INTRODUCTION:
The analy­sis of a Natal or Birth Chart is famil­iar to many of us. An astrologer will delin­eate the char­ac­ter, oppor­tu­ni­ties, chal­lenges and life poten­tials of their client. The astrologer will also use the tech­nique we are about to use, Tran­sits to Tran­sits, as one major way of explain­ing to their client, what they have expe­ri­enced, what is before them now, and what is like­ly to be encoun­tered in the future.

What Chart?
With an indi­vid­ual the deter­mi­na­tion of what con­sti­tutes the chart is fair­ly sim­ple; the chart is cal­cu­lat­ed for the moment the indi­vid­ual achieved “inde­pen­dent” exis­tence, the first breath. But what are we to do with a nation? Or when does a com­pa­ny begin? And what hap­pens when there are changes such as major shake­up in gov­ern­ment or ruler­ship? Or when a com­pa­ny merges or breaks apart? What is a mun­dane astrologer to do? Well, it is not easy, and there are no easy answers. 

Take for instance the Unit­ed States. Most of us would assume that the chart must be July 4, 1776. Okay, but what time of day, morn­ing, mid­day, after­noon or evening? Well there are many dif­fer­ent times that have been put forth and ana­lyzed by astrologers. But some his­to­ri­ans, and astrologers, argue for July 2 when the vote for inde­pen­dence was made by the Con­ti­nen­tal Con­gress. Some argue for the so-called Dec­la­ra­tion of War that was passed in a res­o­lu­tion on July 6, 1775. Or some would date it from when “hos­til­i­ties” broke out at the Bat­tle of Lex­ing­ton on April 19, 1775. Some will look back to the land­ing of the pil­grims in Decem­ber 1620!

How­ev­er the accept­ed and cel­e­brat­ed “birth­day” for the US is July 4, 1776. What time did it hap­pen? There is evi­dence in writ­ten records, mem­oirs and oral tra­di­tions for ear­ly morn­ing, mid-morn­ing, ear­ly after­noon, late after­noon and evening too…So what is an astrologer to do?

Well, we take a chart and then com­pare what has hap­pened in his­to­ry with what the chart would indi­cate for those events. We try and find what seems like a good or best match and work with that. Over time a chart seems to work and feel right…but it is far from a set­tled issue.

Charts and Charts…
Once we have a birth chart for a nation we ana­lyze it and oth­er charts to see how it and these oth­er charts pre­dict the devel­op­ments and chal­lenges of that soci­ety. What oth­er kinds of charts? We look at the charts of lead­ers such as pres­i­dents or prime min­is­ters, kings or queens, to see what the indi­ca­tions are for their lead­er­ship for that soci­ety in that peri­od. Not only do we look at the indi­vid­u­al’s chart, but we also cast a chart for when they assume or take their oath of office. So, in the case of the US now, we not only look at the chart for the US, we also look at Barack Oba­ma’s chart as well as a chart for when he was sworn in. We exam­ine Har­ry Rei­d’s chart, and we looked at Nan­cy Pelosi, to see how the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives might fair, but now turn our atten­tion to John Boehn­er, all in order to see how the dynam­ics play out in our polit­i­cal system.

We also look at oth­er insti­tu­tion­al charts. Again, with the US as an exam­ple, we will look at the chart let’s say of the Fed­er­al Reserve. Well, how do we know what is its birth date? Well, we do, the Fed­er­al Reserve came into exis­tence at a spe­cif­ic moment by law, and that becomes its birth chart.

Then there are oth­er charts that become sig­nif­i­cant in under­stand­ing the larg­er world such as in the charts of busi­ness­es or cor­po­ra­tions. Well, when do they begin? Again, it depends. Some­times we use a chart for when an enter­prise first opened for busi­ness. Often­times there are dates (some­times with state seals and times!) of incor­po­ra­tion. Many astrologers will use, if avail­able, the chart of when a com­pa­ny first began trad­ing on a stock exchange. Any and all of these can prove use­ful and accurate. 

And, just as in the polit­i­cal world, astrologers will exam­ine the birth charts of eco­nom­ic and busi­ness lead­ers to see what else we might dis­cern about the var­i­ous enter­pris­es they are entrust­ed with.

We will look at oth­er indi­vid­u­als and orga­ni­za­tions too, such as notable per­sons in the arts, sci­ence, edu­ca­tion, med­i­cine, or to impor­tant orga­ni­za­tions like the UN or World Bank, or maybe the Euro­pean Union or the Euro, these and many oth­ers are exam­ined by Mun­dane Astrologers.

