2010 Forecast from Visual Astrology

Features

Risk, Plots and New Ways Forward

The Sky-Stories of 2010


by Darrelyn Gunzburg

In recent Visual Astrology Newsletters we have been exploring the notion of liminal spaces, planets and spaces in the sky that allow us to make the transition from one state space to another.
This issue continues that theme as we stand at the edge of the new decade. What is in front of us? What can we expect in the year ahead? How will we journey from the years behind us into the new future? Rather than look at this year month by month, I am instead considering the players on the stage, the liaisons they form and the plots they hatch. As well, whilst we know that the three outer planets are not visible to the naked eye, I am including them in this overview as they are part of our mundane astrological expression.

The Crown Prince touches the Grass Roots Population

The year opens with the Crown Prince (Jupiter) together with Neptune in the tail of the Sea-Goat, in a situation of either seeking knowledge from a spiritual, religious or inspirational source or being that point of knowledge as a teacher or leader (emphasised by the tail of the Sea Goat being the watery or intuitive side of learning - see VAN December 2009). Brady describes the combination of Jupiter-Neptune as 'idealism, seeking the guru that has the answer to everything.'[1] This may have been manifested by the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference and the headlines for The Guardian online in late December 2009 seem to agree: ‘Low targets, goals dropped: Copenhagen ends in failure’.[2] Yet many spoke of this as being a Winter Solstice season of spiritual or religious inspiration and from this perspective the Jupiter-Neptune, utilising this energy inwardly, expressed itself positively.

The Crown Prince parts company with Neptune in early February, crossing the thigh of the Water Bearer, and at this point of the year is seen, bright and visible, setting just after sunset. In late February into mid-March, however, as Jupiter moves into the flow of water and abundance, he is invisible, rising with the Sun in the ‘other’ place. We could say that the fertile abundance that he shares with the world at this time (the flow of water of the Water Bearer) comes ‘out of the blue’ or through intuition or the arts or from an area that is creative or different (Jupiter travelling with the Sun – see VAN August 2009).


The Fishes of Pisces will hold Jupiter (the Crown Prince) in the later part of the year.


In late March the Crown Prince becomes Sulpa’e (returning to visibility – see VAN December 2006), rising before the Sun and greatly empowered with this intuitive or creative knowledge. He crosses the liminal space between the Water Bearer and the Fishes, suggesting a change or a transition, and meets up with Uranus beneath the southern fish of The Fishes in late-May where they stay for the rest of the year.

One ancient meaning of the fish was as a symbol of wisdom and the Celts believed that eating fish put new life into a womb.[3] Thus the meeting of the Crown Prince with Uranus suggests that this intuitive or creative knowledge gained when Jupiter was travelling with the Sun presages the emergence of something new (The Fishes) which can be put to use for the benefit of the grass roots population (Uranus’ influence) in a situation of risk-taking or exploration (Jupiter-Uranus).

A point to note is that around July-August the Crown Prince will become Nibiru (see VAN May 2009), the period when Jupiter draws towards culmination in the night but fails to ‘split the sky’[4] (seen to reach culmination) because he is extinguished by the light of the rising sun, signifying that some risk or venture which appears remarkable comes to nothing.


So apart from these middle months, 2010 from the perspective of the meeting of the Crown Prince with Uranus (the grass roots population) in The Fishes suggests the emergence of something new and different which comes from a more yin focus but which takes root in popular thought.

The King, The Warrior and The Radiating Goddess

Saturn makes a tight square to Pluto from January to April, and again from August to November 2010. However, in considering this through the lens of visual astrology, I am looking not so much at the action that is occurring centre stage but rather the small plots and shady deals that are being hatched in the shadows and behind closed doors.



Saturn, The King (also the land, the government, and authority systems) touched the tip of the left wing of the constellation Virgo in October 2009 and as the new decade opens, is found on her left shoulder, moving by mid-January back to the wing. The constellation Virgo is the archetype of the harvest-bringing goddess, independent of the masculine, concerned with the fruitfulness that comes from cyclic understanding. Yet the wing is about exile, (see VAN Feb 2009, Oct 2009, and Dec 2009),[5]hence this suggests that those in power may find themselves having to take responsibility (the shoulder) for refugees or the disenfranchised (the wing), or else they find themselves exiled or dealing with matters on foreign soil.

