October_2022

Cheeseburger In Paradise

Ah, Florida in the good ole days. Remember before the1960s era condominium enabling laws and FEMA flood insurance attracted beachfront developers in droves? Well, now we have concrete condo jungles from the beaches to the bays and even far up the rivers -- all in flood zones that require flood insurance. High rises have replaced modest Ole Florida buildings. Too, global warming -- water rise and hurricanes -- is gradually swamping these fragile areas, drowning remaining historical buildings and threatening condominiums that should never have been built there. In the picture below, high rise condominiums line the Venice beach and stretch into the distance.

Snook Haven, right here in Venice, is an Ole Florida 1948 fish camp on the Myakka River, is the site of two movies -- one a Tarzan. Below is a picture before hurricane Ian and below that, after Hurricane Ian just a couple of weeks ago. If you look closely, you can see in the post-Ian picture the river the river in the background that rose up to flood the entire property.

While Snook Haven has been an ole Florida river hallmark, Venice itself is also a time capsule -- 1920s Florida land boom. It too is a remnant of Ole Florida.

Literally abandoned in the 1928 real estate bust, Venice was resurrected during WWII as an Army Air Base, training fighter pilots. It still has the airport and also an inlet from the Gulf to the Intracoastal Waterway, a public golf course, a major community theatre, a symphony, Art Center, performing arts hall, miles of public beaches, a dog beach, a pier jutting into the Gulf, Gulf and Bay fishing, a yacht club and a plethora of fossilized sharks teeth. Beyond that, realtors tell of a Native American blessing protecting Venice from hurricanes. In truth, hurricanes in the Caribbean must thread the needle of the Yucatan Channel and then turn quickly right (east) up the Gulf Coast to hit our area. That's why so few hit the Gulf Coast, but when they do....

What's there not to like!

Realtors have dubbed Venice an island, since this City On The Gulf has been enclosed since the late 1960s by the Intrascoastal Waterway. Now it's called Venice Island. They also labeled it Paradise for it's many advantages. People love Venice and they've embrace the paradise concept with almost religious fervor. There are dozens of business with Paradise in their names.

But, there's an old Vedic saying, History repeats, but not exactly. It wasn't the 1926 Miami Hurricane that busted the land boom but rather the companion punch of the Okeechobee Hurricane in 1928 that ended everything. That's why the graceful Italian style apartment building I live in has this entrance sign. If you look closely, it says est. 1927.

(Note, the U.S. Dasas in 1927 were Jupiter major and Rahu minor. So we can see how damaging Rahu is in this chart for being in the eighth house of calamity with Mercury. The current Dasas are Rahu/Saturn 01/2021 -- 11/2023. This is an extremely difficult combination bringing all kinds of destructions. Victimizing is a key word.)

So, our paradise collapsed a hundred years ago due to hurricanes. Couldn't disasters drive everyone back to Toledo yet again? Well, Hurricane Ian did flood out Snook Haven, and in historical Venice, knocked down hundreds of trees, blew away mobile homes and destroyed the theatre. Most of the Paradise signs are wrecked.

Venice Threatre

Let's consider the 4 calamities that have hit Venice since the 18 year Rahu Dasa (planetary cycle) began at the end of 2015 and continues through 2033.

September 2017 Hurricane Irma, (Category 4)

November 2017 -- February 2019 (15 months) Red Tide

February 2000 to date -- COVID

September 2022 Hurricane Ian (Category 4)

Isn't this enough to discourage new and existing residents, snowbirds and tourists? Wouldn't you think they would at least begin to acknowledge there's no such thing as paradise -- that Jimmy Buffet's 1978 Cheeseburger In Paradise is cool but truly an ode to a lifestyle pretty much gone now and doomed in the future? Well, once they put their Michigan work boots and Illinois wing tips aside and put on flip flops, there was no going back! The mostly retired Venice residents all say, joyfully, sometimes even gleefully. Venice remains a paradise!

(BTW, Jimmy Buffer wrote the song at the 1938 Cabbage Key Inn, just inside Cayo Costa island (Fort Myers), where Ian was ground zero. I'm sure it's been at buffeted.)

With the 18 year Rahu Dasa still a 7 year infant in its 18 year run (2015 -- 2033), there's a lot more Rahu coming -- the destroyer of today and thereby creator of tomorrow. More immediately, we're in the midst of the very tough Rahu major and Saturn minor Dasa planets (01/2021 -- 11/2023). There's a year of Saturn's focusing Rahu's explosive serpent energy ahead. Also, with transit Saturn in the 2nd house of domestic harmony (none!) aspecting the 8th house of calamity, it is now just 1 house before the all-important Moon. When Saturn crosses the houses around the Moon ( 7 1/2 long years), Sadi Sati results -- Saturn destroys that which is no longer necessary to make room for the new.

So we have what the British say, a long hard slog ahead of us.

We can't know if and when further natural disasters will hit. Civil strife and economic collapse are also likely. But we do know the wind is out of the real estate sales. Mortgage rates have more than doubled this year, and FEMA flood insurance, already elevated, with the fund deeply in debt, will go through the roof. These must snuff out a lot of plans to retire to Florida, and, of course, make it difficult for many to rebuild from Hurricane Ian.

In closing, the September 27 It Depends Where You Live made it clear Hurricane Ian is just an example of turmoil nationally, even globally. So, today's forecast too is not about this astrologer, or even Venice, Florida. It's rather a dramatic example of the serpent energy Rahu is bringing to the U.S. that will eventually, and out of necessity, usher in the Second Progressive Age.