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Sunday, March 17, 2013

The Cardinal Crisis -> Vernal Equinox 2013 Special Edition: Mundane Astrologer Theodore White's Forecast For Washington D.C. & The Middle East In A New Astrological Year > Concern For President Obama's Trip To The Middle East > Also, Comet Heralds Of 2013 > Plus, Mundane Astrologer Peter Stockinger's Forecast For The Vernal Equinox Over Europe & United States > Also, Battle Of Papacy Against The Curia Of The Vatican? > Astromet Climate Forecast: 2013's Weird, Hot, Muggy, Windy, Cloudy, Floody, Wet & Dry Weather > Plus, Global Cooling Ahead > Also, The European Union's Economy & Total Solar Eclipse Of 2015 > And Featuring, Saturn in Scorpio: Mental Health, Crime & Society: 2013-2015


The Cardinal Crisis
Cosmic heralds begin to arrive: Comet PanSTARRS (center left) along with a crescent Moon to the right are seen over the city of Los Angeles, California on March 12th. The comet will be visible in the Northern Hemisphere through March and early April. To see Comet PanSTARRS look carefully during the twilight, to the western horizon just after the sun sets. The comet, known as C/2011 L4 (Pan-STARRS) was discovered June 2011 by Hawaii astronomers. It is just one of several comets that will grace the zodiacal skies during the astrological year of 2013. Meanwhile, in the southern hemisphere, the 'Comet Lemmon,' has been visible in recent weeks by stargazers. And another comet will arrive - known as Comet ISON - a comet that has the potential to put on a dazzling display when it makes its closest approach to the Sun in late November and December 2013.
image: Gene Blevins/Reuters

The Vernal Equinox Of 2013

Mundane Astrologer Theodore White's Forecast For Washington D.C. & The Middle East In A New Astrological Year 

Including,

Mundane Astrologer Peter Stockinger's Forecast For The Vernal Equinox Over Europe & United States

&

The Comet Heralds Of 2013

Also,

Concern For President Obama's Trip To The Middle East

Plus,

Battle Of Papacy Against The Curia Of The Vatican?

Astromet Climate Forecast:
2013's Weird, Hot, Muggy, Cloudy, Floody, Windy, Wet & Dry Weather
Plus, Global Cooling Ahead

Including,

The Europe Union's Economy & Total Solar Eclipse Of 2015


And Featuring,

The Cardinal Crisis Years
Saturn Peregrine In Scorpio
Mental Health, Crime & Society
2013-2015

GLOBAL ASTROLOGY
By
Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.sci
Θεόδωρος

Peace & Goodwill To Humanity

All Praise & Glory Be To IAO, The Immortal God
Presage for Solar Year 2013-2014

"The First Mockingbird of Spring sits in a fertile garden as a bald headed man who has seized power under the Full Moon just as the Pope blesses the Faithful with heralds in the skies above."

My life as a forecasting astrologer


As we near the Vernal Equinox of March 20th, the new astrological year of 2013 gets underway. This celebration is also known as 'International Astrology Day' or 'Norouz' in Persian history.

For astrologers, March 20th is 'International Astrology Day' - a yearly observance that celebrates the vernal equinox - the first day of a new astrological year with the entry of the Sun into tropical Aries. 

The date of the vernal equinox is celebrated by Persians as 'Norouz' - observed throughout many regions in the Middle East and Central Asia. 

The vernal equinox also corresponds with the start of the Bahá'í calendar, celebrated as Bahá'í Naw-Rúz.

Other holidays at this time of the new astrological year are known as Chunfen in China and Vernal Equinox Day - a public holiday in Japan.

Times continue to change according to the planetary transits which takes us into the middle years of this cardinal crisis decade.

The solar year of 2013 promises to continue the themes of challenges, crisis and historic change, according to global transits.


In this Vernal Equinox 2013 Special edition of Global Astrology:

This special edition is packed with forecasts on the trends and events of the new solar year of 2013.

We explore world transits of the new astrological year in The Vernal Equinox Of March 2013.

I explore the global signs in Mundane Astrologer Theodore White's Forecast For Washington D.C. & The Middle East In A New Astrological Year.

Meanwhile, we see Mundane Astrologer Peter Stockinger's Forecast For The Vernal Equinox Over Europe & United States.

The skies above will feature signs and portents of things to come. We also examine The Comet Heralds of 2013.

We look at geopolitics and express Concern For President Obama's Trip To The Middle East.

The Vatican is highlighted as cardinals have elected a new pope in Battle Of Papacy Against The Curia Of The Vatican?

The global economic crisis has remained among the top world headlines, and in this edition we examine The European Union's financial health in The European Union's Economy & The Total Eclipse Of 2015.

I provide my 2013 Weather Outlook along with a long-range global climate prediction in Astromet Climate Forecast: 2013's Weird, Hot, Muggy, Cloudy, Floody, Wet & Dry Weather
Plus, Global Cooling Ahead.

We again feature the transit of Saturn with a look at: Saturn Peregrine in Scorpio: Mental Health, Crime and Society: 2013-2015.

It has been a busy autumn and winter for me completing many client reports for the new astrological year of 2013 and beyond.

This is one reason why I publish Global Astrology on a monthly or bi-monthly basis. Astrological work is complex, intense and time-consuming; so I pace my work schedules to reflect the diverse responsibilities of being a forecasting astrologer.

Recently, a person asked me that if I were to give astrological mundane advice to the President of the United States about these Cardinal Crisis Years, what advice would I give?

Heady question.

I thought for a second and answered, "Know your Scriptures, closely mind global transits of time, their portents and signs - and above all else - fear the Immortal God."

Many readers of Global Astrology already know we are living in historic times, a transitional era in-between the end of the Third Industrial Age and the start of the Knowledge Age. I have long been forecasting that this historic change would occur in these cardinal crisis years of the Twenty-Tens.

These years since the millennium of the year 2000 have been marked by the ideological and outworn remnants of the late 20th century.

It is mainly generational - worldwide - as two generations, one born with Pluto in Cancer (oligarchs) and the other with Pluto in Leo (baby boomer generation) have arrived at the end of their establishments.

The complete messes both generations will have left behind in this new century will be a fitting testament to the emptiness of their foolishness and warped ideologies.

However, what will happen in reality is that they will have all passed on - without their stolen wealth - and with their souls heading straight into many mouths of perdition.



It is not a pretty sight to say the least - however, it is quite fitting.

The history of our times in 2013 really is a testament to the complete and utter failure of two generations to sustain their mental health and their neglect to behave responsibly.

The worldwide crimes committed over the last 50 years will weigh very heavily on the souls of both generations - and a great majority among them shall not arrive at their desired 'pearly gate' destinations, according to the prophecies.

Rather, what awaits them, by means of the evil and unforgiving archons, is well beyond horror.

Now, as we leave that 'cheery' picture...

We arrive at the Vernal Equinox on 20th March with the new astrological year of 2013.



The March 11th new moon will have been the last moon of the astrological year 2012 before the Vernal Equinox arrived on March 20, 2013.

New Pisces Moon Ended Solar Year 2012
March 11 - New York
click on new moon chart to enlarge

The New Moon of March 11 took place on a Monday at 3:49:59 p.m., EDT for the above new moon chart, cast for New York City. 

Ruled by Mars, Sun and Venus, the New Pisces Moon will be in effect until two events, the vernal equinox of March 20th and the following next new moon of April 10th.

The Pisces New Moon covers world events trending - such as the conclave selection of a new pontiff at the Vatican - along with the many other diverse societal, economic, climate, religious and geopolitical affairs that will trend into the new astrological year of 2013.

As a child studying the history of astrology, one of the many lessons my tutors gave me was to study world calendar systems associated with the transits of stars and planets, as they related to customs and trends on earth.

I read so much, but it was just homework to me; however these studies later yielded valuable mundane knowledge as I grew older.


For instance, the vernal equinox, also known as Norouz - is the traditional Persian festival of spring in the northern hemisphere that begins at the exact moment of the vernal equinox.

This ends the previous year of 2012 and commences the start of a new astrological year - the true new year - which arrives March 20, 2013.

There more modern spelling of 'Nowruz' is 'Norouztoday.

The Baha'i Faith, a religion with origin in Iran, celebrates the vernal equinox (they spell it 'Naw Ruz') as a religious holiday that marks primarily the new solar year, according to the Baha'i calendar, but also the end of their 19-day fast in concert with the Christian faith's Lent.

Persian Baha'is still observe many Iranian customs associated with it, but Bahai's all over the world celebrate the vernal equinox as a festive day, according to local customs. 

American Baha'i communities, for example have potluck dinners, along with prayers and readings from Baha'i scripture. 

While 'Naw Ruz,' according to scripture, begins on the vernal equinox, Baha'is currently celebrate it on March 21, regardless of what day the equinox falls. The vernal equinox is a major holiday so Baha'is are required to suspend work and school in observance.


Norouz celebrants believe whatever a person does on the vernal equinox will affect the rest of the solar year. So, if a person is warm and kind to their relatives, friends and neighbors on Norouz  then the new year will be a good one. 

On the other hand, if there are fights and disagreements, the year will be a bad one. Also, many people do a significant amount of "spring cleaning" in early March before the vernal equinox to rid the house of the previous year's dirt and germs in preparation for a healthy and favorable new year. 

One tradition among some is to place something sweet, honey or candy, in a safe place outside overnight. On the first morning of the new year, the first person who rises brings the sweet stuff back into the house as a means of attaining a good new year. This tradition is also associated with children's Easter Egg Hunts in western Christian society.

Norouz is celebrated March 20/21 each year - at the time the Sun enters tropical Aries. Norouz is considered the start of the new year among Iranians as well.

The name comes from Avestan - meaning 'new day and a new daylight.'

The Vernal Equinox, or Norouzhas been celebrated for at least 3,000+ years. It is deeply rooted in the royal astrological rituals and traditions of the Zoroastrian religion. 


These mundane astrology schools measured the known universe, as they presaged and recorded the inclinations of the planets and their effects on the natural world.

Most royal traditions of Norouz have yearly common audiences in front of leaders with favorable greetings, forgiveness, tidings cash gifts and pardons of prisoners.

Today the new year of Norouz is celebrated in Iran, Iraq, India, Afghanistan, Tajikistan  Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.

In Christianity, Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. For this year, that means that Easter Sunday occurs on March 31, 2013.

Passover in 2013 will begin on Tuesday, March 26 and will last seven days until Monday, April 1st. In the United States, Passover ends a day later, so this year, Passover will end on Tuesday, April 2, 2013.

In the Jewish calendar, a holiday begins on sunset of the previous day, so observing Jews will celebrate Passover on the sunset of Monday, March 25th.

So the New Moon of March 11th is in preparation for the celebrations and expectations of the new solar year at the vernal equinox. 

During the Norouz holidays people are expected to pay house visits to one another (mostly limited to families, friends and neighbors) in the form of brief house visits and the other side will also pay you a visit during the holidays before the 13th day of the vernal equinox..

Typically, on the first day of vernal equinox, family members gather around a table, with the Haft Seen on the table or set next to it, and await the exact moment of the arrival of the spring. 


At that time gifts are exchanged. Later in the day, on the very first day, the first house visits are paid to the most senior family members.

Typically, younger people visit the elders first, and elders return their visit later. The visits naturally have to be relatively short, otherwise one will not be able to visit everybody on their list. Every family announces in advance to their relatives and friends which days of the holidays are their reception days.

For individuals, the new Pisces Moon Week is a time to reflect and to prepare for the upcoming new astrological year that officially begins on March 20th. Personal and professional relationships are highlighted with the stellium of planets stretching from the Seventh to the Eighth Houses.

The return of daylight saving time on Sunday, March 10th will be a welcome relief to those who experienced the recent winter in the northern hemisphere.

In the United States, the Energy Policy Act was signed into law in 2005. It extended the length of daylight saving time by four weeks.

Daylight saving time now begins at 2 a.m. on the second Sunday in March and ends the first Sunday of November - except in Hawaii and Arizona; where both states observe standard time year-round.

The waning winter season in the northern hemisphere has been a tough one for tens of millions of people with the cold temperatures, gusting winds, snow and reduced amount of sunlight.

In the weeks to the vernal equinox and in week after, expect people to feel and behave sluggish and off-balance. There can be accidents from a lack of attention along with emotional/mental health episodes that are attributed to the effects on some people from the shift of the Earth's axis as it nears the Aries point.

This is the Vernal Equinox - when there is a equal amount of solar energy and light to both hemispheres of Earth.


In the weeks to the vernal equinox and then afterward, it is best to adjust gracefully to more sunlight as well as to get rest for it is going to be a busy new astrological year worldwide.

Cardinal Crisis Years
The Vernal Equinox of March 20, 2013
 President of the United States, Barack Obama, pictured here on March 4, at the first American cabinet meeting of his second presidential term. It was also the first cabinet meeting for U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel who sits next to the president.
Image: Doug Mills/NYT

Forecast by 
Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.sci

In many ways, the arrival of the new astrological year of 2013 continues to signal that the world is in a very serious and important era in this decade of the Twenty-Tens.

For years, I have been forecasting by mundane astrology that the world would enter an historic era, a major transitional one, that leads truly into the early 21st century.

Cardinals attending the 'Pro Eligendo Papa' mass in the Saint Peter's Basilica, in Vatican City on March 12th.
Image: Guido Montani

We are now living in that era.

These transitional years of the Twenty-Tens are mainly about the decades ahead - particularly the 2020s and 2030s - and how the world will turn out to be. 

There are those who would sacrifice the future of others for the expenses of their present. While others fight the good fight for the future in our present, for they are those possess common sense and goodwill.

On March 20th a new astrological year arrives with the entry of the Sun into 00-Aries. 

This effectively ends the year 2012 and begins the new year of 2013 that will extend from March 2013 to March 2014.
~

As the vernal equinox approaches, we see cosmic presages announcing the new astrological year - among them - two comets - the first and second of three comets in this new astrological year of 2013...


The Cardinal Crisis Years
The Comet Heralds Of 2013
This March 2, 2013 photograph shows Comet Pan-STARRS as observed from Queenstown, New Zealand. The recently discovered comet has closer than it's ever been to Earth, and stargazers in the Northern Hemisphere finally get to see it.
Image: Minoru Yoneto

By 
Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.sci

You will be able to see Comet Pan-STARRS immediately after sunset if you look low and to the west. The comet has been taking a northward path as it moves from the western sky to the west/northwest at sunset.

The best chances to see the running comet will be from March 10 to March 15. 

Comet Pan-STARRS will be seen having two tails. One is a dust tail and the other an ion tail that are composed of gas molecules ionized by the Sun's solar winds and light.

Meanwhile, seen in the southern hemisphere has been Comet Lemmon. These comets are heralds of the events we will experience and see over the solar years 2013-2016.

This image of both Comet Lemmon and Comet PanSTARRS was captured on Feb. 28, 2013 at Las Campanas Observatory in the Atacama Desert, Chile.
Image: Yuri Beletsky

And a third comet is on its way to our heavens over Earth: 

Comet ISON will arrive in November 2013 and is scheduled to be higher in the sky and very bright.

in March, Comet Pan-STARRS could be as bright as second magnitude, which for a comet will be bright enough to see from Washington D.C. if you look west after sunset.

During the weekend of March 16-18, the comet, moon and Jupiter will be seen setting on the western horizon. This, as the skies of spring rise in the east. 

You will see the constellations Leo, Virgo and Bootes, with their stars Regulus, Spica and Arcturus - and, in their midst, the planet Saturn.

All comets are named after their discoverers.

This particular comet was discovered in June 2011 by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (known as Pan-STARRS) on Mount Haleakala, Maui, Hawaii. Pan-STARRS is a wide-field imaging observatory at the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy.

Comet Lemmon, or C/2012 F6, was discovered by Alex Gibbs of the Mount Lemmon survey in Arizona in March 2012. That comet has gotten brighter as it entered our inner solar system and will make its closest approach to the Sun on March 24th.

Meanwhile, Comet Pan-STARRS can be seen just several degrees about the horizon at dusk where you will see a bright object with a tail just as early evening begins as the Sun sets.

Comet Pan-STARRS had been visible from the Southern Hemisphere, but that changed on March 7th, when the comet entered the Northern Hemisphere night skies

Comet PanStarrs will have achieved perihelion – the closest approach to the Sun – on Sunday, March 10.

By March 17th, the comet will be seen with the new moon and Jupiter among the stars of Taurus and Gemini.


These comets are heralds and signify signs for the world in mundane astrology.

Raphael, in his 1828 Manual of Astrology on Astrological Portents says, 

"From the appearance of meteors and unusual celestial phenomena in general...

"The ancient astrologers were accustomed to pay peculiar attention to that part or quarter of heaven in which these celestial appearances were first seen: 

Added to which, they observed in what constellation of heaven, and near what fixed stars of eminence they were posited, in respect to their longitude.

They also deduced a system of presages from their color  shape, resemblance to swords, crowns, halos, wands, flames of fire, &c. 



Comet Pan-STARRS among the constellations
click on graphic to enlarge

"But the most philosophical and also natural way, is evidently to cast a theme of heaven, to that hour in which they are first seen, and from which the certain cause of their appearance is more likely to become manifest to the student, than in any other manner."

Let's hear from American astrologer Jonathan Flanery in his:

Unexpected Visitors!
The Theory of the Influences of Comets

By 
Jonathan Flanery, mundane Astrolog.sci

History records many portents in the Heavens. 

Recently we have seen a few as well. Comet Ikeya-Zhang a few years ago, the bright comets of the 90s, Nova 1987(a) and others. 

Brilliant meteor displays. We know a great deal about the physics and astronomical data behind these phenomena, but little about their astrological and philosophical significance. 

To most they are merely a celestial light show. To some they are a source of fear and terror. 

To a very few, they are messengers of coming changes and events. 




Except for a few periodic comets and regular meteor showers, these apparitions are unexpected and we astrologers are usually at a loss as to what they signify except perhaps with hindsight. 

The ancient Greeks had a method to anticipate them from ingresses and ideas about their significance based on their colors and shapes but theirs was an astrology and astronomy of the naked eye and far freer of pollution and night light than ours. 

Atmospherics certainly played a role in their observations and their interpretation.

The Greeks and later traditional Medieval and Renaissance astrologers thought them wholly malefic. 




These same astrologers held that comets and other portents in the heavens were fleeting appearances of the sub-lunary sphere.

An event for our punishment or (very rarely) benefit from the Logos appearing in the space between the Earth and Moon. 

In their model of the heavens, change does not occur beyond the sphere of Luna except for the movements of the planets. 

The effects of comets were supposed to last for 1/8 of their period; to the ancients this would most likely have been their period of visibility, and to begin in earnest when the Sun or Mars transited their place of closest approach to the Sun or perihelion. 

Their appearance was heralded by disturbances in humans, animals, and the weather. The comets then dispensed, by perihelion position and their dispositors, their good or ill effects - usually ill. 



They also often heralded the rise of an agent. This agent could be a war leader but might, depending on the position of the comet, show a religious leader, reformer, or great trader. 

Modern astronomers tell us that comets originate in one of three places: the vicinity of Jupiter; the Kuiper belt which is bounded by the orbit of Neptune; or from a surrounding sphere called the Oort Cloud. 



Most of the comets from the vicinity of Jupiter are actually from one of the other two regions and were captured by Jupiter. These are recycled messages. Their orbits became modified by the giant Jovian system and stabilized in a tighter Sun/Jupiter orbit. 

This is an important feature since Jupiter protects us from a more intense bombardment. In this way, he really is the Greater Benefic and an 'almost star' to boot. 

Comets rain down, or more usually drizzle down, toward the inner system due to disturbances in the patterns of the force of gravity in their regions of origin. Naturally they bring some of this disruptive energy with them to the inner system. 

The period from first visible appearance to perihelion is when the characteristic patterns of disturbance associated with a comet at its approach are felt. 

Humans, animals and the weather are disturbed. The figure for visible appearance tells us the nature of these disturbances and the sign in which it appears tells us where to look for them.



Another bit of information from the modern astronomers is that comets, especially those out in the Oort Cloud beyond Pluto, contain material present at the formation of the Solar System and are more directly exposed to the light of the fixed stars. 

The Kuiper Belt is a disc-like region extending from 30 to 1,000 AU (an AU is the distance from the Earth to the Sun which takes light 8 minutes to cross), Jupiter is about 5 AU from the Sun, and the Oort Cloud extends from 6,000 to 20,000 AU in a rough sphere around the Solar System. 

Comets with an orbital period of 200 years or less are considered short period and originate in the Kuiper Belt or closer, the long period comets with periods of much more than 200 years come in from the Oort Cloud. 

This would imply that in addition to any information from the time of formation and some degree of disruption that the decrees of heaven, as the ancient Chinese thought of comets and other portents, are divided into three classes of messenger. 

Those from the Oort Cloud bring messages and decrees from the fixed stars or, again as the ancient Chinese thought of them, the seats of celestial power, the principalities of the heavenly kingdom. 

Many of these comets have periods in the thousands of years. 



Those from the Kuiper Belt with periods of greater than 200 years but less than 1,000 (this is an estimated guess) bring messages from the invisible planets of our solar system: Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto and a touch of fixed star influence as well. 

The very short period comets are recycled messages captured by Jupiter and carrying some of the influence of the Jovian System along with whatever original information they held. 

The message is not delivered until the comet makes its closest approach to the Sun where the message is assimilated into the system. The Sun is author of the System according to modern astronomy and the King and ruler of it, according to tradition. 

These new decrees are issued at perihelion. 

Perihelion is the sensitive point to watch during the duration of influence of the comet as this is the message. The message alters trade and political arrangements and form alliances into new patterns - it creates new connections. 

The best recent example of this is Comet Kahoutek whose arrival coincided with the formation of the Oil Cartel and many related crises. 

As would be expected from a major influence in Sagittarius (perihelion at 27:42, December 1973), Kahoutek also had an impact on large corporations, especially the auto industry, and international trade. 

Kahoutek was a visitor from the Oort Cloud and although it was not spectacular to view, it was visible and has a very long period of effect. One eighth of a very long orbital period is still a very long time. 

When the place of perihelion is transited by Mars or the Sun, effects begin in earnest, the decree is implemented and arrangements change radically. 



Comets signify realignment of trade, financial and political arrangements with an initial disruption in the system. 

Later on, after ignition, that is transit by Sun or Mars, the winners and losers become apparent. 

Even so, the effects may linger for some time with the perihelion as a sensitive point for many years, sometimes centuries. 

The perihelion degree is then brought forward as a sensitive point and added to subsequent figures. Comets, when they configure significators in an horary or natal figure are always significant. 

When one appears in the birth year it is always to be included as part of the natal delineation, and they are always useful in mundane maps. 



In essence, they signify new connections and disruption which brings new opportunities. Some benefit from their effects, some suffer, and some hardly notice them (as their significators are affected). 

The effects of comets are first noticeable in those places and enterprises ruled by the sign of their perihelion; after this look for effects in the quadruplicity. 

For example, Comet Kahoutek made its perihelion in Sagittarius. Chile is of that sign and suffered a coup of its legally elected government and the assassination of its president. 

The auto industry suffered due to fuel shortages. The members of the Oil Cartel led by Saudi Arabia (another Sagittarius) benefited. Effects were not far behind for the other mutable signs and then spread generally. 

The ancient Greeks thought that portents could be anticipated. 



When a year contains conjunctions of Mars with the planets beyond him (traditionalists would limit this to Jupiter and Saturn, others would include his conjunctions with the three invisibles), and Mars rules the ascendant at the vernal ingress, expect some shining portent in the heavens. 

This is a local prediction as the Ingress ascendant changes with location but it is something to start with. I have observed that it is more likely, but not certain. 

Meteors are dead comets. Their remains, orbiting through the solar system and colliding with our atmosphere, give periodic light shows and more often than not signal a local shortage of some commodity or another.

Novas signal breakthroughs and sometimes global paradigm shifts. 




The best examples are the Nova of 1572 which signaled the ascendancy of science and exploration; and most recently Nova 1987a which coincided with the birth of the internet and the end of the Cold War. These should be mentioned for completeness, but are beyond our present scope. 

Note that portents should be viewed in the context of mundane figures in force such as the current ingress and the current Jupiter/Saturn conjunction for the best results in mundane prediction. 

An example: In the summer of 1975 there was a nova in Cygnus at about 7 Pisces which was bright and lasted 4 days. For a nova, a year of effect is given for a day of visibility (the novas of 1572 and 1604 are still in effect!). Portugal is a Pisces country. 

At the ingress, the perihelion of Kahoutek was on the midheaven and the nova was near the ascendant. Portugal lost a 10 year colonial war in Africa and a socialist revolution ensued. 

Kahoutek's perihelion was in 1973 but its effects in terms of increasing costs and decreased foreign support for the war as well as the indicated political reshuffling collapsed the government and ended the war. 

In the same time frame the Gemini United States (note also that the ascendant for its political chart is Sagittarius) concluded its 10 year war in Southeast Asia. 

The nova has other associations as well but the point here is that a long term comet with the added breakthrough energy of the nova, brought colonial wars to an end and radically reshuffled political alignments. 

It is also of interest to look back at the previous Jupiter/Saturn conjunction of 1960 in Capricorn, which is near the beginning of these conflicts and would have been the point where major policy decisions about prosecuting them would have been made. 

My examples in this article have been mundane events and trends. These are easy to see and easy to check against the other influences in effect at any given time. 


Comet Pan-STARRS and a crescent Moon - March 2013

Adding portents to the traditional methods or the approach of French astrologer Andre Barbault (who looks at mundane events as the playing out of the aspect series composing synodic cycles) is quite productive for delineation and prediction. 

