Here is expert astrologer Steve Judd giving us a Mercury retrograde 2016 view from Britain:
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A brief bio and a view of the natal horoscope of British PM David Cameron (of the tin ear!) shows his Sun @15Libra, Moon @6Leo, and Ascendant @1Libra, as Steve mentions. Interesting that Mr. Cameron has a Scorpio Mercury squaring Jupiter--one planet ruling communications and thinking processes while Jupiter plays many roles, one of which can be 'the politician'. A Mercury-Jupiter square denotes discrepancy between beliefs (Jupiter = how we relate to others) and the truth (Mercury) along with a tendency to be impulsive in judgments, decisions made before having all the facts (and thus being misinformed), questioning then changing answers that are inconvenient, and possibly being a pathological liar. Sounds like this square is quite useful in Politics. Especially the kind practiced today where decisions are not made--orders are taken from hidden bosses and 'special interests'.
Note that transit Mercury (Rx until Jan 25, 2016 at 4:50 pm est) conjoins power-mad Pluto in Capricorn twice more (until next year) on Jan 22 and Jan 30.
As for David Cameron, in the Harveys' Sun Sign-Moon Sign, there are two Images for Integration that may apply to PM Cameron based on his Sun Libra-Moon Leo personality blend. As you know, this describes the Sun (adult; conscious), Moon (child; unconscious) traits when they blend and work together:
"A performance of The importance of Being Earnest...A political idealist is crowned leader by adoring fans."
A play written by Oscar Wilde as an Image indicates that Wilde was also born under a Sun Libra-Moon Leo combination. As for 'adoring fans', I'm not so certain PM Cameron has retained them.
If there is a financial crash in 2016 (my astro-window suggests 2016, 2017, or 2018, a difficult time period for several reasons) the threat is apparently from abroad with the global weakness in markets, economies, and currencies, China in particular. How low can oil prices go? Job lay-offs in the US have resulted so far along with Wal-Mart and Macy's stores closing (though some closings have been planned for a while). Will corporate-written 'trade deals' like the TPP improve economic and social circumstances for workers and or worsen them (while enriching the wealthy as usual)? And what difference can a new US president make, if any, if The Script is already written and must be followed or else?
My feeling is that the corporate class is in cahoots no matter the country and are setting up events and conditions to effect a global crash. The timing of the crash depends on when everything is in place to guarantee the outcome that transnational bankers want so that a 'new order' can be fully implemented (1776 is so passe).
So perhaps you've noticed that a few broadcasters and economists have been ringing financial alarm bells for some time, these 8 years after Crash 2008. One of them is the historically savvy Thom Hartmann:
As we read in The Guardian the economic rescue made so necessary by Wall Street culprits and the continuing economic policies first perpetrated under Reaganism have not been replaced or corrected by Obamaism which arrived in the wake of the disastrous 8-year Bush-Cheney regime that undeniably culminated with Financial Crash 2008. That the Obama presidency is historic for breaking the color barrier and began with great hopes for positive change (something the 2009 Jupiter-Neptune conjunction/s inspired and supported) is obvious yet America's Main Street vs Wall Street conundrum remains tucked underneath a whopping income inequality divide. Many people agree that Mr. Obama saved Wall Street but Main Street? Not so much.
To paraphrase The Guardian article many Americans are finally waking up to our massively wide income divide. Yes, but will a majority of us fall again for discredited Reaganomics policies and candidates in November 2016? Will such sleepwalking voters show up at the polls?
Actually the Venus Cycle indicates that voters will demand someone other, or different which usually means a president of the rival party--Republican, in this case. There have been two exceptions to the Venus Prediction as noted by expert astrologer Bernadette Brady, yet 2016 Democratic candidates may be able to fulfill the requirements of 'the other'--Bernie for his Democratic Socialism, Hillary for her gender. However, in the Republican stable, Donald Trump may suffice due to his not-a-politician condition and even Ted Cruz could because he was in Canada though disqualified he may turn out to be.
Now those readers who were around Stars Over Washington since 2009 and before know that I have typed a large amount of words concerning Jupiter and Neptune as a pair of energies that represent potentials for 'the grand spirit, visions, big promises, flowery religious sentiments, get-rich-quick schemes, fraud, waste, speculation, hypocrisy (Ebertin)--and irresponsible, abusive, or reckless financial mismanagement. Political conflicts are also within the realms of Jupiter-Neptune (ex: Republicans vowing failure for President Obama since Day One). Such readers may be familiar with astrological principles and if so, they have not missed the significant synchronicity of the three 2009 conjunctions of Jupiter and Neptune perfecting upon the US Moon in late Aquarius as seen on July 4, 1776...mundane Moon = We the People.
