Monday 29 July 2013

Symptoms of the Grand Water Trine 2013


My mentor in the study of mundane astrology, John Davenport, was drawn to specialising in medical astrology. When diagnosing a condition he said that, just like a medically trained doctor practicing his art, he always looked for at least three or more symptoms before concluding his findings. He applied the same principle to his predictive work in more general mundane astrology with tangible results.

With this in mind (and adopting the investigational maxim of ‘if it looks like a duck’) it follows that if a planetary configuration produces events in one sphere of life, the chances are there will be similar types of event in other spheres of life. You may not always get to hear about it in global news but that is not to say it did not happen.

So, as we learn the effects of the grand water trine through events that the main media news elects to report. I would like to suggest to you some similar events that the main media news will elect not to report.

Following on from the train crash in Spain, today ( 29 July 2013) sees the dissolving of boundaries of a coach in Italy through a mountain safety barrier and over the edge, killing at least 38 people. Furthermore, a report in the UK speaks of an increase in coastal cliff face land slides, once again dissolving boundaries.

The symptoms of the grand water trine that we know by what is reported in the news are the observations of Jupiter (very much of / expanding), Saturn (the edge (a boundary is also an edge)) and Neptune (erosion / confusion / dissolving).

The Spanish train crash in July 2013 was caused, it would appear, by the driver going too fast (grand trine like a slippery slope meant not enough friction or in this case not enough grip). On going around a sharp bend the momentum took the train off the tracks, or off it’s set boundary.

Likewise with the coach crash in Southern Italy in July 2013, the combination of going down a hill and a sharp bend caused the coach to leave the safe boundary of the road, hence it breached the edge. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23486086 In typical Neptunian fashion, the cause of the crash is presently unclear (in my opinion brake failure is a possibility).

In both cases, the edge (Saturn) dissolved (Neptune), which is precisely what seems to be occurring in the UK with it’s coastal cliffs http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22404564 The erosion is being blamed on excessive water damage over the last year.

Now applying these principles to the global debt crisis is no different. The three planets involved in the grand trine have clearly defined symptoms:
Jupiter challenges Saturn by trying to expand ‘the ‘edge’. Is this not the ever expanding quantitative easing?
Jupiter also expands liquidity and creates the illusion of confidence. Is this not symptomatic of the expanding bubble of derivatives in the stock market?
Saturn attempts to contain the ever growing bubble. Anyone blowing bigger and bigger soap bubbles know what happens when the surface tension becomes too thin.

The evidence suggests that containing the debt crisis has already failed. The economic evidence for this is already promulgated by money experts http://moneyweek.com/endofbritain/ even if it is so obviously suppressed in the mainstream media. While Saturn sits in secretive Scorpio, there will be an attempt at the containment or suppression of facts. But watch out for leaks in the next two to three weeks or so (although Mars leaving the conjunction with Jupiter by the start of August could thankfully lessen the accident period). They may not be in the corporate owned newspapers or through usual sources, but what you get to hear about might seem confusing in the light of what you are ‘allowed’ to know. Perhaps it is hoped that people will not pay heed to the conflicting news, that like the grand trine they will continue to believe what they have always believed without deviation of thought or direction.

The damage to the global economy is already done. All we can do now, at least those who know that it is necessary to do something at all, is prepare for the aftermath.

But before I leave the grand water trine, there is a second grand water trine hiding behind the major one, where Mars in Cancer aligns to the lunar North Node in Scorpio and Chiron in Pisces. In the UK 1801 chart, Chiron in transit is traveling through the natal 6th house of work, with transiting Mars in the natal 10th of government and transiting Node in the 2nd house of the National wealth.

Chiron is the wounded healer, the mundane problem where there appears to be no easy solution. This is the UK Government’s problem that is also a common one, particularly for any country with a New Year natal chart. There is not enough money coming into the treasury and there are too many people who are either unemployed, or as appears to be more common these days, under employed or under waged.

The pains of the Government to maintain the level of money it needs to run the country is exacerbated by the sickness of the system itself. This suggest that whatever they do to focus (North Node) primarily on money to run the country (2nd House), it will be unavoidably at the expense of the people. With Chiron in the natal 6th house, part of this expense has been weighted on the sick, the disabled and the unemployed. Further weight will naturally be placed on cuts to public sector jobs and on large institutions.

