Astrology, Prediction and Comment

COVID-19 is a global tragedy.  As I explained in a recent article on the Titanic, when you have a large group of people dying, you can’t expect the individual horoscope to always indicate the killing event.  After all, the action is taking place on a collective rather than individual level.  However, in terms of Boris Johnson, he is special, because he is Britain’s leader, and to a great extent, what happens to Boris happens to Britain.  If Boris dies, it will affect Britain’s destiny.  Or rather, Boris’ death would be a reflection of this destiny.

In this article I am going to look at some predictive methods.  There is a group of methods that attempts to summarize a period of time.  For example, the solar return, a chart cast for the moment the Sun returns to the place it was when someone was born.  Or the annual profection, where a planet rules each year of life.  For these two approaches, you would regard the period between Boris’ 55th birthday, on June 19 2019, and his 56th birthday, on June 19 2020, as being the operational period.  This is problematic, because up until COVID-19, things were going well for Boris.  He had become leader of the Conservative Party, had won a general election, and was doing a good job wresting Britain from the clutches of the European Union.

Here’s Boris’ natal chart, set for 2.00 pm on June 19 1965 in New York:

Before looking at the solar return, I want to mention a few interesting features of the chart, which may have relevance to Boris’  current situation.

When you are looking at the horoscope of someone with national prominence, it is always a good idea to look at the Aries point, and planets making an eight-series aspect to it.  The eight-series aspects are 0 degrees, 180 degrees, 90 degrees, 45 degrees and 135 degrees.  Boris has Venus, Jupiter and Neptune making these aspects.

Someone who has Jupiter and Venus on the Aries point is going to be popular, and will present an optimistic image to the world at large.  Neptune, by contrast, brings a touch of delusion.  Boris was perhaps over-optimistic about the possibilities of Britain making a success of Brexit, and also naive in his government’s first attempts to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.  Britain, for example, locked down much later than other European countries.

Neptune is also the COVID-19 virus itself.  Invisible, deceptive, sometimes deadly.  And Boris, with Neptune aspecting the Aries point, is personifying to the world what the virus can do.  He is very ill in hospital, and according to some reports he is fighting for his life.

Moving to the solar return, it is set for his last birthday, June 19 2019.  I use the place of Boris’ birth, and I don’t use precession:

On a trivial level, we notice that in the solar return the Sun is in the Sixth House of illness.  After the event, that makes perfect sense, but one in twelve solar returns will have the Sun in the Sixth.  We also notice that the Midheaven of the solar return is zero degrees 28 Scorpio – in other words, bang on Boris’ natal Moon at zero degrees 36 Scorpio.  I think this tells us about his political success, rather than his illness.

Yet what really grabs me about the solar return is the Mars-Saturn opposition, across the  First and Seventh Houses.  It is true that many people born in late June would have this aspect in their solar return.  However, we do have a repeated theme.  Boris, in his natal chart, has Mars in Gemini square Saturn in Pisces.  This makes him sensitive to Mars-Saturn aspects, even if these aspects aren’t making any transits to his natal chart.  It is worth noting that not long before Boris went to hospital, on March 31 2020, there was a conjunction in the sky between Mars and Saturn.

On the subject of repeated themes, Bobby Kennedy, brother of JFK, had Mars exactly on his Seventh House cusp in his natal chart.   Mars was also on the cusp of his Seventh House in his 1967 solar return, which immediately preceeded his 1968 assassination.  However, the repeated theme in Boris’ solar return is not on the same level.

If you’re interested, here is Bobby Kennedy’s natal chart (November 20 1925, 3.11 pm, Brookline MA):

The Mars in Scorpio on the Seventh House cusp represent the potential to be assassinated.  It doesn’t mean it will happen.  The unprecessed solar return for 1967, also set for Brookline, brings this potential to the fore, with Mars again on the Seventh House cusp:

Another technique that desribes a whole year is the annual profection.  This is a technique that has become popular in the last decade or so, and I do find it to be accurate.  The idea of the technique is that you treat the sign of the Ascendant as the first year of life, and go round the signs, using a primitive Equal House system.  Boris has Libra rising, so Libra and the First House represent his first year of life, Scorpio and the Second House his second year.

