The US Void Moon

I don’t know how I’d managed to miss the fact that the US Sibly Chart has a Void Moon, but it does. What that means is that the Moon makes no more major applying aspects until it changes sign. Applying aspects are stronger than separating aspects because they are gaining, rather than fading in strength; it’s like the difference between Spring and Autumn.


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The traditional meaning of a Void Moon is that it can be very difficult to achieve anything when an event begins under one. Well, that is certainly not the case with the USA. Void Moons apart, though, it does make the Moon weak when it has no major applying aspects. In the case of a country, the Moon stands for the people, and a Void Moon suggests to me that the people are weakened in relation to the government (the Sun).

The US is a Democracy, and this is supposed to empower the people. The democratic aspiration of the US people is expressed by the sign of its Moon, Aquarius. For the time – 1776 – democracy was an advanced, futuristic idea (Aquarius) that made people equal. In a way, America was the first full democracy, in the sense of being governed solely by elected institutions, though its declaration that all people are created equal was laughable because of how they treated black people. Nice idea, but not one to be taken seriously when considering the US.

So you could read the US Void Aquarian Moon as disempowerment by democracy. And what power do the people really have under democracies anyway? What does the individual vote count for? Nothing. How much power do the people have between elections – i.e. most of the time? None. How accountable are the politicians for the promises they made to get them elected? Not at all. And the people are given half truths and plenty of lies and manipulated all the way down the line by the politicians and the media. Then they vote.

So Democracy is this elaborate charade that the western world plays out to pretend to itself that its peoples are free and have a voice. At least in non-democracies you know where you stand. In those countries the government doesn’t have to pretend to consult people, or pretend that it doesn’t mind being criticised.

OK, I’m being one-sided, because in many democracies you can to a large extent criticise the government, and bad leaders do occasionally get thrown out by the electorate. Mind you, the US people re-elected an incompetent like Bush, whereas in somewhere like China he probably wouldn’t have got a look-in! That said, I do appreciate our western freedom to criticise in public the government. That is historically pretty rare. I do not view it as some sort of evolution of society that will only get better. I view it as a wonderful aberration that will not last forever and that will be looked back on by scholars in a thousand years time as a sign of how civilised in certain respects this culture was before the Asian countries, with their much bigger populations, began to dominate the world.

With Sun in Cancer, the sense of being a people, of being a tribe, is very important to the USA. Cancer’s ruler, the Moon, is in Aquarius, and this describes the melting pot of different cultures that has gone into making the USA. The USA, however, feels insecure about its identity, as expressed by the square from Saturn to the Sun, and by the weakness of the Sun’s ruler, the Moon. Hence, for example, the bizarre flag worship in schools, and the ease with which foreign enemies can be whipped up out of nowhere.


A sense of feeling nurtured is very important to Cancerians, and again the square to Saturn impedes this: it makes the US very hard and competitive. This is why the healthcare issue is so important. If America starts to look after its own people better, it will feel a lot more at ease, it will feel more secure in its identity, for it will be living more in accordance with its Cancerian Sun. Along with Saturn, the weakness of the Moon also describes this difficulty with real nurture. You see this in people as much as in countries, where an obsession with wealth is a substitute for an ability to create a sense of well-being.

The Moon is not comfortable in airy Aquarius, and being weakly aspected on top of that, it is hard for the American people to be aware of their needs, to know collectively what will make them happy in a basic, human way.

The US Saturn is in the 10th House, where it feels very comfortable, and which makes their place in the world very important to Americans. In fact, over-important, because of the square to the Sun. That Saturn is being knocked astrologically at present, firstly by being retrograde in the Progressed Chart, and secondly because the cusp of the 10th House (at 1 Libra) is being hard-aspected by both Saturn and Pluto, and Uranus in 2010. These transits will move on to Saturn itself over the next few years.

This astrological knocking is being reflected in world events. The US is finding it hard to develop a clear strategy in Afghanistan, Iran continues to defy the US, seemingly with impunity, Israel has announced it is to build new settlements, and last week’s visit to China by Obama yielded little in the way of results. It is all making the US look weak, and it is making Obama look weak.

It is kind of interesting that as the US Saturn gets a knocking, the healthcare bill looks like it is getting through. It is as if the US Sun in Cancer can fulfil itself because the oppressive Saturn has been weakened.

