What Happens Next? – An American Crisis (part 1)

The election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States of America has raised many questions about the future not just of that country but of the world. This month I will attempt to utilise astrology to shed light upon the path before us.

From the outset I will make my bias and prejudice clear – it’s my firm opinion that Trump will bring many global troubles. However, I’m not writing this as a Clinton supporter – far from it, as I believe the United States would also have lost had she been elected, albeit differently. For the sake of this article I will do my best to restrain my personal judgement to a degree so that I can present the astrology as clearly as I can. However, inevitably my strong bias will bear its influence upon these words. For this I will not apologise, as I do not actually believe that it is possible or desirable to be completely unbiased in this matter. Still, I’m not going to spend this article attacking Trump or his policies. I’m under no illusion that Trump himself is ‘pure evil’ or any such nonsense. There are actually far bigger issues to explore than just the actions of a single individual. Instead, my goal is to present to the public the tools and information they need should they be interested in what astrology has to say about this situation. I will attempt to separate my bias from the presentation of these tools by confining my comments to a section at the end of my presentation of each of the charts I will share. For the record, I am neither Republican nor Democrat. I am not American either, I am British. My deep concerns about Trump stem not from any political branch of my personality, but from more profound concerns about his character and his behaviour as well as his intentions and the implications globally. In all honesty, I base these concerns not just on my own perception of the man, but on the nature of his astrology.

Before I get into those matters I feel I should say a few things about the role of astrology in terms of political forecasts. Basically, it’s never a good match for astrology –there are always negative long-term consequences for astrology when astrologers involve themselves in predicting political matters. If they get it wrong, as the vast majority of them this year did (including many eminent and well-known individuals), the failure of astrology to predict things undermines its profound capacity to guide people through life. Whether or not astrology should actually be predicting things is another question, and one that does not generally occur to a typical member of the public. However, if we imagine a scenario in which a large or vast number of astrologers actually predicted the result correctly, in defiance of all the polls, there are still negative consequences for astrology. Since the nature of astrology and the perception that the public at large have of it implies that astrologers believe the result is preordained and cannot be changed, a spectacular success by astrologers in this area inevitably results in some people accusing them of undermining faith in the democratic process through quackery, while also being accused of unduly and nefariously influencing its outcome. Additionally all the various political drivers will attempt to put their spin on it the next time an election is called, resulting in a huge number of politically motivated interpretations. Astrology and politics as a mix usually results in astrology being used, and used in a way which is devoid of true understanding of its potential. Astrologers should learn the lessons of history which basically show them what a bad idea it is from all the heads that ended up in baskets. Consequences may now be different but the underlying treatment is the same. This is one reason why I personally did not make any public predictions about the result of this election. I did make private predictions which I shared with my friends and some of my students. I predicted a Trump victory, but I did not always think that he would win. In this message I will share with you some of the reasons why, about a year ago, I changed my mind.

The bulk of this article however will be about focusing on the future. Regardless of your politics, I think you may be able to agree with me when I say that the future is now a lot murkier than it used to be and that its very difficult to know what will come next year and further ahead. This uncertainty is something that astrology can help with, although it cannot tell us precisely what is going to happen. We will always have to interpret the language of astrology into something concrete, and in doing so we cannot avoid filtering it through our bias and perspective. Nor can we ever completely remove that bias or perspective, since it arises from our unique position in the universe and the way we see it from where we stand, sit or lay. We can only seek to be aware of our bias and prejudice and how it might influence our interpretation. However, astrology is uncannily accurate when it comes to the general (if not specific) timing of things, and when it comes to laying out an overall ‘weather map’ of happenings.

The first part of this article, published here, discusses the astrology of the election itself and what led me to change my mind about who would be victorious. It also touches upon why other astrologers may have got it wrong and what lessons we can learn to improve our astrology. Next, I focus on the USA itself, devoting the lions share of this post to its national chart, and a presentation of its astrology for the next four years. The second part of this article, published this evening, turns a spotlight onto the astrology of Donald Trump and Mike Pence, including a look at the next four years of astrology surrounding them.

