{"id":290,"date":"2018-11-17T21:37:18","date_gmt":"2018-11-17T22:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malvinartley.com\/blog.malvinartley.com\/?p=290"},"modified":"2018-11-17T21:37:18","modified_gmt":"2018-11-17T22:37:18","slug":"california-and-its-disastrous-state-of-affairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malvinartley.com\/blog.malvinartley.com\/2018\/11\/17\/california-and-its-disastrous-state-of-affairs\/","title":{"rendered":"California and its disastrous state of affairs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two days after the midterm elections in the US, on November 8th<\/sup>, our attention was once again drawn to, or riveted on California, but not for the best of reasons. And as I got close to finishing this I got a piece of bad news, which made this article quite difficult to finish. We\u2019ll get to why in a bit. California is known for a great many things. In the election cycles in the US it is known as a solid blue state (Democratic, as in Party), and at one time it was one of the most progressive states in the Union. It is not so much so now, and quite a lot has changed there in recent years, largely due to the advent of the tech sector, big money and neoliberal economic policy. At one time it was the<\/em> place to be for many Americans and a great many people migrated there. Now many people are moving out, due to soaring rental and housing prices, changing demographics and economic reasons. It is a state that boasts an economy larger than England or France, the largest population of any state in the US, many technological achievements, and of course, Hollywood, just to name a few things. But given recent events, I have had to take another look at California\u2019s astrology, and that, along with the latest event, is what we will cover here.<\/span><\/p>\n

The chart commonly cited for California uses a time of 9:32 AM, which was when it was pronounced as a state by Congress. However, I have not found that the chart works too well. A time closer to 9:00 AM gives more detail and speaks more to the major events in California\u2019s history. The 9:32 chart gives Scorpio rising, and this would indeed speak toward the intrigue we find in Hollywood, for instance, with its focus on sexuality and sex scandals. But Hollywood is only a small part of California. California is, or has been, quite a vibrant state, with a wide diversity of demographics \u2013 Caucasian, Mexican, Oriental, to name a few \u2013 and being a one-time hippie, I can resonate with the fact that California was the birthplace of the hippie movement. And then there was the gay movement that had its main start in San Francisco. This is another reason given for acceptance of the Scorpio rising chart. But from a more esoteric perspective, choices<\/em> about sexuality are made in Libra, whereas their expression is cemented and worked out in Scorpio. To settle such arguments, we have to look deeper into the California chart and look for the more definitive events in California\u2019s history, the events that have shaped its history and evolution, rather than being a sort of overall expression. We\u2019ll touch on a few of those here. California\u2019s chart as commonly accepted is shown below (bigger<\/a><\/span>):<\/span><\/p>\n

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If there are significant events, those should be reflected in transits and progressions to the angles of the chart or to the rulers of those angles. Keeping in mind that the date of California statehood is not in question, we are looking for the proper angles. One of the defining characteristics of the state of California and probably its most notable institution is its so-called \u201cSilicon Valley\u201d, from where the tech revolution was born. We would thus expect Uranus to be one of the main significators. In the Scorpio rising chart we find Uranus in the 6th<\/sup> house (services, military, police, health) near the 6th<\/sup>\u00a0 house cusp, partile to Pluto. Uranus rules the 4th<\/sup> house of infrastructure. Pluto would rule the 1st<\/sup> house in this case. California is also well known for its agriculture, the 4th<\/sup> house in mind, and the Napa Valley is world-renowned, especially for its wine and other exports. And the Sun rules that house, hence the gold fields in California, which is what really got it all started.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then, taking the Uranus\/Pluto into account, they are opposite Venus, which is all about relationships anyway, the latter in Scorpio and semisquare the Sun, thus forming a \u2018hard opposition\u2019. Venus is also conjunct the Moon. This is not an easy configuration, and even by itself, regardless of house placement, points to scandals, difficulties in sexual relations, unusual partnerships, sudden upsets in relationships and so forth. This is added to when we look at the trine between the Venus\/Moon and Neptune, which points to the allure of California as a place to live, as well as to the film industry and the glamour that is so associated with the state. The trine also gives a high aesthetic sense and idealism, for which the state is also known, and which tends it toward progressive political thought. However, coupled with the hard opposition, that can be co-opted by other forces, and the thing we see with California politics these days is a Democratic Party that has turned sharply toward corporate funding and interests. With the powerful tech sector in California, which is also tightly bound to Wall Street, we see that underlying all the glamour and purported high idealism \u2013 which in many cases is also real \u2013 there is also an underbelly of often nefarious interests. Venus is therefore also a major indicator for this chart in addition to Uranus.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Scorpio rising chart Venus rules the 7th<\/sup> and 12th<\/sup> houses. Does this fit with what has just been described? To an extent. The 12th<\/sup> house would certainly point to scandals, as well as to spirituality, which is also another manifestation of the configuration described in the previous paragraph. The New Age Movement was a significant development in California\u2019s history, but itself prone to being co-opted by people who simply wanted to make a buck, which sometimes happened. On the other side I know many spiritually-based people who live in California and who carry on good work. But people do seem to love a good scandal and the gossip columnists have made a living off of California for years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gossip columnists would be ruled by Saturn (3rd<\/sup> house) in this case, which would not appear to fit the California mold. The situation changes, along with many other factors, if we move the rising sign to the last degree of Libra. In that case, Venus rules the 1st<\/sup> and 8th<\/sup> houses, more reflective of the easy-going attitude of many Californians (1st<\/sup> house), sexuality (8th<\/sup> house) and Jupiter takes over the main rulership of the 3rd<\/sup> house (press, travel, commerce, communications), with Saturn as the ruler of the intercepted Capricorn, also in the 3rd<\/sup> house. With that being the case, we find the awful situation with traffic in California, with clogged highways, problems with pollution, etc., but also the proliferation of media in the state. In the Libra rising chart, Venus also still rules the 12th<\/sup> house, so a Libra rising chart would seem to be a better fit. The Libra chart is shown below (bigger<\/a><\/span>):<\/span><\/p>\n

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One of the major factors for which California is known, aside from all the preceding, is disasters, which brings us to the reason for this post. And we are now experiencing one of the worst disasters of its sort \u2013 the Camp Road Fire of Butte County. In fact, there were four major fires that started on November 8, all across California, so that date should show in either the Libra or the Scorpio chart as being highly significant. Just to list them, we have, in order:<\/span><\/p>\n