September 2020

Mars retrograde in Aries – Deja Vu all over again!

Mars can be stimulating, terrifying, but always interesting, symbolically, among the panoply of planets in our Solar System. It is the ancient God of War, great amounts of fiery energy, sports, the military, and aggressive behavior. It is also the God of Work in that, without it, we would all be couch potatoes or spend our lives doing little except just “hanging out.” As is always the case, all this depends upon how human individuals and civilizations direct their energy.

Mars defends us and often defunds us as the “good fight” involves a lot of money and Mars cares not how much all this costs. Within the context of a global pandemic and a collapsing economy, Mars instructs us that we must pay the price to defend our health and prop up our economic systems and it exposes us when we fail to do so. We need to remember WW II, when we built a great military defense system almost over night to lead us to victory and spent more government money than at any other time in US history. This war is a war on the spread of a terrible virus, the lives lost, the business income gone, the confidence in our institutions of governance sunk. As it retrogrades (seeming to go backwards) until its direct motion Nov. 13, our fight seems endless as we retrace our footsteps in order to substantiate our solutions to all these painful problems.

As Mars has already formed squares with Pluto (catastrophic crises) and Saturn (security and structure), we witnessed the massive explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, resulting in an overthrow of their government. Unfortunately, this is likely to erupt into another failed state in a region already in disarray.

Fires have broken out in multiple sites in California and Colorado and the temperature measured in Death Valley, California soared to a record 130 degrees, while triple digit temperatures have occurred at the Arctic Circle in Siberia, igniting methane fires, releasing huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The Mont Blanc Glacier in the Italian Alps has collapsed and the Northern Alaska Ice Sheet is breaking up, while the famous Greenland glacier continues to melt. Hurricane Laura, a record level 5, hit Louisiana and Texas destroying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property. My take is that there will be many more hurricanes this month all the way through November, including one on election Day!

President Trump is attempting to attack, discredit and cripple the Post Office (Saturn) in an overt attempt to influence the voting capability of millions who will avoid going directly to the polls because of the pandemic. What so many people do not understand is that in 2006, the Congress passed legislation forcing the Post Office to fund their pension funds for 75 years in advance! There is no other entity in existence required to do this and it has resulted in massive cuts in operational costs. The Post Office is historically a most trusted public service serving people throughout the nation – even into rural areas and is a non-profit organization. Can we imagine the costs of mailing a letter if it were “privatized”?

In Kenosha, Wisconsin, Jacob Blake, another black man, was shot by police seven times in the back, igniting another and even larger wave of millions of protesters and culminating in the 57th anniversary celebration of the great Martin Luther King march on Washington, DC. The NBA temporarily suspended all their games. I think that there will be more protests and, unfortunately, more violence as Mars goes back and forth over its conflicting and explosive square to Pluto from October through December.

Other Nations:

Meanwhile, some positive news in the Middle East is the recent announcement that the Trump administration has successfully negotiated a peace agreement between the UAE and Israel, which may result in other nations in the region forging new ties with Israel, joining Egypt and Jordan who have had these agreements since the 1970s. In return, Israel has agreed to halt their developments into Palestinian territory for the time being.

I have predicted significant changes in the No. Korean governance in recent newsletters and we now know that Kim Jong Un, who may have a serious health issue, is handing more and more power over to his sister, Yo Jong, whose reputation for ruthlessness is equal to her brother’s. Japan’s Prime Minister Abe has resigned due to health problems. Protest in Belarus against the election fraud allegedly created by the dictator who has ruled there for 26 years, is getting worldwide attention. We may see further conflicts between India and Pakistan along their border.

Historically, the Mars/Pluto square has been associated with the significant loss of human lives. The COVID pandemic will continue to take its toll through the end of this year, until vaccines will be distributed next year. The Homelessness epidemic in this nation is at all time highs. In addition, what is not frequently in the headlines are the millions of people dying of disease, poverty, and civil wars especially in Central and South America, Africa and the Middle East. Climate change will continue to make many places on earth uninhabitable. Massive numbers of migrants out of these regions will continue their tragic, fateful journeys for many years to come.

The Economy – The Devil is in the Details:

Most of us now know that there is almost no relationship between Wall Street and the “real economy” which is currently experiencing a depression, massive job losses, homelessness, and small business bankruptcies. There is also little relationship between the soaring prices of stocks and real profits. We know the central banks and corporations have been buying back stocks for the past three years, using the giant tax break for billionaires, to keep the “bubble” inflated. The Fed continues to keep interest rates at near zero, fueling a real estate boom in many areas.