Despite the lack of clear strategy, some sort of outcome is due in Afghanistan over the next year or so, for astrological reasons. The new, post-Taliban government was sworn in on 22 Dec 2001, with the Sun at 1 Capricorn. Though this was an interim government until elections could be held, Hamid Karzai was, and remains, the leader of the country, so it remains a valid chart. Saturn, Pluto and Uranus are all hard-aspecting the Afghan Sun at present, so at the least we can expect a change in the type of leadership over the next year. Karzai himself has Sun at 2 Capricorn, so the next year looks like the end for him as well, despite having just been re-elected.


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The Afghan Chart is a few minutes short – or maybe not short - of being a Void Moon, as is the chart for the invasion of Iraq. Both of these enterprises have failed in their main American objective, which was to create functioning, independent democracies.

Is the President of Russia his own Man?

There is debate amongst analysts as to whether the current President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, is his own man or merely a puppet of the previous President, Vladimir Putin. Medvedev took office in March last year, and it was pretty clear at the time that he was there as Putin’s appointee. Putin was barred by the constitution from a 3rd successive term in office, so Medvedev was there to keep his seat warm until the next elections 4 years later. Meanwhile Putin has become Prime Minister.

But then a couple of days ago Medvedev gave an extraordinary speech calling for economic reform. It included the following:

"Instead of a primitive economy based on raw materials, we shall create a smart economy, producing unique knowledge, new goods and technologies, goods and technologies useful for people," Mr Medvedev said.

"Instead of an archaic society, in which leaders think and decide for everybody, we shall become a society of intelligent, free and responsible people."

This effectively amounts to a strong criticism of the previous leader’s policies. It does not look at all like he will roll over and allow Putin to have his job back in 2012. He is consigning Putin to the past.

So what went wrong? One look at Medvedev’s chart reveals all. He has Sun in Virgo conjunct Uranus and Pluto. The one thing someone with this configuration is not is a ‘yes-man’. Medvedev was born in the 60s when this configuration was in the heavens, a period characterised by reform (Uranus) and by protest (Uranus) against the powers that be (Pluto). He looks set to become a radical reformer, but in a spirit of service (Virgo).


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Saturn describes the types of leaders coming into power, and Medvedev took office with Saturn in Virgo, which provided a break from the grandstanding of the Saturn in Leo era: look at Bush and Blair and ‘he-man’ Putin.

So the he-man thought he was getting a yes-man. Why did he make this mistake? Venus is the planet of relationship, and Putin’s Venus conjoins Medvedev’s Mars-Neptune. Mars-Neptune can make it hard for a man to assert himself, and this is perhaps what Putin was relating to and relying on. But Neptune can be deceptive, and being in the sign of Scorpio perhaps gives Medvedev the ability to play power games, to play possum.


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Putin’s Mars is square to Medvedev’s Sun, and very widely to his Uranus-Pluto. This suggests that Putin was genuinely able to sit on Medvedev, but all the time Uranus-Pluto was lurking in the background, just out of sight.

When these outer planets decide to come on stage, personal considerations get put to one side. Russia needs Medvedev’s Uranus-Pluto and the reforms it can bring. The collective has brought it out of him, perhaps even to his own surprise.

The chart I use for Russia is based on the moment when Yeltsin stood on the tank and defied the old guard. It was this event which proclaimed the existence of an entirely new and sovereign Russia.


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This chart has Mars in Virgo square to Moon in Sagittarius: the will (Mars) of the people (Moon), and it of course hard aspects Medvedev’s Sun-Uranus-Pluto. So there is an astrological confirmation that Medvedev is responding to the collective will, and as such it is going to be very hard for Putin to unseat him.

The birth time on Putin’s chart is not that reliable, but in the chart we have, Neptune has dissolved his power base (Pluto-MC) over the last couple of years. Even without the MC, his Pluto (power) has been affected, in the same way that Neptune was opposing Tony Blair’s Pluto when he left office. It is quite simple yet effective astrology: Pluto is the power you wield, and Neptune dissolves it.

Sun, Saturn and the MC all describe aspects of the leadership of a country. In Russia’s case, Neptune has been opposing the Sun, and Uranus is about to trine/sextile the MC and Saturn respectively. With all 3 being affected, it seems that Russia is experiencing not just a change of leader, but a change in the type of leadership, which will unfold further over the next 2 years as Uranus does his work.

