The European Union Chart: A Tough Summer
I wrote to my friend Anton D’Abreu recently pointing out that the chart for the European Union was under a great deal of pressure during this Mars transit. Later this summer, Mars will station direct at 23° Scorpio nearly conjunct the EU Mars-Pluto conjunction. The Mars-Pluto conjunction exactly opposes the natal Moon in Taurus, which surely represents the stalwart citizens of Europe. That configuration has always seemed uncomfortably like a sign of power concentrated in the hands of the few against the many.
Anton pointed out that the thing happening in the midst of this Mars Rx is the British referendum (June 23) on whether to leave or remain in the Union. His reply, making the astrological case for a UK exit, was so detailed and interesting, I thought I’d pass it on to you.
Anton — as you will be able to tell — has a lot of Virgo in his own chart. His eye for detail is superb.
1) Pluto stationed Retro on April 19 at 17.29 CP – which is well within 2 degrees of the EU’s Uranus/Neptune conjunction. This proximity suggests Pluto’s transit is going to really manifest
2) Pluto on 24 Feb 2017 will conjunct the 5th house Uranus/Neptune conjunction (18.40 CP) — some nine months after the June 23 Exit Referendum. I see the URA/NEP conjunction in this chart as an idealistic drive to change and to a new mindset. As has been frequently cited by supporters and opponents the main strategy of the EU is to reach a United States of Europe. The Pluto transit thus looks set to destroy, or at very least transform, that aim.
3) Neptune will station Retro on 13 June at 12.02 PI which is precisely (0.02) conjunct the EU chart 8th house cusp — I have little knowledge of the significance of retro stations on cusps but this is extremely close
4) Neptune slowing to station will conjunct the 8th house cusp in early June — once retro it will conjunct that cusp on June 24 precisely, the day on which the result of the Referendum will probably be known. I am taking this house cusp transit by Neptune to possibly imply disillusion with shared values though confusion over the finance and investment issues are perhaps more evident.
5) Uranus on 6 May will square the EU chart’s 6th and 12th house cusps — perhaps a signifier that developments will abruptly challenge the EU’s bureaucracy or working methods and its often unstated strategic agenda
6) Uranus, on the very co-incidental date of June 23 2018 will conjunct the EU’s MC — could that be the date the UK officially ends its previous contractual relationship with the EU ?
7) Saturn will retro at the end of July at 9.55 SA square the EU’s Neptune/ASC midpoint and is due to trine the EU chart ASC at the end of November 2016 – could that be a time when relations between a departing UK and the EU are at their most contentious
8) Jupiter R is due to station Direct on 9 May at 13.15 VI — this is only slightly over a degree from the EU chart’s 2nd cusp. You will therefore have in the run up to the June referendum Jupiter opposing Neptune straddling the 2H8H cusps. (I have equated one aspect of the Migration crisis with the Jupiter/Neptune cycle)
9) Jupiter in July will square the EU’s Mercury and shortly after its 5th house cusp — suggesting difficult economic and finance market times possibly impacting the euro. On 12 July, Jupiter trines the same 5th Uranus/Neptune conjunction that Pluto has stationed on – perhaps that is when the exit is formally agreed or commenced by the EU and the UK
10) Mars retrograded on 17 April at 8.54 SA only slightly over the 2 degree threshold from squaring the EU’s 1st house Chiron. It will exactly square that point on 6th May and then again on 18 August. A few days after both those dates, Mars will trine the EU’s 9th house and a few days later will trine the North Node — does that imply the framework for the negotiations is announced?
11) Venus, the MC ruler, conjuncts the MC in the May run-up to the Referendum. On the date of the Referendum Venus will trine the EU’s Pluto/ASC midpoint. At the end of July transiting Venus will oppose Saturn again hinting that August 2016 will be the month where the gloves come off
12) The Sun is the Chart ruler. On the day of the Referendum it will trine the EU chart IC — appropriate enough for the re-visiting of agreements made with the UK in the past. In August it will conjunct the EU’s SUN/MOON midpoint — possibly indicating the reaction of the other 27 members now becoming clear. In mid September it will square the EU’s ASC/MC — possibly indicating decision time on deciding the exit terms to put to the members.
Anton’s website Cycles of History is fascinating. To read more click here.
Very detailed and interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Gosh… That is fascinating, thank you for sharing it.
Another small detail – dwarf planet Orcus, is conjunct the EU’s Chiron in a T square with the nodes. Orcus is described as an exactor of very old oaths by Jeremy Neal in his truly excellent book on it. Neptune has of course been opposing Orcus for some time Considering Orcus is a Hadean archetype, and, alongside Ixion and Pluto, completes a trinity of mostly unconscious, often difficult drives and compulsions.
