Musings

Starting with now, late summer 2011, as I tap out the signs for sounds on the keyboard, the news media outlets blare with bald and bold messages cut from the archetypal molds; in other words, not-at-all subtle symbolic associations can be perceived on any front page or news feed headlines. Take this one I saw on my walk around the block:

“Texas Gov. Perry Signs Pledge to Back Constitutional Amendment Against Same-Sex Marriage”

For those of you avoiding the circus that passes these days for U.S.politics, Governor Rick Perry is a recent entry into the Republican Party collective of candidates for president. Because Gov. Perry is a member of the governmental establishment and also a conservative, it is pretty easy to associate him with the planet Saturn. Saturn upholds tradition and conservatism, with a favored feeling towards the “good old days” and prefers maintaining the status quo and hierarchical power arrangements that are the patriarchal, “father knows best” type structures in our current culture. Saturn likes to build things that endure, and enduring value means resistance to change, and Saturn, when threatened, will punish or block attempts to reform and revolutionize. Libra is the sign of legal and contractual agreements, and we see the workings of Saturn through this sign (from October 2009 to October 2012, generally speaking) as the Saturnian public figure, Gov. Perry, seeks to uphold traditional [Saturn] values by ensuring that the law [Libra] of the land, the U.S. Constitution [Saturn], acts as a vehicle for limiting [Saturn] the privilege of marriage [Libra] to one man and one woman.

To bring in one interplanetary aspect, unfolding as I write, the tension-and-friction producing square between Mars (the planet of warriors, soldiers and athletes) and Saturn (the planet of Judicial Authority) can be associated with the story about U.S. District Judge Susan Illston (one of Saturn’s representatives) denying [Saturn] the motion  [Mars] for a new trial or acquittal for sports star [Mars] Barry Bonds on obstruction [Saturn] of justice [Libra] charges.

Making the correspondence between world events and the planets is known as mundane astrology. Predictions are tricky and prone to failure because there is so much information to sort out, both with the horoscope and in the news. Without going into the obscure details that were used to choose a particular upcoming date, it might be interesting, risky and fun to go out on a predictive limb with regards to world events and take the lumps or glory, depending upon the outcome, and learn from the exercise, while perhaps honing one’s abilities to “forecast” using astrological techniques and methods.

For reasons too complex to outline here, I will choose the days of September 27^th, 28^th and 29^th. Following the next New Moon, which falls in the zodiacal sign of Libra, the aspects indicate planetary activity involving Saturn, in a conjunction (joined) with Venus, also in Libra. (The image of female [Venus]  judges [Saturn], or maybe Secretary of State [Saturn] Hilary Clinton [Venus] come to my literal mind.) Additionally, the Sun is joined with Mercury while both are a quarter of a circle, or ‘square’ aspect to Pluto. As mentioned before, the square denotes tension-and-friction, and suggests that push has come to shove, as if some “unleashing” dynamic will occur after a build-up of force and resistance.

Based upon some indicators that shall remain unnamed for simplicity’s sake, I choose to look at themes happening on the front pages back on the Full Moon of July 14^th. Thinking that the planetary positions will reflect earthly occurrences related to the days around mid-July, I wonderingly anticipate, yes predict, (yikes, I feel so nervous) that further governmental and judicial [Saturn] investigation [Pluto] of Rupert Murdoch’s [Pluto-crat] News Corp. telephone tapping scandal [Pluto] will result in disgrace [Pluto]with consequences [Saturn] such as heavy fines, loss of power [Saturn]in the media world (like the loss of The Wall Street Journal) [Pluto/Mercury], termination [Saturn & Pluto] of (more) key figures and/or sentencing (by a female judge) to time in custody or community service [Saturn]. It would not surprise me if Rupert Murdoch himself, his son James, or his close confidante, Les Hinton, falls seriously ill or worse [Saturn & Pluto] due to the pressure [Saturn]and fallout [Pluto] from the scandal. These predictions are not unlikely in any account, I am simply saying that the New Moon on September 27^th will usher in news on that day or the next two. We shall see..

One more prediction: Significant upheaval [Pluto] in the banking and world economic markets [Saturn & Pluto]as the devaluation [Saturn]of the U.S. Dollar and the European Sovereign Debt Crisis make more headlines [Mercury]. Moody’s Investor’s Service, Inc.’s lowering [Saturn] of the United States’ credit rating will seem like good news [Mercury] compared to the bombs dropping [Mercury/Pluto] during the last week of September. It looks to me like the interlinking economies will drag the world economy down [Saturn]with the various markets responding to further revelations [Mercury/Pluto] regarding the extent of national insolvencies, plus threats [Mercury/Pluto]or outbreaks of hostilities, such as war, state or non-state sponsored terrorism or news [Mercury] of a major defeat or escalation of conflict [Pluto] in a hot-spot region, like the Middle East. We shall see…

Once I get my copy of The Book of World Horoscopes by Nicholas Campion, the necessary astro-text for mundane astrology work, I will really go out on a limb and name some specific countries that are likely to be “in the news”, unless of course I feel utterly embarrassed by all this and never put a prediction out for public view again. We shall see…