Astrologers URGENT: Do you see anything unusual in the works for Feb 23?

Just curious. There certainly seems to be a lot of chatter out there.

-Apparently, there are particular concerns about some individuals in Germany taking it upon themselves to assist America's visiting "CEO" in making a "big trip to dine with Washington and Lincoln" if you catch my drift. Security is being beefed-up Big Time. (For the record, I certainly hope that this is NOT true.) But supposedly, government types were spotted buying up tarp, tape, water and medicinal alcohol at D.C. area Home Depots.

-The market/DOW saw a 174 point drop due to speculation that S.Korea and other Asian countries are preparing to dump some of their $$$Dollar Holdings. Gold is also up $8 a day, and still rising. Prelude to Economic Crisis?

-Talk of Peak Oil is hitting the mainstream, and people are getting nervous. $50 per barrel Oil doesn't appear to be a fluke anymore. It's more of a signal of something far worse. But people are still buying these instead of demanding a resurrection of this.

-Oh, and by the way. The Moon is almost Full. And you know what that means:



Watch your back, California.

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Thoughts, anyone?

Jupiter's February 2 retrograde station at 18° 52' Libra - the first one at this degree since 1922 - has likewise been in effect since last month, when the Giant Planet first came within a degree of its station point. Jupiter's apparent standstill in the heavens on the 2nd, and subsequent period of backwards motion through our sky, points to the rebalancing of trade and currencies becoming more and more a critical issue for discussion and planning - but not for action, except on the part of investors and speculators who take advantage of inaction on these issues. This also suggests important (possibly epochal) developments in the US legal system. Political, religious and legal controversies and compromises remain in the spotlight all month, as Jupiter seems to hang within a degree of its station point until the 26th: lots of debate and pontificating, but a paucity of decision. These things will keep on simmering in the background until the direct station on June 5 times resolution of a few of the bigger ones.

..snip..

The 18th marks the onset of a brief upsurge in storm, tide and seismic action, in advance of the Moon reaching maximum declination north of the equator on the 19th and extending through the full moon at 5°41' Virgo on the 24th. Figure on things staying a bit dicey through the 27th, thanks to the Moon's southward crossing of the celestial equator on the 26th. While I expect a greater than normal risk for strong storms, high tides and moderate to severe seismic activity (including Richter 5+ quakes and volcanic eruptions) during the period from the 18th through the 27th, I suspect that the storm and flood component will be strongest this time around. Electrical storms, damaging winds, hail and flash floods or mudslides look like newsmakers. Ships and boats and their crews in peril at sea, storm-tossed airplanes, power outages due to downed lines . . .

As with all such geocosmic alignments, there's no place on Earth that can't be a target for geophysical upheaval at times like this. That said, astro-locality analysis may offer a few pointers as to the most vulnerable locations. Southern California, the Baja Peninsula and eastern Nevada up into Idaho and western Montana make up one such zone, while the Pacific Northwest coast from northernmost California into British Columbia comprises another. A longitudinal line running north and south through Boston, across Hispaniola and through Venezuela southward along the Peru-Bolivia border delineates another apparent hot zone. Another risk arc runs from easternmost Brazil across the Atlantic, through the English Channel and Scandinavia; while another arc goes from Kiev down through Istanbul; Iran and Saudi Arabia fall under a longitudinal Mars line, paralleled by a Saturn longitudinal through western Pakistan and Afghanistan. Eastern Mongolia and China plus the Korean and Indochina peninsulas fall under a couple other lines that stretch down to New Guinea in the east and Jakarta in the west. And finally, a Saturn horizon arc joins Vladivostok, Tokyo and New Zealand.

The usual precautions are advisable during this final geophysical stress window of the month, even though it appears to be a fairly pale shadow of the SuperMoon factor early in February. Have your foul weather gear and fallback plans ready just in case; your batteries fresh and your bottled water stock replenished just in case. Allow for weather-related travel delays. If you'll be in a seismically active area at month's end, don't be surprised if the earth moves - and I mean that in a non-Hemingwegian sense, even if you do get lucky.

