Eris, Ceres and Pluto: the Chilean Miners and Boarding Schools

Eris, the dwarf planet way out beyond Pluto (and bigger than him) was named and classified about 4 years ago now. She is the mischievous, catalytic sister of Mars, and her first act was to have Pluto demoted to the status of dwarf planet. What a thing to do to the Lord of the Underworld! Pluto has had his revenge, however, for since the initial flurry of interest on the part of astrologers, she has been largely forgotten. Eris has been abducted!

Being way out beyond Pluto, Eris’ movement is very slow: about one degree every few years. She isn’t a personal planet, though as with the other outer planets, the house position is personal (the sign isn’t personal because everyone born at that time has Eris in the same place.) She is currently at 22 Aries, and during August was opposed by Mars. This happens every 2 years, and would seem to me to the sort of time, more than most, when we see the catalytic events she is associated with. The last opposition was in Sept 08, when the financial system began to crack up.

We can’t always have events of that magnitude going on, but how about the Chilean miners, who have been stuck underground since the beginning of August? It has become a huge event in Chile, and major news around the world. Eris, if you like, catalyses an initiation into another realm or another phase. In this case, it is Pluto’s realm: they have been entombed, abducted even (which Pluto is fond of) and will remain so for some months. These men are in an underground (Pluto) prison (Capricorn.) In late October Ceres (whose daughter was abducted by Pluto) will join Pluto and the North Node in early Capricorn. So this story is not going to go away: it is going to gather momentum and significance. The Pluto-Node conjunction will not be exact until late November, around the time that the men are expected to be freed. Or not: it could go either way, astrologically.

Ceres is on the approach to a conjunction with Pluto, and just today the papers announced the publication of the full story of Natascha Kampusch, who was abducted as a young girl in Austria and kept underground for many years by her captor until she finally escaped.

The classic mythological abduction story is of Pluto and Persephone, daughter of Ceres/Demeter. Pluto brought her to his lair, and raped/married her. Ceres, a nature goddess, was distraught, not knowing where her daughter was, and the land turned to winter. Eventually she found her, but the deal was that Persephone would only return for 6 months of the year. She would spend the other 6 months with Pluto. Thus arose the seasons of summer and winter respectively, expressive of Ceres’ joy at Persephone’s return, and sorrow at her loss.

In the process Persephone grows up, and so does Ceres as a mother. The idyllic world of childhood is over for both of them, forced on them by the reality principle of Pluto. And this reflects 2 ways we can see Ceres in the chart: the nature of the nurture we received as children and then later, as Ceres grows up, our capacity to nurture others.

A friend pointed out recently that you could see the English boarding school system (of which I am a product) as an abduction by Pluto. As in the myth, you get to spend part of the time at home, and part of it in Pluto’s realm, the boarding school.

Pluto’s function in the myth is transformative, evolutionary, to take you from one stage of life to the next. Persephone was ready for this shift, whether or not she knew it, being at the end of girlhood. And the function of boarding schools is the same: to move you to the adult world, in this case a very particular one based around the achievement of wealth and status. So that twists the myth. What twists it further is that the abduction takes place often around the age of 8, years before the children are ready to leave the world of family. (I have an unaspected Ceres, and Moon conjunct Saturn!)

If there is going to be an abduction, I think it needs to be around the age of 14-15, when the first Saturn opposition takes place. Saturn introduces us to learning about the demands of the world: about discipline, responsibility, money, about becoming good at what you do, and about being measured against others. The first Saturn opposition takes place around the time that the first progressed Moon opposition takes place, which is a neat coincidence, or not: the beginning of the end of childhood (prog Moon cycle) coinciding with the beginning of demands from the adult world (Saturn cycle.)

Never move house under mercury retrograde! Well, you don't always have a lot of choice, I didn't. I'm currently down at the local library with just a few minutes left to type this. British telecom massively messed up my connection, connecting my new neighbour instead of myself to my new number and then insisting there was nothin g wrong with my connection - which there wasn't, exception the connection wasn't mine!

