The Year After... 2013 in profile.

 Looking ahead to next year seems kind of weird after all the 2012 hoo-ha. 2013 is rather like talking about 1067 or 1493 - fine and eventful years, no doubt, but defined very much by what went before. 

The no-show of the '2012 Apocalypse' is a something of a red herring, as the Maya Prophecy so-called never claimed to herald the End of Time. Tempting as it is to write the whole thing off as a New Age PR stunt, events give me every reason for optimism. What we should all experience now is the raise in mind-level that comes with the new era*. 

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Astrologically, Saturn continues its path through Scorpio and, as anticipated, we have seen issues arising around sex and power. Operation Yewtree is the UK police's investigation into widespread claims of child abuse, including allegations against several past and present British household names. Perfect tabloid fodder, and the cue for much paranoia among celebrities of a certain age. Suspicion at times seems to point at every family entertainer from the 1970s onwards, which shows how much sexual attitudes have changed within one Saturn cycle. The allegations range from relatively mild 'inappropriate contact' to full-on paedophillia. Yuk.

Saturn and Pluto's mutual reception gives the issue wider significance, with government ministers being dragged in, and the forced resignation of the BBC's Director General. Some people are calling it a witch-hunt, an obsessive, paranoid Saturn-Pluto scenario in a taboo area. Saturn moves 10 degrees altogether in 2013, affecting particularly those with planets in the middle decanate of Scorpio. Always best to think big with Saturn transits: make that change and pre-empt life lessons before they arrive by fate.

Halfway through the Uranus-Pluto square cycle, what is the state of the game? This is a tense and grinding aspect pattern between pushy planets and signs whose only thing in common is a shared desire to win at all costs. Uranus and Pluto make their third and fourth exact squares this year, out of a total of seven by 2015. The squares are at 11 degrees in May 2013, and 9 degrees in October 2013, neatly encompassing the all-important '1st January' degree. So many countries and institutions' Suns are at this point, which forms the middle passage of this seven-square series.

This is the defining aspect of the current time, though it does not in itself account for claims of a New Epoch. We last basked in this delightful energy in the early 1930s, and there are clear parallels in the worldwide recession, which shows no sign of abating. The 1930s Depression Era was ended by rearmament for WWII, so hopefully the similarities end there.

It will be interesting to see the effect of Uranus-Pluto on gun control in the USA. Uranus in Aries is the gun, and Pluto in Capricorn is the control. Still, it will be a popular exercise of state power, after events at Sandy Hook school, the latest in a stream of senseless US civilian massacres. Nobody, surely, outside a war zone needs a sub-machinegun, but this discounts America's  emotional obsession with guns, which are both a phallic symbol and a hangover from the Wild Frontier. Interestingly, one argument is that ordinary Americans have become more dependent on firearms to the extent to which they feel economically disempowered. In any event, Barack Obama's 'meaningful change' will be an almighty tussle. Anachronistic laws will have to be repealed and powerful vested interests overthrown, and it would be fitting if this particular American president could make a difference. 

This is an American issue, but it acts as a barometer for the world's psychic state. Laws are there already, but crime continues: higher national consciousness, as always, holds the key. The present gun control debate represents a kind of arms race, with John Wayne-type proponents claiming the answer to mass shootings is yet more guns. The only answer to this jungle logic is to raise collective consciousness and eliminate national paranoia at source. Pluto opposing the USA's Jupiter at 7 Cancer may see a change in the prevailing culture, but it will be slow. The last time Saturn was in Scorpio, the Cold War arms race drew to a close, when Mikhail Gorbachev emerged to dissolve east-west tensions. So the omens, potentially are there. 

Uranus and Pluto don't come into trine until 2025, when both planets will be in air signs. This harmonious aspect may reconcile many of the issues that are causing such friction now, but for now, the pot is bubbling. We have a whole Jupiter cycle before then and likely the world will be a very different place.

The United Kingdom's two main charts, the 1066 and 1801 dates have the Sun at 9 and 10 degrees Capricorn respectively. Pluto-Uranus transiting these degrees will bring changes in Britain's class structure and natural sense of hierarchy. People are bemoaning the decline of social mobility, or the victimization of the poor at the expense of profligate bankers. I do not foresee riots such those of 2011, but in some respects the changes of 2013 may be more profound. We are not going to return to the last-millennium working model and gradually more emphasis will be placed on self-realization. Yes, really. 

UK 1801 chart: 1st January 1801, 00:00am, London.

Neptune in Pisces's influence on the Church of England is admittedly a familiar topic of mine, but the omens are stacking up further. Transiting Neptune will conjoin the Pluto of the United Kingdom's 1801 chart at 2 Pisces, showing a significant shift in the country's spiritual life (coinciding with Pluto hitting UK's Sun). The C of E's vote to exclude women bishops and the continuing controversy about gay marriage made bad PR, but only judged as if the Church were a business or political party, which it isn't.  Disestablishment will allow the traditionalists to keep their doctrinal integrity without falling foul of politicians. 

Neptune conjunct UK's Pluto, may also say something about the underdog's role, with public spending being slashed. Not to mention flooding, which ties in with New Age prophecies. Certainly, there is a correlation between consciousness and climate - the inner and outer weather, if you like - and heavy rains have a cleansing effect. Hopefully, our collective raised mind-level will make a coherent transition and the 'Isle of Avalon' will remain as mythical history.

Jupiter entering Cancer on 26th June, may bring relief as it approaches the UK's 1801 10th house Moon. This position is a symbol of the Welfare State (celebrated in the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony) and a good argument for using this particular chart. What happens in 2018 when Pluto opposes 19 Cancer is a subject for another day.

This is the major ingress of 2013, and fortunate Jupiter moving into its exaltation is surely good omen for the world. Surprisingly, the planet of travel loves being in the sign of the home, and there is an affinity between spirituality and healthy family values. Jupiter's Moons are like an extended family (or harem), with the big planet playing the great Provider in the middle. We all have Cancer in our chart somewhere and mid-2013 sees its stock getting a lift. This is good news also for the heavily Cancerian USA, which I predict will not drive off its so-called tax-versus-spending fiscal cliff. 

Jupiter in Cancer will not form an exact T-square with Uranus-Pluto, but its cardinal energy will emphasize the feeling of quick change in the world. Instant communication finds us bombarded with information 24/7, but the effect is a constant reminder of how much we don't know. Hopefully, the individual squares and oppositions from Jupiter to Uranus and Pluto won't see excess or arrogance from our national leaders. Still, a spectacular Grand Trine between Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune occuring on 16th July at 4 degrees of the water signs, is a date for the diary. Mars in Cancer almost gets in on the act, and hits 4 degrees by July 19th. 

Likewise, Jupiter trine Saturn in July and December 2013 sees good fortune and stability, in the harmonious and creative passage of these planets' synodic cycle. This is a good omen for economic recovery, if a slow one, which ties in with the 20 year Grand Conjunction cycle. Our present Jupiter-Saturn cycle started with the conjunction in Taurus in 1999, the last in Earth before the year 2020, after which the conjunctions occur in the Air element for the next 240 years. We are at an historic cusp, where material concerns, Industrial Revolution, Protestant work ethic, central banks, etc, will become gradually less important. 

MERCURY RETROGRADES 2013:
23rd February - 17th March
26th June - 20th July
21st October - 10th November

Of these, the June-July retrograde in Cancer is slowest and longest in duration, so is likely to prove the stickiest. Naturally, it depends where it hits your chart. Everyone has their own Mercury retro superstitions, but remember between its shadow and echo phases, the Trickster planet is in its retrograde arc for over half the year, and can't simply be put to one side. 

Easter Egg:
7th March sees Mercury retrograde conjunct Venus at 11 Pisces, trine Saturn and sextile Pluto. Talk to somebody a second time and charm your way into a lasting agreement.

ECLIPSES:
Lunar, 25th April, 4' Scorpio
Solar, 10th May, 19' Taurus
Lunar, 25th May, 4' Sagittarius
Lunar, 18th October, 25' Aries
Solar, 3rd November, 11' Scorpio

Eclipses in Taurus/ Scorpio enhance the changes brought by Saturn, which reaches 19 Scorpio by the end of December. The eclipse degrees remain potent for a period of time, to be triggered by transiting planets. Crazy ideas come up at eclipses and everything has a heightened sense of drama. Particularly with solar eclipses, the rule of thumb is to wait at least until the waxing crescent Moon has appeared (about 3 days), before acting on big plans. 

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*ENDWORD
We're all living longer, and large numbers of people taking up yoga is an excellent symptom. Meditation is becoming mainstream and a sign of a change in values. From our ego-driven world, where 'making it' comes by striving and hard work, cunning and ruthlessness, the emphasis will shift on to success through higher consciousness and a kind of grace. There is a particularly large take-up of yoga in central and South America, in precisely the areas where the Maya Prophecies came from. Once enough people are practicing at the same time, there will be an automatic positive effect on the group mind.

Happy New Year, everyone.

12/12/12

Well, here we are in the fabled December 2012, which those us in the 'futures market' have been looking forward to time for at least a decade.

12/12/12, 12:12pm. London.

Here's what I wrote at the start of the year:

'According to the reckoning of the Mayans (ancient Aztec/ Mesoamerican civilization), who were adept astrologers, 2012 is the date our present cycle of time finishes. The so-called Mayan Long Count, a period of 5125 years, began at a mythological point which most authorities agree was August 11, 3114 BC. The exact moment the new era arrives is December 21st, 2012 A.D, at precisely 11:11 am GMT! This comes at the close conjunction of the Winter Solstice Sun with the crossing point of the Galactic Equator (equator of the Milky Way) and the Ecliptic (path of the Sun).

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So far, so familiar. This Galactic Alignment happens every year, it's just another name for the Winter Solstice. And for all the talk about the End of Time, it is far more interesting to speculate what happens in the next Long Count. As far as I know, the qualities of the future period are not revealed by the Maya Prophecies. There is not even a general quality set out, like the equivalent of a Piscean or Aquarian Age.

This is where the Vedic prophecies regarding a New Age are more interesting. Here again is what I wrote at the start of 2012.

And there is a further correspondence between the 2012 prophecy and the Vedic civilization’s concept of Kali Yuga. Yugas are vast ages of time, of which Kali Yuga is our present era of materialism and spiritual decadence. This is said to have begun in the year 3102BCE, making a difference of only 12 years between two wholly independent world traditions. Kali Yuga is hundreds of thousands of years long in entirety, but the Vedic scripture Brahma Vaivata Purana Sutra depicts a mini-Golden age – Sat Yuga– lasting 10,000 years, within the larger extent of Kali Yuga. So, we are heading for an oasis of spirituality in the wider context of a materialistic eon. The testimonies are stacking up in favour of a Major Change'.

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Krishna said to Ganga (Gangamata, the Ganges personified as a goddess). "Five thousand years from this date, within the span of Kali Yuga, there will be respite from this terrible age. There will be a golden age of 10,000 years."

