Election 2020: Ten Days to Go!
So here we are. Every four years someone is touting the upcoming presidential contest as “the most important of our lives”, but 2020 seems to truly deserve that appellation. Will we endorse the divisive, science-denying, racist and autocratic Narcissist-in-Chief, or listen to our better angels and chose a different path?
The good news is that Donald Trump will be resoundingly rejected by the American people. The bad news is that their opinion is secondary at best.
Because the US is not a democracy; it’s a republic. And in a republic, the people do not have the last word; their representatives do. And the US Constitution, in particular, has a lot of wiggle room between outright victory at the polls and who gets the job.
Because of this, predicting the outcome of a US election is a tricky business, and getting trickier all the time. Astrologers have worn hair shirts and flagellated themselves for four years after Hillary Clinton, against their expectations, did not win in 2016. But that’s an erroneous view of the facts – Clinton won the election, garnering almost 3 million more votes than Donald Trump. In any other race in the country, from school board rep to US Senator, the person with the most votes gets the job. Period.
But that’s not how it works for President. The Electoral College system is a direct challenge to the will of the American people en masse, slicing and dicing the electorate into fifty bite-size chunks, and the interplay between them determines the final outcome of who attains the office. As a “swing state” resident of battleground Pennsylvania, my vote counts. But if you live in California or New York, reliably “blue states”, or in Alabama and South Carolina, reliably “red states”, the result is essentially predetermined, and your vote means virtually nothing. Those states are safely in one camp or the other, and already factored into the outcome.
So what was the question astrologers asked in 2016: “who will win the election”, or “who will get the job”? Those are very different questions in the American system, as has been demonstrated twice in the past two decades, with perhaps a third example playing out shortly.
Joe Biden will win this contest in a landslide, likely by more votes than Hillary’s margin of victory, perhaps as many as double that amount. But that doesn’t mean Donald Trump is going anywhere anytime soon.
So astrologers have always had to deal with that dichotomy when predicting a US election result. Another contributing factor to impede accuracy in prediction has been developing over the past few decades, and has come to a crescendo with covid concerns. Basically, we no longer have an Election Day. We have an Election Season.
Early voting began in September in some states, and voters who cast their ballots prior to Election Day do so under a wide variety of astrologic weather conditions, rendering an analysis of the country’s official Election Day less than emphatic. With mail-in voting’s popularity soaring during the pandemic, perhaps as much as half the electorate will already have made their choice before November 3 dawns, the official date upon which astrologers base their data and form their conclusions.
So there are two huge mitigating structural factors in accurately determining an outcome, one historic, the other a modern phenomenon. That said, it’s human nature to want to know the future, and if we wish to divine it, we have little choice but to use the tools at hand, however flawed. So to proceed –
As related in an earlier article, from an asteroid perspective, what stands out most on Election Day is the likelihood of a variety of dirty tricks, electoral shenanigans, voter suppression and intimidation, and outright fraud which can impact the result. In a free and fair election Joe Biden takes this in a walk, but a free and fair election is just what we’re unlikely to have.
To review: Mercury at 25 Libra comes to its direct station on Election Day, miring the voting process in stagnation, technical breakdown and muddle; this last occurred in 2000, and if you recall that endless election, finally decided by the US Supreme Court, you have an idea of what we might be facing, even with the best will to fairness in the world. And a square to Saturn at 26 Capricorn suggests a delayed result, not having a definitive answer on that date, while Pluto also in square from 22 Cap points to criminal activity associated with the vote. Jupiter at 21 Capricorn squared Mercury suggests a massive voter turnout, something which is already evident in early voting totals, as well as the likelihood of judicial intervention at some point post-Election Day. Additionally, Mercury is accompanied by asteroid Loke at 22 Libra, named for Norse Trickster God Loki, a malign and mischievous energy which delights in sowing dissention and confusion.
