• 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