For as long as they have been around there have been suggestions that mobile phones might be linked with cancer, in particular brain tumours. There have, over the years, been studies linking heavy mobile phone use with particular kinds of tumours, but there have been other studies, showing no correlation whatsoever.
Today’s Independent on Sunday has an article speculating that mobile phones might be ‘more dangerous than smoking or asbestos’, citing research by neurosurgeon Vini Khurana. According to this research, using a mobile handset for ten years or more could double one’s risk of getting brain cancer.
I don’t know what one’s chances of getting a brain tumour are, and maybe even if it doubles, it’s a very small chance. Yet as the article points out a lot of people use mobile phones. They are not just a method of communicating when you’re away from home, they are often the method of communicating – many people in the world not having a land line. And from a public health point of view, a doubling of brain cancer rates would have economic implications, aside from the human cost.
So, what about the astrology?
At the moment I’ve got two concerns. In a previous article I mentioned that Pluto has been in Sagittarius since the mid-1990s, and that in January 2008 it moved into Capricorn. Pluto briefly goes back in Sagittarius, but from the end of November 2008 through to March 2023 it will solidly be in Capricorn. Pluto’s movement through Sagittarius coincided with the massive expansion of mobile phone technology, and it’s possible that as Pluto moves through Capricorn this expansion will come to an end. Of course that could happen for a number of reasons. For example, we could reach saturation point, with everyone on the planet who might conceivably want a mobile phone having one. Or very simply, mobile phones could become ordinary, with their novelty value stripped away. Yet Capricorn is a sign that’s very traditional, and for some reason we might return to a more traditional, less mobile form of communication.
More worryingly, in June 2010 the planet Uranus moves into Aries, and it stays here, on and off, until March 2019. Uranus is the planet of shocks and earthquakes. It’s also the planet of technology. And it has a connection with radiation, because it rules the element Uranium. Though usually this is ionising radiation, of the type produced by radioactive materials and X-ray tubes. Mobile phones, by contrast, DON’T produce this kind of radiation. Instead they produce microwaves. As the manual to my Inspector Alert Geiger counter says:
Do not put the Inspector Alert in a microwave oven. It cannot measure microwaves, and you may damage it or the oven.
We know for sure that ionising radiation can cause cancer, because we can demonstrate the means by which it causes cellular damage. Microwave radiation is different, though in large quantities, such as in a microwave oven, it can heat things up.
Yet scientists such as Vini Khurana are linking mobile phones with one particular part of the body, namely the head. And in astrology the sign of the Zodiac connected with the head is Aries. Uranus in Aries could mean ‘radiation applied to the head’, and it might be that the earthquake is the public realisation that there is, or might be, a correlation between heavy mobile phone use and brain tumours.
And this is how astrology works. The planets can tell us about public perceptions, and when a planet changes sign perceptions can radically alter. As above, so below.
People of all ages are walking around with their mobile phones glued to their ear. I don’t know what they’re talking about, but whatever it is, it must be very important. And when I suggest to them that mobile phones might be dangerous, they shrug their shoulders and carry on gabbling. But Uranus is in Pisces. What happens when it moves into Aries? Could the public become more interested in the microwave radiation that may or may not be affecting their heads? Also, could there emerge convincing scientific evidence that frequent use of mobile phones can cause brain tumours?
There’s one thing I’m very certain about. By the time Uranus leaves Aries, in 2019, we’ll have a good idea about how safe mobile phones are. So we should perhaps wait another ten years before deciding whether or not to ditch the land line.
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