After 2 hours in the public phone box, I said I'm not getting off till you sort this, and 2 hours later I got off the phone with it sorted!

I don't get broad band till next week, though, I could probably get compensation but I can't be bothered.

Meanwhile, not only is the UK going through a Uranus opposition, David Cameron will continue to have Uranus hard aspecting his angles through next year. So we cannot expect to see a sense of enduring government build. It will continue to seem temporary right through next year at least.

As for the rumours of William Hague having a gay relationship, I don't see it is any of our business. It's mad that that sort of thing ruins a politician's career, in the Protestant West, at any rate. Bye for now.

The Fate of the Universe

The latest astronomical research shows that the universe will grow forever. So far, so good. It’s quite an interesting, even exciting idea. But then comes the sting. The researchers add that the universe will as a result become a ‘cold, dead wasteland.’ This got me down for a few days, until I realised that ‘cold, dead wasteland’ was a value judgement, masquerading as a fact, that the researchers had tagged on to their findings.

The research was conducted by measuring the bending of light around a vast cluster of galaxies in the constellation Virgo. There you have it. It would be Virgo, a sign known for its powers of mental analysis, but also for a tendency to be cold.

Describing something as cold and dead is an attribute we apply when our imaginations are not stirred. For a scientist, Mars or the Moon may be cold, dead places. For an astrologer, not so. We are imaginatively connected to these places, and we can sense their influence on our pulses.

It is the same with an infinitely expanding universe, populated by a sprinkling of matter. Is this not a return to some sort of primordial, cosmic consciousness, after the long experiment of life as we know it?

Uranus is currently conjoining Jupiter, an aspect that occurs every 13 or 14 years, and which is associated with major scientific advances. Knowing the fate of the universe is a major advance. But describing it as cold and dead is a symptom of the pathological left-brainedness of our culture, of Uranus at its worst.


As is the dismissal of astrology. I’ve sometimes said that I am sympathetic to those who dismiss astrology and the other divinatory arts, because there is no reason they should work. I’ve decided that I’m not sympathetic. Or at least, I’m only sympathetic in the way that I would be to the fantasies of someone who is mentally ill and who I am trying to help.

The human mind has a capacity to function symbolically and intuitively, that takes us to a place of deep connectedness to life. The left-brain, rational function does not give us knowledge, only theories. The right brain gives us knowledge, it gives us power as individual human beings.

Astrology calls forth this side of us. It is not based on evidence, it is about knowing, and it takes us to the knowing place, to the enchanted place. Our culture has forgotten this ancient and essential way of being human. That is why our culture is sick, and that is why those who dismiss astrology are merely exhibiting the symptoms of a collective illness.

It can seem extreme and contrary to talk about our culture in this way, but it is the case. And it includes those intelligent, reasonable, compassionate people who are yet brainwashed by the claims of scientific materialism.

I was watching an interview with CG Jung last night. It is part of a documentary on him called Matter of Heart which I’d highly recommend. It’s pricey, but the sort of thing you’ll watch again and again. Anyway, he was asked about what happens after death, and he said he didn’t know what happens, but that he had treated many elderly patients, and their unconscious, their dream life behaved as if death was not an end point, it behaved as though life was going to continue. This doesn’t prove that life continues after death, but what he said was that to live properly, you need to think along the lines of nature. So therefore as you get old you need to continue to treat life as an adventure that is going to continue forever, because that is how life itself behaves. Otherwise you will petrify.

I'm moving to Dartmoor next week, so my blogging is currently zilch until it all settles down again. So here are a few links to recent astrology articles by Adrian Duncan, which are always worth a read:

21st century Renaissance

Posted: 17 Aug 2010 01:43 AM PDT

Once upon a time, nobody had a problem with astrology. It had always been part of the curriculum at major learning institutions until the Renaissance because people simply felt the harmony between man and cosmos. Looking at the magic movement of the planets over the bright, night sky, whilst the stars stayed still and the moon went from new to full, there was a sense of connection between earthly and heavenly developments. The basic principle of astrology is that the smallest thing in the universe is subject to the same process as the largest. The same rules apply to both, and an action in one sphere will reflect an action in another. Major practitioners of religions like Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism developed systems for interpreting planetary configurations and astrology evolved into a huge body of knowledge. (more...)

