Monday, February 1, 2021

After the magic carpet ride: the astrology of a GOP crisis, an impeachment trial and waning Jupiter cycles

 


Just when we thought it was safe to focus on the future, we’ve been pulled back this past week into the mire of unfinished business and deliberate insanity. 

 

Aligned with the latter, the Marjorie Taylor Greene cohort has been busy stirring up controversy to support their pouting, exiled leader. Is it any coincidence that, since Trump has been banned from Twitter, that others are carrying the "Big Lie" banner forward for him? The more Greene shows up in the news, the more she assures that her cult-fueled infiltration of the U.S. Congress will be protected.

As we saw yesterday (Thursday), House minority leader McCarthy was “summoned” to Mar-a-Lago to meet with his boss (to “kiss his ring” as WAPO editors put it) and his cautiously soft approach to Greene in the face of mounting calls for her expulsion from the House probably tells us all we need to know.

At the risk of falling into a counter-conspiracy mode myself, I have to wonder if Greene’s devotion to the “Q” conspiracy is even real, or if it’s at this point just a convenient smoke screen for supporting Trump’s continued efforts to sow chaos and to hang on to his cult-like power over the GOP?

The fact of the matter is, it doesn’t really matter what Greene thinks about the “Q” craziness—Trump himself could be the nebulous “Q” character, for all it matters, here, although there is evidence to suggest that the whole thing was manufactured for its dollar appeal by a “small time YouTube video creator and two moderators of the 4Chan website”. Whatever the case, Greene is wielding  her “Q” lunacy as a weapon on behalf of Trump and to support the insurrection--need we know more?  

Ten GOP Reps joined Dems to vote to impeach Trump for incitement of riot.
As we saw, some 139 GOP House members voted to overturn the election on January 6th—even after the Capitol was violently ravaged around them—and though few of these members are as “out there” as Greene is with her delusions about everything from the election’s legitimacy to the mass shootings that occurred in both Sandy Hook Elementary school on 12/14/2012 and in Marjorie Stoneman Douglas H.S. on Valentine’s Day 2018, they might as well be in full collusion with her, for all they’re willing to say about her outrages. Many Dems have voiced the valid concern that all this marks the end of the GOP as we know it, but there’s no pleasure in seeing a worthy opponent die. From where I sit, it’s like watching a sibling you’ve always loved to argue with succumb to a deadly addiction and slowly waste away.

Some commentators gave GOP leaders a modicum of credit for saying Trump bore some responsibility for the January 6th mob that stormed Congress, but those same leaders have slunk back into line, verbally shrinking before an absent Trump. From the Washington Post:

“Barely three weeks after Mr. Trump’s mob stormed the Capitol, Mr. McCarthy traveled on Thursday to Mar-a-Lago, the former president’s Florida home, to kiss the ring. The apparent goal was to patch up his relationship with Mr. Trump following Mr. McCarthy’s mild acknowledgment of Mr. Trump’s guilt. The visit caps an apology tour in which the House minority leader walked back his criticism of Mr. Trump, at one point absurdly remarking that not just the former president but ‘everybody across this country’ bears some responsibility for the Capitol riot.”

Perhaps because these GOP leaders enabled that storm by shoring up Trump’s “Big Lie” about the election being stolen, they’ve now hoisted themselves on their own petard.These are Neptunian times, as we’ve discussed repeatedly on this site, but it’s clear that the GOP addiction to what Trump delivered to them runs deeper than deep. Most of them seem to have no self-respect (that goes with the addiction), so it's no wonder they can’t stand up to Trump vigilante, Ms. Greene.

Greene, who has been forced to reluctantly go through the newly installed metal detectors on the House floor, seems to always operate like a bully looking for a victim. She’s been known to harass those who were involved or were victims of the Sandy Hook and Parkland, FL mass school shootings, calling the events that scarred them so deeply “false flag events.” This, while McCarthy appointed her to the House Education Committee!

