Welcome to the COSMIC UPDATE
My COSMIC UPDATES are a way
of looking at items and people in the news from an astrological perspective. And
while I try to make the text as understandable as possible I realize that some
of the astrological jargon baffles the general reader.
COSMIC UPDATE: 22nd July 2001
INCLUDED IN THIS WEEK’S COSMIC UPDATE:
So
Britain’s Conservative Party continues to shoot itself in the foot. It has
managed to vote out the only credible Leader it could have had -
the only Leader who had any remote chance of appealing to the electorate
and uniting the Party. I never thought I’d be upset to see the smile wiped off
smugly superior Michael Portillo’s face, but I was. I don’t like to see
anyone falling foul to a smear campaign perpetrated by an even less worthy bunch
of people. With the elimination of Portillo the Party is now neatly divided down
the middle – on one side, the pro-Europeans (represented by Kenneth Clarke)
and on the other, the anti-Europe brigade (whose torch-bearer is Ian Duncan
Smith). I think I can safely predict that Great Britain will be under Labour for
at least eight more years and my fears of Prime Minister Tony Blair morphing
into President Blair are becoming ever more founded.
When the
leader is eventually chosen, I will take a look at his chart. I suspect it will
be the earnest but lacklustre, Ian Duncan Smith.
I took a
look at the chart of disgraced author, Jeffrey Archer, in my June 11th
COSMIC UPDATE so if you want to remind yourself of the story and the horoscope,
please click on COSMIC ARCHIVES or type in his name in the
SEARCH section.
The reason
Jeffrey has popped up this week is that on Thursday, 19th July he was
sentenced at The Old Bailey in London to four years in jail. (He was found
guilty on two charges of perjury and two of perverting the course of justice.)
In my June 11th Cosmic Update I wrote:
Will Jeffrey go to prison?
I
assume he will, albeit for a shorter time than another individual might spend
for the same crime.
Saturn’s
transit of the twelfth house of incarceration may, in Jeffrey’s case, work out
quite literally. And it is interesting to note that at the time Aquablast went
belly up and Jeffrey was facing bankruptcy, Saturn was in exactly the same sign
of Gemini as it is now. Furthermore, in 1986 when Jeffrey had to resign his
position as Deputy Chairman in the wake of the Daily Star expose, Saturn was in
Sagittarius, exactly opposing his Venus Mars conjunction in Gemini. A year later
when Jeffrey won his case against The Daily Star, transiting Jupiter was
conjunct his sun-Jupiter conjunction.
To put the
final astrological touches to this little moral tale on the day Jeffrey was
sentenced there was
1)
a new moon
flanking his Ascendant/descendant axis. (New moons represent new beginnings –
quite fitting for the start of a new life in jail!)
2)
Mars (Jeffrey’s
sun ruler) turned direct – and at 15 degrees Sagittarius.
3)
Transiting Saturn
had reached 11 degrees of Gemini, thereby connecting with his natal Venus-Mars
conjunction while
4)
Pluto, at 13
degrees Sagittarius was opposing this same conjunction.
In a piece
of pure astrological poetry these latter two transits were picking up the exact
same degree area as Saturn in 1986 – when the Daily Star published its story
about Jeffrey’s nefarious activities.
Chickens
coming home to roost indeed!
I am not
sure whether news of the strange disappearance of the Washington political
intern has travelled beyond America’s shores but during the time I have been
in the USA this story has dominated all the news channels.
So for
those who know nothing, here follows some background.
On May 1st
a twenty-four year old political intern, Chandra Levy, vanished without trace.
Her bags were packed and lay waiting behind the door of her apartment, along
with her handbag, credit cards and mobile phone.
To be more
precise Chandra was last seen on 30th April but her signature was
tagged on the Internet on the afternoon of May 1st.
Chandra
had just completed a six-month assignment with the Bureau of Prison’s press
office in Washington, DC. She was due to return to her home in California by 11th
May in order to receive her Master’s Degree in journalism. By May 3rd,
her parents having heard nothing from her, contacted the police who began a
missing person’s enquiry. An enquiry some eleven weeks later that looks ever
more like a murder hunt.
The reason
this story attracted such huge media attention was the allegation that Chandra
had been romantically involved with Congressman, Gary Condit – a fifty-three
year-old married man. When wind of this affair began to circulate Condit became
distinctly unavailable. At first he denied all involvement with Chandra but
eventually he had no option other than to admit the relationship, some five
weeks after her disappearance.