It also points up the importance of the dialectic property of synodic cycles. 

That is, they begin with a conjunction which is the thesis or current state, proceed through a development by aspects which gives rise to an opposing force, the antithesis, and proceeds thereafter to interact, again through a series of aspects, to form a new synthesis which, at conjunction becomes the new thesis. 

This process, in mundane events is most obvious for economic and political trends in the Jupiter/Saturn synod or conjunction cycle. 

In the weather and certain social matters it is seen in the Neptune/Uranus synod. 

For matters of religion and the supernatural it can be seen in the Neptune/Pluto synod. There are others and I have not exhaustively cataloged the effects, but it is clear that synodic conjunctions form the backbone of mundane astrology. 



Comets indicate alterations in how these patterns manifest by altering the connections and alignments within them, and sometimes changing their course and emphasis. 

In personal charts or natal figures, comets serve a similar function, but are not of much notice unless they conjunct or aspect a significator or appear in the birth year. 

My apologies for scant references. While a study of the examples speaks for itself, there are references from the Greeks and Chinese that were very useful in getting started although these were second hand from other sources. 

Ramus - Ephemeris of the Great Comets 1402-1948 is very handy as well. 

In the West, there is some reference from Cardan and some other traditional astrologers and there are a few predictions from Almanacs and prophecies but no extensive treatment that I have seen. 

Tycho Brahe made use of the Sybilline Prophecies and the Nova of 1572 in predicting the birth of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, and other traditional astrologers have included some information on their expectations of the effects of comets by sign. 

The connection of comets with quantum physics is a thought to leave you with as you ponder the theory and application of the comets. 

Though predictable to some extent for those that have more or less regular orbits and from ingress indications, comets are both messengers and cosmic wild cards. 



They most strongly represent the action of chance in the cosmic scheme of things. 

They are in many ways the manifestation of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle on the manifest level in the heavens. 

There are things we cannot know certainly about them until they arrive. Like Schroedinger's Cat, are they dead (without influence due to breakup or invisibility) or alive (visible and communicant with the Sun and by that an influence on us). 

And there is always some uncertainty as to when or if they will return. We can know where they are at a given time but not always exactly where they will be or if they will even continue to be. 

Meteor showers are the remains of comets that have broken up and the short period comets that orbit in the vicinity of Jupiter are recycled comets that originally started further out but were captured by the gas giant and protector. 

This is food for thought when coupled with information on the radiants and times of year when meteors brighten the skies.

~
As we can see, the new solar year of 2013-2014 seems to be important as we see these 'heralds' in the form of running comets in our skies.



These middle years of the Twenty-Tens, in my mundane estimation, confirms why I call the decade the 'cardinal crisis years.'

On March 20th, we see the Vernal Equinox and a new astrological year begin. 



The Vernal Equinox Of 2013
New Astrological Year
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Washington D.C.

"How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?" ~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Canada's automated AuroraMax camera captured this aurora, seen over Yellowknife, Canada, on March 17, 2013



The Vernal Equinox Of 2013
New Astrological Year


Analysis by
Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.sci

The new astrological year begins on Wednesday, March 20, 2013 at 7:01 a.m., EDT, at Washington D.C.

There are a series of mundane presages and forecasts to be ascertained from the Aries Point Ingress Chart of the Sun into Aries and the Earth in Libra.

The vernal equinox chart shows that the next six months will highlight a diverse spectrum of issues; featuring major choices, decisions and challenges on a wide variety of problems - which I remind everyone, have been left unresolved, for years.

The Sun enters 00-Aries just before it rises in the east on March 20th. This generally sets the tone for the entire astrological year.

The Moon is posited in Cancer in the mundane Fourth House that is ruled by Mercury, and as Pisces rises on the Ascendant, co-ruled by Jupiter and Neptune, signifies the next six months in the United States to be significant. The Mid-heaven, in Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter.

With the Moon in the Fourth House, the domestic policies of the United States take front and center in this new astrological year.

We also see the re-establishment of a YOD configuration between Saturn, Pluto and Jupiter. This configuration was evident on December 21, 2013 and was examined in Mayan Calendar edition of Global Astrology.

YOD Configuration on Vernal Equinox
click on YOD chart to enlarge

In the vernal equinox diagnostic chart above, located for Washington D.C., one can see the YOD aspect configuration: composed of two planets that form a 60-degree sextile aspect to one another, in this case, the planets Saturn and Pluto.

Both Saturn and Pluto point to another, by a 150-degree aspect called a quincux, to an apex planet, that would be Jupiter.

Jupiter, which stationed direct Jan. 30th, has picked up speed in March as it transits sidereal Taurus and tropical Gemini.

Conjoined to the star Aldebaran, Jupiter's placement is yet another sign of the historic era we now are living in the Twenty-Tens. The YOD is an aspect of major adjustment to new realities and new times.

For example, my warnings about this year and the economic crisis is rearing its ugly head in various regions of the world.

During the second week of March, the population in Cyprus reacted in shock to news of a one-off levy of up to 10% on their accounts and savings as part of a 10 billion Euro ($13 billion) bailout agreement conjured up in Brussels.

The word spread like wildfire all over Cyprus as customers lined up at ATM machines brimming with anger and resentment at the levy. Meanwhile co-operative credit societies shut their bank doors to prevent a run on deposits.

At one Cyprus bank, a frustrated man drove and then parked his bulldozer just outside the bank and threatened to ram down the bank's locked doors to get at his life savings.

Don't believe me? See for yourself:



Known as the 'finger of God,' in mundane astrology, the YOD calls on the world to prepare for changes, usually asking evolution, rather than regression into the outworn, stale and outmoded ways.

However, under the cardinal crisis transits, many prior mundane warnings have gone unheeded and frankly, a lot of anger and resentment about the way things have been going for years has built up. With defining global transits in play - a lot is just about to hit the proverbial fan.

Diagnostic with Fixed Stars
click on diagnostic to enlarge

The Vernal Equinox chart for Washington D.C. above is shown with fixed stars, along with the Moon, Venus and Neptune included.

Sun & Venus conjoined to Scheat
Moon to Mirzam
Jupiter to Aldebaran
Saturn conjoined to Mimosa
Neptune to Fomalhaut

Without being too technical for those unfamiliar with astrological configurations, what we have here is a very interesting year just ahead.

The challenges, choices and dangers surely call for prudence, caution, imagination and steady navigation - especially for next year - 2014.

In the vernal equinox 2013 chart, we see the Mid-heaven at 26-Sagittarius is in conjunction to the Galactic Center at 27-Sagittarius. This adds to the importance of the astrological year 2013 in judgment and decision-making from Washington D.C.

The YOD configuration also adds a strong sense of urgency to solar year 2013.

Being in the house ruled by Mercury, the position of the Moon clearly signifies that it is time for the U.S. to get its house in order, this, after years of economic and social decline due to the horrid mismanagement by the baby boomer generational establishment.

Let's look at some items of interest...


The Cardinal Crisis Years
Concern For President Obama's Trip To The Middle East

Forecast By
Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.sci

In forecasting, it has long been a principle of mine to never publicly comment on the nativity of an American president in office and I will always uphold that principle.

However, I am stating my concerns for President Barack Obama's Middle East tour scheduled to begin on the vernal equinox, March 20th, with an announced arrival in Israel.

World transits and some natal placements of the president do not favor an overseas trip to this region, at this time of year, as global transits are unfavorable. So are the signs. Therefore under these unfavorable world transits, I express concern, urge caution, and advise patience and prudence.

The details of President Obama’s announced visit to Israel and the West Bank in March were made public in February.

The president's itinerary includes a packed schedule - visiting a U.S.-funded Iron Dome rocket defense battery; the famous Dead Sea scrolls and an exhibition showcasing the Jewish state’s high-tech credentials.

President Obama has been scheduled to arrive in Tel Aviv on the day of the vernal equinox, Wednesday March 20 to be welcomed by Israeli President Shimon Peres and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

All three men are scheduled to later visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, where President Obama is due to lay a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance, before embarking on a trip to Mount Herzl.

The President's visit includes a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah which includes a high-level discussion with Netanyahu and policymakers about a range of foreign policy issues. 

President Obama is also scheduled to give a speech in Jerusalem to about 1,000 Israelis before he departs on Friday, March 22 to meet King Abdullah in Jordan.

Astrologically, the transits do not favor such a trip, and even with one, it is highly doubted that it will restart the peace process until both Israel and Palestine learn to take the practical steps it takes to actually live together without the rule of hatred, fear and revenge.

What America can do is to foster the need for all to realize this common sense and then help to close the peace deal.

The Middle East, circa 2013
image: Google Maps

Still, the vernal equinox for 2013 shows unfavorable transits for the Middle East.

The mundane chart I prepared below is cast for the first day of spring in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem, Israel & Middle East
Vernal Equinox: March 20, 2013
Vernal Equinox 2013 in the Middle East
click on mundane chart to enlarge

This mundane chart for 2013 shows the exact time the Sun enters 00-Aries, over the Middle East. 

The vernal equinox for Jerusalem starts on Wednesday, March 20, 2013 at 1:22:47 p.m., Jerusalem time. Daylight saving time does not begin in Israel until March 29, 2013.

The vernal chart is ruled by Venus, Sun, Mars and Pluto.

Again, the planets conjoined to fixed stars are:

Sun & Venus to Scheat
Moon to Mirzam
Jupiter to Aldebaran
Saturn to Mimosa
Neptune to Fomalhaut
Vertex to Antares
The Dragon's Head to Zuben Elgenubi Zuben Elschemali 

Clearly, there are serious issues concerning these planetary to stellar conjunctions.

In this vernal equinox chart, the Sun, Mars and Uranus are posited in the Ninth Mundane House of international and foreign affairs. The house is ruled by Jupiter, which also contains Venus.

Venus rules the Libra Fourth House as Leo on the Ascendant of the Middle East vernal equinox chart

In this Israeli vernal equinox chart, the fixed star Scheat sits between Venus and the Sun. This is primarily unfavorable for visits to the region.

One of the key problems in the Middle East, rather in Palestine, is that two peoples must learn to live together. The history of the region - with all its conflict, hatred and bloodshed must, in the final analysis, be handled by the peoples of Palestine and Israel.

But, the region must know this -

World transits will bring about powerful inclinations that can easily spark a wider conflict.

These conflicts, be they political or religious (or both) are nonetheless ideological and therefore, unless the grown-ups among all in the region fail to actually behave adult human beings, things can only get much worse. That is the truth.

How this can be changed favorably, this year, depends on the acts and imaginations of good people who know better than the fools who run headlong into perdition.

Their rush for hatred, revenge and lack of common sense in denying the human rights of all is simply not a recipe for peace in no shape or form.

In the final analysis, when all is said and done by those who could have made a difference, the Immortal God shall settle the matter - once and for all. And be very fearful of that truth. It is very real.

Promise of Peace In Palestine?

In the Middle Eastern vernal equinox 2013 chart above, we find that the topical constellations Cancer and Capricorn are intercepted in the 12th and 6th Houses in Middle East's vernal equinox chart.

We observe that the Moon and Pluto are posited in both intercepted Signs. This shows how the land for peace issue and sovereignty in Palestine continues to be contentious.

It is clear by these astrological configurations that there is a need for the serious resumption of peace talks between Israel with Palestinians which have been frozen for two years in a dispute over Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank.

Israel's high cost of living must also be addressed under these planetary configurations. There is no escaping the fact that in the global economic crisis, peace is best for business, for all involved.

How to come to terms with the very hard feelings, recriminations, revenge, ideology and religious differences depends on the ability of people of diversity to live together in peace. I was born in a state - Pennsylvania - that has been committed to this for four hundred years, so it can be done. where 

Another noticeable problem is the square from a first quarter transiting Moon in Cancer in the 12th House in square to Mars and Uranus in Aries posited in the 9th Mundane House. This square is also unfavorable for the entire Middle East Region as whole.

Moon-Uranus squares are indications of explosive outbursts of temper, marked by desire for freedom at any costs. Acts of impulse fueled by self-centered and egotistic attitudes easily alienate others.

The square would work from the Moon's private position in the 12th Mundane House where disagreements and quarrels among groups and organizations are likely to arise. The issues over monies, administrative affairs, joint finances, etc., etc., are all sources of conflict.

On top of this, large-scale forces, by means of Uranus' square from Aries to the transiting Moon in Cancer; may see events disrupt the affairs of the lives of others.

Uranus' inclinations show danger through explosives, electricity, car accidents along with the mishandling of machines and firearms.

Underpinning rise in violence with attacks by explosions, there are also signs of unusual geopolitical events, mainly from the moody (Moon) political outlooks of leaders and their associates can lead to surprising and sudden (Uranus) changes in partnerships and allegiances.

 Those inclined by these world transits, and clearly unaware of them consciously - surely are ignorant as to the consequences of their thoughts, words, actions and deeds.

The square from Mars (conjoined to Uranus in Aries in the vernal equinox 2013 chart for the Middle East) to the Moon adds the elements of irritability and instability to the region.

We can see by the aspects in the mundane diagnostic chart below, the squares and oppositions, along with the in-conjuncts prevalent during the vernal equinox over the Middle East.


The square from Jupiter, in detriment in Gemini and conjoined to the royal star Aldebaran, Watcher of the East. Aldebaran is one of the four royal stars who have their origins by Arabic and ancient Persian names:

Aldebaran is in Alpha Tauri and signals the vernal equinox. It is the brightest star in the constellation Taurus.

Regulus, located in Alpha Leonis marks the summer solstice and is the brightest star in the constellation Leo/Virgo.

Antares, found in Alpha Scorpii, is at the autumnal equinox and is the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius.

Fomalhaut is in Alpha Pisces and marks the winter solstice as the brightest star in the constellation Piscis Austrinus.

In mundane astrology, the 'eye of the bull,' the fixed star Aldebaran - is known as the 'Eye of Revelation,' it is one of the four royal stars known as archangel sentinels.

The great red giant star, Aldebaran is one of the four 'guardians of Heaven' - and serve as sentinels that watch over other stars and earth.

Known as 'archangel stars,' in esoteric mundane astrology, the star Aldebaran is the Archangel Michael as 'Watcher of the East,' and 'Military Commander of the Heavenly Host.' 

The others are Archangel Gabriel for the star Fomalhaut, Watcher of the South. The Archangel Raphael marks Regulus as Watcher of the North and Uriel denotes the star Antares, Watcher of the West. 

At one time these four royal stars marked both two Equinoxes and the two Solstices. Aldebaran came at the the 0-Aries point in 3044 BC. Antares was at 0-Libra in 3052 BC. 

Fomalhaut positioned at 0-Capricorn in the year 2582 BC and Regulus once marked 0-Cancer in 2345 BC.

Neptune is conjoined to one of other royal star, Fomalhaut, the Watcher of the South, in conjunction with a direct Mercury, in fall and detriment in Pisces.

British Astrologer Paul Saunders says this about Neptune conjunct Fomalhaut -

"In the meantime, Neptune has slid into orb of Fomalhaut, the star in Piscis Australis, the constellation of the Southern fish. 

This is one of the Royal Persian stars, the watcher of the South and a star that has a really mystical and magical sense about it. 

This is a star of charisma and anyone who has a connection to this star must try to keep their feet firmly on the ground, otherwise they can become a fall from excessive pride, over optimism or just sheer arrogance.

Neptune here brings intuition, imagination and a wonderfully psychic feel to the next couple of months, but don't be fooled. 

The deceptive qualities of Neptune I think are also enhanced too, and as much as one can wonder at the beauty of the world around you and dream the impossible dream and think that it can become reality, you can also be totally deceived or conned by unscrupulous people.

This is a connection for creating an illusion and making people think that what they are seeing is really real when in fact it is not. Great for TV and making films, producing art and transforming one form into another. 

I can imagine anyone with creative or artistic talents will be totally inspired by this link between Neptune and Fomalhaut.

There is a spiritual link here and it no surprise that the new Pope will be nominated under it's gaze. Maybe one of his remits will be to finally deal with the unseen and unholy rumors of abuse and deception in the Catholic Church that have been going on for decades now? 

This is a conjunction ripe for espionage and for the dark arts that governments get up to and for lifting a veil on any bad practices that have been going on. 

Robson says this influence is connected to secret affairs or government work, occult interests, detective ability, many secret enemies and maybe violent death through them, gain through speculation and many narrow escapes. It sounds very much like the plot to a Bond movie.

Interesting times lie ahead for us all under Neptune conjunct Fomalhaut, but remember that not everything and everyone that you meet, see and hear will be honest and working for your best interests..."

The star Aldebaran has been used for centuries to navigate the oceans. Its name is derived from Arabic, as "Aldebaran" literally means "the follower." 

The mundane reference is to how Aldebaran tracks just behind the stars of the Pleiades. A Hebrew name for Aldebaran was Aleph, a name also used for the constellation of Taurus.

During the spring months, with Jupiter in detriment in tropical Gemini, the conjunction of Jupiter to Aldebaran is associated with catastrophes in the air and on the sea. 

With Jupiter, Aldebaran is notable in astrometeorology signalling insect swarms, dry high winds, drought and famine.

There can be storms of heavy rains causing widespread floods in some regions. The mundane annuals also speak of unfavorable incidents and accidents at seas, along with shipwreck and potential of drowning.

Jupiter is posited in the 11th House of the People, representing parliaments and political coalition building

The configurations to Jupiter  (wisdom, judgement & common sense) show stress, primarily from the square to Chiron in Pisces (personal decision-making) which is also square to the Vertex, conjoined to the star Antares and opposed to Jupiter.

In the years ahead (2015 & 2016) transiting Saturn will conjoin Antares, and this is where we find the Vertex in the vernal equinox 2013 chart for the Middle East.

Impatience, along with emotional impulse are more than likely to interfere with personal and professional responsibilities. 

Accidents, fires, explosions associated with the synod of Mars-Uranus in Aries at this time show that impatience, lack of prudence and emotional anger clouds common sense and proper judgement.

Really, when the United States is needed is to close a peace deal between when Israel and Palestine get down to brass tacks of securing real peace. 

The history of this region continues to force outsiders to urge calm, restraint and prudence but again, in the final analysis, it is about the people who live in the Middle East to learn that we are all under the eyes of the Immortal God.
~

Let's take a further look, in this 2013 special edition of Global Astrology, at the vernal equinox forecast by mundane astrologer Peter Stockinger.
~


The Cardinal Crisis Years
The Aries Ingress 2013:
The United Kingdom, European Union & United States of America

By 
Peter Stockinger, mundane Astrolog.sci

On 20th March 2013 at 11:02 UT/06:02 EST the Sun will be in 00*00’ Aries. 

Traditional astrology states that a chart cast for the capital of a nation at the time the Sun enters Aries provides a detailed picture of the events occurring during the year or at least part of the year to follow. 

The ancients called this the Revolution of the Year of the World, but it is also known as the Solar Ingress.

As ingress charts are location specific, I will give an analysis of the 2013 solar ingress for Britain and the EU, followed by the ingress for the Unites States of America.

Vernal Equinox 2013
London, England


Shown above is the Aries ingress chart, cast for London, representing the United Kingdom. 

With a moveable sign rising, this chart will be valid for three months only. 

Thereafter, the Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn ingress charts will have to be taken into account.

From the chart above, we can see that most of the planets are debilitated. 

Saturn is retrograde, Jupiter in detriment, Mars and Venus are combust, and Mercury is essentially debilitated by detriment and fall. 

Luna is essentially dignified by Rulership and face and is close to the Ascendant. 

Therefore, I propose that the Moon will be the 'Lady of the Revolution,' valid until the Cancer ingress on 21 June 2013.

Also, of importance is the fact that the Moon is the Lady of the Ascendant, too.

Bonatti says about the Moon being in the domicile of the Lady of the Year:

“ [i]t signifies and abundance of waters or rains, and the increase of rivers and streams, and their flooding; the increase of cold; and the goodness of the disposition of men, and that they will rejoice in the good.”

With the Moon being the Lady of the Revolution, the main themes between March and June 2013 will be matters concerning the common people. 

We also find that the Moon is square Mars and trine Saturn, of which Bonatti says:

“If at some time it were to happen that the Moon … is the Lord of the Year … and one of the malefics were joined with it, and were to impede it by aspect or conjunction, the condition of the year and of the vulgar or common people will be weakened and made harsh if it were the Lord of the Year.”

Bonatti goes into more detail about this, writing:

“[I]f the Moon were the Lady of the Year or Revolution, … it signifies the good condition of the vulgar generally; and even the good condition of sailors and mothers, … and also gourmands or gluttons … and their way of life. If however she were impeded, it signifies the contrary of these things which I have said…

And later on writes about the Moon in the 12th house:

“Indeed in the twelfth, it signifies impediment and duress, and the instability of things, and quarrels and prisons from the direction of enemies.”

But not only the common people will suffer, there might be surprises waiting for the rulers, too. 

Looking at the placement of the Dragon’s Head in Scorpio, we find that:

“Abu Ma’shar said that it signifies … evil and sorrow in great men; and it signifies wars and battles and wounds …”

It also seems that we will be in for more surprises regarding what may be hidden in our food, as the ingress chart shows Jupiter on the 12th house cusp, which, according to Bonatti denotes that:

“[T]hat they [people] will be saddened by accidents which will come to them on the occasion of quadrupeds, and especially large animals, like horses, cows, and the like.”

What springs to mind as well is retrograde Saturn in the 5th house of joy and pleasure, and Mercury in the 9th house, who is strongly debilitated.

The ingress chart for Europe, cast for Brussels, is nearly identical to the one cast for the United Kingdom. 

This leads us to believe that more financial restrictions and continued economic hardship for most of the population, as indicated by Mercury can be expected for the United Kingdom and the European Union.

The United States

Shown here is the Aries ingress chart, cast for Washington and therefore representative for the United States of America. 

With a mutable sign rising, this chart is valid for six months and the Libra ingress chart will have to be taken into account thereafter.

Once again we see that the Moon is the Lady of the Revolution, but here the Moon is located in the 4th house. 

Just as we saw in the ingress chart for Europe, the fate of the common people will be of major concern during the next six month. 

Luna’s location in the 4th house indicates that we are dealing with domestic issues and people’s estates, homes and resources in general. 

Furthermore, the Moon is aspecting Saturn in the 8th house and Mercury, who is essentially debilitated by Detriment and Fall, in the 12th house. 

Bonatti says about the placement of the Moon in the 4th house”

“[I]f it [the chart] were nocturnal, neither the beginning nor end will be praised; men’s affairs will be restricted, unless Jupiter were to work to the contrary.”

Taking into account that in this ingress chart Jupiter is the Lord of the Ascendant, we have to investigate Bonatti’s claim thoroughly. 

Here we find that Jupiter is in detriment and his dispositor is debilitated Mercury, who is located in the 12th house, squaring Jupiter.

At least all is not bad, as it seems that the economic problems will cause tighter bonds between families. 

Bonatti says about Jupiter in the third house in ingress charts:

“And if he were in the third, it signifies good fortune from one brother to another, and between them; and men will rejoice because of their relatives, and especially younger ones, and first or older sisters.”
~


The Cardinal Crisis Years
Global Events Trending
Rome, Italy, March 2013, a pilgrim in Saint Peter's Square, The Vatican

Analysis By
Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.sci

In 2013, the transits of the planets show geopolitical intrigues, tensions and events, mainly along the world's 23rd parallel north, according to my astrological calculations for the mundane years of 2013 and 2014.

As we have seen recently in Rome, with the resignation of one pontiff and the election of a new pope in March the world is easily experiencing the onset of an historic transitional era and times.

This astrological year of 2013 is a favorable one to use to solve and/or to greatly reduce the amount of geopolitical conflict before the emergence of the Grand Cardinal Cross in spring 2014.

The transits of the outer planets, particularly Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Pluto relative to the Earth from this year 2013 to the next year of 2014 can yield either favorable results or dissolve into a global emergency by the time of the Grand Cardinal Cross of 2014.

The planet Mars began a new orbital cycle in tropical Aries in March 2013 and turned north in declination on March 14 as comets herald across the skies in both hemispheres of our world.

In the midst of this, we also see that my prior warnings on Afghanistan as previously highlighted in other editions of Global Astrology are panning out.

Afghanistan

Also March 11th it was reported that five American service members were killed in a helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan.

A statement issued March 12th from the NATO military coalition said the helicopter crashed in an area where there was no enemy activity.

The cause of the crash is still under investigation, but a U.S. official confirmed that all of the dead were Americans.



Also on that Monday, March 11, a member of the Afghan National Police opened fire on U.S. and Afghan forces at a police headquarters in eastern Afghanistan.

That sparked a firefight that killed two U.S. troops and two other Afghan policemen. The attacker was also killed in the shootout, officials said.

In the March 11th attack, reports say that a member of the Afghan National Police uniform stood up in the back of a police pickup truck, then grabbed a machine gun and immediately started firing at U.S. special operations forces and Afghan policemen standing around the police compound in Jalrez district.

Whoever he was, he shot and killed two Afghan policemen and wounded four others, including the district police chief, before he was gunned down.

There was some initial confusion whether the man was a member of the local police or the Afghan national police department. American officials said that they were holding five Afghan police officers for questioning.

The U.S. military said that two American service members were killed in the shooting.

The shooting in the eastern Wardak province was the latest in a series of insider attacks against U.S., coalition and Afghan forces that have threatened to undermine alliances at a time when cooperation would most likely realize the planned handover of security responsibility to local forces in 2014.

From the looks of astrological transits over the region, it appears that the Taliban has made a decision to step up attacks just as U.S. forces are planning to gradually withdraw. Typical.

