Astrology Explored

August 6, 2008

The company that owns the Bennigan’s and Steak & Ale restaurant chains has filed for bankruptcy protection and will close its company-owned restaurants.

Bennigan’s and Steak & Ale are owned by S&A Restaurant Corp. . . Neither Bennigan’s nor the parent company’s affiliate, Metromedia Restaurant Group, returned calls for comment.

One news story chalked up this restaurant closing to the bad economy, saying that in general companies are having a difficult time borrowing money to restructure their debt, but the economy was not bad enough to close all these restaurants, just the company owned ones.

Locations owned by franchisees were not part of the bankruptcy filing and will not be shut down, said Larry Briski, president of the Bennigan’s Franchise Operator Association.

“They will be open today, tomorrow and months and years to come,” Briski said of the franchise locations.

What was especially egregious about the company closing 150 stores was the callous way it was handled. On the very day of the store closings:

Meanwhile, employees at what appeared to be a company-owned Bennigan’s in Plano, Texas, were greeted by a sign Tuesday on the front door reading “WE ARE CLOSED. THANK YOU.” Next door, a Steak & Ale [same company] sat empty in a deserted parking lot but there was no sign posted.

And:

Some managers and some employees say they were called in the middle of the night. People got the calls at the stores, others were called at 1:00 in the morning at their homes. No one expected it.

Displaced employees wiped away tears outside the Bennigan’s restaurant in Calumet City. They are among the thousands who lost their jobs when the restaurants closed.

“For them to tell us we don’t have a job or anything, that’s a hurtful thing, especially if you have kids,” said (a) former employee

And the reason for this bankruptcy

In the filing, the company indicated that it has up to 49 creditors and owes less than $50,000. It said it will have no funds left after administrative expenses are paid to repay its creditors

In corporate-ese they are saying that after they pay themselves, they don’t have enough money to pay their creditors. In other words, they weren’t making enough money.

Astrologically, it is easy enough to say that with Jupiter in Capricorn business failures will be on the increase. After all, Barabara Koval says in her book, Time & Money, of Jupiter in Capricorn:

Short supply and big demand, but no capacity to supply it.

This certainly applies to our money supply, where banks have tightened up credit and companies are having a difficult time getting money to restructure their debts. But Jupiter is in harmonious energetic connection with Saturn in food conscious Virgo, suggesting that with a little belt tightening restaurants can survive this tough period. So what else is going on astrologically that would prompt this business to close and do it in such a way that it resembles more of rape and plunder scenario than a strategic retrenchment of resources?

Because Bennigan’s and its parent company S & A Foods are privately held businesses of a privately own corporate giant Metromedia, it is harder to dig up information on these players than for a publicly held one. However, with some research two dates emerge, the founding of Metromedia as a privately held company on June 20, 1984 and birthdate of the founder of Metromedia, John Kluge born on September 21, 1914. Indeed, the histories of both are intimately intertwined so that the story of one is the story of the other.

In Metromedia’s Media’s chart, Pluto is in friendly energetic connection (sextile) to its Sun, suggesting that its birth as a private entity, bought on buyouts of shareholder stock, was just the right opportunity to revive the flagging company. But in doing so, it stole profits from the shareholders, who were selling to protect against loss. It also gave more of the control to Kluge, who has significant Plutonian influence in his own chart. In this birthchart, his Pluto challenges his Sun. Sakoian and Acker says of this natal combination:

This square produce ambition for power and a tendency for the natives to impose their will on others. They are forceful and domineering . . .

For Kluge, the end justifies the means, whether or not little Susie’s mom can buy groceries and pay the rent that week.

Barbara Koval says of Pluto in the marketplace:

Pluto steals. Pluto is the bankruptcy that steals from creditors. Pluto is the hostile takeover. Pluto is totally lawless, with a potential for execution and bloodthirsty revenge. (pg. 86)

Bankruptcies are meant from protecting individuals and businesses from overwhelming debt, but Metromedia’s multi-billion dollar business hardly seems to be threatened by a $50,000 debt, (unless the cited story reported the numbers wrong.) In Metromedia’s chart,
transiting Pluto is sextiling natal Pluto, suggesting that this and any other bankruptcies that Metromedia may generate is a way to legal steal from creditors to boost their bottom line. Along with the creditors, the people who suffer are the former employees of Bennigan’s, people like you and me.

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