When Dark Days Dawn

A photograph of Guatemala's Volcan de Fuego taken back

in October 1974 by Paul Newton of the Smithsonian Institute

(photo in public domain)

About a week ago (on September 8th) a volcano erupted in my life. Then this week, a real volcano erupted in Guatemala as over in the Middle East and Africa, violence erupted like some emotional lahar which overcame those standing anywhere near its flow.

I’ve been thinking about writing a post on all this for the past few days. Then just this morning, I got an email from a friend. Her life had been totally disrupted by – of all things – FedEx.

You know…the when it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight people.

Yes, that FedEx. Usually the soul of reliability, FedEx has evidently done an absolutely, positively fine job of screwing up my friend’s week.

Being an astrologer of the definitely universal kind, this all got me to thinking. And yes, my friend (thank you SC) got me to report to the keyboard and write. (Actually, I’ve been here all week, working on a client consultation. But it makes for good blog drama, right?)

My own onslaught of torrential nastiness having been first in line here, I dialed my software back. The (male) friend I had an outbreak of hostilities with had been getting testy with me throughout the prior week, so I pushed back to September 3rd – Labor Day here in the US.

And lo, what did my wandering astrologer’s eye spy on screen?

As of September 3rd, Black Moon Lilith conjuncted the lunar South Node (with Sphinx in attendance) at 29 Taurus. This is a picture of society or social groups going with what’s easy. In Taurus, it’s about ‘fortunes’ or the fortunate.

 As it happens, my 2nd house cusp is at 28 Taurus.

By September 8th, Juno was in conjunction with the North Node at 28 Scorpio…

 Come September 8th, Juno had conjuncted the North

Node...which had cycled back into 28 Scorpio (putting the South Node

at 28 Taurus). And yes of course - this conjunction existed for everyone.

So why would it affect me more than some? That, we would say, is

because AS the nodes rolled over my 8th house cusp of personal/emotional

connection into the 7th house of relationships and my 28 Taurus

house of self worth into my 1st house of 'sense of person hood'...that this

was NOT the Nodes doing their thing in isolation - they were both tagged

with other objects (in this case Juno and Black Moon Lilith).

This thus become a perfect (if ouchy) example of what is meant by

the astrological rule which tells us that the more transits hit at once, the

stronger the cumulative effect.

And yes, I got the telephonic headache to prove this rule correct!

...and the Moon was conjunct Jupiter in Gemini and Vesta. Juno/North Node is the need for self-discipline, and let’s just put it plainly: hardly anyone (ANYONE) likes doing the North Node thing.

 My personal natal Jupiter is at 16 Gemini. So this Moon-

Jupiter-Vesta confab IN COMBINATION WITH Juno-North

Node at the cusp of my natal 8th house is what spelled

a personal shaking of my mental apple tree. (I think he took

a couple of my apples, but that's okay. What are friends for?)

More to the astrological point, this demonstrates amply how

the Moon - by sign and aspect (transiting and natal) can tell you

what a situation is going to be 'about.' I was searching for information

(a Gemini quality) and the whole event was verbal - very Gemini.

The Moon is well known to be a day-to-day timer, which

is why it's a good thing to keep track of through the month!

As for Jupiter, remember my saying that the big trick with Jupiter in Gemini is not to over-speak or to assume you know the whole story? While I could certainly glibly say that the verbal volleys which hit the cross-country phone lines between myself and my friend (sometimes it’s a good thing when you live 2,100 miles away from someone)…the detail here is that this argument erupted because I kept asking him how he knew something because I couldn’t understand how he had reached his conclusion.

He took that to be an insult and challenge. Or something like that.

And thus began the debate.

I submit that ours was a classic Jupiter in Gemini argument. The good news here is that the commitment (the Vesta promise) to be friends (which requires communicating) got us at least as far as sorting the first layer through settled out inside of a few days. Via email…I’ll take it.

