The Astrology of Peak Oil

Peak Oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum production is reached, after which the rate of production enters its terminal decline. (Wiki)

I’ve always thought that however much we are exhorted to use less petrol etc, it’s not going to happen while it remains affordable, and it will remain affordable until demand starts to significantly outstrip supply. i.e. Peak Oil.

I’m cynical about the extent to which the burning of oil is held to be responsible for global warming, because the issue has been politicised to such a degree. Even if we are the main cause of global warming, nothing is going to stop us using up the oil until it starts to run out. For all the attempts to get global agreements, we have still continued collectively to increase our use of oil.

I have no hopes of the politicians being effective, and the current biofuel fiasco proves the point. On one level biofuel is a nice idea, but any intelligent person can see it will lead to food shortages. Because the issue was politicised, intelligence went out the window. It wasn’t the individual politicians who were stupid, it was the stupidity that so often arises when you have a collective taking action.

The main problem with the use of oil in my opinion is that it is a limited resource, and our civilisation has come to depend heavily on it. This is why Peak Oil is such a significant point, because it will force significant change to where we get our energy from and even maybe a realisation that we need to use less energy. Until that point is reached, we will just be playing with alternative energy technologies.

The big question is when will peak oil be reached? Nobody knows, and there are plenty of theories about when. What we do know is that most of the countries that produce significant quantities of oil, e.g. Iran, USA, UK and possibly Russia, have already peaked. This is very telling.

The issue is complicated by the possibility of using non-conventional sources of oil, such as oil sands, where extraction is harder, but which becomes more economically feasible as the price of oil increases.


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The chart for the first Oil Strike is set for 28 Aug 1859 at 4pm in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Neptune is the symbol for Oil, and we find Neptune at 26 Pisces in the 2nd House of wealth and resources, which sounds about right. Pluto is conjunct the IC, revealing Oil to be a source of power. And the Node is in Aquarius conjunct Chiron, showing the potential for damage (Chiron) inherent in its use, particularly when combined with the scientific mind (Aquarius). Interestingly, the chart for the first man-made nuclear chain reaction also has a Chiron-Node conjunction.

In July this year, there will again be a Chiron-Node conjunction, and what is really remarkable is that it will be at 19.16 Aquarius, just a few minutes of a degree off the almost exact conjunction in the First Oil Strike chart. It's almost as if there is some sort of reckoning coming up, the need for a collective understanding that oil is not to be relied on in the way we have relied on it.

What I am particularly interested in is the Progressed Pluto of the Oil Strike chart. In the chart of a nation, a change in direction of Progressed Pluto can mark the rise and fall of that nation’s fortunes, of its power (Pluto).

This works well, for example, in the case of the rise and fall of the British Empire in the UK 1801 Chart. It works in the case of China, whose Prog Pluto changed direction in the late nineties as she began her rise to becoming a world economic power.

The US Prog Pluto will not change direction for another 70 years, which sounds about right to me. People have for years been quick to announce that the US is effectively bankrupt and owned by Japan, or owned by China, and that the end is nigh. But actually its economy is still several times the size of its nearest rival. We are likely to see the size of that difference narrowing in future decades, particularly because of China, and maybe the EU if it pulls together more. But I think it will still be a long time before the US is challenged as the main power in the world. 2076, that’s the year to look out for!

In the case of the chart for Oil, Progressed Pluto changed direction in 2004. There you have it. It is still stationing, and will not start to move again until 2014. We may not know when Peak Oil is going to be reached, but the astrology seems to be saying that actually we have pretty much reached it already (as some people do claim). However, we will only fully know this in hindsight, as Prog Pluto begins to move again from 2014 onwards - the same year that transiting Pluto conjoins the ASC of the Oil Chart.

Pluto squared natal Neptune at 26 Pisces in 2006, a further indication that Peak Oil may have been reached in recent years.

The price of oil has risen dramatically in recent months. There are all sorts of reasons for this. But if the astrology is right, one underlying reason would be the sense that there is a growing and permanent supply problem. It is perfect that Pluto should be entering Capricorn as this happens, because it reflects the deep structural change that will be necessary to solve the problem.