Dubai has been lurching from one crisis to the next since the crash of 2009, with falling oil prices recently hitting any recovery badly. There have been several major fires in their shiny high-rise blocks since 2012, six this year so far; and last week a plane crash landed at the airport, which isn’t only a bad omen, it also costs around $1 million per minute that the airport is closed.
There are two charts for Dubai – 8 January 1820 and 9 June 1833. Earlier charts are usually better and the 1820 chart has a 17 degree Capricorn Sun and Libra Moon; and Saturn Pluto in last decan of Pisces trine Mars in Cancer and square Uranus Neptune Mercury in Sagittarius.
The economically-challenging tr Saturn in Virgo opposition Uranus in Pisces was bouncing off the Dubai Saturn Pluto and Mercury Uranus Neptune in the post-2008 years. Then discouraging tr Saturn in Libra would conjunct the Moon and square the Sun; more recently tr Uranus has been square the Sun, opposition the Moon at some point; and now tr Pluto is conjunct the Sun in 2016/17 and again square the Moon.
So it’s had a long run of difficult influences, especially tr Pluto conjunct the Sun which presages a need for a major rethink and reconstruction in attitudes and lifestyle. Often disasters go along with this, as a kind of external warning.
In the aftermath of tr Pluto challenging the Dubai Sun, will come tr Uranus in an insecure square to Mars in 2018; and then 2021 to 2024 tr Pluto will be in a dreary sextile to Saturn Pluto and finally in a really blocked opposition to Mars. So there’s a fair few bumps on the road to come.
Alex, The Solar Arc Saturn Pluto is in the 6th house is only because the basic 1820 chart is set at 12pm in the absence of any start time. But the Saturn Pluto conjunction trine Mars would certainly indicate a fairly harsh regime; and a Sun Capricorn can be very unsentimental about how it fulfills its ambitions, ends justifying the means etc. That Solar Arc Saturn Pluto will square the Sun in nine years – ie. 2025 – which looks sobering to put it mildly.
Their Jupiter Venus in Aquarius is very prone to glitzy superficiality and indulgence; and three planets in Sagittarius could point to the religiosity. It’s a very muddled chart so contradictions and hypocrisies will abound as they veer between repression and the need for profit.
The 1833 chart is Sun Gemini which can be split, in a overly rigid square to Saturn in Virgo – so trying to prove something, but not doing it with kindness; and an indulgent Venus in Taurus, with a dreams-of-mega-riches Jupiter square Neptune.
I grew up reading about explorers in the Arabian desert and it sounded a hard, but purer lifestyle – wandering Bedouins under the stars. Wealth hasn’t done them any favours, no matter how many gold bath taps they have.
Hi Marjorie
I’m actually reading your piece in Dubai on business for a few days, a place I confess I don’t really take to to be honest. I’m again struck by the very large numbers of migrant workers here and the frankly pretty harsh and arduous conditions that the majority live under. Those workers in Qatar that are building the stadia for the World Cup live in similar fairly brutal conditions. Does the astrology speak about this? Is that Saturn/Pluto conjunction in the 6th house have a say there?
The westernised shopping, high end restaurants, alcohol, and other unislamic influences side by use with the religious orthodoxy are also jarring to me as a visitor. Again does that show up in the astrology?
All the best
Alex