Winter Solstice 2005:
The Planets and Stars of Y2K6

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In 2006, Pluto will pierce the Galactic Center (26½º of Sagittarius) for the first time since the late 1750's. Pluto penetrates and transforms everything in its wake, and since it will be transiting the very heart of our galaxy for the first time in the modern era, all bets are off. Will that manifest as a cosmic universal `open heart surgery?' Will there be some sort of `galactic chiropractic' beyond the tsunami, the Pakistani earthquake, or Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma that shook us to our core in the last 12 months? Or will Pluto pull the plug and challenge our very sense of safety in order to grab our attention long enough so that we begin to straighten up and fly right?

Pluto's power is consummate, and how he will act out is hard to gauge. One thing is certain: Pluto purges what is no longer needed.

And as far as the weather goes, astrometeorologist Carolyn Egan offers: "The winter weather during this period will bring fluctuations in temperature, producing both snow and rain, with much flooding. The northwest is more stormy than usual with above normal precipitation. That weather moves across the nation, and the Rockies will have record-setting snowfall. The mid-section of the country alternates with snow and rain with the changing temperatures. In the Northeast, it is possible to have a warmer than average season. Hurricanes this year will have the unfortunate alignment of Saturn opposing Neptune during peak season in early September, where severe flooding and exceptional winds occupy the charts during August and September."

Astrologer Emily Baumbach, who specializes in the Michael Teachings, has this to say: "With Pluto squaring the Nodes for much of the year, it's bound to be an intense time. I expect that the reevaluation/hibernation energy will last to some degree through most of 2006, with a sub-theme of the Goal of Discrimination (manifesting as pickiness, and wanting precision) starting to show up when Venus goes retrograde Dec. 24. We also have caution mode (carefulness, deliberation, slowness); pragmatist energy (wanting efficiency, working hard) sliding to realist (wanting the truth) and cynic (Jupiter in Scorpio's sarcasm); and a `chief feature' (what we'll struggle with most) of impatience.

This will be a year with lots of earth movements, changing addresses, athletics, sports, exercise, generally everybody moving around all the time; with a focus on the shadow--pornography, dark sexuality, crime, murder, capital punishment, prisons--but also transcendence of the personal ego. I hope 2007 will be easier for everybody."

The United States and the charts of Bush and Cheney

The charts of the United States, President Bush, and Vice-President Cheney are of particular interest at this time. In the U.S. chart, progressed Mars will turn retrograde in late July 2006, making it very difficult for war and any form of aggression to work in our favor. The Mars retrograde by progression is unprecedented in our nation's chart--and it will last for more than 70 years. How we conduct and assert our `energy'--militarily and otherwise--as the lead nation in the world is about to change. Retrograde planets have us turning inward, and a retrograde Mars will probably manifest as our becoming more thoughtful, conscious, refined, and civil in our behavior.

What's in President Bush's star Chart?
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