June Moons Podcast

This Month's Academy of Astrology Podcast is now up on YouTube with Rod Chang and Mandi Lockley.

We start by discussing the intersection of Pluto in Capricorn and Pluto in Aquarius, as it retrogrades back into the sign of the goat: the Tech Revolution, AI, Banking, Crypto, Universal Income are all touched upon. 

From 18 minutes in - how to make the best of the June 4 Full Moon in Sagittarius. Mercury, Jupiter & Uranus dominate this exciting, energetic lunation.

From 35 mins in - our insights & suggestions for the June 18 New Moon in Gemini. This one is all about Neptune... a potentially confusing time when things might not yet be clear.  

If you're looking for insight into what the current and upcoming planetary events mean for you most personally, consider booking a private consultation with Mandi - click here for further details or get in touch via the contact form to the top right of this page.

Mandi is also now offering Holy Fire® Distance Reiki Healing. click here for further details

Pandemics of Fear

While the spread of Coronavirus is undoubtedly serious and we must all do what we can to keep ourselves and others safe, what we are also in the midst of is a pandemic of fear.

With the Saturn Pluto Conjunction ongoing, the astrology is clear. Saturn and Pluto hard aspects have fear written all over them. They are an astrological archetype of collective fear.

The last Saturn Pluto Conjunction was in 1981-83 in Libra, a sign associated with relationships and sharing. The fear during that Conjunction was the threat of the AIDs and HIV, a virus transmitted mainly through sex and also the sharing of needles during drug taking. Again, this virus was very real and at the time it had the potential to be a death sentence for those who contracted it.

In my world, however, as a young women just starting out on her sexual journey, I was never really at risk. It was all about the fear. I clearly remember the UK government campaign, ‘Don’t Die of Ignorance.’ The visuals – tombstones and funereal bouquets – piled on the scares. This disease, we were told, could take us directly to the bowels of Pluto’s underworld if we didn’t exercise extreme caution (Saturn) when having sex. Protection took the form of the barrier method (Saturn) of contraception. My girlfriends and I had all gone ‘on the pill’ as soon as we were ready to be sexually active. This is what young women did in the early eighties. We were the beneficiaries of the sexual revolution started by our parents’ generation. AIDS ended that. We were all scared. There was also a sense of feeling the fear and doing it anyway (with protection), but we were definitely, especially us women, denied the sexual freedoms we had thought were our right.

So here we are, with a new Saturn Pluto Conjunction, this time in Capricorn and another new, seemingly terrifying virus. Most at risk are the elderly and those with some underlying health conditions, but most particularly elders with underlying conditions. Saturn in Capricorn clearly describes the elderly.

Jupiter, also in Capricorn, amplifies everything. Are we as a society and individuals overreacting, over-exaggerating? Some say yes, some say no, but time will tell. What is clear and again Saturnian, is that we are all looking to Government and other experts, such as health and medical professionals for advice and instruction. In many countries, laws are changing, if even temporarily. Some laws are being relaxed to help flagging economies affected by the virus and other laws are being set to help control the virus’ spread and by implication to control the behaviour of citizens. Law and order come under Saturn’s symbolism and control is a classic Saturnian word.

There’s a sense of being at war and war-like language is being used, which shouldn’t surprise anyone who understand the combined symbolism of Saturn and Pluto.

In the UK, people are panic buying toilet paper (or loo roll, as us Brits like to call it), even though Coronavirus doesn’t apparently cause bowel upsets. Pluto is of course associated with bowels and with waste in general. It’s about what we get rid of once we’ve taken what we need. This applies as much to our bodily functions as it does to our psyches. To purge is also to cleanse and hand sanitising gels are also currently being rationed due to high demand.

People with the virus are being forced to self-isolate. Again, it is typical of Pluto transits to isolate us, as individuals but also collectively. Walk around central London today and you will find that people are keeping each other at a physical distance. Expect a space to clear around you should you cough or sneeze. Usually it’s impossible to walk down the main shopping street near my office without literally brushing up against someone. Now we’re back in the realm of Saturnian boundaries and barriers.

Keep your distance, says Saturn!  By keeping away you are being isolated, says Pluto! ‘Social distancing’ currently looks like becoming one of the phrases of the year.

Yesterday (10^th March), Mercury turned Direct in Aquarius, having spent most of its Retrograde in the sign of its Fall, Pisces. I tend to underplay Mercury Retrograde’s significance and for good reason, but this one was severe. Under Pisces, things can spread, become infected. Because of the fear of spread, we have travel restrictions, cancelled flights, holiday plans ruined, big crowd events cancelled, closed schools, fears about the virus spreading on public transport, massive strains on ‘Piscean’ institutions such as hospitals, prisons and care homes. And let’s not forget all the cruise passengers trapped on board floating germ factories. Of course, on its own, Mercury Retrograde doesn’t symbolise the whole picture, but it’s nevertheless interesting to note the clear symbolic resonances.

Saturn is today at 29 degrees Capricorn. When a planet is in the last degree of any sign, the meanings of the planet and its sign are intensified. The seminal work on this and the other ‘power degrees’ of the zodiac has been done by Frank Clifford who writes that at 29 degrees we “encounter some of the most challenging facets of that meaning.” A four stage plan to tackle the outbreak is in operation in the UK and elsewhere. Stage one is Containment. The second is Delay. Both of these are Saturn key words and these stages are incredibly challenging to implement and to live by. If the UK goes into Delay stage (as it has in Italy and other places) it means not going to work or school, not visiting elderly relatives, not travelling unless it’s an emergency and not socialising. And where this is being enforced there are threats of criminalisation for non-compliance, undoubtedly representing the most challenging aspects of Saturn, at the end of Capricorn.  

