China Overview

compiled by Phil Meade 2/27/08 for the Mundane Class taught by Shirley Gray and Win Rowe

Chinese flag 1890 - 12 Feb 1912; 1 Jul 1917 - 12 Jul 1917

The Peoples Republic of China will be the focus of my Mundane analysis. The birth chart for Communist China is given by Nick Campion as September 21, 1949 at noon Beijing China. I have chosen the 2008 Summer Olympic games that will be held in Beijing with the opening ceremony on August 8th at 8:08:08 pm as a primary event. I will look at the Solar eclipse on august 1, 2008 that crosses or shadows parts of China. The games go for two weeks in the middle of which is a lunar eclipse also to be analyzed. Using ideas put forward by H.S. Green in Mundane Astrology The Astrology of Nations and States, on the effects of eclipses and earthquakes I will review three historic eclipses that passed over China and draw analogies with two upcoming eclipses also casting shadows across China in 2008 one week before the Olympics and July 22 2009 one year after the Olympics. In order to be more accurate in my predictions and forecast I have gathered data and history from the internet on two previous regimes the declining Qing Dynasty and the Nationalist Regime of Sun Yat Sen and Chiang Kai Shek. Also earthquake data has been gathered.

In 1644, the Manchus, a semi-nomadic people from northeast of the Great Wall, conquered the crumbling Ming state and established their own Qing (or Pure) dynasty, which lasted 268 years. During the first half of this period, the Manchus extended their rule over a vast empire that grew to encompass new territories in Central Asia, Tibet, and Siberia. The Manchus also established their hegemony over Chinese cultural traditions as an important means of demonstrating their legitimacy as Confucian-style rulers.

The Wuchang Uprising succeeded on October 10, 1911, and was followed by a proclamation of a separate central government, the Republic of China, in Nanking with Sun Yat-sen as its provisional head. [birth data 11/12/1866 4:00 am Chiangmen, China] [Just after the success of the uprising a full solar eclipse crossed and in fact cut China in two with its shadow (shades of things to come!) The duration of the eclipse from beginning shadow to ending shadow was just over 5 hours. Taking an hour to represent a year the first five years of the new Republic were full of political assassinations, warring factions and double dealings. One could hardly tell friend from foe. See image page 3. The Birth chart for the new Republic is set as January 1, 1912 in Nanking China. The eclipse path retrospectively passed right thru the 11th house of the new republic.] Numerous provinces began "separating" from Qing control. Seeing a desperate situation unfold, the Qing government brought an unwilling Yuan Shikai back to military power, taking control of his Beiyang Army, with the initial goal of crushing the revolutionaries. After taking the position of Prime Minister (??????) and creating his own cabinet, Yuan went as far as to ask for the removal of Zaifeng from the regency. This removal later proceeded with directions from Empress Dowager Longyu. Sun Yat-sen mixed idealism with force, his natal Uranus conjoins the royal star Regulus, revolution was preferred over evolution.

The 1911 Revolution brought down the dynasty but did not create a strong republic. Being a power-hungry militarist, Yuan Shih-k'ai had no faith in, nor any intention of practicing, democratic Republican rule. The gentry-merchant-militarist alliance at local levels resisted the Central government's control. As a minority group enjoying little social support, revolutionaries like Sun Yat-sen had no political power to make Republicanism work. From 1912 to 1916, Yuan Shih-k'ai tried to create a dictatorship and then to restore a monarchy. The attempt failed, because of local-provincial opposition, and the country broke up into semi-independent regions governed by selfish warlords and gentry. This led to rule by the warlords (1916-28). The men with military power made the decisions. The warlord period delayed China's modernization, increased social suffering, and worsened China's political disorder. All had the effect of encouraging Japanese aggression. [This series of events placed the Nationalist period as the third most deadly regime in the 20th century practicing Democide on their own people they killed more than 10 million of there own people.]

In the proccedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a Hong Kong geographer David Zhang of the University of Hong Kong published a study correlating cooling temperature change and global conflicts. In China, the population dropped by 43% between 1620-1650 [the end of the Ming dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Manchu dynasty]. Then it rose dramatically between 1650-1800. When the next cooling period began the Qing dynasty declined. These cooling trends decreased agricultural production which led to food supply shortages, grain price increases and to wars erupting. These were temperature cooling wars. We are now moving into heat wars with global warming and the rise in temps as we see in Darfur, and earlier in Somalia and Ethiopia. Droughts are being felt in the grain belt of the USA with the increase in temperatures. Food and water wars will be the norm unless we harness human ingenuity to desalinate water and grow food hydroponically. For more go to the website www.pnas.org Procceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 11/20/2007 "Global Climate Change, War and population decline in recent Human History."

Mao Zedong 1893-1976

This is a historical article from an early issue of China Now magazine Written at the time of the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, this article by SACU's founder Joseph Needham puts the details of his life aside and considers the life of Mao Zedong in philosophical terms against the backdrop of Chinese history. It was not until some years after that a lot of we now know as the darker side of Mao's leadership came to be known. This article stands as the party line perspective on what Mao sought to achieve.

