 |
| A force to be reckoned with? |
"It is delusional to imagine that sexism or racism has evaporated. But to understand how different the 2020 landscape is, consider the array of choices that Biden enjoyed. That did not make his selection of Harris any less groundbreaking.
She is the daughter of immigrants, and the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent on a major-party national ticket. Harris is the American melting pot meets the American Dream..."--Washington Post:
Yet our so-called “American Dream” is being undermined in
ways that boggle the mind these days, and these undermining forces—beginning
with Trump’s shameless attempt at “birtherizing” Harris—are being deployed against the Biden-Harris team
as we speak. Their ticket—just barely getting off the ground with this week’s
convention—is faced first and foremost with Trump’s demonstrated intent to leverage
the full powers of his office to get himself re-elected—an authoritarian
approach from the get-go, but one that he has no shame about deploying, to the
extent that he will use his authority to starve
the Postal Service for funds in order to slow down and debilitate the
mail-in vote that he (Trump) fears will disadvantage him. Alarmingly, he’s even
stated out loud that this is his
intention, the reason he will not approve desperately needed funding for the
Postal Service. Again, from the Washington Post:
“President Trump on Thursday said
he opposes both election aid for states and an emergency bailout for the U.S.
Postal Service because he wants to restrict how many Americans can vote by mail,
putting at risk the nation’s ability to administer the Nov. 3 elections.”
This is what stealing an election looks like, and the
hand-picked campaign donor friend who Trump installed several weeks ago as the
Postmaster General appears to be going along with the idea. Not only is Louis DeJoy
a multi-millionaire ally and fund-raiser for Donald Trump; he’s a friend who stands
to benefit greatly from decimating the institution Trump
has placed in his hands. Not surprisingly, considering how Trump has installed
other agents of destruction in our key institutions, Louis DeJoy
reportedly has lucrative conflicts of interest that, by normal ethical
standards, should raise questions about him being Postmaster General.
Our traditional democratic norms call for separating out
the official office of the President
from the campaign office of the
incumbent candidate, but as all things charged with Neptunian energies tend to
do—especially with Trump—the boundaries between these two have been basically
blurred out of existence. His ramblings
from the White House podium have never respected any lines of discretion, but
lately he presents himself in campaign mode more often than not, inside the
White House or not. His responsibilities seem to have taken a clear back seat
to his primary purpose of bashing opponents and attempting to blow-up any means
and methods they may try to get out the vote. Doesn’t it occur to him that his supporters may need the mail-in vote, too?
 |
| A plan exists reportedly to remove 15% of the sorting machines from local POs. |
Of course, as with so many other issues, Trump embraces a
clear double standard when it comes to the mail-in vote: he and First Lady
Melania have requested
mail-in ballots for the upcoming Florida primary, and he’s basically given
“red” Florida—the home of many senior supporters—his blessing for running a mail-in
election. If any state
has had a tricky record of voting irregularities, it’s been Florida over the
years, but it seems that if those irregularities help Trump, they’ll be just
fine.
So, if we needed a reminder after the week-long
celebration of Congressman John Lewis’s life and career (see here), yes, the 2020 Election will be a referendum on our
sacred, fundamental right to vote. It’s
called “enfranchisement”—the life blood of citizenship, and the same thing
Trump tried to steal from Obama and now Harris with his “birtherism” nonsense.
I
doubt he really cares about where either
of these individuals was actually born—what he’s counting on is that by using
his bully pulpit to cast doubt on
their birth places, he will plant seeds in the impressionable minds of just
enough people who frequent social media, and in doing so he will effectively taint
their campaigns. If nothing else, he dominates the media with nonsense that
deflects from real issues and keeps people scrambling.
 |
| There's an immigrant story on both sides of Trump's family. |
Heck, if being born of immigrants was really a
disqualifying factor, Trump himself would have been disqualified for his German-American father
having married an immigrant Scottish
mother.
No, there’s a familiar racist “dog whistle” implied by Trump’s use of birtherism—this time inflected with misogynistic innuendos as well (Harris is “nasty,” a “mad woman,” etc.), but this time around, shame on the press if they get sucked in by them. His attacks should simply be called out for what they are—caste nonsense.
