ARE YOU SPIRITUAL?

A year or two ago I went on a seminar with the astrologer Liz Greene on the subject of ‘God in the Chart’, or something like that, and she began by asking which of us considered ourselves to be ‘spiritual’. Probably half the audience stuck their hands up, and I sat there, put on the spot, unsure. I can’t even remember now whether or not I put my hand up, nor what her take on it was. But afterwards I quickly came to the conclusion that no, I shouldn’t put my hand up.

The reason I was unsure was because for many years – during my misspent youth – I did consider myself to be ‘spiritual’, as did the majority of the members of the Buddhist set-up to which I belonged. This attitude, in which existence is divided into higher and lower, heavenly and earthly, spiritual and worldly, eventually made me ill. But it was also tied up with my real aspirations and desire for meaning. Hence I was unsure.

I’m not sure that I have yet encountered anyone who thinks of themselves as ‘spiritual’ where it seems to me to be healthy. I think that in theory it could be: we need to be able to speak about that instinct in us that wants to become more conscious, more balanced, that wants to learn from experience and feel some kind of wider significance to our actions. And we need to be able to speak about it without subtly putting down the earthly, the bodily, the instinctual, the animal, and without feeling ourselves to be a ‘superior’ kind of person who has a ‘spiritual’ path.

And I’m sure there are ‘spiritual’ people who don’t fall into this trap. But it’s not easy, and I think this is because of our western religious background. Even though we may have shrugged off orthodox Christianity, it’s attitudes run deep, it has been around us for over a thousand years. And I think that as soon as we start using the word ‘spiritual’ we drag in the Christian hierarchical view of the universe, a hierarchy that was in many ways rooted in Roman power. We have the hierarchies of good and bad, angel and devil, man and woman, human and animal, mind and body, ascent and descent, spiritual and worldly.

I recently did a reading for someone that, in my view, went to the heart of their current situation, and the imbalances they needed to work through. I was pleased with it. The person later commented that the reading had been all very well, but that I hadn’t also said anything about his ‘spiritual path’, as though this was something separate from – and presumably more flattering than – the minor matter of his actual life!

Another person I recently did a reading for had Moon opposite Sun-Neptune in Sagittarius, and was completely identified with the ‘spiritual’ talents this gives her. She considered the angelic realm to be ‘home’. BUT she also had Saturn conjunct North Node – both learning points – sitting next to the bottom of the chart in Virgo. So clearly her lesson is in learning to be embodied, coming down to earth, learning to want to be here on this planet rather than just serving time. Her identification of herself as ‘spiritual’ was a way of avoiding facing herself. And this is generally what it seems to come down to: people who see themselves as ‘spiritual’ more often than not, in my experience, have pain and difficulties that they do not feel ready to face. It was pretty much the norm in the Buddhist set-up that I was part of.

All that said, I think there IS a sense in which the universe is hierarchical. And another sense in which the universe is just what it is, things are innately themselves without any notion of judging between them. On the one hand, I am simply who I am, you are simply who you are, we are supremely and beautifully ourselves, and it seems ludicrous to talk of one thing as better or as more valuable then another. On the other hand, I feel that I have learnt from my experience, that I am less naïve, that my consciousness has progressed over the last few decades. I also see a sense in which consciousness progresses generally in life: the human quality of empathy for others, for example, seems to me to be a progression from animal consciousness. I don’t think there is any final answer here. I think both models are useful, and both have their pitfalls. But personally, I prefer to think of my life as an unfoldment of my true nature, rather than as an ascent towards the light (yuk!)!

CONSPIRACIES

I'm still offline after 3 weeks. This is no longer a mercury retrograde problem, it is part of a wider conspiracy against me personally. British Telecom now say they have to dig up the road outside my house, but they can only do it on a Sunday (due to traffic considerations) and they have to get a license from the council first, which for the last 2 Sundays they haven't had. What can I do? Not pay my bill? They'll just cut me off until I do. Humiliating as it is, I have to accept my powerlessness in relation to these big companies. But as I said, it is really a conspiracy against me personally. It is THEM, the secret rulers of the world, the seven families that have really controlled the western world since medieval times.

