The UK Riots: Mummy I'm Hungry

Ah the Sex Pistols… England's finest

Rioting is an English tradition…that's why a Riot Act was passed in 1715. But what we riot about changes to reflect the spirit of the times.

The theme of these 2011 riots? Extreme shopping. Extreme shopping with a bodycount (so far) of five.



This is a nation which has been relentlessly and mercilessly marketed at for 30 years, with increasing ferocity in the last decade. Our society has been working very hard at turning us into perfect consumers - directly through advertising, but also through the media in general.

It's becoming clear that a lot of the rioters were kids (well, it is the school holidays). They have been the most fiercely targeted group of consumers of us all. By whom? By their own parents and grandparents.

A junkie is a perfect consumer.
Amy, where was your mum?

Here's my definition of a perfect consumer. S/he feels constantly inadequate. S/he always has to have the next thing - the right shoes, the right label, the right TV, the right mobile, the right work of art even. But to be perfect, s/he can never be satisfied. A satisfied customer is a lousy consumer. S/he has to want, need more and more stuff. S/he's an open mouth, a drain, hollow – a junkie who doesn't die.

Those people rioting were like one huge maw, violently stuffing consumer products into its mouth and vomiting out flames, mayhem and death. 

It all kicked off in Tottenham on Saturday night at around 8.20 according to the BBC.

The riot chart has Aquarius Rising, the people rising, so it is ruled by Uranus, planet of shocks which conjunct Ceres, the planet of nurturing and, perhaps, consumption. I think that's going to be our theme right there. But I want to concentrate on the way the riot chart transits the UK chart.

And what an interesting set of transits we have here. Mars (violent action ) is in the 5th house of the riot chart (kids), completing the Cardinal Cross and it transits the very top of the UK chart. 

Transiting Cardinal Cross = Saturn in Libra, Pluto in Capricorn, Uranus in Aries, Mars in Cancer.

The start of the riots. Tottenham August 6.

Mars has just moved into Cancer (nurturing, mummy's breast) to oppose tr Pluto in Capricorn (the police, the state.) and exactly trining the UK's natal Pluto in Pisces.

Pluto is (among other things) hunger. It is the hole that can never be filled, the endless drain. The UK's natal Pluto is currently being conjuncted by the wounded healer Chiron.

Joining the fray, we find the planet associated with nurturing, Ceres, retrograding on the most critical degree (arguably) of the entire zodiac 0°Aries. She's exactly opposite the UK's weird natal 12th house Uranus and, of course, part of the Cardinal Cross.

Are the rioters calling: feed me, mummy, feed me? What nurtures them?

So where was the other mother, the Moon, at the moment that violence broke out? In Scorpio, Pluto's sign, conjuncting the UK's natal Neptune (dreams and image). She's precisely sextiling her natal sister Moon in nurturing Cancer.

Saturn, the planet of belt-tightening, is currently in the UK's first house. This is the main theme for the country over the next few years. We will all have to tighten our belts, we will all have to go on a diet of some kind - maybe even abstain from random shopping.

UK 1901 chart

Jupiter, the planet of greed, is also part of the picture, as you would expect. Currently, he's in Taurus, the sign of the gourmet (or just plain eater), sextiling the UK IC and coming up to conjunct that greedy natal Mars in Taurus.  This is all in the compulsive 8th house. So our native tendency to unbridled consumption is being expanded. Oh and look, the natal Jupiter in Leo is trined by transiting Ceres - again the theme of consumption.

So I guess what I'm seeing is this: the current Cardinal aspects are about hunger and satisfaction. The rioters were greedy for stuff, greedy for excitement, bored. But materialism will never nourish the soul.

The exposure of greed does seem to be a powerful theme of our times.Bankers, MPs, rioters: all looters.

It\s ironic that in another part of the world, children are in fact starving to death. If you want to give to Save the Children click here. The hunger in East Africa is not a metaphor.