Earthwalk School of Astrology Newsletter
15 Taurus 2007 - 1,539 Recipients

Table of Contents

1) Greetings

2) Uranus Conjunct North Node: The Future of Astrology

3) The Echo of Evil: Oklahoma City, Columbine and Virginia Tech

4) The Uranus-Neptune Semiseptile: Spiritual Perspective Since the February 1993 Conjunction

5) Neptune Square USA Progressed MC: Deborah Jeane Palfrey & the D.C. Madam Allegations

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1) Greetings

6 May 2007

Dear Astrological Friends,

Greetings to you and your family, and I hope that this mid-Spring missive finds you in good spirits. I sincerely want to thank each of you for sending your prayers and loving thoughts since my cancer diagnosis in November. There is some good news to report about my health: the results of a CT-PET scan taken on March 27th came back very positive. The rectal tumor was completely gone and there was no indication of the cancer spreading to my lymph system or liver. After the 28 radiation treatments, drinking Essiac Tea, and all of the love and prayers sent to me, this result was the best I could have hoped for.

As a result, I canceled my surgery and I have decided to pursue nutritional therapy and a change in lifestyle to strengthen my immune system and to ward off any future return of the cancer. This is a personal risk regarding recurrence, yet after taking into consideration the stationary transit Neptune square to my natal Mercury and Sun, surgery and IV chemotherapy perhaps would have done more harm than good.

I now have a vastly improved diet rich in fruits and vegetables, and am also taking enzyme supplements (right as my progressed Moon ingresses into my 6th house!).

C.E.O. Carter wrote in The Astrological Aspects that Sun and Mars inharmonious aspects lead to strain through over-work. I have the octile between Sun and Mars, and Mars at the midpoint of a Sun-Pluto square, thus I was a high-risk person for contracting rectal cancer. After writing five books in nine years, I had blown out my gaskets, so to speak, and I am making changes in my lifestyle to bring some much needed balance back into my life.

Best wishes,

Robert P. Blaschke

2) Uranus Conjunct North Node:
The Future of Astrology

Uranus-North Node conjunctions occur every 15 to 15 1/2 years and at these times, the future of astrology is seeded in some meaningful way. It was a delight to be part of the faculty at the recent Blast Astrology Conference in Sedona. I had the honor of presenting my lecture on Holographic Transits on Sunday, April 1st at 2:00 PM when Mercury, Uranus and the North Node were almost precisely aligned in a triple conjunction at 16 Pisces.

This conference was planned and organized to showcase the knowledge and skills of the younger generation of astrologers, from whom the faculty was largely comprised. What those in attendance experienced was a significant marker in the ongoing evolution of modern professional astrology. As this conjunction of Uranus and the North Node is in Pisces, sign of intellectual synthesis (last of the mutables), and conjoined by the Winged Messenger, this informs us that the future of astrology over the next 15 years belongs to the young astrologers (Mercury) and their intelligent and comprehensive synthesis of Modern Western, Vedic, Medieval and Hellenistic theory and technique.

If one looks back to November 1991, when Uranus last conjoined the North Node in Capricorn, it was around this time that Robert Schmidt approached Michael Erlewine at a NCGR conference about doing a translation of Claudius Ptolemaeus' Tetrabiblos. Shortly afterward, Robert Hand joined this effort and the Archive for the Retrieval of Historical Astrological Texts (ARHAT) was birthed, with Project Hindsight following and coming into prominence within the astrological community.

This previous Uranus-North Node conjunction in Capricorn, sign of tradition and antiquity, has produced a fruitful past 15 years resulting in the translation of Arabic, Greek and Latin astrological manuscripts into English by a team of skilled astrologers (Robert Hand, Robert Schmidt, Robert Zoller, Demetra George and others). This development has defined astrological progress over the last decade and a half, with many younger students and practitioners of astrology learning Hellenistic and other Heritage Tradition theories and techniques.

It should be pointed out that this horoscope, remarkably, cast for Washington, D.C., has the 2000 Grand Conjunction degree (Jupiter and Saturn) on its IC, and the next Grand Conjunction in 2020 as its rising degree. That Uranus-North Node conjunction in 11 Capricorn was also closely conjunct the MC ruler, Venus, of Robert Schmidt, and the composite chart between he and the 1991 conjunction has an exact Saturn-Neptune conjunction, along with the South Node being in the same degree as his Ascendant. Perhaps his present efforts are unfinished business from past lives. From Charubel, Leo 18:

The prior Uranus-North Node conjunction occurred in September 1976 in the 5th degree of Scorpio, with a powerful and tightly orbed stellium of Mercury, Venus, Mars and Pluto in Libra. Your correspondent should point out that this conjunction landed exactly on his natal Venus and also at his Mars Return, and this was the month, at the age of 22 going on 23, that he did his first natal astrological interpretation.

