The Fragile State of the Union

Anti-taxation tea parties, Texas governor Rick Perry making noises about succession: This week’s Mars/Uranus conjunction in Pisces, broadly opposing Saturn, coincided with signs of fissure in our great union.

With three planets in Sag, I’m a big picture person and I’m sometimes too impatient to do my homework, in this case, plotting all the aspects formed by transits to the U.S. chart. I like to shoot from the hip. Here’s my take on the situation:

Last year, when the race for the Presidency came down to Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, I decided that if a Republican won, the electorate would zig left, and that if a Democrat prevailed, the voters would zag right. Why? The prevailing Saturn (conservative)/Uranus (revolutionary) opposition must make itself felt.

Of course, this is an incredibly simplistic view because the lines between right and left and Republicans and Democrats have been blurred over the years. For instance, in California, where I’m living right now, anti-tax forces were out in full force at tea parties, but they were protesting the policies of a Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has instituted a slew of new levies to try and address a huge state budget deficit.

In terms of the succession talk, we’ve heard it before from former Republican vice-presidential Sarah Palin, who addressed a meeting of the Alaska Independence Party.

In fact, one of the most widely read stories in The Wall Street Journal at the end of 2008 quoted a Russian analyst who predicted the U.S. would break up into six countries.

Is the end of the U.S. really a possibility? I don’t think so, but we’re in for some interesting times as transiting Pluto in Capricorn opposes the Cancer stellium in the U.S. independence chart.

FYI, in case you don’t know, the last time Pluto was in Capricorn was when we made our break from Great Britain. Tea parties are definitely back in fashion.

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.

Seven Things to Love About Southern California

1. The weather forecast is delivered by a psychic. (I kid you not. I heard it this morning on the radio. Her verdict: More cold winters for SoCal, but summers will remain hot and dry. Sounds like Pluto in Capricorn to me.)

2. The lead story on the radio news is that Russell Crowe has been cast as either Robin Hood or the Sheriff of Nottingham in a remake of Robin Hood. (There was some debate about this and the early-morning deejays were actually consulting the film database IMDb.)

3. The low-carb burger at Carl’s Jr. (Wrapped in lettuce instead of a bun.)

4. Asparagus for $1.99 $1.49 a pound!

5. Taking a break from your work to go soak in the hot tub for 15 minutes.

6. Driving 85 miles per hour on “the 10” with the Eagles’ Boys Of Summer blaring on the radio and having cop cars speed by as you look up at snow-covered mountains. (Yes, I know it’s the last days of peak oil, but you can’t blame me for enjoying them!)

7. Desert wildflowers in Joshua Tree National Park. (Priceless, to quote the MasterCard commercial.)

Bye-Bye, Banks?

Any astrologer giving serious thought to the impact of Pluto in Capricorn on the financial system should check out this New York Times article, which raises the possibility of the nationalization of the banking system under the Obama Administration. We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto!

Hat Parade on the Hill

I’ve become like those obnoxious gossip columnists who pat themselves on the back every time they get something right. Forewarned is forearmed, right?

O.K., President Obama didn’t sport a topper and neither did Mrs. Obama, but nearly every one of the million people who gathered in Washington D.C. today for the Inauguration was wearing a hat.

Last year, I made a bold forecast of a millinery revival in 2009.

Back in August, I also predicted extremely cold weather this winter after Pluto moved into Capricorn. Well, most of the Northeast and the Midwest has been in a deep freeze, and guess what? Folks are wearing hats!

My nomination for the best hat on the Hill today goes to Aretha Franklin, who sang God Bless America. Hallelujah for hats, I say!

Here’s a photo of Aretha in her hat, courtesy of http://www.nola.com, and a nice one of Ted Kennedy, courtesy of AFP.

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.

All Madoff, All the Time

The financial press can’t seem to turn the page on the Madoff Affair. Yes, it’s big news that a prominent New York financier has allegedly defrauded some high-profile investors such as Mort Zuckerman and Steven Spielberg, not to mention a few European banks, out of a total of $50 billion.

But it seems to me that the real culprit is lack of regulation, not 70-year-old Madoff (pronounced MAY-doff, as in “made off” with your money).

Although it appears that Madoff, a former NASDAQ chairman and owner of his eponymous broker/dealer firm, was not operating a hedge fund per se, his Ponzi scheme thrived because of the lack of oversight in that shadowy corner of the financial services industry.

As I was discussing with Pamela Cucinell on her AstroChatter BlogTalkRadio program earlier this week, I think it’s quite interesting that the Madoff scandal began to unravel over Thanksgiving weekend (even it didn’t become public until a week ago). That’s when Uranus was making a station opposing Madoff’s natal Neptune, according to commenter Gian Paul.

