Black Swans and Uranus

By Robert Gover

The term "Black Swan" is used to describe events which are
unpredictable, have a tremendous impact, and are rationalized only
after the fact.

In economics, great depressions and stock market panics are viewed as
Black Swan events. For instance, at the time of the stock market crash
of October 1929, there was no known logical reason why stocks should
crash and keep going down and down and down and then lead into the
greatest depression to that point in history. It was a Black Swan
event because nothing in the past pointed to its possibility.

"Go ask your portfolio manager for his definition of risk, and odds are
that he will supply you with a measure that excludes the possibility of
the Black Swan—hence one that has no better predictive value for
assessing the total risks than astrology…" (1)

Actually, astrology may offer the clearest and most incisive way to
explain Black Swan events in the economic realm, as I will show in this
article. Western astrologers will recognize in Black Swan events the
influence of Uranus.

The term is believed to have been coined by the Roman poet Juvenal and
used in 16th Century London to describe an impossibility. All swans
were believed to have white feathers until swans with black feathers
were discovered in the outback of Australia, a Black Swan discovery
that happened in 1697. Still, the term continues to be used for the
unpredictable and unprecedented, especially in economics and finance.

Tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions are
Black Swan events in the natural realm. The 2011 Japanese Tohoku
earthquake and tsunami and resulting nuclear plant meltdowns hit with
astounding surprise. We know that San Francisco is located on a
dangerous fault line but we cannot predict when another earthquake may
hit, nor if it will devastate that city. Tornadoes "come out of
nowhere," it seems, although later we can piece together the
meteorological factors that created one. We know the East Coast and
Gulf Coast are likely to be hit by hurricanes during the late summer
and early autumn, and we can track tropical depressions moving across
the Atlantic and note when they reach hurricane proportions but we
cannot predict where exactly they will hit and with precisely what
devastation. Seismic sensors can detect volcanic activity but we cannot
predict exactly when another Mount St. Helens will blow and wipe out
forests and towns.

Amazing artistic creations and scientific discoveries that come "like a
bolt from the blue" are also categorized as Black Swan events. In this
essay, I focus on Black Swan economic events. Such events are beyond
any logical risk assessment. The famous economist John Maynard Keynes
pointed out that there is no scientific basis on which to form any
calculable probability for such events. They come as total surprises
and are rationalized only after the fact.

In the 1990s a couple of brilliant mathematicians came up with a
formula for consistently profiting from options trading. They won a
Nobel Prize. Their formula led to the creation of what was then a
unique investment firm, Long Term Capital Management. But the crash of
LTCM and the Federal Reserve's rush to prop up the wrecked banking
system thereafter became a Black Swan event. The professors' formula
addressed known risk, but not unpredictable, unprecedented Black Swan
events. (2)

Long Term Capital Management's crash was triggered by Russia's allowing
its currency to fail—something the best financial minds deemed an
impossibility—on August 17, 1998 with Uranus at 10 degrees Aquarius
forming a grand cross pattern with Saturn at 3 degrees Taurus, Venus at
9 degrees Leo and Chiron at 13 degrees Scorpio. Taurus is opposite
Scorpio and square Leo and Aquarius. Uranus was thus within orb of 90
degrees square Saturn and Venus, and 180 degrees opposite Chiron.
Astrologers call this a grand cross pattern because it creates an X
inside a square box pattern.

The financial meltdown of 2008 was another Black Swan event, for
although there was a bubble in real estate prices, there was no known
reason why the puncturing of that bubble would create such chaos in the
world's financial system and economy. After the fact, reasons abound in
the hidden transactions involving trillions of dollars of unfunded
credit default swaps and the marketing of mortgage securities without
legal transference of property titles. The full story of how this
happened has not yet came to light. (See
www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3Dm9ISwQt8. for some details about the credit
default swap scandal that has yet to be cogently covered by the mass
media.)

Uranus, in primary aspect to other planets, brings the unpredictable
and unprecedented to individuals and whole societies. These Uranian
surprises impact our world in ways that we can only rationalize later,
after the fact, when we look back and try to fit them into some
logical, cause-effect paradigm.

Yet seven decades after the great depression of the 1930s, economists
still debate why it happened, and what can be done to prevent it ever
happening again. Economists who say they have logically solved the
riddle are vulnerable to looking foolish when the next economic Black
Swan event hits.

Given Uranus' role in Black Swan events, if economists were able to
overcome their prejudice against astrology, a whole new realm of
cause-effect relationships would open to them.

The crashes of 1929 and 2008 both occurred under a T square formed by
Uranus, Saturn and Pluto. The way to foresee the possibility of Black
Swan events is by charting the astrology involved. And the key to
analyzing is the position of Uranus and the aspects it makes at the
time, especially to the other three outermost planets—Saturn, Neptune
and Pluto—and to the natal chart of whomever or whatever is affected.
(Refer to Charts 1. 2, 3 and 4 delineated below).

After a Black Swan event, we are usually able to define a chain of
causes and effects that led to it, even though there is likely to be
disagreement on precisely which precipitated it. What can we say for
sure about the crash of 1929 and the great depression that followed?
Suddenly, within a few months, the national mood changed from optimism
to pessimism. Was it that change of mood that precipitated the crash
and depression? Or was the pessimism caused by the crash and
depression?

