Sir Bob

 

July 1, 2005 (with charts)

 

http://cainer.com/ericfrancis/july1.html

 

Chiron rising in Sagittarius is how I would sum up the chart of philanthropist rock star Sir Bob Geldof, creator of the Live 8 concerts this Saturday, as well as the infamous Live Aid benefits for Africa in 1985. Chiron, the planet of awareness, healing and transformation, is in Sagittarius, the sign of global themes -- in his very ascendant of all places.

 

Rising, like the Sun in the east. It's almost too rich for words.

 

As is often the case with someone a bit larger than life, the person explains or exemplifies their astrology better than their astrology explains them. Once again, we see Sagittarius prominent in the chart of a person able to do worldwide organizing for a truly global cause. He can THINK globally. And he can take action in practical ways -- locally, on the ground, in the real world. He's a dreamer, but not just a dreamer.

 

Once again, we see Chiron placed as the most prominent planet of a person dedicated to service, healing and transformation of consciousness. But these people have a few things in common: they do it their own way. They are daring about it. And they are compelling.

 

Chiron focuses that Sagittarian energy like the lens in a laser, and when you place it in the ascendant, that particular quality dominates the soul and personality. Often, the angular houses (1st, 4th, 7th, 10th) have a way of speaking for the whole chart. So Chiron becomes the thing you notice, the strength that is put forward first, and the defining quality of the person.

 

Here's the chart. I'm sure you'll notice plenty that I don't:

 

The thing about Geldof is that he's different. "Not your average rock star" comes to mind. And not only is he different, he gets away with it in fine style. He exemplifies the Chirotic qualities of maverick, of leader and teacher, and of one who can pull off these shamanic-styled events that muster the energy and offerings of superstars who are more accustomed to doting over their Ferrari collections than thinking about African debt relief.

 

There are a few more points of Sagittarius that warrant mention, all prominent in his chart. First, Chiron is sitting right on the Galactic Core at 27 degrees Sagittarius. The G.C. is the bulge at the center of our vast Milky Way galaxy, our island in space consisting of some 300 billion stars. Think of the metaphor. Chiron is like a condenser gathering together the power of an inconceivable mass of the blinding light, solar energy and the immense gravity holding our galaxy together. All of which is beamed through Chiron via satellite straight into homes around the world, raising awareness of an issue that few politicians have the guts to mention seriously, much less do something about.

 

Chiron itself has close ties to Sagittarius, and has a galactic feeling to it. In my experience, it's the single most articulate spokesperson for galactic energy besides the G.C. itself -- and he has the two in a conjunction. Sir Bob gives the feeling that he's a visitor from afar come to make things right on our little planet, as best he can. He reminds me of Gandalf, who was sent to Middle-Earth by the gods and goddesses of Valenor, to help men and elves defend themselves against Sauron. (This is written in "The Silmarillion" by J.R.R. Tolkien.)

 

Now, life has not been a stroll in the garden for Sir Bob to become, or live as, this person. People with Chiron in the ascendant can feel such pain and face such a struggle over existence so profound that when they finally rise above it, they have gathered exceptional and unusual abilities. I don't know his biography, but I can practically smell the history coming out of that Chiron, history that he has turned into wisdom, impact and the willingness to face huge adversity for the greater good. On some vastly important level, we get the feeling that he is doing what he came here to do.

 

Bob also has a lot of planets in the 8th house, the house of death and transformation. Eighth house people are good at handling emergencies, and our planet certainly qualifies as one huge emergency at the moment. He also knows the feeling of wrenching change, and responds with compassion and intelligence. Mars (plus Venus, both in Virgo) in this house trines Chiron, offering him an open pathway of expression. And with so much Virgo, he has to DO something; he has to make himself useful -- fortunately for the rest of us, but it really helps him to stay busy.

 

And note the power of the 8th house to marshal the resources of others to get the job done.

 

There's a bit more Sagittarius to cover. Close to the Galactic Core, just above Sir Bob's ascendant in the 12th house and halfway between the Sagittarius Moon and his rising degree, is something else called the Great Attractor, located at 14 degrees of Sagittarius. This is an INTERgalactic point -- a point between many galaxies, and quite far away from our own -- that is so powerful it can make even Britney Spears famous. It's not a planet or star, but a mass of dark matter that is pulling a million galaxies toward it rapidly in a kind of anti-big-bang.

