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The Year 2000 Computer Bug and its Effects on our Economy
No review of the economy for the Year 2000 would be complete without a discussion about the Y2K computer bug. We’ve all heard the potential scenarios for lack of power, water, telecommunications, food, transportation, gasoline, health care, emergency services, functional banks, and just about any product or service you can imagine. In short, a breakdown of our infrastructure! Is this even possible?

As astrologers, we have one advantage in evaluating this situation. We can determine if any astrological aspects look like the Y2K bug and if so, how challenging the situation appears, and its timing. We can also compare our astrological assessment with Y2K data to determine if there’s a match.

Let’s look at the Y2K situation first. How could two digits be such a big problem? It’s estimated that the USA has 22% of the world’s computer code. Large companies and government organizations need to fix millions of lines of coded computer instructions, in order for their systems to continue functioning in 2000. AT&T has over 500 million lines of code, and General Motors has over 2 billion. GM also relies on 85,000 suppliers all over the world, in order to manufacture their cars and trucks. Typical large banks have between 100 and 400 million lines of code to fix, much of it 30+ years old. All of them need to be reviewed, fixed and tested before 2000.

Fixing the Y2K bug is done is several phases. First an organization inventories their systems, determines which ones need to be fixed, how large each job is, and prioritizes the work. Then they actually search through the millions of lines of code to find and repair the bugs. When that’s done, about 50% of the work is complete. Testing takes the other 50% of the project time and is crucial. Especially when programmers fix codes they didn’t write, it’s "normal" to generate one new bug for every one hundred to one thousand lines of code fixed. For a typical large bank with old codes, this amounts to an additional 10,000 to 1 million bugs to find and fix through testing.

Those statistics don’t include the estimated 25-40 billion embedded microprocessors worldwide. These are inside just about everything including gas and oil drill rigs, pipelines, manufacturing equipment, security and phone systems, medical equipment, water systems, elevators, cars, planes, trains, ships, etc. About 250 million to 4 billion of them are expected to fail, depending on which expert you believe.

Although many people believe that the USA will be fine while other countries will experience problems, this ignores the fact that 40% of our gross national product is based on shipments from overseas for raw materials, parts, and products sold or used here. The loss of 40% of our gross national product would severely impact our economy in more ways than we can imagine. For example, oil from OPEC countries meets approximately 50% of the USA’s needs and this may not be available according to the U.S. Senate Hearings Report on Y2K. This would severely impact our distribution system and other transportation needs.

Since fixing the Y2K bug is a massive job, it’s also extremely expensive. The Gartner Group, a worldwide computer consulting company, estimates that the cost of fixing this bug will be over $600 billion worldwide. Who is going to pay for this huge expense? Governments and companies get their revenue from their customers and constituents. That’s you and me. All of us are going to pay for this through price increases, lost jobs, lower profits and dividends, slower or negative growth, increased taxes, etc.

We’re also hearing that if the bugs aren’t all fixed by 2000, they’ll get fixed within a few days or two weeks. This may be true in some cases, but we have to also remember it takes time for the weakest links in the supply chain to show up. We won’t see all the problems during the first and second week of 2000, and maybe not even during the first month. As our just-in-time inventories meet delivery slowdowns from companies that are not prepared, impacts may begin to build up. But before we speculate any further, let’s see what astrology has to say about this situation.

Does Astrology Show the Y2K Bug?
Now if Y2K were really going to be a massive mess, astrology would definitely show it. But how would we recognize it? I used the following criteria: First it should symbolize established, or hard-to-change technology challenging established structures, businesses, and governments. Second, since Y2K has never occurred prior to now, the aspect should in some way represent a first-time occurrence. Lastly, if Y2K were going to create an enormous problem, then the aspect should involve most of the ten planets in a configuration. Amazingly, I found such an aspect:

Saturn in Taurus square Uranus in Aquarius
This aspect certainly meets the first criterion. Saturn in Taurus represents fixed and established structures, businesses, and governments. Uranus in Aquarius definitely symbolizes technology, and since this is also a fixed sign, it’s well-established and hard-to-change technology. It’s the fixed signs that represent the main difficulty here, not the aspect itself, since fixed signs take the longest to make changes, and indicate the major difficulties in doing so.