Needless to say, all of this is sparking outrage, and there is now an official resolution from CA Democrat Jimmy Gomez to expel her from the House entirely. But that appears to be fine with Greene—it supports her “victimization” narrative. Here’s the statement she issued to Time magazine:

“Democrats and their spokesmen in the Fake News Media will stop at nothing to defeat conservative Republicans. They are coming after me because I’m a threat to their goal of Socialism. They are coming after me because they know I represent the people, not the politicians. They are coming after me because like President Trump, I will always defend conservative values,” Greene said. “They want to take me out because I represent the people. And they absolutely hate it.”

She’s probably right about what “they” want to do; yes they are “coming after her,” but it’s because there are (or should be) standards of behavior for our elected officials, and she’s no more exempt to the rules than anyone else.

Interestingly, Greene’s noon chart for May 27, 1974, cast for Milledgeville, Georgia, shows a potent Pisces Jupiter, widely square and in mutual reception with a fiery Sagittarius Neptune, opposite her Gemini Sun (chart not shown). All these mutable natal points have been caught in Neptune’s Pisces transit over the past several years—which might explain her personal expansion and rise to Congress on the strength of an entitled attitude, conspiracy theories, victimization narratives and misinformation. Given her Mars-Jupiter trine (Cancer-Pisces) and Mars square to a grievance-fueled Aries Venus-Chiron conjunction, I think her House co-workers are wise in not quite trusting her to carry a gun into the House chamber. She’s already publicly supported ideas floated about executing prominent Democrats—why should she be trusted at all?   

Unfortunately, Greene is only one player in the serious dysfunctions we’ve been witnessing in the House since the January 6th insurrection—as if representatives needed anything more to divide them. This dysfunction manifested this past week with AOC accusing Sen. Ted Cruz of “trying to get her killed” and refusing to work with him on an issue of common interest. Distrust and rancor characterize many relationships across the aisle these days: some Democratic reps are still steaming over the GOP reps’ refusal to wear masks while they were all stuck in close proximity during the insurrection because several cases of COVID ensued. Criticizing or sanctioning them—including the infamous Ms. Greene—will only harm Biden’s call to unity, some GOPers try to claim—so everyone should just give them a free pass for egregious, potentially dangerous behavior?  Like Trump, they should never be held accountable?

 


 

The astrology

So, why do we keep being drawn back into the sordid “mire” of the past four years? Or even of the past 80-some years, thinking about that 1930s period that right-wing extremists seem to want to recreate?  

Our symphony of planetary cycles has a lot to do with this, as we’ll see, but we dare not blame the Cosmos for our failures—all planetary energies can be put to better use when there is the will to do so. In government, unfortunately, we’ve seen far too many examples of those whose power reach exceeds their grasp—their competence or full-hearted willingness to really serve the public. The results can be predictably toxic, playing into the tribal, zero-sum tendencies of angry people and further disadvantaging those who rely on good leaders.

Cycles that pick up on these overreaching, potentially toxic ambitions typically involve Jupiter in some combination; charismatic personalities who may or may not have the best intentions often resonate heavily with the Jupiter-Neptune cycle, while aspiring leaders who seek to build their power around overturning some status quo (positively or negatively) might resonate more with the Jupiter-Uranus cycle. Biden’s “restore the soul of the nation” theme was so well-timed because it tapped into what’s going on in these cycles. And no surprise, Trump’s nativity reveals strong aspects in both of these categories, so the status of these two cycles is very relevant right now for anyone with a stake in what happens to our democracy.  

Let’s consider where these cycles are as we speak: the current Jupiter-Neptune cycle, which launched at 26°+Aquarius in May, 2009—amazingly, conjunct our Sibly Moon (chart not shown), hit its final waning quarter (its 3Q) on January 13, 2019, when Jupiter came to 14°23’Sagittarius to exactly square Pisces Neptune; the current Jupiter-Uranus cycle, which launched in June 2010 at 1°+Ariessquare Sibly Venus and Jupiter (Cancer)—just hit its 3Q this past January 17th, with Jupiter exactly square Uranus from 6°44’Aquarius-Taurus. It’s not hard to see both these 3Q moments as significant when it came to the expression of power in this country.

