Heads Up!

The Writer’s Astrological Almanac

by Kathy Watts

December 2011

Happy December.  As the solar year wanes, the holiday season kicks in.  Mercury is retrograde for the first two weeks, so social interactions may be a bit more scrambled than usual, but that can be considered part of the fun.  Resolve to enjoy this month!

Thu Dec 01 we begin the month with the Moon conjuncting Neptune in the end of Aquarius, then going void of course.   Dreams are rarely as strong as they are now.  Two and a half hours later Venus exactly conjuncts Pluto.  Keep the level of excitement under control, except perhaps in your works of fiction.  An hour after this, the Moon enters the sign of Pisces.  Sensitivity peaks, but remember, Mercury is retrograde so don’t get maudlin.

Fri Dec 02 the Moon is in Pisces all day.  In the very early morning, the Sun exactly squares Mars.  Heads Up.  You don’t have to be impatient with yourself.

Sat Dec 03 the Moon enters Aries, and conjuncts Uranus an hour and twenty minutes later.  The Moon will be in Aries until Tuesday morning, so feel independent and make time to work on some of your own stuff. (continue reading…)

Heads Up!
The Writer’s Astrological Almanac
by Kathy Watts

April 2011
Happy Spring! Congratulations on weathering the storms of March. May there be more sun, warmth, and green growing things in our immediate future! Mercury may be retrograde, but that can be a good thing (yes, you heard me right). Think clearly, carefully, perhaps a bit more slowly (although with Mercury in Aries, how slow can it be?), and deeply. Be grateful for a bit of restraint and a slight curb on what otherwise might be shameless mental mania.

April starts off on a Friday, the day of the week special to Venus and all things charming and lovely. The Moon is void of course in Pisces (and not yet in Aries, for better or worse) when Mars changes signs and enters his home sign of Aries. In a month like this, we could set the world on fire, so be careful and make good choices all month long!

Sat Apr 02 the Moon conjuncts Mars in Aries. Be primed for a high-energy weekend, and remember to take notes, as there may be little time to compose it all properly. Not quite a couple of hours later, the Moon conjuncts Uranus in Aries. This can be more high-energy surprises, some of which best belong in fiction. Don’t let the stunning stuff pass by unnoticed. Writers are notorious for being observant, after all. It’s also the day before the New Moon (yes, in combustible Aries). Drive safely, especially if you’re in a little red car. Be cautious but not paranoid. Heads Up.

Sun Apr 03 is the New Moon at 13Ari. Inspiration is a form of high energy. If you’re not already fired up about your work, perhaps now’s the time to ask for that. Midday, the Moon conjuncts Jupiter, in Aries. This conjunction so close to a new moon makes it even more powerful. Be wide open to massive good luck, and don’t narrowly dictate what form it takes. Two hours later Mars conjuncts Uranus, in Aries. Mars on his alone is combustible. With Uranus, things can be explosive. In Aries (ruled by Mars, don’t forget) it can be more high-yield than “usual” (not that anything about Uranus is usual). I may stay in today and work on my disaster novel. (continue reading…)

Alistair Barr over at MarketWatch warns, today,  that emerging markets may be peaking.

Feb. 15, 2011, 2:55 p.m. EST

Emerging markets may be overheating: Citi CEO

Big banks may struggle to make 20% returns on equity, Pandit says

By Alistair Barr, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Emerging markets may be overheating and will have to increase capacity and control inflation, Citigroup Inc. Chief Executive Vikram Pandit said Tuesday.

Pandit also said big banks may struggle to generate 20% returns on equity in the future, in a speech at the ISI Group 2011 conference in New York.

“Many of the emerging markets are operating at or near capacity and are therefore at risk of overheating - and must deal with the possible consequences of inflation,” he remarked.

Surging food prices show that “there are some countries where you’ve reached close to capacity,” Pandit said, without mentioning specific nations.

Still, the Citi (NYSE:C)  chief noted that this is happening because emerging markets are growing strongly. “Their challenge is to work out how to increase capacity. Central banks on the ground are doing a good job trying to handle this trade-off between growth and capacity.”