What Mars is doing by coming around to make this grand trine is simply to highlight, to bring into a more personal focus, what has been going on for a while. By 11th August 2013 Mars will conjunct the 1801 chart natal Moon. The people will not be happy at all but Government is in recession and cannot be held accountable until they return in September. However, pressure is growing on the means that the Government are using to affect their cuts. An example is the investigation on the assessment of welfare recipient’s work capability by ATOS, who have announced that they will be retraining their assessors due to the high number of so-called incorrect decisions http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jul/22/work-capability-assessments-criticism A reckoning is in order.

It is notable that the Mars / Node / Chiron trine is only 4 to 8 degrees away from the Jupiter / Saturn / Neptune trine. Does this imply an indirect link to the main trine? A by-product of the causation rather than being part of the causation? In topical discussion, it will be easy to understand how personal experience of unemployment, hardship and deprivation could eclipse the very real concern about what caused it in the first place; especially as it is probable that the Government’s response will be to make matters worse by behaving in an obnoxious and unsympathetic way ( 30 August 2013 transiting Mars conjunct natal in Jupiter in the 10th with loose application to secondary Sun and inconjunct natal Pluto).

And maybe we should consider how those that do not want us to look at the real issues may spend a great deal of energy trying to distract us with personal stuff. It is an easy thing to talk loudly and continuously about something that sounds like it should matter to everyone but in reality means very little.

The evidence suggests that all the symptoms experienced by the Mars/ Chiron / Node grand water trine can be sourced through the Jupiter / Saturn / Pluto grand water trine. We can shout and scream all we like about the injustice of austerity measures, unemployment and cuts to public health and resources. But the main symptom is the absolute necessity of social reform. I could say that the quicker we understand that the less painful it will be - but it won’t be quicker or less painful. However, rather than protest against the inevitable, what we should be doing is focusing our energy on is into what shape the necessary reforms should become? Without our input, we leave it by tacit agreement to those who caused the debt crisis to shape our future; that’s a bit like giving a box of matches to an arsonist and expecting a different outcome to him burning something.

The longer we allow others, those who live in the shadows of money and power, to shape our future unchallenged, the less chance there is that the future will resemble the kind of shape we would like to see. As Gandhi once said, “Be the change you want to see”. Let us not forget that beneath all of the above, there is a Uranus / Pluto square driving the path of reform forward. It is the stage on which all other considerations must be played out. And those in power know it.

Thursday 25 July 2013

Jupiter Pluto Opposition August 2013


First Jupiter Pluto Opposition 2013

This article is part of an ongoing series exploring the planetary cycles of Henri Barbault, particularly (as it transpired) the economic crisis that started in 2008 and will continue, despite the denial of many governments, until 2020. The series started as a general enquiry with wide discussion points but narrowed down to what history will describe as the biggest event of the early 21st century.

My focus concentrates primarily on the 1801 UK chart for mundane astrology purposes, even though the present Uranus / Pluto square and the cardinal grand cross of 2014 will have a global effect, because the impact of these events are too big to cover in one article.  Mundane astrologer Mr Theodore White has done some excellent work in this field and there is no need to duplicate his work for the United States. I invite other mundane astrologers throughout the world to join us and to produce cover articles for their countries.

The chart referenced in this article is the United Kingdom chart 1st January 1801 0:00GMT Westminster.

So the quarterly GDP figure in the UK was up 0.6% today (25 July 2013). George Osbourne will be chuffed and no doubt carping on about how conservative policy is working. Come off it George! If the conservatives did nothing the chances are that GDP would be up 0.6%. In fact if the labour party had put more money into the system the GDP would probably have followed the same path as the US and be higher sooner.

George Osbourne wants us all to be talking about economic recovery instead of recession, and there are so many people who will fall into that trap. But it is all short term politics and it seriously doesn’t matter whether conservatives or labour were in power over the last few years; they might like you to think otherwise but as far as the economy is concerned we were already stuffed on a global scale back in 2008.