The thing about conspiracies is that some of them are actually true, but I really don't believe most of them. Some people take it as a matter of accepted knowledge that, for example, the Americans didn't land on the Moon. It would be fascinating if it was a hoax, but it would require too much of a cover-up amongst all those people working at NASA. Not one of them has declared the landings a hoax, and the so-called evidence of a hoax is pretty shoddy. I wish someone would present a decent case for the landings having been a hoax.

Another case that is taken as accepted knowledge (and you have to bear in mind that I live in Glastonbury, UK) is that 9/11 was a government conspiracy to facilitate war in the Middle East. I simply don't believe that, and can't be bothered to say why. But what I will say is that conspiracy theorists tend to have a strong emotional investment in their position, they really WANT, for example, for the Americans not to have landed on the Moon. Why they should want this needs proper socio-psychological research. But it seems to have a lot to do with a feeling of disempowerment. Which brings me back to British Telecom and my lack of landline and my lack of internet!

MERCURY RETROGRADE and ME and MY NEWFOUND YOD

I haven't posted for nearly 2 weeks now, and the reason is.....yes, you've guessed it, MERCURY RETROGRADE. My phone line went down over a week ago, so no internet and no blog. I'm currently round at a friend's house grabbing a few minutes on his computer. BT are due to dig up the road on Sunday to try and fix my line, so hopefully I'll be back soon.

I suppose I did start this blogsite under the last Merc Retro in July, so i'm only getting my come-uppance. It's amazing how literally true Merc Retro seems to be for me. Communication and travel. During the last one, I had a lot of trouble trying to buy my son a bike and gave up.

I've just discovered that I have a yod, with Ceres at the apex, and Moon and Chiron at the base. Which explains the maternal issues, let us say, that have haunted me all my adult life, despite my best attempts to flee them. These issues have felt fated and like I'm being shoved somewhere I need to go to in order to sort something from the distant, distant past (on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I believe in previous lives). But with transiting Pluto just finishing conjoining one side of the base of the yod, and Neptune currently conjoining the other side, I may be about to meet my fate. You can run but you can't hide - is this one way of describing yods?

GEORGE BUSH AND THE CERES MYTH

I was watching George Bush on the last-minute campaign trail for the mid-term elections on TV last night, and I was fascinated to see him proclaiming "Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to DEATH!" Just the way he pronounced the word 'death', the way it came so naturally out of his mouth (no muddling his words here!), the shout of triumph and joy at another person's annihilation - it was like Pluto himself speaking, rather than a human being. And GWB does indeed have a Mercury-Pluto-Ascendant conjunction in Leo, that is only weakly connected to the rest of his chart. So I think he is a good example of how an outer planet, in its demonic form, can take over a personality when not well-integrated with the rest of the chart, and become a voice for the collective at its worst, for the mob, for the rednecks. Hitler's chart, with its unaspected Neptune-Pluto conjunction, is a classic case of this kind.

So it's as though these mid-term elections represent a stark choice for Americans between mob mentality and something more conscious. It is interesting that Sacha Baron Cohen's film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, that exposes the crude prejudices in many ordinary Americans, should have come out at this juncture.

Along with Eris, Ceres has recently been promoted to the status of dwarf planet (while Pluto has been demoted to this status), so now is a time of exploration of these bodies amongst astrologers. In my post of 1st Nov, I talked about the Ceres myth in the life and chart of Madonna. Well, it just so happens also to be prominent in the chart of George W Bush (6 July 1946, 7.26am, New Haven, Connecticut).

