Following on from the very cursory glance - there are more chart factors to look at than I was able to write about in the time I had available - at the chart for Autumn, here's the chart for the UK's Winter season:

This one has the Moon on the Descendant in the South East of the UK, and trine the MC just to the East of the UK. That suggests higher than seasonal precipitation, but could also suggest changeability. But the main feature of the chart is a quadruple conjunct of Sun, Mercury, Jupiter, and Pluto, opposed by Mars. This line-up connects right through the UK, in a vertical line, from Scotland down through Wales and England.

Sun-Mercury suggests high wind. Sun-Jupiter suggests warmer than seasonal temperatures. Mercury-Jupiter also indicates warmer than seasonal temperatures, and wind. Mercury-Pluto indicates sudden changes and the potential for severe wind damange from destructive storms and hail. And Jupiter-Pluto suggests destructive storms.

Now let's bring in Mars. Mercury opposite Mars indicates gusty winds and sudden changes in wind direction. Sun opposite Mars suggests warmer than seasonal temperatures, and stormy weather. Mars opposite Jupiter indicates the same - warmer than seasonal, plus stormy weather. And Mars opposite Pluto suggests..... guess what........ windy storms!

There is also a Venus-square-Neptune aspect, nearest to East Anglia and Kent, which could thaw any icy weather but also has the potential for flash floods and heavy precipitation.

Again this is a cursory look, there is more to the charts. I'm placing this information here partly for my own records, to easily access things to watch and learn, and partly to stimulate thinking about connections between global themes and the weather we experience.

The weather forms patterns that are connected to not just our human lives but all experience on this planet. A good example is 1987, where literaly stormy weather and 'stormy weather' on the stock market coincided. Planetary themes resonate and find expression in varied forms.

Astrology and the weather has always intrigued me. It's still not something I have much experience with, and I want to devote more time to it. So anything I say here about future weather is very tentative and should be regarded as an experiment, not a firm statement.

The study of astrology in the context of the weather is called Astrometeorology. One of the first things done in Astrometeorology is calculate the 'birth' charts for the seasons. That's what I want to write about here, since we've just recently moved into a new season. So here is the chart for this new season, set for the UK and therefore the chart for Autumn:

Firstly, the Sun in T-square formation with Mars and Pluto suggests windy storms, and possibly warmer than seasonal temperatures. Mercury links with Mars and Pluto too, indicating warmer than seasonal temperatures again, but reinforcing indicators of strong winds. These configurations are prevalent over the main part of the UK, with additional emphasis around the south-east.

Secondly, another major aspect in the chart is Venus opposite Neptune. This suggests heavy precipitation (isolated cloudbursts), and possibly flooding. This aspect is prevalent over Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland

The main outer planet aspect of this season is Jupiter square Uranus. It indictates cooler than seasonal temperatures, storms, higher precipitation, and winds. The UK does connect with this aspect for the duration of the season, but the even stronger places nearby that connect with it are the Eastern European countries.

Another thing important to point out: Saturn is directly through The Netherlands, Belgium, and France, suggesting colder than seasonal temperatures.

That's the simplified run-down..... how these things interact and pan out is something I'll be interested to watch and learn from.

Blog Action Day was a successful international online event. And did you know that it was supported by the United Nations?

20,603 blogs participated, publishing 23,327 posts according to Google's blog search.

The postings were distributed to over 14 million readers subscribed via RSS.

On Technorati, the phrase "Blog Action Day" was the top search term for the day. It was also the top tag for the day.

International news organisations published reports about it, including BBC, Reuters, Financial Mirror, FOX, Star Tribune, Skai TV, Rem.FM, Sydney Morning Herald, Vancouver Sun, Manilla Standard Today, New Zealand Herald, The Peninsula, Chicago Daily Herald, Post Star, Christian Today, Washington City Paper, Kathimerini Greece, Cnet/News.com, Wired News, SlashDot, Digg, Reddit.

Great stuff!

http://www.blogactionday.org

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24281&Cr=environment&Cr1=

Today is Blog Action Day (see www.blogactionday.org), where bloggers all around the world are writing about the environment.

Astrology has an interesting view of the environment in that distance is irrelevant. From an astrological standpoint, the environment of Earth isn't separate from the environment of the Solar System, the Galaxy, and the Universe. Nor is the environment of Earth separate from the environment inside you.

A birthchart is a map of the environment. Specifically, it's a map of the environment that we term the Solar System, with the Earth at the centre of the map. Simultaneously, it's a map of your inner environment. The two are one, so to speak.

So your internal environment is revealed by the external environment. We're used to thinking that the environment around us affects us physically and psychologically, but astrology confirms a reciprocal relationship, a two-way street. The implications of that are profound.

You can map your psyche on the surface of the Earth, as articles on this blog and the affiliated website have shown. Not only do you meet you internal environment in the external environment, but you are also 'tuned in' to certain places on the planet, and it's not random or just happenstance. You have a special relationship with some places, and that relationship means that you can influence those places, as well as be influenced by those places. In some part of you, you know what's going on in that part of the world, even if you haven't heard or read or seen it on the news, and that part of the world responds in some way to how you respond to what's going on there. Environmentalism can be very personal, and the personal can be very environmental.

So whatever you do to the environment, you do to yourself in the long run, and whatever you do to yourself, you do to the environment. To pollute the environment around us is to pollute the environment within us, and vice versa. To take care of the environment around us is to take care of the environment within us, and vice versa. And soon we'll perhaps realise that to take care of, or pollute, the Solar System, is to extend the same relationship one ripple out. The distant is local, and the local is distant. 'NIMBYism' - Not In My Back Yard - takes on a new dimension. The whole world is your back yard, and your back yard is the whole world. Gandhi's famous statement echoes this: "We must be the change we want to see in the world."

I can't be bothered to write anything new about it :-)

You can read about it - and about next month's Mars retro - here:

http://astrology21.co.uk/p1innerplanets.html

What would happen if every blog published posts discussing the same issue, on the same day?

On 15th October 2007 bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger involved will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. The aim of Blog Action Day is to get everyone talking about a better future.

So if you write a blog and want to participate, visit www.blogactionday.org and find out how you can join in.

Pluto will move into Capricorn soon and stay there for 16 years. This signals a shift in our global theme. I wrote an article about it in October 2006; here is an extract:

If, during Pluto in Sagittarius, our moral compass is adrift or - at its most extreme (and Pluto represents a tendency to go to extremes) - utterly twisted out of shape, then during Pluto in Capricorn there can arise abusiveness of power, and even a ruthless pursuit of objectives that is ultimately sociopathic. The social warmth of fair play thus gives way to the Arctic cold of expediency. At its worst, first comes the salesman (Sagittarius), and once the foot is in the door, along comes the fascist (Capricorn).

The full article can be read on the website affiliated with this blog, Astrology for the 21st Century. To go there click this link: http://astrology21.co.uk/c1plutocapricorn.html

There is also an article written and published in 2004 that discusses not just Pluto in Capricorn but Pluto in each of the Signs of the Zodiac. To read it click this link: http://astrology21.co.uk/c1plutosigns.html

It's 50 years since humankind entered the Space Age, with the launch of Sputnik I. Here is the birth chart:

NB The time of launch is taken from a website that I found, but it was not possible cross-check it in the time available.

Astrologers often correlate the Jupiter-Uranus planetary pair to space flight; they're in sextile aspect in this chart. The Sun exactly conjunct Jupiter highlights travelling across borders, and reaching beyond. Mercury's involvement with the Jupiter-Uranus sextile further emphasises mobility, and telecommunications.