On the September 17 lunar eclipse and the "keeping of our Republic"

 

Now that we’ve sent our kids and grandkids back to school in America, it’s full steam ahead for this year’s elections, which means we’re assaulted at every turn with new polls, new ways of crunching the same old numbers in various configurations, always in the interest of getting at the essence of what seems certain to be a nail-biter to beat all nail biters.

We’re all looking for assurance that everything is going to be “okay” in the end, it seems…we won’t really allow our democracy to be overthrown for some thuggish, misogynist, corporatist autocracy, will we? I would submit that one of the most nerve-wracking dimensions of this election is the very lack of assurance available to us that our fellow Americans will be voting on the basis of a shared body of facts about the candidates, about their true goals, their characters, their strengths and weaknesses, and about whose needs they really plan to serve if elected.

The astrology of this moment hasn’t been the most reassuring, either—in fact, I often feel we’re being left hanging over an abyss of our own making and the possibilities are stark. Are we truly committed to the ideals of our Founders (if not their actual behavior)? The Cosmos doesn’t really take sides in contests like this: it’s up to us to use the prevailing energies to defend what Benjamin Franklin called our “Republic…if we can keep it.”  Or not.

I have to be frank: at times it feels as if we’re riding an irrepressible global wave of toxic nationalism towards less freedom and more autocratic control, but then at other times, it feels like heroes for democracy are emerging everywhere we look—even super-conservative Liz Cheney just endorsed the Harris/Walz ticket, for crying out loud!—and things aren’t nearly as dire as they may seem.

 

Soldiers buried in ANC deserve our deep respect.

Even in our lighter moments, however, the struggle lives on, as evidenced by a host of stories that have gone viral recently—about the Trump campaign’s crude and illegal political use of Arlington NationalCemetery (ANC); about the use and abuse of military valor and its place in American life; about the violent undercurrents that seem to plague our discourse, and about the cynical ways in which we assign value to people in this society—not by the depth and strength of their characters, but by their celebrity (and all its beautiful trappings), their social media reach, or their net worth.  

We broadcast the extraordinarily beautiful people in the Olympics for all to see, for example, while the heroic efforts of the Paralympic athletes are highlighted sparingly on the airwaves, if at all. If Value in America is measured in $$$$ and celebrates only those who generate more dollars--media coverage dollars are as good a barometer of what we value as anything—maybe Trump was expressing more than we thought when he said he didn’t want to be photographed with amputees in a military cemetery because “it doesn’t look good for me.” 

Maybe he was channeling his “reality TV star” view of this nation in that hallowed ground? For him, of course, “reality” is whatever set piece he decides to produce for himself that day—and it’s always whatever makes him look good, powerful, worthy of adoration. Like it or not, his perspective and the power dynamics that fuel it are reflected in ways both big and small in our popular culture. Are we better than that, or aren’t we?

In fact, the Paralympics movement is alive and well in the U.S.—especially given the truly unfortunate numbers of soldiers who lost limbs in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars—but as a society, we seem to have a love/hate relationship with these heroic individuals.

Surely they bear witness to our best as a nation, but their very existence also rips open a Pandora’s box of our failures as a society, so they are routinely relegated in the media to  special, veterans-related occasions. My veteran husband and I see such individuals at our local VA medical center all the time, but their voices tend to be marginalized elsewhere. This is to all our detriment, I would suggest: those who are valued so little and are rendered voiceless can be (and in many cases, have been) easily radicalized.

Then there are those vets (across the ranks) who are radically disappointed and enraged at how Trump desecrated the hallowed ground their fallen comrades lie in at ANC. This disillusionment runs deep, as (IMHO) it should.

 

From Space.com

 

Which brings me to the crux of today’s astrological exploration and an examination of the upcoming September 17, 2024 lunar eclipse chart. Lunar eclipses happen at full moons, so tensions are inherent in them, so what can this chart tell us about the tensions that exist in America today between idealism and cynicism? Between heroism and opportunism?

Between the deep-pocketed forces that are determined to consolidate their power (Sun) a mere two months from now, and the People (Moon) who are determined to preserve their constitutional rights and the ideals of freedom, equality and Justice for all under the Law? The wealthy and well-heeled may not miss democracy’s absence because autocrats tend to court their favor and to put them in positions of power; ordinary families have only the privileges of democracy to fall back on.

So, with all this in mind, let’s examine the chart for that eclipse looming just ahead, cast for Washington, D.C. (Chart 1 below). Conventional wisdom has it that we can usually feel the impact of an eclipse in society before it actually perfects, which sounds about right in this case.

 

Chart 1. Lunar Eclipse, September 17, 2024, 10:34:13 p.m. DST, Washington, D.C. All charts are cast by the author on Kepler 8.0, with Tropical Equal Houses, True Node and courtesy of Cosmic Patterns Software. 

