The economic and demographic plundering of Greece (astrological predictions 2020)!

background image: Sven Erik Golden "Jewels of Light"

Ten years ago, Greece was making headlines all over the world! You most probably remember why. For the first time ever, a European Union country was facing a sovereign debt crisis and there was a tangible risk of it going totally bankrupt! Not only that but (due to the so-called domino effect) the economies of many other countries in Europe (and even worldwide) seemed to be at risk because of the very Greek debt crisis!

That was quite odd! How could a minuscule economy like the Greek one affect the gigantic markets of our planet? How could Greece be responsible for the overall course of the international economy? I had the feeling that something was amiss there. Thus, I resorted to astrology in order to better grasp what was going on.

Pluto in Capricorn disclosed to us the fact that the "King" is naked!

To some of you, this Frank Zappa's saying might seem just the mumbling of a stoned rocker. In reality, though, it is a profound and insightful statement, brilliantly explaining in just a few words the very essence of modern politics!

You see, politics is so complicated! But everything becomes crystal clear if we apply this Zappa's saying to it! Modern presidents are some sort of entertainers! Take Trump for example. Trump seems to be but the colorful host of the entertainment division of the all-mighty military-industrial complex! Apparently, his job is to amuse us, to distract us, so that big "industra" makes undisturbed good money!

The Greek Astrological "school" "Alternative Education" ("Enallaktiki Paideia") - (A Critical Approach by Thomas Gazis)

Some non-Greek fellow-astrologers have seen this article (in Greek) on Facebook and they thought it might be interesting. By using though the automatic Google translation they couldn't make much sense of its content.. So, I have translated the article in proper English, for them to read it.

Many of us, who are stating that astrology is our main subject of interest on Facebook, have been bombarded in the last few weeks by an "ad" that was calling us to enrol in the "Alternative Education" astrology "school" ("Enallaktiki Paideia" in Greek ). I wanted to write a review of this "school" but I waited for  the enrolments to be completed first, so that my criticism wouldn't be considered a malicious one. Now that they have been completed, I can more freely express my opinion.

WE DESERVE A BETTER ASTROLOGY IN GREECE (and in any other country for that matter)!

Societies thrive when their most deserving members are promoted to higher positions. On the other hand, societies that routinely promote their less deserving members, the "well-connected, mediocre," are doomed to deteriorate and degenerate!

The pattern of "well-connected, mediocre" persons assuming prominent positions is more or less widespread around the world. However, the very nature of mature societies provides enough opportunity for recognition for many of their deserving individuals! I don't believe there is another civilized country in the world that supports "well-connected, mediocre" people to such an extent (at the expense of the worthy) as modern Greece!

Uranus in Aries has gone away...and with it the "Better Me" virtual self?

Just a couple of hours ago planet Uranus left the sign of Aries and entered Taurus (definitely this time)! We all know that when we come down to Uranus we should expect the "unexpected"! Thus, it's not easy to predict the situations and events it will bring about on a collective level, during its seven years stay in Taurus.

It's far easier to study Uranus' effects in hindsight. And I personally think that one of the "themes" that Uranus brought about, during its stay in Aries (from 2010/11 on), was the "BETTER ME VIRTUAL SELF"!

The Earth "pulsates" to the rhythms of the Sun!

Apparently, we Astrologers don't have to put much effort into determining the scientific underpinnings of Astrology (if there are any, of course)! Scientists are doing this on our behalf, as science gets ever closer to a scientific explanation for astrology - as you can see in the passage below (from the "European Space Agency's" "ESA's" site): 

"Scientists have proven that sounds generated deep inside the Sun cause the Earth to shake and vibrate in sympathy. They have found that Earth’s magnetic field, atmosphere and terrestrial systems, all take part in this cosmic sing-along!"

The Richard Tarnas' Athens - Greece "Astro - Scholar evening" talk!

The friends of the "Babel Astro-Scholar evenings" are very happy to host next Tuesday (via internet) the world-leading Astrologer (with a capital "A") Richard Tarnas!

