This article was first published on 30 November 2010 at the old C*I*A – Zone X blog.

Molly Malone* – 'She wheels her wheelbarrow through streets broad and narrow, singing Cockles and Mussels, Alive Alive-O'

On 7 December 2010, 1 day after the 88th anniversary of the Irish Free State, the Irish government will debate a budget unprecedented in severity, against a backdrop of international economic emergency whose scale is becoming more alarming by the week.  Against enormous popular opposition, the government has agreed to the terms of a bailout package from the EU and the IMF to the tune of €85,000,000,000.  The country is effectively bankrupt, and the situation has come about because of massive amounts of political corruption, inadequate regulation of financial, banking and property businesses, and a heady atmosphere of greed, profligacy and speculation that is characteristic of capitalist bubbles.  While it is easy to point fingers at the government, particularly the politicians of the past 15 years or so, who piloted the state along through the boom years to its ultimate economic demise, there were few complaints from the population when the so-called Celtic Tiger was throwing credit around like confetti.

What goes up must come down, and the state is now in the embarrassing situation of going cap in hand to international financial agencies begging for assistance – which will be at great cost to the individual citizen.  Indeed the cost will not merely be a financial one, but also something deeper – political power over the state’s very governance.  The most important financial and strategic decisions affecting the lives of every citizen – their health and welfare, their education, their retirement entitlements – are to all intents and purposes being made by external agencies.  A large degree of sovereignty has been lost, inasmuch as it ever truly existed since the events of the early 1920s.
Astrologically, these events may be observed through the prism of the long-term cycle of Pluto, the planet which represents the root-and-branch renewal that only occurs following large-scale destruction and shucking off of what has decayed, of what has become rotten and needs to be left behind.  Pluto transited through Sagittarius between 1995 and 2008, which were the Tiger years, and the symbolism of Sagittarius is fitting for the expansionary, growth-obsessed and confident mood of these times.  Sagittarius always knows it is right, even though it may not be so good at the critical details and practical implications of its grand designs; while its exuberance and confidence can be intoxicating, a degree of moral hypocrisy and arrogance, not to mention ‘hot air’ can often be it’s downfall.

When Pluto entered Capricorn in 2008, to stay in this pragmatic earth sign until 2024, everything changed, apparently for the worse.  Capricorn is associated with the symbolism of The Tower in the tarot deck – the problem with achieving great success is that there is a long way to fall when the good times come to an end.  Capricorn represents the father principle, in the sense of the planning, scheming, strategising and organising that is required to cover all bases, to insure against losses, to anticipate problems and always prepare for the worst case scenario.  It is responsibility, in a word.  Or perhaps reality.  Which is often of the cold, hard kind.  Who is it in society who takes on these roles?  Parents, authority figures, politicians, law-makers, executives.  People who are entrusted to take responsibility for public things, and to do so reliably, but also within the bounds of their roles, in other words subject to accountability.  Good Capricorn is accountable, responsible leadership, to be looked up to, one who supports and provides guidance.  Bad Capricorn is devious, sly, coldly selfish and contemptuous of those beneath him, one who glorifies the form or process at the expense of the purpose.

As Pluto has crossed this solstitial threshold from the ninth to the tenth sign, a cusp that has always had enormous mundane (political and governmental) significance within astrological lore, we have witnessed a collapse of governance on a widespread basis.  Cynicism and skepticism reign anew, and there is a pervasive bitterness and frustration that people in positions of power have abused, or are abusing, their authority.
At a deeper level, the transit indicates a transformation of how we define public positions, public entities and the levels of hierarchy within society.  What does a sovereign state actually mean nowadays, in an era when royal families are long gone, and vast movements of culturally diverse peoples have diluted and mixed what were once more clearly-defined polities?  At a time when corporations now outrank nation-states in economic power, and supranational, unelected bodies preside over people’s economic conditions?  But equally compelling is the question of what we regard as our responsibility to the public good, as opposed to what we can get out of the state for our own benefit.

Ireland: Easter Rising. 24 April 1916, 12pm LMT, Dublin, Ireland. From Book of World Horoscopes (Campion, 2004). Timed Chart – Whole Sign Houses.

