Aries Ingress 2016

Aries Ingress 2016

The year of financial uncertainty

We enter the new astrological year of 2016 with Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and the North Node in mutable signs. Venus joins Neptune in Pisces to set up not only financial uncertainty but most likely (and especially in the UK) fraud, scandal and ‘creative accounting’. A Venus / Neptune conjunction (9-10º Pisces) is the stuff of fairy stories. There is glamour, charisma and illusionary beautification. Jupiter (16ºVir47) is in wide opposition but is applying, almost dangling a carrot of promises of better things to come. All you need is belief and to stay the course and all will be well. Yeah right!

This illusionary view squares the midpoint (10ºSag28) of Mars and Saturn in Sagittarius, making all the promises of jam tomorrow a little hard to believe. But war (Mars / Saturn) making aspect by midpoint to the planet ruling oil (Neptune), while Jupiter and Saturn are still very much in a waning square (business difficulties) indicates how impossible it is going to become to fool all of the people all of the time. Joining these planets is also the North Node (21ºVir24) in loose conjunction to Jupiter but also in close opposition to Chiron. There is much to analyse and digest, too much for many.

This is the year where we become fatigued by austerity, war, ideals and endless bickering. The potential for apathy and resignation is perhaps no less likely and never more dangerous. The corporate world would like nothing more than for us to go crawling back to our personal bubbles of ignorance and let them enslave us without any further resistance. And yet the focus of the people is clearly frugality and close analysis, not just of money but of political belief systems. There has indeed been a growing participation in the political process and it looks set to continue for the whole of the 2016 astrological year.

Jupiter trines Pluto and inconjuncts Uranus. It isn’t just money that needs reform. The way we deal with our belief systems from politics and religion to extreme fundamentalism. The game does not work, which is why there has been such a growing disenfranchisement towards the same old solution proposals that have succeeded in no more than perhaps ‘kicking the can down the road’. If nothing else comes out of 2016, the consensus of opinion will be that we cannot continue as we are now.

Mercury (26ºPisc26) suggests worried trade; at the very least the oil trade is strongly indicated. The Sun (0ºAries of course), Uranus (19Ari17) and Pluto (17ºCap16) in cardinal signs dominate the ‘more of the same reform at any cost attitude by the government; We forge ahead regardless of set backs and hardships. One can almost sense a cognitive dissonance as stalwart ideology is ridden high over the needs of ordinary people.

This leaves the Moon (23ºLeo16) as the only fixed sign aspect. All we have left is pride and even that is prone to be hijacked in guise of patriotism and the great British stiff upper lip. We are, of course, supposed to vote on whether to stay in the EU or opt out. Note the loose grand trine of Moon to Saturn and Uranus reflecting nicely the Prime Minister’s wish to reform (Uranus) the structure (Saturn) of our membership (Moon) in the EU.

I predict that the British public will vote to stay in Europe, irrespective of their understanding of it (which is not a lot) and there may be enough glamour to ‘sell the sizzle and not the sausage’. Given how much Europe will change before we reach the referendum I have no doubt that the tactics will be as fluid as the circumstances... or to put it another way, it will be messy.

War in the Middle East will continue. Oil prices look to be great at the petrol pump but not great for the economy.

The potential for bankruptcy and a global economic meltdown has never been more pronounced than with Jupiter and Saturn in waning square at the same time that Venus conjuncts Neptune - all in mutable signs. At the very least this suggests instability in the world of banking (Saturn), money (Jupiter), finance (Venus) and oil (Neptune). In Barbault’s cyclic index the greatest plunge into minus territory occurs in 2016. I noted this date when we were experiencing the 2008 start of what started as a ‘credit crunch’ and was later given the title ‘great recession’. The thing is, if Barbault’s predictions on the great recession was accurate then 2016 is destined to be a whole lot worse than that.

