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). 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.
You may delay, but time will not.
-- Benjamin Franklin
 

As I write this, the people’s revolutions sweeping through the Middle East are the cable news networks’ latest excuse to hike their ad rates. (I’m told they have contracts with their advertisers, stipulating that rates go up whenever there’s a "Breaking News" banner in the broadcast.) It’s only breaking news if you haven’t read my 2011 World Forecast Highlights (published last year):

Saturn-Uranus oppositions, for example, have heralded what I’ve called a harbinger of "panic in the markets, panic in the streets, people in need of rescue, just a whiff of revolution in the air". Per my forecasts, these things have been much in evidence these past couple years, from strikes and riots in the streets of Athens, Paris, London, Port-au-Prince and Tehran to debt crises and wild swings in equity markets worldwide; into precious metals and away from threatened bonds and currencies; to the unemployment and foreclosure crises here in the States. This is still far from over, there’s bound to be more public unrest on and off throughout 2011 . . .

The timing of this particular "whiff of revolution in the air" is no surprise either. It coincides with the long – more about that in a moment – Sun-Mars conjunction, one of a number of Mars factors described in my 2011 annual forecast - again, published last year - as indicating a rash of "fires, clashes, crashes and explosions . . . a disruption in the oil and natural gas supply chain - which in turn can shock the financial markets and set investors and institutions in a mad dash for the exits."

These uprisings of course express a noble and natural human yearning for self-determination. But there’s a grimmer undertone that’s unmistakable; namely, desperation – the "people in need of rescue" I’ve talked about for years now. It manifested on schedule per my forecast, and it has grown almost with each passing day. The current uprisings in the Middle East are due in no small part to governments cutting subsidies (for food and fuel) that they can ill afford, and their citizens can hardly afford to live without. This is the proverbial rock and a hard place.

Looking back on that first Saturn-Uranus opposition of the 2008-2010 series, it’s clear in terms of astro-locality mapping that this whole "people in need of rescue" calamity had its roots in the US. The Saturn-Uranus opposition which heralded the collapse of the global financial situation was exact on November 4, 2008; and occurred with the opposition of these two planets in a T-Square configuration to Venus. Following the meridian lines for the opposition takes us right over Washington DC in the western world, and from the heart of China down through Indochina (pretty much right on Bangkok). There’s no more appropriate set of bookends for the economic quandary of the last several years than China and the US. (The Thai political crisis of 2008-2010 is an astro-locality footnote, in light of Bangkok falling right under the Saturn-Uranus opposition). Checking the map, it’s also clear that that the Venus meridian line for the T-Square grazed Tunisia – which in 2011 would become the locus for the current Middle East peoples’ revolution movement. (What started in Tunisia spread to Egypt and Yemen, and now threatens Saudi Arabia, Jordan etc.)

Tunisia is also tapped by the horizon line for the Sun-Mars conjunction in the astro-locality map for that event. The Sun and Mars are within just a few degrees of exact alignment for an unusually long time: from January 22 through the exact conjunction on February 4 and on through February 22nd. The current uprising hasn’t even hit its stride yet, if this is any indication – and the immediate crisis won’t be over for weeks.

Those "people in need of rescue" in the Middle East are hardly alone. Aside from the usual suspects already mentioned (Greece, Haiti and Iran), don’t forget that some of the other trouble spots are the supposedly "wealthy powers" of Europe, including France and the UK (also already mentioned). Don’t forget another couple of global "powers" singled out by that first Saturn-Uranus opposition back in 2008; namely China and the US. If you don’t think that both are just like the Third World dictatorships in keeping a lid on civil unrest through subsidies of one kind of another, think again. For example, think about the huge, growing and many times-extended US unemployment benefits; and the fact that a record 43 million Americans (roughly one in seven) are surviving on food stamps – and never mind that the price of gasoline in the US is in fact subsidized by federal tax policy. (China’s managed economy is also engineered to keep people from taking to the streets, through subsidies of various kinds.)

