Who's Singing This Anthem?

I just turned 50 this year. In terms of Health Insurance of course that's bad news for premium hikes. It's bad for looking for a job as well. Why would an employer pay extra to cover me? I can't see. I think my ears are clogged. For some reason I'm depressed and can't stop eating French Fries. While I was still 49 years old my Doctor told me "You know, next year you get to start having bi-annual colonoscopies." I've been avoiding her like the plague, I have no interest in viewing my polyps on the big screen.

So, although my Health Insurance has been rising every year for probably the past 4 years as if I had just turned 50, I knew that this year would be special. It's my Chiron Return after all. Chiron? The Inspired Teacher who can pass all great healing knowledge on to his students but can't heal his own crap? Yay, Life is sticking that concept into my face right now. Passage under the Golden Arches leads to the Pearly Gates through my Anthem Healthcare Insurance I guess.

When the big white envelope came explaining "the changes to my plan" I didn't open it. To be honest I still haven't opened it. I probably won't open it. I know I can't pay it. It's still sitting on the passenger car seat under the Rex Bills Rulership book. I'm keeping it where my Polyps can best take a read. And even then I can't avoid it. Turns out the hikes were so extensive and so mercilessly high that the Government is intervening and the Media is attacking. I got to hear the announcement of what I assume is going to be a 39 percent rate hike from off the news.

So I've been paying attention a little. I've guffawed and cheered when California Assemblyman Dave Jones headed a hearing of my Health Insurance Company, Lovely Anthem, which used to be Blue Cross. Jones asked the President of my Health Insurance company why she has no shame. No shame? Women higher ups in the workplace routinely have no shame. Where've ya been Dave? The President of Anthem is a sweet faced woman with a endearing voice who never really has an answer for anything. Meanwhile she's channeling Bonnie and Clyde. Those charts that are showing low inflation rates in the U.S.? Where do the economists come up with those lies? I used to wonder the same thing while watching the Real Estate prices soar.

Like 700,000 other people I received the rate hike which will finally force me to discontinue the policy, maybe accept a much more inferior policy. Just as I reach the age when I will need it. After all the years that I've been paying into it while healthy.

I already tried a few years ago to switch to a lower paying policy and found that the benefits were so downgraded that financially they wouldn't make sense if I ever actually were to get sick. The Health Insurance Companies don't explain to you, for example, things like, the co-pay you have now will pay for prescription drugs after you've paid $100.00 on your current policy. With your new policy you will have a $1000 deductible plus some other weird thing I can't remember. And, because of the changeover at the time I saw how much the prescription drugs the Doctors had given me really cost. And I got scared. Really scared. (The Drugs didn't even work). Thing is, I don't have a clue how to talk to the sales people. They, on the other hand, are as slimy as used car dealers and know exactly how to sell me a swamp in a medical waste bin.

So back to the astrology of my Liege Lords of the Insurance Companies.

Yahoo article about the hearings and the dopey President of Anthem telling Dave Jones that she can't remember how much she made last year. Linky: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100224/ap_on_bi_ge/us_anthem_blue_cross_rate_hike.

My Insurance Company, interestingly enough, is headed by two women. Once again we see the extreme callousness of women in power. Also the stupidity. Hate to say it, and this probably isn't true, but a white guy in the insurance industry facing a major recession that will last for years will probably at least be looking for some sort of placatory number crunching thing. Women just let things fall apart. The women managers from Texas I've worked for have been extra special about this. And I suspect it's almost guaranteed that a company has less than 7 years to live if it takes one of these sleezeballs on. But, what do I know?

Anthem's President is someone named Leslie Margolin. Nice Name. As I said she has a nice face, the kind of face that doesn't think real clearly. The type of face that doesn't know how much she made last year. Leslie knows exactly how much it will cost to treat me for heart attack, breast cancer, diabetes, bad breath, whatever. I bet she could tell us right now how much, to the penny, my colonoscopy will cost. And I can also guarantee you that she has included in fine print somewhere that I can't understand how to write the policy so that I'm under insured for the treatments anyway. And she can probably speak in a really sweet, whispery yet level headed tone about the whole thing while I scream my friggin head off.

I don't have Leslie's birth date. She probably has forgotten what it is anyway. So I must move on to Leslie's boss. My Insurance company, Anthem, has a parent company, Wellpoint, which is run by CEO Angela Braly. Turns out Braly's a Cancer Sun same as me. Shit.

