ASTROLOGY BY JAN WARREN ALLEN

In my previous articles, I have been following the downward economic trend that our country is currently in. From   watching the U.S. chart I follow unfold; that is for the signing of the Articles Of Confederation (November 15, 1777 at 12:46 PM in York, Pennsylvania), we can clearly see how the spectacle of bank runs, bank failures (i.e. takeovers), a falling housing market, increased cost of credit, emergency Fed loans and banks trying to boost capital through rights issues, continues to unfold. And just last week, (on Friday, July 11th) we had another major banking crisis.

Everything began to unravel last summer (2007) however, as the progressed U.S. Sun in Cancer (homes) opposed U.S. Mars (action) in the business sign of Capricorn. Shady business tactics in the mortgage industries started to surface then, and things have been snowballing, and going down hill  at a rapid pace ever since!

To  add to that, the U.S. progressed Moon is creating havoc as it moves up in Scorpio in the 8th house of banking. On Friday it was reported that the two biggest mortgage companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were  in big trouble. Together they  account for approximately 80% of the mortgage market. They either “own” or insure about $12 trillion of mortgages The market reacted to the news by falling over 200 points in the middle of the day, but ended up down over 100 points. For the first time in over two years the Dow went below 11,000 for awhile.

Progressed Venus at 9 Leo 01 in the 6th house has slowly come up to square natal U.S. Mercury at 9 Scorpio 43 in the 8th house of banking. The mortgage companies practically threw money (Venus) at people who used it for Leo types of extravagant things, like taking vacations, splurging on buying second homes, etc.. So on the 11th, transiting Venus (money) came up to 28 Cancer (homes) to oppose natal U.S. Pluto (banks- mortgages) at 28 Capricorn (business), and everything just fell apart.

Another interesting event with more bad news transpired later in the day, after the markets closed. As the transiting Moon moved up in Scorpio and was approaching a conjunction to  U.S. natal and progressed Saturn in the 8th, which of course squared progressed U.S. Venus in the 6th house , it was announced that  the IndyMac Bankcorp was insolvent; closed, and  taken over by the FDIC.

This happened mainly after a run on the bank that started on June 26th. It was caused by a public statement Senator Chuck Schumer made in which he stated that IndyMac's lax lending standards and purchases of brokered deposits were the causes of its poor financial condition. Its stock has fallen from $56 on May 11, 2006 to 28 cents at Friday's close.

                                             

This is the extension then of the bad news of March 17th when progressed U.S. Venus was at 8 Leo and the transiting Moon came up to that degree, and both went on to square natal and progressed U.S. Saturn at 8 Scorpio in the 8th house. The progressed U.S. Moon by then, had moved up to 9 Scorpio 41 and was conjoining U.S. natal Mercury at that degree, still in the sign of, and the house that rules banks. That was when Bear Stearns was in such bad shape, it was taken over by J.P. Morgan; and their stock went from $80 to $2 practically overnight.

This week (of the 13th) there are more rippling connections getting triggered, so I don't expect we will have a very good week financially. If things don't fall apart even more today (Monday), as a follow up to last Friday's events; on Wednesday, transiting Mercury reaches 12 Cancer and conjoins the U.S. progressed Sun and opposes the U.S. Mars. And on Friday, the full Moon at 26 Capricorn 04 is only two degrees  shy of conjoining natal U. S. Pluto at 28 Capricorn 01.

And at the same time transiting Venus moves up to 7 degrees of Leo to conjoin progressed U.S. Venus which of course squares natal and progressed U.S. Saturn in the U.S. 8th house. The progressed U.S. Moon has moved up to 13 Scorpio now and sits on the U.S. 9th house cusp, indicating that there are important foreign connections and implications to our banking crisis here at home. 

 However, what is most worrisome is the Solar Eclipse we are coming up to on August 1st, which will be at 9 Leo 32; adding its weight to the aforementioned aspect and the already shaky banking crisis. There are over 90 banks in the U.S. that are in trouble, and the government has just said that it would not bail any more of them out. The IndyMac bank is the second largest bank failure in history. The culprit lies in what they refer to as  syndication -- that is originating a loan and then selling it to someone else, and this greedy practice which produced reckless growth, is what led to the failure of our financial institutions. Investor are naturally concerned that their money will just simply vanish, and a further loss of confidence in our banking system will only make matters worse!