Alex's Asteroid Astrology

“That hymn you hear [playing in Congress] is ‘Just as I Am,’ and we’re open for deathbed conversions.” – Joe Scarborough, former Republican Congressman and MSNBC morning show host

Can you feel it?  Impending political mortality is in the air.  Trusted councilors leave the bedside, rats exiting a sinking ship; former shark allies mass in feeding frenzy, smelling blood in the water; media buzzards circle, waiting to pick the bones.  US President Donald J. Trump is in extremis, with scant days to go before the end of his political career.

Making history once again, as the only President ever to be impeached twice by the House of Representatives, with conviction in the Senate and possible removal looming, and a ban on ever again holding Federal office mooted, this may have been the inevitable outcome for Trump.  The Reality TV star turned political cult figure has managed to combine the best and brightest of former Republican presidents – the racist sentiments of Andrew Johnson, the economic collapse of Herbert Hoover, the criminal bent of Richard Nixon, and the dementia of Ronald Reagan.

For over five years the GOP stood by Trump, terrified of his base, kowtowing to his Tweets, ignoring his incompetence, justifying his shattering of norms and reckless disregard for the law, endorsing his lies and deceptions, supporting him through every extreme utterance, dictatorial impulse, and inept crisis response he produced.  But in every abusive relationship there comes a breaking point, and January 6, 2021 was it.  After Trump summoned, then rallied, then instructed a mob to storm the Capitol, threatening even the lives of Republican members of Congress and his own Vice President, finally, at long last, some in the GOP deserted him.

US Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY), third-ranking officer in the House GOP leadership, has led ten colleagues in voting for his impeachment; Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has let it be known that he supports Trump’s removal.  Bereft of his social media outlets, banned for life from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, the defanged President sulks and rages in the West Wing, still not admitting electoral defeat, still not taking responsibility for the violence he unleashed, still plotting revenge against perceived betrayers and fantasizing about his political comeback.

The backdrop for Donald Trump’s fall is the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction, which ancient astrologers saw as presaging the death of the king.  A king is certainly what Trump wanted to be, and how he saw himself – imbued with unfettered power, his every word the Law.  Jupiter and Saturn came together at 0 Aquarius on the Winter Solstice, December 21, 2020, just weeks before the abortive Epiphany Coup which propelled Trump’s final death throes.  With Jupiter and Saturn was asteroid America at 27 Capricorn, identifying just whose “king” was about to bite the dust.

A more specific portrayal of the final months, weeks and days of the Trump administration can be seen in the cosmic perambulations of asteroid Troemper, our celestial referent for The Donald.  This point has tracked well for Trump since his descent on the golden escalator at Trump Tower to announce his candidacy in June 2015, when it exactly conjoined asteroid Hybris, named for the Greek goddess of prideful arrogance, and opposed Mercury, ruling speeches. 

Troemper has recently come out of a retrograde period which coincided with the last days of the campaign, the election, and its aftermath, when Trump flailed impotently against his fate in losing the presidency.  Troemper’s retrograde station came October 9^th at 4 Gemini, just days after his COVID-19 diagnosis, and ten days after his disastrous first debate performance with Joe Biden.  It marked a turning point in Trump’s fortunes, and in the ensuing months his grip on reality became ever more tenuous, with the President apparently coming to believe his own lies about massive voter fraud which cost him the election. 

The 4 Gemini placement is significant, as it opposes Troemper’s natal degree at 2 Sagittarius.  In standard interpretation, two opposed bodies are at the culminating point of their relationship, staring each other down across a gulf of time.  Similar to the maximum illumination of a Full Moon phase, they reveal much, and differences stand out starkly and clearly; they mirror each other.   But a transiting point at opposition to itself represents reaching the lowest ebb of its cycle, the nadir of its relationship with itself.  This can also be revelatory, but in very different ways.  We’ve reached the bottom of Fortune’s Wheel, and the only way to go is up.  Put another way, the line has been cast out as far as it will go, and now needs to be reeled back in again.  Ideally, it’s a period of understanding and illumination of what has been learned in the hemicycle just concluded, as we prepare to integrate this knowledge into our expression of the dynamic at play going forward.  In this case, with an eponymous asteroid involved, Trump should be learning about himself, and how others see him.

