Taxes, Obama, the Fed and Uranus's Station (Extra Post, Dec 7th)

There are two charts for the US Federal Reserve. One is at 9 o’clock in the morning. This is the chart for the Reserve as an entity on its own.

 The US Federal Reserve as an independent entity (9 am chart)

The second chart is timed for 12 noon - the 'default' time for all governmental and business institutions, all of which are Capricorn by nature and thus associated with the 'highest' house of the chart and thus the Sun's position at 'high' noon.

That said, here's the Federal Reserve as a facet of the US Government. And yes, the Moon is a degree later than it is in the 9am chart, reflecting the fact that the Moon moves about a degree every two hours or so.

This may seem small except when you consider that the Moon is the sign of 'money,' particularly business money, in any given chart. In Scorpio - as it is here, it is about invested money, jointly held money, loans, debt, credit, monetary vulnerability, valuations, interest (interest rates, interest income), taxation and negotiable instruments.

The US Federal Reserve as a

governmental entity (noon chart)

The difference between these two Moon degrees is interesting and applicable: 9 Scorpio (the Fed as an entity) has more of a flavor of 'assuming responsibility' where 10 Scorpio is a degree all about the ability to wait things out, evade difficulties, powerfully effective innuendo and a highly developed, skillful ability to keep secrets.

Sounds like a government, you say? Maybe so. And sometimes, maybe for a very good reason. One never knows. 

Anyway, back to these two charts and how they are affected by this week's Uranus station at 26 Pisces.

In the first chart, the Uranus station Of December 6 (which would be the evening of the 5th in the US)  falls in the 2nd house of the chart – the house of self-worth, resources, value and values. That Uranus takes its station at 26 Pisces and thus atop the Fed’s Eris (discord) is not a positive sign. That the 2nd house of this chart is Piscean and thus ruled first by Jupiter (at the ‘Reserve-as-institution’ chart’s Ascendant) then by Neptune.

The Neptune of this ‘entity’ chart is in the 7th house and conjunct Polyhymnia, the ‘reserved’ muse who in reflection or by reflecting hopes to find a happy solution but who may just as well be emblematic of ‘reservations.’

In the 7th, given this Uranus/Eris vibe of the moment this thus becomes either the Federal Reserve having reservations which it makes Neptunian light of (or avoids saying anything about)…or a weakened position which is reflected by reactions from other national banks, foreign countries, etc.

In the ‘governmental chart,’ Eris is again at 26 Pisces, with the Ascendant – the ‘what we do’ point of the chart – at 29 Pisces and conjunct Athena/Scheat.

Plainly the Fed is thus expressed as an entity which is charged in part with doing some of the US government’s dirty work. But beyond that, we can expect some words from the Federal Reserve which we aren’t going to like on this subject in fairly short order. Uranus will reach the Athena/Scheat of this chart …say, between February 4 and February 8th.

Plan on this being a telling moment not matter what goes on in the short(er) run with regards to this issue as well as others.

Uranus will go on and conjunct the Reserve’s ‘government function’ Ascendant on February 27th, with classic ‘trigger’ transits dropping additional ‘hints’ (as though the Fed ever hints?) on all these subjects come March 16/17 and March 19th.

But never mind that…how does Obama feel about the subject in his own world?

President Barack Obama - Natal Chart

Well, it’s easy enough to see that this Uranus station takes place in the President’s second house of personal self worth and values. For Obama-watchers, it’s probably worth noting Uranus having entered the President’s 2nd house on May 20th, 2009 (amidst the Deepwater Horizon fracas) …with this being about the time the President started graying at a notable rate as the public began it’s pro-con-niggling summer of doubt.

With Scheat in the President’s 2nd house conjunct Juno at 0 Aries, the fabled argument of ‘is he too soft?’ is now coming up for grabs – and illumination in Obama’s own mind. Jupiter will hit the President’s 2nd house (and strengthen his opinion of his own opinions and ability) around the time of this month’s Lunar Eclipse. Since it will then move on to conjunct Scheat and Juno, this may well signal the President taking the reins.

The harder he fights, the more he will be taken on…and yes, what else is new in the life of an American President? That Obama has attempted to live on his personal hope that consensus might be reached has by now made him a slave of his own convictions (Scheherazade/Scylla conjunct Saturn in the 12th.) But that the Sun will hit this point as Jupiter moves over the President’s Scheat…there we get to the crux of who-runs-what in this nation.

Obama has a 6th house Sun. He is thus by definition, the ‘born employee.’ Much like a military general, he is great at executing orders – and for those who think he’s being bossed around by the Congress or the GOP, this may be why.

