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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
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
Reader feedback
re: Michelle Obama - I was wondering about M Obama's ASC recently. Sag fits lookswise. And I like her fashion sense: it's bold but elegant and it shows a woman who is not afraid. I haven't cast their composite with your rectified time for her. But I have wondered about their composite as well. They have a lot of presence individually but as a couple they just dominate the scene. Everyone, the Queen of UK, the French PM and his very lovely wife fade before them.
re: Michelle Obama - Thanks for the rectified chart for Michelle Obama. I especially like Jupiter in Aries as her ruling planet--the pioneer theme is clear in her life. She's an attorney, an African-American, and the first lady. Pioneering is a major theme in her life.
re: Part of Misfortune - Okay, please say more about the Part of Misfortune. I don't remember ever hearing the Part of Fortune called that. Your quote: Transiting Neptune conjunct the USSS Part of Misfortune shows an unmitigated scandal.
A. The Part of Misfortune is the same as the Part of Fortune except that it's badly placed or aspected. I first came across this term in Ivy Goldstein-Jacobson's book Simplified Horary Astrology. She writes that "The Part of Fortune becomes the Part of Mis-fortune when afflicted by being in the unfortunate 12th or 8th house or in the 12th sign Pisces or the 8th sign Scorpio". She goes on to refine the definition so that when the Part of Fortune is badly aspecting Mars, Neptune or in the 29th degree of any sign, or the same degree as the nodes, it becomes the Part of Misfortune. Presumably, one could add hard aspects from Pluto.
re: Ann Romney - I liked your chart for Ann Romney. I know it's your rectification but it seems correct. It also looks like the chart of someone whose husband is a winner in November. But we don't have a timed chart, that I know of, for Michelle Obama. Have you got a timed or rectified chart for her? If so, could you post it?
re: Bobby Petrino - It would be interesting to those of us who are College Football Fans to know the "astrology" surrounding the recent firing of Coach Bobby Petrino, the football coach at the UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS. Coach Petrino has had a "history" of deceit, and "baring false witness". Although as a football coach, he's definitely a "winner". I believe it might make a good and interesting astrological piece for NewsScope as there's an interesting mixture of "human" failures and success all present in this one person.
re: Sumatra earthquake - Well, you called it. You said in your Cascadia earthquake article that the April 6th Full Moon was a trigger date, and now we have Indonesia. Does one consider Indonesia in the 'ring of fire?'
A. Absolutely!
re: Obamacare - You wrote: "[Kennedy's] most famous reversal took place on June 29, 1992, when he changed his mind and sided with those supporting Roe v. Wade." Since Roe v. Wade was decided in January of 1973, I don't understand the reference to June 29, 1992.
A. Pennsylvania passed a law called Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act that was being challenged as unconstitutional based on Roe v. Wade. For details, see wikipedia/Planned_Parenthood_v._Casey
Justice Kennedy voted to uphold Roe v. Wade in a 5-4 decision, made public on June 29, 1992. Had he voted the other way, as he initially intended, Roe v. Wade would have been struck down.
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
March 19, 2012 - the Goldman Sachs elite, journalist Chris Hedges, George Clooney arrested
March 26, 2012 - Afghan War chart, April's top five astro-events, Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence
April 9, 2012 - Ann Romney and Gender Gap, Trayvon Martin and George Zimmer-man, Matt Damon's guru
April 9, 2012 - Ann Romney and Gender Gap, Trayvon Martin and George Zimmer-
man, Matt Damon's guru
April 16, 2012 - The Chiron-Pluto Generation, Bobby Petrino's issues, and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie
April 23, 2012 - The Secret Service scandal, May's top five astro-events, and the Titanic 100 years later
April 30, 2012 - China's Uranus cycle, France's next president Francois Hollande, DWTS' Katherine Jenkins
May 7, 2012 - Romney blames Obama, Michelle Obama's rectified birth chart, writer-director Joss Whedon
NewsScope for May 14, 2014
By Michael Wolfstar
Venus Retrograde and Same-Sex Marriage
Last Wednesday, President Obama made history by explaining his position on same-sex marriage, which he now believes is a good thing. His watershed statement has been compared to Lyndon Johnson’s embrace of civil rights in 1964, and reflects the rapidly changing attitudes about a subject that only five years ago was considered politically toxic.