Richard Tarnas is a professor of philosophy and cultural history at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, where he founded the graduate program in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness. He also lectures on archetypal studies and depth psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, and is on the Board of Governors of the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. A graduate of Harvard University and Saybrook Institute, he is the author of The Passion of the Western Mind and Cosmos and Psyche: An Intimation of a New World View. His “World Transits 2000-2020: An Overview,” focused especially on the years 2008-12, can be read at www.Archaijournal.org.

The unusual celestial phenomena of summer 2018 (the 3 eclipses, humongous Mars etc.)!

As most of you know, we are currently under the spell of the notorious "Capricorn climax". Of a "massive planetary turbulence" that is becoming increasingly powerful and will have an even greater impact on our earth during the next two years (2019-2020)! Aside from this "Capricorn climax" though that is setting the general tone of our times, we are additionally experiencing this summer some unusual celestial phenomena that will shower Earth with uncommon cosmic "energies"!

Meet Fabulous Astrologer Nadiya Shah in Athens - Greece (at the "Babel Astro-Scholar evenings")!

(Το άρθρο στα Ελληνικά: εδώ )

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The "Babel Astro-Scholar evenings" are a series of free talks and lectures taking place in Athens - Greece every Tuesday, at a cozy and friendly Art-space (located in Marousi, at the number 87 of Vas. Sophias street). We are trying to offer to the Greek public the best of International Astrology and we have had so far great, generous Astrologers from all over the world talking to us, via the internet! 

End of our decade astrological predictions (looking forward, via hindsight)!

 (Note: this article was written in December 2017. It is a part of a "2018 annual predictions" series.)

Apparently we haven't directly witnessed it, but our "cosmic" route has considerably

shifted ever since humanity stepped over the threshold of 2018. Actually, we are now about to make (astrologically speaking) a long turn, that will ultimately lead us to the end of our decade. A decade characterized by a global economic crisis, that has so far proven to be particularly harsh towards the countries of the European south - and towards the "weaker" countries of the world in general. We all hope that in the following years the crisis will end and that we will start living a better life. But is this truly going to happen or things are going to get even worse? What kind of "zeitgeist" will globally prevail in the next few years? What kind of events will be produced on the economic, social and political level? Astrology is one of the few "fields of notion" that can provide answers to these critical questions.

The enigmatic path of the "Gran Americana" August 21, 2017 Solar Eclipse.

Eclipses are not "per se" something bad. So, the "gran Americana" August 21, 2017 Solar eclipse won't necessarily break all hell loose on the USA . The lights will somehow turn off and then on big time, restarting the system anew...

A recent scientific "symmetry field" theory might be totally justifying Astrology!

                                                      (image taken from: www.wired.com)

The Zodiac has always been a conundrum to me! It is the "gran nexus" of Astrology but we know next to nothing about it! We are fairly sure (us, the Astrologers) that it exists, but if somebody asks us "Where exactly is the Zodiac lying?" we will be left rather clueless...You see, we don't really know! What we know is that the Zodiac is some kind of "belt"! A non-magnetic belt obviously, because if it were one it would have been detected by now. And if it is not a magnetic belt then what is it made from (since there aren't many alternatives)? And ultimately, where exactly is this belt? Is it over our heads, over our highest mountain, up in the stratosphere, in the near-Earth space, somewhere within the distant space or simply everywhere?

The "latent" Synastry of Donald and Melania Trump!

Although I am a sort of "synastry-holic" guy, the idea of studying Donald Trump's and Melania's synastry was never particularly appealing to me. As most people, I was seeing in these two an unscrupulous businessman and an avid "gold-digger". So, to me there wasn't interesting stuff there. Not to mention the fact that nobody seemed to know Melania's time of birth, meaning that an eventual synastric study of theirs would be rather incomplete. But things have changed and Donald Trump is now the elected president of the United States while his wife Melania the First Lady! A synastric study of theirs seems more appealing than ever.

America is turning against its own self (Trump's Plutonian demonization)

There is a very odd thing going on in the United States these days. The Americans are massively protesting against Donald Trump, the President that they themselves elected just a couple of months ago! They are marching all over the country, shouting some diminishing and degrading slogans against their head of State  - and even publicly swearing at him (i.e. Madonna's case). Apparently the Americans have "demonized" their own president - before him taking office! To the eyes of a neutral, European observer (like the writer of this article) this seems to be a rather strange, abnormal situation...