Revolutionary times

Posted: 17 Aug 2010 01:25 AM PDT

Normality is soon to be a thing of the past, and over the next half decade we will be witness to social, technological, political and personal transformations which will result in a world quite different to the one we know today. This could have been said in 1988 - just prior to the Saturn, Uranus and Neptune conjunctions opposite Jupiter, which precipitated the New World Order and fall of communism. It could also have been said of the mid sixties - just prior to the Uranus/Pluto conjunction opposite Saturn, which polarized youth and age and evoked a social revolution. It could have been said of the early 1940’s, when Jupiter conjoined Saturn in Taurus and squared Pluto going on to conjoin Uranus, which led to Germany’s seizure of most of Europe’s land. (more...)

Haiti - the Earthquake

Posted: 17 Aug 2010 12:48 AM PDT

On a major fault line between the North American and Caribbean tectonic plates, the island of Hispaniola is to be found, which is composed of Haiti on the west and the Dominican Republic on the east. This island has been ravaged by hurricanes and earthquakes for centuries, but no cataclysm has been as disastrous as the earthquake that hit the capital of Haiti in the late afternoon on January 12th 2010. (more...)

The Dream of Dubai

Posted: 17 Aug 2010 12:00 AM PDT

If you happen to be on the moon some time, cast a glimpse down to Dubai on the Arabian Peninsular. Here a glittering palm tree shaped island will be visible shining into space - a man-made construction which contains more than 30 five-star hotels as well as residences for the glitterati like Brad Pitt, David Beckham, and other people who choose to be more anonymous. That is just in 2010 - two more paradise islands are planned, as well as a 300 island archipelago representing all the countries of the world. And another one featuring the universe. (more...)

The Mars-Venus-Saturn Conjunction

Below is part of the latest Visual Astrology Newletter from Bernadette Brady. It can be subscribed to free at http://zyntara.com/. You'll notice she decribes next month's Mars-Venus-saturn conjunction as being 'in the wings of Virgo': that is what you would see in the sky, but due to precession, they are in Libra in the ephemeris, a sign which describes the reconciliation that Brady talks about. Bernadatte Brady's predictions are often right, and I think it's because visual astrology, being something we can actually see, has a power to it that is diluted by the abstractions and complexities of conventional astrology.

A Warrior King who dwells in exile comes in from the cold
The Mars, Saturn, Venus Moon of August 2010

Bernadette Brady M.A.

In August we have a rather thought-provoking sky story. In the middle of the month Mars meets Saturn in the wing of Virgo. Then while the bright evening star of Venus moves between them both, the crescent moon of 12 August rides underneath this triple conjunction.

Figure 1: The sky for the evening of 12 August. The crescent moon passes underneath the triple conjunction of Venus, Mars and Saturn in the wing of the constellation Virgo.

To the Mesopotamian astrologer/priest this conjunction would be described as Nergal, the warrior, joining with the King and both being blessed by Ishtar, the radiating Venus. These events are embedded into the month by being associated with the crescent moon. All of this activity in the sky occurs in the wing of Virgo which places this sky story into the realm of a king who is in exile or far away – the wing of Virgo.

Looking at the Symbolism

The separate components of this sky story describe how the warrior Nergal (Mars) joins with the king (Saturn) or leader, suggesting that the king and his army or his general are in accord. This union of king and general occurs in the wing of the constellation Virgo, a part of the sky linked with the concept of exile, so this king or group is in exile or disempowered in some manner. To the Mesopotamian astrologer/priest therefore this Mars- Saturn conjunction would probably be read as a king in a far off land who is raising an army.

