ISRAEL, THE NUCLEAR CHART and IRAN'S MID-LIFE CRISIS

Scorpio is the sign presiding over the current Middle East conflict, suggesting a side to it that is hidden. An obvious place to look is Iran. I am thinking of an unspoken nuclear threat from Israel.

Some technicalities. Natally: Iran's Moon in Gemini is on the 'nuclear axis', as it is known, of the chart for the 1st nuclear chain reaction. Its Uranus at 20 Scorpio is 1/2 a degree off the nuclear Mars. 

 

By transit: The lunar eclipse of 28th Oct was on Iran's Chiron/MC. The New Moon of 13th November has Sun, Moon and Mars all on Iran's Uranus/the nuclear Mars, and on the MC too in Tel Aviv, while the MC in Tehran will be on the nuclear axis. All opposite transiting Uranus, giving Iran a Uranus opposition, a mid-life crisis, in which this New Moon will be a key point.

We know that Iran is implicated in this conflict. Trump warned Biden some time ago not to unfreeze $6bn of Iranian funds, because they would use it for terrorism. I know a lot of people cannot accept that Trump can be right about anything, but that is their own wilful blindness. We are seeing the results of Biden ignoring Trump's advice right now.

This Scorpionic war is about survival for Israel, Mars in Scorpio being defensive rather than offensive. The bogeyman behind the war, Iran, denies Israel's right to exist. I don't think Israel would hesitate to use nuclear weapons to take out Iran's deep underground nuclear facilities if it felt there was an imminent likelihood of them having nuclear weapons.

I am not concerned that there will be major escalation of this conflict. What can anyone in the region do against Israel backed by the US? Iran would be obliterated, and knows it, and the astrology suggests a nuclear dimension to that awareness.

There is another chart for Iran, the symbolic founding of the Islamic republic, based on when Khomeini returned from exile on Feb 1 1979. It similarly has a Uranus opposition, but here Uranus rules the Aquarian Sun, enlarging its scope. And in the next few years, Neptune will hard-aspect all its Angles.

So even though there are gruelling Scorpionic times to go through in the short-term, I am hopeful that it will lead to long-term change in Iran, as its Aquarian religious fundamentalism is shaken by Uranus, and its incarnation through the Angles is dissolved by Neptune.

After that, maybe, the Abraham accords, which began under Trump as a way of normalising Israel's relations with the Arab world, can be revived. They were low-hanging fruit waiting to be picked, and Biden ignored them, because they were Trump's achievement. By enabling this war, which was always going to be hopeless for Hamas, Iran has achieved the wider objective of halting, for now, any possible return to these accords.

 

 

SATURN GOES DIRECT

 

Saturn will go Direct on Sat 4th Nov, after 5 months in retreat. You can probably feel it already. It is time to begin incarnating those nebulous Saturn in Pisces dreams, step by steady step, for that is Saturn's way. You don't have to know the goal, just the next step. Things are starting to become concrete, you know where you stand, what you want. Trust (Pisces) in whatever is or is not (Saturn).

 

 

THE ASTROLOGICAL TASK OF OUR AGE 

The chart below is for the day that Darwin's On the Origin of Species was published. It tells us something important about the theory of Evolution, for the Sun was in Sagittarius: namely that this theory is a belief (Sag) rather than a fact (Gemini). The Sun is opposite Uranus in Gemini, showing the ground-breaking nature of the theory, but also the presence of a trickster in the form of reason. 

 

The word 'fact' is nowadays used to give authority to scientific beliefs, in the same way that 'God' or 'the Bible' was used as authority for religious beliefs in the middle ages. But what is the world apart from our collection of beliefs and interpretations about it, as created by the brain, itself an artefact of our perception? As astrologers, we use sky stories, and they work. That is good enough for us. And it should be enough for science that science works. 

 

The bigger astrological theme around this state of affairs is the 490 year Neptune-Pluto cycle, the presiding influence, the context for all other astrological considerations. The last conjunction, in 1891, was in Gemini, as was the one before it. So we live in a Gemini Age: an age of facts. It is hard, by definition, for us to see collectively the shadow of that, which is the opposite sign of Sagittarius. 

 

Have you noticed how upset and angry people can get if you question eg the climate crisis narrative? It shows that they feel their belief system to be under attack. This does not make them right or wrong about climate. It is that it has become a belief that tells them who they are, that I am pointing out. It is the Sagittarius shadow of their Gemini scientific facts. 

