NEXT TRANSITS AND MUNDANE ASTROLOGY

by Robert P. Blaschke

For the first time since 1974-75 Saturn will transit over the USA Sun once on June 11th, the day after Uranus stations retrograde in close square to the U.S. progressed Uranus. At the last occurrence of the Saturn conjunction to the USA Sun, President Nixon resigned to the day of the first transit on 9 August 1974; the Fall of Saigon, ending the Vietnam War, came one week after the third conjunction of 22 April 1975. Nixon had a stationary progressed Pluto and a progressed Jupiter in exact opposition to the USA Sun when he resigned in disgrace.

With the USA progressed Sun this year in the fated 30th degree of Aquarius, and about to end an American era which began in March 1975 at the Fall of Saigon, the ghosts of the Vietnam War are rising from the grave and are clearly evident in the Bush-Kerry contest for the presidency. The combat decorations for Senator Kerry's tour of duty in the Navy in Vietnam are being contrasted against Mr Bush's questionable Texas National Guard service and avoidance of the war. Vice-president Dick Cheney, who gave a recent speech snidely questioning Mr Kerry's ability to protect the national security of the United States, was then lampooned in the Congress by New Jersey Democratic Senator and World War II veteran, 80 year old Frank Lautenberg, as a 'Chickenhawk' because of Mr Cheney's multiple deferments during the Vietnam Era. Right on cue, as the U.S. progressed Sun nears its ingress into Pisces on the 1st of November, any unfinished business of the last 29 years has erupted from deep within the collective American psyche.

1975 was also an intense and chaotic year for the United States. There were two assassination attempts against the life of Gerald Ford in California; Watergate and its miserable aftermath resulted in the pardon of Nixon by President Ford; a limited amnesty was granted to Vietnam War draft evaders and deserters; and former Attorney General John Mitchell, along with top Nixon aides John Erlichman and H.R. Haldeman, were all convicted and sentenced to prison. Then, as now, the USA progressed Sun was leaving behind its thirty year sojourn through a sign (Capricorn), but before the sign change could occur the nation had to pass through a healing catharsis. We are in a similar state during 2004.

The transit of Saturn over the USA Sun will intensify the relentless criticism of America coming from the Middle East, Europe and elsewhere. 'A friend in need is a friend indeed' - the U.S. will now find out which nations are its true allies. The president is also subject to the influence of this transit by the greater malefic over the national Sun. As this writer has discussedr, Mr Bush receives the transit of Saturn over his Sun on June 14th, in addition to his progressed Sun perfecting a conjunction to his natal Mars on June 6th. His health is quite precarious during the first half of June and we may see him die from a heart attack or a stroke, Tecumseh's Curse striking again.

The president is scheduled to travel to Istanbul for the NATO Summit on June 28-29. His personal safety is also very precarious at this time. Turkey has just announced that it broke up a planned terrorist attack on the world leaders who would be gathered there. If an attack did take place by Muslim extremists in Turkey, killing Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac and Mr Bush, the world would be plunged into chaos. There is a troubling precedent concerning Turkey, I am afraid to say, from the last time that Venus transited the Sun. 

As Saturn nears the USA Sun, as it last did in 1974, comparisons are being made now in the press between the Bush administration and the Nixon presidency. The ruthlessness of the campaign attack ads against Senator Kerry and his military service; stonewalling and filibustering by Bush administration officials testifying before the 9/11 commission; Supreme Court cases dealing with the use of power by the executive branch of government in dealing with enemy combatants - this administration is now under the unforgiving rays of Saturn, rigidly defending itself against criticism.
 
 

The bloodiest month of the Iraq War has recently ended, with over 135 U.S. soldiers and Marines losing their lives in April, bringing the total of combat deaths since March 2003 to more than 750. Pluto stationed retrograde on March 24th at 22 degrees Sagittarius, in the middle of a one degree stationary opposition to the USA Mars from 28 December 2003 until 1 July 2004. Astute readers will take note that the scheduled handover of sovereignty to the new Iraqi governing entity occurs on the last day, June 30th, of this long and bloody six month stationary opposition. The unexpected Iraqi insurgency, erupting on two fronts as transit Mars in Gemini conjoined the USA Uranus at the start of April, was brought into living rooms around the world on television screens showing the burned and mutilated bodies of U.S. civilian contractors being dragged through the streets of Fallujah by incensed Iraqi mobs of crazed young men.

