Interesting Times

There’s a good deal more to the Libra ingress for 2010 for the United States than the issue of Obama’s political survival (or lack of same), and I want to go through some of the details here, partly to show the kind of thing that can be learned from an ingress chart and partly because – well, we’ll be living through it in the not too distant future, so it has a certain less-than-abstract interest on that account.

Each of the twelve houses of the zodiacal chart has its own story to tell, and tells it partly by way of the planet ruling the house, partly by way of any secondary ruler the subject of the house may have, and partly by way of any other planet that might be in the house. You can go all the way around the wheel of the zodiac that way, or you can pay attention to any house that particularly interests you and go from there. The second option is the one that I’m going to follow here. Here’s that chart again:

Let’s start with the first house cusp, better known as the ascendant. The ascendant, in mundane astrology, traditionally stands for the ordinary people of the nation, and the planet ruling the ascendant shows how the common people will fare for good or ill, depending on its dignities or debilities. The cusp of the first house is in Gemini in this chart, so the significator of the common people is Mercury.  Mercury’s in good shape in this chart; he’s in Virgo, which is both one of his rulerships and his exaltation, and he’s also in the fourth house, thus angular and so strong by position; he’s also trine the North Node of the Moon, the “Head of the Dragon” of the medieval astrologers, which is a source of benefits in the chart.

Mercury’s also in the fourth house of real estate, so it’s possible that something may improve on that front in a way that helps the common people. This doesn’t mean that real estate values will improve; quite the contrary, the ruler of the fourth house, the Sun, is in his fall in Libra and applying hard to a conjunction with Saturn, so prices can be expected to fall further, maybe even collapse in a big way. This is only a disadvantage to those who currently own houses; for a great many Americans, it bears remembering, a decline in housing costs is good news. Whether this is what Mercury’s placement means is another matter, and will have to be seen in retrospect.

According to William Ramesey, the 17th century mundane astrologer whose work I use extensively, Mercury in the fourth house has another curious implication: “Also many scribes shall be made captive, or such as keep books of accounts, or secretaries of state.” Those who hope to apply this to Hillary Clinton may be disappointed, though; my guess instead is that it may be a really bad time to be in the banking industry.

On the other side of the balance, the ascendant is exactly conjunct the Arabic Part of Danger – the Arabic parts are a set of abstract points, calculated from planetary and house positions, that can affect the chart when a planet or cusp is right on them – and the Moon’s South Node, the “Tail of the Dragon” and a source of trouble in the chart, is also in the first house. Both these affect the interpretation of the first house and its ruler, and suggest that the common people of the country will be in very mixed condition, subject to a flurry of good and bad influences.

In traditional mundane practice the Moon is the second significator of the common people, the way the Sun is the second significator of the head of state. There’s a wrinkle here, though, because in this chart the Moon also rules the second house, which governs the economy. The implication’s simple enough: during the period affected by this chart, the mood of the people will be more strongly influenced by the condition of the economy than by any other factor. The Moon’s in the last degrees of Pisces, where she’s peregrine – that is, she has no particular influence there, and thus is essentially weak, and she’s also applying to a square with Pluto and a conjunction with Uranus, both malefic planets. On the other hand, she’s in the tenth house and applying hard to a conjunction with Jupiter, the Greater Benefic, and both of these improve her condition.

The Moon is applying to opposition with Obama’s second significator, the Sun, and is just out of orb of an applying opposition with his chief significator, Saturn. There’s no love lost, in other words, between the people and their head of state, and the state of the economy will be a continuing and massive problem for the Obama administration. The old texts on mundane astrology say that an opposition of Moon to Sun can mean a revolt of the people against their government, though in modern times this might express itself in the polling booth rather than on the battlefield. It’s probably worth noting that there are none of the traditional signs of warfare in this chart – Saturn and Jupiter are separating from a hard aspect, not applying to one, and Mars is not angular – so this should probably be counted as another bit of astrological evidence for a GOP landslide in the midterm elections.

The relationships between the Moon and the other planets she aspects are worth a close look. That conjunction with Jupiter promises some kind of important benefit coming to the people at large and to the economy, and that aspect will be the first one to complete, meaning that those benefits come sooner rather than later. After that, life gets unhappy: conjunction with Uranus almost immediately thereafter, followed by the opposition with the Sun, the square with Pluto and the opposition with Saturn.

If I had to guess, I’d say that as the planet of largesse and generosity, Jupiter means some kind of financial benefit coming to the common people – perhaps the administration will try to counter the rising tide of popular dissatisfaction with an October surprise stimulus package that puts a bunch of money in people’s wallets. (One of the consistent difficulties with democracy is that politicians always learn sooner or later that it’s good electoral strategy to bribe the people with their own money.) Thereafter the nation gets hit with one crisis after another. Uranus is the planet of sudden change and disruption; the Sun in this case probably represents whatever disaster is waiting for Obama; Pluto, the planet of deep transformation, marks a game-changing event when it plays a crucial role in a chart; and then there’s Saturn, Obama’s primary significator, in the sign of sudden rise and sudden fall. So we have a black swan event heralded by Uranus, the crisis in the presidency already discussed here, and another factor, represented by Pluto.