Citi has the most exposure to emerging markets of any big U.S. bank. Pandit said Tuesday he’s “comfortable” with the portfolio of loans the company has made in these countries. That’s partly because consumer leverage and corporate-lending penetration is still relatively low, he explained…” More:

http://tinyurl.com/467nh6p

Surely, with the lose monetary policy, we hear all the time, how ’strong’ the dollar is against the Euro, and the currencies of other developed nations, but what we do not hear much about,  is how zerp (zero interest rates policy) has increased the currencies of emerging nations, especially those with large mining and mineral operations. For example, Australia’s dollar, today trades at 0.9964, pretty much, neck and neck,  with the US dollar.

There is no doubt that commodities have had an enormous run up in the past year. Oil is trading at 86 a barrel, and gold is off the roof in the 1300s. How long can a good thing last, is anybody’s guess, and so, since it’s a question, I am interested in. I feel passionately about markets. It is my business, to know, and it should be yours, too.  So I ask:

Are emerging markets about to hit the skids?

When we look at horary charts, the first thing we do is to look to the ASC. This gives the atmosphere of the question to us. Here we have the ‘quick’ and nimble Gemini, rising. This will a sort of lightness or flexibility to the atmosphere of the question. In other words, it’s a question sort of asked at the ’spur of the moment’ and so it’s a casually asked question, much the sign, Gemini, which is comprised of two children. In the first house, we see the Dragon’s Tail at the last degree of Gemini. This could portend some downward movement, but at 29 degrees, it may be ‘down the road’ a bit.

The next thing we do in such a chart, is to examine the condition of the planet that governs, or has control of the sign rising on the eastern horizon. In this case, that planet is Mercury.  The first thing we notice is that Mercury  is of the same nature as the sign on that all important cusp, in other words, light and airy in nature because the sign rising, and its ruler,  Mercury are both in an air signs. Air brings a lot of ‘hope’ for the future, and as such, they tend to be bullish.

Mercury is up at the top of the chart. This portion of the chart is called the ‘price’ in ancient charts. So when we see Mercury heading towards the top of the chart. And we all know that old saying, ‘what goes up must come down.’ In this case, Mercury is about 5 degrees from the top. This may buy emerging markets a little time. However, Mercury is also heading straight into the molten bubbling rays of the sun. This is called, combustion. The Sun is just so much bigger and stronger than Mercury, that it doesn’t ake much imagination to figure out what happens, when this happens. In ancient think, this is the sign of trial by fire.  In the question at hand, the all powerful, Sun also rules the house of bottoms, that of the 4th.

What does this mean? Well, in  a nutshell, given Mercury’s upcoming peaking, then falling into the fiery arms of the Sun, not to mention, that depressing South Node in the 1st,  we may, indeed,  see emerging markets go down. But when ???

Well, in horary, angular planets stand for months. Since Mercury is within 5 degrees of the cusp of the 10th,  it may buy emerging markets a few months, but since Mercury is just leaving the antiscion of the parsfortuna, we have a pretty strong bet that the boom days, are over.

We are thrilled to announce that  the internationally renowned astrologer, and force behind the ultimate astrological website, http://skyscript.co.uk, Deborah Houlding will be returning to San Francisco, by popular demand, to give a not to be missed workshop on Saturday and Sunday October 23rd and 24th.

We tend to hear a lot about ‘essential dignity’ and dispositors in traditional astrology, but very little is said about that all important piece of our astrological puzzle, the all ‘dasturiya’ which is the planet that rises directly to the east of any given planet. In traditional astrology, we come to take for granted that the disposing planet, that planet which owns the sign the planet or luminary we are examining. The disposing planet is often called the ‘lord’ because the disposer tends to ‘lord’ over said planet.  Let’s take Venus for example. She is said to be soft, and ever sweet and full of ardor. Place her in the sign, Virgo, and Mercury will act as her director.  Since Mercury is neuter, the person with this Venus may be more  drawn to the library, than to the boudoir.

