The Grand Trines of 2013

Corporate profit making under the present capitalist system is malignant and self destructive. What is more is that the people who run these corporations know it but either care not a jot or can see no alternative but to carry on spreading the disease. If the world was one human body, then a corporation owning the left hand, intent only on making a profit for it’s shareholders (let’s say they are the fingers of the left hand), would have the left hand clothed in the warmest glove while the rest of the body, bereft of resource, froze to death. They would then be in charge of the richest, most powerful, well clothed and protected dead hand. Ultimately capitalism, at least in the way it is structured today, must change to survive - and it cannot be allowed to grow again to dinosaur proportions.

On 2nd June 2013 an applying square between Mars in Gemini and Neptune in Pisces gathered power. Neptune, in it’s own sign, trined Saturn in Scorpio, notorious for trying to keep functions and structures secret, and starting a grand trine with Mercury (trade) in Cancer (at home), with Venus (Financial) waiting in the wings to knock of a second grand trine in a couple of days time. To make matters more complicated, the position of Mercury and then Venus, who both need to make 5 degrees of Cancer to make the grand trine, start to apply by opposition to Pluto in Capricorn (Saturn’s sign) and also makes a T-square with Uranus (the reformer) in Aries (the activist). Now this seven planet involvement in motion is triggered with the square, which is a problem to be acted upon, then moves into a grand trine, a defence mechanism determined to keep everything going on as it is, and finally a T-square, which demands that there must be reforms.

So let us pick this situation apart and give it some kind of real meaning. On Sunday morning, 2nd June 2013, the BBC reported on a survey by Which? asking people if they could work out the cheapest energy (Mars) tariff for their gas (Neptune) and electricity (Uranus). Of the two types of energy, gas has seen some of the biggest hikes in cost, mainly because of it’s link to oil prices (oil is also Neptune). Now with Mars and Neptune in a waxing square, the rising cost of energy is not a new story but it is also true that nothing of any significance has been altered to benefit the customer. In fact for the UK, and there are many energy firms owned by foreign business, all of the big six companies take out the profit for their shareholders before doing anything else, some of the companies have a really bad reputation for not paying fair tax in the UK (mentioning no names NPower) and when there are any dealings with Mars and Neptune one has to consider how much fraud contributes to the embarrassingly slow passage of any of the energy companies to reform their cost structure in a way that would provide transparent pricing and genuine competition to a product that for virtually everyone is a force-purchase (One might also question as to whether aggressive tax avoidance and filtering profits through Lord knows how many companies and ending up in a tax haven - whilst perfectly legal in today’s society - is not only fraudulent but must be one of the reforms made before 2020).

Neptune (confusion, vagueness, obfuscation) is a great description of the current energy tariff pricing structure for UK consumers. First there are a number of ‘price plans’ with each company setting the start of the plan differently; one company charging price ‘A’ for the first 1500 units and a second charging price ‘A’ for the first 2000 units. Price B becomes equally difficult and price C settles down because most people in an average family dwelling would have paid prices A and B anyway and settled into price C long before the end of the month. The average price of fuel is similar no matter what company you choose, so it is clearly a method used by the big energy companies just to create confusion.

The cornucopia of price tariffs are confusing not just because of their different pricing plans but also the way that the units are calculated. At the moment it is necessary to use a calculator to follow the formula given on the bill to work it out. Why they can’t just charge you gas at a simple price per therm is either an amazing act of cerebral incompetence or a deliberate ploy to do absolutely anything to keep energy bills obscure.

The energy minister for the government, and Ofgem, the regulating body, appeared to denounce the Which? survey that proved the best way to help customers understand the cheapest energy company for them was to make prices a flat price per unit purchase. The energy minister told the BBC (2nd June) that blending the standing charge in with the unit cost of energy might make it cost more for some of the lowest income households.

In my humble opinion this is a huge energy market, a large regulating body and a government department for energy creating muddle headed thinking with no intention of making any changes. If we tried to blend the standing charge in with a price per unit we would once again be confusing prices. It is simple... it is so simple. Tell us the single price per unit for the whole month -separately, no price plans, and then tell us the standing charge and we can see at a first glance who is offering the cheapest gas and who is trying to rip us of with standing charges. It is really that simple. And before anyone comes back at me about competition between companies, that is simple too. Make your price per unit cheaper than the other guys. Problem solved. Now get on with it.

The energy companies know this but they don’t want to do it.

The grand trine demonstrates how the defences are in place. First there is the product provided by six big institutions (Neptune in Pisces) in trine with Saturn in Scorpio (Deals and structures conducted away from the public gaze). To complete the grand trine on 2nd June 2013 it is Mercury in Cancer (Domestic trade) and quickly followed on 4th June by Venus in Cancer (Domestic profit) In layman’s English this set of grand trines demonstrates the murky behind the scenes stuff that is going on in our domestic energy industry is something that the big six companies are more than happy to remain murky and behind the scenes. Whether there is fraud, deliberate non competition, excessive profit and even bribery and corruption (all of which are possible), the fact is that the energy companies want to protect the level of profit and the continued security of their market share at all cost. They don’t care about fuel poverty or the quality of life for their consumer. The profit always comes out before the investment or price freeze.

Many astrologers imply that a trine aspect is an ease aspect and somehow nice. Well the grand trine here shows how easy it would be for the big energy companies to sit on their hands and just let everything carry on in their favour as it is right now. And the consumers to not think it is very nice; in fact the people are very angry about it.

By 4th June 2013, when Venus starts to apply itself to the grand trine, Mercury starts to apply its opposition to Pluto and sets of the T square with Uranus. The Uranus / Pluto square is the third in a series of seven squares that will finish in 2015. On the collective it symbolises a life changing sequence of events challenging (square) reforms (Uranus) to the status quo (Pluto). The global events that will unfold between 2010 and 2015 are ongoing and history will wax lyrical about the hugely fundamental shift in power and influence in a manner far too great for this small article. But suffice it to say that corporate power and energy are just a part of this mighty square’s journey through the old, corrupt and outmoded functions of life, so that by the 2020s, history will look back at a decade of blistering change.

Mercury symbolises not just trade but also that of the trickster; it makes sense when you consider the apparent need for sales ‘techniques’ to persuade people to spend money on something they probably never needed or wanted. Energy, however, is a force purchase. People have no choice but to spend money on it, so the only choice is to whom they spend that money with. All energy companies buy electricity and gas from one source. The price may vary for them according to how much is purchased in one go but aside from that, the only other competitive variations they can change are the administrative costs (the standing charge) and the profit taken out.