Pluto is a major factor in this whole chart, though I’ve barely referenced him yet. He’s in the seventh house, which represents the open enemies of the nation, and the seventh house also contains the Part of Fortune and the North Node of the Moon, both indicators of good fortune. The ruler of the seventh house is Jupiter, up there in the angular tenth house, in his rulership in Pisces, though somewhat weakened by a retrograde, and conjunct to a fraction of a degree with Uranus. In traditional mundane astrology this would suggest that the open enemies of the nation are in very good shape, and that some sort of game-changing event happens in their favor. What sort of event? Perhaps Iran suddenly and successfully testing a nuclear warhead, say, or the Saudi government being overthrown by a radical Islamic revolt – something on that scale, I would guess.

One way or another, the three months in which this chart is effective – from September 22 to December 21, more or less – will be interesting times. Rather in the sense of the Chinese curse, I suspect.

— Seren

The end of Obama’s Presidency?

The brief and rather casual comment I made about the 2010 Aries ingress chart in the last post here may have given anybody who’s reading this a false impression of the way mundane astrology works. The sort of free associaton that’s so common in astrological practice these days isn’t really that relevant to traditional mundane practice. Instead, there are specific rules; certain places on the chart, and the planets that rule them, mean certain things, and the relationship of those places and planets to the rest of the chart tell you what you want to know.

Here’s an example. In an ingress chart for a nation, the lord of the tenth house – that is, the planet ruling the sign in which the cusp of the tenth house falls – is the significator of the political leader of the nation, and that planet’s dignities or debilities tell you how that leader is going to fare over the time period subject to the ingress chart. Sometimes the interpretations are very specific. Here’s what 17th century mundane astrologer William Ramesey says about a chart where the significator of the nation’s leader is combust or under sunbeams – that is, within 17 degrees of conjunction with the Sun, and in the same sign:

“If the significator of the King be under the Sun beams, there is much danger (as say the Arabians) of his decease in that revolution, but I should rather judge his Kingly power to be then near death or an end, or be likely to be much eclipsed.”

And that’s the situation we have in the Libra ingress chart for this year. Have a look.

The tenth house cusp is in Aquarius, and so traditionally the significator of the US head of state in this chart is Saturn. Saturn is combust, a little over six degrees from the Sun and in the same sign. The Sun, according to Ramesey and other mundane astrologers, is always a second significator for the head of state, and so this same conjunction of Sun and Saturn can be read in another way: “If the significator of the King applies to a malevolent planet,” says Ramesey, “it threatens very much mischief and death.”

A malevolent planet? Yes. In traditional astrology some planets are friendly and some aren’t, and mundane methods rely on that. Saturn and Mars are the two traditional malefic planets; Uranus and Pluto are considered malefics in those versions of current practice that use the old distinctions. (Venus, Jupiter, and Neptune are the benefics, and the others go through mood swings.) So the Sun, the second significator of Obama in this chart, is applying to conjunction with Saturn, and also applying to a square with Pluto: two malevolent planets, and thus a double helping of mischief and death.

By this point practitioners of modern astrology will be waving their hands, since it’s current practice to assign Aquarius to Uranus rather than Saturn. I’m far from certain current practice is right – it seems to me that we need a few more centuries of astrological practice to check out the details before tossing the traditional correspondences out the window – but even if it is, Uranus is not in good shape; in the last degrees of Pisces, he’s retrograde, peregrine (that is, without any essential dignity) and weak, and he’s also square Pluto, which is not a good thing for any planet. Either way, the Sun is still Obama’s second significator, and still applying to those two malefics, so the meaning of the chart doesn’t change that much.

Returning to Saturn, then, whether or not he’s Obama’s significator, his position has more to say. Libra, the sign in which Saturn is located in the chart, is Saturn’s sign of exaltation. A good sign? Not at all. In mundane as well as traditional natal practice, Saturn in his exaltation in a chart indicates a steep rise followed by a sudden and steep fall: up with the rocket, down with the stick.  This is made even more forceful if Venus, the planet that rules Libra and is thus Saturn’s “dispositor” when he’s in Libra, is afflicted in the chart. In this chart, Venus is seriously afflicted; she’s in Scorpio and thus in detriment due to her placement in the signs; she’s conjunct Mars, and thus afflicted by conjunct with a malefic planet; and she’s applying to the cusp of the cadent sixth house, and thus weak by position. So that detail is covered. Ramesey says that when you get Saturn exalted and Venus afflicted, “you may be confident of some strange Catastrophe to happen thereupon.”