There was also a second incident that same day, just outside Kabul, when American troops fired on a truck approaching their military convoy, killing two Afghan men inside.

In that convoy shooting, U.S. forces spokesman Jamie Graybeal said the Afghan driver failed to heed instructions to stop as his truck came close to the American convoy near Kabul.

"The convoy took appropriate measures to protect themselves and engaged the vehicle, killing two individuals and injuring one," Graybeal said in an email. He said an assessment was underway.

In the March 11th shooting near Kabul, police gathered around the body of a man after his truck reportedly did not stop near a American military convoy.
Image: ALI HAMED HAGHDOUST /AP

An AP new video shows a U.S. major cursing at one of his soldiers and slapping him over the head with his cap as Afghans pulled dead bodies from the truck.

In the video, the major appears to be yelling at the soldier for not using a laser warning device to signal the approaching truck.

The two dead men were employees of a company that repairs police vehicles, said Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi. Another man was wounded in the shooting, said a police commander overseeing Kabul's highways.

And to make things appear worse, these deadly incidents came a day after the Afghan president's deadline for U.S. special forces to withdraw from the province.

They did not withdraw.

Political Effects of Transits Over Afghanistan
Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has been critical of NATO's mission in his country and his most recent stinging rebuke, followed by a series of decisive acts, is considered unprecedented, both in terms of frequency and harshness.

After all this, then news came early on Tuesday, March 12 that five coalition soldiers were killed in a helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan on Monday, March 11. 

The nationalities of the victims were not immediately released, in line with official policy to notify next of kin first. However, a statement from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said the crash was under investigation, and “there was no enemy activity in the area at the time.”

According to Javed Faisal, a spokesman for the governor of Kandahar Province, the crash happened about 11 p.m. in Daman district.

As I have been saying for quite a while now, it ain't looking good. 

The situation is so intractable with so much corruption, danger, violence and murky alliances that the geopolitical situation around and within Afghanistan obviously is not favorable for positive results anytime soon.

Consider this as more proof, on the previous day before the attacks and the crash, on Sunday, March 10th, President Karzai publicly accused American forces on television of working with the Taliban to stage two suicide bombings over the weekend, just the new U.S. Defense Secretary, Chuck Hagel was visiting.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on his first official visit to Afghanistan

Karzai said two suicide bombings that killed 19 people on March 9 - one explosion taking place just outside the Afghan Defense Ministry and the other blast near a police checkpoint in eastern Khost province -  show that an insurgent group is doing attacks to help show that international forces will still be needed to keep the peace after their current combat mission ends in 2014.

During a nationally televised speech about the state of Afghan women, President Karzai said -  

"The explosions in Kabul and Khost yesterday showed that they are at the service of America and at the service of this phrase: 2014.

They are trying to frighten us into thinking that if the foreigners are not in Afghanistan, we would be facing these sorts of incidents," he said 

In the speech, Karzai plainly stated that he thought the American government wanted to scare Afghans into allowing them to stay.

That brought a sharp rebuke from the U.S. ambassador as news of the insider attack in Wardak emerged. 

"The thought that we would collude with the Taliban flies in the face of everything we have done here and is absolutely without foundation," U.S. Ambassador James Cunningham said in a statement. 

"It is inconceivable that we would spend the lives of America's sons, daughters, and our treasure, in helping Afghans to secure and rebuild their country, and at the same time be engaged in endangering Afghanistan or its citizens."

Then, a Taliban spokesman denied that talks had resumed, or that any progress had been made since they were halted in March 2012.

But Karzai said the Taliban and the United States were in "daily negotiations" in various foreign countries and noted that the U.S. has said that it no longer considers the insurgent group an enemy. 

President Karzai added that he did not believe the Taliban's claim that they launched the recent attacks to show they are still a potent force.

"Yesterday's explosions, which the Taliban claimed, show that in reality they are saying they want the presence of foreigners in Afghanistan," Karzai said.

Karzai then went into another political matter. He denounced the arrest of a university student on Saturday, March 9th by Afghan forces which his aide said were actually working for the Central Intelligence Agency. It was unclear why the student was detained. 

Presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi said that the CIA had freed the student after President Karzai's staff intervened, but now Karzai also wants the Afghan raiders arrested. 

According to CBS News, in the arrest of the college student, reports said the raiders fired shots as they grabbed the student from a Kandahar university.

They blindfolded him before taking him for interrogation at a CIA post that Taliban leader Mullah Omar once used as his home. CBS reports that the CIA could not be reached for comment.

The CIA has trained an Afghan counter-terrorist force several thousand strong, known as the Counter-terrorism Pursuit Team that works mostly in insurgent strongholds in southern and eastern Afghanistan.

U.S. officials say they work with the Afghan intelligence service, but Karzai frequently complains he lacks oversight over their operations.

So on that very day, President Karzai signed a decree that banned all foreign forces from all Afghan schools and universities unless prior permission is first obtained from the Afghan government.

Saudi Arabia
Secretary of State John Kerry, center, walks with beside Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal as Kerry arrives in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia was on the seventh leg of Kerry's first official overseas trip.
Image: Jacquelyn Martin/AP

U.S. & Saudi Arabia Warn Syria And Iran

Analysis By
 Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.Sci

Into the new astrological year we can see that events in the Middle East will continue to make global headlines in these cardinal crisis years.

As generations age amid age-old unresolved political and religious ideology and conflict, the United States and Saudi Arabia on Monday, March 4th presented a united front in their warnings to Iran and Syria.

This astrological year holds great promise, as well as great dangers over the international conflict in Syria.

Considering the world transits of 2013's Grand Water Trine and 2014's Grand Cardinal Cross, it would be wise for all the players in this matter - the U.S., Russia, Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia, to settle the matter of Assad and Syria using common sense with a firm sense of future consequences.

From Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, The Washington Post reported that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia warned Syria's President Bashar Assad that they will boost support to rebels fighting to oust him unless he steps down.

They also put Iran’s leadership on notice that "time is running out" for a diplomatic resolution to concerns about its nuclear program.

After a series of meetings in the Riyadh, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told reporters at a joint news conference that Assad must understand that recent scud missile attacks on regime foes in the city of Aleppo would not be tolerated by the international community and that he had lost all claim to be Syria’s legitimate leader.

Kerry was in Saudi Arabia on the seventh leg of a marathon nine-nation dash through Europe and the Middle East - his first overseas trip as secretary of state. 

From Saudi Arabia, Kerry headed into the homestretch of his lengthy first official trip abroad, traveling next to the United Arab Emirates and then to Qatar before his return to Washington on March 6th.

During his trip, members of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany met in Kazakhstan with Iranian officials in the latest bid to get Iran to prove that its nuclear program is a peaceful program and not a cover for atomic weapons development.

The joint appearance of March 4th was cordial. Kerry and Saud held lengthy meetings over two days that were focused on counter-terrorism cooperation and the shared view that Iran poses a threat of developing nuclear weapons.

Kerry did not meet with Saudi King Abdullah II. He did see diplomats from several other Persian Gulf nations who were attending a regional conference, and he had a hastily arranged lunch on March 4th with visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The Abbas meeting came in lieu of a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories on this trip, Kerry’s first as secretary. President Obama will visit Jerusalem and Ramallah later in March along with Kerry. The White House saw an interim stop by Kerry as potentially diluting the impact of the president’s visit.

Although Kerry said the United States won’t “plunk down a plan” for Middle East peace on that trip, he says that President Obama hopes to jump-start talks.

Meanwhile, Saud, whose country, along with other Gulf states, is widely believed to be supplying weapons to Syrian rebels. 

Saud said that Saudi Arabia could not ignore the brutality Assad is inflicting on his people; even after two years of escalating violence that has claimed 70,000 lives.

He said that history had never seen a government use strategic missiles against its own people. “This cannot go on,” he said. “He [Assad] has lost all authority,” Saud said.

Those who question Saudi Arabia say that all that is done to to advance their version of hard-line Sunni Islam worldwide.

Detractors say Saudi Arabia's claims of humanitarian concern for Syria's people belies their real reason dislike of Syrian President Assad. 

They say that this is based solely on Assad being an Alawi Muslim considered to be the most moderate and secular sect of Islam.

This 'dislike' by Saudi Arabia of Assad and Syrian society comes about because Syria is tolerant of ethnicity - including Christians.

Saud is the world’s longest-serving foreign minister, appointed in the year 1975 under Jupiter in sidereal Pisces and tropical Aries.

During those 38 years Saud has been well known in diplomatic circles as a shrewd observer of international dealings and is not shy to tweak the U.S. government in public.

In his discussions with Kerry, Saud added that he had “stressed the importance of enabling the Syrian people to exercise its legitimate right to defend itself against the regime’s killing machine.” 

Saud also decried the fact that the Assad continued to get weapons from “third parties,” a veiled reference to Russia and Iran, which have backed the regime through the conflict.

“Saudi Arabia will do everything within its capacity, and we do believe that what is happening in Syria is a slaughter, a slaughter of innocents,” he said. “We can’t bring ourselves to remain quiet. Morally we have a duty.” 

President Barack Obama's administration has resisted appeals from the Syrian opposition to provide it with weapons and ammunition over fears that they could fall into the hands of Islamist extremists who have gained support among Assad opponents. 

But Kerry sidestepped a question about whether the arms reportedly being supplied to the rebels by Saudi Arabia and others were a concern. Instead, he criticized Iran, Hezbollah and Russia by name for giving weaponry to the Assad regime.

Kerry did announce last week that the U.S. would for the first time provide rebel fighters in the Free Syrian Army with non-lethal assistance - rations and medical assistance. 

European nations like Britain and France are expected to soon send the rebels defensive military equipment.

Kerry has said the totality of the aid could be enough to change the situation on the ground.

“The United States will continue to work with our friends to empower the Syrian opposition to hopefully be able to bring about a peaceful resolution, but if not, to increase pressure on Assad,” Kerry said.

He added that Assad “is destroying his country - and his people in the process - to hold onto power that is not his anymore.”

The United States and Saudi Arabia also have a difference of opinion over the value of continued negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.

Although both Kerry and Saud stressed that they prefer to use diplomacy to resolve the crisis, Saud made a point of saying that Iran’s nuclear program continues “unabated” while talks continue.

That meeting ended in an agreement for further expert-level discussions between the sides and both Saud and Kerry said it was critical for Iran to accept offers made by the so-called “P5+1” group quickly. 

Kerry reminded the Iranians that President Barack Obama has vowed not to allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon and that he has kept all options, including military options, on the table to prevent that from happening.

The window of opportunity for a diplomatic solution “cannot by definition remain open indefinitely,” Kerry said. 

“There is time to resolve this issue providing the Iranians are prepared to engage seriously on the P5+1 proposal.

But talks will not go on for the sake of talks and talks cannot become an instrument for delay that will make the situation more dangerous,” he said.

Saud, whose country shares concerns with other Gulf Arab states about increasing Iranian aggressiveness in the region, agreed.

“We hope that the negotiations will result in putting an end to this problem rather than containing it,” he said, “taking into account that the clock is ticking and negotiations cannot go on forever.”

Iranian officials called late February's talks with international negotiators, including the United States, "productive," and the session ended with an agreement for more talks.

There is a modest package of incentives on the table if Iran curbs aspects of its nuclear work that are most apt to be turned to weapons production.

In addition to Saud and the Saudi crown prince, Kerry met in Riyadh with the foreign ministers of Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, all of whom are equally wary of Iranian intentions.

In a last-minute addition to his schedule, Kerry also saw Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who was also visiting the Saudi capital. 

Kerry’s working lunch with Abbas came two weeks before the Kerry is to accompany President Barack Obama to Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan to explore ways of re-starting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Kerry said he would talk with Abbas about “all the obvious issues” and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was aware of the meeting, which was being held on the same day that Vice President Joe Biden was to address the annual policy conference of the pro-Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington.
~

North Korea
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un

Analysis by
Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.sci

Some of the oddest events of our times are coming out of the secretive state of North Korea.

The news out of North Korea that conducted its third test of nuclear weapons technology in February; then their successful test of a long-range missile which sent a satellite into space; along with the discovery that a new generation of North Korea's mobile missiles appeared closer to development has brought about shifts in policy.

On March 15, North Korea, usually blamed for hacking others, has accused the United States of staging cyber attacks against its Internet servers after reports of disruptions to the North's main news services.

Russia's Itar-Tass news agency said a "powerful hacker attack" from abroad had brought down Internet servers in the North, disabling access to some websites.

Tensions are high between North Korea, South Korea and the South's ally the United States, after United Nation's sanctions were tightened against the regime in Pyongyang because of its latest round of nuclear tests.

The North has cancelled peacemaking contacts and threatened a nuclear strike against the U.S. War games in March between South Korea and the U.S. have added tension to the already bellicose atmosphere.

The Americans 'Hacked' Us, Says North Korea

South Korea's MBC television said North Korea's state media services were among those affected by a cyber attack.

These included the websites of the KCNA news agency and the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper, which were said to be experiencing disruptions.

"It is nobody's secret that the U.S. and the South Korean puppet regime are massively bolstering up cyber forces in a bid to intensify the subversive activities and sabotages against the DPRK," KCNA said on Friday, March 15.

"Intensive and persistent virus attacks are being made every day on internet servers operated by the DPRK."

KCNA and Rodong Sinmun carried the North's increasingly strident rhetoric of late, accusing the U.S. and South Korea of staging preparations for war as they threaten to end the armistice that halted fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War.

North Korea has been an unpredictable, provocative dictatorship. But even by its own standards, the Communist regime’s recent decision to nullify the 1950s cease-fire amid weeks of increasingly hyperbolic warnings in February - including a preemptive nuclear strike - appear to have crossed new and dangerous lines.

North Korea has itself been blamed for spreading malicious software that crashed the websites of government agencies and businesses, and for a cyber attack on a South Korean state-run bank server in 2011 that took more than a week to fix.

North Korea has been accused of jamming global positioning system signals, affecting hundreds of flights at South Korea's main airport.

North Korea denies those cyber attacks and accuses South Korea of a conspiracy to bring about confrontation, although defectors from the North have said that Pyongyang is recruiting thousands of computer engineers to its cyber warfare units.

Military experts say cyber warfare is a major threat from North Korea, along with its conventional forces and its weapons of mass destruction program, posing security risks to utilities and communication networks in South Korea.

With the world transits of January, February and March, intelligence agencies told journalists the second week in March that for the first time cyber attacks and cyber espionage had supplanted terrorism as the top security threat facing the United States.

Even the U.S. and China are embroiled in their own bickering over hacking as President, Barack Obama was said to have called his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, to discuss the problem.

Then, on March 15, the Washington Post reported that the Pentagon will spend $1 billion to deploy additional ballistic missile interceptors along the Pacific Coast to counter the growing reach of North Korea’s weapons.

Apparently this decision has been sped up in the wake of what appears to be Pyongyang’s recent belligerence and indications that Kim Jong-un, North Korea's leader, could either be resisting China’s efforts to restrain him. 

But the deployment is also intended to send a signal to China, which tried, but failed to block North Korea's more recent nuclear test. “We want to make it clear that there’s a price to be paid for letting the North Koreans stay on the current path,” said a senior official.

The new deployments, announced by U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on March 15, will increase the number of American ground-based interceptors in California and Alaska to 44 from 30 by 2017.

In announcing the deployments at a Pentagon news conference, Hagel said, “We will strengthen our homeland defense, maintain our commitments to our allies and partners, and make clear to the world that the United States stands firm against aggression."

All 14 of the new interceptors will be placed in silos at Fort Greely, Alaska, where 26 interceptors are already deployed. Four others are at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

It is said that though American and South Korean intelligence officials doubt North Korea is close to being able to follow through on a nuclear strike, or that it would even try, given its almost certain destruction, analysts say North Korea's aggressive behavior is an important and worrying sign of changing calculations in the North.

The North’s new leader, some analysts say, is intensifying the threats because he has failed to get the Obama administration and South Korea to return to an established pattern where North Korea provoked and then South Korea and the U.S. followed with much-needed economic aid in return for Pyongyang’s promises to halt its nuclear weapons program.

However, times are changing in this cardinal crisis decade. A growing number of experts believe North Korea also see its recent advances in missile and nuclear technology somehow as game changers.

The theory is that this might allow North Korea to build the nuclear arsenal it desperately wants, both as a deterrent against better-armed enemies; along with making it easy to gain more concessions and international recognition.

“Developing nuclear weapons gives North Korea a chance to turn the tables in one stroke,” said Cheong Seong-chang, an expert on North Korea at the Sejong Institute. “They can get around the weakness of their economy and their outdated conventional weapons.”

The main newspaper of North Korea’s ruling party, Rodong Sinmun, gave the North’s own explanation for its actions. “Let the American imperialists and their followers know!” the paper said. “We are not a pushover like Iraq or Libya.”

All this came amid a recent visit by none other than former NBA basketball star Dennis Rodman, who brought a film crew for an HBO Special along with members of the Harlem Globetrotters to North Korea in February.

The young North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, a fan of the Chicago Bulls and former NBA star Dennis Rodman watched an exhibition basbetball game with the Harlem Globetrotters basketball game in Pyongyang on February 28th.
Image: Jason Mojica/VICE Media

The scene was particularly bizarre because of tense relations between the United States, South Korea and North Korea.

The diplomacy of basketball broke the ice with the surprise visit. 

Kim John-un, like his father, Kim Jong-il, is known said to be a devoted NBA fan, according to Shane Smith, the founder of Vice Media, who dreamed up and organized the trip.


Rodman and Kim talked without a translator assisting them at court side. Both men spoke in English but Kim spoke only limited English. 

The exhibition game featured 12 North Korean players on mixed teams with the American contingent, led by three Globetrotters: Anthony Blakes, Alex Weekes and Will Bullard.

Rodman spent the game watching from a courtside table with Kim. Rodman also gave a speech to the crowd, in which he told Kim, “You have a friend for life.”

The game ended in a 110-110 tie.

The former Chicago Bulls basketball star Dennis Rodman met with reporters February 26th, after arriving in Pyongyang, North Korea
Image: Kim Kwang Hyon/AP

In a bit of unintentional hilarity, one of the reporters asked Rodman whether this was his first visit to North Korea. “It is my first time,” he said. “I think it’s most of these guys’ first time here.”

Rodman quickly took to his Twitter to talk about the trip, writing: “I’m not a politician. Kim Jung Un & North Korean people are basketball fans. I love everyone. Period. End of story.” 

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un hugs Dennis Rodman

Smith said the group hoped for a meeting with Kim Jon-un, but were not sure it would happen. Even without that, Smith said he could not wait to see the footage. 

He said the opportunity to mix with North Koreans was very rare and that his previous trips were supervised tours with only government-approved interview subjects.

“I look at this as basketball diplomacy, the same way we had Ping-Pong diplomacy with China,” Smith said. “Once you get the Globetrotters involved, I mean, how can you not smile when you see the Harlem Globetrotters?”

Not only did Kim attend the game and watch alongside Dennis Rodman, but he also invited Rodman, three Harlem Globetrotters and their Vice Media crew who filmed the trip for a documentary, back to his palace for a party.

“Apparently, he had a blast at the game,” Smith said, after speaking by phone with Ryan Duffy, a Vice Media correspondent who was on the trip. 

“So he invited them back to his home for a party, and they had a grand old time. Speeches were made -Dennis made a very nice one - and they were met with rounds of applause.”


Kim expressed to Rodman that he hoped that this would improve North Korean-American relations, Smith said Duffy told him. Duffy said he invited Kim to visit the United States.

“We just couldn’t have asked for anything more,” Smith said. “It was a long shot, no pun intended. We knew he loves the Chicago Bulls and he was a huge basketball fan, and we hoped he would want to meet a five-time NBA champion,” and a Chicago Bull.

“But we had no guarantees,” he said.

It was reported that communication with the Vice Media crew with the North Korea's had been difficult but that the Vice Media crew were allowed to film the party, as well as Kim’s appearance at the exhibition game. The video will be used on the HBO series “Vice,” which will debut on April 5.

Smith while filmed two documentaries in North Korea recently where he visited the country’s national museum, the Hall of Trophies, where a Michael Jordan-signed basketball given to the former leader Kim Jong-il in 2000 by Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright is displayed prominently among national treasures.

Kim Jong-il was obsessed with the Chicago Bulls dynasty of the 1990s, a fascination he apparently passed along to his son, the current leader, Kim John-un.

Dennis Rodman

Smith hatched a plan to take some of the championship Chicago Bulls players to North Korea for one of the installments of a series Smith will host on HBO, called “Vice,” featuring news and footage from around the world.

Smith did not go through the U.S. State Department, but received permission through his previous contacts and the North Korean ambassador to the United Nations. Smith said he was sure that Kim Jong-un’s love of basketball was why the trip was approved.

He quickly found that Michael Jordan was not likely to be a willing ambassador. “But Dennis Rodman is up for anything and everything, ” Smith said.

He then recruited the Globetrotters to round out a team, and they offered up Anthony Blakes, known as Buckets; Alex Weekes, known as Moose; and Will Bullard, known as Bull. Ryan Duffy, a Vice correspondent who was on the trip, also joined in on the games to fill out the team.

Dennis Rodman (center, wearing blue jeans) the Harlem Globetrotters & Vice Media film crew in North Korea

“The Harlem Globetrotters are known worldwide as the Ambassadors of Goodwill, and we are proud to continue our storied heritage of entertaining families and breaking down social barriers worldwide,” the Globetrotters’ chief executive, Kurt Schneider.

“Our aim is to entertain and inspire children everywhere. Every child deserves that opportunity.”

According to the Globetrotters, team members have traveled to 122 countries in the team’s 87-year history. 

This one might be have been the oddest trip of all, given North Korea’s isolation.

“It is a bizarre place,” Smith said. “And this is a bizarre idea.”

“It’s weird because when you go there, it’s all very anti-American,” Smith said. “North Korean kids are fed anti-American propaganda from pretty much the day they are born. But it’s okay to like American basketball.”

Kim Jong-un scans the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea

Still, there are serious questions as to what is going on in the recent nuclear tests, the firing of missiles by North Korea and the threats to South Korea.

In early February, North Korea has vowed to strengthen its nuclear deterrent and other military capabilities after the United Nations security council condemned its December 2012 rocket launch.

Analysts warned that after a third nuclear test North Korea was imminent after its harsh response to the resolution. The U.N. extended sanctions against the North. The council also expressed their determination to take "significant action" against further missile or nuclear tests.

North Korea says it sent a satellite into orbit in December for peaceful and scientific purposes. But the U.N. said it breached the ban on nuclear and missile activity, because the launch technology is near-identical to that required for long-range missiles.

After heated back and forth over February, Kim Jong-un then urged North Korea's front-line troops to be on "maximum alert" for a potential war, their state media reported, in the latest volley following new international sanctions.

Analysts believe all the war rattling is aimed at shoring up domestic support as much as possible to reach the international community, possibly in part because Kim Jung-un at 29, is a young and new leader.


He told troops stationed near disputed waters where previous clashes with the South have occurred that "war can break out right now," state media reported. 

North Korea also said that it has cancelled the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War and threatened the United States with a preemptive nuclear strike.

Seoul's defense ministry described Pyongyang's recent statements as an attempt to apply "psychological pressure" to the South.

Experts pointed out that North Korea has vowed an end to the armistice on several previous occasions; while a UN spokesman said the agreement had been adopted by the general assembly and could not be ended unilaterally.

As calls to one North Korea-South Korea hotline have gone unanswered, other communication channels appear to be operating, as a military line was used to allow hundreds of South Korean workers to cross the border to the jointly run Kaesong industrial complex, officials in the South said.

"Even by North Korean standards they are acting a bit extremely and recklessly, but I think they are barking rather than being about to bite," said Han Seung-joo, a former South Korean foreign minister.

Andrei Lankov, of Kookmin University in Seoul, added: "It's how their diplomacy is done. A Japanese foreign minister would express 'deep concern at moves within the UN security council'. In North Korea you get a deputy minister yelling: 'We are going to destroy the world', but it's still the same message."

But he said that while the North did not want war, it might still take some form of military action if Seoul did not increase aid.

This precious exception may be a touchstone some analysts say. They say that if the two Koreas were really about to go to war then Kaesong would shut down or evacuated. In a worst case scenario, the North would take hostages.

Under these world transits, my estimation is that complacency is a bad thing as well be wrong. We must remember back when Saturn transited Libra in 2010 that North Korea's threats are not always bluffs.

Back in 2010, for instance, when then South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak banned trade with North Korea as reprisal for North Korea's shelling and sinking a the South Korean warship, USS Cheonan, he still exempted Kaesong from the ban.

Pyongyang denies sinking the Cheonan, where 46 died, but later in 2010 North Korea then shelled a South Korean island near its own coast and killed four people.

The North claimed it was provoked by the United States and South Korean war games. There are routine war games going on in March 2013.

So just what is North Korea's game?

In 2010 the late Kim Jong-il was angry with South Korea's Lee for scrapping its 'sunshine policy,' and wanted to teach South Korean a lesson.

It appeared that Kim Jong-il calculated right, in that even the hard-line Lee would not retaliate militarily, with all that risk of escalations.

But now Lee is gone and his successor, Park Geun-hye, visited Pyongyang and had dinner with Kim. She has pledged to build what she called a "trustpolitik" with North Korea.

If this is so, then why then did Kim Jong-un greet her with the recent nuclear tests and threats of war?

Admiral James Winnefeld Jr., vice-chair of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, also spoke at the Pentagon on March 15. He described how the United States was deliberately building a two-tiered system of deterrence against North Korea.

