Astrology, Recession, Correction, Politics, Oil, Gold And The Dollar: Pluto In Capricorn… Saturn In Virgo
Astrology in real life
I was talking to the soldier the other day or rather he was talking to me about politics and he asked what I thought about something.”I don’t know. I don’t think about that stuff at all. I don’t listen to any of it, I don’t think it matters.”
Silence.
“Well I don’t. I don’t care what Obama said. I don’t care what Hilary thought or what some talking head is saying on the news tonight. I don’t track any of that; I don’t think it’s real. Do you think it’s real?”
No answer.
“Look, I’m sorry. I know you watch this stuff like a hawk but I do not. I watch things that are real. I watch the dollar for example. I watch the price of gold. I watch the price of oil for Godsakes! I see it’s going to break $100 a barrel and that’s supposed to be a big deal? Well now it’s at $112 and I know the effects of this first hand. I worked for Frito Lay for years. I know what happens when the price of gas goes up. I told you I saw 12 flour tortillas priced at $4.65 in the store last week. How are people supposed to pay $5 for a stack of flour and water? Tortillas are poverty food! People are going to get to the store and find they can’t afford to buy food. Now that is real and what some guy on CNN is saying to fill up air time is of no consequence whatsoever as far as I am concerned. How long can we stay in denial? Forever? Somehow I don’t think so.”
If you’re the type to pay attention, what do you track as indicators of where we are headed?
33 Responses to “Astrology, Recession, Correction, Politics, Oil, Gold And The Dollar: Pluto In Capricorn… Saturn In Virgo”
yeah, food is it for me. 5$ for milk. and it’s not like I can raise my prices to offset the increased cost of living cos people will either go somewhere else or come less often.
people are losing their houses. I’m scared. I think we’re all screwed and it’s going to get way worse. I’m scared about what’s going to happen when the people who “have money” figure out they’re screwed. it’s going to get really ugly.
It’s funny you mention this Elsa, because the rising cost of food is priority #1 for many developing countries. And while famine and drought are words people are familiar with…what about loss of arable land?
Why? To grow grain for biofuels, to raise cattle. Etc. The cost of grain is going up. Hence the rising cost of flour.
The cost of rice is going up as well, and it is poorer people who feel the pain first, and yes in developing countries.
I live in a very busy neighbourhood and we’re fortunate enough to have a garden that provides us with some food. And a old stoner landowner who’s willing to tend to it because the tenants are all pretty much the working poor.
mmm..I deal with “other people’s money” all the time…tax accountant here..and yes, I do see bankruptcies on the rise and every single business owner who is been in my office has complained about the economy, and, interestingly, the war…in the same breath. W-2 wage earners are shielded a bit because it hasn’t hit us…yet.
“I’m scared about what’s going to happen when the people who “have money” figure out they’re screwed. it’s going to get really ugly.”
Yep.
I (and countless others) saw this one coming years ago. It’s a house of cards and the bottom was bound to drop out at some point. But some are prepared. I have zero debt (not a single credit card to speak of), an apartment, and a modest car- that I paid for- with cash…so, I’m relatively secure. But, I have been socking money away for retirement since I was 18, and I take these matters seriously and do not live outside my means. (except for books & music- have to splurge every now & then!!)
~SS
P.S. On a side note: There is a lot of “gloom n’ doom” regarding the economy, but I think it’s going to be fine…in the end..after some hard lessons (Saturn) are learned. 
“Administration Set to Use New Spy Program in U.S.”
(Pluto in Cap I think is headed that way. That is a headline from an article buried on page A03 in the Wash Post.)
I look at the value of the dollar, US debt, what countries own the US debt, and commodities and precious metals prices.
When GWB took office in 2001, the national avg for a gallon of gas was $1.46. Pfff.
… also some people keep an eye on the “lipstick index.” 
Personally I am trying to stock up on dry goods, as they will only go up, while my confidence in the fiat dollar is blah. (And cleaning supplies. My Virgo wants to smell good no matter what happens.)
If I had extra $$ I would invest in an auto parts store chain; they seem to do best when people are tightening their belts.
Sorry this is long.
Also, the gov’t shut down the EconomicIndicators.gov stats site on March 1.
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!
I hope we gain more of a sense of community from this.
Argh, I stay away from politics and any kind of juiced up drama. Talk about what feeds you. CNN is junk food. What’s real: now, direct experiences, daily choices & actions. I like that Pluto’s capricorn ingress received this nice supportive Saturn trine, yes they’re both heavy but quite sobering and productive dont you think? (I feel that for every negative potential the reverse is true also.)
