A few days ago a friend of mine confided that she did not have a raise in 10 years, and now her company is cutting her hours.
My friend is a physical therapist.
I am an owner of a tiny business in a completely different field. My income is neither wages nor salary. It is the net profit from my business. Yet I have the same predicament. My income remained flat for 12 years.
When I was single, living in a posh building in a posh part of town and paying $900 in monthly rent, which included utilities, that was a pretty good income, and I was certainly a middle class girl.
Moreover, my income increased steadily through the nineties, and I was certain of a decent future for myself.
I was so certain, in fact, that I did not bother to save for a rainy day.
I did whole a lot of traveling, skiing, and other fun things.
Then I got married, had a kid, moved to a cheaper part of town where I got an apartment twice as big for monthly rent just a bit higher than my previous digs.
My income remained the same because my subcontractors kept raising their rates but my clients began to cheapen out. Excuses were understandable: we did have a recession in 2000, then in 2001 (“9/11″), then in 2003, etc.
I probably could get out of my shell and get more clients to increase my income, but my kid and failing marriage kept me busy.
Then in the fall of 2007 I finally became a single mom, and 2 months later the FINANCIAL CRISIS hit me (my business is closely related to the insurance industry so I’ve experienced the crisis long before the rest of America did).
In 2008, my income went down significantly. So now I had no choice and got out of my shell, and got myself many more clients. I have also reduced rates of my subcontractors.
Yet my income did not jump. It simply went back to the pre-crisis level, because I had to cut my rates also. Everyone is in the bind.
I am not even talking about payment time-table that is now 4 times as long. Before the crisis, if a company took 2 months or longer to pay, I was on their case already. Now I don’t even bother with inquiries till 4 months past due.
It is my flat income that gets me, because my life is twice as expensive now. My rent now is $1510/mo, plus utilities that are twice what they used to be in 2000. My ground phone line that I use for fax only is also twice of what it used to be in 2000. So is my transportation expense, internet, my cell phones, etc.
My monthly grocery bill has grown now more than twice, even though my son and I eat much less than my ex (it used to be that half of my monthly grocery budget went to his propitiation).
In other words, it takes now twice the amount of dollars to cover living expenses, and they say there is no inflation.
There is no inflation, because our incomes have deflated.
It used to be that incomes would grow almost at the same rate as inflation of overall prices. It was called inflation, and was supposed to be a bad thing for economy.
Now I miss inflation. Because the value of my dollar has shrank 50% or more, but I don’t have more paper in my wallet to make up the lost value. My paper income remains flat, but the real income has shrank.
I am no longer a middle class girl, I am a working poor one, and my future looks pretty bleak. I have no extra dollar to save, I have no pension coming, and as an entrepreneur I have no other safety nets like unemployment benefits, which my ex is enjoying now.
Instead, I am working 3 times as much as I used to, and spend so much more just to get the same shrinking dollar.
I would not be writing about it, if it was just my predicament. I am writing about it, because 90% of Americans are in this shrinking boat.
Even the super-rich (like Warren Buffet or Bill Gates) have lost some dollar value thanks to real estate and stock market deflation. I am sure though that they are offsetting their rising living expense by paying less those who work for them or do business with them.
The simply rich (like Donald Trump) may actually feel much poorer because they lost just as much on stock market, real estate, Bernie Madoff and their leverage in reducing cost of business / living is not as great.
The upper middle class is now, for most part, is what middle class used to be, for the same reason.
Middle class… What middle class? Unless you are a civil servant, you would no longer fit that category. I bet your 401K keeps you awake at night.
There are so many things that went wrong for the dollar that there are not enough fingers on a hand to point them all out: derivatives, run-away credit, the cost of oil, global labor market…
Honestly, it is the global labor market that is the main culprit in stagnation of American income. But that is 10,000lbs gorilla in the room that no one is talking about. Trust me, immigration is the least of our problem. It is competition with the guys safely in their native third world countries that is doing us in. No one is talking about it on CNN, because business is happy with reduced labor costs. Except that most businesspeople don’t realize yet that spending their dollars in China or Africa shrinks consumption in America, which, inevitably, leads to their profit remaining flat too despite the reduced labor costs.
