THE 2022 MIDTERM ELECTION & THE UNITED STATES’ PLUTO RETURN
The United States’ 2022 midterm elections are in the rearview mirror, and the astrology mainly played out as expected.
Two events took place on November 8: Election Day and a lunar eclipse in Taurus tightly conjunct (in other words, “practically on top of”) Uranus — the planet of chaos, surprises, twists, and unexpected developments.
It was that strong Uranus influence that led me to, in my last blog post, write: “I do not expect the 2022 midterm elections to go smoothly or come and go with little fanfare. I also expect at least one race to have a significant upset.”
Many races took days to be called. It took over a week to determine which party controlled the House of Representatives (the Republicans now have control, with 218 representatives to the Democrats’ 208 representatives).
As was also expected with such a strong Uranus influence, some races had one candidate’s lead on election night completely reverse a few days later. One example was Nevada’s Senate race, which Democratic incumbent Catherine Cortez-Masto won (her opponent, Republican candidate Adam Laxalt, initially led by almost three percentage points).
Historical trends mean nothing when Uranus is at the helm. The only thing you can expect is the unexpected. And, we saw plenty of that on election night.
- The expected “red wave” turned out to be more of a “red drizzle”.
- In New York, incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul’s margin of victory over Republican Lee Zeldin was much narrower than expected.
- Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney lost his race in New York, marking the first time in decades that a chairman of either party’s campaign arm has been ousted.
- Tim Ryan, a 10-term Democratic congressman in Ohio lost his Senate race to JD Vance, a newcomer to the political world.
- This was the the first time since 1934 that the president’s party had a net gain of governorships in a president’s first midterm.
- To make matters even more “shocking” (as CNN puts it — that word is the epitome of Uranus), this happened while the current president’s approval rating was 44% in the exit polls.
In my last post, I also mentioned that with Saturn (the planet that relates to restrictions and limitations) in Aquarius (the sign of progressive ideas and politics), we would see some extreme right-wing candidates win their elections. This was largely staved off by the fact that Uranus (the planet of progressive ideas and politics) was front-and-center (and therefore more powerful) since it was so close to the eclipse, but we still saw these two developments:
- Eric Schmitt (a 2020 election denier and one of 18 attorney generals who filed a lawsuit to overturn President Biden’s win in a handful of states) won the Senate race in Missouri.
- Ted Budd (a cosponsor of Senator Lindsay Graham’s proposal to ban abortion past 15 weeks nationwide) won the Senate race in North Carolina.
While the most extreme right-wing candidates lost their races, the fact that they were on the ballot to begin with was related to Saturn’s current travels through Aquarius (that ends in March, when Saturn moves into Pisces… more on that in next month’s “the astrology of 2023” post).
In the midst of all this, we can’t forget the United States is experiencing its first-ever Pluto return (this post has my detailed analysis about it — scroll down to the section titled “The U.S. Pluto Return: Why It’s A Big Deal”).
In that post, I shared these main themes and to-dos that come up during a Pluto return:
- Tear down structures and systems that are rotten at the core and start over.
- Forget band-aid solutions; identify foundational problems so you can come up with foundational solutions.
- Face all the “ugly things” that have been swept under the rug.
- Embrace change.
Pluto is the planet that relates to transformation, metamorphosis, and deep change. It is also the planet that relates to the “shadow side” of something, whatever is repressed under the surface, and the ugly underbelly.
In this post about the 2020 presidential election, I gave a very brief sneak peek at the inauguration chart for whoever wins the 2024 presidential election and wrote the following:
“As much as I don’t like “doom and gloom” astrology, I also despise what I call “rainbows and unicorns” astrology. I do not intend to make the presidency that begins in 2025 seem like a “We Are the World” singalong. However, a lot of the overt anger and combativeness we see today will decrease significantly.”
The United States’ Pluto return brought the country to the edge of authoritarianism. But, just like my clients have free will to navigate their astrological transits, so does a country.
The results of the 2022 midterm election give me reason to believe that the United States has temporarily averted a very dark and authoritarian path it could have veered toward. I say “temporarily” because the U.S. Pluto return is in effect through January of 2024. But, so far, it seems this country may emerge from the other side of this Pluto return realizing how much it has taken for granted and how vulnerable freedom and democracy are.
