Gold passes $680

Things are looking up for gold these days as gold rose $23 to $686 before sliding back a bit. So the good news is my prediction from last year is gradually being realized. It is a very slow process -- slower than I had thought truth be told. By this time, I thought that gold would be matching last year's highs of $725. This will come soon enough, but a little patience may be needed.

From the chart, we see that transit Uranus has delivered on its part of the deal and has now moved past Jupiter. Rahu is station a few degrees off the Jupiter so that will provide part of the fuel the price requires to make new highs. Also transit Jupiter will station near the 11th equal house cusp in April and that is likely to coincide with higher prices.

Iran on the verge

The noises from the Bush administration about Iran are growing louder these days. There are claims that Iran is aiding the Shia insurgents in Iraq making a bad situation worse.

There are clear astrological signs that Iran's role in the conflict is on the verge of intensifying. Mercury will station opposite Saturn on February 13th so look for some bad news for Iran then. This might be an internatioal rebuke, or having its agents or mercenaries being discovered in Iran.

If we look at the Iran proclamation chart (Apr 1 1979 3 pm), we can see that Tr Saturn is applying to station on April 19th within one degree of the ascendant. Natally, Saturn is 8th lord and is involved in a T-square with Moon and Venus so the Saturn transit here packs considerable punch. Also the tertiary progressed chart looks very violence as P3 Asc conjoins P3 Mars and P3 Rahu all squaring P3 Uranus. This points to a sudden explosion of violence.

The midnight chart representing the legal beginning of the Islamic Republic is similarly troubled, albeit without the added force of the progressed angles. However, the transit situation is, if anything, worse in this chart. It is running Rahu-Mercury dasha. Mercury is closely conjunct Mars, the 6th lord representing conflict and the military. Pluto is applying to a near exact square to Mercury at its station on March 31st.

The next two or three months seem the most volatile and will probably coincide with a more explicit Iranian involvement with the war in Iraq. A US attack on Iran is one possible scenario.

Key dates to watch are the time around March 8th, when Mars aspects Saturn by its most malefic 8th house aspect and simultaneously aspects the 6th house cusp. Also the time around March 18-22 when Mars aspects Rahu by the same aspect while Sun conjoins the Mars-Mercury conjunction.

This event or series of March-April events will only be one step in a longer sequence of events that draws Iran into the Mid-East conflict. Another moment of violence is likely in Nov-Dec 2007.

Unless you're Sean Penn, I wouldn't be planning any trips to Teheran anytime soon.

New Year's Chart -- 2007 Forecast

The New Year's chart (Jan 1 2007 00.00) forms a sort of general background influence on the year ahead. No surprise -- it doesn't look that good.

On the face of it, the New Year's chart really shouldn't have any astrological signficance. It is not based on any astronomical event or measurement such planets moving into a zodiacl sign, or moving into exact aspect with another planet. It's significance is purely calendrical and exists only in human consciousness. Because I tend towards a strictly empirical interpretation of astrology, I was very skeptical of this technique at first. Then after examining many charts, I found that these charts did exhibit a symbolic resonance with the basic contour of events of the year to follow. Heavily afflicted New Year's charts were normally found for years characterized by war and other calamitous events. Charts with favourable aspects were more typical of years of strong economic growth and relative peace and stability in international affairs. While they are not well-suited for very precise readings, they do provide an excellent thumbnail sketch of the dominant energies of any given year.

Overall, the 2007 New Year's chart is a mixed bag. The chart is cast for Washington, DC. While the chart differs little for every country and city in the world, the ascendant degree will vary somewhat, as will the degree of the Moon. This will affect the dasha in some cases. So for the United States, 2007 will run Moon-Saturn. The Moon is extremely favourable placed exalted in the 9th house, receiving a very helpful aspect from Jupiter. This might point to economic prosperity (Moon rules the 11th) linked to higher learning or foreign sources (9th house) Bhukti lord Saturn is more problematic, however. It is placed in the 12th house of loss with malefic Ketu. I am also not keen having Venus in a close quincunx with Saturn in this chart. It points to unhappiness generally and probably in far away places. Iraq and the Middle East come most obviously to mind.

Another negative element to this chart is the close square from Mars to Rahu in the 6th house of conflict and health. This is a classic signal of explosive violence and destruction owing to Rahu's tendency to exaggerate or distort Mars' natural tendencies towards aggression and impulsiveness.

Interestingly, the New Year's chart for the Middle East alters the position of the Moon sufficiently to change the dasha to Moon-Mars for 2007. This would strongly point to activating the Mars-Rahu aspect more directly through the year. In East Asia, Sun-Venus is running for most of the year, so that augurs well for continued prosperity in the Pacific Rim. In South Asia and India, Moon-Moon runs for the first half of the year until Moon-Mars begins in late July. With Mars entering the mix, there may be greater security concerns afterwards. Europe is running Moon-Rahu until spring, and then moves into Moon-Jupiter. Rahu really looks very difficult given its 6th house placement with unstable Uranus and the Mars aspect. Europe may undergo some security worries in the winter and early spring. Jupiter's bhukti will likely exert a protective effect and will keep the European economy strong.

More specifically, there are a couple of key transits to look for. First, in April and May Saturn will retrograde back to 24 Cancer to a position that is exactly opposite Neptune in this chart. This is a very difficult aspect between two malefic planets. This might indicate death and suffering due to illness and liquids (both Neptune significations). At the same time, Mars and Uranus will conjoin the natal Rahu in this chart, suggesting a sudden attack or event that catches us by surprise.

