Astrology for the 21st Century

So, after all the brouhaha Nick Griffin will appear on Question Time on the BBC, representing the BNP's first appearance on the programme. His birth time isn't known but his birth date and birth location is now known from his official European Parliament website. Here's his chart:-

Ignore the house cusps, and treat the Moon's position with caution - it could be in Scorpio, or it could be in Sagittarius.

Interestingly, his Jupiter is in Sagittarius conjunt the Moon - irrespective of the Moon's Sign - showing an involvement with internationalism and multiculturalism, the home and ethnicity. But it's square Pluto in Virgo, a symbol of what is sometimes called 'ethnic cleansing' - a desire to forcefully eradicate impurities and contamination, expurgating wrongs, and setting things aright. In other contexts, Pluto in Virgo corresponded with the environmental protection movement in the 1960s - banning the pesticide DDT, for instance.

One wonders what, in Nick's mother, his childhood, and his ancestry, is forbidden, perceived within the family as 'dark' and therefore inadmissible. Foreigners, presumably, given the involvement of Jupiter and possibly Sagittarius.

Nick's Sun is in square to Mars in Gemini, symbolising someone action-oriented with a tendency towards using aggressive will-power, always seeking his own advantage and looking for ways to win at the expense of relationships, bonds, ties, and perhaps ethics.  People with Sun-Mars aspects like this are often very selfish, narrow-minded, and intent on achieving a goal no matter the human cost, because their ego feels like it will die if it loses. Imposing oneself onto the world and being in a dominant, leading role is usually very important to people with this aspect.  They tend to be quite provocative, oppositional, adversarial, and trouble-making. The Pisces-Gemini involvement leans it towards 'sly and shifty' rather than open and transparent - speaking with a forked tongue to impose his will.

Star-planet Parans

Not having Nick's time of birth, it's impossible to calculate all of his star-planet parans, but it is possible to list the ones that might apply, and the ones that definitely do apply.

IMPORTANT - these paran interpretations are not made by me, but are lifted directly, unedited, from pre-written (not by me) interpretations from software designed to calculate and interpret star-planet parans.

First, the ones that might apply, depending on if he was born before sunrise, or after.

If born before sunrise:

Sun
with Bellatrix
Successful, but via the hard or physical route
with El Nath
To strongly and physically focus on one’s goals
with Sadalmelek
An optimistic, but uncompassionate, attitude
with Sualocin
Physically talented, vital and alive
with Murzim
The desire to make a statement

Moon
with Alcyone
Insightful into the darker side of life
with Procyon
Changes in one’s passions, shifts in likes and dislikes
with Zosma
The pacifist or the warmonger - to hate, or enjoy, the suffering of others
with Zuben Eschamali
To feel responsible for social, or ecological, problems

Mercury
with Capella
A lateral thinker, a far-sighted person
with Rigel
Strong personal views, to be strong-minded or stubborn
with Ras Algethi
Inquisitive about the nature of objects, people, or the laws of creation

Venus
with Arcturus
A leader in the arts or in humanistic politics

If born after sunrise (statistically more likely - obviously most of the 24hr period occurs after sunrise):

Sun
with Alphard
A person of strong passions who can become angry, violent or aggressive

Mercury
with Acumen
Difficult, or tedious, mental endeavours; stressful financial dealings
with Bellatrix
The craftsman and a person with alternative interests
with El Nath
The satirist, the one who comments

Venus
with Alkes
Someone with strong social values
with Alhena
The desire to reform, either as a social activist, or in fantasy and art
with Facies
Anger at injustices, seeking a different order

Mars
with Denebola
To champion the non-establishment cause

These parans apply no matter what time he was born:

Mars
with Antares
To act, fuelled by inspiration or obsession

Jupiter
with Acumen
A person who puts themselves at risk in response to their social conscience
with Sadalsuud
To benefit by the fortunate turn of events
with Acubens
Joy from one’s children; to be blessed with fruitfulness and vitality

Saturn
with Facies
To be the outsider by beliefs or action
with Markab
Seeking respect by endeavouring to build reliable structures and ideas

 

Chart comparison with the United Kingdom

Here is the UK's chart with Nick Griffin's chart placed alongside it - the UK's is the inner wheel, Nick's is the outer wheel.