Astro-analysis of George Michael's death (& life) - a "stellar overdrive"!

George Michael - "Exposurephotos"

Superstar Yorgos Panayiotou (George Michael's true greek-cypriot name) left the earthy dimensions on the very Christmas day - ironically, as his "Last Christmas" super hit was torrentially playing and airing all over the planet - and vanished into the ethereal (that he so much longed to artistically reach)!

The 13 signs controversy is actually discrediting the astronomers (not the astrologers)!

The "12 signs" Zodiac as a "magnetic belt" around the Earth

There is something annoying about the "13 Signs" issue, which keeps popping up every now and then in the mainstream media. You see, over the last 25 years, I have been publishing articles that explain how the zodiacal signs are actually twelve and how they cannot be thirteen (or 14, 19, 27 or any other number, for that matter). I've now come to the conclusion that all of my attempts to explain have been futile because ever since the 13 Signs issue resurfaced recently (and made headlines for the umpteenth time) people all around me are rather acrimoniously asking me about it. 

At first, I figured it would be best to ignore this problem in hopes that it will ultimately fizzle out - as it has in the past. However, it appears that this time things are different. Astrology is taking a "double whammy" hit that is mostly the result of misinformation, and it is essential for us, the true (cultured) astrologers, to step in!

The astrological causes of the grim "zeitgeist" running now through Europe!

According to the myth, Jupiter the father of all gods in the disguise of a bull abducted the beautiful phoenician princess Europa and brought her to the european continent! In this way the continent of Europe was "inaugurated"! Every myth is rich in symbolism and this specific one is recounting to us the fact that the current European continent was bound to become a blessed land, a land that would display at its fullest the archetypes of royalty, of joviality and of taurean stability and prosperity.

France under Pluto's (and Mars' Uranus') spell! The Nice massacre

As I had written back in November 2015 (when the "Bataclan" terrorist attack occured in Paris) the latest horoscope of France (the one of the so called "Fifth Republic") is currently receiving some very hard and deeply transformative astrological influences! These influences are mainly stemming out from transiting Pluto, which is steadily hovering in our days over the Tenth House of France's Fifth Republic chart (6 October 1958, 18:30, Paris) opposing its Moon in Cancer and squaring its Sun in Libra! These are some tremendous cosmic influences!

Planet "Nine": the next "Big Kahuna" in astrology!

An artist's depiction of planet "Nine" as envisioned by scientists (Credit: Caltech/ R. Hurt (IPAC))

Many extraordinary discoveries go largely unnoticed at the time they occur. Take for example the discovery of planet Uranus in 1781. Not very many astrologers realized back in 1781 that this new, outlandish planet - which actually upset the millennia old established astrological model of the seven "planets" in our Solar System - would ensue a gigantic leap for astrology! For decades (and even centuries) after the discovery of Uranus the astrologers continued erecting their horoscopes as before, by using the traditional set of planets and paying little attention to the "misfit" planet Uranus. But today it would be unthinkable for an astrologer who practices modern astrology not to include Uranus (and Neptune and Pluto) in a chart! These three "transcendental" planets have tremendously enriched our interpretative capacities and it was a pitty that the astrologers of those generations did not take advantage of their enormous potentiality.

Greek astrologers sentenced to 6 months of jail for insulting and libelling Thomas Gazis

On March 18, 2016 the greek astrologers Thanasis Matsotas, Katerina Saloniki and Dimitris Koronakis were tried at the 8th Athens magistrate's court, for the charges of unprovokedly insulting, defamating and libelling astrologer Thomas Gazis (charges pressed against the accused by Thomas Gazis back in 2010).

Both Matsotas and Saloniki were sentenced to six months of jail each!

Society as our Surrogate Family (the vital "Cancer - Capricorn Pillar" of the Zodiac)!

Every time I succumb to the temptation of eating a deliciouse Greek candy, I find myself crossing a high-speed road to go to my favorite pastry store. There is a footbridge that connects to the other side of that avenue, and I frequently take the elevator up there. The elevator is a modern, "see through" one (even playing some lounge music). Inexplicably though (or not that much so) it is vandalized! Its glass paneling is cracked allover, as if wildly kicked or clubbed...And there is graffiti all over. It somehow makes me sad to see a communal good like this elevator in such a degraded state. You see, the citizens of my area are benefiting from it, thus it should be kept as clean and intact as possible. Not everybody though is thinking it that way. To some, this elevator is rather a target where they can unleash their rage...But why?

