by Valerie Vaughan
 

Y2K has been taken care of, right? And there's nothing to worry about.

It's just a trivial computer glitch that's been fixed, right? -- A little inconvenience, easily remedied by backing up your computer files and buying a few flashlights. And shame on those doomsayers who attempt to prepare more seriously (they're just "hoarders" who deserve to be blamed for any shortages that may occur)

-- Isn't this what we're being told?

What we are being told about Y2K is an overly simplistic and corporate-canned viewpoint dished out by a media which sold its investigative soul long ago in exchange for higher ratings and more ad space. What we are told about Y2K is not even the tip of the iceberg; it probably amounts to one icicle on that iceberg.

Searching deeper than the Disney-owned media sources reveals, we find that Y2K is actually an indicator of a very complex and long-term problem that is not going to go away once everybody installs the latest upgrade on their own personal computers. Take food, for example. (You know, that stuff you need every day) The fact is that the availability of your next meal depends almost entirely on the steady flow of oil into a humongous system of production and delivery: tractors, harvesters and other farm machinery, vehicle delivery to food processing plants, the oil-based packaging of food products, delivery to grocery stores, and of course, your own method of transporting the food to your home and the additional fuel needed to refrigerate it, cook it, wash the dishes you eat it with, etc. And every step of the way, that complex system of food delivery is monitored electronically. Do you have any idea how many computers are involved? And then, what about those naughty non-Y2K-compliant nations that provide us with 55% of the oil that our country uses? You can't disrupt over half of the life-supporting "blood flow" of the U.S. without some impact on our oil-dependent agricultural system and consequently, your next meal.

It all comes down to the fact that everything's connected, and that "everything" happens to include six billion people and quite a few non-compliant computers. Individual, isolated problems "caused" by Y2K can easily multiply and become systemic due to a domino effect, because nearly everything (our governments and economic structures, our schools and jobs, our communication systems, our sources of fuel, heat, power, water, and food) -- all are interconnected and totally dependent upon the proper functioning of computer clocks and embedded programming. The Millennium Bug is going to give a wicked byte. It is a non-negotiable time bomb with the potential to cripple all the systems and structures that support society and our technologically-entangled "American way of life." Eat your heart out, Ted Kaczynksi.
 

Y2K imposes a technological threat to economic and security systems, food supplies, banking, and the multitude of resources that form the ultimate basis of survival, all of which are matters ruled astrologically by Taurus. Y2K is a long-overdue warning of a Taurean worst-case scenario of epic proportions, which makes perfect sense when we look at what's happening astrologically in 2000 -- the infamous May alignment in Taurus.
 
 

Astronomical Facts and Astrological Aspects of the May 2000 Alignment

The Sun, Moon and five naked-eye planets reach minimum separation (25 degrees, 53 minutes of longitude) on May 5, 2000 at 8:08 Universal Time, one day after the New Moon. Such a compact grouping of the classical planets occurs on the average about once a century, but not according to a regular periodic cycle.[1] On May 17 at 10:30 UT, the Sun and five inner planets will span less than 20 degrees, with the Moon one day before Full. As an added attraction on the same day, there will be a near-occultation of Jupiter and Venus (conjunct at 20deg._05' and only 42 arc-seconds apart in declination).

Between April 1 and June 30, the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn each take turns conjuncting each other, and each one also squares Uranus and Neptune in Aquarius. Most of the Mars aspects occur in April, while most of the other planetary aspects occur during May. The Moon is, of course, making continuous aspects throughout this period. Nearly all these squares and conjunctions occur with the planets in Taurus and Aquarius. (See Table 1 below.)

Table 1.

