Fifteen Years Left To Live

Fifteen years left to live.

No one really knows how long they have to live on this planet. There is always the danger of life coming to an abrupt end by catastrophe, an accident or foul play. We simply do not know but the notion of living each day as if it were your last is quite unsustainable. People make plans and have goals for tomorrow, next week, next year that means today cannot be the sole focus of life.

And yet people can forget to live in the moment, acknowledging that if the past is gone and tomorrow has yet to come, the only time we have to do anything is today. But for many, the content of ‘today’ is usurped by anything and everything other than what we want to do with our lives.

Life is filled with mundane responsibilities like taking the kids to school, maintaining a home, going to work and paying bills, etc. And if you were to live today as if it were your last, would you want to spend it doing any of the above?

What if we knew that tomorrow would be the end of the world? What kind of things would people do with that time? Obviously making plans for next week is suddenly pointless and any goals for next year an absurdity. So we make plans for the future based on the tentative notion that we have time to fulfil them.

Which brings me to the title of my article. A week after my 59th birthday, I started looking seriously at plans to retire from work; that is to say I plan to stop working for other people so that I have the time to do the things I want to do with my life. The reason for making these plans arose from the evidence of the males in my family tree having the inconvenient habit of dying at the age of 74. My father died at 74, as did my grandfather and great grandfather. As I am the next in line it would be foolish not to recognise the pattern, no matter how much I have the intention of living well beyond that age. My mother died at 66, due to ill health, so while this might be a stand-alone event, it is a factor I must consider even if the ancestors on my father’s side offered more incentive to think longer term.

So barring any major catastrophe, accident or foul play, there is a possibility that - given the evidence of mortality on my father’s side - that I may have only 15 years to live.

At the time of writing this article, I have taken a week’s leave from the job that pays the bills. I started full time work at age 17, denied the opportunity for university as my parents could not afford for me to spend more time in education. Having spent 42 years working for other people, just to pay bills and have a roof over my head, has left only moments of time to do the things I would rather be doing. But this is not to say that I don’t appreciate that working to get money, within the system we are all forced to follow, has earned the opportunity to build a secure foundation for myself and my family.

My parents were unashamedly working class but still my father bought his house with a mortgage that took two and a half times his salary alone (1955). My mortgage was made up of three times the salary of my wife and myself (1988). The same house prices today (2019) would take a mortgage value of ten times a couple’s combined salary. This suggests that young couples today would have to commit to more than 30 - 35 years of mortgage payments to do what my wife and I managed in 25 years.

So we spend half a lifetime paying for the security of a home with home comforts if we are lucky. The rental market is a more brutal option because you never stop paying rent until the day you die; and it never gets cheaper.

I know I am in a fortunate position and I am grateful for that, although I also know I worked for every privilege I now possess and made certain sacrifices along the way to ensure security for myself, my wife and the possibility of retiring with some comfort but also to enjoy retiring while we were both young enough to do so.

The State retirement pension entitlement in the UK rose from age 65 to 67, meaning if I followed my mother’s lifespan, I would die a year before eligibility. Advances in medicine meant that the baby boomer generation of the 1960s expanded the population at the point of an increase in the mortality rate. People are living longer instead of dying at an affordable age. The Government only really wants people as ‘working units’. Pensioners are a drain on the economy, so we either had to work longer or die earlier.

For me personally, it means if I had not considered investment into a pension, I could not even consider retiring for another 8 years; half of my life span that I have left if I am destined to live only to 74. I suppose I could work another 8 years and enjoy the benefit of additional money but when I get to the end of my life, what would I have to show for it? Would I be happy knowing that the only reason I lived at all was to work for other people and pass my inheritance to the next generation (only for them to do the same perhaps or to squander it without purpose)?

I have no idea who was the first person to stick this notion in my head but someone instilled in me the sensibility to leave somewhere looking better than when I first went in. Clearly this directive was designed for when one spent time in someone else’s property, promoting the respect for people’s possessions and sharing in the value of hard work and care that they represented. But living a life should also be more than maintenance and the value of acquisitions and security. Should we not also leave this life leaving the world in a better state than it was when we were born?

Making the world a better place takes time, time no one has because they are too busy working to earn a living and all the other stuff mentioned above. A number of very rich people have made the world a better place for themselves, which is not the same as making the world a better place for everyone else. When I was a much younger and idealistic person, I had the fanciful notion that somehow I could change the world. With age and experience I now realise that this was a bit more than ambitious and settled for changing my immediate world.

Changing anything takes time and energy. Both become precious commodities as one gets older. Young people may not look at health in the same way as they look at money but as one gets older, good health starts to outweigh money. It doesn’t matter how much money you have if you are too old or too unwell to benefit from it.

Taking all this into account, I decided that I wanted to retire at 60, or close to it. The pension I paid into sounded great when I started it but it is astounding how the devaluation of currency and inflation has effectively halved the value before I even get to draw on it. But in many ways I am still more fortunate than the generation that comes after me. The UK government has introduced a compulsory ‘workplace pension’. It is a real basic pension scheme that will not pay out masses of money if one is lucky enough to be able to retire. What people are not aware of, and as I spent many years working for the Department for Work and Pensions I have some insight into what is being set up, the UK government are in the process of phasing out the State pension entirely. So where I may yet benefit from a personal pension and also a State pension, those who come after me will have only one source of income, with little chance of earning enough to do more than that.

I conclude that I have a choice between the potential of further earnings or a pontoon-style ‘stick’ with a fixed income that has to sustain the expenditure demands for 8 years until I qualify for my State pension. However, it is also a choice between working for someone else for another 8 years or doing something that I want to do while I still have health, energy and enthusiasm to do it. The fact that I am even considering retiring means that I have instinctively chosen my goal, selecting to accept a loss in income over a gain in a more productive use of my time.

