News Notes: Egypt’s Unrest

A statue of King Khafra, the man who caused the second pyramid at Giza to be built.

 (photo credit: D. Denisen, May 2012 - statue housed at the Cairo Museum)

In the middle of all else which was part of today (don’t ask) the fact that Egypt is again an uproar penetrated my water-trined brain.

My first thought: it’s an emotional time. Everyone is feeling provoked, challenged or abandoned on some level. Why not Egypt?

Sulky of me, I know. But it has been a heck of a tough start for a lot of us, this grand trine in water signs. And I'm on that list. (A Sun at 4 Pisces will do that for starters, and let's just say I have five other planets in water.)
 
So about Egypt...countries aren’t people, but like everything else, they exist as a manifestation of time. So if Egypt has any primal position in any early degree of some water sign, it would be reasonable (if not rational) for Egypt to be all in a froth.

I pulled out Egypt’s chart.

 Arab Republic of Egypt

June 18, 1953 - 12 noon EET (-2) - Cario, Egypt (Aries Wheel)

Yes, there it was. Down at the bottom of the Aries wheel: Mars.

To be more specific – Mars at 2 Cancer. And not only that, but because Egypt’s Mars is in Cancer, that means it’s ruled by the Moon.

The astrological glyph for Mars 

And that Moon? That Moon-of-Egypt (which sounds rather historical) is conjunct nothing less than Black Moon Lilith. So…seeing as Black Moon Lilith embodies all which gets denied, this Arab Republic of Egypt is a nation – and its population (Cancer and the Moon in any national chart is indicative of ‘the people’) which is a.) sensitive to being denied…and b.) prone to being denied, giving them every reason to be so sensitive.

So when did the unrest start to bubble up? I went online to look. There are many things which are questionable online, but by and large, dates of news being made isn’t one of them.

And this is what I found: On June 17, 2013 President Morsi appointed a person ‘suspected’ (ahem) of being connected to a massacre in Luxor which among other things, killed over fifty tourists.

(That’s inexcusably beyond the definition of any Vacation from Hell.)

Then, on June 23rd, violence – apparently driven by differences between Islamist sects – broke out.

After that we get to June 26th, the date when Jupiter moved into Cancer, ‘setting off’ the upwelling of true water sign emotionality. On June 26th, President Morsi delivered a very long speech to the whole of Egypt which was apparently not exactly what everyone wanted to hear. That turned into more killings on June 28th which brought people out into the streets of Cairo as of June 30th. There were pro-Morsi people and anti-Morsi people, most of them outrageously and totally hopping mad.
 

The astrological glyph for Jupiter

 

What’s interesting astrologically is how Jupiter moving from Gemini in Cancer manifested in a shift from the religious to the political. The opposition sign to Gemini is Sagittarius – the ruler of (among other things) religion, religious dogma, religious fundamentalism and the ‘letter of the law’ when it comes to things like scripture. Against this, the opposition sign to Cancer is Capricorn: the government and rule of law – replete with punishment.

But the unrest didn’t start with Jupiter’s shift into Cancer. It started back on June 17th, which got my attention seeing as the ‘birthday’ for the Arab Republic of Egypt is June 18th – which means that trouble erupted in the wee hours before Egypt (as a nation) got its new(est) solar return.

So what’s in that solar return?

Arab Republic of Egypt

Solar Return 2013 - June 18, 2013 - 1-04 pm EEDT (-3) - Cairo, Egypt (Aries Wheel)

 

I won’t say ‘goodie’ because this isn’t good. But that emblem of Black Moon Lilith at 0 Cancer – remembering that the natal Mars for Egypt is at 2 Cancer – that’s not a happy placement.

 The astrological glyph for Black Moon Lilith

Mars isn’t known for being particularly ‘patient’ in Cancer. As a symbol of assertion, Mars isn’t a celestial ‘happy camper’ in a sign all about nestling down with the kin. Mars is about doing – and Mars in Cancer will wait only so long. Then all that pent up energy bursts forth.

So that’s what we’re seeing. We’re seeing the people feeling ignored – Black Moon Lilith conjunct the position of natal Mars – all being set off by Jupiter heading into Cancer.

Will this end any time soon? Well, the degree of Egypt’s natal mars is 2 Cancer 50. Jupiter will reach that point on Sunday/Monday, July 7-8.

But then there’s Mars. Currently moving into the last ten degrees of Gemini, Mars will reach the position Jupiter was at when all this started (28 Gemini, the degree of fixed star Betelgeuse) on July 10/11.

