Biden drops out, endorses Kamala Harris: the astrology of passing the torch

 

“My Fellow Americans,

Over the past three and a half years, we have made great progress as a Nation.

Today, America has the strongest economy in the world. We've made historic investments in rebuilding our Nation, in lowering prescription drug costs for seniors, and in expanding affordable health care to a record number of Americans. We've provided critically needed care to a million veterans exposed to toxic substances. Passed the first gun safety law in 30 years. Appointed the first African American woman to the Supreme Court. And passed the most significant climate legislation in the history of the world. America has never been better positioned to lead than we are today.

I know none of this could have been done without you, the American people. Together, we overcame a once in a century pandemic and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We've protected and preserved our Democracy. And we've revitalized and strengthened our alliances around the world.

It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”

 

V.P. Kamala Harris

 

It was with these words that president Biden shocked the nation this past Sunday with his decision to step aside, a decision that was quickly followed up with his full-throated endorsement of running mate V.P. Kamala Harris as his replacement in Election 2024.

It was a decision that already seems to have changed everything about this election for Dems in one fell swoop: there’s new excitement, new confidence, an outpouring of appreciation for Biden’s sacrifice—it’s no small thing to walk away from presidential power—and a new outpouring of resources for the race.

So what just happened astrologically here? First, let’s examine a chart for the exact moment Biden released the above letter on social media (X). We will then examine a biwheel that places Chart 1 below against Biden’s nativity, and finally, we will examine a biwheel that does the same for Harris’s nativity.

 

Chart 1. Biden drops out of presidential campaign, July 21, 2024, 1:46 p.m. DST, Washington, D.C. Source: news of day. All charts are cast by author on Kepler 8.0, with Tropical Equal Houses and True Node and courtesy of Cosmic Patterns Software.

 

The Sun—conjunct the 10^th house cusp (Leo) and representing the Leader—opposes a fixed Aquarius Moon-Pluto Rx conjunction, t-squares an Eris-Chiron conjunction in the Aries 6^th and trines late Pisces Neptune Rx. It’s a disruptive, but ultimately sacrificial passage for a public servant (6^th). Pluto Rx and Gemini Mars, hugging the 8^th house cusp, co-rule the Scorpio ASC and fall in trine aspect, suggesting that Biden’s health—perhaps especially since his COVID diagnosis—may have been somewhat more precarious than we’ve been told. More about this when we consider Biwheel 1 below between this chart and Biden’s nativity.

Moon rules the Cancer 9^th and disposes the Cancer Sun here, reinforcing that its brush with deathly Pluto Rx weighed heavily on his decision. Interestingly, given the health issues he’s been facing, Biden could have simply resigned his office and passed the torch to V.P. Harris via the succession process, but by choosing to simply withdraw from their re-election campaign, he made sure that she would have a chance to prove herself with the public and with Democratic party movers and shakers through an accelerated nomination process. And she would have a chance to name her own V.P., which could help with undecided independent voters.

So, applying the wisdom of his many years in politics to set her up for success instead of what happens so frequently in VP-related political dramas—failure. It takes a public servant with deep integrity to know when it’s time to step aside, even when everything in him said he was “in it to win it” and that he should stay on and “finish the job.”

Saturn reminds us of our limitations in every situation—and this 5^th house Pisces Saturn, Rx and lapping against Neptune Rx (also 5^th, reinforcing that Pisces energy) as they navigate the final few degrees of their 1989 Saturn-ruled Capricorn cycle—invites selflessness, sacrifice, perhaps decline, but at its best, the ability to walk away from institutional power because it’s simply Time.

As the leader’s power ebbs, however, new opportunities present themselves: if we allow that the prominent 10^th house Venus-Vesta conjunction in Leo here represents Harris and her intense focus on the dignity and needs of women in this election, the exact sextile this pair forms with 8^th house Jupiter in Gemini points to a fortuitous “inheritance.” More on this when we examine her chart against this information (Biwheel 2).  

10^th house Leo Mercury inconjoins Pisces Neptune and squares Uranus (Taurus)—still widely conjunct Mars (Gemini). Given that Mercury rules the Gemini 8^th and the Virgo 11^th, this points to a surprise, not entirely comfortable shift of narrative within the Big Money/Political influence realm.  

