After my last posts I started to look at China and the Renminbi, but I was distracted. Yet, although I have not been posting lately, this is not because I haven’t been working. The slippery subject that has preoccupied me is oil.
While I was focussing on currencies, house-prices, banking and the general economy, the one element that was moving the fastest was the oil price. Now the earlier part of this rise was currency related- nothing to do with oil per se and everything to do with the dollar’s fall. A mix of Euro, Gold and Brazilian Real bought in 2004 would have retained 90% of its value vs. oil until mid 2007 compared with only 60% for the dollar. However in the last 12 months the price in dollars has more than doubled, but it has almost doubled for the mixed portfolio too. Clearly there is a bigger effect than just a currency one happening.
Unfortunately, I have never studied oil specifically so had no plans to comment on it. After all oil has been in use for many centuries - where would I find a chart for it?
While I was focussing on currencies, house-prices, banking and the general economy, the one element that was moving the fastest was the oil price. Now the earlier part of this rise was currency related- nothing to do with oil per se and everything to do with the dollar’s fall. A mix of Euro, Gold and Brazilian Real bought in 2004 would have retained 90% of its value vs. oil until mid 2007 compared with only 60% for the dollar. However in the last 12 months the price in dollars has more than doubled, but it has almost doubled for the mixed portfolio too. Clearly there is a bigger effect than just a currency one happening.
Unfortunately, I have never studied oil specifically so had no plans to comment on it. After all oil has been in use for many centuries - where would I find a chart for it?
But, eventually, I concluded I couldn’t avoid oil if I wanted the whole picture. So I started a bit of research and that led me to more research and more research until finally everything fell into place. Here, so you can, if you wish, better understand how we select charts in such cases, is the story of my investigation.
During my research I stumbled on a number of possibilities. Both neptunecafe.com and The Book of World Horoscopes reference the chart for the first oil drilled in Titusville Pennsylvania. But they disagree on the time. The rectified Neptunecafe chart is very convincing but I prefer to do my own rectifications. In any case I feel these charts say something about oil production in the US but I am not convinced they say enough about global oil. This suspicion was confirmed when my web search uncovered claims to be the birthplace of oil from Canada, Baku in Azerbaijan and even in West Virginia.
However, what finally caught my eye was not the astrological charts but the economic ones. Not the price but the uses of it and not the production but its consumption. The two most important facts are first, that the main use of oil is transport- especially the motor car, yet the internal combustion engine was invented a few decades after Titusville and; secondly that oil did not take over from coal as the main source of power until the 1950s.
So I don’t have to know the whole history of oil production to draw conclusions after all. This information tells me that what I am looking at is the Pluto Neptune cycle and specifically the conjunction in 1891 and the sextile that starts in 1950 and lasts until 2030ish.
Furthermore, this cycle and particularly the sextile aspect, also perfectly matches the consumerism and credit boom that we have experienced in the last century and especially since 1950. More confirmation we are on the right track.
However, a layman would ask, if the sextile lasts until 2030 how does that explain the oil price now? It is explained by the fact that these two planets are not in exact aspect for 80 years - they are merely moving in and out of aspect. And in the latter part of this decade they have moved further away from the relationship than in the last 60 years. Indeed if it weren’t for the fact that they will return to sextile again - we would now be treating the aspect as over. In 1995 they were 54 degrees apart. But by 2004 they were 52 degrees apart and that gap has reached 51 degrees in 2007-8. They stay around 51 degrees until 2012 and then start moving back into their sextile relationship. [Approximately 51 degrees is technically a septile aspect, but we don’t need to interpret this minor aspect specifically –all we need is the knowledge that the sextile is suspended].
But we need more than this really to make solid forecasts, we need a base chart. The base time is easy; the chart for the 1891 Pluto Neptune conjunction should work But at what location?
Unfortunately this is one of those times when astrology works too damn well. I set charts for the moment of the conjunction in a number of relevant places and found that:
In NY/DC the conjunction appears in the 8th house but Uranus rises and Mars is near the MC
In Baku the conjunction is close to the IC and 26 aquarius rises ( we will return to this degree when I make the forecasts) which is tempting. But still no reason to chose this particular location
In Beijing the conjunction was rising
In Aberdeen (not a contender for the location – merely a test of the efficacy) it was setting
In Beaumont Texas, site of the first real geyser – the moon (which exactly trines Jupiter in the chart) is on the MC
In Caracus (Venezuela was the main instigated of OPEC’S set up) the Sun is on the MC
In Vienna the home of OPEC the degree of the MC and Asc pick up the conjunction by 150 degrees
And in the whole Middle East the conjunction is close to the IC (as for Baku) with an almost exact to the minuet conjunction in Riyahd S Arabia.
If I was in any doubt that I picked the right time this would remove it. But still I felt that none of these individually was the place to chose. And clearly I was spoilt for choice. So I went back to the history of oil. Right back. To references to Babylon. I had already discounted Baghdad as been relevant but not sufficiently core, but Babylon (now Al Hillah) was much more relevant to civilization as a whole.
But, to use it, the angles for key dates would have to be appropriate. Were they? My reference point for rectification was 17th October 1973 – the last oil crisis. On this date the sun was conjunct Uranus at 23 Libra - which just happens to be trine the Babylon ascendant at 23 Aquarius. Also transiting Neptune was at 5 degrees Sagg; less than a degree from the MC. Good enough.
What about now. Are the angles in play? Yes. 23 degrees Aquarius is the current degree of Neptune and close to this August’s lunar eclipse. The progressed sun will progress onto the chart MC next spring. Oh yes! This is what we are looking for.
So we have our chart. The next post will explain what it says about the future.
During my research I stumbled on a number of possibilities. Both neptunecafe.com and The Book of World Horoscopes reference the chart for the first oil drilled in Titusville Pennsylvania. But they disagree on the time. The rectified Neptunecafe chart is very convincing but I prefer to do my own rectifications. In any case I feel these charts say something about oil production in the US but I am not convinced they say enough about global oil. This suspicion was confirmed when my web search uncovered claims to be the birthplace of oil from Canada, Baku in Azerbaijan and even in West Virginia.
However, what finally caught my eye was not the astrological charts but the economic ones. Not the price but the uses of it and not the production but its consumption. The two most important facts are first, that the main use of oil is transport- especially the motor car, yet the internal combustion engine was invented a few decades after Titusville and; secondly that oil did not take over from coal as the main source of power until the 1950s.
So I don’t have to know the whole history of oil production to draw conclusions after all. This information tells me that what I am looking at is the Pluto Neptune cycle and specifically the conjunction in 1891 and the sextile that starts in 1950 and lasts until 2030ish.
Furthermore, this cycle and particularly the sextile aspect, also perfectly matches the consumerism and credit boom that we have experienced in the last century and especially since 1950. More confirmation we are on the right track.
However, a layman would ask, if the sextile lasts until 2030 how does that explain the oil price now? It is explained by the fact that these two planets are not in exact aspect for 80 years - they are merely moving in and out of aspect. And in the latter part of this decade they have moved further away from the relationship than in the last 60 years. Indeed if it weren’t for the fact that they will return to sextile again - we would now be treating the aspect as over. In 1995 they were 54 degrees apart. But by 2004 they were 52 degrees apart and that gap has reached 51 degrees in 2007-8. They stay around 51 degrees until 2012 and then start moving back into their sextile relationship. [Approximately 51 degrees is technically a septile aspect, but we don’t need to interpret this minor aspect specifically –all we need is the knowledge that the sextile is suspended].
But we need more than this really to make solid forecasts, we need a base chart. The base time is easy; the chart for the 1891 Pluto Neptune conjunction should work But at what location?
Unfortunately this is one of those times when astrology works too damn well. I set charts for the moment of the conjunction in a number of relevant places and found that:
In NY/DC the conjunction appears in the 8th house but Uranus rises and Mars is near the MC
In Baku the conjunction is close to the IC and 26 aquarius rises ( we will return to this degree when I make the forecasts) which is tempting. But still no reason to chose this particular location
In Beijing the conjunction was rising
In Aberdeen (not a contender for the location – merely a test of the efficacy) it was setting
In Beaumont Texas, site of the first real geyser – the moon (which exactly trines Jupiter in the chart) is on the MC
In Caracus (Venezuela was the main instigated of OPEC’S set up) the Sun is on the MC
In Vienna the home of OPEC the degree of the MC and Asc pick up the conjunction by 150 degrees
And in the whole Middle East the conjunction is close to the IC (as for Baku) with an almost exact to the minuet conjunction in Riyahd S Arabia.
If I was in any doubt that I picked the right time this would remove it. But still I felt that none of these individually was the place to chose. And clearly I was spoilt for choice. So I went back to the history of oil. Right back. To references to Babylon. I had already discounted Baghdad as been relevant but not sufficiently core, but Babylon (now Al Hillah) was much more relevant to civilization as a whole.
But, to use it, the angles for key dates would have to be appropriate. Were they? My reference point for rectification was 17th October 1973 – the last oil crisis. On this date the sun was conjunct Uranus at 23 Libra - which just happens to be trine the Babylon ascendant at 23 Aquarius. Also transiting Neptune was at 5 degrees Sagg; less than a degree from the MC. Good enough.
What about now. Are the angles in play? Yes. 23 degrees Aquarius is the current degree of Neptune and close to this August’s lunar eclipse. The progressed sun will progress onto the chart MC next spring. Oh yes! This is what we are looking for.
So we have our chart. The next post will explain what it says about the future.
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