And as I publish, the World Health Organisation has just confirmed the Coronavirus as a pandemic.

 

Saturn moves into Aquarius on 22^nd March. We shall see what happens then. It’s the sign of humanitarianism, community, collaboration. It’s also the sign of innovation and technology, which bodes well for the 3^rd stage – Research – which is already underway to develop a vaccine and also find existing drugs that can help with treatment. Reports are that pharma companies are collaborating positively. The Mitigation phase, if all else fails, focuses on saving lives, whilst maintainin public services and law and order. Stay safe, look after each other and don’t panic, this too shall pass.

(Here's a happy picture I took in the park today - spring is on it's way).

With love,

Mandi

The Rise of Extinction Rebellion

The Extinction Rebellion group (also known as XR) occupied a number of important locations across central London on April 15 2019, including Parliament Square, Oxford Circus, Waterloo Bridge and Marble Arch. At the time of writing, April 18, the protest is ongoing and appears to be growing in numbers, despite police making over 400 arrests so far.

This, in their own words, is what the protest is about:

‘The Extinction Rebellion is a necessity. Our political establishment has failed to protect its people from pollution, prevent further mass extinction of species on earth and prevent the possibility of human extinction in the near future. Therefore we must rebel to protect the livelihood of citizens and our natural world, or risk losing everything we cherish.’ source

The chart data for the start of this action is April 15 2019, 11am London. The source is one of XR’s posters advertising the action, as well as their website.

Chart for start of  XR Protests - 15 April 2019, 11am, London

The chart (above) is remarkable. The Saturn-Pluto Conjunction sits exactly on the DC. The Nodes, sitting at the midpoint of Saturn-Pluto, are Partile Conjunct the ASC-DC axis. Saturn-Pluto hard aspects are associated with fear, even the threat of apocalypse or ‘extinction’. They are a warning sign that things will be forced to change if we don’t take proactive action. Destruction of some kind occurs and is followed by a necessary rebuilding process. What XR say they want to achieve is “radical change in order to minimise the risk of human extinction and ecological collapse” and in essence Saturn-Pluto is about the transformation of socio-political structures and in Capricorn it’s about the Earth itself and how we need to fundamentally change how we treat it, if we want to preserve it for future generations.

The Cancer Ascendant Conjunct North Node also suggests this need for action for mother earth. The South Node, Saturn, Pluto and DC axis Conjunction certainly denotes the fear of disaster if we don’t change the way we treat our planet. And when veteran naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough is concurrently saying we face "irreversible damage to the natural world and the collapse of our societies" it’s safe to assume 

there’s something in it.

A Venus-Mercury-Neptune Triple Conjunction in Pisces is also angular, sitting across the MC. Like the DC, the MC is also a public point. XR’s message is of non-violent civil disobedience. This was also the impression I got from spending time at the Oxford Circus occupation (where these photos were taken). As police arrested protesters one by one, they neither fought nor complied, but allowed themselves to be carried away to clapping and the chanting of we love you from the gathered crowds. 

That a pink boat is at the the centre of the protest emblazoned with the words TELL THE TRUTH is a nice translation of Venus-Mercury-Neptune in Pisces, as is its placement at a major transport crossroads (they would probably say that the earth itself is at a crossroads).

On the other hand, the overall public perception seems to be that they are idealistic ‘hippies’ who will never get their demands met.  These demands are that the Government “tell the truth” about the ecological emergency and work towards change, that they act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025 and that they “create and be led by the decisions of a Citizens’ Assembly on climate and ecological justice.”

Mars in Gemini also Squares Neptune an applying aspect signifying idealistic action, tension and disappointment when dreams meet reality, but also a certain charisma and the potential for this movement to become a phenomenon.

For an action of civil disobedience of such persistence and momentum we must also look to Uranus. Indeed, the planet of rebellion and revolution is in Taurus (the earth) tight to the 11^th House cusp (groups, communities, the collective) and Conjunct the Sun in Aries. This is a symbolic picture of the eco-warrior and a strong statement about the group’s mission, especially as it makes a Square to Saturn and Pluto. Sun and Uranus form a Fire-Earth Grand Trine with the Moon in Leo and Jupiter in justice seeking Sagittarius. Jupiter Squares Neptune, Mercury and Venus, symbolising how ideals turn into society’s expectations which are either delivered upon or dissolved into disillusionment and disappointment.

The Moon at 29 degrees 52 of Leo is telling us that things are urgent, time is running out to save our home. Indeed, the logo of Extinction Rebellion is a stylised egg timer. Below is a screenshot from the home page of their website.

Extinction Rebellion was founded on 31st October 2018 and has quickly grown into an international movement. On this date their website states, “we assembled on Parliament Square in London to announce a Declaration of Rebellion against the UK Government. We were expecting a couple of hundred people. Instead, 1500 came to participate in peaceful civil disobedience”. 

