Mercury Retrograde in Taurus

April 17th - May 11th, 2010

It's not unusual for transportation to be interrupted when Mercury stations Retrograde, as it has this week.  That's just classic Mercury Retrograde.  Combine that with a Pluto station in early April, and the 4th Saturn/Uranus opposition the end of this month... and you get the Eyjafjallajokull volcanic eruption in Iceland, with the airlines in Scandinavia and northern Europe being grounded as a result of the volcanic ash that is being spewed into the sky.  When Hades rolls over in the Underworld, we feel its effects here on the surface of the Earth (Taurus).  So therefore we have had interruptions in transportation (Mercury Retrograde) due to a disturbance in the ground (Taurus).  

And while Saturn (delays, obstructions, challenges) opposes Uranus (air flight), for its 4th go-round, not only have airplanes been grounded, but NASA's moon program as well:

“We are proposing canceling the program, not delaying it,” Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said Sunday.

The proposal would officially end aspirations to return astronauts to the Moon by 2020 — President George W. Bush’s “vision for space exploration” developed in the aftermath of the loss of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003.

In place of the Moon mission, Mr. Obama’s vision offers, at least initially, nothing in terms of human exploration of the solar system. What the administration calls a “bold new initiative” does not spell out a next destination or timetable for getting there.

Taurus is the sign of finance and security.  The repercussions of the airlines being grounded in northern Europe and Scandinavia is having its effects rolling throughout the globe.  Not only have airlines lost $200,000,000 per day in revenue (Taurus), passengers are stranded, events have been cancelled or put on hold, tourist economy is suffering, and the rippling effects in commerce are being felt internationally.  

Another Mercury Retrograde in Taurus event is the recent news that the Securities and Exchange Commission is suing Goldman Sachs.  Goldman had created a way to bet against the housing market, even while including investments in the housing market in their portfolios that they sold to investors.  In other words they were betting against their own investors winning... while holding all the cards.  As a result, while investors' portfolios plunged, a prominent hedge fund manager (how Taurus can you get!), John Paulson, made some $3.7 billion in 2007 betting that the housing bubble would collapse.

As a result of the suit, Goldman's stock fell 10% on Friday eliminating more than $10 billion of the company's market value.  That's Mercury Retrograde in Taurus.

So what does Mercury Retrograde in Taurus mean for us?  Taurus has to do with security, with finances, and Mercury Retrograde brings us dilemmas, choices, opportunities to correct previous mis-judgments or mistakes.   It shows us what is, or is not working.  And is asking us to consider our own attitudes towards security, income, values and setting our own priorities.  It may be that you may not be able to get what you want.  Perhaps it is time to explore what it is that you really need... what is really necessary to invest in.  You may have to ultimately make a choice between the better and the dearer.. taking the less costly choice over the one that may be better.  Another thing to explore is what you consider to be your own self-worth..  Explore your own talents.  What is it that you truly enjoy doing?  Can you turn something you like into something you would love to do?  Or could it be that you were chasing will o' the whisps, and now it's time to face economic reality?  Or have you stubbornly pursued a goal in such a way that you are distracted from what you are really supposed to be doing?  Mercury Retrograde is compelling us to stop, step back and take inventory, and then re-prioritize.  It may be that what you want, is not what you really need.

Neptunian Fog and the Tragedy of Pluto

The Polish plane crash in Smolensk Russia

April 10, 2010

When a military plane loaded with Polish dignitaries attempted to land in a fog so dense last Saturday, the tops of the trees were rendered invisible in the haze.  The Moon was in foggy Pisces, conjuring its mystical miasma that blinded the pilot’s vision as well as his common sense.  The trickster, Mercury, has been doing his own dance, slowing down in preparation for his Retrograde station on the 18th.  On this fateful day, Mercury came head to head with impulsive and irrational Mars in arrogant Leo, and rational thinking was pushed aside in favor of urgency, impatience and schedules.  The pilot should have taken the advice to land elsewhere, but with a plane full of politicians and military leaders, who knows who was insisting, and ordering who, to foolishly venture a landing in such unfavorable conditions.  In 2008, a different pilot of Kaczynski’s plane, was pressured by the president when he refused to land in unsafe conditions.  Kaczynski later referred to the pilot as a coward.  Nevertheless that pilot had held his own, and was decorated by the defense minister for following correct procedures.  In this case, this sense of integrity was disallowed.  A wing on the plane hit a tree, and everyone on board was killed, including President Kaczynski, his wife, and numerous high ranking officials.

Hindsight is always the best foresight, but if we were to look at the Ingress chart for Poland this Spring, Cancer was at the Midheaven (leaders, government), and the Moon, the ruler of Cancer, was posited in the 8th House of death, square Neptune (ruler of fogs) in Aquarius (airplanes).  One might surmise that what we had here was a uniquely Neptunian event, yet there is so much more than fogs and accidents to this dreadful story.. 

