Ceres, Food and Revolutions

Thursday August 25th 2011
Shopping for bread in the middle of a riot can be hectic. Tunisia.

Have you looked closely at your grocery bill recently? It’s gone through the roof in the last 12 months right. I’m sure inflation for food is way ahead of the official figure.

So I was intrigued to read this piece in the Guardian that correlates the massive rise in worldwide food prices with political unrest. 

But before we look at the foodie question, let’s have a quick recap of some of the astrological factors that have been in play this year. After all, the are many, many reasons for the uprisings across the Middle East this year, chief among them tyranny and inequality.


So here’s a summary of the astrological events that have corresponded with this year of revolutions.

  • The planet of revolution and freedom, Uranus, moves through the final degrees of the Zodiac and bursts into the sign of the individual, Aries. Where Uranus transits we see change and upheaval.
  • Uranus opposes Saturn, the planet of structure, old forms, government and institutions in the very political sign of Libra.
  • At the start of the year, Jupiter, the planet of more, joins Uranus – “I want more freedom.”.
  • Saturn and Uranus are squared by Pluto, the dark power planet, in Capricorn the sign of government. Where Pluto transits we see transformation.
  • As the year has progressed, we have seen a series of planets join in this configuration opposing Pluto from Cancer and thus completing the Cardinal Cross, so-called because it is the Cardinal signs associated with beginnings, the sparks that start the flame which are involved. Most recently we’ve had the god of war, Mars, in the hot-spot. But we’ve seen Mercury, Venus and the Sun getting their asses fried this summer.

So far, so familiar to skywatchers. I’ve already written about, a less familiar player, Neptune and the historical parallels with the year 1848. Click here to read it.

So let’s ask the food question. What’s food got to do with the revolution? First there’s the fact that the astrological hot-spot is in Cancer, the sign of the nourishment. Any planet that has the temerity to venture into Cancer is right in the crosshairs, it gets nuked by Pluto.

Another important player to look at is the planet Ceres, goddess of the corn. We get the word cereal from Ceres and, of course, there’s been a lousy cereal harvest as she conjuncted her ancient enemy Pluto last summer and then cruised through the wintry signs – Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces – for the past year.

On December 18, the start of the Tunisian Revolution, Ceres was at 23° Capricorn opposite Tunisia’s 1st house Uranus. That put the goddess of plenty in the house of opposition for the following months.

This beautiful painting is, I think, from
the artisan’s tombs outside the Valley of the Kings.

On January 25, the official start of the Egyptian Revolution, Ceres was at 8°Aquarius conjunct tr
Mars, exactly opposite Egypt’s Venus.

On February 17, the start of the Libyan rebellion, she made the start of the stellium that ran Ceres, Mercury, Mars, Sun, Neptune, Chiron.

This July and August, she’s been close enough to revolutionary Uranus to call it an out-of-sign conjunction. She from idealistic Pisces, he from action-oriented Aries. Right now, she has reached the spot where Uranus stood on February 17, poised at the end of Pisces. She’s going backwards through the sign of the Fishes until mid-November.

Those final degrees of Pisces and initial degrees of Aries are, arguably, the most pivotal in the Zodiac. They represent the transition from one age to the next. Pisces is completion and Aries is beginning. We are witnessing a new beginning for the world, a rebirthing – most noisily in the Middle East, but we are all effected.

Now that  both Ceres and Uranus are moving backwards until winter. It’ll be interesting to see if the revolutions stall – and what will happen to the price of food.

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  1. Christina says:

    PS – Jim has written some interesting comments on the 1848 post.

  2. P says:

    Perhaps you could amend this post to add a link to the Arab springs article?

  3. Anonymous says:

    The mythography behind this is very strong: Pluto steals Persephone from her mother, Demeter/Ceres, leading the goddess to dive into a deep depression that makes the fields barren. Pluto must agree to release Persephone from imprisoned in the underworld before spring can return to the land; the “Arab Spring” of ‘twittering’ youth is a demand for freedom (Uranus) of Persephone — ?

    Add to the mix that Pluto rules oil, and the release of carbon from oil effects the climate which, in turn, effects the harvest (Ceres), and we start connecting all the archetypal-astrological dots. Especially since it is climate change + oil commodities speculation that drove up the food prices that caused the riots.

  4. Christina says:

    Wow, Anonymous, you must be the same anon who commented on Isy’s post. This is a keystone that you’ve put into the building of this intepretation.

    I completely agree with your points. I like your image of the twittering youth.

    Ceres and Pluto contacts were important in last year’s oil spill.
    I wrote a piece about that at the time. http://oxford-astrologer.blogspot.com/2010/07/cork-that-gusher-yadda-yadda-yadda.html

    There is another point that I’ll go into more deeply in another post and that’s to do with Saturn as a god of agriculture – yet another dot in the astrological picture that works with this angle on the story.

  5. Isy Aweigh says:

    Anon, you take my breath away. 🙂

    Re: the gusher — BP managed to renege on an astounding array of reparations, ignore basic safety precautions for workers (surprise surprise), and the Feds have failed to provide basic protection to those who make their livelihoods there. The continual toxic exposure, cost in fertility and lives, and degradation of the natural environment and the future wealth and strength of the region continues to unfold. I remember some nastiness being brought to light and the Feds bringing pressure to bear last year, with BP holding out just long enough to dodge yet more of their responsibilities.

    Only, with unreported wars in, what, 4 countries (with two more on the horizon), earthquakes in the Capitol, and the East Coast singing, “Come On, Irene,” the US is far too busy ignoring the remote and dramatizing the transient to waste words on chronic nightmares at home.

    I’m not disgusted by it or anything!

  6. […] what I’d written about Ceres — and I was quite startled to read this article — Ceres, Food and Revolutions. It’s about the Arab Spring, which began with food riots in Tunisia. At that moment Ceres was […]

  7. […] to see what I’d written about Ceres — and I used to be fairly startled to learn this text — Ceres, Food and Revolutions. It’s in regards to the Arab Spring, which started with meals riots in Tunisia. At that second […]