by Bruce Scofield

Back in the 60's, I used to hang out with a guy named Art who was frequently moved to contemplate the meaning of life, take LSD and watch a NY Yankees double-header -- all at once. He used to wear a denim jacket with a huge eyeball on the back. It was framed with letters saying "Harmonious Observer." More recently, I've been writing an occasional column for the Astrologer's Newsletter of the Boston NCGR which I call "Uranian Ramblings." When Tem, your editor, asked me to put together a column in which I could roam the galaxy, the combination of these two names came to mind. It'll be outlet for all the commonplace and strange astrological observations I'm making all the time. There will no specific agenda, just an unleashing of my thoughts. I hope I don't offend too many readers.

To start off with, let's consider an idea I've had for a few months and why it is so important. I've noticed over the years that some astrologers seem to have a less-than-positive view on certain signs. Take Taurus, for example. Some describe this sign as stubborn, lazy, too slow and gluttonous. Some delight in describing this sign's tendency to be ignorant of some impor_tant (and obvious to other people) subtleties in life. Some simply call those born under it "Taurons." This is not fair. Taurus and the people born under it should not be subjected to this kind of insensitive insult. Instead, I believe the sign should be described as "adaptively challenged, "motivationally dispossessed," "activity deprived" and ruled by "sensuality motivation syndrome" (SMS). They also tend to be "cerebrally inconvenienced." Now this kind of reading might get some air-time -- it's politically correct.

In the Politically Correct Zodiac (PCZ) none of the signs are any better than any others. It is an "appropriately inclusive" astrology. No one will be offended, not even "distinction enhanced" Virgos, "differently logical" Pisces or "follicu_larly challenged" Leos. I believe that "chronologically gifted" Capricorns and "domestically incarcerated" Cancerians would be quite supportive of this movement to banish from astrology all vestiges of "negative symbol bias." Although "confidence en_hanced" Aries types and Scorpios with "extreme prejudice motivation" may be inclined to debate the issues, "non-traditionally organized" Sagittarians could care less. Of the "mentation stimulated" (air) signs, "syntax enhanced" Gemini and "emotionally different" Aquarius offer both ideas and words. Libra, a sign with "work inhibition syndrome" (which it shares with Taurus) has not yet reached a decision on these matters.

So how about that inferno in Waco? (I'm writing this in April). When I heard the news that the compound, where the Christian cult fanatic Koresh was held up with his groupies, blew up, I looked for an astrological explanation. Why did it happen on that day? I also noticed that tensions were high in other places. My New Jersey correspondent, Mr. Big, reported to me that the number of ambulances and police cars screaming down Main Street Morristown was unusually high, even on following days. (I should say that Mr. Big is a careful monitor of town events from his 3rd story window. He keeps his computer running with a chart on screen that updates itself every 10 seconds or so. His binoculars are always handy. Nothing escapes him. When he leaves a message on my phone machine, he always includes the sidereal time of his call, and as a courtesy, the actual Ascendant and Midheaven for his locality.)

Anyway, a look at the ephemeris showed that on Monday the 19th at around 6 AM CDT, which is when the FBI raid began, not a lot of appropriate symbolism was happening. The Moon had recently (3:14 AM) entered Aries and was moving toward a conjunction with Venus which occurred around 11 AM. Hardly what most astrologers would call nasty and destructive.

My first thought was in regards to the Sun/Venus inferior conjunction that occurred on April 1st, 18 days earlier. I've been interested in this once-every-584-day phenomena for some time because it was a cornerstone of Mesoamerican astrology (the astrology of the Maya, Aztecs, etc.). It appears to have also been important in the ancient Near East as well (the first astro_logical records that we know of, from about 1600 BC, are of the Venus/Sun relationship). The astrologers of ancient Mexico believed that following this conjunction, leaders would fall. My research seems to have borne this out. For example, within a few days of the previous Sun/Venus Inferior Conjunction Gorbachev was sacked in Russia. On other conjunction of this type, planes crash, leaders get assassinated, extremely embarrassed or fall from power.

By the way, this conjunction happens when Venus is moving retrograde and passes between the Earth and the Sun. That's why its called Inferior Conjunction; the inferior planet, Venus, is in front of the Sun. Anyway, I was observing this recent conjunction carefully and was curious about the effect of the conjunc_tion occurring exactly semi-square (45 degrees) from Saturn. Unlike previous conjunctions, nothing really dramatic happened right away. True, a nuclear explosion occurred right on time in Russia, but nobody seemed to notice. President Clinton did begin to slide in the polls for the first time in his presidency, but it took a few weeks for that to make news. But this thing in Waco really fits the Mexican description of Venus being the "spearing planet, wasp star," and a real menace to leaders. It "dares" to eclipse the Sun and so gets struck down, so to speak. Now the day of the inferno was the day that Moon first got to where Venus was on the day of the conjunction. I thought that maybe this was the trigger for an unusually delayed (Saturn semi-square Venus and Sun) Inferior Conjunction effect. There's more work to do here, but some interesting ideas.