(NB Sorry, the blog doesn't allow larger graphic sizes)

His Pluto is almost exactly opposite the UK's Pluto - something deep is being constellated between these two.  If you believe that the UK is inherently racist in nature then you might interpret it that way - racism is going head-to-head with racism. However I see it differently.

Jungians will talk about the Shadow, and of the Collective Unconscious and the Personal Unconscious. I think that's closer to the crux of it.

Currently the world is experiencing Saturn-square-Pluto and Uranus-square-Pluto; the darker sides of humanity are having to be acknowledged, or conversely are being suppressed, sublimated, repressed, and so on. The UK is having direct chart contacts with those global configurations. The connections between the charts of Nick and the UK are part of that microcosmic process.

With Pluto we're dealing with all things visceral - disgust, darkness, unrefined, unreformed raw energies of the psyche, hatred, revenge, blood feuds, and so forth.

Nick Griffin's Venus is conjunt the UK's Descendant, the part of the chart that symbolises not the 'I', but the 'not I', or in the chart of a nation it is the 'Not us' in relation to the 'Us'.

Venus is the planet not only of attraction and love, but replusion of what is not wanted.  What is not wanted is the 'not us'.

But Venus and the Descendant are about that which is required for balance, wholeness, and completeness.  Denial is unsustainable, imbalance is unsustainable, and refusal of completion can lead only to atrophy and demise.

Looking in the mirror, microcosmically for Nick, and macrocosmically for the UK, is what is being constellated here, to refine that which remains unrefined, unwhole, unintegrated, unlovely in the truest, deepest sense.

Campaigning journalist, newsreader, writer, radio and television broadcaster, Ludovic Kennedy, who died this weekend, was born into relative privilege and spent his life confidently promoting justice and compassion. He helped to end the death sentence in the UK and promoted voluntary euthanasia. Known for his pursuit of justice in cases of miscarriage thereof, he was often controversial and ahead of the pack. He once said:

"I became committed to revealing hidden truths, and propelled, compelled, by a very heady feeling of excitement"

He spoke his chart well, and lived it with at least outward success. In his chart there is a Kite formation - like a Grand Trine but with an extra planet on one of the midpoints. It has Grand Trine part involves the Sun in Scorpio, the Moon in Pisces, and Pluto in Cancer, which places Pluto on the all-important Sun/Moon midpoint (i.e. the half-way point between the Sun and the Moon). The extra planet is Saturn in Virgo. This is the signature of someone indefatigably digging into mysterious circumstances, and into matters of life and death, searching for redemption of the innocent, rediscovering hope when it was lost. The houses involved are the 1st, 4th, 8th, and 10th, indicating personal expression, end of life, death, career, and society at large.

His Mercury in Sagittarius in square aspect with Uranus is iconoclastic and truth-seeking, as is his Moon conjunct Uranus (the latter cast into prominence by virtue of its being located at the IC).  Mars conjunct Saturn in Virgo is the hard-worker par excellence, as well as another signature of being drawn to death-related issues. His Jupiter conjunct Neptune in Leo in the 9th house indicates compassionate justice, but also great confidence and a sense of entitlement to do whatever he wanted to do.

On the eve of Bonfire Night the planet Neptune will be stationary, turning direct.  From now until then Neptune is slowing to a halt, virtually motionless already.  For a few weeks after the 4th it will be similarly slow, gradually picking up speed after its stasis.  Thus October and November are months of Neptunian flavour, particularly for countries with planets or chart points currently aspected by Neptune.  The UK is one of those countries.

Neptune will station at 23 Aquarius 42 in the early evening of the 4th of November.  It's currently at 23 Aquarius 51.  That gives you an indication of how slowly it's travelling.

The UK's Saturn is directly opposite, at 23 Leo 22.

Saturn in Leo represents, among other things, the nation's ego defence mechanisms.  It also represents the status quo, corporations, and all institutional structures that wield authority in the nation.  All of these are being washed away at the moment, eroded and corroded, undermined and dissolved.

From now until the end of November there'll be an intensification of this process.  It's likely that the nation will feel lost, on shaky ground, as if what was solid is now pliable.  It's like being on shifting sands.

It's all quadrupled though because of the natal configuration in the UK's natal chart of Saturn, the Ascendant, the MC and the Sun.

In the UK's chart Saturn is on the point half-way between the Ascendant and the MC.  It's also happens to be in semi-square aspect to both the Ascendant and the MC.  And it's just out of orb - unless you use wider orbs - of a sesquiquadrate with the Sun.

