A joint publication of: Astro Logos and Zyntara Publications

ISSUE NO. 39

March 2008

VAN Archive - www.Zyntara.com

In this issue:  The Great One, Aquarius - five who bathe in his urn and two who stole from it….
Looking at Aquarius in visual astrology via the charts of billon dollar people.
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Lampeter University of Wales, UK
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The Great One, Aquarius
Five who bathe in his urn and two who stole from it….
Bernadette Brady M.A.
 

To the Sumerians, Aquarius was simply called “the Great One” but for many of us who grew up in the 60s, the idea of Aquarius, the zodiac sign, brings images of chanting, flower power, demonstrations by students, the revolution of the drug culture and the slogan “make peace not war”. My favourite that used to have pride of place in my teenage bedroom was  “What if they gave a war and nobody came?”

For later generations these images change but always they are linked to that which pushes against society, that which challenges, demands, refuses to be silent. But this is our story of the zodiac sign Aquarius and it is not the story of the stars, the ancient constellation known by the Sumerians as the Great One.  

In 2000 BCE the stars of Aquarius governed the winter solstice and were one of the four seasonal markers to the year. He was called GU (“The Great One”) and seems to have been linked to their creation myths of the water god Enki who pours water onto the dry earth. Enki is therefore a source of creation, not only giving water but giving shape to life itself from the clay of the earth. 
 

Enki’s symbols, however, are those  of the sea and the goat and although it is considered that his symbols appear to fit more with the constellation Capricorn than Aquarius, it should be remembered that Capricorn is quite close to Aquarius who stands with water at his feet and the sea goat at his side, and a fish beside him.
 

However, in the Egyptian mythology we have Khnum, the ram-head potter god who pours the life-giving waters into the Nile and from the clay of that great river he shapes all of life.  Whether Aquarius is the water creator god Enki or Khnum he is nevertheless called “the Great One” implying a powerful ruling ancient deity who governed the winter solstice and gave life-giving water to the earth.

Indeed Aquarius’ urn and the theme of him being the source of water is a constant theme in his imagery and if we can step back from our modern tropical zodiacal meanings of social activity and social justice, we can still see, if we care to look, the bountifulness of his urn in our modern times.

The billion dollar people…     On March 5 this year the data-gathering group Forbes issued their list of the richest people in the world for 2008. Such a list of course is always tantalising for astrologers, so I took the top five just to see what visual astrology had to say, if anything, about the abundance of money in their life.   Forbes listed Warren Buffett, as the wealthiest man in the world with an estimated value of $62 billon. He made his wealth primarily in insurance and was born 30 August 1930 in Omala, Nebraska, USA. His time is not known but in visual astrology we do not lose too much information with the lack of a birth time.   In looking at his chart, his stars and his natal sky map, I noticed that his natal Sun was setting as Sadalmelek was rising. As well, Sadalmelek had just become what is known as the heliacal setting star.

Sadalmelek is the star in the right shoulder of Aquarius and is the arm which holds the great life-giving urn (see image of Aquarius figure 1). The star is simply called the “lucky one of the king” and is associated in fixed star work with bountifulness, the flow of life, the flow of what one needs in life. So in Buffett's chart this bountiful star, tightly linked to the rising Sun, is a combination which not only shows his deep instinctual drive and desire towards bountifulness (Sadalmelek) but that this bountifulness will continue to emerge and expand into his life, since Sadalmelek is also his heliacal setting star. 

Now many people will have this star in such a position and they are not billionaires. Nevertheless it does imply bountifulness in some area of their life, even it is the bountifulness of loving relationships as they grow older.  To add to Sadalmelek's symbolism, Warren Buffett was also born on a day when Venus was directly on the beautiful bight blue star Spica, the wheat sheaf in Virgo. This star, and indeed this constellation, is linked with receiving a blessing, a gift, receiving benefit in some way. Venus "radiates" the area of the sky she is currently occupying, meaning that Venus empowers or amplifies what is around her. Thus for Warren Buffett, she is bestowing a great gift into his life, so within the philosophy of visual astrology, he has the bountifulness of the stars of Aquarius linked with the gift of the goddess Virgo. We could just nod our heads in a knowing manner and move on, if it was not for the fact that this is also the visual astrology motif which is repeated for all of the top five people on Forbes list of the world's wealthiest individuals.

The expanding Aquarius - Virgo motif
 

Carlos Slim Helu, is a Mexican businessman who has made a fortune in the telecommunications industry. He was announced by Forbes as the second wealthiest man in the world valued at $59 billon. He was born 28 January, 1940, in Mexico City, Mexico, and once again his time is not known. Carlos Helu has a similar pattern to Warren Buffett with his Venus located in the constellation Aquarius, right in the flow of the water from the urn (see figure 2) and with both his Moon and Neptune located in the constellation Virgo.

Bill Gates, of Microsoft, has currently been listed by Forbes as the third wealthiest man in the world valuing him at $56 billion. Gates was born 28 October 1955 in Seattle, Washington, at 21.15 PST.

Gates does not have any planets amoungst the stars of Aquarius. However, both his natal Jupiter and Uranus are in paran with Sadalsuud, the star in the left shoulder of Aquarius, known as the “Luckiest of the Lucky” (see figure 1) . These combinations are delineated as [2]:   

Jupiter: To benefit by the fortunate turn of events; the gambler.  Relying on luck to help with the outcomes.