Memorably, the 2009 Jupiter-Neptune cycle provided Barack Obama with a euphoric first quarter in which he managed get his signature Affordable Care Act enacted, but by the time the 2010 Aries Jupiter-Uranus cycle kicked off, an aggressive Tea-Party-fueled GOP backlash had gained enough steam to deliver (as Obama himself put it) a “shellacking” at the polls. Jupiter and Uranus were conjunct and Rx in Pisces at those midterm elections, and with that Uranus still in mutual reception with Aquarius Neptune (still conjunct Sibly Moon in November, 2010), these two Jupiter cycles, in effect, colluded to bring a wave of more extreme conservatives into Congress, which probably helped create the more harsh, polarized tone in our politics (Sibly Moon) that enabled Trump in 2016 and has evolved into our current seriously dysfunctional Congress (especially the House).

The overreaching wave triggered by these two cycles overturned one status quo in 2010 and has since continued on that trajectory, culminating in the Trump presidency (the “deconstruction of the administrative State” was his openly-stated goal) and the January 6th insurrection he incited on his way out. 

Obama ran the first Facebook-driven presidential campaign.
It should also be noted that the “contagion” of economic disaster set off by the 2008 Wall Street collapse and the political use of social media were two other manifestations of these cycles—Obama was the first presidential candidate to make substantial use of Facebook in his 2008 campaign and he maintained that momentum in his post-election public relations. Then there was the so-called Arab Spring in 2010-11 that saw thousands of people across that region pour into the streets (in response to social media) to protest difficult economic times and to depose dictators like Muammar Gaddafi and Hosni Mubarek.

The revolutionary fervor was short lived and in retrospect, probably just enabled the military backlashes and crackdowns that resulted in places like Egypt and Syria—Jupiter cycles rarely produce substantive, long-term change, but they’re good at instigating short-term movements and counter-movements. Unfortunately, the changes on multiple levels that have been forced upon us by the COVID pandemic, first reported in the U.S. (on January 22, 2020) with a Sagittarius Mars (Jupiter-disposed) square Pisces Neptune (contagion) and a new cycle Capricorn Saturn-Pluto conjunction widely square Eris and Uranus (Aries-Taurus)—may signal that we have crossed into a more enduring and potentially disruptive social order. 

Nat'l Guard troops on break in the U.S. Capitol.
This feels about right, two weeks into the Biden presidency: a certain overly large percentage of the population still doesn’t want to accept reality, and they are determined to resist. Unfortunately, the extremist attempts made to overturn the election created a security situation that requires an institutional response (unless the rule of Law no longer applies), and that can result in a vicious cycle of violence and institutional backlash that basically erodes the normal order of things.

Which brings us back to the present state of these two Jupiter cycles we’ve been considering here. Both deep into their 3Q phases, they are both concerned at this point with clearing the outworn realities that hinder us from realizing the cycles’ incoming agendas for growth and change. Unfortunately for today’s hyper-polarized situation in the U.S., there is no really broad consensus about the type of change that’s needed. Biden won with a clear majority of both the popular vote and the electoral vote, but Trump has convinced too many of his followers that they shouldn’t accept these results. Accepting majority rule is an essential requirement for democracy—it wouldn’t matter if Biden received one electoral vote more than Trump—a win is  a win. Yet, anyone who has lived with an addict knows how adept they are at denying reality—as long as Trump and company keep spinning the lies, there will be those who refuse to believe even the evidence of their own eyes. 

 

Needless to say, the result so far is that this clearing out process is fraught with tension. 

And truth be told, there is no lack of reasons for tension, given the pandemic and the restrictions it has brought down on us. The trouble with a Jupiter-Neptune cycle is that there is no “outside” to the situations it produces—the tendency is to get swept up in the overwhelming force of some mass reality. One notable example in the recent past was the extraordinarily powerful earthquake/tsunami that hit Indonesia in December 2004, with a waning Jupiter-Neptune trine from Libra to Aquarius. That monumental disaster swallowed and killed 230,000 people in a matter of moments—there was no “outside” to those mountains of water once they started rolling in.

