Forecast for 2007

Define your mission statement in 2007

LOOKING BEYOND 2007: In the Chinese year of the Fire Boar, as 2007 begins Jupiter will be travelling full steam ahead through its own sign Sagittarius. Acting as landlord, inspector and diplomat to Pluto, who has been a long term tenant in Sagittarius since 1995, and escorted by Mars who enjoys the fiery environment of the sign of the Archer, Jupiter is currently travelling through a super-sensitive area of the sky. It’s of particular relevance that Jupiter was in Sagittarius just prior to Pluto transiting into this sign in 1995 and will also be here as it exits in January 2008. Venus retrogrades in Virgo and Leo between August and September bringing a year when we need to backtrack in our values and spending quite quickly – use these months to review needs and desires. A year is not a long time in astrology because once a planet changes sign, suddenly we find ourselves in a whole new era. In hindsight, we can see when and where the clues were littered. 2007 is the year to get accounts into order while the sun is shining because in 2008 we get to meet cosmic auditor.

Whenever a planet returns to its own sign, astrologers agree that particular attention should be paid to that ruling planet since the energies associated with the planet, sign and lastly houses in individual charts will be super emphasised and highly receptive to whatever we have been doing in this particular area of our lives. Any tenants in that sign will receive a rental checklist from the landlord if he happens to be around and since powerhouse Pluto isn’t just any old tenant, we need to be alert to the fact that there are likely to be some very hot tenancy issues arising between these very influential members of the cosmos. Since a cycle is closing we are likely to experience mini-versions of whatever has transpired during the past 12 years and by reliving key situations we are able to move on into the next cycle. Compounding is one word to sum up issues this year. Pluto’s message will be to get rid of the rubbish because having old garbage sitting outside the back door is the least desirable way to enter a fresh era. The trick will be to work out what is rubbish and what is not!

A pivotal make-it-or-break-it year, by December 2007 - after having gathered up and made some sense of Pluto’s passage and the evolutionary meaning of its tenure through bling-bling, expansive Sagittarius during the past 12 years - Jupiter will finally pass over Pluto which is currently upon the Galactic Centre, and into the grey corporate world of Capricorn, the sign of its Fall. A big change is on the horizon as we switch from the bright, shiny energy of Sagittarius to the sign of traditional institutions and the global accounting package. Forget about exploring space when there is so much to sort out on planet Earth! By starting at the end of 2007 and looking ahead to the significance of Jupiter’s transit into Capricorn, we can make better use of the coming year’s experiences, and attend to our trials and tribulations in different ways than we have become accustomed to. We will see that the cosmic energy up until December is providing an opportunistic window in time to realign our radically changed ethics and beliefs to where we find ourselves today so that we can manifest what is true, just and right in our own and other people’s lives. Our world views might have changed forever under the Saturn/Pluto opposition of 2001 but it’s simply a matter of taking up the slack and moving with the times. As Rickie Lee Jones sang, it’s the Last Chance Texaco to fill our tanks with good quality fuel of the spiritual, intellectual and ethical kind while it is on extra-special offer.

The negative side of Sagittarius is superficiality and we have been persuaded by the media and advertising to want the biggest, the best, the fastest and the shiniest______ (fill in the blank with your favourite consumer product, fad or service). As a result we’ve developed a tendency to come to expect everything to move at lightening speed, and the mutability of Sag means we switch from one superseded aspect of our life to the next, including husbands and wives. Our mantra now is to flit from one fad to another, to disregard the laws that all societies need to live by such as respecting one another rather than shooting each other down. All this is going to seem highly superficial once we enter the realms of Capricorn in 2008 and we are going to want to invoke the traditional rules that all families need to survive and produce healthy people. Despite the terrorist wars that have been invoked by key organisations and people, or the harmful drugs that are destroying our youngsters (and this includes computers and gaming machines) the Pluto in Sagittarius era is going to seem like a one huge party once we have settled into the coming Capricorn era and can look back at how good we have had life during this last decade.

During 2007 we can expand, explore and extricate ourselves from no-win personal, financial and emotional situations, and within our investments of time, energy and money. We have the chance to play catch-up, casting off eroded or outmoded beliefs and to at last become conscious of those extremely deep insights that have bobbed for so long just below the surface. We want to take an honest look at our setups so that we are not caught with the garbage at the backdoor just when we discover another way to live. We can be left at the starting gate, holding the hot potato and wondering what went wrong. With a correct birth time, an astrologer can tell you which area of your chart this applies to. What we believe is likely to come true this year so we need to be absolutely sure that we are in the right space with the right intentions and travelling in the right direction. Jupiter is big on truth and justice, and he encourages looking at the future rather than the past, so if we find that old habits are hard to shift, then the surge in cosmic energy will indeed be intense as our global and personal subconscious minds attract the experiences that will knock us on the head to make us see. If we have been doing what is good for our development and soul, then a personal sense of power will be evident within. People born under the signs Sagittarius, Pisces, Gemini and Virgo, or those who have these signs dominant in their charts, will have experienced massive amounts of change at varying times during the past 12 years. They are the ones to experience the most significant shifts this year. Narrowing it down even further, people born in the last three days of these mutable signs along with the first day of Capricorn will be in the cosmic spotlight this year too.

PLUTO REACHES THE END OF SAGITTARIUS: Just as numerologically this is a number 9 year and therefore a year of endings that will allow brave new beginnings to take seed the following year, Jupiter’s entry into Capricorn at year’s end will once again pave the way for Pluto when it shifts into corporate, strait-laced Capricorn in January 2008. A new era will dawn within the structures of our material and economic world and we will find ourselves gradually descending from the realms of flight and loftiness toward a more earth-bound, stay-put, basic existence. Rather than magnifying issues as they have been magnified during the past 12 years – i.e. a boom time and a global village that has created massive wealth but also massive debt - Pluto heralds an era of streamlining, conserving, shrinking and deflating during its Capricornian tenure. By the end of its transit through Capricorn in 2023, we will be left with the bare bones of an economic world as we know it and unless we can educate ourselves and our children in the new economical structures that are sure to emerge, we will find ourselves heading into a tightly controlled life budget and less control and freedom in the outer world. Stripping everything back to basics, Pluto’s message suggests that we will need to capitalise on Earth’s resources as best we can in a healthy, organic sense rather than taking a materialistic, grasping stance. Pluto is the destroyer but also the giver of life while Capricorn represents the capitalist within and without. If our actions are based purely on the desire to chase and worship the almighty dollar and consumerism, then Pluto’s message will be an especially strong one if we continue to violate natural laws and the earth. Just as we have seen our belief systems picked up and turned inside out in light of what has taken place before and after the Saturn/Pluto opposition and 9/11, then we are likely to see a collapse of fiscal economies in a similar way.

Saturn shifts into Virgo in September 2007, supporting Pluto in Capricorn’s attempt to bring everything back into line again. Saturn will square the 2001 Saturn/Pluto opposition degree in September 2008. Acting as a tripwire, the stimulation of this sensitised point will be an interesting test of nerves and mettle as we pull our belts tighter and tighter. Virgo is all about efficiency and healthy systems, bodies and minds so rather than succumb to the over-indulgent aspects of Jupiter as it travels its own sign, we need to take up the gauntlet and devise new diets and activities and head for the healthier alternative rather than the proverbial takeaway.

