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.

Advertisement

T. Boone Pickens: Community Organizer?

I’ve decided to reprint a piece that I posted during the dog days of August. Tonight, as I was surfing the Net, I clicked on an ad that T. Boone Pickens is running to raise awareness about our dependence on foreign oil.

Now, to someone like me who grew up thinking of Pickens as king of the oil patch, it’s weird to hear him talking about wind power and doing grass-roots organizing in places like Shreveport, La., where the economy depends on oil refineries.

Given that these ads are popping up as Saturn opposes Uranus, I decided to look at Pickens’ chart again. He’s got Mercury at 21 Gemini, making a T-square to the opposition of Saturn in Virgo and Uranus in Pisces that is exact on Election Day.

Reinhold Ebertin, my astrology guru, says this aspect leads to “the ability to organize resistance,” in his indispensable guide to astrology, The Combination of Stellar Influences. Sounds like Pickens is becoming a community organizer of sorts.

Here’s my earlier post:

I’m no stranger to the ways of T. Boone Pickens. But something interesting has happened in the last month or so: The legendary billionaire oilman has jumped off the business pages of the newspaper and the Net to become a household name.

Pickens is no longer just a businessman; he’s a business celebrity, joining the ranks of folks such as Donald Trump, Ross Perot, Warren Buffett, and Jack Welch. (I’m straining to think of a woman here. I guess you can call Oprah and Martha Stewart business celebrities, though they were media personalities first.)

Back in the 1980s, when I was following Pickens’ machinations closely, he was called a “corporate raider” and “greenmailer.” Taking a position in a company’s stock, hounding management to increase “shareholder value,” and then getting bought out at a premium came naturally to the former wildcatter.

Flash forward to 2008, when Pickens is being hailed as a savior for his plan to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil by calling for increased investment in natural gas, wind, and solar power, an initiative now known as the “Pickens Plan.” The Dallas Morning News, for one, has questioned the altruism of the Pickens Plan, noting that the oilman has made sizeable investments in clean energy and stands to gain, particularly in California, if some of his proposals are put into action.

As an astrologer, I’m curious to know why an 80-year-old businessman is suddenly in the limelight. And even though I don’t have a time of birth, which is required to calculate an accurate chart for Pickens, I think I have the answer to why Pickens is everyone’s favorite business celebrity these days. (Sorry, Donald!)

Pickens is a Gemini, born May 22, 1928 in Holdenville, Okla. Here’s his chart, set for noon, courtesy of Astrodienst. I’ve done progressions and transits for July 8, the day the Oklahoman unveiled his new energy plan.

I don’t have time to do a complete interpretation of Pickens’ chart right now, but I think the reason why his name suddenly is on everyone’s lips is that his progressed Sun, at 17 degrees of Leo, is opposing the North Node. Neptune, which rules energy, is a few degrees away from the North Node in Aquarius right now, but earlier this year it had been traveling in tandem with the Node.

With transiting Jupiter in Capricorn about to make a station opposing Pickens’ natal Pluto in Cancer (and possibly his Moon, depending on his time of birth), a windfall is coming his way around Labor Day weekend.

I hope you don’t detect any skepticism or sarcasm about Pickens’ motivations in this post. I believe he is sincere in his belief that the U.S. needs to wean itself from foreign energy. But once a wildcatter, always a wildcatter.

OPEC’s Staying Power: The View From Brazil

Today is turning out to be a doubleheader for Gian Paul, our Brazil bureau chief. Do they have beisbol down in Brazil? I think not. Probably Ronaldinho and Ronaldo would not allow it.

About a week ago, Gian Paul filed a long comment that referenced OPEC and I promised that if he fleshed it out a bit, I’d give him a post of his own. After some crossed signals and technical difficulties (Mercury retrograde), I think we have a readable, interesting post on the chart of OPEC. Here’s Gian Paul:

Anybody who has any doubts about the long relationship between oil and Saturn should take a look at the chart for OPEC, the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Using a birth time of noon on Sept. 14, 1960 in Baghdad produces a chart with the Sun on the midheaven making a T-square to Jupiter and Mars. The Moon is in Cancer (not bad for liquids) opposing Saturn retrograde at 1 degree of Capricorn.

