Astrology of WPA & Future Works Projects.

There has been suggestion from President-Elect Obama that his administration may initiate some kind of public works project, aiming to improve the country's infrastructure, providing employment for millions of those who have lost jobs as a result of the current economic climate. I learned about a previous project of this nature after our visit to the summit of Mount Scott, last week, it's in the Wichita Mountains, a short drive from our home. The road to the top of the mountain was constructed as part of the Works Project Administration (WPA) - brainchild of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, it was established in May 1935 and ran until 1943.

A plaque at the highest point of Mt. Scott shown below, and yours truly after we drove up the WPA road last Tuesday. It was windy up there!





The WPA offered work to the unemployed on an unprecedented scale by spending money on a wide variety of projects, including construction of highways, bridges and public buildings, slum clearance, reforestation, and rural rehabilitation. In Oklahoma alone 825 schools were built, the most in any state.

Astrologically, only the outer planets would connect to this prodigious enterprise, being long term, and affecting a whole group of the American people. In May 1935 at the establishment of WPA, the outers stood as follows:

Saturn 8 Pisces
Uranus had just entered Taurus - 1 to 3 degrees
Neptune 11 Virgo
Pluto 23 to 24 Cancer.

Because the WPA's establishment date coinicides with Uranus changing signs I think that planet's transit was very significant. Uranus, the radical, bringer of change, entering Taurus, the Fixed Earth sign, concerned with property and practicality. Taurus is ruled by Venus, it also relates to the arts. The WPA, as well as pioneering a wide variety of building and engineering works throughout the states, also provided programmes supporting the arts. Writers produced guide books, indexed archives and newspapers, conducted historical research. Unemployed artists worked decorating post offices, schools and public buildings, produced murals, sculptures, and posters (above & left). Musicians organised orchestras and community singing.

So, in view of the date of its establishment, its novelty and the span of its influence, I see WPA as firmly in the domain of Uranus. Any project along the same lines brought forward in the near future will not be Uranus-led though. Uranus is now in dreamy, spiritual Pisces. It is Pluto's imminent move into Capricorn which will most likely spark a new programme of community work projects. Capricorn is the Cardinal Earth sign of the zodiac, still very practical, but more business-driven than Taurus. Works undertaken may not include any nods to the arts this time around, the project will be more concerned with keeping commerce free-flowing. Roads and bridges connecting urban areas and between states might be a priority.

Saturn, Capricorn's ruler representing structure/infrastructure, is now transiting organised Virgo (Mutable Earth) and will blend easily with Capricornian aims. Meticulous organisation will be a feature of any new works project - count on it! That's something which was lacking in the WPA, when foggy, dreamy Neptune transited Virgo, with Saturn in similarly dreamy Pisces. The WPA had many critics, confusion and waste were said to be a common feature. Our current Saturn in Virgo will not stand for that!

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REMEMBRANCE

If I were still living in the UK, I'd have been wearing a poppy in my lapel for the last few days. It's a custom not widely followed in the USA, though the UK's Remembrance Day and USA's Veterans' Day share the date: 11 November.
I can't get a poppy for my lapel, so attach one to my blog instead....

LEST WE FORGET

Drive-by Astrology: Cory Booker

Drive-by posts are supposed to be brief - this one's a slow, Sunday drive-by!

Bill Maher, on "Real Time" last Friday night interviewed Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark, New Jersey. Now, I know absolutely nothing about New Jersey, except that when, from my UK home, I first started US immigration procedures I used to read a British Expat's help forum. One of the contributors, an ex-pat who already lived in New Jersey had a motto, beneath his avatar which made me grin: "New Jersey, where strangers are killed and eaten". Having read a few articles about Cory Booker and his city, I realise it wasn't that far from the truth!