In listening to the horrible happenings in the Middle East and Africa, and in then hearing of my friend’s very not-lovely week with FedEx, I am reminded that ‘communication’ takes a lot of forms. FedEx ‘communicates’ things from one place to another. And the violence in the Middle East was sparked by a video put up on YouTube. Yes, there’s a lot of discussion about whether people were looking for an opportunity to rebel and riot. Yes, there’s definitely a problem when you’re talking about countries where communication and media is anywhere between tacitly and totally controlled understanding what happens in a free society where nothing gets censored, as ill-advised as it may be. It’s to be understood that there are many people living in societies where you can’t just post what you want on some social network and those people are listening to Hillary Clinton say ‘we had NOTHING to do with it’ and thinking that’s a lie simply because it couldn’t happen that way in their country.

Bottom line, the form, the format of the incendiary spark – it’s been the same thing. People rioting in the street, destroying property and killing people over their values being ‘decried’ by others as they (right or wrong) violate those people’s values…it’s all terribly Lilith-Nodal Axis-Juno.

Okay…except for the volcano. But sometimes nature gives us the natural emulation of what we’re going through.

Sometimes…when sometimes goes wrong in our personal life – and then we hear of something going wrong in the world – it really does pay to stop and think. I didn’t roll my software back to look at this until today. 

But I did realize early in the week that the violence in the Middle East and Africa was in format much like the argument I had with my friend.

That’s what got me to thinking. And it was because I recognized the similarities between the YouTube video and the ensuing eruption of violence and the argument I’d been through – because I understood that there was a misunderstanding coupled to a lack of facts which in both cases set off the explosion…

…that helped me. Suffice it to say I was the one who initiated the email ‘sorting out’ of the situation. And no, he hasn’t called me, but in time he’ll call, he’ll groan at my horrible puns again and we’ll move on from there.

In one sense the Guatemalan eruption was highly demonstrative. It showed us that sometimes things have to erupt and that providing you know what to do (the government told people to evacuate and they evacuated) things don’t have to turn ugly.

That’s another quality to be associated with Jupiter in Gemini. Jupiter in Gemini is – at it’s best - the search, the thirst for knowledge. This combination embraces the Gemini issue of ‘choice’ and the Jupiter quality of expansion in a decision (a mental choice) to recognize you can never know everything.

If life is a journey, every day brings us new things to learn.

Here’s to at least keeping our mind open enough to consider them before we erupt!

Volcan Fuego fuming between eruptions

(photo credit Luisfi, November 2009)

 
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Hidalgo on station

  Backlot ‘Western Street’ at Universal Studios
photo credit: Ipsingh

I don’t know about you, but there’s something very ‘old western movie’ about Hidalgo going on station in the last days of Uranus being at 29 intense and critical degrees of Pisces. It's got a bit of showdown at the OK Corral, if you get me.

But instead of attempting to swagger through a bunch of text (trust me, I do a lousy John Wayne!) I’ll just get to the facts, which are….

Asteroid Hidalgo enters its two-day station prior to turning retrograde at 4:23pm (UT/+0) on March 10th – meaning Hidalgo will actually go retrograde on March 12th at 4:23pm (UT/+0). And yes, Hidalgo’s station effects – like all station effects – continue on for another two days after the actual turn of direction, which means they end on March 14th.

Hidalgo goes on station as Bali’s station is already in progress (as of the 9th), as we chit-chatted about in the last blog. In going on station in Scorpio (and conjunct rainmaker Huya), this sets a ‘stage’ for Hidalgo’s station which would seem to be very noble or very ‘I’m out for myself.’

But let's not forget...with Neptune at 28 Aquarius and Uranus at 29 Pisces, this is by definition a moment which while intensely what it is...is also somewhat lacking in perspective. Maybe even realism.

And yet, some things we would shy away from in the coldest light of clarity do and will get done when fervency or ideals...even desperation carry us through!

Where does the name ‘Hidalgo’ come from, you ask? At peril of waxing western movie again, there are many references for Hidalgo to be found “out there” with most being simply a reference to a Spanish term for nobility or gentry, which considering the societal roots of same points us in a sort of ‘dutiful heroic’ sort of direction.

And that works with Hidalgo in the chart, where it seems to function with a focus on a sort of ‘save the day’ point of view. But don’t get too locked in about what that means, as Hidalgo is one of those celestial symbols which flexes very much depending on where its located in any given chart (and what it’s associated with or ruled by). Hidalgo can indeed represent being the hero. Or doing the noble thing. Then again, it can symbolize the need for a hero or being put in a position that you really need for someone else to do a noble thing.