Mercury is also exactly trined by asteroid Buysballot at 25 Gemini, which is traveling with TNO Chaos at 27 Gemini. Buysballot is named for a 19th century Dutch meteorologist, but when broken into its component parts of “buys ballot” it suggests electoral fraud and abuse. And Chaos is just what it sounds like – pandemonium, anarchy, confusion and disorder, all affecting the vote. The final major factor impinging Mercury is an opposition from TNO Eris at 23 Aries and asteroid Koronis at 20 Aries. Eris represents populations who feel marginalized, disrespected, or resentful, and Koronis is our closest celestial referent to the coronavirus, whose impact on the election will be incalculable, both as a practical factor and a political bone of contention, in rating the current administration’s response to it.
There are plenty of additional indicators of fraud and poor faith dealing for the day, including an exact conjunction of asteroids Whitehouse and Swindle at 18 Scorpio, within orb of the 11 Scorpio Sun, suggesting a con or scam is involved in attaining the Oval Office, and one which is no hole-and-corner affair, but on full display, given the Sun’s ability to illuminate a situation. Further, asteroid Machiavelli comes to station that very day as well, at 2 Pisces, a point named for the 16th century Italian political philosopher (author of “The Prince”) noted for endorsing the amoral acquisition of power at whatever cost: the ends justify the means. From there Machiavelli is conjoined by asteroid Hermes at 1 Pisces, the Greek messenger god known as a trickster and the patron deity of thieves, and bound up in a T-Square with asteroid Lie at 5 Virgo, representing fraud and deception, and asteroid Troemper at 1 Gemini, our celestial referent for Donald Trump.
Put it all together, and the outlook seems bleak for a free and fair election. But will the undoubted attempted dirty tricks and electoral shenanigans succeed? Will they affect the vote enough to alter the outcome?
I don’t think so, but it’s impossible to be sure. One factor ramping up the instability and uncertainty is Uranus opposed the Election Day Sun from 8 Taurus, setting things up for tech glitches, controversy and shocking or unexpected developments. We have no real sense of how deeply foreign actors or pro-Trump domestic elements have penetrated into state electoral systems, and what havoc or mischief they might unleash. We know they’re actively meddling; we just don’t know how effectively or pervasively.
It’s possible that, in states where the margin of victory is close, these attempts to manipulate the electorate or the vote itself will be effective enough to change the outcome. And on some level, involvement by the courts is likely. With an exact pairing of asteroids Justitia, named for the Roman goddess of justice, and Karma, both at 23 Leo, in square to Whitehouse/Swindle, it’s probable that the courts (Justitia) will be called in to adjudicate allegations of fraud (Swindle) in the presidential election (Whitehouse), and that this will be a fated circumstance (Karma).
The Trump administration and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have been very effective over the past four years in staffing hundreds of federal judgeships purposely left vacant by McConnell during the Obama administration, which are now filled with deep-dyed conservatives and loyalists likely to support rulings which favor Trump. This extends right down to the present SCOTUS confirmation process for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who they are hoping to install before the election, specifically so she can rule for them in any upcoming disputes.
Damocles at 23 Aquarius exactly opposing Justitia/Karma creates a T-Square and shows the doom looming overhead for the nation in those rulings, which hangs by a thread. Asteroid Maillen conjoined Damocles and squared Whitehouse/Swindle from 17 Aquarius, indicates that “mail-in” (phonetic match for Maillen) ballots will be the chief battleground in the judicial struggle phase of the post-election period.
On a more heartening note for progressives, asteroid Themis at 4 Sagittarius, named for the Greek goddess of justice, conjoins asteroid Old Joe, one of several celestial stand-ins for Joe Biden, at 5 Sagittarius, and opposes Troemper at 1 Gemini. This could suggest that the courts will be with Biden (conjunction) and against Trump (opposition) in their rulings.
