Aspect for the week beginning 15 July 2018

The NHS and its Ministers

This week Boris Johnson resigned as Foreign Secretary over Theresa May’s Brexit plan, Jeremy Hunt was moved from the Ministry of Health and Social Care to Foreign Secretary, and Matt Hancock became the new custodian of the nation’s health.

I have written previously about the chart of the N.H.S.: “The NHS is a caring Cancerian Institution, with a cluster of planets (satellitium) in Gemini squared by Mars in Virgo.  This highlights the need for communication, and high standards (Virgo) and the constant stress of its working environment.”

Since the Conservatives came to power in 2010, at a time when the waiting lists had been brought to a manageable length, the National Health Service has been gradually dismantled, privatized, starved of funds and staff, and allowed to crumble.  The prospect of Brexit further endangers  the staffing levels which are propped up by medical staff from over the world, while not enough doctors and nurses are being trained up to fill the gap.

The first calamity that befell the National Health Service under David Cameron’s government was the top down reorganization by Andrew Lansley, who was Secretary of State for Health from 2010 to 2012.  Thus a dismantling was begun, with no future plan to safeguard the NHS, build something better in its place, or protect it from the changes.

Every time there is a new Minister for Health I hope that the N.H.S. will fare better.  And in September 2012, Jeremy Hunt took over from Andrew Lansley, albeit he was coming from under a cloud from the Ministry of Culture.  But it is always interesting to look at the charts of who is replacing who, whether it is in the media (e.g. Dr. Who), or in politics.  You often find a Plutonic aspect between the two people in this karmic interaction.  In this case, Hunt’s Pluto (his ruling planet) was exactly square Lansley’s Sun.

Jeremy Hunt has Venus/Sun and Neptune in Scorpio, with his Neptune sextile a Uranus/Pluto conjunction in Virgo, giving him a steely strength.  His healing asteroid Chiron is subdued by an exact conjunction with Saturn.  In 2015, he entered into a long running battle with the Junior Doctors, which ran into strike action.  He remained adamant in his position, and I found his obdurate stare very unnerving, especially as my daughter was a Junior Doctor at the time, engaged in strike action, and I always hoped for a softening in his attitude.  Was he trying to uphold Conservative policy to the bitter end, did he even care about the N.H.S.?  During his time there were some promises of extra funding for the N.H.S. which were not delivered, and mostly set in some nebulous future time period.  When Theresa May took over from David Cameron, I hoped she would replace Jeremy Hunt but she kept him in place (it was rumoured at the time that no one else wanted the challenge).

Will his strength of will be an asset in the foreign sector, in his new role?  Or will it be too much of a resistance to the spirit of negotiation?  Certainly it will be a different style from Boris Johnson’s.  I wonder whether Hunt is motivated by power, or what his ideals might be in taking up the new position.  Already there has been a casualty in the switchover.  According to a BBC News report, the prisoner being held in the Iranian jail, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, has been put back to the bottom of the list now that Boris has moved on.  Boris had taken an interest in the case, but the family are concerned that Jeremy Hunt’s attention will be elsewhere.

And so to the current Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock.  Is he the Tory Party’s present for the 70th birthday of the N.H.S.?  Or will he be another nail in its coffin?  His background suggests more of a talent for economics than an interest in health.  And his birthchart shows three of his four aspects to his Chiron to be adverse, so he does not have a natural aptitude for the subject.  He was born under a New Moon in Libra, with a keen, forensic type of mind (Mercury conjunct Pluto in Libra).  Will he be able to boost the state of social care, which would assist the National Health Service and alleviate the problem of bed blocking?  He has not yet set out his stall on his policies, so we don’t yet know.  But, according to the Independent, he received £32,000 from the chair of a think tank which wants the N.H.S. abolished, and is in favour of privatization, so this does not look good.

The 70th birthday of the N.H.S. was celebrated earlier this month, with Jupiter trine its Sun (a celebration), Jupiter square its Pluto (a deep state of  flux), Neptune square its Moon (uncertainty), and Pluto sextile its Chiron (transformation combined with healing).  There is some hope in that picture.  The strength of the NHS is in the hearts and minds of the people who work there who by and large are in their work for good reasons and would do their best not to let it down, and the faith, gratitude and pride that the general public have in it.  Some say that a cross party approach would further its interests best, but in the meantime I do wish that Theresa and her cabinet would make it their priority, over Brexit.

Aspect

There is only one aspect this week, and it occurs on Friday.  Therefore I am providing a couple of hors d’oevres from the array of Fixed Stars, for those who like to work with them.

Today our Sun is aligned with the Fixed Star Pollux, the beta star in the constellation of Gemini, which is twinned with Castor.  “Starlight Elixirs” by Michael Smulkis and Fred Rubenfeld portrays Pollux as linked with the right brain, while its twin represents the left brain:

“Pollux works with the intuitive, non-dominant side of the brain…creativity is enhanced, the ability to work with various new ideas can be strengthened, and the ability to take in information and bring it into a new form may be more available.  People may simply feel more in tune with their past, their future, and their relationships as if it is the feeling and the sense of it that is strengthened more than the concrete logical thought processes.”

On Tuesday (17th) our Sun is aligned with the Fixed Star Procyon (Alpha Canis Minoris).  This too assists our mental functioning, but also directly brings in healing:

“Procyon provides a greater acuity of mental functioning that can enhance concentration.  This may result in an ability to strengthen the physical body.  There is some stimulation of the intuitive understanding of reflex points in the physical body.  Individuals involved in reflexology would do well to utilize the starlight elixir.  Procyon can also enhance the ability to absorb energy directly from plants, the Earth, and the Sun.  In a healing process, the person receiving the healing energy will find the reception of such energy enhanced.”

So on to our main menu this week, Mars Retrograde conjunct the South Node in Aquarius on Friday (20th).  This is about addressing past conflicts, particularly in a group setting.  We have all had contact with warriorship in past lives, however peaceful our present lives may be.  If we have Mars conjunct the South Node in our birth chart, this has been a major path for us.  But even if we are very peaceful, we may have been caught up in wars in our past lives, conscription, and the like.  Some of us may have trained in various cultures, such as the Samurai in Japan.  In this lifetime, we may be training to be a peaceful warrior, or we may be pacifist.  We may hold the ideals of Ghandi and Martin Luther King as our ideal.  But in some way we have some relation to conflict, just by participating in society.  And our societies are so divided, e.g. Remainers and Brexiters, Democrats and Republicans.  We can’t hide from conflict, and unless we isolate ourselves we cannot rise above it totally.  So the highest manifestation of this aspect is to demonstrate the true Sisterhood and Brotherhood of Woman/Man, as in the Aquarian ideal.  Mars in Aquarius protects and sustains the underdog, works as a collective to improve society, and puts differences aside.  As an example, I know of an Aquarian teacher who has Mars conjunct the South Node, who early on in his teaching career got every first year pupil involved in some capacity in a school orchestra.  That is the potential of this aspect.

The week in bullet points:

• Today – using the resource of our right brain
• Tuesday – combining mental abilities with healing
• Friday – collective effort