That Betelgeuse factor, by the by, suggests that President Morsi was doing a very Betelgeuse thing, and Betelgeuse symbolizes that which we think will make things easy or which are just the easiest thing to do. 

(And yes, sometimes the easy thing to do is to do nothing, which also works.)

After Mars reaches 28 Gemini it will then move on and into Cancer, evoking all that Mars-in-Cancer fervency. And then Mars reaches it’s own moment of national return, an event which happens on July 17th, which just happens to be the date when Uranus goes retrograde.

Uranus equals breakthroughs or discoveries or freedom or anarchy or explosiveness.

There are two t-squares in Egypt’s Solar Return which speak to what’s going to come out of all of this.

The first has Pluto/Facies at the ‘t’ with (essentially) a year-long opposition of Moon and Uranus. 

Remembering that the Moon of any national chart indicates it’s people…and throwing in that it will also represent the national coffers, income and ‘resources’ (which with Egypt includes a lot of entirely irreplaceable art and architecture) this doesn’t look wonderful. With TNO Typhon exactly conjunct Egypt’s national Eris discord is the name of the game and the issue is how those in power are ‘playing the game’ for their own benefit without paying attention to who else may have skin in the game.

The second t-square (the one with Juno/Vaticana and Sualocin at the ‘t’) is another statement on this issue as Juno-Vaticana is a quintessential statement about a ‘power base’ which, in combination with Sualocin speaks to ‘temptations which are never fulfilled.’

The ‘root’ of this t-square – Huya, Medea and the North Node are indicative of a people fully invested in lessons already learned which make them willing to take on whatever risk must be incurred in getting what they believe in – which in this case would appear to be some sort of restraint of government and attention to the whole of the nation, just not part of it.

Menkar, Photographica, Niobe and the South Node on the ‘goal’ side of this t-square would seem to be about one side wanting to control the message (and what images get out) and the other side wanting to expose what they think of as great wrongs. 

I’m thinking this isn’t going to be Egypt’s calmest month...or year.

Alas.
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Astro-Observations on Egypt’s Morsi

President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt (right) with the UK's David Cameron

(photo credit: Stefan Rousseau, Open Government License v1)

I was watching the news today, and there was a story on the unrest in Egypt. So, though it took a bit of doing (mostly geographical) but with the fracas going on in Egypt, it seems sensible to look up the chart for Egypt’s President, Mohamed Morsi.

Morsi was born August 20, 1951 in a small town north of Cairo which you’ll find listed some places as El-Adwah, but which is actually Al-Idwah. (Such changes are common when moving from Arabic to English.) There being no birth time available, here is his chart cast as an Aries wheel.

 President Mohamed Morsi

August 20 1951 - Al-Idwah, Egypt

(Time unknown, Aries Wheel)

Morsi came to the Egyptian presidency as of June 30, 2012, just a few days after Venus went direct at 7 Gemini and a month after the solar eclipse at 0 Gemini.

That solar eclipse trines Morsi’s Saturn exactly. It also sextiles his natal Mars (at 1 Leo) within one degree. That – obviously – says these two planets are in aspect, which they are. The aspect is a sextile, and that sextile describes President Morsi as someone capable of understanding others, and equally capable of wanting to, thinking he should and being willing to impose his will on others.

Interestingly, this same eclipse is also in an out-of-sign opposition to President Morsi’s natal Juno. Positioned in late Scorpio (26 Scorpio) and conjunct Tantalus, this would seem to be the trip wire which has now been tripped as Juno/Tantalus in late Scorpio is all about being willing to do what is necessary FOR others, with that you do TO them (or against their wishes) being a fatal sort of error.

This would be emphasized in Morsi’s having taken on the Egyptian Presidency by the Venus station/turnaround. Though there is no planet in Morsi’s chart at this degree, Venus having gone direct at 7 Gemini would be conjunct Aldebaran (integrity) on a global level. And since 7 Gemini is conjunct Morsi’s Moon/Eris in the “I Am” sign of Aries, thus we have a rather perfect demonstration of how Eris functions well when we fight for social causes and not so well when we try to do only for ourselves. Conjunct a strong Aries Moon (which would give Egypt’s President a very self-prepossessed quality anyway) this would of course backfire the minute he announced that he was giving himself additional power.

That trouble has broken out now seems not startling, considering that November’s solar eclipse at 21 Scorpio would have smacked the President’s Juno…and (oh incidentally) his natal Edisona as well.

