The Riots and Why I Still Love London

Police helicopters? The wail of Sirens? Just another Saturday night in North London I thought, as I rolled over in bed to enjoy a peaceful night’s sleep. On Sunday morning I woke to the shocking news that just a mile away, in Tottenham High Road, a protest against the police shooting of Mark Duggan had spiraled into violence, arson and looting.

With a sense of shock, I watched the footage on TV. Around lunchtime, I headed up to the nearby Wood Green shopping centre, to pick up a paper and browse the clothing stores, unaware that while police were trying to contain the riots a mile away, local thugs had looted and vandalized the area. Some of the photos of what I saw illustrate this post. My overwhelming feeling was deep upset at the mindless, pointless destruction of my neighborhood.

As you have most likely heard, the violence quickly spread across the capital, peaking on Monday in the worst night of disorder in London in living memory. Meanwhile, there was rioting and looting in other English towns and cities, carrying on through Tuesday evening.

‘Why’ is the question on everyone’s lips. Based on UK riots in the eighties, the recipe seems to be: a spell of hot sticky weather + plus real or perceived injustice at the hands of the police (usually a death) + a background of recession/joblessness/government cuts + a Tory government. While there may be reasons, however, there can be no excuses for the actions of the kids who went out onto the streets causing terror within communities.

Because I’m an astrologer, my natural reaction is to check the skies for planetary alignments that reflect events playing out in the world.

The astrological backdrop is the square alignment of Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn.

The themes of this alignment include rebellious impulses; reckless, hot-headed behavior; sudden and shocking events; anti-establishment feelings; the demand for freedom and respect; issues of control and responsibility; spontaneous uprisings; collective and individual crisis on any level. A serious questioning of power structures and authority is indicated. The call is for deep and radical changes in the structure of society and the way it is governed. By force, if necessary. In short, we are looking at a potentially protracted period of discontent, followed by/coinciding with, slow and profound social and political change.

Past alignments of Uranus and Pluto coincided with the French Revolution of the 18th Century and the cultural revolution of the 1960’s which saw mass anti war protests; great strides in the women’s and black civil rights movements and increased social and sexual freedoms. It’s not all bad, Uranus-Pluto alignments are also associated with exciting times of cultural and technological innovation; social empowerment; positivity and freedom and new, progressive leaders rising from the grass roots and/or the intelligentsia. Under this alignment, we are already seeing pro-democracy uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria and many other places, a series of events widely dubbed the Arab Spring.

Uranus and Pluto don’t form an exact square until summer 2012, with the first of seven exact alignments lasting until 2015. However, as they get ever closer, it’s plain to see how their themes are playing out more and more obviously in the collective. Indeed, for the purpose of mundane (collective) astrology, this alignment has been one to watch since 2007 and will continue to be in evidence through to 2020 (allowing the standard 10 degree orb). From this perspective, Saturn in Libra is still connecting to Uranus in Pluto, forming a planetary alignment widely dubbed as the Cardinal Climax. (I wrote extensively on this alignment last year, click on the link to read more.)

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With such dramatic events as we have been witnessing in the UK, we need to look for a planetary trigger? What is connecting to Uranus-Pluto that might symbolize what’s been happening? Above is the chart set for the time widely quoted as the start of the violence on Saturday evening.

Mars, newly in Cancer had moved into alignment with Saturn, Uranus and Pluto forming a Cardinal Grand Cross. Just the shape of the cross in the chart suggests a back and forth ping-pong of intense energy. In cardinal signs, this energy tends to be fast to respond, quick to react and create friction.

Lately though, a Cardinal Grand Cross happens every time a fast moving planet hits the early degrees of Cancer. The Sun has recently been there, so has Mercury and Venus. The Moon hits those degrees once a month.

So why would Mars trigger this violence? Well, Mars is the planet of war and aggression, of the urge to action, of angry young men. More significantly, in Cancer, Mars is said be in its ‘Fall’, in the sign it finds most difficult to inhabit, making it more difficult for individuals and the collective to assert themselves in a healthy and positive way. Mars lining up with Saturn, Uranus and Pluto is not a recipe for peace and calm, but for blow-ups, misdirected anger and aggression. In collective astrology, Cancer is associated with our domestic situation, our home turf. It is perhaps ironic that after years of collective paranoia about foreign terrorists (symbolized by Pluto’s tenancy in Sagittarius until 2008) the destruction has come from our home grown young people, crapping on their own doorstep, if you’ll excuse my vernacular.

Astrologer Theodore White told me that Mars is currently Out of Bounds. I won’t go into a technical explanation of Out of Bounds (you can Google it), but symbolically, it means that Mars is wild, out of control, it has free reign to do what ever it wants to do, outside the normal bounds of behavior. Folks I’m not making this up!

Notice also the South Node. It’s in House 4 at the bottom part of the chart. House 4 symbolizes our home turf, our roots and the past. Similarly, the South Node represents past patterns that we fall back into. Astrologer Martin Davis adroitly observed that this placement of South Node, symbolizes the revisiting of past hurts, referring to the 1985 Tottenham riots, also triggered by tension between the local community and the police. The fact that at that time Uranus and Pluto were in a tense semi-square alignment, aptly demonstrates how the cycle of these collective events synchronizes with the cyclical nature of the planetary alignments.

I could go into more detail and look at more of the astrology, but I think that’s enough.

The title of this post is Why I still Love London. Here are my reasons.

London is one of the safest capital cities in the world. I have never (except for a few nights this week) felt afraid to go out after dark. We are a resilient people. As the troubles spread, so did the community spirit.

While social networking was blamed for making coordination amongst the rioters easy, soon it was being used to bring people together. Instead of coming out onto the streets with weapons and face masks, people came out in force with bin liners and brooms to collectively clean up their streets. A fitting image for a Retrograde Mercury just moving out of helpful, hygienic Virgo back into brave, proud Leo. Let’s clean up and re-claim our streets was the new battle cry!

