Cork that gusher - yadda yadda yadda

My mother phoned up this morning to tell me that she had her very own gusher staying with her - in the form of a dear friend who talks a lot. He's lovely but he chatters so much that she feels as if she's drowning in a sea of words. I happen to know he's a fellow fish, so the marine metaphor didn't surprise me.  He also has the Moon in Gemini, the classic position for those of us who like to blablabla, and Sag rising - how many lecturers have that. I didn't mention these points to my darling Ma, but I did point out that the Gulf Gusher has just been corked. And if she wanted our friend to stay shtum, she might need some helicopters and a dozen or so muscly oilmen. Strangely, she was quite taken with the idea …

So I thought it was pretty funny that, when I checked, it turned out the oil spill and our talkative friend both have Sag rising - within 1°.

Now a lot has been written on the web about the astrology of the gusher. It's obviously a profoundly symbolic event, and one that we are all pretty sure in years to come will be seen as some kind of turning point. It's part of the much-vaunted Cardinal Climax. I'd suggest it's partially a Farewell to All That at the end of Pisces/Virgo. Since Pisces is the last sign of the Zodiac, that's pretty significant too.

I'm not going to recap all the obvious stuff that's been said, but I would like to point out that Ceres (now classified as a minor planet) was one degree away from Pluto when the spill started. Ceres (of whom much more on this blog later) represents Mother Earth, fertility, maternity, birthing. Pluto is violence, rape, caves, subterranea, multinationals. Both were in Capricorn, the Earth sign associated with big corporations. Go figure…

But Ceres and Pluto were both retrograding at the time. At the beginning of June, Ceres dived back into Sag with Pluto breathing down her neck in hot pursuit and the North Node relentlessly plodding behind. (The nodes generally move backwards.) None of these folks has quite met - yet. Ceres and Pluto have a date with destiny is in October - on the spot where Pluto is now 3° Capricorn. They both have to turn around first. Oh and the NN will cross that point in December.

Above is a detail of Bernini's Rape of Proserpina (Ceres' daughter). 

Pluto is dragging her down into the underworld. 

Here's a link to a little article about this incredible sculpture. 

Bernini was only 23 when he made it!         

Meanwhile at the time of the spill, Saturn was retrograde at 29° Virgo opposing Uranus at 28° Pisces - again not quite exact. The symbolism there is clear - Uranus (technology) attacks the crust of the earth (Saturn). Ouch!

So what's changed? Is the leak really fixed? I got the initial time of corkage from the BP website here, and I'm happy to report that Saturn, having retrograded and turned around, is now back where he was when the leak initially started. That sounds nice and solid. But Mars is coming up to that position too now and will cross 29° Virgo on July 29th. So it may not be over yet. Furthermore, we can expect Uranus to oppose that position again in September, along with Jupiter. An optimistic reading of that configuration is that some big new hi-tech solution may come into play. A less optimistic reading might be - more big surprises! Fasten your seatbelts and watch out!

Meanwhile, Pluto has retrograded back two degrees to exactly square Jupiter in Aries. Oddly enough, that seems to me rather good symbolism for corkage. Pluto is often associated with blockage and Jupiter is big and messy. Oh - and if my time from BP is right, Pluto is rising with Ceres just above, both retreating in the 12th house with the NN coming up below. So maybe this is corkage but the whole saga is still unfolding.

Now here's something funny. The planet said to be associated with oil is Neptune, which at the time of the spill was at 28°15 Aquarius - an uncomfortable quincunx to Saturn in Virgo - and conjunct Chiron which had just slipped into Neptune's own sign of Pisces. Chiron's sign is often thought to be Virgo. So you see a pattern beginning to form? Neptune in Aquarius, of course, was already in mutual reception with Uranus in Pisces.

Well, since the spill Neptune went forward and then retrograded, back to 28°15 Aquarius. Ha - very interesting. Is the oil retreating back to whence it came? Let's hope so. Chiron went forward and then retrograded and is almost exactly conjunct it's old position too. I'm taking Chiron to be the wound itself, the wound in the earth through which the oil is gushing that is. Will the wound get healed? Well it might start to get healed in Feb when Chiron sits back on 00° Pisces.

So that 28° point is pretty important I guess. If you have any planets at 28° mutable or fixed, you'll be touched by this planetary set up. I saw a client the other day who has Saturn at 28° Pisces. She's been having a lot of trouble with her bones (ruled by Saturn).

If you have no planets in early cardinals (Aries, Libra, Cancer, Capricorn) or late mutable/fixed, I hope you can sit back and enjoy the show this summer.