A Crude Awakening
Uranus, Neptune, War, and Oil
Our current global “situation” has had me thinking about the fall of empires, and the geography and hubris displayed when playing the board game, RISK. Power is amassed, an invading force overtakes a neighboring territory and leaves enough forces behind to defend conquered territories and ward off other invading forces to maintain its power. The initial take-over seems not that hard, but maintaining that power is the long game, and many empires lose.
I first heard mention of of Goliath’s Curse by Luke Kemp, published in 2025 from a recent quote shared by a fellow Substacker. Kemp warns that Goliaths contain the seeds of their own destruction when you examine these societies over time. Throughout human history, agrarian societies bred elite classes who wanted control of the wealth: extracting, grain, metals, timber, gold, beaver pelts or whatever the subjugated target offered; while dominating the hunter-gatherers and capturing slave labor. Humanity has seen many of these hierarchical states, built on dominance and elite rule.
Modern society has become a global mega system of first world, post-industrialized countries extracting cheap labor and materials from poorer, less developed countries. But much of this has been hidden through international WTO deals, the World Bank, the IMF, and corporate law. Researchers in 2022 totaled up the booty gained from this unequal condition, according to Kemp.1
From 1990 to 2015, $10 trillion dollars was transferred every year from the global south to the global north. That is 30 times what poorer countries receive in aid each year. Overall, $242 trillion dollars was moved during that 25 year period, enough to eliminate extreme poverty 70 times in a row.
The current flow of capital is dictated by legal systems that stem from English law and New York state law. As King Charles pointed out this week in his address to the US Congress, the UK and the US share the same roots going back to the Magna Carta. We cannot forget that the shared history of empire-building and RISK continues to this day, only now our fates are more intertwined than ever.
But, Kemp also argues that at least empire collapse in the past wasn’t always “bad” for the people who experienced it. Collapse sometimes caused greater resilience as people voted with their feet by moving to places where living conditions were better. That would seem like good news, but I am not sure that such options exist anymore. Afterall, wee, the sheeple, are all the captive frogs in the boiling pot called Earth. I am left wondering where exactly would anyone “flee” to in this current situation? Mars? A Moon base? (Not getting there without oil, btw.)
Here are few more interesting nuggets from Kemp’s book:
It is estimated that it would take 400 years of global photosynthesis to power the modern world for just one year. Our supply of fossilized energy contained in oil produced from dead plants from 360-286 million years ago is a problem. It takes 98 tons of hundred million-year old buried plant matter to become 5 liters of today gas.
Global investment in renewables and nuclear energy has recently doubled that of fossil fuel. Meanwhile the US regained the position of the largest oil producing country in the world in 2018 and has kept it every year since then.
The Astrology of Oil
Neptune is the planet associated with OIL. So, I went looking for a chart of the first discovery of oil in the US. I thought it might have been the eruption of Spindletop, in Beaumont, Texas, currently located about 100 miles from me, but that would be incorrect. The first successful drilling for oil was in Titusville, PA on August 27, 1859. Spindletop didn’t happen until 1901. The formation of Standard Oil and Trust, and the setup of the geo-politics that would result from the rise of oil goes back to the late 1880’s.2 At the date of the Titusville drilling, Neptune was at 26 Pisces, Uranus at 7 Gemini.
Uranus at 7° Gemini for this date is just 1 degree from the natal Uranus at 8° Gemini in the US Chart. Transiting/Return of Neptune passed up the 26 Pisces position of the Titusville drilling in February of 2024. (For more context on the US Sibley chart, see also https://alextrenoweth.co.uk/sibley-chart-usa-birth-horoscope/)
The US will experience a return to its natal position in the summer of 2027 - a very Uranian year. Below is the bi-wheel for this event. The second Uranus return will be in November 2027, and the third in 2028. Since this is so, it seems we may only be at the beginning of this current conflict. May the 4th be with you.
Kemp, L. (2025). Goliath’s Curse. Random House.
History of ExxonMobil. (2023, November 1). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_ExxonMobil