Asteroid-World Winter 1988
Zip Dobyns
The world and the asteroids continue their drama. Since we finally acquired an accurate Icarus in the fall of 1987, it has again become one of my favorite asteroids. My latest case involves a personal client, so I will not mention any names. I have been seeing a local female psychotherapist for several years, mostly seeing her about twice a year to discuss the world and financial investments rather than any personal psychological problems. We will call her Dr. A. But for the past year or more, she has been increasingly annoyed by unwanted attentions from another local female psychotherapist whom we will call Dr. B. At the beginning, Dr. B expressed interest in a Lesbian relationship with Dr. A, but was emphatically rejected. Since that time, Dr. B repeatedly has turned up in places where Dr. A was shopping, visiting, even when she was in the hospital, but where Dr. B would not normally be expected. Dr. B would never say anything, just walk by staring at Dr. A and “looking sexy.” She has even apparently tapped Dr. A’s telephone (a highly illegal act) because Dr. A has heard her whispering on the line when she was talking to other people, and both Dr. A and people she was talking to have heard the beeping noise which indicates that a conversation is being tape recorded. This seems to happen mostly when Dr. A is talking to a man on the phone.
In my latest session with Dr. A, after we had again discussed this strange activity on the part of Dr. B, I mentioned that it certainly sounded like one of the almost instantaneous, obsessive love or love-hate relationships that I had seen with people who had Icarus conjunct Icarus in their respective charts. Fortunately, Dr. A knew the birth date of Dr. B (though not the birth time). Of course, I ran the chart and asteroids immediately, and of course, Icarus was there: progressed (P) Icarus conjunct P Icarus within one degree. Also, calculating Dr. B for noon (in lieu of a birth hour) put her P Ascendant on their mutual P Icarus for just about the time that this obsessive attraction has been operating. It is a fascinating world. Since these are progressed positions, they will separate in time, suggesting that Dr. B will probably recover from her bizarre behavior. I did encourage Dr. A to continue to seek a more satisfying male relationship since an unfulfilled desire for companionship can invite less desirable attentions. Dr. A had been searching for a relationship but she also has P Vesta slowly crossing her seventh house cusp and natal Ceres which is appropriate for her healing work and her care for a terminally ill mother but is less helpful for emotional relationships. I’m sure all our readers know by now that when Vesta is in signs or houses of personal relationship, the hazards include over-involvement in work which interferes with the personal life, or the critical work attitude rejecting available people as not good enough.
The current uproar in Panama led me to look for a potential chart for the country. Moon Moore, Doris Doane, Marc Penfield, and Glen Malek in their books of charts for many countries give the same date for Panama’s declaration of independence from Columbia; November 3, 1903 in Panama City. Moon and Doris do not have a time for the declaration. Marc set up a chart for 5:49 P.M. EST based on the U.S. State Department indication that it was “around 6 P.M.” I assume that the precise time that he gives is his rectification from the even hour. Glen Malek uses 6 P.M. EST based on an article in the New York Times. According to the International Atlas, Panama during that period was using the longitude of 79 W 54 for the base of their time zone. They shifted to EST in 1908. 6 P.M. for 79 W 54 would be equivalent to 6:19:36 in Eastern Standard Time, so I tried the chart for that time and it looks promising. Marc’s chosen time puts Saturn on the MC. The even hour reported in the newspaper puts the MC square the Sun within one degree which means that they stay in a lifetime square since the system of progressions which I use moves the P MC at the same speed as the P Sun. Using this time, P Saturn has been going through the square to natal Sun and the conjunction to natal MC for many years. P Sun starts the same aspects in a little over three years from now. It was conjunct natal Saturn through most of 1984-5 which would have been somewhere around a year after Noriega came to power. By that time, he was probably sufficiently in control to go full speed ahead with the drug business, acting as a conduit and laundering the money through local banks.
I have not seen any birth data for Noriega and it may be hard to get even the date. Our local library has no listing for him. In the meantime, we can continue to check the Panama chart against ongoing events or historical incidents if anyone has time for that. I did run the chart for the date (September 30, 1979) on which we signed the treaty promising to turn over control of the Panama Canal to them in the year 2,000. Aspects support the suggested chart, with P Moon on the natal MC and square natal Sun. P MC was quincunx natal Venus and formed a T-square with P Ascendant and P Sun. P Ascendant was also just short of a quincunx to P Uranus. P Mercury was conjunct P Chiron and square natal Moon. Many U.S. citizens, including soon-to-be-President Reagan, were not pleased with the treaty.
The Moon and planetary aspects would be present for a chart for the general time period around 6 P.M., so it is angle aspects that are useful to deduce a more precise time. The cusps suggested here are further supported by calculating progressions for the date on which the Canal was completed: August 12, 1914. The purpose of the canal was, of course, to facilitate transportation, so we would expect Mercury to be prominent. We would also expect Venus and Pluto for both the expenses of the construction and the anticipated revenues to be gained from it. This chart puts P Mercury exactly on the Descendant, P Sun quincunx Pluto, P Moon conjunct Venus, P Ascendant trine Pluto, P East Point trine Venus, P Antivertex trine Juno (which is very Plutonian) and P MC quincunx Mercury. I think that is good support for this timing, but we should continue to test it against events as they occur.
The current bank closures which occurred after the first draft of this Asteroid-World issue had been written do seem to support the chart. P Moon is quincunx Uranus in the eighth house almost to the minute of longitude. The Quotidian (daily) MC is going through early Virgo, quincunx Saturn and P Sun and south node of the Moon and opposite P Mars as well as octile Pallas, our political asteroid, and square P Ceres. Panama has no currency of their own, depending on U.S. dollars, so when they are shut off, the whole business of the country shuts down. Quotidian Ascendant in early Sagittarius is conjunct P Ceres, square P Mars, quincunx Neptune and P MC, octile Pallas, sextile-trine the nodes, etc. Again, the angles provide support for this chart.
Turning to the asteroids, the chart has many dramatic examples. In fact, the large number of contacts in both the natal and progressed charts suggests that it is probably a really useful chart. I find that charts for minor events often have only a few significant asteroids while the important horoscopes which continue to give meaningful information about large numbers of people and which work over extended periods of time seem to have many asteroid aspects. A few examples present in this case while the U.S. is trying to unseat Noriega and deal with the drug issue, include P Moon in the Panama chart in a yod (double quincunx) to natal Washingtonia and natal Uranus. P Antivertex is opposite natal Washingtonia. P Washingtonia and P Fama (fame) are in the same degree (12 Scorpio) which squares the chart’s local natal MC (calculated for Washington, DC) while P America is at their midpoint, octile all three. Transiting Pluto at 12 Scorpio is providing additional emphasis. P Pluto remained in an octile to natal America for many years. During the more recent years when the Panamanians were trying to get back control of the canal zone, P Washingtonia and P Fama were square the natal MC and P Saturn and conjunct natal Sun, so the P Moon was aspecting them when we finally signed the treaty. Natal Atlantis is closely square natal MC and conjunct natal Sun so it was also involved in these aspects. P Sun at the present time is octile P Atlantis which is also opposite natal Pluto. Natal Nancy is on the natal IC, filling out a fixed T-square with P Saturn remaining in opposition for many more years. How does the universe manage that? Here is Nancy Reagan making the fight against drugs one of her major causes while the information is slowly coming out that the dictator we supported (because he was supposed to help support the Nicaraguan Contras) was actually helping the Contras and the Medellin drug cartel run drugs into the U.S. The Christics claim that the CIA was also involved in the whole drug business. Noriega’s lawyers say that he has dynamite evidence which they will bring out if they need to.