Let’s keep in mind though, that since Uranus is the slower planet (and in its own sign yet!) it’s stronger than Saturn and ultimately will get what it wants. The lesson here is that the technology must be changed (Uranus in Aquarius) and no matter how much businesses and governments have avoided this issue, it still has to be done. Changing it is disruptive to organizations, but not fixing it is more so! Saturn in the fixed sign of Taurus shows how slowly companies and governments got started on this huge job. The unmovable deadline of Jan 1, 2000 also suggests a fixed sign issue.

The second criterion was that the aspect should in some way be a first-time aspect. The last time this aspect occurred in these signs was in January 1501. That was prior to the discovery of the planet Uranus in 1781, which represents high technology, computers, the internet, electricity, broadcasting, planes and trains, etc. So this aspect in these signs has never occurred since the discovery of Uranus and the development of computers and high technology. In that respect, it’s a first–time aspect.

In mid-June 1500, Saturn squared Uranus exactly at 29° 51’. A few days later, Saturn temporarily moved into Gemini for 5 months, before retrograding back into Taurus in December 1500. Saturn and Uranus squared again in those signs about five weeks later in Jan 1501, at 28° 15’. Three and a half weeks later, Uranus moved into Pisces. Since this aspect became exact at such late degrees in those signs, it lasted only a very short time before one planet moved out of its sign.

That was during the Renaissance and many new breakthrough ideas were tried then, but they didn’t have a world interconnected via computers and high technology. This time the aspect is within orb and in these signs for over a year and it becomes exact three times in the middle degrees of the signs. If meaning can be attached to this, then the challenges between technology and established structures are significantly stronger this time.

The last criterion was that this aspect should involve the majority of the planets in a challenging configuration, if Y2K is going to be a major mess. In May 2000 this aspect is at the heart of a massive square between six planets in Taurus square to Uranus and Neptune in Aquarius. At the New Moon on May 3^rd- 4^th 2000, Venus, Mercury, the Moon, Sun, Jupiter, and Saturn are in Taurus and square to Uranus and Neptune. From an economic perspective this could be interpreted as a major challenge to most of our infrastructures. We’ll look at those details in the chart soon.

Essentially this situation symbolizes disruption of our basic infrastructures. This is not "a bump in the road," or it wouldn’t show up like this! However it could be due to other things besides Y2K. Uranus is associated with sudden and unexpected events, things "out of the blue," and radical situations. These could include major solar flares taking out the power grid and/or satellites, a pole shift that would induce major earth changes (6 planets in Taurus), an asteroid hitting the earth or aliens showing up (let’s hope they can fix our computers!). Considered from this perspective, Y2K seems like a better option for these disruptions.

How can we predict that the Y2K bug won’t be fixed in time for the year 2000? If everything were going to be fixed in time, then Saturn would square Uranus for the last time in 1999. Instead, the last aspect occurs in May 2000, and the huge New Moon square that month suggests the final resolution is a very challenging situation. Perhaps we’ll start rationing gasoline then or supplies will become scarce. It could take time for inventories to run out and weak links to work their way through the systems. Plus some computers will operate as "1900" until Feb 29^th, when they’re expected to crash.

Upcoming Astrological Events
Let’s look now at some mundane charts. These charts are for Washington DC since typically when we look at events for a country, we use the nation’s capitol for the location. The first chart is for this summer’s solar eclipse on 11 August 1999, 7:08 am EDT, in D.C. This seems to be when everything first gets started.

Notice that the Taurus is on the MC, which represents banks and financial institutions. Saturn at 16° Taurus is conjunct the MC and exactly opposite Mars in Scorpio on the IC. In the 12^th house, we have the eclipse itself at 18° Leo, opposite to Uranus at 14° Aquarius and square to the Mars – Saturn opposition. This is a massive grand square in the fixed signs with some of our toughest characters. Whatever situation this represents, it’s a very demanding and challenging one!

From an economic perspective, Taurus highlighted on the MC, could indicate the banks and financial institutions are in the news. Notice that the ruler of the MC, Venus, is retrograde in the first house and in Virgo, the sign of its fall. Venus is also retrograding away from a square to Pluto in the 4^th house. This could highlight the issue of the banks and how the masses are responding. Venus gets to 5° Virgo and then retrogrades, so at this point it hasn’t actually made the square to Pluto. Hopefully this means that the masses are retreating from their panic or near panic. However, people may be rethinking the safety of their money in banks and other financial institutions.

