Guns, the US Mars and the Strange Concept of 'Rights'

Uranus has been standing still in the sky for a while now, and this makes it more powerful than usual. Under this station, the US Supreme Court has for the first time said that ordinary citizens have the right to own hand guns. This has been a contentious issue for a many years. For now it just applies to Washington DC, but it will affect gun laws all over the US.

The contention has been about whether the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, ratified in 1791, protects an individual's right to possess guns, or is simply a collective right for an armed militia.

According to BBC News: ‘The Bush administration welcomed the court's decision. "We're pleased that the Supreme Court affirmed that the Second Amendment protects the right of Americans to keep and bear arms," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.’ (Note the decision concerns handguns: the laws are easier around rifles).

Personally I find it ghoulish that the Bush administration welcomes this decision. As a Brit, it seems insane to allow the general population to easily obtain guns. Yes, it will save a few lives, but in the long run it will cost a lot more lives than it saves. Yes, it will also make some people feel genuinely safer, but in the long run the overall context becomes less safe. In the UK, gun laws have been tightened up recently, with an automatic 5 year prison term if you are caught in possession of one without a license, whether in public or in your home.

The US has Mars at 21 Gemini square to Neptune at 22 Virgo. Uranus is still stationing at 22-23 Pisces, hard aspecting these 2 planets. The station was exact on Thursday, the day of the gun decision, showing the power of that single decision.

Gun ownership is obviously going to be connected with Mars, so it is highly appropriate that Uranus should have been squaring it. Uranus is surprising and catalytic, which this decision seems to be. Uranus is also concerned with equality and individual rights, which are at the basis of this decision.

Mars in Gemini shows the 2 sides of the argument about guns, the divided opinion. And in any consideration of the American Mars, we have to look also at Neptune, to which it is closely square. This square gives the romanticisation around guns, it is the cowboy aspect in the US chart. It seems almost like a sacred issue, a moral good for which many people campaign.

So I think it is quite a muddle. The ruling was made in terms of the right to bear arms, rather than on more practical considerations. In other words, it was ideologically driven, another mark of Uranus. I think it is a mark of immaturity to make decisions on the basis of ideology rather than on the basis of practical consequences.

In the UK we have our fetishes – like the Royal Family – but owning a gun is not one of them, it does not have that numinous quality (Neptune) with which many Americans endow it, and which makes them look ridiculous.

I think the problem goes back to the Declaration of Independence and the language in which it is couched: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

What is a ‘Right’? It would not have occurred to me that I have Rights unless I had been told so. And they are far from unalienable. I have certain rights in the UK because the UK government, for now, has told me I have them. And the UK government could, and under certain circumstances would, withdraw those rights. They are far from unalienable, except perhaps in an abstract, ideal sense which does not practically concern me. It’s not just the government that can withdraw these ‘unalienable’ rights. What about the unalienable right to life if I get a terminal disease? It becomes pretty clear that soon I will no longer have that right.

I don’t refrain from killing people because they have the ‘right’ to be alive. I refrain from killing people because I deeply wish to be alive and that makes me realise that other people also deeply wish to be alive. And the government also passes laws with severe consequences if you do kill. That seems to me to be enough and to be practical and empirical and you do not need to invoke abstractions such as ‘rights’. I do not have a ‘right’ to life. That is a childish way of thinking. I want to be alive, but I am also aware that I will only remain alive as long as certain conditions are met, and one day those conditions will no longer be met. Part of being alive involves coming to terms with this.

But the Declaration begins with the concept of rights, so immediately you are taken away from the real reason to treat people decently, which is that you empathise with them, and towards an abstract, legalistic reason. And you will also tend to focus on YOUR rights. Basing a culture on rights is likely to make it childish and self-centred. And this connects directly to the mad, muddled issue of gun ownership. In any sane society it would be assessed in terms of practical consequences for society, and it may be that there is a case for limited gun ownership. But no, this numinous issue (Neptune) is decided upon ideologically (Uranus), in terms of the rights of the individual, heedless of the actual consequences.

Incidentally, we are told it is God who has given us – or Americans, at any rate – these rights. God must be scratching his head at this. And where does this leave atheists? With its Second House Pluto, America has an issue around turning everything into something that can be owned. (See Soul Sick Nation, Chapter 4). And with the concept of rights, it is doing this with life itself. This life is MY life. No it’s not, you are part of a community, you have responsibilities and relationships. And if you think you own your life, you’ll distance yourself from the deeper process of unfoldment within you that is always happening. By hanging loose to our everyday self, a bigger, more real self can emerge.

Mars is not just about guns and the creation of conflict. Uranus has been stationing exactly opposite Barack Obama’s Mars at 22 Virgo. A couple of days ago Obama began the public process of reconciliation with Hillary Clinton, at a meeting in Unity, New Hampshire.

Soul-Sick Nation

I’ve just started reading Jessica Murray’s Soul-Sick Nation: An Astrologer’s View of America. I think I’ve only ever read one astrology book in its entirety - The Outer Planets and their Cycles by Liz Greene – so I’ll see how I do on this one.

Jessica Murray uses the US Sibly Chart. It’s worth mentioning that this useful chart, set for 5.10 pm on 4 July 1776 in Philadelphia, does not represent the actual time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, though sometime in the late afternoon may well be correct. The precise time used seems to be derived using medieval methods, giving us a chart that signifies the Declaration. The US Gemini Rising chart similarly signifies the Declaration, derived in this case by putting on the ASC the planet which seems to represent the event, Uranus. (See Nicholas Campion’s ‘Book of World Horoscopes’).

Here is a quote from Chapter Four of Soul-Sick Nation. (The US has Pluto in the Second House.)

“In a group chart, the second house is the indicator of collective values, symbolized by certain resources that are prized above all others. These vary from era to era; but whatever a society’s treasures are at a given time – be they diamonds or dot.com stock – they are as characteristic of that culture as language and native dress.
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This placement of Pluto is also key to the meaning of the darkest chapter in American history – the Civil War. Though generally talked about in purely moral terms, this war was essentially about the nature of ownership: a second-house (economic) issue. With slavery, Pluto took the idea of territorial control to its to its most literal and absolute extreme – one group of humans made possessions of another group for material gain. We have seen that Pluto is an amoral planet – that it has nothing to do with good or bad, right or wrong – and when unintegrated with the other planets, its raw power takes over, unabated and undistracted by ethical considerations.