Angela Braly
b. July 1, 1961 Dallas, TX

Sun 10 Cancer; Moon Aquarius or Pisces; NN 30 Leo

Braly has a conjunction of Mars-Pluto in Virgo over the cusp with her Leo North Node. Mars-Pluto has an iron will. She uses Public health in order to show off in the world. And, as I said, this means that she's adjusting her own oxygen mask, not yours. And the plane probably is crashing anyway.

Angela's chart sort of reminds me of Janet Reno's chart who was also a Cancer Sun with a Mars-Pluto conjunction (in Leo, though). Janet did some weird stuff involving force of will, boy o boy. Remember that compound in Texas? She gassed the kids. Then there was Easter at Elian Gonzalez' house. The Military stormed little Elian's house with subatomic machine guns and a video camera and so we got to watch a bunch of soldiers in full uniform hauling Elian off at gunpoint with a look of total terror on his face. Enough to make me want to spew my Easter Eggs.

Man, you know, I have a Cancer Sun with a Mars-Pluto conjunction. Thank God I'm not in charge.

Uranus in Leo is also conjunct the North Node in Angela's chart. And Lilith is also conjunct Uranus-NN. I've said it before and it bears repeating: Lilith is always there. What does this mean? Angela thinks she's going to ride her own pony off into the wide open sunset, Anthem/Wellpoint customers can just die for all she cares. (That's Texas talk, isn't it? Brassy Tacky?) When asked at her personal hearing, Angela knew exactly how much she made last year. Something like 2M plus another 8M in stock. Angela's got a conjunction of Sun to Mercury Rx in Cancer. She had lots of lessons early on in life about retaining memory of information. Cancer has a long memory.

It's fun to watch Angela's progressed Sun right now. She's been in the middle of a major life changing set of contact progressions over a long period of time. This could account for her rise. It will account for her fall. Her Sun has been passing over Lilith and Uranus in Leo. That evokes a rise in leadership skills that involves riding a really wild pony. Now Angela's progressed Sun is about 2 or 3 degrees (years) away from touching her North Node at 29 Leo. That's the Regulus degree. Regulus had a great rise and Regulus can have a great Fall. Someone who is too full of himself (the way Leo can be) can really crash, boom bang. After that Angela's progressed Sun will hit her Mars in Virgo and then her Pluto in Virgo. The change from Leo to Virgo can be a very refining experience. It can also mean a major change from Major to Minor, as they say in the song. This is a change that I think I would really like to see for someone like Angela right now. I've been through it myself. Actually, while weaving in and out of major Neptune transits at the same time, which adds a bit to the loser part.

Since Sun passing over Uranus-Mars-Pluto like this can indicate death or murder, I wonder if anyone would care to make follow ups of all us 700,000 Anthem customers out here in California in about 10 years to see if we have a higher than average death rate. That's about how long it will take for Angela's Sun progression to complete its nasty travels. This Sun-Mars-Pluto aspect is like that guy in the sweat lodge in Sedona. It's also in the chart of the CEO who was responsible for Bhopal chemical spill. It's sort of always inadvertent, done from a distance. Legal, yet sociopathic.

So, I decided to look up the planetary aspects for the legislation in Europe which led to adoption of Universal Health Care in Europe to see why the U.S. Government is having so much trouble pushing this thing through. The short answer is the Saturn-Uranus-Pluto t-square. This shows a huge collective manifestation of people who really just want to get in each others' faces.

That's neither here nor there. If anyone were to read this blog they would know that politics isn't really my thing.

Europe's adoption of Human Rights legislation which enacted Universal Health care in Europe and all other Industrialized countries except the U.S. is called "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights."

According to Wikipedia Germany was first to try to adopt health care in 1883. Otto von Bismark tried to enact socialist reform. Wasn't he shot, or something? Interesting that this was around the time of the big Outer Planet conjunction of Neptune to Pluto in Taurus (They were both still in Taurus but not within orb of a conjunction). Trying to interpret this aspect is pretty difficult. Taurus rules money and values surrounding money and the material world. Neptune is naturally empathic and Pluto represents deepest motivations. We probably don't ever do anything unless Pluto is there to motivate us.

