This is an astro-maze post more for my benefit as I struggle to grasp what is actually going on with Brexit. Question – what is a lying chancer and the manic spinning-top that is Boris Johnson doing as the catalyst for change in a country as fixed as the UK? Partly it touches on Kissinger’s thought about Trump that such people turn up at the end of a cycle, effectively as wreckers of the old ways, but without much sense of what any alternative plan might be. Pluto in Capricorn’s final revenge before it exits, tearing down the pillars of the old temple.
The UK is strong, enduring, resourceful, capable of surviving through tough times, but not good at adaptability or embracing change with what is effectively a Fixed Grand Cross in the 1801 chart. Along comes Boris and his sidekick Dominic Cummings who lack almost totally the UK’s astro-strengths since they have manically scattergun Mutable charts – Gemini, Virgo, Pisces, Sagittarius. Staying-power is not their forte to put it mildly as they get blown hither and thither by their excitable need for constant action and desperate need for a windmill to tilt at.
What caught my eye and attention on the UK 1801 chart is Pluto in Pisces, one of only two Mutable (adaptable) planets, which is picking up the tr Uranus sextile late this December and through January 2020 for the third and final time. In country charts, even soft transits appear to act much like hard, so it is likely to be a more major jolt than it appears.
The UK Pluto natally is on the apex of a Yod to Jupiter sextile Uranus and was amplified at Brexit in 2016 by Solar Arc Jupiter conjunct, exact in the months before. What Pluto on a yod says about the UK temperament is that it has all of the aloof Plutonic power-hungry tendencies, usually along with a lack of understanding the Other, being better suited for an authoritarian position than equal co-operation. Such a Yod can undergo periods of frustration and isolation before being reborn with different values and ambitions.
When the UK finally joined the European Economic Community with the hope of rebuilding the economy after two punishingly expensive wars tr Pluto was conjunct the UK Ascendant; and the natal Pluto had moved by Solar Arc to conjunct the 11th house legislative Saturn which is the final leg of the Fixed Grand Cross. Solar Arc Pluto had started round the Fixed Grand Cross around 1960/1 as the old Empire disappeared. Solar Arc Pluto is now poised almost exactly to cross the UK Ascendant – for another major staging post in the country’s history.
On the synastry comparing the UK to the EU chart, the UK’s authoritarian Pluto at 2 degrees Pisces natally it is exactly opposition the EU’s ruthlessly determined and unco-operative Pluto square Mars – so it was never going to be a comfortable match. The UK’s Uranus is conjunct the EU’s Ascendant making the UK the maverick rebel, with the UK likes-to-be-in-financial-control Mars conjunct the EU Moon and square the EU Uranus for a combustible and inflammatory chemistry.
The key events of the 20th Century – WW1 and 11, loss of colonies, joining the EEC – were all marked up by that UK Pluto in its Solar Arc position at the time. And here we are again with another significant marker on the UK’s timeline.
It kind of makes sense of the clown that is Johnson who is not remotely Churchillian for all his vanity preening. [ Churchill despite being a Sagittarius had a preponderantly Fixed chart to give him endurance and bottom; and his enthusiastic, morale-boosting Mars Jupiter fell in the UK’s 1st house which was the saving grace in WW11.]
I wasn’t remotely pro Brexit for pragmatic reasons since the gigantic economic hiccup that it’ll cause in trade will hit the poorest worst – with no clear indication of what will fill the void. And divorce from the EU with its vengeful, dirty-dealing Mars square Pluto wasn’t ever going to be easy-peasy or without jeopardy.
But we are where we are – and my sense is that a good many people are so fed up with the topic, they’d be happy to just get it done and dusted and if we step into a void then the country will cope somehow, since it always has – jollied along by Boris et al’s delusional optimism that it’ll be alright on the day – though that wouldn’t include Scots or Irish. And since the EU’s beyond-parody Juncker and bloated technocrats etc have made themselves even more unpopular, even with remainers, there is probably no way back. And just to add another layer of snarl-up, no one is going to vote even a rubber duck like Boris out and put an incompetent, old Trot like Corbyn in. It is very Plutonic – a titanium spun spider’s web which traps you no matter which way you try to turn.
Boris as a puppet on the fates’ string makes more sense as Pluto in Capricorn moves into its final third, fulfilling the promise of tearing down old governmental (and financial) structures – reducing to ashes to clear the ground for rebuilding. As with all matters Plutonic nothing moves fast and the destruction phase is unpleasant and often painful. Economically the UK is now into a very turbulent few years with tr Uranus in Taurus moving through the 8th until 2025 bouncing off all the UK’s Fixed planets.
New statement BJ just made at door of 10 Downing Street commenced at 18.06p.m., ended at 18.10p.m.
Note that Saturn/Pluto in the 12th now, Ascendant at 27 degrees Capricorn. MidHeaven at 0 Sagittarius.
Brexit is all about creating “order out chaos”. This requires a leader with a strong 5th Harmonic chart…..Harold Wilson had an extremely strong 25th Harmonic chart, with a focal t-square of Sun-Moon-Neptune-Pluto squaring a Mercury/Mars opposition. 25 factors into 5x 5 giving a multiple of the 5th Harmonic, which is all about “Creating order out of chaos”.