Speaking of getting lucky, the personal side of a full moon like this will be something along the lines of restless ideation, people coming up with all kinds of ideas about reconciling contradiction and conflict, focusing on a kind of dialectic reconciliation of opposites. It's all very intellectual, more than a little lacking on the substance side. But it's terribly interesting, apparently brilliant or so beyond the pale as to be shockingly original. Take notes, but let the buzz die down before trying to put any of this stuff into practice.

http://www.astropro.com/forecast/predict/2005-02.html

I expect gold to take a dive this summer when Saturn enters Leo for a couple of years. I'm not sure what that might mean as regards the value of the dollar but I'm guessing that gold would still be good to hold onto (or buy) in the longer term as global monetary systems and currencies continue to shift. If I were a country holding a lot of dollar currency I'd want to keep the dollar economy healthy enough so I could use up my supply, and then buy gold/precious metals when the price of metals goes down. Pretty simplistic, I know, but then I never claimed to be an economic whiz kid.

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Earthquake News:

Iran Earthquake Death Toll Surpasses 400

Tue Feb 22,10:52 PM ET Middle East - AP
By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer

SARBAGH, Iran - Under a cold, driving rain, survivors wailed over the bodies of the dead and dug through the ruins of mud-brick houses searching for their loved ones after a powerful earthquake flattened villages in central Iran on Tuesday, killing at least 420 people.

The toll was expected to rise, because rescue teams did not have a final count from the three most isolated villages in the mountainous region. About 30,000 people were affected, many left homeless when some villages were reduced to piles of dirt and stone by the magnitude-6.4 earthquake. The number of injured was estimated at 900.

"Where have you gone? I had a lot of plans for you," Hossein Golestani sang softly as he held the lifeless form of his 7-year-old daughter, Fatima. The body of his 8-year-old daughter, Mariam, lay beside him in the devastated village of Hotkan. ..cont'd

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=2&u=/ap/20050223/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_earthquake


Earthquake Shakes India's Andaman Islands
By Associated Press

February 22, 2005, 8:09 PM EST


HONG KONG -- A moderate earthquake jolted India's remote Andaman islands, an area repeatedly hit by aftershocks following December's massive quake and tsunami, Hong Kong seismologists said Wednesday...cont'd

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-india-quake,0,7174926.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

FOREX-Dollar up as S.Korea, Japan reassure on reserves

TOKYO, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The dollar rebounded against the euro and the yen on Wednesday after South Korea said that long-term plans to diversify its foreign exchange reserves did not mean it would sell the U.S. currency.

The dollar's recovery gained momentum after a Japanese Finance Ministry official told Reuters that Japan had no plans to diversify its foreign exchange reserves -- the largest in the world at almost $850 billion -- by buying euros.

On Tuesday the dollar suffered its biggest one-day fall against major currencies since December as the market seized on reports South Korea's central bank planned to spread its $200 billion of reserves, the world's fourth largest, among a wider array of currencies.

The currency volatility prompted the Bank of Korea to clarify on Wednesday that its reserve diversification plans were not new and did not mean the central bank would soon sell dollars for other currencies....

more...http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/050223/3/3qsds.html

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Calif. Braces for Storms; Death Toll Up

Feb 22, 7:27 PM (ET)

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Californians braced for even more rain Tuesday as they struggled to recover from storms that have left at least nine people dead, triggered mudslides and tornadoes, and washed away roads and runways.

Among the victims was a Nevada woman caught in an avalanche while cross-country skiing near Lake Tahoe, and a 16-year-old Orange County girl doing homework on a computer when a mudslide crashed through the wall of her home.

In Ventura County, officials closed the small Santa Paula airport Tuesday after more than 155 feet of runway collapsed into the rushing Santa Clara River. Chunks of concrete crumbled into the water throughout the day.

"We've lost nearly the entire west third of the airport," said Rowena Mason, president of the Santa Paula Airport Association. "This is millions and millions of dollars worth of damage."..cont'd

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050223/D88DSRUO1.html