It's been over a year since I've visited my own blog. I've had stuff to write but little will to do so. The world has changed in ways that are not congenial to my personal style.

And yet I am compelled to make some remarks here about A.D. 2012. In the spirit of the times, I will refrain from making a single qualification about the limitations of astrology and the influence of personal perspective. This is me as Malcolm Gladwell, simply "blinking" at some first impressions of the horoscope and attendant astrological activity of the coming year with regard to the U.S.A. Were this a tweet, it might simply read: 2012 is creeping me out.

1) The year begins with an exact square of Mercury and Mars. Mercury is what we think, Mars is what we do. The square indicates operations at intense cross purposes. Apparently the zeitgeist will be filled with people saying one thing (3rd house Mercury) and secretly (12th house Mars) trying to get away with another. Expect a horrendously noisy, ill-willed and duplicitous campaign season.

2) Another tight square in the New Year's chart is that between the Sun and the Moon. Here is the conflict between identity and how we feel about that identity. Based on the Sun and Moon's respective placements on the IC and Descendant we can expect alternatively loyal and competitive teams of citizens (Moon in the 7th house) offering emotions-driven arguments about the fundamental nature of the system (Sun in 4th house) in which they participate. If this sounds like Tea Party vs. 'OWS'...only crazier if that is even possible...you are sort of catching the drift.

3) Oh yes, Pluto is conjunct the Sun directly on the IC. This may sound like gibberish to the average person, but I swear that astrologers are wetting their pants as the full symbolic implication of this state of affairs takes root (especially as Pluto is also square to the Moon as indicated above). The intensity of this aspect can not be reported in a moderate tone. With Pluto representing often- violent transformation at the molecular level, conjunct identity at cross purposes with the collective desires of the public, and placed at the root of  the whole systemic shebang...well just maybe those Mayans were on to something.

4) Of course, the only thing in which Americans might take more interest than the end of the world is the state of the economy. Alas, also not good. In the New Year's horoscope the sign Scorpio is on the second house cusp, which essentially means that affairs of wealth are "ruled" by Pluto in the coming year...please go reread point #3.

5) Actually, one might make an attractive case for the broad success of financial risk in the coming year, due to Jupiter (good fortune) approaching the house of other people's resources (the 8th) paying tribute by sign to Venus (money) in the house of speculation (the 5th).  Of course, as the 8th house pertains to other people's resources, including wealth-collectivization institutions such as government treasuries, banks, and brokerages, one can easily see risk-money flow towards or among these institutions rather than towards individual speculators. This latter hypothesis is supported by the fact that in the 2012 first trade chart of the NYSE (not shown here) a favorable conjunction of Moon and Jupiter (we may not be as poor as we think) in the house of personal wealth (the 2nd) is directly opposed by the planet Saturn (limitations imposed by authority, scarcity in general) in the 8th house (long-term investments and relations with financial institutions). Certainly invoked is the institutional thwarting of individual wealth accumulation through taxes, monetary policy, strict loan requirements, home foreclosures, big league market manipulation, and the like. 

5) As a practitioner of geographical astrology, let me put out storm warnings for any municipality roughly on a north/south line from Rochester, NY, through Richmond, VA (close enough to Washington, D.C. to score points), through the eastern part of Cuba (close enough to Guantanamo to score points). The Great Plains states are also under some high bore energetic influences, as are the big population centers of eastern Texas. Seen better days: NYC, LA, Atlanta, Phoenix,  Cincinnati, Milwaukee.

6) Of course if there are places under duress, one might reasonably assume that there will be locales basking in the glow of good fortune. One reasonable way to determine such places is to see where Jupiter (good fortune) and Venus (love) energies are geographically active. In the 2012 New Year's astrocartography chart of the USA there are no such places.

7) So who is going to win the presidential election? It's a fair question, and one that honestly needs more than a blink analysis. What does immediately catch my eye in looking at Barack Obama's natal chart in therms of the New Year's chart is that transiting Jupiter is exactly square Jupiter. This interesting aspect is often described as "more than one can handle" or "not big enough to do what is expected of you." It is sometimes a "delusions of grandeur" aspect that can signify generous  outpourings that soon lead to shortages (TARP anyone?). Interestingly, though, the same two charts reflect transiting Uranus in exact sextile to Obama's natal Jupiter. This is often an aspect of sudden good luck, indicating opportunity for both economic and philosophical expansion. With Obama's Venus nearly conjunct the New Year's  midheaven (popularity), transiting Mars conjunct Mars (energy), and powerful activity in the 11th house of public affairs, it is useful to remember that the next presidential term does not begin until 2013...and there are many significant presidential bridges to cross in the meanwhile.

8)What about the GOP? I admittedly haven't done anywhere near the work required to make a solid call in this regard. Putting Herman Cain aside for just a moment, it is interesting that the two current leaders in the race for nomination, Romney and Perry, both have Sun in Pisces. Pisces Suns are often inspirational and brilliant (think Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs), but they have a protean quality that demands vast personal space for creative exploration and mental fluidity. They are certainly not at their best when it comes to consistency or a linear sense of reality. This does not diminish their electability (George Washington was a Pisces if it comes to that),but it does perhaps indicate that the GOP is  looking for a candidate whom is capable of saying anything and can be entirely molded to the circumstantial moment (on a minute by minute basis if necessary). Neptune, the ruling planet of Pisces, is powerfully in play in our culture right now...so even if this is not what we are looking for, maybe it is what we are going to get. FWIW, Herman Cain is a Sagittarius another mentally mutable sign. Sagittarius is often smart and funny, once you get the foot out of their mouth.

Speaking of mouth, here I am running off at mine after promising to observe word economy. So here's what I'm going to do. The last four 'predictions' are going to be tweet length. They may not make immediate sense or invoke any sense of accuracy, but they will be short (although not entirely artless).

9) Super Tuesday didn't exist before 1988. Today the primary process is an exercise in timing, money and organizational strategy. Ideas? Haha.

10) In the movie Vacation, Chevy Chase never really appreciates how close he is to being Randy Quaid. Pass the Helper.

11) Yuri Andropov was the first head of the KGB to lead the USSR. Described as a "beast," he was also said to be an effective manager.

12) Pet.com was the last IPO before the NASDAQ tech bubble burst. $82M was raised for an online company that shipped kitty litter.

Happy New Year.

Want to know what 2012 holds in store for you or your enterprise?
Please drop a line to: smw@stevenmarkweiss.com

I promise not to make a habit out of this, but I hope I can presume upon your patience just this once for a little immediate follow-up. I became intrigued this morning when I read about the first general strike in Spain in over a decade, and the attendant likelihood of the downgrading of the nation’s formerly impeccable credit rating. If you were kind enough to read my latest blog entry, you may have noticed that one of the 10 places I put on my fall watch list was the Spanish capitol, Madrid (which made it through yesterday with no television or newspapers due to the strike).

 

Curiosity and intellectual honesty compelled me to look at the news for the other nine places on my list, and this what I found over just the past two days. Not all of these are profound on the order of the Spanish situation, but they are all at least somewhat significant and interesting considering the time frame.

 

New Orleans: an extensive Gallup survey released today indicates that “depression levels” along the Gulf Coast have risen 25.6% since the oil spill

 

St. Louis: in non-connected but numerically synchronous events, St. Louis yesterday welcomed the opening of the world’s 300th Ronald McDonald House and the completion of its 300th Habitat for Humanity home

 

Memphis: (share this one perhaps with your pet) the city of Memphis yesterday passed a mandatory spay-neuter ordinance, in response to the 16,000 dogs and cats that were euthanized in the city last year

 

Guatemala City: The lines on the map, as noted above, go right through the area of the Mexican mudslides and on through Guatemala. In the aftermath of this weekend’s Tropical Storm Matthew, it was reported today that more than 6,500 Guatemalan citizens and 1,000 Guatemalan homes were respectively displaced and damaged by floods.

 

Galapagos Islands: electronics manufacturer Sharp yesterday introduced a major Kindle competitor in the Japanese market; named to evoke a sense of (gadget) evolution, it is called Galapagos. If that sounds like a geographical stretch, consider that the San Diego zoo yesterday announced the opening of its new $1M habitat for its 17 tortoises…Galapagos tortoises.

 

London: a vague but highly publicized threat regarding terror cells emerged from the UK this morning, but if you want to go with high-profile specifics consider that: 1) yesterday Lloyd’s of London announced a 50% reduction in profits over the first half of the year due to the highest disaster insurance claims in its history (BP, Chile); and 2) also yesterday, the individual heading up construction management for the 2012 London Olympics resigned

 

Madrid: mentioned above

 

Accra: the completion of a major school building program, under the advisement of the Columbia University (NY) –based Earth Institute and its Millennium City initiative, was announced yesterday by the mayor of Accra; all of the Ghana capitol’s students will now be able to occupy school premises for 8 hours per day, rather than in 4-hour morning/afternoon shifts as has been the prior case

 

Calcutta: another city that is strike-plagued at the moment…1500 government-program doctors and all of the support workers in the region’s court system are making medical and judicial care a very dicey proposition at this time

 

Fiji: the military ruler of the country addressed the United Nations General Assembly yesterday (!); afterwards U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton met with the island nation’s minister of foreign affairs for 75 minutes, in a discussion of “continued dialogue and partnership”

 

Random happenstances at random times? Quite possibly. But what if there is some real energy in this location calculation, and what if it could be harnessed to your own personal and professional interests?

 

It can be, you know. Please let me be your guide.

 

Steven Mark Weiss, Author

Signs of Success: The Remarkable Power of Business Astrology

mailto:smw@stevenmarkweiss.com

www.stevenmarkweiss.com

www.myastromaps.com

(PLEASE NOTE: If you like this geographical astrology material and are curious about a personal or business consultation, or just want more information, please visit my new website: www.myastromaps.com.)


   
New Orleans                                                       Memphis                                        St. Louis

 
Guatemala City                                                                   The Galapagos Islands   

It's the autumnal equinox, an event of which many astrologers take note. The reason for the attention is the so-called ingress (entrance) of the Sun into a cardinal (leadership, cycle starter) sign, in this case Libra. A chart cast for the exact moment of the ingress is supposedly significant in the timing of global events for the next three months, until the next cardinal ingress that occurs in late December when the Sun moves into Capricorn.

Ordinarily, I tend to astrologically sleep through the solar cardinal ingresses. Ultimately, one can only keep track of so much cosmic activity. I'm not saying they aren't important, just that my spirit finds the relatively commonplace "cardinal ingress" such haughty conceptual overkill when stacked up against the crunchy leaf/hot cocoa/football-ish spirit of the "first day of fall."

This time, though, I'm inclined to pay some astrological attention. One reason, both astronomical and astrological, is that this is the first time in nearly 20 years that the autumnal equinox is taking place during a full moon. I can go all astro-sophisticated on you here but I'm certain that your own sense of the full moon, whether it gives you a bit of an eerie feeling or stretches out to full on lunatic werewolf, will nicely suffice for understanding the sort of energy we are dealing with here (and through the election season).

Another thing that is very compelling about this particular cardinal ingress into Libra (the sign of partnership) is that the planets and some other important astrological points have kind of buddied up in an assortment of pairs right now. As mentioned in my last blog entry, Neptune is currently in a long term pas de deux with Chiron, and the moment has also coupled Sun with Saturn, Mars with Venus, Pluto with the north node of the moon, Ceres with the Part of Fortune and, most interestingly, Jupiter with Uranus in such a way that they are part of a very frisky foursome with the Sun and the moon (and Saturn, if you accept a six degree orb of influence; and Pluto and the north node if you want to allow for traditional astrological aspects).

I could probably spend the rest of my natural days attempting to explain the significance of all that, so I won't.  I do want to call your attention to this Sun-Moon-Jupiter-Uranus-Saturn thing, though, because that is a potential five-ring energy circus. Basically on the same stage you have the central personality (Sun), the crowd sentiment (moon), the principle of expansion (Jupiter), the principle of contraction (Saturn), and the promise of the unexpected (Uranus) all angling to jump through the same hoop.

