The Astrology of Upcoming #OCCUPY Events in May 2012

Below are key upcoming dates in the #OCCUPY movement (and other related organizations) per recent info from adbusters.org.
Since it's not practical, or even feasible, to run event charts for every specific happening, I'll list the dates chronologically and include the Moon's aspects and other significant planetary configurations, with analysis.
There may be some changes to or discrepancies in the dates, times and places of the events, as organizers adjust to fluctuating circumstances, so I'll update here as new info becomes available. All events below, except for May 1st/May Day, will take place during a Mercury-Venus mutual reception, with Venus going stationary retrograde on May 15th. So sometimes when benevolent intent meets practical considerations in getting the message out, adjustments are needed in order to achieve the goals.
May 1st: May Day General Strike. The Moon will trine the Sun and Jupiter before squaring Venus and going void of course. High hopes for success as the renewal of energy and enthusiasm from last Fall's protests brings the movement back to the forefront with a bang. Look for headlines and magazine covers announcing the comeback.
(Some aspects in effect on May 1st, and also, #OCCUPYCHICAGO, have been written about previously here. #OCCUPYCHICAGO has a myriad of dates listed on their events calendar, and there are other groups protesting G8/NATO later in the month, so it's a bit confusing to pinpoint one specific event to analyze.)
May 12th: Originally slated to be an international protest day, it looks like they have moved the date to May 15th to coincide with other worldwide events. There is conflicting information, as Adbusters states that it's a 3-day event of global action. So again, it's hard to determine which is the actual date to use.  From the #M12 website: 

After international forums, as well as online and face-to-face discussions, it has been decided that May 12th should be the next Global Day of Action, and May 15th a new Transnational Day of Mobilization.

The Moon will be in Aquarius on May 12th, with aspects of a square to the Sun, a square to Jupiter, and then trines to Venus retrograde and Saturn retrograde before going void of course. (Saturn will disposit to Venus). This starts off on the wrong foot and ends with a reality check. There will be ramifications from this event later in October when Saturn changes sign and moves into Scorpio, mutually recepting Pluto.

May 15th: This was slated to be a day where the various movements were to re-take the squares they had previously occupied and been evicted from, but it appears that has been changed as well. Now, based on the above, it appears it may have dissolved back into the international protest day activities of May 12th.
May 19-20th: #OCCUPYCAMPDAVID. According to one website, "Protests of the G8 are being held on Saturday, May 19, starting at 10 or 11 am,  in Frederick, Maryland." The #OCCUPYFREDERICK Facebook page states that there's an event on Saturday, May 18th beginning at 9:00 am EDT in Frederick. So I'll use a 10:30 am chart to split the difference, since these events never really go off on time anyway:

The Moon is in Taurus on May 19th, and applying to conjunct Jupiter at Caput Algol and dispositing to retrograde Venus. Algol is on the Sun-Jupiter midpoint. Are these people out of their minds? Why? Because every elite special force unit is going to patrol that perimeter with no humor for tree-sitting and camping in the woods. (Shortly after I wrote this, the Secret Service shut down a nearby state park.)
The Ascendant is 2 degrees Leo with the Sun at a dead degree of 29 Taurus and conjunct the South Node in Gemini, which is disposited by Mercury conjunct Lilith. The Moon is conjunct Lilith as well and will conjoin Mercury and Jupiter before going void of course. The Sun will refranate into Gemini before the Moon can conjoin it in eclipse.
The Uranus/Pallas conjunction ruling the 7th and 8th houses of the G8 group shows the authorities have the upper hand in every way in this event, and have been strategizing and planning (Pallas) to counter the protests with a show of force all along.
This event will get the message across and be more hype than productive change, as Venus retrograde mutually recepts Mercury. However, the event will be anticlimactic, especially compared to the NATO protests in Chicago the following day...
May 20-21: NATO Protests. By far, the biggest and potentially most explosive event astrologically is the Chicago NATO summit (only the G8 was moved to Camp David). According to one website: "The NATO Summit is being held in Chicago on May 20 - 21.  The main protest is being held on Sunday, May 20 beginning at noon." Here's the chart:

This chart has a 25 degree Leo Ascendant and is a terrible chart in several ways. First, the Moon is void of course, combust the Sun, with both squaring the ASC. This is also right on the doorstep of a solar eclipse, so something's got to give and certain events and circumstances will be overshadowed. Second, Neptune is very strongly placed in the house of the NATO summit participants (7th), who have a plan of deception, misinformation and infiltration in store, as well as a strong show of force, with Uranus ruling the 7th and dispositing to Mars. In other words, the protesters' position is strongly debilitated, and the NATO participants are well-positioned, and square the protester's Sun and Moon significators. (Remember the Haymarket Affair?--history rhymes yet again.)
Mars in the protesters' first house could have them instigating a fight they can't finish. Mars in the first house ruling the 8th also shows the protest groups have been heavily infiltrated by the authorities, affirmed by Pallas in the 8th conjunct Uranus, with both squaring Pluto. With Juno in Scorpio (disposited by Pluto) at a dead degree making an opposition as the last aspect to the Moon before it changes sign and runs into the solar eclipse, the wife of a prominent politician may have a hand in the skullduggery against the protesters.
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The bottom line with ALL of the above events is that it's STILL TOO EARLY for much mass, organized interest and effect, and more importantly, CHANGE. As L.A. Times columnist and political cartoonist David Horsey wrote, "The people in the Occupy Wall Street movement have shown they can take over a park, pitch a tent, run a teach-in and give everyone time to talk. They are still far from proving they can change a country." This image continues to dog the movement. To be fair, the #OCCUPY protest movements are still in their infancy (less than a year old), and changing a country as corrupt and rotten with entrenched power and money does not happen in a year or two or five. As Billie Holliday once said, the impossible will take a little while.
So June is really the month to look to as there's a whopping amount of astrological activity:

