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 "Pillar" of our horoscopes)!

Every time I yield to the temptation of eating a delicious Greek candy I find myself crossing a high speed avenue, in order to get to my favorite pastry shop. There is a footbridge crossing over to the other side of that avenue and I often use the elevator to get 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, all 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 are unleashing 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
................................................................
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!

That seems to be - on its own - a sort of “hubris” (in the Greek sense of the word)! Let us thus hope that no fatal event (fatality being a Plutonian attribute) will occur and the probe will successfully complete its mission. And without doubt, the arrival of “New Horizons” to Pluto will be celebrated as a major astronomical / space event. The fact is though that - under a “Semiotics” point of view - this flyby should be heralded as a major astrological event too!

For some mysterious (Plutonic?) reason, the major astronomical breakthroughs are all along triggering astrological breakthroughs too. This is not a conclusion stemming out purely from some theoretical, abstract field – such as the aforementioned “Semiotics”. There is ample evidence of it, drawn out of a series of similar past events. To cite one, the astronomical discovery of the “awaking” and revolutionary planet Uranus back in 1781 paradoxically coincided with a very radical and enlightened period in the world history, a period that ultimately bred the historical USA and French revolutions!

Thus, the imminent disclosure of Pluto’s face – for the very first time ever in the history of humanity – should be considered a meaningful event on an astrological level too! Shedding light on an archaic archetype of invisibility, of obscurity and darkness, seeing it from such a proximity and “stealing” with our cameras its face is entailing some kind of “intrusion” into the realm of the “under world“. The cosmic balance is going to be disrupted in some sense…

Don’t get me wrong though here! I am not against such a “disruption” – out i.e. of some shamanic ideology. I just regard this mission as a pivotal event that will produce a “quantum leap” for mankind and for our collective consciousness! It is very likely to trigger a chain of events around the Pluto flyby (on July 14), events mainly of an esoteric character that will entail a deep transformation for humanity …

In fact, as Pluto will be revealing to us for the first time ever its occult face it might as well bring us into contact with our own “shadow”! And it might eventually reveal to us some deep mysteries! Mysteries related to the life/death process, to some new intricacies of the human soul/unconscious or shocking discoveries regarding the universe (or the multi-universes), the nuclear physics and the paradoxical world of the “quantistic dimensions”…

Thomas Gazis
Copyright: Thomas D. Gazis

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!

As you can see, the above papyrus looks like eaten by bugs and it has major voids in it. The experts however managed (by the method of "crossword") to restore a large portion of the text. Let's see below its full "transcription":

(figure 2)

This is the horoscope of a person that was born (as you can see in the second paragraph of figure 2) in the third year of the reign of the Roman Emperor Severus Alexander (this was the way they were identifying a particular year back then, on the base of the emperor ruling at the time). The individual was born in the sixteenth day of the Egyptian month "Choiak", in the fifth hour of the night (five "nocturnal" hours after sunset that is). This puzzling date actually corresponds to the date December 14, 223 CE at 9 pm. You can see the modern version (created by "Solar Fire Gold") of this ancient horoscope below :

If you watch closely, you will notice that some of the planets in figure 2 are in a different sign than the one given in the above modern horoscope (i.e. the Moon according to figure 2 is in Pisces but in the above modern horoscope is in Aquarius. Venus is in Sagittarius in figure 2 but in Scorpio in the modern horoscope  - and Mars is ultimately not in Scorpio but in Sagittarius). Actually behind this controversy lies a short story. Or rather, three stories!

I am inviting you to check carefully the photo of the papyrus horoscope at the top of this article! You might notice there three different handwritings (meaning that three different people wrote something on this papyrus)! At the very top of the papyrus there is the first handwriting (with the large capital Greek letters). It is providing us the original info for this horocope (written as I mentioned in a textual form, according to the habit of that era). But at the bottom left of the papyrus there is a different handwriting. A rather feisty character, writing with "lowercase" letters and at an upward angle. Actually, this person is correcting the spelling of certain words in the original text (he is correcting i.e. the greek word for the sign of Capricorn - which is originally written as "Εγοκερω" - into its right form "Αιγοκερω". Such a rare misspelling for the sign of Capricorn indicates that the astrologer who wrote the original text in this papyrus was either very poorly educated or a Greek speaking foreigner - usually an Egyptian or Hebrew).

Finally, there is a third handwriting at the bottom right of the papyrus. This is the handwriting of a second astrologer who seems to be more competent than the first one - not only in terms of spelling but in calculating the planetary positions too. You see him revising the planetary positions indicated by the first (not very competent) astrologer, marking with a tick - better distinguished in figure 2 - each planetary position he is checking over. He has identified two erroneous planetary positions, which he is marking with a symbol that looks like a greek lambda (λ): the Moon which is not in the sign of Pisces but in Aquarius and Mars which is not in Scorpio but in Sagittarius! The impeccable modern astrological program "Solarfire Gold" fully concords with him! It puzzles us though the fact that although this secod astrologer seems to be far more competent he fails to produce the proper position  of Venus (it is in Scorpio, not in Sagittarius). Maybe the ephemeris or the almanac the second astrologer used to calculate the position of Venus was somehow flawed in Venus' case...

We can say that the man for whom this horoscope was cast was not very happy with the first astrologer. Thus he eventually requested a second opinion from an apparently more competent astrologer. And today we are in the position to know that his second choice was the right one!

Thomas Gazis
Copyright: Thomas D. Gazis