A Home Sale Horary Mirrors the Sad State of the US Real Estate Market

The querent wanted to know when would be the best time to put her house and a couple other properties on the market. Given the current and foreseeable future of the real estate market in the US, it's not surprising the chart was dismal.

Click on image above to enlarge to full screen

Retrogrades, a mutual reception and malefics are going to tell the story in this chart. 

The querent's ruler, the Moon, is in the 8th house and seriously combust the Sun. Clearly she is desperate for money, especially with Pluto having just descended. The 4th house rules the properties she's trying to sell, and with Makemake, Haumea, Juno, and ESPECIALLY Saturn all retrograde in there, she's going to have a very hard time selling the property, and needs to reconsider. Remember, when Saturn is retrograde in the house of the matter inquired about, things rarely work out. Makemake retrograde in there affirms it--she needs to wait a bit for some other changes to happen in her life. Saturn is also opposing Eris, giving the querent a great deal of strife over the situation and the career moves she'd like to make after a possible sale.  Saturn, as ruler of the 7th house, also rules a potential buyer, so clearly there is nothing on the horizon for this deal to work. The Saturn-Eris-Varuna T-square with the outlet leg in the 7th house of a potential buyer (and the struggle and difficulty to find one in the current market) pretty much negates the whole situation.

Looking at the ruler of the 4th house, Mercury, it is void of course at the end of Capricorn, dispositing back to the Retrograde Saturn in the 4th house of the property. Going back to the querent's ruler, the Moon, it disposits to Uranus at the end of Pisces and in the 10th house of career, and mutually recepted with and semi-sextile Neptune in the 9th, and neither are retrograde. So, there is an out.

Uranus-Neptune, and the rest of the chart, is telling the querent to stay put and focus on her career for awhile longer, as circumstances are beyond her control with the real estate market to not only try and sell the house, but to not sell it for a loss (Mercury also rules the 12th, and the Sun-Moon combustion is affecting her 2nd house of income).

So what was the outcome? From a friend of the querent:

She decided not to sell her house and to stay put. So she is still traveling a lot for projects and project potentials [for her work].  

If you want to look at additional details or extra confirmation, you'll notice Mercury is on the Venus-Neptune midpoint, so the disappointment wouldn't be lethal. Vesta, ruler of the home, is squaring Neptune, but more importantly, is in an out-of-sign sextile to Vesta, showing that something has to change in the querent's life before a deal can happen. The Moon is also quincunx the ASC, again indicating an adjustment to the original idea. North Node in the same degree as Vesta also affirms staying put. Varuna in the 1st house and retrograde also shows the reasons for selling need to be reevaluated, as hinted by its square to Eris in the 10th.

This chart is a lesson in not falling for the traditional horary astrology myth that the Moon's aspects are ultra-important. Other factors in the chart can and do seriously outrank what the Moon is doing, even when the Moon is a significator. For example, the Moon's applying trine to Saturn Rx in the 4th is not going to even come close to sealing the deal for the querent--on the contrary, it will make her rethink her reasons for wanting to sell, and how realistic her chances are for getting the price she wants (not likely with the Sun in detriment in Aquarius in the 8th house).  So never let traditional horary "rules" get in the way of an accurate--and obvious--interpretation.

Ephemerides for TNOs & KBOs

An excellent online ephemeris for the TNOs and KBOs can be found (as usual) at astro.com.(*see note below) This will be particularly useful for the upcoming three-part post "Lookout America! Eris is Coming!" where the TNOs will be examined in the US Natal Sibley chart and in the transits to the Sibley chart during the upcoming Uranus-Pluto square.

1) Go to http://www.astro.com
2) Click on "Ephemeris" on the blue sidebar on the left side of the page.
3) Click on "Swiss Ephemeris", and select "Special Purpose Lists" all the way at the bottom.
4) Click on the desired KBO listed (e.g., Eris = http://www.astro.com/swisseph/eris.htm)

Charts at astro.com can be run with the TNOs by using their extended chart selection. Some can be selected from a pre-populated list, while Haumea and Makemake at this time must be manually entered using their permament numbers (136108 and 136472 respectively). It's really easy to figure out (Free Horoscopes>Extended Chart Selection>Additional Objects>Select from Box on Left>Add Haumea & Makemake in "additional asteroids" box below Additional Objects>Click Here to Show Chart>Enter Chart Data, etc.)


(*) All KBO's are TNOs, but not all TNOs are KBOs, e.g. Sedna).

Saturn and Mars Prepare to Retrograde in the Foreground of the Approaching Uranus-Pluto Square

With the two classic malefics ready to change direction soon, and spending most of the first half of the year that way, the structural logistics, planning, preparation and groundwork for the 2nd half of the year's explosive events are already taking form.