This period of astrological history coincided with the publication of outstanding psychological astrology books, such as Astrology, Psychology & The Four Elements and Astrology, Karma & Transformation by Stephen Arroyo; Karmic Astrology, Volume I: The Moon's Nodes and Reincarnation and Karmic Astrology, Volume II: Retrogrades and Reincarnation by Martin Schulman; Saturn: A New Look at an Old Devil, The Astrology of Fate, and Relating by Liz Greene; Planets in Transit and Planets in Composite by Robert Hand; Modern Transits by Lois Rodden, and additional psychologically oriented treatises of exceptional quality written by Tracy Marks, Bil Tierney, Noel Tyl, Jeff Green, and other authors of that era.

This influence of Uranus conjunct the North Node in Scorpio, sign of depth psychology, lasted from 1976 until 1991, when the Heritage Tradition research and translation activity then commenced.

Previous to that, a 1961 conjunction of Uranus and the North Node in Leo corresponded with a proliferation of Sun-sign forecasting and the astrology of the famous movement, led by the intense astrological scrutiny of Camelot (John and Jackie Kennedy and their young and glamorous presence in U.S. politics). Jeane Dixon, referring to Tecumseh's Curse, predicted JFK's death in advance (1956), based on the upcoming 1961 Grand Conjunction in Capricorn. She became famous for that prediction at the age of 59 in 1963, coinciding with her 2nd Saturn return.

Marcia Moore, who (with Mark Douglas) wrote the classic treatise, Astrology, The Divine Science (Arcane; 1971 - my first astrology book), had previously written Astrology Today—A Socio-Psychological Survey (Lucis Publishing; 1960) and Diet, Sex, and Yoga (1966) during this era in astrology. Being a Radcliffe graduate and the daughter of Robert L. Moore, founder of the chain of Sheraton Hotels, had positioned Ms Moore at an upper level in society in which there was extensive contact with, and astrological analysis of, the Kennedy clan and other glamorous and affluent celebrities of that decade. Marcia Moore was born on the exact same day as Lois Rodden (22 May 1928). Alas, she was murdered in 1979.

Going further back in history, the 1946 Uranus conjunction with the North Node in Gemini 21 (this correspondent's pre-natal conjunction and exactly conjoining his MC) corresponded with the Irish astrologer, Cyril Fagan, beginning the post World War II siderealist movement (twin Zodiacs!). His pioneering work cleared the way for Donald Bradley and Brigadier Firebrace, two other leading western sidereal astrologers of their day.

From Gavin Kent McClung's article, A Salute To Our Heritage: What Makes A True Astrologer? (Dell Horoscope; June 2000):

With regards to Cyril Fagan, there can be no doubt as to his exceptional intelligence, for this Gemini Sun possessed two of C.E.O. Carter's indicators of raw brainpower - Sun sextile Mars (on the Aries Point) and Sun sextile Jupiter.

One of the more consequential Uranus conjunctions with the North Node during the 20th century was in 1931 in the sign of Aries. This conjunction launched an astrological era that saw the ascent of Dane Rudhyar, Marc Edmund Jones and Grant Lewi, three giants in the annals of astrology.

In May 1931, two months after this conjunction, Marc Jones published his 26 lessons in Symbolical Astrology. Contained within these Lecture~Lessons was a philosophical treatment of symbolism and the mimeographed records of the 360 Sabian Symbols that were clairvoyantly obtained by Elsie Wheeler in 1925 in Balboa Park in San Diego, in collaboration with Jones.

Dane Rudhyar's first wife, Malya Contento, whom he had married in 1930, was attending astrology classes with Marc Jones. Rudhyar obtained a copy of those 1931 Lecture~Lessons from Jones and began to work with the Sabian Symbols, along with perceiving the deeper potential of astrology through its comprehensive treatment of time cycles. In 1932, Rudhyar began writing articles for the fledging Paul Clancy publication, American Astrology. In 1934, this magazine became more widely circulated and Rudhyar's writing took on greater popularity. In 1936, his seminal work, The Astrology of Personality, was published, incorporating Jungian psychology, and the book contained an analysis of the 360 Sabian Symbols.

Also during this 1931-1946 astrological era, Grant Lewi served as editor of a rival publication, Horoscope Magazine, and wrote two monumental books, Astrology for the Millions and Heaven Knows What. These books were enormously popular and introduced astrology to tens of thousands of new enthusiasts. His analysis of the 144 Sun-Moon combinations, along with his pioneering work of the transits through the horoscopic quadrants, influenced generations of astrologers to follow.

The previous astrological era to this commenced with a conjunction of Uranus and the North Node in November 1915 in 11 degrees of Aquarius. What is notable about this 15 1/2 year cycle in astrology was the founding by Alan Leo of the Astrological Lodge that year in London, and his subsequent course of public lectures in 1915 and 1916 that became transcribed for the three books, Mars: the War Lord, Jupiter: the Preserver; and Saturn: the Reaper.

