Tuesday, February 06, 2024

THE FISHER KING

When the king is ill, the country does not thrive. While Big Ben was silent for 4 years from 2017, the country was politically paralysed over Brexit. Symbolism is a real thing, as any astrologer can tell you.



The country needs renewal: that is what King Charles' illness tells us. The Fisher King, the guardian of the Holy Grail, recovered, and his land recovered, when Parsifal asked him, "Whom does the Grail serve?" In our case, we maybe need to ask "What is the point of the UK, who are we now?" We lost an Empire, and tried to find a new purpose as part of the EU. That didn't work out. So who are we? We have an election coming up, but neither party has the vision of renewal necessary for the King to be well again.


Charles has Leo Rising, befitting a king. It is ruled by Sun in the collective sign of Scorpio, conjunct Chiron: his wound is collective. Uranus is currently opposing his Sun, a lightning rod for the country's malaise. In the Fisher King story, the wound is to the groin - the place that generates new life - very appropriate for Chiron in Scorpio.

My theory is that England forgot who she was 1000 years ago, when the Norman (Viking) conquest turned us into a conquering nation, beginning with the rest of the British Isles. The Empire has gone, and Scotland and Northern Ireland may go too. Charles' kingly line began with the Normans: that is one way of seeing the wound that he carries. His illness is that old soul loss healing. Just a theory :)


We may have to wait until next year, when Neptune enters Aries and begins a long slow sweep across the UK's Sun, Moon and Angles, to start to find the way again post-Brexit, with humility and reality: no longer a superpower; and no longer the next best thing, the vicarious power that came with being part of the EU.
 
 
KING CHARLES' HEALTH
Pluto is currently changing signs in King Charles' 6th House of Health, while squaring his Moon/Node in Taurus. This suggests his cancer diagnosis is of major significance. Pluto will not finally leave his 6th House until the end of 2027, giving a possible time frame for his illness. At that point, Neptune will be completing a square to Prince William's Sun-Moon conjunction in Cancer: a defining change for him is also in the offing. Uranus has also just turned direct, opposing Charles’ chart ruler, the Sun. Here is wishing him well!
 
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Everyone is weird once you get to know them. Aquarians are just more upfront, even honest, about it. That is why they are Everyman.
 
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A friend said recently that he felt Gemini was associated with the fairies, and was that the case? I said if it wasn't, it is now.
 
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I think Pluto in Aquarius will see GM crops come into their own, allowing for improved food production in the 3rd world. The power (Pluto) of technological invention (Aquarius.) Much of the opposition to GM, as with oil, is simply hatred of technology and human progress, and Pluto will march through that.
 
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Astrology is poetry.
 
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All the planets from Jupiter outwards are going forward. Time to make new s**t happen.
 
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On 12th Feb, Mars will cross the MC of the Northern Ireland chart, with Venus following soon after. Pluto crossed it 3 weeks ago. An agreement has just been reached on a return to devolved government, after a 2 year gap due to Brexit fall-out. Pluto still has 2 more crossings to go this year. NI is inching towards eventual reunion with Eire.
 
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The world is being held back from the abundant energy that nuclear power promises, and the abundant food that GM promises, by irrational fear of technology and hatred of humanity. The coming age of Pluto in Aquarius will march through this opposition, taking no prisoners, because it is our survival and flourishing (Pluto), through human inventiveness (Aquarius), that is at stake. And our destiny. Pluto is in this sense a protector of what humanity can become. Neptune in Aries will also play its part in this renewal of the collective dream. 
 

Elon Musk, with his vision of humanity as an interplanetary species, symbolises the optimism and inventiveness of this coming age. And let's not forget Uranus moving into Gemini too. A whole new age to look forward to.
 
 
THE AQUARIAN REBELLION AGAINST GREEN POLICIES
The last transit of Pluto through Aquarius saw both the French and American Revolutions: the people rebelling against unrepresentative, authoritarian government. Power (Pluto) to the People (Aquarius.) I think we will see a similar mood in the coming years, this time with green policies as the focus, as they begin to erode people's standards of living. I'm not saying this is good or bad: I'm just saying I think it is what will start happening. They have become the norm, and that is something Aquarius sees the holes in and pushes against.
 
