Eclipse gives Dr. Mahathir Mohamad a second term

Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad  born 10 July 1925 is a Malaysian politician currently serving as the Prime Minister of Malaysia for the second time. Mahathir is now the oldest currently serving state leader in the world (Age: 92 years, 347 days), with Queen Elizabeth II (92 years, 62 days) being second. He is also the 10th oldest ever serving state leader in the world. Mahathir has been a highly controversial figure, and a subject of harsh attacks by his critics. Former de facto Law Minister Zaid Ibrahim writes in his memoirs: "In my heart, I cannot accept allegations that Dr Mahathir personally was a corrupt man. Corrupt people are never brave enough to speak as loudly as Dr Mahathir. Wealth is not a major motivation for him. He only craves power".

Rising living standards, together with Dr. Mahathir's showpiece buildings and outspoken defence of Malaysia's interests, contributed to a sense of national identity, pride and confidence that had not existed before. He put Malaysia on the map, and most Malaysians were pleased about it.

In this post we will look at the noon chart for Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad. Notice that the most prominent configuration in his chart – Sun-Pluto opposite Jupiter is highlighted for at least three important reasons (a) his progressed Sun [17li] squares this axis (b) he is going through his Pluto half cycle that regenergizes his radix Jupiter-Pluto (c) the upcoming solar eclipse of July 13 – close to his birthday activates the same axis.

Jupiter represents faith as well as the reward hoped for.  Jupiter is the capacity to see (and believe in) the big picture. Pluto deepens and empowers what it touches to the nth degree.  When Pluto forms a dynamic aspect (conjunction, square or opposition) with Jupiter, beliefs become powerful and dreams larger than life. Most people with Jupiter Pluto aspects are ambitious and determined to make it big.

 Jupiter moves the mind toward positive, uplifting expression – except when you’re caught up in ego struggles (in which case, a king-complex might emerge.)  Pluto can amplify Jupiter’s positive outlook so that you develop a powerful optimism that says ‘no problem is insurmountable.’

The eclipse and Dr. Mahathir’s Sun are placed in the Indian lunar Mansion Punarvasu - “Return of the Light ” or the return of good times. So it is no surprise that Dr. Mahathir is returning for a second term!

China’s horoscope and the trade war

The start of a trade war between the United States and China comes at an inconvenient time for the Chinese economy. In recent weeks, concerns have been mounting that growth in the world's second-biggest economy is cooling faster than previously expected. Weaker Chinese growth will have repercussions for big trading partners, such as the United States and Europe, and for global companies who do business there.

Now, an intensifying clash with the United States is adding to the difficulties. Both sides announced tariffs on $50 billion of each other's products last week, and President Donald Trump upped the ante further on Monday with a threat to impose duties on at least another $200 billion of Chinese goods.

http://money.cnn.com/2018/06/20/news/economy/china-economy-slows-trade-war/index.html

In this blogpost, I intend to show how China’s national chart contains a clue to the decline resulting from a trade war. But first let us begin with the stellium of planets and TNPs in the 8^th house of China’s chart. Let us recall that the 8^th house in mundane astrology is that of business and international finance, credit and debt. With the Sun [7li] – the central planet of any chart – in the 8^th we can begin to understand why business and trade is so important for China. Moreover, the Sun is conjunct epsilon (ε) Virgo, Vindemiatrix, a bright yellow star in the right wing, or right arm, of the Virgin.

Thoroughness, hard work and conscientiousness are the hallmarks of the Virgin.  The image of the corn carried by the Maiden symbolizes the fruits of her labor. With the Sun conjunct the stars of Virgo in the 8^th house of business or international finance shows that China has earned a surplus because of the hard work.

But now we have a Saturn transit in the 12^th square the Sun in the 8^th.  A 12^th house transit of Saturn coincides with a period when we meet the results of all the thoughts, actions, desires and activities  that we have engaged in during the last Saturn cycle through the other houses. The 12^th has often been referred to as “the house of self-undoing”. The surplus that Virgo has created is now itself the problem. Because of cheap Chinese labor, American factories opened up in China stealing the jobs of millions of American workers. This serious imbalance has to be corrected and that is what Saturn transit is trying to do.

