A New Year’s Non-Forecast

2023
DEC
28
December 28 2023
Posted by Brian Allemana in Forecasts, General Astrology | 5 Comments

Happy Artificially Intelligent New Year!

It is a tricky business, yet often expected of and reinforced by astrologers, to give an astrological forecast each year. Correctly interpreting planetary transits is a fiendishly challenging practice. The astrologer must be disciplined not only in astrology, but also in world history and human nature. Even then, the best any of us can do is speculate on how planetary alignments might manifest in the world, based on our understanding (such as it is) of the world and its history to this day. Or we can play with our imagination of the symbols, seeking out meaning and a sense of grounding in a turbulent world. To do all of this requires a real discipline of intellect and emotion. We astrologers are, if we are being true to our craft, martial artists of the mind.

Such a statement is almost eye-rolling from a Mercury-in-Aries native like myself. But I don't mean to be trivial: An astrologer must keep a constantly vigilant eye on what they say and write, being very clear to themselves when they might be invoking confirmation bias, cherry picking, psychological projection, or one of many other dangers that are inherent to the craft.

Part of astrology's value is in stimulating conversations around what could be, to transform and elevate our perspective so that we may see that there is reason to keep going, that whatever vexes us is temporary, and that a cosmic story is unfolding in this world, in our own lives, that is far grander than anything our limited senses can tell us. This is why intellectual and emotional discipline are so important to the astrologer. No transformative perspective can be given if we are weak in mental understanding or emotional honesty.

Those of you who seek out astrological understanding must also be fiercely discerning in what you choose to consume and believe. Yet at the same time, we must carry enough openness to be surprised, challenged, and changed.

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2023 November Update

2023
NOV
11
November 11 2023
Posted by Brian Allemana in General Astrology | Be the first to leave a comment

After weeks of Saturn slowly retrograding back into range of squaring Uranus — an alignment linked with social chaos and a break down of traditional norms — Saturn finally turned direct on November 4th. Then on November 7th, as the Virgo Moon (a symbol of female fertility) came into trine alignment with Jupiter, voters scored another victory for women's reproductive rights in Ohio. The outcome of that election day rekindled hope, even if briefly, that the defeat of an autocratic movement in the United States is possible. The astrological picture supports that hope, yet we are not clear of the woods. Events at home and abroad continue to vex our longings for a more peaceful world.

For example, in correspondence with the long running Eris-North Node conjunction in Aries, the war in Israel continues to rage. That war was sparked by the Oct 7 Hamas attack that occurred just days before a solar eclipse on Israel's Libra Ascendant that was at opposition to that Eris-North Node conjunction.

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Cosmic Hints for the 2024 Election

2023
JUN
04
June 4 2023
Posted by Brian Allemana in General Astrology, History | 21 Comments

Solar eclipse of July 1860, taken by Warren De La Rue using the Kew photoheliograph.

On July 18, 1860, a total solar eclipse in the sign of Cancer enchanted the Western world. It was visible throughout the United States as well as France and Spain, where the first ever photograph of a solar eclipse was taken by astrophotographer Warren De La Rue. It was the most dramatic and scientifically important solar eclipse of the century.

But even more dramatically, two days later a major meteor procession burned across the night sky of the Eastern United States, recounted by witnesses from Catskill to Asheville.

During that cosmically eventful week, Saturn was at a direct opposition to Abraham Lincoln's Sun. Fittingly, Lincoln was keeping a low profile as the Republican Party stumped for his presidential campaign. From a broader astrological lens, the combination of the solar eclipse with this Saturn transit implied a major life chapter was about to unfold for him. The added ingredient of the country being grazed by a massive meteor lends an almost biblically prophetic feeling for what was to come. Four months later, as Jupiter crossed the exact same point where Saturn was during the eclipse, Lincoln won the presidency, the most significant election in American history. Five months after that, the country was embroiled in its bloodiest war on record.

The most dramatic solar eclipse, meteoric procession, presidential election, and subsequent war in American history, all occurred within less than a year of each other. Today we are, again, entering a cosmically profound election cycle whose outcome likely will determine the long term path of the United States.

While astrology cannot predict meteoric events, we can see that on April 8th, 2024, the path of a total solar eclipse will cut across the United States, up from Mexico, through Texas, and up through Maine. This eclipse is a kind of bookend paired with the US-centric eclipse that cut across the entire country in 2017. We may recall a presidential election with major political consequences occurred just nine months before, handing the presidency to a man whose Ascendant coincides precisely with the degree of that eclipse.

