Small World - April 2001 (Foot&Mouth; GWBush; humour; data)

Dear Friends

 Welcome to total melt down.

In last year's Neptune Special we peered through the fog at increasing confusion in the UK  which is still going on, since Sidereal Neptune hasn't quite finished with our 1st Januarycum1066 Sun. In the meantime it has begun catching up with the USA's beloved 4th July Sun ... and don't forget George Dubbaya Bush shares this axis!! On July 5th, while the Master of Oceans is on his Descendant, between their two birthdays comes a Lunar Eclipse in the 4th at the White House, with that nasty SaturnPluto polarity strung up and down the MC. In New York, Saturn makes way for Mars to join Pluto on the 4th cusp. All these delights, and Sidereal Neptune set for a long and glamorous run on and off Broadway well into 2002.

SILENT SPRING

Already England's horrendous plague, silencing our fields and byres, has caught the wind to Europe, and the whole world is worrying. Markets wobble and crash. Silicon Valley is running out of power. Tempers are flaring in the Balkans again. A TB epidemic is also an alarming possibility in the complacent, vaccinationshy UK ( and I find myself wondering why Whitehall hasn't ordered an immediate cull of all potential human carriers over a twomile radius around Leicester, to bring this disabling and potentially lethal disease to a halt?)

This is what happened at the last outbreak of footandmouth in the UK in 1967:

1967 CATASTROPHE AFFECTED 2,300 FARMS AS 442,000 ANIMALS DIED

By Sara Nuwar, PA News

The last major outbreak of footandmouth disease in Britain swept across farms in the winter of 1967. By June the next year more than 2,300 farms had been caught up in the infection.  In excess of 442,000 animals were slaughtered and thousands of farmers watched their livelihoods literally going up in smoke. October 25 1967  Norman Ellis, a farmer based outside Oswestry in Shropshire, reported two lame pigs. Earlier that morning he had taken two cows to market.  A vet raised the alarm and authorities reacted quickly, intercepting one cow before it reached its new farm and detaining all animals at Oswestry market, including the second animal.  October 26  Mr Ellis's 71 cattle, 67 pigs and 47 sheep were shot and burned. October 29  Second outbreak found. October 30  Eleven outbreaks were by now reported, including one at Carnforth, Lancs. Within a week  Twentythree farms, mostly in the same region, were caught up in the crisis. Within two weeks  104 farms were infected. November 15  A £124,600 contract for British beef was cancelled by Russia. November 15  45 fresh cases in one day. November 16  More than 73,000 cattle, sheep and pigs killed after virus spread to 394 farms. Worst hit were Shropshire, Cheshire and Wales. National Parks Commission asked people to stay away from the Peak District. November 17  Lakedale's Mardale sheep meeting was cancelled, the Burton Hunt was postponed and the Conservative Conference due to be held at Lancaster University was called off. November 23  Twelve disinfectant points were set up on routes into Devon to fight spread.

November 24  By now, almost 1,000 outbreaks had been recorded and a total of 134,000 animals slaughtered. Army training was halted in Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. Canoeing events were cancelled and many canal towpaths were closed. Angling was also restricted. Parents visiting pupils at Appley Park secondary school in Shropshire were banned and the Christmas party was cancelled. November 24  Disease peaked with 81 cases in one day. December  No livestock was allowed at the Royal Smithfield Show, Earls Court, London. By now, pyres had been burning across the country for weeks as farms with the disease were immediately sealed off. Footpaths were closed and horse racing, rallying, football, gliding and mountaineering were all hit. January 11 1968  Queen offered cattle from royal farms to help farmers whose stock had been affected by the disease. January 12  All the New Forest was declared a controlled area after a case was confirmed at a farm near Romsey. March 23  Hundreds of square miles of farmland were sprayed with disinfectants. June 4 1968  All clear was given.

Argentinian meat was blamed for the crisis. In total, there were 2,364 outbreaks and more than 442,000 animals destroyed.

