Greece, Islamic State, Uranus-Pluto and the Eclipse

On 17^th March we had the last of 7 squares between Uranus and Pluto. This configuration has provided the overall context for world events for about 6 or 7 years now: the Great Recession, the Arab ‘Spring’, the rise of Islamic State, the Euro crisis…

The final square doesn’t mean the end of Uranus-Pluto – it will be playing out for a while yet. But 3 days later there was an eclipse of the Sun at 29 Pisces, the last degree of the last sign of the zodiac. If that doesn’t suggest an ending, I don’t know what does.

The US invaded Iraq in 2003 with the Sun at 29 Pisces. You don’t begin things under mutable signs, you end them, which is why it all went wrong. But I think this eclipse could signal the end of any meaningful US involvement in Iraq. The US has been providing air support for the fightback against IS, but no ‘boots on the ground’. It has been half-hearted. Nothing will probably be said, but Tikrit hasn’t fallen to the Kurds like it was expected to, and this may be looked at as the time when America quietly left Iraq to its fate.

The Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, a year before the final crossing of the last Uranus-Pluto square, and what came next was the outcome of the changes wrought by that square.

Islamic State declared itself a Caliphate at Ramadan last year, 8 months before the final crossing of the current Uranus-Pluto square. I see very little difference between them and the Nazis – the unlimited territorial ambitions, the powerful sense of belonging, the extreme brutality, the genocide. They do not at this stage need to be ‘understood’, they need to be opposed and eliminated. And, as with the Nazis, the world is largely standing by while they expand. With the Nazis, memories of WWI were too strong. With Islamic State, the shambolic invasion of Iraq in 2003 has made military opposition politically impossible.

The chart I use for IS has Cardinal Sun, Moon and Asc, with Pluto opposite Sun and conjunct Asc. It is the start (Cardinal) of something powerful (Pluto), unless they are stopped. With Moon-Jupiter in Cancer, expanding (Jupiter) the homeland (Moon in Cancer) is very important to them. The trine from the Moon to 10^th House Saturn in Scorpio again suggests power and ambition and ease of accomplishment, facilitated by popular appeal (Moon conj Jupiter). And we see Pluto at his worst, the beast from the Underworld, called forth by American blundering and her own ambitions. The US Sun at 13 Cancer is on the midpoint of the IS Sun and Moon, showing the close connection.

Uranus and Pluto will be hard aspecting the IS Moon-Jupiter in the coming years. So the brutal struggle for an expanded Caliphate looks set to continue.

Another ending that seems likely under this eclipse is Greece’s membership of the Euro. If you use fairly wide orbs, then the eclipse took place in Greece’s 10^th House, conjunct the MC (position in the world), square to Venus (wealth) and opposite Moon-Pluto (the disempowered people). In addition, the Uranus-Pluto square took place 2 degrees off the Greek Ascendant.

The new leader, Alex Tsipras, made an impossible promise to the electorate: to end the austerity and to keep Greece in the Euro. You can’t do both, and even leaving the Euro would, for a while, lead to greater austerity. So I think Tsipras has been putting on a good show of trying to renegotiate Greece’s debts with the EU, so that when Greece does leave the Euro (as seems very likely), he can blame Europe for pushing them out.

Now here’s something: the chart for the Euro has Angles at 29 degrees of the Mutable signs. The worst time to begin something! And the eclipse was bang on those Angles.

It seems from the astrology that Greece will leave the Euro soon, and from the Euro chart, it suggests it will not be an isolated event, but the beginning of the unravelling of the currency itself. The EEC came into existence on 1 1 58 at 00am, again giving it Angles at 29 degrees of the Mutable signs. So the unravelling of the currency, to whatever degree that occurs, will also involve an unravelling of the EU itself.

And that means the Britain, in its referendum, may vote to stay within the EU, because there will be less political control from Brussels to fear. With Pluto and Uranus having recently finished with Britain’s Sun and Angles, and moving on to our Cancer Moon, we are in the middle of a search for a new identity: our place in the world is shrinking, Scotland looks likely to leave the Union within a few years, and our relationship with Europe has reached make or break point as Europe has drawn ever closer politically. A few years down the line I think we will be a smaller and humbler country, occupying a more proportionate place in the world, shorn of Scotland, but with a clearer, less bloated identity  and with stronger ties to Europe as the prospect of a mega-state recedes.