As Jupiter transitions from Gemini to Cancer, it's easy to see how civil rights issues are coming to a head, in a number of ways. Jupiter in Cancer helps knit together the grand trine in Water signs, with Saturn providing structure in Scorpio, and Neptune working to dissolve boundaries in Pisces.

The U.S. Supreme Court decisions on the Defense of Marriage Act and California's Proposition 8 certainly seem to help to dissolve the boundaries between people. On the other hand, the decision striking down the key parts of the Voting Rights Act seems ready to set the stage for a resurgence of Jim Crow laws in the South. Conservatives are applauding the decision, promising that Jim Crow is dead.

At the same time, however, Food Network host Paula Deen of Savannah, Georgia, lost her job over her use of racist language. It's hardly anything more than a symbolic question mark, of course, but Georgia was one of the states covered by the Voting Rights Act. Deen is a cook (Cancer) with a penchant for rich (Jupiter) foods, and apparently some very clan-based (Cancer) thinking.

The U.S. Senate may be ready to compromise on immigration reform, but the House of Representatives is not.

Nelson Mandela, the 94 year old civil rights leader, has apparently made a turn for the better, raising hopes that he will make it to his 8th Jupiter return this coming Sunday.

Jupiter signifies foreigners, justices, and long-distance travel. As he travelled through the last degrees of Gemini, a movement towards inclusiveness could be expected. In Cancer, a more xenophobic vibe could predominate, although the grand trine could mitigate things a bit. What seems to be sure is that everyone on every side of every issue will want things to go their way, "for the good of everyone", of course.

Click here for a short article on Jupiter in Cancer.

Jupiter dives into Cancer at 9:40p EDT tonight, returning after an eleven year absence. Jupiter is said to be very well placed in Cancer, and you can read more about it in this short article. Jupiter is about expansion and growth, and is associated with higher levels of the law, as well as foreign cultures. Cancer is about home, kinship, and clan. Gemini is about almost everything, but peers and local issues are prominent with this sign.

In the news recently, we can see a number of issues that relate to Jupiter transitioning from Gemini to Cancer. Jupiter is associated with judges, and the Supreme Court in the United States has been very active on issues like voting rights and affirmative action, and just today issued a ruling on a very Cancerian topic, saying that a Native American child did not have to be returned to her biological parent.

Perhaps the most compelling Jupiter transition is the immigration reform bill that will be passed by the U.S. Senate, an agreement hammered out with Jupiter in the last degree of Gemini. However, the bill is doomed to failure when it arrives in the House of Representatives, when Jupiter will be in the more xenophobic sign of Cancer.

And sadly, Nelson Mandela appears to be on the verge of passing out of this world, just days shy of his 8th Jupiter return, at age 94. Mandela has Jupiter at one degree of Cancer, and his sun is also in the sign. Ninety-four is a ripe old age, and on a personal level it is sad but not a tragedy. Yet we recognize that Mandela stands for something beyond his personal self, and we find too few leaders with his courage and determination. His passing reminds us that such leaders will become increasingly rare as time goes on - and more of the responsibility falls to us as individuals.

Many of Barrack Obama’s enthusiastic supporters in 2008 grudgingly voted for him in 2012 as that ever-present candidate in American politics, “the lesser of two evils.” The hope that he would truly represent change in America now seems rather naïve, a simple or simplistic belief that Uranus and Pluto would turn the tide with one decisive swing of the political pendulum. (Disillusioned Obamists: Please forgive my detached tone – I went through the same thing in 1992 with the election of Bill Clinton.)

On so many issues – surveillance of American citizens, cannabis reform, support of large corporations like Monsanto, intimidation of the press – the Obama administration looks remarkably like that of his predecessor. If I were a Republican, I would be making the case that President Obama has in many ways validated the decisions of President Bush.

The effect extends far beyond the immediate decisions of the President. For example, the Justice Department seems to remain hell-bent on persecuting and prosecuting people who are growing, distributing, or using medical marijuana, despite the fact that a majority of Americans support the legalization of cannabis in one way or another. Seriously, what argument against it remains? Can anyone say with a straight face that it leads to serious cognitive loss or that it is a “gateway drug” to harder substances?

