April 2009 Archives

I hope this will be my last post on the swine flu!!  

This chart reminds me of a Jaguar with someone riding the clutch. The engine is roaring and the power is not getting to the wheels. It's an extraordinarily powerful chart -- but the Moon is void of course. That is to say, the Moon has made its last aspect and is essentially drifting through Taurus at the time of the announcement.

Mars is square Pluto to one arc minute -- 1/60th of a degree. This is just stunning. Check out the 9th house -- that is the house of international things. We are likely to see a big response here. Mars is in the international house and Pluto is in the health house, the 6th. They are in a perfect square and that says action: international response.  [Also likely conflict between nations on how to handle the crisis.]

Mars, Venus and Pluto are all activating the Aries Point [0 degrees Aries] (the personal is political), so this is a chart with far-reaching public energy. Uranus is close behind, in Pisces, right on the 9th cusp, adding a sense of urgency, though it's in Pisces -- more emotional than mental. But the Moon void is the first factor that leads one to wonder where it's all going. Generally, you need a strong Moon to have a strong chart. The activating agent in this horoscope is the very precise Mars square Pluto. [Pluto is associated with viruses as a rule but mysterious illness falls under Neptune's purview.]

The second factor that raises doubts is that Mercury is in a tight square to Neptune. Actually this is Mercury square Neptune, Jupiter and Chiron. ...  In a public chart, it warns us that what is being announced simply may not be true. I don't doubt that there is a flu outbreak; I doubt the importance of the issue, and the relevance of the findings. I know I would look like an ass if the Mexican flu wiped out half the planet, but I don't think it's going to do anything of the kind. I have the luxury of talking about this as an astrologer and not a government official responsible for millions of lives. We do NOT know the truth here -- the chart is warning this in spades. What is the source of the lie, or the motive? I am not getting data on that, but that group of Mercury aspects is sounding a loud warning. [Breaking it down, we have the Moon separating from a conjunction to Mercury by less than a degree, demonstrating the highly emotional context of the announcement, and this combination is being challenged by Pluto, which aggrandizes the emotion and makes it more important than perhaps it is.  Chiron brings up our fears, and Neptune clouds the issue and facilitates illusion and group-think.]

Anyone familiar with my entire body of work will surely know that some of my earliest posts centered around the ancient mid-April festival of Cerealia, held in the honor of the Roman Goddess CERES. One of the "highlights" of the Cerealia was the porca pracidanea, the ritual sacrifice of a PIG. In previous articles over the past two years, I have attempted to exhibit some the "pork" related happenings which also seem to coincide with a bloodier human ritual which has become common place during approximately the same dates of mid-April [see Ok. City, Columbine, Virgina Tech]

I have been a Republican since 1966. I have been working extremely hard for the Party, for its candidates and for the ideals of a Republican Party whose tent is big enough to welcome diverse points of view. While I have been comfortable being a Republican, my Party has not defined who I am. I have taken each issue one at a time and have exercised independent judgment to do what I thought was best for Pennsylvania and the nation. 

Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans. 

When I supported the stimulus package, I knew that it would not be popular with the Republican Party. But, I saw the stimulus as necessary to lessen the risk of a far more serious recession than we are now experiencing. 

Since then, I have traveled the State, talked to Republican leaders and office-holders and my supporters and I have carefully examined public opinion. It has become clear to me that the stimulus vote caused a schism which makes our differences irreconcilable. On this state of the record, I am unwilling to have my twenty-nine year Senate record judged by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate. I have not represented the Republican Party. I have represented the people of Pennsylvania. 

I have decided to run for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary.