change of government actually replace the Arab Republic of Egypt (astrologically) as was founded in 1953? If the country rewrites its constitution, yes. If it merely reorganizes under the old constitution, no.

Meanwhile, it is astrologically interesting to note that the main transits transits on the Arab Republic of Egypt chart for today are Juno conjunct the Ascendant (at 7:28am, EET/-2), Jupiter sextile North Node (at 8:07am, EET/-2) and Pallas square Saturn (at 8:22am, EET/-2).

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Arab Republic of Egypt - June 18, 1953

Juno being a sign of leadership, you can see this either way – that it was the leadership of the people or the news that their leader had left reaching the Egyptian people. Either way, this conjunction to the Ascendant is very much the statement of the Now.

Jupiter being knowing and expansion (of knowing) with the Lunar Nodes always being society, this become the people of Egypt bursting into celebration or the world press/audience getting the news that Mubarak had stepped down.

Pallas square Saturn is the sobering note here – the ‘wisdom’ (Pallas) in knowing there are many, many challenges and much work (Saturn) yet to be faced.

And lest we not think about it…what is today like in Mubarak’s life?
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 Hosni Mubarak as photographed by US

White House photographer Eric Draper in 2002

Backing up a transit search to yesterday (seeing as heads of state hardly ever make a decision to abdicate and dash out the door in five minutes)…we find Ceres conjunct Pallas, Pallas sextile Mars and Vesta sextile Ceres on February 10th, Ceres inconjunct Pluto on February 11th, and simply because we’re here (meaning, I have the report on my screen) Juno inconjunct Jupiter for tomorrow, February 12,

Ceres being nurturance or in this case, more probably ‘advice’ or ‘an advisor’ in conjunction to Pallas (wisdom) is the proverbial handwriting on the wall. That happened early in Mubarak’s morning – at 5:33am, local time.

Pallas sextile Mars and Vesta sextile Ceres happening at 4:08pm and 4:22pm respectively suggest it took most of the day to get the ‘what to do’ sorted out: Mars here is the ‘doing’, Pallas remains wisdom (and thus the ‘smart’ thing to do) with the sextile being opportunity. Vesta is the sign of the servant, in sextile with Ceres tells us that Mubarak got or accepted someone’s help doing something.

For those who are hoping he’s having a bad day, your hopes aren’t reflected until 9:43am on February 11th (local time) as Mubarak’s chart shows Ceres in an approaching inconjunct to Pluto. When our Pluto gets hit, karma gets delivered on the emotional silver platter.

No, he’s not doing any Snoopy happy dances.

Underscoring this is Juno in a departing inconjunct to Venus at the tender hour of 6:54am February 12th (EET/-2). This is rather a classic notice of encountering one’s ‘come down-ance’ in the world – you are used to having something work one way (Venus) and along comes the news that someone else (Juno) has nixed that.

Going back to the national chart, that the Juno-Pallas-Jupiter of this chart will be eclipsed in early June 2011 as Saturn is reaching the other end (and station) of its January move to retrograde in opposition to Eris/Kallisto says there is much, much more to come.

But for the moment, we can cheer with the Egyptian people – most of all because they have accomplished their human aims without the massive spilling of human blood which has all too often typified such moments. All those “1”s we have seen imply that there are all sorts of ‘single’ steps to be taken – and that this story will continue unfurling in one day, one week, one month, one year, and so on.

So bear that in mind as you applaud – but let's do applaud! For the people of a country to have acted with such a consciousness of their own ethics and morals, choosing not to do what has been done to them is very much the better nature we can hope to see as part of the incoming Aquarian Age – and good on (and for) them!

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