Though the abomination of slavery has been practised by many cultures worldwide, past and present, black and white, America’s interlude with slavery was paradigmatic. It was not a historical deviation or afterthought in the nation’s history – it was there from the start, firmly in place when the colonies were transforming into a nation – which gives it a distinct astrological significance. Slavery was woven into the fabric of American culture from the birth moment, giving it a karmic resonance that must be worked through and transcended. Racial oppression and the genocide of its indigenous tribes are America’s great original sins.

They must be expiated if they are to be healed, and before they can be expiated they must be fully addressed. But instead of addressing them, America as a whole pretends it’s acceptable that one in four black men is unemployed across the fifty states; that there are more black men languishing in prison than enrolled in college; that black youth die by gunfire by the hundreds in ghettos where hopelessness is not aberrant but normative. Though laws have been passed to right some of the surface wrongs and every once in a while a symposium on race relations is held, there continues to be a terrible insufficiency to these efforts that those on all sides of the issue cannot fail but see.

Haphazard remedies will not heal this second-house wound. Until the abomination of slavery is returned to the forefront of American consciousness in a spirit of genuine collective redemption, the country will stay the way it is, with the wound intact; like an old Confederate soldier who never submitted to having his shrapnel dug out and just hobbles along anyway, accustomed to the pain.”

End of quote. The US Pluto is also in Capricorn, so what we see here is not just the worst of the second house, but also the principle of established authority at its worst. I was reminded of the much-maligned Rev Jeremiah Wright as I typed this out. He is the raw voice of Pluto with his ‘God damn America’. (People cannot easily see this as an expression of love for his country, which I think it is.) We have managed to dismiss him as an egomaniac etc, so that we do not have to listen to him and can continue in our comfortable worship of Barack Obama. But it is precisely the point about Pluto is that his truth is neither acceptable nor, very often, expressed reasonably: some of it, as in Wright's case, may even be paranoid nonsense. What the liberal consensus around Obama has done with Wright is exactly, I think, what Jessica Murray is getting at.

Remember, Barack Obama is not Afro-American. His black roots are Kenyan, and his white roots are American, with slave owners a few generations back. That said, he has exposed himself to this issue over the years through his association with Wright. But he also eventually pulled back when it threatened his career, and that will be at a cost, both to his own soul and that of the USA if he becomes President.

I think much of this is described by Obama's Moon in Gemini, conjunct IC and square to Pluto. We only see his light face (Gemini). He also finds it difficult (square) to accept shadow material (Pluto). Astrocartographically, he has a Moon line (comfort,home) running through Washington; and a Pluto line (power, shadow, ancestry) running through Kenya.

It is interesting that the Rev Wright's remarks occurred soon after Pluto first entered the sign of the US natal Pluto, Capricorn. This suggests that the period between now and America's Pluto Return in 14 years time will indeed involve the country grappling with its own shadow - hopefully healing it rather than making it worse.

Did You Know?

New research suggests Mars bears the largest impact scar known anywhere in the Solar System.

According to one group of researchers, the rock struck with an energy equivalent to one million billion atomic bombs.

I wonder what he did in retaliation?

It's interesting when new scientific evidence supports the ancient notions we have of these planets. Here's a section from my post on Venus last November:

"Venus's atmosphere is extremely fickle and changes its structure from day to day. Images sent back show that at both poles there is a giant double-vortex, each 2000km across, similar to the eye of a hurricane. The vortices rotate in opposite directions, and the southern vortex changes its shape rapidly. In addition, the planet emits a glow of infra-red radiation..."

And then of course there is oddball Uranus: "Uranus' axis of rotation lies on its side with respect to the plane of the solar system, with an axial tilt of 98 degrees...This makes its exchange of seasons completely unlike those of the other major planets. Other planets can be visualized to rotate like tilted spinning tops relative to the plane of the solar system, while Uranus rotates more like a tilted rolling ball...One result of this axis orientation is that, on average during the year, the polar regions of Uranus receive a greater energy input from the Sun than its equatorial regions. Nevertheless, Uranus is hotter at its equator than at its poles."

Here is something you might not expect about Neptune: "Neptune was the first planet found by mathematical prediction rather than regular observation." But here is something you might expect about this god who defeats the puny individual will: "Neptune has the strongest winds of any planet in the solar system, measured as high as 1,300 mph."

And how do you explain this astrologically? "Saturn is the only planet of the Solar System that is less dense than water." It's the opposite of what you might have thought.

More on Sag, Gemini and Factoids

This morning I was sent a long list of alleged coincidences between the lives of John F Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln. A number of them proved to be untrue when I looked them up. They are ‘factoids’, a term coined by Norman Mailer, which he used to mean "facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper.”

As I wrote the other day, factoids are part of the shadow side of Sagittarius. Sagittarius is about beliefs, and its opposite sign of Gemini is about information and facts. When Pluto passes through a sign, it empowers its shadow as well as its positive attributes.

Pluto is currently spending its last few months in Sagittarius. So this is a good time for looking more closely at those things which you would perhaps like to be true – like UFOs or Alien encounters or the faking of the Moon Landings or the various 9/11 conspiracies or the suppression of alternative technologies by the car companies or the role of 'junk' DNA. They may well be true. But what we think of as ‘facts’ around these phenomena, often well-established, can turn out not to be so.

I am often astonished by educated people’s ignorance of basic science. It is exactly like medieval peasants not being able to read the Bible, which meant that the priests were able to have an authority and a level of control that they would not otherwise have been able to have. It is the same now with scientific authorities. People rightly distrust them at times, but don’t know the facts and arguments, and so can be manipulated from both sides.

