2011 – An Astrological Retrospective

Selections from the blog:

January

16^th: There were floods all over the globe last week: in Australia, Brazil and Sri Lanka, creating unexpected devastation.  I wonder if this presages the entry of Neptune into its own water sign of Pisces in April this year.

23^rd: With Jupiter jumping ship from Pisces and into the fire of Aries, it is off with the old (3 U.K. resignations – Alan Johnson, Andy Coulson and Brian Cowen) and on with the new:  Ed Balls (with his Venus at the beginning of Aries) and gloriously clutzy Sagittarian Miranda Hart who received 3 trophies at the British Comedy Awards.

30^th: And the event of the week goes to – Egypt.   But the unravelling started in Tunisia when Mars moved into Aquarius, and just before Jupiter moved into Aries.  How did Tunisia come to occupy that ignitory role?  In its natal chart, its birth being during the year of the Suez crisis, there is a powerful exact conjunction between Jupiter and Pluto in Leo, trine the Galactic Centre.

February

6^th: The big question of the week seems to have been whether or not the President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak would stay or go, and if he would go, when.  Wider than the personal fortune of a dictator, there is also the nail-biting question of whether Egypt can do what no other country in the Middle East has so far done – created a democracy out of the ashes of a dictatorship.

27^th: Three weeks ago I wrote: “The big question of the week seems to have been whether or not the President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak would stay or go, and if he would go, when. “  Now substitute Libya for Egypt and Gaddafi for Mubarak, and I have another set of charts to consider.  Libya though is a different matter altogether than Egypt, and Gaddafi very different from Mubarak.

March

6^th: On the world stage, Saturday (12^th) is the most important day, as Uranus re-enters Aries, joining Jupiter who has been holding up the success of the revolutionaries singlehandedly.  Revolution 21^st Century-style is due to ratchet up its pace.

13^th: Within hours of Uranus entering Aries, a large scale disaster unfolded on our screens coming from Japan: earthquake, followed by tsunami and then nuclear plant meltdown.  The national chart of Japan shows the sword of Damocles which has been present in the form of a Grand Cross between the natal Mercury, Saturn, Uranus and Chiron.

20^th: There is so much going on this week that I have a split-screen in my mind of Libya on one side and Japan on the other, and though Libya has overtaken Japan on the news at this moment, there is really a lot more going on in Japan.

27^th: There seems to be even more going on this week, and I am wondering how to pack it all into one little blog.  Of course I can’t contain it here…Harry Hill may be able to manage the week’s TV viewing in one little TV studio, but even the news broadcasters are having difficulty fitting in follow ups to the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

April

10^th: You may feel that you were losing the plot last week, or that events in the world were going round in circles.  Has there been any progress in Libya, you might have wondered?  And what is going on in Japan?  In the UK, the government announced that they would not immediately be implementing their new NHS policies, to give time to “pause, listen, reflect and improve” them, playing for more time in order to “explain to the public”.

24^th: I don’t like to fuel stereotypes but most of the women I have spoken to intend to watch a little of the Royal Wedding on the T.V., while most of the men intend to make it an excuse to do something else…

May

1^st: My highlights were:  the delicately laced dress, the tree-lined Abbey, the beauty of the Abbey itself (aerial photography has come a long way), the spine-tingling hymn “Jerusalem”, and the spiritual clarity of the sermon by the Bishop of London.

8^th: This week on “Question Time” they could have debated the issue ad infinitum: whether or not Osama bin Laden should have been killed.

29^th: The tide does change on Saturday (4^th) with a refreshing new emphasis brought about by Jupiter entering Taurus.  It has completed its work in Aries in forgeing the fervent Arab Spring.

June

12^th: This week has seen further international pressure for Syria’s government to stand down or at least stop killing its own citizens.  President Bashar Al-Assad heads another dictatorship in the Middle East, but one being treated very differently than that of Muammar Al-Ghaddafi in Libya.

July

3^rd: Meanwhile the International Monetary Fund came back into prominence in the news last week. The natal Venus (which represents money) of the International Monetary Fund lies exactly at the Galactic Centre, which is very appropriate for such an Institution.  This week Christine Lagarde was appointed the new Head of the IMF, close to the New Moon eclipse which fell exactly opposite her natal Sun.

10^th: On Thursday, the day that Jupiter trined Pluto (huge endings) it was announced that the last ever edition of the News of the World would be published this Sunday, it was the premier of the last in the Harry Potter series of films (transiting Jupiter squaring the magical Mars/Neptune conjunction of the natal chart of the first film), and the final launch of the space shuttle Atlantis marking the end of the space shuttle program(me) a day later.

17^th: All sorts of side stories have had to be pushed aside this week, in order to look at the all-encompassing story of the dissolving empire of media mogul Rupert Murdoch.  A generation of minds have been infiltrated by the culture of sensationalizing the news which certainly was the style of the now defunct News of the World.  In a world where over the centuries power was associated with politics (temporal power) or religion, he found a way to general domination through a new source: the modern media.

