Some time ago it was decided that as from 2024 gender would not be mentioned any more on Dutch Identity Cards. This is arranged so to accomodate people who feel neither male nor female, which is a bit strange. Because this is not about transgenders, so people who after a time of transition live as a person of the other sex and who would appeciate therefore their new sex confirmed on an ID Card. Apparently, this is about another, even smaller group who does not want to go over to the other sex but wants to see their “feelings” officially recognized. Does this mean that soon we wil have men entering the ladies’ restroom, stubbornly claiming despite their long beards to be women? It seems to be an ideological action against difference itself.

Traditionally, the gradual disappearance of the basic female-male polarity is seen as one of the signs that the time cycle is nearing its end. The cosmos is built on complementary polarity and at the end of the cycle, this polarity consisting of male Yang and female Yin, will be dissolved. This does not mean that we may expect apocalypse tomorrow, the time that will happen is not known to anyone and cannot be found in astrology either. It is clear however that the creative tension between the complementary poles, expressing itself in among other things gender, is decreasing, this is triggering  the whole gender issue.

What can be said about this more practically- astrologically? Often you see in charts of people wrestling with their gender identity, strong tensions around the fifth house of sexuality. A good example is the American RuPaul Andre Charles, who is enormously succesfull with his RuPaul’s Drag Race, a travesty show on TV. RuPaul is a homosexual man not a transgender, but he typically does want to be classified. In his chart it can be seen clearly that the gender theme will be play a big role in his life (click on the download button below to view his chart.

Immediately striking the eye is Venus the planet of femininity, very powerfully placed conjunct Jupiter in the seventh house. Jupiter is Lord 10 of the job and in its fall it will manifest the tendency to break through boundaries. Venus it not only the female planet but also Lord 5 of sexuality. RuPaul will show the world (seventh house) that he will overstep limits (Jupiter in fall) regarding femininity (Venus) and  sexuality (Lord 5). Through antiscion (planet position mirrored in the 0 ° Cancer- 0° Capricorn axis) this conjunction is even more emphazized, because this antiscion falls on the descendant. Antiscia often do things in a hidden or unususal way, they are symbolically connected to the nodal axis, the basic polarity at the root of the cosmos.

Nodal axis

Not only is this overstepping Jupiter-Venus conjunction by antiscion (nodal point ) on the descendant, the nodal axis is also on the MC/IC. Here we see how deep the roots of this gender issue are, the nodal axis is the creative duality, so the gender polarity. This is one of the keys of RuPaul’s success, he places this nodal duality expressed in gender, at the centre of his professional activity. Mercury/ Lord 1 ( RuPaul himself) is found in the fifth house of sexuality conjunct Neptune, washing away every structure or boundary and Mercury is the shape-shifter. A bit further, we see the Moon in its fall in the Burnt Road and on the merciless royal South Scale a very, very afflicted Moon, which will tend to lead to a non-standard sexuality.

The Moon and Lord1 in the fifth house have a very tense relationship with female Venus. In Mars-ruled Scorpion they dot no like Venus very much, contributing to the development of homosexual feelings. However, this also shows the travesty, men who purposefully create a theatre of women caricatures.  Everybody knows this is done by men, so the denied gender difference is very much  present as the essence in the background. Nobody would want to watch such a show performed by women!     

The Great Conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter(GC), taking place once every twenty years indicate what is going to happen in these twenty years. Charts however are always made for a certain time and for a certain place, so a GC chart will always say something about a region of the world. It can be so that the GC chart for some place is quite disastrous, but for another part of the world moderately innocent. There is no such thing as a chart of humanity or for the world, the reality is that we live in time but also in space (because of the body). As always astrology will mirror this metaphysical truth.

You can make this metaphysics very practical as the chart for the upcoming GC of December this year, calculated for the Chinese capital Beijing, has fiery combative Mars on the descendant, the point of dealing with others. This does not require any further explanation probably, but the red warrior planet is also conjunct Baten Kaitos, a malefic star in the Seamonster. The Seamonster is on its way to devour Princess Andromeda chained to a rocky island. It is not yet December but it is not too difficult to see how this will work out, prediction is partly also just extrapolation of ongoig developments. So this does not look good for Taiwan an island and still seen by the People’s Republic as a rebellious province.

What happened in Hong Kong over the past few month can be seen as a prologue of what we may expect in the next few years. China took tighter control of Hong Kong by new legislation and it seems only a question time before the city, once a British colony, will loose its liberties and simply become part of the People’s Republic. But be honest, could we really expect Hong Kong to be left alone on the long run after the Brits had returned the city to China? And can we really expec tChina will not also want devour Taiwan/Andromeda, in the next few years by threats and/ or real war?

