Asteroid-World Fall 1988
Zip Dobyns
This issue of the Asteroid-World is being written in the week just preceding the November 8 election, and the consensus at this time supports my forecast that Bush would win the Presidency. NCGR published a birth time for Quayle a month ago, but it turned out to be a speculative chart by an Indiana astrologer. We do finally have at least an approximate time, thanks to T Pat Davis who got it from the Lebanon, Indiana newspaper, home town of Quayle’s parents. Lois Rodden then passed it on to me. According to the local paper on the day after the event, the Quayle baby was born at noon (February 4, 1947). He is reported to have been born in Indianapolis. I assume that his mother chose to go to a larger hospital in the major city, but he grew up in Lebanon. I had speculated that he might have the south node of the Moon on the Ascendant. Instead, the north node is on the Ascendant within a half degree, and the Sun is on the MC within 21 minutes of longitude. The impulsive, sometimes incoherent speech which I credited to Sagittarius is shown by a rising Uranus in Gemini supported by a close grand trine in air signs in fire houses and a wider grand trine in fire signs in air houses. No wonder he grew up playing “life of the party.” Fire-air combinations play games while earth-water combinations worry about and work for security.
One of the major features of the chart is a close Moon-Saturn conjunction in Leo, with progressed (P) Saturn holding a one-degree-orb conjunction to the Moon for much of Quayle’s life. Traditional astrologers when faced with this combination of unconditional love parent and conditional love parent, describe harsh, punitive, dominating, critical, etc. parents, assuming that the Saturn principle will always triumph over the Moon principle. In Quayle’s case (as in others I have seen), the Moon principle (unconditional love parent) was dominant over the Saturn principle, indicating his over-indulgent, over-protective parents who permitted an extended childhood. Perhaps the challenge of being Vice President will nudge Quayle further into adulthood. So far, his sheltered life has always given him what he wanted on the proverbial silver platter.
I have Quayle’s secondary progressions, solar arc directions, and harmonic arc directions calculated for Election Day, and they further support the now obvious likelihood of a Bush-Quayle victory on November 8. Quayle’s P Venus is on both natal Sun and MC with P Moon conjunct natal Mars and sextile-trine the mean nodes of the Moon. By inauguration day on January 20, 1989, P Moon is forming an exact grand trine to the Ascendant, true north node of the Moon, and Neptune, as well as forming a semisextile to P Mercury which is conjunct P Mars in the tenth house. P Sun and P MC in a lifetime conjunction are trine P Jupiter in the sixth house. Quayle’s local angles in Washington, DC are also strongly aspected. Natal Mercury has a one-degree-orb conjunction to the local MC, and P Uranus holds a conjunction to the local Ascendant for over thirty years.
The solar arc directions emphasize changes in Quayle’s life with five quincunxes, two oppositions, several squares, octiles, and trioctiles, and very few harmonious aspects. He will have directed (D) Sun octile natal Sun in about two years, so in the system of solar arcs, every planet will be octile its own natal position for the last two years of his term of office. These patterns mark the time of life which psychology calls the “mid-life crisis,” though psychologists are mostly ignorant of the usefulness of astrology in pinpointing times of emotional stress.
As readers know, I have been fascinated by the harmonic arcs which multiply each natal factor by the solar arc (difference between natal and secondary progressed Suns) so each natal factor has its own unique motion. Planets or angles which are early in the zodiac move very slowly while those in the last degrees of the zodiac move very rapidly. A factor in 1 degree of Aries will move only about 1 degree a year, while a factor at 29 degrees of Pisces will move almost one degree a day, circling the whole chart (minus one degree) in a year. You really need a computer to do accurate harmonic arcs, but I hope that readers who have our CCRS program will try them out now and then.
On election day, Quayle has harmonic (H) Pallas (the asteroid most involved in counseling, law, and politics) conjunct Pluto and opposite its natal position, sextile Neptune, semisextile H Moon on one side and H Jupiter on the other side, quincunx H south node of the Moon. H Saturn is just out of the one degree orb to H Pallas but is sextile Pluto and trine natal Pallas and opposite H Ceres which is conjunct Vesta and square H Mercury and sextile H East Point. There are 17 factors, including natal and harmonic positions, which form an incredible network of overlapping aspects ranging from 8 to 13 degrees in various signs. A few of the many other aspects are H Mars sextile Venus, H Sun sextile Mercury on one side and H Vesta on the other side, semisextile Jupiter and trine H Pluto, H Ascendant trine Juno, H Venus quincunx Sun-MC, and H Chiron quincunx Uranus.
