It cannot have escaped you that life is changing all around us, right before our eyes, and it’s not going back to how it was. We all have a lot to be thankful for and good reasons to wake up in the morning and look forward to a productive, prosperous day. Gotta be grateful if you’re in decent health, your kids aren’t in jail—and with Jupiter rising above the Sun, you can feel optimistic and hopeful.

But … what’s that dark little speck of anxiety rubbing against your soul? Everybody’s feeling it. All they have to do is think about the coming US Presidential election, not to mention the state of the whole world, and a cold shudder goes through them. Are we all doomed as some folks claim, or could it be possible that artists, along with those who support and appreciate their work, might somehow possess immunity to the forces that seem to be gnawing at world comfort and prosperity?

There’s a growing temptation to forgo integrity in the pursuit of money. Will the art world succumb to it, or not?

Related: Michael Lutin’s Astrological Predictions for Art World Success in 2016

Whether you are an astrology buff or a staunch non-believer, hold onto your hats, wigs, and eyelashes: you’re going to be feeling some pretty hot flashes. The planet Pluto is moving forward in the sign of Capricorn, and that’s how astrologers explain that speck of anxiety. It’s just a little shiver of awareness that, no matter how prosperous or successful you are, it could all disappear in an instant. That shiver goes through everybody. You, me, even Ken Griffin, believe it or not. You don’t need Pluto to see that all markets, from your corner grocery to world trade organizations, are in for a transformation such as we have never seen in our lifetime.

THE BIG WIGS ARE NERVOUS

God bless Ken Griffin, though. He’s a lucky Libra, born in October. Certainly he and people like him are way above such forebodings. Actually he’s not only lucky, he has learned very early in his life how to play ball, submerge his ego instincts, schmooze, and bend and sometimes cater to the impossibly demanding control freaks who are running things. He’s got a lot of people on top of him, too, so even he gets nervous.

Change is not only coming, it’s here. Back in 2006–2007, in Vanity Fair, I hinted at the beginning of these changes, and now they’re right here staring us all in the face. Events of this magnitude have not happened since the early 1920s and 30s, when Hitler came to power and the market crashed. There is good news for the art world, however. We all have a future ahead, mainly because artists and those who support them may possess a key ingredient, one that allows them to rise above the desperation that seems to seize so many folks during these periods.

Related: Michael Lutin Reveals His Art World Predictions for September 2016

Maybe the art world can successfully defend its turf and continue to thrive in a world that’s becoming more competitive than we have ever seen. There is a clutch of fear spreading around the world, and when paranoia like this sets in, people contract and shut down. Art, on the other hand, never ceases to be produced. It’s a force stronger than all fear.

The transit of the planet Pluto is describing the change in all local, national, and global alliances on every level. All markets will feel and react to this tremor. Many will withdraw and contract, and such contraction would shrink the possibilities of prosperity even more.

Between now and mid- to late-2018, new global monetary systems will be instituted, and this will shake up the economy.

Conspiracy theorists are claiming that somewhere, in a secret hideout no mortal could ever discover, there is a cabal of nameless, power-mad individuals, the members of which are manipulating all aspects of society and civilization. And there’s not a damned thing we can do about it.

You’ve got to get metaphysical about this whole thing if you want to stay sane. We were all born under the same sky, yet because we’re all born at different times and at different places, we all have different alignments of planets and stars to deal with, and we all have our own destinies to fulfill. Everybody has their own horoscope to deal with. You’ve got yours, and Ken has his. He was born with Jupiter and Pluto rising above the Sun (a Bill Gates-y kind of thing). But don’t be jealous. If he’s got good luck, he deserves it all, including the silky smooth exterior draped over a cunning wolfishness. Life is no picnic for anybody, and if you think it’s all fun for him to be constantly juggling the fate of narcissists, you’re wrong.  So don’t go jumping out of a window because you are not Ken Griffin. Unless he belongs to that secret cabal, he’s in the same boat with the rest of us.

So how does the art world adapt to the current changing political, social, cultural, and economic transformation, and does it have a secret weapon against the dark predictions we are hearing everywhere?

Individually and collectively, we all have the potential to develop. Those drawn to the creative arts have to adapt to changes like everybody else. But maybe they have a better chance of remaining true to themselves and prosperous through good times and bad. The power of human creativity is stronger and more enduring that any ephemeral crisis in the economy and political structure. We must never forget that.

Related: artnet News Index: The World’s Top 100 Art Collectors for 2016

It is so strong, in fact, that it draws individuals to pursue a life involving art, regardless of any and all external circumstances.

