Planet Waves: Hot Spots

by Eric Francis Coppolino and illustrations by Emil Alzamora, March 04, 2009

 

A year is a mysterious thing. Four seasons, 52 weeks, 13 orbits of the Moon. Twelve signs of the zodiac. What a difference one makes, how long it seems at the beginning and how fast it seemed at the end. The year 2004 of the Common Era begins in year 15 in Japan (15th year of the reign of the emperor, His Imperial Majesty Akihito), 1424 in the Islamic calendar, 1382 in the Persian calendar, 5764 in the Hebrew calendar, and the Year of Our Lady of Discord 3170. With the New Moon on January 22, the Chinese year of the Monkey begins, in particular, the Green Monkey, or wood element of this rather fiery critter. When you think of the Monkey, think of 1968. That was the water Monkey.

In the Western world, the new year is reckoned approximately with the Winter Solstice, the shortest day in the Northern Hemisphere and the day the Sun makes a 90-degree angle to the Tropic of Capricorn. It falls in the time once known as Saturnalia, which was a big celebration and orgy back when people really knew how to party. Today we peck each other on the cheek and sip a little eggnog.

As your neighborhood astrologer, it’s my duty to pass along advance info on the approaching four seasons, which promise to be, well...once again the word is interesting. We have not had a year that was not interesting in a while. Let’s see, there was the stolen election in 2000, appropriately in the year of the metal Dragon. The next year brought September 11 and the war on Afghanistan Part One, spiced up by a little anthrax and the proverbial “three minutes of hate” each day for Osama bin Laden. Astrologically, we can chalk that up to Saturn opposite Pluto (historically, think of plagues and crusades).

Then came fabulous 2002 (the only numeric palindrome of the century), accentuated by more Saturn opposite Pluto. That was the year the gory details of Enron came out, and the Arthur Anderson bust and other corporate shenanigans exposed (the first full year of Chiron in Capricorn, which is still unfolding). In August, the pitch for the war in Iraq, begun the prior September 11 with false allegations that Saddam Hussein had something to do with the World Trade Center attacks, went into high throttle. There was the DC sniper and the death of Sen. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, always the “one” in all those 99-to-1 votes. Too bad he’s not running for president, isn’t it?

Then came 2003. Outgoing Gov. George Ryan of Illinois commuted every sentence of a death row prisoner after capital sentencing in his state was proven (largely by journalism students) to be a complete sham. Space Shuttle Columbia shattered over Texas, killing seven astronauts and grounding the shuttle fleet. There was the biggest pre-emptive antiwar protest in history (602 cities, millions of souls) against the biggest pre-emptive war in history. Then came “winning” the war, and then the insurgents taking a long turn at winning the war with the Ramadan Offensive. There was terrible loss of life in Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and other places. Nearly 500 United States soldiers have died this year. Mars retrograde in Pisces, please take a bow.