Writer Isabel Wilkerson teases apart the dynamics of the
sometimes overt, sometimes unconscious social hierarchies Trump is trying to
tap into with his comments and attacks throughout her brilliant 2020 work,
entitled Caste: the Origins of our
Discontent—a work I would recommend to all
who care about our present turmoil. An excerpt is warranted at this point:
“The human impulse to create
hierarchies runs across societies and cultures, predates the idea of race, and
thus is farther reaching, deeper, and older than raw racism and the
comparatively new division of humans by skin color….But over time, racism has
often been reduced to a feeling, a character flaw, conflated with prejudice,
connected to whether one is a good person or not.”[1]
The stubborn, deep-rootedness of “a feeling…conflated
with prejudice” is the recipe for so many of our societal ills, but notice that
Wilkerson links that “feeling” to a natural hierarchy-building
impulse that has manifested everywhere and in all ages. This impulse permeates
all levels, influencing a society’s collective unconscious, at times poisoning
our ability to make fair and just social choices, and our ability to relate to others, on-on-one: if Trump couldn’t
latch on to gender and race differences to put his opponents “in their
[imagined] place” relative to himself, he would probably feel powerless. He
certainly can’t compete on the basis of merit or knowledge or governing record,
so what else is left to him?
 |
| Biden and good friend Lindsay Graham--before the Trump divide. |
The astrology:
Biden
From my astrologer’s perspective, Biden made a brilliant
choice in Kamala Harris for his running mate. He had numerous great choices
among the women his campaign vetted for the position but he chose the one who
had the broadest range of governing experience, among other positive
attributes—the one who could conceivably
step into the lead position if circumstances required. At 78 years old in the
midst of a pandemic, Biden was wise enough to plan for any such eventualities,
choosing a Gen X, 55 year old running mate. If they are elected, we will
hopefully enjoy the benefit of both leaders’
experience and skills and won’t be reduced to one of them, but it’s comforting
(to me, anyway) that she is astrologically equipped to hold her own should she
have to.
So here, we’ll first examine each of their charts individually (Charts #1, Biden; #2, Harris),
and then we’ll very briefly consider one chart for each of them that tells
us what was going on astrologically when they each won an important election (Biwheels
#1 and #2). It’s my feeling that these successful election charts will give
us some perspective on what will work well for this ticket in November. That
will be quite enough for one post, but in the next post here, we’ll explore
what their two natal charts look like together.
First, let’s examine Joe Biden’s cyclic index figures in Table 1. This “index” number is
calculated by subtracting the total degrees of angular separation between the waning cycle planets in his nativity
from the total degrees of angular separation between the waxing cycle planets in his chart. The resulting total (positive or
negative) reflects the social/astrological “environment” the individual is born
into. This can explain a lot about a leader’s worldview and trajectory in life,
so let’s examine Biden’s numbers first and see what they tell us.
Table 1. Joe Biden
cyclic index
Planetary cycle
|
Waxing degrees of angular Distance
|
Waning degrees of angular distance
|
Jup-Sat
|
45.11
|
|
Jup-Ura
|
52.22
|
|
Jup-Nep
|
293.37
|
|
Jup-Plu
|
347.54
|
|
Sat-Ura
|
7.11
|
|
Sat-Nep
|
248.26
|
|
Sat-Plu
|
302.44
|
|
Ura-Nep
|
241.16
|
|
Ura-Plu
|
295.33
|
|
Nep-Plu
|
54.17
|
|
Sub-totals
|
158.61
|
-1728.10
|
Difference (waxing sub-total minus waning subtotal)
|
-(1569.49)
|
Given that Biden’s waning cycles all feature angular
separations over 200, it’s not surprising that his index total is deeply
negative (-1569.49) in the end. Clearly, born in 1942, not even a year after
the U.S. entered WWII, he was born into a time when deep systemic change was
gestating for the post-War times that would follow. This aptly describes the tone of FDR’s long
presidency (1932-1945) and the monumental changes that period brought about
both here and abroad.
For instance, Biden’s Jupiter-Pluto cycle was
in its final, balsamic phase when he was born, pointing to the key shift in power
dynamics that was drawing near. Sure enough, when FDR won re-election for the fourth time in 1944 (two consecutive
terms have been the limit ever since), Harry Truman was the running mate who
would survive him after April, 1945 to usher the U.S. into a “Cold War” with the
then-Soviet Union—both nuclear powers and thus a shift towards a terrifyingly
new world order of “mutually-assured-destruction” that basically split the globe
into two hegemonic camps pitting democracy (and capitalism) against Marxist
communism. Biden was born into a deeply
polarized world, and he may live to serve as president in a similar,
deeply-divided environment.
In the last post here I pointed out how so many of the
issues that are crying out for resolution today go back to that WWII era in
which Biden was born. No guarantees, of course, but perhaps this significant
timing will make him especially suited for leadership now? He’s run for the
nomination before and lost, but maybe the time just wasn’t quite right at those
times for his unique combination of qualities.
Biden could have tried to bump
Hillary Clinton out of the 2016 race, but didn’t because his son Beau—as it
turned out, a
good friend of Kamala Harris—had just died of brain cancer, and Joe needed
some down-time to absorb and overcome that loss. No one with an ounce of heart
could hold that against him; in fact, if anything, it says that Biden has the kind of “heart” we need in our leaders—capable of feeling deeply for
others. But enough speculation—let’s consider that and more in Chart #1 below.
