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| OCTOBER 2014 FORECAST ©2014 by Richard Nolle last revised SEP 30, 2014 |
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 psycho-babble 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 month’s forecast incorporates elements of (and refers to) my complete 2014 World Forecast Highlights (41 8-1/2 x 11” illustrated pages), focused, amplified and elaborated with details for the month as appropriate. The full version of my 2014 World Forecast Highlights is 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 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.
History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.
-- Unknown (but NOT Mark Twain!)
Of necessity, this is an abbreviated version of the forecast I had planned for October. That’s because I have been even busier than usual with client consultation calls and report orders. Client consultations have priority, of necessity. When the phone rings during office hours, I answer it. From that point on, everything else stops around here. Do not despair. Everything in this month’s forecast was covered last year in the full version of my 2014 World Forecast Highlights – from which I have largely excerpted the following . . .
I figure October is the last high drama month of the year, with its two eclipses, tightening Uranus-Pluto square, and Mercury Max cycle. This isn’t say that the rest of 2014 is bereft of drama, because that would be far from the truth. After all, the signature alignment of the year – the waxing square from Uranus to Pluto – makes one last exact appearance on December 15, 2014. (No more this year, but there will be one more in 2015, and the two planets remain within a couple degrees of exact quadrature for months at a stretch in early 2015 and late 2015 on into early 2016.)
So plan on it: the social upheaval (including revolution, civil war and ideological crusades) that has been so much in the news throughout the Uranus-Pluto square (which began back in 2011) won’t be simmering down anytime soon. Ditto for the scientific and technological breakthroughs, and the economic dislocations arising from them. In fact, these things are on the increase almost daily all through October and into the end of the year. (See the full version of my 2014 World Forecast Highlights for a background on the Uranus-Pluto square.)
Watch for October’s eclipses – the lunar eclipse on the 8th and the solar eclipse on the 23rd (particularly the former) – as triggers for the social, political and economic turbulence heralded by Uranus-Pluto. Turbulence aplenty! Strikes, riots and revolution in the streets, wild swings in the financial markets and military conflict are much in the news at times like these. Solar and terrestrial storms are plentiful this month, adding to a general sense of insecurity. (More about these in a moment.)
The Mercury Max cycle that began on September 21 is the last one of the year. It continues all the way through October, finally concluding on November 1. This is the time in Mercury’s orbit when the little Sun-grazer comes up from behind on its inside track around Old Sol, catching up and then passing the Earth. From our perspective, Mercury grows brighter in the sky as it nears us, until it gets lost in the glare as it crosses between Earth and Sun.
2014 MERCURY MAX
Max-E S-Rx CNJ SU S-D Max-W JAN 31 FEB 6 FEB 15 FEB 28 MAR 14 MAY 25 JUN 7 JUN 19 JUL 1 JUL 12 SEP 21 OCT 4 OCT 16 OCT 25 NOV 1
Max-E = Mercury Maximum Elongation East of Sun (Max Begins) S-Rx = Mercury Retrograde Station (Retrograde Begins) CNJ-SU = Sun-Mercury Inferior Conjunction S-D = Mercury Direct Station (Retrograde Ends) Max-W = Mercury Maximum Elongation West of Sun (Max Ends)
I’ve called this the Mercury Max cycle because it’s the time when Mercury makes its perigee, i.e. closest approach to Earth. (See my article on the subject for a fuller perspective.) It’s during Mercury Max that Mercury’s apparent retrograde takes place – a transit of terrors to hear some old-time astrologers tell it, with their ominous "shadow"” and "storm" lore – terms that have no basis in astronomical reality, unlike the Mercury Max cycle itself.
See the full version of my 2014 World Forecast Highlights for the complete story of this month’s Mercury Max. For now, suffice it to say that people who don’t stay mentally sharp and focused – and that includes most humans, most of the time – will mostly careen from one mishap or miscommunication to another during this time. But if you stay focused, do your due diligence, double-check and follow up, then you can survive and prosper in the Sleepwalker Circus.