China’s Sun is square Uranus so that the Saturn transit is forming a T. Challenging Sun-Uranus aspects often experiences a tension which urges them to step beyond their current way of life into the unknown in often a very radical way. By the time Saturn is done transiting its 12^th house, China may be forced to make a major re-adjustment. The radix Sun [8li] is square the radix Hades-Apollon [8cn] midpoint which delineates as “decline (Hades) in business opportunities (Apollon)”.

Another clue to the kind of change being demanded can be seen if we superimpose the progressed US Sibly  on the Chinese chart. Here we find the Sibly progressed Sun [13pi] is opposite China’s radix Saturn [13vi] once again in the 8^th house of business. Much of what we know of planets in an individual natal chart can also be extended to nations. Saturn in the 8^th gives apprehensions and difficulties in the area of sharing and joint resources. People feel insecure about what they have to give or experience difficulty in what another has to offer. More generally, there is the fear of letting go which can often show up as trying to control the partner through money matters. With its huge trade surplus with the US, China is doing just that. It is unwilling to open its own markets – a fear that can be typically related to Saturn in the 8^th. Notice that Saturn [13vi] is conjunct the TNP Apollon [19vi] which is associated with business and commerce.

And finally we notice that transit Uranus is squaring China’s Ascendant-Descendant axis. For the moment think of China’s chart as that of an individual. Solar Fire provides the following interpretation for this transit:

Transiting Uranus Square Radix Ascendant

Relationships close to your heart can undergo sudden and dramatic changes during this transit as either you or your loved one feels the need to break out of old habits and patterns in the relationship. You may not have been aware that the relationship had settled into a routine that was a little stale. It could be that a third party enters the scenario surprising both of you. Whatever the circumstances, the challenge is to ride the disruptions, pull yourself out of the rut and put the sparkle back into your relationship.

Doesn’t that sound as though relationship with major partners is in trouble!

Is Merkel’s reign nearing a frustrated end?

For nearly 14 years as Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel has defined and personified Europe’s middle ground: pragmatic, consensual, mercantilist, petit-bourgeois, above all stable. It is little wonder the leader of Mitteleuropa’s major economic power has dominated the political centre for so long. But what if Merkel falls? Can the centre hold? These are increasingly urgent questions as the once unassailable “Mutti” struggles to hold together a fractious coalition. The immediate issue, which is likely to come to a head on Monday, is a furious row over EU immigration policy. But other problems are piling up, with unpredictable consequences for Europe’s future cohesion. Merkel’s political obituary has been written many times, but now the final draft is nearing completion.   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/17/angela-merkel-doubted-at-home-reign-ending

Shown here is Angela Merkel’s chart as provided by Astro-Databank [1].  Our attention is immediately drawn to the upcoming solar eclipse of July 13 that falls on Merkel’s Sun-Uranus conjunction in the 8^th house which forms the apex of a T-square with Neptune-Admetus on the meridian.

Let us recall some basics of astrology. The 7^th house is where we find partners, sign a contract, “get married” etc. In the 8^th our individualities should “die” so that we can function as a unit. If this does not happen, the 8^th rules “divorce”. With the eclipse falling in Merkel’s 8^th house, this is exactly what is happening. Her coalition partners want to throw her out because she has not been listening to their requirements.

Now let us go one step further and plot the chart for the eclipse at Berlin. Wow! What do we have. The eclipse is placed very prominently on the Ascendant conjunct TNPs Hades Kronos and opposite Pluto. The interpretation is fairly simple:

Hades-Kronos-Pluto: the decline of a leader following a power struggle.

Finally, let us recall that the eclipse is conjunct the star Castor of the Twins. The two brothers, Castor and Pollux (representing the coalition partners here) are often at loggerheads so that too fits in neatly.