Who is going to come out on top in the elections? Dang, if I know.

What I do find astonishingly compelling, however, is that this bundling of energy looks so darn interesting on a map. Look for yourself:

What this geodetic (another story for another occasion) map reveals is how the planetary energies we are discussing here are bundled like the major cables in a vast planetary power grid. If you have surmised that the places where these lines are routed are the high wattage focal points for the action in the fall of 2010 well, heck, I'm with you. Thanks to various planetary retrograde and direct periods (sort of like a car moving backwards then forwards), we are often dealing with places that have already been in the news and are likely to be so again...except as the Die Hard folks might say, "with a vengeance."

So what are some of the specific places we are looking at?

1) New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. Certainly you will not be surprised to learn that this area of the world has been astrologically lit up for a while now. What I find encouraging insofar as it is a new development is the recent appearance of Jupiter at the party. Jupiter frequently brings good luck, but it is also the principle of expansion, so don't close the book on the oil spill saga just yet.

2 & 3) Memphis and St. Louis. Both of these cities are virtually due north of New Orleans, so they tend to share many of the energetic influences that impact New Orleans. My favorite example of this is Southern Comfort,  a whiskey 'invented' in New Orleans but made famous at a World's Fair in St. Louis, where it is now manufactured. This may not be the strongest of examples, but somehow the mention of whiskey seems appropriate.

4) Guatemala City. One starts to appreciate that this mapping stuff may not be just all goofy, when you consider the fortunes of Guatemala this year, located due south of New Orleans. You know how roiled up the Gulf of Mexico has been this year? Well, in case you missed it, the top story from Guatemala City (I'm not kidding about this) has been the opening of a massive, building-swallowing sinkhole during a tropical storm. Of course, there was also a volcano eruption but Iceland sort of grabbed the headlines on that. It could be an interesting autumn.

5) The Galapagos Islands. One certainly can't overlook the Darwin connection as religious fundamentalists continue to square off against scientists over the nature of man's creation and evolution. Nevertheless, there is also the story of the contemporary place itself, which has become a far less lonely destination since the days of Darwin. Right now a debate rages over the level of protection that must be afforded the islands' indigenous species as UNESCO has just removed the Galapagos from the list of endangered world heritage sites. It promises to be tourists vs. tortoises in a no-holds-barred affair.

6) London. All of England is lit up with planetary energy this fall. Fortunately the emphasis seems to be more on potentially upbeat excitement than on the heavy vibe that rolled in with the volcanic ash this past spring. Happily there appears to be no redux on tap with regard to the Iceland incident, but don't be surprised if someone thinks they hear something and the Brits get a little bent out of shape.

7) Madrid. Also on the energy tracks is the Spanish capitol. Interestingly the most direct assault is made by the moon, among whose astrological functions is feminine energy and the general mood of the public. Considering the number of women currently in power positions in the Spanish government, and considering the auspicious placement of nearby Jupiter in the sky, one might justifiably expect a period of optimism in Spain...whatever the ultimate reality of the economic situation.

8) Accra. Ghana would seem to be due some attention from the world this fall. Perhaps they will continue to enjoy a decline in their high rate of inflation...although this is not a great bet with the presence of Jupiter. Perhaps they will simply issue a friendly challenge and beat up on the U.S. soccer team again as they did in the FIFA World Cup.

9) Calcutta. With a metro area population of some 15 million, Calcutta is probably many things that you think, and some that you do not. This vast Indian city is, for example,  becoming an increasingly major force in the global IT industry, an industry ruled by the planet Uranus that sits directly overhead as Calcutta enters the fall. (Curious aside: India may be the most astrologically attuned nation on the face of the earth, but it does not recognize the outer trans-Saturnian planets in the practice of astrology. So can Uranus have an impact if it is considered not to have an impact? Questions, questions.)

10)Fiji. This island nation north of New Zealand will be in the news this fall, not necessarily good news for a place that experienced a 6.3 magnitude earthquake in early September. Heck, I'd still go.

For more information:

email: smw@stevenmarkweiss.com

geographical astrology at: www.myastromaps.com

bio & business info: www.stevenmarkweiss.com

When we looked at the trends for the Fall of 2009, the salient astrological factor was a so-called Jupiter station. Ultimately this celestial  "stalling" of a gas giant at a single degree of the zodiac meant that an entire 2009 season was drawing some of the same energy vibe as a single specific week in February 1997. And we did pretty good with that...look back and you'll discover that mentions of significant episodes involving electric cars, avian flu, James Cameron's Titanic, restaurant closings, electronic hand held devices, El Nino weather, and more all had truly significant echoes in the period.

Seriously, had you heard anything at all about Avatar back at the beginning of last October?

Anyway, as we look to cues from Jupiter for the upcoming spring of 2010, we find our largest planet in a far perkier mood. Rather than vegging out a single degree for a season, Jupiter is currently embarked on a sprint that would make Usain Bolt proud. It has quite recently entered into the sign of Pisces and will traverse the entire 30 degrees of the sign, a trip that takes a year on average, by the beginning of June. (There is some retrograde motion back into Pisces in the fall, but basically Jupiter is hustling its butt off right now).

So basically what we are looking at here is a single season that will be a compression of no single week, but rather of an entire year. The last time Jupiter traversed the sign of Pisces was between February 1998 and February 1999. Roughly, we would expect the spring of 2010 to invoke cultural echoes of the entirety of 1998.

Now 1998 was a most significant and interesting year from landmark corporate mergers (Citicorp/Travelers, MCI/WorldCom, Exxon/Mobil, Deutsche Bank/Bankers Trust) to frightening  nuclear threats (Iraq/India/Pakistan) to earth disasters (earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes and the Yangtze floods), to sports (McGwire breaks home run record, Jordan's buzzer beater wins NBA title in his last game as a Bull, France wins the FIFA World Cup at home) to politics (Ventura wins in Minnesota/Heston heads the NRA). Popular culture was popping with the likes of Titanic, Sex and the City, and the glory days of of pop princesses and boy bands. And yet every bit of the preceding received second billing to a single event that dominated the cultural zeitgeist for most of the year, especially in the U.S.

Of course we are speaking here of Monica Lewinsky and her role in the impeachment of the president of the United States, William Jefferson Clinton.

Putting aside the political and the purely salacious, what is interesting here is how the Lewinsky scandal helps explicate the meaning of the passage of Jupiter through Pisces. In astrology, massive Jupiter represents the profound power of collective creed and worldly understanding...the generally sweet fruit of our laws, our ethics, our codified knowledge, our values, even our luck and our joy... while distant Pisces represents the realm of our most esoteric consciousness...our dreams, our profoundest non-rational states, our desire to connect with a truth greater than ourselves that we can barely discern or describe . Certainly the combination of the two is capable of awesome spectacle and progress, but Jupiter and Pisces are also energetically somewhat of a mismatch...a university education pursued on psychotropic drugs.. that can result in titanic confusion, propaganda, obfuscation, and the most massive manifestations of the surreal.

And so you may get a professional wrestler elected as a governor, or a host of sports heroes secretly amped up on steroids. Maybe a major corporation makes up its financial statements to attract corporate suitors. You might even get a situation in which the president of the United States is reduced to the utterance: "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is." 

Yeah, the spring of 2010 may be a little like that...don't believe everything you hear, and perhaps even less of what you think you understand.

ADVERTISING

One echo of the $55M multi-platform "behold, the power of cheese" campaign launched by the dairy industry in 1998 could certainly be a high-profile presence of cheese in the current culinary zeitgeist. What should be of equal interest to marketing insiders, though, is that this particular campaign was crafted from a fairly massive segmentation study of cheese-eaters. That study identified 44% of all cheese eaters as either "cravers" (see photo, above) or "enhancers" (see photo, above). Seriously, the point here is the earnest aroma of segmentation studies is likely to be abroad in the land...so find yourself a category to fit into, or some nose clips.


AUTOMOTIVE



First brought out in the 1998 model year, the Dodge Durango had its best sales performance ever in its introductory year. Some of the credit goes to a brilliant positioning strategy that saw its advertising trumpet the Durango as "best in class" among all compact SUV's. The only catch...and here is where a Jupiter in Pisces vibe enters...is that there was very little about the Durango that was in fact compact. Its engine size, its load capacity, its gas mileage, its cargo space, and particularly the fact that it could seat eight people, might have qualified it as a full size SUV...and certainly at least a mid-size...in an honest assessment. So watch for consumers willingness to be sold "small" and "environmentally conscious," as long as they don't have to give up a damn thing.


CONSUMER PACKAGED GOODS



Much was made of a 1998 scientific study of children's breakfast habits, the results of which were reported in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. The study represented itself as the first long-term investigation of the relationship between breakfast program participation and scholastic performance among inner city school children. Funded by Kellogg and the Mid-Atlantic Milk Marketing Association (not that it matters, of course), the study concluded that eating breakfast had an undeniably advantageous effect on a student's "academic and social functioning." Thus, 1998 turned out to be a banner year for the likes of Tony, and Buzz Bee, and the Cap'n, and the Count. And yet, even in the face of hard research, there were those who came along to deny the academic and social benefits of a bowl of Frosted Flakes in the AM. Self-serving science, anyone?


FASHION



1998 saw the introduction of hair mascara. Runway models and runway model wannabes everywhere adorned their tresses with streaks and swatches of colors not found in (hair) nature. The earth is our mother, but draw your own conclusions.


FOOD



It wasn't just breakfast cereal that celebrated nutritional sanctioning in 1998. The year also found one food manufacturer (and chemical company) after another announcing its plans for functional foods and nutraceuticals. Nestle, Kellogg, Unilever, ConAgra, Nabisco and Quaker were just some of the food giants who announced major research and/or product introduction plans. Food Processing Magazine named functional foods/nutraceuticals the number one trend in the industry, even more important than fat or salt reduction. One specific highlight of the year was the dissemination of research that the lycopene found in cooked tomato products, such as ketchup, could help prevent prostate cancer. This ketchup thing has yet to be entirely proven, by the way...but why mess up such a cool story ? This spring watch for metabolic mustard at a store near you.


INSIGHT



If the Lewinsky/Clinton thing didn't make things clear enough, one really doesn't have to write much more about 1998 than it was the year that saw the introduction of Viagra. If you are looking for the most graphic possible of explications for tumescent Jupiter in phantasmagorical Neptune, the intro of Viagra might be it. Here one has a contemporary ethos that demands sexual potency, even past one's natural prime, and a drug that makes the elders feel like men again...even if it all just is a (pardon my language) f---ing illusion. Talk about your coming attractions...


MANAGEMENT



Leadership theory was royally stirred up with the publication of Daniel Goleman's article "What Makes a Leader?" that appeared in a 1998 issue of the Harvard Business Review. Although he had published on the subject earlier, it was this article that widely exposed the management world to the concept of "emotional intelligence." While most business leaders are blessed with an abundance of technical skills and rational intelligence and authoritativeness, Goleman argued, the real differentiator of a successful leader is to be found in such "soft" qualities as self-awareness, empathy and social skill. In a business world currently gone mad on quantification and efficient delivery, the passage of Jupiter through Pisces is very likely to invoke the importance of right brain (associative) understanding versus the so-called plain hard facts.


MEDIA



In the summer of 1998, Cartoon Network introduced Sailor Moon as part of its anime-inspired 'Toonami' block of cartoons. Sailor Moon would require a whole lot of blog space to adequately explain, but suffice it to say that the title character is the leader of a team of warrior school girls and a talking cat who are charged with the mission of saving the the universe. What is so interesting about Sailor (who has a lot of other names...don't ask), is that she is really recognizable as a school girl...whiny, kind of lazy, into candy & video games, boy crazy, and academically disinterested (her favorite class is home economics). But again, she is the designated savior of the world. I guess this just means that it's not just horny old men who have stupendous fantasies...


