Alex's Asteroid Astrology

A number of stories came across my desk during the third week of February involving the Saturn/Uranus square; none was active enough cosmically (not to say unimportant) to rate a full treatment, but here’s a rundown of the week’s highlights, in abbreviated CliffsNotes style.

TEXAS SNOWBALL FIGHT

How does one of the US’ largest energy-producing states run out of power?  Easy – by not admitting climate change, not investing in appropriate weatherproof infrastructure, and obstinately remaining separate from the national power grid, in typical “Lone Star State” faux-independence style.

Exactly a decade ago, in February of 2011, Texas had a precursor of the debacle that unfolded over the long Presidents Day weekend, but the lessons of preparedness that should have taught were never learned.  So when bitter cold and snow invaded the state again last week, freezing pipes, downing power lines, and playing havoc with transportation, the Texas energy grid broke down and stranded residents in one of the coldest weeks on record.  More than 4 million people were out of power for up to 6 days, drinking water and food ran low, and dozens died.  With insufficient insulation to prevent pipes freezing, people kept their taps dripping, which lowered water pressure and stressed reserves, leading to a “boil water” notice for 14 million Texans from public health authorities concerned over the possibility of contaminants.  Dallas was below freezing for 6 days, and for the first time in the state’s history, the National Weather Service issued Winter Storm Warnings for every one of Texas’ 254 counties.

Republican Governor Greg Abbott unaccountably blamed the fiasco on the “Green New Deal” (which of course doesn’t exist yet) and renewable energy sources, which only comprise 15% of Texas’ energy output.  Whatever.

Thanks to reader Laurien Rueger, who suggested the extreme cold in such unwonted locales, and the resultant power deprivation, might be related to the Saturn/Uranus square, which reached its first of three exact aspects on February 17^th, in the middle of the crisis.  Made sense, with Uranus representing extremes and electricity, and Saturn’s bailiwick including cold and limitation or hardship, so I took a peep.

Turns out, yes!  Emphatically so!  With Saturn at 7 Aquarius was asteroid Storm at 5 Aquarius, squared Uranus at 7 Taurus, and filling in a T-Square was asteroid Texas at 9 Leo; clearly establishing a storm (Storm) in the Lone Star State (Texas), causing electrical (Uranus) deprivation (Saturn).  A full-blown Grand Cross emerges with the addition of asteroid Houston, one of the state’s worst-hit cities, at 2 Scorpio.  Also active was asteroid Schneeweis (German for “white snow”) at 14 Aries, opposing asteroid Harris (the name of the county where Houston is located) at 13 Libra. 

Asteroid Abbott, for Governor Greg Abbott, appears at its direct station degree of 0 Cancer, a pivotal time in its cycle; Abbott had renewed forward motion a week before the storm hit, indicating a literal “change of direction” for the Governor, whose popularity may erode in response to the disaster.  Asteroid Gregoire (French for Gregory) at 11 Taurus connects him directly with the Saturn/Uranus square, while asteroid Grego at 28 Libra conjoins Houston, linking him again with the state, and is squared to Pluto at 25 Capricorn, suggesting some form of deep transformation in circumstance, a trial by fire.  Asteroid Gregory squares the Sun from 28 Taurus, further highlighting him for the period.  

Now, unlike hurricanes, which are given official names by the World Meteorological Organization, massive winter storms have long languished in anonymity, but the Weather Channel stepped into the breach almost a decade ago, unofficially, and has designated this as Winter Storm Uri.  Asteroid Urey, a phonetic match, appears at 20 Sagittarius, in semisquare to Saturn and Houston, sesquiquadrate Uranus and Texas, forming a five-point Pentagram pattern.  Maybe the Weather Channel is on to something here!  Urey also opposes asteroid Winters at 17 Gemini, identifying during which season the storm occurred.

Captured in the Texas-sized whirlwind, in the form of a controversy (Uranus) involving a government official (Saturn), was Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX).  Cruz decided, while home on recess after helping to foment the Capitol insurrection and bailing out Trump at his second impeachment trial, that a public health and safety crisis was the perfect time to schedule an impromptu family getaway to sunny Cancun, Mexico.  The backlash from outraged constituents was immediate and intense, so Cruz threw his preteen daughters under the bus, claiming it was all their idea, and scurried home ASAP.  Asteroid Cruz at 1 Taurus was also caught up in the Saturn/Uranus square-turned-Lone-Star-State-Pentagram.