[1] https://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Merkel,_Angela

Hikikomori: Japan’s lost generation

In Japan, hikikomori (lit. "pulling inward, being confined", i.e., "acute social withdrawal"; colloquially/adaptive translation: shutter) are reclusive adolescents or adults who withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement. Hikikomori refers to both the phenomenon in general and the recluses themselves. Hikikomori have been described as loners or "modern-day hermits". Estimates suggest that nearly half a million Japanese youth have become social recluses. According to Michael Zielenziger's book, Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation, the syndrome is more closely related to posttraumatic stress disorder. The author claimed that the hikikomori interviewed for the book had discovered independent thinking and a sense of self that the current Japanese environment could not accommodate.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikikomori

The problem termed “hikikomori” can actually be seen in Japan’s national chart (Jan. 3, 1947;  0:00 hrs, Tokyo).  Notice that Mercury (which rules young people) is conjunct the TNPs Hades-Admetus. Keywords for the TNPs are:

Hades:  emotional depression; deterioration.

Admetus: avoidance and shunning the company of others; isolation.

https://marthalangwescott.com/basic-resources/

Putting the two together, we can see why the younger generation (Mercury) facing depressions (Hades)  is isolating (Admetus) itself.

The stars which form the backdrop to the combination explain the reason behind this. This is an area where sidereal Pisces ends and Aries begins. Simply put this is where the battle between the old and the new is being fought. Nick Fiorenza describes this area in the following words:

Pisces is the constellation of the two fishes. One fish swims westward, horizontally along the ecliptic plane. The westward swimming fish articulates our primordial autonomic (sleeping) nature, and our unconsciously reactive participation in the cycle of mortal life (in other words going along with mass consensus). It is of our inherited genealogies that we are born into and the behavioral patterns they express. The eastern fish leaps upward, vertically from the ecliptic plane, seeking a greater freedom at the shores of sidereal Aries. The eastern fish articulates our desire and capacity to ascend from our inherited past and its ideologies, and our effort to awaken from submersion in the tumultuous psychic emotional human world articulated by southern Cetus.

More specifically, Admetus [19ar] is conjunct the star Baten Kaitos [21ar].

Baten Kaitos, a star in the belly of the sea monster Cetus, has been linked  with “isolation and depression”.

[1] https://www.astrologycom.com/fixedstars.html

Korea chart & the successful Trump-Kim summit

Scads of analysts and pundits have weighed in on the Trump-Kim summit talks in Singapore, parsing the brief agreement and presidential tweets for signs of just how strongly it actually commits North Korea to total, verifiable “denuclearization.” Most of them are missing the point. The real threat to U.S., Korean, and Japanese security of late has come not from North Korean nukes, but from threats by President Donald Trump and his closest advisers to launch a regional war to preempt any further North Korean progress on warhead and missile technology. Some experts were giving even odds of a U.S.-initiated war as recently as a few months ago. So even if the spectacle in Singapore was more theater than substance, even if the president’s effusive praise for a totalitarian leader was hard to swallow, we should applaud Trump for belatedly making good on his 2016 campaign promise to sit down with Kim Jong-un over a hamburger in search of peace.  https://consortiumnews.com/2018/06/13/why-americans-and-koreans-can-sleep-better-after-the-summit/

The end of the Korean War came on 10 August 1945, when military planners in Washington decided at midnight that the 38^th parallel would be the dividing line between the two Koreas. This can be taken as the chart for the formation of North Korea.

I draw the readers attention to the Pluto [10le] conjunct Sun [17le] in the radix. Recall that the total lunar eclipse of Jan. 31 fell conjunct the radix Pluto (which is also Trump’s natal Pluto and the Sibly solar arc Ascendant [12le] as also the diurnal Ascendant for June 12!). About this eclipse Nick Fiorenza wrote:

Our Ceres Full Moon Total Eclipse culminates and brings realization to the essence of this early Capricorn lunar cycle. It establishes an underlying eclipse current, as well as the energetic current, the theme, of the new 482-day Ceres synodic cycle. It impels us to discern what is truly nurturing and of value to hold on to, from what are emotionally-driven patterns of thought and behavior we have formulated from our past experience—dogmas, both personal and collective, the mindset that molds our world view and keeps us entrapped in an antiquated paradigm. In essence, we must relinquish our antiquated beliefs that things can't be different, beliefs we adhere to that keep us from emerging into a greater light of being. This few degree area of the zodiak is one of the most difficult to make changes in due to bitterness we may carry from past experience or burdens we may have inherited. That bitterness is poison to the heart and reinforces the very mentalities and subsequent behavior we try so hard to change.

