Dear Friend and Reader:
I KNOW IT MUST be weird to be confronted with all of this incomprehensible economic news every day, as people watch the markets like the computers attached to a patient on the intensive care ward; then, to think that the patient is us. And to think we went to the gym faithfully (i.e., work) every day, paying our bills, bowing to the god of Capitalism who turned out to be the Wizard of Oz.
I have to hand it to Americans for keeping their cool — everyone from market traders to people who continue to use the credit/debit system with faith that it’s still going to be there; to everyone not making a run on the banks. Of course the notion that Visa cards are not going to work is ridiculous because everyone, including the banks and the merchants (not just the customers), depends on them.
But plenty of “ridiculous” things have happened. Who could possibly crash a passenger airplane into the Pentagon some 59 minutes after an attack on New York?
The banking and credit crisis is well-established in Europe at the moment. We are working on getting details together for our Friday coverage (it may take a couple of weeks as we are still looking for a gunslinger on the issue; chime in if you are one; you can be an anonymous source). Though it’s difficult to believe, I am hearing that many European banks are in worse shape than American ones, but that the governments there are in a position to quietly socialize (i.e., take over) the banks without much fanfare.
Knowing that we’ve had an inordinate amount of dung flung at us the past few weeks, er, the past decade (though what is happening now is an obvious end-of-term endgame by the Bush administration) I am sure you’re wondering what else is up for the next few months.
I’m going to tip my hand and share some of what I know, remembering that I’ve made a choice not to use astrology to be specifically predictive but rather to comment on the energy that is afoot, and what is possible, more than anything. Rick Tarnas, author of Cosmos and Psyche, calls this being archetypally predictive. This leaves room for you, me and the cosmos to be creative and come up with something better. We create the specifics; or we deal with the ones we are handed. And we need to see where we have a choice in that.
Make no mistake at all: we are in what may be the most significant moment of change of our lives. It’s a moment that will last, according to the astrology, at least four years, well into 2013 and beyond. We enter the peak when Pluto ingresses Capricorn next month.
What I am noticing as things get weirder is that a scant few people seem somewhat more intent on cooperation. We who are getting that message know that no matter what occurs, cooperation is the key. That is a skill we may need to develop consciously, because we know that at the end of the day, economy is what we, among ourselves, exchange. Under the current system there is always a third party trying to get into the game. Yesterday I went to pay the phone bill and the electric bill on my studio. I was sick of paying by computer so I walked over to Hannaford’s supermarket half a mile away, and handed them the bill payment coupons and the checks and was told that it was going to cost me $2.50 to pay. The lovely young lady gave me a puppy dog look to express her empathy. And she said it had to be cash.
I happened not to have cash in my pocket. I ALWAYS carry cash, but not this time; it was sitting on my desk. So I went to an ATM, made a withdrawal and had $2 skimmed from my account. Then I paid my bills, having made two donations to the banking industry itself, to the tune of well over 1% of what I was paying; just to pay. So when you think of banking, think of an industry that can skim a percentage from every transaction, usually two or three times and still can’t stay in business. (For example, when you subscribe to Planet Waves, the credit card services bureau skims 2.5% from us, and then they charge you at least a membership fee for your card, and possibly interest on the purchase, and they hold the money in its entirety for three days and invest it in god only knows what — milk futures in China.) We all put up with it because it’s convenient to the point of mandatory.
So — imagine an industry that can skim cash from everyone and still go bankrupt. These people can’t even bank money during an illegal war costing $10 billion a month (the banks are who is supposed to grow rich, financing the war). That is no way to run a rock concert. Try this on — you pay $75 to see some pop idol, you get to the show, and the band doesn’t show up but won’t give you a refund. The reason they don’t do that is out of fear that there would probably be a riot; mere fear of a riot would be sufficient, and you can be gosh darned tootin’ sure that the mo-fos on Wall Street and in Washington fear riots, so they are keeping the wheels of their ripoff credit system sufficiently greased to avoid that. Meanwhile, I am a person of modest means and I am getting credit offers every week or more.
Anyway, as for the astrology. The New Moon/Full Moon cycle continues to be like a heartbeat that throbs us through the end of the year, culminating with The Big One: the New Moon in Capricorn on Dec. 27. This occurs with many planets piled up on the highly sensitive Aries Point (actually square the point, from Capricorn), which is more than adequate to get the personal is political effect going. That Dec. 27 lunation occurs in the strange days after Christmas, which seems to be one of those cosmic window for News of the Weird.
