a neo-classical view of the recent economic crisis

[Gary_Caton]

Jupiter, Saturn & Vesta in the recent Economic crisis.

I first noted last summer in NCGR Memberletter that the worst recessions in the previous century had happened with Pluto in a Cardinal sign and in hard aspect to either Saturn or Uranus. I have noticed since then that while the outer planets may be describing a window for a potentially historic downturn –the process itself can clearly be seen in the classical socio-political planets Jupiter and Saturn –with a little help from the goddess Vesta.

Recently, the market has been surging since the Dow and the S&P 500
index hit 12-year lows on March 9. The S&P 500 index is up 37.4 percent,
while the Dow is up 31 percent. The low of March 9 corresponds to the Sun-Saturn opposition -that place where Saturn goes from being oriental and appearing as morning star –to being occidental and appearing as evening star.
All the worst economic news in more than 60 yrs came after last fall’s
Sun-Saturn conjunction and Saturn appeared as morning star. Then the
direction changed to positive as Saturn changed his orientation with the
Sun. What’s up with that?

What I have not seen talked about enough was the constellation of classical forces at the downturn. It is most interesting to me that the term panic is used to describe this downturn. I have heard it said that only two forces rule the markets –greed and fear. Using the classical planets it could be easy to see how Jupiter might be greed –and result in bubbles. Saturn is then fear –and results in panics –so he is the burster of bubbles.

With Jupiter appearing as evening star, residing in Saturn’s nocturnal sign and making an applying angle to Saturn last September –he could not have been weaker. Saturn, on the other hand, was about to appear as morning star –which he did right as he came within orb of his first opposition to Uranus in late September. Thus, an extremely weak Jupiter’s bubble was burst by a stronger Saturn who was beginning an historic alignment.

Each of the classical planets has rulership over one sign by day and one by night. In its nocturnal appearance/rulership, a planet delivers its essence in a much less direct manner. In Capricorn Saturn’s function is as the circler of wagons. The closing down and rigidly defining of boundaries is essentially a protective measure. In diurnal Aquarius, the gates are opened to allow vital forces to flow across and through Saturn’s boundaries.

The biggest difference then, as I see it, at the recent rally point of early March –was that Saturn weakened a bit (evening star) while Jupiter was much stronger: 1) by appearing as morning star 2) in a diurnal sign and 3) without a hindering aspect.

Contributing factors to the return of Jupiter’s Greed in early March were also the Venus station and Vesta’s passage beyond her previous retrograde station point on her way out of Taurus.

I believe there is another economic factor which continues to be seriously underestimated by most astrologers. That is the asteroid Vesta. I also published a little while back that I thought a significant contributor to the recent economic downturn was Vesta’s prolonged retrograde in Taurus.

Vesta represents the virginal keeper of the sacred flame but also the destructive and compressive forces of the flame itself which turns matter into pure energy -leaving only ash. My understanding of this asteroid’s mundane process comes from the the first 10 pages of Demetra George's seminal work Asteroid Goddesses. I have published my opinion that the most striking common mundane indicator between the fall of the Twin Towers and Pearl Harbor was a closely preceding Jupiter-Saturn conjunction on either side of US Sibley natal Vesta in Taurus.

Vesta recently completed a rather extensive 9 month transit of the sign of Taurus due to her retrogradation there. This is fairly rare and occurred only 3 other times in the last century 1921-2, 1950-1, 1979-80. All three of these periods carry the signature of economic turmoil as economists wrestled with the forces of inflationary and/or deflationary pressures. There was a severe deflation immediatley following WWI. The onset of the Korean War brought serious inflation. The late 70's found the US struggling with serious inflationary pressures. Fed chairman Volcker took measures to decapitate US economic growth right at the same time that the Middle East used the "oil weapon." These combined forces led to the second worst recession of the last century.

Vesta was in fact forming a Grand EARTH Trine with Jupiter and Saturn all last September. Robert Hand says the grand trine is NOT benefic. It certainly did not appear to be last fall.