He had a bright (Edisona) idea? Solar eclipses tend to bring out anywhere in our life where we have strayed from propriety or proper behaviors. One guesses that’s exactly what we’re seeing.

The next act should happen fairly quickly as Uranus will be going direct on December 13th at 4 Aries, conjunct Morsi’s Moon/Eris. 4 Aries is also within the 5-degree standard orb to oppose Morsi’s natal Saturn.

It hardly sounds like a moment for him to be taking a bubble bath.

One other interesting note to add here (this being not a conclusion-loaded blog post, just an observation) is that President Morsi has Chiron (retrograde) natally placed at 26 Sagittarius, a very (very) special degree as that was the degree of the Galactic Center when he was born.

This Chiron of his is in a grand trine with the Sun in Leo and Sedna in late Aries.

 
And that means – in particular the Chiron part of this? – that Mohamed Morsi is a man who tends to see his vulnerabilities (and probably his mistakes) more clearly in retrospect. His Sun, being conjunct Circe (being under the spell), Deucalion (finding the moral path), Lust (over-focus) and Amphitrite tends to say that (Amphitrite) he can persuade himself of many things…and that he is capable of feeling entitled to creating rules for himself. Especially with Sedna involved, this will tend to have him putting himself into situations where he involves others. And given the grand trine, this is not a dynamic (life habit) easily broken.

However…Jupiter opposition Neptune…this is also not a man who can wholly count on others. It’s to be sure that he has been betrayed and lied to, probably to the extent that part of why he does what he does in making up his own mind about what he’s going to do is at some level, a defense mechanism.

There is one other thing to note here: the North Node is currently transiting 26 Scorpio – the degree of Morsi’s Juno. Since the Nodes always represent society or relationships or our relationship to society, what with all the eclipse action it’s not surprising that this would be a time when things are in an uproar. As the North Node counts backwards to 25 Scorpio (which happens about the time Uranus goes direct) that will have the North Node conjunct Tantalus.

The mythic Tantalus was punished – severely – for his acts and bad choices. The crux of that punishment was not about what he did to humans, but what he tried to do to Olympian gods who came to his house for dinner. (No, you don’t want to know what he did!) In astrological terms, what this refers to are the esoteric questions of how others react to us when we take advantage of the opportunities we are given in this life.

 Juno

Juno is about the ability to ‘govern’ one’s ‘home.’ It can be about how we run our real world home, yes. But more often, depending on sign and house of placement, it’s about whether we’re at home in our skin or ‘how clean we keep’ our mental home – our basis for thinking.

This isn’t settled, no. And unfortunately, we have no birth time for this nativity. But it would appear that in the world of being a ‘ship of state,’ President Morsi will right, or sink himself.
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February’s Leo Full Moon: Good Will Wanted

 Thomas Harriot at Syon Park drawing a map of the

Moon - courtesy of Rita Greer (2009)

The February Full Moon gets as astronomically perfected as it’s going to get at 8:35am (UT/+0) on February 18th.

Astrologically, this Full Moon stands at 29 Leo…and if you’re any fan of astrology, all I have to say to you is that anything in happening at 29 degrees of any sign to make your eyebrows go up!

Okay…panic not! Let’s just chat this through...

Leo is a sign of creativity. And we create because we want to…which is how Leo has come to be known as a sign all about what I want (or like) to do. That doesn’t unfortunately mean that everything we want to do turns out perfectly…! (I know. Big sigh…) But we wanted to do it and…and…and…

…Isn’t it somehow even MORE annoying when it was something you really, really wanted to do and it doesn’t turn out the way you wanted it to?

Oh, grrrr! Don’t you just hate that?

Okay…so Leo is about creativity – the things we try, and which we would like to think we’re nice about when they don’t pan out (blind dating, anyone?) but which, if truth be told, we tend to whine a bit about…or maybe even more than a bit about…when they don’t go our way.

Full Moon of February 18, 2011

 at 3:35am (UT/+0) - Aries Wheel

Part of this whole issue – as a whole – is because Leo is a fire sign. Fire signs imagine and envision. Oh just THINK of how wonderful it could be if…!!! 

(I know. It’s that “if” which gets us.)

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it yet two million times (gag…two million?) but the ability to see what things could be is great as motivation and deadly as expectation. That’s the whole dotted line distance between happy and unhappy in all fire signs, with none being so hard to wrestle to the finish line about this than Leo.

Why? Because Leo is the fixed fire sign. And take it from me – an astrologer related to Sun sign Leos, an astrologer who habitually has many Sun sign Leo friends…Leo, the sign of ‘I want’ really wants the world to be the way they think it should be.