At the end of each section I will provide my own comments on the material I have presented. In the case of Trump and Pence, Trump lovers can skip this part if they wish. However, I would advise them not to as even if you disagree with my interpretation or find my views unsympathetic or subjective, there may still be something in there for you to learn about the road ahead, about astrology or just the way Trump is seen by other people.

THE RESULT

It has been called the most shocking political result in history by some, and it certainly feels hugely significant. Analysts will spend years, possibly decades trying to figure out why all the polls were wrong, why people voted the way they did, what role media and social media had to play, and what it all signifies. Astrologers will be doing the same with astrology. The manner in which Trump conducted his campaign was controversial to say the least, and there was an overall feeling from the beginning that he was a “joke candidate”, with the media taking every opportunity to poke fun at him. I believe this was one of the major factors in why many astrologers did not actually get it right – plainly speaking they did not take him seriously enough.

Another factor and a very important lesson for astrologers to take from this experience is one about data and accuracy. The birth time of Hillary Clinton was an unknown – she had given conflicting answers to the question over the years, possibly intentionally (it is suggested by some that she was told by one astrologer that she had a Scorpio ascendant and she did not like that description, so decided to obfuscate it) [see Chris Brennans recent podcast for more on these issues]. Whether or not this story is true, the confusion existed and still exists. It’s also less well-known but there are conflicting versions of Donald Trump’s birth time, separated by about an hour. This also may have played a role in the lack of clarity. Some astrologers may have based their conclusions on time sensitive factors. I think the lesson there is for us not to do that, to weed out those time sensitive factors and present only the information that we can be sure of even if it means we can make no clear forecast. There is still a huge amount that can be extrapolated from a chart lacking a time. In short, we should treat the Rodden Rating system as some kind of practical commandment. Lois Rodden undertook a huge task instilling discipline into astrology in this area and we should treasure her legacy, or face the consequences. In that light, I will be paying attention to it in this writing. My charts for Trump and Pence come from the databank at astro.com which adheres to the RR system, while the other charts presented here come from Nicholas Campion’s ‘Book of World Horoscopes’, wherein sources of the data used are provided where they exist, and it is made clear when they do not or when there is confusion or a lack of evidence.

Ironically, there was a further factor which I feel was impacting the ability of astrologers to get it right, namely astrology itself. A square between Saturn and Neptune in Mutable/Reactive signs has been floating around all year, and this is an aspect that makes it very difficult to navigate properly because goalposts keep changing, clarity is scarce, probabilities are shifting and uncertain, things are just not what they seem and long-term prospects or plans undergo continual challenges to adapt to changing circumstances. Perhaps it is wise for us to take a leaf out of horary astrology’s book, which includes guidance on when an astrologers judgement is likely to be impaired or lacking for some reason.  Some transits just don’t bode well for forecasting itself!

I don’t want to go into great detail here explaining my methods, and will briefly summarise the journey I made with my own forecast. Up until about a year ago it was my sense that Hillary Clinton would win and become the first female President. The first shift in this opinion occurred when I realised that Donald Trump was going to be the Republican nominee who would run against her. There was something about this that caught my internal awareness, like a piece of a jigsaw fitting into place. The best way that I have of describing this sensation is that there was an inevitability to it, a fated quality that snugly fit into the times. It was like watching a wave far out on the horizon slowly coming toward the shore and finally arriving at the moment where it opened its arms to the beach. At this point I started to wonder what the wave actually was and from there I gathered up clues which led me to the conclusion that Trump was going to win the Presidency because people had had enough and wanted change so badly that they would elect him regardless of what he said or what the media betrayed him as being, since he was the only alternative. Once I came to this conclusion, it became clear that America was headed into divisive and turbulent territory. The result of the Brexit vote clarified this in my mind, as I realised I was looking at a very big wave crashing upon global shores. I began to understand that what was happening was very much connected with the Uranus/Pluto square that has dramatically impacted this decade and continues to do so, with Pluto in Capricorn leading us to some kind of total transformation of the political landscape and intense upheaval arising from peoples dissatisfaction with the system everywhere. However, there are complications and they are messy, as the Uranus/Pluto dynamic is multifaceted and tends to hysteria and overblown reactions, as well as involving outrageous projections and paranoia about real or imagined conspiracies.