My local grocery stores are twice as expensive then WF and their food is really crappy or 5$ for a couple cups of prepackaged brown rice. Something is definitely wrong indeed. Yet there are bulk organic places, many community based, where you can still get 1 lb. for +/- 60 cents. But even 10 years ago, the cost of a fast food meal from mac donalds could buy you a healthy meal if one looked around a bit harder and took the time to take care of themselves. (Body care is earth care. No separation. Arable land… what about water issues!) So it’s nothing new. The volume is pumping higher n’ faster is all.
Oil nearing $114 now… ::shakes head::
“as $113.66 a barrel by afternoon in Europe. That was $1.45 above the trading record set last week and $1.90 above Monday’s record settlement close of $111.76 a barrel”
I look around at flyers taped to poles in my neighborhood, see what people are offering as a reward to be able to rent one of these apartments. It’s at about 500 Euros now. Used to be around 2,000 Euros in the summer of 2001.
I like to look at the news and see what is being fed to people. I prefer to get my news from the internet. It’s easier to compare and contrast, and save stuff for later. I look at the weather, and how it matches up to my experience of weather. Sometimes I like to watch people and see if I can spot underlying trends in everyones overall mood….I have always felt American culture is unsustainable, bottom line, it’s going to transform one way or another…. As for price it’s all relative as far I am concerned. I think this country is in for some major/hard/painful/horrific/trans formative change as we all discover how relative the value of the greenback is. We are all going to get lessons in the VALUE of ENERGY…..I have always felt like an optimistic Cassandra of Troy…..
I watch the weather. That’s the scariest for me. Rain in January when it, in my childhood, would snow and be 30 below.
Beyond that I cheer when I see oil going up. Why? acidification of our oceans, peak oil, read Matthew Simmons, banker for the oil companies.
We, as a species, seem to want to kill ourselves, and our souls. So, live outside of that system and you’re cut off but won’t be hurt as badly as everyone else who will go into shock when reality hits.
What scares me most is how much people don’t seem to understand how we’ve messed with our system and our health and our children’s future. I think that people’s anger when they figure that out will be awesome and scary.
But the weather, I watch the weather.
Right on, Elsa! I think whoever is buying the food (often the woman) has their finger right on the pulse of what is going on. The price of food is the REAL indicator of the state of things. It’s getting so now even the military can’t afford a bake sale to buy war machines.
i pick up stuff from all over the place. think it’s the aquarius moon, maybe. like to keep a sense of the gestalt. and i have too many news feeds but i try to stay away from the he said she said and celebrity whatever and just get a sense of where the energy’s moving. so to speak.
the prices of gas and ergo, food, are hitting us hard. we keep incrementally moving up in household income but we still seem to just be treading water and it’s frustrating. but we’re still afloat so i can’t complain too much. just try to look ahead and make plans so i’m better able to manage what’s coming. connecting to people.
Um, that question is too complex to answer? I keep track of all kinds of things. What I do know is that the newspapers downplay the bad numbers quite a lot and elevate silly political fights, so one has to be careful to ignore them completely.
“Well I don’t. I don’t care what Obama said. I don’t care what Hilary thought or what some talking head is saying on the news tonight. I don’t track any of that; I don’t think it’s real. Do you think it’s real?”
Given that what Obama said is pretty much what McCain and Clinton think, I’m not sure what the fuss is about.
max
['I'm sure Rush is making hay out of it.']
OH! I am a natural info-seeker. All sources of information are good for me, however, with my brother (He is equally fanatic of International Politics) we speak about the phosphorescent cockroaches. I thinks that issues of tortillas or tacos is such a big phosphorescent cockroaches: If you see one of them surely something really big is wrong. I think we face a big economic crisis.
I think you’re absolutely right, Elsa. The ‘politics’ on the television news is basically gossip anyway, disguised as real news. It’s a problem that when I warn people that they need to be paying attention, people have all sorts of ideas about what ‘paying attention’ means. Most people think if they watch the nightly news and the political debates that will cut it. Not anymore. Things are changing!
I’m in the Uranus @ Scorpio generation and my Sun trines Uranus (also my Saturn sextiles Uranus) so I’ll not only be fine, I’ll be super. I worry about other people though. I’m sending my mom some heirloom seeds as part of her Mother’s Day present this year.