Such a conjunction would have been seen as a threat and letters written to the king would have suggested that he be prepared for war. Indeed such a letter was written by the astrologer/priest Sapikuof Borsippa around the middle of the 7th century BCE when he wrote on a clay tablet:

- [— Mars reaches Saturn.
? [If ...] surrounds [...] which is in front of
it: attack of the enemy; a decision will be
given [for the Wes]tland. [1]

Figure 2:Venus as the evening star. However, this sky story has additional themes. Just as Mars and Saturn come together, the bright evening star of Venus slides underneath Saturn and a few days later joins with Mars. Much has been written in these newsletters about Venus and her ability to empower another planet by her brightness. She is the only female planetary deity in Mesopotamian astrology and her brightness is her power, the gift she can give to another.

If she is a morning star (rising before the sun) then she is aggressive, at times represented as bearded, and often carrying weapons. However, as an evening star (setting after sunset) she is more attuned to reconciliation, treaties, bringing communication and cooperation to whatever she is uniting.

We can see the impact of a Mars-Saturn conjunction being joined by a bright Venus in the same letter written by Sapiku of Borsippa. He pointed out that Mars received radiance (conjunct a bright Venus) and Saturn was faint. The letter does not indicate whether Venus was morning rising or evening setting but his advice to the king that, since Mars was strengthened by Venus so the king should attack his enemies, strongly suggests a morning rising Venus.

Mar[s, the star] of Subartu, is bright and carries radiance; this is good for Subartu.

And Saturn, the star of the Westland, is faint,
and its radiance is fallen; this is bad for the Westland; an attack of an enemy will occur against the Westland.

Figure 3: Venus as the morning star.

With our current sky story the radiance occurs from an evening setting Venus, thus we may be able to predict the following for this next lunar month, from August to early September:

A warrior king or group that has been disempowered or in exile rises to dominance in the news cycle. At first this news story may contain threats, attacks or outbreaks of violence. However, as Venus moves through this conjunction, there will be talks of peace, reconciliation, or treaties. The addition of the crescent moon suggests that the reconciliation or treaty holds a dominant position in the news cycle until early September.


The shift of this story into reconciliation rather than one of attack and war rests totally on the delineation of a bright evening setting Venus radiating the Mars- Saturn. Indeed if this Venus was a morning rising Venus, then it would suggest attacks, invasion and conflicts. This next month therefore provides us with a good chance to 'see' how Venus is working in visual astrology.

Checking a little history

Using Jigsaw [2] I created 1000 years of daily ephemeris and scanned this to look for previous occurrences of this sky narrative. The only occurrence of this combination in the last millennium was 16–19 August 1165, and for these dates there was no major military incursion or violence. By widening the search and including a Mars, Saturn, Venus conjunction in the wing of Virgo but not requiring the Venus to be bright, there was one other period on 8-14 September 1421. Once again the historical records were silent apart from a year of flooding in the Netherlands when the dykes broke in April and November 1421, drowning over 100,000 people.

The lack of historical evidence around these dates I find interesting. History tends to record battles and conflicts and not the quiet talks that bring peace or reconciliation between groups.

So the sky this coming August. Firstly it will be lovely to behold. From the the first week of August look to the west in the early evening and as the sky darkens you will see firstly Venus, then Mar and finally a fainter Saturn. These three will be sitting in the wing of Virgo, so look a little further to the east for the blue star Spica. By 12 August look to the west for the first crescent moon in the early twilight and then keep watching above this moon (below if you are in the southern hemisphere) to see the three lights of Venus, Mars and Saturn.

Then tune in to your sources and listen for news of reconciliation or the beginning of talks that attempt to heal old wounds. In your own life this is also a time to heal old wounds, so reach out to those in your life who are in exile in some way. Families and friends also have times of conflict and times of healing. This I believe is a time of healing.

1. Hunger, Herman. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. Helsinki, Finland:Helsinki University Press, 1992. p.271.

2. Jigsaw is an astrological research program which I co-designed with Esoteric Technologies. It is available through ET in Australia as well as Astrolabe in the USA, UK.

Uranus-Pluto Update

I haven’t been around for a week because I’m busy making arrangements to acquire a new home on Dartmoor. So I may be a bit sporadic for the next month or so.