Because transiting Neptune is opposite Saturn it's picking up this whole aspect pattern, constellating all of the issues involved.

The Ascendant-MC midpoint is the nation's way of being in the world.  The Sun is it's leaders, its identity, and its innovative spirit. Saturn is its authorities, its boundaries, its barriers and its sense of deficiency.

The purpose of the Neptune transit is to wash away whatever is outworn and unuseful to the present and the future.  It's meant to soothe difficulties and bring compassion to what's suffering.  It brings the opportunity of redemption to the nation.

What are we using it for?  Compassion or cut-backs?  Saving ourselves or deluding ourselves?  Epiphanies or slipping further into delusionary madness?

We ought to choose thoughtfully what we put on our bonfires this year.

Labour is about to have the final stage in its years-long meltdown.

In November - appropriately enough just one day before Bonfire Night - Neptune will station and turn direct in close conjunction with the Labour Party's Sun.

The Party's Sun is at 23 Aquarius 00.  Neptune will station at 23 Aquarius 42.

The last time Neptune stationed at this degree - May 2008 - the Labour Party suffered its worst election results in 40 years. It finished in 3rd place with a projected 24% share of the national vote.  And it lost the Mayor of London seat to the Conservatives, as Ken Livingstone was replaced by Boris Johnson.

When the outer planets station all hell tends to break loose.  With Neptune stations things tend to be especially chaotic with no-one knowing which way to turn as suspended animation kicks in.

The only difference this time is that Neptune will be moving forwards, whereas in May 2008 it was turning backwards.

What happened at the two stationary-conjuncts before that, you may ask?

November 2008 - Alistair Darling's emergency pre-budget statement was announced, and was called everything from the rather mild 'a gamble' by some to the rather more extreme 'the day New Labour died' by others.

May 2007 - One month later, Tony Blair resigned.

The chart for the 1997 victory of 'New Labour' also has 24 Aquarius as its Ascending degree.

Sinking ship indeed.

Italy's Constitutional Court has judged that their leading politician isn't above the laws of their land, paving the way for a corruption and tax fraud trial to resume, and in the midst of sex scandals. This politician has fallen and risen again many times, grabbing power here there and everywhere, living the high life and crossing the line many times but living to tell the tale. All very Plutonic, wouldn't you say?

His time of birth is disputed: 5:40am is apparently what Berlusconi himself quotes, which should render it doubtful (people's memories are usually not very accurate about birth times) but most astrologers seem to be happy to go with it.  6:30am is what his birth certificate says, so there is almost an hour of possibility there. Depending on his birth time, Pluto has either just passed, is just passing, or will in the next few years pass across his IC-MC axis (family and career), simultaneously squaring his Ascendant and Descendant (relationships).

What's known with certainty though is that Pluto last year and this year has been aspecting his Venus and Mars, both planets of sex and relationships, as well as the law and power.

In his natal chart Venus and Mars are in close sextile aspect.  Venus is at 00 Scorpio 34 and Mars is at 1 Virgo 38.  The midpoint of the two is 1 Libra 06, and 1 Aries 06, i.e. within orb of the the 'Vernal point' which actually resonates throughout the Cardinal axis: the first degree of Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn.  Transiting Pluto has been stationary at the Capricorn degree last month, and last year.  In terms of aspects, natal Venus is on the midpoint of natal Mars and transiting Pluto.  These type of geometrical formations greatly intensify the colouring of the period, as does a stationary planet.

It's no surprise then Berlusconi has been having to face the music with his wife divorcing him and the courts ruling against his hubris: there are powers greater than him.

 

The UK's current once-in-248-years transit to its Sun by Pluto brings an unavoidable and massively significant encounter with debt, taxation, insurance and assurance.

The purpose of the transit is to bring things down to rock bottom so that they can be rebuilt, starting all over again, renewing the country from the grass roots upwards.

It's an absolutely relentless wholesale review.  No stone left unturned.

One of the meanings of Pluto in mythology is 'wealth'.  And as a God of the Underworld it symbolises where wealth comes from: the fertility of the Earth's processes - vegetative, and volcanic.

These are literal as well as symbolic processes.  The UK is going through a massive volcanic upheaval.  It's necessary and healthy.

There is fear - another Pluto experience - especially fear of loss.  There is a desire to be ruthless, another Plutonic association.  And there is a desperate desire and an urgent need to strip away anything which stifles new growth, anything decaying.  To strip things down to the bare bones, or to use a mechanical analogy, to strip the engine into parts and clean each one before putting the engine back together.