Simple economy101: wealth is produced where goods are produced.
The great minds who decided to open the labor market in 1990s must have thought as follows:
As other countries get richer, there are going to be more markets for American goods, so America would get richer too.
They did not take in consideration, however, that American production would not be able to compete with cheaper labor costs elsewhere and would shut down, impoverishing our country for the sake of China, Uganda and so on.
The only reason we did not feel the pinch right away was the inflated real estate market that was still producing local wealth. With wind taken out of real estate, we are finally facing reality.
And, since Obama Administration was not able to push through another emergency unemployment benefits bill, we soon are going to see the third world reality right here at home.
These changes cannot really be amended anymore. With the advent of the internet, Jinny of American wealth has completely left the bottle and cannot be re-captured. We are looking at the dawn of new world, where Russia (the richest country in natural resources), China (the richest country in labor resources) and India (the richest country in intellectual resources) are going to compete for new super-power title (my money is on China, since it is much more organized); the U.S., Europe, Canada, Australia and Brazil are going to be the second world, and the rest remain in the 3rd place. The jury is out on Arab countries rich with oil. If the green economy takes hold, they are going to be pushed back into the third world. They may also simply kill themselves with suicide bombers, expanded Taliban, etc.
SO, PLEASE, AMERICA, BUY AMERICAN PRODUCTS AND USE LOCAL SERVICES!
But, then, again, who can afford American products now when American dollar has shrunk so much…
Well, I am griping now, yet I know there is going to be more to gripe about a month from now… Read my previous article on that.
Posts Tagged ‘predictions’
SHRINKING DOLLARS
Posted by Ella Moss on June 25, 2010
Posted in American economy, FINANCES, economy, global economy, labor market, personal finance, predictions | Tagged: 401K, American economy, Bill Gates, Brazil, budget, business, China, deflation, dollar, Donald Trump, economy, economy solutions, Europe, expense, financial crisis, global economy, immigration, income, India, inflation, labor market, living expense, money, Obama, Obama Administration, predictions, Russia, savings, suicide bombers, supeer-power, unemployment, unemployment benefits, value, Warren Buffet, wealth, worry | 4 Comments »
MORE ON THE GREAT FINANCIAL DISASTER OF 2010
Posted by Ella Moss on December 1, 2009
As I was drinking coffee this morning and watching the news, the potential default of Dubai Government Fund perked my ears.
“This is it”, I’ve told myself, “My predictions are beginning to manifest”.
In my October 2008 article “Financial Crisis: it’s not over until it’s over” I’ve predicted that the world will tremble in December of 2009 from some terrible financial news, as Pluto enters Capricorn and begins to wreck governmental and corporate institutions.
I also said, “By the end of November of 2009, we would begin to cry for mercy, as our economy would get completely stalled: Saturn, the planet of lack and limitations, joins Pluto, the Terminator, in the assault on the U.S. Venus, the planet of Money. It begins to squeeze it from Libra, the sign of relationships and justice. So as global trade gets restructured, we get the foul end of the deal. Saturn would limit our reach into the packets of other countries. We may face the retribution for our misadventures on foreign soil and/ or for amassing huge deficit (read “debt to other countries”).
But I was wrong: it’s not our country’s deficit that is going to do us in, but other countries’ default on their debt obligations.
Since I am just an astrologer and not a psychic, I got timing and institutions involved right, but I could not foresee the actual turn of events. Who could?
Dubai has been swimming in gold, its coffers filled to the brim, it seemed, by oil it was sitting on. It was building the new world wonders and aimed at becoming the new world financial center. It appeared to be the richest country in the Middle East, and its only foreseen threat was depletion of oil reserves at some point of the far away future.
