Small World - July 2011 - News of the world: Interesting Times ...

(A much expanded version of this article, discussing the interaction of tropical and sidereal zodiacs, can be found in Talks & Articles at the end of the current list.)

Oh boy! Is Pluto having a field day! In Small World for October 2008 I wrote a piece  about Pluto's potential impact on world affairs (particularly Europe) as his track through early Capricorn was going to hit 9/10 degrees of Cardinals - the area covering the 1st day of four key months in the civil calendar, January, April, July and October. So many countries and organisations choose one of these as their inceptional date that when a major planet (yes, Pluto IS a major planet!) hits one of them they tumble like dominos. The EEC (January 1st 1958 at 0h00 CET in Brussels) and its members are right in the firing line - including the Euro, which was launched as legal tender on January 1st 1999, its first trade being three days later. On January 1st 2002 the first notes and coins appeared in participating countries including France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, The Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Greece, and Luxembourg. Already the economies of Greece, Iberia and Ireland are dangerously unstable, and the IMF (December 27th 1945, 0h00 EST, Washington DC) has been busy baling them out ever since Pluto first moved over its Sun early in 2010; the planet is now back in there Capricorn 5 for a leisurely stroll which won't end until November/ December 2011.

Then Pluto heads rather too rapidly for comfort to Capricorn 9/10 where he dallies throughout 2013-2014. So this will be crunch time. England, the 1801 UK, the Queen (draconic Sun), the Prince of Wales (investiture 1st July 1969 at Caernarvon), air travel (1st scheduled passenger flight 1/1/1914), freedom of information (Act 1/1/2005), the Health & Safety Executive (1st April 2008 and still a joke), human rights, UK (Act 2nd October 2000), ditto USA (Act 2nd July 1964), Ottawa, capital of Canada ( 31 December 1857), Rome, Italy's capital (2nd October 1870), the Pentecostal Church ( 1/1/1901), the UK and Eire memberships of the EEC (1/1/1973), the UK Diplomatic Service (1/1/1965), and the London Metropolitan Police, 'the Met' (29th September 1829) among many other key institutions.

In world affairs as in private life, Pluto is all about the use and abuse of power. 'Power corrupts; and absolute power corrupts absolutely.' So there will be spectacular acts of hubristic self-destruction; and occasionally extraordinary rewards for some individuals or organisations who have used their power well, without arrogance, without greed, without playing God. Pluto has been here twice before in the past half-millennium; in 1520 the enslavement of black Africans was permitted, and in the mid-1760s Europe - particularly the UK - was kick-starting the Industrial Revolution. Do-as-you-would-be-done-by, or else Be-done-by-as-you-did! (Charles Kingsley's delightful embodiments of Karmic Law. I always loved 'The Water Babies'.) Inevitably we have stored up trouble for ourselves. But of course it can be argued that as Pluto was unknown to us until 1930, it is only in recent times that we have been consciously aware of the powers at our disposal, and therefore morally obliged to act with the altruism and responsibility that should go with them. Which may well be why so many things are going so catastrophically wrong now.

The News of the World (1st October 1843, Sun 7 Libra) has already gone to the great newsroom in the sky having seriously blotted its copybook. Its owner Rupert Murdoch, now in for a serious grilling, has Pluto coming up to oppose his Piscean Sun's co-ruler Jupiter at 10 Cancer; it has already been over his Ascendant, inviting him further up the Primrose Path to BSkyB and further media domination. His Sagittarian son James' reflex Sun is at Cancer 8. (James' Moon is in Pisces, where the Moon is today as both men appear before the Commons Select Committee to answer for themselves. Murdoch Junior's responses have been a master-class in Piscean evasiveness and Sagittarian self-justification!) There has been a double resignation of the two top men in the Met with the revelation that police were taking money from News International journalists; Sir Paul Stephenson the erstwhile Police Commissioner was born on September 26th 1953, nearly sharing the Met's birthday, and was first to go. His Sun is at 3 Libra, on Murdoch's 7th cusp; this trouble has been brewing for some time. Sir Alex Ferguson (31st December 1941) will have to be very careful too, now that a filmed connection to a Thai businessman (Channel 4, 'How to buy a football club' July 18th 2011) may be calling into question his management ethics in the 'beautiful game'. The Territorial Army (April 1st 1908, Moon 8 Aries, Sun 10 Aries), which has presumably been keeping its collective nose clean, is about to be awarded several million pounds to expand its activities and fill the gaps left by the UK's shrinking armed forces.

In 2008 I wrote, "When he (Pluto) gets to 5 Capricorn the IMF’s Sun will be in the firing line after all the alarming activity of the past two years (Venus, Ceres, S. Node... ) so it may be staring at emptied coffers by then, Heaven help us all, and going through ‘death and rebirth’!" See above. "Crunch time will be when Pluto hits the English/UK/EEC Sun in 2012/13, also impacting Australia (which, like the IMF, has been having an eventful time lately and may be ready to say Cheerio to the Queen)" still up for debate,"the British Diplomatic Service, and The Times." Not as yet! But certainly its sister paper. "Will we have got our collective act together to celebrate a memorable Olympics? Or will it be another failure of planning and imagination, a damp squib to match the River of Fire and the Millennium Dome? Will we give the cold shoulder to Europe? Or will our benighted islands reluctantly embrace the Euro?" No, thank heaven, but we may get sucked into Europe's and the Euro's economic morass even further simply by being a member state. "Will we realise we no longer have ‘human rights’, only debts?" The tide may be beginning to turn. "Will we bring back the real spirit of competition in which we re-learn the art of losing gracefully?"  This is looking more possible. "Limits will have to be set - flights grounded" - yes, we have volcanoes for that! -  "populations controlled" (there is talk but little action), "behaviour schooled, promiscuity checked, standards raised, purse-strings tightened, freedoms curtailed." Oh, more and more voices are being raised against our decades of profligacy! "Will we see the end of the throw-away society, and a return to older, more lasting values?" recycling is now being practised with missonary zeal all over the industrialised world; "Or will it be the end of Freedom Food and the hope we still had for the planet? It could be the new age of the entrepreneur - or a field day for the ruthless." Watch and wait. There are billions of us. And we're all hungry.

So, my friends, we are living in more and more Interesting Times!!! There has never been a more important time to examine one's conscience, as world events inevitably touch all of us, and a lot of light is needed to overcome the encroaching dark. Even without the corrupt practice of so many entangled in the sticky, seductive webs of commerce, our own poor choices, our unconsidered habits, can help in the ruination of this once glorious and diverse planet, and the impoverishment of our souls.

Pam