The big sky story now and for the next few years is the square from Uranus to Pluto, which last occurred in the late 1920s/early 1930s. The difference between the 2 squares is that the 1930s square was the closing square in a Uranus-Pluto cycle, and this one is an opening square. They are both very dynamic and transformative, being squares, but the 1930s square was dynamically ushering in the end of an era, whereas this one is dynamically ushering in a new era, whose seeds were sown at the conjunction 40 years ago.

For the West, the 1930s square ushered in the Great Depression, World War II and then 20 years of unprecedented peace and prosperity, which has continued beyond the end of that Uranus-Pluto cycle through to the present day. So that, maybe, was the final outcome to the old cycle: the transformation necessary to bring about a long period of peace and prosperity.

But that period, which we are sort of still in, is starting to show its own cracks, at least for the West. It cannot be sustained indefinitely, for environmental reasons, for reasons of energy and resources as well as over-population, and because power is shifting eastwards. We do not know what type of world is being ushered in, but we do know it is coming. The post-War world, you could say, was just the pre-War world working right. We’d finally got capitalism to run more smoothly, along with enough international co-operation to keep it all going. It’s that underlying model, with a new cycle now presenting itself forcefully, that is being challenged.

In the 30s, Pluto was in Cancer, and now he is in Capricorn. They are opposite signs, forming an axis of homeland and government, which are related themes. The 30s square from Uranus obviously resulted in the destruction of many homelands, while the German notion of Lebensraum was very Pluto in Cancer.

The present square – which is in its early stages – could involve similar themes. But governments have taken action to avoid another Great Depression, which was one of the major causes of World War II. There could, however, be considerable restructuring of national boundaries (Capricorn). A couple of days ago the UN Court (a Pluto in Cap institution) ruled that Kosovo’s secession from Serbia was not illegal. This will doubtless help legitimise the claims of dozens of other breakaway regions around the world. The ‘breakaway’ is described by Uranus in its square to Pluto.

There are 2 opposite themes running concurrently today: the world is increasingly dominated by the big 3 of the EU, the US and China (also a Pluto in Capricorn theme), and yet many small regions want to break away. The US doesn’t have this issue, for historical reasons, but it is starting to rear its head in China, which is made up of many different peoples. Russia has it with Chechnya, and through its treatment of its neighbours as mere satellites (like the US used to be able to do in South America – see John Pilger’s documentary The War on Democracy.)

We are likely to see both of these themes intensify over the next couple of years as the Uranus-Pluto square moves towards becoming exact in 2012.

Last Sunday's Eclipse: What Happened Next

The Explosion that created theDeepwater Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico occurred on 20th April, with the Moon at 22 Cancer trine to Uranus in Pisces. The Moon and Cancer are both indicative of the earth and the environment, and the trine to Uranus describes the disruptive explosion that occurred. (The breaching of the levees in New Orleans under Hurricane Katrina also had Moon in Cancer trine to Uranus in Pisces!)


Click to Enlarge

Last Sunday’s Total Eclipse occurred with the Sun and Moon 3 degrees off the Deepwater Moon at 19 Cancer. Eclipses catalyse significant events, and it seems obvious that part of the meaning of this Eclipse is the cap that has just been put on the well, that one way or the other should ensure that no more oil leaks into the ocean.

Eclipses come in cycles that have their own charts, based on the first in the cycle, and Bernadette Brady describes this one as: “It will bring successful outcomes to long-term worries or illness. An issue which has worried or drained the individual for some time will at first seem to be worse and then clear, with generally successful outcomes.”

This is spot on for the Oil Spill, even to the “will at first seem to be worse and then clear”, because to put on the present cap, they had to let the spillage get worse for a while.

Some astrologers say that Eclipses need to be used with just one degree orbs. This one has a 3 degree orb to the Moon of the Deepwater Chart, but it works so well that I think we have to allow such orbs.

Another “long-term worry or illness” has been the US financial system, and this week, in the wake of the eclipse, legislation passed through the Senate (having previously been passed by the House of Representatives) that is designed to prevent a recurrence of the recent financial crisis.

