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"The natal chart is like a seed and progressions are the unfolding in time of that into the plant it is to become. Transits, are like a daily weather report. In political astrology, these three factors have to be taken into account!"
Comments, questions, suggestions? Let us know what you think. Email wolfstar@neptunecafe.com
Recent NewsScope columns
Jan 2, 2012 - Obama-Clinton in 2012?, Iran's Revolutionary Guard, Maryl Streep as the Iron Lady
Jan. 9, 2012 - Rick Sant-orum, Eris and the job market, Stephen Hawking's State of the Universe
Jan. 16, 2012 - Corporations are people, Americans Elect hold online nomination, the glamorous Marlene Dietrich
Reader feedback
re: yoga - "America has become Indianized" - good point!
re: NewsScope - Thank you so much. You do wonderful work, and I consider it an education.
re: Reagan - I thought President Reagan died on June 5, 2004. This week's NewScope column has a different date.
A. "when Ronald Reagan died" was meant to describe a time frame, so a ballpark figure within 3 days of the Venus occultation.
re: Whitney - I thought yours a lovely tribute to Whitney Houston and the title so appropriate. The article didn't condescend; it didn't overextend. But most important, it kept the focus on Whitney, rather than her dire relationship with B. Brown. She was a part of our family, in that we all were so much younger then, listening to this 19 year-old with a wonder voice. Thank you, Sir Michael!
re: NewsScope - You've got everything in the column this week: Pluto, money, international intrigue, and undersea UFOs. I wonder if the vast UFO coverup folks are going to be at work. Finding a UFO would upset the whole religious kittycart. Or it should. Well, except the scientologists.
re: Antares - Good column this week. Thank you.
I wanted to mention that USA Uranus is not conjunct bloodthirsty Antares but is in opposition to it (8 Sagittarius). It is, however, conjunct Aldebaran, which is associated with honor and integrity but also with warmongering. The USA's Uranus's opposition to Antares in relation to
the growing transiting Uranus-Pluto square (first one exact this June), could signal violence from and against the many who stand with the OCCUPY movement. Uranus can escalate through tactics of anarchy on location as well as through continued hacktivism behind the safety of a computer screen. Adding the election silly season and the brinksmanship of Israel, Iran and Syria to the mix, I believe we're heading for a long hot summer.
re: Gingrich - That was interesting, what you said about how only 3 Presidents had Mars in the 12th House+they were not even elected. Makes sense. I never thought about that before. Thank you.
re: NewsScope - "i so enjoy reading your columns....you are so insightful and astute. keep up the good work."
re: March 4 election for Russia: Is it just a judgment call when one uses the newly formed country of Russia's horoscope, after the dissolution of USSR, or whether one uses still the USSR horoscope that came about after WWI ? We're in a conundrum in Latvia, for example, with varied horoscopes being used, one of them going back to the Republic's first chart in 1918...
A. I think the June 12, 1990 chart is the most relevant, but you might also pay attention to common degree areas between the various charts, as well as planetary combinations to chart cycles.
The Uranus-Pluto square in June aligns with Russia's Mars-UR square, so whatever happens in March is only the beginning of major internal upheaval, it seems to me.
re: corporations - Well, looks like coporations as people will be with us for quite a while. I was kinda hopin' that the broad, legal (over)reach by corporations via the Supremes might have instigated a political backlash that would curb corporate power, but not in the near future, obviously. Thank you once again for fulfilling on a topic I've been curious about!
Jan. 23, 2012 - Gingrich wins in SC, the Costa Concordia disaster, Eris and Madonna: Chaos as art
Jan. 30, 2012 - Gingrich's 12th house Mars, top five astro-events for february, and the journey of OR-7
February 6, 2012 - Pluto stimulates the U.S. economy, Israel tempts fate, a UFO in the Baltic Sea
Feb.13, 2012 - Santorum and Super Tuesday, Whitney Houston slips away, Linsanity spreading
Feb. 20, 2012 - Xanax: addictive and profitable; Assad and the Lunar Eclipse; Bobby Brown
Feb. 27, 2012 - Obama's progressed Mars, Top Five Astro-events for March, will Jeb Bush save the GOP?
March 5, 2012 - Obama's Interview, the swing state Ohio, Maria Menounas - something to talk about
March 12, 2012 - Billionaire Sara Blakely, Rush Limbaugh and the feminazis, yoga teacher Kristin McGee
NewsScope for March 19, 2012
By Michael Wolfstar
The Goldman Sachs Elite
Since the economic collapse in late 2008, numerous judges, lawmakers and regulators have questioned whether Goldman Sachs has knowingly sold bad investments to clients in pursuit of secret deals and huge profits. Then last week insider Greg Smith wrote a widely distributed rebuke of the international firm’s toxic culture, confirming that GS sells financial products “that we are trying to get rid of.”