Another of my thoughts about this matter was that if a chart were calculated for the start of the original raid on February 28th, some striking contacts would show up. (Unfortunately, I didn't do this in great detail because there are already too many papers in my office.) An event chart works like a natal, and using Uranian planets and midpoint analysis, plenty of evidence would probably appear. It would certainly make a good example for a conference lecture. But I'd like to know if this event could have been predicted using the 2/28 event chart? A quick look at the data reveals only a few suggestive things. First, the Mars/Pluto trine that formed a few days before is very suggestive of an inferno. Don't think trines are so great -- they are the arms of a transiting midpoint. The midpoint of this energized trine passed over the position of Mercury in the 2/28 chart a few days before it burned. Transiting Mars itself was also moving away from a sesquiquadrate (135 degree) aspect to the Sun in the 2/28 chart. But both of these were exact a few days before the climax. Close, but not a bullseye.

What really caught my eye was the closeness of this event to the stations of Uranus and Neptune which occurred a few days later. These, more or less simultaneous, events were happening around the time of the Los Angeles riots (a response to the first Rodney King verdict) last year. They unquestionably mark an unstable moment in time and also have much to say about where we are as a collective entity. In my view these two planets, conjoined in 1993, are ripping apart some of the last tolerated vestiges of the Puritan Revolution. Obsessive-compulsive, control-driven white people from England and their "holier-thanthou" religion is what's biting the dust. Along with everybody else's cherished non-functional traditions.

A few weeks back Newsweek ran a cover story about this topic. It was something like "white men running scared." They're right. All the other cultures that make up this country are saying they've had enough. The Native Americans put it to them last year, changing the Columbus quincentennial into the "Year of the Indigenous People." Real white-guy George Bush lost the election to less harsh, white-guy Clinton who stocked his cabinet with more variety than we've seen for some time. And nobody was willing to accept the first verdict on Rodney King. This kind of trend has been going on for some time but now it's moving more rapidly. Uranus and Neptune in Capricorn are bringing the ghosts out of the closet and airing them out. For me, the Waco Scenario was nothing more than a distorted version of the religious fanaticism and extreme individualism that founded this country. Koresh was a modern-day version of any number of 17th and 18th century American preachers. Maybe a little more sex-crazed, but who knows? Certainly not much further out than early Mormons. He only lacked the discipline and restraint. But was he not just an extreme version of what the Bible-belt (where the old days live on) is about? Being first in line to the next world. First to recognize the Messiah. But it didn't work for Koresh. What bothers me is that this airing of the ghosts, the unfulfilled wishes and dreams, the 12th house of the culture, has more stuff in it. I figure we have a few more years of the "worst of white-guy religion and politics" ahead of us.

One other note made about this event. The inferno occurred exactly 51 days after the event began. The transiting Sun had moved ahead 1/7 of the zodiac, a septile, from its starting point on 2/28. John Addey, the late, great English astrologer, noted the importance of the septile in the charts of clergymen. I've also noticed that this aspect figures in the charts of spiritually motivated people. It does not correspond to an exact degree; the figure (360/7) is 51.42871 degrees, or about 51 degrees and 25 minutes of arc. Maybe 51 days is not a good waiting period. Maybe there's something for the FBI to learn here. Another angle on this is that 52 days is 1/5 of the 260-day astrological calen_dar of ancient Mexico, and it was considered an important block of time in rituals and probably forecasting.

Well, so much for serious stuff. Some of you may have read my article "The Celestial Karmechanic" in a recent issue of TMA. I was talking about how the car can be a projection for all our problems -- how transits to our natal chart often manifest with symbolic precision on our cars. In the Wall Street Journal there was a report on psychic car repair in Indonesia. It seems a large number of ketok-magic repair shops have opened up there and the mechanics are fixing the cars by becoming channelers of sorts. Apparently, these psychic auto-mechanics are followers of a guy named Turut, who was the real pro at this sort of thing. The report says that they do work for much less than regular repair shops but they won't let you see how they do it. I knew this was bound to happen, but I thought it would be in either California or New Jersey.

Keep your wheels spinning.