THE SOOTHESAYER INTERNET

April 2008

Fear vs. Faith – The Great Dilemma:

 As we witness the threatened collapse of our financial system and it’s formerly trusted institutions, there is a tendency to descend into a collective “panic attack” and inhabit the world of fear.  Daily, we are witnessing people’s foreclosures, bankruptcies, and painful descent into homelessness.  This is the end result of uninhibited global gamblers whose roll of the dice in sub-prime mortgages and trillions of dollars in attached derivatives threatens major banks and financial institutions with insolvency that is even more extensive than the Great Depression of the 1930s.  Pres. George Bush’s illegal and immoral war in Iraq that has cost millions of Iraqi lives and thousands of American lives has created the largest budget deficits in American history and bankrupted our credibility in the world-at-large.  And he and Vice Pres. Dick Cheney are still at work devising a plan to invade Iran before their term ends.  Oil and gas prices are skyrocketing to unsustainable levels as we approach the end of the Age of Oil and are threatened with food shortages as the ethanol craze converts corn into fuel.  This is the beginning of a very real “dark night of the soul” for the United States and humanity as a whole, for we are reminded that we are one world, interdependent on one another as self-generated  global climate change presents itself in ways that can no longer be ignored. 

 All of these issues have been predicted and presented for debate and discussion over this site for years and are the topics in my book: “What Next?  A Survival Guide to the 21st Century”.  Planets transiting through the constellations will illuminate for all of us the themes and issues of our time, but we have to be willing to confront them first.  Here is where fear gets in the way.  Many people tend to either collapse into depression or escape in any way possible; i.e. drugs, alcohol, denial, idiotic television, or into a generalized coma of pretense that somebody else will take care of all this and we can collectively ignore what is on the nightly news.  This could be the “fatal flaw” in human nature illustrated by the prophet, Cassandra, who was given the gift of prophecy by the sun god Apollo with the attached clause that nobody would listen to her. 

Faith – The Alternative

 The word “faith” is loaded with controversy.  The way I am using the word has nothing whatsoever with “dogma” imposed upon compliant minds by people and texts who proclaim themselves to be the absolute authorities, whether they be religious hierarchies, financial gurus, or the Federal Reserve.  I do not see faith as blind.  Instead, it is a notion that if we face what needs to be faced, an authentic capacity for illumination may reveal itself to us.  It is the optimistic view that within the infinite spectrum of possibilities in the universe, answers and solutions are available and that we can change the tide of our fate.  Faith removes us from the dark, torturous regions of fear and lights up the landscape of our lives.  It empowers us to take personal responsibility for our own rebirth into a new evolutionary process that takes us beyond the repetitive historic “original sins” that have so frequently come back to haunt us.  This is the amazing choice that belongs to each and every one of us.

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The Economy:

 This month’s cardinal t-squares involving Pluto, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury and the Sun  present a climate of conflict that emphasizes conflicting signals and crazy fluctuations in direction.  There will likely be a great deal of fear and attempts to deleverage to meet margin calls in the world of hedge funds and derivatives.  With Saturn trine Pluto, the Federal Reserve and what I am fond of calling the Department of the Treachery, will attempt to pull out all the stops to control things and may very well be able to calm things down by the 28th when Mercury in Taurus is trine Jupiter and sextile Uranus, helping financial markets, especially in the technology sector.   April 3rd through the 7th, Mercury and Venus are square Pluto causing swings in the dollar and in gold.  If you are a gold bug like myself, I would recommend you stay the course for a while and endure the rocky ride.  The period between October and November will likely bring gold upward to new highs.  The “cabal” will use whatever means they have this month to control these markets. 

 The Fed’s recent injections of liquidity cannot solve the problem of housing prices collapsing so that investors are refusing to buy mortgage-backed assets at any price.  The credit crisis, unfortunately, continues to get worse and will affect loans to small businesses and other non-housing areas of the economy.

 By the end of the month, the Fed may make another attempt to “buy back” mortgage backed securities with hundreds of billions of dollars that are increasingly becoming more and more imaginary!

The War:

 Transiting Mars in Cancer only stimulates emotions and ensuing violent behavior.  I am concerned about and increasing risk of terrorism and escalation of insurgency in Iraq.  There is little hope that Pres. Bush will pull out troops at this time and many of these soldiers are exhausted and over-extended.  The success of the “surge” will come into question as the lid will likely come off cease fire agreements.

Politics:

 I do not think we will know who will be the Democratic nominee for sure until June.  Hillary Clinton has the advantage of Mars transiting Cancer through early May and On April 21st through 22nd, the moon is in Scorpio with the full moon in Scorpio on her Sun April 20th.  Those faithfully committed to her will come through in the Pennsylvania Primary.  However, Barak Obama has both Mercury and Venus transiting Aries, well positioned in trines to his Sun, No. Node and Uranus in Leo.  Thus he may do better than originally thought.  His advantage will be in May and June with Mercury transiting Gemini and Mars in his sign of Leo May 10th through June 30th.  John McCain’s problems will be in connection with the war in Iraq that is coming back into the headlines with escalating violence.  He is marketing his military background as his strength when Americans realize the war will likely never resolve the ethnic hatreds in Iraq and it is bankrupting the federal budget just at the time when the economy is going over the cliff.

Weather in the U.S.A.

The long retrograde Mars in Gemini and then direct back into Cancer has coincided with massive flooding in the mid-west and there will be more weather extremes this month, especially between the 10th and the 11th and between the 21st and the 24th.  Be careful while traveling at these times. 

Final Thoughts:

 It is increasingly important that we feel the possibility of victory; not in a cruel and illegal war, not in some ruthless competition for massive personal wealth; not over people of a different religious faith or ethnic origin; but a victory over the darker forces within ourselves.  We need to feel we can do something great to reverse global warming; something innovative to harness a brand new sustainable source of energy; something compassionate to house the homeless and heal the sick.  Every small victory we win in our local neighborhoods with solar housing and organic gardening and uplifting the educational environment for our children will add up to a greater victory – a victory in which everyone will be a winner.

 Linda

Linda Schurman