24^th: By the time you read this it will be old news, at the rate events are moving.  A standout event of the last few days was the appearance of father and son Murdoch in front of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee last Tuesday. Their body language was captured by media Psychologist Peter Collett in the Guardian.  He analyzed Rupert Murdoch’s posture (intending to show he was fully involved), his pauses (showing a dominant individual) and his table-tapping “- a sure sign that he’s used to giving commands”.  Apparently James Murdoch was a “model of courtesy”, making sure by eye contact that all committee members felt included.

31^st: Amy Winehouse is the Janis Joplin of her generation (at the age of 61, I have seen too many of these over the decades), dubbed a member of the “27 Club” of music greats being cut short at this age.  This is the age just before the Saturn Return marker, which is a challenge to the structure of one’s life.  She had not been able to find the right structure for her life, and in addition was facing a Nodal Reversal, which involved the Mars/South Node conjunction around that weekend (so there was a significant karmic element to the timing of her passing).  Let us hope for a breakthrough in the understanding of addiction, and the true role of Rehab for the next generation, so that such huge talents are not snuffed out before time.

August

14^th: All Astrologers were able to predict that last week held the potential for violence, and that it would be on a grand scale, with a T-square between Mars, Pluto and Uranus.  The surprise was that it happened in England, first on the streets of London, and then spreading to other cities.

September

4th: This week is about questions. The whereabouts of Gaddafi are still unknown. And the issues thrown up by the London riots (violence, poverty, social alienation, policing, parenting etc) are just beginning to be unravelled.  In order to arrive at solutions, the problems need to be fully understood. Rarely, we only have one aspect this week: Mercury opposite Neptune, which we met in late July and then early August during the English riots.

25^th: I can no longer avoid blogging about the world economy this week.  Every week the noises about being on the brink of meltdown become louder, so that now I can’t hear myself think.  The big figures on the financial stage seem to be Christine Lagarde, Barack Obama, Angela Merkel and George Osborne, but the general impression seems to be indecisiveness and the question leveled being “Who’s in Charge”?  Astrologically the question seems very complex, and the general consensus is that the crisis is due to the square between Uranus and Pluto.

October

9^th: The new line up in the current series of Strictly Come Dancing looks promising!  In particular, Jason Donovan and Anita Dobson seemed to shine initially.  Jason has his Venus, Sun and Mars in Gemini, the sign of Neighbours, but does not have a traditional dancer’s chart.  So I was pleasantly surprised.

23^rd: Gaddafi met his end last week.  Muammar started out thinking of himself as a liberator.  As the Guardian Obituary tells us: “With Nasser as his idol – he too later titled himself colonel – the 14 year old Gaddafi was caught up in the surging pan-Arab emotions of the time, in the ideals of Arab renaissance…Expelled from school for his political activities, he continued his secondary education at Misrata, on the coast, and there, with some of his classmates, he decided to join the army as a means of overthrowing the monarchy”.

November

6^th: Interesting synchronicity that Joanna Lumley was finishing her Greek Odyssey on our screens as a Greek drama unfolded on the Eurozone scene,  in the crescendo of the week.  In the final programme of the series, Joanna was told that the series would be successful by an elderly Greek lady who was reading her coffee grounds.  Unfortunately, she did not pronounce on the future of the Euro.

13^th: Meanwhile, nuclear threats are gathering in the Middle East in remembrance week – the U.S. and Israel are in a quandary about what to do, or whether to do anything, about Iran’s gathering nuclear capability. Let’s hope they choose the way of the Tao, rather than the way of Blair-Bush  (Pluto is approaching a trine to Iran’s Saturn next year, which will support its nuclear plans).

20^th: The Arab Spring has the energy of Uranus in Aries, as does the Occupy movement.  We are in the throes of inner and outer revolution.  As a human race we now demand freedom from slavery, and also in our personal relationships.

December

4^th: The Eurozone crisis is still threatening the stability of the world economy.  This week the crisis has been held squarely in the hands of Angela Merkel, so she’s got the whole world in her hands.  I think that makes her woman of the week, though hubby disagrees…In May 2010 I wrote that “Her natal chart shows an interest in personal finance (North Node and Chiron in the 2^nd House) and public finance (Jupiter, Uranus and the Sun in 8^th House).”

11^th: Now none of this human posturing (in politics) or angst (in conscience) or communication difficulties (inwardly and outwardly) may be of any importance relative to the issue of global warming which was shown graphically on the last episode of “Frozen Planet” by David Attenborough tele-visually this week (a programme which I happened to catch).  On the Andrew Marr show this morning, David Attenborough reminded him that the melting of the ice was not in dispute, but it was the contribution of mankind which was in dispute.