The news of the death of Mao Zedong is something which (although the world has been expecting it) means that a great figure of universal significance has passed from this life into history. His success in inspiring the vast majority of some eight hundred million people, perhaps the most populous cultural unit in the world of mankind today, with a great ideal - that of the classless society - has been an unparalleled achievement.

I think that in order to understand the work of Mao Zedong, it is necessary to know a little about the history of China over the past two thousand years or so, and to realise that it was what is often called a 'feudal-bureaucratic' empire. It was not aristocratic military feudalism as in the Western world, but rather a bureaucratic system with a vast civil service collecting taxes, and state power under a single emperor. But this pattern of comparative peace was continually broken by peasant rebellions throughout the ages - one after another. When a dynasty became effete, with excessive oppression and intemperate corruption, some peasant leader would arise and organise a tremendous rebellion which would change the situation, but only to the extent of instituting a new dynasty; like, for example, Liu Bang at the end of the Qin, commanding the uprising which led to the Han dynasty. Or again, much later on, in the 14th century, Zhu Yuanzhang leading the rebellion that led to the Ming.

You could view Mao Zedong as yet another in the line of historical succession of leaders of peasant rebellions. You could imagine it if that were a valid analogy. But in fact it isn't. The reason it isn't is because in the modern world the ideology of social life in China had utterly and completely changed. The Guomindang - that is to say, the regime which preceded the Communist government in China, and took over after the successful rebellion against the Manchu or Qing dynasty in 1911 - the Guomindang was also different, but in the sense that it wanted to introduce capitalism to China; and what most people don't understand is that capitalism was a fundamentally Western, European invention. It was not invented in China; it was totally unsuitable for the Chinese people and their traditions; it was only imposed on them for a limited time during the period of the unequal treaties; and the more they saw of it, the less they liked it. So that the struggle came between those who wanted to introduce modern capitalism to China and produce a country like Japan (which, incidentally, did not have that feudal bureaucratic system I spoke of before), and those who, on the other hand, said, 'on the contrary, we can go straight to socialism. It's much more in agreement with our own age-old traditions, and the best sort of socialism is communism, scientific socialism, so therefore let us form a Communist Party,' and they did. Mao Zedong himself turned out, after many vicissitudes, to be the outstanding leader of that group. There were a number of others who perished by the way at various times - by which I mean not merely that some of them were caught and killed by the Guomindang, in violent repressions of the Communists - but that they went off on various deviant lines.

I think one cannot understand the Chinese revolution of our time unless one realises two things. First, that China has absolutely rejected as a model Western capitalism, and secondly, that it is her determination to press forward to a society in which social classes have become entirely a thing of the past, and everyone - intellectuals, industrial workers, scientists, doctors, peasant-farmers - everyone is on the same social level. This is an extremely difficult thing to do, but in my belief, as one who has been there a number of times since the revolution, the Chinese have made long strides towards it.

Coming back to the personality of Mao Zedong himself, I think one can consider him under a number of headings, for example, what was he like as a sociologist, or an economist, a military strategist and so on.

If one starts by asking what he did in sociology, I think one of his most remarkable achievements was his hard-headed analysis of Chinese society into the very few educated people on the one hand, and on the other into the classification of peasant-farmers as rich, poor and middle peasants, with all that that implied for the collectivisation and re-organisation of rural society in China. His ideal of the classless society already referred to, was not really entirely new in China, and it needs to be looked at in the context of the class structure of society in mediaeval and traditional China. The idea is very ancient indeed; you find slogans like 'the whole world should be one united brotherhood', which come down to us from ancient times and the early Middle Ages.

Still speaking of Mao as a sociologist, there's no doubt that his insistence that the revolution could rely on the peasant farmers and not simply on an industrial proletariat, was something which was quite unorthodox from the prevalent Marxist point of view. He had great difficulty in persuading the leaders of the Communist Party to agree with this theory which turned out to be absolutely right. China didn't have a vast industrial proletariat, and Mao believed that if he could give the peasant-farmers fundamental land reform and then get them to see the advantages of farming co-operatives and ultimately communes, they would be able to build a wonderful revolution and completely change the face of Chinese society. And they did.

Another thing you could say about Mao as a sociologist was his insistence on the importance of the class struggle; everywhere, even in homes; everything should be interpreted in terms of class struggle. Perhaps it has been carried too far sometimes in China, but I believe that there is very great truth in it.

