Even if there’s no other pay-off in it for
him, Trump seems to encourage chaos and unrest in his immediate environment for
the sheer thrill of the battle—
just don’t try to hold him accountable for the results.
He is also eager to prove that he
can defy the rule of law at will, and to do so for the most crass political purposes: witness
his pardon of Arizona’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio,
found guilty of convicted of “criminal contempt related to his hard-line
tactics going after undocumented immigrants.” Long story, for another day.
It’s evident that Trump’s natal Mars-Asc
(inner wheel, Biwheel 1 below) endows him with a type of “warrior” personality
that demands expression—the challenge seems to be finding a constructive battle
to fight. In many instances, his instincts for battle are aimed at building
himself up at the expense of someone else. Former president Obama seems to be
his favorite target for this, of course, but there’s no shortage of others—including,
as we’ve seen this past week, GOP members of Congress who dare to do their jobs
independently of his agenda.
Even though the media has parsed his
behavior ad nauseam and “spoken truth to power” the best they can (IMHO, we
should we treating them as rock star heroes), the Trump v. Everyone Else
battles continue. In fact, the media is caught in a dismal Catch-22 situation:
Trump learned early in his campaign that he benefits
from destructive chaos-mongering precisely because it brings him more news
coverage. With his Leo Mars-Asc disposed by a
publicity-seeking Gemini Sun, he has no reason to change his
behavior.
And it really doesn’t matter whether
the coverage is positive or negative—Trump’s mentally manipulative Mercury-Neptune
square (Mercury ruling his Gemini points) is working overtime here. If the
coverage is positive, he uses it to crow; if it’s negative, he uses it to beat
his chest and claim he’s being victimized by “fake news,” which nets him
sympathy from his base and further
coverage…and on and on and on. Journalists must feel that they’ve fallen into
Alice’s bizarre “Looking Glass.”
We’ve also learned a lot about how transactional a Gemini type can be by
following Donald Trump: his Gemini Sun-Uranus-Node work both sides of
every “deal,” every conquest, and because of the way his Leo points feed into
this, everything is a potential
conquest. This dynamic is powerfully enhanced by his “Full Moon” Sun-Moon
opposition (Gemini-Sagittarius), but as we’ve seen in previous posts, this
wildly mutable axis running through the 4-10 heart of his chart like a live
wire is now being moderated (maybe even restrained) by Saturn’s Sagittarius
transit.
It’s probably safe to say that Trump
is not enjoying Saturn’s scrutiny (the fact-checking press, his new “handler,”
John Kelly, etc.), or the efforts it inspires to hold him to a decent standard
of behavior (sort of). Perhaps all these attempts to rein him in remind Trump
of being sent to a military
academy as a 13-year old, roughly 2 Saturn returns ago.
As noted, he seems particularly
riled with those who exercise power that
contradicts his agenda, another expression of Saturn. Cue a host of
Republicans in Congress,
and especially Senate Majority leader, Mitch McConnell, whose “feud” with Trump
has been big news all week. The fuming began, reportedly, after a volatile,
profanity-laced phone call on August 9th in which Trump berated
McConnell not just for his failure to pass health care reform, but for not protecting him (Trump) from the
Senate committee-led investigations into his Russia connections.
For his part, McConnell’s
ire was probably further stoked by Trump’s performance on August 15th,
putting his wife’s reputation in jeopardy. McConnell is married to
Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, whom Trump used as a “prop” for his
shameful post-Charlottesville press conference in Trump Tower. She thought she
was there to support his so-called infrastructure plans for the country, when
his agenda was far different. This was the same press conference in which John
Kelly simply hung his head, shaking it periodically and looking like a
political prisoner.
Trump’s attacks on other Republicans
who have irritated him (Jeff Flake, Dean Heller, John McCain, Bob Corker, etc.)
give McConnell another major bone to pick with Trump because he strongly
supports the re-election campaigns of these members. So, this past week,
McConnell finally threw caution to the wind and the lines of the
Trump-McConnell battle appear to be drawn.
