Week after week, we have seen this point in action. It is "The Personal is Political" area of the chart, and that is the theme of our era. The Aries Point has been sparked off by a series of events going back to a total solar eclipse of June 21, 2001, covered extensively in this column and looked at closely in the Sept. 9 edition. We have also had a LOT of action on the Aries point over the past summer, particularly the first of two Capricorn Full Moons that fully activated the June 21, 2001 eclipse. (My article on Planet Waves, "Twice: The Capricorn Full Moon" also looks closely at this event.)

What is interesting is that the involvement of the Aries Point links the current situation in France to the Sept. 11, 2001 incident (owing to that June 21, 2001 eclipse), and many other modern events. When I say the words "Aries Point," that really means the first degrees of Aries, Cancer, Libra or Capricorn -- the Cardinal Points. The four degrees (and their immediate surrounds) function as one energy system. It's also okay to refer to "Cancer Point" when dealing with the first degree of Cancer, or Libra Point or so on; the point comes across.

The French national chart has another super-weird connection to the Sept. 11 chart -- involving the Moon's placement at 28+ degrees Gemini. This was the exact position of the Moon when the World Trade Center was attacked; and, in another genuinely bizarre synchronicity, during the earthquake that created the Asian tsunamis late last year, which killed a lot of Muslims. There must be a Muslim connection to this degree, but I don't know what it is yet.

For reference, the Moon occupies one degree of the zodiac for two hours, 13 times a year. So, that's a total of one day per year, but divided over 13, two-hour appearances -- not so very often, and the Moon is moving fast. And this one particular degree keeps showing up.

The next noteworthy thing about the French national chart is that the most recent solar eclipse, on Oct. 5, was exactly conjunct the natal Sun of France. Notice that in the Fifth Republic chart, the Sun is at 11 degrees of Libra and 12 arc minutes. The eclipse occurred at 10 degrees of Libra and 19 minutes -- a very close conjunction. Here is the chart for the eclipse, to refresh your memory:

For those of you who are fans of the Centaur planets (Chiron and those in its group), the chart has the last degree of Scorpio in the ascendant. There is a planet near that degree -- Pholus, the second Centaur planet. The named Centaurs began with Chiron, discovered in 1977; then came Pholus in 1992, and Nessus in 1993. They are all intense, they accelerate the action of the chart, and will get in your face till you notice what they are saying.

Pholus has the property of release, opening, and emerging -- i.e., something gets out and you can't get it back in, such as when riots begin and you cannot stop them. Another quality of Pholus is anything involving three generations -- such as the three generations that have elapsed since the Algerian war.

Pholus also addresses issues that belong to the entire tribe, collective property, and group responses. The grief over the deaths of Traore and Benna, the two teenage boys, is certainly collective tribal property.

The connection between the eclipse and the France-Fifth-Republic chart emphasizes the point that the Libra planets in the France chart have been taking a lot of transits during the past year, culminating with an exact eclipse. In the fall of 2004, there was another peak of Libra activity, around the time that Yasser Arafat (another Muslim connection) was brought to Paris when he was sick and dying.

Here is how I reported it at the time:

"France has been big news the past week, with the death of Yasser Arafat near Paris and the Ivory Coast exploding into crisis. I thought I would have a look at the national horoscope of France, set for Oct. 5, 1958, 12:01 a.m., Paris -- the chart for the creation of what is called the Fifth Republic, under the leadership of DeGaulle. The Fifth Republic replaced a factional parliamentary government, and put in place a strong presidency. Interesting that this change came in the midst of a crisis involving Algeria, one of the last true French colonies, and with the Ivory Coast, now we're seeing a kind of colonial crisis emerge again.

"During the past week, we've had an enormous amount of intense astrology blow through Libra, and it turns out that Libra dominates the chart of France. With Venus, Ceres, Mercury, and the Sun all being in the sign of the scales, when we get a series of events -- like last week's triple eclipse of planets by the Moon -- you can be sure that things are going to get interesting."

Well, interesting is hardly the word for it. I have pondered a few times over the past year why France seemed so quiet, given the intensity of the transits the chart was taking. Like a lot of things in here, this situation took its time developing. But the cosmic trigger was an exact eclipse on the Sun of its natal chart -- which set off a decades-old colonial crisis. The people in the Cités are the legacy of France's colonial experiments in North Africa, which from time to time erupt into crisis.

