How AStrologers Think

by Expert Astrologer and Saturn Return Expert, Nancy R. Fenn

If you are thinking about becoming an astrologer or consulting one, you should read this article ....

Times have changed! How do astrologers think today? Not much differently than they've always thought. But they could be better understood. Learn more ....

Russians think of their country as Aquarius ruled, according to Johnson's "Russia List". Johnson's List is a daily e-mail newsletter with information and analysis about contemporary Russia from a wide range of sources. Maybe this is why they are so open to astrology. Aquarius is also the ruling sign for astrologers.

I was reading about some predictions Russian astrologers were making for the year 2002 in an article written at that time by Kevin O'Flynn for Johnson's "Russia List" entitled "Stars Aren't Smiling Down on 2002".

O'Flynn, who quotes Russian astrologers like Yury Longo, Sergei Bezborodny and Alexander Zarayev, doesn't seem to put much store in astrological predictions himself but he notes that "even several current and former Russian and U.S. leaders and their wives have shown an interest in astrological predictions". I don't know what Russian leaders he's referring to but it is thought that President and Mrs. Reagan consulted astrologers like Sydney Omar, Jeanne Dixon

and Joan Quigley.

The comment that caught my attention in the article, however, was this:
"Perhaps the most pessimistic of the astrologers doing the rounds in the Russian media was Alexander Zarayev. He predicted in "Argumenty i Fakty" that Russia would see a bumpy ride between February 28 and March 12 and an even worse time after July 27, with problems in the Middle East and other hot spots. It will be similar to the [ruble] default in 1998," said Zarayev, who, like many astrologers, was short on details [emphasis mine].

Many writers who cover astrology interviews and predictions don't understand or like astrology and cover it with thinly veiled ridicule.

There is a reason astrologers are "short on details" and that is what I would like to explain in this article. It has to do with the way our predictions are made and the way we think.
Astrologers don't associate events by cause and effect. They associate them by analogy, much as poets do.

There are two reasons they use analogy. First, we are trying to explain things that are difficult to put into words, like poets. The poet says,"my love is like a red, red rose" because it is hard to put into words what an intangible thing, feeling or experience like love is without comparing it to something tangible, of rare beauty and ecstatic fragrance, like, for example, a rose.

Secondly, we are arriving at our conclusions by connecting dots that are invisible to the untrained eye but which exist in our formulas and calculations and lead us to our conclusions without physical evidence. This is why backing up some of our statements is difficult. We know two things are associated through time and space but we ourselves are not exactly certain what they will look like on the manifest earth plane. That is why the Russian astrologer said, "It will be similar to the [ruble] default in 1998."

If I might qualify Zarayev's statement, which he himself was not allowed to do in this once-removed report of his prediction, I would suggest that the events he describes are "similar" in gravity and scope, but also perhaps in "tone" and "texture" to the ruble default.

Here's an example from something you may be more familiar with. I could say that 911 was similar to the Great Fire of London in 1666 and to the Galveston Flood in 1900 (the deadliest natural disaster that the United States has ever experienced) or the San Francisco earthquake in 1906 in scope because these are all catastrophic events of almost unimaginable proportions. But 911 is more similar in tone to the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the Viking raid on the Lindisfarne Monastery in Great Britain in 793 because although these events were catastrophic disasters they were also surprise attacks by foreign enemies on home soil.

Here's an example of how this kind of reasoning is carried out in event forecasting. Suppose I see that Saturn is going to pass over your Moon in your fourth house. Astrology is a language. It is a way of describing energy. Now we try to come up with some events that are probable, given what we know about this energy. In some cases, we take the nature of the person we're reading for into account -- he could be an 80 year old man or she could be a 26 year old girl -- and also what we know of their character and life events from information we request ahead of time.
Here are some of the images that are suggested by this combination of energy, Saturn + Moon + 4th house:

-- someone goes on an archaeology dig

-- someone's parent becomes very ill

-- someone breaks their leg and is laid up in the house for awhile, on the ground floor for convenience

-- someone gets some long lost information about their ancestors for their genealogy project

-- someone gets locked down in the basement by mistake or on purpose

-- someone becomes a grandparent for the first time

-- someone contacts the cemetery to find out about burial plots

-- someone is digging in their backyard (in Chicago!) and finds a dinosaur bone

-- a very old tree falls on someone's house

As a matter of fact, if you can "connect the dots" and have a feel for what it is these items could have in common, you are in line to be a good astrologer.

I'll help you.