So a whole lot of pension and hedge funds from all kind of countries invested in it, thinking it was almost risk-free.
Think about it:
The first part of the world financial crisis that ruptured in the fall of 2008 was brought in by losses of private investors. As bad as it was, it was contained by huge governmental bail-outs by governments of the developed world.
This strategy indebted governments of the richest countries but defrosted financial markets.
Now comes the second part (i.e. the other shoe drops):
Governments begin defaulting.
Private financial institutions are already seriously ailing, and are held alive by financial transfusions by the governments. Now the governments need donors…AND WHO COULD RESCUE THEM??…..
Dubai is just a beginning of the falling dominoes. If it defaults, the legions of pension and hedge funds that invested in it are going to collapse, and THERE IS GOING TO BE NO FINANCIAL DONOR TO SAVE THEM.
This means that
1) many retirees all over the world are going to be left without pensions, and governments, already stretched to the max, would have to extend more social services to them and bleed more money.
2)Financial institutions are going to freeze once again, as investors lose a few more billions
AND WHO IS GOING TO BAIL THEM OUT THIS TIME? WHERE NEW MONEY IS GOING TO COME FROM?
The developed world is going to lose its footing and fall onto the developing world, crushing it.
3)The developing world (save for China, Russia and India) is going to default too. AND WHO IS GOING TO BAIL THEM OUT THIS TIME? WHERE NEW MONEY IS GOING TO COME FROM?
4) Unemployment and riots are going to shoot up. Would Obama be able to sign 3 yrs unemployment benefits? Where the U.S. money is going to come from?
Now the question is should I get my savings out of the bank before the summer of 2010 (that is when the world crushes)? I should take a good look at a horary chart on that one…
The good news is that the timing of events suggests that the actual birth date of the U.S. is actually July 2. Now we know.
Posted in astrology, economy, politics | Tagged: 2010, astrological forecast, bail out, developed world, developing world, Dubai, economy, financial crisis, financial institutions, global economy, government, hedge funds, pension funds, Pluto in Capricorn, predictions, predictions 2010, Saturn in Libra, summer of 2010, unemployment | 6 Comments »
New Economy, or Buy American, Stupid!
Posted by Ella Moss on February 20, 2009
So, the new stimulus package is passed, hopes are up, markets are down, and recession deepens. Everyone is blaming the housing market, unscrupulous bankers and inept previous administration.
But very few seem to understand the true roots of our woes, and how deep our economic problems go.
Believe me, the trillion dollar stimulus is but a bandaid on a very deep wound!
Everyone is stuck with the 20th century economic model:
an entrepreneur discovers a need->manufactures solution->gets rich->creates demands->someone else fulfills those demands->gets rich->creates more demands->those who supply solutions get rich too->created jobs create more jobs->society gets richer and richer
This is the 21st century global economics model:
manufacturers/suppliers find cheaper workforce in a poor country->enrich that country->the workforce gets more expensive->the suppliers go to another cheaper country->previous producing countries get poorer, their workforce immigrates to a new labor market->wages stagnate or get lower->more labor markets get poorer->no one can afford the supplies anymore->manufacturers go bust->everyone gets even poorer.
If you don’t believe me, here’s a news bit on Ireland. Ireland was in great demand as a labor market, because people spoke English, were educated, yet asked for much lower wages than UK or American workers. The labor market there was so hot, that Polish and other poorer EU brethren immigrated to Ireland.
But the workers grew too expensive in Ireland as economy there heated up, so the companies left for cheaper labor markets like Poland. Now Irish workers immigrate to Poland. But they no longer get the same wages. Living expenses are cheaper in Poland for now, so it makes some sense. Once Polish economy booms, however, and living expense there goes, accordingly, up, Poland would face the same economic bust, as now does Ireland.
India was also a popular labor market. But they started asking for too much money, so China became a place to be for manufacturers.
Lately, however, the “smart” manufacturers have been migrating to Africa.
Where does it leave the U.S. – the original place of labor migration?