According to the Barbault scale , which appears to demonstrate the effect on the people rather than the economic cause, the big minus dip in numbers of 2009 clearly showed how the people experienced the debt crisis and the austerity that followed.

The plus figure of 2012 and the London Olympics was an obvious distraction; not that the people were in any way suddenly more prosperous but focus on the state of the economy was temporarily put to one side.

In 2013, where we are no longer distracted, there is a tiny plus figure that implies how the people may consider their situation as not very optimistic but those who are not protesting in the streets may be considered now as behaving in a somewhat bucolic manner. If one views the British demeanour as a bit ‘laissez faire’, it may well be with the good old British tolerance still ingrained that the last straw has not yet been experienced; yet.

Jupiter opposes Pluto on three occasions starting 6th August, which as soon as the opposition passes automatically throws the Barbault +8 at the beginning of the year to (along with other planetary movements) -237 thus pointing the finger at this particular event timing as something to watch out for, particularly as Jupiter / Pluto refers to the masses (Pluto) of money (Jupiter).

It is worth mentioning here that there are three hits of the Jupiter Pluto opposition, the second occurring on 31 January 2014 and the final one on 20 April 2014 as part of the cardinal grand cross, which looks seriously like a global stock market crash as the only event large enough to justify the evidence that faces us today (economists also predict a 98% certainty of a global stock market crash due to the derivatives investment bubble that is forcing Stock market figures to record heights). This article concentrates around the first Jupiter / Pluto opposition.

The approaching Jupiter / Pluto opposition in transit today (25 July 2013) places Jupiter in the natal 9th house of the UK 1801 chart. Mars also conjuncts Jupiter (Note overseas news of a train derailment in Spain killing 78 people. The train went too fast around a bend). By the opposition on 6th August, Jupiter (still in the protective sign of Cancer and in a loose departing grand trine with Saturn and Neptune) will be at the top of the UK 1801 chart a mere couple of hours before the transiting new moon occurs in confident Leo, in the UK 11th house. Transiting Mars and Jupiter also midpoints where Jupiter’s position in the cardinal grand cross will be; possibly a telling sign that action (Mars) will spread (Jupiter) but the 10th house aspect also suggests autocracy. Is the government’s answer to probable unrest likely to be of a heavy handed nature that the UK has not experienced in this lifetime? This could be highly emotional stuff.

The government’s monetary resources and the policies they have created to manage what little resources they have, are clearly grinding against the freedoms of the people - government resources are 11th house issues - and as the government of the day, having received some ‘good news’ about GDP, they will no doubt dig their heels in and state that their policies are working and it is full steam ahead. It is a blinkered attitude and one that will demonstrate how little mindfulness the government possesses, not only over the people they tread down under but also the longer term view of what is about to hit us all.

Likewise there is the ongoing impact of recent legislature, like the bedroom tax, that has not revealed it’s devastating effect fully. On a smaller matter there is also the dissatisfaction of the people over the choice of government advisers, like Lynton Crosby and his connection with large tobacco industry. Whether there was a discussion or not over converting cigarettes to plain packaging, it is the inference of the more undesirable elements of corporate influence that the electorate have, as a group, in juxtaposition to the treatment they are receiving via austerity measures and how much corporate advisers give a damn about it. If the present path of the government is anything to go by, the likelihood that they will condone draconian measures to beat down protest and opposition is high.

With the Moon’s North Node transiting the UK 1801 2nd house, the focus today is obviously placed on the economy and the country’s resources, what are it’s assets and how does it pay it’s debts. By December, when the Node moves to the UK 1801 1st house, the focus will have to change on how the country and it’s people are faring, particularly in light of all the oppressive measures taken over recent times. Up to now, the government has considered money over the people, so for them to consider the people over money, I suspect that by December 2013 the people will be much more vocal and active. So somewhere between the new moon of the 6th and December 2013 the last straw is going to land.

The grand trine we are in right now (Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune in water signs), suggests that, like the rail tragedy in Spain, the greasy pole effect means that there is no stopping what has already been set in motion. At the new moon in Leo, if I am right and the government stand high and proud within their hubristic ideology, and then press ahead with more plans to screw the people into the ground, there will be an uprising not long after the inescapable trine departs, as the movement of Jupiter starts to make it’s way to the abrasive four-square between Mars, Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto.