Instead of thinking that it’s someone else’s problem or responsibility, people put up strangers in their own homes after they had lost everything to arson and looting. Bus drivers carried on working, despite the dangers (and despite Mercury retrograde!) to make sure that Londoners could get to work. There has been a massive wave of compassion for the injured Malaysian student Mohd Asyraf Haziq  robbed by youths pretending that they were helping him. A Twitter campaign, #dosomethingniceforasyraf, is raising money to help his family fly over to visit him in hospital.

The positive side of Mars in Cancer has come out. Pauline Pearce, a Hackney woman was filmed bravely taking on the riotiers and expressing her disgust over what was going on in her neighborhood. Her actions demonstrate that sometimes anger is justified if used positively (click on her name to see the remarkable video if you haven't already). As the days went by, more and more ordinary people were out on the streets protecting their own communities and businesses, taking collective responsibility.

As Mars moved closer to its exact opposition with Pluto (an alignment associated with deep rage and violence), we also saw the positive side of this opposition. The holidaying politicians finally came home and all police leave was cancelled. Mass deployment of officers the likes of which I have never seen, seem to have restored calm. Mars of course symbolizes the police and with Pluto in Capricorn, the force and authority of the police. I would like to salute their tireless hard work.

More generally, Londoners are friendlier, more considerate. They are talking to each other on buses and in shops, asking after each other. There’s a feeling of pulling together, of business as usual, of not letting this beat us.

There’s even an anti-riot tea movement. (FYI, it’s about staying home and drinking tea and nothing to do with the tea party movement in the US.) It’s started selling tea to raise funds to help victims of the riots.

Now that’s the London - the Britain - I know and love.

As a P.S. here’s a brief look at the UK chart, with the relevant transits of the riot chart drawn in. Note how close the Cardinal Grand Cross is to the angles of the chart (marked in red). Indeed, as the Uranus-Pluto squares become exact, it falls very close indeed to the angles of the UK chart. This is the just the start for the UK. I am not a doom and gloom astrologer and not given to making predictions, but one thing is for sure, we now need to begin the process of restructuring our society and moving forward with the profound social and political changes that accompany significant Uranus-Pluto alignments. We have now had too many warning signals to ignore – the banking crisis, the recession, bankrupt countries, stock market crashes, unemployment, not to mention numerous instances of abuse of power coming to light, which in the UK includes the MPs expenses scandal and the hacking scandal, which not only implicated the media, but exposed immoral, maybe illegal practices, within government and police institutions.

click to enlarge

With love, keep safe.
Mandi
http://www.mandilockley.com/

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Solstice Forecast

What will the next three months bring? Change or business as usual? Summer of discontent or calm before the storm?


The Sun’s yearly ingress into Cancer marks the June Solstice (summer in the northern hemisphere, winter in the south). 


Solstice charts, along with Equinox charts, are considered to reflect the energies of the upcoming three months.


The Solstice chart below is set for London, for the moment the Sun moves into Cancer on June 21. However, the planetary aspects, degrees and sign placements will not change if you relocate the chart, (only the angles and house positions change), so they are relevant anywhere. So this review of the Solstice looks at the general aspects and planet positions, as they would apply anywhere in the world and also looks at a few things as they relate specifically to the UK.


In the Solstice chart, the Sun forms a cardinal grand cross, involving Mercury, Saturn, Uranus and Pluto. (I am allowing orbs of up to ten degrees here, which is the standard in mundane (world) astrology – for natal transits the orbs would be no more than 2-3 degrees).

Click to enlarge

You’ve probably spotted that the Sun is picking up on the Saturn-Uranus-Pluto cardinal t-square that had us all in a lather last year. But don’t forget that every Solstice or Equinox chart since late 2009 has had the Sun in aspect to that t-square, because by their very nature, these charts feature the Sun at 0 degrees of one of the cardinal signs. So, business as usual? Well yes in a way, the next few months will see the nerve-racking ping-pong game of crisis-action-reaction running on and on, through the economic, political and ecological crises currently being playing out throughout the world.


What is interesting is that this is the last Solstice or Equinox chart where the Sun hooks into a conjunction, square or opposition with Saturn. In mundane astrology, Saturn rules the housing marking, industry in general and how the laws of the land are enforced and administered, so we can expect any of these issues to be aired quite extensively by our leaders in the upcoming three months.


By the time of the Libra Equinox ingress in September, Saturn will have moved out of orb, so the Sun will be in a t-square with just Uranus and Pluto, the two planets edging ever closer to their first exact square since the 1930’s. Uranus is about social rebellion and revolution, freedom, progress, technological advances and Pluto is about power struggles, control, resources, anything in society that is hidden, taboo or buried and along with Neptune, it rules oil. Already we can see Uranus-Pluto themes playing out throughout the North Africa and the Middle East. It will be interesting to see how things develop on that front once cautious, restricting, relationship-oriented Saturn in Libra moves out of the t-square.


But we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves.


This Solstice chart sees two slower moving planets in new signs since the Aries Equinox in April - Jupiter in Taurus and Neptune in Pisces conjunct Chiron in Pisces.


Jupiter’s overriding principle is expansion and growth, so in Taurus, we will see issues of bodily growth (the obesity issue) and a spotlight on our society’s values and attitudes towards security. Are we consuming too much (physically and economically)? Does this really make us feel secure as a society? Do we really need all those luxuries to have a safe and comfortable life? Have we been squandering our natural resources? Already, our intensive farming methods are coming into question yet again, over the e-coli crisis which has been spreading across Europe through an as yet unidentified food source. It also asks us to rethink the way food is transported.  Perhaps Jupiter in Taurus will see further growth in the burgeoning industry for locally grown seasonal produce?


Jupiter is also about higher education and with it falling in money and values oriented Taurus, we will be forced to question the value we put on higher education, as the row over massive hikes in university fees in the UK rumbles on. Should we let go of the ideal of higher education for all and let university degrees fall back into the exclusive domain of the wealthy and the privileged? A trine from Pluto in Capricorn in the 2nd house, underscores the intensity of this issue, highlighting the need for a new perspective on the whole issue. Expect this to become a tense party political issue as this summer rolls on and the new academic year edges closer.


Another topic that could come up again in the UK now that Jupiter is in Taurus is the controversial issue of airport expansion. Many plans for new runways and new airports across the UK were dropped because of the recession, but perhaps some of the plans will be picked up on again during the next year. Expect huge and popular protests from environmental groups if they do.