The brutal and violent horror of war, as symbolized by Pluto opposing the USA Mars, was additionally seared into the collective consciousness of the nation by the transit opposition of Mars to Pluto on April 24th, one day after the USA Mars return. Soldiers dying daily from roadside bombs and suicide terrorist attacks; a radical and defiant young Islamic cleric with a black hooded militia brandishing automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenade launchers challenging U.S. Marines and coalition forces to a street fight; Iraq appearing to spiral downward into civil war and hellish chaos - these ghastly images have severely tested the will of America to continue to spill the blood of her troops and go forward with a transformation of Iraq into a democratic country. One can only wonder if, a Saturn cycle after the Fall of Saigon, America is now fated to redeem herself by not cutting and running in Iraq. To persevere through this violent insurgency until June 30th may heal the shame of the lost war in Vietnam by reclaiming national honor through staying the course.

After declaring simplistically in repeated speeches over the past year that the forces of freedom are triumphing over the forces of tyranny in Iraq, President Bush was further damaged politically last week when 60 Minutes II aired pictures of U.S. soldiers sadistically torturing Iraqi POW's in the infamous Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, known for its ghoulish torture and executions during the regime of Saddam Hussein. The U.S. military had announced on March 20th, while Pluto was stationary, that it was bringing criminal charges against six soldiers with the 800th Military Police Brigade, which could lead to courts-martial. The charges are of abuses carried out in November and December 2003 on around 20 detainees at the prison, including rapes and the broomstick sodomizing and beating of these Iraqi POW's. As the scandal widens, it now appears that military intelligence interrogators and CIA personnel also contributed to these abuses.

As Mercury stationed direct in close trine with Pluto, this information about the abuse became public. One can clearly see how these images have further inflamed the Arab world, with Pluto in opposition to the USA Mars, and how a liberating army which becomes an occupying force is walking a fine line in the struggle for the hearts and minds of the people whose country it has taken over. Regardless of the moral hypocrisy found in the Arab world, whose people dance in the streets with delight over the subhuman mutilation and burning of dead American bodies in the streets of Fallujah, which can make it rather difficult to feel much sympathy for the tortured prisoners inside Abu Ghraib, the United States is still held to a higher standard of military conduct by the Geneva Convention. Our armed forces are true professionals, and it is a shame that the actions of a few have tarnished that image. Jupiter stationing in a partile square with the USA Uranus today has most certainly brought about an unexpected public relations disaster.
 
 

As Mercury stationed retrograde on April 6th at 01 Taurus 55, exactly conjunct the USA Moon/Jupiter midpoint, symbolizing public opinion, and opposite the USA Pluto/North Node midpoint, representing how America uses power, the siege of Fallujah by U.S. Marines was underway in retaliation for the brutal killings and mutilations of four U.S. civilian contractors days earlier by an incensed Iraqi mob. As Mercury then retrograded back into Aries and formed the second of three cardinal T-Crosses to the USA Mercury-Pluto axis at 24-27 degrees of Cancer-Capricorn, American military commanders were forced to rethink their strategy while facing violent resistance from heavily armed and well organized Iraqi insurgents inside Fallujah. Too many civilian deaths, and the bombing of mosques to kill the combatants holed up inside, could have created a wider Iraqi uprising.

