Dateline Wednesday October 30, 2019...While supremely courageous firefighters are attempting to control the worst outbreak of fires in California’s recent history, astrologers and astrological students can learn a lot from understanding several profound transits and secondary progressions deeply affecting the birth map from for the state’s entry into the union on September 9, 1850.
Many of the charts for states of the union have been rectified with care based on the approximate times that presidents have signed the legal documents making each area a part of the greater United States of America. The main person who conducted the research is professional astrologer and author Marc Penfield whose masterwork is Horoscopes of the Western Hemisphere (ACS Publications Inc). The California rectification appears to be very accurate in my opinion based on watching many solar, lunar and planetary alignments over the years regarding his meticulous investigative work on this birth chart.
At this point, I want to give out a few brief pointers for you to conduct your own research that connects to the dreadful situation of fire damage now associated with extreme wind conditions, local weather anomalies as well as the greater disturbances on our fragile home planet connected to global climate change. Transiting Neptune in Pisces in 2019 has been in a three-pronged opposition to the California Virgo Sun at 17 degrees of Virgo — something that has never happened before and is extremely rare as Neptune opposite the Sun in any chart can only occur every 164 years.
This started exactly in March of this year, now again in October, and will occur for the final precise opposition in January 2020. Neptune and Pisces are strongly associated with the element of water – the vast amounts of water being used by firefighters on the ground as well as by helicopters. The shadow side of Neptune is associated with mass chaos and confusion. Of course, the Sun is always linked to the principle of fire, in one form or another. The Scorpio New Moon that just happened on Sunday October 27 was conjunct the California Scorpio Moon and rising degree while transiting Uranus in Taurus (shock waves; surprises; uncertainty; high-technology; electrical power grid) was directly opposite on the setting degree. This means that the Scorpio New Moon was also occurring at California’s monthly lunar return. And let’s not forget how PG&E had been removing power from several million customers even before the fires began this month because of what that knew was on the horizon and because of the scandal involved with the Paradise inferno of last year – which researchers now believe was sparked from faulty PG&E power lines.
In 2018 — another year of major fire turbulence throughout California — Uranus made its second return to its natal placement from 1850 at the end of fiery Aries. Uranus has an 84-year orbit around the zodiac and first returned for California in 1934 (when another giant fire event occurred in the Los Angeles area) and then Uranus returned again last year. Notice that California became a state during a very rare, powerful and yet often unpredictable Uranus-Pluto conjunction in 1850. The latest exact Uranus returns happened April/May and November/December 2018 and for the third time in February/March 2019. In addition, transiting Uranus earlier this year, now and over the next couple of months is exactly opposite California’s natal Moon-Venus union in Scorpio. This certainly has a linkage to the tumultuous residential, social and financial havoc being wreaked across the state.
The above three paragraphs already reveal why California is engulfed in this severe multi-level crisis — not only the widespread fire damage to people, animals, land and property, but the mass evacuations, road and highway closures, the clean-up and aftermath affecting neighborhoods, communities, towns and cities, the increase in breathing difficulties by thousands of individuals and the overworked emergency rooms and hospitals, plus monumental emotional-mental-spiritual exhaustion for everyone involved. Considering the plight of the ever-increasing homeless in California and the constant threat of earthquakes, the devastating combination of transits could contribute greatly to a near-future exodus of thousands of residents to other states. However, before posting this story, I decided to look at the current secondary progressed chart for California – just to see if I might be missing anything significant. The second color horoscope in this feature is for that progressed chart calculated for October 29 — just following Governor Gavin Newsom’s declaration deeming all of California officially a disaster area. When I examined the chart, I was shocked to see a no-orb conjunction of the secondary progressed Sun and Neptune at 6 degrees and 43 minutes of Pisces while the largest asteroid Ceres (relating strongly to Earth Mother themes, also with a kinship to animals and land) and Saturn — both calculated by secondary progression — are in their own rare conjunction at 19 degrees of fiery Aries.
A year ago in October 2018 — when the previous fire season was also perilous — progressed Ceres and Saturn were exactly united at 19 degrees of Aries (also like the current progressed Sun-Neptune rendezvous with no-orb). While Saturn can have many sterling qualities associated with hard work, responsibility, perseverance, executive authority, logic and pragmatism, its shadow dimension equates with worry, doubt, fear, pessimism and depression.
Important: The term “no-orb” in astrology means that the two celestial bodies have no space at all between them relative to their placements in the zodiacal circle known as the ecliptic. Therefore, “no orb” – not a degree or even 1/60 of a degree of space – is a merging of celestial orbs that ratchets-up the potency of the alignment on to max, white-hot intensity levels — for good or ill, depending on the sign and house placements, and aspects to other celestial bodies. While there can also be other cycles influencing the dire state of affairs now and during the near future for California, the ultra-significant triple transits with the double-dose of secondary progressions are making this ordeal for all Californians and the fire fighters of supreme concern — to the residents of the Golden State, the nation and the world. Stay tuned to this online channel for late-breaking astrological stories.
Update October 31, 2019: While some control of the fires in Northern California is being reported today, two new fires have developed in the greater Los Angeles area. In addition, a story from NBC News explains the potential health hazards for agricultural workers, particularly Latinos, now working overtime in vineyards in Northern California because October is grape-harvesting time.
Copyright 2019 by Mark Lerner and Great Bear Enterprises, Ltd. All rights reserved.