The British Horoscope England, as we know her today, was ‘born’ on January 1st 1801 with Minerva at 8 Leo. Minerva is one of three heavenly bodies in Leo, the lion. The other two are Jupiter and Saturn. The British identity is caught up with these three legendary lions. You can see them on coins, coats of arms and football shirts.

Three lions

Minerva, the Third Lion is the Roman goddess of wisdom. Minerva at 8 Leo will be transited  on Sunday 24^th June 2012 when second-round tickets for the London Olympics are issued. The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee is also in place.

The Royal Banner of England

Pluto Square Uranus Pluto represents people and organisations who are passionate and dominating. They take, and take over. Then they are dwarved just as Pluto was in 2006.  Uranus symbolises freedom and revolution. He was found in 1781, when America won the War of Independence. It was also a milestone  for the French Revolution.

Let America Shake Born on July 4^th 1776, America  has Uranus at 8 Gemini. For entirely different reasons, the USA will also shake. There will be a revolution and rebellion involving the internet and media on  or close to June 24th.

Understanding Uranus Uranus was discovered by an army deserter named William Herschel, in 1781. He originally named it The Georgian Star, after King George III.  The French refused to use this name, so the planet became Uranus, named after the Roman god whose son Saturn rebelled against him and castrated him. At 8 Aries on June 24th, he will trine the position of Minerva at 8 Leo in the UK chart. Leo is traditionally the sign of royalty.

The UK Union Horoscope (Click to enlarge).

How June 24^th Affects You   The symbolic clash between power and freedom on the world stage will indirectly affect you. Pluto and Uranus both demanded control. Both of them lost it. This is about a push for independence. Capricorn is the sign associated with global corporations and skyscrapers. This Fortune magazine cover symbolises it well. Fortune magazine was founded in 1930, the year that Pluto was discovered.

Pluto in Capricorn

Jessica Adams is the author of Essential Astrology for Women (HarperCollins).

UK Union Horoscope data from The Book of World Horoscopes, Nicholas Campion, The Wessex Astrologer.

Neptune sign, Sydney 2012 (Jessica Adams)

Welcome to a new era of partial visibility, starting February 3rd 2012. That’s why I only photographed part of this Neptune sign, in Sydney. That’s how this planet rolls. A new Neptune cycle is like seeing one part of your life through a scuba mask. Story: Jessica Adams.

Neptune enters Pisces on February 3^rd (in London) and will stay in that sign until 2025. It’s going to be a long strange trip. How will it affect you? If you know your horoscope already, then it’s the Pisces-ruled house of your chart which will reveal the full extent of the strangeness. You can discover your chart free, here, if you need to.

Your life – but under general anaesthetic Neptune was discovered in 1846, the year that the first surgical operation was carried out under general anaesthetic. This is a good match for the mythology of the Roman Neptune, who was the god of the sea. If you have ever been drugged for surgery you will recognise the feeling of floating in, and then floating out of, that altered state. It’s a strange process. You stay in the real world (the hospital) but you are somewhere else entirely.In astrology, the synchronicity (or meaningful coincidence) of a major event, in the year of a planet’s discovery, tell us what that planet means.

The ‘random’ nature of the naming of Neptune back in 1846 was an uncanny fit for the big news in world medicine – namely the introduction of a new, altered state which would submerge people in a different reality. This is about to happen to you, in the Pisces-ruled house of your horoscope until 2025. Neptune, as God of the sea, is always shown with a trident, used for pinning fish. The trident shape is also the symbol for this planet in astrology. There is strong synchronicity between the 2000-year-old Roman symbol for the god, and the modern needle, used to administer anaesthetic.

Neptune, Sydney 2012 (Jessica Adams

Altered States We all enter an altered state (like fish, dragged from the ocean to the air – or patients undergoing anaesthesia) when Neptune transits a new house of our horoscope. We can also be revived. Fish come back to life when thrown into the sea again. Patients come round. Typically, this Neptune in Pisces cycle will also involve many wake-up calls for you. The altered state will not go on forever.