I keep reading articles about cars run by hydrogen fuel cells. Fine, no problem with that, the technology isn’t too difficult. But in the same breath I read about them being ‘greener’ because they only emit water. This is nonsense, because the hydrogen fuel is not a source of power: it is a way of storing power that you have got from somewhere else. You have, for example, used electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen in the first place. But the journalists, who probably have university degrees, don’t seem to understand this very basic fact. It’s astonishing. So get Gemini about science, or you will be peddled scientific half-truths and untruths by various authorities, and wild anti-science conspiracies by those who don’t trust those authorities.

Getting the facts straight (Gemini) gives power (Pluto) to your beliefs (Sagittarius).

All that said, some of the coincidences about Lincoln and Kennedy seem to be true, so I will peddle them:

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
Both wives lost children while living in the White House.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
Both Presidents were shot in the head.

Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln , was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

Both fabled assassins (John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald) were known by their three names.
Both names are composed of fifteen letters.

Lincoln was shot at the theatre named 'Ford.'
Kennedy was shot in a car called ' Lincoln ' made by 'Ford.'

Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

And here are the ‘coincidences’, some of them well-known, that turn out not to be true:

Lincoln 's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's Secretary was named Lincoln .

Both were fabled to have been assassinated by Southerners.

John Wilkes Booth was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald was born in 1939.

Lincoln was shot in a theatre and his fabled assassin ran and hid in a warehouse.
Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and his fabled assassin ran and hid in a theatre.

A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe , Maryland.
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.

Joke

Here's one from Alex Trenoweth. She has been posting for the last month, and is that rare beast: an astroblogger who lives in the UK. She likes telling jokes. This one is called Mercury Retrograde in the 9th:

A team of archaeologists is excavating in Israel when they find a cave with the symbols of a woman, a donkey, a shovel, a fish, and a Star of David on the wall.
The head archaeologist points to the first drawing. “This indicates that these people were family oriented and held women in high esteem.” he says. “The donkey shows they were smart enough to use animals to till the soil. The shovel means they were able to forge tools. Even further proof of high intelligence is the fish: If famine hit the earth, they would take to the sea for food. The last symbol is the Star of David, telling us they were Hebrews.”

The second archaeologist shakes his head. “Hebrew is read from right to left,” he explains. “It says, ‘Holy Mackerel, Dig the Ass on that Chick!’”

Pluto in Sag: it's not what you believe, it's how you believe

Someone I was talking to recently was trotting out the David Icke stuff about people in positions of power really being reptiles. This viewpoint doesn’t leave any room for observed complexity of character, and discussion becomes very difficult due to the rigidity with which these views about politicians, monarchs etc tend to be held. Rationality is suspended.

George H.W. Bush, as seen in lower vibration 4th dimension lizard battle mode

For a while this sort of belief had me a bit gobsmacked, like how can these people, who do not have mental health problems, believe these things? But then it occurred to me that it is no different to believing in the literal truth of the Bible, and there are plenty of people, and always have been, who are prepared to believe this.

You could argue that I’m an astrologer, and believing that there is a relationship between the motions of the planets and human existence is no less strange and far out. And I would have to concede that point. But I think what matters most is the WAY in which beliefs are held, rather than the beliefs themselves.

With astrology, I am the first to say that I cannot think of an explanation as to why the subject works. All I can say is that it does seem to, at least on most days of the week. I think with this sort of position discussion becomes possible, and there is an awareness that beliefs are only beliefs, they are not reality itself.

We all need beliefs, and if we pretend we are super-rational and sceptical and do not have beliefs, they will go unconscious and come out in a dogmatic form, probably in the form of intolerance to those who do not agree with you. I think Richard Dawkins, the fundamentalist atheist who wrote ‘The God Delusion’, is a case in point.

The universe is a strange, far-out and mysterious place, so I do not think there is anything wrong with having strange, far-out and wacky views about it. Even – and I say this reluctantly! – that Bush, the Queen etc are really reptiles. It’s the way these views are held that matters.

Under Pluto in Sagittarius we have seen a growth in conspiracy theories, reptile notions, religious belief etc, which is what you would expect, but we have also seen the shadow side of Pluto in Sag, which is an associated lack of reason and lack of respect for observable facts. This is the province of the opposite sign, Gemini. The recent growth in conspiracy theories and the recent growth of fundamentalist religion have the same astrological signature.

By the way, I’m still waiting for someone to come up with a wide-ranging conspiracy theory that is presented as well-argued probability/possibility, rather than certainty based on factoids. I’m not against such theories, but the difficulty in finding well-argued theories demonstrates that many of them belong to the shadow side of Sagittarius.

9/11, occurring as it did in the middle of Pluto’s journey through Sag, inevitably attracted a host of strongly-held conspiracy theories that express the shadow side of Sag, the lack of Gemini. As Pluto leaves Sag we may see a dying back of fundamentalism, for which I produced some evidence in my blog of Dec 22, So Long Fundamentalism and Hello Big Brother .

Obama in the Blogosphere

With the release of Barack Obama’s birth certificate, astrologers have at last been able to get to work on his chart. Here are extracts from, and links to, three posts I’ve enjoyed:

Firstly there is Lynn at astrodynamics , who has written a 3-part interpretation:

“Pluto is also involved in this dynamic, forming a “T-square” as it opposes Chiron and squares the Moon. The Pluto/Chiron opposition generally results in a life that can be rather painful on an emotional level as the individual is forced by Pluto to face the wounds of the soul and work through them. This dynamic creates a shamanic process in which there is tremendous potential for understanding and wisdom. The pressure of both Pluto and Chiron on the sensitive Moon illustrates the emotional difficulty that Obama has experienced, although with Aquarius on the ascendant he will never reveal his emotions to the public.”


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Then there is Nancy, who writes a political blog:

“Of some concern in Obama’s chart is the very strong Neptune influence, square the Sun (12Leo33) and Mercury (2Leo20), and elevated in its 9th house position. On the one hand, this gives him his exceptionally inspirational and visionary tone. On the other, it sets him up for disillusionment and a lack of practicality if he is not very careful. The Mars/Saturn trine in earth signs helps to offset this pattern, giving him a healthy dose of reality and competence. His wife, Michelle, herself a Capricorn, also emanates a very pragmatic and down-to-earth quality that likely helps to keep him tethered to solid ground. Nonetheless, the Neptune transits of 2010 and 2011, the first conjunct his South Node and the second square his MC, are likely to bring him some over-inflated expectations, disillusionment, and difficulty, especially in 2010 when Saturn (square his and the US Venus) forces some very real obstacles and reality checks on his goals.”

