(22 April 2019) Aspects are one of the central building blocks of astrology.  Briefly stated, an aspect is an astrologically significant angle between two planets that is said to produce an observable real-world outcome.  If Jupiter is conjunct your Moon with no degrees of separation, then that’s good.  If Mars is square and therefore separated by 90 degrees from your Moon, then that’s bad.

And yet as fundamental as aspects are, there is a wide range of opinion about them.  As a continuous written body of knowledge, Vedic astrology has a more fixed set of rules governing planetary aspects.  While all planets cast a full-strength aspect on the planets opposite, different planets have the capacity to cast different aspects.  For example, Saturn casts a forward sextile (60 degree) and a backwards square (270 degrees) but not a forward square (90 degrees), nor a trine (120 degree aspect). 

Western astrology has a far less unified view of aspects.  Depending on one’s preferences, aspects can consist of any grouping of angular divisors of the 360 degree circle.  So conjunction, opposition, square, trine, etc. are almost universally used but many astrologers also use the septile (51.4 degrees), and quintile (72 degrees) and so on.  Other 15 degree divisions derived from the circle are also commonly used such as the semisquare (45 degrees), the sesquiduadrate (135 degrees).  Sometimes this 15-degree multiple grouping is extended to include the unnamed 75, 105, and 165 degree aspects.

But the higher the number of possible of aspects, the greater the possibility for confusion.  This can create a situation where there are too many variables which increases the risk of false positives: aspect hits with no obvious real-world manifestation.  If every planet is always in aspect with some other planet, then how is it possible to predict anything?  Good question! 

Weekly Market Forecast

This week could be a useful test of some of these ideas on aspects.  As I have written previously, the stock market looks ripe for a decline soon.  The slow-moving Saturn-Ketu conjunction at 26 Sagittarius is one very obviously bearish indication that is now in place.  It will remain within range for the next four to five months.  But before stocks can make a significant move, there usually needs to be a trigger by a faster-moving planet which can release some of the energy held within the pattern of the slow-moving planets.  We will get a potential trigger sequence this week. 

First off, the Moon will conjoin Saturn and Ketu (aka. South Lunar Node) on Thursday during the US trading day.  That looks quite negative on paper as the Moon combines poorly with both Saturn and Ketu and can create an atmosphere of fear and pessimism.  Just from that basic conjunction alone, we would expect stocks to fall fairly close to the time of day of the conjunction.  And yet, we can also see that there are two "minor" Western aspects to Saturn-Ketu: 1) Venus forms a 75 degree angle with Saturn-Ketu on Wednesday the 24th during US trading hours and 2) the Sun forms a 105 degree angle with Saturn-Ketu on Thursday.  Thursday then has a double whammy with both the Sun and Moon forming some kind of alignment with the malefic Saturn-Ketu pairing.  Perhaps if Wednesday is also lower than that would partially validate the negative impact of the 75-degree Venus-Saturn aspect.

So it seems the cosmic dice are loaded for a pullback this week around the time of these potential triggering aspects.  The presence of Thursday’s Moon conjunction means the test of these lesser 15 degree multiples isn’t perfect.  If stocks do fall on Thursday, then it will still be possible to cite the obvious role of the Moon in the whole set up.  And yet I would suggest that many different two-planet angular separations involving Saturn will tend to be bearish, even if the Moon isn’t present.  Saturn is a bearish planet, full stop.

In addition, we can see that Mars will form a 45-degree semisquare aspect with Uranus on Friday.  Mars will also be very close to a typical square with Neptune on that day, so as usual, these are not ideal experimental conditions.  This will be another theoretically bearish influence on market sentiment, even if it is from a minor aspect.  So if stocks fall on Friday then that Mars-Uranus may be part of the reason. 

While we could see further market gains tomorrow (Tuesday) on the Moon-Jupiter conjunction and 30-degree Sun-Venus alignment, I think the week will be more challenging for financial markets.

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