Although Goldman Sachs has been in business since 1869, it went public on May 4, 1999 (10:00 am; New York, NY) when the Sun was in financially-savvy Taurus. The Sun’s conjunction with Saturn – also in Taurus – reflects its long history of working with solid financial investments. However, the Sun also squares Uranus, which suggests the intrusion of a new culture, one that challenges the traditional way of doing business.
In this chart, Pluto gains in significance because it forms a close quincunx (150º) to the Cancer Ascendant as well as a quincunx to Saturn, creating a Yod configuration. The Yod, astrologically renowned for its fateful qualities, is further shaped by Pluto’s conjunction with Juno, the partnership asteroid. At the time of the IPO, a few analysts noted that only 12 percent of the firm was up for sale, the rest being controlled by an elite partnership (Juno-Pluto) of 221 executives.*
Suddenly, at the moment of the IPO, each of the 221 Goldman Sachs executives was $63 million richer. By September 2007, as transiting Pluto was conjunct GS’s Moon (its ruling planet), the company’s stock price reached an all-time high of $250/share. The 221 executives began selling, using their new-found wealth to create their own companies. The GS stock hit a low of $47 a year later, when Treasury Secretary and former Goldman Sachs CEO, Henry Paulson, bailed out the richest banks. At the time, Uranus - the planet of sudden reversals - was sitting right on the GS Midheaven.
* See goldman-sachs-diaspora/
Chris Hedges, Voicing Radical Change
The widely read Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Chris Hedges is becoming the darling of the Occupy movement for his insightful commentaries on the elite 1 percent. Most recently, he’s interviewed Ralph Nader on increasing the minimum wage, and blamed the imprisonment of whistle-blower pfc. Bradley Manning on America’s “descent into corporate totalitarianism.”
Chris Hedges was born with his Sun in analytical Virgo (September 18, 1956; St. Johnsbury, VT; time unknown). The duty-conscious Virgo Sun is given stability and a strong work ethic by its sextile to Saturn in Scorpio, which was evident during his 15 years as a war correspondent for the New York Times. Mars in Pisces opposite Jupiter suggests someone who fights for his beliefs, or fights others for what they believe. His job description involved reporting on people fighting for their beliefs.
Hedges’ Sun is octile (45º) Venus, giving him an interest in promoting harmony and peace. Venus in turn is radicalized by its alignment with his Chiron-Uranus opposition, a generational aspect with a keen awareness of social injustice and inequality.
Transiting Jupiter was conjunct his Venus on May 17, 2003 when Hedges gave an antiwar speech instead of a commencement address at Rockford College. He left the New York Times shortly after that to focus on “the corporate forces of death that reign over us.”
Since then, Hedges’ progressed Jupiter has conjoined his Sun, leading to a successful career writing books and teaching, and growing popularity as he promotes an expanded geopolitical awareness. His Mercury at 10º Libra is coming under the influence of the epochal Uranus-Pluto square, the outer planet pairing that is bound to transform our political, social and economic structures. Here’s an empowered global citizen in the process of giving voice to radical change.
For an example of his more recent writing, see commondreams.
Here's an extensive interview about his first book “War is a Force that gives us Meaning” at pbs.org/religionandethics
George Clooney’s
Chiron Return
Last week George Clooney used his celebrity status to draw attention to the Sudan crisis by testifying at a Senate hearing, discussing the issue with President Obama, and getting arrested at a protest outside the Sudanese embassy. “The south has all the oil and the north has the pipelines and refineries,” Clooney explained. “For years, the north has been taking the oil and keeping the profits.”
Clooney’s horoscope (May 6, 1961; 2:58 am; Lexington, KY) can give us a good idea about why he’s so interested in Sudan. First, his Taurus Sun is closely sextile Pallas, the political asteroid. Pallas gains importance by being conjunct his sensitive Pisces Ascendant. The prominence of Pallas reflects his interest in politics and working within the system to create a more civil world.
Another very tight aspect is his Mars-Saturn opposition, a combination that often must deal with violence and brutality. Clooney blames the genocidal warfare on Sudan’s prime minister, Omar al-Bashir, his defense minister, and other top government officials, who have all been charged with international war crimes. Mars-Saturn aspects must contend with frustration over inaction, and trying to move past corruption and stagnation.
The tightest aspect in his chart is the trioctile between Ceres and Pluto. This stressful combination attracts intense emotional crises brought about by the loss of life, which Clooney witnessed in the Nuba Mountains, the border region between north and south Sudan. This aspect is further modified by Pluto’s opposition to Chiron. Now that Clooney is going through his Chiron return, he is playing the healer, as best he can. Since transiting Jupiter will conjoin his Sun on April 10, he may expect some success by then.