A description of the city of Newark, population 275,000, from Scot Raab's article in "Esquire" (link below):

"Lousy housing? Check. Rampant unemployment? You bet. Shitty schools? Bingo. Gang warfare? My, yes. Newark may have only one movie house -- and zero new-car dealerships and big-box stores -- but it has what might be the world's only Toys "R" Us knockoff Ebonically named Wee Bee Kids, close to City Hall. Everybody with the means to flee fled long ago -- and by "everybody" I mean the white folk and nearly all the middle-class blacks -- and what was surrendered on the way out of town was any sense that the people left behind truly matter"

Mayor Booker was impressive in Friday night's interview. He clearly impressed Bill Maher, and he definitely impressed me. Bill commented to the effect that, if a new President Obama does a good job, Americans might think "Wow, African Americans are good at this - let's have another!" Cory Booker would be a shoo-in in those circumstances! He lit up the screen with his smile and his enthusiasm. This is definitely one to watch, I think we'll be seeing a lot more of him in coming years.

Born 27 April 1969 in Washington DC. No time of birth available. 12 noon chart below, so ascendant and exact Moon position not accurately shown.



His natal Sun and Mercury are in Taurus - fixed sign, determined, solid, dependable, pragmatic.

Saturn, in the last degree of Aries (the anaretic degree, thought to be particularly strong) is conjunct Taurus Sun, although in different sign. Aries brings in energy, impulsive brightness, and extra enthusiasm to that somewhat staid Sun. This came across very clearly in the TV interview. He's a law-maker (Saturn) of sorts in his own realm of Newark, but staid and stodgy, as Saturn can be, he definitely is not - thanks to Aries. Venus is also in Aries, intensifying a go-ahead, get-ahead enthusiastic approach to life.

Bringing things back down to Earth, and adding organisation, discernment and critical thinking: Virgo. Moon will be somewhere in Virgo, with Jupiter and Pluto, Uranus had just moved to 00 Libra, here again two planets conjoin from different signs, this conjunction with Jupiter draws in the social reform and rebellious nature of Uranus to somewhat shake up Virgo's tendency to nitpick.

I like this quote (from New Yorker article linked below)

"His earnestness can at times be confounding. Upbeat, chatty and competitive, he drops quotations into conversations like a professor seeking tenure. Even when campaigning, he occasionally corrects people over minor mistakes." (that last sentence - very Virgo!)

Mars is in ebullient, optimistic Sagittarius in harmonious trine to Venus in energetic Aries, more reflection of this almost pulsating character who comes across to spectators.

Two more things I'll note in this chart~~
1. A Yod (finger of God, or Fate) - an arrow-like pattern formed by two quincunx aspects and a sextile.

Here the point of the arrow hits Saturn - law maker. Astrologers say that the planet at the arrow point indicates a compelling focus on the energies of that planet, driven by the combined energies of the two in sextile, here it's Uranus/Jupiter and Neptune. So this Yod can be translated thus: optimistic dreams of social reform brought into focus via laws and hard work. Another quote, which illustrates the above quite well ~~
Cory Booker's current aim in life is to heal Newark and make it "a national model of urban governing by employing a mix of discipline and openness to new ideas."

And

2. This one I don't much like: Mercury on the degree of Fixed Star Algol.
I wrote in a recent post, (here), that Algol's very bad reputation doesn't always manifest in a life. Sometimes it's negligible or non-existent. Sometimes though in the lives of those with this traditionally malefic star prominent in their natal chart, some kind of disaster occurs. It's a potential, no more.

More reflections of his style from links below:

(Booker)"For me, it's a leadership issue -- and if I have to stay out on the streets till four o'clock every morning, I'll do it. I know we can do this. The city as a whole, I know we can solve our problems -- they're not bigger than we are. I believe in my heart -- and I have no right to believe otherwise, because human history is a testimony to it -- that we can change things. The question is, can we muster the collective will? King said it more eloquently: The problems today are not the vitriolic words and the evil actions of the bad people, but the appalling silence and inaction of the good people."

The author describes how Cory Booker and two security guys travel the streets of Newark in an SUV, talking to gang members, down-and-outs, a cross-section of Newark's night people:

"Booker powers down his window, and the man -- small, red-eyed, ageless, shriveled with cold -- squints at him and says, "CoryBooker," a single word, like Tinkerbell, with gravel and wonder in his voice.

"How ya doin', man?" Booker says. "Why are you out here in the freezin' cold in the middle of the night?"(He gets out of the vehicle talks to the man, hands him a card with an address to contact.)

When he gets back in, I ask if he ever felt called to preach.

"Yeah. I debated between law school and divinity."

How long was the debate?

"It was long in the sense that I think I've always wanted to be a part of a spiritual revolution. You can't have a physical transformation until you have a spiritual transformation. But my views of religion are very expansive, so I still feel like I'm -- hopefully -- living a life of spirit."

Preachers wear better suits.

"I've ripped a lot of suits recently," he laughs. "And in ignominious ways. I caught one on a door and ripped the pocket. This one, the crotch wore out, so we had to send it out to put a patch on. The truth of this is, it's just not high on my priority list."

Links:

From New York Times, 2006, by Damien Cave.

Scott Raab at "Esquire" wrote a very engaging article following an interview with Cory Booker, back in July. "The Battle of Newark, Starring Cory Booker". It's a long but rewarding read, Mr Raab has great, energetic writing style.

Music, music, music...

We've a date at our local theater tonight to see Tumbao Bravo - a 7-piece group who play Cuban Jazz, with the rhythms of mambo, cha cha cha, rumba, bolero, pachanga etc. Not much scope for astrology blogging there then. Or is there? Reading the blurb about Tumbao Bravo got me thinking about different musical genres and how their qualities are reflected in signs of the zodiac. Here's what I've come up with, and why:


Classical ~~ Capricorn & Virgo - tradition, rigid structure, meticulous performance





Jazz ~~~ Aries & Aquarius - energetic, spontaneous, modern, unpredictable






Easy Listening ~~~ Libra & Pisces - undemanding, pleasant, non-controversial, dreamy





Country ~~~ Taurus & Cancer - old fashioned, earthy, conservative, homely



Folk & Bluegrass~~~ Cancer, Capricorn & Aquarius - sensitive, homely, traditional and often socially aware






Rock~~~ Aries & Scorpio - energetic, can be passionate and/or menacing





Pop ~~~ Gemini & Aquarius - an eclectic mix of themes all communicating to "the people" - all the people




Opera & Stage ~~Leo, Sagittarius - dramatic, exaggerated,






Soul & Blues~~~Pisces, Scorpio - deep, powerful and passionate








Latin ~~~ Scorpio & Sagittarus - passionate and "foreign"









Big Band & Swing ~~~ Aries and Sagittarius - energetic, big, happy sound.







Religious/Sacred ~~~ Sagittarius, Pisces & Capricorn - spiritual, devout, traditional

Arty Farty Friday: Saturn/Uranus, Social Realism, Irving Norman.

Casting around the net for inspiration I found an interesting artist who's new to me. I see his paintings as exceptionally meaningful now, as this momentous week in American politics comes to an end. This artist's work is a commentary on the human condition, horror of war, hardships, and anomalies of modern life. I'm absolutely certain that Irving Norman would approve of America's new President Elect.


Irving Norman. He was born in Vilna, Lithuania, it was under Russian control then, in 1906. He emigrated to the USA in 1923 and worked as a barber. In 1938 he volunteered to join the Abraham Lincoln Batallion to fight in the Spanish Civil War defending the Spanish Republic against fascism. This experience was the catalyst from which his artistic abilities emerged. On his return to the USA, in deep depression from his experiences in Spain, he came to realise that working in politics, to advance the communism which he had espoused, would not satisfy him. During art classes in California he developed the skills needed to express his feelings through art. By 1945 his first major solo exhibition was held in San Francisco.


Irving Norman is one of America's foremost proponents of a genre of art known as Social Realism. His work is a mix of representational, surrealist and abstract art. It is intense, sometimes brutal, critical of modern life, of the horror of war. I cannot describe it better in a nutshell than Mark Vallen (here)

"Yet beneath the unrelenting focus on the ills of a world gone mad, there was a profound humanist vision. Norman's paintings were like screams of anguish pleading for a better world."

Irving Norman's paintings portray the flip side of life as portrayed in the warm fuzzy, apple pie style of my favourite illustrator, Norman Rockwell. We do need both sides of the coin in order to see a complete picture.