The Food and Drug Administration appears little more than the enforcement arm of the pharmaceutical industry. The Department of Agriculture is remarkably silent on the issue of genetically modified food, even when there is strong evidence that it could be problematic, and it is banned (or at least labeled) in just about every other country. All in all, the status quo may seem quite static.

But back away from the idea that change is simple, and take another look. Barrack Obama isn’t much in the way of a direct agent of change, but his indirect effect has been fairly remarkable. Remember that we aren’t just talking about the sudden, revolutionary effects of Uranus, but also the slow, erosive power of Pluto, and things become a little clearer.

First, Obama’s election more or less paralyzed Washington. The explicit determination to make everything he attempted fail has led to an almost complete stalemate on even the most basic issues. Compromise has become a bad word among legislators, which can only have a disastrous effect, given that compromise is what they do. Second, the Obama administration’s determination to play to power interests like oil companies and agri-giant Monsanto has left a very sour taste in the mouths of many people.

You see, though, this is how Pluto works. He doesn’t topple the power structures with the election of an unusual candidate – that’s Uranus’ department. Pluto is working to erode the structures of government and industry. A casual look at your Facebook feed will show you just how little faith people have in their institutions (and it doesn’t matter what side of the political spectrum you reside upon – the message is the same despite different flavors. In fact, the “Fourth Estate,” the press, is just as suspect as any government agency). Plutocrats do well in Plutonian times, at least for a while. But as they push their agenda farther and farther, they find that their legitimacy is being questioned by everyone. The use of force is a clear sign that legitimate power is being drained.

I’ve focused on the U.S. for this post, but we can see the same thing at work in Turkey, and of course throughout the Middle East (Egypt’s new government is a stunning example of Uranian revolution giving way to Plutonian transformation). Those places that have pushed themselves farthest towards humanitarian and progressive values will have the least amount of Plutonian turmoil, while those where the traditional, conservative approach reigns will have the most difficulty. Don't expect the Netherlands to erupt like Turkey or Sweden to resemble Syria.

A major astrological aspect is forming in the skies this summer - but it’s what we call a soft aspect, meaning that it doesn’t push into our consciousness with quite the brute force of a hard aspect. Saturn’s trine to Neptune is a pretty big deal - a cosmic release of tension - although you’ll have to look a closely to see it in action.

This past weekend, the Cancer moon stitched together the Saturn-Neptune trine (Saturn is in Scorpio and Neptune in his home sign of Pisces - both Water signs) even as it elbowed the Uranus-Pluto square. The combination of water with the more explosive Uranus-Pluto aspect synchs perfectly with the flooding in Europe (including the breaking of a dam).

As of today, Saturn-Neptune news includes the story of Ed Snowden, who leaked (Neptune) information about the U.S. government’s surveillance program on its citizens. The trial of Wikileaks source Bradley Manning is also underway. Neptune can signify martyrs, and those who risk exposing the government's truth may well have to pay a very high price for their service. Turkey’s prime minister, upset by recent uprisings, is being Saturnian (or Saturnine) about alcohol (Neptune) in the country, blaming recent problems on its increasing use.

Saturn-Neptune is about changes to the structures of society. Saturn represents the status quo, entrenched interests, and a conservative, slow-moving approach. Neptune represents other worlds and alternative realities, the blurring or dissolving of boundaries. When Saturn and Neptune get together, existing power structures are changed, modified, or dissolved, usually in favor of less rigid boundaries (although Neptune can also be an ideologue and help to replace existing dogma with new).

In 1989, Saturn and Neptune joined together in Capricorn, the sign of government and institutions. That year saw significant transformations in Eastern Europe, including the reunification of Germany and the fall of the Berlin Wall. It also signaled the end of Soviet Union, and it was the time of the decidedly less successful protests in China’s Tiananmen Square. The conjunction was the beginning of the cycle that is two-thirds completed with this summer’s trine.

What starts at the beginning of a cycle is modified throughout that cycle and into succeeding ones. With this summer’s aspect, we are inclined to review the changes that have been made in the past 25 years. The idealistic hope that the closing of the Cold War era brought has been replaced by a whole new set of concerns, equally menacing but also vague by comparison to the threat of global nuclear war.