Now, look at Boris Johnson’s 5th and 25th Harmonic charts and if they are strong he has the ability to “create order out of chaos”. By the way, Churchill had a strong 5th Harmonic….leading Britain out of the chaos of WWII. You may wish to have a peek at May’s 5th or 25th Harmonic.
The last 3 years since the referendum Brexit has created “chaos out of order” in the UK. It’s all over the news.
Thanks for the astro maze Marjorie! It looks as if there are three separate judicial hearings sparked by Brexit/suspension of Parliament next week – in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and England. There’s a focus on Virgo (Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars) now which triggers the transiting Jupiter-Neptune square, amongst other things. With UK 1801 Mercury at 17 Sagittarius, I imagine there’ll be further clouds of confusion as the Jupiter-Neptune square is exact at 17 degrees on 21st September. UK Mercury rules the UK’s 9th house (Gemini) of law and 12th house (Virgo) of seclusion and hidden enemies. They are the home houses of Jupiter and Neptune….An autumn of extra smoke and mirrors springs to mind.
let Scotland be independent and eu? the eu: with infinity bonds and negative interest rate(ie bK!)
Scotland wants to join EU!!
Marjorie,
What about the Queen’s role in this? She is seen as a weak head of state for her decision to follow BJ’s advice and suspend Parliament. Transit Pluto sits exactly on her ascendant and she has an exact nodal transit in combination with natal Pluto. Trust in the monarchy has taken a serious blow. What are your thoughts on this?
There was a brief piece on the BBC about how – and perhaps why – she acted as she did.
“https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-49511731” Parliament suspension: What was the Queen’s role?
There may have been few options for her to consider. As an American, I often feel uneasy with my lack of knowledge of world events, and why they occur as they do. I remember Sputnik, Khruschev and his shoe banging, the Mercury spacecraft launches, and even the fallout from the McCarthy hearings. But the madness today esp in the US which is motivated by hate – pure unfiltered hate – beggards comparison. Had I lived over a thousand years ago, in England and France, perhaps I would have the same thoughts and come to the same thin conclusions.
Boris Johnson has chosen to involve her in a controversial divisive decision, sacrificing the Queen as Head of State, speculating that the monarchy will lose in a hard Brexit and his elected future government will then have absolute power. Protocol is not written in stone.
This would have been an epic historic moment for the Queen to redefine and certify her impartial unifiying role. Failing to do so will likely prove her to be on the wrong side of history and as a consequence the monarchy will be abolished or wiped out. History repeating itself.
I think (!) there’s a good deal of sympathy for her. Getting dragged into political games that put her in an impossible situation. She would have been well advised that signing off the parliamentary shut down was the only option open to her. It’s a constitutional monarchy so she can hardly go galloping in, mace in hand, and lay down the law.
The Queen is a constitutional not an absolute monarch and as such acts on the advice of her government. People suggesting that she is ‘weak’ or that her trustworthiness has been diminshed by these events are in LaLaLand.
The Queen can only act on the advice of her advisors and if they do not give her the right advice she is powerless to do otherwise! That’s the thing about a constitutional monarch she would be in an impossible position to refuse…
”Boris as a puppet on the fates’ string makes more sense as Pluto in Capricorn moves into its final third, fulfilling the promise of tearing down old governmental (and financial) structures”…
Boris could also be the catalyst for not only demolishing the UK, but additionally the Monarchy.
A legal case has been heard in the Court of Session in Edinburgh today with the findings due to be released tomorrow morning. Anti-Brexit politicians are seeking a ruling that the UK Government’s decision to prorogue Parliament is illegal. What the Queen has done is illegal. The plaintiffs, led by the SNP’s Joanna Cherry QC, are arguing that the British Government’s decision to prorogue Parliament runs contrary to the Scots legal doctrine that Scotland is a legally limited monarchy, and that the power of the crown cannot be used “in violation of the Kingdom”. This distinct Scots legal tradition was maintained and enshrined in the Treaty of Union of 1707 (only UK written constitution) and was not superceded or abolished by it.
Seems that many people, including English politicians, are not aware of the fact that the United Kingdom consists of two Kingdoms only, Scotland and England, and that although Queen Elizabeth is Queen of England she is NOT Queen of Scotland. She is Queen of the Scots who are a sovereign people in their own right, unlike the population of England. In other words when a majority of Scots no longer want her as their Queen the monarchy is over and out in Scotland (with or without Independence). What she has done to ”her people” is considered to be dishonoring her duty towards them (and not for the first time I may add), in particular taking into account that more than 70% of Scots now want to remain in the EU. This is the first time in UK legal history that the Queen’s decision to prorogue a Westminster parliament has been challenged in Court. Boris Johnston has a lot to answer for.
May I ask a question? If the referendum result had not gone for leaving, but staying in the EU, how do you think all the planetary aspects that have occurred would have been translated/manifested? Because those aspects would have been the same in either scenario, for the countries and all the individual involved. If they are negative for one scenario, then surely they must have been equally negative for the other. Why then do some astrologers believe remain or would be better? Wouldn’t it all have been more of the same?
