“We have failed to grasp that when we do not protest and demand an end to atrocities committed in our name, something trips in the deep-brain cynicism of the governing psyche, which takes heart from the passivity it finds and devises more ways to control and enforce its will.”
Henry Porter
Whoever had the brilliant idea to attach the customary annual Asian flu scare to birds has certainly seen it take wings and soar. Now it seems it’s got legs as well. Since its first appearance in Autumn 2005, the fantastical idea that humanity is about to succumb to some super-flu virus which is about to jump species from birds to humans and wipe out up to 150 million of us has not only grabbed the public imagination, but government coffers as well. In figures announced 2 days ago, Roche Pharmaceuticals, subsidiary of Swiss-based multinational Roche Holding AG and manufacturers of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu, has seen net income soar to £3.7billion in 2006, a rise of 34% on 2005’s figures.
To put this in perspective, Roche’s net income was greater than the entire gross domestic product – that is, the value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year – of the bottom 73 nations of the World Bank’s 183-nation rankings in 2005. (The parent company’s revenues exceeded the GDP of 119 of those 183 nations.) When you consider that a substantial proportion of this was on the strength of a mere fantasy that has no basis in current reality, only an unproven theoretical possibility of coming into being, and probably no better odds of happening than any of the other disaster scenarios we regularly entertain our imaginations with, the sheer lunacy and obscenity of our collective gullibility in the face of these druggernauts becomes all too painfully plain (not to mention the hypocrisy of our societal attitudes to illegal drugs cartels).
For a grounded and thorough examination of the avian flu question, see the article Avian flu – the ecology of an epidemic from the archives of the Ecologist magazine, which is no less relevant today than it was when written in December 2005. And for a depressingly plausible reason for the US administration’s enthusiastic participation in the flu promotion circus, see Dr Joseph Mercola‘s comments.
Who would believe so much money could be made from selling illusory “protection” against an illusory threat? To anyone familiar with astrology, this has all the hallmarks of the Neptune archetype. It seemed worth checking out.
The astrological chart for the event (below) is extraordinary. It fell within an extended period during which conflicting forces in the shape of fixed squares, crosses, yods, and other configurations were severely disrupting many people’s equilibrium. The original announcement of the putative “epidemic” was made by Dr David Nabarro at the UN on September 29 2005. Note how retrograde Neptune, the planet of illusion and deceit (and also drugs and addiction), is the focus of the chart. Neptune was in loose opposition to both Saturn, giving inner fears outer structure and form, and the Moon, allowing illusion to play on unconscious fears and emotions and people’s sense of security. (In a chart such as this, the Moon also represents the people as a collective.) With the Moon and Saturn in Leo, there’s an element of control and domination in these aspects. Neptune was also in loose trine to Jupiter, magnifying its effects, exact to Mercury, maximising its effective communication, and again loosely to the Sun, giving it power. The Libran colouration of these 3 planets lent apparent balance and respectability, as did the aura of scientific detachment attaching to this most Aquarian of illusions.
Of themselves, each of these aspects had the potential to manifest in a positive as much as a negative light, but squaring Neptune, Mars (stationing before turning retrograde 2 days later) opposed Venus, each in the sign of their detriment, creating heightened tension and distortion fueled by big ambitions (Mars in Taurus) and excessive desires (Venus in Scorpio) and much potential for manipulation. Neptune septile Pluto invited greater ungrounded irrationality on a global scale than at any time since it last happened during the 1930s, which saw the rise of Fascism and other totalitarian regimes. Pluto inconjunct Mars indicated an obsessive, domineering and aggressive attitude towards work matters, and Pluto in trine to the Moon a self-assured confidence and inner security, coupled with great insight into the inner unconcious motivations of people, magnified by the presence of Jupiter in sextile to each.
It hardly seems necessary to go into any more detail, but when we do, there are additional levels of emphasis and illumination. Neptune was in direct opposition to Dark Moon Lilith, a theoretical point representing the negative unconscious, which was conjunct the asteroid Nemesis, the Achilles’ heel or source of the problem. Mars, representing the will and activating principle of the chart, was conjunct the asteroid Pandora, which scarcely needs an explanation. Saturn was in exact opposition to within one minute of the asteroid Arachne representing intrigue, entanglement and entrapment.
Most eloquent of all is the Sabian symbol for Neptune’s degree (15° Aquarius). “A big businessman at his desk.”
An annular solar eclipse occured 3 days later at 11° Libra, trining Neptune. In her book, Predictive Astrology: The Eagle and the Lark, Bernadette Brady notes that this particular eclipse is one with “immense power, anger and force … huge obstacles will suddenly and easily clear”. Since solar eclipses are meant to take effect for as many years as minutes the eclipse lasts, the influence of this one is due to hang around until early 2010. Looking at this chart, it’s really no wonder this illusion has become so pervasive and so powerful. It’s almost tempting to wonder if Roche Pharmaceuticals employ an in-house astrologer …
“Ambition is a gilded misery, a secret poison, a hidden plague, the engineer of deceit, the mother of hypocrisy, the parent of envy, the original of vices, the moth of holiness, the blinder of hearts, turning medicines into maladies, and remedies into diseases.”
Thomas Brooks
