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Spiritual Company Newsletter:
By Steffan Vanel • Astrologer • Tarot Reader
Author of: The Astrological Karma of the USA
And: Charles & Diana: The Inside Story:
An Astrological-Karmic ViewNow on YouTube: The Astrological Karma of the USA and The New Presidency
Predictions for 2009
Dear Friends and Clients,
Making predictions in December of 2007 for the year of 2008 was much easier than making predictions this December for what could result from the Astrological weather of 2009.
2008 was a pivotal year in many respects, Astrologically. Influences put into play this year are clearly having their effect, and will continue to have their effect for some time to come.
For example, Pluto moved into Capricorn, where it will remain until 2024. I wrote quite a bit about the likely significance of this in relation to the economy in last year’s predictions, and I encourage those who may be interested to revisit that material. Here is a short quote which sums up the effect I was predicting:
Hilarion says that someone born with the Sun in Capricorn is someone who accomplished a lot in material ways in previous lives, and helped other people in practical, material ways. This gives the Capricorn in this life a lot of ambition to make something of themselves in the eyes of the world. It also gives the Capricorn a lot of self-reliance, the ability to rely on themselves. That, however, is where they will tend to put their faith. It is harder than for the average person for the Capricorn to surrender and be vulnerable to what they cannot touch. Although difficult it is not impossible, and the Capricorn who succeeds in opening that Saturnian ‘ring pass not’ of belief (Saturn rules Capricorn), accomplishes more than what other souls have to contend with, and a lot of spiritual teachers are actually Capricorns.Personally, I expect the time period of Pluto in Capricorn to be a period when the ability to over-rely on concrete, material, economic realities for your identity or security will have the rug pulled out from under it. It may well wreak havoc on the world economy, not just to create destruction, however, but also to allow a new birth of consciousness freed from material obsession.
This Astrological influence may be particularly strong in its effect upon the United States as we have Pluto in Capricorn in our natal birth chart.
Well we have certainly seen that particular prophesy come into effect. It is to be noted that Pluto will be doing this material-fixation death/rebirth until 2024.
I actually wrote quite extensively about this approaching Pluto in Capricorn period and it’s effect within the United States in the last chapter in my book: The Astrological Karma of the USA. Readers have encouraged me to make that chapter available to a wider public and I have therefore posted it on my website for anyone to download and read. Here is the link to that chapter:
http://www.spiritualcompany.com/book_afterword.php
I will write more specifically about the economic stresses which are at play in the world in a future newsletter.
The other major Astrological event of 2008 was an opposition, for the first time in 40 years, between Saturn and Uranus. These planets will have opposed each other five times in a two-year period. That is a lot. Three times is normal.
Saturn represents authority, structure, the conventional, and responsibility. Uranus represents surprise, sudden change out of the blue, the unusual, the unconventional, and freedom from old patterns that have outlived their purpose.
The first of these oppositions took place on November 4th, Election Day. This was a no-brainer as far as prediction. The tension between the support for the Republican and Democratic candidates would be the way in which the whole world would be experiencing this Saturn/Uranus opposition.
As far as the various candidates, some of you may remember that I cut a Tarot card for 10 of the potential Presidential Candidates, the results of which enabled me to state:
The Democrats, on the whole, ...are definitely seeming to be feeling more chipper than the Republicans on that day.
Now that Pluto in Capricorn has pulled the rug out from under the ability to over-rely on material financial reality for one’s security and identity, and Obama as Uranus, the candidate of change and the unconventional has won out over Saturn, i.e. John McCain, what can we expect in 2009?
God only knows, but this is my sense of the Astrological weather ahead.
On January 5th Jupiter enters Aquarius and will conjunct the Jupiter in Aquarius in Barack Obama’s chart. Of the positive side of Jupiter in Aquarius Hilarion says:
Jupiter in this sign of brotherhood points to the ability to bring together conflicting groups, to forge closer ties between people, and to promote universal good will and love. The expression of this ability is the highest calling of the person with Jupiter in Aquarius.In earlier articles posted on my website I have gone more fully into Barack Obama’s Astrological make-up. There is also a YouTube video of a recent lecture of mine available called: The Astrological Karma of the USA and The New Presidency for those who might be interested.
Looking at this Jupiter in Aquarius ability to promote universal good will and love, and the fact that Obama will have Jupiter returning to his own Jupiter in Aquarius, supporting him from the sky, during the inauguration shows that it should be a really moving experience for all of us in this Aquarian direction.
Clearly, those of us who have faith in Obama, have faith that he has the capacity to bring humanity closer together, will experience the build up to and the event of the inauguration as the start of a ‘honey moon’ period.
