Saturday, November 28, 2020

Tending our "garden" and planning ahead: about the January Jupiter-3Q-Uranus milestone


“One thing that has made America exceptional thus far has been its ability to adapt…this nation has reckoned with its own internal contradictions and with external threats…and it has evolved successfully in response to such circumstances.

The question today is, can we still adapt? Will our experiment get another cycle? Or has our society’s capacity to evolve run its course?”—Eric Liu & Nick Hanauer, The Gardens of Democracy

  

It was difficult to know which way things would go there for awhile, but it finally appears that a respectable majority of the American people decided to push back on the undemocratic trends that have assailed us lately and to weigh in on the side of continuing evolution. Do our “internal contradictions” and “external threats” simply evaporate with that decision? Hardly, and we would be naïve to think our president-elect Joe Biden’s path ahead will be smooth—Trump is, it seems, doing everything he can to make sure there will be no smooth sailing ahead. We’ve beaten back one assault on our “garden of democracy,” as Liu and Hanauer put it, but the task is far from complete.

Yet, the hopeful election results and the astrology of the coming four years suggest that we will emerge, re-envigorated from these dark waning times. I will even hazard a guess that once the COVID vaccines are widely circulated and people start to feel somewhat “normal” again, the tone of our social discourse will begin to lighten, slowly but surely. We’re not likely to go from dismal to euphoric overnight, in other words, however the potential for better times overall does seem likely and cosmically, right on schedule.

I emphasize this because we reached a deep pit of negative waning cyclical index numbers early this year that has since begun to ease up v-e-r-y gradually and will continue to do so over the course of Biden’s administration. We’re still not out of the woods with these negative numbers, but there is an astrological trajectory for digging ourselves out of that hole that we will discuss ahead.

Of course, these better times aren’t likely to simply materialize, whatever the astrology of the day is. Energies that are conducive to ending some trends and beginning others will be available, but having the experts in place who know how to leverage such possibilities will be key. In that sense, I am heartened by Biden’s initial picks for Cabinet positions—they are all experts in their fields with long, deep experience in public service, and these are qualities that will matter greatly going forward. 

 

Former Fed Chairwoman, Janet Yellen.

For instance, Biden’s choice of former Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen for Treasury Secretary seems especially appropriate—many economic experts anticipate some difficult adjustments ahead as we dig ourselves out of this pandemic economy, so it may be very helpful to have an expert in that Cabinet position with her depths of experience. And judging from his recent calls for more stimulus programs, it seems that our current Fed Chairman Jerome Powell might be a good “partner” for Yellen for guiding monetary and fiscal policies. I don’t think we can underestimate the importance of putting experts, rather than loyalists and sycophants, as Trump preferred, in these key positions.

Biden and the team he is amassing around him like to use the phrase “America’s back” to describe our post-election possibilities. The America they’re referring to, of course, is the one Trump is still trying hard to destroy on his way out of the White House—the nation that values European allies and is wary of Vladimir Putin’s clear desire to meddle in our affairs while he works to rebuild the Soviet Union’s Eastern bloc sphere of influence. Just this week, Trump made good on his plans announced last May to withdraw the U.S. from the post-Cold War Open Skies Treaty with Russia. Quartz.com describes the move well:

“Amid the foreign policy wreckage president Donald Trump will leave for his successor are a pair of scrapped aircraft that underpinned a treaty designed to lower the chances of nuclear war.

Since 2002, the US, Russia, and 32 other countries have allowed each other’s reconnaissance planes to fly into their airspace and snap pictures of the ground to give each party confidence that the other is adhering to arms control rules and not acting belligerently. Trump formally withdrew from the treaty this week after threatening to do so last year.”

And, according to MSNBC.com, not only are the very specialized aircraft designed for the surveillance function underlying this treaty being scrapped, but the funding to replace them was also canceled by Trump. This means that the intelligence the U.S. has provided to European allies for decades for their protection from potential Russian aggression will take a considerable effort to re-establish. Not only was Trump’s unilateral decision to pull out of the treaty likely not done properly (with Congressional buy in, for starters), but his stacking of the Defense and Intelligence areas with loyalists and unqualified people in these final two months of his administration suggests further shadowy or radical plans for those agencies. 