RESTAURANTS



...and speaking of stupendous fantasies (a very precise expression of Jupiter in Pisces), consider the big buzz in the restaurant world of 1998. Hogging the headlines were the openings (announced and actual) of the universe's most ambitious 'eatertainment' restaurants. Modeled on the likes of the Hard Rock Cafe and Planet Hollywood, these big and bodacious new eateries were designed to kick the themed fun factor of dining out into the stratosphere. High profile projects featured magician David Copperfield, the Marvel comic book crowd, various real life Hollywood legends and, in the case of one New York City eatery, the planet Mars. So each and every one of these gargantuan grub halls either never gets open or fails within a year. (Astrologers might find the single exception, Mars 2112, symbolically interesting...but that would be too much to get into here).  Anyway, here's a word to the wise in a Jupiter/Pisces cycle: when you are building an actual castle in the air, it probably does not improve your chance of stability to build a bigger castle.


TECHNOLOGY



Google is launched in 1998. All of the world's recorded knowledge is suddenly accessible in a virtual realm called cyberspace.  Touchdown Jupiter in Pisces! (Well, at least for its creators and investors, even if it's tended to mess up what we consider knowledge a bit...I mean if you're such an authority how come your page rank sucks?)


TOYS



Techies have children too, it would seem, as Lego introduces its Mindstorm series of robot building kits to much wonkish acclaim. (Note to astrologers: "mindstorm" is aperfect expression of Mercury in Neptune, but it's also pretty good forJupiter in Neptune.) There's no confirmation of this but reliable sources report that Sailor Moon didn't seem to care.


TRAVEL



In researching my last blog post about place predictions for 2010, I couldn't help but notice a nice confluence of positive economic energy sweeping through the state of Arizona. I noticed this because: 1) I happen to live in Arizona; and 2) I'm pretty tired of watching my home's value sink towards the price of a burrito. Happily, there was ample confirmation in my research for this entry, as 1998 was more than a decent economic year for the state. The state gross product rose by a whopping 8.75% and Arizona led the nation with 4.5% job growth, among other statistical and anecdotal measures of growing prestige and prosperity. It's a lot different right now, as you may have heard, but I've got Jupiter in Pisces hopes. Even if I should know better.

Interested in learning more about how you and your business can benefit from the insights of astrology? Please drop an email to Steven Mark Weiss at: smw@stevenmarkweiss.com.

 
 San Francisco                                 Brasilia                                          Gotland


Most popular astrology concerns itself with the what and when of things. "You will come into a great sum of money next Thursday" or "the world will end in 2012" is the general tone of astrological prediction.  So it is that the issue of whether the economy will be strong, or at least improving, in 2010 is often considered as a one answer fits all sort of inquiry.

Of course, what is missing from the discussion is a consideration of place. To be sure, astrology has always been a construct of location; its horoscopic calculations are always made with regard to a specific place as well as time. But it is thanks to an increasingly engaged and exploratory astrological community, assisted by some brilliantly compiled software, that modern astrologers are increasingly conversant with the premise that what sets the clock into motion also animates the predictive map.

So if it is somewhat hard to call the general market trend in the year ahead (thanks, in part, to the influence of Neptune as described in the previous blog entry), there's still much to be gleaned from specific planetary influences touching down in very specific places. Here are ten rather far flung locales that should be significant headliners in the business news in 2010. Gotland?

LOCATION: Boston
SIMILAR VIBE: Miami; Fiji
KEY DATES: 2/24; 8/5; 8/23; 10/22
WATCH FOR: potentially violent confrontations in association with partnership and shareholder matters; all business and legal matters will be fraught with aggression; struggles/battles

LOCATION: Brasilia
SIMILAR VIBE: Vladivostok
KEY DATES: 2/1; 2/8; 2/20; 6/6; 8/25; 10/10; 12/10
WATCH FOR: no major power center on earth has a stronger or edgier set of planetary influences associated with it than the capitol of Brazil in 2010; the general symbolism is of a bill come due and important partners that will not be put off regarding shared commitments; there is an overarching sense of "great transformation"

LOCATION: Denver
SIMILAR VIBE: Cheyenne, Tucson, Winnipeg, Rio De Janeiro
KEY DATES: 3/18; 4/2; 5/22; 8/8; 11/25
WATCH FOR: the bright light of business vitality should shine on all of the aforementioned places in the year ahead, particularly spotlighting entrepreneurial investment (and not necessarily successful high stakes risk)...consider Rio and what the award of the 2016 summer Olympics may involve in the time period ahead

LOCATION: Fairbanks
SIMILAR VIBE: Cairo
KEY DATES: 4/27
WATCH FOR: good fortune from technological and/or energy-related breakthroughs...sudden, specific and surprisingly large payoffs

LOCATION: Gotland (largest island in Baltic Sea, part of Sweden, significant wind power producer)
SIMILAR VIBE: Phoenix, Stockholm
KEY DATES: 3/20; 4/10; 5/13; 6/29; 11/30
WATCH FOR: the keyword here is "information;" innovative ideas produced in meetings & conferences and widely disseminated through telecommunications are likely to have especially significant business impact in the year ahead (I had second thoughts about this inclusion and then did some Googling...just learned that the the first World Ecological Forum is taking place on Gotland in the summer of 2010...within two days of 6/29!)

LOCATION: Panama Canal
SIMILAR VIBE: Switzerland
KEY DATES: 3/1; 3/11; 8/27; 9/20; 12/20
WATCH FOR: there is an extremely fortunate vibe here this year as Panama continues its work on the canal expansion project that should have a truly enormous impact on global shipping by mid-decade; international involvement & visionary thinking are the keys

LOCATION: Paris
SIMILAR VIBE: Cleveland, Erie, Akron, Pittsburgh
KEY DATES: 9/9; 10/5
WATCH FOR: painful business situations arise that call for new thinking, i.e. solutions not derived from traditional models; time may seem to pass slowly but there is a sense that a healing is taking place...patience is paramount

LOCATION: San Francisco
SIMILAR VIBE: Calgary
KEY DATES: 2/1; 2/20; 8/25; 10/10
WATCH FOR: of all the icky things with which astrology finds itself fascinated, perhaps the ickiest is its preoccupation with natural disasters; personally acknowledging a sincere distaste for this sort of thing, it is nevertheless painfully apparent that a horoscope cast for the first 2010 trade of the NYSE places Pluto (transforming lord of the underworld) exactly on the San Andreas fault at Point Reyes, in Marin County just north of San Francisco; since I refuse to ever predict an earthquake (unless in doing so I would mitigate the likelihood of its occurrence) , let's just consider the symbolism as economic and pass along a caution regarding financial affairs in the area this year...keep your eye on the banks and the real estate

LOCATION: Scottsdale (AZ)
SIMILAR VIBE: Bismarck (ND), Rapid City (SD), Winnipeg
KEY DATES: 3/5, 3/11, 6/24, 9/13, 11/8, 12/27
WATCH FOR: there is a very strong Venus vibe in Scottsdale this year, a popular destination for business meetings and conventions; ordinarily Venus is a very positive influence, indicating successful collaborations and negotiations and general asset appreciation; likely there will be some news in a positive vein this year, but there are also indications of disappointment...getting what one thinks they want rather than what would actually be helpful

LOCATION: Southampton (NY)
SIMILAR VIBE: Cuba, Marseilles
KEY DATES: 8/14, 10/16
WATCH FOR: off-the-radar activities could lead to very big deals...watch for news of mergers, acquisitions and important arrangements regarding debt financing stemming from these locales

Interested in mapping your own business hot (and cold) spots for 2010?
Drop a line to Steve at smw@stevenmarkweiss.com.

The impending end of the world, widely forecast to occur in December 2012, is not primarily a business issue. Then again, Armageddon is sort of a non-discriminating event.  Should the alarmists prove correct, one would definitely expect to see a troubling overall dip in 4Q '12  sales.

Turning to astrology for insight is not likely to grant one either professional or personal ease in this matter. By anybody's accounting we've already entered into an unusually nasty period for planetary placements as currently reflected in weighty and worrisome world events. Pair this with the little known fact that all astrologers upon receiving their union cards are pledged to an essentially nihilistic view of the universe and, well, it's kind of a doomsday prediction festival right now.

Even as I write these very lines, Saturn in Libra is forming an exact square to Pluto in Capricorn. It is possible to write a lengthy exegesis on the symbolism involved here, involving such macro factors as: challenges to and by existing political authority; the harsher aspect of justice gone blind; and potentially violent transformational change on the widest possible cultural scale. I'll leave the full angst analysis to some other astrologer, but suffice it to note that the last time these planets made just such an aspect in these very signs was at the start of the American Revolution.

Perhaps even more sobering is the knowledge that the planet Uranus (radical change) is coming along to enter Aries (forceful action). The square that this powerful planet will make with Pluto in Capricorn will last on and off from early spring of 2010 to the winter of 2018. The last time Uranus in Aries made a square to Pluto, albeit in the opposite sign of Cancer, was from 1930 to 1935, i.e. almost the entire length of the Great Depression.

Now I realize that I'm not making any friends by calling attention to these things...unless you're the type who goes in for pain on a pretty massive scale. I have long thought, though, that the universe loves having mystical types bring these things out into the open so it can defy all punditry and assure something completely unforeseen takes place. Or perhaps you just may care to think of it as 2012 being the least of our problems.

In fact, it would not be surprising at all (duh!) if this 2012 thing was something of a red herring, in terms of being the specific focus for a massive world-altering event. I've commented elsewhere that the whole Mayan calendar hoohah is predicated on our assumption that an ancient civilization calculated that time was ending in 2012, rather than offering a numerical progression that would repeat itself starting in 2013. There's also buzz regarding an equinoctial event in which the earth and sun are (going to be) aligned with the exact center of the galaxy, but this may have actually occurred as much as a decade ago and is currently being fudged a bit by metaphysical types to make it a little more 2012-ish.

For me, the most interesting astrological fact about 2012 is the emergence of Neptune as "king" of the planets. Again, this could bear much explication regarding the movement of Neptune into its own sign of Pisces, an astrological technique called "dispositor patterning" that makes Neptune energy the resolution of most issues for the 14 years from 2012 onward, the fact that we are currently experiencing the first Neptune return in human consciousness (Neptune's first orbit of the Sun since its 'discovery' in 1847) , and the recent felicitously timed downgrading of Pluto to dwarf status making Neptune the outermost of the major planets. Neptune, as I've written elsewhere, is the planet of pure spirit and imagination and what we might call unreality...guaranteeing only that whatever is coming in 2012 is going to be a surprise.

We might glean some insight from the fact that Neptune, as it approaches the planetary throne, is currently being 'escorted' by two traveling partners in the sky. The first of these is a so-called Centaur object (part comet/part asteroid) named Chiron, discovered a little over three decades ago and given astrological status as "the wounded healer," akin to the bitter medicine one must swallow in order to make things well again. More hopefully, the other footman is Jupiter who is generally identified as a benefactor bringing an abundance of blessings, although the emphasis is heavily on the abundance part and not always so much on the blessings.

So as not to completely abandon the business mission of this space, it is worth pointing out that the three celestial amigos...Neptune, Chiron and Jupiter...are in fact having a profound effect, astrologically speaking, on the American stock market right now and will for the next few years. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the takeaways from this influence are that we are probably getting 'bad' (i.e. not truthful) numbers and that pain is a requisite for healing in the economy. Financially, Neptune is associated with oil and drugs, and we can certainly expect continued emphasis and unanticipated developments from these market movers now and in the near future...and the news, although hardly saturated with promises of bounty, does not appear to be relentlessly dire (in fact, there are some particularly positive economic signs for 2011).

Basically, adding up the auguries in order to conclude this commentary, I would rather expect 2012 to be more of a downturn year than a disaster. It has the feel of a period in which mysteries come to light and excesses are diminished. But again, Neptune is involved so who really knows?

Now 2014...that's a scary year.


For more information, please visit www.stevenmarkweiss.com

To contact Steve: smw@stevenmarkweiss.com

It is exactly one week since I had the rare privilege of visiting with George Noory and his national audience on Coast to Coast AM. Forgive me the use of the very prosaic descriptor "cool," but it was so cool. Thanks to everyone who stayed up late to listen.

