Chart USA: Solar Return 2013

(Adapted from a stock image of the Great Seal of the United States)

For those who agree with (or who are willing to entertain) the idea that Chart USA is the horoscope which pictures the reunification of ‘a country divided’ at the end of the Civil War, there is a solar return for this chart which will occur on April 9, 2013 at 1:28 in the afternoon (EDT/+4).

 Chart USA - Solar Return 2013

 
And for those of you who are skeptical about this chart, I invite you to use it. (Check in the sidebar in the 'Corporate and Political' section for "Chart USA" postings).

Granting the huge debate about Chart USA, this is the only chart I have found which works. As esteemed astrologer Robert Hand observed, all the other charts for the United States have a void-of-course Moon. And if there’s one thing the United States isn’t, that would be a nation which is indecisive about its existence and willingness to speak its mind and act on same.

That’s not to say the US does it all right – just that it’s willing to do stuff.

Anyway…Solar Return 2013 as the Sun at 20 Aries with Mars at 21 Aries and Eris/Venus at 23 Aries exactly conjunct the 23 Aries Solar Eclipse Midheaven. Whoever is thinking this government (and nation) is going to get united and peaceful about what it’s values are, forget it. Eris/Venus is a sign of discontentment if there ever was one. The degree 23 Aries is known for confusion with the necessity (or “necessary evil”) implied here being to accept reality and deal with that.

Of course, when it comes to the United States, just what that reality is…? That would be the question.
With Mars as ruler of Aries and Mars conjunct the Sun and both in the statistically very active and potent degrees which precede all angles of any horoscope, there is a generosity which can be offset by foolishness and a need to not move ‘ahead of the pack’ (or the times) which is interestingly offset by this all happening in a 9th house which with it’s 21 Pisces cusp (with Kleopatra exactly conjunct and Kalypso/Mercury at 23 Pisces denotes a weakness which can come from too much or too little reliance on faith (that would be national faith or faith-as-in-religion)…and the Kleopatra intelligence of 'things foreign’ including foreign countries, foreign nationals and foreign beliefs.

And if you’re into the danger of all that, just think – this Pisces Kleopatra/9th house cusp and Mercury/Kalypso also applies to education in the US (i.e., the educational system). 

Burnished fields outside Benton Township, Columbia County

(photo credit: Nicholas A Tonelli, May 2010)

The dreams and commensurate lack of realities in both regards would seem to be where the US is going to have problems. Mercury in Pisces – under any circumstance – tends to exacerbate worry. So are all the concerns voiced by the government or the American people valid? Maybe yes, maybe no. Since Pisces on the 9th says you can’t just learn the basics, you have to understand the spirit of the thing even though many people will be up on dates, names and histories, understanding what that means to others is likely to be a big weak point.

Oh yes – did I forget to remind us all that the 9th house is also the house of the media and ‘information dissemination’? This should be a big year for everything from blowing things out of proportion to bad behavior on the internet creating problems in – and for – the United States.

To make this even more interesting, the 20 Aries Sun in this chart rules both the Leo Ascendant and the Leo 2nd house. This is a sign that what the country does affects its stability and security. (And that would be both its economic, international and sense of stability, inclusively.) Leo at Ascendant is very good when it acts with an eye to long term growth and a creative way of dealing with challenges (thinking of good parenting as the example here is probably apt)…and Leo at the Ascendant is very bad – even detrimental in it’s own (Sun) regard when it acts arrogantly or presumptively, as in ‘I know what’s best for you.’

Unfortunately, this Leo first-and-second house also speaks to a continuing likelihood of problematic young people and problems with how parents treat their children, too.

Still, on the 'up' side this is also a sign that important 'creations' and the whole idea of 'Made in America' may come to the fore - and become increasingly important. Even something to celebrate.

Any nation’s ‘business’ (national or with regards to its commerce) will be ruled by Saturn. And this chart presents us with a 9 Scorpio Saturn (retrograde) in the 4th house, conjunct Deucalion and – through Deucalion, the North Node. This points to a ‘wrestling’ with real estate and (Scorpio) debt on the part not of the nation, but the national populace. It also speaks to prices of issues, which may be approaching ‘fair or moral’ (Deucalion) in terms of actual value, but which are probably not what they were prior to the recession. Dealing with the idea that the real estate market will recover but probably not soar is going to be something people from all walks of life will need to (North Node) accept, and many of them will respond to this idea by saying ‘I don’t know how to.’ 

A rainbow and streams of rain filter down from clouds

over the Delaware River Valley in Pennsylvania

(photo credit: Nicholas Tonelli, July 2012)

This sense of ‘how can you say that to me?’ will continue into the world of investments. For all that the US stock market is currently way up there, there are many people who have never recovered from what they lost at the top of the market before its crash. The lesson in the stock market as a vehicle of risk is going to be one thing people are going to learn more about this year, and with fixed star Toliman and Medea at the 5th house Scorpio cusp (the 5th house is the house of all thinks risky and all risks we take) it would seem like some people are either going to be shy about getting back into the market (they got seriously scared the last time around) or they’re going to learn a big lesson through over-investing.

Which yes, suggests that at some point during this solar year there will be a major market correction.

This is actually compounded by that Leo rising and Leo on the 2nd house cusp: the stock market is notorious for correcting or simply dropping some measurable amount when Mercury goes retrograde in Leo (which it will not do this year) or when there’s a solar eclipse in Leo (also not happening this year).

What we do have is this Saturn in Scorpio and Mercury going retrograde in Scorpio during October and on into November, with a solar eclipse occurring in Scorpio on November 3rd.

This would seem to be a difficult moment for the nation. Pictured as a solar 4th and 5th house occurrence, this is likely to be something endemic or ‘home grown’ or of the nation’s own making which either makes a major shift or which shows up as a problematic weakness.

The signature here is 28 Scorpio and Toliman. 28 Scorpios is all about ‘superior power’ which when it isn’t directed towards social and societal betterment through heartfelt and open emotional support, negotiation and – to some degree – vulnerability becomes an energy which is highly problematic. Even dangerously so.

Oregon's Rogue River

(photo credit: Hamad Darwish of Medford, Oregon - October 2005)

Toliman is a fixed star which refers to ‘learning better through mastering of one’s emotions.’ This star is the foot of a centaur, with lore suggesting that this is the centaur Chiron, implying a vulnerability we can face, but which we are loath to tackle.

At it’s most unfortunate, this is likely to be a symbol of tragedy which has long range effects on the future. Scorpio is the sign of atomic power and we are likely to hear a lot about atomic issues this year (obviously that has already started with conversations about North Korea). But we should be aware that this is not just about some foreign country. While the first of Scorpio’s co-rulers (Mars) is conjunct the Sun and in the 9th house which – as above – would tend to speak to all sorts of things foreign, that Scorpio is on the 5th house and therefore below the horizon in this chart is about the US itself and something which happens (if you’re an American) in the “here at home” quadrant. And since the ‘outcome’ ruler of Scorpio is Pluto, that points to Pluto in Capricorn, here positioned in the 6th house of health, work, service (i.e., that we need to do because it needs to be done) and conjunct Facies (the million factors and facets which drive us all nuts) and Industria/Vega.

Pluto is also conjunct the Aries Moon-Amor-Photographica and Uranus complex in the 9th house.

In any national chart, the 6th house being the house of those who work for the government or for the nation puts the civil service, the military, operations like the post office, Congress and the states as members of a union (complete with their governments and civil service leagues) on the table.

The 6th house of a national chart is also its system of health care and its work force in general.

Pluto / Facies is the ongoing and seemingly endless debate about who is responsible for what and what needs to be changed. There is denial at work, and sometimes creation in spite of that. Or creative ways of destroying what could be, all as part of the desire to simply control things for your own personal end.

With the ruler of this solar 6th (Saturn) in the 4th house of the people, as much as the people may not like seeing bad behaviors in their government, they are described as being - at some level - equally culpable.

And afraid. But then, the government is also afraid. It may be afraid of the world...or how 'how the world works' is changing (emphasized by Pluto in the 6th), but they're also afraid of the people. And as all those who work for and with power do in such situations, they will tend to clutch ever tighter until they are either removed from power or they break the tiller of the boat.

Or the patience of the people.

The Japanese Gardens at Huntington Museum in Pasadena, California

(photo credit: Randy, son of Robert April 2007)

Saturn in Scorpio is patient, but not that patient. And even if things stay the way they are through this (calendar) year, Saturn moves into Sagittarius in January of 2015. And Saturn in Sagittarius is well known to be not-all-that patient.

Nor is it subtle. Saturn in Sagittarius tends to bring around a lot of 'backfires' based on shortsighted or narrow-minded thinking.

But that's yet to come. Meanwhile, here in 2013, Industria/Vega conjunct Pluto is a changing workforce and the need to change our attitudes about those who work and the quality (Vega) of the work they do.

Uranus-Moon-Amor-Photographica in the 9th house smacks of a buddy-buddy system and the whole ‘I’ll support you if you’ll make me look good’ sort of thing.’ On the whole, this looks to be a challenge to the nation as a nation to get past it’s ‘playing to the media’ as opposed to using the media properly to get information out to those who need to know what’s going on.

This is also an image of a workforce which can be at odds with its leaders or leaders joining with the workforce to better the nation’s lot. Looked at like this, the leaders would appear to posture and the workforce would seem to lose interest in working for a group of leaders who they perceive as not giving a ho-ho, snowball (or twinkie) about them.

Thirdly, this is an image of the citizenry and the way it would like to see itself – that being added through this solar Capricorn 6th house being  ruled by the Scorpio Saturn in the 4th house of the national population. The ‘I don’t care about others, I only care what happens to me’ is a national problem. The national obsession with ‘lookism’ on every level is defined here as a problem.

As is mental health. And yet, with Pluto sextile Chiron (which is conjunct ‘repeated challenges’ Achernar) in the 8th house, the health – mental and that of the commerce system – is still plainly in the hands of those who care more about their power (in many cases) or what they ‘get’ from the process than in doing a good job.

 Autumn in New Hampshire

(photo credit: Bluepoint, December 2005)

If the nation is a patient, in this image we see it opting for plastic surgery and Xanax rather than accepting the reality that life isn’t paradise and that with all due respect for Billy Crystal ‘you look mah-velous!’ routine, looking good and ‘having it all’ is less important than doing good and investing quality in what you do while valuing those around you and what you have.

Neptune at 4 Pisces in the 8th here asks for humility. Conjunct Fomalhaut to the degree it says that the United States must face its fears on all fronts, internal as well as external. With Medusa at 2 Pisces with Nessus just inside the 25 Aquarius 8th house cusp, the nation can face its fears of living in a world which the US does not control or regulate all by its mega-conscious ‘I-Me’ Aries self…or it can move towards recreating the lessons which will force the US to learn to be a nation of the world through problems in this world and with the world at large.

Is there an ‘answer to the quandary’ posed here? If there is, it’s shown up by the Part of Fortune (aka Fortuna) being positioned at 26 Cancer, conjunct Pollux and conjunct Byblis in the 12th house.

Byblis is ‘defending the indefensible.’ Pollux calls for an intellectually driven choice to give something up of your own accord. Both of these symbols being in the solar 12th house describe current trends to not take on these issues, however you want to describe them…as gun control, child abuse, environmental issues, climate change, drugs, drug addiction and the effect that has on families, children and the population at large, factionalization of the population along cultural lines (including immigration issues)…

These things are not being attended to. And since Cancer is on the 11th house natal for the nation, the problem would seem to be both commercially-driven (probably profit-driven) and because the problem seems to large for the nation to wrap its (Pollux) mind around it…at least well enough to make a decision and the sacrifices which might come with that.

Radio City Music Hall in 1996

(photo credit: Rick Dikeman)

Are they going to get attended to? Only if and where people get scared enough. At that point Byblis will stop being the defending of the thing which isn't good. Or the defending of something which works for some but not for all. And once Byblis turns to its positive side, as seen in this chart it would seem the whole of the people - the citizens of the United States - will demand that things get done.

But before that...? Expect them to be too busy with their own business, their own families and the 'maintaining of their own houses.' At some level, this 12 house Part of Fortune speaks to the need for the country to consider the nation it's 'household.' And to the extent that the people of the United States don't see their nation as their 'home' and everyone in it either part of the family or a guest in the house, they're going to make things more difficult for themselves, and their government.

And conversely, the government will do things which make things harder for the general populace. (Welcome to the wonderful metaphysical world of political cause/effect!) 