Saturn = something or someone very old, buried, long forgotten

Moon = long ago and far away, infantile, motherish

4th house = ancestors, deeply hidden, emotionally meaningful

We use intuitive thinking to interpret information revealed by the numbers in our astrological calculations. You might also compare this to the way a doctor reads an x-ray. The x-ray shows a picture of something but it really doesn't mean anything until someone who is trained to interpret x-ray pictures looks at it and tells you.

When I try to help my astrology students develop their intuition, we do "drills" like this. I ask, "If you were a flower, what kind would you be?" Then I ask, "If that person over there were a flower, what kind would s/he be?" Or a color. Or a piece of music. Or a body of water. My students get irritated with this sometimes, but it's like practicing scales (etudes) on the piano It is building right brain or intuitive skills.

As we've shown, when astrologer Zarayev says "similar to the ruble default in 1998", he is making an analogy - "this" -- something known -- is like "that" -- something as yet unknown -- based on three dimensional dot-to-dot, using geometric proportions and a nonlinear thinking similar to physics and even music, which can seem vague.

Many people believe that astrology is like being psychic or prophetic. As a matter of fact, astrology is more like physics or music and not at all like intuitive and psychic ability, although astrologers can use both these skills to enhance the information they give you from their calculations. However, astrologers study intensely from three to five years to learn their skills and most would be insulted if you described them as a psychic or intuitive! Many astrologers are among the brightest people on earth. (Not necessasrily so with psychics or intuitives.)

Astrology is a branch of meta-physics. Physics explores the creation of the universe using the left brain. Meta-physics explores the creation of the universe using the right brain.
Physicists use numbers and formulae in a quantitative language. Astrologers use astrological symbols and formulae in a qualitative language. Musicians use notes and formulae in what is commonly considered the most universal of all languages.

While clients may think that astrologers do nothing but predictions about people's lives, waiting patiently by their phone for the go-ahead on a chart (!), most astrologers are fascinated with the inner workings of the universe, like physicists, and spend hours doing independent research, honing their skills on projects of their own that interest them. Ask your favorite astrologer what s/he's researching at the moment and be ready for a surprise!.

What am I studying right now? The effect of Pluto transits through Sagittarius on the Arab world, the history of the Middle Ages, music theory, and advanced horary astrology.
Reading for clients often permits us to have the time for these other pursuits -- we do love our clients!! -- which are usually not lucrative in and of themselves. Astrologers compare notes among themselves regarding their discoveries and present findings in professional journals, at meetings and casually among friends with shared interests -- just like other professionals.
Let's explore further the way astrologers think. As we discussed, astrology is a branch of metaphysics. Metaphysicians explore the creation of the universe using the right brain and something called "vertical" thinking. Here's the difference between horizontal and vertical thinking.

Horizontal thinking uses the concept of cause and effect and relies on a linear relationship between events in time and space, i.e., first this happened and then this happened as a result. The ineffective conclusion of World War I caused World War II.

Here's a day-to-day example. I'm drinking this diet coke because I am thirsty. (I got thirsty and that caused me to drink the diet coke.) Or I'm drinking this diet coke because my grandmother introduced me to them on hot afternoons in Texas when I was a kid. Therefore, I always drink cokes when it's hot. You see, hot weather causes me to drink diet coke.

Vertical thinking is different. It associates events by a meaningful relationship which is sometimes subjective (the meaning is in the reality of the beholder) and sometimes by a system which describes invisible but not imaginary patterns and relationships such as music or astrology.

For example, it might also be that the reason I'm drinking this diet coke today is because something triggers me subconsciously to reach for one every time I run my tongue over the roof of my mouth in a certain way I've been doing since childhood. This subconscious conditioning is personal and subjective but rubbing my tongue over the roof of my mouth does not "cause" me to drink diet cokes.

Or I may do this because it's 3:20 pm and that's when I used to wake up from my polio-prevention nap as a kid and be handed a cold diet coke by my grandmother on the way to the swimming pool.

Something "reminds me" around 3:20 every afternoon that it's time to "reach for a diet coke". That's personal and subjective and an association that the subconscious mind is making but childhood naps did not "cause" me to drink this diet coke.

Naturally when looking for vertical connections, we roam backwards and forwards in time. Actually in astrology, the childhood diet cokes and the adult diet cokes would be siblings. The parent is something else entirely and that something is the mother lode.

There is a third element in vertical thinking and that is an invisible but discernible quality to a particular time that attracts events to it by appropriateness.

Before I go too much further with this, here's a day-to-day example of the "quality" of a time. Every morning upon first awakening, I go for a five mile walk. It's usually a fun and peaceful way to start the day. Two days ago, a dog harassed me for several minutes when I checked my mailbox on the way home. A car almost ran me over. Then the bottom fell out of a bag of garbage I took to the trash.