I found an article in one of the New York’s free newspapers (Metro is it?) that the U.S. stills manufactures 65% of its products domestically (down from the 20th century’s 80%).
But it does not say, that the domestic wages went up. Because for the past 7 – 8 years they have not. Domestic salaries have not increased either. In fact, many went down. Because our labor force now competes for wages with Irish, Polish, Indian, Chinese, Mexican and other labor forces of the world.
The only market that saw increase in the U.S. in the past 8 years was the housing market, as speculators (flippers, real estate and mortgage brokers) kept pushing the prices up to the point of unaffordability by the impoverished middle class (the domestic labor force).
The feeling of prosperity that bubble has created had no base in reality. That feeling was based on the ease of credit (future income of financial sector ->future prosperity), which was given on a funny assumption that housing prices would continue to rise as wages have historically done so, affording better prices.
But our wages could no longer support our consumption on easy credit, hence prices and credit crunch.
No matter where our income was coming from, its sources were disappearing or getting smaller at best.
Not only manufacturing was leaving America, services were too.
Web design, translations, document processing, customer service – all were becoming outsourced. When was the last time you have heard a customer service representative on the other end of the phone that did not speak with an Indian accent?
People in this country that specialized in the services that were now easily outsourced could no longer ask for wage increase, if they were to be kept employed.
In the 21st century, the labor market is global. That means, the wages for the same services performed would eventually average out. If a Russian translator in the U.S. asks now for $.14/word, and a Russian translator in Siberia asks now for $.05/wd for the same job, eventually they will all go down to $.05/wd. If a worker at a Chrysler plant in Detroit asks for $35/hr, and a worker at a Chrysler plant in Mexico asks for $5/hr, eventually they will all ask for $5/hr – because it is natural for any company to seek out a cheaper labor.
Since the impoverished global workforce is not going to be able to afford $30,000 cars and $300,000 homes, those prices will go down too -unless they are artificially held high by governments’ bailouts. But bailouts cannot continue indefinitely. So the prices will continue to deflate in accordance with deflated average incomes. Middle class is going to disappear (it may take a few decades), unless the governments would wake up and set up some protection.
No, not trade protection – that is passe. It is the labor markets that must be protected, if we don’t want to go back to the economy we used to have throughout 10th – 19th centuries – the economy of a few very rich, and the rest being very poor indeed.
But I am not stupid enough to expect our government (or any other for that matter) to step in with labor force protection. Besides, the ease and cheapness of global communication and travel would create serious obstacles to any attempt to create such protection.
The only thing that may protect our domestic labor force is the consumer movement. Just as our demand for green products has eventually created green industries, our demand for products made in America may protect domestic work force..to some extent.
Incidently, when was the last time you saw something made in America in a store?
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: credit crunch, economy, global economy, global work force, made in America, payroll tax, predictions, recession, trickle-down economics, unemployment | 7 Comments »
FINANCIAL CRISIS: IT’S NOT OVER UNTIL IT’S OVER
Posted by Ella Moss on October 2, 2008
So the senate approved the bailout, and the house is soon to follow. Do you think, America, you would be able to exhale soon?
Here come predictions from the pen of an astrologer:
Astrologers base their predictions on horoscopes calculated for the precise time of birth at the place of birth (beginning), because they presume there is certain order in the Universe, and the time and place of birth define our position within that order. The position within the order in turn defines further development, as order limits the possible outcomes to a manageable number. The less there are possible outcomes, the more they become predictable.
Astrologers create horoscope for birth of people, countries, and everything else that has a known beginning.
Although no one can say with certainty they know when the U.S. was born, there is a consensus that this country came into being on or around 7/4/1776. Most of the astrologers favor either the chart with Gemini rising, which places the Moon at 18′ of Aquarius in 10th house, or the chart with Scorpio rising, which places the Moon at 25′ of Aquarius in the 4th house. After 9/11, the other chart, called “Sibly” became popular – because when astrologers are uncertain of the time of birth/ beginning, they attempt to rectify charts (finding more probable birth time) based on dramatic pivotal events. The Sibly charts gives the U.S. Sagittarius ascendant, and places the Moon at 27′ degrees of Aquarius.