Now, an eclipse on the Sun does not always spell disaster. But it does spell energy movement. What moves depends on what kind of energy you have. If you've had a disaster brewing for a long time, then an eclipse is the perfect way to let the pressure off. The problem with broadcasting this kind of information is that it gives eclipses a bad name, or rather, makes sure that their bad-name-of-old sticks.

Part of the reason that eclipses are so troubling to people is that they are all about change, and hardly anybody likes change. And that is why the world gets into so much trouble so often.

The Grand Fixed Cross

In considering the events of the past couple of weeks, we can't ignore the grand fixed cross that passed through this week. Once again, here is a link to the chart, set for Clichy-sous-Bois:

This aspect structure involves planets in the fixed signs during the past few months: the long Mars retrograde in Taurus; Saturn moving into Leo in July; and the Sun and Jupiter moving into Scorpio about two weeks ago. This aspect was covered in two places in the last edition of Astrology Secrets Revealed.

The grand fixed cross is going to be with us for a while. It reincarnates in Version 2 on December 5 (as Mars, Jupiter and Saturn come into contact, with Neptune close by) and then again Jan. 15, with the same four planets forming a more precise alignment. I will cover these aspects in the coming weeks.

The fixed signs are about transmutation; going beyond limitations; going to a new level; moving from the physical to the nonphysical; from ego to soul level of awareness. There is a quality of liberation. Certainly, it is true enough that the grand fixed cross can arrive with a lot of contention -- but the message, the project, the lesson, the idea, is rising above the battleground, resolving the strife, and meeting in peace, as friends.

Okay -- with the news out of the way, I can take some of your questions. Please tune into Planet Waves, and thanks for your subscriptions to our premium service, which supports the daily web page as well as Astrology Secrets Revealed. Thanks to the many Cainer.com readers who have become happy customers.

Oh, one last bit -- there is now a search facility (Google and Picosearch) for Astrology Secrets Revealed located at this link for the project on Planet Waves. Have a look -- it's fun.

Charts in this section were cast by Tracy in Solar Fire 5.

Tracy has been designing some astrology calculation tools of her own -- have a look at her web page.

Jennifer Spring

Dear Jennifer,
In my view, the questions you're presenting need to be asked as internal ones first, that is, as questions about oneself. Then we can look at the larger forces in the world. I feel that all spiritually oriented questions need to be taken this way. This is a boundary issue, between "me" and "the world." It is true that there are forces of darkness both within and without. But in our stage of history and evolution, the ones within are far more important, and most often empower the ones outside ourselves.

It is not possible to state precisely what or where the me/world boundary is -- because there is a lot of overlap -- but we can ask the question and see what we notice.

Hence, faced with any situation that perplexes us, we can ask: "What about this involves me, and what involves the world?" And then we need to listen for the answer. The ability to do this, and orient on a reasonable idea in response, is an important basis of psychic and emotional health. It is much of what we learn in therapy. It is the essence of spiritual growth. It is lots of what we do when our relationships are sane and healthy. It is the reason why we need to "love your neighbor as yourself," because in the absence of understanding the difference between oneself and one's neighbor, love is the sane route. But until we know ourselves, love can feel pretty dangerous.

As students of astrology and metaphysics on any level, we have a profound responsibility to know ourselves, and to put our lives on a healing journey, so that we can feel better, learn to let our creative energy flow, and be of service to the healing processes of others around us.

Humans in Western Civ have a tendency to project (in the psychological sense of that word) -- that is, to see and experience the cast-off parts of our personalities as things outside ourselves, and thus to cast blame or idolatry where it does not belong. We often see things as more dastardly or more admirable than ourselves, and in some people this is a dramatic and dominant condition of their experience of life. It is indeed possible to project so much of one's identity outward that one does not seem to exist at all; it is possible to have such a weak sense of existence that everything is a projection and we are entirely validated, or not, from the outside.

It happens often in special love relationships and special hate relationships, which tend to have many similar properties.

We hear less about something called introjection -- taking on the blame and responsibility for things that have nothing to do with us. This process is closely related to guilt, and it begins very early, indeed, in or before infancy, when we take on the emotions of others and blame ourselves for what goes on around us, but which is totally outside our control.