At that point, I replanned my day, figuring it was going to be the kind of energy where I should do as little as possible outside the house. The "quality" of the time was not good. I didn't need to check my ephemeris to know this (!) but perhaps there were some negative aspects to the Moon for several hours that day.

Had I looked ahead, I might have known this but I don't rely much on astrology for day to day matters, though that may surprise you. This is because I feel that we must develop ourselves to the point that we can roll with the motion of the inner planets in order to be effective adults. Inner planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars dictate day-to-day matters and changes that occur over a period of say, a few weeks.) Simple maturity dictates that we become capable in handling our daily affairs. We have had every inner planet circle our charts many times if we are over thirty and should be used to their energy by now.

In times of crisis and transformation, or confusion and discouragement, I study my own chart intensely and often seek help from other astrologers and healers as well. These times are ruled by the outer planets Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Some of these planets will only visit a few houses of our charts during our entire lives and we are unfamiliar with them to a degree that can wreak havoc with our well planned lives. All of us have parts of ourselves we do not know.
Important to note, however, returning to my morning that got off to a bad start ... the dog did not cause the "cause" the car to almost hit me. The careless driver didn't "cause" the garbage bag to break. They were all things of a certain nature that clustered together at one time and place. They were siblings, the parent of which might be of interest to an astrologer.

The Greeks had two words for time: chronos and kairos. Chronos refers to chronological time, the kind used for cause and effect reasoning. Kairos refers to a quality of time being such that all events that occur at that time are similar in some way.

When I give my classes, which are usually small because they are geared toward gifted infp healers who represent only 1% of the population, I like to ask us to consider the quality of the time that would draw exactly these 5 or 10 people together out of the billions of people on the earth.

This is happening randomly throughout your day as well. Why did you wind up at the grocery store in line with those particular people? Why did your name come up for an IRS audit at this time? Why did you cross the intersection just in time to get hit by that car?

These are rhetorical questions but they are actually quite fascinating to an astrologer who will study such things intently. For example, it might surprise you to know that when we look at the charts of a policeman and a criminal, they are quite similar -- certainly more alike than the charts of policeman and a pianist. The same applies to victims and perpetrators of accidents, rapes, surgeries, etc. Slowly a pattern reveals itself.

It is the kairos time in your astrology chart that is analyzed for information about your character which will determine your fate or what amounts to fate. "Character is fate." An excellent book on this topic is "The Challenge of Fate" by Thorwald Dethlefsen, an extremely influential German

metaphysician whose books are not always available in English translation.

Another phrase we use is this. "Your life is your birth writ large." The moment of your birth contains the energy which you will smear, so to speak, or spread across 60 to 90 years of time on the planet. Its flavor will trickle down over and through everything you do, creating ribbons of texture and pattern, making everything you do similar or familiar in some secret, subtle way. If only you had eyes to see. It is easier to discern this in someone besides yourself.

It is even possible to see that the manner of your physical birth is repeated time and time again across the length of your life in the particular outer events that occur or cluster around your energy. It takes training to see this. Also, most people are not familiar with the details of their birth.

If you plan to study metaphysics or astrology, a good thing to do is ask your mother all about the details of your birth so you have the information handy. It will become more and more meaningful to you as your studies progress.

Getting back to kairos, sometimes kairos reveals itself best by going backwards across linear time. Most of my personal projects as an astrologer involve looking back at transits throughout history to see what happened under similar transits in the past and what connections I can make.

For example, we had a rare, once in a lifetime astronomical event a few springtimes ago, a Venus eclipse. I looked at all the times in the past when this event occurred , all the way back to 1 CE and discovered two interesting things:

-- a predominance of powerful women rulers or activists;

-- emphasis on the Salic Laws

The laws of the Salian Franks, from whence eventually sprang Charlemagne, forbid women to inherit property and this became a major issue in Europe during later time periods.
Something that interests astrologers, these eclipses have been occurring in the first 15 degrees of Gemini and Sagittarius for 2,000 years.

Another of my pet projects was exploring Pluto transits in Sagittarius. Somewhat unnervingly, I discovered they are low periods for western Europeans and high periods for the Arab world. We just concluded one. When some newscasters and historians alluded to the fact that we were finishing up on the Crusades, an astrologer could see the very alarming reality of this statement mathematically and without emotion or personal human opiniom.

Was I able to predict that 911 would happen? No. But I did predict -- in a paper I read at the "Better Worlde Galleria" in 1995 -- that this time period would bring an increase in terrorism, religious intolerance, difficulties in travel, immigration problems, upsurge of asthma and noise pollution and many other things that have happened. Is this vague? Yes. Is it true? Yes. Is it helpful? Yes.

One astrologer, the inimitable Rob Hand, did seem to predict 911 itself. Incredibly, an editor for "Mountain Astrologer", our "trade journal", chose as an illustration for his article, which appeared well in advance of September 11, 2001, the symbol for the planet Pluto (which among other things symbolizes, death and mass destruction) across the Twin Towers. In my opinion, Michael Lutin, "Vanity Fair" astrologer, also made the prediction.

As a metaphysician, I am not so interested in predictions as I am, like Einstein, interested in knowing God's mind. If this sounds a litle presumptuous, at least it keeps me busy. Like the German philosophers, I do believe that something very akin to God's mind or Adam Smith's "invisible hand" is revealed in a detached exploration and understanding of the outworking of history and in the turning gyre of the heavens.

For readers interested in a career in astrology, please also read my article "Why aren't Famous Astrologers?"

If you have any questions about this article, please email me and I will be glad to have a respectful dialogue with you via email.

Pluto's Transit from Sagittarius to Capricorn

Dow Jones lowest since 1997. There's that date again. Pluto's whole visit to Sagittarius that began in 1995-97 might now be seen ad a big fat inflationary bubble. In the cycle of things energy wise, Sag expands and Capricorn follows with prudent contraction.

Pluto entered Sag in 1995-96 and left in 2008-09 - Looking for Cycles

From wiki

"Linda Chatman Thomsen was the Director of the Division of Enforcement for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from 2005 until early 2009. Since arriving at the SEC in 1995, she has worked under four SEC Chairmans[sic! ... {She was appointed] Director of the Division of Enforcement on May 12, 2005... Linda Thomsen is known for her role in the suits by the SEC against Enron and Martha Stewart (the SEC can only sue, not arrest, although the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI may work in concert with the SEC, if necessary)...."

Thomsen's career at theSEC is sure to end this year with the Madoff gaff.

It's a case of another career bottoming out as Pluto changes signs ending a 13 year cycle. Ppluto is moving from Sagittarius to Capricorn.

To learn more astrology "in the real world", look for the date 1995-96 and things which began then that are culminating or finally reaching closure now. I will add to this list as I notice things too. Astrology is not a tool for predicting day to day events; however it is true to the mark for the big cycles.

Please send me examples that you know of.

EXAMPLES

• OJ Simpson's murder trial took place in 1995; he finally went to jail in 2009

Last Review of Pluto in Sagittarius

work in progress ...

take this and apply it to Capricorn to anticipate the magnitude of change in matters ruled by Capricorn ...

Pluto, the planet of transformation, has been moving slowly through the sign of Sagittarius since January 17, 1995. It will leave Sagittarius for good on November 27, 2008. This article updates my predictions from 1995 and allows you to see the magnitude of change that will becoming in Capricorniian areas for the next sixteen year.


I predicted:
Mental health is a major issue on the Gemini/Sagittarius axis, as it is with the other mutable signs, Virgo and Pisces. As contrasted with depression and psychosis which are "water" conditions, the sorts of problems that arise on the Gemini/Sagittarius axis are specifically conditions that result from trying to manage an unmanageable environment with the mind. Autism and schizophrenia are dramatic examples. Learning disabilities and hyperactivity are less dramatic examples.

The nature of the problem could be described as an inability to regulate the amount of information which arrives at the brain for processing. In the case of autism, the mechanism seems to shut down. In learning abilities, frustration results along with confusion.

In schizophrenia, the child may have been confronted with a split in the outer world, the home environment.

A good breeding ground for the kind of mental illness found on the Gemini/Sagittarius axis would be parents of different ethnic, cultural, income, educational or religious backgrounds and the lack of a good mediation, such as the presence of an understanding grandparent. Colloquially we like to say such things "make us crazy" and indeed, such things do.

Often differences become exaggerated as the honeymoon stage of marriage draws to an end and the real work of marriage and child rearing begins.

"My mother says I will go to hell if I don't go to church every Sunday and my father says only idiots believe s--- like that." These kinds of things "drive us crazy" as a kid.

Or, after the divorce ;-), Daddy says his new boyfriend is a worthwhile and caring individual. "Mom says the Devil has gotten hold of Dad and not to go near that evil man living with him."

You can easily understand that in order to survive, the child may need to become "two different people". But there are many reasons why people can become split and not always to such a harmful degree as schizophrenia.


We can put this humorously: everyone knows that Geminis are really two different people and that Sagittarians are only around half the time!