And then there is Shelley Jordan, who’s blog I happened upon for the first time yesterday:

“Having Aquarius on the Ascendant and Uranus on the Descendant is like having Aquarius on two angles. This intensifies the symbolism of Obama's position on progressive independence and humanitarian values. He was a community organizer early in his career and is a current voice for change in a moribund political environment.

The Aquarius-Leo axis also hints at a self-willed nature. He might find himself caught between his own desire for independent decision making and the demands of the party. The dilemma of Aquarius lies in expressing personal individuality while maintaining a position in society. Aquarius can run the gamut from eccentric individuality to trendy conformity.

Leo strives to be exceptional, the lord and master. Aquarius is Everyman, the masses, the collective. It will be interesting to see how Obama maintains a balance between aristocratic Leo and populace Aquarius. I’ve noticed many brilliant, original and talented people with Aquarius prominent in their charts – people who come up with unique solutions and alternatives to established methods and traditions.”

Kennedy and Obama: Dreams from the Father

In my Saturday post Obama the African Chief, I may have lost my point to some people by the way I put it! Because to bring in the spectre of African dictators is like bringing in Hitler: discussion easily comes to an end amid what seems to be an extreme and harsh position. (That said, the great lesson of Hitler is that all collectives have the potential to subsume themselves to heartless authoritarian leaders. I don’t think Obama is one of them, but I think George Bush has a good streak of it, and no shortage of followers.)

Using astrocartography we see that on the one hand Barack Obama has a Moon line running through Washington, so he will feel comfortable as President; and on the other hand we see a Pluto line running through Kenya, his father’s country. Natally Obama has Moon square Pluto, so these Moon and Pluto lines are connected, we have to make something of this connection. It tells us that Obama will bring some sort of inheritance from his Kenyan roots to his Presidency. And because his Moon is in hard aspect to Pluto, it may be creative, and it may also be problematic.


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My favourite comment from the Saturday post was Neith’s, that this coming Presidential election is politics as usual! I agree with her, it brings everything down to earth. And it reminds us that a persistent theme in politics is that of the idealistic new leader who will do it all differently: that also is politics as usual. Which is not to say Obama might not also do some genuinely good stuff, like Blair (in the UK) and Kennedy did.

So I take this into account when considering Obama’s Moon square Pluto (and Sun square Neptune). There will be problematic dimensions to these aspects, which will emerge over time. Like many creative, larger than life people, both his positive attributes and his faults are likely to be BIG. He may well do brilliant things, and may well also be impossible in some ways. And afterwards we will think if only he hadn’t been like that, he could have done so much more!

John F Kennedy had a Saturn-Neptune-MC conjunction: his career (MC) was an expression of the leadership dreams (Neptune in Leo) of his father (Saturn). This is quite interesting, because 48 years later we have another Democratic Nominee who is attracting a similar kind of idealism, and has written a book called “Dreams from my Father.” Obama has Neptune (Dreams) square his Sun (Father).

I think there is a difference, however, between the 2 men. Obama is a bit older than Kennedy was, and I think his connection to his father is more reflective. Kennedy was the product of a political family with a dodgy history, where politics was what you were expected to do. JFK was expected to be President because his older brother, who’d been lined up for it, died in the War. And Obama does carry the dream from his father and his father’s father of success and of changing the world. Even though he only met his father once, these dreams still have a way of being passed down. Both men have/had the name Barack Hussein Obama, both went to Harvard and both have/had political idealism. But unlike Kennedy he doesn’t have an ambitious family mafia behind him, or the actual mafia.

When he was 29, Obama Senior wrote a report that was sharply critical of Kenyan government policy, and the resulting conflict with the President destroyed Obama's career, and he took to drinking. With Obama junior's natal Sun square Neptune, we could also read an attempt to redeem (Neptune) the father (Sun).

I saw a TV programme recently about the meetings between Kennedy and Krushchev. Kennedy, like a college student, waded in on an ideological level to try to prove to Krushchev that the capitalist system was better than the Communist system. The much older and more experienced Krushchev was not impressed, and was easily able to dance around Kennedy, reminding him of the dodgy foreign activities that the US got up to. You couldn’t imagine Obama being that naïve, but at the same time he does seem to slip up on foreign policy, like saying Jerusalem must remain the undivided capital of Israel, or that as President he would be open to discussions with all foreign leaders. It makes me bang my head a bit, and wonder how much wisdom he has.

Back to his Pluto line. Running through Kenya, this also describes the ‘Dreams from my Father’ (along with Sun square Neptune). I haven’t read the book, but the title is very significant. One American Obama supporter was saying to me the other day how the Kenyan inheritance was not relevant, as he didn’t know his father. And then in the same breath she praised his book. I said look at the title!

Pluto is not just his father, it is his ancestral inheritance from Kenya. It describes the ancient currents running through the culture, for better and for worse. I do not know this culture, but what we all know is that African countries tend towards dictatorships, Kenya included. This is one element in that Pluto, and what Obama will make of it when he attains power remains to be seen. More positively, there may also, for example, be a sense of divine kingship, an ancient sense that the leader needs to be connected to some other Source (Sun in Leo square Neptune), but not in the gross Bush/Blair sense of taking orders from God.

Being President inevitably kicks in ancient archetypes of kingship (Democracy? Ha, Ha!) Obama's are as much African as they are American/European. This will be interesting.

Incidentally, his Progressed Chart currently has a Jupiter Rising line running near Washington and a Jupiter IC line through Kenya!

Death Star Canteen

Death (Pluto) Star (Sag) Canteen (Opposite Venus in Cancer).

Obama the African Chief

Lynn has reported a sighting of a birth certificate of our Man of Destiny Barack Obama. In the absence of reliable information, I made my own speculation on a chart for him earlier this week. Junk that.