8^th house Gemini Jupiter forms a wide waxing square with 5^th house Pisces Saturn Rx; forward-moving forces (and the narrative accompanying it all) are still impacted by undermining restrictions, and both planets are navigating weaker signs for their energies, but there’s progress to be made.

 

The president's COVID diagnosis took an immediate toll.

 

Biden’s decisive moment

At this point, it makes sense to examine the dynamics in the above chart against Biden’s nativity—please see Biwheel 1 below. Notice that I’m labeling the outer wheel planets and aspects with the acronym “BDO” (Biden drops out) to prevent confusion. Natal planets, aspects and houses will carry the label “Biden.”

 

Biwheel 1. (inner wheel) Joseph Robinette Biden, November 20, 1942, 8:30 a.m. War Time, Scranton, PA. Source: from memory, Rodden rated A; (outer wheel) Biden drops out of presidential campaign, July 21, 2024, 1:46 p.m. DST, Washington, D.C.

 

 So, BDO Sun in late Cancer falls over the Biden 8^th, conjoins Biden Jupiter Rx (Cancer) there and opposes the fixed BDO Aquarius Moon-Pluto Rx conjunction, which falls over Biden’s 2-3 cusp and squares his natal Moon (Taurus). That significant opposition axis also t-squares BDO Chiron (Aries), which falls over Biden’s Aries 5^th. Biden’s decision ultimately seems to have been grounded in his native values and in his receptivity to those immediately around him.

Pluto’s involvement (especially square his Moon) suggests that he made this decision quite instinctively, as a person well-steeped in D.C. power dynamics, but it was likely also on some level a matter of “survival”—probably not an unusual frame of mind for an older person who contracts COVID.

This precarious sense—whether to his legacy or to his physical life itself—was likely reinforced by the following aspects:

·        BDO Sun-Neptune trine (pulling in Biden’s Jupiter)—potentially undermining, but also idealizing.

·        BDO Uranus-Mars (Taurus-Gemini) oppose Biden’s 12^th house Mercury-Sun-Venus (all Scorpio); BDO Mercury (Leo) squares these potent oppositions and captures them for a tense interchart grand square by also conjoining Biden’s No. Node (Virgo) and opposing his So. Node (Pisces). This grand square hews very closely to the horizon and the 4^th-10^th house axis, definitely raising health concerns.

·        BDO Jupiter (Gemini) inconjoins Biden Mars (Scorpio); BDO Venus (Leo) squares the same point—doubly concerning because Biden’s Mars co-rules his Scorpio Sun.

·        BDO Mercury BDO Uranus-Mars (Taurus-Gemini) opposes Biden Mercury-Sun-Venus (Scorpio); shocking diagnosis seems to have pushed his decision over the edge.

·        BDO Jupiter (Gemini) also falls conjunct Biden’s Saturn Rx, which may account for the “light” case of COVID he’s been reported suffering, but one way or another, the dangers to his candidacy and to his health (especially by Mercury- and Gemini-related factors that could impact both speech, communication abilities and respiratory health) seem to have converged on him from several different directions at once.

·        Finally, that BDO Aquarius Moon-Pluto Rx conjunction also trines BDO Mars (Gemini), which significantly, falls conjunct Biden’s 6^th house Uranus (Gemini) and will soon be transiting over Biden’s 7^th house Saturn Rx (also Gemini). Born several months after the Saturn-Uranus cycle first reached perfection in Taurus in May 1942, Biden was part of the cohort of WWII babies born with both Saturn Rx and Uranus Rx in early Gemini, trine early Libra Neptune in his 10^th, which could well explain his early struggles with speech and stuttering and, flashing forward, his recent return to similar speech-related problems.