The reason that so many of Poland’s dignitaries were on this plane, was that they were going to mourn and commemorate a previous massacre that occurred 70 years earlier in the Katyn Forest in Russia.  In 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, and Western Europe watched from the wings,  Russia saw this as an opportunity to take advantage of the situation.  They launched their own invasion, gathering up hundreds of thousands of Polish policemen, soldiers, and nationalists.  Many were eventually released, but many were not.  And in 1940 Stalin orchestrated the assassination of about 25,000 prisoners and Polish soldiers with the intent of crippling and weakening Poland, so that they would be unable to be a threat to Soviet security.  Among those first executed were included an admiral, 2 generals, hundreds of other officers, a prince, physicians, professors, engineers, journalists, teachers and writers.  The first transport of  those murdered, occurred on April 4, 1940, just prior to a Solar Eclipse on the 7th, with the rest of the executions continuing throughout the month of April. 

Using the November 5, 1916 noon time chart for the Independence of Poland (this chart may be disputed.. but certainly it commenced the establishment of modern day Poland as we now know it), we see Saturn and Neptune closely allied in the sign of Leo.  Saturn represents the government, weak in the sign of Leo, and further weakened by its proximity to Neptune, Poland has been repeatedly occupied, and controlled by foreign invaders.  In April of 1940, Pluto the planet of ruthless power and control, was conjunct Saturn in this chart.  Rather than fight the Soviets, the Polish police and military (Saturn) were ordered not to resist, and the Soviets strolled right in and took over.  When Pluto comes to Saturn, one feels powerless to resist, and in resisting things only become that much more oppressive.  All that you know is being taken from you, and the changes that occur are inevitable and unavoidable.  More Polish people died in World War II than any other country, including the overwhelming majority of Polish jews. 

In the Aries Ingress chart for Poland, Mars came to this same degree where Pluto met Saturn those 70 years ago.  Mars, the planet of action, could be seen as something of a trigger for renewal, but Mars is also the planet of violence, accidents and injury... and as Mars then came to Neptune on the 10th of April, the planet of fogs, and illusion, and abandonment, a new Polish tragedy unfolded.  Pluto sits in the bottom of the Ingress chart, in the sign of Capricorn, representing the destruction and reformation of  governmental structures.  This area of the chart also represents the opposing party.  President Lech Kaczynski was not terribly popular with the people.  He was extremely conservative, and far right on the spectrum, aggravating allies as well as people within his own government with his extreme ideology.  His death was indeed a tragedy, along with other high level dignitaries including the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and other senior military officers and government officers.  But this event also represents, or contributes to a departure from the past, in a way.  This Pluto in the Ingress chart opposes the Polish Pluto in Cancer.   An old order is departing.  This is a time for the Polish people to allow the future to be reborn from the ashes, and the wounds of the past.  Out of death is an opportunity for rebirth.  Poland has historically redefined itself time and time again... and it would seem that it will do so yet one more time. 

Pluto the Lord of the Underworld

I pointed out in my previous blog on the Aries Ingress, that two of the issues affecting the nation this quarter, and probably for a good part of the year, involves the collapse of the infrastructure, which could indeed lead to casualties; and moral outrage.

The planet Pluto was named after the Greek god of wealth. He is also often associated with Hades, the lord of the underworld. After the fall of the Titans, Pluto and his brother Zeus (Jupiter) and Poseidon (Neptune) divided the universe between them, giving Pluto everything under the ground. It would be easy to understand in this context, how Pluto would be associated with mines, and tunnels. And on Tuesday, April 6th, Pluto stationed Retrograde in Capricorn, the sign of rocks, minerals, mountains and the earth beneath our feet, which has been trembling and rocking as Pluto has come up against Saturn. Saturn, on his part, has been also retrograde and heading back to Virgo, the sign of the Worker.

As Pluto stations Retrograde he compels us to explore our relationship with power, and the responsibility inherent in having power, as opposed to those in the forsaken position of finding themselves 'powerless', and overwhelmed by insurmountable conditions. On Monday morning, the Moon in Capricorn passed over Pluto, and later that afternoon, as Neptune (toxic gasses) was setting in the West, a huge gas explosion rocked the Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, West Virginia, killing at least 25 people.

Pluto has this way of revealing the dark underbelly. Massey Energy Co., the owners of the mine, were cited for numerous violations, including those concerning the necessary air filtration units, that were either missing, or malfunctioning. If Massey Energy Co. had been at all compliant with federal laws, this explosion would have been prevented. In the past 2 months, miners were evacuated 3 times because of dangerously high methane levels. We need to ask, how come if stricter federal laws were supposedly put into effect in 2006 (due to a previous mine explosion) to protect miners, why didn't they prevent this tragedy? How many corrupt politicians (Pluto in Capricorn) turned a blind eye as they had their palms crossed with silver?

At 2 Am Tuesday, when Massey CEO Don Blankenship (escorted by at least a dozen police officers) arrived at the mine to announce the death toll to the families, people become enraged, yelling at him for caring more about profits than lives. In this scenario, Blankenship and Massey represent Pluto in Capricorn at his worst, the wealthy Lord of the Underworld, while the miners are represented by Saturn, returning to Virgo for some unfinished business. And the workers, are not taking this one lying down.