Please note: In 2015, after I wrote this article, my understandings of the quindecile, a 24° aspect, were born out of the new–mathematically accurate–name for the 165° aspect, now called undecaquartisextile. Please read about the Undecaquartisextile as its related aspect patterns which can be found in the Pluto – Full On series. You’ll find the Pluto – Full On series under the subcategory of Undecaquartisextile, located in the Feature Articles tab. Thanks for your patience with the modification of the name.
There are times when I think the people of the United States tend to live in something of a vacuum, in a type of isolation from the rest of the world’s everyday events. Perhaps we all–all of us in the world–do that in some ways as we go through our own daily lives. Perhaps each one of us may be selfish like that:
When life is good, we have this sense of all being right with the world. And when life in wherever we are isn’t good–perhaps the markets are down, unemployment rates are rising, or food prices and rents are increasing–it seems as if everything is falling apart. Or maybe we’re all so consumed with life in our midst, we tend to forget about others–people, places and things. Wednesday’s military coup in Burkina Faso seems to be a good example of this kind of thinking. The early news seemed to imply these events took place yesterday, on Thursday, so I decided to follow through with my original intentions to see the charts based on the coup as I thought from those initial reports. Here’s where the accuracy and timing of these events come so critically into play.
When I saw the news about the coup d’etat, I knew I was going to want to do a bit of exploring to become more familiar with Burkina Faso. On August 4, 1984, the same day the name had changed to Burkina Faso–“the country of honorable people”–the flag had changed as well. Now it’s equally red and green with a bright yellow star in the center.
A Western 2nd quadrant below-the-horizon domination serves as the focus of the chart which makes me wonder how much any of us really know about this African nation of some 19 million people. I suppose I’ve been feeling guilty over my lack of knowledge about this country. If you place Burkina Faso as an overlay against a map of the Middle East, it will consume all of Israel, Damascus, Cairo, Port Said, and about 2/3 of Syria! Ireland is about 1/4 of the size, and the UK is about the same size. Talk about-eye openers!
The Taurus and Leo co-signatures of the chart tend to confirm what I see in the Sun-Jupiter-Saturn heartbeat, offering a glimpse into this nation’s efforts to stay goal-oriented in economic expansion and freedom in the midst of conservative growth. But the 4th house Sun’s conjunction to Uranus as part of the Sun-Uranus-Venus stellium tends to point to an instability I’d expect as a result of the shifts of power and unrest through the BBC – timeline of Burkina Faso. Take note of the 9th house Moon-Saturn conjunction with both the Moon forming a 16-minute partile quincunx and Saturn forming a 35-minute partile quincunx to the Sun. Because the Sun is part of a stellium, the instability would be triggered through events linked to these quincunxes. But that’s not to say the instability would really ever be lessened when we note the Uranus-Ascendant (ASC) square–or even the Moon-Saturn opposition to natal Mercury in the third house. Silence from such a nation doesn’t mean nothing is happening. Quite the contrary, it points to the likelihood of insecurity and even discord we may not have seen before these eruptions. Take note as well that the Moon-Saturn conjunction also squares the natal chart’s Vertex. It seems to imply fated events no matter how hard people try to ignore the signs.
The Moon forms both an undecaquartisextile (within a suggested 5° orb) and an opposition to Mercury (remember, I use wide orbs because I find them highly relevant). Saturn will follow suit from the undecaquartisextile to Mercury while it would not form the opposition were the Moon-Saturn 19-minute partile conjunction not in place. Mercury also makes a quincunx to Jupiter, bringing to mind the same thoughts I had when writing the following lines in my first book, Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow: Meeting the Challenge of Our Multicultural America & Beyond, “Unification has become outmoded, just as the whalebone bodices and even the girdles of the 20th century did. Why? Because we can only force conformation of bodies into whalebone bodices, 20th century girdles, or pre-determined concepts of excellence for just so long. Eventually something will pop out–at one end or another.
“Undoubtedly, the ladies of the 19th century rebelled against squeezing their 24-inch–more or less–waists into 13-inch tourniquet-like contraptions. After all, how many of those wasp waists stayed that wasp-like after they’d been through the rigors of childbirth? Certainly many women abandoned 20th century girdles for similar reasons!” (©1996 Michelle Young) And one could say this is also the case with Burkina Faso. Mercury is also making a undecaquartisextile to the Midheaven (MC). So is Venus–with a mere 4-minute partile undecaquartisextile to the MC! Uranus is also forms a undecaquartisextile to the MC, but by this time I wouldn’t imagine you’d be surprised to see this.
Perhaps Neptune’s undecaquartisextile to the Ascendant explains why one might not have seen any of this upheaval coming–or perhaps it’s because African nations have had so much upheaval through the years, it’s become a seemingly everyday occurrence to all of us reading or hearing the news. Should this be? I don’t think so.