This means that Boris, in his 56th year, is in a period of time covered by Taurus and the Eighth House.  Yes, the Eighth House is the house of death, but everyone is covered by this house between their 55th and 56th birthdays.  So we need more detail, and we get this by looking at the ruler of Taurus, which is Venus in Gemini.  His Venus is in bad shape, for a number of reasons.  It is retrograde, it is applying to a conjunction of the Sun, and it is totally out of sect.  I say it is out of sect because Venus is a nocturnal, femine planet, that is above the horizon in a day time chart, and is in Gemini, which is a masculine sign.

Once could say that it is not surprising that Boris is having such a bad time, with Venus as his year ruler.  Yet he has had Venus as his year ruler many times before in his life and survived.  Furthermore, Venus’ rulership of the year didn’t stop him becoming Prime Minister.  Which begs the question, why is this time different?

In terms of primary directions, Boris is experiencing a lot of semi-square aspects.  Using the Ptolemy method, which takes a degree for a year, in July 2019 Boris had mundane Venus making a semi-square to his Sun, and in May 2020 he will have mundane Sun making a semi-square to his Venus.  With primaries I am fairly flexible on orbs, and the May 2020 aspect could easily be operational in the previous month or two.  In other words, the Sun is damaging his Venus, made more important by the fact that he has a Sun-Venus conjunction in his horoscope.

Finally, there is the lunar return.  Boris’ next lunar return is on April 8 2020.  Here is the return chart, set for New York:

I think we can see a moment of crisis.  The Moon is applying to square aspects with Mars and Saturn.  Furthermore, the Sun and Venus are making an exact semi-square, repeating the theme from the primary directions.  I say crisis.  I am not making a prediction.  April 8 is also the day of a Full Moon, which has a Jupiter-Pluto conjunction on the Ascendant, when set for London.

Having said all this, a visitor to this site left a comment, asking me a simple and heartfelt question: “What happens to Boris?”  I started addressing the question at 9.18 am on Monday April 6, in Lakewood, Washington State:

The querent is asking about the British Prime Minister.  I therefore take Boris as the Tenth House, with Aquarius on the cusp, and its ruler, Saturn.  If we turn the chart, then Saturn is in the Twefth House from the Tenth House, and the Twelfth House rules institutions and hospitals.  The Moon is in the Eighth House from the Tenth House.  This represents what the question is really about.  The querent might have asked “What happens to Boris?”, but actually they were asking whether he’ll die.

Saturn is in its own sign, of Aquarius.  It is also in an Air sign in a day time chart, meaning that it rules the Airy triplicity.  Malefic Mars is separating from Saturn.  This means that Saturn has fundamental strength.  The Moon is void of course – it has made its last aspect before leaving the sign.  In my experience, the void Moon is bad for good and good for bad.  If you ask whether you’ll get a job, the void Moon will say no, if you ask whether you have a serious illness the answer will also be no.  So on the basis of this horary, I would have said that Boris won’t die.

 

In January I wrote about Keir Starmer’s horoscope.  There was no point in trying to predict that he would win the leadership contest, because by that stage his victory was obvious.  Now that he has won the contest, everyone wants to know whether or not he is going to be Prime Minister.  When considering this question, his horoscope is of little value, because we don’t know what time he was born.  Hopefully this information will emerge, over the coming weeks and months.

If we wanted to not use astrology, and instead use political judgement, one would probably say that the COVID-19 pandemic has made it more likely that Keir Starmer will become Prime Minister.  Brexit isn’t the main issue, and there have been questions about the UK government’s handling of the crisis.  Starmer’s style also suits the crisis.  He has an aura of being calm and sensible, and he doesn’t have the bombast of Boris Johnson.  Britain needs efficiency, not flag-waving.  Starmer is further helped that Britain, and the rest of the world, is about to go into recession.  When people haven’t got money and haven’t got a job, they tend to blame the government.

Starmer’s horoscope does suggest the kind of person who might become popular in the current crisis:

A sensible Virgo, with Mercury, planet of the intellect, making a favourable aspect to Saturn, the planet of discipline.  Furthermore, he has the Moon, Mercury and Venus in Libra.  He knows how to compromise, and he gives the impression of being reasonable.

