Between the Shadow and the Light: Tales of Uranus and the Summer Eclipses

by Terry Lamb

July 2, 2009

We are currently feeling the dramatic effects of two planetary patterns. On Wednesday (July 1), Uranus began its 5-month retrograde period, while the energy is building toward a Lunar Eclipse on Tuesday (July 7). Another eclipse, a solar on July 21, is also being felt now.

Amy Klobuchar Is Psychic.
The last drama of last fall’s election is over: Al Franken will be sworn in as the junior senator for the State of Minnesota sometime next week. Amy Klobuchar (the senior senator from Minnesota) and I were right. She said that he would be sworn in by “the time the corn reaches knee high” (traditionally by the 4th of July).

I was right in expecting the Lunar Eclipse to be involved in the timing, and Uranus too played its role. Uranus is actively opposing Senator Franken’s Saturn, is about to back up over it for the second of three contacts. Uranus is the “clearer of the path” sudden-style. The Lunar Eclipse opens a new chapter in our book of life. Finally, Frannie Franken will get to take that bag that she had packed in the corner and finally move to Washington. There are other contacts too , enough to know that this is a milestone event in Franken’s life. Sun to Uranus-Venus tells us it’s a sudden change; MC to Venus says it’s good news; Sun quincunx his Sagittarius Moon suggests an awkward change of residence made in haste. Saturn to his South Node tells me that it fulfills a deep longing to serve — it’s a dream come true. He is also going to serve on the Health Committee, symbolized by Virgo.

Also noteworthy are two major aspect patterns focused on Mercury. The planet of winged feet and humor, so important to a Gemini, is in a T-square to Saturn-Uranus and a grand trine to the Moon in Libra and the Aquarian threesome (Chiron-Neptune-Jupiter).

The eclipse is focused right on his Venus and the MC for the announcement of the court decision. Al Franken goes to Washington!


What Do Michael Jackson and Billy Mays Have in Common?
Uranus exactly squared the Vertex in Jackson’s chart. This alternate but sensitive Descendant is often featured in sudden “pressure-cooker release” events. For Billy Mays, Uranus was opposing his Moon (with Saturn conjunct it), and the Solar Eclipse on July 21 would have been on his Sun (a classic heart attack contact).

In both men’s charts, the Aquarian triple conjunction (Chiron-Neptune-Jupiter) is strongly featured. While they are more idealistic than dramatic like Uranus and the eclipses, they are more powerful even if on background. For Michael Jackson, they were exactly conjunct his IC, a potent force that perhaps led him to decide (on some level) that he couldn’t climb out of the hole he was in. Both men were born in 1958 and going through their Chiron returns. Chiron’s completes at 51 years, and it is a time when in some cultures a person would be considered free of social obligations. It is also involved in transitions of all sorts, including death.


Health Care on the Operating Table
Health care reform is also on the front burner right now, and this leads us naturally to think about Saturn in Virgo. Can we reach the goal of restructuring health care before Saturn leaves the sign? Perhaps in some ways. Teddy Kennedy introduced a new plan that includes a public option and that will cost considerably less than the plans so far proposed. This appears to be the choking point for many legislators. Will Kennedy’s Uranus “splash” make waves in the legislative process? Yes, but they will probably not reach shore until the fall.

The chances of health care reform passing before the summer recess are slim, but the eclipses enhance that possibility, however, because they hit the chart of the US at significant points. The Lunar Eclipse is very close to the US Sun, while the Solar on July 21 contacts the US Pluto. These factors make it certain that new, critical information will be revealed in July.

Although wide-ranging in their nature, each of these events and issues are characterized by the sudden change that characterizes both Uranus and eclipses of the Sun and Moon.

© Terry Lamb

Power to the People! Pluto, Jupiter, and the New Iranian Revolution

June 25, 2009

by Terry Lamb

When I wrote about Iran last week, it was before we knew how both people and government would react and interact as millions of Iranians began to rebel against four more years of Ahmadinejad in the presidency. In that article, I considered only the chart for the formation of the republic, rather than the revolution, for that shows the viability of the government.

However, the conscience of the people may be seated more reliably in the chart of the revolution two months before. I say this because the current revolt clearly peaked as we reached the culmination of the yearly Pluto cycle — the opposition to the Sun which occurred on Tuesday (June 23). Pluto does not strongly impact the chart of the Iranian government, but it does the chart of the revolution! (Chart shown below.)