Given all this, what can astrology
tell us about what’s next for these two power players? What are their
respective strengths and weaknesses? Where is each one likely to dig in his
heels against the other guy, and why? Are we likely to see the feud grow into a
crisis of sorts at some point? Can we make an educated guess at outcomes?
Before we begin this exploration, I’ll
offer a quick disclaimer: those of you who follow this blog might recall that I
covered McConnell’s chart in a recent article about (among other things) his
handling of the healthcare
reform debacle earlier this summer. You’ll know from that article that I
had little sympathy with McConnell’s inability to marshal his minions to pass
the Republican bill, and I enthusiastically applauded Sen. John McCain for
casting the critical “No” vote.
Just for the record, I still think
McConnell has been too intransigent, working far too much on a strictly
partisan basis and pandering to the Trump agenda far too intently. I wondered
out loud whether his wife’s position on Trump’s Cabinet had influenced his actions
in the health care arena, as well. Of course, we may never know if that’s the
case because he probably won’t admit to being swayed one way or another. Being
obtuse is a finely-honed skill with McConnell.
Even so, let’s be fair here:
McConnell may, ironically, be a critical bulwark against Trump’s pathologies,
so it’s important to understand what makes him tick. He’s an unlikely “hero,”
but IMHO, anyone who stands up to the looming intimidator in the WH deserves
our gratitude. Hillary Clinton’s new book says she wanted to tell him to “back
off, creep” during their last campaign debate, so let’s hope McConnell’s taking
notes.
Frankly, it was initially surprising
to me that McConnell took a modest jab at Trump’s first round of assault-tweets. He
did so by calmly suggesting to the media that Trump’s expectations for the
legislative process were overblown from his lack of experience (in so many
words). That understated observation, of course, unleashed Trump’s fury, and
the damning tweets have been flying ever since.
With serious issues like passing a spending
bill and raising the nation’s debt
ceiling looming ahead, and with Trump claiming in Phoenix that he would “shut
down the government” in those talks if he doesn’t get funding for his border
wall, it’s bound to be a tense fall session in Congress all round. Let’s
explore how that’s likely to look between Trump and McConnell.
The
biwheel
Normally the older of two people in
a biwheel would occupy the inner wheel—here, however, we have firm birth data
for Trump and no birth time for McConnell, so we’ll use Trump’s as the inner,
“anchor” chart. McConnell’s birth date and location are published on Wikipedia.
Biwheel
#1: (inner wheel) Donald J.
Trump, June 14, 1946, 10:54 a.m. DST, Jamaica, NY; (outer wheel) Mitchell
McConnell, February 20, 1942, 12:00 p.m. War Time (noon chart, no birth time
available), Sheffield, Alabama. Tropical
Equal Houses, True Node.
First,
a few general observations
It’s interesting to me that both
charts feature important mutable placements, indicating various degrees of
adaptability: as mentioned earlier, Trump’s Sun-Node-Uranus in Gemini
and Moon
in Sagittarius form the chaotic heart of his nativity. His
“adaptability” comes off more like instability, a constant shifting from one
pole to the next like an out-of-control electric (Uranus) circuit.
We’ve seen only too often how the
pressure builds up on Trump’s mental/emotional “circuit boards”—his angry
outbursts are a lot like a circuit breaker being thrown. His fiery Moon
picks up on the anxieties that roil his Cancer Mercury, Saturn and Venus,
and he responds with his hard-wired default, by going on the attack. Between his
forward-thrusting Sagittarius, trine his angry, retribution-seeking Leo Mars-Asc,
it doesn’t take much to escalate the situation. His feelings of being unjustly
“dissed” (Leo’s kingly trap) perpetuate the fights over the long term.
Returning to the issue of mutability, we can see that McConnell’s
is more subtle: his Pisces Sun is disposed by a mutable Virgo Neptune,
and the two points form an uneasy, but politically savvy quincunx. He knows how
to hedge his bets, work around inconvenient obstacles, and to obfuscate any
situation.
McConnell's nodal axis stretches from Virgo-to-Pisces—he’s undoubtedly been
challenged over the years to “walk his talk”—to make pragmatic use of his
ideological leanings in practical public service, but as we know, the So.
