Astrologer’s Diary: Political Times

One of the photo's from NASA's 'Earth at Night' series (2012)

Initially I thought of this post as a form of ‘update’ to a piece logged into the astroPPM flow as of January 11, 2011, namely ‘2011’s Fixed Star Eclipses and the Eclipsing of the US Congress’ which for a mélange of reasons likely obvious and inexplicable has been wrested from relative reader obscurity to the position of number one all-time read post here at the blog.

Mind you...all this happened without anyone so much as commenting or sending me an email. But being not insensible to interests being expressed (and well aware of the sudden swelling of noise, discord and violence around our world) lists were duly compiled, birth data was dug out, charts were cast and research was begun.

What turned up?

Something which though not entirely comfortable, is highly informative - if you consider things from the metaphysical perspective, that is.

First, a full and proper confession: I did not pull charts on every last living member of the US Congress. There are hundreds of congress people and not even a dedicated researcher such as myself was up for that task.

So what list was used? Simple: the US Congress has two houses - the House of Representatives and the Senate. If you head either chamber, you went on my list (hello, Senator Reid and Representative Boehner) with the same ‘invitation’ being extended to majority and minority leaders and their respective party whips.

(No, I’m not going for that joke. That's just too easy.)

After that came a group of congress people thought of as Those Who Stand in Front of Cameras. In other words, if you’re a member of Congress whose name has become engraved amidst the folds of my gelatinous if retentive brain merely because you show up on the news all the time, you were on my list.

To those of you who are students of astrology I will answer what is often the next question I gets asked about such studies: where do you start? My answer is generally ‘anywhere,’ though dates (or ranges of dates) help, as that will give you a time period in which to look for planetary stations, eclipses or some other ‘celestial notice’ to test against your mass of charts.

Which is what I did, with the celestial notice in question being April’s 8 Taurus Solar Eclipse, an eclipse which occurred in conjunction with fixed stars Schedir and Hamal.

- link to -

April’s 8 Taurus Solar Eclipse

(Pt. 3: Stars and Patterns)

What I found was that there was a definite split by party. While by no means a 100% occurrence...which is not to say every Republican and/or every Democratic members was affected, nor would those which were ‘hit’ by the eclipse affected identically...there was indeed a pattern: if aspected by the eclipse, Republican congressperson charts tended to be aspected by conjunction or opposition as opposed to the eclipse squaring objects in the charts of Democratic congress people.

Here are a few examples...

Speaker of the House, John Boehner (Republican)

November 17, 1941 - Reading, Ohio - Aries Wheel (glyph chart)

Speaker of the House, John Boehner (Republican)

November 17, 1941 - Reading, Ohio - Aries Wheel (text chart)

With Mercury at 6 Scorpio, the 8 Taurus eclipse was in opposition, indicating testing situations and trying interpersonal matters, all of which have to do with the ability, manner, purpose or denial of [Scorpio] profitable connections, all of which would have been in what might be called ‘oppositional focus.’

Because no time is given for Speaker Boehner’s birth, no Moon is shown in his chart. However, given its position at dawn (2 Scorpio), unless the Speaker was born in the first few hours after midnight (say, by 4 in the morning) his Moon will be in Scorpio and will also be involved in the opposition by eclipse - which would be a rough emotional ride for anyone.

Heroes and villains alike have quailed under such pressures.

Moreover, Mr. Boehner isn’t out of the celestial woods as yet. Also highlighted in his chart is Juno (the principle of ‘management’ or ‘protecting the use of XYZ through proper application of management’) at 28 Libra, a degree which brings up one’s ‘mental culture,’ particularly where integrity, honesty and willingness to try/work/make an honest effort are concerned.

This Libra Juno is going to be eclipsed by October 2014’s 0 Scorpio solar eclipse.