On the other hand, seeing that the President of the United States is, besides being Commander in Chief and holder of the highest office in the land also the employee OF the American people….we’ll just have to see.

If the people demand, he will do. If the people don’t demand, he will respond to those who make demands. In this, we see the difference between an executive and a leader – and maybe that’s a lesson to us all, even in our own lives.

But is Obama happy? No, not particularly. He isn’t happy that the values he knows he holds are to whatever extent being walked on and he isn’t happy about the values he is being forced to accept. This is not only his tale of Uranus in the second, but also a picture perfect example of a solar chart, such as the President’s for 2010.

President Barack Obama - Solar Return 2010

The bad news is that 26 Pisces at the bottom of his chart marks this as a year when he will be plagued by issues such as described. Of course the good news is that if that is the bad news, it’s doubtful he will go through worse during this solar year.

But again, with Uranus and Jupiter pictured alongside Scheat in the 4th house it is the people which Obama both answers to and draws his energy from. So if the people speak…who knows.

Will they? And if they do, what will they say?

There’s another two parts to this tale we haven't even touched on as well. One is told by the chart of The Obama Administration (the chart of the presidential inauguration)...and the other is told by the chart of the US as a nation. That one or both may or may not dovetail with the messages from the Federal Reserve chart is yet to be seen…I’ll try to get some blogs posted on that somewhere in the next few days or so.

About this week’s tax proposal however, one last comment on which would be that the Fed is not omnipotent, is created to function on its own behind the scenes and that all of us in the end are to some extent subject to things which cannot be predicted.

But on the surface….this is not the Federal Reserve’s happiest hour, nor President Obama’s.

And we’re not done yet. Uranus is not even out of its station and this month will yet bring a Mercury retrograde (a classic time for discussions, editing thoughts and changing one’s mind) plus a Lunar Eclipse. There’s also that barely will January dawn but we will get a Capricorn Solar Eclipse, with Capricorn being the sign of governance and commerce.

If you’re a United States citizen and you care about taxes, get informed. Speak out. It's your country.

If you live anywhere else in the world, this moment is just as stringent for you and your country, through it may operate differently.

In the history of the world, though regimes and reigns come and go, eventually it comes down to what people will or won’t put up with. America as the Land of the Free is a wonderful thing, but the very freedom of its people allows the American people a right to sit on their duffs and be uninformed, focusing only on their own lives, longings and problems.

This is exactly the negative side of Pisces and Uranus, both of which are signatures of 'collectives.' And that, in the end may tell us what this highly controversial moment is about at a metaphysical level. Maybe this is really all about trying to get a reaction out of American citizens, their government and others around the world who may be affected by the thought of what this proposal might do to the America/world economy...or some other event going on more locally.

Are people being called upon to get out of a me-mine sectionalist thought mode into a more inclusive way of thinking, acting and being responsible?

It could just be.

Pluto/North Node: Society Signs

Diagram of the Pluto/North Node

conjunction of November 27, 2010

6:36am (UT/+0)

In the United States, the Friday after Thanksgiving has come to be known as "Black Friday," a day when shoppers newly fortified by a day of rest and much food descend upon malls, shopping with a vengeance. (Or at least storekeepers hope.)

Originally the name of a stock market crash which occurred in 1869, in modern times 'Black Friday' has come to be about a different bottom line, one where SO much shopping gets done (over the weekend following Thanksgiving, now including 'Cyber Monday' online sales)....that this is when retailers traditionally "go into the black" for the year.

In other words, it's when they finally get out of the 'red' (debt) and begin clearing profits for the year.

Anyway...that's the tradition. You know - in your basic 'pretty good' year. But this year has been anything but - and not just in the United States, but in many places around the world.

And we're not just talking retail - we're talking about this having been a hard year for Earth (and its inhabitants) in general. So when we say that the US goes shopping this weekend as we contemplate Pluto conjuncting the North Node, that's not a specific issue. It's more of a bell-weather. And it's not just about money - it's about how we feel about our life. How life, as a whole, is reacting to the pressures being put upon it.

We all together now on that? This is not about shopping or consumerism except as that is one form of human expression of obligation, wish fulfillment, escapism and/or the ever popular concept of the holidays as the time to 'give the gift' but have it be something useful.

No, I'm not sure how many people are delighted with strictly utilitarian gifts. But sometimes, when life is hard, to have what you need actually is a delight. Yes, even if it's socks, weatherstripping, a new shower head or a vacuum.

(And don't get me started on how much vacuums cost. Never was I ever so happy as when the carpet was removed from my house, taking with it the need to have one. We all have things which just irk us. The price of vacuums is on my list. Petty? Maybe. Honest? Definitely.)

