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Showing posts from April, 2017

Intimacy – and why it makes for better love and sex

Boötes-Virgo: The Divine Couple Is there anything we still need to know about sex? Apparently, yes: and the missing ingredient is a gamechanger not just for individuals, but entire nations. Sex has been centre-stage in western culture for decades, but what has been absent, according to Adam Wilder, creator of the world’s first Festival of Togetherness, is the magic element that makes it all meaningful. “The holy grail,” he says, “is intimacy. Intimacy’s the real taboo in our society – it’s the thing we fear, because it’s about taking off the mask that so many of us hide behind. But it’s the key to being freer, happier and more alive and it could change not only our personal lives, but the political decisions we take as a society.”  https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/apr/29/intimacy-sex-better-relationships The world’s first Festival of Togetherness will be held in central London on 20-21 May. To better understand the astrology behind this news, I

Female clerics issue rare child marriage fatwa

Andromeda and Sea-Monster Cetus Female clerics on Thursday issued an unprecedented fatwa against child marriage in Indonesia in a bid to stop young girls becoming brides in the world's most populous Muslim country. The fatwa - which is influential among Muslims but not legally binding - came at the end of an extraordinary three-day conference of female Islamic clerics: a rare example of women assuming a lead role in religious affairs in this mostly-Muslim country. Indonesia has one of the worst records for under-age marriage - its high number of child brides puts it among the top 10 countries worldwide - and it is common for girls to marry before they turn 18. Thursday's fatwa, or religious edict, called underage marriage "harmful" and said its prevention was mandatory. April 27 http://news.trust.org/item/20170427164406-x3knl/ This news is best understood if we start with the chart of the February 27 solar eclipse drawn for Cirebon, Indonesia where the

US Government Shutdown Looms

The House of Representatives has made a move to avert a government shutdown with only days before Congress’s April 28 spending deadline. As it stands, Congress has until midnight on Friday to pass a spending bill, or the government will run out of money and shut down. But late Wednesday night Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, (R-NJ), who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, introduced a continuing resolution to provide one week of stop-gap funding, effectively extending the shutdown deadline to May 5, to buy Congress more time to negotiate a spending bill. http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/4/27/15436948/house-government-shut-down-cr The looming US government bankruptcy can be seen if we examine the Sibly. The current Sibly solar return has (a) Saturn-Jupiter-Neptune T-square on the angles (b) a Sun-Venus-Pluto opposition in the 2 nd -8 th houses. The combination Saturn-Jupiter-Neptune is linked to bankruptcy owing to profligacy or overextension of resour

River Revives After Largest Dam Removal in U.S. History

In August 2014, workers completed the largest dam removal project in U.S. history, as the final part of the 210-foot-high (64-meter-high) Glines Canyon Dam was dismantled on the Elwha River in northwestern Washington State. The multistage project began in 2011 with the blessing of the U.S. National Park Service, which administers the surrounding Olympic National Park. The goal was to remove unneeded, outdated dams and restore a natural river system, with presumed benefits for fish and other wildlife. Indeed, salmon have already returned to the Elwha after nearly a century of absence, and other fish and marine creatures are thriving.  June 2, 2016 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/06/largest-dam-removal-elwha-river-restoration-environment/ Here is the chart for the total solar eclipse of March 8, 2016  drawn for the location of the Glines Canyon Dam. Notice that the eclipse which is part of a powerful T-square is placed on the angles. Solar Eclipses bring

Astrology of the French election

Centrist Emmanuel Macron has gone through to the second round of the French election, where he will face far-right leader Marine Le Pen. Mr Macron, a former banker, is seen as a political newcomer - and ran without the backing of an established party. After topping Sunday's vote, he is now favourite to win the run-off on 7 May. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39689385 I have consistently maintained at this website that the outcome of an election can never be predicted. However, the stars do give us an idea of the issues involved in an election if we carefully examine eclipse or ingress charts active on the day of the election. As in a previous post on the Turkish referendum [1], the chart for the September 1, 2016 solar eclipse holds a clue.  This New Moon eclipse lies in the midst of the stars Thuban of Draco, Alioth of the Great Bear and the stars of the Sextant, and Suhail Velorum of Argo Navis and forms a T-square with Saturn-Neptune. Writing about this