Coming in terms with ones own incompetence isn’t easy. And that’s what large part of British people finally have to do, after eons of carrying on and blaming everybody else for anything that happened after losing The Empire. In fact, I think this is ultimately why people who’ve seen it have found “Years And Years” so terrifying. It’s often described as “dystopian”, but most things depicted have actually already happened.
I think this process will be trying, and take much more time than economic healing from Brexit.
Similar themes here in the US with the country’s first Pluto return in 2022 and a Pluto trine to Trumps Midheaven on Inauguration Day 2020 (which also happens conjunct his natal vertex on Election Day along w/ Jupiter). Much like Boris, I think his “purpose” is to bring on the Plutonic destruction of the socio-economic fabric of the US, then come 2024/25 the cycle of rebuilding and rebirth begins when he leaves office (and hopefully is replaced by a competent individual with a functioning moral compass).
Oh dear Philip, I think you just depressed a lot of people with your ‘2024/25 …… when he leaves office’ comment!
Great analysis Marjorie, thank you.
My problem is I often hear about the regenerative phase of Pluto, but I can’t think of any examples of this. The oldest transit in my memory was through Scorpio, but we still have AIDS, still no regeneration to the wreckage of the mining towns and communities, we still have rampant capitalism, greedy bankers and rapacious corporatism, avoiding tax and ruining pension funds. The pattern I see is that the seeds are sown during the Neptune transit, everyone suddenly becomes aware during the Pluto transit and there is panic and chaos, by the end of the Pluto transit it’s decided that we’ll have to live with whatever it is and it’s the new reality. Each time the gap between rich and poor seems to widen.
Pluto has a strange orbit and was closer to the Sun than Neptune between 1979-1999, so I’m hoping that explains it and we really will have regeneration this time and not just survival.
I generally work on a theory that the current patterns of Neptune and Pluto transits at present due to their orbits work on the idea that the Neptune transit sows lots of illusions and deceptions, then Pluto transiting the same points years later exposes the reality behind the illusion, and I guess it’s up to us what we do now that we see things for what they really are.
Yes, I agree that’s how it’s been. Pluto and Neptune have been locked in a sextile for many decades, the last exact aspect is in 2029 and then they will gradually start to separate. So the coming decade is the last of that era that began post WW2.
Neptune can be a very insidious planet and IMO is often a great danger because people don’t realise they’re in its grasp until things are well under way.
I think the problem for the UK in the 1980s and 90s was not so much Pluto through Scorpio, but Neptune through Capricorn, and in particular across the UK Sun and IC. Much of Thatcher’s policies were based on delusional ideas and fantasies of previous ages more than anything else.
Pluto in Scorpio (1983-95) did at least highlight some of the problems Neptune in that sign had created earlier (1956-70). The 60s free love movement led to sexual liberation, but then the AIDS crisis came to the fore in the 80s. Likewise the 60s were the point at which the Cold War seemed the most glamorous, think of all the spy movies and how neat the military tech looked back then. In the 80s it became clear how many nuclear weapons had been stockpiled on both sides, and how dangerous this was (indeed there was a near miss with nuclear war in the early 80s – google Able Archer 83). The point is that those illusions became realities that had to be faced, and to give people some credit there were efforts subsequently to educate and inform about AIDS and to defuse the tension between the superpowers, leading to arms treaties etc.
I don’t know if previous periods are much of a guide, since sometimes people have faced up to certain realities and dealt with them (or tried to), such as the period above, or they’ve been faced with reality but kept on ignoring it anyway (Pluto in Cancer came right after Neptune in the same sign and marked the onset of WW1, which was a definite lesson in where the delusions of nationhood and related pride can take countries, but by the end of the Pluto transit in 1938 it was clear that some leaders just hadn’t chosen to acknowledge that).
Astrologers talk blithely about Pluto deconstructing and reconstructing – and I’m as guilty as any – but the truth is that astrology has no ‘moral content’, no implicit leaning towards fairness or progress. It merely says cycles come and go. Countries can rise on one Pluto and disappear for centuries of obscurity on the next Pluto Return.
But I do think there’s a good deal of merit in the notion of Neptune setting up the illusion and Pluto tearing pretence down. Pluto in Scorpio in the 1980s not only saw AIDs emerge, it also brought child sex abuse into the open which had been invisible forever prior to that. The problem certainly isn’t solved but at least it is now on the agenda. Similarly AIDs which is not yet cured does seem to be containable.
Neptune rules fantasies, delusions and also ideals. Pluto puts all those to the test… presumably to see what survives?
Tara, I was just thinking about this! I even looked up each Pluto sign of the 20th century last night. You correctly described the action and reaction of Pluto transits as it goes through each sign—irreparable regression and destruction, followed by acceptance of the new, reduced circumstances.
Of course should the UK split up then the successor states will have their own charts, and the 1801 chart probably won’t apply any further.
So perhaps what we should be looking for are the characters coming onto the stage that are going to help build the Pluto in Aquarius future?