Friday, March 10, 2017

Of Big Wind & Boomerangs: the Jupiter-Uranus opposition blows through D.C.



“...Everybody is asking ‘What the hell is going on in Washington?’ and that weakens us…”

This comment by former CIA director and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta followed Donald Trump’s baseless claims that his “wires were tapped” by former President Obama during last year’s campaign, 

For those watching the Cosmos these days, this past week’s freak out in D.C. didn’t just come out of nowhere—it took hold just hours after the exact Jupiter-Uranus opposition (Libra-Aries) on March 3rd, with a volatile Mars (Aries) less than 3° from Uranus, joining the opposition. 

Jupiter and Uranus in combination promote the growth and awakening of social consciousness—and while the means often seem extreme, unconventional and unpredictable (Uranus’s contribution), this awakening never happens in a cosmic vacuum.

It happens within, and often in response to, the prevailing power dynamics and social structures (the province of the remaining outer planets). It often bursts through those structures with giddy, even “revolutionary” enthusiasm.  In combination with Mars, however, things can get dicey. 

The impulse to act in big, surprising ways is overwhelming—as we saw with Saturday morning’s Tweetstorm beaming out of Mar-o-Lago.

This has already proven to be a super-charged, “let it all rip” transiting event, which perhaps shouldn’t surprise us, considering its pedigree. Chart #1 below illustrates where this cycle began.



Chart #1: Jupiter-Uranus Conjunction, June 8, 2010, 6:56:50 a.m. DST, Washington, D.C. Tropical Equal Houses, True Node.

This cycle actually launched in June, 2010, just minutes after the critical, cardinal Aries Point, at 0°18’. There’s no way this was going to be a smooth ride. After a summer of building tension, water shortages, high youth unemployment and economic stress in the Middle East, the so-called “Arab Spring” literally ignited on December 17th of that year, when a Tunisian man staged his own immolation in protest of police abuse and other treatment at the hands of that government.

This spark spread quickly throughout the Middle East, fanned by the Sagittarius Sun, conjunct the Galactic Center and square the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction, but this time in late Pisces. Soon after their June conjunction, Jupiter and Uranus had both turned retrograde for a time, as if to gather their energies for the raucous time ahead. They turned direct once again and moved back into Aries in February and March, 2011, respectively.

That’s when the Arab Spring really exploded, ripping old class-bound tribal wounds open in the Middle East and threatening the regimes of several dictators—in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Turkey, and most horrifically, Syria.



https://societyinternational.files.wordpress.com/
2015/08/sign_2066490b.jpg

A great deal of the chaos we’ve seen in that region these past six+ years—with the migrant and refugee crisis, the removal of Libya’s Colonel Qaddafi (and the controversial Benghazi raid), the hideous takeover of some areas by ISIS, the catastrophic civil war in Syria and the resulting rise of nationalist populism across Europe and the United States—had its genesis in the vicious “Pandora’s Box” thrown open during that 2010-11 Jupiter-Uranus conjunction and the Arab Spring.

And now, we’re faced with the opposition phase of this same, volatile Jupiter-Uranus cycle—please see the outer wheel of Triwheel #1, below. To be fair, it’s important to remember that these two planets haven’t been acting alone: among other factors, as Uranus was completing its tour of Pisces, it was also finishing its dramatic 7-year mutual reception with Neptune (each planet occupied the sign ruled by the other from March 2003-June 2010, with a bit extra for the retrograde turnabout). 

This 2003-10 period roughly covered our Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts, although both of these linger on in the resulting internal strife and in the rise of ISIS.



All this makes it sound like Jupiter and Uranus have no redeeming qualities, but in fact, they have many. In the right hands, they are capable of driving great technical innovations, and of liberating those in “chains,” however that manifests. 

Interestingly, the Emancipation Proclamation featured Jupiter at the almost identical degree it is in today, opposite Mars (Aries) and trine Uranus (Gemini). Interesting timing for Ben Carson’s ill-considered attempt to conflate slavery with immigration! 