And yes, that will be by conjunction.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Republican)

June 6, 1963 - Richmond, Virginia - Aries Wheel (glyph chart)

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Republican)

June 6, 1963 - Richmond, Virginia - Aries Wheel (text chart)

When House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost his recent bid for re-election in the preliminary (primary) round, everyone was shocked. Everyone who didn’t have his chart, that is. Eclipses atop Black Moon Lilith are all about a ‘mass rejection’ whether that’s by others or by us. With the natal Black Moon in Scorpio anything which promotes or provokes emotions or emotionality (or emotional responses) is the venue - and with Black Moon Lilith conjunct Sabine (a point which can mean ‘raped’ but more often refers to a confinement or some sort of restriction) in the natal chart, when added to the idea that Mr. Cantor’s primary fell within the purview of Neptune’s early June 7 Pisces station, Neptune opposition Pluto (transformation) + Ceres (standing for defense) + Hebe(helping) + Deucalion (independent morality) + Child (physical children, childhood, immaturity, innocence)... that would seem to be the ‘recipe’ for voters evidently feeling Mr. Cantor was (reportedly) “too liberal” on immigration (that being the Neptune opposition) and too “out of touch” with their needs... which caused him to be ‘eclipsed’ (voted) out of office.

The charts above are less typical than some in that they have dual signals, but they are fairly typical of Republican charts as sampled...with the caveat that yes, those who would speak out (be seen on the news) would probably be those people whose charts were being eclipsed and who experienced that as passionate experiences, be they pro or con. And on the other (Democratic) side we have charts like this - the chart of Representative Nancy Pelosi, who was Speaker of the House last time the Democrats controlled that chamber:

Representative Nancy Pelosi (Democrat)

March 26, 1948 - Baltimore, Maryland - Aries Wheel (glyph chart)

 Representative Nancy Pelosi (Democrat)

March 26, 1948 - Baltimore, Maryland - Aries Wheel (text chart)

Holding to standard (Ptolemaic) 5-degree orbs for conjunction, opposition and square, the eclipse at 8 Taurus is not in conjunction/opposition with the Nodes of this chart. But it was in square to Representative Pelosi’s Pluto, just as it is in square to Pallas (dispassionate perspective) and all the many indications of variable pressures denoted by Pluto in the chart of Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (Democrat)

June 22, 1949 - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma - Aries Wheel (glyph chart)

Senator Elizabeth Warren (Democrat)

June 22, 1949 - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma - Aries Wheel (text chart)

Yet the details to all of this (interesting though they may be) are not nearly as illuminating as the idea of how distinctly charts of party members fell into pattern with each other, which makes sense if we think of how ‘like minded’ (or even relatively like minded) people would tend to gravitate towards one rather than the other party - particularly in what has come to be America’s basically two-party system.

And that leads us to the charts of the Republican National Committee (known widely as ‘the RNC’) and the Democratic Committee (known as ‘the DNC’).

Republican National Committee (RNC)

June 17, 1856 - Philadelphia PA - Noon (glyph chart)

 Republican National Committee (RNC)

June 17, 1856 - Philadelphia PA - Noon (text chart)

 Democratic National Committee (DNC)

May 22 1848 - Baltimore MD - Noon (glyph chart)

Democratic National Committee (DNC)

May 22 1848 - Baltimore MD - Noon (text chart)

One of the issues the RNC is dealing with (and which it has been dealing with for a couple of years now) is the rise of the Tea Party wing, a segment of Republican thought which seeks to change the status quo in a rather across-the-board kind of way, making its point by (among other things) working to bring about Eric Cantor’s primary defeat.

That movement to change the party from within the party is a hugely Plutonic sort of process, and with Pluto in Taurus the issue is values while Pluto’s placement in the 8th points to the ‘field of play’ being a place where values must be negotiated and joined, whether within the party or across party lines.

(Just to note: this being a chart for a worldly ‘entity’ it automatically gets a noon time, so we know the house placement.)

