A World in Flux
Zip Dobyns
Not only is the world in a state of flux, but the changes seem to be accelerating! Whoever said the end of communism was the “end of history” was “out to lunch.” The latest metamorphosis in the former Soviet Union after the switch from U.S.S.R. to U.S.R. (Union of Sovereign Republics) is to the C.I.S. (Commonwealth of Independent States). It used to be Gorbachev who pulled rabbits out of the hat to survive more times than the proverbial cat. In the year just ending, it has been Boris Yeltsin who has waved the wand and come out on top, at least so far.
I had previously written that I thought Yeltsin had Mars rising in Leo but we lack even a definite place for his birth as well as a time, though everyone agrees that he was born near Sverdlovsk. The December 5, 1991 issue of the AFA Journal gives birth data for Yeltsin which comes from Russia but is otherwise from an unknown source. Out of several possible towns in the Sverdlovsk region, I had been using the coordinates of one called Talitsa at 57 N 4, 63 E 44. Lois Rodden had received information giving that town as his birthplace. The new information says that Yeltsin was born in Budka Rosa and they give the coordinates of Sverdlovsk (currently called Ekaterinenburg) at 56 N 51, 60 E 36. This data, using the date of February 1, 1931 which seems to be accepted by all, does give Yeltsin Leo rising though it is a later degree than the tentative chart I have been using. The new information also says that Sverdlovsk was five hours from UT where I was using 4 as is given in the International Atlas.
The chart obviously continues to be highly speculative. I do not think the time in the AFA Journal is right since the progressed angles have few strong aspects for this momentous year when Yeltsin triumphed over a coup attempt and then went on to form a new commonwealth with the other two Slavic Republics. But the progressed Moon fits the major changes so the time may be right within a couple of hours or so. I am tentatively maintaining the approximate angles which I published in the summer Asteroid-World but recalculating the time to use the zone that is 5 hours later than UT. This would give Yeltsin an approximate birth time of 4:20 P.M. with early Aries on the MC and early Leo rising. His progressed local angles in Moscow would be almost identical with the natal angles in the AFA chart. I was tempted by the latter chart since it put Yeltsin’s natal asteroid Russia on his MC, but it would also be appropriate to have it on the P local MC.
Almost the same local (Moscow) angles are present in one of the charts for the beginning of the U.S.S.R.; the opening of the Congress of Soviets at 10:40 P.M. on November 7, 1917 in what is again St. Petersburg. As I wrote in the summer 1991 Asteroid-World, I am again watching that chart though I also see appropriate aspects in the 3 P.M. chart for Lenin’s first public appearance. The Congress Opening had P Moon square P Saturn for the August coup attempt. The Lenin Appearance P Moon was less impressive but it is now square P Saturn while the Congress Opening P Moon is now opposite Mercury, having gone through the oppositions to Sun and Ceres in the fall of 1991. As I have written before, countries are born in stages and they may have more than one chart which will give helpful information about the situation. I expect to continue to watch both of these charts, and to pay special attention when both have important aspects. The months immediately ahead are such a period as P Moon in one chart continues into a square to natal and then progressed Uranus while the other P Moon continues into the square to natal Saturn and simultaneous opposition to Sun-Ceres and then into the opposition to Mercury. The new Commonwealth is a valiant attempt to solve nearly insoluble problems but Yeltsin (and the other Republic leaders) have their work cut out.
Returning to Yeltsin’s speculative chart, if his time is accurate within a couple of hours, his P Moon has been moving through his cardinal cross for months and has finally reached the square to Pluto and natal Moon for the current confrontation. It is also still in an octile to Neptune which lasts for three months. In the months immediately ahead, Yeltsin’s P Moon will move into the square to P Saturn. His P Sun will continue through the grand cross for many years. The KGB or other Nomenclatura have tried repeated to kill Yeltsin but so far he remains a survivor; truly a lion-hearted fighter. I hope that he can continue to ride the tiger now that Gorbachev seems to be on his way out.
I am still leaning toward my Libra rising chart for Gorby. With the 7:54 P.M. speculative time, his P Moon (our major key to turning points in secondary progressions) had a fixed grand cross and a water grand trine during the summer coup attempt. Using this birth time, his P Moon is now opposite Chiron, quincunx the north lunar node, octile Vesta and his Moscow Ascendant, East Point and Antivertex, trioctile his Moscow MC, but also trine P Jupiter. He is obviously under enormous stress, facing momentous potential changes in his career and in personal action, but he still has some protection from his faith. P Moon will move into the quincunx to P Uranus soon, and since it remains quincunx the midpoint of natal and P Uranus, the aspect is really in effect for months. P Moon is also approaching the square to natal Moon, a fitting aspect for home changes. Many in Russia see him as a has-been; Moses to Yeltsin’s Joshua, as I wrote in the summer 1991 Asteroid-World. He has said that he will resign if the Commonwealth goes through, and that would be the dignified thing to do. He could be a LION in the U.S. if he wanted—go on the lecture circuit and make a lot of money to let Raissa buy her French couture and jewelry. I hope that the U.S. and Europe and Japan will continue to provide help to the people of the former U.S.S.R. and not simply add a new set of vultures to the home-grown mafia-style gangs described in News Notes in this issue of The Mutable Dilemma. Most of the people I met in Russia were truly lovely and deserving of our help.
