In June and July 2021, the transiting lunar nodes, known as Rahu and Ketu in Vedic astrology, will conjoin the Royal Stars Aldebaran and Antares. Using the mean node calculation, the exact conjunction will occur June 15, but is within an effective two-degree orb of influence from April 9 to August 10. Using the true node calculation, the exact conjunction will occur on July 12, with the effective two-degree orb of influence extending from May 8 until July 23.

The lunar nodes in astrology are not corporeal planets but are given equal status to the corporeal planets as they represent the hidden forces driving our destiny. They signify the karmic axis, that is, the lessons we must experience in order to bring karmic balance and to further evolution. Astrologers observe the nodal transiting movements as they move around the zodiac, in order to get some idea about the kinds of events that will unfold. We also look at the transiting nodes in relation to natal or mundane birth charts in order to know where to bring necessary attention and focus. I wrote in July 2020 about the lunar nodes transiting in Taurus and Scorpio … from September 23, 2020 until April 12, 2022 (using mean nodes) or from September 19, 2020 until March 16, 2022 (using true nodes).

In mundane astrology, astrological alignments between any of the transiting planets (including the lunar nodes) with Aldebaran and Antares, and also with Regulus and Fomalhaut, the other Royal Stars, are known to trigger major historical events, including both positive turning points as well as socio-political upheaval and natural and man-made disasters. If these transits are closely activating planets or important areas of a natal chart (such as an angle cusp), they can also have an important impact on individuals.

The four Royal Stars were known to the ancient Persian astrologers thousands of years ago as the “Guardian Stars” as they watch over the four directions. They are associated with the four main archangels too, so are often known as the “Archangel Stars”: Aldebaran (Michael), Regulus (Raphael), Antares (Uriel), and Fomalhaut (Gabriel). (Please note that these archangel-star alignments are sometimes shown differently in various systems; as for instance, sometimes Michael is associated with Regulus, etc.).

The Guardian Stars were used by ancient astrologers for navigational purposes, to make meteorological and seasonal calculations, and for mundane astrology predictions. They later became known as Royal Stars due to their immense cosmic significance as gatekeepers to the fixed constellations which symbolize the sustaining forces of human and worldly development. Thus the Royal Stars indicate concentrated and focused power, for both good and evil.

Aldebaran, the Watcher of the East, is in the Eye of the Bull and is the dominant star in the Taurus constellation. Regulus, the Watcher of the North, is in the Heart of the Lion in Leo constellation. Antares watches the West and is the alpha star in Scorpio, where it is known as the Heart of the Scorpion. Fomalhaut, the “Fish’s Mouth,” watches the Southern sky and is the brightest star in Piscis Austrinus, where it shares the same celestial longitude as the star Sadalmelik, the alpha star in Aquarius.

The Guardian Stars of the Four Gates are symbolized by four symbolic creatures: the Bull, the Lion, the Eagle, and the Angel. Each of them represents a particular ray of power that is a force of progression in the universal battle of good versus evil, according to the late western astrologer Dane Rudhyar. Thus, these stars represent the rise and fall of human events. They are depicted in the Wheel of Fortune, the tenth trump card of the major arcana of the Tarot which represents the seasons of life and samsara, the journey of the soul.Aldebaran is the thirteenth brightest star in the sky and its diameter is 45 times that of our Sun. It is located at 15 degrees and 55 zodiacal minutes in sidereal Taurus. It is also known as the Eye of God, Eye of Illumination, and Eye of Revelation. Aldebaran in its lower manifestation can represent danger and violence, and also, mental or physical illness. On the other hand, it has favorable consequences in scientific, financial, technological, and business matters, but also can sometimes signify political and financial crises as well as natural and man-made disasters. With the Moon’s North Node Rahu aligning here, various kinds of afflictions are unleashed, and evil actions are carried out, but there will also be some disclosure of truth and capacity for wisdom.