What happened:
Mental health issues were highlighted in the trial of Andrea Yates who drowned her four chldren iin the bathtub in 2001. Post partum depression is supposedly difficult to prove ... as if anyone needed to prove she is insane. The behavior of Tommy Ray Brent Marsh with his Tri-State Crematory where hundreds of rotting bodies were found by police investigators on a tip in 2002 will likely open up some areas of speculation regarding mental health as well.

Mental health issues were also in the news when the Supreme Court recently ruled that people with very low IQs could not be given the death sentence because they were not capable of assisting in their own defense and could not grasp abstract concepts such as Miranda rights and death.

The incidence of autism has increased 263% in the State of California over the past 11 years and everyone wants to know why.



Other things ruled by these two signs are short and long trips, other cultures, language and language acquisition, the school years, communication, meditation, education, beliefs (about God), belief systems (such as religions or physics), breathing, asthma, "the way your mind works", large animals, farm animals, wild animals, zoos, evolution, ethics, philosophy, law and mythology (someone else's religion).



I gave a talk at San Diego's Better Worlde Galeria in Mission Hills, California when Pluto first went in to the sign of Sagittarius in early 1995. Although I seem to have temporarily lost the paper, these are some of my conclusions as to what issues would be highlighted during this time period.

I predicted:
NATURAL HEALING I'll develop these ideas further, as time permits, but the Benedictine monks began to flourish when Pluto was formerly in Sagittarius and at other times alternative healing became pronounced under this transit. Not only did the monks work side by side with St. Bernard dogs (interspecies cooperation), they used herbs and other remedies for healing. Jesus Christ, the healer (and teacher) was born under this transit.

I predicted:

IMMIGRATION The changes here have just begun, although there has been continuing pressure in this area of our society for many years

I predicted:
SLAVERY The period in history where slave trade flourished was when Pluto was in Sagittarius. I consider slavery a 9th house issue also because its success depended on the cooperation of three races: Arabs, Whites and Blacks. This is perhaps the only time in the world when these three groups cooperated on anything. If you are not aware of this, blacks living along the shores of Africa, betrayed their brethren from central Africa into the hands of Arab traders. No white person or Arab could possibly have penetrated the African landscape at that time due to disease, wild animals and other brutal conditions of nature.

What happened:
It was front page news in 1999 that Thomas Jefferson had a black mistress for many years.

At the death of Strom Thurmond in 2003, speculation continues as to his relationship with a black woman and a child of that relationship, purported to be a 70 year old widow now living in California who will never comment on these speculations.

Just as Pluto completed its overhaul of Sagittarius in November 2008, an African-American was elected 44th president of the United States, Barrack Hussein Obama. How's that for transformation?

The connection between immigration annd slavery is made cogently by MA Hadley Ajana in Voices on the Run: What the Slave Narratives Can Tell Us about The Immigration Debate,.


I predicted:
CROSS CULTURAL ISSUES Cross cultural issues have been exacerbated by racial and ethnic profiling that followed 9-11, as well as by mutual discrimination between Muslims, Jews and Christians.

What happened:
SARS and AIDS continue to unite the world in the worst way possible.

The fall 2008 collapse of the world economy [based on poor ethics among other things] has us truly interelated in complex ways, Chimerica being a good example. Hmmm, the invisible ties that bind.

I predicted:
I have expected public opinion to move from Israel during this time period.


I predicted:
LANGUAGE I expect a politically INcorrect backlash. Our language has become so full of euphemism and so watered down by circumlocution, that a reaction is bound to occur during this transit. There will also be heated debate as to what our national language is.

What happened:
A document about Spelling Bees was a big hit in the summer of 2003, for good reason. It was an utterly charming movie.


I predicted:
EDUCATION This will be the most besieged and ultimately transformed profession in the world for another ten years.

• violence in the classroom


• violence on campus


• tenure


• status - traditionally this profession has been high in influence and low in status


• changing expectations for the role of teacher


• computer and home schooling


• ethics in the classroom
  

What happened:
April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold arrived at Columbine High Schoolfor a assacre.

The week of Valentine's Day 2003 there was an article of national interest about a teacher in the Midwest who resigned when the principal refused to back her up after she caught children in her class cheating.

During summer 2003 we heard in the news about the college professor with the criminal record (he killed someone in cold blood in his early teens) - in the process, we all learned that colleges are notoriously bad at checking back references.

April 16, 2007, Seung Hui- Cho killed 32 people and wounded many others before turning the gun on himself. According to wiki, "The massacre remains the deadliest shooting incident by a single gunman in United States history, on or off a school campus."

