On July 3, in case you haven’t heard, Sarah Palin made her surprise announcement that she is stepping down as the governor of Alaska.

Her announcement shocked, apparently, even her closest advisors. (1) There is a Full Moon eclipse on July 7 at 2:21 a.m. PDT, at 15°24′ Cancer/Capricorn The approach to an eclipse is always a bit of a wild time, as energy builds to be released in often surprising and unexpected ways.

In her natal horoscope, Palin has Jupiter at 16°43’ Aries, square the nodal axis at 10°40′ Cancer/Capricorn.

This Full Moon eclipse is square the natal Jupiter. (It’s also obviously quite close to the natal nodes; there is another Full Moon eclipse on Dec 31, 2009 at 10°21’ Cancer/Capricorn, exactly on her nodal axis. More to come from Ms Palin.)

For now, I’m looking at Jupiter. As a planet square the nodal axis, it is know as a planet “at the bending” and has special prominence. Kathy Allan, in her article “Re-Visioning the Lunar Nodes” (TMA, Feb./March 2009), writes: “The bending of the nodes may be the most overlooked feature of the horoscope.”

And Kevin Burk, in The Complete Node Book (2003), says: “…. a planet that is ‘at the bending’ must be given careful consideration, because that planet, and the issues associated with it, will tend to take center stage repeatedly in the individual’s life.”

So, here we have an eclipse on the planet in Palin’s horoscope that will “tend to take center stage.” Can there be any doubt that Palin is back on center stage in a very big (Jupiter) way?

As a further refinement to “the bending,” the planet can be either at the North or South Bending. Jupiter in Aries is on Palin’s South Bending, which Allan describes as resembling “the South Node; planets here have difficulty in outer expression and are best used subjectively, spiritually, or give away to the collective.” Lee Lehman, in Classical Astrology for Modern Living (1996), calls the South Bending the “scapegoat position.”

I think these are fascinating ideas, given the tone of Palin’s announcement, and her Facebook entry the next day, in which she wrote that she is free now to pursue “a higher calling.”

Another significant marker for Sarah Palin is the progressed Full Moon that was exact on March 15, 2009.

The Sun at 7°29′ Aries, and the Moon at 7°29′ Libra, is squaring the progressed nodes at 6°32′ Cancer. She is at a culmination point for the cycle which began at her progressed New Moon in March 1995 at 23°32′ Pisces. (Palin was also in her Saturn return then.) She began serving as mayor or Wasilla in 1996. Perhaps she is complete with state politics now, having begun as mayor at the New Moon, she’s gone as far as can and is ready to leave at the Full Moon.

On the day of the announcement, the transiting Sun was at 12° Cancer, conjunct her natal North Node.  The transiting North Node was at 0°18′ Aquarius, within a degree of her natal Mercury (1°37’ Aquarius).

Palin seemed as self-confident and feisty as ever at the news conference; transiting Mars at 24° Taurus was squaring her natal Sun-Mars-Saturn conjunction at 23° – 26° Aquarius.

Transiting Chiron-Jupiter-Neptune is within orb of her Sun-Mars-Saturn conjunction until early 2010 (when Neptune crosses Saturn for the last time), so we might expect the scandals, or rumors of scandals, to keep coming for a while. And, with Jupiter and Chiron present, the impact of her actions has yet to be revealed. (Is she a brilliant political maverick? Is she permanently and inexorably damaging her reputation?)

As a final note (for now!), Sarah Palin’s natal Sun-Uranus midpoint is at 0°31′ Sagittarius. This is semi-square (45°) to this week’s Full Moon eclipse at 15° Capricorn, which suggests a powerful triggering of the midpoint.

In Midpoints, Don Mc Broom describes the Sun-Uranus combination: “Illumination of individuality in an innovative or eccentric approach to life purpose; revolutionary spirit; possibly feeling above the rules.”

When connected to the Moon (as is the case here), Ebertin calls the combination, “Emotional excitability, impulsiveness, rashness. A nervous and agitated woman.”