Now Jupiter in transit is at 6 degrees of Cancer when it opposes Pluto on 6 August. By the 26th August it reaches 13 degrees of Cancer, which will be the degree Jupiter holds in the cardinal grand cross. While there, Mars will travel the last degrees of Cancer and enter Leo. Mars in Leo can be arrogant. It is not a helpful attitude when dealing with a disenfranchised populace. Transiting Mars will also be applying to the UK 1801 chart’s natal Jupiter at 1 degree of Leo, thus further emphasising confidence but against a backdrop of popular distaste.

Jupiter squares Uranus (on a full moon) on 21 August 2013 creating a T square with Pluto.  Something has to come to light. A Jupiter / Pluto opposition is a terrorist aspect because Jupiter pertains to belief systems and seeks to change the status quo, which is Pluto. But the UK chart has Jupiter in the 10th house, pertaining to those in power. Now their belief system has driven austerity measures and welfare benefit caps through legislation (also Jupiter). The excuse for doing it is to pay back the UK debt but the UK debt has already soared almost vertically since 2010. This fact may become more apparent when Venus joins the T square by sitting on the UK Ascendant to produce a rather loose cardinal cross. Venus the financial planet, and ruler of the UK 8th house indicates how we relate to other peoples money. Is there likely to be issues around some tax reform arising from an event or is it perhaps that banks decide to increase the interest rate on mortgages? Whatever it is, we can expect a significant event that will play out eventually at the cardinal cross in April 2014

The UK government does not sit in Parliament through August, returning 2nd September, just before the new moon of 5th September 2013 in Virgo. The recess is often a period of silly stuff and crazy rumour. However, when Parliament returns there will be demands for detail and analysis. Transiting Saturn will be well within the second house (ingress 10th August) of the UK chart focusing the new Parliamentary session attention on resource and values, particularly the UK’s large institutions like the NHS, nationalised banks and the Royal Mail. Also things to watch out for will be the secretive selling off of green belt land and fraud cover ups. More of this another time as Saturn has a way to go through Scorpio. 

Suffice it to say that Parliament will return with a whole host of angry opposition, not only from MPs but also the electorate. Many people will have become seriously unhappy but I suspect the government will simply laugh it off, because they will be quite happy to sit on the quarterly GDP figures as proof of the validity of their policies. It is a complacent stance that they will regret in years to come because of what will come to pass. But as the economic screw tightens for the electorate and particularly those in poverty it should begin to appear, if not to the government, to more people than it does today that the consequence of the debt crisis is fated, and that our economy is not going to be rescued by tinkering around with welfare cuts and austerity measures.

In the next article we will look at the second Jupiter / Pluto opposition.

Thursday 18 July 2013

Profit Before People Exposed


Today’s report (18 July 2013) in the Independent Revealed: The great outsourcing scandal as firms ‘cut corners’ to cream profits off public is to many people no news at all. But while most sources for this story are anonymous (Ask Ed Snowden how governments treat whistle blowers) what they say is proof that giving business to profit making companies automatically changes the focal point of the business.

Let’s take the outsourcing of the much hated Work Programme (UK). While all companies admitted to creaming the easy jobbers off the top and ‘parking’ the hard ones, at least one director admitted it was the only way to make a profit.

At the other end, the Institute for Government (IfG) who compiled the report, said that ‘Too often the focus of the Government is on getting the deal out of the door and not thinking about how it will work in the long run’.

Yep, that’s short term politics for you. But also it is this ideology that as much business as possible should be in private hands. Whilst the merit of the idea is that the increase in business and jobs would create revenue for the treasury, the point of the job itself is completely lost in the deal, plus the encouragement of exponential growth has been a major contributory factor to the debt global debt crisis.

The Work Programme is supposed to give tailored support to the long term unemployed, many of whom are long term unemployed for reasons of health, education, age etc; in other words not the 24 - 36 six months unemployed age group. We can see from the results above that the purpose for the Work Programme has failed before the ink was dry on the contract. The government will only spend money on results and the private companies will find the path of least resistance to obtain that profit; it is human nature.

