for the four weeks beginning June 29, 2018
If you are unfamiliar with the methods and interpretations of Sidereal mundane astrology, see my free book Sidereal Mundane Astrology. (A link to the current edition can always be found near the top of the Publications sub-forum.) For standard interpretations, see Chapter 8 of the new 15th Edition.
LONG-TERM (Solar Ingress) PATTERNS
The 12 months beginning January 15, 2018 are unstable, revolutionary, revising, remapping, anti-establishment, and often anti-government. Here are the highlights from the Capsolar (most of which have already been manifesting all year exactly as written in January):
Pluto (0°08') & Uranus (0°42') angular. A spirit of revolution assaults current systems, tearing at iconic structures. Victory in the 2018 elections will fall to those who present best as rebels. PLUTO: High-impact events that sever connections. Mainstream and counter-establishment sensibilities clash. Leader crises, financial crises, severing historic relations. Natural disasters include hurricanes, earthquakes, floods. URANUS: Explosions (literal or metaphorical); sudden rupture, shock, surprise, overflowing normal boundaries & limitations. Disclosures, revelations, surprise attacks, changes in leadership, protests, and revolts and their suppression.
Foreground SUN-VENUS-URANUS: Changes in foreign relations are a certainty. Shifting social values, including increased liberty in Venus matters. "Culture wars" kick up more intensely for the midterm elections. The voice of rebellion is concentrated on those in the highest office.
MOON conjoins MERCURY & SATURN. Expect economic narrowing and backtracking on the recovery: recession is not unthinkable. Capsolars had close Moon-Saturn aspects in 1819, 1837, and 2008, which should concern students of American money crises. Its record for violent inhumanity is heart-stopping. Climate destabilization will escalate faster in 2018 than in previous years, with tragic, life-smashing consequences.
- Mercury + Saturn. Restrictions, delays, failures, & calamity in transportation & communication. Communication fails for technical reasons & because people stop listening to each other. Information flow is interrupted & rationed. Data integrity is increasingly doubted; cybersecurity is a greater priority than cyber-expansion. Commerce is interrupted: More newspapers go out of business, more small businesses close their doors.
- Moon-Mercury: the media remains much of the story.
- Moon-Saturn: hardship, narrowing, sacrifice, loss, sadness, with few causes for celebration. Bereavement, deprivation, disappointment, destructive assaults by people & nature; other hardship centers primarily on alienation and divisiveness. It will be a good year for undertakers.
- Saturn in Sagittarius: Internationalism, immigration, aviation, elitism, hierarchical economic separation, & missiles dominate headlines.
The Arisolar (which lasts until July 16) is dormant for Washington, DC, but adds (until mid-July) a further edge of violence and hardship: Arisolar Moon squares Saturn (2°24' in eclipto) and Mars (a blisteringly tight 0°09' in mundo).
Cansolar (Jul 16)
By supplanting the Arisolar, Sun's Cancer ingress relieves us of the Moon-Mars + Moon-Saturn severity of the prior quarter. Worldwide, it also quiets the volatility of last year's worldwide Mars-Uranus Cansolar themes. The new Cansolar is more benign.
For Washington, Moon exactly rises (0°22') in 0°16' PVP square to Neptune, part of a Moon-Venus-Neptune PVP T-square. Saturn is widely foreground. This construct primarily suggests passionate waves of populism sweeping us toward the fall elections.
Moon foreground shows powerful response by the masses feeling strongly about things, the herd’s collective will surging up powerfully from mass mind. Human-interest stories move the public emotionally to an unusual degree and children are highlighted in the news (so, for example, the current story about immigrant children being separated from their families likely will continue). Moon-Neptune reiterates extreme waves of emotional reaction, fervor, herd-mind arousal, and even hysteria accompanied by confusion, disorientation, uncertainty, and an undermined sense of security. Venus-Neptune signals intense devotion, passionate belief, compelling fantasy or role-playing, and performance art; disillusionment, betrayed alliances, perceived offenses, and diplomatic embarrassment.
On July 16, the day of the Cansolar, Presidents Trump and Putin will meet in Helsinki, Finland. Russia's Cansolar has Pluto on Eastpoint: Significant shifts are expected, though this shouldn't be overstated since Pluto is angular in Moscow's Cansolar most years. For Helsinki, the Cansolar is dormant, with the Arisolar flowing through as prevailing Quarter chart. Saturn closely rises (1°02') and a 0°23' Mars-Pluto mundane conjunction is foreground. The "spotlight on leaders" effect is amplified by a mundane Moon-Sun conjunction (0°09'). There is bad mojo coming out of this summit.
MEDIUM-TERM PATTERNS (The Bridge)
June 29 remains a URANUS-PLUTO day, continuing all the Uranus and Pluto themes mentioned above. (Pluto crosses Capsolar angles all month. Uranus conjoins Cansolar Moon until the Cansolar ends.)
June 30 to July 16 is a SATURN-URANUS-PLUTO Zone. With Uranus conjunct Cansolar Moon, Saturn conjoins Capsolar Moon (exact July 14). Such periods always bring hardship, sacrifice, loss, and sadness from (often nearly daily) deadly tragedies. These can assume many forms (itemized in our standard reference). For this fortnight-plus, events include bubble-bursting forced confrontations with harsh reality and highly polarized political tensions and face-offs. (Unfortunately, all those facts together suggest tragic events that bring gun control back to the tabletop.)
