Is the United States going to fall over the fiscal cliff?

President Obama may have flown back from his Christmas holiday in Hawaii to try and find a solution the the paralysis that is affecting negotiations to avoid a fiscal disaster on January 1st. At that point, swinging spending cuts will be imposed in America and taxes on ordinary people will rise,  however the gridlock within Capitol Hill seems to be remaining and no matter what anyone says or does, an agreement to prevent the US lurching into a new financial crisis seems none the nearer, or is it? I look at the astrology to work out what may happen in the next critical couple of days.

Now there has always been a debate to which chart to use with regard to the United States, simply because nobody knows exactly the time which the US was born. There are three general schools of thought. One is the Gemini rising chart but this is based around a formation time of 02:17am in the morning which I find completely implausible. To think that the declaration of independence in the United States was made in the dead of night does not make any sense to me whatsoever. Surely it would have occurred at a time of the day when there would have been some type of formal ceremony allowing the local people to be present and to see everything.  Remember, in 1776, there was no electricity and so no lighting available except that of fire to even sign any documents. This completely rules out the Gemini chart in my eyes.

The two charts I favour are the Scorpio chart  set for Philadelphia at 14:41 hours (look at a $100 bill and you will see a very similar time on the clock tower in the picture of Independence Hall in Philadelphia on the back of the bill) and the opposite of the Gemini rising chart, the Sibly chart which has Sagittarius rising and is set fro 17.10 hrs. Both of these charts “work” and seem to respond to the prevailing moods and events within the US. I will look at both in regard to this “crisis”.

First the Sibly (Sagittarius) chart. We have transiting Saturn transiting through the 11th house of groups and parties, representing the two opposing sides in American politics making a square to the nodal axis which sits across the financial axis of the Sibly chart. Saturn causes delays and frustration and of course this frustration is being played out between the opposing sides in the house, wrangling over the US finance (2nd house) and the huge debt (8th house) that has been amassed which does need to be reduced in some manner. The 8th house represents personal taxation issues which are also a bone of contention. Saturn on this chart also rules the 2nd house of the money supply with Capricorn on the cusp. Now the ruler of this chart is Jupiter through the Sagittarian ascendant, the planet of freedom and expansion. With Jupiter moving retrograde through the 6th house of the working classes, those who are in line to suffer the most, any expansion is likely to be on hold until Jupiter turns direct. Jupiter does turn on 30th January, so maybe some sort of agreement may be found between now and then to set the ball rolling again in the US; that is according to this particular chart.

 

If anything, the picture on the Scorpio chart is more pronounced. We have Saturn making the same square to the Nodes, however Saturn is poised over the Scorpio Ascendant which lies at 8:35 Scorpio. This heralds a new start in US politics, if an agreement can be found. We still have a link to the parties in the US with natal Saturn in the 11th house and the financial problems and the blockage on the debt and taxes can be seen through a quindecile from Pluto (the chart ruler) moving through the 2nd house of the money supply to the ruler of the 8th house of taxes and debt, Mercury (Gemini on the cusp). In effect, this quindecile is changing the American attitude to money but also is blocking or restricting any deal on sorting this out while allowing the debt to multiply. Jupiter is moving retrograde in this 8th house for the moment, but the worry is that once it starts moving forward, not only will the tax intake rise, but the debt will expand under Jupiter’s influence too, and this would be disastrous for the economy. it is also interesting that the transiting Nodes on this chart alone will be square to the Moon, representing the people, which sits in the 4th house of the opposition. It is true that those in the opposing party to that of the administration, the Republicans are the ones who seem to be holding this whole process up now.

Saturn will pass over the Ascendant in retrograde on 23rd April 2013, a regressive step and maybe one designed to put a sticking plaster over a gaping wound. Saturn will re-enter the 12th house of suffering then and will only clear this degree point and the Ascendant on 17th September 2013. Saturn entering the 1st house will be the beginning of a new era, but one where you start to sort out in house and personal problems. It is a rebuilding phase in Saturn’s cycle and one which over the next 4 years will be intensely painful for the United States.

As you can see, in different ways both charts work, so looking at them, will something come out of these last minute talks? Well, lucky Jupiter is just about to move on the Scorpio chart back into the 7th house of agreements, public relations and one to one meetings just before the end of the year and I believe that a last minute package to save the US from falling over the financial abyss can be agreed. However this may just be a temporary solution and it may not be until September 2013 that a proper deal can be thrashed out. by that time, the debt and the financial problems the US economy will be facing will be all the larger.