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran's slain top nuclear scientist.


We’ve witnessed Trump’s enthusiasm for a select group of right-wing dictators over the years, of course, but now we have to wonder if there are last minute “deals” in the works that could seriously compromise Biden’s way forward. As it happens, breaking news indicates that one of Iran’s top nuclear scientists has been assassinated, with early signs suggesting Israel’s involvement. We’re far from knowing the facts yet, but how curious is it that the Trump administration has recently been working hard to bring Israel and Saudi Arabia together over their shared opposition to Iran?

Even before the election, Trump has been especially eager to give Israeli leader Netanyahu everything he’s wanted, including an end to the U.S. ban on Israel’s continued building of West Bank settlements, a move the Palestinians condemned and the U.N. has sanctioned. Since the election, Trump’s Sec’y of State Mike Pompeo has announced his department’s plan to label groups that criticize Israeli actions as “anti-Semitic” and thus not eligible for U.S. aid. This sounds innocent enough on the surface, but Pompeo was apparently considering slapping this onerous label on critical humanitarian groups like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam. Clearly, the results could have been extremely tragic indeed if Pompeo’s own State Department colleagues didn’t push back on this plan.

It’s nothing new that Trump has prioritized his relationships with Israel and Saudi Arabia in that critical geopolitical region, but whatever the big foreign relations picture actually looks like once he’s gone, his recent level of deference to their actions suggests there has been some serious “deal-making” going on. To what end, we have to wonder. 

Bottom line, Trump may have “allowed” the transition to begin finally, but it’s quite possible some of the drama he’s kept alive has been a diversion from some very questionable last minute actions. On the domestic front, for instance, Trump has initiated a host of last-minute regulation changes that could seriously bog down Biden’s forward motion. These changes range from the petty to the savage, and are, as always, designed to roll back more environmental safeguards and to make immigration even more difficult. ProPublica is revealing and tracking these efforts—the article link here is well worth a look. A quick excerpt relays the gist: 

“Even as Trump and his allies officially refuse to concede the Nov. 3 election, the White House and federal agencies are hurrying to finish dozens of regulatory changes before Joe Biden is inaugurated on Jan. 20. The rules range from long-simmering administration priorities to last-minute scrambles and affect everything from creature comforts like showerheads and clothes washers to life-or-death issues like federal executions and international refugees. They impact everyone from the most powerful, such as oil drillers, drugmakers and tech startups, to the most vulnerable, such as families on food stamps, transgender people in homeless shelters, migrant workers and endangered species. ProPublica is tracking those regulations as they move through the rule-making process.”

So, yes, change is coming, but it will apparently be as difficult as Trump is capable of making it. No surprises here—making things difficult for people seems to be his super-power and his delight. The exception to this rule seems to manifest when he chooses to pardon his imprisoned cronies, as he did on November 25th with Michael Flynn. Would that he had some mercy for the 5 death row inmates the DOJ is rushing to execute before January 20th. IMHO, bringing back federal executions and separating families and caging children at the border will be the darkest, most gratuitously cruel legacies of the Trump administration—hopefully we can bid good riddance to all that.

 

Record numbers of Americans are lining up for food banks these days.
 

Shifting gears… 

So we know there will be a tortuous winding down of Trump policies and a push to redefine the days ahead around a lighter, more life-affirming agenda. But so much of the progress the nation is able to make will hinge upon getting our COVID response right—an effort that should, by definition, include a financial rescue package for those who are bearing the unemployment brunt of it all.

It’s hard to imagine that even the GOP will want to stand in the way of economic recovery—but unless the Georgia run-off elections on January 5th take Senate leadership away from Mitch McConnell, additional recovery packages will probably have to wait until Biden takes office and manages to negotiate a breakthrough. As MSNBC’s Ali Velshi put it, “two lines” define the moment we’re experiencing now: the record-breaking Dow trajectory and the long, long food lines that have formed around the country. The convergence of these two dynamics is not accidental: cruel choices are being made, and the heavy waning Capricorn energies weighing us down at the minute aren’t helping.