July 17-26, as Uranus' transit expires with the old Cansolar, remains a SATURN-PLUTO Zone. The same basic Saturn-Moon message continues with a different surrounding quality: Harsh, dramatic tragedies or hardship (sometimes with an apocalyptic tone) bring profound feelings of irrevocable loss or separation. Do not overlook deadly weather events as possible outcomes.
SHORT-TERM (Lunar Ingress) PATTERNS
Caplunar (Jun 29)
The Caplunar covers June 29 to July 26, especially the first week, June 29 to July 6. The indices are unusually neutral though disquieting: Moon is 0°21' from IC, Pluto 1°30' from square Ascendant.
Angular Moon appears in other charts this month. It shows powerful arising of the herd-mind, the collective response of the masses ("the people"). For example, Moon is common during populist uprisings, when the mass-mind will of the populace stands against central authority. It appears for other types of events that occur in locations where the masses herd or convene, and marks times when people feel strongly about things and say of events, "Our hearts go out to" those involved. Children are commonly at the center of such events.
Pluto angular appears in several layers of this month's stack. It marks unusually powerful, high-impact events, especially involving separations or severing connections. With Moon involved, we suspect confrontations between mainstream and counter-establishment sensibilities.
It is unclear exactly what sort of events these will be, though the rest of the chart gives mild hints. Mercury and Uranus are widely foreground, suggesting news, information, discovery, and disclosure, or perhaps that the most significant developments involve technology. In a chart unusually devoid of aspects, the Mercury/Pluto midpoint on the meridian may be the clearest signal: It shows major collisions, whether of information, communication, or vehicles. (Collisions of ideas are most common.) Consequences of events stun the intellect, perhaps so powerfully that they reframe how people think about things.
Saturn transits Capsolar Mercury on CapQ MC 6/28-29. If it hasn't ripened in the hours before this Caplunar begins, it will mark a crisis involving communication, engagement, or transportation, perhaps directly placing the media in the cross-hairs. For the July 4 holiday (and the day before), CapQ Ascendant squares Pluto.
Arilunar (Jul 6)
The Arilunar covers July 6-26 - the rest of the Sidereal month. It is a confusing time: Neptune is about 1° from Ascendant. Something happened the week before that leaves people wondering, and asking aloud, "So, what happens now?" (The last Neptune wave of this type was in the immediate aftermath of President Trump's election in November 2016).
The usual Neptune symptoms abound: the madness of the crowd, confusion, uncertainty, and disorientation. Deception is afoot. Strong feelings overflow. Facts should not necessarily be trusted or, rather, they aren't what's most relevant at the moment.
Washington has another important aspect configuration that, being mundane, does not exist for the rest of the world. Moon conjoins Uranus within 0°02'. Both square Saturn. These duplicate transits described under The Bridge and make world-impacting themes distinctive to Washington more than the rest of the world.
Moon-Saturn marks times of hardship, loss, sadness, and death. Moon-Uranus, the most common Moon aspect across all types of disasters, shows the sudden, explosive, eruptive, and shifting. It seems impossible (given the Bridge, the Caplunar, and this Arilunar) that a major natural disaster will not occur during these three weeks.
Especially before July 17 (i.e., while Moon-Uranus and Moon-Saturn transits co-exist for the world) it seems that the symbolism of Saturn + Uranus is the most important. Together they signify loss + explosion, with a bubble-bursting forced confrontation with harsh reality. Expect tension; wide swings between various opposites (e.g., freedom-restriction, liberality-conservatism, and struggle between forces of change and the status quo).
July 7, CapQ Asc crosses ingress Uranus, triggering the startling and, perhaps, revelatory. It seems forshadowing: On 7/12, CapQ MC crosses Pluto (opposed by transiting Sun), as Q Asc crosses transiting Uranus, marks of a psychologically explosive event. - CanQ MC crosses Neptunes on 7/6 and 7/8, so these are days on which Neptune indices of the week will concentrate: That on 7/6 is tragic and heart-rending, as Neptune and Saturn cross CanQ angles together, with a Venus-Neptune emphasis suggesting another tragic mass shooting.
Canlunar (Jul 13)
The Canlunar, which nominally covers July 13-19, is dormant. The Arilunar flows through.
It's also dormant for Helsinki; but, for Moscow, the partile Sun-Pluto opposition falls with Sun 0°12' from MC, Pluto 1°23'. We have so little information on deep circumstances in Moscow, it is difficult to asses exactly how this will manifest. The focus is clearly on those in power, though this aspect most often signals they are under assault, with rebellion against current political norms and an element of disrespect for an disobeying the laws. Perhaps it signals unusually loud protests, but I doubt that's all.
No quotidian crossings this week.
Liblunar (Jul 19)
The Liblunar, which nominally covers July 19-26, is dormant. The Arilunar flows through. The Liblunar adds only a Moon-Sun square which, directs attention worldwide more specifically at solar themes. While this likely, in some regions, reflects specific focus on the head of state or national government in general, its meanings are quite varied. One Moon-Sun theme is accentuated attention on cyclic phenomena such as increased variability in stock markets.
July 19, CapQ MC crosses ingress Sun-Venus, providing a day that promises progress in peace. On 7/20., transiting Jupiter crosses: It should be a day of victories and prosperity. Venus crosses again on 7/21 and Jupiter on 7/24, so the week has a string of positive markers.