Upon the death of Alan Leo in August 1917, the young Charles E.O. Carter, after serving in the British military during World War I, began to succeed Leo as the leading British astrologer in London, and assumed the presidency of the Astrological Lodge from Bessie Leo in 1922, at his 3rd Jupiter return.

This 1915 conjunction conjoined the Sun in C.E.O. Carter's nativity, exact to 09' of arc. Remarkably, there was also a partile synastric conjunction of Mercury to his natal Jupiter, and he was undergoing his first Saturn return at the time of this conjunction. Carter, with an Aquarius Sun in trine to Uranus, then became the symbol of astrology's progress away from the metaphysical ambiguities of the Theosophical Society and into a more respectable and scientific (Aquarius) astrology. Seven of his ten books, penned between 1924 and 1932, are a lasting testimony to his remarkable genius:

Lastly, our journey back through time takes us to the August 1900 Uranus-North Node conjunction in Sagittarius. This era of astrology was highlighted by the astrological publishing empire that Alan Leo built in London (some thirty textbooks by 1915), and by his trips to India to study Vedic astrology. This conjunction was trine his Jupiter to the degree, and formed a synastric Full Moon with his nativity.

Leo incorporated Indian mysticism and Hindu spiritual teachings, Theosophical metaphysics, and Vedic technique into his work and his writings. It was also during this era that Sepharial (aka Walter Gorn Old), a friend and colleague of Alan Leo, was quite active with his writing. His research into the dimensions of the astral plane, his translation into English of the La Volasfera degree symbols, his books on primary directions and the astrology of the stock markets, all were brilliant and highly original.

It is indeed of interest that there was a Saturn-Neptune opposition in 1900, as is now occurring in the heavens. Making concrete (Saturn) that which is to be found on the spiritual planes (Neptune) was certainly a hallmark of that era. This author certainly felt that Saturn-Neptune opposition while writing Holographic Transits last year, and he attempted to articulate the connections between the space-time continuum and free will and fate, and between standard time cycle transits and holographic spatial cycle transits. Perhaps the next 15 years will be most like this 1900-1915 era in astrology, as the conjunction occurred in Jupiter-ruled Pisces, along with the practical spirituality influence of the Saturn-Neptune conjunction.

From this historical review of the last 100+ years of astrology, one can see that a new era in the development of astrology is ushered in about every 15 years when Uranus conjoins the North Node. As the recent Blast Astrology Conference in Sedona took place right as this important conjunction was forming in the heavens, a new chapter in astrology's evolution has begun.

The baton of leadership in astrology, with Saturn having stationed direct in Leo, has now been passed on to the younger generation of astrologers. Moses Siregar III is to be highly commended for his vision and leadership abilities for having taken the financial risk to organize and produce such a splendid astrology conference. He is a born leader with Mars conjunct the South Node and as his pre-natal Sun-Jupiter synodic cycle conjunction cast for his place of birth attests, with that conjunction on the Aries Point and Uranus exactly rising, he was born to be a noted astrologer and leader in the community.

There were also five young astrologers on the faculty at The Blast who were born in 1971: Kelly Lee Phipps, Jonathan Pearl, Eric Meyers, Bill Streett and Maurice Fernandez. Their souls all came to Earth as part of the same Sun-Jupiter synodic cycle that commenced in November 1970 and lasted until December 1971. It is no small coincidence that the degree of that late 1970 Sun-Jupiter conjunction was 16 Scorpio and exactly conjunct the Ascendant of Moses Siregar III. They have each just had their 3rd Jupiter return, and a Saturn-Neptune opposition recurrence transit, and their careers are all growing and expanding (Note that three of these young men have natal Mars in Aquarius 21, on either side of the 1971 Mars Rx period).

I want to congratulate Moses and all of the other astrologers of the younger generation for creating this bright future for astrology at this current Uranus-North Node conjunction. The next 15 years for astrology look quite promising.

3) The Echo of Evil:
Oklahoma City, Columbine and Virginia Tech

Eight years ago, on 20 April 1999 at 11:19 AM MDT, shots rang out inside Columbine High School in Colorado. The evil unleashed on that day could be seen in the second of three oppositions forming between the two malefics, Mars and Saturn, in the heavens at 5 degrees of Taurus and Scorpio. When the massacre ended, 12 students and a teacher were dead and 24 other students were wounded. The two teenage students who carried out the shootings then committed suicide.