There are many more appropriate asteroids but I will just mention a few. P Mars in Pisces was octile natal Colombia in Aries in the Pisces (12th) house for about three years, ending a little over a year ago. Colombia could signify both the country, the location of the Medellin cartel and most of the cocaine which comes into the U.S., and the District of Columbia, the location of our capital which is fighting the cocaine. P Phaethon (another over-reach character like Icarus) is conjunct natal Colombia for some years, and P Colombia is slowly progressing over the natal Moon in Aries in the 12th house. P Mars is conjunct four progressed asteroids; Moira (one of the Fates), Ariadne (who helped Theseus escape the labyrinth), Amun (one of the Sun gods for fame and power) and Nemesis (another Fate who punished those who flouted the Law, Themis). Natal Themis is in a cluster including natal Sun, Atlantis, Rhea (wife of Saturn), Rumpelstilz (who wove straw into gold and got cheated) and Klotho (another Fate). It certainly looks as if something important is coming when that whole collection around 9 degrees of the fixed signs is set off by the P Sun in the early 1990s.
Natal Icarus is at the midpoint of natal and P Uranus for many years, and P Venus is now conjunct it. Venus and Uranus were exactly square in the natal chart. P Icarus is now on the Sun/Moon midpoint and is coming to natal Saturn in about August 1988. It has been square natal Ceres and the Antivertex in Washington, DC for some time and is now opposite natal Helio in Leo in the third house for the attention from the media. P Moon will be conjunct P Vesta and quincunx natal Icarus and P Venus later this spring. Of course many of the more traditional aspects are also involved. P Ascendant and P local East Point are both opposite Saturn. P Sun is quincunx Neptune and trioctile Pluto while P Mars is quincunx the Moon’s north node. The chart looks like a picture of continued uproar for several years, with the early 1990s especially intense but this coming spring and summer also important. Between the Christic suit, the Special Prosecutor, the Congressional Committee investigating drugs, and the Noriega private files, we may yet see some fireworks in time for the fall election.
Heliocentric positions for the planets are often a valuable additional tool to repeat and reinforce the principles seen in the geocentric chart. There is often so much material, it is hard to decide what to include. One could literally write a book on a single chart. In the Panama horoscope, interesting aspects include heliocentric (H) Mars conjunct geocentric (G) Saturn and H Venus conjunct G Vesta, both aspects within a one degree orb. H Uranus is conjunct G Icarus within one minute of longitude! Almost all of the planets have dramatic heliocentric progressions for the current uproar, including P H Venus opposite natal Moon, P H Mars opposite natal Venus, P H Ceres opposite natal Ascendant, P H Pallas conjunct natal Ceres, P H Juno quincunx natal Vesta and trioctile P Moon, P H Vesta quincunx the natal Descendant and P Mercury for a yod, P H Jupiter square natal Mars, P H Saturn conjunct the local (Washington, DC) MC, and P H Uranus octile P Saturn. You can see how the Mars-Saturn conjunction in the natal chart accentuates the power struggle potential of the country from its revolutionary beginning; how Jupiter square Mars suggests potential poor judgment; how Saturn on the MC in our capital city points to the contest between executives in the two countries; with six oppositions or quincunxes pointing to separations. At this point, the helpless citizens have been separated from their money. We hope the end result will be a separation of Noriega from his power.
Following up the heliocentric potential, in the last Asteroid-World you will remember that I described at length the new heliocentrically timed planet conjunctions with earth which were discovered by Helen Clerf. I mentioned some of the recent or coming Earth-Saturn and Earth-Pluto conjunction charts which had dramatic angle aspects when they were calculated for Washington, DC. Mentioning only the one-degree orbs, these included Saturn on the MC for the year from June 9, 1987 to June 20, 1988 when the new chart will have Venus-Mercury-Juno on the Ascendant with Mars square it until the July 2, 1989 chart which has Mars square the MC and quincunx Saturn with the latter conjunct Neptune but in a grand trine to the MC and Juno. In the final Earth-Saturn chart which I have run so far, Saturn opposite Sun-Jupiter forms a T-square to the Ascendant within two degrees. The Earth-Pluto series for the same period include Pluto in a three degree orb opposition to the Ascendant on April 29, 1987 while Saturn is exactly trioctile the Ascendant from the eighth house; Uranus exactly on the MC in the May 1, 1988 chart with Saturn just two degrees into the tenth house and just over a degree from the New York MC; Jupiter on the IC in the May 4, 1989 chart, with a yod, including quincunxes to Pluto in the eighth house and Vesta, Neptune, and Saturn in the eleventh house; and finally Pluto on the MC within four minutes of longitude on the May 7, 1990 chart, with Juno just over one degree into the tenth house and Saturn on the New York Ascendant, within two degrees of the Washington Ascendant.
