Month: April 2014

On the 15th April we will have a lunar Eclipse, lots of people have heard about blood moon or Eclipses falling on two important Jewish festivals: Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkot. Many people believe that will bring some important issues for the Jewish community. I am not really sure about that . As an astrologer I think about the importance of the Solar Eclipse and the Lunar Eclipse, this April 2014 As Mars and Jupiter both join Uranus Pluto square to form a Cardinal Grand Crosse , so in the following article I will focus on how this Cardinal grand cross affects us.

Grand Cross

A Grand Cross is when more than 4 planets form a square to each other in 4 different signs of the zodiac, usually the signs that the four planets fall in will share same quality. Some astrologers think that a grand cross is a bad aspect pattern but I prefer see it as a difficult partner, and difficult does not mean bad.

I suggest that when we analyse aspect patterns we should not only guess their effect from their name, such us “grand cross,” “Finger of God“ or “Thor’s Hammer” etc … As these names were given by astrologers who used their imagination when they saw the aspect line appearing as something they know rather than representing the exact experience when facing this pattern. A grand cross will not make you become Jesus, a Thor’s Hammer will not make you look like Chris Hemsworth or hurt you .

If we want to learn how Aspect pattern effects us we have to analyse it in two part. The first part is aspects, what kind aspects form this pattern, this give us a idea of how planetary energy flows, is it smooth ? Is it blocked ? How flexible could this pattern be? No chance ? Half- half ? The second part is theme, which we learn from the planets who participate in this pattern. For some aspect patterns we also have to consider signs on the zodiac such as T square Grand Cross and Grand Trine . As they usually fall in same element or quality signs and this can bring an important message.

 

Cardinal Grand Cross

A Grand Cross usually fall into 4 signs which share same quality , Cardinal , Fixed or Mutable, this suggest we can spot this quality on recent event if this grand cross is currently transiting or on people who have this aspect pattern on their chart.

In April 2014, Mars in Libra ( retrograde ) Jupiter in Cancer , Uranus in Aries and Pluto on Capricorn . Four planets fall into four Cardinal signs . As we know that cardinal signs give us a clear time about the changing of seasons. Aries started Vernal Equinox when the Sun project right on Equator, Cancer is when Sun’s projection on Earth comes to its most northerly point, 23 N 26 . This suggest summers comes to the Northern Hemisphere and winter in the south. Libra starts with the Autumn Equinox as the Sun is back to Equator again and make equal length of day and night and Capricorn is when the Sun comes to the most southerly point, the start of Winter in North Hemisphere.

The word Cardinal come from Latin Cardilis or Cardo, it means the greatest importance, it is pole of axis , four corners of the sky or roman cities, it also means the key point and centre of something . The cardnal sign in our chart usually makes us feel centred , if you have a planet in cardinal use it when you need to know where you are, use it as an original point when you need understanding yourself (measure yourself). It give us a sense of importance. Cardinal planets give us strength to move forward and therefore ancient astrologers also called cardinal Movable sign, usually cardinal planet is also fast acting and focuses on recent issues. In another way we can understand Cardinal planet will not wait and see , they prefer to find out whats going on and to go and solve the problem. They will not let things stop them, depending on the planet they may behave differently. A Cardinal Venus may pass you by saying ‘sorry I am in a hurry’, a Cardinal Mars, Uranus or Pluto may “UPROOT” you even if your are the Ayers rock in Australia .

Now I think we have a little idea about the Cardinal grand cross we are going to face. It forms with four sets of square, square aspect bring tensions and blockage, usually giving a pause in our life making us stay in a place and doing something until it’s perfect. This aspect pattern also includes two sets of opposition, we usually say conflict or challenge , however it is also about seeing and awareness , more awareness of our projection maybe will help turn the conflict to co-operation.

The Dynamic of this aspect pattern holds you in a place and asks you to finish something until it is perfect, meanwhile it asks you to realise that the conflicts that you struggle with not only make you do the perfect job it also brings more self awareness. The difficulty of this aspect pattern is too many things happening at the same time and everything is urgent (Cardinal = greatest Important), it also suggests that we want to put our fingers in every pie. As we only have limited time and energy this could exhaust us.

Cardinal grand cross is like high volume energy being blocked in a closed circle, the moveable natural of Cardinal planet will not just sit and stay , it jumps and will keep crashing into things. Finally they will break out and change everything.

