June 14, 2004

Saturn's Multidimensional Vibes

Americans had a close encounter with Saturn last week, but on more levels than the daily news media could report. As those who track the planets know, transiting Saturn was conjunct the U.S. Sun on Thursday, June 10. The Sun in our national horoscope represents its leadership, and during the entire week the nation mourned for its fallen leader Ronald Reagan, as well as Ray Charles who died on Thursday.

In the national horoscope, the Sun forms a square to Saturn. The Sun-Saturn blend represents the individual struggle to achieve success despite the difficulties and challenges of everyday life. Since transiting Saturn is now activating this natal configuration, we pay more attention to those self-made men who reflect this national aspiration. Both Ronald Reagan and Ray Charles fulfilled this quintessential American Dream.

In the Scorpio Rising horoscope, Saturn is found in the eleventh house of allies and organizations. With Saturn approaching the square to its own place, President Bush made some remarkable progress in the international community, forging improved ties with the United Nations, NATO, and the economic superstars at the G-8 summit. Bush needed these friends to advance his program in Iraq. Saturn was testing his willingness and ability* to carry out this celestial mandate.

Meanwhile, NASA's spacecraft Cassini arrived at the outer edge of Saturn and began taking pictures of Phoebe, which orbits Saturn backwards. Theoretically, Phoebe is a captured comet or asteroid, and by seeing how it got attached to Saturn, scientists hope to better understand the underlying structure of our solar system. From the personal to the interstellar, Saturn's message is all about building solid structure through a better understanding of the way our collective reality works.

China's Boom Times

Over the past two years China has eclipsed the United States as the world's primary engine of economic growth. Since the communist government decided to engage the global marketplace in 1979, China's annual growth rates have averaged around 8 percent. China's booming economy now consumes one third of the world's oil, one quarter of its steel, and one half if its cement.

China's national horoscope (October 1, 1949; 3:15 pm; Beijing) describes its erratic developmental cycles, which are associated with the Moon in Aquarius, Aquarius Rising, and the Sun square Uranus. Uranus by transit is especially significant in showing the timing for new policies. For example, Mao's disastrous "Great Leap Forward" was a tremendous humanitarian disaster, and was kicked off in 1958 as transiting Uranus opposed China's Moon.

China's Mars-Pluto conjunction in the seventh house represents a deep fear of powerful enemies, which has long kept it isolated. Then, in December 1978 Premier Deng Xiaoping announced a new "open door" policy which set in motion the current economic integration with the global community. At the time transiting Uranus was in the ninth house and squaring China's Mars-Pluto.

With its Libra Sun, Mercury, and Neptune located in the eighth house of shared resources, China's economy is naturally geared toward joint ventures. The Neptune influence shows a tendency to rely on unsound, or overly optimistic economic policies. Transiting Saturn is now squaring China's Neptune, presenting a growing problem. As economists see it, China's frantic boom times could suddenly end, which would send the global economy into a tailspin.

Jennifer Lopez and Marc Antony, Casar Sin Mentiras
(To Marry without Lies)