Hidalgo can even represent being inspired by or affected by seeing someone wearing either the very white or very black hat in the classical villain/hero sort of set-up.

This polarizing effect – plus the personal/impersonal quality astrology presents is what makes some think making predictions with astrology isn’t possible. I happen not to believe that – but I also think you have to be into a lot of detail work to make accurate predictions.

Anyway…take all those Hidalgo concepts and put them in a pot, turn the mental bubble down to low and let that simmer while we discuss where this station is occurring – namely 11 Sagittarius.

So what does that tell us (we ask most diligently…)?

For one, this tells us our good/bad instincts, estimations and reactions (opinions?) are based in ‘fire concepts’ at the moment – and more or less over the next four or so days. Astrological fire meaning imagination-versus-idealism there is – as always with fire – the challenge to recognize the real from the hope, and to remember that fire is all about getting spurred on to greater things. Fire is supposed to ‘heat us up’ and get us all ‘fired up’ and ‘firing on all cylinders,’ to use some handy  expressions.

The down side with fire is when we expect it to be true. So while it seems sensible with Hidalgo at 11 Sagittarius to want to help and “be the hero” the reality is that you could help and New York could just not schedule that ticker tape parade.

 The solar system’s main asteroid belt is situated between Mars and Jupiter. Objects which orbit outside the Jupiter margin but which come into the asteroid belt but not beyond Mars are generally classed as ‘Centaurs’
diagram source: NASA/JPL

Or maybe you want to do something great, but it doesn’t work. Can you be content with being the heroic person who tries to help? So often we underestimate the worth of trying, even when our shot goes wide of the mark. Fire elements – among other things – test our ability to deal with ‘try, try again’ as a concept, recognizing that the skills which are there to be honed are ours. The issue is not, as we sometimes think, where the target is put. Or that pesky cross wind. Sometimes it’s all about whether we’ve built up enough strength to be able to handle the heavy bow with enough skill to drive that arrow through those cross winds and hit that target even if it is an extra twenty yards away.

Speaking of such, the lore for 11 Sagittarius is all about one’s ability to actually do things. There’s a dollop of outspokenness which goes along with applying one’s self to the task(s) at hand…and yes, it’s probably better if that’s not all simple braggadocio, which this degree supports by sprinkling diplomacy atop the outspokenness.

Astronomically, Hidalgo is a much interesting critter. Classed as a Centaur, Hidalgo’s orbit takes it out as far as just past Jupiter and pretty much all the way inward through the asteroid belt to just shy of Mars.

That’s a pretty curious cycle, metaphysically. The whole of the space between Mars (the ‘I want/intend to do’ planet) and Jupiter (the ‘I know how to get where I want to go’) planet is populated by asteroids. There are thousands of them, and they represent all the things we encounter, learn from and end up having to consider on our way from initiation or instigation (Mars) to knowing how to get where we really want to go.

Being one of these objects we would think Hidalgo represents ‘just another thing we have to consider and deal with’ on our way through life except that its’ orbit takes it beyond Jupiter.

So Hidalgo is about going beyond what one knows – which may be part of its nobility and heroic quality. You know…fools and heroes rush in where angels allegedly fear to tread and all that?

This rather reminds me of two things…one, the lesson of Aries courage. Aries courage is not necessarily about knowing you can ‘do this’ so much as its about knowing “this” (whatever “this” is) just needs to be done. We go past what we “know” (Jupiter) we can do and do it anyway.

There are a lot of children’s books written with this theme – the hero goes out and does the thing which nobody wants to tell them can’t be done. A lot of great things have happened in life because no one told us we couldn’t do it. We just went out and did it and everybody gawked.

Of course, there are bumblebees. Apparently in engineering terms, they’re not properly designed to fly. Wings too small…body too large – or something like that.

Except nobody told the bumblebees. They go on flying not knowing they can’t!