GWB has Ceres at 10.48 Aquarius, just above his Descendant at 7.07 Aquarius, and closely opposite his Pluto at 10.35 Leo. If anyone is going to be acting out the Ceres myth on the public stage, it is GWB, especially as Pluto is in literal opposition to Ceres in the myth itself.

Ceres is the goddess of motherly love and growing plants. In the Myth, her daughter Persephone (or, strictly speaking, Kore) is abducted by Pluto, Lord of the Underworld. After much searching, Ceres gets her daughter back, but only for 6 months of the year (which becomes summer): for the other 6 months, which become winter, Persephone is back in the Underworld, where she is married to Pluto.

In the case of Madonna, who has a Ceres-Moon-ASC conjunction, we have recently seen her 'rescuing' a young boy from the underworld of famine and poverty in Africa, but finding she cannot take full possession of him - the father expects her to take him to visit. This is Pluto's price.

In the case of George Bush, Neptune was conjoining his Ceres in 2003, activating the redeemer aspect of Ceres, which he lived out by attempting to rescue the Iraqi people from Pluto in the form of Saddam Hussein. He has succeeded in this, but Pluto has popped up again in the form of carnage and torture every bit as bad as it was under Saddam, and there seems to be no prospect of an end to it. George Bush has not managed to negotiate with Pluto in order to ameliorate, at least to some degree, the sufferings of the Iraqi people.

Ceres' attempts to rescue her daughter are not motivated by disinterested compassion, but by the love of a mother for her daughter. It is personal. Madonna's adoption of David Banda is about Madonna as much as it is about David Banda. That does not make it wrong, for that is the nature of parental affection. But it also suggests that George Bush's invasion of Iraq was personal (as we all know), and it wasn't just about oil (though the Neptune transit to his chart at the time suggests oil was a factor). Neptune was conjoining his Ceres: George Bush junior was going to personally redeem the Iraqi people from the clutches of Pluto-Saddam. But with natal Pluto opposite Ceres, Bush was projecting his own Pluto onto Saddam, it was his own demons he was fighting. And with Sun in Cancer square to Moon-Chiron, and with a powerful Ceres, GWB also has issues of feeling unloved and unmothered and abandoned. One could say he was projecting this onto the Iraqi people.

It does seem that this whole opposition within himself between Ceres and Pluto has been played out in Iraq, with the suffering people at one end and Saddam/the terrorists/Al Qaeda/the insurgents at the other. And the situation cannot improve unless George Bush learns to negotiate with Pluto, instead of trying to kill him. From tomorrow, it looks like he will have to learn to negotiate with the Democrats, too!

Chiron will be conjoining George Bush's Ceres, and opposing his Pluto, all of next year. All 3 of these bodies are very important in his natal chart. This transit suggests an emerging understanding that the present policy in Iraq cannot work (Chiron), that Pluto must be negotiated with, rather than opposed, if Persephone is to be rescued. Transiting Chiron came within a degree of GWB's Ceres this year, and we have in recent months seen the beginnings of a new approach to Iraq.

Bush's nodal axis is Gemini-Sag, which resonates with the above theme. What comes easily to him is his South Node in Sag, the imposition of what he sees as Absolute Truth on other people. What he needs to learn is Gemini, the air ability to stand back from an issue and apply reason and properly discuss things. (I see this axis as Faith versus Reason). In 2003, as the US invaded Iraq, Pluto came within half a degree of conjoining this axis (at 20.35 degrees), empowering his fundamentalism, and setting him up for a fall. In 2007, Uranus will be within orb of squaring this axis, and in 2008 will actually square it. So it looks like George Bush's fundamentalism and lack of use of reason is going to be shaken up in the last 2 years of his Presidency. He can either turn into a Uranian crackpot or he can learn something. It's just a pity that people like him have to drag half the world with them and create widespread carnage before they'll learn anything.