The United States will “put the mechanics in place to deny any potential North Korean objectives to launch a missile to the United States, but also to impose costs upon them if they do,” Winnefeld said.

And, in an unusually pointed warning to the new North Korean leader, Admiral Winnefeld added, “We believe that this young lad ought to be deterred by that - and if he’s not, we’ll be ready.”
~


The Cardinal Crisis Years
Spending Cutbacks In the United States?

By 
Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.Sci

What appears to be happening at this time in the economic, social and political life of the United States is simply what I have been forecasting for a long time and here on Global Astrology.

We have entered a new transitional era, a generational one, where two generations are now waning as two new generations rise to power.

This has come about by the forces of transits, or what people call 'time'.

The passage of time is leading to the grudgingly acceptance of the baby boomer establishment that times have and continue to change. How the boomer generation faces their own legacy will remain to be seen for history will record all.

What we do know is this:

The world, along with the United States, has entered an era I call the Knowledge Age.

We are now in the transitional years at the end of the Third Industrial Age and the beginning of the Knowledge Age, here in the early 21st century.

The baby boomers and their parents were raised in the age that is now ending while a new generational establishment were raised in the era containing both the industrial and emerging knowledge ages - that would be the incoming new establishment - Generation X (1961-1975.)

Washington D.C.
Vernal Equinox 2013
click on chart to enlarge

As we can see in my mundane chart for the Vernal Equinox of 2013, the new astrological year is ruled by Mercury, Jupiter, Neptune and the Moon, which posited in its own domicile of Cancer in the Fourth Mundane House at the time of the Sun's entry into tropical Aries - the first day of spring.

There is hope here that 2013 signals the start of what should have begun back in the decade of the 2000s.

The proper transition of establishment power from the oligarchs and the baby boomer establishment to Generation X.

President Barack Obama's administration and the Republican party have been fighting over federal spending since the opposition party regained control of the House of Representatives in the 2010 midterm elections.

President Obama and congressional leaders have been locked in a disagreement over the U.S. budget deficit. 

Because no agreement was reached under Mercury's retrograde in Pisces by March 1st, by law U.S. federal spending must be reduced by $85 billion in the final seven months of this fiscal year and by $1.2 trillion over the next nine years. 

Half of the cuts would come from defense and half from domestic spending. The reductions were designed to be so unpalatable that lawmakers would have to come up with a way to replace them.

I call it American austerity - by default.

Anyway, in a February poll, the American People wanted Congress to delay the spending cuts to give the economic recovery more time to take hold.

When Washington D.C. actually does confront the deficit, Americans polled said that they would back a compromise that includes more tax revenue and fundamental changes to Social Security and Medicare. 

Fifty-one percent of poll respondents said overhauling Social Security is necessary to substantially reduce the deficit - and 58 percent said the same of Medicare.

 You see, the planned budget cuts were designed in 2011 to be so ruthless that both Democrats and Republicans would be forced to work on a better deal.

But seeing that the Republican leadership placed all their eggs in a basket betting that President Obama would lose the 2012 general election (when astrological transits showed that he would win and be re-elected to a second term) compromise was thrown out the window in favor of bitter attacks and partisan politics.

So, little to nothing was done. And now the sequester is here - despite two years to find a compromise.

The $85 billion in cuts apply to the remainder of the 2013 fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

On March 4th, Republicans in the House of Representatives introduced a measure that would finance the U.S. government at an annual rate of about $982 billion through Sept. 30, 2013. This keeps the automatic spending cuts - known as a 'sequester' - that began March 1 - during a Mercury retrograde.

Both political parties cast blame on each other for the automatic, across-the-board spending cuts, but gave little to no guidance on what to expect during the month of March. 

Republicans and Democrats pledged to retroactively undo the sequester cuts, but signaled no hints as to how that process would take shape. Republicans insisted there would be no new taxes and Democrats refused to talk about any bargain without them.

The stopgap measure on Monday, March 4th, known as a 'continuing resolution,' included new 2013 spending bills for the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs, which also would be subject to the reductions.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, a Kentucky Republican, said the spending plan would avert a federal government shutdown when current funding expires March 27, 2013.

He said it would give the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments more leeway to decide how to spend their money and implement the mandated cuts.

“It is clear that this nation is facing some very hard choices, and it’s up to Congress to pave the way for our financial future,” he said in a statement. “This bill will fund essential federal programs and services, help maintain our national security, and take a potential shutdown off the table.”

The House was set to vote by March 7 on the measure. It would apply the federal spending cuts to the current level of $1.043 trillion in government funding, resulting in an annual spending rate of about $982 billion.

Defense Budget

Under Rogers’s bill, the Defense Department would have a base budget of $518.1 billion and $87.2 billion for war operations. Most of those funds would be reduced under the federal spending cuts. Some accounts such as military personnel and pay are exempt from the automatic cuts.

The measure also would cancel a 0.5 percent pay raise for federal civilian employees scheduled to take effect in April, the first time the federal pay schedule was to be increased since 2010. The provision is expected to save $11 billion over 10 years, Republicans have said.

The House passed almost identical legislation affecting federal pay on Feb. 15 over the objections of President Barack Obama and House Democrats. 

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said Republicans were pushing federal employees to “give up their hard-earned pay because Congress cannot reach a balanced solution to deficits.”
‘Outdated Plans’

New York Representative Nita Lowey, the Appropriations Committee’s top Democrat, said in a statement she was “disappointed” that Rogers’s proposal “would lock most of the federal government into outdated plans and spending levels.”

Lowey said the automatic discretionary spending cuts that are preserved in the legislation “will result in job losses and furloughs, slowed economic growth” and a reduction of government services.

“That’s not going to work,” said Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.

“If we’re going to increase revenue again, it’s got to go to the debt with real entitlement reform and real tax reform when you actually lower rates. … I’m not going to agree to any more tax increases that are going to go to increase more government.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said any tax increases were unacceptable.

“I’m not going to do any more small deals. I’m not going to raise taxes to fix sequestration. We don’t need to raise taxes to fund the government,” Graham said.

What all this is really about, as I have been forecasting about time and again, is the failure of the baby boomer establishment to see the truth behind their own delusions.

President Obama did not make this mess and in my opinion, if I were president myself, I would be much worse; so the boomers are lucky to have Obama on this matter. He's being far nicer than this mundane astrologer would be with the baby boomer generational establishment.

All of this comes ahead of a new March 27, 2013 deadline to deal with the question of funding the government and a debt-ceiling clash still to come in May 2013.

The president has phoned Republican legislators and has met with them over dinner in early March, but it isn’t clear to what end this will all lead to as the sequester continues.

This, as Jupiter is now direct, and in detriment in Gemini until late June 2013. 

And despite the recent highs of the winter's stock market rally, legendary investor Jim Rogers says that the United States' economy is poised for a major crash. Rogers has been warning investors to protect themselves - immediately.

Rogers warned Americans not to trust any of the positive economic news coming from world governments.

"I don't trust the data from any government, including the U.S., he said. "We know that governments lie to us. Everybody's printing money, but it cannot go on. This is all artificial."

Rogers, who for years has been an outspoken critic of the Federal Reserve's policies of  'Quantitative Easing,' says all the money printing is creating false hope that we are in the middle of some kind of super bull market.

But in reality, Rogers says, "we're living in a fool's paradise."

"The Bank of Japan says it's going to print unlimited amounts of money... Then Mr. Bernanke said I'll match that... I'll print that money too. The Europeans are catching on. You've got money printing going on everywhere and that has never been good for anybody," he said.

Currently, Bernanke and the Fed have been buying $1 trillion of Treasury and housing agency bonds each year. That's about $85 billion per month - and this - against a budget deficit that is about the same level.

The planetary transits - as I have been warning about for years now - show that the true risk is an all-out 1930s-style currency war that could devastate an entire class of investors who have put their faith in the current economic dogma of endless bailouts and fiat money printing

"It cannot go on," Rogers warns.

Rogers believes things will really get bad after the German elections in autumn 2013. And then it will be worse than bad, Roger says.

If we look at the astrological world transits as they relate to finances and the economies of nations, we see that by autumn 2013, the cardinal crisis transits reassert themselves - leading into the Grand Cardinal Cross of 2014.
~


The Cardinal Crisis
Whining Baby Boomers Stealing From Our Future?

By 
Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.sci

There are ways to fix this mess, but much daylight has been allowed to go to waste.

 The generational establishment of baby boomers broke the generational contract and have made things far worse under world transits then they could have been had the boomers not been corrupt, narcissistic, heartless, sick, greedy - and yes, stupid.

Hedge Fund Manage Stan Druckenmiller thinks so, and says this:

"Don’t let your grandparents steal your money."

At age 59, Druckenmiller is one of those Echo Baby Boomers born 1954-59.

He says the mushrooming costs of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid - with unfunded liabilities as high as $211 trillion - will bankrupt the non-boomers of the United States and pose much greater dangers than the country’s $16 trillion of debt currently being debated in Congress.

“While everybody is focusing on the here and now, there’s a much, much bigger storm that’s about to hit,” Druckenmiller said. 

“I am not against seniors. What I am against is current seniors stealing from future seniors.”

Druckenmiller said unsustainable spending will eventually end in a crisis that will be much worse than the financial meltdown of 2008 - that was when when $29 trillion dollars was erased from global equity markets. 

What is particularly troubling is that government expenditures related to programs for the elderly rocketed in the past two decades, even before the first baby boomers, those born in 1939, started turning 65 in 2004.

For the boomer generation, the divorce rate among them has doubled over the past 20 years.

One of the saddest things that has happened is the failure to be able to live and work peaceably with others; especially after all the years of ruckus of 'peace and love' and crashing together during the 'live-ins" of the late 1960s and 1970s.

Baby Boomers are divorcing at a surprising rate, and that will have huge implications for their lives in retirement.

Consider this,

The number of divorces among people now 55 or older doubled from 1990 to 2010.

That's just 20 years.

And in that year - 2010 - one in four American divorces were in that age group just as Saturn transited tropical Libra and now Scorpio.

One social change that came about during the 1960s and 1970s was perversion of the Women's liberation movement - especially in western society. 


Rather than to actually empower western women; what happened was the dysfunction of personal relationships, the decline of culture in society and the disruption of the family among boomers. 

The attacks were on Femininity itself - by feminists with an odd mentality and culture of defining the  'feminism' that has dominated western culture, particularly in America.

It has actually made the United States one of the the most unfeminine places in the world. 

What American feminist do not realize is that much of the rest of the planet do not NOT envy their feminism, but in fact despise it. They find it it unnatural, distasteful, and ironically - unfeminine

They say western and American feminism is dysfunctional, rife with hypocrisy and double-standards. 

Under the baby boomer generation it has pervaded all western modern culture: media, talk shows and the constant dose of televised sitcoms that portray women as either perpetual victims who can do no wrong, or as creatures with superior rights to men.

What Europeans and Asians say they see in feminism is actually misandry, by disguise.

Women from Europe say they are often shocked by the personalities and behavior of American women. 

Besides dress style, Asian and European women have observed that very few American and Canadian women wear skirts and high heels. That their voices become coarse and rough in discussions and that their mannerisms are masculine. How this attracts males to them is beyond them, they say.

Not to mention witnessing the behaviors that are clearly spoiled and selfish. Unlike women in the rest of the world, American women are not soft, tender and sweet, they say. 

Eschewing feminine qualities known to be very attractive to men, American women don’t blush or giggle when you say nice compliments to them and don’t like wearing skirts and heels, many European and Asian women say.

The beef about American women are that they are unapproachable, behave anti-social and cliquish toward strangers. That they lack depth, substance and culture, making it difficult for interested men to connect with them and find common ground and chemistry.

For instance, consider the lovely behavior below from two women inside a McDonald's restaurant in Manhattan, New York:

Two women want to order food and pay with a $50 bill. When the McDonald's cashier wants to check if the $50 bill they passed him is real, the woman in the grey hoodie talks with a gutter mouth and calls him a 'pussy.'

She suddenly strikes him in the face. He stumbles and then pushes them back away from the counter.

Then, the woman hops the counter towards the cashier, as her friend, the other women, walks around the counter to him as well.

Both women then attack him behind the counter, but the cashier grabs a metal rod from the kitchen and starts to defend himself.

He tells both women to stay on the ground, but they keep trying to get up and that is why he throws in the last couple hits at the end. Another women who didn't help the cashier suddenly appears and screams at him to stop defending himself.



With such unladylike mannerisms and aggression, it's not a wonder why many men say that they are not interested in North American women.

It perhaps one reason why there are so many male-female problems in New York City, a bustling metropolis of 8 million people. Perhaps this is also why many American women fret and say they have such a difficult time finding dates, partners and potential mates.

Women in the rest of the world, on the other hand, say that they proud of their femininity, and show it in many ways, in dress style, their behavior and in their attitudes.

The cultural decline under the baby boomer general establishment has led to this kind of negative atmosphere.
~



What Happened To The Baby Boomers?


Analysis by
Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.sci


We've covered this subject many times before on Global Astrology.

Running wild as youth, the baby boomer generation (1939-1953) radically denounced and experimented with all the social aspects of family structure and personal value systems in their disruption ideology and rejection mantras of traditional society during the modern-industrial era of the 1960s and 1970s.

Baby boomers handing marijuana to a toddler

Yet, the baby boomer failure to naturally evolve cultural and gender roles - without driving serious wedges in traditional personal relationships - has led to the highest rate of broken families, crime rates, marriages and divorces the world has ever seen.

Now, in the Twenty-Tens, with historic transits at hand, many boomers will discover the harsh implications of being without partners, as forecasted.

I have been bitching about this for many years, often to tin ears of many boomers who have consistently closed their ears and minds to the truth of these important matters while many lived high on the hog during the years of their bubble economies.

The world transits are now in place, and the time has come on that which I have been forecasting about for years.

The facts of the matter has definitely affected marriages of baby boomers, and could well be the reason why so many of them have experienced too many broken relationships. 

Statistics show that nearly 50% of baby boomers are now living single in their old age. That is an alarming rate to say the least.


For years I have been warning baby boomer clients to seriously take stock of their generation's ideology, its cultural and gender wars, and to make a swift end to it before the world transits of the Twenty-Tens arrived.

This graying of the single boomer, male and female, in these times, is not a recipe for success - especially now with transiting Saturn in Scorpio, then Sagittarius, then Capricorn, between 2013 and 2020. There are other planetary configurations involved as well.

Despite taking heat from boomers whose generation I surely do despise for what they have done and not done; I also know individual boomers whom I like, as long as they can see the same obvious things about their own generation as I and others do. 

Divorce is tricky, because as it has become more common in boomer society which more accepting of divorce as a solution to an unsatisfying marriage than in working things out; that means that a rise in 'gray divorce' is here to stay.


The problem for many boomers was the perversion of the Women's Liberation Movement (it was not meant to disrupt and destroy personal male-female relationships, or the family unit) and the fact that divorce costs considerably more to retire on.


I keep talking about world transits, the social implications and the mathematics - not the waste of time sideshows of political correctness, mere opinion, ideology, gender war or cultural war - but the plain and simple facts of life, in these times, and those times to come. 

You see, the pool of money that was going to fund retirement for a baby boomer couple will now have to be split in half, and all that must now pay for the retirements for two people who live separably.

The math says that that costs a lot more.


After a divorce, a former couple has to take separate vacations. They now have two cars rather than one. They have to make make twice as many trips to see the kids. Everything that they used to do together, right down to savings - costs more.

Then there's health care. Those costs will be even higher if you consider medical expenses, because if one partner gets sick, then there's no spouse around to help take care of the other.

All this, and more, means that divorced seniors must either temper their retirement lifestyle expectations or delay retirement altogether - but that retirement is already here in the Twenty-Tens.

"You have the same pool of assets that has to sustain two sets of retirement," says Joe Sicchitano, senior vice president and head of financial planning at SunTrust Bank. 

"It can undermine good planning. You can have a well thought-out plan and it will be undercut by divorce."

Financial planners say the worst problem is that it costs much more to retire as two single people - as opposed to a couple. 

While some planners say that figure is 30% or more, others say it is more realistically like 50% more to retire for baby boomers who are divorced and/or divorcing.

Adapting will not be easy with the world transits of the Twenty-Tens and the 2020s - now 7.5 years away from 2013.

The economy has been suffering for years because of the baby boomer generational establishment.

"They play games, and they manipulate things," says Eric Sprott of Sprott Asset Management. "They are so lucky because they get to borrow money at zero (percent) and lend it to people."

"They are given this right to make money, and then they turn around and lever it up, and throw derivatives on top of that.

"I totally agree that someday it will just fall apart and we will find out that none of the counter-parties can pay. I’ve never been hopeful for the financial system.

"Ever since the 2008 financial crisis all we've had is printing of money and backstopping of banks."

"The one thing which has happened since Lehman - Lehman was a liquidation - and there has never been a liquidation allowed since.

"Nothing is allowed to liquidate, whether it’s Fannie, Freddie, various banks, nobody is allowed to liquidate, and I know exactly why they are not allowed to liquidate, because if they liquidated the first domino falls.

"And once the first domino falls, everyone starts worrying about counter-parties and the whole system fails.

"That’s why they need to keep propping it up week after week. Somebody is always getting bailed out.," he says. "It’s just ongoing and anybody who has any common sense at all knows it will end in ruination."

Aged Baby Boomers Steal From All Non-Boomers

As a mundane astrologer, I am well aware of future sentiment - far in advance of present sentiment. 

I know that the baby boomer generation will be widely condemned for what they have done as the establishment and how they are stealing from their own children and grandchildren - as well as from everyone else - to fund their present existence.

Of course baby boomer retirees are stealing. They get vastly more benefits than they ever paid into the system - despite all the whining to the contrary.

And the future, which is already here, tells us that baby boomers will be too frail to work, but too poor to retire. That has already begun to show as the 'new normal' among the aged boomer generation. 

"There are no economic policy solutions," says Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant of the U.S. Treasury.

"You can’t deal with excessive money printing by cutting spending because you already have high unemployment. How are you (the Federal Reserve) going to contain the inflation? 


" Are you going to jack interest rates up and wreck what little is left of the economy? The whole thing is a disaster waiting to happen. 

"And they (the mainstream media and government officials) avoid it. There is no talk about it. It’s so obvious. 

"How can you not see it? And yet they never mention it. So I just feel compelled. It’s my responsibility to mention it."

Roberts says that this game of printing money cannot last and that there are already early warning signs that the American dollar is slipping in its role as the global reserve currency.

"You can’t retain a stable exchange value of your currency while you print it in enormous quantities., "he says. "

So, at some point it has to shake the confidence of the rest of the world in the dollar as the reserve currency. We already know about efforts to move away from the use of the dollar as the reserve currency. 

"We know the BRIC’s are making agreements to resolve their trade balances with one another in their own currencies. That’s Russia, China, Brazil, South Africa, India. It covers most of the geography of the world."

According to Roberts, there are reports that Japan and China, despite their geopolitical disputes over islands, appear to be working together to conduct trade in their own currencies. 


So, as for the use of the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency for transactions, or as a store of value declines, then the demand for dollars decline, so its exchange value in currency markets also declines.

"The Federal Reserve can print all of the money it needs in order to support bond prices, but printing dollars does not support the dollar price," Roberts says. 

"And the Fed has not the power to print foreign currencies with which to support the dollar price. So the dollar is the vulnerable spot in the Fed’s policy management, and the popping of the bubble is likely to come from the dollar."

The boomer establishment's lobby bloc have been so successful in Washington because they are a greedy and spoiled generation who want everyone else to pander to their narcissistic, greedy and selfish wants.

History will not treat them kindly, at all, to say the least. The truth hurts, but I just work here.


In 2011, Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare accounted for 44 percent of the American government’s $3.7 trillion in expenditures.

This was up from 34 percent in 1990, according the Bureau of Economic Analysis. And that's the year that boomer divorces start to really take off after all the warnings signs in the 1980s.

So, now, in 2013, while partisans - especially the 58% of baby boomers who've been running Congress want to blame President Obama, who is not at fault since the president is not a baby boomer.

What naysayers don't want to do is look into a mirror - and at their own images. That is where the problem surely can be found.

That's the baby boomer madness: it's always everyone else - but never THEM.

“The seniors have a very, very powerful lobby,” Druckenmiller said. “They keep getting more and more transfer payments from younger generations - through what is essentially a pay-as-you-go system."

Look to the future is a great sound bite if there ever was one, but as a forecasting astrologer, I ask readers to look around you. 

 Do you see baby boomers worrying about tomorrow? Are they savers? 

 Boomers live for today and that's all they care about. Some have actually said that their own children were 'mistakes' because they couldn't bother thinking before they copulated. You think such people plan anything in their lives? 

Of course not. 

 They let life happen to them.


That's been their ideology. And that's the average baby boomers' entire life in a nutshell - lurching from one mindless fad - hippie, cocaine, disco, yuppie - to the next fad.

Planning is the last thing they think about. 

The boomers, now seniors, were supposed to pay for their OWN retirement. Not mooch and live off the wealth they have been stealing from Generation X, Generation Y and the Millennials. 

Where do boomers think all this money comes from? Thin air?

 No wonder the U.S. is headed further into the economic and social lower stratum. All the boomers have had their hands out (usual position since the hippie years) literally stealing from their own progeny and then blaming everyone else - but not themselves. 

It's pathetic and it is also very un-American.

The system as we now have it is more a 'steal-as-you-go system' than anything else.


There were 40 million people in the United States who are 65 and over according to the 2010 U.S. Census data. By the year 2020, that number is expected to grow to 55 million, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

As the elderly population rises, the number of workers who pay into Social Security drops. 

By the year 2030, there will be only two workers per retiree. That's down from 3.4 workers in the year 2000

Consider this:


If a three-year-old boy today is taxed at the same rate as today’s working population, then that means he will get less than half of the benefits than the current baby boomer seniors receive.

Druckenmiller says that he sees an even bigger concern because of the government’s massive unfunded liabilities. He also sees trouble with what he calls 'trickle-down monetary policy.'

The Federal Reserve’s decision to hold interest rates near zero and buy up $85 billion of assets a month is pumping up the stock market - all in the hope that the wealthy will spend those gains and that the money will 'trickle down' to the rest of the country.

While stocks may continue to rise for a while because companies are buying back shares and retail investors are coming back to the market in search of returns, the gains simply cannot last.

The boomers, fresh from yet another 'crash' that of their late 1970s cocaine-induced disco haze, but now magically 'yuppies' possessing free credit cards in the 1980s; behaved as if they were somehow very experienced business people on the rise.


This, after first  rejecting industrial society in the 1970s to the tune of 'drop out and turn on.'


In 1982, there was a Saturn-Pluto conjunction, which effectively showed that the time was then to tackle the problem. The baby boomers were still in their 30s when a bull market began that lasted until 1987.

“The chances of this being a new bull market like 1982 are not high because we’re not attacking the crux of the problem, which is too much leverage and too much debt,” Druckenmiller said.

“I don’t know the timing of when the markets will respond to this - but it will happen.”

To make needed adjustments to help the American future, Druckenmiller suggested changing eligibility ages for Social Security and benefit structures for wealthy retirees; as well as removing disincentives for those who would rather work in their later years. 

Adding a federal consumption tax would help, he said, because seniors consume about the same amount as people in their 20s or 30s, yet they pay less in income taxes.

Another way to shift the burden as baby boomer population get ever older would be to fully tax dividends and capital gains; since retirees typically rely more on those forms of income, he said. 

To avoid double taxation, the government could abolish corporate taxes, which would also eliminate some incentives for companies to move business abroad.

Druckenmiller also proposed ending the tax benefit given to private-equity, venture-capital and hedge fund managers that treats carried interest (the portion of profits they take from successful investments) as capital gains rather than ordinary income.

“Current income is current income,” he said. “That thing should have gone away years ago.”

He said his next step is to talk to young people directly.

“Look at our young people who are obsessed with the environment,” said Druckenmiller, who sits on the board of the Environmental Defense Fund. “They are looking at the consequences of our actions 50 to 60 years from today.”

His goal is to get them to have the same far-sighted reaction to their economic future.

“With the proper education and with proper voices out there, we could have 40 million kids marching down to Washington.”
~

In these historic times, we see 'change' as the common theme worldwide. 

The transits, signs and portents in the heavens confirm this, as I have been forecasting these events and trends for years as we are now well within the cardinal crisis years of the Twenty-Tens.

~

The Cardinal Crisis Years
Battle Of Papacy Against The Curia Of The Vatican?
The former Pope Benedict XVI is followed by his personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein.
image: Reuters

By 
Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.sci

The resignation of the Pope Benedict XVI on February 28th came as a sudden surprise to the world.

However, in these cardinal crisis years, we see, once again that we are living in historic times, as forecasted by the transits of the planets.

Then, after a second day in secret conclave, the 115 cardinals elected Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, who took the name, Francis.

The new Pope, Francis I

“I would like to thank you for your embrace,” said the new pope, dressed in white, speaking from the balcony on St. Peter’s Basilica with thousands of the faithful cheering below. “My brother cardinals have chosen one who is from far away, but here I am.”

Once the head of the church’s influential Jesuit order, Bergoglio is known as a humble man who led an austere life in Buenos Aires.

He was born to Italian immigrant parents and was raised in the Argentine capital. There is much controversy as to Bergoglio's role as archbishop during the bloody and tortuous years of the military junta dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1973 to 1983.

Speaking in Italian as he blessed the faithful, Bergoglio, as Pope Francis, asked the audience to “pray for me, and we’ll see each other soon.”

“Habemus papam!,” members of the crowd shouted in Latin, waving umbrellas and flags. “We have a pope!” Others cried “Viva il Papa!”