As a military strategist, Mao was a very interesting man because, although basically he believed in leaving army affairs to the military commanders among whom, of course, Zhou Enlai was outstanding, and Zhu De (who died even more recently), nevertheless he was able to give them brilliant guidance. Of course, he was fully familiar with the Chinese military classics, especially the Sun Cu Bing Fa, the greatest of the strategic and tactical military classics, written probably in the 4th century BC. He knew most of the classics almost by heart, and his attitude towards the use of military force was 'to put politics in command'. Of course everyone knows about his saying 'power grows from the barrel of a gun', but whose power, and power in relation to what? Power in relation to politics, of course. 'Put politics in command' was essential here. In a way it makes him much like Oliver Cromwell at an early period. That famous Cromwellian order 'Trust in God, and keep your powder dry' could be paralleled in China, though it was Christian democracy in one case and Marxist socialism in the other, three centuries later. The Chinese revolutionary armies were certainly to keep their powder dry, but they were to trust in the great ideals of the revolution and put politics first.

If one should ask about Mao's attitude to science, I think there can be no doubt that he gave it all the backing he could. From the first days of the People's Government in China, science, pure and applied, received far more support, financial and moral, than had ever been dreamed of by the Guomindang. The national academy (Academia Sinica) grew very rapidly, with dozens of new research institutes, and young people were strongly encouraged to study the sciences, engineering, agriculture and medicine in the universities. Of course the accent was always on service to the people, and even after the Cultural Revolution I found that scientists were urged to tackle problems where useful results might be expected within ten years rather than those where no application could be seen for a hundred years. In another direction, science was brought to the masses, and they were encouraged to participate in it, so that not only did magazines of popular science reach circulations unimaginably large to us, but also countryfolk were taught how to make valuable measurements and observations (in meteorology, plant physiology, pedology, etc. etc.). So also the revolution demanded that medical care should be available to everyone, even in the most remote parts of the country, hence the successful 'barefoot doctor' movement, where medical workers of working-class or peasant origin have enough training to enable them to carry on much medical care, recognising when more skilled care than they can provide or hospitalisation are necessary. The principle has been brilliantly extended to other fields, so that there are now perhaps 25,000 'barefoot seismologists' all over the country measuring radon in deep wells, listening for rock slips and always on the watch for premonitory tremors. As for the vast expansion of the engineering industries that is a matter of common knowledge, and China is more than self sufficient in oil and petroleum products.

Finally, we come to some aspects of Mao Zedong less well known, perhaps. Not everybody realises that he was a remarkable poet. The poems are greatly admired in China; they have been published in many editions, and they are very good poems in classical Chinese style. Furthermore, he was a calligrapher, he wrote most beautiful Chinese characters; and this is something which the Chinese have always greatly admired. I don't think people realise enough how learned, how literary in a way, with what good taste even the most unlettered peasant-farmer approaches things, and the respect for writing, for instance, has always been great in China. For example, I love the story of the man in the Middle Ages who bought a governorship, and then on the way he met a fearsome warrior who invited him into a tent and asked him to write an epigram and sign his name, after which he said 'Well, this is quite shocking - you can't possibly have got your governorship by examination. With writing like that, no one could possibly be fitted to be governor of a province.' So he chased him away and sent him home. The warrior was in fact Guan Yu, the God of War, who was protecting the literary standards of provincial governors.

Mao Zedong's knowledge of the classics undoubtedly endeared him from the beginning to the Chinese people; they gave him the respect due to all scholars who leave the camp of privilege and place their learning and their genius in the service of the people. I have hanging on my wall one of his poems I greatly admire, translatable as follows:

One watches the unyielding pines in the vast azure sunset And the fleeting clouds below in seeming chaos yet majestically moving. Here beside the cave of the Taoist Immortals one sees that boundless beauty Is to be found only among the most dangerous peaks.

Last of all, I would like to mention his position as a philosopher. If Plato's idea that philosophers ought to be kings was ever implemented, I think there would be much to be said for regarding Mao Zedong as its embodiment. One mustn't think of philosophy in the narrow sense as used in the Western world; for example, linguistic philosophers or mathematical logicians, or metaphysicians in the old sense. Mao's thinking wasn't like that; his was of a much broader character. Machiavelli could have been his model but of course he was primarily influenced, by Marxist philosophy which includes dialectical materialism, and here it's important and interesting that there was a great deal to build upon in Chinese tradition. Because the philosophical thought of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries AD was congruent in its world outlook with dialectical materialism, Mao could acclimatise this traditional dialectical materialism easily enough in the Chinese world outlook. Yet one of his greatest achievements, it could certainly be said, was that he was able to put Marxist philosophy into understandable Chinese at the cost of about 36 million Chinese lives.. In many ways he carried it further, for instance, in his studies on contradiction in society, among organisations and groups of people, nations and so forth.

I suspect there may have been other lesser influences on him besides Marxism. It's worth pointing out that both Bertrand Russell and R.H. Tawney, as also John Dewey from America, were lecturing in Beijing at the time when Mao Zedong was a young librarian in Beijing University, and it's quite possible that he picked up some ideas from what was going round and being talked about at that time.