This chart (time now known, set for midday) shows Uranus at zero degrees of Taurus (rebellion to save the earth) in an Opposition to the Sun and Venus in Scorpio (its mission is change through peaceful means). A potential T-Square to the Moon brings the message home about our ‘home’. Mars in Aquarius, the activist, is Square Mercury and Jupiter in Scorpio and their demands for ‘the truth’ ring strong and loud in their throats.

References:

https://rebellion.earth/the-truth/about-us/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_Rebellion

Weinstein and the Anaretic Degree

The film industry was rocked by allegations in the New York Times on 5^th October 2017¹ that producer and studio executive Harvey Weinstein had been sexually harassing young women, mostly actresses, for decades. Following the first wave of accusations, on October 8^th, he was fired from his own business, The Weinstein Company. He was also subsequently suspended from the British Academy and the American Academy, the organisations responsible for the BAFTA and Oscars awards.

Born with the Sun at 29 degrees Pisces and the North Node at 29 degrees Aquarius / South Node at 29 Leo, he is sensitive to the 29^th, anaretic degree. When a planet, natally or by transit, is at that critical degree it’s said to be emphasised, powerful. According to the Café Astrology website², with a natal planet at 29 degrees, “there can be some real issues with decision-making in that part of the personality represented by the energies of the planet”. It goes on to say that, “it’s also associated with a sense of urgency…it can be a point of poor choices, difficulties, crisis or overcompensation.” So, for Weinstein, with the Sun and Nodes in the anaretic degree, it’s about poor decisions, crisis and overcompensation related to his life mission, purpose and direction. It also perhaps represents the playing out of some intense karma (Nodes) - the release of the need to be ‘king’ of his creative domain (Leo), to be brought back down to the level of the common people (Aquarius).   

By transit, planets at the aneretic degree can bring crisis and on October 8^th, when the scandal began to gain traction, transiting Jupiter at 29 degrees Libra triggered his Sun via a partile Quincunx and his Nodes via a partile Trine to the North Node and sextile to the South Node. Transiting Jupiter was also applying to a Trine with his natal Venus at 3 degrees Pisces (Venus in Pisces a fitting symbol for the actresses he’s said to have abused). Appearing before reporters a few days later, Weinstein told them, “we all make mistakes,” (reflecting the issue of poor decision-making associated with the anaretic degree) telling the press that he’d been good to them and asking for a second chance (un-evolved Pisces is prone to inappropriately playing the victim).

The Quincunx is interesting. It’s an awkward aspect between two signs which don’t see eye to eye and often plays out in the context of relationships. Adjustment is required. In this case, the justice and fairness urgently demanded by transiting Jupiter in the last degree of Libra, awkwardly meets his Sun in the last degree of Pisces. The Sun at the very end of the zodiac could mean that poor life choices are made out of a fundamental difference in how he perceives reality, himself and his life purpose, compared to reality as perceived by his multitudinous victims. The Quincunx from transiting Jupiter to his Sun highlights the irreconcilability of these different points of view - he continues to assert that the sexual acts between him and his accusers were consensual. That his Sun is un-aspected (although there may be a Square to the Moon), lends it even more emphasises – he dances to the beat of his own drummer, led by his ego need, perhaps even unaware that his actions were causing so much emotional damage. But he knew he had the power to make or break a young woman’s career and he used it. Natal Mars in Scorpio tightly Squared to Pluto in Leo is a powerful symbol for using sexual predation to satisfy the urge to wield power and control.

Weinstein’s wife, fashion designer Georgina Chapman, announced she was leaving him on October 10^th, the day Jupiter ingressed into Scorpio³.

On the 11^th October, he was more contrite, saying in a statement to celebrity gossip website Page Six, “I apologise to everyone I have hurt by my actions…I realise I need to work on myself and to change. I am in intense therapy and counselling.” Weinstein is now the subject of a number of police investigations in the US and beyond.

We don’t have a birth time for Weinstein, but transiting Pluto in Capricorn is currently Squaring his natal Mercury-Jupiter Conjunction in Aries.  During Pluto’s transit through Capricorn, the historical crimes and transgressions of powerful people and institutions have surfaced and often these have been ‘open secrets’ or rumours that have circulated for years. Egregious behaviours and actions were tolerated or ignored because the victims felt they had no power, or actually had no power. Under Pluto in Capricorn, however, when a shift change occurred in the collective, these transgressions were finally acknowledged, with the sordid details rising to the surface for all to see and judge, precipitating a crisis.

Collective shift changes are of course reflected in Pluto’s long, slow transits through each sign. In Capricorn it’s been about revelations that endemic within the culture of major institutions there exists a rotten boil that needs to be lanced, with not undeserving scapegoats (Capricorn) as the central focus. First it was banking culture (the early scapegoat being Fred ‘The Shred’ Goodwin, CEO of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group). Next, Plutonian crisis rocked the institution of television, in particular the BBC crisis around the exposure of Jimmy Savile’s prolific child abuse. And now, with these allegations against Harvey Weinstein, it seems that the glamour has fallen away from the movie world, with many saying his actions are just the tip of the iceberg and such behaviour is widespread in the film industry.

