|
_________________________________________
A reflection will be proposed on Mundane Astrology capacities and boundaries, in its present condition, to lay milestones that allow to precise the expectable challenges for the coming years with an approach that combines the study of planetary cycles and geopolitical studies.
The art of forecast : capacities and boundaries
General Public request and the astrologer’s working conditions
When practising Mundane Astrology, and genethliac astrology as well, the astrologer is often confronted to a general public expectancy that is not in adequacy of the capacities of astrology. First things first, in some ways, we have to put in focus the request on the real possibilities of our art. Many times I have to deal with well-intentioned friends who tell me the question “So, what will the coming year bring to us?”. If, in order to reply to such a question, we try to avoid the attractive but so misleading attitude of the inspired forecaster who can read anyone’s fate in the sky, and if we go a bit deeper in the astrological arguments based on the ongoing cycles, we become rapidly boring the assistance which was, in its request, overall willing to be fascinated and to espace to the necessity of self-reflection on the state of the world and the part of responsability he can take on the course of things. Same observation can be made in the field of individual astrology. Once the psychological portrait of the native has been made in its main lines, most current question is « What will happen with me in a close future? ». There again, we will have to adjust the message by pointing the discussion on the individual’s capacities to cope in a responsible and creative way with the challenges his life is setting. By his particular knowledge, the astrologer can just help people who are ready to assume their liberty according to the endowments and to the constraint that are theirs, and for which astrology can provide an approach from the birth chart. Astrology will be to the best of its efficiency when it is provided, on the individual plan, to individuals able to manage their own life and, in the collective field, to citizens – in the antic meaning of the word – that is to say people able to take into account, beyond their own interests, what Aristotle called the “common good”. But we have to admit that we live in a world that tends to build consumers rather than to civilize people and to educate citizens.
In the frame of individual astrology, rather than tempting to make the opaqueness clearer by predicting possible but uncertain events, it seems to me more exciting to rest on the cyclic evolution and on the speed planets transits related to birth chart in order to draw the history of one’s life and to detect, in the future, the foreseeable moments when new and major challenges will start. A new approach, which is laid in some ways at the junction between individual astrology and collective astrology, is now possible by applying planetary cycles to the study of individual charts. My friend and colleague Yves Lenoble has specialized in this type of research and, in one of his seminars, he studied Queen Victoria’s destiny.
___________________________________________________________
We can easily place the main dates of Queen Victoria in the frame of Uranus and Neptune transits to her Uranus-Neptune birth conjunction at the end of Sagittarius square to Saturn-Pluto in Pisces. Twenty-one years long Uranian transits punctuate some strong moments in her life, especially her wedding in 1840, as she was 21 years old, and Prince’s Albert death in 1861, as she was 42, but Neptunian transit as well : Neptune semi-square to radix Uranus when she became a Queen in 1837, succeeding to her uncle William the 4th, transit of Neptune on her Saturn-Pluto conjunction square to Uranus-Neptune in 1861 at Prince Albert’ death, Neptune opposite the radix Neptune when she died in 1901.
In Mundane Astrology also, what looks most important to me is not the prediction of one event or an other, but the fact we can put landmarks in the future, according to past experience, predictable main nodes of history, crucial moments when some challenges may appear and on which the astrologer can faintly determine their nature but can not provide a precise frame for their expression. The way an astrologer can really be useful is not, as he is too often asked for, by becoming a kind of fiction writer who would tell the story before it can be done, but by his capacity to forecast the critical deadline, to depict the expectable climate of a period, to define by advance mutations from an astral configuration to another, and to refer to a strong geopolitical analysis in order to perceive the nature of the stakes that will be concerned then.
History : on the field of expectable and unexpectable
Of course, since ever, since the distant past of the Chaldean, Mundane Astrology was pointed to forecast. What shall we forecast? If, at the term of a year, we realize the chronology of the past events, we will face a chaotic heap and a piling up of disordered facts : a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury, and meaning nothing. Following the historian, the astrologer is first confronted to the way he has to organize a bubbling matter and that bursts forth in many directions. The historian will set this chaos in order by observing the chain of causes and consequences that combines the events series altogether ; the astrologer, who will also refer to this approach, will benefit from the additional contribution offered by the cyclic movements of the slow planets and their interferences with the speed planets. In addition, we can notice that some fecund provisional fields exist whereas some other fields give more resistance to forecast. Wherever in Gustave-Lambert Brahy work, by André Barbault or in the voluminous Charles Harvey and Nicholas Campion Mundane Astrology, we will note two inside fields : the one of war and peace and the one of alternations between periods of abundance and periods of shortage. Actually, contemporary astrology is still ingrained in question that were those of the Chaldeans. On the contrary, if the astrologer ventures in the history of religions, things become much more complex and infinimately less subject to forecast. The life of spirit may be coloured by transits of trans-Saturnian planets in signs but it appears hardly predictable to me. All the more we can attract the attention on the importance of some cycle phases, as septiles and their harmonics, in the course of John Addey and Charles Harvey works. However, it would not be an insignificant contribution to the governement of earth things, if astrology succeeded in allowing wise decisions on political questions where war and peace are considered, as well as in economic matter, in order to enable a better balance and to lessen the severity of crisises, probably unavoidable knowing human nature and the difficult management of conflicting interests.
In his forecasting approach, the astrologer may rest on the definition of the main stream working at a given time. André Barbault has been particularly sensible, throughout his all work, to Neptunian and Uranian streams, to the dialectic between Uranus and Neptune and maybe he has felt less comfortable with Plutonian streams with which, personaly, I feel in resonance. Probably, each astrologer in Mundane develops characteristics that are proper to his birth chart. André Barbault has Uranus close to his ascendant and his Neptune semi-square to the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction evokes the Jupiter-Neptune conjunction semi-square to Saturn in the 5th French republic chart, on my part, I am marked by a Saturn-Pluto conjunction that surrounds my Sun at the beginning of Leo.
___________________________________________________________
What interweave the shifting web of conjuncture are, first of all, on the continuous basis of Neptune-Pluto cycles, the Saturnian and Jupiterian interferences with the Uranian, Neptunian and Plutonian dominants. In his essential book Les astres et l’Histoire (Stars and History), André Barbault has lengthly studied the relationship between Uranian stream and the dictatorial and imperialist regimes and he has matched up the Neptunian stream with collective trends that generate social and revolutionary movements. With the Saturnian interferences, these streams tend to be pushed to paroxysm (especially when Saturn-Uranus and Saturn-Neptune come to conjunction) when Jupiterian interferences seem to have a less brutal effect. One work that is still to be done probably is the systematic exploration of trios Jupiter-Saturn-Uranus and Jupiter-Saturn-Neptune on a long time scale, and to which the trio Jupiter-Saturn-Pluto is to be added, of course.
___________________________________________________________
In respect to the canvass composed of Jupiter and Saturn interactions with the trans-Saturnians planets, the interferences of the speed planets come and colour the multiple conjuncture of Venusian, Marsian or Mercurian streams, which are, most often, kinds of triggers but that are also bearers of proper significations. Some trios combinations seem particularly significant : the Mars-Saturn-Pluto trio that we find in many conflicts or, on the contrary, the Sun-Venus-Jupiter trio that André Barbault showed at many times as « peaceable beginnings » with favourable times for truces or peace treatiesThe astrologer’s task is to identify the different possible conjunctures, to class them according to their frequency order – the more infrequent a phenomenon is, the more we can think it may imply some deep effects- and to relate them, by examining the past historical situations, with diverse types of events likely to happen in relation with various planetary combinations. This combinatorial analysis, that rests on a kind of typology of the historical events, is not extendable in a limitless way ; on the contrary, it presents a rather limited number of possibilities if we stick to a 3-levels order of planetary cycles (trans-Saturnians, Saturnian and Jupiterian interferences, the interferences of the speed planets). In respect to the quasi-infinate number of factual manifestations, these planetary combinations do not allow the forecasting of single events but should be reliable for the forecasting of recurrent factual types in the history of the world since states