My local news is all about swine flu these days. Seems like the national news is too.

The traditional astrological symbol for flu and pandemics is Neptune. For example, during the flu pandemic of 1957, Neptune in Scorpio was in a bad mood with Uranus in Leo. Deaths peaked when they were about 9 or 10 degrees from a square, which is when global events associated with outer planet squares usually hit crisis points (8-10 degrees from a square is more dangerous than the exact aspect usually).

This year, Neptune has moved into place for the triple conjunction coming up later in May. The conjunction is a global phenomenon and therefore lends itself to global events like pandemics.  I’m really not familiar with pandemics resulting from Neptune conjunctions, though, and I have to say a flu pandemic is not exactly what I wanted from this one. I was hoping for much more jolly stuff  since optimistic Jupiter will be involved. The addition of Chiron to the mix is a wild card, though, and not one that happens often enough for me to have any personal experience with it.

Maybe it will all turn out to be relatively mild if Jupiter rides in to the rescue later in May. If not, then I suppose we might have a very unusual late spring/summer spurt of illness, because Neptune will be at this degree until mid-July. Usually, illness is more likely to spread during the school year.

To me, if this a manifestation of Neptune and Chiron in cahoots, it seems a bit mean. The poor globe is already reeling from an economic downturn; this seems like the last thing we need. Give us some happy news, planets, we’ve got more than enough difficult aspects coming up.