Astrology, Prediction and Comment

We’re now getting used to Joe Biden as US President.  We’re also getting used to America’s new horoscope.  That’s right, Joe Biden’s horoscope is America’s horoscope, as the President goes so goes the country.  As I have already discussed, Biden has a dangerous chart, and I am not convinced that he is going to be a great President.  Here’s his full chart:

I have circled the wide Saturn-Uranus conjunction in the Seventh House. This suggests to me that Joe Biden attracts trouble, and as President he increases the chances of America getting involved in a major conflict.  At the moment, in early March, Mars is crossing Biden’s descendant.  On March 8 and 9 Mars was conjunction Biden’s Uranus and Ascendant, on March 15 it will be on his Saturn-Uranus midpoint and on March 21 conjunct his Saturn. This in itself is not a big deal – Mars is a fast moving planet, taking about two years to go round the Sun.  However, Biden is president and Mars could help bring his own and America’s enemies out of the woodwork.

We also need to consider Joe Biden’s lunar return, the point where the Moon returns to the place it was at his birth.  You get a lunar return everyone month, and they can be useful in terms of highlighting short-term trends.

The chart is set for Biden’s birth place, Scranton, Pennsylvania, on March 16. This reflects my usual approach, of setting return charts for the place of birth rather than the place of residence. Straight away we can see that Uranus is exactly on the Ascendant, square Saturn.  This repeats a signature in Biden’s natal chart – Uranus touching the Ascendant-Descendant axis.  It may also be relevant that Mars in Gemini is almost exactly 30 degrees from the Ascendant.  It make the situation more violent and more unstable.

Of course optimists would point out that the Moon is making an exact sextile to Mercury in Pisces.  The President’s communication skills are going to be better than average, and whatever’s going on, he’ll be able to put the best possible spin on it.  Nonetheless, the potential for violence in Biden’s chart, which is now the potential for violence in America’s chart, is actualized by his March 16 lunar return. American and its President need to watch their defences and be ready for the unexpected.

Hypothetical planet footnote: Mars is moving onto the direct Uranus-Hades midpoint, which it reaches on March 18. As all three planets form a twelfth harmonic conjunction, with Uranus and Hades being in sextile, and Mars in semi-sextile to these two, we might get some effects.  Though I am not specifically referring to Joe Biden.  According to Rudolph’s Rules for Planetary Pictures, Mars on the Uranus-Hades midpoint can signifify “Sudden mean deeds. Sudden damage or death by weapons or other objects. Attempted murder. Death through injuries”.

On Sunday March 13 2020 there is a New Moon. Here’s the chart, set for Washington DC:

At first sight the chart is fairly harmless. The square between Saturn and Uranus is breaking up and the New Moon’s applying sextile to Pluto seems to signal favourable rather than stressful transformation.  In an American context, Mercury is conjunct the Ascendant in Aquarius.  The government is communicating its vision for the future and Jupiter’s proximity to the Ascendant is fortunate.

However nothing is quite as it seems.  Pluto is exactly semisqure the Midheaven, suggesting a crisis of leadership.  It may not be immediately obvious, but in retrospect this may be the moment when it starts.  In this light, America may begin to realize that Joe Biden isn’t the greatest president since FDR.

What I find more interesting is the way the Saturn-Uranus square relates to the New Moon.  The Saturn-Uranus square is about disruption, about the clash between freedom and authority.  There is no flexbility and instead one keeps going until something breaks.  Yet the Saturn-Uranus square appears to be dissipating, and at the time of the New Moon they are over a degree and a half away from each other.  Maybe things are calming down, and returning to normal?  But the New Moon has other ideas, as the 90 degree dial shows:

The 90 degree dial is a 4th harmonic chart, which shows conjunctions, oppostions and squares as being conjunctions, and semisquares and sesquiquadrates as oppositions.  We can see Saturn and Uranus together in the 90 degree dial, and we can also see the opposition from the New Moon.  At the time of this New Moon, Uranus is almost exactly 45 degrees from the lunation, with an orb of two arc minutes.  And here is the full midpoint tree of the Sun and the Moon:

The midpoint tree is set at a 1 degree orb, and discounting the pair involving the MC, it  relates to the whole world.  We start with the Mars-Hades midpoint – we are in a world that is full of death, destruction and garbage.  Moving down the tree, and the Sun and the Moon are on the Jupiter-Pluto midpoint.  This represents the great attempts people are making to improve their lives.  From a positive point of view, you can’t work hard enough to make things better.  You may not always be able to help other people, but with the right moves you can help yourself.