All would agree there has been a proliferation of online learning.

I predicted:
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION Overcrowding and her minions ...

• asthma


• irritability


• allergies


• phobias


• nervousness


• "nerves"


• "space"


• pollution

What happened:
There is a rise in asthma in children -- it is environmental, not physiological ;-) but that's for us to know and them to find out.

By 2008 Global Warming is finallly taken seriously.

On November 20, 2008, 7 days before leaving Pluto leaves Sagittarius, Rep. Henry A, Waxman of California, an advocate of stiff measures against global warming, replaced Michigan Rep. John D, Dingell as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

AIR TRAVEL Well, the impact is already staggering. Soon it will take longer to get across town to the airport and wait in line than it will take to complete a transatlantic flight.

An interesting case in the late 90s involved a woman who was denied the right to take her asthma inhaler onboard at the gate after having been guaranteed the right over the phone when booking the flight. She died shortly after landing at her destination. This is the first time an airline has been held responsible for the baggage matters.

Southwest Airlines came under a public relations storm for their policy on obesity .

According to the BBC, in March 2004 "a two-year-old boy was escorted off a British Airways plane along with his grandparents after he had a tantrum just before take-off.

T"he family of Marcello Ferrand, from Kensal Rise, north-west London say he panicked after the aircraft crew tried to fit him with a seatbelt. blah blah blah"

We are seeing the near demise of some airlines and the big-3 car companinees while prices plummet on airfare and cruises.

IMMIGRATION AND REDISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION The migration patterns of groups throughout history has had major impact on culture, language, religion, resources and power. Today the computer is providing an environment where more and more people can live wherever they want and "work from home".

When census reports were released in 2002 showing that for the first time more people left California than moved to it ... we might consider that the virtual end of the westward migration and displacement of peoples which began with the Mongols in the early 1200s had finally come to a close.

As Pluto leaves Sagittariius, in 2007, a very sympathetic movie was made about the life of Genghis Khan and his Mongol hordes, called Mongol by Khabarovskia Sergei Bodrov following the book by publishedin 2005, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford. In 2008 the movie Genghis Khan was released by director Henry Levin.

GENOCIDE AND RACIAL PURGING/INTERNATIONAL LAW The third trial for genocide and war crimes in the history of the world is underway at the Hague, the trial of Slobodan Milosevic.

Here are some good websites to refresh on the history of the events leading up to the trial.
Genocide (ruled by Sagittarius) is defined by the tribunal as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group".

January 15, 1999 is the date for the massacre at the Village of Racak
Saturn was at 27 Aries
Pluto was at 9 Sag

Why is there so much activity at 25-27 Aries/Libra ?? ... stay tuned for an attempt to answer this in the article on Princess Margaret, The Royals

Rwanda - the second international tribunal in history was established in Arusha, Tanzania, for cases resulting from the atrocities carried out in Rwanda in 1994.

Adolf Eichmann was tried in 1960 for his role in Nazi atrocities during World War II. Learn more: Interpreting Eichmann: Exploring the Significance of the Eichmann Trial by Hadley Ajana.

Click here to review PBS special online version
The little girl in the red coat - an example of meaningful coincidence or synchronicity


POLLUTION
noise - boomboxes, curfews, regulation

• as Pluto reaches the halfway point through Sagittarius, the cell phone problem on public transportation on the east coast and in public places everywhere is becoming a crisis
  air


• busy-ness - too many choices with lack of ability to prioritize, lack of morals, values


• SPAM
  
  
  
  THE CELL QUESTION I love this issue because it combines so many Gemini/Sagittarian things. Driving with the cell phone is dangerous because, as any good astrologer knows, driving is a Sag. activity and talking on the phone is a Gemini activity. They use exactly opposite sides of the brain and can't be done at the same time without a great deal of brain development, which doesn't seem to be the case with many of the people I see engaged in this activity.
  
  It is an established fact that driving while using a cell phone is almost as dangerous (statistically) as driving under the influence. Iit is noww (208) out of law to drive without a handsfree in many states and etiquette films are flashed at mmmovie theaters to curb the inmates.
  
  The use of cell phones has also brought forward new questions of etiquette, a mutable sign issue.
  
  Geminis know all the rules and are very fussy about them but pretend they aren't
  Virgos are the Miss Manners


• 
  Sagittarians really were raised in the barnyard and if you don't like it, that's your problem, it doesn't bother them!


• 
  Pisces -- huh? they are delicate and exquisite by nature and often quite phobic about manners
  
  One reason that manners are changing so much right now, particularly in the work place, is because the generation now funneling into the workplace is the Pluto in Virgo generation. They will bring sweeping and transformative change to the way we think about work and how we do the work.
  
