A surge in energy prices and shortage of gas is causing anxiety to spike along with bills across Europe. The UK appears to be harder hit than most with a perfect storm of energy companies going bankrupt as well as petrol stations closing and supermarkets going bare-shelved because of a shortage of lorry drivers. There is evidence of similar shortages across Europe, but the UK has been among the worst hit because of Brexit as well as the pandemic. Inflation in the U.K. jumped by 3.2 percent in August the largest rise in almost a quarter of a century. EU inflation was 3%.
Parallels are being drawn with the 1970s when a three-day week was imposed on 1 January 1974 to conserve electricity after industrial action by coal miners and railway workers. It was followed by an election when Tory Ted Heath had to hand over to a minority Labour Harold Wilson government.
There are not too many similarities to that 1974 period which occurred when Saturn in Cancer squared Pluto in Libra, redolent of hardship. But there are in what followed two years later when Wilson’s replacement James Callaghan had to go cap in hand to the IMF, for the largest loan ever to have been requested, to shore up a balance of payments/currency crisis.
Through the mid1970s there was a global recession, an oil crisis in 1973 and UK inflation by 1975 was running at 26%. It was eventually brought down to single figures by 1978 – and in 1979 Margaret Thatcher swept to power on the slogan ‘Labour is not working.’
During the mid 1970s on the UK chart the Solar Arc Neptune was conjunct the 8th house Mars in Taurus which would bring major uncertainty and panic and the economically-challenging tr Saturn in Leo square tr Uranus in Scorpio was hitting the UK’s financial planets; in particular tr Uranus was opposing the 8th house Mars. So a triple whammy of the wrong variety.
The astro-pressure on the UK 8th house economic Mars was always going to be a major headache over the next few years. Tr Saturn in Aquarius will be exactly square in the first half of this December before moving on with tr Uranus to hard aspect the UK 2nd house financial Neptune and ‘speculation’ Venus in early 2022 and retrograding through the year. And worse the Solar Arc Uranus will conjunct the Mars by late 2024.
Below a rerun of a previous post: May 14 2020.
Cataclysmic descriptions about the economic damage caused by the virus lockdown are difficult to gauge since no one knows whether it’ll be a V-shaped dip with quick recovery or an L-shaped slog. The more dramatic couch it in terms of a historic first in direness. Though parallels are being drawn with the 1976 humiliation for the UK when it was forced to go cap in hand to the IMF for a loan. PM James Callaghan said: “We used to think you could spend your way out of a recession and increase employment by cutting taxes and boosting government spending. I tell you in all candour, that option no longer exists.” What followed was a reduction in government spending, tax increases and rises in interest rates. The economy did recover and it was paid back within three years but it ultimately paved the way for Margaret Thatcher’s 1979 victory.
The IMF Bailout came in December 1976 when tr Uranus was in early Scorpio and squaring Saturn in Leo, in the months running in and after. Tr Uranus in hard aspect to tr Saturn is traditionally associated with economic recessions and another such turns up in 2021 with tr Uranus half a cycle on in Taurus square Saturn in Aquarius.
On the UK chart around the time of the bailout tr Uranus was poised to oppose the 8th house financial Mars by January 1977 with tr Saturn in square. This time round tr Uranus will conjunct that UK Mars with tr Saturn in square in 2021 – so very similar. The Solar Arcs were marginally more damaging in 1976/77 with Solar Arc Saturn conjunct the financial Venus with tr Saturn in opposition to the UK Venus; and tr Uranus square the Solar Arc Venus.
But it’ll still be a very rocky ride ahead economically for the UK with the tr Uranus square tr Saturn hitting on the financial planets badly in 2021 with more disappointment by 2023 with the Solar Arc Sun square the 2nd house Venus; and more shocks in 2025 when the Solar Arc Uranus is conjunct the Mars. Tr Uranus doesn’t clear the 8th house of international trade till 2027 so it’ll be a bumpy ride ahead.
The Bank of England chart, 27 July 1694 JC, with its natal Sun Jupiter in Leo and Solar Arc Uranus in Taurus will catch the tr Saturn square tr Uranus next year for high-stress challenges. With 2023/2024/25 keying up as high-anxiety phases as well.