 

Many people with far-reaching impact have a prominent placement of the Great Attractor. They pull toward them, inspire and empower strong friends, and also detractors who usually can't do anything about their gripes. It shows up in the charts of important events, such as the sinking of the Titanic (Jupiter was sitting on the Great Attractor). One distinct quality of the Great Attractor is that those with a strong placement of this point have impact far beyond what they ever imagined.

 

And we can't forget a tribute to Sir Bob's Sagittarius Moon, which gives him a sense of undefeatable optimism and the "Sagittatitude" to get the job done. Just don't get in this guy's way. If you do, he won't even see you when he runs you over.

 

Then there is good old Libra.

 

Sir Bob is one of those (Sun) Libras who give this sign the feeling that it's true symbol should be a blowtorch. Others in his league include Bruce Springsteen, John Lennon, Oscar Wilde and Patric Walker. Bob adds a few extra planets to Libra as well: note the Mercury-Saturn conjunction near his Sun (hardworking, practical, balanced, a touch depressive), plus visionary, idealistic Neptune close at hand -- high up, near the MC. He clearly does not care that he attempts impossible things -- thus he gets them done.

 

All of this Libra activity is in the 9th house -- the house of Our World, of international issues, and practicing what you preach.

 

Apparently Geldof really gets results. According to the News24 web site, Live Aid's legacy "'is still very tangible in Ethiopia through a famine early warning system and aid distribution mechanism,' said Paul Hetherington, from the British charity Save the Children," the site reported, in an article published this week.

 

"In 1984, no food distribution mechanism existed in the country. Now a series of warehouses are dotted nationwide and most of the 150 trucks purchased with Live Aid money are still transporting food across Ethiopia. Hetherington said the donations surge sparked by Live Aid allowed charities to expand and forced them to become more professional and accountable."

 

As for Bob's current transits, what really stands out is that Pluto is exactly occupying his degree rising to within a few arc minutes this weekend. I don't know if he has an astrologer, but if not, he has very good timing.

 

Here's to bright sunny days in all the Live 8 cities around the world, and here's to everyone dialing that freephone with your donation.

 

The web page again is: http://Live8Live.com.

 

Sir Tempel 1

 

In other news, on Sunday night, NASA, the U.S. space agency, is going to attempt to blow up Comet Tempel 1 to see what it's made of. This is from a NASA press release on the mission:

 

"For the last five billion years of our planet's violent history, Earth has been walloped by comets. These small bodies and their asteroid cousins whacked Earth often in its early years, knocking the stuffing out of our young world. As the solar system matured, impacts happened less often -- but they have never ceased. Earth bears its scars in the form of weathered craters and extinct species. This 4th of July is payback time. For the first time in history, Earth gets to strike back. The weapon: a NASA spacecraft named Deep Impact. The target: a 10-mile wide comet named Tempel 1."

 

Besides being an exquisitely dumb idea, I want to object to the taxpayer's dollars going for such schmaltzy writing. Walloped and whacked and knocking the stuffing out of our young world? Payback time? Lordie, somebody please start editing -- in red marker.

 

Plus, I object to the fact that we have taken the idea of a "preemptive strike" to the level of a planetary body that's never hurt us. Furthermore, these NASA geologist guys just LOVE comet craters; I personally know that they cannot get enough of them, and they come home soaked in dirt. So they should stop whining.

 

And -- seriously -- do we really want dinosaurs strolling around eating our dogs and trees?

 

Though I can usually giggle along with space exploration projects, pretending to ignore all my suspicions about them, I say leave the comet alone. From an astrological, and therefore spiritual and metaphysical perspective, comets are vitally important. The Chinese have a vast tradition reaching back many thousands of years of divining the future from comet tails. These visitors from the ancient solar system are always portents and messengers. What's the message they're trying to get rid of? And what is the divinatory message of the exploding comet plume?

 

Back in the days before outer planets (also called modern planets), comets were the only visitors we had from the distant reaches of the solar system. And they always implied important changes. What happens on Sunday/Monday is something that has never happened before -- so all we can do is watch and see. And look closely. Maybe the comet will get the last word.

 

Here is the chart for the impact, using the stated time of the event, set for Pasadena, CA, the mission control center where this thing called the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL, NASA's scientific private contractor) is located, as the location. Using mission control as the location of the chart is a dependable method, and you have to put the chart somewhere on Earth.

 

Looking at this chart the first time, my eyes went two places first. Generally, it's a good habit to look at the angles straight away, and that's what happened. That generally means the ascendant first (left hand horizontal line), then the MC (10th house cusp), and the 4th cusp (also called the IC) and the 7th house. That, you can do in a glance. Three of these angles give us important info right off.