As mentioned before, at the moment the profit is taken out first, then whatever is left from money taken in can be channelled into infrastructure, safety and development projects. But if transparency is forced by showing clearly what the customer is paying for, the game changes dramatically. Energy companies may then have to consider taking their profit last, invest less in maintenance and repairs (bad idea but it often happens that way) or go out of business.

And energy companies know that they are not being competitive because of the way they trade. The changes being demanded are scary for them because the reforms needed will be root and branch reforms. And in a few day’s time from this article they will know that they cannot just sit back and do nothing. But they will still try to do just that. So it means that we have to make them - like decide amongst ourselves which company is the most expensive and wipe them off the map by switching to anyone else - then see if the survivors want to reconsider their position.

By 7th June the pot starts to boil. Mercury moves on to set up the close T-square it started a few days before and Venus takes the grand trine spot with Saturn and Neptune in its own right. Now we will be talking money. But the energy companies will try desperately to suggest benefits and offer sweeteners and literally anything and everything except the necessary reforms. But Mercury has moved on to become the negotiator for change and reform, so Venus will take on the role that is all to do with protecting profit and market share. It is likely to be a conflict that progresses not an inch.

Here demonstrates the sheer reluctance of companies to work with the reforms and make the right changes. Often the resulting compromises and caveats that get proposed rather than just do what needs to be done generate some hideous abomination of an unacceptable work around, watered down to the point of being useless. Asking a company to change something that will cost it in profit is like trying to engage a turkey in how it would like to be carved at Christmas. The scenario with the energy firms places the spotlight on Ofgem as a viable regulator and surely must review what exactly it is that they are regulating that make them suitable for the purpose.

The UK has always had the potential for fraud in business (Neptune in 2nd house of 1801 chart) and with Saturn presently in the UKs 2nd house, we are about to witness an increasing series of scandals involving money and power (Because the Uranus Pluto square will bring all the ugly little buggers kicking and screaming to light). Neptune can also symbolise the highest of ideals (how many times to we hear a company caught red handed espouse the policy that the company takes its responsibilities very seriously? It sounds like a good thing to say but they still got caught doing the opposite). Telling people your high values is one thing but living up to them is completely different.

With Saturn running through secretive Scorpio there will be so many behind the scenes shenanigans while pretending altruistic high morals to the public face. From now until the beginning of 2015 at the very earliest one would be wise to look closely at every promise made by government or business. We can expect mendacity with bells on, half truths, omissions and statistical contortion.

For example, the UK government pounced on the news at the beginning of June 2013 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that they expected the economy in the UK to grow by 0.8 per cent in 2013 and 1.5 per cent in 2014 - a small revision down from its November forecast. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne leapt on the news that the OECD backed further spending cuts, justifying his austerity measures.

When one scrutinises the OECD mission to: ‘promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world’ Note the term to ‘promote policies’ The OECD was originally formed to assist in co-operation between countries after World War II, to encourage mutual growth and to avoid revenge through economic means or retribution of one country to another. But considering that governments send ambassadors to the OECD to espouse government policy, it is hardly surprising that the OECD simply regurgitates the expectation of individual member countries. Put simply, they are no independently objective body.

If my previous predictions are in any way to be fulfilled (and I have no reason to consider otherwise), then I believe that the chances of the UK growing by 0.8 per cent this year is about as realistic as cycling backwards to Mars on a pedalo. Until 2016, the UK is very much in danger of a triple dip recession, unemployment has still to increase, the Euro will collapse and the only way any of us will go right now is down. Barbault’s method is still to play out it’s prediction of 2016 as the lowest economic point. Lying in politics is alive and giving us little chance of making informed decisions. Corporate newspapers censor what is really going on in the world; Avaaz, 38 degrees and Care2 Causes are among those who lead the way in true freedom of the press. If you want to know what is going on, don’t ask a politician and don’t believe corporate owned media.

The effects of the grand trine of June 2013 appears to be greatly upsetting, as what we want to change is met with implacable indifference by those who must change (The protests in Turkey over building on Taksim square may well prove the point). Those who resist the changes will pay only lip service to the disenfranchised. If nothing else, the inaction will demonstrate visibly why reforms must happen. We are a large body of people, enslaved and suffering purely for the comfort and rewards poured upon our metaphorical left hand. Eventually, for self survival if nothing else, the right hand must rip the glove from the left just to demonstrate how bloody cold it is.

We should watch this grand trine with personal interest because the bigger, and more influential grand trine in July 2013, when Jupiter meets Saturn and Neptune will join all the little personal niggles and disgruntlements with corporation and governments into one big disenchantment. Austerity and unemployment will figure incredibly high on the agenda (and food crisis, energy, environmental, banking - it’s almost becoming everything) and as a water trine one can expect with the two societal planets in play there will be much emotional input. Demands for structural reform and wholesale overhaul will be much in evidence. Consider that when people feel strongly enough they will take to the streets. Many have already done so but with Jupiter joining the party, so vast swathes of people not normally disposed to protest and vocal disaffection will join the activists. The Eurozone will perhaps experience this much more because of the dire effects of austerity and unemployment they have suffered in comparison the the UK, US and other less afflicted nations.

From 14 July 2013 to 19 July 2013 Mars will become increasingly more assertive. Riots may be impossible to stop. Venus in aspect to the Uranus / Pluto square points the finger exclusively at money (austerity and the banks that caused it) as the causation. In the UK we may finally bury one slogan forever, ‘we’re all in this together’ and show the Prime Minister ‘David Cameron’ the power of his second slogan ‘The Big Society’ is alive and well when the people rise en masse against the policies he and his party have made them go through.

But let’s not get too happy about all this talk of retaliation and revolution. The grand trine is not an aspect that symbolises sorting anything out. It is a lot of noise and energy that will certainly put any government or corporation on notice that they reform or die. But for national austerity programmes running now, the dye is cast and there is no turning back; if the trine is an ease aspect then in this case it is like a greasy pole and once you’re on it there is very little to do but wait until you get to the other end. No, this grand trine is the precursor to the real business that will be the cardinal grand cross of 2014. What goes on in 2013 is a bit like a trailer before the film premier. Perhaps governments and large companies, banks included, should think of this as a year’s notice to change voluntarily. Unlike trines, the squares and oppositions cause incredible friction and the choice then is likely to be ‘change, or be changed’.