To pour
more fuel on the fire, it transpired that Condit had been having affairs with
two other women and that Chandra had effectively been fired from her position at
the Bureau of Prison’s press office. (To be precise, she was not offered a
full contract with the Bureau as she had hoped.) Condit also claimed that he had
ended the affair two days prior to Chandra’s disappearance.
Almost
every day, someone emerges out of the woodwork to make bizarre claims and
comments on the leading characters but no trace of Chandra has been found.
Chandra
Levy
14th
April 1977 13:46hrs Clevaland, Ohio.
(Click For Enlarged Image)
I am going
to cut straight to the chase here. (I’ll discuss her chart with regard to
Condit’s later)
There is a
key configuration in this chart involving no less than eight of the ten
planetary bodies – indeed, only the sun and Jupiter remain outside this aspect
pattern. The main parts of this configuration are:
1)
a ‘T’- square
(Mercury opposition Uranus, both squared by Saturn) and
2)
a Grand Trine
(Saturn trine Venus trine Neptune).
3)
which becomes a
Kite configuration due to a sextile between Saturn and Pluto, a sextile between
Pluto and Neptune and an opposition between Pluto and Venus.
4)
And since the
Moon and Mars square Neptune, sextile Mercury and trine Uranus these two Piscean
planets are also part of the configuration.
The
significance of large configurations like these is that the moment a transiting
planet – especially the slower movers like Saturn, Pluto, Uranus and Neptune
– reaches one of the planets involved in the configuration, all the rest are
teed off. (Likewise, when any planet in another person’s chart connects with a
member of the configuration, all the planets therein are activated.) People with
configurations like these in their charts usually lead lives of significance or
notoriety. They have BIG lives.
When you
have mystery, loss, disappearance, lies and extreme strangeness, Neptune is
usually in the centre of the scrum. And in Chandra’s case this is no
exception.
At the
time of her disappearance transiting Neptune was stationary (preparing to go
retrograde) at approximately 9 degrees Aquarius. Thus, transiting Neptune was
providing the fourth leg of the ‘T’-square. (Transiting Neptune was opposing natal Saturn and squaring natal Mercury
and Uranus.)
Now, I am
not saying that everyone who has a powerful Neptunian transit disappears without
trace but transiting Neptune does generate confusion. And if you have had a
major Neptunian transit you will surely have experienced a loss of some
description, whether of a relationship, a job, money or your reputation – and
certainly of direction!
Not only
Neptune but also Uranus! Transiting Uranus in Chandra’s chart had reached the
descendant for the first time in her life in March of this year. (Uranus will
return over this same ground in mid-August 2001 and early January 2002.)
Clearly
Uranus is implicated in her affair with Condit. When Uranus contacts the
relationship axis (the Ascendant-descendant axis) it tends to break up
established unions – or at least give them a rocky time – and bring into
being new and somewhat unorthodox liaisons. These tend to be exciting,
short-lived and often with people who are unavailable.
Neptune in
Chandra’s natal chart is, of course, caught up in the intricate
Kite/’T’-square configuration discussed earlier. Since the beginning of this
year transiting Pluto has been nudging Neptune in the natal chart – and, of
course, sextiling natal Pluto, squaring natal moon, trining natal Venus and
forming a quincunx to natal Mercury and the Mid-heaven!
Pluto with
its transformational signature has not only been instrumental in awakening her
to a powerful set of romantic and sexual feelings but also bringing to the
surface powerful and probably covert family issues and dynamics. These, of
course, we can only speculate upon but with transiting Pluto squaring her
Moon-Mars conjunction a severe strain in the mother-daughter relationship was on
the cards.
The last
‘sighting’ of Chandra was via her last stop on the Internet somewhere in the
early afternoon of May 1st. (Recent police statements reveal this to
be sometime between 12 and 1 15 pm.)
On May 1st
the moon was moving through the sign of Leo. At 6.45 pm, EST the moon made its
last aspect (trining Mars) before entering Virgo at 9.17 pm, thus remaining void
of course for some two hours thirty-two minutes.
If Chandra
disappeared during this two and a half-hour period, we may never know what
happened to her.