 

One of the burning questions of the day is whether the government funding bill looming just after this eclipse perfects will be used to shut down the government on the pretext of protecting November elections from any non-citizens who might try to vote. In fact, voting is already illegal for non-citizens and it rarely happens, but making a show of adding a trap clause on the funding bill about such things is a well-worn political scare tactic on the Right, so why should this election cycle be any different? These efforts are always about undermining people’s trust in our institutions (i.e., the Law), which—not surprisingly—resonates with this upcoming lunation and its heavy Neptunian undercurrents.

That said, we see in Chart 1 that the Sun-Moon opposition (full Moon) stretches across the 4-10 axis of the chart and between late Virgo and late Pisces. This pits the grass-roots against the powers-that-be, but curiously, the People (Moon) are elevated, but still quite challenged, as the Moon is sandwiched between Pisces Saturn Rx and Pisces Neptune Rx—hence the emphasis on undermining institutions that the People rely on. 

 

Russian disinformation seems to be everywhere these days.

 

This gathering would seem to account for the intense assaults we are experiencing on our ability to get clear and accurate information about this election—just yesterday (9/4) in fact, the Biden administration publicly accused Russia of a “sprawling election interference campaign,” and according to the Justice Department, that’s just the most obvious of the disinformation threats posed by our foreign adversaries.  The only antidote for these threats is government action (Saturn), of course, which we are beginning to see, but in keeping with a somewhat weakened Pisces Saturn, and considering Neptune's rulership over such tactics, is it too little, too late?

Notice that, with Gemini rising, Mercury rules this chart from Virgo on the Sun end of the eclipse axis and falls tightly opposite that weakened Saturn on the Moon end of the axis (10^th house). Right Information (Mercury in Virgo) does seem vulnerable in tension with this Saturn but notice also that this opposition—along with Moon-Neptune on the Pisces end of the eclipse axis and Sun on the Virgo end—falls widely t-square 1^st house Gemini Jupiter. Jupiter tends to indicate financial interests in U.S. political matters, which suggests that the urgency driving both campaigns to get their own side of the political story out there will persist for the duration, and as always, the deeper the campaign coffers, the better they succeed at this quest.

I’ve always thought that Mercury also speaks to the public’s “voice” or right to vote in our democracy, so even a weakened Saturn’s opposition points to possible problems with voting access this year—more on this when we examine this chart set against the U.S. Sibly chart in Biwheel 1 below.

First, however, additional aspects to both ends of the eclipse axis in Chart 1 are worth more consideration: Taurus Uranus Rx sextiles Pisces Moon-Neptune and grand trines Virgo Sun and Capricorn Pluto Rx, suggesting that some shadowy, disruptive forces (12^th house Uranus Rx) we’re dealing with this election season may find opportunities to sway the People (Moon) and they may financially enable (Capricorn Pluto Rx) those who want to consolidate more power in the Executive (Sun).

Or, less damagingly to our freedoms and autonomy, the interplay between Uranus Rx, Pluto Rx and this eclipse axis (including Neptune Rx) may stimulate a rebirth of democracy-loving idealism and a quest for the transformation that would be needed to give that rebirth wings.  Will we be a nation going forward that continues to cultivate the deep, dark cynicism of those who seem happy to tear this nation apart, or will we shift our focus towards nurturing the heroism and integrity of our better angels as Americans? This eclipse seems to be confirming that there are no small questions or issues this time around.  

 

 

It's 1,337 words long and means everything to this nation.

The Sibly biwheel

There’s much more to say about Chart 1 above on its own, but it makes sense at this point to examine what’s left next to our founding U.S. Sibly chart, which—remember—represents the moment our Founders signed and sealed the Declaration of Independence as a way of defining what they envisioned us becoming as a nation “in the Course of human events” and independent of our then-colonial ruler, Great Britain. We might forget how loaded with meaning (and astrological relevance) that first paragraph of our founding document is today—let’s revisit it quickly, with a bit of commentary from political philosopher and Declaration of Independence scholar, Professor Danielle Allen. First the paragraph:

“When in the Course of human events, it comes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with one another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.” [1]

In other words, our Founders felt obligated to give Britain’s King George a well thought-out reason for declaring our independence. The American people were caught up in an historical “course of human events” that compelled them forward, according to Prof. Allen, who brings up the very pertinent Neptunian image of a “river” to capture this moment, saying,

“Since ‘course’ is another word for ‘river,’ an image of a waterway lies behind this sentence. Although Jefferson may not have been thinking explicitly about rivers when he wrote the first draft, the language itself, the word ‘course’ has this useful image built into it…The Declaration is saying that human events, like the infinity of droplets in a river, cohere. Human events are going somewhere; they have shape and direction; there is meaning to their sequence. We should be able to tell where we are collectively headed. Unlike mindless driftwood, we should be able to see to the river’s mouth.” [2]

So here we are at the “river’s edge” again—with Neptune’s often confounding energies pervading our public square, our airwaves and—exhaustingly—our very Soul as a nation, and we’re faced with an urgent new reason to keep our eyes on that “river’s mouth”—the very reason for our existence as a nation—our founding ideals that have always compelled us forward, despite serious disconnects between them and our historical reality.

