ASTROLOGY BY JAN WARREN ALLEN

SEPTEMBER 26, 2008

The political and financial events of the last few days have been fascinating, to say the least! John McCain threw another Hail Mary pass (transiting Uranus conjunct his natal Saturn)  as he announced on Wednesday, September 24th that he would suspend his campaign and wanted the debates, scheduled for Friday night to be postponed also. So what happened? Mercury went retrograde, that's what happened. This ties into the U.S. chart I follow..the one for the signing of the Articles of Confederation..November 15, 1777..12:46 PM..York Pennsylvania. 

 By Thursday afternoon, Retrograde Mercury at 22 Libra 41 trined progressed Mercury at 22 Gemini 53 (rules the 5th house -the stock market) and earlier, the Dow went up 196.89 points  as investors felt that the 700 billion dollar bailout deal was near. Transiting Mars then at 24 Libra, was also a beneficial factor. However, by late afternoon, Mercury was T-squaring the natal U.S. 6th and 12th house cusps, and negotiations took on an angry tone, and progress was stalled.

At the same time, earlier in the day transiting Venus at 01Scorpio squared progressed U.S. retrograde Pluto at 01 Aquarius 04 from the 8th to the 12th house, which brought about nasty, financial negotiations in a sequestered environment. It also spelled the collapse of Washington Mutual, the giant Savings and Loan bank that came to symbolize the excesses of the mortgage boom.  It was seized by federal regulators on Thursday night and it is the largest bank failure in American history.

In looking ahead, an important time frame is coming up on September 30th-October 1st. Mars is coming up to 27-28 degrees of Libra then which falls in McCain's natal 1st house and T-squares his Moon at 27 Capricorn 03 and opposes his Pluto at 28 Cancer in his 10 th house. This ties into the U.S. chart, as its Pluto is at 28 Capricorn 01 in the 12th house. That is certainly a worrisome aspect for McCain; not only for physical danger, but for his popularity as well. Furthermore, transiting Pluto at 28 Sagittarius 37 forms an 8th house inconjunct to McCain's natal Pluto in his 10th house of career.

At the same time, Pluto, in Obama's natal 11th house of politics trines his progressed Uranus ( the planet that rules politics) at 28 Leo 08 in his 7th house. More help comes to him as his progressed Venus at 27 Leo 15 conjoins his natal north node at that degree, also in the 7th house.

Furthermore, on September 30-October 1st, transiting Venus comes up to 8 and 9 degrees of Scorpio in the U.S. 8th house of banking, and squares progressed U.S. Venus (money) at 9 Leo 16 in the 6th house. So we might be getting more bad financial news. And keep in mind that not all lawmakers favor the present 700 billion dollar bailout package, as some of them think it is not the right solution and just won't work.  So stay tuned folks, as  the plot thickens!