 A bumblebee – one of nature’s wonders
Photo credit: Sffubs (2008) 

Yet metaphysically, we wouldn’t say Hidalgo is about ‘achievement’ per se. For us to say that, it’s orbit would have to go all the way out to Saturn. And it doesn’t. It just goes beyond Jupiter.

So where Hidalgo is concerned, we go beyond where we know. Or we realize to succeed, we have to go beyond the known. Or we become inspired by someone who shows us doing such a thing is actually possible.

Or yes, we may need help with getting past what we know – our own sense of limits.

Worth a mention here is that back a few weeks, TNO Chaos – symbolic of new and endless potentials – went direct at 11 Gemini. (LINK to blog post), a degree which is about emotional choices, emotional provocations, emotional subjects, and situations which provoke our emotions and our need to think and choose. That period coincided with many events – protests and (yes,) chaos in the Middle East, protests and (more) chaos in the US…much turmoil and emotionality of opinion was being voiced (Gemini) everywhere we looked.

Now come the question what are you going to do about it? And as this question comes to fore, we are really treated to – beyond the momentary situation – a truly excellent opportunity to see how signs in opposition are really a fruition of each other’s dynamic. The idea (Gemini) means very little if you don’t do something about it (Sagittarius, ruled by Jupiter) replete with fixing the glitches and struggling to make it all work on the road to (Capricorn, ruled by Saturn) accomplishing your various aims.

As we said, Bali has already moved into its days of station effect – doing so in conjunction with Huya, the rainmaker which asks that we use the lessons we’ve learned to help others, through which we help ourselves.

Bali actually goes retrograde on March 11th, which is right when Uranus reaches critical max at 29 Pisces. Hidalgo will go retrograde on the 12th, just some hours after Uranus enters Aries.

There's a lot going on right now. Even if you're a full-fledged, mega-multitasking astrologer, it's complicated. The good news is that as blogs covering the details of these go up, they're there for reference! You can go back and read, check, peruse or even grumble at them any time that you like!

Sometimes it just helps to piece the story together as things happen in life - your personal life or that you hear going on around you.

This can be an exciting or threatening time, depending on how you react. Change is in the works – that’s one thing we can count on. Are you ready to get in there and change who you are in this world and the world you exist in?

Yes, I know...there are those among us who totally hate the idea of change. And there are those who think change is fine so long as it doesn’t affect them…!

The funny thing is, the more you push change away, the more life becomes a roller coaster which you didn't mean to embark on!

The biggest object in the astrological pot at the moment is Uranus. So the Uranian rule ‘when in doubt, be flexible’ tells us to roll with the punches and to do what needs doing.

And if that takes us beyond what we know? Well then, maybe that’s a sign that we simply don’t know everything it’s useful for us to know yet. In which case, willingness really counts.

You know…that willingness to learn and to change (Uranus) and be happy (Bali) with who we are and that there not only isn’t just good in this life, but we each embody – and thus have the ability to utilize and benefit by (Huya) the endless sort of resourcefulness which being human really gives us (Chaos.)

That would seem to be pretty noble and pretty heroic right there, don’t you agree?

Astro/Political Not-So-Quick Takes: Algeria

 Earth's eastern hemisphere

photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Far more than just Egypt's ousting of President Mubarak has been firing up the news...other populations in other countries in and around the Mediterranean and Middle East have been protesting for change and demanding to be heard.

Frankly, there’s just so much going on its impossible to take it on in detail while keeping up with astro-doings, but here is a modest look at one of the subjects in the list: Algeria. Surging crowds in the streets of Algiers (and elsewhere) have been meeting up with police. Feelings continue running somewhere between high and frothing over.

With that said, to the chart: Algeria is currently (formally) known as The People's Democratic Republic of Algeria and functioning under a constitution which went into effect on July 5, 1962…

 People's Democratic Republic of Algeria

July 5,1962 (Algiers)

By convention the chart is set at noon, a standard for national charts when what you're talking about is a nation 'coming into its own.'

Notable on this chart is its having zero degrees at all four cusps. Generally, this is considered a sign of ‘starting something’ in this world, which may say that Algeria will become a leading nation in some area or concern. The other way to see this is that the taking on of a constitution is the 'beginning of a process' which is about Algeria itself.

