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March 17

POPES AND THE PISCES CONNECTION

Christianity, from the very beginning, adopted the symbol of the fish, assuring its Piscean astrological connection. It even dates back to the Three Wise Men honoring the birth of Christ. According to Johannes Kepler, the star of Bethlehem was a triple conjunction of the two largest planets in the solar system, imperial Jupiter and traditional Saturn, in mystical Pisces, near the fixed star Epsilon Piscium.

A birthdate collection of 56 Popes from the 13th century onwards confirms a Piscean Sun preference at double the expected frequency. So with a cluster of planets gathering in the sign of the fish during the first quarter of 2013 - plus the Vatican City horoscope experiencing a ‘shock factor’ Uranus return - something was bound to give in the world of Christianity. Piscean planetary clusters have a history of doing that.

EVERY VISIBLE PLANET ALIGNS IN PISCES

During February of 1524 every visible planet and the Sun were amazingly clustered within 15 degrees in the sign of Pisces – and even the undiscovered Neptune (the modern Piscean ruler) was here. Granada, the first European city in mainland America was formed that year. Christianity was beginning a continental shift from Europe to the Americas. The same year Giovanni Verrazano discovered the East Coast of the USA, including New York.

The 1520’s saw invading conquistador Hernan Cortez end Montezuma’s Aztec Kingdom. The cultural genocide that followed, and the Spanish subjugation of the New World spread Catholicism throughout Mexico and also South America. The same time frame fuelled Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation, and the Peasant’s Revolt of Germany.

The rebellious English monarch, King Henry VIII, and his multiple marriages was also laying the foundations for an entirely new denomination. This exceedingly rare Piscean stellium coincided with the major transformation of Christianity.

BIZARRE STORY OF POPE FORMOSUS

In March 7 878 AD, a New Moon in Pisces was joined by Mercury, Venus, Saturn and Neptune, directly opposite a Jupiter and Uranus combination. That year the church repealed the excommunication of a popular Cardinal, the Bishop of Portus. He had been accused of trying to overthrow the reigning Pope John VIII.

Legend has it that the Bishop had to swear never to return to Rome, but fate didn’t follow the ecclesiastical script. The Bishop of Portus instead became Pope Formosus on October 6 891. Political intrigue followed. Aware of the threat that the Roman Emperor Guido and his family, represented to the papal states, Formosus encouraged and supported the invading armies of Arnulf of Carinthia.

Arnulf eventually triumphed, and Formosus crowned him as the new Emperor in St Peter’s Basilica in 896. But strangely both died within months of each other that very same year. Then Formosus’ successor, Boniface VI, mysteriously died after only fifteen days as Pope, and this chain of fatalities led to the most macabre trial in papal history.

Politically motivated by the family of the former Emperor Guido and overseered by the succeeding Pope Stephen VI, a bitter enemy of Formosus, the ex Pope was summonsed literally from the grave.

CADAVER IN THE COURTROOM

The cadaver of Pope Formosus was exhumed and clad in papal vestments to face courtroom charges against the church and state, with a deacon for representation. His previous acts and ordinances were annulled. The three fingers he had used in consecration were removed. His body was then placed in a non-descript grave and eventually thrown into the River Tiber.

The objective of Formosa’s condemnation – damnatio memoria - was an Ancient Roman process designed to remove him entirely from the pages of history. It succeeded in doing the opposite. Formosus’ body washed up on the banks of the river, where it was reputed to perform miracles.

A public uprising against his inquisitors then led to the imprisonment and eventual strangulation of Pope Stephen VI. Formosus was reinterred with full honours in St Peter's Basilica. Revenge from the grave perhaps? Thus concluded the Cadaver Synod episode, one of the weirdest chapters of Catholic history.

THE NEW PISCEAN AGE

The New Moon of March 11 2013 saw the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars and Neptune in Pisces. Although not as significant as the former examples, it was still an impressive cluster. Add to this the horoscope of the Vatican City was due for its Uranus return in 2013. The stage was set for significant administrative changes affecting Christianity.

Vatican City, the administrative home of the Catholic Church, is a tiny landlocked sovereign state, with a population of just 800, It was politically created via the Lateran Treaty, and implemented from 11 am June 7 1929. With 2013 being the year of the shock factor Uranus return for Vatican City, it was always going to be a surprise. The bombshell began when Pope benedict announced his resignation effective from 8 pm February 28.

At 19.06 hours on March 13 2013 white smoke blew from the chimney on the Sistine Chapel, announcing the election of the new and 266th Pope. As it did Uranus was closely setting in Rome. Typical of Uranus it was to be a bolt from the blue outsider. The favored few had been Ghana’s Peter Turkson, Italy’s Angelo Scola, Tarcisio Bertone or Canada’s Marc Ouellet, who was rumored to have finished second in the count.

At Moonset of 20.13 the new Pope was publicly revealed as Argentina’s Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio. According to AstroDatabank he was born December 17 1936 @ 2100 hours in Buenos Aires, Argentina - for horoscope click here.

The new Pope has taken the title of Francis the First, and is the first from the Latin Americas. The Piscean connection has fulfilled a fate promised 489 years prior when every visible planet landed in the sign of Christianity and the religion initially spread to the New World.

ST FRANCIS OF ASSISI

St Francis of Assisi was a the son of a wealthy cloth merchant, who dedicated his life to the Lord, after hearing a sermon based on Matthew Chapter 10 Verse 9 advising ‘Acquire no gold nor silver nor copper for your belts’. Thereafter St Francis assumed a life of virtual poverty as a street preacher. An early story depicts him following a beggar and gifting him all his goods, only to be subsequently scolded by his father.

According to a contemporary, Jordan of Giano, on February 24 1209 St Francis renounced his goods and embarked on his mission. By his own wishes he was never ordained as a priest but became the founder of the Franciscan Order. St Francis was the first recorded individual to receive the stigmata – or wounds of Christ. Today he is celebrated as the Patron Saint of animals and the environment.

Is there a deeper message in the naming of the first Pope Francis? In a world dictated to by economic rationalization, and rampant materialism the natural environment and its species are rapidly disappearing. Will Pope Francis play a role in increasing environmental awareness to save the Living Planet? Will he provide a spiritual sanctuary from the capitalistic corruption that has crippled Europe?

In his own words “We live in the most unequal part of the world, which has grown the most yet reduced misery the least. The unjust distribution of goods persists, creating a situation of social sin that cries out to Heaven and limits the possibilities of a fuller life for so many of our brothers.”

Such hopes can be pie in the sky ideas when concerned with such a hierarchal institution as the Catholic Church. They too have been accused of the same monopolies. But sometimes there is an ethereal message behind names and symbols that speaks to the world at large through cryptic subliminal clues. The legend of St Francis has a poignant message that rings even truer today.

March 10

VENEZUELA

Venezuela lies on the northern coast of South America. It’s a country of close on thirty million people, colonized by the Spanish in 1522, and the first of the Latin countries to declare independence from Spain on July 5 1811. Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves and second largest natural gas assets. Its importance to world energy supply is critical.

The independence horoscope shows a patriotic Cancerian Sun with the Moon in the opposing sign of Capricorn. Political crisis, coups and dictatorships have littered the national history, when outer planets have highlighted this Cancer Capricorn axis. In 1989, as Saturn and Neptune together opposed the Venezuelan Sun, riots led to the death of 3,000 people.

The rebellious Capricorn Uranus to Cancer Sun opposition of 1991 featured further instability leading to the eventual impeachment of President Carlos Andrés Pérez in 1993. Twenty years earlier Perez had nationalized the oil industry, which brought his country a financial bonanza.

ENTER HUGO CHAVEZ

One of the men who plotted Perez’s downfall was Hugo Chavez. Chavez was born July 28 1954, in Sinamaica at sometime between 3 and 5 am, according to AstroDatabank. His proud and fixed Leo Sun squares the more controlling Saturn in calculating Scorpio. Chavez has implemented sweeping political reforms for Venezuela, in what he termed his socialist Bolivarian Revolution.

Changes began with a fresh Constitution approved on December 15, with 72% of the popular vote and effective from December 20 1999. Chavez was inaugurated as President at 10.45 am February 2 1999 in Caracas. This swearing in horoscope features the leadership Sun and oratory Mercury united with the rebellious Uranus, in the universal brotherhood sign of Aquarius.

The progressed inauguration horoscope reached New Moon stage by the last presidential elections of October 2012, suggesting a leadership change. With over 80% of Venezuelans turning out to install him as an easy victor it could only be a change that came unexpected, and within his own party.

SURVIVING THE INTERVENTIONIST COUP

Chavez, an avowed socialist, was himself victim of a capitalist coup attempt on April 11 2002, when senior management of the oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PVDA), backed by the privately owned media tried to derail his government. A right wing cabal installed Pedro Carmona, President of the Chamber of Commerce, sworn in at 17.51 hours on April 12.