Great artists persist despite anything that is going on in civilization around them. They possess an incessant yearning and an inner urge that compels them to create no matter what’s happening in the world. It’s a mystery, however, how and why an individual could possess the ability to see what other people do not see and have the raw material to shape it into a concrete vision that speaks through all time. Artists continue to develop talents and master their craft.

As well as threatening prosperity, Pluto in Capricorn can help to provide it—through persistence and diligence. And because artists are driven by those two qualities, they will outlast any market crisis.

It’s really a funny thing, when you look at the horoscopes of artists themselves, and their dealers, and museum and gallery owners, you find a curious phenomenon. The horoscopes of all of the above are so similar, one cannot determine who is creating the art, who is selling it, and who is collecting it. It proves once again that no matter how independent we all think we are, we all need each other.

Recommended Reading

Kenny Schachter’s Dealer Diary: Of Art & Cars, Part I

By Kenny Schachter, Sep 21, 2016

We now find ourselves at the threshold of a political and economic revolution. We can take the lower or the higher road.

This current transit of Pluto in the sign of Capricorn until the mid-2020s gives everyone the power to pursue their dream with diligence, prudence, and wisdom, while always maintaining their integrity. More often than not, the fear of loss infects many people with the poison of greed. Competition ceases to be a healthy game of business and instead becomes a bloody, inhuman battle to the death. It can become a ruthless struggle for power and control, where cutthroat politics overrule human dignity.

HEREIN LIES THE ART WORLD’S SECRET WEAPON

All human beings, members of the art world included, are blessed and cursed forever with the moral dilemma imposed upon them during this Pluto-Capricorn transit—by the conflict between the desire for profit and the reverence for aesthetic quality. This is the secret that lies at the base of Pluto in Capricorn. The interest for profit alone can produce only transient, disposable garbage, yielding the fleeting illusion of prosperity.

Something else has always fueled the art world, however—prosperity, yes of course. But it’s the pursuit of excellence, born from diligence, that makes the art world what it always has been.

Capricorn rules the excellence of high quality or soulless greed. Quality endures any political or economic crisis brought on by this Pluto transit. Great artists are driven by their pursuit of perfection, not money. This drive outlasts any attempt to contaminate it. That’s the highest vibration of Capricorn, and that is the art world’s path to prosperity.

Funny to think that the Sistine Chapel was Michelangelo’s day job.

P.S. Happy Birthday Ken

Gerhard Richter Abstraktes Bild 809-2. Photo: courtesy Christie’s.

ARIES / ARIES RISING (March 21–April 19)

Your Take on the Word “BOSS”

Ready and willing (or not), new faces are showing up on the horizon, offering you new deals and opportunities—professionally and/or socially. This is good news, improving your scene, although you might not be in the mood. There’s a huge issue on the table, and it’s called dominance (or submission). The more determined you might be to maintain complete control of your own life now, the harder it will be to accept any offers without stating your terms and conditions. Your ferocious need to be free to run your own show reveals that at one time maybe you were under somebody else’s boot. It’s a balance you have to find between being nice enough to people to advance in your life, making sure they don’t run your life, and making sure you don’t try to run theirs.

TAURUS / TAURUS RISING (April 20–May 20)

Your Education Continues

Whether or not you had a strict religious upbringing, everything rational in you has to challenge a traditionally magical thinking that has often passed for faith. Now, however, you’re recognizing that strange things have happened that you cannot explain, and they continue to occur. Miracles may actually take place. Maybe not in the way they are pictured normally—as visitations from a fairy godmother, the Virgin Mary, or an alien from the UFO—but your mind and consciousness expand, and your whole attitude and morality change as you molt intellectually and emotionally.

Recommended Reading

Gerhard Richter Says He’s Shocked by the State of the Art Market

By Henri Neuendorf, Dec 23, 2015

GEMINI / GEMINI RISING (May 21–June 21)

Sexuality and Mortality

Like a wolf howling in the woods on the night of a full moon, you both enjoy and dread the lonesomeness of where you are right now, cosmically speaking. You are looking at the immensity of the unknowable, the stark uncertainty of a future you perceive as both bleak and exciting at the same time. As usual with Gemini, it’s a dichotomy: you’re both filled with sexual desire and totally uninterested. You’re dreading the prospect of death and fascinated by the concept of it at the same time. This sort of a dilemma demands that you just keep your eyes on the road, stay sober, and keep driving, and let the road lead you where it will.

CANCER / CANCER RISING (June 22–July 22)

Eternal Bonds, Even in Separation

The station of Pluto in your seventh house describes the intimacy of distance. It is the shared kiss of a loving couple—a woman who must stay home and care for the household, the homestead, and the children, while her husband must leave to fight a war. They remain together and apart, bonded and separated by force majeure, held together and kept apart by separate responsibilities in life situations, but they are together nonetheless.