It’s seldom that one finds a chart with four planets in the sign of their rulers: Venus in Libra (must be fun to own an oil well or two), Jupiter in Sagittarius (moving almost overnight from riding camels to driving Mercedes-Benzes to flying Learjets and Falcons – the metallic kind), Moon in Cancer (the crescent is on all Islamic flags), and finally Saturn in Cap, retrograde.

In the style of astrology I follow, this gives the OPEC chart four “governors.”

Some salient aspects of the chart: Expansive Jupiter is in a tight opposition to martial Mars. This world’s arms dealers a long time ago discovered the beauty of Middle Eastern deserts.

Another striking feature of the OPEC map is its “cutting” planet, Mars, and its “trailing” one, Saturn. (The cutting planet is the one with the biggest open space ahead of it, moving in a counterclockwise fashion, regardless of degree.) In the almost 50 years that OPEC has been in existence, the group has functioned in a fairly cohesive manner, thanks to its strong Saturn and generally favorable planetary positions.

Of course, its members are periodically shaken by infighting, conquests, war. Big fluctuations in the price of oil are the norm. As the stuff is getting rarer or at least more difficult to find cheaply, the trend can only be up, especially with China as a big new consumer. No need for economists nor astrologers to predict that.

Today, OPEC’s members in total must sell large quantities of oil to simply maintain their high standards of consumption. That’s why I suspect that Iran is pushing towards nuclear energy. Knowing that once nuclear power is up and running, they, and others, could reduce selling oil at critical moments, thereby pushing up the price etc. The other “nuclear problem” with Iran is playing games, mostly.

It’s useful to remember here that OPEC member Indonesia has a population of over 250 million. Add Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Somalia, Nigeria, and a few others to the account, and one gets at least 400 million to 500 million car-loving oil producers generating their electricity from oil today.

“Sheik” Lula, as the Brazilian President is increasingly called around here (he loves the role), recently visited the United Nations in New York. There are rumors circulating that he may be tempted to make a bargain: If Brazil is admitted as a permanent member of the Security Council, he may forget about wanting to join OPEC. Tough decision, isn’t it?

Looking at the current transits on OPEC’s chart, simply using the Fall Equinox chart, it’s truly exciting from an astrological point of view. Jupiter has just crossed natal Saturn, Neptune soon will terminate its opposition to Uranus, Saturn is heading for its 29-year encounter with OPEC’s Sun and will activate the T-square with Jupiter and Mars.

In the days of Yasir Arafat, it would have been easier to forecast OPEC’s next step. By looking at Arafat’s chart, as the guy had some emotional grip on OPEC, one was able to “combine things.” Presently it’s more difficult. But I have no doubt that something serious will happen leading to higher oil prices ahead, perhaps as high as $200 a barrel.

The transits on OPEC’s chart are crying for it. It’s possible that Israel will take action against the Iranian nuclear laboratories. Both Pakistan and India have nukes, remember. Not that they will use them. But they may get the CIA running, and others behind. We are “at the edge of a possible precipice,” so to speak.

As an aside, I have an acquaintance in Geneva in real estate. One day he was really lucky. One of Saddam’s brothers or a cousin bought a villa from him. The price (neither one of the two spoke English very well ): 2 million. The Iraqi made a bank transfer for 2 million dollars, when the price was 2 million Swiss francs, giving the seller more than double the then-exchange rate. These were the days when the dollar was a lot stronger.

The real estate guy bought himself not a Mercedes-Benz but a Ferrari, four-seater, a very rare model to have. Not bad.

Thanks, Gian Paul. Well, I’ve been on the receiving end of many a mathematical error in my day, but the mistake never seems to be in my favor. Maybe I’ll be lucky enough to be Swiss in my next life!

What I Did On My Summer Staycation

As Labor Day closes in on us, I’ve been thinking back to the Summer Solstice chart and its Sun/Venus conjunction in the seventh house in the sign of Cancer opposed by Moon/Jupiter in Capricorn.

This was the summer that the word “staycation” became part of the national lingo. Gas prices were high, the dollar was weak, and job security was shaky, at best. What better way to spend those government stimulus checks than on a new Weber grill for the backyard?