As far as astrological practice is concerned, in gathering my clues I knew that the birth time of Hillary Clinton was questionable. I knew I had to weed out the tendency to want the temples to be there, and I knew my insight into the planets would also consequently suffer. I knew that I had to focus primarily on aspects between planets, ignoring the ascendant and midheaven and being cautious with the fast moving Moon. Donald Trump had produced his own birth certificate, and it appeared to be unaltered and original, so I started my clue gathering with Donald rather than with Hillary. However, it was only when I came to look at her chart that I realised I may have been using the wrong data for his. Given the fact that I had no time data for Hillary, I decided to begin looking at her astrology by using the visual astrology promoted by Bernadette Brady and made possible by her ‘Starlight’ software. This software enabled me to look at additional astrological influences affecting Hillary Clinton that were not affected by her birth time, chiefly the parans of stars to her planets. Up until that time I had been using ‘Solar Fire’ to look at the charts, but at this point I noticed the charts for both Hillary and Donald in the databank I had for Starlight. This databank had a birth time for Donald that was an hour earlier than the one I was using, and I eventually detected the source for this earlier time in the source noted for Trumps data at astro.com’s database. The notes for Donald Trump show that this earlier time was provided by his mother when Donald Trump was asked for it and called her. This was the original time for Donald Trump’s birth, which astro.com had changed at a later date when he produced his birth certificate.

So I had two candidates with at least four charts to consider between them…the earlier chart for Trump did not seem to provide any obvious indicators of being born into huge wealth, while the latter time did but had an extremely dodgy ascendant on the cusp of signs that needed accuracy to within seconds, something I knew the birth certificate would not note…the confusing mischievousness of Saturn square Neptune occurred even here, then, but I was able to correctly navigate through the maze by just ignoring all the obfuscation and focusing on what I could be sure of – I had to make sacrifices of what I wanted astrology to do. After looking at the parans in both Donald and Hillary’s natal astrology using Starlight, I then applied this information to their transits and progressions and it became clear to me that the conjunction of Saturn to Donald Trump’s Moon which would take place at the election was probably indicating a massive shouldering of responsibility on him, and not a failure or disappointment. There was still some lingering doubt, however, as one of the parans to his Moon indicated personal tragedy. It was at this stage that I decided that looking at the parans for New York (the place where both Trump and Clinton had powerful ties) on the day of the election itself would probably be interesting. That’s when I found this:

And it was at this point that I realised Trump was very probably going to win. So as far as I’m concerned this is a great victory for Starlight and the use of parans, as well as of Brady’s interpretations (which I’ve found to be similarly uncannily accurate over the years). I recommend that in cases where the tropical astrology is murky because of time issues, that we use these interpretations as a baseline and seek to expand and improve upon them as time goes by. And I think it is obvious that when we do know the birth time with some accuracy that these interpretations are also extremely useful. They help to cut through the murkiness and the confusion that can surround both timing issues and the art of symbolic interpretation.

Amid all this murkiness, some things are still abundantly clear. The result has sparked and/or exposed huge divisions in American society – depending upon whom you talk to it is either the most glorious result in election history or the end of the American Dream. Various reasons and explanations for the result exist, further muddying the waters. This does not bode well for any attempt to bring unity to the country, since if you can’t even agree on the reasons for the divisions, how can you remedy them? I believe it is this which is the most important factor going forwards – not Trump himself or what he will do, but the bubbling cauldron of tensions and deep divisions that he has exposed and energised, and his personal inability to quell or heal them. Simply put, as I said in a comment to Steven Forrest on Facebook several months ago, we are looking at the battle for America’s soul. It therefore seems prudent to begin seeking clarity with the chart for the United States itself.