• A lunar eclipse in Sadge on the 4th, 
• Jupiter changes sign into Gemini on the 11th as dispositor of that eclipse,
• Mars clears its shadow on the New Moon of the 19th, 
• There are four lunar occultations that month involving Venus, Pluto, Jupiter, and obviously the sun with the eclipse,

And in late June, 

• The first partile square of Uranus-Pluto is on 6/24/12,
• Saturn goes direct the day after the first partile square of Uranus-Pluto,
• Venus goes direct two days later.

And a couple days after that.....for the grand finale of the month.........the Sun forms a hellacious T-square to the Uranus-Pluto square. The outlet leg is in Libra which will be tinged by Saturn. In other words, OUCH!!!! Adding insult to injury, Jupiter will be squaring Neptune, showing HUGE disillusionment and disappointment, while Mercury moves into Leo, it's fall (perhaps an over-estimation of the organizers plans, ideas and influence?)

So what does all that mean? Turmoil and tumult and violence and upheaval are the name of the game with long-range ramifications. Setbacks and frustration are assured. Not only that, but while the focus is on the #OCCUPY groups, there will be other organizations and individuals that come out of nowhere to act on their own accord, steal the spotlight, and create a zeitgeist of actual change—and disappear again. Watch for it to begin in late June.
From July onward through October, (when Saturn changes signs and moves into mutual reception with Pluto while Via Combust, in which Saturn's mean side is showing), the situation will heat up drastically and boil over sporadically during the next five years. The Powers That Be will not tolerate insurrection before the election, and will stamp it out with both feet wherever it is found. It will look terrible for the protesters for awhile, until they change their tactics. Certainly, the protesters have taken some blows to the chin, as they've been infiltrated, harassed, intimidated and surveilled, and to be sure, this will continue with even more heavy-handedness by the authorities. But Uranus in Aries knows how to take a hit—and dish them out as well. The upcoming societal changes in America will be a marathon, not a sprint. So think "long run" and know that regime change is never overnight—or painless.
(For a deeper understanding of the time frame and dynamics behind the actual events, check out Bill Herbst's latest commentary, "Approaching Critical Mass.")

Calling All Rebels in America: The Uranus-Pluto Square in the U.S. Sibley Chart

A Uranus-Pluto square is like overstretching a rubber band to the point that it snaps back violently—and draws blood when it does. It's about taking things way too far (Pluto) until there's a violent reaction (Uranus).

Albert Einstein once said, "The significant problems we face can not be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." This is a primary theme as the U.S. begins its Pluto return, which culminates with a square to a Uranus-Eris conjunction at Chiron circa 2016. As such, below is the U.S. natal chart (known as the Sibley chart) utilizing the full solar system, which points to America's core issues—and hints at their resolution. (More of those specifics will be covered in a future post entitled, "Look Out America! Eris is Coming!" rather than here and now.)

First and most obvious is the Cancer stellium of Sun-Mercury-Jupiter and Venus (modern astrology ignores the Part of Fortune because it's a derivative calculation and doesn't actually exist). Unquestionably, Cancer takes care of its own. Cancer is personal and not humanitarian or universal like Aquarius—Cancer is generosity with a catch (allegiance and fealty). It is an utterly provincial and self-interested provider, and not concerned about nurturing the good of the whole. This is underscored by the ASC and first house.

With Sadge rising and Eris in Capricorn in the first house, under the guise and intent of good-old Sadge abundance, benevolence, altruism and generosity, America WANTS to meddle in others affairs (Eris) and take control (Capricorn) to its own advantage in the situation, whether it's Central and South American economic policy or geopolitics in the Middle East. With America, it's not about generating cooperative, win-win situations. It's about power and control (Capricorn) over everyone else. And there's VERY deep-seated needs and reasons (primarily economic) for that lust for power and control with Haumea and Makemake lurking in the Scorpio-ruled 12th house, with Pluto in the 2nd house. These reasons will be revisited when Saturn ingresses into Scorpio and mutually recepts Pluto beginning in late 2012.

Astrologer Bill Herbst, in his January commentary, "Adulthood, Maturity, & Wisdom",  intelligently probes pieces of the core issues of the Uranus in Aries-Pluto in Capricorn square, underscored by the U.S.' Pluto return with transiting Pluto currently partile conjunct America's natal Eris:

"So, to put the exclamation mark on this section of the commentary, what

happened is that wisdom fled the corridors of power in America, which are now

filled with reprehensible scoundrels who are so habituated to lying, cheating, and

stealing that they know no other way to be. As to where wisdom went, I would

suggest that it spread out and now resides invisibly among the mass of ordinary

Americans, where millions of relatively wise people coexist right alongside tens of

millions of others who don’t have a clue but are about to be rudely awakened.

This is, I think, very much like the ancient parable of the Sufi Master who lives in

the village, quietly plying his mundane trade as a blacksmith. He reveals his

Mastery (i.e., his wisdom) only to those who can recognize it. To everyone else,

he remains just the village blacksmith. He doesn’t become a rich businessman

who then runs for Mayor, for that path is the very opposite of what his wisdom

teaches and how he needed to live to earn the wisdom in the first place."

Herbst is essentially accurate: A man of wisdom is not going to seek power, politics, and business. Why? Socrates gave a pretty good hint more than two millenia ago when he said, "A man who really fights for justice must lead a private, not public, life if he is to survive for even a short time." (Apology, p. 36) But the Eastern mystic Osho is much more specific:

"Man is continuously trying in every possible way to be somebody higher, special, superior – but this is all politics...And the people who get interested in politics are the most mediocre. Politics needs no other qualifications except one – that is, a deep feeling of inferiority. The intelligent people have something more important to do. Intelligence cannot waste itself in struggling with third class, ugly politics, dirty politics. Only the third class people become presidents, prime ministers. An intelligent person is not going to be distracted by such a desert which leads nowhere, not even to an oasis." 

"What is politics basically? The desire to dominate others -- and that is the most stupid thing in life. The intelligent person tries to be a master of himself, and the stupid person tries to be master of others. And how can you be a master of others if you are not a master of yourself? If you are not a master of yourself, then trying to be a master of others is just a substitute to befool yourself, to deceive yourself, and that is what the stupidity consists of."

 — from the book "From Misery to Enlightenment" & "The Fish in the Sea Is Not Thirsty"  

So the abject failure of political leadership is a given, but what about the responsibility of the citizens? As Herbst notes:

"...[Russian writer Dmitri] Orlov holds that Americans are the least-prepared of any nation for the changes looming in the years ahead. We are, he says, alienated from each other and from community itself, politically uninformed and neutered, chronically habituated to our conveniences, hypnotized by the bread-and-circuses media that’s controlled by our corporate masters, and deeply dependent on the state for support of basic needs—more so than the populations of any other major society on earth."

You can't expect excellence from a society conditioned in obedience and survival and consumption. The out-of-control rat race is designed to keep people as far from self-awareness and self-sufficiency as possible.

So the core Pluto problems essentially look like this:

1) We can't expect people in power/politics to get us out of the mess, because their very qualities are what got us into this mess and keeps us there. (Astrologically, the vested interests of Pluto in Capricorn's plutocracy.)

2) Americans are too stupid, lazy and ignorant to do much about the mess they are in because that stupidity, laziness and ignorance are what got them into the mess in the first place. So they blame the politicians.

Notice a vicious-circle pattern here? Not only that, but the two problems are deeply connected. Resolve one and you resolve the other. Like I alluded in the opening paragraph, you can't solve problems with the same ideas and systems that created those problems. You have to do something new and different to get a different result.

Enter Uranus in Aries. (Literally.)

When an outer planet ingresses into a new sign and lingers in the early degrees, it tends toward its "shadow" or dark side until it gets established. Uranus at the early degrees of Aries has to move past the current right-wing, libertarian, shadow mentality of every-man-for-himself, and shift into the higher vibe of individuals taking action for the greater good. The shift occurs via the seven partile squares to Pluto, directly impacting the Cancer stellium via T-square, which will force that Uranian mental shift to occur via the resulting damage and destruction. Then, as Uranus separates and heads for the later degrees of Aries, Round Two occurs when transiting Uranus conjoins transiting Eris at the U.S. natal Chiron to square the U.S. natal Pluto in the second decanant of Aries at 23 degrees.

In other words, people will still be reeling from the first wave of tumult and trouble, when the upheaval and damage shifts to a completely different front as the momentum swings toward the citizenry and their response to the first wave. So if Round One begins as an international incident (ruler of the 9th forming a T-square with Uranus-Pluto), Round Two pulls the focus back to the home front later on with the Uranus-Eris-Chiron emphasis in the fourth house. (Again, more on this to come in future posts.)

So one of the first (and hopelessly obvious) solutions is to stop looking for a political savior (Pluto in Cap) to lead the country to the promised land while its populace remains sleepwalking. The second is for that sleepwalking populace to finally get over those Pluto in Sadge halcyon days of believing and hoping their way through life by denying reality, the fallout of which is prevalent now in the early decanant of Pluto in Capricorn.

So what to do when the intelligent, aware few are up against the clueless, sleeping mob, while the Plutocrats exploit them both? MIT professor and activist Noam Chomsky, when asked in "Imperial Ambitions" what an individual can do about the enormous problems we face, offers a hint:

"There's a lot we can do. We're not going to be thrown into prison and face torture. We're not going to be assassinated. We have enormous privilege and tremendous freedom. That means endless opportunities. After every talk I give in the United States, people come up and say, "I want to change things. What can I do?" I never hear these questions from peasants in southern Colombia, Kurds in southeastern Turkey under miserable repression, or anybody who is suffering. They don't ask what they can do; they tell you what they're doing."

"The real question people have, I think, is 'What can I do to bring about an end to these problems that will be quick and easy? I went to a demonstration and nothing changed. Fifteen million people marched in the streets on 2/15/2003, and still Bush went to war; it's hopeless.'

But that's not the way things work...Unless you develop an ongoing, living, democratic culture that can compel the candidates, they're not going to do the things you voted for. Pushing a button and then going home is not going to change anything."

And that's where individual rebels taking a stand to create that democratic culture, whether at home or in the workplace, move front and center. First, however, understand the difference between a rebel (Uranus) and a revolutionary (Pluto). Rebellion is constructive, creative, individual and specific. It fights for something, rather than just against something. It creates to replace, rather than destroys for the sake of destruction. It is not a cultural or ideological mass movement like a revolution (i.e., communism). With Uranus in Aries, pockets of rebellion are the tool to demolish the Pluto in Capricorn entrenched, structural corruption and rot. Rebellion changes everything from the bottom up—from individuals, to society, and eventually to leadership. Revolution is messy, tyrannical and changes nothing but the names on the letterhead.

