Trump’s Big Lie
I know what you’re thinking – with such a broad range of possibilities that fits this title, how can we pick just one? How to choose from the thicket of untruths, half-truths, exaggerations, braggadocio, falsehoods and downright lies that have proceeded from the lips of Donald J. Trump, just since the announcement of his candidacy?
Fortunately for us, that would be a false reading of the title, and we don’t have to make that agonizing selection. What we’ll really be exploring is the effect of Trump’s natal asteroid Lie, and although we’ll choose one of Trump’s doozies to illustrate the point, it’s not really about any particular deception per se.
The asteroid Lie (#26955) is properly pronounced “lee”, as the body was named for Swedish mathematician Sophus Lie (1842-1899), creator of the theory of continuous symmetry, which he applied to geometry and differential equations. Yeah, I never heard of it either.
Asteroid Lie does indeed show prominently in the charts of famous mathematicians such as Blaise Pascal, Rene Descartes and Isaac Newton, but for our purpose we’re referring to its English language homonym’s usage as a term for a “deliberate falsehood”. This Lie shows up prominently just where you’d expect, in places like Watergate, Bill Clinton’s love life, the Iran-Contra scandal and the Iraq War. Hillary Clinton has Lie and Washingtonia conjunct natally, so she appeared to many as a typical deceitful DC politician; on Election Day 2016, asteroids Hillary and Lie were exactly conjunct in the sky, each at retrograde station, and exactly trine the Sun, reinforcing the narrative of her as untrustworthy, and delivering the coup de grace to her candidacy.
But what of Trump’s Lie, which expresses itself so “bigly”?
There’s a reason lying is so prominent in Trump’s life, and in part this has to do with its elevation. At 17 Taurus, just seven degrees past the 24 Taurus Midheaven, Lie is one of the most elevated points in the chart. It’s right there, directly overhead, a bright beacon for all to see.
Well, almost. Lie is also conjoined a Black Hole at 16 Taurus, which helps to veil its actions and importance. Lie with a Black Hole helps Trump conceal his falsehoods, since they promote invisibility (and having asteroid Truth on the Ascendant doesn’t hurt either, allowing him to project an image of trustworthiness), but it also places them forcefully into the ranks of ‘alternate reality creators’, which is a primary Black Hole function. Trump seeks, not just to deceive, but to fashion another reality from his false narratives, populated with “alternative facts.”
Think about some of Trump’s more egregious recent lies – 3 million illegal aliens voted in the last election (and they all voted for Hillary); he won by a greater Electoral College margin than any recent predecessor (except all of them); his inaugural crowds were bigger than Obama’s (disregard your lyin’ eyes when the pics are compared side-to-side). All of these statements are unsupported – in fact, directly contradicted – by actual facts on the ground, but Trump never backs down, continuing to stick to them, in the words of a recent Wall Street Journal editorial, “like a drunk clinging to an empty gin bottle.” Part of this is the stubbornness typical of Taurean placements, and part of it is Trump’s native Mars/Ascendant bluster.
But it’s really not so much Lie’s Midheaven prominence that grants it power; that’s just attention-grabbing. It’s more the celestial troika of wild horses Lie is linked to, all yoked at 17 degrees of various Signs. These include Uranus at 17 Gemini and Jupiter, itself stationary direct, at 17 Libra. Lie/MC indicates that Trump will routinely deceive regarding his career, status, reputation, or place in the world. But Lie with Uranus ensures that the falsehoods will be extreme, disruptive, shocking, controversial and often somewhat crazy-seeming, while Lie with Jupiter shows politics as the most fertile ground for Trump’s untruths. Lie/Jupiter is also, quite literally, the source of the “Big Lie”, those over-the-top, show-stopping whoppers he spins with alarming regularity and Jovian expansiveness. And with Jupiter in an entrenched, dug-in mentality as stationary, Trump is like a dog with a bone, he just can’t let go. Both aspects, the semisextile to Uranus and the inconjunct to Jupiter, are relatively minor ones, but since they are exact, and combine three such volatile elements, they carry far more weight than we might ordinarily suppose.
