Important Points of Reference (for Astrologers):
Full Moon at 29 degrees Taurus on Nov. 12th trine Pluto; New Moon at 4 degrees Sagittarius on Nov. 26th inconjunct Uranus; Mercury retrograde in Scorpio goes direct on Nov. 20th, is trine Neptune on Nov. 27th and is sextile Saturn on the 29th; Mars square Pluto on Nov. 6th and is sextile Jupiter Nov. 14th; Venus is square Neptune Nov. 14th, is conjunct Jupiter Nov. 24th; and in trine Uranus on Nov. 28th; Mars in Scorpio is opposition Uranus Nov. 24th.
Scorpio and its servant Pluto – Endings and Beginnings:
The ancient God of the Underworld in Greek mythology was Pluto – the God cast out of Olympus and forced to guard all souls in the “afterlife” whose fate rested in his hands and at his “discretion”. People in the ancient world often brought gifts to graves in order to intercede in the fate of their dead relatives and, perhaps, to incur favor with him so their own passage into the next world would be easier. He was famous for “making deals.” Thus, arose the notion of making a “bargain with the Devil” and negotiating a “settlement” with him, whose wealth was enormous from all the wealth donated to him by so many people through all the ages. In return. Pluto helps them accrue wealth in their lifetimes, paves the way to an easy death, but now “owns” their souls.
Pluto was also the god who kidnapped Persephone, the beloved daughter of Demeter, the Goddess of Nature. He took her into his underground kingdom and made her, against her will, his wife. As a backlash, Demeter, “brought Winter over all the earth” (an ice age) which neither humanity nor the gods were happy about. Thus, came another negotiation. Pluto and Demeter worked out a “custody” agreement in which Persephone would rise up at the Vernal equinox in the Spring to be with her mother and ascend underground to be with Pluto at the Autumnal Equinox, bringing on the Fall and the Winter. Thus, nature dies in the Fall and is resurrected in the Spring.
For all my astrologer friends and associates, currently, Mercury, the communicator, is transiting Pluto ruled Scorpio, is retrograde and goes direct Nov. 20th, transiting through the sign until Dec. 8th. Mars goes into Scorpio Nov. 19th, transiting through the sign until January 2nd, 2020, immediately preceding the Pluto/Saturn conjunction on Jan. 12Th, right after the Lunar Eclipse in Cancer on January 10th. How many souls will Pluto capture in this time period?
We may turn to the analysis of the Sabian Degrees of the Zodiac put into a more modern context by Martin Goldsmith in his book “The Zodiac by Degrees.” This significant Pluto/Saturn conjunction takes place in the 23rd degree of Capricorn, which Goldsmith describes as: “A respected leader pushes his way to the podium and delivers a rousing oration to a group of citizens.” I cannot think of a better description of what we all know lies ahead in the United States2020presidential election!
We are already seeing the “dark side” of politics emerge as accusations, scandals, secret bargains in exchange for favors, are all emerging as the “dirt” flies on the media landscape. More horrors are emerging in the Middle East as Turkey got the “go ahead” from Pres. Trump to bomb and secure its border, eliminating the long established protection for the Kurds, who fought valiantly with American soldiers for years to shut down ISIS and now hate the US, seeing us as having betrayed them. Turkey considers the Kurds “terrorists” and do not distinguish between those who fought with us from other sects. Trump then threatened Turkey with “sanctions” that were withdrawn, and the flip-flop drama goes on and on. Meanwhile, the US military found Aba Al-Hassan Baghdadi, the international head of ISIS, who blew up himself with his children while fleeing. The military also now claims they killed his “successor.”
There are clear “winners” in all this. Russia, a Scorpio nation, and its leader, Vladimir Putin, who has Scorpio rising in his astrological chart, continue to expand their power and influence in the whole region. President of Turkey, Erdogan had a meeting last month with Putin and established control over the Syrian border, completing their goal without any interference of the US who, under Pres. Trump, has capitulated and given up any control over this region except for a smaller military presence to “protect the oil fields” from ISIS. Putin’s ally, Assad, has cemented his control over Syria, and both of these nations are allied with Iran, our supposedly, declared enemy. Trump, once again, is handing power over to his pal, Putin, and allowing Russia to become the most powerful nation in this region that, in case we have forgotten, controls the price of oil globally. This has been Putin’s plan ever since he interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help get Trump into office, creating chaos and dissent in the US and immobilize the United States as a world power. All this plays out as “The Art of the Deal” with the Devil.