 

Mars Jupiter Uranus Pluto
The themes of aspect pattern is more about what planet is involved in this pattern. This needs a good idea of the planet meaning, when I was student of astrology I usually had difficulty explaing an aspect which has more than three planets involved, teachers usually told us that they influenced each other. It seems like a famous Chinese dish “chapsui“ you mix everything together. What if we rearrange it and give a structure? for example:
Mars, Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto : we can say they influence each other, someone may ask who influences who? who is stronger ? No the problem is who get influenced? if Mars get influenced, The Mars theme of survival, fight, of issue with Man will receive influence of other there planet.

Mars ( Fight ) = Jupiter (Expend ) Uranus ( Independent ) Pluto ( Super Power, colonial country , survival issue )
This suggest the grand cross form by Mars Jupiter Uranus Pluto could suggest a kind of fight .
If there is a fight happen this moment, it could be seen as a reclaim of independence from super power’s control , it does not matter if it is personal or between countries.

So that we can see the Crimea and East Ukraine is a clear example . You may be surprised that the Crimean war, Europe against Russia invading Crimea in 1853 happened in the end of last Uranus Pluto conjunction.
Once you single out a Planet from aspect pattern and use other planet involved in the pattern to describe the quality of this event . This mean we can also apply it on Jupiter Uranus and Pluto too.

Jupiter ( Social develop, Growth , Lucky things, Hope ) = Mars ( action , fight, blood) + Uranus ( Cut off , electric , technic ) + Pluto ( secret , invisible, genetic or cancer )
This may suggest a theme about Improvement Development ( Growth) of Surgery, techniques of cancer or genetic illness.

Uranus ( Change ) = Mars (fight )+ Jupiter ( expansion ) + Pluto ( threaten )
People fight for Change people feel an increased threat .

Pluto ( Crisis , Fear ) = Mars ( survive ) + Jupiter ( future , hope ) + Uranus ( change )
Could this describe that at this moment We are fear change will bring a future survival problem?

This just demonstrate how much Mars Jupiter Uranus Pluto in an aspect pattern can bring us .

When we put this theme with the dynamic together we can have a whole view about this moment . A urge to fight against being controlled by super powers meanwhile you feel trapped.

In another way , we should be more aware of the similar subject of these planets , by comparing two planets , are there any similar subjects? Both Mars and Pluto have survival issues, both Mars and Uranus link to Cut off and Surgery , both Uranus and Jupiter are related to Freedom, Future and Space . These themes will be more easily to spotted during this time.

Eclipse

I spent a long time talking about this grand cross as it will have long lasting effect as it occurs in a Lunar and Solar Eclipse this year. What happens in the Eclipses chart will have at least 6 months influence (3 months before and 3 months after) .

Lunar Eclipse map suggest the area of tension are more liking in Mid east Israel , East Europe ( Ukraine of course ) Thailand Malaysia Indonesia and Australia , Brazil and West coast of US .

Solar Eclipse Astro map suggest we should be more care for with US west coast , Mexico , Brazil , Spain , West coast of Africa , Pakistan , South and East China and Again Thailand Malaysia Indonesia and Australia.

While the world worries about US, Russia and Ukraine there are still lots of other conflicts in the World: Thailand, Turkey, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and even China. Yes, while the Chinese President visits the EU, a huge protest is happening in South China and there is no media daring to report it. Why?   The answer is easy, if any media reports it, their reporter will be kicked out of China, their website closed down and they will never be able to run their business in China. That is why there is silence from the European media.  They know, but their owners and sponsors perhaps do not want to lose their gifts from the Chinese President. So shush.

Interestingly we hardly talk about China. We care about the Ukrainian protests. We worry about a possible US Russia conflict.  We heard about the Venezuelan protests against their government.  But when we talk about China, the only thing we know is the Chinese takeaway on the corner (which is more often run by Malaysians with a south Asian chef). We also know that most of things we use are made in China as there is cheap labourer, from clothes to PCs,  iPhones, bikes and toys.  Several years ago a lady tried to avoid buying products made in China and noticed how difficult it was .

 

Some people know that China is a totalitarian state, the communist is the only party and runs the government. Before we talk about How Uranus Pluto affects China we better have very quick review of Modern Chinese History .

 

China ( Mainland )

Modern China was founded in 1912 , after the success of the Chinese revolution lead by Dr Sun Yes-Sen and his Nationalist party became the government of what was then called the Republic of China (R.O.C)

However several parts of China were still ruled by  military dictators. The Nationalist government fought to unify the country at same time as the huge challenges of   World War II and the corruption of some government members. These problems lead to another revolution from the Chinese communist party, who took control of Mainland China in 1949.  Thus the People’s Republic of China ( P.R.C ), the China we know today, came into existence.

