Alex's Asteroid Astrology

On April 29^th 2019 The Washington Post, whose Fact Checker database has been tracking Donald Trump’s lies, misrepresentations, and false or misleading claims, announced that the 45^th President had reached a new milestone, with 10,000 falsehoods uttered. Apparently it took Trump some 601 days into his presidency to make 5000 such statements, an average of 8 per day, but only an additional 226 days to double that figure, raising his rate of deception to 23 per day over the ensuing seven month period, which included the buildup to the 2018 Midterms, the government shutdown, and the release of the Mueller Report.

As of April 27^th, following his campaign rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the grand total stood at 10,111 lies in 828 days. Of course, as impressive as this is for the Liar-in-Chief, it’s just a drop in the bucket of Trump’s lifelong history of fraud and deception. For the man who regularly describes Trump Tower as ten floors taller than it actually is, to the founder of the rip-off Trump University, to the fake Time magazine covers featuring his image that hang in Trump golf clubs across the world, his presidential conman shenanigans are mere child’s play.

But what causes it? Why is The Donald so profoundly, irretrievably, addictively dishonest? We’ve had occasion in the past to take notice of Donald Trump’s natal asteroid Lie, a primary indicator of basic deceit, but we’ve never really made it the focus of our ongoing astro-anatomy of the President. The WaPo milestone provides an excellent opportunity to do so.

Asteroid Lie is actually named for the Norwegian mathematician Sophus Lie (properly pronounced “lee”), but it works quite well in its English homonym’s version of “to deliberately say something untrue; a falsehood.” The Donald’s Lie is, as you might expect, on prominent display in the birth chart. At 17 Taurus, Lie is the most elevated planet in the chart, the focus of all eyes, right there in plain sight, conjoined the 24 Taurus Midheaven. It’s one of the most visible things about him, and conjunct the MC, his lies typically revolve around career, status, reputation or his place in the world.

A sort of Word Cloud of the themes of Donald Trump’s utterances – it’s all about him, it’s all nonsense, and it’s all untrue

Lie is also conjoined by asteroid Narcissus at 15 Taurus, a point denoting obsessive self-focus and a need to exaggerate one’s own appearance, accomplishments, talents or importance. So Trump’s lies often have that self-serving, self-centered, self-aggrandizing bent, like his recent statements about how, at age 72, he’s “a young, vibrant man.” Ohhhhh-kayyyyyy. Whatever you say, Donald.

Of similar ilk is his physician’s statement in 2018 that he weighs 239 pounds (significantly, that gives him a Body Mass Index just a tenth of a point under the “obese” category).  In general, many of the lies told are intended to bolster his ego, burnish his public image and reinforce the appearance he attempts to project of success, skill, genius and invincibility, and they are usually used in the furtherance of his career goals.

But Lie’s tentacles reach out much further into Trump’s nativity than the MC, and some of the contacts clarify why, in his current employment, the pace and scope of his deception seems to be increasing.

Let’s look first at the positives (from our perspective, if not his); Lie is closely sextile to asteroids Nemesis and Bilk, at 16 Cancer. Bilk is another proper noun, actually named for an observatory in Dusseldorf, Germany, but like Lie, it works well in its English usage of “to cheat somebody, especially by swindling him or her out of money”, and “to avoid paying a debt or a person to whom money is owed.” Boy, is that Trump or what? From the maids at his properties, to the defrauded students of Trump University, his questionable charitable foundation, and contractors on his projects, Trump is notorious for underpaying, delaying payment, failing to provide value for money, or simply stiffing his creditors.

An early cartoon representation of Trump’s tendency to “embellish” his accomplishments, and ignore the true “F”acts

We can see how Lie and Bilk have worked in tandem throughout Trump’s life, providing the opportunity (sextile) to deceive (Lie) and defraud (Bilk) others, and how he has acted as antagonist (Nemesis) to others, ruining some who have expended financial capital not repaid (as in his several bankruptcies) or provided services never compensated (as his workers and contractors). But what we’ve lacked so far is the flip side to Nemesis – the part where he himself comes to ruin via his fraudulent and deceptive dealings. With Nemesis and Bilk exactly conjoined, this is inevitable, and with the most recent Solar Eclipse on January 5^th at 15 Capricorn, closely opposing this pair, we may be seeing that time come to pass, and Nemesis’ vengeance coming to fruition.

We’re now getting into the sphere where Trump’s lies begin to impact the ream of politics. Lie’s predominant planetary aspect is an exact inconjunct to Jupiter at 17 Libra, which rules politics. And in true Trumpian style, his entry into the political realm was based on a major fraud and deception: the assertion that Barack Obama was not born in the US, and was therefore ineligible to serve as President. Jupiter/Lie is also the signature of “the Big Lie”, the over-the-top, outsized exaggeration so ridiculous that people believe it must be true, because it’s too extreme not to be. No rational person would make such things up, or continue to promote them, so these falsehoods gain a degree of traction, especially among populations predisposed to believe them, or to want them to be true. But remember, we’re not dealing with a rational individual; we’re dealing with Donald Trump.