This may be a really apt way of looking at these zero cusps, considering how with Pluto just moving out of orb in Algeria's 4th house (Pluto natively being in Virgo and the 12th house) Algeria has erupted in discontent.

The 'erupting' part seems very much in keeping with the axis points being in cardinal signs - cardinal being astrology's do now, ask questions later modality. That what the people are demanding are jobs and a better quality of life is here expressed by a Pluto passionately placed in the 12th house - a house where Pluto tends to stand for the denial of a thing and the yearning for some thing.

In Virgo, the first items on the docket would be health, work, service - or, since this is a national chart, maybe  services is a better way to put it.

Virgo on the 12th is often a statement thing 'functionality' is denied or that things just aren't working. But with Pluto having traveled on from its natal position in this chart, now we have Pluto in the cardinal 4th house cusp of the homeland and citizenry.

But to chat about Pluto is sort of to cut to the end of the story, a chart story which starts with obvious pluses and minuses pictured by a Grand Trine in water.

As we often say, water is emotionality. But water isn't just 'emotionality' - it's also the basis of primal emotions like security, sexuality, faith and loss. The nurturance which comes first from our natal family and later on from our home life and having a home is (Cancer). Cancer is also the sign of real estate, one's homeland and a nation's population - those which call that nation 'home.' 

Investments, inheritances, control, surrender, war, life, death and sexuality are Scorpio. Scorpio - as we have often discussed - is not just interactive emotions, but all our interactive choices and activities which elicit emotionality in us.

Fantasies, longings, ecstasy, faith and loss are all Pisces - as are all forms of passive income (pensions, royalties, etc.) or forms of income from something you've done and are now capitalizing on - like a patent.

Since nations are not people (duh!) water in a national chart tends to be primarily about wealth, finance and national resources. It can however, tell us about the behavior of those in charge of that wealth or those resources - or as to how those running the country treat  national monetary issues.

The points of Algeria's Grand Trine include:

1. A Scorpio Neptune, Part of Fortune, Industria, Kassandra all in a Libra ruled 2nd house. Scorpio is always "interactive money": investments and 'joint finances.' In a national chart, the 2nd house is the "national treasury."

2. In the Cancer 10th house of government and national leaders Algeria has Ceres, Orcus, Sun/Juno and fixed star Sirius all in Cancer.

3. With Pisces ruling a 6th house which rules the functionality of health, work, service - which in a national chart would include civil servants, the military and the general job market/environment, here we have the third point of the Grand Trine: Chiron and Jupiter not only  conjunct in Pisces but also in opposition to the 12th house Pluto.

Oh….and did I mention that said 12th house Pluto is the apex of a Yod?

Uh…yes. Said Yod is composed of Pluto in the 12th as the apex ("bottom") of the Yod's "Y" figure with Eris (Discord) at 10 Aries in the 7th house as one branch of the 'fork' and Saturn/South Node in the 5th as the other branch of said "Y."

Why, oh Y....yes, that is the cry of those who have a Yod, probably accounting for it's nickname as "the Finger of God." Then again, it would also seem highly probable that the name itself has a tie to the traditional ritual pointer used by Jews when reading from a Torah. Called a 'Yad,' these pointers are made to look like a hand with finger outstretched to "trace" under the line as we read...or as most of us used to read as children.

A Torah and the Yad used in reading from it

photo credit: Big Synagogue Museum, Wiodawa, Poland

Why the names would be similar is a whole other discussion; suffice it to say that Judaism goes straight back to Abraham in the same ancient Babylon in which astrology evolved. Lingo is language, and there are a smattering of common 'language pools' from which all the rest of languages have evolved.

Anywho...Yods pose challenges - as do Grand Trines, without question. And considering that Algeria's people seem to feel they have a lack of financial and personal opportunities (freedom of operations/ability to operate as individuals) both configurations would seem to be in play.

But why? And how?

Since understanding the Yod will help us understand  understand Algeria's Grand water Trine, we'll look more in that direction first.

The Pluto in this figure is conjunct House (feeling 'at home'), fixed star Thuban (a struggle to speak or be heard) and Deucalion (the moral path) all in the 12th house. This 12th house could be seen here to be fear, restrictions or a national sense of spirituality and either the need to be restricted by it or simply being restricted by it.

That would be the point - the apex - from which this Yod "springs."

The Eris in Aries - at 10 Aries Eris displays an emotional nature. And being Eris, that nature is to be discordant, or to act or be in such a way which creates discord - the classic "bringing it upon you" sort of thing. In the 7th house, this quality of cause/effect is very pronounced... that it's a national chart tells us this is either how the government acts with/to it's people or to the world and/or because of how its received by the world (or the national citizenry.)

With Eris conjunct Niobe, we heave a great sigh as we acknowledge that pride (as they say) here goeth before a fall in Algerian/Eris doings - in how the nation acts with its own people and in/to this world, generating a response from said world.

Next is Eris/Niobe sitting in conjunction with Klotho (beginnings). This is something of a classing 'they started it!' sort of combination which isn't likely to actually be true....but with Eris/Niobe in Aries, there is a need to think one's self 'all that.' It doesn't work, but the need is there.

And when the nation isn't taking this position, others do. It's a really tough situation - especially as part of a Yod!

Nor is Algeria prepared for what can happen - that we see as we grasp that this Eris/Niobe/Klotho trio leads to TNO Chaos - an endless pool of what can happen or 'come out of' what the nation is, does, or doesn't do.

Of course, there is a whole other side of Eris! And Chaos. Both can be tumultuous and problematic, and yet when Eris acts as a social reformer, it can do incredible and wonderful deeds. The key to this question probably lies with the whole idea of all this happening in Aries, bringing up the great Aries question: will you try to make matters "about" you? Or will you use your abilities to improve life for all?

The big trick to this is that since this is the 7th house (and thus the 3rd quadrant of the horoscope), the strength of the Aries "I AM" cannot be allowed to override the fact that others have opinions too. Aries here will tend to say 'they're wrong, I know how to do this!' but that's very undermining. Aries here is about innovation which helps those who want to be helped in areas where they ask for help.

The third point in this Yod is a perfect 9 Aquarius South Node-Saturn conjunction in the Aquarian 5th house. This is a really interesting conjunction in that Saturn speaks to what one grows (or restricts) and in the 5th is notoriously arrogant about thinking it's way is best.

This can be an incredibly productive position - but there will be a tendency to say 'I want to do what I WANT to do!' ...and no, don't confuse me with facts!

With the South Node always being a signature of 'the easy way out' and the Nodes of a national chart being about its society and it's place in world society, Algeria is likely to want to 'define' itself rather than to become something which would define Algeria.

Having said this, then we add in 9 Aquarius. And 9 Aquarius is a degree known for a lot of energy which is highly theoretical (very Aquarian air sign-ish) and non-materialistic (let's hear it for the spiritual side of Pluto in 12 here...). This is a degree known for putting a lot of energy into what is believed and an ingenuity which can be quick...even too quick for it's own good...with 'sudden events' being capable of turning things around in mid-stream.

There's one more thing to note about this Saturn/South Node in the 5th...because the 5th is the house of children and 'youth,' with the South Node being a societal symbol, the younger the population age in Aquarius, the more they are going to destabilize the 'fateful' quality of the Yod.

And about that Virgo Pluto in 12 - that's a placement we would also think of as behind the behind-the-scenes operations.
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 The City of Algiers

photo credit: Damien Boley (2005)

The nature of a Yod is to create tension. With the 'forks' of the Yod in the 5th and 7th house, the youth (5th house) and overall creative expression will be one focus, and Eris-driven relationships and relating to the people of Algeria and the people/nations of world is the 7th being the other.

So that's the Yod, against which we have a Grand Trine in water. The 10th house melange (Ceres, Orcus, Sun/Juno-fixed star Sirius) speaks to Algeria’s need to have someone leading their country who cares (Ceres) about the people enough to plan and work on their regard (Ceres). That needs to matter more than being a (Sun/Juno) national leader. With Juno and the Sun in the same degree however, that's hard - Orcus (consequences) with Ceres speaks to both what it takes to become a leader in Algeria and so much which has already happened there, shaping the nature of governance. That 12 Cancer carries with it a sense that one 'only finds out down the road' echoes other issues in this chart and is not made any easier to cope with, seeing as Sun/Juno is the heart of a Grand Trine in fiscal water.