Major eclipses wipe away something from the past — a mode of thinking, a style of being, a social, political, or cultural paradigm — and initiate a new phase. Think of the 1860 solar eclipse's proximity to the war that ended slavery, or the 2017 eclipse's proximity to Trump's presidential term. Given the 2017 and 2024 eclipses focused on the U.S., along with a set of rare and politically charged upcoming outer planet alignments, we are clearly in the long-running throes of a cultural and political reboot.

The best keynote I can offer for this election cycle is: trust the unexpected. Whatever we think is happening is never the entire picture, and whatever does happen may be more positive for the future of the planet than we think. Taking in new perspectives is an important part of psychological health, and something astrology excels at giving us. Let's dig in.

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Past and Future Renaissance

2023
APR
23
April 23 2023
Posted by Brian Allemana in General Astrology, History | 11 Comments
The Triumph of Galatea, fresco by Raphael

The Triumph of Galatea, fresco by Raphael

Among the many radical astrological shifts coming in the next few years, perhaps the rarest and most important is that all three outer planets — Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto — will change signs within a few months. Taken individually, each sign change refers to a prominent shift in consciousness. Taken all together, we can scarcely imagine the scope of what is occurring, and it may take decades before we can look back and cognize the broader changes taking place.

Adding more depth and intrigue is that as these planets ingress into their new territories they will be aligned at important geometrical degrees. These particular alignments are referred to as "aspects of flow," meaning that the energies these planets represent are in harmony with each other rather than in conflict.

To throw in one more impressive factor, when Neptune re-enters Aries in 2026 it will be accompanied by Saturn, the two planets meeting at 0º Aries. This is a highly symbolic point as it is the first degree of the zodiac, corresponding with the Spring Equinox, the moment that represents the fate of the world for the year.

We are looking at an astounding confluence of astrological change and alignment within a very short time. This is both frightening and exciting to contemplate, and like all periods of major consciousness shift, such as the fall of Old Egypt, the European Renaissance, and the world wars of the 1900s, the birth of a new world entails some extent of destruction. The good news is that, due to the harmonized alignments of 2024-2028, we are looking at a more graceful and less destructive process that has a real potential to result in a more unified world.

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2023-2030: The Radical Era

2023
APR
05
April 5 2023
Posted by Brian Allemana in General Astrology, History | 6 Comments

There's no getting off the change bus.

American history is replete with era names that evoke strong impressions of the times: The Era of Good Feeling, the Era of Reform, the Progressive Era, etc. Each era is referring to a shift in the national consciousness, typically brought on by unexpected innovations in art, technology, politics, and wealth. A good illustrative example is the Progressive Era, from about 1900-1920, which brought us the FDA, monopoly breakups, the 19th Amendment codifying women's right to vote, and the National Park Service. Before 1900 such innovations would have been unthinkable. By the 1920s, they were woven into the fabric of the country.

We might also include eras of Industrial Revolution, such as the Third Industrial Revolution that began after World War II, with large scale investments by the government into technologies that eventually gave us the microchip, the PC, the internet, and the smartphone. These technologies would have seemed like miracles a few decades ago but are commonplace today.

As we enter the middle of the 2020s we are entering another era that will bring changes that today we can scarcely imagine, let alone believe could come to pass. I'm calling this period the Radical Era, partly in reference to political radicalism that has historically advocated for suffrage and equal rights for all, but also to evoke the radical changes that will be brought about by technology, politics, and culture between now and 2030.

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Pluto in Aquarius

2023
JAN
29
January 29 2023
Posted by Brian Allemana in General Astrology, History | 2 Comments

King John extorted into signing the Magna Carta, the basis for eroding his and his heirs' divine rights.

In 1297 the Magna Carta and its companion, the Forest Charter, were passed into English statutory law. The passage of these charters, which for the first time granted rights to people who were not royalty, has long been considered the foundation of today's liberal democracies.

During the 1530s - 1550s the Church of England was established to separate England from the papal authority of Rome, turning England Protestant. This was the heart of the Protestant Reformation, established by Martin Luther's rebellion against Catholic tradition based on the declaration that each individual receives God's grace through faith alone.