We may also have to beware of some serious terrorist activity as Mars conjuncts Jupiter to join the grand trine but also Jupiter opposes Pluto (Jupiter / Pluto connects with terrorist activity). I imagine that affected governments will want everyone focused on the fearful effects that terrorism causes, mostly to distract us from the main reason for our discontent. The fact is that, because of the grand trine, the time will be ripe for anything that can happen with ease to happen. But irrespective of individuals and extremist organisations, the main focus on reform is just not going to go away.

We the little people have a huge role to play. Anyone who says nothing and does nothing are accepting passively that they can do nothing about the way life is. The Arab Spring defies that stance. We in the more affluent West have had it so much easier and our worst enemy as a result is evident in our apathy to participate. For those who really would like to see improvements and are willing to get involved, organisations like 38 degrees and Avaaz offer many opportunities to sign and even start petitions in order to force political debates and change the course of political opinion. Avaaz has over 20 million members, so we are not talking small groups. So if you haven’t joined a group, consider the thought over July as all the reasons to be part of such a group unfolds in front of you.

The grand trines should be sufficient warning shots over the bow of those who want the status quo to stay as it is that it cannot and it will not. This is the firing gun and let all those with ears to hear pay attention. It is also the beginning of a momentous change in who holds the reigns of power in our world.

The Masses of Money: Jupiter Pluto Cycle 2007 - 2020

The Masses of Money: Jupiter Pluto Cycle 2007 - 2020

According to Mervyn King, the outgoing boss of the Bank of England, his last of 82 quarterly announcements (15 May 2013) that the economic outlook in the UK is upward comes with a warning not to be complacent. The growth of the economy still depends on recovery and to bring down unemployment. He was pleased to be able to offer some positive news since the start of the debt crisis in 2008.

The Barbault scale, however, is quite clear on the matter. What was caused through light touch regulation, hubris and risk taking beyond reason that led to the sub prime mortgage debacle and the subsequent fallout from toxic derivatives has further to run, despite political ‘uptalk’, confidence boosting political spin and economists clearly reticent to spell out the reality of our global situation. The Barbault scale predicted the debt crisis and it goes on to insist that the worst is yet to come and it will not be until after 2016 that the so-called green shoots of recovery can even begin to seed. I am saying this 3 years before the event and 10 years since I first suggested it. I was right about the crash of 2008 and the same prediction is still running true to its course. Our new beginning will not be feasible until nearer the 2020 Saturn / Pluto conjunction. Experts and politicians can spin all they like but the fact remains that structural reform is the only way to put our global house in order; and that means destroying old and outmoded structures that many in power are clinging to desperately to maintain what they perceive to be their vested interests.

We will know what it is that has to go by the time the Uranus / Pluto square moves on (The last pass is around May 2015, coinciding with Barbault’s 2016 rock bottom prediction). To make it perfectly clear, we will not know what has to go until Saturn’s transit through Scorpio has had the chance to drag up all the secret goings on that those whose company dealings are, shall we say, less than transparent are caught and brought to book. This is a time of reckoning for business, particularly anything to do with the movement of money and that must include the international unit of currency - oil. Some of the world’s biggest structures are old and corrupt - and they either have to change or go.

I have discussed Barbault and the Saturn / Pluto cycle at length. Of the latter, I believe there is strong enough evidence to infer that the closing of the cycle (particularly from the point that the last conjunction occurred) is where the action is (I believe that the Uranus / Pluto square has made this particular activity all the more radical and profoundly life changing for many). Now I would like to introduce, alongside Saturn, the other societal planet, Jupiter, and it’s cycle with Pluto; for without it there can be no balance of perspective. In particular, I want to examine what this cycle tells us about how we shall approach the new beginning of 2020.

Just a quick note to the uninitiated into mundane astrology, so that you can follow the discussion. Jupiter and Saturn are a pair. Jupiter expands and Saturn structures. Society decides which planet gets the upper hand or what the appropriate balance should be. Jupiter is known as the great benefic and Saturn the great malific. For this reason Jupiter is popularly known as friendly and Saturn as unfriendly - and so the Yin and Yang goes on. But contrary to popular belief, Jupiter is not as friendly as you might think. In the UK there are people who are perfectly happy to see their wages expand but not see an expansion in the immigrant population. Anything expanding, participating and gathering is Jupitarian. The expanding of knowledge demonstrates why Jupiter relates to higher education and also the collective agreement among a nation to live within laws; Jupiter is law - Saturn is order. Jupiter expands the waist line. Saturn restricts it. Jupiter is plentiful while Saturn is austere, hence the global austerity measures belong to Saturn and the mass demonstrations against it indicate the collective demand for less Saturn and a bit more Jupiter.

The combination of Jupiter and Pluto, as a cycle, is therefore without much structure (Saturn must play a role to restrict them). In mundane astrology this combination is known among other things as the ‘masses of money’ - Jupiter is the global preoccupation with collecting money and Pluto is the generational scope of it’s nature, relating to the global population as the masses. The UK lottery started in 1994 under a Jupiter / Pluto conjunction. On a more serious topic, the Jupiter / Pluto aspect can also relate to terrorism  (the expansion (Jupiter) of destruction (Pluto)) and also the Plutocratic hoarding of money by powerful people or large corporations wealthy enough to defy and, sadly, influence Governments.

Jupiter is the innermost of the outer planets, so it’s cycle of around 12 years is short compared to Saturn’s  (the next planet) 29 years. Likewise the Saturn / Pluto cycle takes 33 years to complete, whereas Jupiter / Pluto takes only 13. So as we are about to discuss the debt crisis and when it will end, you may be unsurprised to learn that the current Jupiter / Pluto cycle started in 2007 and will end in 2020.

But before launching into the present, it might be useful to gain some perspective from past cycles.

2 Nov 1981 - 1 Dec 1994

Jupiter is associated with belief systems and things associated with the state. Almost bang on the conjunction of 1981 the UK church synod voted to admit women as vicars. The conjunction occurred in the sign of Libra, where equal rights, fair play and the willingness to include all people is strong. Hence a few years later when Jupiter squared Pluto, the ‘Live Aid’ concert for those starving in Africa attempted to make the world aware that we had neighbours in need. Reports during the opposition of April 1988 appear muted, perhaps mitigated by reports relating more to the Saturn / Uranus / Neptune conjunction, like the PEPCON disaster.

