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The Age of Austerity
The most active political force in the world today is austerity. Brought about by privatization and profit-taking, the crisis of capitalism and its agonizing effects on society are being transferred to the working class, destroying the social contract and reducing vast numbers of people into pauperism. The ruling class hopes to avoid the cataclysmic boomerang effect of its concentration of wealth by spreading the misery to the masses of people, little by little, in small increments of pain. The survival of capitalism depends the elimination of the need for workers, and their demotion to wage slavery. What happened to the much-vaulted promise of an ever-rising sea of prosperity that elevates the worker into middle-class status? That was a ruse to get us invested in the fortunes of the billionaires. Our new heroes, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Tesla's Elon Musk, have been thrust upon us as saviors, as the system grinds their potential customers into dust. They, like the fake prosperity that they represent, are mirages of a system with no foundation, no future.
Do the stars reflect the reality of our plight? The stars do not care whether or not we are rich or poor, they just show us the prevailing winds of change. As part of the swirling galaxy that surrounds us, we absorb the influence of its machinations in the same way that we are liable to the cross-currents of weather systems on Earth. We cannot alter the reality, only abide by it and make local the changes to our societies that will help us survive it. In the study of the stars, we can use our prior knowledge of the universal flux to help us cope with its aftermath.
Astrology is a system rich in symbols. Early humans created them to remember events that made a deep and lasting impression on them. Considering how dedicated they were to pass them on for posterity, we would be foolish indeed to ignore them.
The chart below, drawn for June 4, 2017, 12 noon, EST, tells its story at a glance. It's the Solar return for the USA. What does the chart say to you? For astrologers, there's plenty to ponder. Chaos. Fireworks. Starburst. The symbols are making us a pictograph. Planets and stars striking esoteric angles with each other, as if communicating, or murmurating among themselves. No wonder they were once considered gods!
This chart is like a ring of electrical energy, surrounding a maze of strife and tumult. Is this some build-up or release of energy? The Astrologer will see several particular symbolic formations formed by the trines (in blue), the squares (in red) and the sextiles (in light blue). At the center of the storm are the aspects, regulated by degree, such as the Opposition, the symbol of bi-polarity. The Saturn-Mars opposition can only mean the extremes of coercion and rash behavior.
The Squares that block the flow of the chart are like tests of our determination, learning from our limitations. The Sun-Neptune square is dangerous because it uses escapism and seduction to erode our identities and plunder our dreams. Most of the affected points are barren or hot, so we can find ourselves racing around like a Mad Max, fighting for survival in the desert.
The series of trines, that touch at all the major planets, make up a hexagram of many possibilities, too many perhaps for us to decide on just one. Perhaps it's a trap, a powerful undertow that will draw us inexorably to our fate, regardless of our potentials.
The dark lines are quincunx, and set up 3 separate Yods, the defining astrological mark of alienation. Why are Yods so powerful? A pentagon is made of Yods. One look at the headquarters for the US armed forces as a colossus of death and destruction, and you can see how reality can melt into symbolism and vice versa.
The chart is optimistic as well. All the weal and woe of our lives is surrounded by a garland of sextiles, which offer up opportunities for those who are looking. Virgo is the key sign, which teaches us adaptability, to bend and not break.
For several days the Moon will be at the center of it all, like the flaw in the diamond, or a geodesic apex. Not only does it oppose the Uranus-Venus conjunction, but also sits atop the major Yod with Mercury and Chiron at the base. This may force us all to question our long held attachments with our parents, and what they did to us. The Moon will be in Virgo, which is otherwise dry and inert. But the lunar polarity with Uranus and Venus, makes it like a mudslide, activated by Pisces, as if to carve up a new landscape in our hearts.
With Saturn and Pluto in retrograde, and Jupiter stationary, the old ideas from the past, which have been impeding Jupiter's progress, may finally lose their grip. But progress is often measured in sacrifice. Virgo expansion is sometimes sporadic and has unintended consequences. Like a neon light flickering to life, the energy depends on a source, and that means it can fade just as fast.
In spite of the raucous activity, June 4 may turn out to be a day like any other, but the stars sow seeds in us, maybe measured in electrons, which condition us more than any of our dogged ambition or faint hopes. Looking at a display of fireworks is a passing sensation, followed by an anti-climax of regularity. Is there any way we can measure the power of a galaxy? Astrology is a poor-man's analog of how celestial events shower us with messages that originate from a billion years ago. Ancient humans could only guess at the universal and elemental forces that ravaged the skies above them, but even so they created a platform that we can still use today to help us understand them better.
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Comparison of the Zodiac systems
Sign |
Tropical |
Sidereal |
13/Sign |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aries | Mar 21 - April 20 | April 15 - May 15 | April 19 - May 13 |
| Taurus | April 21 - May 20 | May 16 - June 15 | May 14 - June 19 |
| Gemini | May 21 - June 20 | June 16 - July 15 | June 20 - July 20 |
| Cancer | June 21 - July 21 | July 16 - Aug 15 | July 21 - Aug 9 |
| Leo | July 22 Aug 22 | Aug 16 - Sep 15 | Aug 10 – Sep 15 |
| Virgo | Aug 23 - Sep 22 | Sep 16 - Oct 15 | Sept 16 – Oct 30 |
| Libra | Sep 23 - Oct 22 | Oct 16 - Nov 15 | Oct 31– Nov 22 |
| Scorpio | Oct 23 - Nov 21 | Nov 16 - Dec 15 | Nov 23 – Nov 29 |
| Ophiuchus | NA | NA | Nov 30 – Dec 17 |
| Sagittarius | Nov 22 - Dec 21 | Dec 16 - Jan 14 | Dec 18– Jan 18 |
| Capricorn | Dec 22 - Jan 20 | Jan 15 - Feb 14 | Jan 19 – Feb 15 |
| Aquarius | Jan 21 - Feb 19 | Feb 15 - Mar 14 | Feb 16– Mar 11 |
| Pisces | Feb 20 - Mar 20 | Mar 15 - April 14 | Mar 12 – April 18 |
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RECOMMENDED BOOKS
[These books are for 12-sign astrology; However, aspect and transiting angles are the same in all systems. Go to our Ophiuchus Rising page for the meanings of the angles, planets and asteroids in Ophiuchus] Key Words for Astrology -- Paperback Aspects in Astrology: A Guide to Understanding Planetary Relationships in the Horoscope -- Paperback Sextrology: The Astrology of Sex and the Sexes -- Paperback By Stella Starsky, Quinn Cox Transits Simplified -- Paperback Astrology of Human Relationships -- Paperback |
