Heads Up!The Astrological Almanac for Writers

October 19th- 26th  2015 (all times are PDT)

by Kathy Watts

Mon Oct 19 the Moon conjuncts Pluto in Capricorn.

Relax and do what makes sense to you. Don’t stress about anything, except perhaps a deadline and then deal with that calmly, too. (continue reading…)

Heads Up!

The Writer’s Astrological Almanac

by Kathy Watts

March 2015

(all times PST until 2 am Mar 08; then PDT)

March starts on a Sunday (the Sun’s day of the week), so shine your brightest and make your work your best all month long. It may slow you down, but it’s worth it (unless you’re under a deadline, I suppose). (continue reading…)

Here comes March comes howling in!

Fri  01 Mar the Moon enters Scorpio. Serious stuff, this, and good thing. We have serious work to do. That it’s Venus’s day of the week may grant us all a little grace throughout the month. (continue reading…)

Heads Up!

The Writer’s Astrological Almanac

by Kathy Watts

November 2011

Happy November!   Autumn and the closing of the year is upon us with its usual vengeance.

We start on a Tuesday (the day of the week ruled by Mars) with the Moon void of course in Capricorn.  It’s easy to work hard on something already started.  In the wee small hours Mercury exactly squares Neptune.  You may dream dissatisfaction, but on waking things will be fine.  Before dawn, the Moon enters Aquarius.  Enjoy a focused day.

Wed  Nov 02 the Moon is in Aquarius all day.  Work with a clear mind.  In the early hours, Venus changes signs and enters the expansive and uplifting sign of Sagittarius.  This will lighten anyone’s mood.  Eight hours later, in the late morning, Mercury leaves Scorpio behind to enter Sagittarius.  You can be serious in a bigger, less brutal way.

Thu Nov 03 the Moon is in Aquarius when Venus trines Uranus in the wee smalls.  Dabble with some small quaint experiment.  Six hours later Mercury trines Uranus.    Dabble more cleverly.  As Mercury and Venus slowly perfect their conjunction, we’ll see these mirrored aspects get closer together in time.  That night, the Moon conjuncts Neptune in Aquarius, then goes void of course.  Dream your to-do list for tomorrow.

Fri Nov 04 the Moon enters Pisces.  Five  hours later, the Moon squares Mercury, and thirty-one minutes later, the Moon squares Venus.  Note that it happens to Mercury first, as Mercury is still catching up with Venus.  The gap is closing fast, though.  Emotions may be near the surface.  Write something romantic.

Sun Nov 06 the Moon conjuncts Uranus in Aries.  Surprise yourself with an abnormally busy weekend.

Mon Nov 07 the Moon is in Aries when Mars exactly opposes Neptune.  Write with extra deliberation because you can make unusually strong impressions today.   (continue reading…)

Heads Up!

The Writer’s Astrological Almanac

August 2011

Happy August.  It’s a hot month, in more ways than one, very Mars and Mercury heavy.  This year is just buzzing by.

Aug 01 is a Monday, the day of the Moon, with the Moon entering Virgo.  The Moon conjuncts an almost stationary Mercury.  Tomorrow Mercury goes retrograde.  Heads Up.  Whatever your personal retrograde preparation ritual may be, remember to calm your mind and look forward to a chance to do some quality retrospection, editing, and revising.  Four hours later the Sun exactly squares Jupiter.  This is a good time to evaluate your use of time and other resources, and to rein in any excesses or lavish indulgences.  You don’t have to go to extremes and give up all good and fun things, though.

Tue Aug 02 the Moon is void of course in Virgo when Mercury goes stationary retrograde.  Mercury will be retrograde for almost the entire month of August.  This is a prolonged Heads Up.  I suggest that we learn to love it and resolve to make good use of it. (continue reading…)

Heads Up!   January 2011

Happy New Year and welcome to 2011! We start off on a Saturday (Saturn’s day of the week) with the Moon in Sagittarius. Jupiter rules Sagittarius. This fits in well with the upcoming Jupiter-Saturn opposition in late March. Take it as a theme for the year — generosity, gratitude, respect. We all want it, after all, so let’s share the “wealth.”

Sun Jan 2 the Moon conjuncts Mercury on Sagittarius. Think big thoughts, and phrase them meticulously. The audience will build itself.

Mon Jan 3 the Moon conjuncts Pluto in Capricorn. Feel strongly about your work, do your best, and let the chips fall where they may. It’s also the day before the New Moon (that will also be a solar eclipse). Be safety-minded, especially when traveling, even if only to the grocery store. Heads Up.

