The Last Battle of the Republic of Rome

Battle of Actium (September 2, 31 BC)

This final chapter of the Civil War between Mark Antony and Octavian, which was undertaken to rid the Roman world of the son of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, took place off the coast of Western Greece. It looks like a fair fight, until you realize that most of Antony’s fleet comes directly from Cleopatra.

When she broke away to return to Egypt, thinking that Antony had been killed in battle, he followed her, deserting his soldiers. (The things we do for love.)

I let the timing of this chart be randomized. And yet there are two (connected) inconjuncts…

Moon Inconjunct Mercury

It may be hard for you to put your feelings into words, because your emotions are so different from your intellect. Of course, there is nothing really strange about your feelings, but that part of your mind is quite different from the reasoning part. In fact it would be very unfortunate if you decided to listen only to your reason, because your intuition and imagination, both of which are more related to the Moon, can be of great assistance to you. They can tell you much about the world that your reasoning mind cannot.

On the other hand, you shouldn’t allow your feelings to overrun your reason. The best thing to do whenever there seems to be a conflict between these two areas is to not make a decision immediately. Reflect and wait for further information that might help you make up your mind. As you get older, this problem should lessen considerably and you should be able to make decisions more and more rapidly.

Moon Inconjunct Neptune

This aspect indicates that you are very sensitive and that you pick up feelings from the people around you very easily. The danger is that many of these feelings will be difficult to cope with; they may make you afraid of the world and reluctant to go out into it, as you must do when you are older. As a result, you prefer to be alone with your thoughts and let your fancies wander wherever they want to go. When you are older, this may help you use your imagination very creatively, but it won’t help you work out your everyday problems. You must learn to sand on your own and no depend on others. You also have to learn that you are worth as much as anyone else, for you may tend to withdraw when someone acts aggressive. Above all, you must not be made to feel incompetent or inadequate, or you will think of yourself as a loser all your life.

Cosmic Cross

Jupiter is the base of the cosmic cross formed by the planetary positions of this chart. As Jupiter is @ 9° Pisces, I suspect this represents Antony. The Sun/Mercury/Neptune conjunction at the apex is most certainly Cleopatra, because she has the most to lose if the battle goes against her. The opposition between the Ascendant and Saturn would therefore be connected to Octavian. At approximately this time, his forces were starting to turn the tide, as it were.

So, this battle was fated to be won by Octavian. Why didn’t Cleopatra see that coming?

The beginning of the end: Cleopatra’s flight from Actium
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A Pair of Star-Crossed Lovers from the Past

Mark Antony and Cleopatra

Cleopatra’s correct birth/death detail is 70-30 BC

This is a departure from my usual karmic astrological posts. This time I am examining the effect of the other’s death had on each individual. Normally, I would combine birth charts, and that tells us how the couple related to each other while still alive. Now I’m looking at their karma.

Mark Antony’s Birth/Cleopatra’s Death

Mark Antony decided to kill himself when he heard that Cleopatra had died. Of course, he was mistaken, but after his demise, she had to wait for 10 days before she could join him in death.

First things first: Mars has many roles to play in a person’s life. It’s primary purpose in a man is to motivate him to a masculine career, such as a soldier. However, Mars in Pisces in the 2nd House (of value) makes Mark Antony an early ‘spiritual’ warrior. Some would probably have said a ‘soldier of fortune’ but the Pisces element makes him try to cut through his emotional nature with a sword. (Do you see where I’m going with this analogy?)

Cleopatra’s successful suicide has (for our purposes) an Ascendant @ 9° Pisces, in exactly the same place as Antony’s Mars. (And just so you don’t think I’m barking mad, consider the fact that in reality, there is no time. His sword was turned on himself, motivated by her death.)

Their combined birth/death chart has an interesting Yod pointing at that very position in Pisces: his natal position of Jupiter is inconjunct her ‘fatal’ Ascendant, while her ‘fatal’ Venus is inconjunct his natal Mars. Truly, he didn’t want to live without her love.

Mars in Pisces

You are quite sensitive, and if you aren’t feeling cheerful, you don’t have much energy. People with Mars in Pisces often require more sleep at night than others do.

