Astrology, Prediction and Comment

In the 1980s I had a friend who was very much into Chinese astrology.  He had detailed charts and calculations, and he linked Chinese astrology with the stock market.  This is a significant observation, and it is something that one can accept without believing in astrology. The Chinese New Year is  important in East Asia, and it can have an impact on the buying and selling of stocks and precicous metals. My friend advised me to be careful in the week or two leading up to the New Year, as investors are waiting for the year’s trends to clarify.

I do think that there is something in this.  We think of January 1 as the beginning of the year, but we often don’t know how things are going to pan out until the first New Moon in the sign of Aquarius.  So if we look back to the New Moon on January 24 2020, which started the Year of the Rat, we see a square between Mars in Sagittarius and Neptune in Pisces.  This is perhaps a signature of an emerging virus.  Also, the New Moon was conjunct the Mercury-Saturn and Mercury-Pluto midpoints.  A sure sign that depressive events are on the way.

Now let’s move forward a year, to the New Moon on February 11 2021, which kicked off the Year of the Ox. The chart for this New Moon is at the top of this article, and is set for Washington DC .

This chart may tell us something about the tone of the Year of the Ox.  Or it might just refer to the month ahead, finishing on March 13. And maybe I shouldn’t mix up Western and Chinese astrology. Still, it is interesting that at the time of the New Moon there was an exact conjunction between Venus and  Jupiter, the two benefics.  This is a favourable signature, and for some people things are going to be great.  But the conjunction is in Aquarius, and that’s harsh.  There are going to be winners and losers, especially as the Venus-Jupiter conjunction is aspecting the Mars-Saturn midpoint.  Mars and Saturn are the death pair, and we get the picture of making money out of other people’s misery.  Or another year where the inequalities in society get worse.

I also can’t help noticing that Hades, the hypothetical planet of garbage and death, is rising in Washington DC.  This may say something about the US, and the continued repercussions from the epidemic.  Matters aren’t helped by the fact that Hades is making an 135 degree aspect to the Aquarius New Moon.  Witte and Lefeldt, in their Rules for Planetary Pictures, wrote as follows about Hades aspecting the Sun-Moon midpoint: “Dealing with disagreeable matters on a daily basis”.  And in terms of Washington DC, the seat of the US government, the planet Neptune is on the midheaven.  Governmental confusion, a leadership that isn’t quite as confident as it thinks it is.

The chart also reminds us that Saturn and Uranus are getting closer and closer to a square – the aspect is exact on February 17. We are living in a time of huge pressure, when existing structures cannot be taken for granted.  And people will continue to be restless.  Not just now, but throughout the year.  The government wants to control, the people want to be free, and there really isn’t a compromise.

But what about the markets? Are they going to crash? They crashed last March, which was nearly a year ago.  The Jupiter-Saturn conjunction was in December, and the markets are still standing.  The Saturn-Uranus square might destabilize markets, but will it crash them? Not necessarily, remembering that the 1931 Saturn-Uranus square coincided with a big fall in the reserve currency.  Then the reserve currency was the British Pound, now it’s the US Dollar.  But don’t regard February 17 as the big day.  The Saturn-Uranus square dominates the whole year, and the last time the aspect will be exact is December 24 2021. Exciting times, with the crunch structures likely to be US Dollar, the European Union, and the global financial order.

“Would I say there will never, ever be another financial crisis?” Yellen said at a question-and-answer event in London.

“You know probably that would be going too far but I do think we’re much safer and I hope that it will not be in our lifetimes and I don’t believe it will be,” she said.

That’s how Reuters reported it.  In 2017 Janet Yellen, Biden’s pick for Treasury Secretary, said that she didn’t believe that there would be a financial crisis in “our” lifetimes – not just in “her” lifetime. Assuming she was referring to her lifetime, she is currently 74 years old. According to US life tables, a 74 year old female has approximately 13 years left – so we can expect Janet Yellen to live until she is 87 years old.  Though given her likely  access to excellent healthcare, she’ll probably live longer.  But assuming Yellen lives another 13 years, she is effectively saying that there will be no financial crisis before 2033.