The Health care stuff didn't work for Europe until Pluto hit Leo all those many years later. That's a whole quarter of a rotation of the wheel later for the planet with the longest orbit. The passage seems to have happened only after the home front was completely decimated by the Pluto in Cancer transit, i.e. 2 WW's. Some things are only born out of desperation I guess.
According to Wikipedia:

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, (Article 25 = Right to Healthcare)
signed by the United Nations General Assembly
Dec. 10, 1948 (at night) Palais de Chaillot, Paris France

Sun 19 Sagittarius; Moon Aries; NN 3 Taurus Rx
(Ascendant could be anything from Gemini to Virgo)

One can see the strength of this date for signing on to a great humanitarian deed. The Sagittarius Sun is great for starters. Sagittarians are spend thrifts. They also have a strong social ethic and are broad minded. The Moon in Aries shows the needs of the Individual. In this chart the dispositors of these two major planets are in conjunction in Capricorn (Government). Two different Grand Trines seem to further bind this energy together. The Mars-Jupiter conjunction is in an Earth Grand Trine with Saturn in Virgo and NN in Taurus. Then the Sun and Moon are possibly (can't be sure because don't have Moon's exact placement) are possible in a Fire Grand Trine with Pluto 17 Leo (Human Will).

What stand out most of all here is Uranus. Uranus represents the power of the collective group. Uranus likes to think about the future in ways that will benefit everyone. Uranus is unaspected at 29 Gemini and is out of bounds at 23" 53.'

There are no singletons in this chart but 3 planets are out of bounds. Well, if that's what it takes, that's what it takes. Along with Uranus, Mercury and Mars are out of bounds.

So, sad to say, the t-square aspect of Saturn-Uranus-Pluto that we are currently in the middle of which reflects the energies of the early 1930s was the extreme stressor that, in the past, led to letting things boil to an awful head years later. Unless there's some way to look around the problems of this t-square through signs that sextile and trine it I don't see much progress. People seem to be wanting to argue right now.

It's Not My Imagination

Well, the newspaper has included a story about how the tap water is being polluted by overflow from the sewers up in the towns North of where I am but it includes no information in the towns south of those towns. There's no reporting on how widespread the problem is. Yet, when you walk down the street you can smell extremely pungeant food smells coming out from under the sidewalks. Apparently, according to the West Bay Sanitary District anyone who drinks the water or bathes in it is exposing themselves to "Chemicals, bacteria and viruses, 'posing a serious risk to fisheries, wildlife habitat and human health.'"

People still manage to remain blissfully unaware. Human nature is so unbelievable.

Apparently the people where I live are completely oblivious to the fact that brown gunk is coming out of their water. If you drape a white towel over a faucet and let it drip slowly for a couple of hours you can make a really cool radiating pattern of brown grease on the towel. It even stinks like whatever cuisine has just been dumped down the drain.

Yet, I can find absolutely no laundromat to clean my clothes within 30 miles of where I live. I have been buying bottled water to brush my teeth with and to wipe myself off with. The H1N1 Virus is nothing compared with what this has the ability to turn into. Not understanding where the smell was coming from I have been gassing everything madly with Febreze to the point that I had fevers for 2 months. Then I went down to Monterey in order to do my laundry. A 60 mile car drive in order to sit in a laundromat. This year is the year that my progressed Mercury and Venus both fall on my natal Pluto in the 4th House (same degree). I've become fascinated by how many different types of Sewers there are. There are plain "Sewer" Manhole Covers. There are "Storm Drain" Manhole Covers. And there are these weird Manhole Covers that say "Sanitary Sewer." I guess that's the Virgo conjunction. I just love the idea of saying that there is clean shit in the world. It's really Republican. Howard Hughes would agree with me.

I realize that not everybody is as lucky as I was to be raised by my Amazing Irish Jewish Mother who was constantly screaming: "If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times, Don't throw the God Damned grease down the drain! You'll clog up the plumbing." You should have heard her screaming about keeping fingers out of electrical sockets. The first thing I ever said was "Don't Do That!"

People, read this and quit flushing grease down the drains. Write to your local congressmen and complain. Isn't this amazing? Home prices are among the highest in the country here and the people who live in them are among the filthiest. Come visit the Silicon Valley but be sure to get your Dengue Fever shots in advance.

http://www.baykeeper.org/action/FOG.html

www.baydailynews.com "Group files suit over Bay sewage"

Sorry I'm being rude but this is just too damn much.