Astrologically, the answer is that both occurred simultaneously. The
1930s unfolded as Uranus inched into Arises, forming a square with
Saturn in Capricorn and Pluto opposite in Cancer, with all three
creating a grand cross pattern with the USA's Sun-Saturn square.

That T square repeated early in this millennium when Uranus in Pisces
moved opposite Saturn in Virgo with Pluto square both from Sagittarius,
afflicting the USA's natal Mars-Neptune square. The orbs are not exact
and the Signs aren't the same but the planetary angles and
transit-to-natal impact are unmistakable.

This is not to say that there are never rational reasons for Black Swan
economic events. It's just that those reasons are hidden or ignored
till it's too late. As Robert Reich (3) has pointed out, "It's no mere
coincidence that over the last century the top earners' share of the
nation's total income peaked in 1928 and 2007—the two years just
preceding the biggest downturns."

But who tracked this growing disparity back then? The few who worried
about it were accused of fomenting class warfare. Now, in the wake of
the 2008 crash, more and more people are becoming aware of the huge
disparity between the few super rich and the rest of humanity, although
how this disparity developed is still debated, as no single explanation
satisfies all.

Hard angles formed by the outermost planets coincide with highlighting
what has gotten out of balance. What is now out of balance economically
is this huge disparity of wealth. What to do about it is another and
more vexing question.

We must make a distinction between stock market crashes and great
depressions, though, for one rarely leads to the other. Stocks have
crashed when the overall economy remained robust, and great depressions
have preceded sinking stock markets.

Looking back through history, we find that every time the USA's
Sun-Saturn square has been afflicted by a grand cross formed by the
outermost planets the national economy has fallen into a great
depression. Great depressions are not to be confused with recessions,
corrections or depressions without the adjective "great." Economist
Ravi Batra (4) defined great depression this way:

"A recession usually lasts for one to three years, during which the
rate of unemployment, while rising, is generally below 12 percent.
When a recession lasts for more than three years, and/or the rate of
unemployment lies between 12 percent and 20 percent, the economy may be
said to be suffering from a depression. When unemployment remains high
and business stagnates for six or more years, the nation's plight may
be called a great depression. Thus, depending on its severity in depth
and length, the downswing of the business cycle may be defined as a
recession, depression, or great depression."
By that definition, there have been four great depressions so far in
the history of the USA. Each has occurred under afflictions to the
USA's Sun-Saturn square, with Saturn in Capricorn and Uranus prominent
in every instance. (5)

1780s with Saturn in Capricorn opposite the US Sun in Cancer and square
the US Saturn in Libra, Uranus conjunct the US Sun square Neptune in
Libra conjunct the US Saturn.

1840s with Saturn in Capricorn opposite the US Sun in Cancer, square
Pluto opposite the US Saturn from Aries, and Uranus opposite the US
Neptune from Pisces, square the US Mars in Gemini.

1870s with Saturn in Capricorn opposite the US Sun in Cancer, Uranus
conjunct Jupiter and the US Sun in Cancer, and Neptune in Aries
opposite the US Saturn in Libra.

1930s (by Christmas 1930) Saturn in Capricorn opposite the US Sun in
Cancer, which was conjoined by Jupiter and Pluto, and Uranus in Aries
opposite the US Saturn.

Other periods have been economically difficult and often called
depressions, but those four fit the metrics defining great depressions,
which were Black Swan events because they were unpredicted and
unprecedented.

By 2025, we may look back on the 2000-teens as a fifth great
depression, although as of this writing, our travail is still described
as a "great recession." Euphemisms are little comfort to those whose
lives have been devastated by the meltdown of 2008, however—today's
unemployment statistics have been "politicized," so that 9% really
means closer to 18% or 20% when all the unemployed are taken into
account. Given the desire of most politicians to put a smiley face on
our economic situation, the economists they hire obligingly fudge the
numbers.

We may look back on this period as the most difficult in our history,
for this time it is Pluto in Capricorn, not Saturn, and Pluto is square
Uranus in Aries. All previous great depressions since the Industrial
Revolution have occurred under Saturn in Capricorn. Tiny little Pluto
takes an average of 248 years to orbit the Sun, and hasn't been in
Capricorn since colonial times and the American Revolution. From 1755
to 1758, Uranus in Pisces squared Pluto in Sagittarius, making seven
direct hits. These were the years leading up to the American
Revolution, which manifested in warfare when Pluto went into Capricorn.

Uranus-Pluto squares from Aries to Capricorn are exceedingly rare:
Prior to the one we're presently under, there were only two going back
to the year 1. In 258-259, a killer smallpox pandemic ravaged the
Roman Empire. In 1676 to 1678, an uprising called Bacon's Rebellion
unfolded in the Virginia Colony when English indentured servants and
African slaves united against the colony's aristrocracy, killed Indians
and burned Jamestown to the ground, sending landowners fleeing to the
Eastern Shore; the outcome was the legal color coding of the working
class into separate races called black and white.

Stock market crashes are another category of Black Swan events. A
distinction must be made between the overall economy and the stock
market. The stock market is part of the economy but by no means the
leading indicator of overall economic health or illness. That leading
indicator is employment/unemployment.

Almost every time there has been a surprising stock market crash that
has come with such surprise it has caused panic, the USA's natal
Mars-Neptune square has been afflicted by transiting planets,
especially the outermost four. (See "An Astrological History of Stock
Market Crashes" by Robert Gover.) Not all panic crashes lead into
great depressions.