All other planets remain in the same degree, because they move much more slowly then the Moon or house cusps. Thus, all three the most popular U.S. horoscopes place Venus at 3′ of Cancer.
Venus is the planet that is always associated with money and relationships. And my predictions of the Horrible Economic Depression (greater than the Great One) are based on upcoming planetary assault on the U.S. Venus.
Interestingly enough, history confirms that conditions are ripe. Here is what Wikipedia says about economic causes of the Great Depression of 1929: “Although its causes are still uncertain, the basic cause was a sudden loss of confidence in the economic future. The traditional explanation is a combination of high consumer debt, ill-regulated markets that permitted malfeasance by banks and investors, cutbacks in foreign trade, and growing wealth inequality, all interacting to create a downward economic spiral of reduced spending and production”. Sounds familiar? Are not we in debt up our ears now? Have not our ill-regulated markets permeated malfeasance by banks and investors? Don’t we have growing wealth inequality? The famous “Trickle-down economy” that keeps on trickling up instead? This is 2008, but, obviously, we do not learn from history.
So here is what the planets say about now, which is the setting for the next 5 years:
The Moon’s nodes are passing over MC/IC axis in the “Scorpio” U.S. chart. In “Gemini rising” chart, they have just past the Moon and are about to pass over MC/ IC axis. The Moon’s nodes going over the luminaries and / or chart’s angles herald major changes of direction that are brought on by a pivotal event.
In the “Gemini rising” chart, Jupiter, “The great Exaggerator”, also opposes the U.S. Sun in the second house of $$$, while the Moon that is reeling from nodal transit rules that $$$ house.
BUT THIS IS JUST A BEGINNING!…
In December of 2008, Pluto settles in Capricorn.
Pluto is so tiny, that it was even demoted by astronomers from planetary status. But astrologers, and all who went through a major Pluto transits and lived to tell about it, know better. Pluto is “the Wrecking Ball” of the zodiac. Its mighty punch is so painful, that we either die or transform.
When it went through Scorpio, its own sign, that deals with abuse, taxes, sex, death and rebirth, we had Reaganomics, and AIDS epidemic. Now Pluto is ending its 13 yrs transit through Sagittarius, the sign of religion, philosophy, foreign relations, higher studies and judicial systems. The costs of colleges went through the roof, religious fanaticism rose to the point of Global War of Terror, and we scaled down democracy by adopting “The Patriot Act” and torture procedures.
Pluto screws with our heads by making us compulsive-obsessive with regards to wherever it is at the moment. When it was in sex, death and taxes sign, we obsessed on those topics. When it went through religion sign, we lost our sobriety on account of faith.
So now it is at the door of Capricorn, the sign of government and corporate structures, of rules and regulations, of fear and ambition. So in the next 15 years, expect us obsessing in fear on rules and regulations, while being overly ambitious, and while all government, political and corporate structures undergo DEMOLITION. Some societies will die, others will be transformed.
By the way, there is another possible U.S. chart, based on letters of John Adams, who pinpoints America’s birth at 7/2/1776 at about quarter to noon in Philadelphia. That chart would have the U.S. Venus at 0′ of Cancer, so the wrecking ball (Pluto) may come to the U.S. economy (Venus) as early as December of 2008.
If any other chart is correct, February is a more likely time of reckoning.
Since economy always dictates politics, we are likely to see global powers falling like dominoes.
By the end of November of 2009, we would begin to cry for mercy, as our economy would get completely stalled: Saturn, the planet of lack and limitations, joins Pluto, the Terminator, in the assault on the U.S. Venus, the planet of Money. It begins to squeeze it from Libra, the sign of relationships and justice. So as global trade gets restructured, we get the foul end of the deal. Saturn would limit our reach into the packets of other countries. We may face the retribution for our misadventures on foreign soil and/ or for amassing huge deficit (read “debt to other countries”).
