Month: August 2016

While it has always been true – in politics and life – that people tend to agree with views/facts that confirm what they already believe and discount those which run counter, it is a phenomenon (confirmation bias) which seems to be turning into the pathology of the 21^st Century.

There is some astrology at the bottom but it’s worth pondering on these quotes from Katherine Viner on how technology is disrupting the truth.

“We’re getting countries where one half just doesn’t know anything at all about the other.”

“We are caught in a series of confusing battles between opposing forces: between truth and falsehood, fact and rumour, kindness and cruelty; between the few and the many, the connected and the alienated — between an informed public and a misguided mob.”

“Social media hasn’t just swallowed journalism, it has swallowed everything. It has swallowed political campaigns, banking systems, personal histories, the leisure industry, retail, even government and security.”

“Instead of strengthening social bonds, or creating an informed public, or the idea of news as a civic good, a democratic necessity, it creates gangs, which spread instant falsehoods that fit their views, reinforcing each other’s beliefs, driving each other deeper into shared opinions, rather than established facts.”

“Our news ecosystem has changed more dramatically in the past five years than perhaps at any time in the past 500.”

https://goo.gl/Wzs4yy

So what happened 500 years ago? The Gutenberg printing press was invented which started a process whereby books and pamphlets could be copied out to the general population (those who could read). At that point Pluto was in Cancer and Neptune in Virgo – the exact opposite of the present Pluto in Capricorn and Neptune in Pisces.

What happened five years ago? Neptune moved into Pisces staying till 2026. Neptune in Pisces has in the past coincided with high points for poetry, socially-aware fiction (Dickens etc), religion and hospitals. Karl Marx and Engels were around, and the establishment of theoretical communism took hold last time round of Neptune in Pisces in the mid 19^th Century. But feet-on-the-ground, facing-facts is not its strength. Indeed it can be thoroughly loony-tunes in its beliefs, spiralling off into weird delusions.

Maybe part of the ‘post-fact’ era we are in can be attributed to Neptune in Pisces. In the UK we have the inept but highly popular, far-left Corbyn, darling of the proletariat; and the Brexit campaign which admitted to lying the day after it won. In the US there’s Trump, whose interface with the truth (and decency) seems tenuous at best. Yet nothing critical that’s said makes a dent on their supporters. No one believes experts, politicians or the media, so most opt for the comfort of their own ‘echo chamber’ where they are soothed by like-minded opinions – the Daily Mail and Fox news on the right; and the Guardianistas on the left.

Neptune was also highlighted when the expression ‘Yellow Press’ first emerged in the 1890s with the Hearst newspapers, which went for scandal-mongering sensationalism – eye-catching headlines and no fact-checking. Neptune was conjunct Pluto then in communication-oriented Gemini, which can inflate fantasies. So it’s not a new phenomenon, but it is a great deal worse nowadays.

Not sure there’s any great astro-conclusions from all of this. Maybe it’s worse this year with Saturn square Neptune, inducing paranoia on top of Neptune in Pisces’s tendency to wing off onto the cloud tops. No one can distinguish truth from fantasy, so they cling onto what feels familiar and safe, no matter ‘evidence’ to the contrary.

Please post below, on whatever ………..

Donald Trump seems to be spinning even more out of control than ever as the election moves into its most serious and vicious phase. His grasp of foreign affairs, exhibited in a recent TV interview, is Sarah Palin-esque; he’s recklessly turning himself into a Kremlin poodle; and now he’s insulted the parents of a soldier who lost his life fighting for the USA.

Even the Republicans are appalled though in true ‘Vichy’ fashion they’re not biting the bullet and withdrawing support. Even one who described him as a “narcissist and egomaniacal madman” has thrown his hat behind him.

At the moment through July and August, Trump has tr Uranus square his Sun/Mars and Venus/Saturn midpoints. Ebertin says of the first – impulsive, overtaxing oneself, hot blooded, upsets (cardiac troubles) – it has military associations; and all of the Mars Uranus tendency to over compensate in grand macho gestures and comments that backfire. The second is quarrelsome, feeling unloved.

Running mid July to early September as well he has tr Pluto square his Moon/Pluto – violent outbursts of feeling.

September gets no easier with tr Uranus square his Saturn giving rise to considerable tensions and again outbursts; with a couple of heavy tr Saturn transits as well. Through October Mars Uranus is back in play.

And today President Obama said he is “unfit to serve as president.” He has shown he is “woefully unprepared to do this job” after his comments on military families as well as his handle on foreign affairs.

They are a very gritty mix with Trump’s Pluto conjunct Obama’s Leo Sun; DT’s Mars conjunct BO’s Uranus and BO’s Mars square DT’s Sun and Moon – so Trump continually tries to put down and rile the president; while Obama manages to do the same in return. and stirs up fairly primitive anxieties in Trump since BO’s Sun is conjunct DT’s 12^th house Pluto.

Their relationship chart, needless to say, is horrible with a composite Sun Uranus on the point of a T square from an opposition of Saturn to Neptune – at cross purposes, suspicious, no ground for compromise. That T square is being elbowed sharply at the moment with tr Uranus conjunct Saturn and will be so right through till 2017. There’s also another composite T square of an irritable Moon opposition Mars square Jupiter which is sagging under the weight of tr Saturn square tr Neptune hard aspects at the moment and on till the election and beyond. Tr Saturn is square their composite Mars through this month as Obama goes on the attack.

