Predictions for 2008.  

13 March 2008. Pluto in Capricorn Part 1.

In order to understand what is likely to happen while Pluto passes through the Sign of Capricorn it is first necessary to know not what Pluto does but what it represents. As a planet, Pluto does nothing, in fact none of the planets cause events, this is a fallacy spread by people who haven't studied the subject and who have misunderstood Astrological jargon, and a fact that crackpot-critics like to jump on in order to impress each other. Pluto acts as an indicator of events, events in keeping with the nature of the planet. 

To an Astrologer, Pluto represents change, in this case major change in which part of the past is swept away in order to make room for something new. We all experience changes in our lives in which we move in a new direction, sometimes this is a pleasant experience, sometimes it is more traumatic. Looking at your chart an Astrologer can see if and when such changes are likely and tell you which areas of your life will be affected and what the likely outcome will be just by looking at the movements of Pluto in your chart. It's effects can be quite powerful, especially when aspecting the Sun, Moon or the Ascendant ruler. 

Here we are going to examine the effects of Pluto on a national and international scale using the transit of Pluto through the Sign of Capricorn. This is done in time-honoured fashion by taking the keywords of planet and Sign and combining them, then interpreting the results. The method used was first postulated by the late Margaret Hone back in the middle of the last century and has stood the test of time ever since. 

Capricorn rules the 10th House and government. Changes there will certainly be over the next few years, yet those changes will be for the worse, given the fact that those in authority are not to be trusted with power of any kind. It is said, quite rightly, that power corrupts - absolute power corrupts absolutely, and Pluto epitomises absolute power. Expect the rulers to reshape government so that they are given more power than they have at the moment - far more power. Lust for power is addictive, and those in power are addicts. They want more and more and now they will get it. But how?

Control! It is the aim of rulers to control every aspect of our lives, The phrase 'live and let live' is not part of their reasoning, nor will it ever be. Power means control, control means absolute control. You will constantly hear phrases like 'In the national interest'. Most people are quite content to let governments get away will all sort of absurdities because they [wrongly] assume that those in power are doing it all for our benefit. A simple mistake, but one that will be exploited more and more over the next few years. Lurking behind the proposed changes claimed to be for our benefit are the megalomaniacs who are now positioning themselves for the realisation of their dreams - total domination of the human species. 

Take, of instance, the new proposals for a national identity card in this country. Seems like a good idea, and it ought to make it hard for terrorists and criminals to function. At least that is the government line. But with Pluto around one can be certain that all is not as it seems to be - something is being hidden. Control! The power to ultimately control each and every one of us so that we are forced to behave as our masters would have us behave. A new all purpose card will one day be the norm, containing not only your biometric data and just about everything you have ever done in your life, but in a new twist it will also be integrated with your bank and credit cards. Nice and convenient, and 'in the public interest'. But what happens when the rulers decide you are not behaving yourself, as they see it? It will then be all too easy to deactivate your card making you powerless to resist. That is the sort of thing that Pluto does. It works behind the scenes, creating its own power base for purely selfish reasons, and it doesn't much care about people's feelings or their lives.  

The story of Pluto in Capricorn is a long one. so I will continue this in episodes as and when I have the time. 

17 March 2008. Pluto in Capricorn Part 2. 

Pluto represents change, major change in which the established order is overthrown and a new order imposed. And I use the word 'imposed' deliberately. If you cast your mind back over the last decade or so, Pluto was transiting Sagittarius and hence the 9th House. A revolution occurred in areas ruled by the 9th House - Legal matters, professional and business, travel, accountancy, sport, and higher education, to name some of the main ones. 

Now there is an interesting point about the revolution caused by Pluto in that it is directed by human urges, urges that are more often than not based on power-mongering and greed. Take, for instance, the changes in the legal system. It has got to the ridiculous stage in which people are afraid to do anything in case they are landed with a law suit. And who gains from all of this? The lawyers - not the public. 

The types of cases now reaching the courts, or threatened by legal action are astounding. Our local council is busy ripping up all the paving stones at great expense [in case someone should trip over one and sue the council] and one local authority is cutting down trees [in case something falls from the tree on to someone's head!]. I am sure you can find plenty of others just as ridiculous. Lawyers, on the other hand, are making vast amounts of money out of the fear that they have created.

Accountants, who were once confined to adding up figures, have now assumed great power. Hardly a business worth mentioning doesn't have teams of accountants trying to wring every last penny of profit out of the public. Some of them even make a living evicting people from their homes who have unfortunately fallen into debt. Others work behind the scenes in insurance companies working through the small print trying to find way of not paying out on claims. Accountants, and to some extent psychologists [another 9th House attribute] spend time actively deceiving us, or to more accurate, being economical with the truth. Can you really believe the hype and the adverts? Look closely and you will see the tricks they play on us, such as 'Typical Rate' [which you rarely get], or 'From'. The latter allows them to put one article in a store at a knock down price [From...} and leave all the other prices unchanged. Good for profits - bad for consumers. Another trick is to use the phrase Massive savings of 75% [On selected items], usually in very small print. Look around and you will see many examples of  lies designed by accountants to deceive us. 