Chart #1: Joseph
Biden, November 20, 1942, 8:30 a.m. War Time (Rated: A, from memory),
Scranton, PA. Tropical Equal Houses, True
Node. All charts cast, courtesy of Kepler 8.0 Cosmic Patterns software.
Jupiter rules ASC (Sagittarius);
Mercury-Sun-Venus conjoin (Scorpio) trine Jupiter (Cancer) in 12th. This
is a true power center in Biden’s chart—one that suggests there are profound
depths to his character that may explain (among other things) his devout
Catholicism. His Scorpio Sun rules his Leo 9th and his Mercury-Sun-Venus
square 9th house Chiron (Leo). He has been knocked around by
life, no doubt; these squares would explain, for instance, why he often refers
to his family struggling early on (he was born in the first months of the war,
but the Depression was still in the air, as well). Wikipedia fills in
some of the blanks for us here:
“Biden's father was wealthy but had
suffered several financial setbacks by the time his son was born. For several
years, the family [parents and four siblings] had to live with Biden's maternal
grandparents, the Finnegans.[18]
When the Scranton area fell into economic decline during the 1950s, Biden's
father could not find sustained work.[19]
In 1953, the Bidens moved into an apartment in Claymont, Delaware, where they lived for several
years before again moving to a house in Wilmington, Delaware.[18]
Joe Biden Sr. later became a successful used
car salesman, maintaining the family's middle-class lifestyle.[18][19][2”
The challenges Biden Sr. had with establishing himself
after several setbacks would have undoubtedly registered as Chironic
“wounds” in Joseph’s youth, but they probably also steeled his spirit
for the challenges of his own later life. His history of stuttering is pretty clearly represented by his Mercury-Chiron
square, especially with his Mercury (ability to speak) already
undermined in its 12th house placement. Apparently this difficulty
still surfaces on occasion—some credit his sometimes hesitant debate
performances to this problem.
 |
| Jupiter trines shine quite personably in Biden's demeanor. |
On a more positive note, it appears that his 8th
house Jupiter trine to his 12th house Sun would have pulled his
Sun
forward into more prominence, despite the troublesome stutter that
might have otherwise rendered him shy or withdrawn. These Scorpio-Cancer trines are
an important power center in Biden’s chart, as we’ll see when we examine the
Biden-Harris-Sibly relationship.
Venus (Scorpio) rules his Taurus Moon and 6th
house. This and the lovely trine Venus forms with his dignified
8th house Jupiter (Cancer) suggest an easy rapport with both
workers, their unions and the military—areas considered political strengths for
him. His Part-of-Fortune reinforces this notion, situated in his 6th
as well. At the 6th house cusp, Moon (Taurus)
disposes Biden’s Jupiter at the same time it squares
his Pluto (Leo) and trines his Chiron-No. Node (Leo-Virgo). It’s
not surprising from all this that he’s chosen a powerful woman for running
mate—he’s probably found such feminine influence profoundly nurturing and
healing in his life and work.
Saturn (Rx) conjoins Uranus at DSC (Gemini);
Uranus (Rx) trines Neptune (Libra) and t-squares Nodal axis
(Virgo-Pisces). Biden was born
into very interesting geopolitical times, and the outer-planetary aspects
represented in these aspects speak precisely to that point. He was born just
months after Saturn and Uranus came together for a new cycle
at 29°+Taurus (5/1942); in
fact these two were still in a post-launch retrograde phase, suggesting his
expression of that cycle would feel more constrained than it might have been if
both points were moving direct. It has taken him time and hard work to develop
his authoritative voice and his ideas for reforming social and governmental
systems. Positively, he’s enjoyed the trust of others to the tune of several
terms as Senator and a chance to fulfill “unfinished business” in his career.
The Uranus-Neptune cycle is approaching
its exact waning trine here, or the Disseminating phase, which is a time for
ground-breaking developments aimed at putting pressure on the status quo world
order as the cycle completes. That cycle
would go on to complete in 1993 and begin anew at 19°+Capricorn. As many of us can probably relate
to, between WWII and 1993, a host of startling groundbreaking developments split
the world between two hegemonic super-powers (Cold War), and when that became
economically untenable, that order dissolved into economic, trade and technology
globalization, a system that has literally shifted the world’s economic focus
away from workers and their needs, to privilege corporate bottom lines over all.