That said, what about this Pluto/North Node conjunction which as we have now noted, is happening late on the USA's biggest shopping day?

 Kyoto's Nishiki market

photo credit: Kazutaka Nakano (March 2009)

The North Node is what we should do. And the simplistic reaction to North Node dictates when astrologer mentions them to client? NO! UGH! BLECH! I've ever seen people get up and walk out of the room when confronted with North Node 'musts.' 

But here's the lore: if we will 'do' our North Node thing, then we can have all the South Node we want. And everybody likes the South Node part of the deal.

So let's start there, with the South Node positioned in a degree of 'garbled messages' which tend to be so unclear that we ignore them. This is a metaphysical signal for 'being isolated in my own thoughts and feelings' which doesn't help matters - whether it's a family budget, a national agenda or a company looking at its own bottom line regardless of the general market or societal trends.

Meanwhile, the North Node and Pluto are both in a degree which is about 'curiosity which can get you into trouble.'

Known vastly and over-simplistically as 'transformation,' Pluto is above all the experience of emotionality...and thus emotional transformations. Pluto symbolizes 'the result of the choice' and the experiences which go along from realizing what has 'come of' what you choose to do, or not do.

Coupled with the North Node, we might think this could be a moment when we go to do whatever we're doing and curiosity draws us in and fascinates us to a degree we do what we had promised ourselves (or others!) not to do. And with two Black Holes bracketing this 4 Capricorn position, the fascination and 'alternative reality' quality associated with Black Holes may do exactly that in many cases.

However...this entire dynamic could have a diametrically opposite effect. Pluto's 'transformative' qualities, often known as create, deny or destroy and which in a natal chart often signify a quality which manifests as an obsession and drive at many, many levels...that may well here represent the changing of habits.

One way we would decide - astrologically - whether this is so, or what this might mean would be to look at the ruler of Capricorn, the sign the North Node and Pluto are in. The ruler of Capricorn being Saturn, we see Saturn here positioned at 14 Libra, the 'mask' and whether we live behind it, or come out from behind it.

With Capricorn being 'the goal' and the 'upheld tradition,' we have to wonder if this combination is about changing (Pluto) the way we deal with the traditions and celebrations we share with others (Libra) and as a society (Nodes) in a very real (Saturn) way.

 United States Federal Reserve Chart

(set for noon as a governmental agency)

With a Quasar (brilliance) just ahead of Saturn and a Black Hole (alternative reality) just behind Saturn and Edisonia (the 'bright idea') in opposition to Saturn...this is if nothing else, a rethinking of what we do and why we do it.

And this may mean a change of attitude on the part of all - whether that means shoppers using cash instead of credit cards. Debt and the pressure/debates which come of same (and which are infamously known for wreaking havoc in marriages) is Pluto. It is the emotional consequence of a (Mars) choice made in a given moment.

That Mars is in Sagittarius' 3rd decanate at this moment guarantees a lot of advertising and going back to our 'Black Friday/Cyber Monday' shopping model, a genuine desire to have things be as they "always have been" on everyone's part - whether you're the merchant trying to promote sales, the buyer wanting to 'have it all' or the anti-commercial person who would like to just go back to a time when holidays were about quiet times of family or contemplation or gratitude...or however anyone thinks of them.

Then there is also a bit of 'indicator history' to contemplate here. The world-wide economic fracas which led to such anguish in 2008 happened as Pluto moved over the MC of the US Federal Reserve's noon (governmental functionality) chart.

With the great heat of the American presidential campaign (replete with name calling and mud slinging) having ignited during March/April 2008, President Obama actually took office as Pluto completed its transit of the Federal Reserve Sun. This is a mark of a previous 'round of thinking' which would have begun one Pluto orbit ago.

Pluto's orbit being 248 years long, that would put the initiation of this 'theoretical' round (theoretical since the Fed wasn't yet in existence) as being in 1761. As it happens, 1761 was the year when George III became King of England - just in time to deal with the American revolution (lucky him!).

 King George III of England in

coronation robes

painting by Allan Ramsay

In the process, the English (and general political situation) also managed to annoy an already vastly over-extended French monarchy - one then headed up by Louis XVI - into entering the war on the side of the (American) colonies. And that exacerbated France's own problems to the degree that it ignited the French Revolution, bringing about the execution of Louis XVI and his wife-of-political mandate, Marie Antoinette.

Link to article on Marie Antoinette.

In short, cycles repeat.