Being that this chart dates from 1856, fixed stars Hamal and Schedir are not at their current position of 7 Taurus - they’re at 5 Taurus, which puts them exactly in conjunction with the RNC Pluto, a combination which will tend to point to potent tenacity if a cyclic tendency to expand and contract depending on how the idea of ‘restraint’ (Schedir) is internalized and dealt with.

More important in this moment, this 5 Taurus Pluto-Schedir-Hamal was eclipsed in April and will be eclipsed again in October, pointing to an extended period of turmoil which will naturally reflect and be reflected in the work and feelings of party members.

The Democratic Party isn't going to escape turmoil either - both parties are solidly founded in Piscean Age ethics and thus will inevitably change as we move into increasingly Aquarian Age times. So we can expect more turmoil...but that turmoil is part of what might be called 'necessary evolution' - the trading of one set of considerations for another. Piscean ethics are always emotional. Aquarian ethics are always conceptual.

It's a process, one in which metaphysically, individuals feeding into (or on) a given party’s turmoil... or an industry's challenges...or the debates of one or many nations - they are all responding to the overture of our times. Political parties, being theoretical entities which operate within a realm of ideas, formulating concepts as 'product' are always going to be more wholly ‘theoretical’ than anyone of flesh and blood corporeality could possibly be.

And that would be why they...along with all things theoretical, conceptual and to some extent "not real" (like the internet) represent the means by which the influx of our times stimulate our lives...our thoughts...our perception of the world we live in.

This is what seemed so interesting to me. As we enter the Aquarian Age...

The wheel of the Aquarian Age (Aquarius rising)

   

...Scorpio - the sign which tests our security - rises to the top of the wheel. In that position, on an individual basis it represents our desire to achieve or gain enough power over our life to feel secure - though surely some will interpret that as simply the lust for personal power.

And that’s the test for governments as well. The point at the top of the horoscope wheel - the Midheaven - is also the cusp of the 10th house, a house which in the worldly sense speaks to everything which structures our life, which ‘runs’ things we then deal with (or don’t deal with). In positive mode the 10th is inspirational and motivational. In negative mode the 10th is restrictive, paranoid and suspicious.

This is the polarity we all will be dealing with for the whole of the Aquarian Age - all 2,160 years long of it. Aquarius is the sign of systems and mass collectives, of the marketplace and everything which powers our world... our thoughts... our willingness and ability to join together... or not.

And here’s the point: Aquarius is an air sign, and air signs function through considerations of thought and concept, which makes it not at all surprising that the reality of functionality which is - and which is going to be  the Aquarian Age is making itself known not just in this instance, but across societies and our world through the theories we like or don't like. Which we discuss, debate, deny, which we excuse ourselves from any responsibility for (lack of responsibility is a famously Aquarius negative quotient)...which we debate, explore, abandon, work to purify, get upset about and yes - occasionally explode and go up in smoke about. Aquarius calls our attentions to foibles so that we can take responsibility so that we have an opportunity to conjure up the type of inventiveness which gets us past our sticking points and testing times.

Note please...not their sticking points, our sticking points. Aquarius functions well only when all points in the system are engaged, properly utilized, attended to and kept current. Though Aquarius honors equality and a lack of those distinctions which under the winner/loser, ruler/ruled, rich/poor, upper/lower class Piscean Age were both common and accepted, there will come a time - probably not all that long from now - when Aquarian imperatives will provide the means by which such things as cast, gender (as identity) wealth and other such  qualities become less important than our humanity... a humanity which, to put it in Aquarian terms, we will adopt and adapt to as soon as we are truly done being inhumane - most of all to our Selves.

Not that all this will come to us as easily as breathing - which is good cause to see and grasp and understand what is going on in American politics. Yes, there is a level at which it is entirely about the laws and budgets and human beings.

But it's also about the flow of time... and when it comes to Aquarius, though Aquarius honors equality, its early manifestations are often disruptive, elitist, intolerant and far from the stuff of dreams. It takes time for us to learn that as individual as we all are, we only all gain when we all pool our knowledge, when we become willing to let go of personal priorities and cease  arguing about ownership in favor of discussing the ideas which really  count.

