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). Location for all mundane charts is set for the Great Pyramid at Giza; the choice being strictly arbitrary in any case. 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) the complete version of my 2019 World Forecast Highlights (34 8-1/2 x 11" illustrated pages); focused, amplified and elaborated with details for the month as appropriate. The full version of my 2019 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 anywhere in North America to 800-527-8761, and charged to any major credit or debit card. Orders may also be placed direct from your own PayPal account page to rnolle@astropro.com – or by using the AstroPro PayPal order page.

"You’ve got to embrace the future. You can whine about it, but you’ve got to embrace it."
-- Matt Groening
 

The Skinny

I declared in last month’s forecast that June would rank "high on the geophysical turbulence scale," to include "June 25-July 9 (the solar eclipse and lunar north declination peak)." Those of us born under significant placements around 11° of the cardinal signs - Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn - are bound to find this an important frame. (Check your chart!)

It’s not the only one this month. There’s also July 13-19 shock window, centered on the lunar eclipse at 24° 4’ Capricorn (conjunct Pluto) on the 16th. (Check your chart for significant emphasis in the area of 24° in the cardinal signs: Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn.)

These eclipses are part of a larger historic picture that is notable not only for geophysical upheaval. They point to ongoing geopolitical turbulence as well: in political institutions, international relations and the global financial system. This includes the lingering Jupiter-Neptune square (within a few degrees of exact for most of July – and becoming exact again in September. This affects us all, but is especially focused on those of us born under important placements around 17° in the mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces); such as President Trump. No, the sky isn’t falling. It’s just continuing a pattern that’s getting more stormy with each passing week. (For a more in-depth history of this confluence of celestial patterns reaching back over 1,500 years and centuries into the future, see pp. 1-13 in the full version of my 2019 World Forecast Highlights.

July’s Eclipses Cast Their Shadows Before

Eclipses are much like SuperMoons in terms of their connection with storms and seismicity, but they tend to rank a little lower in magnitude. Don’t expect an eclipse to herald the kind of extreme tidal surges so typical of a SuperMoon, for example. But there remains a notable historical connection between eclipses and strong storms and seismicity, including moderate to severe (Magnitude 5 and up) earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.

Tradition from ancient times associates eclipses with natural disasters, and astrologers have long considered this class of syzygies to be of special importance. The Greek historian Thucydides (5th Century BCE) wrote about "an eclipse of the Sun at the time of a new moon, and in the early part of the same month an earthquake." In the 2nd Century CE his countryman Phlegon reported that "in the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad, there was an eclipse of the Sun . . . and a great earthquake that broke out in Bithynia destroyed the greatest part of Nicaea." (The fourth year of the 202nd Olympia corresponds to 33 CE, the year Jesus of Nazareth was crucified in Jerusalem. Early Church scholars debated whether this eclipse timed the crucifixion.)

The association of seismic upheaval and other natural calamities with eclipses isn't solely a preoccupation of ancient historians. It survives to this day, because earthquakes, volcanoes and great storms persist in their synchronicity with eclipses. Examples closer to our own time include the May 8, 1902 eruption of Mt. Pelee, which left 29,000 dead and destroyed the city of St. Pierre in the West Indies - within a day of a SuperMoon that also happened to be a partial solar eclipse.

My own rule of thumb for eclipses is that solar eclipses have a geophysical shock window that extends a week either side of the exact date, while lunar eclipses are effective within a plus or minus three day window. If the seven day-either way window for solar eclipses seems extravagant, consider that it represents an orb of only seven degrees for the Sun; and that solar eclipses can happen with the Sun within as much as 18 degrees either side of the lunar nodes. I'll not presume to proselytize, but I would point out that eclipses, as syzygies, represent a pronounced ripple in the local system's space-time continuum; which ripple radiates in all directions from the exact moment of the event. How far that ripple is noticeable may be arguable, and I'm not the argumentative type.