More important, it’s when Pluto moved into Capricorn. Back in the early 1980s, as Pluto moved into investment-oriented Scorpio, deregulation opened the door for individual investors and pension funds alike to increase their exposure to the stock market.

As Pluto transited free-wheeling Sagittarius from 1995 until this year, investment turned to speculation.

Now that Pluto the Transformer is in staid Capricorn to stay, we’re going to see an emphasis on capital preservation, as opposed to chasing outsize gains through investment vehicles such as hedge funds, which are unregulated by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission.

Hedge funds have the ability to invest in a wide variety of instruments — some blame them for the dramatic run-up in energy prices earlier this year — and they have attracted the rich and famous by delivering outsize returns. Indeed, Madoff’s investors were lured by his apparently steady returns of 12% to 15% a year. Of course, that record was bogus.

Now, that the music has stopped, the Madoff Affair will lead to greater scrutiny of hedge funds, private equity, and other investment pools that have been operating relatively untrammeled for the past 14 years.

Welcome to Pluto in Capricorn!

Pluto in Capricorn: Reading the Signs

In the late 1980s, I went to an interesting conference at Hunter College in Manhattan sponsored by the New York chapter of the National Council for Geocosmic Research (NCGR). I still remember a great presentation about how we should pay attention to hit songs and movies as an outer planet hits 0 degrees of a new sign. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the astrologer who gave the presentation. You’re a genius, whoever you are!

The example that has stayed with me all these years is that when Neptune first entered Capricorn, the Live Aid fund-raiser (July 13, 1985) was going on. Neptune was actually at 1 degree of Cancer during the concert.

Former Boomtown Rat Bob Geldof, who helped organize Live Aid, also put together a superstar band called Band-Aid that released a hit song Do They Know It’s Christmas?/Feed the World.

Proceeds of the song went to help victims of a famine in Ethiopia. Neptune rules music and charitable endeavors while Capricorn is associated with Christmas, the modern-day version of the pagan festival Saturnalia, which celebrated Cap’s ruling planet Saturn.

This weekend as Pluto went into Capricorn, the top film at the box office was Four Christmases, which follows the adventure of a couple played by Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn, who try to visit their four parents on a single Christmas.

So what is the message? Pluto is intensity and the desire to get to the bottom of things. Capricorn rules parents and authority figures. I haven’t seen Four Christmases, which is a comedy, but my take is that we’re going to delve (Pluto) into the meaning of authority figures during Pluto in Cap. For most people, their first authority figures are their parents.

The flip side of this is: What does it mean to be a parent? Today’s New York Times Magazine has a cover story called “Her Body, My Baby,” about reporter Alex Kuczynski’s “adventures with a surrogate mom.”

Have you noticed a bit of pop culture that you think is a sign of things to come during this 15-year transit of Pluto in Capricorn? Astrology Mundo wants to hear about it.

The Pluto in Capricorn Ingress and the Mumbai Attacks

Those of us who study astrology know that even when we’re right, we’re rarely exactly right. A case in point: Gian Paul’s prescient post about the impact of the Pluto in Capricorn Ingress on Indian-Pakistani relations.

Gian Paul, who has contributed to Astrology Mundo in posts labeled “The View From Brazil,” predicted trouble between India and Pakistan around Nov. 27, 2008 as a result of Pluto moving from Sagittarius into Capricorn.

Gian Paul thought the problems would surface in Kashmir. Instead, we’ve gotten deadly attacks on tourists over the past two days in Mumbai, India, by an Islamic terrorist group calling itself the Deccan Mujihadeen.

Kudos to you, Gian Paul. Here’s the link to the earlier post about the Pluto in Capricorn Ingress.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this heinous crime and their families. The U.S. State Dept. has set up a call center for Americans concerned about family members who may be in Mumbai. The number is 1-888-407-4747.

The U.S. After Pluto in Capricorn

Astrologers know that Pluto is moving into Capricorn on Nov. 27, where it will remain until 2024. The U.S. is about to have its Pluto return, as the demoted planet was in Capricorn when the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776. (I use the Sibly chart, which has an ascendant of 12 degrees of Sagittarius.)

Knowing this, it’s no wonder that the following headline in the The Guardian of London caught my eye today: “2025: End of U.S. Dominance.”

The article reports that a new study from the National Intelligence Council, which coordinates research from all the U.S. intelligence agencies, says in 2025 that the U.S. will be unable to “call the shots” in a “fragmented world, where conflict over scarce resources is on the rise, poorly contained by ‘ramshackle’ international institutions, while nuclear proliferation, particularly in the Middle East, and even nuclear conflict grow more likely.”

Don’t say we didn’t warn you.