Transit Troemper’s station was also conjoined natal asteroid Blarney at 5 Gemini, symbolizing the utterance of rubbish, garbage or nonsense, usually in an attempt to charm or persuade, often with ill intent or for purposes of self-advancement.  This is certainly the course Trump embarked upon, attempting to discredit in advance the results of an election he must have known he was likely to lose.  Troemper/Blarney is at the Apex of a Thor’s Hammer, a “fated” pattern similar to a Yod, with sesquiquadrate aspects to other bodies, which are squared each other.  Here the points involved are Pluto at 22 Capricorn and asteroid NOT at 20 Libra.  Adding to the complexity is transit Mars at 22 Aries retrograde, exactly squared Pluto, opposed NOT and semisquare Troemper.

Put it all together and we have the image of a man (Troemper) forcefully and belligerently (both Mars) spouting utter nonsense (Blarney) in an attempt to coerce, intimidate or manipulate (Pluto) others, regarding a campaign (Mars), which is doomed to failure (NOT, a general disqualifier or symbol of blocked progress or accomplishment).  Troemper’s inconjunct to asteroid Whitehouse at 7 Scorpio (itself conjunct Mercury at 10 Scorpio), identifies the presidency (Whitehouse) as the topic about which Trump’s (Troemper) rhetoric (Mercury) attempted to adjust (inconjunct) public opinion (Mercury).

As the retrograde deepened, so did Trump’s obsession (Pluto) with the loss (NOT), with ever-escalating conspiracy theories about how his massive victory was stolen from him, and the ends he would go to attempt to overturn the results of what his own Homeland Security Department described as the most secure and fraud-free in American history became increasingly extreme. 

By the time Troemper resumed direct motion at the end of 2020, people had indeed seen Trump in a new light cast by his PNA’s opposition to its natal place.  At each successive stage of the election’s certification process, additional supporters began to back away, until only MAGA diehards remained, whether genuine or opportunistic. 

Troemper’s direct station came at 1:37 AM EST on 31 December 2020.  Set for Washington, DC, this shows Troemper exactly on the Midheaven at 20 Taurus, a point which represents career, status and reputation, and becomes the focus of all eyes.  This conjoins Trump’s natal MC at 24 Taurus – the President was about to be fully revealed. Conjoining Troemper is TNO Sedna at 27 Taurus, named for an Inuit goddess who dwells in the deepest, most inaccessible part of the Arctic Ocean, symbolizing the acceleration of the President’s isolation. Since the abortive coup attempt, more than a dozen Cabinet officials and top aides have resigned from the administration, while political allies are heading for the exits as well, and businesses are cutting ties with Trump personally, or his Organization.

Also elevated in the station chart are asteroid Anubis at 4 Gemini and Uranus at 6 Taurus, each 14 degrees off the Midheaven (placing Troemper/MC on their exact midpoint).  Anubis, named for the Egyptian deity governing funerary rites (and as such, a marker of death or ending), appears exactly on Troemper’s retrograde station degree, tying its energies strongly to this cycle.  Uranus represents rebellion and incitement, controversy and volatility.  With Saturn, Jupiter, asteroids America and Osiris (named for the Egyptian god of the dead) at 1, 2, 3 and 8 Aquarius squared Uranus and trine Anubis, the stage was set for an American (America) president (Saturn) to end (Anubis, Osiris) his political (Jupiter) career (Saturn) and utterly ruin his reputation (MC) in a highly visible (MC) way, by fomenting an insurrection (Uranus) against his own government (Saturn).

Troemper is also involved in two major configurations, which intersect and feed off each other. A Grand Trine Kite pattern is formed from Troemper’s trines to asteroid Washingtonia at 21 Virgo, approaching station, and Pluto with Mercury at 24 and 16 Capricorn, with Troemper opposing asteroid Nemesis at 23 Scorpio.  Mercury/Pluto refers to verbal manipulation and the planning of criminal acts, Washingtonia sets the scene as the nation’s capital.  Trump had been tweeting followers for weeks to “stop the steal” at a rally in DC on January 6^th, meant to disrupt Congress’ final certification of the Biden win, promising a “wild” time. 