When most people see an injustice, they won't stick their neck out by speaking up or taking action—they either go into denial, or they wait for someone else to assume the risk, and if things look like they are going the right way, say "me too." This became very apparent during the #OWS movement's beginning, where the sparks of a few rebels, who were essentially ignored and even mocked early on, ended up igniting national interest, and subsequently generated individual groups in many cities within that nationwide zeitgeist. (Transiting 10th house Haumea in Libra conjunct Sibley Saturn and trining Sibley Mars.)

So how does all of this play out in reality? What does it look like on the ground? It's as Chomsky alludes. The 60's era mass protests don't work, and smashing windows at Chase bank is not going to make its CEO, Jamie Dimon, lose sleep. Individual groups take up issues via rebellion in unconnected, uncoordinated uprisings (often simultaneously) across the country, catching the Plutocrats completely by surprise and unable to respond effectively with their militarized police forces to a multi-headed, simultaneous, unscheduled, unknown menace. Pluto in Capricorn's Big Brother can't be everywhere at once, while Uranus in Aries can.

But most importantly, the cold, hard reality is that people have to grow and evolve their own consciousness before they can even begin to address changing society. And throughout American history, crises have always been the catalyst for change, not collective enlightenment. (Hinted at by the intercepted Aquarian Moon in the 3rd house in late degrees.)

But people aren't there yet. Awakening takes time, and it's often in fits and starts.

Uranus in Aries, the symbol of a quantum leap forward if there ever was one, demands tremendous courage from the individuals demanding change in the face of the hostile, entrenched defenders of the status quo. With Uranus and Pluto, violence will be involved—it's a given in situations involving such drastic change as replacing a completely corrupt and rotten economic and political system with something new, fair and equitable.

As Pogo once said, we've met the enemy and it is us (Pluto in the 2nd as ruler of the 12th in the Sibley chart), but we've also met the solution—and with Uranus in Aries with Chiron in the Sibley 4th house, again, it is us. The problems are far from unsolvable, and the solutions are already there—what's missing is the public force and will to implement them. Americans have got a job to do, and thanks to Neptune in rulership in Pisces in the Sibley 3rd moving up to trine the Jupiter-Venus conjunction, the inspiration and specific ideas of how will show up, front-and-center, right as it's needed. Count on it.

(For further astrological insight on Pluto in Capricorn for America, see also: "The Capricorn Conspiracy" by Michael Lutin. http://bit.ly/xLmUnA).

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NOTE: As I was posting this, word is out on the adbusters.org site that President Obama has relocated the G8 Summit where #OCCUPYCHICAGO and #OCHI were to take place to Camp David.

#OWS Morphs Into #OCHI / #OCCUPYCHICAGO on May 1, 2012 - Astrological Event Chart & Interpretation Below

<<Check out my UPDATE post about May 2012 #OCCUPY events here.>>

Adbusters, the folks who brought you #OWS, has put a call out to occupy the Windy City on May 1st, 2012 for an entire month to challenge G8 and NATO meetings occurring that month. From their website:

"On May 1, 50,000 people from all over the world will flock to Chicago, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and #OCCUPYCHICAGO for a month. With a bit of luck, we’ll pull off the biggest multinational occupation of a summit meeting the world has ever seen.

Against the backdrop of a global uprising that is simmering in dozens of countries and thousands of cities and towns, the G8 and NATO will hold a rare simultaneous summit in Chicago this May. The world’s military and political elites, heads of state, 7,500 officials from 80 nations, and more than 2,500 journalists will be there. "

You can find the information here:

http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters-blog/tactical-briefing-25.html#.TyCpI5mmi-A.twitter and  https://www.facebook.com/events/215015741925055/ and 
http://twitter.com/Adbusters

And of course, the event chart (click on it to enlarge):

(Note that the time of the event chart above is based on the Adbusters data provided in the 2nd link above from their Facebook page announcement.)

The most important signatures in the chart are:

• The Eris and Mercury conj. the ASC and opposing retrograde Saturn-Haumea trine Venus
• The Moon-Mars conjunction (the protesters' significators) in a grand trine with the Sun and Pluto
• The Moon-Mars conjunction opposing the Neptune-Chiron opposition and at its midpoint

If the start time of this chart holds, it shows that they are going to have an easier time of sticking it to the plutocrats the second time out. Look at that GORGEOUS grand trine of the Moon-Mars conjunction with Pluto and the Sun! And ASC ruler Mars mutually recepting Mercury as final dispositors! There will be NO confusion or mistake about their message this time around. And Eris conjunct the ASC with Lilith in the 1st ensures that bigtime mayhem will ensue. Neptune in the 11th with Aquarius on the cusp shows the public will be far more available for some radical changes, as foreclosures and food prices (Vesta conjunct Ceres combust the Sun) fuel some righteous indignation!

Oh, but wait, look at The Powers That Be with their retrograde exalted Saturn opposing the ASC. That darned police state--you can slow it, but you can't stop it. And with their Saturn trine Venus, the plutocrats and their government minions have the media in their back pocket and controlling the message and manipulating (read: lying) public sentiment--again. This is doubly affirmed by Mercury in mutual application to oppose retrograde Saturn. Retrograde Rhadamanthus (not shown) at 20 Libra will be squaring Varuna in the 4th, so the facts will be fought over, revealed relentlessly, and hit very close to home.

