Weekly column: The Aries vortex and the unfolding geocosmic changes

Review and preview

(Fed Chair Jerome) Powell has signaled that officials are prepared to raise rates at the Fed’s July 25-26 meeting after holding them steady at their meeting earlier this month. “Our commitment isn’t to a particular number of rate hikes; it is to a stance of policy that’s sufficiently restrictive to bring inflation down to 2%,” Powell said. Nick Timiraos, “Jerome Powell Says Next Phase of Rate Rises Will Be Harder to Predict,” June 29, 2023, Wall Street Journal.

The US decision to freeze Russian foreign exchange reserves is, to this writer, the most momentous decision in international finance since Richard Nixon broke the US dollar’s link with gold in 1971. The long-term consequences of that decision could prove profound consequences, as hinted at by the record central bank buying of gold last year, which has continued into the first quarter of this year – Christopher Wood, Grizzle Research and Quant, June 30, 2023.

The pre-holiday market week was in a celebratory mood for the U.S. and most of the other world stock indices. This was not surprising following the low on Monday, June 26, as Mars squared Uranus, touching off the Mercury/Pluto square in the New York Stock Exchange chart as discussed in last week’s column as a time for a low. This was followed by Neptune turning retrograde on Friday, June 30, a time that often coincides with a state of irrational exuberance. Even though the Fed announced it would likely hike rates soon, which is the policy that led to the large declines of 2022, investors seemed not to care this time around. Perhaps they no longer trust the Fed’s guidance since they have changed their narrative so many times in the last 18 months. That would certainly fit the nature of Neptune.

The path of Gold and Silver was opposite to that of equities until Friday. Gold fell to a new three-month low on our June 29 three-star CRD (geocosmic critical reversal date). But Silver held its low of the prior week for a case of intermarket bullish divergence. Both rallied nicely with Friday’s “Sagittarius Factor” after starting out the day lower. Bitcoin re-tested its yearly high on Friday, but then had a sharp pullback of nearly $2000 when the SEC denied filings from large companies to offer an ETF on the spot Bitcoin market as inadequate. However, the filings can be re-submitted with more complete information. Crude Oil continued to languish near the 70.00 mark, but did in fact, rally the last three days of the week as Neptune, which co-rules this market, turned retrograde on Friday.

Short-term geocosmics

Donald Trump vs. Joe Biden—the seemingly inevitable matchup—dramatizes a massive failure: Whoever wins, the country loses. What genius invented this election? – Lance Morrow, “The 2024 Presidential Race Barrels Towards the Rapids,” June 29, 2023, Wall Street Journal.

The holiday week will begin with a Venus/Uranus square on July 2, the first of three that will unfold between now and September 29 due to the retrograde motion of Venus starting July 22. This suggests a very interesting summer, for both Venus retrograde and Venus square Uranus (in the money sign of Taurus) indicate suddenly changing central bank policies that can affect interest rate sensitive markets like Treasuries and currencies. In fact, they can also correspond to sudden reversals in equity, Copper, Corn, and Soybean prices as well. It looks like this may be a summer of unusually high volatility.

After the first Venus/Uranus passage this weekend, along with a Full Moon on Monday, July 3, the geocosmic climate becomes quiet until July 20-22. And then the next big bang erupts as Mars opposes Saturn (war-like and hot), the Sun opposes Pluto (possible threats and danger to crops and life), Jupiter semi-squares Neptune (floods and more irrational enthusiasm or panic), and the biggest bang of them all, Venus turns retrograde. It’s all about money and love, and … why can’t we all get along? Why can’t we be given choices we want instead of only choices we don’t want? Be wary of people who are jealous in matters of love and envious of others who have earned money and success.

Longer-term thoughts

The war, Mr. Prigozhin said, was launched under false premises. Ukraine wasn’t the aggressor. President Volodymyr Zelensky wanted agreements. Russia’s Defense Ministry “is trying to deceive society and the president and tell us a story about how there was crazy aggression from Ukraine, and that they were planning to attack us with the whole of NATO.” This was “a beautiful story.” But “the special operation was started for different reasons”—chiefly to enrich the oligarchs and the ruling elite. “The task was to divide material assets” in Ukraine. – Peggy Noonan, “What Will Prigozhin’s Rebellion Mean?” June 29, 2023, Wall Street Journal.

Jimmy Carter lost the 1980 general election by a landslide to Ronald Reagan, so it’s difficult to understand why Joe Biden continues to follow the Carter ‘malaise’ playbook today. – Mike Watson, “Biden Follows Jimmy Carter’s Failed Middle East Model,” June 28, 2023, Wall Street Journal.

