Astrology for the 21st Century

The ongoing saga of the east coast railway services reaches another stage tonight as National Express lose the franchise earlier than originally planned and for approximately two years the service becomes State run.

The company formerly known as Abbey Rail Ltd has changed names to East Coast Railway Company Ltd, and is a parent of the newly-formed Directly Operated Railways Ltd which is part of the Department of Transport.

According to the official press release National Express's franchise ended at 23:59hrs last night. ECRC (DOR) then took over, trading as 'East Coast'. Here's the chart:-

This chart really speaks about the government's policy's repeating failure. They have been forced to take ownership in a literal sense, but don't want to take ownership in the other sense.  That's to say they don't want responsibility, they don't really want to touch this business, like having to pick up a dirty sock when you don't want to go anywhere near it (not that this train franchise is a dirty sock! I'm just trying to conjure the image/feeling of having to do something combined with wanting to be as far from it as possible.)

Do you want the good news first?

The Moon in Libra in the 2nd house shows the public as the owners, as well as the passengers of course. The Moon is in trine with Jupiter, the planet of long distance journeys. Moon-Jupiter aspects are generally favourable for public opinion too. The problem with Libra and Jupiter is that they both have a tendency to put a positive angle on things, and not face up to harsh facts. Especially so since Jupiter is conjunct Neptune, the planet of deception. The Moon links harmoniously with the UK's Mercury in the 3rd house, so that's another bonus.

Mercury, planet of commuting, is emphasised by its placement at the IC, right at the bottom of the chart. It's also conjunct the Sun. These things place it very central, which is fair enough. However in Scorpio things tend to be a bit covered up, more so because this Sun-Mercury conjunction is square to Neptune.... And Mercury is unaspected: do we want an unconnected network? A septile with Mars isn't too welcome either - we don't want everyone getting enthralled with the idea that haste is more important than anything else.

On the upside Mercury is on the Jupiter/Ascendant midpoint, a good symbol of travelling being the core activity of the business.

I just think that Mercury - especially as the chart ruler - being unaspected means that no-one wants to touch this, and no-one wants to take ownership of it in either sense of the phrase. Look at Saturn in Libra in the 2nd - the burden of ownership. It's square Pluto, so there's a sense of compulsion about it - 'oh well, if we have to....' And also something a little bit shady going on behind the scenes. Other than that, Saturn's only aspect is a septile with the Sun. Saturn's unaspectedness indicates disconnecting from ownership. In my opinion there's a statement in these planets about exploitation for profit.

In short, I don't think this franchise will sort out any of the problems that have hampered this large section of the national train service. It seems to me like 'more of the same'. That doesn't mean it's fated; it means that the agenda of the government is of this nature.  I suspect the financing/profitability problems will continue, if not grow. There's a lot of potential here for a 'cowboy' approach, a bit of a slapdash or 'bish bash bosh - job's done' approach. I don't think there'll be the necessary investment of money or management, and I think that the chart is showing that the urgent task will be to minimise financial costs by selling it off as quickly as possible (so that they don't have to spend money running it for a second longer than necessary, or face too much public pressure for investment that they have no intention of making) and doing a sales deal (perhaps a secret one) for a pitifully small amount too.

The EU's Court of Auditors has refused, for the 15th consecutive year, to sign off the EU's accounts because of the number of errors in them.

Why are we bothering?

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=ECA/09/68&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

It's not just the Sun that can produce rainbows; the Moon can too.

A photo recently taken by someone driving home at night who happened to see this rare sight was published the other day in the national press, and can be viewed here:-

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1224937/Rainbow-dark-Bright-Moon-creates-stunning-arc-night.html

Stunning photos of other moonbows can be seen here:-

http://www.starrynightphotos.com/planet_earth/lunar_rainbow.htm

And here:-

http://www.atoptics.co.uk/rainbows/bowim51.htm

According to the Prime Minister of Sweden which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, the EU Constitution - deliberately and falsely spun as the 'Lisbon Treaty' - has been confirmed as entering into force on the 1st of December this year:

"With the signature of the Czech President, all EU member states have now ratified the text. The Treaty enters into force on December 1 and all the details must now be put into place." Source: EU Swedish Presidency official website

Any astrologer looking at the EU's chart would have to admit that there are some extremely major danger signals in it, even if they also want to point out the best and brightest potentials of it.

Setting the EU Constitution chart alongside the EU's chart again has to throw up warning signs. Just the fact that the final 'ward in the lock' has happened while Neptune was stationary strikes a note about chaos and fraud, even if we also want to take the - somewhat rosy-spectacled in my opinion - view that it also represents the potential for unity and harmonising.

Look first at the left hand side where the EU's Ascendant is in 17 Leo 16. The Constitution* chart has Mars at 17 Leo 23, just a few minutes away from being exact. If that isn't a symbol of aggressive power I don't know what is. It's akin to a baby emerging from the womb with boxing gloves on and a crown upon its head. With Mars in Leo and a Leo Ascendant, the divine right of kings is not just idle rhetoric, it's backed up with the legions of an army and the willingness to fight and vanquish all opponents.