Not that this will help Obama much in the upcoming mid-term elections, significant as his legislation is. 38% of Americans have not heard of it, and 33% have heard of it, but have very little idea what is in it! And this is an issue that has intimately affected the financial security of just about everyone! If I was Obama, I’d just feel why bother? It unfortunately plays into a European stereotype of what most Americans are like. But stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason, so Italy has a corrupt clown for a leader, who is also very popular; the French president has married a well-known model; and the British PM went to Eton. Meanwhile the German leader exudes stolid fiscal responsibility.

Back to the Eclipse. I have found Bernadette Brady’s interpretations of eclipses to be very accurate when applied to my own chart, and also in the above mundane instance. She uses midpoints, with which I am not very familiar, to make her interpretations.


Click to Enlarge (Ignore House Cusps and Angles)

In the case of this Eclipse series, she uses two midpoints: Jupiter on the New Moon/Mars midpoint (‘successful outcomes’) and, to use the correct terminology, Neptune = New Moon/Saturn (‘long-term worries or illness’). Neptune is opposite rather than conjunct the midpoint. The involvement of the New Moon, the eclipse itself, in both midpoints, is testament to the power of this eclipse series.

I’m not sure why Brady says ‘an issue… will at first seem worse then clear’. Perhaps she sees Neptune/Saturn as in a way more powerful than Mars/Jupiter. To start with Neptune/Saturn is therefore emphasised, but is then lifted into its more positive form by Jupiter/Mars?

Why Astrology Shouldn't Work

The whole point about astrology is that it ‘shouldn’t’ work. That is why it’s so wondrous. It catapaults us into a different sense of how the universe works, a universe that has its mystery and charm back. This is half the reason that readings can be so powerful: it’s not just that what is said is true, it’s also how the hell can the astrologer know this about me?

I’ve spent quite a lot of time struggling with the fact that astrology ‘shouldn’t’ work. A simple demonstration of this is the zodiac, the various signs in which we find the planets. Several thousand years ago these signs were all declared to be thirty degrees each, yet nature is of course not regular like this. And then the signs have slipped along the ecliptic by 23 degrees since then, so that what we term 10 Pisces, for example, is in fact about 17 degrees Aquarius.

So the signs are pure hokum. Any notions of ‘energies’ and 'vibrations' (the last refuge of a New Age scoundrel) are out the window. And yet the signs work, and work very well.

The planets themselves can be a bit misleading, because they are real bodies in real places, and their relationships to each other do tell us a lot about ourselves. This can lead us to conclude that astrology is somehow rational, that there is a subtle physical relationship between the astronomical bodies and ourselves.

You even get astrologers who try to iron out the ‘irrational’ bits – i.e. the signs – and just stick to the planets and the asteroids. But this is to miss the point. The fact that the signs work when they are hokum needs to be faced, because it tells us a lot about the nature of astrology and indeed all divination systems, which is that we are dealing primarily in symbols. We may need to be able to put the meanings of these symbols in a rationally coherent form, but their fundamental function is not rational: their function is to awaken the imagination, our sense of an expanded and meaningful universe; and to awaken the intuition, our sense of knowing that precedes sense-based evidence.

It is the same with Tarot. There is no ‘reason’ a bunch of symbols picked out blind should tell us anything useful. But they do, and they are the ‘right’ symbols; you can easily imagine cards that would not have been appropriate for that person. Why the 'right' symbols should turn up, whether in astrology or tarot, is a mystery to be lived with and to be awed by. We could of course call it the Law of Attraction or something, but that just beguiles us into thinking we have an explanation when all we have is a name and a description.

The imagination and intuition precede the rational mind, though it is easy to forget this. The sense-based, ordering mind performs a very necessary function, but it also has a tendency to think it is in control, and that reality can be reduced to its terms. This is the Scientific Materialist Fallacy. When life is very busy, as modern life usually is, it is natural to think of the imagination and intuition as at best adjuncts to our advanced rational endowment, which has been so successful at bringing material benefits and improvements and a certain type of understanding.