The official birth time is 19.24, on 4 Aug 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Key to his chart are Sun square Neptune and Moon square to Pluto. The Sun and Moon are the 2 most significant personal planets, and Neptune and Pluto are the 2 most significant collective planets. So there is a very dynamic relationship between Obama and the collective. It is powerful but, being square, it could go wrong.

The other indicator in his chart of a strong relationship to the collective is his Saturn-Jupiter conjunction in the 12th House. Jupiter and Saturn used to be the 2 outermost planets, and they both have associations with rulership and authority. The 12th is the most collective house of all. Recently we have seen a series of leaders – George Bush, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown – with 12th House Suns
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It can be difficult to write critically of Obama because he carries so much of people’s hopes for a better world. Indeed, so far it has been hard to seriously fault him. He is certainly very capable and sure-footed in public. As a person, however, I find him a bit inscrutable. But this is where astrology can help.

His Sun in Leo makes him a natural leader, and the square to 9th House Neptune gives a religious dimension to that leadership, a promise of redemption. Many people have always felt this from the beginning, and I think this points to a danger, because he had at that point not been tried and tested.

Moon in Gemini conjunct IC is a good place for introspection and self-analysis, and this is helpful for someone in his position. But the Moon is also square to Pluto. So I think the man has a need (Moon) for power (Pluto) that is not obvious either to himself or others. Gemini has 2 faces, and I think that so far we have only seen one face.

Obama’s astrocartography shows a Moon line running past Washington, and a Pluto line running through Kenya, from where his father originates. Obama parents were not Afro-American, one was African and the other white American. He will feel at home (Moon) in Washington (assuming for now that he wins the election), but his drive for power is African!

Obama presents a sophisticated, fair-minded civilised face, and this is real, it does give me hope. But the other side of his Moon in Gemini, with its connections to African ideas of leadership, we have not seen yet. What we have seen time and again in Africa is democracy turning into dictatorship. They have a long history of tribal chieftains, and democracy is a recent and alien imposition. This is not a racist comment, it is a matter of simple observation. (The Middle East is another case in point.)

So beware, Obama carries all this within him as well. Have you ever tried telling something to someone who is Leo-Aquarius? They will not be told! They know it already!

Incidentally, Obama's father grew up in Kenya during the time of the Mau-Mau, the movement of uprising against British rule, where atrocities were committed on both sides. This can also be read into Obama's Gemini Moon conjunct IC and square to Pluto.

So I think there may be an authoritarian streak in Obama that we will not see until things stop going his way. Tony Blair, who has Moon opposite Pluto (and Sun square), presented himself as everybody’s friend for years until the Iraq issue in 2002. He wanted to go to war, there were unprecedentedly large demonstrations against it, but he had set his mind on it. Suddenly “everybody’s friend” was revealed as a dogmatist and a tyrant (though he saw it as standing up for his ideals).

Blair, like Obama, had little track record, so people were able to project whatever they wanted onto him. Obama uses less rhetoric than Blair, and that is to his credit.

In Fixed Star astrology, the Heliacal Rising Star is the one that has most recently emerged into the sky after a period of not rising at all. It bears gifts from the underworld, from our ancestry. Obama’s Heliacal Rising Star is Canopus, which carries the meaning of being a navigator, pathfinder or perfectionist. Brady has this to say: “This is a complex star similar to a Royal Star, for while it can bring success, its shadow is that of needing too much control. To have Canopus in such an important position on the day of your birth will indicate that you have strong leadership skills, or the ability to find new pathways or break new ground, but it also implies that you will struggle with a need to dominate or control, which could destroy the very work that you are trying to achieve.”

So this expresses both the leadership of his Sun in Leo, and the need to control of his Moon square Pluto, which his astrocartography suggests has an African Chief quality to it. This is just so different to how he sees himself that it may be very difficult for him to acknowledge when the time comes. I think that Rev Wright, who Obama has expunged from his life, points to this darker, less rational side of himself. Obama is Leo, Aquarius and Gemini, signs of light and consciousness and civilisation. He is the complete opposite of warmongering, gunslinging, ‘one of the boys’ Bush who, as his Presidency ends, seems to be starting to regret this attitude.

Having made the comparison with Tony Blair, it is interesting that Obama’s Presidency will be governed by Neptune transits, as Blair’s was. In 2004, when Obama was first elected a Senator, Neptune was approaching a conjunction with his Ascendant. That transit will not be finally over (using a 3 degree orb) until late this year. Meanwhile Neptune is now approaching an opposition to his Leo Node and a square to his MC at 29 Scorpio, which will be exact in 2011. Neptune will then go on to square his Moon at 3 Gemini, and this will not be finally over until 2015, half way through his second term as President, which is when they all become lame ducks.

This analysis worked like clockwork for Blair, such that I was able to successfully predict when real power would begin to drain away from him, as his final Neptune transit occurred. Neptune, then, will also give the flavour of an Obama Presidency. His natal Sun square Neptune suggests this anyway. It will not be about the Plutonian struggle against evil of the Bush years. It will be about helping those in need of it (like Blair’s premiership, which saw a lot more money going into public services). It will be about giving people hope. There may also be a lot of emphasis on presentation, on ‘the message’, on 'spin', even. And there will also, inevitably, be a feeling of let-down when sides of Obama emerge which were not what people had voted for. I predict this will begin half way through his first term, when Neptune squares his MC. The strength of the backlash will be proportionate to the heights to which he has been raised.

Signs of the Times: Standing Up to Pluto in Capricorn

In a highly idiosyncratic move, the Shadow Home Secretary David Davis yesterday resigned his post and stood down as an MP over the 42 day issue. This is a law, passed by a narrow margin on Wednesday, that allows the police to hold terror suspects for up to 42 days without charge, instead of the usual 28 days.

There will be a by-election very soon in Davis’ constituency, with Davis as the Tory candidate. No doubt he will be re-elected and back in Parliament in a few weeks. But his by-election campaign will be based around what he sees as the gradual erosion of fundamental British freedoms. He is doing it all to make this point. Whether it will achieve anything in mainstream politics, or whether he will just emerge as another obsessed right-winger, is hard to know.