A symptom of Trump’s big Lie? Even his signature looks like a polygraph read-out.
Remember, in this context, how Trump got into politics in the first place. His first serious foray was in 2011, when he breathed new life into the rightwing canard that Barack Obama wasn’t born in the US, but in Kenya, and was therefore ineligible to serve at US president. This is Trump’s base constituency – conservative tin-hatters to whom he granted legitimacy, and whose fanatical adherence he used to drive a wedge deep into traditional GOP politics during the primary. This radical (Uranus) deception (Lie) springboard vaulted him into political success (Jupiter), first with the Republican nomination, and ultimately his quest for the Oval Office.
So far, so good, and more power to him. The problem is that Trump’s is an addictive personality, and like any addiction, he simply can’t let go of the lying voluntarily. And ultimately, it is not only unsustainable, it’s downright deadly in a head of state. If Trump can’t stop lying, can’t be believed about even the simplest things, and never admits fault or error, how can he be trusted when truly important matters are in hand? Recent polling shows Trump’s approval ratings, already historically low for an incoming president, dipping still further, into the mid-30s, with erosion showing even among Republican voters. This appears to be in direct response to one of the most outlandish lies Trump has ever told – that his immediate predecessor in the office, Barack Obama, ordered illegal wiretaps of Trump Tower in the closing days of the 2016 election.
This is a truly fascinating story astrologically, so let’s look in depth at the issue. On Saturday, March 4, 2017, Trump tweeted from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Pam Beach, Florida: “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my “wires tapped” in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” Other similar tweets soon followed, but I have to say, thank god for Twitter, because it gives us an exact time for this initial accusation, which set the ball rolling.
Sent at 6:35 AM EST, the chart has 10 Pisces rising, with Neptune, traditional ruler of lies and deception, right there at 11 Pisces, exactly conjoined Mercury, the messenger, with the Sun still within orb at 17 Pisces, puling focus for the day. And look at that MC/IC axis – 17 Sagittarius/Gemini! This puts Trump’s Lie/Uranus/Jupiter troika right in the limelight, front and center, with Uranus, that quality of shock and controversy, exactly on the IC, the foundation of the situation.
Asteroid Troemper is the closest PNA match we have for Trump, and it’s worked very well. Here we have Troemper at 28 Aries conjunct both Mars at 25 Aries and Uranus at 22. This shows an embattled, combative (Mars) Trump, lashing out (Mars again) with a controversial, erratic (both Uranus), inflammatory (Mars) accusation, delivered via the latest technology (Uranus). [By the way, this Mars/Troemper pairing began with a five degree orb on February 22, became exact on March 17, and continues through April 17, showing a period of peak activity and extreme push-back for Trump.]
Barack Obama, the subject of the lie, doesn’t have any exact PNA matches either, but there is a Barry asteroid, which is the name by which Obama was known in his youth. At 0 Gemini in the tweet chart, it’s an exact match for the Moon, showing public prominence for the former president on that day (it’s also the day of Obama’s Lunar Return, at 3 Gemini). So we have both primary actors in this drama, with PNA referents in prominent placement in respect to traditional planets aptly describing the pertinent circumstances.
And what of transit Lie on this day? At 29 Gemini, Lie is broadly within orb of Trump’s natal Sun at 22 Gemini, in the Fourth House (Trump tweeted from home), and opposing Saturn at 26 Sagittarius, representing the office of the presidency. In case you’re keeping score, that’s three for three.
I’d like to draw your attention to one more pairing for the day, which involves Pluto at 18 Capricorn in exact square to asteroid Kassandra at 18 Aries. Kassandra is about credibility, whether one’s utterances can be believed and relied upon, and Pluto governs devastation and destruction. It could be fairly argued that the now-infamous Obama wiretap tweet became the final nail in the coffin on Trump’s credibility.