Neptune in Pisces has already seen some manifestations. A recent report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy said that despite the trillions spent by governments around the world on the “war on drugs”, drug usage has not fallen and drug related crime has skyrocketed. The report calls for governments to consider legalising some drugs, and the de-criminalisation of drug users.


The debate this has opened up will no doubt run and run. Already, in the UK, the charity Release (which campaigns for changes in the drugs laws in the UK) has written to the Prime Minister “calling for a review of the current drug policies, with a view to decriminalisation of possession for all drugs. This letter has been signed by leading QC's, three former Chief Constables, academics, politicians and high profile celebrities.”


Neptune in Pisces falls in the 12^th House of the Solstice chart for the UK, so we can expect the debate here to centre around the burden that illegal drug use places on our prison and healthcare systems. With the Moon (the mood of the population) widely conjunct Neptune, this issue is bound to pull at the nation’s sympathies. It is interesting to note that Neptune makes an easy trine aspect to the Sun (Prime Minister/Government), so it will be fascinating to see what they does with this issue. Will the government easily win the public around and get its way on this issue? Or will the public feel deceived (Moon-Neptune, Pisces, 12^th house)?


Also in the UK, National Health Service reforms are being planned by the government. Already, the reform plans have been changed following criticism. Again, this issues falls under Neptune conjunct Moon in Pisces trine Sun. Will the government eventually get its way? Perhaps we shouldn’t discount a tight square from Mars in Gemini in the third house. Both sides of debate will compete to get their voices heard on this issue, with the danger of an aggressive propaganda campaign on both sides.


Finally, as the Uranus-Pluto square rumbles ever closer to its first exact square in 2012, more strike action, protest and rebellion is on the way, “union leaders are threatening the biggest wave of strikes since 1926, after the government unveiled proposals for public sector employees to work longer and pay more for less generous entitlements in retirement.” I think it’s fascinating that Saturn in Libra and Pluto in Capricorn, both speak about concerns about ageing and retirement. Already, the government opposition party (symbolised by Mars in Gemini here) are warning the unions that they will play into the hands of the government  if they strike, suggesting that the government will use the strikes as propaganda (Neptune in Pisces) to convince the public (the Moon) that the strikers and unions are to blame for the slow economic recovery. Expect this confused argument to heat up over the summer.  (news source: BBC).


I do hope you enjoy this season, whatever it brings. Take a step back now and again and view things from the wider perspective....cherish the gift of insight that astrology brings.


With love,

Mandihttp://www.mandilockley.com/


Solstice/Equinox 101: There are two Solstices and the two Equinoxes each year. These important power points occur as the Sun enters one of the cardinal signs of the zodiac - Aries, Cancer, Libra or Capricorn and astrologers use the charts for these events to make predictions for the following three months ahead.
The first Equinox of the year occurs when the Sun moves into Aries, the first sign of the zodiac, around March 21, marking the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and the beginning of autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. At an Equinox, day and night are of equal length.
The first Solstice occurs when the Sun moves into Cancer around June 21. In the Northern Hemisphere the Solstice marks midsummer, the longest day of the year and in the Southern Hemisphere it marks midwinter, the shortest day of the year.
The second Equinox, around September 21, when the Sun moves into Libra, marks the start of autumn in the N. Hemisphere and the start of spring in the S. Hemisphere.
Finally, the second Solstice of the year occurs around December 21 when the Sun moves into Capricorn, marking the shortest day (midwinter) in the N. Hemisphere and longest day (midsummer) in the S. Hemisphere. The further away from the Equator you are located the more pronounced the Equinoxes will be. For example, very Northern locations will experience twenty-four hour darkness at the winter Solstice and twenty-four hour sunlight at the summer Solstice. If you are located very near to the Equator, day and night are more or less of equal length all year round.
The Solstices and Equinoxes have been important and much celebrated festival days for many thousands of years and are today still celebrated by modern Wiccans, Pagans and Druids.
 Stonehenge image from: http://www.stonehengetours.com/html/summer-solstice-tour.htm




The ancient stone circle of Stonehenge near Salisbury, England is a major focal point for celebrating the summer Solstice, with thousands gathering each year to watch the Solstice sunrise align with the stones.

Jupiter in Pisces Retrospective & the Jupiter-Saturn cycle [Redux]

[This is an updated version of an article first published in early 2010]
[Scroll down for analysis of the Jupiter-Saturn cycle]

At the time of writing this update, Jan '11, Jupiter has just left Pisces and moved into Aries, making this a retrospective look at Jupiter in Pisces...How was it for you?

Jupiter signifies the principle of growth, expansion, faith, wisdom, higher learning and reward. In Pisces, Jupiter symbolises growth through idealism and the expansion of spirit, wisdom from the higher realms, faith through connecting with the ephemeral and intangible and reward through creative involvements, healing energies and acts of compassion.

Sensitive types may have found that their emotional, material and psychic boundaries were more fluid and more porous during Jupiter’s time in Pisces, as they opened up to the vibes, energies and feelings of those around them. If you were affected, it was a good time to brush up on your psychic protection techniques, to guard against absorbing negative vibes. William Bloom’s book on the subject is my personal favourite. It's never too late to start. Even though Jupiter has now left Pisces, don't forget that Neptune will be entering Pisces in 2011. Also, don’t forget that others are also sensitive to your ‘stuff’ so check in with yourself now and again to ensure that you are projecting positive vibes.

Jupiter raced through Pisces, entering Aries on 6 June 2010, then turned Retrograde in July 2010, re-entering Pisces in early September before turning direct at 23 degrees of Pisces in mid November. Jupiter then settled into Aries from January 2011.

Jupiter was very busy in Pisces and is busy in Aries too. From the spring of 2010 through to the spring of 2011, Jupiter forms a series of opposition aspects with Saturn, marking the halfway point of the current 20 year Jupiter-Saturn cycle.

The Jupiter-Saturn Cycle

The Jupiter-Saturn cycle is reliably reflected in world economic cycles. Starting with the conjunction, the first 10 years of the cycle (the waxing phase) represents a period of growth, expansion, risk taking and extravagance.

