The small EU mediterrean island state of Malta, which is doing very well economically also because of tourism, is dealing with a serious political crisis. The government seems to have been involved in the murder of a critical journalist who was publishing about wide-spead corruption in the highest levels of the state. For the population of Malta it is enough now, they demand the resignation of the corrupt criminal government and justice to be done, the murderers to be found and punished. This is a serious deep crisis not one of many ups-and-downs in the political history of the country and that is why it would be interesting to take a look at Malta’s chart.
In mundane astrology there are several possiblities to follow and predict developments, you can make use of eclipes and ingresses, but also of the natal chart of a country or the chart of the Great Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter preceding the foundation of a country. The optimal choice depends on the circumstances and you can often avail yourself of more than only one method. Malta has, as a consequence of its location a very eventful history and only as late as 1964 it gained independence from the last foreign invader, the British. This gives us the chart which you can dowload below.
So this is the chart made for the moment of Malta’s juridical independence, but we will not delineate it as the focus of interest is now on the developments, so on the progressions. The only position immediately catching the eye in this chart is retrograde Jupiter / Lord 10 of the government placed on extremely malefic Algol. This does not mean of course that the Maltese government is always in a state of crisis but if this position is activated by progression for example, we can expect this. Checking the secondary progressions of the planets and the primary direction of the angles (as the angles cannot said to be making a secondary movement like the planets), we are not disappointed.
If the Maltese government would have had an astrologer, they would have seen this crisis coming for a long time! The primary direction of the MC is moving over Algol this year on which the retrograde Jupiter / Lord 10 of the government is placed in Malta’s chart. Algol is notorious for chopping off heads, so we can expect some government officials will be forced to go. This MC position shows that the independence chart is acceptable, that fixed stars are an abolute neccessity in astrology and it shows how astrology could be used by governments (or oppositions!). With Algol coming up a painlful sacrifice will be required, if you don’t do this yourself, it will be done to you. If you have so much to hide the only policy is to be open and to resign, holding on to your position will make things only worse.
Other progressions /directions confirm the developments and the changes to be expected, the Ascendant leaves Leo, this means the Sun as Leo’s sign ruler will be activated for a last time, in the radix the Sun is placed on Labrum, a star of fate and part of the consellation the Cup, that will not pass you by. In the first degree of Virgo we find Regulus, sometimes pointing at a fall from the throne if other indications confirm this. That is the case here as the progressed Moon has passed over the natal Moon (turning point) and is on its way to a progressed Full Moon (a crisis, although this still will take some time). The progressed Part of the Sun (indicated by the reversed “Taurus” symbol) is right now moving over Terebellum, a star of fate showing that what has been in the air for some time will happen. The MC will for some time be moving through the crisis zone in late Taurus/early Gemini, so Malta can expect some more troublesome years.