There is an Interesting astrological correlation between the timing of the full exposes of Harvey Weinstein and Jimmy Savile's abuses of power through sexual assaults on a huge scale (alleged in the case of Weinstein). The 'open secret' about Savile was finally acknowledged publicly when Saturn was just about to go into Scorpio and with Weinstein it was when Jupiter was just about to go into Scorpio. A few differences - there's been no suggestion that Weinstein abused children and also, unlike Savile, Weinstein is still alive to answer for his crimes. Proving that Jupiter isn't always the planet where you 'get away with it.'

British actress Emma Thompson, when interviewed on the BBC’s Newsnight⁴ show made the connection, asking, “isn’t it the same story as Jimmy Savile?”

Referring to news stories that Weinstein was checking himself into rehab for sex addiction (addiction can be a negative expression of Pisces, a way for this sensitive sign to avoid painful realities), Thompson went on to say,

 “I don’t think you can describe [Weinstein] as a sex addict.  He’s a predator – that’s different. He’s at the top of, as it were, the ladder, of a system of harassment and belittlement and bullying."

Thompson has outspoken Mercury in Aries Sextile Venus and Square Mars and Saturn (speaking up for/fighting for women against male authority figures). She also has Venus in Gemini (again, speaking up for women) Opposite Jupiter, with both Squaring Pluto to form a T-Square, she concluded, "I didn't know about these things, but they don't surprise me at all, and they're endemic to the system anyway…this isn't about one man's crimes against women. This is about our system's imbalances, our system's gender crisis.”

Under Jupiter in Scorpio there is the potential for this scandal to spread far and wide and of course, Scorpio in its worst expression can be about abuses of power of a sexual nature. Indeed, the #metoo campaign on social media has seen women (and men) in extraordinary numbers, from all walks of life, share, for the first time, their own stories of sexual harassment and abuse.

References

How the scandal unfolded: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-41594672

¹https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/us/harvey-weinstein-harassment-allegations.html

² https://cafeastrology.com/criticaldegrees.html

³http://people.com/movies/harvey-weinstein-wife-georgina-chapman-separating/

⁴https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV_W6kPqR9U

Charts

https://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Weinstein,_Harvey

https://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Thompson,_Emma

A Murder Case Re-Opened

Back in October 2011 I looked at the transits for Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito upon their acquittal of the murder of Meredith Kercher (you can see relevant highlights from that article below and the full article here).

 

It was announced today that their acquittal has been overturned and a retrial will take place.

 

Perhaps we should not be surprised. That sleeping dogs shall not be allowed to lie, seems to have become a trademark of Saturn in Scorpio in mutual reception and sextile with Pluto in Capricorn. That, along with the game-changing shocking twists and turns we have come to associate with the on-going Uranus-Pluto Squares, has facilitated the uncovering of dark and long kept secrets and forced us to face unpalatable truths.

 

These planetary alignments suggest that the truth will now finally be dragged out one way or another in this tragic case. For the sake of Kercher’s family most of all, but also for Knox and Sollecito. If they are innocent, as they insist they are, they can finally prove it and move on. If they are guilty, then the re-opening of this case provides the now or never moment to convict them once and for all.

 

Knox has a powerful Cardinal Grand Cross in her chart: Venus at 4 Cancer, Mercury at 7 Cancer, Neptune at 6 Capricorn and the Moon's Nodes at 6 Aries and Libra (scroll down to see the chart).

 

Tomorrow’s Libra Full Moon at 7 Libra hits Knox’s Grand Cross exactly. This is a further suggestion that the truth will finally out, for the Moon at its fullest is the Moon in full light. There’s nowhere to hide, everything is seen. This is not a lunation for running, hiding or ‘getting away with it.’

 

Libra Full Moon March 27, 2013. Chart set for Perugia, Italy where the original crime was perpetrated.
Click on the image to enlarge.

 

We would also expect to see at least two of transiting Saturn in Scorpio, Pluto in Capricorn or Uranus in Aries making contact with Knox’s chart, if we are looking for further indication that the truth of this case is ready to be revealed. Indeed, transiting Saturn in Scorpio is currently making a series of conjunctions with her natal Pluto. Its second hit to her Pluto, the retrograde hit (a transit VERY appropriate for a re-look at this criminal case) is due to occur in early May this year. Saturn to Pluto is a hard, hard transit. Loss on any level can be felt at this time. Transiting Uranus is at 8 Aries, making tight contact to her Grand Cross, most exactly to communication planet Mercury, which opposes Neptune, an aspect suggesting deception, fantasy and idealism at play on some level.

 

Other current transits that hit her Grand Cross include Venus at 6 Aries. Picking up the Full Moon a little wide, but still part of the picture is Mars at 11 Aries and Pluto at 11 Capricorn. Pluto hasn’t quite finished with Knox yet, it will retrograde back just far enough to clip her natal Mercury later this year.

 

So, it doesn’t look great for Knox. I don’t know enough about the case to conjecture on her innocence or guilt, but either way she should brace herself for a rough ride because the truth will out.

 

You can also see Sollecito’s chart below. It’s his birthday today! He too has a strong pick up with the current transits. His Sun at 5 Aries picks up the Full Moon and all the other current Aries planets you can see in the Full Moon chart above. Uranus in Aries has finished its transit to his Sun, but transiting Pluto in Capricorn is currently exact on his natal Jupiter, a transit that lasts until January next year. He can also look forward to his Saturn return in Scorpio later this year, a time to face reality and take responsibility. If he's done something wrong he's not going to get away with it. If hasn't then he will be justly absolved.