 

Taiwan

Taiwan is a island near South East China , it used to be part of China in 17th century and became a Japanese colony from 1895-1945. After WWII,  China (ruled by Nationalist Party) took back Taiwan and the Nationalist party and their followers  went to Taiwan after defeat by the Communists on the mainland.

There are three main groups of people in Taiwan: the Chinese who arrived before 1949 we can call Taiwanese; people come around 1949 with Nationalist party we can call Mainlanders; and a small number of Pacific aborigines who have inhabited Taiwan for centuries  but after the arrival of  the two waves of Chinese people they lost power and had a lot of challenges in their life.

 

Hong Kong

Hong Kong was a small fishing village in South China  which became a British colony from 1842 until its return to China in 1997. At the time of the return, the people of Hong Kong and the British government were worried about a totalitarian regime being imposed. The Chinese government did promise not to change anything in Hong Kong for next 50 years.   As it used to be British colony, it has more freedom than other parts of China but things are changing.

 

Astrological view of  China

There are two national charts,  I usually use 1st Oct 1949 for Beijing, which works quite well. This chart has:

5 Aquarius Ascendent

Moon in 3 Aquarius in 12th conjunct Ascendant

Mc on  27 Degree Scorpio

Sun in 7 Libra in 8th house

So/Mo on 5 Sagittarius tight conjunct Chiron with 1 minutes orb

another Midpoint on 20 Cardinal

As/Mc on 1 Capricorn and 16 Fixed signs

Natal Pluto is 1 degree away from As/Mc midpoint

This explains a lot about the image of this country and the caution of other countries , no matter how peaceful they declare they are.

 

Pluto Mars conjunct Descendant fits the image of their tough diplomat style: conflicts with Japan, India, Taiwan and mostly US.   Mars Pluto rule 9th House together in 7th, which can explain why this country’s is often criticised by others  in regard to Religious affairs , their relationship with Vatican is not good, and the treatment of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhists is very well known.

 

Venus Pluto form a tight Square:  The country has an infamous problem with corruption (another indication is  Second House ruler Jupiter square Neptune, co ruler Neptune sextile Pluto). Venus also rules IC, indicating opposition party and people. We know that China has been criticised for its poor human rights record. .

 

Democracy? I think Aquarius Asc and Moon in China’s chart is more about republicanism, sorry if you do not agree but we can not ignore the Moon Chiron Uranus form a Yod in which Uranus is apex. Separation of land, independence of Tibet, Taiwan, Xinjian, and People’s Freedom are huge issues for this Country.

 

Tiananmen protest

I hope we never forget the 1989 Tianamen square protest. From April 1898 chinese students held a sit-in in Tinanmen square to protest about corruption and economic problems.  The protesters asked for democracy and more open economic policy.  During two months of protest, citizens joined and held strikes throughout China.  In June, the Chinese government decided to crack down on the protest, injuring 2000 citizens and killing more than 200.  We still do not know he exact number of death as this subject is still taboo in China.  Lots of protest leaders were sent to prison but some protesters escaped with help from Hong Kong and Overseas Chinese people.

That year’s, Beijing Aries ingress chart has:

Mars 5 degree Gemini (on Natal So/Mo)

Jupiter conjunct Descent

Moon in Virgo conjunct Mc  square Mars

That was about time of Uranus Neptune Saturn triple conjunction

Saturn Neptune sextile each other

Sun Chiron Uranus form a T square trigger Natal As/Mc midpoint

Natal Sun Uranus cardinal square

If we compare this with the Natal chart we should notice that country was in it a half Uranus cycle , a sign of revolution and  protest.

If we look on Solar Eclipse on 8 Mar 1989 , you will find out Uranus Chiron opposition on Ascendent Descent. Sun Moon on 3rd represent students criticism of the government.  Mercury square Mars represents the Massacre of the Students.

This happened around the Eastern Europe revolutions at the end of the USSR. Although unlike former USSR members, echo on Uranus Pluto square.  However, I find it interesting that China is more likely to resonate with Saturn Neptune aspect and Neptune Pluto, Sun Chiron, Saturn Chiron and Uranus Chiron aspects.

If we look on Astro Map of Solar Eclipse Mar 1989 both En Mundo and Geodetic has Chiron DS line near Beijing. On Lunar Eclipse has Pluto As line 200 miles away from Beijing.