I think finally the last thing I should like to say is that the emphasis of the Chairman, Mao Zedong, on non-material incentives was a very important thing, and is embodied in the saying heard all over China - wei ren min fu wu - everything that you do, do it for others, do it for the people. And in a way, this gives what I would rather like to call a certain religious timbre to the socialism of China. It isn't directly related to Christianity; it hardly could be since organised Christianity never really succeeded in China; after thirteen centuries it had been accepted only by some three or four out of the 800 millions. But some ideas almost certainly came through, in line with the saying that 'Christianity was the grandmother of Bolshevism'.

There was also plenty of inspiration from indigenous Chinese sources - the forbearance and affectionate mutual help in the extended family, the solidarity of some of the secret societies working against the oppression of the imperial bureaucracy, the responsibilities of the clan heads and village chiefs, and the fraternal support of the merchant guilds. Chinese society had a built-in co-operativeness; although one of its failures (as Sun Yatsen saw) was excessive family loyalty. This is what Mao's China has broken through, returning to the conception of the ancient Chinese thinker, Mo Zi, that all the world should be one family, in which people disdain to work for pecuniary rewards but rather out of neighbourly loving-kindness and concern, letting honour and regard come out of that selflessness. [It must be remembered that the second biggest Democide(death by government) happened under Mao’s watch . It is estimated that 36 million people lost their lives during his tenure as Chairman. Mao’s Birthdata 12/26/1893 7:45 am Shaoyang China]

© Copyright Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding (SACU) 2006: an extract from SACU's magazine China Now 65 Page 2, October 1976

This is a historical article from an early issue of China Now magazine documenting the first 40 years of the People's Republic of China 1949-1989

Year	Events in China	International Relations
1949	October 1st: Founding of the People's Republic by Chairman Mao; Mao goes to Moscow	NATO founded
1950	Marriage Law promulgated; People's Liberation Army enters Tibet; Agrarian Reform Law	Sino-Soviet Pact of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance Nationalists establish government on Taiwan Britain recognizes PRC
1951	'Three-Antis' Campaign Mars/mars 8/31	Chinese forces enter the Korean War
1952	'Five-Anti's' Campaign; Democratic reforms and nationalization of private industry completed
1953	First Five-Year Plan begins Population census; Campaign to introduce co-operatives; State monopoly of grain trade set up	Death of Stalin Armistice in Korea Mars/mars 8/12 900,000 Chinese dead
1954	First National People's Congress	Geneva Conference on Indochina Khrushchev visits China Defense Pact between Taiwan and USA
1955		Warsaw Pact founded Bandung Conference
1956	Collective farms introduced Eighth Party Congress; Hundred Flowers Campaign begins	Khrushchev denounces Stalin Hungarian Uprising
1957	Open criticism of Communist Party at Beijing University; Saturn square Saturn Anti-Rightist Campaign	Sino-Soviet nuclear agreement Mao visits Moscow transiting Jupiter conjunct natal sun July 1957 mar/mars 7/5
1958	Second Five-Year Plan; First People's Communes; Great Leap Forward launched; People's Militia established	Khrushchev visits Beijing
1959	Tibetan uprising Second National People's Congress; Liu Shaoqi becomes President of China; Lushan Conference; Peng Dehuai dismissed for criticising Great Leap	Khrushchev visits Beijing Mars conjoins natal mars June 15 1959
1960	Severe food shortages begin/starvation	Soviet technicians withdraw
1961	Reversal of Great Leap policies Jup/sat conjunct in capricorn	Jan1961- oct 1961 Mars conjoins natal mars 5/21/61
1962	Border war with India	U.S./Cuba missile crisis
1963	Socialist Education Movement; 'Learn from Lei Feng' Campaign	Exchange of hostile letters with USSR Mars/mars 4/10/63
1964	'Learn from PLA' Campaign, Saturn opposition; Third National People's Congress	China tests a nuclear bomb France recognizes PRC
1965	All army ranks abolished Saturn opposition Saturn; Dazhai hailed as model brigade for agriculture; Daqing hailed as model brigade for industry
1966	Third Five Year Plan begins May 16th Directive; First Cultural Revolution posters; Red Guards formed, intellectuals punished; Schools and Colleges closed	transiting Jupiter opposes Natal Jupiter july/aug 1966
1967	First Revolutionary Committees set up; Serious clashes in Wushan PLA restores order; Deng Xiaoping sent to cadre school in Hebei
1968	Liu Shaoqi expelled from the Party; Call for Educated Youths to go to the countryside	USSR invades Czechoslovakia transiting Jupiter conjunct natal Saturn july/august
1969	Ninth Party Congress; Lin Biao named as Mao's successor; Death of Liu Shaoqi	Clashes with USSR on the Ussuri River
1970		Nixon invited to China
1971	Lin Biao tries to assassinate Mao; Lin Biao dies in a plane crash	Ping-pong diplomacy China joins United nations
1972		Nixon visits China
1973	Deng Xiaoping returns to power; 'Criticise Lin Biao and Confucius' Campaign; Tenth Party Congress
1974	Zhou Enlai leaves office 5/9 poor health	Edward Heath visits China SA-90-PL 5/6-10
1975	Fourth National People's Congress	Death of Chiang Kaishek
1976	Death of Zhou Enlai Hua Guofeng becomes Premier; Tiananmen riot; Deng Xiaoping stripped of all his posts; Death of Zhu De; Death of Mao 9/8 SA 0 SUN; Hua Guofeng becomes Chairman	Tangshen earthquake Saturn conjoins natal mars 7/28 255,000 reported deaths in one event!
1977	Gang of Four arrested; Deng Xiaoping returns to power; Eleventh Party Congress
1978	Fifth National People's Congress; 1st open criticism of Mao, 1st Saturn return 10/78- 7/79 Posters appear on Democracy Wall; Third Plenum of the Party Congress proposes economic and political reforms	Sino-Japanese Treaty of Peace and Friendship
1979	Deng Xiaoping proposes four principles; Special Economic Zones proposed; One-Child policy introduced; Responsibility system introduced into agriculture	Diplomatic relations between China and US Border War with Vietnam
1980	New Marriage Law; Hu Yaobang becomes General Secretary; Memorial service for Liu Shaoqi; Zhao Ziyang replaces Hua as Premier; Trial of the Gang of Four begins	Transiting Jupiter conjoins transiting Saturn in late degrees of virgo and early degrees of libra oct 1980-aug 1981
1981	Sixth Five-Year Plan begins Hua steps down as Party Chairman
1982	Population Census; Twelfth Party Congress: New Party Constitution; New State Constitution
1983	Sixth National People's Congress; Deng's Selected Works published; Campaign against 'Spiritual Pollution' 84; Managerial responsibility system in industry
1984	Managerial responsibility system in industry; 'Open Cities' announced	President Reagan visits China Sino-British accord on Hong Kong
1985	Reforms of education system promulgated; Decision to reduce PLA by one million; Anti-Japanese demonstrations
1986	Seventh Five-Year Plan begins Saturn Square Saturn Student demonstrations	HM The Queen visits China
1987	Resignation of Hu Yaobang Campaign against 'bourgeois liberalism'; Deng resigns from Politburo Thirteenth Party Congress	Sino-Portuguese accord on Macao
1988	Li Peng becomes Premier Zhao Ziyang becomes General Secretary; Seventh National People's Congress; Riots in Tibet; Martial law declared in Lhasa
1989	Death of Hu Yaobang Student demonstrations: martial law declared in Beijing; Soviet and Chinese party relations restored; Massacre in Tiananmen Square; Zhao Ziyang stripped of party and state posts; Japan withholds loans Jiang Zemin elected General Secretary	Gorbachev visits China.