Of course, there are lots of interesting natal and progressed asteroids. Natal Washingtonia at nine Leo is sextile Ascendant and north node of the Moon while P Washingtonia is slowly retrograding over the Moon, headed for P Saturn. I was especially curious to find the location of the four asteroids named for Herbert Hoover, since there is a strong potential for a depression during the next four years. Three of them are in Quayle’s sixth house (work and health issues) and one is in his first house. The placements fit the pressures involving rising medical costs, a struggle over Medicare including long term nursing care for an aging population, AIDS, and jobs which do not pay enough to keep a family above the poverty level. The most obvious namesake of our “depression” President, Hooveria, is conjunct Quayle’s south node of the Moon within 17 minutes of longitude and just one degree and two minutes below the seventh house cusp. Since the south node is within one degree of the Descendant, there is an “overlap” aspect that in effect puts Hooveria on the Descendant. To further dramatize the message, P Hooveria is conjunct Quayle’s local Descendant in Washington, DC and also conjunct natal Juno. Of course it is his partner, George Bush, who is putting Quayle into this power role for the coming years where he may have to deal with “Hoover issues.”
It will be interesting to see what these two “patricians,” card-carrying members of our wealthy elite, do about the increasing gulf between the wealthy and the rest of us. Franklin Delano Roosevelt also came from the elite, but he instigated measures which mitigated the suffering of the poor and which coincidentally also may have given capitalism a new lease on life. As Henry Ford recognized a long time ago, there is no point in producing goods unless people are being paid enough money to be able to buy them. I have just read an excellent article contrasting this obvious reality with the stupidity of the elite who think that lowering the wages and standard of living of most workers and giving the wealthy still more money will solve our current debt problems. If anyone out there has time to read (this is a luxury I am claiming in my semi-retired state), the article is called “America’s Economic Future” by Jeff Faux in the summer 1988 issue of World Policy Journal. So far, Bush’s speeches have been firmly in line with the “austerity” solution. Of course, the austerity is strictly for the majority of the population. Bush calls for a reduction in capital gains taxes (to benefit stock owners) and no increase in taxes to preserve the Reagan bonanza for the already rich. Faux suggests that one of the clearest articulations of the “austerity viewpoint” was presented by Peter G. Peterson in the cover article in The Atlantic Monthly that appeared just before the October 1987 stock market crash. I think there is no question that if Peterson’s policies were actually carried out, we would have a world wide depression that would make the 1930s look like a picnic in the park.
For those who skipped earlier articles on the “Hoover asteroids,” they are Hooveria, ARA, America, and Herberta. To reinforce the message that the shadow of Hoover looms over the coming administration, Quayle’s P Neptune is just starting a lifetime octile to ARA while solar arc Neptune will start a two-year conjunction to it in December 1988. P Uranus holds a lifetime quincunx to America. Herberta is in Quayle’s first house, exactly conjunct Bush’s natal Sun (and Mars in the U.S. Declaration of Independence chart). How is that for appropriate, since Bush’s full name is George Herbert Walker Bush?
Some of the geographic asteroids support Quayle’s involvement with other countries in the years ahead. P Italia and P Russia are conjunct P Vesta (work), with all of them quincunx P ARA. P Hollandia is conjunct P Mercury-P Mars. P Tokio is conjunct Saturn along with P Urania. P Taiwan is conjunct P Pluto, opposite Pallas and sextile Neptune. P Germania is conjunct P Juno along with P Siva and P south node of Mars. P Hispania is conjunct P north node of the Moon. P Arabia, P Ankara (capital of Turkey), and P Pretoria (capital of South Africa) are on Vesta. P Helsinki (capital of Finland and site of an agreement on human rights) is on P Sun-MC. P south node of the Moon stays on Indiana for many years, suggesting lessons or debts connected to Quayle’s home state. Others might be listed, but I have limited the list to conjunctions. Only one-degree-orb aspects are included. Since progressed asteroids move fairly slowly, most of these listed aspects will remain in effect throughout a term of office.