A few especially intuitive investors may anticipate a crash. These
anticipators are usually called "doom and gloomers" before the crash.
Cassandra has never been popular. After each crash, a variety of
explanations are put forward as to why it happened. Still, the only
way to really explain this type of Black Swan event is to understand
the astrology involved.

The crash of October 19, 1987 was a shocker, and many an analyst at the
time predicted that it would lead into another great depression. But
it did not. Why? Again, astrology holds the explanation. For this
crash, the USA's Mars-Neptune square was afflicted by Saturn and Uranus
in Sagittarius, and Chiron in Gemini. Great Depression occur when the
USA's Sun-Saturn square is afflicted by outermost planets in the
Cardinal Signs of Capricorn, Aries, Cancer and Libra. In 1987 the
affliction was to the natal Mars-Neptune square. By the early 1990s
when Saturn had moved into Capricorn, there was a recession but not a
great depression because there was no outermost planetary affliction to
the US Sun-Saturn square.

As an economic astrologer I rely on the primary angles formed by the
outermost four planets, plus the Moon's Nodes and Chiron, to ascertain
what to expect in the stock market and economy. However, the cosmic
environment our Earth lives within is in constant motion, so no two
moments in cosmic time are the same astrologically. Primary planetary
angles repeat—the Sun-Moon conjunction repeats every 28 days at the New
Moon, the Neptune-Pluto conjunction every 496 years—but always within a
changed cosmic environment.

This ever changing phenomenon reflects how we perceive earthbound
history as ever repeating but never duplicating. So there is no
guarantee that these planetary patterns which have brought Black Swan
crashes and great depressions in the past will bring the same in the
future. It may be that we are influenced by celestial bodies so far
distant that we have not yet seen and identified them. Yet the
astrology of past Black Swan events remains the best way to ascertain
when another will hit, with hard angles from Uranus the most indicative
pattern to look for.

Anyone with an astrological computer program can quickly erect the
following charts to see the patterns described.

Chart 1:

On the inner wheel is the natal chart for the USA, July 4, 1776. I use
the Gemini Rising version of this chart. Most astrologers use the
Sibley version. On the outer wheel is a chart for October 28, 1929 when
the stock market plunged in a way that signaled this wasn't to be just
another bear market, but something more devastating.

The two most economically sensitive points in the USA's chart are two
squares: Sun in Cancer square Saturn in Libra and Mars in Gemini square
Neptune in Virgo. Afflictions to the Sun-Saturn square impact the
overall economy. Afflictions to the Mars-Neptune square bring down the
stock markets. On Black Monday 1929, a stock market crash was indicated
by the opposition of T Saturn and Jupiter hitting the natal
Mars-Neptune square. Moon conjunct natal Neptune apparently triggered
the panic. A few months later, trouble for the overall economy was
indicated by T Uranus opposite the US Saturn, square T Pluto conjunct
the US Sun.

Chart 2:

On the outer wheel of this comparative chart is Christmas Day, 1930, by
which point it was clear that the nation was sinking into another
depression, although no one knew yet how bad it would become.

Biwheel Chart 2 shows the T square formed by Uranus, Saturn and Pluto
about a year after the Crash of 1929 as people were realizing that this
crash was unlike any previous, and was leading the nation into what we
now call "The Great Depression." When the Crash of '29 occurred in late
October, the T square had not yet formed but was applying. A biwhell
chart for Christmas 1930 show how the Uranus-Saturn-Pluto T square
afflicts the USA's natal Sun-Saturn square. It's this square that has
always been afflicted when great depressions have hit the USA.

Chart 3:

By mid-September 2008, it was clear that another Black Swan market
event was unfolding. A T square formed by Uranus, Saturn and Pluto this
time hit the USA's natal Mars-Neptune square—indicating that this was
strictly a stock market and/or financial catastrophe. As Uranus then
moved into Aries, it opposed Saturn in Libra conjunct the US Saturn and
square the US Sun, with Pluto applying to an opposition to the US Sun.
This indicated another great depression, although few were willing to
call it that by 2011. Every time the USA's Sun-Saturn square has been
hit by the outermost planets from Capricorn and Aries, the nation has
gone into a great depression. Logical reasons why each happened are
found later, although there is rarely agreement among economists
regarding the primary reasons.

Chart 4:

In a biwheel chart for March 5, 2015 the US Saturn is opposed by
Uranus, Mars and Venus in Aries, square Pluto in Capricorn opposition
the US Sun. On this particular day the Full Moon is conjunct and
opposite the US Neptune square the US Mars in Gemini. What this
indicates is that the nation, and probably the whole world, is very
likely to be in the pits of another great depression, with the strong
possibility of another finanacial crash around this time making things
even more difficult. What is likely to be different about this great
depression is a militant mood, indicated by Pluto's position. Pluto's
arrival in Capricorn—every 248 years on average—has a history of
coinciding with revolutions. Its previous sojourn through Capricorn
coincided with the American Revolution. The one before that coincided
with the decimation of Native American populations from diseases
imported by Spanish conquistadors, to which the Indians had no
immunity, and the shipment of tons of gold and sliver back to Europe,
setting off inflation and a series of wars. In effect, both Hemispheres
underwent cultural and economic transformations as Europeans invaded
the New World in search of gold and silver.