Astrologically, Obama’s evolutionary statement arrives just as the Uranus-Pluto square is shaping up, and as Venus turns retrograde in Gemini. The first of seven Uranus-Pluto squares over the next three years happens this coming June 24, and the tumultuous, divisive vibes associated with this volatile combination are now beginning to manifest in earnest. Venus will be retrograde between now and then, allowing individuals and groups to re-think their positions on their relationship patterns.
LBJ’s unexpected support of Kennedy’s civil rights proposal got the bill passed on July 2, 1964, an historic date which has strong parallels to current developments. 1964 was the last time that a Uranus-Pluto aspect was in effect. The conjunction of these two revolutionary, transformative planets led
to the birth of the anti-Vietnam War movement as well as the feminist, environmental, higher-consciousness, computer, and astrology movements.
And surprisingly, when the Civil Rights Act was signed, Venus was retrograde at 21º Gemini, very close to where it is now. Venus retrograde in Gemini has to do with changing mental attitudes about relationships. The degree is significant since it is conjunct the U.S. Mars, the co-ruler of the nation’s Scorpio Ascendant. Over the next 40 days, we can expect a healthy debate about same-sex marriage as Venus picks up the epochal Uranus-Pluto vibes.
Venus and the Financial Markets
Venus turning retrograde will likely have a significant influence over financial affairs, with last week’s stunning revelation by JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon setting the tone. He reported that the company lost about $2 billion in the last six weeks due to a poorly executed trading strategy in the derivatives market. JPM lost 10 percent of its value last Friday, but remains the biggest bank in the U.S.
According to the Scorpio Rising U.S. horoscope, Venus is turning retrograde in the 8th house of banking, investments, and leveraged capital. Venus’s association with money indicates that attitudes may be changing when it comes to regulating banks that are Too Big To Fail. And since Venus’s station is near the U.S. Mars and tri-octile the Scorpio Ascendant, it seems likely that the markets will begin trending downwards.
Financial astrologers have been baffled by the U.S. markets’ continuous rise over the past six months, since numerous planetary factors suggested reversals. Pluto’s long-term sextile to the U.S. Scorpio Ascendant while in the corporate sign of Capricorn has brought a steady stream of strong earnings, fueling the steady climb. Pluto remains in a favorable position, but over the next month the square from Uranus challenges its prominent position.
As Venus turns retrograde and the first Uranus-Pluto square draws near, JP Morgan’s situation reminds us that megabanks can’t manage their own non-transparent derivative bets that threaten the entire economic system. Nothing has changed on Wall Street since the meltdown in September 2008. Factor in the two eclipses coming during Venus’s retrograde phase, and we’re bound to see some spectacular economic and political developments coming soon.
Tom Gabel’s Transformation
As described in last week’s Rolling Stone magazine, punk rock singer Tom Gabel has come out as a transgender, and is now in the process of changing from male to female by undergoing electrolysis and hormone treatments. His 2012 song Transgender Dysphoria Blues and the lyrics from his 2007 album Ocean revealed his discomfort: “If I could have chosen, I would have been born a woman”.
Tom Gabel was born with his Scorpio Sun opposite Chiron (November 8, 1980; Fort Benning, GA; time unknown), an indicator of feeling sexually wounded as part of one’s essential identity. Mercury is retrograde in Scorpio where it octiles his Mars-Neptune conjunction. Here we can see the mental dilemma concerning his masculine identity, and the obsessive thinking about Scorpio matters – sex, transformation, and going to extremes.
Curiously, Gabel’s chart has many similarities to Chaz Bono’s chart*. Both have Mars in adventurous Sagittarius conjunct Neptune, which may foster confusion about masculinity. Both have a Venus-Saturn conjunction, which can create general unhappiness in one’s life, adding to gender identity issues. Both have Jupiter in early Libra conjunct an outer planet. This last parallel is relevant both for the Libra indecisiveness and the close square to the U.S. Venus, which has made each a national headline as a transgender.
Transiting Saturn in Libra has been activating Gabel’s many Libra planets, forcing him to come to grips with his lifelong doubt and uncertainty. Gabel’s progressed Juno is currently at 24º Libra, where transiting Saturn is now. He (she) has told the band and his wife, and they’re OK with all this. In late June, Saturn will turn direct right on his Pluto, ensuring that the transformation process is authentic.
* To read Chaz Bono's profile, see See NewsScope's September 5, 2011 issue
