Russell Crowe and a large number of his 2 million Twitter followers think that January 26th should no longer be Australia Day, because not all Australians – particularly the first Australians – celebrate it. So, there you go, Australia! New Astrology Chart? Well, why not? January 26th means Invasion Day to many Aboriginal people – the first Australians. So why should we have a public holiday, at the beach, when that date symbolises so much pain?
In this story I’ll look at the five main contenders for the Australian horoscope. Why five? Because this is a nation with many ‘birthdays’ and birth certificates. We get to choose from 26th January 1788, 7th February 1788, 1st January 1901 and 9th May 1901. Finally – the most interesting Australia astrology chart of all – the one set for 27th May 1967 when Aboriginal Australians won a landslide referendum in favour of equality. As you can see, we are going to move Australia around from being an Aquarian, to a Capricorn, to a Taurus and finally to a Gemini.
As I write this on Australia Day, January 26th 2018 there is much support for 9th May 1901 as the new Australia Day for the future – a time to celebrate for all the different nationalities in the country, it’s argued – as well as indigenous people. This is the chart. It is set for May 9th 1901 in Melbourne at 12 noon. This is the official time, date and place of the first Australian Parliament. So let’s take a look. As always, what matters most are exact patterns, or aspects. We’re looking for horoscope factors which line up. Click to enlarge.
This chart makes Australia a Taurus. Well, her economy was originally based on cattle. The national anthem, Advance Australia Fair, talks about ‘wealth for toil’ and ‘golden soil’ and that certainly sounds like Taurus. But at what cost?
One look at the chart set for 9th May 1901 and you can see a very difficult pattern showing the painful racism of that time. The Moon at 17 Capricorn is next to Saturn at 16 Capricorn. The Moon is the ‘mother country’ not only for the first Australians, but also for all migrants leaving their home, homeland and families behind.
The Museum of Victoria tells us what happened. “Aboriginal people received little attention in the celebrations and press reports of May 1901. However, occasionally reports mention their exclusion from the Melbourne celebrations.” The Chinese community in Melbourne put on a dragon display, but the White Australia policy was real. 1901 was racist. Australia! Do we need a new astrology chart?
This famous 26th January 1788 chart has always been popular with well-known Australian astrologers – and I am going to use the Astro.com horoscope set up for January 26th 1788 at 5.10am in Sydney. Click to enlarge.
There is no doubt at all that January 26th 1788 at 5.10am in Sydney produces a strong horoscope.
When the First Fleet landed, one of their immediate problems was sex. As in men, women and natural instinct. Saturn is at 28 Aquarius next to Venus at 29 Aquarius in the house of groups and tribes, showing the convict chain gangs, but also the women, separated from the men. Aboriginal tribes are clearly shown here too.
We also have the Ascendant at 4 Aquarius, again associated with groups, tribes and friendship next to the Sun at 5 Aquarius. This chart is a statement about mateship which saw Australia through two wars. It also says a lot about multiculturalism, the White Australia policy and subsequent migration. Most obviously it is a chart about the reality of inter-racial relationships.
If you don’t like January 26th 1788, you can take comfort in the fact that historians don’t like it either – as an official ‘start’ date for the new nation.
In fact – January 26th, 1788 is an invented birthday, according to the National Library of Australia.
This wasn’t even the day the British set foot on Australian soil for the first time – that was January 18th, in Botany Bay, Sydney, according to the Australian National University.
February 7th 1788 is the nation’s formal birth certificate, as we will see in a moment – though even that was replaced.
We stand on the shoulders of giants in astrology and the much-missed Richard Sterling, who wrote the horoscope column before me, at The Australian Women’s Weekly, always favoured the 1st January 1901 chart for Australia, set for 00.01am in Melbourne. Liz Greene also wrote a long and thoughtful piece on this chart for Astro.com. So let’s take a look. (Below, from Richard Sterling’s published essay, The National Horoscope of Australia).
The chart set for 1st January 1901 at 00.01am in Melbourne is set for the Federation of Australia. You can click to enlarge.