Has the “idea” of America that we’ve taken for granted all these years simply run dry like an overused and abused river that has stopped feeding our bodies and souls? Have anger and grievance and a desire to control anyone who is “Them, not Us” truly flooded our hearts and minds as a result, leaving us helpless to respond? Are Neptunian misinformation campaigns (some perhaps AI-generated) and election vigilantism eating away at our ability to know fact from fiction and threatening our resolve to show up and be counted? Let’s see how the upcoming eclipse ties into all this in Biwheel 1 below.

 

Rivers can be rocky and tumultuous, but ultimately they are life.

 

Biwheel 1. (inner wheel) U.S. Sibly (radix) chart, July 4, 1776, 5:10 p.m. LMT, Philadelphia, PA. (39°N 57’08”, 75°W 09’51”). Source: Ebenezer Sibly, cited and documented by Nicholas Campion, The Book of World Horoscopes, Chart #370, pp. 363-4.; (outer wheel). Lunar Eclipse, September 17, 2024, 10:34:13 p.m. DST, Washington, D.C.

 

Interestingly, the eclipse chart’s north-south poles flip when we place it alongside the Sibly chart: eclipse Moon-Pisces and Saturn (all Pisces) now fall over the Sibly 4^th and eclipse Sun and dispositor Mercury (both Virgo) fall over the Sibly 10^th. Addressing the potential for misinformation and distortion of the truth circulating in the grass roots (4^th house Moon-Neptune) is a diligent, articulate Authority (Virgo Sun), charged with protecting the integrity of information and the vote (ruled by Mercury). Mercury’s opposition to Pisces Saturn across this 10-4 axis also suggests the need for diligence within our Justice apparatus.

The challenge is intensified, of course, by that Gemini Jupiter t-square we considered in Chart 1 above—here, eclipse Mercury pulls in Sibly Neptune by wide conjunction as they oppose a potentially vote stifling eclipse Saturn Rx in Pisces, and eclipse Jupiter pulls in Sibly Mars by conjunction, which probably accounts for the dangerous challenge of MAGA vigilantism (potentially targeting the voting process) mentioned earlier.  

Not surprisingly, given all this, this configuration also speaks to a strange development reported recently: that Trump has been telling some audiences that he doesn’t want or need their votes in November, or if they vote for him this time, they’ll never need to vote again. As if to say that he’ll have future elections (if not this one) fixed to his satisfaction and voting will simply be unnecessary in the future. We’re used to him speaking out of both sides of his mouth, but we already know there’s a concerted effort by the Right to “manage” our elections on state and local levels to their liking, which could be reflected in that eclipse Mercury-Saturn Rx opposition and its entanglement with both eclipse and Sibly Neptunes.

Or, more ominously, his comments suggest (again) that his people are coordinating with vigilantes (Sibly Mars) who are determined to have their way. Neptune also rules the unfortunate phenomenon of mob violence that has deep roots in our history, with Sibly Neptune naturally square Sibly Mars (Virgo-Gemini). Here the eclipse is stimulating that radix square at the same time this complex interchart t-square drags our leaders (Sun) and We the Voting Public (Moon) into the fray.

Either way, our somewhat shaky (Neptunized) Saturn (the Law) will likely need all the help it can get. 

"How do we regain trust in institutions?"

 

Interestingly, eclipse Mars (outer wheel, Cancer) falls over the Sibly 7^th and t-squares the Aries-Libra eclipse Nodal axis that cuts across that same loaded 4-10 axis. If we add in eclipse Ceres (Capricorn), we have a cardinal grand square, which could become a pressure cooker if its built-in tensions aren’t consciously mediated and/or resolved. Issues around the needs of families, housing, labor, agriculture, the environment and yes—in Capricorn—the obstacles to getting ahead, could fuel these tensions.

A Cancer Mars can be pre-emptively protective and can act out at the slightest hint of danger, but the exceedingly tight aspects involved in this grand square suggest that protests that arise over the course of this eclipse’s natural life span (which would include November elections) could trigger social disruption, but we can’t rule out the possibility of domestic terrorists co-opting Ceres-style issues for their own purposes and trying to cause chaos, as well. This could mean another siege on the Capitol or some other variation on the January 6^th, 2021 theme, but fingers crossed the authorities will be better prepared to handle any such plans this time around!

With all the drama happening over the Sibly 4^th and 10^th houses, it’s easy to overlook Venus, an absolutely key and potent player in this eclipse—and we can see just how key when we consider how she interacts with the Sibly chart. Falling late in her airy home sign Libra, Venus widely conjoins Sibly Juno and opposes Sibly Chiron (Aries), an axis that t-squares eclipse and Sibly Pluto Rx (Capricorn).

Here we can’t miss the importance of women’s rights (Sibly Juno) and the ever-present tension and struggles (Sibly Chiron) that continue to be necessary to maintain those rights—all countered against the deep-pocketed forces (both Plutos) that often control more than any democracy should allow them to. 