Among those not positioned to flee the state to warmer climes was 11-year-old Cristian Pavon Pineda, an otherwise healthy boy who died in his bed on February 19^th, apparently of hyperthermia, after the power gave out in his trailer home.  Originally from Honduras, Cristian emigrated to the US in 2019 to be with his mother, and was excited to be playing in the snow for his first time ever, the day before his death.  Cristian is represented by asteroids Kristina, a feminine variant of his first name, and Pineda, his adoptive last name, which at 4 Taurus and 10 Aquarius respectively, tap directly into the Saturn/Uranus square energies.  Additional factors contributing to his death include asteroids Christian and Christen, both at 19 Capricorn and conjoined Pluto, modern lord of death, at 25 Cap; and asteroids Christine and Pavan (for birth surname Pavon) at 23 and 25 Aquarius, conjunct the exact Sun/Osiris pairing at 1 Pisces, highlighting him for the period and bringing national exposure to his death.

LIMBAUGH LEAVES

February 17^th also brought word of the death of noted conservative radio broadcaster and pundit Rush Limbaugh, who passed of lung cancer.  We see here the Saturn/Uranus square in the guise of a TV and radio personality (Uranus) who has died (Saturn).  Limbaugh had been awarded the presidential Medal of Freedom by Donald Trump in a surprise announcement at last year’s State of the Union address on February 4^th, barely a year before his death.

Limbaugh gained prominence in conservative circles during the 1990s’ backlash to the Clinton presidency; known for his in-your-face, no-holds-barred style, Limbaugh garnered millions of self-styled “ditto-head” fans who hung on his every pronouncement like Holy Writ.  A vocal and unwavering supporter of Donald Trump, pivotal in spreading the “Stop the Steal” lies which ultimately resulted in the storming of the Capitol, Limbaugh will not be missed; the world is a better place without him.

Born 12 January 1951 at 7:50 AM CST in Cape Girardeau, MO (Rodden rating AA), Limbaugh’s deep-rooted conservatism can be seen in the placement of Saturn, which at 2 Libra turned retrograde the very day of his birth, making traditional, conventional energies and attitudes a bedrock core of his personality.  Stationary points create foci of energy, eddies within character which attract and repel, but are major formative agents. 

Saturn squared Uranus at 6 Cancer at his birth, as at his death, and T-Squared Mercury at 1 Capricorn; allied to his 21 Capricorn Sun, this combination made Limbaugh the epitome of conservativism for a generation.  With his 0 Aquarius Ascendant, Mercury opposed Uranus might otherwise have inclined him to liberalism, but Saturn’s stationary pull was too strong, and so, that Mercury/Uranus opposition manifested in the form of volatile, controversial (Uranus) pronouncements (Mercury), with Limbaugh in the forefront of the conservative revolution (also Uranus) which took a populist (Mercury) turn in the early years of the new millennium.  His inveterate support of the many lies told by Donald Trump can be seen in the exact opposition from natal asteroid Lie at 15 Leo (also conjunct Pluto at 19 Leo) to natal Troemper at 15 Aquarius.

There are no exact asteroid matches for Rush Limbaugh’s names, but asteroids Rusheva and Rusholme, closest to Rush, make significant contacts, which suggests they may be valid cognomens.  Rusheva at 28 Scorpio conjoins the MC at 21 Scorpio, for the almost eponymous Limbaugh’s career identity, and trines the 23 Pisces Moon, a common connection for one’s own PNA (Personal-Named Asteroid).  Rusholme at 8 Pisces conjoins Jupiter at 6 Pisces, an indicator of the fame he would acquire via his name (as well as the millions he would earn), and is exactly semisquare the Sun, another common PNA placement. Asteroid Limburgia is closest to Limbaugh; at 17 Pisces it, too, conjoins the natal Moon, representing family and ancestral inheritance, such as the surname.

