Saturn and Neptune form 180-degree oppositions, with the Earth between them, approximately once every 36 years. These outer planets move slowly measured by our earthbound time: Saturn circumnavigates the Zodiac every 29 years approximately and Neptune every 165 years.
 
Within Saturn’s realm is the overall economy and money. Saturn is called “The Great Teacher,” who brings lessons to be learned, problems to be solved. Neptune in Greek mythology is Poseidon, god of the seas; his realm includes intuition, imagination, music, poetry, dance, compassion, boundaries, sensitivities, spiritualism, deceptions and delusions.

Saturn will move to within a 4-degree orb of an exact opposition to Neptune before turning retrograde November 23, then going direct again on April 5, 2006. What happens from late October to about mid-November 2005 is a hint of things to come during most of 2006 – both in personal lives and the life of the nation. Their next opposition will be exact August 31, 2006.
 
Their opposition in August 1971 coincided with President Richard Nixon delinking the dollar from the gold standard. The dollar is the world’s “reserve currency,” preferred for international trade, buying and selling oil. Now, as during the 1970s, the price of gasoline spiked, and there is growing anger in the oil-producing Middle East toward US government policies and actions. Scandal forced Nixon to resign to avoid impeachment. Scandal now dogs President Bush. In the 1970s, the nation was mired in the Vietnam War; it is now mired in the Iraq War.

Iraq’s Switch

Iraq switched from dollars to euros to sell its oil on November 6, 2000 (1). Although this wasn’t publicized to the American people, many outside the USA believe it was the real reason for the invasion of Iraq, hidden behind headlines about Iraq as a terrorist state with weapons of mass destruction, and more recently, bringing democracy to downtrodden Iraqis who suffered under Saddam Hussein before Bush came to their “rescue” with bombs, troops and Halliburton, et al.   

Whoever controls the world’s money, controls the world. In 1971, the dollar went from being based on immutable gold to being based on oil mutated into pollutants coming out of auto exhaust pipes and factory smoke stacks. Both gold and oil are finite commodities, but gold cannot be transformed into anything else, while oil is rapidly being transformed into the stuff that exacerbates global warming.

Recently came news that Iran plans to open an oil commodities exchange where oil futures will be traded in euros. This is behind the Bush Administration’s press leaks about expanding the war on Iraq to include Iran, being sold to Americans as stopping Iran from becoming a nuclear power. To avoid worldwide economic instability, most nations’ central bankers would prefer a gradual switch from dollars to euros. But if the Bush decision-makers decide to bomb Tehran, the switch could be worldwide and abrupt.

Dual Currency?

In the online magazine ComLinks (2), Mike Bagley, who brings Capitol Hill experience in Energy, Intelligence and Foreign Affairs, has this to say: 

Given the present rate of exchange, a switch to euros means Americans could pay an added 20 percent for gas at the pump, as about $1.20 now equals 1 euro. Bush and his loyalists seem blithely unaware that Newton’s Law applies equally to politics: “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” 

Another reaction to the Iranian commodities exchange is likely to be a US stock market crash, as indicated by the transits for March 29, 2006. When combined in a biwheel with the USA’s natal chart, it shows a Mars-Pluto opposition hitting the US natal Mars-Neptune square. Every stock market crash or panic since 1857 has occurred under this pattern.  

Adding Oomph

Not every time this pattern has formed has there been a crash. But the positions of Uranus and Mercury add to the probability that mid to late March will see a drop in stock prices. Although the orb must be expanded to show Uranus and Mercury opposite the US Neptune, the fact that they are conjunct in Pisces suggests their influence will be adding oomph to the Mars-Pluto opposition.

With Pluto, Uranus, Mars and Mercury hitting the US Mars-Neptune square in late March, chances to make money on the downside are up. Super-wealthy Warren Buffet and George Soros are positioned to make windfall profits selling dollars. Big oil corporations are positioned to reap windfall profits selling gas to American consumers.  

