The Jupiter/Neptune Conjunction and Celebrity Deaths

I haven’t been tending my blog quite as well as I should be, but I wanted to put up a quick post about how today’s celebrity deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson are triggering a period of national mourning of sorts, fueled by the Internet and social networking.

Depending on what time you use for the U.S. chart, the current Jupiter/Neptune conjunction is either conjunct or quite close to the U.S. Moon, which signifies the people of the nation.

Today, the Moon is in Leo, which often coincides with accidents and surprises, and this is opposing the Jupiter/Neptune conjunction in the collectively-oriented sign of Aquarius. We’re getting upsetting news about celebrities (Leo), who are the closest thing the U.S. has to royalty.

I’d be happy for any other astrological-based comments on the situation.

Craig Robinson: Connecting the Dots

Followers of this blog know that there’s no TV here in the Palm Springs condo. I watch streaming video on the Net and catch up on the tube at the California Pizza Kitchen downtown.

Today, ESPN was on (as usual) and I didn’t feel like bugging the staff to change the channel to CNBC or Fox Business News to get a stock score, I mean price.

So, I’m eating my Cobb salad and looking up at the screen and all of a sudden there’s Michelle Obama’s brother. I recognized him because he was at the Democratic National Convention. I even know his name is Craig Robinson. What I didn’t know is that he’s a basketball coach for Oregon State University.

O.K. How many of you knew that? More on Craig’s chart and maybe some synastry with the First Lady later in the week.

I made my reputation by calling Kansas as the winner of the NCAA last year — when the bracket was down to four teams. (I’m not that good!)

So I’m getting my March Madness game on. Given the “synergy” in the world, we can’t leave out Oregon State. (Don’t ask me what their record is this year.) Maybe the First Brother-in-Law can go all the way.

The Astrology of a 100-Yard Touchdown

I’m more of a hoops fan than a gridiron enthusiast, but the Super Bowl is such a national campfire that I usually get drawn in. (I can’t help it if I like nachos!)

Living on the East Coast (right now), I was rooting for the Pittsburgh Steelers to beat the Arizona Cardinals and my hopes were rewarded.

I wasn’t able to watch the game because I was working, but I was following some of the action on the Internet. At a certain point in the evening, I heard a roar go up my street and I couldn’t figure out why it happened.

Then I clicked onto Yahoo! and saw that James Harrison of the Steelers had scored a stunning 100-yard touchdown. What an accomplishment, particularly under the bright lights of the Super Bowl!

I don’t have time to do a full treatment, but the Wiki says that James Harrison was born May 4, 1978 in Akron, Ohio. If you click on Harrison’s horoscope here, which is available courtesy of Astrodienst, you’ll see that a lineup with transiting Jupiter/Node/Sun in Aquarius is opposing his natal Mars in Leo.

I don’t have Ebertin’s Combinations of Stellar Influences close at hand, but I’d say the formula must cite some heroic achievement that is shared by the public. I see Jupiter (big), Node (the public), and the Sun (spotlight) opposing Mars (action).

If anybody has an idea about what in Harrison’s chart could produce this kind of outsize action, I’d love to hear about it.

Natally, Harrison has Pluto broadly conjunct the North Node and he has been in the news before for an altercation with his girlfriend.

Obama’s Choice of Rick Warren Sends the Wrong Message

I don’t get the argument that Barack Obama’s decision to invite celebrity pastor Rick Warren, who is openly anti-gay, to lead a prayer at the inauguration, is a “good thing,” to quote celebrity homemaker Martha Stewart. The thinking is that the President-elect is reaching out to those on the other side of the aisle, the political spectrum, etc.

I know I’m not the only one out there who sees great irony in the fact that the nation’s first black President is choosing to break bread with a man who actively campaigned against gay marriage in California and was successful in that effort.

I know that Warren is helping to lead us to a “Purpose-Driven Life” through his 20,000-member Saddleback Church in Los Angeles. I just don’t think my purpose in life is supporting someone who is trying to exclude a certain group from the same rights that everybody else gets to enjoy.

Now that Pluto is in Capricorn, we all have to be on the lookout for the tendency of the government and the corporation to encourage and enforce patriarchal family structures. This runs counter to the community-oriented spirit of idealistic Neptune in Aquarius, which will be joined by expansive Jupiter in 2009. (Incidentally, Warren is an Aquarius so he’ll be getting a lift from Jupiter for a year, starting in early January.)

There is nothing that can make me feel good about this situation. From where I sit — straight, white, married, middle-aged — gay union is a civil rights issue. Churches that adhere to the teachings of the Bible may feel justified in shutting the door on gays, lesbians, and transgender folks, but the government does not have that luxury.

