“Solar eclipses tend to move the market in new directions. But companies or projects started or initiated before an eclipse – especially a solar eclipse – are greatly handicapped and will probably not live up to expectations,” she said.

The Facebook stock opened at 11:30 a.m. on Friday May 18 and only managed to break slightly better than even on opening day, a bad omen for IPOs.

On Monday, the first trading day after the partial solar eclipse on Sunday, May 20, the price of Facebook’s stock dropped 11 percent by the close of the day.

Following an eclipse, Morris says the market tends to reverse itself and the trend is in the opposite direction. After 12 down days, the market was poised for a projected turnaround that was expected to push prices generally higher until the next lunar eclipse on June 4.

But it’s no sure thing that Facebook (FB) will be along for the ride, she said.

Morris has worked with clients for more than 20 years setting up successful incorporation dates, IPOs, and first trade dates. She writes and publishes two newsletters, The Right Time and The Astro Economics Stock Market Newsletter, which recommends stocks by sectors according to their favorable cycles.

A new cycle beginning in June will favor transportation, education, communication, media, telecommunication, travel and pharmaceuticals. She expects stocks in these sectors to generally outperform the market in the next year.

Morris’ record has included COOG, up 266 percent since 11/04; BIDU, up 938 percent since 6/07; NTES, up 140 percent since 4/09; CERN, up 189 percent since 5/09; EBIX, up 133 percent since 6/09; PCLN, up 405 percent since 9/09; MELI, up 206 percent since 9/09; SXCL, up 323 percent since 10/9; VRX, up 273 percent since 12/09; RAX, up 253 percent since 12/09; AAPL, up 209 percent since 1/10; LULU, up 436 percent since 1/10; FFIV, up 119 percent since 4/10; ALXN, up 25 percent since 7/10; and SWI, up 135 percent since 9/11.

In the first FB trade chart a favorable Sun/Jupiter conjunction is dominantly placed and the Facebook IPO did in fact get lots of action and attention on opening day.

But the stock may have accountability problems because Mars and Neptune are aligned in a stressful 180 degree opposition aspect, made more challenging because timing for the opening trade angularly placed the aspect where its effect will be more intense.

Other stressful aspects suggest the company may spend too much based on unrealistically high expectations for cash inflow. Or, as some analysts have suggested with hindsight, the IPO’s asking price may have been too high with too many shares hitting the market at the same time.

The fuzzy end is that space where bad things happen to good people. Here we’re keenly aware of inequities in the system and chafe at the apparent double standard that has some of us dealing with more challenging or catastrophic issues than others – with mixed results

Linda Furiate had been studying astrology for about a year when her ordeal began, triggered by an auto accident that left her reeling. After the crash she was diagnosed with cervical dystonia, a painful and incurable condition in which contracting neck muscles cause uncontrollable spasms. She wasn’t able her to maintain her balance and experienced hideous jerky movements and abnormal posturing that caused friends and onlookers alike to recoil in horror. Her neck was twisted at an angle that made it impossible for her to look forward when she walked, so she found herself tripping over her feet and running into walls

Things in her personal life fell apart. But Furiate wasn’t ready for a pity party.

“I never asked why me?

“But I did ask why this?” she recalls.

This, all things considered, is the better question for an astrologer to ask. Furiate didn’t see the accident coming but hindsight was revealing.

“Researching my chart revealed layer upon layer of evidence pertaining to how I was feeling physically, emotionally and psychologically. I noted the timing for the accident and saw that a transiting planetary configuration was in fact interacting with a stressful Mars – Saturn alignment in my natal chart; in a challenging way that related to my health and to the physical structure of my body and the muscle spasms I was experiencing,” she said.

At the time of the accident Furiate’s interest in astrology was enthusiastic but halting. However, seeing how the planetary patterns played out so dramatically in her own life changed all that.

“I was hooked,” she said

In analyzing her own natal chart, Furiate focused on the stressful Mars-Saturn opposition that was “triggered” at the time of her accident. An opposition means the planets are roughly 180 degrees apart, usually but not necessarily in opposite astrological signs. When lined up in this fashion the Mars-Saturn opposition can indicate a crisis in action related to impulsiveness and the overweening need to control it.

Furiate began researching astrological medical books and found they confirmed Mars as the traditional “ruler” of the body’s muscular system and Saturn its skeletal structure. Once she was able to rule out the possibility she was dealing with a brain or neurological disorder, she was able to develop a series of neck exercises, breathing exercises and posture improvement techniques that have helped her function symptom-free for extended periods of time.

Those demanding proof for astrological influences in human affairs might check out the compelling evidence in Furiate’s on-going battle with cervical dystonia.

“Over the years I came to realize that when the planet Saturn changes signs and interacts with my natal Saturn or Sun there is a shift in how my body responds to my current treatment plan. There are times when I am mainly symptom-free and other times my neck is in such spasms – and my body so twisted – that it’s hard to look at someone without moving my entire body towards them. Fortunately, I understand the rhythms of planetary motion and can adjust my life and treatment plan accordingly,” she said.

Furiate completed a four-year training program with the International Academy of Astrologers (IAA) and has a growing list of clients. She also has picked up on the marketing career that was cruelly interrupted by her medical ordeal and works with both marketing and astrological clients from her home office in the Baltimore area.