Which is really what politics is all about - if often challenged by.
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Ixion Continued…the Station Playing Out

 Hurricane Katrina as photographed on August 28, 2005

by one of NASA's satellites

(photo credit: NASA-NOAA)

One of the hardest things to do as an astrologer is to write about something very emotional without sounding hard-hearted or unkind.

Believe me, learning to get the emotions out of the delineation is one of the hardest things in all astrology – as it must be in many things (medicine leaps to mind).

Ixion goes station-direct on Friday, August 31st, making August 29th and 30th its station period.

I’ve written a couple of times about how in time, we (the astrological ‘we’ et al) may have to think of this two-day station as more of a three day station. Even more likely, perhaps that astrological ‘we’ should start staring really closely at the data tables to see when celestial objects come to linger in given seconds of degrees.

What’s gotten my attention about this station – and as I write on August 29th, we’re just moving into the station to go direct – is the fact that New Orleans is being hit by Hurricane Isaac.

Hurricane Isaac is hitting New Orleans on the to-the-day seven year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, arguably one of the most disastrous storms to hit the US Gulf Coast in many a decade.

This is where I’m going to start sounding hard hearted. The basics about New Orleans is that it sits in the middle of a swamp. Founded by long-ago pirates who were looking for a place to hide, it became a city in part because of its position at the mouth of the mighty Mississippi River…and in part because people are just dogged enough to build things like levies.

 An elevation map for the central section of New Orleans

In the United States, New Orleans is something of the ‘test case supreme’ for the question of whether you should be “allowed” to rebuild in a flood zone, and if you do, who should pay for recurring damages.

It’s also a test case for love of a place against human sensibility. When does it just not make sense to live in a place which is going to be so problematic?

The astrological point here would be that Ixion represents all those things which in our lives come around time and time again, testing our ability to endure…maybe even survive our own repeated choices.

There’s a lot of this going around. I live in an apartment building where we have a guy known locally as ‘the den mother.’ If you have a problem, he’s willing to help. At least to listen. He’s a charming fellow. He’s also a hard-core, high functioning alcoholic.

Last year his son – a bright and shiny young adult – no sooner bought his first new car (a truck) than he sideswiped two parked cars, totaling them and his own brand new vehicle. Yes, he was drunk. This led to lawyers, court appearances, a couple of weeks of working in the city’s morgue (as a deterrent) and some severe family hassles.

I went to my neighbor and ask if having this apple of his eye, his son, go through this heinously trying (not to mention expensive) DUI process was enough to get dad to take on his own drinking.

The answer: “I don’t know…I’ll have to think about it.”

I knew right there the answer was ‘no.’

My neighbor is now in the hospital. Ixion is going station/direct at 17 Sagittarius, atop my neighbor’s Scheherazade – the emblem of ‘telling stories.’ It’s also in direct opposition to fixed star Rigel, and Rigel is at 16 Gemini for anyone born between 1940 and September 2011.

But even if your Rigel is at 15 Gemini (meaning you were born before 1940) or after September 2011 (which would put Rigel at 17 Gemini), Ixion’s station/direct is in opposition.

Rigel is the image of the teacher. So in opposition, Ixion asks have we yet learned?…as well as…do we realize that little choices count?

This last comes not just from Rigel, but from the fact that Ixion is going station-direct in conjunction with Pholus.

(If you missed the post on Pholus,

it can be found HERE.)

Now we hear that there has been some overtopping of levies in New Orleans. With Hurricane (now tropical storm) Isaac having "only" expanded to a category one hurricane, some will ask whether the Army Corp (or others) have ‘done their job’ or ‘chosen right’ in how they repaired levies. Some will ask whether those who thought ‘everything would be okay this time’ were right to shelter this storm in place.

Then we get back to the original question: how smart is it to have a major city sitting in the middle of a swamp?

One other item of rather giant note is happening this week here in the U.S: the Republican convention in Tampa.