The long and the short of it is that the "whiff of revolution in the air" will not soon dissipate – and will expand rather than contract during the January 22-February 22 Sun-Mars alignment, along with the other Red Planet signatures (fires, crashes, clashes, explosions and general mayhem). Where next? Look at the areas under the Sun-Mars lines in the astro-locality map. The Sun-Mars meridian line crosses due south through western Greenland and eastern Canada, and touches Puerto Rico and effectively grazes Hispaniola in the Caribbean (poor Haiti!); Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina in South America; and in the eastern hemisphere, China, Indonesia and western Australia fall under the Sun-Mars antimeridian. The Sun-Mars horizon line arcs northeasterly through the Pacific and over Hawaii, Alaska and northern Canada, before turning southeasterly to cross south-central Greenland, Iceland, and the UK, France and Italy in Europe; crossing the Mediterranean over Sardinia on a trek across Africa that runs through Tunisia and Libya, into the Indian Ocean (after touching Chad, the Central African Republic, DR Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa (close enough to count to Johannesburg).

This is not to wax apocalyptic: commerce will go on, equities will resume their advances – until the next big flap, the debt crisis associated with the March-April Jupiter-Saturn opposition. Whatever human disturbances are afoot during this long Sun-Mars conjunction, they’re bound to be impacted for better or worse by the storm and seismic potential associated with the February 3 new moon and the February 18 SuperMoon alignment. (It’s hard to take to the barricades in the streets when there’s a storm going on or in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake, for example.)

Speaking of which, the February 3 new moon comes just a day before the exact Sun-Mars conjunction, anchoring a geocosmic shock window extending from January 29 (the south lunar declination extreme) through February 6 (in the wake of the Moon’s northward equatorial crossing on the 5th. This is far from being the major indicator of elevated risk for headline-making storms and seismic activity this month – that ominous distinction belongs to the SuperMoon on the 18th. Still, the lead-in to the February new moon, already in effect as of January 29 (per my January forecast), has performed respectably in the way of moderate to severe seismic activity (magnitude 5+ earthquakes and volcanic eruptions) and powerful storms with high winds and heavy precipitation.

As pointed out (and illustrated) in my January 29 Facebook NolleAstro Group post, there was a Moon-Venus conjunction squaring the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction in the sky at the time of the lunar south declination peak that day. In the astro-locality map for the lunar peak on the 29th, the meridian line for the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction passed within range of the rare 6.1 magnitude earthquake that struck Jan Mayen Island in the Arctic that day. “Watch India-Pakistan-Afghanistan, California-Mexico and eastern Australia-New Zealand for further storm and seismic news today and into early on the 31st,” I advised at the time. Checking a map of magnitude 5+ Pacific quakes for January 29-30, the pins are in all the right places as you can see. With this in mind, it’s probably a good idea to be watchful during the new moon shock window that carries over from January and runs through February 6.

Jupiter and Uranus are still conjunct for the February 3 new moon, still squaring Venus – plus Pluto and the lunar nodes. The new moon itself is conjunct Mars, which disposits Jupiter; which in turn disposits both Venus and Uranus, dispositor of the Mars-new moon alignment. This is certainly a strong windstorm and heavy precipitation indicator – a costly and disruptive storm cycle, in that regard. And any new moon ups the ante for moderate to severe earthquakes (with a subsequent tsunami risk, if conditions are right) as well as notable volcanic eruptions.

The new moon astro-locality map features an antimeridian line through the Atlantic, just off the coast of Brazil and across eastern Greenland; over the pole and down through Japan, Papua New Guinea and eastern Australia; as well as a horizon line sweeping southeasterly across western Alaska and the eastern Pacific; turning northeasterly up through the Indian Ocean into Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and across Siberia into the Bering Strait. And don’t forget the Jupiter-Uranus lines across eastern North America, Central America and western South America – emerging on the other side of the world to cross Mongolia, China, the Indochina Peninsula and Indonesia.

