(10 November 2014)  Not surprisingly, the Republicans earned a solid win in last week’s US midterm elections as the voting public delivered a stinging rebuke to President Obama and the Democrats.  The GOP now controls the Senate and House and will likely further hamper Obama’s ability to implement his policies.  The GOP gains were fairly clearly seen through the horoscopes of the key players as Obama’s chart continues to be weighed down by a stationary Rahu (North Lunar Node) and while the planets looked better for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.  As I noted in a previous post, however, I think that McConnell will suffer some kind of major setback in early 2015 which could seriously diminish his leadership.  I’m not sure what form it will take, but it is likely to involve significant disappointment for GOP. 

The planets are looking increasingly tense this week and next.  There are a couple of near-simultaneous patterns which may foretell some noteworthy developments in the world scene.  First, both Venus and the Sun make their annual conjunction with Saturn in the coming days.  This is not inherently positive nor negative but rather simply brings forward the qualities of Saturn.  We may therefore see notions of authority and government highlighted in some way as their Saturnian role is brought into relief through events.  Authorities like predictability and control so there may be renewed efforts in that direction against the impulse towards freedom and self-realization.  The protest situation in Hong Kong may see new developments, for example.  The upcoming APEC summit is another possible manifestation of this Saturn energy as governments in the Pacific region seek to boost economic growth and enhance domestic security in the face of rising terror risk throughout the world. 

But the potential problem here is that this Sun-Venus-Saturn conjunction takes place in Scorpio.  Scorpio is traditionally ruled by Mars, a malefic planet that is associated with sudden actions, often without regard to consequences.  Mars is the planet of war and violence, although it is also connected with courage, assertiveness and executive action.  At the moment, Mars is in the middle of a very difficult alignment with Pluto, Uranus and Ketu (South Lunar Node).   Mars (action, energy) conjoins Pluto (power, coercion) early this week and then squares Uranus (rebellion, independence) later in the week.  In fact, Mars can be seen as triggering that long-standing square aspect between Pluto and Uranus that has been in effect for the past two years.  This is not a good pattern.  Next week, Mars will move on to square Ketu and therefore we could see more sudden reactions to Saturn’s desire for regulation and control. 

To be sure, some of the potential tension of this Saturn and Mars energy could be offset by the fact that Jupiter is still exalted here in Cancer as it approaches its station in early December. But it seems hard to imagine that this pattern will not produce something of note. 

Financial Markets Update

This tense planetary pattern is also more likely to bring some turbulence in financial markets.  The Mars-Pluto-Uranus alignment has been identified as one that increases the probability of stock market declines.  The researcher Thomas Rieder noted that any time Mars conjoined an outer planet (Jupiter and beyond) while in hard aspect to another outer planet, markets were much more likely to fall in the days and weeks after the alignment became exact.  His research only showed a partial correlation so it is still possible that no decline may take place.  Nonetheless, the combined influence of this Mars alignment with Saturn in Scorpio should be reason to be cautious.  Mars conjoins Pluto on Monday and then squares Uranus on Wednesday and Thursday.