Another grouping hints that Quayle might be “biting off more than he can chew.” P Pandora is conjunct his P local Ascendant. P Icarus is conjunct natal Mars (and P Moon at the election). P Psyche is opposite Ceres while P Ceres in conjunct Dembowska and Fanatica and P local MC opposes P Atlantis. The latter grouping suggests continuing power struggles. Psyche is often associated with feelings of helplessness or powerlessness. Dembowska seems very similar to Saturn, and Fanatica is prominent in the charts of the CIA, Oliver North, and George Bush. Speaking of Pandora, one of the “boxes” which was just opened involves testimony from a former drug dealer in an Oklahoma jail. Public radio quotes this source as claiming that in 1971-3 he sold marijuana to Quayle and his staff at least 15 to 20 times. It will be interesting to see whether the main stream press picks up the story and how the campaign “spin doctors” handle it. So far I have seen nothing in the major media. Still another strictly hearsay rumor claims that Quayle paid someone else to take his law exam for him. Since the substitute test-taker would lose his own license if he admitted doing such a thing, the story is likely to stay in the realm of gossip. Quayle’s official “handlers” have kept him campaigning in areas where embarrassing questions are minimized. Reporters covering the show say that the Republican campaign managers are crowing over their triumph in overcoming Bush’s negative image and pushing him to victory through deceit and a focus on superficial issues.
We had better leave our hot-air kid, but his chart is a good example of one showing some sort of “karmic” destiny. People who live “ordinary” lives just do not have such quantities of close and meaningful aspects with the asteroids. Working with mundane astrology and with the great variety of tools we now have in astrology, the question of “free will” keeps hammering at one. As I have written before, I think that character creates destiny and that individuals can change their personal attitudes and actions (provided they can reach the unconscious mind effectively). But I don’t think that most of us can change the world very much. We come in to life where we fit an ongoing pattern which is bigger than we are. I think that Bush and Quayle were destined to win this contest, but that they may wonder why they wanted the jobs before they are finished with them. They may do an FDR and surprise us by actually persuading the elite that too much austerity could kill the goose that is laying the eggs. Or they may be outrageous enough to finally rouse the sleeping giant of democracy as the major planets move into Aquarius.
I just saw a good interview on PBS with Bill Moyers and Noam Chomsky. At the end, Chomsky called for proliferating voluntary organizations and a minimum of structures based on hierarchy, domination and control. That is a pretty succinct formulation of the confrontation between Uranus and Saturn that has been pinpointing the crucial struggle for democracy which we face. The presence of the Saturn-Uranus conjunctions in Sagittarius have pointed to the importance of beliefs and values in the coming showdown. Chomsky warns that the Reagan, capitalist supreme value of personal greed and personal gain can remain viable when exercised by limited groups, but if it really became THE global ultimate value, we would destroy our ecology and end up living in a state of permanent conflict even if we avoided destroying the whole earth with nuclear war or waste. (The government is currently in a state of crisis over the mismanaged plants producing material for nuclear arms in South Carolina, Ohio, Colorado, and Washington state. New information on the past release of radiation in air, water, and earth has alarmed the residents living near these plants).
Chomsky’s latest book, Manufacturing Consent, describes the way the U.S. population is being brain-washed by the major media. The most obvious example is the way the Republicans have defined the whole population other than corporations as “special interests.” Who are these “special interests”? They are workers, women, minorities, farmers, poor people, older people. Who is left? The managers of the corporations, (businesses, media, universities, think tanks, and governments who play musical chairs with their jobs), who actually run the show and profit from it. The “real” special interests have managed to define everyone else as special interests!
Returning to astrology, we still have no birth time for Barbara Bush (and at least two possibilities for George), but I am going to include a purely speculative chart for Barbara. Most of the dates I have for George’s life are approximate, and I have almost nothing that is purely for Barbara, so don’t take her chart too seriously but we can watch her life during the next few years. The L. A. Weekly, one of my “alternate press” sources, has had a series of articles on the hidden dirt in Bush’s life, as well as an expose on the labor-training bill of which Quayle is so proud. The Quayle-Kennedy bill is apparently a typical boondoggle for the rich. Instead of providing funds for local governments to train unemployed people, as was done by CETA, the bill killed by Reagan with great fanfare, the Quayle bill gives the money to businesses. A small number of business owners determine who gets the money, so naturally they award it to themselves and to their friends. The L. A. Weekly describes cases in which a business owner was helped to fire his union workers and replace them with non-union help who worked for less with the government paying most of the cost of their (reduced) salaries. Of course, you won’t see anything about this in the main stream press.