We began the current cycle in 2000, with Jupiter and Saturn conjoining in materialistic, luxury loving Taurus. As we rang in the new millennium, the economy was in a state of low inflation, high output and low unemployment, with government assurance that the boom-bust economy was over for good. They were wrong. The stock market had soared, but in 2000 share prices fell dramatically when the dot-com bubble burst. But the lessons weren’t learned and a largely unregulated economy recovered quickly and started to grow unbounded as we collectively discovered easy credit and bought into the idea that we could have everything we wanted and now. The jet-set lifestyles of the rich and famous suddenly felt within easy reach, with many ordinary mortals becoming rich and famous in their own right thanks to the ascent of reality television. The huge rise in house prices turned many of the baby boomer generation into property millionaires, with the younger generation and others who had previously found it difficult to get credit, given easy access to huge mortgages. It couldn’t last though and the collapse of the property bubble in 2007 and the subprime mortgage scandal made credit harder to get, forcing many businesses into receivership and many families out of their homes when they couldn't keep up repayments. Many more individuals were cutting up their credit cards and facing up to debts resulting from the extravagance of their easy credit lifestyles. The truth about the credit crunch was revealed in late 2008 with the collapse of a number of the world’s best known financial institutions, with most of the rest receiving tax-payer funded bailouts to keep them in business.

So, where are we now? While the recession has officially ended (although there is still some debate about that, depending on how you define recession) many economic commentators acknowledged that significant risks remained for the world economy in 2010 and remain through 2011. This of course is the period of the oppositions of this Jupiter-Saturn cycle, with the opposition representing a crisis point in the cycle

The first opposition was in May ’10 with Jupiter in Pisces and Saturn retrograde in Virgo. In the UK, this coincided with a general election and with no overall winner, a Con-Dem coalition was formed, warning that savage cuts to public spending and services were on their way. This opposition coincided with the waning squares of the current Saturn-Pluto and Jupiter-Pluto cycles in cardinal signs and the last of the ongoing Saturn-Uranus oppositions, in Libra and Aries. With all of this action occurring around the very public Aries point (the first degree of the cardinal signs), there was no hiding, it was time to face grim reality. All of these measurements represent crisis points in their own right, so it’s not surprising that these collected measurements - a cardinal t square - have been dubbed by many astrologers as the ‘cardinal climax’.

By the time of the second opposition in August 2010, the UK government were preparing to announce their promised savage cuts to public services and public spending, with resultant mass job losses (see, politicians do sometimes keep their promises). Meanwhile, the City and Wall Street ‘masters of the universe’ proclaimed  business as usual and continued to award themselves huge bonuses, after a bumper couple of years benefiting from low interest rates, quantitative easing and financial restructurings caused by the recession. Politicians on both sides of the pond seem powerless or unwilling to do anything about it. Meanwhile, unemployment is growing, especially amongst young people, but even the educated, professional classes are joining the dole queues in increasing numbers. Those in work are facing pay freezes, a rising cost of living, higher taxation and the promise of  rising inflation to come, which will drive up costs even more but will not promise a rise in pay (unless you're an executive fat cat). While we may have all felt richer during the naughties, we are now discovering that the gap between the rich and the poor is wider than ever, particularly evident in the split between the now suddenly struggling professional middle classes and some of their old university roommates, who ‘got lucky’ and joined the new ranks of the super-rich.

But, as the upcoming Pluto-Uranus squares predict, the masses are stirring and we are seeing fury from the general public who are taking to the streets in huge numbers, such as the student protests in the UK. In other countries too...a people's revolt in Tunisia ousted the government and now the people are marching again against the interim government and demanding democratic elections. There have been general strikes and protests against austerity measures in Greece, with similar scenarios across other countries in the Eurozone. Meanwhile other economies continue to grow, with China on track to be the world's biggest economy by 2024.

After Jupiter and Saturn make their last opposition in March 2011, we enter the second half of the cycle, the waning half, historically marked by retraction, caution and withdrawal.

We shall have to wait and see what happens next, but let’s hope that Jupiter in Pisces has done a good job of paving the way for Neptune’s ingress into Pisces in Spring 2011, ushering in a new era of compassion, healing and philanthropy and does not merely offer us the opportunity to continue to bury our head in the sand about the state of our world and its financial structures.

With love and blessings,
Mandi
http://www.mandilockley.com/

Astrology research: Mundane Astrology by Michael Baigent, Nicholas Campion and Charles Harvey
Additional research: Wikipedia

Finally, here is the link to the Disasters Emergency Committee website, if you would like to make a donation to the Haiti Earthquake Appeal: http://www.dec.org.uk/

Astrological Review of the Year ~ Part 2

2010 is over…but there’s still time for a quick look back over some of the year's big news stories from an astrological point of view. Some of the stories angered us, some upset us, some awoke our compassion and others served to remind us of the strength and grace of the human spirit.


January to June: Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Oil Spills and Elections


January ~ Earthquake in Haiti

On January 12, at 4.53 local time, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, the epicenter 15 miles WSW of Port-Au-Prince. The earthquake almost totally devastated the capital, which was already suffering from extreme poverty and lack of basic infrastructure. Casualties have been estimated at upwards of 200,000.

Astrologically, the Jupiter-Neptune-Chiron conjunction falls in the 8^th House of the chart for the Earthquake (set for Port-Au-Prince). In previous posts I have associated this triple conjunction with health issues and the resulting health issues from lack of hygiene and overcrowding are unfortunately ongoing, with deaths from cholera and other diseases still claiming many lives almost one year on, with over a million Haitians estimated to be living in unsanitary, overcrowded camps, leaving them vulnerable to increasing violence. As you would expect with the conjunction in the 8^th, the disaster resulted in a huge outpouring of international compassion and monetary aid, but this has not been without scandal (Neptune) with accusations that only a tiny proportion of the aid was released by as late as July.