Not incidentally, this globalization period brought in a deregulated, “free trade” system that effectively ratcheted up the
destruction of the environment in a corporate quest to dominate the world’s
non-renewable resources. Here’s where Biden’s track record on trade agreements
will come into play in the campaign—like so many Democrats who were charmed by
Clinton’s embrace of “free trade,” Biden voted for NAFTA in the 1990s, but he
has since voted against several
similar agreements, citing differences between “free” and “fair” trade that enforces key
regulations. He enjoys an 85% positive rating from the AFL-CIO on trade
issues, apparently.
Saturn-Uranus (Rx, Gemini) and Uranus
Rx-Neptune (Gemini-Libra) cycles clearly play a central role in Biden’s
chart—Saturn rules his 2nd house of values from his 7th
house of allies/enemies; Uranus rules his 3rd house of mindset from
the worker-and-service-friendly 6th; Neptune rules his 4th house of
heritage and family from the 10th—suggesting his approach to public
service and career has been forged in the everyday concerns that he grew up
witnessing around him. Being in mutable Gemini, these placements also
reflect a leader who is willing to adapt and consider multiple approaches to
policy, etc. Over his long career, he has had an admittedly “checkered” voting record, as far as
liberals are concerned, but he has adapted over time on several key issues
(especially issues of race and civil rights) to be a solidly centrist liberal.
His choice of VP running mates suggests that he’s willing to entertain even
more progressive positions—hopefully the campaign will clarify a lot of this.
Jupiter (Rx, Cancer), the ruler
of his chart—is placed in his powerful 8th house, and both Jupiter
and his Cancer 8th resonate with his
lovely Taurus Moon (conjunct 6th house cusp). His personal
and professional lives melt quite seamlessly into each other, suggesting that
public service is not a “mask” he puts on, but who he is.
 |
| Biden has long enjoyed the support of veterans' groups. |
Grand Square: Saturn and Uranus (Rx) conjoin
DSC and oppose ASC (Gemini-Sagittarius); this axis squares Nodal Axis
(Virgo-Pisces). This reinforces what a key role the Saturn-Uranus
cycle in particular has played in Biden’s identity, his relationships
and his career—a point we’ll explore even further when we place Harris’s chart
next to his. Suffice to say here, he chose his running mate well, in this
regard. Biden began his career as a lawyer, which set him up for a particular
interest in law enforcement and our Justice system—indeed, those who criticize
his record often point to his history of supporting tough drug laws and the
Clinton-era “tough on crime” bill that many think paved the way for our present
crisis with mass incarceration.
Despite Trump’s efforts to make him look soft
on crime and like an enemy to police forces who fear the current “defund the
police” movement, however, Biden’s
history and current stated positions contradict those claims.
Saturn also rules his Capricorn
2nd house, while together,
his Saturn-Uranus conjunction rules his Aquarius 3rd house. This
complex of things suggests a level of discipline and competence (and perhaps
even innovative thinking) when it
comes to the economic issues of our day. As we’ll see when we place Biden’s
chart next to the nation’s Sibly chart, this 3rd
house resonance ties in nicely with the Sibly Moon –the People and their
more every-day, local needs and concerns.
Moon (Taurus) trines/sextiles Nodal Axis
(Virgo-Pisces) and squares Pluto (Leo). Moon also forms a Yod with Neptune
(Libra) and ASC (Sagittarius). These aspects point to the complicated
relationship he has had to navigate between the personal and the collective
over his long career. We can probably appreciate how this fits the life of a
“vice-president” – one who submerges his own career goals (Neptune in 10th
inconjunct Moon) to some extent in order to serve another’s.
The VP
position is much more complex than it looks on the surface, undoubtedly, and
IMHO, Biden has found strong ways to develop his own strengths in the process.
He came through his time as VP with strong endorsements from his “boss” Obama—they
seem to have had a very mutually respectful working relationship. There’s a
strong sense here and in his chart, progressed for Election day (Nov. 7) that Biden’s “time to shine” would come eventually--even so, if he’s elected, it will not be
a slam-dunk or “coronation”—more on that in the next post when we look at transits and other
factors.
Biden elected
Senator in November, 1972
Biwheel #1: (inner wheel) Joseph Biden, November
20, 1942, 8:30 a.m. War Time (Rated: A, from memory),
Scranton, PA; (outer wheel) Biden elected Senator, November 7, 1972, 6 a.m.
ST, Washington, D.C.. Tropical Equal Houses,
True Node. All charts cast, courtesy of Kepler 8.0 Cosmic Patterns software.
When Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1972, Election
Moon and Neptune conjoined his ASC, which probably relieved the
frustrating Yod he had lived with natally, while undermining him on other
levels by squaring his Nodal axis; Election Mercury joined them to oppose
his Saturn-Uranus
and square
his Nodal
axis as well. He would somehow turn these placements to his advantage
in the election, taking an important leap forward in his life, but this success
was soon followed with tragedy in his wife and daughter’s deaths by car
accident that December. By nature, Scorpios sign up for intensity and
drama, and he has certainly had more than his share.
