mobbed up

The London riots began as Mars entered Cancer, setting off the Summer Ingress (when the sun enters Cancer). No doubt this summer will be remembered as the summer of the riots in England.

Mars didn't just enter the sign of the crab, of course. This week he's aspecting Uranus and Pluto, setting off the square between the two of them. That aspect will be in orb for years to come, and we've seen signs of it in action already. The riots in the U.K., however, serve to get our attention. In a world filled with violence, it matters when a Western city like London is rocked by mayhem - we don't notice the Middle East as much because we're used to such things happening there.

Mobs - angry, but also looking to make a little on some looting - are quite characteristic of Uranus in Aries: it's The Age of the Pirate (
click here for my article on the topic). Mars later makes an aspect to Pluto in Capricorn, bringing in a sense of festering anger at the status quo. Rogue groups and Power Brokers will face off - neither will win, but in the process we will dig up deep issues about who is in charge and what needs to change.

With the Uranus-Pluto square in orb for years to come (to 2016, if you give it ten degrees), we'll be seeing a lot of this energy. Many aspects of the old power structure and the ways of life we have become used to will have to change. If we can accept the need for change, we might make the transitions less violently and with more compassion.

More patient astrologers will find the exact moment that the riots began and the astrological triggers. But the big picture is that our attention is focused on a city much like any other in the Western world, and we aren't as safe and secure as we might like to think. That's the symbolic message of the situation in London.