This is my attempt to raise an astrological “finger” into the historical breeze and test what just happened this past week in the 2018 midterm elections.
As you might have noticed, each side won something, so all sides are declaring victory. Not to downplay the hard-fought victories—some quite historical—but overall, the night unfolded like a strained, cosmic “Minuet” of sorts. Both sides got to take a victory bow, the codependent circling around each other has already begun, but will anything of critical substance get done? As we’ll see, the astrology of that “Minuet” and its place in our recent history is pretty fascinating.
Trump, of course, has spun what
happened as a “tremendous victory,” and in some respects, he’s justified.
We know that because Trump promptly
decided that he can abuse his power within the DOJ with impunity—with the newly
fortified GOP majority in the Senate, who in that body will have both the
desire and the clout to stop him? Trump
showed his cards by firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions and installing a loyalist, Mark
Whitaker—who many legal scholars immediately proclaimed to be an “illegal”
choice—to oversee the Mueller investigation.
Whitaker has been vocally opposed
to the investigation, especially its scope, expressing repeatedly that anything
involving Trump’s finances should be off the table. He also expressed that Hillary Clinton should have been prosecuted by
the FBI, so Trump has multiple reasons for wanting Whitaker at the top of the
DOJ.
For now, that is. A Senate-vetted
nominee is required (not likely to be Whitaker), but Whitaker could carry out a
lot of Trump’s grudges in this dicey interim, before the new Congress convenes
in January. Strangely, Whitaker has potential legal problems of his
own—including a
multi-million dollar fraud scheme presently under investigation by the FBI.
Trump continues his habit of installing individuals in key agencies who have
reasons to undermine what those agencies are about.
The good news is that a bipartisan Senate bill
could now gain steam to protect the Mueller investigation (it’s been blocked by
Majority leader Mitch McConnell to this point)—a chorus of voices out there is
saying that Whitaker must recuse himself from the investigation he’s clearly
biased against, however Trump seems willing to risk that, weighed against the
prospect of a new, Democratic-controlled House. He may have had a “tremendous”
night on Tuesday, but there were losses, too.
So Trump is now counting all the
more heavily on the Senate to be “loyal” to him (that’s not their job, but
that’s how he sees it), and he may be justified. With the new GOP seats that he
campaigned for, the death of moderate John McCain and the retirement of other
prominent moderate GOP Senators like Bob Corker and Jeff Flake, the Senate
could now be even less independent from him than it was. We don’t yet know who
the Speaker of the House will be, with Paul Ryan retiring, but whoever it is, the
2019 Senate is less rather than more
likely to challenge or check Trump or his agenda.
Not too surprisingly, Democratic
women running to keep their Senate seats in red states had a rough time of
it—ND’s Heidi Heitkamp and MO’s Claire McCaskill both lost their races, and
Trump played a role in that. Even so, perhaps none of the Senate races felt as
good to Trump as Ted Cruz’s narrow win over “rock star” Dem, Beto O’Rourke in
Texas: now Cruz—once a bitter opponent—owes
him.
Trump might also feel that the Texas
race rewarded his heavy-handed, race- and fear-baiting tactics—especially his focus
on immigration (the “caravan” invasion he hyped to the point of stoking
hysteria). Texas is a border state, and the Latino vote so hotly-prized by Dems
didn’t quite get the job done for them
in the end. Was this a function of voter suppression tactics, or just a demographic
reality, given the record turnout on both sides in this election? For now,
Trump is crowing about his “very big win.”
Of course, the Dems have reasons to
crow, too, taking back control of the House with at least
35 new seats—the most they’ve gained in one election since Watergate. So it
did turn out to be an historical wave, despite some races being undecided. Dems
gained back over 300 seats on state legislatures, 7 governorships (the Georgia
race is still up in the air), and a majority
of state attorney-general seats. Some important seats went to
ground-breaking candidates—two Native
American women, two Muslim-American
women, openly gay candidates and more.
And, as disappointing as the Senate
results were in Texas, the close-call between O’Rourke and Cruz was likely a
good sign for Dems in 2020, opening the way for more such challenges. Not to be overlooked, two House seats switched to Texas Dems, and
Beto O’Rourke’s vacated House seat went to Veronica Escobar, a Democratic
Latina.
Meanwhile, Democrat Nancy Pelosi is
now on deck to resume her old job as Speaker of the House when the new Congress
convenes—not a victory to sniff at. The
Dems last took control of the House in the 2006 midterms (midway in George W.
Bush’s second administration) when Pelosi first took the gavel. They
subsequently lost it in the Obama administration’s 2010 midterm elections—a Tea
Party/GOP backlash against the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), passed earlier
that year, swept control of Congress away from the Dems. As Obama famously put
it, the night was a “shellacking.”
Passed in March, 2010--defended by 2018 vote. |
Of course, the irony shouldn’t
escape us here, that so many of the Dems’ campaigns in the 2018 election cycle focused
on health care—specifically, on saving the popular parts of the
Affordable Care Act, like protection for coverage of pre-existing conditions,
and that this issue probably helped them prevail to the extent they did!
With all that said, however—and with important victories on both sides—yesterday’s election didn’t happen in an historical or ideological vacuum. In fact, analysts Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann claim that similar dynamics have been flaring up and roiling our politics for decades now. They put this well even before the returns came in last night:
“All of the
attention on control of Congress, the individual races, and President Trump’s
campaign activity has obscured a much bigger story at play in American politics
– we’re on the cusp of the House changing hands for a third time in the last 12
years (2006, 2010, 2018?).
Another way to
look at it: This could very well be the fourth-straight change midterm
election, where at least one chamber of Congress flips (2006, 2010, 2014,
2018?).
We haven’t seen
this level of volatility since after World War II, when control of the House changed hands several
times in the 1940s and
1950s. And like after World War II and the Great Depression, this country is in
the midst of a political realignment that has created this volatility. The
contested 2000 presidential election. 9/11. The Iraq War. The Great Recession.
Obama. Trump…And whichever party wins tonight will have just won a battle and
not the war in these politically volatile times.”
We will consider a chart
for Tuesday’s elections in due course, but I’m particularly interested in
putting that longer historical context that Chuck Todd and associates flagged
for us above to an astrological test. Is the connection between this week’s
election and the 2000 election key? What does “political realignment” look like
in terms of planetary dynamics? Is today’s Trump-fueled volatility simply a
continuation of past dynamics, or something discernibly different?
Obviously, we can’t
answer all these questions thoroughly in one post here, but they’re good
questions to keep in mind as we try to understand what happened in yesterday’s
election a bit more deeply.
The astrology
Whenever long-term
trends are at the heart of an astrological inquiry, it helps to examine how the
outer planetary cycles wax and wane during the time span in question. In fact,
every moment in time is represented by not just
the placement of planets around a chart wheel, but by some combination of
waxing and waning cycles.
In my observation,
these cycle dynamics reflect the dominant tone and power relations of the
times—about what forces are in play, to what extent those forces can work
together smoothly or not, whether one type of energy (waxing or waning) is
dominant, and so on. Naturally, there's much more to all this, including the signs, elements and modes in action in these cycles, but there's a lot to be learned from simply observing the waxing and waning dynamics, as well. When gridlock prevails in D.C., it shows up in these
dynamics; when some “wave” (ideological or otherwise) overwhelms the
collective, even if we didn’t consciously vote for it, it’s clear to see.
Consider the following
cycle phase tables: first, one calculated for the very contentious Election
2000 in which the Supreme Court ended up intervening to name Republican George
W. Bush the victor over Democrat Al Gore. The GOP had had eight years to build
up anti-Bill Clinton steam for this victory over a Democratic-held White House,
and there was no turning back, “hanging chads” or no.
The flood gates of
election money were wide open, it was all political guns blazing, and the cycle
dynamics in Table 1 below (all waxing!) reflected that. In fact,
Bush did not win the popular vote that
year—it was one of those frustrating election years in which the whims of the
Electoral College (and in this case, the Supreme Court) overwhelmed the popular
will.
That, we’re told, is
just our system—some Founders weren’t fans of the popular vote calling all
shots. In the 1780s, that might have
made sense—public education was scant and many lacked the information they
needed to make decisions on the federal level, but did they anticipate the power of unlimited money circulating in our elections today?
This may be why Chuck
Todd and company point to this popular-vote-thwarting 2000 election as an echo
of our present electoral malaise. The popular vote didn’t carry the day in
2016, either, although as we’ll see, the broad dynamics—the “prevailing winds”
were quite different. Table 1 illustrates
the cycles in force for Election 2000.
Table 1: Outer planetary cycles in force on 11/7/2000
Planetary
Cycles
|
Cycle in
force on
11/7/2000-Election
2000
|
Cycle
phase in force 11/7/2000
|
Jup-Sat
|
12/1980, 9+Lib
|
waxing
|
Jup-Ura
|
2/1997, 5+Aq
|
waxing
|
Jup-Nep
|
1/1997, 27+Cap
|
waxing
|
Jup-Plu
|
12/1994, 28+Sco
|
waxing
|
Sat-Ura
|
2/1988, 29+Sag
|
waxing
|
Sat-Nep
|
3/1989, 28+Cap
|
waxing
|
Sat-Plu
|
11/1982, 27+Lib
|
waxing
|
Ura-Nep
|
2/1993, 19+Cap
|
waxing
|
Ura-Plu
|
10/1965, 17+Vir
|
waxing
|
Nep-Plu
|
Aug. 1891, 8+Gem
|
waxing
|
Waxing cycles have an unleashed,
“sky’s the limit” feel to them—possibilities abound; people are looking forward. This sounds very appealing on
one level—who doesn’t like to start fresh with an empty bag in the Cosmic Candy
Shop of life? On the other hand, there’s an untethered, impulsive and/or irresponsible
feel to these energies as well, and actions taken under these overwhelming
times are often regretted later.
A heady array of unleashed, waxing
energies can also result in violence: on September 11, 2001, all but two of the
cycles shown in Table 1 were still waxing, and the cycles that had gone into
waning mode were significant because they helped to make things happen. When a
cycle hits opposition and begins to wane, a “manifestation”
phase has begun in the cycle. Whatever seeds were planted in that cycle’s
inception will find expression in the second half of the cycle. The finer
nuances of this would require a detailed breakdown of the waxing and waning
halves, but we’re only concerned with the broad strokes here.
So on September 11, 2001, a newly-waning Jupiter-Pluto (these two were quincunx that day) enabled Osama bin Laden and company to manifest their ideological, economic and political animus towards the U.S., Wall Street and the “evils” of international finance. Saturn-Pluto were opposite within 2 degrees that day, but Saturn was on the waning side, which reflected the long-term structural change set in motion that day for all concerned. September 11th changed this country forever, arguably precipitating the strained global geopolitics we’ve been caught up in ever since.
This wound has been very slow to heal--if it ever does. |
So on September 11, 2001, a newly-waning Jupiter-Pluto (these two were quincunx that day) enabled Osama bin Laden and company to manifest their ideological, economic and political animus towards the U.S., Wall Street and the “evils” of international finance. Saturn-Pluto were opposite within 2 degrees that day, but Saturn was on the waning side, which reflected the long-term structural change set in motion that day for all concerned. September 11th changed this country forever, arguably precipitating the strained global geopolitics we’ve been caught up in ever since.
As for the tendency to lunge forward
opportunistically under dominant waxing energies—and to regret the results
later—we can look to the U.S. invasions of both Afghanistan (October 7th,
2001) and Iraq (March 19, 2003). In both
instances, the nation was still surfing on those heady waxing cycles, with the
waning exceptions still being Jupiter-Pluto
and Saturn-Pluto, but these two
cycles channeled the reckless overreach of the other waxing cycles in risky,
long-lasting consequences (see Table 2
below).
The wave of public support left over
from the 9/11 tragedy (waxing cycles) drowned out the very real efforts to
protest and dispute the administration’s decision to invade Iraq—the Afghan
invasion would soon become an expensive occupation, and no real evidence
surfaced that Iraq had WMDs to justify that invasion. We were falling into
geopolitical traps that still haunt us today.
Table 2: Outer planetary cycles in force on 3/20/2003
Planetary
Cycles
|
Cycle in
force on
3/20/2003-Iraq
invasion
|
Cycle
phase in force 3/20/2003
|
Jup-Sat
|
12/1980, 9+Lib
|
waxing
|
Jup-Ura
|
2/1997, 5+Aq
|
waxing
|
Jup-Nep
|
1/1997, 27+Cap
|
waxing
|
Jup-Plu
|
12/1994, 28+Sco
|
waning
|
Sat-Ura
|
2/1988, 29+Sag
|
waxing
|
Sat-Nep
|
3/1989, 28+Cap
|
waxing
|
Sat-Plu
|
11/1982, 27+Lib
|
waning
|
Ura-Nep
|
2/1993, 19+Cap
|
waxing
|
Ura-Plu
|
10/1965, 17+Vir
|
waxing
|
Nep-Plu
|
Aug. 1891, 8+Gem
|
waxing
|
Waxing energies feel especially liberating
and even “Utopian” when Jupiter and Neptune are involved, but there are
clear pitfalls to these particular overreaching energies. A tragic case in
point is the so-called “Opioid epidemic,” which began attracting attention in
this country in 1999, but has disappeared off our national radar screens for
long periods. Even so, this less visible, rolling tragedy has weighed on the
nation and stoked our political volatility in ways we need to recognize—the
reason it’s worth considering here.
Since a specific date is difficult
to pin down, I’ve used the Winter Solstice (Capricorn ingress) of 1998 as the
beginning point for its emergence as a national problem. Not surprisingly, Table 3 below shows another incredible
outpouring of waxing energies, with two key cycles (Jupiter-Uranus and Jupiter-Neptune)
being very new. The first is in liberating, but potentially shocking Aquarius,
and the second is in late Capricorn, exactly conjunct Sibly Pluto (chart not shown). It appears that the “corporate”
pharmaceutical connection to this epidemic—and the FDA’s complicity with
Big Pharma’s profit concerns—was baked in from its inception.
Table 3. Outer planetary cycles in force on
12/21/1998.
Planetary
Cycles
|
Cycle in
force on
12/21/1998-Opioid Crisis
|
Cycle
phase in force 12/21/1998
|
Jup-Sat
|
12/1980. 9+Lib
|
waning
|
Jup-Ura
|
2/1997, 5+Aq
|
waxing
|
Jup-Nep
|
1/1997, 27+Cap
|
waxing
|
Jup-Plu
|
12/1994, 28+Sco
|
waxing
|
Sat-Ura
|
2/1988 29+Sag
|
waxing
|
Sat-Nep
|
3/1989, 28+Cap
|
waxing
|
Sat-Plu
|
11/1982, 27+Lib
|
waxing
|
Ura-Nep
|
2/1993, 19+Cap
|
waxing
|
Ura-Plu
|
10/1965, 17+Vir
|
waxing
|
Nep-Plu
|
Aug. 1891, 8+Gem
|
waxing
|
Perhaps the waning Jupiter-Saturn cycle in this Table points
to the difficult ways in which this epidemic would manifest in society. Hundreds
of thousands have died of overdoses—how would we begin to calculate the damage this has done to society? Our policies,
laws and practices for treating drug addiction have had to adapt, child
protection agencies have been overwhelmed with opioid “orphans,” families have
been ripped apart—the list goes on. Neptune,
of course, is associated with addiction and epidemics, and as we see in
this table, it’s totally unleashed in all
the cycles.
I don’t know what the planetary cycles
were doing when Noah had to launch his ark, but I would expect that cataclysmic
“inundation” chart to look something like what we have here. To many families
impacted by opioid addiction, it’s probably felt
like the end of the world.
Needless to say, unleashing
pharmaceutical companies to flood the market (waxing) with addictive pain
killers and holding them responsible for none
of the consequences is something we can all regret, but from the amoral
perspective of capitalism, these overwhelming waxing energies delivered handsomely
and will continue to do so.
Because Saturn is the best countervailing force to Jupiter and Neptune
(especially when these two are acting in concert), the only way to stop an
epidemic is to impose some controls from outside—one such control we might think is on the job is the FDA, but
unfortunately, its latest move to approve even
more deadly opioids for distribution suggests that its priorities are
questionable. Trump delivered lip
service about addressing the crisis during the election and threw some
money behind prevention, etc., but why would the FDA follow that up with its
latest decision if Trump hadn’t blessed their corporate-friendly direction?
As we’ll see, the cycle dynamics
have changed considerably since 1999 and the inception of the Opioid crisis,
but Neptune and Pluto still seem to be calling the shots, cloaking deadly profit
motivation under the illusion of helpful action—more on this when we look at
the 2018 dynamics.
Final thought here: waning energies
seem to be more hospitable to any controls that we might seek to apply as a
society—if we’re a “rule-of-law” society, a system of controls is essential,
even if it needs periodic “tune-ups.”
The
central role played by the health care issue
So what does all this have to do
with the political intensity that we’ve experienced from 2000 onward? Consider
the important role that health care played
in the 2018 midterms. It was the most
important issue on voters’ minds, but it didn’t become that way overnight. Despite
its horrors, the Opioid epidemic may have helped in this because affordable
access to health care and medical therapies became more essential to more
people than ever.
Before the Affordable Care Act (ACA),
insurance was difficult and prohibitively expensive to come by for anyone with
a pre-existing condition, and an addiction or chronic pain would have qualified
as one. Besides, health care was becoming an increasingly hot-button issue for everyone—not just those impacted by
addiction. In June, 2007, documentarist
Michael Moore released Sicko—his exposé
of the American health care system—and it’s clear from the waning cycles in
place then that the mood was shifting in regards to regulations and the need to
build a system that served more people’s needs better.
Not coincidentally, this was
transpiring while the Dems held the reins in Congress, leading into the Obama
era. Let’s quickly consider the cycles profile for that 2006 Midterm election (Table 4) in which the Dems took over. This
was one of the significant recent “change” elections that Chuck Todd and
company pointed to, so it’s important for this discussion.
Table 4. Outer planetary cycles in force on 11/7/2006.
Planetary
Cycles
|
Cycle in
force on
11/7/2006-Elec
2006
|
Cycle
phase in force 11/7/2006
|
Jup-Sat
|
12/1980. 9+Lib
|
waxing
|
Jup-Ura
|
2/1997, 5+Aq
|
waning
|
Jup-Nep
|
1/1997, 27+Cap
|
waning
|
Jup-Plu
|
12/1994, 28+Sco
|
waning
|
Sat-Ura
|
2/1988 29+Sag
|
waxing
|
Sat-Nep
|
3/1989, 28+Cap
|
waning
|
Sat-Plu
|
11/1982, 27+Lib
|
waning
|
Ura-Nep
|
2/1993, 19+Cap
|
waxing
|
Ura-Plu
|
10/1965, 17+Vir
|
waxing
|
Nep-Plu
|
Aug. 1891, 8+Gem
|
waxing
|
Despite the backlash to George
Bush’s Iraq war and the resulting successes for Dems in this election, the
regulatory environment remained pretty lax—there was divided government
(reflecting the half and half profile here?), with a Republican president whose
fiscal policies weren’t about to disappear overnight. We didn’t get rid of the
Iraq and Afghanistan wars, either, despite mounting frustrations, but the die
was cast for a 2008 presidential candidate opposed to these wars.
The lax regulations were especially
enduring in the Finance sector (Saturn
was trine Pluto, even if the cycle
was waning)—supported by the strong waxing Uranus,
Neptune and Pluto cycles that privileged globalized capital and trade. The closer
balance between waning and waxing cycles here, though, indicated that a shift
was in progress.
Unfortunately, that shift took the
form of a major Stock Market meltdown, a vicious housing crisis-led recession
that was close on the horizon at this point. The trigger for this meltdown (September, 2008) could very well have
been the new Jupiter-Pluto cycle that
launched in late Sagittarius in December, 2007: it emboldened the subprime
mortgage “magicians” who were spinning gold out of nothing, heating up the
housing market and pumping up the Stock Market for a bust.
Table 5 below displays the cycles in place on September 15, 2008,
when Lehman Bros. collapsed and the Stock Market went into a spasmodic
tailspin.
Table 5. Outer planetary cycles in force on
11/7/2006.
Planetary
Cycles
|
Cycle in
force on
9/15/2008-Lehman
|
Cycle
phase in force 9/15/2008-Lehman
|
Jup-Sat
|
5/2000, 23+Tau
|
waning
|
Jup-Ura
|
2/1997, 5+Aq
|
waning
|
Jup-Nep
|
1/1997, 27+Cap
|
waning
|
Jup-Plu
|
12/2007, 28+Sag
|
waxing
|
Sat-Ura
|
2/1988 29+Sag
|
waxing
|
Sat-Nep
|
3/1989, 28+Cap
|
waning
|
Sat-Plu
|
11/1982, 27+Lib
|
waning
|
Ura-Nep
|
2/1993, 19+Cap
|
waxing
|
Ura-Plu
|
10/1965, 17+Vir
|
waxing
|
Nep-Plu
|
Aug. 1891, 8+Gem
|
waxing
|
There was a preponderance of waxing
energies afloat—Lehman Bros. had built the proverbial “house of cards” with
risky business decisions, and the thirst for more and more growth (Jupiter-Pluto) turned against them. This
was pretty much the same problem other banks on the verge of collapse were
having, but that same Jupiter-Pluto
energy might have promoted Obama’s controversial bank bail-outs, too. He wasn’t
even on the job yet when he was called upon to help save the economy from
melting down. Bubbles do burst, and three waning Jupiter and two waning Saturn
cycles facilitated by issuing a “reality check” no one could ignore.