© Copyright Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding (SACU) 2006 : an extract from SACU's magazine China Now 131, Page 89, September 1989

Transiting Saturn conjoins natal Mars!

At 3:42 a.m. on July 28, 1976, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit the sleeping city of Tangshan, in northeastern China. The very large earthquake, striking an area where it was totally unexpected, obliterated the city of Tangshan and killed over 250,000 people - making it the deadliest earthquake of the twentieth century.

Official casualty figure is 255,000 deaths. Estimated death toll as high as 655,000. 799,000 injured and extensive damage in the Tang-Shan area. Damage extended as far as Beijing. This is probably the greatest death toll from an earthquake in the last four centuries, and the second greatest in recorded history.

1920 Haiyuan, Ningxia (Ning-hsia), China Dec 16 7.8 200,000 deaths. Total destruction (XII - the maximum intensity on the Mercalli scale) in the Lijunbu-Haiyuan-Ganyanchi area. Over 73,000 people were killed in Haiyuan County. A landslide buried the village of Sujiahe in Xiji County. More than 30,000 people were killed in Guyuan County. Nearly all the houses collapsed in the cities of Longde and Huining. Damage (VI-X) occurred in 7 provinces and regions, including the major cities of Lanzhou, Taiyuan, Xi'an, Xining and Yinchuan. It was felt from the Yellow Sea to Qinghai (Tsinghai) Province and from Nei Mongol (Inner Mongolia) south to central Sichuan (Szechwan) Province. About 200 km (125 mi) of surface faulting was seen from Lijunbu through Ganyanchi to Jingtai. There were large numbers of landslides and ground cracks throughout the epicentral area. Some rivers were dammed, others changed course. Seiches from this earthquake were observed in 2 lakes and 3 fjords in western Norway. Although usually called the Kansu (now Gansu) earthquake by Western sources, the epicenter and highest intensities are clearly within Ningxia Autonomous Region.

1556 Shensi, China January 23 8.0 Worst death toll in history: 830,000 deaths.

Delineation of the Peoples Republic of China Political birthchart. 9/21/1949 12 noon Beijing China per Nick Campion. Dialectical Materialism run amuck!