A pair of late 2020 eclipses set the stage for Limbaugh’s passing, with the Lunar Eclipse of November 30^th at 8 Gemini exactly squared Rusholme, suggesting a major change in personal circumstance; and the subsequent Solar Eclipse of December 14 at 23 Sagittarius squared a natal pairing of the Moon with asteroid Anubis, named for the Egyptian deity governing funerary rites, at 23 and 26 Pisces, portraying the death (Anubis) of the physical body (Moon).

When Limbaugh passed on February 17^th, transit Saturn at 7 Taurus, ancient lord of death, conjoined natal asteroid Lachesis at 4 Aquarius, named for the mythic Greek Fate who determines the span of life; and squared natal asteroid Requiem at 6 Scorpio, named for the funeral mass for the dead.  Transit Venus and the Sun at 20 and 29 Aquarius straddled natal asteroid Rip at 23 Aquarius, which functions as a death indicator via the acronym “RIP”, “Rest In Peace”, a common tombstone inscription. 

Transit asteroid Atropos at 21 Cancer, named for Lachesis’ sister whose severs the thread of life at death, exactly opposed the natal Sun at 21 Capricorn, which had been transited by Pluto, modern lord of death, during the period of his lung cancer diagnosis, decline and death.  Now at 25 Capricorn, transit Pluto was also squared natal asteroid Osiris at 26 Libra, named for the Egyptian god of the dead, which was further opposed by transit Requiem at 28 Aries, forming a T-Square.

Transit Rusheva and Limburgia, both at 8 Pisces, had returned exactly to the natal degree of Rusholme, and were splitting the difference between transit Osiris at 0 Pisces and transit Rip at 18 Pisces, also in semisextile and sextile to the Saturn/Uranus square, with transit Rusholme at 1 Aries opposing natal Saturn at 2 Libra.

TRUMP IMPLODES 

Sadly, not the genuine article, just one of his many namesakes.

The Saturn/Uranus square brought some fireworks on the 17^th as well, in the controlled demolition implosion of the former Trump Plaza Casino Hotel in Atlantic City.  The fine hand of the square can be seen in Saturn’s rulership of structures and buildings in general, and Uranus’ affinity with the explosives used to reduce it to rubble and ash.

The demolition was impeccably timed, from a celestial perspective; at 9:07 AM EST 25 Aries was rising on the Ascendant, exactly squared Pluto at 25 Capricorn at the Midheaven, ruling cataclysmic destruction.  These T-Square Trump’s natal Saturn/Karma conjunction at 23 Cancer, causing us to reflect on the consequences (Karma) of multiple bankruptcies (Saturn), which led in the end to the business’s (Saturn) violent (Uranus) destruction.

Asteroid Troemper, our cosmic referent for The Donald, had just made its ingress into Gemini, and opposed asteroid Demolion, closet to “demolition”, at 1 Sagittarius (conjoining Trump’s natal Troemper at 2 Sag, personalizing the incident yet further), putting the Trump property’s (Troemper) annihilation (Demolion) into the news (Gemini).  With Troemper was asteroid Anubis at 6 Gemini, opposing asteroid Nemesis at 6 Sagittarius with Demolion, T-Squared asteroids Osiris and Ash at 0 and 1 Pisces.  This places three death/transformation/ending/ruin indicators (Anubis, Osiris, Nemesis) on the scene, with the resulting residue of the implosion (Ash).

Asteroid Cassini, closest to “casino”, was sitting at 20 Pisces, roughly on the Saturn/Uranus midpoint, semisquare to each, and conjoined Neptune at 19 Pisces, ruling the seaside location, and asteroid Rip at 18 Pisces, yet another indicator of death and change.  Opposing Cassini was asteroid Atlantis, closest to “Atlantic”, for the Atlantic City location of the derelict property, which was in such disrepair after closing in 2014 that it was literally falling to pieces, and had been deemed a public safety hazard by local authorities. 

I guess that means the casino and its former owner have a lot in common.

HALF A MILLION AND COUNTING

On February 21, 2021, the US surpassed 500,000 COVID-19 related deaths, a staggering figure greater than all American military wartime casualties since 1900 combined, including World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Iraq War and the Afghanistan War.  The shocking (Uranus) death toll (Saturn) milestone came with the Saturn/Uranus square still in effect at 7 Aquarius and Taurus, joined by asteroid Koronis, our celestial referent for the coronavirus, at 4 Taurus.