Astrological Forecasts with a Traditional Twist

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/

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…)

On Friday, we learned that found out that the all time winner in the ‘get away with financial murder’ department, Goldman Sachs has been sued for fraud by the SEC. You may remember that it was those captains of the universe at GS that created the toxic debt instrument, the Collateral Debt Obligation, better known as CDOs, that nearly wiped out the financial institutions.  GS has a lot of chutzpah, because not only are they said to have helped to create the toxicity, but they also managed to get billions of dollars in  TARP  bailout money.

By Joshua Gallu and Christine Harper

April 16 (Bloomberg) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was sued by U.S. regulators for fraud tied to collateralized debt obligations that contributed to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The firm’s shares tumbled as much as 16 percent and financial stocks slumped.

Goldman Sachs created and sold CDOs tied to subprime mortgages in early 2007, as the U.S. housing market faltered, without disclosing that hedge fund Paulson & Co. helped pick the underlying securities and bet against them, the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement today. Billionaire John Paulson’s firm earned $1 billion on the trade and wasn’t accused of wrongdoing. The SEC also sued Fabrice Tourre, a Goldman Sachs vice president who helped created the CDOs.

‘ “The product was new and complex but the deception and conflicts are old and simple,” SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami said. “Goldman wrongly permitted a client that was betting against the mortgage market to heavily influence which mortgage securities to include in an investment portfolio, while telling other investors that the securities were selected by an independent, objective third party.”

“Goldman Sachs became emblematic of public outrage at the banking industry after posting a record $13.4 billion profit in 2009, a year after receiving $10 billion in taxpayer aid during the financial crisis.”   More from Bloomberg

Like yours truly, back in 2006 (see Llewellyn’s 2006 Moon Sign Book), Paulson warned investors that the building boom was about to go bust. However, unlike yours truly, Paulson put his money where his mouth was and made a fortune by creating a financial instrument (collateral debt obligation or CDO)  of real estate mortgage based securities (RMBS) that he was betting against.   At first, he lost money, then in 2007, he hit pay dirt - big time. It is estimated in 2007, alone, Paulson & Co. made $15 billion dollars. This transaction, is said to have netted Paulson close to $4 billion dollars.

So where is the fraud?

Not on John Paulson’s part, he has been absolved off all liability in this situation. We need to roll back the clock to 2007. In a nutshell, John Paulson went to Goldman Sachs (as well as other investment banks)  and asked them to ‘create’ (structure) a type of RMBS (special emphasis on the last two letters) that some say was designed to fail. Gary Zuckerman’s book, ‘The Greatest Trade,’ tells us that Paulson shopped around to various banks. Not all of them took the bait.  According to Zuckerman, thinking that Paulson would want especially ‘ugly mortgages,’ Bear Stearns turned him down. There has been the analogy raised that this was like benching your best player, while betting on the opposing team.  While there might be of questionable ethics to create a CDO to fail and then bet against it,  there is hardly anything illegal about that. Investment banks come up with (structure) financial instruments of all types, all the time.

What was the SEC alleges to be fraudulent is that Goldman Sachs,  as well as, their Vice President Fabrice Tourre  not only created the financial instrument, but also prepared the marketing materials, and sold them directly to customers. In addition, and perhaps worst of all, the SEC alleges that Goldman Sachs did not disclose the risk, specifically that hedge fund, Paulson & Co. had a significant bet (short) against this particular financial instrument.

Will this be the end of Goldman Sachs?  Given the heavily restricted resources of the Securities and Exchange Commission and what seems to be the vast resources of Goldman Sachs, I tend to doubt it. However,  given the allegations, it might not be a bad time to check out Goldman Sachs initial public offering. Goldman Sachs went public, that is offered shares in their company stock on May 4th 1999. We use 9:30 a.m., New York, because this is the time that the New York Stock Exchange opened.

Looking at the chart, we see that Cancer rises, making the Moon very important in this chart.  We see that the Moon is in the gambling sign of Sagittarius, placed in the 6th sector of service. In a sense, what G.S. does is to serve the investment community with a host of financial services. The Moon will represent the company, and all who work there.  I have to admit, I was surprised to see a movable sign (Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn) rising. The movable signs are so named because they are very changeable. And as such, when we see one of them rise, because of the speed involved, there is a sense of hyper speed up. Companies with movable signs on the rise, see a lot of action, but there is less stability than I would like to see in a company that has this kind of influence on the markets.

