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I had nearly forgot about Jeff Skilling, mastermind behind the fall of Enron in one of the lagest corporate scandals in history.  But it appears that after being sentenced to 24 years in prison, he will get a hearing before the Supreme Court on what seems to be a technicality - a definition of "honest services."

Speaking about Jupiter (good fortune) changing direction!  Jupiter has been in trine formation with a trine from Jupiter to Neptune in Skilling's chart - the trine that bestows great creativity but which also, in an undisciplined character, can seek easy justification and use that creativity to get out of trouble.  His natal Jupiter trine made him lucky; we'll see if his luck will hold out with Jupiter making a trine to his natal chart. 

I profiled him a couple of years ago and did a fantasy rectification for entertainment purposes only.  Check it out.

Read more about the astrological chart of Steve Jobs and his health issues here.  Apple Inc. has just announced that Steve Jobs had a liver transplant about two months ago and is expected to be back at his desk at the end of June. 

In my earlier article from JanuaryI described the correlation of a transit of Chiron over Jobs' natal Saturn to his health issues.  Saturn in the birthchart reveals where we are likely to encounter challenges and limitation in our lives, and Saturn in Jobs' birthchart is in a challenging square formation to Pluto. So the transit of Chiron to Saturn which began last year set off the inner dynamic in Jobs' chart, requiring greater balance and a healing of inner psycho-emotional issues.  

The liver transplant would have occurred at the time when Chiron made its first exact opposition to Pluto, as part of the triple conjunction of Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune.  This is an important time for Jobs to create more balance in his life, and his chart reveals that he is much more of a head guy than a physical guy.  

Chiron and Neptune will continue to affect him throughout the summer before backing off a bit as they retrograde off the point of Jobs' natal Pluto.  However, the two will come around again next February as they unite for their exact conjunction and this will be a significant period for the health of Steve Jobs.a

Jobs has an interesting chart with the Sun in Pisces. Pisces is the sign of spirituality and transcending the boundaries of ordinary physical reality.  Pisces types are typically creative, inspirational, easygoing and meditative with a thirst for a spiritual experience.  They are also emotional and can be quite sensitive.  After dropping out of college, Jobs spent some time in 1974 backpacking through India, studying meditation and experimenting with psychedelic drugs.  

Jupiter (optimism and confidence) is conjunct Uranus (innovation and radical behavior) in Jobs' chart, signifying a person with a deeply restless nature, but also an innate ability to innovate and create.  Mars (the planet that defines how we assert our will and express our aggressive instinct) in his chart is in Aries, the sign which it rules.  That is an extremely forceful place for Mars to be; yet Jobs is a sensitive and easygoing Pisces.  

Mars is afflicted in his chart: it is opposed by Neptune, the ruler of Pisces and a very watery planet - you know what happens when you pour a bucket of water (Neptune) over fire (Mars), the fire is likely to go out.  Mars is also in a challenging aspect to the Jupiter/Uranus combination, which shows that Jobs can have a very short fuse, but he may not, with his strongly Piscean nature, be able to release that fiery expression very easily.  

It is said of Steve Jobs that he makes his own rules, which we can see in the Mars (drive) square to Jupiter/Uranus (radical behavior), and that is can be a temperamental manager which we can see in the Mars in Aries aggression opposed by Neptune's martyrdom and dislike of conflict. 

I have found that what I call "Mars problems" are very common in the charts of people with health problems.  When the aggressive instinct (which includes our ability to express our needs, to assert ourselves, and to express anger appropriately) is blocked, that fire energy is left without an appropriate outlet and often discharges within the body's energy system, leading to a variety of health problems.  

Since 2004 when Jobs first had a "neuroendocrine" tumor in the pancreas removed, he has had a series of planetary transits affecting this Mars complex in his chart.  First transiting Chiron (wounding and healing) ran across all of the planets in the complex beginning in June of 2003 (the tumor was discovered in October of that year).  Then Saturn (hardship and disappointment) in 2004 and 2005 (the tumor was removed in July of 2004 after a 9-month battle to find an alternative solution), accompanied by Uranus (radical and restless change) which transited the Ascendant and Sun in Jobs's chart, stirring the emotional pot and creating the need to alter the status quo.  The combination of Uranus restlessness and Saturn restriction can evoke a frustration that implodes into the physical body if not properly expressed outwardly.

Jobs is just completing a cycle of transiting Chiron over Saturn in his chart which started earlier this year.  Transits of Chiron can bring out areas of imbalance in the body which then manifest as health problems, and Jobs has said that his doctors cannot determine why he is losing weight.  I would guess that Steve Jobs is not very well grounded in his body, and the energy imbalance within is eroding his physical vitality.  

In taking a leave of absence, perhaps he will take the steps needed to maintain the inner balance he so badly requires.  If he were my client I would recommend a course of some kind of vigorous physical activity such as Kung Fu which is well suited to Piscean types with Mars problems (the combination of spirituality and aggression in the Eastern martial arts work well here).  Jobs has enough Pisces and Neptune that he will likely pursue just this path. 

As Pluto travels through Capricorn until 2023, it will be destroying and rebuilding certain parts of the world governments, banking systems, and corporations that fall under the Capricorn domain, and this is why the current US Treasury plan of throwing billions of dollars at crumbling financial institutions and corporations like General Motors will not work.  This is not to say that the government should just allow the delicate economic web to fail, but using a trategy from the soon to be defunct Pluto in Sagittarius era such as hoping for the return to increased optimism and confidence (Sagittarian traits) by pumping lots of cash into bad companies will no longer work under the seriousness of Capricorn, which is more concerned with function than image.

General Motors, the leader of the US car industry, is a good example of an effect of the shift from Pluto in Sagittarius to Capricorn.  Under Pluto in Sagittarius, GM drank the Sagittarian kool-aid that bigger is better, and what goes up will never come down and its Hummer line is a great example of that principle.  America's love for SUVs disappeared last summer when gas hit $4 a gallon, and GM was left without a Plan B and with a much lower budget for research and development than other car companies.  

As we shift into Pluto in Capricorn, we all must look at every aspect of our lives to see where we must be more practical and more effective.  This is a much-needed process that will correct and adjust anything that has gone out of whack.  The Sagittarian era was a wonderful period that demonstrated that we do create our own reality with our optimism, but now we must add a practical component.  It's important not to throw out the optimism baby with the Sagittarian bath, because our ability to create and manifest our intentions has not changed.  We simply must be practical and add the Capricornian ideals of hard work and discipline into the mix.

And so will General Motors.  Just giving the company a bailout to continue its ineffective practices will not save GM and the intricate economic web that surrounds it.  The company must be restructured from the ground up and forced to deal with current economic realities.  MSN's Jim Jubak seems to understand this: