(9 March 2025) The initial transit focus this week will be on Venus retrograde and its conjunction with Mercury in sidereal Pisces. Mercury itself is moving slower than normal this week as it approaches its own retrograde station this Saturday, March 15. These two benefics will conjoin exactly on Tuesday, March 11 and could coincide with some fleeting optimism. Financial markets are therefore set up for some kind of bounce early this week, especially after selling off sharply last week.
Actually there will be another conjunction on Tuesday, that of the Sun and Saturn. This can be more limiting on collective sentiment as the natural egoism of the Sun is constrained by the orderliness of Saturn. Governments may be less likely to act recklessly under this conjunction, although its implications for markets is less clear. It is possible that its 60-degree alignment with Uranus could mitigate any negative effects of Saturn.
Of course, this Sun-Saturn conjunction occurs at 27 degrees of sidereal Aquarius and thus is very close to aligning by square aspect with Donald Trump’s Sun-Moon-Rahu-Ketu double opposition. It’s hard to see how this Sun-Saturn influence will be positive for Trump, although Uranus could alter its impact somewhat. Nonetheless, it is possible we could see the US president struggle with his agenda this week and indeed for the rest of the month of March as Saturn exactly squares his Moon and Sun. Saturn to his Moon suggests disappointment and sadness and may reflect an unrealized goal or failed policy that is thwarted by events. The Saturn-Sun alignment implies a blocking of his aims by outside forces. The close proximity of Rahu-Ketu may serve to intensify the negative impact of this Saturn transit. Some of the negative impact of this Saturn transit may have already manifested in the form of last week’s tariff flip-flops and the EU’s willingness to support Ukraine and thus prolong the war despite Trump wanting to end it and bring a negotiated peace.
It’s difficult to predict exactly how this Saturn affliction will further manifest. Tariffs, Ukraine, DOGE — there are many possible candidates given the chaotic whirlwind of his first weeks in office. Since his Moon rules his 12th house of faraway places and its squared by Saturn, it’s possible that there could be a foreign policy setback, maybe involving Ukraine. But that is very much a wild guess on my part.
Returning to the markets, the late week looks more vulnerable to declines as Thursday’s Full Moon is opposite Saturn and Friday’s Moon-Ketu conjunction occurs exactly opposite Neptune. And with Mercury turning retrograde the next day, the end of the week certainly carries some downside risk. Whether this produces a lower low relative to last week is harder to say, however.
More generally, I think stocks are likely to rally strongly in the spring although it is difficult to say if a rally could begin this week or perhaps later in March. It is worth remembering that this ongoing Saturn affliction in Trump’s chart could manifest as a lower stock market in the near term. Symbolically, the chart of the president is the chart for the country as a whole, including its financial and economic aspects. For markets to fully recover, we may have to wait for Saturn to move past these planets in Trump’s chart in the coming weeks.