Chart 5:

It was the USA's financially-sensitive Mars-Neptune square that was hit
when stocks suddenly crashed to a new one-day record October 19, 1987.
Uranus at 23 Sagittarius was opposite the US Mars, conjoined at this
time by Chiron, and square the US Neptune, conjoined by the Moon.
Although Jupiter was in Aries opposite the US Saturn, its trine to
Uranus apparently saved the overall economy, for the stock market
rebounded in the coming months. A couple of years later, with Saturn,
Uranus and Neptune all clustered together in Capricorn, the Berlin Wall
came down and major restructuring occurred in economies around the
world—the Old Soviet Union disbanded and the USA ramped up
laissez-faire capitalism—but no great depression occurred.

Two rules of thumb emerge from these and other chart studies: No grand
cross hitting the USA's Sun-Saturn square, no great depression. And
when the USA's Mars-Neptune square is afflicted, there is danger of
another stock market crash.

The tremendous impact on humanity of Black Swan events is best
appreciated in retrospect. At the time of each, people are baffled.

Judging by the increased incidence of Black Swan events since the
Uranus-Pluto square began tightening toward exact in 2008—first from
Pisces to Sagittarius and then from Aries to Capricorn—the world as we
know it will soon be transformed, presenting us with a variety of new
challenges. That much we can deduce from the astrology involved. What
we cannot yet know is exactly how the world will be transformed, and
how we will respond to the challenges of change.

In Western culture, we have been imbued with the belief that it's up to
each individual to find ways to survive and prosper. Intuitively
anticipating hard times, some people talk of storing up gold for a day
when our money becomes useless; or moving to a tropical island and
living a self-sustaining life; or turning homes into fortresses to
defend against marauding mobs, and so forth. But such preparations are
iffy at best because Black Swan events are unpredictable and bring the
unprecedented. Those two key words—unpredictable and unprecedented—have
long been used to describe the effects of hard angles to Uranus.

Endnotes:

1. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan: The Influence of
the Highly Improbable, published April 22, 2007, TatePublishing.com.

2. In his book The Ascent of Money, Niall Ferguson has a cogent
explanation of this Black Swan event from page 320 to 330. In brief,
if the Nobel Prize winning mathematicians had known more about economic
history and Black Swan events, they would not have been so sure of
their risk-assessment formula guaranteeing profits from options and
derivatives trades. Investors put so much faith in this formula that
big banks bet billions of dollars—and lost.

3. Robert Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the
University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national
administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President
Bill Clinton. He has written thirteen books, including The Work of
Nations, Locked in the Cabinet, Supercapitalism, and his most recent
book, Aftershock.

4. See Great Depression 1990 by Ravi Batra, published by Dell, 1998.
Although no great depression hit the USA in 1990, the Japanese economy
slumped into a prolonged depression. From Wikipedia: "Batra continued
to publish books with the main thesis that financial capitalism breeds
excessive inequality and political corruption which inevitably succumbs
to financial crisis and economic depression." Great depressions in the
USA have occurred when Saturn in Capricorn combined with Uranus,
Neptune and/or Pluto to create a grand cross pattern with the USA's
natal Sun-Saturn square. In 1990, Saturn in Capricorn made no such
pattern with the other outermost planets. No grand cross, no great
depression. But American jobs were steadily eroded by automation and
corporate outsourcing to cheap labor markets overseas.

5. Economists do not agree on the specific dates when each great
depression began, so it is impossible to pinpoint a specific date for
precise astrological calculation. But the outermost planets move
slowly, so the aspects they form are within orb for extended periods.
These extended periods encompass disagreements among economists. In
retrospect, it is clear that it's impossible to pinpoint a specific
date and time when any great depression began. The relevant economic
factors involved usually develop in a zigzag pattern of fits and
starts. Given our human proclivity to hope for the best, these fits and
starts are often misread at the time, and corrected after the fact. As
I write this, there is great disagreement concerning the true
unemployment figures. What we know for sure is that unemployment and
under-employment are enough to curtail demand for goods and services,
which in turn curtails the production to supply goods and services, and
the bank credit needed to restore normal buying and selling. By the
time you read this, the government may or may not have stimulated
enough demand to reverse this downward cycle.

