The poor South Africa

Fri 7 Oct – Thurs 20 Oct 2011
Sun in Libra; Mercury in Libra/Scorpio 13^th; Venus in Libra/Scorpio 9^th; Mars in Leo

With Saturn in Libra all year already, the Sun’s transit through that cardinal air sign this month will accentuate the need as well as capacity for tact and diplomacy in our relationships. Coupled with that is the need for justice and fairness in both business and personal partnerships. Even social justice, the equality and fairness required throughout the entire social spectrum, may need to be considered and addressed now. And the unequal proportion of all race groups represented in our national rugby team, the Springboks, is just a part of that debate now highlighted by the World Cup tournament. More importantly, our national disaster of one of the highest unemployment rates in the world highlights even more the inequality that abounds in our divided country. Historically that inequality has been cultivated along racial lines, but since the revolution of the Rainbow Nation in 1994 that leveled the playing field in the law books and judicial system, we should have seen the evolution of a sense of fairness and balance within our socio-political system. However, the proportion of people still living below our unofficial poverty line of $2 a day has only really improved by 5%, from 53% to 48% in the past 16 years. This is clearly a high level of poverty for a middle-income economy and indicates the sheer lack of fairness and justice in our system that, on paper, should be a social ideal. I mean what is half the country doing living in poverty when there are plenty of resources to go round? Of course social grants supplied by our somewhat socialist democratic government may have been the largest contributing factor to alleviating poverty, but at the same time the distribution of income between the richest and poorest sectors of society remained the same. The poorest 20% of the population earns about 2.3% of national income, while the richest 20% earns about 70% of the income. And although inequality still seems to be divided along racial lines, that is not solely the case, for the proportion of black Africans in the top 20% of income earners increased from 39%in 1995 to 48% in 2009. So in fact inequality within the black African population has actually increased sharply. Therefore whether we are black or white, pink or brown in this Rainbow Nation, if we are able to access the abundance of resources available (regardless of the fact that you did it on your own steam or by your own strength), it behooves us to cultivate an open and compassionate heart, to lend a hand to those less fortunate, to show the Libran qualities of considering the other as of equal importance as the self, and to ultimately birth the dream of the Rainbow Planet. Although God knows how we will hold a Rugby World Cup tournament again. The bottom line is that we are not alone in this life, we are social creatures, and we are all responsible for ourselves, our planet and each other. No longer can we close our eyes, our ears or our hearts to the blatant injustice, inequality and total disregard for the plight of our human family that has plagued this fledgling democratic state.

Comet Elenin

Fri 23 Sept – Thurs 6 Oct

Sun in Libra; Mercury in Virgo/Libra 25^th; Venus in Libra; Mars in Leo

With Mars in Leo now you may find yourself with an abundance of creative energy, accompanied by more confidence than usual which, depending on your nature, may bring out the performer in you who feels it’s time to be recognized, or if you are already a bit of a drama queen, may infuse you with the feeling that you are God’s gift to every nubile native out there. So take the initiative, polish that suit of armour, mount your noble steed and with rose between the teeth ride gallantly forth, knowing that Sun, Mercury and Venus in Libra are sure to facilitate your romantic pursuits and conjugal conquests like seldom before. Unless of course your amourous wonderings take you into the path of that new dark and irresistible babe on the block called Elenin, who has just rode into town with that long dark tail, looking nice from far but may be far from nice on closer inspection. There are rumours going round that the tail can cloud your vision, leaving you in the dark for three days, and who knows if you will be able to rise again on the third day after a stint with Elinin - or out. Mars in Leo may urge you to make your mark in the hearts of all the potential lovers out there, to put your stamp, take creative or romantic risks even, but Elenin may also be out there to cast a shadow on your current ability to shine or be a shining light, a shining knight. Nevertheless, there is sure to be a reward offered to the brave leader of the day who can vanquish that dark-tailed traveler who threatens to steal our thunder, and with the triple Libra influence (quadruple if you include Saturn), the best victory may not be to try to vanquish such a phenomenal opponent, but rather to use all the diplomacy available, and be a Prince Charming by negotiating a fair, just and equal (as in Equinox) place in the night sky for all parties to shine on like the crazy diamonds they are. Like you, Even Elenin wants to be appreciated now and nobody likes a bossy type who wants to throw their weight around and eclipse our right to shine too. So use your current ability to understand the feelings of others and put yourself in their shoes before trying to put yourself in their bed. Don’t fall in love with that fly-by-night Elenin, or any other, too quickly now either. Love may be blind, or you may be blinded by love and the seductive attractiveness of something or someone who is in fact a mere fleeting moment that too shall pass, leaving you clutching at a whisp of a tail of a dream as you wake to the clear light of dawn and the realization that someone as eternal as you can never be overshadowed by any shooting star, wondering comet or passing fancy.  For true love can never be substituted by lust, longing or a lack of self-worth. Real love is without ego, free from hankering and lamenting, encompasses all living entities and is eternal, which implies it has always been flowing from the reservoir of all pleasure and indeed, always will.