Hong Kong was returned to the People’s Republic of China on 1 July 1997 (midnight Asc 3.51 Aries), and the city would remain (semi-)autonomous and modererately free for some time. That this agreement was an illusion you can see right away in the radix of the city calculated for this time. Lord 1 (the city) is on the descendant so under disposition (power) of the the others, in this case China of course. Lord 1 on the descendant is also Mars indicating there will be a lot of conflict. The progressions based on this radix of autonomous Hong Kong after the English rule can be seen by pushing the download button below. 

One of the progressions immediately striking the eye is the Moon conjuncting the always so restrictive South Node, indicating the new legislation. The Sun the big symbol of imperial power is entering its domicile Leo, in this context this can be only be China ever more strongly manifesting itself in the city and coming “home”, in Chinese eyes Hong Kong is home.  In the city’s radix Venus is Lord 7, also China but now more as the opponernt and it is moving over super-royal Regulus, Lord 7 is taking control. Yes Venus is also entering it fall, because with a view to history the city it not simply home, and it is not simply part of China now. Not yet.

Over the past six months of Corona crisis we heard a lot again from former Microsoft boss Bill Gates. He is investing his IT billions in the search for a vaccin and he is one of the big sponsors of the UN World Health Organisation WHO. Yes this is true, the WHO accepts funding from private parties and this is very strange, Gates is said to influence WHO policies considerably. This fits in with his “post-Microsoft’’ image of the Great Benefactor who is trying to help the world. Whether he is sincere is something doubted by many people, but not something not to be discussed in an astrological blog.

What is interesting astrologically is the question if his sudden powerful public role can be seen in his chart? His radix (28 october 1955, 21:59 PST, Seattle, Asc 26.47 Cancer) will not be discussed here, you can find this delineation in my book about the fixed stars (The Wessex Astrologer, 2019). The only point of interest now is a striking conjunction is his natal second house of money and possessions. In the last degree of Leo General Significator of wealth Jupiter in its triplicity is conjunct Pluto (also connected to wealth) on super-royal Regulus! This is an extremely powerful position and it has determined a large part of his life. Lord 2 of money the Sun is not very strong but it does conjunct (by antiscion) the Part of the Sun also called the Part of Abundance! 

But what do the progressions and the other prediction methods show us? First the Firdaria, the longer periods ruled by a planet. Gates is in a Mercury Firdar, and Mercury is moderately strong in his radix, we do still hear from him, but Mercury  placed in the fourth house so not fully active “up there” in the tenth house. Then the profection,  the house “lightening up” this year, it the fifth house, cusp 5 is on the powerful royal South Scale and there are three planets involved with this house so some action may be expected.

This is confirmed by the most important prediction method of all the progressions (for the planets) and the directions (for the angles) click on the download button above to view them. Note well there is no such thing as a “progressed chart”, the only thing you see here are progressed / directed positions. It is very clear, the progressed Moon has moved over the extremely powerful radix and progressed Pluto-Jupiter on super-royal Regulus. So his natal power-house was activated again and at the same time, the directed MC is moving over royal Aldebaran, the martial Bull’s Eye staring at the world. The Moon is now leaving the Pluto-Jupiter power-house behind but the MC (it speed is about 1 degree a year) will be on Aldebaran for some time, so Gates will still be on stage for some time.  

Last Monday the Italian composer Ennio Morricone died, 91 years old and so famous for his sound tracks for soem very successfull spaghetti westerns, like Once Upon a Time in the West and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. Morricone was always a bit irritated when his name was mainly associated with film music, as he had composed so much more. Neverthess, it is a fact that he is known mainly for his sound tracks, almost everybody knows these tunes, it is not Bach or Beethoven, but al least just as well-known.

So Morricone’s radix should be very interesting to look at (click on the download button below to view it).  Immediately striking the eye in this chart is Great Benefic Jupiter “in elevation’’ which means “very high in the chart” enabling Jupiter to manifest strongly in the life. This is very direct astrology, at the moment baby Ennio was born his father looked up and saw bright Jupiter right in the zenith which made him smile, as this is a promise of success. That Jupiter has no essential dignity does not really matter, it will have a lot of influence and as we said Morricone was no Bach or Beethoven. The Great Benefic is also retrograde showing it will go against the normal direction or pattern and you can say Morricone did.