Serco and G4S are companies geared primarily to building contracts that will alleviate governments of taxpayers money. Both have Work Programme contracts.

David Cameron, Prime Minister for the UK and Conservative leader, speaks of ‘The Big Society’. The Independent reports that Government was encouraging the voluntary sector to get involved in delivering services. Well he would, wouldn’t he? After all, the voluntary sector is unpaid.

The Institute for Government report highlighted what many people already knew, especially those hard working people at the sharp end of Job Centre Plus. When I was there myself, at the point the Labour Government started to farm out bits of Work Programmes to private enterprise, we declared then that any private company would simply cherry pick the best jobseekers and ignore the rest. We were right to think that and we will continue to be right until the Government abandons the Work Programme via profit making companies.

The Institute for Government were therefore wrong to recommend that Government punish poor performers by imposing penalties. They were right to suggest terminating the contract but not in favour of another profit making organisation.

Work Programmes should be handled by ‘Not For Profit’ (NFP) organisations, so that the focus remains the task of placing the hard to place people into work. But long term unemployment is a long term issue that cannot be fixed by short term politics. If the Government really want to help long term unemployed back to work, they must first reform the recruitment process in order to stop discrimination against those with disability, criminal records, huge gaps in employment and so on. There also needs to be a study on why candidates are not selected for interview (I already know why, having done it myself but like everything else, there has to be a proper study). 

With unemployment globally being possibly the highest it has ever been, now is a good time to study and identify the discrimination systemic in every system and the unconscious prejudice endemic within the recruitment process. Without ensuring that there is indeed a level playing field to employment, all the Work Programmes in the world will not achieve what the Government wishes to happen.

Profit before people is the modern disease. Whenever money is involved the makers of it lose sight of the reason it is there - people. At least that is they lose sight of the people who don’t matter - non share holders - until no one has any money, the economy collapses the business starts to fold and suddenly those same people do matter but you already killed them.

It seems that somehow we have to place a firewall between big corporations, powerful lobby groups and politicians; the same way we need to separate the high street bank from the casino banks (and in my opinion we should abolish casino banks). People must matter before profit, and perhaps if predictions of the collapse of the dollar and the euro are in anyway inevitable (around 2015) we may yet get the opportunity to stop the disease before it destroys us all.

Sunday 7 July 2013

Jupiter / Saturn Cycle 2000 - 2020


The need to balance belief and democracy in reform.

I am going to discuss the practical role of the people in the Jupiter / Saturn planetary cycle of 2000 - 2020. If you participate or not in the activities of every day society you are involved, either by your action or by your inaction. The point of this article, as it should be with all astrology articles, is not just to demonstrate how astrology works (and that it does work), but also to encourage people to work in harmony with those cycles and therefore work towards the best evolutionary possible outcome.

The reason for this encouragement should be blatantly obvious to people living in the year 2013; the time of writing this article. The world, or at least 99% of the people on it, is struggling with little or no money to live on. Food is becoming a scarce commodity for many. Governments do not appear to be working for the people, rather that they pander to their sponsors who are most likely large corporations with commercial interests that run counter to the benefit of the people. And too many of us are letting them get away with it. In short, the world stinks and we have to clean it up or be content to live under the cloud of it’s noxious fumes.

I have purposefully excluded reference to national natal charts in favour of discussing the broad brushstrokes of the cycle; The article is long enough without them.

The Jupiter / Saturn Cycle runs for 20 years. Right now, we are approaching the point where the cycle is two thirds complete (July 2013) - meaning that there is little time left to make the changes needed to resolve present problems - or else be prepared to carry the same problems on for another 20 years. The more people who are prepared to participate in the transitions happening in the world today, the better the world tomorrow will be.

In simplistic terms, Jupiter expands and Saturn contracts. A good example of how this works in society is law (Jupiter) and order (Saturn). In a modern democracy the people elect a Government, Governments make law and the judicial system enforces that law. Making too many laws would be unworkable, micromanaging our daily lives (a nanny state) and too much order would restrict or daily lives (police state). The trick is to maintain the right balance, given the circumstances of the day.