On the morning of April 16th, almost exactly at the eight-year phase angle return (Holographic Transit) of the Sun and Venus in the Columbine shooting horoscope, shots rang out at 7:15 AM EDT on the campus of Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Montgomery County, Virginia. In a chilling echo of evil calling out from hell, 5 degrees of Taurus and Scorpio were rising and setting at the time of the first shot being fired on that horrible day. When it was all over, the worst shooting massacre in U.S. history had been carried out by a mentally deranged gunman, leaving 32 people dead and the killer committing suicide.

In 1999 when the first student was shot at Columbine, 20 Cancer was rising, and conjunct the geocentric planetary node of Saturn and Pluto. In a further echo of evil, when the first shot was fired that morning in the dormitory at Virginia Tech, 20 Cancer was on the IC. If one calculates the Davison Time-Space chart for these two mass murders, 18 April 2003 at 14:16:59 GMT is the point in time and space midway between the two tragedies. On that day, Mars was in 27 Capricorn, the exact degree of the USA Pluto.

Pluto in that Davison chart was at 19 Sagittarius and exactly conjunct the Jupiter in the April 16th Virginia Tech shooting chart. On that saddest of days, one could only contemplate the rising degree in the Davison chart, Gemini 19, and its symbol from La Volasfera, pondering how a moment in time halfway between two evil days could represent so accurately such bereavement:

In the horoscope for the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing from 12 years ago, in which 168 people were killed and over 800 injured, the lunar nodes were in 5 degrees of Taurus and Scorpio. How could this be? Why does this pair of degrees keep showing up in the horoscopes of the worst acts of violence in U.S. history?

Remarkably, these are also the same degrees that will be rising and setting in the upcoming Jupiter-Pluto conjunction chart for the USA in December of this year. One may theorize that this 13-year cycle is quite relevant to the issue of school violence, and that some legislation may be passed near to the time of the next conjunction forcing the states to share their mental health data bases with the federal government so as to prevent the mentally ill from so easily purchasing handguns and semi-automatic weapons.

The last conjunction of Jupiter and Pluto occurred in December of 1994 in the 29th degree of Scorpio. Its degree symbol from Charubel was rather eerily prescient about the spate of school shootings occurring over the last 13 years:

The upcoming conjunction will occur in the 29th degree of Sagittarius and after examining its degree symbol from Charubel, one is hardly left with any optimism for a future free from school violence:

What is most peculiar about this recurring pattern of 5 degrees of Taurus and Scorpio showing up repeatedly in the horoscopes of the worst acts of violence in U.S. history, is the Antiscion (Solstice Point) of Scorpio 6. It is commonly presumed that mentally deranged individuals are hearing internal voices from disembodied entities on the lower astral plane who have taken possession of their thought processes. Antiscion degrees, which are a reflection, or a mirror, of the solar position, could thus represent "Mirror Voices" coming from a reflection of reality (traditionally attributed to Satan), rather than from reality itself (that which is created by God). From La Volasfera, Aquarius 25, the antiscion of Scorpio 6:

It is altogether too bizarre that Seung-Hui Cho died with the words ‘Ismail Ax’ written in red ink on one of his arms.

4) The Uranus-Neptune Semiseptile:
Spiritual Perspective Since the February 1993 Conjunction

Between the conjunction at the start of a cycle for any pair of outer planets and its first aspect that is a multiple of 30 degrees, the semisextile (or inconjunct if one of the two bodies is in a fixed sign), lies a whole raft of subtle esoteric aspects that are highly informative for understanding the emerging meaning of that specific long-term cycle. These aspects are the 15 degree quindecile (24th harmonic), the 18 degree vigintile (20th harmonic), the 20 degree seminovile (18th harmonic), the 22 1/2 degree semioctile (16th harmonic), and the 25 5/7 degree semiseptile (14th harmonic).

As this correspondent wrote in Volume II - Sabian Aspect Orbs, wherein he delineated these aspects using degree symbols for where the aspect perfected around the 360 degree Zodiac circle, some of these obscure aspects occur quite closely adjacent to one another and thus their orbs are limited to just one degree. The semiseptile, for example, is understood through the 26th degree of Aries (waxing - 25 degrees 43 minutes) and through the 5th degree of Pisces (waning - 334 degrees 17 minutes). These two degrees are equidistant from the Equinoctial Axis and are thus each other's Contra-Antiscion.

The Uranus-Neptune cycle has a duration of 172 years and, as referred to by Alexander Ruperti in his classic treatise, Cycles of Becoming, "has phases that are related to the historical events which have conditioned the type of society in which we are living today." Evidence of this cycle's current importance is seen in the new crop of world leaders now emerging on the global stage who were born with the 270 degree waning square of Uranus and Neptune in their nativity:

Reflecting on the changes in society since the February 1993 conjunction, one can contemplate the symbols for Capricorn 20, the degree of the conjunction, to understand our culture in its present woeful condition. From La Volasfera:

To see relevance in this symbolism, this writer need only remind his readers of the legions of superficial teenagers and young adults photographing themselves with cell phone cameras and posting these inane apelike pictures on Myspace.com, or on other contemporary websites now proliferating on the Internet. Most of these young people seem like posturing actors, with little intellectual substance behind their infatuation with technological gadgets and the self-centered triviality that they produce. TV shows comprised of contestants attempting to imitate past icons of artistic substance now pass for creativity in society.