In her practice she balances gritty stoicism with a calming spiritual acceptance of the fact that life unfolds the way it does for a reason. In an interview with the Astrology News Service (ANS) she provided these insights:

ANS: What do you believe adversity is attempting to teach you?

Furiate: Most of us tend to be blessed with multiple astrological aspects of either challenging or flowing energy. In my case, I find it is the challenging configurations that move me off the couch to do something about whatever the adverse situation might be. Everyone is born with troublesome issues to some degree. It’s all a matter of how we choose to respond to life when something happens that throws us off course.

Adversity provides us an opportunity to peek beneath the depths of our psychological make-up with the hope of finding revealing insights – or awakenings that may offer a newfound sense of wisdom or wholeness.

ANS: What’s the most important advice you have for people who have lost all hope of having the life they planned on?

Furiate: When we lose any part of ourselves or fail to achieve something we planned on or hoped for a part of our identity may feel damaged or lost. It’s always possible to get caught up in defining ourselves based on the roles we play – wife, boss, whatever. But these roles do not define our underlying purpose in life, they merely are the things we do. Our true purpose lies much deeper than that. When we haven’t achieved something we’ve planned on we owe it to ourselves to reflect upon these desires and ask if they are truly what we want in the first place.

ANS: Can an astrological reading help?

Furiate: An astrological reading may be helpful in determining why someone might long to be in a particular relationship only to find out that their behavior or attitude is pushing opportunity away. Or a reading may offer insights regarding the potential for obtaining something the client desires. For example, one may dream of being a great motivational speaker and have hopes for sharing their insights and wisdom with the world. Only the placement of planets in their chart may suggest they are better suited to working behind the scenes. Astrological insights can help a client decide how to realistically pursue their desires.

ANS: Has coping with difficulties in your own personal life made you a better astrologer?

Furiate: Yes, definitely. Or I would like to think so. I’m motivated to offer clients the kind of advice or guidance that will help them better fulfill their higher soul purpose. I think my personal challenges have made me a better astrologer and, perhaps more importantly, a better person. I’m better able to listen to clients and learn of their struggles without making judgments or affixing blame.

Philosophically, I believe each of us has taken on an earthly presence to learn, to grow and to experience love at its deepest level. The reason for intelligent life is to understand the purpose and complexities of the universe. Astrology is a great tool we can use to better define our existence and serve others.

ANS: You manage your own marketing and astrological consultation businesses from your home. How is this working out?

Furiate: It seems to work out well. I often turn clients from my marketing business into astrology clients – or vice versa.

In Cosmos & Psyche: Intimations of a New World View, Tarnas opens up the possibility of a meaningful cosmos, one in which consciousness is just as much a part of the overall picture as matter. Recognizing the size of his task, he starts out slowly, reviewing the history of Western thought and noting the problems with our materialistic conception of the universe. Tarnas then begins to introduce the idea that meaning may be present throughout the cosmos – suggesting the existence of something more than a human interpretation of physical events. He approaches the task with the utmost caution, aware that he is moving outside of a worldview that has been accepted since the 19th century.

Synchronicity, or meaningful coincidence, is at the heart of the approach Tarnas takes. The term was coined by psychologist Carl Jung in the middle of the 20th century, and it has since become of great interest to physicists like David Bohm and F. David Peat, who see parallels with the worldview emerging in contemporary physics. The idea of a meaningful cosmos becomes somewhat more palatable when physicists (champions of the material world, after all) give a nod in its direction.

But what evidence do we have to support this view? Tarnas takes the bold step of introducing astrology as the primary witness in the case for re-enchanting the cosmos. Most of Cosmos & Psyche is devoted to an explanation of how the cycles of the five outer planets of our solar system, and their angular relationships to each other, correlate with social and political change. We see how the same themes emerge time and again here on Earth as the planets repeat the movements of their dance in the sky.

Always aware that he is writing for an audience that is very likely to be skeptical, Tarnas takes great pains to distance his message from the astrology most people know – that of the tabloid sun-sign columns. He doesn’t even use the “A” word until page 61. Yet the astrology he presents is some of the best thinking on the subject available to a contemporary person. It is sophisticated, insightful, and balanced. Happily for those without prior astrological knowledge, Tarnas explains things clearly and avoids unnecessary complexity, making for a very readable book.

It is unlikely that Cosmos & Psyche will convince any die-hard materialists that we live in a meaningful cosmos, and the use of astrology as a form of proof will seem a very weak argument to many. Yet for the person who has long felt that there is something beyond the material but has not been sure how to approach it, this book is a valuable introduction. Tarnas, author of the highly acclaimed book The Passion of the Western Mind (which is widely used in colleges throughout the country), shows that you don’t need to leave your critical thinking skills at the door to escape the dark nihilism of the materialist worldview.

Cosmos & Psyche
By Richard Tarnas
Viking, 2006

This summer the Democrats will convene in Charlotte, the GOP is heading to Tampa, and from May 24-29 the largest gathering of astrologers the world has seen will be in New Orleans for UAC 2012 – The United Astrology Congress.

Marriott New Orleans is the conference venue. More than 1500 astrologers are expected to attend more than 300 classes and workshops taught by 175 celebrated authors and astrological experts from around the world, said Shelley Ackerman, public relations coordinator for the event.

There will be more than 15 tracks and 60 classes daily. The program also will offer special classes for beginners, including a Sun Sign Saturday program for beginners on a budget, Ackerman said.

Classes dealing with forecasting trends and cycles, finance and economics, mysticism, divination and myth, political and mundane (predictive) astrology, eastern meets western astrology and consulting and healing are scheduled. And there will be special presentations on the 2012 prophecies, the Presidential election, earth changes and extreme weather.

Participants can design their own schedule, attending one, two or all six days. A complete schedule of classes, workshops and events is posted at www.uacastrology.com.

A former U. S. Navy officer, Harris covered the 2003 Iraq War for CNN in a hair-raising stint as an embedded reporter with the 2^nd Marine Division.  Over the past three decades, he has covered virtually every news story of consequence for various news outlets.  For example, he is the Washington Post reporter who broke the story on the no-tell motel on Airline Highway where the Reverend Jimmy Swaggart often met with a prostitute while attacking other TV preachers for indiscretions of their own.  Following the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, he traced several hijackers to the Atlanta motel and the local flight school they used to train while preparing for the attack, again for CNN. As part the team that won a first place National Headliner award for investigative reporting.

The veteran investigative journalist earned a reputation for digging and getting it right – and while he has not cast his investigative journalist’s eye on astrology, he has used respected members of our profession to delineate his chart and provide what he calls “a valuable reality check and sounding board for patterns in my life.”  He plans to share his ideas on how astrologers can win over his skeptical media colleagues when he participates in a panel discussion devoted to the subject at the United Astrology Conference (UAC) in New Orleans May 24.  More information on this program is available here.

In an interview, Harris answered the following questions for the Astrology News Service (ANS):

ANS: You’ve checked it out.  What do you really make of astrology?

Harris:  From childhood I remember reading the comics and Sydney Omarr’s astrology column was on the same page.  I’m not sure how I figured it out, but recognized that my birthday qualified me as a Pisces.  I was hooked – peeking at what he said the stars had to say about the day and how it would go.  I know, very shallow of me.  But the column and others,  however shallow, made astrology hugely popular on a very superficial level to millions of people.  Most don’t take it further or realize there’s much more to astrology than Cliff’s Notes or the fortune cookie in a Chinese restaurant.

ANS:  At what point in your life did you realize there might be more to astrology than sun-sign columns?

Harris:  When I moved to San Francisco to write for the San Francisco Examiner and freelance for Rolling StoneI rekindled an interest in Eastern religions and other spiritual pursuits, even tracked down an ex-NFL linebacker to an ashram in India who said meditation took away his anger and violent streak in a profile for the Washington Post.  Intrigued by the icons from the hippie days, I was able to interview the late (“tune in, turn on, drop out” guru)Timothy Leary and poet Alan Ginsberg.  And I  became friends with the late gonzo journalist Hunter Thompson.  When I broke the Jimmy Swaggart hooker story, Hunter sent a fax to CNN declaring me to be “an evil, chrome-dome, scorpion…with more skeletons in his closet that Pol Pot.”  It was during this period that I decided to get my astrology chart done to see if it could be useful in helping me figure out just what those skeletons were rattling around in my closet.

ANS:  What did you learn?

Harris:  I found the readings to be valuable as a reality check and sounding board for patterns in my life – what to look for and look out for.  And I learned that an astrological chart is not a crystal ball that describes what will happen but a road map that can offer perspective on how the road might wind.

ANS:  What’s the best advice an astrologer has ever given you?

Harris: Our astrologer (David Railey of Atlanta) helped my wife Carol and I pick an auspicious wedding date, November 11, 2000.  And now, 12 years later, I can say we’re still going strong.  We also asked David to look at a favorable window for my back surgery in 2007 and it was a big success. Carol  gave my sons readings for birthday presents this year and says “they were blown away.”

ANS:  What’s far and away the most interesting story you’ve ever covered?

Harris:  Impossible to say, but stories where power, ambition, sex, greed, murder, money, religion and politics are in the mix – and certainly riding with the 2^nd Marines during the Iraq invasion.

I remember Swaggart lusting after Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s powerful TV satellite that beamed religious programs across the country, and he used Bakker‘s tryst with a babysitter to get him defrocked.   What a window on America.  These were the same powerful TV preachers courted by Presidents for their clout.  I  called them “Godfathers of the Gospel,” televangelists in search of ratings and market share who were bumping each other off, not with bullets but sex scandals.

The last race of Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards, who later went to prison on federal corruption charges, stands out. When I interviewed him he was flying high , leading in polls that also showed voters believed he was a crook.  How can that be? I asked him. “Cher, lemme tell you,” he said in his charming Cajun lilt.  “I ain’t never been caught in bed with a live boy or a dead woman.”   That made headlines!

But for sheer drama I’d say true crime stories like Atlanta’s missing and murdered children case and the conviction of the first African-American serial killer.  Covering O.J. Simpson’s murder trial for CNN and Michael Jackson’s molestation trial are other examples.   And in between was investigating the death of Princess Diana in Paris, the Oklahoma City bombing and covering domestic terrorists like bomber Timothy McVeigh.  There also was Atlanta’s convicted  Olympic Park bomber Eric Randolph, who hid from the FBI in the rugged mountains of North Carolina for five years. Who knows, maybe they should have used a criminal astrologer, if there is such a thing.

