what Plutarch said

"The abuse of buying and selling votes crept in and money began to play an important part in determining elections. Later on, this process of corruption spread to the law courts. And then to the army, and finally the Republic was subjected to the rule of emperors."

Plutarch (46 A.D.-127 A.D.) Historian of the Roman Republic

Asteroid Apollo flies by

Discovered by Wilhelm Reinmuth on April 24, 1932, asteroid Apollo is associated mythologically with the Greek sun god, Apollo and was the first of the Earth-crosser/Venus-crosser/Mars-crossers to be found.

At its sighting Apollo was Tropically at "1Scorpio", conj the New World Order's natal Sun degree...I'm only giving the negative version of the Sabian Symbols because I want to...

"1Sco": "A sight-seeing bus"> neg: a genius for avoiding any and every actual expenditure of self.

Apollo's Sidereal degree at discovery may be instructive for our current climate:

"5Sco": "A massive, rocky shore"> neg: blind stubborness or unreasoning conservatism.

Hmmm-m-m-m-m...

Astrologically there are three possible manifestations of this asteroid in our charts--and thus in our psyches--interpreted by the excellent Lee Lehman:

1. a personification of the Sun in the chart (self-protective, side-scuttling Cancer for US and George Bush);

2. a personification of Greek society's archetypal traits of the ideal man;

3. the giver or healer of disease.


Apollo's key phrase: against the odds.


It will be interesting to see how the next several days play out--a new cure or a new epedemic? Or other archetypal manifestations of Apollo's visit to Earth of the closer kind? Was Queen Elizabeth's visit to the US a few days early? Well, it has been years since she was last here!

And if you see any ideal men running about, I'd like to know about it, Barak Obama notwithstanding.


Space Weather News for May 7, 2007

SpaceWeather.com

ASTEROID FLYBY: This week, a famous asteroid is flying past Earth: 1862 Apollo.

Discovered in 1932, Apollo was the first asteroid recognized to cross Earth's orbit. Its discovery, and the subsequent discovery of many others like Apollo, helped
scientists understand that the threat of asteroid impacts didn't end with the
dinosaurs; it's a modern problem, too. There's no danger of a collision
this time. Apollo will be about 10.7 million kilometers away at closest approach
on May 8th. Southern hemisphere astronomers with big backyard telescopes may be
able to photograph the 1.7 km-wide asteroid and its tiny 75 meter-wide moon gliding
through the constellations Microscopium and Grus.

UMP

Just back from France, Mr.A.Cat has had me publish his latest limerick at Lim's Limericks concerning the UMP Party's Nicolas Sarkozy and his presidential victory Sunday.

At Lim's you'll find a link to an article on the ongoing riots, car burnings, window smashings, and arrests bedeviling the French nation. It's not certain that Sarkozy's expressed admiration for George Bush will be doing him a world o'good as he attempts to manifest his reformist tendencies upon France with her sluggish economy and large immigrant populations.

And where has Sarkozy been during the riots? Resting on a yacht in the Mediterranean. Sluggish economy indeed. Wonder whose name is on the yacht's title?

He's partying on down, I imagine, while Paris burns. The similaries between Bush, Sarkozy, and Nero I shall barely mention...esp with the incendiary Mars/Uranus snugged around NN...hyperexcitability; an excited demonstration shown to others; the execution of extraordinary and unusual enterprises.

Of course, Sunday's election occurred under this influence as well...and how do they count their votes so quickly in France when we can barely count ours at all?

The 'New' Masons

Did you miss NPR's report over the weekend on the current state of Freemasonry?

New Masons Drawn by Brotherhood, Not by Myths asserts that the brotherhood teaches moral lessons bwo allegory and secret rituals.

It's the secret rituals part that opens the door to cult accusations...even by the Roman Catholic Church. Guess the vatican likes to keep the market cornered on the secret ritual stuff.

Then you've got the the craft moniker--use of that term stirs the pot with the general public since it sounds wiccan or something (stirs the pot--I so foony...must be my n Jupiter/Saturn trine!)

Yet the US had 50,000 lodges and 4 million members in the 40s and 50s--now approximately 1.8 million, and the membership's average age continues to lower as their WWII-era brothers are passing on at a rapid rate.

See: Why 'Stars Over Washington'? in which I defend the naming of this blog along with some info concerning the founding of America and our nation's early connections to Freemasonry, if you wish.

EU/US merger: NWO creeps closer

Click chart to enlarge and read my scribbles...chart info here: New World Order--the NWO is on the way by hook or crook, m'peops. If it were all that wonderful they'd be crowing about it instead of hiding it:




EU/US Merger: New Global Order By Stealth

By Steve Watson

In a sweeping move that has garnered surprisingly little attention this week the United States and the European Union have signed up to a new transatlantic economic partnership that will see regulatory standards "harmonized" and will lay the basis for a merging of the US and EU into one single market, a huge step on the path to a new globalized world order. EU/US merger

Are You a Tech Omnivore?

Are you a technology Omnivore, Connector, Productivity Enhancer, or Lackluster Veteran?

Not sure which category I fit into but lackluster probably has something to do with it. And the Pew Internet and American Life Project can help me figure it out.

