The Celestial Wheel   Vedic Commentary   March 1 -- 31, 2010     Back To The Celestial Wheel

March 4, 2010

The Predicted Tsunami

     The Thursday February 25 Celestial Wheel gave another Mars' caution, Today and tomorrow, the perceptional/emotional Moon will be in Cancer with aggressive Mars. This stirs everything up... 

     The Chile earthquake very early Saturday morning was part of that energy, and the February 27 entry predicted a tsunami would also result.  Hawaii was suggested as tsunami forecasters believed those islands to be at risk.  This karma did result, though in it's typically mysterious way, Chile's coastal towns face double whammy of damage from earthquake and seaquake.

Mars' Harms Continue

     The potency, scope and reach of Mars' destructions during this long eight month transit through Cancer cannot be over-emphasized.  Also, as this transit began October 5, 2009 and will continue until May 26, 2010, its effects accumulate, increasing Mars' pressures over time.  The February 23 entry listed some major areas of concern, repeated here again,

     This Mars transit was discussed in detail in the September 7, 2009 In-depth Celestial Wheel, A Stormy Fall. That forecast also referenced the the first explanation of this issue, in the July 6 Celestial Wheel's, the section, Yet Another Millennium Contraction Hit - October To May.

     This timeline was included,

     Although this repetition may bore some, even annoy others, as stated above, Mars' destructions during this long eight month transit through Cancer cannot be over-emphasized.  Abrupt and destructive actions from the planet of war impact globally and also on your own personal experiences.  So, don't think you're somehow exempt, and even if Mars hasn't damaged you, there remains nearly three months left in its Cancer transit -- and these promise to be the most challenging. 

     Beyond last weekend's earthquake, here are two more recent Mars' harms, Huge waves kills 2 on cruise ship in Mediterranean and 63 die, dozens injured in Indian temple stampede.

Mar's March 9 & 10 Sensitive Dates

     The February 10 entry also explained why these last few months of the Mars Cancer transit are so challenging and announced March 9 & 10 as a sensitive date,

     March 9 and 10 are Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.  Then, Mars will be grinding to a halt, stopping powerfully in the sky and then turning forward -- with a hard aspect (glance) directly across the zodiac to the Moon.   Again, this This stirs everything up.  We can feel a prelude to this energy today, as Mars throws an aspect to the Moon four houses away, which intensifies emotions.

     Unlike last week's Mars/Moon sensitive date, this does not include an affliction to Mercury.  Then, Mars also aspected Mercury, which is the ruler of Virgo, where form and structure Saturn is transiting.  Saturn's ability to hold form was lost as Mars turned its underlying Mercury ruler turned to quicksand.

    While no further earthquakes of serious magnitude are expected next week, Mars' fury will still express itself, notably in the above-listed areas.  The debt bombs discussed in the November 3, 2009 U.S. And Global Economic Trends For 2009 is another serious risk area.  Too expect U.S. health care and other legislation to be a fire storm of fear and anger directed at just about anyone, particularly President Obama.  It doesn't look good for passage of that needed reform.  So, use care, keep your head down and avoid dangerous situations.

Uncertainty

     This Mars energy has activated the seesaw motion described in the December 12, 2009 U.S. And Global Economic Trends For 2009,

     The Global Economic Outlook Into 2012 And Beyond stated, To the spring of 2010 will be a roller coaster of major economic swings that will end on the downside.

     With these planetary karmas, it's no wonder there's building uncertainty, as this article explains, Economic indicators are mixed after heavy snow season.

It's Not All Bad

     As only through turmoil comes change, Mars as the planet of action, out scores the rest of the planets in stimulating personal growth.  In doing several long term client's Chart Updates recently, the common theme was how to plan for and handle change in their lives.  Even this astrologer is making yet another transformational action in escaping from Sedona -- to hopefully be in South Carolina within a few weeks.

     So, take this spring's Mars turmoil to advance your own personal agenda -- to shape your old square peg to fit into one of the coming new round holes.

PS March 6.  The reason to advance your own personal agenda now is that Mars turning forward on Wednesday will restore it's ability to make plans and carry them out.  During its weak retrograde since December 19, Mars could only spin your wheels.  Now, you can get traction again.

March 14, 2010

   The below Heads-up was e-mailed to Subscriber Participants early this morning.

March 24, 2010

Mercury, The Intellect, Remains Weak

     As explained in the above March 14 entry, Mercury will be in Pisces( it's fallen sign) for the rest of March, with the illuminating Sun and creative Venus, this last powerful in its exalted sign.  That three-planets combination stimulates creativity and enjoyments, but Mercury's weakness in Pisces can result in foolish and impetuous ideas.   If, for example, you have a brilliant flash to plant the spring garden, take some time to make a good plan and do the job correctly.  (Note: that that entry continued with a positive, ...as spring begins to brighten the globe, this vibrant Mercury/Sun/Venus combination uplifts our lives after a tough winter -- both for weather and economic storms that have cast a gloom of fear and doubt.   So, enjoy yourself.  Lighten up.  Have some fun.)

