The Saturn-Pluto Conjunction
It’s been literally 500 years since Saturn and Pluto last met in Capricorn.
On Jan. 5 of this year, I referenced Saturn-conjunct-Pluto’s “history of collective disturbances and social and economic depression” on Facebook.
Pluto had been slowly bulldozing its way through the sign of Capricorn since January 2008 – Pluto representing transformation, metamorphosis, the process of tearing down and building back up, and Capricorn encompassing traditional structures, conventions and longstanding institutions, including the business world. Saturn – Father Time, the reaper of the harvest – powerful in his home sign of Capricorn, was approaching Pluto, intent a hard reset.
The last time Saturn and Pluto met in Capricorn was December 1516-February 1519. Most notably during that time, Martin Luther published his 95 Theses – marking the first time the printing press was leveraged to disseminate ideas widely – setting The Reformation in motion.
Saturn and Pluto had been moving into an effective conjunction (0° angle) since Christmas Eve 2018, and were within 1° of each other from Dec. 31, 2019 to Jan. 24, 2020. Over that period, China alerted the WHO to several cases of unusual pneumonia in Wuhan (Dec. 31); a recurrence of SARS was ruled out (Jan. 5) and the novel coronavirus was identified (Jan. 7); China experienced (Jan. 9) and announced (Jan. 11) its first death from the coronavirus; and by Jan. 24, 26 people had died in China, 41 million were on lockdown in the Hubei province, and cases had been reported in at least a dozen countries.
The Bear Market Prediction
In a publicly accessible forecast of the DJIA I published on Oct. 17, 2018, I noted, “March 11-May 1, 2020 – the best indicator of a bear market, worldwide effect.” On March 11, 2020, the Dow entered a bear market for the first time in 11 years – the fastest 20 percent drop in history. The S&P and Nasdaq followed suit the next day.
Looking Ahead 2020-2024
Below, I share my forecast based on an analysis of current and upcoming economic cycles. It does not include the multitude of hourly and daily cycles that may correlate to short-term moves in the market.
To summarize, I am projecting five significant down-market periods between now and early 2023, which collectively looks like three-to-four-year recession before the market moves decided upward in spring 2024.
I do not mean to imply that coronavirus will necessarily be the only factor shaping the economy over the next few years; so far, warfare, natural disasters and the environmental crisis have not been courteous enough to wait on the sidelines while the world contends with COVID-19. As I am not an astro-virologist, I don’t purport to project the course of COVID-19 infections, although the more astute of you may be able to infer its path. Please note that I am not a qualified financial professional, either, and this content is for informational and general purposes only.
I. March 11-June 6, 2020
As I noted above, the Dow entered bear territory on March 11, 2020, precisely on schedule. At the time of this writing, the two days ahead (March 30 & 31) look particularly hard, and start an accelerating downward trend through April 15. May 1 marks the last day of the cycle that began March 11, although overlapping cycles look to carry it to May 9, then May 13 and finally June 6 in progressively lesser degrees.
Additionally, the economically depressive effects of the Saturn-Pluto conjunction remain in effect through the end of January 2021.
II. Nov. 2, 2020 - Feb. 21, 2021
This looks to have a long lead-in starting around Nov. 2, 2020, with the core period running Dec. 27, 2020 through Feb. 17, 2021, with a six-day tail. Jan. 10-30, 2021 looks very difficult indeed.
Astrology is very much about putting symbolism into a real-life context. Right now, we are out too far to know where society will be come the end of the year. However, given the timing of this phase, I can’t help but imagine a potential scenario where we are once again circulating freely, incautious of COVID-19, flying here and there, spending time with friends and family over the holidays, then BAM.
III. June 14-Aug. 8, 2021
The toughest part of this phase is June 25-July 8.
IV. Nov. 2, 2021 - Feb. 4, 2022
V. July 23, 2022 - January 2023
The fifth and final phase begins rather dramatically on July 23-24 (a weekend) through at least Aug. 9. The downward pressure on the market relaxes somewhat Aug. 24-Oct. 21, 2022. Significant market upsets are indicated around Oct. 30, 2022 and Jan. 12, 2023.