But let’s go in order. In October, what we mainly have to look forward to is the Aries Full Moon that is synchronized with Mercury stationing direct. This creates a hot zone from Oct. 12 through about Oct. 16. There is a three-day weekend in there — Columbus Day weekend, with the Monday off being the 13th in the United States — and then the markets open up in time for the Aries Full Moon conjunct Eris on Tuesday. Then Mercury stations direct, loosening up a bunch of news that it’s been bottling up.
The Scorpio New Moon on Oct. 28 looks kind of placid as the events of this year go, except for three things: it is during The Day of the Dead, when the psychic veil is the thinnest; there is an election going on, and hence anything is possible; and it’s opposite Asbolus, a Centaur planet associated with surviving severe situations, such as your parents fighting viciously when you were little (if it shows up pronounced in a chart). The great thing about Asbolus is that it DOES indicate surviving and even doing well.
November is a month of extraordinary events, beginning with the opposition of Saturn and Uranus on the 4th, Election Day. This aspect has not happened since the mid-1960s (notably, in Pisces and Virgo that time as well, but with the Uranus in Virgo and Saturn in Pisces — opposite what is happening now). When Saturn opposes an outer planet, a new chapter of history begins. The one that begins now takes us directly into the 2012 phase; we could say that as of November 2008, the 2012 era has begun.
This is accented by the entry of Pluto into Capricorn, another symbol of sweeping changes to society and of making our relationship to the “big world” personal. November’s Full Moon is on the 13th in Taurus, opposite Mars. Once again, earth energy, value and values are evoked powerfully, by the Moon-Mars contact via Taurus.
The Sagittarius New Moon is on the 27th (the day after Pluto enters Capricorn to stay), with the Moon and Sun conjunct Mercury, Mars and Pholus (another centaur planet, associated with the rapid release of energy, changing of levels, and sudden shifts of consciousness). Once we see the results of this particular New Moon, you’ll likely want to find Pholus in your natal chart, if he hasn’t already found you.
I am chronicling these events week by week with the help of our worldwide research team and full press credentials in Planet Waves Astrology News.
the Gardener Guru writes… “This might not be the appropriate place to mention this, nor might you want this type of info on your website, but it has always been my mission in life to feed the poor souls who can’t make it in the real world.”
Thank you, sweetheart! Pretty funny that after my multi-post perorations on the ‘but-ya-gotta-eat’ meme, I had a wave of physical hunger sweep over me! I ate about 3 pounds of fruits and veggies over a two hour period, chuckling to myself “where-oh-where might *this* be coming from?” Working with a new group consciousness is always so interesting!
I am watching the source/resource question very carefully since E alerted me to the 2nd house moon/chiron positions; as I try to puzzle out what the alternate expression of those placements might be. When something seems kinked-up, there’s *always* another undiscovered expression.
My husbands, lovers & even my children have all been materially wealthy. And I, though rarely moneyed, have amazing resources to hand. It’s kind of shocking what I get done on ‘zero down.’ It’s part of what I’m here to illustrate, I suspect.
I am on the board of a local art/gardening initiative, so someone backed up a truck and let fly a couple of days ago. I’m now decorating with food (chortle).
But I absolutely will pass it along. (Jlo, nobody thinks you are “poor.”)
Love,
M
This might not be the appropriate place to mention this, nor might you want this type of info on your website, but it has always been my mission in life to feed the poor souls who can’t make it in the real world.
http://www.angelfoodministries.com is a ministry started by a couple who wanted to help people in their neighborhood through financial problems. It is now a national program sponsored by many churches and other organizations. You can go to the website to find the closest distributor.
For $30.00 (food stamps are ok too), you can feed a family of four for one week, or a single elderly person for 1 month. The food is not the greatest, but it is also not the worst that can be had.
To view this months’ menu: http://www.angelfoodministries.com/menu_0810en.asp
These are fresh and frozen foods, not just canned and boxed stuff.
Blessings,
Pat
Interesting you mention banks, Europe and cooperation. There’s an initiative out of Europe right now, by a thinktank associated with Deutsche Bank, that’s focused on multipolar cooperation globally
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,581853,00.html
Here’s a relevant snippet,
The Alfred Herrhausen Society, the international forum of Deutsche Bank, is organizing a new project entitled Foresight in order to analyze and compare the future visions of emerging and existing world powers. Through discussion and debate, it hopes to find elements for a common future. The inaugural event held in Moscow brought together participants from Brazil, China, Europe, Japan, India, Russia, the United States and other parts of the world to discuss Russia’s role in a multipolar world. Further symposia are planned in the United States after the presidential elections, Europe, Japan, India, China, and Latin America. These events will also include high-level participants from Africa, the Arab world, and the Asia Pacific countries. One of the main goals of this series is to see the world through the eyes of others, rather than through a purely Eastern or Western lens.