Hash became famous in Europe in the year that Neptune was discovered. Theophile Gautier wrote about his ‘hash club’, The Club des Hashischins in 1846, for the Revue des Deux Mondes. All the words for this new Neptune transit in your life are oceanic, but cross over to drugs as well. Neptune erodes reality, the way water erodes pebbles. It washes away solid structures – which is exactly what people on acid see! It mists over what is there, like the fug of hash in a 19th century parlour – or a sea mist.

Neptune erodes 'rock-like' structures in your life.

 What (or who) starts up in your life after February 3^rd will indeed take you through an alternative to your usual reality. But it will also stop at some point, just as fish revive in the water and patients drift back to consciousness. A transit from Mercury to Neptune (particularly a square or opposition) will often produce a wake-up call. Mercury is the planet of logic and information. When he challenges Neptune in 2012, you may well have your first ‘Aha!’ moment of realisation. You will gain the objectivity on the situation you need.

This is set to happen around May 26^th, when Mercury at 3 Gemini squares Neptune at 3 Pisces. If you have heavenly bodies at 3 degrees in your personal horoscope, this will be a profound moment of truth, after a few months of living in an altered state.

Watch out for new people in your life who have exact aspects in their horoscopes involving Neptune. You can check their charts at Astrodienst. Other people will increase in prominence. And you’ll see this as early as February and March! Neptunian types often have issues with boundaries. The most basic boundaries of all are time and space, so if someone in your world now is too late, or too early, or doesn’t know what day it is – welcome to Neptune made manifest. Space boundaries revolve around territory, so perhaps this person drives all over the road, or is messy by nature (their stuff spills over into other people’s space). Other classic Neptunian traits? A dependence on alcohol or drugs to give them an alternative to the real world. A life half-lived in fantasy (television, computer games, meditation). The longing for the spa, the addiction to the ocean - it’s all Neptune!

2020 Vision by Jessica Adams

In my recent book 2020 Vision I wrote about the confusing and confused impact of  Neptune, based on your solar chart (your sun sign). There are some signs who will feel this more than others. Virgo, for example, now has Neptune in her Seventh House of partners, but also enemies. It’s a very good time to be sharply aware of new people coming in (particularly in February 2012) no matter if it is about Valentine’s Day passion or something trickier. Apart from Virgo, Pisces herself is really going to feel this new Neptune cycle. It falls in her First House of image, reputation and appearance, both online and offline. Wipe that scuba-diving mask every so often, Pisces, when you look in the mirror, or at your website!

Poetry is Back in 2012-2025  too! Neptune is famously about poetry – a fluid word form which is oceanic in nature. In 1846, its year of discovery, poets became a global talking point, when Elizabeth Barrett eloped with Robert Browning. The two writers remind us of Neptune’s twin themes of escape and other realities (like the poetic world). With Neptune in Pisces from 2012 onwards, astrologers might predict that poetry, jazz and drugs are all going to make a comeback – reinterpreted for the times. Even as I write this there’s a rumour doing the rounds that Hollywood celebrities are entranced by (wait for it) laughing gas. The new hip party chemical.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Born with Heavenly Bodies at o or 1 degree? If you have  heavenly bodies in Pisces (check here if you haven’t done your chart) then Neptune will form a conjunction, either now (if you have planets or asteroids at 0-1 degree of Pisces) or in the years ahead. Because this planet operates like water – seeping in, creeping under, washing over – it can help to be completely aware of the transit before it happens. And of course, if you have any heavenly bodies at all at 0 or 1 degree, Neptune will form anything from a semi-sextile to an opposition. You’ll feel him. He may even turn up in human form (people with horoscopes dominated by the sign of Pisces or Neptune are good contenders for this role in your life).

Neptune at o-1 degree will either feel like a process, or manifest as a person. Either way, your viewpoint in February helps, as this arrival is utterly new. So you can still remember enough of your life, pre-Neptune, to understand what is shifting! Before too long it is all too easy to be dragged under. It’s rather like scuba-diving and losing connection and contact with those on dry land.