Here’s what I posted at Jude’s Threshold about the Summer Solstice chart:

Sun/Venus in the seventh — more emphasis on socializing at home with friends, families, and neighbors than traveling. “Come over to my house for a potluck barbecue!: is how I read this. Even though it’s in cost-conscious Capricorn, the Jupiter/Moon conjunction could also be about socializing at home, I think. So cheer up and fire up that barbie!

Even when folks went away this summer, my observation was they stayed with friends and family more than usual. People actually took each other up on that offer to use the vacant cabin in Durango, the time-share in Mexico, or the country house in Bennington. So the next time John McCain offers you a few nights in one of his seven homes, don’t be shy about saying yes!

But seriously, what did you do on your summer staycation? I got deeper into blogging. I didn’t plant a garden like I usually do because I was glued to my laptop. Next year, the vegetable garden is making a comeback at my house. I miss my tomatoes and I want to get serious about canning.

As back-to-school shopping season gets into full swing, I want to leave you with this. When my husband and I stayed at a friend’s house for a few days in Bennington, Vt. earlier this month, I forgot to bring my mouse. Not being a “thumb person” (no BlackBerry or text-messaging here), I needed to buy a new one to work on my laptop.

When I was standing in line at the Staples to buy the cheapest mouse they sold (about $20), there was a woman in front of me returning three notebooks and exchanging them for some Magic Markers that her son needed for school. The sum of the transaction? About $6.

That’s the reality out there. The digerati and the financial engineers are making small fortunes, but many people are struggling to buy school supplies for their kids.

Full Moon in Capricorn: Christmas in July

When I was an Army brat growing up in the South and the Midwest during the 1960s, stores would run a “Christmas in July” sale to clear out the summer merchandise before the back-to-school fashions arrived. If you were lucky, you could pick up a bathing suit for a couple of bucks and you still had time to wear it for another month or so.

I’m not sure of the genesis of the expression “Christmas in July,” but it occurred to me that it might coincide with the Full Moon in Cap that occurs annually in July.

A Google search reveals a 1940 Preston Sturges film of the same name starring Dick Powell. I’ve actually seen this film, and it’s pretty sweet, if slightly corny. Here’s the link to the Wiki about Christmas in July: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_in_July_%28film%29

For civilians (non-astrologers) who need a little background to connect the dots on my theory about Christmas in July, the Sun moves into Capricorn at the Winter Solstice. That was when the Romans held their Saturnalia festival, which morphed into our modern-day Christmas when Christianity trumped paganism.

The Full Moon in Capricorn occurs when the Sun is in Cancer and the Moon is in the opposing sign of Capricorn, sometime between June 21 and July 20.

This morning, as I was reading the dour stories about gas prices right now and energy prices this winter, I got a Capricorn chill in my bones. Of course, the Moon went into Cap just after midnight early this morning and is making its way toward a Full Moon in the wee hours of Friday, July 18. Here’s the chart, courtesy of StarIQ: http://www.stariq.com/Main/Articles/P0003411.HTM

This year’s Full Moon in Cap chart is anything but festive, so don’t bother decking the halls for Christmas in July. The chart has Jupiter in Capricorn, but the Great Expander seems to be magnifying the financial problems in the economy, particularly in the housing sector ruled by Cancer.

Former Harvard Business School professor and author Shoshana Zuboff is calling the current state of affairs the “frozen economy” (that’s a frigid Full Moon in Cap for you!) and says that paralysis has set in among consumers. Sounds like a conjunction of Mars (energy) and Saturn (restriction), which is present in the Full Moon chart in the sign of Virgo.

Here’s the link to Zuboff’s story: http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/jul2008/ca20080714_683791.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_news+%2B+analysis

I got a chuckle becauses Zuboff bases her conclusions on the “reporting” that she’s been doing at Moody’s Diner in Waldoboro, Maine.

Why I am laughing? Because I’ve been hearing tales of woe on my own diner via dolorosa. I’ve been hanging out at the Blue Benn Diner in Bennington, Vt. with my niece and nephew. There was talk about high gas prices at the Blue Benn, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying pancakes packed with so many fresh blueberries that I could barely see the cake. Afterward, we drove to the Pine Cone Hill factory outlet store in nearby Lenox, Mass. and I bought a new comforter to help keep me warm this winter.

It sounds like I’m going to need it. However, I won’t be getting any sympathy from Hudson Valley astrologer Eric Francis, who’s almost a neighbor of mine. I’m just one exit down on the New York State Thruway and over the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge. Check out his riff on energy prices at Planet Waves: http://planetwaves.net/pagetwo/

Of course, Francis has spent a few years in Paris and is approaching this from a European point of view. But, yes, Zuboff and Francis are right: We’ve squandered our resources and now we’rve reached a point of reckoning. Because we didn’t save during the fat times for the lean years, the cupboard is bare.

I’ve been getting in the spirit of the coming Depression by reading E.L. Doctorow’s Loon Lake, which I found on the bookshelf at my friend’s house in Vermont. I’m a fan of Doctorow’s Ragtime, but I’d missed this one. The Adirondack lake setting is redolent of An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, one of my favorite books, which most people know as A Place in the Sun, the film adaptation starring Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift, and the inimitable Shelley Winters.

No Virginia, there isn’t a Santa Claus to bail us out during Christmas in July, unless you dress Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in a red suit and tell him to grow his beard. As for the real Christmas, cue the Grinch.

Still, the tough times can bring new opportunities. The house may be cold and the car gas tank may be empty, but maybe we’ll get back to the community spirit that impressed Alexis de Tocqueville back in 1835, when he wrote Democracy in America. Hey, maybe we’ll even get back to democracy in America.

The Beginning (and End) of the Oil Age

Taking a page from astrologers who look at the chart of the Wright brothers’ first flight for clues to why an airplane crashed, I’ve calculated the chart for the discovery of oil to see if we can learn anything about the recent spike in oil prices and whether fears that we’ve entered a “peak oil” period are valid.

According to the Web site of the Paleontological Research Institute (PRI), petroleum was first discovered on the morning of Aug. 28, 1859 in Titusville, Pa. The find was made in a well drilled earlier that summer by Edwin Drake that had been nicknamed “Drake’s Folly” because it hadn’t produced any results. Click here to learn more.

We don’t know what time the oil was first spotted, but the Web site says morning. I’ll venture to say that folks started work pretty early back in those days, so I’ve set the chart for 7 a.m.

Here’s the chart, courtesy of Astrodienst.

I want to point out that even if the Ascendant is iffy because I’ve arbitrarily picked 7 a.m., that Neptune in Pisces in the seventh house seems valid, given that Neptune rules oil and it is in the sign that it rules, Pisces.

Michael WolfStar at Neptune Cafe has rectified this chart and uses a 7:56 a.m. time. His page on oil is one of the most comprehensive collections of charts and commentary on the subject that I’ve seen.

What’s really interesting is that the upcoming Saturn/Uranus opposition in Virgo/Pisces, exact on Election Day, is quite close to the oil chart’s Neptune at 26 degrees of Pisces.

I’ve consulted my trusty reference book, The Combination of Stellar Influences by Reinhold Ebertin, to learn that Saturn/Uranus equals Neptune means: “weakening strength, separation, mourning, and bereavement.” Could we be sad because our oil is running out? If the chart is any indication, the answer is yes.

It’s interesting that this chart has a Venus/Mars conjunction in Leo when you consider that the automobile, powered by gasoline, was a venue for sexual exploration and other youthful (Leo) hijinks like “joy-riding” and playing “chicken” in the 1950s. We see a little of this in the opening scenes of the latest Indiana Jones movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. A lot of gasoline is burned in the name of fun, a Leo realm, as we drive and fly to weddings, parties, baptisms, graduations, family reunions, and vacations.

Another thing I find fascinating about this chart is that it has North Node and Chiron in Aquarius not far from where they are traveling right now. What does this mean? I’m not sure, but record high oil prices are leading us to re-examine our dependence on this commodity and perhaps our whole way of life.

As readers of this blog have probably gathered, I approach astrology and the charts I calculate with a Sagittarian enthusiasm. I see myself as an explorer. I’m looking for connections, but I’m not wedded to my own interpretations. I think charts are valuable maps for those of us who think we know how to read them, but they can operate on many levels at once and their nuances aren’t always immediately apparent.