The time in between ages is called Pralaya, and the Samavartaka Fire brings a solar cleansing of the earth. Certainly, the transition may be accompanied by natural cataclysms, rather like water bubbling before it turns into steam. We might expect to see this reflected in the astrology, but such vast periods of time exceed the scope of our usual planetary model. 

This period of transition could be accounted for by the series of Uranus-Pluto squares, which continue until 2015. Pluto in earthy Capricorn resisting the fiery energy of Uranus in Aries is pretty volcanic, and also describes the power struggle between old and new. The entrenched attitudes and vested interests; banks, church, press, politicians, won't let go easily and there will be a struggle before a more perfect world can arrive.

Yet while Uranus-Pluto squares are generational, they are not epoch-defining. The last such configuration was in the 1930s, during the Great Depression and the rise of Hitler. What must people living in Eastern Europe at that time have thought? The end must surely have seemed nigh.

There is always a tendency to invest our own time period with historic significance. Whether all this is valid, or whether the verse in the Puranas is an interpolation, we can see and feel big changes in the world. The upsurge in the practice of yoga (who isn't training to be a yoga teacher these days?) is a sign of a colossal lifestyle shift. The emphasis is moving away from material resources and wealth creation to spiritual unfoldment. 

Jimi Hendrix and Martial Music

‘The martial music of every sideburned delinquent who ever walked the face of the earth’.  Frank Sinatra (on rock ’n’ roll)

In the mid 1960s, American guitar and amplifier manufacturers ruled the roost in popular music. In the UK, big brands like Gibson and Fender were expensive and not readily available to import. Jim Marshall, a British music-shop owner in Hanwell, West London, first had the idea of copying the circuits of American amplifiers to sell at his shop. In consultation with leading British musicians such as Eric Clapton and Pete Townsend, Marshall’s home-grown reproductions evolved a distinctive rough-textured sound that was ideal for the emerging ‘rock’ direction in popular music. Economic necessity brought a sonic revolution whose time had come.

Jimi Hendrix met Jim Marshall soon after arriving in London in late 1966. With his otherworldly manner and outlandish image, Jimi appeared to have arrived from another planet, but despite the difference in their ages and backgrounds, the two ‘James Marshalls’ struck a rapport. Jimi arranged to rent Marshall amplifiers wherever in the world he was performing, and for a team of technicians to look after them for him (with the Node and Fortuna in his Eighth House, Jimi always did well out of shared resources).

As iconic as his white Fender Stratocaster guitar, no onstage Hendrix picture would henceforth be complete without a background wall of Marshall stacks. It is facile to say that choice of amp was at the heart of Hendrix’s sound, but the aggressive, feral tone that he became famous for was Marshall Amplification’s stock in trade. Call it synchronicity, serendipity, or nominative determinism, James Marshall Hendrix became Marshall Amplification’s chief ambassador.

Mars stands out in like a beacon in Hendrix’s chart. Dignified, angular and elevated, it controls the life path unavoidably and martial imagery followed him through his short, spectacular career. That Jimi served time in the US Airborne Division is just one part of his great enigma – think of the unlikeliest profession for a future rock and roll star and the military surely tops the list. Like fellow singing soldier Elvis, Mars in the Tenth house makes one wonder whether they chose the army, or the army chose them.

Mars is also the only planet in Hendrix’s chart not finally disposited by the Moon in Cancer. His playing was very lunar and intuitive and seemed to come from a deep psychic channel. By all accounts, Jimi had many Cancerian traits: he was fond of his stomach, preferred women’s company over hanging out with the boys, and he always charmed people’s mothers. He had a maternal streak and the lyrics of ballads like Little Wing fantasize about a protective female saviour figure. Certainly he was moody, and his natal Saturn-Uranus conjunction opposite the Sun suggests the manic depression referenced in his wild waltz-time song.

This article first appeared in the Astrological Association Journal, 2009. 

'TRANSFORMING LIVES FROM WITHIN'

Last Saturday evening, I was lucky enough to attend the David Lynch Foundation UK's Gala Dinner in London, 'Transforming Lives From Within'. This was a fund-and-awareness raising event, promoting the provision of Transcendental Meditation to schools and combat veterans. The Foundation has already had enormous success worldwide, teaching tens of thousands of people in chronically-stressed areas: army veterans, street children, American Indians, prisoners. 

We heard from two British Army veterans, including Steve Bindon, an ex-commando who has suffered from post traumatic shock disorder (PTSD) since being wounded in the Falklands campaign in 1982. Steve gave a moving account of his experiences and subsequent recovery since learning Transcendental Meditation through the DLF. He described the macho culture of the army, speaking in terms that many other ex-military men have used. Admitting vulnerability, let alone seeking help here, is pure taboo, even in the most high-stress environments imaginable. It is a chilling statistic that more Vietnam and Gulf War veterans have committed suicide than were killed in the actual conflicts.

We also heard from David Lynch himself, via Skype connection from Poland. He spoke passionately about his work and gave in-depth answers to several questions from the audience, covering meditation practice and creativity. He is a great guy. Putting his name to the Foundation has been the catalyst for many other influential people to get involved, and unlike some other aspiring guru figures, perhaps, he seems to have no ulterior motive. He is already rich and famous, and his face lit up noticeably when speaking of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and hearing audience members relate their experiences of meditation.

The DLF's work confounds the stereotypical image of meditation from two directions. Transcendental Meditation is neither the passive, life-denying practise of the ascetic, nor is it the middle-class hippy's lifestyle accessory. The experience of transcendence makes an impact on absolute real-life situations, and is transforming and saving people's lives.

