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.

Venus Retrograde and the Foreclosure Freeze

About a month ago, a fellow astrologer and I were talking about the possible macro implications of Venus going retrograde in Scorpio, which occurred Oct. 8.

My idea was that some financial issues (Venus ruling desire, Scorpio ruling corporations and joint finances) would be revisited big time. Well, this morning it dawned on me that the freeze on home foreclosures by several large US banks as a result of allegations of fraud and shoddy paperwork is a perfect manifestation of this transit.

Even though some have called for a foreclosure freeze of as long as six months — an idea that has been rejected by President Obama and Wall Street, those supposed enemies — I have a feeling things will get sorted out by the time Venus turns direct in Libra on Nov. 18.

Has Jim Rogers Been Reading Jim Kunstler?

Check out this story from CNBC, where legendary commodity investor Jim Rogers says that he’s bought land and started farming. I’ll confess I haven’t read the whole story yet, but I was expecting Rogers to advise us to buy gold.

Here’s my thinking on bullion: The approaching conjunction of Jupiter and Neptune in Aquarius opposes Leo, the sign that rules gold. An Aquarius stellium helped make Leos India (Slumdog Millionaire) and Sean Penn (Milk) winners at the Oscars. I’m betting it will do the same thing for gold.

In case, you don’t know who Jim Kunstler is, check out his site. The peak oil guru, who was recently profiled by The New Yorker, envisions a world where food will be grown locally — by you and me!

Well, the U.S. started as a nation of gentleman farmers back when Pluto was last in Capricorn. Maybe we’re going back to the future.

All Nouriel, All the Time

Nouriel Roubini, the Turkish-born economist and New York University professor that the press has named “Dr. Doom,” is grabbing headlines this morning with his downbeat assessment of global economic prospects.

I blogged about Roubini after The New York Times Sunday Magazine did a profile on him. You can see his chart here, courtesy of Astrodienst. He was born March 29, 1958 in Istanbul, time unknown.

You can see that the transiting Neptune/Mercury/Mars stellium in Aquarius (to name just a few planets) is conjuncting Roubini’s Venus in Aquarius, which natally is with Chiron.

Amen to Arianna Huffington!

I’ve blogged about Cancer media tycoon at Astrology Mundo before, but I have to give the Greek transplant a shout-out for her brilliant piece on the U.S. credit card industry in her blog aggregator Huffington Post.

Where has the financial press been on this issue?

As most folks know, Huffington was a big Obama supporter and she fails to point the finger at Vice-President Joseph Biden in her otherwise excellent piece. Biden was one of the architects of the bankruptcy reform law and a recipient of campaign contributions from MBNA, the big credit-card issuer now owned by Bank of America.

Incidentally, Michael WolfStar’s got an interesting piece up on BofA over at Star IQ.

Stay Out of Stocks

Anybody who doesn’t think the Dow Jones Industrial Average could fall to 1,500 should take a look at this chart. Right now, stocks have fallen about 50% from their highs, a drop that is consistent with many other downturns, save 1929-32, when stocks fell 90%. Here’s the chart, courtesy of Barry Ritholtz.

It Can Happen Here

Here’s an article from The Guardian of London predicting a nasty summer on the other side of the pond because of unemployment. I know we’re in the midst of an Obama lovefest, but let me be the first to say, “It can happen here.”

Here’s the Guardian article, which tops the paper’s list of most-viewed articles over the past 24 hour

The Feb. 9 Eclipse: Everything Seems Possible

I haven’t been blogging as much lately because I’ve been wrapped up in a demanding project that’s keeping me away from Astrology Mundo. I also don’t want to seem like the spoiler for the Obama party.

With Jupiter in Aquarius traveling close to the North Node, there are a lot of good vibes out there. I can feel them in my neighborhood. The Community Organizer-in-Chief is helping folks feel connected and empowered.

Yesterday, my next-door neighbors, whom I’ve known for four years, invited me to a family buffet, and I went. No big deal, I know, but a barrier was broken. A hand was extended across a fence and it was embraced.

There’s been a lot of snow in Upstate New York this winter, and the neighbors on the other side have been shoveling my sidewalk and driveway before I can even get out of the house. People seem to want to help each other these days for the first time in a long time. It truly is a blessing!

That’s the good news — friendly neighbors. The bad news is that today’s eclipse at 21 degrees of Leo opposed the Sun and Neptune. The whole lineup is squaring the New York Stock Exchange incorporation chart, so I’m looking for a further evaporation of U.S. equities over the next six months. I’m not optimistic the stimulus bill, even if it is approved by the Senate, can do much to prevent the economy’s descent.

It wasn’t Obama who got us here, but “we’re waist-deep in the big muddy,” to quote Pete Seeger’s famous anti-war anthem. We’re waist-deep in Iraq and Afghanistan and we’re just keeping our heads above the quicksand of the financial crisis.

I believe that Obama will ultimately be forced to take some drastic steps to get our nation’s economy back on course (cutbacks in the civil service, perhaps), and because of his rock-star persona, people may accept the news with a smile.

When President Jimmy Carter tried to trim the federal workforce about one Saturn revolution ago, he got lots of pushback. It will be interesting to see what happens this time around (assuming I’m right, of course).

And you wonder why I haven’t written lately.

The Meaning of Mercury Direct

Yesterday, Mercury went direct almost exactly on my Sun, which is at 21 degrees 45 minutes of Capricorn. I’ve been thinking a lot about what that means for both me and you.

Thankfully, those checks we’ve been waiting for will finally arrive and the money at the bank will clear. Yes, there’s no question that those born under the sign of the Goat are very conscious of finances.

But Mercury direct will also mean a further unraveling of the financial system. We’ll see some of the shocks associated with that later in the week with the second Saturn/Uranus opposition in Virgo/Pisces on Feb. 5.

Regardless of how you feel about President Barack Obama’s stimulus package, if it is not supported by the Republicans, we will see a crisis in confidence in the Administration at this early date. That in turn will show up in the stock market and the value of the dollar. Forewarned is forearmed, as my Daddy liked to say.

Tying Up 2008 in a Neat Package

As time runs out on 2008, traders and editors are finding their inner muse and putting the events of the year into prose.

This one, apparently an anonymous effort, comes from Macroman and borrows from Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven.

The other is a poem written and recited by theater critic Marc Miller, who has a day job at BusinessWeek magazine. The video is really worth watching until the end.