Week of January 31
Review and Preview:
By the time most of the world starts the work week on January 31, a new era of government will commence in the Iraq, and the start of a whole new direction for governing in the Middle East may start as well. Depending on your political bent, this will be viewed as either a great step forward for humankind, or a step backwards from which humanity will never recover.
No doubt this weekend’s election in Iraq will be viewed as an overwhelming success by the Conservatives, or Republicans in the United States. They know that the democracy, which they helped bring to this region, is the only form of government that will give human beings their God-given right to pursuit of freedom, liberty, and happiness. And that “gift” can only be attained when the people of a nation are given the right to a vote their collective will.
On the other hand, there is little doubt this weekend’s election in Iraq will be viewed as an overwhelming failure by the Liberals, or Democrats in the United States. They know that an election in which the candidates represent the special interests of the occupying nation ( United States), and not the true overall demographics of Iraq, is not really an illustration of pure democracy at work. They know that a government that is molded primarily to accept a favorable association with American businesses that will be the primary economic benefactors of the huge profits that the oil (and the education and rebuilding of the infrastructure) of that region will bring is not a true form of democracy at work. They know that an election that does not include the vote of all the major groups that represent Iraq is not a representative government.
And then there are the ever increasing number of insurgents, or terrorists, in Iraq, and what many of them may be thinking. For some (not all) who see this as a religious war, the next few days may represent a rare opportunity to sacrifice their lives in a cause against "The Great Satan" and lock in their place in the heavenly structure of Bin Laden and the Al Qaeda. If the reward in the afterlife is dependent upon how many of the infidels one can kill and infidels are defined as anyone who votes in this weekend’s elections, or serves the new government of the occupying devil, then what better time to achieve martyrdom than now? When will there ever be such a chance to huddle so many infidels together at one time than in this election weekend? The same may be said about many Sunnis who are not fighting a religious war, but simply want to remove the United States from Iraq. For them, this presents an unprecedented opportunity to annihilate so many enemies of one’s ideology at one time. And afterwards, when those who have been elected have been identified, they will have yet other opportunities to defeat those infidels who chose to serve “The Great Satan.”
This is the weekend that Mars conjuncts Pluto in Sagittarius. As stated last week, “ Mars-Pluto, to an astrologer, is a potentially very violent combination, especially in the fiery sign of Sagittarius. And we already see the escalation of violence leading up these elections, and in fact, they are getting worse by the day. Could a real large scale disaster occur, much worse than most leaders fear? It’s possible… we know that this is an incredibly dangerous time that Iraqis are asked to risk their lives and exercise their new freedom to vote.” The incredible build up of intensity and intimidation is indeed increasing as the Iraqi election nears, just as this aspect suggests it would. On late Thursday night’s MSNBC news, newscaster Alison Stewart reported 16 separate incidents alone that day in which killings of people, or explosions of buildings related to the election, took place. 16! And the election was still 4 days away.
Financial markets, just like the difference between conservatives and liberals, seemed torn between how the Iraqi elections will go. Most stock indices were weak early last week, and many managed to struggle back up towards the end of the week. The Netherlands and Australia’s all ordinaries managed to make new cycle highs during the day on Friday, but like most other indices, both also closed well off those highs. No market, except perhaps U.S. treasuries, could do too much last week. It is like investors are waiting to see exactly what the election results will be. They are waiting to see if there will be a massive massacre or not, and how the world will interpret the events. But I already mentioned how it will be interpreted. The conservative will declare this to be glorious day, a huge success, and a giant step forward for Humankind. It will be interpreted as a sign of God’s will, and it will be seen to support the moral authority of the parties involved. But the liberals will declare it a day of great mourning and a huge step backwards for Humanity. They will see it as another sign that the United States has once more forfeited its position of moral authority in the world, just as it did when it invaded Iraq on the false notion that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, and furthermore when it detained thousands of people thought to have links with the September 11 attack without allowing them any legal rights whatsoever, followed by the incidents of prisoner abuses in the Iraqi prison by U.S. military. You will hear strong arguments of both these positions in the next week, with both sides refusing to budge from their ideological habits. This is the nature of Mars-Pluto conjunct in Sagittarius. “I am right, you are wrong. And for being on the wrong side, you must be destroyed.” The terrorists will destroy literally. The liberals and conservatives will do it figuratively, attacking one another’s character with as much mean spirit as any terrorist would.
Short-Term Outlook:
From a geocosmic point of view, this should be a very interesting week.
On Sunday, January 30, geocentric Mercury will move from the cautious sign of Capricorn into the more unconventional and freedom-loving sign of Aquarius through February 16. Venus will then do the same February 2-26. By itself, this will likely correspond with a more positive and hopeful outlook for investors. On Tuesday, Jupiter will turn retrograde, and six days later (February 7), the Sun will trine Jupiter. This too is a more optimistic and hopeful dynamic. Under the retrograde, however, we do not know whether the initial Jupiterian sense of exaggeration is towards the more positive or hysterical, but by the trine it likely to be more hopeful. Jupiter rules Sagittarius, and on Thursday and Friday the Moon will be in Sagittarius, and hence the “Sagittarian Factor” will be operative. This is a time of the month when price swings in financial markets tend to be more exaggerated than usual. Plus the Sun conjuncts Neptune on Thursday, which is a very powerful Level 1 signature. It has a 75% correlation to primary or greater cycles in U.S. stock indices within 9 trading days. On Friday, the very important employment reports come out, too. The combination of all of these factors implies that the focus of the markets on Iraq is probably going to shift this week to more economic concerns. The employment reports on Thursday, combined with corporations and individuals making contributions towards their retirement plans now, in order to defer taxes due for 2004, could propel the U.S, market sharply higher under these signatures in the next 2 weeks.
However, the Sagittarius factor on Thursday and Friday will also find the Moon crossing the Mars and Pluto transits that are also at the end of that sign. This indicates that the danger of terrorist activities is still present, and more explosions and threats to human life are present then.
Long-Term Thoughts:
We are still on the downside of the Saturn-Pluto cycle until 2020. The danger is still more debt, debt, and debt, just as this 16-20 year phase of the cycle has indicated so many times historically. And as President Bush promises to cut the federal deficit in half in the next five years, the White House announced last week that it will request $80 billion more for the war in Iraq. But it won’t count towards the budget deficit. Huh?
The next rally in U.S. stocks is due to begin shortly. And shortly afterwards, the 4-year cycle may top out, followed by the resumption of the bear market that could last for a good part of the rest of this decade. Perhaps there is no sense of panic, however, until after Jupiter completes its trine to Neptune. The third of these three passages is completed at the end of summer, 2005.
Announcement : Are you a market trader? If so, you may be interested in our various services for traders, ranging from the MMA Cycles Report, which comes out every third week, to our in-depth weekly analysis by email reports, and even daily reports. For more information, please go to our website. This may be an especially critical time for more in-depth market analysis that goes further into technical, cyclical, and geocosmic factors and how they affect 14 different markets we track.
