Aspects for the week beginning 20 January 2013

Sometimes when I sit down on a Sunday morning to blog, I do not know what I will write about.  Some subjects that I would like to write about, are not easy to investigate astrologically.  Take the example of this week’s scandal about horsemeat being in beefburgers.  As a vegetarian, I would love to write about this, but the astrological data seems lacking: would it were as easy as “Jupiter (horse) being in Taurus (beef)”, which it is not…

Algeria

Some subjects are governed by an astrological imperative.  Take this week’s crisis over Algeria, and the hostage rescue mission.  This coincided with the transit of Venus to the Uranus-Pluto square.  A transit to the Uranus-Pluto square is always important, always a crisis (in personal lives too), and always shows us more about what this Uranus-Pluto square is flagging up and trying to teach.

The crisis was serious enough to cause David Cameron to cancel an impending speech about Europe, on the very day of the Venus-Pluto conjunction.  This blog could have been about Europe…

The crisis in Algeria may or may not be directly linked with the French intervention in Mali the week before.  Suddenly we are all poring over maps of parts of Africa we had barely heard of, and I never knew Timbucktu was in Mali.  Why has Mali become the new focus of world issues? The tie between France and Mali is an interesting one, as their Suns are exactly conjunct, and Mali’s Saturn squares their Suns, a cause of difficulty.  Jupiter is squaring the Mali Pluto at this time, exaggerating its deep-seated problems.  The Nodal Axis (karma) is squaring France’s Pluto and Neptune, and conjunct its Mars – it can’t help getting dragged in!

Astrologer Marjorie Orr wrote last Wednesday: “There are two possible charts for Mali – 22 Sept 1960 12pm Bamako, Mali or 20 Aug 1960 2 am. Both charts have Saturn at 11/12 Capricorn suggesting that this already poor country will be facing greater hardship over the next two years with 2014/15 being worse than this year.”  [Pluto would be transiting 11/12 Capricorn and Uranus squaring that point].

Barely had France asked for help from the international community, and obtained a cautious level of help from the United Kingdom, than a new crisis came almost simultaneously out of the blue, in neighbouring Algeria, with an international focus – the many foreign workers whose lives were threatened.

So this week, new focus and old issues come to bear on a section of Africa, the Sahal.  Even the primitive tribal population, the indigenous people of the Tuareg tribes, are involved in this story, from their uprising a year ago, wanting their own autonomy from Mali.  The instinctual earthy element of our global psyche has spoken, and made its mark.

As for the Algerian-British relationship, Algeria’s Uranus (surprise) opposes our natal Mars (attack), a potential ignition point.  And Algeria’s Sun is conjunct our Pluto (the potential of power play). Jupiter now squares Algeria’s Pluto, as it does Mali’s Pluto.  Pluto is now opposing the United Kingdom Pluto (dangerous power play).

One of the main considerations now is that the nations of the world are looking at another potential abyss in the shape of a new area of terrorism and Al Quaeda nest in this part of Africa, analogous to Afghanistan and Iraq.  So the question which has come forward again intensely at this time is, should nations intervene and how much?  Can similar past scenarios be avoided?

“This Week”

Michael Portillo was last seen roaming the railways of Europe with a book under his arm, sporting a divine wardrobe of pink, turquoise and lilac jackets and shirts (my favourite colours).  On “This Week” with Andrew Neil, the dress code for him on the sofa next to Alistair Campbell and opposite Andrew Neil has been “how dishevelled can we look?”, with shirts studiedly open and casual, and not a tie in sight.  On Thursday night, however, with the Algerian crisis deepening, what was going on?  Michael, Alistair and Andrew (Neil, not Marr – who we have learnt is doing well) all appeared in uncharacteristic brown suits and brown ties (hubby says they were grey)…They had been joined by no less a figure of respect than Kofi Annan, and the programme took on much more gravitas.

Michael Portillo outlined the countries where intervention had taken place and failed: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya.  Our intervention had not worked, he was saying.  We supported regime change in Tunisia, and Egypt, and the outcomes are uncertain.  We have not intervened in Syria, but it is an unholy mess (my words).

Kofi Annan is a global treasure, and has the “Diplomat Archetype” in his chart (Mercury conjunct Venus).  Regular readers will know it is also the Writer’s Archetype, but that is for another blog, about Archetypes.  His gently spoken words amounted to a view that regrettably the loss of life in Algeria could be viewed as collateral damage.  According to the BBC website “The Algerian action to rescue hostages was “well intended” said Kofi Annan, adding it was “the sort of action, I would have expected them to take”.

This event, and its implications, may well form part of my blog next May when the Uranus-Pluto square rises up for the third time, but in the meantime it illustrates the fact that it is emphatically clear now that the old ways of nations working together over these issues does not work, and the problem needs a new vision and spiritual overview.  A new approach is needed too in whatever collective or communal efforts you may be currently engaged in, which may have come up for you in this week’s Venus-Uranus-Pluto test.

Lance Armstrong – Part 2

Another way of choosing a blog subject is for someone to ding the bell on the Customer Service desk, and demand that I write about Lance Armstrong in a threatening, drug-induced stupor, which is virtually what has happened here.