One of the interesting stories in the L. A. Weekly described Bush’s “affairs.” If the story is accurate, he has done his share of “playing” but has been much more discrete than Gary Hart. The longest running affair was supposedly with a woman named Jennifer Fitzgerald who still works for him but who had some of her power removed when she became too arrogant in her dealings with other staff members. Despite his caution, the story of Bush’s affairs was widely circulated in Washington, DC. Dole seriously considered using the stories in the primary campaign, but decided that they might backfire. An aid to Dukakis was the first to get the story into the main stream press, and she resigned immediately after it hit the news. Apparently, George Bush Junior once publicly denied that his father ever committed adultery, but George Senior was indignant that he said anything and has refused to comment on the subject. One of these days, a lot a secret dealing is going to come out—maybe some of it in the fall of 1989.
George’s exact Moon square Venus, with Pluto on Venus and Saturn widely on the Moon, along with his seventh house Uranus in Pisces in a lifetime square to natal Sun and quincunx Neptune, north lunar node and East point in the Pisces house, certainly show the possibility of marital friction or instability. However, until I saw the story in the L. A. Weekly, I had given Bush credit for handling the aspects constructively, manifesting the power struggles in his business and political competition. So he just lost his last redeeming feature as far as I’m concerned. We now have to add hypocrisy (claimed devotion to his wife and family) to his support of using the CIA to overthrow any third world government which tries to take the power from the wealthy to give ordinary people a break (that automatically defines them as “communists”), and to his deliberate deceit about his participation in Irancontragate. The most shocking part of the dirty business involved allowing the Medellin Cartel to bring drugs into the U.S. in order to fund the Contras’ effort to overthrow the democratically elected government of Nicaragua in order to restore the power of the wealthy elite.
I’m not sure what kind of karma our country is due to receive. Maybe we have to learn to read the alternate press, listen to public radio, and vote. Another recent expose on Bush appeared in the November 3, 1988 issue of Rolling Stone. I am indebted to Barbara Blanchard for sending me a copy. If any readers have the Mother Jones issue with an article on Bush, I would love to have a photocopy. I have heard that material was published but have not seen it. Maybe we have to learn the cost of greed. It is incredible that “liberal” has been turned into a dirty word and greed has become a badge of honor. It may take the challenge of crises, whether in the economy, from the weather, from epidemic illness, or from threats to our Bill of Rights, to remind us that life is interdependent and that we need to help each other.
Before finally leaving the election, I would like to recommend the fall 1988 issue of Geocosmic News. It was edited by Frances McEvoy, and she did a super job! It has more interesting articles than any astrological publication that I have seen in years.
Our Saturday morning mundane discussion has been exploring some interesting charts, including some of the “hot spots” in the world: Yugoslavia (featured in the asteroids included in this issue of Asteroid-World), Algeria, Czechoslovakia, a new military leader in Lebanon, the son of Emperor Hirohito taking on new power, etc. Last week we worked with a tentative chart for Stalin. There is some uncertainty about his data, but the chart seems to work well for the major events in his life. Since he was born in the last century, we do not have the extra asteroids, but our other “extra” factors seem appropriate: nodes of the planets, Arabic Parts, midpoints, etc. The tentative data is December 21, 1879 (New Style calendar), at 8:15 LMT in Gori, U.S.S.R., 41 N 58, 44 E 7.