There is a reason women’s reproductive rights have circled around to become a dominant issue at this time, in other words—the wounds have been ripped back open by SCOTUS (which is acting a lot like Sibly Pluto these days) and now the healing efforts are empowering women’s resistance in this election. I hold out hope that eclipse Juno conjoining Sibly Saturn (Libra, Congress, Justice) will offer a reinforcing boost to this effort.

Finally, we need to consider a very significant interchart configuration formed by the earthy grand trine (previewed in Chart 1) between eclipse Sun, Uranus Rx and Pluto Rx (Virgo-Taurus-Capricorn), which is then vertically bisected between houses 4-10 by the Pisces-Virgo eclipse axis, turning it all into a less conventional Kite formation (three trines, one opposition, and two sextiles involving eclipse Moon-Neptune—one with eclipse Uranus Rx in Taurus and one with the eclipse Pluto-Sibly Pluto conjunction in Capricorn).

Complicating matters even further, Sibly Neptune joins the configuration on the Virgo end, conjunct eclipse Sun, and eclipse Neptune joins the configuration on the Pisces end, conjunct eclipse Moon.

Describing the Kite, aspects expert Bil Tierney suggests that the opposition planets that form sextiles with members of the grand trine (so eclipse Moon and Neptune here) represent a “creative outlet” for the energies of the overall configuration [3]. Given the grand trine energies at work here are all the most outer planets we typically consider in mundane astrology (Uranus-Neptune-Pluto), it seems that our path between now and the end of the year (and likely into 2025) could be characterized by a veritable “river” of socially disruptive and transformative energies. How these energies will manifest will depend greatly upon the ideals embraced by We the People (eclipse Moon-Neptune). Will they be the ideals of egalitarian democracy or those cultivated by the politics of fear and hatred?

 

 

Final thoughts

I trust that many of you reading this know Donald Trump’s natal chart [4] well enough to see that nearly everything we’ve discussed above ties into his chart in one way or another. That Gemini Jupiter, for instance, conjoins his Sun-No. Node-Uranus conjunction at the top of his chart—which may account for his unusually excessive (and at times, threatening) blather on the campaign trail—and eclipse Mars in Cancer conjoins his all-important Mercury, accounting for the outpouring of self-protective vitriol on his social media platform and perhaps for what some have been calling his “mental decline.”  The jury’s out on that.

Even Trump is subject to challenges or an “Achilles heel,” however: eclipse Venus falls square his cozy Venus-Saturn conjunction in Cancer, which already seems to have triggered his recent squirming over women’s reproductive health issues. As the eclipse approaches in less than two weeks now, I suspect these challenges will only deepen.

Meanwhile, he’s scheduled to debate V.P. Kamala Harris on September 10^th, so stay tuned!!

  

At the river's mouth...

Notes

[1] Danielle Allen, Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality, Liveright Publishing Corporation, New York, NY, 2014, pp. 110-11.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Bil Tierney, Dynamics of Aspect Analysis: New Perceptions in Astrology. CRCS Publications, Reno, NV, 1983, pp. 78-79.

[4] Natal chart info: Donald J. Trump, June 14, 1946, 10:54 a.m. EDT, Jamaica, NY. Source: BC/BR, Rodden: AA. 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

The unholy alliances of our time and their roots in America's deep Chironic wounds

 “The slave auctioneer’s bell and the church-going bell chime in with each other, and the bitter cries of the heartbroken slave are drowned in the religious shouts of his pious master.”—Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

It’s now very close to the beginning of my granddaughters’ school year in Austin, Texas, so receiving texts from my son about the school issues he and his wife are facing was no surprise. What did surprise me—what jarred me, more accurately—was his announcement that my granddaughters’ schools would be teaching Young Earth Creationism (YEC) in their Science classes this year. In case you’re not familiar, YEC is the pseudoscientific theory that regards the Protestant Bible as the final, literal “authority” on how old the Earth is and how the lifeforms inhabiting it (including humans) came to be here. According to this theory, the Book of Genesis says all there is to say about creation—and not just of the Earth. Of the Universe.  

So, it’s all approximately 6,000 years old and appeared out of nothing (“the Void”) in 6 very intense days, with everyone taking a break to take stock and praise Yahweh for a job well done on the 7^th day. According to a somewhat snarky analysis by Chuck Easttom, YEC is:

“…essentially the position that all modern science, 90% of living scientists and 98% of living biologists, all major university biology departments, every major science journal, the American Academy of Sciences, and every major science organization in the world are all wrong regarding the origins and development of life…but one particular tribe of uneducated, Bronze Aged goat herders got it exactly right.”

Included in the YEC effort, of course, is the aim of suppressing in our schools any facts that might contradict those “Bronze Aged goat herders.” Like Charles Darwin’s monumental studies into the incredibly slow (over hundreds of millions of years) process of evolution—so basically dismissing the facts and evidence painstakingly collected by real scientists for the geological and biological records of this planet and its inhabitants. 

 

 

A question that has always boggled my mind about so-called “creationism” is why bother to refute something that is so well documented and exhaustively researched and confirmed with physical records? What is so critically at stake for those who insist upon this, frankly, delusional stance?