New alliances that set countries against one another will not be able to solve the challenges of the 21st century. New forms of international cooperation, consultation, and compromise will have to play a central role in a multipolar world. It is absurd that Italy belongs to the G-8, but not China or Brazil. And what sort of meaning can a global security council have when India, Brazil, and the European Union are left out, while France and Great Britain are permanent members?
I am hearing that many European banks are in worse shape than American ones, but that the governments there are in a position to quietly socialize (i.e., take over) the banks without much fanfare.
Many European banks are overleveraged, as I mentioned before. They are also suffering some harsh unwinding as the US pulls out more money faster than the Europeans can pull it in. Massive pressure on the European banks.
There have been multiple bank nationalizations, the problem is, is that the different countries haven’t steped in at the same speed to protect their national banks and the EU has no overarching banking regulation. (They have an overarching central bank, but that’s not the same thing.) So over just the last coupla days, major squabbling has broken out; this puts the euro in immediate peril.
I still think the European bank regulators have more sense than the US ones, but I may be wrong on this, in which case, there’s a good chance for the Euro to go toes up.
Yuck. Meanwhile, we are dealing with the stench of corruption here. The Fed is now going to start loaning commercial paper to non-banking corps. This is basically nationalization without the nationalization. They are going to go a long way to prevent Goldman-Sachs from being taken over by the Feds. (That’s the stench of corruption part: Paulson let Lehman fail because of a long-standing rivalry, as he saw his chance to reestablish moral hazard AND knife his enemies and he took it. He saved AIG, sorta, because to fail to do so would’ve damaged GS severely. Now he’s hired some kid from GS to run that 700 billion dollar bailout. Cute, no?)
At any rate, this is a banking crisis (Banks: HOSED!), and not yet a credit crisis (you can still spend on your credit card).
Generally, this is the Great Unwinding/Deleveraging. So I would expect that thing swill continue to be interesting. The upside to all this is that the factories and the mines and the farms are still there. The downside, is that just going from my instinct and vectoring the astrology, I’d say that our collective ride on the Vomit Comet here is going to get even more exciting than the previous month or so.
The great thing about Asbolus is that it DOES indicate surviving and even doing well.
Heh. I have it conjunct my natal MC. (Unfortunately, not by relocation.) I suppose that means something.
max
[‘It’s the Museum of Bad Transits!’]
Next tuesday there will be an election in canada … please see the article below by Margaret Atwood
Anything but a Harper majority
Margaret Atwood explains why she’s prepared to support even Gilles Duceppe if it means denying the Conservatives full control
MARGARET ATWOOD
Globe and Mail Update
October 6, 2008 at 11:30 PM EDT
I recently said I’d support Gilles Duceppe — that ardent separatist — if I were in a swing riding in Quebec that might otherwise go to a neo-conservative. I’m unrepentant. I’m with Danny Williams and Elizabeth May on this one: It really is Anything But a Harper Majority Time.
A question we’re increasingly asking ourselves about Mr. Harper, in view of the present economic chaos: How can this Stepford Prime Minister Meets World Financial Meltdown b-movie actually be happening? What kind of What-Me-Worry glazed-smile drugs is Stephen Harper on?
Why do I feel so strongly about this? It’s not just the arts. True, Mr. Harper doesn’t understand the arts — especially the arts math, the $87-billion, the 1.1 million jobs. But his arts position is symptomatic of his deeply worrying, out-of-touch, out-of-date boy-in-a-bubble thinking towards everything. Like George W. Bush, he sticks to his ideology and ignores the evidence – so even though arts-bashing was hurting his polls in Quebec, he didn’t climb down. Instead, as Mr. Duceppe paraphrased in the French-language debate, he seems to think artists are “spoiled children.”
If that is indeed how Mr. Harper views grown-up artists, then what are grown-up voters? They, too, are children: a view Mr. Harper learned well during his University-of-Calgary-Reform-Party-firewall-around-Alberta think-tanking days. I just got back from Edmonton, and that’s what I heard there. People should be managed from behind the scenes by a few superior intelligences such as his; they must be told sugar-coated lies; and you should decide everything really important about their lives without consulting them.
