Boxing The Euro
Keen readers of this blog will know I’ve been tracking the euro for years, as Uranus, Pluto and Saturn pummelled the currency from various angles. It’s been like watching a boxing match with all the razzmatazz, wordplay, and brutality, as well as cigar-wielding managers and backers sitting in the front row, waiting to see who hits the ropes first.
One of the boxers has been the euro, a shiny fresh-faced currency; his opponent has been a shadowy, shapeshifter, a character brought to life by the energies of the outer planets, donning different masks over the last four years: Anonymous, Varoufakis, intransigence. And sometimes the euro-boxer has actually been fighting himself in a smokey mirror.
But beneath that pretty face (Libra Rising), the euro has always been unhealthy.
Four years ago, I wrote this:
“If you want a stable currency, should you launch it while the moon is in shifting, changeable (although admittedly commercially minded) Gemini?
Would you wait until the planet of the marketplace (Mercury) is in detriment in Sagittarius (the sign of over reaching)?
And how about the money planet herself, Venus? Well, it’s nice to see that she’s in sturdy Capricorn but…conjunct nebulous, duplicitous Neptune. Oof. Nothing has ever been what it seems when it comes to the euro.” To read the rest of that piece, click here.
Back then, the euro had survived the passage of Pluto over the IC, and was coping with Pluto over the Sun. Since Pluto takes about 260 years to make a circuit of the Zodiac, a Pluto transit to an angle or personal planet is a very big deal. Both Uranus (on an 82 year cycle), the planet of change, and Pluto the planet of transformation had hit the euro chart angles.
But as you know, history is a process and so are the workings of the planets. The euro unravelling began with Uranus move into Aries (2010) and Pluto’s into Capricorn (2008). It became evident in 2011 as Pluto hit the Sun.
And yet the currency still carries on. Is it a dead man walking? A zombie boxer?
Greece is defaulting on it’s IMF debt tonight at midnight. Some commentators are marking this as a turning point for the whole euro project. It’s definitely the most spectacular conjunction between Venus and Jupiter. I hope your skies are clear enough to see it. Look west at dusk.
Euro with today’s transits
The ruler of this chart is Venus in the fourth house. Venus is, of course, money herself. She is in a tight square to Saturn in Aries. Saturn is the foundation in the house of partnership. Although Aries never makes much of a partner. These planets are at 25°/26°. They will both receive direct transits from Uranus (2017) and Pluto (2021).
However, there is also the question of the midpoint between the Sun and Venus. This is around 17° Capricorn. It’s received the highly disruptive square from Uranus once already and will do so again in November and next year. Pluto will reach this point in 2016.
But what about the transits right now? Look at the North Node, almost exactly on the euro Ascendant. That is a turning point — it comes round every 18 years. As a reader Jane Lyle points out in the comments on Playing Games With The Euro, the March eclipses at 29° Pisces have hit many of the European charts decisively. (The North Node shows you the general area of the eclipses for the year).
Then look at the Jupiter-Venus conjunction on the natal North Node. This conjunction is quite delightful for many of us on a personal level, but in this chart it could have several meanings. For a start, Jupiter in Leo can over-reach; combine that with Venus and you get tremendous over-reaching. That’s what’s happened with the euro for sure. Leo adds that sense of divine right. The pompous grandstanding we’ve seen has been part of this energy, and the powerful women involved perhaps too. But Leo in Jupiter ought to be generous and grand, bold and glorious. It’s certainly been theatrical.
Saturn, the grim reaper, through the euro’s second house of income has been brutal for the last two and a half years. There’s been no income. And look, he is currently almost stationing on the euro Chiron, the weak spot, at 29° Scorpio, and he’s going to be close to there all summer. He goes forward on August 2 and back into Sagittarius on September 18.
I wonder if that weak spot on the cusp of the third house of mind and communication is to do with a lack of strategy and an inability to make decisions.
By transit Chiron is also at work on another part of this chart: Jupiter and Pallas in Pisces. Chiron seems to be chipping away at the most compassionate planetary placement in the Zodiac, Jupiter in Pisces. Combine that Jupiter with Pallas, the asteroid of wisdom, and we get a huge idea, a structured vision of an ideal. Chiron transits can wound so that we understand the world better. Maybe it’s the same for a currency. For sure, the ideal is damaged.
The asteroid that’s impossible to ignore in this chart is Vesta, the goddess of the hearth. There she is exactly conjunct the North Node and transited by Jupiter-Venus. Vesta represents our shared heritage and also selfless public service. I wrote about her in the euro chart, here: read the comments too.
Right now by transit she conjuncts the South Node in Aries. Are all the partners in the euro going to go their own ways, believing their own tradition is unique? There has been much talk about the cultural differences between Greece and Germany and how this is at the root of some of the eurozone problems. I think Europeans would do well to visit the rest of the world, and they might find out just how important some of the values we share are.
Hi Christina,
Just for fun I tried the asteroid Europa in this chart and guess what – on July 5th Europa will conjunct Mars on the MC of this chart opposite the Sun in Capricorn.
Mr. Tsipras natally has Europa opposite Nessus and the Euro has Nessus opposite Moon.
mimi
Oh my, fascinating. Aside from anything else, this has all been so dramatic.
Hi Christina,
Slightly off-topic, but have you ever tried leaving whole sign houses? Personally I find them much more informative for all sorts of astrology (natal, mundane, etc). The Asc/Dsc and MC/IC are still incredibly critical, but other houses don’t have cusps per se — they run the full length of the sign.
I bring it up in this case because of the early degree ascendant leveling the playing field in terms of house systems. Just wondering if it’s in your toolkit.
Absolutely. My horoscopes are based on whole-sign houses. Also I find that transits begin to work on a house as soon as they enter the sign not the house, so you have to take that into account. With heavy planets, the transit can start to work on the natal planet as soon as it enters the sign, even if the planet being transited is quite far into the sign. This is just my observation. Of course, the exact transit is important too.
The degree accuracy we get from computers is great, but sometimes it draws us down into the wrong details. So with aspects I like tight orbs but with angles and house cusps, I’m much freer.
Wow — that was not the clearest explanation, but you get my drift.
sorry typo: ‘using’ not ‘leaving’