The most important current direction in the Korea chart is Uranus conjunct Sun (Primary; Van Dam). The radix Sun is conjunct the star Merak of the Great Bear about which Nick Fiorenza writes:

The stars Dubhe and Merak, are the alpha and beta stars of Ursa Major. Dubhe inspires us to be willing to fight for our greater visions, rather than to succumb to antiquated multifarious powers that suppress our greater freedom and wellbeing. Merak brings the realization that the time is at hand and inspires us to get on with it. Dubhe, Alpha Ursa Major and Merak, Beta Ursa Major, are the two brightest stars of Ursa Major. At this time in Earth's precessional cycle, line drawn from Dubhe through Merak leads directly to Earth’s current North Celestial Pole (near the star, Polaris, of the Little Bear, Ursa Minor). Merak and Dubhe represent the alignment of personal will and divine will in allegiance to the evolutionary fulfillment of Earth’s polar precessional cycle--to the fulfillment of evolutionary cycle of the soul.

The stars of the Great Bear also represent the world powers. The theme of the great Bear is torn. Part of the Bear is of the fallen world powers, those of a totalitarian, controlling oppressive rule. Dubhe and Merak are of the integrous part of the Great Bear, that which is oriented toward a greater vision, for that which is truly nourishing for humanity, for that which is focused toward our evolutionary fulfillment. Dubhe embodies the "willingness to fight for a greater vision" beyond the accepted political-religious dogmas of the human world that keep humanity in darkness and delusion; and against the controlling global forces perpetuating that dogmatic rule.

At the personal level, Dubhe asks us to fight for the greater vision that we hold for the unfoldment of our lives--for the true nourishment, fulfillment, and freedom we seek. Dubhe asks us to emerge from our own personal dogmas (belief structures) that hold us bound in lives that are less than we truly want. Dubhe supports us to create a new and better future rather than merely react to the past we have already created and reinforce with our beliefs.

Dubhe also conjoins Zeta Hydra, a multifarious source of destruction (every time Hercules took off one the Hydra’s heads, it immediately grew another), and Acubens of Cancer, the tenacious hold of religious-political dogma--hence the conjoining theme of Zeta Hydra, Acubens and Dubhe. To overcome the undermining and relentless forces maintaining the very sticky and tenacious hold of religious-political dogma (and of our personal belief patterns) requires perseverance to manifest a greater global vision for the evolutionary freedom and fulfillment of humanity. . https://www.lunarplanner.com/LunarMonths2004/lunarmonth.04.01.21.html

Readers may recall that several astrologers had predicted that Trump would be assassinated since the Total Solar Eclipse of  August 21, 2017 fell on his Ascendant. Perhaps yours truly was the lonely voice saying that this eclipse meant that he would be taking a completely unconventional and new direction that could break through the old paradigms [1].

After reading the above  analysis on the Korea chart, I think readers will agree that Trump has indeed lived up to the challenge of the Solar Eclipse on his Ascendant. And could it be a coincidence that the eclipse (and Trump’s Ascendant) are conjunct stars in the mane of the Lion[2]…the chosen one would have the Lion’s mane!?