A second angle of perception regarding modern society can be found in Capricorn 20 from Charubel:

Perhaps in this symbolic vignette, one can see the financial decline of the middle class in recent years, and the treadmill experience of working within a computerized and highly technological environment wherein each electronic gadget invented with the intention of reducing man's daily burden, actually winds up enslaving him even more in a busy and complex lifestyle with little or no time for true relaxation or spiritual contemplation. The good luck at the end of one's days may perhaps be the ongoing appreciation of real estate values, allowing the newly retired to bail out of suburbia with a tidy sum and live more simply in less expensive small towns or rural environs.

For one additional insight into modern society since the 1993 conjunction, we consult the Sabian Symbol for Capricorn 20:

In this symbolism, one can perceive the spiritual emptiness many feel as a result of using electronic technologies since the advent of the Information Age in 1993 at the conjunction of Uranus and Neptune. The return to church-going and participation in religious community will only continue to grow as millions become weary of the existential emptiness inherent in cyber-based media and online communities. Ultimately disappointing illusions weaved with modern technology may just be the reality of contemporary society and we, as a culture, are just now arriving at the realization of this sad and empty truth.

On May 1st, the first of three semiseptile aspects (25 degrees + 42 minutes + 51.43 seconds of arc) formed between Uranus and Neptune, with the other two aspects to perfect on 2 November 2007 and on 27 February 2008. Understanding this 14th harmonic (division of circle by 14) is a necessary step for grasping the spiritual relationship now forming in the heavens between these two transpersonal planets. The semiseptile is part of a larger family of 7th harmonic aspects which include the septile, biseptile, and triseptile, which are associated with, among other things:

For additional insight into a more specific meaning of the waxing semiseptile, we turn to the 26th degree of Aries, the point in the Zodiac circle where this subtle aspect becomes exact (measuring from the Vernal Point). This degree falls in the Sagittarius decanate of Aries, and in the Aquarius dwadashâmsha of that decan, therefore giving us a Mars-Jupiter-Saturn rulership.

From La Volasfera, Aries 26:

Your correspondent would interpret this symbolism as a confirmation of Nicolas Sarkozy being elected President of France, and of other world leaders rising from humble origins to positions of power.

From Charubel, Aries 26:

The person born with this degree ascending will make a discovery; a new idea will dawn on the world through his agency.

Between now and the end of February 2008, the duration of the three semiseptiles forming between Uranus and Neptune, one would expect some startling new and exciting scientific or technological inventions to come into manifestation.

And from the Sabian Symbols, Aries 26:

A man is seen, burning to incandescent heat with the wealth of that which he has to give.

Perhaps a further emphasis of some individual genius about to be released into society at large.

It is a worthy exercise now to contemplate the changes in society since the 1993 conjunction of Uranus and Neptune, as we pass through these three semiseptiles, an aspect that is part of a harmonic family known to produce spiritual awareness.

5) Neptune Square USA Progressed MC:
Deborah Jeane Palfrey & the D.C. Madam Allegations

On March 1st, Deborah Jeane Palfrey was indicted on federal money laundering charges in connection with her business, a professional escort service. According to her website, "her assets and entire life’s savings were seized by the Internal Revenue Service on 4 October 2006, without notice. This was done via the civil asset forfeiture process and based upon the government’s allegations that Ms Palfrey had operated a prostitution business, in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, from 1993 through August of 2006, when she ceased operation and retired."

"Ms Palfrey adamantly disputes the government’s claims of illegal behavior. The business, Pamela Martin and Associates, functioned as a high-end adult fantasy firm which offered legal sexual and erotic services across the spectrum of adult sexual behavior and did so without incident during its 13-year tenure."

Your correspondent spoke by telephone with Ms Palfrey in her home in Vallejo, California on May 5th and she was most gracious in providing her birth data to him. In examining her nativity, one finds a Yod with an apex Sun elevated in the 10th house. There is also a dissociate Grand Trine, an aspect configuration described by C.E.O. Carter as follows:

One also finds an exact trine from a dignified Venus in Taurus to an exalted Mars in Capricorn, of which one cannot imagine a more desired aspect for making a business out of providing the services of women to high-ranking, well-paying men. The interception of Venus, exalted ruler of her MC, is perhaps what allowed her business to operate under the radar and "without incident during its 13-year tenure."

