Whether you want to speculate on the stock exchange or are simply looking for a job, it will help to know which fields should improve over the next couple of years, and which will be disrupted. Generalized astrology can’t provide all the answers, but it can go a long way to showing which businesses and industries are likely to be affected, one way or the other. The information below relates to the businesses or industries that are “ruled” by, or under the influence of, each of the Sun signs or planets. It does not refer to the birth signs of individual people.

Aries and Sagittarius Industries

Let’s begin by taking a look at the kinds of business or industry that are ruled by two of the fire signs, Aries and Sagittarius. These signs are both benefiting from the current placements of the slow-moving outer planets Pluto, Neptune and Uranus. This means that trades such as engineering, space and defense, the travel trade and educational institutions are all looking good because they are associated with Aries and Sagittarius. Under these influences, international trade will increase, and the Internet will be one of the instruments that brings this about.

Growth of Computers and Transformation of the Media

Aquarius has long been associated with computers, and the entry of this sign’s planetary ruler, Uranus, into innovative Aquarius in January 1996 neatly coincided with the rise of the Internet and of the vast and ongoing increase in computerization. Soon just about everything will be computerized, while Neptune moving through this sign will bring some surprisingly creative ways of dealing with such electronic sophistication.

The world of communications will expand even more radically in the future due to the beneficial aspects (angular relationships) of Uranus and Neptune to the signs of Gemini and Sagittarius. Pluto, and in the short term, Chiron, opposing Gemini will force a slow but important transformation in the world of the media. Newspapers, magazines and broadcasting will expand rapidly and gain from the new technologies. When Jupiter enters Gemini in July, 2000, this will accelerate, but watch out for strikes and sackings as the year progresses, when Chiron and Pluto oppose Jupiter.

Revolution in the Neptunian Industries

Neptune in Aquarius suggests that the fishing industry will revolutionize itself, with more farmed fish and less taken from the sea. Oil transportation and the tanker industry will also go through some kind of revolution. Watch for changes in the film and television industries–perhaps some form of sensual, wrap-around, virtual reality will also become a commercial reality.

Libran Occupations Will Prosper

Libra is another sign that gains from the placement of the outer planets over the next few years, and after July, when Jupiter moves into Gemini, all Libran occupations will prosper. Counsellors and arbitrators will abound, and the legal backup to the new industries will create jobs for forward-looking lawyers. The hair and fashion trade is already becoming extremely innovative. The increasing growth of disposable income among communities of people who are not of white, European descent will be responsible for exciting developments.

Turmoil in the Food Industry

In Europe, a combination of disputes between countries, the lack of cohesion in the European Community and mad cow disease has brought some sectors of the Taurean farming industry to a standstill. In the United States, the arguments over GM foods, irradiation, crop-dusting and so on will bubble under the surface until May 2000, when yet another major dispute is likely to break out. The farming industry will undergo radical changes and restructuring over the next couple of years.

Virgo  and Cancer are also signs that connect to the food and nourishment industry. Luck is with Virgo at the moment, so harvests should improve and the market for fruit, salads and vegetables will increase. The movement of the Saros cycle of eclipses into Cancer and Capricorn over the next three years will force even more changes in the dairy industry. There may be a scandal due to something dangerous being found in cheese! Also, watch for more arguments against factory farming for all kinds of poultry.

Hard Times for Leo Industries

One sign that has had a very tough time over the past few years is Leo. The last of a series of eclipses will bring even more havoc to this sign in July, and the long-term opposition by Uranus and Neptune won’t help matters. Leo is a fixed sign, and the only way that Leonine trades and industries can survive will be by going with the flow.

The rather strange business of creating synthetic gemstones will take off, but the ups and downs in the price of gold and diamonds will make these precious items poor subjects for investment. Those who look after children will come under increasing pressure to be properly checked and registered. The leisure and entertainment trade will find more to offer than nights out at the movies.

Scorpio and Pisces Industries Need Reform

The water signs of Scorpio and Pisces will undergo Jupiter’s year-long residence in Gemini from July, 2000, followed by Saturn taking its place in that sign for another two years. The health industry is the biggy because radical changes will occur in surgery, hospitals and other kinds of nursing care. It looks as though the underlying finances of the health industry need to be improved all around the world. This should benefit those who make the machines and drugs that we rely upon to combat disease. Magical cures are not likely, but better management of disease will improve our health and increase longevity.

The Scorpio and Piscean connections suggest that the mining industry will be forced into new areas, perhaps by finding more ways of drilling for oil, gas, minerals and precious metals far beneath the sea. Undersea farming is also possible.

Capricorn Business is Steady

Capricorn governs banking, large enterprises and the “establishment,” and these should sustain steady growth until Chiron enters Capricorn in January 2002. However, the eclipses that occur over the next 30 months will bring financial scandals to light. A few heads will roll.

Space Travel is Possible

Sagittarius is traditionally the sign associated with long distance travel and exploration. The presence of Pluto in this sign until 2008 is bound to increase the possibilities of interplanetary travel. Pluto transforms and recycles, but it also rules energy sources in the forms of both fossil and nuclear fuel. The Sagittarian propensity for finding ingenious answers to practical problems will eventually bring about the necessary propellant for moving space ships around the galaxy.

Uranus is inclined to bring novel ideas and new methods into being, so while it remains in the revolutionary sign of Aquarius, the current technological revolution will be brought to bear on space travel. This is a wonderful prospect that brings limitless opportunities for every kind of trade, industry, profession or calling on Earth–but one profession in particular will have to transform itself utterly from the medieval world that it now inhabits, and guess which one that is? Astrology, of course.