So what would I do with my time, bought at the expense of further fiscal reward? What possible attraction could life have to offer me that is better than working for money to pay bills and keep a roof over my head? Would it surprise you to know that when I left school at 16, my main ambition was not to spend 40 hours a week doing what other people wanted me to do and in return earn enough money to reach the next pay day? I did a few different jobs in my time. My first job was manufacturing spectacle lenses. I then worked in bingo (yes I did spend some time as a bingo caller), I did some stock control in a warehouse, spent a short stint as a petrol station cashier and a betting office manager, interviewed people in an employment agency, worked in a job centre and end my career as an advocate supporting people detained under the Mental Health Act (the most rewarding job of them all).

All of the jobs that paid money do not define me in the slightest. I was never going to be known (neither would I want to be) for my vocations. My avocations are far more interesting and yet they have had to take a back seat for most of my life. I want to spend my time on something that I find meaningful

When I first sang on stage at the age of 5 (see my autobiography ‘Walking The Path’ (part 1)), it was my first taste of music and sharing my joy of it with the outside world. Then, when the voice of an angel turned into the voice of an angle grinder, my musical talent turned to composition. I learned to play violin and piano. Making music became a passion but when you don’t get the breaks in life, it doesn’t matter how good you are. Over the years I have composed many songs from pop to classical. I have five musicals and a symphony among other things. I still have four more symphonies in my head that need my time. I would also like to spend more time playing the piano; for no other reason than it gives me joy and teaches me discipline.

Of the 5 non fiction books I have published, there are two that demonstrate my interest in the esoteric. When I saw my careers officer at age 14, his first question to me was, ‘So what do you want to work at when you leave school?’ to which I shrugged my shoulders and declared I did not have a clue. Most vocational questionnaires pointed me in the direction of becoming a psychologist but as mentioned, the opportunity of university was sacrificed on the altar of expense. Never the less, this inherent trait in me expressed itself by way of learning about esoteric principles, which the more I delved into it the more it became obvious that psychology had been discovered long before the appellation existed. While I felt confident enough to write on and be published on two of the methods, I have continued to learn others. I count myself fortunate to have been introduced to mundane astrology, as it has helped me reach a position in the real world where my choices were better informed about global trends and has informed me of the best pathway to even consider retiring from paid employment.

There are, at the very least, two novels I would wish to write and have published. Both books are started but time to work on them properly is just not there. The article I am writing now would not be written but for the fact that I took some time off work to take stock of where I am now and plan a direction for the future.

And if the above were not enough to keep me occupied, I have also discovered the delights of gardening. My first house had an average sized garden that one could swing a cat in but not grow an orchard. I have a much bigger garden now and the physical work involved promotes my continued good health; in contrast to sedentary pursuits. Aside from the health benefits, I also get to grow my own fruit and vegetables in addition to some floral displays. The uninitiated would be amazed at how much esoteric doctrine can be explained within the processes of gardening, so it was inevitable that not only would my garden give me some much needed exercise but would also give me pause to stop and think about the nature of all living things and be able to appreciate the way we absorb ourselves into systems that sustain us, for better or worse.

The avocational self expression has until now been snatched and stolen in between large chunks of compulsory depletion of my valuable time. Because of it, time has become my most precious resource, usurping money only because I have worked myself to a position where I have the luxury of making that choice. Had the world’s capitalist system been more equitous, then maybe my time could have been shared more evenly between the work I had to do versus the work I wanted to do. But this was not the case for me and I long ago accepted the pragmatic perspective that life is not fair. So I did what I could while I was younger and planned to spend more quality time to devout to my personal pursuits at the earliest opportunity.

Reaching the age of 75 is not my greatest ambition but I do hope I get the opportunity to break the pattern of my male forebears. The retirement age for them was 65, so they had 9 years before they died. So, if I hedge my bets, I get at least 15 years if my fate is to follow their precedent. And if I live longer, I will be blessed for knowing that I have made the world richer with a legacy that lasts a lot longer than the next wage packet.

Chiron, the 2019 EU election and Brexit.

The EU election that the UK was never meant to vote in.

The planet of Chiron, ‘the wounded healer’ sits on the descendant of the UK 1801 chart. It will stay in orb until at least April 2021. However, Chiron remains in the UKs 7th house of relationships until 2029. What better symbolism of the way Chiron can open a deep and lasting wound than the UK’s bid to leave the European Union; more commonly known as ‘Brexit’.

Let me nail my colours to the mast before going further. I voted to leave the EU because I did not like the way the project was heading. I love the idea of a one-world government and everyone getting along but expecting the best of an ideal world to manifest with central banks and the influence of large corporations over a large government is, to me, a naive hope. In the same way that there was a good reason to separate church and state in the past, there is also now a dire need to separate corporation and state. Otherwise we will sleepwalk into a dystopian condition that George Orwell predicted in his book ‘1984’.

Other people may well have voted for Brexit for entirely different reasons but the reason I wince when those who wish to ‘Remain’ in the EU argue that ‘we did not know what we were voting for’ is that I did not listen to the lies politicians put forward on both sides. But let’s take a look at the 2019 EU election result for the UK to see if not knowing what we voted for resulted in a landslide turnaround in favour of remaining in the EU. After all, if we did not know what we were voting for in 2016 and suddenly the light of understanding dawns at the EU election, there should be a mass departure from the Leave campaign in favour of Remain.

The overall turnout for the 2014 EU election was 31%, which is quite low compared to mainland Europe, which is nearer 50%. Engagement in the European elections has been low traditionally because the electorate in the UK are not terribly engaged in EU politics.

