Ad Hoc Commentary – Four Blood Moons aligned with Jewish Holidays

Blood moons are created by lunar eclipses. When four consecutive lunar eclipses are total eclipses, the group is known as a tetrad. Tetrad that are aligned with Jewish holidays are very rare astronomical events. Let’s call these Jewish tetrads. Since 1AD, there were 7 Jewish tetrads. In 2014-2015, we will witness the 8th Jewish tetrad:

Apr 15, 2014 Blood Moon on Pesach (Jewish Passover)

Oct 8, 2014 Blood Moon on Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles)

Mar 20, 2015 Solar Eclipse on Rosh Chodashim (Biblical New Year)

Apr 4, 2015 Blood Moon on Pesach (Jewish Passover)

Sep 13, 2015 Solar Eclipse on Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year)

Sep 28, 2015 Blood Moon on Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacle)

In addition to the Jewish tetrad, there will be two eclipses of the sun in 2015. Those who are unfamiliar with Jewish tradition, the Jews observe four separate new year dates every year: Nisan 1 (Rosh Chodashim), Elul 1, Tishri 1 (Rosh Hashanah), and Shevat 15. In practical terms, only Rosh Chodashim and Rosh Hashanah are regularly observed. It is interesting to note that the solar eclipses fall on these more popular dates.

In any case, the last seven Jewish tetrads are as follows:

1967-1968: Israel recaptured Jerusalem in 6 Day War

1949-1950: Israeli War of Independence

1493-1494: Spanish Inquisition (Jews expelled from Spain) and Columbus discovers America

860-861: Byzantine Empire defeats Arabs at Lalakaon

842-843: Rome sacked

795-796: Charlemagne of the Holy Roman Empire ended centuries of Arab invasions

162-163: Jews persecuted. Antonine Plague kills a third of Europe

As we can see, Jewish tetrads tend to coincide with important turning points in Jewish history. Since we are living in Pax Americana (some say America is the land of Jewish elites), this should concern us. Yours truly believes that this Jewish tetrad will see the rise of Russia and the possible decline of America. As we wrote in our last post, the Syrian standoff and Snowden is only the beginning. The Russians and their allies are now emboldened to counter any regime change that America or Israel wants.

This leads us into the question of Syria and more importantly Iran. There are many in the press that says that Hassan Rouhani is the new moderate face of Iran. And that America should not put this to waste. Sun Tzu wrote in the Art of War: “All warfare is based on deception.” In all likelihood, Iran is trying to do what the Russians did in 1991. In the future, books will probably be written on the “Ayatollah deception” and on how America was the foolish maiden who trusted any suitor who proffered the olive branch of nuclear-talks despite the “Perestroika deception” of 1991.

In any case, if America does not get its Sputnik moment on submarine warfare soon, the days of the US dollar reign will be short. However, the US dollars together with the S&P500 should reign supreme in the next two years, until late 2015. Yours truly is waiting for a short term technical correction so that the markets can go much higher in the medium term. The ideal target would be a sell-off into Feb 7; and a rally thereafter. The fuel for the next rally is capital fleeing the European mess. We remember that the sovereign crisis had returned to Europe. The mess in Europe will also give Janet Yellen the two year honeymoon she deserves into late 2015.

Good luck in the markets.