exist. If the astrologer is wise enough to stick to this level of relative generality in his forecastings, he may succeed. If he tries to « materialize » too much his forecasting, the error risks will go on increasingWe will not get onto the exciting question of the locating of event by having recourse to Astro-Carto-Graphy. Of course, Jim Lewis’ novative works opened the way but it seems to me that almost all needs to be done concerning the application of this technique to Mundane Astrology. As André Barbault showed it, it is important to distrust some spectacular results and to get onto the question with some strictness. For instance, if Jim Lewis notices that Pluto is on the MC in the Hiroshima sky when the United-States entered World War 2, then André Barbault notices that no angularity line corresponds to the Normandy landings and that Stalingrad does not appear in the German-Soviet war chart.[1]
The Successes of forcasting and their boundaries
If the astrologer accepts to play the game and not to give up at first hand to commit himself in the perilous way of forecasting, there will always be, at a given time, some successes in his forecasting ; but, basically, what do we call a forecasting “success”? In his book published in 1979 and called L’astrologie mondiale (Mundane Astrology), André Barbault offers one of the most fiery praise that has ever been done on astrological forecasting :
The act of forecast is a creator act ; this is a superior act in which, through the uniting of theory and practice as well as ideas and facts, mankind unites with the world. Long time before than others may sense it and when nothing may announce it from the other information sources, coming in fixing astraly the approximate term of an historical metamorphosis defined in its essential values, is an accomplishment of a real greatness : a top in human spirit acquisition is being reached. [2]
Naturally, the author is thinking about the announcement he did, as soon as Staline death time in 1953, concerning a major upset of Russian communism during the coming great term constituted by the 1989 Saturn-Neptune conjunction. In my opinion, what characterizes the temper of André Barbault, and what impregnates his style with a vibrating and passionate hue, is the constant tension that invigorates his carreer as a forecaster in the field of Mundane Astrology. This is probably due to the fact that, having near missed the world war 2 forecast with his brother Armand, he has been constantly seeking after forecasting success, smashing enough to erase the deep doubt he had in his youth regarding astrology and which marked him a lot. Moreover, until the 80’s, the intellectual climate was particularly hostile to astrology and we notice by André Barbault the constant concern of justifying his art so as it can regain an honorable place in the field of human sciences. De facto, what strenghtens a provisionnal success and transforms it into a veritable achievement giving evidences of the capacities of astrology, is, most of all, the follow-up of a forecast through time and the linking of a forecasting serial in relation with the coherent follow-up of events with an homogenous historical phenomenon. In his book published in 1979, André Barbault insists on this aspect:
The imperative rule we shall never give up is working with the regularity of phenomena repeating, for complete series and over long periods..[3]
The development of a cycle from a conjunction to the next one provides the most serious frame of forecasting experimentation in astrology. André Barbault devoted himself with predilection to some cycles : the Saturn-Neptune cycle in connection with Russian communism destinies ; the Jupiter-Neptune cycle with the 4th and 5th Republic destinies in France. With such cycles, the astrologer embraces rather limited time series (from 12 to 36 years), which drive research toward forecasting political astrology. Thereafter, the planetary cycles explorer tended to enlarge his horizon, for instance by building a table with the 21st century prominent astral configurations. This follow-up of a forecast in time, this linking of forecastings (so as to fix, for example, the probable dates for the end of conflicts in Algeria or Vietnam) leads the astrologer to an intellectual experience which is not without risks but which sets him in the heart of life in his time, with the rare privilege of a particularly all-embracing point of view. Yet, the astrologer should endeavour to lead his astrological reasoning by backing it upon as far as possible, on a substantial geopolitical vision and with a spirit of intellectual honesty and watchfullness regarding all kinds of ideological distractions. If, in a rather far past, some prominent power lines clearly appear, despite the diversity of historical interpretations to which the past often gives raise, there is a great risk of committing perspectives errors when dealing with actual history. In this instance, even an astrologicaly founded forecast may be darkened by a lack of lucidity geopolitically. André Barbault himself did not avoid this stumbling block in the most famous of his forecasts ; if he has indeed correctly noticed the matter of the 1989 term since the beginning of the 50’s, he also thought probable, in the mid 60’s, an economical victory of the soviet system on the capitalist world, by writing in his book “the 1965 crisis” :
Let us be clear : according to our indexes, the United States of America, which are ahead on all other countries, ruling the world in terms of wealth, power and prestige, are on the brink to pass on the torch to the USSR, called to become the first planetary strength.