Antares is a flaming red binary star located at 15 degrees and 54 minutes in the heart of Scorpio.

The diameter of Antares is 700 times the size of our Sun.

As the fifteenth brightest star in the sky, it indicates passion, pride, strength, strategic success, and sometimes, revenge. Antares means the “Rival of Mars,” and its nature is like that of Mars: impulsive, volatile, aggressive, and noxious, especially when it is conjoined Ketu, the Moon’s South Node, which also acts like Mars. Ketu’s conjunction with Antares suggests rebellious and destructive forces battling against authority. It is also associated with political assassinations and major floods.

I looked back a hundred years to previous times when the Rahu aligned with Aldebaran and Ketu with Antares, which happens every 18.5 years. Here are some events that I discovered (from Wikipedia):

Protests and Demonstrations

• November 1909 – Industrial Workers of the World free-speech protests in Spokane, Washington. 500 people arrested by the end of the protests.
• June 1928 – Ten were wounded in Drama, Greece in fighting between troops and striking tobacco workers.
• August 1965 – Watts Riots: At 7:00 in the evening in the mostly African-American section of Watts in Los Angeles, a white California Highway Patrol officer, Lee W. Minikus, was riding his motorcycle along 122nd Street, and was flagged down by a passing black motorist, who told of seeing a car being driven recklessly. Minikus located the 1955 Buick, and it pulled over at the corner of 116th Street and Avalon Boulevard, where the black driver, Marquette Frye, was asked to step out and take a sobriety test on suspicion of drunken driving. The other man in the car, Frye’s brother Ronald, ran home and brought the men’s mother, Rena Price, to the scene. When Frye failed the test, Minikus notified him that he was under arrest and by 7:15, Minikus’s CHP partner, a patrol car, and a tow truck arrived. By that time, the crowd of curious spectators had grown from about 25 people to several hundred. According to an investigative report, Marquette’s mother began scolding him for drinking and “Marquette, who until then had been peaceful and cooperative, pushed her away and moved into the crowd, cursing and shouting at the officers that they would have to kill him to take him to jail.” As the tension increased, the three family members and the three officers were scuffling, more highway patrolmen arrived and Los Angeles Police Department officers were called in, and the Watts Riots began. By the time that the rioting ended six days later, 34 people had been killed, 1,032 had been injured, and 3,952 arrested, and there was more than $40,000,000 of damage.
• August 1965 – Job Corps Youth Riots in Kentucky: More than 200 young men training at Camp Breckinridge, a federal Job Corps center in Morganfield, Kentucky, rioted for three hours. Ten people were injured and windows at the administration building were smashed after a brawl broke out in the cafeteria. Most of the 670 students were African-American males, ranging in age from 16 to 21, who had dropped out of school and had come to the camp from large cities under a program administered by Southern Illinois University. The group was already dissatisfied with the poor quality of the food and the long waits in line.
• March 1984 – Twelve-month-long strike in British coal industry begins.
• November 2002 – Riots sweep the Nigerian city of Kaduna, host to the Miss World competition, after a newspaper article says that the prophet Mohammed would have chosen a bride from among the contestants. Rioters shout ‘Down with beauty’; 105 people die. The pageant is moved to London.

Developments and Events in Aviation (Rahu rules Aviation)