The US immediately endorsed the new leader, whilst all of Venezuela’s Latin neighbors voiced their apprehension at the removal of a democratically elected head of state. But the puppet leader had his fleeting authority dissolved within two days. Chavez was reinstated at 4.35 am April 14. People power returned Chavez to presidency. Carmona later resurfaced, perhaps not so surprisingly, in Miami, Florida.

Historically, the ten-year period is an important one for Chavez. He originally failed in a 1992 coup, was the victim of a temporary one in 2002 and in 2012 comfortably won re-election, only to have to hand it over to his deputy, Nicolas Maduro, through illness. As Chavez recovers from major surgery his progressed Moon moves through the health conscious sign of Virgo. It is now in the closing balsamic phase, suggesting a release and moving on, or that he will step down for a successor.

(Recall this text is taken from the article World Predictions 2013)

REVOLUTIONARY TRANSITS

If Venezuela were to lose a charismatic leader like Chavez it would create a power vacuum in the resource rich country. Their national horoscope is fielding powerful revolutionary transits, initially from unstable Uranus from the middle of the year. The following year, 2014, they see the full weight of the transformative Uranus Pluto square impacting on the Venezuelan leadership Sun.

The ramifications are obvious. The USA remains Venezuela’s main oil customer, although China will match that by 2015. The US has also placed a weapons sales ban on Venezuela, which has seen the country now purchase fighter jets from China, along with allowing Chinese investment in transport infrastructure such as railways.

China’s increasing trade with Venezuela has seen the two countries launch a second communications satellite in November 2012. China has supplied a massive $42.5 billion loan, charging 6 percent interest, or half the international rate. Venezuela pays back in oil. Even though China did not import a barrel of oil prior to 1999, the growing industrial giant will soon become Venezuela’s main trading partner.

All of this makes Venezuela, and it’s politicians the ham in the sandwich of a bigger global battle – one for worldly economic supremacy between two economic superpowers. The stakes are high for more political double-dealing behind the scenes, where the only losers are usually the people.

ECHOES OF SIMON BOLIVAR

Hugo Chavez died of cancer at 4.25 pm March 5 and his service was held from 11 am Friday March 8. The line-up to view his body stretched over a mile and a half. Chavez will be embalmed and put on permanent display. What gave him such charismatic appeal to his fellow countrymen? The astrological match up between the national horoscope and the leader is inescapable.

The horoscope of Venezuelan Independence dates to July 5 1811 - still celebrated as a national holiday. The Sun is positioned at 12 degrees of Cancer, traditionally a tribal and patriotic sign. Chavez, born July 28 1954 has his optimistic Jupiter at 14 degrees of Cancer, and his Moon in the same position.

This overlay of Chavez’s expansive Jupiter on the Venezuelan national Sun gives the populace great faith in the leader. Also the swapping of his homeland Cancer Moon with the national Cancer Sun is a perfect marriage interchange. Carl Jung was the first to notice the constant swapping of the Sun and Moon positions in his own study of married couples.

Franklin Roosevelt is revered as one of America’s greatest leaders, steering the country through the depths of the Great Depression and WWII. Roosevelt had his Aquarian Sun in the sign of the USA’s Moon, and his Cancer Moon was aligned with the US Cancer Sun. The matching of an individual horoscope with their country, company or family is an astrological eye-opener of compatibility.

Lastly Chavez’s Leo Sun, Cancer Mercury and Virgo Venus were each conjunct the same Sun, Mercury and Venus of his idol Simon Bolivar – the Venezuelan military hero revered as the Liberator. It is possibly no coincidence that Chavez viewed himself as playing a similar role. Living his fate perhaps?

The future of Venezuela, the world’s greatest oil resource, is no doubt subject to interventionist instability from the superpowers. Unstable Uranus squaring the national Sun along with the opposition of manipulative power player Pluto presents a challenge of cathartic change.

Hopefully the Venezuelan people can take charge of these revolutionary energies to better their own fate. Simon Bolivar would have it no other way.

March 3

THE FIRST CASUALTY OF WAR

It’s an oft quoted line that the first casualty of war is the truth. When propaganda assumes command, enemies are demonized, and any form of dissent branded cowardly or unpatriotic. The winners write the history, the patriots get the medals, and the truth is often buried with the victims. But sometimes the truth leaks out. Heaven help the informant when it does.

Bradley Manning was born December 17 1987 in Crescent, Oklahoma. He is a Sagittarian. The name Sagittarii stems from the Roman gladiatorial days, when the bowman on horseback were a regular feature of military battalions on distant missions.

Sagittarians are also characteristically described as ‘straight-shooters’, who cannot help but tell it like it is. Moderation and sensitivity can be left behind in the Sagittarian’s righteous duty to get it all out there. Bradley Manning was excessively true to his Sagittarian Sun.

THE REBELLIOUS INFORMANT

Manning, a US intelligence analyst in Iraq, disclosed top-secret military files and videos to the whistleblower organization ‘Wikileaks’. On February 28 2013 he faced a military court for acting in contravention to the Espionage Act. His defense was a typical thruth bearing Sagittarian line, “I did it to make the world a better place’.

However, Manning’s Sun is linked closely to rebellious Uranus, and also bonded to realist Saturn, and Mercury the town crier. This Mercury Uranus connection would have impelled him to think outside the square, and also interested Manning in IT.

His newsmaking Mercury also supplied the curiosity to gather data, and the reporter's desire to share it around. That combination was to lead him into the covert world of espionage and media leaks, that would set world diplomacy on its collective backside.

Manning’s horoscope is tightly bunched, suggesting a strong focused personality. However one planet stands separate from the rest. Jupiter – the planet of justice and judicial concerns. Now, as he fronts the military tribunal, Manning’s progressed Sun is appropriately square – that’s a tough test - to his Jupiter.

THE VERY PUBLIC PRIVATE

On April 5 2010, Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, released a Manning supplied video of a US helicopter firing on a journalist, and two other Reuters employees. They were carrying cameras that the pilots mistook for grenade launchers. The day that Assange played that disturbing video, reporter Mercury trined mass media Pluto and the public Moon, astrologically ensuring that it would go viral.

By July 25 The Guardian, New York Times and Der Spiegel had picked up on Manning's leaks publishing the ‘Afghan War’ logs. Thousands of cables were now in public circulation, revealing the nefarious world of diplomatic double-dealing. As a result, some overseas postings had to be hastily changed.

But by the time the mainstream press had got hold of the Wikileaks files US conservatives were calling for the assassination of Assange, and Private Bradley Manning was under military lock and key.

Manning was arrested May 26 2010 whilst still on duty in Iraq. How a private could obtain such a mountain of classified material may defy belief, and cast doubt on the system overall. He has become the catalyst of a security reform. But ultimately it was Manning’s desperate alienation that brought him, and the files, undone.

SOMETHING BEGINNING WITH B

On May 22 2010 the judgmental planet of Saturn was squaring Manning’s tight Sun, Mercury, Saturn and Uranus combination. Additionally the surprise packet Uranus was squaring the same. This has a very separative and alienating effect.

Manning, already feeling estranged by his homosexuality, and exposed to constant rednecks (as he called them), was reaching out. But his new contact would land him in a military prison.

At 12.15 pm on May 22 2010, acting under the identity of badass, he posted an online chat that asked, “hypothetical question: if you had free reign over classified networks for long periods of time ... say, 8–9 months ... and you saw incredible things, awful things ... things that belonged in the public domain, and not on some server stored in a dark room in Washington DC ... what would you do?”

FOR WHOM THE WHISTLE BLOWS

Manning’s prolonged incarceration - last week he had spent 1,000 days in custody - and the conditions he has endured, have received worldwide coverage. He has become a catalyst of the individual against the system.

Such is typical of the current mundane square of insurrectionist Uranus against monopolizing Pluto. This planetary aspect is synonymous with uprisings against the dominant controlling forces.

Uranus Pluto has accompanied the Arab Spring. Manning too has been credited as a catalyst. His leaks on Tunisian corruption came only days before the successful uprising that soon spread across other Middle East autocracies.

The system paints Manning, along with whistleblowers like Julian Assange, as dangerous enemies of the state – enablers of the enemy. Their supporters view the system as corrupt and the revelations as confirming their suspicions. Manning is inadvertently one of the many martyrs who embody the ongoing Uranus-Pluto aspect.

MANNING AND THE USA

The horoscope of the USA – July 4 1776 @ 17.10 hours in Philadelphia – places military Mars in duplicitous Gemini and squaring nebulous Neptune. The US Mars to Neptune is an outstanding description of the award winning documentary ‘The Fog Of War’. No coincidence then that Manning’s Sagittarian planetary placements all oppose the US Mars, and square its covert Neptune.