While this is a continuous cycle from beginning to end, the critical dates in this Mercury Max warrant extra attention. These include the 4th (Mercury’s retrograde station), the 16th (the inferior Sun-Mercury conjunction), and the 25th (the direct station of Mercury), and finally the last day of Mercury Max, November 1 (Mercury’s greatest elongation west of the Sun).
Give or take a few days of each of these dates, the sharpest Mercury Max manifestations are most likely to make their mark. Some of these will be due to human misfeasance and malfeasance: communication and transportation breakdowns that occur by accident or by design, mostly. Labor strikes, network and other infrastructure breakdowns, weather-related accidents, damage and delays tend to peak at times like this.
Bear in mind that weather related messes are not confined to our home planet’s atmosphere in cases like this. The critical dates mentioned above – again, plus or minus a few days – also mark periods of marked vulnerability to strong solar storms, including extreme Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), strong (M and X class) solar flares, and associated peak geomagnetic activity (Kp 5 and higher).
Who cares? You do. These phenomena are tough on the electrical and electronic infrastructure of our civilization. Power outages, satellite shutdowns and grid overloads follow in the wake of such solar storms. This includes the biosphere, which includes our own nervous systems. Which is to say that lots of people get fritzy at times like this: nervous, anxious, distracted, erratic, etc. Sure, it’s nice to see the pretty auroras wander farther from the poles. But those pretty lights are like the warning lights on your dashboard.
I’m not saying to duck and cover. One day the Sun will take out human civilization, but it won’t happen this month. Still, having current backup files is especially important at times like this. And a backup power supply wouldn’t hurt. Chances are, you won’t need them. But if you do, nothing else will suffice.
Last but far from least on so many levels are the eclipses of October. They signal an increase in geophysical disturbances on the one hand, as well as increasing socio-economic unrest, disruptions in the financial system, and geo-political turmoil.
It starts with the October 8 lunar eclipse at 15° 5’ Aries – melding the Uranus-Pluto square into a tight T-Square with the eclipse itself, even as Jupiter pulls to within a few degrees of a waning square (270°) to Saturn. Domestic unrest, international conflict and fading confidence in the institutions that keep it all afloat: that’s what this signifies. It operates at both the individual and collective ends of the psychological spectrum: nations get restless, people get tense. Food shortages appear to be a part of the picture here, and also in the shadow of the solar eclipse toward the end of the month.
Look for all of the above to loom large in the news cycle during this entire eclipse window, which runs from the 5th through the 14th (extended a couple days by the Moon’s peak declination north of the celestial equator on the 13th). This very nearly merges into the extended shock window for the October 23 solar eclipse, so this looks like a hugely significant month in the calendar of world events. Of course, there will be the typical geophysical component as well: elevated levels of strong seismic activity, volcanic eruptions and severe storms. You know the drill: prior preparation prevents poor performance.
Because this is another of those complex configurations, its astro-locality footprint is all over the map – again, another of those “picture is worth a thousand words” situations. I do see a concentration of horizon arcs in central Russia, Mongolia and China, down through Indochina and Indonesia; emerging on the other side of the world to sweep across western South America, Central America and the Caribbean, Hispaniola and the north Atlantic seaboard of the US and Canada. A meridian arc runs straight through Scandinavia, down through Central Europe, across the Mediterranean into the heart of Africa. And that’s just the broad strokes. I didn’t even mention the meridian line through Saudi Arabia and the Horn of Africa, or the horizon arc through Turkey. I’m figuring this points more to domestic rather than international disturbances per so – but in a global economy, whatever roils one country will be felt far beyond. Think interruptions in the flow of essential raw materials.