Last week was the aftermath of an incredible previous week which witnessed the one-day surprising mutiny of the Wagner group against the Russian government. The revolt shocked Russia’s leaders because the group advanced unimpeded on its march towards Moscow before suddenly deciding to stand down. What was that about? Although the rebellion was short-lived, it exposed major weaknesses in Putin’s power to protect the country from invasion. Now many geopolitical analysts are calling this the beginning of the end of Putin’s reign of terror. His days may be numbered.

The possibility of an implosion in Russian governance should come as no surprise to readers of these reports and the annual Forecast books over the past few years, and in particular, the Forecast 2023 Book. You read it here first how the 36-year Saturn/Neptune conjunction of February 2026 has an uncanny correlation to the end of Russian governance as it was known prior to that aspect. You also read it here first, in 2020, that the Joe Biden presidency (and his economy) would closely resemble that of Jimmy Carter. Both were elected during the 45-year Saturn/Uranus waning square aspect. You also read it here first that there would be a modern-day renaissance starting around this time (2023-2026), led by inventions and innovations in technology and communications as denoted by Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto all entering new signs similar to what transpired during the Italian and European renaissance of the 15th century. This, too, was covered in great detail in Forecast 2023, but originally presented in the 2020-2022 books. It just takes a while for the rest of the world and the news to catch up with our understanding of the cosmos and its correlations with historical events and trends.

In the past, we have given different names to these rare periods when long-term geocosmic cycles have unfolded that we think will have a profound, transformational influence on human activity as they did in the past. We coined the phrase “The Capricorn Climax” in the mid-1980s to describe the 1988-1993 period when Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Lunar North Node all conjoined in the sign of Capricorn. That coincided with the fall of Soviet Communism, the Berlin Wall, and the transition of the way the world conducted business, moving from brick-and-mortar retail shopping to the world of online transactions.

As we left that period in the mid-1990s, we pointed our readers to the next powerful configuration involving the outer planets of 2008-2015, a period we coined as “The Cardinal Climax,” for Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto would all be entering cardinal signs (along with Jupiter and Saturn too), forming a powerful cardinal T-square with one another for the first time since the Great Depression. Indeed, it was another economic depression, now called the “Great Recession” of 2008-2011, when many companies and even nations (like Greece) went bankrupt or suffered credit downgrades. The current worldwide debt crisis exploded then under the experimental policies of central banks known as QE (quantitative easing) and ZIRP (zero interest rate policies), and out-of-control fiscal (stimulus) spending by many governments of the world, including the U.S.

And now we are headed into another powerful geocosmic configuration involving the major outer planets. We will henceforth refer to this as the “Aries Vortex.” In February 2026, Saturn and Neptune will both enter Aries in a powerful conjunction aspect at the “world universal degree” of zero Aries. Additionally, Uranus will form a trine Pluto from Gemini and Aquarius, respectively, and their midpoint will be near the zero Aries point. Thus, this is not only a Saturn/Neptune conjunction and Uranus/Pluto trine but also a double sextile aspect between Saturn/Neptune to both Uranus and Pluto. It will look like an arrow with the zero Aries point at the tip, hence acting like a cosmic vortex attracting a powerful energy that brings together the principles of Saturn/Neptune and Uranus/Pluto. According to colleague and Astro researcher Daniel Gordon, who initiated the discussion on creating a name for this cosmic event, nothing like this has happened before. Yes, there are remarkable similarities to the mid-1400s and the European renaissances, but nothing involving the four outermost planets sharing the universal degree of zero Aries, which represents the end and beginning of the astrological signs.

Even though it is not exact until early 2026, the themes of this unusually powerful geocosmic combination are already underway as of December 21, 2020, when Jupiter and Saturn began the 160-year “Air Epoch” (or the “New Aira,” a term coined by colleague Kat Powell) with their conjunction at 0° Aquarius. This was then followed by the ingress of Pluto into Aquarius (the same 0°) on March 23, 2023.

You can see and feel it starting to unfold now. The direction of humanity is undergoing an enormous change of direction, and we are not quite sure exactly where it will end up, typical of Saturn/Neptune. But we experientially know it is happening. We are aware of the dangers as well as the hopes this Aries Vortex poses. We were (and are) prepared for it to happen via our understanding of the correlation of geocosmic cycles to cycles in human activity. After all, this awareness and understanding is the real value of astrology to society.