We are in the midst of an incredibly potent and highly charged geocosmic period. This time frame extends from February 22-March 28, but the very end of it contains some of the most geopolitical (and natural) dynamics of explosiveness. On Wednesday, March 24, Pluto will turn stationary retrograde, followed by the Sun forming a waning square to Saturn on March 27, and Mars forming a waxing square to Uranus on March 28. Anyone of these signatures can coincide with a serious fundamental event that raises great concern amongst the leaders of the world. All unfolding together in such a short span of time might help explain to many why the current times are so intense. For instance, just before I left a little over a week ago, a horrific terrorist attack in Madrid, Spain left hundreds dead, and thousands injured. The following week (last week), Spain voted into a power a new President, who immediately vowed to make the fight against terrorism his primary objective, which was then immediately followed by his pronouncement that Spain’s involvement as a supportive force with the United States in the rebuilding of Iraq, will come to an end as soon as his term officially begins. Furthermore he stated that the United States War against Terrorism under George Bush, and Spain’s cooperation with this plan, has been a huge disaster. Those are some pretty strong words, and convey the dynamics that are consistent with these three geocosmic signatures coming up in the next week.

Let’s start with Pluto retrograde. The influence of slow-moving planet going stationary (turning direction as seen from earth) can have an influence lasting a couple of weeks. Pluto is the one planet that tends to be present when human life is threatened. Pluto rules explosions, upheavals, of both the man-made kind like terrorist attacks or political coups that can force an existing government out of power. It can also coincide with natural disasters, like volcanoes or famines or diseases that bring threat to crops, causing food prices to accelerate rapidly. We are witnessing this phenomenon, in fact, in the U.S. Soybean market, as the nearby contract has skyrocketed to over $10.00/bushel. It is the first time Soybeans have traded in double digits since 1988, which was a year of extreme heat in the Midwest. With Soybeans, we have to watch the movement of Venus very closely. Venus will go retrograde May 17 in Gemini. Venus is a planet that turns retrograde in the same degree of the zodiac every 8 years. It went retrograde in Gemini in 1996 and again in 1988. Both of those years saw Soybeans rally strongly, and top out during or close in time to the retrograde period.

The Sun in waning square to Saturn is a worrisome aspect, particularly for heads of states. It pertains to a period when leadership comes under criticism. It is a time of accounting, and those who cannot account well tend to suffer the penalty of being judged as "not adequate," or "not handling the situation adequately." This becomes exaggerated if the leadership tries to deny his/her role as a responsible party in the events that have taken place, and which are under critical review. In terms of stock markets, Saturn aspects simply means, "worry," and with worry, prices tend to have trouble rising. They are suppressed, usually.

But the most important signature may be the Mars forming a waxing square to Uranus. Both of these planets imply "action." And a waxing square is usually a time of a critical event, or "action." It is the aspect that is symbolic of "birthing," and birthing is usually not pain-free. With Mars and Uranus involved, the event, or "birthing moment," can be akin to a sudden explosion, or a surprise attack, whether militarily of verbally, that leads to a new direction in the world affairs involved. Words like "shocking," or "unexpected surprise" are likened to these two powerhouses in a square aspect. Equity markets also tend to react with a suddenness of force that investors had not expected. Prices swing wildly, in very short amounts of time.

We will resume our updates of world markets when we return to normal publishing next week. But for now, we do know the 50-week cycle has topped out in the U.S. markets, and prices are headed down into both the 50-week and "Pre-Presidential Election Year" troughs, due by May, and usually by the end of March. The minimum price criteria for this low have now been established, with prices having dropped below the 25-week moving average. Therefore both traders and intermediate-term investors are advised to be very alert now for the next favorable buying opportunity. It will come as these intermediate-term cycles bottom within the next two months, and maybe even as early as the next ten days. As always, we will keep our weekly and daily subscribers apprised of this signal as we receive it.

Disclaimer and statement of purpose: The purpose of this column is not to predict the future movement of various financial markets. However, that is the purpose of the MMA (Merriman Market Analyst) subscription services. This column is not a subscription service. It is a free service, except in those cases where a fee may be assessed to cover the cost of translating this column from English into a non-English language. This weekly report is written with the intent to educate the reader on the relationship between astrological factors and collective human activities as they are happening. In this regard, this report will oftentimes report what happened in various stock and financial markets throughout the world in the past week, and discuss that movement in light of the geocosmic signatures that were in effect. It will then identify the geocosmic factors that will be in effect in the next week, or even month, or even years, and the author’s understanding of how these signatures will likely affect human activity in the times to come. The author (Merriman) will do this from a perspective of a cycle’s analyst looking at the military, political, economic, and even financial markets of the world. It is possible that some forecasts will be made based on these factors. However, the primary goal is to both educate and alert the reader as to the psychological climate we are in, from an astrological perspective. The hope is that it will help the reader understand these psychological dynamics that underlie (or coincide with) the news events and hence financial markets of the day.

No guarantee as to the accuracy of this report is being made here. Any decisions in financial markets are solely the responsibility of the reader, and neither the author nor the publishers assume any responsibility at all for those individual decisions. Reader should understand that futures and options trading are considered high risk.