We can look forward to using the positive qualities of Pluto in Capricorn to take action in a strategic, practical, no-nonsense manner for the good of all. Industries that deal in preservation and conservation, recycling of material goods, inorganic waste or creating organic products that are unadulterated by the human touch are likely to stand head and shoulders above the crowd. And they can only do this if there is consumer demand. Returning to our grass roots and the traditional way of doing things rather than the mass-produced hype of the way things should be done is likely to become more evident. Manufacturing goods that last that much longer, or doing without all the high-tech gadgetry stuffed in our cupboards, may also become a growing trend. Capricorn is known for its tendency to compare and compete with its peers, and while we have enjoyed the ability to have what the rich have because of globalisation, free trade and easy finance, we will begin to look with a more realistic eye at the influence that celebrity-endorsed products have over our buying decisions. It’s been fun hooking our shadow on the stars of today, allowing them to act out our hidden desires, but now the general public will be more interested in what Mr and Mrs Smith really stand for and in what they are doing in the practical sense rather than what they wear, buy or do in their leisure time. The let-it-all-hang-out-anything-goes-as-long-as-you’re-taking-notice-of-me trashiness of the past few years is likely to be replaced with an almost inhibited Victorian stiff upper lip attitude, and while the exposure of the hips and thighs and midriff have become popular fashions under the Sagittarian theme, we might find that the attention shifts to the knees, shins and ankles.

Capricorn and Virgo are also the organisational aspect of our lives so systems that increase efficiency and free up time will become sought after. This is the year to start sowing the seeds that will flourish under the up-coming trends. While the outgoing Sag energy was extravagant, thrill-seeking and flippant, we are likely to become more thrifty, cautious and penny-pinching, and businesses that teach or promote self-sufficiency are likely to bloom. Items such as compost and recycling bins that leave no mess or wastage will also become popular – wringing every last ounce out of the bottle is a true Capricorn habit. Budgeting services and good financial advisers will grow too. And as rents and pollution taxes pull our purse strings tighter, we are likely to defend our economic positions by needing less. This may be how the economies of the world begin to diminish in size – when Joe Public takes responsibility for his own decisions rather than looking to the media or government for guidance. As unfair as it seems, since Capricorn represents the aged, taking care of the older generation will be part of the reason that the next generation will have to get by on less as they wait for their turn in the sun. Hire businesses might see a surge in custom since Capricornian energy is very good on getting by with less and it will steadily become wasteful and embarrassing to have garages and cupboards full of machinery, equipment and gadgets that barely get used but take up space and send insurance bills to the top end of the scale, not to mention filling up the landfills. The international flavour of Sagittarius has brought us many gadgets that help us brew coffee like the Italians, but again in the upcoming trends we will end up coming back to the traditional way of cooking, eating and sleeping. In true Capricornian style, we might ask ourselves why buy something when in such a short time it becomes superseded or made obsolete by an even more streamlined version. Capricorn is also associated with architecture so there is bound to be a big emphasis on the design, style and safety of buildings. A return to traditional craftsmanship that focuses on making secure, solid structures could mean that a revolution will occur in the way apprentices are taught their trade. The appearance of buildings may begin to take on new dimensions too.

Personally-speaking, so that we can move into this next phase, dredging the manure and toxicity from the planet will be Pluto’s theme in the years to come, and if we can’t keep up with, or would rather pretend it wasn’t happening, then we will still feel the effects but in a much more negative way – we need only look at weather patterns to see this; whether its global warming or the natural evolution of the planet, we cannot afford to speed this process up, and in any case what is wrong with being conscious of what you throw out or where you buy your products. It matters that children are being exploited in sweatshops, or that people are paid a pittance to produce the latest designer brand. These shifts in cosmic energy tie in very neatly with some of the non-astrological theories concerning the effects of a huge proportion of the world’s population reaching retirement age (a very Capricornian theme) and changing the way pensions and other financial investment plans will be managed. 2007 is the year to take a good look at the proverbial nest egg to ensure it will survive the coming climate of change. Sagittarius is the sign of higher education, so grab the books, talk to the accountant and take charge of your money and future security rather than handing money over, crossing fingers and hoping for the best. Taking a gamble is a true Sagittarian characteristic that has worked over the past 12 years but which is quickly running out of steam when 2007 is drawing to a close and the upper limits of profit are reached. Conserve and manage your equity in whatever investments have grown during the boom-time rather than milking it for what it’s worth in terms of current consumer consumption. Cash will be king for those who have managed their money well because Capricorn, being an Earth sign, means there will be a big emphasis on land and real estate, which will go through an interesting time.