The circumstances of today is one where change is an imperative. Much reform is needed because the old systems have proven to be outmoded or dysfunctional. The problem we face is that there are many people in positions of power who either do not want change to happen because they will lose out, or they do not want change because of dogma, outmoded belief systems or extremes of ideology.

The power of the Jupiter / Saturn cycle, as it is with all dualities, is not in one extreme or the other but in the dynamic force of balance. Many democracies have been strangled in the ever changing pointless battle of left and right wing politics (Neptune and Uranus respectively), where other countries have suffered under dictatorship or religious oppression. Think of any country where the people have no room to grow and Jupiter will be restricted too much by Saturn. Think of any country where it is dangerous to walk the streets at night and the law is ineffective and Saturn will be overwhelmed by Jupiter.

A cycle of two planets working together is measured at certain points, the most common being those points of a square and a triangle. On a compass this means when the planets are apart in degrees by 0 (conjunction), 90 (outgoing square), 120 (outgoing trine), 180 (opposition) and then 120 (returning trine) and 90 (returning square). Using these planetary aspects as reference points, we can see how a situation or event is unfolding and whether there is sufficient time and the will of people / governments to balance the competing powers for the benefit of us all.

Unfortunately governments have not been very good at balancing in the past, hence the reason why 1% of the world’s population has 99% of the money. Governments have also formed on the basis of religious ideals, thus immediately isolating anyone who does not conform to that belief system. Dictatorships where no one has a say. Too left wing where merit does not count or too right wing where only merit counts. One may argue that political ideology is purely a belief system under a different guise. And if we agree with the sentiment then going too far left or right in ideological politics also isolates those who do not - indeed cannot - conform to that belief system. Proper dynamic balance is not stagnation or inertia but a working force where the status quo is accessible by (not accessible to with ideological caveats) everyone equally.

So if governments cannot, or will not, govern competently and sensibly according to the wishes of the people, then the people have to act. Yes, the world has to change but there must be a balance between the beliefs and ideologies of those whose ambition it is to govern and the requirement to represent all of the people without causing harm or detriment.

In the defence of governments, however, one must also point out that the majority of the people are invariably the silent majority, hence the vocal minority are influencing governments while we who say nothing offer no resistance. To live a quiet life it is imperative to confront occasionally those who make noise.

In the meantime we are where we are in the world and no government appears to be in control, certainly not of the money makers, the corporations and those in positions of power with vested interests in either keeping things exactly as they are or making a fortune out of conflict and death.

So this is where we come in, not to push left or right wing policies but to learn bipartisan thinking, and the first thing we need to understand is where we are now and what we can expect in the future if we do nothing - or if we just give up and leave it to political activists with vested interests to fight like a flock of seagulls over a scrap of dead crab.

The present Jupiter / Saturn cycle started on 28 May 2000 in the financial fixed earth sign of Taurus at 22 Degrees. The last time Jupiter / Saturn made a conjunction in Taurus was in August 1940, several months into World War II in Europe. The conjunction occurred within a closing Saturn / Pluto cycle that meant much of the 20-year Jupiter / Saturn cycle would be tied up in the restructuring of the status quo caused by events as far back as the Saturn / Pluto conjunction of 1914 (Saturn / Pluto is a 33-year cycle). Many people argue that World War II was simply an inevitable outcome of the wrong decisions made after World War I. Events tied to a fixed sign will most likely unfold as an intransigent position looking for a result. One wonders how much would the world have degenerated into yet another war if the penalties on Germany after WWI had not impoverished the German people? Cause and effect.

The next conjunction was in the cardinal earth sign of Capricorn in February 1961; the year that the Berlin wall was erected to stop a mass exodus from East to West Berlin. Events tied to a cardinal sign will most likely be new, initiated at the time. This is a building time, new starts, different pathways, new ideas. Historically it would seem that those in power who have tried to initiate important changes run the risk of assassination. From the Cuban missile crisis to flower power (1966 was also the start of the new Uranus / Pluto cycle), The 60s certainly changed direction but it was a generational divide that changed the direction of the world; and in 2020 it will happen again.