This city, a Sunni Muslim stronghold west of Baghdad, had been a thorn in the foot of the U.S. military occupation ever since 18 of its citizens were killed by American troops during a protest demonstration marking the birthday of Saddam Hussein in April of last year. What has emerged from the recent Mercury retrograde period, which ended on April 30th as the siege of Fallujah was being resolved, was an understanding of just who was comprising this part of the two-pronged violent Iraqi insurgency. Many former soldiers from the Iraqi army, broke and unpaid for over a year, were taking up arms again, this time as insurgent guerrillas. Former generals in the Iraqi army were being paid by terrorists, who were flush with ransom money obtained in a spate of recent kidnappings of foreign nationals, to train insurgents in the making and deploying of explosives to target and kill U.S. soldiers and Marines.

When Mercury, now again in direct motion, returns to its third and final cardinal T-Cross with the USA Mercury-Pluto axis between May 9-13, look for the U.S. military to have completely rethought its strategies, and to have formed new relationships with some of the former Sunni Baathist generals of Saddam Hussein, recruiting them to take over more of the security patrols in Fallujah and elsewhere. Some of the former Iraqi Shia soldiers in the south of the country, who have joined the ranks of Muqtada al-Sadr's Najaf militia, will also have to be recruited back into a legitimate Iraqi army and given paychecks to help support their families, thus keeping them off the streets. Otherwise the lawlessness will continue indefinitely.
 
 
 

As if transit Saturn on the USA Sun, with Uranus stationing while squaring the American progressed Uranus in June, and the U.S. progressed Sun ingress into Pisces in November were not enough changes for one year, we also have ten stationary transits in 2004 forming prolonged one degree aspects to the USA Sibly chart. These are listed for you here:

Pluto opposite USA Mars 12/28/03 to 7/1/04
Pluto square USA Neptune 1/29/04 to 5/22/04
Neptune trine USA Saturn 2/27/04 to 8/13/04
Neptune inconjunct USA Sun 7/25/04 to 1/14/05
Uranus trine USA Jupiter 4/1/04 to 8/24/04
Uranus trine USA Venus 9/14/04 to 1/5/05
Saturn conjunct USA Jupiter 2/10/04 to 4/3/04
Saturn inconjunct USA Moon 10/3/04 to 12/14/04
Saturn opposite USA Pluto 10/10/04 to 12/7/04
Jupiter square USA Uranus 4/9/04 to 5/31/04

This many stationary transits to the USA chart in one year is very unusual. Two of these, Jupiter stationing direct today at 08 Virgo 55, in a partile square to the USA Uranus at 08 Gemini 55 (exact to the degree and minute), while Uranus also stations June 10th holding a five month trine to the USA Jupiter - these double Jupiter-Uranus stations shed much light on the sudden and radical reversals of U.S. policy in Iraq. What is going on now would have been unthinkable just a month ago. When the president was asked in a recent news conference about the transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqis on June 30th, one got the impression from his answer that his administration was winging it - relying solely on the UN envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, an Algerian Arab, to fix the current mess on his own.

Paul Bremer, the American proconsul in Iraq, who, along with his predecessor, had pursued a rigid deBaathification plan since the fall of Baghdad, has been forced by circumstances on the ground to radically rethink the U.S. policy for the reconstruction of Iraq and the June 30th partial handover of power. He is now about to hire some former Baath party officials, including a brother-in-law of Saddam Hussein, to help run the country. This is obviously infuriating members of the current Governing Council, which is comprised of several repatriated Iraqis who were out of the country during the years of the Saddam regime, and who view the return of the Sunni Baathists with fear and envy.

Sounds like a classic Jupiter square Uranus episode, doesn't it? Watch for many sudden and unexpected reversals between now and May 31st, when Jupiter finally leaves the one degree separating orb of this stationary square. I would not be surprised if the entire Governing Council gets the boot, as it symbolizes a U.S. puppet show, and an entirely new political body takes shape there. Many Iraqis resent some of these individuals who lived comfortably in America or Europe while Saddam Hussein's regime was ruling with an iron fist. One member of the current Governing Council in particular, Ahmed Chalabi, who was a favorite of the Bush administration and quite close with Colin Powell, is now seen by many as the culprit behind the hyped intelligence about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Several skeptical politicians in Washington have fingered him as a crafty opportunist who sought to enrich himself in a post-Saddam Iraq.
 