To verify that Pluto does indeed impact upon the world’s consciousness in very subtle but very obvious ways, we only need to look back over the last decade to see how the Sagittarian themes of religious beliefs and ideals, and the way we travel and explore the world, have changed so dramatically. Globalisation has awoken areas of the world that are now destroying themselves in their race to cater to the needs of Western civilisation’s worship at the Temple of Consumerism. Pluto’s erosion of Sagittarian themes such as family, religious and community ethics means we are going to be that much more at the mercy of the power of advertising and media this year as big business realise they are imploding. Do we still want to be manipulated by a herd mentality that is controlled by big corporations for their own ends? The biggest and the best companies, governments and corporations who have little respect for the common person or environment are the ones who are likely to go through the most shrinkage in the coming years, but as they realise the falls they will be exposed to as the world’s consciousness enters another phase, they will fight tooth and nail to hold on to what they have. As a result, we are likely to be bombarded at the last minute by the power of publicity and propaganda. We, as upstanding citizens of the world, have more power than we realise. We can influence thoughtless output by asking questions about who will pay for this destruction of cultures, rivers, land and seas. Moving offshore to have goods made cheaply is great for business, but who will pay for the effects of the pollution that less educated communities are experiencing? How long will this last before taxes are imposed in a bid to clean up the global mess? As enlightened people coming out of the influences of the sign that represents ethics, we need to wake up this year. By the same token, small businesses may flourish as they cater to local needs and cultural biases.

Coming back to the present, with an optimistic Jupiter in Sagittarius being the trump card for the grand opening of 2007, our heady excitement is at an all time high as 2006 comes to a close. It might be timely that Saturn, ruler of earthy Capricorn, is retrograde and therefore reminding us of the realities and responsibilities that await us at the beginning of yet another working year. Another interesting collision of cycles, Saturn was in Leo at the beginning of the baby boom era (roughly 1946 to 1964) and will be in this sign just prior to Pluto moving into Capricorn, the beginning of a new economic order. Capricorn likes us to invest rather than consume and we will soon be rapped over the knuckles if we have overcapitalised or overextended our resources and budgets. This is the year of the spirit and the spiritual if we are to tune into what lies ahead rather than being a year of continuing in typical optimistic Sagittarian style, racking up debt and hoping for the next lucky break. Lucky breaks will happen though if we are in the right place at the right time with the right intentions. Resolutions this year might include striving for higher aims, developing a greater belief in the spiritual aspects of life, or travelling beyond the everyday boundaries of our mundane existence so that we can look at ourselves from another angle. Certainly, it would pay to be very sensible regarding anything that means we are biting off more than we can chew in the coming years.

To get a sense of the layout of the coming months, we might need to slow right down in January and February to digest the fiscal damage of the festive and holiday season. And even if we’ve overspent, waste little precious time worrying and instead find a means to pay off debt as quickly as possible. The fact that there are no social or outer planets travelling through practical Earth signs until Saturn transits into Virgo on September 3rd (NZT) means we need to consciously tune into the gravitational pull of bean-counting Saturn if we are to achieve the glittering goals or opportunities that will open up this year. The explorer within emerges in its own special way in each of us and we are less willing to be obstructed and weighed down by material possessions and economic debt if it means we have to deny ourselves true experiences or time with children who grow up while we are looking the other way. Inspiration is the keyword and with the fire of Leo and Sagittarius, we’ve got the creative power to bring our lives back into line with what we need to be healthy, wealthy and wise. As the saying goes “the secret to life is not to have everything you want, but to want everything you have”.

© Tracey Rizvi, January 2007