I have a friend who is also one of my favorite bloggers. Recently, she asked me some fascinating questions in an interview for her blog — questions that had to do with national and world events. I thought I’d expand on those questions a bit here, and use them as examples to illustrate the astrological discipline called mundane astrology — the astrology of nations and social-scale events. Mundane astrology looks at government and politics, financial markets and businesses, and social and cultural trends.

Mundane astrologers use a number of different charts to get a deeper understanding of political and cultural trends, and predict probable events and actions. I’ll get into the questions my friend asked in a bit, but first, for those who are interested, some details of mundane astrology.

The types of charts we use are:

• Cardinal Ingress: Charts cast for the moment of a Solstice or Equinox. These times of the year, when Sun enters 0 degrees of one of the Cardinal signs, also mark the moment the Sun shifts from its northward or southward motion to the opposite direction (Solstice) or when it is exactly balanced between those two points (Equinox). In other words, these charts mark key points in the movement of the Earth in relation to the Sun. They are considered to be in effect for 3 months to a year, depending on a lot of technical details I won’t bore you with.
• Eclipse charts — When the New and Full Moons happen near the Moon’s Nodes, we get an eclipse. Either the light of Moon is blocked (Lunar Eclipse, Full Moon) or the light of Sun is blocked (Solar Eclipse, New Moon). The range of their influence is generally considered to be until the next eclipse of the same type, or about 6 months.
• Non-eclipse lunation charts — other New and Full Moons
• The charts of nations, the charts of organizations, and the charts of events, such as the announcements from SCOTUS about their decisions, or the chart of the Civil War, which is generally held to have been “born” at Ft. Sumpter.
• Transit charts: The chart of the current sky in relationship to the chart of a nation, group or event.

Each one of these charts is influencing current events at any given time along with whatever transits are happening in the moment. They are like waves breaking on the shore — you can’t point to just one and say “The seaweed and shells are arranged as they are because of this one particular wave.” So while it is difficult to foresee specific events, I can, for instance, look at the current lovely aspects between Uranus (the planet of revolution and cutting-edge social change, and a planet that tends to be prominent in the charts of gay people — because they live on that edge) and Jupiter (planet of the law and social justice) and Venus (planet of love) together in the sign of romantic love and individual expression, Leo, and say, hell yes, the recent legal decision about gay marriage is right there in the stars. But if the upcoming decision was not on my radar, I might or might not predict that these planetary alignments would result in sudden, profound cultural shifts around gay marriage. Like many other things, a lot of what can be learned from astrology depends on the questions you ask. So…on to my friend’s questions.

This is what she asked:

(1) This week was historic in several ways. Let’s start with the Supreme Court’s ratification of the ACA. Was there anything in the stars that predicted this?

(2) It seems as if the move from the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius has involved affirmation of many different forms of love. Can you tell us if the stars predicted this, and, if so, what are they saying about the next decade or so?

(3) The Civil War was a long time ago, but this month has seen a real intensification in the move to bring down the Confederate flag and other symbols of the Confederacy. Did you see this coming? Were there astrological indications that this would be happening?

(4) A number of activists now say that it’s time to turn to a focus on passing the Equal Rights Amendment. What can astrology tell us about how to go about this?

And here are my answers:

Before I get into the individual questions, let’s look at some of the longer-term outer planet influences that are currently affecting all of these events. The Uranus-Pluto square is separating, but still in effect, and the core meaning of this long-term aspect is the breakdown of fossilized, restrictive authority in the face of demands for freedom and change. We also have Neptune moving powerfully through its own sign of Pisces, bringing profound spiritual awareness, deception, or disillusionment to the zeitgeist, depending on how one handles the energy. Saturn has been in Scorpio for the past 2 1/2 years, moved into Sagittarius for a few months, and recently moved back into Scorpio through September. The move into Sagittarius brought issues of social justice to the forefront — its retrograde back into Scorpio gives us another chance to comb our personal and cultural subconscious for lingering shreds of whatever hatreds we are struggling with, be it racism, misogyny, or homophobia.

So with that background, we can look at the ACA, which was signed into law on March 23, 2010 at 11:00 am. This gives us the act’s “birth” chart. It’s a chart full of arguments and challenges, unsurprisingly, but when you look at the aspects between this chart and the chart of the USA, there were strong indicators from the first that the law would prevail. Last week, as SCOTUS was deciding its fate, Uranus is directly conjunct Venus in the ACA chart, and Venus rules the 12th house of public health matters in that chart. Transiting Venus and Jupiter trine the natal Venus. There’s a lot more, including transiting Saturn in Scorpio square the Aquarian Midheaven and Neptune in the chart (a shit or get off the pot aspect).

I will also note that the chart reveals the deep flaws in this “better than nothing but far from perfect” law and the confusion that has surrounded it from the beginning. (I can pretty much assure you no astrologer was consulted about the time of the signing. The distracting three-ring circus of bad PR — website problems, ill-informed legal challenges and rumors of death panels — that surrounded implementation of the law was pure Neptune — which was right on the chart’s Midheaven — the point of public presentation. Neptune was also conjunct the USA’s Moon, almost assuring that the public would be confused.

As far as the openness of society to different forms of love and sexuality, again, we can see the influence of the Uranus-Pluto square breaking down cultural norms, particularly sexual ones (Pluto, along with Mars and Venus, rules sexuality) and Neptune in Pisces reminding us that we are all inextricably entwined with each other and with our world. As Saturn moves through Sagittarius over the next 2 years or so, we’ll see a tremendous amount of conflict over religion and law, particularly when Saturn squares Neptune, an aspect which will become exact next year. Since the primary objections to non-traditional love and sexuality come from the religious right, I would say that there is a good possibility their objections will be argued into the ground and finally become a non-issue over the span of the next year or two. I also suspect that Jupiter in the relationship sign of Libra moving into an opposition with Uranus in 2017, along with Saturn in a beneficial aspect to these two planets will also bring us to new understandings of relationship.

