My previous post ( A busy time) dealt with the theory, let's return to the real world. And, because they wouldn’t want it any other way, let’s start with the USA.
Wow! Astrology was certainly in action here, specifically in the US $ chart.
Every 2 ½ years the progressed moon changes signs, changing the nature and feel of the environment . The US$ progressed Moon has been in demanding Leo since January 2009, recently it moved into conservative Virgo. How recently? How does 1st August strike you as a date? Hmmmmm….. thought so! I’ve always found my US$ chart to work particularly well and here was an example of it being especially sensitive to events. And it is a critical degree too being tied in closely with the quantitive easing effects of progressed Neptune at 0 Scorpio and progressed Mars at 0 degree Capricorn.
Just to make life even more juicy transiting Mercury went retrograde on 2nd within one degree of that Moon and opposite transiting Neptune. Incidentally that transiting Neptune slipped back into Aquarius just as the US credit rating was downgraded.
As I said, Wow.
You say? Yeah , but what happens next?
Well, I have already pointed out that the progressed Moon will conjoin the US$ ascendant at the critical currency degree of 4/5 Virgo that ties with the Renminbi Saturn in December… and apparently the US deficit position will be revisited before the year end ( it has to be with that Mercury Neptune retrograde situation going on at the time of the votes). Frankly I think we have a lot more activity well before December. The new moon in late August is at 4 Virgo, and the September full moon conjunct the US$ Mars. The US country progressed Ascendant moves into Virgo after nearly 40 years in Leo – that is some switch of sentiment….. In October the US Jupiter, its wealth indicator, is challenged by Pluto again. More significantly, Neptune stations square the US$ chart MC and trine the currency’s natal Jupiter Neptune liquidity point. There is a suggestion of more liquidity, certainly there is more than a suggestion of a falling dollar. But it comes to a head as Saturn reaches 28 Libra in December, when Jupiter is stationed opposite progressed Neptune.
You say but ‘what about the solution?’ I say – there is no ‘solution’, sorry. There is a choice – same as there always is- but neither outcome is going to rebuild the castles in the air of the American dream.
We crossed the Rubicon of too much debt ( private plus government) combined with too much inequality a long time ago. As I’ve mentioned before, we are looking at the interweaving of the cycle that began around 1950 with that that started in 1981/2.
All we have done lately is continue towards the inevitable conclusion. The impact of excess money supply ( i.e currency inflation) in a the longer term is exactly the same as the impact of excess credit, it is only the short term pathways that are different; ultimately both roads lead to the same destination.
No more quantitive easing will result in facing the consequences of the debt head on. More will have the same effect as more debt, weakening the dollar, raising commodity prices, increasing costs to households leading to less consumption, and finally to facing the debt head-on, just a bit later and maybe even with a bigger bill, certainly at least as big.
‘But can’t we stimulate the economy, as they suggest?’ You say. I’ve heard some gems from so called experts lately. ‘We need to encourage entrepreneurs to invest, to boost production not consumption’ is one of the best. Indeed production without demand is so nonsensical that I thought they were joking at first. Sadly not. They truly believe it and in their gilded cages fail to see that demand from the majority is dead, already slaughtered by a multi-generational debt burden.
Of course, we mustn’t complain – after all this is capitalism working precisely how it is designed to, with the whole of the wealth ultimately accruing to the few. What ( other than a few guillotines and their ilk) is not to like?
Ah, yes, guillotines. That brings me to dissatisfied populace and thus to the UK. It’s that cross Mars again. Mars in early Cancer square Uranus and opposing Pluto and picking up the Pluto Mars progressed opposition. Without that stabilising Saturn we have precisely the sort of excitement that you’d expect, riots, some nice martian fires, yada, yada.
I’m not convinced that this has anything to do with the short term economic picture ( dire though it may be) but rather the much longer cycles referred to before. The majority of these rioters are not complaining about recent government policies or greedy bankers, they aren’t that sophisticated, they just want to fight and nick stuff. And it’s a warm summer evening and there ain’t much else to do. Why such an environment exists is part of a much bigger question. This is I believe a flash in the pan, give it a week max. But wait for Pluto and Uranus to cross the UK angles later on (2012-14) and both the reasons and results might be quite different.
Anyway, back to the markets. Our work with the dollar done, let us turn to the Euro.
Owch. Saturn has not been so very kind here. Seated ( exact on 5th August) on the Euro progressed Ascendant it has been dragging the Euro through the mire in the last few weeks. [ I can’t believe that any of its leaders went on holiday with that coming up, but apparently they did. That is of course why they are leaders – you have to be exceedingly ingenuous to make it to the top, else reality will give you cause for pause long before you make it].
But it is worth noting that Saturn will now move on from the progressed Ascendant – we don’t dwell on the current situation.
However, August/September sees Uranus once again disrupting the MC/IC axis of the currency – we’ re used to that now though. Since we have plenty of Uranus transit to get through, (it won’t finish its final pass until early 2012) we won’t have a resolution for a bit here. But care in coming to conclusions about the outcome – while Uranus shakes the tree, Pluto won’t return to the Euro chart angles, and Uranus is on the descendant – the signifier of it partner currencies, while September looks tricky for the Euro October looks tricky its friend in the US as well.
It is worth a quick peak at Italy, is it not?
As a country with Saturn at good old 4/5 Virgo, we can expect it to pop up in a currency context. I see the progressed Euro Moon is square this point at present as well. And that means the next New Moon at the end of this month is putting Italy into focus. I use the chart relocated to Rome for most purposes but it is worth noting that the original Turin chart has its progressed Moon on the Ascendant square that key degree at the moment, an alternative sign for putting it in the spotlight. Try as I might though I can’t see much else of relevance in this chart going forward except one thing. When the Euro was created the currency’s Pluto was on the Italian Ascendant. And their progressed Moons are almost conjunct. In November the Euro progressed Moon reaches its natal Pluto. Whereas everything else looks moderately ok – that does not bode well for the popular response to the currency conditions.
How goes our friend Sterling and the Bank of England? Not out of the woods – retrograde Pluto and Uranus will see to that in September but frankly it could be a lot worse. I’d guess that it is external events that are going to create the most problems here – with early December showing as a time that the BOE will be a trifle busy.
UK economic issues to look out for are in the future – as Neptune reaches natal Pluto, progressed Mars opposes progressed Pluto and, as mentioned, Uranus and Pluto sit on the chart’s angles in 2012-13. Ugh.
But it’s not just been about currencies has it? Equities have been having a bit of a tough time too in the last couple of weeks. The Dow has fallen nearly 2000 points or over 15% since July 11. Why?
Well it is back to that cross again. You might recall that the cardinal cross of August 2010 made a a bit of a mixed bag of aspects to the Dow chart and that I correctly in that case anticipated that this would not be too serious a blow for th index. But just now we’re missing the stabilising Saturn in early Libra while we are suffering from the attack of Mars in early Cancer which makes only hard aspects. Expect the situation to improve within about a week to 10 days- although continued fluctuations to occur as Mars moves over the angles in late August, early September – beware that Virgo new moon on 28th. An note that Saturn is unlikely to be a positive force at is transits the chart ascendant through September.
Note. Whereas I have always used the minted dollar chart for my work, I couldn’t help but notice the recent 150 year anniversary of the paper dollar ( 17 july 1861). A chart which has Saturn at 6 degree Virgo- close enough to 4/5 to warrant a mention I think.
The Italian chart and Lira in its most recent form ( prior to Euro adoption) dates back to the same year. Astrology enjoys global co-ordination.
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