Aspects for the week beginning 8 August 2010

The T-square between Pluto, Jupiter and Mars last week seemed to generate many tales in the news of man’s inhumanity to man, and my phone and Customer Service Desk were buzzing, with the T-square forming a Grand Cross to my natal Uranus in my 3^rd House of Phonecalls. The Cardinal Climax has pushed the weather to further extremes, and specifically Jupiter square Pluto has coincided with fire and smog in Russia.  Again it seemed that Pakistan was at the hub of world news.  The four instances mentioned at the end of last week’s blog [“Criticized by Cameron, widespread flooding, its worst ever air crash, and not doing so well in cricket.”] seem to have moved on further.  Now the picture is a rapprochement with Cameron (on Thursday David Cameron hailed the “unbreakable” friendship between Britain and Pakistan), flooding affecting millions, the aftermath of the air crash no doubt causing havoc in many lives, and (according to hubby) even worse fortunes in the cricket.  The President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari is the widower of Benazir Bhutto, who had close connections with Britain, and their son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has studied at Oxford University.  I thought I would take a closer look at these connections and in relation to this time.  David Cameron has Saturn exactly square Zardari’s nodal axis, pointing to uneasy karma between them.  The countries are more friendly, in that Pakistan’s Venus is trine the U.K. Mercury.  Transiting Neptune is on the U.K. Mars at this time, which may be connected with Cameron’s gaffe last week (doesn’t have the same ring to it as Gordon’s gaffe, but never mind, we will have to get used to it.  Impersonators are still trying to get a handle on their Cameron impressions, too).  This echoes Cameron’s own natal Mars opposite Neptune, which finds him socially naïve at times.  With his own Mars exactly opposite the U.K. Mars he can sometimes be out of tune with its energies. Saturn is currently on his Ascendant, which represents the huge responsibility he is taking on, and squaring his Midheaven, so he has a tough mountain to climb now.  Uranus is still squaring Pakistan’s Mars, and there is no doubt the repercussions of the last two weeks will take a long time to deal with.  Zardari, in stepping out of his local problems last week was taking advantage of the holiday atmosphere of Jupiter trining his Sun, and its call to foster international links.  Whatever your religious or political persuasion, I am sure your heart will go out to the Pakistan people in the problems they are facing right now.  Venus conjuncts Saturn today, so there is a sad reflectiveness.  If you have been struggling lately with a relationship problem, you will be looking at it in a realistic way.  You may have done what you could to bring life to a situation which may seem flat for the time being.  The dining experience at tea-time today is important. Make sure nutrition is nurturing by quality rather than quantity.  Create a calm atmosphere and you may find that conditions bring forth some surprising serenity of thought, particularly on your current concerns.  A sprightlier outlook awaits tomorrow (Monday 9^th) with Venus opposite Jupiter.  In the evening, Jupiter tries to lift the mood – your long-lost Uncle Vanya might pop in with his latest joke, for instance.  With the conjunction still operative, you might still be hovering between laughter and tears, but certainly there may be a releasing of tension.  The other three astrological events of this week occur in the early hours of the morning in the U.K., and may either wake you (if you are very sensitive to aspects) or colour your dreams.  So these will be evening events the previous day in the U.S. and morning events the same day in Australia.  The New Moon in Leo is on Tuesday 10^th: the dream will be about Lions, obviously, no question.  Evening event, a gala.  Morning event, a creative splurge.  An hour later Venus squares Pluto: you’ll be woken by a nightmare about someone stealing the Mona Lisa.  Evening event, a disappointing text from the object of your affections.  Morning event, you wake in thunderous mood and need to give your inner warrior a talking to rather than take it through the day and impose it on everyone else.  Uranus goes into Pisces in the early hours of Saturday 14^th August U.K. time, in retrograde motion from Aries.  I have found that this placement has been strengthening people’s capacity for self-sufficiency, in its conjunction with Jupiter in early Aries, but also exploring our links with groups in a more dynamic way.  Group work has taken interesting new turns as individuals have felt emboldened to express themselves more clearly and easily in that context.  The re-entry of Uranus into Pisces temporarily may bring the need for more attention to oil and water problems on the planet, more will need to be done and more thought will need to go into longer-term solutions.  Uranus entered Aries from Pisces on 28 May, so it may revisit issues for you personally that were prominent around then (a look at my diary reveals that I was having another sleepless night on the Rialto Bridge in Venice…).  The first point of Aries certainly is a bridge between the old and the new, old ways of being and new ones which we are being encouraged to adopt.  So we will temporarily revisit old issues…how old, is the question.  Solutions and answers can be found in the Now, in the 7 year transit of Uranus in Pisces, or in past life glimpses of  lives in monasteries and nunneries in the Age of Pisces.  You choose.