Tony Blair has Mars on the Ascendant, and as one American put it, Blair sprinkled adrenalin on his cornflakes. Backing down from a challenge, giving in to opposition, is not what these entities do.

The EU has Mars conjunct Pluto in Scorpio, directly opposite the Moon, and in square to Saturn - all in Fixed Signs (holding on, staying power, rigidity, acquisitions, resources, money). If that's not large-scale aggressive do-or-die dominance of food (especially agriculture), money, people, and property I don't know what is. Neptune's station, and its subsequent slow movement forwards by the time of 1st December, is exactly square to that natal EU opposition, conjunct the EU's Saturn in the 7th house. That symbolises two things:-

1) Taking the 'unison' factor up to a whole new level, having an attempt at making the whole thing borderless, barrierless, and universal - the voracious, insatiable appetite for more land, more people, more power is 'ramped up' to a global and beyond level. Expect the EU's already incredible ambition to skyrocket.

2) Total collapse of the above because it's all a sham, gerrybuilt, rests on delusions and the power of getting people to be passive, acquiescent, compliant, docile, servile, conned, defrauded, whatever words you want to use. It's built on corruption, being drunk on power, and, dare I say it, the involvement of Jupiter and Neptune show that there's a deep religious impulse going on in the EU project. Not necessarily Catholicism or Freemasonry or suchlike; it could be just like the religiosity of America where the nation itself is a sacrosanct object of venerative belief.

By the way, transiting Jupiter's conjunction with transiting Neptune multiplies all of the above. And if you're interested in Chiron (my mind isn't made up on Chiron's usefulness, so I include it in the chartwheels but don't always use it unless it really stands out) there's a returning to old destructive patterns in this EU project. There's also a locking-in of its financial troubles.

There's much more that could be said, but it'll have to wait for a proper article over on the website.

* I refuse to buy into the PR that we must call it 'the Lisbon Treaty' - it isn't just another treaty, it's a major political constitutional act, just as the EU itself is a major nation-building political project and always has been right from its inception. The architects of it know that it's designed to be exactly that.

An Australian psychology expert - well, that's what they call them! - has confirmed what astrology has been saying for at least 2000 years: Saturn tends towards carefulness, concentration, accuracy and healthy scepticism, whereas Jupiter tends towards errors of judgement and being slapdash in thought and behaviour but also creativity.

"Whereas positive mood seems to promote creativity, flexibility, co-operation and reliance on mental shortcuts, negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking, paying greater attention to the external world."

According to the BBC report:-

The study also found that sad people were better at stating their case through written arguments, which Forgas said showed that a "mildly negative mood may actually promote a more concrete, accommodative and ultimately more successful communication style".

His earlier work shows the weather has a similar impact on us - wet, dreary days sharpened memory, while bright sunny spells make people forgetful.

In Astrometeorology Saturn is associated with wet weather and overcast skies, Jupiter with warmer, brighter weather. Saturn represents the more mature, steady, grounded temperament whilst Jupiter is associated with upbeat moods and a spring in the step.

You could say that it's common sense. In which case thank heavens that astrology has been in line with common sense for two millennia and on this topic doesn't need to play catch-up with the social sciences ;-P

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8339647.stm

Scientists, drugs, sackings, and resignations.

Nice of them to do it all while Neptune's stationary in Aquarius in the UK's 5th house (what people do for fun), semisquaring the UK's Sun (the leadership), opposite its Saturn (the government), and semisquare its MC (the government). A loss of authority, seeping away; scoring own goals.

As previously mentioned*, Neptune's station aspects the Labour party's Sun and the Ascendant of their 1997 'landslide' [sic] election win.

As the saying goes, 'the fish rots from the head'.

* In a blog entry about Neptune's station and Bonfire Night

Sorry, couldn't resist the pun :-)

The ever-wondrous government's announced that it'll create three new chains of banks by breaking up the banks it fully or part owns. Better late than never, maybe. Might as well pull the chain and flush them away.

But since it's chained to them in perpetuity and has chained us to them for the forseeable aeons, why not?

The idea is to do it in sync with the global Uranus-Pluto Cardinal square and Pluto's transit to the UK's IC and Sun, just to make it especially ground-breaking.

By about 2015, in other words.

Next time, dear politicians [sic], you could at least look like you're trying to anticipate and prevent the problem.

An ounce of prevention is worth a few trillion £s of cure.

News report is here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8336286.stm

Related astrology is here:
http://astrology21.co.uk/c1ukidentity.html

http://astrology21.co.uk/c1uranuspluto.html

The Liberal Democrats have re-affirmed their opposition to the SNP's proposed wording for their referendum proposal on Scotland separating from the United Kingdom.

In an astrology article published in May 2007 on the website affiliated with this web log, the current Saturn-Uranus opposition was highlighted as resonant with this issue.  Gordon Brown's involvement was similarly highlighted.

The article can be found at the Astrology for the 21st Century website at this URL:-

http://astrology21.co.uk/c1uk1707.html