New and full moons - SuperMoons and eclipses included – are astronomical in scale, and planetary in the scope of their manifestations. Tides, for example, cover the whole of Planet Earth. Obviously they’re more evident along the coasts, but even the solid ground beneath our feet rises and falls to the tidal rhythms. Solar eclipses have a uniquely limited zone of visibility, but their reach extends to the whole of our home planet. Astro-locality mapping is one say to see what’s happening. For something of a primer on the subject, see the Astro-Locality section in the full version of my 2019 World Forecast Highlights (pp. 32-33). For now, just consider that such a map features lines showing where the Sun, Moon and planets are rising, setting, culminating overhead and anti-culminating below at the moment of a timed event, be it a new or full moon, the birth of a person, etc. Those lines represent zones of significance for the celestial bodies at the moment of the event in question.

July 2 is the first total eclipse since the so-called Great American Total Eclipse of 2017. Unlike its predecessor, this eclipse is not positioned to put on much of a show, because it’s mostly out to sea (in the southern Pacific Ocean). Viewers in the southern tip of South America can catch a glimpse of totality, but it’s mostly a maritime spectacle.

Astro-locality mapping, however, shows a longitudinal Sun-Moon swath through the center of Canada, the US and Mexico, a Jupiter meridian through the Horn of Africa and the Middle East, and a Saturn-Pluto meridian through East India and Western China; plus some assorted horizon arcs across Japan, eastern Australia and New Zealand. These are not the only targets for a planet-wide phenomenon like this, but they’re more sharply in focus than others.

On the geophysical front, watch for the customary solar eclipse shock window for this alignment; i.e. plus or minus seven days (June 25-July 9). Since this falls within the June 23-August 9 Mercury Max, I expect there will be more than the typical eclipse level of storm and seismic activity associated with this eclipse.

Solar storminess goes with Mercury Max, and the typical manifestations are to be anticipated during this eclipse: heightened geomagnetic activity (Kp 5+ storms), exaggerated radio interference and electrical/electronic malfunctions, etc. Remember that the human nervous system is also an electrical network, and therefore vulnerable – particularly for those of us with important natal placements around 10° in the cardinal signs, in this case. (Check your chart!)

Next in the eclipse roster is the July 16 partial lunar eclipse at 24° 04’ Capricorn – closely conjunct Pluto. Visible from Europe, Africa and South Asia, I expect this one will rank lower on the disturbance scale than the July 2 solar eclipse, but it will still leave its mark in the way of storms and seismicity during the July 13-19 shock window. Still, this is a Mercury Max, so it’s not going to be business as usual. Astro-locality mapping this one draws a bead on Hawaii, the lower Pacific coast of South America, southern Mexico, the Gulf of Mexico and the southeastern US; and on the other side of the world, Mongolia, China, the Philippines, Indonesia and central Australia; plus a Jupiter meridian through west Africa and Western Europe, and a Jupiter horizon arc slicing through Central America, the southeastern US and eastern Canada, and out across Iceland. (This list is far from complete: see the lunar eclipse Astro-Locality map for more.)

Jupiter-Neptune Square

The last Roman Emperor sat on the throne in Constantinople back in the year 549, the last time a Saturn-Pluto conjunction in the third decanate of Capricorn and a Jupiter-Neptune waning square from Sagittarius to Pisces followed in the wake of Justinian’s T-Square by thirteen years. Until now. If you’ve been following along in the full version of my World Forecast Highlights since 2005 (most recently pp. 5-10 in the 2019 edition), you know that we’ve been living in an historic watershed since 2006, when the Great T-Square (Jupiter in Scorpio squaring Saturn in Leo and Neptune in Aquarius) reappeared for the first time in nearly 1,500 years.

It took me years of research and hundreds of pages to describe what this combination of configurations means, so I’ll refer you to the above mentioned reports for a more complete picture. For now, suffice it to say we’re living through the dawning of a new historical era, a new world order.

As I wrote in the full version of my 2019 World Forecast Highlights (pp. 6-7), "This alignment bespeaks a crisis of faith: truths are no longer public property, recognized and valued by the people at large."