Jobs will likely begin coming back as the Biden economic team begins to weigh in, yet we know that many companies have used the pandemic as an excuse to seriously (and perhaps permanently) reduce their workforces. From the Oct. 2 issue on Time.com:

“Now, companies that are suffering deeper fundamental impacts from the pandemic—in sectors like travel, hospitality and energy—are adjusting to a new normal. In many cases, that means permanent cuts. Several major corporations announced huge layoffs in recent days: 28,000 at Disney. 3,600 at Ralph Lauren. 3,800 at Allstate insurance. 2,000 at Marathon Petroleum. 31,000 at American Airlines and United Airlines, combined.”

Additional perils exist for workers at this time, as well. For instance, we might wonder how many of the laid-off employees noted above will ever be called back. A so-called robotics revolution has been waiting in the wings for some time now, and what better excuse than a pandemic can there be to begin replacing more humans with COVID-impervious machinery. The benefits to business are simply too huge for them to resist. As former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang put it in his very thought-provoking book, The War on Normal People,

“It’s not the innovator’s job to figure out the social implications of what they do. Their job is to create and fund innovation in the market as cost-effectively as possible. This is itself a difficult job. It is our job to account for society. That is, it’s the job of our government and our leaders.”[1]

We’ve discussed the new Jupiter-Saturn cycle due to perfect at 0°+Aquarius on December 21 several times on this site, however here we see where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. It’s more than likely that Aquarius will support the increased roll-out of robotics technology, and in fact, there’s probably no way around it, given what companies have learned from the pandemic. We also know that driverless vehicles have only been put on hold; they will probably move full speed ahead as the pandemic lifts and the economy recovers, which will mean thousands fewer driving jobs across the nation. 

Robotics is here to stay in the American workplace.
 

If Congress is so hesitant to approve another pandemic aid bill now, what about when it becomes clear that many of the jobs that have been lost in the pandemic’s wake will be permanently lost? It’s quite likely that Yang’s persistent call during his candidacy for a government-provided Universal Basic Income might just start looking more appealing and necessary. After all, businesses can’t thrive if people don’t have money to spend on them!   

In other words, we’re challenged with a political transition that’s going to be rocky enough, without having to simultaneously navigate a society-rattling shift in the labor market. Yet, that appears to be the challenge ahead.    

We can tell a lot about the tone of what remains of this transition and probably the first months of Biden’s administration, by examining the cycles that are hitting critical points in the near-term. One milestone in particular will closely precede Biden’s inauguration, so it’s worth consideration here—the beginning of the Jupiter-Uranus cycle’s waning third-quarter at 6°+Aquarius-6°+Taurus on January 17th.

 

COVID's human toll includes our overstressed healthcare staffs.

A significant milestone

The big guy Jupiter meets up with and is disposed by Aquarius’s ruling planet, Uranus at this 3Q milestone, as if to reinforce the message of his recent encounter with Saturn at 0+Aq and to begin employing the social engineering energies of that cycle to jumpstart change on multiple levels. Problem is, 3Q phases aren’t about forward movement—more than likely, this 3Q phase will create a drag on that forward motion because it will be focused on clearing out any outworn legal, economic and technological programs and systems that have clouded and limited human consciousness over the course of the present cycle and might stand in the way of the coming cycle’s agenda.

To the extent that the Trump administration was about pushing limits and breaking norms, it has expressed the modus operandi of this cycle, if not its higher angels. I’m reminded that Trump’s nativity features a tight Jupiter-Uranus (Libra-Gemini) trine, so he expresses himself comfortably in this mode.  Baigent, Campion and Harvey say this cycle “encourages a growth of the Promethean spirit of rebellion and self-will…[and is] one of the key cycles of the ‘free-market economy, measuring the buoyancy of the markets.”[2] We’ve certainly experienced the highs and lows of just those characteristics in the past few years. Interestingly, as willing as he’s been to push for change, Trump has proven quite unwilling to accept change when it impacts his plans. Maybe that’s why it’s so significant that this cycle will begin waning before he finishes his term on January 20th—it’s just one more signal that it’s time for him to accept reality.