Why? I’m no constitutional scholar, but here’s why I’m so sure of my beliefs: Article 14 of the U.S. Bill of Rights. And I quote:

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

By asking Rick Warren to bless his Administration, Obama is sending the message to gays that they are not welcome at his table. And that is definitely not a good thing!

Breaking the Color Barrier

On Election Day, when Pamela Cucinell and I gabbed on our weekly BlogTalkRadio show, AstroChatter Radio, an interesting factoid came up: As Neptune turned direct over the weekend, a black man won a Formula One race for the first time. Lewis Hamilton of England made history in Brazil with his racing win.

Perhaps this breakthrough was also the result of the approaching Saturn/Uranus opposition, which was exact on Nov. 4.

In the U.S., we had Jackie Robinson break the color barrier in 1947 with Major League Baseball. We had Sidney Poitier do the same thing in Hollywood in 1963 with his best actor Oscar for The Lilies of the Field. Since then, we’ve seen Arthur Ashe win groundbreaking championships in tennis and Tiger Woods become king of the greens in golf, a sport known for its discrimination against Jews, blacks, and women.

Now, Barack Obama has been elected the first black President of the U.S. Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream has become a reality.

According to the AP, Obama won 52% of the popular vote, vs. 46% for Republican John McCain. The official Astrology Mundo Presidential Poll mirrored the electorate, with 45% saying McCain would win, vs. 54% for Obama.

We are not black. We are not white. We are American. Rest in peace, Dr. King. Your sacrifice was not in vain.

McCain and Obama: The Citizenship Follies

Although I have great respect for Gian Paul, who has contributed several posts on politics and economics to Astrology Mundo with the tagline “The View From Brazil,” I don’t necessarily agree with his assessment that John McCain will be the next U.S. President.

When friends ask me what is going to happen on Election Day, I usually reply: “Anything could happen,” and tell them about the Saturn/Uranus opposition, which is exact on Nov. 4.

I don’t come out and say things like McCain could die of heart failure, Barack Obama could be assassinated, or there could be some kind of disruption of the electoral process due to a natural disaster or a terrorist attack. If you say those kinds of things, people think you’re nuts or that you’re trying to scare them.

So I usually leave it at: “Anything could happen.”

As far as I’m concerned, a new “anything” is materializing. Because details about where and when McCain was born have surfaced as Mercury is changing directions and moving forward, I think this issue is one to watch.

Until McCain’s official birth certificate surfaced on the Web over the weekend, it was assumed he was born in Cocosolo, Panama at either 9 a.m. or 11 a.m.

Now, it is definitively known that McCain was born in Colon, Panama at 6:25 p.m. on Aug. 29, 1936.

One lawsuit challenging McCain’s ability to run for President because he wasn’t born in the U.S. has been dismissed in California, but another one is moving forward in Nashua, N.H. The Senate has passed a resolution that paves the way for McCain to be President, but some of the legal experts quoted in articles I’ve read say this resolution may not withstand a legal challenge.

Here’s a good article explaining some of the legal arguments involved. Here’s what I think is interesting: The court could rule against McCain after he’s been elected President.

Gian Paul in his post on McCain says Uranus conjuncting McCain’s Saturn could free the candidate from the sense of restriction that has held him back. I would argue that Uranus to Saturn, especially being opposed by transiting Saturn, could blow McCain’s Saturnine ambitions to smithereens with some wild-card scenario.

So keep your eye on this relatively obscure court case concerning McCain’s citizenship. It’s widely viewed as a tempest in a teapot, but it could turn into something much bigger.

Lest conservatives think I’m picking on McCain, citizenship questions are dogging his opponent as well. Despite the fact that Barack Obama’s campaign has produced a “certificate of live birth” showing he was born in Hawaii on Aug. 4, 1961 at 7:24 p.m, speculation persists that he is a native of Kenya.

As this week’s Time magazine points out, the “foreign” brush that critics are trying to tar Obama with is a socially acceptable veneer for racism.

But I think the citizenship controversy surrounding both candidates is a harbinger of the anti-immigrant sentiment that is bound to increase when Pluto moves into Capricorn and opposes the stellium of Cancer planets in the U.S. independence chart.

On a symbolic level, the court cases against McCain and the questions surrounding Obama’s heritage are forcing us to ask: Who is an American?

Beth Turnage on the Burning of a Black Church

Most New Yorkers, when they hear the name “Wappingers Falls,” flash back to 1987, when Tawana Brawley, a black teen, alleged that she had been kidnapped and raped by six white men in the small town outside of Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

Although Tawana enlisted the help of the Reverend Al Sharpton, a civil rights leader, and won the support of African-American activists nationwide, the whole story turned out to be a hoax cooked up by a troubled teen, and the town of Wappingers Falls got caught up in the ignominy.