When 2 transiting outer planets are hard aspecting, we can expect the collective will to be more visible and assertive than usual. During the Uranus-Pluto conjunction of the 1960s, for example, we had, well, the 1960s. And as Uranus moved to conjoin Neptune in the late 80s/early 90s, Communism fell and a new world order came into being.

With Uranus approaching an in-sign square to Pluto next year, we are moving into another period of powerful collective events, based on collective feeling. It's like pressures build up over a long period and they tip over into action. The reforms in the American healthcare system are perhaps an early example of the present Uranus-Pluto (as well as Jupiter-Neptune-Chiron in Aquarius, conjunct the US Moon). We can see it coming in Russia, if Mevdevev is to be believed, and I think his and Russia's astrology justifies such a belief. It's not so clear in the EU, but the beefed up Presidency, and a sense of increasing economic threat from the US and China combined, could easily produce a collective desire to pull together more effectively. And China? With continued exponential growth, the people will want to take their place as a world power, and this aspiration was clear in the Beijing Olympics, where more was spent, $40bn, than in all previous Olympics combined.

Where Uranus is involved - as in the 60s and 90s - we can expect reform; and where Pluto is involved, as in the 60s, we can expect increased power struggles, either within or between countries/superpowers.

In the UK, we are likely to have a new Prime Minister next year in the form of David Cameron. Like Medvedev, he is a 1960s Uranus-Pluto man, but the connection to his personal planets/Angles is much more tenuous.


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If you bring his given birthtime back four minutes (which is possible, given how midwives work, so I'm told!), you just about get a conjunction to his ASC. Forward again, and it is out of sign. I can't see he has shown much sign yet of Uranus-Pluto. Look at the reforms Tony Blair had brought to the Labour party by the same stage in his leadership. If Cameron was a reformer in waiting, I think we'd have seen more sign of it by now.

The North Node

I’ve been toying with the idea that the North Node becomes more visible as we get older. The (North) Node, you could say, describes what we are here to become for karmic reasons, it describes the deeper issues that will sort, that will become empowered, if we become that Node. Because these things are deep, they are hard to see; in fact our life may apparently have had little to do with the Node, until after 40 years we look back and see how it all adds up.

So I dragged a few names out of my famous people list to see what turned up. Elizabeth II of England has Angular Node in Cancer, conjunct Pluto and trine to Saturn-MC. That is a powerful placement, and shows how seriously (Saturn) she takes her vocation (MC) that was given to her (trine) by her people (Cancer) who are the source of her power (Pluto). As she has got older, so has she become the matriarch (Cancer) of her country.

President Kennedy did not live long, so his ‘later life’ is his reputation since his death. His Node is in Capricorn, opposite Pluto. He is remembered as a great president (Capricorn, a sign of leadership and authority), and this is partly because of his early death (Pluto).

Rupert Murdoch has Node in Aries, conjunct Uranus and square to Saturn and Pluto. A very powerful placement. He has maintained his ability to fight and to initiate (Aries) into his old age, and continues to be a mould-breaker (Uranus-Node, which Obama also has.) It’s not necessarily very pretty having Saturn and Pluto in square to the Node, and you don’t feel there is much that Murdoch would not do in pursuit of power and wealth.

An odd one: the Batman story seems to keep going, with yet another re-invention in the last few years. I wondered if he has Node in Scorpio (re-invention continuing into old age), and sure enough he has. The chart I use is that for the first publication on 1st May 1939. Note that Batman does not have superpowers, unlike the Incredible Hulk etc. This is reflected in the astrology, where the superheroes tend to have Jupiter-Chiron aspects: superpowers (Jupiter) created by a wound (Chiron e.g. the Hulk’s exposure to radiation, Superman losing his family and home planet as a baby.)

Bob Geldof has the Sun conjunct Neptune of a musician and the Sun conjunct Saturn of someone who is determined to achieve; but as he has got older, so has his compassionate Node in Pisces become more prominent, through Band Aid etc.

Margaret Thatcher has Node in Leo. She was a singular leader, unable to adapt as time went on (fixed Leo) and adopting regal airs (Leo). She is loved by many (Node trine Venus) yet also did a lot of damage on a human level (Node square Chiron).

Prince Charles has Node in Taurus, conjunct the Moon and in a Grand Trine with Saturn and Jupiter. So here we have issues of wealth, which on the one hand Charles is comfortable with and which gives him security (Moon in Taurus), but which he has also grappled with (Node), using his wealth to create sustainable, healthy projects, such as his organic farm and the village of Poundbury in Dorset. This is the aspect of Taurus as Values: what value do I place on money, what do I consider important about money?