Disposition, of course, is ‘old hat’ to most traditionalists and moderns alike, but what Abu Massar referred to as the dasturiya, seems to have vanished from the traditional lexicon. Hopefully we can remedy this situation, because the dasturiya, (especially of the Sun) is one of the most potent planets in the entire chart, goading the person to achieve. In a sense, the dispositor acts like a lord, while the dasturiya acts like a nagging wife. You just cannot avoid it! The ancients felt that the dasturiya of the Sun, especially important. According to the ancients, the Sun was the fountain of divine fire, which inspired man to find his purpose in life. To get a fire going, we need a spark. We might say that the dasturiya, especially that of the Sun, will act as a  divine  spark, igniting us to find own special greatness. To find the  dasturiya we need only look just east. In the case of the Sun, we look to the planet or luminary which rises directly previous to the Sun.

For instance, we can look at the chart of Abraham Lincoln, who according to the note in his mother’s bible was said to have been born ‘right at sun up.’  Thus, we notice, his Sun is right at the eastern horizon. Having the Sun here, btw, according to the ancients is one of the  the best places for the Sun, and it alone will give young Abraham the vigor to live a long and productive life. It will add to his ability to ‘get ahead’ because so placed it will enhance his sense of purpose, and most importantly, placed on the strongest angle of the chart, gives him the ability to act.

With the Sun rising, Lincoln will have a healthy ego, but placed in Aquarius, the Sun’s detriment, Lincoln will think in terms of the bigger picture. Such a person will not be what one could consider warm and gregarious, because when the Sun is in Aquarius, it is ruled by the grim Saturn. So Abe will be aloof, and considered even a bit cold. Perhaps given his Aquarius Sun, he might be well ahead of his time, and not afraid (to parody the Apple commercials) ‘think different. Given his times, he might have become a reformer, or even an inventor, one who would go far, because the dispositor or ruler of his beautifully placed Sun, the ringed planet, Saturn is also very strongly placed up at the Midheaven, or the noon position. The combination of the Sun in Aquarius disposed by Saturn in Sagittarius, will give him the zeal to push through is goals.  With Abe’s Sun placed at dawn position, and dispositor at noon, we already have confluent indicators that Abe will be an ambitious and mature young man who will take the long view, and have what it takes to go very far in life.

However, what sets Lincoln apart from other men of determination and ambition is because of his dasturiya. Money is a powerful elixir.They say that ‘power corrupts totally.’ There is a reason for this. Let’s face it, when a person gets to a certain stage in life, it is easier to keep the wheel going. Once a person ‘gets to the top’ it is human nature to try to keep on accumulating; to protect ‘whats mine.’   This is where the adage, ‘the rich get richer’ came from, because once most people get to the top of the pyramid, they spend the rest of their born days, grabbing more and fighting off competitors. It is Lincoln’s dasturiya,  the Moon which at sets him apart,  not just from other successful politicians, who ‘make it’ but from all presidents because she forces him to remember his roots. Detrimented in Capricorn, and also disposed by that powerful 10th house Saturn, it becomes the goad that sparks his altruistic zeal that made Lincoln stand up for every one of his subjects, not just the rich and powerful. When he said,  ”that government, of the people, by the people and for the people, will not perish from this earth”   it was his Moon talking. We know from mundane astrology that the represents the common man. Because he did what the Moon forced him to do, take care of everybody in need, black, white and in between. And because of this, Lincoln stands out above all other presidents.