26 Cancer is a degree which generally manifests as a poetic image which is great if you’re an artist and not so fabulous if you’re a nation needing to deal with reality. With Cancer on this house, the citizens of the US and some image of ‘how things used to be’ or ‘the old way’ or ‘what we were taught by our parents’ or even a wholesale, word-for-word ‘founding fathers’ allegiance is described here as a source of not just limitation but fear, qualities which the nation as a whole (government and people) have to get past if they are to move on and grow into times yet to come. By having faith in its people the US does far better than to eschew their needs, rights and the plight not just of families, but of those who don’t have families. This is a Moon-ruled image of the ‘national family’ which the government is asked to shepherd, protect and educate so that America can not so much ‘look like’ a leader, but be a nation which in leads through grappling with the realities of life. And how ‘liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ has enough practical, real-time limitations without pride and prejudice being heaped upon them.

With Circe at the Leo Ascendant, the government of the US is likely to act like one spellbound. This is the chart of a government likely to pick fights at home and abroad frankly because the driving fire-sign forces for 2013 care can get away with bad behavior.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is at  some level the real sign of a rich and powerful nation – or at least a nation which is sufficiently rich and powerful in present tense to indulge in fearful ignorance.

Whatever happens in 2013, The United States is likely to weather it. Not perhaps comfortably. Not even happily. But the crunch is coming.

Sunset in Marana, Arizona 

(photo credit: John Hunnicutt II, November 2006)

A long time ago – back when the recession first hit, I wrote a few posts about US (and world) economics. In those posts I said that for various reasons, things were not going to change substantially until 2017.

To those comments I will now add this: come 2016, just as an eclipse hits the Descendant of Chart USA, Uranus will conjunct the nation’s Sun. And that means that some of the factors involved in that change will start being felt during the latter part of 2014, as Uranus moves into orb of the national Sun.

That is when the power, the energy, the direction the US is currently headed in will shift. Whether it will do so of its own accord and peacefully, or because it is prompted to by some external force (good or bad), that remains to be seen.

But the nation will change. Or it will be changed.

It’s really that simple.

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Weathering Eclipses/Plutonic Gains and Losses

 Hurricane Sandy as photographed by NASA's Terra satellite (MODIS) on Oct 28 2012 at 16.00

(NASA image courtesy Lance Modis Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC)

 
While people and companies and government agencies go about cleaning up after the storm which hit the east coast of the United States, something else has happened which seems of astrological note.

The New York stock exchanges closed down for two days. Without question, Wall Street (the place, not the industrial complex) was in an evacuation zone. And without question, the heads of financial state wanted (read: needed) investors to feel secure about the functionality of the exchanges. They didn’t need people to get freaked out by having power cutting out or rain, wind or water wreaking damage to undermine confidence in the markets.

But what’s interesting is the general aura of not just Wall Street, but everyone around the storm zone. Let’s keep people safe, they said. As someone who listened to the news for days and days on end after 9/11, there seems a huge distance from what happened then to what is happening today.

Yes, there will be business losses. And yes, the United States is gagging on debt personal and national.

But it seems that life – and the valuing of life and the simple dignity of life is coming to the fore.

October 30, 2012 - A train sitting at Metro-North Railroad's Croton Harmon Station in New York

(photo credit Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York)

Pluto’s conjunction of Facies has meant many things. Facies being a nebula, it’s a reference to ‘many things which together seem like one.’ That can be our life, it can be the way a governor or mayor or individual sees their country and all their fellow countrymen.

Facies has a reputation for ‘evil times’ and selfishness. Pluto represents how we experience the results of our choices and priorities and feel about what results. That Pluto is known as ‘transformative’ is here brilliantly shown by the difficulty, the ‘evil moment’ arising and attitudes reflecting a better value.

That Plutonic ‘outcomes’ always come from our experience in action and interaction with our life is the signature of Pluto being the ‘outcome ruler’ of Scorpio. And Scorpio is famously about (among other things) finance and investments.

Meanwhile, Facies is in Capricorn, the sign of worldly doing and commerce. 

And let’s throw in Saturn. As ruler of Capricorn and currently transiting Scorpio, Saturn is simply always representative of the ‘extent of our human reach.’

So in caring about human beings in the face of a giant storm, in prioritizing the safety of employees without complaining about profits lost, everybody has faced that evil thing which we cannot control and done all ‘within human reach.’

That all this is happening in advance of a Scorpio solar eclipse suggests there’s a lot about this moment which reflects the evolving of our feelings. The eclipse’s position in the last third of Scorpio, an area of the zodiac which brings external forces to one or all of us in forcing us to recognize what’s really important to us…that seems very much part of the moment.