The biggest damper on things, literally, is the protesters' Moon-Mars conjunction is in opposition to the Neptune-Chiron conjunction, and indeed, right on its midpoint. There will be casualties (think wounded in action, lots of teargas, and firehoses) in the demand for change, but the four Cardinal angles and that Sadge-ruled 9th with Pluto and Quaoar in it don't show international or legislative change anytime soon. The other problem is that they are using a G8 and NATO summit to raise awareness, when the problems amplified in Occupy Wall Street are domestic rather than international. This is going to lead to "mixed messages" that will dilute some of their gains, unfortunately.  With Chiron in the twelfth house and Neptune ruling that house, disorganization, impracticality and some infighting among the protesters will undermine their efforts. Hopefully, they won't be their own worst enemy, because they are going to get plenty of blowback from that Saturn-ASC opposition to keep them plenty under siege. An important point to remember is that the plutocrats and government have very effectively been containing and ignoring protests on a grand scale for years, especially when the G8 is involved, while the protesters haven't changed their tactics (large, mostly non-violent, peaceful mass gatherings) much since the 1960's. In other words, it will take more than mass demonstrations in the streets, property damage in the millions, and social media to create the type of policy and societal structural changes needed. The mutable grand trine with the cardinal angles in the chart is going to emphasize that.

The early degrees of Mars and the Moon, along with the not-yet-partile Uranus-Pluto square, show this show has a long way to go yet, and will set the stage for future battles. This chart shows the movement has not yet developed into "overthrow" rather than "occupy" mode yet, where push comes to shove and change is demanded regardless of the cost at the behest of Uranus-Pluto. Finally, Ceres, Chiron and the Vertex are all at the same degree, showing an internal operations turning point for this particular protest. Will there be a surprise ending? Hardly. The Moon's last aspect before going void of course will be a conjunction to Makemake while opposing Pallas in the 12th-6th house axis. Again, the protesters will retreat, lick their wounds, reconnoiter, come up with new strategies and tactics, and live to fight another day after a time of repose. They are not going to get a different result until they do something more radical and powerful than gather en masse in protests that are brutally subdued and quashed by the government forces. But what will be interesting to see is if this specific event spawns a splinter group (or groups) willing to take it to that next level of force as a separate entity from the formal Occupy movement (Haumea conjunct Saturn and opposing the ASC, Eris and Mercury).

No matter what, I just love that Eris conjunction to the ASC. As promised, I'll soon be posting the first part of a series on Eris in the US Sibley chart, now and through 2016 when she conjoins Uranus for some serious societal chaos. For now, just be content knowing that transiting Pluto is conjunct the US natal Eris in the Sibley chart's first house. And when Eris meets Pluto, it's not Eris who gets the worst of it. More to come!


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1/26/12 edit: See? What did I say about the infighting already? These people are walking straight into a police buzz saw, and they are worrying about who gets credit for the invitations?
( See also: http://inthesetimes.com/uprising/entry/12634/adbusters_call_for_month-long_chicago_occupation_rankles_some_in_movement and http://gapersblock.com/mechanics/2012/01/31/eye-on-ochi-adbusters-and-the-locals/ )

March 7, 2012 edit: Word is out on the adbusters.org site that President Obama has relocated the G8 Summit where #OCCUPYCHICAGO and #OCHI were to take place to Camp David. Talk about an event chart that never was! :)

Saturn and Mars Prepare to Retrograde in the Foreground of the Approaching Uranus-Pluto Square

With the two classic malefics ready to change direction soon, and spending most of the first half of the year that way, the structural logistics, planning, preparation and groundwork for the 2nd half of the year's explosive events are already taking form.

Regarding the Occupy movement, if any bigger justification was needed for it's next incarnation as Overthrow Wall Street, you can find it here in this excellent summation by Rolling Stone columnist Matt Taibbi. 

To wit:

"I loved the energy and was amazed by the obvious organic appeal of the movement, the way it was growing on its own. But my initial impression was that it would not be taken very seriously by the Citibanks and Goldman Sachs of the world. You could put 50,000 angry protesters on Wall Street, 100,000 even, and Lloyd Blankfein is probably not going to break a sweat. He knows he's not going to wake up tomorrow and see Cornel West or Richard Trumka running the Federal Reserve. He knows modern finance is a giant mechanical parasite that only an expert surgeon can remove. Yell and scream all you want, but he and his fellow financial Frankensteins are the only ones who know how to turn the machine off."

The key is to impel them to do so.

Also, there's an excellent article in this month's Harper's Magazine (the magazine that correctly predicted the housing implosion TWO YEARS before it happened--who needs astrology?)  that discusses how MERS mortgages have no real owner, so who are the homeowners actually paying? And the homeowners who are using case law to try to stop foreclosures and (sometimes) succeeding. The bank's lawyers best argument is that not continuing the status quo of corruption would lead to free housing, and in a case in Utah, actually did. See for yourself here. 

The Uranus-Pluto Square and Phase 2 of Occupy Wall Street in 2012

A key component of Phase II of the Occupy Wall Street movement will be one subtle, yet monumental difference. With the Uranus-Pluto square as the engine behind the revolt, the "O" in OWS changes from "Occupy" to "Overthrow." What does that mean and what does that look like?


Noam Chomsky urged the movement to advance to the next stage. His advice revolves around political organizing in neighborhoods and engaging more of the 99% face-to-face. He isn't wrong. But this isn't the 1960's.