The signals we’re seeing in the financial sector that the economy is in a more fragile state of recovery at the moment than it’s been through most of the pandemic also speak to this 3Q threshold on January 17th. There are regional variances in the predictions, according to the Brookings Institute.

In other words, the health of the national economy really does depend upon getting our COVID response right. A quick aside: in another post, we’ll explore how the Jupiter-Neptune cycle—beginning anew in April, 2022—is chiming in on all this as well. 

 

The Guardian calls Biden the "ultimate centrist Democrat."
 

When the Jupiter-Uranus cycle begins anew in April, 2024, it will hopefully mark the beginning of a productive new period of growth, innovation and development, but at this point we have too many internal contradictions over what should be let go and what should be retained, and these contradictions stymie forward motion. The reality is, Biden may have to deal with a divided government if the Senate remains in GOP hands, so any change that requires congressional consensus may be elusive. On the other hand, he’s comfortable in the ideological center, which could suit the energies, if not the imperatives of our time pretty well.  

Recall that our currently waning Jupiter-Uranus cycle began in June, 2010 at 1+Aries, probably bringing some life to the long¸ so-called “jobless recovery” that followed the 2008 Wall Street and housing crashes. This is also the year that the Supreme Court forever tainted our elections with an unregulated flood of corporate money – Citizens United was decided a mere 21 days after the cycle launched, with Jupiter just edging into Pisces—the sign of its exaltation. Despite the Obama administration’s move to regulate banks and financial institutions for the sake of consumer protections, the opportunity for boundless growth and political influence for corporate interests was protected by the Court. If the decision coming out of the Court this past week to privilege “religious freedom to assemble” over government’s ability to enforce sane COVID restrictions is any indication, the Court will continue imposing its conservative viewpoint and becoming ever more politicized through the coming administration. As that happens, calls to reform the Court will naturally continue gaining steam.

The Trump administration’s $2 trillion+ tax break—primarily benefiting the wealthiest among us—was passed early in the 2nd quarter of this cycle (beginning in 12/2016), but that was just the beginning of the many ways it tried to roll back all of the regulatory programs the Obama era had brought in to shore up consumer protections after the banking/housing crashes, etc.. Chances are that the 3rd quarter set to begin in January will see the waning and dismantling of at least some of Trump’s financial policies and actions.

 

The Bonus Army encampment was violently dispersed at Hoover's orders.
 

History and moving forward

A significant historical precedent for this 2010 cycle was the 1928 cycle that launched at 0°+Aries and brought in Herbert Hoover’s failed conservative approach to the 1929 Stock Market crash and the Great Depression that followed. As Trump has largely done with COVID, Hoover simply “gave up” doing anything to save people from the ravages of that Depression, choosing instead to brutalize protestors such as the “Bonus Army” veterans who camped out in Washington, D.C. to make their demands.  Not surprisingly, given this, Hoover was roundly defeated later that same year (1932) by Franklin Delano Roosevelt—a leader whose approach to the 1930s Depression may—judging by Biden’s program ideas—offer a model for today’s crises.

Some of the adjustments we can expect from this 3rd quarter of the cycle, however, will be a matter of shifting focus—the economy is suffering badly from a lack of balance at the moment (Jupiter-Uranus 2010’s Aries inception supported aggressive moves that pushed imbalances already present in our system) and we could see social unrest over the coming months as a consequence. The pandemic has produced the lion’s share of this crisis, of course, but as mentioned earlier, the first federal stimulus/aide package has now run out for most recipients and Congress shows little ability to agree on a desperately needed second package—right before the holiday season!

Meanwhile, the food lines are growing precipitously and if something substantive doesn’t happen soon, we can expect a mortgage foreclosure crisis over the winter months (could the timing be worse?!). Many local retailers are hurting, as well, as online shopping numbers have dramatically escalated, but overall, the National Retail Federation is expecting about 3% growth in holiday sales. Clearly, those who have the cash for holiday shopping this year could help their communities by spending locally—that aid package Congress needs to pass isn’t helping local retailers at the moment, either. 

