Sept 2008 transits to US natal chart

With the 7th anniversary of the attacks of 9/11/01 being tomorrow, here's America's natal chart (Sibly version, July 4, 1776, Philadelphia; 5:10 pm LMT) and I've added a few transits triggering our nation's natal Saturn, Mercury, Sun, and Pluto this month.

Around the outside of the chart you see highlighted in yellow transit Mars in natal 10th house of Public Status, and transit Jupiter in natal 7th house of Partnerships, Legal Affairs, and Open Enemies.


Here's the list - the Sept 8 transit is past but I'm including it because it's part of our September atmosphere:

Sept 8 Mars square Sun: willpower and physical actions are frustrated; feelings are touchy as others encroach on one's territory, yet the desire for personal accomplishment is strong; tensions between male colleagues or co-workers; hastiness can delay success; patience is needed.

Sept 11 Mars conjunct Saturn: constant obstacles in the path slow things down even as we're required to hurry - blockages may be self-created; positively we become more focused, organized, and efficient; someone with maturity and experience is given more credence; careful plans are made; imposed rules may be difficult to accept or live by.

~Because 9/11's Mercury is conjunct US natal Saturn in Libra, this transit of Mars-to-natal-Saturn also conjuncts 9/11's Mercury rising, so we have Mercury/ASC = Mars: negotiations, discussions; emphasizing one's own ideas; realizing one's plans; deciding on the best course of action with advisers; quarrels; and...

Sept 11 - Mars to 9/11's Mercury: thoughts turn easily into actions; energized thinking; life's pace quickens, communications increase and may become chaotic; verbal combat within the environment; meetings, discussions; sales and commercial transactions pick up; people drive too fast!~

Back to the US chart:

Sept 19 Mars opposite Chiron: the sacred warrior archetype in the collective is spiritualized, activated; we may hear injustices mentioned and America's warrior energy is stimulated. (Campaign-wise this more than likely relates to John McCain and/or to the US military, and possibly to missionary churches.)

Also natal Chiron is conjunct natal Sun/Pluto midpoint so we have...

Sun/Pluto = Mars: a desire to perform record achievements; overtaxing one's powers; ruthlessness; fanaticism; enormous drive; carving new perspectives (all midpoint pics: Tyl; Ebertin.)

Sept 25 Mars square Mercury: tempers flare; arguments with males; new work methods result in frustration or delay; wrong directions given; bad weather interrupts.

Sept 30 Mars square Pluto: revenge and jealousy may be motivations behind actions; power struggles; past obstacles and mistakes must be overcome before progress can be made; anger present but if transformed positively much can be accomplished.

Sept 30 Jupiter opposite Sun: this one I've blurbed about before but with Jupiter's cycle being 12 years, this is thankfully the last pass for a while...

material assets are depleted by circumstances; generosity benefits the wrong people or is wasted in worthless endeavors; those who want to help are rendered powerless; those with grandiose ideas or promises of success are not able to deliver; victories, if there are any, compromise principles; only a conservative and constructive way of working around issues will succeed.

Mars square Pluto (the power principle - including nuclear weapons -but Pluto also signifies publishers and the massively wealthy), plus, the last pass of Jupiter-opposite natal-Sun makes Sept 30 stand out, IMHO.

So! has the Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac bailout/seizure/take-over been conservative enough or is it a case of worthless endeavor, grandiose ideas, and generosity benefiting the wrong people as Jupiter-opposite-Sun describes?

What do you think?

Sara Palin VP acceptance speech: video

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Here are highlights from Gov Sara Palin's VP acceptance speech at the 2008 RNC. YouTube's videos of this speech seem to be in four parts so I'm posting this highlighted version.

Joe Biden, John McCain, and Barack Obama videos are posted just below...

Joe Biden 2008 accceptance speech: video

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Here's video of Senator Joe Biden accepting the Democratic VP nomination, Aug 27, 2008.

Acceptance speeches of John McCain and Barack Obama are just below...

John McCain RNC 2008 speech: video

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Here's John McCain's RNC 2008 speech video...you'll find that of Barack Obama DNC 2008 just below. Compare and contrast...

Barack Obama's DNC speech 2008: video

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Here's the video of Senator Barack Obama's acceptance speech at the 2008 DNC.

The war politics of John McCain

Someday, the news media may get around to re-examining the assumption that killing foreigners in their own country is the best patriotic credential imaginable. A front-page New York Times story the other day referred to Sen. John McCain as "the most popular national political figure in the country."