At the time of the earthquake, Haiti was having its Saturn return and it’s a grim observation that this Saturn return – which was accompanied by the transiting square from Pluto - has led to the country having to completely restructure itself, a long, slow, hard process.  Another indicator of the drama was the lunar eclipse on 31 December 2009, less than two weeks before the earthquake, falling exactly on Haiti’s natal Sun at 10 degrees Capricorn. Additionally, there was a build up of planets in cardinal signs, a phenomena sometimes associated with earthquakes, including Sun, Venus, Mercury, North Node in Capricorn and of course Saturn and Pluto.

For more on the Haiti Earthquake (and to see the charts) see:
Haiti: Astrology of a Disaster by Pathea 
Astrology of Haiti Earthquake by Planet Waves 

April ~ Grounded by Ash, Drowned in Oil

For several months, Iceland’s Mount Eyjafjallajökull had been periodically erupting, but when eruptions resumed on April 14, the resulting cloud of ash grounded most of the air traffic into and out of Europe for almost a week, leaving thousands stranded and disrupting travel worldwide.

Naturally, the volcanic eruption and ensuing crisis correlates with the Saturn-Pluto square, but a closer outer planet alignment (and a part of the same picture) was the last of the Saturn-Uranus oppositions in the mutable signs. Disruption ensued and the status quo was challenged, as our freedom to travel (Uranus) was curtailed (Saturn). Jupiter’s applying conjunction to Uranus only served to expand and exaggerate the problem.

For a more in-depth look see:
Astrology of the Iceland Volcano by Lynn Hayes 
Aviation Shutdown by Jamie Darkstar
Rollan McCleary looks at Iceland’s chart and makes some interesting observations

On April 20, The Deep Water Horizon drilling rig exploded, taking the lives of 11 men. It took BP almost three months to cap the leak, by which time over 5 million barrels of crude oil had flowed into the Gulf of Mexico, causing environmental and economic disaster.

Astrologically, we can look to the Saturn-Pluto square (oil, the rupture of the earth), connecting with the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction in Aries (science and technology, the call for urgent action, the finger pointing at BP and its CEO Tony Hayward). However, it’s the Neptune and Chiron conjunction in late Aquarius (which was transiting conjunct the Moon of the USA) that really completes the story. The Earth’s very structure (Saturn) was wounded (Chiron) and ruptured deep underground (Pluto in Capricorn) by the oil (Pluto) leaking (Neptune) into the sea (Neptune). Notably, Pluto was conjunct Ceres (Mother Earth).

Astrologer John Wadsworth looks at the charts for the spill, for the USA, for BP and for Tony Hayward and makes some excellent observations in The Astrology of the Gulf Oil Spill 

May ~ Parliament Hangs

On May 6, under a Mercury Retrograde, the UK went to the polls and the result was a hung parliament, which led to what has predictably become a very uneasy coalition government between the right wing Conservatives and mid-centre Liberal Democrats. A few days before the election I looked at the election chart in detail and predicted the coalition government (although between Labour and the Lib-Dems ~ a bit of wishful thinking on my part), but my analysis of the chart stands up pretty well. Read it here:
UK Election Day Chart. 
 
July to December ~ Floods, Riots, Wikileaks, 33 Chilean Miners and a Taste of Freedom

July/August ~ Floods and Blood Diamonds

In July, monsoons brought mass flooding to Pakistan, leaving almost a fifth of the country underwater. Around 2,000 people lost their lives, but the devastation affected over 20 million.

Lara Owen looked at the chart for Pakistan on her blog and observed that its natal Mars at 0 degrees Cancer on the MC, was under assault from the transiting cardinal t-square of Saturn, Uranus and Pluto, forming a moving grand cross in the chart. Not an easy picture, by any means. It’s also worth observing that while the Haiti earthquake led to an outpouring of compassion and aid from around the world, there was a feeling that there was less sympathy for the plight of those in Pakistan when disaster struck there, which not surprisingly angered (Mars) many there.

The War Crime tribunal of Sierra Leone’s former dictator Charles Taylor, hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons after supermodel Naomi Campbell was called to give evidence, revealing that she had received alleged ‘blood diamonds’ from Taylor.

No stranger to controversy, Campbell’s chart has Neptune on the MC opposite Sun natally, describing the fashion, beauty and glamour, but also the scandal and accusations of deceit that seem to follow her around. Venus in her chart, in the last degree of Gemini, was at the time of the court case being transited by the Saturn-Uranus opposition, so controversy and exposure (her Venus sits on the private becomes public Aries Point) seemed destined to come her way.

September ~ The Power of a Pluto Transit

On September 25 British politician Ed Milliband, known for his left wing stance, took a surprise victory over his brother David in the election to lead the opposition Labour Party. While David was the favourite to win the contest, it was Ed who had transiting Pluto exactly conjunct his natal Sun in early Capricorn, so the power was always going to be his!

October ~ Los 33 Mineros

On October 13 the World rejoiced as the 33 miners trapped underground in Chile were finally all brought back to the surface. After 69 days trapped, it was the longest time anyone has ever been underground and survived. Overjoyed relatives, who had been living in Camp Hope beside the mine, were there to greet them as they rose to the surface in the space age Fenix capsule, one by one.
 
This story, with Pluto in Capricorn (Hades, under the ground, the fight for survival) conjunct Ceres (Demeter, mother earth), evokes the Greek myth of Hades releasing the abducted Persephone to her mother Demeter from the darkness of hell to the light and hope of Earth. The Jupiter-Uranus conjunction in mutable Pisces symbolizes the space age technology that was adapted in a race against time in order to free the men. And of course, the Neptune-Chiron conjunction in Aquarius stands for the hope and brotherhood of the trapped men and of those waiting for them in Camp Hope. Nobody could fail to be inspired by the bravery of the men, proof of the enduring strength of the human spirit against the odds.

For more insights, see Lynn Hayes’ Musings on the Chilean Miners 
See also Resurrection in Chile by Adrian Duncan Ross at World of Wisdom, which looks in detail at the charts for Chile, for the mine collapse and for the rescue.