In the 2019 EU election, the turnout in the UK was reported by the BBC to be around 37%. The curious thing is that the electorate was well aware of the Leave / Remain battle and like it or not, the EU election was always going to be seen as the second referendum that the Remain campaigners had fought for on the basis that we did not know what we were voting for on the original referendum.

So 63% of the voting public either could not be bothered to vote. They were either not interested in Brexit one way or the other, were fed up with the whole sorry business or chose not to express an opinion. Whatever the reason it would be fair to say that politicians of all colours will use the EU result as ‘the will of the people’, demonstrating why it is important to vote in elections if you have a preference to the outcome.

The ‘Brexit Party’ formed (so history will declare) just six weeks prior to the EU election, stormed into first place in every region of the UK other than Scotland and London (Northern Ireland result unknown at the time of this article), taking an average of 32% of the vote.

The Liberal Democrats, who campaigned on a ‘Stop Brexit’ message came second with 20% of the vote.

The other predominant Pro EU party, the Green Party did very well with 12% of the vote.

The Labour and Conservative vote I’ll leave to one side for the moment.

The Leave campaign argue that they smashed the vote with just one party standing on a single issue to leave the UK without a deal - on World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms. Parliament had previously voted, by one vote, to rule out a no-deal Brexit. The people voted differently.

Conversely, the Remain campaign argue that they had a ‘surge’ of support demanding that the vote be put back to the people in a second referendum.

The BBC’s political scientist, Sir John Kevin Curtice, explained that they were both wrong. By adding up the definite Leave votes, including UKIP, the Leave campaign had 35% of the vote. By adding up the definite Remain votes, including Liberal Democrats, Greens and Change UK, the Remain campaign also had 35% of the vote.

No one can really claim to know if Labour, the official Parliamentary opposition party are in favour of leave or remain because there are divisions in their constituencies as well as their MPs. Many constituencies in the North of the country were strong Leave areas, which is what has caused the confusion in policy for them because they fear that staking a claim to a second referendum would lose them significant votes in traditional Labour heartlands. They hold 14% of the EU vote.

No one can really claim to know if the Conservative Party are in favour of leave or remain, even though the whole Theresa May debacle set them on a course to leave. This Party is where it all started, of course, with David Cameron trying to placate a section of his party whose ideology attracted them in part to the UK Independence Party, led by Nigel Farage. Having made a dogs breakfast of the whole thing, giving away our whole negotiating stance by agreeing to separate the divorce deal from the trade deal, they were punished in this EU election by getting only 9% of the vote.

Scotland’s SNP wiped the opposition off the map in a strong showing with 38% of the Scottish vote (but only accounting for 3% of the UK vote, thereby strengthening their inclination towards going for a second referendum on Independence from the UK.

The only other region that was not claimed by the Brexit Party was London; the Liberal Democrats winning this on their solid Remain campaign.

Political pundit ‘Sarah Kuenssberg’ observed that clarity won over the fudge that both the Conservatives and Labour had talked themselves into.

Had the UK political voting system been one of proportional representation rather then the first past the post system, I am left wondering how much different it would be, with the sudden disappearance of ‘safe seats’ and there being no need for career politicians to cling like limpets to their constituent majorities.

In as much as career politicians cling doggedly to their safe seats, so opinion between Leavers and Remainers are further entrenched by this result. What is clear, in my opinion, is that if those who voted to leave did not know what they were voting for in the original referendum, why is the vote between the opposing factions shifted barely at all? As we cannot know how to apportion Labour and Conservative votes, and we have to assume that those who did not vote are not really interested anymore, we can only return to the 52% Leave / 48% Remain result. The EU result indicates that even if the votes shifted slightly to go 52/48 in favour of remain, there were still be half the UK population unhappy with the result.

This leaves an obvious dilemma. If the EU result indicates both an entrenched Leave and Remain contingent, the leave campaign will argue that the original referendum must stand. And if there were to be a second referendum favouring the remain campaign by a margin similar to the original referendum, why would that be any more legitimate than the original?

The Remain campaign argue that ‘people have changed their minds’. According to the EU result this is merely wishful thinking.

If the voting public had voted overwhelmingly to remain in the UK via the EU election, I would be the first to acknowledge that a second referendum might indeed be a good use of democracy. That the result has proved to be anything but decisive in that direction, means I am inclined to insist that the original referendum is a true indication of the ‘People’s vote’.

So the UK is split in parliament and split in the major parties. The whole political system is broken and a new one has to be devised. This will take time and those inclined to lose out will resist as much as remain campaigners rail against the leave referendum result. The electorate is also split with no indication that there will be a magic sticking plaster to heal the open wound that Chiron symbolises so well. And if you accept that Chiron is indeed indicative of the dichotomy of opinion demonstrated within the UK political landscape, it is going to take many years to bring the country together.

But further than that, if we leave or remain within the EU, Chiron is going to influence our relationship with other countries for at least a decade.

The Astrological Cyclic Index: Some Conclusions

As the old year begins to pass from 2018 to 2019, the world economy looks unsettled. I had expected this to be much earlier; three years earlier to be precise.

I started a journey back in 2003, discovering the astrological cyclic index, I discovered this through Andre Barbault (although he was not the originator of the idea), rarely written about and seemingly not that often used. The cyclic index is a mundane astrology method that tracks the unfolding and closing cycles of the outer planets: societal Jupiter and Saturn alongside generational planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.

My initial conclusions were that something of great significance would happen in 2009 and then again in 2016. What actually happened is that the first event was concluded as the credit crisis of 2008 and we still await the next crisis that I predicted.

...or do we?