Giants Apple and Tesla have both announced stock splits. That disparity between the two economies will likely continue this month as Venus transits Leo, a sign that loves gambling and speculation. Congress will do “something” to fund the populace that continues to suffer, but Mercury’s square to Pluto and Saturn the week of the 20^th will make this effort limited and extremely difficult. The real economy and Wall Street will both take a hit at this time. That same week, we will likely see severe hurricanes and storms developing in the US, taking a further toll on government budgets.

It is important for people to fully realize that the Payroll Tax Pres. Trump wants to “drop” is the very fund that finances Social Security, without which, Social Security would go away in a very few years. If he is re-elected, he has already pledged to do this. He has also pledged to end the Affordable Care Act with nothing to replace it, which translates to 20 to 30 million people losing health care coverage.

It is essential for all of us to note that the giant businesses have been helped by the government and the small businesses that comprise about 75% of our economy, are being allowed to go bankrupt. In the 2008 Crash, the government and the tax payer bailed out the big banks who sold off the worthless sub-prime mortgages and allowed the people who had them to go bankrupt, and lose their housing. Right after all that, people who already had the cash bought up these foreclosed properties, fixed them up, and rented them at exorbitant prices or sold them for huge profits, creating one of the worse affordable housing shortages this nation has ever seen!

Once again, in 2020, the rich are being subsidized and the so-called middle class is being allowed to go bankrupt. As this depression continues to sink most people, those of us for whom it is possible, need to get out of debt, hold onto cash and gold, own a home without a mortgage and ride all this out until the nation, hopefully, wakes up and transforms its governance and its economic paradigm.

Currently, we are supporting an economic “caste system” that has held people of color disproportionately below the poverty line, along with many, less privileged white people who cannot get a decent job or earn a decent wage. There has been a loss of opportunity across this country with the defunding of public education, loss of affordable health care, loss of affordable housing, and even threats to clean air and water systems! The upper 1% of our population now owns about 88% of this nation’s wealth.

The “near zero” interest rate policy of the Federal Reserve, making borrowing much easier, has caused the dollar to sink in value. There has been a response to all this raising the values of gold and silver, that have already survived a number of “corrections”. Even Warren Buffet has recently bought shares in gold for the first time in decades. We all have to keep in mind, however, that the big banks such as JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs have so much money they have a history of manipulating these prices on the futures exchanges.

From 2013 until March 2020, Central Bankers had sold gold short to keep the price of gold down. Holding unlimited cash to meet margin calls, they successfully kept gold down in order to prop up the US dollar. When the so called “up-tick” rule was eliminated in September of 2012, it enabled central banks to write unlimited numbers of paper “shorts” in gold, which depressed the price, while shorts were sold that far exceeded the amount of actual physical gold available and there was no relief of an up-tick, which would allow buyers to exit the market without getting caught. In March, the pandemic allowed the true price of gold to begin to be discovered by the market and the price of gold was then allowed to reflect the real price based on the world situation. Central banks lost billions when they were caught short and they could not even buy physical gold. competing with the US dollar.

Now, with all the bailouts, historically high debt built up by the government, corporations borrowing money to buy back their own stock to keep the market bubble going, the creation of massive amounts of money to fulfill these obligations will devalue the US dollar further.

I think this is creating the next bull market in gold and silver as the dollar is losing investors’ faith and confidence. Keep in mind, however, that there will be some selling of the metals in this most volatile time. Interestingly, the only reason our treasuries are still being bought is that most of the rest of the world is in the same quagmire.

The Election:

I have constructed the astrological charts for Donald Trump (June 14, 1946, 10:54 AM EDT, Jamaica, NY), Joe Biden (Nov. 20, 1942, 10:30 AM EWT, Scranton, PA), and Kamala Harris (Oct 20, 1964, 9:28 PM PDT, Oakland, CA). (I have no time of birth for Mike Pence).

These charts substantiate my previous forecasts – mainly that we will not know who wins on election day, that it will look good for Trump initially, and as the month drags on counting and recounting votes, it will look better for Biden.

In addition to the Post Office mail-in ballot uncertainties and the COVID pandemic keeping people away from the polls, we will likely have a significant hurricane barreling up the East Coast of the US – all resulting in one of the worst days in history to have an election! Ironically, an asteroid will fly by very close to the earth the day before the election.