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This is how Mr. Harper has proceeded. For instance, in the September 29th issue of Canadian Business – hardly a pinko rag – there’s a piece called “Listerionomics.” It tells us that, even as Canadians were dying from the recent listeria oubreak, the Harper neo-cons already planned to put the food industry in control of its own inspection – a surefire recipe for corner-cutting and cover-ups – and also to deregulate food-labeling, so manufacturers could say anything they liked on the labels. Even the Food Processors, the article reports, thought this idea was “idiotic.”
Doesn’t Mr. Harper understand that some kids have lethal allergies? Doesn’t he understand that parents want to know what goes into their children’s mouths? We need to be able to trust our food! Mothers, don’t let Stephen Harper kiss your baby: you don’t know what kind of germ-packed, death-dealing cold-cuts he’s just been eating, and his ingredients are not on the label.
Here’s another Conservative secret agenda. Right now, Canada is involved in discussions concerning the SPP — the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America. It’s a White-House-led initiative, thus a creature of Bush and Cheney. It sounds nice — who doesn’t want security and prosperity? — but what does it really mean? It means Deep Integration. It means we’ll have to throw out our own institutions and procedures and do everything the way the Bush Americans prefer.
Considering the massive crises the world is now in – caused directly by lack of fair and balancing regulation – the American government has just undertaken a massive intervention. But Mr. Harper hugs his True Believer hardcore neo-con faith — deregulate and do nothing, aside from weaponry and jails – and he’ll stick to it, no matter what he says during this election.
The SPP could also affect our health-care system. The Americans have the most expensive health-care system in the world, yet, even so, 47 million of them aren’t covered by it. Their system is fine if you’re rich, but it ruins middle-class families struck by illness who run out of their private insurance money, and leaves out the poor entirely. The Americans themselves know their system is awful — that’s why health care is such a big election issue south of the border. Why would we want to Deep Integrate with that?
During the debates, Mr. Harper kept saying, “Canada is not the United States.” He forgot to add the word “yet”: If he has his way, it soon will be. These SPP changes will be made without you ever voting on them, and they’ll be extremely hard to change back.
Finally, there’s Ontario. Dalton McGuinty is right: through “equalization payments,” my province is carrying a tax burden way out of proportion to what it is now earning. According to the Toronto Dominion Bank, we pay out $11.8-billion a year more than we should be paying. We all know how crumbly our cities are getting, but the cash drain is hitting smaller towns, too. We feel it in health care, in schools, in support for small businesses. Put back into our province, that money would be an enormous re-energizer of our economy, including our technology and manufacturing — and it would improve a lot of schools and hospitals.
When Mr. McGuinty raised this matter, he was told by the Harperites to stop whining, to which the Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty, helpfully added that Ontario was the last place in the world anyone should invest.
Mr. McGuinty wasn’t whining – he was making a just request on behalf of Ontario taxpayers, who are getting thoroughly ripped off. But have the Harper Conservative MPs from Ontario lifted a hand to help their own province? You elect MPs to stand up for you, but the Harperites have been mute. They’re the most expensive seat-warmers Parliament has ever known; we could save a lot of money by replacing them with the plug-ins from Canadian Tire. Thinking they’ll be allowed to do much of anything for Ontario if you put them into Parliament is delusional.
Mr. Harper got elected by promising to consult, to be transparent, to be accountable, but he’s delivered the extreme opposite. He doesn’t consult with anybody but himself in the mirror; he has the most secretive government Canada has ever known; and his accountability consists of “If I make a mistake, you’re fired.” Real leaders know that the buck stops with them, but Mr. Harper is an amazing buck-passer. He won’t own up to his own stuff — such as his heartfelt support for the Iraq invasion — unless shoved up against the wall, and even then he mumbles.
People sometimes ask me about my eerie ability to predict the future. Nobody can really predict the future — there are too many curve balls — but we can make informed guesses. Today’s informed guess is this. Dear fellow Canadians: If you give the Harper neo-cons a majority government, you’ll lose much that you cherish, you’ll gain nothing worth having, and you’ll never, never forgive yourselves.
Special to The Globe and Mail
Crucial by election in the UK on Nov 6th.
The seat in question is next door to the seat that Gordon Brown (PM) holds. Will Labour hold it or will it go to the Scottish Nationalists – furthering the calls for Scotish Independence?
I hear that we have to listen to each other …