If you’ve ever wondered how an Australian like Rupert Murdoch came to rule world media, here’s your answer. Sure, I know he gave up his Australian citizenship for business purposes – but just look at the triple line-up in Gemini, the media sign. Here we have Pluto at 16 Gemini, Minerva at 16 Gemini, Ops at 16 Gemini. I am sure you know Gemini also rules short journeys. Australia is a big country of states and territories, all connected by airlines, trains or road trips.
Let’s now look at 7th February, 1788 at 11.00am when Governor Arthur Phillip claimed all of the land from the Pacific Ocean westward to the 135th meridian east between latitudes of 10°37’S and 43°39’S.
Our sources for 7th February 1788 at 11.00am in Sydney include –
The New South Wales Government
The eyewitness at the time who has left us a written account, was a man named Arthur Bowes.
The University of Melbourne tells us –
“Terra Australis had been claimed in both sovereignty and ownership by the British Crown as terra nullius – literally a ‘land belonging to nobody’. February 7th 1788 was the start of terra nullius which still forms the basis to all land law in Australia.”
This is a triple line-up chart. We have Mercury at 14 Aquarius, the Moon at 15 Aquarius and Pluto at 15 Aquarius. I don’t think you could hope for a better statement about the total takeover of a country, by its new ‘mother country’ and the other obvious factor – language barriers between Aboriginal people and whites. Aquarius shows itself again. Australia is a nation of states and territories – individual groups – and the country itself is criss-crossed by indigenous tribes.
On May 27th 1967, Australia voted overwhelmingly for Aboriginal equality. This date is very much alive today as it kicks off National Reconciliation Week. In fact, Australia Post gave the date a stamp recently. Around 90% of Australians across the country voted for change. Prior to that, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples did not have the same rights as other Australians. Click to enlarge.
This chart makes Australia Gemini. It is set for the last minute of the day, as we have no confirmed time for the end of vote counting across all the states and territories. At the end of May 27th 1967, though, it was very clear that the nation had voted for a change in the constitution. SBS-TV even describes this as ‘a new birth certificate.’ One of the people pushing for the May 27th 1967 date – for a new Australia Day public holiday – is Australian businessman and media figure Eddie McGuire. What I like about this chart is that you can see Germaine Greer in it, and also Australia’s first female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. You can also see lesbian politician Penny Wong, from an Asian background. And Rupert Murdoch!
What do we see here? The Moon is at 24 Capricorn next to Salacia at 25 Capricorn. The usual ‘mother country’ theme comes up but it does not hurt this time, as it did in those old horoscopes. Salacia is a symbol of two worlds which work as one. Here we have one of the world’s most famous Australians, Rupert Murdoch, moving across his American citizenship and mother country, as well as the other mother country, Great Britain. His media empire makes or breaks Prime Ministers and Presidents. In this chart we also see the ‘two worlds’ of expatriates like Germaine Greer and Asian-Australians like Wong.
I love the Sun at 5 Gemini exactly next to the IC at 5 Gemini and opposite the MC at 5 Sagittarius. The spotlight is shining on Australia’s ‘roots’ in terms of her languages – multicultural, multilingual – and it is also highlighting that her direction in life is global – international. This chart shows a country, reborn in the Sixties, with many languages, and many journeys ahead.
In astrology we test a country’s charts by finding one major event and seeing if it’s shown in any of the horoscopes.
The 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, also known simply as the Dismissal rocked the country and the world. It took place at 1.00pm on 11th November 1975 in Canberra, when Governor-General Sir John Kerr sacked Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and replaced him with the opposition leader, Malcolm Fraser, as caretaker Prime Minister.
Here’s the video from ABC-TV (YouTube) – and in a moment we’ll look at the chart and see how our competing Australian horoscopes shape up.
Here is the astrological chart set up for Gough’s ‘sacking’ letter – with our data recorded by the National Archives of Australia.
“The letter was lying face down on Sir John Kerr’s desk when Gough Whitlam entered his study in Government House around 1.00pm on 11 November 1975.” (Click to enlarge the chart).
