PLUTO IN SAG, PLUTO IN CAP: FREE TRADE VS PROTECTIONISM

In his speech today about the post B economy (he wouldn't say the word because, he says, it is history!) Boris Johnson flew the flag for free trade, claiming it has benefitted the world economy enormously. For some, it undoubtedly has. For others, not so. 

In his very readable book '23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism' by Cambridge Economics Professor Ha-Joon Chang, the author favours evidence over ideology, and shows how harmful free trade often is to developing economies. How do you start your own industries if your country is flooded with cheap goods from abroad? This is often the price countries have to pay for help from the IMF. Which of course is run by America.

--------------------

I offer skype/FB video astrology readings, by donation. Contact: BWGoddard1 (at)aol.co.uk

---------------------

America was protectionist in its early days, it had to be. And now it is being protectionist in its attempts to sort the huge trade imbalance with China. This is Trump putting common sense before ideology. So Johnson is only presenting half the picture, and maybe as a politician that is necessary, up to a point.

But as we enter a new era of Saturn-Pluto in Capricorn, more protectionism seems almost inevitable. Saturn and Capricorn both like to set boundaries and curb excess. Pluto in Sag was globalisation and free trade (which of course is only ever partly free). Now we are having a corrective to its excesses. 

Words sometimes become value judgements, so globalisation, which often merely means shutting down your factories at home and using cheap labour abroad, is 'good'. And protectionism, which can mean fostering your home-grown industries and resisting a flood of cheaply made imports, is 'bad'. This is just ideology, it is not thinking. 

Cheap Labour in China (it will be the Philippines next) means that our goods become throwaway. I read that the average garment is now worn just 4 times. So with protectionism will come more expensive goods that we do not throw away so easily. This will be another manifestation of Saturn in Capricorn.

So I say bring on a bit more protectionism, and let us be more connected to what we buy by having more of those goods made at home. This, of course, is not astrology, just my opinion, but I think the astrology is on my side.

And here is maybe my biggest wish for Saturn-Pluto in Capricorn: that an age dawns where limits to economic growth are set, that quality and efficiency and sufficiency become the unthinking value judgements (given that we seem to have no other way of functioning collectively.) The transformative power (Pluto) of common sense (Saturn in Capricorn). The current era of endless economic growth is not sane in a very basic way. Collectives, of whatever political persuasion, are rarely sane. But maybe we will have a bit of sanity, at least for a bit.

THE DREAM OF ROME

This book, The Dream of Rome, was published in 2006, as the author’s Uranus Opposition completed, and as Pluto finished opposing his Mercury and was moving on to oppose his Sun (then MC). So it was a pivotal time in Johnson’s life, even though his public persona may not have revealed that. With Moon in Scorpio, Johnson is a very private, as well as public, man (revealed, perhaps, in the photo on the cover of the book.)

Notice how his Mercury is unaspected: that means that on the one hand he comes out with things best not said, he doesn’t find it easy to edit himself. But on the other, he will say things that need saying that nobody else will say. Gemini and its relation with the truth, an interesting area. Truth as well as lies, people often only see one half of this. Since becoming PM, and with his very weighty Solar Return for this year (Moon-Saturn-Pluto conjunction in 10th House Capricorn) he has become more considered and responsible in what he says,

--------------------

I offer skype/FB video astrology readings, by donation. Contact: BWGoddard1 (at)aol.co.uk

---------------------

So 2006 was a time when Johnson’s underlying beliefs were becoming more formed, and giving him more genuine strength and gravitas: this is reflected in the sign of transiting Pluto (Sagittarius) and the natal House of Mercury and the Sun (the 9th).

The book analyses what it was that made the Roman Empire work, and compares it to the EU, which he neither damns nor extols. He concludes with a defence of Islam (another Pluto in Sag theme), which he says is no more dark and irrational - our historic fear - than Christianity was when it presided over Europe. With a great-grandfather who was a Muslim Turk, he makes the case for Turkey being allowed into the EU.

I recently read this author's book on the character of Churchill, another politician-writer. Johnson, a journalist, is always very readable. Whether or not you agree with Johnson's politics - and as with any politician, we will agree with some things and not others - there is no denying that he is a complex, thoughtful guy who we will gradually get to know. It can be quite exasperating when people try to reduce Johnson to one or the other of his past follies, which he seems to have largely put behind him since becoming PM.

When the referendum was called in early 2016, Pluto was just finishing opposing Johnson’s MC. A weighty time for him, in which he had to consider his vocation (MC). Remember how it took him some time to decide which side he was on. So many people said it was because he was weighing up what would advantage him personally. There is some truth in that, I am sure: as Johnson says in his book on Churchill, every politician is a mixture of idealism and being self-serving, and that is where the point of interest in them lies.

