"It is almost as if it has been set up as an example; or, if not, as the first of a great series of falls, spectacular collapses of such proportion that they reverberate around the world, like the recent earthquake in Chile.

The land of such central historical importance to the whole project of Western civilization is teetering on the brink, and there seems to be no positive outlook ahead.

The global capitalist society is moving into a new phase, not just weapons and disaster profiteering, but impinging directly on the sovereignty of the nation-state."

"I generally avoid having a look at the charts of nations or the future of country developments. That is because there is always doubt about the ‘natal chart’ of a nation, because politics (and historic backgrounds) are complicated with many charts involved and because nobody knows what the future will bring us. With so many indications for disaster in the sky (except for Venus and Jupiter) it is more in line to speak of problems than to expect a glorious future.

"Years ago, back when I forecasted about the coming global crisis I used to get messages from people who said I was making my forecasts up; that the economy was humming along just fine; that I was a "gloom and doomer," and that astrological forecasting was a "pseudo-science" and "nothing but bunk."

People asked why I forecasted such things. It was never going to happen they said. A global economic crisis?

Often referred to as the Fall of the Berlin Wall, its 20th anniversary was celebrated this week. It seemed to me that such a momentous event - often associated with the end of Communism - must be connected to the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction. It is this cycle which corresponds to and warns of great changes in mundane affairs.

"In 1945, during the last triple conjunction of Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune, the United States Congress passed the McCarran-Ferguson Act, legislation that allowed state law to regulate insurance companies without interference from the federal government. This year, as Jupiter and Neptune again conjoin with Chiron for the first time in 64 years, Congress is deliberating as to whether it should repeal this law and remove the federal anti-trust exemption that health insurance companies presently enjoy."