Today it is A-Level results day. This is the day when students throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland receive their exam results that will get them into University.

Or so they have been led to believe. We are heading for early evening, and as I write this piece, many are already becoming aware that it is definitely not true for them. There is no automatic passage into tertiary education (University) at this time in our current financial climate.

It is also a special day from an astrologer’s viewpoint, too, because Saturn, planet of limitation, delays and reality checks is finalising his 9 month hard relationship with the planet Pluto, he who is tearing down all our institutions that are represented by Capricorn, one by one. Uranus is also involved in this picture, planet of technology and brilliant ideas. For further information on that please see my earlier article on the economic downturn and my free ebook  “Pluto in Capricorn – How it will impact on your life”.

So, this Results Thursday, is not a good day to hear good news. Although, for some students, there will always be good news – Pluto loves wealth, it’s where we get the word Plutocrat from. So, for those with money – need I say more. It was ever thus …..

As Pluto grinds his way through Capricorn over the next 15 years, he will bring down all those institutions that are no longer serving us. It started with the run on the banks and the collapse of the various markets worldwide – except China and Australia. So, the general public began to lose confidence in their banking systems, without ever realising that the whole edifice is built on smoking mirrors anyway. And there are a lot more sacred cows to come crashing down – or maybe strengthened, if they are truly useful.

Who knows, maybe an entirely different and more realistic system of higher education can develop out of this. Maybe a few years work wouldn’t harm anyone – going from secondary school straight into Uni without the valuable lessons that earning ones living and supporting oneself could be seen as ultimately undesirable. Unlike the US and Canada, where students have to work to pay for their tuition, and have an economic system set up to enable them to achieve that; in the Uk we have nothing like that available for them.

However, listening to the news on the BBC during today I remembered another report that went out a couple of weeks ago. It seems that an unprecedented number of people between 25 and 45 years of age are signing up to study with the Open University right now.

The OU as it is known in the UK, was founded by Harold Wilson, Labour Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1965 and over the following few years, it was created and channelled through a union with the BBC. This organisation is exactly as the name implies – anyone can apply and study there – although “there” is a misnomer as it should really be “here”, at home. The courses are part time, lectures used to be on late at night on BBC TV, and offers graduate courses and beyond. Now they are viewable on Youtube. The degrees are as valid as any qualifications from “normal” universities, yet offer a much wider combination of subjects to be studied.

The reason that more people are signing up with the OU now is that they can study while in full-time employment and their degrees will help them to develop their options either in their current employment or elsewhere. Another bonus is that they don’t have to take out the crippling student loans that younger students are having to borrow – sadly they will qualify with their degrees in one hand and a huge debt of around £14,000plus to start paying off the moment they begin work. Except here in Scotland, but that’s another story…. (See below)

During the mid-sixties, most cultures worldwide went through a complete turnaround. And life was never the same again. This was when Uranus (technology, humanitarian ideals, freedom of thinking) joined up with the profound transformation of Pluto. They were together in the same piece of the sky in Virgo, sign of health and science. To pile on the power of the time, Saturn (reality checks and firming up the boundaries) was facing them both off across the zodiac, demanding that they ground all their ideas in a structured format.

Isn’t it interesting then, that these three planets are meeting again in 2010 for the first time since 65-68 and the times they may be a’changing once more? It would be useful to look at what else was born at that time and the impact it is having today.

It is important to realise that these planets are active in ALL our cultures – the example of the OU was one way these energies manifested then – each nation will have had the same qualities that worked through different experiences. And as our cultures change, so do we.

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In Scotland it costs nothing to into University – however, the sting in the tail is that it costs to get out! Students have to pay for their graduation ceremonies…..

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