Tuesday, January 5, 2021

Political circus & toxic deflections: a Cosmic week to anticipate


 

"I have to find 12,000 votes and I have them times a lot." -- Donald Trump, speaking to GA Sec'y of State, Jan. 2, 2021

"No one should ever get a second chance to destroy the Constitution."--Tom Nichols, The Atlantic

 

Two big events loom ahead this week for those who care about the future of American democracy: first, the Georgia run-off elections that will determine which party leads the Senate during the Biden administration; second, the Congressional session that should simply acknowledge Biden’s Electoral College win, but is fast becoming a Banana-republic/Kabuki Circus-style attempt to overturn Trump’s loss to Biden by simply refusing to accept some states’ electoral votes, using the pretext that "people don't trust the election" to justify their actions. Who created that distrust in the first place? The same people who are trying to hide behind it as they seek to deny 80+ million Americans the election they won. 

In fact, by leaning on selected vulnerable players who have mislaid their spines, but not their ambitions, Trump is using this bizarre exercise as an all-encompassing loyalty test for all GOPers in Congress, from V.P. Pence as Senate president, on down. None of this will change the fact that voters elected Biden, who will be confirmed as winner of this election, but it’s a way to deflect attention from Biden for yet a few more days, isn’t it?

Of course, after Trump’s likely criminal phone call trying to pressure Georgia’s Secretary of State to “find” enough votes to overturn the presidential count or else over the weekend (the call was laced with implied threats), the airwaves may be filling those final two weeks of his presidency with calls for his resignation and more legal wrangling.  

So, Wednesday’s session in Congress will be dramatic and troubling. By demanding that this spectacle unfold in that official setting, Trump is basically demonstrating that he will stop at nothing to get support for his septic personal quest. Because his bottomless pit of ego needs simply can’t accept losing, the rest of us should lose everything that makes this nation the exceptional place it is.And to listen to the infamous Georgia phone call, he sees "nothing wrong" in "recalculating" the vote. 

 

Nixon resigned because GOP Senators stood up for the law.
Under normal circumstances, control of the Senate would be a far less urgent matter: that body has oscillated between GOP and Democratic control since day one and it’s usually not that big a deal because when push really came to shove, we could count on senators of both parties to place the Constitution over all. That’s why in 1974 it was then-GOP Senators Goldwater and Rhodes who told Richard Nixon that it was time to go because he was about to be impeached and removed—by a bi-partisan effort. GOP senators didn’t block Nixon’s rightful impeachment and they weren’t about to overthrow their duties and stake their careers on protecting him, as many of today’s GOP Senators and Representatives are apparently willing to do.

It’s hard to know what’s really going on in the minds and hearts of these individuals, but former GOP Senator William Cohen forcefully captured the gist this week, pointing to the very uncertain future of his party. Describing Trump as a “ringmaster” who “cracks his whip and all the elephants jump on the chairs,” Cohen cautioned that "He [Trump] is always going to up the ante, he cannot be satisfied. There's nothing in him. There's no moral core and so they [Republicans] are going to be extorted or bribed in order to avoid a primary in 2022 or 2024." Indeed, if these “elephants” cater to Trump’s anti-democratic whims this week, where does it end? It’s not even rational: do they really expect Trump to show them loyalty in return? His track record in office suggests that this is not how he operates—lose your usefulness to him and you’re outta there. 

 

 "Proud Boys" plan protest on Jan. 6
As if that’s not enough corrupt drama, Trump is shamelessly—and openly—inciting violence in the streets and making sure we all know about these plans, too, so we’re on full alert that if he doesn’t get his way, all hell will break loose. Needless to say, these are thug tactics that have no place in American politics—they’re nothing like normal political hard-ball tactics and shouldn’t be acceptable to anyone.  Yet here we are, and given what the Washington Post is reporting regarding looming protests in D.C., the week ahead could be volatile and troubling, indeed.

In many respects, Trump’s recent actions also echo another sordid period in American history—the aberrant late 1940s-50s period known as McCarthyism, an echo we’ll discuss ahead. Looking back at that period this week convinced me that there could be a light at the end of this very dark passage, even though it’s difficult to see at the moment. We’ll discuss ahead.

Just for the record, loyalty tests may be normal for gangster bosses, but they’re not normal in a democracy. Such paranoia-based tests are the stuff of Shakespearean drama—something we might expect from tyrants with very guilty consciences who see enemies behind every door. The few times we’ve dealt with this in American history have opened the door for serious problems—we’ll discuss one notable and resonant instance ahead.

As we’ve seen, Trump is also compounding that toxic, one-way focus on loyalty with his simple refusal to take “no” for an answer—even from the Supreme Court, where his legal team continues to submit cases demanding that the election be overturned in several states—despite the Court’s clearly stated intention to stay out of it. So far he’s been told “no” every inch of the way by election officials, courts and electors across the land, just doing their jobs and confirming the legitimate voter data, but along with his continued harassment of the Court with useless suits, Trump’s found, as noted, some trained “elephants” in Congress who seem prepared to make a big show out of what even some leading Republicans are calling yet another “exercise in futility.” So what’s the point? Fund-raising? Attention-grabbing spectacle? Fantasy fulfillment? Maybe it’s even simpler than these—perhaps the path of destruction he’s leaving behind is the point.

Or, as one Washington Post editorial put it, “By all accepted standards of political morality and decency, what Trump and his allies are up to is obscene.” Many are calling the GOPers enabling Trump the "Sedition caucus," which is no compliment--in a stirring piece for The Atlantic, Tom Nichols says sedition in this context is worse than treason. One way or another, where’s the “loyalty” to American democracy? 

 


 

Historical echoes

Throughout Trump’s presidency, he has been claiming that the so-called “Deep State” has been out to get him, whether he was accusing Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower or accusing the FBI of inappropriate surveillance and investigations. Any action that challenged his perceived advantage was rendered suspect. In other words, Trump created a Deep State “bogeyman” that would allow him to deflect criticism and suspicion from Russia (what major hack of our infrastructures?) and wield it, McCarthyist-style, against our own government. That dark period in our history is unfortunately far too relevant today, so let’s consider it more deeply. Wikipedia summarizes McCarthyism well:

“McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of subversion or treason, especially when related to communism, without proper regard for evidence.[1] The term refers to U.S. senator Joseph McCarthy (R-Wisconsin) and has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting from the late 1940s through the 1950s.[2] It was characterized by heightened political repression and a campaign spreading fear of communist influence on American institutions and of espionage by Soviet agents.[2] After the mid-1950s, McCarthyism began to decline, mainly due to the gradual loss of public popularity and opposition from the U.S. Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Earl Warren.[3][4] The Warren Court made a series of rulings that helped bring an end to McCarthyism.[5][6][7]

What’s left unsaid in this description is the extent to which McCarthy’s zeal for seeing communist influence behind anything that didn’t agree with his politics (especially Roosevelt’s New Deal programs), was a flat-out ego trip on his part. He became quite the powerful figure and a real celebrity for the several years he terrorized people. He basically capitalized on the post-WWII Cold War paranoia that pervaded American discourse at that time: the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for a 1951 espionage conviction was top-of-mind during those days, so it didn’t take much.  

 

Ethel & Julius Rosenberg were executed for espionage in June, 1953.
McCarthy’s tool for keeping himself in the daily news was to call individuals known to have liberal leanings before investigations by the House Un-American Activities Committee and to strong-arm them into “naming” others in their circles as communists in a bid to save themselves from being “blacklisted” as communist sympathizers—basically rendering them unemployable.  Just as Trump likes to demonize GOP members who don’t do his bidding by labeling them RINOs (Republicans in Name Only), or by holding that threat over their heads to make them dance, McCarthy used his position to bully and destroy careers with impunity for no legitimate reason other than power—because he could, and because the press would always carry the stories.