Of course, sometimes the ideals of this planetary duo find their way into our affairs in oddly skewed ways; the energies themselves don’t take political sides, so they can be molded to any ideological purpose. 

Today, Libertarian Senator Rand Paul says his healthcare plan (as opposed to what he calls “Obamacare Lite”) would “legalize freedom”—apparently implying that his idea of “freedom” in health care means freedom from compassion for people struggling to pay for the ever-rising costs of health care.



Letting the “Market” decide the costs of health care is another mark of “freedom”—the “freedom” to charge $700 for a $100 epi-pen, and that will probably be nothing once the insurance companies are put back in total control.  

This kind of “freedom” becomes the ordinary person’s miserable bondage—health care as a luxury commodity.  And so goes the GOP’s attempt to craft an Obamacare replacement, the “American Health Care Act.”  Gail Collins of the NYTimes.com:

“This offers us our annual opportunity to recall when Janis Joplin sang that freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.
The Republican [Obamacare] replacement bill is very big on freedom.
There’s freedom for wealthier Americans not to pay taxes that help subsidize health insurance for their low-income fellow citizens. Freedom for those who can afford coverage to refuse to buy it. Freedom for insurance companies to hike their prices for middle-aged customers. Freedom for the states to stop providing Medicaid-backed health insurance for maternity care, when nearly half of all the births in the country are currently covered by Medicaid.
‘It gives power back to the insurance companies to discriminate against women’s health care, which is more expensive, obviously,’ said Senator Patty Murray of Washington.”
It appears that the “liberated” exercise of political power brings with it this kind of hypocritical “freedom”— while the politicians’ own generous government health care coverage continues untouched.





“Nothing left to lose…”

Needless to say, this Jupiter-Uranus concept of “freedom” is exploited for all kinds of purposes—and undoubtedly has been forever. It’s being used by the Supreme Court’s decision to throw out a case supporting transgender rights and to thereby support those who want to discriminate against LGBTQ individuals on the basis of “religious freedom;” it’s being used by those pulling funding from Planned Parenthood to discriminate against women’s reproductive rights on that same basis.

Most nonsensically, it’s being used to allow mentally ill individuals to purchase guns, forcing the rest of us to deal with the deadly consequences of such “freedom.” Where did the rights of the rest of us disappear to?

Trump’s “freedom of speech” appears to regularly include defaming and slandering others for his own purposes—where are his victims’ rights and freedom?

The key here may be that freedom and power-over are at risk of becoming conflated with this planetary combination, and since extreme overreach is the modus operandi of Jupiter-Uranus, things can, and are, getting badly out of balance.

Here’s where we need to study the Jupiter-Uranus opposition chart more closely.



Chart #2: Jupiter-Uranus opposition, March 2, 2017, 9:15:13 p.m., ST, Washington, D.C. Tropical Equal Houses, True Node.



The Freak-Out in D.C.

The Jupiter-Uranus opposition is by definition, unpredictable and surprising—hence, the “freak-out” in D.C. Interestingly, though, if we pull back from the relentless stream of surprises to get a wide view of the situation on the ground, we see that it all looks a bit too coordinated. 

Look a little closer and it's clear that deeply transformative mechanisms of power are slipping into gear a little more firmly with every surprise or shocking revelation that surfaces.

Take the rumors being spread by Breitbart News and the Alt-Right of a “deep state” pulling the levers of power to resist the Trump presidency. According to yesterday’s Time.com:

“A far-right website loyal to Donald Trump says a so-called "Deep State" is the force behind a "covert resistance" to the new President. White House aides reportedly blame it for the daily stream of leaks that have kept Trump's team on the defensive since before he even took office.

But what is the so-called "Deep State?"

To allies of Trump in the conservative media and on Capitol Hill, it is an organized resistance within the government, working to subvert his presidency. They blame career bureaucrats, many of whom they see as loyal to former President Barack Obama, for leaking damaging information to the news media.”

