So, we made some predictions, let’s see how they panned out in reality.
In the previous post on The Aries Ingress chart 2018 and the Mars Saturn conjunction we identified that the Mars-Saturn conjunction was due to occur on 2 April 2018, and that we would see the events indicated by this conjunction transpire as early as 27 March 2018.
Trade wars
Although the Mars-Saturn conjunction often presages war, particularly when the planets are strong – as was the case in this instance as the conjunction occurred in Capricorn where both malefics are highly dignified – we associated this with an uptick in the “trade war” and the negotiations around the rebalancing of trade relationships between countries through mutually acceptable tariffs on goods. I think this was a pretty accurate assessment and we saw a significant intensification of angry rhetoric between the leaders of the US and other countries who had benefited from a trade relationship skewed in their favour.
This is something that will continue for some time, likely until the next Mars Saturn conjunction, and its influence will likely be felt in the US NAFTA negotiations with China, its proxies Mexico and Canada, as well as American trade partners in the EU.
Border disputes
At around the time of the Conjunction, the story in the US News was about a caravan of migrants from Guatemala trying to enter the US illegally and President Donald Trump calling for the “nuclear option” to resolve the issue by disallowing his opponents in Congress to filibuster and block his attempts to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the country.
This story, to my mind, was a very clear symbolic representation of the house and sign placement of the Mars Saturn conjunction. The conjunction occurred in the 7th house, which might be considered the physical border, in some sense, of a country, as the 7th house in mundane astrology represents open enemies, which is to say, one’s neighbouring kingdom. It was not very long after this that President Donald Trump ordered the National Guard to reinforce the border. It’s hard to think of a more literal description of Saturn and Mars working together in Capricorn in the 7th house than soldiers enforcing a border wall from those who would seek to break through it uninvited.
Freedoms curtailed and increased internet censorship
One thing I believe I missed was the significance of the Mars-Saturn conjunction forming a fairly tight square aspect to Mercury. The traditional texts tend to focus on the sign in which the Mars-Saturn conjunction occurs, their essential dignity in that sign, and whether the planets are angular. There is little discussion of aspects, but it makes perfect sense that a conjunction of the two malefics would have a strong impact on any other planets they aspect.
If we consider the universal significations of the planets involved, with Mercury being a significator of the media, the internet, communication in general, we might have expected these things being negatively impacted by the conjunction, and indeed, that is what we saw.
Shortly before the Conjunction we saw Cambridge Analytica, a firm asociated with the Trump presidential campain, in the news for using Facebook’s data collection technology to conduct voter research. Although Cambridge Analytica suffered the brunt of the attack, Facebook swiftly found itself embroiled in the controversy and Mark Zuckerberg appeared before Congress to explain his company’s role in the use of his platform by political actors. Zuckerberg managed to wheedle his way out of this by lobbying the congressman who were to question him, and by avoiding answering the more probing questions, but Facebook was again in the news shortly afterwards when it was caught selling user data to Chinese companies. I suspect we will see more of Facebook in the crosshairs of this conjunction.
Google was also in the news when its attempts at social engineering were leaked to the media.
We saw a temporary reduction in FAANG stocks at around the time of the conunction, which quickly rebounded. However, there is a sense of something coming down the line for these tech companies as their nefarious deeds and origins as a creation of the intelligence services becomes more commonly known and investors fear the tech bubble is about to come to an end with potential regulation.
In Europe we saw further regulation of the internet and increased centralised control over it being introduced in the EU’s Copyright Reform Proposal Article 13. Here’s Black Pigeon Speaks on what this means, and a longer video by Computing Forever.
One could argue that this is nothing new, and that EU countries and the UK have been working for some time to reduce the ability of the internet to offer any alternative to their propaganda via establishment news sources, but this is quite an important landmark in Europe’s war to kill dissent on the internet.
We’ve considered the universal significations, now let’s tale a look at the accidental signifcations of Mercury in the charts of some countries and see what events transpired.
UK
In this chart the Mars-Saturn conjunction occurs in 4th house and applies by square to Mercury. Mercury is retrograde in Aries in the 8th house, and combust, just separating from the Sun. Mercury rules the 1st house and 10th houses and as such we might expect to see the British people and the Prime Minister negatively impacted by the Conjunction.
On the 4th March we had the beginning if the Skripal affair when former Soviet spy and UK Intelligence asset Sergei Skripal was found unconscious with his daughter. Very quickly a narrative was formed by Prime Minister Theresa May and her government that the Skripal’s had been poisoned by Russian with a nerve agent supposedly developed by the Russian intelligence services. Despite tremendous pressure being put upon Porton Down, the lab tasked with investigating the alleged poisoning, to confirm this story, it swiftly became clear that there was no real evidence to suggest that there was any involvement by Russian actors, and it turned out that the deadly nerve agent apparently used was not as lethal as we were lead to believe when both the Skripals recovered.
PM Theresa May’s rash actions and her attempts to escalate the situation into a fullscale confrontation with Russia before any evidence of wrongdoing by Russia had been established and presented as proof was seen by many as cover for her failure to secure a strong position in Brexit negotiations, and it will be interesting to see whether she faces any further challenges to her leadership.
The Mars-Saturn conjunction charts for many European countries, such as Italy and Germany, are similar, in so far as Mercury rules the first and tenth houses, which is to say that we might expect to see the voice of the people being silenced and leaders of the respective countries facing some backlash.
We have already seen signs of this in Italy where the government has been replaced by a government that is strong on immigration, and we see Chancellor Merkel facing a backlash from her own government due to her own open borders policy that has seen an increase in migrant crimes, a rape crisis , rising anti-semitism and and native Germans being harrassed or imprisoned for questioning this policy.
Russia
Curiously, Mercury in the chart for Russia rules the 9th and 12th houses, that is, we might expect the conjunction to negatively impact spies and Russia’s foreign affairs, which is precisely what the Skripal affair seemed to be about.
USA
In the US chart, the Mars-Saturn conjunction is conjunct the descendant. Mercury is retrograde in Aries in the 10th house, combust, and just separating from the Sun by just over a degree. Mercury rules 4th house and 12th house, houses associated with the opposition party (which would be the DNC and the Republican uniparty) as well as secret enemies and spies.
Given that, in the US chart, Saturn rules the house associated with the judiciary, and Mars rules the house associated with Congress, the Conjunction may have been signified by the discovery of the FBIs collusion to oust the current President of the Unites States, its placement of spies in the Trump presidential campaign, and the recent and forthcoming IG reports. If so, we might see further signs of this during future Mars-Saturn aspects before their next conjunction.
Some important dates to watch
27 Nov 2018 Mars sextile Saturn
21 Jan 2019 Mars square Saturn
14 Mar 2019 Mars trine Saturn
14 Jun 2019 Mars opposition Saturn
09 Sep 2019 Mars trine Saturn
27 Oct 2019 Mars square Saturn
19 Dec 2019 Mars sextile Saturn
31 Mar 2020 Mars conjunct Saturn (in Aquarius)