Now I do sympathize with Sarah Palin’s quirky demeanor as a demonstration of Aquarius. (Mark McKinnon, who worked with her, wrote: “She crackles with energy like a live electrical wire.”) (2)

She did seem a bit agitated at her news conference. But then, what’s a person (with an Aquarius stellium) to do when a Full Moon eclipse hits her Sun-Uranus midpoint, and her most elevated and at-the-bending Jupiter, while she’s also at a progressed Full Moon, and transiting Mars squares a Sun-Mars-Saturn conjunction? In the words of one blogger: “Palin’s week culminated, of course, in a strange, twitchy, impulsive announcement from her home on the shore of Lake Lucille, that she would be stepping down from office, and resigning.” (3)

Footnote:

(1) “Palin explodes a nuclear device by announcing she’s stepping down as governor of Alaska.” The Daily Beast

(2) The Daily Beast

(3) Huffington Post

On June 12 Iran held presidential elections with a record number of voters participating. Within hours after the polls closed the Iranian government dubiously declared a re-election victory for incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, claiming he had won with 24 million votes. Main opposition leader Mir Hosein Mousavi was declared the loser with 13 million votes. Immediately, supporters of Mr. Mousavi began questioning the suspicious vote count and by June 15, over a million Iranians took to the streets of Tehran to protest what was believed to be a rigged election.

The Islamic Republic came into existence in February 1979 during Iran’s upheaval and revolution coinciding with the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returning from exile in France, just after Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had fled the country.

Astrologers observe that Pluto is transiting the Midheaven of the Iranian mundane horoscope and the theocratic regime is facing the greatest threat to its power and control in 30 years. Iran has also just had its first Saturn return since its 1979 revolution, and the extent of the challenge to the authority of its ruling clerics is seen in its progressed Sun applying to an opposition with Saturn.

Will protests over the disputed presidential election continue to intensify and is another revolution fomenting in Iran? The progressed Venus-Jupiter opposition shows the women of Iran as being pivotal in this political process and evidence points to unrest continuing to escalate as the Iranian progressed Moon applies to an opposition with its national Uranus, becoming exact on August 31, just days before the Sun perfects its progressed opposition to Saturn on September 4.

Theocratic regimes are ruled by Jupiter and remarkably, the total solar eclipse of July 22 in 29° Cancer will exactly conjoin the Iranian progressed Jupiter. This will be the longest total eclipse of the 21st century and coinciding with this powerful event is the ingress of the Iranian progressed ruler, Venus, into 00°00 Aquarius, right as the North Node also transits that degree. With Venus ingressing into the zodiacal sign of “people power,” it appears the clerical regime will now fall.

After several violent demonstrations in the streets of Tehran and other cities in which the police and militia forces loyal to the government have used guns, batons, tear gas and water cannons to quell the protestors, resulting in the deaths of 13 Iranians on Saturday alone, now the daughter of former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been arrested for supporting Mr. Mousavi. A rift has also been exposed in the inner circle of the ruling clerics, further weakening the grip on power of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has declared the protests illegal.

Mr. Mousavi appears to be a man of destiny as Saturn conjoins his progressed North Node right as the July 22 solar eclipse conjoins the Iranian progressed Jupiter. In a remarkable display of individual alignment with a larger political movement, his progressed Venus has also just ingressed into Aquarius and the transit North Node will conjoin it on the day of the total eclipse.

When the time of birth is unknown, your correspondent uses a noon nativity for politicians and world leaders. The progressed angles of these 12:00 p.m. horoscopes never cease to amaze him and this is the case with Mr. Mousavi. Astrologers will observe that his progressed Ascendant is in 26°Aquarius, the exact degree of the Jupiter-Chiron-Neptune conjunction in late May. As if that was not enough to make the soft-spoken former prime minister the leader of a revolution, the direct station of Uranus on December 1 in 22°42′ Pisces will fall precisely on his South Node.