To Have and Have Not


The Orator


Illusions (My Cathedral)




Day and Night, Night and Day, Blind and Hungry


Does Irving Norman's astrology fit? Born 6 January 1906 (no time of birth known) in Vilna, Lithuania.



Sun, Venus and Uranus in Capricorn, Venus and Uranus conjoined. Saturn in Aquarius. Here we have Uranus ruler of Aquarius in Capricorn, and Saturn ruler of Capricorn in Aquarius - mutual reception - which astrologers contend stengthens and blends the energies of both planets and signs. Capricorn/Saturn - the hard, old fashioned rigidity, with Aquarius/Uranus, the forward looking social reformer - a strange blend, yet easier than some, because Saturn was traditionally ruler of Aquarius as well as Capricorn. In Mr Norman's paintings it's easy to detect influences of both these energies. Come to think of it - could there by a more apt astrological signature for Social Realism than Saturn and Uranus in mutual reception!?

Also significant is Mercury at 22 Sagittarius opposing Pluto at 21 Gemini. A dynamic pull between the communicative energies of Mercury and Gemini, coloured by the dark passionate intensity of Pluto.

Without time of birth it's not possible to know whether natal Moon was in Taurus, if born before 8pm, or Gemini, after 8pm. Gemini connects better with his need to communicate his emotions via his art.

Irving Norman died in 1989.





More information and illustrations available at the links below.

http://www.irvingnorman.com/

http://www.irvingnorman.com/chronologies/new_chronology_1.htmDark Metropolis: Irving Norman's Social Surrealism

http://www.art-for-a-change.com/blog/2007/01/social-surrealism-of-irving-norman.html

Euphoria Subsides

I can't begin to imagine how tired people who've been intimately involved with the US elections over the past two years must be feeling now. I've done nothing at all, yet still feel a little frayed around the edges, once the initial euphoria has subsided.

I notice that, on some political blogs and websites, there's a heavy residue of bitterness after the election. This was to be expected to some extent, but I've come across comments which verge on the obscene and make my blood run cold. It's a great pity. Some of the blogs were a haven for me during the primaries. I now suspect that I must have been fooled. Never mind - it's another thing I can put down to Neptune's fog and illusion, and to Saturn's determination to fight back in opposition to Uranian change.

The very sharp dichotomy among the American people becomes more apparent at times like this. Americans feel passionate about politics, much more so than people in Britain. I'm drawn back to the astrological chart for the USA known as The Armistead Chart. This is set for 2 July 1776, the date on which Congress adopted a resolution of independence. Most astrologers choose one of the US charts set for for 4 July - Independence Day, when the resolution was proclaimed. I tend to think that when Congress adopted the resolution, that was when the die was truly cast. I've copied the chart from the collection at Astrodatabank.

Normally, I'm skeptical about astrological charts for inanimate entities such as countries, but this could convince me there's value in them. Just look at that opposition between Mercury (communication, mental processes) and Moon/Pluto. Moon represents the public, Pluto = powerful passions. As I see it, that opposition dominates the chart and symbolises the dichotomy.

This is the way it will always be. The states are united, the people will never be. Their destiny is to remain passionately divided. In the past, the extent of it wasn't as easily noted by the average person. The internet has provided a viewing platform unavailable until recent years.



That's the way it is. For today I'll take advice from Omar Khayyam (as translated by Edward Fitzgerald) from The Rubaiyat:

"But leave the Wise to wrangle, and with me
The Quarrel of the Universe let be;
And in some corner of the Hubbub coucht
Make game of that which makes as much of Thee.

For in and out, above, about, below,
'Tis nothing but a Magic Shadow-show,
Play'd in a Box whose Candle is the Sun,
Round which we Phantom Figures come and go."

The Wednesday "Why?" - Royal Stars

Passing readers must be tired of the bombardment of US politics, so this post touches only lightly on the subject, and not until the last paragraphs.