Notice there is also a T-square in the fixed signs: Jupiter at 4° Taurus is square to both Mercury at 0° Leo and Neptune at 2° Aquarius. Mercury is in the 12^th house, and applying to the opposition with Neptune. This suggests the public is not being told important information, or misinformation is being released. Jupiter square to Neptune suggests being deceived by our beliefs, or having a rosier picture painted for us than is realistic. Since Jupiter is also in Taurus, this might suggest that the banks or financial institutions are telling us everything will be fine, when they know it’s not true.

With this T-square in the chart, we won’t be able to rely on the validity of the information we’re given then. The only reliable indicator will probably be our own intuition!

Consider that we have a total of 8 out of 10 planets in fixed signs. There are only two mutable planets (both square to each other) and NO cardinal planets. This suggests that whatever occurs, nothing can be done to quickly remedy it. There are no fast actions that can be taken. Whatever is happening here, is very serious and will take a long time to resolve (8 fixed planets).

Some astrologers have discussed the possibility of this being a major war or a terrorist attack. This is certainly possible, since the path of this eclipse goes through every hot spot, including the Balkans, India, Pakistan, and Iraq. Uranus conjunct the South Node and opposite the eclipse could represent a terrorist attack from past enemies or rebels.

But with the Y2K aspect involved, we can’t rule out the possibility that this is related to a technology failure.

On Aug 22, 1999 the Global Positioning System (GPS) will roll over to week number one out of the 1,024 weeks for which it’s programmed. The GPS is a huge satellite system that keeps the most available, accurate time (at least in the USA) and provides navigational information to ships, planes, trains, cars, hikers etc. Depending on which expert you believe, there are between 3-10 million GPS receivers in use worldwide.

Due to various limitations at the time the GPS system was designed, it was only programmed for 1024 weeks. After that it rolls over to week number one, which was in Jan 1980 and starts over again. On Aug 22^nd, when this roll-over occurs, GPS receivers which haven’t been updated or replaced will no longer function. No one seems to know how many millions of receivers have not been updated, nor how many have back-up from another navigational system.

If this were a widespread failure, then the T-square between Jupiter, Neptune and Mercury could have a different meaning. Jupiter in Taurus in the 9^th house might be showing difficulties with overseas shipping (square to Neptune in the 6^th). In that case, Taurus on the MC and Venus square Pluto might be highlighting a lack of supplies and deliveries that don’t arrive, or which arrive much later than scheduled.

Notice that Uranus won’t arrive at the opposition point to the eclipse degree (18° Aquarius) until the end of February 2000. It’s interesting that this timing coincides with our leap year date, and when the computers that temporarily worked under year 1900, are most likely to fail. Then in late April 2000, Saturn will exactly square the eclipse degree right before the New Moon in May with the massive square. And finally the last Saturn –Uranus square occurs on 13 May 2000. So whatever gets set up in August 1999, we don’t see the full consequences until nearly mid-2000.

New Moon, May 2000
Let’s look at the new Moon for May 2000, which happens in Washington, DC on May 4^th, at 00:12 am EDT. A new Moon chart shows us the potential for the month ahead. In this one, Uranus and Neptune in Aquarius are square to six planets in Taurus. Neptune rules shipping, oil, gas, pharmaceuticals and water, while Uranus rules electricity, trains and planes, broadcast and internet communications and technology. These two planets, which are heavily involved in our infrastructure, are challenging most of the other planets. Fortunately, Mars has just moved into Gemini and is applying to a trine with Neptune. Pluto is not involved in this square, but is sesquiquadrate (135° challenge) to the North Node, one of the negative secondary aspects for the economy.

Notice that Taurus is showing up on one of the angles again, this time the IC. This could indicate that banks and financial institutions are at the root of the major problems. Or it may represent the basic structures we take for granted to sustain ourselves, and the values we attach to them are challenged. Since most of the planets are in Taurus, this situation could challenge our underlying values. What’s most important to us?

You can see that both Venus and Mercury are square to Neptune. This suggests that lack of fuel or other shipping problems are challenging the delivery of supplies and local transportation. Communications also appear to be having problems.

In a chart like this, the Sun represents the leaders of the country, our President and Vice President. The Moon represents the people of the country. Both are applying to a first-quarter square (crisis in action) to Uranus, suggesting the public and its leaders are both distressed over the situation.