The striking angle aspects certainly highlight the power issues that will be faced in our capital in these coming years. Early this year I calculated the more traditional geocentrically timed Mars conjunct Saturn for February 23, 1988 and found a triple whammy with Mars-Saturn-Uranus-MC all at zero Capricorn and East Point and Antivertex both at zero Aries. The Ascendant is 1 Aries 27. While the aspects could have pointed to a financial crisis, it looked more like a political-military one, so I was not surprised when Panama blew. If it is true that our CIA and executive branch of the government knew about the Noriega-Contra-Columbia drug connection, and they played ball to keep the Contras funded, (driven by their paranoia about Communism in Nicaragua), and if that information continues to dribble out, the summer nominating conventions and fall election could be pretty lively. You can see how the executive branch could be sweating as they try to ease Noriega out without having him spill the beans; why they are being cautious in the pressure they put on Panama.
I ran the Mars conjunct Saturn chart for several other places, including Panama City which has 28 Sagittarius 30 on the MC and 28 Pisces 5 rising with Pluto octile the MC and trioctile the Ascendant. Both angles will be aspected by two more Uranus-Saturn conjunctions in June and October 1988. One tradition for working with mundane charts of planetary conjunctions is to only watch the aspects from the transiting (T) planets which were the source of the chart; in this case, Mars and Saturn. But even though my experience is not extensive in working with such charts, I think the rest of the planets can give us meaningful information. Mid-July 1988 looks quite important when T Mars is at zero Aries and T Mercury at zero Cancer. T Uranus and Saturn will still conjunct and square the Panama angles while T Jupiter will be sextile the Ascendant and quincunx the MC.
I was puzzled at first that the financial emphasis seemed stronger in the Mars-Saturn chart for Panama than in the one for Washington, DC. But on second thought, it makes sense since our main leverage over them is to cut their imports or our aid which could have a drastic effect of their economy. We have four asteroids (Herberta, Hooveria, ARA and America) which were named for Herbert Hoover, in honor of his help for various European countries in periods of economic distress. It is ironic that as our President at the time of the big depression of the 1930s, Hoover was unfairly blamed for not stopping the depression. In this chart, Herberta is sextile the MC and quincunx the Ascendant as well as opposite Jupiter. Hooveria is square America and they are sextile and semisextile Neptune and octile-trioctile the nodes of the Moon and Chiron. ARA is on the Panama Ascendant and square the MC. All aspects are exact within one degree except for America which is exact to Hooveria and the mean nodes but not quite exact to Chiron. The freezing of money in the U.S. banks was announced after the preceding material was written, and it certainly fits the picture we get from the asteroids. It is also interesting that the Mars-Saturn chart has the Roman General Seleucus on Neptune while the Panama chart has Roman General Tacitus on the Descendant. Of course many Latin American countries have been ruled by generals for extended times and we would expect some of these military asteroids to be prominent. I was also impressed with how many of the asteroids named for the Arthurian knights were prominent in the Panama horoscope.
