Alex's Asteroid Astrology

Do you smell what I smell?  That whiff of decay?  That odor of rot?  Is that America?  Or just Puerto Rico?  Or maybe, just maybe, it’s not a garbage smell at all – maybe it’s the cloyingly sweet smell of Democratic victory.

Donald Trump is making his closing argument to his countrymen in the final days of the campaign, promoting why he should be president again, and the best he can come up with is a plea for better waste management?  That’s the level we’ve sunk to, with the former squatter at the White House defining the nation he wants to lead as “a garbage can for the rest of the world” at his rally in Austin, Texas on October 25^th.  Two days later, at a rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden that evoked memories of a Nazi rally held there in 1939, Trump’s opening act, a “comedian” named Tony Hinchcliffe, joked about a “floating island of garbage,” called “Puerto Rico,” in a performance that was vetted by the campaign beforehand, and hasn’t been disavowed by Trump since.

And days after that, Joe Biden was accused of calling all of Trump’s voters “garbage.”  I hate to apostrophize, but it all comes down to the apostrophe, or lack thereof.  In a video call with Voto Latino on the 29^th, Biden, commenting on the rhetoric at the MSG rally, said, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”  The Trump campaign says it’s a slur on Trump voters.  But the White House says there’s an apostrophe missing from the transcript, and Biden said “supporter’s,” meaning the comedian’s racist remarks at the rally.

Be that as it may, what’s the cause of all this awful offal?  For an asteroid astrologer, a good place to start is searching for matches for “garbage.”  Unfortunately, we hit a brick wall coming out of the gate.  No “garbage” match; nor “trash,” nor “refuse,” to name a couple synonyms.  But never fear!  There’s more than one mother tongue on planet Earth, and if English won’t cooperate, there are lots of other languages to turn to.

As for example, Spanish, with “basura” as the term for garbage, represented celestially by asteroid Basu 277883.  Or German, with “mull” meaning garbage, and cognate to asteroid Mullo 5164.  And let’s not forget Danish, where “affald” for garbage runs phonetically astride asteroid Affeldt 27604.

That Donald Trump might hold such wasteful views and trash-talk the US nonstop is suggested in his chart by a close conjunction of asteroids America 916 and Basu at 27 and 28 Leo, sandwiched between Mars at 26 and the Ascendant at 29 Leo, linking his views of the US (America) as a garbage can (Basu) with his campaign (Mars) and how he presents himself to others (Ascendant).  As well, asteroid Troemper 28130 (our celestial referent for The Donald) at 2 Sagittarius squares this grouping, while asteroid Donn 4689 at 7 Cancer conjoins Mercury (his words) at 8 Cancer, both semisquare America/Basu.  This further entrenches these views in Trump’s consciousness, to the point where he just can’t stop talking about it (Mercury).

With Mars conjunct America, it’s true that some people see him as their champion, despite the hatred, division, strife and violence he provokes (all Mars attributes); an exact square from America to the US Moon at 27 Aquarius encourages this connection to the hoi polloi.  Mars with America also defines the aggressive, belligerent, confrontational attitudes Trump expresses in his national campaigns.  They say you are what you eat, but with Donn conjunct Mercury, Donald Trump is what he says, more than most.  And that semisquare from Mercury/Donn to America/Basu keeps the trash talk about the US coming.

In addition to its square to America/Basu, Troemper opposes asteroid Affeldt at 9 Gemini, and is exactly sextile asteroid Mullo at 2 Aquarius, our two remaining “garbage” symbols.  We can speculate on what this says about Trump’s personal status vis-à-vis a heap of stinking rubbish, but for our purposes here, it just further identifies his current fixation with refuse.

But why did he choose now to promulgate these views so forthrightly?  The cosmos has an answer to that, too.  When Donald Trump called America “a garbage can for the rest of the world” on October 25^th, asteroid Troemper at 5 Leo was opposing asteroid America at 8 Aquarius, joined by asteroid Mullo at 10 Aquarius, conflating the US and garbage, in a T-Square with the 2 Scorpio Sun, bringing his thoughts into focus and placing them in the spotlight.  For Trump, the filter-less wonder whose thoughts drop from his brain to his tongue like a gumball machine, it was an open invitation to abuse with refuse.

Mullo had recently turned direct (October 14^th) and also made a Return to its natal place, with America in tow, while that asteroid symbolizing the US also came to station at 29 Capricorn in September, exactly conjunct Pluto, associated with trash, garbage, decline and decay.  Transit asteroid Basu at 3 Virgo had also made a Return to its natal place, on October 7-9, and was still within orb of the natal Mars/America/Basu/Ascendant grouping when Trump first uttered his garbage comments, which he has since repeated numerous times.

That Puerto Rico specifically would become embroiled in the controversy is suggested by asteroid San Juan 2284, named for the US island territory’s capital city, which at 24 Gemini conjoins Jupiter at 20 Gemini and asteroid Affedlt (Danish, “garbage”) at 19 Gemini, indicating the connection to politics (Jupiter) and the designation of Puerto Rico as garbage, at a political rally.  This pair appears on the fulcrum of a T-Square with asteroid Whitehouse 4036 (the presidency) at 29 Virgo and Neptune (delusion, falsehoods, misrepresentation) at 27 Pisces. 

Trump’s natal San Juan at 17 Taurus is an exact match for natal asteroid Lie 26955, both exactly inconjunct natal Jupiter (politics) and within orb of the natal MC (career, reputation) at 24 Taurus, providing an inborn predisposition to tell untruths (Lie) about Puerto Rico (San Juan), and ones which might affect Trump’s career (MC) or political fortunes (Jupiter).  Trump has previously tried, while President, to withhold disaster relief funds from Puerto Rico after San Juan’s mayor criticized the federal response to Hurricane Maria in 2017, and explored the possibility of trading the island for Greenland.  Faced with the large populations of offended Puerto Rican American voters in key swing states, Trump now says he’s done more for Puerto Rico than any other US president.  Sure he has – after all, he lobbed paper towels at them after Maria – what else do you want?

To place Trump’s 2024 campaign theme of payback, revenge and retribution in its cosmic context, we’ll note that asteroid Troemper has been running with asteroid Venditti 45752 (closest to “vendetta,” defined as “a prolonged bitter quarrel with or campaign against someone”) since the Democratic National Convention in August, as Trump’s rhetoric has become more and more explicit about his desire to punish perceived enemies, and the ways he might go about that.  On Election Day, Venditti at 5 Leo will form an important bridge between Troemper at 9 Leo and a precise conjunction of asteroids Karma 3811 and Losse 340579 at 3 Leo.  If Trump is rejected by American voters that day, his freely expressed desire for revenge (Venditti) will be a major part of that fated (Karma) failure (Losse).  With Troemper even more closely opposed the ongoing America/Mullo conjunction (now at 10 and 12 Aquarius), it’s likely Trump continues his “US is garbage” ruminations to the end.

Come on, America – time to take out the trash.