ANS:  What was it like being an embedded reporter with the 2^nd Marine Division?

Harris:  While writing about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden I volunteered to be an embedded journalist for CNN and wound up riding shotgun with a light armored recon unit during the Iraq invasion.  Nothing as exhilarating as getting shot at, except getting shot at and missed.  At a low point I had to break the tragic friendly fire story of a U.S. Air Force A-10 that mistook a Marine unit for enemy Iraqi troops and unleashed rockets and 20mm cannons.  Eighteen Marines died  in the crossfire and my story sparked the Pentagon to re-open the investigation.  I was later invited to speak to the Army War College and showed video I’d shot in Nasyria, a pivotal battle and one of the bloodiest in the Iraq campaign.

Out of all that, what I value most are the close bonds with the young Marines who kept me safe and trusted me to tell their stories, brave guys not much older than my own sons.  During lulls in the fighting, they lined up to use my sat phone, and to play ghost writer on my laptop, sending missives to wives and girlfriends back home.

“What’s her name, son?” I asked one.

“Judy”

“What do you want to tell her?”

Just say, I’m fine and miss her.”

He showed me her photo.  “Don’t you want to say you miss her beautiful blue eyes,  her soft white skin and the beautiful curve of her neck?” I asked?

“Yes sir, write that!”

ANS:  Is it fair for the media to refer to astrology as entertainment?  What might a more accurate description be?

Harris:  First, it is entertaining. To hear an astrological explanation for why a politician keeps getting caught with other women, or why a celebrity can’t stay out of jail, or rehab is entertaining.  But a more serious forecast about the way an election might turn out – or what the economic outlook will be – should generate more interest in the media and maybe even more respect for astrology in the long run.  Especially if you can back up stories with studies that link stars to science and certain patterns to public peccadillos of politicians and others. Venus on the loose?

ANS:  Is there something astrologers can or should be doing to change the public’s perception of astrology?

Harris: The more the community is able to attach its message to breaking news the better.  Keep doing studies, making forecasts about major events, profiling newsworthy personalities and offering insights into why certain things have happened the way they have.  Also, predict what might be new on the horizon.   Then go back and take credit or blame for getting it right or wrong. Being transparent and not taking yourself too seriously can work wonders.

But the biggest sin in the media is to be wrong and boring, not necessarily in that order.

In his latest book, Integral Astrology, Understanding the Ancient Discipline in the Contemporary World, Diaz describes how astrology relates to a new paradigm that is emerging in Western civilization led by transpersonal psychology, chaos and complexity theories, general evolution theory and the human potential movement.

“Leading developmental researchers are extending psychology upwards, linking it with mystical states to embrace spirituality.  Coordinating fields of information both old and new, integral theorists are creating a truly holistic approach to the many ways of knowing that are part of the human experience,” he says.

In an interview with Astrology News Service (ANS) he provided these additional insights:

ANS: What is divination and to what good purpose is it applied in an astrological reading?

Diaz:  To divine literally means to contact the mind of the god(s) – although I think most practitioners today have a slightly less grand view of what they are doing!  Divination includes astrology, tarot and a myriad of other means and devices for accessing information that isn’t available through the senses or our other usual approaches to life – such as thinking and logic, feeling, and so on.  Astrology is a means of divination because it’s a way of interfacing the physical world and the underlying symbolic patterns that inform the cosmos.  Even among systems of divination, as well as psychic and mediumistic phenomena, astrology is unique because it assumes a correspondence between the two at all levels, including everyday reality.

I think the greatest value of any form of divination is that it offers perspective for most people most of the time.  It isn’t about what is going to happen. It’s about understanding the patterns involved and the kinds of choices that are open to us.  It’s a little like a weather forecast – meteorologists tell you if it’s going to be sunny or rain.  But they don’t tell you if you are going to be dry or wet because they assume you’ll take the information they are giving you and make an informed choice.

One of the things I discovered when working with psychic-mediums is that they don’t view what they do as extraordinary, and they have no real desire to impress anyone with their skills. They see themselves as helping professionals. I think most astrologers have the same approach. Like those in most helping professions, astrologers can help people to get a different perspective on whatever issues they have.

ANS:  How do academic peers reconcile your interests in Tarot and the I Ching?

Diaz:    And astrology! A few express some interest. Most are bemused, but many of those eventually agree that there may be some validity to nonmaterial phenomena. It’s about the same with my students, by the way.

ANS:  What are the most important things going on in the field of consciousness research and what have these to do with astrology?

Diaz: Consciousness research has, in my opinion, already successfully demonstrated that information and even conscious awareness can exist and be transited apart from physical means.  Now the big question is: what is happening?  A number of people, including biologist Rupert Sheldrake, are attempting to answer that question, developing working models and theories.  Many of these are testable and successfully meet scientific criteria.

For astrology, the question is whether we can be included in this, and if so, how.  Over the last 50 years or so, there has been a significant and serious challenge to the view that the material world is the only “real” world.  A new paradigm is emerging in which consciousness is seen as an integral part of existence.  Astrology and this new paradigm have followed a parallel course of development, although they have done so at considerable distance from each other.

The problem is, much of consciousness research is focused on finding out if specific information can be shared across space and time.  On the other hand, astrology – as it is practiced by most contemporary Western astrologers – is symbolic in nature, and symbols are hard to measure.  It’s like the difference between measuring how many words are in Richard III and measuring what the play means.