THE SUNNI NUCLEAR BOMB

In the UK, we have a TV series called 'Spooks' in which a group of MI5 agents tackle the latest threat to Britain's security. The plots often seem to me somewhat far-fetched, but then something happens in the real world that has been foreseen in an episode of Spooks. They seem to have an unusually prescient team of writers.

In last week's episode, the Saudi Arabians were trying to buy nuclear technology off the British, and a group of Mossad agents, disguised as Al Qaeda terrorists, were trying to scupper the deal. I found the initial premise, that the Saudis, with all their oil, should at this stage be trying to get nuclear power, not very likely.

Likely or not, yesterday's headlines in the UK papers were that 6 Arab nations, including Saudi Arabia, are trying to get nuclear technology, as a response to Iran's progress towards developing nuclear weapons.

Islam is divided into 2 main factions, the Shias and the Sunnis, who are currently engaged in a fight to the death in Iraq. This can only have deepened divisions across the Arab world. A Sunni friend of mine, who is a reasonable and moderate person, laughs off the Shias as not real Muslims. If even moderate Muslims hold these sorts of views, is it any surprise they are at each other's throats in Iraq?

With Iran, a Shia nation, moving towards joining the nuclear club, and with the minority Sunni population in Iraq having been removed from power by the 2003 invasion, the Sunnis are feeling under threat. Hence the desire by a number of Sunni nations to acquire nuclear technology.

Any country intent on acquiring nuclear technology will always say it is for peaceful purposes. In the case of Iran, the astrology tells a different story. (See my posting of 18th July, 'The Iran Nuclear Crisis'.) And in the case of this recent report of Arab nations trying to gain nuclear technology for 'peaceful' purposes, the astrology suggests that this is also not the case (as if we needed telling!)

The chart for nuclear weapons (based on the bomb at Hiroshima) has an exact Progressed New Moon on 6 November, 2 days after the above report hit the headlines. This is not to my mind conclusive astrological evidence, but it is a strong pointer to the real intentions of these Arab nations.

Hiroshima: 6 Aug 1945, 8.16 am, Hiroshima, Japan.

The Hiroshima chart has Angles at 16-17 degrees of the mutable signs, which Uranus will be hard transiting all of next year. Natal Uranus is itself conjunct the natal MC - exploding Uranium from the sky - so we can expect to see lots more unexpected developments around nuclear weaponry over the next year. As I said in my blog of 23rd Oct, the next phase of a transit often kicks in shortly before the planet changes direction and moves to make the actual transit. With Uranus currently retrograde at 11 Pisces, it is well out of orb of the Hiroshima Angles, but in 2 weeks it changes direction and moves forward to make the first actual crossing next April. So the transit has begun, as the above newspaper report shows.

The chart for all nuclear energy, peaceful or otherwise, has a progressed New Moon on 2 Jan 2007, so we have to take this into account in assessing the intentions of these Arab states. But the 'coincidence' with the progressed weapons chart remains too exact to ignore.

Astrology shows that we are entering a new era of the use of nuclear energy, and for more on this I refer you to my posting of 16th July ('Nuclear Alert').

Meanwhile, Uranus continues to hard-transit the combined Iran-Israel Mars-Pluto square (see Iran Nuclear Crisis posting). This is a chart generated by taking the midpoints between all the planets and house cusps across the 2 charts. The combined Mars is at 12 Gemini, which Uranus will have finished with, in terms of exact crossings, by mid-January 2007. But with Uranus about to change direction, a new phase is starting, and again we need to think about the possibility of a surgical strike by Israel on Iran's nuclear sites. After mid-Jan the threat will start to recede, but will remain a distinct possibility all of next year as Uranus opposes the combined Pluto at 15 Virgo, and then in 2008 as it opposes the combined ASC at 20 Virgo. So the crisis between these 2 countries, with one denying the other's right to exist, and the other secretly planning a strike with potentially huge consequences for the balance of power in the Middle East, could easily run for another 2 to 3 years.

