But it’s not uncommon to hear those who fail say timing errors were largely to blame.

Financial astrologer Bill Meridian consistently ranks among the leading stock market timers in the country. He thinks the kinds of timing errors that often befall startup businesses – or occur when owners take private companies public – can usually be avoided.

Meridian has advised companies on incorporation dates, initial public offerings (IPOs) and other strategic timing issues. The founder of Cycles Research Ltd. has been forecasting markets with cycles for 40 years and is the author of Planetary Stock Trading, Planetary Economic Forecasting and The Predictive Power of Eclipse Paths.

It matters greatly how the planets, sun and moon are aligned at the time a business makes a critical corporate move. In the West, the number of businesses making this discovery appears to be growing dramatically in recent decades, he noted.

Meridian says timing errors made by businesses are relatively easy to spot. For example, astrologers were quick to point out where Facebook went so badly wrong when offering its shares to the public for the first time.

Facebook made its initial public stock offering on May 18. Three months later the shares were selling at half their original value.

According to Meridian, the company ignored the most obvious cyclical pattern in the heavens, the lunar cycle, and chose to bring the company public two days before a major solar eclipse. This was a major mistake.

“Events immediately before and after a solar eclipse are important. But events before an eclipse take on the added attribute of being unpredictable and fated.

“In the period prior to an eclipse we are in a shadow, not seeing the complete situation. If one is forced to make a decision or to take action prior to an eclipse, significant alterations in plans will be needed to reach the original objective,” he said.

It’s best to postpone a major corporate decision until the week following a major eclipse, he explained.

There were other problems for the social media behemoth. Astrologer Grace K. Morris says the chart set up for the exact time of the first trade indicates very difficult business challenges, most particularly in the area of financial accounting.

Morris writes the Astro Economics Stock Market Newsletter. The first trade chart for the Facebook IPO indicates the possibility of deceptive practices or at least confusion and misunderstanding, she says.

“There are indications the stock can still be a success but the company will need to work hard to overcome the unfortunate perceptions the public has as a result of its first public trade.

“The problem could have been avoided by picking a better time,” she said.

Citing a cyclical trend in home values that has been tracked since the American Civil War between the States, astrologer Grace K. Morris, M.A., says the worst almost certainly is behind us.

According to the 18.6-year Real Estate Values cycle first described by the late research astrologer Alice Reichard, home values were projected to bottom in August 2009 and trend upwards towards the next high point in June 2020.

“There’s been a lot of sideways movement in America’s housing markets as the number of home foreclosures have continued to rise. But things appear to be getting back on track after the subprime mortgage crisis plunged the housing industry into chaos,” she said.

Morris writes and publishes the Astro Economics Stock Market Newsletter. She says the Real Estate Values cycle is keyed to the motion of the moon’s north and south nodes.

The mathematically calculated nodes are sensitive points in space where the moon’s orbit around the earth intersects the earth’s orbit around the sun – the ecliptic. The north or ascending node is where the moon’s orbit crosses north of the ecliptic and the descending or south node is where it crosses the ecliptic to the south.

Eclipses can only happen when the moon is aligned with its nodes. This phenomena was observed and noted at least 2,600 years ago by the ancient Chaldeans, who called these two points the Dragon’s Head (north node) and Dragon’s Tail (south node).

Every astrological tradition since then has identified the nodes as powerfully influencing both the affairs of nations and the lives of ordinary people. In the Western tradition, the north node is generally identified with opportunities for personal growth and expansion while the south purportedly illuminates personal limitations that need to be addressed.

Like everything else in space, the nodes are continually on the move, progressing together in tandem but 180 degrees apart in opposite astrological signs. During the 18.6 year cycle each node spends more than a year trekking through each of the 12 astrological signs.

Reichard theorized that the transiting Dragon’s Head (north node) might positively influence home values as it transited through the astrological sign of Cancer. Symbolically, Cancer deals with feelings and the emotions but also is strongly linked to domesticity and matters related to hearth and home.

Reichard further reasoned that if home values cyclically peak with the north node in Cancer they should bottom about 9.3 years later when the north node, trending downward, has moved half-way around the zodiac to the sign of Capricorn. Home values should then begin trending upward on the way to their next high point in Cancer.

How is this working out?

The cyclical pattern is highly susceptible to economic nuance and may sometime appear to be flat or uneven. However, over time, the trend line has consistently moved in the expected direction, Morris says.

In the current era, home values peaked in 1962 with the north node in Cancer and the average U.S. home price climbing to $20,000. Values remained virtually unchanged as the cycle trended downward to the next cyclical low point in 1973, but average prices rebounded robustly to $80,000 by the time and the next cyclical high point was reached in 1981.

Home values dipped to another low point in 1991 when, on cue, a recession arrived to moderate earlier gains. Only this time, when the trend line pointed north, there was no stopping the rapidly ramping home prices that arrived with the new century.

“Home values were projected to peak in 2000 but subprime mortgages fueled and extended an incredible surge in home values for another six years before the housing market began to implode,” Morris said.

The good news is the Real Estate Values trend line appeared to be was back on track in August 2009. The north node was back in Capricorn and home values had abruptly returned to their cyclical lows in many U.S. housing markets.

“The timing could hardly be more auspicious for those who can consider buying a house at this time. Interest rates are near historic lows and home values at a low point as well.

“A home purchased now should prove to be an excellent long-term investment,” she said.