This magazine exclusive conjures up a wonderful - if fanciful - image: New Zealand Prime Minister John Key sitting down with his Celestial Magus in the cobwebbed basement of the Beehive, discussing transits to the Dollar’s birth chart...! But they seem to be working from a different chart to me - and I suspect his smile would be less enthusiastic if he really understood the genuine astrology of the Dollar and its sensitivity to imminent global trends.
The New Zealand Dollar actually became our legal currency on the 10th of July 1967, ‘Decimal Currency Day’. The chart used, therefore, is drawn for midnight on that morning. The sign of Cancer is in there, but it’s the Sun’s position, not “rising”.
An understanding of this chart can give us a take on the fortunes of our currency, said to be the 10th most traded currency in the world. Of course our economy is not isolated from the world economy, thus we should also view this chart in the broader astrological context, such as the current major planetary cycles. But it would still be well worth Mr Key consulting his magus on this particular chart, as we shall see.
The $NZ chart
The chart shows real strengths, including cardinal angles (drive/dynamism), many mutual receptions (which increases flexibility and overall vigour), bullish confidence (Moon-Jupiter in entrepreneurial Leo), and survival power (Sun-sextile-Pluto). But there are also signs of over-responsiveness to global trends (Cancer Sun-trine-Neptune), an unworldly, cautious indecisiveness (Sun in Cancer square Mars in Libra) and the rising Saturn suggests a late starter, perhaps defensive or reactive, and lacking in confidence.
The precise Sun-Mercury conjunction is, curiously, closely conjunct John Key’s Moon, showing his natural ‘feel’ for the currency, and a natural responsiveness, even protectiveness. (see here for his chart; note that his time of birth is speculative). The reverse is also the case: the chart’s Moon is conjunct Key’s Sun. These two really have a match made in heaven! (Perhaps that explains his smile.)
It’s a fairly robust chart, but it does have its vulnerabilities, and these are going to be revealed in the coming 2 or 3 years.
Current trends
Immediate concerns are with the Saturn transit to the chart ruler, Mars, over late 2011 to late 2012, symbolising a slowing down or contraction, a lowering of confidence. As Mars is the ruler of the 8th house of foreign investment and debt, we can expect the squeeze to come at least partly through a tightening on borrowing or lack of room to maneuver due to indebtedness.
Also, the highly challenging Uranus-Pluto square of 2010-18 is closing quickly on the chart’s Ascendant and Mid-Heaven, coming to cross them both over 2012-14. With Pluto moving over the MC the Dollar’s reputation will be destroyed, or at least significantly challenged. Revealed will be its vulnerability to the deep structural fissures that will continue to open up in the global financial world as Pluto passes through the sign of Capricorn. Could this be the Dollar being subsumed into an actual or effective single global currency? Or a more radical shake-up still that sees the Dollar having to fit into an entirely transformed international financial market?
But things don’t get better that quickly - the pair, Uranus and Pluto, moves on to aspect the Dollar’s Sun-Saturn square (2014-17); we can expect the Dollar to evolve into an substantially different beast as a consequence, as it adjusts to a transformed market-place.
New Zealand’s chart
We can see this something of these trends reflected in the chart of New Zealand (left) with its Ascendant, at 9º Capricorn - virtually the same place as the Dollar’s MC. So, as Pluto passes over the Dollar’s MC, it crosses the country’s Ascendant-Uranus conjunction. Pluto in Capricorn suggests a deep structural shift in world affairs, an irrevocable transformation of global institutions - such as banking, finance markets, leadership hierarchies and power structures.
The simultaneous transits in these two charts over the period 2012-14 suggests that New Zealand will be strongly impacted by these potent global trends, keenly felt through a massive shift in the power and international perception of the Dollar.
But more immediately, constricting Saturn’s imminent movement through 21-26º Libra, which creates a Yod with NZ’s Saturn and Moon - rulers of the nation’s financial house, the 2nd and 8th - will bring a significant monetary tightening on the domestic front. Reality must be faced, as we are caught in traps of our own making. Mainly focused over October-December this year, then April-August 2012, this will particularly affect the housing & financial markets (Moon in Taurus), with consequential belt-tightening for all New Zealanders (Moon signifies the people). Government institutions will have to bear the weight of some of this (Saturn’s passage is through the 11th house, linked with these).
But more positively, this brings the opportunity for adjustments towards a more equitable and just society (Saturn in Libra).