The rivers are full of E coli and we’re told not to go wild swimming. The shores stink of untreated sewage. The Thames is turning into a sewer – again.

And while this is happening the privatised water companies have payed their shareholders and directors millions and millions of pounds in dividends and bonuses over several decades as the infrastructure crumbles around them.

It’s bad. But it’s not the first time its happened in the UK.

Some of you might have heard of John Snow. Not the guy from Game of Thrones, the scientist who was much derided in the 1800s for suggesting that it was the bacteria in the water that was causing waves of cholera outbreaks around the country.

Back then no one had been able to see these little bugs and Snow’s ideas seemed too far fetched. The medical establishment laughed at him. Even though people were finding pieces of toilet paper in their drinking water.

This went on for decades. Thousands of people died a horrible death. It wasn’t until after John Snow himself had died that people started to take matters into their own hands.

They started to boil their water, then they started suing the water companies that had pumped unfiltered water straight from the Thames into their homes. Then the thinking shifted. But it took a long time.

And now it seems like we’re having to learn the same lessons again here in the UK.

So why is this country seemingly so bad at looking after its water?

The astrology of the Great Stink

One event to look at is the so called Great Stink in 1858, when the stench from the Thames became so intolerable that parliament finally decided to build the city a new sewer.

What’s interesting about the chart for the day when parliament started to debate what to do with the Thames is the grand trine in water signs.

Neptune is in Pisces in the 6th house of hygiene trining Mars in the second house and Saturn in the 11th house in Cancer. So the collective had had enough, they had decide to start caring for their water and made sure there were funds available to do it.

Neptune is in the last quarter of its transit through Pisces in the chart. The issues had been building and building until a point where there was finally a decision to do something about it.

Neptune is currently in Pisces as well. The watery planet has been in its own sign since 2011 and will stay there until 2026.

The astrology of the Brixham water contamination scandal

On the 18th of May there was a modern water scandal here in the UK. That day residents living in an area of Devon were told to boil their water after the bacteria cryptosporidium was found in the supply. Several people fell ill.

The chart for that day also has Moon in Leo. And there is a positive pattern linking Neptune in Pisces to Sun/Uranus/Jupiter/Venus and Pluto.

There is an urgent need in the collective (Pluto in Aquarius) to find innovative ways of sorting things out (the very healing and practical Sun/Uranus/Jupiter/Venus conjunction in Taurus). And it’s connected to how we treat our water – Neptune in Pisces.

Water, the general election and astrology

The UK is soon about to vote in a general election. And what I’m interested in is if it will have an impact on the 1989 Water Act – that’s the legislation that privatised the water companies and it might be one reason for the current mess we’re in.

The Act was given royal assent at midnight on the 6th of July 1989.

The Ascendant is at 27 degrees Pisces. A chart point that Neptune will cross a couple of times before it leaves the sign in 2026.

This chart also has the Moon in Leo. This time its in an uncomfortable conjunction with Mars/Venus in the 5th house square Pluto in the 8th house. A gambling, dare-devil and devil may care risk taking – leading to financial rewards.

Neptune/Saturn are exactly conjunct in Capricorn in the 10th sextiling that Pluto. This Act will make some people very rich. And it’s the people – Chiron/Sun in Cancer in the 4th – who will suffer.

Unfortunately there isn’t much in the transits indicating that things will change soon. Pluto will start to oppose the Water Act’s Venus, Mars and then Moon from the 11th house of the collective as it moves through Aquarius over the next twenty years. The people might speak up.

Saturn and then Uranus will cross the IC and then Chiron and the Sun, opposing the placements in the 10th. This will change things, but it will play out over the next decade or so.

What sort of person do we need to sort this out?

Perhaps someone like John Snow with his grand trine in water signs, a powerful Pluto/Sun conjunction in those final degrees of Pisces, connecting to Jupiter in nurturing Cancer and a genius Uranus in detailed focused and perceptive Scorpio.

There is also a health focused T-square between a physicians Moon in Virgo, the wounded healer Chiron and Venus in Pisces and visionary Neptune in Sagittarius.

Just the sort of person we might need to end this sad chapter in the story of the sacred waters of this country.

But I didn’t answer my question – why has the country gone through periods of neglecting and abusing its water?

Perhaps the Moon in Leo offers up a clue. It’s a Moon that potentially doesn’t care about anything but itself. Is that Moon having a good time? Is it rolling in money? Then everything is fine. So there is no need to worry about the toilet paper in the drinking water – until the people (Aquarius on the opposite side of the Zodiac) rise up and say they’ve had enough.

Pictures via Unsplash by: Benjamin Elliott, Paul Macallan and the blowup.