On the flip side, that natal conjunction straddling his 6^th and 7^th houses also speaks to the magnetic attraction that public service has always had for him and it speaks to his knack for working with allies to achieve strategic aims. His natal trines to Libra Neptune reinforce this easy willingness to reach across the aisle. He was simply born to this life: the U.S. Sibly chart [1] is not shown here, but Biden’s Saturn-Uranus conjunction also conjoins 6^th house Sibly Uranus and his Neptune conjoins the Sibly MC, reinforcing his call to public service and his deep belief in our original revolutionary (Uranus) ideals (Neptune, Declaration of Independence).

 

Add into that the physical pressures a lingering Full Moon can bring to bear, and it’s probably a good thing that Biden decided to ease up on himself.

In light of all this, that BDO Venus-Jupiter sextile discussed earlier—that may work out well for his heir apparent, V.P. Kamala Harris—could have represented misplaced optimism on Biden’s part if he had continued his campaign. By standing down in the face of very real challenges, however, Biden has freed his party and the nation to rally around the person and leader he very thoughtfully chose to succeed him, should the need arise.

 

V.P. Harris at Campaign Staff meeting last night.

Harris takes the reins

Let’s now turn our attention to how Biden’s announcement chart plays against V.P. Kamala Harris’s nativity (Biwheel 2 below).

We will have plenty of time to really dig into Kamala Harris’s astrological profile between now and the November election, but for now, the point is to consider how Biden’s decision to drop out and give her his full-throated endorsement is likely to impact her campaign going forward.

 

Biwheel 2. (inner wheel) Kamala Harris, October 20, 1964, 9:28 p.m. DST, Oakland, CA. Source: BC/BR, Rodden rated AA; (outer wheel) Biden drops out of presidential campaign, July 21, 2024, 1:46 p.m. DST, Washington, D.C.

 

One of the key features and major energy centers in Harris’s chart is the Uranus-Pluto-Venus (all Virgo) conjunction in her 3^rd house of communication and grass roots involvement and this stellium’s opposition to her idealistic 9^th house Pisces Chiron. In a lot of ways, her entire career has been a walking embodiment of these aspects, which truly define her as a child of the tumultuous mid-1960s Civil Rights period.

Now, with BDO Saturn Rx (Pisces) tying into the Chiron end of Harris’s oppositions, she could find herself charged with carrying forward the spirit of that Civil Rights era as our national leader. Effective leaders never forget where they come from and she shows signs of being such a leader.

To complicate matters a bit, however, we need to consider two interchart mutable grand squares that implicate both BDO Saturn Rx (Pisces) and BDO Jupiter (Gemini) and could make for a somewhat volatile election campaign going forward. These tense configurations are:

·        First, BDO Jupiter (Gemini) opposes her natal Pallas (Sagittarius) and their axis forms the first mutable grand square with her Pisces-Virgo oppositions, pulling in BDO Saturn Rx. This one speaks to the importance in this moment of her pre-Senate history as a career prosecutor and as the elected Attorney General for the State of California. Her Pallas’s 6th house placement house confirms that her legal background has been the basis of her public service since day one.

·        Second, Harris’s Nodal axis, stretching across her Gemini-Sagittarius horizon, grand squares the Pisces-Virgo oppositions we’ve been discussing and also pulls in BDO Neptune Rx (Pisces)  

It's fairly amazing to consider that three important points in her natal chart are now being squared by transiting (BDO) Jupiter, and that by mid-August 2024, BDO Mars will be right behind, catching up to Jupiter and triggering the same interchart mutable grand square we’ve been considering. And right around the time of the Democratic Convention in Chicago. It’s quite likely the Convention will be tumultuous, although Harris seems to be very quickly locking down for her new ticket the delegates that she and Biden had earned together.

Of course, all of this—including the Dems’ robust outpouring of contributions since Biden stepped aside--has been helped along by the Cancer-Capricorn full Moon that became exact the morning of his announcement. The outcries of fears about his candidacy had reached the breaking point and cardinal action for the sake of the nation simply had to prevail. Just hours later, we see the Moon quickly moved on into Aquarius to conjoin Pluto, but still opposite the late Cancer Sun and cutting across Harris’s 8-2 financial axis. Add to that the presence of BDO Venus (Leo) over her 2nd house, sextile BDO Jupiter (Gemini) over her 12th, and it appears that she will be able to count upon deep-pocketed, small donor and behind-the-scenes support.  