I’ll write more later, and I’d love to hear what other students of astrology have to say about this birth of oil chart.

Born on the Fourth of July: The U.S. and its Mother Complex

As we move through this four-day week toward our Independence Day celebration this Friday, July 4, the question on everyone’s mind is: When is Angelina Jolie going to have the twins?

Yep, we’re a nation born under the sign of Cancer, and motherhood is one of our sacred cows. Hence, the American hysteria about abortion, from both the right-to-lifers and those who support a woman’s right to choose, and the recent brouhaha about the pregnancies at Gloucester High School in Massachusetts.

Tainted food is another hot-button issue for this crustacean country. Earlier this week, tomatoes were suspected of infecting at least 900 people with salmonella and instantly disappeared from restaurant salads across the country. Now, the government is examining other possible causes for the salmonella outbreak, namely things “often served with tomatoes.” Gosh, it seems like the alar apple scare happened just yesterday. (It was in 1989, for the record.)

When I was growing up in the 1960s, it was said that the U.S. psyche could be boiled down to three things: “Mom, apple pie, and Chevrolet.” This was around the time that we were making the big push to reach the Moon, the orb that astrologers consider to be the ruler of Cancer.

When I first started learning about astrology, I could see how Mom and apple pie were great loves of this Cancer nation, but I never understood how Chevrolet fit into the “I Want My Mommy” dynamic.

And then last night, as I was mentally adding up how much I had spent on gas driving from Albuquerque, N.M., to Clarendon, Tex. (a hamlet outside Amarillo), it hit me: When you’re snug in your car, you’re encased in a safe place. Sound familiar? I’m sure I’m not the first one to make this connection, but being in a car is like being back in the womb.

So it’s really “Mom, apple pie, and back to the womb.” And unless you have a twin, you didn’t have to share your first “car” with anyone else, certainly not a train full of strangers. Maybe that accounts for the American distaste for public transportation.

The Freakonomics dudes over at The New York Times are surveying readers in an effort to determine why Americans are so rattled about having to pay more for gasoline after having enjoyed some of the lowest gas prices in the world for years. Here’s the link.

Well, if driving in a car is returning to the womb, than gasoline must be mother’s milk. Of course, Mom doesn’t charge anything for the sustenance she provides, but that’s the point: We consider gasoline to be our birthright! Hence, all the whining we’re hearing about higher gas prices.

So the next time you hear some pundit talking about America’s entitlement issues (Remember the proverbial welfare mom who drove a Cadillac?), remember that we’re a Cancer country. That’s why the jingle went: “I don’t want to grow up, I’m a Toys ‘R’ Us kid.”

We don’t want a Mommy who tells us “No.” That’s why women bosses and politicians encounter so much resistance in this Cancer-ruled country, picking up nicknames like “control freak,” “stern schoolmarm,” or worse.

The Brits didn’t mind “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher telling them what to do, and the Germans seem content with Angela Merkel as Chancellor. It’s in America that we heard a voter allegedly asking GOP candidate John McCain, “How are you going to stop the bitch?” before Hillary Clinton conceded the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama.

Am I giving Americans a pass on infantile and sometimes downright crude behavior because our country was born under the sign of Cancer? Not at all. But we’ve got to give this big, fat baby who’s about to turn 232 some love at the same time we gently say: “It’s time to grow up.” I mean, way past time.

If the U.S. doesn’t stop sucking (there’s a Cancer word for you) the planet dry… (You fill in the blanks.)

(The Lack of) Money Changes Everything

In my working-class hamlet of Beacon, N.Y., the houses sit cheek to jowl. The yards are only about one-third of an acre each in this part of town. My husband and I bought our house after living in an apartment, so the coziiness normally doesn’t bother us. Having said that, I was awakened from an afternoon nap by the sounds of screaming from a nearby home.

This marital spat wasn’t about another woman, the husband not picking up his dirty socks (something Barack Obama is apparently guilty of), or the wife going on a secret shopping spree. “If you ever bring my car back on empty after borrowing it, don’t bother to come home,” she yelled. “I don’t have enough money to fill it up and I’ve got to go to work.”

Has it come to this?