An excellent article in Mountain Astrologer http://mountainastrologer.com/tma/orcus-opposite-neptune-now describes Orcus thus
“In archetypal terms, Pluto is the Mafia boss pulling everyone’s strings and Orcus is his henchman and willing executioner with a heart of stone. Pluto is impassioned, Orcus passionless… Orcus has a strong correlation with oaths, and, when negative, rules swindlers and liars, while when positive, persons of integrity. Keywords for Orcus: integrity, authenticity, implacability, ruthlessness, loneliness, isolation, “dark night of the soul,” alienation, meditation and prayer, spiritual depth, determination, diehard, unbreakable, detached, merciless, inhumane, cruel…
Orcus has a strong correlation with oaths, and, when negative, rules swindlers and liars, while when positive, persons of integrity. Keywords for Orcus: integrity, authenticity, implacability, ruthlessness, loneliness, isolation, “dark night of the soul,” alienation, meditation and prayer, spiritual depth, determination, diehard, unbreakable, detached, merciless, inhumane, cruel. ..
The Orcus-Neptune opposition came into play tentatively in 2008, and has been with us ever since. Neptune moved into a three-degree opposition with Orcus in May 2008 before separating. (The closest application was on May 21, 2008, with Neptune at 24°14’ Aquarius and Orcus at 27°59’ Leo.)…
…And what’s more, this opposition will still be making waves until well into 2019, when Neptune and Orcus will still be within orb. In this astrologer’s view, this is one of the most profound and influential aspects of our times, and its repercussions will be with us for many years to come.”
So if there is a Brexit, we are aware that the repercussions will go on for a while. If there isn’t, the EU still going to be very turbulent.
“Orcus, now in Virgo, struggles in this sign because the extremism and implacability of this Hadean energy is applied to details, to the accounts (just look at the concept of austerity to get a sense of this)…
…Much of the history of the English, and indeed the wider European Reformation, centred upon a highly nuanced deconstruction of law, scripture, and doctrine. Oaths were demanded and variously refused or sworn. Positions became entrenched, undermined, and retaken. Religious and political luminaries were variously beheaded and burned. An archetypally Orcan lack of compromise became characteristic of the entire debate over the future of Christendom.”
European Christendom is struggling: likewise the EU – a vast machine of laws and regulations out of control making life for its own citizens harder and more restrictive by the day.
I’d highly recommend the article mentioned above in Mountain astrologer on Orcus and Europe – it contains a lot of historical detail about Saturn/Neptune and Orcus timing it into historical European Islam among other things – note that some atrocities done in the name of Islam have been “revenge” for historical acts hundred of years old! Thats’ how Orcus works.
Like you wrote : very detailed and difficult to comprehend in just one reading.
I tried to read some on his website and will have to go back there to read again. Very interesting stuff !
In the meantime : thinking of Neptune : mr. Erdogan (president of Turkey) is a Pisces and so is mr. Davutoglu (prime minister). Isn’t it interesting : both their birthdays are on 26th February (Erdogan in 1954 and Davutoglu in 1959) !
Maybe 23rd June mr. Erdogan will cease to cooperate with the EU and again there will be a wave of hundreds of thousands of refugees coming to Europe.
Neptune opening the gates !
mimi
Hi Mimi
The figures re immigration have been kept under wraps for a long time – the official number between 2011-15 was 0.9m but it now seems after deeper investigations were made the number is 2.4m we know about! I wonder what the real figures are for people coming from outside the EU into it? I’d be very curious to know which other leaders have strong Pisces/Neptune going on – especially with the current mutable square of Neptune/Saturn/JupiterChiron/Orcus. Who will sink, who will swim? What is owed to whom, historically.
This is what Alice Bailey wrote of the mutable cross in Esoteric Astrology –
“The Cross of the Hidden Christ – The Mutable Cross –
This is the Cross of the four major energies which produce the conditioning circumstances which transform animal man into an aspirant.
It is, therefore, the Cross of the personality or of the steadily developing and finally integrating human being. This takes place at first in response to circumstance and later to soul inclination.
It is the Cross of temporal and temporary change, of fluidity and of those constantly altering environments which drive the soul within the form from one extreme of experience to another, so that the life shuttles between the pairs of opposites.
It is the Cross of the responsive form, nurturing and developing the life of the indwelling Christ, the hidden Soul or Lord of Being.
The four arms of this Cross are Gemini – Virgo – Sagittarius – Pisces. It is sometimes called the Common Cross because it conditions the common herd, the mass of humanity.
