Leaves From a Financial Astrologer’s Notebook:  August 2026

By Christeen Skinner

The Great (Financial?) Reset and Thor’s Hammer

On Sunday July 19th and as viewed from Earth, the planets appeared to form a basket shape, incorporating Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. This was viewed by many as marking a Great Reset – cycles that came together to smooth the path of change.

You may think nothing happened. But it did.

As viewed from the Sun, that formation became exact later that week (July 23rd). Within just hours of that exactitude a fundamental change that will affect the entire global economy came into effect.

Whilst the news has been dominated by the forest fires sweeping across Canada and much of Europe, and war has continued to rage in Ukraine as the stand-off between the USA and Iran continues, another and potentially just as devastating conflict has opened in the financial world.

GOLD

On July 24th, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, one of the world’s largest financial institutions, stopped offering individual precious-metals trading services linked to the Shanghai Gold Exchange to its everyday customers. Other major Chinese institutions have taken similar action.

Most investors buy gold through banks or exchanges and no physical metal actually changes hands. In March 1968, heavy demand for gold was dramatic enough to close the London gold market for a time and expose just how fragile the old gold-dollar system had become.

To ease gold trades, paper contracts have dominated – meaning that there is no need to move heavy shipments.  There is a flaw (Neptune) in that system, as without actual proof, how can you know that your contract really does equate to a particular ounce of gold? A similar paper could have been offered to others. Neptune also offers the possibility of fraud or deception, Pluto suggests manipulation and the prospect of criminal activity, while Uranus tends toward volatility and controversy.  Jupiter could bump all this up to a massive scale.  Do we really know how much gold is held by a country’s bank?

What we do know is that in the first quarter of 2026, central banks continued to buy gold in healthy size. Might it be that these buyers believe the quoted paper price understates the value of the physical metal?

The Great Reset suggests a change in the gold market architecture to a system designed to measure actual metal against actual demand: further underlining my view that gold and precious metals deserve serious attention as paper currencies come under pressure.

True, as yet, we haven’t seen much evidence of significant price rise – but these are early days.

 THOR’S HAMMER

That’s the name given to the extraordinary planetary pattern created by Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Pluto – and the Full Moon of 29 July. We could argue that the decisions taken by China are portrayed in the sky by this extraordinary Hammer formation. Some might later say that this was no ordinary hammer, but one of the sledge variety.

A hammer is made for construction. The right angle between Venus and Mars forms the Thor’s Hammer’s axis and suggests tension and needed effort, while the opposition between the Sun and Jupiter and the Moon and Pluto makes this a wielding implement to be used for good – or ill.

The Jupiter-Pluto handle to Thor’s Hammer suggests that resources will be stretched. Governments will need to borrow to cover emergency costs and so create a fiscal black hole that can only be filled by raising taxes. That would add more stress for those already dealing with rising daily living costs. With Jupiter and Neptune (both now in Fire Signs and Pluto in Air), hyper-inflation threatens.

As if that wasn’t enough, there are also signs (as expected) of decline in property prices. Negative equity could be back in the news even before Jupiter aligns with the South Node in November. In the hope of supporting land prices, expect to hear calls for extended mortgages – perhaps 40, 50 or even 100 years.

Saving and investing will surely be a challenge. This, though, is where Thor’s Hammer could prove useful. True, it’s not a chisel, but perhaps it can be used in such a way as to carve out and make space for something new to grow. In my view, gold and other precious metals should find their real value as paper currencies decline.

As to other investments; it’s still early days for space and AI technology companies whose values could drop as they negotiate inevitable teething difficulties. Those companies which provide the building blocks (e.g. tools, nuts and bolts for rockets; and chips for AI) should thrive. Nor should we forget those companies building emergency vehicles.

The Solar Eclipse on August 12th is a special kind of New Moon promising a new beginning – which sounds exciting. This eclipse is total across parts of Greenland, Iceland, northern Spain and a small corner of Portugal, and partial across much of Europe. However, that same day, Mars and Ceres align on the World Axis (zero degrees of Cardinal Signs, in this case, Cancer), indicating potential ‘earth fires’ – of which there have been plenty so far (gathering momentum as Mercury crossed the World Axis a few weeks ago). There may be more fires to come – increasing the need for those emergency vehicles and other related equipment.

The World Axis was highlighted earlier this year when Saturn and Neptune conjoined at 0 Aries, at a time of heightened global tension and significant strain in the Middle East. Mars and Ceres’ presence on this same axis suggests difficulties with the overland options for getting oil out of the Middle East. That doesn’t bode well for getting much needed oil and fertilizer products to market with knock-on effects for food commodity prices. As I keep saying, we should all prepare for significant shortages in June 2028 – which might seem a long time away but is only a few growing cycles.