In the last website update there was going to be an article about Arthur C Clarke but there wasn't time. With yesterday's news of his passing, it seems fitting to post his chart.

His time of birth isn't known, so ignore the house cusps and take the Moon's position as approximate - the Moon is definitely in Capricorn though.

Arthur's blend of Sun in Sag with Moon in Capricorn is very 'reach for the stars but keep your feet on the ground'. In fact, Charles and Suzi Harvey used a quote from Clarke in their book 'Sun Sign, Moon Sign':

"My main themes are exploration (space, sea, time), the position of Man in the hierarchy of the universe, and the effect of contact with other intelligences."

The chart for this year's elections for London's Mayor and nearly 200 local governments in various parts of the UK, due to take place on 1st May, shows an important configuration involving Pluto's recent entry into Capricorn and Saturn's recent entry into Virgo.

The configuration is an Earth Grand Trine: Pluto is at 1 degree Capricorn, and is retrograde. Saturn is trine Pluto, from 2 degrees of Virgo, also retrograde. And Venus is trine them both from 2 degrees of Taurus.

A Grand Trine is a 3rd harmonic configuration - a division of the 360 degree circle by 3 - and each planet is therefore 120 degrees apart. But there's a 9th harmonic involved in this chart too: Uranus is in a 9th harmonic aspect to Venus, and to Saturn, and to Pluto.

This suggests something important going on abut money, resources, land, and property. We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that things in these areas need to come into more of a stable, harmonious arrangement; that's what this configuration represents.

But it holds a danger too: passive acceptance of the status quo is not the same as healthy, harmonious relations between the constituent parts of the system. There's the possiblity that this configuration is a bit too 'wet' and soggy to actively do what needs to be done, and do it in a way that is based on freely chosen working co-operation rather than compliance, or force.

The Moon represents the people, and it's closely conjunct Uranus, so fits in with this 3rd/9th harmonic configuration. And then there is a sextile - 6th harmonic - between the Moon-Uranus conjunction and Jupiter. The people have an appetite for something different, new ways of doing things, some 'harmonious revolution', whatever that may be, but only so long as things don't rock the boat or tip the boat over. Whether they'll get it is another matter.

It's all very 'establishmenty' really - the Moon-Uranus is septile the Sun in Taurus - the people are inspired by 'change' that isn't really change - Jupiter is in Capricorn which can strengthen the political and the managerial classes - and of course the Grand Trine in Earth - boringly plodding on with the same old stifling routine ways of exercising Executive power and privilege.

The transiting nodal axis is aligned with the UK's Saturn, and transiting Sun in early May is conjunct the UK's Mars. Hackneyed talk about 'strong government' and 'new leadership', followed by more of the same old, same old, disguised as 'new-exciting-reforming'.

Careful we don't sink in the mud. We need to be much more resourceful in blending stability with freshness.

George Bush has the Sun in Cancer, closely conjunct the USA's Sun in Cancer. But he's not exactly known for his sensitive side. It's very much there though: his attachment to his family, his homeland, his ranch, his sensitivity to being criticised, and so on.

Bob Geldof's interview of George talks about this side of George, picking up his Sun's conjunction with the USA's Sun very well:

"George W Bush, I think, is an emotional man. But sometimes he’s a sentimentalist and that’s different. He is in love with America. Not the idea of America but rather an inchoate notion of a space. A glorious metaphysical entity. America the Good, the Just and the Fair. The shining city on the hill."

and

"...in public and with me he spoke fluently and often in wonderful aphorisms. Of course he has several verbal ticks; but here in Africa, where he is liked and viewed as a friend, perhaps he was more relaxed. Less guarded [Crab's carapace protects the softer inner nature].

Here are some examples. None is from speeches or prepared texts...

“Stop coming to Africa feeling guilty. Come with love and feeling confident for its future.”

“I like courage and compassion. We are a nation of courageous and compassionate people.”

“When we see hunger we feed them. Not to spread our influence, but because they’re hungry.”

“Evil does exist and in such brutal forms.”

“Outside forces tend to divide people.” “US solutions should not be imposed on African leaders.”"

OK, so back to the USA election. In this entry I want to draw attention to the area of the Zodiac at 10-14 degrees of Leo.

Barack Obama: Sun at 12 Leo
Hillary Clinton: Mars-Pluto conjunction at 14 Leo

No wonder those two are in a fight to the death......... and yet they're in the same political party: the (so-called) Democrats.

John McCain, the Republican candidate: Mars at 12 Leo.

So whichever one gets elected, there's something the same about them, and let's not mince words, Leo is not a Sign of democracy, particularly when these planets symbolising the will are placed there.

George Bush, the current president: Mercury-Pluto conjunction at 10 Leo

Bill Clinton, the former president: Pluto at 12 Leo - he actually has a Mercury-Pluto conjunction just like Bush.

The president before that, the other George Bush, doesn't have anything here in these degrees. The closest he has is Neptune at 18 Leo. And checking before him, Reagan and Carter don't have anything here or close by either - you have to go back to Gerald Ford who was president from 1974-1977 before you get anything close - Mercury at 16 Leo, but before him Nixon didn't have anything here at all.

So there's a continuation of 'aggressive' planets in this small degree area running from January 1993 and into the future for at least another 4 years.