V.P. Harris and husband, Doug Emhoff

It also appears hopeful that the BDO Aries-Libra Nodal axis cuts across her 10-4 axis and that the BDO Moon-Pluto trine BDO Mars (Gemini), which disposes that Aries No. Node. If we take the dispositor chain one step further, BDO Mercury (in Leo, disposing Gemini Mars) is transiting trine Harris’s Moon (Aries) and conjunct Harris’s Leo Mars.

BDO Mars-Uranus do, however, square her Mars and inconjoin her Sun (Libra) at the same time, so her opposition will be playing hardball, and obstacles will undoubtedly be thrown into her path.

Finally, for now, BDO Chiron and Eris (Aries) are also transiting conjunct her natal full Moon and opposing her Libra Sun (yes, she’s likely the second full Moon type in this presidential race!)—needless to say, her emotional life could be intensely disrupted and wounded in the course of this campaign. No doubt, she will be brutalized by the Trump camp—and Trump himself—but she’s tough, knows her opponents well, and in her first speech from Democratic headquarters, she’s already come out swinging herself.

 

 

Final thoughts

Some of my favorite--and arguably some of our greatest--presidents in U.S. history have been those who did not serve a second term, for one reason or another. Unfortunately, it seems that second term runs tend to drag the worst impulses of our national character into the fray: the dirtier the tactics, the better. I won’t catalog them here—no need to air dirty laundry for now. Suffice to say elections can be toxic, vicious and crushing, but what’s the alternative? A dystopian vision like Trump’s so-called Project 2025 where whole swaths of the American people will stop having choices over who governs their lives?  If we care about our children and grandchildren and the Earth itself, I pray not…

So thank you, President Biden, for your service and your wise sacrifice on behalf of the American people...we wish you well!! 

Keep it Light, folks!

 

Notes

[1] U.S. (Sibly) chart, July 4, 1776, 5:10 p.m. LMT, Philadelphia, PA. Source: Ebenezer Sibly, cited and documented by Nicholas Campion, The Book of World Horoscopes, Chart #370, pp. 363-4.

 

What's new...

New Guide to Planetary Cycles, Vol. 1 now released and available on Amazon

in Kindle E-book and Paperback versions

  

Raye Robertson is a practicing astrologer, writer and retired 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, U.S. history, culture and media, the astrology of generations, and public concerns such as education and health. Her articles on these topics have appeared in several key astrology journals over the years, and she has authored three books on key mundane astrology topics that are currently available on Amazon Kindle. For information about individual chart readings, contact: robertsonraye@gmail.com.

© Raye Robertson 2024. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

On the astrology of this “hard time for little things”

Note: this was posted just hours before Joe Biden's surprise announcement that he will be exiting the presidential race and endorsing V.P. Kamala Harris in his place--clearly, more needs to be said about this and will be very soon! 

Gold balloons befitting a Coronation

Here we are, in the wake of last week’s GOP Convention, with freaked out Dem leaders trying to put Biden in political hospice and the rest of us busily rearranging the deck chairs on our sinking democracy…

 

Meanwhile, the following 7/17/2024 CNN headline and excerpt was quickly allowed to fall into the background, as if it wasn’t the most startling (hence the largest font) thing that happened that day:

Prosecutors say neo-Nazi ‘murder cult’ leader plotted to give poison candy to Jewish kids in NYC

“The Maniac Murder Cult’s goal is to upset social order and governments via terrorism and violent acts that promote fear and chaos, according to the announcement from Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, US Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York and Executive Assistant Director Robert R. Wells of the FBI’s National Security Branch.

Chkhikvishvili was arrested after he tried to recruit an undercover law enforcement officer to join his group and commit violent crimes such as bombings and arsons, according to court documents.

In November 2023, Chkhikvishvili began planning a ‘mass casualty event’ for New York City on New Year’s Eve, prosecutors said.

‘The scheme involved an individual dressing up as Santa Claus and handing out candy laced with poison to racial minorities and children at Jewish schools in Brooklyn,’ the Department of Justice statement said.

