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.

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Mike Bloomberg for President?

The news wires are buzzing over a New York Post Page Six item today that says President Obama is looking at New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as a possible replacement for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Mercury is retrograde so I won’t get too excited about this story. However, I’ve been keeping an eye on Bloomberg’s chart as we approach the 2012 Presidential elections. Here’s the cranky Aquarian’s chart, with transits for Nov. 6, 2012.

A quick observation: The North Node at 26 degrees of Scorpio on Election Day squares Bloomberg’s natal Sun. In Uranian astrology, which I’m a fan of, that’s as powerful as a conjunction. Also, his natal Sun makes a conjunction with the U.S. Moon in Aquarius.

I know that Bloomberg, a self-made billionaire, isn’t running for President, but in true Uranian fashion, he’s a wild card who can’t be ruled out of the game. He’s liberal on social issues and conservative on fiscal issues, and his friends (and his mother!) know that he has a secret desire to be the nation’s first Jewish president.

The BP Oil Spill and the Sibly Chart

I’ve been having my own Neptune issues lately so I haven’t taken the time to study the chart of the BP Oil Spill closely, but my off-the-cuff observation is that the out-of-control gusher provides compelling evidence for the Sibly chart for the birth of the U.S. This chart uses a 5:10 p.m. time for the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 in Philadelphia and was originated by Ebenezer Sibly (which is often mispelled as “Sibley”).

In the Sibly chart, the U.S. Moon is at 27 degrees and 10 minutes of Aquarius. On April 20, 2010, the day the BP oil spill occurred at 9:50 p.m. near New Orleans, La. (data courtesy of Jude’s Threshold), Neptune had just hit 28 degrees of Aquarius.

Since most astrologers use a July 4 date for the U.S. chart (one notable exception being Michael WolfStar), there is agreement that that the U.S. has a freedom-loving Moon in Aquarius. As Neptune has moved through Aquarius to conjunct the U.S. Moon, there has been a lot of speculation about what kinds of Neptunian (read “confusing,” “deceptive,” or “disappointing”) events would transpire that would involve the U.S. public. I for one expected the swine flu epidemic to be much worse than it was.

This is one of those discussions that is the astrological equivalent of Talmudic debate, but I’m positing that an oil spill that defies the attempts of man to stop it and that endangers the fishing and tourism industries in the Gulf of Mexico qualifies as a major Neptune event. Although it happened nearly a degree past the position of the Moon in the Sibly chart, it’s all the confirmation I need.

Neptune Direct and the Fort Hood Shootings

I recently commented at Stars Over Washington that the Nov. 4 Neptune station of Aquarius so close to the U.S. Moon would produce an event that would bring sorrow to the American populace. I think we’ve seen this with the shootings in Fort Hood, Tex.

This tragedy galvanized my family because my nephew left Mosul, Iraq, about two days ago, heading to the center in Fort Hood where the violence occurred. My sister has received an e-mail from a military liaison assuring her that her son is safe, but we still are not 100% certain.

I myself am at a loss for words, but feel ready to dive back into the astrological pool (Neptune). So I leave you with Planet Waves’ “War Comes Home.”

Swine Flu and the Neptune/Jupiter Conjunction

Government leaders and public-health officials around the world are taking the threat of a swine flu epidemic, which began in Mexico City and has spread to other countries including the U.S., quite seriously, so they don’t need an astrology blog to tell them this could be a pandemic.

What is driving me to say this? The fact that Jupiter in Aquarius is quite close to a conjunction with Neptune in the same sign and that it’s moving toward the U.S. Moon. Jupiter is the expander and Neptune rules contagion. The Moon is the public in a nation’s chart.

The Moon also rules women, and I think an epidemic or a quarantine would send many working women back home. After all, if schools were closed, someone would have to be at home taking care of the kids.

Yes, it’s conceivable in some progressive families that the husband and wife would alternate between staying home and going to work, but in most cases, the duty of staying home would fall on Mom’s shoulders. And, of course, many households are headed by women so there’s no dad to pass babysitting chores along to. I’m not trying to lob a grenade in the ongoing culture wars; I’m stating a fact.

By the way, an epidemic was one of Astrology Mundo’s Top 10 predictions of 2009.

Get Ready for a Global Currency

When economists like Joseph Stiglitz start talking to mainstream media journalists about the need to replace the dollar, you know it’s already in the can.

Sad to say, I don’t have a natal chart for the dollar. I do have one for the euro, though. It’s in this post of last May.

Bilderbergers on MSM’s Radar

I was perusing one of my favorite Web sites, politico.com, and found this story on the Bilderbergers as one of the most popular.

I’ve written about the Bilderbergers myself and the strong connections between the natal chart of the U.S. and those of the shadowy organization of world leaders.

Here’s the link to my original post last year.

With Pluto in Capricorn activating the charts of the U.S. (opposing our natal Venus, to be specific!) and the Bilderbergers, secrets will be coming out of the woodwork.

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.

Astrology Mundo’s Top 10 Predictions for 2009

I made the mistake of buying Time magazine at the grocery store this week. I’m a sucker for lists and this week’s issue is devoted to them. Unfortunately, the editors should have provided a magnifying glass with the magazine. Running lists with tiny type is unfair to older readers, who after all are the only ones still buying print publications.

Having gotten that rant off my chest, here, without further ado, is the list of Astrology Mundo’s Top 10 Predictions for 2009. Most of these prognostications concern the U.S.

1. A huge revival in churchgoing and spirituality of all kinds
2. A major flu or epidemic
3. A very cold winter
4. Disillusionment with Barack Obama’s Administration (not just from me)
5. Roe v. Wade overturned or access to abortion greatly curtailed
6. More tent cities of homeless people like the one known as Camp Purgatory in Ontario, Calif.
7. Widespread bankruptcies of local and even state governments
8. Return to conservative manners and dress, even to the point of addressing people as Mr. or Mrs.
9. Hobbies — bridge, 1,000-word puzzles, gardening, studying genealogy, building models, collecting Americana, etc. — back in fashion
10. Potluck dinners become a national pastime

Astrologers out there will recognize a combination of Neptunian idealism and group action expanded by Jupiter in Aquarius, in seeming contradiction to conservative Pluto in Capricorn moving to oppose the Cancer stellium in the U.S. chart.

There’s also the ongoing opposition in the sky between restrictive Saturn, now transiting through Virgo, and revolutionary Uranus, in Pisces. This will provide plenty of fuel for class warfare in the coming months.

George Soros: The Bad News About Hedge Funds

Do you know who George Soros is? Don’t feel bad if you don’t. The Hungarian-born investor periodically makes headlines in the financial press. He was quite outspoken about free markets in the late 1980s and early 1990s, after the fall of the Iron Curtain. But he is hardly a household name.

Today, the financier, who was born Aug. 12, 1930, was on Capitol Hill testifying about hedge funds. Here’s the natal chart of Soros from something called the Magi Society and an interesting article about how he got clobbered during a Saturn transit. It was actually in April 2000, when Jupiter was making a conjunction with Saturn in Taurus, squaring Soros’ natal Leo Sun.

I’m wondering whether last night’s full Moon at 21 degrees of Taurus, which also squared the legendary investor’s Sun, is the reason why he was ordered to appear in front of Congress.

He told legislators that hedge funds, which are investment vehicles that are essentially free of government regulation and place bets in both directions (long and short) on equities and commodities, will be “decimated” by the current financial crisis. A story from the Times of London appears here about Soros’ day on the Hill.

Like Warren Buffett, another billionaire, Soros has a Jupiter/Pluto conjunction in Cancer that ties in heavily with the U.S. chart.