But what hap­pens when a nation changes sig­nif­i­cant­ly, from one form of gov­ern­ment to anoth­er? Or a com­pa­ny merges or splits up. Well, we try and make use of what­ev­er doc­u­men­ta­tion there is and cre­ate a new chart for that enti­ty. For exam­ple, though there has been a chart for Tunisia that we have employed to under­stand what is hap­pen­ing there now, that chart may cer­tain­ly be super­seded by a new form of gov­ern­ment and con­sti­tu­tion, and a new chart.

Often­times we might have sev­er­al dif­fer­ent charts we are look­ing at for the same nation or orga­ni­za­tion. The mea­sure of a chart is tak­en by the accu­ra­cy with which it explains the past and present cir­cum­stances. Then there is some degree of con­fi­dence of what we can expect in the future.

The March of His­to­ry
But events, indi­vid­u­als and orga­ni­za­tions are in a con­stant state of change, so we must be alert and mind­ful of that and not become com­pla­cent. Astrol­o­gy is first and fore­most a study of cycles. Each birth chart rep­re­sents a moment in time, and time is march­ing on. And so must we.…So let’s begin to take a look at what we might dis­cov­er from the analy­sis of Tran­sits to Natal, the tran­sits to the birth charts of some notable nations and indi­vid­u­als in the com­ing year. And dur­ing the year, we will take a look again at these and oth­er actors on the stage of his­to­ry. First up, let us exam­ine the Unit­ed States of America.

Part 4

Full Speed Ahead! Jupiter rep­re­sents growth and expan­sion, and Aries rep­re­sents the pow­er of new begin­nings. Put them togeth­er and every­one is jump­ing to start projects or push old ones into high gear.

As I point­ed out in the gen­er­al fore­cast for 2011,  Jupiter has already been in and out of Aries in 2010. Now it moves quick­ly through the first sign until it moves into Tau­rus on June 4, 2011.

Let a thou­sand projects bloom! But look out, the heady com­bi­na­tion of Aries and Jupiter has tripped up many would-be pio­neers who for­got to ask, “What comes after this first step?” Opti­mism is in the air, but be judi­cious with your resources and clear about your purpose.

Aries (the Ram) jumps ahead, so now is the time for leaps of faith, a time to dis­play reli­gious and spir­i­tu­al lead­er­ship. Enthu­si­asm, bold moves and the pow­er of new begin­nings infuse the Jupiter urge to grow and grow. Expe­ri­ence the joy of new beginnings!

Yet Jupiter can embold­en many with the con­fi­dence that their truth is… the Truth. And since that is so, there can be no dis­cus­sion, no debate…it has already been decid­ed. Instead, be enthu­si­as­tic, believe in new begin­nings… but do not be head­strong or impatient.

Have faith in your­self and set an exam­ple of opti­mism about the future. After all, you are cre­at­ing your future, so why not start in the right spir­it? The most impor­tant step is how you should begin; begin with right inten­tion and atti­tude. Your right atti­tude cre­ates the right result.

So, let it begin. Be the future you imag­ine. Remem­ber, you are an answer to a cos­mic ques­tion. Your life is the answer. Now is the time to refresh, renew and cre­ate your life.

This is the month for cel­e­brat­ing friend­ship, com­pan­ion­ship and our social ideals. It’s time to dis­play your inven­tive­ness and orig­i­nal­i­ty. Who says those col­ors don’t go togeth­er? Chal­lenge con­ven­tion, break out of those boxes.…yes, you should even take the path less taken…you nev­er know what you might find, or who you might encounter.

From now until Feb­ru­ary 18th the Sun will be in Aquar­ius whose sym­bol is the “Water Bear­er”. Now many peo­ple at first assume that that means that Aquar­ius is a “Water” sign, but it is not. Aquar­ius is the last of the “Air” signs. Air is about the intel­lect, about thoughts and ideas; it’s about reflect­ing, con­nect­ing and communicating.

There are 3 Air Signs: In Gem­i­ni the focus is on devel­op­ing intel­li­gence and per­son­al con­scious­ness. Then, in Libra the focus is on devel­op­ing social intel­li­gence and inter-per­son­al con­scious­ness. Final­ly, in Aquar­ius the focus is on devel­op­ing group intel­li­gence and col­lec­tive consciousness.