He ‘drafted step-by-step instructions to carry out the scheme’ and shared with the undercover officer ‘detailed manuals on creating and mixing lethal poisons and gases,’ the statement said.”

So, we know all 5 “W’s” in this story: who, what, when, where, why, and yet the alarming threat covered in it seems to have just disappeared…because it’s clearly more profitable to talk about Biden slurring a sentence? Or maybe one more feckless Dem panicking and bailing out of team Biden gets more clicks? 

In fact, Biden keeps saying he’s “in it to win it?” But...the media always inserts a but here. Patronizing and not listening to people we think of as “old” is a problem in our Sagittarius rising culture—listen in and you will hear the corporate media “bros” translating Biden’s “in it to win it” to mean whatever they want it to mean!

We’ve been talking a lot about the astrology of political violence in the past couple posts here, but given the events of this past week, it’s horrifyingly apparent that we haven’t even scraped the surface of possibilities yet. 

 

Even Krampus wouldn't poison children!

 

I get that the media may not even want to dignify the Maniac Murder Cult’s plans with any further discussion, but what disturbs me even more than the fact such a group exists in this world is the fact that we probably can’t even say (and the media really doesn’t want to entertain the notion) whether a 2^nd Trump presidency would bother to safeguard Americans against such “maniac” plans, or whether a Trump Homeland Security department would simply look the other way until after the threatened tragedy.

Like they did with COVID; like they did by enabling the Taliban to return to rule in Afghanistan by making a “deal” with them that Joe Biden was then obligated to carry out; like they did by separating children from their parents at the southern border and never bothering to get the information that would be needed to reunite those shattered families.

Or as they most likely will do to Ukrainian children by denying their country’s military the resources it needs to win against Russian aggression.  As a startlingly relevant 1950s noir film entitled The Night of the Hunter—set in rural America during the Depression era—famously put it, “it’s a hard world for little things.” Indeed, it is, and, IMHO, that’s on us!

We’ve allowed our national discourse to devolve into the predatory Plutonian dystopia that Project 2025 wants to codify for all time, and if those who want to impose their twisted view of the Constitution and our nation’s history on all of us get their way, it will continue to be a hard world for little things…and for everyone who hasn’t managed to acquire vast wealth by now. Or whose parents depend upon Social Security and Medicare or reduced-fee childcare. Or whose children need to attend public schools. Or who happen to be non-white, non-Christian or both. Or who have the unfortunate luck of needing refuge in this land. And that’s just for starters.

 

 

c. Katsushika Hokusai

Historian and author of the bestselling End of Truth, Michiko Kakutani is out with a brilliant new work, entitled The Great Wave: The Era of Radical Disruption and the Rise of the Outsider that characterizes with amazing insight what we’re going through at this moment:

“It’s difficult to convey just how strange life in the third decade of the third millennium has become: It often feels like a preposterous mash-up of political satire, disaster movie, reality show, and horror film tropes all at once….Why would Republicans repudiate the Constitution—not to mention, fundamental ethics—to embrace a twice-impeached, four-times-indicted pathological liar, who is sabotaging American democracy and promoting division and hate? How could a cult-like devotion to a would-be autocrat take over one of America’s two major political parties? Why would most Republican leaders, who once recognized the threat this demagogue posed to American democracy, fall in line behind him?... If a system becomes weak enough and the opposition divided enough, if the ruling order is corrupt enough and people are angry enough, extremists can suddenly step into the center, where no one expects them. And after that it can take decades to undo the damage.” [1]

We’ve seen everything that Kakutani posits in this passage, and with the somewhat “convenient” anointing of Trump as God’s “Chosen One” over this past week at the RNC convention, we can be doubly sure that what she calls a “Great Wave” is not only Plutonian—i.e., powered by Underworld forces—but also Neptunian, with the triggering assistance of a weakened Saturn (Pisces) and a staunch Mars-Uranus conjunction (Taurus) that happened to “graze” Trump’s natal MC and square his natal Mars-ASC in lordly Leo.