 

It's also worth noting that the Saturn in Scorpio and Pluto in Capricorn relationship is associated with the uncovering of crimes of a sexual nature, most notably in the Jimmy Savile case. Sex plays a part in the Kercher murder, with evidence the victim was sexually assaulted. It has been suggested that her death was caused by some kind of brutal sex game gone wrong.  

 

Knox’s transits are perhaps more dramatic, but that is as you would expect, with her Cardinal Grand Cross comprising Mercury, Venus and Neptune and the Nodes. She has always been the ‘face’ of this case and its main focus in the media.

 

Naturally, the family of Ms Kercher has welcomed today’s development.

 

Read today's news story in full here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21936308

 

Edited highlights from my October 2011 post:

The reversal of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito’s conviction for the murder of Meredith Kercher was a story which gripped and polarised the public and the media. Whether the pair really had anything to do with the murder we may perhaps never know and that’s not a subject I’m going to speculate about here. When fascinated me about their story is how the timing for the original conviction, the appeal and their eventual release key in to the timing of major outer planet alignments, namely Saturn Square Pluto, Saturn opposite Uranus and the incoming Uranus Square Pluto.  Both Sollecito and Knox have had these alignments touching their charts by transit, with Knox in particular experiencing them very strongly.

On 4^th December 2009, Knox and Sollecito were convicted of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher. This conviction occurred very close to Saturn’s first exact square to Pluto at 2 degrees Libra and Capricorn in November 2009. Saturn and Pluto’s next exact alignment was at the end of January 2010 at 4 degrees of Libra and Capricorn. For both of them, Saturn and Pluto were transiting personal planets in their charts.

Saturn-Pluto transits can seem, at least on the psychological level, to take away our freedom and our free will. In the case of Knox and Sollecito, the loss of freedom was literal. In fact, losses on any level can occur under this transit. It tends to be a time of forced change, fear, pressure, negativity, crisis, restriction and a psychological journey to the underworld.  We may feel that invisible forces are working against us, that we are fighting for survival on some level. Even as our personal power is taken away, we need to find the strength to carry on, to work hard and then even harder to face and banish our demons. For this we need courage, strength and staying power. We need to tap into inner and outer resources to help us through.

The charts below show how the Saturn and Pluto square picked up on personal planets in Knox and Sollecito's birth charts. Knox has Venus at 4 degrees of Cancer, so just after the conviction transiting Pluto was exactly opposing her Venus, with Saturn squaring her Venus. She also has Mercury conjunct Venus, with Neptune in early Capricorn opposing from the public seventh house. The Moon’s Nodes, in early Aries and Libra, complete a dynamic, but no doubt stressful cardinal grand cross.  With Pluto and Saturn transiting this grand cross it’s not surprising that she has been called a liar, a manipulator, a seductress, violent, perverted and a she-devil, but imagine having to face your demons when the world is naming you as the demon!

Click to enlarge

Sollecito has his Sun at 5 degrees Aries squaring Neptune at 1 Capricorn, within orb of the Saturn-Pluto squares of late 2009 and spring/summer 2010.  While he has attracted less attention than Knox, the Saturn-Pluto transit to his Sun and Neptune is telling. Was he a victim in all this or was he deceiving everyone when he proclaimed his innocence? It’s hard to tell with that Sun-Neptune square, except to mention that it is reasonable to expect martyrdom on some level, or at least the sacrifice of the ego, with this aspect, especially so because both the Sun and Neptune are angular in his chart.

Click to enlarge

We all know that in life nothing is forever and like life, transits are temporal. With Saturn-Pluto transits, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, with the eventual promise of empowerment and emancipation, but not before a lot of hard work and a lot of seemingly endless patience.

Sollecito and Knox‘s legal teams filed appeals against their convictions in April 2010 and the appeal process began in December 2010. It was during the time between the filing of the appeal and the actual appeal that the Saturn-Pluto squares and the ongoing, status-quo upsetting Saturn-Uranus oppositions formed what has been widely dubbed by astrologers as the cardinal climax – a t-square in the early cardinal planets that had been building since 2008 and has come to symbolise shocks, changes, intense challenges, restriction, losses and hard, hard work.

They won their appeal against their murder conviction and were freed on October 3^rd 2011. By now, Saturn has moved out of the picture, with the much anticipated Uranus-Pluto square forming. On the day of their release, Uranus was at 2 Aries and Pluto at 5 Capricorn, connecting with the cardinal planets in their charts very closely. Under Uranus-Pluto moving aspects we demand freedom, we question authority, we don’t accept the letter of the law and we won’t tolerate being controlled. We want to feel free to do what we want to do and we want to make a difference.

Knox’s father summed up Saturn-Pluto followed by Uranus-Pluto perfectly, "she's almost kind of reborn in a way. I mean, living for four years inside a concrete and steel, you know, prison, and now being able to kind of just look around, smell the air and - and just do what she wants to do, hopefully when she wants to do it, it makes a huge difference." (quote from cbsnews.com)

With love,
Mandi
www.mandilockley.com

Chart data from Astrodatabank.

A Coffee at the End of the World

So, 21st December 2012 is almost upon us. A whole industry has grown up around this date, which apparently marks the end of the Mayan calendar.