In the meantime I’ve got my eye out and my thinking cap on. My services are free for anyone who wants them. (at my blog)
I believe we will start seeing “good” health care only for the well off, for those who can afford it in the United States. I believe our health care crisis will get much worse before it gets better. I was reading an article this morning about an insurance company that plans to get rid of the standard co-pays on drugs and start charging increasingly higher percentages of the drug costs back on the policy holder so that the more expensive drugs and therapies would end up being unaffordable to the average insured person. The question will no longer be “can this patient be saved?” but instead, “Can this patient afford to be saved?” Also, just day before yesterday, I received a letter from my primary care physician. He is starting a Concierge service. It costs $1,750.00 per person in the household per year. This is besides any insurance co-pays or charges you already pay. I’m one of the average Joes who can’t afford it. My son is dating a girl whose father pays for the conceirge service for her and she says she can walk into her doctor’s office unannounced and walk right on in ahead of any non-concierge patient…no matter how sick they are, no matter how long they’ve been waiting, no matter how many months in advance they made their appointment. And I’m not blaming doctors, don’t get me wrong - they are facing lower reimbursement rates and higher administrative costs. What I’m saying is that the healthcare system isn’t working and people are falling (and quite rapidly) through the cracks.
From the Drug companies, and the Insurance companies and the Hospitals and the Physician practices to the Politicians stuffing their pockets with money from the healthcare lobbyists - it ain’t working. It just seems to me that it is no longer about saving lives and improving health…it’s is now about the bottom line - cost and profit. (or maybe I’m just slow and that is always what the bottom line has been since Adam & Eve and I was just brought up with PollyAnnah notions).
This is a great blog! Lot’s of great comments! In the name of keeping it light, I would just like to ask, ‘When is someone going to do a blog about Nuns having Fun?’ I am praying for this to happen, because when that day comes, I will remind myself that despite all of the problems out there, it is still a beautiful world.
spinner - thanks and I like those nuns a lot. I have been on to them for a few years and written about them before.
There is also a book, very Pluto in Sadge - The Secret Lives Of Nuns. It’s a bunch of short snap shots of a variety of nuns in a variety of circumstances and it’s interesting.
This IS a great blog. Spinner, bless your heart, (fluffy trains indeed!) Because I also have always been about Doom, a Cap. If my Bro and I get on the horn, if something current comes up, like the current administration’s follies etc, it’s like, we both say “don’t even get me started”!!
Of course so many sides of me are Angry and frustrated at the reasons we are where we are. And the cost of this tragic war will go on an on.
RE health care, I am SO hoping that Cap in Pluto will be shaking this up over time, as in, alternative energy medicine and practices becoming more mainstream, as I am involved in, coming into the forefront out of economic and personal necessity. WAY lower cost per dollar. “Make It So”
Yes, the news on all fronts is dire. So all you Activist Archetypes out there have endless choices and opportunities. Please go for it, as I once did.
But I am personally choosing to try to reach for over and over again a “feel good” state within myself. And to feel grateful for all that I have (although slightly in the red due to a few years taxes, blah) I have a warm bed, a warm home, great music, good movies, a means to earn a living, good food, good pets, good friends, a loving family and so on. I mean not always all at once and not all ideal but at least somewhere out there, yes it IS a beautiful world on so many levels!
And trying to eat good food fruit and veggies that will fuel my energy and my health. I forgo Cable TV at cost of decent food. And yes the cost of gasoline sucks, and I drive a lot for work. But we’ve had almost 40 years since the 1st energy crisis to get things together (don’t even get me started!). But still we’re paying less than most other nations.
Is this all out of our control? Well, it’s a hell of a lot of work and time these days to be politically pro-active. I mean just to understand the candidates and issues at local levels and on up… so much work and reading and research. But I’m trying, to at least to read cheat sheets from like-minded rags as to who is on MY/our side. And asking like minded people who they know and like… And casting a vote, Well it’s something…
We’re in a downturn on many fronts, yes, and it sucks because we’re paying, and will be for a long time, for a useless and destructive war but believe me, I’ve been here before.
So for what it’s worth, take it on the chin, do what you can that is within your destiny and community, reach and capacity to alter current events, but mostly love everyone and everything you can about your life now, today. Because, really, if it all ended tomorrow, is it the worry about food prices that will be important?
So my current philosphy is, I shop for the best, most ethical and cheapest food and gas possible!
Amethyst, could you tell me your blog info, thanks, hon….
Thanks Elsa. Thanks Mari. I have a friend who is a Nun and a Reiki Master. Her name is Sister Eileen and you can find her at the Queenswood Centre in Victoria BC. They have a website. She does long distance healing too. If anyone would like a telephone session I can find her telephone number. I have attended many of her Reiki Healing Days. The Group Workshops are amazing. I am long overdue for a session. The work that Sister Eileen and her friends and supporters are doing to help and heal others is incredible.
And I have seen her having fun! She is delightful!
I was reading some astrology recently, and the question posed was ‘What would revitalize you on a deep level?’ And I remembered that I had not attended one of these group sessions in a long time.