MADONNA and THE CERES MYTH

In yesterday's blog I referred you to an article on Pluto and Ceres, using the case of the abduction and subsequent escape (8 years later) of Natascha Kampusch, which had a clear mythological connection with the abduction by Pluto of Ceres' daughter Persephone. Ceres was only promoted to the status of dwarf planet last August, so we can expect to see some synchronous events on the world stage that will help reveal her nature to us. Like the abduction and escape of Natascha Kampusch.

Ceres is currently at 15 Aquarius, coming up to conjoin Neptune at 17 Aquarius in 12 days time. It will be her 3rd pass over Neptune since last August. The Neptunian themes of victim and salvation fit very well with the Ceres myth, so this ongoing conjunction has been very timely.

On 12th October, with Ceres at 13 Aquarius and Neptune at 17 Aquarius, the pop singer Madonna finally got legal clearance in Malawi to adopt the 1 year old boy David Banda. This case has been in the headlines across the world, and the overall tone, in the UK at least (where Madonna lives), has been hostile. This may be a purely British phenomenon, where we are rightly galled, but also envious, at the rich being able to waltz in and get what they want, where others cannot.

At any rate, there are clear connections with the Ceres myth, the 'rescue' of a young person from an underworld of famine and hardship, the 'dark continent' of Africa.

Madonna: 16 Aug 1958, 7.05am, Bay City, Michigan.

With a Moon-Ceres-Asc Conjunction at 8-11 Virgo, we can see why it is not enough for Madonna just to have her own 2 natural children. With Moon conjunct ASC, motherhood is central to her, but the Ceres conjunction suggests that her sense of motherhood will not be complete unless she has in some way rescued a child from the underworld.

That is the mythological explanation. The psychological explanation arises from the fact that Madonna's mother died when she was 5 (1 Dec 1963), which she described as "one of the hardest things I've had to face in my life." Her death occurred 18 days after a Ceres-Neptune conjunction at 15 Scorpio, square to the current conjunction in Aquarius under which she adopted David Banda. So the astrology provides a clear link between her own sense of loss and abandonment (and, as a Leo, someone to make her feel 'special') and her 'rescuing' of David Banda, whose mother has also died.

But that doesn't necessarily mean that the adoption was just some weird compensation for the loss in her own childhood. If over time we face difficult issues in ourselves, genuine qualities that we might not otherwise have had can emerge. Madonna is 48, old enough for something real to have emerged from her own suffering (by way of needing to become Queen of Pop in the meantime). I've seen her interviewed on TV in the last year, and she seemed fairly real and down to earth. Not particularly interesting or original either, but at least she was real.

Madonna has Chiron at 19 Aquarius (opposite her Leo Sun), a further suggestion that the adoption - which occurred under a Ceres-Neptune conjunction at 13-17 Aquarius - is connected to her own wounding. On the day of the official adoption, the Moon entered Cancer, on the way to sextiling Madonna's Moon-Ceres, suggesting a rightness to the event.

The official adoption, however, was by no means the end of the story. Apart from the fact that various charities were trying to get it stopped, it transpired that while Madonna considered that she had adopted David in the full sense, his father thought that Madonna was just taking care of him till he was grown up, and that he would continue to see him as he grew up. The issue is not yet resolved, and it is hard to know who said what and whether or not there has been a misunderstanding.

But in adopting David, Madonna is also living out a myth (which, with Sun in the 12th, she is prone to, for better or for worse). And we can't choose to live out some parts of a myth and not others. When Ceres got Persephone back from the Underworld, it was only for 6 months of the year, she did not have 'sole possession'. Ceres was never happy about this, but it was the best she was going to get. So the myth is telling us that Madonna will also never have full possession of David in the way she might have wanted.

In the case of Natascha Kampusch, we can also expect there to be a sense in which she will never be entirely free of the dungeon in which she was held captive. But, with the strength of character which she has shown and which her chart suggests, she may well turn it to her advantage.


Madonna Astrology