ANS: What is integral astrology?

Diaz:  Integral means whole, and an integral approach to astrology is one that recognizes not only astrology but a variety of non-astrological factors, as well. Although astrology provides extraordinarily helpful information, making optimal use of it is dependent on understanding all kinds of things, such as a person’s culture, gender, and education.

Key to integral astrology is the understanding that how astrological symbols manifest – as events in peoples lives or as interior experiences, for example – is related to an individual’s degree of conscious awareness, and that’s something you can’t know from looking at a birth chart. Sometimes the emphasis is on how specific events will unfold, sometimes it’s about understanding the options that are available, sometimes it’s about how a person is feeling, or about the meaning of a particular time in one’s life. Matching the client to the right astrologer, who is practicing the right astrology for the situation, is very important.

As with many disciplines – psychology, for example – there are many different schools of astrology, each using its own techniques and each having areas of life where it will have greater and lesser value. Integral astrology provides a way of recognizing the value of all of these schools, and organizing them in a cohesive way. So the integral approach to astrology isn’t about a set of new techniques, it’s about knowing how to best apply the tools that we have.

ANS: What lessons can we learn from ancient astrologers?

Diaz: Well, for one thing, ancient astrologers actually looked at the sky, and taking a peak up there every now and then is a good idea for us, too. A contemporary astrologer could easily work from an underground location, never seeing the stars and planets. In a sense, that’s appropriate, as astrology has become more abstract and formalized over the centuries. But I feel there’s great value in connecting with the sky when you can, and remembering why it is that we began to see meaning threaded through the cosmos at every level.

ANS: What can people do to live out the best expression of the energies they’re born with?

Diaz:  Astrology describes the basic, fundamental energetic patterns that inform our approach to life. But astrology says absolutely nothing about our degree of awareness, how conscious we are, or in other words, our level of psycho spiritual development. Astrology tells us what we have packed in our bags for our evolutionary journey, but not how much progress we have made along the way.

That’s why people born at the same time – like twins – can often be so very different. It also helps to explain why some people seem to be tossed around by fate, while others have a greater degree of control. So the key to living out the best expression of our energies is to bring as much awareness and compassion to them as possible.

Articles by Diaz are posted at www.integralastrology.net.

Citing a cyclical trend in home values that has been tracked since the American Civil War between the States, astrologer Grace K. Morris, M.A., says the worst almost certainly is behind us.

According to the 18.6-year Real Estate Values cycle first described by the late research astrologer Alice Reichard, home values were projected to bottom in August 2009 and trend upwards towards the next high point in June 2020.

“There’s been a lot of sideways movement in America’s housing markets as the number of home foreclosures have continued to rise. But things appear to be getting back on track after the subprime mortgage crisis plunged the housing industry into chaos,” she said.

Morris writes and publishes the Astro Economics Stock Market Newsletter. She says the Real Estate Values cycle is keyed to the motion of the moon’s north and south nodes.

The mathematically calculated nodes are sensitive points in space where the moon’s orbit around the earth intersects the earth’s orbit around the sun – the ecliptic. The north or ascending node is where the moon’s orbit crosses north of the ecliptic and the descending or south node is where it crosses the ecliptic to the south.

Eclipses can only happen when the moon is aligned with its nodes. This phenomena was observed and noted at least 2,600 years ago by the ancient Chaldeans, who called these two points the Dragon’s Head (north node) and Dragon’s Tail (south node).

Every astrological tradition since then has identified the nodes as powerfully influencing both the affairs of nations and the lives of ordinary people. In the Western tradition, the north node is generally identified with opportunities for personal growth and expansion while the south purportedly illuminates personal limitations that need to be addressed.

Like everything else in space, the nodes are continually on the move, progressing together in tandem but 180 degrees apart in opposite astrological signs. During the 18.6 year cycle each node spends more than a year trekking through each of the 12 astrological signs.

Reichard theorized that the transiting Dragon’s Head (north node) might positively influence home values as it transited through the astrological sign of Cancer. Symbolically, Cancer deals with feelings and the emotions but also is strongly linked to domesticity and matters related to hearth and home.

Reichard further reasoned that if home values cyclically peak with the north node in Cancer they should bottom about 9.3 years later when the north node, trending downward, has moved half-way around the zodiac to the sign of Capricorn. Home values should then begin trending upward on the way to their next high point in Cancer.

How is this working out?

The cyclical pattern is highly susceptible to economic nuance and may sometime appear to be flat or uneven. However, over time, the trend line has consistently moved in the expected direction, Morris says.

In the current era, home values peaked in 1962 with the north node in Cancer and the average U.S. home price climbing to $20,000. Values remained virtually unchanged as the cycle trended downward to the next cyclical low point in 1973, but average prices rebounded robustly to $80,000 by the time and the next cyclical high point was reached in 1981.

Home values dipped to another low point in 1991 when, on cue, a recession arrived to moderate earlier gains. Only this time, when the trend line pointed north, there was no stopping the rapidly ramping home prices that arrived with the new century.

“Home values were projected to peak in 2000 but subprime mortgages fueled and extended an incredible surge in home values for another six years before the housing market began to implode,” Morris said.