The future for him is reliant on his challenging progressed Sun squaring Jupiter. This is exaggerated by a further Jupiter opposition transit in June. It’s typical court marshall stuff, but there may be some surprise relief by 2015 when the wild card Uranus also meets Manning’s Jupiter.

THE CURIOUS NAZI CONNECTION

Bradley Manning’s birth Mars has an important distant connection , far beyond our solar system. It falls directly across the ecliptic fixed star of Zuben Elgenubi, one of constructive social reform. Another military man who had his Mars on this important star degree was General Erich Hoepner.

Hoepner was a leading German commander of tank warfare, in charge of the Fourth Panzer on the Russian front. He was dismissed by Hitler for a tactical retreat in the face of overwhelming opposittion. Hoepner was publicly humiliated and stripped of his decorations and pension.

Hoepner, an enemy of Hitler, became a conspirator, and leading member of the Nazi Resistance. He believed Hitler would ruin Germany, and plotted the Feuher's downfall. Hoepner was eventually arrested by the Gestapo, trialled and hung. Today there is a Berlin plaque in the General's honour.

Manning was also demoted prior to turning conspirator. Disheartened by his own 'fog of war' he worked to expose the system. Manning will not hang like Hoepner. He will hope that the rebellious Uranus Pluto square gives him distant relief come 2015.

FEB 24

Last week I examined the horoscopes of Reeva Steenkamp and Oscar Pistorius, showing what a volatile combination their relationship charts presented. The link for the full article is here.

I also referred to the soli-lunar eclipse cycle repeating from 1994, when revered athlete and media icon, O.J. Simpson, was charged with killing his beautiful blonde wife Nicole Brown Simpson. The implication being that history often repeats when linked to celestial cycles.

MARS - LORD OF WAR AND TEMPESTS

Astrologically the Pistorius/Steenkamp and Simpson/Nicole-Brown horoscopes reveal a common thread. Both had a hook up between the planet of violence, Mars, and the respective partner’s Suns. The Sun signifies the life force and Mars is assertion and quite often aggression.

For O.J. and Nicole click here

In O.J. and Nicole’s case, the Sun position of each was near to the Mars position of the other. This can imply physical attraction, but such a doubling up on both horoscopes would certainly be considered a potentially dangerous combination. That was born out as O.J. and Nicole Simpson had a history of domestic violence leading to eventual divorce, years before her murder.

For Oscar and Reeva click here

The synastry of Oscar and Reeva shows his Mars opposing her Sun, and also his own Sun squaring hers. Such could potentially make for an extremely challenging relationship where sparks would fly. Note Oscar already has his own intense Scorpio Sun square to Mars, suggesting aggressive competitive tendencies.

But also Oscar’s Moon, the emotional barometer of the horoscope, was joined to Reeva’s Mars. Again we have a multiple hook ups with Mars between the two horoscopes. Note that this doesn’t implicitly guarantee the negative implications, but astrologically it would be judged to increase their likelihood.

Oscar's Sun is also positioned at the very end of Scorpio on the longitude of the fixed star Toliman. Ebertin's deterministic Fixed Star book writes of this 'Relationships to female persons often seem spoiled, or an existing relationship is stricken by exceptional circumstances'.

CELEBRITY LAWYERS

In both cases no expense is spared on celebrity lawyers and public relations players. Names and sponsorships hang on reputation. Pistorius has employed a crack PR team to counter media rumor like that of Steenkamp receiving a late night mobile text, which fuelled an enraged killing for example.

O.J. had influential media friends and agents. The Kardashian family can thank Simpson for enduring fame, as father Robert was his best friend, advisor immediately after the murder, and one of the trial lawyers.

BUMBLING INVESTIGATORS

In the Pistorius case, already doubts have been cast on the integrity of the primary investigators. Lead detective Hilton Botha is facing charges of attempted murder after firing at a minibus, and has been removed from the investigation. Additionally the Pistorius defense team has claimed that they have uncovered a bullet strangely missed by police.

In the 1994 O.J. trial it was LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman, whose previous racist comments were used to cast doubt on crucial evidence. Eventually his denials of racism constituted perjury. None of which sat too well with a jury comprising nine blacks, two whites and one Hispanic.

Simpson’s defense also claimed a bloodied glove was planted at the star's residence by Fuhrman's team, after entering without a search warrant. Despite impressive DNA evidence the LAPD proved a boon for the defense. Are we seeing signs of the same?

THE ONE BIG DIFFERENCE

The plainly obvious difference in the two cases is that Oscar Pistorius admits to having shot and killed Reeva Steenkamp. Of that there can be no doubt. The charge of premeditated murder is what hangs in the balance.

There is no equivalent to a crime of passion under South African law. And the shooting happened in a country with a high crime rate and gun ownership, where the middle class live behind security fences, with armed guards. Also, due to past apartheid, a sole judge - not jury - will adjudicate.

There is also an important difference in the two horoscopes of Simpson and Pistorius at the trial dates. O.J. did not have the difficult aspects that would have accompanied a conviction, which had to wait years.

I particularly remember this when judging the outcome and thinking that he would get off, despite what appeared damning DNA evidence. Simpson was later convicted in a civil court and ordered to pay damages to the victim’s families.

In the case of Oscar Pistorius, set down for June 4, the judgmental Saturn will be crossing his Venus. It will remain stationary there during June and July, in the same position it was when he first dated Reeva in November of 2012. Critical Saturn is moving through Scorpio and Oscar has three planets and the Sun in this intense sign.

Also mid year Oscar has progressed Mars meeting judicial Jupiter. It is appropriate for what really is his greatest contest yet. Saturn would identify with his depressed state of mind, and also facing up to responsibility. To the ancients Saturn was also the planet of ‘truth’. We hope this time that it delivers for everyone concerned.

MARKET WATCH

Apart from 2009, during the low of the global meltdown, the Dow Jones has performed well in the early part of the year. It has been around the late April period that the index has plumetted sharply.

In 2010 it opened the year around 10600 and climbed to 11200 before correcting. In 2011 it jumped from approximately 11,600 to 12800, and 2012 showed a consistent rise from 12300 to 13200.

Even in the crisis days of 2009 the Dow reversed its downward spiral to climb back rapidly from the recession low of just above 6600, and soared almost 2000 points – a 25% gain - within six weeks to begin the May. That annual pattern is one reason that technical analysts have been investing early.

But from 2.34 p.m. Wednesday Feb the 20th, until 2.30 pm the next day the Dow plummeted 1.25% from 14014 to 13841, a fall of 173 points. It then began a recovery that has brought it back around the 14000 by closing time Friday. What would time such a fluctuation that lasted almost precisely 24 hours?

Each day due to the earth’s diurnal rotation on its own axis the location of New York will come to the degree of Pluto. That time was occurring at 2.34 and 2.30 pm on the days in question.

Pluto will generally time the big movements – remember it was Pluto’s entry into corporate Capricorn in 2008 that synched with the great recession. But although the Midheaven moves over Pluto once a day it was not the main player, it simply timed the effect of other planetary players.

On the day in question the Sun in vacillating Pisces also came to join with Neptune. This aspect of the Sun joining Neptune would be in play for a full twenty-four hours. Neptune is a planet also concerned with confusion, rumor and/or panic reaction. Additionally the Moon was nearing a square to Uranus the planet of the unexpected change. All happened simultaneously for the market to swing in unison with the celestial clockwork.

FEB 17

HISTORY REPEATS

The Metonic Cycle dictates that every nineteen years New and Full Moons, plus related eclipses, occur in practically the same zodiacal degrees. And sometimes as solar and lunar patterns repeat, so does history in a strange peculiar manner.

Reeva Steenkamp had the world at her feet, or so it seemed. On Valentine’s Day she Tweeted, “What do you have up your sleeve for your love tomorrow???” Reeva was an intelligent and beautiful twenty nine year old – a law graduate and para-legal awaiting her admission to the Bar. She was also an high profile model, and the face of Avon cosmetics in South Africa.

Steenkamp was about to debut in the TV series ‘Tropika Island of Treasure 5’, which had recently been filmed on location in Jamaica. And she was in a relationship with the most famous athlete in South Africa – the Blade Runner - Oscar Pistorius. That’s where she was last seen alive - entering his apartment block Wednesday evening February 13 2013. At approximately 3.20 am on Valentine's Day she was shot and killed by Pistorius.

What happened from then is now the subject of a murder trial. It could become more controversial than the sensational O. J. Simpson affair. Eerily that happened one eclipse cycle ago. Steenkamp was shot four times in the pre-dawn hours of Valentine’s Day. Police have charged her boyfriend, Pistorius, with murder.