November   ~ Dreams of Freedom in Burma

On November 13, Burma’s pro-democracy leader and Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi was finally released after being detained for 15 of the last 21 years. The Oxford Astrologer blog took at look at the themes of Moon-Neptune ~ sacrifice, dreams and spiritual yearnings ~ an astrological signature in Ms Suu Kyi’s natal chart, the chart for Burma and the chart for her release date. Read her analysis here:  Aung San Suu Kyi: Embodying the People’s Dream 
                                                                                                                     

November also saw the US midterm elections, with the Democrats retaining the Summit, but being pummelled as the Republicans took the House. This was no surprise to anyone and a good example of how the changing sky was reflected in events. Obama’s message of hope and change you can believe in was a perfect channel of the Saturn-Uranus oppositions, by the time of the mid-terms we had been through the Saturn-Pluto squares – hard work, losses, grim reality and politically, a move to the right, most notable in the rising stock of the Tea Party Movement. Jupiter and Saturn, at the opposition phase of their cycle, points toward a time of austerity, following the expansion phase of the first half of the cycle.

December ~ A Fight for the Right to Information

In the UK, a series of increasingly violent student protests against the government’s plans to raise university tuition fees came to a head on December 9 when a car containing the heir to the throne Prince Charles and his wife Camilla was attacked. However, much of the anger has been directed at Lib-Dem leader and deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who in his pre-election manifesto pledged not to raise tuition fees. Now, as part of a coalition government with the Conservative party, he has been forced to vote for the raising of fees. In Clegg’s chart, if the 6am birth time is reliable, Saturn was transiting his Midheaven (symbolizing the restrictions placed on him in bringing his pre-election promises to bear and the need to face reality and take responsibility publicly, thus making him an easy scapegoat). The Jupiter-Uranus conjunction has been transiting his third house (education) Saturn, so it’s not surprising his ideas have been upset. (Clegg data: 7 Jan 1967, Chalfont St Giles, UK, approx 6am).

In the UK 1066 chart, transiting Saturn has been squaring natal Mercury (restrictions to learning) and in the 1801 chart, Saturn has been squaring natal Sun. In both charts, Pluto in Capricorn has been hovering close to the angles for some time and with the revolutionary energies of the upcoming Uranus-Pluto squares also hitting angles of both charts exactly, we can expect many more protests and direct action to come over the next 2-3 years. Life as we know it on this small island is about to take an evolutionary leap.

Also in December Julian Assange becomes one the world’s most talked about men, after releasing diplomatic secrets on his Wikileaks website. He was subsequently arrested in London after rape accusations, but released on bail. Meanwhile, ‘Hackivist’ supporters of Assange caused havoc to banking and retail websites in protest against efforts to close down his freedom of speech website. In Assange’s birth chart, a rebellious Sun square Uranus and a freedom fighting Mars in Aquarius square Jupiter are a good reflection of his anti-establishment work. Saturn in Gemini in the 7^th (the restriction of public information) opposes a Jupiter-Neptune conjunction in the first (leaks and scandal of big proportion). There’s also a Scorpionic feel to  the chart (the keeping and exposing of secrets) with the Moon and possibly the Ascendant in Scorpio. Additionally, Pluto (that which is buried and unearthed) makes aspects to Mercury (news, information), Venus in Gemini (the value of information) and Jupiter in Scorpio (skepticism about believing the ‘received’ beliefs of others,  – in this case the establishment view – especially as Jupiter is part of Assange’s Saturn-Neptune opposition. This story, I believe, will run and run.

For more on Assange’s chart, see Darkstar Astrology’s piece, which looks at Eris and The Shadow Side of Julian Assange from Astrotabletalk. 
Birth details for Julian Assange: July 3, 1971, Townsville, Queensland
Mountain Astrologer gives a questionable birth time of 2.05pm 

And that's that! Another year’s over and a new one’s begun and guaranteed, it too will be full of drama and also full of hope.

Happy 2011 and see you soon.

With love,

Mandi

www.mandilockley.com

Astrological Review of the Year 2010

Part 1: The Cardinal T-Square


(Click here for Part 2, which looks at some of 2010's major new stories)

2010 was a big year and not an easy one, there’s no doubt about that. Now 2011 beckons and it’s time to look forward with hope and optimism, but not before taking a little time out to cogitate and ruminate a while over the year that was twenty-ten.

The major story running through 2010 was the economy. After the banking crisis of 2008 and 2009, followed by ongoing and unprecedented monetary collapses at government level in countries such as Iceland, Greece and latterly Ireland, 2010 was a year of facing realities and making difficult and unpalatable decisions. Not just for banks and governments, but for businesses, public services and individuals alike. Astrologically, of course, this kind of crisis has long been predicted by astrologers, in anticipation of the Saturn, Uranus, Pluto cardinal T-Square, which peaked mid year with Jupiter’s ingress into Aries.

As I wrote back in March:

“In late 2008 Saturn in Virgo was about to make the first of its oppositions to Uranus in Pisces. Saturn-Uranus connections signify sudden change, shocks and the upsetting of the status quo and this was indeed what we were seeing all around us, as the world tumbled into economic crisis. As the ripples began to be felt in our personal lives, many of us found that our ability to remain flexible in the face of disruptive change was tested. When Saturn moved into Libra a year later, instead of a collective sigh of relief, we were all holding our breath waiting for Saturn to make the first of its square aspects to Pluto in Capricorn. Saturn-Pluto aspects signify times of intense challenge, restriction and hard, hard work and without a doubt many of us have been feeling this in our own lives and the lives of our loved ones.

When Uranus moves into Aries in late May 2010, the Saturn-Uranus oppositions and the Saturn-Pluto squares will begin to come together to form the much anticipated cardinal T-square, an event which has many of us puzzled and worried. With these cardinal energies, we can perhaps expect times of fast-forward movement, more shocks and changes, and a lot more hard work. What these energies also promise is the opportunity for personal and collective transformation, exciting creative breakthroughs, inspired action and promising fresh starts. Our ability to keep up with the pace of change will depend to some extent upon our readiness to set clear boundaries, plan for the unexpected, hold things in perspective, apply the wisdom of our experience and keep our minds and bodies in balance while all around us is in flux.”