With Mr. Mousavi’s pre-natal solar eclipse exactly conjunct his Neptune, it is unknown at this time whether he will become a martyr for the freedom movement in Iran or if he will get to live and go on to become installed as an inspirational president after a new election takes place. Saturn transits his pre-natal solar eclipse degree on October 10 and astrologers will wait and watch for further developments to unfold in Iran during this turbulent chapter of the country’s history.

© 2009 Robert P. Blaschke

On May 26, 2009 President Obama introduced his choice for Supreme Court Justice. Sonia Sotomayor was born on June 25, 1954 in New York City. (1) Her birth time is unknown, but we can look at the noon chart for the day she was born, as well as her connections to the U.S. horoscope.

Like the U.S. Sibly horoscope, Sotomayor has the Sun conjunct Jupiter in Cancer. The South Node, Mercury and Uranus are also in Cancer in her natal horoscope.

On the day of her nomination Sotomayor said: “For as long as I can remember, I have been inspired by the achievement of our founding fathers. They set forth principles that have endured for more than two centuries. Those principles are as meaningful and relevant in each generation as the generation before.” (2) This strong connection to the founding fathers echoes Cancer’s respect for the past and tradition.

Sotomayor’s natal Mercury (18° Cancer) is conjunct Uranus (22° Cancer), which is also conjunct the Sibly Mercury (24° Cancer). Although most assessments of her record thus far indicate that she will be a moderate voice on the Court, perhaps she will surprise with a more radical view than her history suggests.

In her natal horoscope, Mercury is conjunct the South Node and had just stationed retrograde two days before she was born. (It went direct by progression when she was 21 or 22 years old.) The very slowly moving Mercury at birth shows a deliberate turn of mind. The Sibly chart also has Mercury retrograde in Cancer. Perhaps the judge’s Mercury retrograde with the South Node is echoed in her statement: “I chose to be a lawyer and ultimately a judge because I find endless challenge in the complexities of the law.” (3)

The Cancer stellium also speaks to her interest in supporting families and the much discussed “empathy” factor. If confirmed, she will be the third woman to serve on the Supreme Court, and the first Latina justice.

Sotomayor has an exact natal sextile between Saturn at 2° Scorpio and Mars at 2° Capricorn. This indication of success through hard work and focused effort gains even more strength due to the mutual reception between the two planets. They not only have the opportunity to act together (being in aspect), but the strong inclination to do so (mutual reception). (Born into a modest background, Sotomayor was the first person in her family to go to college; she graduated at the top of her class from Princeton. Her father died when she was nine — at the half-nodal return — and she was raised by her mother.)

Sotomayor’s prominence in the U.S. is also indicated by her natal Sun at 3° Cancer, a partile conjunction with the U.S. Venus at 3°06′ Cancer. The judge’s natal Venus is at 9° Leo, quite close to the U.S. North Node at 6°36′ Leo.

Confirmation of her nomination is expected within the next several months. Since transiting Pluto is conjunct her natal Mars and opposing her Sun, I think she is ready and willing to stand up to any potential derailments in the confirmation proceedings.

The upcoming lunar eclipse (July 7 at 14°32′ Capricorn) exactly conjuncts her nodal axis, showing an important moment in the unfolding of her life path (natal North Node is at 14° Capricorn.)

The asteroid Astraea, a goddess of justice, is at 17°53′ Virgo in Sotomayor’s natal horoscope. Transiting Saturn was at 15° on May 26. By mid-July, Saturn will make its third and final passage to her natal Astraea, surely a nice signature for her recognition as the Supreme Court’s newest member.

Notes:

(1) Wikipedia

(2) CNN

(3) CNN

On May 25 North Korea conducted its second underground nuclear test and the next day, in addition to test firing short-range ballistic missiles, the isolated regime and international pariah unilaterally withdrew from its 1953 armistice treaty with South Korea.

Astrologers will observe that the June 1950 outbreak of the Korean War has now had its second Saturn return. Will hostilities continue to escalate?

Your correspondent has rectified the mundane horoscope for the outbreak of the Korean War. According to military records, hostilities commenced in the pre-dawn hours of June 25, 1950 when the North Korean army crossed the DMZ,  invaded the South, and wound up occupying Seoul in just three days.