The issue in 2012 and throughout the Uranus-Pluto square is what Uranus in Aries represents, and how it manifests. It is the ultimate in individual action affecting the collective (and vice versa). Building coalitions is important, but Uranus in Aries is not about asking nicely and getting a consensus, or lobbying for policy changes within the established structure. It is about  creating change by bypassing or even hijacking the structure and bringing the unexpected front-and-center, in your face, when you least expect it, and in the most explosive manner possible. It is also horizontal and direct democracy. It does not care about means--it cares about ends.


So does "Overthrow" Wall Street mean riots in the streets, curfews, checkpoints and martial law? Change takes time. None of it is going to happen overnight. It is a series of movements and actions that come and go in fits and starts and lurches forward of its own accord, while Pluto in Capricorn seeks to stamp out that progress. Undermine, overthrow, retreat. Lay low, strike back, push the envelope. Deal with blowback. But the key point is that the time for talking and raising awareness is over--in 2012, it's time for action.


P.S.--Happy New Year! For the apocalyptic-minded among you, keep in mind this tweet from astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson:

SleepWell in 2012: Niburu is fiction; no Solar Max; Dec21 alignment occurs every yr; Mayan failed to predict their own demise

This Is What an Astrological Uranus-Pluto Square Looks Like in the Real World. (Get Used to It.)

The Upcoming Uranus-Pluto Square In Pictures:

Coming Soon to Your Neighborhood.

A Greek Riot Policeman  (The Flames Were Extinguished and He Survived)

Greek Aftermath

Protester Checklist

All images copyright/courtesy of Rolling Thunder.

Pt. 2 Anarchy, the Astrology of Uranus Square Pluto, and the Aftereffects of Occupy Wall Street: Part II: What's Going to Happen--the Uranus-Pluto Square

See Part I: What Happened--the OWS Event Chart

Part II--What's Going to Happen: The Uranus-Pluto Square

From Bill Herbst: 

"What defines the Occupy uprising for me as belonging---so far--- primarily to the Limbo Period from September 2011 through May 2012 (rather than as part of what will come later, after the critical mass point of June 2012 and beyond, all the way to 2015) are the qualities of civil obedience and respect for authority. There is, as far as I know, hardly any civil disobedience at all in the viral Occupy phenomenon yet. Everything about the protests carries the tacit assumption (intentional or not)---or at least the hope---that a public appeal to authority in government and/or corporate boardrooms might effect some reform or redress of grievances. This is a complete fiction. A hopeless fantasy."

The outcome of the movement, according to Kalle Lasn, a co-originator of OWS, bear this out: 

"Why didn’t Bloomberg come down to talk to us? Or Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein? Why didn’t President Obama acknowledge the protesters — largely the people who elected him — and mingle in the open-air town halls? What a grand gesture that would have been. How come our political leaders are so isolated, our discourse so rigid? Why can’t the American power elite engage with the nation’s young? 

Instead, they stayed aloof, ignored us and wished us away. We wanted a Tahrir moment, an American Spring, a new vision of the future, and they attacked us in Zuccotti Park in the dead of the night."

As far as the original goals of OWS, Lasn adds:

The Occupy Wall Street meme was launched by a poster in the 97th issue of our international ad-free magazine, Adbusters, the hash tag #OCCUPYWALLSTREET and a “tactical briefing” that we sent to our 90,000-strong “culture jammer” global network of activists, artists and rabble-rousers in mid-July. The movement’s true origins, however, go back to the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. That was when the world witnessed how intransigent regimes can be toppled by leaderless democratic crowds, brought together by social media, that stand firm and courageously refuse to go home until their demands for change are met. Our shared epiphany was that America, too, needs its Tahrir Square moment and its own kind of regime change. Perhaps not the hard regime change of Tunisia and Egypt, but certainly a soft one.

 Only a soft regime change can end the pervasive corruption at the heart of our political system, in which corporate money wins elections, drafts laws and trumps citizen desires. Only the plural voices of everyday Americans, the 99 percent, have the capacity to wake up the 1 percent to their greedy, self-serving ways, and to dismantle the global casino in which $1.3 trillion worth of derivatives, credit default swaps and other financial instruments slosh around every day without a hint of concern or regard for the millions of lives that such speculation can destroy."

The overthrow is for later, as Herbst accurately alludes. For now, two clear themes emerge:

1)  Mars is ingressing into Virgo and retrograding through Virgo from January to mid-April, giving them plenty of time to come up with ideas for practical action, as shown by Mars' Virgo transit through the 9th and 10th houses of the OWS chart (planning prior to public launch). When Mars moves ahead in April 2012, and mutually recepts Mercury later the same month, the protesters will be back in battle and at the forefront again. BECAUSE...

2)  When the movement reemerges after it regroups (typical Pluto symbolism--arising from the ashes in a different form),will regroup over the winter as the Uranus- Pluto square reconfigures (payback is a bitch) for real next year. Because in mid-July 2012, Mars comes along and reactivates the Venus-Pluto T-square of OWS:

According to Herbst, "With the end of the first period of denial, however, we have not moved  directly into the second period, which will be an extended period of economic and cultural breakdown in cascading waves, accompanied by the brave new world of social upheavals and revolutions to necessarily find ways to pick up the pieces and re-form both commerce and society. No, that second phase of the two-step dance does not officially (meaning symbolically) begin until June of 2012."