Anyone who spoke out against him (Eisenhower apparently hated him, but declined to get involved), would become a target of McCarthy’s manufactured Red paranoia (FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was squarely behind McCarthy, reinforcing that paranoia), which during the Cold War, was a regrettably powerful weapon.

In 1954, however, the televised Army-McCarthy hearings revealed McCarthy’s corrupt behavior to the public in a new, more vivid way, and his “popularity” waned overnight. The hearings stretched on from April into June, but on June 9th, Army Counsel Joseph Welch finally pushed back on McCarthy’s efforts in a way that resonated. In response to relentless attacks on a member of his legal team, Welch finally cut McCarthy short by saying:

“Senator, may we not drop this? We know he belonged to the Lawyers Guild ... Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator; you've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”

Applause filled the court room when Welch yielded the floor, but more importantly, this one outraged act of courage quickly triggered the end of McCarthy’s popularity and his reign of terror, and in December that year, the Senate officially censured McCarthy for his behavior.

 

Lawyer Roy Cohn (r.) was McCarthy's (l.) close adviser and counsel.
McCarthyist carry-over

So clearly, Trump’s tactics and approach to politics have much in common with McCarthy and his “ism,” but there’s more than a tactical link between them—both figures were heavily influenced by the ruthless New York lawyer, Roy Cohn, who lived from 1927-1986. He was one of the DOJ prosecutors involved in the espionage case against the Rosenbergs, and an aggressive, bullying figure in the court room, which made him a natural choice for both McCarthy chief counsel and Trump’s mentor and “fixer.” Cohn’s threatening nature may have ultimately worked against McCarthy, however. Cohn was gay, and the threats he made against the Army because they wouldn’t give his drafted “friend” light duty actually resulted in the Army-McCarthy hearings that eventually brought McCarthy down.

Cohn switched to private practice in New York after those hearings and in the early 1970s, began a long legal association with Donald Trump. He also served as counsel for a number of prominent New York business interests, Mafia figures and politicians. Always extremely combative, he became known as the “ultimate fixer.”  He defended Trump early on from a federal lawsuit claiming 39 of his properties were operating in violation of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 by lodging a $100 million suit against the government—a pattern of pugilistic behavior that has certainly stuck with Trump. Cohn didn’t win that case, but the government’s effort probably didn’t alter Trump’s discriminatory practices, either. Wikipedia asserts that “Throughout Cohn's career there were accusations of theft, obstruction, bribery, blackmail, fraud, perjury, and witness tampering”—somehow not surprising.

The point here, to make a long story short, is that there are important ties between two of the darkest periods in U.S. history, and they keep bringing us back to Roy Cohn and to the ruthless—often legally questionable—behavior patterns that Cohn apparently mentored in McCarthy and Trump. So what does all this look like astrologically? Do these eras echo in terms of planetary dynamics, as well?  Or are we just looking at the force of like-minded personalities who happened to operate similarly over time?

Probably some of both, actually, but it’s worth examining some key charts to better understand how these personalities and these times could have meshed to the regrettable extent they have. With McCarthy, there was a definitive end to his influence; can we hope for the same with Trump? We’ll keep these questions in mind as we quickly explore highlights from the following charts. 

 

The rise and fall of Sen. Joseph McCarthy: the astrology

 

 

Biwheel #1: (inner wheel) Joseph R. McCarthy, November 14, 1908, 3:00 p.m. ST, Grand Chute, WI (Rodden AA); (outer wheel) McCarthy “Red List” speech, February 9, 1950, 12 p.m. ST (noon, no time known), Washington, D.C.. Equal Houses,True Node. All charts cast, courtesy of Kepler 8.0 Cosmic Patterns software. 