Many times, a Grand Trine exists only in potential, a possibility which may or may not come to fruition.  It needs a starter, a catalyst, in the form of an energy opposing one of the others, to promote its manifestation.  When this occurs, the provocative point is termed the “string” of a much more active pattern, now called the “Kite” – it is the string which guides the Grand Trine Kite’s manifestation, just as an actual kite’s string guides its direction.  In this case, Nemesis opposed Troemper is the string, and Nemesis indicates ruin, destruction and undoing, often self-created.  It is well-merited cosmic justice, meted out with a harsh but fair hand, in retribution for crimes committed or wrongs otherwise unredressed.

Not content with one application in the station chart, Nemesis also participates in the second pattern, a T-Square incorporating Troemper and Damocles at 24 Aquarius, given angular force and momentum on the 25 Aquarius Descendant.  Damocles is the doom hanging overhead, a looming disaster which threatens to fall at any moment.  Also here is asteroid Rip at 27 Aquarius, another indicator of pending mortality (as the acronym “RIP”, “Rest In Peace”, a common tombstone inscription).  This transit T-Square becomes a synastric Grand Cross with the addition of Trump’s natal Mars at 26 Leo, conjoined his 29 Leo Ascendant, which feeds energies of violence into the pattern and affects Trump’s public image.  The pattern reiterates the image of Trump (Troemper) earning a well-deserved self-undoing (Nemesis) as disaster falls (Damocles), ensuing from an act of violence (Mars) with which he is strongly personally identified (Ascendant), effectively ending (Rip) his career.

And so it came to be.  Within a week of Troemper’s direct station, prompting the President to once again take the initiative and move forward with plans crafted during the retrograde phase, the abortive Epiphany Coup ensued on January 6^th.  In its aftermath, calls were rampant for Trump to resign, be removed from power via the provisions of the 25^th Amendment, or face a second impeachment.  The fallout was tremendous, including lifetime bans from the President’s favorite social media platforms (as reflected in asteroid NOT at 29 Scorpio in the station chart, semisquare Mercury at 16 Capricorn, representing a block on the ability to communicate), and spread from the political sphere to Trump’s business interests, with financial backers Deutsche Bank (to whom he owes some $400 million in personally guaranteed debt) cutting its ties; the PGA pulling his Bedminster Golf Club from their championship tour; and New York City cancelling all its contracts with the Trump Organization.

A week after the failed coup, Trump became the first president in US history to be impeached twice, this time for inciting insurrection.  The very day this bill passed, a New Moon at 23 Capricorn exactly opposed Trump’s natal Saturn/Karma conjunction – the President was finally being called to account for his bad acts (Karma) in the sphere of career (Saturn).

This second impeachment was very different from the first, when only one Republican jumped the fence to vote in favor of Trump’s removal.  Fully ten GOP members of the House, headlined by Liz Cheney (R-WY), daughter of the former Vice President and third in the GOP House Leadership, broke with the President, making this the most bipartisan impeachment in US history.  As impeachment was mooted, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office leaked that the Leader was pleased by the House’s initiative, another notable defection.  Though McConnell has since refused to state which way he’ll vote once Trump’s case goes to trial, other GOP Senators have been more forthcoming, with Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) openly stating that she supports Trump’s removal and others “considering” the charge.  It may still be a steep uphill climb to enlist the 17 Republicans required to convict Trump, but if that bar is reached, then his permanent banning from Federal office is all but assured, with that vote requiring only a simple majority to enforce. 

This shift in power politics is vividly expressed by PNAs representing Liz Cheney and Mitch McConnell in Troemper’s station direct chart.  Asteroids Mitchella, a feminine form of Mitchell, and Elisabetha, a variation of Elizabeth (Liz), conjoined at 22 and 25 Libra respectively, squared power broker Pluto at 24 Capricorn, T-Squared Mars at 26 Aries, establishes these GOP leaders as enemies (Mars) of the President.  Asteroid House with the Moon at 23 and 20 Cancer makes this a Grand Cross, with House precisely on Trump’s natal Saturn/Karma conjunction, for the Republican volte face in the People’s (Moon) House (House).

There may yet be spasms or convulsions remaining in Donald Trump’s dying days in office, and the deathbed attendants in fatigues on the streets of the capital are no Guard of Honor, rather an assurance of his good conduct in his final hours of power.  But his breathing is labored, and the clicking of the deathwatch beetle is clearly audible in the walls of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.