CEOs believe Biden will do a better job with the COVID crisis.
 

Realistically, this situation isn’t good for corporate America, either—if people have no surplus income after bare necessities, consumer spending will plummet and that’s no good for anyone. This may explain why we’ve been seeing reports that corporate CEOs are quickly accepting Biden’s victory and are preparing to work with his administration. 

Bottom line, the 3rd quarter of a cycle reaps the consequences for earlier actions during the entire cycle, so it’s totally possible that some social unrest could accompany the early months of the Biden administration as it tries to roll out financial policies that will help put things back in balance. You might recall that the years 2009-2011 were marked by the growth of twin social movements—on the liberal side, Occupy Wall Street (2011), and on the conservative side, the Tea Party (2009).  Logically, we can probably relate the rise and popularity of Bernie Sanders and progressive Dems such as Ocasio-Cortez and the “Squad” to the Occupy movement, short-lived though it was.

Likewise, the rise of Trump’s extreme agenda and the GOP’s openness to it can be traced back to the Tea Party’s stated agenda and its fixation on party “loyalty” pledges. That period was astrologically turbulent, hosting an ongoing series of Uranus-Pluto squares (Aries-Capricorn) that definitely colored that 2010 Jupiter-Uranus cycle launch. Saturn was also transiting opposite Uranus (Libra-Aries) during that year, manifesting the disruptive Uranus-Pluto energy in public policy form and in the 2010 mid-term elections that effectively kneecapped a lot of the Obama agenda.

So the fallout from earlier imbalances will probably continue to be felt for at least a year, although the onset of the new Jupiter-Neptune cycle at 23°+Pisces in 2022 could enable some of Biden’s more idealistic efforts, like making sure the wealthiest strata “pays their fair share” of taxes for the sake of the infrastructure/jobs programs he’s promoting. More on this in a future post. As noted earlier, a lot will be determined by the Georgia run-off elections in early January—will Biden have a cooperative Senate to work with, or will Leader McConnell continue playing the “Grim Reaper” to every Democrat-led bill?  

At this point, let’s take a look at the chart marking this Jupiter-3Q-Uranus milestone, set for Washington, D.C.. See Chart #1 below.

 

How likely is a gracious concession?
 

Jupiter-3Q-Uranus

 


Chart #1. Jupiter-3Q-Uranus, January 17, 2021, 7:14 p.m. ST, Washington, D.C. Equal Houses, True Node. All charts cast, courtesy of Kepler 8.0 Cosmic Patterns software.

Saturn conjoins Jupiter (Aquarius); these two square Mars-conjunct Uranus (Taurus). Obviously, Jupiter and Saturn are fresh off their historic great mutation conjunction at 0°+Aquarius just weeks before this date, so the impetus of that cycle—which also launched square Uranus—is still strong here. The big, likely fortuitous difference on December 21st (Jup-Sat cycle date) was that Mars had not yet caught up with Uranus, as it has here. The potential for belligerent military action is present here—something we have to wonder about as Trump recently commented that “a lot of things are going to happen between now and Jan. 20.” This comment, taken in the context of his purge of policy experts from the Defense Policy Board, preceded by a purge of Pentagon top leadership does little to reassure anyone paying attention.

As noted earlier, we’ve already seen a top Iranian scientist assassinated, just days after the New York Times reported that “Trump sought options for attacking Iran to stop its growing Nuclear program.” He was reportedly talked out of such actions at the time, but if he’s continuing to look for opportunities and is desperate enough to create a distraction from the Inauguration, who knows? We might hope that the waning nature of this phase would provide some restraint, however there are historical precedents that suggest there are times when the “clearing out” dynamic is less than peaceful. For example, WWII hostilities began during the 3Q of the 1928 cycle (0°+Aries); the Korean War was fought almost entirely within the 3Q of the 1941 cycle (25°+Taurus); the 1968 Tet Offensive, marking a grim turning point in the Vietnam War, happened during the 3Q of the 1954 cycle (27°+Cancer); and more recently, the 2008-10 banking meltdown and housing crisis fell during the 3Q of the 1997 cycle (5°+Aquarius). 

