March 17 was the six-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. In an earlier blog, I connected the beginning of OWS (September 17) to both the U.S. Sibly chart and the U.S. 2001 solar return. (1) The current issue of TMA has a detailed article by Jessica Murray, Occupy Wall Street: People over Profit. (In case you are not familiar with her wonderful work, Jessica excels at explaining social, political, and economic factors, along with astrological analysis.) (2)
A key marker of the connections between the September 17 event and the U.S. chart is the OWS Venus conjunct the Sibly Midheaven. Venus is opposite Uranus and square Pluto, which had stationed direct the day before. The foreshadowing of this event as a potent marker of the upcoming (and long-term) Uranus-Pluto square was ensured by Pluto standing still. Mars in the OWS chart was at 29º Cancer opposite the US natal and progressed Pluto (27º and 29º Capricorn).
Transiting Mars is now retrograde, squaring the U.S. Sibly Uranus at 8º Gemini and the transiting nodal axis. (The transiting south node is now conjunct the U.S. Uranus.)
This Mars retrograde cycle has been particularly brutal in the U.S. horoscope. Mars stationed retrograde on January 23 at 23º Virgo. This was square to the U.S. Mars at 22º21 Gemini, which is square to Neptune at 22º Virgo. This long transit of Mars in Virgo means that from late November through mid June, the provocative red planet makes a series of squares to the U.S. Ascendant/Descendant axis, and to natal Uranus and Mars. (This means Mars will conjunct natal Neptune three times.) (3)
Mercury stationed retrograde at 6º49’ Aries on March 12. It is now making its second conjunction to Uranus; all of these aspects are triggering the coming-to-exact first square to Pluto.
Mercury is disposited by Mars and the two are strengthened by mutual reception (i.e., Mercury is in the sign that Mars rules [Aries] and Mars is in the sign that Mercury rules [Virgo]). Mars retrograde is prone to edginess inside and out; this combination is quick to react and prone to volatile words and actions. Mars is also squaring the transiting nodal axis – use/misuse of aggression, force, or willfulness may have particularly fateful implications. (I’m sure many readers will be with me in having counseled calm to more than one friend and client in the past few days.)
On Free Speech TV, I saw a live broadcast of Michael Moore speaking at the New School in NYC on March 17th.
He is a big supporter of the OWS movement and his talk was funny, optimistic and full of specific direct action suggestions. At the end, he exhorted all to join him to walk over to Zuccotti Park, where they were met with 600 arrests and some rough treatment by the NYPD. (4)
Michael Moore has Mercury in Aries square the nodal axis. (5) His critics say he oversimplifies the issues (Mercury in Aries), but he is one (of many) public voices for the zeitgeist of the times. His natal Moon and Mars are conjunct at 4º Capricorn, recently transited by Pluto and now being squared by the mighty call of Uranus in Aries.
I was curious about the composite chart between OWS and Michael Moore: that chart has the Sun in the 10th house at 13º43 Cancer, conjunct the U.S. Sibly Sun. It’s no wonder that he feels such an affiliation with OWS and respect for its participants and aims. (6)
In what I heard as a background of Neptune in Pisces, during his Saturday talk, Moore quoted activist Naomi Klein as saying that we need to be very kind to one another now. Yes, indeed.
Onwards, into Spring..
Footnotes:
(1) Guest blogger Eric Francis also wrote on OWS here
(2) Order a sample issue, or subscribe here.
(3) We don’t have to look far for evidence of volatility in foreign affairs: on February 20 the burning of Korans at Bagram military base inflamed anti-American activity, and the tragic story of the U.S. soldier who is accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians, mostly children. (He had been to Iraq for three tours of duty before this trip to Afghanistan.)
“As thousands of angry Afghans flung rocks at NATO’s largest military base in Afghanistan on Tuesday, American officials sought to quell a widening furor over what they said was the accidental incineration by U.S. military personnel of copies of the Islamic holy book.”
Washington Post
“Afghans continued to grieve, and continued to fume, as a new day dawned on Sunday, exactly one week after a U.S. soldier — described by some who knew him as ‘happy’ and a ‘nice guy’ — allegedly went house to house, shooting dead 16 villagers.”
CNN
(4) Raw Story
(5) Here’s an earlier blog on Michael Moore
(6) See TMA, Aug./Sept. 1999 for Robin Heath’s A New Way of Forecasting: The Composite Transit Chart