The Sign of Libra and Its Greatest Challenge – To Make the Peace.
There will be significant efforts made this month to settle disputes and conflicts. The Writers Guild in Hollywood has come to an agreement with management, while the Actor’s union is still negotiating for image protection, decent wages, and benefits. Worker strikes have swept our nation looking to get wages and benefits simply to keep pace with inflation. The financial gap between workers and the top brass has not been this wide since the early 20th Century’s “Gilded Age”.
We all know the government is faced with a budget shutdown because a small group of MAGA Republicans in the House are uncompromising. Agreements need to be made.
The Ukrainian/Russian War has arrived at such a terrible stalemate and Russia has been so desperate, it has reached out to impoverished No. Korea for help. They may send out secret signals that a peace agreement could be negotiated. The Solar Eclipse is on Putin’s Libra stellium which would push him to make a change and could threaten his power. I am concerned about more lethal weapons being used by both sides. However, this month’s eclipses in Libra and Taurus, ruled by Venus, point to endings and beginnings in the political, legal, and financial sectors.
The Solar Eclipse on October 14 in the 22nd degree of Libra is described in the reference book: The Zodiac by Degrees as: “Standing next to a circular marble fountain, a little girl is giving two birds a drink from a cup.” This degree is conjunct a fixed star, Spica, associated with compassion, good luck in social connections, and agreements. However, the highly unstable inconjunct of this Eclipse degree to Uranus in Taurus is difficult for the economy, the housing market, and emphasizes, once again, the struggle to fund the national debt. The lack of money for health and social programs, and ongoing inflation that diminishes people’s paychecks, all combine to confuse a public that cannot agree on which politician is responsible.
Libra is a sign that supports both the rule of law and equality of opportunity. Instead, as I have often reminded my readers, we have a global economy in the coffers of a billionaire class, monopoly corporations, taxes off-shored to island nations that hide oligarch money, and inflated prices for real estate to the point that millions cannot afford to buy or rent. Meanwhile, millions of desperate migrants are coming into the country, and are being transported north and east of the southern borders, overwhelming state governments capacity to deal with housing, while Congress fails to pass legislation that would reform and define a system of rules for immigration. Some believe that Pres. Biden needs to resort to his executive power to stop all immigration across borders until long-needed legislation is passed.
Interestingly, the book entitled “Elon Musk” has just been published by the famed biographer of geniuses, Walter Isaacson, who has previously written biographies of Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, and Leonardo da Vinci. He describes Musk’s truly brutal childhood containing ongoing physical abuse, constantly challenging Musk to compete, defend himself, and win in order to survive. This would explain his challenging authorities, especially governments, even though his Space X collaboration with NASA and government support for TESLA, point to his actually needing and getting funding support from the government. Musk’s extreme “right-wing” politics and infantile displays of temper tantrums along with his great genius and vision, in many ways, are reflective of the conflicts of interests we face in America today. This is a book worth reading!
The Lunar Eclipse degree in the 6th degree of Taurus on October 28, is described as “A cat is being petted by its owner. Tiring of this, it jumps down from her lab and begins to play with a piece of string.” This degree adds playfulness and humor to an otherwise intensely serious environment of the party politics and climate catastrophes our nation is facing. Maybe, our polarized nation is very tired of all the arguing, accusing, spitefulness, and refusal to negotiate.
The Economy:
The FED’s clumsy and painful tool for fighting inflation is to raise interest rates, which hurts the millions who are paying down giant credit card debts and trying to obtain a mortgage. The biggest reason for inflation is the skyrocketing costs of fossil fuels stimulated by the Ukraine/Russia war (we have sanctioned Russian oil) and Saudi Arabia, once again, reducing their oil reaching the market in order to hike prices and profits. Airlines have been raising their prices because fuel simply costs more. They have also had problems with infrastructure in the airports and are faced with a shortage of air traffic controllers. The government shutdown will escalate the chaos.
With respect to the strikes mentioned above, American companies have moved manufacturing to China for approximately the past 35 years. As a result of our chilling relations with China over Taiwan and their military buildup, we are exiting China and bringing chip manufacturing back into the US; the biggest being the Micron Plant going up in Clay, New York. As far as the auto worker’s strike, what is happening is that car companies are moving their factories to the cheap labor in Mexico in even larger numbers so that, at this point, Mexico is now our largest trading partner. This is ironic since millions of migrants are moving into the US across the Mexican border. There is a lot of talk about making more electric cars whose manufacture would need fewer workers. Tesla, which is a non-union outlier, is keeping their operations where they are. The problem with electric cars is that the infrastructure of charging stations is not widely available. In addition, we are still using fossil fuels to make electricity. People are buying hybrids, trucks, and SUVs, all of which still use gas. It will take time to go all-electric. As I have suggested in past newsletters, nuclear fusion will be a reality by 2026-28 changing everything by providing energy beyond the age of hydrocarbons. Frankly, all other efforts are modest by comparison.