Throughout history, anarchy (Uranus) has always been the natural enemy of plutocracy (Pluto). Anarchy does not mean chaos; it is from the Greek anarchos, meaning without leaders, as in the famous Goethe quote: "The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves."  Anarchy, as referenced here, is understood along the lines of Voltairine deCleyre's "Anarchism & American Traditions", written in 1908 and a far cry from how the news media defines and depicts anarchy.

OWS was just a prelude, or sneak preview, to the "we're not going to take it anymore" fury that is getting ready for the stage in 2012. Because one of the key tactics of anarchy is direct action. In other words, one does not ask nicely for redress from the very corrupt system (Pluto in Capricorn) that oppresses and affects the people wanting the change (Uranus in Aries).

In that regard, and during the Uranus-Pluto square, direct action will be front and center. According to Crimethinc.org, in their publication Twelve Myths About Direct Action, it is defined as "any kind of action that bypasses established political channels to accomplish objectives directly—has a long and rich heritage in North America, extending back to the Boston Tea Party and beyond. Despite this, there are many misunderstandings about it, in part due to the ways it has been misrepresented in the corporate media."

So what might direct action look like? Uranus in Aries rules individual direct action affecting the collective and society. Groups (cells) also take independent action. Multi-level scenarios could play out where an independent hacktivist group such as Anonymous is involved in an incident, while angry mobs surround and shut down a bank or brokerage firm simultaneously in the same city.

Uranus in Aries will provide distinct advantages for everyone battling the Pluto in Capricorn regime:

1. The plutocrats and their armies of police, etc. are vastly outnumbered by the masses.
2.  More avenues of communication are available to coordinate disruption (social media, etc.).
3. Americans are armed, unlike the Muslim countries' uprisings, who have to try to co-opt their militaries.
4. Troops that will be deployed to fight the mass uprisings are all currently overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan, protecting corporate interests such as oilfields (Iraq) and pipelines and poppyfields (Afghanistan).
5. Troops upon their return home face an upwards of 9.1% unemployment rate, reasonably putting them squarely on the side of the 99%.
6. Efficient, low-tech weaponry is available to counter police tactics. (Stifiling tear gas canisters, wearing sealed swim goggles and face masks to protests to protect against tear gas attacks—among other tactics.)

As for the Pluto in Capricorn regime, their advantages are very formidable.:

1. They have near-limitless resources (money, firepower) to quash rebellion.
2. They can use classic, proven tactics, such as what occurred during the Haymarket affair, to turn public opinion against change and revolt. (And they did; see here.)
3. They can create or alter laws to generate a more massive incarceration of larger numbers of people considered a threat and bypass due process of the law in doing so by labeling civillians as terrorists or enemy combatants.

But in the meantime, as Herbst states, "So, during the nine months from September 2011 through May 2012, we are betwixt and between, moving steadily away from denial and toward the reckoning with breakdown and revolution." No, this is not 'critical mass' yet—that doesn’t initially occur until June 2012, and then amplifies, morphs, and shifts over the three years that will follow, until it reaches tidal wave proportions around the globe by 2016."

Funny Herbst should mention 2016. That's where the trans-Neptunian object called Eris comes in to wreak her havoc. Uranus will conjoin Eris in early June 2016 at 23 Aries, forming a nice little T-square to the US Pluto-Mercury opposition in the Sibly horoscope of the USA (7/4/1776, Philadelphia, PA, 5:10 pm). The Uranus-Eris conjunction will also quincunx Neptune:

U.S. Sibley Chart Planetary Positions

All of this will be discussed in a future post here entitled "Lookout America! Eris is Coming!"  where all the TNOs will be superimposed by natal and transit with the US Sibley chart and analyzed in relation to the revolution and Uranus-Pluto square.

Pt.1 Anarchy, the Astrology of Uranus Square Pluto, and the Aftereffects of Occupy Wall Street: Part I: What Happened--the OWS Event Chart

Part I: What Happened--the OWS Event Chart

Part II: What's Going to Happen--the Uranus-Pluto Square

This will intersperse the OWS Event Chart with the Mundane analysis in Bill Herbst's commentary  to again underscore the microscopic view available in an event chart in addition to the broad mundane view Herbst presents.

Part I--What Happened: The OWS Event Chart

The dispositors in the OWS event chart show exactly who's in charge and eventually who prevails in the specific situation. Bloomberg and Wall Street and their cronies representing the 1% are symbolized by Venus in Rulership in Libra in the 10th house of power. The exalted Moon disposits to the 1%'s Venus. Pluto/the protesters disposits to Saturn, which disposits to Venus/the 1%. Notably, Mars disposits the Moon, the protesters' co-ruler, which disposits to Venus/the 1%. That's a pretty tough hand to beat.

To top it all off, the signature of the chart is a T-square involving Uranus-Pluto-Venus, with the outlet leg in the 8th house of the financial services world. Security, power, money and disruption are all front and center in the chart.

The Pluto protesters are intercepted in the 2nd house (Pluto's detriment) of individual/personal finance with Jupiter retrograding back to trine them and give them a huge boost through youthful enthusiam and idealism, not to mention the generosity of others (donations, etc.). The Moon ruled the sequence of events in addition to the aspects occurring to Venus/1% and Pluto/Protestors. So what happend based on the activity in the chart, particularly the Moon's aspects?

The first phase or sequence is bracketed in red above. This is where the protesters got their publicity (Moon septile Uranus and trine Sun) after being ignored for much of the first two weeks of the movement. It also drew in unions and many other groups sympathetic to the cause. Then the Sun sesq. Jupiter, creating a friction, enhanced by the Moon parallel to Mars, which was the first attempt of the 1% to take action by planning to clear the park under the guise of cleaning (Sun in Virgo; Jupiter in the 6th house where it is in detriment). Additionally, the Moon paralleled Mars, showing the overzealousness of the police.