There will be another Saturn (responsibility), Uranus (freedom) opposition in February. Each of these oppositions will be coming closer and closer to the Mars/Neptune square in the US birth chart. I’ve mentioned before that it was this Mars/Neptune square in the US birth chart, being activated by Pluto, which got us into the wars in Vietnam and Iraq. The Uranus/Saturn oppositions hitting this square will be the difficult task of freeing ourselves (Uranus) from old patterns of delusionary aggression (Mars/Neptune) while maintaining a realistic, grounded responsibility (Saturn).
Obama will be facing some stresses, which may be affecting his family, and perhaps some victimization by the unruly rebelliousness of those with whom he has formed partnerships.
In March, however, Jupiter conjuncts Obama’s Aquarian Ascendant/Self-Image and he should be coming into an even greater optimistic Jupiterian expansion of his capacity to bring us together as one family.
In May, there will be a conjunction of Jupiter (optimism) and Neptune (faith) in Aquarius, conjunct to the Moon in Aquarius in the US birth chart, the Aquarian Democratic ideals coming to life in the birth of this nation. Both Obama and Thomas Jefferson have/had Aquarius Rising in their respective birth charts.
I suspect this optimistic Aquarian Age energy and vision could help to restore the American image as a source of true humanitarian beneficence.
This Jupiter/Neptune conjunction will be in opposition to the Leo self-image of Russia, a self-image with Leonine pride and arrogance given to compensate for feelings of insecurity. Right now I sense that this new beneficent humanitarian stance in the US will weaken the Russian ability to hate us as a way of bolstering their own identity. (Not that we haven’t done things to merit that resentment).The Russians could resent this weakening of their Leo Self-Image and choose to stay in or exacerbate a Neptunian victim/victimizer program.
The intense Astrological transits which could indicate war or conflict in the charts of Iran and Pakistan look to be two or three years down the road.
Israel looks like it will be having mostly internal tension, which may involve the Palestinians, although the Saturn/Uranus, stability/change tension will be hitting their own chart in such a way that they will probably be facing a much more intensive engagement from others as to how they should deal with the Palestinians. Outright war, as with Iran and Pakistan looks to still be two or three years away.
In 2010 there are the start of some really hairy Astrological configurations, and of course, as I wrote in my book, there are the upcoming Pluto/Uranus squares around 2012 and the end of the Mayan Calendar.
In November of this year, however, especially around November 15th, there is a configuration, which bears the most concern for me during this year of 2009. It is an intense configuration, which will be affecting the charts of the United States, Barack Obama, and Joseph Biden, at virtually the same time.
Saturn will move into tension (square) with Pluto at that time. The last time Saturn was in tension with Pluto was in 2001. At that time Pluto was conjuncting and Saturn was opposing the Sagittarian self-image of the United States, a self-image which sees itself as being honest, upright, and morally strong, whether true or not. I wrote about this rather extensively in the first chapter of my book, while speaking about the events of September 11.
Curiously, this upcoming Saturn/Pluto square will be conjuncting and squaring the projected image or persona, which the US presents to the world, its Libran Midheaven.
I have not written in the past about this Libran Midheaven, so let me share my sense of it here.
This is what Hilarion says of the karmic significance of having Libra on the Midheaven:
Libra at the M.C. will indicate one who habitually projects an image of refinement, calm and emotional control. These traits are often not really present in the make-up of the individual. The intent of placing Libra on the Midheaven is to prompt the person to increase his control over the emotional nature, much the same as with Libra rising.I tell my clients with Libra on the Midheaven that they are not as cool calm and collected as they look. John McCain has Libra rising. Either one will make one a bit of a ‘sleeping volcano.
I first became aware of this American propensity to project a façade of calmness and emotional control after I had lived a considerable time in Europe. I could sense that, compared to other nations, which have a very strong sense of identity and security derived just from being a member of their respective nation, Americans have a basic insecurity, especially when interacting with other nations.
The United States is so big, with so many different factions, and various beliefs and geographical identities, and we rarely have any interactions with individuals outside of our borders, that we therefore lack a sense of security and identity just by being American, compared to that of someone French, or British, or wherever.
And yet, with that Libran Midheaven, we’re good at faking that we’re cool and calm.
Pluto started to square that Libran cool projected image to the world in 2008.
I’ve stated that it is one thing to be using our Mars/Neptune delusionary use of force and aggression to start wars, where we can pretend that we don’t care what the rest of the world thinks of us, but when American greed and financial shenanigans starts to bring down the whole world economy, it’s a little harder to maintain that fake cool, calm, and collectedness.
When Saturn joins the action and goes on top of that Libran Midheaven at the same time that Pluto is squaring it exactly in November, well I suspect it could be something even more intense and confronting.