http://robert-gover.blogspot.com/

Astrology and Money

Astrology and Money have a lot in common. Both are highly visible in what we call "the real world" of the tangible and precisely measureable, yet both are mysterious in their origins and theories. What we call astrology includes a spectrum from simplified Sun Sign fortune-cookie blurbs to complex transit-to-natal and progression studies based on past history. And what we call money ranges from the dollar bills and coins we carry in our pockets to vast amounts of credit whirling about in cyberspace and tracked on computer screens. Metaphorically, both Astrology and Money are like magnificent mansions that appear distant from each other yet are invisibly linked. The two-mansion image sprang to my mind as I contemplated the December 21, 2010 Winter Solstice simultaneous with the Lunar Eclipse, aligned with the Galactic Center of the Milky Way, what the Maya mythologized as the universal mother's vagina from whence came our planet and us. Transiting conjunct this latest Solstice was Pluto, Mercury, Mars and the Moon's North Node. All these heavenly events hit the US Federal Reserve's natal Sun opposition Pluto. Since the Fed is the source of our money—and increasingly controversial as an institution—the 2010 Winter Solstice suggests an opportune time to change the Fed, and thus change how our money is distributed. (1) Growing controversy about the Fed also indicates it is ripe for some kind of major transformation. But about 99% of the population, including Congress, does not comprehend how the Fed operates, how money is created and distributed into our society and the world economy. If people did understand it, as Henry Ford quipped decades ago, there would be a revolution before morning. I checked out the previous Winter Solstice/Lunar Eclipse, which occurred in 1638. What was happening then? For Europeans, it was the Age of Discovery. Newly arrived colonists in the Western Hemisphere were exploring their new environment. A natural canal connecting the Amazon and Orincoco Rivers was discovered in Brazil. The first printing press began operating in the Massachusetts colony. The British established their first colony in India at Madras. Russian Cossacks explored beyond the Urals to the Pacific Ocean. The Japanese adopted a "closed country" policy. The Ottoman Empire and Persia agreed on borders separating what are now Turkey, Iran and Iraq. The world as we know it today was, it seems, about midway in the process of being discovered and mapped, mainly by European Christians with a drive to bring their religion and culture to the rest of humanity—and not so incidentally discover new money in the primary form of those times: Gold and silver. What is the driving force today? From a purely economic perspective, it is still money, but specifically what money has become, compared to what it has been in the past. Like astrology, money is an amazing human invention with a long history, sometimes dismal, sometimes wonderful. Our Cro-Magnon ancestors had a life expectancy of 18 years; we now average close to 80 years. Money enables us to trade with each other rather than plunder each other. Astrology enables us to know when times of opportunity for improvement are nigh. The USA's Federal Reserve was enacted into being on December 23, 1913, based on the privatized central bank of medieval times, the Bank of England, founded in 1694. The Fed has grown during the 20th Century into the world's prototypical independent-of-government central bank. The other kind of central bank is public, under government control and responsive to the whole society. That's the kind of central bank favored by Ben Franklin, Abe Lincoln and Sun Yat-Sen, who brought the concept to China. Both money and astrology are human inventions. Money developed as a means of exchanging goods and services, and astrology as a means of forecasting times of opportunities and times of difficulties. Millennia ago, before money became what it is today, astrology was used to guesstimate harvests; if this year's harvest was abundant, a portion could be stored for future times when harvests would be curtailed by bad weather. Astrologers in ancient times found that aspects to the 20-year conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn were good indicators of future abundance or lack. Today, the most economically-meaningful planets are the outermost four: Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Both of these human inventions, money and astrology, are valiant attempts to improve our lot, yet vulnerable to misuses that can lead to quite the opposite. The Banker can misuse money to create poverty for the many and uncouth wealth for the few. The Astrologer can misuse the art of interpreting planetary patterns to influence people for selfish, evil purposes. J. P. Morgan combined the two, using astrology to accumulate a fortune at the expense of the masses. By the Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse of 2010, a growing number of people saw the Fed's control of money as being the heart and soul of economic hardship that commenced with the crash of 2008 and threatened to extend into the foreseeable future. What is now called the "housing bubble" arose under a Saturn-Neptune opposition 2006-2007 (the Fed had lowered interest rates inviting speculation) and the inevitable crash came in 2008 under a Saturn-Uranus opposition square Pluto to form a grand cross with the USA's natal Mars-Neptune square, bringing us to the present time of economic malaise. Since the Fed lends money to government at ever-compounding interest, with the taxpayers legally obliged to repay that debt, the present malaise is all about what's called "the national debt," and resulting federal government budget deficit. In the USA, the ripple effect is that states and municipalities are forced to cut social services for lack of money. The European Union has its Fed-like central bank, too, so its member states are in the same predicament. The news in 2010 was full of hand-wringing concern over how Greece and Ireland would repay their debts, and in the USA how New York, California and other states would survive this period when bank-originated credit money is in such short supply. (Actually, the multinational banks have trillions of dollars and euros, but prefer to maximize profits by derivatives trades rather than loans to stimulate economies.) Meanwhile, the economies of nations such as China and India with public central banks are booming. Why is there no shortage of money in China? Why is it that China can launch a huge infrastructure building program and enjoy around 10% annual increase in Goss Domestic Product while the USA and EU are suffering? And the most crucial question for Americans and Europeans: How can there be such a shortage of money for the people when the banks are sitting on trillions of dollars and euros? I've addressed this last question in a series of articles and in my book Time and Money: the Economy and the Planets (second edition due out in February 2011). It's complicated as it takes us into the question of who owes whom for the national debt, which has been divided into Treasury Bonds and Bills and sold to investors all over the world. But reduced it to its simplest terms, the answer is this: China's government lends money to banks, the USA's central bank lends money to both banks and government. In other words, it's a question of who creates and controls money. In the USA, the idea that government should lend to banks has become unthinkable. In China, government borrowing from private banks is unthinkable. The USA has been a money laboratory since it was 13 British colonies strung along the East Coast four centuries ago. The British decreed that the colonists had to use British money and forbad them from creating their own media-of-exchange to trade among themselves. But British money went back and forth across the Atlantic without touching the hands of most colonists. So they defied the law and developed a variety of currencies: Wampum, tobacco, chickens and pigs, Spanish coins, and various ways of keeping track of who owed whom how much. Plus what Ben Franklin called "colonial scrip." When the King raised the taxes of colonists to repay the Bank of England for the French and Indian War, the seeds of rebellion were planted under a Uranus-Pluto square that formed a grand cross with what would soon become the USA's natal Uranus and then its Mars-Neptune square. The colonists had struggled for about a century and a half to create some prosperity for themselves, and by the mid-1700s were doing better than their counterparts across the Atlantic. In an attempt to defuse what threatened to become a bloody conflagration, Ben Franklin went to London as a lobbyist. When Britain's rulers asked him to account for the amazing prosperity in the American colonies, he replied: "That is simple. In the colonies we issue our own money. It is called Colonial Scrip. We issue it in proper proportion to the demands of trade and industry to make the products pass easily from the producers to the consumers. In this manner, creating for ourselves our own paper money, we control its purchasing power, and we have no interest to pay to anyone."