Groffoto has another take on this subject. Here’s the link: http://groffoto.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/rv-for-free/

Don’t let my husband see that photo. We’ll be living in that RV before you know it!

Crude Oil at $144 a Barrel?

Given that oil hit a new high of $130 a barrel this morning, I’ve put a new top on one of my posts of last week.

One of the more interesting predictions emanating from the United Astrology Conference in Denver came from financial astrologer Ray Merriman. Considered by many to be the “dean” of financial astrology, Merriman thinks oil is headed for $144 a barrel, give or take $8, most likely by the end of this month. He thinks the Jupiter sextile Uranus aspect of May 21 could produce the new eye-popping high.

However, he expects prices to decline $30 to $40 by the fall. The reason isn’t likely to be consumer restraint during the summer driving season. Merriman says oil prices are heavily influenced by conflict in the Middle East, and “when it’s 120 degrees outside, guys don’t like to fight.” The war will continue during the summer but not at the same level of intensity, he says. And that should help bring oil prices back down some (emphasis on the word “some”).

The News from UAC: Don’t Write Off Detroit Just Yet

General Motors may have lost $3.25 billion in the first quarter, but financial astrologer Ray Merriman thinks GM and other U.S. automakers can get back in the fast lane with hybrids and electric cars.

Merriman told the United Astrology Conference in Denver that he’s optimistic about the prospects for vehicles that use alternative sources of energy such as GM’s concept car, the Volt, a plug-in hybrid. “Detroit is stepping to the forefront. …It’s change or die,” said Merriman in his May 17 presentation on green investing opportunities.

Merriman bases his forecast on his theory that once Uranus moves out of Pisces and into Aries in 2010, new forms of energy will become commercially viable replacements for gasoline. While many in the astrological community have focused on the relationship between the planet Neptune and crude oil, Merriman thinks energy is ruled by Uranus.

It’s interesting that GM’s Volt is currently scheduled to come on the market in 2010, just as the innovative planet of Uranus in moving into the pioneering sign of Aries. So tell those real estate brokers in Grosse Pointe and other upscale Detroit suburbs where hundreds of homes are up for sale that Motown may not become a ghost town after all. The Motor City just has to hang in there for a couple more years, if Merriman’s predictions are right.

It’s worth noting that Merriman could be guilty of looking at Detroit’s future with rose-colored glasses because he lives in the area, but the business press is also anticipating the release of GM’s revolutionary Volt. Here’s an article about GM’s green push that’s on the cover of this week’s BusinessWeek.

Merriman admits that other countries in Europe and Asia are ahead of the U.S. in developing alternative energy systems, but he says, “it seems America is finally catching on.” Once Americans get on board the green bandwagon, the entire mindset of the planet will change and “outstanding investment opportunities” will present themselves, according to Merriman.

The fear of an impending crisis currently gripping the planet is due to a series of oppositions between Saturn and the outer planets that began unfolding in 2001, Merriman says. That’s when Saturn opposed Pluto. Next up was the Saturn/Neptune opposition of 2006-2007. Then it’s on to this year’s Saturn/Uranus opposition, which will continue until 2010.

In previous periods in history when there has been a triple Saturn opposition (1827-34, 1862-75, 1965-72), U.S. and British stocks posted a 46% decline by the end of the period, Merriman said. 

He zeroed in on the so-called Cardinal Climax, a powerful T-square where Pluto in Capricorn is the midpoint of an opposition between Saturn in Libra and Uranus in Aries, which culminates on Aug. 1, 2010. While he didn’t specify exactly what kind of event he is expecting, he said, “We may crack, but we won’t break. The storm can lead to a stronger structure to go forward. …Creation always wins over destruction.”

In the meantime, as I noted in an earlier post, Merriman is expecting crude oil to hit a high of $144 a barrel, give or take $8, possibly in the coming week, as Jupiter in Capricorn sextiles Uranus in Pisces. However, he expects oil to decline by $30 to $40 a barrel by the fall.  “Our addiction to crude oil is killing us, but new energy sources are coming….Innovation is taking us into a brighter future.”

Sounds like there may be a few potholes along the way.

To read more about Merriman’s forecast, click his name on my blogroll.