In September of 1787 the United States constitution was signed, the first Western government to organize around democratic principles guided by the declaration that all people are free by birthright. This was followed in 1789 by France's Declaration of the Rights of Man, establishing a basis for freedom for all citizens. Its companion, the Declaration of the Rights of Woman, was published in 1791. This was the heart of the Enlightenment, when kings and popes were stripped of their traditional autocratic powers, and superstition became superseded by science.

All of these historical periods refer to eras of revolutionary change that resulted in greater freedoms for common people. In each case, power traditionally concentrated at the top was theretofore distributed more evenly throughout the populace.

And each period occurred during a transit of Pluto through Aquarius.

A terse translation of Pluto (power) in Aquarius (humanity) is "power to the people". But what power, and to which people? Clearly, none of the events mentioned above resulted in anything close to an ideal society. Gross inequities across race, class, gender, and religion continue to this day. Yet we can clearly see that there is a progression of general social mobility across the centuries. We are all inheritors of the rights established from the Magna Carta to the U.S. Constitution, both of which were great and unlikely innovations of their time and have influenced the shape of political institutions around the world.

Pluto in Aquarius is an apt symbol for these events because it symbolizes the dissemination of power throughout a populace. Every time Pluto transits through Aquarius we see an increase in the enlightenment of sociopolitical policy grounded in values of individual liberty built upon what came before.

Pluto enters Aquarius again this year, on March 23rd, 2023, the first time since 1798. It will reverse course and regress into Capricorn in June, then will enter Aquarius again in January 2024 and transit there until 2044.

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Uranus-Pluto: The Next Phase

2022
DEC
18
December 18 2022
Posted by Brian Allemana in General Astrology, History | 10 Comments
Ocean Whale by AstralSeed

Artwork by AstralSeed.

During the summer of 1851, an extremely rare conjunction of planets took place in the first 3 degrees of Taurus. On the very day that Mars joined Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto there, Harriet Beecher Stowe published the first in her popular series of articles that, a year later, became her nation-changing novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. That same year, Melville's classic tale of excessive ambition, Moby Dick, was also published.

In a single year these two literary firebrands stamped the world with the two primary themes that were to define the second half of the 19th century in America: The abolition of slavery and, less directly in Melville's case, the extreme rise of industrial capitalism.

While Mars and Saturn certainly play a role in understanding these themes and their place in this moment of history, it is the Uranus-Pluto cycle that speaks most directly. Uranus is connected with technology and social concerns. Pluto represents deeply hidden power and wealth. Whereas Uranus corresponds with sudden, explosive change, Pluto is akin to the compressed magma under a volcano, hidden from sight yet roiling with an unfathomable energy. Pluto's intense potency requires a catalyst to encourage its cathartic release and allow its hidden power to become incorporated on the surface. Uranus's sudden, electrifying strike often provides that catalyst. Like the coming eruptions of war and avarice hinted at by Uncle Tom and Moby Dick, Uranus and Pluto acting together give us a sense of an erupting volcano that forever transforms the face of the planet and even the fate of humanity itself.

As Uranus and Pluto come into significant alignment certain themes repeat themselves with impressive regularity. A prominent example in recent centuries is the emergence of industrial revolutions. Like the Uranus-Pluto trine (120º) of the 1760s/70s that kicked off the First Industrial Revolution, the Uranus-Pluto sextile (60º) of the early 1870s kicked off the Second Industrial Revolution. The following sextile almost 80 years later, the end of World War II, marks the beginning of the Third Industrial Revolution.

This is appropriate to the astrological symbolism: Uranus is specifically correlated with cultural revolutions along with new technologies and their dissemination throughout society. Pluto correlates with the deep underground power sources that fuel these technologies, be they coal, oil, or steam (or venture capital). The sextile and trine alignments typically give functional form to whatever is aligned, so that, in this case, the power inherent in the Plutonic energy is harnessed and utilized by the newly architected Uranian inventions.

Today, we are on the cusp of entering just such a period. The Uranus-Pluto trine of 2024-2030 will no doubt bring into the forefront new technologies that revolutionize travel, commerce, and energy, creating what is thought to become a Fourth Industrial Revolution.

