advertisements

Search within NeptuneCafe
Custom Search
book recommendations

Recent NewsScope columns at NeptuneCafe:

January 4, 2010 - advise on new year's resolutions, a check into Iran's horoscope, and hero  Jasper Schuringer

Jan 11, 2010 - Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh,  Timothy Geithner, and Casey Johnson's death

January 18, 2010 - Haiti's earthquake, the eclipse hits the U.S. chart, and Google fights censorship in China.

January 25, 2010 - the Supreme Court's decision, Feb's Top Five Astro-events, and Heidi Montag's surgery

February 1, 2010 - Toyota's troubles, J.D. Salinger and Howard Zinn, and Hollywood legend Jean Simmons

February 8, 2010 - the market outlook for 2010, China's 3:00 pm horoscope  and Charlie Sheen.

Feb 15, 2010 - Michelle Obama's Cause, Greece's financial crisis, and Ellen DeGeneris's Q rating

Feb 22, 2010 - the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, March's Top Five, and Olympic snowboarder Chris Klug

March 1, 2010 - Chile's 8.8 earthquake, the Bloom Box, and Alice in Wonderland star Mia Wasikowska

March 8, 2010 - Best Actor Jeff Bridges, Mars turns direct and anger, plus the European Union's horoscope
March 15, 2010 - New York's wounded politicians, Greater Israel, and Betty White's Comeback at 88.

March 22, 2010 - Pluto's role in financial reform, Pope Benedict's troubles, and Sandra Bullock's marriage.

March 29, 2010 - Obama's improved standing, April's Astro-Events, and DWTS leader Nicole Scherzinger

April 5, 2010 - the influence of the June 26 Lunar Eclipse on Hamid Karzai and Pope Benedict, plus the iPad

April 12, 2010 - Poland's lost elite and the Katyn massacre, the Vatican, and DWTS star Erin Andrews

April 19, 2010 - the Grand Cross of 2010, hedge fund manager John Paulson, and Larry King's eighth divorce

April 26, 2010 - Thailand's red Shirts, May's Top Five astro-events, and Iron Man 2 starlet Scarlett Johansson

May 3, 2010 - BP's horoscope, the astrology of corporate disasters, and Earth Day's Gaylord Nelson

May 10, 2010 - Anwar al-Awlaki the #1 terrorist threat, market meltdown, and Dr. Phil's mustache

May 17, 2010 - Elena Kagan's Pallas, PM David Cameron, and teen sensation Justin Bieber

May 24, 2010 - North Korea's transition, June's top five astro-events, and the Kevin Costner solution
May 31, 2010 - Big Oil's horoscope, hedge fund investor David Tepper, and the maniacal Dennis Hopper

June 7, 2010 - Israel's progressed Venus , Al and Tipper Gore's divorce, and activist O'rianka Kilcher

June 14, 2010 - BP's chart and the Solar Eclipse, CEO Tony Haward, and Jacques Cousteau's 100th birthday

June 21, 2010 - Obama's energy plan, Mexico's drug war, and Miley Cyrus's new album Can't Be Tamed

June 28, 2010 - Generals McChrystal and Douglas MacArthur, July's top five, and Al Gore's masseuse

July 5, 2010 - the astrology of austerity vs stimulus, the July 11 Solar Eclipse, and Chelsea Clinton's wedding

July 12, 2010 - Arizona's immigration law, the Gemini Rising U.S. horoscope, and LeBron James' Neptune

July 19, 2010 - Vatican's dissonant equation, more on the Gemini Rising U.S. horoscope, and Mel Gibson

July 26, 2010 - North Korea  threatens attack, August's top five astro-events, plus Christopher Nolan, Inception

August 2, 2010 - WikiLeaks document dump, Charles Rangle's Mars, and Jennifer Lopez on American Idol

August 9, 2010 - Obama's stars, same-sex marriage in the Age of Aquarius, and Grace Kelly, fashion icon.


Bernadette Brady
on progressions

"The progression will seem to manifest first as a feeling or need and then as an action"

"Progressions are the way the cosmos manifests through us, as compared to a transit, which manifests on us."

"Progressions are a richer source of information than transits. They tap into the realm of the inner, personal world, showing both day-to-day motivations as well as unshakable life statements or desires."

Demetra George
on asteroids

"Astrologers need the asteroids because the tradi-tional planets simply do not and cannot fully explain the issues which are emerging - simply because they are new."

"Before the use of asteroids, the only significators of the feminine in the traditional chart interpretation were the Moon and Venus. The socially acceptable roles for women were the Moon as mother and Venus as mate."

"Ceres, Pallas, June and Vesta represent the new voices of the dormant feminine, recently activated and now demanding power, recognition, justice, and equality in our society."

Richard Tarnas
on the cosmos

Astrology is not concretely predictive, but archetypally predictive."

"The modern dismissal of astrology reflects the virtually universal conviction that the cosmos is disenchanted."

"The universe is a fundamentally and irreducibly interconnected whole, informed by creative intelligence and pervaded by patterns of meaning and order that extend through every level, and that are expressed through a constant correspondence between astronomical events and human events."

Nicholas Campion
on national horoscopes

"Experiment with the charts. Make predictions. And yes, prediction remains a perfectly valid exercise: one successful prediction reveals more about the nature of the universe than a hundred retrospective studies."

" Just as the individual is contained within the collective, so natal astrology can be seen as contained within mundane astrology."

"The modern nation state is largely a creation of the French revolution and is becoming increasingly irrelevant as capitalism becomes global."

Michael O'Reilly
on geopolitics

"Astrology as a worldview shows us that everything is connected, that the individual is an interdependent part of the whole. "

"When Scorpio is rising, the U.S. has four planets in the eighth house, underscoring the national focus on acculating wealth and corporate influence."

"The biggest celebrities have natal planets closely connected to national planets. Their character may personify a specific planet or group of planets, so that they become a national icon or archetype."

"The natal chart is like a seed and progressions are the unfolding in time of that into the plant it is to become. Transits, are like a daily weather report. In political astrology, these three factors have to be taken into account!"
~ Alice O. Howell
Reader Feedback...  Apparently there is quite a controversy about the birth data given yesterday for WikiLeaks’s Julian Assange despite a heavily Plutonian chart that seemed absolutely spot on. (Chart shown at: mountainastrologer.com/
Comments, questions, suggestions? Let us know what you think. Email wolfstar@neptunecafe.com
NewsScope columns
Oct. 1999 - March 2009
can be found at the
StarIQ NewsScope Library
Brighten your mornings with the spirit of aloha! Save 20% plus free shipping at Coffees of Hawaii. Promo Code: COFFEE20


Aug. 16, 2010 - Pakistan's flooding, Linda McMahon's Pallas, HP CEO Mark Hurd and Jodie Fisher

August 30, 2010 - the Beck-Palin phenomenon, Sept.'s top five astro-events, plus a mature Matt Dillon.

Sept. 6, 2010 -Israel's horoscope and peace talks, David Koch's Tea Party, and Bristol Palin on DWTS

Sept. 13, 2010 - the Uranus-Pluto square, Haumea the Hawaiian Goddess, and Jamie Oliver's food revolution

Sept. 20, 2010 - Sarah Palin's rectified birth time, Sedna the Sea Goddess, and Mike Brown's horoscope

Sept. 27, 2010 - Christine O'Donnel's Pallas-Pluto, October's Top Five, Venus on Demi Moore's Neptune

October 4, 2010 - featuring a look at the chart of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and Stuxnet info

October 11, 2010 - Eris in the horoscopes of Iran, Liu Xiaobo, China, and Bob Woodward

October 18, 2010 - the rise of Apple, a follow-up on theTop 5 astro-events, and DWTS leader Jennifer Grey

Oct. 25, 2010 - Eris in the Tea Party movement, top 5 astro-events, and DWTS leader Brandy Norwood

Nov. 1, 2010 - Election Day and the Scorpio Rising US chart, Silicon Valley, and Frank Sinatra, the Voice

November 8, 2010 - John Boehner's horoscope, Pluto and "Quantitative Easing", and actress Jill Clayburgh

November 15, 2010 - Pluto opposite the U.S. Jupiter, Teddy Roosevelt's gilded age, and Elizabeth Smart

Nov 22, 2010 - the U.S. Saturn Return, plus the Sarah Palin book tour, and Prince William and Kate

Nov. 29, 2010 - Kim Jong' un's horoscope, December's top five astro-events, and Mark Twain's autobiography

December 6, 2010 - Julian Assange's horoscope, Afghainistan's Hamid Karzai, and Tron star Olivia Wilde
2009 NewsScope columns are located in the
NeptuneCafe archives

Donna Cunningham has a new post with some additional information about the controversy of Julian Assange's birth data. Fascinating. controversy-about-assange-birth-data/
NewsScope for December 13, 2010
by Michael Wolfstar

The Tax Cut Deal

President Obama, now referred to as the Negotiator-in-Chief, worked out a deal with Senate Republicans to keep the Bush tax cuts in exchange for extending benefits to the long-term unemployed. The Senate should easily pass the bill this week, but Democrats over at the House are rebelling. The chief sticking point is the estate tax provision, which benefits only the super-rich.

Deal-making is the hallmark of Saturn in Libra. As the U.S. was experiencing its Saturn Return last week, Obama was making some difficult choices. His liberal constituency pushed him to make a stand against the Republicans, but with his progressed Sun now in Libra and heading into a trine with natal Jupiter, we can expect that negotiation will be his way forward.
Mercury will pass over Mars and Pluto again, indicating that this deal isn't done yet. Democrats will likely break ranks with Obama and push for a higher estate tax rate on the super-rich. The Bush tax cuts deal for the wealthy was already a non-starter for House Democrats, but  the reduced estate tax was a slap in the face. Saturn in Libra plays hardball and will return to this important degree in March and August 2011 to finish its deal-making business.
Oddly enough, the deal emerged last Thursday just as Mercury was turning retrograde. It had just passed over Mars and Pluto, suggesting the tough demands that were presented during the discussions. Mercury turned at 5º55' Capricorn, precisely opposite the U.S. Jupiter (orb 0º01'). In the Scorpio Rising U.S. chart, Jupiter is found in the 8th house of taxes and in family-friendly sign of Cancer, where it easily represents estate taxes on the rich.
Ron Paul vs. the Fed

The Federal Reserve System is mandated to protect the stability of the financial system – a role that libertarian Ron Paul wants to eliminate. Last week Paul was selected by the Republican leadership to chair the House Financial Services, the congressional subcommittee that oversees the Federal Reserve. From this platform, the Congressman from Texas will undertake his attack on the Fed beginning next month.
Pluto challenges Berlusconi

Wikileaks cables painted a dismal picture of Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, saying that he parties late into the night, appears to be a mouthpiece for his Russian friend Vladimir Putin, and is "feckless, vain, and ineffective as a modern European leader." To Italians, this is not news. The billionaire leader has long been accused of bribery, conflicts of interest, and ties with the mafia.
The Fed's horoscope (Dec. 23, 1913; 6:02 pm; Washington D.C.) features a Sun-Ceres conjunction in Capricorn, a signature that reflects its caretaking role as an institutional player. The Sun-Ceres pair opposes Pluto in the 12th house, indicating the secret or hidden power that influences decisions. This power may be seen as the unconscious panics that ripped through the national economy, and other invisible financial forces that the Fed tries to control via the Capricorn Sun.

Ceres is no small player in the Fed horoscope. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke announced on November 3 his $600 billion "quantitative easing" plan to stimulate job growth. At the time, transiting Ceres was returning to its natal position in the Fed chart, making a Ceres Return. The Fed's progressed Sun, now at 9º Aries, has been squaring natal Ceres since the economy collapsed two years ago.

What Ron Paul and others want to know is who is the Fed taking care of, Wall Street financiers or the American people? Early in 2011 transiting Jupiter and Uranus will square the Fed's Sun when Paul will start investigative hearings and call for an audit. Over the next two years, transiting Uranus and Pluto will be squaring each other while aligned with the Fed's Ceres, a sure-fire celestial formula for challenging the Fed's usefulness as an economic caretaker.
Berlusconi was born with a Sun-Mercury conjunction in the deal-making sign of Libra (September 29, 1936; 6:00 am*; Milan). The closest aspect his Sun makes is a sextile to Ceres in the third house of communication. He began his career as a crooner on a cruise ship, and in 1973 bought his first cable TV station. His Sun's quincunx to Uranus reflects his interest in high tech communication media, which eventually made him a multi-billionaire.

Berlusconi's Venus, the ruler of his Ascendant and Sun, is prominently placed in the 2nd house of money. Venus is sextile Mars, square Pluto, and trine the Midheaven giving him a keen interest in sex, both as an outlet for pleasure as well as a way of making money. His television stations prospered by airing plenty of risqué programing. 

On Tuesday (December 13), Berlusconi faces a non-confidence vote in the Italian Parliament. The
battle for political survival can be seen in the transiting Mercury-Mars-Pluto conjunction all squaring Berlusconi's Sun. The day before the vote, a retrograde Mercury is conjunct Mars and Pluto, indicating last minute arm-twisting, bribes, and horse-trading. Berlusconi excels at this kind of political fighting.
* The time is controversial, with other sources favoring 5:40 am and 6:30 am. The time used here is based on research from NewsScope's Italian correspondent, astrologer Rishi Giovanni Gatti.