How to ‘do’ Neptune So how does one ‘do’ Neptune without gasping or feeling overwhelmed? The best way is to remember that this is a symbol for salt water. And also for the clear streams of water that feed the sea. Water cleans. It can also be cleaned. Salt water cleans and heals wounds. And the pure water that feeds the ocean can be filtered, purefied. The Pisces house of your horoscope, and any Pisces heavenly bodies you find there, are all about to be affected by Neptune until 2025. So what (or who) requires cleansing? That’s the primary way to successfully ‘do’ Neptune.

Avoid the flotsam and jetsam that drift into the house of your horoscope, where Neptune now lives. They are only there because there are no boundaries any more. Be aware that old structures in your life will most likely erode, in a subtle way, over the next few years as Neptune works on them. Be aware of chaotic people. Neptune rules that watery anarchy that takes hold when people are everywhere, all the time, without barriers! Look at the internet in particular, as it is a leaking vessel (Wikileaks is proof of that) and even the Twitter whale symbol  is a clear omen that Neptune in Pisces is here to stay – manifesting, perhaps, through this boundary-free model of social networking. It never stops and it never ends. It is 24-hour and anyone can wash up on your Twitter feed, any time, from anywhere!

Neptune’s sublime escape Neptune’s sublime escape is genuinely wonderful (like a good poem, or a swim in the sea, or a special piece of music) when controlled. To enjoy the sublime escape from the mundane, boring, limited, restricted real world now – manage Neptune. He dislikes being controlled and contained, but he always has been. But it may take a while for you to adapt and adjust to the new cycle, so be very aware of the drip-drip-drip of Neptune’s influence early on. It’s never too early to manage him, however he is manifesting in your life. 

Key Dates All of us will feel Neptune on the following dates (set for London time). If you happen to have heavenly bodies at 0 or 1 degrees, then the experience will be deeply personal. 

The Sun’s conjunction to Neptune in Pisces on Sunday February 19th at 8.40pm is like Jacques Cousteau shining a searchlight on the ocean floor. What are you seeing, in this strange new altered reality? The sextile from Venus at 1 Taurus to Neptune at 1 Pisces on Tuesday March 6th at 12.25pm brings another wave.

Reviewing What Astrologers Say  Reading the books of  astrologers Caroline W. Casey, Liz Greene, Debbi Kempton-Smith, Sue Tompkins is also a good place to begin, as you define Neptune in Pisces, in your life right now. Here is a brief  tour of Neptune, as seen by review extracts of some of the most useful astrology books of our times -

LIZ GREENE – The Astrological Neptune and the Quest for Redemption

“The mythology of Neptune begins with the mythology of water. In astrological symbolism, Neptune is the ruler of Pisces, the third sign of the watery trigon; and the god after whom the planet is named is the lord of the ocean depths. But even if the planet had been called by another name, the language of water arises spontaneously on the lips of those experiencing important transits and progressions involving Neptune. Over and over again I have heard people completely unfamiliar with astrology describe their feelings and perceptions at such critical times with images such as drowning, flooding, drifting, dissolving, swamped, inundated and flowing with the current.”

CAROLINE W.CASEY – Making the Gods Work for You

“We know Neptune is at work (or play) in our lives, when we feel “at sea.” if we are relaxed, confusion and disorientation may be experienced as a sense of mystery, sent by Neptune to remind us that we are much larger than our current cirumstance or self-definition.”

DEBBI KEMPTON-SMITH – Secrets From a Stargazer’s Notebook

“Hang on to the idea that the sign and house of Neptune is where you’ll be happiest if you purify your life in some way. Clean up and enjoy the Jungian oceanic feelings.”

SUE TOMPKINS – Aspects in Astrology

Where Neptune is situated or what Neptune touches tends not to accept (possibly not even recognise) boundaries, it seems as if nothing will get in the way of the attainment of the wish, dream or desire.”

All books available at Amazon.

Astrologer Kelly Surtees

Kelly’s numerous columns and feature articles on Astrology, health, creativity and wellness have appeared around the globe in magazines such as The Mountain Astrologer, WellBeing Magazine, Marie Claire, New Woman, More and The Sun Herald. Kelly currently writes as ‘Kosmic Kelly’ on astrology.com. Since 2008 Kelly has co-edited the annual WellBeing Astrology Guide - the same publication to which she has contributed extended annual horoscopes since its inception in 2005. Kelly’s website www.kellysurtees.com has been running since 2002 . To find out what Kelly’s clients and students have to say about her please go here.

Bite on Mars in Virgo

Mars (seemingly in Virgo forever this year) will definitely crank up the tension from now until July. But how will it affect you? On a global scale, Mars in Virgo is about the fight for the right to work. And given that Pluto is still in Capricorn (corporations) it would appear that the power struggles involving big business will help to motivate the trade unions, students and the unemployed in a way we have not seen for around over 240 years.

Middle management and the workers – now in their forties – make up a whole generation of people born with Pluto or Uranus in Virgo (check your chart at www.astro.com if you don’t know). Thus a large chunk of the world population will  be strongly affected by the unusually long stay of Mars in Virgo this year. Basically, when Mars conjuncts your Pluto or Uranus, your inner control freak (or revolutionary) is sure to want some action. That part of any fortysomething that needs to tackle questions about power (Pluto) and freedom (Uranus) is now being channelled through work. If you want to know how that’s going to feel, just imagine the God of War (below) running backwards on employment and industrial relations issues for a few weeks. Then rampaging forward…

Mars by Diego Velazquez (Wikimedia)

If you know the Virgo house of your horoscope, off the top of your head, then that’s the source of the tension, right there. And if you don’t know it, again, you can check your chart at www.astro.com. Experiment with a house system until you find one that is right for you. And don’t overlook your solar chart (put your Sun sign on the Ascendant and work with whole-sign houses). It’s still the most popular house system in the world.

There is so much more to Mars in Virgo than just your own chart, though. Thanks to a trickle-down effect, you are bound to be affected by a new wave of activism involving workers, students, trade unions and the unemployed, simmering away from now until July 3.

Image: Ian Ridpath

Sue Tompkins on Mars

Sue Tompkins is a British-based astrologer, author and lecturer. This piece online, Aspects of Mars, is a concise explanation of the planet and his cycles.

 “Correct use of the Mars principle can make for courage and endurance. Courage does not necessarily, of course, mean aggression or fighting. Courage means facing those things we are frightened of…” she writes.

And – “Mars is concerned with assertion. To assert oneself is to declare one’s interests, to affirm, to be positive, to maintain one’s position, one’s individuality, in the face of pressure or resistance not to do so. This does not mean riding roughshod over people. This is a common misuse of Mars energy and explains why the planet has such a poor reputation.” (To read the feature by Sue Tompkins in full,  and find out more about her books, visit Inner Self online).

 Liz Greene on Mars

Liz Greene’s take on Mars, here, is from The Inner Planets, written with Howard Sasportas and available in paperback from Amazon.

‘Once Mars is brought out into the open, and the statement is made, it cannot be unmade, any more than we can crawl back into the womb once we have begun to breathe independently and the umbilical cord is cut. So there is an absolute and irreversible quality about Martial action, which is one of the reasons why many people have trouble owning the planet.

Mars cannot speak in conundrums and double meanings to covers its tracks; it simply says, like Martin Luther (who had Mars as one of his Sun sign rulers), “Here I stand, so help me God.”

Mars in Virgo through February and March – Dates to Watch

Allow a day either side for these dates, depending on your location, as they are calculated for London time. If you have heavenly bodies at the same degree as any of these Mars aspects, then you will feel Martian people or situations around you very strongly on these days…And if you were born with Pluto or Uranus in Virgo, on the same degrees you see mentioned here, then your whole generation will feel the heat, on (or very close to) the days mentioned here. What does Mars love? A strategy. Tell him to calm down and cool down. Then give him your brilliant plan. Put him to work for you. Don’t let him just blunder around with a spear. Mars wants a  map and a schedule, particularly when he’s in Virgo.