The good news is the Real Estate Values trend line appeared to be was back on track in August 2009. The north node was back in Capricorn and home values had abruptly returned to their cyclical lows in many U.S. housing markets.

“The timing could hardly be more auspicious for those who can consider buying a house at this time. Interest rates are near historic lows and home values at a low point as well.

“A home purchased now should prove to be an excellent long-term investment,” she said.

In fact, we’re talking about an onslaught of visionary madness. A search on Amazon.com pulls up over 500 books dealing with 2012, most of them predicting “the transformation of consciousness,” “Earth changes,” arrival of “space brothers” and the start of a New Age. Some compare our time to the last days of Atlantis. Talk show hosts on radio and television, who are mostly ignorant of the subject, assist in the transmission of these idealistic and doomsday messages allowing distorted, incomplete and uninformed ideas to further percolate through our culture.

On the cusp of December 21, 2012, what we’ve got is a prognosticatory free-for-all – an undisciplined, wishful-thinking, fear-driven rant fueling the declining book business and spicing up talk shows. So maybe it’s good for the economy? The truth is, however, Mayan Calendar 2012 subject matter is complicated and few have the patience to wade through it – a recipe for unfounded opinions. If you’ve gotten this far, and you are curious about 2012, get ready to focus your mind on some details.

Here are the Facts…

The name “Mayan Calendar” is popularly used to describe a symbolic time-count developed and employed by the ancient Maya of Mesoamerica.(1) Archaeologists call it the “Long Count.” It is a block of time 5,125 years in length – one end anchored in 3114 B.C.E and the other in 2012 C.E. I have argued in my writings that the Long Count is actually a kind of astrology created roughly 2,000 years ago by the ancient Maya of Mesoamerica.

The Long Count has some important divisions. It is composed of 260 katuns, each of which contain 7,200 days.(2) This length of time, 19.71 years, is very close to the average Jupiter-Saturn synodic cycle of 19.86 years. We know from inscriptions on ruins that Maya astronomer/astrologers followed the movements of these planets and appear to have used this information to schedule important cultural and dynastic events. I suspect that the Maya saw the katun as the perfect expression in time of the Jupiter-Saturn cycle – a block of days that was aesthetically and numerologically more balanced than 7,254. Western cultures do the same sort of thing by using 7 days in a week to measure the quarters of the Moon, or 360 degrees to track the Sun’s annual cycle of 365.24 days.

It’s all about Earth cycles. After rotation on its axis, and revolution around the Sun, the Earth’s third fundamental motion is the wobble of its axis called axial precession. The Long Count multiplied by five is very close to the 25,800-year average cycle of precession measured by Western astronomers from the equinoxes. If we then take a modest intuitive leap, we see the Long Count as a calendar of precession, a way of tracking this very, very long Earth cycle. It is a complete block of time in itself, but is also one-fifth of the full cycle. Cycles can’t be relative: they must be anchored to something stable. The starting and ending point of the full precession cycle as measured by the Long Count, appears to be the precession of the winter solstice Sun across the Milky Way – but this crossing takes roughly a thousand years.

To get more precise, this passage of the winter solstice Sun can be more narrowly focused on the crossing of the galactic equator (approximate midpoint) which occurred in 1998, the tangent to the dark rift in the Milky Way (~2012 +/– decades at least) or the transit over the ecliptic position of the galactic center (a couple centuries from now). See how much is uncertain here? I would identify this as a serious, unresolved timing problem, central to the basic thesis of 2012 as an end-date.

Intriguingly, Mesoamerican cosmology talks of five creations, this concept recorded graphically in the Piedra del Sol of the Aztecs which indicates the present creation is the fifth or last section of the full cycle. Using this fact, we could take another leap and say the end of the Long Count could be seen as the end of the precession cycle that began roughly 25,800 years ago. OK, what happened then, the last time the Mayan Calendar came around? I have read that it was around that time that humans used up all the easy-to-catch turtles for food and were forced to work harder for meals. But if that was really the case, it was most certainly something that didn’t happen in one day. All we can say for certain is that one precession cycle ago the Earth was deep in the grip of an 85,000 year long ice age that began to melt 5,000 years later.

Logic Of The Mayan Calendar

The logic of the Mayan Calendar is fairly straightforward in terms of just numbers. What I am adding to this is that the Long Count has both an astronomical and astrological basis. Not only does it appear to offer a figure for the length of the precession cycle, which was barely known in the West at roughly the same time the Maya were solving this problem, but it appears to be constructed from a string of idealized Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions called katuns, and we are now at the very end of the last of these 260 katuns. I want to emphasize that these proposed linkages to the Jupiter/Saturn cycle and precession, which link the calendar to real geocosmic phenomena, are currently academically questionable. I’ve made these leaps because I’ve studied astrology extensively and know it when I see it. Still, most archaeoastronomers haven’t done this yet, at least with any enthusiasm. So take it with a grain of salt.

If you gotten this far you now know that the “end of the Mayan calendar” in 2012 could be seen as both the end point of the current fifth part of the precessional cycle (the Long Count) and the terminal point of the entire precession cycle itself. This end-dating is where that cultural psychosis called millennialism and all the Earth-shaking prophecies come in. But what did the Maya have to say about this? The fact is that Maya prophecies for the end of the Long Count range from non-existent to a shred of pure obscurity. There really are, however, Maya prophecies for a section of the Long Count that is called the Short Count, but these don’t latch onto the year 2012 and they seem to be unknown to nearly all the published prophets.

