Today the DJIA reached above the 9000 mark for the first time in history and then closed below the psychologically significant thousand mark.

The DJIA's climb to the 9000 mark comes in the wake of last weekend's new moon, five-planet alignment in which the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars and Saturn were aligned within a 14 degree arc from the Earth. (NOTE: The "Sun" and "Moon" are considered planets relative to the earth in determining alignments.)

Astrological chart for March 28th, 1998

+-------<11>18Cap51----<10>21Sag12-----<9>22Sco49-----------+
| Nep  1Aqu47  |              |              |              |
| Ura 11Aqu44  |              |              |              |
|              |              |              |              |
|              |              | Plu  8Sag00r |              |
<12>17Aqu59----|-----------------------------|-----22Lib05<8>
| Ven 20Aqu50  |                             |              |
|              |    Astrolog (4.10) chart    |              |
| Jup 12Pis19  |   Sat Mar 28 1998 12:00am   |              |
|              |    -05:00   0:00W  0:00N    |              |
<1>19Pis34-----|    Placidus      Houses.    |-----19Vir34<7>
| Sun  7Ari19  |   Julian Day = 2450900.71   |              |
| Moo  8Ari23  |                             |              |
| Mar 18Ari04  |                             |              |
| Mer 21Ari29r |                             |              |
<2>22Ari05-----|-----------------------------|-----17Leo59<6>
|              |              |              |              |
| Sat 21Ari18  |              |              |              |
|              |              |              |              |
|              |              |              |              |
+-----------22Tau49<3>-----21Gem12<4>-----18Can51<5>--------+

Notably, as the DJIA, the most-watched U.S. stock index, has reached the 9000 mark just after a significant planetary alignment, the main British and French indexes also have reached psychologically important thousand marks. The London FTSE 100 climbed above the 6000 mark this week and the French CAC is just below the 4000 mark.

As I have explained in past articles, there is a tendency for the stock market to reach significant tops near round number "psychological barriers" in the DJIA. Furthermore, turning points at thousand marks in the DJIA usually occur around the times of significant planetary alignments.

The first example of this phenomenon occurred in 1966, when the DJIA reached near the 1000 mark for the first time in history. As can be seen in the chart below, the DJIA reversed sharply from Dow 1000 going into February of 1966, when a major seven-planet alignment took place.

Following this initial reversal from Dow 1000 in 1966, the DJIA reversed from the "Magic 1000" mark several more times over the course of the next two decades- falling by more than 30% on average each time.

In 1982 the DJIA substantially broke above the 1000 mark. Stock prices entered a major bull market and, by 1987, the 2000 mark was successfully breached until that year's August Harmonic Convergence top in stock prices and October crash.

The market recovered from the 1987 crash, climbed well above 2000 and then, in the summer of 1990, the psychological barrier/planetary alignment/stock market topping phenomenon repeated once again. In mid-July of 1990, the DJIA closed at a peak of 2999.75 two days in a row and then entered a three-month, twenty percent collapse into October of that year. This reversal coincided with a six-planet alignment associated with a new/full moon, solar/lunar eclipse pair in mid-July/early-August of 1990.

In 1994, the DJIA approached the psychologically important 4000 mark for the first time in history. The DJIA ran up to a print high of 4002 with the full moon following an exceptionally tight seven-planet alignment in mid-January of that year (the potential influence of the planetary alignment was duly noted in a Wall Street Journal article at the time, "A Rare Planetary Bodes A Bust For Booming Stock Market", 2/12/94, p.B1). Next, the Dow fell by ten percent and remained below the 4000 mark until the following year.

In 1997, the DJIA peaked just above the psychologically significant 7000 mark with a new moon/solar eclipse after a tight seven-planet alignment on February 7th (see http://www.gaiamind.com/). Next, the Dow fell by around ten percent- comparable to the market decline following the seven-planet alignment top at Dow 4000 in 1994.

So here we are near Dow 9000 around the time of a new moon, planetary alignment. What will happen next? History may serve as a guide...

Each time the DJIA reversed from the "Magic 1000" barrier between 1966 and 1982, there were all kinds of troubles which emerged ranging from OPEC oil embargoes, to the Vietnam War, to Watergate. One of the most notable cases occurred in October of 1973 when the DJIA rose to just below Dow 1000 as the Arabs launched a surprise attack against Israel which, in turn, led to a major East/West confrontation and an Arab oil embargo against the West. Consequently, the world economy entered a severe contraction and stock prices plunged (see CHART).

In the summer of 1990, the DJIA reversed from 3000 and then Iraq invaded Kuwait, thereby triggered a Persian Gulf crisis and major oil-shock that "caused" the world economy to slip into a recession and stock prices to plunge (see CHART).

Right after the Dow reversed from the 4000 mark in January of 1994, the Fed hiked interest rates and the stock market entered a year-long correction (see CHART).

In 1997, when the Dow reversed from the 7000 mark, the Fed again raised interest rates for the first time since 1994 leading to the first ten percent correction since 1994 (see CHART).

Also in 1997, when the DJIA reversed from the 8000 mark several times, each occassion was attributed to the worsening Asian financial crisis. Likewise, these reversals coincided with a developing crisis in the Persian Gulf over U.N. weapons inspections in Iraq (see CHART).

If the historical pattern is going to repeat here as the DJIA has reached the psychologically significant 9000 mark at the time of a planetary alignment, then a major stock market top may be reached that will be followed by a substantial stock market decline, possibly triggered by some sort of negative international shock(s).

Given that the negative shocks which have been associated with reversals from thousand marks in the DJIA in the past have ranged from Fed rate hikes to Middle Eastern wars, just about anything bad could soon happen. If the stock market is reaching a Grand Supercycle top at Dow 9000, then the odds are that we are now facing the most negative shock(s) in human history. As I have speculated about in past articles, one possible negative shock for the Grand Supercycle crash, which could occur with a reversal from Dow 9000, is all-out global war.