Lunar Ingresses & Economic Turns

[Jim Eshelman]

[This post is from March 18, 2008, over six months before the Lehman Bros. collapse, I had forgotten that we were already tracking this stuff that early. From a perspective nine years later, it is even more fascinating to me.]

Dramatic moves by the Federal Reserve are signalling just how serious the national economic situation currently is. The opening paragraph of the LA Times' lead front page story this morning shows in a shocking way just how bad this is in the eyes of commentators. The reporter began:

The Federal Reserve's extraordinary move to rescue a tanking investment giant and expand its emergency lending appeared to ay off Monday. Although most U.S. markets showed fresh signs of strain, none snapped, and while some banks and Wall Street firms saw their stocks pummelled, none collapsed.

The actual facts in this positive-spun lead paragraph are "most U.S. markets showed fresh signs of strain," and "some banks and Wall Street firms saw their stocks pummelled." The extraordinary part is that the writer and the paper expected U.S. markets to "snap" and banks and Wall Street firms to "collapse" - and they're pleased that none did!

That's a hallmark of a bad state.

What's going on to cause this?

Well, no major planets have changed signs, and, although a couple of fast planets have been opposing Saturn for a few days (as happens fairly often), there are no major aspects slamming us. The one noticeable outer planet aspect, yesterday's Jupiter sesquisquare Saturn, was probably the short-term stabilizer. The approaching Jupiter-Uranus sextile is a traditional marker of a market pick-up.

Worth noting, however, is the March 16 Canlunar. With a Washington MC of 9 AQU 57, it places the Venus-Saturn opposition right along the Meridian (with Mercury very close). The wider Mars-Pluto involvements are significant mostly by Mars' partile sextile to the tightly angular Saturn. It seems to me that this pair (semi- & sesqui-squared by Jupiter) shows both the severity and the bail-out. Venus-Saturn (which is a common aspect at the time of serious fires) likely is showing personal losses, impact on families, etc. Or, in simple terms, "There is no joy in Mudville."

The next Caplunar occurs March 30. At Washington, the Ascendant is 6 SCO 56, within a degree of squaring Saturn. I don't expect things to get better in the next two weeks and, in fact, they likely will get worse. (Saturn, in the Caplunar, hits the Sun-Moon and Moon-Mars midpoint, implicating the close Sun-Mars square.)

Mars is a player in these charts. It takes adrenaline for a real sense of panic to take hold. Fortunately, Uranus stays involved and, with its Jupiter aspect, is more likely to show ingenuity for holding the fort.

[Jim Eshelman]

It's worth considering the possible impact of this on the Presidential campaign.

Though it's tempting to rule out any Republican chances this year, McCain is going to be a strong competitor, and he does have that Jupiter progression maturing right at Election time.

It's worth noting what voting Americans have done in times of extreme financial uncertainty.

During the two worst economic downturns in our nation's history, a President was in office with a Cancer Moon in close hard aspect to Saturn. (We don't have that at present, though we do have a President with four planets rising in Cancer. Stellia have demonstrated themselves in Presidential patterning to be as strong as luminary placement.) In both of those times, the nation responded by electing a Capricorn Sun (McKinley and FDR).

In times of lesser financial extremis, the reaction has been to elect Capricorn luminaries or (about as often) an Aries Moon - both indicators of strong econoic decisiveness. For example, in recent times, Carter was defeated by Capricorn-Aries Reagan, and Bush-1 by Leo-Aries Clinton.

McCain is a Leo-Capricorn. He fits the broad pattern of those to whom the nation has turned to pull it out of crisis, including both financial and military crises. Capricorn Moons have not been lucky for the Presidency itself (and anyone voting for McCain should pay close attention to who his running mate is), but this doesn't change the fact that the he's the kind of personality type to whom the nation has turned under severe economic and other distress.

Obama, a Cancer-Taurus, is quite the opposite. He has the type of chart marking those who have been the problem-creators in the first place. There's no question that his election would be precedent-shattering in many ways, but here is another: The nation would be electing the only Cancer Sun besides Hoover, and a constellational type that they are usually voting out as the trouble-makers in the present sort of conditions.

Which leaves Sen. Clinton as the decider. Her Libra-Pisces luminaries have little precedent to follow, primarily because they would be expected to express far differently in a woman than in a man. The key thing in her case, if the 8 PM chart is correct, is that she has the rising Uranus of Jefferson and FDR. She would be expected to take the quick, ingenious, effective, extreme types of corrective moves that FDR took within days of coming to office. But will the nation see it in her at election time?