Almost a hundred years later when President Abe Lincoln needed money to mount the Civil War, instead of borrowing from European banks at around 36% interest and sticking taxpayers with the bill, his government issued so-called "greenbacks." The Confederacy borrowed from bankers and its money wound up worthless. By creating its own money the Union caused consternation among conservatives. Cried the London Times: "If that mischievous financial policy which had its origin in the North American Republic should become indurate down to a fixture, then that government will furnish its own money without cost. It will pay off its debts and be without a debt. It will become prosperous beyond precedent in the history of the civilized governments of the world. The brains and wealth of all countries will go to North America. That government must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe."

Sun Yat-Sen became fascinated with American history as a kid growing up in an older brother's house in Hawaii. Decades later when the Chinese were mounting their own revolt against British rule, Sun brought what I call the Ben Franklin and Abe Lincoln concept of money to China. His import led eventually to the establishment of the Peoples Bank of China as an agency of the modern Chinese government. Since the establishment of the Fed in 1913, the US dollar has inflated tremendously so that what cost $1.00 then now costs $100 or more. This inflation developed so slowly that people barely noticed it. The idea that grandpa paid $10,000 in 1900 for the house that sold in 2000 for $10 million was taken for granted. "Real estate is your best investment," it was often said during the 20th Century. And owning your own home was "the American dream." Dramatic rises of stock prices were cheered and the role played by inflation ignored. (Neptune conjunct Mars and opposite Jupiter in the Fed's natal chart). Meanwhile, the US economy overall gained until the 1970s when "trickle-down" theory gained ascendance and "free trade" policy advocates captured control of the government. The financial sector grew from less than 4% of GDP to over 40% now. What the financial sector does, essentially, is move money for a fee. So paying over 40% for this service has become one of the absurd spinoffs of the Fed. It's like the Mafia owning 40% of a neighborhood's income. (Saturn transiting conjunct the Fed's Pluto opposite the Fed's Sun and the Moon's North Node, indicating a time of change.) Wall Street is the headquarters of the nation's and the world's financial industry. And the big banks of Wall Street are the Fed's most cherished customers. To restart the economy after the slump of 2001-2002, the Fed cut interest rates way down. This stimulated buying and selling of real estate, which soon became such a moneymaker (as compared to real wealth generator) that the smart guys on Wall Street sliced and diced mortgages into bonds and sold them worldwide, enabling bankers to make more real estate loans. To insure these bonds against default without government oversight, Wall Street developed credit default swaps, a black market where you could buy insurance for real estate bonds. Just about everyone was making so much money in this game that few noticed it was a variation on the classical Ponzi scheme and destined to implode. The bubble peaked in 2007 under the most recent Saturn-Neptune opposition, and crashed with amazing suddenness under the 2008-2009 Saturn-Uranus opposition which simultaneously hit the USA's natal Mars-Neptune square. Since 1857, every major stock market crash has occurred when that Mars-Neptune square was afflicted by transits. Not every time the square has been afflicted has there been a crash, but every time there's been a crash, the square has been afflicted. The smart guys on Wall Street made big money as the real estate bubble was being inflated, and then made even more money when the bubble burst. The smart money sold the bubble and captured the losses via "short selling" of unsustainable mortgages when it burst.—until the bursting got out of hand because more credit default swaps had been sold than there was money to pay the insurance. The big banks then persuaded government that they were "too big to fail" and thus captured the billions politicians threw at their most generous campaign contributors, under a legislative plundering of American taxpayers called TARP. The bankers who run the Fed are "birds of a feather" with the bankers who run Wall Street, so it's no surprise that these birds would stick together to weather economic storms. And since they are in the business of making money by moving money, it's no surprise that they would engineer the massive money movements that create economic storms. Most of us moderns have come to love money so much, we have forgotten the old cliché, "Love of money is the root of all evil." Many have forgotten the love part of that saying and have shortened it to "Money is the root of all evil," which of course it's not. Money is neither good nor evil. It's a human invention we can use for good or evil, and quite often what seems good today turns out to have evil consequences tomorrow. Money is like water. It can save someone dying of thirst, or drown another in too much. Money is also the life blood of any society's economy. Bad circulation of it has been the downfall of many a society in the past. Bad circulation used to be called usury. Today, usury is how our economy functions: Every buyer and reseller of credit money needs to take a piece of the action to stay in business. Money has also shape-shifted over the centuries. Time was when cowry shells and dried cow dung were used as money, then gold and silver coins. Then came paper money and checks based on deposits of gold and silver in banks to back the paper. Today, most of what we call money exists in cyberspace, denominated on computer screens. It's now possible to buy everything you need without ever touching paper bills or coins. And at the center of this vast spider web of cyberspace credit money is the USA's Federal Reserve. Which returns us to the question of whether it is best for government to buy money from banks, or sell money to banks. And the Lunar Eclipse of the Winter Solstice of 2010 and the growing movement to change the Fed or even abolish it completely. Ellen Brown, author of Web of Debt, stated the problem this way: Our money system is not what we have been led to believe. The creation of money has been "privatized," or taken over by private money lenders. Thomas Jefferson called them "bold and bankrupt adventurers just pretending to have money." Except for coins, all of our money is now created as loans advanced by private banking institutions — including the privately-owned Federal Reserve. Banks create the principal but not the interest to service their loans. To find the interest, new loans must continually be taken out, expanding the money supply, inflating prices — and robbing you of the value of your money. Since 1914 the Fed has operated as a supposed quasi governmental agency but actually as a private group of bankers with no responsibility to the public. An amendment tucked into the Wall Street reform bill last May by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont mandated an audit of the Fed, which had hitherto done its own audits in secret. With the Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse of 2010, an independent audit brought an amazing fact to light: The Fed, since the collapse of 2008, has secretly dished up to its most cherished customers, at taxpayer expense, $12.8 trillion, trillion with a T. Wrote Sanders on his blog: "The $700 billion Wall Street bailout signed into law by President George W. Bush turned out to be pocket change compared to the trillions and trillions of dollars in near-zero interest loans and other financial arrangements the Federal Reserve doled out to every major financial institution in this country…The Fed said that this bailout was necessary to prevent the world economy from going over a cliff. But three years after the start of the recession, millions of Americans remain unemployed and have lost their homes, life savings and ability to send their kids to college. Meanwhile, big banks and corporations have returned to making huge profits and paying their executives record-breaking compensation