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Wrapping up 2022: The Pressure Before Relief

2022
OCT
31
October 31 2022
Posted by Brian Allemana in General Astrology, History | 8 Comments
U.S. Mid-Terms

Chart for the U.S. Mid-Term Elections

It's not surprising that the astrology for the US mid-term elections looks like a mess. Put less bluntly, the chart reflects an extremely tense moment that is going to permanently alter the course of events going forward. Featuring a Taurus Lunar Eclipse at square to Saturn and conjunct Uranus, the chart evokes a demand for change that will break and leave behind what we thought we knew about our place in the world and what our future might hold.

As dire as that sounds, it is not a prediction of doom. As always, eclipse charts represent an era, or a phase, a period of time that has been gradually building up to a moment of consciousness, where we finally realize some truth we can no longer ignore. There's no going back because, despite what we see in the world, the human soul abhors regression.

Correlated with the intense political polarization in the US today, as well as with events like the Covid pandemic and the January 6th insurrection, is the Saturn/Uranus square that began in 2020. I've written about this square before. It is associated with rebellions, failed incursions, and massive economic contractions. Despite how dire the crisis appears, it seems that, from a US perspective, whatever is novel and rebellious during a Saturn/Uranus square ends up failing to subsume democracy into its fold.

There are historical and astrological reasons for this. The prime astrological point is that, in the natal chart for the United States, Saturn and Uranus are in a harmonious trine aspect, with Saturn in exaltation. We are not destined for political failure but for eventual political integration. A functional democracy requires occasional crises that breakdown dysfunctional elements, making space to recreate itself based on what works. We see this breakdown/rebuild cycle occur with surprising consistency in coincidence with Saturn/Uranus transits. This particular square, lasting for only another few months, is no exception.

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History, Hope, and Handling These Times

2022
JUL
31
July 31 2022
Posted by Brian Allemana in General Astrology, History | 4 Comments

For some time now there has been a crescendoing discussion around a global battle between democracy and autocracy. This battle has become crystallized in the form of the Ukraine war, where autocratic Russian oligarchs are violently asserting dominance over Ukrainian democracy. It is by no means the only arena where this ideological battle is being fought, but it is the most obvious and destructive.

Conflicts between concentrated governmental, military, or economic powers and a popular majority recur fairly consistently during periods when Saturn and Uranus are at square aspect (or right angle from our perspective on Earth). It is as if a societal breakdown is occurring in order to highlight major dysfunctional patterns that require dealing with. The abolition of slavery, the institution of banking protections, and the addressing of climate change are all examples of alterations to societal order in response to a crisis arising during Saturn-Uranus squares.

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Build Forward Better

2021
OCT
29
October 29 2021
Posted by Brian Allemana in General Astrology, History | 4 Comments
Re-election Campaign Poster for FDR

Re-election Campaign Poster for FDR

In October of 1929 the New York Stock Exchange collapsed, occurring just after the collapse of the London Stock Exchange and marking the start of the Great Depression. At the time, Saturn was entering into a conflictual square with Uranus, as it was at the start of the Civil War, and as it is today. During each of these periods we see American democracy in peril, even outright attacked, as the country adjusts to fundamental changes to its political, economic, and social fabric. Yet despite the dangers, these periods also tend to trigger collective efforts that result in a more strongly reassembled democracy.

Saturn and Uranus aspects are especially meaningful for the United States, in part because of those planets' associations with democratic ideals and the institutions that serve and enforce them, as well as scientific advances and technological inventions. Democracy in particular is an essential keyword of American rhetoric, as it is of the sign Aquarius, where the nation's Moon is placed, a sign governed specifically by the planets Saturn and Uranus. Most of America's greatest crises and greatest triumphs have occurred while these two planets were in strong aspect.

Moreover, Saturn and Uranus are at a trine aspect in the natal chart of the United States, suggesting what we have already seen many times since the country's founding, that no matter how serious the crisis, American democracy tends to emerge stronger as a result. It's as if each major crisis brings to light deeply dysfunctional patterns that force us as a country to deal with them, as far as we can. This leads to overall improvements that inch us toward a more functional democratic ideal, until the next Saturn-Uranus conflict.

The Great Depression offers us a paradigmatic glimpse: Incumbent president Herbert Hoover tried to recover the economy by cutting taxes and government programs, with the idea that the resulting concentration of wealth at the top would naturally distribute into the populace via charity and industrious job growth. He believed that private industry should remain unencumbered by government interference to handle the crisis.

Hoover's approach was a disaster. The situation only got worse as the American people spiraled further into poverty. Hoover's resulting unpopularity allowed a new visionary president to be elected, namely Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

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