Some would say that right now, in 2021, we are already in a financial crisis.  The global economy is shot to pieces, unemployment is sky high, and ordinary people are running out of money. The assumption that a vaccine for COVID-19 will solve our problems is over-optimistic, and excessive printing of money indicates tht inflation, even hyperinflation, may be just round the corner. Furthermore, any Federal Reserve chair (as Yellen was in 2017)  who says that they don’t believe there will be another financial crisis in their lifetime is asking for trouble.  People in that kind of position who make that kind of statement are probably indicating, on an unconscious level, that they know that there will be another financial crisis.

In order to explain this, we have to understand that Janet Yellen is a brilliant economist, who presumably eats, lives and breathes the subject. She sees the picture, both with a conscious and unconscious eye.  There is the conscious academic analyzing the material, and doing her job as chair of the Federal Reserve.  Then there is her unconscious self, also analyzing the material, and maybe realizing that sometime down the road America is in big trouble.  Yet consciously she  can’t recognize this, and she has to negate what her unconscious has seen by denying that there will be another financial crisis in her lifetime.

You can also put a metaphysical spin on it.  At best Janet Yellen is being an unwitting profit of a financial crisis that will take place in her lifetime.  At worst the statement is an act of Hubris, that’s screaming for Nemesis. You don’t tell the economy gods that you, a mere mortal, know about the timing of economic crises better than they do.  And with such hubris you risk getting stomped on – particularly if you’re one of their priests.

As far as the astrology is concerned, Janet Yellen is a Leo, born on August 13 1946 in Brooklyn, New York. I can’t find her time of birth.  This is her chart, set for noon:

The first thing to notice is that Yellen has NO planets in the Earth signs of Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn.  And if she was born before 1.41 pm, she has no planets in the Water signs of Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces.  If she was born after 1.41 pm, the Moon would be in Pisces rather Aquarius.  So what we have is someone who has a minimum of nine out of ten planets in Fire and Air signs. This suggests to me that she functions mainly at the level of intuition and intellect.  As a Leo she knows how things are going to pan out, without have to feel or touch.  And I am sure that very often she is right. However, Leo is like a juggernaut, and when it’s wrong, it’s dreadfully wrong.

Janet Yellen doesn’t just have the Sun in Leo.  She also has Mercury, Saturn and Pluto in this sign.  At the end of 2020 Saturn moved into Aquarius, so for the next few years she will have Saturn opposition her Leo planets.  Indeed days after Biden’s inauguration Saturn will be oppostion her Mercury.  I think she will soon realize how difficult her new job as Treasury Secretary will be.  And maybe she will also realize that she should have stayed in retirement, rather than deal with the Nemesis from her comment about there not being another financial crisis in her lifetime.

It is difficult, though, to make forecasts about Janet Yellen, because we don’t have her birth time.  Yet Saturn opposition her Leo planets gives a general picture of someone having to face reality because of forces outside her control.  We also need to remember that in December Jupiter and Saturn made a conjunction.  A new twenty year cycle has begun, and it should be out with the old and in with the new.  Yet we’re seeing a Treasury Secretary who hit prominence under the Obama regime.  And many other of Biden’s appointments will be relics of this regime.  So it is a case of using people from the past to solve the problems of the future.

We already know that Biden’s presidency is not going to live up to the nation’s hopes.  As I have already discussed, the horoscope for the inauguration is disastrous, with an exact Mars-Uranus conjunction at the moment he becomes president. The Saturn-Uranus square that dominates 2021 is both violent and economically destructive, and may signify some kind of currency crisis.  Furthermore, in 2021 Pluto returns to the place it occupied on July 4 1776. All of this indicates that in 2021 things are not going to be get better.  And unless Janet Yellen drops dead very soon, she is certainly going to experience another financial crisis in her lifetime.  In fact it is likely to happen during her first year as Treasury Secretary.

I am going to write a few words about the horoscope of Ashli Babbitt, the 35-year old protester who was shot dead while trying to enter the Congress buildings.  She was born on October 10 1985.  I don’t know the time or the place of birth. I got the date of birth from the Daily Mail – it was on court documents dating back to 2016.