In 2010, we may begin to exhale, hoping that the worst is behind us, only to be hit below the belt in the summer of that year. I am favoring 8/01/10 as another historic date – when the world is going to shake from the thud of the falling giant hitting the ground.
This is how it is going to come about from the planetary point of view:
By June of 2010, Jupiter and Uranus join forces in Aries and enter the war on the U.S. Venus. You may say, they join the robbery in progress of American public.
Uranus operates by coming out of left field with a sudden shocking occurrence. It rules electricity, and it always aims to shock the system. Jupiter always exaggerates and blows things out of proportion. After all, it is the Planet of Plenty. Put these two together, and you get an immense unexpected shock to the system. Since they are going to square the U.S. Venus, the Planet of Money, we are going to go through an immense sudden expense (another BAILOUT, much bigger than the present one?).
On 8/1/2010, Mars, the planet of war that always acts like a trigger, joins Saturn in Libra in squeezing daylights out of the poor U.S. Venus, while Pluto in retrograde motion is circling around that Venus, and Jupiter with Uranus deliver huge shocks to it from Aries, the sign of war and ragged individualism.
You can envision the conclusion.
By the way, according to known U.S.A charts, the only planetary culprit for Great Depression of 1929 was Uranus, assaulting the U.S. Sun from Aries, with Saturn playing a secondary fiddle in Gemini rising and Sibly charts. Interestingly, Saturn in November of 1929 was traversing the same degrees of Sagittarius, as Pluto does now.
With Pluto being so much mightier than Saturn, the 2010 bro-ha-ha is going to be MUCH BIGGER. Those of us who will live past 2014, will be able to tell the tale, and they would give it an appropriate name. But by 2015, Pluto will be done with the U.S Venus and Sun. Other planets will fall off sooner than that.
Meanwhile, in May of 2010 I am planning to stock up on all non-perishable food I am going to be able to find.
Whoever wins the 2008 elections is going to be at the helm of the wildest ride ever.
As Chinese saying goes, blessed are those who live during interesting times.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: astrology, BAILOUT, debt, economy, finacial crisis, great depression, horoscopes, money, Pluto, politics, predictions, Saturn, senate, the U.S., Venus | 13 Comments »
MUSINGS ON HOW LIFE WORKS
Posted by Ella Moss on September 23, 2008
Long ago, as a young girl, I was sitting at a small Chinese restaurant in New York, waiting for my take out, when strong smell of fried rice suddenly took me 3,000 years back to a market in ancient India, where I saw myself as a girl no older than 12. I was running around with a boy just slightly older than me, while my grandmother was selling fried rice at a stall near by.
The next picture that opened in my mind was me a bit older, with a baby in my arms. I did not know what to do with that baby. I knew though that if I were to keep it, there would be terrible repercussions for me: as an unmarried young mother, I would be sentenced to a life of a pariah and a begger.
I climbed up a grassy hill. There was a river below, where women were washing clothes. I aimed to throw the child into the river just left of them, so the current would carry it a short distance into their arms.
At that moment, a terrible feeling came over me that I was being watched.
The next picture in my mind was me being taken away by several men. They were taking me to the temple, where I was to be burned to death.
My take out was ready, and a smiling Chinese lady took me back to the 20th century.
Five years later, I’ve met a lady who offered me and a few other women to experience a group past life regression. This was to be my very first past life regression.
Immediately, I went back to the same short life in ancient India. The only difference this time around was that I was able to discern that the baby I gave birth to in that life was my husband now.
I could not have guessed it before, at the Chinese restaurant, when the memory came naturally to me, because I did not meet my husband yet.