The birth chart of the Peoples Republic of China has an overweighting in the earth qualities with both the luminaries, Saturn and Jupiter in earth signs. Here is the 800 pound gorilla of Asia! The sun at 27 degrees Virgo is conjunct the star Markab. According to Ptolemy the nature of Markab is of Mars and Mercury; Simmonites says Mars and Venus, Alvidas gives it the nature of Jupiter in square to Mercury conjunct Saturn as from Pisces to Gemini. Markab is culminating which for the ancients indicated an energetic disposition, one who is unlucky and from all the earthquakes we can see this to be true, impermanent martial honors (korea war, border disputes with Russia), disappointed ambitions, (the five year plans prove this, war with India, war with Vietnam) accidents, sickness (SARS)disgrace, ruin and a violent death. At the rate that they are industrializing and polluting it does not bode well for them. [ the soviet union lasted only about 62 years]. China is now experiencing its second Saturn return!

Jupiter in Capricorn which is its fall: The enthusiasm of Jupiter meets the harsh reality of planning. Even though it has a weak trine to the sun Political/bureaucratic ineptness has run rampant during the years as the chronology of the first 40 years show. Jupiter in Mundane Astrology represents the sense of self esteem and well being of a nation, the desire of the people to seize opportunities and expand. When it is found in the sign of Capricorn it expands clumsily and retreats almost as often as it advances.

Saturn in Virgo in the 9th house indicates a fundamentalists approach to codified group thought and restrictions on Religion, Philosophy, and large support for the police state. Saturn conjoins the star Zosma whose influence is of the nature of Saturn and Venus. It causes benefit by disgrace, selfishness, egotism, immorality, meanness, melancholy, unhappiness of mind and fear of poison. It gives to the nation an unreasonable, shameless and egotistical nature and a tendency toward greed. Most benefits gained by immoral means. Presently it is estimated by an unpublished World Bank study that over 750,000 Chinese die annually from air and water pollution up 62% from the previous year’s estimate. The ninth house in Mundane Astrology is concerned with shipping , sea traffic, long distance travel and air traffic connected with commerce and tourist travel. Internet communications and telephone service long distance. Also the 9th house is concerned with Universities, scientific institutions, and publications, Professors, philosophers, law courts, lawyers, priests and religions. In the book Mundane Astrology by M. Baigent, N. Campion & C. Harvey@ 1984 the ninth house is also assigned foreign relations and foreign currency.

The following is a quote from "A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy" written by Wing Tsit Chan 1963:

"Philosophy in Communist China can be summed up in one word, "Maoism." The source of Mao’s inspiration is Engels, Marx, Lenin, and Stalin… Fung Yu-lan who upheld Chinese Philosophy, was continuously criticized. In 1957 there was a conference held on Chinese Philosophy in China January 21-26. More than a year later, Fung had to criticize himself as a member of the capitalistic class, an idealist, and one who used the metaphysical methods!"

The natal moon is conjoined to Saturn in Virgo signifying oppression of women, and of the masses. There have been severe restrictions on the reproductive rights of women for population control and extreme family planning measures look at the One child per family policy. Massacres of student protesters and restrictions on colleges and university professors. No open dialogue or debate allowed period!

Natal mercury is retrograde in the 11th house and conjoined to the south node to weaken its promise. Lies, misinformation and deception and propaganda is part of the communication approach with friends and allies as well as with enemies. Natal Mercury squares natal Jupiter so the government promises much more than they can deliver.It is best to figure they are lying and the opposite of what they say would probably be the truth.

Natal Mars is in the 8th house in the sign of Leo which is another evil testimony denoting many sudden and terrible deaths. If we remember the Korean war the USA had about 36,000 casualties the north Koreans lost 520,000, and the Chinese red army had over 900,000 casualties. This concern about death includes deaths by fire, accidents, crime pollution, earthquake. It especially denotes death of military personnel and medical men. I have not counted the Chinese troops lost in the war with India, the border skirmishes with the USSR, two wars concerning Vietnam, one against the USA and the other against Vietnam proper in 1979. The African covert operations in Angola and other areas.

Venus in Scorpio: There comes a time in relationships and in child rearing that one has to give up control. Scorpio never wants to give up control! Venus is debilitated. Pollution is so bad in some areas of the country that all the pollinators like birds and bees are non existent and humans must pollinate the fruit trees so as to get a crop!

Part of Fortune of the Communist chart is located at 19 scorpio conjunct the star Zuben Elschemali also known as the north scale of the libra balance scales. The name comes from the Arabic Al Zuban al Shamaliyyah, the northern Claw, a reference to the ancient celestial sphere in which Libra was omitted and Scorpio occupied 60 degrees. It is symbolically called the Full Price. Its influence according to Ptolemy is of the nature of Jupiter and Mercury, but later writers have considered it similar to Jupiter and Mars, and Alvidas likens it to Mars sextile Jupiter. It gives some good fortune, high ambition they are becoming the debt holders of the world (at least US debt) and it is an indication of riches.

