Financial astrology

Mania and depression in the financial markets

Earlier in December I wrote about the stock market roller coaster of the past year, and since then it’s gotten even crazier, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average careening from 23,693 on December 19th to a low of 21,721 on December 26th, and zooming up over 1000 points yesterday, the biggest single increase in history.

I lay the blame for this erratic volatility partly on the last gasp of Uranus, planet of disruption, traveling through the fiery sign of Aries for the last time through the end of February.

Meanwhile Jupiter (the planet most closely associated with the stock market) and Mercury (thoughts and ideas) are both in the highly optimistic sign of Sagittarius, so even when the markets drop investors are seeing this as an opportunity to “buy the dip” rather than a depression.  But with Saturn and Pluto both in the highly realistic sign of Capricorn, this optimism is not likely to be permanent.  With Uranus colliding with fast moving Mars in mid-February we are likely to have continued volatility for the next couple of months.  Then when Uranus moves back into the security-minded sign of Taurus in early March and Venus enters dour Capricorn along with Saturn and Pluto, I believe that we will see a pretty serious pullback of financial markets.

I am not a financial advisor, but I do believe that caution is the name of the game here.  With such a predominance of earthy energy in 2019, and Jupiter’s entry into Capricorn along with Venus’s return in December, solid investments rather than media darlings are going to be the survivors if financial markets begin to collapse.

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By |2018-12-27T09:16:26-05:00December 27th, 2018|Money and markets|6 Comments
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The astrology of the 2018 US stock market rollercoaster

If you’ve been reading this blog, you’ll remember that the financial collapse of 2008 coincided with the entry of Pluto, planet of destruction and regeneration, into the contracting sign of Capricorn after spending 13 expansive years in optimistic Sagittarius.

At the end of December 2017, Saturn (tests, challenges and the reality principle) moved into its own sign of Capricorn which tends to make people somewhat cautious and risk-averse.  The first big dip of the year took place between February 1st and 5th under a challenging aspect from Venus to Jupiter.  Venus and Jupiter are known as the two “benefic” planets, even when a challenging aspect between the two occurs, but in this case the overindulgence of Venus and Jupiter was countermanded by the cautious nature of Saturn in Capricorn, causing a pullback in the optimism that tends to cause stock prices to rise.

Stock prices were back up into positive territory between mid-February and mid-March but dropped back into the negative when Mars (action) entered Capricorn and Jupiter (expansion) turned retrograde in the middle of March.  Stock prices remained quite volatile but never really developed any upward traction until the 9th of July when we began to see steady improvement in the markets after Jupiter turned direct.

It’s difficult to make predictions where human nature is concerned, and the stock market is largely a reflection of human reactions to news.  When people are optimistic, they buy into markets (stock market, housing market – whatever market!) which increases prices, and when they are fearful they tend to sell.  Sometimes expansive periods of Jupiter are associated with greater optimism and higher prices, and sometimes we see a peak of prices and then profit-taking which results in lower prices.

At any rate, once Jupiter turned […]

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By |2018-12-18T17:13:36-05:00December 17th, 2018|Money and markets|2 Comments
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Are economists the new astrologers?

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 […]

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By |2018-09-03T09:41:10-04:00September 3rd, 2018|Money and markets, Predictions|0 Comments
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Money gets a new look under Uranus in Taurus

The Wall Street Journal recently published an article about a referendum in Switzerland regarding the very nature of money.  You will probably hit a paywall, but here is the relevant portion:

A decade after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the world is still debating the causes of the financial crisis—down to the meaning of money itself.

In buttoned-down Switzerland, that debate is taking the form of a nationwide referendum set for June 10. Voters are being asked to consider fundamental questions rooted in the crisis: what is money; who creates it; and how safe is it? And they’ll have a chance to blow up one of the foundational features of global finance: the ability of banks to create money with just a few keystrokes.

That’s right, if a bank gives you a loan, it can pretty much create the money on the spot. It’s something that banks do every day around the world. It means that all money isn’t created equally, and the cash that pops out of an ATM machine isn’t the same as the numbers on a bank statement.

But if the Swiss referendum passes, all money creation there would have to be done directly by the country’s central bank.

Taurus represents all that is solid in our world – tangible, earthbound, things that we can touch.  Along those lines, it governs personal possessions and the accumulation of wealth and financial security.  As Uranus travels through Taurus, these ideas are likely to be disrupted and paradigms shifted.

The global financial system is pretty much based on ideas and trust, and this of course leads to financial collapse from time to time.  In my house, I rarely see actual money changing hands.  Income is automatically deposited into […]

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By |2018-06-20T11:38:04-04:00June 20th, 2018|Money and markets, Planetary cycles|6 Comments
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The Mars effect, February 2017: Stocks, politics and personal power

"Event Unknown" “Event Unknown”

Mars went into Aries on January 28th and will remain in that fiery sign of will and adventure through March 9th.  While in Aries, Mars is at its most potent and the aggressive force is permitted full expression, unhampered by the niceties of signs like Libra or Pisces, by practical considerations such as Capricorn and Taurus would exercise, or by reason and intellectual processing such as Gemini and Aquarius would instigate.  It is pure, unadulterated need and drive.

Mars is also bold and especially in Aries, does not hesitate to venture into unknown territory and take untold risks.  We are seeing this in the stock market, which continues to break records as it soars into the stratosphere because of unbridled optimism and the sheer force of momentum.  Currently Jupiter, the planet of expansion and luck, is forming a challenging opposition to Uranus, planet of radical action.  This planetary combination is ready to break through all kinds of barriers – whether physical, emotional, or ideological.  When we add Pluto’s destructive and transformational force into the mix, we get a powerhouse of movement and upheaval.  Jupiter here is reconnecting Uranus and Pluto for one final dance after nearly eight years of the Uranus/Pluto square.  Although Uranus and Pluto are not in exact alignment to one another, Jupiter “translates” the dynamic by acting as an intermediary over the next few months.  You can see how the current political climate fits perfectly into this drama of radical behavior and action that seems to have no basis in fact.

During the last week of February, Mars steps into the fray like a match thrown into a smoldering fire.  Until February 28th Mars will be poking the bear of the Uranus/Pluto […]

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