Ongoing terrorist attacks in the Saudi kingdom are occurring with alarming frequency. One suicide bomb attack the week before last blew up a police headquarters in central Riyadh, and the latest attack killed American, British and Australian oil industry workers in Yanbu, on the Red Sea. One corpse was tied to a bumper and dragged behind a car driven into a boy's high school, the deranged Muslim fanatics screaming, 'God is great!' 'Come join your brothers in Fallujah!' With Pluto about to station for five months conjunct the Saudi Ascendant between June 17th and November 7th, one wonders if this country is about to experience a catastrophic terror event similar to 9/11, when the USA also had Pluto stationing on its Ascendant. Two exact conjunctions will occur on August 2nd and again on September 27th.

Fortunately for the House of Saud, it will take a lot to destabilize this country, blessed as it is with a close applying trine from its 28 Virgo 08 Sun to a dignified Saturn at 28 Capricorn 13, albeit retrograde but direct by progression since 1944. However, the Saudi progressed Sun is applying to an opposition with its national Moon, perfecting on June 23rd, and the ruling royal family is about to finally arrive at full awareness about the rat's nest of Islamic fanatics which exist within its borders. The Saudi progressed Saturn ingressed into Aquarius in June 1992, and since then the pressure on the royal family to democratize and redistribute wealth and resources to more of its citizens has been steadily growing.

One could also worry about this progressed aspect manifesting as the people (Moon) staging an uprising (opposition) against the royal family (Sun). The Saudi progressed Mars is now applying to a semisquare with its national Pluto, becoming exact on May 24th, thus informing astrologers that the extent of this terrorist activity will remain in place from January 2002 until November 2006, the duration of the one degree applying and separating orbs of this volatile aspect.

With this oil rich kingdom having a Midheaven on the cardinal point at 00 Libra 01, and their MC ruler, Venus, at 12 Leo 44, in the sign of royalty, and Neptune stationing later in the year in opposition to this Venus between August 15th and December 28th, it is clear that Crown Prince Abdullah and the ruling Saudi authorities will be perceived as having been weakened by these terror attacks. The good news is that Jupiter will transit over the Saudi Sun on September 16th, and then over the Saudi MC on September 25th, and the authorities in that country should have some luck at that time in tracking down and arresting or killing the fugitives on their most wanted list of al-Qaeda suspects.

The vast oil wealth of this country can be seen in its close Jupiter-Neptune conjunction at 8 Virgo, exact within 23 minutes of arc. The Saudis are having a stationary Jupiter return now between April 9th and May 30th; although Jupiter stations direct today 3 minutes of arc away from the Saudi Jupiter at 08 Virgo 52, the one pure conjunction occurring last October. A new 12-year cycle has begun for the House of Saud. One can pray that the rulers of the desert kingdom now fully see the consequences of the extremist Muslim teachings they have spread around the world during the last twelve years of this closing Jupiter cycle (which also coincided with their progressed Saturn ingress into Aquarius).

Their oil money has funded a global proliferation of madrassas (religious schools) which expound the fierce absolutism of their Deobandi Islamic sect, and have contributed to the breeding of the hatred and evil that now infests their own country. They will now have to moderate their Islamic educational curriculum, teaching understanding, tolerance, and respect for Christians, Jews, Hindus or Buddhists. More importantly, the Saudis need to financially support academic activities for theologians from all of the major world religions - a spiritual think tank, if you will. Building a non-sectarian religious university in a neutral country such as Switzerland, where religious scholars from around the world could come teach, write and collaborate, would go a long way toward renewing religious tolerance in the world.

Saudi Arabia has its South Node at 17 Virgo 02 in its 9th house of spiritual understanding. Uranus and Pluto conjoined in October 1965 at 17 Virgo 09, conjunct this Saudi South Node within seven minutes of arc. Those born at that time are weakening the country through their violent radicalism. This generation of Islamic extremists who were born during the middle 1960's are the terrorist masterminds who have poisoned the hearts and souls of their younger Muslim brothers who were born during the zealous passage of Neptune through Sagittarius from 1970 to 1984, and are now between age 20 and 34. As transit Pluto conjoins the natal Neptune of this generation of misguided religious fanatics between 1995 and 2008, we have clearly seen the carnage that these Muslim terrorists have unleashed on the world.