The verbal bowing and scraping at the Convention may have happened in any case, but in the wake of his assassination attempt, Trump was duly crowned with a sacred “sign of the Redeeming Wound” (strange looking ear bandage) and—enabled by his captive Supreme Court—he was anointed with unlimited, unrestrainable power over all our lives. Protest and the mob police will be unleashed on our streets if he is re-elected (Trump so wanted this during his first term and now no one can stop him!)—the King is not to be questioned.

 

Propaganda is an art form best served up warm and sentimental.

 

But wait…

I get it, if we just can’t stand the heat anymore, we can allow ourselves to be sedated…gas-lit, even—Neptune offers a full complement of propaganda tools. And while Neptune and Saturn remain in Pisces, finishing up their difficult final balsamic phase, the lure of sedation will remain and probably deepen. Again, from Kakutani:

“Today’s proliferation of data has also made us vulnerable to a new brand of propaganda, pioneered by Putin’s Russia (and adopted by Donald Trump) that exploits information overload and people’s adrenal fatigue. This is propaganda less reliant on old-fashioned censorship than what RAND Corporation analysts call the ‘firehose of falsehood,’ that is, pelting the public with such high volumes of lies, contradictory facts, disinformation, half-truths, news, gossip, and just plain noise that people grow numb and their weariness coagulates into cynicism and resignation.” [2]

I’m guessing many of us are already feeling the “adrenal fatigue” Kakutani calls out…if we look around it almost seems like the Universe itself is on Donald Trump’s side—he’s our self-proclaimed “Redeemer King,” haven’t you heard?—and we might as well get with the program!

And then we WOKE UP—right-wingers like to accuse everyone who disagrees with them of being “Woke,” as if that’s a dirty word…well, maybe being “Woke” when the forces of propaganda are trying to put us to sleep so they can do whatever they want with OUR rights and OUR democracy is the most loving and Light-filled (Neptunian) response to the toxic alternatives?

Case in point, does anyone really believe that Donald Trump, as he claimed, “took a bullet for democracy?” Even the fact that he would make that claim calls into question his being targeted that day in  Butler, Pennsylvania. It was an amazingly powerful “near miss” for which another unfortunate man paid the price. And who will get to be the sacrificial "lambs" for him going forward?

There’s no swimming in a Neptune-Pluto tsunami, but whatever our ideological persuasions are, we can opt to live in a fact-based world—we can search for higher ground and reconnect with our senses, our common purpose and our core strength there. On that higher ground we can decide together what kind of nation we want to live in.

 

See the CBS special, "Children of Gaza" here.

 

And in this morning’s news…

Thankfully, but also horrifically, CBS shifted gears this morning from the usual to give us some real information about the genocide that has been going on and continues today against the Children of Gaza. No, not by a group calling themselves the Maniac Murder Cult, but by the very targeted assaults of the Israeli military and by the irresponsible collusion of Hamas. Children shot twice by snipers, crushed—or as one doctor put it, “shredded”—beneath bombed out hospitals, starved while hundreds of 18-wheelers full of aid are detained and fatally slowed down at the border. All exit paths have been taken over by the Israelis, it turns out, so Gaza has been transformed into a nightmare Night of the Hunter’s terror-scape where Predators—in the name of defense and retribution—reign with impunity.

And such is the theme of today’s world—toxic Power unleashed on the weakest among us to act with Impunity—the killers might as well dress up like Santa and hand out poisoned candy.

 

Who will care for these children?

 

Notes:

[1] Kakutani, Michiko. The Great Wave: The Era of Radical Disruption and the Rise of the Outsider, Crown, Kindle Edition, pp. 25-26.

[2] Ibid, pp. 43-44.

 

What's new...

New Guide to Planetary Cycles, Vol. 1 now released and available on Amazon

in Kindle E-book and Paperback versions

  

Raye Robertson is a practicing astrologer, writer and retired 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, U.S. history, culture and media, the astrology of generations, and public concerns such as education and health. Her articles on these topics have appeared in several key astrology journals over the years, and she has authored three books on key mundane astrology topics that are currently available on Amazon Kindle. For information about individual chart readings, contact: robertsonraye@gmail.com.

© Raye Robertson 2024. All rights reserved.