In business we now have what is laughingly called 'creative accounting', which in layman's terms means cooking the books. And, surprise, surprise, some of them have actually been caught. 

Sport has been completely revolutionalised. Once it was an enjoyable and inexpensive recreation. Now, the amounts of money changing hands is astonishing. And guess who picks up the bill? We do! Football clubs are now multi-million pound business striving to make huge profits. Players are paid vast amounts of money for doing exactly the same job they were doing before - some would say not as well! Can anyone be worth £100.000 per week for essentially kicking a ball round a field? Is it reasonable for a club to spend millions of pounds on a player? What has changed? Very little other than the money, and the fact that we, the public, are again picking up the tab. And, of course, this is not confined to football - almost every sport is now run as a business and handles huge amounts of money. But it can't go on. And it won't. 

Finally we ought to look at business. Executives now pay themselves vast amounts of money [the going rate, they call it], in some cases amounting to millions of pounds per year. With all this remuneration one would imagine that the success rate of these people would be remarkable, Not so. In fact it is perfectly normal for these people to give themselves huge bonuses even if they fail! And, once again, who picks up the tab for this greed? We do! 

So with this picture of what Pluto could do in Sagittarius when used by people for self-betterment, what can we expect from Pluto in Capricorn? Watch this space. 

30 March 2008. Pluto in Capricorn 3. 

Pluto represents the power of control, and as it is now in the Sign [and House] of government I can confidently predict that the amount of control exerted by government will increase significantly. I should also mention that the main excuse for the resulting impositions will be 'In the national interest' or some similar idea. Eventually, it will reach epidemic proportions.  

Already in this country we are probably the most watched people in the the world. Expect that to increase with the use of surveillance cameras stationed in every conceivable place. It will be easy to do this without too much public outcry, all they have to do is wait for some event that seems to threaten our security [seems to], and then move into action. Expect cameras and spying eyes at virtually every street corner. I see the police are already piloting a new scheme in which officers are wearing cameras to record whatever they like. Why? To combat crime is the excuse. It is the thin end of the wedge. Pretty soon just about everything the police or other interested bodies do in connection to the public will be videoed. And of course the cameras can't lie? We all know they can be made to with suitable editing. 

Spying on the public [in the national interest] will also increase significantly, not so much to combat crime but simply to gather information - information that can be used to incriminate who ever they like, and that includes those who for one reason or another oppose the increasing government stranglehold. Chances are your emails are already being intercepted and vetted by computers programmed to spot certain 'trigger' words. One obvious word is explosive. It could be reasonably assumed that such a word in the body of text in an email may indicate the possibility of a terrorist link. Then again, it may not. It may be perfectly innocent, but the computer doesn't know that so the email is flagged as being suspect and then added to your file. But of course with increasing secret service paranoia how many other words will be used as triggers? The answer is whatever words they like - it is all in the national interest, so they will say. So will your email be safe from prying eyes? Probably not. Furthermore, the average person's right to express an opinion will be compromised, even put at risk, through indiscriminate spying, and worse one day it will come to pass that individuals are having their lives interfered with because the government, or their paranoid spies, simply don't like what that individual is saying, regardless of the fact that it may be perfectly legal and correct.  

Collecting information on each and every individual will be the avowed aim of governments and their spies, the pretence being that this will help counter terrorism. Bullshit! Any terrorist worthy of the name is not going to be put off by schemes like this. ID cards can be forged in the same way as credit cards. They are not foolproof. However, because the real aim is to collect information on the masses why should they concern themselves with such a minor problem. The aim is to have a complete file on everyone containing all that can be gleaned about you, what you have or haven't done, your qualifications, your jobs, any police records [or observations], your partnership status, health record, driving record, whatever... And what will be done with this wealth of personal information? Whatever the controlling body decides to do with it. Information is power, and that power can, and will, be used to control you. You can be 'switched off', in other words rendered unable to function, on the whim of some pen pusher hidden deep in a government or government controlled department if you don't conform. Wild speculation? No, given the depths to which Pluto can plunge human nature, this and other methods of control are not only possible but certain.  

Pluto not only rules control, it also rules the police. They are set to become a paramilitary force with unprecedented powers, and that includes having access the the mass of information stored on computer about you. Information that may or may not be correct. Information that you have no right of access to. At the touch of a button a police officer will be able to call up a complete profile on you and make a 'judgement' based on this information - a judgement that could be wholly incorrect. 

