A few weeks ago I participated in my first-ever union meeting. I’m a member by virtue of my position with the County government. Since it’s a closed shop, dues are taken out of my pay check regardless, so I signed up as a union member. In all the years of in the union I have never involved myself in its affairs—until this vote.
The vote involved how work hours are scheduled in a particular unit of a county-run hospital. The unit is a mixed group of social workers and nurses who perform essentially the same jobs but are in different unions. The vote involved just the social workers’ union. The sides can be described as ‘For’ a formalized agreement about how to handle scheduling and ‘Against’ that agreement.
‘For’ wanted to continue handling the schedule in a way that works well for most but violates official union rules. ‘Against’ wanted to stop doing the schedule this way and ask management to solve the problem by the rules. Feelings about this issue had run high for years, with heated disagreements and several grievances filed. This vote was to be a final decision, putting the issue to rest.
Even though the vote would affect only a small group of workers in the union, by rules it had to be voted upon by the whole membership--that is, by whoever showed up to vote. Both sides recruited workers—including me, a former member of this unit—to attend the meeting. My strong ties of affection to the group compelled me to participate.
I was solidly in the ‘For’ camp when, on the day of the vote, I spoke with an ‘Against’ member and found myself quite sympathetic to her concerns. After our meeting, I cast a horary chart for the question, "How will the vote go?" It’s the first chart in the gallery below (June 3, 2010, 4:12 p.m. CDT Milwaukee, WI; 24 Libra Asc).
At the time I was favoring ‘Against’. In the chart, then, ‘Against’ gets Lord 1, Venus (‘us’). ‘For’ gets Mars, Lord 7 (‘them’). We analyze this as we would a contest horary: who will win? As you may recall, we are looking for which planet is stronger overall.
Venus is peregrine at 17.40 Cancer in the ninth house. Mars is in its own terms at 28.15 Leo, in the tenth. Mars has more dignity, though not a large amount. Mars is better placed accidentally, however, which helps give it the edge. It looked to me like ‘Against’ would lose the vote.
During the evening meeting, as I sat listening to the arguments from each side, I found myself solidly back to the ‘For’ camp. I don’t have an exact time for the voting--I was so absorbed in the debate that I forgot! My best estimate afterwards is 6:30 p.m. Here is the chart, the second in the gallery below (June 3, 2010, 6:30 p.m. CDT, Milwaukee, WI; 21 Scorpio Asc).
We analyze this chart as we would a sports event chart: who is favored to win? Many union members had turned out to support ‘For’, so I gave them Lord 1. Lord 1 is Mars, representing the ‘For’ camp, while Lord 10, Mercury, represents their ‘prize’ of a win. Lord 7 is Venus, signifies the ‘Against’ camp, while Lord 4 represents a win for them. In event charts we don't analyze strength in the way we do for contest horaries.
Luckily, this chart provides one clear testimony of the winner. Lord 10, Mercury, signifying a win for ‘For,’ is just outside the seventh house cusp. As we know from our textbook on these matters, Sports Astrology, a planet on the cusp of a house controls that house (page 81). ‘For’ will win—and so they did, by a margin of nine votes.
To summarize, we have two charts that tell us the same thing, one a contest horary and one a contest event chart. It’s interesting that the significators were the same in both charts. Although I changed sides in the course of a few hours, the charts were consistent.
And so the issue was decided—or maybe not. I just heard through the grapevine that the nurses are having their own meeting soon. As a ‘For’ member put it, "The battle has ended, but not the war." Here's wishing for a final peace agreement soon.
First published June 17, 2010 on silvestreastrology.blogspot.com
PHOTO CREDITS: From the ever-wonderful Pixabay (CC0), https://pixabay.com/