    The remainder of today's entry reviews the health care reform bill in the larger context of society's long term transformation.  This weak Mercury hinders understanding of the health care issue -- especially within that broader context.  So, if you are confused, uncertain, for or against this now passed legislation, the mental clouds will begin to clear in April.  But it won't really be until June that the clear skies of reason and sound judgment replace the gloomy skies of this winter and spring.

     By analogy, if you're on a trip, the day in front of you is naturally important, but fixated-focus there can blind you to your destination, resulting in going off course.  It's critical for everyone to both further develop our plans for transformation and advance those with objectivity, care and thoughtfulness.

No Prediction For Health Care Bill

     The Celestial Wheel did not make a prediction as to whether the health care reform bill would pass.  In the March 20 Tug Of War, the emphasis was on the planetary cycles and transits that have stimulated America's mystical paranoia, which will taper off in June. The time-horizon there was long term -- the health care bill is truly only the first battle in the war from the Second Gilded Age, through the Millennium Contraction and into the Second Progressive Age.  Which side prevails in the health care battle doesn't change the result of the war, although it's also true its duration and result are impacted -- as explained below.

     The Celestial Wheel has repeated the ancient (Vedic) truth that Only through turmoil l comes change.  This was most recently detailed in the January 4, 2010 In-depth Forecast, Goodbye 2009 & Into 2010.  It's worthwhile revisiting a passage there,

     Turmoil has brought change in the health care reform bill being approved.  However, change is not always productive, and sometimes it takes us down the wrong road.  The Indians love to use the term fruitless travels.

Some Observations On Health Care

     The Celestial Wheel reserved predictive judgment on the health care bill for two reasons. 

     First, the turmoil in the U.S. and President Obama's Vedic charts is so intense that the consequences must be problematical.  If the bill didn't pass, then valuable time was wasted in regrouping and trying again.  After all, health care's problems will only get worse without remedy -- and its a key piece in the puzzle of undoing the excesses of the Second Gilded Age.  Health care now eats up 17% of the U.S. economy, compared with about 8% for all the other first world countries.  Second, if the bill did pass, it wouldn't achieve its goals for being flawed -- and even the most thoughtful corrections beginning this summer couldn't undue its harms and effectively clear all the hogs from the trough.  9% in economioc fat is big number.  Making a prediction for passage, then, would mislead, even with that caveat.  When there's no good end, then there's no benefit in predicting.  Forecasting should give information for useful and productive planning and endeavors.  Hence the long term focus.

     Tug Of  War explained about the U.S. Mars/Rahu planetary cycle, Poisonous Rahu hides in the deep eighth house of life and death, bringing intense fears, turmoil, even calamity.  In the U.S. chart, this head-of-the-dragon eclipse point is in the lunar house* of Ashlesha, symbolized by, The coiled serpent, which enjoys secrecy, is often misunderstood and likes to operate out of sight.  There is the snake’s wily nature and insincerity, danger, deception, cold-bloodedness and unexpected attack.  President Obama is also running Rahu as his minor planetary cycle since February 28, and its lunar house is Magha, which expresses as ambition, leadership and family pride.  There is respect for tradition, enjoyment of ceremony and great ability as actors and performers on the stage of life.  Since wealth is the primary motivation, there can be a fixation with material prosperity. Thus, Magha can sometimes win the kingdom but lose the soul.  It is this last phrase, win the kingdom or lose the soul, that concerns.  Thus, the U.S. chart's Rahu is terrible and terrifying, and Obama's it promises a win that's really a loss -- a pyrrhic victory.

(*Vedic Astrology employs the twelve constellations and also the Moon's twenty-seven houses, one for each day in the Moon's oribt around the Sun.  These point to stars and star clusters, giving significant and specifici information from deep within the universe.)

     Second, there are some serious issues with the health care plan that, when analyzed, demonstrate it is flawed and will not fix the problem of cutting out the 9% fat.  Following are recent articles that address at least some of these concerns, and too the Yellow Journalism appeals only to the lower senses of hate and fear.

What Wall Street thinks about the health-care vote  "But if the prospect of heath-care reform without binding cost controls has made Wall Street happy, it should worry the rest of us. Extending the existing bloated and inefficient system to everyone will make the health-care companies rich -- and the country poor.  'Pretty much everybody gets a pony, except for the taxpayers,' one analyst told MarketWatch news service this afternoon.  That probably sums it up right."   The stock market zoomed up this week in a show of approval.