LEO / LEO RISING (July 23–August 22)
Humility and Pride in Service

Your sense of personal mobility is real. All Leos have at least one drop of blue blood running through their veins, so it’s not just the stupidity of a bloated ego that motivates you. You do sense a certain potential and nobility about you that deserves extra attention and special treatment. But this station of Pluto shows that you’re also working class, at least at this time in your life. You have to develop the focus and patience to master a skill or craft. Like every other human, you have to take care of your own hygiene and health. You may be noble, but you’re just a regular person with a body and a metabolism that has to be cared for and nurtured properly. Health is an issue now, as is your ability to go on working. You’re noble, but you’re a regular person. Just as Queen Elizabeth, at her weekend home, washes her own dishes.

VIRGO / VIRGO RISING (August 23–September 22)

Love and Authenticity

You’re learning what love is all about. Opening yourself up to a more authentic self-expression, no matter what the consequences may be, will not only give your heart a boost, it will also assure your creativity and performance is a thousand times more powerful. People who perceive your emotional integrity gain the inspiration to be more authentic themselves. Any heartbreak you experience improves your act.

Recommended Reading

Where Is the Market for Oscar Murillo Three Years After His Blazing Debut?

By Brian Boucher, Sep 12, 2016

LIBRA / LIBRA RISING (September 23–October 22)

Defending Your Turf

Defending your castle one way or the other is the trick. You have to learn to perform. Certainly part of you was yearning to return to the past—a simpler time; your childhood home—until you think of how it truly was, and then you snap out of it pretty fast. You’re probably yearning for the comfort of a traditional family: grandparents, parents, children—things that aren’t exactly real but that we long for in the deepest emotional sense—a home. Not just real estate values, but a place where you could be comfortable. Truth is you can be comfortable only by recognizing the truths of your early life and how it has led you to this point, and what you can do about it if you don’t like it to change.

SCORPIO / SCORPIO RISING (October 23–November 21)

Powerful Communication

The monster next door is not just a children’s book, it’s the reality for anybody who has issues with their siblings, because this Pluto station is all about dealing with people closest to you. And this doesn’t mean just a literal neighbor but the bizarre aspect of everybody around you. Communication is most difficult when there isn’t any, mainly because you can confabulate and the other person can confabulate and blow everything out of proportion. On the other hand, the sad thing is there are some people who can never be reached. All you can have is compassion for them, and you can wish them well on their journey.

SAGITTARIUS / SAGITTARIUS RISING (November 22–December 21)

The Value of Money

Isn’t it amazing—the value of money, I mean? While digging in your front lawn, you come upon some old coins. You rub the off the dirt, yet you can’t quite read what they say, so you toss them into a tin can you keep in the kitchen cabinet for loose change.

One of the kids happens to take it for show-and-tell in school, and it turns out that it’s one of Nero’s coins from ancient Rome. Wasn’t worth a shit in Nero’s time, but now? You’re suddenly rich.

Right now, some money could possibly be devalued. You got to be hip and ready for the change that is coming economically worldwide. So you could put some of those dollars in a time capsule. The rest you should invest wisely.

CAPRICORN / CAPRICORN RISING (December 22–January 19)

The Beauty of a Castle Built in the Sand

Life is short. How many times have we heard that, usually from old people. While we are alive, however, we have goals and aspirations, desires and needs. We have motivations to achieve prosperity, freedom, and wealth. If you’re a Capricorn, you’re born with those notions, and then later you try to resist what your mother taught you. You end up having to be realistic and to go on building your castle.

AQUARIUS / AQUARIUS RISING (January 20–February 18)

Your Own Shadow

The fantasies and fears that you have about being encroached upon, invaded, undermined, and even assassinated are all figments of your mind and imagination. If you think negatively, you may cause the disasters you fear. This is the spiritualization process you’re going through, and you’re optimistic on the one hand, and thinking darkly on the other. Your fears are projections of your own shadow. If you keep your eye toward the light, and if don’t stare at your shadow, you’ll be fine through this process of the transformation of your soul.

Recommended Reading

See These Great Selfies With Maurizio Catellan’s 18-Karat Gold Toilet at the Guggenheim

By Rain Embuscado, Sep 19, 2016

PISCES / PISCES RISING (February 19–March 20)

Welcoming the Aliens among Us

Since Pluto entered your 11th house in 2008, all your associations are changing. And you’ve probably met some of the weirdest people in your entire life, people who think they’re normal. You may be surprised to be welcomed into these associations, but you have talent and intuition, both of which are at last being respected. The fun thing is that now you know that everyone else is just as weird as you always thought you were.