Predictably, career intelligence professionals are getting pretty tired of taking the blame for everything Trump gets wrong these days, too. As Loren Dejonge Schulman writes in today’s Politico:

“Here’s a handy rule for assessing the credibility of what you’re reading about national security in the Trump era: If somebody uses the term “Deep State,” you can be pretty sure they have no idea what they’re talking about.”
So, are we beginning to see where those 6:25 a.m. tweets came from over the weekend? Flinging unfounded accusations is what Trump does when he wants to deflect responsibility and/or roll-out a controversial narrative and make it stick, bit by bit. 

He used it on President Obama in his “birtherism” campaign; he used it on Hillary Clinton during the campaign, and now he’s back to President Obama and the CIA, always useful punching bags for his base. It’s a tactic that’s straight out of the Public Relations for Dictators manual.

We can see why Trump’s been vilifying our intelligence services from day one of his presidency. Those services provide the handiest, most Hollywood-exploited foil or “enemy” that Trump could find to blame for everything, with minimal accountability. To prove a negative (that they’re not undermining Trump) is difficult, when by definition most of what they do needs to remain under cover.

To prove that same negative to a Republican-led investigation when they just might have a vested interest in agreeing with the negative (it helps them further deepen their victory over the Dems, Hillary Clinton and Obama) might be nearly impossible.



Trump’s insinuations suggest that he’s trying to justify installing a security/intelligence service that is custom made to serving his purposes. Not that every president doesn’t want that to some extent, but Trump seems especially keen on controlling the narrative and on having intelligence services that are less than independent. 

This, of course, is not the way democracies are supposed to work.

The surprising way Trump spewed his new insinuations against Obama and the CIA certainly accords with Jupiter-Uranus at maximum opposition: a “Big Wind” (Jupiter in air sign Libra) is blowing across the nation these days, both literally (we just lost a big section of roof shingles in 70 mph winds yesterday) and figuratively (ideological “windbags” in D.C.). 

The Air-Fire opposition here (Libra Jupiter-Aries Uranus) suggests that the revolutionary seeds planted in 2010 have taken hold, and that the final half of this cycle will cultivate them to fruition. We're seeing it in the U.S.; Europeans are experiencing an upheaval that threatens to tear their Union apart, and it's all being sold on the backs of the most vulnerable humans on the planet--immigrants and refugees. 

Is anyone else feeling that we're going to look back on this period and think it was all a very bad dream?






A breath of Air

A quick word about “Intelligence” itself: as an information-gathering discipline, it is ruled by air signs in astrology—Gemini rules the actual bits of information that traverse the air waves or digital connections; Libra rules the relationships involved in conveying information (every message travels from Sender to Receiver), and Aquarius rules the technological framework and the collective/social implications and uses of information.

Libra and Aquarius bring ethical concerns to bear on the transmission of information: truth, justice, how information is used to serve a “greater good,” through the social order, science and technology, etc. We hope a “greater good” is being served when Aquarius serves and equips the shadowy Scorpionic dimension of espionage by providing high-tech intelligence-gathering tools. 

We know that these tools can be misused and abused, but the alternative to conducting intelligence to secure our national interests is…?

Herein lies the whole “privacy v. security” debate. Thankfully, there are legal safeguards against intelligence abuses when it comes to American citizens, but privacy regularly gives way to security concerns (Scorpio is forever challenging Aquarius by square), and we certainly can’t afford to be naïve about these issues—a continuing story we’ll be following forever.

Of course, all of these ethical concerns can be (and are) twisted to mean whatever the powers-that-be want them to (Gemini often plays both sides against the middle, as in the old playground rumor-mongering games, “did you hear what she said about you?”).