As to Ms Palfrey's superior intelligence, there can be no doubt as she was born with an exact trine from the Sun to Uranus, one of C.E.O. Carter's Sacred Six aspects of raw brainpower (sextiles or trines of the Sun to Mars, Jupiter or Uranus). Her ruler, the Moon, is in the karmic 12th house and conjunct the South Node, and indicative of a very private and reclusive person. She had operated her Washington D.C.-based business from her home in California, with the customers having found ads discreetly placed in area newspapers around the nation's capitol.

She now faces a perilous legal predicament and her case has drawn national media attention to a D.C.-based scandal involving high level government officials, including a broadcast Friday night on ABC's 20/20 News Magazine. A top Bush Administration official, Randall L. Tobias, has already resigned as a deputy Secretary of State one day after confirming to Brian Ross of ABC News that he had used the services of the escort firm.

The USA Sibly horoscope is presently in the middle of seven squares from transit Neptune to its progressed Midheaven, lasting from April 2006 until December 2008. This transit is a clear astrological signature for top government officials to be plagued by scandal, and it appears that many others might fall from grace between now and the 2008 presidential election.

It is of interest that Ms Palfrey retired from her business in 2006, the year that her secondary progressed Pluto stationed direct. Saturn has just stationed on her progressed Ascendant, while transit Pluto stationed in square to her natal Sun, and Jupiter stationed in square to her MC, all echoing the severity of the federal charges she faces. Her progressed South Node is in the exact degree of the USA Uranus, attesting to the unusual nature of her legal case being brought suddenly into the public eye.

She has over a dozen years of telephone records documenting calls from the escort service's clients to her business, and all of Washington D.C. is waiting with baited breath to see if any other high level officials will have to resign from their positions. Ms Palfrey must hope that, with her progressed Moon in trine to natal Jupiter at the time of her indictment, she may be able to have the more serious charges against her greatly reduced, or dismissed altogether.

In attempting to gain insight into her unusual life which, according to the various news reports circulating, has been quite diverse and filled with unexpected twists and turns, one may contemplate her rising degree. From La Volasfera, Cancer 11:

© 2007 Robert P. Blaschke

Source notes:

“What are holographic transits? The author opens with a dedication worth pondering. His purpose is "the reawakening of astrologers to the central importance of the Sun and the Zodiac degrees as the spiritual complement to transit technique." This complement to the standard interpretation of a transit to a natal planet is the natal planet's measurement to the natal Sun, a relationship that is also brought into the equation when the distance arc between planet and Sun in the sky is replicated. (Phase angle returns). Because the Sun is involved this will happen fairly regularly and provides a precise timing to enhance the longer-ranging direct transit. To quote again: "Without the Sun, one cannot fully integrate the energies of the planets through the heart into Higher Self." It is posited that this is a time when fate and free will can successfully combine and that the Sun as the Light of God "can regenerate the wholeness in the soul."

The aim overall is to uncover the spiritual framework of the chart in this way so that the larger meaning of transits can be grasped. Potentially 'difficult' transits can be better understood or explained to a client as not simply restrictive periods to be endured but as meaningful strands in their life's journey and purpose. The symbology of degree symbols is also employed in various ways to add interpretative depth, and masses of example charts, cyclic information and Sun-planet conjunction tables are provided. Taking each Sun-planet combination in turn the 'nine holograms of human consciousness' are revealed. This is advanced astrology and the depth and precision will amaze you.

Each volume in Robert Blaschke's continuing 'Language of Life' series is an important event in modern astrology, and all those who have benefited from the accuracy, veracity and intelligence of his previous books will not find this one a disappointment. It sets new standards of discernment in our art.”

Paul F. Newman, The Astrological Journal (UK)

“A most astonishing book.

The essential premise of the book is that, during those awful outer planet transits to your natal chart, you can find moments of tranquil reflection when the Sun & planet return to their original natal angle. (You can, of course, meditate upon the planet any time the Sun returns to the same angle, but you're likely to forget that until a major transit brings it to your attention.) For example:

Suppose transiting Saturn is conjunct your natal Mercury. If, after the first direct hit, it then retrogrades & stations over it, you could have Saturn in your life for half a year. Blaschke's theory is that the best times to come to terms with this energy is when the transiting Sun & Mercury have the same angular separation as your natal Sun & Mercury. Blaschke says this works. But there's more.

Building on the premise in his Sabian Aspect Orbs (book 2), Blaschke says we can identify basic planetary energies in our charts by finding the angular separation between the Sun & each of the planets, applying or separating as the case may be, projecting the resulting number of degrees from 0 degrees Aries, determining the sign & degree that results, and then consulting a book of degree symbols for its interpretation. In addition to the raw angle thus obtained, Blaschke also suggests finding its reflection from 180 degrees. The change, between Book 5 and the earlier Book 2 is that Blaschke now suggests consulting Sepharial's La Volasfera, which forms the second half of Degrees of the Zodiac Symbolized. The substitution of Sepharial for Jones, which is unexplained, produces the most amazing results.