THE UNITED STATES CHART

The astrology of the United States is complex – Nicholas Campion’s book devotes no less than 28 pages to it, with multiple charts for the Declaration of Independence. There are several interesting facts in the commentary provided, not the least of which is that even though the birthday of the USA is celebrated on July 4, it’s a verifiable fact that the actual vote for it took place on July 2. It was the wording of the Declaration that was formalised on July 4, and July 2 was forgotten. Nevertheless, it’s clear that the significance of July 4 as the birthday of America is indisputable and since astrology deals in the currency of significance, it’s the charts for July 4 that I look to. I say charts, because (surprise surprise) the time is unclear. After examining each of these charts I decided to settle on a late afternoon chart set at around 5 PM. The historical and circumstantial evidence for this time is very strong and includes two eyewitness accounts (Jefferson and Gerry). However given the uncertainty it is prudent to be cautious with all the time sensitive information in the chart. I wrote the following with this in mind.

This chart shows the Sun in Cancer shining brightly upon a close Venus and Jupiter conjunction in the same sign, with the Moon in Aquarius with the Dragons Tail (but not conjunct). Mercury is also in Cancer and a setting star aligned with the sect of night (Magnetic). Mars is in Gemini, squaring Neptune in Virgo but in a trine with the Moon. Saturn is in Libra in a close square with the Sun and in trine with both Mars and Uranus in Gemini, which is in a trine/sextile with the Dragon (the trine going to the Tail). If the time is correct Uranus is precisely setting on the descendant. Chiron is in Aries opposite to Saturn and square to the Sun, Mercury and Pluto in Capricorn, in perhaps the most ominous arrangement of aspects as far as the future of the country is concerned today, as I will explain.

Even if we ignore all 4 angles, this chart is very Cardinal/Active. Its identity is about acting, being a leader. Cancer is very strongly represented, as are all 3 Air signs. This denotes protectionism, focus on home affairs, defence, the desire to nurture family, a connection to ones own history and a tactical, lateral attitude to tackling problems (Cancer) as well as an identity that processes through reasoned argument and thought, discussion, debate, the media and intellectual and social sharing (Air). Its an appropriate chemistry for a ‘cultural melting pot’, a nest into which different birds are invited to flock and settle down to the business of integrating their differences harmoniously. The biggest blocks or challenges to that drive come from the Sun squaring Chiron and Saturn (with Saturn opposing Chiron), Chiron squaring Mercury, and Mars square Neptune (and the midheaven, if the time is accurate). Then there is Mercury opposing Pluto, perhaps the most troubling block of all.

As a quick check of the current positions of the outer planets will show, all of that is being hit hard right now and over years to come. Presently, everything in Cancer is especially hit, with Uranus making squares from Aries and Pluto casting oppositions from Capricorn. The USA is in the initiation phase of its Pluto return. It’s a long way off from exact, but the pressures leading to it are arriving so that they build up now. It is also right now experiencing what it is like to have Pluto opposing its Sun. I have noted before that Pluto transits often intensify directly after the exact hit. It’s like an orgasm. It has already encountered Pluto oppositions to its Venus/Jupiter conjunction. The squares from Uranus in Aries are fading as Uranus is in the last third of the sign – except for the square with Mercury, which is building – but the opposition from Pluto to the Sun is pretty much in the hot zone and at its peak now. If the ascendant is correct, Saturn has just crossed into the 1st temple, but even if it is not Saturn has been in opposition with Uranus and is fast closing in on opposition with Mars in Gemini (which will be concurrent with a square to Neptune in Virgo) after which he will enter Capricorn and make oppositions to everything in Cancer and a square to his own position. A major turning point approaches according to Saturn.