Health Care on the Road to Neo-Feudalism  "The bill, if it became law, would legally require a portion of Americans to pay more than 20% of the fruits of their labor to a private corporation in exchange for 70% of their health care costs."  Keep in mind, the other industrialized countries around the globe spend only 8% of their total economy on health care.

In Praise of Shared Outrage   "'We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieve greater prosperity and opportunity for all'  These were the words of Lord Brian Griffiths, Goldman Sachs international adviser... Inequality is associated with diminished levels of physical and mental health, child well-being, educational achievement, social mobility, trust and community life. And it is linked to increased levels of violence, drug use, imprisonment, obesity and teenage births."  Inequality also inevitably results in a stagnating economy -- because only a healthy middle class sustains growth.

A Network Divided: The Glenn Beck Factor  "By calling President Obama a racist and branding progressivism a 'cancer,' Beck has achieved a lightning-rod status that is unusual even for the network owned by Rupert Murdoch. And that, in turn, has complicated the channel's efforts to neutralize White House criticism that Fox is not really a news organization. Beck has become a constant topic of conversation among Fox journalists, some of whom say they believe he uses distorted or inflammatory rhetoric and that undermines their credibility."  This is Yellow Journalism.

March 27, 2010

America's Mystical Paranoia

     While many are aware of this psychological complex, others aren't -- sometimes just because they aren't exposed to it.  In other cases, folks are so caught up in conspiracies, fed by web videos and Yellow Journalism, they succumb to the fear-mongering -- believing that fact bits, mixed with out-of-context quotes, liberally spiced with thinly-related associations and and grilled on the high-heat of emotional theatrics makes a poisonous omelette!  If there is any doubt the phenomena exists, and is peaking now, this current survey dispels that, Quarter of republicans think Obama may be the anti-Christ.

     Here are two videos that use this con man approach of a stringing together a few facts and adding invective to prove extreme claims.  The Obama Deception or, even farther out on the bell curve edge, Alex Collier -- Mentored by an E.T. Race.. An Update.  Or how about The Motley Fool stock advisor?  The web site certainly looks reputable, until you scrutinize the articles, and then when you give your e-mail address, they spam you daily using different sending addresses.

     Yet, it is true we're in an economic catastrophe and that the bankers are economic terrorists.  But, it's not true we are pawns of secret puppet masters who are now just this close to taking over the world and enslaving us all!  As money (unfortunately) underlies human motivations, simply follow the money to find truth. 

     In Praise of Shared Outrage was quoted in the above March 24 entry, plus the statement, Inequality also inevitably results in a stagnating economy -- because only a healthy middle class sustains growth.  By logical extension, as opposed to fear-drive hyperbole, the U.S. has been shifting toward the model in third world economies over the globe.  These are characterized by income inequality -- where 10% to 20% of the population rides on the backs of the great majority poor. These are stratified societies in which the rich maintain their strangleholds by control over economic resources and the media and by corrupting religions and governments.  Yes, real conspiracies against the masses operate there.  An example is India, where one Indian-born U.S. university professor proudly said there are more rich Indians than rich Americans --200 million!  What she didn't mention, and became furious about, was this astrologer's observation that those 200 million prospered on the backs of over 9o0,000 million poor! She was so proud of her rich countrymen thatshe ignored the larger population's suffering. Another Indian transplant to the U.S. justified the poverty by claiming, Oh, but they are very happy! -- while he is very happy making lots more money than possible for him in India.  Another example is Haiti, and as pointed out in the January 20, 2010 In-depth Celestial Wheel, Haiti -- A Metaphor & More,

Follow The Money

      We should certainly be worried about, and rein in the greedy bankers, if only to pull out money out of the big bank criminal enterprises.  And, we should be concerned about the quasi-public Federal Reserve, for not doing its job and not being accountable.  And, we should support busting up the huge monopolies and oligopolies that also wage economic terrorism on us by selling inferior goods (Micrsoft and Walmart) and use unfair practices (cell phone two year contracts, health insurance companies) and polute the environment (mining at home and industrial polution abroad in China).  That's beginning to happen with the popular protests that inevitably arise from the Millennium Contractions' pressures.  The underlying truth in all of these is that it's about money.  But, if follow the money is the best approach in undoing the excesses of The Second Gilded Age, wouldn't it also be the real test in evaluating the news we receive -- which, after all, is our information source these issues?