2000 Alignment Aspects
 

April 6	Mars conjunct Jupiter
April 15	Mars conjunct Saturn
April 19	Mars square Uranus
April 26	Sun conjunct Neptune
April 28	Mercury conjunct Venus;  Mercury parallel Venus
May 3	Mercury square Neptune
May 6	Venus square Neptune
May 7	Sun conjunct Jupiter
May 8	Mercury conjunct Jupiter;  Sun occults Mercury (conjunctand parallel)
May 9	Mercury square Uranus; Mercury conjunct Saturn
May 10	Sun conjunct Saturn; Sun square Uranus
May 13	Saturn square Uranus (Saturn at 20deg._46')
May 17	Venus near-occultation with Jupiter (conjunct and parallel)
May 18	Venus conjunct Saturn
May 19	Mercury conjunct Mars (and opposed Pluto)
May 20	Jupiter square Uranus (Jupiter at 20deg._49')
May 28	Jupiter conjunct Saturn (at 22deg._43')
June 11	Sun occults Venus (conjunct and parallel)

 

The square from Uranus in Aquarius to all the Taurean planets is an astrological signature of increasingly stormy atmospheric phenomena as well as problems with electrical power. But again, we don't need astrology to tell us this. There is a well-known, scientifically-confirmed pattern of solar flare storms that are related to sunspot cycles of eleven and 22 years. These storms release geomagnetically induced currents that damage electric transformers and result in cascading outage scenarios like the Hydro Quebec black-out triggered by the Great Geomagnetic Storm of March 13, 1989 (at the peak of the last 11-year cycle). The probability of severe geomagnetic storms are predicted to reach a maximum peak around March of 2000.[2] Such a threat to the power Grid is only one of numerous millennium problems we shall encounter.
 
 

Our Past is Prologue

The idea that technology contains the seed of its own destruction is not a new one.[3] We can look back in history and find astrological correlations to the May 2000 alignment that indicate when the seed was planted. We could look, for example, at the Capricorn alignment of January 1994, which coincided with the expansion of the Internet and integration of global markets. Although this stellium was unusually tight (nine degrees), Uranus and Neptune were included, and the fact is, alignments involving outer planets are more common than you'd think. Stellium alignments of five or more planets (including Sun, Moon and three outers) occur on the average more than four times a year. Planetary groupings that involve all the classical planets (like the May 2000 alignment) do not occur as often (See Table 2).
 
 

Table 2.

Close Groupings of the Sun, Moon and Five Classical Planets
 

date	minimum span in degrees longitude	signs	associated cultural revolution
Oct. 29 1483	27 deg 16 min	Libra/Scorpio	Western Renaissance and invasion of the Americas
Mar. 4 1524	26 deg 03 min	Pisces/Aries	Protestant Revolution
Sep. 10 1624	26 deg 31 min	Leo/Virgo	Age of Kings
Dec. 9 1662	24 deg 16 min	Scorpio/Sag	Scientific Revolution
Apr.30 1821	25 deg 35 min	Aries/Tau	Industrial Revolution
Feb. 5 1962	16 deg 09 min	Aquarius	Computer Revolution
May 5 2000	25 deg 53 min	Tau/Gem	Global Economy and Communication Revolution
Sep. 8 2040	29 deg 40 min	Virgo/Libra	Ecological/Environmental Revolution(?)

 
 

A much closer comparison can be made with the most recent alignment that included the traditional planets, February 5,1962, when the Sun, Moon and Mercury-through-Saturn were situated within 17 degrees in Aquarius. Some of the significant events associated with this period were the growth of telecommunications and expansion of the computer industry. 1962 witnessed the development of radio pagers, facsimile reproduction (FAX), the first marketing of Touch-tone phones, and the launching of the first commercial communications satellite. Telstar was launched 4:35 am July 10, 1962, the same date of ground-breaking for the Bell Telephone System's first full-scale electronic office. Telstar, incidentally, was permanently knocked out by solar radiation.[4]

But the most important event that links the 1962 computer-revolution alignment with the 2000 Y2K alignment is revealed in the following story.[5] In late 1961, IBM decided to risk $5 billion on a new line of computers that would make all the existing ones obsolete. The development of System/360 computers introduced fundamental technical concepts and conversion via compatibility that are still part of the backbone of today's computer industry. The seed for the Y2K problem was planted in early 1962, when IBM computer designer Gene M. Amdahl had the crucial idea of using a storage device having a specified capacity, a sequence of bits or bytes. His idea was to speed up processing by using shortened codes that required less memory. From then on, abbreviated codes (such as those that drop the "19" from 1999) became the rule of programming, the IBM/360 became the standard computer architecture for the world, and the rest is Y2K history.