Will the world (as we know it) end? I’m so sure it won’t, I’m meeting a good friend the day after for a coffee to celebrate the continuation of the status quo. We always meet on the last Saturday before Christmas, at the same coffee shop and order the biggest, sweetest coffees on the menu, topped off with a tower of squirty spray-can cream.

It’s an indulgence which, though unspoken, celebrates another year of our enduring friendship. We’ve been doing it so long it’s turned into a tradition.

Tradition of course, is associated with Capricorn, the sign the Sun moves into on 21st December. The Sun's ingress into Capricorn marks the Winter Solstice (the Summer Solstice in the southern hemisphere). The chart for the Solstice is traditionally used as a predictor for the season to come, at least until the Spring Equinox.

So what message is the Solstice chart carrying?

December 21 Solstice, set for London (Click to Enlarge)

The first stand out is Mars in Capricorn. Mars is strong in Capricorn, exalted. We are expected to respect and look up to whatever Mars in Capricorn is symbolising. If we’re looking at this chart from a collective perspective, then Mars here represents those in authority - leaders, organisers, decision makers, action takers. Bravo Mars!

But look a little more closely at Mars and all is not as it first seems. Mars is unaspected, making no major aspects to any major planets. Mars in this position wants to do its own thing, unchallenged. But here’s the rub. It’s void of course, meaning that it won’t make any more aspects before it moves into egalitarian Aquarius. (its exact Sextile to the Nodal Axis occurred three days before the Solstice). All this means that by the time of the Solstice, Mars in Capricorn has already completed its work and has nothing else to do. Because, of its exaltation in Capricorn, however, it will still arrogantly cling to its sense of self importance and fail to see the impotence of its position.

Draw whatever conclusions you want, but it seems assured that those in positions of authority in society will find they are not able to Get Things Done in the way they would like during the coming three months or so.

Mars is a masculine energy, so we need to look elsewhere for the feminine. There is a clear pointer in the Solstice chart towards a positive surge of balancing feminine energy. Juno joins the Sun at 0 degrees Capricorn - the Aries point degree, where a great rush of energy projects outwards into the world, seeking manifestation. Juno symbolises the union of the masculine and feminine, including the legal union of marriage. Juno also stands for primal feminine power and issues of equality, a useful counterpoint for the male power represented by the Sun. Interesting that the legalisation of gay marriage in the UK is currently on the political agenda. We will also hear more about female inequality in the workplace (the Sun-Juno conjunction falls in the 10th House for the UK), with female unemployment reaching an all time high in 2012 and with mounting pressure on corporations to promote more women to the Board.

The first major aspect to become exact after the Solstice is Saturn’s first Sextile to Pluto on 26 December (it will also fall exact in March and September 2013, with its influence stretching from November 2012 to November 2013).

Saturn in Scorpio is in mutual reception with Pluto in Capricorn, meaning that Saturn and Pluto fall in the sign of each other’s ruler. Planets in mutual reception support each other. They can be powerful allies as the world and individuals work towards positive change. Just as easily though, Saturn and Pluto can become dangerous partners in crime. It remains to be seen how this will go, but it’s likely we will see both extremes. The opportunity during this Sextile, if we choose to take it, is to push the relationship towards its more positive expression.

Probably the most significant pattern of this chart is the exact Yod, with Jupiter in Gemini making Quincunx aspects to Saturn and Pluto in Sextile. In Dynamics of Aspect Analysis, Bill Tierney describes a Yod as a fork in the road, the finger of fate, the opportunity to follow a new direction. Uncertainties may be felt and adjustments may need to be made, but change is necessary. He goes on to say that with Jupiter at the apex, the opportunity is for an expansion of consciousness and the broadening of a social vision.

This is a Yod charged with aspiration, optimism and idealism, which has the potential to make a big social impact. Jupiter in Gemini wants freedom of speech, freedom of mind and freedom of movement. Jupiter is in detriment (meaning that it’s difficult to operate to its best potential in Gemini), so it might be easy for the more negative side of Jupiter to find expression: over reaching; impractical and excessively moralistic. We will need to tap into the more positive energies of Saturn and Pluto to be reminded that real and lasting change requires time, effort and patience. 

The chart also gives us Saturn Trine Neptune. If we are being optimistic we can predict peaceful resolutions, treaties, new understandings and a more compassionate idea of morality. This is an opportunity to show we care and to do something practical about it. If we want to be cautious, we should be wary of those who merely pay lip service to compassionate actions and humanitarian causes, while surreptitiously pursuing their own agenda.

Looking at this from the perspective of the 2012 predictions, Jupiter in detriment in Gemini in the Yod can all to0 easily make him a false prophet, the witting or unwitting spreader of fear and overblown, baseless theories and rumours. The Saturn Neptune Trine also has the capacity for deception. We need to keep our wits about us if we suspect others are using our fears to control and manipulate us. Putting fearful energy into our endeavours and reactions can create a strong negative force. Refusing to panic and facing our fears (if we are called to do so) can, if done with self compassion and care, become a powerful healing energy.

The key to facing our fears is keeping them in healthy perspective. Our guides for this journey are Saturn in Scorpio and Pluto in Capricorn, who together push us to the edges of our worst fears and force us to stare down into the abyss, with the purpose of offering us freedom from them. My e-book on Saturn in Scorpio deals with the issue of fear, control and keeping safe in detail. Here’s an exclusive extended excerpt from the book.