The Sun’s position is also relevant here. In a mundane chart, says Ramesey, the Sun being located in the fourth house means crop failures, and “great men and high shall be made low and degraded.”

There’s a lot more to this chart, and I plan on posting more about it in a few days, but I want to stop for a moment and talk about the predictions that can be drawn from the points already made. Astrology is a means of making predictions about the future; the modern habit of using it entirely for personality analysis and retrospective interpretation of events seems very misguided to me. So what does this Libra ingress predict for the United States?

Basically, it predicts the end of Obama’s presidency. It doesn’t say how that will happen. I suppose it could simply be predicting a catastrophic defeat in the upcoming midterm elections; given the level of polarization in American politics these days, if the GOP were to take control of both houses of Congress – which is not impossible at this point – Obama’s ability to govern the country would pretty much be at an end. Still, I suspect it may be something bigger than that. It needn’t be a plane crash, say, or the traditional lone gunman – though I’m not at all sure I’d rule either of these out.

It might well be a scandal, for that matter. The Sun-Saturn conjunction in the chart is on the cusp of the fifth house, which governs sex and speculation, and the conjunction between Mars and Venus in Scorpio is toward the end of the same house. That combination could represent either sexual or financial improprieties, or just possibly both, and a sufficiently juicy scandal surfacing right before the midterm elections could very easily fill the bill, especially if it resulted in a presidential resignation after the election, or an impeachment at the hands of a Republican congress right after the first of the year. Obama’s downfall doesn’t have to finish during the three-month window to satisfy the traditional requirements; “his Kingly power” simply has to “be much eclipsed.”

One of the drawbacks of mundane astrology is that its indications are general, not specific; “the stars incline, they do not compel,” and their inclinations can express themselves in many ways. Still, if mundane astrology is any guide, it does look as though some “strange Catastrophe” is going to bring down Barack Obama during the three months between September 22 and December 21, 2010.

This Blog’s Project

It’s funny about astrology. Until the Second World War or thereabouts, despite a lot of ups and downs, it was still doing things that your common or garden variety medieval astrologer would have recognized. You had natal astrology, of course, which set out to predict the destiny of individuals from the moment of their birth; you had directional astrology, which used various kinds of manipulations of the birth chart – primary directions, secondary directions, and so on – to predict when things would happen to a person; you had electional astrology, which selected auspicious dates for things to be done, and horary astrology, which was divination by the stars for specific questions; and you had mundane astrology, the astrology of nations, politics, and history in the making, which tried to predict the big picture using its own specific techniques.

Of course there were other branches beside these, but the picture ought to be clear. Around the time the Second World War ended, though, across most of the western world, most of those branches dropped out of use; astrology got narrowed down into natal astrology; natal astrology gave up prediction, and settled for psychological analysis. The good side of this is that we’ve got a great deal of first-rate psychological astrology these days; the bad side is that all the other useful things astrology can do, and the techniques that make those other things possible, have basically been forgotten.

Even when people try to do political astrology, say, most of the time they try to do it with natal techniques, and the results aren’t good. Noel Tyl’s twelve-volume set of astrological textbooks, which were my starting place in astrology, devotes part of a book to mundane technique, but Tyl gets bent out of shape because the foundation chart of the US has a void of course moon. In a natal chart, that means certain things, but it doesn’t mean the same things in mundane astrology, and so he ends up flailing. And making some very inaccurate predictions, by the way.

Note the word: predictions. Most astrologers don’t make those any more. That’s a pity, because traditional technique – mundane and otherwise – is designed to yield predictions.

I started work on mundane astrology around the beginning of this year, and cast an Aries ingress chart – one of the basic tools of the mundane astrologer – for the United States. This is what I got:

Notice Saturn sitting down there at the fourth house cusp. According to the rules William Ramesey gives in his 17th century book on astrology, Saturn rules this chart, and he’s in a nasty mood. I looked at that, noted the traditional meanings of Saturn and the fourth house, and wrote down this:

Disaster all over the news? Something involving things underground, or natural resources?

And of course that’s what we got, about a month after the Aries ingress: a disaster involving underground things and natural resources that dominated the headlines for the period affected by the ingress.

The standard rule for ingresses is that if the ascendant is in a fixed sign, it’s effective for a year; if it’s in a mutable sign, it’s good for six months and you do another chart for the Libra ingress for the second half of the year; while if it’s in a cardinal sign, it’s only good for three months, and you do ingress charts for each of the quarters to track the year. This one’s a three month chart. The second chart, for the Cancer ingress, was all about pedaling in place; but the Libra ingress chart is something else again. That’s what convinced me to start this blog, and it will be covered in my next post here

— Seren