Node (Pisces) can be a compelling “comfort zone,” so when in doubt,
McConnell is not above Neptunian prevarication, passive aggression and denial.
He’s also willing to “horse-trade”
for the sake of getting things done—when
he sees the practical utility of doing
so—but with his Aquarius Mercury disposing his Virgo points from
opposite his Leo Chiron, his ideas can sometimes come back to bite him. Pursuing
health care reform as a strictly partisan effort—to the point of blocking Democrats
out of the process until the very end—illustrated this very well.
Was there a bit of toxic pride (Leo Chiron)
involved, as well? Enough said!
McConnell Mars-Saturn-Uranus (Taurus)
conjoin Trump MC (Taurus) an square Trump Mars-Asc (Leo). These interchart
squares evoke a vivid picture of two “goats” locking horns on a narrow
bridge—each one has a position to defend and neither plans to give an inch to
the other if he can help it. If things go badly, only one will make it across
the bridge intact. The obstinacy between these two men is only amplified by the
next configuration.
McConnell Venus-Mercury (Aquarius) opposing
McConnell Pluto-Part of fortune-Chiron (Leo) conjoined Trump Pluto (Leo). McConnell’s
Venus
disposes his Taurus points, discussed above, so his Leo-Aquarius
oppositions and his Venus-Uranus mutual reception lend “punch” to his staunch
Taurus stellium. McConnell has been known to pull some legislative “rabbits”
out of the D.C. “hat,” so it’s possible that Trump underestimates him when he
picks a fight with him.
Like most bullies, Trump zeroes in
on targets with an exploitable weakness, so it’s probably no coincidence that
Trump hired McConnell’s wife (Venus) for a Cabinet position. Better
to “keep your friends close and your enemies closer?” Trump may underestimate McConnell’s
political backbone, however—his Taurus Mars may be soft-spoken, but it’s
staunchly fixed and disposed by his gutsy Venus (opposite his Pluto
and Trump’s Pluto!), so Trump could be sorry he
tangled with this man and his deeply loyal (as in “I scratch your back, you
scratch mine”) friends.
Reinforced by Saturn
and Uranus,
McConnell’s soft-spoken Mars may have far more influence in
D.C. than Trump realizes.
McConnell’s Chiron conjoined Trump’s Pluto
speaks to the wounds Trump is trying to inflict on the Senate leader,
but with his Mercury also tightly opposed Trump’s Pluto, it was only a
matter of time before McConnell would “speak truth to power.” His Mercury
also ties back into that staunch Taurus stellium via Uranus,
disposing Aquarius, and it trines his
Gemini Jupiter, so again, McConnell is well-equipped for the word-craft
associated with political challenges.
I have never listened to a longer
speech by McConnell, but I’ve been surprised with some of his humorous quips (Aquarius)
in the service of politics. I caught one today, in which he described his life
as Senate majority leader as being like
the “groundskeeper in a cemetery…everyone’s below me, and nobody’s listening.”
![]() |
https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/421195/3Stooges.jpg |
In the matter of humor (and the
allies it can inspire), Trump may underestimate McConnell—next to McConnell’s
subtle, quirky humor, Trump’s attempts (that I’ve seen) feel like a
wisecracking “3 Stooges” skit, with Moe slapping the others upside their heads.
Interestingly, the action verb I see
most often applied to McConnell’s position is “wrangling”—like he’s a cowpoke
who’s not only charged with rounding up recalcitrant cattle (Senators), but who
also has to deal with a raging bull (the president) tearing up the cattle pen.
The more Trump feels restrained and “wrangled” by McConnell (whose Taurus
planets sit on top of Trump’s MC), the more Trump wants to rage (MC
square his Mars): where does this all end?
Looking
ahead
Transits over this coming season
look significant for this “feud” between Trump and McConnell, and perhaps by
extension, between Trump and the GOP in general (a broader story we’ll revisit
soon). For now, let’s consider how the Fall session in Congress is likely to
unfold between McConnell and Trump. I’ve cast the following Triwheel
by adding a transit chart for September 5th (Congress resumes business)
as the outer wheel. This will be a quick-read, just to tease out a few
highlights.
