The new Moon this month falls at 11° in Cancer on the 3rd, which is virtually conjunct the USA Sun, which is a notably significant indicator around that time, of a major new political shift dawning in the country.

The American-born artist Cy Twombly, who is a Sun in Taurus with Moon in Cancer and Mars in Pisces, has received much positive publicity here in England recently because of his impressive retrospective, "Cycles and Seasons" (a very Taurus title), now at the Tate Modern till September 14, 2008. He left the USA in 1957 for Italy (Leo) and his 50-year-long career has mostly been pursued from Mediterranean climes. His mix of classical literary allusion and his absorption of European legend give his work a multifaceted uniqueness. Often it is plain visual poetry, and there is a quirky irony about the primitive scribbled scrawl he employs, like automatic writing, in order to summon up a powerful classical theme. During the ‘50s, he forced himself to draw and write with his left hand and to draw in the dark, and seemed to need to be as unconscious and unskilled as possible in order to engage with raw, primitive and anarchic energy. There is a great contrast often combined in a single piece of his work, of real emotional distress with a simultaneous note of exhilaration.

Venus, planet of the arts, is in Leo from the 12th and points then to a more flamboyant, extroverted mood being born creatively and focuses also strongly on Italy and France, both Leo countries. Also from the 22nd the Sun enters Leo. The Middle East is also a Leo region and creative focus there too is likely. Currently at Tate Britain till August 31, 2008, an exhibition "The Lure of the East: British Orientalist Painting" is an exploration not only celebratory of the rich landscape and culture of the Middle East as recorded in the time of the Grand Tour of 19th-century Europe but is also a strong comment on the then-colonial exploitation of, power over and attitudes towards the East and its peoples.

On a more contemporary note, British Iranian photographer Mitra Tabrizian has an exhibition "This is That Place," a retrospective of her recent work (2001-2007) currently on at the Tate Britain until August 10, 2008. Her images of individuals and places span from London to Tehran, all pointing to the themes of identity, migration, exile, cultural and personal isolation and alienation. She left Iran to live in London in 1977, just before the revolution, so she is alienated from her own culture.

With Neptune (no boundaries) in Aquarius (humanity) since the late ‘90s, travel and growing global subcultural awareness has become the defining mood of the planet. It has brought huge cultural diffusion but, inevitably, with us being a clannish species, cultural identity has therefore become both more precious and simultaneously more problematic for the individual, who often lives away from place of origin. It has also become globally challenging in terms of value systems. It is a sociological fact that when there is external threat to any group’s cultural or ideological survival or identity, this ideology or identity becomes internally stronger, often even when in diaspora.

Mars is in Virgo all month and this favors technical accuracy and detail and practical use of arts, particularly architecture, and also favors installation work. It also indicates focus globally on issues to do with agriculture, food and the green agenda. The growing price of food staples and the increasing realization of global food shortages will focus minds strongly this month. The age of scarcity is dawning universally. It is ironic that while trying to eliminate carbon emissions, there is increasing political pressure on the middle east producers to pump more oil from the diminishing resources so as to attain lower prices. Short-term, populist, knee-jerk politics still dominates. It is akin to the UK government paying passionate lip-service to the principle of us all trying to reduce our carbon footprint, while simultaneously championing the expansion of airports to accommodate more flights for the sake of the growth of the economy. Similarly, with the breathtaking rise in oil prices and its growing inaccessibility, desperate claims are being made to new oil fields in the Arctic Region, increasingly more accessible because of the melting of the arctic ice shelf. This very melting has been precipitated by the burning of oil.

Harsh (Mars) facts and figures (Virgo) about our food production (Virgo) and its costs and wasteful lack of logic, will fill the media, e.g. that it takes on average eight tons of grain to raise one cow and six barrels of oil to get one cow to market

An extraterrestrial with any intelligence, or sense of irony, landing on our planet and witnessing our antics would clearly think us all mad or at least very amusing. Mars in Virgo maybe brings a needed heads up to the need to completely review our stance vis-à-vis such issues.

Even our trammeled Prime Minister here in Britain made understated sense when he said recently, "We have had some of the benefits of globalization with cheaper consumer goods and lower interest rates. Now we are going to have to deal with the downside of globalization, which is the restructuring of our economies and the pressure on our resources." Astrologically that translates into "we have had the benefits, complete with hubristic license, of Pluto in Sagittarius (globalization) but over the next five months (while Pluto is back fleetingly, but purposefully in Sagittarius) we are going to have to face up to the full fallout of this. The resulting nemesis and ruthlessly stringent measures needed to manage this; will be very much manifested during Pluto’s imminent long watch in Capricorn (economy, resources)"

Pluto is full throttle in Capricorn from late November 2008 for the next 16 years

The gods of unthinking affluence, consumerism, and ultimately greed, are soon to be toppled.

A new book by Larry Elliot and Dan Atkinson (economic editors of two British newspapers) The Gods that Failed: How Blind Faith in Markets Has Cost Us our Future, published by Bodley Head, is interesting reading on this very issue of our economic nemesis.