The epidemic cost the country an estimated £150 million and £27 million was paid out to farmers in compensation. Thousands of people lost their jobs and farmers accused the "men from the ministry" of taking over their lives. After slaughter, farms had to be scrubbed twice a day with special disinfectant and animals were not allowed on to the land for at least six months. Contractors were paid to dispose of the carcasses and extra vets were flown in from abroad.

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BUSHFIRES IN DC...

Bush swings more and more to the hard right as he pumps up his reactionary12th house fantasies, dives in and out of its cover  the anxious, inept squares between Sun, Draconic Neptune, Sidereal Mercury (13 15 Cancer) and Tropical Chiron, Moon, Jupiter (15, 16, 18 Libra) homing in on the most seductive theromonal tide of popular opinion and approval. George Walker Bush ... how's that for battle camouflage?! And one of the tings he may be camouflaging is a past or present Habit. I've seen these charts before, of insecure, weak peoplepleasers with one dominant parent who develop a charismatic charm to paste over emptiness that nothing ever truly fills, and is all too often filled by instant, damaging gratification. (Look at the impossibly demanding synastry between father and son and you'll see what I mean. And GWB's draconic Aries Sun is on his father's MC, so naturally he believes he must prove himself by following in his footsteps... but Dad is using this as a way to a second bite at the power cherry.) The only way out of the lie that is their 'life', is God  and then too they can get it spectracularly wrong. No sooner is this one plumping his cushions in the White House than temptation begins....

100 days into his office, and his rising Leo MercuryPluto is posturing hawkishly, grandiosely squaring up to a touchy China, and with dismaying arrogance binning the USA's commitment to the Kyoto agreement. These are only the first tremors of the Inauguration's setting Scorpio Mars square Mercury/Uranus in 10th. It is said that we get the leaders we deserve. Help!

You may like to reflect on the interesting fact that every US Presidential inauguration since F.D.R.'s second in 1937, taking place as is now customary at noon on January 20th in Washington DC, has midTaurus/Scorpio across the horizon. Sidereally this ( besides being the Asc/Desc/Sun/Jupiter of Christ's Nativity, inverted ) is the quintessentially powerful axis of the two great royal stars Aldebaran and Antares, and it is resonated by the identical Tropical degrees. Every Presidency will therefore be endowed with, and spiritually answerable for its use of  worldly power.

An angular or aspecting planet will flesh out this test; Bush Sr. had Pluto setting and Aquarius Mercury square, compared with his son's setting Mars and even tighter Mercury square plus Uranus. Reagan's 2nd had Pluto setting; at his 1st a tight Mercury/Mars conjunction stirred up all the fighting talk. Enter, and reenter, Star Wars! Clinton's first had Saturn square the axis  and then scooped the quartet of Uranus/Sun/Neptune/Jupiter at his second! Jimmy Carter had a Moon/Saturn opposition squaring his Horizon turning it into a fixed Grand Cross. Only one term for him. Nixon, interestingly, was another Mercury square setting Mars guy! We are beginning to sort the Hawks from the Doves here I fancy. LBJ had Jupiter rising twice, with Neptune setting at his 2nd; JFK's ceremony had a late kickoff and lost the power plot to  Leo Uranus square a late fixed horizon. Ford's single inaugural broke the sequence with an August date  but Sun itself squaring the power axis.

From George Washington's 2nd term until 1937 the usual date was March 4th, mostly at 12h30, with early to midCancer rising and the Sun in 13/14 Pisces. How fascinating that the change of regular date, reflecting the USA's emergence as a World Power, occurred so soon after the discovery of Pluto!... which had been working on the March 4th Ascs and then the July 4th Sun over the 1920s.

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VARUNA

Those of you interested in the discovery and naming of asteroids will be heartened to learn that asteroid No.20,000 was this year named VARUNA  a deity associated with the Moon, brother of the solar deity Mitra. He 'witnesses everything' and has control of the seasons, the rains, and all waters. Philip Sedgwick, in his own bulletin, Galactic Times, expressed delight that that this may synchronise with some kind of divine intervention in our escalating ecological crisis. It is interesting that over the past couple of months we have seen two extraordinary feats of lone seamanship, in the first man to row the Pacific completely unaided, and young Ellen MacArthur's historic singlehanded race to second place in the Vendee Globe Challenge. (Data from the Guardian  start in the Bay of Biscay at Les Sables d'Olonne, France 5th November 2000 at 16h11; finish at same place February 11th 2001 at 20h37.) Interesting because Varuna is pictured as a white man riding a sea monster!