REEVA STEENKAMP

Reeva was born August 19 1983 in Cape Town. Her Leo Sun is trine to Neptune, the planet of image, glamour and photography. The planet equated to law – Jupiter – lies in an achieving square to her Sun and strongly placed in its own sign of Sagittarius.

Relationship planet, Venus, is also square to the more atypical and distinctive Uranus. She would have admired independence and difference in character.

Her assertive Mars, also in expressive Leo, formed an accommodating trine angle to judicial Jupiter and strong-minded Uranus. This would have promoted an expansive and optimistic outlook, and willingness for travel and adventure.

The Mars can also indicate male figures in the female horoscope. Reeva’s father was a successful horse trainer, evidenced by competitive Mars nicely aligned with winning Jupiter in its own sign of Sagittarius the centaur, in her chart.

From 2012 Reeva’s progressed Sun had reached newsmaker Mercury. She would be written about - a media figure greatly involved in communication and mastering fresh skills. Progressed Jupiter had moved to square her Venus, boosting her social life and commercial opportunities. It also brought new love.

On a more intense note Pluto had solar arced to be squaring her birth Sun. But it did so as the transiting Pluto also formed a testing sesquisquare to the same birth Sun. And these were more precise by February 2013.

PLUTO SUN - WATCH THE POWER

Pluto to Sun aspects can often indicate a battle of wills. The Sun is one’s self-expression and sense of inner identity. Pluto is the planet of deep cathartic transformation. Often powerful and/or domineering people enter one’s life during Pluto transits. There can be control issues involved, or hidden undercurrents, which evoke more intense and potent emotions and reactions.

Pluto, as the planet of the ‘underworld’ (also life and death), is linked with crime and control figures, including police. The best advice when undergoing Pluto developments is to acknowledge the depth of personal transformation, without necessarily sacrificing your will to another.

Be aware of those who play a controlling role, or attempt to coerce or manipulate. In short, discover your own sense of power even if prompted by extreme circumstances or people.

On the morning that Reeva was shot, the transiting Sun in Aquarius, was directly opposing her own. The Sun in direct opposition to itself, especially in light of the double Pluto aspects, would aggravate the prospect of a battle of wills.

Authorities like Ebertin have referred to this planetary combination, in its most negative application, as a ‘danger to the life’ or “separation by force majeure’. Naturally this potential would heavily rely upon environmental factors.

In the days before her death, Reeva’s Venus was opposed by Mars, and was also fielding a Neptune opposition. Neptune to Venus aspects are frequently connected to the romantic revelry of love.

Lost in love is an apt and illusory Neptune phrase. It’s a planet that can accompany misunderstandings, or loss through misplaced trust. Mars opposing Venus, simultaneously occurring here, can involve arguments, sexual tension or competition.

The overall picture is one of a lady encountering powerful and strong willed individuals, but also making major changes to her own life in the process. She may be achieving great success, and associating with very influential people, but there is an over-riding tension in her life. All that was manifest for her.

The dark side is one of control and extreme behaviour, and a less discriminating nature, attached to the romantic Neptune Venus opposition complicated by optimistic Jupiter simultaneously squaring both, and an aggressive Mars.

BLADE RUNNER

Oscar Pistorius is living the worst days of his life. The supreme South African athlete, a national hero, is facing a life behind bars after police alleged he murdered his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp with a 9mm pistol. She was shot four times, including through the hand as she tried to defend herself in his luxury apartment.

Oscar Pistorius was born November 22 1986 right on the cusp of Scorpio and Sagittarius. Scorpio is the dominating sign in his horoscope as Mercury the planet of mind is closely joined to penetrating Pluto and Venus – all in the sign of the scorpion.

Mercury to Pluto would endow him with immense mental focus, with an obsessive and penetrating mind. Venus to Pluto describes strong sensuality and a great depth of passion.

The Pistorius bio exhibits all the concentrated focus of his Scorpio stellium. Nothing was done by half measure. He physically embodied the Scorpionic principle of ‘the phoenix rising from the ashes’. Having both legs amputated at eleven months, Pistorius rebuilt himself into one of the world’s elite athletes via an indomitable spirit and a pair of prosthetic legs.

MARS THE COMPETITOR

Mars is the planet of competition. It appears way beyond chance factor in those who succeed in the sporting arena, or via battlefield heroics. Pistorius had his Sun in a testing and purposeful square to Mars. He was an extreme competitor and risk taker. His story of turning adversity to advantage made him a legend in his own country and a hero to others around the world.

He fought, not only his opponents, but also the authorities who barred him from competing with full bodied athletes citing a possible unfair advantage. His competitive nature was such that he took the officials to court – won - and became the first amputee to compete at a Summer Olympics in London 2012. He carried the national flag.

UNBELIEVABLE

When the story of the tragic shooting hit the headlines it was assumed that Pistorius was firing in self-defence. Surely this murder was a tragic accident? South Africa has a high crime rate and he never denied sleeping with a gun nearby. But investigating police were quick to douse that, and he now faces the most severe charge applicable – that of premeditated murder.

Stories now filter regarding officers previously attending his residence concerning events of a ‘domestic’ nature, or of neighbours hearing screaming and shouting prior to the shooting. Police have opposed bail, as a tearful Pistorius fronted court at 11.28 am local time, charged with murdering his girlfriend.

Currently his progressed Mars is joined to progressed Jupiter in Pisces, his solar arc Mars is hard angled to extreme Pluto and on the day of the killing the transiting Sun was activating his Sun Mars square. Mars is the planet of weapons and war.

In comparing the charts of the couple, Pistorius’ Mars was in direct opposition to Reeva Steenkamp’s Sun, and his own Sun squared hers. They are the ingredients of a challenging and fiery relationship.

The coming weeks will shed even greater light when hopefully rumour gives way to fact. And it will occur, coincidentally, as the eclipse cycle returns to the place it occupied nineteen years before. Back then a beautiful blonde named Nicole Simpson was found murdered in her home, and her former husband - champion athlete and national icon O. J. Simpson was the main suspect.

Feb 10

THE QUICKENING

The New Moon of February 10 2013, at 22 degrees of Aquarius, is in a challenging semisquare to shock planet – Uranus. It will also bring several of the inner planets into a testing aspect with the outers, always a time of heightened change and unrest. Value planet Venus, also in Aquarius, will square restrictive Saturn and commercial Mercury and impulsive Mars will also square excessive Jupiter.

Look for this initially in increased volatility of the markets and financial world. This New Moon will also fall on the position of Uranus of the Great Fire of London and the September 11 New York attacks. And you thought it was simply the start of the Chinese Year of the Water Snake? But China will be certainly more in the news – as will their neighbor Japan.

CHINA V JAPAN

The February New Moon highlights affairs involving the ‘land of the rising sun’. It falls close to the date of their first emperor - February 11 660 BC. The current horoscope of Japan, dated for their Meiji Constitution, is also February 11, 1889. In 2013, the progressed Sun of this chart joins the progressed Mars and progressed Mars also squares itself. And Mars is the lord of war and the military.

Japan has ramped up the battle talk with arch economic rivals China over the disputed Diaoyu (or Senkaku) Islands. Last week the dangerous cat and mouse play escalated with the scrambling of war jets. Japan is claiming that a Chinese warship beamed radar at a Japanese destroyer. But this rhetoric is clearly more over trade, and a changing balance of power, than minuscule islands.

As Sony and Nissan lament lowered profits, the Chinese economy is surging again. Meanwhile, the US and its allies, are working to counter the growing Chinese economic and military clout in the Asian Pacific. This all comes with the backdrop of North Korea planning a fresh nuclear test.

Politically Japan is becoming aggressively right wing under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. He considers relations with China as Japan’s biggest challenge for the 21st century. Abe wants to further military ties with the USA, and is contemplating a return to nuclear power. I deal with this in more detail in World Predictions 2013.

The current New Moon positioning is adding fuel to the fire between now and the May Solar Eclipse. Perhaps not by coincidence the April New Moon will fall on a similar degree of the largest explosion ever recorded.

Uranus, the lord of disorder, has already been at work. At 1.12 am February 6 2013 Universal Time, an undersea earthquake rating 8 on the Richter scale, shook the Pacific peace of the Santa Cruz Islands. Earthquakes suit the fiery Uranian potential. We may be entering into an unstable few months regarding increased seismic activity.

FIRE MOUNTAIN

At 1 pm August 26 1883 erratic Uranus was directly above the volcanic island of Krakatoa, whilst fiery red Mars, the planet of tempests, was setting in the west. The Fire Mountain’s three volcanic peaks simultaneously exploded shooting a pillar of ash and smoke thirty kilometers into the skies. More was to come.