Wednesday February 1

Venus 22 Pisces opposite Mars 22 Virgo

Thursday February 23

Mercury 17 Pisces opposite Mars 17 Virgo

Wednesday March 14

Venus 9 Taurus trine Mars 9 Virgo

Jupiter 9 Taurus trine Mars 9 Virgo

Thursday March 15

Mars 9 Virgo trine Pluto 9 Capricorn

Monday March 26

Sun 5 Aries quincunx Mars 5 Virgo

Saturday March 31

Uranus 4 Aries quincunx Mars 4 Virgo

2012 and Industrial Action

Once Mars turns direct on Saturday April 14, it may take a few days before people find an opportunity to push through the big work, employment or industrial relations goals they were so tense about earlier this year. Yet the opportunity will come when Jupiter at 4 Taurus trines Mars at 4 Virgo on Tuesday April 24. The quincunx from Uranus at 6 Aries to Mars at 6 Virgo on Tuesday May 8 is very close to Labor Day, all around the world, a traditional show of strength for the Left.

You don’t have to be an astrologer to remember the fury of the London 2011 riots or the incredible show of people power (via Twitter) in many nations last year. That Uranus-Mars quincunx at 7.45am in London on Tuesday 8^th May is an easy call for stargazers though. The May Bank Holiday in Britain looks like five barrels of fireworks just one match away from an explosion.

Of course, Labor Day is a global show of unity by workers. So this isn’t just about London. And the heat rises on Sunday May 13 when Mars at 8 Virgo trines Mercury at 8 Taurus, and again on Wednesday May 16 when Mars at 9 Virgo trines Pluto at 9 Capricorn. And then, incredibly, the following day, Thursday May 17, we find Chiron at 9 Pisces opposite Mars at 9 Virgo, in an epic battle between mavericks and warriors.

If Mars in Virgo is about the fight to work, or a fight over work, then this is the year, and this is the time. This long, long cycle of the God of War will play a key role in the long-running transformation of the corporate world, as Pluto in Capricorn completes his cycle.

 Jessica Adams is the author of 2020 Vision, Astrolove and Essential Astrology for Women, all available at Amazon. 

Image: Alison Gunn

American astrologer and author Alison Gunn, Ph.D recently examined astrologers and skeptics on her website, Beyond the Stars Astrology, writing that the greatest mystery of all for astrologers, is how to argue with a skeptic!

Alison Gunn: Astrologers have long been faced with trying to explain to skeptics how and why astrology works. I don’t mind the questions; I mind the closed-mindedness of Empiricists who cannot perceive as true anything that is not verifiable via the five senses—but that’s a rant for another day.

Fortunately, someone who understands the principles ofargumentation can speak for me, so that this won’t become an unnecessary diatribe in which I splutter and lose whatever credibility I still have, tattered though it might be.

In a rebuttal to the skeptic’s usual method of argumentation, on his website Theory of Astrology, author and theoretician Ken McRitchie addresses not only the assertions that are most often leveled against astrology; but also, the structure and foundational premises of the arguments themselves.

He has found that most of the arguments used against astrology rely on logical fallaciesthat go ignored because the nature of the rhetoric employed is so inflammatory or misguided that, instead of creating discourse, all that is accomplished is further dissension and misunderstanding.

The following represents one of the many fallacies that undergird negative assumptions about astrology, at the same time that it foregrounds the reason Plato didn’t like rhetoricians very much. He deplored the rhetor‘s ability to twist words around so as to make the weaker argument the stronger. This twisted rhetoric, amounting tolegerdemain, was a pet peeve of his, as it is to anyone who believes in keeping an open mind and not manipulating people.

Burden of proof fallacy — The assertions that astrology should be explained by a conventional causal mechanism (such as gravity or magnetic forces), or that astrology should use the time of conception instead of the time of birth, are attempts to argue that view A (conventional mechanism and time of conception) is to be preferred to view B (testable, falsifiable operations drawn from astrology texts).

The logical fallacy in this case is that the burden of proof laid on view A is raised to an impossibly heavy level, and furthermore would not prove view B either. Preference for view A further leads to the false attribution that astrology makes extraordinary claims, and that no evidence of view B is sufficient because extraordinary evidence is required to prove view A. This argument makes a faulty inference of proof and is another error of logical structure.

Why are these rational errors made? No doubt the theories and applications that scientists are familiar with do not explain how astrology works. Yet no theory can be used to either support or deny what astrology actually claims in its texts. This requires evidence. To rely upon theory before evidence is, epistemologically speaking, to put the cart before the horse.

Before astrology can be explained, or explained away, it is necessary to understand and evaluate its claims. All researchers, whether they agree or disagree with the claims of astrology, need to immerse themselves deeply into the empirical observations made by astrology…

Continued at Beyond The Stars Astrology. Reproduced with kind permission.

Creative Commons

As a venerable bard once crooned, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows”. By the same token, you don’t need an astrologer to forecast that 2012 is trouble. Politicians and pundits of all nations are queuing up to tell us so, almost competing to be the one with the worst news.

To the doom-laden predictions of Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy, David Cameron, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and others, your humble star-gazer can add little except ‘Told you so’. For astrologers interested in economic and political cycles, the arrival of Pluto (naked power) into the skies of Capricorn (the establishment) in 2008 always held a worrying message about the determination of the plutocracy (dictators, corporate moguls, bankers, gangsters) to intimidate the populous with the simple message, ‘Do what you’re told or else’.

This year sees a concerted challenge to the power of Pluto from the revolutionary planet Prometheus/Uranus, which is in a seven year transit of Aries, which as the first sign of the zodiac is associated with impatient, youthful energy and new beginnings.

The cycle of these two planets has a long history of social unrest and technological innovation – they met in the 1850s ‘Age of Revolution’ for example and during the scientific breakthroughs of Copernicus and Einstein – a link detailed in two illuminating books by the gifted Californian philosopher, Professor Richard Tarnas – Prometheus The Awakener (short and sweet) and Cosmos and Psyche (long and complex).

2012 is the first time Pluto and Uranus have been linked exactly since their conjunction in the mid-1960s, another age of revolution. On the great cosmic clock, we are now at ‘a quarter past 1966’ – it will be ‘half-past’ when the two planets oppose each other in 2046, and ‘o’clock’ when they meet again in 2104.

 The rebellions of 2011 – the Arab Spring, the Occupy movement – would seem to be harbingers of greater disruption to come. Pluto and Uranus square up against each other twice this year – on June 24 and September 19 – but because these distant planet have such lengthy orbits, they will makes the same ‘square’ aspect five times more before their final pass in 2015. Hold onto your seats.

For some, political and economic disruption plus technological breakthrough isn’t enough of a prediction. Only the end of the world will do, or at least the start of the fabled ‘New Age’. I suspect those who have linked either of these two events to the end of the Mayan calendar this year will be disappointed. The Mayans were ingenious people with profound geomantic skills and a calendar built for the long haul, but as we witnessed when our own calendar reached 1000 AD and 2000 AD – both times with much wailing about the end of times – we simply turned a page and began a new one.

Purchase your 2012 Forecast for all Signs

This 12,000 word report from Neil Spencer sent as a PDF file covers all 12 signs and gives an overview of your year ahead. It’s a bargain for just £5.99. Read your sign and your partner’s and family. Also read your Moon sign and Ascendant. To discover your ascendant and Moon sign go to www.alabe.com

On February 3^rd Neptune enters Pisces and the Australian dollar will go loco. Loco is the Spanish word (which I have carefully chosen) for ‘crazy, insane, mad” (The Urban Dictionary). Its new loco phase will probably kick in from 7am on Monday February 6^th, at the latest, which is the next full business day of trading for the Australian Securities Exchange in Sydney after the new Neptune cycle begins.

Update: This prediction was made here, on The Astrology Show website, on January 13th 2012 – about three weeks before the Australian dollar did indeed go ‘loco’. Here are two dated news stories -

Forexpros – The Australian dollar rose to a six-month high against its U.S. counterpart on Friday February 3, after positive U.S. employment data boosted demand for riskier assets.

The Sydney Morning Herald – Spanish economy to shrink 1.5% in 2012 (February 6).

Now, back to the original feature…!

The  sceptics on the ABC Digital Radio show on which I am a guest, The Dirty Disbelievers would like to pin me down to specifics  about my prediction (will the dollar go up? Will the dollar go down? but I’m not going to play.

It should be possible to make an accurate astrological prediction on astrology’s terms, which are not – at least for me – about making money from the sharemarket. Rather, astrology is about understanding change. And learning from history. It’s a bit like talking to the universe, and asking ‘So tell me. What the bleep is going on?’