In my 2017 World Forecast Highlights, I pointed out that this is part of an unfolding pattern that stretches from 2006 right into the present day, and beyond:

"This isn’t just one single configuration of major planets. It’s a whole sequence of major planet patterns that unfolds from that one big one, like a train of cars being pulled by a locomotive. For example, the 2016-2017 Libra-Aries Jupiter-Uranus opposition had its analog in the 594 opposition in the wake of Justinian’s T-Square. I told you what to expect from the 2016-2017 Jupiter-Uranus alignment, based on its parallels to the same opposition in 1934: a heyday of "national socialism," from Stalin in the USSR to Hitler in Germany, Franco in Spain and Mussolini in Italy, to FDR in the US. From Hitler’s Reichstag fire to Stalin’s Great Purge and Mussolini’s racial purity laws, to Roosevelt’s New Deal, 1933 was a turning point in the tide of fascism – all under the aegis of the Jupiter-Uranus opposition, in combination with the 1932-1934 Saturn-Pluto square. That’s right: the combined Saturn-Pluto square and Jupiter-Uranus opposition that accompanied the 1930s has been with us from 2011 on into 2017. And we wonder why anarchy, populism, nihilism, racism and fascism have reared their ugly heads again, with an intensity not seen in generations?"

"Take a look around the world at all the nationalist and fascist political movements that have arisen during this period. If you can’t see that US President Donald Trump is the very archetype of “anarchy, populism, nihilism, racism and fascism," you have been duped. Unfortunately, the state of the American educational system and the structure of the Electoral College combined to enable the election of a candidate whom no one familiar with pre-World War II history on the one hand, and the history of Donald Trump over the last four decades on the other, could possibly vote for in good conscience. Make no mistake: if you didn’t know his track record as a liar, fraud, grifter and rabble rouser, it can only be that you were paying attention to Celebrity Apprentice when you should have been reading history and the news.

I have been asked many times how this disaster will end, and when. While the rise of fascism and anarchy was a major theme in a very long term astrological cycle, the demise of Trump fits a pattern unique to American history over the relatively short span of some 150 years. As I wrote in my 2018 World Forecast Highlights (published in 2017), "Mr. Trump is surrounded by danger, which threatens not only him but also the world at large – particularly during the Mars Max cycles of 2018 and 2020, if he manages to stay in office that long. I don’t expect he will . . . In the current highly polarized political atmosphere, half the US population (at least) are hoping that Mr. Trump’s removal from office is imminent. Not so fast!"

As described on page 10 in my 2018 World Forecast Highlights, "President Nixon’s resignation occurred on August 9, 1974 – some two years and two months after the break-in at the Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate Hotel. (And that was with the Democrats controlling Congress.) . . . Realpolitik suggests a couple of alternative outcomes. The quicker one is that the GOP power structure turns on the President, and turns him out via the 25th Amendment. The slower hinges on the Democratic Party regaining a majority in the House of Representatives in the 2018 mid-term election – which would put us on a timeline not unlike the Nixon-Watergate scenario.” By that reckoning, a Trump ouster would be due not before mid-March 2019. Notice that the Jupiter-Neptune square in January (14° 22’) in the mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces) makes a T-Square tying into the President’s natal tenth house Sun-Uranus and its opposition to his fourth house (lunar eclipse) Moon. This is also in effect for the June and September appearances of the Jupiter-Neptune square."

"All things considered, I suspect that Mr. Trump ends up leaving office by some means other than impeachment in the House followed by conviction in the Senate. If ill health isn’t the cause of his exit, then he’s likely to follow a Nixonian path – resigning as part of a deal to avoid certain impeachment and conviction, in return for a pardon for himself and his adult children."

As I said, this is one for history rather than for the breaking news of the day. As predicted, March 2019 marked a major turning point in the tide against the President: the release of the Mueller Report. Further further revelations of Presidential incompetence, misconduct, misfeasance and malfeasance will shake the blind faith of even his most brainwashed followers over the next several months. Confidence in the global financial system will also be shaken: expect a continued decline in major equity markets. These developments will serve to hasten the President’s day of reckoning. Remember: the global economic downturn heralded by Pluto’s southward equatorial crossing last year and this year’s Saturn-Pluto conjunction is just around the corner.