But it may be that what was not in the press at the time but dominated the remainder of the cycle until 1993, was the work that went into the ending of apartheid in South Africa. In addition in 1993 was the signing of the Maastricht Treaty, which formerly established the European Union. There was also a leaked report that a channel of communication existed between the British Government and the Irish Republican Army (IRA), a strategy that undoubtedly played a key role in establishing the Good Friday Agreement in 2004. Finally there was the first terrorist attack on the World Trace Centre. All of these examples demonstrates the bringing of societies together, whether that be in harmony or in crisis.

In as much as the stock market collapse ran just in front of the Jupiter / Pluto opposition, and the returning square of 1991 likewise to the start of the gulf war and the resulting expansion of oil prices. The next few years saw the world in a state of recession, of which Japan has not recovered from to this day. So when Jupiter approached 24 degrees of Libra (the beginning degree area of the 1981 Jupiter / Pluto conjunction), it was also in a trine aspect with Saturn. Once Saturn was involved, people had to pull in their belts, limit spending, restructure to combat rising inflation. I lived through the sudden increases from 1988 to 1993 and recall the difficult times the UK experienced.

In January 1994, as the cycle closed from the 25 degrees of Libra that started the 1981 conjunction, a 15-year TV broadcasting ban for the IRA was lifted, thus starting the healing process that took most, if not all, of the next Jupiter / Pluto cycle. At the same time Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltzin singed the ‘Kremlin accords’ stopping pre programmed aiming of nuclear missiles towards each others country. China got connected to the Internet. And while South Africa held it’s first election, Rwanda violence escalated into mass genocide. The British leader of the opposition, Labour MP John Smith died, opening the way for the rise of Tony Blair (a major figure for the next Jupiter Pluto cycle). Russia and China agreed to stop aiming nuclear missiles at each other.

2 Dec 1994 - 10 Dec 2007

The new conjunction of December 1994 began, as the previous conjunction did with women clerics and equal rights, so the early beginnings of civil unions between same sex couples appeared. Perhaps more significant to our present topic of discussion, the World Trade Organisation was established in January 1995. Barings Bank collapsed when Nick Leeson lost $1.4 billion on bets in Tokyo.

By the Jupiter / Pluto square of 1998, Tony Blair was now Prime Minister in the UK and it was this party that introduced the UKs light touch financial regulation that proved to be so fatal by 2008. The Kyoto Protocol on global warming had just been adopted. Saddam Hussein was playing cat and mouse with the inspectors in search for weapons of mass destruction. A month after the square, the UK / Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement was signed. A month further began the nuclear arms race between India and Pakistan.

The Jupiter / Pluto opposition of May 2001 included a continuation of countries allowing same sex marriages. And as money buys power, so the first ‘space tourist‘, Dennis Tito, takes a ride to the space station and back. A month later, G. W. Bush signed the ‘Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act‘, which may not have meant a great deal then but it became the catalyst for the ‘fiscal cliff‘ so named at the end of 2012 and the cost of the policy still has to be dealt with.

September 11, an act of terrorism when agents for Al Qaeda crashed two commercial planes into the World Trade Centre, was way out of range of the Jupiter / Pluto opposition, although Jupiter was in aspect, being inconjunct to Pluto. It has been argued in the past that when two planets are in aspect, it does not matter what the aspect is. Contrary to this opinion it might also be inferred that the opposition was the point of the confirmation that the attack would take place but there is no way to corroborate such an inference. In the past it has often been discovered that an event, that was not reported at the time, had been picked up by an astrologer long before it reached the media.

Much of the intervening time between the opposition and the closing square was taken up with war in Afghanistan and then the invasion of Iraq in 2003, possibly obscuring some of the financial media coverage. 

The International Criminal Court (ICC) was established in July 2002 but the treaty to make it happen (the Rome Stature of the International Criminal Court) was adopted in July 1998 under the opposition of the previous Jupiter / Pluto cycle.

In the run up to the closing square of 2004, ten more countries join the European Union. Oil prices reached, what was then, a record high. Not much appears to be reported for the closing square in August, possibly due to the UK Parliament being on recession and financial activities poodling along until October. With this in mind it is interesting to note that the European Constitution was a treaty that failed to be ratified by all 25 EU member states and the idea had to wait until the new conjunction of 2007 (28 degrees Sagittarius) before the Treaty of Lisbon managed to pass through.

But the point in November 2006 where Jupiter reaches the same degree as the beginning of the 1994 Jupiter / Pluto conjunction (28 degrees Scorpio) has some interesting events to reveal that figures in our present cycle and therefore we should not exclude. North Korea claim that it conducted it’s first nuclear test. Bulgaria and Romania join the EU. IN February 2007 China corrects its stock market, plunging the world into a bit of a wobble. In July ‘Live Earth’ concerts held in 9 cities around the world.

11 Dec 2007 - 4 April 2020

The beginning of the present Jupiter / Pluto conjunction saw the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Cyprus and Malta adopt the Euro. Petroleum hit $100 a barrel for the first time. Stock markets plunged due to fears of a recession over the sub prime mortgage crisis. Here we can see a strong link between the start of the Jupiter / Pluto conjunction and the debt crisis we are presently living through.

The first square at the beginning of 2011, was the start of the Arab Spring in Tunisia, followed by Egypt and then many other Arab countries. Then an earthquake / tsunami hit Japan causing massive damage to four nuclear reactors at Fukushima, which appears now to be measuring up to be a disaster equal to Bhopal (Bhopal was December 1984. Jupiter / Pluto approached a square in February 1985 suggesting no connection. It was chemical rather than nuclear, so the Neptune ingress into Capricorn was significant. The unaspected Jupiter mid point between Mars Uranus square is a better symbolic description for Bhopal).

The Jupiter Pluto opposition of August 2013 lies ahead of this article and moves us towards the realms of speculation. However, the beginning of the cycle demonstrates the themes that must dominate the remainder of the cycle until 2020 or until those themes are resolved. 

The culmination of this Jupiter / Pluto opposition, however, is what really swipes away the notion of Mervyn King at the top of this article, that things are getting better.