Why were four Fixed Stars considered "royal"? Aldebaran, Regulus, Antares and Fomalhaut retain their status as Royal Stars to this day among western astrologers. The tradition stems from Arabic astrology/astronomy which some see as our modern astrology's closest relation. Arabic astrology filtered through to Europe from Persia, today's Iran, thousands of years ago.

These stars were accorded such high stellar office by ancient astologers and astronomers because it is said that in those days their positions marked the four cardinal points, the equinoxes and solstices. Seen on an astrological chart of the heavens these define the ascendant, midheaven descendant, and nadir, which points are universally acknowledged as being the most powerful areas of an astrological chart. Any planet or point near to these angles plays a dominant part in personality or events.


The four stars were also referred to as Watchers of the Heavens, looked on as guardians of the Vernal and Autumnal equinoxes, and the Summer and Winter solstices.
These bright stars formed a huge astrological cross, long before the cross became a symbol of Christianity. Zodiac signs involved were the four Fixed signs: Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius. In the tarot cards (right) The Wheel of Fortune and The World, you can see depicted in each corner of the cards a human figure, an eagle, a bull and a lion representing the Fixed signs. While the tarot as we know it, with the Major Arcana, didn't originate in Arabia, the four suits probably did, and the number four's significance reflects the four directions, north, south, east and west, and the four astrological cardinal points. The name "tarot" is thought to derive from the Arab word "turuq", which can be translated as "four ways".

The symbolism of the four Royal Stars in ancient times is thus easy to account for and accept. However, it isn't as easy to accept that any astrological interpretation of these stars should retain the same flavour now, when their positions changed long ago.

Fixed stars, of which these are but four out of billions and billions and billions (as Carl Sagon would say) are so called in order to to differentiate from the moving bodies we call planets. Fixed stars do, however, appear move but very, very slowly because of precession. (Explanation here).

The four Royals are no longer at their original sites. Their approximate position today: Aldebaran has moved from Taurus to 9 Gemini. Regulus is still in Leo, but barely - 29 degrees, this is called the anaretic degree and thought to be powerful. Antares has moved from Scorpio to 9 Sagittarius, and finally Formalhout moved from Aquarius to 3 Pisces.

Many astrologers still see the four Royal Stars as powerful when they appear in very close major aspect to a planet or sensitive point in a natal chart or mundane chart. The reason for this, I guess, harks back to the stars' early important status. Perhaps there is a question mark here. As the stars moved on over the centuries, ought they to have shed their royal reputation? It was their position, not their intrinsic properties, I assume, which had originally defined them as highly fortunate.

Perhaps we have an answer before us this morning! In the natal chart of the USA's new President Elect, Barack Obama, who will shortly hold a position comparable to the royalty of ancient times, two of the Royal Stars have some significance, for they lie on or very close to two sensitive points in his natal chart. The North Node of the Moon is at 27.54 Leo, in his chart, a little over a degree from the current position of Regulus. Antares lies practically on Obama's Part of Fortune at 8.52 Sagittarius. Many of the the Arabic Parts (and there are many) are not considered in interpretations of modern astrologers. Part of Fortune, though, is used often. It's particularly significant here, I think as both it and the Royal Stars originate from Arabic Astrology, so we have a "matching set".

Speaking of the President Elect, and the joy many Americans, myself included, feel this morning, I simply have to post this song. I hope that those who feel disappointed by the election result will feel able to be as gracious as Senator McCain was in his speech last night. It's often in defeat that the true mettle of a person shines through.

RESULT !!!

In soccer terms this is:

URANUS...1 SATURN....0

I'm so proud of America! On two fronts. They have overwhelmingly supported a black president, and, for me far more important - a left-wing president who will, in turn support ALL Americans, not just the chosen few.

NOW I can jump for joy and weep at the same time!

Neptune's Horses

At Huffington Post yesterday a remark of R.J. Eskow caught my eye. It's from his piece called "What Did You Do During The Great Election?"




QUOTE:

"I don't disagree with the premise that things might not work out - but our job right now is to try. And to work with the tools at hand.
But we can't just ride the tide to victory. The poets of ancient Greece described the whitecaps on waves as "the manes of Poseidon's horses." It takes millions of horses, moving together, to turn the tide.
We're Poseidon's horses. It's not Obama's tide. It's ours. But it can only turn if we move together."