And no matter whether a Democrat or a Republican is elected, the pattern holds over a 19 year period - that's a generation.

Looking at the USA's chart there are no planets in these degrees or even opposite or square to them. There are some interesting midpoints:

• Mars/MC
• Saturn/Uranus
• Venus/Neptune
• Jupiter/Neptune

In the UK (and northern hemisphere) spring will, errrm, spring, later this month. Thursday 20th March at 5:48am, to be precise. Here's the chart, followed by a very basic outline of the weather possibilities:-

Regular readers of this blog might recall the entries from last year about autumn and winter. The winter entry talked a lot about wind and stormy weather, and so it proved. So what might be the general weather pattern for spring? The theory is that the chart shown above can give us an indication; it's something that I'm recording here not as a prediction, but as a learning tool, to see what happens.

The first thing to note is that last season's multiple indicators of strong winds etc - the Sun, Mercury, Jupiter, Pluto, Mars configuration - is not present in the chart for spring. The Mars-Pluto opposition is within orb and aspecting the Sun so it will probably still have relevance to this coming season, but it has moved apart and in terms of geography it runs through Germany and the countries north and south of Germany, not through or near to the UK as it was in the chart for winter.

Uranus is on the Ascendant for part of the UK though, with a sextile to Jupiter. The areas involved are the East Anglia area and down past London to the south coast. The type of weather associated with Jupiter sextile Uranus is cool, breezy, dry, and fair.

The rest of the country has links with other planets for this season, and it's quite a mixed bag. The Mercury-Venus conjunction in this chart, which is opposite Saturn, connects with Scotland, Cumbria, Wales, and Cornwall/Devon, meanwhile Northern Ireland is sandwiched between Neptune and Saturn.

Mercury-Venus on its own suggests gentle breezes, a tendency to be warmer than average, and partially cloudy skies, however the opposition with Saturn increases the tendency towards being overcast, with cooler than average temperatures and heavy precipitation. Whether these result in changeability, or else cancel each other out, remains to be seen. The Mercury-Venus conjunction is also trine Mars, indicating warmer and windier weather in these parts of the country.

Scotland and the eastern parts of Northern Ireland also have the Jupiter-Saturn sesquiquadrate running through it, suggesting cloudy stormier weather.

In Northern Ireland the Saturn and Neptune aspects suggest cloudiness and precipitation. Saturn is trine Pluto, and Pluto also connects with this area of the UK for this season. Saturn in trine to Pluto indicates cloudy, windy weather. Jupiter and Uranus make aspects through this area too, so the breezy weather may well put in a significant appearance here too.

Neptune makes an aspect down through mainland UK, from the east coast of Scotland to the west of England near the border with Wales, however Neptune doesn't make any aspects to other planets so I'm uncertain whether or not it will symbolise anything weather-wise - I'll be observing and learning.

Some of the indicators suggest fog/mist in various parts of the UK, even for Spring, so that'll be interesting to watch and see what happens too.

Finally, the Moon runs through much of the UK for this season, and it's opposite the Mercury-Venus conjunction, not far from Saturn but out of orb of a conjunction. The Moon would therefore highlight the Mercury-Venus combination, picking out its breeziness and humidity, and tendency to be partially cloudy.

So here's the chart for the new president of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev. There's no time of birth available as far as I could find so this chart is calculated for midday, with the house cusps removed. The Moon could have been in Aries - it moved into Taurus just before 11am (local time).

Born in 1965 means that he's part of a generation of people who have Uranus conjunct Pluto, opposite Saturn. Dmitry's Sun is conjunct Uranus and Pluto, so his personal identity is linked with the collective forces of change.

This generation are about to resonate very strongly, as Saturn opposes Uranus once again, in the same degrees as in 1965 but with reversed positions, and then after that Uranus will be square Pluto. So Medvedev's ascent to this political position has a lot of appropriateness, timing-wise, and could arguably suggest that he's not going to be merely Putin's puppet.

Following on from the previous blog entry, there is of course much more to say about the USA election candidates. I just couldn't resist commenting on that news snippet; it's a perfect example of how Sign interactions play out in human relationships, and the news has been shot through with it since Hillary said it.

The reasons why I haven't written earlier, and more, about the USA election are varied.

In the UK there's far too much media coverage of the USA election. Far too much. Yes, the election in the world's current dominant military and economic country is important for us in the UK. However it's deeply questionable whether there will be any, or much, difference made whether the next president is McCain, Clinton, or Obama - and at this stage it seems very likely, if not a dead cert, that it'll be one of those three.

Added to that is the fact that the birth times for these three candidates aren't exactly known for their to-the-minute accuracy. I'd prefer it if they were, given the power that they'll wield.

Nevertheless, there'll be some astrological information coming soon on these people, based on their birth charts as accurately as we can currently know them, so watch this space.

So apparently Hillary and Barack are considering teaming up, but Hillary said:

"That may be where this is headed, but we have to decide who is on the top of the ticket"

Hmmm. Hillary has 3 planets in Scorpio and 3 in Leo - both are fixed signs.

Barack has 3 in Leo and 1 in Scorpio.

With these two immensely proud unyielding signs, I doubt either of them will accept being anything other than President.

Scorpions and Lions? No-one can win.