Transiting Mars-0-Uranus squared his natal Jupiter (Cancer),
which suggests both the upset he delivered to the entrenched politician
he unseated, but also the accident that was looming with his family members and
its “whole-Being” impact on him (Jupiter ruled his entire chart; Mars rules
his 5th and 12th), and Election Venus conjoined Pluto,
both conjunct his natal Neptune (ruling 4th).
 |
| In his 1972 Senate run, he was the "young guy" challenging a much older incumbent. |
When necessity called, he proved himself to be a
committed family man—with Pluto transiting over his Neptune
during this period (ruling his 4th), he was forced to learn
the incredibly difficult job of being a single Dad who rode the train home
every night for his sons, at the same time he was learning the ropes as a new
Senator. Saturn was transiting his 7th during this period, too –
quincunx his Mercury and square his Virgo MC and Pisces IC—definitely
signs of family difficulties. Not coincidentally, he was probably still feeling
the pressure and impact of his first Saturn return.
These tough times with his family would have certainly
tested his commitment to public service—it would have undoubtedly been much
simpler for him to work closer to home as a lawyer. However, there’s a strong
sense that Biden’s whole Being is oriented towards the public realm, that he is
truly “born” to public service and leadership, but not necessarily ego-centric leadership. Several factors—including
the 12th house placement of his Sun-Venus-Mercury stellium, suggest
that he has his best success when he projects his commitment to others, not when he allows his ego to
get ahead of him.
Biden's Saturn also trines his Neptune,
suggesting that he is wired to “manifest the Dream” that drives his
career, but Neptune can be notoriously hard on egos. Significantly, his Neptune
opposes Eris (Rx, Aries), so we can bet that he will vigorously fight
for that “Dream,” but he won’t do it in the bombastic, ego-driven manner we’ve
become accustomed to from the White House.
Uranus is the only outer planet
located in his personal, lower hemisphere, and its role there seems to be to
connect his emotional nature (Moon) with points in the public
(upper) realm. His Uranus semi-sextiles his Moon, with Moon (Taurus)-trine-Chiron (Leo)-No.
Node (Virgo) and Uranus square Chiron-No. Node. This all seems to say
that his best path forward (No. Node) involves public service
that heals wounds, and there are plenty of those to go around. His chart
features three important outer-planet
placements in air signs, including Neptune, Uranus and Saturn—helping
to usher in a new, healthier and more creative relationship between workers (6th
h. Uranus)
and technological innovation for the purposes of restoring the “Dream” would be
a productive use of these energies. His “Build Back Better” platform reveals a
serious focus on American manufacturing and infrastructure building—those
issues suit his outer planetary placements quite nicely.
His platform also fits the spirit of the new Jupiter-Saturn
cycle due to launch in December this year, which will be transiting
Biden’s 2nd house of values at that time, forming a supportive grand
trine with his three air placements.
On that note, let’s introduce ourselves to Kamala
Harris’s nativity.
 |
| Harris's parents, Shymala Gopalan and Donald Harris. |
The astrology:
Kamala Harris
Table 2. Kamala
Harris cyclic index
Planetary cycle
|
Waxing degrees of angular Distance
|
Waning degrees of angular distance
|
Jup-Sat
|
85.33
|
|
Jup-Ura
|
250.45
|
|
Jup-Nep
|
187.10
|
|
Jup-Plu
|
248.33
|
|
Sat-Ura
|
165.12
|
|
Sat-Nep
|
101.38
|
|
Sat-Plu
|
163.00
|
|
Ura-Nep
|
296.25
|
|
Ura-Plu
|
357.48
|
|
Nep-Plu
|
61.23
|
|
Sub-totals
|
576.06
|
1339.61
|
Difference (waxing sub-total minus waning subtotal)
|
-(763.55)
|
Harris’s cyclical index shows an even 5 cycles waxing (Jup-Sat, Sat-Ura, Sat-Nep, Sat-Plu, Nep-Plu)
and 5 cycles waning (Jup-Ura,
Jup-Nep, Jup-Plu, Ura-Nep, Ura-Plu), with a final index difference between
the sums of waxing degrees minus waning degrees of -763.55. As with Biden, she
was born into a rapidly changing world. Her index number isn’t as negative as
Biden’s, but it’s certainly indicative of change on the horizon. She was born
the year before the Johnson
administration’s Voting Rights
Act would be passed on August 6, 1965, which happened only two months before the amazingly
impactful Uranus-Pluto conjunction in Virgo that launched in
October, 1965 exactly conjunct Harris’s Venus (17°+Virgo—Chart
#2 below).
