Articles

[The following article appeared in the June 2003 issue of the Fraser Valley Astrology Guild's Newsletter.]

With the worst of the SARS outbreak apparently behind us, I thought it would be interesting to compare the Canada horoscope for the most serious health emergency in our history, the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic with the recent planetary configurations that coincided with SARS. While significant afflictions can be seen using western techniques such as progressions, I am taking a vedic approach to these charts, using the sidereal zodiac/Lahiri ayanamsha and vimshottari dasha system whereby certain planets exert disproportionate influence during their periods.

[The following article appeared in the September 2003 issue of Express Star Teller.]

On August 7, former body building champion (he won the Mr. Universe title 4 times) and movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his candidacy for Governor of California, the USA's most populous state. The election is the result of a formal recall movement sparked by disgruntled citizens and business people who seek to end the continuing budgetary and energy troubles that have plagued the state under the present governor, Gray Davis. With California's wide open approach to electoral democracy where any citizen with $3500 and 65 signatures can run for governor, the gubernatorial field now stands at 200 and the October 7 ballot promises to be one of the strangest in US history.

Predicting the outcome of elections is a fairly thankless job. With or without astrology, you've got about a 50-50 chance of getting it right, enough chance to look foolish if you're wrong and enough to be called lucky by skeptics or detractors if you're right. That said, I've been looking at the charts of the respective candidates again and find myself still convinced that Bush will win it all on November 2 -- or at least take the oath on January 20. This confirms my position stated last year that Bush would win reelection although I am providing a more systematic analysis here for the first time.

[Here is an article I wrote for Express Star Teller in early September 2004 where I correctly predicted the outcome of the US election using conventional Vedic reasoning. It was published in the November issue which came out in mid-October.]

On November 2, Americans will go to the polls and re-elect President Bush. Perhaps it is fitting that an adminstration that has sowed such discord domestically and internationally should be returned to office by the power of the Great Malefic, Saturn. As apparently paradoxical as it first seems, Saturn is the planetary energy that Bush has successfully harnessed in his rise to power. While benefic Jupiter does play a role his November drama, it will be as a bit part.

The following article appeared in the February/March 2005 issue of The Mountain Astrologer.

[Author's Note: I am indebted to Ashland, Oregon-based astrologer, Steven Stuckey, for first bringing the concept of ecliptic crossings (or parallels) to my attention.]

At the time of the tsunami on December 26, 2004, there was one interesting alignment in the sky that has gone largely unnoticed: Both Mars and Saturn were very close to crossing the ecliptic. The ecliptic is the flat plane of the solar system and marks the vertical position of the Sun with respect to the orbiting planets. Unlike declination, which is an Earth-centered vertical measurement as seen from the equator, latitudes measure the vertical distance of planets from the Sun-based ecliptic. The position of the Sun, therefore, is 0 degrees of latitude. Most of the planets stay within a few degrees of this 0° line.

[Author's Note: The following article appeared in the December 2005 edition of The Mountain Astrologer magazine.]

One interesting and novel way to see the Katrina disaster is to examine the chart of the Sun-Neptune conjunction. This is a mundane technique that reduces the need to consult national horoscope for predicting major events since it involves only transiting planets. This is especially helpful when considering matters in the US where the "correct" US chart remains an intractable issue of debate that divides astrologers into longstanding warring factions.

For centuries, astrologers east and west have looked to the chart of the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn – the Great Conjunction – for clues about world events for the forthcoming era. The chart is a symbolic synthesis of the dominant postive and negative energies around us as seen by Jupiter, the Great Benefic and Saturn, the Great Malefic. This astronomical configuration takes place every twenty years and can be seen as a marker for coming major events and as a long-term indicator for global trends. For example, some stargazers believe the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 7 BC was the Star of Magi that accompanied the coming of Jesus Christ. The Great Conjunction of 1345 was part of a very afflicted chart and can be interpreted as a warning for the Black Death that wiped out a third of Europe’s population from 1347 to 1350. The conjunction of 1901 can be seen as containing the seed of World War 1 and the unleashing of the destructive power of the twentieth century as the warrior planet Mars was conjoined with Jupiter and Saturn while the Great conjunction itself was exactly aspected by malefic Ketu (South Node).