Astro Update - Issue #5

Welcome to Llewellyn's December Astro Update. It's that time of year again, when we reflect on our successes and failures. Then, depending on the outcome, we may resolve to reach for more, or perhaps take a different direction in life.

However, in the solar year, which begins with the Spring Equinox in March, we're approaching the tenth month (Tenth House). In the natal chart, the Tenth House represents public reputation, recognition for accomplishments, and career path. We can apply these things to the entire country - its government and the population. At the Winter Solstice, on December 21, 2004, at 7:42 AM EST, we'll be face to face with our collective successes and failures due to actions taken in the months since the birth of the solar year.*

I used the Internet to search newspaper archives (a record of our collective consciousness) for headlines and stories that demonstrate the energy of the Sun's contacts to sensitive points in the Spring Equinox chart. I include only one example per date, but there were abundant examples to choose from. Have some fun; do your own research, too.

On April 20, as the Sun moved into Taurus and the Second House (traditionally refers to personal resources and values, and in our society, to money):
WASHINGTON - Retreating under pressure, the Bush administration intends to revise a proposed overtime regulation to preserve eligibility for most white-collar workers making up to $100,000 a year as well as for police, firefighters and other first responders.

On April 21:
ARLINGTON, VA - US Airways Group Inc.'s former president and chief executive, who stepped down this week because of friction with unions over cost cutting, will collect a multimillion dollar severance package.

On May 6, as the Sun transited Venus:
MADISON, WI - people in Wisconsin donated nearly $3,000 in a week to help a Wisconsin man living in an ice shanty months after he was freed from prison after serving eighteen years for a rape he didn't commit.

On May 19, 2004, the same day the Sun moved into the Third House:
ST. PAUL, MN - Minnesota's Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed the education bill. The bill signing at the Department of Education headquarters in Roseville also served as a send-off for the commissioner, Cheri Pierson Yecke, who lost her job of 16 months after the Senate rejected her on a party-line vote on the last day of the session.

On June 26, as the Sun transited Saturn in the Fourth House:
WASHINGTON - Increased reliance in Iraq on the part-time warriors of the National Guard and military reserves is straining U.S. businesses and could cause big problems over time, business leaders and military experts told lawmakers on Friday. Employers must hold jobs open for those called up for duty, but the short notice, long deployments and unpredictability are stressing small and mid-sized companies.

On September 23, the day after the Sun moved into the Seventh House and Libra:
ST. PAUL, MN - Minnesotans believe that immigrants help the economy but also think helping them costs more than they contribute, according to a new poll that reveals mixed feelings about immigration in Minnesota.

In November, the Sun transited the Ninth House, where we encounter foreign cultures, ideas, and people, and also religion and philosophy. Pluto, symbol of death and destruction, is in the Ninth House of the Spring Equinox chart. The number of soldiers killed in Iraq reached the highest number in any month since the war began. In the second week of December, as the Sun approached Pluto, the death toll reached 1,001.

What's Ahead?
On Inauguration Day, January 20, 2005, the Sun moves into the Eleventh House (symbolic of our legislature and to society's long-term hopes, ambitions, and ideals). On February 3, the Sun will transit Neptune in the chart, and we--our legislative representatives--may be presented with the opportunity to provide real help to people. We, the people, as the collective that elected our representatives, will be accountable to some extent for their actions. On February 23, the Sun transits Uranus, and we should be on the lookout for something unexpected, different, perhaps even rebellious, to happen. And, on March 19, the Sun meets the Moon in the Twelfth House. The symbolism of this "seed-time" should not be overlooked. What do we hold in our collective consciousness that we want to see grow in the coming solar year? Each New Moon or day or year offers a new beginning, and we can, if we choose, be wiser in the new cycle than we were in previous cycles.

* March 20, 2004, at 1:49 AM EST, Washington, D.C.. Use a 0-degree Aries Chart to place the Sun on the Ascendant.