As noted by astrologer Ray Merriman, the US Federal Reserve opened it's doors for business earlier in the day on December 23, 1913. And that chart, I've written about elsewhere (link). But as a US governmental entity we set any applicable chart to noon - under the theory that the government is the 10th house (the uppermost house in any chart) as the Sun is at its zenith at noon and as citizens of any country, we look 'up' to the government as top dog power in our nation.

(No jokes here, please. Several names went through my head too, but we're not going to wax frivolous. At least not at the moment!)

Okay...so when you set the chart to noon, what you come up with a wheel (above) which shows 29 degrees on all four axis points: what the Fed does is critical to the country - and arguably, the world. Cycles repeat and financial controls-markets-reserve banks do not exist in isolation.

Staying with the Fed's governmental chart, the current  conjunction is taking place as Pluto is moving away from the Sun (indicating a great change/upheaval already having taken place and now in motion) heading towards 7 Capricorn, where it will encounter Ceres.

Ceres alone is a symbol of what you have worked for and earned, so you harvest. Ceres success depends on not just wanting the results, but being willing to do all the hard work such as that farmers do in raising their crops.

Link to an article which describes the nature of Ceres in more detail.

In this Federal Reserve chart, Ceres is pictured as being opposition Charybdis, meaning there has to be a constant willingness to keep after various problems. Those problems - again, as described by this chart - are about debt. But not just debt as a concept - debt more specifically as a matter of home-family-real estate and desires.

Considering the interconnected nature of world economics, this clearly denotes the 'consumer culture' as a whole. A 'dominating whole.' If this was only a matter of 'consumerism' (Charybdis ruled by the Fed's governmental 8th house Scorpio Moon), then regulation of interest would be the one key. But Charybdis is an asteroid. Ceres is a dwarf planet.

 Dwarf Planet Ceres

photo credit: Hubble - ACS/HRC

Guess which one is more important? Or to put it another way, which needs to be our greater priority?

Yes, that which we understand is necessary needs to empower the consistency of effort. This cannot be about passion or beliefs or fear - that's anti-Ceres and plainly Charybdis in negative form.

Like as not, this whole discussion comes down to a couple of questions: will we make sacrifices now or later? What does 'sacrifice mean to us? What do sacrifices made in the past which have allowed us to get where we are today - what do they mean to us?

Who are we and what do we really value? What is the difference between what we want (Pluto) and what we should want, or should want ourselves to want (Pluto/North Node)? Where do we talk the talk but totally not walk the (Pluto/North Node) walk, hiding behind our (Saturn) mask of what should be changed and done (Pluto/North Node) but which we're just as happy to leave up to others (Libra) to take on the (Saturn) hard work and the (Saturn) challenges of doing?

Pluto will arrive at 7 Capricorn - the Fed's Ceres - in spring 2011. What we are going through now is a 'lead up' to that. Given how hard it is for societies and nations to change, we all know what 'should' happen, but which won't happen until the proverbial shoe falls.

Or kicks us in some providential part.

March/April 2011 has Pluto going station/retrograde right atop the Federal Reserve Ceres. That transit ends in January 2012, describing 2011 as a year of serious change.

So you can either fiddle and dance now, or pay the piper then. And maybe you'll do some of both. How much is probably up to you, and starts now.

It will be definitely interesting to hear reports of how retailers do over this long holiday weekend. It will tell us much about ourselves...what we're dealing with and what we're choosing to ignore now, and face later.

Stay tuned!

Money Matters: Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

European Union Currency

Not too long ago, I was in an auto accident. It wasn't tragic or even all that serious in the sense that such things can be serious: my vehicle got crunched at both ends and I'm working through some whiplash.

And that isn't my astrological point, either. The astrology thought came to me as I was talking things through with my insurance company. The subject was rental cars and how I was going to be asked to give the rental agency a credit card against damages. Yes, even though I'm insured driving whatever I drive and in spite of the fact this current accident was 100% not my fault (I was sitting at a stop light when along came a car who failed to stop).

My reply to my insurance company: I don't have a credit card.

Her reply to me: We hear that a lot now. More and more, in fact.

That's what got me to thinking.

Thinking astrologically is sometimes a bit like painting a picture. My father having gone to art school, he taught me that most artists use big brushes to lay down 'washes' of color, the broad strokes and background against which all else takes place.

In my many years now of studying astrology, I have come to realize that all symbols far and near have something of this 'background' function. And when we think of money...how/when the world went all hog-wild with credit and credit cards, leading to the deep water struggle we are all swimming through now, that tends to suggest Pluto. The great upswing in credit usage came in the 1980 - when Pluto was transiting Scorpio, sign of 'other people's money,' investment and debt.