 The next conjunction was the very end of December 1980 in the cardinal air sign of Libra, focusing on relationships but manifesting in the first instance in assassinations, death by hunger strike, AIDS, riots (Brixton) on race and economic grounds. Significantly, the Jupiter / Saturn conjunction preceded the new Saturn / Pluto conjunction by only a matter of a few degrees (Saturn / Pluto Conjunction November 1982) thus highlighting the underlying themes that we, as a society, needed to tackle for the next 33 years until the year 2020.

By the time Jupiter / Saturn made conjunction in the year 2000, the new focus was back to establishing personal values but the test of whether the structure of society was sound and fair was about to be tested as both Jupiter and Saturn made opposition to a globally focused Sagittarius Pluto. Jupiter Opposed Pluto in 2000 just after the G8 summit aiming to half world poverty by 2015 (Clearly destined to failure on the pathway they used). The steadily increasing gap between rich and poor continued to widen but the fixed view of ‘corporate earth’ did not seem too concerned as it’s money making system expanded in exponential, and increasingly risky, profit making ventures. Saturn opposed Pluto in August 2001 just before the 9-11 World Trade Centre attack that became the catalyst for the ‘War on Terror’, which has to date demonstrated the application of huge expenditure on war and on lives to no benefit whatsoever.

The Jupiter / Saturn square of Oct 2006 may not have seemed significant by itself at the time but it was the height of mortgage defaults in the US on sub prime mortgages, as interest rates increased from 1% to 5.35%, that became the first significant factor towards the global banking crisis of 2008. And so it was that, by the Jupiter / Saturn outgoing Trine, with Pluto hovering on the ingress from Sagittarius to Capricorn, the new focus on the failures within regulation and administration of the global system left the financial sector reeling; and there was nothing they could do to stop it.

With a global debt crisis growing and highlighting the still widening gap between wealth and poverty, so the Arab Spring occurred just before the Jupiter / Saturn opposition (March 2011) and just a few months before the start of the first of seven powerful Uranus / Pluto squares that add greater significance to the kind of changes we are about to see*. The reasons to reform the status quo were laid bare. ‘We are the 99%’ was launched in August 2011 that evolved into the ‘Occupy’ movements around the world. Internet movements based on political change sprang up with Avaaz in 2007 and 38 degrees in 2009 as good examples. The tide of dissatisfaction was swelling.

Since then, the tide of human protest has swept away much of the people’s apathy and resignation. More people are engaged in the engine for change than has ever been witnessed since World War II. Austerity measures are starting to bite but still have long way to go. The Middle East has experienced violent and terrible changes where those in power and privilege seek to cling to it desperately in the face of fierce demand for reform. Syria currently lies in ruins because one regime refuses to step back and allow the country to evolve, while a myriad of factions and fundamentalists now vie to change the country - unfortunately not for the Syrian people but for another equally dissatisfactory regime.

Likewise in Egypt, the promise of a less violent revolution in 2011, has been derailed by an elected leader attempting to lead the country away from the desired secular rule to Islamic rule. The Egyptian military, in their consideration of rewriting a new constitution, may wish to consider the Turkish model established by Ataturk in 1876, ensuring a secular state that included all the people irrespective of belief systems.

The Jupiter / Saturn trine on 17 July 2013 is joined by Neptune in Pisces to form a grand water trine. Grand trines are notorious for becoming defence mechanisms where everything comes to nothing as positions become entrenched. In water this suggests a great deal of emotional outpouring but nothing concrete is ever resolved. It therefore does not bode well for warring countries and demands for reform at this time. Mars is applying to conjunct Jupiter and before July is over they will oppose Pluto, suggesting extreme behaviour. The grand trine implies an escalation of violence and death rather than a pathway to peace.

The cardinal grand cross of 2014 is already documented and is too big to include in this study of the Jupiter / Saturn Cycle but suffice it to say that the effects of the grand trine will reach a climax at this point.