I've been rolling the experience around in my brain and I've not come to any ultimate conclusions. However, in the spirit of someone who blogs and actually has something cool to blog about, here are ten top-of-minds that I feel worth sharing.

1) The audience for Coast to Coast AM is enormous. I know this because on an average day my website receives in the neighborhood of 50 to 100 hits. On a couple of occasions when I've been in the news, such as recently when I did some work for Domino's Pizza on their Oven Baked Sandwiches, the total has gone into the high hundreds.  On the day of my radio appearance and the day after the combined total number of requests for my website was 99,939.

2) Judging by the on air questions and the email I received afterward, the world is filled with many decent, open-minded and enthusiastic people. There were so many sincere compliments, even from the astrologically disinclined. My favorite notes, though, came from other astrologers who recognized that my "mission" is to make astrology somehow palatable to those who are not inclined by nature to accept its charms, and who thanked me for my efforts in bridge-building.

3) Of course, not everyone is a prince. On the afternoon of the show,  before I was even on the air, the first email I received (from one "John Smith")  read: "Astrology is stupid nonsense and you are a fool to think it can tell you anything. Grow up clown." Another writer took exception to my on-air assertion that astrologers are overly fond of doomsday predictions and I that was not so inclined towards a blanket cynicism, commenting that I was a victim of "Pixie Dust" and that my time would be far better spent using my talents to "find Obama's birth certificate."

4) And then there are those folks who defy classification, but might be the sort who stay up into the wee hours listening to a program that frequently deals with topics such as astrology, alien abductions, ghost hunting and the like. I mean no disrespect to the individual who sent me the following note (and if you can help her I'd be glad to pass along any advice). What, though, is one to make of: "It was a pleasure to be introduced to you on the radio last evening. Thank you for pursuing your given talents. I could feel your energy, it was very uplifting. I have a question that I hope you can answer even though it is not astrology related. Do you know what it means when you smell a sulfur like odor when there is nothing lit?"

5) Before leaving the impact others made on me, I must note that George Noory and the producer I worked with, the fabulous Lisa Lyon, couldn't have been more professional, encouraging and gracious. In a world in which it is so easy to feel like grist for someone else's mill, these folks made the human dimension of the experience an absolute pleasure.

6) So did I sell any books? That's kind of a personal question so let me give a personal answer. On the best sales days of Signs of Success, back over a year ago when it first came out, I made it a few times to as high as #4 on the respective Amazon lists of astrology and horoscope books. Even on those heady occasions, I was always parked behind the late great Linda Goodman, whose mid-1960's Sun Signs to this day remains arguably the premier initiate gateway into astrology and the best selling astrology book in recorded history. For three days, thanks to Coast to Coast AM, I was the author of the #1 astrology book in the U.S., even topping Linda Goodman...and while I'm sure that was accomplished on quite modest sales...to me it will always and forever after be a special occasion.

7) So did I get any job leads? Yes, I did. But I'm not so busy that I wouldn't like to hear from you, too.

8) Of all the things I got to talk about, two pleased me the most. First in a segment devoted to my earlier astrology book, Signs of Taste, George afforded me the opportunity to run down each of the astrological signs with a brief description of what they like to eat. While far less heady than the other material with which I now find myself concerned, this subject matter is like the whipped cream of astrology...and people have always responded enthusiastically to it, as they did in this case. The other area where the conversation got particularly interesting, I thought, was in a discussion of the apocalyptic prospects that are now being attached to the year 2012. I explained that my own take on the matter has to do with the increased strength of Neptune as it enters into its own sign of Pisces in 2012, a condition that basically tells us we are not supposed to know what is going to happen that year...its unpredictability being mostly what is predicted. I also shared a great observation from the astrologer Ken Johnson, an expert in indigenous South American astrological practices, who notes that the "rolling over" of the Mayan calendar in 2012 is analogous to what happens when a car odometer hits all 9's...it rolls over to all zeros but the car does not stop.

9) If your wife is going to watch your Siamese cat while you are on the radio, make sure the wife does not nod off and allow the cat to come into your office while you are on the air. Not only did Tofu (the cat in question) participate in the conversation, he has received almost as much 'fan' mail as I have. The wife has been summarily dismissed from future cat monitoring duties.

10) My life hasn't changed so far due to this experience, nor I suspect will it. But if someone from Oprah was listening and would care to give it a shot...

For further information, please visit: www.stevenmarkweiss.com

To contact Steve directly: smw@stevenmarkweiss.com

Come stay up late with me and George Noory this Monday night, 10/26, as I guest on Coast to Coast AM! If you've never listened to the show...hard to believe...you'll be amazed that there is still a place in the public domain for open-minded and constructive consideration of things like, well, astrology. Check for your local station affiliate here: http://www.coasttocoastam.com/affiliates. We'll be discussing business, food, and of course the widely anticipated end of the world in 2012. Hope you can make it!

Some years ago I had a wonderful job as the food editor of a national restaurant trade magazine. This was back in the pre-web days when being in print counted for something and, even better, when real world experience was considered a prerequisite for adequately doing one's job. I caused no salary envy among my peers back then, but I covered a broad domain and had a generous expense account that allowed for dining and travel at a level almost impossible to imagine in these cost cutting times.

Back then, I would frequently have the opportunity to visit and engage in discourse with restaurant industry luminaries. It was a thrill and an honor to be granted insider status by the likes of Ella Brennan (Commander's Palace in New Orleans) , Don Roth (The Blackhawk in Chicago), Paul Kovi & Tom Margitai (New York's Four Seasons), and so many more who built the essence of the modern restaurant industry. The late Joe Baum, the individual most responsible for conceiving and building the restaurant complex at New York's World Trade Center, gave me special access in the heady years of his WTC work and I was forever enriched by his collegiality and mentoring.

In the context of the preceding it is amusing that the richest and most powerful of the restaurant developers I was ever to personally meet in those days was someone I pretty much blew off.  The setting was the National Restaurant Association convention, in Chicago, and I was running some thoughts in my head for a speech I was about to give on menu trends. I was approached by a lean, wavy-haired open-faced guy in glasses who was carrying an attaché case that seemed just a bit too large and cumbersome for maximum business image effectiveness.

So this guy sees by my convention badge that I'm an editor and he awkwardly opens the attaché case while starting  to tell me about several pizza joints he owns in Michigan. I try to be polite by feigning interest but this guy is way too into the magic of pizza delivery for my tastes and, besides, I'm preparing to give my own presentation. I somewhat grudgingly accept a brochure and a business card and pretty much immediately forget about Tom Monaghan and Domino's Pizza.

So now you're probably wondering how my presentation went. Actually, it was great and even received some front page coverage in the next day's USA Today (no kidding). In an era when nouvelle cuisine was starting to make an appearance, I had the bright idea of surveying a hundred food experts regarding what foods they really needed to survive on a deserted island...and there wasn't a mention of radicchio lettuce or goat cheese in the bunch.

The other bright idea I had was to ask all of my survey respondents their birth dates, and I was pleased to observe that the survey results showed a fair amount of consistency when divided zodiacally. An expanded questionnaire and a couple of hundred interviews later, I was able to get out this cool little sun sign astrology book, Signs of Taste, about people's food preferences based on their astrological signs. That's a picture of the recent re-issue at the top of this blog entry, and it is presently available at all fine on-line book outlets in case you're Christmas shopping for the foodie in your life. http://stevenmarkweiss.com/Signs_of_Taste.html

I'm aware that I fondly mentioned the pre-web years at the beginning of this entry, but man I could have used Amazon back then. The book generated an enormous amount of bemused coverage around the country in newspaper food sections (it was a features 'natural') , and I even had an ambitious media tour that placed me on talk shows from New York to Los Angles. Sadly, though, the small Oregon-based publisher who brought out the book ran afoul of its distributor and copies of the book saw far fewer store shelves than they might have under more fortunate circumstances.

Anyway, every so often since the original publication of the book I come across someone who finds the notion of gastronomy coupled with astrology (I call it "gastrology" in the book) charming or amusing. Magazine editors are the most likely candidates, and I've done a few high profile speaking gigs, and every once in a great while a real for-profit food-oriented business takes a look. But what were the chances, really, that after all this time Domino's Pizza  would express an interest?

Now let's be honest here. Tom Monaghan is no longer a hands-on player at Domino's, and one may safely assume there would have been no astrology, however harmless, on his watch. But getting to share some astrological expertise with the current Domino's regime in support of their new line of Oven Baked Sandwiches, is a very special pleasure for me...almost like an appointed destiny or an atonement. If you have a moment please check out the press release at http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=135383&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1336523&highlight=

or the deeper facebook exegesis at http://bit.ly/dominos_stars.

or if you just want to order a tasty Chicken Habanero or a Mediterranean Veggie sandwich then go here: http://www.dominos.com

Finally, I realize this entry violates every rule related to blog length, but if you are still with me  I have to mention my biggest culinary fanboy moment from the old days. I'm at a fancy culinary event in Santa Barbara, California, and the seat next to me at a luncheon is untaken. A voice above me asks if the seat is occupied and I look up to see that the inquisitor is Julia Child.

I could tell you a lot about that encounter, but the absolute key fact was...and I swear on a first edition of Mastering The Art of French Cooking that this is true...I just happened to have Julia's astrological birth chart in my briefcase. I guess I kind of played the role of Tom Monaghan in this meeting, but I did summon the courage to take the chart out and show it to her and ask if the birth data was in fact accurate. She seemed more startled than pleased, but she did say something that I will never forget and pretty much sums up this whole astrological business.

"What," said the inimitable Julia Child, "does this mean?"

For more information please visit http://www.stevenmarkweiss.com

If you've been visiting this site you know of my fondness for Jupiter, the planet of big picture thinking, and its usefulness in trend spotting. Taking almost exactly 12 years to orbit the sun, Jupiter spends one year in a zodiacal sign before moving on to spend a year in the next sign. Thus, in a manner reminiscent of the Chinese animal zodiac, Jupiter is useful in establishing a year's overarching theme, a theme that is reiterated (like clockwork) exactly every 12 years.

Now if you will kindly accept the notion that every one of the 360 degrees of the zodiac is imbued with special significance, then you can appreciate how one might drill down further into this 12 year cycle. Although there are enough 'irregularities' in astronomical motion, particularly periods of retrograde motion in which planets appear to be moving backwards in the sky, the mathematical average of Jupiter's stay in any one degree of the zodiac is approximately 12 days. So hypothetically at least, one can match Jupiter transits through specific degrees of the zodiac to ascertain common themes in very precise periods (less than two weeks) separated by 12 year increments.

Why I'm belaboring all this has to do with an astronomical condition called a planetary station. Basically, a station is created by a planet when it begins or ends a retrograde period. For a while, the planet appears to be neither moving forward nor backwards in the sky rendering it "stationary." Thus, it is sometimes Jupiter's lot to hang out at a single degree of the zodiac for a month and a half.

We have such a condition this fall, when Jupiter will occupy the 18th degree of Aquarius between September 21 and November 3rd. Such factors as the autumn equinox and the recent participation of this degree in eclipses adds a lot of juju to the energy of this placement. Mostly though, as trend watchers, we want to know what happened the last time Jupiter transited through the 18th degree of Aquarius...and we shall be aware that the tone of the earlier events will not quickly dissipate this time around.

Interestingly, although Jupiter's last visit to the 18th degree of Aquarius was short (seven days), it timed events of considerable cultural energy and significance. Kyoto, the avian flu, El Nino and the film Titanic were all part of the mix. Capitalism, as indicated below, was hitting on all cylinders (a hopeful sign this time around? or the exact opposite?).

Perhaps most useful from an astrological perspective is an awareness of the metaphysical significance of the 18th degree of Aquarius. It is a degree that is associated with the public unmasking of secret personal motives. So even if the economy has no real intention of improving over the next few months, at least it sounds like we are going to be royally entertained.


ADVERTISING

Something called the Internet was about to come on strong, but marketers managing the Christmas shopping season of 1997 had an entirely different ace up their electronic sleeves. Enthusiastic AD AGE coverage sanctified the moment as the apotheosis of the Infomercial, a splendid match of entrepreneurial chutzpah, cable television and modest ad budgets. There were charlatans and shoddy merchandise, of course, but some companies...such as Bowflex...seized the moment and have ever since hung on strong.