As it was, the losses were
catastrophic, financially. Massive damage was done to employment numbers, to people’s
retirement funds and ability to get credit, to their ability to get and pay
mortgages, and it didn’t stop at our borders (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto
made sure of that). One especially destructive development from this period,
however, was the intense anger that
manifested so troublingly in the 2016 election, and is still roiling our body
politic today.
To that point, the resurgence of
white nationalism in this nation didn’t come from nowhere—could it be that some
young people we see in Neo-Nazi rallies and on vicious websites these days went
through something crushing with their families during that 2008-10 crisis? This
doesn’t excuse racial hatred and violence (threatened or actual), but we might
be able to better address the problem if we understand where it’s coming
from.
from "The Closet Liberal" |
In the midst of all this, calls for
a more sane health care system mounted—alongside the difficult financial times
brought on by Wall Street, people were having to choose between paying for
health care and keeping a roof over their heads; medical bankruptcy became a
“thing.” So it was only natural that more people started to feel that a system could be created without destroying
capitalism as we know it (even though opponents of national health care still think
we’re going to hell in a socialist hand basket).
Even so, the seed had been planted
and candidate Obama had sensed that it was time to highlight this issue in a
big way in 2008. He echoed and amplified the question that many had started
asking already: why were we the only
advanced western nation that didn’t
provide affordable national health care to all?
Notice that Vermont Senator Bernie
Sanders is still asking this in his
quest for a single payer, Medicare-for-all system; Obama’s solution was too corporate-friendly
for Sanders’ less centrist, left-wing politics. Judging from Table 6 below for Election Day 2008,
however, Obama’s cautious, compromising approach to nationalizing health care suited
the moderating energies of the time. Considering all the clashing
public/private priorities his administration had to navigate, it’s a wonder any program was passed!
Notice that the Saturn-Uranus cycle was at opposition, with Saturn only 1” from turning it into a waning cycle. Important structural changes were coming to
Washington, in the wake of the Finance sector’s collapse. By March, 2010, the
Affordable Care Act was passed, to howls of protest from the conservative Tea
Party, and by mid-2010, a more demanding set of financial regulations was
passed called the Dodd-Frank
Wall Street Reform & Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank, for short).
The waning Saturn-Neptune and Saturn-Pluto cycles probably had a lot to do with the principles and ideals, not to mention the structural realities of a vulnerable financial system. Years of political wheeling and dealing went into crafting these programs: we can see that with the robust mix of waxing and waning energies. Take a little, give a little!
An important creation of the Dodd-Frank Act. |
The waning Saturn-Neptune and Saturn-Pluto cycles probably had a lot to do with the principles and ideals, not to mention the structural realities of a vulnerable financial system. Years of political wheeling and dealing went into crafting these programs: we can see that with the robust mix of waxing and waning energies. Take a little, give a little!
Table 6. Outer planetary cycles in force on 11/4/2008.
Planetary
Cycles
|
Cycle in
force on
11/4/2008-Elec
Day
|
Cycle
phase in force 11/4/2008
|
Jup-Sat
|
5/2000, 23+Tau
|
waxing
|
Jup-Ura
|
2/1997, 5+Aq
|
waning
|
Jup-Nep
|
1/1997, 27+Cap
|
waning
|
Jup-Plu
|
12/2007, 28+Sag
|
waxing
|
Sat-Ura
|
2/1988 29+Sag
|
Waxing-by 1”!
|
Sat-Nep
|
3/1989, 28+Cap
|
waning
|
Sat-Plu
|
11/1982, 27+Lib
|
waning
|
Ura-Nep
|
2/1993, 19+Cap
|
waxing
|
Ura-Plu
|
10/1965, 17+Vir
|
waxing
|
Nep-Plu
|
Aug. 1891, 8+Gem
|
waxing
|
By the time the ACA passed through
Congress and was signed by Obama into law, the cycles were still supporting breakthrough
regulatory change and new programs, but that momentum would soon be squashed in
the 2010 midterms when the gridlock “Grinch” stole Washington, D.C. This is
another of the key elections that Chuck Todd and his associates feel have
contributed to our present volatility. Let’s see what happened, in terms of the
cycle dynamics, in Table 7.
Table 7. Outer planetary cycles in force on 11/2/2010.
Planetary
Cycles
|
Cycle in
force on
11/2/2010-Elec
2010
|
Cycle
phase in force 11/2/2010
|
Jup-Sat
|
5/2000, 23+Tau
|
waxing
|
Jup-Ura
|
6/2010, 0+Ar
|
waning
|
Jup-Nep
|
5/2009, 26+Aq
|
waxing
|
Jup-Plu
|
12/2007, 28+Sag
|
waxing
|
Sat-Ura
|
2/1988, 29+Sag
|
waning
|
Sat-Nep
|
3/1989, 28+Cap
|
waning
|
Sat-Plu
|
12/2007, 28+Sag
|
waning
|
Ura-Nep
|
2/1993, 19+Cap
|
waxing
|
Ura-Plu
|
10/1965, 17+Vir
|
waxing
|
Nep-Plu
|
Aug. 1891, 8+Gem
|
waxing
|
With four waning cycles and three of
those being the Saturn cycles, public
sentiment seemed to have shifted away from its enthusiasm for Obamacare (the
program roll-out just that October did have its problems), which gave opponents
like the conservative Tea Party a foot in the political door. The Republicans
delivered Obama a “shellacking” (as he called it) in this election, with
control of both houses of Congress going to them.
Meanwhile, despite enrolling several
million of its first members, Obamacare became a convenient political
scapegoat. The GOP was in charge, but didn’t really have the answers for what
was ailing the country that year. As noted earlier, the jobs recovery for many
from the 2008-9 recession was torturously slow, thousands of home foreclosures had torn people down, and a lot of
attention was being paid to the pernicious problem of wealth inequality (or as
the Occupy Wall Street movement put it then, the 1% v. the 99%).
Corporations were fully recovered
and doing well by this time, but they were doing so by not overreaching and
taking on too many new employees: we can see this trade-off in the cautious
drag that the Saturn cycles provided
in Table 7. Things were moving; they
just weren’t moving fast enough. Those in a position to invest (Jupiter-Pluto) were doing well again,
but the prosperity wasn’t widely enjoyed, and too many people were still feeling
pretty insecure.
He alone can solve our problems? |
Along comes Trump with someone to
blame for all that—Obama, for starters, and immigrants, above all. “I alone can
solve your problems” was his constant refrain, his solutions usually focused
around barring “invading” immigrants from entering the country (we saw a
reprise of that tactic in this week’s election) and claiming that our trading
partners will no longer “laugh at us” and take advantage of us. All agreements
and treaties were suddenly up for grabs.
These ideas resonated with those who
had lost good-paying middle class jobs to globalization—this certainly was the
message in the critical Midwest region. Bottom
line, Trump’s “storm and fury” act has always seemed to target the bitter, the
cynical, and those who feel victimized—not
for the sake of truly curing what ails them, but to validate their feelings (thereby stoking their resentment) and to convince
them that he alone has their back. Let’s
take a quick peek at the dynamics for Election 2016 in Table 8, to see why this approach worked for Trump.
Table 8. Outer planetary cycles in force on 11/8/2016.
Planetary
Cycles
|
Cycle in
force on
11/8/2016-Elec
2016
|
Cycle
phase in force 11/8/2016
|
Jup-Sat
|
5/2000, 23+Tau
|
waning
|
Jup-Ura
|
6/2010, 6+Ar
|
waxing
|
Jup-Nep
|
5/2009, 26+Aq
|
waning
|
Jup-Plu
|
12/2007, 28+Sag
|
waning
|
Sat-Ura
|
2/1988 29+Sag
|
waning
|
Sat-Nep
|
3/1989, 28+Cap
|
waning
|
Sat-Plu
|
11/1982, 27+Lib
|
waning
|
Ura-Nep
|
2/1993, 19+Cap
|
waxing
|
Ura-Plu
|
10/1965, 17+Vir
|
waxing
|
Nep-Plu
|
Aug. 1891, 8+Gem
|
waxing
|
The mood was darker (literally!) in
the nation, and Trump knew just how to leverage that mood politically. As we’ve
seen, the heaviness was justified, and it presented an opportunity for Trump’s
particular brand of persuasion. To the extent that he aimed to create a loyal
following, he needed to convince people that he was all the change they needed, and as illogical as it seemed at
the time (a billionaire as champion of working people?), he carried it off
because he knew how to play to people’s fears and anxieties.
Importantly, Trump continues to stoke people’s anger—that energy is vital to his continued success, but he
seems to be doing this very strategically—in his defense, and in support of his
agenda. As far as I can tell, his rallies are about him complaining to his
supporters about how badly the media treats him,
how unfair, evil or stupid the Dems are who want to stand in his way (“Lock her
up!”), and how we’re all being invaded by dangerous, diseased and criminal
immigrants.
So, if his followers aren’t making
the economic progress they thought they would under his administration, he’s
provided targets to blame. Is it any wonder that alleged pipe bomber Cesar
Sayoc took Trump’s stoking seriously?
Election
2018
I find it interesting that, because we can tell when planetary cycles
are about to shift from waxing to waning, or vice versa, we can anticipate important
shifts in our public discourse. This applies to the “prevailing winds” we
experienced in Election 2018, of course—Table
9 below illustrates.
Table 9. Outer planetary cycles in force on 11/6/2018.
Planetary
Cycles
|
Cycle in
force on
11/6/2018-EDay
|
Cycle
phase in force 11/6/2018-EDay
|
Jup-Sat
|
5/2000, 23+Tau
|
waning
|
Jup-Ura
|
6/2010, 6+Ar
|
waning
|
Jup-Nep
|
5/2009, 26+Aq
|
waning
|
Jup-Plu
|
12/2007, 28+Sag
|
waning
|
Sat-Ura
|
2/1988 29+Sag
|
waning
|
Sat-Nep
|
3/1989, 28+Cap
|
waning
|
Sat-Plu
|
11/1982, 27+Lib
|
waning
|
Ura-Nep
|
2/1993, 19+Cap
|
waxing
|
Ura-Plu
|
10/1965, 17+Vir
|
waxing
|
Nep-Plu
|
Aug. 1891, 8+Gem
|
waxing
|
Surprise, surprise…at first glance, nothing looks different from the
Election Day 2016 table! Again, all the
Jupiter and Saturn cycles are now waning, explaining why we’re still caught up
in a very heavy public discourse—will anything
ever be right again in this divided nation? Are we headed towards a second
Civil War of some kind?