But it is to be thought - considering Sirius the beloved Dog Star is here too - that little things count and that all is never lost for Algeria. Little by little it can get where it wants or needs to go. And the more that Algeria's leader is 'one of the people' the better of things are likely to be.

Not that there aren't other challenges, though. A Scorpio Neptune/Part of Fortune in the 2nd house is a significant indicator of 'a lack of cohesive values' which is here pictured as being somehow embedded in Algeria’s national thinking. With Industria here, that says there's a lack of work or effort. Is this on the government’s part, the people’s part or both? Considering this is a national chart, this Scorpio Industria may also speak to a lack of investment in industry too.

Just to make it all a little more complicated (as if it needed to be?) Kassandra is also in this 2nd house mix. Situated not just in any old emotional degree of Scorpio but at Scorpio and the 3rd quadrant's cross-quarter point, the question seems to be at least partly about getting things off the drawing board (out of the discussion stage) into implementation.

Or to put it another way...there's a lot of talk and not much doing!

But at the base of this melange is always Neptune. And whether Neptune here means 'pie-in-the-sky' dreaming, self-delusion on the part of the Algerian government, perhaps out and out lies...there's a lot of mistrust in the works and like as not at least a few dirty deeds, a bit of financial slight of hand and a smattering of self-serving choices as part of the greater national problem, whole and specific.

Grand Trines are notorious for describing patterns (in this case, a national pattern) which are difficult to break out of. Far from being the figures of eternal grace so many would like to think they are, Grand Trines often  picture a “closed circuit” which has the native...or in this case the country...seems "trapped" In.
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 The Roman arch of Trajan at Thamugadi (Timgad)

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Astrologically, the 'solution' either comes when a transit (or eclipse) strikes a “hard" aspect (square, inconjunct or opposition) to one of the points of the Grand Trine or when some planet in the chart which is natally in such an aspect goes on to create a transit which ‘cracks’ the egg. Or maybe "interrupts” the circuit would be more apt!

And we do have that planet! It would be....Pluto! Remember? Pluto is in direct opposition to Jupiter-Chiron, and Jupiter-Chiron is the third point in the Grand Trine.

Positioned in the 6th national house of civil servants, the military and jobs....this Jupiter-Chiron spells a 'strength of' (Jupiter in Pisces) 'weakness' (Jupiter in the 6th house) which exacerbates (Jupiter) need (Chiron).

Got that?

All the 6th house things are needed in this country: health care, jobs, a chance to excel and make something out of yourself - your own chance to be a leader in your own life. National charts should picture the opportunities of their people, apart from the nation's fortunes. Considering the objections being heard from the Algerian people, evidently that's not working all that well.

Plus...not to put this too succinctly, but the degree of Algeria's situation is rather bluntly put by said Jupiter-Chiron being at the midpoint of the forks described by that Yod we were talking about!

Check it out....

 And how are Yods "solved"? Yods are “solved” through relying on the dynamic at the midpoint of the “Y.”

On in this case, Chiron/Jupiter.

But this has been true since 1962, right? Yes, it has. So what changed now?

When Pluto entered Capricorn back at the end of 2008 it did so by rolling over 0 Capricorn. To be exact here, the Nadir (IC) foundational point of this national chart is at 0 Capricorn 55 minutes - almost 1 Capricorn. And that wasn't reached until mid January 2009.

Remembering that the Nadir/IC is also the cusp of the 4th house of 'the land' and 'the people' (in a national chart) that we haven't seen any fractious uprisings until now would then be....about what?

Two things. One: given that transits have a 5 degree orb, when you're talking about a national population and an image like Pluto ("transformative emotionality") such pools of feeling take some time to brew.

And interestingly, this chart does pose Edisonia (the new idea) at 5 Capricorn, the very degree Pluto took station and went retrograde at back in April 2010 and which it then came back to re-activate mere days before the January 2011 Solar Eclipse at 13 degrees went off  one degree off perfect opposition to Algeria’s Sun/Juno in 10.

