A controversial article has been circulating through the financial news for the past year or so that equates economists with astrologers because, its author argues, both are pseudosciences. Ironically, the argument given is that economists were not able to predict the 2008 economic crash:
The failure of the field to predict the 2008 crisis has … been well-documented. In 2003, for example, only five years before the Great Recession, the Nobel Laureate Robert E Lucas Jr told the American Economic Association that ‘macroeconomics […] has succeeded: its central problem of depression prevention has been solved’.
The irony is that astrologers DID predict the 2008 crisis, and were not surprised when it occurred. Unfortunately though, while astrology can reveal the general climate of what the future may bring, there is no way to predict specific events either in our personal lives or in a global economy. Since the 2008 crisis both economists AND astrologers have predicted a correction, or a crash – yet the global economic condition continues to expand.
I like this quote from Paul Krugman in the article cited above:
‘As I see it,’ he wrote, ‘the economics profession went astray because economists, as a group, mistook beauty, clad in impressive-looking mathematics, for truth.’ Krugman named economists’ ‘desire… to show off their mathematical prowess’ as the ‘central cause of the profession’s failure’.
Math is an abstraction, but can it be used to predict human behavior? I think astrologers often make the same mistake. We have these marvelous symbols, “beauty, clad in impressive-looking mathematics,” and now an abundance of ancient techniques to predict the future. And yes, a few times those techniques for prediction have succeeded – but so will flipping a coin 50% of the time.
When astrology fails to predict the future, it is not that astrology has failed. It’s that we don’t fully understand what the gift of astrology is for, which is to understand the energies underlying the events that shape our world. Life is not so simple.
The economy is not based on math – it’s really based on human perception of the world. When people are happy and confident, they spend more money and the economy expands. When people are fearful and anxious, they hole up in their homes and the economy contracts.
The entry of Pluto, the God of Death, into the US chart second house of money was assumed by some astrologers to bring doom and gloom to the US economy. Pluto is now well into the second house and the US economy continues to improve despite the ongoing drama in Washington. What we are seeing instead is a worsening of the economic compulsions that are typically seen with Pluto in the second house, and an intensification of the economic stratification that makes life worse for half the population as the other half grows richer.
Saturn’s entry into its own sign of Capricorn in the fall of 2017 was supposed to bring about the belt-tightening that we saw in 2008 when Pluto entered Capricorn, but on a smaller scale. However, Jupiter (planet of abundance and expansion) entered Scorpio around the same time and since Scorpio is related to investing and the stock market we have seen a relentless push upwards in the global markets.
So despite all of my criticisms of astrological predictions, I’m going to attempt to offer some guidance.
Jupiter will leave Scorpio for its own sign of Sagittarius in November 2018 which I believe will continue the optimism and expansive drive that we have seen in the global markets. In addition, Uranus (change and innovation) dips back into Aries between November 2018 and March 2019. There will be pockets of stress in the global economy, but overall I don’t see a major crash or correction until after Uranus moves back into Taurus in April 2019 and Saturn (restriction) and Pluto (destruction) begin to collide in Capricorn.
Astrologers are now predicting the global crash to occur in 2020 when the conjunction of Saturn and Pluto officially begins. This will certainly be a time to watch, and to prepare for by ensuring that your investments are safe and that speculation is kept to a minimum. I believe that we are likely to see some national economies falter and collapse during this time, and a rebalancing of economic powers.
Interesting times!
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