(22 June 2014)  Is life all just random blind luck?  Or are there times when our efforts are more likely to bear fruit?  One of the great insights of astrology is that major life events usually occur at a time of a clearly marked planetary pattern in our horoscope.  Situations of loss and disappointment may be often correlated with times when Saturn is dominant.  Times of achievement and reward typically take place when Jupiter is highlighted in some way.  I see these patterns playing out over and over again.  Not every situation is perfectly predictable, of course, but we can often isolate time periods of months and years when things are clearly on the upswing or downswing depending on the planets involved.  Moreover, we can also say that it is the key events in life — the ones that are the most important in shaping our life direction — that usually stand out the most in terms of planetary alignments. 

The chart of billionaire investor George Soros provides a classic example in this respect.  Soros is a legendary hedge fund manager who is one of the richest and most influential people in the world.  He was born August 12, 1930 in Budapest, Hungary.  Unfortunately, his birth time is unknown so this makes a close analysis of his chart more difficult.  However, it is still possible to make sense of the chart in terms of major events.  For Soros, one of his life-defining events came on September 16, 1992 when his massive bet against the British Pound  paid off in spades.  Soros had reasoned that Britain could not maintain the value of the Pound after it left the European Exchange Rate Mechanism due to its internal economic weakness.  He therefore "shorted" the Pound for months while the Bank of England gamely tried to defend its value against currency speculators.  After some months of fighting a losing battle, the Bank of England finally capitulated on September 16, 1992 and let the market take the Pound lower.  Soros realized a $1 Billion profit in a single day.  He became famous as "the man who broke the Bank of England." 

There are a couple of charts that underscore the importance of this trade in Soros’ life. First, the transits for that day show a rare Sun-Mercury-Jupiter conjunction at 1 degree of Virgo.  It is very close to aspecting the natal Moon (28 Aquarius) by opposition aspect.  Jupiter is the key positive influence here as its transits to the Moon and Sun typically correspond to situations where things go the way we want.  One problem is the exact position of the Moon is unknown in Soros’ chart because his time is unknown. Since the Moon moves about 13 degrees per day, the Moon may be located somewhere between 22 Aquarius and 5 Pisces.  We are using noon as a stand-in time and therefore take the halfway point in the Moon’s position.  We may suspect that Soros was probably born sometime in the afternoon since that would make the Jupiter-Sun-Mercury aspect to the Moon that much closer to exact.  Admittedly, there is way too much wiggle room here but that is one of the shortcomings of using the noon chart.  Bottom line, these transits are suggestive of gains but only form one fairly small piece of the puzzle. 

To my mind, the more telling chart is the Western secondary progressed chart.  Formed by progressing each planet’s position one day for each year lived (i.e. age 62 = 62 days since birth or Oct 13), there is a huge alignment of planets around 26-27 degrees of their respective signs.  As we would expect, Jupiter is front and center in this alignment.  Secondary progressed Sun (26 Virgo) is tightly square progressed Jupiter (26 Gemini).  Most Sun-Jupiter patterns are invariably positive and coincide with rewards and status enhancements.  This one is special because of all the natal planets that are also placed in that degree.  Soros was born with at least three planets near this degree — Sun (26 Cancer), Pluto (27 Gemini) and Mars (26 Taurus).  There are four planets if we include Chiron at 26 Aries.  So the progressed motion of both Jupiter and the Sun had moved these planets to activate this very powerful natal alignment.  Given the various different planetary velocities involved, this was very much a once-in-a-lifetime alignment. 

When the Sun had transited 26 Leo thirty years before in 1962, it activated the same pattern but Jupiter had not yet moved into that position.  At 23 Gemini,  Jupiter was still too far away from the natal Pluto to trigger a major life-changing gain.  It was only in 1992 when both the Sun and Jupiter would align more closely with the rest of the planets in Soros’ chart.  Progressed planets moved quite slowly, so we could only make the statement that the whole year 1992 would be generally beneficial for him rather than September 16, 1992 more specifically.  More narrowly focused predictions usually require an accurate birth time, as well as other levels of analysis beyond what we are discussing here. 

The takeaway is that major life events require major life alignments.  And if we are looking for times when our efforts will pay off in terms of investments or career, then it helps enormously if there are some progressed and transit alignments that involve Jupiter as well as other benefic planets like Venus or Mercury.  The progressed alignments provide the karmic resources needed to deliver the goods.  The more planets involved in the alignment, the more significant the period will be.  Obviously, all charts need to be looked at relativistically.  We can’t all make billion dollar currency trades, but we can highlight the times in life when we are likely to go to the next level and have our efforts pay off.

Financial Markets Update

US Stocks edged higher last week as Fed Chair Janet Yellen gave a very dovish testimony that suggested a lack of concern with signs of growing inflation.  The Dow ended the week at 16,947, a new high.  Indian stocks were subject to more profit-taking on nervousness over rising oil prices and Iraq.  The Sensex slipped a bit to 25,105.  This generally positive picture coincided with expectations as I noted the twin ingresses of Venus and Jupiter at the middle of the week were likely to improve sentiment.  Yellen’s testimony came on Wednesday just as Venus was entering Taurus and Jupiter was entering Cancer.  US markets enjoyed their biggest gain of the week on that day. 

This week looks more challenging as Mars forms a close opposition to Uranus on Monday and then aligns with bearish Saturn on Friday.  Declines would seem to be more likely near those aspects.  The middle of the week could perhaps see some gains as Mercury aligns with Jupiter on Wednesday and Thursday.