And bless all that Leo energy – it’s what makes us try. And try again. We don’t quit just because the first blind date was a bust – we go on to find the love of our life. We don’t expect to learn how to play the piano in a day. If one of a group of children turns out to have watched The Bad Seed one too many times, that doesn’t make us give up on the other three kids. Heck – it doesn’t even make many of us us give up on the one kid!

And that’s the beautiful side of Leo. When Leo supports, when Leo looks for and to the possibility, Leo is the breath of summer sunshine, the balm on our hard times, the joy in ‘joy of life.’ 

It’s just that I expected this to be good and it isn’t! thing which gets us in Leo trouble. And since we all have Leo in our chart – we all have some chance of falling into this pothole from time to time!

Especially now. Any Leo Full Moon (of which there is one, every year!) tends to mark a day (or two) of heightened expectations. Those who can convert this into doing good or being supportive are generally on the high side of this tide. But to those who are going to join the ‘think wonderful and everything IS wonderful’ club - prepare for critique.

Or at least a dash of cold water (and watch out for the squirt guns!).

Just to top this event off, this year’s edition of the Leo Full Moon is at no less than twenty-nine degrees of Leo: Leo’s last degree and therefore the moment when Leo is at it’s most “urgent.”

For those who schedule a party for this moment, we hope it goes well. If it does, like as not it’ll go really well! But for many, the feeling of ‘urgency’ which comes with this moment will in disappointment because the natural tendency for their to be an emotional ‘high tide’ at the time of the Full Moon which here is symbolized by the Leo “I want” (perhaps somewhat over-idealized) yearning will put the “bar” above that level which is reasonable to expect will realistically happen.

Remember…a Full Moon is the Moon in full face against the Sun – they stand in opposition. So though the lunar feelings ‘highlight’ the day, in the end the gravity of life wins. What goes up…must come down. Gravity of emotion becomes gravity of the earthy, earthly Newtonian real life kind.

And...those are the basics of this moment.

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Beyond the basics lie the modifiers. One is that the critical, 29 Aquarius Sun stands conjunct Chiron. Is what we want actually possible?

Another is how the Moon of this figure stands exactly with Regulus, that famous Royal fixed star which promises success if and where and when we avoid the desire for vengeance and/or retribution.

Beyond that, we have an associated opposition composed of TNO Orcus at 2 Virgo in opposition to Circe at 2 Pisces. And let’s not underestimate the fact that Fomalhaut – another Royal fixed star – stands at 4 Pisces.

To tease this apart gently…all Trans Neptunian Objects (TNOs) represent precepts which we may know of all the time, but which in practical terms aren’t in play on an everyday basis.

As a specific in the many things which we might know but never focus on in everyday life, Orcus represents consequences. Envisioned as the god who greets one’s soul as you pass beyond life, Orcus represents that moment when we realize there is no going back, no chance of ‘unringing’ the bell, no chance of changing things already done or not doing something we did, even if we now realize it was a mistake.

In early Virgo, Orcus summons up all those lists of things we ‘should’ do, be it something simple like getting a check up…or maybe just keeping our mouth shut or being polite…or violating a rule or standard of behavior we knew we were breaking when we did it. Virgo representing all we need to do in life in order to maintain life, it’s not just the exercise or the job or workplace, but everything which keeps our world working – from the sewers to the civil servants, from the military to communication lines, computers and junctions.

With the Sun here in the technological and energy sign of Aquarius, there is in fact some emphasis on ‘what allows life to work,’ and with Orcus in Virgo (within orb to also be in opposition to the Sun) there is certainly good reason to contemplate real consequences to real actions.

With Neptune currently conjunct the Sun on one side, certain aspects of life and beliefs about what life is, should be, has been, could be, might be are dissolving. And while it’s fine to challenge or even bring down something you believe is truly wrong…with Sun/Neptune being a highly idealizing dynamic, the question is whether the realities of need have been thought through.

It’s one thing to say ‘that’s wrong.’ It’s another thing to not have a contingency or replacement plan ready to put into place. You may hate electric light bulbs – but what are you planning on using instead?

Chiron in this picture underscores a plaintive longing. But is it a fantasy being longed for? With Circe in this picture, we have to wonder whether we are tempted/lured into buying into some fantasy simply because current realities are so hard to think of as what we have to deal with at this moment.

Moon in Leo…we don’t want what reality is, we want what we want reality to be. 

So what is your reality?