Media industries are swimming (Neptune in Pisces) in confusion. Whether to divest or bundle (to be or not to be) is the question. Consumers are looking for more shows for less money and many have gone to YouTube as an alternative. There is real animosity between Bob Eiger (CEO of Disney) and the workers – the writers and actors who have been on strike. Hopefully, there will be a settlement this month. Meanwhile, TV networks are going into more reality shows and sports events that need neither writers nor actors.
The commercial real estate market crisis is upon us. Many regional banks are still in trouble. Most of the online lending institutions, posing as banks, have gone away. All of the above will result in a market crisis between this month and the end of November which could result in a crash in the stock market. However, we may “recover” in December. I will address this in future newsletters.
Climate and Natural Disasters:
We have seen major earthquakes in Turkey, Syria, and Morocco and deadly floods in Libya – all within a three-month period. The regions of No. Africa and the Middle East are experiencing serious droughts, floods, and climate catastrophes in this cycle of Neptune in Pisces. Mt. Kilauea in HI is erupting again. More lies ahead for these regions between now and December.
I am also concerned about hurricanes developing on the East Coast of the USA. Recently, there was a hurricane that hit San Diego, California, a region that almost never experienced a storm of this magnitude. Another went up the US East Coast all the way up into Canada. More of these storms lie ahead. How severe these events will be is hard to determine.
Politics in Disarray:
In the past several months, we have witnessed multiple corruption scandals that range from “fake” person George Santos (R) from NY — to Sen. Robert Mendenez (D) from NJ recently exposed for taking money from several businesses and the nation of Egypt for favors as he is chair of the Foreign Relations Committee — to Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law who accepted over two billion dollars from the Saudis after he left as an advisor to the White House — to Justice Clarence Thomas who has been accepting trips and gifts from a billionaire for years and whose wife Jenni was sending texts supporting the MAGA group’s efforts to overturn the government on Jan. 6, 2021. The Hunter Biden dispute continues with respect to a charge of weapon possession and income tax evasion, but he is not holding nor ever has held any governmental position. The Republicans in Congress have launched a baseless attempt to impeach Pres. Biden distracts from their failure to pass a budget and amplifies the infighting that handicaps Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s attempts to govern. The transit of Mars in Scorpio simply escalates the anger, resentment, and exposure of corruption.
Senator Diane Feinstein has passed away at the age of 90 years. A “trailblazer” she was the first woman Mayor of San Francisco after the assassination of the mayor there, and among the very few women to get elected to the Senate and the only one to have served this long. She helped get the Assault Weapons Ban law passed in 1994, only to have it expire later on, yet, was known as a “moderate” Democrat who frequently worked with Republicans to pass legislation. Both Republicans and Democrats have praised her service. She is one of the “elders” who are leaving us in this era of dramatic change and transformation.
The multiple indictments against former Pres. Trump will be escalating in influence and power as Mars transits Scorpio, an extremely tense and unfavorable transit in Trump’s chart from Oct. 12th through Nov. 23rd. This transit also affects Pres. Biden’s chart as it rides across his Scorpio planets increasing a tendency to be aggressive. Here lies a “war of the worlds”. The public would prefer “none of the above” since they consider Biden to be too old and Trump to have very serious personal and legal problems. Vice President, Kamala Harris, is a Libra whose chart is being emphasized this month. She may be increasingly visible between now and the end of this year.
Democracy at risk:
The Biden Administration is working hard to support NATO and help to sustain democracies throughout the world. However, at this time, things are getting worse rather than better. Poland, a NATO nation has announced that it will no longer send weapons to Ukraine reasoning that this would threaten their own combat readiness. India, whose Prime Minister Bodi has previously announced it is exclusively a Hindu nation is embroiled in a dispute with Canada over the murder of a Sikh leader in Canada, and has announced they will suspend visas for Canadians in India. Turkey’s Erdogan, an elected head of state, has cracked down on citizen protests, arrested all those who contradict him, and has recently announced he “trusts Russia” as much as the US at this point. Nations all over Africa have recently seen their elected governments overturned by military militias and are now in the hands of armed dictators.