LONG MEDITATIONS

"I have so much to accomplish today, that I must meditate for two hours instead of one". ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi's quote nicely sums up the power of long meditations. The temptation is always to skip time in silence and jump out into the fray, especially when we have lots to do. Rather than idle escapism, meditation is in fact the subtlest and most sublime form of activity: it brings energy, focus, and in a more mystical way, an attunement with the tasks that need doing. Meaning, that a good meditation will cut down the amount of heavy lifting that is actually required. "Do less and achieve more", said Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, with the corollary of that being "Do nothing and achieve everything". 

Sometimes it's best to take it easy, however. Last Tuesday's Scorpio Solar eclipse was one I treated with caution, unnecessarily, as it turned out. Eclipses are intense energy and Scorpio is particularly emotional (associations here with Buddha's Enlightenment, but that was probably the Scorpio Full Moon). Whether because it was Diwali that day, I can't tell, but a three-hour evening meditation went by with no trouble at all. Smooth, easy, could have stayed down for longer. And I am still feeling the benefits days later.

RETURN OF THE LIGHT - Happy Diwali 2012

The Solar eclipse of 13th November brings to a head issues that I have written about recently. Saturn and the North Node transiting Scorpio were always likely to impact taboo areas, as has proved in the UK with the child abuse scandals. Still, barely a month after Saturn's ingress, its effect has already been clear.

Solar Eclipse 13/11/2012, 22:09, London

After being criticized for lack of action against the predatory Jimmy Savile - and purportedly several other unnamed entertainers of recent years - the Beeb has now gone the other way. Recklessly naming Lord McAlpine in connection with child abuse scandals  cost the BBC's Director General George Entwistle his job. 

BBC first broadcast: 2/11/1936, 15:00, London.

Seen from the outside, the BBC is a strange institution, with its archaic license-payer funding and enormous influence inside a small country. It is probably strange on the inside too, judging from its horoscope. A mutable, angular Grand Cross suggests news gathering and dissemination, with a wide diversity of output reflecting its mission statement to 'inform, educate, and entertain'. The BBC's Royal Charter has existed since 1st January 1927, but this chart is set for the first publicly broadcast high-definition television show. 

Moon in Gemini, opposite Jupiter, reveals the Radio 4 love of talk, debate and wordplay. The BBC is famous for intelligent comedy, and though a publicly-funded broadcaster shouldn't chase ratings, apparently, since when has the BBC not been accused of dumbing down?  Mars on the descendent also implies its competitive approach, for which it is often criticized. 

Despite its eccentric image, the BBC is a highly respect brand, with an international reputation for impartial news coverage. Jupiter in Sagittarius in the 9th house, conjunct the midheaven gives it a cosmopolitan feel and a British, in the best sense, attitude of fairness. Likewise, its travel and nature programmes are classics. The BBC's editorial is often criticized for liberal bias, but that strong elevated Jupiter also suggests a sense of entitlement, with roots in its Royal Charter.

Saturn conjunct Pisces rising describes its corporate nature, in the context of creativity. As Uranus transited that ascendant, Christmas Day 2007 saw the launch of BBCiPlayer, the digital catch-up service. The combined online content of the BBC's news and programming makes it one of the best websites on the whole internet.

REMEMBER REMEMBER (part 2). 

The Sun, and more particularly Saturn in Scorpio have made their presence felt in the UK, mostly on the back of the Jimmy Savile case. What started as a scandal around a dead DJ has enveloped the whole country. Savile (31/10/1926, time unknown) was approaching his third Saturn return (26 degrees Scorpio) before he died last year, and it seems fitting that he has become the catalyst for an expose of sexual abuse. 

There are rumours of many other entertainers, household names of the 1970s and 80s, implicated in similar scandals. A former Tory MP is also alleged to have abused children in care in north Wales. Yet another example of vulnerable youngsters being preyed upon by powerful adults using their status to escape conviction. A picture emerges of a culture of casual sexual exploitation. Saturn is bringing a reaction against these practices, where 'colourful characters' are exposed for what they really are, or were. 

It may be stretching rulerships to say Saturn and Pluto are in mutual reception, but there is an affinity between the planets and signs (all of Saturn's transiting signs over the next decade and beyond, arguably, are given extra significance, as they disposit Pluto in Capricorn). This link has drawn Capricorn politicians into the net, and also large institutions, the BBC and the Crown Prosecution Service (why didn't the CPS act on children's claims of abuse?). The current Mercury retrograde may bring more scandals to light.

The BBC has a couple of charts, first for its founding, and then for the first regular high-definition broadcasts in 1936 (above). The 1927 founding chart has the 1st January degree - 9 Capricorn - presently being approached by Pluto. Many countries and institutions' Suns naturally fall around this day, including the UK, and Pluto will cross it in the coming year. November 1st 2013 to be precise finds Pluto at 9 degrees, in the fourth of seven Uranus-Pluto squares up to 2015. Meanwhile, Saturn in Scorpio transits the BBC's 1936 chart Sun at the same time, so Auntie is getting it coming and going. 

The Corporation's perceived failure to deal with persistent allegations against Jimmy Savile has been described as its biggest-ever crisis. The press - particularly News International - is undoubtedly having a moment of schadenfreude at the Beeb's plight, after its own practices were drawn into the light over phone-hacking. Still, it is a weird feature of the BBC that they are expected to condemn themselves with their own programmes.

Pluto in Capricorn has brought us the first mixed-race US President - newly re-elected - and it is time for Britain to see more ethnic minorities in positions of power. We do not have the same history of virulent racism and segregation as America, but covert racism in Britain is in many ways more insidious. The recent incidents involving footballers Louis Suarez and John Terry are examples where racist language is not only condemned, but is now being hauled before the courts. 