Varuna's discovery was on November 28th 2000, close to its own node, at 10 Cancer 29  and opposite the Moon, which is conjunct Marina! The Sun, significantly, is conjoined with Erda, the Earth.

In case it turns out to be significant, it is worth pointing out that the Moon's true N. Node conjoins the N. Node of Varuna, 7 Cancer 18, on May 8th this year with Varuna itself conjunct the twinned nodes at 9 Cancer 15! Noctua and Gaea (the Earth again) are conjunct the Sun in powerful midTaurus. Watch this space...

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Now for a bit of fun: Sunsigns for Computers.

Binary Stars 

by P@#C

Aries

The Tifoso of PCs  Likes to go fast! "Let's burn some tracks!" it whoops! Try Athlon; give it loads of RAM and a quick boot, and you won't see it for dust. Because some sad loser has nicked it.

Taurus

Slow, utterly reliable  and in PC heaven now that it can spend endless hours (securely) Banking Online or comparing the virtues of Money and Quicken with Bing or Ella in the CD drive.

Gemini

Total nethead, besotted with I.T. Will run up the phone bill of your nightmares until you move to the States. It will drive your car for you. Aspires to the Great Novel. For Christmas, give it woolly comms.

Cancer

‘Forgets' to empty the Recycle Bin  can't bear to throw anything away. Needs tucking in at night, cherishes history trails, dreams of a clamshell, and will freak if you ever reject it.

Leo

Demanding beast at home with Quality  fine ports, smooth drives, elegant screens, melodious speakers, rich text, gold card. Long rests essential.

Virgo

A tiny computer, loaded with tools, tweaks, free ISPs and all those helpful, interesting programs off monthly mags. And you're learning to live with the endless error messages ...

Libra

Looks so appealing, with pretty blue speakers, nice sound, a mike. You have Speech Software on CD and want to talk to her. Unfortunately she only came with a floppy drive ... you're starting to buy her things!...

Scorpio

What a hard drive! This one is going to put you through hell until you commit yourself body and soul to the Great Research it was created for. Or surrender to Lara Croft.

Sagittarius

Always hungry for more atlases, new languages, bigger Britannica! Won't wear its case, opens RoutePlanner as soon as you're on the train.  Advice: distract it with Web jokes and zip everything in Explorer.

Capricorn

Black, businesslike, boring. "Futureproof"; cost you a fortune. Also Very Slow, came  with version 1.0111 of a huge office suite and takes all morning to boot. As soon as you find out where it buried your files it's time to go home.

Aquarius

Adores people! Impossible to log off Freeserve once embroiled in chat  will crash spectacularly rather than do what you want. Bribe with upgrades, give it really wacky science to do and an admiring audience, it'll be your friend forever. Wants to be a Mac.

Pisces

Survives on  fluff, instant coffee, cold tea, cheap wine  not fussy  digestive crumbs; needs a mac. Prefers romantic screensaver to real computing. Faints at databases; faced with a spreadsheet will chuck your life's work into the Recycle Bin and commit suicide.

(In case you're curious, my first PC was a plodding Taurean from Simply, my second a mono Chaplet laptop, a Leo, which I still have after 8 years and spends most of its time sleeping! Since when there have been two Scorpios and this Cancerian, which have all enjoyed digging into the far reaches of astrology and exploring the past. There were two others whose dates are lost for the moment, kept similarly busy.  Gerard's Virgo machine is one of the new compact, grey, LCD affairs and does most of the secretarial work! PAFC)

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The Priesting of Women  there's more!

 In the March issue I mentioned the chart for the first ordination of women priests in the Anglican Communion. It struck me just too late for inclusion, that transiting Pluto is already on the IC of this chart! It has just arrived, will stay there over the spring, return over the winter of 2001/2, and then spend most of the summer and autumn of 2002 around that IC before moving on (to square the chart's Ascendant! and then the Pisces New Moon itself!) It looks as if the revolution has well and truly got under way, doesn't it?