Triwheel
#1: (inner wheel) Donald J.
Trump, June 14, 1946, 10:54 a.m. DST, Jamaica, NY; (middle wheel) Mitchell
McConnell, February 20, 1942, 12:00 p.m. War Time (noon chart, no birth time
available), Sheffield, Alabama; (outer wheel) Congress Fall Session,
September 5, 2017, 8:00 a.m. DST, Washington, D.C. Tropical Equal Houses, True Node.
General
observations
The fall session is always a Virgo
affair—this time, it launches with a distinctly Virgo-Pisces flavor: the Sun exactly conjoins McConnell’s No.
Node and opposes his So. Node and transiting Neptune.
Both Trump and McConnell are drawn into
this mutable dynamic through interchart t-squares with their respective Gemini
planets (Trump’s Uranus-Node; McConnell’s Jupiter).
Both men perhaps have an overblown
concept of their own capabilities, but Trump has the “mad man” (Uranus
and its many connections) card to play, and the transiting square from Neptune
reinforces his natural illusions of grandeur (natal Mercury
square Neptune--“walking on water?”). All of this can potentially wear
down McConnell’s (or any “enemy’s”) confidence and make him vulnerable. As
out-of-control and random as Trump’s behavior can seem, it appears here to be a
consciously deployed tactic for throwing rivals off balance and thus weakening
them.
In fact, both men have been dealing
with these transiting t-squares for quite awhile already—at least the whole
time that Trump has been in office—and they suggest that there’s been a threat
of chaos simmering beneath the surface between these two since day one. The
recent eclipse probably provided the trigger, falling on Trump’s Mars-Asc,
square to McConnell’s Taurus stellium and Trump’s own MC. So, since an eclipse’s
influence unfolds over a period of months (perhaps even years), we “ain’t seen
nothin’ yet” on this rivalry.
Let’s examine a couple major
highlights.
Interchart
T-Square: Fall Session (FS) Node-Mercury
(Leo) and Mars (Virgo) conjoins Trump Mars-Asc (Leo) and opposes McConnell Sun
(Pisces); this axis squares McConnell Mars-Saturn-Uranus (Taurus) and Trump MC
(Taurus). It should be noted that this transiting Mars also conjoins Trump’s
Progressed
Sun (not shown), so Trump’s naturally angry spirit is unleashed and
snorting around the bull pen, with little to rein it in.
Clearly, this transit
does nothing to help the “two goats on a bridge” stand-off discussed earlier. It
all boils down to a clash over control, it
seems—the healthcare reform debacle challenged McConnell’s control of his GOP
minions, and provided Trump with a “weakness” to exploit. Trump's bullying instincts came back to bite him in the health care vote, however: he sent his minions out to intimidate various Senators, which actually solidified some "No" votes!
Mercury’s role here is interesting:
it will have just turned direct before
the fall session opens, as if to say, “let’s get something done, folks!” As
long as the stand-off remains personal, however,
little will get done by these two men: the wise one in this duo will reframe it
all as an urgent matter of concern to the American
people, who are ironically represented by the Sibly Moon at 27°+Aquarius, tied very firmly
into this t-square.
That reframing would be a start, but
the most effective reframing would tap into the resolution point for this
t-square, which is opposite the focal planet (here, the Taurus points). A Scorpio solution is therefore needed,
which can be exploitative in the wrong hands (Trump, the Neo-Nazis?), but it
can also purge our system of
impurities and toxins.
McConnell can help with this by facilitating
the Mueller investigations (Scorpio) going forward. Clearly, this would be a
serious career challenge for him, but the Cosmos may be handing him “an offer
he can’t refuse,” as the saying goes—it would certainly test his dedication to
public service (Virgo-Pisces).
Interchart
T-Square: FS Jupiter (Libra) widely
conjoins Trump’s Jupiter Rx (Libra) and widely opposes FS Uranus (Aries); this
axis squares Trump Saturn-Venus (Cancer). Jupiter’s movements over the
next Congressional session will be important, especially as the “Big Guy” moves
into Scorpio in October (see last post here).