So his immersion in politics signaled a major increase in Trump’s deceptive rhetoric, and the specifics of his White House goal propelled him ever further into the realm of fraud and fantasy. Because Lie is also aspected to asteroids Washingtonia at 2 Cancer and Whitehouse at 4 Capricorn, semisquare the first and sesquiquadrate the second, representing the city he chose to assail and the residence he hoped to occupy. As these points became real-life factors in Trump’s biography, and not just ephemeral, hypothetical elements which existed only in potential, more and more energy was being funneled into Lie, and Trump’s lies reached more and more people, merging into the popular consciousness.

Lie is also semisquare to asteroid Kassandra at 4 Aries, representing credibility and trustworthiness, or lack thereof; some people saw through the deception, others did not. This in turn required him to double down on the fraud, lest he be exposed and brought to ruin. A student of the Joseph Goebbels school of rhetoric, Trump clearly agrees that if you tell a lie big enough, and repeat it often enough, eventually people will believe it.

A graduate of the George Costanza school of truth, the President seems to believe that his endorsement of a fact makes it so

There may be a fated or predestined aspect to Trump’s 2016 win, for Lie is also at the Apex of a Thor’s Hammer pattern incorporating Whitehouse and an asteroid named Nike at 0 Libra, both sesquiquadrate to Lie and squared each other. Like the Yod, this dynamic pattern indicates the intervention of Fate, and could suggest a win (Nike, named for the Greek goddess of victory) in his quest for the Oval Office (Whitehouse), based in fraud or deception (Lie). This is reinforced by Nike’s conjunction with Neptune, planetary ruler of deception, at 5 Libra, suggesting that virtually any time Trump comes out on top, fraud has played a part in one way or another.

If we look at all these points at once, we see a remarkable Mirror Configuration disseminating from Lie at its Apex, with semisquares to Washingtonia and Kassandra, and sesquiquadrates to Nike and Whitehouse, plainly depicting the factors colluding in his political success, and the importance of dishonesty in attaining this goal. In addition, Trump was immeasurably aided in 2016 by an extended conjunction in the transit sky of asteroids Hillary and Lie, which traveled within five degrees of each other most of that summer and autumn, underscoring basic, longstanding doubts about Hillary Clinton’s honesty. Incredibly, these points came to station within days of the election, exactly conjunct each other, and exactly atop Donald Trump’s natal Nemesis at 16 Cancer! Truly, Fate played a role here.

An advance copy of Donald Trump’s post-White House memoir; can we doubt that he’ll describe it as the “best seller of all time!”

There’s one more pattern to be discussed with Trump’s Lie, and that is the square to asteroids Justitia and Icarus, as 18 and 19 Aquarius. Justitia is named for the Roman goddess of justice, and is the root of our word; in the context of this article, it represents the Justice Department and the judiciary. These are both elements of our Constitutional system to which Trump has brought to bear the full weight of his lies and deception, from opining that a “Mexican” judge (born in Indiana) could not fairly rule on his travel ban, to regularly excoriating his first Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, for recusing himself in the Russia investigation, and characterizing that probe as biased, flawed and fraudulent – his “Witch Hunt” of countless tweets and speeches.

Icarus represents rash, reckless words or deeds which are undertaken without regard to possible consequences, and surely there can be little that is more reckless to the health of our democracy than purposely attempting to undermine the public’s trust in the judicial system and the rule of law. In general, Icarus squared to Lie also indicates a pattern of rash, ill-considered statements throughout the life, based in deceit.

When Trump crossed the 10,000 lie mark on April 17^th, transit asteroid Lie at 10 Aries was conjunct Mercury at 14, making news. In and of itself, of course, this is also a pairing describing untruthful (Lie) speech (Mercury), the subject of the news. Lie was also exactly novile (forty degrees) to asteroid Washingtonia at 20 Taurus, marking the Post as the paper of record. As well, Lie is exactly semisquare asteroid Achilles at 25 Aquarius, representing a potential weakness or vulnerability related to dishonesty.

The Washington Post’s recent update of Trump’s tally of falsehoods; with his re-elect on the horizon, how long will it take him to reach 20,000?

There is a telling T-Square composed of asteroid Truth at 17 Sagittarius conjoined Jupiter at 23, opposed Whitehouse at 20 Gemini, with Neptune at 17 Pisces at the fulcrum, reflecting the President (Whitehouse) at odds with (opposition) the facts (Truth), especially in a political context (Jupiter), colored over all by a veil of deception or fraud (Neptune).

With the walls closing in on several fronts, as seen in multiple investigations into Trump’s businesses, charitable foundation, campaign, inaugural committee, and the administration itself, as well as a tough path to reelection, Trump’s rate of lying may further increase. There are some 18 months left until the 2020 election – how many new records for deceptive statements will the President of the United States make before then?