Authority. Power. The hijacked authority to claim that THEY ALONE have the Truth, despite mountains of evidence that suggest the poetry of the scriptures reflects but falls short of describing the actual development of life in this universe.

Even so, the point is that THEY get to control the Big Story that explains everything there is to explain, not because they really have the truth, but because they (loudly and shamelessly) CLAIM they do. And because they have found ways to exploit our democratic freedoms and to twist our founding ideals as a nation--all so they can impose those beliefs on the rest of us from the cradle to the grave. Virgo Neptune does sit atop our founding Sibly chart (Chart 1 below), after all, tightly square Gemini Mars and trine Capricorn Pluto…where force (violent or otherwise) is needed to promote and protect the privileges of the Few (Nep-120-Plu), our so-called founding ideals of equality and justice for all can be easily “adapted” (twisted and exploited ideologically—Nep-90-Mars).  

Which brings us to the overarching peril facing our democracy in these times and more specifically, this election year: Christian Nationalism. Which has nothing to do with religion in general and certainly nothing to do with Jesus and his actual teachings, but as religious leaders speaking at a recent Georgetown Center of Faith & Justice round table entitled “How White Christian Nationalism Threatens Democracy” pointed out, it’s about “…promoting white Christian ethno-culture and its institutionalization in American life.” 

White supremacists gathered at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, NC.

 

It’s about “a nostalgia for the ‘good old days’ when the ‘right’ people were in charge and ran everything. It’s about such an exclusionary ideology being “disguised as religion” and about adopting a “crusader” mentality that leans on the symbols and authority claimed by religion to legitimize their aims and ideology. It’s about systematically—and by any means necessary—entrenching white minority rule for all time and avoiding what white supremacists dread is becoming an increasingly “majority-minority” American population.

Bottom line, it’s the “use and abuse of religion” for ideological purposes and it’s been simmering on the back burner of public discourse for decades, only moving forward into greater visibility and greater intensity once the nation had the audacity to elect a black president in 2008—more on that moment under Chart 2 below.  Needless to say, this abuse of religion involves disrespecting and even twisting true religious values and practice. As Rev. Jim Wallis puts it in his brilliant, courageous new book, The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith and Refounding Democracy:

“White Christian nationalists are white first and Christians second, and today right-wing Republicans first and Christians second. Selective theology has always provided the justification for upholding racial and political power—from chattel slavery to the continuing evolution of white supremacy.” [1]

Wallis also points out the so-called “Dominionist” theology at the heart of white Christian nationalist politics:

“As we read on in our Genesis text, we see that all human beings are called to have ‘dominion’ together over God’s creation. The better translation of the word is ‘stewardship,’ which has a very different meaning. But the white Christian nationalists want to bring the word ‘dominion’ back—in the worst sense of the word as control and dominance. What they mean is that some people—white Christian people—are called to have dominion over other peoples, which is a deep distortion and an absolute heresy of the Genesis text. A precursor to white Christian nationalism was actually called ‘dominionist theology.’” [2]

We shouldn’t think for a moment that all this talk about “dominion” is just talk: Christian nationalists have long had an aggressive to-do list for taking this control into their hands, and they have been working hand-in-glove with the Project 2025 framers for that purpose. And, as alluded to earlier, the possibility that the nation could be led by a President-of-Color (POC) once again—this time a woman—can’t help but set off all kinds of alarm bells for their intensely misogynist agenda. Their entire agenda rests upon a “biblical” autocracy preventing any true multiracial democracy, according to Rev. Wallis:

“...strong authoritarian leaders are welcomed as agents of God, appointed to defend against the ‘evil other’ and protect God’s chosen land and people by violent means if necessary. Sound familiar?” ‘[3]

In other words, when Trump recently told an audience of his “lovely Christians” that they only needed to get out the vote for him one more time and everything would be fixed for them after that, he wasn’t kidding.  

 

 

The astrology

Our entire American history is shot through with this “original sin” of a strict racial hierarchy of social value—some people, by virtue of being God’s “elect” (white, male and especially wealthy) are assigned greater value, and some people (non-white and/or female) are “predestined” to serve the elect, their progress and continued wealth. The less say-so those in this servant class have over their own lives—in other words, the less access they have to a free and fair vote, the better.

Astrologically, our Sibly radix chart (Chart 1 below) tells the story: 8^th house Cancer Mercury (disposed by our We the People Aquarius Moon and thus representing our collective Voice) opposes our 2^nd house domineering, ruthlessly corporatist Capricorn Pluto (reflecting fundamental core values), setting up the dynamic that has always allowed our “1%” to draw upon and exploit Other People’s Value and co-opt their voice and their  human resources (8^th house Cancer Mercury).

Importantly for today’s topic, falling t-square that irredeemably oppositional axis of Values and Resources is our 5^th house radix Chiron in mid-Aries, a point that has earlier this year been lit up by transiting Chiron’s return to this fiery position.  