This has directed my attention to possibly the most powerful person in the US at this point in time. That person is Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, (Jan. 27, 1955, Buffalo, NY). I have to confess, I do not have a recorded time of birth and speculate that it is around 4:45 AM giving him a Sagittarius rising with Pluto, Mercury and Neptune all in supportive aspect to his ascendant. As happened in the election in 2000 between Bush and Gore, the decision to count votes after election day will likely go to the Supreme Court making Chief Justice Roberts (with his Sun and Mercury in Aquarius) in a position to lead the Court to one of the most important decisions in our history.

A conservative Republican, he is also a strict adherent to the Constitution and supporter of the rule of law. His background as an academic star and a possible genius in jurisprudence has made him one of the most qualified justices in modern history. Roberts sided with the Liberal faction of the Court recently insisting that Pres. Trump was not exempt from revealing his financial records and tax returns because he is serving as president. Roberts also presided over the Court when it decided against making the Affordable Health Care Act illegal. It is fitting that an Aquarius, with the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction in Aquarius in December, would be in a position to support our nation’s right to have its vote completely and thoroughly counted!

Science and Technology:

China now claims it has a successful vaccine for COVID, all while other big pharmaceutical corporations are doing final tests as to safety and efficacy. Three of these corporations think their vaccines will likely be ready by the end of this year. Interestingly, it has been reported that Professor Hector Aguillar Carreno from Cornell University is currently developing a vaccine with multi-virus immunity. I am of the opinion that the virus pandemic has accelerated medical progress into vaccines, immunology, and medicines for viruses in general, as science rises to the emergency occasion encompassing our planet.

AstroZenca has announced a blood plasma treatment for the virus that can be used before the vaccines are available. Studies on this treatment are, however, inconclusive. I think multiple vaccines will be announced by the end of the year and will likely be administered by late Feb. of 2021. Recent research also points to a noticeable improvement in immune response to this and other viruses that may occur by taking Vitamin D and the B Vitamins. There are also studies showing that Zinc taken with Vitamin C can help overcome respiratory infections.

Elon Musk’s company, Neuralink has announced it is going into human trials that may begin by the end of this year. Neuralink’s technology aims to achieve human symbiosis with artificial intelligence by linking electrodes in the brain and collectively analyzing neuron signals. Musk hopes to treat spinal cord injuries, prevent strokes, restore limb function, relieve Parkinson’s disease, and resolve eyesight and hearing problems. The notion is to combine the human brain and AI to create a better, smarter human. The Borg has arrived!

Weather and Natural Events:

Severe hurricanes on the East Coast and severe heat leading to enormous fires burning forests on the West Coast will likely continue this month as Mars goes retrograde in Aries and travels back over its square (conflict) with Saturn and Pluto, especially the week of September 20. as Mercury is square this configuration.

Final Thoughts:

With all the looming crises in which we are immersed, many people are simply “giving up”. Their view is that everyone in the government is a liar and/or a criminal and we have no real choices, so – why should we care, why should we vote, why should we try to do anything? Then there are those who are out there protesting, demonstrating, and digging up painful “old issues”, like equal opportunity for all, regardless of race or ethnic origin and the maintaining of a democracy. The polarization of America is making it very difficult to come together and actually do something to address the real issues of our times which would require mutual respect, intelligent debate (not hate mongering, violence, and name calling), and a willingness to work together to save humanity and perhaps all life on earth.

The mobsters, criminals, Plutocrats and dictators of the world are just waiting to pounce on a society that is indifferent, is giving in, and decides to do nothing. If we do nothing, believe me, these folks will be ready and willing to do it for us!

We are at a crossroads in history that would offer up to us an escalating trend toward annihilation or a new world bathed in in the light of wisdom and understanding. A greater consciousness resides within all of us that will show us the way. We only need to open up and make the choice.

Blessings to all,

Linda

Important Points of Reference (for Astrologers):

Full Moon at 10 degrees Pisces sextile Uranus on September 1, New Moon September 17 at 25 degrees Virgo trine Saturn, Mars goes retrograde September 9 at 28 degrees Aries opposition Mercury September 24 and is square Saturn September 27 through 30, Venus in Cancer is opposition Saturn September 2, Venus is Leo is inconjunct Jupiter September 21, is inconjunct Neptune on September 23, is inconjunct Pluto September 25 and is inconjunct Saturn on September 28, Mercury in Virgo is trine Saturn September 2 and in Libra is trine and sextile the Lunar Nodes on September 21 and Venus is trine and sextile the Nodes on September 27.