The next day's big bang, at 10.02 a.m. local time, was heard as far away as Western Australia. This final eruption produced waves of up three times the size of the 2004 Indonesian tsunami. They traveled halfway around the world. The volcanic clouds of Krakatoa lowered global temperature by 1.2 Celsius for the following year.

In 1927 the volcano produced a new island on the same spot, eerily known as 'son of Krakatoa'. It rose to sea level in 1928 and has now attained a height of 200 meters. Late in 2011 this volcano was on high alert status.

But even Krakatoa pales in comparison to Tambora, a large stratovolcano lying some 300 kilometers behind the Sunda Trench. On April 10-11 1815 after six days of discharge Tambora literally blew its top. This was the largest eruption in recorded history.

Volcanic ash littered the stratosphere, blocking the sunlight. In North America and parts of Europe the following year was known as the 'year without a summer'. Tambora effectively lowered global temperatures by up to 3 degrees Celsius.

ANALYSING EARTHQUAKES

At the beginning of 2005 I conducted a study of the largest earthquakes of the twentieth century, along with cataclysmic explosions such as Tambora and Krakatoa. They had to rate at 8.5 magnitude or above. The results of those finding were published in the International Society of Astrological Research journal. A link for that article is here, but here’s a brief summary.

A notable feature was a bundling of the majority of the planets banding within one half of the zodiac. The Indonesian tsunami of December 26 2004, the third largest earthquake ever recorded, and the more recent Japanese undersea rupture and tsunami continued to match this pattern. It was also an observable feature of Tambora and Krakatoa.

Another consideration was investigating declination. That simply measures whether a planet, or the Moon, is north or south of the equator. This returned a positive result.

In twelve of the fourteen major examples the Moon was north of the equator at the time of a major upheaval. Conversely Saturn was south of it, ten out of fourteen times. The control groups in these samples are small and beg further research. But celestial clusters did seem to coincide with terrestrial busters.

The SuperMoon theory too has many adherents. Simply put, that’s when the Moon comes closest to earth at the time of a New or Full Moon, markedly increasing the gravitational pulls on the earth’s tectonic plates.

The Japanese tsunami occurred between two SuperMoons and the Indonesian tsunami came exactly on a Full Moon preceding a SuperMoon. This may certainly be a contributory factor.

UP AHEAD

Although we don’t have a SuperMoon until May 25, and then have two following in June 23 and July 22, the current New Moon is reasonably close to earth. The Moon is in northerly declination and Saturn is in south. Also the planets are reasonably clustered.

As mentioned earlier, last week a magnitude 8 earthquake struck near the Santa Cruz area of the Solomon Islands. Usually we only get one of those biggies in a year, so let’s hope it’s the last. But Uranus is the planet of sudden surprise, and the conditions are ripe.

FEB 03

THE LOST WEEKEND

At 12.59 p.m. on January 30 before the National Press Club the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the date of the next federal election – Saturday, September 14. The announcement came just four days after Australia Day.

The last time a Prime Minister called an election around Australia Day was Paul Keating back in 1996. Keating made his announcement that morning and was subsequently trounced at the polls. Here is a reminder of what I wrote about Australia Day and the government’s prospects in my World Predictions article 2013, published one month ago now on this site.

“On Australia Day of 2013, the reformative planet of Pluto will transit across the Australian Federation Sun (January 01 1901 @ 13.36 AEST Sydney) at 10 degrees of Capricorn, something it repeats both in the July and October before the year is out. Pluto’s last hard aspects to the Sun have resulted in changes to the national leadership.

In 1923, as Pluto opposed the Federation Sun, Prime Minister Billy Hughes resigned when the Country Party refused to govern in coalition with him. In 1975, as Pluto squared the Capricorn Sun, the then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, was sensationally dismissed from office by the Governor General.

It is not only transformative Pluto that moves across the Sun, but also ‘surprise packet’ Uranus squares it in late April and again October, along with an opposition from Jupiter in early August. On the basis of these transits, and the certainty of a federal election before November 30 2013, a change to the position of Prime Minister would seem highly likely.”

So let's take a closer look.....do we have to? Or you can just head for your sun sign.

JULIA GILLARD

Julia Gillard was born September 29 1961 at around midday in Barry Wales. Click here for her horoscope. On Saturday September 14 2013, the Prime Minister will have shock factor Uranus opposing and reformatory Pluto squaring her birth Sun simultaneously.

The combination of Uranus and Pluto refer to revolution and the collapse of an old order. Clearly they are not a recipe for maintaining the status quo, instead they replace it, with ruthless speed. On that evidence Gillard will be gone.

Proceeding to her secondary progressions, the secondary progressed Sun will be within the degree of squaring Uranus – further evidence of an abrupt repositioning.

Additionally, the North Node which is actually a measure of the eclipse energies, will be conjunct her progressed Sun. And Saturn will also be conjunct her Mars, suggesting self-assertion and activities being blocked or stifled at the given time.

If you were counseling a client with such configurations the language would be around discovering new ways of self-expression, being willing to explore more flexible options, and riding the rapids of changing circumstance. Clearly this would also embody the principle of investigating new career options.

Julia Gillard attained the position of Prime Minister in her own right, as the planet of responsibility moved to join her Libran birth Sun in mid-September of 2010. Ironically, the same planet will be moving over the birth Sun of her political nemesis Tony Abbott, in February, March and again October of 2013.

TONY ABBOTT

Tony Abbott, was born November 4 1957 at 4 am in London England. Click here for his chart. Abbott’s remorseless Scorpio Sun squares willful Uranus, making him a wild card politician with a focused ambition. His fiery Aries Moon means both the ‘lights’ are Mars ruled, indicating his aggressive macho demeanor.

In the World Predictions 2013 from the start of the year I wrote of Abbott

“Although he frequently ranks below Gillard in polling, his party regularly places higher. Abbott however, with his unrestrained Sun Uranus square, is viewed as an obstructionist. The transit of Saturn is advising him to adopt a more measured, conservative and controlled approach in order to attain the responsible PM post.”

Abbott will be aiming to be the first ever Scorpio Prime Minister of Australia. The overwhelming favored sign has been Virgo, with three times the average. Andrew Fisher, James Scullin, Joseph Lyons, Ben Chifley, John Gorton and Kevin Rudd were all born under the earth sign Virgo. Australia has never had a Gemini, Scorpio, or Aquarius leader.

The prolific earth element has also provided three Capricorns - the first PM Edmond Barton, plus John Curtin and Paul Keating. The lone Taurean has been Malcolm Fraser. This leaning to earth is due to the Australian Federation horoscope of January 1 1901 @ 1.36 pm Sydney having a Capricorn Sun conjunct Saturn and widely trining a Taurean Moon. Click here for chart.

Interestingly Tony Abbott’s progressed Sun is now in Capricorn. By the election date Abbott’s progressed Sun will have reached the Australian Saturn. Add to that the power and money planet of Pluto that is currently transiting with his progressed Sun. As Pluto is the co-ruler of the Scorpio sign, it may well pave the way for our first Scorpio Prime Minister.

Note that this is an objective astrological analysis, and I have little faith in either of these representatives. Unfortunately for Australian voters they are left with a no-win choice between the most unpopular political leaders statistically in the history of federal politics.

JAN 27

ASTRO-MYSTERY

It had all the earmarks of an astrological thriller. A star is found dead, floating at sea - nearby a beached dinghy called a zodiac. A witness on a luxury yacht named ‘The Capricorn’ claims to have heard cries of ‘help me I’m drowning’ hours before. The cause of death is recorded as accidental, but thirty years later, on the Saturn return of the original incident, the case is re-opened.

Saturn is the planet of hard brick reality fact. The stunning ringed gas giant has forever been likened to the unforgiving judge. Ancient Babylonian tablets depicted omens such as, ‘when Saturn is with the Moon men will tell the truth’. But what is Saturn revealing?

DEATH STAR

At 7.44 on the morning of November 29 1981 the bruised body of film star Natalie Wood was found floating a mile off Santa Catalina Island, California. Wood had almost double the legal driving amount of alcohol in her blood, along with a painkiller and motion sickness pill. Her mysterious death was attributed to accidental drowning and hypothermia.

Two weeks before the 30th anniversary of her death, as judgmental Saturn completed a full cycle of the heavens the case was reopened. This was largely due to the efforts of Marti Rulli co-author of a controversial book ‘Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Splendour ’. Rulli, claims the original investigation was incomplete, and features new information.

Co-author Dennis Davern, the skipper of the boat that Natalie Wood was on that fateful night, has admitted withholding vital facts from the initial investigation. Davern claimed an argument had broken out between Wood’s husband Robert Wagner and actor Christopher Walken. After Wood went to bed he heard the fight continuing in her cabin, including sounds of a physical struggle.