"We Did This For the Show"

God damned kids. They're always blurting out the truth at all the wrong times.

This week's big news story, and who knows why, is the Balloon Boy story. A family in Fort Collins, CO called the Fire Brigade to come rescue their son who they said they thought had crawled into a home-made balloon. Turns out the kid was hiding in the house the whole time. And the Father called the Media and NASA before he actually called the Fire Brigade for real help. And the little boy started having major barfing sessions during the media blitz of interviews after the show. Wonder if he was a Virgo. My Mother always said she could tell when my brother was lying because he would throw up because Virgos have weak stomachs (turns out he's lactose intolerant).

Anyway, this kid, Falcon, doesn't have what it takes to be a media star. He ended up telling the Cameras that he hid in the attic for 5 hours "for the show." He's so hyperactive, I don't know how he sat anywhere for 5 hours. They could do a whole show on hyperactive kids and the neurotic parents who raise them from watching this family being interviewed. I can just see my Mother now: "Look at that...Out of the mouths of Babes.....they're lying out their asses...did you see that kid throw up?....you know your brother...."

I guess the parents are now being charged with all kinds of counts related to the fact that they were using the helicopters and the State Troopers and the TV stations for a publicity stunt. Come on, give em a break. The economy is bad. It looks like they're unemployed and unemployable, this is job security for the media who's too stupid to give decent reporting about the economy, and nobody else in the world has this much gall (or imagination).

Can't find the parents' birth dates which is totally traumatizing. Idiot Father Richard Heene is born around 1961. Idiot Mother is born in 1964. Marriage was on Oct. 12, 1997 in Clark County, Nevada (source I think was About.com).

Well, the marriage has a conjunction of Jupiter to Uranus in Aquarius. They were trying to take advantage of their Marital Jupiter Return, I suppose. Sometimes Jupiter makes you lucky, sometimes it makes you go way over the top. In Aquarius, I suppose you should just some interesting turns of event.

This is good for my otherwise useless Astrological predictions. Remember that I'm the one who called this Jupiter-Chiron-Neptune conjunction the "big dirigible in the sky." Did you see the footage of that homemade balloon whaling through the air? Dirigibles explode, baby. Not the greatest method of transport.

This marriage is a Sun in Libra which is great as Libra rules Marriage. But probably not so hot when Sun is opposing Saturn in Aries which is in its Fall and Retrograde which means that not following rules leads to getting caught. Saturn doesn't let you off the hook the way Jupiter does. Also, a really incredible Venus-Mars-Pluto conjunction in Sagittarius that squares the Nodal Axis. This family has to do things "their way." Frank Sinatra exhibited the Sadge spirit.

Now, let's hope that the economy doesn't take off on a similar helium hot air escapade.

Crazy Pills

Really interesting article on the History of Psychiatry in the United States that separates the phases that the Industry has gone through into 3 distinct epochs. The industry is barely 100 years old. (from the Wilson Quarterly: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=wq.essay&essay_id=400008.)

Psychiatry is an industry that deals with extremes of human behavior so I suppose one shouldn't be shocked at the extreme behaviors that are used to treat it. Thorazine took over from the Shock Treatments and Lobotomies of the mid 20th century. It was invented in France and accepted for use on Dec. 11, 1950. (Sun-Chiron-Venus in Sagittarius squaring the Pisces NN-Virgo SN). Created originally for some other completely unrelated ill (I think it was considered an antihistimine) the Doctors began to notice that it made a person not care about a damn thing. How else can you deal with that entire huge generation who suffered from Pluto in Cancer? Thorazine, baby. No more caring. This is also the generation that created all the Divorces. Thorazine accepted by the FDA in 1957. Pluto at the very last degrees of Leo just chompin at the bit to get into Virgo where it could take over the World with Magic Bullets.

Next biggee was Valium. Valium created by a Polish Doctor, Dr. Leo Sternbach in 1956 as Librium. He manipulated it into a pill that was 2 1/2 times stronger and named it Valium. Approved by the U.S. in May, 1963. Between 1969 and 1982 Valium became the top selling pharmaceutical. Sales peaked in 1978. Pluto was just about finished with its passage through Libra so the Pluto in Cancer people were just about all finished up with their Pluto squares. Pluto passed into Scorpio in 1983-84 just as Valium sales sank.