But what no-one seemed to consider is that maybe Johnson delayed because he was genuinely thinking about it. You sense a strong Europhilia in Johnson in his book, but not so much love for the EU. Like a good Gemini, he sees both sides, he is not rabid in any of his views in my opinion. And as I said earlier, you may not agree with his conclusions, but there is no denying his thoughtfulness, and the knowledge he brings to it, which most of us could not match. Compare this to the ignoramus Trump, or even to Tony Blair, having to acquaint himself with the Koran in the run-up to the Iraq War. We have an educated leader, as we ought.

SYNCHRONICITIES AROUND BREXIT

Astrologers think via synchronicities, between events and star stories, and between events occurring at the same time. At a moment like the present, when the UK is about to leave the EU - which, now that it is definite, seems to have dropped from the status of all-consuming to a non-event in the news - it is worth paying attention. 

We are leaving on 31st Jan, and Charles I was executed on 30 Jan. The symbolism is, I think, obvious. We haven't yet decided whether to have Big Ben ringing on the night: that is a symbol of our ambivalence - do we celebrate or do we mourn? 

And Prince Harry is breaking free of the Royal Family. This is at a cost to his income and status, but he will be claiming his own life - as Neptune begins to oppose his Virgo Sun. It is coming from his soul, and he wishes to remain of service, but in his own way. And as Pluto and Saturn finally finish squaring his Venus: cherchez la femme.

Symbolically, Harry sums up the 2 sides in the Brexit argument. One side is saying we will no longer be a big-hitter geopolitically and that it will cost us economically. And the other is saying yes, but what about our sovereignty? Choose your side. The Royal Family is settling this without acrimony, and maybe the acrimony is therefore pretty much over about Brexit. It feels like that to me, and it feels like the country is a lot more at peace with itself than it has been for decades, even though we have an outcome that many people really do not want.

--------------------

I offer skype/FB video astrology readings, by donation. Contact: BWGoddard1 (at)aol.co.uk

---------------------

I think we need to consider Prince Andrew too. He has been eased out of the Royal Family, though he is said to be the Queen's favourite. Classic Pisces: hopeless and loveable (apparently). I'm not entirely sure how to read this one in the UK Zeitgeist. But it all blew up during the election campaign, when we had been politically a basket-case all year, so it was a timely reflection of where we were and what we needed to escape from. And we did!

The decision to leave the EU on 31st January effectively became legal on 19th December, after the 2nd reading of the Brexit Bill. The 3rd reading was passed on 9th January, but with no new clauses or amendments. The 2nd reading passed just 6 days after Saturn's 3rd and final opposition to the UK Moon. This was almost astrology by clockwork: we have been through years of Pluto and then Saturn making hard aspects to the UK Sun, Moon, Angles and Node, and at the very last transit - and Saturn requires concrete action - the decisions for the future are taken.

I have had to hang on to my horses astrologically with this one. I predicted from the word go that we would leave - what else could describe the astrology? And then I allowed myself to be backtracked for a bit by the swamp and by other astrologers saying we wouldn't leave, and then last August I said enough is enough, I trust the astrology and we are leaving. So trust the simple astrology.

Saturn-Pluto: Iran, the bushfires, Brexit and US-China relations

Quite a lot of people seem to have had the sense of major events in the offing, and this was before the current Iran thing. Any major event around now, because of its proximity to the Saturn-Pluto conjunction on Sunday, needs to be seen as indicative of the nature of this new cycle. 

The conjunction is coming not long after a lunar eclipse (on 10 Jan) which Bernadette Brady describes as "The sudden ending of associations or a relationship...there is a large emotional component, as Pluto is involved, and a sense of traumatic transformation."

IRAN

So the rewriting of the West's relationship to Iran could easily be in the offing. Iran has Uranus conjoining it's MC this year. Revolution. And the Saturn-Pluto conjunction is square to its natal Pluto, the final outcome of a long transit of Pluto to its Sun then to natal Pluto. The West could precipitate regime change in a way that works better than it did in Iraq, because Iran is not made up of 3 warring nations, and there is plenty of popular feeling against the current regime. It is the only way that might stop them attempting to build nuclear weapons, and this would be a significant outcome.

With the conjunction being in Capricorn, the re-setting of boundaries of all kinds seems likely, beginning at the top with the relationship between China and the US - in which Trump, to his credit, has already mitigated some of the unfairness in their trading relationship.

The Australian fires are also perhaps indicative that climate might move seriously onto the agenda, particularly if an era of co-operation between the US and China opens up in the aftermath of a major trade agreement. China is the worst polluter, but also in some ways the leader in alternative energy.

--------------------

I offer skype/FB video astrology readings, by donation. Contact: BWGoddard1 (at)aol.co.uk

---------------------

Brexit is also a significant international event, and I think it points to a gradual revolution within the EU, the world's biggest economic bloc, that will set limits on its aspirations towards political union. This will be as Neptune hard-aspects the Angles of the EU chart in a few years time. And the lesson of Brexit for the world may be that you cannot produce genuine co-operation - which is much needed - by impinging on national sovereignty. It may turn out to have been timely.