Much was made of the August 1999 eclipse at the time, not least connected with the prophecies of Nostradamus, but when the eclipse actually occurred, the world did not end, at least not unless you lived in Izmit, Turkey, where an earthquake took place 5 days later killing about 17,000 people. (Note 1) Nevertheless, eclipses are said to sensitize degrees for years after they have taken place. The 1999 eclipse occurred at 18.21 Leo, whilst Venus was retrograde at 2 degrees Virgo. Several weeks later Venus moved stationary direct on the eclipse degree, which must have made that position extra sensitive. At least when Venus returned to that exact spot two years later – 18.24 Leo – the World Trade Center crumbled into dust.
The date 9/11 has since become iconic for the USA… an unwelcome baptism into the 21st century and its war on terror. As the date approaches each year, there are fears of renewed terror, but it is in fact World Trade that is in the greatest danger. Seven years after 9/11, on September 12th 2008, after its share price completely collapsed the investment bank Lehman Brothers ceased to exist, declaring bankruptcy just before 1.00 am on the following Monday. Lehmann Brothers was one of the four cornerstones of the US investment banking (Note 2) and in 2001 had been forced to move 6500 employees from Manhattan after its offices were rendered unusable by the destruction of the twin towers. The collapse of Lehman Brothers, with its web of derivatives and poisonous “assets”, is seen as the start of the current economic crisis… the financial parallel to the collapse of the World Trade Center.
In January 2008 Pluto had of course entered Capricorn, and during the last few months of the Bush administration, as Pluto turned direct at 28.29 Sagittarius there was panic in the US administration as the repercussions of the banking collapse were felt. By the time Obama took over in January 2009, Pluto had re-entered Capricorn and the economic crisis would begin to bite.
What was to follow was a series of oppositions to USA’s Venus/Jupiter conjunction, which is the signature of America’s preoccupation with comfort and prosperity. (Note 4) Pluto would oppose Venus five times (from 2009 to 2010), and Jupiter three times, the final hit to Jupiter being in November 2011. With transiting Uranus simultaneously conjoining the US (Sibley) 4th house cusp, the consequences of the banking crisis and toxic loans was felt by ordinary Americans, who became homeless in their tens of thousands, as banks, conveniently saved by government intervention, refused to pass on the favor and evicted them.
To attempt to understand the American economy and where it is going over the next few years, two major institutions are crucial – the Federal Reserve and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). These are very sensitive charts, which consistently reflect the ups and downs of the US economy.
NYSE May 17, 1792 11.56 LMT New York (AS 2.23 VI) Book of World Horoscopes
The NYSE was formed at a time when major planetary cycles culminated, notably the Saturn opposition to both Jupiter and Neptune. Time and again in economic astrology Neptune represents the money flow, because money is the substitution of paper for goods, with paper acquiring illusory worth and becoming a force of its own quite disconnected from the material world. Neptune combined with Jupiter is inflationary, and Neptune combined with Saturn is deflationary. With Sun conjoining Mercury in Taurus exactly square Pluto, the NYSE indicates the secret machinations of a financial elite, and the power of this trading elite is reflected by the Pluto/Mercury opposition from the 8th to 2nd house in the (Sibley) horoscope for the USA. The nodal axis of this chart, at 0.41 Libra/Aries falls exactly on the MC/IC of the US chart.
At the time of the economic crash in 1929, the progressed Ascendant for the NYSE chart had been square Mars a year previously and Venus progressed had earlier conjoined Jupiter (irrational exuberance) and would go on to conjoin Neptune and oppose Saturn as the Great Depression set it. Transiting Neptune exactly conjoined the Ascendant at the exact time for the crash in the autumn of 1929. (Note 6) At the milder crash on October 19th, 1987, which saw the biggest fall in the Dow Jones to date, the progressed Ascendant for the NYSE chart was exactly on Pluto and square Mercury, which was an indication of how the computerization of the stock exchange, with automated instant sell mechanisms, now constituted a new destabilizing factor. (Note 5)
From 2012 – 2013 Neptune will be conjoining the NYSE Descendant, opposing the 1929 transit, and this is a strong indication that regulatory mechanisms will not be able to control trades and traders in the near future. The Lehman demise and subsequent economic crisis is reflected in this chart by the progressed conjunction of Venus and Mars, which squared radix Neptune early on in the decade making an exact square to progressed Neptune in 2007 as the subprime market fraud was finally exposed. Quite obviously the NYSE was operating on a bubble at this time.