By the closing Jupiter / Saturn square of August 2015, where Saturn turns stationary direct on the same day, Jupiter is conjunct Venus in Leo. The square is at the critical 28 degree point, suggesting future plans rather than immediate solutions. The 7th and final Uranus / Pluto squares finishes in March 2015, suggesting that the reforms needed are now all out in the open - not completed. This will be a time to establish everything that has tried to be fudged, covered up or denied. The final truths will make the world weep and wonder how on earth we solve the mass unemployment, devastating debts and global unrest. The Venus / Jupiter conjunction sounds like it should be good. Venus is finance and Jupiter is money. Both make aspect to Pluto (the masses of) by sesquiquadrate. But in Leo the emphasis is on personal wealth and tied into Saturn that wealth is hidden. So if the wealthy go to ground and squirrel away as much as they can, the 99% face devastating consequences. The Barbault Scale indicates that 2017 is the bottom of the journey, so we can expect not to escape that which has already been set in motion.

By August 2017, when Jupiter and Saturn reach the closing sextile there is an opportunity to actively campaign for change. Uranus at 28 degrees of Aries and knocking on the door of Taurus (ingress May 2018), suggests an opportunity to influence financial reforms that must be made to ensure a viable firewall between personal banking and casino style investment banking. While Jupiter travels through Scorpio, more and more money may become taxable and Saturn in Capricorn will duly administer the revenue. However, it is also possible that Jupiter (money) in Scorpio (taxes) may also imply higher taxes for us all and higher interest rates (Jupiter ingresses into Scorpio in October 2017).

And it is around the time of the rising of interest rates and people being unable to pay their mortgages or rent that everyone starts to take notice of current affairs. This is what happened when the sub prime mortgage crisis happened in the US and the effect spread worldwide. The Internet gave a platform by which our voices can be heard and it will grow again in 2017. Hopefully the swell of people power will force governments to concede to the wishes of the people rather than the wishes of their paymasters.

The Jupiter / Saturn conjunction occurs around the same time as the new Saturn / Pluto conjunction. Great changes are to be made but not without much bickering and gamesmanship. Our input into this is paramount and even with full participation we may not see the benefit of reform until the Uranus / Pluto trine in 2025

We the people are the balancers. Without us no corporation, bank, manufacturer, service provider or government can exist. The Arab Spring is an example of the passion with which people can work together. But before we get to those kind of extremes there are other ways to exercise togetherness in peaceful and meaningful ways. Recently there was an internet campaign to abandon a utility company for not paying its fair share of tax in the UK. The project was only a partial success because not everyone switched their supplier. But think of what would have happened to that company if they did? This is the kind of example that, if we only realised it, is the amount of power we have.

Political activity groups like 38 degrees and Avaaz are waiting for your participation. You can even start your own petition or activity if you think enough people will agree with you. On a more individual level it is worth considering if you are supporting a company that agrees with buying goods from workers who are paid poorly and may die through faulty buildings in Bangladesh, cosmetics tested on animals, inhumane treatment of animals in food production, the endangerment of our food chain by genetically modified crops for profit or the abandonment of crops for food in favour of crops for fuel, trans-fat junk food sold in fast food outlets for pitifully low wages etc.

The fact that this list goes on and on is a terrible indictment of our modern world. There is just far too much to be angry about and it is affecting us all irrespective of our involvement. This is why things must change away from short term politics and the ever growing profit over people mentality. Short term politics must give way to longer term stability.

But it can only happen with your involvement and your willingness to do something about it. Albert Einstein once said that insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. One could argue that doing nothing over and over again is no different.

*The Uranus / Pluto Square of 1876 (Pluto in Taurus, Uranus in Leo) occurred around the time of Jesse James and wild west. Meanwhile in China there was a famine that claimed 13 million lives. The result of the famine changed the lives of many rural Chinese who had either moved to more built up areas or at least realised they needed to change their lifestyle. At the same time, the reforms of the Ottoman Empire peaked, led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who is still revered today by the Turkish people and the hard fought constitution is actively protected by the people at the third Pluto / Uranus square of 2013

The Uranus / Pluto square of 1755 saw the repatriation of French ‘Acadians’ from America to France. The square was in mutable signs (Pluto in Sagittarius and Uranus in Pisces), which would probably have made any reforms at the time appear patchy and ultimately too compromised. Certainly after this date one has to consider the historical fact of the declaration of independence (1776) followed by the French revolution (1789) as evidence that any reforms that had taken place were either very unpopular or didn’t work.