Rectifying the war chart to 04:29:10 AM local time places the Ascendant at 21°22′ Gemini, which is precisely conjunct the U.S. Sibly Mars (exact to the degree and minute of arc). Progressing this war chart diurnally (using 19:29:10 GMT of the previous evening – the equivalent to 04:29:10 AM local time the next morning) to North Korea’s unilateral withdrawal from its armistice with the South on May 26 (May 25 GMT), one finds transit Mars in an exact-to-the-minute-of-arc conjunction with the war chart’s progressed MC. (1) The Sun in the war chart has also progressed to a conjunction with the IC (end of matter), exact to 03′ of arc.

With so much bellicose rhetoric coming out of Pyongyang, and the nullification of the truce ending the Korean War, it is no wonder that the retrograde station of Uranus in 26° Pisces is exactly opposite the progressed Mercury in the 1950 war chart. North Korea’s arrogant and cocky flexing of its military muscle can also be clearly seen in the progressed Mars of the war chart now applying to a trine with Jupiter (exact to 02′).

It has been this writer’s experience that the Galactic Center degree of 26° Sagittarius is highly malefic and here we find the war chart’s current secondary progressed Moon. In December 1941, for example, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and brought the United States into World War II, the U.S. Sibly progressed Sun had just entered 26° Sagittarius the month before. In April 1865, the month that President Lincoln was assassinated, the U.S. Sibly Midheaven was also in 26° Sagittarius.

Indications of severe international condemnation for this unpredictable and isolated country are also evident in the mundane horoscope for North Korea. Saturn is transiting its national Sun three times, with the final pass becoming exact on June 27. What is quite disturbing, and a troubling indication of the possibility for a violent outbreak of war on the Korean Peninsula, is the direct station of Pluto in 00°39′ Capricorn on September 11, of all days, in exact opposition to the North Korean Uranus. These planets, with their rulerships of plutonium and uranium, can be associated with the potential for the usage of nuclear weapons.

Sober astrologers will take no heart in the progressed Sun-Pluto square in the North Korean horoscope nearing exactitude. The nearly exact progressed trine of Mars and Pluto (2) is a further indication that the North now has the technology mastered in order to put a nuclear warhead onto a ballistic missile. Japan is in range of the nuclear capabilities of North Korea and with the progressed Mars in the 1950 war chart in the same degree as the progressed MC in the North Korean horoscope, one should not expect U.N. Security Council sanctions to do anything other than to prod this regime to pull the trigger on the South or to engage in naval warfare with the United States if interdiction of its vessels is attempted.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, at an annual meeting of defense and security officials in Singapore, recently stated that North Korea’s progress on nuclear weapons and long-range missiles is “a harbinger of a dark future” and he also said that “We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in Asia – or on us.”

In order to properly assess the mounting tensions on the Korean Peninsula and the likelihood of war breaking out, astrologers should also examine the nativity and progressed horoscope of Kim Jong-il, the eccentric and despotic leader of the North Korean people. (3)

Remarkably, the retrograde station of Jupiter in 27°01′ Aquarius precisely conjoins his Sun. As transit Pluto forms a cardinal t-cross with his lunar nodes in 02° Aries–Libra, he has arrived at his “life-purpose moment.” Will the irrational hubris of Jupiter further delude him into launching a nuclear war? Or will the planet signifying one’s guardian angels whisper into his ear and tell him that he cannot unleash the violent destruction that an ill-thought-out commencement of war with the U.S. would bring to earth.

His erratic and unpredictable behavior can be seen in the Aquarius Sun in square to Uranus. He was born at the Grand Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 9° Taurus in 1941 and his natal Uranus is in the exact degree of the May 2000 Jupiter-Saturn alignment. In addition, his progressed Jupiter is also passing through the 23rd degree of Taurus over a four-year period. The direct station of Mercury on May 30 occurred in 22°52′ Taurus.