Interestingly,
at 12 02 in the afternoon, a transiting moon-Uranus opposition took place, close
to Chandra’s Ascendant-Descendant axis. And while she was apparently in her
apartment at that time, surfing the Internet, this aspect could be implicated in
a sudden decision or unexpected development. It may have been around this time
that she decided on an irrational course of action, whether this was to respond
to an invitation, answer the doorbell, go for a jog or make a new arrangement
for the time she was to spend between then and receiving her Masters Degree on
11th May.
(For the
record the sun on the 1st May was between 11 and 12 degrees of
Taurus, thus triggering the aforementioned ‘T’-square et al. Then again, this
transit would have taken place every year of her life until 2001 so it is not
unusual. What it is, however, is meaningful
in that the sun and the moon together ‘switched on’ this fine network of
natal planets. The hands of the cosmic clock were therefore pointing to a
significant life development.
Gary
Condit
21st April 1948, Salina, OK. Unknown Time Of Birth
(Click For Enlarged Image)
I am not
going to discuss Condit’s chart in great detail, save the relevant connections
it makes with Chandra’s. However, I would draw attention to his natal
Venus-Uranus conjunction in Gemini. Even without a time of birth and therefore
the benefit of the Ascendant/descendant axis, Venus-Uranus conjunctions spell
infidelity – or at least a rich and varied pattern of romantic experience
before settling down. We know Gary Condit was a philanderer and now with
transiting Pluto beginning to nudge his Venus, his life is about to be
transformed by an illicit love affair!
Sticking
out like a sore thumb in this chart is a triple conjunction of Mars, Saturn and
Pluto in Leo. And not just any degree of Leo but beween 12 and 21. Thus while
his Pluto and Saturn precisely squared Chandra’s Mercury/Mid-heaven (and the
rest of the ‘T’-square) his Mars sat sexily on her Descendant – the cusp
of the relationship house.
There are
some other key connections between their charts, including a charming and highly
compatible conjunction between his Mercury at 22 Aries and her sun in the same
spot but for the sake of this discussion I want to stay with the stellium in
Leo.
Clearly
Mars was instrumental in the sexual attraction between Chandra and Gary but with
the added presence of Saturn and Pluto there is also strong indication of a
karmic connection and the potential for conflict, even violence.
A
Mars-Saturn-Pluto conjunction in a man’s chart suggests that he can be
ruthless and cruel, manipulative and controlling. Thus Condit would not be a man
to cross. Fortunately, his Mercury in Aries trines both Saturn and Mars so the
tension and difficulty of this trio has a constructive outlet. No doubt the
congressman has a succinct way of dealing with complex issues and great
political acumen. But easy to handle? No. Hard and pragmatic? Yes
But to get
back to the Leo Mars and Chandra. Of interest here is that on the day of
Chandra’s disappearance at the time of the transiting Moon-Uranus opposition
(12 02pm) not only was this transit focusing on Chandra’s relationship axis
but also Condit’s Mars.
Police
maintain that Gary Condit is not a suspect. And it seems he has several
virtually ironclad alibis for the day of her disappearance – indeed during the
all-sensitive period of 12 noon and 1. 00 pm he was in a private meeting with
Vice-President Dick Cheyne. It also seems inconceivable that Condit would have
had anything to do with her disappearance. After all, even if she posed a threat
to his marriage or career, getting rid of her would point straight to him and
reveal everything he might have been trying to hide. As has indeed happened.
However,
he is guilty of concealing information, being unfaithful and probably hurting
Chandra deeply by ending the affair. (He may even have had a part in her failure
to gain a contract with the Bureau of Prison’s press Office.)
So, as
much poetry as the astrology makes, I believe Condit has nothing to do with
Chandra’s disappearance. The astrological poetry is more along the lines of
poetic justice – Mr Condit is getting his karmic comeuppance.
Chandra
with her moon-Mars conjunction in Pisces is manifestly victim material –
certainly in the real sense and also as a psychological type. However, suicide
is also an unlikely course for her to take. A bouncy sun Aries, she would have
picked herself up, dusted herself off from Washington, Condit and the rest and
got on with her life. And with an angular Mercury, she would definitely have
left a note!
Thus we
are left with abduction, either by someone else that she knew or a complete
stranger.
My hope is
that with a sun-moon-Uranus opposition active between the 12th and 19th
of August (again triggering those sensitive degree areas of Chandra’s chart) a
discovery of some description will be made. And what happened to Chandra Levy
will be known.
Copyright © 2001 Penny Thornton
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