Burma is a country of over 50 million people. Having gained independence from the UK in early 1948, the Union of Burma was a republic, however a coup d'état in March 1962 imposed military rule which has remained in place ever since, despite the pro-democracy uprising of 1988 and the elections of May 1990. The military junta changed the country's name from Burma to Myanmar in 1989, however the governments of several countries refuse in practice to recognise the change.

There are numerous significant dates of the last 60 years of freedom and oppression that resonate with each other:-

General Aung San who negotiated with the UK government to gain Burma's independence was assassinated on 19th July 1947. His daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi, was placed under house arrest for the first of three times on 20th July 1989. General Ne Win, who led the coup d'état in 1962 and ruled the country from that date on, stepped down on 23rd July 1988, triggering the pro-democracy movement.

The 8888 Uprising of August 1988 was violently ended by the junta on 18th September 1988, and on that same date the junta formed the State Law and Order Restoration Council. The National League for Democracy (NLD) was formed just a few days after on 24th September 1988. The monks gave 17th September 2007 as their deadline for receiving an apology from the junta for its troops injuring monks a fortnight earlier, and withdrew from giving spiritual services to all military personnel on 22nd September 2007. The whole week was filled with increasing marches in various cities across Burma. On 20th September 1994 General Than Shwe and General Khin Nyunt of the military junta met Aung San Suu Kyi for the first time since they had placed her under house arrest in 1989, and on 23rd September 2000 they placed her under house arrest for the second time.

Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded a human rights prize by the European Parliament on 10th July 1991, and on 10th July 2000 Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest.

On 27th May 1990 free and democratic elections were held that resulted in the NLD, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, winning the vote. On 30th May 2003 Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters were attacked by the military junta and she was placed under house arrest for the third time. On 20th May 2006 Ibrahim Gambari, UN Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs, met Aung San Suu Kyi in the first visit by a foreign official since 2004, and on 25th May 2007 Aung San Suu Kyi's term of house arrest was extended by the military junta.

These dates are like 'birthdays' in that they are Solar Returns, i.e. the Sun returns to the same degree it occupied years earlier, indicating a resonance pattern.

The recent protests in Burma / Myanmar echo those of 8th August 1988, which ended 19 years ago almost to the day when these latest protests began to increase.

The story is not only sad, but simultaneously inspiring. It's also fascinating for its synchronicities and patterns, and well worth reading more about online - I can't do it justice here but some web searches will quickly lead you to more info.

Back in 1988 on the 8th of August Saturn was conjunct Uranus, at 26 deg 19 min Sagittarius and 27 deg 22 min Sagittarius respectively. By the time the protests were brutally ended by the government via the armed forces, Saturn was at 26 deg 13 min Sag and Uranus was at 27 deg 07 min Sag.

Fast forward to now: we find Pluto at 26 deg 20 min on 18th September 2007.

Jupiter is also making a return to its place in the natal chart for Burma. Jupiter symbolises, amongst other things (including college and university students), religious people - in this case, the monks, whom the government fears will join with the students.

Interestingly, the birthchart for Burma was reportedly chosen by Burmese astrologers.

There is much more to this, astrologically, but this snippet will have to do for now.

On Sunday 2nd September Saturn moved from Leo into Virgo. It had been in Leo for two years, and will be in Virgo for another two years, moving into Libra in October 2009. So what can we do with this shift? What can we use it for? What follows is a small beginning in answer to those questions to encourage your own exploration.

Healthy unravelling

One of the things we can use this phase for is to unravel and undo the knots we tie ourselves in. On the less health-promoting side of the equation, Saturn symbolises fearful contraction, over-concern, worry, anxiety and energy-sapping fixations, and Virgo represents our ability to get so convolutedly lost in the minutiae of life that we temporarily forget how to expand, let go, and digest experience. So we can use this time to unweave those things that are too tightly woven, to bring fluidity and movement to those things that have become clogged up.

Organic fluidity

When we're afraid we can slip into a tendency to cling, clutch, and control. This tendency is likely to become highlighted while Saturn makes its journey through Virgo, the purpose being for us to say "Okay, yes, this control habit has outlived its usefulness and now I can shift to a way of doing things that promotes my wholeness, not my disintegration or my separation." Otherwise, our need for tight control could hold us back even more as we try even further to micro-manage everything inside us and outside us, and we could thereby lay down a thicker pattern of controlling as a way to 'order the chaos'. What we really need to re-learn is how to tune into the organic and intrinsic self-organising principles of the Universe and align ourselves with them, so that we feel safe and are never overwhelmed by inner or outer experiences.

