If you were expecting some kind of sun sign nonsense, forget about it. This is real astrology for the real world, not some mystical mumbo-jumbo word salad. If it's real astrology for yourself that you want, you can get it by phone or in print. And if you need help deciphering the astrological glyphs in the graphics accompanying this article, see Astroglyphs: Astrological Symbols Guide. Please note: this forecast is expressed in terms of Universal Time (UT, aka GMT). Also please be aware that, while I never change a forecast once it's published, I do post errata to acknowledge typographical errors and the like.
PLEASE NOTE: This is a free (and greatly abbreviated) version of my 2014 World Forecast Highlights). If you’d like your own copy of the full 2014 Forecast Highlights, it’s available in hard copy by mail ($75) or as a PDF document by email ($50). Orders may be phoned in (toll-free from anywhere in North America to 800-527-8761), and charged to any major credit or debit card. PayPal orders may be placed direct from your own PayPal account page to rnolle@astropro.com – or by using the astropro PayPal order page.
The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.
--Abraham Lincoln
Last year’sWorld Forecast Highlights (published in December 2012) correctly foretold the big historic stories of the year, including the continued and intensifying uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East (the "Arab Spring"), the Occupy movement in the US, and the anti-austerity and anti-corruption riots in Brazil, Greece, Spain, France, England, India, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and China (to name only a representative sample). All of these social upheavals, part and parcel of the Uranus-Pluto square, were spurred by economic dislocation due to a shift in civilization in the waning days of the earth sign series of the Great Chronocrator, the cyclical conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn.
We’re in the home stretch of this historic shift in 2014, under the aegis of yet another pair of Uranus-Pluto squares as we approach the onset of the next (air sign) cycle of the Great Chronocrator, which begins in 2020. This year’s alignments are arguably the most potent of the whole series, as they synch up with a number of Grand Cross patterns involving Jupiter, a stealth SuperMoon and Mars Max in January, Venus and Jupiter in February, Mars Max and Jupiter in April and May (plus Venus in the latter month), and finally Venus and Mars Max again in June. The signature planetary alignment of the year embroiled in a major multi-planet configuration for months on end: it adds up to a dramatic, turbulent denouement of the revolutionary, transformative zeitgeist that has so dominated world events these last few years.
Geopolitics, social upheaval and economic transformation aside, last year’s forecast also nailed nearly all of the big natural stories of 2013 – the extreme solar flares, big earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, as well as the powerful storms that sweep human structure and infrastructure away from time to time and place to place.
There’s even more in store for 2014, which features two more Uranus-Pluto squares, five SuperMoons (two new this winter, three full this summer), and – for the first time in years - all three terrestrial planet Max cycles (Mercury, Venus and Mars); plus four eclipses (two solar, two lunar). Nobody has the option sitting the year out, so we may as well get a sense of what’s coming our way – and when.
The Uranus-Pluto Waxing Quadrature
As I’ve written before, this particular phase in the cycle of these two planets – when Uranus has moved 90° past its conjunction with Pluto, as seen from earth – has been and remains within a few degrees of exact on and off from 2011 into 2016. For 2014, those two planets reach their exact quadrature twice: on April 21 and December 15. Look back to the conjunction of these two planets, the beginning of their synodic cycle, to see what their celestial relationship portends for us here on earth. The last Uranus-Pluto conjunction was the hallmark of the turbulent 1960s. These two planets were within a few degrees of their 1960s conjunction on and off from late November, 1963 (the Diem and Kennedy assassinations) into late 1967. From political upheavals to youth uprisings and cultural revolutions just about all over the world (e.g. China, Europe and North America), the conjunction left its imprint on history. Now that we’re in the square phase, it’s Act Two of the same play, essentially.
The uprisings then and now were in essence the 99% rising up against the 1%, the poor and middle class in revolt against the plutocrats and the system they largely control. It’s a system which, as predicted in past editions of my annual World Forecast Highlights, has been on the verge of collapse for years now, since the Leo-Scorpio-Aquarius Saturn-Jupiter-Neptune T-Square of 2005-2006 – the first such configuration in some 1,500 years. Accelerating as the Saturn-Uranus opposition of 2008-2010 heralded a global financial system near-shutdown, and hanging on via governmental intervention under the aegis of the 2010-2011 Jupiter-Saturn opposition, this historical epoch remains a time of social, political and economic turmoil into 2020, when the next Jupiter-Saturn conjunction occurs.
The current Uranus-Pluto square (90° arc) has been within a few degrees of exact since the spring of 2011, and remains so until early 2016. Just as it did the last time it occurred ((1931-1935, although it was a waning [270°] square then), this celestial configuration has coincided with the aforementioned social, economic and political turmoil, Compare the 1932 Bonus Army march on Washington to the 2011-2012 Occupy movement, “Arab Spring” and widespread protest movements around the world – and the widespread rise of fascism in one form or another. The Uranus-Pluto square means revolution or at least revolt, and we’ve seen plenty of it since this pattern formed in the heavens in the last couple years. There’ll be plenty more in 2014, as Uranus and Pluto remain with just a few degrees of their waxing quadrature for all but the first couple months of the year – maybe most especially in mid-spring and late fall, when the aspect is partile (exact); also in January and April through May (when Mars Max and Jupiter join the configuration and turn the pattern into a Grand Cross). Some of the most strident demonstrations and most violent clashes in these protests, revolts and rebellions are likely in the winter and spring of 2014, which will probably be the setting for the year’s most violent uprisings and dangerous military provocation and conflict. (Incidentally, there are other rather foreboding Uranus square Pluto parallels between our time and the 1930s: the rise of fascism in Europe, the rise of ‘Sino-Japanese militarism, etc: there is indeed nothing new under the sun.)
Economic downturns always impose the greatest hardships on the lower and middle classes, and the ongoing Uranus-Pluto square makes it clear that this will be a major story off and on throughout 2014. With Venus Max at work in the first quarter, it’s a safe bet that markets and economies have more downside risk than upside potential later in the year, all else being equal. It won’t be a relentless drop, mind you. There will be ups and downs of course. But the upside is likely to prevail over-all while Venus Max continues in the sky, ushering in a relative rebound in the direction of prosperity. (More about that later.)
The masses can only bear so much hardship before the pushback begins – or in this case, breaks out again, because it’s been going on for several years now already. The radical uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East had a multitude of causes, to be sure. But the fact remains that they broke out when governments cut back on subsidies for food and fuel that had made life easier for the 99%. Likewise, in Europe those riots really took off when government austerity programs cut the social programs that helped the poor and middle class through tough times. The Uranus-Pluto quadrature speaks of changes in technology that make settled social structures obsolete, creating social strife in the process. In response, the powers that be attempt to manage change as smoothly as possible, trying to short-circuit outright revolution. It’s quite a line to walk – but it’s the line in the sand drawn under the aegis of the Uranus-Pluto quadrature.
The preceding is only a very brief excerpt from the full version of my 2014 World Forecast Highlights. The complete version is 30+ illustrated pages, and is available in hard copy by mail for $75, or as a PDF file by email for $50. Orders may be phoned in (toll-free from anywhere in North America to 800-527-8761), and charged to any major credit or debit card. PayPal orders may be placed direct from your own PayPal account page to rnolle@astropro.com – or by using the astropro PayPal order page.