Wappingers Falls recently was in the news again after a Baptist church under construction for a mostly black congregation burned down in May under mysterious circumstances.

Nobody does true crime astrology better than Beth Turnage so I asked Beth to be the “investigator” on the case. I was interested in whether the fire, which the police have determined to be arson, was racially motivated.

In the mid-nineties, as Pluto went into Sagittarius, there was an epidemic of black church burnings, mostly in the southern United States. Churches are still being burned, though the issue has faded from the headlines, and gets lumped in with other hate crimes in reports compiled by various civil rights groups.

Some conservative commenters have even dismissed the church burnings of the mid-Nineties as a figment of the liberal imagination, just as there are those who insist the Holocaust was a myth.

Beth has done a wonderful job of using astrology to analyze why the Bethel Missionary Baptist Church of Wappingers Falls went up in flames.

Thanks, Beth! I owe you big time.

As an Army brat, I’m quite thankful to Beth for her recent astrological investigation of a murder near Fort Bragg, N.C., the home of the 82nd Airborne Div., which was my father’s “home” post. Airborne, for you civilians out there, means men and women who jump from planes and helicopters wearing parachutes.

Beth hangs her hat at Astrology Explored. You can read her posts about the murder of Second Lieutenant Holley Wimunc by her estranged husband here and here.

This is not the place for a full-blown editorial on the unrealistic demands our government is placing on U.S. servicemen and women and their families by sending them on multiple tours of duty to Iraq and Afghanistan. However, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see that murder, spouse abuse, alcoholism, drug addiction, and post-traumatic stress syndrome are the end result of these actions. (For those who suspect I know of what I speak, you’re absolutely right.)

Of course, the murder of Holley Wimunc could have been motivated by nothing more than the age-old story: “If I can’t have her, no one else will.”

Beth, I’m hoping you’ll weigh in on this one. I haven’t done enough research to know whether Wimunc or her husband, Marine Corporal John Wimunc, had been deployed prior to the murder.

Reverend Wright Redux

I’ve got to hand it to my commenter Chris. Earlier this year, when I wrote about the parting of the ways between Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama and his minister, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Chris had this to say:

“I expect some intensification when Pluto backs up to square Wright’s Sun and Barack’s Mars. Is it just a matter of time until the next you-tube sermon from Wright equating Barack to the Prodigal Son? Perhaps they’ll be a firecracker exploding soon relating to the Obamas and marriage counseling or tax-deductible donations made by Obama to Wright’s congregation.”

The comment ended up in the About section of this blog, not under my post about Reverend Wright.

Chris was prescient in his observation that Wright would be back in the news. Pluto has just turned direct and is moving to once more square Wright’s 29 degree Virgo Sun. He’s making headlines today because Elizabeth Payne, the secretary of a Dallas church run by one of Wright’s disciples, told the New York Post, she had an affair with the clergyman.

Assuming this allegations are true, perhaps Reverend Wright decided that Oscar Wilde was right after all: The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.

Way to go, Chris!

Pluto in Capricorn or the Artist Formerly Known as Prince?

Astrologer Michael Lutin has created a glyph for Pluto in Capricorn that I presume is a combination of the symbols for Pluto and Capricorn. It’s reminding me a little of the symbol that the musician Prince used when the Gemini was calling himself “the artist formerly known as Prince” during a dispute with his record company.

Check out Michael Lutin’s site here. Scroll down to read his riff on Pluto in Capricorn. It’s underneath the pictures of the guy wearing a baseball cap with the red glyph above. Personally I think the glyph should be black since Capricorn and Pluto are pretty heavy energies. Given Michael’s predictions about Pluto in Capricorn, I guess it’s a little late to party like it’s 1999.

Go ahead, click on that 1999. You know you want to!

It’s Two for Tiger

Even I’m starting to get sick of the Sarah Palin sideshow so I’m going to catch up with yesterday’s news that golfer Tiger Woods’ wife is expecting their second child.

Earlier this year, I made some grand predictions about how this was going to be the best year ever for Tiger, a Capricorn, because Jupiter was transiting his sign.

I predicted a Grand Slam — four major tournament wins in the same year — as well as an expansion of Woods’ home and family. Well, at least I was right on one count — the family is indeed expanding.

As golf fans know, Tiger has had a less-than-stellar year so far because of leg surgery. One astrologer who got it right was Marjorie Orr. Unfortunately, I can’t link to her post on Tiger because of the way her Web site is set up. But hats off to Marjorie for seeing that Jupiter in your sign doesn’t always mean more wins and more money. It can mean more children and more homes.