Meanwhile, the House movement toward impeachment continues as more people reveal Trump’s attempted “deal” with the Ukrainian president to dig up “dirt” on Biden’s son Hunter and threatening withholding funds for their war on the Russian front. In a court of law, this is referred to as “extortion.” He sees Biden as the biggest threat in the 2020 election and who knows what he will try to dig up on other Democratic candidates. Trump on national television openly admitted he will also attempt to “get” Biden and his previous connections in China. Using his power to solicit help from foreign nations for his personal political gain the Democrats consider an impeachable offense. His private “consigliere”, Rudy Guliani is now being exposed for his lies and corrupt practices.
Pres. Trump has an ongoing mighty “saga” with his so-called deal-making with China. Financial markets shoot upward when he “announces” progress, and fall sharply down when no real progress is made. Chinese President Xi Jinping has consolidated his power into a dictatorship, suppressing all dissent as their economy worsens because of the imposing of US tariffs, their enormous unpaid debts, pig farmers there who have suffered their animals being hit by a Swine Flu that has decimated their pork markets, and the appetite of China’s customers for exports that have diminished. As history has taught us, their failing economy will only make them more aggressive and militaristic. They will not “give in” to Trump’s strong- arming technique.
The Federal Reserve recently purchased huge amounts of US Treasuries, not seen since 2009 emergency following the crash of 2008 as “near zero” interest rates are threatening the bond market. On Oct. 22nd, the Fed pumped $99.9 billion in temporary liquidity into the market to “ease stresses” brought on by a tightening credit market. On Oct. 24th, the bank upped that to $134 billion. The reverse yield curve, the fall of the manufacturing sector, softening of the real estate and the auto sectors and massive federal and private debts at all time highs, is a “dark” Plutonian underbelly of this so-called prosperous economy.
Pluto and Politics:
Trump has raised over $300 million at this time for his campaign, since the global financial cartel of monopolies, “banksters”, and oligarchs secretly want to see Trump win the election in order to hold onto their tax breaks and insure that the currently corporate controlled not-affordable-for-most healthcare system will remain rich and prosperous. I am of the opinion that they have also made a “deal with the Devil” that may help Trump win the election. Trump’s “base” sees him as a “messiah” no matter how corrupt his practices clearly demonstrate he is. They think he will make them rich like he is – their version of “Make America Great Again.” They are more than willing to blame people of color, immigrants, Jews, Muslims, Liberals, or anybody other than those they would see in the mirror. This evokes John Kenneth Galbraith’s famous quote about the financial system that will produce “private opulence and public squalor”.
We are well on our way to this outcome since the Democrats are worried that none of their candidates are “super media stars” that could “sweep” the election and that too many members of their party will simply not vote at all, which is why they lost the 2016 election. Their real problem is that past Democratic presidents Clinton and Obama held onto and promoted the neo-liberal, “bankster” and giant corporate controlled policies that outsourced manufacturing and labor abroad, lowered wages and reduced public infrastructure programs, which led to the impoverishment of what was the middle class and the betrayal of what once was the Democratic Party.
The notion brought to mind that it is not the evil but those “indifferent to evil” that will bring about disaster is most appropriate here.
Rebels against Pluto:
Meanwhile, at this time, massive protests continue in Hong Kong, Lebanon, and Santiago, Chile. Planetary pictures point to upheavals in Libya and Saudi Arabia. These demonstrations are all about the suppression of Democracy and wealth inequality. Here in the US, the United Auto Workers strike has brought about some agreement and they may reach a settlement but without any manufacturing sites returning to the US from Mexico. There is a huge teachers’ strike in Chicago which will unlikely be resolved until after Nov. 19th when Mercury goes direct. I see more protests in many regions arising between now and the end of the year and very few, if any, effective deals being made to reverse the course of wealth inequality growing throughout the world.
The Economy:
No matter what our philosophical ideals and notions about human civilization are, economics is at the bottom of it all and we need only follow the money to know where our future lies.
An online article posted at ‘The Guardian’ is entitled “The sluggish global economy needs to reform – and fast.” It reports: “The world is sleepwalking towards a fresh economic and financial crisis that will have devastating consequences for the democratic market system, according to the former Bank of England governor Mervyn King. Lord King, who was in charge at Threadneedle Street during the near-death of the global banking system and deep economic slump a decade ago, said the resistance to new thinking meant a repeat of the chaos of the 2008-09 period was looming.” The article goes on to report: “Giving a lecture in Washington at the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund, King said there had been no fundamental questioning of the ideas that led to the crisis of a decade ago. ‘Another economic and financial crisis would be devastating to the legitimacy of a democratic market system, he said.’”A friend of mine who is an economist commented: “I have a feeling Boomers retirement will set it off, with a cascade of knock-on effects (including muni bond defaults). Banks tied to US banks through derivatives will take hit also – like they did in 2008.”