With asteroid Fox at 15 Scorpio conjoined the Sun, conservative media of all types is likely to play a key role in the election, and the conjunction of asteroid Senator here as well at 12 Scorpio specifies that control of the Senate is very much in focus for the day, with all current indicators suggesting a Democratic takeover of the upper chamber is imminent.
Another positive indicator is a conjunction of asteroids America and Bida (closest to Biden) at 3 and 6 Capricorn, T-Squared by Venus at 7 Libra and asteroid Truth at 7 Aries, which shows a strong identification between the country (America) and the Democratic candidate (Bida), with popular support from women (Venus), bolstered by an authentic, fact-based (both Truth) campaign.
So much for the day itself. Much, of course, depends on the individuals involved. In that regard, there are two primary factors which suggest to me a Biden win.
First, Joe Biden’s 2019 Solar Return. This remarkable chart showed an exact pairing of asteroids Nike and Victoria, named respectively for the Greek and Roman goddesses of victory, at 2 Virgo, just one degree past the Solar Return Moon at 1 Virgo, conjoined the SR Ascendant at 4 Virgo, and squared Biden’s SR and natal Suns. This is an incredibly emphatic statement of “winning”, and brought Biden through the lean months of the early primary season where his candidacy seemed all but dead, only to reach the apotheosis of his nomination, and subsequently his consistent lead over Trump in national polling.
The major issue with this is that the old Solar Return is on the wane, with the new one due to kick in just two weeks after the election. Those 2019 energies may not be strong enough to drag Biden over the finish line, but there are also positive indicators in the 2020 SR, which again features Victoria on the Ascendant (though without Nike, and no longer connected to the Moon or Sun). But encouragingly, this chart also shows asteroid Whitehouse conjunct the Sun, identifying Biden personally with the Oval Office for the coming year, with the Sun also exactly opposed asteroid Troemper at 27 Taurus, depicting their struggle for the top job.
Second, Trump is in a very heavy period of karma, being called to account for his prior actions, a circumstance which, given his performance and personality, can only be negative for his political health. With Saturn and asteroid Karma exactly conjoined at 23 Cancer in the birth chart, at some point Trump’s luck will run out in career, and he’ll be forced to pay the piper for business and professional decisions. That this may be that time is indicated by the massive cosmic pile-up opposing Saturn/Karma from Capricorn, including Saturn, harshly critical and punitive, and Pluto, transformative and potentially devastating. Jupiter also here may soften the blow for Trump, as it has done all his life, but could also encourage over-extension and misplaced confidence.
This polarity closely straddles the horizontal axis of The Donald’s 2020 Solar Return chart, with natal Saturn/Karma conjunct the Ascendant and the Capricorn stellium on the Descendant, and remains in effect through the election. Further, SR Karma at 19 Gemini conjoins the SR Sun at 22 Gemini, while transit Karma on Election Day conjoins his natal 29 Leo Ascendant, two very personal points of fated reckoning, for the year generally and the day in question.
Eclipses, too, have shown a pattern of potential comeuppance, with the Lunar Eclipse of January 2020 at 20 Cancer conjoined natal Saturn/Karma, softening that ground for a reckoning, and Solar Eclipses in December 2019 and June 2020 which conjoined or opposed Trump’s natal asteroid Whitehouse at 4 Capricorn, suggesting his time in the Oval Office may be coming to an end. Lastly, the Lunar Eclipse in July 2020 at 13 Capricorn exactly conjoined natal asteroid Koronis, and opposed natal asteroid Nemesis at 16 Cancer, possibly prefiguring Trump’s downfall (Nemesis) via the coronavirus (Koronis). Having apparently spared him physically, Covid-19 may yet take him down politically.
Forecasting a presidential election is difficult (and a task at which I anti-excel, having been wrong more times than right), but it appears that progressives can be guardedly optimistic about regime change in the US, assuming the voter suppression, fraud and dirty tricks from Trump and the GOP can be held to a minimum.
But that’s quite an assumption.
