Last Tuesday, President Clinton and Britain's Tony Blair issued a joint statement calling the effort to decode the human genome "one of the most significant scientific projects of all time." On the same day, the company that cloned Dolly. The sheep, announced that it had produced the first cloned pigs, a development that could eventually provide an abundant source of transplantable organs into humans. Astrologically, these events arrived on the day of Pluto's retrograde station. Pluto changes its apparent direction in the sky twice every year, and these special days often coincide with revolutionary changes on Spaceship Earth. The changes may be political, social, environmental or economic, but whatever the department, the changes that occur tend to be profoundly metamorphic from an historic perspective.

Pluto has been traveling close to Chiron, the Centaur associated with alternative health techniques. The alliance of Pluto and Chiron has fueled the biotechnology revolution, a potentially profitable phase that investors first noticed when these two were conjunct in late December, 1999. Ever since then, the biotechnology stocks have led the NASDAQ to stunning new highs, only reversing last week when Clinton issued his statement, which undermined some leading-edge biotech companies.

On March 27, Chiron makes its retrograde station, a time when we can expect more important news regarding biotechnology. Chiron and Pluto remain in close proximity to each other through their entire retrograde cycle, which ends in August for both of them. Around then, we can expect the completion of the Human Genome Project and other exciting biotech developments.

Jupiter and Neptune Bring Celestial Messages

A week ago, Pope John Paul II issued an historic apology for the sins Catholics committed against followers of other religions. The extraordinary papal plea asked forgiveness for the violent treatment of heretics during the Inquisition, the Crusades and the forced conversion of native peoples. The "purification of memory" was necessary, he said, in order for the Church to move forward.

Neptune  is in community-minded Aquarius, a long-term transit that moves toward instilling spiritual values within society's daily practices. Officials from the famous corporate gun manufacturer, Smith and Wesson, cited economic reasons for making their guns safer, but undoubtedly management felt this was the right thing to do under the current Jupiter-Neptune vibration.

The square between Jupiter and Neptune can also imply inflated or grandiose spiritual plans. Under this combination, deluded seekers may claim to hear the voice of God and act in accordance with what they believe they are hearing. The best example of this phenomenon came out of Uganda last Friday when a doomsday cult committed mass suicide. A more subtle assumption of spiritual truth may be evident in the Christian Coalition, which has usurped the Republican Party in the name of God.

Julia Roberts Rants as Erin Brockovich

Erin Brockovich, a corporate-malfeasance thriller starring Julia Roberts, opened nationwide last week. Described by one critic as "a muckraker that hums with decency," Erin Brockovich presents Roberts in her most forceful dramatic performance to date. Julia Roberts was born a passionate Scorpio (on October 28, 1967, in Smyrna, Georgia; time unknown) with her Moon most likely in late Leo, where it adds drama, radiant emotions and a strong sense of purpose. An abundance of Virgo  planets is easily translated into her Erin Brockovich role as a woman who stumbles on a hidden environmental disaster.

Venus  is always important in a woman's chart, and Roberts has hers placed in perfectionist Virgo. Venus here is given smoldering sexuality with a conjunction to Pluto, and cinematic glamour by a favorable sextile  to Neptune in Scorpio. Venus, so well-aspected to these outer planets, bestows a mythic romantic aura about the individual (as in the Cinderella story of Pretty Woman), a quality that has made her one of the top-paid actresses of our time.

But Roberts also has a very prominent Mars, which is more suitable to the action movie genre. Her Mars fortifies her ego drives (sextile the Sun), gives her an adventurous spirit to fight for a noble cause (trine Jupiter) and raises very difficult challenges for her to overcome, testing her strength and courage (square Saturn). Erin Brockovich plays more on Roberts' feisty Mars than her sweet Venus.