In the meantime, the cardinal crisis transits show that this is an historic time for the Vatican and for the 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide.

Pope Francis inherits a Vatican and Catholic Church facing a wide array of challenges that only intensified during the 7.5 year papacy of his predecessor, Benedict XVI.

The problems range from a shortage of priests and nuns to the growing competition from evangelical churches in the southern hemisphere; to a sexual abuse crisis that has undermined the church’s moral authority in the west world and then to difficulties governing the Vatican itself.

We can see the generational transition also affecting the Vatican as the college of cardinals met to choose a successor to Benedict XVI.

It is the cardinals in the Roman Curia, the Vatican's administrative and judicial apparatus, who wield Vatican power with absolutely no checks and balances.

World transits clearly showed that fear has been rampant in the Curia of the Vatican. Men wearing purple robes were seen rushing around, hectically monitoring correspondence.

Sources since 2012 have said that no one trusts anyone anymore, and some hesitated to communicate by phone. 

In the Curia and in the backrooms of the Vatican, the power struggles both preceding and then following Benedict's announcement and retirement had been already underway to search for a successor.

In the wake of the recent new moon in Pisces, torrential downpours in St. Peter's Square on March 12th had kept the number of faithful and curious at minimum. 

Catholic nuns and people sheltered under a colonnade as a rain storm passed over St Peter's Square on March 12th,  the day before the new pontiff, Francis, was elected. At Vatican City, Vatican.
Image: Dan Kitwood

Meanwhile, inside the Basilica, Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, has asked his fellow cardinals "to cooperate with the Successor of Peter, the visible foundation of such an ecclesiastical unity."

Sodano's appeal for unity came in the wake of the first papal resignation in almost 600 years.

This hints at a daunting task facing the new worldwide Catholic leader - to steer the Church out of an era marked by numerous financial and sexual abuse scandals, amid allegations of rampant infighting and mismanagement of the Vatican Bank.

Pope Benedict XVI's resignation exacerbated the problems the Church has been attempting to deal with quietly for over a year. 

It sparked speculation that the leaking of private documents from the pontiff's own desk - which revealed the levels of corruption and shady business practices in the Vatican government - might have triggered Benedict XVI's decision to resign the papacy. 

So now, after Benedict XVI's left a Church divided - the drama between the Vatican's inner-circle of oligarchic prelates who have dominated its bureaucracy for decades now (called the 'Curia') and cardinals from outside the Curia who feel pressure from their own congregations and the world at large to bring the 2,000 year old institution into the 21st century.

All possible outcomes of the cardinals' conclave are analyzed and then candidates are discussed. Some insiders wanted the next pope to be someone like Pius XII (1939-1958) who was a calculating power player and Vatican insider during the years of World War II and postwar years.

Others wanted someone like Paul VI (1963-1978) who was said to pay close attention to the Curia's interests. 

The other names of candidates sources threw around range from Cardinal Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan; to perhaps Leonardo Sandri, an Argentine cardinal - with Italian roots. 

An Italian, Cardinal Angelo Scola is the champion of a reformist camp supported by many non-Italian cardinals who want to overhaul the way the Church runs itself. 

Then there is the Brazilian cardinal, Odilo Scherer, a traditionalist supported by a largely-Italian faction that prefers to leave the Curia to go about its business more or less, as usual.

Another possible candidate is Curia Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture and one of the few Vatican insiders said to be adept at handling the media, politics and the public.

Cardinals from the Americas, Africa and Asia have said that it is time for change. 

They use words like "transparency" and "openness" that obviously make the generationally-aged cardinals, many of the Italians  and their interests of the Curia very uncomfortable.

In the end, it looked as if a compromise was struck. An Italian, born and raised in South America, was elected pope.

Vatican Nativity
February 1929
click on mundane chart to enlarge

The chart for the Vatican is cast for February 1929, when Vatican City effectively became a state in itself under the Lateran Treaty of 1929, which brought the city-state into existence.

Pope Francis Elected - March 13th
click on chart to enlarge

Transiting Jupiter in the chart above also enters the 1929 Fourth House cusp of the Vatican 1929 nativity. 

Clearly, the election of Pope Francis signifies an era that may be similar to that of the 1930s during the Twenty-Tens. 

Jupiter is in detriment in Gemini, and squares many of the positions in Pisces in the transits of March 13, the day of Pope Francis' elevation.

Jupiter also squares the Vatican's natal Pisces Moon.

Associated with financial extravagance along with unrealistic optimism, this Jupiter-Moon square at the time of the election of a new pope under Mercury retrograde shows that there is a tendency to take too much for granted.

Nigerian Archbishop of Abuja, John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan embraces his colleague cardinals back in a ceremony held at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican in Nov. 2012. Since the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on Feb. 28, cardinals worldwide flocked to Rome, Italy to elect a new pontiff. Back on February 12, Pope Benedict XVI elevated 22 Cardinals who were mostly Europeans but he added six new non-European cardinals. 

Vatican observers believe that Benedict XVI sought to bring a more global, diverse and inclusive membership to the College.

Furthermore, Benedict's actions aimed to replace aging Cardinals (at age 80) who are excluded from entering the secret conclave and therefore no longer eligible to participate in the election of a Pope.

So, on March 12, the princes of the church will file into a conclave Sistine Chapel and begin their secret, anonymous balloting for a successor to Benedict XVI, who set the transition in motion by resigning his papacy on Feb. 28 - becoming the first pope to do so in nearly 600 years. 

The 115 Catholic cardinals tasked to choose the ancient Roman church's new leader signaled during their first conclave Tuesday, March 12th with a puff of black smoke. That meant the cardinals needed another day to decide on the right person for the job.

Hours after they isolated themselves in the world's most iconic chapel for their first day of a papal conclave, the ritualistic process that will see cardinals elect the next pontiff of the Catholic Church had burned their first set of voting ballots, sending black smoke over the Sistine Chapel for hundreds of people gathered in St. Peter's Square to see.

Had the smoke been white, it would have meant a pope had been elected.

Then, the next day, Wednesday, March 13, white smoke appeared, and with it brought news that one man had garnered 77 of the 115 votes.

The new pope was to be Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Ber-GOAL-io) who chose to be called 'Pope Francis.'

As the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church he will be the first non-European leader of the church in more than 1,000 years.

Bergoglio, 76, a Jesuit, who had been the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, was born to Italian immigrants in Argentina.

Although Italian, he will be the first pope not born in Europe since Columbus set foot in the New World.

In choosing him, the cardinals sent a powerful message that the future of the Church lies in the Global South, home to the bulk of the world’s Catholics.

The overindulgence of the Vatican's past since 1929, in modern history, shows that the problems and serious mistakes are bound to continue in these cardinal crisis years unless serious reforms are enacted.

The promise of opportunities are therefore clouded by desires to maintain the status quo.

Mundane Signs & Transits

During the two-day conclave of March 12-13 to elect a new pope, one cardinal related, “We spoke among ourselves in an exceptional and free way, with great truth, about the lights, but also about shadows in the current situation of the Catholic Church,” said Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna, a theologian known for his intellect and his pastoral touch.

The movement of comets Lemmon and PanSTARRS in February and March signified the transition of power at the Vatican.

Meanwhile, the peregrine transit of Saturn in tropical Scorpio shows that it will conjoin the Vatican's South Lunar Node in Scorpio in November 2014.

Then, by November 2017, transiting Saturn will make a 'return' to the Vatican's natal Saturnine position at 27-Sagittarius, also conjoined to the Galactic Center.

Fitting, at this historic time for the Vatican, as we can see the many intrigues represented by the transit of Saturn, now retrograde in tropical Scorpio and conjoined to the fixed star Mimosa

This beta star forms part of the constellation of the Cross, known to mundane astrologers as Crux


Saturn's position to Mimosa, along with the transit of the Moon's North Node, also in Scorpio, depicts deep-seated differences among the voting cardinals and the Curia.

The religious and spiritual implications versus the scandals and secret interests seem to have taken on more importance in the wake of Benedict's resignation and search for a new pope.

The mundane astrologer Elsbeth Ebertin wrote in 1928 that the star Mimosa gave an "inventive mind, intuition and wisdom," along with a "grasp for the inner nature of one's fellow man."

She adds that Mimosa can provide "the gift of successful investigation of the hidden side of things," as well as "a deeply religious nature connected with mystical and theosophical interests."

Yet the astrologer Robson writes of the constellation itself that, "Crux is said to give perseverance, but many burdens, trials and responsibilities, together with much suffering and many hardships.

"In connection with rulerships of countries it may be noted that South America and the countries of Argentina and Brazil, for instance, was named the 'Land of the Holy Cross' by the discoverer Cabral on May 1st 1500.  The constellation Crux has been depicted Brazilian postage stamps."

Astrological transits over Rome show that the cardinals during their two-day conclave had been struggling to agree on the key characteristics a new pontiff should possess. 

Italian Cardinal Angelo Sodano (C-L) leads the 'Pro Eligendo Papa' mass in Saint Peter's Basilica, in the Vatican on March 12th. The Catholic Church's 115 cardinals take part in a mass in Saint Peter's Basilica ahead of entering the conclave for a papal election observers said has no clear favorite. 
Image: GUIDO MONTANI

The divide has been between cardinals who seem to be focused on finding a new pope who possessed the oratory gifts and persona to swell the estimated 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide. 

Then, there are those cardinal cliques who were more interested in a man with the temperament and managerial skills to get the Church bureaucracy and its finances straightened out. 

At least by March 12, there was not thought among some of the cardinals, to-date, who had all of those qualities in unison. So that left the field of potential popes wide open. 

The Italians, who had 30 votes, formed the largest bloc in the conclave. Some have said that after more than 33 years, first by a Pole and then by a German pontiff, that it was time to elect an Italian pope. Those from the Americas, Africa and Asia say that a non-European pope should be elected.

The compromise on March 13th, as mentioned earlier here on Global Astrology, was that an Italian born and raised in South America, a leader of Jesuits, was chosen as the 266th pontiff.

In their desires, the Italians of the Curia countered, that after all, an Italian cardinal would know the Roman Curia best. However, transits show the Roman-based Italians' prospects had become slim since the emergence of 'Vati-leaks,' according to Vatican expert Marco Politi. 

"If the scandal has exposed one thing," Politi said, "It is the typical Italian mess. Italians are no longer seen as 'papabile' (capable of becoming pope.) They have discredited themselves with their power struggles."

Pope Versus Curia?

To reform the Vatican's Curia has been seen as a nearly impossible task, even for a pope.

The curia's hierarchic structure; which really appears to be a kind of medieval model, has shown itself to be outworn and vastly incompatible with the techniques of modern management in the 21st century.

The Vatican has been run basically as an anachronistic system, where the pecking orders, intense financial interests, personal favors, pet projects and power centers have constantly shown a strong taste for secrecy, intrigue and drama.

"The only important thing is proximity to the monarch," according to a source on a cardinal's staff.

"Rome works like an absolutist court, one where decisions made by people whispering things into the others' ears rather than by committees. There are many vain people here, people in sharp competition with one another," the source added. 

"Who spoke with whom, and for how long? What did they talk about? Who attends early Mass with whom, and who invites whom to dinner? Who's in and who's out? Who belongs and who doesn't, and who's coming into favor and who's falling out of it?"

"This kind of mood fosters feelings of exclusion, discrimination, envy, revenge and resentment," the source said. And all things have now appeared in the so-called 'Vati-leaks' documents.

It all began in the seventh year of the papacy of Benedict XVI, that had parallels to the latter part of Pope John Paul II's years.

The same complaints abounded - about poor leadership, internal dramas and divisions were now being aired outside the Vatican while the pope himself appeared exhausted and not able to exert his power.

Joseph Ratzinger turned 85 in April 2012. That made him the oldest pope in 109 years.

Since 2005, in the wake of the passing of Pope John Paul II, Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) has faced nearly eight years as pope of a Catholic Church that has had serious problems.

The Vatican is Catholic, but it is also two-thirds Italian. In the end, says the source, the Vatican's employees and administration don't care who among their ranks leads the Church. 

Even for someone who has been living there for decades, he says, "the Vatican is a ball of wool that's almost impossible to untangle -  not even by a pope."

When John Paul II died in April 2005, the Curia was in terrible shape.

Events and personnel decisions had been postponed during his last few years, when he was often ill. The new pope was expected to finally clear off the desks and give the Curia a new start.

But that didn't happen. For the most part many reforms haven't materialized. Priests still hold all key positions, including those on the Council for the Laity and the Council for the Family. 

The only woman in a senior position, Briton Lesley-Anne Knight, was driven out of office as secretary-general of the Catholic development agency Caritas Internationalis in the year 2011 for having openly opposed the Church's male-dominated hierarchy.

Then, there is Benedict's personal right hand man - Archbishop Georg Ganswein.

A woman holds a copy of Italy's Vanity Fair magazine picturing Archbishop Georg Gänswein on the cover as she stands in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican in January 2012. He was pictured on the cover of the latest issue of Vanity Fair alongside the headline 'Being beautiful is not a sin' adding that he was a 'particular' clergyman. The Italian media described Gänswein as the 'George Clooney of the Vatican.' A spokeswoman for Vanity Fair said: 'It is just a close up profile of Archbishop Gänswein but he did not pose for the photograph and he didn't give an interview, but he is such a interesting person we decided to put him on the cover. It's the first time a clergyman has been on the front of our magazine which is normally reserved for high-profile celebrities."

Papal secretary Gänswein, sources say, has made many enemies in the Curia.

As Benedict XVI's gatekeeper, Gänswein has had influence over who was to be granted or denied the pope's favor and what events and issues should command Benedict's attention.

Benedict XVI and his papal secretary Gänswein were known in Rome as the "Black Forest Adonis" on account of their shared southwestern German origins.

The power of the pontiff's personal secretary triggered derision, fear and jealousy in the corridors of the pope's official residence, the Apostolic Palace.


For Gänswein, it was reported that it seemed almost miraculous that he was able to spend an entire night relaxing and conversing with fellow German clerics at the Vatican's embassy in Berlin last year. It was an experience he just didn't have often in Rome.

Elevated to Archbishop by Benedict XVI  on January 6, 2013, it was a sign of things to come that the pope might step down. 

Georg Ganswein, 56, called 'Gorgeous George' by the Italian media has been the pope's right-hand man for more than six years and has always been at Benedict's side.

Archbishop Gänswein's main role was to organize Pope Benedict's day-to-day diary. Being closest to the pope, Gänswein had been in the spotlight over the 'Vati-leaks' scandal when news emerged that he had angered some senior Catholic Church figures because of the media's interest in him.

Gänswein is said to be a soft spoken priest, who is also a pilot and plays tennis. The Italian media has often pictured him in glossy magazines due to what they say are his rugged good looks with the media comparing him to the American actor George Clooney. 

Six years ago fashion designer Donatella Versace launched new designer menswear called ''the clergyman collection.'' She admitted that it was inspired by the German born Archbishop Gänswein.

At the same time a glossy Italian magazine tracked down his first girlfriend as she revealed how they had dated for three years before they split as he decided to become a priest.

Archbishop Gänswein has given a handful of interviews but is a private man. the Italian media's need for photos sent them into a frenzy in late 2012 after he was photographed at night walking close to the Vatican with a mystery woman.

In an interview with Vatican Radio, Archbishop & Papal Secretary to Benedict XVI Georg Gänswein was asked about his looks and said: 'I have never had trouble with the so-called fairer sex. I have always had a very serene and natural relationship with women. Of course in my youth there were women who I would happily see and there were others I was even happier to see." Gänswein added: 'The Italian newspapers started this off and wrote very complimentary pieces about me. At first it surprised me and to be honest I also found it irritating. I didn't know what to do - should I say something or should I ignore it? I decided to ignore it and now with time I have got used to it. The risk is that by just judging a person superficially you don't really find out what they are like inside."

What Gänswein faced as papal secretary to Benedict XVI was history

For decades, and many say for centuries, the Vatican has been fractured by dozens of competing interest groups. In the past, it was the Jesuits, then the Benedictines, then the Franciscans and other orders that competed for respect to sway the Vatican court. 

But in the early 21st century the influences of these competing orders have waned. They have been replaced by the so-called 'new clerical communities' which bring the large, cheering crowds to Masses that are celebrated by the pope. 

Orders like the the Neocatechumenate, the Legionaries of Christ and the traditionalists of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) as well as the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. Then there's the global 'Santa mafia,'of the Opus Dei.

All the orders are said to have their own open and clandestine agents in and around the Vatican. They all own real estate and run universities, institutes and many educational facilities in Rome. 

Various groups of cardinals and bishops seek to champion their own interests at the Vatican but this is said to happen quite often without an official or recognizable mandate. At the Vatican, it seems that everyone is against everyone else and that everyone feels they have the Immortal God on their side.

Perhaps Benedict XVI knew the Vatican too well to try to reform it. "As pope, this veteran curial insider has turned out to have virtually zero interest in actually running the Roman Curia," wrote John Allen, a biographer of Benedict XVI.

It's been said that Benedict XVI didn't need the Vatican, but rather he needed a small family. Family is sacred to him and has been something he always sought in his life. 

His only only surviving member is his older brother, Georg. His father, Joseph died in 1959 and his mother, Maria, passed away in 1963.

His sister, also named Maria, ran his household for about 30 years, even when he was in Rome, until she died in 1991. When Maria passed, he wrote in his memoirs that, "The world became a little emptier for me."

The Curia made it even more lonely for Benedict XVI

When he moved into the papal apartments in 2005, he suddenly had to go without a longtime confidante Ingrid Stampa, the housekeeper who had succeeded his sister.

But Ms. Stampa was not allowed to join the new pope in his new quarters. She had been disgraced by the Curia for having once pointed at St. Peter's Square from the window of the pope's apartment and waved to the crowd - an unforgivable faux pas.

It was said that for a long time, Ratzinger could hardly believe he was suddenly the leader of all Catholics.

More than a month after he became pope on May 24, 2005, he visited a place in the Vatican where so many things had begun for him: at the seminary in the Campo Santo Teutonico, a green island in the cramped papal state, directly adjacent to the sacristy of St. Peter's Basilica.

Benedict had lived here during the Church's sweeping modernization effort known as Vatican II and, in 1982, he returned to Rome from Munich, staying "in a room with only the bare necessities around me so that I could make a fresh start."

He remained loyal to the seminary community until he was elected pope. For decades, Ratzinger celebrated Mass at 7 a.m. every Thursday, and often ate with students in the dining room as he had discussions with them. 

He attended Christmas parties in the fireplace room as it was the kind of place where he could seek refuge from his duties as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) - a kind of adopted family for him.

But he hasn't been to the seminary since his last visit in late May 2005, which lasted over an hour. In parting, Ratzinger signed the guestbook as "Benedict XVI" and then, leaving a small space, he scribbled "pope." At first he wrote it with a lower-case p, but then changed it to an upper-case one.

None of his predecessors had ever signed anything like that - and Benedict himself said that he would never do it again. It was almost as if he had to tell himself: My God, I'm the pope!

It appears that he felt uncomfortable with the power he had assumed, which is one reason he has declined to comprehensively reform the curia, the system. He has preferred to place his trust in underlings.

Four lay nuns with the Memores Domini association, named Loredana, Cristina, Manuela and Carmela became his new housekeepers.

They looked after him for five years, attended his prayers every morning, celebrated Christmas and saints' days with him, and ate their meals with him.

Then one of them, Sister Manuela Camagni, was killed in a traffic accident in 2010. The pope was shaken. He knelt before her coffin, delivered a eulogy and spoke of the "unforgettable family-like moments" he had enjoyed with her.

Benedict XVI survived two mild strokes in the early 1990s. It was said that both his father and sister died of strokes so he has been taking aspirin as preventive medicine. Plagued by osteoarthritis in his knees, walking was becoming more difficult for him. 

Before his February announcement of his resignation of the papacy Benedict XVI  used a rolling platform he got on when he entered St. Peter's Basilica, especially when he wore heavy garments.

With the betrayal of a butler who released documents to the Italian media, those who had been at his side around the clock, the small world of Joseph Ratzinger was again thrown out of joint. 

"Stalin was right in saying that the pope has no divisions and cannot issue commands," Benedict said in the 2010 book-length interview, 'Light of the World.'

"Nor does he have a big business in which all the faithful of the Church are his employees or his subordinates. In that respect, the pope is, on the one hand, a completely powerless man. On the other hand, he bears a great responsibility," Benedict said.

He has always seen himself as a teaching rather than a governing pontiff. In the wake of his resignation, this professor-pope from the small Bavarian village of Marktl am Inn will be an interesting transitional pontiff to study.

Scandal of Vati-Leaks?

The 2012 scandal with revelations about the secret Vatican documents - called "Vatileaks" by papal spokesman Padre Federico Lombardi shocked the world.

The documents suggested that there was a Curia at the Vatican mired in corruption and character-assassination campaigns.

The main figure is a man called Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, whom Benedict XVI instructed in July 2009 to clean up the Vatican's administration. 

What happened next caused outrage within the Curia. The priest-lawyer made cutbacks in many areas, including construction contracts, real estate and the management of the Vatican Gardens. 

In a letter to Bertone, he wrote that he had turned a Vatican budget deficit of €7.8 million Euros ($9.8 million dollars) into a surplus of €34.5 million Euros within one year by ending the old boys' networks that "always awarded contracts to the same companies" - usually at double the prices ordinarily paid outside the Vatican. 

This caused Viganò to become unpopular with the Curia with fight against corruption, waste and abuse of office.

The result was that after 27 months Viganò was taken out of his office. He was reappointed as the Vatican's ambassador to the United States in Washington D.C., as far away as they could send him from Rome. 

 Viganò saw his transfer as a punishment for his fight against waste and abuse by the Curia. In a letter of protest to Benedict XVI , he painted a dark  picture of the Curia: 

"The realm is fragmented into many small feudal states, with everyone fighting against everyone else." The conditions, he wrote, are "disastrous" and, even worse, are "well-known" to the entire Curia.

The so-called Vatileaks scandal also revealed the reasons behind the firing of another senior official. 

This was to be Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, who was head of the Vatican bank. He seemed to be fired because Tedeschi was trying to get more transparency for the Vatican bank - a institution rife with decades of money scandals.

His goal was to make the bank - where Mafia godfathers had once deposited their money - eligible for the 'white list' of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) signifying clean organizations. 

Tedeschi said that he wanted the Vatican to finally disclose transactions which satisfied international standards for combating abuse and money laundering. 

But he was ousted instead.


World transits show that this is the true center of the scandal - a power struggle over the control of the Vatican's money. 

This explains why Tedeschi was so hurriedly ousted and then sent packing from Rome to the United States.

The Vatican bank's board of directors issued what are seen as "absurd justifications," for his expulsion, saying that Tedeschi, who is a professor of business ethics, was "unpredictable" and that he had "drawn attention to himself through his absences."

Astrological transits over Rome show that before Pentecost 2012, that Benedict's papal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein discovered that the pope's butler, Paolo Gabriele, was working as a spy.

Pope Benedict's former butler, Paolo Gabriele

Investigators found four boxes with copies of confidential letters to and from Benedict in Gabriele's apartment. 

Since then, Gabriele, 46, has been seen as a traitor and labelled "il corvo," (that's a raven) - a bird known for its thieving disposition. Since the end of May 2012, this former butler has been detained in a 35-square-meter (377-square-foot) cell at the Vatican, with a window, but no TV.


Using the code name "Maria," Gabriele allegedly smuggled faxes and letters out of Benedict XVI's private quarters. But it remains unclear who was masterminding Gabriele to do all this?

Even with Gabriele's arrest, the leaks still have not stopped.

More documents were released to the public in 2012 and these documents appeared to be intended to damage two close people to Benedict XVI: his private secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, and Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's top administrator. 

According to one document, 'hundreds' of other secret documents would be published if Gänswein and Bertone weren't 'kicked out of the Vatican.'

"This is blackmail," said Vatican expert Marco Politi. "It's like threatening total war."

It was well known that Benedict XVI surrounded himself with people whom he has known for a long time.As a result, he has given his close associates considerable power.

For instance, when he appointed Bertone to his senior office, Benedict XVI bypassed the Curia cliques.

But the Curia of cardinals believed that Gänswein became too powerful and too independent for many cardinals, therefore, both Bertone and Gänswein became targets of their attack - curiously code-named: 'Maria.'

Whatever the case, transits show that Benedict's requirement that the next pontiff have Gänswein as their papal secretary makes more sense in light of the most recent scandals out of Rome.

The new pontiff, Francis, will also inherit the power struggles over control of the Vatican bank, which must continue a process of meeting international transparency standards or risk being shut out of the mainstream international banking system.

And, in one of his final acts as pontiff, Benedict XVI appointed a German aristocrat, Ernst von Freyberg, as the Vatican bank’s new president.
~


The Cardinal Crisis Years
The Europe Union's Financial Crisis &
Total Solar Eclipse Of 2015

Forecast By
Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.sci

In mundane astrology we look ahead to events in the world by means of celestial configurations relative to the Earth.

The current economic crisis facing the world - especially in Europe - had its origins in the evil and greedy mechanization of international bankers and secret ideological groups. 

Throughout the history of such groups, whose designs on global domination have always caused humanity to suffer, continue to act out by means of ideology and in my opinion, have serious mental health issues.

Nonetheless, the mundane astrologers of yore have also continued to warn those who have taken part in evil that their plans and acts will have led them into the many mouths of eternal perdition.

By January 23, 2012 a series of new moons began to wind down to its end to start a fresh new moon cycle that culminates two years from now - on the vernal equinox of March 20, 2015. 