Natal Mars rules Natal Aries ASC from 7th, conjunct Libra DSC. Speech Neptune conjoins Natal Venus/Mars (midpoint, Libra). Historical accounts about McCarthy’s abusive hearings and his dogged pursuit of perceived “enemies of the state” suggest that he had serious Mars issues—always trying to prove his power and machismo—and here we see the planetary reasons why. Mars was in fall in his chart, and its 7th house placement suggests he felt compelled to act out against “enemies” to prove his manhood. It’s anyone’s guess if he was gay—which would have been illegal in his time—but it may explain why, along with communists and “pinkos,” his abuses extended to what was then known as the “Lavender Scare’ against suspected homosexuals.”[11]”]

It’s quite significant that Speech Neptune conjoins his Venus/Mars midpoint—that same Neptune also t-squares his hard-nosed Uranus-Neptune opposition (Capricorn-Cancer). He was, for his own personal reasons, perhaps, quite prepared to promote the delusions of that fraught Red Scare period for all the ideological power he could extract from it. The popularity that he enjoyed after this notorious speech was a gift that kept on giving, too—until it didn’t.

At this point we can reflect on the outer planetary dynamics at work in both McCarthy’s time and today: I think it’s significant that this heavy Capricorn-Cancer energy in McCarthy’s nativity echoes dynamics in and transits to Trump’s nativity as we speak (specifically, Capricorn Pluto, Jupiter and Saturn opposing his Cancer Saturn-Venus—chart not shown)[1]. Critical moments throughout our history have been heavily influenced by such Cardinal sign passages (a long story for another day), so perhaps these connections across the decades are unsurprising.  

The status of the various Saturn cycles in this Speech chart also reinforce that the times were ripe for a crusader such as McCarthy: the Saturn-Neptune cycle was in its final balsamic phase, perhaps explaining why communist ideology had become such a bugaboo, causing disruptions and ideologically-fomented chaos and destruction all over, including the final years of Stalinism in the U.S.S.R. and the difficult adjustments imposed upon new Soviet Eastern bloc nations after WWII. On the other hand, there were fairly lively, waxing 1st quarter Saturn-Uranus (Virgo-Cancer) and Saturn-Pluto (Virgo-Leo) cycles at work—the global political and economic orders were being reinvented from the ground up during this period, and the post-war process of splitting the world into spheres of Communist (Soviet) and Democratic (U.S.) dominance was keeping the world’s leaders more than preoccupied. The 1821 Capricorn Uranus-Neptune cycle—the final days of which were so instrumental in reducing the Berlin Wall and the U.S.S.R.to rubble in the late 80s-early 90s—is also waning in this Speech chart—again, in significant Cardinal signs Cancer and Libra.

That Speech Uranus (Rx, Cancer) also conjoins McCarthy’s Pluto-No. Node (Gemini), suggesting a trigger to McCarthy’s “destiny” of power abuse and destruction. That Uranus would move on to exactly oppose his Natal Uranus shortly after he launched his Red scare—an unfortunately spin on a mid-life crisis, but one that suited his combative personality. Speech Pluto (Rx, Leo) also squares McCarthy Sun-Pallas and transiting Pallas (Scorpio) here, so the power-trip he was riding undoubtedly fed some ego-driven sense of “Justice.” 

Speech Saturn (Rx, Virgo) trines McCarthy Uranus (Capricorn), sextiles McCarthy Neptune (Cancer) and semi-sextiles Speech Neptune (Rx, Libra). As discussed in the last post here, the final waning phases of a Saturn-Neptune cycle can support the corruption and serious undermining of national infrastructures, which would have been all the more true here, with Speech Neptune conjunct Sibly Saturn (Libra) and square Sibly Sun (Cancer, chart not shown). McCarthyism looks, in retrospect, like the nation’s serious flirtation with not only fascist behavior, but slightly deranged fascist behavior. Unfortunately, the echoes with Trumpism and its delusionary fantasies and thug tactics are all too obvious. 

 

 

McCarthyism fed off near-hysterical scare tactics.

