The Human Calender

Some words about the Millennium might be appropriate at this point in history. So we all know that the Millennium begins on 1st January 2000, right? But what does the universe care about that? The calendar is a purely man-made phenomenon, and our dates and times have very little to do with the actual universe. Indeed all the major cultures have their own calendars, and it is only because of the technological domination of these cultures by the West that our calendar, and therefore the start of the millennium has any significance at all. Part of the problem of constructing a horoscope is indeed this conversion of our artificial time to a universal time. This problem has been acute throughout history, as mankind strives to make the calendar concur with the actual progress of the Earth around the sun. This is achieved by the use of the Leap Year and periodic adjustments of the calendar (when for example Pope Gregory removed 11 days in 1583).

The New Year Chart

So when we make a horoscope for the New Year, it ought to have no real significance, except for the fact that several billion people make it mean something by going out and getting drunk. Yet it has significance, if only because governments make it so through planning significant events to start at the beginning of the new year. The 10th degree of Capricorn gains unique power because of this. For example, the creation of the United Kingdom on January 1st 1801 naturally has the sun at this degree, just as the introduction of the Euro on January 1st 1999 also had. When there is an emphasis on that degree, one can expect major political convulsions, as for example in November 1989, when there was a Saturn/Neptune conjunction at 10° Capricorn opposite Jupiter at 10° Cancer. This was the time when a million blows of hammer and chisel dissolved the wall that split Germany and separated East and West. Similarly, when Uranus squares Pluto at 10° Capricorn in the year 2013, there will be similar more violent convulsions, probably centered on China and Western governments.

A Virtual Being

But there is one event on January 1st 2000 which makes the date profoundly significant - because this is the date on which a little virtual monster will be born. Nothing can stop it from coming, it will arrive at the stroke of midnight in all countries of the world, and - born in full vigor and with all the poison of a baby serpent - it will immediately strike. The horoscope for this Bug is the same horoscope as for the new year, which is the horoscope which sets the tune for the century, and indeed the horoscope which sets the tune for the Millennium... the next 1000 years. It is at this point that calendar and universe meet and breed the Millennium Bug. And the bug can be seen quite clearly..... The Chiron/Pluto conjunction The nature of the Bug is the conjunction of Chiron and Pluto in Sagittarius in the 3rd House. It is glaring. Pluto is associated with the world of computers, because their very nature in Plutonian: the binary world of zeros and ones, reflecting the stark yes/no world of Pluto, and the principle of computer power doubling every other year (whilst they cost half the price) reflecting the whole atomic principle so characteristic of Pluto, with its associations to the splitting of the atom, chain reactions and nuclear power.

The Nature of Chiron

Chiron, which in fact is a comet-like asteroid orbiting every 51 years between Saturn and Uranus, is in precise conjunction with Pluto at 11 degrees Sagittarius in the Bug's horoscope. This is the first time there has been a Chiron/Pluto conjunction since Chiron was discovered in 1977. The last conjunction was in 1941 - the actual year of the discovery and development of Plutonium. Astrologers associate Chiron with wounds and healing, but on a technological level Chiron is also connected with sterile environments and the development of the silicon chip. Thus the combination of Pluto and Chiron in Sagittarius in the third house, shows the upheaval that will come in the world of information and travel as clock hands join at midnight on 31st December 1999.

The Specter of the Bug

Many people think that the power of the Millennium Bug has been exaggerated. Indeed when British MP's were told in 1995 of the potential destruction that could be caused by the Bug the House collapsed in scenes of hilarity. Just to remind readers - the so-called Bug is a consequence of early computer programs adopted wholesale by the computing and banking world, and actually configured in older chips and hardware, in which the year was represented by two digits instead of four, due to the fact that space was at a premium in early computer systems. These chips and hardware are still running the financial works, and even hospitals (elevators, advanced life-support machines, databases etc) are still reliant on calculations made with the 2-digit system. So when those digital clocks roll over at the stroke of midnight year 2000, many computers will suffer from the illusion that the clocks have turned back , and the year is 1900. There are many areas in which this can have horrendous repercussions, not least in the world of finance, where whole systems of interest-calculation can be thrown into disarray, not to speak of what could happen on the different world stock markets.

A Hard Year

Note that the horoscope for the Millennium Bug, which is also the horoscope for the next millennium, actually spells out what we can expect. With the Moon in Scorpio opposite Saturn in Taurus in the 8th, it is quite obvious that economic hardship will be a result, and will certainly reflect the quality of the year. Note also, that Neptune conjunction the South Node at 3 Aquarius is also square the Saturn/Moon opposition, and that this is a signature for suffering and great discontent for populations worldwide. As China's Moon is a 3 Aquarius, there is every likelihood that this period will see a dissolution of authority in China. I do not know how much the Bug itself will be responsible for this, or if the scenario is exacerbated by a general world slump as a hangover from the eclipse of 1999, which is quite likely.

The New Century

As a horoscope for the century, the Bug heralds the role of information and Virtual Reality, which Pluto/Chiron in the 3rd House represents. This century will be one in which economic power rests in the hands of powerful organizations, and one in which populations are distracted by rather violent forms of entertainment, as shown by Mars in Aquarius sextile Jupiter in Aries. And meanwhile Pluto/Chiron will enable people to create worlds of virtual reality which they may choose to inhabit as they please. The digital world, and the digitalization of the mind, will make knowledge redundant, and play dominant. You can choose any reality you want, but it sure won't be reality.

© Adrian Ross Duncan