The chief problem with this position is that it is difficult for you to be very self-assertive. You may let people take advantage of you because you are unsure that you are right or justified in going ahead with your own plans. You may shrink from people who are overbearing and domineering, which may make you either ignore their actions or try to get around them secretly. This last tendency should be watched very carefully. If you try to get away with acting behind other people’s backs, you will gradually undermine their confidence in you. They will not know whether you are actually doing what you appear to be doing.

But there is a better side to this placement of Mars, which will be seen as you get older and more sure of yourself. You will be able to act more unselfishly and do things for others with less consideration for yourself. You don’t have a great need to be the best, or on top or terribly successful, so you are able to work for others without your own ambitions getting in the way. This is not to say that you cannot be successful; you have as much potential for success as anyone. In addition, the people you have helped may be so grateful that they will help you in t\return, as long as you don’t imply, either by words or actions, that you expect it. That is very important.

Cleopatra’s Birth/Mark Antony’s Death

I randomized the death time for Antony, and it has an Ascendant of 18° Sagittarius 50′ (now where have we seen that before?) with Saturn at the opposite side @ 18° Gemini 56′. Talk about facing your maker at death, eh? Because this same axis is in line with Cleopatra’s Neptune (also 18° Gemini), I think it would be fair to say that the myth of Cleopatra was born when Antony died. Like the previous combined chart, there is one significant Yod, but this time it is Cleopatra’s natal Moon and Mercury pointing at Antony’s ‘fatal’ Saturn. When he died, her dream of ruling the world with him died, too.

Neptune in Gemini

This placement…has the effect of introducing spiritual and idealistic themes into literature, art and philosophic writing and thought. The children born under this influence are unusually idealistic in their routine everyday thinking and might be more inclined to study mystical, abstract and impractical subjects than studies that can be put into use in the everyday world. Because of this idealism, they are very open to the kind of disillusionment that followed [any major conflict, like] World War One, which most of this generation either fought in or felt the effects of.

Now, that is why I am referring to them as a pair of ‘star-crossed’ lovers.

“Wonder…”
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Dreaming (Redux)

cdsmiller17's avatarcdsmiller17

What is it that everyone does every night, week after week, year after year, but so few of us remember the next morning? What is it that creates a feeling of strangeness when we think about it? What is it that we would die without? Dreaming…

Dreaming appears to be a waste of valuable time, especially when one considers that almost a third of our lives is spent in the sleep state, but nothing could be further from the truth. After many years of experiments and behavioural studies, scientists have come to the conclusion that dreaming isn’t as capricious as it seems: its purpose is to keep us balanced and well-adjusted!

The idea that our brain is a computer can help explain what dreaming is about. When we sleep, the sensory input is shut down and the brain reviews the information received, storing that which is valuable and discarding what…

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In 364 AD, Theon of Alexandria Observed Two Eclipses

Solar Eclipse (June 16, 364)

There is one (double) inconjunct, linking the Mercury/Jupiter conjunction with the Ascendant @ 1° Scorpio.

Mercury Inconjunct Ascendant

This aspect may mean that you enjoy working with your mind, learning new skills and ways to do things. You may also like working with your hands and using tools. You like to make practical use of your skills as well, so you don’t enjoy learning something new unless it seems useful for your life.

This aspect can be a sign of nervousness, so it will help to keep every part of your life in order, because clutter and confusion will make you feel even more nervous and scattered. Some persons with this aspect want to have everything organized and are upset by disorder because they intuitively understand that disorder is bad for them. Even if you are not aware of this, it is true for you too.

Jupiter Inconjunct Ascendant

Probably you will accomplish the most if you direct your energies to tasks that benefit others as well as yourself. It may be that much of your work will not benefit you directly, but in the long run you will gain from it. Even while you are young you need to make a useful contribution to society, and in doing this you will learn and grow as an individual. This is not merely a plea for you to be unselfish, but an assertion that you will achieve your own goals most quickly by doing work that helps others.

Mercury Conjunct Jupiter

As you get older, you will have many interests in life, and you will never let a narrow point of view keep you from fully understanding the world. As an adult, you may enjoy traveling a lot, but even if you don’t go far, you will travel in your mind, through books and ideas.

Lunar Eclipse (November 26, 364)

This time there is one inconjunct, linking the Moon with Saturn @ 2° Scorpio.