Which brings us back to Trump, and most likely, to Steve Bannon. Trump’s suggestibility (Cancer Mercury) is the perfect tool for Bannon’s ideological zeal (Sagittarius Sun, Gemini Jupiter, conjunct Trump’s Gemini Sun-Node-Uranus--all disposed by that sensitive Mercury)—there’s no doubt that Bannon has Trump’s ear, and that Bannon’s Scorpio Mercury is playing 3-D “chess” with that access).[1]



The overarching concern with this current Jupiter-Uranus cycle is that this “big wind” afflicting our government is also blowing away many of the checks and balances our democracy counts on for survival. In fact, those watching these dynamics are pointing to a whole new set of power relations rolling out in our nation under the direction of two key players—Jeff Sessions and, of course, Steve Bannon—in the Trump administration. This in from NYTimes magazine contributor Emily Bazelon:

“It is through the Justice Department that the administration is likely to advance its nationalist plans — to strengthen the grip of law enforcement, raise barriers to voting and significantly reduce all forms of immigration, promoting what seems to be a longstanding desire to reassert the country’s European and Christian heritage. It’s not an accident that Sessions, who presumably could have chosen from a number of plum assignments, opted for the role of attorney general. The Department of Justice is the most valuable perch from which to transform the country in the way he and Bannon have wanted. With an exaggerated threat of disorder looming, the nation’s top law-enforcement agency could become a machine for trying to fundamentally change who gets to be an American and what rights they can enjoy.”

These power plays are largely orchestrated from behind the scenes, while the pretexts are created for them in the right-wing media and on Twitter. These moves speak to another key feature of this Jupiter-Uranus opposition: the t-square to it from Capricorn Pluto. Simply put, if you want to know who’s behind them, consider who stands to profit from the “Big Wind” of rushed change and reckless accusations. Importantly, who stands to benefit from so many oddly-related “surprises” surfacing around the same time?

Astrology prefers meaningful synchronicity over “coincidence,” so timing, as they say, is “everything.”

Consider, for instance, how the following unfolded like clockwork in the space of three short days, all falling on the heels of the Jupiter-Uranus opposition on Friday, March 3.




Behind Door #1: Trump plays “Shock Jock-in-Chief” with his March 4th, 6:25 a.m. Twitterstorm, casting suspicion on former President Obama and claiming to be the victim of wiretapping. 

On Monday, behind Door #2, Trump signs Executive Travel Ban 2.0 with minimal fanfare and maximum stealth (hoping no one will get riled up enough to pull out the picket signs). 

Meanwhile, behind Door #3, the GOP releases a really badly conceived health care package that they plan to rush through committees and on to a vote in record time. 

For better or worse, this bill gives Trump a chance to prove that he has legislative “deal-making” credentials, even though it’s the typical Trump voter (working to middle class, often rural) who will have the most to lose with the new plan.

Then, right on schedule (is there ever a Door #4?), we learn that Wikileaks—notorious for leaking official and often classified documents that hurt Hillary Clinton’s campaign and helped Donald Trump’s (hmmm…)—is at it again. This time the leaks are designed to incriminate the CIA and by association, President Obama. 

How convenient…

Trump insinuates that Obama and Obama-sympathizers left standing in the career intelligence services are behind the so-called leaks that Trump claims are hurting him, so right on cue, Wikileaks releases documents that are sure to trigger fear and paranoia in the public (whether warranted or not), directed against the CIA and now, against Obama, since Trump set him up as the straw man.
In addition, the leaked documents were apparently selected to physically debilitate the CIA by destroying the usefulness of many of their cyber-intelligence tools.

It’s not hard to guess who benefits from a weakened CIA. Not Obama, certainly: more and more, it looks like Trump and Russia share yet another item on their “wish lists.” It’s certainly interesting that Trump has not criticized Wikileaks for dumping the latest leaked documents. In fact, he “smiled” and moved on when asked about it.

Whether or not all of this is meaningfully-related is TBD, however the list of “dots” being connected between Trump’s interests and Russia’s interests is getting longer by the day.
The New York Times reported this Tuesday:

WASHINGTON — In what appears to be the largest leak of C.I.A documents in history, WikiLeaks released on Tuesday thousands of pages describing sophisticated software tools and techniques used by the agency to break into smartphones, computers and even Internet-connected televisions.
The documents amount to a detailed, highly technical catalog of tools. They include instructions for compromising a wide range of common computer tools for use in spying: the online calling service Skype; Wi-Fi networks; documents in PDF format; and even commercial antivirus programs of the kind used by millions of people to protect their computers.”
So why hasn’t Trump spoken out forcefully against Wikileaks? That raises the issue of Neptune in all this. Over more than a year-long square with Saturn, Neptune has been acting in very gradual, relentless fashion in the foggy background, blurring the lines between “positive” leaks (“I love Wikileaks!” Trump crowed, while they were dumping Clinton’s emails during the campaign) and “negative” leaks. These have been characterized by post-inaugural Trump as the province of the CIA and others within U.S. intelligence. 