Remem­ber, one per­son alone can stand for the truth of being excep­tion­al. And two peo­ple, togeth­er, can stand for the truth of under­stand­ing anoth­er. But when many gath­er togeth­er, unit­ed in com­mon ide­al and pur­pose, then Truth, Love and Spir­it will lead us into our future.… 

The Moon in Can­cer oppos­es the Sun in Capri­corn today.…it’s a Full Moon! Yes, yes I know we have all heard the sto­ries that dur­ing Full Moons ener­gies seem to “ramp up” and mat­ters can spin out of con­trol. Yes, that can hap­pen. And cer­tain­ly, with the Moon in its own sign of Can­cer feel­ings and emo­tions can tend to be strong…but that can and should be a beau­ti­ful experience.

The oppor­tu­ni­ty of each Full Moon should be cel­e­brat­ed, inte­grat­ed and act­ed upon. Each Full Moon is a time of rev­e­la­tion, a time to pause and won­der at the beau­ty of the “lights” above us. It should be a time to hon­or the mes­sage they illus­trate about our expe­ri­ence. We should reflect upon the last 2 weeks, just as the Moon reflects the light of the Sun, and look at what we have done since the New Moon of Jan­u­ary 4. Now, in the light of the Full Moon, we should look for the mes­sage our heav­en­ly com­pan­ions offer up to us.

Here we are expe­ri­enc­ing the truths and ten­sion in the rela­tion­ship between Can­cer and Capri­corn; it is between our Roots in our fam­i­ly, eth­nic­i­ty and cul­ture, and our Des­tinies in our pro­fes­sion­al, social and spir­i­tu­al responsibilities.

Can­cer acts from the truth of feel­ings and the meet­ing of needs through intu­itive spon­tane­ity. Capri­corn acts from the truth of tra­di­tions and struc­tures as it seeks to pre­serve the hard won achieve­ments of civ­i­liza­tion. Can­cer pro­vides secu­ri­ty; Capri­corn pro­vides order. Can­cer says “fol­low your feel­ings, be spon­ta­neous”; Capri­corn says “fol­low your tra­di­tions, be responsible”.

So, which is right? .…well of course they both are! You can­not have one with­out the oth­er. If we were just to go with our feel­ings, with­out being guid­ed by the wis­dom embod­ied in our insti­tu­tions, well then mat­ters could swing from one extreme to anoth­er. But if we just become order­ly, if we become just automa­tons, then that could well lead to a life with no heart in it whatsoever.

Okay, okay…but what are we sup­posed to do now? Well, this is Capri­corn’s time. The Sun in Capri­corn shines with its bril­liant mes­sage and points to the sub­stan­tial proof of what we have achieved, of what we have built up, and what we will pass on to those that fol­low. Capri­corn shines with the light of achievement.

But the Can­cer Moon is remind­ing Capri­corn of where it all start­ed, and what it is for. The Full Moon of Can­cer says that we built it all up because we felt a need; we were respond­ing to the needs of our fam­i­ly, of our neigh­bor­hood, of our cul­ture, of one and all. We answered the call to meet our needs for one anoth­er and so cre­at­ed this soci­ety to meet those needs.

The Can­cer Full Moon reflects the light of the Capri­corn Sun and shows that the word of Capri­corn, “Respon­si­bil­i­ty” tru­ly means the “Abil­i­ty to Respond”; and what we have always respond­ed to and what we will always be respon­si­ble for is one anoth­er’s needs.

So, in the light of this Full Moon turn to one anoth­er, feel for one anoth­er, and take care of one another…because it feels right…and it has always been so.

Deep thoughts ahead! When Mer­cury “the mes­sen­ger” teams up with Plu­to “the will­ful” you are going to greater depths of think­ing. We are talk­ing x‑ray vision, pierc­ing through the veil of illu­sion vision. You will uncov­er and dis­cov­er what is real­ly real.

Now it comes, your test and chal­lenge. If you try and push the truth on anoth­er, you com­mit a great untruth in spir­it. Like­wise, if some­one is push­ing a thought onto you they vio­late your space, it is tres­pass­ing and you must not yield to force. Your space is sacred, their space is sacred. Self-con­trol is the only con­trol that matters.

Instead turn the ener­gy around and reform, rebuild and renew your own thought pat­terns. Self mas­tery begins with your mind; the “men­tal” diet is the hard­est but most reward­ing. Right think­ing leads to right action. It’s not about winning…it’s all about understanding…which leads to accep­tance and grace.

Dive deep if you want the “pearl of great price”!