The Capricorn rising with Moon conjunct Saturn in Aries square the Ascendant offers a good contrast to Quayle whose Moon-Saturn was also in a fire sign in the third house but widely sextile the Ascendant. Stalin’s experience fits the typical interpretation of Moon-Saturn. His father was brutal. He was an abused child. His father died when he was eleven, and his mother struggled to provide basic necessities for him. In his early teens, his mother sent him to Seminary to become a Priest, but he became an atheist and joined the Bolshevik revolution. You can see the spiritual potential with Sun in Sagittarius in the twelfth house, Jupiter in Pisces sextile the Ascendant, and Chiron conjunct Neptune, trine Ascendant and sextile Jupiter. But the chart is also dominated by earth signs which tend to be skeptical, needing tangible proof. Earth can also be ruthless. Vesta and Saturn may indicate a willingness to do whatever is necessary to accomplish what is seen as one’s job. I usually find a prominent Vesta in charts of people who accomplish a lot, though it may be at the expense of other people. Stalin’s Vesta is the most elevated factor in the horoscope, in the tenth house conjunct the MC on one side and Venus on the other side, exactly opposite Neptune, quincunx Saturn, sextile Ascendant and Uranus, and semisextile Mercury. Stalin was unquestionably very intelligent and very competent, but he took horrifying means to achieve his ends.
Vesta was equally prominent when Stalin finally died on March 5, 1953. Like Jim Jones, another Vesta-Saturn case, he was apparently paranoid by the time he died. He was threatening to kill his doctors who had not been able to cure him, and there is a strong likelihood that the doctors helped ease him out of his body. P Vesta was on Mercury at the time, quincunx the fourth house Neptune. P Venus squared Vesta and P Mars was quincunx it, completing a yod with natal Saturn. P Ascendant was crossing the IC along with the P Part of Death, quincunx P Moon and P eighth house cusp (Placidus). P Mercury was quincunx the Moscow MC. Many other aspects could be listed which support the accuracy of the chart including P local East Point conjunct P Saturn and the natal Moscow Part of Death while P MC squared the natal Gori Part of Death.
In addition to Saturn and Vesta, Pluto, Mars, and Uranus can also contribute to a strong will and ruthlessness. P Pluto remained in an octile to the Ascendant for most of Stalin’s life. It was also just over a degree from the natal Part of Death which in turn was within one degree of the Arabic Part of Mars. Stalin also had the south node of Vesta on his natal Ascendant if this birth time is right. South Mars was on the natal Moon within minutes of longitude. When he died, P MC was on the P south node of Pluto and P south Vesta was on the natal East Point. I hope to spend more time on the possible charts for Russia in the future, and to compare them with this chart for Stalin and with our tentative chart for Gorbachev.
The charts for various countries have come from several sources including the books by Moon Moore, Doris Chase Doan, Glen Malek, and Marc Penfield. The chart for Algeria’s freedom from France is set for 0 A.M. on July 5, 1962 in Algiers. The chart has a progressed New Moon this winter, during December 1988 to January 1989. Major new developments are possible for the country. As is true for many countries, they face serious unemployment and poverty.
One of the possible charts for Czechoslovakia is calculated for the signature of the President on a decree endorsing the new government. The data is February 25, 1948 at 4:30 P.M. in Prague. UT is one hour earlier. If the chart is a valid one (all countries are born in stages and have several useful charts), P MC has been going over Uranus and is now coming to an opposition to Jupiter as well as trining Mercury in Aquarius and sextiling the Leo Ascendant. P Sun is conjunct Venus in Aries in the ninth house. You can see why the people are rebelling against their rigid, Communist bosses, and listening to the call of Perestroika. But P Sun is going to square P Vesta and quincunx natal Moon while Mars stays on Saturn and square the Moon’s mean nodes for years, Saturn stays square the progressed nodes, and the nodes stay square Pluto. Pluto, Saturn, and Mars are in Leo in the twelfth house with the nodes in Taurus-Scorpio. The true nodes have retrograded back to remain on the MC-IC for many years. Lasting fixed squares suggest a stalemate power struggle that may continue for years.