Now I could clearly understand the karma behind our marriage: somehow, as an unwed 12 – 13 y.o. mother taken to my fiery death, I have understood that the right thing to do would have been staying with the soul that came into my life as a child no matter what misery it presented. At the same time, the soul of my then – child – now – husband obviously felt guilty for bringing me the threat of dire poverty.
During all our lives together ever since (and I certainly remember bits and pieces of one of our other marriages at the turn of the 20th century), his soul would bring material prosperity into my life, while I would be resolved to be miserable around him but loyal nonetheless.
My heart swelled with compassion and forgiveness for both of us.
No more than a few weeks later, as we were celebrating our 2nd wedding anniversary at the Four Seasons, my husband informed me that he took a lucrative job with another company in Atlanta, so I should prepare to move there in a few months.
Immediately, with every cell in my body, I felt I should not follow him. No one could understand my refusal to move, not even me. Our marriage was not perfect (whose is?), but it was not bad either. I have recently opened my Manhattan Astrology School, but my income could not cover the rent. The country was in the middle of recession, so getting any job to support me was a dim prospect. I was so scared to stay in New York on my own, that I could not sleep at night. My husband, my mother-in-law, and everyone I knew urged me to follow my husband. Yet my feeling that I should stay put was stronger than any reasoning and even my own fears. So I stayed.
Somehow, everything turned out to be just fine. I found a cheaper apartment, which I could afford on my own, my school was becoming more and more popular, and I went on to enjoy the best 9 years of my life (so far).
I realized that my karma with my husband dissolved the minute I have forgiven both of us.
All circumstances in our lives are held together by the thread of Karma. When the thread disappears, so must the circumstances it supports.
Interestingly though, my solar return for that year clearly showed my marriage going bust (Pluto right on the ascendant) and financial fears due to sudden confusion in my home and family matters (Neptune, as the ruler of the solar return chart’s fourth house, conjunct Uranus and north node in my second house of finances).
What came first, my spiritual experiences or astrological necessity?
About 2 years later, O.J. was arrested in connection with the murder of his wife, and my students wanted to delienate his natal chart. I looked at it and saw that O.J. was to enjoy his golden years, which he was approaching fast. “He cannot be convicted”, I said.
All that year, as my students were studying future forecasting techniques and horary astrology, we were examining O.J.’s charts. That’s how we knew before anyone else that he was guilty, but he would go free, and when that would happen – and then we watched the process to unfold.
A year or 2 later, my students and I were analyzing the natal chart of Princess Diana. The chart clearly spelled that she was to die a sudden violent death because of her fame and status. A year or so later, she died just as her chart said she would.
Through the years, many of my first time clients wondered if I was psychic (which I am not) – so accurately I was describing their lives.
How could it be so pre-determined? When and where does our free will comes into the picture, or do we have free will at all? The more I learned astrology, the spookier it was becoming.
Then, not so long ago, there was an incident in my life that may have had shed light on this mystery:
My second husband asked me to accompany him on a short business trip to Brooklyn. The trip would have taken a few hours at the most. I agreed and asked my mother to look after our 3 y.o. son while we were out.
When my mother came over, I suddenly had a de-ja vu experience, accompanied by a vague premonition and a strong feeling that I should stay home. I voiced my wish to stay, but both, my husband and my mother insisted on me going to Brooklyn. So I did.
On the way back home, my husband and I found out that our son had a terrible accident and lost the tip of his finger.
I am certain that if I listened to my feeling of needing to stay home, it would not have happened. I am also certain that somehow I knew before hand about possibility of this accident, and I recognized the circumstances leading to the accident: hence the de-ja vu experience. Somehow, somewhere my soul saw the future and knew it could be averted. In other words, there were 2 or more different futures to choose from!
While planetary transits showed that my son was in danger of an accident, there were no other strong astrological confirmations. Just as piling up sandbags on the bank of a rising river may prevent the flood, taking necessary precautions during bad astrological “weather” could have save us the grief. My only excuse for not doing my job as an astrologer for my own family is that with a young child on my hands and a business to take care of, I hardly had time to take a shower then, and astrological forecasting was the last on my mind.