Davis said he feared 42 days was just the beginning, and "we'll next see 56 days, 70 days, 90 days". He continued: “"In truth, 42 days is just one - perhaps the most salient example - of the insidious, surreptitious and relentless erosion of fundamental British freedoms."

He listed the growth of the "database state," government "snooping", ID cards, the erosion of jury trials and other issues. "This cannot go on. It must be stopped and for that reason today I feel it is incumbent on me to make a stand," said Mr Davis.

Government control is destined to be a big issue under Pluto in Capricorn. Pluto entered Capricorn earlier this year, and David Davis (23/12/48, York, UK) has Sun at 1 Capricorn, which Pluto of course is currently conjoining.

Pluto brings out the best and worst of a sign. So Capricorn can get into control for its own sake. But the sign can also have a healthy sense of what is proportionate and likely to achieve results. We will see both of these over the next 16 years, and a struggle between them. We will see on the one hand increasing attempts to control the individual (more associated with Labour in the UK) and on the other hand attempts to repeal such laws (usually associated with the Tories in the UK). This can make the Tories seem like they are the ones on the side of freedom, which maybe they are. But ‘freedom’ also leads to inequality, corruption and mistreatment of poorer people, as we have seen under Pluto in Sag (in the US as well as the UK). So the Labour attempts to control also emerge from their social conscience.

With his Capricornian Sun opposite natal Uranus in Gemini, Davis is an interesting mix of socially right wing (Capricorn) and rebel/radical (Uranus). He voted against repealing Section 28 (which banned local government from promoting homosexual relationships in schools). Yet when the gay Conservative MP Michael Brown was pictured on holiday with a 20-year-old man in 1994 (when the age of consent was still 21), Davis drove to Brown's home to offer his help.

I think you probably have to have a good dose of Uranus/Aquarius in your chart to feel at home with that sort of apparent inconsistency. Which is not the same as agreeing with his particular viewpoints and principles.

As a Capricorn with Sun conjunct Jupiter and trine Saturn, Davis is a man of principle, he believes certain things are right and certain things are wrong. With the opposition to Uranus, his principles won't always be what you might think, and he will rebel in defence of them.

With Pluto currently conjoining his Sun (and the first exact conjunction has yet to happen) he is clearly beginning some sort of personal journey. And the political tension he sees outside of himself between freedom and over-control is also within him, in his Cap Sun opposite Uranus, which is very interesting. This is where astrology gives you insights where ordinary observation might not.

Davis is interesting, though, not because of his personal psychology alone, but because that psychology is also expressive of the Pluto in Capricorn era we are entering. A moment has come when his character is resonant with the collective character. He is therefore a symbol. In his actions we can see a sign of things to come.

Something for Everyone

If you were born with Neptune in Virgo, or with Pluto in Leo through to Scorpio, then here is a take on your personality type:

'You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. While you have some personality weaknesses you are generally able to compensate for them. You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage. Disciplined and self-controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You also pride yourself as an independent thinker; and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof. But you have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, and reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be rather unrealistic.'

How would you rate this for accuracy on a scale of 1 to 5?

In 1948, psychologist Bertram R. Forer gave a personality test to his students, and then gave them a personality analysis supposedly based on the test's results. He invited each of them to rate the analysis on a scale of 0 (very poor) to 5 (excellent) as it applied to themselves: the average was 4.26. He then revealed that each student had been given the same analysis.

The Forer Effect (also called personal validation fallacy or the Barnum Effect after P. T. Barnum's observation that 'we've got something for everyone') is the observation that individuals will give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically for them, but are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people.

Wikipedia further says: “The Forer Effect can provide a partial explanation for the widespread acceptance of some pseudosciences such as astrology and fortune telling, as well as many types of personality tests.” I think there is some truth in that.

But I wouldn’t call astrology a pseudoscience, because the scientific method doesn’t apply. It is interesting that novels, which also provide insight into character, are not labelled pseudoscientific. They are accepted, even though there is no way you could call their truths scientific. Artistic truth generally is sloppy and subjective from a scientific viewpoint. I think that astrology, tarot etc belong in the artistic rather than the scientific camp, for their insights are based on personal judgement and intuition rather than statistics.

Personally, I don’t think the planetary cycles are fundamental to an astrologer, important as they are. What I think is fundamental are the insights and intuitions that arise using the planets as a hook, as a framework. Just as language is for a writer, or musical notation is for a composer.

When astrology is approached ‘scientifically’ using keywords and standard descriptions, it can still apply. Just as computer-generated music can be musical in a limited way. But the real truth in astrology is subjectively generated.

We have been taught by science to believe that ‘subjective’ equals untrue and ‘objective’ equals true. In a sense, everything is subjective, including science, which has been forced to admit that the observer is an inherent part of an experiment.

Both science and art are chasing universal truth by different means. Science provides a certain type of truth, but it is ultimately based on false premises: that reality is quantifiable and repeatable, and that the scientist is neutral and outside the experiment.

Artistic/intuitive/astrological truth is not based on a false premise. It is based on the wonderful capacity of the human mind, when it listens to itself, to produce universal truths, to somehow comment on what appears to be outside itself. Our subjective selves in a sense contain the whole universe (you can tell I’m having a Neptune transit!)

Science is based on emphasising the split between subject and object, which is a false dichotomy. Artistic/intuitive/astrological truth is based on bringing subject and object together, on healing that sense of separation that we feel. Whereas Science, taken as anything other than a provisional and practical method, dehumanises.

So I think that astrologers should not feel on the defensive when under attack from a wider culture that has scientific thinking informing it. Rather, it is we who should be on the attack, along with all the psychics, diviners and artists, against a culture and a method that deny the individual human capacity to know reality for itself.

The Iranian Mars

"Growing talk of Iran attack" was the headline on the BBC article I read yesterday. This one has been off the news since late last year, when a number of US intelligence agencies simultaneously reported that they had ‘high confidence’ that in late 2003 Iran had stopped trying to build nuclear weapons.