Is this what the Convervatives are proposing?  No.  They're doing 'slash and burn' and 'rape and pillage' - two other Pluto experiences.  They're stoking fear to allow them to violate the nation's people, under the guise of 'economic hard times'.

Is it what Labour are proposing?  No.  What about the Liberal Democrats?  No.  Anyone else?  Most of them, no.

We have the chance of a new chapter now, but time is short and the major 'leaders' aren't getting the message.   If you listen to the media you can hear echoes of the wrong Plutonic approach, rather than the right, constructive approach.

The purpose of a Pluto transit isn't that we die, it's that we are reborn.  But the powerful social leaders - politicians, business people, the media - can scupper the process and reduce us in harmful ways that lead to a cycle of decay becoming semi-permanent.

Which policies do you think will bring a renaissance to the UK? If you find any, or know what would work, please speak up now and spread the word, rather than leaving it to the politicians and their corporate and media friends, because the open door for the UK is not staying open for much longer.

More on the time-scales and processes can be read here:
http://astrology21.co.uk/c1ukidentity.html

The UK now has a Supreme Court that is independent of the House of Lords.  Technically, perhaps we ought to be pleased.  But the whole thing has been done as just another hollow idea, something quickly dreamt up and shoved into action so a box can be ticked.  One of those let's-eff-around-with-things-because-we-can projects, typical of the empty-heads brigade.

Were the people clamouring for this?  Was the nation ripe for this change?  Was it well researched?  Was the constitutional adjustment deeply explored in all its ramifications?  Was there a hunger for this change?  Is it the most-needed change in the nation at this time?  'No' to all of them.

Swearing in

The project dates from when Pluto was in Sagittarius - Sign of law being created - and has come into being as Pluto was at zero degrees of Capricorn - Sign of law being judged.  Pluto was stationary on the 11th of September, and at the beginning of October was still moving very slowly, inching forwards after its retrograde period.  Here's the chart for the time when the swearing-in of the Law Lords was scheduled to begin (I couldn't find a news report containing the exact time of when it happened).

As you can see, Scorpio is Rising which makes Pluto the chart-ruler. This has more to do with power contests than law.

The chart gives me a weird feeling.  There's something that just doesn't fit about this whole idea.  In theory the separation of powers is not one I disagree with at all, but this set-up, this Supreme Court, these Law Lords, this building (Middlesex Guildhall - it doesn't have the atmosphere of a Court, never mind a Supreme one), and this chart, they just all seem wrong.

Astrologically, there's not much to commend in terms of the chart matching the proclaimed purpose.  This constitutional adjustment is vacuous and undermining.  The Sun - the significator of supremacy, and the core of the entity - has no aspects except a sesquiquadrate to Neptune.  For some types of institutions or projects this aspect would be ideal.  For this one it's a huge mistake.  A few descriptive words and images: supremacy is being undermined; it's all at sea; it's swamped; it's thinned-out; it's mystified, obscured; boundaries are blurred; no-one sticks to or knows their correct role, and yet everyone is swept up in self-glorification and self-importance.  There is a disconnection too, symbolising a swing from lack of engagement to overbearing self-reliance.  This isn't signifying separation of powers at all.  It's signifying a confusion of pompous fools with no perspective on what they're doing but having a severely inflated identity that repeatedly won't be grounded or appropriately connected.  Pluto, the chart ruler, is unaspected too.  A separation of power, yes, but  a complete disconnection with the inability to form necessary linkages.  That's not what is needed in the country.

Looking at the planets that represent law, Venus and Jupiter, the picture doesn't get any better.  Both are almost unaspected, so we have the same story again.  Neither of them are in Signs or Houses that shout 'Supreme Court!  Justice!  Fair Trial!'  Jupiter is conjunct Chiron and Neptune, so there are issues of a vain hope of redemption.  Venus is in Virgo conjunct Mercury - not a distaster but hardly a symbol of what the constitutional adjustment is purportedly about.  The Sun in Libra is fair enough in both senses, but the whole chart has a 'damp squib' feeling about it.

First sitting

This is the chart for the scheduled time of the first sitting of the Supreme Court.  Since it occurs just a few days later at just one hour later and at the same location, the Ascendant is still Scorpio and Pluto therefore remains the chart ruler.  Several planets shift houses though, and that's important.