Next year's New Year's chart promises even more violence and conflict as Mars opposes Pluto.

Cdn Liberals choose Dion

The Canadian Liberal Party has chosen Stephane Dion as their leader. In a surprising development, Dion beat out frontrunner Michael Ignatieff on the fourth ballot.

Since I had predicted Ignatieff, I have to fess up to my mistakes on this one. Hindsight is always 20/20 but there are a few things I missed. As I noted earlier, Igantieff's transits on the day of the convention were not favourable. The stationing Saturn squaring his natal Sun was the dealbreaker. My preference for Ignatieff was based on very favourable progressed aspects, or so I thought. I relied heavily on the assumption that progressed stations by benefics in declinations would carry the day for him. Clearly, this negative result disproved that hypothesis. I had also written off Dion owing to a tertiary progressed Saturn station in December. Saturn stations are less likely to be linked with happy outcomes, so I assumed this would be the symbolic expression of his loss. Wrong again.

In retrospect, the Saturn station was greatly energized by virtue of a favourable trine aspect to tertriary progressed Uranus. So that is the lesson here for astrologers: all things being equal, Saturn stations may symbolize more negative events than positive, but if they are placed in positive configurations with other planets, then Saturn's more positive significations of responsibility and respect are more likely to come to the fore. Also, I will be more cautious about extending the theory of progressed stations to apply to declinations. Clearly, more study is needed to that area.

I can't feel too bad about this outcome since I didn't have access to any of the birth times of the candidates. And since this event has helped me refine my understanding of some of the finer points of progressions, it's not a total loss. A great learning opportunity overall.

Dion's future electoral chances look pretty good. I'll have more to say on those in the weeks ahead.

Gold touches $650

It seems the bull run in gold is back on. Gold hit $650 briefly today, its highest close since July. This is more or less in keeping with my June prediction that gold would push past its May high of $725 in the new year. Perhaps this price rise has come a little ahead of schedule but I'm not complaining. The Uranus station on Nov 20 coincided with a nice $20 increase in the past two weeks. Watch for even faster price increases -- along with the occasional retrenchment downward -- as Uranus once again applies to conjoin natal Jupiter in the gold futures chart. The exact conjunction occurs February 15 so that is a strong indicator for further price increases. At the same time, Rahu also applies to Jupiter (conjunct May12) creating powerful momentum that will push prices up sharply.

With Mercury, Sun, Mars, and Jupiter all in Scorpio in the 11th house, we can expect prices to continue to climb through December. I would not be surprised to see and equalling of the May highs of $725 by year's end. That would set the stage for explosive price movement in the following months. I think $1000/oz is a very possible target in early 2007.

As the Liberals Turn

Stephen Harper's suprise recognition of Quebec as a nation yesterday has injected new life in the Ignatieff campaign. Hard to know now how much it will benefit him and if it could put him over the top. It made me to look at the horoscopes again.

Although the picture for both candidates is mixed (all horoscopes arguably are), I can see a couple of factors I neglected in Ignatieff's chart that more strongly indicate his victory. In secondary progressions, his Jupiter stations in declinations (16S10 05) in 2005 and 2006. Because we're working without birth times, we can't see which year it applies to and yet its sheer proximity to the current situation reflects well on his chances. In addition, he has a secondary progressed Venus station in declinations (23N18 19) that is exact next year, although if he was born early in the day, then that might reflect his current levels of success and public exposure. The approximate birth time means we can't be sure when it will kick in. But at worst, it seems he can win this thing on Dec 2 and it may well help him win the PM's job in the event of an election next year.

In my experience, progressions trump transits and progressed stations trump progressed aspects. This Liberal convention will be another useful test of that idea.

Cdn Liberal leadership update

As the Canadian Liberal Party move closer to choosing a new leader on December 2, it looks as though frontrunner Michael Ignatieff (May 12 1947) is running out of steam. He's made a number of gaffes and his idea to declare Quebec a nation within Canada has created a lot of criticism. Currently, he's got 30% of decided delegate support compared to 20% for Bab Rae and about 17% for both Stephane Dion and Gerard Kennedy. I had earlier predicted Ignatieff would win the leadership although I didn't have access to his birthtime. My main reason for favouring Ignatieff was on the strength of a couple of excellent progressed aspects -- p2 Venus trine p2 Chiron and p2 Sun trine p2 Jupiter. Using a rounded noon birthtime, however, both aspects have already perfected several months ago. Maybe they reflect the frontrunner status he has enjoyed for the past six months. Has he peaked?

One of the nagging things about Ignatieff's chart is the transit picture on the day of the vote. Although tr Mercury conjoins natal Jupiter, tr Jupiter conjoins natal Ketu while tr Venus opposes natal Uranus. Bob Rae (Aug 2 1948), by contrast, has a fairly unremarkable progressions picture but better transits than Ignatieff. Tr Venus conjoins natal Jupiter (rewards), tr Jupiter trines natal Mercury (good news), while Saturn exactly conjoins his natal Saturn (responsibility).

Rae's chart also has the advantage of having better progressed synastry with the Canada chart. For example, Canada's p2 Moon conjoins Rae's Sun. And Rae's nodes fall across the Asc-Dsc axis of Canada's solar return.