Big things have been predicted for the Uranus-Pluto square and so far we have not been disappointed. The banksters, the Press, MPs expenses (stand up, Dennis MacShane), the possible Disestablishment of the Church, Scottish devolution, we can expect to see a quite different UK by 2015 after the last of the seven era-defining aspects. 

REMEMBER, REMEMBER... 

The Sun in Scorpio brings events in the calendar that have a dark and sinister cast: Halloween, Bonfire Night, Remembrance Sunday... the US Presidential Election.

I've held off writing about Obama v. Romney, because I'm not American. Polling Day is a strange time to be writing this, as we'll soon know who's won. Thinking-planet Mercury with a great sense of occasion, also goes retrograde today. This notoriously quirky astrological passage, three weeks in duration, was also in effect for George Bush's Coup in 2000, when he somehow won the election on fewer votes than Al Gore. If the election is as tight as predicted, there may be similar shenanigans.

From the outside, Mitt Romney (March 12, 1947, 09:51, Detroit) doesn't appear anybody's idea of a coming man, but many Americans seem to prefer someone with a business background being in charge. Romney looks like a 1950s American President out of Central Casting, never bad, PLUS he has Jupiter transiting his Gemini ascendant. Also of note, since the Global Credit Crisis of 2008, no Western democratic leader has been re-elected.  

Obama's birth certificate is a controversial document in itself, but his birthtime (August 4th, 1961, 19:24, Honolulu) gives him an Aquarius ascendant that is at the heart of many people's ambivalence about him. It makes him simultaneously cool and intelligent, while detached and aloof. Despite being routinely being labelled as a Communist - or worse, a liberal - many Obama's supporters feel he has not been radical enough. He hasn't lived up to the soaring rhetoric of his first campaign, but how could he? Others say the President has done a good job in difficult times, and he has managed withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan without inflaming any further conflicts. Overseas observers in general probably feel more comfortable with his cautious approach to foreign policy, but they don't matter.

Astrologer Sue Tompkins has written that Pluto in general represents ethnic black culture*. Pluto in Capricorn, the sign of success, has seen a mixed-race man rise to the highest office in the world, something many of us thought we'd never see. Whatever the Election result, Obama is a historic figure.

* Sue Tompkins - The Contemporary Astrologer's Handbook.

Happy Talk and Biblical Punctuation.

My newsfeed these days is awash with inspirational quotes, either from famous people or the insights of aspiring yoga teachers/ life-gurus. This obviously just reflects my choice of subscription, but I get several messages a day with variations on 5 Steps to Become a Better Human Being. These are usually along the lines of:

1. Forget the past 
2. Embrace change.
3. Think positively 
4. Follow your dreams 
5. Don't compare yourself with others 

You get the point. Nothing much here anybody would disagree with and we all need a little motivation from time to time. Still, most of this well-meaning stuff misses the essential point of how to get there and more importantly, how to stay there.

Resolutions on the level of the mind are hard to keep: 'The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak' *. In a good mood, we might wake up with good intentions and even carry some of them out. A new health regime takes the required weight off, brightens the eyes, and we chalk it up as a good experience. So I may be making too much of this. 

But the understanding has grown up that the Eightfold Path of Yoga, for example, starts with good conduct and leads eventually to Samadhi (transcendence). If the post-2012 Utopia means anything, we should know that Samadhi comes first. It is, and should be, easy. Regular practice of transcendence anchors the mind and good conduct, diet and lifestyle follow spontaneously from this. Direct experience is everything, and Intellectualizing the process only takes us so far. 

It's not just an Eastern concept, either. The other famous New Testament line from the Book of Matthew is usually written: 'Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you'. (6:33). Right, but wrong: there should be no semicolon after 'righteousness'. In other words, righteous conduct is one of the things that is added by finding the inner Kingdom.

(Matthew 26:41)

Charles Dickens & A Tale of Two Women.

(This article first appeared in the A.A Journal, May/June 2012)

Charles Dickens had been married for twenty one years, with nine surviving children, when he first met actress Ellen Lawless Ternan in 1857. The great novelist was then aged forty five and ‘Nelly’ eighteen, in what for him seems to have been a classic midlife crisis. Nelly, with Sun-Uranus in Pisces was the perfect hook for his natal Moon-Venus projections, and somebody who gave him longed-for romance and excitement. Even her middle name was Uranian.

Charles Dickens: 7^th February 1812, 19:50 LMT, Portsmouth, England.

In the backwash of both his Saturn and Uranus half-returns, Dickens was in a long process of growing apart from his wife, Catherine. She was an attractive, easy-going Venusian Taurus-Libra character, but lacked his intellect and vitality, and by 1857, he simply tolerated her. The couple had only known each other for six months when they were married on 2^nd April 1835. His Mars in Aries in the seventh house was romantically impulsive, yet he repented at leisure and came to regard his marriage as his worst-ever mistake. By the time he met Nelly Ternan, he was restless for change.

Catherine Dickens

Dickens was as decisive in his split with Catherine as he had been in marrying her. He paid her an income for life and set her up in a house in Camden Town, while all their children, apart from one son, remained with him. Venus conjunct Pluto likes to maintain control. By August 1857, Dickens’s secondary progressed Saturn had come to 7 Capricorn, perfecting its natal square to Mars. This is a clash between initiative and deliberation, and the fourth and seventh house placements clearly show domestic friction and frustration. His eldest daughter Kate described the frenzied atmosphere at the time of the separation and reported that her father had almost lost his reason. Dickens sublimated much of his Mars-Saturn energy into his prodigious workload, but these two powerfully placed, antagonistic planets were a defining influence on his life.