What raises my apprehension another notch is the simultaneous effects of this Pluto/Saturn hitting the charts of Barack Obama and Joseph Biden.
Barack Obama has two things in his chart that are the same as placements in the chart of Princess Diana, and both of these placements are being hit by difficult transits this next year.
One is Venus in the Fifth house, of which Hilarion says:
The placement of Venus in the fifth sector points to one whose love energies tend to be directed primarily into the pair-bond or love-affair relationship, sometimes to the exclusion of other directions. Thus there will be a preference to center the love on one’s mate or partner, and to give only token affection to one’s children or parents. In order to overcome this tendency, the life pattern is usually planned so as to give to the native either as a parent or as a child, at least one soul to whom the native is extremely bound in the affectional sense. Ordinarily this will be a soul whom the native has loved as a mate in a past life. The purpose of bringing them together in a live in which they cannot again be linked in the same way is to encourage them both to explore facets of affection beyond those normally manifesting in the relationship between two mated individuals.It is interesting to note in the case of Princess Diana, that Prince William her son, also has Venus in the Fifth House, and this other soul will appear as a parent or as a child of the native.
In the case of Obama, it could definitely be related to his close relationship with his mother, but also quite likely one of his daughters. Obama is known to be quite close with his older daughter Malia.
The Pluto tension (opposition) to Obama’s Venus is coming out of his 11th House, house of relationship to society, to humanity, to the collective. It started in 2008 but hits exact in 2009 three times.
The easiest recognition of the likely intense effect of this social/collective Pluto on Obama’s family and, especially, young daughters, is that of being the first black family in the White House. In November, Saturn will move into tension (square) with this Venus and square to Pluto, coming out of the 8th House, the Scorpionic house of death and regeneration. Something rather intense and transformative is likely to occur in this arena.
The third factor to look at is what is going on in Joseph Biden’s chart at the same time.
Of the Birth charts for Obama, McCain, Palin, Bush, and Biden, Joseph Biden is the only one who has Neptune in only positive aspect. He has no difficult Neptunian aspects, which would entail tests along the lines of illusion, confusion, delusion, victimhood and martyrdom, and a test in avoiding the victim/victimizer program.
Biden does have a Sagittarian Ascendant, so he has a propensity for being too honest, what I call a vulnerability to ‘foot in mouth disease.’
Biden’s positively aspected Neptune is in his house of work, career, role in the world, and is therefore where he would be encouraged to play a role in which he can bring forth positive Neptune qualities of compassion, forgiveness, spiritual faith and surrender.
Pluto has been moving through Biden’s first house of self-image for some time, but this year it moves into tension (square) with his Neptune. In November, Saturn simultaneously conjuncts that Neptune, likely to bring forth a test of faith, possibly through victimhood and martyrdom, and a challenge of his ability to bring forth a role of compassionate forgiveness. How will this occur? God only knows.
The fact that this Pluto/Saturn square is hitting simultaneously the charts of the US, Obama, and Biden is eerie. However, in early 2010, Uranus will be making another opposition to Saturn, but this time simultaneously squaring Pluto after having just entered the sign of Aries, ruled by Mars the God of War. This Saturn/Uranus/Pluto T-square will also be hitting those same points I mentioned in the US, Obama and Biden charts, although not as exact.
People have asked me if I feel there is the possibility of Barack Obama being assassinated. I have no way of knowing that. In my book about Princess Diana I stated that I could see what Astrological influences were in her chart and which influences were at play at the time of her death, but I would never have been able to predict that a sudden death would be the exact way that she would play out those influences. The Astrologer/Author Richard Tarnas made a statement to the effect that Astrology is archetypically precise in its capacity to predict, but not in terms of the specific concrete manifestation of that archetypal energy.
There is no denying that there is the danger that there could be an attempt to assassinate Barck Obama. There have already been three times as many death threats registered with the secret service than with any other newly elected president. I could see how the Astrological influences at play here could fit that kind of intense, tragic scenario. But they could play out in an entirely different way as well.
I have been traveling in the South lately and I am well aware of the level of racial hatred that continues to exist in parts of our population. My friend works at a newspaper in Asheville, North Carolina. On the day after the election a female co-worker cut out the photo of Obama from the paper and pinned it to the wall, with Devil’s horns drawn in and the word: Antichrist written underneath.
The Uranus/Saturn opposition hitting the Mars/Neptune in the US chart is affecting not only our delusionary use of violence, but also our Mars in Gemini tendency toward mental/verbal combativeness and abuse.