There are three main charts that are used for Ireland amongst astrologers.  These are:

(1) the Easter Rising (24 April 1916, 12:25pm GMT, Dublin)

(2) the first assembly of the Parliament of the Irish Free State (6 December 1922, 5pm, Dublin)

(3) the Republic of Ireland, which was created when the Irish Free State finally severed its link to the British Crown (18 April 1949, 12am, Dublin)

Note the position of the Ascendant in the 1922 chart, at 29 Gemini, perhaps symbolic of the divided nature of the island, two political entities, two traditions, and in the South two Civil War factions which have survived as Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, perhaps representative of different constituencies but identical in economic philosophy.  This theme is repeated in the exact Sun-Mercury conjunction at 13 Sagittarius, suggestive of enterprising but ‘tricky’ and cunning business practices, the overly tolerant nod-nod wink-wink culture of profiteering at others’ expense.

Ireland: Independence. 6 December 1922, 5pm GMT, Dublin, Ireland. From Book of World Horoscopes (Campion, 2004). Timed Chart – Whole Sign Houses.

Within hours of this year’s Capricorn Solstice (21 December 2010) there will be a lunar eclipse at 29 Gemini, and this lunar eclipse will be the full phase of the lunation starting with a new moon on 5 December, at 13 Sagittarius. Hence this chart for the Irish Free State is being very strongly activated in the period roughly 3 months either side of the solstice.  Charles Jayne and LE Johndro, who wrote extensively on the interactions between eclipses and mundane and natal charts, repeatedly emphasised the importance of eclipses landing on the degrees of the Ascendant, MC, Sun and lunar nodes, because these chart points have zero ecliptic latitude, similar to eclipses themselves, by definition.

But there are other connections occurring to this chart.  Transiting Uranus, at 26 Pisces, is conjunct the south lunar node, a point often symbolic of release of the past, suggesting sudden events drawing a line across a chapter in Irish history.  In fact, Uranus stations direct on 6 December.  Transiting Neptune & Chiron, both at 26 Aquarius, conjoin Mars and square Venus.  This exact Mars-Venus square symbolises the violent, uncompromising desire for control of economic resources, land and sovereignty that has motivated the struggle for independence from the beginning.   Neptune brings a sense of unreality, deception, perhaps confusion, but with Chiron it casts a spell of disillusionment, a bitter atmosphere of anger over how the mess of economic ruin has been to some degree self-inflicted, or at least based on a now clearly insubstantial fantasy of wealth and endless prosperity.  Finally, this chart is now experiencing it’s third Saturn Return, transiting Saturn now being at 15 Libra, and closing in on natal Saturn at 17 Libra over the coming weeks.  Saturn in Libra – the hard reality of justice, the unavoidable accountability to public democratic opinion, the difficult business of sharing authority amongst opposing factions.  Isn’t it interesting that this chart’s last Saturn Return occurred in Summer 1982, at the height of the GUBU scandal involving a double-murderer staying in the residence of the Attorney-General, as well as the phone-tapping scandal involving the then Fianna Fail government of Charles Haughey, and an economic situation almost as dire as that which Ireland is now facing?

Ireland: Republic. 17 April 1949, 12am IST, Dublin, Ireland. From Book of World Horoscopes (Campion, 2004). Timed Chart – Whole Sign Houses.

In the chart for the Republic of Ireland, we can see that transiting Pluto, at 4 Capricorn, and the transiting nodal axis, at 2 Capricorn/Cancer, are squaring the MC, at 3 Libra.  The MC is the point that symbolises the highest public representation or official image of the country:  the government, the standing and credibility of Ireland on the world stage.  The nodal axis suggests a time of one-off decisions that once made, will reverberate for many years down the road, a time with a ‘make-or-break’ feel to it.  Pluto’s involvement always means something has died and needs to be outgrown, as intense and difficult as the process of sloughing it off may seem.  It must be discarded because it no longer represents the truth, and will only get in the way of what must now be done.

When Pluto reaches 10 Capricorn, it will oppose the exact Moon-Pluto conjunction in the Free State chart – around 2012-13.  It will be interesting to see if this will coincide with a renewal of popular feelings of patriotism and cultural belonging, as the state’s population becomes more expressive of a deep-rooted need to cling to the local and familiar, in opposition to what may be perceived as tyrannical and hostile external authorities.  As Pluto moves slowly through Capricorn, there will always be the possibility of the utilisation of the scapegoat as a means of displacing bitterness, resentment and frustration.  One hopes that the higher side of Capricorn can be envisioned instead, and new, more responsive and responsible institutions of governance can emerge to publicly represent and work for the needs of all citizens.

 
*Image of Molly Malone by Tom Courtney [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons