May 30

degrees Jupiter, which planet rules the fifth house of government, will weaken King Fahd's health further.

     Recall The May 26 Celestial Wheel suggested that Mars transiting out of Aquarius and into Pisces would bring, Mars discord from May 31 to June 5.  This Mars shift is from Saudi Arabia's fourth house (home) to its fifth house (investments), where it's incredibly wealthy Moon (kapha -- liquid) is placed.  Transit Mars will cross the Moon June 6, indicating further oil concerns.  Fortunately, the Dasa planets then will be Rahu/Moon/Sun/Venus, and the absence of Mars from this lineup denies its bringing major harm, yet.

     However, on June 10, Saudi Arabia's main and sub Dasas change from Rahu/Moon to Rahu/Mars.  In Saudi Arabia's chart, Mars rules the first house of the self and the sixth house of enemies.  This Mars thereby makes the kingdom its (first house) own worst enemy (sixth house) -- supporting Islamic Fundamentalist Saudis, who then attack the government.  Mars' chart position, exalted in the third house of desires, with a destructive, even calamitous, Mercury, stipulates that Saudi Arabia's domestic enemies are crafty and devious in efforts to overthrow the government. 

     Keeping in mind the Rahu/Mars Dasa planets, and recalling too that on July 7, transit Mars will violently intercept transit Rahu in Pisces (Saudi Arabia's 5th house of investments), Saudi Arabia must be vulnerable to an oil industry attack on or about that date.  (Dasas to four levels that day, Rahu/Mars/Rahu/Rahu, confirms the influence.) 

     Also, recall that, as stated in the May 5 Celestial Wheel, ...Mars will lurch into Aries July 21, where a retrograde will keep it there until February 5, 2006 -- a long, and thereby destructive six month stay in one sign.  This is the Saudi chart's sixth house of enemies, where devious Ketu is placed.  Transit Mars will intercept birthchart Ketu there on August 16, a Tuesday (Mars' day), when its Dasa planets will continue to be Rahu/Mars/Rahu.  An violent event is thereby called for then.  In the late fall, early winter, transit Mars will retrograde back over Ketu and then cross Ketu a third time moving forward in January, 2006.  As Mars/Ketu is the combination for seething anger that stimulated 9-11, Saudi Arabia must suffer repeated attacks catalyzed by Mars/Ketu through early 2006.   Finally, all during this Mars transit, Mars and Saturn will be aspecting each other, and the resulting struggle, frustration and anger will add to Saudi Arabia's distress.

     It appears that with such a confluence (repetition) of influences, Saudi Arabia's government will be severely and intensely challenged over the next nine months.  See the June 30, 2004 In-Depth Forecast, The Timeless Mideast Bottleneck -- Saudi Arabia.  There, an alert was given for the government's fall to the two year insurgency, although the prediction for early 2005 was obviously early.

     I've been ruminating about how to best express the impacts of Mars' six month stay in Aries beginning July 21 in an In-depth Forecast, tentatively titled, Mars' Summer And Fall Of Discontent.  You've read (above) Mars' influences upon Saudi Arabia's chart, which are unfortunately complex and technical.  My goal is to simplify and streamline to make the information more accessible to readers. 

    Regarding the World Transit chart (for global and generally individualized influences), as noted above, The May 26 Celestial Wheel suggested that Mars transiting out of Aquarius and into Pisces would bring, Mars discord from May 31 to June 5.  It appears this short interval of upset began earlier on May 29 (Sunday), as the emotional Moon approached this destabilized Mars, and also that Mars began to closely aspect Ketu.  Moon/Mars elevates the emotions, and Mars/Ketu is seething anger, as stated above about Saudi Arabia.  The French voting against the E.U. Constitution and heavy violence in Iraq highlight problems that have already resulted from this early start of the May 31 to June 5 Mars discord.

May 26

     Early this morning, Saturn finally transited out of Gemini, ending its May rein of terror upon the world, nations and individuals. 

     Saturn reality check has brought some objectivity and clarity, however.  We can see this in Congress finally beginning to confront and oppose G.W. Bush with the filibuster compromise and bills on stem cell research and transportation.  (Bush has promised to veto both bills.)  Saturnian reality is also seeping into perceiving the real estate market bubble, continuing failures in Iraq, escalation of the prisoner abuse scandal.... all the problems building since Bush took office in 2001.

     Because Saturn symbolizes form, structure, duty and responsibility, it is a planet of great power.  Now just entering Cancer, Saturn is weak, and you may thereby be experiencing relief from its Gemini harms and simultaneously being unmotivated and scattered.  (Just writing this short Celestial Wheel is arduous.)   This will dissipate over the next few days as Saturn moves further into Cancer.

     Meanwhile, Mars, often the catalyst for disruption, discord and violence, is lurking in Aquarius.  It will be the main planetary player for the remainder of 2005.  Mars moves into action at month's end, when it will have become weakly destructive at the edge of that sign.  Then, as June begins, Mars will shift into Pisces with a typically loud Martian roar.  These energies will stoke the fires of rebellion in the U.S. and abroad -- further actualizing the negative realities Saturn has revealed.

     So, enjoy the next few days of relative calm and then brace yourself for Mars discord from May 31 to June 5.

     Jupiter's weak retrograde ends June 5, but resuming forward motion will not enable Jupiter's wealth and fortune.  Here's why.  Jupiter has been afflicted by Ketu since February 22, Mars continues to aspect Jupiter, and Saturn now in Cancer also aspects Jupiter.  These three malefics effectively pin down Jupiter, the great benefic.  Expect, then, the economy to falter further during the next few months.

     In closing, we can see Saturn's reality check for the media and the public batting away the Bush administration ridiculous claim that Newseek's report of the Koran being abused is true cause of anti-Americanism abroad.  Here's Mark Fiore's new cartoon on that topic,
                                     http://www.markfiore.com/animation/why01.html

May 19

     Saturn, the great malefic, will finally leave Gemini in a week, on May 26.  As discussed in previous Celestial Wheels, Saturn withholds its worst harms until the very very end of its  2 /12 year transit through a sign.  Saturn's hard lessons are impacting world events from China to Iraq to the U.S. Senate floor.  Individuals too are experiencing suffering and loss.  Several Subscribers report physical illness and personal separations.  Consider also however, Saturn is the ultimate realist.  It is wisdom experienced by teaching lessons in its tough way that we ignore at our peril.  The famed Chakrapani Ullal captured Saturn's essence in writing, Since it is Saturn’s essential purpose to temper the soul, it attacks our weak points to broaden and define the scope of our character, driving us to maturity.   A provocative Saturn metaphor is that of a glacier, with its qualities of crushing inevitability.  Of course, with the glaciers melting, there's some irony here.

     Here's a Saturnian news story from the Tucson Citizen that prompts our attention, U.S. funds won't cure ills of border hospitals.  It describes Mexicans crossing the border to get complicated and expensive surgeries they can't afford in Mexico, or which Mexico doesn't offer and which U.S. hospitals don't refuse to anyone, for any reason.  The article states, Along the border from Chula Vista, Calif., to Brownsville, Texas, U.S. hospitals serve as a medical safety net for illegal immigrants and residents of northern Mexico.  The article was ostensibly written because of a new Federal policy to pay up to 30% of these uncollectable bills from illegal aliens. 

     However, here's the Saturnian realistic point the article misses  -- U.S. citizens regularly go to Mexico to get its inexpensive medical treatment either not covered by insurance or because they can't afford insurance.  So, the Mexicans come here to illegally get our world class medical treatment for free, and U.S. citizens, who can't afford expensive U.S. medical treatment, go to Mexico to legally obtain cheap and inferior medical treatment.  The story gets worse, for in the U.S. border town, Bisbee, the hospital was forced to resolve the resulting budget crisis, by laying off about 35 of the hospital's 130 employees and eliminating medical services such as the long-term care center.  So, our unrealistic health care policies both degrade services at the Brisbee hospital and force the unemployed hospital workers to seek affordable medical services in Mexico!

     I'm waiting for Mexican President, Vicente Fox, to complain the U.S. is violating inalienable rights of illegal aliens. (Coca Cola, his former employer must be proud.)   I'm also waiting for Americans to wake up and realize that the neocons promote illegal immigration to fill low paying jobs and avoid raising the $5.15 minimum wage, unchanged since 1997 -- because they care only about corporate profits and their new aristocracy of wealth that owns the corporations.  I'm waiting for the groundswell of protest from the increasingly beleaguered middle class and poor to require the conservatives secure our borders and the liberals to get real and support only legal immigration.  These are the masses Saturn represents, and another aspect of Saturnian reality is that Saturn cannot be resisted.

     Here's Mark Fiore's latest political cartoon, Iraq Democracy Translator.  It's Saturnian realism reminds us that Iraq is G.W. Bush's great misadventure and suggests we sweep away the neocon smokescreens.  It simply isn't true, for example, that the Newsweek blurb on the toilet-flushed Koran was the first such report and that it greatly harmed the U.S.'s reputation.  It is true, however, that Saturn punishes those who manipulate the truth for personal gain.

May 14

     The Thursday, May 12 Celestial Wheel judged that, while July 7 is the likely pivot point, ...it is not clear how and when the various issues, domestic and international, will proceed and conclude, and that only Time will tell.  Thursday's narrative also reinforced the prediction in the May 5 Celestial Wheel that, Another sensitive interval will be mid May, when Mars will be exactly aspecting Jupiter and approaching an exact aspect to Venus.  At this time too, The Sun will be changing signs and Saturn will have become very weak as it approached leaving Gemini May 26.

     Already, some specific areas of concern have arisen, driven by people effectively confronting necons, who have been weakened by their failures at home and abroad.

     News items indicate that this weekend's stress has set the final battle lines for confrontation in the Senate over Jon Bolton's U. N. nomination and the Republican's insistence upon eliminating the filibuster for judicial appointments.  The Washington Post reports, in Democrats Move to Slow Action on Bolton, that Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said Democrats were holding up the nomination to compel the State Department to provide more information about Bolton, now an undersecretary of state.  Boxer has bravely used a procedural delay, called a hold, to single handedly prevent a vote.  Meanwhile, the New York Times article, At Center of Senate Showdown, A Boxer Takes On a Surgeon, describes the confrontation between former lightweight boxer Harry Reid (Democrat minority leader) and Majority Leader Bill Frist.  That these two issues involve boxers throwing political punches is interesting for the connotation of a new willingness to confront and fight the Bush cabal.

     The papers are also full of news stories on the widespread bloodshed in Iraq since the new government was formed, just three weeks ago. In Afghanistan, there's a bloody uprising protesting American interrogators desecrating the Koran.

     Again as stated in Thursday's Celestial Wheel, ...with bicyclist Bush now peddling backward to save his agenda, the opposition has become emboldened.  Much of the Senate struggle and Bush's power vacuum stems from Saturn's weakness as it is preparing to move from Gemini into Cancer May 25.  This brings out Saturn's suffering and separative qualities.   For the U.S. chart, Gemini is the seventh house of relationships.  For Bush's chart, it is the twelfth house of loss.  For the Iraq chart, it is the eleventh house of friends and groups.

     My Way News reviewed the British documentary (being screened now at Cannes) entitled The Power Of Nightmares -- how terrorism has been exaggerated in the U.S. and Britain, to reinforce their authority and rally their nations.  While I don't know if it will be shown much in the U.S., watch for its reverberations in coming weeks and months.

     Subscriber C.S. in Florida sent this satirical, but perhaps all-too-real article speaking to the public becoming emboldened.  I reprint the entire e-mail for its insight and welcome humor.

May 12

     I've been writing sparingly during the past few weeks. While I've correctly identified the planetary karmic trends since January challenging the Bush cabal, and also have accurately predicted sensitive periods, it is not clear how and when the various issues, domestic and international, will proceed and conclude.  For example, I've been at least dubious about the democracy experiment in Iraq, and violence there has certainly, and most recently, reflected that judgment.  How long Iraq's new government will resist the insurgency, however, is not easily seen.  Of course, the July 7 date I cited in A Not So Far Horizon is the likely turning point.  Then, Mars' July 21 to February 5 six month transit through Aries indicates that negative consequences of the early July event will be severe and of significant duration.  Obvious risk areas are oil, the dollar and Iraq, and the events during next two months leading up to the July 7 pivot point should indicate which of these will result.  Time will tell.

     I have been surprised with the magnitude of discord recently, although it's also true that the grenade thrown at G.W. Bush was a dud, and the small plane that flew close to the White House yesterday was no threat.  It seems that these and other events may be over-hyped or just presage more serious upcoming problems.  Further, with bicyclist Bush now peddling backward to save his agenda, the opposition has become emboldened.  People and groups are fighting back, which can only be encouraging.

     Looking ahead, the May 5 Celestial Wheel suggested, Another sensitive interval will be mid May, when Mars will be exactly aspecting Jupiter and approaching an exact aspect to Venus.  At this time too, The Sun will be changing signs and Saturn will have become very weak as it approached leaving Gemini May 26.  We can already see this influence coming, as the Senate deals with the filibuster issue, Tom Delay is being investigated, John Bolton's U. N. ambassador nomination is being fought....  Further, Saturn will tend to bring economic harm until it leaves Gemini May 25, just as it did in in July 2002, as Saturn was finishing its transit through Taurus.  Then, all kinds of strife occurred, including the stock market taking a beating.  See the July 21, 2002 In-Depth Forecast, #1 Forecast August 2002 - July 2003.  Still, events this month and next, regardless of their apparent severity and impact, will be preambles to the July 7 main event.

