Is anybody out there counting the minutes until Saturn leaves Virgo and moves into Libra? It happens on July 21, the last day that the Sun is in Cancer.
Yes, I know that when Saturn enters Libra, it will be triggering the Cardinal Climax everybody’s been talking about (more on that later!), but Saturn at 29 degrees of Virgo squares my Mars in Sagittarius and sits on my North Node in the 12th house. Translation: I feel like a bondage victim in a nursing home!
Beverly at Lavender Moon has an insightful post on the Saturn station. Take a look and learn! I did.
Is there anybody else out there who sees a correspondence between the injuries, breaks, and deaths in the family suffered by members of the Dancing With the Stars cast and the opposition of Saturn in Virgo and Uranus in Pisces?
Just wondering.
On another topic, every afternoon, my downstairs neighbor in Palm Springs comes back from the pool and blasts C-Span, the TV station that covers Congress. I counter by streaming WWOZ, the New Orleans radio station, on my laptop. Saturn in Virgo oppose Uranus in Pisces, anybody?
I’m back in California and made the mistake of going to a Trader Joe’s this afternoon in Cathedral City to fill up the refrigerator and the freezer. (My progressed Moon in Taurus is activating my Ceres and all of a sudden I’m eating nothing but fresh produce and fish.)
What was I thinking? Every Baby Boomer in the Coachella Valley had decided to go shopping for his or her Oscar party tonight. As I said to my husband, in California, the Oscars are viewed the way the Super Bowl is in the rest of the country.
I made it back home in one piece. Barely. Meanwhile, here’s a rehash of the Oscar predictions that Pamela Cucinell and I made on AstroChatterRadio a couple of weeks back with some brief astro explanations.
Slumdog Millionaire — Best Picture and a slew of other awards. Why? Look at India’s independence chart. It’s being lit up like a Christmas tree by today’s stellium in Aquarius, which opposes the Independence Sun.
Remember how in the film everyone is watching Who Wants to be a Millionaire on TV, from the slums to the posh skyscrapers of Mumbai? It will be that way with the Oscars. A collective roar will emanate from the Subcontinent when this rags-to-riches tale brings home the gold.
According to the Wiki, Los Angeles is 13.5 hours behind Mumbai. So by my calculations, the cheer will go up around 10:30 a.m. in Bollywood (India’s answer to Hollywood) since Best Picture is usually announced close to midnight Eastern time.
Kate Winslet — Best Actress. The Aquarius stellium trines her natal Libra lineup. I did a double-take in the Houston airport yesterday when I saw Winslet on the cover of Time with the headline “Best Actress.”
Until I read the deck on the headline, which made it clear that the magazine thinks she’s the best actress whether she wins the Oscar or not, I thought I was in some kind of time warp.
Mickey Rourke — Best Actor. I’m going out on a limb here. Everyone thinks Sean Penn is a shoo-in for Milk, a gay-themed picture that is a favorite with the Hollywood crowd. Also boosting Penn’s chances is the fact that the transiting Aquarius stellium opposes his Leo Sun, guaranteeing a high-profile night for the actor.
However, I think dark horse Rourke, who’s getting the Saturn/Uranus opposition in Virgo/Pisces on his Virgo Sun, could walk away with an award for his comeback performance in The Wrestler.
As someone very wise said to me in the past week, 99% of the people in the audience are waiting for their comeback. Aren’t most of us?
Footnote: Slumdog won eight Oscars tonight and the Times of London is crowing “Hail Britannia.” I still think this is a victory for “In-ja,” as the Duke of Windsor referred to the former British colony.
My next prediction? That Bollywood-style dance classes will take the U.S. by storm. It’s already starting to happen, according to this article from an Indian newspaper.
Here’s a fun clip with the stars of Slumdog Millionaire dancing to Oscar-winning song Jai Ho on the set of The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
How do you travel 3,000 miles with a cat in tow?
Well, as all you animal lovers out there know, you have to patronize “pet-friendly” motels. These typically tack on a surcharge that ranges from $5 to $30, depending on how upscale the establishment is.
I know. I can hear you asking: Why bother to declare the cat? Just stay at motels where you don’t have to enter through the lobby, and ask for a room at the back.
Despite a lifetime of Sagittarian procrastination, I find it difficult to lie about traveling with a cat, particularly when a sign at the front desk warns that an $85 fee will be assessed if you bring an “undeclared” pet to a room.
This must be my natal Jupiter in Sagittarius at the midpoint of the transiting Saturn in Virgo/Uranus in Pisces opposition: Traveling with a cat named Bogey.
I love Bogey, but I have to admit that I got really tired of taking apart the kitty carrier, using the bottom for a litter box, cleaning it out, and putting it back together again.
Luckily, in Rio Rancho, N.M., I discovered eco-friendly disposable cat boxes at a PetSmart that made my life a lot easier, especially when I had to set up the litter box in the passenger seat in response to a pointed “Meow.” (You’ll be glad to know that I stopped the Jeep in order to do this.)
I guess I could have put Bogey on a harness and taken him for “walks” at the rest stops the way dog owners do. But I just didn’t feel right doing that. Cats aren’t meant to be on a leash. So I ended up turning the Jeep into a moving litter box.
Maybe one of the car companies will add a litter box as an extra, the way they have with drink holders and TVs. I’ll put my money on a Japanese car maker to do the honors, since the Japanese excel at disposing of waste in a civilized fashion.
If you’ve ever worn special Hello Kitty slippers to step into the bathroom of a Japanese home, you know what I’m talking about.
Shortly after the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series, I started noticing parallels between now and 1980, the last time the Phils were the world champs. As astrologers, we know that this is more than coincidence — the 28-year difference between now and 1980 marks a Saturn cycle.
Here’s the latest evidence that Saturn, the planet of restriction, leads to fewer jobs when it’s in the sign that rules work, Virgo, as it is now and was in 1980. The headline on the story reads: November jobs losses could be the worst in 28 years.
A couple of interesting factoids: The last time the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series was in 1980. That was 28 years ago, which is a Saturn cycle. The Phils are celebrating the Saturn return of their last world championship by winning another.
Also, in today’s headlines about the economic news, there are a few references to 1980. Here’s what USA Today says about yesterday’s gross domestic product report: “Consumer spending, two-thirds of economic activity, plummeted at a 3.1% rate — the steepest fall since 1980.”
Interesting that the news wires are reporting that agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have made arrests in a skinhead plot to assassinate Presidential candidate Barack Obama as the culmination of a shooting spree across America.
Just last week, I was musing on the connection between Saturn in Virgo and skinheads.
And, guess where those skinheads met? That’s right: on the Internet. Sounds like Saturn in Virgo opposing Uranus in Pisces to me.
Forget CSI. ATF rocks! Hey, I wasn’t saying that after Waco. But let’s give credit where credit is due.
I caught a preview performance yesterday of Noah Haidle’s poignant play Saturn Returns at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater yesterday. I didn’t bring any Kleenex, but I should have.
Directed by Nicholas Martin, Saturn Returns is a triptych of the life of Gustin, a Grand Rapids, Mich., radiologist in 1948, 1978, and 2008, as he experiences his first, second, and third Saturn returns.
Astrology is never mentioned, but the playwright, who appears to be experiencing his own Saturn return, has a keen understanding of the language of loss and loneliness that the planet of restriction speaks so eloquently.
As befitting a play called Saturn Returns, it’s a sparse production, with Gustin at age 88, 58, and 28 played by three actors — John McMartin, James Rebhorn, and Robert Eli, respectively. The women in Gustin’s life are portrayed by the same thespian — the beautiful, versatile Rosie Benton. No other players are on stage and there are no intermissions.
Film buffs may know Rebhorn from his numerous screen and TV roles, including The Talented Mr. Ripley, My Cousin Vinny, and The Scent of a Woman. Throughout his career, Rebhorn has often appeared as the nerd or expert, a guy with a plastic pen holder in the pocket of his starched white shirt. Sure enough, he’s a Virgo born Sept. 1.
I like the fact that Gustin is a radiologist because that embodies the current opposition of Uranus in Pisces and Saturn in Virgo.
I’m no drama critic, but if Saturn Returns is representative of what Haidle is doing at 28, I can only imagine what his future holds. Is he the next Edward Albee? I took a friend who is an accomplished actress, Anney Giobbe, with me and she was also blown away by Haidle’s talent. Like Saturn, Haidle’s not going away.
Hey, this gives me an excuse to reprint my poll, “What Happened During Your Saturn Return?”
I spent part of the last transit of Saturn through Virgo (1979-1981) in London, where I was a student and held a variety of odd jobs under the table because I didn’t have a work permit.
Rebuffing opportunities to join London’s ubiquitous sex trade, I was able to eke out an existence without turning tricks by laboring as a barmaid, a nanny, and a word processor. In fact, one owner of an office-temp agency seemed genuinely surprised that I would rather type up the specs for an architectural project for 5 quid an hour than make a quick tenner performing a sex act.
Another place I toiled was a consulting firm that was conducting a study on the fallout of the deindustrialization of the North of England. British readers may recall how the value of sterling soared in 1980 and then plummeted in 1981, as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the Bank of England sought to rein in inflation. The rising pound helped drive industry out of Britain to lower-cost destinations because it made wages expensive relative to other places in the world. Britain’s trade unions are notoriously resistant to change, which may have accelerated the exodus of jobs.
I remember a cartoon in one of the British papers in 1981 had a man dressed up as a robot going off to work. When his wife asks what he’s doing, he replies, “I don’t want to get the sack at Leyland,” a British carmaker that was investing in robots for its assembly line.
Ever seen The Italian Job with Michael Caine? Besides Caine, the stars of the 1969 film are Austin Mini Coopers. The sun was already setting on British industry by the late 1960s, but there was a time when Made in Britain was synonymous with quality and craftsmanship. It still is for the newly rich Chinese and Indians who are buying Bentleys.
Back when I was in London, sheikhs who’d gotten rich from the oil shock of 1979 were fond of taking their entourage to shop at Harrods. These days, it’s the Russian oligarchs who are enjoying the best that Britain has to offer, even to the point of buying soccer teams, the way that Roman Abramovich has with the Chelsea Football Club.
Owning a football club is the ultimate status symbol in England. As Britain has surrendered its hegemony in world politics and its manufacturing prowess, the pride of its citizens is firmly fixed on the one arena where the country is still a dominant player — soccer. Of course, finance, literature, theater, and music are other sectors where Britannia often rules.
Back when Russia was still in the iron grip of communism and a command economy, Saturn in Virgo was decimating the working class in the U.K. This helped fuel the punk rock movement, whose martyrs were Sid Vicious and his American girlfriend Nancy Spungen. Oddly enough, Vicious and Spungen died on Feb. 2, 1979, the day after a revolution installed a theocracy in Iran.
Vicious and his band the Sex Pistols mocked the British class system, with royalty at its pinnacle, in their classic God Save the Queen.
The class rage embodied in the punk cultural movement was fueled by the loss of meaningful work and loss of faith in the future. The British class system functioned efficiently, if unfairly, when there were jobs for the working class, who didn’t have much mobility in the calcified structure of Britain’s social and economic pecking order.
When I lived in London, louts and yabbos shaved their heads and went “Paki-bashing,” or beating up immigrants of color. Some of these alienated British youth called themselves “skinheads.” They preached white supremacy and formed a dangerous fringe political movement that exists to this day.
Flash forward to Upstate New York in 2008. Saturn is once again in Virgo and manufacturing jobs have been scarce for some time in the area, a trend much commented upon by blogger and author Jim Kunstler, who lives in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
A former college comrade who considers himself a “thinking conservative,” was recently harassed with racial epithets while riding his bike. In his blog post, he wonders why he is being called the “N” word when he’s white and why hooligans are screaming “Obama Sucks” at him.
As the London consulting firm where I worked during the summer of 1981, the study I typeset carefully documented the side effects of unemployment — alcoholism, drug addiction, and violence. Rage at not having work finds a target — whether it be “Pakis” in London, a presumed Obama supporter on a fancy bicycle in Albany, or Jews in Nazi Germany.
The dangers of the deindustrialization of America, which has been going on since the last time Saturn was in Virgo, are becoming quite apparent now that our financial and housing bubbles have burst.
Any economist can tell you that wages have been stagnant in the U.S. for years. We’ve only managed to persuade ourselves that our standard of living has been increasing by working more hours and borrowing more money. Britain’s class lines blurred a bit under Tony Blair’s Labor government, but debt was the lubricant that made mobility possible on the other side of the Atlantic.
Now that credit is drying up and the only jobs to be found for working-class Americans are at Wal-Mart or in the U.S. Army fighting an endless war on terrorism, a new generation of angry young men is starting to awaken. Will the outlet for their aggression be a new musical movement or a string of hate crimes?
This AP story highlights the rise of racism in the runup to the election.
Astrology Mundo 