As Dry as Old Harry
I have long been of the view that we make the weather. I don’t mean that in a Greta-Thunberg-carbon-emissions kind of way and nor do I mean it in an Alex-Jones-HAARP-weather-modification-chem-trails kind of way. Obviously both these things are factors, especially the weather modification stuff, but what I mean is that our mood makes the weather, and then the weather reinforces our mood. There is, therefore, a double meaning to the supposed words of the much maligned spiritual teacher Jeremy Clarkson,
“The rain never stopped in 2024, and never started in 2025.”
The weather here this summer has been muggy and dry and rather unpleasant, not exactly sunny, and then when it was sunny it was way too much, and then it rained, but hardly at all. The ground is ‘as dry as Old Harry’ as my mother used to say (if you can work out who ‘Old Harry’ is here you might understand the deeper meaning of this blog) and the veg plot harvest has been a total failure. I would summarise this year’s weather in Britain as oppressive. And as goes the weather so goes the mood in the country, and vice versa.
Extreme weather events have been with us forever, and can be read as precursors, predictors and reflectors of a wider national mood. Consider the long hot Covid Summer of 2020 which perhaps contributed to the passivity with which masking, lockdowns and vaccines were greeted. Consider also the torrential rain and flash flooding, in strong Remain areas, on the day of the Brexit referendum in 2016. How many Remain voters stayed away that day and regretted it later? Consider also, if you can remember it, the wild hurricane of 1987 which ‘coincided’ with the Black Monday stock market crash, which at the time seemed like the end of the world but was in fact just a blip. Consider also something which none of us will remember, the so-called Glorious Summer of 1914, the blissfully ignorant calm before the storm of World War One. Take a look at some old weather reports from history and you will see that wild weather and a wild nation go hand in hand.
Sure, correlation is not necessarily causation, but particularly in Britain the weather-mood nexus is definitely a thing, which keys in nicely to my second long-standing view, that this country is heading for trouble. My prediction is formed using all the mystical, magical and esoteric tools at my disposal, plus the old, almost forgotten practices of ‘looking with my eyes’ and ‘talking to people’. From such sources springs an obvious truth: we are approaching a Cromwell style revolution. It won’t happen tomorrow and may still be some years in the making. It may not even arrive fully until the UK’s Pluto Return in 2045, but I am completely convinced that it is now unavoidable, and I have never been more sure about anything. Please note however that a Cromwell-style revolution is not, repeat not, a Nigel-Farage-style revolution. He may win elections, he may even land up in Number 10, but he is singularly incapable of leading any kind of revolution, peaceful or otherwise. Reform means Rearrange. He is not the Messiah, he is not even a very naughty boy. He is in hoc to international finance and his Margaret Thatcher tribute act without the conviction will wear wear pretty thin, pretty fast, when it becomes obvious that he is incapable of doing what needs to be done. His failure is Britain’s success, and vice versa. But trouble’s a coming, nonetheless. It is as Edwin Milliken foresaw, and Winston Churchill was apt to quote,
Who is in charge of the clattering train?
The axles creak, and the couplings strain.
For the pace is hot, and the points are near,
And sleep hath deadened the driver’s ear;
And signals flash through the night in vain.
Death is in charge of the clattering train.
Death, in this sense, is the Death of transformation and renewal depicted in all Tarot decks. Yes, to some this is a threatening and disturbing prospect, while to others it brings relief and renewal. It need not be literal (though it might be), but it is always significant. Death is an integral part of Life; every ending is a new beginning, and a lot of people might quite like what’s on the other side of all the current trials and tribulations in Britain. Of course some won’t, but you can’t please everyone. In any case the presence of Death actually confirms the importance and value of Life, so until the revolution arrives enjoy the sun, or the rain, or the wind or perhaps even the snow, and I will see you next time.
