Signs of Weiss

12 Predictions for the U.S. in 2012: Ugh!

2011-10-22T22:36:11Z

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.

Simply put, if brevity is the soul of wit than I am witless. I've had sneezes that last longer than the time it takes to write or read a tweet. I'm a florid thinker in an age that demands the economy of sound bites.

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

Autumn Equinox Already Having An Impact

2010-09-30T17:10:00Z

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

The 2010 Autumnal Equinox: 10 Places To Fall For This Fall

2010-09-23T02:30:00Z

(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

The Second Half of 2010: Who's Chiron Now?

2010-07-06T20:31:56Z

Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.
- John F. Kennedy (Chiron at the 28th degree of Aquarius)

This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands.
- Barack Obama (South Node at the 28th degree of Aquarius)

To get right to it, here's what the universe seems to be expecting of us in the last six months of 2010:

an appreciation of the utility of science and technology in enhancing man's symbiotic relationship with the natural world
very conscientious stewardship of that technology, including the embrace of long-term foresight in its application
in light of the preceding, a simultaneous gentle mellowing of our super-charged technological infatuation via the subtle embrace of the delicate beauty of the natural world
a belief that personal and collective consciousness can be altered for the better by paying ecological attention to the most basic habits and patterns of everyday living
the pursuit of the concept of a universal brotherhood of spirit, in which self-transcendence leads to willing participation in a collective higher form of existence

These admittedly idealistic precepts are derived from Dane Rudhyar's 1973 classic, An Astrological Mandala. In a discussion of the last five zodiacal degrees of the astrological sign of Aquarius, degrees that are quite relevant to the short-term outlook, Rudhyar explores the "management" of "group interplay." He admonishes that "the power of human togetherness" should be used "harmoniously for the welfare of the whole of which all individuals are parts, humanity and the planet Earth."

"This has never been achieved," admits Rudhyar, " and only very rarely attempted."

In the second half of 2010, these last degrees of Aquarius are being activated by the simultaneous passage of Neptune and Chiron. This hardly promises that the precepts envisioned by Rudhyar are about to be achieved, and perhaps rather the contrary. Still, if you can get into this astrology stuff at all, it is helpful to appreciate the nature of the current human dilemma as astrologically indicated.

Now it should certainly be pointed out that there is much heavier stuff going on in the heavens right now than the passage of Neptune and Chiron through late Aquarius. Astrologers are rightfully compelled to consider the frankly threatening aspects of Pluto, Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter in the earliest degrees of cardinal signs. Such activity, as has been widely reported in astrological circles, has its historical parallels in the periods of the American Revolution and the Great Depression...so holding on to one's hat---very tightly--- is prudent advice in the near term.

And yet it's hard to avert one's gaze from the embrace of Neptune and Chiron in late Aquarius. Neptune, as has been discussed in earlier blog entries here, is a planet of the purest metaphysical significance...representing the reality of manifest dream worlds and the power for good or evil of all that is beyond our ability to rationally control or comprehend. Neptune is occupying a place of increased importance in the planetary hierarchy as it completes its first orbit of the sun in human consciousness (Neptune was 'discovered' in 1846 located in the 26th degree of Aquarius, conjunct Saturn in the same degree) and moves towards its 2012 'ascension' into its own sign of Pisces.

Right now it's well worth pointing out that two of the associations made by mundane astrologers with Neptune are anything to do with deep water and anything to do with the the commodity of oil. Reading the list of Rudhyar's precepts above with an eye to the Gulf oil crisis is both instructive and poignant. Say what you will about humanity's commitment or lack thereof to the success of its own collective future, Neptune in the last degrees of Aquarius sure as heck frames the issue at its greatest depths.

So what's with this Chiron fellow tracking along so closely with Neptune right now? Astronomically, Chiron is a solar system object discovered in 1977 that appears to be part asteroid (size) and part comet (tail). Orbiting eccentrically between Saturn and Uranus, it is the primary example of a class of astronomical objects called Centaurs, differentiated from asteroids primarily by their locations among the other planets rather than within the so-called Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Mythologically, Chiron's story---mother raped and impregnated by Kronos (Saturn) after turning into a horse / adopted and taught by Apollo / almost fatally wounded by a poisoned arrow shot by Hercules / self-sacrificed for Prometheus--- is a bit rangy and complex. Suffice it here to list some of the attributes with which he is associated: ancient wisdom; mentoring; medicine; human progress; and personal sacrifice. Known widely in astrology as "the wounded healer," Chiron is ultimately a potent shamanic sage, counselor and physician who can cure anyone's wounds except his own.

Astrology might have reasonably relegated Chiron to a minor role in interpretation, but he has in fact had steadily increasing influence in modern astrology since his discovery. Part of the appeal to Chiron is his nature (transformational) juxtaposed against that of his father, Saturn (traditional). In a neat happenstance of astronomy, Chiron spent the entire second decade after its discovery in exact orbital opposition to Saturn...a cosmic tidbit way too juicy for astrologers to resist.

It's significant that Chiron, like Saturn, has come to represent achievement in the wake of pain. Unlike Saturn, however, whose success is based in adherence to the codes of vested authority and in enduring the the trials associated with established cultural principles, Chiron's triumphs are directed towards recapturing the 'lost' wisdom of the past, when mankind was perhaps more partisan to practical magic than practical management. In astrological chart interpretation, Chiron has come to represent the force of deep and ancient knowledge that one is capable of conveying to mankind, but that one most often wields ineffectively in service to oneself.

So through the rest of the year we have this wounded, wise, transformational, and ultimately tragic hero/demi-god (Chiron) traveling along with the lord of the endlessly inconceivable (Neptune) in a portion of the zodiac concerned with collective human progress (the last degrees of Aquarius). The presence of Neptune here makes hard and fast predictions rather naive, but it impossible to avoid a few impressions. Keeping in mind Rudhyar's observation that mankind has no great track record in this sort of thing, one can surmise that we are in for some inconceivable and disappointing surprises (Neptune), and that if by fate or chance there is a hero in this story he or she is most likely to end up as a pin cushion (Chiron).

Fascinatingly from an astrological perspective, the south node position referenced in the Barack Obama quote at the top of this article would seem to indicate that not only that he is a key player at this moment but also that in another incarnation he has been here before. I sure hope it works out for him this time. Our best hope may be that he is still here...as so far are the rest of us.

Oh, and one last thing by the way, Barack Obama's natal Chiron is located very close to his south node at the 6th degree of Pisces (a degree that Rudhyar says has to do with "army officers" and "sacrificing oneself for the nation or the group"). Starting in June of next year, Chiron will be moving back and forth over Obama's Chiron for the rest of this presidential term. Now doesn't that sound interesting?

FOR INFORMATION ON CONSULTATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS, PLEASE CONTACT STEVE AT: SMW@STEVENMARKWEISS.COM

What The Planets Portend: Spring of 2010

2010-01-20T19:39:00Z

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.

10 Economic Hot Spots: Predictions In Place For 2010

2009-11-24T22:01:00Z

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.

2012 & The End of the World

2009-11-13T18:23:00Z

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

I Was On 'Coast To Coast AM!'

2009-11-02T16:48:00Z

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

I'm Going To Be On 'Coast To Coast AM!'

2009-10-23T00:36:00Z

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!

When The Moon Hits Your Eye...

2009-10-01T18:54:00Z

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

What The Planets Portend: Fall of 2009

2009-08-04T19:27:00Z

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