The Jupiter-Uranus cycle can be similarly overwhelming—when Trump rode down his New York tower’s escalator on June 16, 2015 to announce his run for the presidency, Jupiter exactly trined Uranus from Leo to Aries—significantly, mirroring his exact natal Jupiter-Uranus trine (Libra-Gemini, inner wheel, Biwheel #1). Coincidental? Seems unlikely—this would have been a dream catch for an electional astrologer. In fact, several aspects in that announcement chart (outer wheel, Biwheel #1 below) were perfect for his purposes that day, and they all enabled him to kick off a campaign that instantly overwhelmed our media and imposed his radical point of view into our political discourse in ways that many are still trying to comprehend. 

 


 

Biwheel #1: (inner wheel) Donald J. Trump, June 14, 1946, 10:54 a.m. DST, Jamaica, NY; (outer wheel) Trump campaign launch, June 16, 2015, 11 a.m. DST (news report), New York, NY. Equal Houses, True Node. All charts cast, courtesy of Kepler 8.0 Cosmic Patterns software. 

Most notably, Saturn trined his natal Cancer Saturn-Venus and squared his natal Leo Mars-ASC that day from Scorpio, and Neptune trined his Cancer Mercury from Pisces (his Mercury disposes his Gemini Sun-No. Node and Uranus, so there were knock-on effects). Bottom line, the Cosmos essentially provided Trump with a magic carpet ride on that June 2015 day; it enveloped his campaign in an aura of entitlement and inevitability and empowered his megalomania and pugilistic, no-holds-barred approach to crushing opponents. This may be why some followers have treated him like a kind of Messiah: is it any wonder he feels tragically deflated and jilted now?

Truth is, Jupiter can be a fickle friend—it moves faster than Saturn, so even though both the Jupiter-Uranus and Jupiter-Neptune cycles were still waxing in Trump’s campaign launch chart (outer wheel above), both cycles have since moved into waning mode. Jupiter has begun two new cycles, this past April 2020 with Pluto in Capricorn, and this past December, with Saturn in Aquarius, but so far neither of these cycles has proven to favor Trump as happened in 2015. More is better with Jupiter, so the fact that the GOP retained 50 votes in the Senate may continue to help shield him from an impeachment conviction, but the Party may pay dearly for its fealty. 

Minority leader Kevin McCarthy with Trump at Mar-a-Lago
Most GOP Senators seem to have calculated the benefits and risks of supporting Trump or not and have come out of it believing they have no choice, but the sacrifice of their last shred of integrity on Trump’s altar could be a very risky gamble. We’ll consider the party’s chart against a noon chart for the upcoming impeachment trial for more. First, however, a bit of sordid history.

 


Parties and their sordid histories

The GOP was founded as the anti-slavery party in early 1854, seven short years before Civil War hostilities broke out, so it’s easy to see how seriously the worm of racial politics has turned over the years. For their part, Southern Democrats were all about supporting slavery at one time, so yes, parties can change their stripes over time. Professor Eddie Glaude Jr. covers the politics of slavery and its aftermath extensively in his books, and he views today’s GOP as being aligned with the so-called “Redeemers” movement in the post-Civil War South—southern Democrats who feared that the growing political influence and participation of freed slaves would challenge their control. Similar to today’s GOP quest to repress Afican-American votes, the “Redeemers” went on to squash any attempts by blacks to exercise their then-new citizenship rights. 

The  "Redeemers" used terror to violently suppress new black citizens.
As a movement, the Redeemers’ influence was most prominent between 1870 and 1910—periods that resonate with our own in terms of the two Jupiter cycles we’ve been exploring here. Domestic terrorist groups like the KKK and other white supremacist movements were arising during that time (1865) , and Jim Crow laws were passed to, in effect, cancel out the Emancipation Proclamation and the 14th Amendment without getting the votes. Unfortunately, after the so-called “compromise” 1876 election, the Federal Government basically averted its gaze and allowed these reactionary forces in the south to have their way.