 

 

Cultural Revolution, a ten year catastrophe

Although the protest on 1989 are not related to Uranus Pluto, the famous cultural revolution happened around mid 1960’ when Uranus Pluto conjunct . Many historians call this revolution a cultural catastrophe.  Ancient books were burned.  Scholars were imprisoned.  Schools and Universities were shut down.  No more Yi Jing or Confucius, traditional culture was seen as a poison of the people. Traditional Chinese writing was simplified.    This revolution continued for almost ten years and the revolution destroyed everything which linked with old China.  They believed that by doing this, new China will not been bound by stale minds.  Please bear in mind that there were two million people killed during this time.

The cultural revolution can been seen as a typical event of Uranus Pluto conjunction with the Solar Eclipse that year on 20 May 1966, having Sun Moon on 28 Taurus  tight conjunct on Natal IC, Uranus Pluto conjunct Natal Saturn which is country’s Chat Ruler. Solar Arc Uranus was on 20 Cancer touching the Nation Chart’s So/Mo.

 

Uranus square Pluto 2010-2016

2011

As astrologers we already spot lots of Mundane events occurring during the Uranus square Pluto period since 2010: the Jasmine revolution around Tunisia, Egypt and Syria; and the political conflicts of Ukraine, Turkey, Thailand and Venezuela.

The Global economy has suffered and we see occupy wall street protest in US and EU. Economic depression?  You will not notice this if you live in China, as the Chinese economy is just taking off, they have had a few bumps on the way but they think it will be fine. The Chinese government thinks that as long as the economy is running well, people will not think about other problems such as freedom of speech or religious issues.

However there was a small incident that happened in 2011 (Sep-Dec) which could be seen as a turning point for Democracy. People in Wukan (a little village in South China)  were suffering at the hands of corrupt local government, who had sold the people’s land to a corporation  but never gave the money to the people.  The villagers decided to protest, but local government used the police force to crack down.  Some villagers went to appeal in Beijing  but their dead bodies were sent back (this is what happens to Chinese protesters who appeal to Beijing, they are either sent to prison or die).

The angry villagers took further action and, armed with tools, kicked out the corrupt local council officers.  They voted and elected their local council (usually it is appointed by Beijing).  When the Chinese government sent an armed police force to Wuken, the villagers were prepared with roadblocks and held the police outside the village. Finally the Chinese government was forced to withdraw, firing the former local councillors and permitting the elected councillors to continue to hold the posts. The whole event surprised me as this kind of thing very rarely happens in China.

We can have some clues if we look on Capricorn ingress chart 2011 with National chart , Moon on natal Mc, Venus on Ascendent conjunct Natal Moon.  Even though Mars on Saturn suggests a conflict, Venus tight sextile with Sun and Uranus suggests this conflict would end peacefully. Also on the Beijing Capricorn ingress chart there is Jupiter on Ascendent. Outer planets transit has Pluto square Natal Sun, and Uranus square Natal Uranus.  Is this a turning point? Could be.

The En Mundo map has Uranus As line and Venus local space line pass by Wuken Geodetic map has Uranus ring on south china near Wuken and Hong Kong area .

 

2012

 

Red culture movement and Death of Neil Heywood

 

In November 2011, British citizen Neil Heywood was found dead in his hotel room near Chendu.   Mr Heywood was a family friend of Bo Xilai’s  (Secretary of Chongqing Communist  Party Committee). Neil Heywood had a tight business relationship with Bo’s family and there was a rumour that Heywood was laundering money for Bo’s family and helped Bo Xilai move large sums of money overseas.

 

In Feb 2012 Chief officer of Chongqing Police Wan Lijun travelled to the U.S consulate in  Chendu bringing evidence implicating Bo and his family in the murder of Neil Heywood.  This action increased Political tension between America and Beijing. Bo Xilai stepped down and faced justice in April 2012. On 22 September the court found him guilty on all counts, including, accepting bribes and abuses of power, and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

 

It is interesting to review Bo Xilai’s political career.  He was born on 3 July 1949, the second son of a family of high of ranking military officials in China. Before 2007 he was Minister of Commerce in China.  In October 2007 he was appointed to be the Secretary of Chongqing Communist  Party Committee, for Bo this was not a good promotion as it took him away from the Centre of Power in Beijing.

 

From  2008 to 2011 he started the Red culture movement which is a Maoist-style campaign to revive ‘red culture’ and improve public morale, promoting of Maoist quotes, ‘red’ songs, revolutionary television programming and operas.  The propaganda used during the 60’s Cultural revolution reappeared in China. It was believed that Bo’s aim was to reunite the left wing of Communist party by this movement, in order to get back into the Centre of Power in Beijing. The peak of this movement was the 90 year anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party in 2011. This re-culture revolution phenomena ended when Bo Xilai stepped down .