AUTOMOTIVE



In early December of 1997 big news was the signing of the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement that acknowledged the seriousness of global climate change and pledged the world's industrial nations to a significant reduction in green house gas emissions. Shown here is the 1997 GM EV1, the first electric car put into production by a major automobile manufacturer...an emissions-free car whose moment had clearly come...sort of. Actually, while the EV1's intentions were pure, its battery was nowhere up to the performance requirements of the American road. It was eventually cited by TIME magazine as one of the worst 50 cars ever built, and a widely distributed film documentary cited the EV1 as the vehicle that "killed the electric car."  And yet, one exact Jupiter cycle later, GM is back with the Chevrolet Volt. Interesting timing, indeed.


FASHION



Business Week's early December '97 issue explained to the world why Levi-Strauss was singing the blues.  Although 1996 had been a record sales year for the company (mostly thanks to its Dockers brand), the numbers headed south in 1997 thanks in large part to the fact that its core jeans brand was being labeled as tragically un-hip by the core jeans buying youth demographic. The answer, decided the Levi's brain trust, was an emphasis on the brand's SilverTab line that featured baggier cuts in more colors and fabrics than the classic denim product. So has "mom jeans" pinup president Barack Obama already refreshed the debate? By all means, stay tuned.

FOOD

The first case of a human death from the Hong Kong avian flu was actually reported in May of 1997. While the world held its breath for more bad news, the disease seemed to go into a sort of remission in that there were no new human cases of the flu reported between June and mid-November. But December changed all that as 18 more cases were revealed and, subsequently, more than a million birds were culled in Hong Kong's live poultry markets. A skittish America that had suffered through fruit parasite infestations and a tragic e-coli event earlier in the year was clearly shaken.  Politicians, drug companies and media all started beating the panic drum(sticks).  Chicken Little may well be coming around again this fall.


INSIGHT



Famed British businessman Richard Branson is certainly one of the world's most admired men. In addition to his legendary business achievements, he has always managed to be a popular hero, a ribald adventurer with a lust for life that clearly goes far beyond the building of a bank account. Early December 1997 brought a strange setback for Sir Richard, however, as the balloon he was preparing for what he had hoped to be the first non-stop circumnavigation of the planet simply...well, it just blew away in the wind without anyone on it. His comment upon the occasion was along the lines that balloons don't like to be tethered, they like to fly. Man (even a great one) plans, God laughs.

MANAGEMENT



The lead article in the December 1997 Harvard Business Review questioned the value of the team concept when applied to senior management. Well-known consultant and author Jon Katzenbach paddled against the tide of voguish HR theory when he posited that the notion of senior management working as a team was frequently a myth and often counter-productive. He made a strong case that the team notion in the ranks was often a touchy-feely sort of thing, and senior management had to be focused on sterner realities. While most of the analysis here is focused on the Jupiter cycle, any decent astrologer would tell you that Pluto has just entered Capricorn where it will transit for the next 14 years. Simply suffice it to say that the strong-man autocrat is likely back with a vengeance...and the group hug is going to find itself in mothballs for a while.

MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

It was just a few weeks before the national launch of James Cameron's Titanic, and the buzz was that the movie itself was a disaster of epic proportions. A lengthy article in TIME magazine pointed to deep cost overruns and a delayed release as sure signs the project was sinking. The magazine's influential film critic Richard Corliss attended an advance screening and wrote "the film fails utterly as compelling romantic fiction," and regretfully pronounced the project "dead in the water." The 11 Academy Awards and the eventual status of the film as the highest grossing movie in worldwide film history (no other film is is even close), must have come as a surprise to Mr. Corliss. How shall we be similarly astonished this time around?


RESTAURANTS



Restaurants, as a whole, were doing well in December of 1997, the result of a robust economy and a whole lot of optimism about what lay ahead on the enterprise highway. Away from home dining was most vibrant on the high and low ends of the scale, and there was a clearly progressive consumer bias towards menu and concept innovation. In the midst of such a go-go period, it might have been easy to overlook the news from American Restaurant Group Holdings. The parent company of such middle-of-the-road and old-timey chains as Stewart Anderson's Black Angus and Grandy's, found itself placed on S&P credit watch as its cash flow signaled (accurately) crippling debt repayment problems ahead. Industry insiders know that the debt issue is a flaming sword hanging over the industry right now, and the fear is palpable. And this time the general economy is hardly likely to help...


RETAIL



The stores were crowded and catalog sales were brisk during the first two weeks of the December '97 holiday shopping season. But this was also a moment when a new commerce channel clearly cut through the consciousness of the American consumer. According to a mid-month report released by AOL, the Christmas '97 shopping season generated online sales at a pace twice that of the previous year. Even more encouraging to the future of the medium was the recognition that for the first time ever non-computer categories were dominating the online sales mix.  Gourmet goodies from companies such as Godiva, Starbucks and Omaha Steaks topped the charts. Collectively the number one online merchandise category was apparel, and 1-800-Flowers experienced a breakthrough year. Also, the majority of sales were taking place during the late night/early morning hours during which most retailers are closed. It's hard to imagine that the upcoming period will see a lessening of the trend.


TECHNOLOGY



Whatever was transpiring in December of 1997, including everything else referenced here, it is very easy to argue that one extremely diminutive device was the dominant factor in the zeitgeist. For this was the moment of the microchip, the anointed driver of all economic and technological hope for the future. Thanks to this miniature marvel the information was flowing, the stock market was soaring, tech startups were skyrocketing, the unemployment percentage hit a 25 year low, and it looked like capitalism had permanently vanquished all contenders.  By month's end TIME would name the chip's greatest champion, Intel's Andrew Grove, its Man of the Year.  The key here is that sometimes a planetary cycle, even when it involves generally fortunate Jupiter, may manifest the opposite qualities of a previous iteration. Or maybe, since we're talking Jupiter, you get lucky once more...

TOYS



Tamagotchi, a virtual electronic pet on a key chain, came on the heels of the Tickle Me Elmo year and nothing kidcentric was likely to create as much fuss. Nevertheless, Tamagotchi was the "it" kid swag in December of 1997 and it has some obvious relevancy as Jupiter cycles around. The salient fact about Tamagotchi...the factor that irritated adults everywhere and quickly led to its being banned from schools...is that the survival of the pet was pegged to constant attention. Imagine, a little hand held electronic device with a constant trivial data stream and a host of banal demands presented as a matter of life or death.  If text messaging and Twitter surprise you, then you haven't been paying (constant) attention.

TRAVEL

Texas needs rain. We are coming into an El Nino climate event that is sure to produce some. A lot, perhaps. More than a lot. It was in early December '97 that the 1997-98 El Nino event started leading off nightly newscasts. Over the next eight months in floods and droughts across the globe thousands died, billions of dollars were lost, and planetary climate patterns were permanently altered.  Perhaps the good news is that El Nino tends to suppress Atlantic hurricanes. Tends to.

For more information, please contact Steve at smw@stevenmarkweiss.com 

    
                                                               

                                                            

I don't have a lot of first-hand experience with Houston, Texas. There was once a time long ago, however, when I was working as a deckhand on a steel hauling ship that made multiple trips from a foundry in Baltimore, around Florida and up through the Houston ship channel. So every couple of weeks I got a few days in Houston while the longshoremen unloaded the ship.

On one such occasion I hitchhiked into downtown Houston and happened past a theater that was advertising a musical show. I hadn't then heard of the headliner, a chanteuse by the name of Bette Midler, or her director/accompanist, some Barry Manilow guy, but I bought myself a what-the-hell ticket. Of course the show turned out to be fantastic but what really made an impression that evening...we're talking 1970's Texas here, me in the middle of a quintessential macho life experience...was the entirely unexpected and mind blowing 'urbanity' of the crowd.

It was upon that occasion I learned something that the Greater Houston Visitors and Convention Bureau is busily promoting to this very day. Houston, from shipping to space and from Beyonce' Knowles to ZZ Top, is not quite what you may be expecting from America's most famous oil city.  It's cosmopolitan and diverse and, here's the real point, doing very nicely thank you...even in the midst of the current economic mess.

"Very nicely" may in fact be an understatement. Sure Houston is feeling some pressure as are all municipalities, but a number of recent authoritative rankings list Houston as #1 in the U.S. in such categories as:  

• Best City to Live, Work and Play
• Best U.S. City to Earn a Living
• Best City for Your Job
• Best City to Buy a Home
• Best City for Recent College Grads
• Nation's Healthiest Housing Market
• Hottest Labor Market
• Nominal Job Growth
• Lowest Cost of Living Among Major Metro Areas
• Largest IT Service Economy
• Top U.S. Manufacturing Cities
• Most Accessible City for the Disabled
• Top Local Government Green Power Purchaser
• Highest Population Growth in the Nation

This July an Economist cover story addresses business friendly conditions ranging from low tax rates to liberal immigration policies to a state budget surplus in explaining why Texas is kicking California's butt in the hopes-for-the-future department. Houston is the showpiece of the story. Similarly, a recent Forbes piece cites job availability, cheap housing and a welcoming regard to newcomers in describing Houston as "a perfect opportunity city."

So why should 2009 sing so sweetly for Houston, while sour notes sound for so much of the rest of the nation? Probably there's a reasonable answer having to do with factors like long-term fiscal responsibility, the importance of the energy economy, and the many features of the pro-business civic orientation cited above.  As an astrologer, though, I'm ultimately forced to conclude that it is simply a matter of good luck, courtesy of Jupiter.

Admittedly it is an oversimplification to consider Jupiter solely as a planet of good fortune. Jupiter, the giant gas bag of our solar system, more precisely rules the principle of expansion. Certainly growth can be bad as well as good, but the prevailing astrological consensus is that Jupiter has a tendency to grow the good stuff and the planet has long been considered a great benefic influence in astrological lore and practice.

Houston apparently has natal status as a favorite ward of Jupiter. In a horoscope calculated for the original purchase and subsequent naming of the tract of land that would eventually become the fifth largest metro area in the U.S., Jupiter plays a prominent and auspicious role. The Houston chart's rising sign is Sagittarius (Jupiter's sign), and the ascendant is very closely trined from the ninth house by the chart ruler, Jupiter...all very indicative of a general state of easy flowing good fortune and a prosperous/healthy reputation and role in the world at large.

Still, the fortunes of any municipality are going to ebb and flow, and even in Houston there are certainly going to be lean years mixed with the Jupiterian. Any astrologer would look to planetary transits and progressions to deal with such changes in fortune, and one would reasonably expect Jupiter to be highly and favorably activated in significant planetary encounters in a (relative) boom year. Frankly, though, there's not that much going on with the Houston natal Jupiter this year.

What is quite arresting, though, is the 'randomly' fortuitous placement of Jupiter in a particular chart that really has nothing to do with Houston in a direct sense. The chart I'm referencing is a horoscope cast for 2009's first trade on the New York Stock Exchange, a chart that arguably represents the character of American commerce for the year ahead. If one takes the planetary positions in this New York City-based chart, and plots them out on a map of the earth (a discipline known as astrocartography), one readily sees that at the opening bell of the NYSE this year, Jupiter was exactly rising (i.e. it was powerfully positioned on the ascendant) in Houston.

I accept that if you are not into astrology you may be a little less than awestruck. But certainly you can appreciate the difference in the tone of the times for Houston as compared to just about everywhere else in the country excepting the rest of southeastern Texas. It sounds like optimism, man, and when was the last time you got an earful of that?

Sure there are other planets involved with Houston this year. Heavyweight Pluto opposed the natal Houston Mars in May, and the city's most important athlete, Yao Ming, broke his foot during the NBA playoffs. This aspect repeats itself this year on Christmas day, by the way, and I'm just giving the coaching staff a heads up.

