Weekly Political and Entertainment NewsScope

by WolfStar

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September 12, 2005

New Orleans, Neptune's Harbor

Many of the descriptive words used to describe New Orleans, and especially those that have become common currency since Katrina struck, have a distinctive Neptunian flavor. "The Big Easy" is the birthplace of America's most original music genres, the Blues and Jazz. New Orleans is associated with oil and gas, sits below sea level, and now is inundated with contaminated flood waters.

Neptune and its sign Pisces figure prominently in New Orleans' natal horoscope, set for the incorporation of the city on February 17, 1805* (noon). The Aquarian Sun reflects the distinctive cultural mix that gives the colorful seaport its unique identity. The Sun is exactly square Neptune, and as one of the closest aspects in the entire chart, this configuration imprints its Neptunian vibe on all the city's affairs.

Pluto in Pisces is also prominently placed by its proximity to the Sun, and an octile (45º) to the fateful North Node. Uranus, the planet of crisis and the unexpected, squares the North Node. These two planets show the potential for disaster when adverse transits and progressions arrive. On August 29 when Katrina made landfall at New Orleans, transiting Uranus was exactly, to-the-minute conjunct New Orleans Pluto.

Those with astrology software will be able to find other very close connections, but one of the most significant is the position of progressed Mars at 24º03', which is precisely square the North Node (orb 0º02'). Meanwhile, transiting Jupiter is also in this degree area, and will be conjunct progressed Mars on September 28. One could expect an energetic new start for New Orleans around this time.

Neptune's Epochal Return

As gas prices push ahead of the eye-popping price of $3/gallon, Americans are beginning to cut back their driving, and finding alternative means of travel. Sales of Vespas and other thrifty scooters are soaring, while demand in China and India ensures that oil prices won't come down any time soon. Meanwhile, the airline industry takes the hardest hit, as hefty hikes in jet fuel cut further into the bottom line.

Neptune, the natural ruler of oil and gas, has arrived at a critical point in the U.S. Scorpio Rising horoscope – it's exactly conjunct the fourth house cusp, the very foundation of the chart. Long known as the point of endings and new beginnings, the fourth house cusp marks a major turning point in the nation's energy production when considering Neptune's 165-year cycle.

The U.S. has only experienced Neptune's transit over the fourth house cusp once before in its history, and that was in the early 1840s. At the time, oil was most popularly used to light lamps, and the major source was sperm whales. Whaling had become a huge oil industry, but with the depletion of the whales, oil prices were rising. Around the same time, a new source was being developed – drilling for rock oil.

On June 27, 1857 the Scientific American prophetically reported that the whale oil which the nation depended on was becoming scarce, and "may in time almost entirely fail". That statement appeared as transiting Neptune was precisely opposed to the U.S. Neptune, and only two years before Drake's Well brought forth an abundant alternative. Projecting this same cycle onto current conditions, one can say that we've got about 15 years of increasing scarcity ahead of us, with ever-increasing oil and gas prices.

Oprah, and The Angel Network

In sharp contrast to President Bush, Oprah Winfrey quickly harnessed her abundant resources to bring hope to Hurricane Katrina's victims. She enlisted a network of celebrity friends to assist her in delivering emergency food supplies and good will. She visited the squalor at the Houston Astrodome, and in all her interviews, one central question kept coming up, "Where is our government?"

Oprah Winfrey was born with her Sun in cause-oriented Aquarius (January 29, 1954; 4:30 am; Kosciusco, MS), with a pleasant, charming conjunction to Venus**, the goddess of love and beauty. This combination gives her great networking skills, a trait which is expanded by a trine to Jupiter in the communications sign of Gemini, and blessed with terrific people-skills, as evidenced by the trine to Ceres in Libra.

All these delightful aspects are tempered by the conditions around her Mars. Her Mars is dignified in resourceful, intense Scorpio, but this placement is challenged by a square to Pluto. In a woman's chart, this dynamic aspect can bring early experiences of victimization. Later in life, her Mars may become a great reservoir of courage and strength, when she opens herself up to her own Inner Warrior.

Keep an eye on Oprah over the next month as transiting Mars opposes her own Mars. Mars turns retrograde on October 1 as it forms an exact opposition to her natal Mars. This Mars opposite Mars represents a highly charged confrontation, which will only increase over the next few weeks. Already she's expressed the influence, when she said about Katrina's aftermath: "This makes me so mad! This should not have happened."

* Marc Penfield uses February 20, 1718 for the original settling of the city, and this horoscope has some resonance with New Orleans' history. However, the incorporation chart, which Louisiana cites as the official charter and is used by Carolyn Dodson in Horoscopes of U.S. States and Cities, works better in practice.

** For more on Oprah's Sun-Venus, see NewsScope December 30, 2003.

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