We then come to the moment Starmer was elected leader.  The announcement was at 10.45 a.m., on April 4 2020.  It was done by email, rather than at a special conference.  I have take the location for the announcement as London:

In this chart the Moon is important.  It represent process, and it is also ruler of the Cancer ascendant.  Furthermore, the Moon is the people, the electorate.  Unfortunately, the Moon is in poor shape.  It is in Leo, a sign where it has no essential dignity, and it is also void of course.  This means that it has made its last aspect before leaving the sign.  Put simply, the chart is going nowhere.  Matters aren’t helped by the fact that there is a conjunction between Mercury and Neptune in the Tenth House.  For all Starmer’s competence, his leadership will eventually lose direction.

Having said all that, I don’t think the poor leadership chart in itself means that he won’t become Prime Minister.  We should perhaps look at the broader picture.  If one wants to compare Starmer with a previous Labour leader, the obvious comparison is Clement Attlee, who won the 1945 General Election, and is regarded as one of Britain’s best Prime Ministers.

Clement Attlee, like Keir Starmer, was not known for his charisma.  And he was a down-to-earth Capricorn.  The two men also had titles, which gave the impression that they were a safe pair of hands.  Attlee was an officer in the First World War, and for much of his political career he was known as Major Attlee.  Starmer has a knighthood, which makes him Sir Keir Starmer.

Another parallel is their predecessors.  Sir Keir Starmer’s predecessor was Jeremy Corbyn.  Many people, without a sense of history, regard Corbyn as the worst leader of the Labour Party ever.  Corbyn was a left-winger, who at times seemed sympathetic to Britain’s enemies.  However the worst leader was almost certainly George Lansbury.  Lansbury was a pacifist, who was an out and out advocate of appeasement with Mussolini and Hitler,  He opposed sanctions against Italy when they invaded Abyssinia, and publically stated that he wanted all recruiting offices for the Army and Air Force shut down.

Clement Attlee became leader of the Labour Party on October 25 1945:

The chart is set for midday, because I don’t have the time.  I should say that on October 25 Attlee became interim leader of the party – there wasn’t time to hold a full election, because of an imminent general election.  After the election, in late November and early December, there was a formal leadership contest, which Attlee won.  From an astrological perspective, I regard the key date as October 25, when Attlee started become Labour Party leader.

If we take the October 25 chart, we can see why Clement Attlee eventually became Prime Minister.  The Moon was not void of course – it was applying to a conjunction of Mercury.  And Mercury was strong, because it was in Libra, in mutual reception to Venus in Virgo.  Another interesting point about the chart is that the Sun is moving to an opposition of Uranus.  This probably indicates the approach of the Second World War, which helped propel Attlee to power.

My point is, that there are superficial similaries between Keir Starmer and Clement Attlee, but Attlee had the advantage of a fortunate chart for the beginning of his leadership.

But will Keir Starmer ever be Prime Minister?  I asked myself this horary question at 3.42.30 pm on Sunday April 5, in Lakewood, Washington State.  The chart I got was as follow, using Regiomontanus house cusps:

I don’t know Keir Starmer.  He is just another person.  Therefore I take him as the Seventh House and its ruler, Jupiter.  Jupiter is in Capricorn, the sign of its fall.  It is also in the terms (Egyptian) of Saturn, and has no essential dignity.  This is not a good sign.

The Moon is in Virgo.  Like Jupiter, it has no essential dignity.  It is moving to a trine of Jupiter, but first it reaches an opposition with Mercury.  I would have said that Mercury represents Starmer’s opponents.  Mercury is not in a great position, being in Pisces, the sign of its fall, close to the cusp of the Eighth House of death.  This probaby describes Boris John, who has now been moved into intensive care.  However, Mercury is in mixed reception, by sign and exaltation, with Venus in Gemini.  The Tories have strength, regardless of what happens to Boris.

Overall, the horary isn’t strong enough to make Starmer Prime Minister.  So my judgement is, all things being considered, that Keir Starmer will never be British Prime Minister.

The beginning of the week will be dominated by a conjunction between Jupiter and Pluto, which was exact over the previous week-end.  I have always understood this aspect to be about self-improvement.  We are trying to make ourselves better, to reach the peak of our possible performace.  So whatever you are doing, however isolated you are, you can push yourself to the maximum.  The isolated pianist can play all night, the charity worker can feed the world, the runner can go for broke.  Which is perhaps the problem.  Jupiter conjunct Pluto doesn’t care too much for personal safety, so in your quest for excellence don’t kill yourself.