The Federal Reserve was created under extremely secretive circumstances in 1913, when a small group of bankers and politicians met on Jekyll Island to discuss a new policy of monetary reform. What in fact happened was that government wealth was placed in the hands of a rich elite, where it still is. The Fed was to be a bank controlled by Congress but it ended up being a corporation owned by the big banks. (Note 6). This can be clearly seen in the lamentable horoscope for the founding of the Federal Reserve:
The Federal Reserve. December 23rd, 1913. 6.02 p.m. Washington DC (AS 18.04 CN)
The Ascendant of this horoscope is actually on the degree at which Pluto was later discovered, and it is a horoscope for plutocrats. The MC of this horoscope is on the IC of the US chart (the real foundation of the United States?), just as the NYSE nodes are. Ascendant ruler the Moon is in Scorpio and semi-/sesquisquare the Pluto/Sun opposition. It is difficult to find a chart which is as Plutonian as this one, and with so little planetary dignity too, with Mars rising, in fall and retrograde in Cancer, conjoining Neptune and opposing Jupiter in fall in Capricorn – astride the US Pluto/Mercury opposition. In fact Neptune conjoins the US Pluto within a minute of arc. One is tempted to surmise that The Federal Reserve is a secretive organization designed for plunder.
No surprise then that as Pluto moved to oppose the Fed’s birth position and conjoin the radix Sun in Capricorn in 2008, the collapse of US banking took place. But masters of disguise and transformation as they were, the financial elite managed to ensure that the US government bailed them out anyway. How could it be otherwise, when the previous CEO of Goldman Sachs, Henry Paulson, had been named Secretary of the Treasury (wolf guarding lambs here) by George W Bush in 2006? Paulson organized the bank bailout after Lehman Brothers collapse. It is estimated that Goldman Sachs, who had insured themselves at AIG against their own toxic loans – they had in fact bet against themselves – received $12.9 billion from bailed-out AIG as a result of “the Paulson Plan”. (Note 7)
The Fed was formed with Mars retrograde at 19.32 Cancer, and Mars finally moved direct by progression at 5.40 Cancer, dwelling on the US Jupiter for over 12 years from 1958 to 1972. This was a period when the US aggressively lent far more dollars internationally than it had gold reserves to back. During the sixties countries began to redeem the dollars for gold which consequently flowed out of the country. Nixon put a stop to this in August 1971 taking America off the gold standard and leaving the dollar to float freely on currency markets, where the value of the dollar sharply declined, which – as financial astrologer Bill Meridian points out – took place with Pluto crossing 0 Libra, right on USA’s Midheaven, the Fed’s IC and the NYSE’s lunar nodes.
Mars is now direct, and it crosses its radix position of 18 Cancer in 2020, completing the loop, which may constitute a finishing point for the Federal Reserve. During the two years prior to this, Pluto will transit the Descendant and oppose Mars, and there will be a Saturn/Pluto conjunction on the Fed’s Jupiter, which will bring profound changes, eliminating the inflationary character of the Fed, as shown by its Mars/Neptune opposite Jupiter astride the Ascendant/Descendant. It is difficult to talk about a reform of the Federal Reserve, because it is a secretive organization which will always fight transparency. It needs to be replaced by something else, which serves the interest of the American people, who – represented by the Moon in Scorpio in the fifth house – have their money gambled away by the rich plutocrats who own US financial dynasties… the trine to and reception with Mars rising in Cancer. With Pluto returning to its birth position of 27 Capricorn in America’s second house in 2022 a new financial era will begin.
The financial crash in 2008 was based on toxic home loans and the sale of derivatives from these loans classed by leading US rating agencies as AAA, which were in fact junk. The progressed US Descendant had conjoined the US Moon at 27 Aquarius in 2007, and with the Moon ruling the 8th house of the US chart, this put the focus on the indebtedness of the US people.
It is interesting to note that the US progressed Mars went retrograde around about 2006; in fact it has been hovering at 18 degrees Libra for years, and the station of Mars at this point represents the military upheaval in the USA since 9/11, its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the new phase of US cutbacks and withdrawal that are kicking in with Obama’s reforms. This is a time of historic military reassessment.