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Dee Dee Ron Ron Ron, Dee Dee Ron Ron!

Today, April 9th, at 09h45 BST, BBC Radio 4 began daily readings from "The Queen's Conjuror", a new biography of Dr. John Dee by Benjamin Woolley, and the venerable astrologer has his engraved face all over the media! It is gratifying to note that Returns still work after nearly 500 years; he was born on July 13th OS 1527 at 04h35 LMT in Mortlake, Surrey, now part of Greater London, and both major current returns have a triumphantly angular Sun. The Solar return for July 2000 is culminating with the Dragon's Head and Mars; his Lunar Phase Return at sunset two days ago boasts the full moon right across the AscDesc. ... And the late Ron Davison, who maintained that he was the reincarnation of Dee, had a noon full moon with the nodes on his Solar return on January 9th, Total Lunar Eclipse Day!!! Even his Lunar Phase Return was a day and a half before Dee's and had the Nodes along the horizon. So! What do you think?

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Lunar Landscapes?

Another gift from Radio 4 was the announcement on March 14th this year at 15h20 GMT (from the Manchester studios during Gardeners' Question Time) that there would be a nationwide trial of planting by the Moon!!!

Keen listeners would be issued with Broccoli seed, this to be planted on the day of the next Full Moon, April 8th (yesterday as I write.) We await developments!

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Easily Lead ...

While we're on the material world, I learned something most intriguing that made me think afresh about my own Sunsign Capricorn and its associations. Apparently Lead impersonates Calcium because its molecules are a similar size; however, where calcium relaxes blood vessels in the brain, lead constricts them, causing seizures. There you have benign versus malign Saturn/Capricorn. Also it seems that lead, soft and infinitely malleable as it is (easily melted, poured into a convenient mould, or bent to another's will!) is also very sweet to the taste. This fits nicely with Saturn's exaltation in Libra. Aren't we a lot of old softies!

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...And the Sweet Smell of Success

"Odorant One" was first sprayed on selected gaming machines and tables in a Las Vegas casino on October 14th 1991 "at midnight", which would be at the very end of that day. So the chart should be set for 0h00 on October 15th. It had the intended, astonishing effect of drawing greatly increased custom to those tables and stimulating excessive spending. People behaving like moths on heat again! Marvellous pattern  a conjunction of Mercury/Mars in Libra squares the setting Saturn (daylight robbery?) and is turned on by seductive septiles to the fragrant, particulate coupling of Virgo Venus and Jupiter in the acquisitive 2nd house! This in turn trines Uranus and the N. Node, which links in a quartet to a  subtle union of Moon and Neptune in 6th.

(Data from the BBC's series on gambling, "High Stakes".)

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MARS ODYSSEY

Here is a brief quote from the New York Times that gives us the exact time of liftoff from Cape Canaveral:

Everything appeared to go well as the Delta rocket lifted off on schedule at 11:02 a.m. carrying Mars Odyssey. The weather was perfect for a launching, with a clear aqua sky.

A halfhour after liftoff, right on cue, Mars Odyssey was propelled out of Earth's orbit at more than 25,000 miles per hour.

Mars Odyssey is scheduled to reach Mars in October and slip into orbit around the planet. For two and a half years, it will study minerals in the rocks and measure chemical elements like hydrogen in a quest for water.

"NASA's main goal here is looking for life," Phil Christensen, an Arizona State University geologist, said, "and so life means looking for water."

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Paula Yates' correct birth time is now known: 12h10 BST on April 24th 1960 in Colwyn Bay, North Wales. Moon, Venus and Mercury all culminate. I'm a happy bunny, as my speculative chart (based as always on interdimensional work, angular named asteroids, and Daily Progressed Angles for key events) had the same configuration with a time only 17 minutes earlier. This stuff really works!