October 8th through Oct. 23rd, Mars transits Scorpio, pointing to more upheavals in nations throughout the world.
Science and Technology.
Recently, the James Webb Telescope has discovered a planet in another solar system, 120 light years from us, with the key ingredients that could support life. This particular planet is 8.6 times as massive as Earth. Discoveries like this are very exciting as we move toward accepting the notion of life and even intelligent life outside our planet.
In the July/August Edition of Scientific American, an article entitled “Clues, Controversies, and COVID Origins” was published, by Tanya Lewis. They have surveyed the multiple and often confusing data with regard to whether COVID came from a “wet market” from an animal — or a lab in Wuhan, China. Their conclusions: “At least eight U.S. intelligence agencies have conducted their own investigations of the virus’s origin. Four agencies concluded with ‘low confidence’ that a natural spillover from animals is most likely, two favor a lab leak with ‘low’ or ‘moderate’ confidence, and two are undecided. The U.S. government has ordered information related to COVID origins to be declassified.” This issue around COVID’s origins is still very clouded and uncertain.
Most of us today are concerned about the consequences and effects of AI on our society. Personally, I think it is a great tool for information gathering, but there may be a great need for “regulating” it since the information that has been put up on the internet by humans to begin with frequently fails the smell test. We now are faced with a multitude of lies, misleading statements, and sites targeted to incite hate and violence that have been observed all over the internet for the past 30 years with almost no constructive criticism or oversight. In the same edition of Scientific American, an article was published entitled “AI’s IQ” by an assessment psychologist, Eka Rolvainen. He administered an IQ test to ChatGPT in which it scored about 155. “The mean score among college-educated Americans is only 113; only 5 percent score 132 or higher.” He writes: “Does this mean the jobs of clinical psychologists and other professionals are threatened by AI? Not yet. Despite its high IQ, ChatGPT fails at tasks that require real humanlike reasoning or an understanding of the physical and social world. It flubs obvious answers to riddles such as “What is the first name of the father of Sebastian’s children?” Its response this past March was: “I’m sorry, I cannot answer this question as I do not have enough context to identify which Sebastian you are referring to.” ChatGPT seemed unable to reason logically and tried to rely on its vast database of ‘Sebastian’ facts derived from online texts.” He goes on to report: “The combination of ChatGPT’s very high verbal IQ and its amusing failures, however, means trouble for Boring’s definition (defined in a previous paragraph)and indicates there are aspects of intelligence that cannot be measured by IQ tests alone. Perhaps my test-skeptic patients have been right all along.” This article is worth reading if you are worried that AI will replace the workforce. Incidentally, I was appalled at the low IQ scores recorded for Americans! Maybe, rather than worrying about AI, we should be concentrating on the quality of education in this nation.
Final Thoughts:
If I were an extraterrestrial (sometimes, I think I am) wandering around human societies in disguise and carefully observing their behavior – I would be amazed, confused, and terrified to observe a species of life so amazingly creative and, at the same time, so horrifically destructive. It would seem as if we are capable of visiting a “higher order” of intelligence while simultaneously being directed by the motivations of a hungry crocodile swimming around in the swamp who would grab and consume everything in sight.
The evolution of life on planet Earth, with its many eras of extinctions and revivals, is both amazing and incomprehensible; containing some kind of mystery surrounding it that defies even the smartest and most insightful of us humans. The constellations swirl around us, offering us legends and stories containing our possible fates. The rest is unknown and will be chosen by us. What are the fates you will choose? Stay tuned!
Blessings,
Linda
Important Points of Reference for Astrologers:
Solar Eclipse at 21 degrees Libra inconjunct Uranus on Oct. 14; Lunar Eclipse at 5 degrees Taurus sextile Saturn on Oct. 28; Mercury in Virgo is opposition Neptune on Oct. 2 and is trine Pluto on Oct. 4, goes into Libra Oct. 5 inconjunct Saturn, is inconjunct Jupiter Oct. 12, is inconjunct Uranus Oct. 17, is inconjunct Neptune Oct. 18, is square Pluto Oct. 21, goes into Scorpio Oct. 22 trine Saturn and is conjunct Mars opposition Jupiter Oct. 29; Venus in Leo is sextile Mars Oct. 1st, is trine the North Node Oct 2, is inconjunct Neptune Oct 5, is inconjunct Pluto Oct, 6, goes into Virgo Oct. 9 opposition Saturn is trine Jupiter Oct. 22 and is trine Uranus Oct. 31; Mars goes into Scorpio trine Saturn Oct. 13 and is opposition Jupiter Oct. 28.