On that date - a total eclipse of the Sun by the Moon will occur over the north Atlantic and the continent of Europe.


Total Solar Eclipse
Friday, March 20, 2015
London, England
click on mundane chart to enlarge

In the mundane chart above, one can see the Sun and Moon at 29-Pisces-27' - in conjunction to the fixed star Scheat within 8-arc seconds of orb. 

While the Moon eclipses the Sun at the last degree of tropical Pisces while conjoined to the star Scheat - we find the South Lunar Node, Mars and Uranus in Aries - intercepted in the 11th House of Associates & Parliaments.

The March 20, 2015 is a part of Saros Cycle 120, a cycle repeats every 18 years, 11 days, with 71 events. The series began with partial solar eclipse on May 27, 933 A.D.

The 2015 eclipse is wholly malefic.

It is conjoined to Scheat, a fixed star in the constellation Pegasus that is well known in mundane astrology as malefic because of the star's association with all kinds of disasters - many associated with the climate and weather that are well known in the historic annals of astrometeorology. 

Because of this, I am issuing a mundane forecast to use caution in navigation over and on north and western African and European waters in 2015-16.

The mundane astrologer Claudius Ptolemy wrote that Scheat is of the nature of Mars and Mercury. It is also associated with Saturn and can incline events featuring extreme misfortune, murders, suicides and drowning. 

As one of the major fixed stars in mundane astrology, Scheat is a malefic known to be connected to mass and individual catastrophes - floods, shipwrecks, accidents, travel disasters on and over water that lead to many deaths. mainly though trouble with engines

The March 20, 2015 total eclipse will take place over western and northern Africa and will stretch over the north Atlantic ocean and the European continent. 


This total solar eclipse is yet another clear warning to all in that region to get their act together before the new astrological year of 2015 opens in earnest - signalling another serious phase of the Cardinal Crisis years in the decade of the Twenty-Tens.
click on eclipse graphic to enlarge

With a magnitude of 1.045 the total eclipse will feature a totality of 2 minutes 47 seconds, just off the coast of the Faroe Islands - located between northern Scotland and Iceland. 

The total solar eclipse of March 20 2015 will be visible in the north Atlantic and Arctic Ocean, including the Faroes and Svalbard. This is a significant total eclipse that lasts over 2½ minutes at maximum eclipse.


The total eclipse will start in the Atlantic Ocean just south of Greenland at 09:09:32 UT and will end close to the North Pole at 10:21:20 UT.

Maximum eclipse is at 09:45:38 UT, when the total eclipse phase will last over 2½ minutes. 

A partial eclipse will be seen over most of Europe, including Russia, between 07:40:51 UT and 11:50:11 U.T and will be the last solar eclipse that will be visible in Europe until the total solar eclipse of August 12, 2026.

At the end of the March 20, 2015 eclipse's path the Moon's shadow will rise from the Earth's surface to the north pole. 

The day of March 20 is the vernal equinox, so the total eclipse will occur just as the Sun rises at the north pole for the first time in six months. This day will end winter's polar night.

So, here in 2013, two years before the total solar eclipse over Europe, the 2015 eclipse presages warnings on the economic, financial, political, social and spiritual lives of Europe's population.

The next two years, and beyond of this decade, marks an historic and watershed moment for the Europe Union in the early 21st century.

Let's examine what we can expect to occur leading up and then beyond to the March 20, 2015 total solar eclipse over the continent of Europe...


The Cardinal Crisis Years
The European Union's Troubled Economy
New European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi (left) sits next to the former ECB head Jean-Claude Trichet during a meeting on Europe's debt crisis in Paris, France back in September 2011.
Image: Michel Euler/AP

Analysis By 
Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.sci

Under present circumstances in 2013, my astrological forecast has been that the European banking system will go bust - causing further and significant ripple effects worldwide.

This may have shocked many; however, the simple matter is that Europe's banking system, and those in government who have benefited, have colluded in corruption which has been rife throughout Europe's financial system.

The problem with 'fudging the numbers' is that the mathematics still cannot lie, so the rule has always been, 'follow the money.'

On March 6th, Europe's central bank president Mario Draghi said that Europe Union's suffering economy will have to get worse before he will think about cutting interest rates.

Even as Draghi admits that recent economic data in the euro zone has been “disappointing,” he insists that a recovery will appear later this year. 

Draghi also acknowledged that Europe's Governing Council considered an interest rate cut as March 6, marked the third time in a row the Frankfurt-based ECB has revised its growth outlook downward - without adjusting policy.

“A clear deterioration in the data going forward would be necessary to push the ECB towards action,” said Nick Kounis, who is head of macro research at ABN Amro in Amsterdam. 

“The ECB seems ready to accept an excruciatingly slow recovery and very low inflation. The central bank will continue to sit on its hands.”

Over the past winter, with Jupiter retrograde in Gemini, we could see how Europe's central bank helped to slow the downward spiral of the European debt crisis in 2012 when the ECB announced it would buy as many bonds as needed from countries that signed up to 'economic reforms' - or austerity measures. 

At the same time, lending conditions for businesses in crisis like Italy and Spain have not improved. Moreover, the turmoil unleashed by February's Italian election mess clearly shows that the path out of recession could be bumpy.

New Economic Revisions?

Europe's parliament and the European Commission estimated the EU shortfall to be in the neighborhood of 16 billion euros. Some say that figure is closer to 10 or 11 billion. 

From the looks of everything I say that the EC is unlikely to present a formal budget amendment until near the end of 2013.

And Europe's recession is going to be be deeper than expected, says a new ECB forecast published early March.

According to the ECB the European Union's economy will contract 0.5 percent in 2013 rather than the 0.3 percent they projected back in December 2012.

And with Draghi blaming "overhang" from the "bigger shrinkage" in the final quarter of 2012, the inflation outlook for 2014 was also revised - down to 1.3 percent from the 1.4 percent they had previously predicted.

As the latest economic data does not look good, Draghi says the ECB still anticipates a rebound in the second half of 2013.

“The outlook for the short term shows weak consumption, weak investment overall, and weak domestic demand, high unemployment,” he said at a press conference in Frankfurt, Germany, after the ECB kept its benchmark rate at 0.75 percent.

 “But in the medium term, we continue seeing the beginning of a gradual recovery, Draghi predicts.

Acknowledging what he called a “dichotomy” between sentiment indicators based on surveys and hard economic data that includes factory orders and output statistics, Draghi said Europe's recovery path is still “by and large - unchanged.”

A rate cut was discussed, he said, although the “prevailing consensus” was against action at this time, Draghi said.

Draghi last used that phrase in December 2012, when a majority of the council was open to a reduction in the costs of borrowing, only to back down over concerns that the markets would take fright at a negative signal.

Draghi sought to ease concerns about Italy’s recent election, saying that after some excitement, “markets have now reverted back more or less to where they were before” and “much of the fiscal adjustment Italy went through will continue going on automatic pilot.”

He also played down disruptions to what the central bank calls the “transmission mechanism,” by which its official interest rates could influence the cost of borrowing for companies and households.

Surprise, Surprise?

Then, on March 13, it was reported out of Strasbourg that the European Parliament had rejected a deal by EU leaders on the bloc's next seven-year budget unless significant changes were made to the 960 billion Euro ($1.25 trillion) plan.

The vote ended any hope of quick agreement on the 2014-2020 budget, a budget that must be approved jointly by Europe's parliament and EU governments.

Transits show that tricky negotiations are going to once again delay a new spending cycle and will surely impact markets this year.

You see, EU leaders had agreed at a February summit to their first ever real-term cuts for future spending.

That was part of a deal worked out to reflect cuts made by Europe's governments which have been trying to overcome the European Union's sovereign debt and severe banking crisis.

"The European Parliament cannot accept the proposal from the member states without the fulfillment of certain essential conditions," the assembly's president, German Socialist Martin Schulz, said in a statement after the vote.

Meanwhile, on March 13th, Georgios Papastamkos, a Greek who is vice-president of the European Parliament collapsed at the European parliament. 

Papastamkos, 58, had been in the middle of a voting session when all of a sudden he interrupted the voting due to "personal reasons. He then stood up, walked a few steps from his chair, fainted and fell to the floor with a thud.

Because there was no doctor on call at the parliament building, Papastamkos was rushed to a Hôpitaux Universitaires de Strasbourg, where his condition was said to be "grave." Apparently he had suffered a stroke.

As well as being vice-president of the European Parliament, Papastamkos is also a member of the Agriculture Committee and has been key instigator of the CAP reform framework that was under discussion in early March in at the European parliament in Strasbourg.

What's Going On?

With more than half of Europe's non-baby boomers and young people unemployed and destitute it is obvious that the establishment in Europe knows what's about to happen unless that situation is changed.

Look at the worrying signs in Cyprus, which only joined the EU in 2008. At this time, March 17, 2013, few people have noticed that something very odd is going in the Mediterranean.



In the European Parliament's March 13th resolution, backed overwhelmingly by members of the assembly, there were calls for more money for growth-oriented areas such as innovation, research and education.

But the parliament's resolution was at odds with the EU summit deal.

Rather, the summit deal wants to still see three-quarters of Europe's money directed to farm subsidies and major public infrastructure projects in poorer member states.

The contradictions are stark, which is why I have been bearish on Europe for years.

You see, in 2013, small and medium-sized companies, the backbone of Europe's economy, are still struggling to obtain cash and investment.

That is shown by the lack of access to loans from banks that deteriorated for six months back through September 2012. 

And Europe's business operations reported higher rejection rates when applying for credit and loans from Europe's banks.

“The large companies, by and large, had no problem in financing and funding themselves, the SMEs do,” Draghi says. “And this continues.”

Even as small business continues to face difficulty borrowing money, Draghi said the ECB is not currently planning “anything special” to ease conditions.

All in all, “Draghi depressed the hopes of those who expected lower rates in future,” said Johannes Gareis, an economist at Natixis in Frankfurt. “Instead of stepping in by action, the ECB’s strategy seems to be in wait-and-see mode.”

While damping expectations of rate cuts or more non- standard measures in the near term, Draghi also stood firm on the rules of the ECB’s yet-to-be-used bond-buying program, known as 'Outright Monetary Transactions.'

The plan, Draghi said, remains an “effective backstop” to further financial-market turmoil as long as governments sign up to a European-sanctioned program of economic reforms. 

It’s not there, he added, to help countries like Ireland return to borrowing on the open market.

“The rules of the OMT are what they are,” Draghi said. “The ball is entirely with the governments. OMT cannot be used to enhance the return to the market.”


Worry about the strength of the euro, which has fallen from a 14-month high against the dollar in February, also dropped out of Draghi’s introductory statement yesterday.

“The nominal and real effective exchange rates by and large continue to be along their long-term averages,” Draghi said.

The ECB’s base scenario is that the economy should start to stabilize in the first half of this year, with growth returning in the second supported by “a strengthening of global demand” and “our accommodative monetary stance,” he said.

However, with about 94 percent of the total allocated to spending programs in EU member nations, the Commission says that the EU budget is more effective at stimulating growth than national spending - since much of that goes to welfare, pensions and healthcare.

If EU governments and the European parliament fail to reach a deal, the EU would still be without a spending framework from the start of 2014.

That would force it into a barrage of constant, and provisional, annual budget. It is that which throws its long-term spending plans into disarray.

How EU policy filters through to the real economy also has not been explained by Draghi, as businesses from Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy - among other EU nations - face severe restrictions of credit.

From the looks of all this the fragmentation inside the global banking system remains, but is no longer viewed as much of a problem the ECB can do anything about.

So under Jupiter's transit in Gemini in March it was not any kind of surprise that the ECB left that policy unchanged.


And, Mario Draghi did not offer any indication that a rate cut is imminent without a further deterioration in the macroeconomic backdrop.

That backdrop includes the January 13, 2012 Standard & Poor’s downgrade of nine European Union nations - including France and Italy - which further added to the sense that the Euro crisis was entering a new phase.

After Greece's public and private sector default I expect that Greece will seek to repay only about 10% of its total debt as its people fight against forced austerity measures that has crippled the nation and her people.

Bond holders, no matter how much in denial they are - or the level of austerity they force on populations - know that in the final analysis they have to take steeper 'haircuts' than they now imagine. 

Given Europe's modest growth prospects and its public debt which has piled up greatly over recent years - all of it will weighs on it like an tightly clinging albatross for years to come, according to my astrological outlook. 

It cannot be avoided. They blew all their previous opportunities. The die is cast.

I have been advising Europeans for years on this here on Global Astrology.

Any Europeans now reading this should know full well that it is time to batten down the hatches. 

It is going to be a very rough ride.


It is my contention that Europe will remain in deep recession - even economic depression - until private investment replaces the reduction of debt-fueled public investment. 

It is well known that private investment requires confidence and that confidence is not going to return while there are serious doubts that the generational political class can resolve the systemic problems with the Euro.

The estimated value of the derivatives market in the Europe Union is estimated to be 60 trillion Euros. 

The European Central Bank in their policies could easily cause the Euro to crash under these world transits. 

Therefore, monetizing huge amounts of EU sovereign debt would contribute to a crash in attempts to solve the liquidity crisis in countries like Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain. 

It is already known that Germany and other EU countries oppose this. 

Moreover the ECB would not be able to solve the structural problems of the European Union's unit labor cost divergence, and that would only lead to a new financial crises in the future.

We also know that banks in other nations are in big trouble with loads of debt on their books. The weight of collapse means that governments may have to consider nationalizing banks - something that was done in the 1930s.

But because many governments do not have the money to pay out, this means that governments will assume even more loads of crushing debt. 

This certainly will negatively weigh down the growth of gross domestic product (GDP) of nations.


There are many European financial links to the North American banking system; so the contagion cannot be avoided. 

The European and American economies are deeply intertwined. Trade is the major channel through that the economic cracks in the European Union will affect the United States. 

Europe and the U.S. have been strongly attached over the last 60 years. Europe’s economic crisis is easily apparent in the U.S. economy and my astrological projections show it will get a lot worse on Europe's end.


The corruption throughout the global banking system, particularly in Europe, just does not bode well for the health of the European economy. 

What is not being faced here is the truth - and that is that the Euro currency is the problem.


The Euro has been dragging down the economies of southern Europe; which need to devalue in order to become competitive. 

But the southern economies cannot do so if they remain in the Euro zone  Therefore, expect their economies to continue to decline and in the process pauperize entire populations of southern Europeans.

For example, one third of Greeks are already living below the poverty line. That figure will go on rising year by year for so long as they remain in the Euro zone.

Consider this, 

Late last year UBS, the Swiss banking giant, entered into a massive settlement in which it agreed to pay approximately $1.5 billion in fines and disgorgement to US, UK and Swiss regulators. The regulatory settlement included a $700 million penalty to the CFTC.


 In addition, UBS’s wholly owned subsidiary, UBS Securities Japan Co. Ltd., agreed to plead guilty to felony wire fraud and pay a $100 million fine. The Swiss parent company also entered a non-prosecution agreement.


 Two former UBS traders were indicted on federal conspiracy, wire fraud and price-fixing.

The regulatory and criminal filings outline conduct demonstrating how UBS attempted and succeeded in
manipulating LIBOR benchmark rates and other benchmark rates. 

 The CFTC’s press release references “more than 2,000 instances of unlawful conduct involving dozens of UBS employees, colluding with other panel banks and inducing inter-dealer brokers to spread false information and influence other banks.” 

These filings provide fresh information to the plaintiffs in the various pending lawsuits against UBS and other major banks in LIBOR-related litigation, including incriminating communications trough emails, texts and other written communications.


 This information may encourage other claimants to file cases. In addition, the UBS documents outlined how third-party inter-dealer brokers participated in the LIBOR manipulation scheme that may lead to additional defendants being added to the cases beyond global banks. 

Aside from the recent UBS settlement, the private LIBOR litigation landscape is fast becoming more complicated.

 In August 2011, the judicial panel on multi-district litigation consolidated 18 class actions before U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald, who has not yet certified the class, nor ruled on pending motions to dismiss.

It is my forecast that the European Union will remain in what they call 'recession' in 2013.

We continue to see that the baby boomer establishment that has been running the EU continues to break the intergenerational contract. This is seen easily by the lack of employment for non-boomers. 

The European Commission (EC) says that unemployment in Europe is "unacceptably high" and threatens "grave social consequences."

click on graphic to enlarge

The EC published its 'forecast' in February 2013 and predicted that joblessness in the EU will peak at 12.2- percent.

That's more than 19 million people this year and the Euro currency struggles.

Marco Butti, the EC's director general for economic and financial affairs, described Europe's labor market as a "serious concern."


"Employment is forecast to shrink further for some quarters, and unemployment remains unacceptably high in the EU as whole and even more so in the Member States facing the largest adjustment needs," he said.

"This has grave social consequences and will, if unemployment becomes structurally entrenched, also weigh on growth perspectives going forward."

In slashing growth forecasts for Europe, the EC said that it will remain mired in recession for a year longer than originally foreseen.

The commission said Europe will not return to growth until 2014. This is contrary to the EC's prediction for the recession to end this year.

Having forecast in 2012 that Europe would grow 0.1%i n 2013, the EC changed its position - forecasting that the 17-country European bloc would shrink by 0.3% in 2013.

Table comparing national economic forecasts versus European Commission's.
Source: OpenEurope

The delayed recovery - blamed on a lack of bank lending and record joblessness - means that Europe will remain in its second recession since 2009 for a year longer than originally predicted by economists and pundits.

The commission said that Europe will not return to growth until 2014, reversing its prediction for an end to recession this year.

Having forecast late last year that the Europe would grow 0.1% this year, it changed its position, forecasting that the 17-nation bloc would shrink 0.3% in 2013. The commission then stated that it expects the EU economy to grow 1.4 percent.

Olli Rehn, commission vice-president for economic and monetary affairs and the Euro said: "The ongoing re-balancing of the European economy is continuing to weigh on growth in the short term.

The current situation can be summarized like this: 

"We have disappointing hard data from the end of last year, some more encouraging soft data in the recent past, and growing investor confidence in the future. The decisive policy action undertaken recently is paving the way for a return to recovery," he added.

"We must stay the course of reform and avoid any loss of momentum, which could undermine the turnaround in confidence that is underway, delaying the needed upswing in growth and job creation."

Olli Rehn, commission vice-president for economic and monetary affairs and the euro said: "The ongoing rebalancing of the European economy is continuing to weigh on growth in the short term.

Ireland

Irish trade union chief David Begg was speaking with poetic licence in February 2013 when he accused the EU-IMF Troika of doing more damage to Ireland than the British Empire ever did in eight hundred years. 

"At least the English had at least left some beautiful Georgian buildings,” Begg quipped. 

“When we meet the Troika, we tell them that austerity is not working, and they tell us that it is. It is a dialogue of the deaf,” he said.

The EU’s latest survey on poverty and social exclusion shows that the number of Irish children at risk has reached 37.6%. 

That is worse than Italy at 32%; with Greece at 31%; Spain at 30% and Portugal at 29%.

Even with the Irish corporation tax rates of 12.5% and 10% for manufacturing companies the Irish bailout of their corrupt banks saw the Irish government's borrowing costs plummet to their lowest levels in years.

Begg said that he had come to realize that the European Monetary Union is designed in such a way that the “entire burden of cost adjustment” falls on workers if there is any macro-shock. 

And he's right. 

Basically, an internal devaluation is achieved by forcing unemployment to reach such excruciating levels that it breaks the back of labor resistance to accept wage cuts. This is the polar opposite of a currency devaluation which spreads out the pain.

“Such a callous disregard for distributional justice - which we have witnessed in this country over the last five years - is a fatal flaw,” Begg said.

And to show how planetary transits of the 1930s are in play as we witness its cyclical repeat in the Twenty Tens - we see what 1930's-like deflation can do to a country's society in an indebted society. 

Consider this: 

As Ireland's children starve and live in poverty; just 12.9-percent of Ireland’s baby boomer elderly are at risk at the same time. 

That speaks volumes for the future now doesn't it? 

And Ireland's elderly baby boomers enjoy figures lower than those in Germany, Austria, Belgium or Britain. 

As the vernal equinox of 2013 nears the question of whether or not Ireland’s economy is in fact turning the corner is a subject of hot debate.

The Irish government in Dublin has set 3-percent deficit by the solar eclipse of 2015, but dissidents say 6% is more likely. 

The IMF warns that a 'stagnation scenario' of 0.5% growth a year into the middle of the Twenty-Tens would cause the Irish debt ratio to spiral up to 146% by 2021.

That is a serious risk as Europe persists in botching its macro-economic policy and this comes at a time when austerity and spending cutbacks in the United States threatens fragile world economic expansion in 2013.

As you can see from the chart below - Irish investment has collapsed to 10% of GDP -

Source: Irish CSO/National Treasury Management Agency

That is the lowest in recorded Irish history and currently also the lowest in the European Union. 

“If this does not recover over the next couple of years, I’ll be worried,” said Rossa White from the National Treasury Management Agency.

This is the heart of the matter. Irish spending has been slashed to the bone. This what the EU employment commissioner  Laszlo Andor, spoke of in February 2013 when he decried the slash-and-burn policy in the name of competitiveness. 

He said that it is tipping Ireland's economic crisis into a “downward spiral” and makes it even more difficult to cut and control debts. 

And like in the potato famine of the mid-1800s there is a mass exodus of Irish from Ireland. According to figures somewhere between 40,000 to 50,000 young Irish people each and every year leave Ireland. 

This exodus has reportedly kept Irish unemployment down to 14.1% however, 60-percent of those Irish left on the rolls have been unemployment for over year. 

That's the highest rate in Europe. These long unemployment rates hurts the most because it steals from future growth by degrading working skills.

“For much of its history, European integration has proceeded on the basis of a ‘permissive consensus,' that European citizens thought was a good thing, or at least did no harm," Begg said.

"Now I doubt that view is still current. From what I hear in the circles in which I move, today’s labor movement is disaffected from the European project,” he said.

“What will happen when people eventually realize that they are trapped in a spiral of deflation and debt. We may reach the tipping point,” he said.

The commission predicted that France's economy would grow 0.1% this year and 1.2% in 2014. Germany is expected to expand by 0.5% in 2013 while the nation of Spain is forecasted to shrink by 1.4p% this year.

Germany

Germany was in recession in the last quarter of 2012 as some analysts believe the German economy will enter recession itself in the first half of 2013.

German economic activity slowed considerably in the second half of 2012 - particularly in the final quarter.

The full-year German growth figure of 0.7% implies a contraction of around half a percentage point in the fourth quarter of 2012. 

Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank, cut its growth forecast for 2013 to 0.4% and warned that the economy may have contracted in the final three months of 2012 and may do so again in first quarter of 2013.

We already know that the euro-zone economy as a whole is already well in recession - having contracted in both in the third and fourth quarters o 2012.

The European Central Bank's promise in 2012 to do what it takes to defend its common currency has temporarily removed the risk of a break-up of the euro-zone while some member countries' borrowing costs have come down from unsustainable levels due to severe cutbacks - meaning austerity. 

However, damage from the global financial crisis along with the ensuing EU debt crisis has been greater than expected on the real economy.

The global demand for EU exports remains one of the few saviors in terms of generating growth for Europe.

But to complicate matters, Reuters reported March 11th that a new German party that considers the Euro currency a "fatal mistake," made its public debut, buoyed by an opinion poll suggesting one in four Germans shares its concerns, but its prospects in September's national election remain dim.

The 'Alternative for Germany' (AfD), which wants to return to the Deutschmark currency, hopes to tap a vein of public anxiety over the costs of the euro zone crisis, though all mainstream German parties remain solidly in favor of the Euro common currency.

A taboo on nationalism, rooted in atonement for the crimes of the Nazi era, has helped to somewhat muffle euro-sceptic voices in Germany, even as they grow louder in other euro zone countries.

Undaunted, one of the AfD leaders, economics professor Bernd Lucke, said the scale of the Euro crisis and the silence of Germany's political elite compelled him to speak out.

"I'm trying to save Europe. There is a schism in Europe, a divergence not convergence. The current monetary policy is about to test Europe's cohesion to its limits," he told reporters before addressing about 1,200 mostly older people at the AfD's first public meeting in Oberursal, a town north of Frankfurt.

A survey conducted by TNS-Emnid for the weekly Focus magazine showed 26 percent of Germans would consider backing a party that wanted to take Germany out of the euro and as many as four in 10 Germans in the 40-49 age bracket would do so.

AfD and other German critics of the Euro say it is unfair and undemocratic to expect Germany to bear the costs of other countries' economic mistakes.

Lucke dismissed suggestions that the AfD, dominated by academics, was too cerebral to win mass support, saying they had a responsibility to warn the German people of the dangers.

"The Federal Republic of Germany is in the deepest crisis in its history," reads the message on the AfD's new website.

"The introduction of the Euro was a fatal mistake that is threatening our prosperity. The old parties are grizzled and worn out. They are stubbornly refusing to admit their mistake and correct it," it says.

The AfD said the European Central Bank (ECB) should not be allowed to buy up the debt of struggling euro zone members. It fears this could stoke inflation that will destroy the value of Germans' savings.

But previous euro-skeptic parties in Germany have made little headway and pollsters said the AfD was unlikely to fare better.

Emnid chief Klaus-Peter Schoeppner said the results of his survey were partly a signal from conservative supporters of Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition that they expected a strong defense of German interests in Europe and would not accept moves towards "euro bonds", a sharing of liability for euro zone debt.

"There is scope in Germany for a protest party to win two or three percent support but it would be very difficult for it to enter parliament," he told Reuters, adding that much would depend on the wider economic situation.

A political party needs to win 5 percent to get seats in Germany's Bundestag, the lower house of parliament.