Perhaps an opportunity for the development of Christ consciousness to accommodate the mass of humanity? With Sag rising, Angela Merkel is very much the hub of this mutable cross… not to mention the cardinal cross as she has Neptunian Libra on her MC. She certainly has a lot on her plate. With Jupiter conjunct Sirius natally, also having the cardinal “crisis.” Esoterically, Sirius was the star of Mercury, or Buddha, called the “Great Instructor of mankind.” I think Frau Merkel has a very special place in history!
Going back to Alice and the mutable cross –
“This is the Cross of the four major energies which produce the conditioning circumstances which transform animal man into an aspirant.” – This does make me think about the refugee males in Cologne who went on a mass grope…
Chaos for a reason eh?!!
! forgot to say those figures are for the UK alone.
What I notice is in the EU chart Saturn at 23 – pluto at 24 – mars at 24. So if transiting mars gets involved with that it could be trouble alright. Brexit may happen – Saturn will make the siren call almost irresistible. Dont forget Uranus joining the fun!!
Thanks for the Orcus stuff. I like Jeremy Neal’s website too.
My feeling is that Brexit is just one of many problems facing the EU and it might be hard to single that one out from looking at the EU chart alone. As you’ve said, the turbulence is just as likely from many other quarters.
I’m interested in how Pluto has been at work on the UK chart — or not… It’s currently hovering around between the Sun and an opposition to the Moon. So there’s potential there for pushing the self-destruct button. I think the UK’s real issue though is the repercussions of devolution which have totally changed politics for good — evidenced by this week’s elections.
Devolution started (May 1997) when Pluto conjoined the UK Chiron.
Just thinking…
All very interesting, and hopefully not in the Chinese sense….If you look at the Treaty of Rome, 25th March 1957, it’s also thought provoking. This chart is having a Saturn return (14 Sagittarius), and will have a Jupiter return in August, at 25 Virgo in the 12th house. June 5th’s new Moon (the people) is at 14 Gemini, conjunct Venus, square Jupiter in Virgo. Neptune is just 2 degrees away at 12 Pisces. It seems as if there’s so much going on under the surface, so much fluctuating, and possibly dissolving. June 20th’s full Moon at 29 Sagittarius will square the ToR Venus at 29 Pisces too. The Moon rules the MC in this chart, while Venus rules the AC and the financial 8th house. Lots of big changes, but from this horoscope it doesn’t look like a ‘divorce’, more like endless reassessment about how we can help rather than hinder one another. The various charts for Greece point towards another situation of interest during the months ahead. Hmmn!
The treaty of rome chart you allude to with its saturn @ 14 degrees of sagg is def. an interesting point. Not just with the current transiting saturn but also the current transiting jupiter. I have noticed that any transaction between jupiter and saturn ‘almost’ invariably spells curtains.
Here is something else to ponder. Thatcher had her saturn at 13 of Scorpio. How did she feel about europe? Also consider that against the backdrop of the continuation of her policies.
If you want to really depress yourself, here’s a piece I wrote about Europe in 2011 http://www.oxfordastrologer.com/2011/09/europe-oh-rose-thou-art-sick.html
Hello Christina – thanks for the 2011 article. It’s interesting to see the developments over the past five years, and depressing, as you say. What developed from Maastricht is clearly in trouble, and is unlikely to survive the coming onslaught from Uranus in Taurus, and Saturn in Aquarius. February 2021 has Sun, Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter in Aquarius, Mars and Uranus in Taurus. Eclipses in December 2020 (23 Scorpio) and May (21 Taurus) rattle Maastricht’s fixed planets too. And there’s a lunar eclipse at 22 Leo on 11th January 2017, activating governmental Saturn in that chart. If the UK does vote to leave, we won’t be the only ones. Possibly it’s all unsustainable in its present incarnation anyway?
And what about Mars in Scorpio this June? It opposes the Maastricht Moon, squares Saturn, and returns to its own Mars and Pluto in Scorpio, back and forth until mid-July. How much suppressed anger does this represent amongst both the wider European population, and the powers-that-be? That Mars will, at the same time, be squaring the UK Union (1st January 1801) Saturn at 23 Leo in the 11th house of shared endeavours…..while also sitting just one or two degrees from Mars in Scorpio (25 degrees) in the French national horoscope (21 September 1792). We could factor in Uranus at 23-24 Aries, and even Algol at 26 Taurus to create a somewhat portentous landscape. I know transits alone may not give the full picture. It would be interesting to progress the UK national chart to see what, if anything, that might tell us. I’m not too happy with this ‘weather forecast’ as it stands!