For the most part, though, the other planetary activity simply enforces the notion that this is Houston's time. Saturn, the planet of hard earned achievement, is lingering around the Houston MC (the very top of the chart) this year, and that's a powerful indication of accomplishment (a very nice complement to Jupiter's inclination towards windfall luck). And the same powerful Pluto that broke Yao's foot is making nice to the Houston Sun (vitality) and Uranus (innovation and popular causes) all year.

Perhaps the event that spells it out best took place on May 29th, a day when Pluto formed an exact sextile (60 degrees; signifying communications & public achievement) aspect with Houston's natal Uranus. On that day the American Marketing Association recognized the Houston chapter of the AMA as the North American Chapter of the Year. During that evening the chapter presented it's top creative honor to the GHV&CB for its marketing campaign titled "My Houston," a global multi-media campaign proclaiming the city's love-embrace of opportunity, talent, style and diversity.

Or maybe Houston's moment is best reflected in its slate of candidates for the mayoral election that is to take place in November. Among the leading candidates are a black attorney, a career military officer who is of Mexican American heritage, a third generation Houston-based Anglo architect, and an openly gay woman who currently serves as Houston's City Controller, Houston's second highest elected office.  Cowboy stuff, hardly.

But not a bad crowd for a Bette Midler (who is a Sagittarian by the way) concert...

For more information, please contact Steve at smw@stevenmarkweiss.com

There are many apparently rational ways to go about prognosticating the trends/fads of an upcoming season. Go ahead and be as logical and empirical as you like, however, and one fact remains.  You're still guessing.

So cut the astrologer a little slack.  If your prognostications involve research generalizations and his rely on Jupiter, do you think one is less funny to an alien intelligence? Is there any reason why "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference" should be heralded as a marketing masterwork and "Signs of Success: The Remarkable Power of Business Astrology" should languish on the shelf? I've read both and I know how I  would answer that question.

Anyway, to show the good faith of a very earnest researcher into cosmic commerce, I offer here exactly what Jupiter is trying to tell us about the fads and trends across a host of industries for the upcoming summer season. The echo period is January/February of 1998. Free your mind...

ADVERTISING




Mail boxes and Sunday newspapers work best when they are not only filled with information, but are additionally crammed with actual stuff. Heavy duty in-home product sampling is due for a resurgence say the auguries. What are we gonna do with all that crap piling up in warehouses anyway?


AUTOMOTIVE



The Oldsmobile Alero, announced in winter of 1998, was GM's acknowledgment that the American consumer of 1998 would rather drive a Honda Accord than an American car in a similar price range.  People who bought the Alero seemed to like its styling and handling, although it never earned great marks for its mechanical reliability. In 2004...and here may lie the chief resonance of this tale...the brand folded, along with Oldsmobile itself.


CONSUMER PACKAGED GOODS




The Mach 3 is coming, the Mach 3 is coming! That was the buzz in the business magazines during the winter of 1998, although Gillette had yet to reveal its triple-bladed, and oh so top secret, razor's name. While for some the razor will always call to mind an early SNL parody (the third blade shaves even closer "because you'll believe anything"), the razor with "racing stripes" on the handle was a large success for the manufacturer. Watch for renewed interest in 'gourmet' versions of very ordinary products. (Are you listening, Chef Boyardee?)


FASHION

Devotees of Jupiter cycles have no problem understanding why Michelle Obama (or at least somebody very highly visible and fashion-influential)  is a J. Crew fan. One need simply hearken back to the winter of '98 pre-publicity campaign for the landmark WB teenage drama Dawson's Creek that included the show's young cast, including Katie Holmes, being featured in the J. Crew catalog.  What I'm thinking is a fairly conservative look, with a surprising amount of steamy stuff going on in the inside.


FOOD



On the very first day of 1998, the Chicago Sun Times proposed Moroccan food as the upcoming year's likely number one food trend. Now certainly this was meant to be a bit of a "grabber," whatever the level of sincerity behind the patently ridiculous prognostication. But have you heard about this Moroccan chef who just recently beat Cat Cora in an "Iron Chef America" showdown and who now has cooking show and recipe book in development for PBS? All aboard the Marrakesh Express!


INSIGHT



Principals of the estimable trend consultancy, Iconoculture, released their book "The Future Ain't What It Used To Be, " in February of 1998. I disagree with the title assertion, of course, but it's only fair to give credit to a really cool title. So let's just celebrate the authors' identification of "grackers" (grey hackers),  as an increasingly hip AARP crowd will most certainly continue to get in on the social networking fun...twaddling rather than twittering, I suppose.


MANAGEMENT



It's difficult to pin an exact date on the fruition of Y2K angst, but the portion of business literature concerned with CEO pontification had a noteworthy flurry of activity in the winter of 1998. Basically, corporate heads were told that they would have to take responsibility for a new Dark Ages if they weren't already firing pretty hefty wads of cash at their IT departments and the resolution of their cracked computer code. I'm simply here to tell those same CEO's that they won't know what trouble is until 2012 when the Mayan calendar cycle ends and Neptune moves into Pisces. Paypal accepted.


MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT



As a result of new FCC regulations regarding children's television, CBS launched its Fall '97 season with an ambitious slate of Saturday morning educational shows, including the quite highly regarded science show Beakman's World (pictured above). What CBS quickly learned was that children didn't particularly like educational programming and so, in mid-January of 1998, CBS canceled all of its Saturday morning shows.  So one may safely conclude that this summer will not herald a renaissance in educational media for children.  Fortunately we have some time before we will need those Y3K engineers.


RESTAURANTS



To be honest, the most pressing 'insider' restaurant preoccupation in the winter of '98 was the concerted effort by  chefs to save the swordfish from being over fished. So a lot of menu makers benched  the broadbill and, safe to say, most consumers didn't have a clue that it was gone. Meanwhile, a lot of ink also went to bagels, yogurt, flavored ice teas, and coffee kiosk drive-throughs; the sort of things that were happy impulse buys in good ol' 1998...and will probably be considered luxury indulgences this far less economically carefree July.


RETAIL

It was in January of 1998 that the trade literature of the supermarket industry got particularly serious about covering the industry's HMR (home meal replacement) opportunity. In the next few months seemingly every grocer in America went out and bought an electric rotisserie unit. By the end of the year the Boston Market restaurant chain, specializing in rotisserie chicken, had gone bankrupt and become the wounded property of McDonald's.  Amidst a host of other well-documented challenges, the restaurant industry may well expect ever-increasing HMR efforts from supermarkets this summer.  Poor Ronald.


TECHNOLOGY

At the 1998 Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show, Scott McNealy, the founder of Sun Microsystems, was virtually everywhere preaching the open-platform gospel of JAVA and networked intelligence. "It's too complicated," said McNealy of Windows-dominated general computer applications, telling ABC's Aaron Brown that the personal computer was "the massive hairball of computing." Looking towards a future when extremely smart, application specific, handheld devices would rule the consumer electronic space, McNealy might have been looking at a future about 11-1/2 years ahead...say the summer of 2009.


TRAVEL



In 1998 Hawaii's tourism industry, which accounts for one-third of the state's jobs (some say three-fourths if you figure in 'influenced' work) and one-fourth of its tax revenues, went so soft that the state government formed its first ever statewide agency to address the decline. This year, after a very healthy decade-long tourism recovery, the predictions are that Hawaii will see its worst tourism revenue declines since the Great Depression.  So please buy a pineapple this summer...and support your local astrologer.

For more information please contact Steve Weiss at smw@stevenmarkweiss.com .

Overview

Very little is likely to change this month, particularly with regard to the bottom line. While some companionable solace may be realized in the shared awareness that we are all in a pickle, there's really not much hope of anyone sliding safely into base right now (it's spring, can't resist the baseball metaphor). Net-net money continues to be very, very tight this April and that's just going to cast a pall on a discussion of commerce, obviously.

For those who insist upon being enterprising, the central reality is serving a marketplace hoping for things to get better. Alas, the indications are that the purveyors of goods and services as well as job seekers, shoppers, government regulators, cable business commentators and all the other actors (i.e. every single one of us) in the economic drama are going to toss the dwindling supply of wishing coins down increasingly dry and inhospitable wells. The growing urgency of our collective plight is going to yield acts that are, if not yet patently desperate, at least strained and ill-advised.

In the U.S., a great part of the problem is that our historical heritage encourages us towards risk-taking and rugged individualism, particularly in times of duress. For all the brave virtue in such a perspective, there are times when the unchecked ego simply wreaks havoc with the collective necessity. The indications this month are for a fairly noisy zeitgeist full of individuals all to ready to report what needs to be done immediately in order for things to improve for them.

Even those with a broader social perspective are likely to emphasize the me in commerce this month. Expect grand gestures from those playing at altruism and open-mindedness, self-proclaimed lovers of freedom and their fellow men who are willing to do whatever it takes to make themselves attractive to others. Unfortunately such gestures will tend to come off as patently false, easily exposed as little more than contrived artifices designed to pin down others in relationships with a decidedly one-way reward system.

As downbeat as the preceding sounds, there is some hope for the future here, although not necessarily the sort best expressed in what is purportedly a business column. Throughout history, great thinkers have told us that we have a human problem with ego attachment that causes us, among other things, to identify transitory wants as essential needs. There's really no telling how much traction may be here, but there is at least a clear opportunity brewing for people to free their spirits from materially-based and socially-restrictive value systems (at least a little bit) and to get in touch with a deeper reality, one in which creativity, compassion and service form the basis of truly collective human progress.

It is also, finally, spring. The auguries suggest that the song of the season this time around is not the sweet chirrup of the robin, but rather the broad mimetic genius of the mockingbird. Being first is great, and there's always room for pluck and originality, but the real hope of rebirth at the moment lies in a lot less twittering and a great deal more virtuosity.

History Rhymes

"Shantih shantih shantih." - If, like me, you made the macabre choice of majoring in English Literature, then you might recognize the final line of one of the most influential of modern poems, The Waste Land, published by T.S. Eliot in the year 1922. A complex, downcast work, the poem is a an indictment of the declining tenor of Western civilization and its failing capacity for spiritual regeneration. The word "shantih" is the Buddhist  term for "peace," and the poem makes some 'argument' for prizing the Eastern philosophy's ideals of empathy and self-control. What calls out astrologically is the resonance of the current time period with one (March 1950) in which T.S. Eliot appeared on the cover of Time Magazine in concurrence with the publication of his collected works. There's also the matter of the poem's famous first few words, "April is the cruellest month..."

Deep Blue bests Kasparov - Perhaps no issue is as central to contemporary culture as the role granted to mankind's technology. Far more than the stuff of science fiction, there is much in the real world riding on the determination as to whether man or his electronic creations should be the lead dog in the evolution (and management!) of our increasingly complex civilization. Those who are rooting for the circuits had perhaps their best PR day ever when in 1997 an IBM computer, named Deep Blue, became the first computer ever to best the world's reigning chess champion, Garry Kasparov, in a six-game match (2 wins, 1 loss, 3 ties). While the computer's victory was certainly newsworthy enough, just as instructive was the match's aftermath. Kasparov actually claimed that the computer "cheated," by which he meant that it played with such intelligence and creativity that there just had to be some human intervention in the moves. IBM hardly cleared up the matter when it had Deep Blue dismantled shortly after the match, although it later published the computer's purported computations. What do you think? Or don't you think much anymore?

Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough - For one magical instant between the Jackson 5 childhood and the massive production values of the MTV years, Michael Jackson was a young singer/songwriter with nothing but talent and unlimited potential. Do yourself a favor and head on over to YouTube and catch the title song from this 1979 album, the first over which he had creative control. Talk about mockingbirds, virtuosity and the potential of spring!

((By the way, if you read last month's Business Outlook you were given a remarkable heads-up on the University of Arizona basketball team that, as I write this, is headed to the NCAA basketball tournament round of Sweet 16. Most pundits thought that the school should not even qualify for the tournament, but now these Wildcats are being universally written about as the "Cinderella" team, which is also eerily resonant if you read the "History Rhymes" section in last month's Business Outlook post. Yay astrology!))

Strange Days

April 7 - Your intuition may be especially powerful today...and that's good news. Although the background environment may seem a little disturbed there is potential profit in listening to your muse and playing a hunch. Activities and products involving water, walking and wonderment are favored.