These are highlighted target zones for the storm and seismic up-ticks indicated in the new moon geocosmic shock window, but they’re not the only vulnerable spots. Alignments like these are planetary in scale and therefore planetary in scope. The whole of our home planet responds to the tides rushing through Earth’s atmosphere, seas and crust during the January 29-February 6 window of vulnerability. Have your storm and evacuation kits ready in case, and don’t be surprised if travel plans during this interval end up with a lot of weather-related delays. Given the Mars involvement during this alignment, there’s a strong likelihood of spectacular fires, crashes and explosions due to horrible weather conditions. Be safe out there!

February 18 brings the first SuperMoon of the year, and the first in a series of three consecutive full moon SuperMoons. This one features the Moon at 29° 20’ Leo opposing a rolling conjunction comprising the Sun, Neptune, Mars and Mercury; and occurs just one day before lunar perigee and the Moon’s southward equatorial crossing. Simultaneously, there’s a loose T-Square in which Jupiter and Uranus square Pluto and oppose Saturn, which is squared by Venus. These are signs of more debt crises, government support cutbacks and tax hikes: tightening the screws coming and going. Issues of nuclear proliferation raise geopolitical tensions. There’s growing fear of sneak attacks and terror atrocities using WMD – the fear is certain, the actuality far less so.

February 12-21 marks the temporal range of this particular SuperMoon, which appears to be most intense around the 13th (when the Moon hits maximum declination north of the celestial equator), the 18th and the 19th. (The heightened geopolitical threat level extends beyond the SuperMoon window itself, it should be noted.)

Stirring up strong tides in Earth’s crust, seas and atmosphere, this SuperMoon signals the usual: increased notable seismic activity (including magnitude 5+ earthquakes and volcanic activity), extreme tides (including tsunami resulting from the aforementioned seismic stuff), and severe storms (with high winds and heavy precipitation). A rash of weather-related crashes will likely make headlines, along with tie-ups in transportation and outages in power and communication infrastructure. The best we can do in the face of such natural forces is to be prepared to shelter in place or evacuate if need be.

That’s the when and the what . . . as for the where, astro-locality mapping points out a few areas of special vulnerability along north-south lines through east Africa, the Middle East and Russia in the Old World, and through the central Pacific coast of North America in the New World – think British Columbia and the US Pacific Northwest down into northern California. A horizon arc sweeps northeasterly across the Brazilian coast (touching Rio de Janeiro), crossing the Atlantic to pass over Iceland, turning southeasterly to cross Siberia, northeastern China, the Korean Peninsula and Japan, traversing the Pacific to pass over parts of Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Australia. I’m not saying to be careless if you’re not going to be in one of these elevated risk areas during the February 12-21 geocosmic shock window. In truth, no place on Earth is beyond the reach of a SuperMoon, because it’s astronomical in scale and planet-wide in scope.

I’ve already described the "panic in the markets, panic in the streets, people in need of rescue, just a whiff of revolution in the air" theme as a big part of the over-all 2011 picture. It all got started under the quintuple 2008-2010 Saturn-Uranus opposition. The exact alignment is over and done with now, but the impetus from something this momentous doesn’t dissipate quickly – especially when these two planets (still in Ptolemaic opposition by sign) get set off by notable planetary configurations; such as, for example, the February 18 SuperMoon, with Saturn and Venus in square (90°) aspect, Jupiter and Uranus caught up in a square to Pluto and the lunar nodes. What we have here, in short, is not just a geophysical storm, but a geopolitical storm as well. It will blow over, but it won’t be boring.

In closing – and frankly only in passing, busy as I am with client consultations etc. – I’d be remiss if I failed to mention that February comes to a close under a geomagnetic storm of sorts, triggered by heightened solar activity – probably peaking around the 25th.

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