A hawkish Japan has said publicly for the first time it would join the USA in defending Taiwan were China to invade in an irritated response to China’s expansionist policies in the region. The prospect of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan has long been regarded as the potential trigger for a superpower conflict. Most foreign governments, including Japan, acknowledge that Taiwan is a sovereign part of China but insist that reunification must take place without force, something Beijing refuses to rule out. Taiwan is a prosperous democracy and has been self-governing since Chinese nationalist forces fled there after their defeat by the communists in 1949.
What is intriguing – astrologically – is that the First Sino-Japan War of 1894 started with Uranus at 11 degrees Scorpio and the Second War in 1937 started with Uranus at 12 degrees Taurus. Which is where Uranus is this year and rattled by the tr Saturn square so no surprises the rhetoric is heating up. That rattles up the China 1912 Saturn in Taurus and the Japan Taurus Ascendant square Saturn in Leo.
The other triggers appear to revolve around the China 1912 Uranus at 28 Capricorn square the North Node at 28 Aries. The Second Sino-Japan War in 1927 started with tr Pluto in opposition to the China Uranus, which is what will pick up from March next year, on and off till late 2023.
The three Taiwan Strait crises of 1954, 1958 and 1995 – all have activity around the China North/South Node axis at 28 Aries/Libra and squaring onto the China Uranus at 28 Capricorn – which will be under pressure in 2022/23.
The Japan/China 1912 relationship chart is aggravated this year especially from mid August onwards for a few months and with intense arguments in 2022/23. And in swampy, uncertain territory until Neptune clears Pisces mid decade.
The China/USA relationship chart, always in a state of tension with a composite Sun opposition Pluto, will be most affected in 2023/24 when tr Pluto opposes the composite Saturn.
Tensions will rise undoubtedly with all these sensitive spots being triggered. But it’s difficult to see the US getting dragged into another messy conflict when all the weight of public and political opinion is to avoid them.
See previous post October 1 2020
I notice, along with other astrologers, that you do not make predictions so much as ‘reflect, justify and explain’ what is going on already in the world. How is this really astrology, rather than a sort of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted?
Jane, You misunderstand the nature – and limitations – of astrology. An unrealistic expectation of certainty may write off astrology as a flawed tool. But the scary truth is there are only probabilities and possibilities in the universe.
Astrology will show you the broad patterns of cycles; and from understanding what happened before you can gauge, along a spectrum of meanings, what is likely to happen now. But you can’t step into the same river twice since there are always a myriad of competing cycles moving at different speeds.
It is particularly accurate about individuals – their temperaments and relationships. But again with the caveat that not everyone processes the same influences in the same way. Some will have a more primitive, literal acting-out where others may have the capacity to internalise the influences and handle them in a more productive way. And the chart won’t tell you how evolved an individual is so you can’t know absolutely in advance.
The Arab astrologers who made invaluable advances in our knowledge over centuries believed the astrology’s great skill was in putting the past into context.
Some astrologers don’t believe it should be used for prediction at all – perhaps because of the inherent uncertainty of trying to make any sense out of the collective soup. My position is it provides enough useful answers to be worth pursuing while recognising not just the limitations of astrology but the impossibility of pinning down a staggeringly complex, at time random universe.
Astrology stands on the threshold of the rational and irrational worlds – and when you step beyond the conscious world you are grappling with swirling chaos and trying to know (nail down) what by definition is unknowable.
Practising astrology it helps to park your ego somewhere else – the ego being the (equally flawed) human adaptation for coping which gives us a false sense of being in control.
A search for meaning (and certainty), I read once, is often found in trauma victims. It’s their defence against an ego that is threatening to fragment. It’s what draws most of us to astrology – a neurotic need to be sure. Up to a degree it can provide comfort. But not all the way.
Of course, the GOP will brand Biden et al as doves and against “american interests” should communist sabers be pulled from scabbards. Once the genie is out of the bottle, very difficult to get him to return willingly. A contrast with the GOP party chart would be helpful to assess even further.
Plenty of apocalyptical movies to describe the aftermath of such a conflict.
Most people think that the Taiwanese population is of Chinese descent. But that isn’t true, for there is a significant percentage of the population that is also of Japanese descent as well. I learned this on visiting Taipei in the mid 70s. Hence Japan’s concern about China’s sabre rattling.
Would be interesting to look at the history between the Japanese and Chinese in their ancient history because that, to me, would bring some context and maybe a little more understanding as to why China feels it can be beating it’s chest to intimidate. It occurs to me that the earliest date Marjorie quoted is 1894 but what was going on before then? Things don’t just happen (I don’t care what anyone wants to say).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_China%E2%80%93Japan_relations
First recorded spat between them was 663AD – both have rich and warlike histories.
Whew, Marjorie…… I have just finished a book by Laurens van der Post, called The Night of the New Moon, it is yellowed and old and found in a junk shop. It is one of the very best books I have ever read – about his (and many thousands of others) captured and interred by the Japanese in Java in the second world war. It is gruesome but told with such grace and lack of loathing, even understanding incredibly of the Japanese attitude and spirituality. The ugliest bits are so in a very low key (almost looking the other way) manner, you can actually read the whole thing. But it is purely because none of those nameless people who died wished for revenge – only for their own lives. It can’t be described because of its subtlety but he warned that this could happen again – anywhere – and the whole point of someone who’d been 7 years long in appalling conditions begging, from experience, for people to listen and learn that no good would come of it, to look at the enemy deeply and recognise he is the same as you… He is long gone, but the message is terribly relevant, in the light of this awful prospect. The book completely stunned me, impossible to explain. The amazing thing is that I have lived in Jakarta for 3 years long ago…and never heard a word about any of this….
World War 2 was awful. Japan was a feudal society until after World War 2. I worked for the Japanese for 3 years for a large ongoing multinational corporation. It was a good work experience, but the Generation I worked with in the 90’s were educated, and had a sense of humor about their lives.
I know China is large, and very much under the control of local party bosses in each region. I also worked with them – we had an 8000 person factory in Guangdong Province.
This is ominous, but China has been pushing its limits and its boundaries for a while seeing what it can get away with. Not sure how this will play out. You have to contain a bully, and Central office China is being a big bully. Australia is backing away from China as best as they can.
Liz, if you read his book you will understand as you have personal experience of the Japanese…. He remarked on their high honour and the conflict with their spiritual background, something I’ve never seen mentioned anywhere before.
The 1889 chart has an Aquarius Sun square Neptune on one side and opposition Saturn in Leo which would suggest a pull between their Neptunian and Saturnine sides.
I once knew someone who worked for a high powered Japanese bank and she said what struck her was the split between their beautiful, delicate art and the harshness of their actions, both in business and in war time.