The next thing I look for is what planet or luminary has power over the sign rising coming up in the east. In the case of GS, the company and all who work, therein, and because we are talking about an stock,  not a corporation (which has different rules) and all who own a piece of it, (stockholders) instead of something stable, to bring balance, instead, we see the fluctuating Moon.  Aptly, the Moon is in speculative sign, Sagittarius, in the service sector, indeed that is what Goldman purports to do, serve the banking and investment community. The Moon is in a wonderful relationship with its ruler, Mr. Moneybags, Jupiter.  Luck is always important in the realm of big time finance, or else it wouldn’t have gotten this big to begin with. In addition to owning the company, Jupiter has a lot to say about the upper echelon of the company. We might say that Goldman Sachs has friends in high places, as can be clearly seen by Jupiter’s position in the tail end of the 10th house. The revolving door between GS and government is well known. We have several C.E.Os who left GS to become Secretary of the Treasury.  Jupiter will represent management.

The deal in question went on April 26, 2007. What is intriguing to me is that it looks like management (the 10th) was very anxious for this deal to proceed.  I do not know the particulars, but with Mars, the North Node and Uranus sitting in the house of bigwigs, on that fateful day, while the diminishing Saturn sat in the

As this suit comes about,  Jupiter just happens to be cresting at the 10th house of the stock. In traditional astrology, the 10th house is what we pay for things. Since the 10th house is the top of the chart, the noon position, it might suggest that the stock price is peaking.  It is interesting to note that the deal itself,  went down on April 26 2007. If we look at the transiting planets on that day,  it looks like management might have been a bit too anxious for push this deal through with anxious Mars, and Uranus all right up at the top on that day.  In addition, the planet of  bear markets and diminishing returns, Saturn was not only in their money house (2nd) but also square their money ruler… It looks, at least from an astrological point of view that Goldman Sachs was ‘hot to trot’ for this deal. We have to wonder what kind of other deals GS had made back in 2007.  Were they anxious about some other trades, or where they just greedy or was this just business as usual? We will probably never know. What we do know is that in 2007, Goldman was trading upwards of $250, but in March had dropped quite a bit, and what we also know is that Goldman dropped 13% on Friday. There are now probes taking place in both Great Britain and Germany.  Don’t forget that Goldman is a huge player  in China.

To be continued…..

Aftermath of the deadly Haitian Earthquake

A devastating 7.0 earthquake has rocked the city of Port Au Prince. This little island nation seems to be a magnet for disaster. It has not been that long since it suffered the ravages of not one but two hurricanes. The mind boggles to think of the pain and suffering that the people of Haiti endure on a daily basis. And now, this.  No building in Port Au Prince has been spared. Experts guess half a million souls have perished.

Sitting in the comfort of my home, it is almost impossible to understand the terror that comes with earthquakes. Looking at the video reminds me of how much I take for granted. I cannot begin to understand the shock and awe that survivors feel.

” I’m going to share my whole experience because I’m hoping it will be therapeutic. In any case I think I’m going to have nightmares for a long time…. When the tremors ceased, a large dust cloud was rising from the building a few doors down. A 3 story school full of teenage girls had collapsed. I stood around looking stupid for longer than I’d like to admit. I looked at the truck from Toyota, tried to call my wife (the service was out) and looked around me at people’s reactions. Virtually everyone reacted in strange ways.  Eventually, I went to the school and started working to pull trapped students from the wreckage.”    More from Chris Rollings

We like to think the ground beneath our feet is always stable as a rock. In a sense, the great strides we have made in science, have fooled us into thinking that we are in control. And that is just how it is - most of the time. Every so often, our great Mother Earth, reminds she is alive and breathing fire. We are forced to face the facts. We are not in charge here, Mother Nature is.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey the earthquake struck at 4:53pm local time. Looking at the chart below several factors of death and destruction jump out at us.