 

In the UK we see it already, with the two main parties, in the run-up to a general election, vying to water down their commitments to net-zero. We saw it in the lack of media coverage of COP28. We see it in the huge protests by Dutch and German farmers against the imposition of green policies, and the rise to power of political parties that reflect this mood. In the US, Donald Trump is well-known for his lack of belief in the climate crisis. The rebellion will also be against the authoritarian, ideologically driven way net zero is often being implemented. The media is likely to tar this political movement with the label 'far right', a term that is gradually losing its meaning through over-use.
 
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If you attempt to turn astrology into a statistical truth, then you disrespect the gods and they will stop speaking to you. Astrology is not scientific. It is not for us to try to probe and judge the workings of the divine. It is for us to stand back in awe.
 
 
VENUS IN CAPRICORN
Venus is now in Capricorn. Not very romantic. Or, at least, not a time for love-bubbles, based around 2 people not knowing each other. That's so yesterday, so Venus in Sag. Venus in Capricorn wants you to listen to your experience, listen to the whole of yourself. That takes time and patience. But it can produce results that actually work, that last.
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Aquarians, if you want to be radical, be conservative. If you want to be even more radical, go to church. Got this idea off Nick Cave in this brilliant interview. Nick Cave has a hell of a work ethic. I looked him up: Sun in Virgo square to Saturn. 
 
 
PLUTO IN CANCER?
In Sardinia, the use of the "femina agabbadòra hammer" was a women's practice. Whenever an elderly man or woman of a given family was dying and in great pain, the family would call for the Accabadòra or Lady of the Good Death. She would usually be a widow dressed entirely in black, who likely inherited her role from her own mother or grandmother. The title Accabadora means "She is the One Who Ends." She arrives with a large hammer of carved olive wood wrapped in heavy wool, and is left alone with the individual who may yet be screaming in agony and terror. 
 

A witness testimonial of the practice translates: "It was dark. The room was illuminated by a single wick in mastic oil. The Accabadòra entered the house -- the door had been left open for her. She passed no one as she enters her patient's room at at the bedside. "She caressed the face of the dying person, chanted the rosary, sang one of the many lullabies usually sung to children. Finally she raised her hammer wrapped in thick, black wool, and gave a quick sharp blow on the skull. 
 
"She then left the bludgeoned patient in quiet peace, and our family blessed and thanked and paid her for her good work as she was leaving. It is a hard job. The Accabadòra may herself be feeble, and is often a friend of the ailing individual. So you must always respect her. "We do not consider her a murderer. In our village she is known as compassionate, a holy assistant in fulfilling the final destiny. Her act is loving and benevolent. She is our Last Mother." 
 
Though usually done with a hammer, each Accabadòra may have her own technique, including smothering with a pillow, or climbing atop the sufferer to wrap her legs around the neck to squeeze the throat closed. The last recorded Accabadòras went about their missions of euthanasia in 1929 in Luras and in 1952 in Orgosolo. But a recent work of fiction about the life of a modern Agabbadòra alleges that the ancient practice still exists in rural parts of Sardinia, where there are no physicians or any other help for the suffering.” 
 
=== Photo: An Accabadòra ready to serve, though her hammer is considerably larger than would be used by a real Accabadòra. Inset: An actual femina accabadòra hammer in a Sardinian museum.
 
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The Ukraine War will have it's Mars Return in early Feb, a Mars (at 22 Capricorn) that is at the same degree as the Saturn-Pluto conjunction the year before. That connection makes this minor war very significant geo-politically. Whether the Mars Return leads to an escalation or to negotiations, I do not know. But new developments are likely around that time.
 
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We belong not to ourselves but to the universe. Ordinary humanity does not understand this, astrologers and healers do.
 
 
PLUTO in CAPRICORN CRISES
Pluto can be associated with crises, inasmuch as they often precede the fundamental restructuring that this planet engenders. Pluto's time in Capricorn has been a time of institutional (Capricorn) crises, beginning with the financial crisis of 2008, the biggest since the 1930s. Then there was the Eurozone crisis, the political crises that led to Trump and Brexit, and then the COVID crisis. Last but not least has been the climate crisis which big business and government (both Capricorn) are being seen to ignore, despite protestations to the contrary, as Pluto leaves this sign.

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The International Climate Conference (COP) started in March 1995. This year it has its Saturn Return at 17 Pisces. Last year's COP 28 was barely front page news. I reckon the age of climate anxiety is starting to come to an end.

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The transit of Neptune through Pisces will be remembered for its religious madnesses around climate and gender and the victimhood of minorities.

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