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, Neptune has played a leading part all through this election season. Mr. Eskow's mention of Poseidon's Horses (Neptune's in Roman mythology) immediately brought the astrology of this election back to mind, though it's never far away! The above painting by British artist/ illustrator Walter Crane, "The Horses of Neptune", is a fitting image for today. We shall soon discover just where the Horses of Neptune have taken us. Have they deposited us back on the beach from whence we set out, or upon a new golden strand where we might discover benefits we'd never dreamed of ?

To avoid wild leaps in the level of my blood pressure, during daylight hours we're going to drive out for a while, travel up Mount Scott, to survey the beautiful, peaceful landscape from the vantage point where Native American legend has it that the Great Spirit appeared after a terrible flood. If the benign Great Spirit happens to be still around up there, I'll ask him/her to help make sure the right thing happens tonight. We'll have lunch at a quaint old resturant, little changed from gold mining days, drive through the wildlife refuge to wave at buffalo and long horn cattle, then head back for an evening of intermittent breath holding, with glass of Scotch firmly in hand!

We voted early yesterday: a record of the first ever vote of this new US citizen.

THE RIDE'S ALMOST OVER!

It's a long time since I felt so keyed-up! I could weep and jump for joy at the same time. Neither is appropriate - yet! The roller-coaster ride to the US general election is almost at an end. "Roller-coaster" is apt, the ride wasn't nearly graceful enough to be likened to the Carousel or Waltzers. It has been zany enough at times to resemble the Fun House, and scary as the Ghost Train at others. But even more appropriate than the Roller-coaster is the House of Mirrors, astrologically this would be the domain of Neptune.

Neptune features strongly in this election. After a period of apparent backward motion the planet began to move direct on 2 November. Neptune relates to illusion, delusion, imagination, and an aura of fogginess. The planet is prominent in Senator Obama's natal chart, and in Sarah Palin's, both have Sun square Neptune, both have an ability to project to the public the image each person wishes to see. Transiting Neptune stationing close to Obama's ascendant and Palin's Sun (and my re-located ascendant) on election day is likely to intensify this "see what you want to see" effect, all day long and for some long while afterwards. House of Mirrors!

The sky could not be more aptly in tune with what's going on just now - Uranus at 18* Pisces exactly opposite Saturn at 18* Virgo: Change (Uranus) opposes the status quo (Saturn).

Mercury concluded its retrograde period in October, which is good news. There's less potential for technical hitches in the voting process - though many suspect human manipulation might still cause a few of those!



It'll be my first chance to vote in my new country. I'll take great satisfaction in doing so after experiencing, over the last four years, an expensive roller-coaster ride myself, immigration-wise! I'd been in the USA just over a week when George W. Bush was re-elected president in 2004. That was a bitter disappointment. Although my initial status as a legal permanent resident was adequate for most purposes, it didn't allow me to vote. Determined that I'd be able to do so by 2008, I applied for US citizenship immediately I became eligible. That final process took exactly one year, now I get to reap the reward for all the frustration involved.

We might take advantage of early voting at the courthouse today if the lines are not as long as they were on Friday. Otherwise, we'll be at our local precinct voting station bright eyed and bushy-tailed tomorrow morning.

Drive-by Astrology # 1 - Dr. Cornel West

More often than not "drive-by" is used in connection with shootings. I'm going to put the term to use in a more peaceful context: "drive-by astrology". Whenever I come across an individual whose natal chart proves, on first sight, to be an exact fit for the person I perceive, I'll post the chart with very brief reasons why it fits its owner so clearly. I hope this will provide a chance to see astrology working "before your very eyes" !