Yugoslavia also has a long conjunction of P Saturn to Mars though in a different sign and house; Cancer in the ninth. In both cases, the symbolism shows the struggle between freedom (Mars) and rigid, bureaucratic structure (Saturn), with ethics and ideals and values centrally involved (ninth and twelfth houses). Even countries are born when the character fits the situation and portrays the destiny. I am using a chart for Yugoslavia set at zero A.M. on February 1, 1946 in Belgrade. If this is a valid chart, the aspects certainly suggest that there could be major changes in the government in the years immediately ahead. P Jupiter holds a long sextile-trine to the P nodes of the Moon and P Uranus remains sextile the MC for years. P Mercury is about to go retrograde and will hold a long trine to Pluto. P MC is trine the Moon and in a few months will trine Vesta in the third house. These aspects, added to the strong air emphasis in the chart, suggest intelligence which could encourage compromise solutions. A recent addition to my sources from the alternative press is called “In These Times.” Their latest issue has a good article on Yugoslavia, describing the six republics and two provinces which make up the country and explaining the roots of some of the current tensions. With the diversity of languages and cultures and economic conditions, they need their air to find the compromises which are necessary if they are to remain united as a single country.
Stress aspects in the Yugoslavia horoscope include a long octile-trioctile from the P nodes of the Moon to Pluto. P Sun is coming to a quincunx to P Jupiter and will square the nodes. It is already trioctile P Pluto. P Vesta is quincunx Saturn and P Antivertex opposes it. P East Point has been moving over the Moon’s south node and the aspect (to the true node) lasts for almost another three and a half years. The second house placement points to the economic problems which plague almost all countries at this time while the focus on Vesta and Saturn highlight the employment issue. P Venus is quincunx the Ascendant for changes in action and its sextile to Mercury is another aspect supporting thinking and talking so Yugoslavia may escape some of the violence that overshadows many countries. During the fall uproar P Moon in the tenth house (executive) was quincunx the natal Moon and then Vesta in the third house as the government tried to pacify the people by some resignations and allowing a fair amount of open marching and complaining.
Looking at a few asteroids, P Atlantis (our favorite key to power struggles) is conjunct natal Yugoslavia and opposite Ceres (the Virgo earth mother connected to work and food). P Mercury is square P Yugoslavia. In the early fall, P Moon was octile natal Yugoslavia and P Atlantis while conjunct natal America. P Atlantis holds the octile to America for years. I’m not sure what role the U.S. is playing in the situation.
In addition to the political and economic news there have been some interesting developments in astronomy. Chiron has been officially declared to be a comet. I am hoping to add Halley to our program in time since it has proved so important in our presidential race. Asteroid collisions with earth are getting more attention as astronomers discover that they have occurred more often than had been previously realized. A fairly recent theory suggests that collisions with big asteroids may have been responsible for the periodic reversals in earth’s magnetic field. More than eighty asteroids with a diameter of at least one kilometer have been discovered which cross or come near the orbit of earth (and thus could collide), and more are being spotted regularly. So for the people who want to worry about something, forget polar flips and California falling in the ocean and worry about being hit by a good sized piece of rock and metal.
Cycles, published by the Foundation for the Study of Cycles, continues to offer very stimulating material. If anyone can afford their annual fee of $59, it is one of the most progressive groups I know. The September/October 1988 issue of the journal had another article by Kokus demonstrating how southern California earthquakes occurred significantly often with Sun-Moon conjunctions or oppositions for quakes in the areas of Bakersfield and Long Beach, and with Sun-Moon trioctiles in the area of Parkfield. Of course Kokus didn’t use those terms but graphed the angular distances associated with quakes in the different geological regions.
The big financial news in the past months has been the merger mania along with continuing trouble for Savings and Loans institutions. My financial journals and newsletters continue to feature stories on the dangers of the increasing debt loads, the possibility that it may take 50 to 100 billion of taxpayer money to bail out the insolvent thrifts (savings and loans), and the number of small investors and even big money funds who are mostly staying out of the stock market. The stock markets have stayed in a trading range for months, and many forecasters expect them to turn down again shortly after the election. The “experts” who are predicting a major recession vary on their theoretical “trigger” for the collapse with some expecting the Japanese stock market to start the slide next time though it is currently one of the few markets to have surpassed the August 1987 peak. Another theory suggests that the inflated Japanese real estate market will crash first and bring down their stock market.