Anyone who lived through the tumultuous 1960s Civil Rights movement knows that Redeemer influence persisted long into the 20th century because it had built a sturdy infrastructure of support for itself. Jim Crow laws reached into every social institution and basically rigged them against black citizens, and any black southerner who dared to behave like he wasn’t still a slave could be lynched with impunity—public lynchings became, in fact, some kind of grotesque mass entertainment to which even children were brought.

Needless to say, we’re far from over these horrors as a nation; instead, Donald Trump and his 19th century throwback supporters in today's Congress have done their best to drag us back into that mire and to turn back the progress that has been made. This time, however, it’s not going to work and they know it, but they don’t seem to have the courage to do anything better. So where does this GOP party go from here? 

Let’s consider Biwheel #2 for some ideas.

 


Biwheel #2: (inner wheel) U.S. Republican Party, March 20, 1854, 12 p.m. LMT (noon, no time known), Ripon, WI; (outer wheel) 2nd Trump Impeachment Trial, February 9, 2021, 12 p.m. ST (time unknown), Washington, D.C.. Equal Houses, True Node. All charts cast, courtesy of Kepler 8.0 Cosmic Patterns software.

Trial Sun-Pallas-Mercury Rx (Aquarius) all conjoin and square GOP Saturn (Taurus), and Trial Saturn-Venus (Aquarius) square GOP Uranus-Pluto (Taurus). Obviously, there’s a formidable Aquarius stellium in the outer wheel here, reflecting how unique the situation is—we can’t really tell which house all this falls in with a noon chart, but it’s quite possible Party leadership feels like it’s on trial and that its status quo is being totally disrupted (squares to GOP Saturn). The trial itself will probably exude Saturnian seriousness. Reforms to Party infrastructure may result, even though that’s not the focus of the trial.

The GOP was historically a product of the fiery Uranus-Pluto cycle that launched in late Aries in 1850—the cycle that probably lit the fiery Civil War itself, but by its radix placements we see that the GOP was more focused on viewing freedom as its basic formula for ensuring prosperity and justice—its Jupiter-Chiron-Pallas (Capricorn) trined that same Taurus Saturn. That focus on freedom accorded with its early anti-slavery agenda (Chiron reflects that wound here), but we also see distorted glimmers of this focus in more recent moves to protect “religious freedom” as a way of back-handedly restricting access to abortion and LGBTQ rights.

In fact, over extended periods of power and influence, the concept of freedom has been twisted into pretzels under GOP rule (GOP Capricorn points have been transited heavily by all five outer planets since the 1990s (Uranus and Neptune) and more recently, by Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto —somehow the individual rights of people to chart their own biological destinies are never quite as pressing. Notably, Trial Uranus conjoins GOP Uranus and Pluto (Taurus)—that early rebellious impulse is being reawakened, but differently this time around. 

 

Peaceful protesters were forcibly cleared out to make way for this.
The GOP’s history of catering to conservative religious viewpoints probably has its roots in its Pisces Sun, disposed by a Pisces Neptune and a Capricorn Jupiter. We’ve seen a kind of sad parody of that history unfold under Trump’s rule, however—capped off with his ridiculous choice to pose with a Bible in front of St. John’s Episcopal while Federal troops he called in forcibly cleared protesters from Lafayette Park this past summer.

Notice that this GOP chart has been experiencing its Neptune return (Pisces) in the past year—Trial Neptune is still within orb of the Party’s radix Neptune and will continue applying pressure as it works towards a sextile with GOP radix Capricorn points. It really has been time for the party to reflect deeply upon its reason for being and to figure out once again what ideals it stands for. The whims and power ambitions of one hateful, divisive and delusional man? Or something bigger and better? Or, are they truly committed to the lies and corruption they’ve been dragged into under Trump?  I’m guessing this coming year will tell the story.