packages as if the financial crisis they started never happened." One of the most astounding things the Fed and its favorite customers have done is convince a majority of Americans that spending tax money on the people is absurd. What's right and proper is that the people subsidize big banks and corporations. While agonizing over the Social Security Fund, we ignore the trillions thrown at banks and multinational corporations. This cognitive dissonance has been accomplished by control of information in the mass media. With the Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse the American people are getting the jaw-dropping news that Fed bankers stuck them with the bill for their generosity to bankers. No, correct that: Most people are not getting the news. "What if the greatest scam ever perpetrated was blatantly exposed, and the US media didn't cover it? Does that mean the scam could keep going? That's what we are about to find out." (Poorrichard's blog) "Even if WikiLeaks reveals documents from inside a large American bank, as huge as that could be, it will most likely pale in comparison to what we just found out from the one-time peek we got into the inner-workings of the Federal Reserve." The move to change or abolish the Fed is not a Conservative v. Progressive issue. Its two main advocates in Congress are Senator Ron Paul, Conservative Republican from Texas, and Representative Dennis Kucinich, Progressive Democrat from Ohio. Ron Paul believes we should return to the gold standard to control inflation. Dennis Kucinich's proposed bill, HR6550, was timed with the Winter Solstice. His bill is lengthy but, for anyone who is interested in the future of the US money system, worth reading for its lucid list of reasons why it's needed. (See http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-6550) Ironically, the most radical proposal comes from a former employee of NASA and the Treasury Department, retired after 32 years, Richard C. Cook. He published a book in 2009 titled We Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform (Tendril Press, Aurora, CO) in which he advocates a guaranteed income for all citizens. A summary of his reasoning can be found on pages 200 and 201. Here's a brief sampling: "The number one cause of war (and poverty) in the modern world is the debt-based monetary system run by the banks." "The present system is just as harmful to the wealthy who hold their fellow human beings in bondage as it is to the debtors they oppress, for the rich as well are deprived of the benefits of living in a world where human beings are free and happy, generous and productive." "The 13 original colonies built a dynamic economy without the presence of a single bank. Throughout the 19th Century, we developed the most powerful economy on earth without a large national bank." "We should abolish the Federal Reserve as a bank of issue and re-establish Constitutional control of credit as a public utility." To those who advocate a return to the gold standard, Cook clarifies a confusion about "fiat" money (declared the national currency by government) and "commodity" money (valuable in and of itself, i.e. gold and silver). He calls the bills now issued by the Fed "not money at all…It is simply temporary credit with a lien against it for repayment with interest." Real "fiat" money, says Cook, was the Civil War greenbacks issued by Abe Lincoln—"true democratic money that was spent into circulation by government and was not inflationary. Rather, it allowed commerce to expand and people to prosper. This type of money is actually the key to economic democracy." As our Founders decreed in the Constitution, we have a natural-born right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and this cannot be curtailed by any government that is of, for and by the people. What the Founders didn't foresee was that Congress would turn the creation and control of our credit money over to private bankers, with a legal responsibility to maximize profits for their shareholders, at the expense of the rest of society. Transforming our credit money from the property of bankers into a public utility controlled by a government agency responsible to the electorate—this would be no easy accomplishment. The history of US money has been a tug-of-war between bankers and government, and presidents who have "dissed" the bankers have encountered assassins. Andrew Jackson's assassin missed because his bullets got wet in a Washington rain. But the assassins of Abe Lincoln and John Kennedy succeeded. There is no known evidence they were hired by kingpin bankers. Both assassins were assassinated before they could either confess or stand trial. And there are those who believe there is no such thing as meaningless coincidence. There is likewise no meaningless coincidence when it comes to such a rare and powerful pattern as that which formed on December 21, 2010. What will finally emerge from this rare pattern regarding the Fed and our money we have yet to discover. Astrology tells us when a time for change has ripened, but not what change we will collectively make. Endnotes: I am ignoring the difference here between tropical and sidereal, Western and Vedic systems of astrology, and emphasizing planetary angles and transit-to-natal aspects. Figured according to the Vedic system, transiting Pluto is in Sagittarius, not Capricorn, owing to a 26 degree difference in Western and Vedic systems. To map both the Fed's nativity and the Winter Solstice of 2010 according to the Vedic system would mean that there is no alignment with the Galactic Center because of the Precession of the Equinoxes. Why adhere to the Western system? Well, when we go to a lumber yard and order two-by-fours, we know they no longer measure two honest inches by four honest inches, yet we still call them two-by-fours and they still work for their intended purpose. Even though I admire the astronomical accuracy of the Sidereal Vedic ephemeris, the Tropical Western ephemeris works just as well to reveal the meaningful mundane and transit-to-natal aspects. For an in-depth Tropical analysis of the Fed's natal chart, I recommend "Funny Money and the Fed" by Kathy Allan, 2010 Libra Edition of The Mountain Astrologer. See Arlo Guthrie: "I'm Changing My Name To Fannie Mae' -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAG0XMRty5Y Why do I use the Uranus in Gemini Rising chart for the USA when prevailing opinion argues for the Sibley Chart's Sagittarius Rising? When we review the history of how the people of the 13 original colonies declared themselves a separate nation, it is revolutionary passion that dominates, and Uranus is the undisputed planet of revolutionary zeal. Establishing the exact time for the USA's "birth" is an exploration of subtle and not-so-subtle reasons for and against the July 4 date, and one exact time on July 4 verses others. This gives rise to endless debates based on endlessly debatable data. Rather than deal with the squabble of this debatable data, I view the USA as an entity and ask what Ascendant best describes the character and personality of this entity in the community of nations. That takes us to perceptions, viewpoints. Most Americans see the USA as possessing the qualities best described by the Sibley Chart's Sagittarius Rising. But if you travel to other lands and listen to people discuss the USA, the viewpoint you get is best described as Uranus Rising in Gemini. The USA is seen by turns as the world community's innovative genius and feared outcast. Above all, from the viewpoint of other nations, the USA is unpredictable. Our government ostracizes Cuba and North Korea as communist, yet establishes interdependent relationships with the world's leading communist nation, China. While we as a nation vigorously deliver charity to some, we just as vigorously bomb others to rubble. Stripped of our own homegrown rationales, this behavior also describes an entity with Uranus in Gemini Rising, one who "marches to his own drummer." So my choice of Uranus in Gemini Rising is based on our behavior as a nation and the conflicted history of our founding. In the transit-to-natal studies I do, what matters most are natal and transit-to-natal planetary aspects within our tidy little Solar System, rather than our Solar System's ever-changing position in the vast and yet-to-be-discovered universe beyond.