To finally leave Panama, I’m still wishing that I had the birth time for Pat Robertson. I will have more on his religious beliefs in the Pisces issue of The Mutable Dilemma, but here I can mention a few of his asteroids. Among the most dramatic are two of my favorites in a chart calculated for noon! In the noon chart, Atlantis is exactly on the IC in his birth place while Icarus is exactly on his MC in Washington, DC. Sometimes that noon chart can be pretty impressive even when the person was born at another time. “Destiny” figures or events which play major roles or offer major keys to the world seem to have an unusual number of prominent asteroids as is the case in the Panama chart. Even without the birth time, we can see that currently Robertson has P Mars conjunct P America, both opposite natal Fanatica and square natal Washingtonia which is conjunct the heliocentric north node of Pluto. Pluto’s south node finishes a grand cross. His natal Pluto is at 17 Cancer, just two degrees earlier than its heliocentric node, with the geocentric node at 18 Cancer. P Midas is on Robertson’s Pluto and he is good at attracting money. Natal Russia is on his Sun (he is as paranoid about Russia as Reagan used to be with Russia on his Pluto). P Attila (the Hun) is currently on his Sun and Russia along with P Eros. Another interesting combination involves P Siva conjunct natal America and natal Attila with all three trioctile P Washingtonia. P Fanatica is quincunx P Hybris (the pride that precedes a fall), while P Phaethon (who over-reached trying to drive the chariot of the Sun, burned the earth, was shot down by Zeus, and crashed like Icarus) is sextile the natal Sun, square natal Neptune, and octile Pluto. I do not get the impression that Robertson will be very helpful to America, to put it mildly. Fortunately, as I add the final notes to this opus, it looks as if Robertson is coming in third in South Carolina so results in the coming Super Tuesday may not be to his liking.
I am again indebted to Mark Lerner’s journal for historical data on the Democratic and Republican Parties. Mark gives the official founding of the Republicans as February 28, 1854 at Ripon, Wisconsin about noon. We have no definite evidence about when our country switched from local apparent time to local mean time, but it seems to have happened piecemeal through the country. I calculated the chart for noon apparent time which gives a 6 Pisces 28 MC and 2 Cancer 36 Ascendant. The local (Washington, DC) MC would be 19 Pisces 9 and the local Ascendant 9 Cancer 21. Mark suggests that the Democratic Party dates from the inauguration of Andrew Jackson at noon on March 4, 1829 in Washington, DC. It is fascinating that this chart also has the same degree rising, with 2 Cancer 27 when calculated for local apparent time. Until much more work has been done, we will have to consider the charts tentative, but they are certainly intriguing. The Republican chart has Jupiter-Chiron at 19 Capricorn and Pallas at 18 Capricorn. The Democratic chart has Neptune at 19 Capricorn. If the charts prove valid, both parties have planetary keys to faith and moral principles participating in Robertson’s cardinal grand cross. He is definitely challenging the religious principles of our country. I will include both charts in the Pisces Mutable Dilemma and write more on their connections to the current candidates. For now, I will just comment that at the election this fall, the Republicans will have the Moon approaching the MC opposite natal Vesta while P Mars squares the Ascendant. The Democrats will have the P Moon in zero Capricorn approaching the Descendant and square the P mean nodes of the Moon in zero Aries-Libra. Note how the early Capricorn emphasis is connected to the conjunction charts we have been considering!
Ed Meese, with his perennial problems, has natal Mercury and Venus at zero Capricorn, natal nodes at 1 to 2 Libra-Aries, and P Moon during the latest uproar going over his Libra south node in the twelfth house. He is learning something about other people’s rights and power. Some of the current problems are apparently due to trusting other people too much. Unfortunately, we have no birth time for Alan Greenspan, current head of the Federal Reserve, but even without his time, we can see that he has his natal Mercury and progressed Venus at zero Aries. He also has natal America octile natal Sun, natal Washingtonia square natal Mars, and P Washingtonia octile P Saturn.