Trump’s Gemini Sun (opposition Moon) is, of course, conjunct the USA’s Mars, so he was always going to be a polarising figure who stirred up arguments. And his Saturn Venus in Cancer is conjunct the US Mercury and opposition the US Pluto – so again a tendency to split into supporters and haters.

The Trump/USA relationship chart does show September as being a high stress month with tr Uranus square the composite Mars – so more public explosions can be expected.

Emma, Lady Hamilton became one of the most infamous mistresses in British history when she embarked on ‘one of the history’s greatest love affairs’ with Admiral Lord Nelson. Artefacts from her life are now on display at the Maritime Museum at Greenwich.

Born 26 April 1765 in England in poverty, she had a child by a nobleman when she was 16, found another protector, became artist George Romney’s muse and was much painted, reluctantly married the British envoy to Naples where she became the confidante of the Queen of Naples (Marie Antoinette’s sister), fell in love with Horatio Nelson and had a secret daughter by him. After his death she ended up in debtors’ prison and died, as she started, in abject poverty in Calais.

For her daughter, she hoped for a better life: ‘A life well spent makes old age pleasant and honourable and I hope my dear Horatia will be good, virtuous and improve her time.’ And indeed she did, marrying a vicar and bearing 10 children.

Emma was a Sun Taurus trine Pluto in Capricorn and trine Neptune in late Leo, so undoubtedly talented, indulgent and wishing for great things (Nep Pluto). Her Pluto opposed a pushily confident Jupiter (Moon) in Cancer – so Jupiter was her driving planet with all its largesse. Her Venus in upfront Aries was conjunct Uranus and trine Neptune, leading to her wayward romantic life.

Nelson died 10 years before her and during those years of decline tr Pluto in Pisces was starting to square her Solar Arc Uranus Venus and then Sun; with tr Uranus Neptune in Sagittarius in opposition to those Solar Arc planets. When she finally died Solar Arc Saturn was over the opposition to her Pluto and moving towards the conjunction to her Jupiter with Solar Arc Neptune square her Jupiter – bursting the bubble of all her hopes and dreams.

Horatio Nelson, was renowned as a naval strategist with his successes during the Napoleonic Wars and was killed at the Battle of Trafalgar. Born 29 Sept 1758 9.30am(?) Burnham Thorpe, England, he had a military and ferociously determined Mars in Scorpio on his Ascendant with an 11^th house Libra Sun and a powerfully confident Jupiter Pluto in Sagittarius. Emma’s Jupiter opposition Pluto was square his Sun so she’d undoubtedly lift his spirits and morale; with his Virgo Moon trine her Taurus Sun putting them in the same wavelength. Though her Saturn Mercury was in his 7^th, landing him with problems. Her Neptune was conjunct his Midheaven, conferring a mythic status to their affair and his biography.

Their relationship chart had a passionate composite Venus opposition Pluto square Jupiter opposition Uranus (Saturn) – so equal amounts of mutual support, rolling crises, separations, tensions, and an inclination to transgress boundaries and common sense in their relationship. There was a good-for-publicity composite Mars Neptune conjunction, but its downside can be undermining for one side as the other thrives.

Angela Merkel did say she would not stand for a fourth term in the German elections due in September 2017, but has since backtracked from that, hinting she may.

Islamist attacks on German soil and the increasing burden of incoming immigrants is causing internal dissension though she gives no indication she’ll drop her open door policy.

Her Sun Uranus in Cancer is conjunct the Germany 10^th house Uranus – and all three planets are getting a severe shaking up from a tr Uranus square, in her case from late March and in Germany’s from late April. So both their destinies are in for a fairly radical shift.

Her relationship chart with Germany is very complex – with a confident Jupiter Pluto trine Venus, so success and popularity. But there’s also a Cardinal Grand Cross of composite Sun opposition Mercury square Neptune opposition Uranus. That configuration has already been under strain in 2016 and it will escalate through 2017 with tr Pluto back to square the composite Sun in January, and square Mercury from March, so huge challenges and bitter debates. With tr Uranus square Neptune in February and then square Uranus in April causing disruptions and rifts. And tr Saturn square the composite Moon three times through the year, bringing separation, coolness and a sense of loss.

This may not all be down to immigration, since the Eurozone financial problems which have disappeared off the headlines may be back in a major way with Italy struggling, Greece unsolved, France sagging badly etc etc.

UK PM Theresa May has a track record of being suspicious of an overly close relationship with China, on security grounds. So no surprises she put the brakes on approving the £18 billion Hinkley Point nuclear plant project which was designed to have one third Chinese money invested in it.

Given that her Libra Sun is almost exactly conjunct the China Sun, she might have been expected to be more on their wavelength. But her Uranus falls exactly on their Descendant; her Mars in Pisces opposition their Saturn and her Saturn is conjunct their MC – all of which adds up to a gritty, bad-tempered, divisive interface where her obsessive caution puts a damper on their ambitions.

The relationship chart between them has a hostile, power-struggling Jupiter opposition Mars square Pluto; and highly-strung, distrusting Saturn Neptune square Uranus. Especially from the start of 2017 there are all manner of upheavals, jolts, tensions erupting into the open. And those run on until the end of her term.