Love under the microscope

9 Sept – 22 Sept 2011
Sun in Virgo; Mercury in Virgo; Venus in Virgo/Libra 15^th; Mars in Cancer/Leo 19^th

 With the Sun, Mercury and Venus (until the 15^th) still in transit through Virgo, the mental faculties will be sharpened, making this a fine time to attend to the details in an orderly and business-like manner. Common sense may inspire you to read the small print on your box of breakfast or dinner snacks, not only causing you to pull out the sharp inner calculator to compare the price per rice grain, but also to weigh up the nutritional value of each rice grain and compare it to the nutritional value of every other grain to see if you need those extra thousand grains on your plate and what the most efficient amount of grains might be per liter of water for optimum cooking time according to the angle of the sun on your solar cooker at your degree of latitude north or south of the equator. That done, you may just find yourself settling for a salad instead. The tendency to lack confidence in your rice cooking, which sends you checking and rechecking every measurement, can possibly get in the way of a spontaneous and creatively inspired culinary delight now. Nevertheless, the dish will be a precision production when it’s finished with exactly the right amount of grains per body weight for your liking. Now imagine this discriminating state of mind also predominating in your relationships or love life. The likelihood is that you may be so preoccupied with work or duty, that you don’t even have time to cultivate that intimate relationship, and if you do finally manage to pull yourself away from the job and happen to catch the eye of a prospective partner across the crowded office (for that is where a potential love interest could manifest now), chances are that he or she has little chance of measuring up to your scrutinizing standards. This leaves you looking either shy, nit-picking, or preoccupied, when in fact you are just being super cautious. Playing it safe is the motto of the month now, as in “let me abstain to avoid the pain”, regardless of where you wish to apply this rule. After all he or she just may not quite match up to that internal anima or god/dess figure you have on a pedestal. But then who ever does?

Well, if you don’t find yourself retreating to a monastery to contemplate the perfect deity of Radharani as the love of your life, then when Venus shifts into her own sign of Libra on the 15^th you may finally have a mood swing that feels as if someone slipped an Ecstacy into your glass of purified mineral water, as suddenly love is not only in the air, but on the lips of every passing stranger. And by the 19^th, when Mars moves into equally romantic Leo, the tension that builds between the fastidious versus the flirtatious propensities may build to such a climactic conflagration that the chances of finding that perfect dream mate may well rise to the region of anywhere between 1.61803 and 3.14159, so be prepared.

Teaching by example

Fri 26 Aug – Thurs 8 Sept
Sun in Virgo; Mercury in Leo (d); Venus in Virgo; Mars in cancer

If the previous few weeks have been feeling fairly festive, or at least more sociable than usual, then that has changed as Sun and Venus leave lively Leo for the humbler pastures of the blessed virgin. And with Mercury officially moving direct again, the time is right to clean up our acts, get our desks in order and set the records straight. The only real Spring fever may be the cleaning one, as opposed to the one of the birds and the bees, for purification to perfection is the order of the day now. This may well help our learners at their exams, but will it help our truant and tardy teachers this term? Let’s hope they are also able to harness the hardworking, conscientious and diligent mood available now. Human Sciences Research surveys have shown that in this country almost 20% of teachers are absent on Mondays and Fridays. Absentee rates increase to 33% at month-end; and that teachers in African schools teach an average of 3.5 hours a day compared with about 6.5 hours in former “white” schools. This amounts to a difference of three years of schooling. Forgive me if the Virgo theme inspires me to go into details here, for this is the time for analysis – without the anal, of course. Also let’s watch out for the fussy and critical attitude for that matter too. It’s just that with Sun and Venus in Virgo, accompanied by Mercury in Leo someone needs to take charge of the faulty situations all around us, become informed, and become an authority on your field without seeming rigid or dogmatic about it. For example in the teaching field, the secret to success in solving the crisis is the leadership role of principals, teachers and parents. If this sounds a bit like the recent gang-related riots in the UK by youths, then maybe it is. If the kids see the teachers taking so much time off work, what to speak of going on strike (thereby stealing another 5% of the allocated time from the curriculum) then obviously they will imitate that example. Why do you think China, Japan and Korea are growing so fast? One reason is because of the work ethic. When I was in Taipei I observed learners taking lessons up until 5pm daily, with everything from extra English (from pre-school already) to violin or piano. This is because the demand for university level qualifications is so high that without the diligent endeavour of a Virgocentric mindset, you simply get left behind, relying on your welfare state to bail you and your unwanted progeny out of the doldrums. Unwanted progeny being another symptom of poor education or lack of Virgocentric vision, dear Prudence. Now you know why we have one of the highest unemployment rates in the world. These are all issues which can be tackled under the current planetary transits. South Africa’s horoscope places her Sun in Taurus, and with Jupiter in Taurus throughout this year, this is the ideal time to address and rectify the failings of our education system before the costs accrued due to its neglect begin to drown all her inhabitants in their own ignorance.