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Considering goings on in the world, I thought it might be interesting to look at this Full Moon against a couple of charts.

First – that of Egypt.

In this chart, the Full Moon is conjunct Regulus and Deucalion, a combination which connotes mandatory morality - or the morality of mandates. This is the Leo end – this is the desire.

On the Aquarius (Sun) end we have Vesta – sacred service conjunct Chaldea and Kalypso. This is the sacred calling (Vesta) to be of service (Vesta) with a lot of work which needs doing (Chaldea) and the need to keep working at trying to be/do better (Chaldea/Vesta) not for your own sake, but for the sake of the greater society (Kalypso/Aquarius).

With both these signatures intercepted across the 5th house/11th house axis (Moon in 11, Sun in 5) there’s an added underscoring to that ‘don’t do just what you want,’ on the solar end which seems very much of the moment, considering Egypt’s long history of less than munificent leadership.

Sun intercepted here in 5 may also indicate a lot of hiding or hidden energies rather than the ‘service’ energetic which would be most positive.

One other note: with Moon in 11th (the house of societal income) this would point to not just the income of the people, but that of the country; not destroying that which provides Egypt with income (and) which is so special about Egypt is hopefully of note. The positive is for people to band together protecting this, the negative is for people to be so self involved as to think only of themselves.

Full Moons always portray a ‘balance’ of forces; keeping things ‘in balance’ is part of every Full Moon question.

How about the Obama Administration?

Here we have the native Moon at 29 Scorpio. Scorpio being the sign of all things emotional, interactive and often contentious, by now it would seem pretty evident that this administration has an emotionally-based relationship with its Congress and its citizenry, plus issues with financing, debt, investment markets and the whole financial panoply of Scorpio fiscal issues. That while the health care bill was going through we actually heard people talking about death panels…that’s plainly a Scorpio emblem. Scorpio is both conception and death (one form of which would be abortion)….so that this is an administration against which anybody would use a term like ‘death panels’ is emblematic of this Moon.

As, frankly, is its prosecution of war.

29 Scorpio is Scorpio at it’s most intense and urgent degree. So what is, is. This is what the administration gets and the ‘currency’ is testy, tense and combative. That Obama himself tends to take a moderate tone is very much the Pallas (wisdom) in opposition to the testiness. If he was more assertive would others back their tones down? Perhaps so – there’s only so much energy; that we don’t own, others own for us. With Kallisto and Byblis conjunct this Moon, the whole matter of ‘terrible subjects no one else wants to talk about’ has been made part of this administration. Byblis – in particular – says that there worst thing this administration can do is attempt to ‘justify’ or buck pass.

While we’re here, simply because it’s such a quirky thing, a comment on a repeated theme in the President’s speeches where he in essence says that he does not believe that America can’t work through its problems and be the nation it purports to be.

Conjunct wisdom (Pallas) as portrayed in the 1st house we have Scylla – an emblem of ‘clinging to’ or stubbornness or perseverance or being ‘stuck in’…PLUS Kassandra, the quintessential ‘I speak the truth but am not believed’ symbol of all time.

The good news: Kassandra always spoke the truth. The bad news: no one believed her until the truth became the truth.

This being an out-of-sign (and element) opposition, Pallas here is pictured as very thoughtful and well spoken, airy and intellectual. Yet the Scorpio Moon is the very hallmark of passion. As many have noted, President Obama is at his best and gets the best reaction when he is calm (airy) in the face of a very emotional (Scorpio) situation, or where he uses the precepts of intellectualism to touch people emotionally.

Considering I didn’t start out to write any of that, (it does sort of happen when one sits down to chat with friends!) along comes this Full Moon, and presto change-o, yeoucheroo…a mere (!!!) awkward administration Pallas/Moon opposition gets turned into a full fledged, bollox-worthy Grand Cross.

One with three positions at 29 degrees, no less.

If the administration plays its ‘cool and thoughtful’ card, appealing to emotions utilizing the positive Leo note, people may be inspired.

Most of all, by the thought that they can work through whatever needs to be done. That, in the end, is one of the great under-sung Aquarian issues: the need to work through the process but not get stuck in the process.

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Considering this is in the end, merely a Full Moon, we here come to a turning of the tide. Two, actually - considering that Pandora goes direct about two hours after the Full Moon.

That's a lot of things coming to light!

(And in case you missed it...look back a few posts - we talked about Pandora's station a couple of days ago.)

