If you ever hitchhiked around Europe in the 1960’s one of the things that would have irritated you is the fact that every time you crossed a border you would have to change your money. From the UK that meant pounds into francs, francs into guilders, guilders into marks and finally marks into kroner, if you were heading to Scandinavia. You lost money at every border. Although the British government, some would say very sensibly, maintains the independence of the pounds sterling, most EU countries today use the Euro, or have their currency pegged to the Euro, and this makes European trade stable and easy to administrate. Furthermore the creation of the EU has unified Europe to such an extent, that the kind of wars that destroyed Europe in the 20th century seem unthinkable in the 21st.
The trouble with being in the Eurozone however, is that as a country you cannot resort to well-tried methods to save your country’s economy, if there is a crisis. Under normal circumstances Greece could have devalued, as Britain did in the mid-sixties, with the result that their debt would be radically reduced, exports would expand and imports decrease, bringing about a fairly rapid economic recovery. But Greece cannot devalue the Euro.
This is why weaker economies in Europe now rely on stronger economies to bail them out – they cannot bail themselves out; it is impossible. And the stronger economies are dependent on the weaker economies to buy their goods, so the last thing they want to see is a country leaving the Euro, because it would have disastrous repercussions. Yet the strong economies bitterly complain about the bailout and seek to impose austerity on the weaker economies. Thus countries like Greece, Spain and Italy go into deeper recession as they have to restrict expenditure, which depresses demand. That is why unemployment is so high – about 25% in Greece and Spain, while it is about 5% in Germany.
Realizing that a disintegration of the Eurozone must be avoided at all costs, the EU is striving to put mechanisms in place that will support beleaguered countries that are extremely vulnerable to financial speculators. The EU does this by guaranteeing weak country’s finances with the European Central Bank (ECB) which becomes a lender of last resort. So far so good, and this can be seen as the response in 2012 to the first two squares between Uranus and Pluto.
There is just one problem… there are five more Uranus/Pluto squares to come, and they have not even started hitting the key planets and points in the main horoscopes for Europe and the Euro. Therefore it is reasonable to assume that the economic crisis – which is so connected with the transit of Pluto through Capricorn – will become even more acute. So what can go wrong?
Germany can go wrong. This economic powerhouse which is still expanding as most other European economies contract has Angela Merkel as Chancellor, and generally she has won admiration for her ability to balance responsibilities to Europe with domestic responsibilities.
Angela Merkel: 17th July 1954 18.00 Hamburg AS 16.30 SG (Note 1)
Hers is a nice horoscope with Ascendant ruler Jupiter exalted in Cancer rather like the US Sibley chart. The conjunction of Jupiter with Mercury in the 7th shows her sensitive and receptive to the ideas of others even as she identifies strongly with German national interests. Obviously she is excellent at dialogue and tuned in to the expansion of Europe and neighboring countries. She is born on an extraordinary day, with the Sun conjoining Uranus, which is exactly square Neptune, and as such she is completely attuned to the German reunification chart (Note 2), which has a Uranus/Neptune conjunction in Capricorn. And in fact the chart for the German Republic (note 3) also has the Neptune/Uranus square which dominates in her chart. She is no stranger to revolutionary change, and though born in Hamburg her parents moved to East Germany immediately after her birth. (Her father was a Lutheran pastor). The dissolution of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 saw the beginning of her involvement with politics.
Germans have the highest proportion of savings amongst European countries, and the German housewife is famous for not spending beyond her means. Germans tend to borrow little and save a lot, inspired, it is said, by the terrible inflation of the Weimar Republic in the 1920’s, when paper notes became virtually worthless. Merkel, with Venus in Virgo sextile Saturn in Scorpio definitely reflects this pattern of thrift and restraint.
So on the one hand Merkel is an incarnated European, and on the other she is a German housewife. Logic has forced her to accept that Germany needs to provide bailout funds if it is to avoid its own recession from failing exports. But not all Germans agree, and this is where it starts to get problematic. Jens Weidmann, the leader of the German central bank – the Bundesbank – does not agree with buying the sovereign debt of financially weak nations, because he thinks it will lead to inflation. And he is not alone. In Britain and the USA governments are printing money to stimulate the economy, and many voices say there is a risk of inflation.
The next general election in Germany must take place around September 2013, and Merkel’s government will almost certainly fall. The voices in Germany against bailing out Europe are very likely to gain ascendancy at this time, and the government that takes over from Merkel and the CDU/FDP coalition is likely to be less eager to show solidarity with Europe. Why?
German Reunification: 3rd October 1990 0.00 Berlin
What immediately strikes the astrologer when looking at this chart is that the MC is at 10.37 Aries, and in September 2013 Uranus itself is at 10 Aries; in fact it conjoins the German MC three times. It is difficult to imagine a government getting re-elected with this influence, because people want change. Pluto will also be square the MC/IC axis. As Germany’s reunification Sun is at 9.29 Libra, the Uranus/Pluto square makes a series of direct hits, which is likely to smash any consensus in German leadership. In fact the Uranus/Pluto square activates Germany’s Sun/Neptune square, which will undoubtedly eliminate any unrealistic ideas and put Germany on a survival course. Germany – with Ascendant ruler Sun placed weakly in Libra – will decide they can no longer afford to compromise. A more extreme government will be the result – one which looks to German uniqueness and separateness. In other words Germany itself may risk detaching itself from the struggles to save the Euro.
Looking at Merkel’s transits in this period, the Uranus/Pluto square activates her Mercury, which suggests that dialogue with neighboring countries will break down. At the very least the negotiation process will completely exhaust her. And with her Ascendant ruler Jupiter also involved, her hopes for the future may be dealt a lethal blow. With Neptune at the time of the 2013 election opposing her frugal Venus in Virgo in the 8th, attempts to gain economic clarity over Europe’s indebtedness will not succeed.
The effects of the astrological configurations on the German election will not happen in isolation. The Euro itself was launched in two stages on January 1st 1999 and January 1st 2002, which places the Euro Sun at 10 Capricorn. In other words the Euro will be a central part of the crisis and change that affects the German government and it will not come through 2013 unscathed. There are two ways the process can go. Firstly countries can detach from the Euro and re-establish their own currency, which will create almost unthinkable chaos. Secondly Europe itself can be restructured so that the ECB basically puts all its money behind weak economies to create a very robust macro economy rather like the dollar economy in the United States. The problem with this second option is that individual constitutions in some European countries do not allow this, and each country would have to legislate to make it possible. The question is whether these countries will be forced to do this to avoid the disintegration of the Euro. Europe is caught between a rock and a hard place, and a huge restructuring will take place over the next three years.
Adrian Ross Duncan 19th September 2012
1. Information from AstroDatabank at www.astro.com. Claudia von Schierstedt quotes birth certificate for this data. PT has been unable to confirm. In May 2006 Antonia Langsdorf said that she thought that the time came from Merkel herself and, in any event, is the time used by German astrologers.
2. This took place on October 3rd 1990 at 0.00 and made for Berlin gives an Ascendant of 4 Leo.
3. German Republic 5th May 1955 12.00 Bonn AS 20.46 LE