An IMF bailout hardly seems likely since they haven’t the money to prop up the world, but similar cutbacks and shocks look unavoidable.
ADD ON: See previous post: UK and Boris – a folie a deux ++ Tory Party 2023 turmoil4th September 2021.
‘The Conservative Party chart, 10 May 1912 is showing the Spring 2023 as a crisis point. There will be sinking moments and disappointments before then; as well as major calamities flagging up exactly now till mid October and again mid January to mid February 2022. 2022 looks nerve stretched and seriously jangled with the Solar Arc Uranus conjunct the Sun. But 2023 is the significant juncture when it could be derailed when tr Uranus is conjunct the Taurus Sun, followed by tr Uranus conjunct the Saturn at the same time as tr Neptune in an undermining square to Pluto’s power point.
Boris’s relationship with the Tory Party is sagging badly from May 2022 onwards with tr Neptune square the composite Mars; and then into a disruptive phase from May 2023 with tr Uranus in hard aspect to the composite Mercury opposition Uranus.’
Boris’s relationship with the UK is showing signs of increasing disappointment and an ebbing-away of good feeling with tr Neptune square the composite Jupiter this year and next until January 2023. There will be great irritation and confusion this December; with angry frustration and a sense of being completely trapped from March 2022 on and off till late 2023. There will be high anxiety in 2022 but it may be the explosions of 2023 as tensions spill out into public reactions that are the trigger for departure.
I’ve always thought 2022 was when the Brexit economic damage and Covid overspend could no longer be swept under the carpet as at present.
Not having an effective opposition will give Boris undeserved luck. But by this time next year Keir Starmer’s leadership chart will be passed its make-or-break Solar Arc Saturn conjunct Mars – which means either he’ll be gone or over the hurdle and there will be a more functional block standing up to the Tories.
I wonder if there is anything in the chart of Zarah Sultana born 31st October 1993, to suggest that her star might be rising at the same time Keir Starmer’s is in decline.
Can we look at the astrological problems in Britain in relation with the problems in the rest of Europe and rest of the world. Looking at this in isolation, not sure is the best way of looking at it .. such a wider view might show the interconnection of events as they unfold.
Readers in this forum,like many others, are unhappy with Brexit and the Tories and Johnson. Rightly so .. But, in an astrological site,it will be interesting to understand the interconnection of the events in Britain, and the rest of the world astrologically. Bashing Britain is comforting .. but wider astrological perspective will help to see things differently ..this site should not be another Guardian or Independent (For avoidance of doubt, should not be another Telegraph or express or mail either)
I don’t understand your point. There are plenty of posts below on individual EU and other countries and there is clearly a major global hiccup coming.
I think I see what you are getting at: how many of these things are global trends and how many of them are peculiar to the UK’s current predicament? It’s a good question.
There’s clearly some very challenging influences globally, but I guess some country charts are more susceptible than others, and that there will be correspondences between similar influences (e.g. populism) in different countries?
The UK chart and the Conservative Party chart do seem to be particularly pranged by the planets at the moment. And fact is fact: that is being borne out in real life: things are really bad in the UK, and a large part of that is because of the current political party in charge. It’s not opinion, it’s fact, unfortunately, and I wish it wasn’t so.
Here in NL too we are seeing rapidly rising energy prices and a shortage of building materials. The price of wood, for example, has gone through the roof. And just try to a get a builder to fix anything. All fully booked for the year ahead. But no empty supermarket shelves or fuel shortages, thankfully. And still no government, either! I’m beginning to wonder if the parties are waiting to see what the results of the German elections will be to inform their own coalition. It’s all change everywhere, some good, some not so good. The fact that governments are becoming paralysed (and can only resort to spin/PR) is telling. People are going to have to be more resilient and self-reliant.