There are undoubtedly more examples—suggesting that we need to take the potential for volatility seriously during the coming four years.  

So it’s more than possible that aggressive, perhaps even shocking, hard-nosed actions could mark this Jupiter-Uranus 3Q period, including the possibility of domestic violence sparked by Trump’s Twitter feed on his way out of office, claiming the election was “stolen” from him. Notice in the chart that Mars and Uranus sit in the 9th house of foreign affairs, legal issues and religious affairs, with Mars ruling the house’s Aries cusp. For their part, Jupiter (conjunct Saturn) graces the 6th house of health, public servants, working people and the military, with Saturn ruling the Capricorn house and dignified in Aquarius, one of its home signs.

Mars isn’t particularly strong in Taurus, however its conjunction to Uranus could amplify its impact. Shocking actions or developments in the homeland aren’t out of the question here, either, as mentioned above—Mars rules the Scorpio 4th as well. This could also pertain to the predicted holiday-related escalation of the U.S. COVID death toll, of course—who needs external enemies when we have dynamics like these?

Finally, it’s worth noting that the radix U.S. Sibly chart features an Aquarius 3rd house cusp—so the fact that co-rulers Saturn and Uranus are applying to a square in this January chart (Saturn-3Q-Uranus will launch in February—more on that in a future post) suggests continuing challenges to the nation’s mental health as the harsh realities of what we’re going through keep mounting. My sense is that Biden and Harris are tuned into this challenge, but time will tell. 

 

Grand Mutable Square: Neptune (Pisces) conjoins Ceres and widely, Moon (Pisces) in 7thand 8th and opposes Vesta (Virgo); this axis squares the Nodal Axis (Gemini-Sagittarius). Neptune rules pandemics, although I think there could be a role for Chiron as well (more on that below), but here we see Neptune in the 7th house of open enemies impacting the People and our ability to nurture each other (Moon-Ceres), which makes sense with the pandemic. It also makes sense with the ongoing scourge of mis- and dis-information that Trump and the ultra right-wing media will undoubtedly keep alive beyond Biden’s inauguration.

The involvement of Ceres and Vesta here speaks to the impact the pandemic is having on households everywhere, to the sacrifices being demanded of everyone, and certainly to the intense longing we all have to transcend all this and to reach the “promised land” of emotional and family normalcy. It also speaks to the misinformation issue raised above, that keeps some from acknowledging reality and taking prudent precautions. The 4th-10th placement of the Nodal axis reflects the unstable trend we’re experiencing, both in the political sphere and the sphere of social and family wellbeing.

There’s an amazing feminine vibe that deserves note in this grand square, as well. This suggests that Biden’s choice of several women for high positions in his administration is right on target—we need softer, less harsh, but absolutely competent spirits at the helm if we are to heal and move forward.     

Chiron (Aries) sextiles Jupiter-Saturn (Aquarius) and semi-sextiles Mars-Uranus (Taurus).There should be opportunities to use social programs and structural change to heal some of the divisions and pain being felt across the land these days, but an 8th house Chiron probably also speaks to the COVID death toll that is climbing precipitously as we speak.

The 8th is also a financial house, so Chiron’s presence here could speak to the “austerity” phase some finance gurus are predicting ahead. Austerity usually rears its ugly head when the GOP all of a sudden remembers that they don’t like deficit spending after all—something that tends to happen when a Democrat is in the White House, as opposed to how they behave when a Republican is. This sudden recollection will likely be used to oppose Biden’s plans for infrastructure programs and so on, even though their own constituencies will need the jobs these programs will provide. 

We’ll undoubtedly be discussing Chiron more thoroughly as it moves into a square with the Sibly Sun (Cancer) in the near future. Somehow it’s not surprising that it will be completing its Sibly return in 2024, which given the talk that Trump will likely run again that year, is already promising to be a wounding election year. 