Despite the euro zone crisis, which has pitched southern Europe into deep recession, Germany, the region's largest economy, is faring relatively well, its exports to non-European markets are booming and unemployment is near two-decade lows.

Gero Neugebauer, a political scientist at Berlin's Free University, said AfD was unlikely to gather steam because it was effectively a single-issue party and that Germans had more pressing concerns than the fate of the euro.

"Most of those who talk about the dangers of the euro and long for a return to the Deutschmark will still vote conservative in the end. They believe Merkel will protect them, they feel safer with her than voting for a new party," he said.

Merkel's center right Christian Democrats are expected to win most votes in the September 2013 election, helped partly by her tough stance on euro zone bailouts and her insistence that heavily indebted countries accept harsh austerity measures.

The main opposition center left Social Democrats and Greens have broadly backed Merkel's efforts to tackle the euro crisis.

The crisis has featured less on the front pages of German newspapers since the ECB pledged in summer 2012 to buy up unlimited quantities of sovereign debt if necessary - in return for strictly binding austerity commitments - to save the Euro.

But many Germans, including at the Bundesbank, are very uncomfortable with the ECB pledge and February's inconclusive election in Italy, where anti-austerity parties did well. All this has reminded Germans that Europe's economic crisis is far from over.

Back in Oberursal, commercial clerk Iris Nieland - who drove 130 km (80 miles) with her husband to attend the event - said she hoped the AfD would be able to shed some light on the euro zone crisis for ordinary Germans as the election approaches.

"The amounts of money being handled (in the bailouts) is so unfathomable that no one knows what's going on. Nobody can explain what's going on," she said.

Italy & France
Italy’s Pier Luigi Bersani's Democrats (Pd) and allies control the lower house of Italy's parliament but failed to win the Italian senate. Bersani seeks support on a law-by-law basis from the Five Star Movement of Italian comedian Beppe Grillo. 
Image: Reuters

Since the surprise election results out of Italy in February 2013, Italy’s Pier Luigi Bersani vowed to break free of the country’s austerity regime as he laid out plans for a center Left government. 

That risks a serious clash with Germany and the European Central Bank.

“We must leave the austerity cage,” Bersani told leaders of his Democrat Party (Pd) as they responded to Italy’s electoral earthquake by tearing up his pre-election program.

“A change of course is absolutely necessary given that five years of austerity and attacks on workers have pushed up public debt levels across Europe,” he said.

“The vicious circle between belt-tightening and recession is putting representative government at risk and making it impossible to govern. The immediate emergency is the real economy and joblessness,” he said.

The pledge puts Bersani on a collision course with the ECB; which is constrained from helping to shore up the Italian bond market unless Rome complies with Europe’s austerity agenda.

“Italian voters may have effectively voted away the ECB safety net,” said Christian Schulz from Berenberg Bank. The central bank cannot activate its bond purchase program (OMT) unless Italy requests a rescue from the EMU bail-out fund, and that in turn requires a vote in Germany’s Bundestag.

“The ECB cannot – and will not want to – do anything to help Italy after the inconclusive election result, even if borrowing costs spiral out of control,” he said.

Mr Bersani’s Democrats (Pd) and its allies control the lower house but failed to win the senate. He is hoping for support on a law-by-law basis from the Five Star Movement of comedian Beppe Grillo.

Grillo has responded with a volley of anathemas, calling Mr Bersani a relic from a defunct political order that must be swept away by civic revolution. Yet many of his 163 senators and deputies say the movement should seek common ground with the Pd.

Mr Bersani said Italy should mobilize its EU voting weight to push for an EU-wide change of course. He has natural allies in Paris.

French finance minister Pierre Moscovici warned EMU colleagues on that current policies “risk a loss of social and political confidence across Europe. We must not pile austerity on top of recession”.

Moscovici said France would need an extra year to meet its deficit target of 3-percent of GDP and called for action to tackle the root of the crisis with an EMU-wide growth strategy.

French officials are deeply alarmed by the relentless upward rise in France’s unemployment rate to 10.6%, or 26.9% for youth. 

French President Francois Hollande’s popularity ratings have crashed from 55% to 30% since his election in May 2012 -  the fastest decline ever recorded for a French leader.

Italy, France, and Spain toyed with a Latin bloc alliance last year to confront Germany over EMU’s contraction in policy mix, but the initiative faded.

President Hollande pulled back from a showdown with Germany and ultimately pushed through further fiscal cuts and reforms; while Italy’s Mario Monti was never really willing to jeopardize the European project he served for ten years as a commissioner, as forecasted here on Global Astrology.

Critics says Monti, whose Civic Choice list won just 10% of the vote, went native in Brussels long ago and has been slow to understand the deeper political crisis unfolding in Italy.

The outgoing premier gave them fresh ammunition today, saying that it would be better to hold fresh elections than to see an anti-EU government to take power.

It is unclear whether a second vote would achieve what he intends. The latest snap polls show that Mr Grillo’s support is still rising, jumping from 25% to 28%.

And to remind all that history is cyclical by means of planetary transits, ominously, we now see growing nostalgia for Italy's 20th century fascist leader Benito Mussolini just as the post-WWII era order crumbles.

Two key figures have recently praised elements of Mussolini's Fascist rule over Italy.

A leader of the Five Star Movement professed “fascination” with the fascist sense of the Italian state and the family; while the deputy state secretary of the economy said Mussolini “governed well until 1935.”

We can see that fascist taboos are falling one by one in Europe.


Back in 2010 it was estimated that 22.5 percent - $412 billion worth of U.S. exports in goods and services - went directly to the European Union. 

This means that a severe downturn in Europe means that demand for American products and services will decline significantly.

In addition to slowing demand in continental Europe the impact of a European crisis on global exchange rates will also hurt the United States. 

The trade-weighted Euro - a weighted average of exchange rates with a weight for each foreign nation equal to its share in trade - continues to be about 10 percent weaker than it was back in 2009.

As trade-weighted value of the Euro currency declines; it means the currencies of other partners, including the U.S. dollar in particular, become worth more as European exports to America get cheaper.

Understand that under a Jupiter-Saturn regime from 2010 to 2020 the appreciation of the U.S. dollar relative to the Euro makes American exports to Europe more expensive.

This takes about 12 to 18 months between the depreciation of a currency from the impact on exports is experience. So a decline in the Euro relative to the dollar will have a substantial adverse impact on U.S. exports.

In addition, it is estimated that American banks hold more than $113 billion in loans to Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain. 

These loans will go bad and this means losses in the United States will tighten the squeeze on credit, on business growth and further reduce consumer demand in America.

The monetary crisis in Europe has already badly affected U.S. retirement and savings investments.

The European economic collapse will cause millions of American households to even lose more of their savings. Consider that the total household wealth in the U.S. declined by $135 million in the second quarter of the year 2011. 

Less wealth means households will work to save more but will consume less - further slowing what is already sluggish growth in the United States.

The retirements of millions of baby boomers who will demand pensions that have lost potentially half of their original values in a casino-driven stocks and derivatives bubble of the late 1990s and 2000s will force policymakers into a corner that shrinks to the edge of a financial cliff.

Some analysts have said that the problem in the EU is the difference in competitiveness among European countries. 

This means that the EU cannot solve their serious economic issues by lending money to less competitive countries in the EU. There are only left to the means of deflating wages and prices in southern Europe while inflating prices and wages in northern Europe.

By the end of the astrological year of 2014, it will be common knowledge that the failure of the economies of nations and the subsequent 'austerity' will have happened because of the high rates of corruption throughout international finance and political centers. 

It has been my forecast for a long time that we are entering an worldwide economic depression. This depression was forced on the world by secret groups and a small coterie of international bankers and their henchmen. 

But have no fear, as their evil acts have been and are recorded by the invisible servitors who mark them with every word and act they have ever done. Perdition awaits those who do not repent and cease their evil plans.

By the start of the astrological year 2015, highlighted by the total solar eclipse at the anaretic degree of 29-Pisces conjoined to Scheat, the global economic crisis will continue to rage on in Europe and parts of Africa, mainly in mining metals. 

The year 2015 is also the year of the seventh exact Uranus-Pluto square that will continue to greatly influence the economic geopolitics much of the Twenty-Tens.

This phase of the cardinal crisis years economically will feature the burst of the commodity markets that will exacerbate the already burgeoning economic depression amid spreading defaults of nations.

The financial products industry, fueled by Wall Street's investment banks and hedge fund partners will have helped to drive commodity prices higher. 

This will play a major role in the great economic instability into 2015 and 2016.

My mundane forecasts on the world economy by means of astrological configurations relative to the earth, continue to show that until a new generation works to clean up the mess the previous two corrupted generations made - then we all can expect the economic, financial social and geopolitical conditions to worsen,

Positive results could come about by taking names and kicking ass. When a corrupt generation who partied long and hard on everyone else's dime then left behind a complete mess in the dance hall for you (and not them) to clean up -  then you can be sure that time has come to kick plenty of ass to correct that problem straight-away.


The Oliver Wyman Group made a case in early 2011 that the next great financial crisis will occur around 2015.

They said that it will have been the result of a massive bubble in commodity markets that results in widespread economic collapse and sovereign defaults.

My mundane view is that we are closer to the burst of this massive bubble as planetary configurations clearly show. Yet, these years - from 2012 to 2015 - holds forth seven (7) exact squares between Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn.

Surely, daylight wastes on truly solving the global economic crisis before it gets out of hand.

We have three major players: the United States, suffering from widespread generational corruption in the financial markets by means of real estate, bonds and commodities along with two other major players:

China's highly flawed economic policies and Europe's banking political crisis and its currency. 

This created an environment ripe for a perfect economic storm by means of disequilibrium and turmoil. 

The Wyman Group states that the potential for bubbles is not only likely, but now appears like a near certainty.

Wyman describes how just a bubble can form in commodities and then, ultimately collapse:

“Based on favorable demographic trends and continued liberalization, the growth story for emerging markets was accepted by almost everyone. 

However, much of the economic activity in these markets was buoyed by cheap money being pumped into the system by Western central banks. 

Commodities prices had acted as a sponge to soak up the excess global money supply, and commodities-rich emerging economies such as Brazil and Russia were the main beneficiaries.

High commodities prices created strong incentives for these emerging economies to launch expensive development projects to dig more commodities out of the ground, creating a massive oversupply of commodities relative to the demand coming from the real economy. 

In the same way that over-valued property prices in the U.S. had allowed people to go on debt-fueled spending sprees, the governments of commodities-rich economies started spending beyond their means. 

They fell into the familiar trap of borrowing from foreign investors to finance huge development projects justified by unrealistic valuations. Western banks built up large and concentrated loan exposures in these new and exciting growth markets. 

The banking M&A market was turned on its head. Banks pursuing high growth strategies, particularly those focused on lending to the booming commodities-rich economies, started to attract high market valuations and shareholder praise. 

In the second half of 2012 some of these banks made successful bids for some of the leading European players that had been cut down to a digestible size by the new anti-“too big to fail” regulations. 

The market was, once again, rewarding the riskiest strategies. Stakeholders and commentators began pressing risk-averse banks to mimic their bolder rivals.

The narrative driving the global commodities bubble assumed a continuation of the increasing demand from China, which had become the largest commodities importer in the world. 

Any rumors of a slowing Chinese economy sent tremors through global markets. Much now depended on continued demand growth in China and continued appreciation of commodities prices.

The Bubble Bursts?

Western central banks pumping cheap money into the financial system was seen by many as having the dual purpose of kick-starting Western economies and pressing China to appreciate its currency. 

Strict capital controls initially enabled Chinese authorities to resist pressure on their currency. Yet the dramatic rises in commodities prices resulting from loose Western monetary policies eventually caused rampant inflation in China. 

China was forced to raise interest rates and appreciate its currency to bring inflation under control. 

The Western central banks had been granted their wish of an appreciating Chinese currency but with the unwanted side-effect of a slowing Chinese economy and the reduction in global demand that came with it. 

Once the Chinese economy began to slow, investors quickly realized that the demand for commodities was unsustainable. Combined with the massive oversupply that had built up during the boom, this led to a collapse of commodities prices. 

Having borrowed to finance expensive development projects, the commodities-rich countries in Latin America and Africa and some of the world’s leading mining companies were suddenly the focus of a new debt crisis. 

In the same way that the sub-prime crisis led to a plethora of half-completed real estate development projects in the US, Ireland and Spain, the commodities crisis of 2013 left many expensive commodity exploration projects unfinished.

Western banks and insurers did not escape the consequences of the commodities crisis. Some, such as the Spanish banks, had built up direct exposure by financing Latin American development projects. 

Others, such as US insurers, had amassed indirect exposures through investments in infrastructure funds and bank debt. 

Inflation pressure in the U.S. and UK during the commodities boom had forced the Bank of England and Fed to push through a series of interest rate hikes that forced many Western debtors that had been holding on since the sub-prime crisis, to finally to default on their debts. 

With growth in both developed and emerging markets suppressed, the world once again fell into recession.”

Now, we know in 2012 that this global economic reality is in play now with investors blowing up a bubble in bonds and commodities as speculators scan the globe for the next boom market.

Wyman elaborates:

“However, it is already apparent that increasing commodities prices are also creating inflationary pressure in China, which is exacerbated by China holding its currency artificially low by effectively pegging it to the U.S. dollar. 

This makes commodities look like an attractive hedge against inflation for Chinese investors. The loose monetary policy in developed markets is similarly making commodities look attractive for Western investors. 

This “commodities rush” is demonstrated in the right-hand chart below, which shows the asset allocations of European and Asian investors. 

A recent investor survey by Barclays also found that 76% of investors predicted an even bigger inflow into commodities in 2011.”

click on graphic to enlarge
Financial writer Cullen Roche says, "Ultimately, they conclude that the imploding commodity bubble will lead to another financial crisis and sovereign defaults. 

Their 'base case' scenario involves mostly European nations experiencing defaults. This looks not only likely, but probable. 

It is likely that the periphery of Europe will remain mired in recession for several years as austerity measures put downward pressure on their economies and the Euro governments fail to enact a true fix to the flawed single currency system. 

Persistent weakness in Greece and Ireland will cause continual political turmoil and ultimately the scenes of Egypt would not be surprising throughout many parts of Europe as citizens demand real change. 

The Euro would likely remain the primary European currency, however, several periphery nations would reconsider their involvement.

Now, where I disagree with the Wyman analysis is in their 'worst case' scenario," said Roche. Any regular reader knows that it is highly flawed analysis to conclude that the USA could potentially default on its obligations – all of which are denominated in the currency in which it alone has monopoly supply of. 

This simple point eludes even the brightest minds in economics today. A default of the USA is impossible. 

The only form of default could come through hyperinflation. Considering the deflationary collapse that would likely result during the Wyman 'worst case' scenario I think it’s likely that we would once again see the USA become the global safe haven and the USD would not collapse, but surge as it did in 2008. 

Still, the economic impacts would be deeply negative for the entire global economy though a collapse of the USA is not on the table.

We continue to see increasing disequilibrium in the global economy. 

The flaws in the Euro, China’s misguided economic policy and the endless financialization of the USA are the three primary factors contributing to what is unavoidable future calamity. 

It’s clear that none of these countries are willing to risk any sort of near-term pain that would be required to fix these structural imbalances so it’s not a stretch to assume that we will continue the boom/bust cycle that has become a trademark of the last 25 years of global economic growth. 

The commodity bubble will merely be a symptom of these imbalances.

Wyman concludes that this event could be several years away, however, I fear that this event could easily occur sooner than 2015,' Roche says.

We remain in one continuing balance sheet recession with rippling waves that could cause these imbalances to resurface sooner than anyone believes. 

The resulting impacts will be broad and have the potential to forever change the way we approach future economic growth and the way governments intervene in markets. 

I would expect the Bernanke Fed to be in the middle of the ensuing storm," Roche said. 

"Such a crisis would likely result in wide ranging policy changes that will finally clear the imbalances of the credit crisis and create a foundation for truly sustainable economic prosperity."

Europe's Total Solar Eclipse:
March 20, 2015
click on mundane chart to enlarge

The mundane chart above depicts the total solar eclipse over Europe two years from now. The ramifications point to the period between March 2015 to November 2015 as being fraught with danger in Europe.

The economic crisis as it continues in Europe, will, by 2015 be nearly at its height with geopolitical radicalism inclined by the Uranus-Pluto squares which officially began in June 2012.

Trans-personal world planetary configurations are strong and will last throughout the Twenty-Tens, where subsequent global events will come to pass and prove that we are living in a historic era.

Sad to say, Europe's economic crisis will have turned into a great depression for many millions of people on the continent. Certainly this will be more than evident by 2015-2016.

This is a given considering the very poor choices and rampant corruption of the baby boomer generation that served as the establishment since the early 1990s, not only in Europe but worldwide.

Solving the massive problems of the former establishment will not be easy for Europe's Generation X, the incoming establishment. 

The new generation will have to solve, and then by taking action, will have come to resolve the total messes left behind by the oligarchs and the boomer establishment whom broke the intergenerational contract.

The economic, political and social disasters inherited from the baby boomer establishment will be cause for shame when all is said and done.
~


The Cardinal Crisis Years
Saturn Peregrine In Scorpio:
Mental Health, Crime & Society
2013-2015

By 
Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.sci

Since Saturn entered tropical Scorpio in October of 2012 for its long there to 2015, I have forecasted and warned about the spread of mental illness in society along with the rise of crime.

Since October 2012, we have seen a wide range of what can only be called sick and shocking crimes that have been perpetuated by men and women.

The February manhunt in the United States for former Los Angeles Police Office Christopher Dorner, the fugitive ex-cop accused of going on a killing spree caused a celebrated debate in the U.S. over the abuse of justice and legality by the LAPD.

A spate of odd, unusual and strange crimes have already begun to take place during Saturn's peregrine transit among the stars of Scorpio.

These following are just brief examples of this fact:

An intensive multi-state manhunt ended as police arrested a man suspected of killing his grandparents.




Those, and many other events are typical of the kind of malefic influences of Saturn among the stars of Scorpio.

Noting the many world transits of this decade, there are many reasons to be concerned about the state of the world and society as we enter the middle years of the Twenty-Tens.

In my analysis of daily, monthly and yearly world transits, what is most notable are the configuration of the planets from Mars to Pluto-Charon – the trans-personal planets of our solar system – relative to Earth.

Of course, most astrologers know of the Uranus-Pluto Square, which is prime player; especially by means of society’s discontent with government/corporate marriage that has caused the economies of nations to weaken significantly into austerity and economic depression.

The transit of Saturn in tropical Scorpio, ruled by the lesser malefic Mars also plays a direct role in what I deem to be a mental health downgrade on society at large. 

The last two times Saturn transited Scorpio was in the mid-1950s and the mid-1980s.

Saturn’s peregrine motion between 0-27 degrees tropical Scorpio reflects a time of rising crime with often horrid and inexplicable events, involving money, sex and death - all typical of the 8th House.

The aged baby boomer generation has seen their crime rates also rise within their own generation as transiting Scorpio squares this generation’s natal Pluto in Leo for the next several years.

The crime rate of the baby boomer generation since 1970 has led to a decline in society. The effect of this with Saturn in Scorpio will be featured in some of the saddest events of our transitional era.

Baby Boomer Crime Rate - 1960-2010

Saturn’s ‘wandering’ of Scorpio in the years 2013, 2014 and 2015 features years where the destinies of tens of millions of people are dangerously impacted, so caution in these years is strongly advised.

In 2013, we have the short-lived Grand Water Trine, which kicks off between Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune in the tropical Signs of Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces.

The grand water trine helps those with natal or progressed positions to be able to succeed enough to protect themselves and their loved ones from the later world transits to come by 2014.

The water trines between Saturn and Neptune have been ongoing in early 2013.

Then we have another water trine between Jupiter and Saturn which extends into 2014 that is helpful; however, the overall global transits continue to clearly show stressful and negative configurations that are shown by events on Earth.

I expect stock markets to show fear indexes rising into March 2013, and by April and May 2013, that fear leads to record falls as a so-called ‘currency war’ breaks out among nations, which really are nations that suffer economically doing all they can to avoid fears of inflation.

Double-digit high unemployment will see increased mass demonstrations with police riot violence break out throughout the world.

The rising crime rate is associated with Uranus square Pluto and Saturn in Scorpio as younger populations enter the age where crime rates are known to rise.

Saturn's transit in Scorpio signals the rising crime globally, and we will see this trend continue through to 2016.

Although the mainstream media has been reporting that crime rates have dropped, rather, the opposite has occurred as forecasted, and it is happening worldwide.


 Mundane Astrology:
The Sign Scorpius

By 
Theodore White, mundane Astrolog.sci

After the summer of 2013 has ended, giving way to the autumn of 2013, there are global transits that show a more malefic year of 2014 just ahead.

This is presaged by several planetary transits, among them - the motions and configurations of Saturn in tropical Scorpio and sidereal Libra,

In the months of November and December 2013, Saturn will transit between the alpha star Zuben Elgenubi and the beta star Zuben Elschemali – located in the Claws of the Scorpion. 


click on image to enlarge

In ancient mundane astrology, the constellation Libra was represented, not by a balance, but as the claws of the scorpion known as Scorpius.

For centuries before the Christian era, Scorpio was the largest of zodiac figures comprised of its ‘Khelai,’ or its claws, a part of the heavens now known to us as Libra. 

Depicting Scorpio as a double constellation is more proof that during the eras of great antiquity it seemed there was a belief that only six constellations made up the zodiac and that these extended zodiacal skies included Scorpio.

During my childhood classical studies, I asked my tutor Charles Jayne, if I could read a book I saw him carrying, titled ‘Astronomica,’ written by Marcus Manilus, the 1st century mundane astrologer and poet.

I was reading a lot of astrological history as part of my classical studies under Jayne. This was on top of elementary school - operated with perfection by the Catholic Sisters of the Sacred Heart, all whom seemed to possess advanced degrees in various disciplines, like, master degrees in astrophysics, and a few with doctorates in literature and history.

I told Jayne the classical stuff I was reading under his tutelage was a reason why the English and History teachers I had didn’t fail me, but I had to keep up to get good grades. So what’s the deal with this guy Manilus, I asked as he laughed

One English teacher at my school I knew had a doctorate in literature. So we were all clearly frightened of her. I know I was. This nun was tall, wore reading glasses and had bright brown eyes. She was the cleanest person – male or female – I’ve ever seen. 

I was an altar boy, so I would see her up at 6: 15 a.m. mass with all the other nuns, bright, serious and ready to go. These were some serious women I thought to myself.

Every day, up before the early birds. Anyway, this English teacher always looked like she was fresh baked – every single day – all day long. So yes, we were all scared of her … a doctor of literature? All my classmates were … even our parents too.

I saw her once have one of my classmates stand up in front of his desk, as she returned graded reports to us. She stopped at this kid’s desk with his report, handwritten single space, and in green ink.

After she was forced to grade his paper (she graded it in red ink) – and gave him an F+.

In front of the class, this nun asked him to stand up and hold out his hands as she proceeded to tear up his report in these tiny little pieces into his hands, looking into his eyes, as she told to the entire class what our assignments for the day. 

She read, or had already read, just about everything, I thought. But I discovered that I was writing school reports on subjects she had maybe heard about, but hadn’t read.

That happened the first time by mistake when she gave us assignments to write a report about any subject we chose.

I got tired of writing reports by hand so during the summer I found a few used office typewriters for sale over (like the IBM Selectric with that great round ball typeset) and my favorite, a well-oiled Royal typewriter for backup. 

I decided to type my reports. My hand said thank you.

I was going to work hard to get A’s on my written reports and homework. Since Jayne was tutoring me and I was reading astrological history. I thought why not? 

I had just finished Claudius Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos and William Lilly’s Christian Astrology. I was finally getting a bit used to the sometimes flowery and aged languages.

Anyway, Jayne said if I wanted to read Astronomica, then I would have to go and get my own copy. So, at age 11 I made my way into a bookseller in downtown historic Philadelphia and found the book.

Here, I read that this guy, Manilius lived during the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius and his work Astronomica was considered one of the earliest treatises on Astrology. 

The Astronomica is really just a Latin didactic poem of five books. It starts with an account of celestial phenomena, and then goes on about all of the signs of the zodiac and the twelve temples. 

From there Manlius gave instructions for calculating the horoscope, with details of the chronocrators, the planets; decans of the houses, the injurious degrees, etc., etc., etc.

He wrote in prose about the geography of the zodiac, its paranatellonta, and other technical matters I was reading about.

It had an expanding effect on my consciousness; so rather than separate myself from the natural world - which includes the heavens - I was to observe and mind their signs and transits closely.

Besides, like Ptolemy and William Lilly, this guy Manlius was kind of interesting in his own first century kind of way. He showed great virtuosity rendering mathematical tables and diagrams into verse form. That was cool I thought.

As a poet writes with passion about his stoic beliefs, he also showed a lot wit and humor in his astrological character sketches of people born under particular stars and Signs. I tested this out with the people around me born during different times of the year.

I found it to be thrilling. Jayne told me that despite its undoubted elegance, the Astronomica was a difficult work, even with the English prose translation, but the illustrative figures and notes were fascinating to me.

Getting back to our present times in the Twenty Tens, with Saturn transiting sidereal Libra and tropical Scorpio, this is what Marcus Manlius had to say in his Astronomica about Scorpio –


"The Scorpion presides over arms,

"By virtue of his tail armed with its powerful sting, wherewith, when conducting the Sun's chariot through his sign, he cleaves the soil and sows seed in the furrow, the Scorpion creates natures ardent for war and active service, and a spirit which rejoices in plenteous bloodshed and in carnage more than in plunder.

