The world economy has slipped into a recession and political leaders are now scrambling to ensure that it does not become a depression. While learning from history can often make today’s decisions wise, the location of the planets in the zodiac and their interactions may be all that you need to follow in order to see where the forces of the marketplace are taking us.
Economic indicators tell us that this recession began in the fall of 2007. The stock market reached its all time high with the Dow Industrials topping 13,000 that October. Since then, oil prices have gone though the roof and then collapsed on disappearing demand. Gold is hovering near record highs while stocks are at historic lows.
In September of 2007, Saturn, the planet of limitations, entered Virgo, the zodiac sign most concerned with the little details. Right then it could be noted that contractual agreements regarding derivatives and other high-leverage, detail oriented financial agreements were under a direct celestial threat. There had already been warnings about the real estate crisis as too many homeowners were looking at the prospect of losing their homes after taking out sub-prime loans. If there had been direct action taken on these matters before August of 2007 the world economy would not be suffering. Saturn is the taskmaster and demands payment. If you are prepared, a Saturn aspect in your horoscope will reward your preparedness. If things are a mess as Saturn enters, look for annihilation to be the likely outcome.
Saturn’s foray into Virgo took its first casualty in January of 2008 with the dissolving of Bear Stearns, a multi-billion dollar Wall Street powerhouse. For most of the rest of 2008, it seemed that the economy had dodged the bullet, that the other players in big business would self-police and get their acts together and that a vigilant Federal Reserve was ready to shore up weak financial institutions. But when the price of oil skyrocketed into the summer of 2008, the powers that be were no longer on terra firma. With the very structure of world finance unsteady, the Federal Reserve refused to throw a lifeline to Wall Street mainstay Lehman Brothers. The ripple effect that this caused was tremendous. The stock market was pummeled and the idea of a government stimulus package became the top domestic priority of the federal government. U.S. Presidential candidates had to give up their well-crafted speeches on energy policy and chime in on federal bailouts of banks and financial institutions.
While Saturn was moving deeper into Virgo at this time, Venus and Mars were getting together. These are two planets that serve entirely different purposes. Venus is the planet of love, art and beauty. Mars is the planet of action and war. When these two appear together in your birth horoscope they produce a frisson of irresistible charm, but more often than not, when they get together in the heavens, they inspire people to pursue liquidity. When Lehman Brothers was denied federal assistance, these two planets were locked in a rare two-week-long merger (an inordinately long occupation of the same celestial space for Venus and Mars). This caused the first rumblings of a great stock sell off. The dominoes were soon collapsing on each other.
There was even more celestial tension forming at the same time – in fact, one of the tensest planetary patterns in all of astrology. It would bring payback for years of lax regulation in world finance. Saturn was slowly moving into an opposition with the planet Uranus. This is the planet of sudden shocks and surprises. Harmony with this far-out planet produces unexpected good news. Tension to the planet Uranus produces the bad news that is often a worse case scenario. When Saturn was last opposite the planet Uranus, it was the mid-1960s. Instead of an economic collapse then, there was a social revolution in the West and a cultural revolution in China. We are still feeling the impact of that opposition. This time, the opposition has landed in our wallets.
With such planetary tension in the air, the slightest interaction between cosmic bodies seemingly touches a hair-trigger response. The truest sign of a bear market on Wall Street is the appearance of wild rallies going up for three or four days, only to slowly sink down over the next few weeks like a high-flying balloon running out of helium. Early 2009 saw harmony between Venus and Mars lead to another big loss in the stock market. Ordinarily this would be a minor cosmic occurrence, but in tense times such as these, the smallest planetary pressure impacts deeper here on earth as fear and mob sentiment rule the day. All the while Saturn and Uranus are locked in an opposition that will keep things limited for well into 2010.
There are many questions about the future as governments around the world look to shore up financial institutions in the hopes of making the flow of goods, services, currency and credit return to ordinary levels. The goal is to stabilize the system in order to prevent permanent damage. Many options are being tried, but one that will be required of investors is patience. Saturn and Uranus must finish their tense interaction. Venus and Mars have been too close in the heavens to allow investors to have the perspective that different areas of the zodiac deliver. When the two of them get together in June, look for more market trouble and a summer bottoming-out session of international trade. The stench of inflation will begin to threaten consumers by the early autumn. Just before Halloween 2009, Saturn will move into the zodiac sign of Libra. This will greatly ease tension in the credit markets. The planet Uranus will start to deliver some surprising good news around year’s end. Venus and Mars will make their first tense aspect to each other in a long, long while, causing banks to take chances with loans, investors to seek returns through job-creating investments and government to mediate the fair enforcement of new regulations designed to protect the world’s financial foundation. The summer of 2010 will see a smaller echo of the ’08 recession as Saturn and the planet Uranus have one final head-to-head disagreement, but by October 2010, a new era of regulation, restraint and reorganization will be creating a hiring frenzy in the labor force and a better feeling about the future of free trade as a positive aspect for all people worldwide.