 

Returning to the theme of Evolution, it has to be said that it is a good story and a useful story. But its mechanism is a mathematical impossibility. It is like the monkey at the typewriter producing Shakespeare. Life has such a complexity at the cellular level that it could not have happened in the time available. (Watch mathematician David Berlinski on this) So around the story of Evolution remains the bigger mystery of life and its origins. 

 

There is nothing wrong with beliefs. We need them. The point is to be conscious of them, to choose them. Don't treat them as ultimate statements about the universe. Then you will have Sag and Gemini in balance: you will have accomplished the astrological task of our age. 

 

The collective can't help but have beliefs that are to an extent rigid. Our job is not to buy into that, but dance around them. As astrologers, our task is Uranian: to be the skilful trickster who can open up other, softer and more whole ways of seeing, without provoking a reaction.

 

 

URANUS-PLUTO and ENVIRONMENTALISM

The Uranus-Pluto conjunction in Virgo of the 1960s is as good a place as any, astrologically, to trace the beginnings of modern environmentalism. There is the deep feminine, as found in the cycles of the natural world, Virgo as nature goddess: she gives us the power to live, and that is Pluto. It is Virgoan nature, which is seen as pristine, fragile and in need of our protection, rather than nature red in tooth and claw, which is more like Scorpio.

Then there is the counter-cultural rebellion aspect, which is Uranus, that often brings its own anti-authority, anti-technology, anti-capitalist and even anti-humanity undercurrents, that has little to do with environmentalism, but uses it.

And there is the hair-shirt aspect of Virgo, which understands sufficiency and the inner joy to be found in moderation, but can go too far in her renunciation of the world: we see this at its most extreme in the reckless 'Just Stop Oil' attitude. The shadow of Virgo is compassionate Pisces, which would not be denying western levels of prosperity to Africa, by restricting their use of oil, as has been the case for many years now.

The apocalyptic thinking around the environment is very Uranus-Pluto also: a disaster (Uranus) that threatens our survival (Pluto).

The environmental movement is a complex thing; it is like a religion in many ways, and I think a lot of it can be unpacked using this 1960s conjunction.

 

 

ASTROLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTALISM

There could hardly be a more important subject than that of climate change and the environment, and yet I haven’t been able to find an astrological take on it via the internet or anywhere else. I’d been occasionally pondering this one for a couple of years, and I finally came upon a way in last December through my blog on The Uranus-Pluto Generation. I was talking about David Cameron, the leader of the UK Conservative party, who has been attempting to make the environment for the first time a major issue in British politics, and I realised that this guy has the 1960s Uranus-Pluto conjunction in his chart, probably conjunct his ASC, and despite him being a Tory, his environmentalism is therefore probably for real.

And the conjunction is in VIRGO. Virgo is concerned with the cycles of nature (through her presiding goddess Astrea) and with technology (Virgo is Mercury-Mind ruled, an earth sign, analytical and perfectionist). And what technology has done is to disrupt the cycles of nature, leading to our environmental issues. So it is a very Virgoan issue. Eureka! It’s obvious when you think about it.

During the 1960s, when David Cameron was born, Pluto was in Virgo (1956-1972). For most of the 1960s, depending on what orb you use, Uranus was in conjunction with Pluto. During that period we saw the beginning of environmentalism as a radical protest movement (Uranus-Pluto).

In Sept 1962, for example, Silent Spring was published, a book that “claimed detrimental effects of pesticides on the environment, particularly on birds” and which “is widely credited with launching the environmentalism movement in the West.” (Wiki). Uranus was at 1-2 Virgo, Pluto was at 9-10 Virgo and both were opposite Chiron! The Sun may well have been in Virgo as well.

The two international environmental protest movements that we have probably all heard of, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, were founded in 1969 and 1971 respectively, though Greenpeace arose out of protest movements that were around a year or two earlier. So these two are also offspring of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction as it came to an end, with Pluto in late Virgo and Uranus in early Libra. The World Wildlife Fund was founded on 11 Sept 1961, with Sun and Pluto in Virgo, and Uranus 11 degrees off in late Leo. (I have heard it said that outer planet conjunctions are so far reaching on a mundane level that we need to consider them as operative up to 15 degrees apart).

The common factor in all of this is Pluto in Virgo: this was the period when humanity’s protest against environmental destruction (Virgo) first became empowered (Pluto). And Uranus was the protest, sometimes out of sign.

30 years later, from 1995 onwards, Pluto moved into Sagittarius, squaring its position in the 1960s, and so re-empowering the environmentalism that began in those times. And that re-empowerment consisted in the fact the environmentalism moved from being a protest issue to a mainstream political issue.