• November 1909 – Lt. George C. Sweet became the first U.S. Navy officer to fly in an airplane, as a passenger for nine minutes on the Wright Flyer, piloted by Army Lt. Frank P. Lahm.
• June 1928 – Italian aviators Arturo Ferrarin and Carlo Del Prete completed 58 hours and 37 minutes in the air, a new world record.
• April 1956 – Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2 is ditched in Puget Sound shortly after takeoff from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, United States. All 38 people aboard manage to leave the plane, but four passengers and one crew member cannot be saved by rescuers.
• May 1956 – Trans World Airlines Flight 400, a Martin 4-0-4, crashes on takeoff from Greater Pittsburgh International Airport in Pennsylvania, United States; 22 of the 36 people on board are killed, including one crew member.
• August 1965 – Gemini 5, with astronauts Gordon Cooper and Pete Conrad, lifted off at precisely 10:00 a.m. from Cape Kennedy in Florida and began its first orbit six minutes later. Its eight-day mission would break the record for longest manned spaceflight, and would be the first to test fuel cells as a supply for electrical power. Gemini 5 was the 11th manned American space mission, and the 19th for the world’s nations.
• March 1984 – Challenger moves to Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center (Florida), for mating of STS 41-C mission.
• December 2002 – A MQ-1 Predator is shot down by an Iraqi MiG-25, making it the first time in history that an aircraft and a modern unmanned drone had engaged in combat.

Disasters

• November 1909 – The Cherry Mine Disaster, the third deadliest coal mine accident in United States history, killed 247 coal miners, and 12 rescuers. Another 234 were saved by the rescue team that descended into the shaft six times, but failed to return on the seventh trip. A blaze started inside a mine shaft between noon and 1:00 pm. A carload of hay bales had been set too near to a kerosene torch. Fed by the ventilation system, the flames spread to the mine timbers and asphyxiated half of the men and boys working inside. As the third major mine disaster in as many years, the fire at Cherry, Illinois, led to the creation of the U.S. Bureau of Mines, and the first workers’ compensation legislation in the United States.
• September 1937 – 25 were killed in Germany when the express train between Munich and Cologne derailed.
• April 1956 – Tornado outbreak: At the end of an outbreak that produced 47 tornadoes, including an F5 tornado that devastated the Hudsonville and Standale, Michigan, areas of the United States, 18 people are left dead and 340 injured, and the historic lighthouse at Saugatuck has been destroyed.
• May 1956 – The Great Hong Kong typhoon killed 11,000 people.
• August 1965 – Eighty-eight workers were killed in an avalanche at the Allalin Glacier that buried the Mattmark Dam construction site at Saas-Fee in Switzerland. Another 18 employees had been able to escape the path of the avalanche, which left a mountain of ice 100 feet deep. The disaster happened at about 6:00 p.m. when a huge section of the glacier broke loose from Strahlhorn mountain and traveled 1,650 feet in about 90 seconds to a construction camp where the men, mostly Italian, had been staying. Most of the dead were late shift workers who were asleep when 250 tons of debris had overrun their camp, while some were eating their evening meal. Reportedly, the air pressure from the approaching mass shattered the buildings before they were buried.
• August 1965 – Twelve people were killed and 22 injured in a series of explosions at a Dupont chemical plant in Louisville, Kentucky, that had been manufacturing the rubber substitute Neoprene. The initial explosion happened at 10:25 in the morning; another blast happened at 6:30 in the evening while rescuers were looking for bodies. A compressor that circulated vinylacetylene in gaseous form overheated, causing the first blast.
• March 1984 – Mobil Oil tanker spills 200,000 gallons into Columbia River in Washington State.
• December 2002 – Two truck bombs kill 72 and wound 200 at the pro-Moscow headquarters of the Chechen government in Grozny, Chechnya.

The conjunction of the lunar nodes with the Aldebaran-Antares axis looks to be a time of some ongoing upheaval in society, with many conflicting forces at play. Perhaps it will also be a time of necessary rebellion by those who seek to rise above the negative power of divisiveness, fear, and hatred in order to attain freedom from the massive totalitarian and regressive forces that have grown so far out of control in recent times.

May the highest divine power manifesting in the angelic realm watch over and guide all living beings in all known universes with love, unity, compassion, wisdom, and truth. May all our ancestors be at peace. May all beings be happy, healthy, peaceful, prosperous, and free. May we live in harmony with each other and with the plant, animal, and devic kingdoms here on planet Earth. And so it is. Thank you. Amen.