David Rockefeller is another lead player in the financial-political major leagues for whom we have no birth time. He was born in New York on June 12, 1915 which gives him Pluto in l Cancer and Saturn at 3 Cancer. P Pluto and P Mars are both currently in 3 Cancer conjunct natal Saturn and octile-trioctile the true nodes of the Moon. (Coincidentally, P Rockefellia, the asteroid named for the famous family, is currently at 3 Libra, square the Cancer trio. P Mercury is on natal Rockefellia in 1988-9, which should indicate continued media attention.) An exact Mars-Saturn-Pluto conjunction is a dilly of a power combination to have on the IC of the 1988 Mars conjunct Saturn chart when it is calculated for New York, home of the main Stock Exchange and of Rockefeller’s bank. He called together the original group of 17 men who organized the Trilateral Commission, and their first planning meeting on July 23, 1972 was held in his home in Pocantico Hills, N.Y. It would be great if we could find the time that they convened that first meeting. I don’t even have a day for the official inauguration of the organization in N.Y. city; just the month of July 1973. The first Executive Committee meeting was held in Tokyo, Japan on October 20, 1973 with 38 people. The first Plenary Meeting of the Full Commission was also held in Japan but in Kyoto, on May 30, 1975 with 113 members taking part. I do not have the opening time for any of these events so have calculated charts for noon. If any of our readers know any members of the organization, it might be possible to get a program with an official opening time. Some library work might also dig it out since they do publish a variety of journals.
I checked the 3 charts for planets in early cardinal degrees. The planning meeting has Jupiter at zero Capricorn and a starting time just after noon would bring the Moon there. The Moon entered 29 Sagittarius just after 10 A.M., so the Saturn-Uranus conjunctions are probably on it. The Sun is zero Leo with Icarus trioctile it from 15 Pisces as well as in a square to Saturn at 16 Gemini. Pluto was 29 Virgo and is now progressed to zero Libra. P Saturn is now on natal Atlantis at 18 Gemini, and P Siva is at zero Capricorn.
The nodes of the Moon were at zero to one Capricorn-Cancer for the first Executive meeting. Saturn at 4 Cancer continues to hold a progressed square to Pluto at 5 Libra. The asteroid Tokio, named for the city which was the location of the meeting, was at 4 Libra conjunct Pluto and square Saturn within one degree. P Tokio opposes a natal conjunction of Fuji, the sacred mountain of Japan, and Phaethon while P Fuji now opposes Pluto-Tokio and squares Saturn. Quincunxes in the chart include Neptune and Jupiter to Saturn (a yod) and Mars to Pluto, so we can expect many changes in personnel and/or activities of the organization. P north node has retrograded to hold a long conjunction to natal Icarus at 28 Sagittarius, and P Venus has now joined it there: again to be activated by the Saturn-Uranus conjunctions. America is square Uranus and P Uranus continues to hold the square for years. Of course, there are many other aspects, but our space is running out.
The chart for the first Plenary meeting has an exact Mars opposition to Pluto and Saturn square to Jupiter while Neptune is more widely opposite Sun. The asteroids seem less significant in this chart so it is probably less important as a key to the evolution of the organization. If this turns out to be true, it implies that the elite group of leaders is much more important than the larger general membership. The picture which comes through in all three charts suggests tension over aspirations and power, and that certainly fits the purpose of the Trilateral Commission. I will have more material on the organization in the Pisces Mutable Dilemma.
The letters LCT on the Panama chart refer to local city time, a new addition to our program which calculates charts for unusual time zones such as the few years that Panama used the longitude of 79 W 54 and the longer period during which France used the longitude of Paris. Now that we have the H P LaserJet printer which produces a beautiful, clean copy permitting photo-reduction, we will be able to include progressions for more charts, especially the ones before 1900 for which few astrologers have ephemerides.
We also have the next installment of our “sources of asteroid names” from Seraphita who has done her usual fine job and much more promptly than mine as you will see from the date on her first page. [Not in the web archives.] In view of the intense activity in Latin America, this latest installment is focused on Spain and, by extension, its original colonies in Central and South America.