Bear in mind that since June 23, we’re now into the second Mercury Max cycle of the year – which adds to the intensity of geophysical turbulence, and puts critical emphasis on mental focus and acuity. Under the aegis of the June 16 Jupiter-Neptune waning square (within a couple degrees of exact well into July), there’s lots of lies, confusion, subterfuge and deception afoot. Accept nothing at face value, and "beware of greedy leaders, they take you where you should not go." (George Harrison, Beware of Darkness).

Speaking of lies and greedy leaders, be advised that the Jupiter-Neptune square is tightly configured to President Trump’s natal lunar eclipse – and the July eclipses make direct hits on his natal Mercury and Saturn-Venus conjunction. The demented despot is at his most dangerous now. Can you say "wag the dog?" Even his brainwashed True Believers are starting to catch on to the con now. Ask a farmer, or an auto worker.

Jupiter's waning square to Neptune is a lot of things, one of them being the moment when Toto pulls away the curtain to reveal the conman pretending to be the Wizard of Oz. Some of us have known it for decades. Many more are about to wake up and figure out. It can’t happen too soon. Just remember: this is an ongoing process. Many people hate having to own up to being hoodwinked by a huckster. They’d far rather make excuses for him than admit that they got suckered. Short of a medical crisis – which cannot be ruled out in cases of morbid obesity - this will drag on for months.

Of course, Trump is by no means the only one whose birth chart is targeted by the Jupiter-Neptune square in the 19th degree of Sagittarius-Pisces. If you’re among those of us whose chart features any emphasis around 19° of the mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces), then you too should be on the alert. (Check your chart, and protect yourself as best you can.)

Mercury Max

Like SuperMoon, which I introduced and defined 40 years ago, planetary Max cycles are astronomical functions astrologically applied. Also like SuperMoon, Max cycles incorporate orbital interactions between Earth and other celestial bodies, such that they are in greater than usual proximity and prominence. Mercury Max is the most frequent of these cycles, happening three times a year on average. The second one of 2019 began last month, and continues throughout July.

Being closest to the Sun, Mercury darts between Earth and Sun more than any other planet; several times a year in fact, including the infamous Mercury retrogrades of astrological legend. While most astrologers pay a fair amount of attention to Mercury's retrograde, few realize that it's only a part of the more fundamental Max phase in the orbital interaction between Mercury and Earth, as they both orbit around the Sun.

The Mercury Max phase begins when the little Sun-grazer reaches its maximum elongation east of the Sun, during its evening star phase. This happens when Mercury has come 'round to the same side of the Sun as Planet Earth, and is relatively near us. The little planet is then pulling up to pass Earth on the inside track, as it were; catching up to us from behind and then passing between us and the Sun. Just as it catches up with us, Mercury passes directly between Earth and the Sun. This is Mercury's inferior conjunction with the Sun. After the inferior conjunction, Mercury continues pulling ahead of us until it reaches its greatest elongation west of the Sun (in its morning star phase), at which point the little planet is headed toward the far side of our parent star. Between these two extremes, the greatest east and west elongations, comes the fabled Mercury retrograde period of astrological lore. (See accompanying table.)

2019 MERCURY MAX CYCLES

Max-E	S-Rx	Cnj. SUN	S-D	Max-W
FEB 27, 2019	MAR 5, 2019	MAR 15, 2019	MAR 28, 2019	APR 11, 2019
JUN 23, 2019	JUL 7, 2019	JUL 21, 2019	AUG 1, 2019	AUG 9, 2019
OCT 20, 2019	OCT 31, 2019	NOV 11, 2019	NOV 20, 2019	NOV 28, 2019