It’s mindboggling – we have a fuel crisis, national insurance hikes, the ending of the £20 universal credit uplift all of which will hit the finanically vulnerable the hardest. What does the leader of the opposition do? He decides to focus all of his attention inwards on his favourite, or rather his only cause: his never-ending factional war on the left of the Labour Party, causing further political inst ability. It is interesting that at a time our political structures are creaking and being ruthlessly exposed which is symbolic of Pluto in Capricorn, both Johnson and Starmer have the turbulent, disruptive Uranus/ Pluto conjunction in their charts – consciously or not, they appear to be conduits for the crises and upheavals which are very much a part of the Uranus Pluto cycle. Cameron too was part of this generation and he started the ball rolling on the current difficulties by giving us the Brexit referendum.
Relieved to hear that Starmer could be gone in 2022 – maybe that is the reason for trying to change the leadership rules now to thwart a left candidate? The Starmer term chart shows Mars Saturn in 8th – under his leadership Labour are in dire financial straits; laying off staff, burning money on court cases as well losing a large chunk of revenue due to significant numbers of members leaving.
I remember reading about Jupiter Pluto aspects having a ‘whiff of corruption’ on an earlier post re. Priti Patel. Starmer too has a hard Jupiter Pluto aspect. Unfortunately he is coming across as rather unscrupulous and lacking in principles; someone who doesn’t know what he stands for other than his own personal ambition, and is therefore easily influenced or ‘corruptible’. He would never have been elected as leader if he had said at the time that he wanted to change the ‘one member one vote’ leadership rules, and that his energies would have been focused on internal battles and purges rather than the Johnson Govt.
Marjorie is correct to differentiate between the events of 1973-74 which were really part of a global crisis triggered by the collapse of Bretton woods and Nixon abandoning the Gold standard and the Winter of Discontent in 1978-79 which was essentially a largely U.K. event involving strikes by public sector workers. The former may have created the pre conditions for the latter but people often incorrectly conflate events that occurred in them as though they were contemporaneous when in fact they occurred 5 years apart. Worth noting that Britain joined the Common Market in January 1973 so being in Europe supplied absolutely no protection then from those economic storms. Nor were the 1970s by any means as terrible as often claimed. In fact 1976 was by many measures a time when the U.K. happinesses index peaked.
As far as current events are concerned I think the Pluto in Capricorn has been tearing up the old economic and political order with the Conjunction with Saturn in 2020 marking a secular watershed moment between different eras. It is interesting that the UKs heavily centralised, bureaucratic, unionised and nationalised infrastructure of the 1970s was seen as a major source of the UKs economic sickness in that era. It was essentially dismantled by successive British governments after the Pluto Saturn conjunction in Libra in 1972 during a wave of deregulation and privatisation What is happening now is that the essentially free market supply side economic system that replaced it is failing to deliver the goods (quite literally) as well. In particular the Just In Time model on which businesses have built their delivery chains has been shown to be extremely vulnerable to any sort if external shocks be they political or economic. I expect a new economic paradigm will have to be worked out but that is likely to be a bumpy ride particularly for countries like the U.K. which are heavily vested in what for better or worse can be described as the 1980s political and economic model.
“What is happening now is that the essentially free market supply side economic system that replaced it is failing to deliver the goods (quite literally) as well. In particular the Just In Time model on which businesses have built their delivery chains has been shown to be extremely vulnerable to any sort if external shocks be they political or economic.”
Spot on.
More than a couple of times this week, I have found myself remarking “How’s that capitalism working out for you now?” (a misquote of the “how do you like them apples?”)
And it’s not just the businesses. It’s why the ambulance service is overwhelmed, why A&E / hospitals don’t have enough beds, why collection services didn’t have enough staff during the pingdemic etc, etc. The failings of the “cut it to the bone and trim excess” ideology are being exposed.
To now the flaws of the “trimming” model have been covered up by the flexibility of the working people. People willing to do extra hours and shoulder big workloads to keep things going. The do it until they break, this is why people are leaving certain careers in droves.
I don’t know anyone who is not worried about the way this country is going. Marjorie could you please look at Johnson’s, the Conservative Party and the 1801 chart together and see if there is any chance of someone getting a grip.
Clearly Brexit has a lot to do with the problems being faced by the UK and our resilience to cope – but there are lies everywhere about this with the Government and the media. Looks like the UK won’t be waking up from Neptune for a while yet, unfortunately.