If we think about it, however, this
2018 line up of cycles is what we should expect a “change” election to look
like, with the dynamics pretty seriously imbalanced, and about to tip over into
change. This latter point reveals the difference from the 2016 profile—there
were no new cycles close on the
horizon in November, 2016.
So Trump was not the type of “change” candidate he made himself out to be—he’s
challenged plenty of traditional norms, refused to live up to our expectations
of presidential behavior, attempted to tear down multiple institutions and
change the way we relate to the rest of the world, but he didn’t change the
essential fortunes of a broad swath of the American people. He gave lots of
money to people who already have lots of money with his tax cut—that’s just
more of the same.
And as hard as Trump has tried to
undo Obama’s signature accomplishments, Obama’s administration did change the fortunes of many, with
one key health care rule: guaranteed insurance coverage for pre-existing
conditions. That’s the policy that
the majority of those voting in Election 2018 said they cared about the most.
Structural/societal changes with
financial and political ramifications are coming, with new Jupiter-Saturn, Jupiter-Pluto and Saturn-Pluto cycles beginning in 2020 (December, April and January,
respectively). How we channel these new cycle energies into manifestation will
decide what this nation looks like for the next couple generations, if not
longer. Needless to say, what happens between now and Election 2020 will be
critical.
There’s much more we
could say about all these waning cycles, but with all of this in mind, let’s
take a closer look at what just transpired this past Tuesday in the event chart
itself. Elections are becoming less and less about when you vote (you might vote early, or by absentee ballot, etc.),
and more about when the votes are counted,
but I’ve chosen to use the traditional sunrise time because of its symbolic
value.
Chart #1: Election
Day 2018, November 5, 2018, 6:39 a.m. ST, Washington, D.C. Tropical Equal Houses, True Node.
Venus conjoins Ceres (Libra) and
opposes Eris (Aries)-Uranus (Taurus); Venus disposes Taurus Uranus Rx. Women
(with a few exceptions) had a
really good day on Tuesday—Stacey Abrams is still battling it out (Eris)
in the Georgia governor’s race as I write this, and she’s refusing to concede
until every vote is counted. She’s championed voting rights against corrupt racially-biased
voter suppression in that state, so whatever happens, she’s a hero. Venus
is dignified in Libra—it “ain’t over til it’s over!”
Jupiter (Scorpio) conjoins Mercury
(Sagittarius), semi-sextiles Venus-Ceres and squares Mars (Aquarius). These aspects reflect how big money fuels
political messages, message that were often distorted by the square
we see here between Mercury and Neptune (Pisces). Something
about this “heavy” 1st house Jupiter, disposed in Scorpio by Pluto,
evokes Trump’s attempt to dominate the election narrative. He used scare
tactics about a “caravan” invading our southern border to the very end, which
may account for 7th house Juno Rx (Taurus) here, directly
opposite Jupiter.
Trump seeks out an
enemy to get his brand of political messaging across—this caravan was his
“consort” this time around. Judging from his post-election press conference,
Republicans who lost did so because they didn’t “embrace” him (his word, not
mine).
People we need to fear? |
The truth is, many
Republicans running to save their House seats were not helped by Trump’s
over-the-top anti-immigrant ads, especially the final one that delivered a
blatantly racist message. Majority Leader Paul Ryan tried to tell Trump these
ads weren’t helping his members—Fox News even
pulled them, but Trump wasn’t taking suggestions. His belligerent natal Leo
Mars t-squared this chart’s Jupiter-Juno
opposition (Trump’s chart not shown), and the election results
reflected this stand-off.
He may have declared
“victory,” but it’s likely he was feeling more ticked off than victorious.
This
showed in the way he bullied journalists at the press conference—he
specifically treated three black female journalists
with serious disrespect. He may have opened a Pandora’s Box with those final
ads that will be difficult to close.
Mars in Uranus-ruled Aquarius often delivers
“shock and awe” of the violent kind, and we’ve seen way too many instances of
this in the past month. The last post here
discussed three high-profile instances, but we just saw another, with
yesterday’s mass killing of 12 people (mostly 20-something, young adults) in a
Thousand Oaks, California bar. Mars is now within orb of the Sibly
Moon (Aquarius)—unfortunately, we might want to gird ourselves for more
such senseless violence during this transit.
Did the former military man who
shot these young adults “snap” in reaction to the election? He killed himself,
too, so we may never know, but the timing is suggestive—perhaps we’ll learn
more in the news soon.
Moon (Libra) squares Pluto
(Capricorn) and quincunxes Neptune Rx (Pisces). The Moon represents the “People” here,
but it also reflects the central role that the health care issue played in this
election; unfortunately, the forces in play with this issue are tense. Pluto
reflects the corporate, “Big Money” side of the industry (often at odds—square—with people’s needs) and the Neptune
quincunx makes it difficult for people to feel secure and cared for (as in health care).
All of us, impacted
directly or not, should hope that the Opioid epidemic (a Neptune phenomenon) is contained.