What happened at the Lehman Brothers collapse was that the US progressed Venus reached the opposition to stationary Mars, and this opposition axis at 18 degrees Aries/Libra was exactly square the Federal Reserve Ascendant (and Mars) putting acute pressure on the weaknesses of the Fed. Earlier Venus progressed had been square Jupiter and later progressed Jupiter, and this indicates the rash spending enabled by easy credit over the last decade. The subsequent bailout just prior to Obama’s inauguration, took place at the progressed full moon in the US chart at 4 degrees Pisces/Virgo). This full moon conjoined the NYSE Ascendant and the Venus position at the 1999 eclipse. As the progressed full moon configured by trine and sextile with Saturn progressed at this time, the indications are that government intervention, or at least the partnership of president and people, was comparatively efficient process which had a stabilizing effect on share volatility.
Now that transiting Pluto has made its final transit to USA’s Jupiter, completely eliminating the natural optimism inherent in America, the short-term prognosis for the country will again improve and there will be a resurgence of faith. A great deal of money has been printed and pumped in to the American economy (in strong contrast to the policy of austerity in Europe), and this has put America back on its feet. The economy lost 3.1 million jobs between January 2009 and June 2009 but has since gained 1.2 million jobs. (Note 8) This will lead to a strong dose of renewed optimism – and very likely a strong dose of inflation too – when Jupiter leaves Taurus in June 2012 and squares Neptune in Pisces. This “irrational optimism” will probably be quite enough to get Obama re-elected, even as Saturn enters Scorpio in October, to make three long trines to Neptune and sextiles to Pluto. Then, through fear of inflation, banks are very likely to raise interest rates, and America is likely to get its own dose of austerity until Saturn leaves Scorpio in September 2015.
It is in 2014 and 2015 that the last of a series of Pluto/Uranus squares takes place, with Uranus opposing the US Saturn in Libra – the checks and balances of Congress – whilst Pluto opposes the Sun in Cancer – the President. Clearly the tensions in the Sun/Saturn square in the US chart, representing as it does the creative conflict between the President and the Congress, will reach an extreme at this time. The kind of deadlock that has been experienced in the current presidential period will pale in comparison to the next period.
It is very likely that there will be upheaval in Europe in 2013, because so many European institutions and nations were formed on January 1st, which places the sun at 10 Capricorn. As the Euro itself has the sun in this position (Note 9), it is likely that the efforts of France and Germany to shore up the euro will not be successful, and that the weaker economies on the periphery of Europe and particularly in the south (Greece, Spain and Portugal in particular) will revert to their original currencies and deflate. Although investors’ money will pour into the dollar as refuge, there will be repercussions for the world economy – and for the US economy – and the period of Saturn transiting Scorpio will see a tightening of credit, with further stagnation in the housing market, and further unrest socially.
Uranus in Aries, which obviously corresponds to the Occupy Now movements in America and worldwide, will evoke unrest in America on a scale not seen since 1967 at the time of the Uranus/Pluto conjunction. The response of Pluto in Capricorn is control, surveillance and suppression, and although the US has handled the challenge represented by Occupy movements rather well up until 2012, it is likely that more extreme protests will lead to a heavier response as Uranus/Pluto fully activates the US Sun and Saturn. Whether the President will at all be able to govern in this period is doubtful, as the intransigence of Congress will also increase along with social discontent.
Seen in a wider perspective, we are witnesses to a political transition, which will lead to the end of a whole political system. It is not sufficient to compare this transition to earlier historical periods, because things have changed exponentially in the world. The internet has made information available to all. Politicians and bankers will be unable to pull the wool over the eyes of the people any more. It is all remembered and it is all on film and you can view it on YouTube. People can express their discontent instantaneously, and those who misuse power can be ruined literally overnight. For good and ill the people will take power and old political and economic dinosaurs will be found in the graveyard of history.
Adrian Ross Duncan. January 11, 2012
1. The eclipse In Izmit on August 17th at 00:01:39 GMT. Location: 40.74N/29.86E. )
2. The other major investment banks are: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch.
3. Wikipedia: Shortly before 1 am Monday morning (New York time), Lehman Brothers Holdings announced it would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
4. USA (Sibley) chart: July 4th, 1776 17.10.40 EST Philadelphia (AS 12.21. SG) Book of World Horoscopes.
5. See article by Pat Hardy – Charting the United Starts and the New York Stock Exchange” in “Financial Astrology” (1989 – Llewellyn Publications)
6. To learn more about the Federal Reserve I recommend studying financial astrologer Bill Meridian: https://www.billmeridian.com/articles-files/fed-new.htm
7. Wikipedia – search Henry Paulson.
8. According to Paul Krugman at the New York Times.
9. The Euro was introduced for trading purposes on January 1st, 1999 and became available for the 17 Euro member states as notes and coins on January 1st, 2002 at midnight.
10. I use the traditional progression system: Naibod in RA.