The Jupiter / Pluto opposition occurs at 9 degrees of Cancer / Capricorn on 7 August 2013 (9 degrees of Capricorn is incredibly sensitive to any country whose natal chart started on the 1st of January). Jupiter goes stationary retrograde on 6 November 2013 and comes back to opposition on January 31st 2014. Jupiter stations direct at 10 degrees of Cancer on 5 March 2014 before making it’s final opposition. We should make note of events on 11 August 2013 when Jupiter passes 10 degrees of Cancer for the first time (there is a fleeting mini grand cross (half a day at most) involving the Moon where Mars will be later).

But the final opposition on 20 April 2014 involves a cardinal grand cross with Mars now opposite Uranus and squaring Jupiter opposite Pluto. In astrological circles this 2014 event is big and believed by many to be dangerous; it is a ‘doing’ square because cardinal signs initiate. There is not enough scope in this article to do the grand cross justice but suffice it to say that Jupiter in Cancer is in the sign of protectionism, Uranus in the impetuous sign of Aries, Pluto in the bureaucratic sign of Capricorn and Mars very unhappy in the fickle sign of Libra. The amount of frustration the chart exudes leaves little room for doubt that someone could do something very stupid at this time, maybe for the best of reasons but not helpful at all. Leaders please note.

There is, in total, 8 months of the Jupiter / Pluto opposition, ebbing and flowing around the issues of the day, which are pretty much in your face already: The mess in Syria and the possibility that it could spread, the unhelpful gesturing of North Korea, which hopefully the Western World will take with them a calm measured perspective. The debt crisis, corrupt and risky practices among banks, ever increasing utility prices, oil, GM crops with the frightening prospect that corporations could end up owning our food. Anything to do with money and our ability to afford wages, insurance, pension, credit, housing etc.

Jupiter in opposition to Pluto, for so long, will allow everyone to reflect on wether our laws, education, belief systems and participation have been sufficient to remove all the things that do not work. As I write this today, I believe that the worst is yet to come. Yes, there have been tremendous shifts in the Arab world but at a heavy price and terribly slow. This is ultimately what the world will become impatient about.

Likewise with reforms for banking. There is far too much tinkering at the edges where the powers that be attempt to window dress the outside of a system that they want to stay the same, failing to realise that it is just not going to happen. The Universe demands change and that means a totally new way of doing business.

Large corporations are getting too big. Powerful Plutocrats control Government policies. This cannot continue. The masses of money, mostly in the hands of 1% of the world. With our capitalist system suffering the circulatory effects similar to angina, it may not be far off from a fatal heart attack. It strikes me as curious that governments believe the way to get the economy of the world going again is to throw quantitative easing at the minority who have most of the money already. This also has to change and it is interesting to note that in the UK, what was previously underpinned as the minimum wage has been found not fit for purpose, hence a new call now for a ‘living wage’.

By the time the opposition has had its way, I believe we shall see the demise of the Euro. The masses of money ripped from the European Union as confidence evaporates on the monetary project to survive. You can imagine the chaos this will cause, the loss of fortunes, the collapse of ‘too-big-to-fail’ companies and the growing realisation that those in denial of change will have it thrust upon them. It has to be something of this size to live up to the grand cross. The debt crisis can’t just carry on for years on end while the people live in abject poverty. But likewise austerity is not the answer - and maybe there is no answer in the current system.

When the Jupiter / Pluto cycle reaches it’s closing square, Pluto will be moving far enough away from the world axis (9 degrees of Capricorn, which is the 1st January Solar position for many countries natal charts) to allow the room for the changes made to become established. With Jupiter in Libra during this closing square there will be strong influences on expanding equality and fairness for everyone, be it in law or economy. It will be the time for strong leadership but only those who can look beyond political ideology will be successful. There is every reason to believe that this is not going to be the case right away.

2020 and beyond

The 25th November 2019 will be like a starting gun, with Jupiter reaching the degree are that the 2007 Jupiter / Pluto conjunction began and Saturn is with 4 degrees of it’s own conjunction with Pluto. There will be much work to do to establish the new world model.

But it will not end there. I discovered a strange change of pattern, that when Jupiter has reached the degree area that was the beginning of the conjunction there has been between 341 and 411 days for the new conjunction to be made. In January 2020, the new Jupiter / Pluto conjunction, only 132 days will have past. This is mitigated however, because Jupiter will make three passes over the conjunction, with Pluto going retrograde on 16 May 2020, conjunction 30 June 2020, stationary direct 13 September 2020 and making it’s final conjunction on 12 November 2020.

This implies an awful lot off messing about, false starts, clarifications in law and changes beyond simple niggles. Perhaps this will be a good thing, where people otherwise removed from political policy making are more willing to get involved in the shape of the new future.  The conjunction starts in the bureaucratic sign of Capricorn (an indication of where all the bickering will start) but Jupiter makes it’s retrograde station in Aquarius, the sign of groups. In old astrological rulership, Saturn is comfortable in both Capricorn and Aquarius, so structural changes can be made in both but Aquarius may fair better in encouraging forward thinking, new working practices and technological advances. Jupiter is not so happy in either sign (preferring either Sagittarius or Pisces) and remember that Jupiter entered Capricorn when the global crash kicked off.

So Jupiter in Aquarius will be where the forward thinking begins. It may offer a different opportunity, to counter the blinkers of the old school, and help to promote how one expands the use of renewable energy, sustainability in agriculture and commerce and how much of this could be achieved better if we, as a world, worked to harmonise our practices.  As Aquarius is a fixed sign, it may also indicate the desire to legislate for regulations that mean the same egregious practices by banks cannot happen again. It may mean repealing laws that support profit over people, like some aspects of privatisation in the National Health Service.

It will be in the 2019 - 2020 period that Jupiter’s change program will be set for the decade to come. It is therefore important that we remember the experiences we have recently had, and will have within the next three years, and be motivated to do the Jupitarian thing and participate in the shape we would like our future world to be. However, we must learn patience. Long gone is the instant gratification - must-have-now culture. What will happen between 2016 and 2020 will be like stopping a supertanker bent on disaster and turning it around. It will take years to right the wrongs wreaked by decades of foolish and one-sided economics. As we experience what it is like to have the circulation of the masses of money trickle to a halt, it will help us to formulate a better system to help the many rather than the few. When the new Jupiter / Saturn conjunction occurs at 1 degree of Aquarius, we should be able to put all the bad stuff behind us and look forward to that brighter future, Mervyn King tacitly implied.

