Astrologers will be quite familiar with the concept of lunar mansions, most likely through some knowledge of Vedic astrology, or perhaps Arabic astrology. There is a lesser known system of lunar mansions associated with Chinese astrology, too. The Vedic system uses 27 mansions, sometimes 28, whereas the Arabic and Chinese systems use 28. The Chinese call their lunar mansions ‘xiù’, from pinyin transliteration. The word simply means ‘lodging’, from èrshí bā xiù. With the Chinese xiù there is a major difference between their system and the others, in that the Chinese xiù are of unequal length. And there is one in particular that is being strongly activated by Mars at the moment, and is signaling important changes in the geopolitical landscape.
That particular xiù is the 21st, also called Shen, or Orion. The xiù Shen currently spans from 24Gem59 to 5Can29. The Chinese do not use the precession of the equinoxes, and instead view the constellations as they are, ignoring the seasonal drift through the ages. Plus, they do not use signs as we know them except in their fate calculation systems – the Four Pillars, Ming Shu, 9 Star Qi and so forth. Instead, they have many, much smaller asterisms, with only a few approaching the size of the Western constellations.
Mars entered the 21st xiù on 8 May and will leave on the 24th, the day after Britain votes for the EU Parliament – today, as a matter of fact. The xiù Shen is generally considered to be unlucky in Chinese astrology, or to have variable luck. Its associated element is water, associating it with Mercury (their ‘water planet’), and with its notional animal being the ape. We won’t go into that here. There is something more important that shows itself through this xiù.
One of the more interesting facets to that lunar mansion is that it contains a degree of the zodiac noted for disasters: “At a railroad crossing an automobile is wrecked by a train.” This is the Sabian symbol for the 4 – 5 degree of Cancer. There are several such ‘disaster degrees’ among the Sabian symbols, apparently spaced at random. But in a Chinese astrology class with students in Adelaide some years ago, we discovered that this lunar mansion had a particularly onerous meaning for people who had it on the Ascendant: If the ruler of the mansion (either Mercury or the Moon, depending on which part of the lunar mansion was rising) was afflicted, it can indicate death by decapitation or severe head injuries.
Jayne Mansfield, for example, had the last degree of Shen (in Cancer) rising, with her natal Moon opposite Mars. She was killed in a car accident and died of severe head injuries. The Ascendant rules the head. Grace Kelly also died in a similar manner, though she was thought to have had a stroke, which caused her to lose control of the car she was driving. At the time of her death the ‘train wreck’ degree and the lunar mansion were activated by directions, though she did not have Shen rising. Robespierre, king of the Reign of Terror in France, suffered the same fate of his victims when his head was severed by guillotine. At the time his progressed IC (conditions at the end of life) and death axis (Mars/Saturn MP) were at a Western Aries point (Cancer) in Shen. These are but a couple of examples and much more research is needed. There is a wider consideration here, though.
The lunar mansions were not used in Chinese astrology except for heads of state, as part of their ‘Imperial astrology’. Commoners used those mansions on pain of death. And as it turns out, Shen, or Orion, holds a particular fancy for heads of state, but not in a what they would consider to be in a good way, especially when Mars appears there. That brings us to our present considerations.
Over the past couple of days, Mars was transiting over our ‘train wreck’ degree and through Shen. A look at the past times it was there reveals patterns. There are parallels with the current transit of Mars to when it was last there, in June of 2017, and with the UK to boot. Just about the time Mars transited into Shen, there was a general election in the UK, three years early and called by Theresa May with the aim of strengthening her hand in Brexit negotiations and highlighting her “strong and stable” leadership, which was a disaster for the conservatives and cost the May government their majority instead. They thereafter had to form government with the DUP.
That period was quite significant worldwide. Mars entered Shen on 29 May. It left on 14 June. During that period there was the Qatari diplomatic crisis and the blockade of Qatar, a terrorist attack on London Bridge, terrorist attacks in Tehran, Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Climate Agreement and there was the Otto Warmbier saga, who died shortly after he arrived back in the US from a North Korean prison.
The time before that was from 17 Jun – 3 Jul of 2015. The events that took place then were three terrible terrorist attacks in the Middle East (Kobani, Kuwait and Sousse) during Ramadan, committed by Daesh. It was also at the height of the Greek debt crisis, around the time the Greeks got sold out.
The time before that was 7 Jul – 22 Jul 2013. During that period, Mohammed Morsi was deposed in Egypt during a military coup ad there were widespread protests throughout Egypt as a result. With all this, then, a general theme emerges, plus there is a hidden factor to consider.
The common theme refers to heads of state. It often means troubles for heads of state. Trump was widely condemned for pulling out of the Paris Agreement. May lost the majority for her government. Morsi was deposed. The leadership of Qatar came under attack. The Greek leadership was also under considerable stress and caved into the Troika to bail out the Greek economy.
And now, Theresa May has resigned, announcing it today. The mainstream will be kind to her, saying she hung on against the odds, but she was handed a poisoned chalice from the start. But in the period of her reign, much has been exposed about politics and powers behind the scenes in London. This will mark the beginning of a fall from power for many of the elites in London. When Mars was on the ‘train wreck’ degree it was all over for her, starting with the resignation of Leadstrom from her cabinet. The independent media has not minced words about her legacy. But when it comes to it, her legacy is also that of the Tory Party, much like we see with the Republican Party in the US. Labour in the UK and the Democrats in the US aren’t much better when it comes to crimes overseas. An interview with Afshin Rattshani on RT Britain today laid it all out and did not mince words.
The hidden factor here is that Mars has been out-of-bounds during these periods, which has heightened the severity of the events that have taken place then. For this present period, the most visible event has been the resignation of Theresa May. It may also doom Brexit or bring it more swiftly to pass. But there is more.
Juan Guaidó, a name about to fade into obscurity, instead of mounting further challenges to Maduro, is now on the run shuttling between safe houses, seeking to avoid arrest in Venezuela. A comment on a recent blog post perhaps summed it up better: He is trying to avoid assassination by the CIA. According to his astrology (which we won’t go into) that is a possibility. He could turn out to be a convenient ‘event’ for Washington. Guaidó was Washington’s man in Venezuela, having been CIA-trained and groomed by the US establishment for the purpose of taking power in Venezuela and returning that nation to US and neoliberal control, thus ending the Bolivarian Revolution. The latter is looking increasingly unlikely.
And then there is Trump. He was just recently handed a sour apple, too. A 2nd judge now has blocked Trump’s attempts at keeping his tax returns and financial records secret. Those financial records, more than Russia-gate, could be the thing that brings him down. It could also be what we are seeing around him for the middle of next year. If something is revealed in those documents and legal action is taken, then it would take that long for events to unfold. That would be probably far more worrying for him than the Russia-gate scandal, which continues to be revealed as fake. When this latest episode started to come down for him, Mars was making its approach to his Mercury, the latter ruling his 2nd house (finances and financial records). It will be exact on his Mercury on the 29th.
We could go on, but this gives us an idea of what we can expect and why when Mars transits through that sector of the zodiac. That 21st xiù is quite interesting, especially since Chinese astrology evolved as a means for guiding its heads of state. And since Mars governs conflicts in general, and is often out-of-bounds when it transits that sector every couple of years, world leaders should pay careful attention when Mars transits the xiù Shen, or Orion. Heads may very well roll, if only figuratively these days.
Featured pic from Feng Shui Magazine