Neptune in Pisces is square Uranus, and will eventually reach its half return, which will involve a square to Mars. This will take a number of years, during which it will make a trine to the Cancerian Sun and eventually US Mercury. Chiron is just ahead of Neptune in Pisces and so is currently forming a trine with the US Mercury in Cancer. This may well help to soften some of the obvious harshness or difficulty we see in much of the above. More immediately, Jupiter in Libra (which seems very descriptive of the phrase ‘liberal elites’) will be making trines to Uranus, Mars and eventually the Moon over the course of the next year, while at the same time conjoining the US Saturn and squaring Uranus and Mars in Gemini. This looks like a major movement concerned with justice, equality or truth, or a major clash of belief systems and the ideas that stem from them.We could be looking at legal and social conflicts. With the exception of these last influences, Jupiter is smoothing things out and creating opportunities for people to connect – it is stimulating empathy and expanding the definitions involved in all the Air of the chart. It looks like a lot of ‘release language’ is taking place – heated discussion and widespread intellectual and social mobilisation is indicated as people start saying what they really think, and react to all the news they hear. Perhaps way too much.

TOOLS FOR INVESTIGATING THIS CHART

One of the most useful reports that Solar Fire puts out for me is the Sensitive Points listing, which presents all of the degrees of the zodiac alongside the chart aspects they trigger. This reveals the wiring of the chart in a very visible form, and shows which signs carry stresses and dynamic forces (many squares and oppositions), and which calm things down and bring dangers of wasted opportunities or complacency (trines and some sextiles). Here are the sensitive points for this US chart:

From this we can see (for example) that Taurus is a relatively stable and smooth area of the chart – there is only the square with the Moon and its Nodes to shake things up – while Capricorn is one hell of a bumpy ride with only a trine to Neptune to calm the path. This is important information because it is code that applies to the Lights as well as all the planetary cycles – it means that the Taurus time of year when the Sun passes through Taurus is much more likely to be ‘plain sailing’ as things keep flowing in the direction they are on course for, but that the Capricorn time of year is a period of major consternation. Similarly, each month has a couple of days in which the Moon passes through Taurus or Capricorn and instigates a similar but less direct, prolonged or focused effect. So this way of looking at the chart is helpful and clarifying in all kinds of ways, especially when we want to see what is up ahead. If we plot Pluto on this listing, for example, he is currently at Capricorn 15 – not only in opposition to the Sun, but square with Saturn and in a tightening square with US Chiron. He will make his exact Pluto return when he reaches 27 Capricorn (in 2022). That may well be the most important year in US history.

The sensitive points listing can be especially helpful in conjunction with the graphic ephemeris, which shows the timing of when the events indicated by the listing will occur. Here is the graphic ephemeris for the transits and progression to the US chart for 4 years from inauguration day:

SECONDARY PROGRESSIONS

TRANSITS

Here we can see Saturn (black curvy line at bottom left of transits graph) bringing pressure to bear in the third quarter of 2017 (when there is also an exact aspect of Uranus square the US Pluto) and Uranus square Mercury becoming exact at the start of the 2nd quarter of the year. Jupiter conjoins the US Saturn between these times and the Neptune trines to the US Sun are entangled with the more troubling times. The graph for progressions also highlights the 2nd quarter (April, May, June), showing progressed Venus in Aries coming to square the US Pluto and the progressed Moon in Sagittarius making a sextile with the US Saturn. The progressed Moon will also become an exact Third Quarter Moon early in 2017.