The Barbault scale promises a period of a decade or more of confidence in the shape of the world from the year 2020. Until then there is nothing to be confident about other than things will deteriorate while real change is denied. In previous articles I have warned about paying off debts and getting out of risky ventures. I will now go a step further and say watch out for your savings and spread them around. There are plans made for governments to have the option of taking your money, just as the Cyprus government did. Banks crash and assurances can go out the window. For the next three years nothing is safe.

Without doubt I shall be writing more about the 2010s as current themes develop.

We Control The Politics Of The Future

Imagine that you attend a rock concert in a football stadium. You wheel in by the thousand, brandishing your coveted tickets and take your seats, waiting for the moment that the concert is due to start. Whether you are satisfied or disappointed by the outcome is a subjective matter. You did nothing personally to prepare for the concert other than buy a ticket, so you may get what you expected as a passive spectator. You did not first have to organise the venue, the dates, hire the stage equipment, employ the constructors, the electricians, the sound engineers, the lighting, the security the promotion etc. You only had to buy a ticket because the organisers did the work before you sat down at your concert seat. The point is that lots had to happen before the event. Your ticket (vote) endorsed the end product.

So now consider an article telling Labour leader Ed Miliband to start to build support for the 2015 election http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/18/ed-miliband-warned-leftwing-compass-group . In many ways it seems that certain groups and political activists are just starting to wake up to the Saturn / Pluto cycle that I have been talking about for years. In a nutshell, the Saturn (structure of society) / Pluto (evolution of society) renews itself around every 33 years. The last time it happened it was Margaret Thatcher who read the zeitgeist and knew that outmoded practices and failing policies in the UK had to be destroyed in order to build for better societal structure that prospered.

Just like our imaginary concert, Margaret Thatcher was working tirelessly many years before the Saturn / Pluto cycle began, but crucially she was utilising the cycle at its most potent and malleable time, which is from the point of the previous conjunction. In the run up to Mrs Thatcher’s time, the Saturn / Pluto conjunction began on 11 August 1947 at 13 degrees of Leo. This was a post-war conjunction that had to deal with a great many restructuring projects including the NHS and the Welfare State. When Saturn returned to 13 degrees of Leo it was September 1976. The United Kingdom was known as the sick man of Europe because it’s economic structure was burdened by Nationalisation, unions capable of bringing down governments, an unfair tax system and failing industry. Within a few years, the Conservative party swept to power in 1979 and began to implement the policies they had said they would implement. By the start of the conjunction in 1982, the structures were fairly well known, even if we had no idea at the time where they would actually lead.

For a while the new policies appeared to work (They were certainly a better alternative than doing nothing or letting the old system fester and poison us all) and the difference to the majority of the British people (in tandem with no credible alternative) were reflected in the three general elections that Margaret Thatcher headed. The Labour party, who naturally shared an affinity with the unions, who were being clobbered under this new regime, had no credible alternative to run the country and languished as an ineffective opposition for many years.

But political ideology started to get in the way of common sense that began to affect the people in the wrong way and the opposition Labour party suddenly woke up to the notion that they could no longer cling to the outmoded far left wing views of days gone by. The Saturn / Pluto cycle is, of course, a global cycle. By the first Saturn / Pluto square in 1993 there was the first attempt at blowing up the World Trade Centre. Back home, the European Economic Community opened its borders to allow free trade. The world was changing significantly, according to the policies developed at the Saturn / Pluto conjunction  and Conservative ideology favoured deregulation, free markets and hands off government. The conservative policies suited many people but not the three million who became unemployed as a result and the many who began to feel insecure about their personal status. What Margaret Thatcher had achieved in the beginning was necessary (not popular) to bring stability and prosperity to the UK shores. But what she did later was pure ideology. Now there were only the more affluent that felt better off. In short, the balance of power shifted because of self serving ideological myopia.

However, when Tony Blair took over the reigns in 1997, he did not seek to reverse Margaret Thatcher’s achievements; indeed it would have been backward and very expensive to attempt it. The world had moved on since the days of miners strikes, three-day weeks and the infamous ‘winter of discontent’

Mr Blair started to redress the balance of power in favour of the ordinary average wage earner. Creating jobs was a top priority. What he had tapped into was the same zeitgeist that Margaret Thatcher had tapped into but the Conservative government had lost along the way (along with Margaret Thatcher herself). He read correctly the mood of the people, possibly unaware that the financial garden was becoming overgrown with unwelcome weeds.

It was after Tony Blair’s departure that the credit crunch hit. But this was within the flowering part of the Saturn / Pluto cycle where we could now see the potential that had been created way back in 1982. Gordon Brown (Prime Minister after Tony Blair) was not the visionary needed to find a way through this most troubling of times. He could not see the similarities that began to emanate from what will be seen historically as an economic crisis of global proportions, far worse than the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Where the UK was regarded as the sick man of Europe, the infection of financial globalisation had spread a rush of greed right across the world and Europe as a whole became sick. History has yet to decide if the whole of the Eurozone experiment is terminal.

So from the UK perspective, we are now (2013 at the time of writing) back at the same point in the evolutionary cycle of Saturn / Pluto as Margaret Thatcher was in 1976. The 1982 conjunction occurred on 8 November 1982 at 27 degrees of Libra. Saturn hit the same degree area in December 2011, which triggered the critical phase of the time span we have to do something about that which does not work, is outmoded and dying and what needs to be destroyed to build anew. This means that whoever wins the general election in 2015, will be the person to set the UKs structural agenda for the 33 years starting at the new Saturn / Pluto conjunction in January 2020. But if the understanding of the zeitgeist is poor, the 2015 government will be either short lived or will be ineffective. Someone has to come forward with the right policies before the next conjunction and there is no sign of it at this time.

And this is the warning that Tony Blair has given to Ed Miliband, along with other politically interested groups. Be in no doubt that another government under David Cameron would be a disaster. He has given the UK some terrible medicine but, keeping with the metaphor of the medical profession, has demonstrated a callous bedside manner along with it. The people did not cause the debt crisis, so there is plenty of room for argument to insist that the people who caused the crisis should be the ones paying for it. The Liberal Democrats (the minor part of the coalition government) may yet hold the key to a new coalition.

In the meantime, we have to look beyond the debt crisis and to put in place policies that will return the world to a more sustainable structure. The Internet movements like the “99 percent” and “Occupy” are clear signposts as to where the hole in the system needs fixing. But it has to be done outside of political dogma and ideology - and Ed Miliband has to start listening to the zeitgeist instead of those with purely left-wing interests.