Despite his personal warmth and geniality, Dickens was a forceful character who liked to have his own way. At worst, his chart reveals something of a domestic bully. Combative Mars-Saturn contacts demand great resilience from a marriage partner. This energy doesn’t hold with quiet unspoken rapport, but enjoys argument and conquest, and expects the other party to stand up and make a challenge. Likewise, in classic Aquarian fashion, he was more at ease with larger humanitarian issues than emotions closer to home. And when frustrated, Saturn-Mars can also play the victim. During his marital split, Dickens wrote a self-serving article that appeared in The London Times and his own Household Worlds magazine, portraying himself as the injured party. It also publicly insulted his wife, claiming, quite callously, that she had never loved their children.

Even before his separation, Dickens had moved out of his marital bedroom, partly to avoid enlarging his family still further. He was an attentive father, and wealthy, receiving book advances of a million pounds in today’s money. Yet he despaired of the financial demands his children made on him, and at some level blamed his wife for this too. This irrational, not to say deeply self-centred, attitude stems from his otherworldly Moon, square Venus-Pluto. This aspect may also have been susceptible to a kind of mother-versus-lover syndrome. Catherine’s Saturn in Aquarius conjunct his fifth house Sun would easily leave him feeling trapped, though ironically, this contact comes with built-in longevity. As the law then stood, he had no grounds for divorce and the Dickenses remained married until he died in 1870.

In the early stages of his new love affair, Dickens suffered agonies, acutely conscious of his reputation as a socially aware family man. He was a world famous figure, identified in the public mind with the idealised domestic life depicted in his books. Nelly was an actress, a disreputable vocation in high Victorian England, seen as virtually synonymous with prostitution. Yet there is no doubt of his infatuation and his Mars, again, would find a romantic conquest hard to resist.

He wrote to a female friend:

‘I wish an ogre with seven heads… had taken the Princess whom I adore – you have no idea how much I love her! – to his stronghold on a high series of mountains, and there tied her up by the hair. Nothing would suit me half so well this day as climbing after her, sword in hand, and either winning her or being killed’.

Dickens’s exact Moon-Neptune conjunction in the 3^rd house, as well as a classic writer’s signature, shows his great sentimentality towards women. Spiritual nostalgia for a long-lost or sacrificial mother figure, reflected in characters like Nancy in Oliver Twist, or his most famous heroine, the doomed Little Nell. He encountered London’s real-life street women and prostitutes dating from his career as a court reporter and was instrumental in schemes to help them. There are hints in his letters that his interest in so-called Fallen Women was not always wholly altruistic, though he set up a refuge in Shepherd’s Bush, called Urania Cottage, in his words, a ‘Home for Homeless Women’. This fascination with the sexual underworld is archetypal Venus-Pluto in Pisces.

Nelly Ternan

Nelly’s natal Saturn was closely conjunct his Moon-Neptune, a distinctly mixed blessing in synastry. There is a heaviness and lack of emotional spontaneity here, where day to day relating becomes awkward and overly literal. It also echoes the Sun-Saturn contact Dickens had with his wife. There are few more incompatible energies than hard Saturn and Neptune contacts, either natally, transiting, or in synastry, with the torment coming from a glimpse of heaven never quite attained. A close Saturn-Venus square in their composite chart also reflects their differing age and status. Love is surely possible with this aspect, but it implies two people kept apart by fate, and might be viewed as poetic justice for the way Dickens treated his wife. It was the best of relationships, it was the worst of relationships.

As if the Piscean projection wasn’t enough in their synastry, 1857 saw transiting Neptune at 22 Pisces, crossing Dickens’s descendant. In 1858 he wrote of Nelly:

‘There is not on this earth a more virtuous or spotless creature than this young lady’.

Still, an air of mystery surrounded their relationship and Dickens made every effort to ensure their liaisons remained secret. There is some evidence that he maintained her privately in a residence less than a mile away from the house where he moved his wife. He referred to Nelly only cryptically in his letters and even during his lifetime, burned quantities of their correspondence. Today, no communication between them survives, and all parties would be grateful the mobile phone had not yet been invented.

Some biographers have claimed Dickens and Nelly’s affair was purely platonic, though this does not fit the chart of someone with as passionate a chart as his. The wide Venus – Mars conjunction between them, in his seventh house, suggests a strong chemistry. There were other rumours that Nelly had a baby by him who died; we will never truly know. Whatever their actual status, it was a relationship that endured against the odds. The mutual contacts between Saturn and the Moon and Venus would make the relationship ‘challenging’, but also describe a sense of mutual duty or obligation. Despite society gossip, Nelly pursued her own career as an actress and remained a discreet, shadowy, Neptunian presence, Kate and Georgina, Dickens’s daughter and sister-in-law, recognized her place in his life and sent for her when Dickens lay dying at his house at Gad’s Hill.

Data:

Charles Dickens: 7^th February 1812, 19:50 LMT, Portsmouth, England.
Catherine Dickens: 19^th May 1815, noon chart.

Ellen Ternan: 3^rd March 1839, noon chart.

Reference: The Invisible Woman, by Claire Tomalin.

High Water Mark: Saturn in Scorpio.

"Privacy is dead", Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg famously said. Bold statement for a young Saturn in Scorpio guy, yet he may reflect on his words over the next couple of years. Saturn enters Scorpio on 5th October 2012 where it remains until September 18th 2015, all told. Transits of Saturn are tangible, in-your-face episodes, and the Scorpio house in your chart and planets within it will be severely road-tested. A significant ingress and passage in itself, it also lets us look ahead at a post-2012 world.