The Antiochus of Commagene Lion Horoscope

Let me introduce you to the larger-than-life half-Greek, half-Armenian ancient king Antiochus I of Commagene. He lived in the first century BCE in Asia Minor (today’s Turkey) and apparently had a keen interest in astrology and hermeticism. Born on the 16th of the Greek-Macedonian month “Audynaios” which roughly corresponds to our month of December, Antiochus of Commagene was most likely a Sagittarius.

Jupiter in Virgo - the God of small things!

Without too much ado, planet Jupiter entered a few days ago (on August 11th) in the sign of Virgo! The event went largely unnoticed, probably because at the time most people in the northern hemisphere were taking their summer vacation! Thus, unlike the entrance of Jupiter in Leo a year ago, this was a "no fanfare", low profile event - but that's quite appropriate to the nature of Virgo!

The obscure Hitler's relationship with his niece Geli (an astrological analysis)

Astrology is a powerful tool! It enables us to transcend time and space, to penetrate entire centuries or even millennia and go back in the distant past and "experience" from an incredible vicinity some major historical occurrences that have been poorly recorded and thus remain obscure, to revive human stories and situations we know very little about. It enables us to probe and somehow "resuscitate" the lives, the character and the behaviours of historical key-figures and meaningful situations that would be otherwise irrevocably lost in the mist of the time....Thanks to astrology we are able of penetrating even the sanctuary of an intimate relationship (provided we are given the birth data of its members)!

The chart of the fatal “Air-Germanwings” pilot!

Pilot Andreas Lubitz (who according to the investigations intentionally crashed - on March 24th - the "Germanwings" plane into the French Alps) is not just a tragic suicidal figure but one of the major serial killers in world history as well (since he deliberately killed 149 innocent passengers and crew of the plane - among them several children )! This man somehow "sowed" an incredible amount of death into very many of his fellow-humans - while he brought hundreds of families on the verge of unfathomable pain and despair!

The Greek Declaration of Independence (and the true national horoscope of modern Greece!)

"If you can keep your head when all about you 
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, 
 If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, 
But make allowance for their doubting too; 
 If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, 
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, 
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating
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Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, 
And - which is more -you’ll be a Man, my son!"

This Rudyard Kipling's "If" poem was one of my favorites during my early adolescence. I couldn't entirely understand the melodramatic tone of the poem back then. I was just sensing that life - and the poet's talent - had distilled some omnipotent truth in this particular poem, so something was telling me to keep it in me as some precious resource. That proved to be a wise move because as the years were passing by I was ever more encountering situations were I had to make a stand against many individuals supporting a totally different point of view. I was thus resorting often to this poem, as I was struggling to maintain my inner balance. Because difficult as it might be to stand all alone against many it is (when creative) one of the holier tasks a human being can undertake...

The mysterious March 20th, 2015 “twin” Solar Eclipse

There is a particular factor that makes the March 20th, 2015 Solar Eclipse special: it falls right on the very last degree of the zodiac (on the last degree of Pisces – which is of course the last degree of the zodiac too). So this is a somehow “threshold” eclipse, ushering us into a state of “limbo”. It is a rather “dissolving” eclipse, whose basic task is to irrevocably close a cycle of things – but it is apparently encountering a lot of resistance in doing so. Some highly unstable and unpredictable conditions are likely to occur now and lead us into a state of a “dead-end path”, recycling things and ever returning us to the same point – producing thus global confusion, fatigue and unrest…

The astrological implications of lifting planet Pluto’s veil!

A monumental astronomical/ astrological event is going to occur in just a few months time! An event oddly coinciding with the Pluto’s “taking over” of the “World Zenith” (you may read about it here) and with the end of the Uranus - Pluto “seven fold” cosmic dance. I am talking about the first encounter ever of planet Pluto with a human artifact: the “New Horizons” space probe which was launched back in 2006 – destined to Pluto and beyond!