By that time, it will have finished separating from its conjunction to Trump’s
natal Jupiter Rx, which may help move those investigations along.
Jupiter’s move into Scorpio will
also trine McConnell’s Pisces Sun, energizing his efforts and
bolstering his confidence. As of this FS chart, however, Jupiter will still be
inconjunct McConnell’s Taurus stellium, suggesting that any support for his
efforts will continue to be hard-earned for awhile.
As for Trump’s Jupiterian fortunes, this
t-square suggests continued crisis-driven opportunism—or as analyst Naomi Klein
puts it, Trump’s “shock doctrine”—for now. It’s not surprising that Uranus
has been transiting within orb of a trine to Trump’s Leo Mars-Asc since he
declared his candidacy back in June, 2015: with the help of an extended Jupiter
return roughly opposite that Uranus, he’s been leveraging that
energy ever since.
The “punch” Trump is able to deliver
with all this will weaken, however, as Jupiter separates and moves into
Scorpio. There’s just so much shock that our body politic can handle without a
strong reaction (Uranus doesn’t move on into Taurus until May 2018), but the
mounting resolve to hold Trump accountable (even among Republicans) is a sign that
the tables may be turning. Pressure from the American public (our Moon
falls sextile this Aries Uranus) and by extension on our
members of Congress, may push things over a threshold at some point, putting Trump
on the receiving end of some “shock” as well.
Final
thoughts
I am concerned that Neptune’s
tight opposition to the fall session’s opening day Sun could undermine
Congress’s ability to get anything done. I’m also concerned that it could enable
the support network that Trump still enjoys among Congressional ranks. Potentially
corrupt trade-offs have been made for the sake of pet GOP priorities that work
against the environment, against civil rights, against the integrity of our
elections process, and so on, down the list.
All this, while virtually every Cabinet
department is being dismantled or disabled in some way, and very few of us are
safer or better off for any of it. Those who are warning us that Trump could be
the end of the GOP as the mainstream “Party of Lincoln” could be on to
something.
The only silver lining here is that ultimately,
“selling one’s soul” is a self-destructive act. This Neptune also quincunxes Sibly Saturn (Congress/Judiciary), so we can probably expect to see a
“two-steps forward, three steps back” type of progress, but we could also see a
corruption scandal.
Will it involve or implicate McConnell in some way? His nodal
axis is tied into this Neptune, and Chiron is now transiting
opposite his natal Neptune, so things could go either way with him. He could be
the sacrificial lamb who courageously stands up for the rest of us, or he could
experience a personal comeuppance of sorts. Time will tell.
Finally, I was heartened by a Washington Post Op-Ed
article written by former GOP Senator from Missouri and now ordained
minister, John C. Danforth. He is one of the growing number of Republicans who
is alarmed and speaking out about their party—and the nation—in the wake of
Trumpism. I’ll leave you with a particularly moving segment of his editorial,
entitled “The Real Reason Trump is not a Republican:”
“Now comes Trump, who is exactly what Republicans are not, who is exactly
what we have opposed in our 160-year history. We are the party of the Union,
and he is the most divisive president in our history. There hasn’t been a more
divisive person in national politics since George Wallace.
It isn’t a matter of occasional asides, or indiscreet slips of the tongue
uttered at unguarded moments. Trump is always eager to tell people that they
don’t belong here, whether it’s Mexicans, Muslims, transgender people or
another group. His message is, “You are not one of us,” the opposite of “e
pluribus unum.” And when he has the opportunity to unite Americans, to inspire
us, to call out the most hateful among us, the KKK and the neo-Nazis, he
refuses.
To my fellow Republicans: We cannot allow Donald Trump to redefine the
Republican Party. That is what he is doing, as long as we give the impression
by our silence that his words are our words and his actions are our actions. We
cannot allow that impression to go unchallenged.”
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Texans in the hurricane's path..."Don't mess with Texas," Harvey!!
Raye
Robertson is a practicing astrologer, writer and former educator. 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.
She is
also available to read individual charts—contact her at: robertsonraye@gmail.com.
© Raye Robertson 2017. All
rights reserved.
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