As with all things, this moment will pass and we will  into a next ‘phase’ of development. With Pandora now in direct motion, in the days ahead the inner provocations we have been trying to express and vent will be prompted by external means. Those who remember to be realistic and supportive will hopefully go on...and make great gains.

After all, the last thing in the box Pandora wasn't supposed to open is Hope.

But yes, we have to work to get there.

Just remember…no matter how big your dream is, life is bigger than anything you can possibly dream up. You may think you know it all – but you don’t!

And the good news there? That means you aren’t responsible for everything which happens.

But you are responsible for what you know - and what you are capable of knowing...and doing.

The glass half full?

photo credit: Derek Jensen (Dec. 2005) 

So yes, the glass is half full – but who among us will actually drink?

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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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The Astrological Ages: Themes Past, Present and Possible Futurisms

In our last/first post on the astrological ages, we established what an Astrological Age is, and why it is what it is. With that now out of the way, it seems like a good idea to contemplate a few items having to do with  what we know about/from Ages past – and what that can tell us about today, tomorrow, and times yet to come.

Being that we have an easy 5,000-6,000 years we can look back at (recorded human history), even granting that people/writers of history tend to fudge a few facts here and there to suit themselves (or keep rulers of the day from cutting off their head, not that it always works…) let’s put up two ‘preceding’ Ages.

The first would be the Age of Pisces…that which is now fading away.

The Age of Pisces

The second would be the Age of Aries, the era which came before the Age of Pisces. (Remember? Astrological ages roll back through signs because this is all about  Earth’s pre-('pre' as in 'before')-cessional cycle.
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The Age of Aries 

With each astrological age lasting 2,160 years, we use 2010 (for convenience) as our “start date.” And that gives us a ‘dawning’ year for the Age of Pisces as being around 150 BCE. And going back yet another 2,160 years, we arrive at a ‘dawning’ period for the Aries Age as being somewhere about the the time BCE 2,310 rolled through.

Okay…now to something which sounds a bit esoteric but really isn't hard and is both practical and informational when traipsing through the land of asterological age. Namely, what is each Age called? No, I don't mean “Aquarian Age" or “Aries Age,” and I'm not referring to 'that (blank blank blank) Age' ...or am I referring to calling some Age Fido or Fifi or some other fru-fru name.

What I’m referring to here is the 'casual nickname' ages have come to be known as among metaphysicians and other philosophical types.

The Age of Pisces has long been called The Age of Knowledge. And considering how much 'knowledge' about our planet, our bodies and life itself we've accumulated during these past 2,000-plus years, that seems not an unlikely name. Heck - here at the end of the Age of Pisces, we had arise among us what has very commonly come to be more commercially known as the Information Age. 

But hey! Information isn't wisdom. And what separates them?

For that, we consider Pisces as a water/emotional sign and reconcile the idea of Pisces as wisdom because when knowledge (or information) is exposed to and converted by exposure to hard won (emotional) experience, what results is wisdom. Wisdom is something greater, more applicable, more universal than knowledge because wisdom takes into account the stance, need and feelings of those around us.

And that’s Pisces. Pisces is nothing if not a universal experience of emotions…or the emotional collective…or the common (emotional) chord. Pisces represents the means, the moments, the wisdom which allows us to understand our experience in universal terms, which  connects us to ourselves and each other through joy and pain and longing and sorrow and hope and disappointment.

Against this we have information, a conceptual word. Knowing is about being informed - having the facts. Wisdom is knowing what it means if those facts get applied to and in real life.

Information is not a water sign word. It's an air sign 'theory/concept' word.

During the Piscean Age, Aquarius - the sign of information and systemic knowledge has been on the 12th house of the Age. And that we come to what modern society calls 'the Information Age' at the end of the Pisces Age era - that is simply an incredible marker.

That's human instinct in sync with Earth-time.  

Looking at this, we might say that the keyword for the sign on the 12th house of the age as interpreted through the ruling sign of the Age gives us a colloquial name of that age and tells about a great focus of that Age.

So what about the Age of Aries? During the Aries Age, Pisces was on the 12th house. The keynote there would be faith. And with Aries - sign of I AM - on the 1st house, are we surprised that this was indeed the Age of Sun Kings and Pharoahs - single (I AM) people who embodied divinity?

The Age of Aries doesn't get talked about much - though it's interesting, to be sure. Should we think of it as the  Age of Divinity? That might well be apt. Having learned how to subsist and survive ('civilization' and cultivation as we know it having arisen in the Taurus Age which ran before that of Aries) the Aries Age was full of this who are we, how do we come to be alive and questions about where and in whom the power of life and death is vested.