So astrology, tarot etc remind us of how the universe really works, precisely because they ‘shouldn’t’ work. Reality precedes rationality. Reality is to be felt and wondered at, and then thought about.

If someone asks you to explain or justify astrology, I think the honest starting point is that there is no reason that it should work, and that we don’t know why it should work, but for some weird reason it does.

The logical fallacy that astrology’s debunkers are prone to is that astrology doesn’t work because it can’t work. The problem is not that astrology is non-rational but that its opponents are irrational. These are 2 different things. The non-rational is that aspect of things that cannot be described by the sense-based reasoning process. To be irrational is to ignore inconvenient evidence. (By the same token, it is irrational for astrologers to ignore the fact that the zodiac signs are hokum.)

Astrology doesn’t work because it can’t work. This is the assumption going on in the mind of many people who dismiss it. What you’re up against is religion, in the sense of metaphysical beliefs that are not open to question. It is the religion of scientific materialism, which perhaps produces a higher proportion of fundamentalists than Islam or Christianity. In these cases there’s no point trying to convince people, because they can’t listen to evidence.

What’s great about astrology is that it’s not a belief system. Astrologers have all sorts of beliefs, and it doesn’t stop them being astrologers. Astrology is practical, you can see it working. Of course, you can create a belief system around it to do with rays of energy and harmonies of the spheres etc if you want to. But I think it’s most helpful and honest to remain in that slightly uncomfortable place where you admit that you don’t know and can’t know what’s going on, but which also therefore occasionally opens up a sense of the unknowable and mysterious nature of the universe.

Sunday's Eclipse and the Destruction of the Catholic Church

On 11th July there is a total eclipse of the Sun, but only visible as such over the South Pacific Ocean and the tip of South America. Eclipses are catalysts for the deeper undercurrents in the collective that are always moving humanity one way or another, sometimes at faster rates – like now - than at others.



Eclipses come in cycles that can last 1500 years or so. They start off as a partial eclipse and gradually grow until after say 500 years they reach totality, then they start to wane.

Sunday’s Eclipse cycle began in 1541. What we are seeing now should bear some sort of relationship to, or represent some sort of fruition, of events in 1541, particularly as we have reached totality.

Looking through the Historical Ephemeris and Wiki, one theme that jumps out from 1541 was the progress of the Reformation - the replacement, if you like, of the Catholic Church with the Protestant Church in many parts of Europe. In the Ephemeris for 1541 we see: John Knox leads the Calvinist Reformation in Scotland; Henry VIII assumes title of king of Ireland & head of Irish church; John Calvin founds reformed church and puritan Protestant order in Geneva. And in Wiki we read: Iceland adopts the Lutheran faith.

What we are seeing currently is not so much the progress of Protestantism as the destruction of the Catholic Church, which has been particularly intense this year as the paedophile priest scandal has gone worldwide. The forms and the shell remain, but the heart – if it ever had one – is being torn out of it.

A Chart for the Christian Era can be generated, using the 1st of January 1AD at midnight, set for Jerusalem. This chart has transiting Pluto beginning to conjoin its Sun, just as it did at the beginning of the Reformation. The Church is going through a big change.


Click to Enlarge

Sunday’s Eclipse, set for the birthplace of the Christian Era, has the Cancer Sun-Moon conjunction in the 5th House: the care and nurture (Cancer) of children (5th House); and Neptune-Chiron Rising: redemption (Neptune) and healing (Chiron). The Eclipse Sun-Moon conjunction at 19 Cancer also exactly trines the 2nd House Scorpio Neptune of the Christian Chart, showing how money is involved in this issue: the loss (Neptune) of wealth (in which lies much of its power, Scorpio) through the big payments to victims – as well as, perhaps, loss of money through the collection box. What person in their right mind would give money to an institution that breeds and protects paedophiles? Plenty of people still give, no doubt, which shows what religion does to people’s minds.