Saturn, while squaring Pluto in 2010, will be in the wing of Virgo.

Meanwhile Mars enters the year in the mouth of Leo the Lion, suggesting roaring aggression of some sort. Could this be the backlash to the disillusion of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference? By February 2010 Mars has retrograded back into the constellation of Cancer (the Manger) where he stays until May. The Egyptians linked this constellation with the Scarab Beetle and the idea of immortality, for it was the place where the sun, having reached its southernmost point of rising on the horizon, turned on its path and began the journey northward. (See VAN July 2009). This suggests these are months when, from a time of standing still, or negotiations going nowhere, or a military stand-off, something new is born.


In May 2010 Mars crosses the liminal space from Cancer to Leo, and in June sweeps across Regulus, the heart of the Lion. This is a time when it is imperative that military revenge or personal recriminatory actions are not taken, for Regulus, the heart of the Lion and a Royal Star of Persia (see VAN February 2006), offers great success but the nemesis is revenge. So there will be provocations and it will be a time when anger runs high.

In late July Mars, having crossed the liminal space between Leo and Virgo, meets Saturn, the King, in the wing of Virgo, a time when the military can influence those in authority. Now for a few days, Sin, the Moon god, passes underneath them both, so this is a tense time when the warrior has the ear of the King and Sin is not able to control the situation. Indeed for the rest of July the King is deeply connected with Nergal, signifying that July may be a time of warmongering or aggression on foreign soil, or where people from different countries joined in debate disagree and tempers run high.

Venus joins Mars in early-August empowering – or igniting - the situation. However, by mid-August she has carried Mars past the ear of the King, moving in the first two weeks of September to connect with Spica. Spica is the gift of the Goddess, the gift of brilliance, of knowledge and insight, so it may be that this is a time when new actions, new ways of doing things, can occur.



In mid-September Venus and Mars both cross the liminal space from Virgo to Libra, the Scales. However, Venus retrogrades back into this liminal space leaving Mars to continue the journey forward through the gates of Libra, into the jaws of the Scorpion, past the foot of Ophiuchus in early December and straight into the face of the Archer by the Winter Solstice.

Throughout the whole period Pluto rests on the top tip of the bow of Sagittarius, implying that a matter of aggression is poised in the balance.

In 2010 Pluto rides the tip of the Bow of Sagittarius.

As well, from June when it comes into orb until December when it is exact, the transiting North Node conjuncts Pluto (see VAN Nov 2009) indicating the desire to colonize and move forward (North Node) via obsession, confrontation, challenge or through seeking new social levels in the community (Pluto).

In conclusion …
The year begins with disillusionment (Jupiter-Neptune), aggression (Mars in the mouth of Leo) and those in power possibly having to take responsibility for refugees or the disenfranchised or they themself being exiled or dealing with matters on foreign soil (Saturn in the wing of Virgo). The year ends with the dawn of the Winter Solstice seeing a total lunar eclipse, Mars in the face of the Archer, Pluto poised on the tip of the Archer’s bow and the North Node conjunct Pluto. Much depends on what happens mid-year when the King is joined by Nergal, and then empowered by Venus, and the Crown Prince is Nibiru (disempowered).


However, given that the Crown Prince is with Uranus in The Fishes by this time, it seems that there are opportunities for new solutions to emerge and that other ways of handing the situation may be at hand. We could surmise however, that whatever occurs in the middle of the year only gets stronger by the year’s end and creates a new pathway, for better or for worse (Pluto with the North Node)

Time will tell how the visual astrology of this year manifests.


1. Brady, Bernadette. (1992). Predictive Astrology, the Eagle and the Lark. Samuel Weiser, Inc.: York Beach, Maine. pg 12.

2.http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/18/copenhagen-deal

3.Brady, Bernadette. (1998) Brady’s Book of Fixed Stars, Maine: Samuel Weiser Inc.p.311.

4.van der Waerden, B.L. (1949) "Babylonian Astronomy.II. The Thirty-Six Stars." in Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol 8, No.1. pp 6-26, 12.

5.We will expand on this notion of exile in connection with the wing of Virgo in future Visual Astrology Newsletters.