The previous Saturn-Neptune opposition in the 1970s—from Jupiter-ruled Sagittarius to Mercury-ruled Gemini—expanded trade, enriching big corporations to the detriment of the working class. By August 31, 2006, Saturn at 17 Leo and Neptune at 17 Aquarius will be opposite with Neptune conjunct the US Moon, indicating the American public may again be inspired and/or deceived. At the same time, Pluto in Sagittarius, Uranus in Pisces, and Mars in Virgo will form a grand cross hit to the US Mars-Neptune square. This is very likely to drop stocks dramatically, as happened under a previous Uranus-Pluto square in the early 1930s.

The last time Neptune moved through Aquarius was from 1834 to 1847 when the American ideal became a classless society, horizontal wealth distribution and free education for the able instead of only the rich. The enslavement of African Americans was causing growing conflict then, sowing the seeds of a future civil war. Neptune in Aquarius inspires concern for social justice.

Neptune returned to Aquarius 1998. Now in mutual reception with Neptune is Uranus (ruler of Aquarius) in Pisces. Uranus has been in Pisces since 2003 and will move into Aries in 2011, almost simultaneous with Neptune’s move into Pisces, the sign it rules. Uranus’ revolutionary energies are defused in Neptune-ruled Pisces; reformers can’t seem to coalesce behind a common cause. This mood will change when Uranus moves into militant Aries. Which brings us back to money.  

The Monetary System

Money is to a society’s economy what blood is to a human's body: when it flows to all parts, the society (body) is healthy. What we have now is comparable to a body suffering a circulation problem. Our currency circulation problem is based on a misunderstanding of what money is. Money, paper currency, is not a valuable thing in itself; it’s a measure of value and medium of exchange of values. “Goods and services can be paid for only with goods and services. Currency (money) is nothing but IOU’s...” says Addison Wiggin in his recent bestseller, The Demise of the Dollar (3).

If gas at the pump goes up by 20 percent because dollars must be converted to euros to buy oil—in tandem with rising demand and shrinking oil supplies, as China, India and other rapidly industrializing nations buy more and more oil—and if Wal-Mart passes on a dollars-to-euros premium, coupled with shrinking American wages...Well, you get the idea.

The financial bonanza captured by the mercantile aristocracy means suffering for the vast majority of Americans. Eventually, it also means the mercantile aristocracy will have destroyed the basis of its wealth. It was, after all, the labors of Americans who created the capital the mercantile aristocracy then invested overseas to obtain cheaper labor. Now they are importing cheap labor from south of the border to replace American workers.

A monetary system that no longer spreads wealth throughout a society is dysfunctional. It will be replaced sooner or later. This has been so for monetary systems dating back to the Romans, Athenians and ancient Egyptians. A monetary system thrives and endures as long as it spreads wealth to all sectors of society.  

“Democratic Capitalism”

Even Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, a devotee of supply-side economics, has expressed worry. Said Greenspan: “The income gap between the rich and the rest of the US population has become so wide, and is growing so fast, that it might eventually threaten the stability of democratic capitalism itself.” (4) Greenspan seems oblivious to the contradictory meanings of “democratic” and “capitalism.”  Capitalism is autocratic, slavery being its purest form. Democracy seeks to spread wealth throughout society. “Democratic capitalism” is thus an oxymoron.

During the 20th Century, the USA had its best economy when laws restrained capitalists, in the three decades following the great depression of the 1930s and World War II. The free-trade mania caught fire in the middle 1970s. American capital flowed to countries that did not protect workers rights or the environment. The gap between American rich and poor has been growing since then.

I hasten to add that I do not blame the mercantile aristocracy. They merely played their role. Their role calls for them to maximize profits by cutting labor costs. It was not their job to think through the long-range consequences. Some like to quip, “In the long run, we’re all dead.”  Thus they will present billionaire carcasses to the maggots and pass mammoth debt on to future generations of Americans.

A Saturnian Problem

As this upcoming Saturn-Neptune opposition tightens to exact, we can expect more attention to be paid to the new record gap between the super rich and the rest of us. Will our lawmakers address this problem?

