Saturn-Uranus Dramas

Saturn and Uranus completed their second opposition 6 days ago, and won’t cross again until September. I was about to say that the heightened pace of events, often unexpected and surprising, was going to ease off when Bang! – we hear that a Russian satellite and an American satellite collided at high speed, in the first instance of its kind. Admittedly, though, it took place on Tuesday, so maybe events will now slow down.

If anything is symbolic, this satellite collision has to be. The chart I use for Russia has Mars at 21.44 Virgo, tightly square the US Sibly Mars at 21.23 Gemini. Saturn-Uranus was closely aspecting these 2 Mars, showing that yes, the symbolism is real. It was the US that got hurt, however, as the Russian satellite was defunct. In recent times, Russia has been expanding its influence in its backyard, at American expense. This is likely to continue. Maybe this is what the collision symbolises. Or maybe there's going to be some other incident. The collision also occurred the day after a lunar eclipse, heightening its significance.

You could say it was the first clash between countries in space. Star Wars is the popular symbol for this. (It was also what Reagan's Strategic Defence Initiative came to be called.) The film was released on 25 May 1977, under a Saturn-Uranus square. Is Darth Vader Saturn or Uranus?

Saturn is the bridge between the outer and inner planets, and being concerned with concrete events and achievements, he enables the outer planet energies to manifest. So we have had lots of Uranus in the last week or two, as well as incidents describing the heightened opposition between the 2 principles – old and new – that the 2 planets embody.

We have had the worst bush fires in Australian history and a surprising and hopeful turn of events in Zimbabwe as the opposition leader has become Prime Minister under Mugabe as President (for Yorkshire people reading this, his name is E Ba Gum backwards. Paul Merton cracked this one on TV, but I’d thought of it years before. I’d also thought of the term trisexual that Ali G used, but his meaning was better.)

In Zimbabwe's chart, Prog Sun is now 1½ degrees off opposing natal Uranus. I'm not sure what orbs to use with progressions - traditionally it is one degree - so this opposition, which reflects instability (Uranus) around the leader (Sun) seems to be getting quite wide. So maybe the end is in sight.


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Then we’ve had Iceland electing the world’s first openly gay leader, and Iran launching its first satellite, indicative of future missile capability. A few weeks back we had a plane ditching in the Hudson river, saving everyone on board, and the Pope rehabilitating a Holocaust denier bishop. There’s also been a nail-biting election in Israel at a time of heightened Israeli-Palestinian tension.

In the UK we have had spectacular drama as some of the heads of the failed banks were hauled in front of a Commons Committee to account for themselves. They were all deeply sorry for what had happened, and took full responsibility, but would not accept any 'personal culpability'! Who are these people, WHAT are they? It turned out that another one, Sir James Crosby, had been appointed by Gordon Brown to be a financial regulator. It also turned out that Crosby, while head of a major bank, had fired a whistleblower who had warned them they were being reckless. Crosby has now had to resign as a financial regulator, and Gordon Brown has egg on his face. But it does to my mind again call Brown's judgement on financial matters into question.

Banks are Saturn, or ought to be, and Uranus tumbled them all. So this latest drama is another stage in the unfolding of the Saturn-Uranus opposition. This opposition won't be over till July next year, and will stay in orb until autumn 2011. So here is a prediction: the world banking system will not stabilise until then. It will stay very rocky for at least another 18 months, and will not fully emerge, sobered and re-capitalised, for another 2 and 1/2 years.

Overshadowing everything, in a way, has been Obama’s struggle to get his vast spending package through Congress. This has been a Titanic clash between Saturn (responsible Democrats) and Uranus (ideologically driven Republicans), or between Saturn in Virgo (prudent Republicans) and Uranus in Pisces (reforming Democrats who have compassion for the unemployed, but without proper boundaries to their spending). It depends on your politics how you see this, but it’s almost like the future of the world has hung on the outcome of this Congressional battle. Do we maybe slide into the deepest recession since the thirties, or even worse than that, or do we give ourselves a chance through a massive fiscal stimulus?

Anyway, it looks like Obama’s got it through, which to my mind has been his first real test as President. Anyone can say they want to shut down Guantanamo Bay or talk to the Iranians, but getting huge spending through Congress, relying on some Republican support, is something else. Obama’s Mars, his ability to get what he wants, is at 22.35 Virgo, caught in the pincers of Saturn and Uranus, between the claims of prudence and the need to reform. He has strongly emphasised the need for accountability in the spending, which is Saturn, but he is clearly also attempting to set the US on a new path, which is Uranus. Obama has just had a Jupiter Return, and Jupiter is about to oppose his Sun, so he is willing to take risks, and his strategy is hugely risky: not just politically, in maybe falling at the first hurdle with Congress, but it is also economically risky, in that it might not work very well, and may just saddle the US government with huge debts. But in a way he’s had no choice, and he seems to have got his way.

This man has real cojones, unlike the implants of the previous incumbent!