I found that claim hard to believe, it was like the reverse of the Iraq WMD claim, which was also hard to believe at the time. And it seems they were connected: the US intelligence agencies were so pissed off with George Bush for the way he used their intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq War, that this was payback time. GWB was talking up the need to counter Iranian nuclear ambitions, and this ‘intelligence’ stopped him in his tracks.

The chart I use for Iran is for 1st April 1979 at 3pm in Tehran. This was when the Islamic Republic was proclaimed. The actual revolution took place 2 months earlier when Khomeini arrived in the country, but the April chart seems to work best.


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The most relevant points in the chart are:

(1) Sun in Aries opposite Pluto, which suggests a visionary/warlike leadership (Sun in Aries) that is often engaged in a struggle for power, and which has a need to have external enemies (opposition to Pluto). In recent years, Progressed Mars has been opposite Natal and Progressed Pluto, which well describes the struggle with the US that has been occurring. Prog Mars will be within 1 degree orb of opposing natal Pluto until July 2009.

(2) Mercury-Mars in 8th House Pisces, square to Neptune and trine to Uranus. This describes the secret (8th) weapons programme (Mars) to build a bomb (Uranus), and the unsuccessful attempts to deceive the West about it (square to Neptune).

Natal Mars is at 25.37 Pisces, and for several years Pluto was squaring this Mars. This describes the ongoing crisis with the USA in recent years. The USA, with natal Mars at 21 Gemini squaring the Iranian Mars, is likely always to be engaged in some sort of struggle with the current incarnation of Iran. Indeed, the US also has Mars square to Neptune, with the US Neptune squaring the Iranian Neptune!

So we are not just talking mutual deception. It’s like they both have military dreams/fantasies. The US, for example, sees itself as a protector of liberty in the world, and there is some truth in this (e.g. World War II and the first Gulf War); but it also operates hugely from self-interest and will play as dirty as is necessary to get its own way. (Nothing exceptional about the US in that regard.)

Iran has the fantasy of being a superpower in the Middle East through acquiring nuclear weapons, which of course the major powers – not just the USA – will never allow to happen. With their clashing Neptunes, the Iranian and US military fantasies are not compatible.

From the end of last year, when Pluto began to put some serious distance between itself and its square to the Iranian Mars, the Iranian crisis went quiet. It is only now, with Uranus stationing 3 degrees off a conjunction to that Mars, that the issue has become active again.

In the last few days, for example, the Israeli leader has been making noises about attacking Iran. Last week Barack Obama (who currently has Uranus opposing his natal Mars) told the pro-Israel lobby that if he was President, the US would do everything in its power to stop Iran making nuclear weapons. He emphasised the word 'everything'. And today George Bush is meeting EU leaders in Slovenia, from which a joint warning of further sanctions against Iran is expected.

For the next couple of years, both Uranus and Saturn will be transiting the Iranian Mars. So Iran may well be subject to sudden attack (Uranus) and will feel the pressure to limit (Saturn) its military ambitions.

Olmert, the Prime Minister of Israel, is under a lot of political pressure due to corruption allegations. And Bush is in the lame duck phase of his Presidency, with the Iraq fiasco as a legacy. So both have personal political reasons for wanting to attack Iran.

If an attack does occur, it is likely to be after the next stationing of Uranus in November: this is the point at which it will turn direct and begin its approach to an exact conjunction of the Iranian Mars next May.

Between November and January 2008 also makes political sense, because the US election will be over, so an attack could not be seen as an attempt to influence the election. And it also gives Bush the opportunity to add to his legacy (as he sees it.)

Israel has Mars at 28 Leo, which Neptune will begin to oppose next year. Uranus is currently squaring the US Mars at 21 Gemini, and will still be within range next year. So either country could attack. Using Composite Charts, an attack seems most likely from Israel: the Composite Israel/Iran Chart has Angles between 18 and 20 degrees of the mutable signs, which Uranus will be within range of until the end of 2009.

That said, there was an interesting request for funding by George Bush some months ago, as part of the military budget. It wasn't very prominently reported, but it amounted to funds for some 30,000lb bombs. You would only need these if you were trying, for example, to blast your way through thick concrete to deep underground chambers, such as you find at the Iranian nuclear installations.

Interestingly, the US/Iran Composite chart has a Uranus-North Node conjunction at the end of Leo. So does Barack Obama, our Man of Destiny. It suggests that his future is in some deep way tied up with US-Iran relations. And his Mars opposes the Iranian Mars.

By the way, I’m not advocating an attack. I’m just looking at some of the astrology around it. That said, I wouldn’t have much of a problem with the Iranian nuclear installations being taken out.

Astrology works because it can't; the UK Saturn Cycle; My Chart for Obama!

On Friday Lynn flagged up an article about the US Saturn cycle which appeared in Mother Earth News in 1981. She further commented that she is always pleased when astrology is taken seriously by the mainstream media. I’m a bit perverse on that one. I think it is such an unlikely thing that astrology actually works, that you are appealing at least as much to people’s gullibility as you are to their open-mindedness. I think it is often quite reasonable for people not to take astrology seriously. In some ways I would rather that, than people who believe in astrology because they will believe in anything ‘mystical’: there is no shortage of that type of belief. I kind of dread the idea of astrology as a mass belief, because that is what the media would turn it into. But I’m very happy to encounter people who have turned to it individually.

I have no theory as to why astrology works, and I think the notion of ‘planetary energies’ as a physical phenomenon is nonsense. But it is precisely because astrology ‘can’t’ work that I find it so wondrous. It means I have to put up with a fair bit of personal doubt about the subject, and then you see some wonderful synchronicity, and you are left in awe. I think you miss out on some of the wonder of the subject if you look for a rational theory that explains it, because there ain’t one.

Anyway, a bit about the UK Saturn cycle. One aspect of Saturn is leadership. Last year Saturn changed signs, so we would expect worldwide a shift in emphasis in the type of leaders we find. Saturn has gone from Leo to Virgo, and in the UK last year we saw a literal change in leader, from the grandstanding Mr Blair (Saturn in Leo) to the low-key accountant Mr Brown (Saturn in Virgo).