Regarding the Occupy movement, if any bigger justification was needed for it's next incarnation as Overthrow Wall Street, you can find it here in this excellent summation by Rolling Stone columnist Matt Taibbi. 

To wit:

"I loved the energy and was amazed by the obvious organic appeal of the movement, the way it was growing on its own. But my initial impression was that it would not be taken very seriously by the Citibanks and Goldman Sachs of the world. You could put 50,000 angry protesters on Wall Street, 100,000 even, and Lloyd Blankfein is probably not going to break a sweat. He knows he's not going to wake up tomorrow and see Cornel West or Richard Trumka running the Federal Reserve. He knows modern finance is a giant mechanical parasite that only an expert surgeon can remove. Yell and scream all you want, but he and his fellow financial Frankensteins are the only ones who know how to turn the machine off."

The key is to impel them to do so.

Also, there's an excellent article in this month's Harper's Magazine (the magazine that correctly predicted the housing implosion TWO YEARS before it happened--who needs astrology?)  that discusses how MERS mortgages have no real owner, so who are the homeowners actually paying? And the homeowners who are using case law to try to stop foreclosures and (sometimes) succeeding. The bank's lawyers best argument is that not continuing the status quo of corruption would lead to free housing, and in a case in Utah, actually did. See for yourself here. 

The Uranus-Pluto Square and Phase 2 of Occupy Wall Street in 2012

A key component of Phase II of the Occupy Wall Street movement will be one subtle, yet monumental difference. With the Uranus-Pluto square as the engine behind the revolt, the "O" in OWS changes from "Occupy" to "Overthrow." What does that mean and what does that look like?


Noam Chomsky urged the movement to advance to the next stage. His advice revolves around political organizing in neighborhoods and engaging more of the 99% face-to-face. He isn't wrong. But this isn't the 1960's.


The issue in 2012 and throughout the Uranus-Pluto square is what Uranus in Aries represents, and how it manifests. It is the ultimate in individual action affecting the collective (and vice versa). Building coalitions is important, but Uranus in Aries is not about asking nicely and getting a consensus, or lobbying for policy changes within the established structure. It is about  creating change by bypassing or even hijacking the structure and bringing the unexpected front-and-center, in your face, when you least expect it, and in the most explosive manner possible. It is also horizontal and direct democracy. It does not care about means--it cares about ends.


So does "Overthrow" Wall Street mean riots in the streets, curfews, checkpoints and martial law? Change takes time. None of it is going to happen overnight. It is a series of movements and actions that come and go in fits and starts and lurches forward of its own accord, while Pluto in Capricorn seeks to stamp out that progress. Undermine, overthrow, retreat. Lay low, strike back, push the envelope. Deal with blowback. But the key point is that the time for talking and raising awareness is over--in 2012, it's time for action.


P.S.--Happy New Year! For the apocalyptic-minded among you, keep in mind this tweet from astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson:

SleepWell in 2012: Niburu is fiction; no Solar Max; Dec21 alignment occurs every yr; Mayan failed to predict their own demise

Modern Horary Astrology & the Stock Market

I hate stock market horary questions for about a million reasons I won't go into here, but I will still do them.


Below is a question asked on Dec. 19, 2011 (after the market had closed) about purchasing a specific stock during after-hours trading. The stock was on the rise and had jumped roughly $3.50 in a week, and according to the querent, all logic, reason and indications were that it would continue to rise quickly.

Graph courtesy of Google Finance

So the horary chart was cast. 

You don't need to be a horary astrologer to see that the querent should avoid the stock like the plague.


In a previous blog post entitled "Don't Operate On a Dead Horary Chart" (posted on 9/6/11), I mentioned that there are times where the chart is screaming the answer at the top of its lungs everywhere you look, and this is one of those cases. Moon (ruler of the ASC) and Saturn are conjunct in the 5th house of stock speculation--strike one. Both the house cusp and Saturn and the Moon are in Libra, dispositing to Venus at a dead degree in the house of her detriment--strike two. Note that the mutual reception between Venus and Saturn does not help the situation or indicate "yes"--it indicates the querent will likely dodge the bullet, since mutual receptions provide a way out.  Saturn and Venus in Capricorn are clearly showing wait, patience and caution.  Moon will square Venus before going void of course--strike three. If you want a final nail in the coffin, take your pick between Pluto directly opposing the ASC, or the intercepted South Node in the 12th house.


The querent was stunned by the chart as it didn't make any sense to him, since logic and reason indicated the stock was a "sure thing." However, the querent had faith in the chart's answer (Jupiter conjunct the Part of Fortune and Neptune in the 9th trine the moon Moon) and did NOT make the stock purchase.


The results were swift and instant the following day. 

This is called falling off a cliff, and since the stock market is not based on any semblance of logic, reason or rationality, luckily the querent had enough sense to abide by the chart.