Notice also that the GOP was “born” under all waning Jupiter cycles, from Jupiter-Saturn through Jupiter-Pluto. Considering that they are the party most traditionally associated with Jupiterian notions about loosely regulated trade (the “Free Market”) and unbridled capitalism, this suggests that resisting restrictions (i.e., waning cycles) to its own behavior is top priority. This is ironic considering the “freedom” they have relinquished by following Trump; based on phenomena like the Lincoln Project and Rep. Adam Kinzinger’s new PAC that aims to challenge Trump’s control of the Party, it’s quite possible the Party will simply fall apart in some quest to “free” itself. From the Washington Post:

“Kinzinger, 42, a former star of the 2010 tea party class, said the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol served as a final breaking point for the direction of the Republican Party, providing a stark divide between those who want to continue a path toward autocracy and those who want to return to traditional conservative values.”

So as this trial unfolds, it’s clear that the GOP is feeling uncomfortably restrained—its Jupiter has been Rx by progression since 1911, just after that post-Civil War “Redeemers” movement, and it has now found itself hog-tied by a standard bearer who wants to bring back that ugly time period, at the same time he swallows the Party whole.

Since the GOP chart seems to resonate heavily with Jupiter cycles, I would expect that the remaining months and years of the current Jupiter-Uranus and Jupiter-Neptune cycles will either make or break the Party—either renewing it for the long-term ahead, or fracturing it into factions that may coalesce around a more traditional conservative agenda somehow. The GOP chart’s progressions for the day of Trump’s trial show a progressed Moon conjunct the Trial chart’s late Capricorn Moon, so it seems that the Party is probably feeling its age and its fragility, but perhaps there’s a sense of potential transformation and renewal, as well. Trial Moon-Pluto (tightly conjunct) also conjoin GOP Jupiter-Pallas, and all these points square Trial Eris—perhaps all the disruptions and internal divisions we hear so much about in the news will produce some constructive change, eventually.

The Pluto transit over such a key point in their radix chart suggests to me that the GOP would benefit from revisiting their basic approach to wielding power (Jupiter-Pluto). They’ve cast their lot in recent years with the idea that they can’t win if voter turn-out among minorities is high. Rather than craft an agenda that might appeal to the masses, however, they’ve opted for trying to suppress the vote, usually along racial minority lines. So they’re basically trying to rule in a fantasy world that excludes growing blocs of important voters and caters to the most extreme right-wing elements in the nation. This is a strategy that’s bound to fail, as we saw in Georgia. 

Amazingly, the GOP is already trying to pass more stringent voter suppression laws for the next election! This is a dead-end tactic that’s bound to fail because today’s minority groups are much better organized than anyone and are not going to be bullied like they were under the 19th century Redeemers. Pining for those horrid “good old days” just isn’t going to work here.

Interestingly, the Party’s progressed Sun on the opening day of the trial will be at 10°+Virgo, so opposite GOP Neptune; those who have dared to admit that it’s time for the Party to “stop trafficking in lies”, to start telling truth to power (and acknowledging its own truth) have it right.

 

 


Final thoughts

Both major U.S. political parties have colorful, controversial histories—another day we’ll focus on the Democrats, originally founded in 1828 by Andrew Jackson, a president most Dems love to disown these days for his vicious treatment of Native Americans and flat-out dedication to slavery. But this is who we have been as a nation, after all, and the sooner we accept that reality, learn from it and commit to evolving in more positive directions for the sake of everyone, the better.

Of course, the turmoil we are experiencing right now is very timely: we’re in the final few degrees of our Sibly Pluto return, a period in which “restoring our national soul,” as Biden puts it so aptly, is not just a political matter—it’s a karmic imperative. If we are to ever transcend the worst aspects of our history and the worst extremes of our national character, we must move forward from here, not fall back into worn out default behaviors and hateful rivalries.  

I do think it’s significant that we are ticking off the last months of this Pluto return under the influence of the two waning Jupiter cycles we’ve been discussing in this post. Nations are quite as capable of losing their “joie de vivre” as any individual is, and between the pandemic and the spectacle of sordid political theater in D.C., we are definitely challenged to reclaim our joy and gratitude by being “one nation, indivisible.” IMHO, it’s not about waving flags and shooting off fireworks…it’s about holding ourselves to high standards and doing right by each other.

 

 


 

 

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. 

 

  

 

No comments:

Post a Comment