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SON OF GOD

The following is a copy of the email I sent to the BBC's Production Assistant in Manchester after the screening of part 1 of the "flagship series" on the life of Jesus on Sunday 1st April at 21h10. I had been filmed for this programme, on the strength of an earlier contribution to the unit's unfortunatelynamed but well produced 1997 documentary on astrology "Twinkle Twinkle". The footage was not used "because they had too much material"  and I would have been content, had not the chosen data for the Nativity been so inadequate and its presentation so flawed.

"I thought the first programme was most attractively and inventively presented, so well done everyone!

However, I do wish you had given more time to the astrology. Michael Molnar appears to be an astronomer not an astrologer. When his version of Jesus is displayed as a birth chart,  it simply does not describe the most unique of all divine incarnations. It doesn't describe Christ's Mother either. At the Suncentred heart which matters most of all there are serious human flaws which Jesus did not, could not possess.

It would have been less frustrating if the astronomy had been presented correctly; as it was, Jeremy Bowen referred to the Moon being eclipsed on the morning of April 17th 6BC (a full moon), when the only eclipse in the offing was a Solar eclipse at the approaching new moon.  Even the timing of this was wrong: the Solar Eclipse didn't happen until the afternoon of the following day, so all the excitement about April 17th was quite out of order.

It was never made clear, either, in all the euphoria, that the planetary cluster occurred specifically in the constellation of Aries; Saturn was still in Pisces in the framework of the tropical zodiac. I always understood that Judaea was connected to the sign Pisces, not Aries  hence the importance of the three Great Conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn in Pisces in 7BC.

And why show a comet rushing toward the Earth and then fail to mention the one that appeared over Bethlehem at the real Nativity on May 7th 5BC, the following spring? Why ignore that astonishing Star of David and Cross around the Sun in March 5BC, close to the powerful Pisces eclipse, which I showed you? Three of the eclipses in the nine months preceding Jesus' May 5BC birth occurred with the allimportant Jupiter either setting or on the meridian.

The inaccuracies in the programme are most unfortunate, given that you all had the time and opportunity to doublecheck everything and at least add some extra commentary and an image or two  even if the filming was too advanced for radical changes. Incidentally  the chart for the programme's broadcast (its own 'birth') shows beautifully its divine subject matter and its excellent intentions  but also the fact that it is spoiled by otherwise wellmotivated men in too much of a hurry to finish a job, the resulting distortions of fact, and creative liberties which fail to serve the truth. It also shows the disinclination of busy, confident men to pay sufficient attention to wellinformed women!"

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Talking of wellinformed women

In case I haven't mentioned it before, I heartily recommend Astrid Fallon's book of Ephemerides, published by Editions Rocher. "Ephemerides Graphiques et Previsionelles 19202040" have instructions in both French and English, and it is one of the most useful books I have ever had at my elbow. Granted, it is all in the familiar Tropical zodiac, but the way she organises the monthly planetary positions, the finer details, and the graphic plots of the planetary movements over each year, is clear and innovative. Appendices contain cyclic and symbolic data, plus tables of Sidereal time. Her companion book, "Cycles et Calculs Astrologiques" is most comprehensive and again beautifully organised, but is entirely in French, so less accessible to many of us  which is a pity.

You can contact Astrid at 9, Highcliffe Place, Sheffield, Yorkshire S11 7LW   U.K.

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Knocking at the doors of the Universities...

Many, many congratulations to France's renowned astrologer, Elizabeth Teissier, on her award of a Doctorate of Sociology by the Sorbonne in Paris this past weekend. This was for no ordinary thesis, but for "The epistemological situation of astrology through the ambivalence fascination/rejection in PostModern societies." After a 2.5 hour debate and the enraged departure of one jury member shouting "It's a major farce!" (there's one heart surgeon storing up problems for himself!) a doctorate in astrology was a step too far for France's intellectual elite, but Mme. Teissier is quoted as saying, "I'm delighted and relieved. It's been like giving birth." But of course!

Well done, for restoring proper dignity to what "has been relegated to the role of a barbarous and pariah subject"  and for making it to the front page of the London TIMES!

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No April Foolery in the foregoing, I assure you! Have a peaceful and happy Easter, and, DV, Small World will be on its way again in May.

God bless you all,

Pam