The Aquarian Australian Dollar

The Australian dollar was born on 14^th February 1966. If you are new to astrology it may seem odd to think of currency being born, but astrologers believe that everything (even an apple pie or Australia itself) has a birth chart. What time was the dollar born, and where? I don’t have any evidence of a clock-time transaction in any particular part of Australia (though please get in touch via The Astrology Show if you do).

We might assume, though, that the Australian dollar has a birth chart that looks like this, below – set for 9am in Sydney on February 14^th 1966.

Click to enlarge Australian dollar horoscope

This is an Aquarian currency. The sign to be associated with new technology (the notes themselves pioneered the use of polymer) and also humanitarianism.

David Unaipon, the man on the $50 note today, was an Australian aboriginal, preacher, inventor and writer. He passed away when the Sun was in Aquarius on February 7 1967, almost one year after the new notes had been launched. Australian money shows the big Australian ‘tribe’ in a classically Aquarian way – black, white, male, female, old, young…and often radical. It’s not all about HM The Queen!

Aquarian money

What Neptune in Pisces Means for the Australian Dollar

Neptune is going to confuse and distort Australian currency after February 3 2012 when he enters Pisces, and the Second House of the Australian dollar’s solar chart. In astrology Neptune is associated with the symbolism of the sea, and all things aquatic, oceanic and fluid. This comes from the Roman myth, developed from the Greek story of Poseidon. Neptune is King Neptune and the Poseidon Adventure in one archetype. Whenever he turns up in your horoscope, you tend to be all at sea. Afloat. Adrift.

This is what is about to happen to the Australian dollar from February 3 2012 until 2026 when the cycle stops. Boundaries will disappear. The old structure will be replaced by something new. A non-structure. Or at least, a structure which is porous and lets almost any influence in to cause chaos. Where will the buck stop for Australia in this new cycle? Nowhere. It will slide all over the place. It’s going to feel like surfing.

It’s a short leap from the symbolism of the planet Neptune, so soon to affect the Australian economy, to concepts like ‘floating’.

Pisces image - www.ianridpath.com

Neptune was discovered September 23 1846, – the year that the saxophone was patented and the first operation in Europe to be carried out with anaesthesia took place. One floats under anaesthetic. The sax itself has a floating lever. The national currency is no longer on dry land from February 3^rd. It will drift like a saxophone. It will take us into an altered state. Like anaesthetic.

Floating Currencies

Australia has a floating currency which suits the symbolism of Neptune. It’s not the only country, of course. Spain floats too. A fact I’d like to underline for February 3^rd. Also on the IMF ‘floaties’ list are: Albania, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Congo, the EU (currently rather loco in its own way, thanks to Spain) and countries important to the Australian economy like Japan and New Zealand. The UK, of course, is another important floater. The Australian dollar was originally tied to her.

The Floating Australian Dollar Chart

On Monday 12 December 1983, the Australian dollar was floated, allowing its value to fluctuate. Pluto was at 1 Scorpio at 7.00am in Sydney on 12 December 1983 for the ‘floating dollar’ chart which means that Neptune at 1 Pisces will trine natal Pluto in March 2012. A remarkable astrological pattern.

Click to enlarge

According to this chart, March 2012 will be a pivotal month of change for Australian currency.

Not only will the currency go through a rare Neptune-Pluto trine, the month of March also sees a stellium in Pisces, passing through the solar second house (economy, treasury, share prices, currency) of the Australian dollar. All eyes will be on the changes, then.

Australia is Aquarian too!

Do Prime Ministers ever consult sun-sign astrologers when launching currencies? There is no evidence this ever happened in Australia, unless Sir Robert Menzies did it under the tablecloth in a Kings Cross parlour. But when the powers that be decided to create the Australian dollar on February 14^th 1966, they made the currency Aquarian. Australia is Aquarius too. She was ‘born’ on Australia Day – January 26^th 1788. So her fortunes are tied to her dollar.