THE ASTROLOGY OF DONALD TRUMP’S 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN ANNOUNCEMENT
On November 15 (shortly after 9 PM Eastern Time in Palm Beach, Florida), former United States president Donald J. Trump formally announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election. In what I can best describe as “an astrologer’s dream,” official paperwork was filed with the Federal Election Committee approximately thirty minutes before his remarks.
That works great for me because it removes complexity about which event’s birth chart to use. The chart for the filing of paperwork is very similar to that of his verbal announcement, so regardless of which event we use as the “birth” of his third presidential candidacy, we come up with the same astrological landscape.
In my last post, I detailed Trump’s current astrological transits and progressions, which show an era of challenges and defeats that lasts through mid-spring of 2023 (we’ve already seen this play out, as his most highly endorsed candidates failed to win their respective races in last week’s midterm elections).
I expect that his two Justice Department investigations will only get more problematic as the next few months unfold, as will the civil investigation into the Trump Organization by New York attorney general Letitia James and the tax fraud trial by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg. And, hours before Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign announcement, longtime Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg provided some damning testimony against the Trump Organization.
So, Trump’s 2024 candidacy already faces strong headwinds since it was announced during a personally challenging astrological time for him.
Let’s take a further look at his 2024 presidential candidacy’s birth chart:
- Cancer ascendant: this is important because it means the moon is the ruling “planet.”
- Moon opposite Saturn *and* square Uranus: These two aspects are very challenging — even more so because, as mentioned above, the moon is this chart’s ruler. Oppositions from Saturn slow things down, add obstacles and challenges, and stifle growth. Squares from Uranus, meanwhile, are erratic and can indicate a pervasive jerky start-and-stop-energy as well as provide a general backdrop of chaos and instability.
- Sun square Saturn: This chart has Saturn challenging both the moon and the sun. Yikes. This does not bode well for a presidential campaign because it cements the core of this campaign with challenges, difficulties, and a general “wet blanket” energy.
- Mars retrograde; Mars in the twelfth house; Mars square Neptune: I don’t think you could ask for a more challenge (weakened) Mars. Any time you launch something important (and a presidential campaign qualifies as such), you want a strong Mars because Mars is the gas pedal of the zodiac. Mars also represents success, emerging triumphant among other competitors, and having energy and force. A retrograde Mars (the astrological equivalent of a wet match) already stacks the astrological adds against you, even more so when fiery Mars is housed in the watery twelfth house and challenged by watery Neptune. In essence, this chart’s Mars is out of its element and unable to fulfill its functions.
- Mercury and Venus trine Jupiter: No chart is “entirely good” or “entirely bad.” Although Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign chart is severely challenged, it does have Mercury and Venus getting along with Jupiter. Venus-Jupiter trines are fortuitous from a financial sense. This campaign has the astrological capacity to raise significant amounts of money, and with that Mercury trine to Jupiter, the hyperbolic (Jupiter keyword) rhetoric (Mercury keyword) will be off the charts.
But, those two trines aside, I think this presidential campaign will flounder.
By contrast, his official campaign announcement for the 2016 president election (which took place on June 16, 2015) had a totally different vibe.
In that chart, Mars — which was moving direct, not retrograde — was tightly conjunct (AKA: right next to) the sun and moon. In other words, Mars (which was in the fast-moving sign of Gemini and completely unchallenged) was supercharging both luminaries. The core energies of that campaign were infused with stamina, vitality, and high energy.
That chart also had Jupiter and Uranus in an exact trine (120-degree angle). This is what cemented Trump’s imagine in his 2016 presidential campaign as that of the “rebellious outsider” and also helped ensure that his campaign would grow and swell (Jupiter keywords) over time and completely surpass everyone’s expectations (there’s Uranus with its shocking twists and turns).
These two charts could not be more different. The 2016 candidacy chart was astrologically vibrant and dynamic. The 2024 candidacy chart is fatigued and washed out.
I do not see Donald Trump being the 2024 Republican nominee. And, as I wrote in my last post, I don’t see Joe Biden being the 2024 Democratic nominee, either. This, by the way, very much aligns with the fact that the United States will have completed its Pluto return by the time the 2024 presidential election takes place. At that tie, a new political era begins, with two first-time presidential nominees.
There is already some speculation about who these nominees will be, but I want to wait until official announcements are made before I analyze any birth charts. I’m sure 2023 will keep me quite occupied in that regard.