Blackouts hit LA, New York and San Francisco

Power outages hit Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, leaving commuters stranded and traffic backed up Friday. About 90,000 customers were affected in San Francisco. While the outages occurred around the same time there is no evidence they were connected or coordinated. April 21 https://www.rt.com/usa/385646-blackouts-hit-la-ny-sf/ This news offers us an opportunity to understand  how an event occurring in two different and widely separated places can be explained  using mundane astrology. Those of us who jump to making a chart for the exact time that the outage occurred (7:20 am, NY) may be disappointed to find no clues. Think of this as trying to tell the time by looking at the “second hand” of the clock. The appropriate method is always to look at the “hour hand” which can be an ingress chart, an eclipse chart, a lunation chart , a planetary station chart etc. On April 20, just a day before the event Pluto stationed to go retrograde. This was the important event that

How Mathematicians Are Stopping Water Leaks in Syracuse

It was a nightmare scenario: As thousands of Syracuse University basketball fans poured into town on February 1, 2014 for a big match against arch rival Duke, a water main break flooded Armory Square, surrounding the city’s iconic 24-second shot clock monument. Days before the game, there were 11 other water main breaks around the city. Mayor Stephanie Miner was desperate for help to get a handle on the problem; on average, water lines in the city were breaking 332 times a year, nearly once every day. But she couldn’t get the state to help foot the bill for the onerous costs of updating the city’s underground infrastructure. She even tried to shame state officials with a “Hunger Games”-style ad campaign that showed her wading in thigh-high water wielding a wrench. Miner says that when she started asking federal and state officials for help, she got a lot of eye rolling. “They would say, ‘Stephanie, you can’t cut a ribbon with it. Stephanie, it’s not sexy,’” she says. She had to get

Venus-Saturn: Judge faces moral dilemma

A judge who sentenced a “fragile and vulnerable” woman to prison for begging has blasted the legal system after the defendant was unable to access a lawyer. Marie Baker, 38 and unable to read or write, was sentenced without legal representation to five and a half months for repeatedly breaching an anti-social behaviour injunction aimed at preventing her accosting people in the streets of Worcester and in nearby Malvern.  April 20 https://goo.gl/ai0WjD The incident reported in the news occurred just a day after the Last Quarter Moon. A chart for the Moon phase at Malvern has the Venus-Saturn square placed prominently on the meridian.  Among other things, Venus-Saturn refers to a poor (Saturn) woman (Venus).  The planets involved in a square are acting at cross purposes. They can produce a crisis if we remain complacent. Here Saturn is in Sagittarius while Venus is in Pisces. Sagittarius is quintessentially the sign of politics and ideology. Sagittarius is the arche

Dental fillings discovered in ancient skeleton

You might wince at the sight of your dentist holding an electric drill over your mouth. But, you can be thankful she's not using a stone tool instead.  That is what the most advanced dental care looked like thousands of years ago. By studying teeth at archaeological sites, scientists think that prehistoric humans came up with a variety of resourceful solutions to dental problems: people drilled out cavities, sealed crown fractures with beeswax, used toothpicks to relieve inflamed gums and extracted rotten teeth. Now, researchers report that they've discovered what is perhaps the oldest known example of tooth-filling at an ice age site in Italy.  Archaeologists unearthed the skeletal remains of a person who lived about 13,000 years ago at Riparo Fredian, near Lucca in northern Italy. The person's two front teeth (or upper central incisors) both had big holes in the surface that reach down to the tooth's pulp chamber. https://www.sott.net/article/348571-Dental-fil

Miscommunication causes US armada to go off course

WASHINGTON  — A US supercarrier deployed by President Donald Trump to deter North Korea did not reach the Sea of Japan because White House and Department of Defense officials failed to communicate effectively, media reported. https://sptnkne.ws/egDK It was  reported on 8 April that the US Navy’s Carl Vinson strike group was headed towards the Korean peninsula, as a deterrence measure [1]. This was just as Mercury was stationing to go retrograde.  As individuals, we tend to communicate differently during Mercury Retrograde and Mercury Direct cycles. The natural state of Mercury during those Retrograde cycles is inverted, which means that our energetic tendency can be to communicate (Mercury) less directly with our outer world, and to focus on considerations of the inner reflective (Retrograde) world. The well-known tendency toward miscommunication during Mercury Retrograde periods, and the inevitable frustrations that can bring, is the result of our pull toward intro