An example (an obvious one, there are subtler ones) might be having heard our parents fighting when we were little, and taking on the blame; or holding ourselves responsible for the misery of our caregivers; or for events that occur within the family. Many kids blame themselves for these kinds of events, and indeed this coincides with the fact that many are actively blamed (others projecting onto us), and then we take on the responsibility as a burden, when in fact, we are not really responsible; it is not our fault, and we are not "able to respond."

This sense of responsibility often comes in the form of guilt; the guilt becomes a habit, which is the habit of self-judgment and self-attack; and a war breaks out within the psyche. There is a split. The two halves of the psyche often take the role of light and dark; of illumination and shadow; of what we are aware of, and what we cannot acknowledge.

In the mist of this war, it can become impossible to discern what feelings come from outside stimulus and which are the result of legacies left behind from how we were treated. And these legacies are powerful! The emotions, such as guilt, can be overwhelming and at times take over one's entire identity.

Then something weird happens. Because the guilt is so powerful and overwhelming, we learn to project it outward, and blame someone or something other than ourselves for how we feel. This is a kind of last-ditch escape valve that opens, to let off the insane pressure of self-blame. And in the midst of this whole equation, we are basically heading for lives of constant petty conflict (or worse), which is really the product of a fierce inner battle that began at the latest in early childhood. It has nothing to do with actual right and wrong -- despite the feeling of guilt saying WRONG in very strong terms.

Before we have any discussion of evil, such as whether there exists a dark force, or any discussion of whether "light and dark must balance," we need to acknowledge and be aware of the struggle I'm describing, so that we don't get confused, and we don't cease to take responsibility for consciously negotiating any part of the process. In other words, I am proposing that in any exploration of outer reality (including another person), we need to maintain self-awareness.

For those of us who practice astrology, any form of natural religion, any of the psychic arts, or any healing art, we're working right at the boundary between what is individual and what is collective. So we need to learn to be self-aware as best we can. It's our protection, and it protects others around us.

However, for most, being truly aware of inner conflict is too much to think about, so we stuff it down to the basement of consciousness, also called the subconscious. This gets it out of the way for a while, but actually, it has a way of raising hell. If that happens, we are either destined to some degree of ongoing conflict -- or worse, we are made ripe for plucking by somebody's dark plan. Holding this conflict unresolved is how a lot of people get lured into the military, dark political movements, religious cults, and other collective forces that typically do more harm than good, and involve surrendering one's power.

On our plane of reality, when evil manifests, it does so most often through the compromises of compromised people. It most often happens because we either seem to agree, or just go along with it. And this is a state most often attained through withdrawing awareness and denying our power; in other words, the agreement is often tacit. It also comes as a result of the inner guilt battle I've described, which renders people essentially paralyzed, helpless, or impotent -- whatever you want to call it -- to face actual situations in our lives, in our families and in our relationships.

I'm going to call this the gray area. In this gray area, right and wrong become ambiguous, pleasure and pain get mixed up into one experience, most everything is a compromise in which we lose, and most of all, the ability to make choices seems to disappear. This gray area is the most useful thing that evil works with. There are very few people who are actually evil, who actually want to hurt others. But there are many people who withdraw awareness and essentially give up, and that's where we're ripe for the picking.

The reason most people stay there is that AWARENESS IS TOO PAINFUL!

Now, when you look around at the world, what do you see? Choose something that disturbs you, and then see if you can make a series of associations of worldly causes that made it so. Not metaphysical ones -- plain and simple, on the ground, with a paper trail.

With the possible exception of what we call "natural disasters" (which lately are not so natural) it's possible to trace just about anything that hurts people back to a plan whereby someone else profits. Let's use smoking as an example. Let's see. We have constant advertising for a highly addictive, deadly product; we have companies and industries that buy off legislators to get their way; in the process, they make billions in profits, and people get a product they "like" that makes them sick. Of course, in the end, it's all "their fault" because after all, they smoke!

Now, as an individual you cannot stop the cigarette companies, but anyone can stop smoking, and thus to a great extent divest of that particular evil for themselves personally. Then, if you really want to get away from the cigarette smoke, you can quit your job as a bartender and get work that puts you in a safer environment, and so on.

But why can't we stop the greater enemy, the greater evil -- the cigarette companies? After all, we could shut them down in about a week -- everybody suddenly stops buying cigarettes.