The Rolling Stones wrote a song about Valium called "Mother's Little Helper." It's really fun to look at the astrology, especially the Cancer Mommy influence, in mind.

The Frankenstein:

Dr. Leo Sternbach
b. May 7, 1908 Opatija, Croatia

Sun 17 Taurus; Moon Cancer or Leo; NN 7 Cancer

Sternbach's Sun is both conjunct his Mercury in Taurus and parallel it. These two trine his Uranus 17 Capricorn to the degree as well. Very sharp mind. Sun-Mercury-Pluto are all in parallel here.

The rest of his chart shows how he used his brilliance. North Node in Cancer conjunct Neptune (drugs) in Cancer on one side. And conjunct a wide conjunction/stellium over the Gemini-Cancer Cusp of Venus in Cancer-Pluto & Mars in Gemini. The Dude handled all the compulsions and boredoms of the most Anxious (Gemini) Mommies (Cancer) in the World.

When Valium hit the market in May, 1963 Sternbach was close to a Nodal Return in Cancer. I can only find that the Drug came out in May, which means that he would have been having his Solar Return at this time. Best stuff is his progressions. 5 planets and the North Node all bundled up in the sign of Cancer. Both his progressed Mercury and prog. Venus were Retrograde which seems to indicate that his effect on all things Cancerian might come with complications. His progressed Moon may have been going through its return in Cancer as well (can't tell for sure what sign as don't have birth time).

Most interesting, of course, is that Sternbach's progressed Sun was conjunct his Neptune-NN conjunction in Cancer. And transiting Neptune was in Scorpio opposite his natal Sun-Mercury. This is one of the few people I've studied who benefitted from a double, let alone single, whammy transit aspect of Sun to Neptune. Most of us just wake up 3 years later and wonder what just happened. Neptune's tendency to bring on addiction is really too much. The Good Doc literally projected those nasty transits onto an entire generation of parents (Nodal Axis: Cancer-Capricorn). This generation was already competing with the Pluto in Gemini's who still hadn't recovered from prohibition, like they really needed to chase the pills down with their cocktails.

As far as the transits go, Uranus had just moved into Virgo (anxiety) and was in wide conjunction with Pluto in Virgo (anxiety). Saturn (depression) was still not quite in Pisces (drugs, addiction, escapism) yet, but ... the Show will soon begin.

The Rolling Stones wrote their song about the drug in 1965 and recorded it in the studio between Dec. 5-8, 1965, London (?). This is right as the Saturn-Chiron in Pisces opposite Uranus-Pluto in Virgo opposition was within degrees of being exact. On Dec. 5, the Sun was in Sagittarius, the Moon was at the beginning of Taurus where it stayed during most of the recording. On Dec. 8 it passed over the North Node in Gemini and became the Full Moon. The Sun-Moon and Nodal Axes were squaring the Saturn-Chiron to Uranus-Pluto axes!

Here are the 5 different types of Psych Drugs, one would assume that there would be more. I guess most were discovered when developed to treat other problems. Somebody really needs to force the psych people to read some French novels so they can learn more about human nature. This is kind of a limiting selection.

anxiolytics, anti-anxiety
anti-depressants
stimulants, depression
anti-psychotics
mood stabilizers

History of the best sellers of the industry. http://www.wired.com/medtech/drugs/magazine/15-10/st_infoporn

1st put out by Bayer: Luminal, 1912 for anxiety (Pluto in Gemini)

The first Anti-depressant, Benzedrine, came onto the Market during the, yes, Great Depression in 1936.

Thorazine, an anti-psychotic, took the paddles away from the ElectroShock and InsulinShock Docs. Dec. 11, 1950, France. Marketed starting in 1957.

Valium, May 1963, Uranus moves into Virgo. Top selling med 1969-1982, peaked in 1978.

Lithium - for all the Mommy's who took too much Valium mid 1970s

1987 Prozac - Ended Talk Therapy, Pluto in Scorpio, Grand conjunction of Saturn-Uranus-Neptune in Capricorn.

1991 Zoloft - Best Selling anti-D in 2002

1997 Seroquel - Best-selling anti-P

2002 Lexapro - current Best- selling anti-D. Benefited from intense marketing probably associated with the Saturn-Pluto opposition in Gemini-Sagg.