Back to Earth…We are long overdue a recession. Recessions are good, because we cannot have eternal Spring and Summer and grow forever. We need the Autumn and Winter. A time for the earth to rest and recouperate. A time for people to remember what would revitalize them and the earth on a deep level. And I time to slow down and remember what is important.
Have a great day!
My take on Oil [short term]is that with the economy slowing down so hard in the US and some other world economies, demand is slowing, stockpiles are building and at this price they are producing as much as they can. Barring further supply disruptions or increased warfare, the price should fall sharply to about $85 per barrel.
Long term is another story. We are running out of the stuff and $300 per barrel is not out of the question.
I hope that my other comment about my friend the Nun shows up.
Thanks Elsa… It’s Ok. I will post a comment about her tonight after work. Have a great day!
Saturn in Virgo?
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080416.wbpa16/BNStory/National/home
“Light, sweet crude for May delivery rose as high as $114.53 a barrel…”
That shouldn’t be particularly surprising. The US is entering a period of high inflation for lots of reasons, not least of which is that the Fed is pumping out cash to try and save the nominal face value of all those mortgages that are toes up.
114 is lookin’ a little on the low side at this point.
max
['Fun.']
You are right calling tops when the market is surging is usually difficult. Still, the price of Crude Oil is artificially high, as a result of the bet that the US dollar will keep sliding versus the Euro and Yen.
Fundamentally the US dollar should be weak, but it is oversold. At this level and if it keeps falling at a rapid rate it becomes destabilizing for the economies of many countries around the world.
Although the trend, higher Oil,Yen, Euro and ,weaker US dollar may continue for the long term, do not be surprised if the foreign central banks trot to the rescue with coordinated intervention to support the dollar and cause a massive short squeeze as the leveraged speculators betting on the momentum of the trend continuing, rush to cover their short positions.
So a sharp bear market rally or countertrend inside a longer term downtrend is quite possible.
If you look a the numbers for Crude Oil, the trend has shown ample supply building in the US for several months. Couple this with gas consumption down 3% year over year for the first drop in consumption in seventeen years and you can see that the market is being driven by speculation and not a sober look at the fundamentals.
A reversal of the current trends may cooincide with much ballyhooed optimism about the imminent changing of the guard in the Whitehouse and Pluto having one last pass through Sagittarius.
And maybe we have reason to be optimistic for awhile because the new government might be able to extricate the US from the War in Iraq, and stop the senseless killing as well as the pissing of billions of dollars off a cliff.
We could see some stability for awhile. Oil production from Iraq could increase dramatically.
Ultimately Pluto in Capricorn will turn many things upside down. Those that can go with the flow and who are working from the heart to improve their own lives and the lives of others and help turn things around for Mother Earth will be OK.
Still we need to remember that the US is essentially bankrupt and so although a change in Government may feel really good for awhile, the US has a long road ahead and the challenges eminating from the center, as the center becomes decentralized, will continue to be felt all over the world.
Still, the price of Crude Oil is artificially high, as a result of the bet that the US dollar will keep sliding versus the Euro and Yen.
Ah, but the dollar has been artificially high against everything for several years.
So a sharp bear market rally or countertrend inside a longer term downtrend is quite possible.
I am not at all thinking of short-term trends, except in terms of months. Summer driving season is here, production seems to be rising very slowly at best, and the dollar is artifically strong, so oil should be this high, and probably eventually headed higher. The only thing likely to drive it down (way down) would be a massive increase in production which would take some years to put into place.
A reversal of the current trends may cooincide with much ballyhooed optimism about the imminent changing of the guard in the Whitehouse and Pluto having one last pass through Sagittarius.
Oh, I absolutely agree that the rest of the year should be more positive than it has been; after that tho, it is downhill all the way.
Still we need to remember that the US is essentially bankrupt and so although a change in Government may feel really good for awhile,
Whomever winds up in charge is pretty much screwed. They may be able to somehwat recover the American position, but it will not be pretty.
max
['Ah, well.']
FarmPolicy.com, June 30, 2008
TWENTY-NINE NATIONS CUT-OFF FOOD EXPORTS
While U.S. consumers struggle to cope with steadily rising food and energy costs, a billion rural farmers and low-income families are suffering from what can only be described as a global food crisis. The New York Times reported last week that at least 29 countries have sharply curbed or completely cut-off grain exports to make sure their own populations have enough to eat. According to the article, “When it comes to rice, India, Vietnam, China and 11 other countries have limited or banned exports. Fifteen countries, including Pakistan and Bolivia, have capped or halted wheat exports. More than a dozen have limited corn exports.”
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_13260.cfm
six months ago- the nuns were having fun. Oil was at $117 and rising. Today sanity has returned to the oil market and the nuns are still having fun!
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