Some “experts” think that failing banks will produce a credit contraction and consequent high interest which will topple the structure while others think “junk” bonds (rated as not safe) will do the job. The November 15, 1988 issue of Financial World included an article on the number of bonds that have recently defaulted, pointing out that they are mostly municipal bonds, sold by cities to pay for everything from nursing homes to shopping centers to racetracks. In 1987, 123 municipal bond issues worth 1.1 billion dollars defaulted (ceased paying interest or principal). They were mostly “conduit” bonds guaranteed by private corporations rather than by governments, and mostly involving relatively “small” amounts (one or two million is small for a bond) but they stung a lot of small investors and as much as 1.2 trillion of this market may still be waiting for an economic downturn to “go bust.” Even a minor recession could bring major problems to the companies or individuals which have borrowed billions to buy out other companies. Unless the debts of the less developed countries are handled, their starving people will be unable to buy from the industrial world which continues to produce more than it can sell, thus intensifying the competition.
Of course, we face the choice of raising taxes (which will slow our economy) or reducing government spending (which will do the same) or raising interest rates to persuade foreigners to loan us more (which will do the same) or becoming vastly more productive with new technology and skills (a much more appealing prospect).
For astrologers who study financial horoscopes, I have a recent data bonanza from a broker interested in using astrology on the market. He has gotten a date and time that the modern Japanese Stock Exchange opened for business in Tokyo: May 16, 1949 at 9 A.M. (0 A.M. UT). I think we still need to do additional checking on the data, but we can do some testing of the chart. The broker also got the time of the first OPEC meeting: September 14, 1960 at 3 P.M. in Baghdad, Iraq (noon UT). The Zurich Stock Exchange opened on April 1, 1882 at 11:34 A.M. according to his data, and the new Deutsch Mark (West German currency) was official on June 18, 1948 at 8 P.M. in Frankfurt, Germany. I have calculated the charts but as yet have had almost no time to work with them. They will have to wait for another day, but readers interested in mundane astrology can explore for themselves. I hope the Tokyo exchange data can be confirmed since some forecasters think they are especially vulnerable if we have another big crash. I am also very eager to work with the OPEC chart since the enormous turbulence in the finances of the world has largely stemmed from their huge increases in oil prices in 1973 and again in 1979. A very brief inspection of the chart suggests that major developments might occur early next year. There will be a Saturn return right after our prospective oil president takes office, the Saudis may join forces with Texaco, and a gasoline tax is possible despite the “read my lips” pledge. But for now, we will close with our usual valuable contribution from Seraphita. [Not in the web archives.]
Postscript: I finally ran some charts on the Computer Virus episode which has been in the headlines as I wrote the preceding material, and I can’t resist adding a note on the asteroids. A computer “virus” is a computer program which enters a computer without permission and may disturb or damage its functioning. I have conflicting information on the beginning of this episode. The November 5, 1988 Los Angeles Times wrote that the virus was noticed about 9 P.M. on November 2 by Cliff Stoll who is in charge of computers at Harvard. He thought that the intruding program had entered his system about 6 hours earlier from Rand Corporation in the L.A. area. The Times article also says that the virus entered the University of Pittsburgh computer system at 8:27 P.M. according to Robert Hoffman, manager of computer systems. By 8:56 P.M. when the Pittsburgh system was shut down, the virus was said to be already headed to another computer. A message about a “demon,” computer jargon for an intruder program or virus, showed up on a computer screen at 9:16 P.M. at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory but the time zone is not mentioned.
November 7 articles in the Wall Street Journal give a different scenario. They claim that the virus was not sent out until 9 P.M. from a computer at Cornell University in upstate New York. The University of California at Berkeley and the Cambridge Massachusetts Universities (Harvard and MIT) were described as among the first targets. Researchers working late at MIT noticed about 10 P.M. that their programs were running very slowly. They stopped the activity and restarted things and went out for ice cream thinking the problem was solved. When they returned at midnight, the slowdown had returned. U.C. Berkeley was reported to be hit at 10:15 EST, the regional Bell labs in New Jersey were hit about 10:30 P.M., Princeton University was struck just four minutes later, NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California was breached at 9:45 P.M. in one story and at 11 P.M. EST according to another, John Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland got it at 12:31 A.M. on Thursday, and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor followed at 1:15 A.M. Both Princeton and the government labs at Los Alamos, New Mexico were said to have noticed a problem at midnight, and at that time, NASA’s Ames lab cut off all communications with outside researchers, stranding 52,000 computer users.
