(14 June 2017)
UK politics has been thrown into a state of chaos after last week's
unexpectedly close election has resulted in a hung parliament.
Conservative PM Theresa May had called an early election in order to
strengthen her hand ahead of Brexit talks due to begin this month. But
the gamble backfired with May's government losing its comfortable
majority so now it has to form a coalition with the far right Northern
Ireland DUP in order to cling to power. Even if May manages to secure a
functioning agreement (likely but not a certainty, especially given the
pro-Labour planets on June 19-20), her status as leader is now in
jeopardy as other Tories are now positioning themselves for a new
leadership contest. She has been described as a 'dead woman walking' as
both her leadership and her government may not last another election. How did it all go so wrong for her? One reason lies in the respective planetary alignments for both her and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. The stars aligned against Ms. May and shone brightly on opposition leader Mr. Corbyn who was seen as a surprise winner of sorts. As is often the case when we suffer failures or setbacks, Saturn was front and center in Theresa May's chart (1 October 1956, no time). Saturn (0 Sagittarius) is casting its full strength square aspect to her Mercury and Sun in Virgo.
Yes, the aspect is quite wide but I would suggest that it was intensified by the simultaneous square aspect of Mars (9 Gemini) to the Sun and Mercury. Mercury was probably more pivotal in this respect since it is the dispositor of the Sun as rule of the sign of Virgo. As it happens, the midpoint (4 Virgo) of the transiting Mars and Saturn was almost exactly conjunct Mercury at 5 Virgo. Overall, it's a very difficult double-barreled transit by malefic planets.
But by contrast Jeremy Corbyn (26 May 1949, no time) saw the light of benefic Jupiter shining on him. Jupiter (19 Virgo) was near its direct station at the time of the election and was in a close trine aspect to his Venus (22 Taurus) which would also play a disproportionately important role here because it is the dispositor of both his Mercury and the Sun in Taurus. One of the most fundamental rules of astrology is that a Jupiter station is a time of increased good fortune when it forms a close alignment with a key planet or planets in the natal chart. In Corbyn's case, his good luck was likely enhanced by the transit conjunctions of the Sun to his Venus-Mercury conjunction as well as Mercury's conjunction to his natal Sun.
Most observers do not expect the new Theresa May government to last very long. Some are even suggesting the coalition with DUP may collapse this year and trigger another election. I'm uncertain we could see another election in 2017 but certainly Theresa May's chart looks very difficult through to 2018 due to the ongoing transit of Saturn in Sagittarius. I would think there may be an increase in her political problems in early 2018 when Saturn approaches its retrograde station at 15 Sagittarius in April. This will exactly square her Sun and could coincide not only with her being unseated as leader but quite possibly also as an election defeat at the hands of Labour.
Interestingly, the horoscope of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour Party also suggests that early 2018 could be a time when Ms. May's problems will multiply. Corbyn won the leadership of the Labour Party at 11.46 a.m. on 12 September 2015. As we can see, it's an excellent horoscope in its own right with a powerful 11th house of gains tenanted by Sun, Moon and Jupiter in Leo. Regardless of timing specifics, we should expect his leadership to be successful by any measure and he would be more likely to win an election eventually on the strength of this chart.
Last week's election saw stationary Jupiter (19 Virgo) conjunct natal Mercury (20 Virgo) which is a very nice placement indeed and fits well with his party's surprising gains. But now that Jupiter is moving forward again, it will enter the 1st house of Libra in this chart later on this year and will provide further energy to his leadership chances in the coming months. Jupiter is due to station direct again in July 2018 at 19 Libra which will be in an exact conjunction with this natal Ascendant. That looks like a very good alignment that should boost the fortunes of Corbyn and Labour even further. The bottom line here is that I think the chances are good that Corbyn will be elected the next Prime Minister of the UK sometime between March and July 2018.
This instability and eventual change in government is likely to make the road to Brexit even more unpredictable. In fact, Brexit may not even happen if Labour gets into power and it finds more sympathetic negotiating partners in Germany and France.
Weekly Market Forecast
Stocks have been slightly bullish since my last post two weeks ago. While I thought we would likely see some further gains up to the Jupiter direct station on June 9th, stocks have generally been positive this week as well. As usual, the stock market is defying gravity but now it is happening somewhat paradoxically at the same time that the bond market is also rallying. The falling yields in the bond market is telegraphing a slower US economy (lower inflation, etc) but this seems difficult to square with the resilient optimism in equities. One of these markets is likely wrong. But which one?
I would make a case that the equity market is "wrong", at least for now, as the planetary alignments are still looking bearish. While I thought we would have seen more in the way of downside in late May on the Mars-Saturn opposition, we are again confronted with a potentially important alignment of malefic planets. The Sun opposes Saturn today and Thursday just in time for the latest Fed policy statement. The Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates but the market will wait to hear what its plan is to unwind its massive balance sheet. Also, Mars will gradually tighten its aspect to Jupiter this week and next week so that is another potential source of pessimism and caution. As I have indicated previously, the main event is still the approaching Saturn-Lunar Node alignment which will be within range for several months this summer. It is not an alignment to be taken lightly.
For more details and analysis on market trends for this week, this month and this year, please check out my weekly MVA Investor Newsletter. The newsletter is published every Saturday and includes extended discussion of US and Indian stock markets, as well as gold, oil and major currencies.