Why, these men spend even peace under arms: they fill the glades and scour the woods; they wage fierce warfare now against man, now against beast, and now they sell their persons to provide the spectacle of death and to perish in the arena, when, warfare in abeyance, they each find themselves foes to attack.

"There are those, too, who enjoy mock-fights and jousts in arms (such is their love of fighting) and devote their leisure to the study of war and every pursuit which arises from the art of war."

So, what we find is that Scorpio held the scales of the balance in his claw and that his claws were considered to be the scales of Libra.

You will find that the prefix Zuben, seen in the names of the stars of Libra and tropical Scorpio, originate from the Arabic word for 'claw.' 

The Sumerians knew this area of the skies as ZIB-BA AN-NA - or what is called the ‘balance of heaven,’ and this is where the Arabs got the name Zuben. 

Zuben Elgenubi consists of a wide double-star, an alpha (α)1 and an alpha star (α)2 shining at 3 and 6 magnitudes. 

They shine as pale yellow and light gray and are found in the southern claw of tropical Scorpio, or the constellation of sidereal Libra. Called the ‘Insufficient Price,’ according to ancient mundane astrologers, Zuben Elgenubi is of the nature of Saturn and Mars.


It causes malevolence, obstruction, an unforgiving character, violence, disease, lying, crimes, disgrace and danger from poisons.

The transit of Saturn by conjunction to Zuben Elgenubi by November 2013 and into winter 2014 shows acts of dishonor. Disruptive, full of drama, acting out by means of jealousy and impulse.

Since it is unfavorable for marriage, it signifies domestic discord, greed for gain and dispute over legacies.




Eric Morse says in his “Living Stars’ that, “It is well to remember here the association of this star with a scorpion's claw, used for making love as well as for slaying its prey.

It does not let go until one or the other matter is complete and onlookers are not sure which of the two acts are in process.

Sometimes, even the Scorpion seems to get it wrong along the way! It frequently shows up ill-aspected in many unfortunate situations, from domestic strife and miscarriages of justice to psychopathic killings that started out in the guise of love.

Its appearance in better aspect is often just the right moment to repair a relationship and to reconsider an earlier harsh judgment. 

Well aspected and on the 'right planet' we have someone of courage who will fight for right, but is generous to his opponents when they are defeated.

If harshly aspected, especially by Mars, Saturn or the Moon, justice may well take a back seat to vengeance.”





The German astrologer Elsbeth Ebertin wrote,

“The unhelpful influence of this star is said to be noticeable especially in natives who were born during the night. A bad omen for health of the native is given if Sun or Moon is in conjunction with The Southern Scales.

It has been noted that it is particularly disadvantageous to have Saturn or Neptune tied up with this star. Even the conjunction with Jupiter is credited as being adverse. Vehlow has recorded 'confiscation of possessions during times of war.'

Credit is given to the Southern and Northern Scales in that they both bestow an immortal name. However, this comes about more by tragic circumstances than by well noted success.

Conjunct the Ascendant, this star could mean rise in fortunes, followed by downfall. There is also an indication of danger coming about in connection with water.”

The Northern scale of the claws of the Scorpion is called Zuben Elschemali.

Known in antiquity as the ‘The Full Price,’ the color of this northern scale star is unusual and has been termed unique in that this star shines a pale deep emerald green, but also like deep blue.

This pale emerald star in the northern claw has references in mundane astrology that refer back to the celestial sphere of antiquity where the constellation Libra was not anywhere to be seen as Scorpio occupied a full 60-degrees of that region of the zodiac.

Saturn will make conjunction to Zuben Elschemali on December 23, 2013. When Saturn transits here, we can see a moderating influence that is calledCautious, reserved and studious.”

Robson defines the influences as economical, analytical  favoring a good chemist or detective with excellent judgment of human nature, but with early losses never fully recovered.

The star is also said to be favorable for gain and domestic matters, but also can bring about sickness to children in their infancy.


Ebertin says that, The Northern Scales has a Jupiter-Mercury nature and therefore positive properties. Tied up with the Midheaven and Ascendant, or with well placed stellar bodies, the Northern Scales are credited with helping the native to gain honors and distinction.

“When connected with Mercury they are supposed to make the native studious. In good position, the star will arouse, above all things, spiritual and mental forces. 

The conjunction with Sun, Moon, or Jupiter favors civil servants, lawyers and scientists. Confiscation of possessions during times of war but credited with bestowing an immortal name.”


Globally, Saturn’s sojourn in Scorpio would feature the continent of Africa, including the Middle East and some parts of southern and northern Europe.

The constellation Scorpio is famous as a part of the sky where there are accounts depicting the appearance of a brilliant temporary stars like the famous one of 134 B.C., the first in astronomical annals, and the again, Pliny said of the catalogue of Hipparchus, around 125 B.C. 

The Chinese She Ke confirmed the appearance of action in Scorpio in June of that year taking place in the Sieu (Chinese Moon Mansion) Fang: these mark the beta, delta, pi, rho, and others in Scorpio.

Translators believe that the strange outbursts of novae in and around Scorpio may have had some effect in causing Scorpio to be considered malefic by the ancient astrologers.

This, as well as Scorpio’s history along with the fiery color of its lucida and Scorpio’s the history in connection with Orion given also the poisonous attributes.

Ancient mundane astrologers assigned Scorpio to the care of Africa.

It is tied to the southwest winds, something the astrologers of antiquity said both Sagittarius and Aries shared.

In Astrometeorology, Scorpio is also defined by ancient forecasters to exert a malignant influence on the atmosphere by means of fierce storms.


Scorpio was said to reign over Judaea, Mauritania, Catalonia, Norway, West Silesia, Upper Batavia, Barbary, Morocco, Valencia, and Messina.

Manilius claimed that Scorpio was the tutelary sign of Carthage, Libya, Egypt, Sardinia, and other islands on the Italian coast.

The color brown and murky red are assigned to Scorpio. Other mundane astrologers say planetary transits or even the appearance of comets in Scorpio gave signs and warnings of plagues of insects - especially of locusts.

Scorpius is a fruitful sign, but mundane astrologers also called the constellation ‘accursed.’


Arabian mundane astrologers knew it as Al Akrab, the Scorpion, from which have come the names: Alacrab, Alatrab, Alatrap,Hacrab - Riccioli's Aakrab and Hacerab; and similarly it was the Syrians' Akreva.

The Persians had a Scorpion in their Ghezhdum or Kazhdum, and the Turks, in their Koirughi, Tailed, and Uzun Koirughi, Long-tailed.

The Akkadians called it Girtab, the Seizer, or Stinger, and the 'Place where One Bows Down,' titles that are indicative of the creature's dangerous character.

Those who lived on the Euphrates knew Scorpio as the symbol of darkness in the decline of the Sun's power after the autumnal equinox had taken place.


In Babylonia, the calendar sign was identified with the eighth month of the year called 'Arakh Savna' which translates to mid-October to mid-November in our times.

Centuries before the Christian era, Scorpio was known as the largest of zodiac Signs, as it was composed of its Khelai - or its Claws - the prosectae chelae of Cicero, now known as the Balance of Libra - a double constellation.

From the of great antiquity came the belief that the earliest zodiac had only six full constellations, of which Scorpio was one.

The mundane astrologer and prophet patriarch Abraham knew the constellation also as an Eagle. 

 Aben Ezra identified Scorpio, or Antares, with the 'K’sil' of the Hebrews. 

Banner of the Tribe Dan

The Hebrews of that era called these stars in Scorpion, their Akrabh, and had it inscribed on the banners of Dan, as the emblem of a tribe whose founder was "a serpent by the way." This was during a time when Scorpio was depicted as a crowned snake or a basilisk.

Saturn’s in Tropical Scorpio: 2013-2015

Since 2010, Saturn has been transiting among the constellations of Libra and Scorpio. The most recent era this last happened was during the early to mid-1980s.

The ruler of Scorpio is known as ‘Martis Sidus,’ or the 'House of Mars,' the lesser malefic. Saturn is known as the greater malefic.

In the House of Mars, Saturn is peregrine. This means Saturn ‘wanders’ over the first 27-degrees of tropical Scorpio. Saturn energies are therefore channeled by Scorpio's ruler, Mars.

'Martis Sidus,' has been referred to as being found in the sting and tail of the Scorpion - and also in its claws, known as Zugos and Jugum.

The atmosphere under Scorpio can be warm, wet, humid and nearly tropical during summers but is cold, wet, frosty, chilly and foggy during autumn and winter seasons.


The region of tropical Libra, called ‘Yoke of the Balance’ is ruled and devoted to Venus, as she united man and woman under the yoke of matrimony or a wedding. Scorpio also governs the groin area and the regenerative sexual powers of the human body.


Since the entry of Saturn into this part of the skies we have witnessed malefic events worldwide associated with sex, crime, marriage and death by means of the influences of Mars and Saturn.

Saturn's transit among the stars of Serpens in 2014-2015 is also a concern.


Saturn, being primarily peregrine in Scorpio, channels its power through Scorpio's ruler, Mars, and so, during the transit of Saturn of Serpens and the malefic star Unukalhai; we can expect all manner of negativity and evil - lying, fighting, violence, crime and murder - perpetuated by those so inclined. The world news of our times already shows this to be true.

Unukalhai is at 22-degrees Scorpio. Saturn will make its approach to this star by December 2013 and will conjoin it a first time January 22-23, 2014.

Unukalhai 

During February 2014, the Moon's nodes, transiting retrograde in Scorpio/Taurus will enter Libra/Aries axis by mid-month.

This change in 'quality' - from the fixed elements of earth/water to the air/fire elements of Libra-Aries, signifies more important celestial events just prior to the Grand Cardinal Cross of April 2014.

Saturn's conjunction to Unukalhai will continue into the spring of 2014 as Saturn will station retrograde at 23-Scorpio on March 2, 2014.

By this retrograde motion, Saturn will again perform a conjunction to Unukalhai a second time, by April 12, 2014. This is the Easter and Passover season of April 2014.

It is also where a total lunar eclipse at 25-Libra will occur - occulting the stars Spica and Arcturus - framed by a grand cardinal cross configuration. This takes place on April 15, 2014.

Total Lunar Eclipse - April 2014
Click on mundane chart to enlarge

In the chart above, you can see the planet Saturn in the ninth mundane house, conjoined to the Serpens star Unukalhai during a total eclipse of the Moon. It is five days before Easter Sunday, on April 20, 2014.

By means of Saturn's retrograde, by then moving in direct motion, a third conjunction of Saturn to Unukalhai will take place on October 16, 2014.


The Australian mundane astrologer Jamie Partridge writes that, 

"The brightest star in constellation Serpens the Snake is Unukalhai, located at 22º Scorpio. Sometimes, it is called Cor Serpentis, meaning the Serpent’s Heart. It’s a 2nd magnitude, pale yellow star found in the snake’s neck.

According to Ptolemy, the stars of constellation Serpens are of a Saturn-Mars nature which, of course, in traditional terms means an arch-villain. 

Robson suggests that they give 'wisdom, craft, deceit, malice, a feeble will and danger of poison.' The main problem is the risk of poisoning, or intoxication through drugs or alcohol.

It doesn’t necessarily mean the subject will be a drug addict, rather these people are unusually sensitive to toxins and suffer more than most when exposed to smoke, heavy metals, chemicals and alcohol. 

However, some people do crave the very thing that they are allergic to, thus giving us a fatal attraction. This star seems to have an extremely hypnotic effect, then drawing you in with its undulating vibration. Robson has an extremely negative view of it. 

He associates it primarily with violence and poisoning with a crafty, criminal, and immoral subtext.

[The] 1930’s gentleman Vivian Robson (yes, he was a man) used the term 'evil environment,' to politely imply a gay lifestyle. But for modern use, I would suggest he means any lifestyle choices that are basically anti-Christian. So, that could include multiple-marriages, radical feminists, bohemians, non-conformists, and renegades."



click image to enlarge

Adding to this, the German mundane astrologer Elsbeth Ebertin wrote in 1928 that... 

"In the Neck of the Serpent, Unukalhai shows its properties as a Martian force, combined with Saturn, and is often really dangerous and destructive. 

"There will be chronic diseases which are not easily detected. These will result in a weakened state of health and operations will be necessary. There will be accidents. This is especially true with Uranus or with Neptune. 



The conjunction of the latter with Unukalhai will make the native prone to infectious diseases and also to poisoning. If with the Midheaven, and in conjunction also with 'malefics,' it is damaging to the social position, often there will be many difficulties in the professional life."

The influences of late 2013 into 2014 signify yet another stressful atmosphere worldwide.

Amid a Grand Cardinal Cross, a total lunar eclipse, and Saturn's transit among the stars of Serpens, these are obviously malefic world transits.

During 2014, transiting Mars will transit the stars of sidereal Virgo and tropical Libra, where it will conduct a significant global retrograde relative to Earth in early 2014.

The proximity of Mars and Saturn in 2014 among these stars and constellations call for strict attention to major changes in geopolitics, along with the rising crime rates in society.

I have been warning about this particular era in the world for some time on Global Astrology. These kinds of malefic transits are not to be taken lightly.

The power of astrological forecasting gives a heads up and allows for proper preparation to be taken in advance of such world transits with the intention to avoid disasters associated with their configurations. The  knowledge of transits allows for positive intervention to then be acted on.

Often, these destructive influences can be neutralized by simply being awake to the fact of human frailties, misjudgments, poor learning, ignorance and bad habits.

Therefore, during solar year of 2013, it is essential to understand that the situations and trends going into early 2014 require very careful minding and navigation.

The mundane advice then? Take nothing at face value.
~


Astromet Climate Forecast:
2013's Weird, Hot, Muggy, Windy, Cloudy, Floody, Wet & Dry Weather

By
Theodore White, astrometeorologist.sci

My general climate outlook for the northern hemisphere, in the solar year of 2013, particularly the spring, summer and early autumn is this:

Prepare for record-setting hot temperatures, heatwaves with wet, muggy conditions causing a steamy atmospheric climate in the northern hemisphere for summer.

In spring, with a colder-than-normal month of March, there will be late snow-melts in spring. What that means for rivers and farmlands in the northern hemisphere, along with heavy spring rains, is the threat of flood in the 2013 planting season. Preparation is urged.

Along with spring flooding - we also have a continuation of an extended drought this year - particularly in parts of the Plains states and in the central and southern Midwestern United States.

 So what we have here is a weird climate year.

The additional climate signals feature high levels of record temperatures and humidity in urban cities.

My astrometeorological calculations for the seasonal weather from spring to autumn 2013 reveals a continuation and spread of the drought in the Midwest that I forecasted for 2012.

Relief will be on the way, but not before hot temperatures with heat waves make for a record weather year.

In some regions this summer, it will be wetter and cloudier as well. The reduced sunlight could result in under grown crops, so planting season is crucial in 2013.

Again, I warn farmers to be ready for a dry year throughout most of the Corn Belt in North America. Some relief will come in the form of of heavy rains, however with the already dry and cracked soil, it can lead to flooding in a late snow melt season.

Daytime and night-time records will be set for heat, especially in the months of July, August and September in the United States while early spring temperatures will read cold, and below normal.

For nearly 30 years the world has heard the lie that humanity is the cause of global warming.

What is known as induced anthropogenic, or 'man-made global warming,' is an outright fantasy.

Straight-away, the cause of global warming throughout Earth history has always been - and continues to be - the Sun.


And since 1980, the world has been in what I call a global warming climate regime. In just several years, that will change.

For many years I have always maintained as an expert climate and weather forecaster, that the Sun is the cause of climate change. 

Also for years, I have forecasted that the next climate regime ahead for our world is global cooling. 

That is bad for our planet. Global warming has been a good thing for the world, but global cooling is far worse than global warming could ever be.


During the heated, angry fights over the Earth climate, and protracted ideologues who scream at the top of their lungs that humanity is the cause of global warming - for years I have constantly maintained to maintain that it cannot be. 

This is because what is called 'man-made global warming' is impossible. 

It cannot take place on our planet because the laws of physics say so. The First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics, specifically prove that man-made global warming is an impossibility. 

And nothing has changed those laws of physics - they remain in full operation to this very day.

Climatologists & Meteorologists

Always wanting their 'physical mechanism,' a great majority of climatologists and meteorologists seem to be totally blind to the motions of the Sun, Moon and planets as well as the cold of outer space that our very planet Earth inhabits.

I always found this to be very curious. How could anyone who demands a 'physical mechanisms' ignore the Sun? 

How is that even possible?

It is well known that climatologists and meteorologists, including the major climate centers many work at, are unable to forecast weather and climate outside of 5-10 days; much less seasonal weather - that's three months or more in advance.

As an astrometeorologist, I regularly forecast both weather and climate well outside of a month and do so seasonally as well, and in spans of years and decades. That is par for the course, for astronomic forecasters.

Astromet Long-Range Climate Forecast:
What's Next?
Global Cooling

Climate Forecast by
Theodore White, astrometeorologist.sci


We have been in a regime of solar-forced global warming since 1980-81. 

The warming of our planet peaked in 1998-2003 and has waned ever since. In 2013, we effectively have 3-4 years left of global warming.

It will end in the solar year 2016-2017.

What's Next?

Global Cooling

The new climate regime has been creeping up on the world since the decade of the 2000s. It will officially arrive in the year 2017 and will last to the early 2050s.

This means the decades of the 2020s, 2030s and 2040s will be colder and wetter than normal.

And that has serious implications for planet.

It is far more difficult to grow food and sustain infrastructure under global cooling than under global warming.

Our Sun

It is well known by astronomic forecasters that even small changes in our Sun's activity impacts our planet's climate.

The reason the globe warmed after the ice age and then started cooling about 6,000 years ago has to do with the tilt of the Earth, its distance from the Sun along with the configurations, synods and modulation of the planets in our solar system relative to Earth.

Our Sun is a constant star, when compared to other stars in the known galaxy.

We can see that different stars pulsate dramatically; while others can vary wildly in their sizes and brightness and as some stars even explode.

In contrast, our Sun varies the amount of light it emits by only 0.1 percent over the course of an 11-year cyclical pattern known by forecasting astrologers as the Solar Cycle.

Still, "the light reaching the top of the Earth's atmosphere provides about 2,500 times as much energy as the total of all other sources combined," according to solar physicist Greg Kopp of the University of Colorado.

As such, even 0.1 percent of the amount of light the Sun emits exceeds all other energy sources the Earth's atmosphere sees combined, such as the radioactivity naturally emitted from Earth's core, Kopp explained.

To learn more about how even tiny variations in the Sun's energy impacts terrestrial climate, the National Research Council (NRC) convened dozens of experts in many fields, such as plasma physics, solar activity, atmospheric chemistry, fluid dynamics and energetic particle physics.

The Sun forces the Earth's climate

Many of the ways the scientists proposed these fluctuations in solar activity could influence Earth were complicated in nature.

For instance, solar energetic particles and cosmic rays could reduce ozone levels in the stratosphere. This in turn alters the behavior of the atmosphere below it, perhaps even pushing storms on the surface off course.

"In the lower stratosphere, the presence of ozone causes a local warming because of the breakup of ozone molecules by ultraviolet light," climate scientist Jerry North at Texas A&M University.

When the ozone is removed, North says, "the stratosphere there becomes cooler, increasing the temperature contrast between the tropics and the polar region.

The contrast in temperatures in the stratosphere and the upper troposphere leads to instabilities in the atmospheric flow west to east. "The instabilities make for eddies or irregular motions," he said.

These eddies feed the strength of jet streams, ultimately altering flows in the upper troposphere, the layer of atmosphere closest to Earth's surface.

"The geographical positioning of the jets aloft can alter the distribution of storms over the middle latitudes," North said.

"So the sun might have a role to play in this kind of process. I would have to say this would be a very difficult mechanism to prove in climate models. That does not mean it may not exist - just hard to prove."

In addition, climate scientist Gerald Meehl at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and his team suggest that solar variability is leaving a definite imprint on climate - especially in the Pacific Ocean.

When researchers look at sea surface temperature data during sunspot peak years, the tropical Pacific showed a pattern very much like that expected with La Niña, a cyclical cooling of the Pacific Ocean that regularly affects climate worldwide, with sunspot peak years leading to a cooling of almost 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in the equatorial eastern Pacific.

In addition, peaks in the sunspot cycle were linked with increased precipitation in a number of areas across the globe, as well as above-normal sea-level pressure in the mid-latitude North and South Pacific.

"The Pacific is particularly sensitive to small variations in the trade winds," Meehl said. Solar activity may influence processes linked with trade wind strength.

Scientists have also often speculated whether the Maunder Minimum, a 70-year dearth of sunspots in the late 17th to early 18th century, was linked with the coldest part of the Little Ice Age, during which Europe and North America experienced bitterly cold winters.

This regional cooling might be linked with a drop in the sun's extreme ultraviolet radiation. In fact, the Sun could currently be on the cusp of a miniature version of the Maunder Minimum, since the current solar cycle is the weakest in more than 50 years.

"If the Sun really is entering an unfamiliar phase of the solar cycle, then we must redouble our efforts to understand the sun-climate link," says researcher Lika Guhathakurta of NASA.

Astromet Climate Forecast
Global Cooling Ahead

While conventional scientists are debating the sun-climate link, I have already long forecasted that a colder and wetter climate - a kind of neo-boreal ice age - will dominate the decades of the 2020s, 2030s and 2040s and I am preparing for it.

So should you.

We are in a transitional period, right now, between the waning years of global warming to the waxing years of global cooling. 

This has especially been the case since 2004-05, which began a transitional cycle I called 'extremes of weather,' these are interim years between solar forced global warming to solar-forced global cooling.


During the winter of 2014 in the northern hemisphere, we will experience an strong anomalous winter that is a sure sign of things to come for the world's climate to global cooling.

By the time global cooling will have set in; those who have led and repeatedly preached the lie of 'man-made global warming' - like Phil Jones, Michael Mann, James Hansen and Al Gore - will themselves be trying to find as many sources of carbon to burn in order to keep themselves warm in a colder climate.

And they will wish for global warming to return.


The alarmist ideologues who cannot forecast even monthly weather, much less yearly, but who harshly pontificate to all how the 'earth will warm forever,' and that humanity is the cause, will not be around to help when you are freezing because of the onset of global cooling.

What they will have accomplished is nothing short of a crime against humanity - the waste of hundreds of millions of dollars- along with valuable years to plan and prepare for a colder and wetter climate for decades to come.

You see, it is much much easier - and cost-effective - to prep soil, crops, society and infrastructure for global cooling and be wrong; then to assume the world will be 'warm' forever under the lie of 'man-made global warming' and be wrong.

It is harder to place on one's chips on global warming forever only to find a neo-boreal age (ice age) at your doorstep.

In Astrometeorology, global cooling is associated with less sunspots.

By means of this, we know that the cycle of the Sun and Saturn features harsh weather: drought in various regions, with blasting cold storms and resulting floods. The overall climate is often wetter, cloudier and colder.

What is most paramount to the Earth's climate is the Sun and the amount of energy from its total solar irradiance (called TSI) that our planet receives.


The Sun has an 11-year cycle associated with its relationship to the planet Jupiter. However, the planet Saturn plays a strong role as well in this relationship to our climate.

The long-term variations of total solar irradiance and planetary cycles is the cause of climate change.

This is because the variation of our planet's climate are determined by the long-term imbalances of solar radiation energy that enters the upper layers of our atmosphere and the total energy that is then emitted from the Earth back out into space.

This eleven-year cyclic variation of total solar irradiance alters the state of the surface and subsurface layers of the Pacific Ocean. In 2006, it was these planetary synods associated with the Sun is how I was able to forecast the appearance of El Niño in mid-2009 to be followed by La Niña in 2010-11.

I have also forecasted that the next powerful El Niño/La Niña–Southern Oscillation - known as ENSO - will be by means of a strong La Niña that occur between 2021-2023.

My calculations show that due to the decline in sunspot activity and solar winds, that the Earth's mean temperatures will lower to about 2-degrees Celsius by the mid-2030s - the peak era of global cooling, according to my astrometeorological climate analysis.

click on graphic to enlarge

Because of the decline, our planet's climate will experience a negative balance from the Sun's energy budget.

This results in a decrease in global temperature.

My long-range climate forecast means that the world will experience shorter, cooler spring and summer seasons, but will see longer, colder, stormier and wetter fall and winter seasons.

And this has very poor effect on grain and food production. 


In the annals of  Astrometeorology it is well known that when sunspots increase, grain prices fall. And when sunspots decrease, grain prices go up. 

In my estimation, because of the onset of global cooling, the shift in latitudes where grain is grown means we will lose somewhere between 210 to 300 kilometers of corn and grain belt - worldwide.


That's a loss of about 400+ million tons per annum of grain.

Of course, this means crop failures, grain shortages, higher food prices and threats of famine; along with the resulting social and geopolitical ramifications, which are bad, to say the least.

This, while alarmists go on and on about how horrid global warming is and how they fault humanity for something it cannot do - change the laws of physics that govern our climate.

What has been happening is that these climate ideologues, who say global warming is bad for the Earth, are in full ignorance (and denial) about the Earth's climate and how it is actually governed and functions.

Global warming, as I have always stated, is good for the Earth.

On the other hand, global cooling is not good.

It is very difficult to live, work and grow crops in such a climate. Any farmer will tell you what it is like to try to plant, raise and harvest crops in an extended cloudy, cold and wet climate.

After the maximum of solar cycle 24, we can expect the start of the next climate regime of global cooling featuring another neo-boral era - a little ice age - just ahead.

That is my long-range global climate forecast. And I stand by it.