Here’s her chart set for noon EST:

It is a difficult chart to interpret, because we don’t know what sign her Moon or Mercury is in.  At midday the Moon is in Leo and Mercury in Libra, but later in the day they switch signs, respectively to Virgo and Scorpio.  If I had to hazard a guess, from her actions and appearance, I would say she had Moon in Leo rather than Virgo.  There is another reason for this.  We know that Babbitt was obsessed by Donald Trump, and here is Trump’s chart:

Trump has Mars rising in late Leo – in other words both his Mars and Ascendant are in the last degrees of Leo.  If Babbitt was born before 1.09 pm Eastern, her Moon would also be in late Leo, and she would potentially find the personality of Trump compelling, or as they might say in Latin, “dulce et decorum est pro Donaldo mori”.

As far as aspects are concerned, she had a Venus-Mars conjunction in Virgo.  This suggests an attractive person, with a particular sex appeal – some go for it, others don’t.  It also suggests a self-destructive streak.  The kind of person that could have had it all, but as soon as she starts getting it destroys it.  Additionally there is a conjunction between Mercury and Pluto.  We don’t know what sign Mercury is in, but the two planets are only a few degrees apart.  This might indicate strong, inflexible beliefs.

Another aspect is a 45 degree aspect between Mars and Pluto.  This is where we see the potential for violence, for the pursuit of a particular cause.  She might have been unarmed, but Mars-Pluto drew her into a situation that got her killed.  Incidentally, she also has Saturn on the Mars-Pluto midpoint, which suggests that the Mars-Pluto energy could bring obstruction and hindrance – for example, being shot in the chest.

Finally, I want to look at her solar return, for her 35th birthday, with no time or place:

Lots of people had birthdays around October 9 and 10 2020 and they didn’t come to any harm, but we do have a clear signature of trouble.  Mars in Aries is exactly square Pluto in Capricorn, and therefore resonates with her natal Mars-Pluto semisquare.  The Sun is moving to an opposition with Mars, and also to squares with Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto.  The Moon in Cancer we have to discount, because we don’t know her birth time, but it may be forming a grand cardinal cross.

Looking at the solar return, I am fairly sure that most astrologers would have advised her to be careful over the next year, particularly in light of her political opinions and her tempestuous personality.

Saturn and Uranus are very different planets.  Saturn represents the status quo, and it tries to maintain existing structures.  In this sense, it is a somewhat conservative influence.  Uranus, by contrast, is the planet of revolution and earthquakes.  It wants to break things down and overthrow the old ways of working.  If you think of Saturn and Uranus as a pair, you have the symbolism of a real battle.  Uranus is trying to revolt against Saturn, while Saturn is trying to restrain Uranus’ chaotic impulses.  This gives us connotations of tension and stress.  Two opposing forces battling it out, with cracks appearing everywhere.

Reinhold Ebertin, in The Combination of Stellar Influences, described the Saturn-Uranus combination as “Irritability and inhibition, tension… rebellion, the urge for freedom, a provocotive conduct, an act of violence”.  Alfred Witte and Hermann Lefeldt, in Rules for Planetary Pictures, wrote that Saturn-Uranus was about “Quarrels. Sudden separaton. To part and die. Inflexibility”.

From a historical perspective, there’s some support for the idea that Saturn and Uranus are a difficult pairing.  There was a conjunction between the two planets on May 3 1942.  This was close to the peak of German control over Europe, yet there were cracks in the edifice. On May 27 1942 Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich  was assassinated in Prague.  It was an act of rebellion, which was followed by suppression and reprisals.  Just over forty-five years later, from February to June 1988, there was another conjunction.  This conjunction kicked off the process by which Soviet control over Eastern Europe collapsed.  We saw the first demonstrations against Soviet rule – for example, in March 1988 thousands of Catholics demonstrated in what is now Slovakia, demanding religous freedom.  The Berlin Wall didn’t come down until late 1989, but the process had started.