THE MISSING WITNESS

Holidaying about fifty meters away on a boyfriend’s luxury yacht was stockbroker Marilyn Wayne. She claims she heard clear cries of, ‘help me I’m drowning’ shortly after 11 pm the previous night also coming from the direction of Wagner’s moored boat.

Marilyn considered diving in, but the blackness of the rainy night, the low water temperature and a warning that it might be a dangerous option held her back. Instead they switched on their beam light and called harbor patrol, receiving no answer. She claims she called the sheriff’s office and was informed a helicopter would be sent. It never came.

Marilyn Wayne claims to have never been interviewed by police, although they beg to differ. She has issued a statement to the effect that the lead case Detective, Duane Rasure, publicly called her “someone seeking my name in the media”. Robert Wagner has also revealed in his own book how he’d broken a champagne bottle in anger just before Wood went missing. New evidence is providing a clearer picture.

Saturn is nothing if not thorough. One hundred people have so far been interveiwed. However, Wagner and his family have refused to submit to interrogation. Instead an attorney’s statement reads, "After 30 years, neither Mr. Wagner nor his daughters have any new information to add to this latest investigation, which was unfortunately prompted by those seeking to exploit and sensationalize the 30th anniversary of the death of his wife and their mother,"

ONE DRUNKEN NIGHT

The initial report describes the entire party as drinking at a restaurant from 4 pm on the afternoon of the November 28 1981. By the time the party left the bar for their yacht at approximately 22.15 all were intoxicated. So drunk that the restaurant manager had called harbor patrol to ensure that they safely piloted the dinghy back to their yacht ‘The Splendour ’ anchored offshore.

The drinking continued on the yacht and, according to Wagner, Wood was noticed missing around midnight. The normally attached dinghy had also been untied and was missing. They presumed she had either gone ashore or to another yacht. But by 1.30 a.m., and no return, Wagner called Ismuth employees to look for Wood. This call was verified by another boat owner.

Wagner and Davern kept drinking, but Walken was fast asleep during all of this. The theory of Wood’s death was that she had slipped while trying to tie up the loose dinghy that had been banging against the boat, and possibly keeping her awake. But mystery surrounded the time that Wagner had taken to inform authorities, especially in the knowledge that Wood could not swim. Also her body had multiple bruises, which were initially put down to the ‘accident’. What do the planets say?

NATALIE WOOD

According to AstroDatabank, Natalie Wood was born July 20 1938 at 11.16 am in San Francisco. With the vast majority of planets uppermost in her achievement-orientated horoscope, she was a child star pushed by an ambitious mother. Click here for Wood's horoscope.

Her horoscope shows a temperamental combination of her expressive Sun with fiery Mars and volcanic Pluto. All square her Taurean Moon in her house of marriage, unveiling potential tests and challenges within relationships.

On the weekend that she died the planet Jupiter, which can exaggerate things, was opposing Wood’s relationship Moon, and squaring her explosive Sun, Mars and Pluto. Additionally concentrated Pluto was conjunct progressed Venus. These are clear signs of relationship issues bubbling to the surface.

Natalie Wood also had Saturn in her marriage house, and at the time of death was experiencing her Saturn opposition. This was her second marriage to Wagner, who she’d originally dated as an eighteen year old. As Saturn and Pluto are slow moving planets and Pluto was heading to square her Sun, the relationship issues may have been ongoing for months prior.

There is further evidence for this with Mars, the planet of accidents and aggression progressing to semisquare her Ascendant, being her physical body. On the night of her disappearance transiting Mars was also moving over her Neptune, a planet associated with liquids and the sea. What of husband Robert Wagner’s horoscope?

ROBERT WAGNER

According to AstroDatabank, Robert Wagner was born February 10 1930 at 01.45 am in Detroit, Michigan. Neptune is the highest planet in Wagner’s horoscope hovering around the Midheaven at birth. Click here for Wagner's horoscope.

Neptune does imply a mystery, and is the planet of imagery, which makes it ideal for actors. Wagner also has his Aquarian Sun joined to Venus, the planet of the arts, beauty and attraction. Known originally as the ‘Brylcream Kid’ he has always appeared surrounded by glamour.

A feature of Wagner’s horoscope is his eighth house Cancer Moon. The Moon represents females and emotional response. It is opposing karmic Saturn and in square to unpredictable Uranus. This challenging T-Square has been re-activated by cathartic Pluto moving across his Saturn and opposing his Moon from 2011 when the case was reopened. Pluto is digging up the past. With the wild card planet Uranus now also squaring the Moon, it is all coming out in a rapid and uncontrolled manner.

Wagner’s Moon is also in a challenging formation with his own Sun/Venus and Ascendant known as Thor’s Hammer. The Moon is really the crux of his horoscope. During 1990 when Uranus last impacted strongly on his Moon he married long term friend and supportive partner, Jill St John. But what of November 1981?

WAGNER’S CHALLENGING CHART

At the time of Wood's death Wagner had obsessive Pluto transiting in opposition to his progressed Venus and squaring his birth Mercury. This is also indicative of extreme jealousy and tensions in their partnership life. Wagner’s progressed Sun was squaring progressed Saturn and had just moved through progressed Uranus. Normally such aspects accompany a split so it is possible that there had been serious ongoing issues.

In November 1981 Wagner’s emotional Moon had just completed an opposition to itself and was nearing somber Saturn. While all of this might be expected with the loss of a loved one, it also reinforces the question of just what was happening in the relationship in the months prior to the tragedy.

I also looked at the composite horoscope of Wagner and Wood – a combination of their planetary positions. This reveals the combative Mars, and the water and alcohol planet Neptune both transiting to a difficult formation with the Sun and Mercury in November 1981. Miscommunication, accidents, arguments or violence would be common to this.

Additionally Jupiter is opposing Mars, which would exaggerate any dissension. And this horoscope also shows the surprise factor Uranus crossing Venus.

BACK TO THE FUTURE

Robert Wagner is the one potential witness who has closed the door on the whole affair. He does not wish to add to the current investigation. Yet Saturn returns are known for putting an end to matters once and for all. That was certainly the case in the ongoing controversy of the death of baby Azaria Chamberlain in Australia. It also should be for the Natalie Wood mystery.

Saturn will return to Wagner’s horoscope moving across his Ascendant early in 2014. At the same time Neptune, currently opposing itself, will also oppose his Midheaven. Could it be that within the first four months of 2014 that the case of Natalie Wood is finally closed, once and for all? Yes - even Natalie’s horoscope supports that conclusion.

JAN 20

THE US INAUGURATION HOROSOPE

MOON AND MARS

Last year I wrote about the Moon with Mars on Presidential swearing in day and you can find further details via this link and by scrolling to the September 23 comment section.

On Sunday March 4 1849 a celebrated General known as ‘Old Rough and Ready’ of Episcopalian faith, reportedly refused to take the US Presidential oath on a Sunday. The ceremony was instead scheduled for noon Monday March 5. But it adversely changed the astrological implications.

Monday, the 5th, was a far more difficult day. At noon it pitted the Moon in almost exact opposition to Mars. President Zachary Taylor lasted barely over a year in office. His is but one of the many difficult or shortened tenures, that have accompanied the Moon in a hard aspect with the red planet on inauguration day.

Moon square Mars was also a feature of the founding fathers, George Washington’s first term and Thomas Jefferson’s second. Washington's government acrimoniously split into two factions over the proposal of a national bank, and Jefferson lost support during a second term beset by continual economic woes.

President William Harrison was sworn in with Moon square Mars. He gave the longest inauguration speech on record, which ultimately led to the shortest ever Presidency.

Presidents Garfield, McKinley, Harding and Kennedy did not even complete their terms of office, whilst James Buchanan’s was rated as one of the worst tenures of all. Bill Clinton had Moon square Mars for his second term and ended up facing impeachment.

This year the official US Presidential inauguration falls due on Sunday January 20 – but the public inauguration will be held on Monday the 21st.

Legally Barack Obama takes office for a second term at noon Sunday on January 20 2013. He is expected to be officially sworn in at that time. If all goes to plan Obama does so under an exact Moon square Mars aspect.

The Moon Mars square for 2013 Inauguration horoscope was the primary reason I wrote last year that this was the election that the winner could turn out to be the loser.

I hope that’s wrong and that the next day Monday public swearing in chart turns out to be the over-riding one. Otherwise the Moon being the public and Mars being adversarial, have given this square aspect an abysmal track record. On past evidence this does not bode well for Obama's second term.