The sudden, infuriating, heart-wrenching tragedy in Charleston that spurred the most recent objections to the display of the confederate flag, and the resulting national conversation on race relations is not something *I* would have predicted — at least, not that specifically — but I have not made an astrological study of the Civil War or the history of race relations in the US. Astrologer Nick Dagan Best has, and came up with a very interesting correlation between certain cycles of Venus, particularly as it moves into Virgo then retrogrades through Leo, and key moments in race relations in the US. Venus is now in Leo, within the shadow period of its upcoming retrograde in Virgo. Best wrote:

“Drawing from these two parallel groups of five points, this one pair appears to have a profound connection with a historical chronology of race relations in the U.S., going back at least to the Nat Turner slave rebellion of 1831. The retrograde that currently stations in Virgo, then goes direct in Leo (during the 19th century it was stationing retrograde in Libra and direct in Virgo), and its counterpart superior conjunction, which now occurs in the late degrees of Leo every other four years, has a peculiar prominence in the timeline of tensions between races in U.S. history, largely black-white tensions” http://exotericastrology.blogspot.com/2007/08/venus-retrograde-cycles-of-injustice.html

Now that I am familiar with Best’s work (which I just recently discovered) I’ll be looking for this correlation again in the summer of 2023, when Venus again goes retrograde in Leo.

As I write this, I am looking at notes I made on the Summer Solstice chart (http://witchesandpagans.com/pagan-culture-blogs/diotima-mantineia/summer-school-lessons-of-the-solstice.html) I used when preparing to write my blog post on that chart — notes made prior to the Charleston murders. Here are a few of the ones that pertain to the national reaction to the murders (somewhat expanded for clarity)

• Gemini Mars-Cancer Sun conjuct at Gemini midheaven suggests possible violence around communication, ideas, and/or home and tradition. Declaration of some sort of war? Communications war? Or simply a lot of “patriotic” bloviating?
• Tight Moon-Saturn square Leo to Scorpio, anaretic degree, 12th to 3rd houses — crises of tradition, lessons of trust and generosity, deep shadow work on a societal level.
• Powerful Mercury-Neptune square, 9th to 6th, brings deep, divisive, emotional discussions around religion, philosophy, big ideas, and the law. Also deception, illusion and disillusionment, issues around mental illness, possibly police? Military?
• Jupiter-Venus trine Uranus in Fire signs might save the day here. Generosity, open-heartedness, willingness to change, intuitive and creative connections.

I titled my post on the Gemini New Moon — the chart that sets the stage for this month — “Speak Truth to Power” and wrote (http://witchesandpagans.com/pagan-culture-blogs/diotima-mantineia/speak-truth-to-power-new-moon-in-gemini.html):

“We have our work cut out for us — how do we communicate clearly, speak forcefully enough to initiate change without driving others back into the defensive emotional postures of Saturn in Scorpio or into Neptune’s realm of escapist fantasy? We will likely be faced with powerful, repressed ideas and emotions that get blurted out in often painful ways. We’ll see this in ourselves, in our relationships, and in the world around us. Reacting with compassion to social blunders, verbal faux pas, and unintentional insults will be a challenging but necessary response to Mercury and Saturn’s game of truth and consequences.”

And we also can see similar indications of violence and passionately-held opinions in the fiery charts of the two recent eclipses, which I wrote about here http://witchesandpagans.com/pagan-culture-blogs/diotima-mantineia/balancing-change-new-moon-eclipse-and-spring-equinox.html and here http://witchesandpagans.com/pagan-culture-blogs/diotima-mantineia/playing-with-fire-lunar-eclipse-in-libra.html. All of these charts are still influential — still breaking on the shore.

Now, as for the ERA (the mere mention of which always elicits a deep sigh from me. I turned 20 the day it passed, and it felt like a birthday present — gave me such hope for the future. 43 years later….).

Anyway, to answer this question, I’m looking at the chart of the ERA’s becoming law — its “birthday” — March 22, 1972 4:38 pm. I’m also looking at transits and progressions to that chart, and the aspects between the chart of the Amendment and the chart of the USA (the “Sibley” chart, with 12 degrees Sagittarius rising)

Moon in Cancer in the ERA’s chart is conjunct the USA’s Sun and square its Saturn, and the ERA Mars and Saturn are square the USA Moon, which indicates to me that one of the reasons this has been so hard to get ratified is because of a deep, traditional, Mom-and-apple-pie, and very authoritarian streak in the national psyche that is difficult to overcome — but not impossible, and I believe the next three years will be key.

As for the “how” I believe the goal requires both a bottom-up and top-down approach — a grassroots uprising AND blatant displays of political power. I think the military, and issues around women in the military, may well play a large role in any resurgence of momentum around ratification.

One of the problems with this chart and its interaction with the USA chart is that we women are too easily silenced by the powers that be, and those of us who do speak up are labeled as “shrill” and “harpies” and outliers who don’t speak for the majority. There is also a sense of “why is this needed?”. So communication and PR work will be very important, particularly stories that emphasize the “why we need this” angle. Education of the public around the “why” and the (hopefully) concurrent outcry for equality is the grassroots piece. But we also need some raw power and political cage-rattling to make sure this issue stays front and center in the public eye. Women’s rights must become an issue in the upcoming presidential campaign and, for all my objections to Clinton, I am glad of her candidacy.