This chart is better - at least the 10th house (signifying high authority) is packed. But that's about as far as it goes.  The Moon has moved Signs and is more connected, but not advantageously.  The Moon represents the people, and in the swearing-in chart it was unconnected and placed in a weak position, although on the Jupiter-Uranus midpoint it at least had some sense of humanitarian spirit and was at the centre of liberty and progress.  What's the point in a Supreme Court that weakens the people?

In this chart the Moon, i.e. the public, is in a stronger Sign and the public are shown as being more able to stand up for themselves, however the Moon's only aspects are a square with Mars and a quincunx with Saturn.  This paints a picture of over-aggression, both by the people and directed at the people, and an extremely strained relationship with the powers that be.  The judges and the people are not in tune at all, they're very discordant and don't see eye-to-eye.  They openly battle with no consensus reached.  Only the powerful can prevail, but the people aren't the powerful ones here.

Stupidly, the Supreme Court website refers to 'customers' and promises to have a 'customer satisfaction' survey soon.  Is it a shop?  Is it a business?  Is it selling something?  The idea of a legal institution providing a recourse to justice for those who've suffered injustice has been deliberately eradicated in favour of the mentality of buying and selling.  The Supreme Court won't work and can't be made to work under these circumstances.

The only solution is to get rid of it and start again from scratch, this time thinking it through deeply, widely and properly, researching it comprehensively, sketching it out on more than a beer mat, involving the people in a sincere and profound way, using the mental framework of a legal institution not a business.  No wonder they've launched it when the planetary cycles point not to justice and fair trials and supremacy of good law, but to vacuity and disconnection of power from the people.

It was done, after all, by the same Parliament and the same Law Lords that allowed the severe reduction of trial by jury and who ignored the Bill of Rights which forbids people being fined without a trial before their peers, thus demonstrating that  their respect for the public, for justice and for two thousand years of the evolution of legal principles is minimal.

In this article, written and published in April 2006, it said:

http://astrology21.co.uk/b1gcdec.html

In December this year there will be a gathering of planets in a small part of the Zodiac. These planets will, one by one, line up with the centre of our galaxy. What makes this especially important is that Pluto, the slowest-moving of all the planets in our solar system, will be lined up with the galactic centre for the first time in nearly 250 years. This is therefore a potentially epoch-making event.

It is a process of detoxification [it turned out, of toxic debts]

there is an intense change afoot in the arena of state and corporate power. This applies particularly as Pluto - representing plutocracy - will be within one degree of the galactic centre at various points for the next year or so, and within two degrees for a while longer.

the worst case scenario is that the damage intensifies and becomes still more entrenched with even greater levels of passivity on the part of the general public. Abuse of state power and corporate power is ready to change during this aspect. It is up to the citizens of each country to make the changes work for them, rather than against them.

Economically, these cultural processes may well affect the economies of the countries involved, and their stock markets too. Shifts in mood in the national and international psyche may reflect [in]investments, spending habits, and levels of fear. Insurance, taxation, and corporate accountability may well be high on the agenda. From October onwards, peaking in December-January, then tailing off before returning around July-August 2007 for further review. It is most especially this latter period when, history shows, stock markets may be affected by the Saturn-Pluto trine, but in December 2006 when Saturn stations in the later degrees of Leo it will connect with the charts of several of the worlds largest stock markets. Whether that will manifest through institutional restructuring and reorganising, or through market fluctuations, or both, remains to be seen.

Looking at previous occurrences of Saturn-Pluto trines we find that the USA's Dow Jones stock market index has usually fallen, however we cannot even 'guesstimate' what may happen to world stock markets this time around. The situation is far too complex, not least because when Pluto was last conjunct the galactic centre in 1758/9 none of the world's stock markets existed, so we have no historical experience to draw upon. And, of course, the world was a very different place in the 18th century.

http://astrology21.co.uk/b1gcdec.html

The full article has more, and can be read at the link above.

PS - Sorry for the errors - one is a typo, which has been corrected above, and the other is factually incorrect: in 1758/9 there were hardly any stock exchanges, and they were in rudimentary form compared to nowadays, but it's not true to say that there were none. Amsterdam and London both had stock trading going on at that time. Obviously though what was happening then doesn't give a guide to current times, since it was in a relatively simple system and relatively basic trading, and not a globally interconnected nor systemically complex form as things are now.