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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