A silent smile

On the topic of Wikileaks this week, just a smile and silence.

These background “blurring” actions don’t just happen, however—there are actors colluding to produce these results. Multiple media reports today noted that Trump’s ally in the UK, Nigel Farage (the father of the nationalist “Brexit” campaign) was seen on Thursday exiting the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where Wikileaks’ Julian Assange is holed up. 

It’s also known now that Farage has a long-standing relationship with Assange.  Coincidence? We’re beginning to see why those Trump campaign member meetings with Russian players could be very important.

Interestingly, Farage’s natal Uranus-ASC-Pluto grouping (Virgo) is tightly opposed by transiting Neptune (Pisces),[2] while his Sagittarius Moon is tightly conjunct the Galactic Center. As we’ve seen in past posts here, connections with the GC have been regularly connected with whistle blowing and/or the release of hidden information.

Farage may live to regret this, however; Saturn is now also transiting his Moon and the GC (and Trump’s Sun-Moon complex), so there will probably be consequences for his actions, whatever they end up meaning in the end. Farage has a number of interesting connections to Trump’s chart, which raises questions about Brexit as well (did Russia meddle in their election, also?)—a related story for another day.

Indeed, a Foreign Policy headline today says that “Wikileaks has joined the Trump administration,” raising the question whether Trump prefers that renegade shadowy source of information to the intelligence services that  answer to him (and work around the clock to keep the country safe. 



Wired.com is similarly skeptical:

“NEVER ACCUSE WIKILEAKS of getting its timing wrong. Last fall, the group perfectly paced its steady drip of John Podesta’s emails to undermine Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. Now, as the capital thrums with chaos, it has unleashed a cloud of confusion that makes it hard for experts to discern the facts and easy for non-experts to see whatever they want.”
Rather than condemning Wikileaks, Trump administration comments have focused on blaming the CIA for being outdated or compromised. If the administration “updates” the CIA the way it has the State Department, with proposed 37% cuts and vanishing career professionals, we’re in trouble.

Bottom line, we can certainly question Wikileaks’ motives (which have seemed strangely aligned with Trump’s and Russia’s disruptive agenda several times now), but there’s no question that they have deployed Jupiter-Uranus energy strategically (Jupiter) as a “sneak attack” (Uranus-Mars). 

It’s a basic battleground tactic that appears to mesh with Trump administration and GOP tactics this week, as well: 1) show up unannounced and create a startling distraction; 2) catch your enemies off guard; 3) overwhelm your enemies, at the same time you deflect and undermine any lines of attack they may have planned.




Follow the trail...

What raises all of the above to the new level of shocking power plays is again, that potent t-square from Capricorn Pluto. Cardinal t-squares drive action at all costs and despite all obstacles, and with Jupiter-Uranus-Mars involved, this action can unfold with reckless abandon.

The final item on this strangely coordinated list of surprising actions, but probably in no way the final piece of this puzzle, is the news that came out this week about that possible 37% cut to our State Department budget under Trump. Ongoing investigations by the FBI are reported to be teasing out a relationship between what’s happening in our State Department and what the Russians are hoping for from Trump’s government.

We sure do seem to be getting into sensational conspiracy-theory territory here, but even though Neptune is fairly subdued in this Jupiter-Uranus opposition chart, its influence is still hovering in the background (and through surprising connections with individual players, as we saw with Farage), so we’re not just imagining all this. Should anything shock us anymore? Under a Jupiter-Uranus-Mars-Pluto t-square, just about anything goes.