In the US, the grandstanding Mr Bush has become a lame-duck President (as they always do at the end of a second-term). In the coming election, McCain and Obama would do well to concentrate on practical policies (Virgo) as much as on statements of vision, which the Leo Barack Obama is strong on.

Apart from the leadership flavour changing as Saturn’s sign changes, we would also expect to see a change in political cycle each Saturn Return. The UK 1801 chart gives Saturn at 23.22 Leo. The last Saturn Return was from late 2006 to late 2007. This Return has certainly heralded a new political cycle, with Labour having become very unpopular and the next election seeming to be the Tories to lose. Gordon Brown’s unpopularity is partly to do with his personal qualities, but it is mainly to do with this larger Saturn cycle.

The previous cycle began in 1977/78, when again we had a very unpopular Labour government. A year later the Tories were elected, who went on to transform the political landscape. The fact that the 10-year Blair government took place under the same cycle suggests that his rule was fundamentally a continuation and development of what the Tories had begun in the first part of the cycle. This is an observation that has frequently been made, that Blair was the true heir to Margaret Thatcher.

By the same argument, we can expect a clean sweep, the beginning of a new era when, as seems likely, the Tories win the election in 2010.

There was a UK Saturn Return in 1948 during the post-war Labour government of Clement Attlee. Subsequent to this the Attlee government was increasingly seen as worn out. They won an election 2 years later with a much reduced majority but only lasted a year. In 1951, 13 years of Tory government began. So again, the Saturn Return heralded a new political era.

A note on Barack Obama’s chart. His birth-time remains uncertain, and I want to put Libra in there, because he genuinely wants to heal divisions, this is central to him. Libra Rising gives him a Taurus Moon, but he doesn’t have the personal physical warmth for that. Libra MC gives Gemini Moon and his strong airy quality, and either Sag or Cap Rising. I like 28 Sag Rising, MC at 9 Libra.


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This chart also gives a 1st House Saturn, which I like, and an 8th House emphasis, which describes this individual (Sun in Leo) who, being black, has emerged from America’s shadow side (8th) and will continue to address its uncomfortable issues (8th) in the interest of healing divisions (Libra MC). I think Obama represents the future of the US, and it would be very strange if his chart did not catch the upcoming Uranus-Pluto square, a criterion which neither of the currently used charts, with Scorpio and Aquarius Rising, satisfy. A 9 Libra MC, however, does satisfy this.

I did some research a while back, and I couldn’t find a case in the 20th century where a US President’s chart DIDN’T catch any major outer planet hard aspects that were occurring. The Uranus-Neptune conjunction of the 1990s, for example, caught the Moon or Angles of both Bill Clinton and George Bush Snr while they were President.

Transits: this chart very appropriately gives Obama Pluto conjunct Asc by transit right now. The important period of 1989-92, when he got married and his career began to shine, took place with Neptune then Uranus squaring his putative MC. Right now Prog Moon is about to conjoin Prog Asc, a new cycle for him, the birth of something new.

As I say, this chart is entirely speculative, but it's fun, and I'm not sure it's any less valid than the other charts floating around. And I think it works better.

Why Hillary Clinton needed to lose the Nomination

On May 13 I predicted that Hillary Clinton would concede the Democratic nomination on 4th June. I used a combination of astrology and actual events to make the prediction. It sort of worked out that way, in that Barack Obama declared himself the winner on 4th June, and Hillary didn’t demur. That is probably as near as you are going to get to a concession from Scorpio-Leo Hillary Clinton.

It’s a bit like in the old TV programme Happy Days where the ultra-cool Fonze has to admit he is wrong about something, and it takes him ages to get it out of his mouth. “I was wr..wr…wr..” and then he can’t quite manage to say wrong, but eventually he gets there. It’s like that with Hillary. “I l..l..lo..lo..” No, she can’t quite get the word ‘lost’ out of her mouth yet. She has allowed her campaign managers to say she will use the 'l' word next Saturday. No doubt she will be practising in front of the mirror between now and then.

She’s probably had her eye on being President for decades, her whole adult life has been leading towards it, she has put everything into this goal, and now it has been taken away from her. Painful as it is, we often learn more, we are more human, not when we are glowing with victory, but rather when things haven’t gone our way.

Defining events like these can be used to test a chart where the birth-time is uncertain. Hillary was born 26 Oct 1947 in Chicago, Illinois. A commonly used birth-time is 8pm. This gives an Ascendant at 29 Gemini and a 10th house Moon at 29 Pisces. Pluto is currently hard-aspecting both of these, and is a perfect description of what has happened to her. The ‘destruction’ is both personal (Asc and Moon) and public (10th House). It’s the sort of chart where you could have predicted she would lose.

But for Hillary personally, I am happy for her that she has lost. I am sympathetic to her Pisces Moon, which has done a lot of work on behalf of children over the years, but which I think is underdeveloped and gets pushed out of the way by her tough ambitious Scorpio-Leo side.

She may at the moment be feeling destroyed – and I think the long-drawn out reluctance to admit defeat has been testament to that – but it’s as though her ambition to be President had first to be built up over decades and then thoroughly smashed if she was ever to become a whole person. And Pluto is very good at helping us transform through this sort of process, the make-or-break type where we get pulled apart and then re-built.

There is healing to be done between the 2 sides of herself, expressed firstly by Gemini Asc, which Pluto is opposing; and by the 10th House Moon, which needs the public arena, but which, being Pisces, is retiring: this is a contradiction and leads to the perception that as a woman (Moon), we do not meet Hillary.

Despite the destruction of her ambitions, paradoxically her standing within the Democratic party has increased enormously, and she will be remembered by history for the epic battle she fought with the untested Obama. Obama needed an opponent like Hillary. And on a personal level, with the distraction of the Presidency out of the way, there will be more room for her Moon, and we will see a softer, more whole and paradoxically more effective Hillary Clinton emerge. With her 10th House Moon – assuming this chart is correct! – she will continue to want to have an impact on the world. But being Pisces, she may be content to be a lot more quiet about it.

It may or may not be best for the USA that Hillary Clinton didn't get the Democratic Nomination. But for her personally, with her semi-acknowledged Pisces Moon, I think that what has happened is just what she needed.