With difficult Neptune it’s also always going to be a test involving the victim/victimizer program, where if you don’t want to be a victim, you have to be a victimizer. And if you don’t want to be a victimizer, then you have to be a victim. The only way out of that program is the positive side of the planet Neptune, that of unconditional love, for yourself and for others, total forgiveness, for yourself and for others, and spiritual faith trust and surrender, to where there are no victims or victimizers, but just all of us little boys and girls doing the best that we can.
It seems that the US is going to have to face some test of some kind involving these issues, although this program has been activated for some time, especially during the engagement in the War in Iraq.
I feel that this could be a test of tremendous consequences. I personally feel that if Obama remains President the world will have the best chance to transition into the New Age peacefully. Obama has the character and charisma to pull it off. If the darkness that this nation is prone to, is allowed to become so strong that we lose Obama, I think the world will suffer greatly for it.
At the same time, I do remember that, following the death of John Lennon, Ascended Master Hilarion said that John Lennon had purposely volunteered, before he incarnated, to be taken out of life violently to emphasize his message for peace.
I don’t have a direct link to Hilarion to ask him if Obama may have made the same agreement. I do feel that such a heinous act would pull the rug out from under the right wing anger and criticism and push America into its heart, at least for a time.
I have started to make the observation of what, to me, is an obvious pattern when you look at the red states. They are basically the Southern states, whose legacy is slavery and fighting a war to keep a race of people in slavery, and then fighting for decades to deny them civil rights. Many of whom have never copped that there was anything wrong with that. My friend from Alabama says that, to this day, her father would say relative to the Civil War: They should have left things the way they were. Those people were happy then, because they were taken care of.
The other block of red states are the Mid-West, Prairie and Mountain States where the cruelest genocide of the Native Americans took place, where they coined the phrase: The only good Indian is a dead Indian, and they delivered the blankets knowingly infected with smallpox. Many of those people have never copped that there was anything wrong with that.
What the United States did to the slaves and to the Native Americans are the darkest stains upon American domestic history, and the energetic legacy of this is what fuels the militaristic arrogant aggression of this nation. When that aggressiveness becomes so strong that it takes the majority of swing states then we end up with 8 years of George W. Bush.
Another note: the greatest anathema for a racist, what fueled perhaps 70% of the lynchings of black men over the years, was the mere thought that a black man would defile a white woman. Well, Obama is the blatant product of such a so-called defilement. His very existence is to serve as a confrontation and release of such irrational prejudice. (As a side note: Hilarion has said that if there was anything wrong with inter-racial marriage then the offspring from such a union would display genetic defects. The fact that it is never the case belies any kind of unnaturalness to such unions)
It is also possible that Obama’s rise to the presiding presence over our nation can very well inflame that irrational racial prejudice.
There are those who have been calling for a sending of light and protection to surround Obama at this time, and I totally agree and support that. But even more, I think we also need to send light and compassion towards those of our brothers and sisters who are affected by the dark forces of anger, and fear, and prejudice, to those who would be capable of doing such a horrible thing as to cause harm to Barack Obama.
I will now end this rather lengthy discussion with a certain teaching that I think is appropriate here. It is my take on a teaching by Don Juan from the Carlos Castaneda books. In that material Don Juan spoke of the 2nd enemy of a spiritual warrior. The first enemy is fairly obvious. It is fear. To me that is what 95% of life’s charades and pretense is about. People trying to pretend they are not afraid, as a result of their looks, their partner, their social status or bank account. As it says on the t-shirt I saw on Maui: He who dies with the most toys, still dies.
The second enemy, however, is subtler, but the way that I understand it I see it as just as great a limitation on what the creator intended us to be.
When one is no longer ruled by basic fears, you gain a certain insight, a certain awareness, a certain clarity. The 2nd enemy of a spiritual warrior, however, is clarity. Clarity?
This is how I understand it. When you have this awareness, this insight, this clarity, well then you can see quite clearly into virtually everyone else’s B.S.
The thing is, what are you going to do with that clarity? Are you going to live in judgment, and criticism, and bear the literal burden of being superior to everyone? Or do you move through to the next level? To that of unconditional love and forgiveness and spiritual faith, trust and surrender.
To my mind, 99.9% of the alternative culture, myself definitely included, is totally trapped in their clarity. It is a really tough one.
But the tests ahead involve all of us. Maybe we are not big fans of the likes of Rush Limbaugh, but we are all responsible as to how much critical, unloving energy we put into the mix, and how that will affect the whole.
So at this time of yearly renewal I pray that we might all take to heart the message of Christ and learn to love even our enemies.
Blessings,
Steffan VanelPS: Since writing this newsletter I had a dream that Obama’s Presidential entourage was attacked but that he maintained his calm and was escorted safely to a position of safety. I am certainly hoping that this is a positive omen that he will be successfully protected from the dangers which would seek to do him harm.
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