If you were expecting some kind of sun sign nonsense, forget it. This is real astrology. See the section above. Please note: this forecast is expressed in terms of Universal Time (UT). Current UT date and time appear at the top of this page. (To update display, use your browser's reload/refresh button.) 

MAJOR LUNAR ACTION AHEAD

Some strong lunar action rears its head in November, after an absence of several months. Not since the July-August eclipses and before that the June SuperMoon have we seen anything other than ordinary garden variety monthly alignments of Sun and Moon. The SuperMoon full moon on the 23rd changes all that, initiating a trio of SuperMoons that stretches into the new year.

First among the train of November lunar events is the Moon's southward crossing of the celestial equator on the 5th. (See my 1999 Lunar Maxima & Equator Crossings for more.) It's in effect from the 4th through the 6th - the Sun's square to the lunar nodes on the 1st helps stir the pot as well - and particularly strong during the last two days of this period as the Moon turns new. Next in this procession of significant lunar events is the new moon at 15 Scorpio on the 8th (in effect from the 5th through the 11th, the day the Moon attains apogee). Reaching maximum south declination on the 12th, the Moon ushers in another risk window from the 11th through the 13th. Yet another such window extends a day either way of the Moon's crossing the celestial equator northward on the 19th. Then there's that SuperMoon full moon at 1 Sagittarius on the 23rd, the day the Moon reaches perigee (closest approach to Earth). In effect from the 20th through the 26th, and with the Moon reaching maximum declination north of the celestial equator on the 25th, this is bound to be the major storm and seismic window of the month.

Add 'em all up, and you get quite strong lunar signals for November 5-13 and 20-26. These are the major periods when strong storms, flooding and moderate to severe seismic events (including volcanic eruptions and Richter 5 or greater earthquakes) are most likely to surge above and beyond their normal background levels. And by far the greatest disturbances of this sort are to be expected during the November 20-26 SuperMoon window. Being planetary in nature, these effects can be felt practically all over Planet Earth. But among the standout SuperMoon target zones, some of the most notable are likely to lie along a north-south line running straight through the Arizona-New Mexico border down through western Mexico and up into west-central Canada; and another north-south line running through western India. Other potential risk zones include the eastern and western extremes of Africa, central Spain, central and northern Europe, and along the India-Pakistan border; plus all of Japan and central Australia.

SATURN SQUARES URANUS - AGAIN

The Saturn-Uranus square that last reared its head in July makes the second of its "three-peat" appearances on the 14th at 13 Taurus. Remaining within a degree of being exact from the 1st through the 27th, this is the dominant planetary alignment for November. In fact, these two planets haven't been more than five degrees from an exact square since the end of May '99, and won't get outside that range until January 2000 - only to regenerate in March. So we've been more or less continually in the shadow of Saturn's square to Uranus for months now, and will remain so for months yet to come. In particular, July and November '99 (the first two geocentric Saturn-Uranus squares) plus January (the heliocentric square) and May 2000 (the last in the geocentric "three-peat" series of squares) are focal points for this most unusual alignment. We've already seen some minor Y2K problems, computer virus flaps and other computer security incidents - as well as stepped-up hacker attacks - since July. The fun is just beginning.

This current crop of Saturn-Uranus hard alignments is the first in the waxing square phase since the triple conjunction of these two planets in 1988. The final alignment in that particular conjunction series took place on October 10 of that year - some two weeks before the "Morris Worm" wrecked the Internet. I have already stated many times - in my 1999 overview as well in my monthly forecasts - that I see the Saturn-Uranus square as the aegis of Y2K disruptions and other accidental or design-flaw outages in, as well as criminal or terrorist assaults on, the communications network that is the backbone of the global information civilization. Although financial infrastructure will be a natural target for much this kind of thing - the banks, as Willie Sutton observed, are where the money is - the communications network itself is vulnerable to outages whether by accident (or short-sighted planning) or by nefarious design. And that can have wide-ranging effects.

Mercury's retrograde (November 5-25) adds fuel to the Saturn-Uranus fire. Retrogrades of Mercury always elevate Murphy's Law to a ruling principle anyway. Toss in the Saturn-Uranus square, and things can get cosmically cross-wired: transportation tie-ups, communications breakdowns, whatever can go wrong probably will - at the worst possible moment. So double-check everything, and have a back-up plan ready just in case. You'll probably have occasion to use it. On the plus side, Mercury's retrograde is useful for back-tracking to find out what went wrong and how. (There's so much material to work with at times like this, after all.)

As I've said many times before, I'm not expecting a "head for the hills" kind of meltdown. But I think it prudent to have anywhere from a few days to a few weeks worth of cash, food and other essentials handy during this configuration. And I expect November will bring more examples of the kind of breakdowns and outages I'm describing here. By this rationale, and given the sign combination of Saturn and Uranus, some kind of breakdown in high-technology equities would seem to follow.

Although it's in effect all month long, I expect the cycles I'm describing here to reach a crescendo for the month on or about a few key dates in November. The exact date of the Saturn-Uranus square (the 14th) is one of them, coming so close as it does to the Mercury-Sun conjunction on the 15th. November 5-6 also stand out: the former for the start of Mercury's retrograde as well as the Sun's square to Uranus that day; the latter for the Sun's opposition to Saturn. And then there's Mercury's direct station on the 25th.

SUN OPPOSITE SATURN

I mentioned the November 6 Sun-Saturn opposition in connection with a vulnerable period for high-tech equities, but it's more than that. It's payback time in general. It's also the approximate midpoint of the Saturn retrograde cycle that begin at the end of August and continues until just before mid-January. That Saturn retrograde back in August served to time - as predicted - the correction in major equity markets. The Sun-Saturn opposition should be fairly close to marking the bottom - within a week or ten days, I should think, if it hasn't already happened. (If it has, I have called the beginning of the correction correctly but misjudged its depth.)

RETURN OF THE RED PLANET

Staging something of a comeback in November is Mars, which made no major aspects at all last month. As we come into the last 10-12 days of November, there are a couple of strong Mars alignments forming: the square to Jupiter on the 21st, and the conjunction with Neptune on the 27th. Crimes of passion and avarice, awful accidents (some involving chemicals, perhaps with blinding rain or heavy fog figuring into the picture), thinly-veiled threats, murder most foul. A good time to keep your nose clean, watch your back, and steer clear of the kind of places where trouble might strike. Above all, keep your wits about you: do what you're doing while you're doing it, be here now . . . focus, focus, focus.

  

SPECIAL FEATURE: This month's birthdays of the famous and infamous (with astrological birth charts)