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More on What's Happening in the U.S. Chart

Last September I wrote an article about how the subprime mortgage problem, and the ensuing downturn in the economy was indicated in the U.S. chart that I follow. It is the chart for the signing of the Articles of Confederation which is for November 15, 1777, 12:46 PM, York Pennsylvania. It is the suggested chart of deceased astrologer David Solte.

After having many years of a robust economy, suddenly things changed last year as three different stressful aspects were working in this chart. The first major one was the progressed Sun coming up to 11 Cancer 11 (homes) to exactly conjoin the natal U.S. north node last April, which of course opposed the south node at that degree in Capricorn (business) in the 11th house of long term goals. And natal U.S. Mars is only one degree past that at 12 Capricorn 23. So by the end of last July, news that there was trouble in the subprime mortgage markets was made public.

As the progressed Sun moved up to close in on the opposition to U.S. natal Mars, more fallout ensued, and by the end of last year, it adversely affected the whole economy and it slowed way down. New building came to a stand still; the whole construction industry slowed down; and the backbone of our economy, the auto industry was anemic; and the jobless rate rose.

The news just kept getting gloomier in the beginning of 2008, on January 3rd, and as the natal Sun came up 12 Capricorn to conjoin natal U.S. Mars, it reinforced this opposition aspect.

At the same time, we got slammed with another whammy from a different direction. Transiting Pluto at 29 Sagittarius 15 (foreign) is coming up to conjoin the natal

U.S.

11th house cusp at 29 Sagittarius 34. And on January 3rd, transiting Mars reached 28 Gemini 52 R, (the sign of driving) to conjoin the progressed

U.S.

north node at 28 Gemini 59R. So the involvement of the progressed nodes, near the U.S. 5th and 11th house cusps, transiting Mars which opposed transiting Pluto all went on to square natal U.S. Neptune in the 7th house at 28 Virgo 43. On that day, the price of oil went up to $100 a barrel, an all-time high. The higher price of gas, of course, added more pressure on to consumers, as driving and all other byproducts made from oil keep going up. This Mars position has resulted in very volatile markets so far this year also!

And last Sunday, on the 6th, with this configuration still in mind, transiting Mars retrograded back to 28 Gemini and squared natal U.S. Neptune (a water planet) at 28 Virgo 43 in the 7th house of our enemies, and the Iranian fast boats played their dangerous game of harassing our American ships traveling in international waters.

We still will have to contend with the effect of Mars, back at these degrees toward the end of February again, adversely affecting the U.S. chart again even though Pluto will have moved on to 0 degrees of Capricorn by then. However, Pluto retrogrades back into the last two degrees of Sagittarius again from June 13th to November 25th and that doesn't bode well for us in this election year.

Vulnerable dates to watch for are June 17th when the transiting Venus gets to 29 Gemini to oppose retrograde Pluto at 29 Sagittarius, followed by the Sun on the 20th which gets to that degree in Gemini. On July 9th, transiting Mercury gets to 29 Gemini and opposes Pluto as well. August 16th, Mars at 28 Gemini opposes Pluto again at 28 Sagittarius R and both go on to square natal U.S. Neptune again, and the last week of August transiting Venus and Mercury get to 27 to 29 degrees of Virgo also. On September 20th and 21st, the transiting Sun gets to 27-29 Virgo to conjoin natal U.S. Neptune and square Pluto (direct) at 28 Sagittarius. And finally this year, on November 10th transiting Venus reaches 29 Sagittarius to conjoin Pluto.

The third aspect afflicting the U.S. chart is the progressed Moon. It is at 7 Scorpio 31 now, and coming up in the next month to conjoin progressed U.S. Saturn at 08 Scorpio 41 R in the financial 8th house. This position squares progressed Venus at 08 Leo25 in the U.S. 6th house of work. Even the people that are working are having trouble making ends meet. This aspect describes the problems the banks are having, as people are falling behind in their credit card and car payments now.

Also, Venus (money) in Leo, which is the natural 5th house sign of speculation, and afflicted ties into the poor stock market performance so far this year. Along with the aforementioned Mars, Pluto opposition affecting the stock market, we saw that yesterday the financial markets stumbled to end steeply lower, as the Dow was socked by its worst first-eight-trading-days-of-a-year run in 17 year. Write-downs and slashed profit forecasts signaled slowing consumer spending and fueled talk of recession. Since the start of 2008, the Dow has dropped 658.52 points, or 5%. For the week, the Dow declined 1.5%.

In my article last September, before anyone was uttering the word "recession", I said this economy looks like it would turn into a recession to me. Economist, Peter Schiff, a regular on the business shows, is shouting from the rooftops that "this is the beginning of the end for the US economy." Among his predictions back in 2006 were: a housing-led slump, even a depression, with at least a 20 per cent US economic contraction. He says "the US dollar will lose half its value."

But getting back to the worrisome progressed U.S. Moon. In March it moves up to 9 Scorpio 43 to conjoin natal U.S. Mercury (ruler of the 5th house of the stock market) at 09 Scorpio 43, still in the financial 8th house and still squaring progressed Venus in the 6th. This has got to be bad for the bank, and the financial markets!

And after that, by August, the progressed U.S. Venus moves up to 9 Scorpio to take its turn to square natal U.S. Mercury. These aspects look like Mr. Schiff's future predictions could come to pass, as his past predictions did. Let's hope not!