PLANETARY ENERGIES

Jerome Kerviel’s stock market dealings were discovered by his superiors at Societé Generale on Friday evening, January 18th, and revealed to the public on January 24th. He appears to have committed the most massive bank fraud every seen, and it is now speculated that the bank’s feverish attempts to remedy the disaster contributed to, and may even have sparked, stock market instability (see http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jan/25/banking.france).

Kerviel’s date of birth is January 11 1977 (time as yet unknown). He has Sun, Mercury and Mars in Capricorn: this combination signals, at its best, excellent executive ability and skill at managing resources, and at its worst, greed and acquisitiveness. In Kerviel’s case, the stellium squares Pluto in Libra, so is likely to act negatively. This whole pattern suggests a criminal tendency and potential for sabotage of self and others. But the stellium also makes harmonious aspects: the Sun trines Jupiter, while Mars sextiles Venus, suggesting if he got the better of this sabotaging tendency he could be very successful. Saturn is debilitated (weak) in Leo and sextiles Pluto, squares Uranus and trines Neptune. His judgement can be poor, but again, if he learns some lessons, he could do well in life.

In this case, Kerviel is not simply an individual but a focal point for a collective imbalance — the unchecked financial greed that has dominated since the 1980’s. Kerviel’s nodes are at 29 degrees of Aries/Libra, and were being exactly aspected by Pluto at the time of his downfall. The Moon’s Nodes represent the public and the zeitgeist, the mood of the times. It was perhaps Kerviel’s fate to represent this, to be the scapegoat for an era. Pluto in the last degree of Sag is showing up the extremities of the Pluto in Sagittarius period of financial expansion, much of it fuelled by speculation and mirage.

At the time Kerviel’s fraud was discovered, transiting Saturn was exactly opposing his natal Venus in Pisces, and transiting Jupiter was on his midheaven and Mars. Saturn put the brakes on his dreams of wealth, and Jupiter highlighted his public profile, in the worst possible way.