How ironic (and bitterly disappointing)
that under essentially the same energies in this chart, the FDA announced it
will approve an even more deadly
opioid for distribution than Fentanyl. This may be the Neptune retrograde in
action—it will be interesting to see if this approval is rescinded under
protest.
Saturn (Capricorn) trines
Uranus Rx (Taurus); Jupiter (Scorpio) inconjoins Uranus Rx. Notice that the lower hemisphere of this
chart contains those seven waning outer
planetary cycles we saw in Table 11, and
the aspects noted here are prominent drivers for those energies. Both Saturn
and Jupiter tie into Pluto here: Saturn disposes Capricorn
and Pluto
disposes Scorpio, so it’s not surprising that the geopolitical games
being played these days seem a bit sinister.
Saturn trine Uranus Rx sounds
innocent and flowing enough, however as discussed in the last post here, this type
of trine can unleash troubling volatility. As we’ve seen in Florida since
Election Day, the vote counting continues (absentee, provisional, etc.), and
the legal issues and challenges are mounting.
We’re probably going
to see a hand recount in the Nelson-Scott Senate race, even though GOP Scott
has claimed victory and tried to shut down any further counting. Likewise with
the Gillum-DeSantis race, in which the lead DeSantis thought he possessed is
narrowing, the more votes they count. Both sides are taking legal
measures—Scott and DeSantis claiming voter fraud, with Trump chiming in and
threatening to “get involved.” Will justice prevail and flow unimpeded? With Uranus
retrograde, the fight is likely to be prolonged.
Will the Supreme Court
ultimately step in, as it did in the 2000 presidential race? If it does, we
will have an opportunity to see what the new Trump-friendly Court is made
of.
Difficulties with the mechanics
of voting are nothing new, obviously—remember, the cycles profile for 2018
looked quite the same as the one for 2016 in terms of the waxing/waning
imbalance (Trump was howling about the “rigged system” back then, when it
looked like he might lose), however the waning cycles are now closer to
completion and putting added pressure on all our systems. It’s more than time
to clear out the outmoded structures and technologies that have been bedeviling
our voting systems for a long time.
Some states have
thrown their resources behind getting this done, and others have been dragging
their feet. The systems in five states—including Georgia, where this year’s vote is so fraught with conflicts of
interest and questionable practices—do
not even provide a paper trail so votes can be confirmed! This gives
whoever oversees the elections in those states an inordinate amount of
potentially corruptible political
power.
This sorry state of
affairs holds true for all our
national infrastructures, as well (they received an overall D+ from the American Society of Civil
Engineers in 2017), but here we’re concerned with the mechanics for
exercising our democracy: these mechanics are also creaky at best and in need
of serious repair. A D+ sounds about right.
Final thoughts
Speaking of those waning Saturn
cycles, we might want to pay closer attention to the troubling
structural changes that Trump has set in motion within our system of
constitutional checks and balances. Under the guise of “dismantling the Deep
State”—a conspiratorial Saturn-Pluto idea
if there ever was one—he’s challenged the ability of Congress and the Courts to
check his actions, and as we’ve seen, he’s threatening to take closer control
of the vote, which has always been left to the states because centralized control can have serious anti-democratic
pitfalls.
Most recently, Trump has proven by
firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions and installing a loyalist in his place that
he’s serious about destroying the independence of the DOJ, transforming it into
his protector, with loyalty to him over the Constitution. This is an
aggressive use of today’s waning Saturn-Pluto energies, which, as presidential
historian Michael Beschloss put it, signals the beginning of a serious
constitutional crisis that could be “ten times worse than Nixon.”
Dems in key House committees will have their hands full in January.
Threats to our democratic
institutions (Saturn) that arise during the final stages of key waning cycles
can be serious because those institutions are vulnerable. The whole point of
such “end times” is to clear outmoded structures and systems for a fresh start,
and it matters who’s in charge during
these critical times. This is not to suggest that Dems have all the answers—far
from it—but at this moment in time, they and what’s left of our impartial
Courts are the only institutional checks we have on this wholesale
re-engineering of our democracy.
As the Saturn-Neptune cycle
wanes to completion in 2026, we should be able to shed some of the toxic
illusions we’ve been operating under as a nation for several decades, but the sooner we do this, the better. This process will be brought
home in a big way in the years prior to the new Saturn-Neptune cycle in
2026 at 0+Aries. During that time, transiting Neptune will oppose our Sibly
Neptune—this planet’s “half return,” in other words.
If that isn’t
enough intensity, at basically the same time, transiting Pluto will be within orb
of its return to Sibly Pluto’s position in late Capricorn. These times are
likely to try this nation’s Soul in ways we can’t even imagine at this point,
and the more karmic baggage we can resolve before all this, the better.
Clearly, Election 2018 didn’t happen
in a vacuum, and the past few decades have seen an important planetary story
unfold like a dance, to the rhythm of waxing and waning cycles. Election 2000
resonates with Election 2018 in important ways (we’re back in Florida
recounting ballots!); Elections 2006 and 2010 both rhyme with Election 2018 as
“change” elections (one party in, one party out); never mind all the echoes
we’re living through between the Trump administration and the even earlier
Watergate era!
All of these intricacies and echoes are what makes cosmic
politics so fascinating—and what makes understanding "the Dance" so absolutely critical!
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 2018. All
rights reserved.