 

The first thing I saw was Uranus in Pisces rising. Uranus is the planet of surprises and Pisces certainly has its share of interesting material, and this is a fitting ascendant for a scientific journey into the spacey unknown. The ascendant, at 3 degrees and 8 minutes, is solid enough for the chart to hold up to study; horary astrologers of old trained their students not to trust charts with ascendants below 3 degrees or above 27 degrees. I don't argue that particular point.

 

Uranus in Pisces rising is what you could call deep impact.

 

Next, I see the Great Attractor prominent in the chart. Look at the dark line on top of the chart, with the 13 [Sagittarius] 34 up there. The Great Attractor is located at just over 14 degrees of this sign, so we're very close. You could say that this is another symbol for deep impact. The Great Attractor, as I mentioned in the chart of Sir Bob, reaches far and wide. In other words, this event is more important than it seems on its face.

 

This is repeated by the presence of Pluto in the 10th house (the red thing up top). Pluto gets extra prominence because the Moon is in the opposite house and sign (Gemini in the 4th house), about to make an opposition aspect to Pluto. That too has the feeling of impact, and the involvement of the Moon and the 4th house suggests it's something we feel, and something that affects our security. That Gemini Moon has a bit of "two sides to the story" though, like just about anything where the concept of "security" is raised.

 

I've received some queries from readers about whether I feel this event bares any resemblance to the comet that hit Jupiter in the summer of 1994. There are certainly overtones of that (that was an odd summer -- the O.J. trial, for instance), but my take is that the involvement of Jupiter is what magnified that particular event greatly, and Jupiter in Scorpio is what made us feel it so deeply.

 

Also, we do need to remember that one of Jupiter's most important jobs is to be a big cushy gravity magnet to suck in space debris, which may otherwise smash into the Earth. So in reality it was just doing its job.

 

Here, I want to offer some back story on minor planets. I am aware that one reason there have been so many discoveries of centaurs and other minor planets lately is because NASA has been searching the skies for things that might hit the Earth. This project is being carried out by something called Spacewatch Team. Their literature states that they are doing pure science, to further knowledge of the early solar system, which is true and really quite valuable. But as I understand it, there's a bit more to the story -- this ongoing project of finding all the near-miss objects in orbit.

 

So far, there have been no discoveries of things on a real collision course with Earth. But we do have many new astrological toys -- Varuna and Quaoar and Sedna, and many centaurs such as Chariklo, Hylonome and Asbolus.

 

The question is: what would the space boys do once they find something that could be a real problem? Well, they would probably want to send a probe up there and nuke the thing, or push it off course somehow. When that time comes, if that time comes, they're not going to want to do it without at least one dry run under their belts. And while I have absolutely no confirmation of this from official sources [but one source quite familiar with NASA and its history offered me the same idea today], it's a logical theory that this is at least part of what they are doing with Comet Tempel 1. As my source, a NASA historian, said, "They are practicing, for whatever."

 

I tracked down the approximate discovery chart for Tempel 1, back in April of 1867 in France. In that chart, there is a very close Sun-Neptune conjunction in Aries. On Sunday/Monday when the comet takes the impact, the transiting Sun (now in mid Cancer) will be exactly square the Neptune placement of the discovery chart (then in mid Aries). When you see a strong Neptune like that, particularly repeated twice, you want to look for something that's not what it seems on the surface, or something that is not necessarily true.

 

Also notice how the Moon in the impact chart makes an exact aspect to Neptune in the 12th house. It's a trine, precise to six arc minutes (1/10th of a degree). Neptune is all over these charts. So, we need to look deeper, and watch for the invisible results of this impact. And we need to remember, in the language of the agency itself, that since the 1970s, every NASA program has been designed to have what's called "dual use" -- both military and civilian application, and all the recent administrators of the space agency (going back 20 years) have strong ties to the space weapons programs and industries.

 

Though NASA was created in the 1950s as a civilian agency, it has become increasingly militarized since after the Apollo program. For example, the Space Shuttle's cargo bay dimensions were designed to be large enough to fit the largest military intelligence satellite of the time. And later, NASA began using Titan IV rockets for lofting civilian satellites. The Titan IV was designed as an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Both are examples of "dual use."

 

The dual use theme shows up in the Gemini Moon opposite Pluto. And an interesting image of this militarism appears in the chart -- Mars in Aries on the North Node. The Node can reveal the purpose of things, Mars is the warrior, and the 2nd house is what one possesses that nobody else has, um, perhaps like a secret weapon for instance. I will now go back to reading trashy science fiction novels.