This idea of relating the Age to qualities of its 12th house sign is really not so odd considering how the 12th house of any chart is the place we look to for a universal experience (and) universal challenge. This holds in a personal chart, it works in a corporate and national chart. So why not the chart of an Age?

That's one of the lovely things about astrology - once you know how it works, it simply works that way over and over again. It's just learning the basics which is a (insert favorite term here).

Getting back to the point, what all this suggests is that if we want to look ‘ahead’ (rather immediately ahead!) into the Aquarian Age, we should start with the sign on the 12th house of the incoming Aquarian Age.

And thus, with a wave of magical digital wand, I here conjure for you yon chart of said Aquarian Age…

 The Aquarian Age

(The frame on this graphic is color keyed to correspond Aquarius

as the sign on the 1st house of the Aquarian Age)

…on which 12th house we find Capricorn, the sign before Aquarius.

Capricorn is the 12th house of the Aquarian Age

(The frame on this graphic is color keyed to correspond Capricorn

as the sign on the 12th house of the Aquarian Age)

There are many, many keywords for any sign. But when you talk in this kind of global sense, words like time, structure, responsibility, pragmatism...even 'career' doesn't see as applicable to this discussion as a term like 'governance' (government) or...commerce.

Understanding why takes going back to that 12th house precept. The 12th is the house of universal feeling and thus commonalties and the common chord. Thus the thing we're talking about has to be a global concept. We can take a Capricorn term like 'responsibility' and combine that with Aquarius as the sign of information, society/social systems, economics, functionality, income and the ethics of freedom....and come up with ideas like 'social responsibility' and 'structural economics' and that may well encapsulate part of what is going on...but in the end, what the Age is likely to be about is Commerce. Social commerce, economic commerce, informational commerce - the commerce of ethics - it's all commerce.

So I would nominate the Age of Aquarius as the Age of Commerce, yes.

And that's one side of this 12th house/1st house 'typification' of the Age. Yet the flip would also be true, namely that since the 12th house is always where we are challenged and what challenges us, this may have some serious implications.

Take for instance, the 12th house as the house of 'old age wealth.' All three water houses - 4, 8, 12 - and the signs naturally associated with them - Cancer (4), Scorpio (8), Pisces (12) are associated with wealth. Cancer is the 'wealth' of childhood (the situation we are born into), Scorpio is the wealth developed/built up during our adult years (including inheritances) and Pisces is old age and all the finances we receive at that time or which are generated "without our working for them." So Pisces/12th house wealth includes not just things like pensions, and mechanisms like the US Social Security system but annuities and royalties.

As we have moved into the dawn of this incoming age, more and more people are moving into what we might call 'individual commerce' - many of them aided by the internet. With Capricorn on the 12th house, commerce would become a universal tool.

It also becomes a universal challenge. Will companies employ people as they have? Throughout the Piscean Age there has been a 'cradle to grave' mentality regarding profession and often, companies being passed from parent to child. But during the Age of Pisces, the structure of the chart of the age favored that - Scorpio (sign of inheritances) on the 9th house of legalities (and therefore wills) is just one sign of same.

But that's now changing.

I'll put this another way: the 12th house, except when we accept its limitations, BECOMES our limitation. 

We are therefore probably being asked to accept that either we work (Capricorn) for our pensions (12th house) or we assume responsibility (Capricorn) for our end-of-life finances. 

With all this in mind, and allowing for the enormity of the pain, would it not on the astro-instructive level not be entirely apt that there have been so many disruptions of commercial investments? Or that - using the United States merely as an example (not that there aren't others!)....that in the US huge companies like GM, private-public companies like the US Postal Service and any number of states are putting their citizens (and the nation) on notice as to their inability to continue to support pension plans as originally designed?

Let's turn this wheel yet one more time, looking at 'government' not just as the governing body of a country but also as a form of business. Governments employ thousands and sometimes millions of people in keeping a nation running, supporting its necessary  infrastructure and maintaining a military as protection for that nation.

What the US is going through, what Iceland has been through, what Greece is going through - this is all metaphysical  handwriting on the wall. And it's being written on that wall with a very special kind of paint which far from fading, grows more obvious as time goes on.

Maybe with regards to pensions this means that age (Capricorn as time and therefore, on the 12th house, 'life span') as pertains to retirement has to be considered. Will countries and companies end up adjusting the age at which a retirement pension gets paid out in some sort of 'floating' ratio to our increasing life span?

Will business become so much the individualized notion that by the time the Aquarian Age comes to its end (as the years 4,150 - 4,170 come to be) we are all internationalized, having done away with nationalism?

Astrological Ages do not go gently into the night, not to return for another 23,000 (or so) years. Especially with insecure humans in charge, neither is the passing from one Age to the next a clap on, clap off sort of operation.

Every time the ages change, it's a pretty turbulent time. So even though we don't like the turbulence, even though hard times are hard times and even though the tragedies which inevitably accompany such upheavals always horrible...it may be comforting - in a sense - to know that what is happening now is a natural part of greater cycles.

No one ever likes being phased out. Not if you're an employee, not if you're a national ruler, not if you're a maker of horse buggies being told there's this new-fangled thing called an automobile. And yet the birth-growth-maturation-aging cycle is universal. It happens to us as people, it happens in our family generations, it happens with the flowers out in your yard, it happens with nations, with societies, with ways of life.

There are nations - like Egypt or China - which survive and go on. They deal with their palace revolutions, they revamp how the nation operates and life goes on.

We can look around us and know it's a turbulent time...and we can take a step back and look at the structure of the Ages and realize this should be a turbulent time.

The process of 'educating' the human race as we pass through the cycles of the astrological ages seems rather pendulum-like. As a race, mankind seems prone towards swinging back and forth between extremes. Here at the end of the Piscean Age we are seeing a substantial  uptick in the use of threat AS threat - be that through religion or coercion or torture or shame or any other way...right as might and might as right are two very familiar forms of the two fishes which have been gaining strength now for quite a few years.

And yet the incoming Age continues to assert itself with greater and greater strength through transmission of information and natural assertion by people of the concept of human equality. These are entirely Aquarian concepts.

So as we finish up the Piscean Age, Aquarius as 12th house to Pisces brings about the downfall...the classic 12th house limitation. How? Through the refusal to accept.


Remember? The 12th house, except when we accept its limitations, BECOMES our limitation. 

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A few more thoughts, then we'll end for today (aren't astrological ages interesting?)

One: if you look at history books (or Wikipedia – suit yourself) what you'll note as you thumb through the centuries is how ‘world power’ shifts on a pretty regular basis. Life doesn’t end just because some other nation takes the lead…it just changes.

And the real point here is how power seems to flow from east to west – in the direction of the Sun’s ‘apparent’ movement across our world. (Yes, it's actually the Earth turning, but...)

Do I think that means China or some other Oriental nation is next in line to be Earth's next great superpower? Yes. I also suspect the world’s by-now (increasingly) well-networked economies are what will insure that everybody continues to exist. After all, nobody collects debts from countries (or populations) which have been wiped off the map, and mankind shows no sign of giving up measuring most things with money.

Two: There are subsets to Astrological Ages. They have mini-ages which appear to be set off by clocking rounds of the rulers of a given age. For the Age of Pisces, that would have been Jupiter and (everybody’s fave...NOT!!) Neptune.

And that would be why this astrologer suspects that the upcoming Neptune shift into its home sign of Pisces will mark a period of substantial highs and really distressing lows.

But that would be fairly typical for a period in which one astrological age relinquishes to a next. We humans really hate change. We love it as an idea but we hate it when it comes time to deal with the messiness of  implementation (just ask your local governmental official – they'll probably shudder deliciously!)

 Saturn as photographed by the Cassini spacecraft

photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The incoming Aquarian age will be governed by Saturn as the effort to build a sound foundation…and Uranus as the signature of whether the foundation(s) you have built are sound – resulting in great advancements and success - or unsound, in which case you will reap great destruction, dis-tress, anarchy and stress/unrest.

And with this in mind, we do remember how all the turmoil currently churning through the Middle East east began with January’s Saturn going retrograde?

And do you know Uranus is about to enter Aries here in a few days?

Yes, we really are attending the dawning of the Age of Aquarius. Humans being what they are, we tend to think mostly in terms of Now – the moment of our lives. And that’s reasonable. It’s hard to look any farther than our own survival and the world we build for our kids.

But that’s just the point. Tomorrow isn’t going to be what Today is. Time does not go backward. The precession of the Earth is a formulaic counter-winding of nature...which we won't get into just now.

Right now what is important is how the Uranus-Neptune urge to escape and deny or ignore and just wish or hope or 'tend only to your own' is very high.

But that urge isn’t going to work. Long after my voice is silenced, we will all know…that.

It hasn't, it doesn’t, and it never really ever works.

It's time to look ahead.