Fantastic Plastic

It would suit the symbolism of the new era (starting February 3^rd 2012) if the actual Australian dollar notes themselves were to shift. Perhaps we’re looking at new denominations. New illustrations. Maybe the issue will be the composition of Australia’s plastic (polymer) notes. One might expect discussion to  begin over this, or major events to take place, in March of any year from 2012 through to 2026.

January 2021, at the Ceres-Neptune conjunction in Pisces, seems a strong contender for one month when the composition of the notes – or just the value of the currency – is set to reach a major crossroads. But that’s another story and another episode of The Astrology Show.

The Astrology Show for December-January has April Elliott Kent (author of Practical Astrology) on your year ahead, Adam Smith on the unique approach of Indian (Vedic) Astrology, Jessica Adams on key transits for the next few weeks, and Alex Trenoweth on Buddy Holly, who passed away over fifty years ago, this February. It’s an international show, as we come to you from the USA, UK and Australia as 2011 turns into 2012.

Practical Astrology for 2012

Key Transits from Christmas Eve to Saint Valentine’s Day

Here are some diary dates for you from Jessica Adams, including the entire family tree of asteroids (Jupiter and Saturn’s children, just for a start!)

On Thursday December 22, the Sun enters Capricorn at 0 degrees. Vesta (Saturn’s daughter) stands at 0 Pisces, while Venus is at 0 Aquarius, Jupiter is at 0 Taurus and Uranus is at 0 Aries. If you happen to have heavenly bodies at 0 degrees, that’s a significant time. Vesta describes situations where one man has influence and authority over two or more women. The rest of that line-up is about opportunities, relating and revolution!

Merry Christmas! Jupiter turns direct on Christmas Day. He is travelling through Taurus, and will peak there in April and May 2012, notably on the Sun-Jupiter conjunction of Sunday May 13th. At last, the problem-solving, growth and expansion that Jupiter is famous for, can really start to work, in the Taurus-ruled house of your chart.

The January Full Moon The Full Moon at 18 Capricorn/18 Cancer on January 9 is accompanied by the asteroid Apollo at 18 Virgo and Diana at 18 Scorpio. Apollo describes leadership. Diana is about total freedom. This Full Moon has the classic push-pull feeling of any Sun-Moon opposition, but it has incredible potential too.

The January New Moon On January 23, we have a New Moon at 2 Aquarius. It appears alongside Mercury at 23 Capricorn trine Mars at 23 Virgo, and Diana (freedom, again) at 23 Scorpio. On the same day, the dwarf planet Ceres is at 1 Aries, Uranus is at 1 Aries, Jupiter is at 1 Taurus and the asteroid Panacea (she is Jupiter’s great-granddaughter) at 1 Aquarius. No matter what’s in your chart, that’s going to be quite a day.

Neptune leaves Aquarius in February On February 3, Neptune leaves Aquarius. The area of your chart ruled by Aquarius has been subject to boundary creep for years. Or even the total erosion of boundaries. Life has been confusing there – often chaotic. Let us know (on Twitter) how it feels to finally return to dry land!

Alex Trenoweth

Holiday Reminders and Holiday Reading

Alex Trenoweth (above) is Editor of The Astrology Quarterly at The Astrological Lodge of London. She’s looking for articles for the 2012 editions of the Quarterly, so if you feel inspired this holiday, get in touch. If you need to refresh your astrology for next year, then take a look at Practical Astrology by April Elliott Kent and Saturn by Adam Smith. Finally, Jessica Adams will be appearing at The Federation of Australian Astrologers’ 2012 Conference on Saturday January 21st, in Melbourne, lecturing on Quantum Physics, Astrology and Time. For more details, see her website.

Adam Smith wrote a book on Saturn but he also has a lot to say about Jupiter, in the show. And how does the Jupiter sign of a generation affect school results? Alex Trenoweth not only edits the journal for The Astrological Lodge of London, she also guided her students through their best-ever results by studying Jupiter.

One thing about Jupiter – his retrogrades are always harmless. But what about the other retrogrades? American astrologer and author April Elliott Kent rejoins The Astrology Show to look at the retrogrades ahead.

For more on The Astrology Show, follow us on Twitter or visit theastrologyshow.net for features every month.