ARMSTRONG'S ALTERED REALITY

Lance Armstrong was a legend. Motivational speakers quoted his story as a prime example of one individual turning tragedy into triumph. He was one of the world's most famous and rewarded competitors, with an untouchable cycling record and incredible heart resting rate of 32 beats per minute.

Who hadn’t heard of how Lance had bravely battled, and beat, testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs, abdomen and brain? Given only a 40% chance of survival he had dedicated himself to finding out more about the cancer, and set up a cancer research foundation.

Lance Armstrong, a champion triathlete from youth, returned to the world of cycling bigger and better than ever, winning the arduous Tour De France an unmatchable seven times. He was hailed as one of the greatest athletes of all time.

But for much of the time the shadow of drug use haunted his persona. Now the Armstrong myth has been unveiled as the biggest drug deception in sporting history. As Neptune, the planet of illusion enters dreamy and often-deceptive Pisces, the issue of drugs worldwide will become a hot topic.

When Neptune – the planet connected to chemicals, pharmaceuticals and body-mind altering substances last entered Pisces in 1846, the use of drugs increased markedly. It started with general anesthetics for surgical procedures, first administered the same year.

LANCE ARMSTRONG

Lance Armstrong, born September 18 1971 in Plano Texas, is a Virgo, with both the Sun and Moon in the same sign. He was born under a Balsamic Moon soon to be a New Moon. Generally those born with the Moon and Sun close together have a much more subjective outlook. Objectivity is a learned rather than inherent characteristic.

Lance was also born with his Sun joined to the obsessive focus of Pluto. All of this guarantees a single-minded intensity. Pluto is the deity of death and rebirth. Pluto, equivalent of the Greek Hades, was the lord of the hidden underworld. Lance faced the ultimate death and resurrection trip. As might be expected, being a champion athlete, Lance’s concentrated Sun and Pluto were both in a hard aspect (sesquisquare) to competitive Mars.

NEPTUNE & THE MYTH

Lances’s own Sagittarian Neptune was conjunct the expansive and optimistic Jupiter, with both opposed to the reality planet of Saturn. On October 2, 1996 as Neptune solar-arced square to his birth Sun Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer. The Neptune influence would also account for his chemotherapy, as well as the debilitating illness. Solar arcing Mars was then in a testing square to restrictive Saturn.

It was from here that the Armstrong myth was born. But it may also be no coincidence that as Neptune entered Pisces his drug escapades became more openly revealed. By then transiting Neptune began a challenging square to Armstrong's birth Neptune, and also Saturn, leading to the ultimate expose of the degree of Armstrong’s cheating.

Armstrong was using human growth hormones, erythropoietin (EPO), testosterone, plus having blood transfusions and cortisone injections on his way to his seven consecutive Tour de France wins. Eventually teammates with a conscience testified against him. Finally in 2012 US Anti Doping Agency said Armstrong had indulged in "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen".

SATURN THE JUDGE

Saturn is the karmic judgment planet. Saturn represents the hard brick of reality. When Lance Armstrong finally came clean on the Oprah Winfrey show recorded January 2013, his Sun had progressed from its Virgo beginnings to five degrees of Scorpio, forming a difficult and adjusting inconjunct angle to his birth Saturn.

Add to that the current Saturn is moving through Scorpio and has moved across his progressed Scorpio Sun. It will regress there again mid year 2013. This time restrictive Saturn has Armstrong banned from sanctioned competition.

Astrologically it’s a case of a Sun/Mars/Pluto win at all costs concentration coupled with a single minded Sun Moon union. Right now it’s led to the loss of what he loved to do most – compete. And the unanswered question is – did he really need to do it?

And how did he get away with it for so long? Had a cheating Lance Armstrong become like a lot of banks during the global financial crisis - "too big to fail". Lance's incomplete confession leaves the real doubt of just how many others, including medical and cycling officials were implicated? Ironic that Armstrong quoted Jesus, 'The truth will set you free'. That's not exactly what we got.

January 13

HOW HIGH THE MOON

The marvelous Moon. Lou Reed it called it ‘the satellite of love’. From its name we derive the words mood, lunacy and lunatic. It’s our closest neighbor in space, and its proximity pulls the tides of our mighty oceans. There are many who believe that it does the same with the human brain, consisting of around 75% of water. Lunar legends persists in the folklore of diverse cultures right across the globe.

The Alexandrian astrologer Vettius Valens wrote in 150 AD, that the Moon represented life, body, mother and conception, as well the ‘assembly of the people’. Venerated astronomer Claudius Ptolemy, who wrote the most widely read astrological textbook of all time – ‘Tetrabiblos’ - was in full agreement.

To the gnostics your soul came from star stuff, finally descending to the sphere of the Moon, and thereby selecting the family you chose to be born into on planet earth. Your Moon primarily influenced your infancy.

But it’s not only early conditioning that is lunar stuff. The Moon for each of us returns to the position it held at birth at slightly over twenty-seven and a third years. This becomes a vital Moon year.

Are we likelier to do crazier things? It all makes for an interesting observation into the “27 Club”. That's an exclusive musicians association that too many have already been dying to join. The ending of the first cycle of the Moon has spelt the final curtain call for some of our most celebrated stars.

DEATH IS MY CALLING CARD

Amy Winehouse was the last recruit to a line-up that included sixties icons Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison. Add to that Kurt Cobain, Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones and blues legend Robert Johnson and the list is imposing.

As twenty-seven is a pivotal year in terms of the emotional barometer of your horoscope – the Moon bears watching in the horoscopes of these individuals. To the astrologer there is a raw psychological significance to the antiquarian folklore of the sometimes not so nurturing Moon.

Each of is born with the Moon in a specific positioning, and relationship to the Sun, Earth and planets of the solar system. As an emotional barometer the Moon pertains to early conditioning, and emotions either unrestrained or perhaps too suppressed. Some may result in extreme compensatory behavior. These conditions may also have a tendency to resolve or implode around age twenty-seven, as the Moon returns to its birthplace.

COSMIC BLUES

Janis Joplin, born January 19 1943, @ 9.45 am in Port Arthur Texas, had a sensitive Cancer Moon in the creative fifth house of her horoscope. Click for her horoscope here.

Janis's Moon was opposite her Sun sign of Capricorn. Her Moon was square Neptune, a planet connected with flights of fancy, inspired imagination, and a downside of escapism often through recreational drugs. Joplin’s Moon was also parallel to Saturn suggesting a serious mind and the possibility of depression.

Her Moon was also quindecile to aggressive Mars in her career zone. The quindecile is an aspect aligned with obsessive-compulsive behaviour and often addictive coping mechanisms. This aspect to the Moon would imply intensified emotional needs, and the male archetype of Mars can signify impulsiveness, and perhaps even a coarse directness.

If the Moon represented the mother, Joplin’s own mother had something to say of her, "She was unhappy and unsatisfied without [receiving a lot of attention]. The normal rapport wasn't adequate." Joplin regarded herself as a misfit. In her teens her acne scarring was so bad that she required corrective surgery. Her escape was her music and the musical world that accepted her ‘difference’.

Janis shone like a true star at 60’s outdoor pop fests like Monterey and Woodstock. She knew it, saying, 'if it's really working and you've got the audience with you, it's a oneness you feel.’ Janis is famous for the quote that on stage you make love to over twenty five thousand people and then you go home alone.

As her fame grew her before the ‘assembly of the people’ her drug use increased - an inadequate coping mechanism for an itinerant life. By the return of her progressed Moon to its original birth position Janis was engaged. The night before her death she expressed anger that her fiancée was playing pool with other females in her house. What followed was her last intravenous injection of an overly potent lot of heroin. Early morning October 4 she was no more.

Her death shocked a music world, that only two weeks before had lost flamboyant Jimi Hendrix the greatest guitarist of the sixties. Hendrix’s Moon was in a difficult inconjunct with his progressed Sun, and joining his eighth house of death at his passing. Although the official cause is asphyxiation, Jimi’s death was also drug related.

MORRISON HOTEL

Jim Morrison of the Doors had one of the more difficult Moon placements at birth, squaring intense Pluto and semisquare disciplinary Saturn. He was born December 3 1943 @ 11.55 am in Melbourne Beach, Florida. Click for his horoscope here.

Jim’s itinerant military upbringing heralded four home moves by the time he was four. Although his parents did not use corporal punishment, the children were psychologically broken down and reduced to tears through excessive yelling and berating.

Morrison was highly intelligent, with a tested IQ of 149, but virtually uncontrollable, and a natural rebel. By twenty-one he had disowned his parents, and traveled to California. As the lead singer of the popular Doors, Morrison’s drinking and drug use, plus outrageous stage behavior and subsequent arrests have become legendary sixties fare.