Small cogs

It's a good time to look after the small cogs in the wheel that make the big cogs turn. Increased denial of the importance of the small cogs, the little people, the little things, is possible while Saturn's in Virgo, as is a collective and personal exacerbation of bureaucratic protocols, causing imagination, enthusiasm, and heart to dry up and become stagnant. Fluidity is of paramount importance on every level, so that life doesn't become stuck in a spiral of moribund repetition and drudgery. Grounding passions and visions is not the same thing as snuffing them out or stifling them under mountains of paperwork - literal or metaphorical. Rules are meant to enable, not disable, so facilitation is key.

Acceptance

The tendency to harshly judge and negate might well worsen for a while. The solution? A good one is to be found in what has been called the radical acceptance of everything. Sounds permissive? Not so.

The radical acceptance of everything perfectly encapsulates the apparent paradox of the Virgo-Pisces polarity in the Zodiac wheel. It is an approach to our inner selves, first and foremost, and then to the inner selves of others. It has been written about so brilliantly by Ann Weiser Cornell in her book 'The Radical Acceptance of Everything'. Of this, she evokes the Virgo-Pisces combination when she says:

"There is a state of deep listening to ourselves that gets past all the blocks and inner tangles. The first experience is relief. After that, people have aha! moments and begin to live in new ways."

"Self-criticism and self-consciousness hold the stuckness in place. But most people try to get rid of the self-criticism by judging it in turn. 'Bad inner critic! Go away!' No wonder this doesn't work very well. What we'll do instead is show you how to be accepting toward every part of yourself. It's amazing what starts to happen when people really get this."

Becoming whole

he theme of Virgo-Pisces is becoming whole, integrating all the parts into a smoothly-functioning, healthy, happy unit. The radical acceptance of everything is the 'means whereby', as FM Alexander of Alexander Technique fame would phrase it. With Saturn in Virgo we need pragmatism, and this approach of turning to each part and welcoming it into the whole is exactly that, combining Piscean empathy with Virgoan precision and thus ensuring that there is no drought or infertility within the psyche or the body.

"So the radical acceptance of everything brings a new possibility of trust, a feeling of greater wholeness to the Focusing process. As guides we are no longer guardians of the gate, watching to allow in some experiences and exclude others. Instead, we are holders of the open space that includes whatever wants to come. We are not afraid of what comes in the focuser. We know that there are no enemies in the inner world. We enable the focuser to form a positive relationship with what comes, a relationship of listening and acceptance or, if that isn't possible, a relationship with the part that finds it hard to accept what's there. The spirit is one of inclusion, not exclusion. The attitude is one of welcome."

Plentiful Harvest

Instead of Saturn in Virgo representing a new round of self-judgement, self-righteousness, micro-managing and bureaucratic authoritarianism, ever-tightening strictures on the self mirrored by ever-increasing control-freakery in our societies, we can use it to loosen the suffocating fabric of denial, denigration, deprivation, and cruel rules, paving the way for an opening up, a harvesting process, where the fruits of experience ripen in plenty, symbolised by the thousands-of-years-old assocations of the festival of the Saturnalia with Saturn and the Autumn harvest with Virgo. It is the difference between closing down and opening up, erecting barriers or allowing appropriate sifting and sorting, and it starts with a very down-to-earth way to accept and embrace each part's essential place within the overall tapestry of existence.

"The very parts of ourselves that we try to get rid of and deny are like “treasure maps” — they point to where a part of our wholeness has been pushed away and is waiting to be re-included."

Useful links
Ann Weiser Cornell, featuring Barbara McGavin - The Radical Acceptance of Everything - click here
NB This is an external site and is not affiliated with this blog or the Astrology for the 21st Century website.

Richard Branson's sold the UK Virgin Megastores and they're to be re-branded as Zavvi - god help them!

Last month Branson sold his USA Virgin Megastore branches, and this month's sale is, he says, part of a process that's been going on for the last 6 years to divest the Virgin group of its chain.

The changes are, of course, part of the industry-wide impact of digital sales.

Virgin Megastore's astrological chart is uncertain. The closest we can get is that the first shop was opened in 1971, probably in early February, in Oxford Street.

Around that time Venus was at 27 Sagittarius, which is where Pluto is now. Last month and this month Pluto is stationary (i.e. appearing to stop moving, as viewed from Earth, as the Earth overtakes it as both planets orbit the Sun), coinciding with the divestment of the Virgin record shop chain, and its 'death' and 'rebirth'.

Couple of new articles added to the website earlier tonight. The first is about Saturn's recent entry into the Zodiac Sign Virgo, and the second is a short analysis of Elements and Quadruplicities/Modes in the FTSE 100 and the Pound/Dollar exchange rate. Also, in the Astrology for Peace section there's an interesting graph about the potentials for the Christmas/New year period.

Saturn in Virgo: Saturn has just moved into Virgo, signalling a shift for the next two years into a new theme - the radical acceptance of everything

Mind Your E's & Q's: Elements & Quadruplicities in financial markets

Astrology for Peace