As you’re probably aware, a common, and at times positive response to the tension of a t-square is to project that tension out into its opposite realm for a sense of balance, healing or resolution: in the case of 5^th house Sibly Chiron, that would be into the Sibly 10^th, the home of our radix Saturn, ruling Congress and the Rule of Law (so the Justice Department and the Courts). So, each time our Original Wound of a racial hierarchy-based society is triggered more intensely (every 50-51 years, approximately), those types of issues—what we might consider our nation’s “karmic baggage”—tend to surface in our public discourse for yet another try at healing.

For the sake of historical context, what follows are the first exact dates for these Chironic passages thus far:

• May 30, 1825 

• May 9, 1874 
• June 8, 1923 
• June 11, 1973 
• April 20, 2024  

Significantly, the Sibly chart’s recent Chiron return on April 20, 2024 has been our 6^th such return as a nation, so it’s not surprising that we’ve already been witnessing yet another ripping open of the race-based wounds in our body politic with the whole Project 2025 discourse and the relentless racial dog-whistling campaign happening on the GOP “MAGA” side. Countering all that, however, is the lighter side and its amazing embrace of Kamala Harris by the Dems, and by her historic run as the nation’s potential first woman and woman of color as president. 

 

We’re also—thankfully—seeing a strong healing impulse reflected in the support many prominent Republicans have courageously given Harris—many speaking at the DNC Convention this past week, despite all that means for their personal lives. There are times when “Country over Party” should compel us all—and this particular Chiron return is exactly such a time. It is, as Chiron returns always are, a “leaping off point” that will either re-invigorate our national Soul for the decades to come or will clinch our collective demise by putting healing more and more out of reach. As always, with Chiron, it’s up to us to follow our worthy mentors and to do the work of healing and reinvention.

For more thorough coverage of the nation’s history with Chiron returns, see the July 27, 2023 post on that topic here.  

 

Chart 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. All charts are cast by the author on Kepler 8.0 with Tropical Equal Houses, True Node and courtesy of Cosmic Patterns Software.

 

I mentioned earlier that the Christian Nationalism that had been simmering on our political back burner for a long time—probably since Reconstruction—only surfaced with more intensity and political impact in 2008, when America surprised itself by electing a young biracial (black father, white mother) senator from Illinois named Barack Obama president.

So, my question here is, what can astrology tell us about this 2008 moment that might help us deal with what’s left of our current presidential election? We know the path between now and November 5^th is going to be dreadfully intense, even though the sheer joy generated by the nomination of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz might have left us feeling like a Dems victory in November will be a walk in the park.

The fact is, organizations like Democracy Docket know that the opposition has amassed networks of election challengers—many in positions of local power—who are willing to twist and/or ignore election laws to get what they want this time around. They know their anti-democracy agenda is not going to pass muster with voters, but they simply don’t care what voters have to say because their plan—which many pursue because they think God is on their side—is to overturn democracy and the Constitution as we know it, replacing them with a “biblical autocracy.”  

 

On its own merits, the Trump/Vance ticket might even look easy to defeat, but when the delusions of America being (by definition) a “White Christian nation” are stirred into the political “Kool-Aid” right-wing extremists are peddling this election cycle, there’s no room for complacency.

Significantly, what remains of this election cycle is unfolding during the final 15 months of our current Saturn-Neptune cycle and about 5 months before Neptune finally exits Pisces and makes its first entrance (in our lifetimes) into Aries. This is an ingress we will be watching intently for a number of reasons—much more on that in future posts.

For now, however, let’s consider the most recent roots of the latest Christian Nationalist assault on our democracy in that fated 2008 election, pictured in Chart 2 below.

 

Chart 2. Election 2008, November 4, 2008, 6:39 a.m. (dawn) ST, Washington, D.C. 

 

Whenever a chart suggests a major turning point in the society in question, it helps to examine the cyclical index numbers for hints about why the planetary cycles involved are pointing to such a transition. This exercise also provides us with important context and helps us to visualize the path we’ve been on between one point in time and today. So, with all this in mind, let’s consider the index numbers for the above chart in Table 1 below.

 

Table 1. Cyclical index, November 4, 2008.

Cycle	Waxing*	Waning*	Cyc. Index total
Jupiter-Saturn	118
Jupiter-Uranus		-298
Jupiter-Neptune		-326
Jupiter-Pluto	18
Saturn-Uranus		-180 (+.01)**
Saturn-Neptune		-207
Saturn-Pluto		-260
Uranus-Neptune	28
Uranus-Pluto	80
Neptune-Pluto	52
Sub-totals	296	-1271
Cyclical Index total			-975

*Cyclical numbers are rounded to the next degree for ease of calculation. ** Planetary oppositions are considered waxing if under 180°and waning if over the same.

If you’ve frequented this site, you’ll know that we arrive at the overall index number by totaling up the positive angular separation numbers of any waxing cycles and setting that total against the negative sum for any waning cycles. In this instance (Table 1 above), we see a balance of five waxing and five waning cycles, but this potentially balanced cyclical “turning point” actually calculates out to a solid negative total of 975.