I agree, GD, about Pluto in Capricorn era and the general feeling of things unravelling here and around the world. So I suppose that should mean that eventually things will be rebuilt and reimagined in better ways. Ever the optimist!
What’s interesting about the comparisons with the 1970’s is that fashion is having a very 1970’s moment, which astrologically is partly Neptune I think.
I also noticed that on 18th November, 1975, there was a lunar eclipse at 26 Taurus – close to the 19th November one we have coming up now. The following year, when the UK went to the IMF for a loan, there was a Solar eclipse at 9 Taurus on 29th April in the UK’s 8th house, with Mars. Next April, there’s one at 10 Taurus on the 30th.
And then…..I see that in 1929, at the start of the Great Depression and US Stock Market crash, there was a solar eclipse at 9 Scorpio on 1st November, and a lunar at 24 Taurus on 17th November. April 1930 has a solar eclipse at 8 Taurus. This was another Saturn square Uranus era, with Saturn in Capricorn and Uranus in Aries squeezing the UK Sun. There was a serious influenza pandemic in 1929 as well. On the other hand, Baird was experimenting with television, London’s first public phone boxes appeared, and the first Academy Awards were held.
Jane I was in my twenties in 1975 and remember it well. Working in candlelight and the strikes and unrest. The 1976 troubles were helped by a long hot summer – it made people feel laid back. It will be interesting to see if things repeat themselves next year. Next years eclipse will trine the 1801 Capricorn Sun in the 4th, along with one degree from the 1801 Mars in 8th House. The Budget is normally in March and the bills starts to hit home at the end of April. Mars can be anger – perhaps a Summer of Discontent rather than a Winter?
That’s interesting, Helen. Yes, possibly a Summer of Discontent will erupt once everyone has realised just how expensive the winter has been. The long hot summer idea is also interesting. I’ve heard so many remark just how grateful they were for the sunny spring and summer last year and how it saved them much stress during all our lockdowns, and mini lockdowns etc. Hot weather does tend to encourage emotional release, as in rioting, too. Mars will be in Aries in June, which could be hot headed. Then later in the year it goes retrograde in Gemini, which suggests an argumentative atmosphere to me.
Hugh says, above, about happiness peaking in the 1970’s – when the economy was pretty rocky. It was also a very creative time for many. I just looked at a list of top 70’s movies, and there’s Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws, The Godfather, Taxi Driver….and on and on. Movies that have influenced so many other films since. Plus a book came out recently (ish) that discussed how albums released in 1971 were pivotal to what followed. For example Joni Mitchell’s Blue, Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, and Carole King’s Tapestry. Also, of course, there was Abba….
In music the 70’s was the flowering of the Neptune in Libra generation. Bowie and Glam, great reggae, Pink Floyd, Zep, Queen, disco, punk, post punk, kraftwerk and Prog. The best era of music and a golden age I think. There was full employment pretty much, students received grants to study, great movies, classic tv- I Claudius, Tinker Taylor, Fawlty Towers and much more. I don’t have rose tinted glasses and am aware there were problems too, but that decade was pretty cool in the Arts at least. Neptune in Pisces now is corrosive and insidious, coupled with the last hurrah of Pluto in Cap. We are now run by the lavender hill mob without the humour or charm, in my view
Feels to me like everything is going to hell in a handcart this week … not just the gas prices.
Almost every story on the news seems to be about something which has problems. Shortage of lorry drivers. Build-ups in A&E. Long waits for cancer treatment. Not enough police. Teachers under pressure. University issues. 2,000 local swimming pool closures by 2030. I can’t begin to remember half of it.
You can blame it whichever you want on pandemic, Brexit, Tories or whatever, but I really feel the Pluto in Capricorn era is starting its final fling.
I read yesterday that the Bank of England is thinking of raising interest rates on borrowing to temper inflation. The first major national bank to do so (if they go ahead).
The US federal Reserve (effectively the US bank) has already said it will soon cut back on quantitative asset purchases and hinted at raising interest rates in the future (year end or early 22 likely). Both would be major financial changes for the USA. The Fed does this hinting to nudge the stock/financial markets prior to the actual events.