NewsScope for December 18, 2007

Jupiter and Pluto in Early Capricorn
 
On December 6, under the influence of the Jupiter-Pluto conjunction, the Bush administration unveiled a plan to ease the nation's housing slowdown by targeting the hybrid adjustable mortgage rates. As Jupiter enters Capricorn and opposes the U.S. Venus-Jupiter over the next few months, corporate money managers and a few homeowners might see some benefits from this plan. However, Pluto's influence will likely be more problematic.
 
Jupiter is leading the way for Pluto's entrance into Capricorn on January 25, 2008. While Jupiter will be in this sign of government and institutions for only one year, Pluto remains until 2024. What Jupiter and Pluto have in common—and therefore what will be most impacted by their combined cycles—is an influence over financial matters, with Jupiter-Pluto symbolizing the growing power of the "plutocracy".
 
In the U.S. horoscope, Venus and Jupiter reside in the early degrees of Cancer, and so they will be the first planets transformed by this Jupiter-Pluto one-two punch. In the Scorpio Rising chart, Venus and Jupiter reside in the Eighth House of capitalism, where they represent the financial power of the banks, investment and insurance companies, and the institutions that own the sub-prime mortgages.
 
Pluto's more calamitous potential in this degree area lasts through 2011, and gives credence to those who suspect that the sub-prime mortgage fiasco* is only the tip of the iceberg. The last time Pluto formed a hard aspect to the U.S. Venus-Jupiter was in 1972-75 when oil prices quadrupled. Americans experienced a recession then, and will most likely experience another one soon. One might also expect major consolidation among the leading financial corporations.
 
Astrology and The Star of Bethlehem
 
Around this time of year, a common practice among Christian astrologers is to venture an opinion about the Star of Bethlehem, the one that guided the Magi (as described in the Gospel of Matthew). Currently, the most widely-accepted theory is that the Star was actually the alignment of Jupiter and Saturn in Pisces, which heralded the birth of a savior and a new age.
 
According to astrologer Courtney Roberts in her marvelous new book The Star of the Magi, all these attempts to define that star are misguided because they ignore who the Magi were and where they were coming from in the socio-political-cultural sense. In other words, historical context is everything. The Magi were the high priests of the Persians, who followed the teachings of the prophet Zoroaster.
 
The Magi were skilled political astrologers, with their calculations inextricably bound to their religious expectations, as provided by Zoroastrianism, which was the world's first monotheistic religion. In the 6th century BC, the Persian empire restored the Jewish homeland in Judea following its destruction in 586 BC. Persian governors protected the Jewish people, as the Persian religion permeated the worldview of the Jewish prophets.
 
As Courtney Roberts explains with refreshing clarity and objectivity, the three great monotheisms of today—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—all owe their common religious heritage to Zoroastrian astrology. What has been lost in the evolution of religious fundamentalism is that the Persian traditions possessed "a surprisingly universal awareness of a God who manifested throughout humanity and all time, rather than just through one specific nation at one time."
 
Roger Clemens, the Biggest Loser
 
Last Thursday, when the George Mitchell Report on steroid use in major league baseball was released, the biggest name on the list of abusers was Roger Clemens, one of baseball's most celebrated pitchers. The report on unfair metamorphic growth in professional athletes arrived just days after the Jupiter-Pluto conjunction, a celestial combination that can be characterized as metamorphic (Pluto) growth (Jupiter).  
 
Roger Clemens (August 4, 1962; Dayton, OH; time unknown) was born with Jupiter opposite Pluto, so that his life story resonates with this pivotal event. With his Jupiter in deceptive Pisces and informed by a close trine to drug-related Neptune, Clemens was a good candidate for steroid use from the beginning. Also, since his Leo Sun squares Neptune, he was susceptible to taking the sneaky route to ego inflation.  

However, Clemens was headed for baseball's Hall of Fame by his mid-30s, when most pitchers begin to wash out. The Sun opposite Saturn in his chart describes an individual who works hard to overcome adversity, which in his case played out every day that he faced a batter. In 1996, after 12 years with the Boston Red Sox, his manager famously said that Clemens was "in the twilight of his career", and he was traded away.
 
According to the Mitchell report, Clemens began taking steroids around June 10-12, 1998, and from that point on, his career staged an amazing comeback. Astrologically, that date is significant, since his progressed Mars (physical strength) was forming a trine to expansive Jupiter. Also, the sudden awakening can be seen in transiting Uranus opposite his Sun. Now, as transiting Neptune opposes Clemens' Mercury, he's denying all the charges. Would you believe him under this astrological circumstance?
 

*For more on the U.S. Eighth House, see Neptune Cafe. And for a whistleblower's long-term view on the mortgage crisis, please read this article.

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