Saturn, Realpolitik and the Brexit Negotiations

So what happened when the South of the USA tried to secede from the Union? The American Civil War. Countries don't like losing bits of themselves. They have less power and size and influence as a result. So of course the Brexit negotiations are going to be difficult, because it involves the EU losing power and influence, and this is a visceral issue. 

Only last week there was a threat to push Catalonia out of the EU if it split from Spain: this is bullying, but it is also realpolitik. The EU does not want its member states fragmenting. I think there has been a lot of misplaced idealism about the EU in the UK - as well as misplaced demonisation. (Personally I think there were good reasons to stay and good reasons to leave, no-one was 'right'). 

The EU is a state-in-the-making, and like any other. So we need to expect the EU to make leaving very difficult for the UK, if only to warn off any others who might want to leave. As well as because they are seriously pissed with us. And that's not making the EU the 'bad guys': as I said, it's just how things work.

When change happens to the UK, it tends to be big and over a short period. This is because the main points of the chart - the Sun, the Moon, the Node and the Angles - are within 12 degrees of each other in the cardinal signs. So when an outer planet hard aspects the UK Ascendant (at 7 degrees), it will go on to hard aspect all those other points in the ensuing years.

UK 1801 Chart

The UK is at the end of Pluto performing this journey. He last did so from Libra in the 70s, when the UK joined the EU, an interesting symmetry around the transformations of identity that Pluto often brings about. His culminating transit is an opposition to the Moon, which will be exact during 2018. This may be a bit of a difficult and dark underworld journey for the British, but within that will also be the seeds of who we will be next. This is about Necessity, not right and wrong. Pluto takes us on a journey that we have to undergo, and I think that is what is happening to the UK. It took Boris' charisma and loose relationship with the truth, and it took Corbyn's ambivalence to make it happen, but Pluto will use whatever tools he needs.

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Saturn will move into Capricorn in January 2018, and he will spend 2 years hard aspecting the major points of the UK Chart. So this is perfect for the Brexit negotiations. Saturn is a planet of manifestation, of working through obstacles. And this is exactly how it is going to be. Uranus is no longer transiting the UK chart, so I do not expect we will suddenly crash out of the EU. 

Theresa May (time unknown)

And Theresa May, who has Moon square Saturn-Node, and Venus square Saturn, is the sort of character that is needed. Cometh the hour, cometh the woman. She is Saturnian, so she is not very appealing and not very imaginative, but she has a job description, which Saturn loves, and she is dogged and will see this one through to the bitter end. I wouldn't vote for her as leader, but I admire her tenacity and commitment to seeing this through, particularly with such a difficult government to lead. Pluto is also part of her Moon-Venus-Saturn-Node aspect set. And I think this gives her that superhuman Pluto quality that will survive the nuclear war, survive whatever. She is like the Black Night in Monty Python, however much you wound her, she'll keep going. Like her opposite number, Jeremy Corbyn, who has Moon-Mars square Pluto, and possibly square Saturn also. They are both very tough.

So the next 2 years will be difficult, as Saturn transits the UK chart, and Pluto takes the people (the Moon) to the Underworld, from where we can be reborn. Poorer, quite probably. But also with a renewed vision for the country that will begin to heal the divisiveness and tumult of Brexit.

BRITAIN IN THE MELTING POT

If this were 150 years ago, and the UK was a wealthy patient visiting a doctor, she would probably be told she was having a nervous breakdown, and sent to Switzerland for a rest cure.

As an astrologer 150 years later, I’d say that the UK is near the end of a series of Pluto transits, during which much has been revealed, but it also means she doesn’t know who she is or what she wants anymore. Hence the political paralysis. Maybe in some cases the rest cure would give the time and space for the job to complete. But in this case, I think things need to be lived and worked through.

UK Chart 1801

The 2 main character traits in the UK chart are Capricorn (Sun and IC) and Cancer (Moon and MC). They are opposite signs, and as such provide a healthy tension within the national psyche that pushes us towards unity.

These 2 traits came out as opposites in the EU referendum: The Capricorns wanted to claim back our boundaries, to forge our own independent place in the world again. The Cancers valued the feeling of connectedness to Europe, one big tribe, and cared about all the people from mainland Europe who had made their homes here.

And these 2 traits had become polarised, frequently holding each other in contempt. The Capricorns, as we know, prevailed. But in last week’s general election, it was the turn of the Cancers, those who wish for a fairer country for all. They didn’t exactly prevail – the Tories remain the largest party – but they did well enough to destroy the Tory majority in Parliament.

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So there are these 2 great themes, personified as Brexit and Corbyn. Neither can easily move forward: Brexit because there is no clear government with which to negotiate it; and the fairer society, because they don’t have enough seats.

Jeremy Corbyn

So we are getting a better sense of who we now are, but we aren’t ready to act on it, the alchemy is not complete. Hence the stalemate. Hence what appears like a nervous breakdown, but which is what I call a Pluto Underworld journey, during which the outer direction is usually not very clear.

Pluto very nearly opposed the UK Moon this year, but won’t do so exactly until 2018. And this will be as Saturn hard aspects our Sun, Moon and Angles over the next 2 years.

So I think the difficult process of Brexit will be the anvil on which we hammer ourselves into a new shape. It is Saturn, there is work to do. The Brexit we forge will reflect the type of country we want to be.

And the great thing about the combination of a hung Parliament and Corbyn is that I think we will be able to work through a Brexit deal with which a clear majority are happy. Corbyn is a reasonable man. He will not oppose the Tories for its own sake. I think he is the man who will make the minority government feasible and Brexit possible. With Mercury and Venus at 15-17 Gemini, he will continue to inspire people over the next few years as Neptune squares these 2 planets.

Uranus-Eris has been at work here. The sudden, shock event that changes everything. I could see from the election chart that the Tories were going to have to listen a lot more to Corbyn’s Labour party and what they stood for. Logically, that could only have meant a reduced majority, but I failed to see that.

It’s been a bit of a zombie apocalypse. A year ago, Corbyn seemed like the walking dead as leader of his party. Now it is Theresa May, but it is hard to see her recovering.

A week ago I wrote that Boris would get his chance to be leader in 4 or 5 years time, when the astrology favoured him. He does have a chance of another kind now, one which he would be advised not to take. Uranus is starting to oppose his natal Moon in Scorpio, and this in turn rules his MC, his career point. He could suddenly find himself PM, but it would be unlikely to last more than 2 to 3 years, and would be characterised by instability, that being the nature of Uranus. And it would spoil for him the much more promising chance he has in 5 years time. Not that I personally want Boris as PM.

Boris

I’d hazard a guess at Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary. Against her is the very slim majority by which she hung onto her Parliamentary seat. For her (we do not have a birth time) is her North Node at 19 Cancer, conjunct the UK Moon. We are collectively at a moment of destiny, and that would be a propitious placement for her to have as leader. Along with Moon in late Sagittarius, being activated by Neptune in the coming years.

Amber Rudd

One way or the other, I think the Tories will elect a new leader in late August/early September, as Saturn (planet of leadership) starts to move forward again. Between now and then they will be sorting it out, which is what retrograde Saturn is good for.