On Friday I become an Australian citizen and lose my status as a Pommie.

The P word is a “complex evolution of rhyming slang used by Australians to describe a Brit. Specifically an Englishman. Beginning with immigrant, then Jimmy Grant, then pomegranate, then Pom or Pommie. The correct term is “whingeing Pommie bastard” and no Australian gives a rat’s arse if a Brit takes offence or not”.

There is also the connection with 19th century convicts as Prisoners of Majesty.

Another factor in the pomegranate theme is that Brits very quickly go red in the cheeks when confronted by the Australian Sun.

All of these symbols come together as most Australians encounter Englishmen abroad on mass every four years as they escape the dark days back home to encounter the searing heat of Brisbane in late November.

And anyone who’d been stuck on a plane for 24 hours only to encounter a contest chart like this, would feel entitled to whinge.

Contest charts follow simple horary rules.

The Ascendant ruler signifies the home side (or in the case of tournaments held on neutral venues, the favourites).

The Descendant ruler is therefore the away team (or underdog).

The condition of each will tell you a lot about the state of the team going into the match, but the result will be indicated by the Moon’s movement.

If it applies to an aspect to either significator, that side will likely win.

If it separates from one, the match is drifting away from them and they will likely lose.

This method is unlikely to work consistently for your local village cricket team, but for the world’s most important contest, the Ashes, it certainly will.

These series are made up of 5 matches, so a victory in the 1st one would be crucial to winning the whole thing.

To that end, the contest chart for the opening match would also work for the whole series.

The above chart has Aquarius rising, so Australia would be signified by Uranus.

Leo on the Descendant means England would be the Sun.

The Moon is at 6 Cancer, Uranus at 8 Aries, the Sun at 28 Scorpio.

The Moon applies to a square aspect with Uranus.

It won’t even form a trine with the Sun, because it escapes to Sagittarius before the Moon can complete that aspect.

It’s important to note that in the contest chart, the square or opposition aspects do not indicate difficulties, they will just as easily produce a positive result as the easier ones.

As a rule with these charts, the closer the aspect, the more emphatic the victory.

If there are no intervening aspects then there is nothing that can prevent the win.

So with a close, uninterrupted applying aspect between the Moon and Uranus, this means a very strong win for Australia.

In the 2013-14 Ashes series, Australia thrashed England 5-0.

The following series went much the same way.

The significators are the same, the only difference being that with this test starting a few days later, the Sun is in the 1st degree of Sagittarius rather than late Scorpio.

The Moon at 20 Capricorn applies to a square aspect with Uranus (for Australia) at 25 Aries. Like in 2013, there are no intervening planets.

There is no connection between the Moon and the Sun.

Australia won 4-0, perhaps the one drawn match was down to the difference in orb of 5 degrees compared with the 2013 one of 2 degrees.

This defeat for England led me to write Ashes To Ashes – Astrological Match Fixing Down Under

“Cricket is a sport where home advantage is critical.

When we consider the places where it is played at a high level, the weather and pitch conditions are very different. Whereas in most sports like football the impact of either on the flight of the ball is negligible, in cricket it is crucial.

Cloud cover can make a ball change its line of flight easily enough to fool a batsman to misjudge a shot and nick it to one of the slip fielders. In England, our bowlers are very experienced at swinging a ball and are perfectly placed to exploit this advantage.

Often a good understanding of the local pitch and weather can make the difference between winning and losing particularly if you win the toss to decide whether to bat first or second.

Naturally all countries try to produce pitches that favour their own side’s bowling. Australia go a little further. They choose to begin all their Test series in Brisbane, particularly when it comes to the Ashes.

In the last 60 years, England have only won the Ashes 3 times in Australia. On each of those occasions they have got a result in Brisbane, two draws and a win. Every other series Australia have won the first Brisbane test and gone on to win the series.

The tropical climate of Brisbane in an Australian summer is so different to what the English team is used to, that it’s hardly surprising we fail since we invariably get off to a bad start. By the time the English are acclimatised, they’re already behind and under pressure.

Oddly enough England don’t do the same in their home series.

It would make sense to start the first test at cloudy Headingley or wet Old Trafford or freezing Durham, but England invariably rotate the tests so that they start elsewhere.

Another point that is far more relevant to this article and the subject at hand is that England start their Ashes at various different points in the summer whereas a series in Australia always starts at around the same time, sometime around the 20th November or late Scorpio / early Sagittarius.

The argument put forward for this starting date is that it allows the 4th Test which invariably is a series decider to fall during the holidays, traditionally starting on Boxing Day allowing many more people to watch it live or on TV. But given that the series is frequently all but decided before then, this does not seem to be the real reason.

After much contemplation of this problem, Capricorn Research has uncovered the real reason for this start date which points to a serious question of astrological match fixing by our antipodean friends.

Up until this season’s single experiment with the Adelaide day / nighter, Test matches always start at the same time, 10.30 am in Australia and 11.00 am in England.

A 10.30 start in Brisbane will invariably produce an Aquarius Ascendant for Australia with Leo for England.

Traditional astrologers should look away now but this means that Australia have two ruling planets, Saturn and Uranus, while England only have the Sun.

Consequently the chances are greater that the Moon would be applying to one of the first two rather than the latter.

In England the test series usually starts sometime in Cancer or possibly late Gemini. An 11.00 am start would invariably give a Virgo Ascendant, meaning Mercury for England but also a Pisces descendant again giving Australia a choice of two significators, Jupiter and Neptune, with again a greater chance of winning.

Some readers may remain unconvinced that these start times for the test series are evidence of astrological match fixing and that no such thing would happen deliberately in any walk of life. But there are examples of it all around us if we just care to look.

A few years ago David Cameron’s incoming Tory government decided to fix the date of future general elections, choosing the first Thursday in May. This falls slap bang in the middle of Taurus, that most conservative of all signs ( and the most fixed point in the whole Zodiac ). Thus simply giving the incumbent party the greatest advantage possible, particularly if it was a right of centre one.

Not only that but because the polls open at 7.00 am, Gemini would be rising. Mercury its ruler, representing the government is most likely to be in the 11th house of politics, frequently in the same sign Taurus or dignified in Gemini or assertively placed in Aries.

The Tauries may be the ” natural sign of government ” but why not cover all bases by giving yourselves a bit of astrological leverage and keep that place in perpetuity.”

My tongue in cheek conclusion was ” Maybe the English Cricket Board should follow the lead of Conservative Head Office and start the Test series in the first week in May at 7.00 in the morning, preferably in Durham or even John O’Groats.”

A few weeks after this article was published, I met my soulmate on astrotwitter, and by the time the next series started, I had married her and emigrated to Australia.

If you can’t beat them, join them.

The contest chart for the next Ashes series certainly confirmed that there was no possibility of beating them.

As if to confirm the suspicions of my own article, the chart for the beginning of 2021/22 series had the Moon applying to both of Australia’s possible Aquarian significators.

The applying conjunction with Saturn and square with Uranus served up another thrashing as Australia won the series 4-0.

My own findings through horary as well as contest charts is that in the case of dual sign rulerships, the modern rulers give a much greater record of successful results than the traditional ones.

So although the Universe seemed to be having a laugh at my own article, there was no need for the Saturn connection.

A 4.5 degree orb between the Moon and Uranus delivered exactly the same result as the 5 degree orb of the 2017 series.

Any non cricket follower might be under the impression that Australia always hammer England when playing down under, and its only the orbs that would determine whether its 4 or 5-0.

That would be unfair, the Last Victory Night Of The Poms came in 2010.

Here the Moon applies to both Uranus and the Sun by sextile to Uranus in 6 degrees and opposition to the Sun in 8.

So unlike all the others, this series would have been a tricky one to predict.

The first test in Brisbane ended in a draw, but England went on to win the series 3-1.

I think this simply reflects the fact that the opposition is a stronger aspect than the sextile.

Inevitably there will be times when the Moon applies to neither significator.

In 2006, the Moon actually separated from both the Sun ( by conjunction) and Uranus (square).

In cases like this I would be tempted to call up reserve significators.

The MC ruler would be for the home side so Pluto for Australia, IC ruler for the away team, so Venus for England.

The Moon applies to a conjunction with Pluto with an uninterrupted orb of a mere half a degree. So another strong win for Australia.

Australia won the 2006 series 5-0.

The previous one in 2002/3 reverted to type.

The Moon made no aspect with the Sun but applied to a sextile with Uranus, albeit with an orb of 10 degrees.

Australia won the series 4-1.

The series before that, 1998/9 featured a Sagittarius Moon like the two following ones.

The Moon was sextile Uranus and had no connection with the Sun so Australia won the series 3-1.

In 1994, a Leo Moon made no aspect with Uranus, but a separating trine from the Sun and an applying square with the MC ruler, Pluto was enough for Australia to win the series 3-1.

The chart for the 1990 series produced the same conditions as 1994.

The Moon made no aspect to Uranus but separated from one with the Sun ( sextile) and applied to one with the MC ruler, Venus (another sextile).

Australia won 3-0.

There are times when the Moon is Void Of Course which means that it has no aspects to make before it leaves the sign it is in.

In this case we would have to look at any separating aspects that the Moon had made.

There’s nothing with the Sun (only major aspects are used).

But the Moon’s separating aspect from a trine with Uranus gave the 1986 Ashes series to England, who won it 2-1.

We could obviously go all the way back another century to the first series played in Australia, but even the most devoted cricket/astro nerd would have given up by then.

But it is worth looking at that first one.

I’m not sure of the start time but given a time of 10.30 am produces a mid Pisces Ascendant in Melbourne, its likely that 10.00 am or 11.00 am would have done the same.

This Ascendant would obviously change the significators, Neptune would be for Australia, Mercury for England.

Intriguingly the Moon applies to close trines with both, which makes perfect sense as that first ever series finished a 2-2 draw.

How does this method look for the next Ashes series, my first as an Australian citizen?

The 1st and 7th rulers, Uranus and the Sun are in exact opposition which may indicate a hotly contested series.

The Moon makes no aspect to either so it’s not clear.

It is separating from a conjunction with the Sun, suggesting that the series would drift away from England. However, the Sun is at the end of the previous sign, so this might not count.

The Moon is also separating from a sextile with Pluto the MC ruler, which might suggest it drifting from Australia as well.

Maybe it will be a draw.

Which would be just typical. Having painfully supported England through all these hammerings, the first time I am completely rooting for my new “God’s own” country, they fail too dish out the usual thrashing.

I might have given up the Pommie thing, but it seems likely that the whingeing bastard part will be harder to let go of.

Posted on Oct 21st 2024

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