The answer that is perhaps predominant in our culture is that money is a value in itself, and the more you have of it, the more ‘value’ you have. The Taurus-Scorpio Nodal axis is interesting in this respect. There is often some kind of struggle around money and material values with this placement. While Taurus Node asks us to look at what value we place on money, Scorpio Node asks us to understand the power of money.

Getting that power right is what it is all about. With money we can have power over others. It can also have power over us, when its lack makes us feel disempowered, or when its presence makes us feel substantial and powerful. Money is a power, and that cannot be wished away, but its real power is as a resource to make things happen. We can do things, meaningful things, with money that we could not otherwise do.

So money in itself is not evil, and being wealthy does not make you bad, despite what Jesus said about camels and eyes of needles. (Who’d want to go to the Christian heaven anyway?) Like anything, it is about why you want it. It is an energy, and it can be used in healthy and unhealthy ways. Getting this one right is the lesson for many Scorpio Nodes, in the context of the general Scorpio inquiry into the nature of power.

Like Batman, however, Scorpio Nodes (such as myself!) also need to continue to re-invent themselves into old age.

Saturn is 10 days off an exact square to Pluto, and one meaning of this is empowerment (Pluto) of the forces of conservatism (Saturn). Saturn-Pluto aspects have a history of handing power to the Republicans in the USA, and sure enough the Republicans have just won 2 key governorship elections, a year after Obama was elected. The Saturn-Pluto square will still just about be operative a year from now, so we can expect to see a further swing to the Republicans in the 2010 mid-term elections.

Saturn-Pluto combinations are also associated with the darkest, most violent events – like 9/11, which sparked off the War on Terror, and was associated with an opposition of the 2 planets. Indeed, the current square is the next phase in the cycle of hard aspects after the 9/11 opposition, so we can expect to see a new phase in what used to be called the War on Terror unfolding over the next year.

This War began with the US-led invasion of Afghanistan. Yesterday, 5 British soldiers were killed by an Afghan policeman, the biggest single ‘combat’ incident for the British since the war began. More generally in Afghanistan, Karzai has been re-elected as President after an election widely held to have been rigged, so much so that a run-off was set up, only for the challenger to walk out on it. Corruption, another Saturn-Pluto keyword, is a hallmark of Karzai’s government. With Saturn-Pluto overseeing these events, and continuing for another year, things will probably get worse before they get better, but then a new phase will come in.

The story is similar elsewhere in the Middle East, with increased violence in both Iraq and Pakistan as Saturn has approached the square to Pluto, and which has intensified in the last week as the square became ‘in-sign’ – i.e. from Libra to Capricorn.

With Uranus also coming up to square Pluto, the increased violence we are likely to see in the Middle East over the next year would seem to be the start of a bigger, tectonic shift, a change in the balance of power, as America and the Muslim world slug it out. At present, it seems unwinnable from either side. Minority groups have become very effective at ‘asymmetrical warfare’, or what we would call terrorist attacks, which aim to have a psychological impact, and much more commitment of resources is needed by America and its allies – and probably a lot more ruthlessness – if they are ever to win. This is difficult for democracies, as people resist spending the money required, and undue violence often gets exposed.

The Russians, for example, seem to have suppressed the violence in their breakaway region of Chechnya in a way that the US could never have done, because they are prepared to be brutal in a sustained way that America could never get away with. Mind you, if there was a direct threat to America’s homeland, it would probably be a different story.

America has its ‘dark-ops’ and its Guantanamo Bay and its involvement in some pretty ghastly stuff, and it’s right to protest against it, but I think it’s nothing compared to what Russia and China would do as a matter of course. America could never have got away with suppressing Tibet in the way that China has over 60 years. America behaves like any Empire would, but I think the demonization it comes in for, both at home and abroad, sometimes needs a bit more perspective.

In June next year, Uranus and Pluto will come within 3 degrees of each other, and will for the first time be ‘in-sign’ – from Aries to Capricorn. So the pattern I see is that the increased levels of conflict that are likely over the next year as Saturn squares Pluto will start to tip over into a sense of fundamental shifts in the balance of power. In the US Progressed Chart, Saturn and Mars have both gone retrograde for the first time ever in recent years. So we are likely to see power slipping away from America.