We now move to the closest midpoint – Uranus on the Sun-Moon midpoint.  This is the shake-up, the unexpected happening which can’t be planned for.  I am guessing this relates to geopolital events, remembering that the chart for the Vernal Equinox, on March 20 2020, also has Uranus on the Sun-Moon midpoint.  Then we have the Sun, the Moon and Uranus on the Mars-Kronos midpoint.  This represents the overwhelming and violent power of the state.  This is going to be a time when governments are going to want to put the boot in, and assert their full control over ordinary people.  Next we have the Sun and the Moon on the Saturn-Uranus midpoint.  The Saturn-Uranus square hasn’t gone away, and events will bring it back into the fore. Freedom and control will clash, perhaps violently.

But where? It could happen anywhere in the world, particularly where there has already been conflict.  But it would be a good idea to have a close look at Eastern Europe – the Baltic States, Belorus and Romania, for example.  In this light, Minsk, St. Petersburg and Istanbul look highly charged.  Also Venezuela, Columbia, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay and Chile – in fact, South America in general. I should also point out that if you set the New Moon chart for Yangon, the largest city in Myanmar, Mars is very close to the Midheaven.

As far as how long the effects of the New Moon will last, I would have said a couple of weeks, and its impact will merge into the March 20 Vernal Equinox.  So overall, the New Moon is a dominant theme for late March.

There are worries that the United States is going to experience a fourth wave of COVID. Texas and Mississippi are opening up and removing their mask mandates, and news channels are reporting that health experts are very concerned.  And we have to remember that Americans, as a people, are stupidly optimistic. They believe everything is going to be fine, and that having a positive attitude is going to save the day.

As an astrologer, I am looking for supporting evidence for a fourth wave.  My reference point is the chart for the Vernal Equinox, on March 20 2021, set for Washington DC, at 5.37 am.  Here is the chart, showing the moment that the Sun moves from Pisces to Aries:

The chart has two conflicting signatures: Jupiter rising in Aquarius and Mars in Gemini on the IC.  These signatures apply to the United States, and Jupiter rising indicates a country giving an optimistic face to the world.  Things are going to get better, the economy will improve and the virus will be beaten.  However I am unconvinced that Jupiter is particularly fortunate. It is a night time chart, and Jupiter has no essential dignities in the 21st degree of Aquarius. There is optimism without dignity. Then there is Mars on the IC.  This suggests that trouble is brewing, which may not be immediately apparent.  And in terms of of the world at large, this is emphasized by the fact that Uranus is exactly conjunct the Sun/Moon midpoint.  We can perhaps see this as being geopolitical uncertainty, which has been largely under control since the start of the COVID crisis.

However, what we should really be looking at is the condition of the Aries point.  After all, this is the chart for the moment when the Sun moves into Aries. Here is the midpoint tree for the Aries point:

When looking at this tree, we have to remember that it repeats at 45 degrees. This means it collapses all the hard aspects into one another: conjunction, opposition, square, semisquare and sesquiquadrate. At the beginning of the tree we see the Jupiter-Uranus midpoint.  People feeling a sense of relief, that they are finally free. Then you have the sideways Pisces symbol, representing the hypothetical planet Poseidon.  Total delusion, optimism without foundation. After that, at only four arc minutes from the Sun and Aries, we have the Neptune-Hades midpoint.  This is the unseen death, the virus that hasn’t gone away. It just keeps coming back, particularly in a country like the US, with its naive optimism and absence of social responsibility. Finally you have Aries on the Jupiter-Saturn mipoint – the stopping and starting and stopping of the economy, as we work through the destruction of COVID.

To sum up, for Americans a fourth wave is on the cards. I can tell this just by reading the newspapers, but the astrology does seem to confirm it. As far as the next few months are concerned, it seems to be a case of optimism giving way to despair.

It has been a bit of time since I have commented on Nicola Sturgeon’s horoscope.  In June 2016 I wrote the following:

On September 14 2018 Nicola Sturgeon enters the nineteen year Saturn period, and her Saturn is dreadfully placed, in Aries in the Seventh House.  Aries is the sign of Saturn’s fall, and it is prominently placed in the Seventh House.  Her luck will desert her, and her ability to handle other people, and to negotiate successfully, will be substantially degraded.

Any student of British politics will be able to tell you that this forecast has been somewhat problematic. I commented on this in February 2020:

Her Saturn dasa started on September 14 2018, if one takes a 365.25 day year.  The previous 16 years, from September 14 2002, were covered by Jupiter.  Her Jupiter is fortunate, being in the First House, but with the switch to the Saturn dasa one would expect things to deteriorate.  Clearly this is not what happened.  She maintained her position as First Minister of Scotland, and her party, the SNP, did very well in the December 12 2019 General Election.

