Astrology for the 21st Century

Ken Morrison, the founder of Morrisons supermarkets chain and also its chairman since 1967, yesterday announced his retirement from the company, with effect from 2008. This follows a rough last few years for the business, which has issued profit warnings since its acquisition of the Safeway supermarkets.

Ken has been under pressure from the board for a long time now to name his successor. The latest press release from Morrisons says that Ken hopes to make an announcement in the next two to three weeks. It's reported that there are three short-listed candidates: Ian Meakins, the chief executive of Alliance Unichem, Marc Bolland, the chief operating officer of Heineken and David Wild, the president of Wal-Mart Germany. Apparently Ken has previously said that he hoped his son would succeed him, but it appears that his wishes are not coming to fruition on that score.

Astrologically, it all revolves around Ken's Sun, the symbol of leadership and figureheads. In this case, it symbolises Ken's role as the father of the company.

Ken's announcement comes as transiting Pluto (end of one era, start of another) sextile's his Sun very closely. That is a long-range transit, reflecting a major period of change in his life. Short-term transits correlating with the announcement of his retirement are: transiting Mars conjunct his Pluto, square his Sun-Mercury conjunction, and trine his Mars, showing a challenge to his leadership position, transiting Venus directly opposite his Sun-Mercury conjunction reflecting a re-negotiation and adjustment of his figurehead role, transiting Mercury sesquiquadrating his Sun-Mercury conjunction correlating with an announcement of news, and transiting Sun in quintile to his Sun-Mercury conjunction signifying publicity on this issue.

Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling - former executives in the now infamous Enron company - were found guilty of fraud and conspiracy this week. They faced 34 counts relating to Enron's spectacular and ignominious collapse in 2001, and were found guilty on 24 of them.

The collapse of the company - once the seventh largest company in the USA, and the biggest ever bankruptcy in the country's history - occurred during the Saturn-Pluto opposition of 2001. The guilty verdict comes sandwiched inbetween two instances of Saturn forming a sesquiquadrate (135 degree) aspect with Pluto: the first in early 2006, the second in June and July 2006.

It's reported that sentencing will take place on ..... 11th September 2006....... the anniversary of the USA's other major Saturn-opposition-Pluto event. The Enron scandal hit in October 2001, just one month after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre (Center).

Following on from previous web log entries, the Enron story is riven with Neptunian experiences. On Monday 15th May, just a week before Neptune stationed, prosecuting lawyer Kathy Ruemmler said that pivotal to the court case were "the lies these men told and the choices they made" and "Make no mistake, there is absolutely nothing wrong with getting rich but you can't get rich by deception, by cheating."

In Kenneth Lay's chart, stationary Neptune is closely sextile his Mercury, trine his Jupiter, quintile his Neptune, and - if his birthtime is reasonably correct - sesquiquadrate both his Ascendant and his MC. This puts Neptune on his ASC/MC midpoint.

In Jeffrey Skilling's chart, Neptune is square his Venus, and on his Mars/Jupiter midpoint.

Other transits were of course involved, fleshing out the story. For instance, for Ken Lay transiting Pluto is currently also very closely trine his Sun and square his Neptune. For Jeffrey Skilling, transiting Uranus is trine his Mercury and Venus, and transiting Pluto is opposite his Jupiter.