Russia is not the only place with more than its share of turmoil. There could be a breakthrough in Israel, as Palestinians and Syrians actually meet Israelis at the conference table; first in Madrid and currently in Washington. But the views are dramatically different as these “enemy-cousins” confront each other. A friend of mine who has just returned from Israel offers a very different picture of the attitudes there than the one we get in our media. He says that many if not most Israelis feel that Bush is their enemy; that they could work out their differences with the Palestinians if the PLO stopped stirring them up and the Arabs were not anticipating pressure from Bush to force Israel to make concessions to the Arabs. The Israelis feel that there are moderate Palestinians who would be willing to work out a compromise which would give them some political autonomy, but that the PLO kill any Palestinians who are suspected of collaborating with the Israelis. Certainly this has happened repeatedly in the past, but it is also true that the Israelis have taken and continue to take Palestinian land and in many ways to deny basic human rights to the people. The influx of Soviet Jews has intensified the problems of providing homes and jobs, and this is likely to continue as Russia’s economy deteriorates.
There are no easy answers in our present world, and the charts of Israel show the continued stress, using both the chart for the end of the British Mandate and the Ceremony on the preceding afternoon.
One of the predictions in the Nostradamus book (described in another article in this issue of The Mutable Dilemma) was for a war to be started by Israel in which they would be defeated by the Arabs because their “protector,” the U.S., would be too devastated to help, hit by the California earthquake and then the drastic drought and fires. As I indicated in that article, I am very skeptical of most of the predictions in the book, including this one. But Israel’s P Moon (in the Mandate chart) is going through a quincunx to Pluto which will be followed by the same aspect to Saturn, then P Vesta, then P Saturn and it will oppose P Mars between the Vesta and P Saturn quincunxes. The picture is not encouraging. Later P Moon aspects include squares to Uranus and Jupiter and a few months later it moves into Aries which could signal even more belligerence. P Mars continues to oppose Juno. P Uranus holds a long opposition to Jupiter. One aspect which might signal a real change of attitude and action is the yod formed by P Ascendant which has started a quincunx to P Mars and P Chiron, but the fire emphasis does not signal much readiness to compromise.
For those who want to work with the potential for a real breakthrough in the situation, my information is that the Madrid conference on the Middle East started at 10:30 A.M. on October 30, 1991. UT is one hour earlier. As usual, the asteroids blew me away! This peace effort is really the joint project of George Bush and James Baker. As the conference opened, the Ascendant was at the exact midpoint of James and George—three degrees from each. Vaticana was on the Descendant and on the MC (limited to my usual one-degree orb) was Hidalgo, the rebel Priest, Epimetheus (who looked back), and Harmonia (the hope of at least some of the participants). But at the same time in Jerusalem, Mars was on the MC and the Ascendant was conjunct the south node of Pluto, octile James, and trioctile Vesta. The Madrid Ascendant in Sagittarius was square Jupiter in Virgo in the ninth house, showing the mutable dilemma issues involving religion and values. We can hope that compromise is possible but the Leo-Scorpio-Sagittarius-Capricorn emphasis is not very encouraging.
One of the dramatic stories during the last month has been the unraveling of the fortune of Robert Maxwell. Maxwell was born in Sel Slatina, Czechoslovakia and became a self-made millionaire in England. He disappeared from his yacht and his body was recovered in the ocean about 20 miles S.W. of the Grand Canary Islands on November 5, 1991. I do not have any time of birth or the coordinates of his birth place, but his fortune was mostly made (and now is being lost) in London, and we can estimate the L & L of the place he was found as 27 N 45, 15 W 34. His mega media empire is in bankruptcy with serious legal problems as investigators have discovered massive amounts missing from pension funds. A good many banks stand to lose quite a lot of money, and a big brokerage firm in the U.S. may be implicated in some of the manipulations. All I have so far in the way of past events is the fact that he left Czechoslovakia in 1939, he was married in 1945, and he died on November 5, 1991. An autopsy says it was a heart attack or drowning after falling overboard following a heart attack. His family suspected murder. To add more Neptune to the picture, he was also said to be involved with the Israeli secret police.
I have not done enough work on Maxwell’s chart to feel confident of my speculative time, but if any readers want to play with it, try an MC of 8 Pisces and an Ascendant of just under 10 Cancer which puts the latter on natal Pluto and not far from Mars. P Pluto and P Jupiter maintained a lifetime trine to each other and P south lunar node had moved back to complete a grand water trine—a key to success coming partly with the help of one’s intuition and partly with the help of other people. The Gemini Sun T-square to the nodes of the Moon showed the danger of too many interests and questionable values or judgment at times. Pluto conjunct Mars and square Saturn showed the potential for the competitive drive which his life exemplified. The speculative birth time I have picked (around 5:30 A.M., one hour after UT) brings several progressed angles (in the Canaries and using Prague in Czechoslovakia) to form octiles or trioctiles to Pluto while the P MC in London would be on the natal Moon in 29 Aries and the P Ascendant in London would be on natal Neptune (ocean, scandal, mystery, etc.)
Another fall drama was played out in Louisiana where David Duke (the former Klan leader) was beaten in the governor’s race by Edwin Edwards, a former governor who was involved in financial scandals. What a choice! I only have dates for the two protagonists, from Mark Lerner’s magazine. Duke may be more important since he plans to challenge George Bush in some of the southern primaries in 1992. He was born in Tulsa, OK on July 1, 1950. Edwards was born in Baton Rouge, LA on August 7, 1927. If a time turns up for Duke, I will let you know.
We do finally have the data for Jim Bakker, the TV Evangelist who was convicted of cheating his followers who bought into his time-share hotel and was sent to jail. For any readers who want to check out his chart, according to Lois Rodden he was born on January 2, 1940 at 11 A.M. in Muskegon Heights, MI. I think that his conviction occurred on August 30, 1989. I will discuss his chart in another issue since I am running out of time and space.