A word about astro-locality mapping is in order here, if you’re unfamiliar with the technique. The heart of the matter is that these maps show where on earth the planets (and other points) are rising/setting and culminating/anti-culminating at the moment of an event – a birth, a planetary configuration, etc. Rising and setting should be self-explanatory: they’re the places at which a planet is on the eastern or the western horizon, respectively. Culminating/anti-culminating roughly equates to being directly overhead/directly below. The rising/setting lines are curving arcs, while the culminate/anti-culminate lines are longitudinal (straight up and down, i.e. north-south). In the format I use (the Solar Maps module in Esoteric Technologies’ Solar Fire software), rising arcs are white, setting arcs are black; culminating lines are solid, anti-culminating lines are dashed.
October 23 Partial Solar Eclipse
I don’t mean to overstate the significance of this particular eclipse. It’s not the end of the world. But it does signify that business as usual is more illusion than reality this month. The shock waves from the October 8 lunar eclipse don’t even get a chance to fade, before the October 23 partial solar eclipse makes its entrance at 0° 24’ Scorpio, conjunct Venus, in the tail end of a Mercury Max cycle and just a week past the Sun-Mercury inferior conjunction that anchors Mercury Max. With a shock window that extends from the 16th through the 30th, this eclipse basically picks up right where the lunar eclipse on the 8th left off. October will be very stormy and dramatic, count on it. If there’s anything in your chart around either of these eclipse degrees (or in hard aspect to them), pay attention. This is not time to go on automatic pilot in your life. You need a hands-on and eyes wide open focus at times like this. (Check your chart!)
With Venus being in the eclipse degree, Jupiter and Saturn closing in on their waning square, and the Uranus-Pluto square tightening by the day, this eclipse points to an economic focus, a disturbance in the financial system this month. That’s nothing new since the Saturn-Uranus opposition back in 2008. But it’s a reminder to those who think the bankers and finance ministers have gotten us past the crisis. Only the new civilization being born in the next seven years will do that. Meanwhile, it’s one quick fix after another. This month’s disturbance won’t rise to the level of the 2008 near-collapse, but it is a reminder that the system remains unstable. Of course there’s the geophysical component to this eclipse – the upsurge in strong storms, big earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. And with Mercury in its Max phase all month, none of this is good for transport and communication networks. Have your backup plans and emergency kit ready!
As to areas of particular vulnerability, once again this is a complex configuration that tends to spread all over the map. In that light, perhaps the best indicator is the eclipse’s zone of visibility: from Kamchatka eastward across parts of the US and Canada. There are notable astro-locality indicators singling out the Caribbean and the US Atlantic seaboard as potential storm and/or seismic targets during this solar eclipse shock window; along with Hawaii and Alaska. In the eastern hemisphere, Greece and Turkey fall under the sun-moon meridian, along with much of Eastern Europe and east Africa.
Curious: there’s a Jupiter line right through Tokyo down to just east of Adelaide, and the sun-moon-Venus horizon line arcs across parts of China, Korea, the South China Sea, the Philippines and Indonesia. There’s so much happening during the eclipse period, that I can’t help thinking it’s describing storms and eruptions at many levels – natural, economic, political etc. And the Scorpio element, with Venus in the eclipse degree, suggests a disease component to the news at this time.
That’s the skinny on October; most of which, including that last sentence above ("disease component") was written and published last year, in the full version of my 2014 World Forecast Highlights. You could have known it all back then!
All astrological charts as well as eclipse and astro-locality maps are calculated and produced using Esoteric Technologies’ Solar Fire Gold Version 7.0.8. Unless sotherwise noted, sky map images are screen captures from the Pocket Universe app for iPhone, or produced by Starry Night for Windows; storm tracks are screen captures from The Weather Channel app for iPhone; and earthquake maps are screen captures from Quakes Pro Earthquake Alerts app for iPhone.
SPECIAL FEATURE: This month's birthdays of the famous and infamous (with astrological birth charts)
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Richard Nolle, Certified Professional Astrologer consultations/orders (AmEx/Discover/MasterCard/Visa) 800-527-8761 data/fax 480-753-6261 - email rnolle@astropro.com Box 26599 - Tempe, AZ 85285-6599 - USA www.astropro.com |
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