Moon Inconjunct Saturn

This aspect usually means that your need for emotional security conflicts with your need to live with the world’s demands. Each of us needs to be accepted and loved for what we are, in order to have enough self-confidence to deal with the world. But we also have to learn to live with our own life situations in order to survive. In other words, we have to realize that we can’t have everything we want. With this aspect, these two needs are working against each other. Probably you will satisfy one of them at the expense of the other.

Scroll-y cow, Batman!

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Seven Years’ Worth of Statistics

This is My 2,465th Post

Well, that’s not entirely true, since I deleted a small number of posts along the way, especially when they attracted too much dissension and controversy (and sometimes when they were just spam comment magnets). I also cleaned out a couple of years’ worth of photographs, two years ago. In the end, I’ve written, on average, about one post a day, for the past 7 years.

It’s taken me a while but today I have 718 followers. Supposedly, they get an email copy of my posts every time I write something new. They don’t get reflected in my daily views and visitors.

Top Five Posts (as of today):

Razzle Dazzle and Michele Finney (2,200);

Conspiracy Theories: Identity of “Q” (847);

Revelation: Cosmic Timeline? (732);

Conspiracy: Is COVID-19 an Alien Virus? (713);

US Constitution: Checks & Balances (583).

.

But I have to ask myself: Does any of this really matter?

Simple answer: No.

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Irony: When an Ancient Legend Comes True

Pandora’s “Box”

According to Hesiod, when Prometheus stole fire from heaven, Zeus, the king of the gods, took vengeance by presenting Pandora to Prometheus’ brother Epimetheus. Pandora opened a jar left in her care containing sickness, death and many other unspecified evils which were then released into the world. Though she hastened to close the container, only one thing was left behind – usually translated as Hope, though it could also have the pessimistic meaning of “deceptive expectation”.

From this story has grown the idiom “to open a Pandora’s box”, meaning to do or start something that will cause many unforeseen problems. A modern, more colloquial equivalent is “to open a can of worms”

Wikipedia

It was clue on last night’s “Jeopardy” that caught my attention. The question to the answer was “What is Pandora’s Box?” A-ha!

Pandora = pandemic…

Oops!

60 Minutes Australia (May 17, 2020)
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As Usual, William Blake Got There First

Contraries

‘Without Contraries is no progression.’

Our solar system is now traversing a region of the Cosmos where a constellation that was destroyed left its mark, its dust. This crossing of a contaminated space is a source of poisoning, not only for the inhabitants of the earth, but for all the inhabitants of the other planets of our galaxy. Only the suns are not affected by the influence of this hostile environment. This region is called “the thirteenth zone”; one also calls it “the zone of contradictions“. Our planet was enclosed in this region for thousands of years, but finally we are approaching the exit of this space of darkness and we are on the point of attaining a more spiritual region, where more evolved beings live.

Peter Deunov

Three centuries, three men. Progression.

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Yes, the Medium is the Message: The Last Prophecy of…

Biensa Douno (1944)

When I plucked Peter Deunov‘s details out of Lars Muhl’s latest book earlier this week, I was completely oblivious to the fact that during his final days of life, he shared one last prophecy.

Why show Deunov’s final day on earth? Because it was the culmination of his life’s work to perfect himself, and therefore demonstrates what that looks like in a ‘death’ chart.

There is but one inconjunct, so ‘officially’ he did not reach ‘perfection’, per se, but if he died much later than 12 noon, this too shall have passed. So we won’t focus our attention on it.

The main configuration of this chart is a Cosmic Cross, involving one opposition between the Sun and Saturn, and another between Neptune and the Ascendant. I believe this is significant.

But, if I’m honest, my focus is on Uranus and the Moon’s conjunction to it. Throughout the day this conjunction would have become closer until finally being exact at 3:54 pm local time. Perhaps that is the time he actually passed. Hmm.

Excerpt from the Final Prophecy

During the passage of time, the consciousness of man traversed a very long period of obscurity. This phase which the Hindus call “Kali Yuga”, is on the verge of ending. We find ourselves today at the frontier between two epochs: that of Kali Yuga and that of the New Era that we are entering.

