Review and Preview

In the study of Financial Astrology, Uranus rules volatility and specifically big price swings in short amounts of time. By that I mean that the amplitude of the rallies and/or declines are usually much more than anyone expects, as technical areas of both support and resistance areas are virtually non-existent. For quite sometime now we have been anticipating the start of the 45-year Saturn-Uranus opposition. We have been building up to this for several months, for the influence of this aspect has been in effect since January 2008. In fact, every “translation” of a faster moving planet to Saturn and Uranus throughout this year has correlated with very large price swings in equity markets around the world.

The first of the five passages of the Saturn-Uranus opposition took place last Tuesday. This was Election Day in the Untied States, and the day before, we noted that transiting Venus would also aspect this Saturn-Uranus opposition. In fact, there are two other planetary aspects to Uranus in effect from the prior week (Mars trine Uranus) and next week (Sun trine Uranus). So have the equity markets of the world been volatile during this time? Have big price swings unfolded in equity markets lately? What would constitute a big price swing? If you had told anyone that a stock index would have a 10% reversal in a month anytime before this year, that would have been considered big. But let’s look what has happened in the past two weeks.

In Europe, we noted that multi-year lows occurred the prior week in three of the four indices we track. But by Tuesday, November 4, all had risen substantially to a crest, only to give back a great deal of those gains by Friday. The Netherlands AEX fell to 231.50 on October 27. Only one week later, on November 4, they were up to 291.13, a reversal of over 25%! By Friday they were back down to 257.65, a loss of 11.5% in just three days. The German DAX soared from a low of 4014 on October 24 to a high of 5301 on November 4, a gain of 32%! By Friday, three days later, it was down to 4751, a decline of over 10%. The London FTSE rallied from a low of 3665 on October 27 to a high of 4639 on November 4-5, an appreciation of 26.5%, only to fall again to 4263 late in the week, for a loss of only 8%. The Swiss SMI did not make a new multi-year when it hit 5367 on October 27. But it too had a healthy rally of nearly 20% to 6419 on November 4. It then gave back nearly 500 of those points by Thursday for two-day loss of 7.6%.

In Asia and the Pacific Rim, the volatility was even more pronounced. The Hang Seng of Hong Kong recovered from a multi-year low of 10,676 on October 27 to a high of 15,317 early last week, for one week gain of 43.5%!  India’s Nifty rose from 2252 on October 27 to a high of 3240 on November 5, a gain also of over 43%. Japan’s Nikkei rose from a 20+ year low of 6995 on October 28 to a high of 9521 on November 5, a gain of 36%. All three indices then declined 11-14% in the following three trading days. Only Australia’s All Ordinaries index failed to gain at least 20% from its low of October 28 to the high of early last week. Nor did it decline much either into Friday – only losing 8.5% from the high early in the week.

In South America, both the Bovespa of Brazil and Merval index of Argentina rose nearly 40% between October 27-28 and the highs of November 4-5. But in the USA, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and NADSDAQ Composite appeared subdued in comparison, rising only 18-20%. Both then fell slightly over 10% by Thursday. Do you get the picture? These are extraordinarily volatile times as we approached, and are now into, the Saturn-Uranus oppositions.

Other markets were not so volatile as the equity markets. But we do note that for just a brief moment, Crude Oil fell below $60.00/barrel during the day on Friday for the first time in quite awhile. That means they have now fallen over $87.00/barrel, or nearly 60%, from their all-time highs of less than 4 months ago. They then rallied to close at 61.04. Perhaps they are now ready for a healthy rally too, especially given that the Election is over, and the president from the big oil producing state of Texas, is about to close out his 8-year “Reign of Error.” Will the Conservative wing of the Republican Party (Saturn, in my opinion) ever recover from this onslaught of Uranian energy represented by the new Obama mass movement? Will life ever be the same after Bush? From one extreme to the other, everyone will soon be wondering: where is the balance point in the United States? Is there a “middle?” With Uranus, it is a season of extremes. 