Here’s all we have. A few years ago a badly weathered inscription was found at a minor Maya archaeological site that appears to link the end of the Long Count with the descent of an obscure Maya deity called Bolon Yokte. But not much more is clear, even who Bolon Yokte is in the Maya pantheon. Still, this minor discovery has been loudly touted as evidence that Maya were at least thinking about 2012 a long time ago.

So in the end, all we have for certain is a calendar end-date that we know with precision to be December 21, 2012. We can surmise that it may be linked to the precession of the winter solstice point through the approximate midpoint crossing of the Milky Way. We don’t know exactly what the Maya were intending in making this calendar, though we know the winter solstice Sun did cross the galactic equator in 1998. Finally, we don’t have much of an authentic Mayan prophecy to interpret so we are left with the creative imaginations of people who are dissatisfied with society and are looking outside of themselves for answers, justice and salvation. Not all writers on 2012 are in this category, but I think most of them are.(3)

Anyone Can Be A Prophet

Anybody paying attention these days can be a prophet. First of all, it’s obvious that humanity is at war with nature. We are fighting over increasingly scarce resources and degrading the Earth to such an extent that we have accelerated the natural cycles of climate change. Worse, many are in denial that humans are causing such problems. But the elephant in the parlor that is conveniently ignored is over-population. It seems people can’t really deal with reproductive issues (birth control, abortion, homosexuality, etc.) without emotional charge because we’re hard-wired like other animals to reach our biotic potential. Reproduction was crucial for 99% of our existence as a species but now it’s making things worse. So we are simultaneously over-consuming, over-populating and soiling our nest and surely we will pay the price over the course of the next century.

Anybody paying attention will also note that changes, both positive and negative, have already begun – at least for some people in some places.(4) It’s not that all of this is unprecedented, there are parallels with past crises – but never before has our planet been loaded up with this many domesticated primates! It just can’t go on for much longer the way it has been, so predicting either a new age or an Atlantis-like destruction is sort of a no-brainer. Predicting such events to occur right on 12.21.2012, which is most likely going to just be another Friday full of last minute Christmas shopping, is desperately audacious, however. Hopefully, enough smart folks will prevail and some kind of realistic accommodation with our Earth will be the outcome over several decades, visible in retrospect a century from now. As for visits from the space brothers, well, that’s a wild card. More likely we’ll find bacteria on Mars or Europa and finally know that we are not alone.

Notes

1. It should properly be called the Maya calendar according to convention, but it’s too late to change that now.

2. The Long Count appears to be a large-scale version of the 260-day astrological calendar of ancient Mesoamerica called the tzolkin. If you want to understand Mesoamerican astrology you should begin with the tzolkin.

3. If you wish to dig deeper into this subject in a balanced way, I recommend you consider the writings of both Anthony Aveni and John Major Jenkins.

4. The square of Pluto and Uranus, which has a long history of social disruption, is presently occurring and will be a factor for several years. This aspect, by itself, makes a strong case for major changes in culture and society. This is, of course, Western astrology and the coincidence with the end of the Long Count is just that, coincidence.

Rapoza interviewed financial astrologers Ray Merriman, Robert Gover and Grace Morris, and produced a balanced overview on financial astrology for the uninitiated: Can Planets Affect Your Portfolio? He also wrote a sidebar piece: Lucky Guess or Lucky Stars, Astrologer’s Top Stock Picks Beat the Market.

Some observations by the astrologers interviewed:

“Astrology is not some fortune cookie bullshit.” — Robert Gover.

“This is a crossroads year. It’s not the end of the world for the U.S. economy and the planets tell us it’s going to be a good first half for U.S. stocks.” — Grace Morris.

“With Saturn moving into Scorpio later this year it will be a time of reckoning and not only for the U.S. but for Japan and also Europe.“ — Ray Merriman.

The Astrology News Service (ANS) asked the Forbes reporter the following questions:

ANS: Are you a Forbes staff writer or freelancer?

Rapoza: I’m a contracted employee, which is one step above freelancer, one step below staffer. I write for them daily and am one of the top 10 international news writers in terms of traffic.

ANS: How did this article come about?

Rapoza: Intellectual curiosity really. Plus, I personally know Robert Gover (one of the astrologers featured in the coverage).

ANS: Business magazines appear to be more open to covering this topic than head-in-the-sand scientific publications. Why do you think this is so?

Online Forbes article illustrated with stock image of crystal-ball gazing fortune teller.

Rapoza: I think because a financial and business publication — especially a mainstream one like Forbes — has more room to at least “appear” to be tongue in cheek than a professional journal of science. Although I was not poking fun as financial astrologers in any way, I used an image that was more mainstream in order to attract a more general audience — a woman reading a crystal ball.

I would also say that for a mainstream business magazine like Forbes, or even a weekend article in the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times, that people might be curious to know about the subject as they would be curious to watch any “out there” type program on The History Channel; such as Decoded or Ancient Aliens. It interests people. And on the investment side, people want to look at the data — see just how well your stock picks have worked using financial astrology at least in part to make those decisions to buy or sell. Investors, both retail investors and licensed professionals, know how to judge whether an investor’s calls are working or not: is the stock going up, or has it gone down? In the examples I gave from Grace’s large cap stocks, they have all gone up. Of course, lots of stocks have gone up this year, but still, people interested in investing would be curious about how that call was made. Lucky guess? Or lucky stars? I don’t think you’re going to get away with that in a scientific journal.

