October 2008
BUSINESS OUTLOOK: October 2008
Overview
The key business issue this month is: "what do you bring to, and how far are you prepared to go in a relationship?"
Is your talent real and your loyalty without qualification or compromise? Can you be counted upon to withstand the pressure and perform capably at the very deepest of the depths? Are you, in fact, willing to make personal sacrifices that an impartial observer might label totally f---ing crazy?
Last month reality hit the business world like a ton of falling financial institutions. The economic future is in desperate 'play' right now, and the survivalist reaction most of us are having is to pinpoint the entity, person-place-thing, that will keep us emotionally and economically afloat. Such entities do exist, but they are going to extract a price that makes the concept of "commitment" seem less like a contractual arrangement and more like a set of vows and obligations acid-etched onto your soul.
The dynamic that will rule every business interaction this month is an unrestrained mutual determination of material value and commitment. Most everyone will try to put a good face on it and keep a civil tongue, but the emotional foment that is going on just beneath the surface is unspeakably potent. Astrological analysis suggests terms such as possession and obsession.
To put a very fine point on it, what both the bold and the weak are incessantly calculating is how to gain control over the assets of others. Everyone is plotting, fewer will actually act, but there is a strange 'optimism' in the zeitgeist regarding each individual's sense that he or she will be the one to pull off this coup de control. Everything (well, certainly everything related to personal assets) depends right now on one's willingness to manipulate or be manipulated in a marketplace full of wrenching demands and treacherous surprises.
Astrology (and all the world's financial media) is telling us that we are having a painful challenge to the very foundation of our institutions right now. We are expected to have faith and courage, but we are hardly being granted clarity as a result. All astrology can tell us is that this is some sort of evolutionary necessity, pain be damned, and that the clock will inexorably tick forward from here.
It's not much, but the business horoscope for this October also notes a widespread preoccupation with the obligations each individual has towards the welfare of humanity. But keeping with the downer tone of the moment, this is more likely to be experienced as hindsight guilt rather than to manifest as forward-thinking action. We are very much consumed right now with the actions we must take to protect our own.
History Rhymes
Romeo & Juliet - Astrologers love Shakespeare, what with all the talk of "star-cross'd lovers" and such. This month's wayback machine summons up a popular 1996 cinematic version of Romeo & Juliet directed by Baz Luhrmann, starring Leonard DiCaprio and Clare Danes in the title roles. This story of clan enmity and fatal attraction, rendered in a contemporary setting yet faithful to the bard's original poetry, captures the present zeitgeist perfectly. Here is one of dramatic history's great visceral testaments to the sometimes deadly intensity of our most significant relationships, and to a largely dispassionate fate that determines there is sometimes nothing our will seems able to do about outcomes. "I defy you stars!," shouts Romeo upon learning of Juliet's (falsely reported) death. And the stars just don't much care.
Chrysler Requests A Bailout - Considering the size of contemporary government handouts, the $1.5 billion requested by an almost-bankrupt Chrysler three decades ago seems a little like chump change. In its own historical context, however, this request for a taxpayer bailout by a company that had simply misread its market (going 'big car' during an oil crunch) was greeted as one of the most audacious, even impudent, requests in American business history. Students of the issue now know that the Jimmy Carter administration eventually acquiesced and that Lee Iaccoca eventually brought home the bacon (in the form of the K-Car and, a few years down the road, the Minivan). So here we will take some heart from the reminder that this all worked out and that Chrysler fairly expeditiously payed back the loan. Right now, though, we are experiencing another calamitous corporate "save us" phase...and the stakes have apparently gotten much higher.
The Vela Incident - One day, in late September of 1979, a United States reconnaissance satellite (Vela) detected the signature of an unanticipated nuclear explosion on an island in the Indian Ocean. Dozens of U.S. Air Force jets were scrambled, but reportedly no indication of radiation was evident. Over the years it has been widely proposed that this was in fact a secret nuclear test conducted by any one of a number of nations from South Africa to Israel to India to France to Taiwan. But after extensive multi-year evaluation, it was formally concluded by the responsible U.S. government investigative agencies that the satellite was probably just broken and gave a false reading. Nothing to see here folks. Just move along.
Strange Days
October 5 to 10 - This is a week during which many of us are going to have to face serious adjustments in our long-term projects and personal relationships. These may not be experienced as traumatic breaks or sharp redirections, but there will be notable deflections into new paths that are unlikely to seem inviting at first. The key here is to see whatever happens as transitory, as outsized emotional reactions will be far more injurious in the long term than a patient acceptance of the passage of time.
October 20 - Seize this day if you can. Yes, it's a Monday and the guys are likely to be talking football. But what has every indication of being a raw, raw month is going to yield up this day fraught with long-term positive potential. Don't waste it on your fantasy team.
October 24 - This is a day for considering yourself and, if necessary, walking out the door. If the term "life purpose" has any resonance for you, the time comes when you must make moves to fulfill your personal destiny, no matter the risks you must take, the alliances that must be broken or who you must leave behind. Your destiny wants to spend the weekend with you.
For more info, please visit www.stevenmarkweiss.com
To contact Steve directly: smw@stevenmarkweiss.com
Overview
The key business issue this month is: "what do you bring to, and how far are you prepared to go in a relationship?"
Is your talent real and your loyalty without qualification or compromise? Can you be counted upon to withstand the pressure and perform capably at the very deepest of the depths? Are you, in fact, willing to make personal sacrifices that an impartial observer might label totally f---ing crazy?
Last month reality hit the business world like a ton of falling financial institutions. The economic future is in desperate 'play' right now, and the survivalist reaction most of us are having is to pinpoint the entity, person-place-thing, that will keep us emotionally and economically afloat. Such entities do exist, but they are going to extract a price that makes the concept of "commitment" seem less like a contractual arrangement and more like a set of vows and obligations acid-etched onto your soul.
The dynamic that will rule every business interaction this month is an unrestrained mutual determination of material value and commitment. Most everyone will try to put a good face on it and keep a civil tongue, but the emotional foment that is going on just beneath the surface is unspeakably potent. Astrological analysis suggests terms such as possession and obsession.
To put a very fine point on it, what both the bold and the weak are incessantly calculating is how to gain control over the assets of others. Everyone is plotting, fewer will actually act, but there is a strange 'optimism' in the zeitgeist regarding each individual's sense that he or she will be the one to pull off this coup de control. Everything (well, certainly everything related to personal assets) depends right now on one's willingness to manipulate or be manipulated in a marketplace full of wrenching demands and treacherous surprises.
Astrology (and all the world's financial media) is telling us that we are having a painful challenge to the very foundation of our institutions right now. We are expected to have faith and courage, but we are hardly being granted clarity as a result. All astrology can tell us is that this is some sort of evolutionary necessity, pain be damned, and that the clock will inexorably tick forward from here.
It's not much, but the business horoscope for this October also notes a widespread preoccupation with the obligations each individual has towards the welfare of humanity. But keeping with the downer tone of the moment, this is more likely to be experienced as hindsight guilt rather than to manifest as forward-thinking action. We are very much consumed right now with the actions we must take to protect our own.
History Rhymes
Romeo & Juliet - Astrologers love Shakespeare, what with all the talk of "star-cross'd lovers" and such. This month's wayback machine summons up a popular 1996 cinematic version of Romeo & Juliet directed by Baz Luhrmann, starring Leonard DiCaprio and Clare Danes in the title roles. This story of clan enmity and fatal attraction, rendered in a contemporary setting yet faithful to the bard's original poetry, captures the present zeitgeist perfectly. Here is one of dramatic history's great visceral testaments to the sometimes deadly intensity of our most significant relationships, and to a largely dispassionate fate that determines there is sometimes nothing our will seems able to do about outcomes. "I defy you stars!," shouts Romeo upon learning of Juliet's (falsely reported) death. And the stars just don't much care.
Chrysler Requests A Bailout - Considering the size of contemporary government handouts, the $1.5 billion requested by an almost-bankrupt Chrysler three decades ago seems a little like chump change. In its own historical context, however, this request for a taxpayer bailout by a company that had simply misread its market (going 'big car' during an oil crunch) was greeted as one of the most audacious, even impudent, requests in American business history. Students of the issue now know that the Jimmy Carter administration eventually acquiesced and that Lee Iaccoca eventually brought home the bacon (in the form of the K-Car and, a few years down the road, the Minivan). So here we will take some heart from the reminder that this all worked out and that Chrysler fairly expeditiously payed back the loan. Right now, though, we are experiencing another calamitous corporate "save us" phase...and the stakes have apparently gotten much higher.
The Vela Incident - One day, in late September of 1979, a United States reconnaissance satellite (Vela) detected the signature of an unanticipated nuclear explosion on an island in the Indian Ocean. Dozens of U.S. Air Force jets were scrambled, but reportedly no indication of radiation was evident. Over the years it has been widely proposed that this was in fact a secret nuclear test conducted by any one of a number of nations from South Africa to Israel to India to France to Taiwan. But after extensive multi-year evaluation, it was formally concluded by the responsible U.S. government investigative agencies that the satellite was probably just broken and gave a false reading. Nothing to see here folks. Just move along.
Strange Days
October 5 to 10 - This is a week during which many of us are going to have to face serious adjustments in our long-term projects and personal relationships. These may not be experienced as traumatic breaks or sharp redirections, but there will be notable deflections into new paths that are unlikely to seem inviting at first. The key here is to see whatever happens as transitory, as outsized emotional reactions will be far more injurious in the long term than a patient acceptance of the passage of time.
October 20 - Seize this day if you can. Yes, it's a Monday and the guys are likely to be talking football. But what has every indication of being a raw, raw month is going to yield up this day fraught with long-term positive potential. Don't waste it on your fantasy team.
October 24 - This is a day for considering yourself and, if necessary, walking out the door. If the term "life purpose" has any resonance for you, the time comes when you must make moves to fulfill your personal destiny, no matter the risks you must take, the alliances that must be broken or who you must leave behind. Your destiny wants to spend the weekend with you.
For more info, please visit www.stevenmarkweiss.com
To contact Steve directly: smw@stevenmarkweiss.com
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