Many of my friends and readers have grown weary of my forecasting a market “correction” and serious recession. My prediction in Jan. 2019 was that this would take place between September and December of 2019 since the unsustainable core of this global economy would continue to be propped up by the Trump/Republican tax breaks, massive buy-backs by corporations of their own stocks, and the Federal Reserve lowering interest rates to near-zero. There has also been an unprecedented giant spin machine that has continued stoking the bubble investor economy. This is all about putting lipstick on a pig. The alarm bells may go off between November 19th and November 24th, under the Mars/Uranus opposition and Mercury going direct, plus Jupiter reaching the traditional “crash” degree of 27 to 29 degrees Sagittarius between November 29th and Dec. 2nd. The pig may have run out of lipstick!
Meanwhile, the “real economy” is rearing its battered head. The Social Security Administration recently released the following: 38% of all American workers made less than $20,000 last year; 51% of all American workers made less than $30,000 last year; 62% of all American workers made less than $40,000 last year; and 71% of all American workers made less than $50,000 last year! The so-called middle class in America is becoming extinct. The federal poverty level for a family of five is $28,410, and yet almost 40% of all American workers do not even bring in $20,000 a year! Reports from homeless shelters point out that a large percentage of homeless people are actually employed and cannot afford housing. In addition, many families are finding themselves sinking deeper and deeper into debt. Credit Suisse estimates that at least 25% of Americans are in this situation of having a negative net-worth. According to the US Census Bureau, 49% of all Americans now live in a home that receives money from the government each month. Since Pres. Trump was elected, the national debt has gone up 25% because, the giant tax breaks for corporations and billionaires have bilked the budget. Most of corporate profits are going into the stock market and into the pockets of the super rich – not into public infrastructure or workers wages. Plutocratic Capitalism has made a series of “deals” that has cost us the ‘soul” of the American people and the Devil will soon come to claim his due!
The Climate and Mother Nature:
An article in the Nov. 2019 issue of Scientific American by Mark Fischetti entitled “Climate Clincher” puts to rest the notion that global warming is part of a natural cycle. He reports: “People who dismiss climate change often claim that the earth’s warm-up is simply part of ‘natural climate variability.’ A paper published in July in Nature puts that argument to rest. The authors show that warm and cold years were regularly interspersed during the past 2,000 years, and that even the warmest and coldest periods were experienced only by isolated regions at a given time – never across the entire globe simultaneously. For example, the so-called Little Ice Age occurred in the 1400s across the central Pacific Ocean, in the 1600s across northwestern Europe and in the mid-1800s in other places. The warm Medieval Climate Anomaly occurred in the Pacific in the 900s, in North America in the 1000s and in central South America in the 1200s. But the current warm-up has taken place across 98% of the globe at the same time, from about 1900 through today. ‘It’s completely different,’ states lead researcher Raphael Neukom of the University of Bern in Switzerland. All regions have heated up relentlessly, in unison.’” The article shows graphs that historically demonstrate all this.
This month’s Mars opposition Uranus may trigger a significant earthquake and possible tornado or hurricane activity. With Mars in Libra, last month’s record-breaking wild fires in California are likely to continue through the middle of this month. Last month a giant tornado hit Arkansas and the Dallas, Texas area.
Final Thoughts:
In these most challenging times, the question raised is whether we will choose to engage ourselves in a series of dramatic reforms or simply sit around with our heads in the sand, as everything around us collapses. Once we have lost our institutional support systems, it may be too late to initiate the change we need in the world – or – we may pick ourselves up, dust off our hands, and get to work.
Each and every one of us needs to envision the kind of world in which we wish to live with a clarity of vision seldom seen today. People are criticizing the government, the press, the healthcare system, and are frightened by the suicidal trends of our young people in the midst of the opioid epidemic, climate catastrophes, and domestic gun violence never seen before. I would ask: What do you wish to see instead, and who to you wish to lead us to it?
I am talking with young people who really see all of this clearly. They have the strength to acknowledge all this and are willing to engage themselves in an effort toward a balance of economic power between government and the private sector, between economic prosperity and the natural environment, between human beings of all colors, sexes, races, and religions, between “our neighbors and ourselves.” A new economic and political ecology that sustains us rather than destroys us needs to emerge that may be nothing like what history has presented to us in the past.
The magnificent Blue Light radiating from the soul of the earth itself calls out to us to heal ourselves and all the most cherished life on this threatened planet. It’s a big job. We can do it together. Let’s get going!