The most fundamental of the various Sun-planet angles is that between the Sun & Moon, which reoccurs monthly. Underlying that, of course, is the prenatal eclipse. Referencing the prenatal eclipse degree to Sepharial's degree symbols produced this result for George W. Bush, who has his prenatal eclipse at 7 degrees of Cancer:

This is not a fluke, as you will discover when you find your own prenatal degree. Blaschke suggests Charubel's degree symbols as a back-up, perhaps in part as Sepharial & Charubel have long been paired together.

Building upon this, Blaschke also suggests finding the last time the Sun conjoined the various planets in your chart, before your birth. He provides tables for solar eclipses, as well as Sun-planet conjunctions, from 1920 to 2020.

Blaschke also notes if a planet rises ahead of, or sets after, the Sun (morning or evening stars). Planets rising ahead of the Sun are interested in future affairs, or perhaps give the gift of prophecy. Planets setting after the Sun tend to deal with matters at hand. He also compares all of this to the progressed positions.

There is also a great deal of metaphysical justification & theorizing to support these ideas. I was impressed by his Time / Space diagram, where Time is the horizontal axis, Space the vertical. As you rise up in "space" (consciousness) you become less restricted in "time". When you descend you can become "trapped" in time. This is actually how time appears to work, as anyone who has wasted a fleeting hour in daydreams, or sat staring at a clock, waiting for the hands to move, can confirm. It's also an apt metaphor for the endless cycle of birth & rebirth, although here he gives us the story of Hansel & Gretel, when Jack & Jill would have been more appropriate. (Some day I might tell you why.)

There is much more in the book, but only one other item needs to be mentioned. Blaschke is intensely Christian. He talks about The Light of God, he urges us onto a spiritual path, he admonishes us to find our Higher Self, he is concerned for our very souls. I found this pleasant, but I have dragged myself through similar material, again & again, for the last forty years. In Blaschke I recognize a fellow traveler. You don't need to agree with this part of Blaschke's book in order to find it of use. Sometimes a bank robber's biggest problem (to give a silly example) isn't that he's not in touch with his higher self, but that he's not a good enough bank robber.

A couple of years ago Blaschke told me he had a series of seven books planned. Get this fifth book, and join me in eagerly awaiting the next two.”

- David R. Roell, The Astrology Center of America

To get your copy of Volume V, go here and scroll down to the bottom of the page for ordering information.

3) March Lunar Eclipse Conjoins Iran's Saturn:
The Looming Military Confrontation

Three years ago, I wrote a Mundane Astrology article published in The Mountain Astrologer about Iran's progressed solar eclipse of July 2004. Here is a bi-wheel chart showing the Islamic Republic of Iran' s national horoscope in the inner wheel and secondary progressions for 13 July 2004 in the outer wheel. [Chart Data and Source: Islamic Republic of Iran (return of Khomeini), 1 February 1979; 9:33 a.m. IRT; Teheran, Iran (35°N29', 51°E26'); Nicholas Campion, The Book of World Horoscopes, revised and updated edition, The Wessex Astrologer, 2004, Chart 158.]

I had predicted that, based on Sepharial's translation of La Volasfera for Pisces 8, the degree of that progressed solar eclipse, Iran was about to attempt swimming in waters way over its head:

A man with upraised arms submerged in the water, over which a heavy rain is falling.

I had also written in 2004 that with Uranus transiting over the Iranian progressed Sun five times, this theocratic regime would become increasingly radicalized and defiant toward the world community. In a month from now, there will be a Lunar Eclipse that conjoins the Iranian Saturn, and shortly afterward the Iranian horoscope will perfect a progressed Sun-Saturn opposition (with the transit Lunar Nodes aligning at 10° Virgo-Pisces on that opposition). At the time of this writing, the United States is sending a second aircraft carrier, the USS John C. Stennis, to the Persian Gulf as a military warning to Iran. Israel has also drawn up contingency plans for a pre-emptive strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.

The new Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, has publicly stated that "Iran has overplayed its hand" on the world stage, and the United States has recently authorized its military to hunt down and kill Iranian operatives inside Iraq who are designing and supplying sophisticated Improvised Explosive Devices that are killing and maiming U.S. and coalition forces, and Iraqi civilians. Iran's defiant refusal to halt its uranium enrichment program despite U.N. Security Council resolutions, along with its radical president threatening to "wipe Israel off the map," has created an increasingly tension-filled atmosphere for an eventual military showdown with the United States, Great Britain and Israel.

Here is a tri-wheel chart showing the upcoming Lunar Eclipse acting upon the Iranian national horoscope and its secondary progressions. One sees that the Iranian progressed Moon, at the time of the Lunar Eclipse, is in the axis of its Saturn/Uranus midpoint. Jupiter will station retrograde conjunct the Iranian Neptune, rendering diplomacy useless and raising the global outcry over ongoing Iranian deception about its uranium enrichment program.