The blend of this grand influence of the societal planet of expansion (Jupiter) and urge-to-merge Neptune (often a leader in fraud, falsehood, deception, loss, failure, and planet of The Masses, The Media, and propaganda) led us in 2009+ to be exploited by our dreaminess, by falling into a swoon, having little sense of reality, becoming involved in speculation and fraud, losing ourselves in plans which brought waste, loss, and instability for a majority of the public. That America's natal Neptune @22Virgo conjunct fixed star Denebola (to go against society) obscures Barack Obama's natal Mars @22Virgo made the use of Jupiter-Neptune = natal Moon easier for those who were aware of the significance of such cosmic occurrences that were timed to chime with our newly elected "rock star" president (Mars-Neptune).
The Neptunian veil cast over Mr. Obama's Mars denotes a lack of clear vision or understanding when it comes to the president's actions and motivations (Mars) which he and his backers have hidden behind when acting in secret. Neptune veiling Mars also accounts in part for the lack of trust in President Obama and we all suffer from this constant refrain from Republicans whether we share their distrust or not.
And of course, Mars is the warrior planet but this post is more about financial issues even though the Pentagon is next after Wall Street and the Fed on my financial mismanagement list since global copping and conquest are very expensive to maintain as are US military bases, CIA annexes, prisons, and our embassies all over the world.
So now, since the 1980s (or even the 1970s), we have increased Income Inequality thanks to a society that has devolved into more of a US Plutocracy than the Founders set it up to be. And as we face the November 8, 2016 Election/s, only a large voter turn out by Democrats can hope to deflect the GOP ('grand old plutocrats') from taking the White House and playing the decades-long game of Democrats grow the economy--Republicans harvest it dry (thereby creating more beggars out of the rest of us). This is a game set up by hidden hands secreted away in their European lairs (headquarters such as the City of London and the Vatican Bank) and it is somewhat visible in the World Bank, the IMF, and the Rothschild system of central banks that throttle the world's finances and resources while continuing to enslave the people via debts that can never be paid off. This exploitative condition between the 'haves and the have-nots' can be further described in Astrology by the Pluto-Chiron pair and all its -isms including Capitalism, Communism, racism--and primal violence.
Yes, the much-touted New Millennium has shown as a timing device for enslaving the world more tightly in the raptor's grip--in finances, total surveillance, politically, you name it. The current Pluto-Chiron cycle began with their conjunction in late 1999--at 12 Sagittarius, conjunct America's Ascendant in her late afternoon horoscopes of July 4, 1776 (I tend to use 5:09 pm LMT since it places 00Aries at IC though our Scorpio Rising chart is also descriptive). Therefore, Pluto-Chiron-r-us. But did Plutocracy need to announce its arrival as the New Millennium began? Many people were awake and aware of its tightening grasp upon our nation and government pre-1999 with the 60-year Pluto-Chiron cycle involving a transformation of mass consciousness, an expression of a mass need (Nolle)--and this we now hear in the campaign rhetoric of both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump.
Plus, how can we not wake up? The Sabian Symbol for 12 Sagittarius should have opened our ears back in 1999 into 2000: "A Flag Turned Into an Eagle That Crows"! Odd how the Bush gang had draconian changes to our traditional principles and freedoms ready to implement just after the attacks of 9/11/01--as if part of a plan. One question for 2016: is there a presidential candidate who isn't part of the plan? That's the one I want.
So since Democratic Socialist Senator Sanders is calling for a political revolution and because of his reform ideas and the fact that a Pluto-Chiron conjunction appears in the natal horoscope of Karl Marx (Marxism! Socialism!), I suggest that Pluto-Chiron's expression of a mass need is primarily the need to close the glaring gap in incomes in the US and beat Plutocracy of any political stripe back into its dungeon where it belongs if our allegedly democratic republic is planning to exist into the future.