UK PM calls for snap election

LONDON — Clearly anxious about her thin majority in Parliament before complicated negotiations on the British exit from the European Union, Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday called for a snap election for June 8, a vote that her opponents will bill as a verdict on her tough brand of “Brexit.” In breaking her often-repeated vow not to call an early election before 2020, Mrs. May stressed the need for unity in Parliament before undertaking what promises to be complex and tortuous negotiations on Britain’s exit from the bloc, known as Brexit.  April 18 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/18/world/europe/uk-theresa-may-general-election.html The biggest astrological headline of 2017 is the T-square configuration between Jupiter, Uranus, and Pluto. At the sidereal Aries Ingress , the Sun conjoins Uranus thereby triggering the T which falls very significantly on the angles at London. Pluto in Capricorn is the calculating politician  (Theresa May) who seeks  to preserve a

The car loan bubble is on its way

After nearly a decade of being able to borrow money for next to nothing, interest rates are finally beginning to creep higher. Even the relatively small increases seen so far have caused problems in the previously booming automobile industry. The size of the auto loan market has ballooned to a historic 1.1 trillion dollars, and subprime lending has once again become the norm. Teaser offers that allow people to get cars with zero money down and 84-month financing have fueled a wave of irresponsible spending. Americans' tendency to associate success with having nice things has driven many people who can't afford to buy a house to get the next best thing — a brand new car. April 13 https://www.sott.net/article/348323-Remember-the-housing-bubble-The-car-loan-bubble-is-on-its-way This report comes to us just after Mercury stationed retrograde on April 9. A chart for the mundane event at Washington DC has the Jupiter-Pluto-Uranus T-square on the angles. Uranus-P

Kazakhstan to Ditch Cyrillic for a Latin-Based Alphabet

From a political perspective, while some embrace Latinization as a way of distancing Kazakhstan from Russia, others view it as a threat to the nation’s cultural heritage. Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev has set a target date of 2025 for completing a transition from the Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet for publications in the Kazakh language, official daily Egemen Kazakhstan reported Wednesday. April 15 http://russia-insider.com/en/kazakhstan-sets-timetable-ditch-cyrillic-switch-latin-based-alphabet/ri19606 The news comes to us just a day after the Sun-Uranus conjunction of April 14. A chart for the mundane event has the Sun-Uranus-Jupiter-Pluto T-square straddling the horizon at Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. The Sun is also conjunct a retrograde Mercury – the planet that rules languages, both the written and spoken words. We also note the Sun and Uranus are conjunct  mu Piscium in the cord of the west fish and Kurdah, xi Cephei in the conste

Turkish referendum

Millions of Turks will head to the polls on Sunday to vote in a tight referendum race that could transform the country into a presidential republic, in what could be one of the most significant developments in the nation’s history since its founding after the collapse of the Ottoman empire.  April 15, 2017 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/15/turkey-prepares-for-tight-vote-that-could-strengthen-erdogans-grip-on-power The  Turkish referendum is best understood if we begin with the chart for the September 1, 2016 solar eclipse at Ankara.  Notice that the eclipse is placed in the 10 th leaders that rules government leaders like the PM or President of a country.  It forms a T-square with Saturn-Neptune. This New Moon eclipse lies in the midst of the stars of Leo and under the auspices of Thuban of Draco and Alioth of the Great Bear. It also conjoins the stars of the Sextant, and Suhail Velorum of Argo Navis. Writing about this eclipse in his blog post entitled N