Hurricane_Sandy's damage in Summit, New Jersey

(photo credit Tomwsulcer, October 30, 2012)

As someone who has lived with metaphysical symbols for plural decades it’s hard to express exactly how apt it seems that this moment would come along. Capricorn being all about structures added to the linking of Capricorn/Scorpio as ‘what we structure our lives on and place value to’ …the fact that Saturn often manifests as slow, tough growth even while it represents the limits of life, the limits life places upon us, how we are challenged to live up to our responsibilities as humans which in interactive Scorpio would ask whether we value our fellow man…

I’ve typified Scorpio as ‘cold water’ and metaphysical ice. What I haven’t mentioned lately is Neptune’s position. Neptune is currently sitting at 0 Pisces, still in retrograde, having arrived at that degree back on September 22nd/21st, depending on what time zone you’re in.

And let’s remember, planet Neptune literally controls the orbit of Pluto. There are many threads here, it would appear…as there are whenever and however you talk about Facies.

 Hurricane Sandy's track as generated by NOAA (October 29, 2012)

This storm occurred with Neptune ‘stirring the depths’ of Pisces – which is the image of deep water. Saturn is always cold – and in Scorpio indicates a ‘change.’ The storm came to shore as a hurricane born in the tropics – and once there did the Scorpio thing (interacting) with a colder system, turning rain to sleet and snow.

The storm moved on shore with a Taurus Full Moon in opposition to Saturn…and trine Pluto. That signifies an enormous amount of energy. Untamed, that much energy can be destructive. When harnessed by human beings it can be determined. Organized. Firm and willing to pay the Scorpio/Saturn price.

I mentioned astrometeorology in a prior post. In astrometeorology, Mercury is an indicator of wind. Some thirteen hours before the storm made landfall, Mercury entered Sagittarius, the sign in which Mercury makes it’s most ‘sweeping’ statements, sometimes revealing the unknown or unanticipated, and sometimes overstepping known, even acceptable bounds.

Even safe bounds...and bounds of safety.

 Some of the flooding caused by Hurricane Sandy in New York City, this photo of Avenue C

in Manhattan's East Village was taken on October 30, 2012 by David Shankbone.

But when you take it all in...when you think through what this storm has done, if you put the dollar cost and the inevitable human tragedies which come with such events aside, on a purely metaphysical... philosophic... even spiritual level, this storm seems to have been a good deal.

After all, it showed that we still care about life, limb and our fellow human beings, rich and poor, pretty and plain, young and old.

And that enriches us. That gives us hope. That’s the process by which we feel ourselves feeling, be it sadness for what we lose or gratitude that things weren’t a whole lot worse.

Astrologically, that says Neptune wins – which seems to be our lot and incredibly proper. For if we care not about knowing we exist and that our connections to others mean far, far more than our differences, we have already given in to having - and being - nothing.
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BP: What Percent Crude PR?

 

There are two important versions of BP's chart. The first is its original incorporation chart:

  

 Anglo-Persian Oil Co. Ltd (BP) - Incorporation chart

Founded as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (Ltd.), the company we now know as BP's Descendant - what it would have put out as messages to the public (and shareholders, one assumes) is represented by 12 Aquarius.

Aquarius being the sign of the marketplace, corporations and income and 12 being a 2nd (emotional) decanate degree, we know that BP would always put out a message that was slightly fervent. With this position modified by Pelion - the great mountain one must climb? Make that fervent and long-suffering, even in anticipatory mode.

With Aquarius ruled first by Saturn (representing the foundations upon which the corporation's fortunes are built) then Uranus (its success), we then look to these two planets to see what else may be seen.

What we see first is a 14 Aries Saturn conjunct Mercury (at 15 Aries) and Sedna at 10 Aries. Sedna being all about the struggle to let go of security and reach one's actual potential being conjunct Saturn - which never mind being the signature for BP's Descendant is the premier symbol of business - this combination in and of itself is wonderfully descriptive. Founded in 1909, BP (then the Angle-Persian Oil Company) was one of the first oil producers and the first to go into Persia. It pioneered much of what we now think of as 'standard oil operations.' And it did all this in Persia - the place we now call Iran.

Obviously, to British would-be oil tycoons, Persia was a very foreign country, and the 9th house is the house of foreigners and foreign places. So that this fledgling British Company had to risk letting go of dear old England and travel abroad to found its fortune is right in keeping with the chart.