In 2017 the major transits are Uranus square Mercury (2nd quarter), Uranus square Pluto (2nd and 3rd quarters), Neptune trine Sun (2nd and 3rd quarters), Chiron opposition Neptune (1st quarter) and Saturn square Neptune and opposite Mars (3rd quarter). Jupiter is generating a lot of energy all year, trining Mars twice and retrograding all the way back through Libra to square the US Sun in the 2nd quarter. There is also a very slow moving progression of Saturn in trine with US Venus that extends for many years from 2017, and an exact Pr. Mercury sextile Chiron in the 4th quarter of 2017 that is also fit to play a role in 2018 and 2019.

In 2018 there is Pluto squaring Chiron all year and Saturn in Capricorn opposing Venus and Jupiter as the Neptune trine with the Sun gradually dissipates. At the start of the year the final square of Uranus to US Pluto takes place but after that Uranus steps out of the picture. Saturn opposes US Jupiter 3 times, first in the 1st quarter, then in the boundary between the 2nd and 3rd, and finally in the 4th. The only major aspect of Chiron is a sextile to Pluto in the 1st quarter. In the progressions the Pr. Sun in Pisces reaches its trine to the natal Sun (1st quarter), and the Pr. Moon sextiles its natal position in the 2nd quarter but switches into Capricorn in the 3rd quarter, beginning a difficult period that extends through to late 2020. This starts with Pr. Moon opposite US Venus in quarter 4, during the last opposition of transiting Saturn to US Jupiter.

In 2019 Neptune steps out while Uranus steps back into the picture with squares to the nodal axis and Jupiter in the 3rd quarter. Pluto is trine US Neptune all year, but Jupiter in Sagittarius makes three squares to Neptune as well as three oppositions to Mars. Jupiter additionally makes three sextiles to the US Saturn, one early on in the year and two more in the 3rd quarter, stationing near to the exact sextile, and three trines to US Chiron. This is also the year in which Saturn in Capricorn squares the US Saturn, with three hits in the 1st, 3rd and 4th quarters of the year. Chiron is also square to US Venus and Jupiter in this year, most acutely in the 2nd and 4th quarters. The progressions of note in 2019 are the Moons opposition to US Jupiter (1st quarter), and its opposition to the US Sun and square to the US Saturn (3rd quarter). The Pr. Moon will begin entering its Balsamic phase in quarter 4, although it will not become exact until the following year in November of 2020.

There is major stress upon the US Mercury in 2020, as Pluto reaches the opposition of Mercury just as both Jupiter and Saturn do the same (there is a Jupiter-Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn coming in a couple of years, dear world…). Saturn also makes three conjunctions with US Pluto, with Jupiter gearing up to do the same. This is the major happening of the year and it climaxes in the 4th quarter so it looks set to be an even more incendiary election than the last one, should there be one at this point. The US Venus and Jupiter conjunction receives squares from Chiron, while the nodal axis is squared by Uranus in Taurus. Progressions in 2020 follow the rocky road of the Pr. Moon in Capricorn, bringing a square with US Chiron (1st quarter), an opposition with US Mercury (and Fortuna) in the 2nd quarter and a climactic conjunction with US Pluto in the 3rd quarter. The beginning of the 2nd quarter also brings a relatively still point in this turbulence in the form of a trine with US Neptune. A year of serious and profound change, with momentous decisions being forced.

Note that there are no significant progressions of Mars to the US chart in the next 4 years and only one significant progression of Venus to the US chart.

Further telling information on the core of the chart can also be gleaned from the parans provided by Bernadette Brady in Starlight. I have also provided you with the heliacal stars (which do not rest upon an accurate time) and the pivoting stars (which do):

---

The heliacal stars are especially descriptive of the US identity, how it perceives itself and its destiny. They permeate all of its astrology. There are also striking and easily recognisable resonances with the parans to the Lights and planets, with some making more sense with a little thought (for example, if we consider the ‘powerful author or orator taking the spotlight’ of the Pluto paran to be the way American discourse has shaped world history, such as through the media and entertainment industries as well as through its diplomacy). All of this information can help sharpen the context into which we place the transits and progressions as well as the natal positions of the chart.