Tue Jan 4 is the New Moon at 13 Cap. Embrace your work with a new intensity. It’s also a solar eclipse. What decisions you make now will have extra weight for the next three months. A few hours later Jupiter conjuncts Uranus in the end of Pisces. Expansive feelings may go out in surprising directions. Less that an hour later, Venus trines Uranus. The unexpected and unconventional may be better received. Then Venus trines Jupiter. A lot of people can feel good about a lot of things. Encourage the good things, and feel good, too. (continue reading…)

It’s a month of retrogrades and long-lasting conjunctions.  Life may seem stuck in low gear, but the low gears are the strong ones. Venus and Saturn are within orb for conjunction from Aug 2 till Aug 13.  Heads up for any unwarranted feelings of self-sacrifice or self-pity.  Mars is deep in the mix, too.

Mars will be in a separating conjunction with Saturn until Aug 11 or so.  Be on guard against feeling so strong that you’re willing to be a doormat.

Then we have Venus and Mars, ah!  This gives charm and beauty to the world, and reckless flirtation, jealousy, and temper.

Now that’s a Heads Up configuration!

They begin an applying conjunction on Aug 6, reach exact conjunction on Aug 20 (the same day that Mercury goes stationary retrograde), do the exact conjunction again on Oct 1 (shortly before Venus goes stationary retrograde on Oct 8), and they don’t pull away from one another until Oct 12. Then there’s Jupiter and Uranus, still conjunct in the borderlands of early Aries and late Pisces.  It lasts till the end of the year, and then some.  This is the stuff of Big Business, big and generous authority, and big surprises.  Make friends with these conditions and Heads Up all month. Get all that?  Did it stick?  Me, neither.  That’s why I need to look at the sky day by day, night by night.

Ready for August? (continue reading…)

My Little Chicadee!!!

Are we not entering the heart of summer?  And what a summer this is going to be.  Let the Sun shine in!

July 1 starts on a Thursday (Jupiter’s day) with the Moon in Pisces (traditionally ruled by Jupiter).  Look forward to a month of expansion and all things big and beautiful.  Remove the word “disappointment” from your vocabulary this month.

Sat Jul 03 the Moon opposes Saturn and goes void of course until it enters the sign of Aries.  Criticism may sting, but not for long.  The Moon then conjuncts Uranus (always bringing a fresh look at the world), then Jupiter in the sign of Aries.  Feel personally lucky.

(continue reading…)

Go for it!  Heads Up

On Friday, we learned that found out that the all time winner in the ‘get away with financial murder’ department, Goldman Sachs has been sued for fraud by the SEC. You may remember that it was those captains of the universe at GS that created the toxic debt instrument, the Collateral Debt Obligation, better known as CDOs, that nearly wiped out the financial institutions.  GS has a lot of chutzpah, because not only are they said to have helped to create the toxicity, but they also managed to get billions of dollars in  TARP  bailout money.

By Joshua Gallu and Christine Harper

April 16 (Bloomberg) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was sued by U.S. regulators for fraud tied to collateralized debt obligations that contributed to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The firm’s shares tumbled as much as 16 percent and financial stocks slumped.

Goldman Sachs created and sold CDOs tied to subprime mortgages in early 2007, as the U.S. housing market faltered, without disclosing that hedge fund Paulson & Co. helped pick the underlying securities and bet against them, the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement today. Billionaire John Paulson’s firm earned $1 billion on the trade and wasn’t accused of wrongdoing. The SEC also sued Fabrice Tourre, a Goldman Sachs vice president who helped created the CDOs.

‘ “The product was new and complex but the deception and conflicts are old and simple,” SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami said. “Goldman wrongly permitted a client that was betting against the mortgage market to heavily influence which mortgage securities to include in an investment portfolio, while telling other investors that the securities were selected by an independent, objective third party.”

“Goldman Sachs became emblematic of public outrage at the banking industry after posting a record $13.4 billion profit in 2009, a year after receiving $10 billion in taxpayer aid during the financial crisis.”   More from Bloomberg

Like yours truly, back in 2006 (see Llewellyn’s 2006 Moon Sign Book), Paulson warned investors that the building boom was about to go bust. However, unlike yours truly, Paulson put his money where his mouth was and made a fortune by creating a financial instrument (collateral debt obligation or CDO)  of real estate mortgage based securities (RMBS) that he was betting against.   At first, he lost money, then in 2007, he hit pay dirt – big time. It is estimated in 2007, alone, Paulson & Co. made $15 billion dollars. This transaction, is said to have netted Paulson close to $4 billion dollars.