On the horizon in 2005 is the transit opposition of Uranus at 8 Pisces to the Saudi Jupiter-Neptune conjunction at 8 Virgo. Your correspondent would presume that Saudi oil facilities and seaports will be increasingly targeted for terror attacks, and that the House of Saud should invest heavily next year in increased security around the perimeters of these installations. The exact oppositions will occur on March 28th and April 5th of 2005, again on August 29th and September 8th of next year, and for a final time on January 19th and 27th of 2006.

By the time that the Saudi progressed Neptune, the ruling planet of the oil and gas industries, stations retrograde in January 2015, the country should no longer have as much power as it now does as a major oil exporter. What will bring this about is open for speculation, such as the depletion of its oil reserves or a catastrophic terrorist attack on their oil fields. It is no small coincidence that the seventh and final Uranus-Pluto square of March 2015 falls within two months of the Saudi progressed Neptune station. Some astrologers believe, this writer among them, that these seven squares occurring between June 2012 and March 2015 will produce the most violent upheaval seen yet on the planet.
 

On June 8th a very rare astronomical occurrence takes place - the passage of the planet Venus across the face of the Sun. Akin to a solar eclipse, wherein the New Moon aligns in declination with the Sun, this rare Venus transit can only occur at the retrograde inferior conjunction of Venus and the Sun when each are at equal declination. At 4:43:37 AM EDT (08:43:37 GMT) Venus perfects her retrograde conjunction with the Sun at 17 Gemini 53; her declination being 22N42 and the Sun's declination will be 22N53. The duration of this visible transit of Venus across the solar disk will last for a little over six hours, from 05:13:29 until 11:25:59 Universal Time. The event will not be visible in the western part of the United States. To see if and when you can view the Venus transit from your location, go to: http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/transit/TV2004.html

These Venus transits happen in a repeating pattern, occurring twice in an eight year span after either a length of 121.5 years or 105.5 years between the last pair of events. One occurred on 6 June 1761 and again on 3 June 1769; then the last pair of Venus transits occurred on 8 December 1874 in the 17th degree of Sagittarius, and again on 6 December 1882 in the 15th degree of Sagittarius. After our June 8th event, there will be another Venus transit on 5 June 2012 in the 16th degree of Gemini. It appears that these pairs of Venus transits alternate between north and south declination, with the 1761 and 1769 events both occurring parallel at 22N, the 1874 and 1882 inferior conjunctions occurring parallel at 22S, and our present pair are both to occur parallel at 22N.

Many of you who find symbolical and esoteric astrology of great interest will perhaps be keen to meditate on the shamanic symbols for the 23rd degrees of both north and south declination, in which these rare Venus transits alternatingly occur. These symbols, correlating the solstice points with a deck of 52 playing cards, were divined by the British astrologer, Paul F. Newman, and his colleague, the British shamanic astrologer, Lorraine Exley, and can be found at: http://www.shamanicsun.com/ As with the Sabian Symbols, these declination degrees are also rounded up (i.e. 22N42 = 23rd degree).

23º N = 10 of Diamonds
Equivalent to 10º 17' Gemini- 19º 03' Gemini & 10º 57' Cancer - 19º 43' Cancer
ANNUAL SOLAR DAYS: 1st - 10th June & 3rd - 12th July
There is a great storm.
The crocodile's mouth is open wide, his jaws waiting.
The elephant stamps his giant feet, crushing all before him.
Now is the time.
The oceans swirl and the crocodile swallows the world.
The weight flips him over so we can only see his underbelly; inside it is black, there is no light.
Holes are made in the crocodile's belly so light can come through like stars.
It is a time of waiting, a time of blackness, silence.
There is bird song, light creeps in, the crocodile gives birth to the world as a round egg.
It is transparent and we are waiting for it to hatch.