Probably the most significant move in this direction was the Kyoto treaty, which assigned mandatory targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to signatory nations. The treaty was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan in December 1997, opened for signature on March 16, 1998, and closed on March 15, 1999. The agreement came into force on February 16, 2005. (Wiki) It originally came out of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, established in 1992. So Kyoto and what led up to it takes us through virtually the whole of Pluto in Sagittarius.

Even though George Bush notoriously opted out of Kyoto, environmentalism as a real political issue has still progressed in the USA, through eg. the Gubernator’s initiatives in California and even in GWB’s recent State of the Union Address. So with Pluto at the very end of Sag, the issue is still being empowered politically.

As Pluto finishes squaring its 1960s Virgo journey, so is Uranus in Pisces now working its way through an opposition to Virgo, but some years behind. So out of this Pluto re-empowerment we can expect to see all sorts of interesting and radical and unexpected developments, both political and technological. There may well be a major leap forward as soon as the end of next year, as Saturn moves into opposition with Uranus, a combination which is well-known as a signature of technological breakthrough. As well as, politically, the bringing of radicalism (Uranus) into the status quo (Saturn).

And ironically, it may well be the USA, the worst polluter of all, and the last to come on board, which will come up with many of the breakthroughs. The USA has historically proved very inventive and able to rise to a challenge, and its natal Saturn-Uranus Trine can only help.

Incidentally, Barack Obama, the rising star of the Democrats and a contender for President, has Uranus in late Leo and Pluto in early Virgo, so I think we can see him as a member of the 1960s Uranus-Pluto generation who may be central to addressing the environmental crisis. When there is a pressing collective need like this, leaders will tend to get elected who are instinctively in tune with it. This is a point in favour of him winning the next US election. The Saturn-Uranus opposition, at 19 Virgo Pisces, will be hitting his Mars at 22 Virgo, and all at election time in Nov 2008. This is again a favourable pointer, not just to him winning, but to him having the dynamism to bring something new into politics that breaks the mould and which also addresses the environmental issue.

The Uranus-Pluto Cardinal square of 2010 onwards is the opening square of the cycle that began with the Virgo conjunction of the 1960s, so we should see the issues that began to be raised in those days receive new impetus from 2010 onwards - and probably even now.

Back to Pluto. Its square since 1995 from Sag to its 1960s Virgo journey is also relevant by sign, because Sag, for all its questing and enthusiasm, is well known for its lack of interest in mere earthly, ordinary matters. (In the system of esoteric rulerships, the earth is the ruler of Sag, suggesting what this sign needs to do to function at its best). And in this case it has been disastrous. We have our ever expanding quest for knowledge and know-how (Sag) based on a dismissive and exploitative attitude (Square) towards the cycles of nature (Virgo). This current transit is on the one hand a square in the worst sense, in that our destruction of the environment is accelerating; and it is also a square in the best sense, in that we are slowly beginning - in some countries - to rise to the challenge of addressing the issues it raises.

In my December blog on Pluto and the Galactic Centre, I made a connection with the Pluto-GC cycle and the environmental issue. Pluto last conjoined the GC in about 1760, as the steam engine which was crucial to the Industrial Revolution, which powered (Pluto) it, was being invented. Now, as Pluto conjoins the GC again last year and this, we are unavoidably faced with the environmental consequences of that Revolution. The GC’s involvement suggests that this issue is an important part of humanity’s evolution. It is not just a technological problem we have to solve. It has all sorts of deeper ramifications to do with our attitude to the planet.

Incidentally, the 1760 Pluto-GC conjunction also had Eris involved a few degrees away. Little Miss Mischief. Yes, here’s this wonderful opportunity to live as you have never lived before and generate untold wealth. There’s going to be this little problem 240 years from now, but I’m not telling you about that. What we have done to the environment is an externalisation of what’s in our own psyches, and Eris set us up for that. It’s horrible, but it’s been necessary, that’s how transformation sometimes works, and it points to part of Eris’ function in the transformational process. She sets us up for a necessary fall. 240 years later, with Pluto again conjunct the GC, Eris has turned up trine to the conjunction, ensuring we know that she has also been part of the picture – and maybe even to help us sort the mischief, while she creates some more for the next Pluto-GC conjunction.

So far we have Virgo and Pluto-GC-Eris as the main players in the environmental crisis. I think that Ceres also needs to be brought in. Ceres was promoted to the status of dwarf planet last year, so she obviously wants us to look at her. The promotion took place on 24 Aug, with the Sun in Virgo. As the goddess of growing plants she has a strong connection to Virgo. And through her daughter Persephone, who was a virgin (until Pluto got his hands on her) there is another strong connection to Virgo.