 


Sun-Pluto (Capricorn) square Eris (Aries). I’m thankful Eris is no longer conjunct Mars here because we have enough potential volatility to deal with, but these squares and troubling nevertheless, in that they suggest a leader (Sun) who, allied with powerful financial forces (Pluto), is looking to disrupt foreign relations and potentially overturn legal norms (9th house Eris). It doesn’t take much to see Trump in these aspects. Factor this into the other volatile players in that house (Mars-Uranus) and the potential for continued assaults on our Constitution and on our election process is very real. It appears that the Supreme Court could be under intense pressure here, as well—Trump didn’t give out those high-court appointments to be turned away empty-handed, and judging from his persistence and transparent willingness to toss out people’s votes who didn’t vote for him, we haven’t yet heard the end of the challenges. 

Bottom line, the big money donors (Pluto) who are enabling him at this point hold the key to putting all this behind us. Simply stop giving him the fuel for these meritless fights!

 

An icon for our times? Resilient, but not to be taken for granted!

Final thoughts

There’s a lot riding on how the dynamics of this Jupiter-3Q-Uranus phase unfolds, in other words. The U.S. is a bit like a mammoth “whale” of a nation that can take a lot from the environmental forces and would-be enemies around it, but can then succumb to something as seemingly insignificant as a virus or bacteria. Especially the “virus” of misinformation, the deliberate sowing of doubt in our democracy and the stoking of divisions between Americans. If we don't work together in this "garden" of ours, it withers and dies. Unfortunately, Neptune will continue transiting its home sign Pisces, so the potential for delusion-based attacks will continue, despite other shifting planetary cycle dynamics.

Even so, a strong Uranus, promoting rational solutions and scientific innovation, can help overcome some of this Neptunian undertow, so to get through this, our focus should be on the facts, the data, and verifiable evidence—not on innuendo, gut “feelings” and emotional grievance.

Saturn—strong now in Capricorn and remaining so as it moves into Aquarius and then forms its 3Q square with Uranus this coming February—can also be quite helpful. Leaning on experts who demand high standards of themselves and act responsibly, with an unwavering sense of integrity, will also be key. We’ve seen our institutions corrupted in ways that might have been unimaginable to our Founders—chances are it’s high time to examine loopholes they left hanging a bit too open in our Constitution, thinking no one would ever dare to exploit them for personal gain. The limits on Executive power clearly need to be much more precisely defined.

For that matter, we also need to make sure that in the future there is no way a rogue Senate leader can collude with a would-be tyrant president to basically stymie any legislative efforts of the People’s representatives, spending their time instead on stacking the Judicial branch with loyalists. All of the constitutional weak spots revealed by the Trump presidency (there are several more) have remedies with a strong social engineering cycle like the upcoming Jupiter-Saturn one in Aquarius, however a lot of this cycle’s effectiveness will hinge upon how the 3Q waning cycles that will be ongoing (Jupiter-Uranus, Saturn-Uranus and Jupiter-Neptune) will unfold over the next few years.

We’ve already seen in the course of the Trump administration how prone waning energies are to manipulation, but we can work to make sure these energies are used for the better going forward, not the worse. The election has proven that we have it in us as a nation to reject the unimaginable efforts made these past four years to tear us apart—so yes, we’ve proven we’re still capable of evolving and making adjustments without losing our national Soul.

Our “experiment,” as Liu and Hanauer suggested, will find new life, despite challenges galore.

Hang in there everyone – stay safe, stay well!

 

Happy gardening!

 

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 Publication link on the home page for her two most recent publications, now available as e-books on Amazon.

 

For information about  individual chart readings, contact: robertsonraye@gmail.com.

 

© Raye Robertson 2020. All rights reserved. 

 

 

 

 

 



[1]Andrew Yang, The War on Normal People: The Truth about America’s Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income is Our Future, Hachette Books, NY, 2018, p. 94.

[2]Michael Baigent, Nicholas Campion & Charles Harvey, Mundane Astrology: an Introduction to the Astrology of Nations and Groups, Thorsons, London, 1984, pp. 186-187.