The Day My Car Died

My 2007 Hyundai Accent met a watery death on Sunday’s New Moon. At about 11:30 on Aug. 28, I drove into a 7-foot puddle in New Jersey and had to abandon my car. I survived the accident because I climbed up on the roof through the sunroof until I was rescued. (Thank heavens I drive around with my sunroof open, even at night!) I’ve done the astrology of my car’s life with me. I purchased the car on Jan. 27 at 2:30 p.m. in Beacon, NY. Here’s the chart with transits to the descent of the car on Aug. 28.

The July 1, 2011 Eclipse and Hurricane Irene

Does anybody remember at UAC in Denver when astrologer Shelley Ackerman analyzed the July 1, 2011 eclipse chart and compared it to New York City’s chart and predicted “mass migrations” because of weather? I do.

Of course, I thought her prediction would manifest immediately so I stayed out of New York City in the days that followed that eclipse, including the July 4 weekend. As I drove to work today and watched millions of New Yorkers heading out of the city because of storm-related evacuations, I made a note to self: Eclipses are usually active for up to six months after they occur. Anyway, bravo Shelley!

Hell in a Handbasket

If there’s anybody out there looking for a celestial explanation of why hell is breaking loose this week, I offer two possibilities. The first is the increase in solar flare activity this week, which is supposed to culminate on Thursday. The other is the fact that transiting fiery Mars is Cancer is creating a “cardinal grand cross” that also involves explosive Uranus in Aries, destructive (particularly for wealth) Pluto in Capricorn and restricting Saturn in Libra.

As followers of astrology know, this lineup is hitting both the birth charts of the US, where stocks are in a free fall following Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the nation’s credit rating for the first time in 71 years, and the UK, where unemployed hooligans are running amok in the wake of the government’s austerity measures.

Kudos to Nancy’s Starlight News blog for pinpointing Aug. 5 as a day of reckoning for the US. That’s the day that S&P took away our vaunted AAA rating.

I’m not surprised to see a downtown on Wall Street corresponding with Neptune’s retrograde back into Aquarius, which began Aug. 4. The New York Stock Exchange chart is a Taurus and Neptune moving forward in Aquarius helped inflate stock valuations, in my opinion. But Neptune is tricky. I think its last pass in Aquarius could deflate equity prices down at the corner of Broad and Wall. We’ll see.

Donald Trump’s Real Birth Time

Several astrology blogs, including AstroDataBank, list 9:51 a.m. as the time that New York real estate billionaire Donald Trump was born on June 14, 1946. However, when Trump released his birth certificate in a nod to the “birthers” who believe that President Obama was not born in the US, it revealed a 10:36 or 10:56 a.m. time of birth. The handwriting is too small for me to make out in this image. Maybe one of Astrology Mundo’s eagle-eyed readers will let me know which one it is.

Assuming that 10:56 is the time of birth, Trump has a 0 degree Virgo rising. Given his prominent hair, now dyed brightly red, I would have chosen a Leo rising for Trump. But the new chart has Mars in Leo quite close to the Ascendant, so that works for me. Loaded Second House of Wealth also seems to confirm the new birthtime. Any thoughts, astrologers?

What Time Was Kate Middleton Born?

Just came across this Associated Press story on what British astrologers are saying about the compatibility of Kate Middleton and Prince William, based on their birthdays. The prince’s time of birth is well known; he was born at 9:03 p.m. in London on June 21, 1982. I’m wondering if anyone out there in the blogosphere has a reliable time of birth for Kate, born Jan. 9, 1982.

Uranus Leaving Pisces and Japan’s Tsunami

I work in the news business and monitor wire services as part of my job. I also have become a bit of a Twitter junkie, following news feeds from around the world. In fact, my Twitter habit has cut into the amount of astrology blogging I do, but that’s another story.

