The 9 degree Virgo Solar Eclipse of 1 September upcoming is conjunct the North Node opposition Neptune and square a Saturn Mars conjunction in Sagittarius so will be significant in its effect – spreading unease from Saturn Neptune, aggravation, bad temper and accidents from Saturn Mars. The exact Mars Saturn conjunction is August 23rd at 9 degrees Sagittarius – so there will be a pre-Eclipse spike and a lingering post-Eclipse hangover.
Mars Saturn has a variety of meanings – associations with the military, with assassinations, harmful and destructive energy, but it is also a bringer of discipline (through gritted teeth), has a capacity to overcome obstacles through sheer will power. Admittedly it also tends to erect the hurdle course over which we will, all in different ways, have to negotiate our way.
The Virgo Eclipse is in a Saros cycle, 19 North, which is about coming down to earth with a bump, seeing a situation for what it really is, a good time for facing the truth.
Setting the Eclipse chart for London it puts Uranus in the 7th conjunct the Descendant = splitting of a close partnership; with the afflicted Mars Saturn in the 2nd house of personal finances.
The Cancer Ingress chart for 20th June 2016, set for London, has Saturn on the MC and Pluto in the 12th. Both these placings were on the Cancer Ingress for 1939 just pre-the outbreak of World War 11, though it had the much more brutal Pluto opposition Mars square Saturn MC. This 2016 Cancer Ingress has Moon in the 11th = uncertainty about an unknown, insecure future; Neptune in 1st = uncertainty about identity; Neptune opposition Jupiter = cloud cuckoo land hopes bring disappointment; unpredictable Uranus in the financial 2nd quincunx vengeful Mars in the foreign 9th. Plus a 5th house Sun Venus = a Leonine sense of self-importance, though since it fell on a Full Moon, also a split population, with head going one way, heart another.
I’m still chewing over quite why such a cataclysmic and game-changing event wasn’t clearer on the charts. The UK joining the EEC chart 1 Jan 1973 12am, was never that happy with a controlling Sun square Pluto, a mutually non-supportive Mars Neptune and a suspicious, doubt-ridden Neptune Venus opposition Saturn. Plus an ‘adventurous’, leap-in-the-dark and hope-for-the-best Uranus square Jupiter.
Tr Uranus moving through the 7th is opposition the UKEEC Uranus (a Half Return) this year, exact through the run up in May, so would be a time for a rethink and perhaps a rebellion. In individual charts the Uranus opposition Uranus brings a mid-life crisis when people do crazy things, kick over the traces and act like teenagers. Tr Uranus was also trine the Solar Arc MC over the referendum which would suggest a change of direction. Though tr Uranus in Pisces in 2005 was trine the MC – and nothing split then.
So maybe a combination of influences building up to a critical mass. Tr Pluto moved into the 4th for many years ahead in 2012, then crossed the Sun and is now sitting exactly conjunct the North Node in the 4th – so a time of domestic mutiny and resentment about the old ways not working. Plus tr Uranus in the separating-relationships 7th since 2013.
What is being elbowed sharply this year is the UKEEC Uranus square Jupiter, with tr Uranus tugging at one end and tr Pluto at the other. It would certainly suggest a strong desire for freedom and hang the consequences. Uranus Jupiter is nothing if not a gambler.
Looking at the UK 1801 chart again with the benefit of, not just hindsight but, distance, following the old Arab astrologers’ belief that the primary function of astrology was in understanding the past, it does become slightly clearer.
The 1801 chart has two major configurations. One is a Cardinal Grand Cross of Capricorn Sun opposition Moon MC square North Node opposition Ascendant, the other is a wide Fixed Grand Cross of Mars in Taurus opposition Neptune square Venus opposition Saturn. All bar three planets are tied into these two configurations.
When a major configuration moves by Solar Arc to hard aspect another, then a life-changing crisis occurs. It pulls together almost the entire chart into one compacted bundle. At the moment Solar Arc Sun is square the UK Mars, and Solar Arc MC is square Mars from the other side.
The UK’s Fixed Grand Cross is heavily resistant to change, but here it gets enough of a dunt from the Cardinal Grand Cross , moved by Solar Arc, to take the initiative to shift. There was certainly a major shake-up and shock when the Solar Arc Moon squared Mars in 2007/08, but clearly not enough to take the decisive step. Or perhaps that was a necessary forerunner, laying the ground for this. So first the 2008 financial collapse (Mars in 8th) with no constructive steps taken afterwards, except old style governments entrenching the status quo by propping up the banksters who’d caused the problem. This is stage two. It’ll be another couple of decades before these configurations pull apart with the focus until the mid 2020s being on the financial ramifications. Only latterly will Saturn in the 11th = the legislature, get a radical rethink.