Pluto Is a Primary Timer.
On the weekend of the election, Jupiter was making its retrograde station, and the people responded with Jupiterian confidence. The following weekend, however, Pluto became the dominant planet, and Grand Ayatollah Khamenei assumed absolute power in violently quashing the peaceful demonstrations. Neda Agha-Soltan, a quiet bystander, was shot dead in a random act of violence by the basij militia. She has become a symbol of the new revolution and the Plutonian power of the people.

In the chart for the Islamic Republic of Iran, Pluto whispers. However, in the chart of the revolution, it shouts. If we are looking to see what the people will do and when they will do it, observation teaches that the timing will come from the chart for the Islamic Revolution. The primary timer in that chart is Pluto, which is sitting at the top and proclaiming, “Power to the people!”

Where Does It Go From Here?
In the aftermath of the crackdown, the demonstrations seem to be morphing into a general strike. This is how the previous government was brought down. Protests continue, but with telecommunications in a stranglehold the movement may be having difficulty organizing. We on the outside are having difficulty finding out what’s going on, but what we are hearing is not good: Detentions, disappearances, and deaths are becoming more frequent.

If it were only Pluto, there would be a lull in the action, but there are many other planetary events involved. Many of these I covered in my first article on the subject. Key dates to watch in the near future are (+/- a few days):

• July 1(Uranus stationary retrograde): conjunct potentially volatile Mars/Mercury in the chart of the republic

• July 21 (Solar Eclipse): This Sun-Moon conjunction (New Moon) in an incredibly intense total eclipse. It makes contacts in both charts for Iran. In the chart of the republic, it is conjunct 12th-house Jupiter, suggesting an increased level of sick, injured, and incarcerated people. The prisons are swelling with dissidents.

In the chart of the people (the revolution), the eclipse contacts progressed Jupiter (Cancer) and Venus (Capricorn), which are in an exact opposition to each other. This speaks to the plight of women in Iran (symbolized by the shooting death of Neda Agha-Soltan). These fall in houses 5 and 11 respectively, symbolizing a shift in public sentiment, loss of playfulness, and strictures on legislative forms of government.

• August 5 (Lunar Eclipse): This Full Moon (Sun-Moon opposition) is a weak Lunar Eclipse. The Moon conjuncts the Sun of the revolution chart. This can create overt action on the part of the people as they attempt to assert their freedoms against an oppressive government. This is the general time frame for Ahmadinejad to be sworn in for his new term as president.

The Pressure Is on the Religious Leadership.
Jupiter — natal, progressed, and transiting — features prominently in the coming weeks. It was at the Jupiter station (in freedom-loving Aquarius) that the new revolution began. Among other things, Jupiter connotes religious leaders, law and the judiciary. It also represents the honor of a nation. Venus opposing Jupiter by progression indicates an active drive to become a true res publica, a republic or government motivated by the wants and needs of the people, instead of those of the theocracy.

It has become increasingly obvious that, whatever the appearances, Iran’s true rulers are the Imams of the Governing Council. They and the puppet president of the hard right are currently running Iran under martial law, against their constitution.

This progressed opposition also indicates that there is dissent among those on the Governing Council, and this we have seen as Khamenei has said one thing and the more moderate Ayatollah Montazeri something else. When the Solar Eclipse hits this opposition (and the Jupiter of the Republic), can the religious leadership hold to its current position and structure? Almost certainly not. Something will change.

Since this is a Solar Eclipse (a New Moon), the shift will be profound but it is likely to be internal to the Governing Council and not evident to those outside at first. We may have to wait for other contacts to Iran’s charts to ripen over the next year.

It’s Not Over.
If Jupiter has the megaphone right now, Pluto will take center stage next year. This is when Pluto makes its two stations in contact with the angles in the chart of the revolution. Its retrograde station on April 7, 2010 (5̊ Capricorn) is exactly square the Ascendant, while the direct station on September 14, 2010 will be exactly on the MC. These are dates of maximum intensity on points of maximum sensitivity. They will define the boundaries of a period of extreme tension in Iran, if not unrest that leads to the formation of a new government. It is also possible that Iran will enter a new dark period of plutocratic control, with no guise of democracy, in the coming 18 months.

The Third Path
There is a third possibility. If the change is internalized, a quiet and gradual shift could take place that gives the people what they want and need over time. So much of the current response from the government is about face-saving. Gradual change permits the mullahs to save face and could lead to the best outcome, resulting in a freer society and preventing Iran from fragmenting into a number of small warring tribal regions.

