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President Biden boasted during his State of the Union address about cutting the deficit by a record $1.7 trillion. His putative conversion into a born-again deficit cutter is belied by this week’s Congressional Budget Office federal budget report for January, which shows the deficit has doubled in the first four months of this fiscal year. CBO reports that the budget deficit from October through January swelled to $522 billion from $259 billion in the same period last year. Receipts are tracking $43 billion lower than last year, mostly owing to reduced individual income taxes, while spending is running $220 billion higher. Wall Street Editorial Board, “Biden Tells a Deficit Fairy Tale,” February 10, 2023.
Half the lies they tell about me aren’t true. – Yogi Berra
Still, Venus and Neptune are in the sign of the fish, on their merry way to a union on February 15. Everyone loves a fairy tale with a happy message, and that’s one of the roles Neptune and Pisces play in our otherwise critical and often too realistic world where danger always seems nearby. We need an escape. And we have a president with several planets in the 12th house (same theme as Neptune and Pisces) who is more than willing to trumpet the narrative that the economy is doing just great. Low unemployment, great new job’ numbers, and a strong stock market, all have the scent of success.
Beneath that glamorous exterior, however, is the stench of out-of-control debt, which does not bode well for the future. If your credit card company allows you to increase your credit limit fourfold, and you spend that money, it looks like you are doing very well. But what doesn’t show up so soon is the fact that your debt has just quadrupled too. On top of that, you have to pay more interest on that debt. Somewhere down the road the pavement ends and the cycle turns from success to distress if you continue to live on borrowed funds. And the turn quickly escalates from slow, at first, to very fast. This is especially true if the layoffs announced by tech companies start to increase as well.
Last week continued the topsy-turvy pattern of stock markets still looking for sustained direction. Most stock markets have been up this year following their half-cycle lows in mid-late December, but the rallies have not been that robust. And following last week’s deadly “full moon in a T-square with Uranus,” coinciding with an earthquake striking Syria and Turkey, most global equity markets started to trend down.
Metals showed signs of life early last week after the prior week’s sudden collapse, but by Thursday, they resumed their downtrend to new multi week lows. Bitcoin also dropped from its recent high of February 2, falling nearly 10% by the end of the week. Crude Oil, on the other hand, was up all week following its monthly low last Monday at 72.25. By Friday, it was trading above 80.00. That may be a market to watch this week as Venus conjoins Neptune in Pisces.
If you don’t know where you are going, you might end up someplace else. – Yogi Berra.
I am a Yogi fan today.
Writing immediately after a second lens replacement therapy is like going to battle under a Neptune affliction. Everything is blurry and mistakes in typing are far too numerous for this double Capricorn with Virgo rising to appreciate. Fortunately though, I also have Neptune rising in my natal chart (lots of supportive editors) with Uranus on my MC (my calling is the cause of astrology and truth), so the double Capricorn part of my self will always plow on and do his duty, come illness, rain, snow, or… fog. Let’s see: did I just type fog or frog? Or am I still rummaging around with that groundhog from the prior week?
But help is on the way for this Neptune-challenged world I have been lost in for two weeks, with less than another week to go. That is, this week finds two fairly important conjunctions occurring. The first is Venus conjunct Neptune in Pisces on February 15 and the second is the Sun conjunct Saturn in late Aquarius on the next day. The first one is favorable for love and romance, which will probably be at full strength the day before, on Valentine’s Day. It may be be good for those who have been operating in a fog. Or at least those who can delude themselves into believing it will be so. With Neptune in Pisces highlighted by the conjunction of Venus, you can believe whatever you want and for one day your dreams may come true. Just remember to exit that position before the day is over, or it will be Groundhog Day all over again. The shadow lurks nearby, even the next day.
As romantic and imaginative as the Venus/Neptune conjunction in Pisces can be, the next day’s Sun/Saturn conjunction in Aquarius can have the opposite effect. One is a euphoric buzz and the other is a buzzkill. The Venus/Neptune conjunction takes place with the Moon in Sagittarius too, Monday-Wednesday, which is by nature optimistic. But the next two days will find the Moon in Capricorn. It’s time to sober up quickly by midweek as the psychological climate transitions from fantasy/infatuation into reality very quickly. Both are relatively strong aspects for brief but sharp swings in stock indices. If the rush down is sharp, it may be a primary cycle trough in stocks. However, these geocosmic signatures are not as strong as what will arise next month. Still, the general rule is that any market declining into a strong Saturn aspect is a candidate for a rally to follow.
The geocosmic tapestry suggests that a lot of what we can expect for the year may not be known until next month, especially nearby to the third and final semi-square passage of Jupiter and Saturn on March 21.
According to the cosmos, clarity begins to appear once we get to spring. Constructive planning begins to get underway that can have positive benefits for the world as Jupiter moves from semi-square to sextile with Saturn. However, there is one major cosmic interruption in late May when the T-square of Mars-Jupiter-Pluto unfolds. If there is going to a be a financial panic, that is the aspect that foretells it. We will cover that in next weekend’s Forecast 2023 Webinar. I expect to see clearly again by then.
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