Over 6,000 computers were actually invaded by the virus, including systems belonging to hundreds of institutions; defense contractors, universities, research laboratories, etc. Over 1,000 military computers were involved though none with secret, classified information. The Internet system includes three subsidiary networks, ARPANET, MILNET, and NSFNET, all connected by telephone modems which let the invading program keep spreading to new systems where it duplicated itself. The replication of the original program quickly occupied the available memory of about six thousand computers and they literally shut down, lacking memory to go on with their originally scheduled tasks. The program did not destroy data (as has been done by some malicious virus attacks in the past) but it cost millions of dollars in lost time for the computers and their operators. For example, each of the 52,000 computers cut off by Ames Lab had to be checked to see whether the virus had actually entered it, a process that can take four to six hours. One estimate of the time required to bring all the affected computers back on line was about 140 man-years.
The virus is reported to have originated with Robert Tappan Morris Jr., a computer student at Cornell University and son of an expert on computer safety—that is, on methods to protect computers against such invasions. Friends said that Morris had made a mistake in writing his program, that the results were not intentional, and that he was terrified when he saw what was happening. He has flown to Washington, DC to confer with the authorities and has hired a lawyer.
Since the virus disrupted computers in many areas, we have a choice of many times and local houses in checking aspects to angles. I have run several possible charts and will comment briefly on a couple. If the Wall Street Journal is accurate, Morris started the attack at 9 P.M. EST in Ithaca, New York. I think the most mind-blowing asteroid results involve the personal name asteroids. Astronomers used to feminize the names of asteroids with “ordinary” orbits even when they were named for males, so Robert became Roberta. Through the whole episode, for some 24 hours, Roberta was conjunct the Sun within one degree, with both Sun and Roberta approaching a conjunction to Pluto. Also, in the 9 P.M. chart for Ithaca, Sun and Roberta are exactly trioctile the MC. The name Morrison originally meant literally the “son of Morris,” as is the case for most family names which end in “son.” I had been wondering what would happen when Atlantis, our asteroid which can indicate the abuse of technology, reached Uranus. Yes, Atlantis and Morrison were both conjunct Uranus within one degree. Of course, Uranus was also conjunct Saturn which had just reached a one-degree-orb square to Mars, the latter moving very slowly after having been retrograde. Nike (victory) was on the MC and Gilgamesh (the epic adventurer) was on the IC. Mr. Spock (the computer-like half human of Star Trek) was opposite Morrison-Uranus-Saturn, and Herrick (my middle, family name) squared them. By 9:04 P.M., the Cornell MC reached the square of Atlantis.
The order in the universe seems even more incredible when you also look at the heliocentric positions of the asteroids! Heliocentric Morrison was conjunct Icarus with both opposite the Cornell Ascendant within one degree. The stage was certainly set for an upset for both the establishment and the Robert Morrisons. As noted above, they have hired a lawyer.
Many more asteroids could be listed, but I want to also discuss the midnight EST chart since several computer centers noticed the attack or took action at that time. Pluto was conjunct the IC in Washington, DC within one degree and just over one degree from the IC in Cornell. The two cities are almost on the same longitude meridian so their ICs are within a degree of each other. The asteroid Caltech was on the Ascendant in a chart calculated for Cambridge, Massachusetts, the location of Harvard and MIT, and the asteroid Washingtonia was on the IC for Harvard and MIT. The asteroid Berkeley was on the Washington, DC Antivertex. Prudentia, (in this case indicating a lack of it) was on the Washington and Cornell East Points and opposite Industria. As indicated above, many businesses were involved in the shutdown. Columbia (for the district of) and Apollo and Amun (sun gods for fame) were conjunct each other and opposite Ceres (work), Helio (another sun god) and Makover. There will probably be a lot of changes in the system as a result of this episode. The NORC (a prototype computer) and Dudu (like Pluto?) were octile-trioctile the collection just listed which included the three sun gods. Potomac (the river in Washington, DC which runs beside the Pentagon) and Pele (volcanic goddess) and Guernica (civilian target bombed by the Nazis in the Spanish civil war) were all on Pluto and the Washington and Cornell ICs along with the south node of Mercury. Epimetheus (who looked back rather than where he was going) was on Mercury. Phaethon (who overreached and crashed) was on Jupiter. Icarus (our other overreach and crash myth) reached the octile to Roberta as the computer systems were shutting down around the country.