Once it was established that the Masjed Soleiman field held sufficient promise to justify same, an oil lease was negotiated with Shah Mozzafar al-Din Shah Qajar of Persia. This is Orcus at 10 Aries. Orcus describing things done which cannot be changed, the fledgling BP had to invest enough money to find the oil before they could negotiate the lease.

Industria at 12 Aries and Rhadamanthus (fairness) at 13 conjunct Mercury (thought, organization) at 15 tells a tale of the enormity of effort it would have taken to get temperate climate English workers out into the deserts of Persia and the training of locals to partake in what must have been a grueling effort to tap those first wells.

And that grueling part? That we would know not simply from knowing that its hot in Iran, but because Mercury in the 9th house would make anywhere where BP tends to work a harder-than-usual place to work. Hence Iran, the North Sea, Alaska, the middle of the Gulf of Mexico...

...it's a corporate thing with this Anglo-Persian company which grew up to be BP. This just isn't a 'take the easy way out' company. Which means - yes - that this is a company which even when it doesn't intend to can make things very, very difficult for itself.

And that Mercury reaches out just far enough to conjunct Pandora (and her famous box) at 20 Aries? That doesn't just reinforce BP's 'strenuous efforts' of all types but also speaks volumes to the repercussion oil was to have not merely on BP's fortunes, but on the world as a commodity. Ruled by an Aquarian Mars in the employee and work-standard 6th house conjunct Psyche (the mind) and an early Aquarian Moon however...that lays the groundwork for BP to have issues with cost cutting.

With Uranus, the secondary ruler of Aquarius also in this 6th house but in the last third of Capricorn, we see the Anglo-Persian Oil Company as a founding industrial giant. It did the (Uranus) job of literally breaking ground as it broke through all the Uranian/Aquarian geological, technical, distribution and marketing problems in turning oil into a commodity then a baseline necessity upon which the whole world has been running on for heading towards a hundred years now.

That same 9th house which represented the 'foreign interest' is also the house which rules dissemination of information. Ruled by Jupiter in Virgo in the 2nd house we get our second indication that everything which comes out of BP's corporate mouth isn't the whole truth and nothing but the corporate truth.

Why would that be? Well, because Jupiter in Virgo tends to over-scrutinize either the information or what it chooses to say. Ruled by that Mercury in the 9th which here being conjunct ultra-fair Rhadamanthus and Pandora's plethora of ills which one must endure in order to find hope...this is the picture of a company which will generally stick its oil boot in its corporate mouth before it loses the oil slick and comes clean.

Oh yes - Medusa and Ixion are also in the 2nd and also conjunct Jupiter, as is Thuban, a fixed star known for imparting struggle. Medusa is a fascinating entity - it's fear, yes. But also fear of the truth (link to article on Medusa)...and even fear of self. Ixion, meanwhile is about ingratitude, particularly of the 'I should be able to simply because I can or have the opportunity right here' type (article on Ixion). So this is greatly about corporate fear of what people think - no matter what the news is. Are they making enough money? Too much - do they look like gluttons? Will they undermine their own position by people knowing too much? Not enough?

Love the company or hate it, this is an entity almost to pity for its inability to take a stand and go with it.

I said almost.

Saying all that, now we come to the most recent major merger, that committed to as of December 31, 1998 with Amoco. The chart for BP/Amoco (later renamed simply  BP) looks like this:

 

BP/Amoco merger chart

Going back to the prime PR spots of any chart (the Descendant and 9th house) at the Descendant we have fixed star Spica -  the gift of knowledge and brilliance - sitting with Deucalion, signature of 'finding the moral path.' So far, so good.

But then we look at the Venus ruling this 22 Libra Descendant; said Venus is in Capricorn (sign of business structures) in the very worldly 10th house of leadership. Still not bad at all! Venus here is conjunct two pairs of symbols (with Venus at the midpoint, the pairs don't connect). On one side we have Atlantis/Bali, which in 3 decan degrees are without question the desire to have everything be good and as ruler of the Descendant, to look and sound good too.

The other pair would make is even more skeptical: Child and Hebe (the servant) at Capricorn's critical 29th degree tells us the worse the situation is for the business or world opinion (i.e., anyone outside the BP fold), the more they are likely to serve up something dumbed down to 'not scare the Child.'