Amdahl, by the way, was born November 16, 1922, with plenty of fixed signs to be transited by the alignments of 1962 and 2000. His Sun, Mercury, and Jupiter are in Scorpio, square to Mars in Aquarius and Neptune in Leo.
 
 

Earth Mother Matters

Another factor to consider in our comparison of alignments was the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, which publicized for the first time environmental-ecological concerns such as pesticides, pollutants and nature preservation. It is also relevant to note that 1962 was when scientists first began observing evidence of global warming due to the greenhouse effect. In other words, development of technology that instigated both the computer revolution (Aquarius) and the "green revolution" of agribusiness (Taurus) were set up for the fixed alignment square of May 2000. With Y2K and solar storms shutting down electricity and telecommunication systems, and technology-produced global warming threatening all species on the planet, May of 2000 could indeed be a silent spring.
 
 

The Minor Planets and Their Not-So-Minor Effects

Adding even more emphasis to the fixed square alignment in May 2000, the asteroids Juno and Vesta are in Aquarius, while Pallas and Transpluto-Persephone are in Leo. Among the major planets and asteroids of the May 2000 alignment, only Ceres, Pluto, and Chiron (which rule the Earth, its underground, and humanity in general) are located outside of the grand cross. This could suggest that humanity's dependence on the Earth's nature-environment-ecology complex stands alone in some way and apart from the technological millennium madness. During the May alignment, Ceres stations direct in late Virgo, trining the Taurus planets, an indicator that many people will be experiencing (rather than theorizing about) a return to the raw reality of nature. With predicted Y2K-induced problems with food supplies, many folks may be abandoning "virtual reality," starting their own gardens, and making do with other "natural" substitutes.

The May 2000 conjunction of Chiron and Pluto highlights the predicted impact of Y2K on health and medicine.[6] Some of the systems that are vulnerable to Y2K glitches include waste disposal (Pluto), safe water supplies, disease-control, medical diagnostics and life support systems, pacemakers, drug prescription and dispensing, and computerized patient records. Natural and alternative health methods are bound to grow in importance, and more people will take responsibility for their own health as doctors and health insurance companies lose vital information and the great Medical Establishment breaks down. We note that, following the May alignment, Pluto and Chiron will oppose each of the inner planets moving into early Gemini.
 
 

The asteroid Pallas is also an important indicator for computer activity. Charts drawn for important events in the history of computers have repeatedly featured emphasis on the interaspects of Pallas Athena with Mercury, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and the signs they rule.[7] During the May alignment, Pallas squares or opposes these planets. Earlier in the year 2000, Pallas stations direct in Leo, an unusual occurrence. The last time that Pallas stationed direct in Leo was in 1977, the watershed year for PC (personal, i.e. Leo) computers.[8]
 

More Comparisons with Earlier Alignments

The association of celestial alignments with the marking of time is of course the basis of astrology and the calendar. An interesting precedent for the Year 2000 Date Conversion is an alignment that occurred four millennia ago. On Feb. 26, 1953 B.C., the Moon and 5 inner planets were within 3 degrees of each other in Capricorn, the closest alignment in the last 6,000 years. Researchers believe this alignment marked the beginning of the Chinese calendar.[9]

In searching through the close planetary groupings of the past, one observation will serve a guide, namely that, while all seven classical planets are in Taurus on May 3, 2000, the Moon and Mars will be in early Gemini when the group forms a minimum arc on May 5. The most exact correspondence to this array of 2000 is the alignment of May 21, 529 A.D, and the similarities are striking. The Sun, Moon and five inner planets are ranged from 1 degree of Taurus to 1 degree Gemini, with Pluto in Sagittarius and Neptune in Aquarius. All the planetary locations correspond to those of 2000 except Uranus (naturally, since technology was not a factor in 529).
 