Again, the question is, who profits…or perhaps more to the point, whose debts (Pluto) have come due?

One last bit of reporting suggests that money may have changed hands, although it’s unconfirmed at this point. A CNN report yesterday indicated that there may have been “communication” between a Russian bank computer system and the Trump Organization:

“Federal investigators and computer scientists continue to examine whether there was a computer server connection between the Trump Organization and a Russian bank, sources close to the investigation tell CNN…
Internet data shows that last summer, a computer server owned by Russia-based Alfa Bank repeatedly looked up the contact information for a computer server being used by the Trump Organization -- far more than other companies did, representing 80% of all lookups to the Trump server.
It's unclear if the Trump Organization server itself did anything in return. No one has produced evidence that the servers actually communicated.”

Again, no smoking gun at this point, but this line of inquiry probably makes Trump nervous. He could, of course, simply release his tax forms and put to rest a lot of suspicions, but that’s not likely to happen unless the Senate Intelligence Committee subpoenas them. Meanwhile, Trump can claim that the “deep state” is out to get him.


 Behind this door…
Now, for the final leg of this winding, complicated journey, let’s examine the Jupiter-Uranus opposition chart alongside Trump’s natal and progressed charts, for a bit more insight:



Triwheel #1: (inner wheel) Donald J. Trump, June 14, 1946, 10:54 a.m. DST, Washington, DC; (middle wheel) Donald J. Trump, August 24, 1946 8:04:42 am GMT, Washington, DC (Day-for-Year progressions for March 2, 2017 at 12 a.m. GMT); (outer wheel) Jupiter-Uranus opposition, March 2, 2017, 9:15:13 p.m. ST, Washington, DC. Tropical Equal Houses, True Node.
Interchart Cardinal Grand Cross: Opposition chart (JUOPP) Jupiter-ASC-to-Trump Progressed & Natal Jupiter (Libra) oppose JUOPP  Uranus-Mars (Aries); this axis is squared by JUOPP Pluto (Capricorn) opposite Trump Saturn-Venus and JUOPP MC (Cancer). Trump clearly has great opportunities to expand his influence with this chart, but this tense configuration suggests that he might also overreach and find himself severely debilitated by risky power plays involving finances, security (Capricorn-Cancer) and the company he keeps (11th house associates). We’ve seen several examples in all the current reporting cited above that this may absolutely be the case.
It’s important to remember that this configuration is actually the cardinal t-square featured in the JUOPP chart by itself, laid onto Trump’s charts. If JUOPP Pluto was a little further along in Capricorn, this configuration would also pull in Trump’s progressed Moon-MC conjunction (Cancer), so the connections will deepen over the next months as Pluto moves deeper into Capricorn.
JUOPP Jupiter-ASC squares Trump Progressed Moon-MC (Cancer) and trines Trump Sun-Node-Uranus (Gemini); JUOPP Uranus-Mars (Aries) sextiles Trump’s Gemini points. This configuration raises the question whether Trump is emotionally prepared to handle the expansive powers and opportunities he has acquired with the presidency. Considering his natal Cancer points (Saturn, Venus, Mercury), clearly he tends toward being thin-skinned and defensive, even excessively self-protective (Cancer Mercury disposes his Gemini Sun-Node-Uranus). His recent volatility is certainly reflected in the Mars-Uranus trine to his fiery Moon.