Anyone who remembers or studies the 1960s can attest that
this was a period of serious social turmoil around voting and civil rights in
general—it’s entirely possible that this turmoil in her early life primed
Harris for a life in Law and civil rights advocacy. Since so much of the
injustice happens these days within the structure of law enforcement and prison
systems, her fields of expertise make for a weighty, significant combination.
 |
| Harris credits her late mother, Shymala Gopalan, with her fighting spirit. |
It’s notable that the Jupiter
cycles (with the exception of Jup-Sat)
are all waning, and the Saturn cycles are all waxing. This may reflect her
birth into a sea of systemic biases on two
fronts (immigrant Black father, immigrant Indian mother), another marker
for the many ways the personal and
the collective intersect quite
strongly in her life. Harris’s early years were also influenced by the
Court-ordered integration of schools by busing: is it any wonder she grew to
believe that needed changes could be wrought within the government, instead of from without, by protesting? However she arrived to it, the Law proved
to be a very fertile use for her energies, setting the stage for her political
life.
Barrier-busting has been a consistent theme with her,
being the 2nd African-American woman and the first Asian American Senator; CA’s 3rd female Senator. AG for CA in 2010. Being strong on
“law and order” is another consistent theme—judging by some criticisms, there
have been times (especially when she was AG) when her desire for civil rights
progress and her duty to err on the side of law and order have clashed.
Now that we know that she is Biden's pick for running
mate, the chart comparison we’ll discuss in the next post will feel far more “real.” It’s
interesting that she’s from the liberal-leaning state of CA and he has a more
eastern background, with roots in both Delaware and Pennsylvania, but
apparently, Biden didn’t decide on the basis of her geographical assets—he was
going to carry CA anyway!
Harris makes no attempt to downplay her parents’
immigrant backgrounds, and why should she? They’re both accomplished
professionals who have contributed greatly in their respective fields. From Wikipedia:
“Harris was born on October 20,
1964, in Oakland, California.[3]
Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was a breast cancer scientist
who had emigrated from Tamil Nadu, India, in 1960 to pursue a doctorate in endocrinology
at UC Berkeley.[11]
Her father, Donald J. Harris, is a Stanford University professor emeritus of
economics, who emigrated from British
Jamaica in 1961 for graduate study in economics at UC Berkeley.[12][13]
“
In her first speech as VP candidate, Harris referred to
civil rights activism being a family affair from the time Kamala was still
being driven around in a stroller—so the picture taking shape of her formative
years is again, pretty much in keeping with her later life and career. Still,
the right-wing (egged on by Trump and company, no doubt) has been working to
cast doubt on her birthright as an American citizen for some time now. From The Atlantic:
“Last year, in an explicit echo of birtherism,
the right-wing troll Jacob Wohl
claimed that ‘Kamala Harris is NOT eligible to be President’ because her
parents had not been legal residents of the United States for at least five
years before her birth. (There is no such requirement). The president’s son Donald
Trump Jr. retweeted (and then deleted) a Black “alt-right” figure saying,
“She’s not an American Black. Period.” Researchers
found evidence
suggesting that tweets questioning Harris’s heritage were part of a coordinated
campaign ‘to wedge the issue of who counts as a black person in America.’ (In
the 2016 election, Russian-linked
accounts repeatedly
posed as Black Americans on social media. So have alt-right
and white-supremacist
groups. Last month, Facebook removed
a Romanian network of accounts masquerading as Black Trump supporters.)”
As I said, so much pitiful nonsense—no response
needed.
At this point, let’s consider Harris’s actual natal chart
below.
Chart #2: Kamala
Harris, October 20, 1964, 9:28 p.m. DST (Rated AA: BC/BR in
hand), Oakland, CA. Tropical Equal
Houses, True Node. All charts cast, courtesy of Kepler 8.0 Cosmic Patterns
software.
All three of the most outer planets (Uranus, Neptune, Pluto) reside
in this chart’s lower hemisphere, suggesting that Harris takes what happens
“out there” in the collective to herself and others quite personally (having
been quite personally impacted by it
all); this is something that will
probably resonate strongly with the American people. There are many
lower-upper connections between her planets, of course: her Uranus
rules her Law-related 9th, where her
Saturn sits significantly in late Aquarius,
and Uranus
does this from her third, where it
conjoins Pluto (Virgo).
So that socially
transformative and disruptive Uranus-Pluto conjunction would soon happen in her 3rd house, certainly
impacting her mindset forever. The importance of this planetary cycle to her
career is clear to see—her November 2010 election to California AG took place
as Uranus
and Pluto were slowly maneuvering through retrogrades and direct motion
into their 3Q square (Aries-Capricorn)—her life simply “speaks to” those
who hunger for social change.