Uranus:  Being able to make money; having access to the flow of energy which is life; one who benefits others by their bountifulness.

In keeping with the wealth motif, Gates has his Mercury and Mars amongst the stars of Virgo. 

Moving on to number four and valued by Forbes at around $30 billon, Lakshmi Mittal is an Indian steel merchant who was born 15 June, 1950 in Sadulpur, India (Latitude 28N38 longitude 75E24). Like Bill Gates, he also has Saladsuud active in his chart with it forming a paran to his Venus, while his Jupiter is located in the stream of the urn of Aquarius (see figure 2). Added to this, Mittal also, like Bill Gates,  has his natal Mars in the stars of Virgo and like Carlos Slim Helu, also has the more generational statement of Neptune also amongst these stars. Fifth on Forbes’ list is the Swedish founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad who is valued at around $28 billon. Born 30 March 1926 in Agunnaryd, Sweden, once again we see the same motifs, with Ingvar Kamprad, like Bill Gates, having Sadalsuud in paran which his Jupiter, as well as his node, which I delineate in SPC (Star and Planet Combinations) as [3] as follows:

Figure 2 - Billionaire Row, Aquarius and the respective positions of the natal Venus or Jupiter of three of the five riches men in the world. Also the Sun or Venus of the two billion dollar rogue traders.

The Node: To be the source of information; to produce a great deal of work, or have it produced on one’s behalf.

I feel this suits the proliferation of IKEA products in people's every day life. Kamprad also has his Venus located in the chest of Aquarius (see figure 2)and maintains the Virgo link with his Moon within the stars of Virgo.

These five men are also humanitarians who contribute large amounts of money to different charities, a reflection, I feel, of the common theme of their involvement with the constellation Virgo.  But there are other men whose stand in the flow of Aquarius whose names are also linked to billons of dollars.

The two only known billon dollar rogue traders

In January the world markets shock as Pluto sat on the edge of Capricorn and a unknown quiet Frenchman bought one of the great French banks to its knees. Jerome Kerviel traded for the Société Générale and, through illegal trading, lost the bank nearly 5 billon Euros. It is considered that the bank may not recover. This huge sum of money earned Kerviel a place in  history alongside the only other billon dollar rogue trader, Nick Leeson. Jerome Kerviel was born on 11 January 1977 and grew up in Pont-L’Abbe in Brittany.

In looking at Kerviel's sky map, plotted for Pont-L'Abbe [4] he, just like the billionaires listed by Forbes, also has his natal Venus in the flow of the urn of Aquarius (see figure 2) and his Moon in the stars of Virgo.   The only other billon dollar rogue trader is the London based trader Nick Leeson, born 25 February 1967 in Watford, London, UK. In 1995 Leeson bought the Barings Bank down by losing, in illegal trades, over a billon Euros. Leeson has his natal Sun in the flow of the urn of Aquarius (see figure 2) but unlike the other six men whose lives are involved with billons of dollars, Leeson has no planets in Virgo, yet he is the only rogue who went on the run.

This association of the stream of water that flows from the urn of Aquarius with great abundance in life would not be surprising to an ancient Sumerian of 2500 BCE. For in their mythology this stream is the life-giving water of the creator god Enki whom they also linked with wisdom, magic, incantations, and the arts and crafts of civilisation[5].  We can indeed see the threads of our modern zodiac sign, Aquarius, when we think of the "arts and crafts of civilisation". Enki, like Prometheus, the Greek god associated with the zodiac sign Aquarius, was a saviour god who took the side of  mankind and saved the human race from the flood caused by the wrath of the other gods on the human race.

This theme of the bountiful urn is also represented in the Egyptian view where the great urn not only provides the water of the Nile but also its life-giving annual flooding. Indeed the urn's life giving nature is still part of our culture, for if you have been baptised, then you have been held under the flow of Aquarius' great urn. You have been placed under the urn in an attempt to bless you and give you the benefits of belonging to a community, membership to a group who are blessed and thus belonging to those who are civilised - a very Aquarian concept. In our modern astrology we have accepted the community nature of "the Great One" of the Sumerians but have reduced the life-giving urn to the imagery used more by Las Vegas casinos as a promise of potential material wealth than any other form. Indeed it is this material wealth which we see in the above examples of our billionaires or rogue traders.

Baptism. Fresco on the catacomb of Saints Marcellinus and Peter, Via Labicana, Rome, Italy.

For money is like water. It provides the needs of life in our modern world and when we talk of it in our lives we tend to use the language of water. We talk of our income stream or flow; we understand that money can easily slip through our fingers like water, and if the “well is dry” then a source of money has been removed.  But money is not the only form of wealth that the great urn of Aquarius can give us. Albert Einstein, who gave us a whole new physics, has his natal Jupiter in paran to both Sadalsuud and Sadalmelek. As well, in his natal sky map, Jupiter was located in the lap of the “Great One”.

Visual astrology suggests we rethink some of our ideas around Aquarius, become aware of it history and most importantly observe the plentifulness of planets that are washed in his great urn at the time of our birth.

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