April 14 - There is a definite energy buzz in the zeitgeist today, although conceivably it's because people are freaking out about only having a day left to file their taxes. In any event the key today is the word "unusual," and whether you are the sender or the receiver there's no getting around the fact that these are strange days indeed.

April 25/26 - The worst kind of astrology is the dire prediction, as even the very best of astrologers is guessing a little. And yet, astrologically speaking, there is so much that could go wrong this weekend, or just seem wrong, that one is well-advised to consider the virtues of ignorance and avoidance. Truly the obsessed are out on the streets (particularly on Sunday), and confrontation can sometimes be a real crackup...and that's bad news.


For questions and personal consultations, please contact me at : smw@stevenmarkweiss.com.










 

Overview

During this challenging period one may assume that the undertaking of action in the business sphere will be born out of one of four premises:

1) Predictably, the heaviest and likeliest most powerful premise is that a bad economy will continue to drive tight capital situations and an enormous reticence regarding spending. Managers will more than ever see their task as financial conservation, and they will sniff out most any form of creative speculation or perceived excess and grind it under their heels. Anything that smacks of risk is a non-starter these days, and only the most fearless of CEOs and corporate boards will dip their toes in the deep spending end of the risk/reward possibility pool.

2) It's probably not something that does much good to talk about, but the second premise is that the consumer is scared to death about his/her assets and craves assurance of material security. Fortunately, complete hopelessness has yet to set in, but the hope that does exist is being polluted by messengers promulgating an immature and irrational belief in the very quick fix. There is much potential danger here when the reality of time fully sets in... particularly for leaders/authorities who promise to deliver far too much far too soon (more on this below).

3) Perhaps the most optimistic premise is that there actually may be a genius or two (they will not come by the dozens) available in the corridors of authority who will simply work out what we have to do or, at the very least, what we have to understand in order to thrive. What we are collectively looking for are leaders who are capable of short-timing history through the exercise of personal will and skill. It's wishful thinking, but astrological conditions suggest it's not entirely implausible.

4) It's the most subtle of premises, but it also just may be the most authentic and valuable. Right now, so goes the astrology, a key premise in the marketplace is the presence of a collective aspiration to beat back our troubles through the force of communal will. While the linear thinkers and the data collectors might blanch at such a notion, this is a force that does not particularly benefit from rational scrutiny and is really best identified as spiritual in nature. Alas, while astrology hints at the existence of this hopeful communal power it also indicates that we don't quite know how it should or must manifest. Here is where some consideration of patience, courage, faith and particularly the concept of grace figure in. Or maybe we could just crunch some numbers.

All of the preceding is of relevance because this March we seem to arrive at a difficult crossroads that pits much of the current experience of leadership against the evolving emotions, spiritual yearnings and collective will of the public. Inhibited from formulating deeply constructive plans by a most difficult and uncertain marketplace, the indication is that there are many "authorities" who will try to bluff and bluster their way through this period with strident (yet ill-founded) certainty and clarion calls to (premature) action. In times that call for nothing so much as mature sobriety regarding long-term cycles, astrology warns of us a flood of ill-informed and precipitous fools who are simultaneously assured of their on-the-fly street smarts and outraged by the prospect of themselves living up to the hugely subjective and self-interested notions and demands they expect others to fulfill.

What is so interesting in the current cosmic conditions is that a populace that has deep well-intentioned expectations of their leadership is so likely to be disappointed right now. Suffering far more than the advantaged members of our society can possibly appreciate, the increasingly disadvantaged general public seems a lot closer to the potential of real inner growth right now. A spiritual wisdom matrix that includes the vanishing of cherished illusions and the testing of inner strength is pointing towards the development of a capacity for resilience...a quality far more virtuous than the glib and trivial egocentricity emanating from leaders who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.


History Rhymes

"Have faith in your dreams and someday..." - When Walt Disney released the movie Cinderella in February of 1950, his company had not had a hit movie in more than a decade. Had it failed, say business pundits, Disney Studios would have been history. But not only did the movie charm audiences, Cinderella was the first instance of a movie in which all musical rights were assiduously protected and in which soundtrack recordings were aggressively merchandised...leading to exceptional incremental profits. The real point right here, though, is that in March of 2009 we are all feeling a bit Cinderella-ish in the time before the prince and the glass slipper thing. True fans of the Cinderella story will recall that Cinderella was doing quite well before the stepmother thing, and that her wealthy father, who dies shortly thereafter, marries Cindy's stepmother primarily to give his daughter a maternal influence. The house in which Cinderella is treated as a domestic servant actually belonged to her father. Cinderella, despite her dreadfully reduced circumstances, of course keeps the faith, performs her ugly chores, befriends singing mice...and her "someday" rainbow eventually comes shining through. All in all, not a bad myth for these times.

The 1997 Masters - If some day astrology achieves any regard as a business tool, I personally want to be remembered for my drum beating regarding the 12-year Jupiter cycle and its usefulness in tracking/predicting broad cultural trends. Two nights ago, I watched a college basketball game between Arizona State University and the U of Arizona, and the student cheering section of the latter all wore shirts which bore the simple message "1997." This was a reference to the school's NCAA championship run in March 1977. Yesterday the big financial market news was the descent of the DJIA to levels it had not seen since the spring of 1997. And now the golf world is abuzz with Tiger Woods return to the tour...exactly on the Jupiter return anniversary of his most famous victory, a 12-shot devastation of the field by a 21 year-old at the 1997 Masters. You really might benefit from paying some attention to this stuff.

James McDougal goes to prison - I have no intention here of parsing Whitewater,  the banking/investment scandal that caught up Hillary Clinton, in large part because it is far too politically Byzantine and court intrigue-y for a feeble minded civilian like myself to actually understand. All I want to note here is that a principle figure in the event, a Clinton banker friend by the name of Jim McDougal was, in an astrologically parallel period to this one, sent to jail for bank fraud.  Banker beware.


Strange Days

March 3 - This is one of those days when everyone is going to be hell bent on putting ideas into action. Right now, this instant. So you be the one to make sure that all the facts have been assembled and the acts taken are not totally premature.

March 23/24 - There is bound to be unusually strong sexual tension in the work world early this week. This will not manifest well for everyone, although some are going to be granted their steamiest private wish. Expect to see some new spring wardrobe items on display. Expect to see spring on display.

March 30 - It is likely this Monday that everyone who still has a job is going to show up at work and enthusiastically sing some version of "I've Got To Be Me." The resulting ill-will and bedlam is hardly likely to put a smile on anyone's face.

What will compound the test that many of us will face is a very genuine uncertainty about where civilization stands at this moment. Some will see a kind of glamour or at least hopeful mystery in the beckoning of an historical cycle change, but uncertainty about the course of human events will manifest for most as real world anxiety, vulnerability, and fear of abandonment. The issue of self-discipline, the rigorous honoring of one’s own inner code and the stewardship of one’s real asset base, is going to be a premier universal concern in this time frame.

 

The preceding with its implication of sacrifice and effort is, of course, likely to prove untenable for a large portion of the population. It is clear that the masses, including consumers and colleagues, enter into this year with a genuine and energetic sense of collectivized hope as best reflected in the political regime change in Washington. Howsoever, the auguries most powerfully suggest that this hope is flimsy at best, and that the flip side may be a Pandora’s box of insecurities leading to nervous instability and the potential for grass roots fanaticism and aggression in the face of inevitable economic and social strains and disappointments.

 

To those who are sensitive to the currents of time, the feeling that will pervade the zeitgeist might be fairly characterized as a basic training situation. It may be a grand simplification, but the essence of training is the impartation of constructive discipline by the trainer, just as the key to its success is a willing attitude on the part of the trainee. Right now it’s bound to feel like we’re all in God’s boot camp…and strong bosses with the appropriate messiah complexes should correspondingly have the authoritarian time of their lives.

"It's in our interest to put some of the old rules aside and create new ones..." 
-  Robert Iger, Disney CEO

These are not exactly days when one tends to be emotionally uplifted by reading business publications, especially on matters relating to the current state of corporate CEOdom. Nevertheless, a recently posted Fortune piece by editor Richard Siklos on Disney CEO Bob Iger (link) actually inspires some hope regarding the abilities of corporate royalty. As discussed in this blog and elsewhere, leadership is bound to carry an enormous burden into the Obama Years and any signs of executive competence and managerial success are to be savored.

Siklos clearly addresses the fact that Iger, unlike the mogulish Michael Eisner before him, probably comes up a little short in general name recognition. At one point in the piece Siklos even quotes Iger to the effect that he would actually prefer to be "invisible" or "anonymous," but that such a course would probably not be "good for the company."  Issues of notoriety aside, however, it is apparent that in the three short years of Iger's tenure he has proven himself not only very adept at leading the world's largest (by dollar value) media conglomerate, but that he also has some gifts of personal style and acumen  that might translate into a decent set of working instructions for leaders contemplating the likely near-term Sisyphean future.

On the most rudimentary of astrological levels, Iger is a sun sign Aquarius. In SIGNS OF SUCCESS the point is made that Aquarians tend not to seek the very top post in an organization as they find culture preservation antithetical to their open-minded nature, and endless top-down responsibility a drag on their personal compulsion to change outmoded rules in mid-stream. Historically though, and this is certainly more observation than explanation, they do tend to show up at times of cultural crisis (Lincoln, FDR and Reagan were all Aquarian presidents; it is also Obama's rising sign)  for they have the humanitarian's gift of combining hopeful consideration for the masses with necessary next steps for achieving the greatest social good.

With Aquarius leaders there is almost always also a media/technology thing linked to the humanitarian concerns (think Oprah), as they are sincerely interested in embracing the widest possible audience via the most effective and inclusive channels. In Iger's case the Disney connection makes the point almost painfully obvious, but the real Aquarius key is Iger's 'genius' regarding the multiple media platforms of the company (movies, music, television, websites, theme parks, retail, etc.) and the product synergies that can be obtained through linking efforts around the company's "franchises," from Mickey Mouse to Hanna Montana. While Iger is certainly keeping his eye on the "family entertainment" ball, he appears to be uniquely disposed towards an expansion of age focus, particularly capitalizing upon the possibilities of growing older with customers who may start out with Goofy and Buzz Lightyear but who quickly graduate to the likes of Cheetah Girls and High School Musical.

As important as the Aquarius sun is in Iger's horoscope, one may also rightfully pay attention to the three planets in Iger's chart---Venus, Jupiter and Mars---in very tight proximity (conjunction) in the sign of Pisces. These are, respectively, the planetary icons related to desire, good fortune and action, and their proximity suggests a nice harmony of intent and outcome. Their appearance in the sign of Pisces, which is related to the imagination and fantasy and dreams and art and what Jung might call the collective unconscious, is amply reflected in the general Disney gestalt, and in Iger's 'day one' announcement that his first priority would be to "fix the slumping animation business."

Disney animation, with its deep good versus evil psychological overtones, has always had a Pisces quality to it. For an astrologer, it's fascinating that Bob Iger, who identified the modern Pixar creations (Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Cars, etc.) distributed by Disney as hotter franchises than the classic Disney canon, was able to persuade a reticent Steve Jobs (a Pisces) to sell Pixar to Disney, making Jobs the single largest Disney shareholder at 8% ownership. Jobs, who had a well publicized personality clash with Michael Eisner (also Pisces!) is quoted in the Siklos piece:

"I consider Bob Iger a friend. I don't have a lot of friends. I just really like him, and he's a really solid guy."

This last is fabulously instructive. When the sincere humanitarian principles of the Aquarius CEO combine with the deep emotional intelligence of the Pisces CEO, enormous corporations will get hitched and great animation will occur. In utmost seriousness, this explicit sense of human bonding is a worthwhile insight in an age that has become prisoner to a dry and calculating crowd of number crunchers and data freaks...especially when one is dealing with deal clinchers for a powerful Aquarius or Pisces.

