Warning From The Planets: Watch Out!
We all know the bullish case for 2010 (an upswing in the economy). And we all know the bearish case (a double-dip recession), both of which I recently wrote about. Aside, though, from the bulls and bears, what about the stars? What do they have to say about the new year?
For some answers, I rang up Bob Marks, a practicing New York City astrologer who has been monitoring planetary movements for 38 years and boasts an international clientele.
Why him? Because of some remarkable predictions, one of which occurred in January of 1974. At the time, prior to any Watergate revelations, he made what seemed to be an utterly outlandish forecast. President Nixon (then in his second term) will be out of office by September, Marks predicted. He was off by a month. Nixon resigned that year in August.
Yuk, the latest and impending action from the heavens, the veteran astrologer tells me, points to 2010 as a year of many crises. Chief among them, he says:
--Increased danger of a new war and conflicts around the world.
--A worsening recession.
--Growing prospects of a pandemic, with a lot of people getting sick and dying.
--The potential for violence and violent demonstrations. "The Secret Service will have its work cut out for it," Marks says.
--A sharply falling stock market. "I would stay out of the market; anyone in it now is there at their own risk," Marks observes.
--A major political upheaval, with incumbents being booted out of office like crazy.
How does he come up with such dire forecasts? Because several major planetary cycles are throwing off crisis readings at the same time, indicating significant turning points for the world, Marks says.
For example, we have the Saturn-Uranus cycle. Uranus is the planet of sudden, unexpected change and chaos. Saturn is the planet of difficulties, obstacles and delays. When the two are opposite each other -- which will be the case in May, and again more explosively in July, Marks says -- it tends to lead to a divided society and social unrest.
The last time the two planets confronted each other for some time was in 1965 and 1966, a period that produced the upheaval of the Sixties, which was characterized by the Watts riots and demonstrations against the Vietnam War.
Yet another negative configuration involves Uranus and Pluto squaring off, which Marks notes is a very stressful sign and represents a time of revolution and social upheaval. The two will square off in May, an occurrence that will run through August.
Making matters worse astrologically, notes Marks, Mars, a planet of action and violence, enters the picture on July 29. "That's like throwing a lighted match into a nitro-glycerin factory," he says.
To our astrological bear, it all signals major political grief for President Obama, whose popularity in the polls, he believes, will shrink substantially because of his inability to solve many of the problems he will face. It raises the real possibility, observes Marks, that Obama will be a one-term President.
Giving credence to this view, astrologically, he says, is that Obama was born with the planet, Saturn, a planet at 25 degrees of Capricorn, which he also views as a negative astrological sign.
Summing up his 2010 astrological outlook, Marks, contrary to general expectations, says "it will be a year when things go downhill and a good time for people to brace themselves and pull back financially."
Marks, who has produced and hosted a weekly TV show, "Astrology Now," on Manhattan Cable since 1979, says he has a global client base of several hundred people who pay him $225 an hour both for in-person and telephone readings.
How's business? Marks notes that when the economy is good, his clients come to him for entertainment. Likewise, when it's bad, they come to him out of fear. "And right now, with fear in command, "business is pretty good." he says.
What do you think? Write me at Dandordan@aol.com