Much has been written about his love of cognac and Hollywood films, his fear of flying, and a penchant for beautiful women. Astrologers see that he is highly intelligent, as he possesses one of C.E.O. Carter’s six aspects of raw brainpower – a sextile of the Sun and Mars (sextiles and trines of the Sun to Mars, Jupiter or Uranus make up this category of “mensa aspects”).

It is distressing to speculate that during the month of June, the future of the world hinges on the decision of one isolated world leader who with the push of a button could unleash unspeakable devastation upon humanity. One must have faith that the upcoming conjunction of Venus and Mars in the power degree of 15° Taurus at the Cancer ingress on June 21 will favor peace over war. Venus is in dignity while Mars is in detriment, and one prays that another page of world history will be turned without a chapter of war again having to be written.

References:

(1) Using solar arc in longitude progression of the MC.

(2) Both of these are progressed-to-progressed aspects.

(3) Kim Jong-il; Feb 16 1941; Vyatskoye, Soviet Union (48°N16′ 135°E06′); 12:00 PM UZ9. Source: Wikipedia, noon chart used.

© 2009 Robert P. Blaschke

With Saturn turning direct in 14° Virgo and holding a stationary conjunction to the General Motors Corporation progressed ruler, Jupiter, it has become increasingly clear that this once formidable auto manufacturer will not be able to restructure itself by the June 1st deadline imposed by the U.S. government and GM will have to enter into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Astrologers understand that a progressed opposition of the Sun and a retrograde superior planet is the most karmic point in that planet’s synodic cycle, as it is nearest to Earth at that point in its orbit and is exerting maximum influence.

One sees that the General Motors horoscope has arrived at its progressed Full Moon and at a progressed opposition of the Sun and Neptune, underpinning the dissolution of a once great company whose business has become completely undermined by the recession and its distorted financial obligations to its unionized retirees.

With progressed Saturn in a partile (exact to the degree and minute of arc) opposition with the GM Sun, the company’s day of reckoning has come. According to news reports, General Motors will send termination notices to 1,100 of its car dealers, about 20% of its 6,000 U.S. dealerships. The transit of Pluto in 2010 in square to the GM Sun will allow the company to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy and to rebuild and reinvent itself.

Since the U.S. progressed Mercury stationed retrograde in 1994, it has been only a matter of time for the relentless decline in the American auto industry to reach its critical juncture. The station of Neptune in 24° Aquarius in 2008, exactly on the U.S. Sibly horoscope’s third cusp, and the transit of Neptune over the U.S. progressed Mercury have been the astrological underpinnings for this current crisis.

Astrologers can hope that by the third Jupiter-Saturn opposition of late March 2011, which falls in 14° of Aries and Libra and coincides with the U.S. Saturn return, the American automobile industry will be on the rebound. Saturn rules the Sibly third house and its return will mark a new 30-year era in Detroit.

Another of Detroit’s Big Three automakers, Chrysler Motors, filed for bankruptcy on April 30th exactly at its Uranus return, 84 years after its incorporation in June 1925. Its ruler, Mercury, progressed into retrograde motion some years ago and is now about to receive the transit opposition of Neptune as the company dissolves and closes about 790 of its 3,189 U.S. dealerships.

With a retrograde Mercury in opposition to Pluto in the U.S. horoscope, it is no wonder that the American automobile industry has a historical pattern of repeating crisis and transformation.

Notes

1 The GM progressed Saturn stationed direct in November 1978. That month, a 1973 Monte Carlo Chevrolet, burst into flames after it was struck by a pickup truck that crossed the median of the Kansas Turnpike and six people were killed. Attorneys for Ulysses Betts, 10 years old, the sole survivor, and other relatives held that GM had been negligent in placing the fuel tank under the trunk and asked $45 million in damages. In 1983, a jury cleared the General Motors Corporation of responsibility for the automobile crash.

In 1947, when the GM progressed Saturn, in retrograde motion, made its first exact opposition to the Sun, the founder of General Motors, William C. Durant, died.

© 2009 Robert P. Blaschke