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Last time round, Saturn was in Scorpio from November 1982 until November 1985. Combined with Pluto in Scorpio, this period saw the isolation of the HIV/AIDS virus in 1984, with hopes of a possible vaccine. Today, AIDS need no longer be a death sentence and the Saturn return of its discovery may bring us closer to a definitive cure. The mid-80s was also the height of Thatcher-Reagan economics, just before the financial Big Bang, where many of our present troubles started (we will have to wait for Saturn in Sagittarius before the full casino capitalism postmortem). Michael Jackson's iconic Thriller video, break-dancing zombies and all, came out in December 1983, at a time when Goth rock ruled the roost in the UK.

In the mid-80s it was the Scorpio Soviet Union (1917 chart), not the Western powers, bogged down in an unwinnable Afghanistan campaign. Still, Mikhail Gorbachev became Soviet leader in March 1985, ironically bringing Glasnost ('openness') into Cold War politics. Ronald Reagan's mantra 'trust, but verify' also had a Scorpio Saturn ring. Perhaps a Gorbachev figure will emerge in Russia today, as Vladimir Putin becomes the last 20th Century style despot to leave power. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Reflecting on present-day Saturn in Libra, the highlights have been the Arab Spring, not so much a triumph of diplomacy as the spontaneous collapse of dictatorships whose time had expired. The initial wave: Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen were partly orchestrated by the unstoppable rise of social media. This was the second standout feature of an exalted transiting Saturn: Facebook and Twitter are ubiquitous as TV and radio, forming the background noise of the early 21st century. 

Pretty remarkable, when you think about it. We're still too close to see its significance, but who'd have thought only a decade or so ago that we'd all be linked like a world office space, sharing news, gags and inspirational quotes? The technology is only one side of it: collective consciousness has brought the boundaries down and made the whole thing possible. 

Sharing has become everything. Likes, LOLS, Smileys, kisses... all very airy and Libran. Saturn sits well in the sign of balance, since its skillful handling requires steering a course between extremes. We have to face up to our challenges and fears, while not becoming workaholic control freaks. Despite concerns over invasion of privacy, millions of people have found that middle way and feel okay about sharing information.

Saturn in Scorpio will change all that, or at least refine it considerably. Discreet, secretive Scorpio doesn't share until it is good and ready, and Saturn has an innate issue with boundaries. This will apply particularly given the 'mutual reception'* with Pluto in Capricorn. The shutters WILL come down. Expect more horror stories of the excesses of intrusive advertising and cyber-bullying, and the resulting over-compensation will see people withdrawing into their own circles. Already, those people without online friendships are seen as outsiders, but interaction will become increasingly a matter of personal taste, rather than just a from technological novelty.

Saturn marks its Scorpio ingress in October with a week-long trine to Neptune at 0 degrees Pisces. This will be significant for both planets, with Neptune still at the threshold of its own sign. Saturn-Neptune aspects go to extremes, either building the dream or living the nightmare. The trine has rich possibilities and we may see Internet technology being grounded, developments in farming and fishing, or new movements in art, particularly movies, photography and music. A major Pre-Raphaelite exhibition in at the Tate Britain in Autumn 2012 channels the original Neptune in Pisces movement of the 1860s. Vampires could hardly be any bigger today, but this aspect could see new heights (or lows, depending on your view). Return of Buffy, anyone? Dallas is back already, and perhaps we'll see the full shoulder pad look. Be afraid...

Jupiter enters Cancer in June 2013 and by July 14th, it will make a perfect Grand Trine with Saturn and Neptune at 4 degrees. This will be the high water mark, so to speak, which, to take an optimistic view, could spark the economic recovery. It will be a slow recovery in any event. The waning Jupiter-Saturn trine from their 2000 Taurus cycle culminates on December 21 2020 with the Grand Conjunction in Aquarius. We have seen the archetypal boom and bust, peaking in 2010 with the Jupiter-Saturn opposition, which brought us to the brink. Our present Jupiter-Saturn cycle is the last in Earth for another 600 years, and the present economic tumult is the world saying goodbye to the Industrial Revolution and dog-eat-dog capitalism.

The Nodes are also on the Scorpio-Taurus axis until February 2014, bringing:

• Solar eclipse 21 Scorpio, 13th November 2012, 
• Lunar eclipse 5 Scorpio, 25th April 2013
• Solar eclipse 19 Taurus, 10th May 2013
• Solar eclipse 11 Scorpio, 3rd November 2013.

December-January 2013-14 may be significant as Saturn crosses the eclipse degrees 19-21 Scorpio/Taurus. Particularly for those with natal planets at those points.

A generation of politicians and power brokers are approaching their second Saturn returns, traditionally the peak of a professional career: Angela Merkel, Francois Hollande, Bill Gates. Hillary Clinton, too, with Saturn rising and the Sun at 1 Scorpio will be making her calculations on a Presidential campaign in 2016. Prince Charles, also with a 4th House Scorpio Sun, may be feeling the hand of fate. His mother Queen Elizabeth approaches her third Saturn return, where Saturn in Scorpio in itself brings the sense of a oath given unto death. Given her dutiful outlook and the long-living Windsor genes, it seems less likely she will abdicate than Charles will renounce the succession (in favour of William). Margaret Thatcher and Fidel Castro are the last of a political old guard, also facing their third Saturn cycles.