But this is a classic astrological mistake: the Child we are referring to is BP asteroid Child, not yours or mine. They are projecting it on us and thus they are acting as though we are children better off without the real facts. But the real fact is that it's BP which is scared: wherever the symbol appears (by house) is the 'department of life' where that energy will manifest. So when it gets to the executive running-BP-as-a-world-entity level of the company, if/when BP runs into trouble it...acts like a child! (No mommy, I didn't break it - it broke itself!)

And since the Saturn ruling this 10th and the Venus (et al) in said 10th...

...Since that Saturn is a 3rd decanate Aries Saturn unhappily placed in the first house, we know BP dislikes outsiders and doesn't like anyone having input or the ability to comment or discuss what it is doing. Conjunct Circe, Sphinx and Sisyphus (sounds like a very bad law firm)...this is more about BP as a company which will do its best to wait out public furor (Sphinx) or transform  situations/information to serves its own purpose (Circe). And if necessary - which is to say if you disagree with BP while "on its turf" (which one would have to assume at least means working with or for BP) then BP will have to simply do away with you somehow (Sisyphus).

This kind of determination serves BP well as an oil explorer. It serves them very badly as a real life corporate entity in an increasingly interactive world.

For all the mergers along the way (BP has had a barrel full of them from inception until now)...this company hasn't and has changed. The Ascendant/Descendant of today's BP is only one degree off the original chart's prime vertical - the Midheaven/Nadir 'who are we as a corporation?' - with that original vertical axis now turned into the horizontal axis.

What would that say? That would say that who BP started out to be, they now use as the face of who today's BP wants you to think they are. They want the world to think they're that same pioneering company.

But they aren't. The vertical axis of this new chart is 8 Capricorn (Midheaven)/8 Cancer at the Nadir or IC - the foundational point of the chart. Looking to Cancer's ruling Moon we find it in the 2nd (emotional) decanate of Gemini (thoughts, communications, choices) in what would be the modern company's 2nd house of corporate coffers.

Through chains of rulership, the Mercury which rules the 2nd (value/values) and 3rd (organizational concept) house of this chart points to Jupiter - which rules both the 8th house of investment and 9th house of foreigners/foreign things. This says a lot, especially in this international world where BP has to work outside its native UK with less rather than more world power now being part of its national identity.

That the Jupiter which ends up ruling this 8th and 9th (the 9th house part including 'information disseminated and thus PR') being intercepted in the 12th house conjunct Pallas (wisdom) and Sabine (forced imprisonment) tells us two things.

One is that BP is in a sense hostage to its stockholders. BP knows that an enormous number of real live people - that their pension funds are invested in BP on the London Exchange, and that part of BP's financial power has come of its ability to be a premier source of dividends.

The second part of this is BP feeling that it can simply hold knowledge hostage. Niobe (pride) and Amphitrite (overwhelm) conjunct the 26 Aquarius 12th house cusp tells us that this company's overwhelming pride is a good thing when its about how they can indeed take care of others but a total detriment when they are focused on their own reputation and income.

With all this said, we each have to decide for ourselves exactly what percentage of BP's PR is simply crude which has bubbled up to the top. What is for sure however is that unlike oil, what BP says only ever partly dispersed by means natural or artificial.

That the modern chart was hit by the January 2010 solar eclipse on their Venus/Child/Hebe in advance of the Deepwater Horizon debacle speaks volumes to the financial hit BP is going to take coming out of this disaster. It may be worth looking ahead to incoming solars and eclipses to see where the company's going to go (vote with your blog comments - if you want more information, you'll get more information!).

There is no question but that BP is going to try to evade/avoid full payouts. That started as soon as the well blew out with BP trying to 'fudge' or cover up exactly how many barrels of oil have flowed out of the Deepwater well because of their agreement with the sovereign nation involved (the US). The US has every right to not merely make BP pay for every barrel 'extracted' from its mineral rights reserves, but fine BP for every barrel allowed to pollute the Gulf of Mexico.

And that ain't just chump change.

Lay on top of that physical/ecological damages and loss-of-livelihood lawsuits and BP will have more than just a pond of fiscal goo on its hands.

Oil is a dirty business, unquestionably. But protecting the current corporate structure at the expense of public opinion is probably the most karmic thing BP can ever do. For one, it will erode the public trust. And secondly, it will cause people to see that there really does need to be an alternative to oil.

That's literally driving consumers away - which in the end is not merely the most costly form of PR possible, but BP having crudely undercut the very legs of the platforms their corporation stands on. Literally.