So where is the fraud?

Not on John Paulson’s part, he has been absolved off all liability in this situation. We need to roll back the clock to 2007. In a nutshell, John Paulson went to Goldman Sachs (as well as other investment banks)  and asked them to ‘create’ (structure) a type of RMBS (special emphasis on the last two letters) that some say was designed to fail. Gary Zuckerman’s book, ‘The Greatest Trade,’ tells us that Paulson shopped around to various banks. Not all of them took the bait.  According to Zuckerman, thinking that Paulson would want especially ‘ugly mortgages,’ Bear Stearns turned him down. There has been the analogy raised that this was like benching your best player, while betting on the opposing team.  While there might be of questionable ethics to create a CDO to fail and then bet against it,  there is hardly anything illegal about that. Investment banks come up with (structure) financial instruments of all types, all the time.

What was the SEC alleges to be fraudulent is that Goldman Sachs,  as well as, their Vice President Fabrice Tourre  not only created the financial instrument, but also prepared the marketing materials, and sold them directly to customers. In addition, and perhaps worst of all, the SEC alleges that Goldman Sachs did not disclose the risk, specifically that hedge fund, Paulson & Co. had a significant bet (short) against this particular financial instrument.

Will this be the end of Goldman Sachs?  Given the heavily restricted resources of the Securities and Exchange Commission and what seems to be the vast resources of Goldman Sachs, I tend to doubt it. However,  given the allegations, it might not be a bad time to check out Goldman Sachs initial public offering. Goldman Sachs went public, that is offered shares in their company stock on May 4th 1999. We use 9:30 a.m., New York, because this is the time that the New York Stock Exchange opened.

Looking at the chart, we see that Cancer rises, making the Moon very important in this chart.  We see that the Moon is in the gambling sign of Sagittarius, placed in the 6th sector of service. In a sense, what G.S. does is to serve the investment community with a host of financial services. The Moon will represent the company, and all who work there.  I have to admit, I was surprised to see a movable sign (Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn) rising. The movable signs are so named because they are very changeable. And as such, when we see one of them rise, because of the speed involved, there is a sense of hyper speed up. Companies with movable signs on the rise, see a lot of action, but there is less stability than I would like to see in a company that has this kind of influence on the markets.

The next thing I look for is what planet or luminary has power over the sign rising coming up in the east. In the case of GS, the company and all who work, therein, and because we are talking about an stock,  not a corporation (which has different rules) and all who own a piece of it, (stockholders) instead of something stable, to bring balance, instead, we see the fluctuating Moon.  Aptly, the Moon is in speculative sign, Sagittarius, in the service sector, indeed that is what Goldman purports to do, serve the banking and investment community. The Moon is in a wonderful relationship with its ruler, Mr. Moneybags, Jupiter.  Luck is always important in the realm of big time finance, or else it wouldn’t have gotten this big to begin with. In addition to owning the company, Jupiter has a lot to say about the upper echelon of the company. We might say that Goldman Sachs has friends in high places, as can be clearly seen by Jupiter’s position in the tail end of the 10th house. The revolving door between GS and government is well known. We have several C.E.Os who left GS to become Secretary of the Treasury.  Jupiter will represent management.

The deal in question went on April 26, 2007. What is intriguing to me is that it looks like management (the 10th) was very anxious for this deal to proceed.  I do not know the particulars, but with Mars, the North Node and Uranus sitting in the house of bigwigs, on that fateful day, while the diminishing Saturn sat in the

As this suit comes about,  Jupiter just happens to be cresting at the 10th house of the stock. In traditional astrology, the 10th house is what we pay for things. Since the 10th house is the top of the chart, the noon position, it might suggest that the stock price is peaking.  It is interesting to note that the deal itself,  went down on April 26 2007. If we look at the transiting planets on that day,  it looks like management might have been a bit too anxious for push this deal through with anxious Mars, and Uranus all right up at the top on that day.  In addition, the planet of  bear markets and diminishing returns, Saturn was not only in their money house (2nd) but also square their money ruler… It looks, at least from an astrological point of view that Goldman Sachs was ‘hot to trot’ for this deal. We have to wonder what kind of other deals GS had made back in 2007.  Were they anxious about some other trades, or where they just greedy or was this just business as usual? We will probably never know. What we do know is that in 2007, Goldman was trading upwards of $250, but in March had dropped quite a bit, and what we also know is that Goldman dropped 13% on Friday. There are now probes taking place in both Great Britain and Germany.  Don’t forget that Goldman is a huge player  in China.

To be continued…..