Not all astrological occurences are temporary and avoidable. I came to the firm belief that somehow we all must live out the stories told by our astrological charts, even if we manage to dissolve some of our karmas. Now that I’ve learned Vedic astrology also, I know that the planetary positions at the time and place of my birth required for me to have 2 marriages in this life-time, so my first marriage had to dissolve somehow. Dissolving a karma with it was simply a blessing that came along.
If my son’s maiming was dictated by karma, his natal chart would have showed it, and his accident would not have been avoidable, so the feeling that I should stay home with him would have been useless and would not have come. But his chart does not show it, so his finger grew back and is now perfectly normal. We were simply caught in astrological “bad weather” without “an umbrella”.
So we can change our future, as long as the life story written in our natal chart does not change radically. We always have a number of possibilities within our life stories to choose from.
The possibilities are not limitless, however. Our life stories unfold according to the plot which is, literally, written in the stars. The picture of the sky above the place of birth at the time of birth is the plot. Not only it tells us what a particular life is about, it also contains the timing of major occurences, which can be read through astrological forecasting techniques.
Our personal Karma wrote the plot by choosing our parents and the time and place of birth, and then it filled the story line with major and supporting characters.
But we can change props, decorations and even whole scenes, as we play out our life stories. We can change the flavor of the life story into melodrama, comedy or tragedy, as we develop the central characters of our life stories – our selves.
So O.J. did not have to play Otello. He could have weathered the temporary storm of his life in some other way. He still would have spent a great deal of that year either in jail or in a hospital, his relationship problems of that time would have left him emotionally jarred, etc.. But he could have changed the main scene of his life story at its core.
On the other hand, Princess Di would still have died in a sudden violent manner, as her Pluto – Uranus – Mars – North Node conjunction in the 8th house (the sudden explosion of violence brought on by other people) was opposing the Moon in the 2nd house (her body). With Pluto being the ruler of her 11th house of recognition, fame would be the most likely culprit. But the circumstances of her death might have been different.
The scripts of our lives are not written word per word. They do not describe our actions. They only describe the general direction of where we are going and what we are most likely to see on the way, like a tourist guide.
In fact, we are like tourists in a country of life. We have our itineraries that we cannot easily change (but it is also possible – God creates the world anew each moment). We also have certain tourist attractions marked as “must see” on the tour. But we still may skip some of them and choose other “attractions” to visit instead. We cannot choose a different country (i.e. a life), once we subscribed for the tour, and we should not quit on a whim (i.e. commit suicide).
Over the years, as more of my other past lives were coming into the view of my present consciousness, I became a certified hypnotherapist and regressed many other people into their past lives. I have seen Karma in action, and that, coupled with my experience as an astrologer, gave me a good overview on Maya mechanics. One of the spiritual laws I have learned dictates that people who commit suicide are to have the following life much harsher than the one they quit.
So don’t be a quitter. If it rains astrologicals stones, find cover and work on your spiritual abilities to change the scene you dislike. In fact, there is no better time to turn on the Divine Light in your life then when the circumstances darken. As one of my clients once said to me, when I was predicting tough times ahead for her, “I love tough times. They are times of spiritual renewal.”
According to Swami Sri Yukteswar, the guru of much more famous Paramahansa Yogonanda, we are now living at the very dawn of Dwapara Yuga. In the next millenium, we are to acquire enough of spiritual light in our lives to banish the very idea of total darkeness. Meanwhile, however, we can still acquire “Grace credits” with the ease of “Kali Yuga residents”, as many of us were born right on the cusp of times.So we are very lucky “life tourists” indeed.
What that means is that the present life is crucial to our spiritual development, and we need to let as much of spiritual life into our lives as possible. This means that mankind may experience some astrological rain of stones, so we forced to turn on the Divine Light.
I believe that such rain is coming next year, with 2010 being the toughest, and I plan to explore this “rain of stones” in my next article.
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