 

As a precedent alignment, 529 is a bit scary. The Fall of Rome (an Empire often compared with late-20th century America) was complete, and society retreated from materialism into metaphysics as the first Benedictine monastery was established in 529. This was also the year that the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, motivated by the Christian church's distrust of pagan learning, closed the two universities founded by Plato and Aristotle. In defending religion from pagan influence, this event is now regarded as an archetypal victory of ignorance over knowledge, and is considered the beginning of the Dark Ages in Europe.

If that coincidence doesn't fill you will foreboding about Y2K and the Millennium alignment, listen to this: Forty years after 529, another close alignment occurred. On September 25, 569, all the traditional planets were closely aligned in Virgo/Libra, with Pluto in Aquarius and Neptune in Taurus. It so happens that forty years following the 2000 alignment (2040), the same planets will also be aligned in Virgo/Libra, with Pluto in Aquarius and Neptune in Taurus. At no other time in the last two millennia have there been such similarities of pattern. The repetition of this pattern suggests that the destructive potential of Y2K could trigger a second Dark Ages.
 
 

How to Prepare for Y2K

Despite the fact that we know when Y2K is going to happen, there is some uncertainty as to precise effects. Nobody really knows exactly to what degree the effects will occur, how long they will last, or how they will unfold -- another blow to our modern fairy tale view that life can be controlled through technological progress and monitored electronically.

Readers are advised to educate themselves about Y2K; recommended sources are given in the footnotes.[10] The only tool we really have for planning for millennial survival is a limited form of deja-vu. All the failures that could potentially occur have happened before on numerous occasions, but most have been relatively brief, most were the result of natural disaster, and none of them occurred with the world's population at such a precarious height as it is today.

Take for example, the failure of the Grid -- a massive linkage of thousands of electrical generating units, substations and transformers via 500,000 miles of transmission lines. And everywhere along the line, from the hydro-electric dam or nuclear generator, to local businesses or your home, there are computer systems regulating the operation. We have seen what can happen from previous black-outs (New York, November 9, 1965, and the July 3, 1996 black-out in the West and Canada). Multiply the effects by larger geographic areas, more electrically-dependent people, and longer time periods, and you'll have some idea of what's in store in 2000 and thereafter.

Another example of what's possible is a break-down in communications. Remember when AT&T's long-distance telephone system crashed on January, 15, 1990, cutting off phone service to thousands of people for nine hours? Did you know it was caused by computer failure, actually a brand-new software program? There was a similar software-induced crash that occurred on July 1, 1991, and the immediate cause was a tiny typographical flaw in a single line of software code. A single mistyped character had deprived 12 million people of phone service. Are we incredibly dependent upon computer codes, or what?[11]

So what can you as an individual do about Y2K? Tune into the Taurus earth-sign energy that's in your own chart and put yourself into survival mentality. Recognize that our economy and the world's natural resources are suffering from a modern disease called Affluenza. Read up on disaster-preparedness and "voluntary simplicity," and act like you're getting ready for whatever disaster is a typical threat to your particular geographic location -- earthquake, flood, ice storm, tornado or hurricane. Practice un-plugging your life and see what happens.
 
 

Y2K is an opportunity to re-evaluate your life and the world you live in from a more environmentally conscious perspective. You can learn more about composting, gardening, food preparation and storage, renewable resources, water purification, how to live with more simply with minimal resources, even how to entertain yourself without driving fuel-guzzling vehicles or being plugged into electronic equipment.