  Geminis don't like to be bored for a minute or alone with their own thoughts, which drive them crazy, basically. So, who's got the cell growing out of their ear? Gemini. And who wouldn't be caught dead with one? Sag.
  
  A Sagittarian I know considers them slave bracelets. It isn't all that far from micro chips, she feels.
  
  I leave you with this thought: Gentlemen, how would you like your wife to slip a microchip in you when you're not looking?
  
  
  JOHN FORBES NASH, JR.A BEAUTIFUL MIND
  John Forbes Nash, Jr. won the Nobel Prize in Economics
  


• he is equally well know as of late for the mental illness he experienced after his Saturn Return, at 31


• the movie version of the book about John Nash, A Beautiful Mind, hits the public just as Pluto transits Nash's own natal Saturn (see stills from the movie)


• mental health issues are also at the core of the Yates trial and certainly at the core of the Marsh indictment
  
  "Now I must arrive at the time of my change from scientific rationality of thinking into the delusional thinking characteristic of persons who are psychiatrically diagnosed as "schizophrenic" or "paranoid schizophrenic". But I will not really attempt to describe this long period of time but rather avoid embarrassment by simply omitting to give the details of truly personal type. " [from Nash's Nobel acceptance speech]
  
  John Nash was born June 13, 1928. He was given the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994. He has two planets in Gemini and one in Sagittarius but they are very important planets. His Sun is in Gemini conjunct Venus. These planets are opposed by his Saturn in Sagittarius. Moreover, the Moon Nodes are in Gemini/Sag.

In his own words at his Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, Nash states, "The mental disturbances originated in the early months of 1959 at a time when Alicia happened to be pregnant." The dead giveaway here is the word "happened". Learn to not skip over things like this. We'll return to this later in the interpretation.

Nash says further in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech: "So at the present time I seem to be thinking rationally again in the style that is characteristic of scientists. However this is not entirely a matter of joy as if someone returned from physical disability to good physical health. One aspect of this is that rationality of thought imposes a limit on a person's concept of his relation to the cosmos. For example, a non-Zoroastrian could think of Zarathustra as simply a madman who led millions of naive followers to adopt a cult of ritual fire worship. But without his "madness" Zarathustra would necessarily have been only another of the millions or billions of human individuals who have lived and then been forgotten." [Emphasis mine.]

Read the speech for yourself.

He concludes:

"Statistically, it would seem improbable that any mathematician or scientist, at the age of 66, would be able through continued research efforts, to add much to his or her previous achievements. However I am still making the effort and it is conceivable that with the gap period of about 25 years of partially deluded thinking providing a sort of vacation my situation may be atypical. Thus I have hopes of being able to achieve something of value through my current studies or with any new ideas that come in the future."

Read the complete speech @ Nobel Acceptance Speech for 1994 in Economics (Official Site)


It is easy enough to jest at this movie, as the BBC does when it comments that math can be fun.
Perhaps when Nash's wife got pregnant, this was confusing to him.
Sun/Venus opposite Saturn @ 15 Sag RMoon/Mars/Jupiter/Uranus square Mercury/Pluto
South Node at 8 Sagittarius; North Node at 8 Gemini This is conjunct the very negative Fixed Star Aldebaran (responsible position and danger of violence).

This seems to be a critical degree. It features prominently in the charts of Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln. Click here.

Neptune trine Jupiter

Nash has many of the characteristics of genius (click here), including a lack of social skill which is remarked on by everyone. He seems to have been a very strange character.


TERRORISM Travel and terrorism go hand in hand as Pluto goes through Sagittarius, because terrorism is multi-national. Terrorism is actually the "keynote" of Pluto in Sagittarius.

The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham was used as a meeting-place for civil rights leaders such as MarTin Luther King,. core usd it as headquarters to register African-American votters. On Sunday, 15th September, 1963 it was bombed. Four little African-American girls were killed. It seemed the perpetrator would escape justice until the case was reopened in 1995.

The Westboro Baptist Church in was bombed August 10, 1995 in retalilation for gay rights.

The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist attack On April 19, 1995 the Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist attack aimed at the US government when the target being the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. According to wiki, the attack claimed 168 lives and left over 800 people injured. It was the first major terrorist attack and until the 9/11, it was the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S. soil.

This mix of religion and bombings reached an apex September 11, 2001 with Al-Qaeda's attack on New York's Twin Towers. Almost 3,000 people died.