By now “New Horizons” is so close to Pluto that we are about to resolve this mysterious planet’s surface features - through the probe’s telescope! You see, living up to its namesake god’s reputation, Pluto has kept  its face strictly hidden from us till now (even with our strongest telescope we could just get a blurred image of it - of just a few pixels)! But all this is going to change and for the first time ever we are going to disclose the “awful face” of the god of the underworld!

An original ancient horoscope (from the Oxyrhynchus collection)!

It doesn't seem like much but the image you see above depicts a  miraculously preserved ancient horoscope! It is a horoscope in its textual form that was habitual in that period and it derives from the Hellenistic Egypt, which is the cradle of modern, "horoscopic" Astrology! There, the ancient Greeks (in collaboration with Egyptian, Jewish etc. priests and scholars) created two thousand years ago an incredibly sophisticated Astrology, which is the precursor to the one we are practicing today.

This horoscope was found in the ruins of the Hellenistic city of Oxyrhynchus (160 km south of modern Cairo), which is located on the banks of a Nile's tributary. In this region the holly egyptian fish which in Greek is called "oxyrhynchus" (sturgeon) was abounding, hence the name of the city (which was the third largest in Hellenistic Egypt). It is a horoscope written on papyrus, which remained relatively intact for 18 whole centuries because it was buried in the Egyptian desert sand - in some ideal that is for its maintenance conditions. In fact this papyrus was found - along with thousands of others and dozens of horoscopes - in the ancient rubbish dump of the city of Oxyrhynchus!

A Fascinating Glimpse Into the Hellenistic Astrology through the miraculously Preserved Oxyrynchus Papyri !

The Oxyrhynchus papyri are a sort of time capsule miraculously preserving not only the literature but the daily life as well that was taking place some 2000 years ago, in the so called "Hellenistic Era"! Actually these papyri were discovered at an archeological excavation of an ancient rubbish dump near the Hellenistic city of Oxyrhynchus in Egypt (one of the largest cities back then). Among some unknown-until-now literary works and many everyday, prosaic documents (like transactions' receipts, petitions and wedding invitations) there have been found many scraps of horoscopes - mostly in a textual form. These horoscopes are revealing to us the methods, the skills and the shortcomings of the astrologers of the time!

You may attend my online lecture "A Fascinating Glimpse Into the Hellenistic Astrology through the miraculously Preserved Oxyrynchus Papyri!" at the IAA's "Breaking down the Borders III" mega online Astrology Conference, taking place at the weekend Friday 14 - Sunday 16, November 2014. You will find my lecture at the "Traditional Track", on Saturday, Novemeber 15, 2014 - at 11:30 am U.S.A. EST time. At 4:30 pm European GMT time. At 3:30 am Australian EDT (Sun., Nov. 16, 2014)

Thomas Gazis  

A fatal kind of Synastry that resulted in Michelangelo's disfigurement!

                                                                 Michelangelo 

It is an irony that Michelangelo, the man who produced some of the finest works our world has ever seen and who glorified earth with heavenly beauty, was physically "ugly" himself! And not just ugly but actually disfigured! Not by nature but out of an act of violence inflicted upon him by one of his fellow students bearing the name Pietro Torrigiano!

Torrigiano was anything but a minor personality. In time he would become a great artist himself. He is accredited as the person who kick-started the British Renaissance (he escaped to England after injuring Michelangelo - as the latter was a protegee of the omnipotent Florentine family of the Medici)! Torrigiano was gifted alright but somehow unlucky too, as he was born at the same time and place as Michelangelo. This meant that he was condemned to live at the shadow of Michelangelo's towering geniusness. Thus, it does not surprise us at all the fact that he was very jealous of him.

All in all, he was a tough, "macho" kind of man (he was even drafted at some point as a mercenary soldier). Obviously he was longing for any kind of pretence that would offer him the chance to unleash his smouldering grudge towards Michelangelo. And this chance was  given to him on a day when the two were copying - as apprentists - side by side some frescoes. Michelangelo made some snide remark to Torrigiano who was so much enraged by it that he punched him on the nose, breaking it.