Consider the implications of the sign that's opposite Taurus, Scorpio -- the sign of waste and recycling. If you read up on Y2K survival and disaster-preparation literature, you will find that the greater emphasis is on getting -- obtaining safe drinking water, acquiring food, etc., but little of this advice pays any attention to the ultimate Scorpionic dumping ground of all earthly things -- the grave, the garbage pit, the sewer. Few are thinking about where they're going to put the garbage and waste that are the inevitable by-product of using all those acquired Taurean resources. Where, indeed? If fuel supply problems prevent the weekly arrival of the sanitation truck, where are you going to put all your packaging trash? (How about creating and acquiring less of it to start with?) If you have no electricity to pump water in and out of your toilet (even for only a few days), where exactly are you going to take a dump?

Do you have the guts to live more realistically, on a level more like the rest of the world's population -- at one-fifth (or less) of the standard of living that Americans currently "enjoy"? Will you voluntarily reduce, re-use, and recycle, or will you be forced to do so when the finite resources are unavailable or finally depleted? Can you personally declare yourself free of dependence on oil, technology, and earth-depleting progress? Think about it: to give up your reliance (your dependence) is a powerful statement. You might even call it a Declaration of Independence.
 
 

The Y2K Millennial Alignment is a down-to-earth reminder that society has gone out of its mind in making the computer the tool of choice for connecting humans and our various functions of life. Aided by electronics (Aquarius), we have increased the distance between ourselves and the natural world (Taurus). Caught up in the hype about the freedom of the Internet and the glory of endless techno-progress, we have become prisoners in a Web of technology. (The most secure prison is the one where inmates think they are free.) Ironically, it may take nothing short of total economic ruin to save us. The doors of the prison are opening and what's out there is the real world.

References
 

[1] For more information on the frequency of planetary groupings, see Jean Meeus, Mathematical Astronomy Morsels, Willman-Bell, 1997; Jean Meeus, "Planet Groupings and the Millennium," Sky & Telescope, August 1997, pp. 60-62; and the "Predictable Periodic and Non-Periodic Events" Web site (http://climate.gi.alaska.edu/Curtis).

[2] The report on this is outlined in Edward Yourdon, Time Bomb 2000: What the Year 2000 Computer Crisis Means to You, Prentice Hall (1997); for full text, see http://www.sel.noaa.gov/info/Cycle23.html.

[3] See Edward Tenner, Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences, Alfred Knopf, 1996.

[4] For a chronology ranging from 1790 through 1982, see Events in Telecommunications History, published by AT&T.

[5] James Strothman, "The Ancient History of System/360," Invention and Technology, Winter 1990, pp. 34-40.

[6] For the gory details, see "Year 2000 Impact on Health/Medicine" in Yourdon, Time Bomb 2000.

[7] See Valerie Vaughan, "Weaving Through the Story of Computers: Pallas Athena Looms Large," NCGR Journal, Spring 1994, pp. 27-33.

[8] See Paul Freiberger, Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer, McGraw-Hill, 1984.

[9] "Ancient Celestial Sign Started Chinese Calendar," Sky & Telescope, December 1993, pp. 13-14.

[10] Recommended reading includes: Edward Yourdon, Time Bomb 2000: What the Year 2000 Computer Crisis Means to You, Prentice Hall (1997), now in its 6th printing and available in paperback; Capers Jones, The Year 2000 Software Problem: Quantifying the Costs, Assessing the Consequences, Addison-Wesley (1997); the best on-line resources for the average citizen (read them now, while you still can!) are Gary North's Web site (http://www.garynorth.com), "Westergaard Year 2000" (http://www.y2ktimebomb.com), and the comp.software.year-2000 newsgroup. Gary North also produces a newsletter published by Agora Inc., 1217 St. Paul St., Baltimore MD 21202. Peter de Jager's "Year 2000 Information Center" (http://www.year2000.com) is more appropriate for computer professionals.

[11] For the full story of these events, see Bruce Sterling's The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier, Bantam (1992).