The reaction to the tweet was instantaneous and explosive, and made all the more intense by the White House’s refusal to back down from the accusation in the following days and weeks, despite any confirmatory evidence, and a series of semi-public denials from several intelligence officers and principals. Trump called for a congressional investigation, and this was duly incorporated into the House Intelligence Committee’s ongoing probe into the effects of the Russian interference in the 2016 election. Eventually, FBI Director James Comey was called to testify before the committee, on March 20th. Let’s take a long look at that chart as well.
According to a live PBS news blog analysis of the event, Republican Chair Devin Nunes called the meeting to order at approximately 10:24 AM, which gives us a rising degree of 7 Gemini, with a 14 Aquarius MC. As we stated, the purpose of Comey’s appearance was to legitimate or debunk Trump’s wiretap accusation, and also to confirm or deny the existence of an FBI investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Comey formally and emphatically disabused the nation of Trump’s unfounded assertions regarding Obama’s alleged illegal wiretap, and confirmed the FBI investigation into Team Trump’s Russian ties, without providing any particulars.
Again, PNAs to the rescue! Asteroid Barry falls at 6 Gemini, on the 7 Gemini Ascendant, and opposing asteroid Washingtonia, exactly on the 7 Sagittarius Descendant. So we have the “defendant” and the venue straddling the horizontal axis. Troemper at 6 Taurus is still with Mars, now at 7, and together these form exact semisextiles to Barry/Ascendant. Troemper is also exactly trine asteroid Achilles, denoting a weakness or vulnerability which may lead to undoing, at 6 Capricorn. Additionally, these oppose asteroid Pandora at 9 Scorpio (incidentally, the exact degree of the Trump administration’s Moon!). This shows Trump (Troemper) still embattled (Mars), and potentially weakened (Achilles), at least partly as a result of opening this Pandora’s box (Pandora) of accusing his predecessor of being a felon.
Remember that the testimony also involved those possible ties to Russia. We have asteroid Moskva (Russian for Moscow, the capital) at 28 Aries, with Kassandra at 24 – credibility issues being raised once more – and asteroid Russia at 13 Gemini, within orb of the Ascendant, showing focus and prominence for that nation in the proceedings. And recall also that the theme of the investigation involves lying; asteroid Lie at 2 Cancer is closely squared the Sun at 0 Aries, pulling focus for the day, and this point will move up and over the Ascendant at about noon, as the hearing progressed. It might also bear mentioning that from this degree, transit Lie is exactly semisquare its natal degree in Trump’s birth chart, 17 Taurus.
What of the other principal actors in the drama? FBI Director James Comey is represented by asteroid James, which at 18 Aquarius is conjoined both the MC at 14 Aquarius and asteroid America at 15. Without a doubt, James Comey was the focus of all American eyes at that moment, in the most elevated position in the chart, prominent and conspicuous.
House Intelligence Committee Chair, Republican Devin Nunes, and Ranking Member, Democrat Adam Schiff, are also present celestially. Asteroids Devine (for Devin) and Schiff are conjunct in the sky, as they were in the House, at 18 and 17 Pisces respectively, broadly conjunct Neptune (lies, espionage) at 12 Pisces, squared to TNO Chaos (disorder, turmoil) at 20 Gemini, and inconjunct Jupiter (politics) at 20 Libra. Asteroid Nunes is an exact match for Lie at 2 Cancer, thus also squared the Sun, indicating Chairman Nunes’ importance on the day, and the issue of deception he was tasked to investigate. Meanwhile, asteroid Adam at 24 Sagittarius conjoins Saturn (authority, the law) at 27 Sagittarius, and more broadly conjoins the Moon at 29 Sagittarius, again ensuring public notice. Asteroid Adams, an additional Adam variant, falls at 9 Scorpio, exactly on Pandora, squaring the MC and opposing Troemper/Mars.
So there you have it – the plaintiff and defendant, the venue, the prosecutor and defender, the chief witness, the themes of the accusation and the investigation, all tied up in one neat celestial package. Truly, the cosmos is a place of endless wonder and fascination!
