An Astrological Milestone for the GOP: May 24, 2000 & the 2000 Jupiter-Saturn cycle

As we’ll see, this was also not just the GOP’s doing, but with today’s rowdy mid-mutable energies, it’s not surprising that this tense T-square would come back to bite the GOP in the person of Donald Trump.

I couldn’t help noticing this recent headline posted on Facebook (thanks to Theodore White), from the March 21 Washington Post: “What Republicans did 15 years ago to help create Donald Trump today.” Amazingly, the author, Jim Tankersley, opened by saying:

“The Republican establishment began losing its party to Donald Trump on May 24, 2000, at 5:41 p.m., on the floor of the House of Representatives.”

This pronouncement was a mundane astrologer’s dream—how often do journalists pinpoint the source of a current dilemma to a specific date in history, much less a specific place, hour and minute? In being so specific, the author was laying down a gauntlet I had to pick up. Needless to say, I had to cast charts and see if the author’s claim made astrological sense. If it did, I figured that would open an interesting line of discussion about the embattled GOP.

First, a brief recap of the author’s claim: by May, 2000 George W. Bush had locked down the Republican nomination for that year’s presidential election, and as the party frontrunner, he was pushing for extended “permanent normal” U.S.-China trade relations. According to Tankersley,

“The legislation, a top Republican priority, held the promise of greater economic prosperity for Americans. But few could predict that it would cause a series of economic and political earthquakes that has helped put the GOP in the difficult spot it is in today: with the most anti-trade Republican candidate in modern history, Trump, moving closer to clinching the party’s nomination.”

May, 2000 was a momentous astrological period for other reasons, too: for starters, there was a crazy convergence of Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn in Taurus early in the month, perhaps explaining why Congress and the public prioritized “greater economic prosperity” so highly at the time. In all fairness, even though this was a mainly Republican bill, Dems helped pass it in both houses and then-Democratic president, Bill Clinton—strongly pro-global trade—signed the bill into law.

As it happens, the passage of this bill on May 24^th was sandwiched in between that 7-point conjunction in Taurus and the beginning of a new Jupiter-Saturn cycle on May 28. As we’ll see below, this cycle launched at 22°+Taurus, and the chart for that event features several strong ties to the GOP’s 1854 birth chart. First, however, let’s consider a biwheel between the Party and the U.S. China Trade Bill on May 24^th, 2000:

Biwheel: (inner wheel) GOP, March 20, 1854 (noon), Ripon, WI; (outer wheel) U.S. China Trade Bill, May 24, 2000, 5:45 p.m., Washington, D.C.

Trade Bill Sun conjoins GOP Node (Gemini) and squares GOP Venus. This aspect suggests that the spirit of the Trade Bill aligned well with the GOP’s raison d’etre or developmental path. Square the GOP Venus, this Sun echoes Tankersley’s point that trade with China would come back to haunt the GOP eventually.

Trade Bill Jupiter-Saturn-Venus (Taurus) squares Trade Bill Uranus (Aquarius), conjoins GOP Saturn (Taurus) and trines GOP Jupiter (Capricorn); Trade Bill Venus squares GOP Venus. The Trade Bill was a major step forward for a process begun in the late 1970s to literally re-engineer the American economy and society—with the help of technology (Uranus)—to accommodate more open global trade and fewer restrictions on corporate movements. In the case of trade with China, the resulting “economic and political earthquakes” (Uranus square) Tankersley refers to transformed the U.S. from a middle class-waged manufacturing/industrial economy into a minimum-waged service economy. Wall Street’s role in causing the 2007-8 Recession would be implicated here, as well—a closely related story for another day.

Earth energies Taurus and Capricorn (seen in this configuration) excel at producing tangible goods for robust returns, but this Trade Bill turning point shifted the benefits of that earth energy away from U.S. workers and local economies into the hands of global corporations and others positioned to profit from the shift (reflected in the Trade Bill’s ties with the GOP Saturn-Jupiter trine). This shift is further reflected in ties to the U.S. Sibly chart—we’ll consider those below.

Trade Bill Mars (Gemini) opposite Pluto (Sagittarius) T-squares GOP Neptune (Pisces). This was probably only one of several forces that colluded in 2000 to cloud our legislators’ judgment about global trade, framing this social/economic shift as “inevitable” and the “new norm,” when it fact it was a deliberate choice. As we’ll see, this was also not just the GOP’s doing, but with today’s rowdy mid-mutable energies, it’s not surprising that this tense T-square would come back to bite the GOP in the person of Donald Trump (whose chart features strong mid-mutable points).  Looking at this aspect, it seems Trump can truthfully claim that the country was sold a bill of goods when it came to trade with China. Of course, Trump is a master at bending the facts to suit himself, so the irony represented here (also a Mars-Neptune phenomenon) leaps off the page.

Trade Bill Neptune (Aquarius) trines Trade Bill Sun (Gemini) and squares GOP Uranus-Pluto (Taurus). It’s easy to forget that the GOP was founded during an important period of U.S. industrial development, leading into the Civil War in 1860. It was also a period that exploited great reserves of natural and human resources (outer planets in Taurus), and concentrated great fortunes in the hands of industrialists who would be known as “Robber Barons” by 1870. In other words, it was a lot like today’s economy, only expanded to encompass global resources. The Trade Bill (Sun) promised the Neptunian ideal of “lifting all boats”—and there has been dramatic economic progress in China, despite their current woes—however, the GOP didn’t mention they were setting in motion a leveling out (Neptune) of American wages and the flushing away of  millions of jobs. Tankersley extends the “water” imagery even further, saying:

“The 2000 vote effectively unleashed a flood of oursourcing to China, which in turn exported trillions of dollars of cheap goods back the United States. Over the next 10 years, economists have concluded, the expanded trade with China cost the United States at least 2 million jobs. It was the strongest force in an overall manufacturing decline that cost 5 million jobs.”