On a more general level, I am wondering if we have hit peak crisis, that this peak perhaps happened with last week’s Mars-Saturn conjunction.  Things are bad, things will carry on getting bad… but there might not be any more surprise events.  Yet at the moment astrology is working better than usual, and every gyration of the heavens is being felt down here on earth.  From Wednesday through to Friday the Moon is moving through the via combusta, the flaming path that lies between 15 degrees Libra and 15 degrees Scorpio.  There will be a sense of the unexpected, and if it can go wrong, it will go wrong.  Put another way, don’t take risks!

Finally, I should mention that on April 8 , at 2.35 am GMT, there is a Full Moon – see above for the chart, set for London.  The chart locks in the Jupiter-Pluto conjunction, and the way Britain presents itself to the world may change over the next few weeks.  It is a determination to get things right.  However maybe one should be more worried about Sweden.  If you set the Full Moon chart for Stockholm, there is early Aquarius rising, so the separating Mars-Saturn conjunction hits the country head on.  How successful will Sweden’s rather lax approach to COVID-19 be?

The Full Moon is also tied up with Venus. The planet of love, women and money makes an exact 45/135 degree aspect to the lunation.  In terms of people’s private lives, it is probably a time when women around the world have to make a special effort to assert themselves.  In terms of global issues, it may relate to pressure surrounding public finances.  I know, I am stating the obvious.  There is also a possibility that there is strong pressure to dissolve boundaries, for example in terms of national co-operation.  I am not sure if this is a good idea – COVID-19 may be a Tower of Babel event, designed to build boundaries rather than destroy them.

In the late 1980s I edited The Harmonic Astrology Newsletter, founded by David Hamblin.  It had some distinguised contributors, including Mike Harding and Charles Harvey.  But possibly the most interesting contributor was Terry Dwyer.  He wrote a computer program, Starword, which created syntheses of people’s horoscopes.  Terry was also a sceptic, and I think that he had serious doubts about whether astrology was worth bothering with.  In one article he wrote, which I don’t have a copy of, he quoted from Shakespeare’s The Tempest:

But this rough magic
I here abjure, and when I have required
Some heavenly music, which even now I do,
To work mine end upon their senses that
This airy charm is for, I’ll break my staff,
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And deeper than did ever plummet sound
I’ll drown my book.

Maybe he only quoted the last two lines, I can’t remember.  The lines were spoken by Prospero, who had decided to drown his book and break his staff – the symbols of the magic arts that he practiced.  In Terry Dwyer’s case this was astrology.  As far as I understand it, he gave it up because of the lack of scientific proof.

And in his article, Terry posed a question: What is the difference between an astronomer and an astrologer?

An astronomer is someone who looks into the skies and sometimes finds what they are looking for.  The astrologer is someone who looks down at the horoscope and always finds what they are looking for.  Which brings me to the subject of Chiron and the asteroids.

I remember when I first came across them.  I had been studying astrology for about a year, and I came across Demetra George’s book The Asteroid Goddesses.  At the back it has ephemerides for the four main asteroids, Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta.  And I think a few more.  These asteroids, along with Chiron, discovered in 1977, were interesting novelties.  I think you go through this phase, when you start studying a new subject.  You go for things that are glittery and slightly unusual.

Talking about Chiron, I think there was a brief time in the 1980s when it almost took over from Jupiter. People suggested that it might even be the ruler of Sagittarius.  It was the hot new thing in astrology, the wounded healer, the maverick, whatever.  And the fact that it was probably a comet, only 124 miles across, seemed to be forgotten.

The problem with asteroids can be demonstrated with reference to any horoscope.  For example, here is John F Kennedy’s chart, as it might have been seen before the discovery of Uranus in 1781:

The horoscope is clean and simple.  Saturn in Cancer is conjunct the Midheaven, indicating a position of leadership.  Saturn might be in the sign of its detriment, but it is a daytime planet, in a day time chart, above the horizon.  Also, at 27 10 Cancer, it is in its own terms.  We also see JFK’s intellect and oratory: Mercury is in mutual reception with Venus in Gemini, and is conjunct Mars and Jupiter.  In terms of JFK’s sex life, we have a packed Eighth House, and an exact Moon-Venus square.  This square is wonderfully Jungian.  The Madonna clashes with the Whore, Jackie clashes with Marilyn, who whoever else he slept with.