So how does one explain Nicola Sturgeon’s continued success?  One might argue that things are not going well.  As a government, the SNP is racking up debt, and schools in Scotland are falling down international league tables in terms of reading, maths and science.  There is also a view that the effects of a new dasa don’t fully manifest until the start of the second sub-dasa, which in Nicola Sturgeon’s case is the Mercury sub-dasa of Saturn, which starts on September 17 2021.  Finally, we have to consider the possibility that Nicola Sturgeon is a creature of higher, collective forces, which can over-ride her horoscope, at least in the short term.

Another issue with Nicola Sturgeon’s horoscope is the fact that in her Indian chart her Saturn has dik bala, or directional strength. This means, in Saturn’s case, that it is in the Seventh House.  Perhaps dik bala has helped postpone the inevitable. Here’s her Vedic horoscope:

As you can see, Sturgon’s Vedic ascendant is in Libra, the 7th sign, and she has Saturn in Aries, the first sign. Saturn is fallen in Aries, but dik bala may mitigate the damage. However we do know that Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership is under considerable threat.  I am not an expert on Scottish politics, but it does seem that the Alex Salmond affair is getting out of control.

Alex Salmond was Nicola Sturgeon’s prececessor as leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party, and in 2018 he was accused of sexual assault – a charge for which he was eventually acquitted. The Scottish Parliament is now having an inquiry about the matter. The main reason Nicola Sturgeon is in trouble is because there are questions about when she knew about the allegations. According to Politico, she told the Scottish Parliament that she knew on April 2 2018, but then said that she had discussed the matter a few days earlier, on March 29 2018. In other words there is an accusation that she misled parliament.  Furthermore, Alex Salmond claimed that there was a “deliberate, prolonged, malicious and concerted effort amongst a range of individuals within the Scottish Government and the SNP to damage my reputation, even to the extent of having me imprisoned”. The whole situation is complex, but in terms of the bottom line, Nicola Sturgeon is in trouble.

I think her case is a reminder, at least in terms of Vedic astrology, that the astrological situation can get very dark before we’re actually engulfed.

Astrologically, the trouble started on September 14 2018, when her Saturn dasa started.  Yet she still went on to do fantastically well in the 2019 General Election. Then, on January 24 2020, Saturn moved into sidereal Capricorn, the same sign as her Moon:

It stays here until July 12 2022. This 18 month period marks the peak of her Sadhesati, when Saturn is in the sign of Moon, or in the two signs adjacent.  Yet things got even better for her.  Her handling of the pandemic won her praise, and support for Scottish independence increased.  And now, all of a sudden, she is fighting for her political life, because of something that had nothing to do with elections, independence or COVID. It was an internal matter, apparently connected with the dynamics of Scottish politics.  This reminds us that Scotland, like Nicola Sturgeon, is ruled by the sign Cancer. It is the sign of clannishness, of being more vulnerable to your enemies at home than your enemies abroad.

At this stage, it might be interesting to look at Sturgeon’s Western chart, set for 3.16 pm on July 19 1970, in Irvine, Scotland:

I am interested in her Moon at 7 degrees 14 Aquarius, which is opposition her Mars and Mercury.  Also, her Ascendant at 7 14 Scorpio is square her Moon. We can then say that through 2021 Saturn and Uranus are putting huge pressure on this line up. We can see the transits here:

Saturn and Uranus just don’t leave her for a long.  On February 17 and 18 her Moon and Ascendant were hit by both planets, and in March and April her Mercury gets smashed.  There is a lot of mental pressure here, and the future may seem bleak. Mars joins the party in mid-April, when it make a 45-degree aspect to Mercury.  At this time Nicola Sturgeon needs to be careful what she says, in terms of how if effects her political position.  Moving forward to the Autumn, and Saturn comes back to an opposition of her Moon.  This happens at the same time as she moves into the Mercury sub-dasa of her Saturn mahadasa.  At this stage, if she is still First Minister, she needs to ask herself whether it is really worth it.

There is also the issue of what is best for the Scottish Nationalist Party and Scotland.  The leader is connected with the organization she leads, and as the leader goes, so do the followers.  If a leader’s horoscope is going through an astrological storm then her followers are going to be in for a soaking.  Maybe that’s their destiny, or may be they have the free will to choose a different leader with a different chart.