Short-Term Geocosmics

 In addition to all the Uranus signatures in effect late October through November 10, we will have another interesting geocosmic period coming up in the next few sessions. These surround the full moon of November 13. On the day before, geocentric Venus will change signs, from Sagittarius to Capricorn. On November 13, heliocentric Venus will change signs, from Aquarius to Pisces. On November 14, heliocentric Mercury changes from Libra to Scorpio. And on Sunday, November 16, geocentric Mars moves from Scorpio to Sagittarius. So many planets changing signs in such a short period of time suggests a change in investor sentiment. The fact that a full moon happens November 13 means that a change trend (short-term) could happen within one day of this Thursday. If a financial or commodity market decline into a low then, an impressive rally may follow. If instead the market rallies, it may mean that another sell off follows. Traders should adopt their trading strategies accordingly.

 Longer-Term Thoughts 

 So THAT was the sudden unexpected event preceding the election that astrological signatures suggested could occur. It wasn’t an upset by John McCain, nor was it as great a landslide as many polls suggested. Barack Obama convincingly won the election to become the first African-American president in the history of the United States. Without a doubt, Obama’s presidency will usher in a new era of governance that promises to be a major shift in direction affecting the United States. This is the true meaning of the 45-year Saturn-Uranus opposition cycle. But on the day before the greatest victory of his life, as Venus (women) made a T-Square “translation” to the Saturn-Uranus opposition, Obama suffered perhaps one of the greatest losses of his life. His grandmother passed away. According to him, she was perhaps the greatest influence that shaped his life.

So in the end, what did we learn about Astrology and this election? I believe the following points are noteworthy for future election forecast by Mundane Astrologers:

1. The casting of the first vote on Election Day is no longer the true chart to use for ascertaining the results of a USA presidential election. With the advent of “pre-election day” voting, over a third of the vote in many states was completed before November 4, rendering the first vote at 12:01:00 AM, November 4, as meaningless. The early voting results showed Obama scored a 58-40% advantage before November 4. After the voting of November 4, he won the election with 52% of the vote. This furthermore rendered the results of the New Hampshire primary as invalid, which contained similar Moon-Jupiter in Capricorn transits as November 4.

2. The “shadow phase” of Mercury retrograde was indeed valid. As Mercury entered the “shadow zone” on September 5, John McCain enjoyed a modest 1-5 point lead in the polls. That lead turned into an Obama advantage by the time Mercury went retrograde September 24. In conventional astrology, the pendulum would have then moved back into McCain’s favor after Mercury turned direct on October 15, by which time Obama’s lead was at least 7 points. But Obama’s lead continued to grow into double digits (as much as 14 points according to some polls) through the Mercury “shadow” period that ended October 31. It was only after the “shadow” period ended that McCain’s momentum began to return. But by then it was too late and McCain lost the popular vote by 5 points. 

3. The Moon conjunct Jupiter in Capricorn on Election Day did not favor age and experience (qualities of Capricorn) in the final outcome. Instead it seemed to favor the candidate who seemed most in control of himself and his staff, and was most organized in the campaign (Obama). It may have also indicated that the aspect – Moon conjunct Jupiter – represented the favorable collective response to the candidate of “hope,” rather than “fear.” Moon conjunct Jupiter represents “hope,” which was Obama’s mantle. Moon in Capricorn pertains more to “fear,” which was the Republican card. The aspect of planets was more important than the sign containing the Moon. However, this may have also related to the fact that so many votes were cast before Election Day too, as stated in point #1, and thus the chart of November 4 was not the valid one to use.

4. Saturn in opposition to Uranus was valid, and it would have been anyway, regardless of who won. Either way, it would have represented a major departure from the governance of the prior 8 years. But this was a case where Uranus was more prevalent than Saturn, because the “youth” vote (Uranus) was very instrumental in who won (Obama). The youth of America have power, and this suggests that they will set the trends in motion now for the next 10-20 years, and maybe more. As stated before, investment opportunities for the next decade can be determined now by “following the youth.”