Ceres goes through all the signs every 5 years, so is bound to have aspected Uranus-Pluto during the 1960s. There were still some interesting ones, though. On 9 Nov 1965, Pluto and Uranus were between 18 and 19 Virgo, and Ceres was opposite at 18.32 Pisces. There were other occasions as well where Uranus and Pluto were very closely conjoined while Ceres was making a very tight aspect to them. So I think we can draw her in to the environmental issue as well.

Ceres and Astrea are both goddesses who love nature, which I think all humans also do, when they think about it. In looking at Ceres we also need to look at the main myth surrounding her, which is the abduction of her daughter by Pluto, her grief and her eventually finding Persephone, but only having her back for 6 months of the year – which became summer – while the other 6 months her daughter spent in the underworld with Pluto, and this became winter, Ceres’ time of sorrow.

So Ceres becoming prominent now suggests to me that we are entering the initial winter where Ceres has lost her daughter and doesn’t know where she is. We have lost our innocent, and unknowing, attitude to nature, as we collectively realise we are destroying her. But we can never go back to how we were – our technological advancement cannot be undone: Persephone has lost her virginity. To solve the problem, some sort of arrangement has to be made between the Ceres of Nature and the Pluto of destructive technology, just as Ceres and Pluto in the myth have to come to an arrangement. Ceres is resigned to it, but as a mother she is never happy with it. In the same way, Nature will probably never be as wild and bounteous as before humanity became technological. But at least an arrangement can be made to the benefit of both.

THE URANUS-PLUTO GENERATION

In yesterday’s blog I talked about the Uranus-Neptune generation, who were born in the 1990s and who, via developments on the Internet, are already beginning to make their particular presence felt. There is another generation that will start to make its presence felt in the next few years, which is the Uranus-Pluto generation of the 1960s. Being in their 40s, they have no doubt been making an impact already, but I am thinking of the sphere of national politics, where it is hard to become prominent until you are at least in your 40s.

This conjunction was intensely political when it happened in the 1960s, with all sorts of radicalism, protests and liberalising measures occurring. So we already know something of its nature from those times, and therefore something of the flavour which this generation will bring to politics as they gain power. And the symbolism of the Conjunction itself tells a similar story: rebellion (Uranus) against power (Pluto); the empowerment (Pluto) of radical, progressive ideas (Uranus).

Between 1962 and 1968, Pluto moved from about 11 to 22 degrees of Virgo, with Uranus in conjunction with it through all of that period. Pluto has now finished making a transiting square over the last 7 years or so to that part of Virgo, empowering that generational potential (which exists in about 1/14 of the population of the West). Between 2006 and 2009, Uranus is/will be opposing those points, activating that generation in all sorts of unexpected ways. Saturn will also be conjoining those points in 2008/9, ensuring that the Uranus activation manifests itself concretely and prominently.

By way of precedent for this sort of analysis, we can look the only other outer planet conjunction of our age, which was as far back as 1891, when Neptune conjoined Pluto at 9 Gemini. Adolf Hitler was born 2 years previously, with Neptune and Pluto at 1 and 5 degrees of Gemini respectively, and making no major aspects to the rest of his chart. This meant the conjunction could operate outside of the control of his ordinary personality, making him an undiscerning channel for the zeitgeist, in his case for the German collective inferiority complex of the time (unlike e.g. J.R.R Tolkien, who had the conjunction in square to his Pisces Moon, giving him a powerful and discerning ability to engage with the mythic dimension). It was as transiting Neptune finished opposing Hitler's natal conjunction in the early 1930s that he rose to power.

So, for better or for worse, we should begin to see politicians rising to prominence over the next few years who have the 1960s Uranus-Pluto conjunction strongly in their charts. In the UK, we have one example already in the form of David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party. Born 9th Oct 1966 at 5.51am (rectified) in London, he has the Uranus-Pluto conjunction widely conjunct his ASC in Virgo, and opposite a Saturn-Chiron conjunction in Pisces. It is too early to know him well, but he quickly and unexpectedly (for a Conservative) made a stand on environmental issues.

Virgo is associated with both technology and the orderly cycles of nature. It is the advances in technology that have led to the environmental crisis – in which the cycles of nature are being disrupted – so it is a very Virgoan issue, and entirely appropriate that a politician with a prominent Uranus-Pluto conjunction in that sign should be leading the way. So I expect to see the effective addressing of the environmental crisis to be one of the radical approaches that this generation will be bringing to us, both from within and from outside of mainstream politics. No doubt they will have other radical surprises up their sleeves as well.