Our lawmakers—whose job it is to think through consequences—are now beholden to the mercantile aristocracy and think no further than obtaining the campaign funds needed to win their next elections. They obtain campaign money from the mercantile aristocracy, and return the favor by passing laws detrimental to monetary democracy, creating the horrendous gap between rich and poor. Congress is thus part of the problem. There are individual lawmakers who want to solve the problem but they are up against the vast majority of lawmakers who don’t know there is a problem.

Just as there was growing conflict between pro and anti-slavery forces in the 1830s—the last time Neptune traversed Aquarius—there is now growing conflict between American workers and the super wealthy. Long-term I am optimistic, for I know we Americans are resourceful, hard working and innovative. We will find a way to solve the problem, once we know precisely what the problem is. Push come to shove, we can create new laws, new corporations and a new monetary system that spreads wealth to all parts of American society. In the short-term, though, I am pessimistic. Historically, new record gaps between rich and poor have always led into great depressions. (5)

Can we avoid a next great depression? Yes, if we change the monetary system that now has our government and mercantile aristocracy burying our children in impossibly deep debt to banks. (6) As Congressman E. G. Spaulding of Buffalo, NY, asked on the brink of the Civil War:  “Why...should we go into Wall Street, State Street, Chestnut Street, or any other street begging for money? I am unwilling that this Government should be left in the hands of any class of men, bankers or moneylenders, however respectable or patriotic they may be. The Government is much stronger than any of them.”  Instead of borrowing from banks, the Union Government issued its own money, called Greenbacks.

Now the need is to take control of money (currency and credit) out of the hands of the Federal Reserve System - a group of chummy, profit-motivated bankers —and put it into the hands of a civil authority responsible to the population at large. The American Monetary Institute is promoting this solution.(7) This effort will be empowered in 2011 when Uranus moves into militant Aries and Neptune into inspirational Pisces.  

Endnotes:

1. The Reasons for the Upcoming War With Iraq: A Macroeconomic and Geostrategic Analysis of the Unspoken Truth by W. Clark, Independent Media Center, January 2003, www.indymedia.org.
2. GeoPolitical Report by Mike Bagley, September 23, 2005, www.comlinks.com.
3. The Demise of the Dollar...And Why It’s Great For Your Investments, by Addison Wiggin, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2005.
4. The Hightower Lowdown newsletter, November 2005, www.hightowerlowdown.com.
5. Consult the writings of Ravi Batra of Southern Methodist University, Lester Thurow of MIT and other academic economists for more information on wealth gaps and great depressions.
6. Money for Nothing: Billions of dollars have disappeared, gone to bribe Iraqis and line contractors’ pockets, by Phillip Giraldi, October 24, 2005 Issue, The American Conservative, www.amconmag.com.
7. The American Monetary Institute, Box 601, Valatie, NY 12184. See also the book by Stephen Zarlenga: The Lost Science of Money: The Mythology of Money – the Story of Power, published by AMI, 2002, www.monetary.org.

Robert Gover's book Time and Money: the Economy and the Planets came out in late May, 2005. Euromoney Magazine reviewed it in late 2005. Robert has partnered with a fund manager in Florida, Mike Mansfield, to do a financial newsletter. Robert was the featured speaker at a conference of investors from around the world in Denver on September 24, 2005, He has a BA in economics and has studied astrology since 1965. By the mid-1970s, he had become interested in stock market astrology, and by the mid-1980s, with the advent of astrological software, his interest had expanded to the whole economy. Time and Money may be purchased from www.hopepubs.com, or amazon, B&N and other online vendors, as well as book stores. Robert is a memmber of the International Society of Astrological Research, the International Society of Business Astrologers, and the American Federation of Astrologers. He is also a novelist, and the latest edition of his most famous book One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding can be purchased at most online bookstores. His other novels may be obtained from used or rare book dealers. He has written one other nonfiction book: Voodoo Contra, about the conradictory meanings of that ominous word.