Ed Miliband himself has mentioned the need to curb short term politics, which is a great start in terms of thinking and the Saturn / Pluto cycle calls for bold and sustainable policies designed to evolve over a generation. And one of the biggest challenges to whoever becomes the next UK Prime Minister involves developing a new kind of political thinking that will impact way beyond the lifetime of that government.

So here are a few pointers to Ed, or whoever wants to be Prime Minister in 2015

First - simplify. The economic dance around tax and corporate responsibility has opened the gates for a plethora of abuse and ways to get around badly written tax laws. Successive governments have pandered to wealthy benefactors and business in order to promote growth and prosperity. But after 33 years it is only the corporations, the banks and the rich who enjoy growth and prosperity. Simplify the tax system. Simplify the welfare system. Make life easier for everyone.

Second - stop tinkering. Any number of Chancellor’s of the Exchequer have added on a penny here and a penny there so that, if the average wage person is any better off at all, it might buy a pint of beer in order to celebrate the windfall. This is the very kind of short term politics that must stop. Simplify the income tax, national insurance, VAT, corporation tax, rates, licences and so on. People see money hemorrhage from their income at every turn. The first chancellor to stop playing pointless financial lego with our personal money will probably go down in history as a great man.

Third - Make essential services not-for-profit companies. Nationalisation did not work. Privatisation is proving to be increasingly more expensive and unaffordable and open to so much abuse. The ordinary average wage person should not be squeezed between the choice of heating and eating. There are thousands of people in fuel poverty. Gas, electricity and water should be without any profit element. This current Saturn / Pluto cycle has demonstrated clearly the greed and the abuse that comes with the ever growing demand for profit. And while we are at the notion of not-for-profit companies (who will still have to pay some taxes) the same should be applied to railway track safety and maintenance and the maintenance of public buildings. If there were ever a need to put money into infrastructure, it would be spending money to set up not-for-profit companies who are not hell bent on legally ripping off the tax payer with extortionate maintenance rates (See PFI for hospitals as a great example). Share holders just make anything attached to it more expensive. The same goes for our National Health Service; some things should never be privatised.

Fourth - The zeitgeist already speaks of a ‘living wage’. I heard Michael Howard (former conservative leader) argue on ‘Question Time’ BBC1 (18 April 2013) that if the UK was to raise the minimum wage it would stop businesses from employing people. Apparently he also argued the same point about the introduction of the minimum wage before it was first introduced. This is the attitude of many business employers who put profit before people. It is the wrong perspective, which clearly should be not of the prospective employer but the employee who will receive this wage. If the wage is not a living wage it can only be viewed as poverty employment. In my opinion, if an employer cannot afford to pay a living wage, then the employer is not in a position to employ. It is crazy in the 21st century to argue for slave wages, which anything below the living wage must be considered as such, irrespective of much lower wages in developing countries. Employers would have wages subjected to a ‘race to the bottom’ mentality. There is one thing to be competitive but quite another to promote oppression on the back of profit. Therefore the way to profitability should be discovered through a route other than continued poverty and the minimum wage should be at the level of the living wage as soon as possible.

Fifth - if there is a minimum wage perhaps there ought to be a maximum wage. Anyone who can afford to buy a family house with one year’s salary can achieve what the average person would spend 30 years on a mortgage to achieve. Is it right for some people to get million pound bonuses, share deals and extraordinary pensions for the single reason of taking more money out of circulation and into the hands of a tiny, and very rich, minority? It has been this sort of practice that generated the angina effect on the circulation of the world’s capitalist system and created the 99 percent who rummage around with just 1 percent of the world’s money. If we do not learn this lesson I am positive that we will be back in 33 years time, talking about the same problem.

So there is a simple template for the new Saturn / Pluto cycle that, if not Ed Miliband then someone else to tap into, must be addressed. Simplify. Stop silly tinkering that makes no difference. Look after the essentials. Give people a proper liveable wage and stop the very rich and powerful from keeping the rest of us in poverty. In many ways it is a shopping list right up the street of any left wing politician but be under no illusions that going too far left is just as bad as the present government going too far to the right. We need someone who will put people above political point scoring.

And finally there is one more crucial ingredient to all of this, and that is you and me. We are the electorate who can either buy a ticket and watch the show unfold, or get involved in the organisation of our world and be the change we want to see. Through the Internet at the very least, we have the ability to become better informed, to become more active, to join appropriate pressure groups like Avaaz or 38 degrees. The mass populations of the world are the people who generate the zeitgeist that politicians tap into. The clearer our message means the more likely that politicians will fight to achieve what we want to achieve. This is what corporate lobby groups do - like the gun lobby this year that effectively squashed a really good gun control law because it might hurt the profitability of their business; Senators were effectively bribed to put guns before children. So the question is whether you want people like them to run your country (to suit them) or if you want to take some responsibility and ensure that governments are controlled by the electorate (that’s us). We have to lose the apathy that we don’t make a difference; In the words of Barack Obama, yes we can.

Ultimately we control the politics of our future. This is not post war 1947 anymore. The world has changed amazingly fast and that means that the electorate has the tools that they did not have before to become more switched on and clued up.

By around 2018 we will be able to see how a generation is going to unfold, and by February 2049 we will know how well we did it. So, do you want to sit back and buy a ticket or would you want to be part of making the concert?

Margaret Thatcher - A Necessary Evil

As the present 33-year Saturn / Pluto cycle plays out its most critical end, Mrs Margaret Thatcher, one of Britain’s most notable Prime Ministers, passed away on 9th April 2013 in the Ritz Hotel London. By the time of the new Saturn / Pluto conjunction on 12 January 2020, we will know how the next 33-year cycle is likely to unfold. There is much to play for and those who sit back and do nothing may wish to consider the legacy that Mrs Thatcher’s vision of the future left us. Certainly if you listen to the partisan critics at this time, the UK is deeply divided in its perspective.

The UK is once again divided in its perspective about what Mrs Thatcher did for / to the country during her reign as Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990.

To understand what I mean when speaking of the Saturn / Pluto cycle, here is a crude analogy; Saturn structures our society and Pluto destroys the old, outmoded and anything that no longer works.