Nevertheless, from the very beginning of the 70’s, André Barbault rectified it and gave up seeing the USSR as the planetary super-power. To be fair, we shall remind the positions of another renowned astrologer Gustave-Lambert Brahy on the same subject. So, in his great book « Key forecast of world events », Brahy presents as very dangerous for the United States the transit of Saturn-Uranus-Neptune in Capricorn from 1990 to 1992 because it activates the Sun-Saturn square in the US Chart (in Cancer-Libra). What seems particularly threatening for the capitalist world is the gap of the balance of trade of the USA and the third-world debts. On the contrary, at the same period, he forecasts for the USSR a “better ordered and less critical development than the one of the USA”, and that is very far from what really happened to the soviet system. Considering the matter of the year 1989 for the Russian communism destiny, if the astrological forecast expressed by André Barbault in the 50’s and 60’s had been fleshed out by the forecast of the communist regime foundering, it would have been really exceptional. But, at this time, a Romanian called Vlaicu Ionescu, prominent specialist of Nostradamus and personally victim of the Ceausescu communist dictatorship, was the only one who predicted from his understanding of the « Centuries » and the « Epistle to Henry the second » the falling down of communism in Russia, not in 1989 but in mid-June 1991, that’s to say at the very moment when Boris Elstine has been elected as president of the Federation of Russia, which was then still a part of the disapearing Soviet Union. In this special instance, it is less the reference to geopolitical data than an exegesis based on traditional cyclology considerations which favoured the formulation of a forecast that has been completely confirmed by events some 40 years later. We will not cast the stone to the astrologer who erred in a geopolitical analysis that was, at that time, shared by well-advised commentators. Even during Summer 1989, before the huge mass-demonstrations that happened in Autumn in the East Europ countries, very few specialists had had admitted as plausible the so fast and amazing downfall of the Soviet empire. How to detect, when being taken by the constant flow of events, the veritable historical perspective through which events have their meaning in history. Today, for example, the question for us is, yes or no, are we being engaged in a third world war ? According to some experts, such as, for example, Laurent Arthur du Plessis, author of a book called “Islamism-Occident, the total war”, that could be the case ; but some other geopoliticians, as Aymeric Chauprade, tend to emphasize on the multiplicity and the diversity of the actual conflicts rather than to throw light on the actual world picture with the concept of the “civilizations shock” mentioned by Samuel Huntington. I tried, in my book “World geopolitical evolution », which treats of the 1980-2020 period –from a Saturn-Pluto conjunction to another one- to scrutinize the on-going astrological indexes and, particularly, to compare the 1990-2010 cyclic index table to those of the World War One : the prognostication, shaded and, consequently, less satisfying than a severed judgment, is the one of a kind of covered-up world war but which do not get on a general conflagration relating two well-constituted camps. De facto, we must wait for the heavy 2080 configuration (with the Jupiter-Saturn-Uranus trio in opposition to Neptune) to find again a table evoking the one of two radically opposed blocks, as it was during the decade before World War One.
___________________________________________________________
It appears that one of the main task for Mundane Astrology consists in exploring the set of the historical field from antiquity until our time so as to consolidate the forecasting capacities by a better knowledge of correlations between planetary cycles and historical phenomena. André Barbault, with the technical means he had at the beginning of the computer revolution which emerges at the moment of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction in the mid-60’s, has ploughed the 19th and 20th centuries historical fields and he put milestones on the main 21st century planetary configurations. We now have the means, thanks to the computers developments, to largely lift the curtain on the whole history of civilizations, from the constitution of the fisrt united kingdoms in Egypt and Sumer about the end of the third millenium. So as to lead this long-term astro-historical exploration, we have the good luck to have at disposal the works of lots of historians who, all over the world, since the 30’s, have put the history of civilizations in the core of their researchSo as to carry through this task, it would be highly advisable that research conferences, from time to time, can bring together those who devote themselves to such long-term work. Maybe the Bath university centre, lead by one of the references of Mundane Astrology Nick Campion, could be a fruitful place in this regard.
[1] BARBAULT André, Introduction à l’astrologie mondiale, La prévision historique par la connaissance des rythmes du cosmos, Editions du Rocher, Paris, 2004, p. 15.
[2] BARBAULT André, L’Astrologie mondiale, La prévision historique par la connaissance des rythmes du cosmos, Paris, Fayard, 1979, p. 326.
|