The fall

During what amounted to a five-year reign of terror, McCarthy and his cohorts basically legitimized all kinds of toxic post-war compromises with democracy by insinuating that Americans couldn’t trust anyone, not even their celebrity idols, their political representatives, neighbors and community members, especially union members, who were often people of color and different ethnicities. I’ve spoken to people who remember a serious spike in anti-Semitism washing over the nation during peak McCarthyism—bottom line, through his choice of targets, McCarthy basically rescued the racist behavior of the day (which had been very gradually becoming less acceptable after the war) and reinvented it around a new quest that targeted liberals of all stripes, union members and people of certain European ethnicities (including Jews) whom he claimed were bringing socialist and/or communist influence into the country.

Again, we see the parallels between these two eras: today we might call the lies, innuendos and twisted perceptions at the heart of McCarthyism “misformation” or “conspiracy theories,” and at the height of its popularity and sway, McCarthyism almost took on the quality of a cult, similar to Trumpism.  But then, McCarthyism fell from grace, as if overnight, as cults often do. Is there any hope that Trumpism will do the same? 

 


 

Biwheel #2. (inner wheel); Joseph R. McCarthy, November 14, 1908, 3:00 p.m. ST, Grand Chute, WI (Rodden AA); (outer wheel) Army-McCarthy hearings, June 9, 1954, 12 p.m. ST (noon, no time known), Washington, D.C.. Equal Houses,True Node. All charts cast, courtesy of Kepler 8.0 Cosmic Patterns software. 

As noted earlier, these fateful hearings (which actually lasted from March 16th-June 17th 1954—June 9 being simply a critical revealing moment in them) were mostly lawyer Roy Cohn’s doing, but McCarthy definitely chose the path they took. Here’s how Wikipedia tells the story:

“The Army accused Chief Committee Counsel Roy Cohn of pressuring the Army to give preferential treatment to G. David Schine, a former McCarthy aide and friend of Cohn's. McCarthy counter-charged that this accusation was made in bad faith and in retaliation for his recent aggressive investigations of suspected Communists and security risks in the Army.

Chaired by Senator Karl Mundt, the hearings convened on March 16, 1954, and received considerable press attention, including gavel-to-gavel live television coverage on ABC and DuMont (April 22–June 17). The media coverage, particularly television, greatly contributed to McCarthy's decline in popularity and his eventual censure by the Senate the following December.”

The whole idea that McCarthy would choose to intimidate the Army on Cohn’s advice, after all that institution had gone through in WWII (only a few years prior), was a stunning display of wreckless (“who can touch me?”) hubris, but then that’s what often happens with hubris—it tends to go too far. We’ve definitely seen similar wrecklessness on Trump’s part—including the infamous phone calls he’s been making to Georgia!

Hearing Mars (Rx, Capricorn) squares McCarthy Saturn (Rx, Aries), trines his Jupiter (Virgo) and inconjoins his Moon (Leo). McCarthy had a lot of ambitious ego energy invested in his Red Scare crusade, and probably quite a bit of anger and anxiety as well—his debilitated Mars (Libra) trined his Chiron (Aquarius) and his Pluto-No. Node (Rx, Gemini)—he probably harbored some resentments that his political quest allowed him to express. This Hearing Mars (Rx, Capricorn) was also sextile Hearing Saturn (Rx, Scorpio), which in turn conjoined his Mercury (Scorpio), so anger, fueled by resentments that apparently made him willing to take calculated risks. Those emotions and anxieties probably surfaced on television, which is notoriously hard on negative politicians, even today. Remember Nixon’s “Checkers” speech and more recently, that bizarre sight of black dye streaming down Rudy Giuliani’s face as he ranted on about Trump’s “stolen” election?

Hearing Saturn (Rx, Scorpio) also inconjoined McCarthy Saturn (Aries), suggesting a particularly frustrating point in his personal Saturn cycle that may have played a role in his downfall. McCarthy was a heavy drinker, and in fact, he didn’t make it to his 2nd Saturn return, dying of alcohol-related liver disease just two years after these hearings, at the young age of 48. Here we see Hearing Neptune (Rx, Libra) exactly conjunct his Natal Mars, which could have well been an indication of these difficulties to come—Mars ruled his 1st and co-ruled his 8th house. Hearing Pluto (Leo) chimed in by exactly squaring and disposing his 8th h. Scorpio Sun. 