This idea is already in operation by traffic police who can call up lots of information simply by using your car registration number. They can also check your driving licence and gain information. In the future all this will be simplified as the many databases used by various bodies are integrated into one huge repository of personal information containing all there is to know about you. And if you think this will be seen only by authorised government officials you could well be wrong. Big business, banks, and credit card companies will also be able to buy their way into the database, or at least substantial parts of it. You personal life will be for sale. 

The proposed DNA database is another red herring being floated as an answer to terrorism. And who will be on this database. Everyone! And what will happen to this information? It will be added to your file, a file that is secretly growing year on year. This is the way the governments will acquire information. First find a problem, then suggest a way of tackling the problem by - guess what? - collecting information on you and I. Eventually your ID card - and you are going to have one like it or not - will have this information added to it, together with your complete profile - or at least a profile as some secret pen pusher hidden in an equally hidden government department has selected for you. You could be branded as a troublemaker without even knowing it. And. the ridiculous scenario is that you could be stopped for no good reason by a police officer who scans your ID card only to find that someone has branded you a potential troublemaker - without your knowledge. You could be held on suspicion even though your are completely innocent. Of course these comments added to you card could be a mistake - but how would you know, you won't be allowed to see them? Worse still, if some secret service lunatic or anyone else with access to the database decides he doesn't like you, you could end up with unfavourable comments that could compromise your future. Worse still, at the whim of some faceless person you could be deliberately targeted so that you don't get up to what they consider 'mischief'. Nasty, isn't it? 

More to follow...

10 April 2008. Pluto in Capricorn - 4. 

Pluto represents change - radical change, after which there is no going back. The ingress of this planet into Capricorn is going to see a radical shake up in the government and the way in which it controls the people. The excuse for this reorganisation will be along the lines of 'efficiency', or 'in the national interest'. Which is nonsense, but it will be made to appear as if it is for our benefit. 

The government is will embark on far reaching changes giving it far more power than it already has, and while there may be protests about this they will count for nothing. Changes will be forced through regardless. The strategy is to exert more control over the individual and thereby deprive them of their basic rights to privacy. Spying into the affairs of ordinary people will become commonplace and legislation will be passed to ensure that this is the case. The Secret Services will also be given more freedom to indulge in phone tapping, email interceptions and other spying activities. Severe crackdowns on dissenters can also be expected, in the same way as former communist countries tried to control their people, but in this case it will be more subtle. More a case of what appears to be reasoned argument rather than the jackboot. Advancement by stealth will be the method used - little by little the individual rights will be eroded as measures will be presented as being for the public good but which are far more sinister. 

Part of the strategy will be to grant almost unlimited powers to certain individuals, but we may not get to know about it until it is too late, or the changes will be implemented following a publicity campaign explaining why these powers are necessary. We won't be told the whole truth. The Federal State of Europe is highly likely to become a reality and certain individuals, some unelected, will be given unprecedented powers tantamount to those normally wielded by a dictator. 

Some reshaping of the government will be caused by revelations revealing corruption in high places. Heads will roll, but the corruption will continue, in fact it will probably begin to be widely accepted, apart from a few dissenters. Any reorganisation will attempt to cover this up and present a squeaky clean front designed to appease the public. 

Yet Pluto has another side which threatens to overturn the established order, sometimes by violent means. Terrorists, or other antiestablishment individuals, may attack the the government directly or even some of its members. It is certainly an unsteady time for governments in any case, and there will be times when the country is almost paralysed by disruption to the ruling bodies, with infighting and political intrigue taking precedence over fair play, honesty, and even common sense. 

19th April 2008. Pluto in Capricorn - 5.

Money is about to become the new power with which to control people. For a decade or so the powers that be have been encouraging borrowing so that just about everyone is now in debt, some way over their heads, but that is all part of the plan. Companies now run on borrowed money, even governments are now heavily in debt. Debt gives rise to what is known as 'leverage', which enables the banks and financial institutions to control the way people, companies, and even governments behave. The threat of cutting off the money supply makes everyone wary of defying them. 

Now that Pluto has moved from the expansion phase [Pluto in Sagittarius] and into Capricorn it will become a weapon in the hands of the world-manipulators that will be used to shape the world to their own specifications. Hardly anyone will escape. Money, or rather those who control the money supply, will become the new dictators; faceless, unelected, ruthless individuals who will have enormous power over world affairs and people. As I have said before, 'Power corrupts - absolute power corrupts absolutely'. How long will it be before the money-madness brings out ideas, even demands, that are unthinkable? We have to remember that throughout history there has been a succession of crackpot dictators and despots who have proposed, and even carried out, the most outrageous atrocities. Will the money men be any different? History suggests otherwise. 

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