     Yes, most TV news on air and cable networks and major newspapers are owned by major public corporation.  So, we should scrutinize their reporting and pay attention to other news outlets, of which there are plenty on the web.  Yet, most of their reporting is actually that, reporting the news, and they generally separate news from commentary -- opinion.  Still, it's true they bought the Iraq war lies -- most notably about government claims of WMD -- and never fully retracted this monstrous error.  The press is the fourth estate, the check journalism gives on the three government branches -- executive, legislative and judicial -- to keep them honest.  This requires more than reporting, which is only slavish repetition of public and private statements. 

   To be the fourth estate, news organizations must be real journalists doing the hard work of investigative reporting, to separate fact from fiction.  Real journalists must obtain independent verification of information before they report on a topic.  Returning to the Iraq WMD issue, the Bush administration provided sketchy information and claimed verification because many other governments believed the same thing!  That's like the argument the oil and auto companies have suppressed the 100 MPG carburetor for decades must be truth because there are so many claims they have done that!  That there is a difference between claims and facts is irrefutable.  These kinds of myths do appeal to some, especially when America's mystical paranoia is active, but they are not appropriate to journalism, only fictions like the X-Files, with the slogan, I want to believe.  To get through the tark tunel of Millennium Contraction and emerge into The Second Progressive Age requires dealing with hard truths, not delusions.

    These mainstream media, however, don't produce huge profits from their corporate owners, like NBC is owned by G.E., and they routinely claim their corporate parents don't influence them.  Yet, that question remains, as well as the issue of the failure to do true investigative reporting.  So, read carefully and question and verify claims yourself.  Google is a wonderful tool here, but be watch for web news outlets just repeating claims made by others media!

    Presently, the two most influential media outlets are the venerable New York Times and Fox News, both public companies but privately controlled, which is a benefit and restriction to being the fourth estate.  The ben efit is that no one tells them what to do.  The restriction is that each can slant the news to their financial benefit. 

     The New York Times Company has revenues of $3 billion and is partly owned, but fully controlled, by the twenty-seven member Ochs-Sulzberger family, worth about $400 million.  Fox News is part of News Corporation, a multinational media giant, with revenues of over $30 billion.  It is partly owned, but fully controlled, by Rupert Murdoch, who is worth $4 billion.  Given that the N.Y. Times and Fox News are seen to represent the polarities of liberal and conservative journalism, this ownership model can't be completely trusted either.  Too, while media companies generally have been facing hard times, News Corporation has so many diverse holdings, and Fox News is so popular, Murdoch can do whatever he wishes.  The New York Times Company, being 1/10 the size of News Corporation, and heavily relying on the Times newspaper, with its declining revenues, must produce real journalism, perish or lower its standards to Fox's penchant for Yellow Journalism.

     Keep these facts in mind when you read and watch the news.  Although we would all wish the media to be pillars of virtue, in the end, in a capitalist society, its the dollars that count.

When Does America Experience Mystical Paranoia?

    The March 20 In-depth Forecast, Tug Of War, explained that the current dysfunction runs during the U.S. chart's Mars/Rahu planetary cycle, that began April 28, 2009 and will end May 17, 2010.  It added the weakly fearful Mars transit through Cancer from October 7, 2009 to May 27, 2010 as amplifying the effect.  Too, there are a lot of economic struggles within in the long term Millennium Contraction, that peak with these difficult planetary, making both the objective reality and subjective reality worse.  That Mars in Cancer has also brought a hard winter just adds to the angst.  Thankfully, on May 17, benefic Jupiter will replace Rahu in the U.S. planetary cycles, calming the emotional seas, stimulating good judgment and bringing opportunities. 

(Note: Under the Mars/Jupiter cycle, Mars stimulates Jupiter's high mind ethics to promote popular protests.  This is a theme described in the December 12, 2009 In-depth Forecast, U.S. And Global Economic Trends For 2010.

Popular protests should also broaden beyond the Tea Party extremists. (Founder Dick Armey doesn't have a pure pedegree, Secrets of the Tea Party: The Troubling History of Tea Party Leader Dick Armey.  It's even likely the Tea Party will shift toward the center of real libertarians as the paranoid mysticism fades.  The ultimate goal, of course, is for popular protests against the excesses of the Second Gilded Age to unite across the broad spectrum of American interests.)

     The U.S. also experienced a decade of mystical paranoia, when it ran its greedy and fearful Moon planetary cycle from November 30,1998 to November 30,2008.  Note the word greedy, which brought the Second Gilded Age.  It's the following ten year Mars cycle that signals the Millennium Contraction -- and really only during the April 2009 to May 2010 subcycle of Rahu does the mystical paranoia arise again.  For specific information, see Though The Second Gilded Age.

    The nation has been suffering from this mental hypersensitivity, then, for the decade ending November 30,2008, and again for over a year beginning April 28, 2009.  It's at least interesting that President Obama was elected during the brief mental calming but found his honeymoon was over by May of last year.