 

McCarthy rose to prominence by perpetrating a "Red Scare."

 

The toxic power of victimization

McCarthy tried to frame his 1950s Red Scare as a quest to punish and rid American society of a communist “bogeyman” that was "victimizing" the nation, but was mostly manufactured by him, to satisfy his own need for power. By doing so, he took advantage of dynamics that were triggered by WWII—especially by its traumatic final days after Roosevelt’s death and Truman’s takeover. The onset of a nuclear age with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki produced a whole new dimension of fear and anxiety in people, leaving them vulnerable to the manipulations of such would-be tyrants. Unfortunately, periods of such heightened anxiety keep cycling around, and so many keep succumbing to very similar manipulations, updated to suit the times.

Needless to say, there is planetary and cyclical logic to the way these periods repeat, and a little awareness of how this works would go a long way.

If we rewind to the 1970s, for instance, we can see the parallels between Trump’s current victimization schtick and Nixon’s response to Congress’s Watergate investigationsUranus and Jupiter were both in Cardinal signs (Libra and Capricorn) when the so-called “burglars” broke into the Democratic headquarters in the Watergate hotel in June, 1972, with the Saturn-Neptune cycle waning in more chaotic Mutable signs (Gemini and Sagittarius). It was no wonder that Nixon’s first impulse was to cover-up the affair once the news broke.  

 

Corrupt players who enabled Nixon were also held accountable.


 

In fact, all four Saturn cycles were in waning condition at that juncture, so right on cue, the institutions of government were under assault by those who were willfully trying to steal the 1972 election for Nixon. Thankfully, the institutions held their own, but what seems to have made the difference then was that people trusted their members of Congress to get to the facts a bit better, despite some pretty grimy corruption cases in the news during that time (V.P. Spiro Agnew comes to mind). And, speaking from my own observations in the 1970s, it seemed that We the People were far less inclined to excuse criminal behavior on the part of a president. Unlike today with Trump, the accountability of a forced resignation was considered essential with Nixon, who wasn’t quite as talented at corrupting those around him as Trump has proven to be.

So at least there was some accountability, which was necessary for the nation, already wrenched apart by the tumultuous Viet Nam years, to heal, at least somewhat. Do we ever completely heal from these passages? 

Fast forward to our present day, and the nation is wrenched apart yet again, this time by the Trump presidency and by its purposeful undermining of so many of our key institutions, including the institution of free and fair elections. We knew from day one that he would be president for some Americans only, but who knew that he would push election officials to simply cancel out the votes of Americans he doesn’t think should have a say?

CNN is characterizing the intent of some Republicans to coddle Trump’s desires to overturn Biden’s victory on January 6th when the electoral votes come up for confirmation as a “Kabuki Coup”—a vote that will demonstrate for all time which members are in favor of democracy and which support the authoritarian fantasies of Donald Trump. Let’s take a quick look at a noon chart for that January 6th event—it’s likely to be a chart we revisit after the fact, but for now, let’s see what it tells us.

 


 

Chart #1. Congress-Election 2020 certified, January 6, 2021, 12 p.m. ST (noon chart, no time known), Washington, D.C. Equal Houses,True Node. All charts cast, courtesy of Kepler 8.0 Cosmic Patterns software. 

Eris rises at Aries ASC, widely conjunct Mars (Aries), which is, in turn, widely conjunct Uranus (Taurus); Eris-Mars square Pluto-Mercury (Capricorn). We’ve been living with these bombastic Cardinal energies for awhile now—thankfully, Jupiter and Saturn, still fresh off their December 21st conjunction, have moved on into Aquarius. We’re not entirely out of the woods (Saturn still widely conjoins Pluto), but forward movement is starting to feel possible. This probably accounts for why 10 former defense secretaries and a stunning 200 major CEOs have all submitted letters urging Republicans to drop their election challenges and to respect the transition of power.  