Easy -- most people don't feel they could stop smoking, or they don't want to, they don't care, or they don't try. Or, they like it and want to do it, even knowing it hurts them. As a result, the cigarette companies can get away with just about anything they want; because smokers pay for it, taxpayers pay for tobacco subsidies, cigarette company budgets pay for advertising and fighting restrictions, which lures in more smokers, and on and on it goes.

But whose fault is it? But of course, it's "YOUR FAULT" because you smoke! Most people DO blame themselves for smoking, without, in the same thought, acknowledging the medical fact that nicotine is more addictive than heroin or cocaine. It's a lot easier to start than it is to stop. Advertising and peer pressure push us. Inner conflict helps the process of addiction; the self-blame and guilt make it all the worse, and provide the psychological "need" for the substance; and so on.

But in the end, in truth, despite all these factors, smoking is an individual choice.

I think in the story of cigarettes, we have an excellent parable for the issue of evil. Just about every worldly or metaphysical example you can give follows a similar shape, and similar lines of responsibility.

So -- as you ask -- who is the enemy? Is it within, or without? Or is there a collaboration? I've noticed that it works this way on every level of reality you go to, be it physical or metaphysical. It works in relationships, it works in cases of what some call "possession," which is a relationship, and it works in how we relate to anything that seems to have power over us.

This relates to the "balance of light and dark" question. I know that this is an equation that's tossed around a lot -- dark and light must balance; the Yin-Yang symbol is a symbol of balance; and so on. But it's important to define your terms. When we say that light and dark must balance within a human psyche, it would be a misunderstanding to say that people must be as evil as they are good in order to be in balance.

Rather, there is the issue of awareness of the shadow side of the psyche. To me, the sense of balance is about being aware of the light side of the psyche as well as the shadow side: that which is hidden, that which we deny, that which resides in the deep past, tendencies which hurt us. If we don't acknowledge the shadow side, we end up in the gray area, often unable to discern what helps and what hurts; who we love and who we do not; and so on.

On the physical plane, on Planet Earth, we get to make choices. These choices involve how we direct the energy we notice is available to us. I make no pretense of knowing "why we are here," but I can see clearly that people do have the power to make decisions -- and this is a power we frequently give away to others. And often there is nothing anyone else can do about it.

The best we can do is make sure we know our own agenda, which means admitting to having one, and taking control over what goes on it; and constantly looking for clues that reveal the agendas of others -- and then keep making decisions.

I leave you with a quote from A Course in Miracles that you can ponder for a bit if you like. I don't know of it's true, but it is compelling. "The symbols of love against the symbols of hate play out a conflict that does not exist, for symbols stand for something else, and the symbol of love is without meaning if love is everything."

Dear Shirley
Mercury is the ruler of Virgo.

The rulers of a sign do not change just because a new planet is discovered. Rulership is a matter of tradition. It is true that since the discovery of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, many astrologers do indeed consider these to be the rulers of signs. And with the discovery of Chiron in 1977, the discussion of what to do with this new planet was raised. Most astrologers have noted that Chiron has a connection with both Virgo and Sagittarius.

But rulership is another issue. I cover the subject in depth in the June 10 edition of Astrology Secrets Revealed.

Dear Leslie
I'm really happy to hear that. We got quite a few letters about turning a breech child -- there are many holistic methods. This is why I recommend prenatal care with holistic practitioners as well as medical doctors -- this way, they know your case before you need them. And as I've said before, I worship the ground midwives walk on and suggest that all women, even if they are not pregnant or have no intention to have a child, keep contact with a midwife as their co-primary healthcare provider.

Dear Steve
Here is what comes to mind. In considering the long-term future, we need to consider the short-term bridges that get us to the next stage one at a time. And in a few years, we will embark on the journey of Pluto in Capricorn.

And for that, I would envision a world where people take personal responsibility for their actions, for their healing, and for helping society work. I envision a world where people are strong enough to not be scared of being free.

As we complete the journey of Chiron in Capricorn in the next couple of weeks, and as we look at what has come to the surface in the four years of this transit, we see precisely what happens when people give up responsibility and trust power blindly.

Dear Anne-Marie
Reply removed -
A reader pointed out an error in my response -- so I'll have a new response next week. Meanwhile, if there are any people who are into the fixed stars, please send in your ideas and responses regarding the star Algol. Thank you!

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