I’ve long ago given up thinking that governments and corporations are going to consult with professional astrologers. For one, there are so many variables with elections and the planning of things like political conventions that its not a sensible thought.

So that being true, what we do instead is look at the astrological influences occurring at the time which is chosen and work with that.

I know, I’m sounding hard-hearted again. But I didn’t schedule the Republican convention for the moment when Ixion was going stationary-direct. That wasn’t me – I’m just observing.

And what I’m observing with is the Republican party’s chart. There seem to be two of them (as happens with such things). The first is for that moment when the term “Republican” seems to have been stickered on the party:

  Republican Party

March 20, 1854 - noon LMT +5:55 - Ripon, Wisconsin

(B rating)

The second is for the Republican Party’s 1st ‘official’ convention, an event which happened on July 6, 1854

 Republican Party - First Convention

July 6, 1854 - noon LMT +5:37 - Jackson MI

(B rating)

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In the first chart, Ixion is going station-direct atop the party’s 16 Sagittarius Moon and its 17 Sagittarius Medea…and in opposition to the party’s 14 Gemini Rigel and its 16 Gemini Ixion.

This is Ixion opposition Ixion for the GOP. Positioned from the 12th to the 6th (with Ixion natal in 12 and transiting Ixion in the 6th) this highlights everything the Republicans are talking about…and everything they aren’t thinking about.

As it would – or should, if you’re really looking at this astrologically.

In the ‘First Convention’ chart, Ixion is most involved in opposing Sabine (boxed in, imprisoned) conjunct Edisona (new ideas) from the 3rd (transiting Ixion) to the natal First Convention 9th.

I’d be less than an astrologer if I didn’t point out this is a commentary on education, religion and use of media. Controlling the message would be the obvious cream off the top of this commentary, but it runs far, far deeper than that.

Then of course, there’s the man of the hour: Mitt Romney, for whom we have the following data…

 Mitt Romney

March 12, 1947 - 9:51 EST/+5 - Detroit, Michigan

(B rated)

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In Governor Romney’s chart, Ixion goes direct in the 7th house of interactions with others. Fitting? Yes. And it’s going direct just past Romney’s Eros (passion), which being in Sagittarius is ruled by an intercepted Scorpio Jupiter-conjunct-Moon in the 6th.

The Moon is tenacious – emotionally imbedded, one might say – in Scorpio. Conjunct Jupiter, even the most cursory contemplation of Mitt Romney’s life and times leads us to a diverse list of subjects: his life at Bain Capital, his reticence to discuss money and his life as a Mormon, his wife’s battle with MS and his attitudes towards those who work-for-wages as opposed to working-for-wealth.

Love him or hate him, this interception in Romney’s chart tells us he has no experience of what it means to live paycheck-to-paycheck. Nor will he ever have that experience. I can see many passages and changes which will yet come out of this chart. First person financial struggle and poverty are not on the list.

(I’m sure he’s happy to hear that.)

The point here is this: whether he worked for his money or not, is Mitt Romney capable of understanding the situation and lives of others who may have a very different history? That one concepts asks us to consider Mitt Romney’s natal Ixion - which at 12 Libra, puts it right on the 5th house (my fun) side of his 13 Libra 6th house cusp.

That accounts for what so many see as glibness and the Romney ‘out-of-touch’ thing. And there is a quality of Ixion in 5 conjunct 6 which suggests that if Mitt and those in his 'group' are fine that he's going to have a hard time seeing beyond that.

Libra being ruled by Venus, and Venus being in Aquarius reinforces this ‘airy’ quality in Governor Romney. That his Venus is the most highly placed planet in his chart and conjunct his Part of Fortune and MC supports his claim that he wants to be of service. But with Tantalus/Icarus conjunct that MC, he both is and will be seen as someone quick to ‘throw others under the bus’ for his own ends.