Astrologers and the astrologically inclined should pay close attention to the Saturn-Neptune trine, which began last October and will be exact on June 11 and July 19. A Neptune station on June 7 and the Saturn station on July 8 are also key dates in this compacted Saturn-Neptune period. Significantly, the Uranus-Pluto square on May 20 occurred only one minute of arc away from the Saturn-Neptune conjunction in June of 1989. We are being reminded of past changes as we make our way to the future.


There will be more - much more - Saturn-Neptune news in the coming month. In general, we would expect a trine to be about the easy transition from one condition to another, and generally about the easing of rigidity in the structures of government and business. But in the era of Uranus-Pluto, change doesn’t come easily. Saturn’s sextile to Pluto strengthens the status quo, at least temporarily. Although the Saturn-Neptune trine represents a release, there is still more tension building.

No one familiar with astrology will be surprised that Virgo doesn't get that much attention. Nestled between bold Leo and sociable Libra, two outgoing, yang signs, the mutable Earth sign can get kind of lost. Even when it is brought to prominence - say by the Uranus/Pluto conjunction in the 1960s or Saturn's passage through the sign a few years ago - we tend to downplay or just miss the Virgoan side of what's going on.

If you look, though, Virgo is all over the news these days. Astrologers aren't making the connection to the sign of the virgin all that often, but there some prominent Virgo themes in the news, and none is more obvious than the ongoing and bitter battle over genetically modified (GMO) foods. Monsanto, the St. Louis company that is the owner/manufacturer of many GMO crops has been - with justification, in my opinion, - been cast in the role of dark Sith Lord in the evil Empire. But we can step aside from the politics and look at the astrology to try to gain a wider perspective on what's going on.

First, in 2011 or thereabouts (for such things are never entirely clear), the fixed star Regulus precessed into Virgo. Regulus is the royal star, and it had been in Leo for thousands of years (we're talking tropical zodiac, by the way - the star is more or less "fixed" with regard to the constellations). This is a major symbolic shift that will take a while to really integrate into our consciousness, but the idea is that star that symbolizes royalty and all the regality that goes with it has moved from a Fire (spirit) sign into an Earth (material) sign, from a masculine sign to a feminine sign, and into a sign that is symbolized by a goddess holding a shaft of wheat (agriculture).

The transition works on many levels, but we need symbolic events to tune us into the shift in energy. Environmental degradation and our detachment from the physical world is a major theme we need to work out if we are going to survive on an increasingly crowded planet. In a planet that has topped 7 billion people, nothing can be more of an Earth issue than our food supply. Concerns about toxins like pesticides in our food have been prominent for a while, but GMOs represent a whole new level of difficulty as the actual genetic material of the food is changed.

Now, to the astrology. The environmental movement really took off during the passage of Uranus and Pluto through Virgo in the 1960s. The issues have never really gone away, but they came roaring back to prominence with Saturn's passage through Virgo, beginning in 2007 (e.g., the fallout from the 2006 film An Inconvenient Truth). With Pluto's move into Capricorn in 2008, it's no surprise that the focus in on the role of corporations and the government in manipulating Virgoan issues around food and the environment (the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is another side to the story).

From late 2012 though the fall of 2013, Saturn has been sextiling Pluto. On one level, this is the transformation of power structures, but in the short term it is the consolidation of power. Saturn and Pluto are in each others' signs, making for a very cooperative relationship, which can be seen for example in the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in favor of Monsanto. For many, it appears that the United States has become a Plutocracy, with the wealthy and powerful interests running the show.

At the same time, the Uranus/Pluto square truly is challenging existing power structures. Just last week, South Korea put a temporary block on U.S. wheat after detecting GMO wheat in its imports. Some people, companies, and countries are going to dig in to hold the status quo, others are going to mount an overt challenge. The outcome is likely to be different than either side would expect or like.

One last consideration - the backlash against GMO food and Monsanto is being led largely by the hitherto quiet Pluto-in-Virgo generation that was born during the 1960s. We might have expected this generation to continue the revolutionary spirit of the era they were born into, but in general this generation has been very subdued. With Regulus now in Virgo and Uranus and Pluto again in hard aspect, this cosmic sleeper cell is waking up.