Despite all of the above, the most pointed alarm button I saw came from first house Mars in square to Pluto in the 4th. Pluto, IMO, just misses the 5th house cusp by my broader-orbed scales and clearly falls inside the 4th, making it a vehicle of transformation that isn’t likely to be stopped that easily. Pluto in transit to the 4th house brings transformation and change regardless of whether or not one wants it. In a natal chart, it promises to be a mainstay of one’s life, and it’s up to the individual (or nation) to make the positive transformations and changes necessary to keep one (or the nation in this case) alive, thriving and vibrant. This obviously doesn’t seem to be the case in Burkina Faso.
Contraparallels (responding like oppositions) are formed between the Sun and MC, the Moon and the Ascendant (ASC), and even between the ASC and MC. And then consider the parallels from the Sun to the ASC, the Moon to the MC, Mercury to Mars, Venus to Uranus and Jupiter to Saturn! But no, I hadn’t seen this as reason to look at the chart. I started out at what I first saw/thought was yesterday’s coup:
It really doesn’t take a huge stretch of the imagination to see the coup in this chart with the Eastern 4th quadrant dominance; but remember this is actually the time of the announcement. (The coup had taken place hours before, when the Moon was still in a Cardinal sign–Libra–and this is the defining factor that makes far more sense since it’s likely to have taken place somewhere around the time of the opposition to Uranus.) Venus rules this chart, btw, as well as being the planet at the highest point of the chart. Since it rules the natal chart as well, this surely will present some points of interest to note somewhere along the line. I’ll keep it in mind as I go farther…
While I might be inclined to see the Northern and Southern hemispheres evenly split, I’d lean toward the below-the-horizon dominance only because the Sun’s light is in the 12th house, bringing to mind the influence religion seems to indicate here. Take note as well of the 48-minute partile square between Pluto and the ASC but Pluto is also forming a 13-minute partile conjunction to the IC (the 4th house cusp, for those of you who are learners)–and then there’s the square between 1st house Mercury and Pluto! Next, consider the 1-minute partile opposition between 11th house Jupiter and 5th house Neptune.
Take note, however, that Mercury is opposing Uranus as well, so we again have the Cardinal T-square showing in the coup chart while Saturn in the 2nd house squares 11th house Mars. But with Mars in Sun-ruled Leo, the Sun clearly comes into play from the 12th house, bringing all kinds of relevance to my mind, from Neptune-ruled Pisces being the natural 12th house while the Sun rules the natural 5th house of the chart. Fascinating positioning here from where I’m sitting–even more, given that Jupiter, the traditional ruler of Pisces, is still considered its co-ruler, pointing to a potential for religious conflict and making me wonder if we have–despite the military coup we’ve seen in the news–another religious war. Are we again looking at another hotspot connected to religious disturbances we’ve seen in other parts of Africa and the Middle East with Boko Haram and ISIL? I think this is highly possible.
With a quick look at the coup inside and the natal chart outside, consider how the natal Moon makes a 3-minute conjunction to the IC of the coup chart and, of course, the 22-minute partile conjunction from the IC to natal Saturn.
Turning the charts now to place the Independence chart inside and the coup outside, the ASC of the coup chart makes a 9-minute partile conjunction to the 6th house cusp of the Independence chart, while incredibly timed transits make me even wonder whether whomever was actually behind this coup knows–or has access to–astrologers capable of timing such an event. Uranus falls in the 12th house, seeming almost to vanish there were it not for its square to Mercury which, of course, makes me look up to the natal Moon-Saturn conjunction in the 9th. And lo and behold, there’s transiting Pluto, not only sitting in a partile conjunction to both the Moon (10 minutes) and Saturn (9 minutes), but actually making a perfected hit to the natal Moon-Saturn midpoint! This series of placements forms a T-square to that 12th house Uranus as it falls in the 7th house of the coup chart.
Meanwhile, transiting Mars forms another partile conjunction, this one at 35 minutes, to natal Venus while Jupiter conjuncts natal Pluto, the Moon is still conjunct Neptune–implying that nobody really saw this coming–especially since the midpoint of the transits of Venus and Mars formed a perfected conjunction to natal Uranus! The timing here would relate to my suspicion that a transiting Moon-Uranus opposition was a likely time for the coup.
Now keep in mind that natal 4th house Pluto has been on the receiving end of the conjunction from transiting Jupiter, pointing to the coup itself, but transiting 10th house Neptune is also opposing the transiting Jupiter-natal Pluto conjunction in square not only to natal Mars in the 1st house but also Saturn’s out-of-sign opposition (it’s been coming, of course, but it shows so clearly in this positioning of the two charts) to natal Mars, completing a mutable Grand Cross with the out-of-sign opposition from Saturn!
Whether or not you consider the Vertex anything signifcant for its relationship to destiny and fate, as I do, I hope you won’t fail to note the presence of the 53-minute partile conjunction from the transit of Mercury to the natal Vertex while the transiting Vertex makes a 28-minute partile conjunction to the natal North Node! Chance? I think not!
Namaste, I love you.
©2015 Michelle Young