Now mind you, even though the Moon is Lincoln’s royal goad in life, we do not see ‘lunar’ features or temperament outwardly. This is because of ‘accidental’ placement. In charts, when it comes to ‘what you see’ it is the angular planets.  So with Lincoln, we see the overt characteristics like his very dark angular, some would call, Saturnian features (the Sun in Aquarius, angular 1^st with dispositor Saturn in angular 10). And indeed, Lincoln was not what you would call a touch feely kind of a guy. In fact, he was said to have been dumped by his first girlfriend who said he was ‘no gentlemen’ when they had returned from long walk with a pregnant woman, toting sleeping babe in her arms, and had never once offered to carry her load. When confronted with this, he said something to the effect of, ‘well, I figured if she wanted help she woulda asked.”  So instead of seeing a soft and round personage, the lunar dasturiya is placed in the 12^th a cadent, house, and nstead, acts like a subtle voice whispering from the shadows. In addition, like his Sun, Lincoln’s Moon is also detrimented. Since Lincoln is a man, the Moon will represent the women in his life. Mary Todd Lincoln was known to have suffered emotional stress, some said she was unstable. In addition, his mother was considered a ‘lose woman’ because it was said that she cohabited with Lincoln’s dad, prior to marriage.  Thus she was shunned from society, which out in the ‘frontier’ meant company. It was also said that she was a cultured and literate woman, but also a sad woman because of all the isolation. We see this in Lincoln’s placement of the detrimented Moon in Capricorn (the sign opposite its home base of Cancer). I think it in many ways, given that the Moon is his dasturiya, that he was deeply affected by her being an outcast, so that he remembered all the other outcasts and became a president who was ‘of, by and for the people’ not just some of them, but every last one of them.

This post was inspired by the brilliant work of Silva who did an amazing piece on the doryphory at our list Angelicus Merlin. Her astrological work,  each an exquisite lesson in itself, of which I am forever indebted, is not to be missed. Enjoy!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/angelicusmerlin/

Go for it!  Heads Up

Chairman Levin, Ranking Member Coburn and Members of the Subcommittee:

Thank you for the invitation to appear before you today as you examine some of the causes and consequences of the financial crisis.

Today, the financial system is still fragile but it is largely stable. This stability is a result of decisive and necessary government action during the fall of 2008. Like other financial institutions, Goldman Sachs received an investment from the government as a part of its various efforts to fortify our markets and the economy during a very difficult time.

(continue reading…)

Everything is coming up with green bounty on this St. Patrick’s Day, at least for the banks.

Financial pundits tell us that the market has now managed to climb up and over the wall of worry, better known as the ‘resistance’ level. They tell us, statistically, it is now close to impossible for us to have any sort of a ‘crash’ after 13 months of an up cycle. The  the ‘resistance level’ can be likened to the line of scrimmage in sports. It is created by taking a daily average of whichever index you are studying,  for any given period of time. Whenever the market gets closer to this line of demarcation, it is not unusual to see the bears come out in force,  and the market then tends to pull back. This can happen several times, until finally after a matter of weeks or months, like a football player climbing over bodies, the market rushes in for the touch down.  In bear markets, the resistance level can remain in place for months, years or,  as in the case of post crash of 1929,  even decades.  About a week or so ago, we managed to cross the resistance level on the Standard and Poors 500 (SPX). Now that the resistance level has finally been crossed, investors can breathe a sigh of relief.  According to the math, the odds for another crash of the magnitude of 2008, are now quite minimal.  While this recovery is still very tenuous, the pundits tell us that the odds of having a crash from this point (i.e., one year after  the last down day of the 2008-9 bear market)  are pretty much nil.

As Cramer would say, ‘Boo Rah!

Is it time to ‘go all in?’ Before you get out your savings and cast your fortune to the fates,  I would still be very careful This recovery is a little different than others.

In a rather eerie and solemn warning, money continues to pour out of the US even with the recovery triumphet call getting shriller and shriller by day.

In 2010, investors around the globe have pulled $15.3 billion out of U.S. stock funds, according to data from EPFR Global, which tracks money flows. Meanwhile, roughly $2 billion has gone into emerging-market stocks — after inflows of $65 billion last year — and $20 billion into U.S. bond funds.

Especially notable is the aversion that individual, presumably longer-term, U.S. investors have had to their own stock market.

This year, $4.6 billion has been pulled out of U.S. stock mutual funds, according to the Investment Company Institute, whose data doesn’t include exchange-traded funds. At the same time, world equity funds have taken in nearly $14 billion and bond funds more than $56 billion. This comes after investors pulled more than $53 billion out of U.S. stock funds in 2009. .