It is no small coincidence that the USA progressed Mars stationed retrograde for the first time in American history last July in the 19th degree of Libra, the exact degree of the Iranian progressed Pluto. The Sabian Symbol for Libra 19 is:

A gang of robbers are seen in hiding, ready and anxious
to attack the heavily armed caravan just coming into sight.

This is a literal manifestation of the IED attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq, with Iran funding, designing and supplying these murderous and maiming devices. If one contemplates the degree symbol for the Iranian Ascendant, one gets a glimpse of what is in store for Iran if it continues to provoke a military confrontation with the West. From Charubel, Aries 5:

A large iron cross lying on the ground. All looks dark, sad, and gloomy.
There is perfect stillness in the scene; not a ruffle; not a sound of any kind.

The second Saturn-Neptune opposition at the end of this month in 20° Leo-Aquarius creates a very tight Fixed T-Cross with the Iranian Uranus in 20° Scorpio. The Moon will transit 20° Taurus and fill in the Fixed Grand Cross on February 23rd. With Mars transiting the USA Pluto in 27° Capricorn the day before, watch for an escalation of hostilities at this time. We could see an attempted blockade by Iran of the Strait of Hormuz, through which most of the exported oil from the Middle East passes by tanker. The resulting engagement with U.S. and British naval forces would then create a full-blown crisis and cause a gasoline shortage on par with the Arab oil embargo of the early 1970s, at the last Saturn-Neptune opposition. The present Iranian government will reach its Saturn return in September 2008, and it is unlikely that this theocratic regime will be able to stay in power beyond that time. It appears that the end game with Iran is drawing nearer.

4) Valentine's Day Mercury Retrograde Station:
An Exalted Venus–Mars Sextile with a Yod to Saturn

On February 14th at 04:37:21 GMT, Mercury stations retrograde in 10° Pisces 13', conjunct the Iranian progressed Sun within 08' of arc. An exact Yod forms in the heavens during this station, with an exalted Venus in 21° Pisces sextile to an exalted Mars in 21° Capricorn, and both inconjunct Saturn in detriment in 21° Leo. This is the most powerful category of the Yod aspect configuration, as the apex planet, Saturn, is both in a fixed sign and the slowest moving of the three celestial bodies. The Moon in 9° Capricorn at the time of this Mercury station is in the exact degree of Mars in the Operation Iraqi Freedom chart of 20 March 2003 (the invasion of Iraq). In a remarkable twist of fate, Saturn, the apex planet of the Yod, conjoins the invasion chart's Part of Fortune, exact to the minute of arc. One would presume a further worsening of conditions in Iraq as a result of this partile conjunction.

The violent sectarian carnage, ongoing Sunni insurrection, and the Shia militia death squads in Iraq are clearly shown by the back-to-back Uranus stations of 2006-07 in 14° Pisces conjoining the invasion chart's Ascendant (partile in June 2006; within 02' of arc in November 2007). One should not expect a stabilization in Iraq until after 11 January 2008, when Uranus leaves its one degree separating orb of its second stationary conjunction to the invasion chart's Ascendant. This rising degree merits spiritual contemplation, as amidst all of the bloodshed in Iraq, the original just cause of removing a brutal dictator from power has been obscured, regardless of whether weapons of mass destruction were ever found. From Charubel, Pisces 15:

A hand with a sword in it. Just rising in the ascendant, a halo of golden light envelopes it.
That sword is not for indiscriminate slaughter. It is to defend the right.

The difficulty for the American public to continue to endure the ongoing casualties in combat in Iraq can be seen in the USA Winter Ingress (21 December 2006; 7:22:32 PM EST; Washington D.C.). The Moon in 17° Capricorn is exactly conjunct the invasion chart's Chiron. There is also a partile Mars-Uranus square in this Capricorn Ingress, and this unpredictable and violent aspect has already found its brutal manifestation in the multiple helicopter crashes occurring in Iraq during January. Each month, as the Moon transits 26° of cardinal signs, or 11° of the mutables, watch for this dreaded aspect to bring more deaths and injuries in Iraq from mechanical malfunctioning of equipment, or from brazen insurgent attacks on coalition forces.

The transit Lunar Nodes will conjoin the invasion chart's horizon on May 1st, and as this date comes immediately after Neptune transits the start-of-the-war Venus, exalted ruler of its Ascendant, the full scope of Iranian deception and subterfuge in destabilizing Iraq should become more apparent at this time. Casting the stationary Mercury chart for Teheran, one finds the rising degree to be Pisces 22. A rather cryptic degree symbol is found in Sepharial's translation of La Volasfera:

A woman of dark countenance standing over a prostrate man.