PERSONAL COMMENTS ON THIS USA DATA

The USA is in the buildup to a very troubled Pluto return that falls in 2022, and the years leading up that time will see uncontrollable eruptions of the underbelly, all the things that are endemic in American society but kept in the dark. This is why racial tensions, economic disparity, bigotry, gender inequality, religious ideologies, failures of the political system and other long standing but suppressed issues and tensions are emerging, in some cases violently. We are witnessing a purge of the toxins that have poisoned the American dream, namely the divisions and resentments that have up until now festered beneath the surface but which have now been irreversibly ignited – by Trump. These divisions will develop into a force that compels America to transform itself into something else, and the hope is that this will happen as peacefully as possible and lead to a healthier nation. However, the forecast is clearly that the storm is about to break – Pluto is still almost 12° away from its own chart position, and the outer crust is still concealing many profoundly significant things beneath its surfaces. The current crisis is connected with transiting Pluto opposite US Sun and transiting Uranus square US Mercury and Pluto. If Americans cannot find the way through the storm that is about to break, the USA as we know it now will likely eventually break apart into separate pieces as the irreconcilable differences will force the dissolution of the unity of States. This will reveal a great deal of ugliness in the American psyche that must be somehow transformed into something positive, or it will do massive damage to that psyche. Since the fate of the USA is clearly in the balance and since the fate of the USA is now inseparable from the fate of the rest of the world, it benefits us all to help the people of America through this deep crisis. This involves being a calming influence as they go through whatever they encounter and not inflaming or complicating it from outside, while supporting them in making their own way through it. At the same time, we should understand that we have entered a time of uncertainties in our relationship with America during which there may be many shocking events which we will need to react to appropriately but calmly.

In 2017 the inauguration is watched over by Chiron opposing the US Neptune (this represents a fracturing of vision or its problematic re-integration), and overall the prominent square of Uranus to US Mercury suggests that there will be a lot of confused and conflicting talk about the changes the USA is going through. Debates will be reactionary and lacking in facts, especially in the 2nd quarter of the year. In this period US rhetoric on trade and its military may cause great uncertainty. This is because the parans of the US Mercury point towards trade and the military, and it would seem then that Uranus is bringing radical changes of thought and ideology in these areas. The square also suggests a radical break in thinking and a tendency towards becoming far more outspoken. It could also indicate that internally there will be a large and varied amount of argument going on and that the media are at the hot end of a stick (I’m guessing that the core issues in this part will be about media access to the Presidency and the accusation of conspiracies). Americans will find it very difficult to find a consensus on almost every issue. The key is to encourage discourse, to keep a collective open mind so as to allow new insights to emerge, but not to allow sweeping change without first scrutinising its consequences, and to resist extremism. Reactionary opinions will only increase divisiveness. In the 3rd quarter, Saturn brings pressure upon Neptune and Mars, and this is likely to be a very challenging time for any leadership (especially one that has made outlandish promises), with the President taking an active hand in solving perceived problems. The problems of fulfilling his promise to build the wall may be mounting against him, for example. Jupiter in Libra is generating enormous thrust and potential overconfidence or a ‘boom and bust’ tone all year, but especially in the 2nd quarter. I strongly feel that given its liberal qualities Jupiter in Libra represents the social movement against a Trump Presidency, while also representing the spending of the government.

With luck, the sextile of progressed Chiron to the US Mercury in the 4th quarter will bring opportunities for healing dialogue that extend for the next couple of years, and the continuous trine of Neptune to the US Sun this year will help to calm things down and encourage meditation on the issues so that the people can process what is happening with greater clarity and vision. I feel that the Neptune trine is a precious opportunity for the American people to gain clarity on their vision so that when the Pluto return hits hard they will know what they are regenerating into.

In the next part of this article, I will present the astrology of Donald Trump and Mike Pence, and examine this in the context of the USA’s road ahead.