So, despite the euphoria produced by an Obama victory, an undercurrent of negativity remained that would continue deepening over the course of his two terms in office, as the Jupiter-Saturn cycle tipped over into waning territory in 2010 and the Jupiter-Pluto cycle followed suit in 2014. It was an undercurrent that coincided, of course, with the incredibly tough economic realities Obama inherited from G.W. Bush in 2008 (most notably, a Wall Street-induced recession, housing crisis and the high unemployment that accompanied it all) and with two stubbornly lingering Middle East wars that had begun demoralizing our troops and military families.

Despite victories in the key realms of healthcare coverage, human rights and the environment, the nation seemed weighted down with growing cynicism about the role of government and—in retrospect, we can say—about democracy itself.  By the time Trump glided down his golden escalator in June 2015 to vilify Mexicans at our border as rapists and criminals and to proclaim that he, as president, would protect us from that “invasion” where Obama (and the Dems, by extension) wouldn’t, those key Jupiter-Saturn and Jupiter-Pluto cycles pictured in Table 1 above had moved into waning territory, leaving only two cycles involving Jupiter in waxing condition (Jupiter-Uranus and Jupiter-Neptune).  

All the cycles that included Saturn (with Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) were waning, reflecting the somewhat dour undercurrent of mistrust of and disappointment with government that plagued public discourse at the time. Little did we know at the time, but this dissatisfaction was beginning to target our Democracy as a viable constitutional system itself.

In practice, these cyclical shifts manifested as the inability to move forward with confidence and power (Jupiter-Pluto and Saturn-Pluto)—in its place was more and more obstructionism, political polarization and heaviness. Tea Party Republicans stubbornly refused to compromise on budget and government funding issues and actually closed the government down for a stretch in 2013. Then there was the killing of a robust Senate bill to reform our immigration system in 2013-14 and in 2016, then Speaker of the House Mitch McConnell refused to let Obama’s Supreme Court pick for Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat to be considered by Senate members.

Returning to Chart 1 itself for a moment, we might miss the fact that Pluto—moving direct here in the final degree of Sagittarius—had actually ingressed Capricorn for the first time in January of that year and would re-enter that sign just days after the election. More Saturnian (Capricorn) energies were poised to flood the zone, in other words, suggesting that Big Finance, the fossil fuels industry and the deep-pocketed powers-that-be would be feeling empowered going forward. 

The Citizens United v. FEC decision was unpopular from day one.

This played out in technicolor with the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United v. FEC decision, basically removing any obstacles for billionaires and corporations to buy elections out from under the people. And it played out with the rise of more obvious and aggressive Christian Nationalist rhetoric and organizing—felt at the time in reaction to the Obama administration’s support for gay marriage rights, affirmed by the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision in June, 2015, just days after Trump launched his first presidential campaign. Early talk was surfacing about which bathrooms transgender students could use, in what sports competitions they would be allowed and so on, yet the Obama administration stood firm for LGBTQ+ rights, including for those in the military.

And, even though it took until 2022 to overturn the reproductive rights of women in America (Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization), we shouldn’t overlook the relentless urgency with which the Christian right was pushing its anti-abortion agenda even during the Obama era; the opportunity to shepherd a case through the Supreme Court simply hadn’t presented itself yet, but the moment Trump was elected on the promise that he would overturn abortion rights—he began packing the Court with ultra-conservative justices who would eventually clinch the “deal.” This deal was a deep-pocketed, right-wing, openly religious coup (remember Pluto’s in Capricorn) and Trump’s new justices seemed to revel in the opportunity to roll back 50 years of precedent just because they could. In retrospect, I would argue that this moment (June 24, 2022) marked the tipping point at which our democracy was put on life support.  

Notably, the Taurus-Scorpio Nodal axis was transiting t-square a harsh Aquarius Saturn Rx that day [2], reflecting a challenging trend towards authoritarian rule. The only recently launched Jupiter-Neptune cycle in Pisces was still in early New phase; in fact, these two were still conjunct when the Dobbs decision was first leaked in May 2022. On both dates, Jupiter and Neptune together signaled what Dobbs supporters celebrated as an ideological and religious victory.

In light of the growing menace of Project 2025-style Christian Nationalist ambitions, perhaps it’s time to acknowledge that the use of religious beliefs to overturn American women’s ability to make health and family decisions for themselves should have been a “hair-on-fire” warning sign for our democracy in general going forward. As we’ve learned since then, this Supreme Court (especially key individuals within it) appears to answer to noone but the deep-pocketed billionaires who finance their vacations and ply them with lavish gifts.

 

 

Flashing forward to November 5, 2024

So now that all the Convention balloons have dropped and we’re in the final 70+ days of the this incredibly weighty presidential election, it might be helpful to dwell less on the personal pluses and minuses of the key candidates and to consider the astrological trends that will probably have more to do with who wins anyway. We’ve considered it before, but let’s take another quick look at a chart for the upcoming election with collective trends more in mind.

 

Chart 3. Election 2024, November 5, 2024, 6:40 a.m. (dawn) ST, Washington, D.C.