23º S = 10 of Clubs
Equivalent to 10º 17' Sagittarius - 19º 03' Sagittarius & 10º 57' Capricorn - 19º 43' Capricorn
ANNUAL SOLAR DAYS: 2nd - 11th December & 2nd - 10th January
An arched gateway leading into a dark courtyard.
The atmosphere is gloomy.
We enter the castle and inside it is filled with hooded figures in black.
All around is dark. Then we arrive at a room.
Inside lies a woman on a bed, eyes closed. Her hair is long and touches the ground.
She is in white and radiates a glowing bright light all around her,
in contrast to the dark figures surrounding her.
It is silent.

Copyright 2001 by Lorraine Exley and Paul F. Newman

It is also of note that this June 8th inferior conjunction falls exactly on Senator John Kerry's natal Moon, and in exact opposition to the progressed Sun of his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry. One could deduce that this is yet another portend of his being elected president in November, as your correspondent predicted in his 4 February 2004 newsletter. Mrs Heinz Kerry, born 5 October 1938 in Lourenco Marques, Mozambique (source: personal correspondence with Heinz Family Philanthropies; time unknown), has a Sun-Saturn opposition just like her husband. She is a hard working philanthropist with a heart of gold, and would be a much beloved First Lady. Her Aquarius Moon is conjunct her Jupiter, and if she was born in the afternoon or evening, this Moon would be conjunct the USA Sibly chart Moon as well. Her natal Mars trine Uranus delightfully confirms a theory of this writer - your correspondent has never yet known a female client with this aspect who did not have a boyfriend or husband who rode a motorcycle - Senator Kerry owns a Harley-Davidson!

In the recent Newsweek cover story about her, she was portrayed as candid and an independent thinker who will always speak her mind honestly. Her progressed Venus, which stationed retrograde in January 1964, is stationing direct in March 2005, just in time for the Kerry Inaugural Ball. Senator Kerry, if elected, would take office with quite favorable astrological influences on the horizon; his progressed Sun trines his natal Saturn from September 2006 until September 2008, and transit Saturn trines his natal Sun three times between September 2006 and May 2007. view chart These benefic aspects would confer great respect and stature upon him, vastly different from when Bill Clinton took office in 1993 with transit Saturn in Aquarius lying in wait to oppose his 26 Leo Sun three times from March until December 1993.

In examining the Sabian Symbol for Gemini 18, the degree of the June 8 Sun-Venus inferior conjunction, Standing apart from the passing stream of well-dressed shoppers, two Chinamen in San Francisco are talking Chinese, one could be excused for becoming confused over this cryptic symbolism. But, if one examines history, specifically 1882 when the last Venus transit occurred, one finds that the United States banned Chinese immigrants for ten years starting that year. With new cases of SARS being reported, one could connect the dots here and see history repeating itself.

Venus, which rules Friday, the holy day of the Muslims, and when viewed as the ruling planet of Islam, along with the Sun, ruling Sunday, the day of Christian worship, can, taken together, bring into sharper focus a spiritual interpretation of this event. One clear inference is the relative size of both heavenly disks - Venus will be but a tiny black dot crossing the enormously larger face of the Sun. As Venus is now the bright evening star heading toward her heliacal setting, and disappearing into the rays of the Sun, she will then reappear a few weeks later prior to her direct station as the bright morning star, at her heliacal rising. This passage from the Book of Revelation 22:16, 'I, Jesus have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star', leads the reflective spiritual astrologer to ponder the actual meaning of the relationship between Islam and Christianity.

In researching the period of 1874 to 1882, the historical bookends for the last pair of Venus transits, this writer found that the Balkan people, who had been under Islamic rule by the Turks since the Battle of Kosovo in June 1389, began an uprising in 1875 in Bosnia and Herzegovina against Turkish rule. The next year, 1876, there was a massacre of Bulgarian troops by Turkish soldiers. Serbia, and then Montenegro, both declared war on Turkey. In 1877, Russia declared war on Turkey and invaded Romania, crossing the Danube. Then, in 1878, the Turks capitulated at Shipka Pass and appealed to Russia for armistice. The British naval fleet sailed to Constantinople at the request of the Sultan, overseeing the armistice signing between the Turks and Russians.