I don't expect to personally run into him, but if you do happen to personally hang with Bob Iger, please give him a cautionary heads up regarding 2009. The current Saturn/Uranus opposition is sitting right on his nodal axis, which portends a destiny-impacting period in which he will have to make difficult decisions between exercising authority and allowing creative genius to flourish (his destiny will likely be best impacted if he maintains a bias towards the latter). Also, Pluto is exactly squaring his natal Saturn right now, and this speaks of an almost crushing pressure related to the money guys attempting to force action, in contravention to his usually well-paced and consensual management style  (this secretly compulsive Moon in Aries soul hates having his will publicly challenged and is not afraid of a fight). He should be particularly aware of dates around July 8 and November 11 when push could definitely come to shove.

Caution him to grab a FastPass ticket at those times and come back later.


Bob Iger or anyone else can contact Steve at smw@stevenmarkweiss.com.

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal offered a compilation of a list of the year's top CEO's. To create the list the authors consulted professors at four leading American business schools. Acknowledging the overall weakness of business performance in the 2008 economy, the article's authors and the professors were clear to make the point that the list would be a short one and that relative failure looks pretty good next to absolute failure.

As it is my nature to care about such things, and appreciating that some of the names on the list appear in my book SIGNS OF SUCCESS, I set about compiling a list of birth dates for all of the leaders mentioned in the article. I don't think this is exactly the technique used by Jim Collins (a fellow Aquarian) in GOOD TO GREAT, but it has its virtues. Anyway, here are a few astrological insights:

Out of a list of ten names to which I can easily attach a date of birth, it is a remarkable statistical anomaly that three of the leaders are of the same sun sign, and that the sign is Pisces. Astrological lore frequently writes off Pisces as a poetic dreamer lacking the energetic focus of the business magnate, but research actually yields a list of leaders---ranging from George Washington and Alexander Graham Bell to Phil Knight and Steve Jobs---as impressive as that of any other sign. Pisces, it may be argued, is the sign of universal psychic connection, and its natives have the gift of intuiting what must be made manifest in the zeitgeist to feed the universal needs and wants of mankind.

Anyway, the Pisces on this year's top CEO list are James Dimon (JPMorgan Chase), Gary Kelly (Southwest Airlines), and Steve Jobs (Apple). What these men all seem to excel in is the marriage of product/service vision and corporate culture creation, as well as a knowledge of how to emotionally connect to the shareholder/consumer. Astrology may be easily attacked on scientific grounds, but it is still interesting to note that Gary Kelly shares the exact same birthday, March 13th, as SWA chairman and founder Herb Kelleher.

Another of the so-called water signs, typified by the dominance of intuitive and emotional components in the personality make-up, has two entries on the top CEO list. The sign is Scorpio, and of particular interest is that the only two women who are mentioned in the article, Anne Mulcahy (Xerox) and Indra Nooyi (Pepsico), are the designees. The 'secret' for each of these women appears to be a no-nonsense action-oriented appraisal of business imperatives and a gift for forging the bonds of allegiance among their colleagues...a charismatic and persuasive power sprung in part from the inspiring inner passion of the individual who refuses to be limited by life's gender or ethnic prejudices.

The only other sign that merits a dual mention is Capricorn, in the persons of Rajiv Gupta (Rohm and Haas) and Jeff Bezos (Amazon). Capricorn is often cited by astrologers as the quintessential sign of management, embodying a tone of realistic appraisal, disciplined authority, and an appreciation of the value of long-term effort & perspective. It is a bit ironic, perhaps, that Gupta is recognized in a year when he is responsible for the sale of this venerable 100 year-old family-based institution to Dow Chemical (technically it's a merger), an event that eliminates his job. Bezos, though, whose company is noted in SIGNS OF SUCCESS as the only one of the great 1990's Internet start up companies (Amazon, Google, eBay, Yahoo!) that is still run on a daily basis by its founder, keeps to his mantra of long-term development and this year has announced Amazon's best performance ever.

Also mentioned in the WSJ article are: Kenneth Lewis (Bank of America), John Thain (Merrill Lynch), and Katsuaki Watanabe (Toyota). Lewis is an Aries, and his aggressive acquisition strategy is succinctly summarized in a recent Harvard Business Review profile that could also be the Aries profile in an astrology text: "Well, that's the Ken Lewis school of leadership: Go for the jugular, buy at moments of maximum distress, keep adding to the portfolio, slash costs more dramatically than anyone thinks possible, and always look to get bigger faster." Thain, the CEO of the most notable of Lewis' recent acquisitions, invokes the duplicity of his Gemini nature as he was brought on board at Merrill Lynch as a "Mr. Fixit" but quickly turned into a "Mr. Sell-It" as market conditions fluctuated and declined.

Perhaps the most interesting name on the list is Toyota's Katsuaki Watanabe. The professor who praised him pointed out that Toyota was at least able to record a (small) profit in a miserable automobile year. The day after the WSJ article was printed, however, the dire news of Toyota's first ever quarterly loss became the business disaster du jour, and the financial press has been filled with speculations of Mr. Watanabe's ouster ever since. Why I find this so personally compelling is that Mr. Watanabe's Aquarius birthday, February 13th,  is the same as my own so I kind of get, on a significantly smaller scale, a bit of what he is currently going through.

So if you are reading this, Mr. Watanabe, drop me an email. We need to knock back a couple of Saporros and exchange a few thoughts about the transit of Neptune to the Sun. Hey, we're both looking at some free time...trust me.

To contact Steve: smw@stevemarkweiss.com

I sat down in this economically funkiest of moments to deal with business predictions for the coming year. Suffice it to say there is a lot to say, and I didn't say it all until I had compiled seven single-spaced pages of prognosticative peregrination. I'm not entirely certain, but I think that if you post a blog entry that goes on for that length you get sent to a cyber-prison where the only accessible website is hampsterdance.com.

Anyway, on a serious note, I found myself getting into an enormous amount of material, including among a whole bunch of other stuff:

• the essence of "value" in the coming year
• the key to successful communications
• human resource issues
• marketing iconology
• and, naturally, the likely role of soon-to-be President Obama

I flatter myself that the material may be of interest to some, and if you would like a complimentary copy of the report please just drop me an e-mail at smw@stevenmarkweiss.com. Please put "2009 Report" in the subject line and send your contact information (confidentiality will be respected).

(EXCERPT) Assets

It is a bit ironic that in an era during which so much blame for economic crisis is being
placed at the door of financial 'experts,' the auguries suggest a universal desire for a strong executive hand in our investment activities and general allocation of assets. Rather than the casino-like vibe of the markets, however, a metaphor that suggests itself is ship-building, an activity in which the master ship builder and the vessel's captain play godlike roles in the serious and dangerous mission of eventually getting everyone safely across the ocean to the new land. Issues of concentrated attention and the deep appreciation of an organic cyclical wholeness to the flow of material and human assets are very much in play right now. The auguries suggest that it will indeed be hard for many too refrain from headstrong speculation, as the desire to recoup recent losses quickly is strong but those who find the development of long-term strategy constraining had better practice the phrase "easy come, easy go."


As for a December report, I'm giving myself the month off.  Pass the nog.

It happened very suddenly, as you may recall. The polls closed in the western states and Barrack Obama was immediately anointed by all the broadcast networks as the American president-elect. In Chicago, where Barack Obama was presumably enjoying the moment, the time was 10 PM CST.

Not to get too far into the astrological weeds here, but any stargazer worth his salt will enjoy the fact that at that very instant of the announcement the transiting planet Mercury was making the exactest possible of squares to Obama's natal Jupiter. In astrology, Mercury is the messenger and Jupiter is the broadest and most optimistic sort of comprehension. It is in no way surprising, at least to an astrologer, that these two planets would be in significant aspect upon such an occasion.

What is a bit problematical is that the relationship between the two planets was an exact 90 degrees of separation, an aspect called the square. The square signifies a powerful combination of planetary energies, but energies that are essentially operating at cross purposes. While any combination of Mercury and Jupiter energies is likely to breed a "good news" vibe, the square hints at friction between the details of the news (Mercury) and the abstract or ideal purpose (Jupiter) that the details are being used to support or confirm.

If one may be forgiven the audacity of projecting into Mr. Obama's space on election night, the implication of the above is that the president-elect immediately and sharply intuited the stresses inherent between the news of victory and the purpose to which that victory must be put. Certainly any tendency in this regard was enhanced by a second very nearly as exact and also difficult aspect, an opposition (180 degrees) from the transiting Moon to Obama's natal Mercury. This latter situation may simply suggest an awareness of the public mood (the Moon in Aquarius) as the reflection of one's state of mind (Mercury in Leo), but most any astrologer would be quick to emphasize that here one is dealing with the stresses and the lack of clarity when emotions are aligned against reason.

That the stress of being a realist at an emotional time was central to Obama's experience of election night is reflected in two other aspects occurring upon this occasion. Transiting Mercury was approaching square to Obama's natal Mercury (less than two degrees), indicating that facts and opinions are at odds, eliciting a requirement to be very flexible in thinking and communications. In even closer aspect (less than a degree) was the transiting Sun (identity) making a square to Obama's natal Sun, which the eminent astrologer Robert Hand describes as a "test of your validity."

Knowing all this certainly makes Mr. Obama's "cool as a cucumber" acceptance speech before the vast crowd in Chicago's Grant Park all the more remarkable. Hardly seeming like a conflicted young rookie senator or an individual wrestling with a centuries-old racial stereotype, the man who had arguably just become the most significant individual on the planet seemed very much born to the cloth. His comfort and command almost made it seem as if he had done this sort of thing before.

Okay, so here is where astrology gets either really cool or really crazy depending on your temperament. In an earlier blog post, I brought up the issue of the nodes of the Moon and how they are believed by astrologers to yield information about destiny. Simply (too simply), the south node in a chart is related to past karma and indicates a set of values/behaviors with which an individual feels extremely comfortable but from which one must evolve in order to fulfill this life's destiny. The north node, often strange and difficult of approach,  is the ticket out of karma jail.

What is eminently remarkable about a horoscope cast for the announcement of Barack Obama's election victory is: 1) the south node is sitting on the ascendant (the projection) of the event; and 2) the south node is conjunct (exactly in the same place, in this case within a degree) as Obama's natal sun (personality). The logical among you will quickly deduce that this also puts Obama's Sun (identity) on the event's ascendant (projection), which is as clear as astrology ever gets. But let's consider this south node thing a bit.

Astrology has a bias towards considering the south node unfortunate. Characterized as the behavior one must grow past or escape in this lifetime, it is painted as the refuge of the individual who refuses to grow. It's something you get no points for expressing because, if you go in for this sort of thing, it is something that you have expressed for many lifetimes.

Now the irony in the case of the Obama election announcement and acceptance speech is that the candidate's comfort is probably the exact thing the electorate needed to experience. In an election that made quite a case out of "experience," it was comforting indeed to see Mr. Obama so large and in charge. Karma aside, it sure felt like the universe was doing us a favor by making the newly elected president seem so competent and comfortable.

The suggestion being made by the universe, however, is that it expects something more than a comfortable regality out of our new commander in chief, or at least a redefinition of what true regality is. The symbolism of the signs in which the nodes are now positioned (South/Leo, North/Aquarius) suggest that whatever royal presence Obama  has on the world's stage (he is a sun sign Leo after all), he will be tested in order to become first and foremost a true humanitarian in the service of others. His is likely to be the inner conflict that simmers between creating a cult of personality and undertaking a selfless contribution to the greater glory the world,  a difficult balancing act that is likely to keep the world enthralled for at least the next four years.

It is good to keep in mind, though, that all of this is happening within Mr. Obama far more viscerally than it is to those of us who are just watching and hoping. Astrologically speaking, the enormous gas giant planets and potent little Pluto (clearly ticked off by its recent astronomical downgrade), may have some difficult surprises in store for all of us, presidents and paupers alike. The early signs are that Mr. Obama will have to wrestle with reality like the rest of us, and the prospect that he too will have to sacrifice comfort, certainly psychological comfort, is written in the stars.

"The king is dead, long live the king."  For a chosen few this is no mere shout in the streets, but an enormous psycho-historical enigma and challenge. Just ask Barack Obama.