A gradual improvement is already occurring in the thoughts, sentiments and acts of humans, but everybody will soon be subjugated to divine Fire, that will purify and prepare them in regards to the New Era. Thus man will raise himself to a superior degree of consciousness, indispensable to his entrance to the New Life. That is what one understands by “Ascension”.

Some decades will pass before this Fire will come, that will transform the world by bringing it a new moral. This immense wave comes from cosmic space and will inundate the entire earth. All those that attempt to oppose it will be carried off and transferred elsewhere.

Although the inhabitants of this planet do not all find themselves at the same degree of evolution, the new wave will be felt by each one of us. And this transformation will not only touch the Earth, but the ensemble of the entire Cosmos.

The best and only thing that man can do now is to turn towards God and improve himself consciously, to elevate his vibratory level, so as to find himself in harmony with the powerful wave that will soon submerge him.

The Fire of which I speak, that accompanies the new conditions offered to our planet, will rejuvenate, purify, reconstruct everything: the matter will be refined, your hearts will be liberated from anguish, troubles, incertitude, and they will become luminous; everything will be improved, elevated; the thoughts, sentiments and negative acts will be consumed and destroyed.

Your present life is a slavery, a heavy prison. Understand your situation and liberate yourself from it. I tell you this: exit from your prison! It is really sorry to see so much misleading, so much suffering, so much incapacity to understand where one’s true happiness lies.

Everything that is around you will soon collapse and disappear. Nothing will be left of this civilization nor its perversity; the entire earth will be shaken and no trace will be left of this erroneous culture that maintains men under the yoke of ignorance. Earthquakes are not only mechanical phenomena, their goal is also to awaken the intellect and the heart of humans, so that they liberate themselves from their errors and their follies and that they understand that they are not the only ones in the universe.

Biensa Douno (December 1944)

Admit it: nothing gets our attention unless it’s a message of disaster and destruction. But I am highlighting only the first page of a four page document. The answer is Love, by the way, in case you wondered how any of us will survive the Earth’s purge of humanity. But, as always, the ‘when’ is not exactly specified, so that makes me pull clues from my memory banks.

I’m a great believer in spiritual prophecy. We are told what will happen but never when. Do you wonder why? It’s like a man being told exactly when he is going to die: he will live his life on his own bloody terms but then repent his sins on his deathbed. But if he doesn’t know, he would most likely live every day to the best of his ability so as to be ready at the end to meet his maker with a clear conscience. Unfortunately, even the best of us makes mistakes everyday. But every morning is a new chance to finally get it right. (A bit like “Groundhog Day”, eh?)

In The Refiner’s Fire, I had this quote by…

William Blake:

The ancient tradition, that the world will be consumed by fire at the end of six thousand years, is true, as I have heard from hell. For the cherub with his flaming sword is hereby commanded to leave his guard at the Tree of Life; and when he does, the whole of creation will be consumed and appear infinite and holy, whereas it now appears finite and corrupt. This will come to pass by an improvement of sensual enjoyment.

But first the notion that man has a body distinct from his soul is to be expunged…

If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.

For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks in his cavern.

But enough about me…

I have a theory that the 100 year time lapse is in operation for the “end of the world as we know it.” (Sound familiar?) The Apocalypse Code is a good place to start, if you want to see what I’ve seen. The chart for February 5, 2043 has Uranus opposite the Sun/Mars/Midheaven conjunction in Aquarius. I believe this is the event that finally starts the earth changes for real.

But I feel fine.

But I’m not the only one…
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Beware (purportedly) Facebook Ads from China

The Ol’ Bait and Switch

My wife has taken to on-line shopping during the pandemic. Most of the time, she has no problems with her purchases, especially if they were ordered through Amazon. But recently, she ordered a dog ramp (C$35. plus shipping) from a company that advertises on Facebook. She got this brush, instead. OK. So we’re out a few bucks: so what?

But then it happened again: Susan ordered a compost barrel. Well, actually she thought there were two, but it turns out the advertising shows two, but you’re only ordering one. Then, nothing. For more than two months, silence. Because it was paid for (C$47. plus shipping and taxes) through PayPal, she disputed the payment with them. Now, the problem is ongoing, because she suddenly received this in the mail, last week:

For the record, here’s a link to the company.

You have been warned!

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See? It Did Snow Last Night

But it’s only a light dusting.

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