Alongside the cyclic index is also the actual cyclic paths of the outer planets. While I noted 2016 as pretty negative for the world, we were also approaching a cluster of big conjunctions in 2020. Saturn and Pluto would start a new 33 year structural cycle. Jupiter would also conjunct with Pluto, meaning that Jupiter and Saturn would also begin a new 20-year societal cycle. The conclusion is that both structural and societal changes would occur almost simultaneously. For this to happen there would have to be some significant changes globally.

The central banks decided after 2008 to introduce ‘quantitative easing’, which was designed to allow banks to borrow money to lend to business in order to kick start the economy. What actually happened was that banks borrowed the cheap money and bought their own stocks in order to inflate it’s value; corporations did the same. The more money that was pumped in, the more banks and corporations bought their own stocks. The result was that the DOW, for example, increased from around 12,000 to 26,000. Small businesses could not get a loan and first time house buyers struggled to get a mortgage. The rental market expanded and the cost of renting became much more expensive.

By 2017 the Federal Bank started to introduce ‘quantitative tightening’, taking back all the money it had given out. What should have been a stimulus to the consumer economy had failed due to the greed of banks and corporations; nothing new there then.

The result is inevitable; the global economy must correct itself. Bond markets are under pressure, stocks and shares are also under pressure. An economy cannot survive without consumers and consumers cannot consume without disposable income.

Now given that the Saturn Pluto cycle heralds a new structure - one that is sustainable - the global crash has only one short period left to occur and that is from the beginning of 2019 until the beginning of the Saturn Pluto conjunction. So the event I thought would happen in 2016 is still alive and well, albeit that the central banks interfered to make it look like everything was ok.

In fact the central banks have been working towards a global financial reset since the 2008 crash - possibly even before that but they weren’t ready then, hence kicking the financial can down the road for ten years until they had grabbed as many hard assets as possible to protect themselves.

The lesson learned for me is that the position of specific cycles may well supersede the timing of the cyclic index; in this case the Saturn Pluto cycle. Or to put it another way, the problem may well exist but somehow it will get strung out until the appropriate time. Had the central banks not created their ‘extend and pretend' (courtesy William Stickevers) liquidity injections there is every chance the global economic crash would have happened as forecast. But that didn’t happen and it is worth examining why.

The battle we face now, as Pluto conjuncts with Saturn in bureaucratic Capricorn and will very soon begin the journey through technological Aquarius (with Uranus only just ingressed into value-assertive Taurus) is who will command the income direction for the next 30 years or so. Central banks fight to dominate and control the world order with everything they have while crypto currency (creating platforms for global trade without the use of the American dollar) threatens to snatch the power of fiduciary currency away from them.

Anyone who has followed my blogs or those of other leading predictive mundane astrologers, will know that we have all been saying to get ready for this and to diversify any savings while eliminating debt. Even with foresight I have to confess that staying out of debt has been difficult (it happens when your family spend money for you) but I have diversified in case of collapse in one of the big banks (deutsche bank has been singled out on more than one occasion) and a sudden plunge in currency values.

A quick glance at the Aries ingress of 2019 (the new astrological year) revealed the Moon at 27º Virgo and void of course. A void of course Moon suggests that ‘nothing is going to happen’ meaning that it indicates no sudden global changes within this time. However, the 2019 Aries ingress is late 20 March and for the UK there is one very big change happening on 29 March... Brexit. At the end of 2018 there is no agreed deal for leaving Brexit, which means that as Mars enters Aries, it is unlikely that nothing will happen between now and the Aries ingress, which in turn means that whatever is decided for the UK has to be hammered out in less than three months.

I believe the same will go for Donald Trump and any attempts to impeach him; unless they can achieve this before the Aries ingress, nothing will come of it.

But this is not necessarily meaning that there is a whole year of nothing happening. It is more accurate to say that not a lot will be changing, which makes any changes before then quite significant. If a global economic crash occurs in January 2019 and no solutions are found before the Aries ingress, nothing significant will happen. The recession turns to depression.

Whatever transpires, 2019 may be the year where we look seriously about the direction we wish to move forward, so that by late 2020, when Saturn meets once again with Pluto, we will know what power leads the masses and if that be for better or worse.

Lunation 25 August 2014 and Mars Saturn conjunction.

The New Moon of 25 August 2014 @ 2:12pmBST comes just a mere five hours before the exact conjunction of Mars and Saturn. In the UK 1801 chart the New Moon appears in the 11th house of diplomacy and the government’s resources while the Mars Saturn conjunction appears in the 2nd house of the National wealth.

A notable observation of this lunation is that the New Moon (in Virgo) is not quite midpoint but certainly sits between the UKs secondary Saturn (25Leo09) and secondary Mars (6Virgo18) while the transiting Mars Saturn conjunction (17Scorpio40) is conjunct natal Neptune (Secondary Neptune has traveled only a few degrees since 1801 going direct and then retrograde).

The current world stage is beset with war, primarily within the Middle East but in no way contained there. Russia, America and China are in some way involved, particularly where the desire to protect oil and gas is concerned. The overall flavour of the wars appears to be that of civil, ethnic and religious groupings. Countries are not some much fighting other countries as they are imploding on themselves. What is unfortunate is that nations whose export includes the sale of arms are quite happy to feed these wars for the profit they make in sales; and this includes the UK.

Now there’s one thing selling arms to those who wage war but quite another to start spending the country’s money to get involved in war. The US has often used the UK as a support for it’s actions. Currently, as the civil conflict in Iraq starts to escalate and the conflict in Israel / Palestine builds in intensity, more pressure is applied to contain the disruption of the flow of oil to the Western world. For the UK there is not only the concern about the uncertainty of oil but for Westminster there is the uncertainty over its own oil if Scotland votes for independence in September. So oil (and gas) for the UK is very much on the agenda.

To make matters worse for the UK government, there is a large volume of gas destined for UK shores coming via the gas pip lines from Russia. So the Ukraine conflict is also worrying. And to add to the misery, the majority of the UK public are against the government’s desire to being fracking.