Aquarius’ first ruler is Saturn. Romney’s Leo Saturn is in the third house of thought and communication and conjunct Eurydike/Atropos, which I would take to be the cost (Eurydike) of ending (Atropos) or cutting things off. Saturn in Leo being notorious for self-entitlement and the appearance thereof, we get both a descriptor of the ‘cutting off’ of communication (that which some call Romney’s ‘robotic’ quality) and his ability to be a cost (Eurydike) cutter (Atropos).

To see how this works, we look to the ruler of the 3rd house cusp (Saturn being in the 3rd house). That sign is Cancer, which points us back to Romney’s Moon. This tells us that this is not a man who is going to (or maybe even equipped to) deal with solutions which center on the conditions of the everyday working person. Put simply, Romney is a manager. But is that good or bad? There are probably arguments on both sides. Certainly his Aquarian 10th and heavily populated Pisces 11th house tells us he has strong feelings about the world, absolutely. It's also very faith-based. Mitt Romney sees life through a faith-based lens, most of all because he doesn't want to feel himself as part of the bigger picture.

Does that make him a good or bad candidate?

Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts

I happen to be one of those astrologers who thinks presidential elections are relatively easy to predict. My ‘take’ on same is that becoming President of the US (or being re-elected) is a red-letter day in anyone’s life. So you should be able to clearly see who is going to win any election by the transits to their chart and to the ‘ticket’s’ chart on the date of the election…and/or….by transits to said charts on Inauguration Day.

In the last election (2008) there were no clear transits on the date of the election. There were, however, clear differences on Inauguration Day. That President Obama’s chart favored the one (inauguration) and not the other (election) tells us that he was a man looking to do the job and not into the glory or fun of the election. (If it is fun – I have no idea, actually.)

Does this mean I’m going to tell you who will win this year?

No. Why spoil the fun?

But yes, I have looked.

Meanwhile, it’s worth thinking over that the GOP have nominated their man (Romney) at a moment when Ixion is going direct. Next week the Democrats will re-nominate President Obama as Venus moves into Leo. Showy? You bet. Will it be a party? One can guess so.

It could be fiddling while Rome burns, as the saying goes...though this week it would seem more like Rome might be drowning.

But probably the big lessons about Ixion – as a point to use in your own life – are to be drawn from the hurricane. As Ixion goes direct, the impetus which forces us to recognize whether we have learned our lesson about how life really works will come from outside us. With New Orleans and Isaac’s occurrence seven years after Katrina we are reminded of Saturn, as 7 years is a quarter-of-a-Saturn cycle.

It’s the challenge point. So it’s astrologically apt that in this moment, as Ixion goes direct, the ‘solidity’ of the choice and the ‘solid structures’ which remain or which have been built in the wake of Katrina are being tested. Some will stand, some will be found wanting, as will the choices of many who live in the New Orleans area and beyond.

Ixion went retrograde back on March 18th. So we’ve had a couple of months to self-question, and many of us have done well.

Others have simply denied culpability, rationalized their decisions, justified the choices and otherwise, not lived up to what they know is true, just and right.

So it’s a moment in time. Now…and going forward…we get to find out where we’re just kidding ourselves, if we're kidding ourselves, and what the cost of kidding ourselves really is.

I think of my nation, it's people, the folks in New Orleans, my neighbor...and countless others.

Will we get the cost of kidding ourselves? Will we even get the chance to outlive whatever it is...our immaturity, our stubbornness, our arrogant, desperate desires to have things be as we've been told lest we have to be disappointed in that person...or in ourselves for believing them...

Oh, how we do cling to wanting to get our own way.

Does life listen? Seldom.

And that's what the myth of Ixion is about. We get little warnings and lesser reminders. We hear the 'should's' and ignore them.

Then comes the storm and all getting washed away precisely because we got gotten carried away with some airy idea...by some internally isolated belief.

For more information on this Ixion station, please

read the prior post. If you're looking for information on

Ixion as an astrological point, there's a feature length

article posted HERE on astroPPM - or you can

find it in the sidebar.