How was it for you? Certainly these were difficult energies for me and for many around me (transiting Pluto was conjunct my Sun for most of the year, with Saturn squaring it). Fortunately, the online astrological community rose to the challenge, with some spectacularly insightful and helpful articles. Here is my pick of the best:

The International Astrology Day Blog-A-Thon organized by Donna Cunningham and CJ Wright (with a little help from me), focused on providing helpful articles and coping and healing tools for dealing with the energies of Saturn, Uranus and Pluto. Scores of astrologers contributed their wisdom, experience and insights. I’m sure most of you have seen the Blog-A-Thon pages, but the articles form a timeless collection that is well worth revisiting.

The Astrotabletalk blog has covered all the major stories this year, so it’s worth a browse through the topic label list. The post Astrozeitgeist Update gives a pretty concise summary of how this year’s ‘Cardinal Drama’ has been reflected in world events.

Theodore White, at Global Astrology, has written extensively about the ‘Cardinal Crisis’, closely tracking it against world events. Here’s one of his latest posts: Cardinal Crisis, Cable Gate and Wikileaks 

Bill Herbst has an impressive back catalogue of newsletters specifically about the Saturn-Uranus-Pluto T-Square and what it means to the world. Download them here: billherbst.com/newsindex

Richard Tarnas published an excellent article, World Transits 2000-2020, A Overview, a follow up to his excellent book Cosmos and Psyche.

Finally, see my Outer Planet Cycles collection of articles on the major transits of 2010 ~ Saturn-Pluto, Saturn-Uranus, Jupiter-Uranus and Jupiter-Saturn

In Part 2, I’ll review 2010 month by month, looking at how some of the big news stories were reflected in the heavens.

Come back soon!

With love,
Mandi
http://www.mandilockley.com/

Leo New Moon ~ Lions in the Dark

The dark of the Moon comes around approximately every 28 days. This next one is in Leo, the solar ruled sign which prefers the brightness of the Sun to the Lunar darkness.

Yes, Leo likes to bathe in the spotlight. He loves to be adored and adores to be loved, so put him in the dark for too long and you end up with a very grumpy Lion.

Yet, The Offstage Leo, Moll Frothingham’s excellent article for The Mountain Astrologer*, explains how Leos need regular downtime, offstage, to recharge their creative batteries, after which they are ready to step back into the light, to shine once again.

So, perhaps this New Moon’s message to Leo types, and to all of us, is that too much light can be blinding. Amidst constant dazzle, we lack clarity and can lose our way, so we must switch off the lights now and again and take some time to rejuvenate.

The Leo New Moon and the T-Square

The wider backdrop to this, and all the recent lunations, is of course the 2008-2011 T-Square alignment between Pluto in Capricorn, Uranus in Pisces/Aries and Saturn in Virgo/Libra. In July and early August 2010 the T-Square has become more dynamic, with all three planets aligned in Cardinal signs. Jupiter in Aries has also joined in the fun and very recently, Mars and Venus in Libra have fanned the fire as well.

These T-Square times have been marked by an ongoing process of deep change in our personal lives, reflected by changes in the outer, collective world.

Some of the themes that have emerged during these T-Square times have included the upsetting of the status quo; the necessity of letting go of the old and building new structures in our lives and the need to face our fears and insecurities, which goes hand in hand with the need to assess just what safety and security means to us.

These times have also been about adjusting and remaining flexible amidst changeable circumstances and conversely, about breaking down barriers that have been holding us back. Emotionally, many of us have faced difficult times, when we have had to re-learn how to relate to others and how to set healthy emotional boundaries.

This Leo New Moon makes a series of awkward (semi-square and sesquiquadrate) aspects to the T-Square planets. Tackling the difficult challenges of the last few months might be top of your list of priorities now, but remember that New Moons, representing the dark of the Moon are best for planning and planting the seeds of future actions, rather than for moving full steam ahead. By the time of the First Quarter Moon, around August 16th, the best way forward should become much more apparent, making this a better time to take action.

So, for now, practice being an offstage Leo. Rest, play and preserve your bright and vital energy for a better and shinier day.

Recommendations

*The Offstage Leo article mentioned above was published in the Dec 2009 edition of The Mountain Astrologer. Back issues of the magazine can be ordered here: http://www.mountainastrologer.com/back_issues/bi_2009.html

See also the latest installment of The Happiness Project from astrologer Hiroki Niizato, this one focusing on living from the Center of Your Being, inspired by the Leo New Moon. Also check out Auntie Moon’s New Moon in Leo ~ Please Acknowledge Me, on how we all need a little appreciation now and again and Starcana's creative visualization for the New Moon on her latest Astrological Happenings blog post. 

Data

This New Moon occurs with the Sun and Moon at 17 degrees and 24 seconds of Leo

Greenwich Mean Time: August 10 2010 @ 3.08am

British Summer Time: August 10 2010 @ 4.08am

Eastern Daylight Saving Time: August 9 2010 @ 11.08pm

Pacific Daylight Saving Time: August 9 2010 @ 8.08pm

With love,

Mandi

http://www.mandilockley.com/

Cancer Solar Eclipse and the Cancer-Capricorn Dynamic

Earth Angel by Josephine Wall

Falling in the cardinal water sign of Cancer, the Total Solar Eclipse of 11th July, reminds us, once again, that Cancer is the only Cardinal sign not represented in the current T-Square of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Pluto.

In fact, since the T-Square began to form in 2008, with the entry of Pluto into Capricorn and the start of the Saturn-Uranus Oppositions, there have been (and will be) a number of Solar and Lunar Eclipses in the sign of the crab and in its opposite sign, Capricorn the goat (details at the end).

This I find very interesting. If you consider that the effect of an Eclipse lasts around six months of so, we are pretty much consistently under the auspices of powerful Cancer-Capricorn eclipsed lunations for the duration of the T-Square.

Cancer is ruled by the Moon, the feminine, nurturing, lunar archetype and Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, the masculine authority, the limit-setter, old father time. The Cancer-Capricorn axis is to do with mother and father and the parental archetype in general. It’s also to do with the balance between home and work and about our roots, our early home life and the authority figures we encountered there. It’s how we were nurtured and how from that point we branch out into the world to acquire our own standing, status and reputation, in the process becoming parents and authority figures ourselves. 

In essence, this axis is about where we come from and where we’re heading towards and the intricate, inseparable relationship between those two places. Both Cancer and Capricorn need to feel safe and secure. For Cancer the emphasis is on emotional security and nurturing and for Capricorn, the emphasis is on worldly, material security. 