Jupiter is also the Lord of the fifth house of creativity and pleasure (composer) and the ninth house of foreign countries (westerns). The Great Benefic is placed in Taurus ruled by Venus and Venus the planet of the arts in Sagittarius ruled by Jupiter, so there is a very strong mutual reception (=connection)  between Venus and Jupiter. Venus itself is again found in the fifth house of pleasure and playing, remarkably enough Morricone was also a football talent!  It is this strong connection with Venus that made him decide for the arts. Mars the planet of sportive competition is Lord 10 of the job (showing what we “’automatically” tend to do)  but it is weak in its fall and in the twelfth house. Venus certainly has much more to offer. 

The Ram’s  Horn

The fame he acquired through the spaghetti westerns can be seen in the star Jupiter is placed on, Sharatan one of the Ram’s Horns which has a Saturn/Mars nature. Probably this requires no further explanation, the Horn is of course violent push-power and the story of the Ram  is not very peaceful one either. Here we see how a chart works although Morricone would have liked to be known for much more than sound-tracks, the position of Jupiter shows what “was given to him”. Everything he is in fact known for, is associated with the threat of violence in the background indicated by Sharatan, in this sense he did not have a choice. We can even take this a step further, one of the best-known scenes in Once Upon a Time in the West is about a hanging from an arch, now in the Ram’s story it is finally sacrificed and its hide is hung on a tree.

Also striking is another star, Al Pherg on the MC. It is not a bright star but as a star of fate it can have a lot of influence. A progression moving over Al Pherg brings a decisive moment in the life, in the radix it points at a very special strong influence connected to the factor on it (in this case the MC of career). But here there is also a deeper level as Al Pherg can also be associated with montrous Typhon (mythically death), totally made out off of snakes making all kinds of threatening noises. Is this not a literal picture of the “fatal” harmonica sound, which of everything he ever produced, brought Morricone more fame than he could ever have dreamt of?  

For years we have been saying on this blog that Donald Trump will not be re-elected in november this year as US president. This was partly based on an important change in his Firdaria last year in June, the North Node Firdar which often brings success ended and the South Node phase started, in most cases this is a period of difficulties. Of course, this does not tell us that he cannot possibly be re-elected but it is clear that Don’s teflon has been scraped off more and more since. The polls show Trump dramatically far behind Joe Biden, American commentators say they have never seen such a huge difference between presidential candidates in this phase of the campaign.

This is the South Node’s effect, in Trump’s chart the SN, which takes away what was given in the North Node period, conjuncts the Moon of the people. Donald Trump is loosing their favour as we predicted here long ago. His reactions to the Corona virus, the seriousness of which he ignored so long, and to Black Lives Matter is harming him, he cannot get away with his incompetence any more. People see family members falling ill and even dying, the situation in the US is chaotic and dramatic, Donald Trump does not show any leadership. Trump’s MC is moving over malefic Saturn, which by progression is in its detriment in Leo and thus showing its worst sides.

An improbable scenario seems to become reality. Trump’s competitor Joe Biden who lacks all charisma – therefore called “Sleepy Joe” by Trump – and who cannot campaign, can indeed sit back relax and fall asleep. The presidency is coming his way by the the failings of his opponent. So it would be very interesting to take a look at Biden’s progressions around the election date of 3 November (his natal data are 20 November 1942, 8:30 Scranton Pennsylvania , Asc 3.11 Sagittarius).

Biden’s current Firdar is ruled by the royal Sun which is natally placed in the very weak twelfth house, but it can still effectively manifest by the trine the Sun makes with Jupiter/ Lord 1 exalted in Cancer on powerful, bright Procyon. Procyon is the main star in the Lesser Dog and it can bring a lot of success, a weak planet in the twelfth house can escape this weakness by an aspect or a reception with a a strong planet. His progressions /direction at first sight look a bit less convincing.The Ascendant is approaching the negative South Node but it is still too far away from the conjunction, the Asc moves forward one degree each year. The Asc will be on the South Node in 2022, then big problems can be expected, but not yet now.

The MC does make a conjuction with a royal star, the Scorpion’s Heart Antares. But how should this be interpreted, a royal star could bring him the royalty. However, Antares is also the notorious Death Star ending cycles, so maybe it indicates the end of his career has come? This is a difficult question which can only be solved by looking a the wider context, astrology is always about the situation and not about isolated individuals. The story associated with the Scorpion is that of the killing of the arrogant, bragging and very sucessful hunter Orion. Now this does ring a bell , it could be so that Sleepy Joe is going to be the nasty ball of poison finishing off Orion-Trump. 

In november the Asc squares Biden’s natal Lord 10 of career, the Part of hte Sun is moving over powerful Altair and the progressed Mercury / Lord 10 is conjunxt fate star Terebellum. This could all be associated with winning, it is still a long time till november but Biden’s progresssions do not exclude a victory over Trump.