The Saturn-Uranus cycle starts and ends with a conjunction.  What started in 1942 ended in 1988, at least in a theoretical sense.  And the next conjunction, which closes the cycle beginning in 1988, is in 2032. Within each cycle, there are critical points.  Half-way through, there are opposition aspects, when Saturn and Uranus are 180 degrees apart.  From 1965 through to 1967 the two planets were in opposition.  In Western Europe and the US this was the peak of the 1960s.  Hippies, freedom, the Summer of Love.  In China there was an opposite manifestation – the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. The next opposition took place between 2008 and 2010.  This coincided with the financial crisis, the election of Obama, and the build up to the Arab Spring.  It was a time of despair and hope.

Looking at 2021, there is a square between Saturn and Uranus, which happens three times, on February 17, June 14 and December 24. This means that we are entering the final quarter of the cycle that started in 1988, and ends in 2032.  The last final quarter square was between 1975 and 1977, and the one before that in 1931. In both these cases the global economy was shakey, but I think we should concentrate on broad trends rather than specific events.

For example, the Saturn-Uranus conjunction in 1988 marked the break up of Communism and the creation of a new Europe.  The protests in Slovakia in March 1988 were the first of many, which led not just to the fall of the Berlin Wall but also to the expansion of the European Union. In 1999 and 2000 there was a waxing square between Saturn and Uranus.  This coincided with the introduction of the Euro – it became the European currency on January 1 1999, when the Eurozone currencies were pegged to each other. The first Euro notes were issued in 2002.  Then from 2008 to 2010, with the Saturn-Uranus opposition, there was the financial crisis, where the straightjacket of the Euro came within an inch of exploding.  In 2021 there is the waning Saturn-Uranus square. You don’t have to be an astrologer to know that 2021 is going to be a difficult year, but there is likely to be clear evidence that the European Union is unsustainable.  However I do believe that the EU will stagger on, until at least the Saturn-Uranus conjunction in 2032.

This brings me to the question of whether we should be worried about the Saturn-Uranus square in 2021.  In itself, it is unlikely to be a single, sudden and dramatic event.  Instead, it is a marker of where we are in a 45-year cycle.  Yet, if we’re expecting 2021 to be better than 2020 we may be disappointed.  The world is already in recession, and we’re now going to have a waning Saturn-Uranus square, like in 1931 and the mid-1970s, when the West’s economies were shot to pieces.  We should also remember that in 1931 there was a banking crisis in Germany, and Britain left the gold standard, leading to a collapse in the value of the British Pound.  Back in 1931 the Pound was the world’s reserve currency and now it is the US Dollar.  The value of the Dollar is already falling, and 2021’s Saturn-Uranus square could accelerate the process.

So we get the picture.  The Saturn-Uranus square is likely to make things worse rather than better, and the world is likely to become more violent.  The geopolitical tension that was held back by COVID is likely to come to the fore. Areas to worry about include Taiwan, the South China Sea, the Sino-Indian-Pakistan border, Nagorno-Karabakh and the Persian Gulf.  Plus a black swan conflict, that right now no-one is  considering.

The destructive potential of the Saturn-Uranus square will be exacerbated by Joe Biden becoming president.  Donald Trump might have been a disaster for the US, but his transactional approach to foreign affairs was probably well-suited for the turbulent times in which we live.  If we look at Joe Biden’s horoscope, we can be more specific about the problem:

He was born in 1942, the year of a Saturn-Uranus conjunction.  In fact, he was born a day or two before the Soviet encirclement of Stalingrad.  His Saturn and Uranus are widely conjunct – with an orb of over seven degrees.  However, both planets are conjunct his descendant.  This means that he attracts Saturn-Uranus events.  And when Biden becomes president his chart will become the chart of America.  Even if there wasn’t a Saturn-Uranus square in 2021 he would be attracting violent events, but with the Saturn-Uranus square his first year in office is likely to be a trainwreck.

But should you be worried about the Saturn-Uranus square?  If you’re an optimist, yes.  If you live a conflict zone, yes.  But if you’re a Trump supporter, with a sociopathic streak and enough money to ride out the storm, you might enjoy yourself.