After the park cleaning debacle, Venus then biquintiled retrograde Jupiter in the 6th (dispositing to Venus), showing that as long as the day-to-day business operations of the 1% weren't affected, such as shutting down the NYSE, bridges, strikes, etc., the group would be somewhat tolerated. Not to mention, the whole world was watching.

Then the Moon squared Neptune, and the third and final phase began (blue bracket). After the massive marches, the Oakland eruptions, and the Nov. 5th "Move Your Money" successes (Moon biquintile Pluto in the 2nd house of personal finance), Neptune, ruler of the 4th house of endings and completions, went direct and the momentum of OWS clearly began to dissipate, emphasizing the square.

So Herbst's assessment that OWS was just a bunch of people standing around bitching is categorically unfair. OWS can easily take credit for two important actions: uniting large portions of the populace via the "We Are the 99%" campaign to participate in the need for change, despite the incorrect assumptions that the protesters didn't have a clear message, and getting people to switch from banks to credit unions. That's hitting the 1% where it hurts, because it directly affects the bottom line of the banks. People saw they COULD get a financial conglomerate like Bank of America to back off the debit fees without having to blow up a building or overthrow the government to do it. And can do it again in the future. It also is spurring offshoot movements, like Occupy Foreclosures.

Finally, with the Moon sextile Mars (ruler of the police) in fall at the dead degree of Cancer and intercepted in the 8th, the end came with the swift punishment of shock and awe (Uranus in Aries in the 4th). OWS and other camps across the country were raided in the middle of the night (Mars intercepted in the 8th) with full military protocol (Uranus in Aries square Pluto in Cap/the protesters). As Adbusters editor and OWS founding organizer Kalle Lasn stated in the WashingtonPost:

"Bloomberg’s raid was carried out with military precision. The surprise attack began at 1 a.m. with a media blackout. The encampment was surrounded by riot police, credentialed mainstream journalists who tried to enter were pushed back or arrested, and the airspace was closed to news helicopters. What happened next was a blur of tear gas; a bulldozer; confiscation or destruction of everything in the park, including 5,000 books; upward of 150 arrests; and the deployment of a Long Range Acoustic Device, the infamous “sound cannon” best known for its military use in Iraq."

Thus putting the exclamation point on the Moon-Mars sextile before the Moon went void of course, bringing OWS to a close. But that's all 20/20 hindsight. Let's look at the upcoming transits to see what's going to happen.

OWS was only the opening salvo of the first of seven passes of the Uranus-Pluto square from 2012-2015. You ain't seen nothing yet.

The Astrology of Occupy Wall Street

DISCLOSURE: I am a former subscriber and current reader of Adbusters, the organization that is the impetus behind the Occupy Wall Street movement. I wholly and completely support the protesters.

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The Occupy Wall Street protest movement began on 9/17/2011 at 12PM EDT in New York City. The event chart looks like this:

This article will focus on three specific areas in relation to the OWS event chart: 1) The Players 2) The Action and 3) Likely Outcomes. An in-depth interpretation of the above chart will be published here shortly.
As far as chart significators are concerned:

Pluto rules the Scorpio Ascendant of the protesters; a perfect description of the plutocracy they are fighting against. Venus rules the 7th house of open enemies, a.k.a. the Wall Street brokers, bankers, and others of their ilk. The Moon is co-ruler of the protesters and also rules the public/public opinion. Saturn rules the government. The 10th house rules the institutions of power, both government and business.
Most interesting is the claim in the media that the protesters don't have a clear message (Neptune retrograde in the 3rd). This is where the importance of asteroids comes in: Vesta in Aquarius in the 3rd dispositing to Venus in the 10th, opposing Uranus, Vesta's primary dispositor shows that the message couldn't be more than obvious--it's that the powers that be don't care to hear it. As the Seattle alt-weekly newspaper, The Stranger, so succinctly put it:

"The protesters don't have a clear message...? Really? Are you fucking stupid? The protest is the message. Incomes are down. Unemployment is up. Bailouts and bonuses have stretched the gap between rich and poor to its widest since the Gilded Age. And the 99 Percent are pissed. Fix it or get out of the way. What could possibly be unclear about that?"  (The Stranger, Oct. 12, 2011, p.7)

More to come. (Be sure to check out http://bit.ly/vi3Vea for an excellent article about the movement.)

Meanwhile, as explained in the book Open Source Modern Horary Astrology, midpoint trees can be used instead of event or horary charts like the one above. The Occupy Wall Street 90-degree midpoint tree for the same data above is as follows:

(Click on Midpoint Tree to enlarge)

Look at that Venus picture. Free and clear. No problems and no worries for Wall Street. Completely in control as they bathe in business as usual.

Look at the ASC, Moon and Pluto for the Protest movement. An uphill battle in the following areas:

PL=Juno/Ceres         Undermining personal security

PL=Saturn/Ceres      Government compliance in undermining of personal security.

ASC=Ceres/Mars     Fight for personal security

ASC=Pluto/Saturn    Fighting the establishment of entrenched power, specifically the government compliance w/Wall St.

ASC=Pluto/Juno       Political corruption

ASC=Sun/Pallas      Strategic problems

Moon=Uranus/Vertex    Independent movement with no centralized leadership can be difficult to rally behind to create a critcal mass point.

Moon=Mercury/Pallas   Problems with messaging strategies to the wider public.