The Reality Based Community

Saturn stationed on the night of December 5. (A station is when a planet slows down and appears to stop and change direction relative to our view from earth.) When a planet stops in the sky it can be informative to look for its effect in earthly affairs.

Saturn represents the father, or the wise or conservative principle. Saturn offers the gift (and necessity) of facing reality and relinquishing illusions and wishful thinking.

Robert Gates (brought back from earlier service in the elder Mr. Bush's administration) spoke before the Armed Services Committee on December 5 and began with this sentence: "I am under no illusion about why I am sitting before you today. It is the war in Iraq." Senator Carl Levin responded to Mr. Gates that his remarks were "a necessary breath of reality." Gates was easily confirmed as Secretary of Defense the next day after giving a sober assessment of the war in Iraq.

The Iraq Study Group Report also came out yesterday (and is already #6 on Amazon). It is another realistic appraisal the we are not winning the war and calls the situation "grave and deteriorating." 'Grave' is a word straight from Saturn's heart and 'deteriorating' is suggested by the fact that Saturn is stopping and going back now...this is the retrograde station...

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd on December 6 describes Robert Gates offering a "cold shower" to "a Senate panel craving a cold shower." Yeah, Saturn! Better late than never.

Vladimir Putin

The international press has reported a very complicated trail of suspects and motives regarding the poisoning and gruesome death of Alexander Litvinenko. Litvinenko, who died on Nov. 23, was born in 1962; two different dates have been reported for his birth. (The U.K. Times gives Dec. 4, while The Daily Telegraph says Aug. 30.)
Since there is no confirmed birth date for Litvinenko, I looked at the Russian President's chart. At the very least, Vladimir Putin is connected to Litvinenko by virtue of his position as president, and perhaps in a more personal way.

An ex-KGB spy, Vladimir Putin* - Scorpoio rising at birth with Pluto conjunct the Midheaven - has natal Mars at 26 degrees 31' Sagittarius. This is the degree of Galactic Center and transiting Pluto this year as I wrote about in my post on Dec. 4. Thus he is further example of someone whose personal actions (Mars) are being directed by Plutonian intensity and the magnetic pull of the Galactic Center. It's interesting to think of Putin's actions as a demonstration of a power play in which he is trying to hold on in the face of the great evolutionary leap that is suggested by Pluto's arriving at the Galactic Center.

*Birth data: Oct. 7, 1952; 9:30 am BAT; St. Petersburg, Russia (59N45, 30E15). Rodden AA.

Pluto and the Galactic Center

Although its been approaching for several years, by the end of this month (and throughout 2007) Pluto will be exactly at the degree of the Galactic Center (calculated to be now at 26º 56’ Sagittarius). This degree in the heavens is the center of the Milky Way galaxy, the Sun behind our Sun. Astronomers speculate that it is the position of a massive Black Hole which has mysterious and powerful qualities being studied and wondered about by both astronomers and astrologers.

My current understanding of a Black Hole is encapsulated by an entry in Wikipedia: “Black holes require the general relativistic concept of a curved spacetime: their most striking properties rely on a distortion of the geometry of the space surrounding them.” I like that phrase - “a distortion of the geometry of the space surrounding them.”

When I interviewed mundane astrologer Mario Raskovsky for TMA several years ago I was especially struck by what he said about Pluto crossing the Galactic Center.

He said then (2002) that the speed of world events and the necessity for change would accelerate as Pluto drew closer to the Galactic Center and that the world leaders would not be able to keep up with the demands of evolution.

In this time, when Mr. Bush, the leader of the Western world is commonly and consistently depicted as “losing his hold on reality” (see, for example, Frank Rich, New York Times, Dec. 4, 2006) Mario’s description seems like a good insight to me.

But we know Pluto can strengthen as well as destroy; both and Hugo Chavez (1) and John R. Bolton (2) have natal Mars at 26º Sagittarius and have had Pluto transiting that planet for the last year. The populist leader Chavez who (at the time of the September 22, 2006 solar eclipse) suggested at the U.N. that Mr. Bush might be ‘the devil,’ has natal Mars near its maximum southern declination and out-of-bounds at 28S18. A planet out-of-bounds is out of the range of the declination of the Sun and out of the organizing power of the Sun. That planet tends to act on its own in unusual and highly individualistic ways. Mr. Chavez just won a landslide re-election in Venezuela with 60% of the vote.

Today’s Full Moon square Uranus brings the not unexpected announcement that John Bolton will no longer serve as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. His term, which began in August 2005, was brief and controversial as he was a vocal critic of the U.N. Looking at it from the point of view of Pluto and the Galactic Center, Bolton was apparently not up to the task of representing the U.S. at the U.N. at such a pivotal moment in history. According to today's New York Times, news of Mr. Bolton's imminent departure was greeted by U.N. officials "with relief."

The Galactic Center is a power point in the zodiac – Beethoven and Steven Spielberg have the Sun at the GC (24º18’ and 26º27’ respectively). Martha Stewart and James Van Praagh both have the natal Moon at 26º Sagittarius. The upcoming New Moon on December 20 is at 28º Sagittarius too. Actor Danny De Vito (3) has his Ascendant there as well, but maybe that’s another story.

Sources:

1) Hugo Chavez; July 28, 1953; 9:37:45 am GMT; Barinas, Venezuela (8ºN46, 69ºW56). (Time rectified by Mario Raskovsky.)

2) John R. Bolton; Nov. 20, 1948; Baltimore, Maryland (39ºN06, 76ºW37). No birth time known.

(3) Danny De Vito; Nov. 17, 1944; 10:20 am EWT; Neptune, NJ (40ºN13, 74ºW02’) Rodden data; AA.