Hu Jintao 12/21/1942 Jixi, China rectified to 1:30 pm

Since the time of Ptolemy the chart of the national leader has been considered of great importance in Mundane Astrology. Taken together with the nation’s chart they are used in forecasting. The Nation’s ideals, aspirations and efforts or lack there of, at any one time tend to be personified and expressed thru the leadership.

Hu Jintao has a likeability factor and has played the bureaucratic game with skill and finesse. How ruthless he is will not be known until he is dead or disgraced. He seems to be a slightly moderating figure and his natal Jupiter opposes the Country’s Capricorn Jupiter so as to cut back on some of the party’s excesses. His natal mars trines the Country’s terrible mars so he has friends in the military. His natal Saturn sextiles the country’s mars again giving him military support.

The maximum eclipse time chart for august 1, 2008 is 5:59 pm Beijing time which activates both his and the country’s chart at a one degree orb of the critical natal mars point denoting many sudden and terrible deaths! As we saw from the Korean War and the Earthquake of July 27, 1976 this point has lived up to its reputation.

The British Astrologer Maurice Wemyss in his book The Wheel of Life contains great detail on degree areas in relation to specific aspects of Mundane life. He has associated 9 degrees Leo/Aquarius with Oil. So being this eclipse is at maximum shadow at 9 degrees Leo will Oil reach another all time high? Will tankers collide/sink? Will Hu Jintao purge the military of some of the generals? Will there be a military coup? Will he be eclipsed out of office? Will we see another large earthquake in western China ? This event takes place in the 8th mundane house of the Chinese chart. This is unfortunate for the government, signifying trouble in the privy council, many deaths and bad for the health of the country. It also concerns trouble through financial affairs will the yen float/sink?

Stock market jitters can be indicated. The eclipse at 9 degrees leo in a fire sign is said to excite men’s minds, and produce sensational public events. Well the Olypmic games is already a world event but the ancients would add that one should expect excess of heat a scarcity of rain,[another hot summer] great expenditures of money and an increase in taxation. They see a disruption, disturbances a danger of war and the death of rulers, nobles and great men especially among the upper 10%. With the sun and the moon in the 8th this indicates much mortality among the common people as well, panics death among women and children. Trouble with volcanoes and/or earthquakes is how I think some of this will play out.

One week following the Eclipse the Chinese will open the summer games on august 8, at 8:08:08 pm in Beijing. China is experiencing its second Saturn return during the games with transiting Saturn conjoining the country’s natal moon position. So the people will be squeezed. It is a combative chart so perhaps favorable for competitive games between countries. The ancient Olympic Games were primarily a part of a religious festival in honor of Zeus, the father of the Greek gods and goddesses. The festival and the games were held in Olympia. The Greeks that came to the Sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia shared the same religious beliefs and spoke the same language. The athletes were all male citizens of the city-states from every corner of the Greek world, coming from as far away as Iberia (Spain) in the west and the Black Sea (Turkey) in the east. The games may have existed at Olympia much earlier than 776 B.C. perhaps as early as the 10th or 9th century BC. Sculptors were commissioned to create statues of victorious athletes to be set up in the Sanctuary or in the home town of the athlete. According to Pliny, most of the statues set up in the Sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia were idealistic images of athletes. We are told that only if an athlete had won three Olympic victories could a realistic likeness of the athlete appear in the Sanctuary. At the Olympic competitions of today, athletes' uniforms and equipment bear the discreet but readily identifiable trademarks of their manufacturers. Even without Wheaties, ancient Greeks honored and even "marketed" their athletic heroes. As early as the 5th and 4th centuries BC the victories won by the athletes were widely celebrated. Poets were often commissioned to celebrate these victories with odes, and sculptors were employed to render an image of the victorious athlete. In addition coins were struck to commemorate equestrian victories.

After the Games, we are presented with images of Olympians endorsing products and appearing on cereal boxes. Later, some Olympic celebrities become commodities themselves, as TV shows and record labels cash in on their fame.

THE POLITICS OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES

The celebration of the Olympic Games in antiquity was an occasion for citizens of scattered Greek city-states to assemble. At the Games they discussed important political issues, celebrated common military victories and even formed political and military alliances.

But the Games were not only a forum in which to discuss political events; they were also the cause of political conflict.

Control of the Sanctuary and the Games brought with it prestige, economic advantages and, most importantly, political influence. As early as the 7th century BC we hear of disputes over the control of the Sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia between the city of Elis (30 miles to the north) and the small neighboring town of Pisa.