First up in the drive-by series: Dr. Cornel West, author, lecturer, public speaker, social activist, democratic socialist and major figure in African American academia, including the illustrious Princeton and Harvard. I've seen Dr. West on several occasions as a guest on Bill Maher's "Real Time". Each time I've been impressed by his eloquence, charm and ability to hold my interest, whatever the subject under discussion. He obviously has a brilliant mind, yet his approach is straightforward and lacking in all the scholarly affectation so often encountered among the egg-head community.
A descriptive paragraph from here:

"...... an eloquent lecturer, whose lithe and energetic body was
totally involved in the torrent of words and ideas that tumbled from his mouth. He asked his listeners not only to hear what he said, but to enter into his thought processes and share his enthusiasms or generate their own thoughts and enthusiasms. His speaking style was symbolic of his convictions, which rejected the divorce of body from mind, of emotion from intellect, characteristic of much philosophy since Descartes. In a time when many philosophers would be horrified to be called preachers, West (although not an ordained minister) was not embarrassed to preach an occasional sermon. For him a passion for social justice was as intellectually respectable and demanding as the most rigorous intellectual analysis of propositions, and the two were never far apart in his philosophy."

ASTROLOGICALLY DRIVING BY:

Born on 2 June 1953 in Tulsa, Oklahoma (I didn't have him down as an Okie!)Birthtime unknown.



Sun and 3 planets in Gemini (the sign of mental process, communication, a quick mind). Good start! Two of the Gemini planets are conjoined, Mercury and Mars at 22 degrees. Mercury is at home in its own sign, Gemini, therefore unadulterated by other influence, though strengthened and energised by Mars.

Saturn and Neptune are conjoined in Libra (diplomacy and justice), Moon is in Aquarius between 9 and 22 degrees (social awareness). So, Air, the mental element, rules - Gemini, Libra and Aquarius predominate. Gemini and Libra planets in close trine, and the Moon is very likely in trine to both, though how close we can't be sure. What a circuit, enabling all kinds of mental acrobatics!

One more point - in January 2002 Dr. West underwent surgery for prostate cancer. Saturn (restriction, limitation) visited Gemini from May 2001 to Dec 2002, hitting his 4 Gemini planets one by one along its journey, reflecting what must have been a very worrying and restricting time for Dr. West.

Superwomen # 4 - The Suffragists.

A day or two from the most important general election the USA has seen for decades, there was no doubt about the subjects of this week's post on superwomen. The suffragists of the late 19th and early 20th century fought hard to secure the right of women to vote, in the USA, UK and in many other countries around the world. We now take this right for granted - we shouldn't!

It would be invidious to feature particular personalities from the legion of women who helped bring about this revolution, but just a reminder of a few names of those involved in the fight on both sides of the Atlantic: Emmeline Pankhurst in the UK, Susan B. Anthony, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns in the USA. There were male supporters of the cause too, to whom women should be grateful, but this post concentrates on the female effort.



What was going on in the sky as women in many parts of the world were awakening to the injustice of their situation as second-class citizens? Was there any hint of "as above, so below"? Towards the end of the 1800s Uranus, planet of change was in mid-Libra while Pluto planet of transformation had just moved into Gemini - two important outer planets in compatible Air signs, one mutable, open to change, one cardinal an initiator. The communal and generational atmosphere held great potential for communicating (Gemini) the need for justice (Libra).

By the early 1900s Uranus had moved into Sagittarius (extremes, philosophical thought) while Pluto had reached mid Gemini - the two planets lay opposite each other for several years creating dynamic tension during crucial times in the suffragists' rebellion.

Lest we forget, or imagine that all these women did was to march around with banners, it's important to recall exactly what many of them were willing to suffer. This from a biography of a leader of the movement in the USA, Alice Paul (here).

"Beginning January 10, 1917, the NWP (National Woman's Party) began picketing the White House -- the first group in the U.S. to wage a nonviolent civil disobedience campaign. They became known as the Silent Sentinels, standing silently by the gates, carrying purple, white and gold banners saying "Mr. President, what will you do for suffrage?" and "Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?" The first day, 12 NWP members marched in a slow, square movement so passers-by could see the banners. Over the next 18 months, more than 1,000 women picketed, including Alice, day and night, winter and summer, every day except Sunday.