     Although July 7 is the most difficult day, for Mars approaching conjunction with Rahu, it is probably wise to avoid traveling during the Fourth of July holiday period  -- from July 1 to 10.  It's better to be at home than on the road when the world is subject to turmoil.

     You may recall I have three editors who advise on various aspects of this forecasting effort.  Editor V. Fazio in Sedona recently commented that nearly all the predictions are negative.  Good point.  I responded by stating that these are not the good times Clinton years of the nineties but rather the difficult Second Gilded Age of the Bush presidency.  I honestly would be delighted to find a silver lining but simply can't turn a sow's ear into a silk purse.  Also in this regard, the July 7, 2003 Celestial Wheel stated,The short essay, below, about what Astrology offers, may be helpful -- to understand why astrology appears too often to predict struggle and change rather than peace and contentment.  A sky analogy is applied.  

May 5

     Below is a reprint of the May 2 A very quick report, alerting you to upcoming stressful dates.  The intention here is not to alarm but rather to offer you an opportunity to dodge or minimize the planetary influences.  Sometimes I think of myself as a karmic dodge ball consultant.

     Of course, not everyone is directly impacted today and tomorrow, which influence builds to a peak late Friday evening.   Three rising signs (Aries, Libra and Cancer) are influenced so adversely that mitigating planetary dispositions and Dasas (planetary cycles) cannot entirely shield them.  Aries rising people have Mercury in the twelfth house of loss, stimulating distracting thinking.  Already, this brought a minor auto accident to one such Subscriber.  Folks with Libra as their rising sign deal with job issues, enemies and expenses for Mercury transiting the sixth house. (I already returned the ill-advised camera-phone purchase for disappointing picture quality.)  Those with Leo rising charts find Mercury in the eighth house, prompting cutting outbursts.  (be careful with e-mails.)

     When Mercury exits Pisces and gains strength in Aries on Monday, May 9, there will be a week of calm and mental clarity until mid May -- #3 above.  Take advantage of this interval to get back on track in your individual lives, and for some overdue objectivity in world affairs.  Certainly, the consequences of the March 20 to May 9 Mercury-mania actions by actors on the world stage will be understood.  Although trivial, ABC's Primetime News Fallen Idol report revealing cheating (including sexual predation) on American Idol by judge Paula Abdul will be revealing  -- will this Fox Network show be discredited and taken off the air, or will the neocons and evangelicals side with their Fox brethren?  How many scandals can these folks sweep under the rug without tripping on the hidden lumps?

     The mid May dissonant energy will likely signal economic problems and political upset, but these will tend to continue trends stimulated by the karmic intensity brought by Winter/Spring Shifts Of The Major Planets, rather than signal major harms.  Look for the neocons/evangelicals to cry foul that their theocratic agenda is blocked, for example.  It will be interesting to witness Sun-eclipsed Tom Delay's (the House majority leader) unfolding scandal.  Watch too Ketu-compromised John Bolton's U. N. ambassador approval process.  Ketu will be moving away from Bolton's Venus beginning May 9, enhancing prospects for his embattled nomination.  However, devious Ketu may just permit his approval so that he will discredit himself further at the U. N.  Tony Blair may find himself in a similar position -- regretting his victory, for similar Ketu harms.

     The July 7 turmoil date given in A Not So Far Horizon, appears to be the tipping point of problems growing since early January.  I remain most concerned about the U.S., Iraq and Saudi Arabia -- all three of which are already unstable and vulnerable.  Recent violence in these two Mideast countries have already put a pall on the unreasonable prospect of democracy blooming in the desert.

     Following the July 7 Mars/Rahu disruption, Mars will lurch into Aries July 21, where a retrograde will keep it there until February 5, 2006 -- a long, and thereby destructive six month stay in one sign.  Although this is unusual, it did occur during Mars' last retrograde, from June 6 to December 3, 2003 in Aquarius.  For both instances, Mars is connected to Saturn.  The the May 28 In-depth Forecast, #16 Summer 2003 Major Transits  and the August 6, 2003 In-depth Forecast, #23 Mars Summer Subtlety It's For The Planets?

discuss that Mars transit -- when the Iraq insurgency began to undue the invasion's initial success.  I'll be writing soon an In-depth Forecast on this upcoming Mars transit through Aries, tentatively titled, Mars' summer and fall of discontent.

     As we should keep in mind to not to take everything in life too seriously, the Subscriber with the yesterday fender bender told me this morning she's grateful there were no injuries and that her beloved and tank-like BMW took the impact on its formidable bumper.  So, here's the link to Mark Fiori's latest animated cartoon, http://www.markfiore.com/animation/wild.html