Back in October 2015 I looked at the potential of a stock market crash. The indicators for this to happen was there but central banks have manipulated money for so long now that they have created the artificial facade of stability. Recently, however, the Federal Reserve announced it was about to increase interest rates and this could be just one of a number of triggers that brings down the house of cards. In addition to this there is financial instability in Russia, China and South America. In Europe, Greece is in a hopeless position and Italy is on the verge of collapse. The Euro zone may yet be forced to rethink it’s entire structure before the UK referendum. I expect much confusion and conflicting stories for the whole of this astrological year.

In the UK the Chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne, warned on 22 January 2016 that Britain is at risk from a ‘hazardous mix’ of threats (Daily Mail p4) and that we need to see every shoulder at the wheel; every country acting as one in search of growth.

The economy needs growth. The world does not. This is the problem of the entire capitalist system. Business needs growth. The people do not. This is the disconnect between government and their people. The people want to see reform but not the kind the elite is trying to force through. World debt is already insurmountable. We can’t grow our way out of it this side of over 300 years.

Looking at the UK 1801 chart, there are a preponderance of planets in the 3rd, 6th and 12th houses. The transiting Jupiter Saturn waning square clocks natal Mercury in the 3rd house. This is the UK as a trading nation and I think we should expect to see our home GDP contract. Job losses are inevitable.

With the transiting Venus Neptune conjunction in the 6th house and Jupiter in the 12th, not only will the NHS dominate our political consideration (in terms of both money and structure) but also I think the same conjunction, with Venus being the ruler of the 8th house of other people’s money, the whole business of tax dodging will command centre stage.

Transiting Mars, conjunct natal Chiron in the 2nd house of values, highlights the government’s ill treatment of people with disabilities both in welfare and in social facilities. One also has to consider that our attitude towards immigration will also draw scrutiny. in fact it is postulated even now that the unprecedented flood of immigrants coming to Europe, and the attitude of the different member states towards how to deal with it, could threaten the very cohesiveness of the EU as a collective. Already there are countries creating borders where there are supposed to be none.

Transiting Moon is within 4 minutes of exact conjunction with Natal Saturn in the 11th house of groups. This is interesting in the sense that stubbornness within groups generate tribal competitive values. Secondary Mars is within just over 18 months of going into the UK 12th house. Mars in Virgo - to analyse what we do, moves into the house of large groups and institutions. Is this the time where the emphasis is placed on actively reducing the size of ‘too big to fail’ businesses? Will the masses (Moon) support each other as a cohesive whole (Saturn) to weaken the corporate stranglehold over our economy? Is it possible that the Trans Pacific Partnership (TTP) and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) will meet so much opposition that it will never be ratified? Never more so does it seem that the electorate stands alone against the might of the ruling elite, corporate muscle and mainstream media propaganda. It may be yet that the people, not the most powerful 1%, will decide the direction the world goes in.

 The Aries ingress is anchored in the Uranus Pluto square and also the Jupiter Saturn square. This is a time to see bad business go. Propaganda is rife, so it is not helpful to rely on the mainstream media for accurate and objective reporting. Saturn is starting to apply by trine to Uranus but refrains from aspect; Saturn goes retrograde on 26 March and will not trine exactly until 25 December 2016. The breakdown (Uranus) of structures (Saturn) may be a theme for the entire year but may take much longer to see the result.

Both Mars and Saturn will be retrograde until the end of June 2016 when Mars stations at 23ºSco03 (Jupiter (trine Pluto) and Neptune in loose opposition, so possible significant terrorist event around this time). War is never progressive when Mars is retrograde. War in the Middle East will drag on for another year without seeing an end to it. But while the media tries to point the eyes of the masses towards war, the masses should be aware that it is for economic reasons that those wars were started in first place and that it is the economic restructuring (the global financial reset) that our eyes should not be diverted away from.

Thus 2016 begins a period of major transition towards the brand new cycles of Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto. Expect a difficult year but consider that for those who are not aware how difficult this year will be, it will be more so. By now you should all have spare money outside the banking system for when the banks suddenly close and non perishable food for when the supermarkets have no deliveries. Most economic pundits are saying when rather than if and now even George Osborne has offered a muted warning.