[1] Donald Trump and the Total Solar Eclipse

[2] What gives Donald Trump his strange hair style

Einstein's diaries reveal 'shocking' xenophobia

The publication of Albert Einstein's private diaries detailing his tour of Asia in the 1920s reveals the theoretical physicist and humanitarian icon's racist attitudes to the people he met on his travels, particularly the Chinese. Written between October 1922 and March 1923, the diaries see the scientist musing on his travels, science, philosophy and art. In China, the man who famously once described racism as "a disease of white people" describes the "industrious, filthy, obtuse people" he observes. He notes how the "Chinese don't sit on benches while eating but squat like Europeans do when they relieve themselves out in the leafy woods. All this occurs quietly and demurely. Even the children are spiritless and look obtuse." After earlier writing of the "abundance of offspring" and the "fecundity" of the Chinese, he goes on to say: "It would be a pity if these Chinese supplant all other races. For the likes of us the mere thought is unspeakably dreary." June 12

https://www.sott.net/article/388049-Einsteins-private-travel-diaries-reveal-shocking-xenophobia-during-trip-to-Asia

In Einstein’s chart the Sun [23pi] is conjunct the star theta Pisces [23pi]. The current New Moon [22ge] at Pasadena, California is placed on the MC and squares Einstein’s radix Sun placed on the descendant of the New Moon chart.

Pisces is the constellation of the two fishes. One fish swims westward, horizontally along the ecliptic plane. The westward swimming fish articulates our primordial autonomic (sleeping) nature, and our unconsciously reactive participation in the cycle of mortal life (in other words going along with mass consensus). It is of our inherited genealogies that we are born into and the behavioral patterns they express. The eastern fish leaps upward, vertically from the ecliptic plane, seeking a greater freedom at the shores of sidereal Aries. The eastern fish articulates our desire and capacity to ascend from our inherited past and its ideologies, and our effort to awaken from submersion in the tumultuous psychic emotional human world articulated by southern Cetus.

Cetus, the Sea-Monster stands for all those primal energies that have not yet been mastered by humankind. This also includes racial prejudice. Pisces can have a tribal mentality. The tribal, “Us vs. Them” mentality is a weight dragging humanity down. And Einstein despite his brilliance in science was not free of racial prejudice.

Confirming this is the fact that Einstein’s Sun [23pi] is square the asteroid Hopi [23sa] which rules racial prejudice! And this square has been activated by the New Moon [22ge] placed very prominently on the MC at Pasadena, the location of the Einstein Papers Project.

Yemen - The Starvation Siege Has Begun

Last night the Saudi coalition launched its attack on the city of Hodeidah in Yemen. Hodeidah is the only Yemeni harbor on the Red Sea coast that can take large vessels. It is ruled by the Houthi who in 2014 took over the capital Sanaa and disposed of the Saudi installed Hadi government. 90% of the food for the 18 million people living in Houthi controlled areas comes through Hodeidah. The port is now classified as a zone of active military conflict. Prolonged fighting may well destroy the port infrastructurer. Even if the Saudi coalition forces take and reopen it they will continue to block food supplies for the central highlands of Yemen.They want to starve the Houthis into submission.  Jun 13 http://www.moonofalabama.org/

Since ancient times eclipses have been regarded as omens. They were considered very significant for a place if they occurred on the horizon or meridian axis. The upcoming solar eclipse of July 13, falls exactly on the horizon at Hodeidah in Yemen. Let us look at the eclipse chart carefully to understand what it is saying.

Pluto-Zeus: events in connection with weapons and the use of weaponry to dominate and control [1].

The eclipse [20cn41] is conjunct the star Castor [20cn29]. Alpha (α) Gemini, Castor is a star in the constellation of the Twins. Among other things, Gemini indicates siblings or neighbours – Yemen and Saudi Arabia share a common border. Notice that the siblings are shown hugging each other (common border?)  but don’t fail to notice the bow and arrows in Castor’s left hand and the club in Pollux’s right hand. This indicates that while the siblings love each, they are often at war!

Readers may like to go back to a previous post [2] on Saudi Arabia. Notice that the eclipse on Saudi’s radix Pluto so that the entire Saturn-Uranus-Pluto T-square is activated. This is a combination that is linked to the collapse of an old order. Events like the one reported in the news above are steps in that direction.

[1] The Orders of Light; Martha Lang Wescott (p.97)

[2] Astrology Of The Saudi Power Struggle