Good point Jane re Algol – I think this triple star system with a manic binary which eclipses its third star and has a magnitude bigger than the sun in effect… not to mention some gruesome associations is building up to an uber-Munch type scream. Medusa needs her hairdryer on full blast, global warming or not! Orcus will exact what oaths were made a long time ago. What was that grope fest in Cologne really about? Revenge in a different skin?
This morning there is an article about impending financial doom in Italy – looking at one national chart, which has Sun Uranus conjunct in Gemini ( I wasn’t sure – but they do like to chatter and gesticulate) there is a nasty Saturn Jupiter square on that which is indicative of recession and the baleful Uranus Pluto square to its natal Chiron, Jupiter in Libra. Basically the article says Italy must chose between the Euro and its own economic survival. Apparently a recent poll suggests Italy would vote 48% to leave the EU and the Euro if given the chance.
The official unemployment rate is 11.4pc. That is deceptively low. The European Commission says a further 12pc have dropped out of the data, three times the average EU for discouraged workers.
The youth jobless rate is 65pc in Calabria, 56pc in Sicily, and 53pc in Campania, despite an exodus of 100,000 a year from the Mezzogiorno – often in the direction of London. birth rate in these former Bourbon territories is the lowest since 1862, when the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in Naples began collecting data. Pauperisation is roughly comparable to that in Greece. Industrial output has dropped by 35pc since 2008, and investment by 59pc.
It looks like the Eurozone has become an enantiodromia – Jung’s term for when things turn out to be the diametric opposite of what they intend out to be.
We should look at the charts for the Euro currency too – astro lists two; one for the introduction and the second for the actual putting into circulation. The second, for circulation, has Mars, Pluto and Saturn in a mutable square which now has the transit of Neptune and Saturn.
Get the biscuit tin from under the bed Europe, and stuff it fun of dollars.
Most interesting Christina! “This is just about to progress into Virgo, a far more humble and famously self-critical sign, indeed a careful sign, a sign of contraction.” Re the Virgo aspect of things – I remember reading somewhere that the shadow of Virgo was like an axe murderer when crossed! …that it was hard to surpass Virgo when it comes to detailed revenge! of course Europe has a huge history of quarrels and revenge politically and with Neptune in Pisces, the undercurrent of this progression is chaos. Europe seems to be in a constant state of “becoming” – so here we go again! This can’t have an end result – only a temporary stay of executions before the next cycle drags up the past in disguise! I like to think of it as a place where initiations come thick and fast at a certain level. At the moment we have the well meaning Aquarian notion of a jolly worker state (didn’t Hitler?) with the same laws and regulations for everyone which now invade so many basic choices. In today’s news, hairdryers and toasters are in trouble… and of course the polarity (because there is always one) is personal identity (Leo) and choice. Scotland flirts with independence from the UK while the UK seeks independence from Brussels and I want my hairdryer and toaster left alone! Only Virgo on a mission would outlaw hairdryers and toasters!… and persistently flog an agenda of inquisition on so many details of everyday life. (herbal medicine… you need a licence … which you won’t be able to afford… etc)
Now where have we heard the words inquisition and reformation before… where have there been stupid taxes on windows and daylight… while the model of “climate change” which is driving so much taxation and law change is all wrong (Piers Corbyn, the brother of Jeremy is one expert on this). Nothing new! Go quietly but carry a big stick!
Also chiron at 15 degrees in the 1957 chart.
You all make astrology too complex. You really do. Occam’s Razor. Less is more. You throw stuff in that is completely unnecessary and completely muddies the water.
The cosmos is packed full of things… Occam’s razor is a lazy cut. Chain a son gout!
Sorry! That should read chacun a son gout!
One of the things — if not the main thing — I like about this blog is the interesting and well-informed comments.
Astrology is a wide field and it’s unlikely that one astrologer will come up with all the answers. Each person brings their own unique perspective and together we sometimes come up with something new.
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Thanks for posting! The EU chart is an argument for electional astrology, or “why not to create the EU with a nearly exact t-square of Moon opposite Mars/Pluto and square to Saturn”. This chart represents when the Maastricht Treaty (signed in Feb. 1992) went into legal effect, and was essentially a financial reorganization. So putting Jupiter and Venus on the angles would have been useful ‘(plus selecting an effective date that did not put the moon in opposition to Mars/Pluto). Brexit does seem like the shadow side of the Uranus-Pluto square, that is the “I’ll go my own way!” cry of Uranus (without a vision of what that would look like in a global economy) with no sense of transforming (only abandoning or destroying) a problematic institution.
Yes, and the timing of the referendum was also a good argument for same.
alot of Virgo? you mean scorpio?…
No I meant my friend Anton’s chart. He is very precise.
Virgo and has of virgo is nearly empty.