In a nutshell, Saturn in Scorpio is about boundaries and taboo, particularly with its reception with Pluto. Times of change bring tension and many people today feel a nameless sense of anxiety. Still, our collective memory for how bad things get tends to be short and, looking back, are we better or worse off than the mid-80s, with its complacent, endemic corruption, not to mention the threat of nuclear Armageddon?  The Iraq War is over and we will soon withdraw from Afghanistan. Sensationalizing bad news is knee-jerk, lazy journalism, and despite upheavals, I believe we have lots to look forward to.

* * * * * * * * * *

*Reception with modern rulers is debatable, but there is an affinity between the signs.

AA Conference 2012, Wyboston Lakes, Cambridge UK.

This was my first Conference since 2008 and it's a quite different experience speaking to being just a punter. I gave two talks, one on Saturday, one on Sunday, which gives you a lot to think about beforehand, in-between and afterwards. 

Seeing a group of astrologers all together makes it clear that our art is a study for mature people. There are very few aspiring astrologers in their twenties or even thirties. The rise of academic studies may change this demographic, but still, astrology seems to be a perspective that people find after a certain amount of life experience.

I attended talks by Ben Dykes, Kim Farnell, Sonal Sachdeva, Frank Clifford, and Geoffrey Cornelius. There is a general movement towards academia in astrology, looking at divination from an historical and sociological angle. Between the Sophia Trust in the UK and Kepler College in the US, we have a new generation of very erudite astrologers, who are leading us back to the future. The humanistic approach of the 70s and 80s that held sway when I came into astrology is giving way slowly to a more rigorous traditional model. Hopefully, the two attitudes can be integrated.

On this theme, I conducted an interview with the Medieval astrology specialist Ben Dykes. Dr Dykes is engaged in translating Latin and Arabic astrology texts, as well as being a consultant, teacher, and practicing occultist. He offered a perspective on astrology's place in religious and mystical thinking, and gave his views as to where it is heading today. Most of the arguments in modern astrology, whether internal or with skeptics, have been thrashed out over the centuries, by authorities for whom astrology was an integral part of their worldview. In many respects this is a reassuring thought. Whether ancient philosophy is your thing, an understanding of astrology's history steadies the judgement. I recommend Ben Dykes's work to anyone interested in a fuller understanding of traditional astrology and Western esoteric thought.

My own Jupiter talk 'Great Benefic or Great Pretender?' was inspired by people's differing experiences of the Planet of Good Luck. Some people claim Jupiter is overrated, or even a malefic in disguise. The reasoning goes that if it expands whatever it hits, then Jupiter also expands bad luck, which to me is a rather perverse way of thinking. This is the same logic that argues all lottery winners are bound to be miserable.

Still, I presented charts of a number of Jupiterian individuals, some of whom have lead happy and successful lives, others not so much. Some people's Jupiters have difficulty in keeping the faith and trusting in providence, while others take the insouciant attitude too far. Success and happiness are not necessarily the same thing, and this made for an interesting discussion. 

I also presented on Astrology and Healing, looking at remedial measures in the Western and Vedic horoscopes. We have a rich tradition of herbs, gemstones and talismans in the West, but their use seems to have fallen into disrepute. Still, without them, can our astrology handle the implications of what it predicts, other than saying 'best of luck to you'?

Cartoon Gravity: Saturn trine Neptune.  

In cartoon world, we know characters only fall off cliffs when they look down. Neptune is about belief, faith, naivety call it what you will. 'Whether or not you believe in what you're doing, you are right'. Some souls keep on believing in spite of any evidence to the contrary, deluding themselves more than anyone else. Still, the transformative power of faith is infinite and you can change any situation when you believe strongly enough. 

Gravity is a Saturnian issue which I covered in my book, Saturn, Fatal Attraction, under Saturn in Pisces (also see Saturn-Neptune section, The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea). Pisces is faith and Saturn is the anti-Neptune which knows you cannae change the laws of physics, Captain. Yet the challenge is not to overcompensate and become a pseudo-skeptic, disbelieving everything except your own prejudices. In fact, providence moves when you have a bold idea and back it up with action.

The delusional Neptunian is a stock astrological type, the Walter Mitty, hippy idealist with a tenuous grip on reality. Yet everything we do starts with a vision and even our craziest dreams are of utmost importance... which is what makes transiting Saturn-Neptune squares and oppositions so tough. There is a gothic, nightmarish quality to these transits which paints everything in the worst possible light, and we end up being afraid even to hope. People seek refuge in drugs, booze, bad religion and the dark places inside their own heads.

Even in the most challenging moments, we are sustained by a glimpse of possibilities, a belief to get us through the dark. "Where are we going, fellas?" "To the toppermost of the poppermost, Johnny", was The Beatles' bad-times mantra in their struggling dance-hall days. Fairytales are full of heroes and heroines who believe strongly enough in their dream to make it reality. This attitude is at the heart of the whole New Age project, successively rebranded as Cosmic Ordering, Creative Visualisation, the Power of Positive Thinking, or the original concept.... prayer.

October 5th 2012 brings us up to Saturn in Scorpio, trining Neptune in Pisces and the opportunity is to transform your world by believing. As much as hard Saturn-Neptune deals your dreams a blow, then trines, sextiles and certain conjunctions have a miraculous transformative quality. Plans come together by a kind of grace or serendipity, where it's obvious that the Powers understand your heart better than you do yourself. With Neptune in Pisces, the miraculous qualities of the group mind will be better understood, and harnessed on an organised, global scale. Astrology, properly used, has the  power to foresee misfortune and to ward against it. As Patanjali states in the Yoga Sutras: 'Heyam dukham anagatam' - the danger that has not yet come can be averted.