According to Torrigiano's own testimony of the event:

"This Buonarroti (Michelangelo) and I used when we were boys to go into the Church of the Carmine to learn drawing from the chapel of Masaccio. It was Buonarroti’s habit to banter all who were drawing there; and one day, among others, when he was annoying me, I got more angry than usual, and clenching my fist, gave him such a blow on the nose, that I felt bone and cartilage go down like biscuit beneath my knuckles; and this mark of mine he will carry with him to the grave."

There is obviously too much jealousy and animosity involved in the Michelangelo - Torrigiano relationship (especially from Torrigiano's part). And since the quality of a relationship depends largely on the type of Synastry that is formed between its members it seems as though the Michelangleo - Torrigiano Synastry was not a particularly happy one. And as we will soon see, indeed it wasn't!

We do have in our disposition the complete birth data for Michelangelo (his time of birth as well) so we can cast his complete natal chart (you may see it below). He was a double Pisces (Sun and Moon in Pisces) with a Sagittarius Ascendant! His natal Moon and the ruler of his horoscope (Jupiter) are both residing in his Second House (in a very "solid", down to earth and artistic House, that is)! His Sun is conjuncted by the ultra-energetic and bellicose planet Mars. Being a double Pisces he was meek alright but he was probably exhibiting as well some sudden Martian outbursts!

We know as well Torrigiano's date of birth: November 24, 1472 (Old Style of course - Julian Calendar). As you can see below Torrigiano was a Sagitturius with a Virgonean Moon. And as in Michelangelo's case he has a bellicose Sun / Mars conjunction too (in a fiery sign this time - no coincidence he is described as a man with a rather violent temper):

Although we don't know Torrigiano's time of birth we can still conduct a decent synastric study for these two Italian Renaissance artists. You may see their Synastry below (Michelangelo's chart in the inner wheel and Torrigiano's in the outer one):

We should start with the fact that their solar signs (Pisces and Sagittarius) are inharmonious. Although they traditionally share the same ruler - Jupiter - their natures (feminine - masculine, aquatic - igneous) are quite different and it is very hard for them to find some common ground. Michelangelo's and Torrigiano's respective Marses are not helping them either in that sense, as they are forming a square aspect among them - magnifying and exacerbating even the most trivial friction in their interaction. And since both their Marses are aspecting their respective Plutos' too the slightest friction among them was producing extreme turmoil in their souls and was thus escalating into a deadly hostility - as if their very existence were in jeopardy!

If we had to associate envy with a specific planet then most probably this would be Saturn (and Saturn is particularly envious in front of accomplishments, recognition and fame). And in the current Synastry Torrigiano's Saturn is forming a harsh square aspect to both Michelangelo's Sun and Mars! This means that Torrigiano was feeling somehow inadequate in front of Michelangeo. He must have been cultivating in his soul a deadly envy for the latter's brilliance, vivacity and talents! And as he was a couple of years senior to Michelangelo he probably tried to control and manipulate him, untill things escalated into that famous punching!

You see, although Torrigiano was too "macho", his Virgonean Moon was very sensitive to criticism.  Thus, Michelangelo's remarks seem to have upset him rather excessively and disproportionately to the occasion. And this due to the fact that Michelangelo's Mars and Pluto are forming stressful and somehow "corrosive" aspects with Torrigiano's Moon in Virgo.

This brief synastric analysis would be rather incomplete if we did not mention the fact that Torrigiano's Sun, Mars and Venus are all "falling" in Michelangelo's Twelfth House. The Twelfth House is a somehow "debilitating" area of the chart. Thus, if you are a tough guy you don't want your Sun and your Mars to fall in some other guy's Twelfth House - especially if you consider him a competitor of yours. In such an eventuality, you feel rather weak and confused when interacting with that guy. We might say that Torrigiano was somehow feeling "belittled" even by Michelangelo's mere presence! And that's a very discomforting sensation to someone who has not worked with himself and has not experienced the transcendental "Ego dissolution" state as a potentially "elevating" thing...The only alternative left then to the "raw" kind of people - in order for them to jump out of the numbing and humiliating limbo of the Twelfth House - is to resort to spasmodic acts and to an apparently unmotivated aggression...

Thomas Gazis
Copyright: Thomas D. Gazis