Canada: Gomery Report to be released tomorrow

The Liberal government of Paul Martin may suffer
another major blow to its credibility tomorrow with
the release of the long-awaited Gomery report on the
Adscam scandal within the Quebec wing of the Liberal
party.

It's especially difficult to make a prediction on the
immediate fallout from this independent report due to
the ongoing problems the Liberals are experiencing in
the wake of the emergency evacuation of the
Kashechewan Indian Reserve in Northern Ontario last
week.  So far over 500 residents of the reserve have
been evacuated to other parts of the province due to
tainted drinking water and resulting widespread
disease.  Under the Canadian constitution, Native
Reserves are the exclusive responsibilty of the
federal government.

A few placements make me think this report will refuel
public (and opposition) anger over Liberal
wrongdoings.  Tr Mars will be exactly squaring natal
Mars in the Martin Oath chart and conjunct Pluto in
the Canada chart.  Saturn is coming to its station
soon and will be sitting on the 6th equal house cusp
within a degree.   This shows significant legal
problems.

Tertiary progressed Ascendant is squaring the natal
Sautrn on the oath chart so this ought to be larger
than a simply "scandale du jour".

Of course, it is possible that the Kashechewan affair
could reveal further Liberal negligence so those
planetary configurations may still be describing the
continuing fallout from government ineptitude there.

My sense, however, is that tomorrow will provide more
headaches for Martin.   Moon will transit over Ketu in
the oath chart with Sun close by.  That points to
shadowy issues involving the leadership bubbling up
like raw sewage in a backed up septic tank.

Let's see how it plays out.  Tr Uranus wills station
soon enough also and its forward motion will conjunct
12H Jupiter and trine the Sun IC conjunction in
February making an election most likely at that time.
(The Liberals currently lead an unstable minority
government and the election dates are determined by
the government in power.)

While those influences look favourable, a decidedly
unfavourable influence is transit Jupiter stationing
close to natal 8H Saturn in the Canada chart in early
days of March 2006.  Jupiter represents the 10th house
of government.  So Martin may be in hot water once
again and no Belinda in sight to bail him out this
time.  Right now, I'd bet against him.

Thailand 2

As I suggested a few weeks ago, Thailand's chart is looking very troubled these days. November will likely bring a new problem to the fore, as will March and April when Saturn makes it next station near Thailand's Moon - Sun square.

For the current period, I think the middle of Novemnber is most dangerous, say around the 16th when Mercury stations.

Mars will still be under the affliction of Ketu in the 6th house of open enemies and Saturn sits atop the IC while aspecting 6H Neptune. This may also suggest more about diseases, although if the enemy is hidden or secretive (as many Islamic cells are), then this could be in keeping with an attack, possibly on Bangkok itself. I know that all attacks so far have occurred in the southern provinces. An attack on Bangkok would be shocking and a major escalation.

Given the afflictions are also present in the chart of King Bhumipol (Dec 5 1927), it should be a significant enough event to make the media cycle here in the West. The King's chart can be seen as a proxy chart for the country as a whole. He has Sun and Saturn in Scorpio which is falling under the aspect of Rahu. The Scorpio affliction is more in keeping with diseases and poisons.

To my mind, the most likely candidates are either a worsening of avian flu or a major terror attack by Muslim extremists.

I will try to outline the case for each in the coming days.

USA and the Saturn station: Dick Cheney

A quick look at VP Cheney's chart and one starts to wonder if Plamegate is soon to become a lot more messy for one and all. Like Bush, Cheney has some significant planetary capital tied up with the approaching Saturn station at 17Cn. In this case, Cheney's 1st lord Sun sits in his 6th house of legal affairs and conflict at 17 Cp. And as we know, not only will his Sun pick up all of Saturn's hassles, but so will it get nailed by Ketu's transit.

Things are certain to get hotter for Cheney as November wears on. I would expect some worse case scenarios to take place such as the indictment of his aide and an indictment against him too perhaps. At this point, I can't say if Cheney will lose his job, and that is really the bottom line of the whole affair.

Hopefully I will conduct some more research on it and post something a little more definite before the answer becomes too obvious from the rush of events.

Pakistan Earthquake

Another day, another disaster.

As the death toll rises past 50,000 in this latest mass tragedy, it's useful to remember how the planets are implicated. As I noted in my September Update on the website, the Oct 2 Mars station occurred at a particularly dangerous point in the sky: exactly quincunx Pluto. Combining the energies of these two malefics is a bit like mixing dynamite with nitroglyercin. Not good.

I wasn't surprised when the Bali bombings occurred on Oct 1, but I had a nagging sense that the destructive force of the Mars Pluto configuration wasn't completely played out. Not by a long shot as it turned out. The Pakistan quake hit a few days later as did the damage wrought to Guatamala by hurricane Stan that killed 2000 people.

We can also see other rationales for the destruction in recent weeks. Mars and Saturn, the two classic malefics of traditional astrology, are aspecting each other. Mars in Aries is casting its full strength fourth house aspect on Saturn in Cancer. The Mars influence makes Saturn more destructive than usual. In turn, Saturn is casting its full strength 10th house aspect to Mars. And this makes Mars more violence than it otherwise be. With the mutual aspecting in place until February 2006, we can expect more large scale destruction, especially near the station of both planets.

Saturn stations around November 17th and Mars stations again in early December. Expect to see a massive loss of life at those times. At the moment, I am expecting the latter December date to be worse, and it will probably occur in the US.

Thailand

The recent Mars station at 29 Aries (Lahiri) exactly conjoined the ascendant on the Thailand chart. This is certainly not a harbinger of good things.

The upcoming Saturn station at 17 Cp will oppose the 10th house Pluto within less than one degree. This suggests huge stress involving government and leaders.

Also in November, Uranus will station within one degree of quincunxing the Moon. This will create more energy that will require an outlet.

Transit Ketu at 19 Vi is closely aspecting the 2nd house Mars at the moment which suggests a greater than likely chance of violence or disturbance.

Short term, I'm looking for a problem to befall the govt around October 10th, possibly a scandal or economic problem.

By November, pressures will increase. This time looks more violent. The end of October looks unstable in particular, as does 14/15 November.

The chart is running Jupiter-Moon dasha. Although the Moon is apparently well-placed in Cancer in the 4th house, it should be noted that the previous Moon subperiod occurred in 1991-3, a time of great upheaval that saw the imposition of martial law by an unpopular military dictatorship and the "Bloody May" protests that left hundreds of students dead in Bangkok. Only after the intervention of the King was calm restored. General Suchinda eventually left the country and was replaced by a civilian adminstration.

It is worth noting that Mars is the only planet that falls in a Moon-owned nakshatra.