Japanese Yen coinage

'Credit' isn't known as a particularly Scorpio word probably because the word credit is about a 'plus', and in Scorpio the 'plus' is what's is 'borrowed' and thus owed. Scorpio is entirely interactive - there are always two parties in the mix. So 'to one's credit' as we think of it emotionally or as a resource of talent or ability, that wouldn't be Scorpionic, that would be Taurus/2nd house - the source(s) which we draw on in order to build a bigger, better whatever.

A long time ago, some well-known astrologer made the statement that until you incur sufficient debt that you could not pay it off with the totality of your life's work you're not actually in debt. I don't recall exactly who it was, though several names dance though my mind as I type this. In any case, the statement was made during the 80's and is endemically emblematic of those times, since we and our world were in the 1980's and 1990's plunging on as though growth would never end.

But of course, it did. Courtesy of Pluto in Sagittarius,  with the plus of a great boom in knowledge technological and otherwise we got the Sagittarian Plutonic trampling of limits and boundaries. Common 'rainy day' sense was tested with 'but what is actually possible?' In some cases this 'let's push a little more' was a very good thing. Without that, we wouldn't know or have many things of everyday modern life.

But when we go with Plutonic obsessions to great extremes, then we take a fall. And given Pluto as the 'outcome' ruler of Scorpio, the lesson there really is that we've taken a fall because we made a bad choice.

And don't we all get that by now - that a couple or three fiscal bad choices got made? On the Pluto level, today's angst, today's frustrations, today's ill feelings, they are the outcomes of choices. Being 'mental feelings' they are also the metaphysical 'voicing' of what we did...when? 

When Pluto was in Scorpio. That would have been 'one,' and Pluto in Sagittarius would have been 'two,' which makes Pluto in Capricorn 'three.'

Chinese Yuan currency

And that being so, we have a pretty good indicator about at least one facet of Pluto's passage through Capricorn. What it's about, I mean.

Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, our symbol of structural growth. Or structural limitation. Either way, Saturn can represent determination or fear. Even determination to overcome fear, defense against fear or some sort of  fearful circumstances - real or imagined.

Yes, that's right - even though earthy Capricorn manifests as the tangible and concrete, that doesn't mean the need or feeling which motivates Capricorn is tangible and concrete. And that's a separation which seems important in a world where everything about life seems to prey on feelings of competition, greed, fear, lust and whatever else to get us to do (or not do) most everything.

But we also should suspect that will only go so far. Why would we think that? Well, Pluto is currently moving through Capricorn's first, physical/action-oriented decanate. And the air is filled with 'what are we going to do about...(insert issue).'

As of 2013, Pluto will move into Capricorn's second and most emotional decanate. At that point, one supposes, the emphasis will shift from 'what are we going to do' to 'how are we going to feel when (insert issue) happens?' Or maybe 'how can we allow ourselves to feel (description) considering (insert issue)?'

Interestingly, as Pluto finally reaches Capricorn's third and worldly 'results' decanate (degrees 20 through 29) in 2018. And this is also Saturn moves into its first 'home sign' of Capricorn in December 2017, catching up with Pluto by conjunction in January 2020.

United States 'greenback' currency

This is also just after when the chart of the US Federal Reserve tends to suggest current monetary mire will have actually come to a point of resolution. Considering how interlocked the international monetary system is, we can easily thus deduce that as US finances begin to improve, so will the financial fortunes of most of the rest of the world. (link to article on the astrology of the US Federal Reserve)

In the end though, what this may well point to is a whole other issue. One which also centers in Pluto as the experience of emotional transformation. With Pluto as secondary 'outcome' ruler of Scorpio, it would seem that just as 'credit/giving ourselves credit' against debt/feeling indebted to others as an outgrowth of the Taurus/Scorpio 'my/other people's' resources (of which money is just one sort) is really the biggest issue we can grapple with.

After all, part of what has driven us - nations and people all - into the cycle of borrowing/debt/refinancing and all the rest which got us into this mess is how we have generally come to think of the word "worth" as being a monetary worth. You know, as in 'what am I worth?'

In truly obsessive, Plutonic, 'others' Scorpio style, with Pluto's passage through Scorpio the world seemed to lose its sense of self and focus hugely, even totally, on what others thought of us.

And that's always bad, since no one is going to think of us any better than we think of ourselves. Scorpio - the other, is the 'effect' in 'cause/effect ' with the cause being Taurus: self worth, satisfaction, respect for our own being and our abilities as people and to be people.

The good news is, we're still alive, and therefore able to reclaim our mortal worth - in every sense. And don't we deserve to give ourselves a little credit?