If you were expecting some kind of sun sign nonsense, forget about it. This is real astrology for the real world. If it's real astrology for yourself that you want, you can get it by phone or in print. And if you need help deciphering the astrological glyphs in the graphics accompanying this article, see Astroglyphs: Astrological Symbols Guide. Please note: this forecast is expressed in terms of Universal Time (UT).
The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time.
-- Abraham Lincoln
 

With the exception of some seismic and meteorological messes coincident with this month's SuperMoon and a few other solunar factors, I'm expecting May to be a bit of a breather - kind of slow and bucolic, even. It'll take a few days for the air to clear from the April 29 Mars-Uranus alignment on the Moon's north node, at right angles (the square aspect of traditional astrology) to Jupiter. That was one of several Red Planet rampages in April, coinciding with school and workplace shootings, major fires and crashes. (I'm not even mentioning the massacres in Iraq, which even though they hit peaks during the April Mars cycles right on schedule are nonetheless too easy a mark to consider.) Once we get past the first week, May looks fairly calm and peaceful compared to April - but during that first week, keep your head down and know where the exits are. And if you're packing, be sure there's a one in the pipe and a full clip behind it.

There's also some storminess of the non-human variety early in the month, associated with the full moon on the 2nd and the subsequent south lunar declination extreme on the 6th. Adding it all up, I'm looking for a higher than usual risk of strong storms and moderate-to-severe seismic action from the 1st into the 7th, probably with a peak on the 2nd and one on the 6th. Hawaii and Alaska and the northeast coast of North America are among the suspicious sectors for these alignments, along with South Africa and the Middle East plus eastern China, most of Indonesia and the Australian coasts. But alignments of Earth, Moon and Sun like this are geocosmic in nature and therefore global in scope, so be ready no matter where you are during this time span: batteries fresh, bottled water ready, etc.

The last of 2007's opening salvo of three consecutive new moon SuperMoon alignments takes place on the 16th. (SuperMoon is nomenclature I coined in a 1979 article for Dell Publishing Company's HOROSCOPE magazine, describing what is technically termed a perigee-syzygy: a new or full moon [syzygy] which occurs with the Moon at or near [within 90% of] its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit [perigee].) Last month's alignment heralded severe weather in the eastern US, including one of the worst nor'easters to come along in years; not to mention a volcanic eruption in Colombia and several notable earthquakes in Japan (one a 6.7 and two more over 6 on the Richter scale). That kind of stuff is par for the course within plus or minus three days of a SuperMoon, typically speaking. This time around the risk window associated with the SuperMoon on the 16th extends from the 11th through the 19th, owing to leading and trailing turbulence from the lunar equatorial crossing on the 12th and the Moon's north declination peak on the 18th. Watch the news, you'll see the headline-making strong storms (high winds, heavy precipitation, flooding), unusually high tides and moderate to severe seismic activity (Richter 5+ earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, possible tsunami).

While seismic and flood risks (including tsunami) tend to have zones of vulnerability that are well known in advance, heavy weather can reach just about anywhere at all. Certainly it behooves anyone in a known geologic risk zone to be prepared just in case, and maybe a little more alert than usual during the May 11-19 time frame. The rest of us can raise the alert level a bit on the weather front as well. Remember, if traveling or meeting someone who is, to allow for weather-related delays. Being planetary in scale, the SuperMoon effect is planet-wide in scope. Still, astro-mapping suggests some areas of potential special risk. These include a sensitive zone running longitudinally from Edmonton, Alberta down through the Baja Peninsula. On the other side of the world, that same line goes from Russia down through Afghanistan and Pakistan, while a horizon arc sweeps from the northwest coast of Africa through Western Europe and down through Siberia across Japan into the South Pacific and over New Zealand.

After a few days of relative calm - not absolute, merely relative - I expect we'll see another notable up-tick in strong storm and seismic activity around the end of the month; maybe a brief burst around the 25th (the Moon crossing the celestial equator), a strike-slip tremor around the 27th, and then a more sustained surge of storms and seismic disturbances (including volcanic eruptions) from the 29th onward as the full moon on June 1st draws closer.

Storm and seismic stuff aside, the big stories in May tend to be less the "if it bleeds it leads" type from last month, and more the political and economic variety. Jupiter's square to Uranus is exact on the 11th, but within a few degrees the whole month long. Likewise Neptune's retrograde station on the 24th, which brings the Saturn-Neptune opposition into play by a few degrees (even though that alignment isn't exact until the end of June). The last time both the Jupiter-Uranus square and the Saturn-Neptune opposition were in effect at the same time was in January and February: think stock market drop, currency panics and the like. Be ready. For more on this, see my forecast for the year as a whole. And remember: this isn't some 1929-style crash. (It's a new kind of crash, a settling of the soufflé that takes years.) Think "how the mighty hath fallen" and look for bargains amidst the debris. Think political debris too: the dark horse by a nose, I suspect.

It may or may not help, in terms of the fiscal messes afoot this month into next, to have Mercury's intersolar circus coming to town at more or less at the same time. Helpful or not, it's here starting on June 2. Which means to get as far ahead as you can in May, before it all hits the fan next month. More about that later . . .

SPECIAL FEATURE: This month's birthdays of the famous and infamous (with astrological birth charts)