7.1 Earthquake Levels Port Au Prince

Click here for large chart image

When reading any kind of chart, wise astrologers always start with the first house. The Ascending degree marks the ‘go’ point in any astrological map. After all, ours is the study of beginnings, and the Ascendant marks the symbolic  dawn, the first light of the new day. This is because, in order to properly evaluate any given situation,  we are constantly returning to this place. In a sense, it is the alpha and the omega of the charts.  This because it represents the one portion of the body we cannot live without, our head.

Just as a person cannot live without a head, so too, a country can hardly be called a country, were it not for the people who live there. Thus, in their wisdom,  the ancients designated the first house and all planets within its borders, and the Moon to represent the citizenry. Whenever we evaluate charts, especially charts for sorrowful events like this, we try to gauge at the strength of  people represented by first house, its ruler, and celestial markers placed within its borders, and the Moon. We then contrast the strength or weakness of  the people of Haiti, with those things that can kill or maim them. These are the rulers, and tenants of the 8th house, and the 4th.

With ultra sensitive Cancer rising on the cusp of this all important house,  the planet of mothers, Moon will be doubly emphasized. Like a vampire, the Dragon’s Tail in the first, sucks the verve of the people dry.  Placed in  Cancer, it brings helplessness to the people of Port Au Prince. Because the Moon rules the Ascendant, it is doubly emphasized. Placed in what the ancients called a cadent house, she has little or no ability to act on her own. If this were not enough, the  6th house is the place of illness and servitude. In addition to this, the Moon has just separated from a square to the planet of shock, Uranus. Even worse,  the Moon at 27 Sagittarius,   is smack dab on the antiscion of deadly, Pluto at 3 Capricorn. John Frawley says that planets on each others antiscions act as sort of ’shadow’ conjunctions.  It is this combination, that cements the pull of long finger of death, taking the people down into his earthly grave. The Moon does apply to one good planet,  Jupiter. However, the application by sextile is weak. In addition, located in the house of death, and without essential strength, and since Jupiter is in Aquarius, a sign ruled by the deadly Saturn, the benefic Jupiter  turns malefic, magnifying the horrors.

Looking by contrast at the harbingers of death (rulers of the 4th and the 8th) it becomes very clear that  death is much stronger than life.  At the time of Haiti’s Earthquake, the deadly 8th cusp had Aquarius on the cusp, as such, Saturn (for better precision, traditionalists stick to traditional rulerships) owns the death charge.   In this case, Saturn is in Libra, its sign of exaltation. When we think of strength, most revert to sign of rulership, such as Saturn ruling the signs, Capricorn, and Aquarius.  When a planet is in its own sign, we can say it is at home. Its comfortable in its own skin. On the other hand, when a planet is in the sign its exaltation, the function of the planet is charged. Its powers are so exaggerated that they pack a ‘whallop.’ Some ancients like the great, M’ashallah considered exaltations to be stronger than ownership.  Whether exaltation signs are stronger than rulership, is debatable. What we do know for certain, is that when the deadly Saturn, is in Libra and ruling the 8th house, he has a much bigger arsenal, and a more deadly aim. Already we are seeing problems. Death is strong, and the people are weak. If this were not enough, Saturn is stationing, and thus moving very slowly. When a planet moves slowly, for better or worse, the more it imprints upon us. In the case of malefics like Saturn, death becomes that much more deadly.

But it gets even worse, because Saturn is situated within the 5 degrees prior to the 4th of the grave. According to Ptolemy, planets so placed are already doing the work of the next house, in this case, the work of the grim reaper. This gives to death what the people do not have, the power to act.  The 4th house is the house of the ground beneath our feet.  We already mentioned that Saturn owns the 8th house but due to its strength in the sign of Libra, it is also the almuten or the most powerful and dominating influence at the cusp of the ground ruler, the 4th. Add all this together, and you have a formula for disaster of untold proportions.

By contrast, a mere 48 hours and six minutes earlier, another potentially deadly quake of 6.5 on the Richter Scale struck the Northern California cities of Eureka and Ferndale.