I have to wonder, were all those cheap goods worth the damage?

Biwheel: (inner wheel) U.S. Sibly chart; (outer wheel) U.S. China Trade Bill.

The overall affect of the U.S.-China Trade Bill on the U.S. is not hard to imagine from the first biwheel, but putting the Trade Bill next to the Sibly chart adds a few worthwhile insights, so let’s dig in (chart below):

Trade Bill Sun and Mars (Gemini) conjoin Sibly Uranus (Gemini); all three points oppose Trade Bill Pluto-Sibly Asc (Sagittarius). This dramatic energy spanning the Sibly horizon suggests that America’s global superpower status was solidified (or even redefined) with this Trade Bill, and that no holds would be barred. In retrospect, we can see that geopolitical relations were about to become very tense, and sure enough, they did, especially in the Middle East. Were trade relations with China a strategic alliance, as well as an economic arrangement? Machiavelli would approve—we decided to “keep our friends close, but keep our enemies closer.” Unfortunately, China outplayed us, a complicated story told very well in Dylan Ratigan’s Greedy Bastards.

This mutable configuration explains both Trump’s and Sander’s views on global trade agreements—and the angry outcry against such trade. Always beholden to those “1 percenters” with the most lobbying dollars, Congress simply allowed our economy to be rigged to the advantage of outsiders and outsourcers. No wonder our so-called “recovery” from the recession has been slow!

Trade Bill Jupiter-Saturn (Taurus) trines Sibly Neptune (Virgo) and Sibly Pluto (Capricorn). As alluded to earlier, Jupiter and Saturn on May 24 were quickly waning towards the new cycle point of 22°43,’ exact on May 28^th (chart below), so the timing of this legislation that same month suggests a very deliberate move to lock in a new order for at least the next 20 years of the cycle. It’s difficult to throw the brakes on a grand trine like we see here, which set the global flow of wealth and products and resources (earth) moving in a self-perpetuating loop. Now in the final square of this cycle (exact in August 2015), however, the tension is mounting for change—and Trump and Sanders seem to be the agents of that change. Seeing this demand for change coming from both sides of the aisle is breathtaking, but if not taken seriously (i.e., if more establishment figures prevail), there’s probably a comeuppance coming around the time of the new 2020 Jupiter-Saturn cycle (at 0°Aquarius). More about the coming Jupiter-Saturn cycle and its importance for current elections in a future post.

Jupiter-Saturn – the “Great Timekeepers”

Mundane Astrology by Baigent, Campion and Harvey teaches that Jupiter-Saturn cycles throughout history have formed an interesting pattern—an approximate 20-year Minima cycle which usually repeats 12 times in the same element to form a Media pattern; then, a so-called Mutation Conjunction transitions the pair into a new element series. Perhaps an indication of how unusual our times are, the earth series that began in 1842 and included the recent 1940 cycle in Taurus and the 1961 cycle in Capricorn, was interrupted by a “maverick” Libra (air) cycle in 1981; then, we were back to earth with the 2000 Taurus conjunction. In retrospect, the political ground did shift beneath our feet during that 1980s cycle, so maybe it was a “warm-up” for the 2020 cycle beginning at 0°+Aquarius on December 21^st. 

Ahead, just a couple more thoughts about the GOP chart and the present Jupiter-Saturn cycle in relation to it:

Biwheel: (inner wheel) GOP; (outer wheel) Jupiter-Saturn cycle, May 28, 2000, 10:14:12 a.m., Washington, D.C.

Cycle point (Taurus) conjoins GOP Saturn (Taurus) and trines GOP Jupiter-Chiron (Capricorn). Clearly, this Taurus cycle launched to the benefit of the GOP, with 8 years to come for George W. Bush and nearly universal acceptance of global trade agreements as just “business-as-usual.” Still, Chiron’s position conjunct the GOP Jupiter suggests that the Party’s growth could be subject to some painful adjustments. With 3 fixed earth points and 2 cardinal earth points, this chart suggests deep resistance to change and some difficulties adapting to the times, despite a mutable Sun, Venus, Node and (probably) Moon.

GOP Sun, Neptune and Venus are in Pisces; GOP Mars (Virgo) trines GOP Pluto (Taurus) and opposes GOP Venus (Pisces); Uranus (Taurus) sextiles Neptune. Hitching their fortunes to those who want government and religion to work like two sides of the same coin made sense for the GOP over many decades; it provided the Party with a simple, ideologically-charged and emotionally-appealing (Pisces) narrative for leveraging power (Mars-Pluto), and it gave the appearance of solidarity with and compassion (Neptune) for their constituencies. Unfortunately for the establishment Party, appearances don’t bring jobs home, raise workers’ wages and un-“rig” the economy against them, so the GOP finds itself in a Catch-22 that Donald Trump is able to exploit.

Finally—not to be discounted—the 2000 cycle point also conjoined Trump’s MC (Taurus), powerfully supporting his goals for this year. His MC, in turn, conjoins the GOP’s Saturn—is it any wonder his candidacy challenges them the way it does?

  

 Raye Robertson is a practicing astrologer, writer and former university English instructor. A graduate of the Faculty of Astrological Studies (U.K.), Raye focuses on mundane, collective-oriented astrology, with a particular interest in current affairs, culture and media, the astrology of generations, and public concerns such as education and health. Several of her articles on these topics have been featured in The Mountain Astrologer and other publications over the years. Raye can be contacted by comment here, or at: robertsonraye@gmail.com. 

© Raye Robertson 2016. All rights reserved.