© Terry Lamb

Dreams of the Future, Chimeras from the Past: Our Tangled Planetary Web and the 27th Degree

May 13, 2009

© Terry Lamb

There is a quiet orchestration occurring right now in the heavens, a celestial conspiracy to create harmonic resonance in the human consciousness at the 27th degree (anything over 26̊00'). It is at once perilous, powerful, and beautiful, with the potential to lift us up out of ordinary consciousness and create miraculous change. To get at what’s going on here, we have to look at the contributing planets and their cyclic interactions.

The Contributing Planets
From May 21 through June 10, four slow-moving planets will be at 26 degrees and change in their respective sign: Uranus (Pisces) and Jupiter-Chiron-Neptune (Aquarius). On May 26–27, Mars joins them from its position in Aries, boosting the chance of a harmonious human response. (See image above.) They will all be vibrating on the same “note” of the 12th harmonic, and this opens the door to profound change. It also allows us to check in on changes we began as a human collective in 1992.

The entire time that any of these planets is at this degree spans a broader expanse of time from April 14 through August 10. Since every planet but Mars backs off this degree, they will return to it later but in a dispersed form, with Jupiter reaching it first at the end of December, Chiron-Neptune connecting at that degree in February, and Uranus reaching it in March. This suggests that, whatever comes up now feels like a now-or-never “crunch time” that we must respond to urgently; and that a more dispersed and gentle resolution to the issues that develop will come about early in 2010 — that is, if we respond well to those issues.

The Simple Take
At first glance, this means that any person, group, leader, or nation that has planets at this degree will be transformed by these energies. It also means that issues that began showing up in April will face turning points in the next two weeks, when critical decisions will be made. What issues are we talking about?



We can get a clue about the answer by looking at the US chart. Depending on the time you use for it, the Moon may be at this degree. (However, it is not in the chart I use.) Regardless of that, the US directed Jupiter is at 27̊05' (or thereabouts) in Aquarius, the degree at which transiting Jupiter will station on June 15. (See image above.)

This is a “hook” into the US chart, and it suggests issues that affect society and its well-being. In the chart I use (Dobyns-Boehrer timed for 9:36 am), this falls in the 6th house of workers and the health of the nation. It suggests that we are not doing all that is necessary to support the engine of the US economy, its workforce, and that we are also weak in health (care). These must be rectified in order to live long and prosper as a nation.

What’s It All About?
Accordingly, here are the matters that seem to tie in to the planets at the 27th degree.

Health Care
From Max Baucus’s one-sided meetings with insurers and big pharma (pointedly excluding proponents of single-payer plans) to President Barack Obama’s more universal approach, there is no doubt that health care is on the table and will be dealt with in some form in the coming months. If it follows this time table and is addressed wisely, we will see a new plan in place by the spring of 2010.

The Economy
We have to regulate. This may mean some reinstated or revised regulations (like breaking up the big banks — a MUST!), or simply enforcing the regulations that are there (like the Sherman Act). Nothing must be too big to fail anymore; and the Wall-Street mindset of Geithner, Summers, and the big bankers must be opened to consider what is happening to the people who are (currently still, sadly) their victims. It is beyond belief that so much money could be pumped into the financial industry and so little benefit (in fact, even more punishment) extend to the people. The banks (with some exceptions) remain adamantine in their disregard for the people who drive the economy and therefore their wealth. For more on what’s going on, stay tuned to Rachel Maddow, especially her May 12 interview with Eliot Spitzer, and read the blogs of Spitzer, Paul Krugman, William Greider, Robert Kuttner, and David Cay Johnston. Bill Moyer also covers this topic regularly on his Journal, as does Fareed Zakaria on CNN.

The Environment
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar is proving to be a Bushie in Obama clothing. He has refused to increase protections for the highly endangered polar bear and has allowed permits to go through for the mining of uranium near the Grand Canyon, a direct threat to the water supply of southern California, as well as the area surrounding the mining sites. These permits are currently being challenged in court.

Directed Jupiter in Aquarius in the US chart can also signify the level at which people are direct participants in maintaining or (re)gaining their freedom. Transiting Jupiter’s retrograde station on this point could signify a necessary learning curve for the public in the need to become more actively involved in creating the world they want to live in. The alternative is for lobbyists to continue to be the driving force behind the direction the country takes.

On a Deeper Level . . .
There is so much depth and richness to this set of planetary interactions. There are three new planetary cycles beginning (Jupiter-Chiron, Jupiter-Neptune, and Chiron-Neptune), as well as a trigger to one that started in 1992. The latter is the Uranus-Neptune conjunction, which occurs every 171 years or so. The word on every tongue at that time was “reinvention”. What are we reinventing? Nothing less than the way humans live on the planet, the way we dream about our possibilities, and the ways we live, interact, and communicate with each other.

Uncannily, the last time we considered real health care reform was in 1993, when Harry and Louise — a front for the Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA), a health insurance industry lobbying group — put the brakes on the Clinton health care plan. We get another shot at this now, as Uranus and Neptune resonate with each other once again. It gives us yet one more layer of awareness to make the right thing happen.

Venus is Going Direct . . .What’s Next?

April 16, 2009

© Terry Lamb

It was a wild ride! When Venus turned retrograde on March 6 in Aries, we went into a 6-week transition period that ends tomorrow. It was complicated by several other planetary patterns and events, all of which are key culprits in the economic situation we currently face. The Saturn-Uranus opposition was triggered by Mars; Venus squared Pluto; and Pluto began its four-month retrograde period. (If this means nothing to you, suffice to say that it's a handful.)

So what happened? The stock market went up, and many are proclaiming that the end of the recession is in sight. Is it really?

Venus says, “Yes, yes, yes”, but the other planets say, “No, no, no.” Saturn-Uranus were coming together as the crash began to take shape, and they were in exact focus as it occurred. They will continue to interact in a similar fashion through July 2010. The whole economic transformation began when Pluto first entered Capricorn, in January 2008, with the market manipulation caused by French trader Jerome Kerviel when he engaged in fraudulent futures trading in 2007-08. This occurred on January 21-24, and Pluto entered Capricorn on January 25, 2008. Pluto will be in Capricorn for 15 more years.

This tells us it’s not over, but it is true that it is over in the form it has taken on the surface, the form that Venus represents. We may be able to recover now — but the forces that caused the crash and subsequent downturn are still able to wreak havoc on the system. To understand why I say that, we have to dig a little deeper. We have to look at the backstory on what brought on the instability in the banks and what made these titans fall. It wasn’t your subprime mortgage.

Naked Short-Selling Is at the Core.
It was naked short-selling, where a trader creates phantom shares for a company that cause its market value to crash. To learn more about what happened, watch this video by Judd Bagley, “Hedge Funds and the Global Economic Meltdown”. Although there undeniably were conditions that set us up for a fall of some grandeur sooner or later (mortgage-backed securities, the housing bubble, fraudulent loan practices involving subprime mortgages, falsified credit ratings), the crash would not have been so deep nor the credit tsunami so catastrophic without the criminal behavior of several Lord-of-the-Universe hedge fund managers who to date have been untouched and appear untouchable.

The Planetary Suspects
After the shock on January 24, the first hit from inside the US was landed on Bear Stearns on March 11, 2008, although the activities that led to this blow surely started before then. The planets that were activated then were Uranus and Mars-Pluto (the third contact of Mars with Pluto after its retrograde). This turned $1.7m into $270m in one week. Bear Stearns was rescued by the Federal Reserve and JP Morgan Chase (based on $29bn in taxpayer dollars to guarantee the merger) after employees lost more than $5bn on company holdings. Eight thousand lost their jobs. So, Uranus and Pluto, with a smattering of Mars, are the primary timers of events. Saturn joined their party by mid-summer, when it moved into range of Uranus, thickening the stew.

Here are some of the correlating events:

Pluto’s Retrograde Station
As Pluto went retrograde a week later, the Senate banking committee met in early April to figure out what happened to Bear. When they questioned SEC Chair Chris Cox, he sounded unconvincing as he made a commitment to investigate who did what and prosecute them. And he was all too revealing of his future actions: Nothing was done.
Uranus’s Retrograde Station
The second hit was against Lehman Brothers, starting June 27, in which criminal naked short-selling brought the price of Lehman Brothers down by 40% over two weeks. It was Uranus again, this time at its retrograde station (stationary retrograde). The SEC belatedly took action on July 15, choosing to require additional regulatory oversight starting July 21 over naked short-selling of the stocks of 19 large financial institutions like Lehman Brothers and Fannie Mae. This order was allowed to lapse mid-August.
Sun Conjunct Saturn and Opposite Uranus
Evidently the culprit(s) lay low for a while, and then on September 9 they struck again. After 90 million failed trades hit the market that week and the Fed decided not to bail them out, Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy on September 15. For the two days following, traders leapt on Lehman like vultures, eaking every last cent out of it. By the 18th, this 158-year-old company had vanished. This is when the global economy crashed. The Sun-Uranus opposition was on September 12, and the first Saturn-Uranus opposition was on November 4.

And the Winner Is . . .
According to Judd Bagley, the bad guy(s) can be found among a handful of short-selling hedge fund managers, yet the SEC has yet to investigate them.

