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NewsScope for September 20, 1999 by WolfStar Mars and Pluto Bring Natural Disaster Last week’s conjunction between Mars and Pluto dominated events across the political landscape. When militant Mars aligns with intense Pluto, astrologers generally expect the worst, and last week was certainly no exception. From Moscow, to East Timor, to Fort Worth Texas, incidents of extreme violence rocked the international community. The countries where the most dramatic events took place had their national horoscopes activated by this Mars-Pluto conjunction. In the United States these two planets were nearly exactly opposite Uranus in the eighth house, and square Ceres in the fourth house of domestic situations. The meaning of Ceres* can be derived from her ancient mythology. Her cultivation of wheat, rye, and other grain products gives her an astrological association with agriculture. Then, her obsessive love for her daughter Persephone turned to grief when the daughter was kidnapped by Pluto. This story reflects Ceres’ association with loss and natural disasters, and specifically agricultural devastation. Pluto was last squaring the U.S. Ceres a year ago when drought and flooding in Texas was an almost exact replica of what happened last week along the eastern seaboard. The defining aspect in George W. Bush’s chart is Ceres opposite Pluto, indicating that if he is elected, the U.S. will be in a constant state of natural disasters and relief programs. Uranus awakened by last week’s Mars-Pluto combination was seen in many forms, some of which were discussed in recent NewsScope columns. The traffic jams on the highways and the airports weren’t the major accident I had predicted, but record-setting traffic snarls nevertheless. An activated Uranus in the eighth house of insurance led to an immediate release of federal financial aid to disaster victims and farm losses. Makeover for Gucci Gulch Last week while the American press sanctimoniously decried Russia’s billion dollar money laundering scheme, Al Gore was busy gold-mining high tech CEOs for campaign contributions. These CEOs were pushing for government approval of software encryption devices, a controversial issue which the Veep found himself favoring. The same CEOs were against campaign finance reform. Since 1990 Campaign Finance Reform legislation has passed the House five times, and each time the bill was defeated in the Senate. Now, as reform-minded Pluto opposes the U.S. Uranus in the money houses (second and eighth), Campaign Finance Reform has one last chance to break through the corporate interests as they are represented by the Senate. Senators John McCain and Russell Feingold paired up last year to present the Senate with a bipartisan bill aimed at giving the country back to the people. Last year transiting Pluto made its first opposition to the U.S. eighth house Uranus. The bill was defeated, but got closer than ever before to passing. Astrologically, Uranus represents freedom of expression, and taking away corporations’ rights to spend their money was seen as an infringement. Transiting Pluto will be exactly opposite the U.S. Uranus in October when we can expect this debate to intensify. In the mean time, as political wit Will Rogers once said, “We have the finest government money can buy.” Beauty Signatures The Miss America Beauty Pageant was under fire last week, as judges considered whether to allow women into the contest who previously has been married or had an abortion. The first Miss America, selected on September 7, 1921, was only 15 years old and chosen from a field of teens, all of whom were presumably virgins. The practice of naming beauty queens after their country began with this Miss America contest. Neptune, the planet of glamorous images, was conjunct the U.S. Midheaven then, and naturally, the beauty goddess Venus was also near the Midheaven, and exactly squaring the U.S. Ascendant. Venus, Neptune, and the U.S. Midheaven are all in the flamboyant, showboat sign of Leo. The twelve American beauty queens listed in Lois Rodden’s AstroDataBank reveal the primary astrological signatures necessary to win an American beauty contest. As expected, Venus is the most common prominent planet. She is most often closely aspecting business-first Saturn, but also the other outer planets, especially charismatic Pluto. Surprisingly, the asteroid Ceres is a major factor in all these beauties’ horoscopes. Ceres bestows an aura of kindness and a caring, nurturing personality. At the initiating Beauty Pageant, transiting Uranus was conjunct the U.S. Ceres, and Pluto was trine the U.S. Ceres, and all three formed a harmonious, successful Grand Trine with the U.S. Ascendant. From this founding tradition, inherent in the American idea of beauty are the qualities associated with Motherhood, as symbolized by Ceres. Last week transiting Mars and Pluto in moralistic Sagittarius squared the U.S. Ceres, setting up an ethical debate about the most natural expression of Ceres.
* For more on the significance of asteroids, visit
http://www.homestead.com/neptunecafe/goddess.html.
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