Review and Preview:
This was the week of the huge Jupiter-Uranus waning trine, and it proved to be a most interesting week. Gold soared to its highest level since February 1983, slightly exceeding its December 1987 high in the nearby futures contract by about one dollar. At the same time, the Dollar/Yen rose to its highest level in 2 years, while the Euro and Swiss Franc are again testing their yearly lows.
Why is Gold up so strongly, with the Dollar up strongly as well? Don’t they usually go in opposite directions? There is no shortage of Gold, or imminent threat to disrupt the supply and distribution of Gold. In other words, the supply factors that typically are part of the equation leading to price, appears stable. But the price is far from stable. It keeps rising. The answer appears to be the perception of future inflation, if you are in the Gold pit. This is supported by the belief that the U.S. Central Bank (Federal Reserve Board) is about to end its string of consecutive interest rate rises, thereby stoking the U.S. economy to perform even greater than its 4+% rate of growth reported last week for the prior quarter. This is a perception that I do not agree with. But if you are in the currency pit, the perception is just the opposite: the Fed will continue to increase interest rates and therefore keep inflation contained. This supports the strong Dollar (and weak non-dollar currencies). Two entirely different perceptions, by people in the same business. Astrologically, this is consistent with the principles of retrograde planets. Mercury and Mars are both retrograde now, although Mercury ends this weekend, and Mars ends its retrograde motion on December 10.
Short-Term Geocosmics:
Last week we went into great detail about the importance of the Jupiter-Uranus waning trine of November 27 to U.S. stock prices. I stated, “… this signature has a 78% correlation to primary or greater cycles within 8 trading days. Since we are not in a time band for a primary cycle trough, we can assume this could be a primary cycle crest. However, in the past two instances of Jupiter-Uranus aspects, we have noted only major cycles, not primary types (major cycles are the 1/3 point of a primary cycle, and not quite as significant).” We are in the 8-day range right now. But let’s add a couple of other factors relevant to this discussion. On Sunday, December 4, Mars will be in opposition to this same Jupiter, thereby keeping the Jupiter part of this major aspect in force. This past Thursday-Friday, December 1-2, the New Moon was in Sagittarius, which is ruled by Jupiter, thus activating this Jupiter-effect even further. Jupiter’s nature is to expand, exaggerate, and grow. The nature of Mars is to quicken, and add “fire” to the heat. The combination of these signatures leads to a possible “blow-off” in markets, and this is exactly what is happening in Gold and the Japanese Nikkei stock index.
The Mars part of this cluster ends December 10. One would think that the psychology of the “blow-off” will end any day now.
Long-Term Thoughts:
In the next 8 days, we will exit the current short-term geocosmic cluster that has been in effect since November 14. On Christmas Eve, December 24, we will start a new round of mixed messages in the financials when Venus turns retrograde. And all during this time (November-December), Mars continues to square Saturn due to the stationary position of each. No matter how good the economic news is, people are still depressed and under stress. As stated before, this is the “Season of discontent” – for masses of humanity, and for its leaders. On the editorial page of Friday’s Wall Street Journal, Daniel Henninger writes, “In November, opinion poll approval of Mr. Bush’s economic management was below 40%. This is astounding, (as) this week’s revised third quarter growth rate of 4.3% was the 10th straight quarter of growth averaging nearly 4% on an annual basis… (this is) shout-from-then-rooftop news, but for this administration it’s just another tree falling in they forest.
This is the Alfred E. Neuman ‘what, me worry?’ school of public relations. It doesn’t seem appropriate for a major war.” He goes on to make the point that even with great economic news, the Bush Administration is exhibiting symptoms of “clinical depression.” The “Bushies are (not) numb to seeing their public standing dissed and downgraded. I think they have concluded this is a game that’s rigged against them (and) the mainstream media’s spin is like bad weather – uncontrollable… In this new environment… the language, the very vocabulary of all these conversations, has been ramped way up. Shrillness has monetary value now, and it has political value… By not seeing that the spin is now the vortex, the White House let it suck down the president’s support to a level that threatens his ability to govern.”
And there you have it. Mars square Saturn this last quarter, and Saturn sitting right on W’s natal Ascendant, Mercury and Pluto. Even when the news is so good you should be “shouting from the rooftops,” instead you see signs of stress, discontent, and depression.