McCain built his career in politics while news accounts routinely described him as a "war hero," with frequent references to the captivity and torture that he withstood for years after a North Vietnamese missile brought him down from a plane he was piloting over Hanoi. Media outlets rarely put a fine point on the fact that McCain had been dropping bombs on civilians.

Norman Solomon - Source: Beyond Hero Worship CommonDreams.org Aug 27, 2004

A photo of John McCain

You didn't want to miss this one, I know, so here it is.

1898 speech echoes 2008 campaign issues

One-hundred-ten years ago, on Dec 5, 1898 William Jennings Bryan delivered a message which reverberates into the 2008 presidential campaign - its issues, jingoisms, and propaganda-touting.

As you know, orators of the past were expected to speak for quite some time - a speech resembling today's 'sound bites' would have been considered a complete flop and a huge disappointment to entertainment-starved audiences everywhere.

The speech I've dug up for you, 'Imperialism', touches upon many topics of current value, not the least of which is a Republican house of representatives who complied with President McKinley's request for the authority to increase our standing army to 100,000.

Bryan called a large standing army, "not only a pecuniary burden to the people," but much more: "it is ever a menace to a Republican form of government."

Today we should recognize these things by well-worn experience, and yet the GOP still has its way in the realm of war profiteering and expansionist policies a la 2008.

Bryan paraphrases Abe Lincoln in his speech, "In 1859 Lincoln said that the Republican party believed in the man and the dollar, but that in case of a conflict it believed in the man before the dollar."

My, some things have changed, haven't they? Unless you're one of the elect few, that is - the cream of the one-world-government crop.

1898 (the decade when the Robber Baron class got its claws into every pie) and Bryan almost wholly could have been speaking of the 2008 presidential campaign when he said:

"Against us are arrayed a comparatively small but politically and powerful number who really profit by Republican policies; but with them are associated a large number who, because of their attachment to their party name, are giving their support to doctrines antagonistic to the former teachings of their own party."

Bryan goes on to discuss, among other things: the gold standard, the greenback, imperialism in the Philippines and Cuba, the paralyzing influence of imperialism, and then gives the four principle arguments advanced by those who enter upon a defense of imperialism.

He then identifies to whom each argument is addressed ('addresst'):

1. the nation's pride
2. the nation's pocketbook
3. the church member
4. the partisan

If any of this sounds familiar, it's because they're using the same tactics in the 21st century! If it works, why change, right?

So is America caught in a loop of self-destruction she can't break out of? Is she too dizzy to see she's being duped yet again?

Now I know that a vote in November may bring little improvement if you vote for the Dems. But if you vote for the Republicans you can be certain of encouraging the cynical imperialists who have been misdirecting our nation for a over a century.

What's it to be?

Change? Hope? Or simply the audacity and hubris of nation-rotting, Republic-destroying imperialism?

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Thanks go to a great resource, American Rhetoric!

Jupiter turns Direct for Fannie and Freddie bail-out

Stooping to conquer and letting go the money flow, the Great Benefic Jupiter turned Direct early this morning - in Washington DC, at 12:17 am edt.

As you've heard, the Fed and the Bush administration announced Sunday the much-talked-about seizure of mortgage titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the freezing of their portfolios. There'll be no more lobbying allowed for this lobbying king and queen.

And as you know, the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Neptune occurs all through 2009 which is as good a description as any of the financial risk-taking and meltdown which the next president will be dealing with beginning with his first year in office.

Read more about the Speculation pair, Jupiter-Neptune if wish, dates included.

Now for the Sabian Symbol for Jupiter's Direct Station degree, '13Capricorn' from Lynda Hill:

"A Fire Worshipper Meditates On The Ultimate Realities Of Existence."

Lynda says this Symbol is about being very focused, with a great passion for getting to the core or to the truth; and about new beginnings. It concerns turning inward and closely examining the situation - plus, danger and staring into the flames.

~ Sounds like accounting examinations, doesn't it? And what is said could have happened if this nationalizing bail-out had not occurred.

Plus, Fannie and Freddie's books apparently have irregularities. Umm-hmm...some of that fuzzy math, is it? ~

Lynda gives interesting Cautions for this degree - here are two of them:

overestimation of personal power and abilities and not seeing the forest for the trees.

Now for Adriano Carelli's Symbol for '13Cap'...but I warn you - it may not be altogether comforting:

"A Tartarian archer drawing an incendiary arrow"...