The UK is a small island, so there is a likelihood that any fracking operation would need to drill horizontally under people’s homes. Under current legislation this cannot be done, which is way in August there is a consultation underway to change the trespass laws that would remove this obstacle. Campaigners against fracking have mounted a strong resistance, particularly at the sites where test drilling has taken place. The UK population do not want fracking at all. It is the sort of clash between people and government that could case civil conflict.

The UK government has recently purchased three water cannons to use against the UK population if they protest too loudly or make too much noise against government policy. Freedom of speech appears to be illusional at best.

Transiting Pluto still sits close enough to the world axis that the Uranus Pluto square is in operation against world leaders. Fundamental reform is the only thing that will make progress but the powers that be would rather create war than make the changes. At this point with the Mar Saturn conjunction the potential to escalate conflict within the UK is strong. One should point out that the UK Neptune is historically steeped in fraud and corruption, so the potential by the people to wage war on that corruption is equally strong.

Jupiter sits in the 10th house at 8Leo48, exuding confidence and promises of ‘getting the job done’ but the level of hubris will get worse, as within 5 days Jupiter crosses to the 11th house, conjunct the UKs secondary Sun and joins the madness of the world stage in the insane belief that involving themselves more in conflict is in some way going to solve it; not even thinking about trying to solve the reasons it started.

The only thing that the general population can do is to be aware that the UK government are not acting in the best interests of the people; they will be acting to maintain the UK’s influence on the world stage. Given how the world stage looks, one wonders why anyone would want to be a part of it other than to claw as much fiat currency to it’s shores as it can (plus make a fortune from selling perpetual war). So the people are lost in the equation, which is why fundamental reform, both political and financial is crucial by 2020. The stakes could not be higher. The people of the UK must become more politically aware of what is going on behind the main stream media news or perish through ignorance.

The financial stability of the world is about to disintegrate. It is more of a case of when rather than if. The potential for stock market crashes have been around for almost a year but every time the banks push money into the system ‘quantitative easing’ it holds the inevitable off for a little while longer.

In the UK the debt bubble bursting is under threat from an aggressive booming house price bonanza. London is seeing double digit house price increases as investors move away from high risk stock market shares and into property. Wages on the other hand are at their lowest ever in terms of keeping up with the economy. The gap between rich and poor has never been more apparent. The Bank of England sees the housing bubble as a threat and it may force them to raise interest rates.

But even a quarter per cent interest rate hike will place millions of mortgage payers into the threat of defaulting on their payments. The Bank of England tells us that we could see an interest rate increase as early as November.

However, if the stock market crashes in October then all plans made to date would have to be hastily revised. Some astrologers have been aware that August 2015 starts the real downward spiral (once again probably notable October 2015) but there is plenty of room for drama between now and then as governments pretend that the economy os growing while they continue to hold of debt by adding yet more debt.

The Virgo lunation is therefore going to be a month of frustration, with analysts trying to spin their pet theory into a fitting explanation that is not an economic crash. The government will try to convince us that more war is good for the world. We the people may find no respite in our lunatic leader’s rhetoric. And perhaps the only way we may become the change we want to see is to be more vocal about what we want our next government to be.

With transiting Mars and Saturn on natal Neptune in the UK 1801 chart, there may well be the possibility that we could see ebola come to our shores. Globally the ebola outbreak is set to reach epidemic proportions this month. Mars and Saturn is no stranger to death in whatever form it chooses to take. 

http://www.synergebooks.com/ebook_philosophyofthetarot.html

Barbault (Doolard) and The Future

Barbault, Doolard and The Future

At the time of writing this article it is August of 2014. The UK economy, we are told, is on the up. Employment is at its highest rate ever. We should ‘keep calm and carry on’. The Scottish referendum is just over a month away with polls indicating that there is unlikely to be an independent Scotland any time soon. House prices are positively booming, especially in London and the South East of England.

Those who have followed my Barbault series will know that all this positive talk about the improving economy is predicted to be a sham; not just by me but by other mundane astrologers who are attuned to the cyclic index I have been writing about. As one person put it recently on the social media network, the economic upturn is only improving for the 1%. All evidence globally suggests there is truth in this observation.

The year 2015 marks the beginning of a big downward turn in the lives of ordinary people. Yet it is not the reason for this most important of global events but war that dominates the main stream media. Meanwhile the monetary machine works almost invisibly in the background to set up a global financial reset that will change the world fundamentally so much more than all the wars (real or manufactured) put together.

In short, the 99% are being caught with their proverbial trousers down because of distraction, obfuscation and media omission. But some of us have noticed and we implore those with a mind to heed the warning that there is a need to see beyond what the corporations who own main stream media want us to think.

Recently the Russian President Putin signed a massive 30 year gas deal with China. This is a tremendously important move because the deal is made without the use of the petrodollar. What the world is not being shown is the intentional disappearance of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency and the beginning of a new world order with China and Russia at the vanguard. Don’t be fooled into thinking that this is all speculation; this is a done deal that is already happening in line with the reforms predicted by the seven hits of Uranus square Pluto and the Grand Cardinal Cross of April 2014. How the reforms will affect all of us can bee witnessed in Barbault’s cyclic index.

LOL Poems. one hundred original poems to brighten your day. 

In 2009 I noticed that the Barbault cyclic index plummeted for the year, just after the Sub Prime Mortgage crash that plunged the world into debt and made many banks insolvent. For those not familiar with the method, please see my article ‘The Barbault Scale’. What I didn’t know at the time was that Saturn’s aspects plunged collectively into nasty negative territory from 2007 but most particularly from the 2009 year I pointed out, which is when Doolard’s Saturn wave turned into minus (I was invited to peruse Doolard’s method much later but I have since married the two methods with some rather significant results).

		2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Neptune	Pluto	52	51	51	51	51	51	51	51	51	51
Uranus	Pluto	65	66	68	70	71	73	74	76	78	80
Uranus	Neptune	13	15	17	19	20	22	23	25	27	29
Uranus Wave		130	132	136	140	142	146	148	152	156	160
Saturn	Pluto	161	173	-174	-161	-148	-135	-123	-111	-100	-89
Saturn	Neptune	99	122	135	148	161	174	-174	-162	-151	-140
Saturn	Uranus	96	107	118	129	141	152	163	173	-178	-169
		356	402	79	116	154	191	-134	-100	-429	-398
Saturn Wave		486	534	215	256	296	337	14	52	-273	-238
Jupiter	Pluto	169	-156	-120	-92	-65	-41	-19	4	27	53
Jupiter	Neptune	105	153	-173	-143	-116	-92	-70	-47	-24	2
Jupiter	Uranus	102	138	170	-162	-136	-114	-93	-72	-51	27
Jupiter	Saturn	6	29	52	69	83	94	104	115	127	142
		382	164	-71	-328	-234	-153	-78	0	79	224
Jupiter Wave		868	698	144	-72	62	184	-64	52	-194	-14

However, the Uranus wave and the Jupiter wave from 2008 were both positive (the Jupiter wave went negative in 2009), which made me consider how Doolard’s wave groupings might behave on the world stage. These are my thoughts...

The Uranus wave contains all the outer planets, known as the transpersonal planets. The collective unconscious and the will of the world is what creates the stage on which we perform the events of life. This wave was negative in its outlook until 1965, around the time of the Uranus Pluto conjunction that is making square as we speak for seven hits. History will confirm that 1965 was a time when the people - the collective - began to reject the world order and make their own stamp on how we live and behave. The easiest legacy to observe is how much the music changed, only to be seized on by corporate greed. Yet the Uranus Pluto cycle is not short (111 and 143 years according to Pluto’s elliptical position) and the reasons that the 99% broke away from the established orders in 1965 have raised it’s revolutionary head again as the Uranus Pluto square burst onto the scene.

The Uranus wave remains in positive territory until 2046 until the Uranus Pluto opposition challenges everything the will come to pass between now and then. Will we, as a people agree that the right reforms were made back in  2014 - 2020?

The Saturn wave, it would seem, relates to the way in which the world is structured. The world order is what went badly wrong in 2007 (the reported beginning of the sub-prime mortgage fiasco).  

		2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Neptune	Pluto	51	51	52	52	52	52	53	53	54	54	54
Uranus	Pluto	81	83	85	87	89	91	94	96	98	100	102
Uranus	Neptune	30	32	33	35	37	39	41	43	44	46	48
Uranus Wave		162	166	170	174	178	182	188	192	196	200	204
Saturn	Pluto	-79	-69	-60	-51	-43	-34	-25	-17	-9	-1	5
Saturn	Neptune	-130	-120	-112	-103	-95	-86	-78	-70	-63	-55	-47
Saturn	Uranus	-160	-152	-145	-138	-132	-125	-119	-113	-107	-101	-95
		-369	-341	-317	-292	-270	-245	-222	-200	-179	-157	-137
Saturn Wave		-207	-175	-147	-118	-92	-63	-34	-8	17	43	67
Jupiter	Pluto	81	113	148	-172	-142	-112	-85	-62	-39	-16	8
Jupiter	Neptune	30	62	96	133	166	-164	-138	-115	-93	-72	-46
Jupiter	Uranus	0	30	63	98	124	157	-179	-158	-137	-116	-94
Jupiter	Saturn	160	178	-152	-124	-99	-78	-60	-45	-30	-15	1
		271	383	155	-65	49	-197	-462	-380	-299	-219	-131
Jupiter Wave		64	208	8	-183	-43	-260	-496	-388	-282	-176	-64

But Doolard’s method adds the Saturn cycles onto the Uranus wave to create the Saturn wave.  One presumes that the Saturn structure can only be assessed upon the stage on which it is set. So the Saturn wave runs minus from 2009 to 2018, which I believe gives a fairly good indication of how long global austerity measures will be enforced.

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Jupiter and Saturn are seen astrologically as the societal planets, hence they are read in context with each other; for example there is law (Jupiter) and order (Saturn) or church (Jupiter) and state (Saturn), boom (Jupiter) and bust (Saturn). It therefore makes sense that if Doolard adds the Uranus wave to Saturn that Jupiter’s cycles are added to both waves to create a sum total. This sum total is where Barbault (and before him Gouchon) began the journey of assessing planetary cycles; Doolard separated the planetary influence of the transpersonal, the maintaining and the growing.

Jupiter pertains to our belief systems, be it religion, law or money. Now if you look at the Jupiter wave purely in monetary terms, you will see how money appears to be at its most scarce when the Jupiter wave begins to hit high negative number levels. 

The Wall Street Crash, for all it’s hype, did not really hit the collective until a year after the event. All three of Doolard’s waves were in minus territory but the depth of minus numbers in Barbaults method indicated the severity of the global impact.

		1928	1929	1930	1931	1932	1933	1934	1935
Neptune	Pluto	42	44	45	45	46	48	49	49
Uranus	Pluto	-107	-104	-91	-99	-96	-93	-90	-88
Uranus	Neptune	-149	-148	-146	-144	-142	-141	-139	-137
Uranus Wave		-214	-208	-192	-198	-192	-186	-180	-176
Saturn	Pluto	147	156	165	173	-178	-168	-159	-150
Saturn	Neptune	105	112	120	128	136	144	152	161
Saturn	Uranus	-106	-100	-94	-88	-82	-75	-69	-62
		146	168	191	213	-124	-99	-76	-51
Saturn Wave		-68	-40	-1	15	-316	-285	-256	-227
Jupiter	Pluto				-4	30	61	88	111
Jupiter	Neptune	-110	-77	-41	-45	-16	13	39	62
Jupiter	Uranus	-178	-121	-86	95	126	154	178	-161
Jupiter	Saturn	-3	27	60	-177	-152	-131	-113	-99
		103	127	154
		-188	-44	87	-131	-12	97	192	-87
Jupiter Wave		-256	-84	86	-116	-328	-188	-64	-314

We can see from the chart above that 1929 and 1930 were not particularly notable as far as Barbault’s total is concerned (-84 and +86 respectively). But in 1931, Barbault’s cycle took a plunge to -116 and we started to see some severely deep numbers. Not surprisingly, these numbers grew ever deeper as we got to the event of World War II

The same applies, I believe, when considering the global involvement in war. Barbault’s theory of extremes in numbers, in my opinion, modifies Doolard’s notion that mega wars appear when all three waves are minus. The depthof the Barbault’s minus figure (which is the same as Doolard’s Jupiter wave) and the number of years that minus figure persists will greatly enhance the likelihood that a mega war takes place.

Virtually all astrologers missed WWII, which is what set Barbault off on a quest to discover why? Had astrologers been looking at cyclic indexes back then, I think you will agree from the next chart that the signs were there.

				WW2	WW2	WW2	WW2	WW2	WW2	First nuclear bombs
	1936	1937	1938	1939	1940	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945
Neptune	Pluto	50	52	53	53	54	54	56	56	57
Uranus	Pluto	-83	-80	-76	-74	-71	-69	-65	-63	-60
Uranus	Neptune	-133	-132	-129	-127	-125	-123	-121	-119	-117
Uranus Wave		-166	-160	-152	-148	-142	-138	-130	-126	-120
Saturn	Pluto	-131	-120	-109	-98	-86	-73	-60	-47	-32
Saturn	Neptune	179	-172	-162	-151	-140	-127	-116	-103	-89
Saturn	Uranus	-48	-40	-33	-24	-15	-4	5	16	27
		0	-332	-304	-273	-241	-204	-171	-134	-94
Saturn Wave		-166	-492	-456	-421	-383	-342	-301	-260	-214
Jupiter	Pluto	158	-177	-150	-121	-88	-52	-15	18	48
Jupiter	Neptune	108	131	157	-174	-142	-106	-71	-38	-9
Jupiter	Uranus	-119	-97	-74	-47	-17	17	50	81	108
Jupiter	Saturn	-71	-57	-41	-23	-2	19	45	65	80
		76	-200	-108	-365	-249	-122	9	126	227
Jupiter Wave		-90	-692	-564	-786	-632	-464	-292	-134	13

Was it just a coincidence that Barbault’s very deep minus figures coincided with the event of a mega war? Doolard thought not and went on to investigate and publish ‘Waves Of War with some very comprehensive statistics that leaves no one in doubt how compelling the evidence is.

So the triple minus waves of Doolard and the deep minus figures of Barbault  indicate the possibilities of mega wars (wars where people die in the millions) has been posited. The cycles do not concern themselves with localised wars like the one in Syria today because it does not have a large financial and emotional impact on the collective. Many in the Western World are naturally incensed by growing conflict in the 2010s and we have sent out soldiers to die for oil and political control. We mourn the loss of so many thousands of lives but they are not millions of lives. Therefore the cyclic index implies a sense of proportionality to the collective. Doolard noted that wars occur all the time but the cyclic indexes are only concern with global events.

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This brings us to an anomaly that is about to be played out from 2015 to 2020. Theodore White and WIlliam Stickevers have written much on the subject of the Grand Cardinal Cross and the coming mutable years of 2015 - 2017, so I will not repeat what is already available. But it is worth seeing what is coming during this period of time according to the cyclic index.

		2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Neptune	Pluto	52	52	52	53	53	54	54	54
Uranus	Pluto	87	89	91	94	96	98	100	102
Uranus	Neptune	35	37	39	41	43	44	46	48
Uranus Wave		174	178	182	188	192	196	200	204
Saturn	Pluto	-51	-43	-34	-25	-17	-9	-1	5
Saturn	Neptune	-103	-95	-86	-78	-70	-63	-55	-47
Saturn	Uranus	-138	-132	-125	-119	-113	-107	-101	-95
		-292	-270	-245	-222	-200	-179	-157	-137
Saturn Wave		-118	-92	-63	-34	-8	17	43	67
Jupiter	Pluto	-172	-142	-112	-85	-62	-39	-16	8
Jupiter	Neptune	133	166	-164	-138	-115	-93	-72	-46
Jupiter	Uranus	98	124	157	-179	-158	-137	-116	-94
Jupiter	Saturn	-124	-99	-78	-60	-45	-30	-15	1
		-65	49	-197	-462	-380	-299	-219	-131
Jupiter Wave		-183	-43	-260	-496	-388	-282	-176	-64

The Uranus wave is in positive territory, indicating a world stage that people believe they have a hand in reforming. These beliefs are evident in the growing social movements around that Western World as much as the fundamentalist insurgencies within the Middle East. The same thrust is in play albeit from different perspectives.

According to Doolard’s notion of mega wars occurring in triple minus years, the Uranus wave rules out the possibility. So the first major prediction here is that World War III will not be happening during this decade.

The Saturn wave is in negative territory but particularly so for the Saturn Uranus cycle. This indicates Reform (Uranus) of structure (Saturn), which has been a main theme now since the sub prime mortgage event. It has taken this long to get some of the reforms moving but as many of you will know there are some solutions that the people are dead against, like fracking, GMO food, austerity measures etc. But we have not seen the worst of it yet.