At first they were politely ignored, but then World War I began on April 6 and the picketers' signs became more pointed -- often using the president's quotes against him. One banner read: "Democracy Should Begin at Home." They asked, how could he fight to help disenfranchised people when he had disenfranchised people at home? They became an embarassment.

Spectators began assaulting the women verbally and physically -- while the police did nothing to protect them. Then in June, the police began arresting the picketers on charges of "obstructing traffic." First the charges were dropped, then the women were sentenced to a few days' jail terms. But the suffragists kept picketing, and the jail terms grew longer. Finally, to try to break their spirit, the police arrested Alice on October 20, 1917, and she was sentenced to seven months in prison. The banner she carried that day said:

"THE TIME HAS COME TO CONQUER OR SUBMIT, FOR US THERE CAN BE BUT ONE CHOICE. WE HAVE MADE IT." (President Wilson's words)

Alice was placed in solitary confinement for two weeks and immediately began a hunger strike. Unable to walk on her release from there, she was taken to the prison hospital. Others joined the hunger strike. "It was the strongest weapon left with which to continue ... our battle ...," she later said. Then the prison officials put Alice in the "psychopathic" ward, hoping to discredit her as insane. They deprived her of sleep -- she had an electric light, directed at her face, turned on briefly every hour, every night. And they continually threatened to transfer her to St. Elizabeth's Hospital, a notorious asylum in Washington, D.C., as suffering a "mania of persecution." But she still refused to eat. During the last week of her 22-day hunger strike, the doctors brutally forced a tube into her nose and down her throat, pouring liquids into her stomach, three times a day for three weeks. Despite the pain and illness this caused, Alice refused to end the hunger strike. One physician reported:

"[She has] a spirit like Joan of Arc, and it is useless to try to change it. She will die but she will never give up."

Hundreds of women were arrested, with 33 women convicted and thrown into Occoquan Workhouse (now the Lorton Correctional Complex). This was the first of actual violence perpetrated on women: forced feeding, rough handling, worm-infested food, and no contact with the outside world. Blankets were only washed once a year. The open toilets could only be flushed by a guard, who decided when to flush. Doris Stevens, one of the prisoners, later wrote in The Suffragist:

"No woman there will ever forget the shock and the hot resentment that rushed over her when she was told to undress before the entire company ... We silenced our impulse to resist this indignity, which grew more poignant as each woman nakedly walked across the great vacant space to the doorless shower ..."

Viginia Bovee, an officer at the Workhouse, stated in an affidavit after her discharge:
"The beans, hominy, rice, corn meal ... and cereal have all had worms in them. Sometimes the worms float to the top of the soup. Often they are found in the corn bread."

November 15, 1917, became known as the Night of Terror at the Workhouse:

"Under orders from W.H. Whittaker, superintendent of the Occoquan Workhouse, as many as forty guards with clubs went on a rampage, brutalizing thirty-three jailed suffragists. They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head, and left her there for the night. They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed, and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, who believed Mrs. Lewis to be dead, suffered a heart attack. According to affidavits, other women were grabbed, dragged, beaten, choked, slammed, pinched, twisted, and kicked." [Barbara Leaming, Katherine Hepburn. New York: Crown Publishers, 1995. Page 182.]

Newspapers across the country ran articles about the suffragists' jail terms and forced feedings -- which angered many Americans and created more support. With mounting public pressure, the government released all the suffragists on November 27 and 28, 1917. Alice served five weeks. Later, the Washington, D.C., Court of Appeals overturned all the convictions. "

In the USA it was 1920 before women's suffrage became national, though at state level some areas had agreed earlier. Uranus moved into its own Sign, Aquarius in 1913 and remained there, adding strength to the suffragists' efforts until 1920 when, moving into in Pisces the planet of change (Uranus) and the planet of transformation(Pluto) again came into harmonious aspect in Pisces and Cancer respectively. Two Water signs, often connected to "the feminine".

In the UK, in 1918 women over 30 gained the right to vote, in 1928 they were accorded the right to vote on the same terms as men. A slow and painful process - like pulling teeth!

"I never doubted that equal rights was the right direction. Most reforms, most problems are complicated. But to me there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality."
(ALICE PAUL)