RENEWED INTEREST IN ROYALS With the baby boomers reaching their mid50s, "history" is beginning to fall into place regarding the events that preceded World War II. Most of this generation were born during the war years in the early 1940s.

Vanity Fair magazine recently had a 50 page spread on "the Modern Royals". It tracked the royal houses of the European countries and Russia, many of whom had been deposed in the first half of the century, to find what they are about today and to suggest that perhaps there is/was a use for royalty after all. (The article was written by Prince Michael of Greece.) Sagittarius is the royal sign.

Writing in 2008, certainly England has produced Prince Charming incarnate in William.

ANIMAL RIGHTS Sagittarius rules bigger animals and activities such as dog breeding, animal husbandry, animal control, education about pet care and apparently, reverse snobbery (are you fit to own a pet?)

An interesting book to read about this topic is "A Crowded Ark"



Also see page on large animals in the news


OPERA It's multi-cultural. For over a century people from all over the world have cooperated with one another to produce Grand Opera. We have been seeing a global upsurge in opera attendance.

By the way, I did a survey not too long ago on composer and most of them have Gemini prominently in their charts.


ALPHA PERSON The mutable person is the Alpha Person in the 21st Century. The mutable signs are Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces. Mutable signs will thrive because they

• speak other languages easily


• they naturally play the roles of financial and information brokers, interpreters and guides


• deal well with the ra te of change


• adapt easily - nomads, traders \


• Am I My Brother's Keeper

Cain the Farmer, the first born, the murderer and Abel, the shepherd, the second born ...

And Cain said to Abel his brother, "Let us go out to the field." And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" He said, "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?" And the Lord said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground."

SIBLINGS We will see more news and discoveries about sibling relationships. The American Psychiatry Association has had some articles about the profound influence of these relationships. If you wonder ... try calling your sister by her real name and see how your feelings may change.

Examples:
The Younger Sister, Margaret Rose

Cain and Abel is grotesquely reversed a sibling is genetically engineered and given birth to save the life of a terminally ill older child

siblings abuse their parents due to sibling rivalry during the parents' declining years (over inheritance, etc.) - stories like this have been hitting the news

The Royal Tannebaums features a doomed love between siblings who are "not really siblings"
who can forget seeing Uday and Qusay Hussein laid out by the mortician - these brothers featured large in the news during the summer of 2003 .

The Bijani conjoined twins won hearts all over the world as they made their hopeful but heart-rending visit to Raffles Hospital in Hong Kong early in 2003.


RACE, RELIGION AND LARGE ANIMALS AND MORE Click here to look further with Nancy at recent stories in the news that bring these Sagittarian issues forward.

Hello Pluto in Capricorn, Bye Bye Pluto in Sagittarius

Housing starts at a new 17-year low. Hmmm. Are we adjusting for the whole time (16 years) Pluto was in Sagittarius, one big inflated hot air balloon?

The NY Times said today that those around the world are paying less and less attention to the decisions of the United States Supreme Court. It seems Pluto was undermining the 9th house (Sagittarian related) institutiion this whole transit, too. Of course we know what it did to the press. Who reads print anymore?

Pluto Leaves Sagittarius

A truly outstanding treatment of Pluto's egress from Sagittarius from a universal perspective: http://raginguniverse.blogspot.com/2008/08/idolatry.html

All I can say is, I wish I had written this.

End of Arab Resurgence, Pluto enters Capricorn

The Collapse of the Mar'ib Dam and the Origin of the Arabs
[arabiafelix.com]

The Mar'ib Dam collapsed when Pluto was in the early degrees of Capricoorn ending a period of relative Arab supremacy worldwide which takes place cyclically when Pluto is in Sagittarius. History will repeat itself beginning November. We just don't know how for sure.

The article on arabiafelix describes this ancient marvel and its demise...

"Land of the Two Paradises, Ardh al-Jannatayn, is how the ancients described the capital of the Kingdom of Sheba in southwest Arabia. The inhabitants built irrigation structures here as early as the 3rd millennium BC, but the great Marib dam, large sections of which are still visible today, was by far the largest and most impressive.

"... The inhabitants [also] grew wheat, millet, barley, sorghum, grapes, date palms, vegetables, pulses, and fruits, the abundance of water allowing two crops per year.

" ... sometime in the political and economic chaos of the late 6th century AD, the dam ruptured, never to be repaired. Marib’s once prosperous inhabitants disappeared, abandoning the land to nomads in search of pasture for their livestock.

"Arab legend has it that the collapse of the Marib dam sparked a massive emigration from the area, what is today part of Yemen, to all corners of the Arabian Peninsula and beyond. ..."