Max-E = Mercury (Evening Star) Max. Elongation East of Sun (Max begins)
S-Rx = Retrograde Station (Retrograde GBegins)
Cnj. SU = Inferior Conjunction with Sun
S-D = Direct Station (Retrograde Ends)
Max-W = Mercury (Morning Star) Max. Elongation West of Sun (Max ends)

It’s worth noting that, with the inferior planets (those inside Earth’s orbit; namely Mercury and Venus), the closest approach to Earth coincides with the inferior (retrograde) conjunction with the Sun. With the superior planets (those outside Earth’s orbit), the closest approach to Earth coincides with the planet’s (retrograde) solar opposition. Clearly astrological doctrine regarding planetary retrogrades is completely unthinking. Rather than being weakened or debilitated in some way, a retrograde planet is in fact bigger and brighter in our sky, and closer to our home planet. Not unlike a SuperMoon, in that respect . . .

What I have termed the Mercury Max cycle is simply a way of putting the Earth-Sun-Mercury relationship into a perspective that reflects real-sky, observational astronomy; the dynamics of our solar system as seen from our terrestrial perch – which is what astrology was, back in the time when it was astronomy. Look up in the sky over the indicated periods, and you will see the phenomena described above. Astronomical software and references provide the greatest eastern and western elongations of Mercury (and Venus, for that matter), but astrological software and references do not. One is a real sky perspective, the other is something less – and that is what astrologers have settled for over the course of time. Instead of peering into an ephemeris (book of planetary positions), I advocate a more natural "eyes to the skies" approach; which is exactly how real astrology began millennia ago.

The Mercury Max cycle, incidentally, is a genuine astronomically based replacement for the silly, irrelevant and arbitrary astrological doctrine of Mercury’s “shadow” and “storm” periods. Forget that tripe, which has no basis in reality at all! (For details and examples, see pp. 13-19 in the full version of my 2019 World Forecast Highlights.)

The second Mercury Max cycle this year runs from June 27 to August 9, and peaks with the July 21 inferior Sun-Mercury conjunction. Throughout this period, and most notably within plus or minus three days of the five critical moments in the cycle – see the 2019 Mercury Max table - geomagnetic storms disrupt our home planet. Get ready: the curtain is rising on a comedy of errors and a whirlwind of activity.

Dumping Gigawatts of extra solar energy into Earth’s magnetosphere, atmosphere and crust not only amplifies the potential for stronger and more frequent storms and seismic disturbances, but electrical disturbances as well. All of these geomagnetic disturbances essentially grow out of solar storms of one kind of another; be they X-Ray storms, coronal holes, Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), plasma arcs, etc. Blasting charged particles out into the solar system – tending to be directed toward our home planet throughout the whole June 23-August9 Mercury Max cycle, these high energy solar disturbances coincide with strong geomagnetic storms here on Earth (Kp 5 and up). These in turn amplify the potential for outages in electrical networks (e.g. power and communications) and the human nervous system. Think scrambled circuits, and you’ve got a pretty good handle on Mercury Max. And if you were born with important features in the range of 24d Cancer to 4d Leo – where the entire Mercury Max takes place this time around – then you may be more susceptible than most to these kinds of disruptions. Check your chart!

Acknowledgments

All mundane astrological charts as well as eclipse and astro-locality maps are set for the Universal Time (UT) of the event, and calculated and produced using Esoteric Technologies’ Solar Fire Gold Version 7.0.8. Charts are set for the location of the Great Pyramid - a purely arbitrary choice, since location is irrelevant to these charts. Unless sotherwise noted, sky map images are screen captures from the Pocket Universe or Star Rover apps 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 the QuakeFeed or QuakeWatch apps for iPhone. Any market images are screen captures from the default iPhone Stocks app, unless otherwise noted. Weather images and storm tracks are screen captures from the Weather Channel app for iPhone.

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

Richard Nolle, Certified Professional Astrologer consultations/orders (AmEx/Discover/MasterCard/Visa) 800-527-8761 data/message 480-753-6251 - email rnolle@astropro.com Box 26599 - Tempe, AZ 85285-6599 - USA www.astropro.com