There's a quiz you may take if you're into fretting about it or you may read how the Survey Shatters Technology Assumptions which may or may not get your tech fires glowing again.

Funny that I just finished reading Robert Blaschke's Earthwalk Astrology Newletter concerning the semiseptile phase of Uranus/Neptune and its Information Age connections that began with the Uran/Nep Conjunctions of 1993 (Feb 2, Aug 20, and Oct 24) as the tech revolution for the masses took hold of our brain waves.

The semiseptile is an aspect of the 14th Harmonic issuing from the H7 = spiritual awareness. And Robert Blaschke asserts that the Information Age is proving to be an empty disappointment for most people--"illusions weaved with modern technology" or, in astrologese--Neptune + Uranus.

Then I find the above article on how we Americans fall into which category of 'user' based on the Pew survey...the whole thing sounds addictive when you put it that way, doesn't it? How many spouses have complained of such in recent years?

Sounds like Neptune is up to its usual tricks--negative escapism vs true spirituality!


Note: Earthwalk Astrology's latest Newsletter also has info on Jeanne Palfrey's natal chart--Mr.Blaschke spoke with the DC Madam by phone and she gave him her details! The federal charges may be dismissed or reduced--her Sec Moon was trining natal Jupiter at the time of her indictment, March 1.

Deborah Jeane Palfrey
Mar 18, 1956
North Charleroi, PA
16:55:00 GMT

Here's her natal Sun Pisces/Moon Gemini personality blend's Image for Integration:

A child grips his magic red balloon as it lifts him into the sky and over the sea onto an island of eternal beauty...A schoolboy dreams of heroic deeds during a class on the romantic poets. (Sun Sign-Moon Sign, Charles and Suzy Harvey.)

A Look at Poverty in America 2007

Wonder if presidential candidate John Edwards would be proud of the excellent article written by my Gather friend, Genine Hopkins?

A Look at Poverty: From the Inside makes excellent points about the experience of being on the ladder's lower rungs in America.

You don't have to join Gather dot com to read articles or view images....only to comment.

Hope to see you there!

Hindenburg Disaster 1937 and 2007

This evening the Navy Lakehurst Historical Society is holding a private memorial service in honor of the 70th anniversary of the Hidenburg Disaster.

The luxuriously appointed Hindenburg erupted in flames on May 6, 1937, 7:25 pm edt, as it landed at the Lakehurst Naval Air Field with 1000+ passengers onboard. Having made several trips in 1936, this was its first voyage of 1937.

The swastika-emblazoned zeppelin was the pride of the Third Reich and had been named for Paul von Hidenburg (1847-1934), who was president of Germany from 1925-1943. The German government purchased the ship as the Zeppelin Company struggled during the Depression, so the tale goes.

Due to a US embargo on helium, the Hidenburg was filled with bags of flammable hydrogen and through the years its demise has been primarily thought to have been static electricity from earlier storms in the day igniting leaking gas...if not sabotage, Pluto's domain. (1937 Pluto was opposite US n Pluto, and tr Jupiter was conj US n Pluto...not enough to go on without further investigation.)

Asteroid, Midas, was conj the Sun in greedy, sometimes intolerant Taurus...possibly related to the US embargo mentioned above.

But the garlic which had been added to aid with odor detection in case of a leak, did not indicate such a leak according to the ship's captain.

The Concorde of its day, the Hidenburg has been called the "Titanic of the Sky" and was thought (in similar fashion to the doomed ocean liner) to have been "infallible."

The most prominent theory for the fire which I can feret out is from a NASA scientists' research indicating that static electricity (Uranus) had ignited (Mars, in 1st house and Rx) the fabric covering (Saturn) which had a new (Uranus) protective coating (Saturn.)

You see Mercury (air travel; communications) is Rx also. The ship had been used to deliver Third Reich propaganda and was filled with mail from various countries to be delivered inside the U.S.

Here you see the charts for the disaster--which took appr 34 seconds to engulf the ship and crash it in flames--plus, the chart for this evening's service.

In 1937, there were asteroids of note: determined Sisyphus at MC opposite Arachne (webs, membranes, networks) and wax-wing-melted Icarus, an asteroid often active in air disasters.

The fabric covering was fitted over a metal frame, and the most recent research seems to show the possibility that German scientists' methods and design were at fault, infallible as they preferred to be considered. Some of the fabric remains and has aided in the protective coating part of the theory's research.

It is my estimation that tonight's chart with Saturn at MC--describes the scientists of 1937's determination (Sisyphus) for authority (Saturn) and was at least in part the WHY (MC) of the disaster, couple with Arachne's and Icarus' influences at the Foundation Point--the IC (endings; the drain; the HOW Point.)

There's a site with slideshow and video of the disaster at vidicom-tv.com which includes footage filmed onboard--the film survived inside the camera but its owner did not.

My heart goes out this evening to the survivors and descendants of this horrible air disaster (as are we all in the larger sense) while also remembering that arrogant infallibility gets mankind in a heap of trouble for pride comes before a fall.

Tiresome platitude? Perhaps, but we hear it so often for one good reason: because it's so very true.