As an astrologer, I expected some earth-shaking event(s) in this last degree of Uranus in Pisces, primarily because it is making a square to the Nodes at 28 degrees of Sagittarius and Gemini. But nothing prepared me for the earthquakes and tsunami today in Japan.

As the clock counts down to 7:52 p.m. Eastern time, when Uranus officially enters Aries, I fear the worst, because officials of the Tokyo Electric Power Co. have lost control of the reactors at the Fukushima plant.

It seems quite likely there is going to be a nuclear meltdown in Japan. I find this ironic because Japan is the only country in the world to have been hit with nuclear bombs, courtesy of the US, I might add.

I have lived through the nightmare of the September 11 World Trade Center bombings. I was about two miles away in an office tower in Midtown Manhattan. Certainly, Japan’s nuclear meltdown won’t affect me personally the way 9/11 did. However, Uranus is conjuncting my South Node in Pisces so I feel connected to the cataclysm in Japan. Maybe it’s a past life thing.

It’s fitting with Uranus in Pisces, the last sign of the zodiac and one that is associated with religion, that a popular hash tag on Twitter (a social media tool ruled by Uranus) is #prayforjapan. I will.

Hallelujah! Chiron Moved into Pisces

I know I’m not the only one out there who had gotten tired of Chiron in Aquarius tagging along with Neptune, also in the sign of the Water Bearer. With transiting Neptune squaring my progressed Moon in Taurus, I’m not sure I can accurately explain what the problem was.

But I think Chiron, a planetoid known as the “Wounded Healer,” was amplifying the suffering aspects of Neptune in Aquarius. No doubt this was also a great opportunity for healing, but I’m happy to see Chiron in a different sign than Neptune. I’d love to hear what anybody else has to think about these aspects.

Why Green Bay Will Win the Super Bowl

Take a look at the charts of Ben Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers, the respective quarterbacks of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers.

Roethlisberger was born March 2, 1982 in Lima, Ohio, time unknown, while Rodgers was born Dec. 2, 1983 in Chico, Calif., also time unknown.

Roethlisberger has the transiting North Node in Capricorn sitting on his Juno, but he’s also got transiting Saturn tying down his Mars in Libra.

In my humble opinion, all the transiting planets in Aquarius favor the chart of Rodgers, a Sagittarian, rather than Roethlisberger, a Pisces. I’m betting on Green Bay.

Even if they lose, Rodgers still comes out a winner on the PR front because his squeaky clean image is a marketer’s dream, while Roethlisberger is recovering from the black eye of sexual assault charges that were filed against him and then dropped.

For next year, I’m rooting for my hometown team, the Jets, because Jupiter in Taurus will be favoring the Scorpio Sun of QB Mark Sanchez.

Michael Bloomberg’s Valentine

When I caught a glimpse of the cover of this week’s New Yorker (dated Feb. 7, 2011), I couldn’t help but chuckle. It shows New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg admiring himself in a heart-shaped mirror with a bottle of champagne and a box of Valentine’s chocolates on the vanity. Why would I laugh?

Because I’m an astrologer, and I know that Bloomberg was born on Valentine’s Day. So this is a case of art imitating life and a perfect example of what psychologist Carl Jung called “synchronicity.”

Why the Bulls Run on Wall Street

Yesterday, I was at my day job, and while I was pulling a picture of the charging bull down on Broadway around the corner from the New York Stock Exchange, I had a eureka! moment. Even though I’ve been covering financial markets for 30 years and been following astrology for nearly 40, I had never made the connection before.

The bull, which is slang for a trader who believes stocks are rising, is also the symbol for Taurus, which is the Sun sign of the New York Stock Exchange. The Big Board was born May 17, 1792 at 10 a.m. in New York City under a buttonwood tree not far from the existing exchange at Broad and Wall streets and around the corner from where the iconic bull statue is on Broadway.

Don’t ask me about the bear, slang for those who believe equities are headed for a downturn. It will probably take another 30 years to figure out the astrological reason for that.