Even a cursory glance at this chart confirms that those who warn against taking anything for granted in the current joyful atmosphere around the Harris-Walz ticket probably have their fingers on the “pulse” of this election year.  Harris herself has warned that this fight will rapidly devolve into an exercise in going low, very, very low, and she’s probably right. Pluto is shown here in direct motion, but this disguises the fact that it is in post-retrograde shadow phase, from which it will emerge in early February 2025 at 02° Aqu 06’.

We already have good reason to assume that this election will be challenged after the fact, but I have to admit that I’m wondering whether it will take until this February 2025 transition for a new president to take the Oath. Biden was inaugurated in a timely fashion in 2021, but not without a death-dealing battle at the Capitol fought earlier that month by, you got it, many, many Christian Nationalists. 

A documentary about Christian Nationalism by Stephen Ujacki

This fact is heavily featured, In fact, in Stephen Ujacki’s 2024 documentary, entitled Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism’s Unholy War on Democracy, which says the January 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol was basically a “Christian Nationalist event.” Looking back, the trappings of right-wing religion—crosses, flags printed over with crosses, and an assortment of Confederate and “Appeal to God” flags—were everywhere that day. According to Ujacki, a majority of people storming the Capitol were motivated by so-called religious duty. As for the danger that we might experience one or more January 6^th type events—in D.C. or even in local communities—between now and the election (or in its close aftermath), it’s hard to say, but I wouldn’t count any of these possibilities out. Taurus Uranus Rx does fall in a waxing trine to that shadowy, transitional Pluto discussed above— social unrest and even attempted regime change is entirely plausible in such an atmosphere.

All of this also evokes the Saturn-Neptune cycle as well—a major player in this election chart, being within the final 15° of completing its 1989 Capricorn cycle. Notably, the Saturn Rx/Neptune Rx (midpoint, Pisces) tightly t-squares the Gemini-Sagittarius Jupiter Rx-to-Sagittarius Venus-Pallas opposition in this chart. Midpoints expert Michael Munkasey points to some rather dreary choices for Saturn-Neptune midpoints in politics that sound particularly apt here:

“Thesis: Delusions among the real leadership; long-lived programs which have no real purpose; policies which restrict spies; misusing law officers; inefficient use of capable expert advice; mistaken religious leaders.

Anti-thesis: Leaders deceive about the exercise of control; deficient business practices exposed; respected persons involved in questionable practices; reliable equipment failures; a leader capitulates.” [4]

Especially relevant today are the comments regarding “delusions among the real leadership,” “mistaken religious leaders,” “respected persons involved in questionable practices,” “leaders deceive about the exercise of control,” and “a leader capitulates.” We’ve seen Biden pass the torch to Harris in late July—a laudable gesture, but a capitulation of sorts, too. All while Trump pretends that he’s not all in with the Project 2025 agenda and Vance makes himself less and less useful.

Thankfully, we’ve also seen religious leaders like Russell Moore, Jim Wallis and James Talarico come forward to dispute and condemn the use and abuse of Christianity for nationalistic and authoritarian purposes. We’ve seen GOP figures and leaders come forward to, as they put it, “put Country over Party,” as they endorse the Harris-Walz candidacy.

Bottom line, there’s an increasingly noticeable “shift” in the tone of today’s politics that may just carry our democracy forward, despite the threats that Trump and his Christian Nationalist legions pose. Could it be that the potent Sagittarius Venus-Moon conjunction t-square Pisces Neptune-opposite-Virgo Part of Fortune will stimulate a quest for more of this “Country over Party” idealism? Or that it will continue to support the Harris-Walz “joy” offensive? Time will tell, but joy always “trumps” apocalyptic dread in my book!

 

 

 

Final thoughts

Early in this post we considered the key role that Chiron is playing in today’s politics, so it’s fitting that we wrap up this topic with another glance at its renewed calls for us to heal our original Wounds as a nation. Notice that in Chart 3 above (Election 2024), Chiron is again at 20°+Aries, so tightly conjunct Sibly Chiron (Chart 1) and perpetuating this healing passage. The sheer significance of this current passage's timing can’t be overstated, of course: in a matter of a couple months we will have our first viable chance to elect a woman president of the United States—and a woman of color, at that. I suspect that she may even make a very capable president for us all, but we all have to make up our own minds about her and about how we choose to respond to this critical moment.

The question seems to be: what kind of nation do we want to inhabit going forward? A Christian Nationalist “Utopia” where white males reign supreme and everyone else puts up or shuts up and “never has to vote again?” Or a nation that acknowledges the divine dignity and worth of us all and recognizes with its Rule of Law that yes, we do possess those “inalienable rights” we’ve heard so much about.

Seems like a simple choice to me.

 

 

Notes

[1] Wallis, Jim. The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy, St. Martin's Publishing Group, Kindle Edition, p. 23.

[2] Wallis, Ibid., p. 84.

[3] Wallis, Ibid., pp. 23-24.

[4] Michael Munkasey, Midpoints: Unleashing the Power of the Planets, ACS Publications, San Diego, CA, 1991, p. 292.

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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.