This week two planets become perpendicular to the Nodal Axis, a powerful indicator of life direction and focus for any individual chart.  As planets move in high relief to them, powerful forces of "fate" or "destiny" seem to be unleashed in our affairs. At the same time they are considered very malefic (or "evil"), bringing misfortune, anxiety and turbulence to otherwise calm lives.  Fate (or destiny) though does not work in any which the human conscious prefers. 

Change in life is driven by events as much as anything. In fact there is very little we can choose or control in our lives as we go on, only in how we react or adjust to what the universe throws our way.  But this is indeed the force of fate in our lives, many times it gives off the appearance of the Hindu goddess Kali , all black, fierce, and dancing with a necklace of severed human heads.  But Kali is simply another face of the Creation that is solely driven to exalt and transform the potential of your soul into that of God-hood....

Myanmar Cyclone, Chilean Volcano Erupts, Palfrey Suicide, Food Shortages, Oil Price Rises

Last week I included in the Astro-Success column Saturn’s station, where it returns to normal forward motion after a period of months being retrograde.  These are almost always powerful times in the earth, for many and for few.  Last week’s astrology was no exception to this rule. 

Actually there were two momentous astrological events: the station of Saturn on Friday, May 2 and the conjunction of Neptune and the Moon’s North Node (called Rahu in Vedic astrology) on Sunday, May 4.  These are malefic (evil) planets and they have the potential to leave chaos in their wake.  Within the span of a couple days as these planets peaked astrologically there were a few world-momentous events....

Barak Obama has swiftly come up the ranks from lawyer to Illinois state senator to US senator and now possibly to US President if he wins the 2008 US election.  The key to electability today is not leadership ability, but marketability of the message, an image of the candidate as a champion of the people, and the final approval of the Electoral College the following January....

The placement of Obama’s Sun in Cancer is interesting and apropos for a Democrat, because they like to be called the “caring” party, those who take care of the "little" people, making sure they are fed, educated, and taken care of medically.  The placement of his ascendant ruler in the favorable ninth house, a house associated with spirituality and higher knowledge; to me this helps lend to him this so-called “messianic” quality to him, which has literally caused people to faint with bliss in his audiences (maybe not so much now, but initially).  He just has a magical air about him that could make things happen....

The most powerful astrological event for this week surely is the Friday, May 9th, station of Jupiter; this is the coming-to-a-stop of the planet before it begins the appearance of moving backwards in the sky, called retrogradation.  This is not actual, of course, but since different planets are moving at different speeds around the Sun, other planets take on the appearance of moving backwards for a time.  

Jupiter rules the realm of ideas, of philosophy and spirituality; its effects are primarily to expand, inflate, or luminize (transfigure with supernal light) things; it fires excitement in the psyche and causes optimistic leaps of faith.  As to whether the ideas that Jupiter lights off are accurate, truthful, or of God; this is not necessarily so.  Jupiter also incites a lot of braggadocio, bluster, and exaggeration; as if the very grandiosity of the words employed themselves have the power to give legitimacy to the actions of the individual....

While Barak Obama and Hilary Clinton are trading snipes at each other daily in the media, John McCain seems to be just cruising along.  Life has always seemed to be pretty generous for McCain, maybe his road to the White House will be as equally hitch-less.

The whole picture will come out as I flesh out the details over the next week or two.  Let me say right here though that John McCain seems to be pretty formidable.

One could say that the public life and reputation for McCain is only just beginning in a sense, and that he could be entering a totally new phase of authority and responsibility in his life.  Being senator, about the only next step up would be US President or maybe Supreme Court Justice, or perhaps UN ambassador.  At any rate, it would seem just from the Vedic astrology cycles alone that he is about to have an even more prominent and important position in life....

From the outset, some very strong, deep, and potentially problematical connections are evident.  To correctly interpret all of this we'll need a little grounding in political realism as well as the ancient art of astrology.   

If McCain were to win the election this Saturn influence may dampen some of his fun while on the job and put him through his paces; it could push health past its safe limits.  Some people say that he is constitutionally inadequate to the job right now, being 72  and having spent five and a half years as a POW (which some say he received priviledges as), and his reputation of living loose and on the edge has got to take its toll. 

Unless he’s propped up by a team of doctors and the like, he may be at the end of his rope.  He may get that coveted prize though of being able to sit in the Oval Office, but this is where his handlers and behind the scenes managers come into play….or his vice president. 

If I could sum up the life of John McCain in a few words I would say “incendiary, incredibly lucky, and favored to rule.”  He is now the Republican nominee apparent for the Novemeber 2008 election and will be contending against either Barak Obama or Hilary Clinton. He has had quite an interesting life and correspondingly so is his astrology. 

....Basically, emotionally John McCain is kind of a train-wreck; ideally this type of chart configuration will push one to make radical self-transformations in life through a series of crisises; but if the person does not choose to take the high road where life takes him, he or she may actually become unstable. 

McCain is however quite blessed in life to "rule" others, he just seems to naturally rise to the top and stay there, and a number of configurations in his chart reinforce this theme.... 

The London FTSE stock exchange took quite a hit as 60 billion GBP vanished from sight, and as I write this blog US futures today are at a very ominious -560.  Basically the world is having pre-shivers on the state of the global economy and its current world reserve currency, the US dollar. 

There is very little confidence in the Bush plan unveiled last Friday giving tax rebates to US consumers, is mainly seen as an act of desparation. As this is all hitting the collective consciousness, it is not surprising that the stars are reflecting the sharp pangs of fear throughout the global economy.  There is a unique line-up of malefic planets: the Sun is exactly bisecting Mars and Saturn in the sky today. 

One of my favorite astrology books, The Combination of Stellar Influences , refers to this particular combination of planets as "...weak vitality, the inability to meet all demands or to master all situations."

Tomorrow, when the US stock market opens after its Martin Luther King Day holiday, it will be afflicted by the conjunction of Mercury and Neptune. This will most certainly have the effect of producing false, misleading, or abjectly delusory perceptions of the state of affairs.  The US stock market of course has its Plunge Protection Team as its ace in the whole, which either massively sells off stocks or buys them up to maintain the perception that all is well in the American economic scene.

The Astrology of The US-Iran War, Part I

The rhetoric of the US against the regime in Iran has continued to escalate to a slow, but steady burn.  It seems the latest trip of President Bush to the Middle East was solely to ramp up more the perception of the "need" to deal with the "threat" from Iran.

A hypothetical strategy may be involved: a US attack may occur sometime this year but before the elections or at least the next inauguration.  This way the supposed new “anointed” candidate, Hillary Clinton, will benefit.  She can be seen as one who didn’t start the Iran war but now can manage it; she could get two terms mileage out of it.  Bush steps out in a blaze of glory, as it were; but this gives Hillary....

The astrology cycles of Ron Paul look to be appropriately developmental throughout 2008, corresponding an escalating fervor for the elections culminating on November 4, 2008.  There are a number of potential pitfalls indicated as is of potential strokes of good fortune. Some people say that he could be targeted for assassination or that events could be maliciously manipulated against him during this time, since he is going up against a very entrenched and corrupt electoral process.  These dates could be significant along the way.....