Fixed Grand Crosses on the Horizon

by Robert P. Blaschke

 
As we draw nearer to the significant Jupiter-Saturn squares and Saturn-Neptune oppositions forming over the next two years, the astrologer can see that, with Mars stationing retrograde in Taurus, several Fixed Grand Crosses are preparing to align in the heavens. The two most compelling of these Fixed Crosses will appear at the Winter Ingress on December 21st, where it is angular in Washington, D.C., and then again on December 27th when Mars perfects his square with Saturn, where again the Cross is angular in Washington.

In the former mundane horoscope, the Lunar Nodes slice an Earth-Water Mystic Rectangle right down the middle, creating two Tetradic Yods with the Moon, Mars, Jupiter and Uranus. In the latter mundane horoscope, the Sun applies to a sextile with Uranus, and is in the process of forming a Yod with a rising Saturn as the apex planet. With the Capricorn Ingress chart having impact on the whole of 2006, and with Mars rising and the Fixed Cross in angular houses, next year looks to be especially violent for the USA. This correspondent has written for years about the USA progressed Mars turning retrograde for the first time in American history in July of 2006. Just nine days ago on July 29th this USA Mars reached its progressed stationary degree and minute, 18 Libra 42, which is the exact degree of President Bush's natal Jupiter.

The last time that Mars was entirely retrograde within the sign of Taurus (not stationing either direct or retrograde in Aries or Gemini) was in 1926, the year that Ibn Saud became King of Saudi Arabia. It is no small coincidence that his son, the late King Fahd, reigning since 1982, has just died on August 1st. As I wrote in the 15 Taurus newsletter, with the recent Saturn ingress into Leo, many Heads of State, such as kings, presidents and prime ministers, will die or be assassinated over the next two years.

Also during this previous retrograde period of Mars in Taurus, a weakening of several national banking systems occurred, leading to the 1927 "Black Friday" in Germany, when that country's economic system collapsed. This event started a global ripple effect that eventually resulted in the 1929 stock market crash in the U.S. Here and now in the United States, we have an untenable banking situation, one wherein more than half of the new home mortgage loans are of the interest only variety, and tens of thousands more are being loaned with zero money down.

The American banking system cannot sustain this unsound fiscal policy, largely driven by the economic insanity of Internet mortgage brokers who approve home loans with no personal financial history, or with no personal identification being required at the time of the loan application. This combination of Mars spending almost seven months (27 July 2005 to 17 February 2006) in the financial and banking sign of Taurus, along with the transit of Saturn through the USA Sibly chart 8th house until July of 2007, ruling bankruptcies and loan defaults, symbolizes hard financial times ahead. Many Americans will suffer from the looming real estate market crash, winding up with homes worth less than their mortgages. This could result in the declaration of personal bankruptcy by tens of thousands of U.S. homeowners, and leave the banks with their hands full of countless vacated homes caused by defaulted mortgages.
 
 

On September 21st, Saturn forms the first of three waxing inconjuncts with Uranus; the middle and final aspects in this series perfecting on 19 January 2006, and on 31 July 2006. This 44-year cycle began with three conjunctions of these two celestial bodies in 1988, the first conjunction in February being in the anaretic 30th degree of Sagittarius, the sign of world religions.

Later that year, less than a month after the third and final conjunction in October, a key world event occurred, and one that has shaped history ever since, the Declaration of Palestinian Independence on 15 November 1988. Saturn was dignified in the Cardinal Ingress degree of 0 Capricorn, just one degree after separating from his last conjunction with Uranus. Mars in Aries was squaring Saturn, and along with a void-of-course Moon, prophesied the frustrating attempts at the unlikely creation of a Palestinian State.

This cycle principally underpins the War on Islamic Terrorism, as the plight of the Palestinian people and their struggle with Israel has been a flash point for violent Muslim radicals from all over the world. We can learn from the eminent French mundane astrologer, Andre Barbault, how the energies of such a planetary cycle can be understood. Mr Barbault's mundane analysis of outer planetary cycles is as following:

by Rboert P. Blaschke - All Rights Reserved