So here we had the eclipse setting off the Grand Trine by opposition and the natally opposing planet into this Grand Trine (Pluto) setting off the Grand water Trine.

One other as-yet unanswered question: what does it mean that the greatly Scorpio 2nd house actually has Libra on the cusp? Since the rule is that the ruler of the sign on the cusp determines the good and bad which comes from symbols in that house, Libra on the cusp points us to Venus.

And where is that Venus? It’s sitting in the 11th house of society, economy, the marketplace and greater national functionality in the world.

In Leo, this Venus is conjunct both the Moon (that Moon which would rule the Cancer 10th house of government/leadership) and Uranus.

 Village of Blida on Algeria's Mount Chrea

photo credit: Nsoumer (Dec 2007)

Oh...Uranus?

Yes, Uranus - planet of breakthroughs and discoveries, anarchy and change, innovation, universality and rejection.

And in Leo? Uranus-Moon-Venus in Leo is feisty if nothing else! And with this trio describing the Algerian 2nd house cusp it would considerably toughen the Scorpio Neptune within.

Of course, it would also represent Neptune as having 'sold out' to making the country a 'marketplace' of societal innovation...or disruption - take your pick.

Which do we think it is? With Venus at 21 Leo conjunct Sabine (enslavement) this is a whole jam jar of pride and inability to act in other than a manner you're hell-bent on defending. Adding in Pelion at 24 Leo tells us that it's a mountain of effort and a mountain of pride and a mountain of conflict about how the world does or should work.

Or how you wish it would work!

But then we add Uranus. We already have been 'told' that pride is at work in this chart. And that Algeria is a proud nation is fine. But Uranus with Moon/Venus can also describe a vast divide between rich and poor, which especially in Leo suggests a divide that nobody wants to talk about - or heaven forbid, reveal. It can also be a taking pride in disrupting the national economy - or the economies of other nations in the world economic marketplace...which isn't so good!

But then we get to Regulus. Remember Regulus, that Royal Star of Persia which says success is achieved IF vengeance is avoided? When we get to Uranus, to find Uranus conjunct Regulus means Algeria may completely ignore this line in the karmic rule book - but ultimately at its own peril.

Or at least at the peril of it's status quo.

If you line up all the planets in this chart, Uranus is the “last” one in line - numerically. That is another signature of outcome, besides the fact that Uranus always describes the outcome of all things Aquarian.

And yes, therefore 5th house, which takes us back to the median age of the Algerian population. The younger it is, the more prone to overturning the status quo things become - which is evidently what has happened as Pluto's transiting position and the eclipse have begun to demonstrate.

When Uranus colors the outcome, that outcome is at the near end, 'innovation' or 'discovery'...half way down the line it's 'change' or 'breakthroughs.' And at the extreme, it's a big, giant 'kaboom!'

But let's not forget Regulus. The less 'vengeance' (and associated bloodshed, one would guess) the better for all, particularly those who are taking things into their own hands.

A last comment on this Uranus, to note it's position in square a 28 Taurus Pallas in the 8th house of national joint finance. That would be debt, credit, investment, war. A nation's 'joint' finance is with other nations. So one should wonder not just about what is going on in Algeria, but what we – and more importantly, the Algerian people – know about their nation’s fiscal operations?

But taken all together...? This does all suggest that  Algeria may - ultimately - become a force in 'alternative' energies, like solar...which certainly would work, considering where it's located.
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 Mount Tahat, Algeria's tallest mountain in the country's southern district

photo credit: Maurice (2007)

That there will be a July Solar Eclipse at 9 Cancer which conjuncts the Ceres-Sun/Juno of this chart suggests we will be hearing a lot more about Algeria in short order.

Will Algeria's youth become its technological future? It could be. If so, Algeria may yet become a force which works for social/societal innovation which supports individuality around the world (the positive end of an Aries Eris in 7), supporting its infrastructure and people (Chiron-Jupiter) and providing a passive, clean form of income for the nation (Neptune/Part of Fortune in 2) for the foreseeable future.

We will wait and see...and hope for the best, as Algeria's best could certainly be in the rest of the world's favor.

Not to mention Algeria's..