Essentially, we don’t need anything else to interpet the chart.  However, I understand that some people like to use Uranus, Neptune and Pluto:

I am not sure if the addition of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto adds much.  Although in my experience, Uranus is more of an influence than Neptune and Pluto, and its squares to Mercury, Mars and Jupiter added punch and vitality to JFK’s communication style.  From an astronomical point of view, Uranus, unlike Neptune and Pluto, can sometimes be seen with the naked eye.  This fact may be signficant, in terms of how much weight we give this planet in our interpretations.

Unfortunately, some people want to go further than the ten usual planets.  They want to add the four main asteroids, Ceres, Juno, Pallas and Vesta.  They also want to add Chiron, and for good measure, the point in space known as Lilith:

As you can see, the chart is starting to look cluttered.  The Eighth House, such a vital part of who JFK was, is starting to lose it dominance.  In other words, we’re getting distracted from the fundamental message of the chart.  Yes, there is a conjunction between Pallas and Lilith, which is square Kennedy’s Mars.  One might say that Mars square Lilith in a man’s chart represent the company of loose women.  However, we can get this from Moon square Venus, especially as the Eighth House is so strong.  So we don’t really need the extra points to tell us about JFK’s horoscope.

There is another problem.  Terry Dwyer defined an astrologer as a person who looks down at a horoscope and always finds what they are looking for.  Do you want to fall into this trap?  If you add the asteroids and other points, you will always find what you are looking for.  There will be little discernment in your readings, and your astrology will just become a meaning machine.  You’ll find meaning in everything, and value in nothing.

And as one adds things to the chart, one is like a kindergartener playing with paints.  It is fun to put a dash of green here, a dash of purple there… but eventually the colours merge into an amorphous brown mess.  Rather like the chart below, after you have plastered it with a few dozen asteroids and extra points:

You also have to look at the issue statistically.  Every time you add a new point to your chart, you are exponentially increasing the number of pairs to analyze.   Here’s the graph:

What this means is, that if you just use the seven traditional planets, you have the aspects between 21 pairs of planets to consider.  If you throw in the Ascendant and the Midheaven, the number goes up to 36.  Add Uranus, Neptune and Pluto and you’re on 66.  Add the four major asteroids, Chiron and Lilith, and it is 153.  In other words, you become over-saturated with possible combinations.

From the perspective of demonstrating that astrology works, this becomes a nightmare.  In terms of aspects, one might have 153 ways of demonstrating an astrological effect.  This creates the two problems of multiple comparison and cherry-picking.  With so many combinations, you are inevitably going to find random connections between a series of charts.  In the jargon, you’ll have an over-fitted solution, which will disappear when a test set is created, with multiple comparisons corrected for.  Even Michel Gauquelin, whose astrology was very conservative, fell into the trap of making uncorrected multiple comparisons.

So what do you do, if you’re a puer aeternus, or a puella aeterna, and you refuse to grow out of using asteroids?  What I suggest is that you take a leaf from statistics, and use a Bonferroni-style correction of your orbs.  In other words adjusting aspect orbs, depending on how many points you are using.

Let us say your starting point is the ten planets, plus the Ascendant and the Midheaven.  You are using an orb of 8 degrees for a conjunction or opposition, 5 degrees for a square or trine, 3 degrees for a sextile, and 1 degree 30 minutes for a semisquare, quincunx, semisquare or sesquiquadrate.  These orbs are a matter of personal preference, and they are not writ in stone.  However I would not suggest wider orbs, because otherwise you run into the usual problem of cluttering.  And of course aspects work best when the orbs are tight.

Now, you decide to add Ceres, Juno, Pallas and Vesta.   And Chiron and Lilith.  You have increased the possible pairs from 66 to 153.  This means you have to reduce your orb, using the fraction 66 divided by 153, which is .431.  This will keep the number of possible aspects constant.  Your new orbs will be:

Conjunction and Oppostion: 3 degrees 27 minutes

Square and trine: 2 degrees nine minutes

Sextile: 1 degree 18 minutes

Semisextile, quincunx, etc: 0 degrees 39 minutes.

If you plan on adding more points, you will have to reduce your orbs accordingly.

However, it would be much easier if you just stopped using the asteroids and other points.  Or even better, restrict yourself to the traditional planets, from the Sun through to Saturn, with Uranus on special occasions.

Note: The formula for the number of pairs is k(k-1)/2, where k is the number of planets and points you are using.  

 

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