Since then, we have been in transition mode — the election, the new administration getting staffed and finding its feet, economic ups and (mostly) downs. The market psychology was confused, and this was certainly just as true during the past Venus retrograde. What was different is that there were a few indicators that leveled off, and this led to gains in the stock market. If there are no further giant hits to the markets, these gains may be more than window-dressing.

Breathing Room
However, the planets tell us that if the underlying problems are not fixed, we are in for more hits. It is my expectation that it will take another round of direct government intervention to get the financial system back to some semblance of normal. I also expect the process of re-regulating and of truly investigating the naked short-selling crimes to become the primary focus of government by the fall, when the next Saturn-Uranus contact occurs (September 15). This will start the final round of Saturn-Uranus experience, giving us the opportunity to rectify the system as best we can see how.

What After That?
It is hard to envision what will come after summer of 2010, when the final Saturn-Uranus opposition occurs. Uranus heads on to square Pluto, and this is the biggest challenge yet. We have a chance to get it right and dull the force of this momentous energy. At its best, we will be well launched into our green economy and seeing ever more ways to dampen our effects on the planet. We will have ameliorated the situation of those in the worst poverty and the most peril, so that when peaks of conflict and climatic extremes occur they will not be so dramatic. It is possible to uproot the worst of these challenges, and in many ways President Obama is approaching them wisely, at least in the arena of foreign relations.

Where the economy is concerned, in my opinion our leaders are on a steep learning curve. The financial systems as they currently exist defy the understanding of the most brilliant mind. This is, I believe, why the SEC hasn’t made any successful investigation of naked short-selling and related fraudulent trades; Chris Cox and his employees did not understand them. It remains to be seen if Obama’s SEC will do any better, or if we need a new regulatory body to manage the situation.

We Matter.
Incredible as it may seem, we matter. If we don’t become educated and speak out, the only advisors Congress and the Obama Administration will be able to listen to are the Lords of the Universe themselves. We don’t want these foxes guarding our henhouse.

How Long Do We Have Now?
We’ve probably got until June 2010 before the economic system will be subjected to any more events that will change the landscape, the game, and the rules substantially. At that time, there will be a palpable change in perspective and priority as three major planets enter cardinal signs: Jupiter, Uranus, and Saturn (in that order). (The cardinal signs are Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn.) We’ll make another shift in course based on conditions as they exist then.

To be in harmony with the cardinal planets, we have to be courageous and pioneering, ready to think and act in a new way, and broad in perspective. Venus introduced us to the cardinal reality with her retrograde in Aries. She began the tempering process that we will experience during the coming 18 months of her current cycle (until her next retrograde) that will acclimate us to cardinal energy. Other emphases in cardinal signs will develop over that time as well, including eclipses starting this summer. (Eclipses occur roughly every 6 months.)

So, we can manage it, because we don’t have to take it all on at once. There are many doorways between now and then through which we can pass to make the situation better. The more enlightened we are about the time structure established by the planetary cycles and the human behaviors that correlate with them, the more prepared we will be to handle our experiences as they arise and make wise decisions to gain from them. We have the chance now more than ever to create a truly balanced and humane world.

Here’s what I wrote about this in my March forecast:

Hexagram 28, Preponderance of the Great, certainly speaks to our current economic situation. It refers specifically to a time when great power is unleashed in the universe and felt in human affairs. It is likened to a home whose roof sags in the middle because the beams overhead are poorly supported. Although we may have a tendency to think of such times as perilous and impossible to manage, the I Ching counsels us that it is “a time of great opportunity, so a time to take great care” (Carol Kay Anthony, A Guide to the I Ching). Hexagram 26, The Taming Power of the Great, describes a situation where forces are so strong, they threaten to throw us off balance (or already have). It describes a build-up of tension that often creates fear or anxiety and results in rash action. We are counseled here to “hold still, hold firm, and hold together”. (Anthony)

When we find ourselves in these circumstances, the first thing the I Ching advises is to reframe what is really going on: These surface appearances are signs that deep change is afoot, and that these are times of great opportunity — this is what great opportunity looks like. The next millionaires are created in an economic downturn. Even if you’re not the millionaire type, we each have the chance to reshape our lives more easily and build a more robust foundation because of the forces that are unleashed. The power that has been held in lockdown for years — in the financial empires, in the halls of government — is suddenly available to us. We can use it to start a new business or transform an existing one; to join a political movement that suddenly has a voice; to volunteer in creating social reform; and to carve our own unique path of meaning.