 

From the Astrologer’s view this makes sense as the Cultural revolution occurred during the 1960s when Uranus Pluto conjunct and it reappeared when Uranus Pluto square so this reoccurrence was not an accident.

Bo Xilai has Uranus on 1 degree Cancer right on Cha’s As/Mc midpoint , His Pluto tight conjunct another AS/Mc midpoint, interestingly he was born same year as P.R.C was founded, his Uranus Pluto both tight Conjunct P.R.C ’s As/Mc point and he started the re-culture revolution movement during Uranus Pluto square and being the one who is now known by the world to be involved with the murder of Neil Heywood.  This shows everyone how corrupt some officials in China could be.

If we look at Solar Eclipse of November 2012 we will spot that both En Mundo and Geodetic map has Saturn pass by Chongqing where Bo Xilai rise re red culture movement and where Neil Heywood be killed  .

In the 2012 Capricorn ingress map , Uranus Ds line pass by  Chongqing and local space line has Neptune Chiron was near by ( Heywood was killed with poison) .

 

2014

2014 was not  quiet for China , in the beginning of the year a terrorist attack happened in Kunming, South China,  29 people died and 150 people were injured.  Then one week later, Malaysian airline  MH470 from Kuala Lumper to Beijing was lost in the Indian Ocean , this aircraft had more than 150 Chinese passengers and so far the reason for the loss remains unknown, although debris has been spotted in the south Indian ocean around the coordinates 90E 45S.

 

In March 2014, in another city in South China, Maoming, a Petrochemical industrial city erupted in another protest, while the World’s media were focused on Ukraine and Crimea. Local government and the Petrochemical Corporation were building a factory to produce p-Xylene.  Local people are against this as they think this will harm the local environment and cause air pollution.  At the moment, there is no news of this protest as the media is censored and foreign media get little information from inside China.  The protest started around 30 March and still going on.  There is information that the whole city has been surrounded and is under military control at the moment with eight protesters killed and hundreds injured:  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-03/chinese-police-say-18-detained-after-violence-at-maoming-protest.html

 

Neptune on descent of  29 Apr 2014 Solar Eclipse chart , Mars Jupiter Uranus Pluto grand cross pick up Natal Node axis and Natal Neptune Mercury conjunction, transiting Neptune is on 5 degree of Pisces right on China’s So/Mo.  What else could represent Air Pollution than Neptune (air pollution is a serious issue in China at the moment).  Will this protest spread to other places?

 

Astromap of Solar Eclipse April 2014 has Neptune line cross south east china , and if we switch to Geodetic mode it will be even closer only 140 miles from the current protest centre, Maoming city. The Pluto line crosses Kunming where the terrorist attacks happened in February.

 

If we look on the same map Pluto IC line goes south, passing Kuala Lumper where the unfortunate flight MH370 took off and if we look carefully we find the location of the MH 370 debris is on the Indian Ocean where Geodetic Pluto Ds line and Jupiter As line passes.  In En Mundo system the place of 45 S 90E was exact Pluto Ds line and Jupiter As line cross with Mercury Mc Sun Mc and Moon Mc line.

 

 

EN Mundo

 

Geodetic

En Mondon ACG Map according 2014 Aries Ingress chart has Chiron-IC Jupiter-Ds Paran around the coordinates 90E 45S , Neptune IC and Pluto -As still around .

 

2014- 2016

Will China stay peaceful under Uranus Pluto square?  I don’t really think so, I don’t want to predict any event as I expect the universe will work in its own way but I have to point out that Uranus Pluto square will continue to pick up China’s Mercury and Neptune conjunction and both 2015 April Lunar Eclipse and Mars 2016 Lunar Eclipse chart have Mars on Horizon; Solar Eclipse on 2015 Sept has Pluto conjunct Asc, Lunar Eclipse on Sep 2015 has Saturn on Asc.  On the 2015 March Solar Eclipse Chart Saturn on 4 degree 58 Sagittarius very close to Natal Chiron and So/ Mo mid point, Mars on 20 degree Aries where there is also another So/Mo midpoint.  Which I have some concern with regards to pollution; economic and religious issues in China. Either Mars or Pluto on the Horizon are not easy tasks to deal with.

 

I would like to look at the Hong Kong and Taiwan situation separately in the next article.