Additionally, in 1878, Greece declared war on Turkey, and there was also a British-Turkish agreement to check the advance of the Russians into Asia Minor. By 1881, there was an Austrian-Serbian treaty of alliance, and finally in 1882, Prince Milan Obrenovich of Serbia proclaimed himself king. As the astrologer studies this eight-year period of history which occurred between the last two transits of Venus from 1874 to 1882, and then he fast forwards the clock of time to the present day, and seeing the current unrest in Kosovo, the debate over the admission of Turkey into the European Union, and the conflict between the Turkish and Greek Cypriots, he would be tempted to wonder whether or not history is repeating itself.

Your correspondent certainly feels that the next eight years are critical for the major world religions to make an effort to communicate with one another, especially Christians and Muslims. If this cannot be accomplished by 5 June 2012, at the second transit of Venus, and during this historical period of Islamic-Christian conflict, then the world faces violent chaos and an all out clash of civilizations. It is no small coincidence that the first of seven waxing squares between Uranus and Pluto will commence on 24 June 2012. On that day, the transit Sun is also conjunct the USA Venus. To further illustrate the need to pray for peace on earth, the composite chart of the two Venus transits occurring in 2004 and 2012 has Mars at 18 Leo, the degree of the once-in-650-year August 1999 solar eclipse with the fixed grand cross.
 
 

Venus stations retrograde on May 17th at 26 Gemini 08, in close conjunction with the progressed chart ruler of Israel, which itself is currently retrograde at 25 Gemini 30. This Israeli Venus, which had progressed to its station in 1967, the year of the Six-Day War between Israel and the Arab nations, has been retrograde for 36 years and will not station direct until December 2010. Later in the year, this progressed retrograde Venus will begin applying to a twelve-year stationary conjunction with the Israeli Uranus, within a one degree orb between December 2004 and March 2017.

As this correspondent wrote in his 5 May 2003 newsletter, it is hard to imagine any lasting stability for this beleaguered country during this long period of its progressed ruler conjunct Uranus. One would presume that the thorny disputes between Israel and the Arabs over settlements, boundaries, return of refugees, and dual claims to Jerusalem will not begin to get resolved until the direct station at the end of 2010. It did not help matters in 1967 that, as this progressed Venus stationed at 11 Cancer 09, it held a lengthy square to the Israeli Neptune between July of 1958 and October of 1976, thoroughly confusing all of the diplomatic efforts to return land to the Arabs taken in that war.

Some of the Jewish settlers argue that land taken in a war, such as a case like California or Texas being won from Mexico in the 1800's, should remain with the victor. Astrologers know, however, that humanity is arriving at the last fifteen years of the Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions being in the earth signs, symbolizing land and sovereign boundaries. By the next Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in December 2020 in the first degree of Aquarius, mankind will have ended over two centuries of territorial disputes and conquests, which have led to bloody World Wars and much death and destruction. One need only to look around to see the changing demographics and the birth rates in society. By 2020, the Mexican population will exceed the whites in California, and the Palestinian population will exceed the Israelis. What cannot be made fair by war or by diplomacy may have to simply rely on the historical power of human populations.

Last December, as the Israeli progressed Moon passed through 18 Leo, the degree of the 11 August 1999 mother of all solar eclipses, prime minister Ariel Sharon announced a plan for Israel to unilaterally disengage from the occupied Gaza Strip. This would involve the uprooting of about two dozen Israeli settlements, housing about 7000 settlers. The proposal was put to a test this past weekend as a referendum to be voted on by Sharon's Likud Party. It was roundly defeated at the polls Sunday, just after a pregnant Israeli settler and her four daughters were shot dead by Palestinian gunmen, who then were killed by Israeli soldiers. This tragedy understandably escalated the settler's emotions, and the vote was duly affected. Sharon's fragile governing coalition is now said to be in disarray. Will there still be a pullout?