Tuesday January 12, 2016 9:10 pm to 10:09 pm est Capitol Building Washington DC Address to a Joint Session of Congress and to the American People with Virgo Rising:
January 12, 2016: Tonight as President Obama delivers the final State of the Union Address to a Joint Session of Congress (9:00 pm est Capitol Building) the degree of the Pre-Natal Eclipse of the November 8, 2016 Election/s rises @9Virgo (September 1, 2016). This denotes a speech that in some way will touch on the themes of the eclipse in the 19 North Saros Series which are: 'realism, coming down to earth, and becoming aware of an old situation and seeing it for what it truly is' (B. Brady). Refreshing for Washington Politics? Yes, yet this could include critiques of Republican ideas especially with Virgo being the sign of The Critic. Of course, the 19 North is also the PE of Inauguration 2017 so these themes will continue to be on most people's menus.
And naturally the current Mercury (speech; messages) retrograde period is perfect for a president on his way out the White House door--perfect for delivering a litany of his achievements while in office and regrets over what didn't get done. And with Mercury as chart-ruler (Rx) we may expect grandiose ideas, boasts about economic improvements and foreign affairs, and fairly good reception of the speech from the press and from the public (Mercury trines the Jupiter-North Node conjunction in Virgo: broad overview!).
As for 19 North, its initial eclipse occurred on July 5, 1331 (OS) @20Cancer so current themes are filtered through Cancerian concerns such as security, home, and business. For comparison of similar events, 19 North also manifested in the years: 1908, 1926, 1944, 1962, 1980. 1998, (September 1, 2016 @9Virgo), and will next occur in 2034.
Jan 11, 2016: yes, I heard about this on an Atlanta area radio news cast this morning and am glad that Thom is replying to the critics (who must be fretting that Bernie Sanders could be the 2016 Democratic nominee--wonder who?):
Somehow I had missed this informative excerpt from an interview of November 2014 conducted by former 2016 candidate Lawrence Lessig with shunned NSA official and exile Edward Snowden. Being a presidential election year you would think that such topics would be prominent in our current public discourse! Yet listen for surveillance topics within the current presidential debate cycle and you'll hear little more than crickets. Ask Trump, Bush, Cruz, Rubio, Clinton, or even Sanders to comment on or describe America's secret government or to uphold its antidote government by consent of the governed and evasions and diversions begin though you might get a fevered rise out of Sanders or Trump (to give us the impression that our concerns are 'being heard') while studied non-responses from the rest must suffice. They'll have to leave it there, as their bosses often advise them to say...
This interview with Ed Snowden seemed totally appropriate since the Saturn-Neptune square is upon us all for as you know, mundane Saturn = government, law, business while mundane (as if!) Neptune = secret, invisible, illegitimate, fraudulent. My opinions is that we're brainless fools if we allow the 'ruling class' to tell us we can't even discuss aloud such topics as surveillance, illegalities, and anti-constitutional provisions since our lives and the futures of our children are closely and adversely affected. Too many of our officials are in the raptor's grip and trying desperately to hold on to their positions of power and their generous incomes but constantly act in breach of the public trust and contract. So few of them actually represent the interests of the American public that it would be hilariously amusing were it not so riotously tragic.
Now I wonder if the '30Cap' Sabian Symbol we spoke of earlier will be part of the secrets to be revealed under the auspices of Mars' retrograde period during April into October 2016 which takes us right up to the position of transiting Mars on Election Day 2016 and "A Secret Business Conference" which may possibly be made inconveniently public? For a deeper look, I do feel certain that the symbol of the Illumination Point for '30Cap'--right across the axis at '30Cancer' may be informative for it is, "A Daughter of the American Revolution," a reference to our past political revolution that inspires me to begin quoting (some of which you may have read here in prior posts or elsewhere) as I think of how 2016 candidate Senator Bernie Sanders has been calling for one:
The American Revolution "was not a revolt against an existing indigenous system of government but rather an anti-colonial movement against the English"...that "involved a change in political authority rather than a transformation in the power structure of society. Therefore it does not conform to the model of other revolutions.
The full revolutionary dynamic of the American Revolution can be stated as follows:
The American Revolution brought about a constitutional transformation that ended Britain's colonial rule and created republicanism, the political expression of Templar Masonry. The new Atlantis of America was a Templar-created Masonic State.
The revolutionary dynamic of the ideas behind the American Revolution can be stated as follows:
And so the astrological puzzle remains: what structural and political reforms will America's first-ever Pluto Return/s all through 2022 perpetrate? And since the Return of powerful, wealthy Pluto to its 1776 position will soon begin triggering our national Mercury-Pluto opposition (Cancer/Capricorn) of propaganda, secrets, spies, and surveillance, will the spying industry grow by then into the beast it now strives to be? Or has it already?
