REVIEW

I am in Cuba today, as one of three stops on a five-day cruise I am on, as part of a Strategic Planning week for the ISAR Board of Directors. ISAR stands for the International Society for Astrological Research, a non-profit organization with VP’s and astrological schools representing over 25 countries in the world who seek to upgrade the profession of astrology, and its value to societies everywhere, especially through quality research (www.isarastrology.com). I have had the honor of being elected president of this wonderful organization for eight terms over the past 24 years (each term lasts two years).

As a result of my duties here at these meetings, I am unable to write the usual weekly column. However, I think the events of last week (and the week before) illustrate how astrology adds great value to understanding the times we live in and the markets we trade. As you know, via this column, we are in a powerful eclipse cycle, from the lunar eclipse of August 7 through the total solar eclipse of August 21. And, as stated before, this solar eclipse on Monday, August 21, falls right on President’s Trump’s natal Mars and Ascendant – hence the forecast for quite some time now that this period would be very dramatic sensational, war-like, threatening, and involve him at the epicenter of all this activity. It has proven to be the case.

Below are just two examples that occurred last week, before Friday’s firing of Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon.

Three executives have quit Donald Trump’s business advisory panel, throwing it into chaos, in the wake of the president’s failure to immediately denounce white supremacists over a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that left one dead and several others injured. - Sabrina Siddiqui and Dominic Rushe, “CEOs Quit Trump Council Over Response to Violence,” The Guardian, Aug 15, 2017.

The index started falling earlier on fears that Gary Cohn, a business-friendly advisor to the president, could resign his role as director of National Economic Council because of Trump's remarks following the violent protests in Charlottesville, VA. The concern remains that members of Congress and others in the business community would not want to work with the President following the backlash that led Trump to dissolve two CEO advisory forums. – Fred Imbert, “Dow Posts Biggest One-Day Fall in 3 Months; Concerns Over Trump Agenda Grows,” www.cnbc.com, August 17, 2017

 

SHORT-TERM GEOCOSMICS AND LONGER-TERM THOUGHTS

The cosmic drama continues this week. In fact, it is now peaking – last week and this week. The solar eclipse is this Monday, August 21. The midpoint of the Mercury retrograde cycle takes place August 24.  Saturn ends its retrograde motion and turns direct on August 25. Each of these are powerful geocosmic indicators of a reversal and/or major breakout of support/ resistance zones. But with Mercury retrograde, breakouts can quickly turn into fake outs.

From last week’s column

Last week’s market activity proved once again the point made several times lately in this column: the greatest risk to the stock market is the political risk – and it involves President Trump, because he is the one whose natal Ascendant and Mars are being scorched by the solar eclipse. This is not to say he is right or wrong in his actions in regards to North Korea (or Iran). He is just being Mars-like – which means he is angry and willing to fight for what he believes is right, which I assume means the protection of the citizens of the U.S.A. I think he sees that as his highest duty at this time. So, whether you like it or not, the world is currently under Mars – a war zone theme – for this month.

Of course, there is more going on in the cosmos than just Mars’ highlights. In fact, the next two weeks are jam-packed with cosmic activity. First, our old friend Mercury turns retrograde this weekend, August 12, lasting through September 5. It is turning retrograde in Virgo, in opposition to Neptune in Pisces, which means this cycle will probably be one of the most confusing of all the Trickster’s acts. Mercury retrograde is typically a period when information given and received is contradictory, and hence confusing – like central banks saying one thing but political leaders saying something completely opposite. But Neptune is the planet that rules confusion – and illusion, delusion, and subterfuge (there should be a word called “subterfusion,” for the sake of alliteration). So, when the Trickster partners up with the god of diversion and distraction, what do you think happens? I don’t know, either. All I know is that I am not believing it.  And there was the rumor of Gary Cohn’s resignation that started the avalanche down in US stocks on Thursday.

This opposition is followed by a series of irrational contacts between transiting Venus, which forms a cardinal grand square with Jupiter, Pluto, and Uranus. In addition to being a deadly combination for meeting up with someone who has “fatal attraction” written all over their arms, legs, and most other body parts (it’s just art and ink), it also portends a time of whipsaws in financial markets. First, they go up sharply, and you think, “Aha! The next leg up is underway.” But then it suddenly reverses, and you think, “Oh, this is going to be a pounding down.” And in the end, you get whiplash from being whipsawed by both Venus in a grand square, and Mercury the Tricksters being retrograde and in opposition with Neptune, the illusionist. It’s magic!

But the real magic comes on August 21, right in the middle of all this craziness, when the Moon intersects the plane of the Sun-Earth connection, and day turns into night.

That’s it for this week. We will resume next week, following the greatest solar eclipse in the United States in nearly 40 years, and possibly 99. As promised, this is already an amazing and critical time for the world, the United States, and its President.

Disclaimer and statement of purpose: The purpose of this column is not to predict the future movement of various financial markets. However, that is the purpose of the MMA (Merriman Market Analyst) subscription services. This column is not a subscription service. It is a free service, except in those cases where a fee may be assessed to cover the cost of translating this column from English into a non-English language. This weekly report is written with the intent to educate the reader on the relationship between astrological factors and collective human activities as they are happening. In this regard, this report will oftentimes report what happened in various stock and financial markets throughout the world in the past week, and discuss that movement in light of the geocosmic signatures that were in effect. It will then identify the geocosmic factors that will be in effect in the next week, or even month, or even years, and the author’s understanding of how these signatures will likely affect human activity in the times to come. The author (Merriman) will do this from a perspective of a cycles’ analyst looking at the military, political, economic, and even financial markets of the world. It is possible that some forecasts will be made based on these factors. However, the primary goal is to both educate and alert the reader as to the psychological climate we are in, from an astrological perspective. The hope is that it will help the reader understand the psychological dynamics that underlie (or coincide with) the news events and hence financial markets of the day. No guarantee as to the accuracy of this report is being made here. Any decisions in financial markets are solely the responsibility of the reader, and neither the author nor the publishers assume any responsibility at all for those individual decisions. Reader should understand that futures and options trading are considered high risk.

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