This year, Venus remains retrograde until June 29th, when she stations direct at 09 Gemini 37 and holds a one degree stationary conjunction to the Israeli Mercury, ruler of its 11th house of settler communities, from June 20th to July 9th. It does not appear that a concrete resolution of the Gaza Pullout plan could occur before then. Israel can be expected to continue to propose radical and innovative solutions to its seemingly intractable problems over the next 13 years, as its chart ruler holds a stationary progressed conjunction to its national Uranus at 24 Gemini (in the degree of your correspondent's natal Jupiter). Meanwhile, as its 11th house ruler, Mercury, progresses out of Gemini and into Cancer on 19 August 2006, one would presume that in two years there will no longer be dual settlements in Gaza and the West Bank; Gaza then becoming an official Palestinian State.
 
 

On May 1st, the European Union expanded from 15 to 25 nations, most of the newcomers from central Europe, and countries which were behind the Iron Curtain for several decades after World War II. Occurring on the day of the second of three exact Jupiter-Saturn sextiles, this middle aspect being with Jupiter stationary direct, the world should celebrate the ongoing reunification of the European continent.

The newest member states are Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Malta and the part of Cyprus under Greek control. Efforts to unify Turkish and Greek Cypriots has so far ominously failed, and, as your correspondent wrote in Article 7 on the Venus transit of the Sun, there is a historical precedent to this, as between 1874 and 1882 Greece declared war on Turkey, in the years that last spanned the pair of Venus transits.

This writer, having recently lectured in Belgrade in March, wishes to especially congratulate the Slovenians, as he had the delightful privilege of meeting a contingent of astrologers from Ljubljana who attended his lectures at the conference in Serbia. It should be made more widely known, in your correspondent's humble opinion, that the best beer in the world is brewed in these two Balkan countries.

On 10-11 September 1989, as the Berlin Wall began to be torn down, a miraculous Jupiter-Saturn opposition was forming in the heavens. Jupiter, exalted in Cancer at 7 degrees, was perfecting an opposition to a stationary direct Saturn dignified in Capricorn. Saturn was also part of a once-in-685 year triple conjunction with Uranus and Neptune. On Saturday, as the European Union welcomed all these former Iron Curtain countries back into the fold, transit Saturn was exactly opposite the Saturn-Uranus-Neptune conjunction of 1989. Congratulations, Europe.
 

It would be only natural to imagine what America will be like on the morning of November 3rd. One peek into this future lies in the 20 January 2005 Inauguration chart. The astrologer will find Mars, the planet of leadership, at 18 Sagittarius, and in the exact degree of Senator John Kerry's natal Sun. One would also notice that the Part of Fortune is in the degree of the USA Neptune, quite apropos for a nation whose progressed Sun has just ingressed into Pisces, wouldn't you say? But attention can also be given to an elevated Chiron, conjunct the MC at 27 Capricorn, and in the degree of the USA Pluto. After four years of intense violence, and fear of additional violence, the country needs to heal.

This Inaugural Chiron is part of a 27 degree Cardinal Grand Cross, which is comprised of the lunar nodes at 27 Aries and Libra, the USA Pluto, and the degree of the retrograde station of Saturn from November 8th, 27 Cancer. If one looks a little more deeply into this configuration, one would discover that the Sun/Pluto midpoint for Mr Bush is at 27 Cancer 10, within 10 minutes of arc of the Saturn station. One way that an astrologer could read this symbolism is that his use of power (Sun/Pluto) has now been ended (Saturn station). Additionally, the astute astrologer would notice that Jupiter in this Inauguration chart is sextile to Mr Kerry's Sun within 2 minutes of arc, and applying at that. This correspondent has predicted that John Kerry will be the next president of the United States, and that the country, with its secondary progressed Moon applying to a conjunction with the USA Sun on December 6th, will unify behind the new leader.

by Rboert P. Blaschke - All Rights Reserved