6.5 North Coast Earthquake

Click here for large chart image

The San Andreas Fault is just outside my window.  As such, even though last Saturday’s 6.5 Ferndale/Eureka Quake was more than 200 miles away, I felt this earthquake, ever so slightly. I was on the phone with my friend, Helen when I felt this tiny little jag and thought, ‘earthquake.’  A few minutes later, my husband Alex came in and asked me if I felt the shock.

Having stuck at the same time of day, only 2 days apart, both earthquake charts, have striking similarities. Both earthquakes struck on days owned by malefic or nasty planets. This is one of the things I was recently reminded by the great astrologer, Linda Reid,  day of the week counts.  In this case, the 6.5 Ferndale/Eureka took place on  Saturday,  a day ruled by the slow killer, Saturn, while the 7.0 Port Au Prince quake took place on a Tuesday, a day ruled by violent and cruel, Mars.  It is interesting to note that the Great San Francisco Quake  also took place on a Tuesday, while Loma Prieta (with fewer deaths) took place on a Friday (a Venus day).

In both instances, the maternal sign, Cancer rises, thus making the Moon,  as rep. for the good or ill of the people,  doubly important.  Given the magnitude of both earthquakes, it should be no surprise that in both charts, the people (the Moon) is weak, while in both charts, death house, is strong and able to act, and act with awe inspiring force.

The Haitian Earthquake peoples positioning gives us graphic evidence of that environment is everything.  In this we can liken astrology  to  real estate, because so much depends upon,  ’location, location location.’   Poor placement, known to traditional astrologers as ‘accidental debility’ is  the astrological equivalent of growing up in a bad neighborhood. When you grow up in the projects. It is just plain harder for you to make a success in life. The same holds true for planets. When in a rotten house, there is less hope. On the bright side, if a planet or luminary is in a bad house, but associating or in aspect by a good or beneficent planet or luminary there is some hope of ‘pulling oneself up by the bootstrap’ and escaping the celestial ghetto, traditional astrologers call cadency. If on the other hand, the cadent planet or luminary,  is hanging out with a bunch of thugs,  in the form of malefic planets, as it is in Haiti’s Earthquake., the Moon will be able to produce only ill effects. The ancients called this  ’accidental’ placement. There is good placement, which is called ‘accidental dignity’ and there is bad, known as ‘accidental debility.

In addition to placement, what sign a planet or luminary is in, is very important.  Notice, the Ferndale/Eureka Quake’s ‘people’ designate, the Moon, there is no problem with location. Notice that the Moon is in the benign and bountiful, house of creativity, the 5th house. Just as there are good and bad places for a planet to hang out, there are also good and bad sign for the planet to be in. Looking at the Eureka/Ferndale Quake, we notice that the people are also weak, but this weakness had nothing to do with placement and everything to do with sign. In a nutshell,  certain signs are just plain no good for a planet.  The Ferndale Earthquake chart has the Moon in her fall, Scorpio. This is just about the worst place for the Moon to be.

The Moon can be likened to a celestial mother, who gives everything, including life to her children. When in the sign, Scorpio, the Moon becomes imprinted by the dark side of Mars, becomes like a vampire, sucking the very lifeblood ut of the host. When the Moon is here, she becomes the epitome of  ’essential debility. Thus, on Saturday, the people were weakened by the cruelty of Mars’ deadly force.  However, remember, the people are not in the cadent ghetto, but not just a good neighborhood, but a great one, the trinal and joyous 5th house. Not only that, this Moon has friends to help her out of her rotten sign, in the form of a beautiful grand trine to Uranus,  the planet of all things modern, and the South Node. We also notice that the people’s designate is still under the influence of the light and giver of life, the Sun, and Venus, in the  7th of laws. The Moon all by herself in the happy 5th, seems to indicate that laws in the form of strict building codes, coupled with the sparse population, probably saved the people from what could have been a much greater disaster. In addition, nothing pulls the Moon towards death. In other words, the 6.5  Northern California quake chart has nothing tying the people to death like the antiscion between the Moon and Pluto in the Haitian Earthquake.  As such, despite the violence of the quake, the residents of western Humbolt County, California only suffered minor damage in the way of broken glass, but there was no loss of life.

The people of Haiti need your support and prayers. Please donate to generously to Doctors without Borders http://www.msf.org