The Jupiter wave (Barbault’s original cycle) is what hits you in the eye. From 2016 there is a massive drop, perhaps a massive drop in money. But what we can be certain about is that from 2016 to 2020 there will be an unhappiness that will be spoken of more so than the Wall Street Crash or the Great Depression of the 1930s. Belief systems and ideologies will be among those destined to perish in the catharsis that all must endure before the next new world order is established. This is why I believe that the world in 2020 will have changed profoundly from what we experience as I write this article today.

And my next prediction is that whatever the next new world order looks like, we will have to fight hard to make sure the 99% have a voice. Make no mistake - our biggest enemy is apathy, which is partly what got us into this mess in the first place.

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Apparently we should have a relatively good time from 2025; possibly even a renaissance. Bigger and better reforms are likely to come out of what was started in 2020. The likelihood of greater robotic advances may well change the working world but money looks set to be a continuing issue no matter who becomes the world reserve currency. Our advances will be hard fought for and the corporate world will fight real advancement every inch of the way.

So we will know by 2020 how much of Barbault and Doolard’s cyclic index reveals useable information. The index, if read correctly predicts no mega war for 2016 -2020, which leaves me with one final prediction to make; the question about when the next mega war is likely to be? 

		2077	2078	2079	2080	2081	2082	2083	2084
Neptune	Pluto	103	105	106	107	108	110	111	112
Uranus	Pluto	-78	-75	-72	-69	-66	-63	-60	-57
Uranus	Neptune	179	180	-178	-176	-174	-172	-171	-169
Uranus Wave		204	210	-144	-138	-132	-125	-120	-114
Saturn	Pluto	-90	-80	-71	-61	-52	-42	-32	-22
Saturn	Neptune	167	175	-177	-168	-160	-152	-143	-134
Saturn	Uranus	-12	-5	1	8	14	21	28	35
		65	90	-247	-221	-198	-173	-147	-121
Saturn Wave		269	300	-391	-359	-330	-298	-267	-235
Jupiter	Pluto	-147	-124	-92	-60	-34	-7	20	48
Jupiter	Neptune	110	139	166	-167	-142	-117	-91	-64
Jupiter	Uranus	-69	-41	-16	9	32	56	80	105
Jupiter	Saturn	-57	-41	-16	1	18	35	52	70
Jupiter Wave		-163	-67	42	-217	-126	-33	61	159
Total		106	233	-349	-576	-456	-331	-206	-76

According to both Barbault and Doolard, the energies that need to be present to be able to wage the insanity of a mega war is next present in the year 2080. This is the first year from today that has both minus waves for all three of Doolard’s method and also a deep minus total for Barbault lasting at least three years inside Doolard’s conditions.

I offer this prediction not because i believe that such an event is inevitable but in the hope that world leaders are forewarned long in advance, so that they may see the warning signs and make something positive happen instead. This period of possible mega war time is at the point of a Saturn Pluto end of cycle where restructuring is indicated by the Universe as necessary. With a Saturn Uranus conjunction also occurring there is a danger of ultra conservative thinking that may relate to fundamentalist or extremist ideology trying to force the round world into a square hole or society trying to break free from oppressive regimes. 

A further opportunity for WWIII (or even WWIV) is 2101 to 2103.

		2097	2098	2099	2100	2101	2102	2103	2104	2105
Neptune	Pluto	128	130	131	132	133	136	137	138	139
Uranus	Pluto	-21	-19	-16	-13	-8	-7	-4	-1	2
Uranus	Neptune	-149	-149	-147	-145	-143	-143	-141	-139	-137
Uranus Wave		-42	-38	-32	-26	-18	-14	-8	-2	4
Saturn	Pluto	133	146	159	172	-177	-166	-153	-143	-134
Saturn	Neptune	5	16	28	40	50	60	70	79	89
Saturn	Uranus	154	165	175	-175	-167	-157	-149	-142	-134
		292	327	362	37	-294	-263	-232	-206	-179
Saturn Wave		250	289	330	11	-312	-277	-240	-208	-175
Jupiter	Pluto	70	102	144	167	-161	-131	-103	-76	-49
Jupiter	Neptune	-58	-28	3	35	66	93	120	146	172
Jupiter	Uranus	91	121	150	180	-151	-124	-99	-75	-51
Jupiter	Saturn	-63	-44	-25	-5	16	33	50	67	83
		40	151	272	377	-230	-129	-32	62	155
Jupiter Wave		290	440	602	388	-542	-406	-272	-146	-20

When you look at the closing cycle of Uranus Pluto and also the sudden drop from great plus figures to great minus (an incredible swing of 930 points), the notion of a nuclear conflict is not unreasonable. So whatever advances we think we could make over the next 100 years, it seems likely that we will still have the potential for mutual destruction.

On a positive note, it should be emphasised that the energies we see here can be used for good if we did but learn how to respond to them. War is not the inevitable consequence of getting out of financial difficulties. Hopefully we can demonstrate this over the 2015 - 2020 depression and learn how to control corporate and state greed and irresponsible behaviour.

So there is evidence that using Barbault and Doolard’s methods together that one might better understand the zeitgeist when standing still in one snapshot moment - like today. But it is also a great tool to look ahead at what energies and trends could influence events and the ideological aspirations of people from all walks of life. I hope others will pick up on my work and develop it further. I also hope that astrologers will see the value of working in the field of mundane.

For me this is a concluding moment in my journey with Barbault. I would say it has taken me this long to understand how to employ the method in an effective way (I discover more every time I use it) but it has also given me a terrific template upon which to formulate a way to glimpse into the future, hopefully for the benefit of all.

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