The head of research at Oxfam, Duncan Green, cut to the chase recently in an article in the Guardian newspaper, when he wrote, "We do not know if Darwin or Ghandi will be the genius of the age of scarcity -- whether we are facing the survival of the fittest, or effective global cooperation. But the stakes could not be higher."

Maybe survival of the fittest is hard-wired into our beings, or maybe we have as a species to make a quantum leap of evolutionary spiritual consciousness in order to survive. When Pluto (ultimate truth) moves back into Capricorn in November for the long haul, we will come much closer during his stay in that sign to finding out just which is the truth of our human nature. Green also reminds us of Martin Luther King’s words of 40 years ago: "Human progress is neither inevitable nor automatic. . . . Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: Too Late."

The newly evolving discipline called Behavioral Economics is a very Pluto (truth of the human psyche) in Capricorn (economy) concept. It is now revealing how the great holy grail of choice has in fact a critical mass point where too much choice becomes counterproductive to sales. Experiments have shown that the more choice of variety of a product on offer, like flavors of yoghurt, the more excitement there is, but less is sold. With less choice in variety of a product or on a menu, less excitement occurs but there is more buying. People are overwhelmed by surplus; do not know where to start, become alienated and walk away. We may soon find that loss of this unnecessary choice is forced upon us and we may even function better.

It is about time the discipline of economics had a human face. Economists have always assumed that human behavior fits into simplistic economic theories. Social psychology became an integral part of sociology eventually, just as human psychology needs to be married to the concept of economics, for it to have real insight and credibility. Actually some of the most successful global economists use astrological cycles when forecasting. They just don’t talk about this fact.

The critical mass theory has of course implications for population numbers and community cohesiveness, too. Number theories have of course ultimate links to quantum physics. Let’s not go there.

To return to the sign of the month: a Cancerian artist, Gustav Klimt, is high-profile this month at the Tate in Liverpool (Scorpio city), current European capital of culture. "Painting, Design and Modern Life in Vienna 1900" is the biggest exhibition ever of his work on these shores with over 60 works. Klimt’s output has become extremely valuable, of course, not least since his Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer (1907) sold for a reported $145 million in 2006. This exhibition reveals fully the rich density of Klimt’s work. Being a Sun and Mercury in Cancer native (he was born July 14, 1862, in Vienna, no time known), Klimt has a chart whose emphasis is very much on femininity and he is most famous for his languid and very sensual portraits of women. They are often overtly explicitly erotic, but sometimes more furtively so. They are often over the top in attire and adornment, and there are also occasional undertones of horror (e.g. his interest in Salome and that decapitated head) attributed to their antics. One wonders if Klimt had Scorpio rising (sex, power, death and transformation). Phil Redmond, the creative director of the capital of culture program, was reported to have said that Klimt’s approach to life fitted in with the psyche of Liverpool. The mind boggles.

There is a quirky side to Klimt’s work that pushes the boundaries at times and his Venus in Gemini conjunct to Uranus (both squaring Jupiter and Saturn) points to a need to feed off excitement, risk, experimentation and notably an intellectualized fascination with the idea of sex and a sense of voyeurism. His moon is either in Aquarius or Pisces (it changes around midday). All bets are on Pisces (the arts) with the often dreamy psychedelic tendencies of his work and his pre-Raphaelite intimations. His populist commercial appeal, which was so apparent in the ‘60s, notably and ubiquitously with The Kiss, points to the typical Pisces Moon ability to be able to romantically morph across the generations with symbol and archetype. With his Mars conjunct to his Neptune, which both in turn square to his Mercury, he had little choice about his choice of profession. Such a powerful Neptune in such a planetary configuration is inevitably hugely creative and with powerful fantasy and visualization tendencies. Surrealist hybrid type creatures feature in his later period.

One assumes with this Neptune focus, that he would have had a great love of music, too. The attention to the tiny detail in his beloved mosaic-type patterns with an almost mathematical accuracy reflects his Jupiter combined with Saturn in Virgo. His evolution as an artist is characterized by his move from more conventional portrait to a complexity of patterns, which morphs with the figure depicted and which becomes more the end in itself.

Around the 5th, when Mercury squares up to Uranus, left-field events are in the air, especially connecting with transport and there is risk of geophysical upheaval then, too.

Around the 10th, when Mercury opposes Pluto and Mars conjuncts Saturn, is a date when shocks are in the air politically and signifies that setbacks, frustrations and anger can resonate seriously.

Around the 31st there is a peaking of creative inspiration when Venus opposes Neptune, particularly in the arts and photographic world.

Expansion, possibly overly so, is in the air around the 3rd, 9th and 19th, when Jupiter is opposed by Venus, the Sun and Mercury, respectively. The temptation to overdo and over-reach will be everywhere then

The full Moon falls on the 18th at 26° of Capricorn, right on the USA’s natal Pluto. This may act as a rather heavy note for the American psyche.

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