Whitlam was sacked because of the way he handled the Australian economy. What we have here is a remarkable line up at 21 Taurus and 21 Scorpio. The finance signs. MC 21 Scorpio, North Node 21 Scorpio, IC 21 Taurus, South Node 21 Taurus.
We’re looking for a chart that chimes with that historic line-up at 21 degrees of Taurus and Scorpio when Whitlam was dismissed. Maybe a chart that even makes sense to people pushing for the Change the Date campaign.
So, what about 27th May? Many people feel this is when the two ‘halves’ of Australia came together. As astrologers we should all be mindful of the fact that an ancient Aboriginal site at a secret location in the Victorian bush could be the oldest astronomical observatory in the world, pre-dating Stonehenge and even the Great Pyramids of Giza.
I am proud to hold a British and Australian passport. The Aboriginal woman in this short clip, though, was denied an Australian passport – even when she was working as a nurse. And she was a First Australian. It was her own country.
Seriously, as astrologers, don’t we want the May 27th 1967 horoscope to work?
We’re looking for a chart that works with the most important day in Australian history. The sacking of a Prime Minister. Our Gough Whitlam Dismissal chart shows a jaw-dropping line-up at 21 Scorpio and Taurus.
The January 26th horoscope shows Neptune at 21 Libra. Fortuna at 21 Pisces.
The February 7th horoscope shows Neptune at 21 Libra. Panacea at 21 Sagittarius.
The January 1st horoscope shows Vulcano at 20 Aquarius
The horoscope for 9th May 1901 set for 12.00pm in Melbourne is astonishing. It shows the North Node at 22 Scorpio. The South Node at 22 Taurus. The Ascendant is at 21 Cancer. The Descendant is at 21 Capricorn. Fortuna is at 21 Sagittarius. Panacea is at 21 Aries.
The horoscope for 27th May 1967 set for 11.59pm in Canberra also rings true in an uncanny way, if we’re looking for a horoscope that chimes with the sacking of Gough Whitlam.
Mercury 22 Gemini. Uranus 20 Virgo. Neptune 22 Scorpio. Panacea at 21 Leo. Vesta at 21 Scorpio.
So the choice is ours. What do you think? The Australian horoscope (whichever one we choose) locks in the country’s identity and its future, according to all the laws of astrology. On 9th May 1901, Aboriginal people were actually excluded from the celebrations. On 27th May 1967, a nation – with an overwhelming vote of solidarity with the first Australians – all celebrated.
Looking at these charts has at least confirmed a true ‘hot spot’ in Australian identity. It is the 21 Scorpio and 21 Taurus axis of the horoscope, right across the Second House of currency and banking to the Eighth House of taxation, the share markets and trade. No wonder they call Australia the Lucky Country.
Remember, this hotspot works across the Whitlam chart, and both the 1967 and 1901 horoscopes.
Jupiter returns to 20, 21, 22 Scorpio in September and October 2018. No wonder this is the lucky country. Why? September-November 2018 sees sharemarket madness all over the world but Australia will come up smiling.
We see Venus Retrograde or appearing to go backwards in Scorpio, the sharemarket and bank sign in September, October, November, December 2018. As if that wasn’t enough Mercury Retrograde spins chaos in Scorpio at Halloween, across October 29th, 30th, 31st and again December 2nd to 12th.
The final quarter of 2018 will see world share markets in chaos. Australia benefits, though, for a short time – September 20th to October 5th. We may see huge headlines near September 28th and October 11th, 12th.
Looking further ahead in time, when Uranus the planet of revolution crosses Taurus 20, 21, 22 in June, July, August, September, October, November 2023 – the economy in Australia will turn upside-down.
Between June and November 2023 Australia will experience the greatest share market and currency turmoil in decades. As always, though, she is the Lucky Country and in April 2024 what turned upside-down will help her boom. One more time.
All horoscopes calculated using Solar Fire software with special thanks to Stephanie Johnson and Zane Stein. For more on the Australian, British and American national horoscopes please see the #1 Amazon bestseller, 2020 Astrology – Your Five-Year Horoscope Guide by Jessica Adams.
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