In 668 BC, according to Pausanias (a 2nd century AD Greek traveler), the powerful tyrant of Argos (named Pheidon) was asked by the town of Pisa to capture the Sanctuary of Zeus from the city-state of Elis. Pheidon, with his army of well-trained hoplites (armed soldiers), marched across the Peloponnesos, secured the Sanctuary for the town of Pisa, and personally presided over the conduct of the games. But Pisa's control of the Sanctuary was brief: by the next year Elis had regained control.

The Olympic Truce was instituted by the city-state of Elis to protect against military incursions which interrupted the Games. Every four years, special heralds from Elis were sent out to all corners of the Greek world to announce the approaching Olympic festival and games. Along with this news, they would announce the Olympic Truce, which protected athletes, visitors, spectators and official embassies who came to the festival from becoming involved in local conflicts.

From http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/olympics/olympicpolitics.shtml

Pindar, the famous 5th century BC Greek poet, wrote an ode to celebrate the victory of Hiero in the horse race at Olympia in 476 BC. It begins:

Water is preeminent and gold, like a fire burning in the night, outshines all possessions that magnify men's pride. But if, my soul, you yearn to celebrate great games, look no further for another star shining through the deserted ether brighter than the sun, or for a contest, mightier than Olympia where the song has taken its coronal design of glory, plaited in the minds of poets as they come, calling on Zeus' name to the rich radiant hall of Hiero.

Olympian 1 (translated by Frank J. Nisetich)

So the games may be problematic. It is reported that Beijing is one of the most air polluted cites in the world. Drivers of cars are known to drive with there headlights on at noon just so they can see through the smog. Outdoor workers wear oxygen masks to help in the breathing process! Will some athletes get sick, die?

Two weeks later on august16-17 a lunar eclipse takes place (see page 32 for image). This will be right in the middle of the Games activating the ninth and third houses of Natal China. The ninth house is concerned with trouble with sects, religious groups, philosophies, foreign currency, disasters at sea, misfortunes for shipping, dissensions within the party. We may see telecommunication cables break and communication between countries be disrupted. I am predicting Problems with the internet and satellite communication malfunctions. We may see a communist party insider shake up. Minor Earthquakes are also likely.

The Solar eclipse of july 22, 2009 and January 15, 2010 shadow China again. The july 09 looks to be the intense one but the 2010 eclipse conjoins the natal Jupiter of Communist China! A blow to Chinese optimism.

In closing I will end with a quote from Kuo-yu on Conversations of the States sspy 1.11-1.21

"In the 15th year (of king Hui 662 BC), a spiritual being descended, and appeared in Hsin. The king asked his minister Kuo, "Say, why is this? Is there such a thing?" Kuo replied, "Yes, when a state is about to rise, its ruler is solemn, illustrious, sincere, and correct. He is discriminating, pure, kind, and affable. His virtue is sufficient to make his fragrant offerings manifest, and his kindness is sufficient to unify the people. As the spiritual beings enjoy his offerings and the people listen to him, neither the people nor the spiritual beings have any complaint. Therefore brilliant spiritual beings descend in his state, see evidence of the virtue of the government, and spread blessings everywhere. When the state is about to perish, its ruler is greedy, reckless, depraved, and perverted. He is lewd, indolent, negligent and lazy. He is vulgar and cruel. Because his government has a disgusting odor, his offerings do not rise [to reach the spiritual beings]. And because his punishments are imposed on the basis of treachery and slander, his people desert him and divest their loyality elsewhere. The brilliant spiritual beings no longer give him purification, and his people want to leave him. Both the people and the spiritual beings blame him and hate him, and there is nothing in him for them to cling to. The spiritual beings likewise go to such a state, see the evidence of oppression and evil and send down calamity."

As a footnote I wanted to say a little about Mao Ze Dong. He was 27 years old when he joined the communist movement. In regards to the stars, Spica, a royal star conjucts his Saturn. This does elevate one to positions of power according to the ancients. Spica in ancient times represented injustice to the innocent, so Mao took up the ‘peoples cause.’ When it has Saturn as its conduit it tends to make one suspicious, it bestows renown, occult interests, many friends and can show unscrupulous behavior and unfruitfulness. The star Sabik at 16 degrees Sagittarius conjuncts his natal mercury giving him success in evil deeds, perverted morals, scandals thru marriage partners,[his actress [second] wife was tried as one of the gang of four] legal losses and double speaking.

Hu Jintao and the Fixed Stars

Sun conjunct sinistra. [latin for left turning] of the nature of Saturn and venus.

Sun conjunct Acumen [the sting of the scorpion’s tail] the nature of mars and the moon.

Venus conjunct facies the nature of mars and the sun indicates a violent death.

Ascendant conjunct Mirach[called zona andromedae] according to Ptolemy of the nature of Venus, alvidas says mars and the moon. It gives personal beauty, a brilliant mind, love of home great devotion, beneficence, forgiveness, love, overcoming by kindness, renown and good fortune in marriage.

Jupiter conjunct Pollux bestows high position, legal losses and danger of disgrace banishment and imprisonment. Trouble through relatives.