There’s no doubt the world is constantly changing, but it’s an evolution that is slow, ongoing, complex and multilayered, as reflected by the long cycles of the outer planets: the 493-year Neptune-Pluto cycle; the 120+ year Uranus-Pluto cycle and so on.

As the planets turn and connect, we are still here, working out the same old Karma. Now if that is not enough to help put things in perspective, I don’t know what is!

Happy 2012 Solstice.

With love,
Mandi
www.mandilockley.com

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Sex, Savile & Crisis at the BBC

The BBC Director-General Resigns

Saturn in Scorpio can be an extreme placement. One of its darkest themes is the abuse of power, particularly by those in positions of authority in society. This, unfortunately, includes sexual abuse.

The arrival of Saturn into Scorpio also signals social shifts in attitudes to sex. Collectively, we find ourselves dancing around the line between sexual freedoms and sexual controls. Some historical and current examples of this are explored in Saturn in Scorpio: Your Guide Through the Dark.

Another key facet of Saturn’s transit through Scorpio is that we are shown, all too starkly and dramatically, the results of past sexual behaviours, freedoms, controls and abuses. This phenomenon of exposure is linked closely to Pluto’s relationship to Saturn in Scorpio. For example, in the 1980’s, when Saturn in Scorpio conjoined Pluto in Scorpio, the devastating HIV/AIDS virus came to our attention. At the height of the scare it seemed that sex equalled death, quite literally.

Fast forward to 2012 and we have Saturn in Scorpio with Pluto in Capricorn. In mutual reception¹ and in Sextile¹ by sign, Saturn and Pluto are enjoying a relationship which makes it easy for Saturn to act as filter and conduit for Pluto’s energy to manifest. As we’ve already established, Saturn in Scorpio can be about the use and abuse of sex by those in authority. Pluto in Capricorn is about exposing and holding responsible the past wrong doings of individuals, corporations and institutions which have held power.  From here, it’s a very small leap to suggest that once Saturn moved into Scorpio, the past sexual ‘crimes’ of those in power and authority would be exposed.

Saturn moved into Scorpio on October 5. Just TWO DAYS ahead of this ingress, a documentary was shown on ITV in the UK, entitled Exposure - The Other Side of Jimmy Savile² which investigated allegations that the late entertainer had sexually-abused vulnerable teenage girls.

Karin Ward, now 54 and recovering from cancer, went on camera to reveal how she and others were sexually abused by Savile while they were pupils at a school for emotionally disturbed girls. Ward was only 14 years old. After over 40 years of Savile apparently getting away with it, this was all it took. The floodgates were opened and what followed has been extreme. At the time of writing, police investigating the abuse have found 300 potential victims. Two other TV stars from Savile’s era have been arrested and bailed following allegations that they abused teenage girls along with Savile³ There have even been rumours that Savile enjoyed necrophilia.

The UK nation is shocked and horrified by the scale of abuse by Savile, but actually not that surprised. Nobody is defending him. Former colleagues are speaking openly about the rumours that surrounded him at the time and numerous former complaints against him have come to light, some of which were investigated by various police forces across the country. It seems that nobody joined up the dots. Complaints were dropped, ignored or brushed under the carpet. In answer to the question why didn’t you say something at the time, Ward and other alleged victims have pointed out that Savile was a big TV star and a huge supporter of children’s charities. He had power, while they are were just kids and ‘bad’ kids, at that. It’s alleged that he made threats to prevent them from coming forward. Who was going to believe them anyway? It seems that Savile was able to hide in plain sight.

What this scandal has also ignited is a major crisis at the BBC.

Firstly, it seems that the corporation appeared to look aside while the abuse was going on under their roof. This calls into question the culture at the organisation during those years, that so many seemed to know what was going on. It appears that they either accepted it as part of the culture, or, if they did feel uncomfortable with it, felt powerless to act.

Secondly, it’s come to light that in December 2011, BBC’s Newsnight is said to have pulled out of broadcasting the findings of their own investigation into Savile’s sexual abuse. Had the story ran, it would have coincided with lavish BBC tributes to the recently deceased Savile. The BBC has offered no feasible explanation to why the story was pulled, but Newsnight’s editor has stepped aside.

Thirdly, the BBC have been forced to apologise unreservedly after Newsnight implicated a Tory peer as being involved in organised sexual abuse of children at care homes in North Wales in the 1980’s. As a result, Newsnight, a bastion of probing investigative journalism, is facing editorial controls and restrictions. (This is a case unrelated to Savile, but which has been resurrected after allegations that a previous inquiry into the abuse had not uncovered its full scale and that powerful politicians may be involved in covering up a paedophile ring which included some powerful figures)⁴.

These developments have shaken trust in the BBC, one of the UK’s most trusted institutions, so much so that George Entwistle, the BBC Director-General has resigned. He was only in the post for 54 days.

Chart for the BBC. Click to enlarge

The BBC company was founded in 1922, but it was on 1 January 1927 that it became the British Broadcasting Corporation, by Royal Charter, making it the significant and accountable organization it still is today. Using this date as a birthday with a midnight birth time (which is appropriate for the birth of an organization), gives the Sun at 9 degrees Capricorn Conjunct South Node at 7 Capricorn, straddling a 9 degree Capricorn IC. Transiting Pluto in Capricorn is therefore making a series of conjunctions to the BBC’s Sun, South Node and IC and opposing its MC and North Node. Transiting Uranus, Pluto’s current partner in crime due to their ongoing series of disruptive, game-changing Squares, is making a series of Conjunctions to the Descendant in the BBC’s chart, which is at 7 Aries.