A thirst for absolute power; a tireless and sleepless activity; a tendency to burn one's bridges behind oneself.

An heroic courage, which is never an end in itself, as all energies are subordinate to the aim in sight. Such a character is ready to go to any lengths in order to secure his aim.

He will draw the line at no extremities, never withdraw before personal danger, even impassively watch bloodshed; refraining, however, from flinging himself into useless risks...he has a keen sense of honor, but is driven and burned by an even keener thirst for superhuman honors....the native seems born to destroy rather than to build.

If a diplomat, he will serve his own thirst for power rather than his own country; if a chief, he will love the people as the rider loves his horse.

The full measure of success will crown such an ambition provided the native knows where to stop."


Carelli notes that this is Pluto's degree in Napoleon's chart.

Well,'13Cap' is opposite US natal Sun so we may begin to feel and experience some monetary relief as Jupiter widens the orb of this restrictive transit.

Today world and US markets reacted positively to the Fannie-Freddie bail-out, so we'll see how things transpire as rich man/banker Jupiter continues forward upon his merry way through the rest of Capricorn, a sign which is an entire labyrinth unto itself!

Joe and Jill Biden marry June 17, 1977

Wedding Day Astrology: Joe and Jill Biden has been published if you'd care to take a look.

Congress eyes FBI's Ivins case

It's Monday, Congress is back on Capitol Hill for 3 weeks and has sent a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller asking him nicely to show up in front of the House Judiciary Committee (probably on Sept 16 & 17) to answer a few outstanding questions about the case against Dr. Bruce Ivins.

The New York Times has this:

Seeking Details, Lawmakers Cite Anthrax Doubts in which we are reminded that the post-9/11 anthrax letters contained none of Bruce Ivins' DNA, which must surely be an inconvenient fact for Mueller who will be asked about how investigators eliminated the 100+ people who also had access to the culpable flasks of anthrax.

Bruce Ivins, as you know, committed suicide (we're told) the night of July 29, 2008, so Congress' questions to Mueller may be the only chance the American people have for any closure whatsoever concerning the terroristic anthrax letters of 2001 since the death of Dr. Ivins negates the possibility of a trial.

You remember that the FBI pursued the wrong man for years in this case, Dr. Steven J. Hatfield, who in June settled a lawsuit against the FBI for $4.6 million. Guess we taxpayers pay the piper, but good for Dr. Hatfield whose career was ruined by FBI scrutiny and innuendo.

Looking back at July 29, Saturn (law, authority, accountability) was in a quindecile aspect with nebulous, often obfuscating Neptune.

A quindecile aspect (165 degrees) gives a compulsive-obsessive flavor to the planets involved and you may wish to keep the FBI-Ivins case in mind as Congress applies itself to the case - or as the law-makers simply produce another matinee of political theater on Capitol Hill that goes nowhere and results in exactly nada.

Obama win will give largest Dem majority in years

Watching the Sunday political shows this morning and on This Week with George Stephanopolous George Will says that if Obama wins the White House it will be the largest Democratic majority since 1937.

So how angry against the Republicans ARE the American people? Angry enough?

Not that Dems with the upper hand are to be trusted either - 'absolute power corrupts absolutely' and all that.

And David Brooks observed that if McCain wins, he'll have trouble finding enough Republicans to put on staff because the Rs are so rode-hard-put-up-wet (my phrase - I'm paraphrasing here) from 8 years of Bush. McSame will have to resort to Dems.

Ha.

Bernadette Brady and Darrelyn Gunzburg, in their current Visual Astrology Newsletter discuss US elections being based on the 8 year cycle of Venus, who radiates her favor upon certain planets in any given election as the Morning Star or Evening Star.

They state that Obama's nemesis - his downfall - is hubris, while McCain's nemesis is sympathy. If I understand their meaning, it is that an Obama presidency would be in danger of kingly arrogance while McCain, the soldier, would be in danger of being viewed as a sympathetic figure rather than as a strong leader.

This reminds me of the feeling I had watching the RNC's constant tributes to McCain's POW status, including his own mentions of it - so if you vote for McCain, are you voting in sympathy with his still-carried wounds from 5 years of torture?

Do you believe McCain's sudden embrace of the 'CHANGE' slogan means anything different from Bush's policies? Were Bush policies and doctrine put in place only to be abandoned by the next president - and a Republican one at that?

And: is it possible for any US president to govern without falling into the hubris brigade?

Your reasons for voting Republican are your own - my answers to the last 3 questions are: no, no, and no.