The Saturn / Pluto conjunction of Oct 1914 saw the start of what was then the Great War (WWI). When Saturn returned to to the position of that conjunction in July 1944, it had been demonstrated graphically that the global mindset during this period had to change drastically. Consequently when the war ended in 1945 there was a tremendous amount to be sorted out. In some cases there are choices made between 1914 - 1947 that remain unresolved.

When the Saturn / Pluto cycle of 1947 saw us coming out of World War II and on the road to rebuilding ourselves, industries were nationalised and lands were structured. The National Health Service was introduced, The Disabled Persons at Work Act and various Welfare Benefits. Change was unstoppable and tension was already beginning that would lead to the India / Pakistan partition, Israel declared independence (1948) and lands throughout the middle East, Europe and Asia divvied up between France, Russia, China, UK and USA; the founder member of the United Nations. It was also the start of the Cold War (1947 - 1991)

By 1976 (this is when Saturn reached the degree area of the 1947 conjunction) the world had changed beyond recognition. Things were becoming computerised and supersonic. Unions had the capcity to bring down governments, as nationalised industry demanded more money when there was none to be had. Women started to fight for equal status with men. Oil and energy became the battlegrounds on which economies were fought. The ever growing recession and lack of spending was solved by the introduction of the credit card; the price of which we now find ourselves paying.

It was clear that the time had come once again for reform. The time had come to structure a new truth, a new paradigm that would sweep away the old, outworn models and bring in something new - an upgrade if you will. This was a time when those in positions of power could change the fate of a nation - even the world.

Mrs Thatcher led the Conservative party to power and maintained government from 1979 to 1991. So when the Saturn / Pluto cycle started anew in late 1982, changes were already in full swing and there was no going back.

Margaret Thatcher will be known for many things: the privatisation of nationalised industry, her defiance of unions and the curbing of their rights, the loosening of banking regulation, the right to buy for council houses without replenishing the stock, the infamous Poll Tax (abandoned) and unacceptably high unemployment. Opinion about all of these have divided the UK; those who praise her for her courage and those who despise her for the destruction she caused. What is certain is that she will be remembered.

What Margaret Thatcher built was almost the opposite of unions, closed shops and societies where there were strength in numbers. She promoted the notion that every individual had the right to get to the top and make as much money as possible irrespective of those at the bottom who were in no way intellectually capable of competing. The conservatives say that Mrs Thatcher made Great Britain great again. Others will say that there was another section of Great Britain that was separated by her and left behind to rot.

We knew that many things Mrs Thatcher introduced were falling apart by 2008 when the deregulated banks messed about with the world’s money and lost billions. Housing was in crisis because not enough were being built, people were in fuel poverty because of the ever increasing costs in addition to the profit being taken out, unemployment scaled new heights and debt among everyone became stratospheric. In the same way that nationalisation and the unions failed, so now had privatisation and economic growth halted in its tracks by the parsimonious attitudes of the rich corporations and individuals, unwilling to put money back into the system without the guarantee of immediate return.

Proponents of ‘Thatcherism’ argue forcefully that before Mrs Thatcher was ousted from power by her own people in 1990, that the reforms she had placed in motion when she was Prime Minister were so good that they were not changed by the incoming Labour government of 1997. On the other hand, it could be argued that it would have been impossible, if not foolish, to contemplate reversing policies and changes that had been entrenched for so many years. So going back was impossible and the need to go forward was therefore much more sensible and advantageous.

Opponents of Thatcherism will point to the unravelling of everything she set up. There is very little now of Thatcher’s policies that could be said to be working well. Even the Falkland Islands festers with unfinished business.

But as with most things, the truth is always somewhere in between the extreme perspectives. There were so many things in the mid 70s that not only had to change but would have died by itself and poisoned anything it touched if just left to rot. If the UK government still possessed nationalised industries like coal, steel, British Telecom, British Gas, Electricity, Water etc, there would most likely have been a union meeting calling for a general strike that would have brought down the government over pay. Curiously in 2013 there are plans for a general strike in the UK but because the government no longer holds  these industries they can no longer be held to ransom.

Not everything had to be privatised though, and here it is that political ideology often supersedes common sense. It would have been prudent to hold onto essentials such as gas, electricity and water, or possibly convert the industries in to private ‘not-for-profit’ organisations. The banks should never have been deregulated to the point that banks could gamble so dangerously with our money, jeopardizing the private pensions of many and the future prosperity of the ordinary working person on a modest income.

So Margaret Thatcher made changes in the only way she knew how, and that was by the ideology of her convictions that, in this instance, favoured those with conservative political beliefs. And for that reason they will hail her as an inspiration. But as is always the case with pure conservatism, history has shown that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, so to those with labour or liberal political leanings she was evil and divisive. But for the people who hated her, the fact is that there were no other candidates offering something better at the time; and this is a lesson we should be considering in these last few years before the next conjunction in 2020.

One of the most significant changes that came about in the 1982 - 2020 Saturn / Pluto cycle is the computer. The capability of the computer was so great it facilitated much of the downfall of banks in 2008. But equally, the power of the Internet to open new channels in freedom of speech and the ability to organise large groups of individuals to agree collectively on a thought, a point and even an action, will facilitate the involvement of individuals to make their voices really count. It was the Internet that facilitated the Arab Spring in 2011 and it is within the social media that those not in positions of government can participate fully in deciding how our country - our world - is run in the future. This is a freedom worth protecting with considerable diligence.

So wether or not you support the changes Margaret Thatcher made, it has to be said that some changes definitely needed to be made. The difference between now and then is that we, the little people, only had the vote to make our voices heard. Today we have so much more and we should give ourselves an upgrade and become more integrated with the political programmes that affect so much of our lives. 

Without a viable alternative back in the 1970s, the policies of Margaret Thatcher, in my opinion, were a necessary evil. They were not right, because they left a whole section of the population behind, but it was better than the chaos we had. Mrs Thatcher did many things that were unpopular and unpleasant, but she established a structure that could be structured and controlled; for a while anyway.

In the end we are where we are now and the only way to move is forward. The question is whether we have the sagacity to bypass partisan politics and learn from past mistakes. Margaret Thatcher worked ceaselessly, with only three hours sleep, to get where she wanted to be. We, however, do not have to adopt her working practices, and often would not have the capacity to do so. But we do have to consider ourselves more involved in the politics of life and choose to participate in influencing the outcome of what we want to see - to be the change we want to see. The more we become willing participants, the less likely we will have no alternatives to a necessary evil.