21st December 2016 ev.
The Sun 0 Capricorn 10:43:43 GMT.
When the prime minister of The People’s Republic of China, Chou En Li was on a state visit to France in the late 1960s he was asked by an interviewing reporter,
“..and what is your opinion of the French revolution? ”
His reply, after a small pause,
“Really, it is too early to say.”
‘crank n. something that starts revolutions’ – Norman Hunter (Professor Branestawme’s Dictionary)
Uranus in Aries: revolution in all forms and in all spheres. Outwardly, social & political, inwardly, in hearts & minds, it ferments at the deepest levels. This is the rumbling basso profundo of our festivities. It is countered, opposed by Jupiter in Libra, Law & Order, judicial authority manifest as authoritarian justice, the weight of the law & status quo (Have mercy on their souls!). The aspect has been applying since early November and Uranus retrograde, impressionable & literally vulnerable but soon moving forwards again (Uranus direct from 29th December). Cogs turning, a few more teeth pass, established authorities becomes complacent (Jupiter retrograde from 6th February) opposition collapses (aspect separates 19th April) and there is here some small opportunity for change before they realise that they’ve lost their advantage (Jupiter direct 10th June, Uranus retrograde from 3rd August). They try to build their walls again (Jupiter in Libra opposition Uranus R. in Aries applying 22nd August, exact 28th September) but things have moved on and the legitimacy of the claim to just law is fast expiring (Jupiter leaves Libra for Scorpio 10th October 2017, the opposition separates 29th October). What happens then is anybody’s guess. History seems to suggest that authority without legitimacy, without justice, is tyranny. Jupiter occluded by Scorpio seems sinister suggesting star chambers, witch hunts & show trials but ‘Courage!’ reactive oppression is a sure sign of fear and History itself is changing.
Saturn conjunct The Midheaven: the burden of History. This is the end of time which is called The Present and not some future armageddon. Time does not extend but passes. Nonetheless, from the placement in Sagittarius, the perspective is outward & forward and not inward or backward. The ultimate lesson from history is that history has no answers.
‘History is bunk!’
‘History is the dream from which I struggle to wake.’
‘He who does not learn from history is doomed to repeat it.’
‘History doesn’t repeat but it sure does resonate!’
To be of any use it must be understood, decrypted, unravelled and vividly re-imagined to at least plausibly resemble a version of events as they may once have occurred. The dismantling of edifices, of governing or restricting structures, ‘Tear down those walls!’ Be warned though, these have also been supporting or protective structures, the sanctuaries that have become prisons.
Mercury conjunct Pluto: secret meetings. Closed negotiations that are not in the public eye or in any way generally verifiable. What is being bought & sold behind these doors? Pluto: the imprinted knowledge of past events as they actually happened. Mercury retrograde: receiving rather than transmitting information. These are investigations, inquiries. Oh, they are busy, these secretive mandarins, the civil servants & executives, they who rule the rulers!
‘..and they’re all made of ticky-tacky and they all look just the same.’
Mars is rising conjunct Neptune in Pisces: A welling up of popular feeling? anger? exasperation? or the rise of some figure/figurehead, taking a stance (or a call to arms) to restore balance & re-assert popular representation & answerability, or several/many such figures? Could the social debate & the political process through utter stagnation to the point of self strangulation become a speaker’s forum once more? A reformulation of an ideological basis for challenging established patterns & norms, a fixing (Mars sesquequadrate- holding & restraining, Jupiter) of those who wield authority in the spotlight (The Sun 0 Capricorn, this event, this solstice, Sol Invictus, sextile-resonating with, Mars). Is it now time to try these judges by their own laws (Neptune in Pisces biquintile-the question which demands an answer, Jupiter in Libra)?
The Sun, quintile Jupiter & quintile Neptune provides a framework for questioning, a framework for questioning?
‘The just man is happy on the rack!’
The Ascendant conjunct Venus in Aquarius: The fundament of the law by which any action is justified providing it can be shown to be ‘Reasonable, Prudent & Well Intentioned’.
Prudence & caution apply here: Venus resonates (sextile: Uranus, Saturn & Midheaven) with both the force for change & the meeting of History with this point in time (Saturn conjunct The Midheaven). As does both progress (Ascendant sextile: Uranus & Saturn) & aspiration (Midheaven in Sagittarius), saving only that it must not fail to question itself (Ascendant quintile Midheaven) fundamentally, ideologically.
‘Judge not lest ye be judged.’
‘Let History be our judge.’
All are fixed & examined through lens & mirror (The Moon in Libra: sesquequadrate, square & quintile angles to Venus & Ascendant, The Sun, Saturn & Midheaven) & the prosecutor (Mars, conjunct Neptune & quincunx The Moon) must rise to confront his own reflection!
All such trials are subject to abstraction, to becoming less concerned with particular justice/injustice or its redress than with the viability of ideologies & symbols and all this with consequent dehumanisation.
From history:
At the instigation of Robespierre the trial of citizen Capet became not the weighing of any of his deeds or actions even according to the outermost ripples of their consequences but a clinical process focussed upon identity. Was he guilty or not of being this thing, The King Louis XVI?
Revolution itself, Uranus retrograde, abiding in Aries even through & beyond the coming year long after the process of trial is complete & the prisoner has been passed on for sentencing (Jupiter into Scorpio 10th October 2017) must needs continue to question, to agitate, to examine itself in the light of its own aspirations. Will the revolution be internalised?
‘Revolution begins in the individual’
‘You are all individuals!’
‘WE ARE ALL INDIVIDUALS!’
‘er.., I’m not.’
Whilst we are tearing down these walls, these restrictive structures and oppressive symbols best to remember: At the time when The Bastille was stormed there were only a handful of prisoners actually being held within it.
Colin Seckington & Felix Zakar, Canterbury 2016