Lastly, Jupiter and Saturn are both applying to a first-quarter square to Uranus, as they approach their 20-year conjunction. Jupiter represents health care, educational and legal institutions, foreign travel, as well as religious affiliations. All these areas appear to be challenged in unexpected ways, or by lack of power, transportation, or communication problems. Saturn represents all our established businesses, governments, non-profit organizations, and other structures, which are equally challenged by the Uranian issues.

If all this sounds like too much to deal with, at least we have first quarter squares urging us to action. It may be slow going, since we’re still dealing with fixed signs, but it’s likely that everyone is very busy working on solutions to the problems.

Notice that Chiron and Pluto were recently conjunct in this chart. This actually occurs on December 31, 1999 and it last occurred in July 1941, during World War II. I haven’t seen enough data on Chiron – Pluto conjunctions to attribute an economic meaning to this yet, but it will be the first Chiron-Pluto conjunction we’ve had since the discovery of Chiron. So this entire line-up has some very interesting, first-time qualities to it!

Economic Predictions
What does all of this predict for the economy? Looking back at the earlier statistics from part one:

Given the preponderance of these indicators, an economic downturn appears highly probable. With the "Y2K bug" aspect involved (Saturn square Uranus), a technology breakdown could be at the heart of it.

It’s very interesting that Dr. Edward Yardeni, the Chief Economist for Deutsche Securities Bank (and the first person to predict that the DOW would hit 10,000 by the Year 2000) is predicting at least a 70% chance of global recession due to Y2K. This prediction is very similar to astrology’s forecast for the USA economy!

Comparison to World War II
To date, I think WWII was the most significant event in world history this century. So let’s see how the aspects that happened then, compare to what’s coming up. I was amazed to find the same players during WWII, just in different aspects.

So we had all the same astrological players during World War II as we have in this upcoming situation. There are two major differences though. 1) Statistically, the situation we’re facing has a higher probability of economic downturn. 2) In WWII these aspects occurred one at a time over 22 months. This time they occur over eleven months and three of these aspects occur during the month of May 2000. This comparison suggests the upcoming situation is at least as important as WWII.

The Meaning of the Year 2000
We’ve had one thousand years of the number one as our millennium number. The number one is associated with courage and pioneering. It’s also associated with wars, aggression, competition, and meeting the needs of number one at the expense of others. We’ve certainly seen a lot of this! Many of us have watched companies destroy our environment so they could meet their profit goals. There are countless examples of this in government and personal situations too.

After a thousand years of that, we’re moving to the number two for our millennial number. Two is associated with diverse people coming together with different views and working in harmony to solve complex problems. The two also represents community, cooperation, sharing, and collaboration, very different energies from the number one. To survive, we’re all going to relearn how to share, cooperate and collaborate. Certainly solving Y2K will require this approach as we learn to share critical information and collaborate on the best solutions.

Whatever crisis we’re about to face, I believe its purpose is to help mankind make this major shift in behavior. We’ll need to work with our neighbors, co-workers, families, and others to meet the critical needs we’ll all have. It’s interesting that the Y2K bug arrives exactly when the two arrives in our millennium number. Regardless of whether 2000 is the actual start of the millennium, it’s noteworthy as the date that mankind is ready to tackle the needs and behaviors of the number two.

Our preparation for the upcoming crisis should reflect the number two. Running off to remote areas to survive on your own is the wrong approach, since that reflects the needs of the one. We’re going to need the resources, skills and talents of everyone to solve these major problems together. Creating community now is an appropriate step.

Nostradamus predicted a thousand years of peace coming up. So perhaps Y2K will be a trigger event to set us on that path. Whatever crisis we encounter, let’s keep this prediction in mind, as we learn how to work together for everyone!

Madeline Gerwick-Brodeur is a certified astrologer who specializes in business astrology. She received her BA degree with honors in economics and is listed in many of the Who’s Who books. She is the co-author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Astrology and The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Horoscopes. She’s also the author and publisher of the annual, Good Timing Guide, Better Business Through Better Timing. She can be reached in Seattle WA by email at mgb@astro-cycles.com or by phone at (206) 729-8820. Please visit her web site at www.astro-cycles.com.

References:
Time Bomb 2000, Edward Yourdon and Jennifer Yourdon, Copyright 1998, Prentiss Hall PTR, Upper Saddle River, NJ


	Astrology's Economic Forecast and the Year 2000 - Part 2