Sexual abuse at elite US school

Ganymede abducted by Zeus Students at an elite boarding school in the US were sexually abused by at least 12 members of staff over a period of four decades, according to a report. Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut, which includes former President John F Kennedy among its alumni, published the findings following an investigation. Allegations of abuse dating from the 1960s were handled internally at the school, the report said. The school acknowledged the findings, adding: "We profoundly apologise." April 15 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39604353 This incident is best understood through the lens of the sidereal Capricorn Ingress chart drawn for Wallingford, CT, where Choate Rosemary Hall is located. Not only is  the Jupiter-Uranus-Pluto-Sun T-square aligned with the meridian but additionally  we have a square from Saturn in the 5 th to a Mars-Venus in the 8 th .  The 5 th house rules young people as well as schools and educational institu

US drops ‘Mother of all Bombs’ on ISIS

The US has dropped “the mother of all bombs” on ISIS fighters and hideouts in Afghanistan — the largest non-nuclear explosive ever used in wartime, the Pentagon said Thursday. The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, nicknamed MOAB, was dropped at 7 p.m. local time Thursday, military sources told CNN. A MOAB — nicknamed the mother of all bombs — is a 21,600-pound, GPS-guided munition that is America’s most powerful non-nuclear bomb. April 13 http://nypost.com/2017/04/13/us-drops-its-largest-non-nuclear-bomb-ever-in-afghanistan/ America’s most powerful non-nuclear bomb has been dropped on Achin, Afghanistan just two days after the Full Moon. A chart for the Full Moon has the luminaries aligned with Jupiter-Uranus-TNP Zeus-Pluto T-square that straddles the horizon.  Uranus is in Aries. Aries “governs” war and violence in general [1]. In addition one of Ebertin’s keyphrases for Uranus-Pluto is  “acts of violence”. The TNP Zeus rules munitions while Jupiter is about al

Shooting at San Bernardino school

A gunman fatally shot his wife and one of her young students at a San Bernardino, Calif., school Monday, before turning the gun on himself, officials said. The slain boy, Jonathan Martinez, 8, was an innocent bystander struck by bullets meant for his teacher Karen Smith. Smith’s husband opened fire with a concealed handgun he snuck into the special needs classroom at North Park Elementary School, cops said at a press conference. Anderson, who police said may have been recently estranged from Smith after a brief marriage, reloaded at least once before shooting himself in the head with a revolver, authorities said. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/multiple-victims-shot-san-bernardino-elementary-school-article-1.3039556 This tragic incident can be clearly understood from the Full Moon chart for San Bernardino. Notice that the Full Moon of April 10 is placed in the 5 th house  and aligns with the Jupiter-Uranus-Pluto T-square. In mundane astrology, the 5 th

Passenger Dragged From Overbooked US Jet

United Airlines, a major American airline headquartered in Chicago, sold too many tickets on one of its flights, and after it failed to find volunteers to leave the aircraft, the company decided to force random passengers off the plane with the help of police. On April 9, a faultless passenger was forcibly removed from United Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville. Videos of the incident were shared through social media and have caused a massive uproar among users. https://sptnkne.ws/ecrE The sidereal Capricorn Ingress chart also referred to as the “Capsolar” is considered by many astrologers to the master chart of the year. Shown here is the current Capsolar for Chicago. Notice that the Sun and Pluto (along with asteroid Icarus) form  the apex of a T-square with Jupiter-Uranus that straddles the horizon axis.  The asteroid Icarus rules aircrafts and flights. But  at the core of this configuration is the Uranus-Pluto square. It is important to understand that Uran

G7 meeting seeks new sanctions on Russia

The UK is pushing G7 countries to collectively impose new sanctions on Russia if it does not cut ties with Bashar al-Assad amid the ongoing conflict in Syria. UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson wants “very punitive sanctions” for the chemical attack. A paper on sanctions has been prepared for a G7 meeting which begins in Italy on Monday. April 10 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/britain-new-sanctions-vladimir-putin-bashar-al-assad-boris-johnson-donald-trump-a7675761.html Quite often it is possible to understand the essential principle driving a major event if we can identify a mundane chart that is active on the day of the event. The G7 meeting at Lucca, Italy is best understood through the lens of the  solar eclipse of September 2016. A chart for the eclipse has the prominent T-square anchored through hard aspects to the horizon axis at Lucca. The solar eclipse fell on the stars Thuban of Draco and Alioth of the Great Bear. Draco, t