Olympic bid and the London Bombings

New Moon in Cancer, Wednesday 6th July 2005.

This month the New Moon has ushered in a whirlwind week of sharply contrasting events, taking the citizens of the UK from a euphoric high to a devastating low. I am, of course, referring to the successful London Bid to host the 2012 Olympics, and the abhorrent terrorist attacks on London which followed. In the past week, the UK has also seen the launch of the Live 8 series of concerts, and the G8 summit held in Gleneagles in Scotland. So is there any astrological reason why there is such a focus on the UK right at the moment?

Whenever disaster strikes, astrologers are galvanised into action, analysing the charts for the events in question. The September 11th 2001 bombings of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre were a case in point, a little more on which later. The astrology of world events and of countries is known as “mundane” astrology. Although I’m not a mundane astrologer myself, I have been having a look at the symbols which are prominent in the charts of the moment, and trying to make some sense of what I’m seeing. I’d like to stress that the following observations are simply my interpretation of some of the symbolism for key charts and are intended only to give you a mere glimpse into how more experienced mundane astrologers might begin to work with these charts.

My starting point has been the chart for the UK. This is known as the UK Union Chart, which is set for the 1st January, 1801 at midnight. This is historically when the Kingdom of Ireland and the Kingdom of Great Britain (itself a union of England and Scotland) merged to form the UK. Just as your birth chart represents a blue print of your life and potential, so the chart for a country represents its national potential and characteristics. We can use a comparison between the country’s birth chart and what’s going on in the sky right now to see how it reflects certain events happening to the collective population of the country, just as we can make the same comparison to an individual’s chart to look at the astrological “weather” around them at any given time.

A glance at what’s been going on for the UK Union chart this week shows several key points of emphasis. Firstly, at the time the Olympic bid winner was announced, the 10th house of the UK Union chart had five transiting planets (i.e. planets in their current positions in the sky) moving through it. That’s a pile up of planets emphasising things which are symbolically represented by the 10th house, .including prominence and fame, goals, achievement, publicity. Not only that, but the New Moon (i.e. the Moon and the Sun coming together in the sky) on Wednesday was closely contacting the Moon in the UK chart, which promises some significant achievement for the UK. The picture is still more complex as we also have Mars in Aries joining with the UK’s north node. The north node is a “fated” point in the chart, and Mars in Aries can be interpreted, in a positive context, as being determination, a driving force, striving to win and bringing in the theme of sport. Jupiter in Libra is rising, or coming to the point of the Eastern Horizon of the UK chart, indicating joy, luck and happiness for the UK.

The alignments read in this positive sense make it seem quite as it should be that the UK won the bid fair and square. Compare this to the same planetary alignments within the chart of France, which puts Saturn, the planet of restriction and harsh realities (amongst other things), bang on their setting point or descendant, with the Sun and Moon sinking below the horizon in their chart, and it’s not surprising that although they were the favourites in the running, the symbolism reflects the fact that their bid ultimately failed.

However, the same planetary alignments were also telling a very different story for the UK. From Wednesday to Thursday, things hadn’t changed a huge amount in the sky (with the exception of the Moon, which is the fastest-moving body we use in astrology). Therefore with the same (or similar) planetary placements in relation to the UK chart, how can such a different set of events have elapsed so close on the heels of our positive UK winning bid news? Well, it’s important to understand that astrology is a tool. It does not give inherently good or inherently bad indications, it is what it is – a tool which people can use, in many subjective ways, to better understand the Universe around them. When we’re looking at the birth chart of a person, that person has free will, and can therefore choose to work towards expressing the energies present in their chart in the most positive way possible. The astrologer’s role is to point out the full range of expressions of the energy, from worst case to best case, and to help the individual work towards the best case end of the scale. Freewill is a luxury that is less accessible to a collective such as the UK than to each of us alone, and sadly large groups can be affected by the negative freewill of a minority of individuals, as happened in London on Thursday.

In this light, we must swing back to the worst case scenario of the symbolism present in the UK chart to review what happened. The same five planets were in the 10th house of the UK, still signifying prominence and being in the spotlight, this time for the wrong reasons. Mars/North node in Aries in its negative expression can be taken as a fated meeting with extreme anger, violence, rash and aggressive action. Jupiter in Libra rising in the UK chart at worse case can symbolise excess and over-zealousness in matters of religion (Jupiter) and fanaticism in the pursuit of justice and redressing the balance (Libra). If indeed religious fundamentalists are to blame for events (any other explanation seems very unlikely at time of writing) this symbolism is a horrifying reflection of the events which took place.

In terms of the astrology of countries, could this have been predicted? Well, the problem lies partly in deciding where on the scale of worst case to best case the symbolism will be played out. At the time of September 11th 2001, no-one would have predicted how literally the terrifying symbolism of Pluto in Sagittarius (death, destruction, foreign influences) clashing with Saturn in Gemini (structure, the establishment, buildings, twins) would play out. And of course, the astrological picture is infinitely more complex than the one I am presenting here, with previous events and many more points in the relevant charts coming into play.

Over the next few weeks there’s no doubt that many in the astrological community will come forward to give their opinions on what’s happened. One astrologer who already has, and whose astrological opinion is particularly close to my own heart, is Bernadette Brady. Bernadette is an internationally respected astrologer and I was privileged have her as my tutor during my years of study. She has spearheaded the technique of Visual Astrology, using the positions of fixed stars as a reference point. Here’s what Bernadette has to say, bearing in mind that the first paragraph of quoted text was written prior to the shocking events of Thursday:

“We are entering a time of Nergal [Mars], and whatever the events, they will be, at the very least, a little rocky: a clash with authority, maybe further riots by the people, or in extreme cases, more terrorist activities. For Nergal is a known warrior, a known threat, a known challenge to order.”

Bernadette then adds, on a more positive note and in light of Thursday’s events:

“Special note: Given the news of the last few hours, we can unfortunately start to see the story unfolding in the streets of central London and with this being the opening events of this drama, we may be able to conclude that this will not be in isolation and that a major arrest or step forward in the battle against terrorism will occur as the king [referring to the position of Saturn] finally returns to the sky in late August.”

I’m sure that we all live in the hope that the perpetrators of these terrible events are indeed brought to justice, and as soon as possible.

For further information about Bernadette and her Fixed Stars approach to astrology, please visit www.astrologos.co.uk and www.zyntara.com

For previous editions of this newsletter and other articles I’ve written please visit www.star-maps.co.uk/horoscopes.asp and click on the articles link.

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