This is a far different pattern than in the wake of other recent bear markets, where investors had viewed market declines as a chance to buy cheap stocks that would inevitably rise.”   -The Investing Contrarian… MORE

However, everything is not just coming up roses.  As we have seen the American investor is not investing in the stocks of good old USof A. In addition, there is a growing concern about the rise of ‘naked’ trading.  Naked” access, a controversial trading practice whereby the big traders, like Goldman Sachs, are executing their trades with high-speed ’super computers.’ It is estimated that more than 40% of U.S. stock trading volume comes ‘naked’ access. Now that term may sound very sexy, but it should be a wake up call to the small investor.  This is like playing black jack in Las Vegas, you are betting against the house. Ever seen the great chess masters try to beat the computer? How fair and robust can markets be when such an enormous chunk of it is being performed by robot computers programmed to move in milliseconds, while the little guy is left to wait?  We might say there are now two sets of rules, one for the big boys and another for everybody else. From all this, it would appear that the recovery is in full swing., for the banks, that is. Bottom line, if you do not have access to high frequency computers to trade for you, be careful out there!

Another thing we should not forget is that we are still enjoying the affects of last year’s positive annual charts.  Depending on which annual chart you prefer,  we either have 9 days left in that cycle, or 4.  Let’s start with the closest, which begins next Monday Pacific Time.

Most western astrologers,  set the beginning of their year at the Vernal Equinox, which takes place the millisecond that the Sun hits tropical Aries.  Also known as the Spring Ingress Chart, it has been looked upon as a major indicator of the upcoming year by astrologers from ancient times. It can tell us everything from how the weather may be in any given season to the financial ups and downs. As great an indicator as the Ingress charts are, Ptolemy also mentions another predictive chart to determine the fates of the coming year.

” I refer to events that happen yearly in connection with the seasons. In the investigation of this subject it would be appropriate first to define the so called new Moon of the year.”

This is a chart which is drawn up for the moment that Moon is one with the Sun. Interestingly enough, while too many westerners have forgotten Ptolemy’s recommendation, astrologers in India, following 5th century astrologer, Varahamihira, still use this chart to determine what is in store for the year ahead.

Since history is a great teacher, let’s take a quick look at last year’s New Moon of the year, to how that chart came to past.

The recovery of the banks  was  clearly indicated by the presence of the very positive Jupiter in the 8th house of banks. In addition,  the very magnetic and very materially positive North Node joins Jupiter in the house of banks. These are two strong indicators of the regeneration of banking.  Notice also that President Obama, as depicted by ruler of the 10th, is ‘in the pocket’ of the bankers as indicated by his emplacement in therein. And as we saw, Obama pretty much allowed the banks to do as they please.

While banks flourished, the buying power of the average citizen diminished.  When Tim Geitner says, ‘we saved the economy, but we kind of lost the public’ he’s not kidding.  So far, the little guy Obama pledged to save, is barely treading water. Notice, the draining South Node in the house of the citizen’s money, the 2nd. Real estate prices remain flat to decreasing, as evidenced by Saturn in the 4th house.  Notice the Moon ruler of the people in any mundane or financial chart, is obscured in the Sun’s rays, and prohibited from contact with money.  It was good for the market because co ruler of the speculative 5th, is trine the Parsfortuna, which resulted in a 70% recovery.

What’s in store for 2010? Stay tuned……

Wicked Witch of the West with the Part of Fortune!!!

Dorothy J. Kovach will be presenting a special Halloween lecture at 7:30 pm, Thursday the 29th of October at Fort Mason Center, San Francisco. She will be discussing that hidden gem of the horoscope, the Lot of Fortune.

Once relegated to the dusty recesses of history, the last two decades have seen a revolution in ancient techniques. Amongst the most beneficial, if not controversial, is the Part of Fortune. The ancient Greeks considered it to be the lot we chose, before descending into matter. Also known as the Part of Fortune, this little equation is invaluable, for getting to the heart of the matter, in both forensic and horary astrology, but when applied to natal charts, it is also the key to finding, the gold lying inside deep within our own charts, waiting to be mined.

Celebrate the Feast of the Spirits of the Beyond by letting your inner ghoul fly free. Consider dressing for this festive occasion.

Bring your questions, and a copy of your natal chart, as we plunge the deep, and find the treasures and the traumas deep within. Join us and learn how astrology can be a beacon of light in spooky times. (continue reading…)