ANS: Do you or your broker utilize astrological methods when timing/picking stock investments?

Rapoza: No.

ANS: What answer do you give those who ask for your honest opinion about astrology?

Rapoza: I’ve never been asked that question. I would say that I have personally used astrologers in my personal life. In fact, I plan on seeing one next week! Not for stock picking though.

ANS: Is there anything else you think we should know?

Rapoza: I think that’s it. I’m glad people (in the astrological community) liked the article.

In his book, How I Got This Way, Regis Philbin, an inveterate story-teller and master of “spontaneous conversation,” describes a series of on-air meetings with the “remarkable” astrologer Sydney Omarr (his adjective).

Early in a broadcast career that spanned more than five decades, Philbin, who holds the Guinness World Record for most time spent in front of a television camera, was feeling incredibly blessed. With only a low-budget, live TV talk show in a secondary market (San Diego) to recommend him, he was asked to take over Steve Allen’s nationally syndicated TV talk show, which was filmed in Hollywood at the time.

The first guest he booked on The Regis Philbin Show was Omarr, whose syndicated horoscope column was a staple in newspapers from coast to coast. The astrologer was asked to predict how successful the new show would be.

It was October, 1964. Omarr showed up and solemnly delivered the bad news.

“Sydney fixed a haunted gaze on me and said there’s a fight going on right now behind the scenes as to what direction the show should go. He told me the show will fail. You won’t make it,” Philbin recounted.

An Earth Moving Revelation

In private after the show, Omarr told Philbin he was heading into the worst period of his life. “The earth will literally move under your feet,” he warned.

Philbin worried about the dire forecast but was pleasantly surprised when his show was renewed after 13 weeks. So he invited Omarr back on the program to see if he was ready to change his mind about anything.

The astrologer was even more insistent. He told his host the show would be going off the air within 48 hours.

The end actually arrived 36 hours later when Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, the show’s sponsor, lowered the boom.

The next few years for Philbin were as personally and professionally challenging as the astrologer had predicted they would be. Even the part about the earth moving under his feet.

Philbin owned a house on a hillside overlooking Universal City. At one point in 1968, it rained heavily for two straight weeks. On one of those rainy days half of his backyard slid into the canyon.

“City officials ordered the house evacuated. When I couldn’t pay the bills to shore up the property, I lost the house entirely,” he said.

Philbin had managed to land on his professional feet with a three-year stint as sidekick to Joey Bishop on the Joey Bishop Show. When this show was winding down after a disappointingly short run in 1969, he invited Omarr back to predict how things would go forward career-wise for Bishop and himself.

The outlook for Bishop was not especially up-beat. But the astrologer predicted Philbin was destined to become “a household name in America” and would have “great success.”

When pressed for a timetable, Omarr said it wasn’t going to happen right away. It would take another 20 years.

In his book, Philbin points out that Omarr made this prediction in December 1969. In September of 1988, his New York morning talk show, Live with Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford, was syndicated nationally and “we were well on our way to making that prediction come true,” he said.

Show Host Interviewed by ANS

In an interview with the Astrology News Service (ANS), Philbin offered these insights:
ANS: What do you really think about astrology?

Regis: I was always fascinated by the subject for many years.

ANS: Did Omarr’s gloomy forecast disturb you?

Regis: It sent a chill down my spine. I didn’t believe it was going to be that bad, but it was.

ANS: What was the reaction of your show sponsors?

Regis: The sponsors and most of the people around me didn’t believe in astrology in the first place.

ANS: Did you later learn that the show was already on life support when Omarr made the forecast?

Regis: Sydney was the first guest we had. His first forecast was an eye-raiser but when we got renewed for another 13 weeks I asked him to come back and that’s when he became more definite. He said the death notice was 48 hours away. It came 36 hours later.

ANS: According to a report in the N.Y. Times, you thought bringing the astrologer onto the show would be a “good gag.” Did you later change your mind about this?

Regis: I thought it was a daring and different way to start a new TV show.

ANS: Did you ask Omarr for advice of a personal nature?

Regis: Naturally I did and he repeated what he told me on the air. That like all good or bad things eventually it would come to an end.

ANS: Based on your first-hand experience, what would you say to someone who seriously asks for your opinion on whether astrologers might be on to something?

Regis: I was fortunate in those days to have Sydney Omarr join me. It makes me wish all astrologers could be as accurate.

ANS: What does the future hold for Regis Philbin?

Regis: Unfortunately Sydney is not around to answer that.
In his book, each chapter remembers a different celebrity guest and closes with a “What I Took Away from it All” summary of the experience. He closed the chapter devoted to his interviews with Omarr in this way:

“Astrology isn’t for sissies. Those stars do seem to know things we don’t – and maybe never should.

“Great things can happen much later than you might have hoped. But even then, great things are still great – and always worth appreciating – so don’t give up.”

Editor’s Note: After 28-plus years, Regis has moved on from his morning show. But at age 80 he is not retiring, his agent Ken DiCamillo insists. He’s still actively doing concerts, television appearances, book signings, lectures, and the like.