I did start to write about him in my blog of 14 October 2012, under the subject of the Moral Compass.  But the subject has moved on, and my customer has a point, there is more to write about.  This week, he appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show, confessing to his doping activities, a confession he has hitherto denied the legal authorities.

But first a playback of some of my original observations:

“…he is strongly Mercury-ruled through Virgo, and Mercury is associated with bikes (more usually through Gemini).  He has a warrior North Node/Mars conjunction which is exact in Aquarius, which gives him lightning speed with or without the drugs.”

We are painfully deprived of a birth time for his chart, which might provide us for clues about the masks that he may employ, such as the Midheaven.  Watching the clips of his interview, I was struck at how frozen he was, as though he was holding almost all of himself back, and employing an automaton to speak, as though we were literally seeing just the tip of the iceberg.  One wonders about the long term effect of the drugs on his consciousness and psyche – what has been repressed, deadened or distorted by them.

The interesting slant that this moment in time offers, the time he has chosen and the opportunity to do the interview, is that there is a transit of Jupiter to his Saturn.  This represents the fact that Oprah has thrown him a lifeline, an attempt to bring in a little light, into the darkness that is his situation.  Saturn represents a part of his psyche where he might have failed in the past to open his heart, and slim though it is, there is an opportunity to open a chink of his heart.  Many believe that it is too late, and he has failed.  But he may have opened a dialogue with his version of God, and the judgement of the people, and his own karma.

I often wonder about his relationship with Sheryl Crow, partly because she is one of  Hubby’s favourite recording artists, what she knew, and what did she think…But the blog is running on and on, and that again is food for thought for another time.  Hubby did dig out for me a quote from the Observer Sport section this morning (I never open it).  It quotes his mother, years ago, in an interview from 1993 with Greg LeMond:

“They sat on the porch for a while and then moved inside to the kitchen.  Linda had something else on her mind: ‘How do I make him less of an a**hole.  He doesn’t care about anyone.’

‘Well,’ LeMond replied. “I can’t help you there.’ “

The only redeeming feature in the current situation I can think of, is that while Jimmy Saville has escaped before he can be confronted by his victims, Lance Armstrong has stayed to face his karma.

Aspects

Mainly good aspects this week, with a karmic challenge on Thursday and a blip and a dip at Friday tea-time, but the general planetary energies supportive of progress.

We start with Mercury sextile Uranus on Tuesday (22^nd): a dynamic, mentally stimulating time, where bright new ideas can spring forth, such as how we find new approaches to old problems.  There is an air of excitement.

Wednesday (23^rd) brings a trine between Mercury and Jupiter, which coming after the launch pad of the week, could really bring lift off!  Travel is wonderfully supported (which looks unlikely at the moment in the U.K. with entrenched snow).  Certainly armchair travel could be incredibly successful, you may even levitate as you stare at a photograph of the Potala Palace in Lhasa in your favourite book on Tibetan Buddhism.  You could practise astral travel, though I wonder – is that terribly passé these days?  Now it is more in vogue to travel in your merkebah with your lightbody…Enough reverie, this can be a very practical aspect, bringing communication to a high level of satisfaction, and disseminating ideas worldwide, or communitywide.  Any good ideas from Tuesday will receive further validation from others.  Humour could also be a winning theme of the day.

Mars squares the Nodal Axis on Thursday (24^th), and Warrior Karma will come to the fore.  This can be negative, as in terrorism may come to the fore in world troublespots.  However, if you are working in your own life on your Inner Warrior, and tracing those you warred with in order to make reparation or harmony, earnest efforts could be rewarded karmically.

The Sun sextiles Uranus on Friday (25^th) and further opportunities arise for invention and new ideas, and for combining these with creativity.  If you have a brilliant new idea, it’s a good time to approach authorities, or your local patent office.  If a brilliant new idea is only just emerging, it’s a good time to let your creativity flow with it, certainly early in the day.

At tea-time, Mercury squares Saturn, and there may be a teensy weensy deflation in your ideas or plans.  Perhaps you have discovered something in the idea that might not work on a practical level.  You may have temporarily to go back to the draught board, and tell the authorities to hold the page, while you work things out.  You can do it!  Every problem contains its own solution, if you can but find it.  Ignore the negative voices which may say you won’t find a solution.  Keep working on it, and consign it to your subconscious in dreams…

…Because on Saturday (26^th) there is extra back up for your purposes in that Jupiter trines the Sun, and you could strike gold, especially if you have worked on your new design or idea for international co-operation all week, with continuity of purpose.  It is a lucky day for some, and coincidentally a lottery draw day (although we can’t all win, can we?).  You could get your design for a snow sledge off the ground today, or whatever has occurred to you as the solution to your current problem; your New Year’s resolutions may be holding up spectacularly, and the ruminations of your Soul could yield an epiphany.  I am sorry that this week’s blog has been so long, but I couldn’t hold back any of it, including the aspects for what looks like an exciting week!

The week in bullet points:

• Tuesday – mental excitement!
• Wednesday – joyous communication!
• Thursday – War, or Pow Wow between Warriors
• Friday – creative originality! Then a reality check
• Saturday – lucky stars!