Neptune rules her career/goals-oriented 10th from her Venus-ruled
5th, where it sits along with her Sun (Libra) and
Mercury (Scorpio). She, like
Trump, was a full-Moon child—her
strong Aries Moon dominates
her 11th
house and is disposed by 2nd house Leo Mars. She’s no shrinking violet, and she
brings an aggressive emotional quality to all she does, which seems to make
GOPers very agitated (and usually very insulting) when she’s one of the
investigators on a committee interviewing them.
Harris clearly knows her own impact on others, but she also has a passion for getting
to the root of issues and for winning, which will help intensify the tone of
the campaign she’s now engaged in with Biden. She complements his more reserved
Scorpio
nature with her much more “storming the castle” extroversion and steel-trap-minded attention to details. And it won’t hurt at all for their media
exposure that her Full Moon axis forms a t-square
with Sibly Pluto-Mercury (Capricorn).
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| Harris's career has been a matter of interest across the globe. |
Harris’s Nodal axis lies across her chart
horizon, with No. Node conjunct her Gemini ASC. If we take the No. Node to mean a
desirable Soul direction, she is certainly
on a desirable path at this time—on Election Day, her No. Node will fall a mere
3 degrees from the election chart’s No. Node (Nov. 7, 2020 chart not shown). This
sector of Gemini is also tied into Trump’s chart, of course, so having
her Node
here, sitting powerfully at her ASC, may help the Biden-Harris ticket.
In fact, Harris’s Nodal Axis/horizon blend is a key power center in Harris’s chart,
and her Full Moon (Libra-Aries) is a definite plus,
especially since her No. Node sextiles this 11th
h. Moon (Gemini-Aries) and her Sun sextiles So. Node (Libra-Sag). Her Sun also
trines
Saturn (9th h. Aquarius), with Saturn opposite her Mars
(Leo); all this gives her great mental stamina and a seriously
authoritative, no-nonsense demeanor in the battles she chooses to fight (Mars).
The fact that this Saturn-Mars opposition also takes in the Sibly Moon (chart not shown) may or may not cause issues with
the public’s perception of her. She may come across as too much of a “bad-ass”
for some, but it’s interesting that her Saturn opposes Trump’s Mars-ASC and their Mars conjoin (Trump chart
not shown—a discussion for another day): he’s
not used to being challenged on this level and it may be quite off-putting. He and his minions have already rolled
out their predictable misogynistic responses to her; surely nothing she hasn’t
dealt with for years!
Harris’s Jupiter and Saturn fall square
(Taurus-Aquarius). This is a waxing, still early, Crescent phase
square, which suggests she is driven to grow in her work and that she’s been
primed from birth for life in a sea of structural challenges. My guess is
she—like so many ambitious women of color—has worked much harder than any man
would need to for the sake of the same advantages, but she also works at deploying
her energies efficiently—this Jupiter
squares her Mars (Leo) and inconjoins her Sun (Libra), suggesting that
she seeks to keep a mental balance in her professional life, and this may make
her a demanding taskmaster at times (new reports have backed this up).
With Mercury ruling her chart (Gemini) from
deep-diving water sign Scorpio, and disposing her Uranus-Pluto-Venus stellium
in Virgo (all opposite Chiron in Pisces), we can see the rigorous intellectual (just the facts, Ma’am)
approach she takes to her work, not to mention the deep sense of (civil
rights-inflected) ethics she brings to the job. We can also see how she
intimidates those she interrogates in committee hearings.
Venus disposes her Libra Sun from that Civil
Rights-era Virgo stellium, so it’s fair to say that the issues
she was exposed to in her formative years go with her everywhere in Washington.
Finally, Harris’s chart features a nice Air-Fire
Kite configuration—here, a grand Air trine (No. Node to Saturn to
Sun), enhanced by an opposition (Nodal
axis/ASC-DSC) shooting through its center, creating two nice
sextiles at the kite’s “crown” (So-Node to Saturn; So. Node to Sun). The
fiery quality of this kite configuration is further
enhanced by the mystic rectangle that connects with it. According to aspects
expert Bil Tierney, this unusual one involves “two sets of oppositions whose
ends trine and sextile each other”[2]
(Harris’s Saturn-Mars and Sun-Moon oppositions do just that).
Tierney cites Dane Rudhyar’s Astrology of Personality, where he says the mystic rectangle
indicates “’practical mysticism’, since it involve two potentially
awareness-revealing, illuminating oppositions that can creatively reach ideal
or inspired fruition (trine influence) thru intelligent, innovative utilization
of energies (sextile influence).”[3]
The strong Air-Fire relationships at play in this and the Kite point to a rare blend of intellect and passion at work in
Harris’s nature and work.
 |
| Winning the AG office in California was a major turning point for Harris. |
The California AG
Election, Nov. 2010
Biwheel #2: (inner wheel) Kamala Harris, October
20, 1964, 9:28 p.m. DST (Rated AA: BC/BR in
hand), Oakland, CA; (outer wheel) Harris elected AG of
CA, November 2, 2010, 6 a.m. DST, Sacramento, CA. Tropical Equal Houses, True Node. All charts cast, courtesy of Kepler
8.0 Cosmic Patterns software.
When Harris was
elected California AG in November 2010, Neptune
and Chiron were triggering her
powerful Saturn (Aquarius), and also at the top of her chart, Jupiter-Uranus
(Rx, Pisces) were squaring her horizon, Nodal Axis (Gemini-Sag) and
Part-of-Fortune (Sag). Even
though this was during Jupiter-Uranus’s post-conjunction retrograde passage (they conjoined for a new
cycle in 6/2010 at 1°+Aries),
and the election took weeks to resolve (her opponent finally conceded near the
end of November), she was vindicated and the door opened for a huge leap
forward in her career.
Election Eris was also forming a transiting grand trine with her Mars (Leo) and DSC-Pt of Fortune, and it didn’t hurt that Election
Pluto-No. Node (Capricorn) was still within orb of
conjoining those late Sag points.
Flashing forward, Pluto now trines
her Uranus-Pluto-Venus (Virgo)—this
is probably signaling that it’s high time to resolve the issues that exploded
in the 1960s with that Uranus-Pluto conjunction. Maybe her candidacy, not to mention
the Black Lives Matter movement, has manifested right on time!
Election Mars (Sag) also
squared Harris MC/IC (Pisces-Virgo) and trined her Aries Eris, with
Election Pallas (Sag) closely square her Pisces Chiron, triggering its
powerful oppositions to Uranus-Pluto. Remember, this Chiron opposition to Uranus-Pluto was
a generational configuration (all generations seem to have one or two major
astrological milestones that deeply influence them), and it marked a deep wound
around social justice issues, so these transits have not been powerful for her
alone, but for her entire generation. Notice that this opposition t-squares Harris
Pallas (Sag): How appropriate that Harris was seeking a
“justice”-related position in this 2010 election!
Election Jupiter-Uranus (Rx, Pisces)
also fell quincunx her Sun (Libra) as it sextiled her Taurus Jupiter (Rx),
forming an interchart Yod – a
couple degrees later, and her Mars would have figured into a second interchart Yod. Even so, the
existing Yod must have created some frustrating two-steps-forward,
three-steps-back dynamics that she’s had to navigate, even beyond election day 2010.
Her natal Jupiter-Sun inconjunct (Taurus-Libra) may explain why she’s been known to shift courses in mid-stream on
policy positions (as with Medicare for All) when it seems there’s nowhere to go
with her original positions. She’s proven herself willing to admit mistakes and
correct her course—and to admit when it’s time to simply shut down a campaign
that wasn’t working for her. This is probably not a bad thing, considering how
fixed many of her natal positions are.
 |
| Across the COVID-19 divide, an effective team? |
Final thoughts
We’ve covered a lot of
territory regarding both Biden and Harris here, but we still need to get to the
“juicy” stuff—how will they interact astrologically as a team on this
presidential quest? Of course, this coming week will be occupied with the first
ever virtual Democratic Convention, which will
definitely tell us something about the internal party challenges they might face as a team, but to tell you the
truth, my focus this week will also be tightly locked on the crisis with the
U.S. Postal Service and Trump’s bald-faced admission that he’s out to defund
and undermine the agency due to its role in the mail-in vote. To my mind, this
is an even more weighty impeachable offense than the ones that got him
impeached last year, but since that process isn’t likely to recur with an
election around the corner, we’ll have to see exactly what Congress can do to
protect our Post Office and our right
to vote.
Meanwhile, this week marks the
100th anniversary of Women’s Suffrage in the United States—the date in history when
a bunch of men in Congress finally admitted that there would be no peace in
their lives until they got out of the way of women exercising what should have
been recognized as their God-given
birthright from day one in this nation.
I’ll leave you with a chart for August 18, 1920—notable for its lovely Uranus-Pluto-to-Juno-No.
Node grand Water trine (Pisces-Cancer-Scorpio), Pallas opposite Juno and Pluto-Venus
sextile (Cancer-Virgo). The Cosmos was simply not going to allow its primal
feminine force to be repressed and disenfranchised any longer because it was
simply time…time…time.
In the next post we’ll consider
whether Biden is the likely vehicle for the next
stage of justice for women—an actual shot at a position in the White House.
Stay tuned!
Be safe, be well!
 |
| John Lewis's life's work with the Voting Rights Act must not be in vain. |
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; see
the sidebar links on the home page for her two most recent publications, now
available as e-books on Amazon.
© Raye Robertson 2020. All
rights reserved.