Both signs, in their own ways need to learn to set healthy boundaries and together, they can show us the way to find the balance between a healthy emotional life and a secure material life. Finding this Cancer-Capricorn balance is all important, if we are to avoid collectively and individually slipping into the shadow expression of these signs. 

The shadow side of Cancer is needy, over-protective and emotionally manipulative. Nothing new can be learnt from this position. Rather, the emotions become stagnant and turn in on themselves, with ever diminishing returns.

The shadow side of Capricorn is rigid, over-structured and cold. Making progress in the so-called real world is the only thing that matters. Integrity, other people’s safety and security and taking responsibility for our actions goes out of the window.

In the shadow side of both signs, the world is a harsh, difficult, dangerous place. In this expression of the two signs, the energies can’t flow naturally, they are blocked and squashed and transmuted into something which can harm rather than heal and we are locked in a compulsive pattern of doing what we feel we need to do in order to ‘survive’.

Pluto in Capricorn is collectively urging us to unearth, reveal, purge and transform the Capricorn shadow. Just looking at the state of world’s economies right now is all the evidence we need to suggest we have let ourselves fall into the Capricorn shadow. It’s also evident in the way we have been raping our earth and our ocean’s resources. It is now totally clear that the way we have been doing things is totally unsustainable. Doing something about it is up to all of us.

Cancer, the missing element in the T-Square, points us in the right direction, demonstrating through its relationships with Capricorn that finding the right balance is key. Mother earth is plentiful, she has enough to go around, but her abundance needs to be honoured, respected, shared and replenished, not plundered for profit, never mind the consequences.  

Eclipse Image: Credit Nasa

So, at the time of the July 11th Cancer Eclipse and indeed beyond, I will be considering all these themes and meditating on the balance and the light in the Cancer-Capricorn axis. 

Looking specifically at this Eclipse, at first glance, the New Moon in Cancer doesn’t connect with the T-Square, in way that it did during the Capricorn Lunar Eclipse on 26th July (which formed a high energy Grand Cross with the T-Square), but if you look closely you will see that it does in fact make a Quindecile (165 degree) aspect with Pluto in Capricorn (see the chart below – also shown is the chart showing all the planets).

If you don’t use the Quindecile, it’s worth investigating. Noel Tyl counts the Quindecile as a major aspect and describes it as “an aspect of unrelenting motivation, obsession, determination, upheaval, disruption, even separation”.

Between the Sun and Moon in Cancer and Pluto in Capricorn, this aspect speaks of an intense drive for power, of the urge to achieve goals through the use of control and manipulation, of planting seeds of fear and insecurity. At best however, this powerful connection between Pluto and the Eclipse, gives us the collective opportunity to disrupt and upset that pattern, to expose it for what it is and demand a healthier, more balanced way of being. It also gives us a collective and individual opportunity for self evaluation, for purging old emotional wounds and facing our insecurities.

As I have said on this blog many times before, we seriously need to redress the balance between the masculine and the feminine, the inner and the outer, the yin and the yang in our individual and collective lives. We need to honour the sacred feminine spirit, nod to the goddess and respect mother earth. 

These years we are living through are a real opportunity for a positive shift in mass consciousness. Let’s not waste them.

My very first blog post here at Astroair dealt with this very same topic ~ an Eclipse in Cancer and the Cancer-Capricorn dynamic and here I am reiterating it again. Is it a coincidence that this blog celebrates its 1st birthday on the day of this upcoming Cancer Solar Eclipse?

With love,
Mandi
http://www.mandilockley.com/

Notes

Eclipses in Cancer or Capricorn 2008-2011

• 7 July 2008: Lunar Eclipse with Sun at 15 Cancer and Moon at 15 Capricorn
• 22 July 2009: Solar Eclipse with Sun and Moon at 29 Cancer
• 31 December 2009: Lunar Eclipse with Sun at 10 Capricorn and Moon at 10 Cancer
• 15 January 2010: Solar Eclipse with Sun and Moon at 25 Capricorn
• 26 June 2010: Lunar Eclipse with Sun at 5 Cancer and Moon at 5 Capricorn ~ forming a Grand Cross with the Jupiter-Saturn-Uranus-Pluto T-Square
• 11 July 2009: Solar Eclipse with Sun and Moon at 19 Cancer
• 4 January 2011: Solar Eclipse with Sun and Moon at 14 Capricorn
• 1 July 2011: Solar Eclipse with Sun and Moon at 9 Cancer

What is the general meaning of an Eclipse?

Eclipses are very dramatic events to observe, as those lucky enough to have witnessed a Total Eclipse of the Sun or watched a Lunar Eclipse on a clear night as the Moon disappeared behind the shadow of the Earth, will verify. However, you don’t need to directly experience an eclipse for its symbolism to reflect in your personal experiences. The old adage as above, so below, stands firm. That said it is difficult to predict exactly what will happen when an eclipse touches your personal astrological chart. Their effects are sometimes exciting, sometimes stressful, often passing by without having any sort of obvious effect at the time, only to manifest as an event some weeks later. In most general terms though, eclipses represent endings and new beginnings, times when the light goes out and something is taken away, creating a space for something new to germinate. If a particular Eclipse falls on a planet or point in your natal chart and you want to work consciously with the energies, they are good times for beginning the process of releasing, letting go of outdated, worn-out emotional baggage and planting the seeds of new beginnings. For some more astrological ideas on how to work with eclipses see Working with Eclipses.

Will this Eclipse Affect You?

The July 11th Eclipse will be particularly relevant to you if you have a planet or angle between 17 and 21 degrees of Cancer or Capricorn. In particular, if it's your birthday between 10 and 12th July this is a powerful eclipse indeed and the potential for major change is in the air for you. If you do not know if you have planets or angles in the relevant degrees and/or signs you can quickly download your own birth chart which will provide you with this information in a simply understood way at http://www.alabe.com/ 

Recommended Reading on Eclipses

Lunar Shadows by Dietrech Pessin

Eclipses by Celeste Teal

Predictive Astrology by Bernadette Brady