Trump’s Libra Chiron is opposed by JUOPP Venus (Aries), but since this March 2nd event, Venus has gone retrograde and will move back into square aspect with his Gemini-Sagittarius axis before turning direct again at 26°+ Pisces (squaring his Sun-NNode-Uranus opposite Moon-SNode). Even the smallest losses will feel major to him, so any scrutiny of his communications and business finances (Venus rules his 3rd and 10th houses, from the 8th) will put him on the defensive.
Interchart Grand Fire Trine: JUOPP Uranus-Mars (Aries) trines JUOPP Saturn-Trump’s Moon (Sagittarius), which trines Trump Mars-ASC (Leo). More concerns are raised here about Trump’s emotional state (4th house Moon), which is likely feeling somewhat oppressed with the Saturn transit. This Saturn also opposes his Gemini Sun and quincunxes his Cancer Saturn-Venus, but its trine to his Mars-ASC may feel empowering, despite any restraints and scrutiny he may be feeling. These aspects and house placements reflect why so many have observed that the “public” is “personal” with Trump. A fire grand trine can be intense, and with Trump’s Mars caught up in the mix, reports that the fur has been flying in the White House inner circle are quite feasible.
JUOPP Venus (Aries) squares Trump Pluto (Leo), with Pluto ruling his Scorpio 4th, so this square may be inspiring “conspiracy” fears. Since he’s been known to project his own actions onto others to deflect attention, we might also expect him to be involved in some type of behind-the-scenes (12th house Pluto) Machiavellian “chess moves.”
This possibility is reinforced by JUOPP Neptune-Mercury (Pisces) inconjunct his natal Pluto (Leo) and trine his natal Mercury (Cancer). His native “deal-making” tendencies are given a passive aggressive edge here (JUOPP Pisces points overlay his 7th house of “enemies”)—he will say whatever needs to be said for the desired results.  This is nothing new for him, or for politicians in general, but it’s certainly something to be aware of.
Trump may, indeed, feel “cornered” by the inconjunct connections here—probably one reason he’s lashing out so aggressively against what he calls “Deep State” intelligence services and declining to comment on Wikileaks—once again, the latter is supporting his cause. Now, the paranoid line of questioning goes to “Who stole the information that Wikileaks dumped?”
It would sure make sense that the culprits are the same players who stand to benefit (as they stood to benefit from the Clinton email dumps)—Trump and the Russians. We can expect others (the “deep state?”) to be targeted for this investigation-in-the-making, however. It would be a two-fer for Trump, Bannon et al: a chance to purge the intelligence services, while distracting from the ongoing investigations into Trump’s Russian connections!
What all this does for the nation’s security is another question.


Boomerang?
Is it accidental that all this coordinates so smoothly, and has the effect of shoving investigations into Trump’s Russian connections out of the headlines? Is there any coincidence that the first public hearings by the Senate Intelligence Committee regarding his Russian connections are scheduled for March 20th, the same day the first confirmation hearings are scheduled for Judge Gorsuch’s Supreme Court nomination?

Clearly, the Trump camp likes to coordinate its major actions not just around harried times in which focused attention is difficult, but also around major astrological moments—here we’ve seen an incredible roll-out of priorities at the exact Jupiter-Uranus opposition, and on March 20th we’ll see another major explosion of Trump-centered action at the Sun’s Aries ingress—the Spring Equinox!  

I invite you to see the March 3rd post here for more on that Aries ingress event, but in conclusion here, I would also like to add a couple thoughts that have bubbled to the surface since that March 3rd post:

First, on the importance of Venus’s retrograde position in that March 20th chart. While Trump may have felt empowered by the “Big Wind” this past week, his own aggressive words, insinuations and so on are likely to boomerang badly by March 20th, if not before. “Big Wind” can be very useful that way, and the support he felt during the Jupiter-Uranus opposition event may wane pretty quickly under the retrograde.  

I would expect Nigel Farage to remain in the news during this period—his chart is simply too tightly tied into all this to keep him out of it.

Second, Jupiter has been transiting retrograde since early February, so Trump’s perception that he’s not universally supported in D.C. is legitimate, even if his responses to that reality are troubling. This retrograde will take Jupiter back and forth over Trump’s Libra Chiron, turning direct at 13°+ on the 9th-10th of June. As the old saying goes, “it ain’t over til it’s over,” and a number of things can change on the ground in the meantime. 

Stay tuned—your feedback is always welcome!
    







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. 





[1] Birth data (noon chart, unknown birth time), November 27, 1953, Norfolk, VA. Author cast from information published on Wikipedia.
[2]Birth data, according to Astrodatabank.com: April 3, 1964, 4:30 p.m., Farnborough, England. Rated A, from memory.