Even so, the Aries points at the ASC probably signal some disruptive volatility ahead. That could take the form of the protests Trump has been calling for on the streets, or could simply point to the nastiness on the floors of the House and Senate. Mars (Aries) trines Venus (Sagittarius), the latter of which triggers Trump’s Gemini-Sagittarius oppositions (chart not shown), so is he about to feel vindicated by the proceedings on Wednesday? Maybe the fruitless show of “loyalty” (however twisted) in Congress that day will make him feel that, momentarily, but perhaps Venus has a better idea for him—to grow up and expand his inner horizons (his Moon rules his 12th)…to learn to accept a loss when it happens and to appreciate the experience gained!  

To my knowledge, this plan of Trump loyalists in Congress has no actual power to stop the election from being formalized—the States (who have the final say about certifying their individual elections) have spoken and the House, with its Democratic majority, is going to confirm the election. Even so, the whole spectacle of a bunch of “elephants” leaping onto chairs to serve their whip-wielding master will be quite an example of “Kabuki theater.” Perhaps it’s intended to conjure up an alternative reality in which Trump can have what he imagines he deserves?

This delusionary spectacle will definitely express Neptune’s Pisces t-square to the Gemini-Sagittarius Nodal axis, which also aligns with that critical axis in Trump’s nativity. One commentator aptly speculated on two questions: 1) whether Trump is even “capable” of understanding reality in this situation, and 2) if he has malign intent. Unfortunately, both issues are covered by this Neptune (Pisces), which falls square his Gemini Sun-Uranus and Sagittarius Moon (see chart info, Note #1 below). He could very well be incapable of objectivity under this transit, especially when it means he loses. As for intent, this Neptune triggers his Mars/Jupiter midpoint (Virgo), which Michael Munkasey describes as follows:

“Confusion over how to use the powers or forces available to you; your use of force to establish new religions or mystical insight; misstatements of doctrine or philosophy are spread; a draining of energy resources.”[2]

So, deluded intent is more likely than “malign” intent, but the end result could be very similar, given that Trump’s end goal seems to be to prolong the time during which he enjoys total impunity for anything he decides—or has ever decided –to do. Accountability is clearly not on his bucket list, but as with Nixon, it may be essential, for him as well as the nation. 

 

 

We've come a long way since this moment!

Final thoughts

Because of the corruption of those shielding him in the Senate and elsewhere in government, the only accountability available with Trump has been the election and the opportunity to vote him out of office. Even the GOP Senators that declined to vote to impeach him used the election as an excuse--they didn't need to act because the American people would have a chance soon enough to do so. And yes, the American people rose to that opportunity and made their voices known. And that will stand, even if we have to go through some final wranglings to get there. 

The idea that Trump would choose to tear the country apart to avoid accepting those election voices and that accountability, and that these lackeys of his would enable that behavior is more than obscene: it’s inflicting an existential wound on the nation and everything it has stood for. Perhaps the presidency still stood for something noble and heroic when Nixon was told to resign or to be impeached—even he seemed to have been aware that the job was bigger and more important than his small self when he resigned. Another idea Trump seems incapable of grasping.

So, hang on tight for the rapid-fire week ahead—the story will continue next time!

 


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 Publications tab on the home page for her two most recent publications, A Silver Lining in Aquarius: Engineering the Future with the 2020 Jupiter-Saturn cycle, and Pluto’s Sibly Return: Revisiting Paine’s Common Sense for Transformational Times..

 

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

 

© Raye Robertson 2021. All rights reserved. 

 

 



[1] Birth data: Donald J.Trump, June 14, 1946, 10:54 a.m. DST, Jamaica, NY. Rodden: AA.

[2] Michael Munkasey, Midpoints: Unleashing the Power of the Planets, ACS Publications, San Diego, 1991 ed., p. 229.


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