Whether they like it or not, the BBC is being forced to undergo a serious transformation that will shake it to its roots (IC) and affect its relationship to the public (Descendent) and its reputation (the MC) and bring in big changes at senior management level (MC). Saturn in Scorpio has just entered the BBC chart’s second House, challenging the corporation’s values and purse strings. Saturn will oppose natal Mars in Taurus in the 8th from the end of 2012 through 2013. Mars in Taurus is not going to yield to change easily, but what is certain is that questions will be asked about how the BBC is funded, how it manages its resources, what its core values are and how it expresses them. The corporation will be held ever more responsible in these areas.

Then, in 2015/6 the BBC will experience its Pluto half return when transiting Pluto opposes its 10th House Pluto in Cancer. We shall see a very different ‘Auntie Beeb’ by the time these transits are over.

Speaking at a recent conference⁵ Lynn Bell described Saturn in Scorpio as taking us to the place of nightmares, challenging the boundaries of our world. Something is opened up, Pandora’s Box-like. This is certainly the case here. Once it all comes out, it’s what you do with the toxic ‘stuff’ that counts.  We can hope that out of the darkness comes some light, healing and positive transformation.

This is something that we need insist upon as the Savile scandal, the North Wales care home abuse scandal and the BBC crisis all play themselves out. For Savile’s victims, the first crucial step of the healing process has been taken. They have spoken and they have been listened to. Now the authorities dealing with this scandal need to do everything they can to ensure that the victims receive help to accept and maybe even forgive what has been done to them, if that is possible⁶. Not only that, but it should be made easier for all of those who have been, or are being, abused by someone in power or authority, to come forward and to be believed and taken seriously.

The culture at the BBC and at all big corporations needs to change so that this can never happen again. It’s about breaking down the poisoned structures and building new, better structures in their place. This would be a powerfully positive use of the mutual reception and Sextile energies of Saturn in Scorpio and Pluto in Capricorn, as well as positive expresson of Uranus Square Pluto.

We also need to nip the panicked witch hunt in the bud, to ensure that innocent people aren’t smeared with the paedophile tag and to avoid more sacrificial head rolling at the BBC and elsewhere. Saturn, Uranus and Pluto will not be satisfied until the REAL perpetrators are held to account.

As noted at the top of this article, Saturn in Scorpio signals cultural shifts in attitudes to sexual behaviour, redefining the rules of what is and what isn’t acceptable. When Karin Ward said in a recent interview with The Daily Mail, “he was just like any other bloke in the mid-Seventies and at the time I never even thought of it as anything other than normal behaviour. He grabbed a handful of bum and went to grab a handful of boob...”^7, we realise how far we have come, because that sort of behaviour in any workplace is totally unacceptable now⁸. That it has taken us so long to acknowledge how prevalent this kind of behaviour was, the devastating effect it can have, and allow some healing and recompense around that, makes us realise just how far we still have to go.

¹Two planets are in mutual reception when each are in the sign of the other’s ruler. Planets in mutual reception tend to work together easily (strong allies or partners in crime). When planets are in mutual reception they tend to dominate the horoscope. Planets are in Sextile aspect when they fall within 60 degrees (two signs) of each other. Sextile aspects enjoy easy expression and are said to offer opportunity.

²Jimmy Savile was a TV and radio broadcaster from the 60’s and 70’s who became a household name. During the 80’s he became known for his charity work and in the 90’s he received a Knighthood, one of the highest honours in the land. Savile died in October 2011.

³For full details and a timeline of events see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19921658

⁴http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20277732

⁵The Annual Conference of the Astrological Association of Great Britain, September 2012

⁶Saturn In Scorpio: Your Guide Through The Dark, Mandi Lockley's timely ebook discusses issues of healing, acceptance and forgiveness in relation to Saturn’s transit through Scorpio.

⁷ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2217004/Jimmy-Savile-scandal-Karin-Ward-accuses-Freddie-Starr-pouncing-her.html#ixzz2BGZuXOUl

⁸I’m just about old enough to remember the days when, if a woman objected to being wolf-whistled or to having her bum pinched etc. she was told there was something wrong with her, that is was only a bit of fun. It was widely accepted that an ambitious women had to put up with this kind of thing if she wanted to get anywhere in her career. At the same time, she would be vilified by other women if it was perceived that she had ‘slept her way to the top’.

A note about Jimmy Savile’s Birth Chart

I don’t have a birth time, but his date of birth was 31st October 1926 in Leeds UK. At the time of the ITV documentary, transiting Saturn at 29 Libra was approaching a conjunction to his Venus at 2 Scorpio. Venus is conjunct his Sun at 7 Scorpio. At the same time, transiting Saturn was in an exact opposition to Savile’s natal Chiron at 29 degrees Aries. The revelations of his abuse of young women are indeed fitting for Saturn in Scorpio conjunct Venus and the transit to Chiron perhaps suggests the healing that now needs to be done. I can’t find a birth date for Karin Ward, but certainly she fits the wounded healer archetype.   

www.mandilockley.com
 
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