Winds of change
Jeremy Clarke
Ican feel a tremendous draught of change affecting me,’ said Dave, waggling his fingers at us as if playing a chest-high piano. ‘It’s the strongest, most noticeable draught I’ve felt for 20 years. You can feel the draught, can’t you?’ The meeting, last Friday night, was entitled ‘The Saturn-Uranus Oppositions of 2008–9 and the Eclipses of 2008’. We’d met in Dave’s study. Listening to Dave describe the planetary draughts he was experienc ing, besides myself, were three women called Mara, Hara and Zhiva. Somewhere upstairs in his big old house, teenagers were galumphing about and shouting.
I’d seen the meeting advertised on a café noticeboard. Not knowing much about astrology, but impressed by the title, I’d called the number to find out if the talk was suitable for those who don’t know a quincunx from a conjunction. Dave said to come along and I’d be made most welcome. And I was. Here’s the gist of what he told us in the course of an hour and a half.
Astrologers have been hopping up and down with excitement for years about the forthcoming Saturn-Uranus opposition. Saturn is the planet that holds things together. It’s the planet of the status quo, order and government. It resists change. Uranus is the planet of change, chaos and revolution. In ancient mythology, Saturn castrated Uranus and dropped his testicles into the sea. So there’s no love lost between these two.
The last time these powerful planets were locked in direct opposition was in the midSixties. Look what happened then. John Lennon becomes spokesman for a generation. The time before that was in 1920. Look what happened then. The National Socialist German Workers’ Party and the Communist International. And the time before that was in 1873. Look what happened then. The Great Panic, the collapse of the US economy and a world depression lasting a decade.
These two planets are due to face each other across the zodiac, like gunslingers outside the Last Chance Saloon, at 13.39 on 4 November 2008, which is the day US citizens go to the polls. Dave reckons that those voting in the morning, when Saturn still holds sway, are more likely to vote Republican. Those voting in the afternoon under the new broom of Uranus are likely to vote for Obama.
But wait till you hear what’s in store for us during the planetary stand-off. Dave excitedly drew our attention to an astrological chart fastened to the wall. It showed the alignment of the sun, moon and planets over Westminster Abbey at noon on Christmas Day 1066, which was when Archbishop Aldred crowned William the Conqueror King of England — in effect, according to Dave, England’s astrological birthchart.
Our rising sign is Aries, the sign of the soldier. England feeds on Aries’ soldierly energy. Also prominent is Taurus, which lends to the English their stubbornness and conservatism. Powerful Saturn is in Virgo, at 17 degrees.
We will be once again in Virgo at 17 degrees. This means that the tremendous force of the Saturn-Uranus opposition — on it’s own enough to cause a global upheaval — will be magnified for the English because it will be the day of our ‘Saturn return’, the auspicious moment when Saturn returns to its original seat in England’s natal chart, which is a sort of astrological equivalent of a national rebirth.
And to shake things up further, that 17 degrees into Virgo is a peculiarly sensitive part of the zodiac. It’s like a master switch, said Dave. So whatever happens is going to happen with blooming great knobs on.
Now what could this mean, specifically? Gordon and Tony under arrest in the Tower charged with treason? Dave suspects that when combined with Uranus’s radical energy our ‘Saturn return’ will revive the ancient spirit of the English who will rise up in national unity and shake off their fetters. By ‘ancient spirit of the English’ he doesn’t mean shaved heads, tattoos, bingedrinking and mindless violence, however. (Here, in my one contribution to the meeting, I defended shaved heads by saying that William of Malmesbury, writing in the 12th century, said the English peasants facing William the Conqueror before the Battle of Hastings were adorned with tattoos, had shaved heads, no beards and a reputation for drinking beer until they were sick.) No, Dave envisioned a transformation of the social and political landscape largely by peaceful means, he sincerely hoped, though the rebirth would not be without violent pangs.
‘It’s quite scary though, in a way,’ he said. ‘Already I’m finding my mind slipping into extremes and having to tell myself to take a more careful, balanced view. I think I’ll survive what’s coming, but it’s going to be a bumpy ride. But I can feel the draught of change already. Can’t you?’ Yes, I can feel it, Dave. And I can’t wait. ❑
Previous page