Morrison Arrest Memorial

 

 Jim Morrison Memorial
 
 This was originally run on newsletter@jymsbooks.com in late January 2011.  

 

What has stayed with me about Jim Morrison was his vision of a oneness that transcends our temporary, earthbound beliefs.    

 

Back in the mid-sixties, I'd been hired to write an article about him for the New York Times Sunday Magazine. This was as The Doors first album was making a big hit. After lunch with the people who were then The Doors management, Jim suggested the two of us go for a walk in a nearby park. That's where he told me he was a poet. I wasn't sure what he meant by poet.  He pulled a notebook out of the back pocket of his leather pants and handed it to me.  Handwritten lines.  "I'd like to get this published," he said. The big commercial publishers were not hot to promote books of poetry, but I thought that with his rising rock star fame, maybe… 

 

As I got to know him over the coming months, a second thing about him leaped out: It was like he saw the world from the perspective of an ancient pantheistic shaman.  For Jim, the gods and goddesses were everywhere around us and acting out hilariously and/or tragically through everyone and everything.

 

I soon realized that Jim wanted to share this vision.  That's what his lyrics and performances were really all about.  He talked about a rock concert being a shamanic ceremony to lift everyone's consciousness into the ecstatic transcendent. 

 

His detractors—which were many back then, the Times rejected my article—said he was not for real. "He don't wear saffron robes, he's just another grungy hippie." But I knew otherwise. It was like he was born with the certainty that he was an eternal soul passing though another temporary lifetime, and had absolutely no fear of death.  He lived fully in that lifetime but mentally and spiritually was separate from it, seeing it as though he'd been abruptly dropped into it, and was sometimes disoriented by it. That vision is what made him such a fascinating enigma to so many. 

 

After hearing news of his death in Paris, I realized that what he was not able to do was live as his real self in our modern reality of mechanistic and supposedly logical cause-effect.  He was as uncomfortable in our ordinary reality as Vincent Van Gogh, for he saw beyond it, into the realm of primary causes, the realm of the gods, and tried to share this with us.