So far, this week’s decline coincides with the bearish Mars-Mercury alignment that I noted in last week’s post. Mars aspects to Mercury are usually bearish for the stock market since Mercury is the planet of commerce and trading. As a malefic planet, Mars has the potential to upset or interrupt the significations of whatever planet it aspects. The probability of a decline was even more likely this week since both Mars and Mercury were moving very slowly: Mars stationed direct last Thursday and was still moving at just 15% of its normal speed today while Mercury stationed direct this morning (Jan 18) and thus was moving at less than 5% of its normal speed by the close today. As a general rule, slower planets are stronger planets, especially when in close alignment. And whenever planetary aspects include a malefic like Mars or Saturn, a negative outcome in the financial markets is much more likely.
But now that both Mars and Mercury have completed their retrograde cycles and are once again moving forward, could the markets be in a better position to rise? Yes and no. The forward motion of Mars and Mercury is a more bullish influence on sentiment, all other things being equal. But this 210-degree Mars-Mercury aspect will remain in close proximity for several more days. Therefore, Mercury will remain afflicted by the negative energy of Mars for the rest of this week at least.
Moreover, we can see that the angular separation of Mars and Rahu (28°20) will approximately equal that of Saturn and Neptune (28°56) for the next few days. This is an ongoing bearish influence since all four planets have bearish potentials, especially Mars, Saturn and Rahu. This four-planet alignment will remain within close range for longer than usual since Mars is only moving a few arc minutes per day. Certainly, the presence of this bearish energy makes a major rebound much less likely in the near term and indeed makes further downside more likely.
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Photo credit: Mike Mozart