Bernadette Brady gives a meaning for this Saros Series (as they are called) of Eclipses, using the chart for the first eclipse in the cycle: “It will bring successful outcomes to long-term worries or illness. An issue which has worried or drained the individual for some time will at first seem to be worse and then clear, with generally successful outcomes.” This could be seen as the clearing of the culture of paedophile priests within the Church, which is an illness. It is systemic, and the Church seems very reluctant to address its systems, so the Church itself may have to collapse to bring change.

July's Cardinal T-Square and June's Lunar Eclipse

The aspects in the sky have been exceptionally intense for some time now, with Uranus-Jupiter at the start of Aries squaring Pluto and opposing Saturn. This is only going to intensify over the next few weeks as Saturn then Mars enter Libra. So here’s a bit of 12-step light relief in case you’re finding it all a bit much:

In terms of world events, I can’t necessarily say there's more going on than usual. We’ve got a world economic crisis, but that’s been going for 18 months. The Americans have just admitted they’re losing in Afghanistan, but we’ve been there before. Even the Deepwater Oil Spill appears to be out of the news. So maybe all this intensity is just going on in the heads of the astrologers, and it keeps their lives interesting?

I think that what the world is going through is intense uncertainty. The balance of power in the Middle East – in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran - looks like it’s tipping away from America, and Iraq is hardly guaranteed to remain America’s friend after the handover. At the same time the world economy seems to be teetering on the brink of a ‘double-dip’ recession, with no-one sure whether government spending cuts will help or hinder. America tends towards not cutting spending, Europe towards cutting.

For astrological reasons I think we will undoubtedly look back on this period as highly significant, even as a turning point, because astrology does actually work. What I guess the astrology is saying is that there is more going on than meets the eye, things are shifting in a big way, but we will only see in what way with hindsight. That said, it is quite possible that we will see some dramatic events or dramatic shifts over the next few weeks as the cardinal t-square intensifies.


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Cardinality is about action, about starting things, and the fact that the t-square is at the start of the Cardinal signs emphasises this meaning. It is a time of beginnings, but again beginnings are not always obvious, a seed first starts growing beneath the ground.

Last weekend there was a partial lunar eclipse, intensified by the Grand Cross the Sun and Moon made with Saturn, Uranus, Jupiter and Pluto. An eclipse occurs on a New or Full Moon when the Moon crosses the ecliptic, the path of the Sun through the sky. Because the Moon is at that moment on the same path as the Sun, you either get the Moon obscuring the Sun (Solar Eclipse and a New Moon) or the earth obscuring the Moon from the Sun (Lunar Eclipse and a Full Moon). The North and South Node are the points where the Sun’s and Moon’s paths cross. The Nodal Axis, therefore, brings together the two main planets in the chart, and so has an overall significance – even a deep, karmic significance. At an eclipse, the Sun and Moon will be lined up near the Nodal Axis.


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I’m saying all this because when I looked up the astrocartography of the eclipse, the Nodal Axis was along the Ascendant-Descendant just a few tens of miles from the Deepwater Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It points to the significance of this event, which will reverberate and shape policy for decades to come. As if that wasn’t enough, Uranus was on the MC about 10 miles from the site of the Oil Spill at the moment of the eclipse, square to the Sun and Moon. Uranus describes the event perhaps better than any other planet: a sudden explosion with all sorts of consequences. The signs of the eclipse Sun and Moon seem to say something: Cancer (well-being at home and in the environment) opposite Capricorn (corporate interests.)

The Sun and Moon of the eclipse, at 4.50 Cancer/Cap, made a close square with BP's Venus, its wealth, at 3.45 Aries. Apparently the drilling of the relief wells is ahead of schedule, so the eclipse could also put some sort of boundary (Capricorn) around the cost to BP of the spill: uncertainty over this has hammered its share price. I think the best way forward is not to destroy these companies, but to change them. Rant: people often blame the big corporations for many of our woes, but who owns them? Pensions funds, for example, are big and influential owners, and that comes down to you and me. The big corporations are an expression of the collective will, and that is where the change needs to be. All else is shadow projection.