By the time his Moon returned to its birthplace, Morrison - by then closely monitored by the FBI - had deserted his country of birth and flown to live in Paris. It was here he was allegedly found dead in a bathtub, the victim of a heart attack connected to a drug and alcohol lifestyle. He would never return home. He is now buried near the grave of Oscar Wilde in the Pere Lachaise cemetery.

Others like Amy Winehouse – Moon conjunct Neptune at birth and then returned to at death, or Kurt Cobain – Moon at the Sun Neptune midpoint at birth and hard angled Neptune at death, continued the difficult Moon patterning.

There may well be an inkling of truth in the writings of our ancient forebears that the Moon is connected with our emotional grounding, fluctuating feelings, and habitual behaviour. And that it corresponds to our feeling of home, and being at home with ourselves.

To conclude, the British Medical Association did perform an analysis on musician’s deaths and the age of twenty-seven, claiming that there was no significant pattern evident. But is it possible that this phenomena is more effective in those who achieve considerable fame before (as Vettius Valens wrote almost nineteen hundred years ago) the lunar ‘assembly of the people’?

PAKISTAN COUNTS THE TOLL

On Thursday January 10 violence tore across Pakistan in the form of coordinated bombings. At the time of writing 126 people have died as a result of the terrorism, leading into upcoming national elections. Most of the victims were minority Shia Muslims in Quetta, capital of the unstable Baluchistan province.

Astrologers use a variety of horoscopes for Pakistan, varying from 9.15 to 9.33 August 14 1947, when British Viceroy Lord Mountbatten addressed the new parliament on independence, to the official changeover of powers from midnight leading into August 15.

Pakistan now celebrate the 14th as Independence Day, although their original Prime Minister Jinnah clearly stated "August 15 is the birthday of the independent and sovereign state of Pakistan. It marks the fulfillment of the destiny of the Muslim nation which made great sacrifices in the past few years to have its homeland."

Certainly the midnight Pakistan horoscope is now highly active. The authoritative Midheaven is now solar arcing to oppose dissolving and covert Neptune. At the same time the solar arc Moon, representing the public, is in a challenging square to aggressive Mars.

Whatever chart is used, the progressing restrictive Saturn has now progressed to the leadership Sun. All of this is an enormous threat to the government of Pakistan, a country whose democratic governments have often been replaced by military juntas.

The current attacks came as the transiting Moon moved to deadly Pluto, which is also squaring Pakistan’s progressed Midheaven.

Technicalities aside the pre-election period prior to March 18, and immediately after looks increasingly volatile. Such was also the case prior to the last elections of 2008, culminating in the assassination of three time PM Benazir Bhutto.

February 10 and 11, when the Aquarian Sun opposes the Leo Pakistan Sun is another date when the authorities will feel this rising tide of rebellion. Unfortunately this looks ongoing, even immediately after elections in later March and April.

JANUARY 6

CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS

The Inauguration of the President of Venezuelan is scheduled for January 10 2013. But since December 11 last year the elected leader, Hugo Chavez, has not been seen in public. Chavez, who has had four operations for pelvic cancer since mid 2011, reportedly lies in a Cuban hospital, recovering from his latest surgery.

On October 7 2012 Chavez, who commands a charismatic following, easily disposed of his opposition, to ensure a six year term. He has governed since his original swearing in on February 2 1999, with a brief two-day hiatus in April 2002. Venezuela was among the top five economies with a GDP expansion of 5.5% over the last year, and the best performing stock market of 2012.

But if Chavez can’t make the swearing in, Venezuela is heading for a political stand-off. To quell the crisis Vice President Nicolás Maduro invoked the constitution to explain that if not sworn in before the National Assembly, the Supreme Court could enact the inauguration process at a later date.

Meanwhile, the recently vanquished opposition circle like vultures sweating on a new election, should Chavez's health problems prolong the problem. What do the planets signal for Hugo Chavez and Venezuela in the short and longer term?

VENEZUELA

Venezuela lies on the northern coast of South America. It’s a country of close on thirty million people, colonized by the Spanish in 1522, and the first of the Latin countries to declare independence on July 5 1811. Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves and second largest natural gas assets. Its importance to world energy supply is critical.

The independence horoscope shows a patriotic Cancerian Sun (virtually matching that of the USA) with the Moon in the opposing sign of Capricorn. Political crisis, coups and dictatorships have littered the national history. In 1989, as Saturn and Neptune together opposed the Venezuelan Sun, riots led to the death of 3,000 people.

The Uranus to Sun opposition of 1991 featured further instability until the eventual impeachment of President Carlos Andrés Pérez in 1993, removed by the Supreme Court, as both powerbroker Pluto and authoritative Saturn came to meet the Mars of the national horoscope. Twenty years earlier Perez had nationalized the oil industry, which provides the government and people with a financial bonanza.

HUGO CHAVEZ

One of the men who plotted Perez’s downfall was current Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Chavez was born July 28 1954, in Sinamaica, with a claimed time of 4 am via AstroDatabank.

His proud and fixed Leo Sun squares the more controlling Saturn in calculating Scorpio. Chavez has implemented sweeping political reforms in what he terms his socialist Bolivarian Revolution, beginning with a fresh Constitution approved on December 15, with 72% of the popular vote and effective from December 20 1999. As Chavez has held virtually continuous power over the country since, the 1999 swearing in horoscope is significant as a future guide.

Chavez was originally inaugurated as President at 10.45 am February 2 1999 in Caracas. This horoscope features the leadership Sun linked to oratory Mercury, and both united with the rebellious Uranus, in the universal brotherhood sign of Aquarius.

In worldy terms his administration have certainly ran their own race, and Chavez is regarded as an enemy of the mainstream capitalist society. Although he has halved the unemployment rate and reduced poverty from one in four to one in twelve, rampant inflation still dogs Venezuela. It was over 20% when he came to office and is now slightly over 30% per annum, eroding wealth and savings.

The 1999 Inauguration horoscope had progressed to New Moon stage by the presidential elections of October 2012, suggesting a future leadership change, or new order. Within two months Chavez was off to Cuba for urgent medical treatment.

Since then news concerning his condition has been sparing. On January 10 this year – the anticipated new inauguration date - the agitating warrior planet of Mars transits across the Sun/Mercury/Uranus of when Chavez came to power. The original swearing in horoscope will show further signs of impending change in April and specifically mid September 2013.

PEOPLE POWER

Chavez, an avowed socialist, was himself victim of a capitalist coup attempt on April 11 2002, when senior management of Petróleos de Venezuela (PVDA), backed by the private media tried to overthrow him. A right wing cabal installed Pedro Carmona, President of the Chamber of Commerce, sworn in at 17.51 hours on April 12.

The US immediately endorsed the new leader, whilst Venezuela’s Latin neighbors, all voiced their apprehension at the removal of a democratically elected head of state. The puppet leader was dissolved within two days, and Chavez was reinstated at 4.35 am April 14. People power returned the president. Carmona later resurfaced in Miami, Florida.

Historically, the ten-year period is an important one for Chavez. He failed in a 1992 coup, was the victim of one in 2002 and in 2012 comfortably won re-election, only to have to hand it to his deputy through illness. As he recovers from major surgery Chavez’s progressed Moon moves through the health conscious sign of Virgo. It is now in the closing balsamic phase, suggesting a release and moving on, or that he will step down for a successor.

REVOLUTIONARY TRANSITS

Venezuela losing a charismatic leader like Chavez would create a power vacuum in the resource rich country. Their national horoscope is fielding powerful revolutionary transits, initially from unstable Uranus from the middle of the year. The following year, 2014, they see the full weight of the transformative Uranus Pluto square impacting on the Venezuelan leadership Sun.

The ramifications are obvious. The USA remains Venezuela’s main oil customer, although China will match that by 2015. The US has also placed a weapons sales ban on Venezuela, which has seen the country now purchase fighter jets from China, along with allowing Chinese investment in infrastructure such as railways.

China’s increasing trade with Venezuela has seen the two countries launch a second communications satellite in November of last year. China has supplied a massive $42.5 billion loan, charging 6 percent interest, or half the international rate. Venezuela pays back in oil. Even though China did not import a barrel of oil prior to 1999; the growing industrial giant will soon become Venezuela’s main trade partner.

All of this makes Venezuela, and its politicians the ham in the sandwich of a bigger global battle – one for worldly economic supremacy between two superpowers. The stakes are high for more political double-dealing behind the scenes. If the country is to experience violent upheavals in the wake of these events it will not be without covert foreign intervention.

SCHOOL'S BACK

If you've always wanted to learn astrology from the ground up, or are keen to resume studies, the Sirius astrology school will be back on track during February. Click on this link for details.

Finally, if you're still getting that old zodiac debate throw at you have a read of this. I'll be leaving the link here for a while for the open minded, as good ammunition to direct at the more closed craniums.

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