Portland has become the flashpoint for the toxic divisiveness that has always simmered below the surface in the USA. Trump has summarily sent in federal troops against the wishes of the Mayor and Oregon State Governor to forcibly break up the fifty-day long protests after the death of George Floyd and detain demonstrators. The mayor said, “They are sharply escalating the situation. Their presence is leading to more violence and more vandalism.” The Governor described the presence of federal troops in the city as “purely political theatre”.
Portland was incorporated on 8 February 1851 which gives an Aquarius Sun in a confident trine to Jupiter. But what marks Portland out as a USA hotspot is its Mercury at 24 degrees Capricorn on the focal point of a T Square to a disruptive, reforming Uranus Pluto in Aries opposition Jupiter. That rebellious T Square clashes with the USA’s can-be-fanatical Pluto in Capricorn opposition Mercury in Cancer, which has always been a trigger point for incendiary arguments. The USA chart’s bitterly argumentative Mercury Pluto is under stress this year and on until late 2023 with first the transiting Saturn Pluto this year in hard aspect and then tr Pluto thereafter through the Pluto Return.
Mercury opposition Pluto exacerbates suspicion, paranoia, is associated with demagogues and those guilty of fraudulent misrepresentation, promotes over-intense debates with a drive for domination and little latitude for compromise, can teeter on the brink of nervous collapse through strain.
In 1934 Portland longshoreman shut down all shipping as part of a west coast strike for higher pay. That was when tr Pluto was conjunct the Mercury and moving to oppose the USA Pluto –exactly a half Pluto cycle before now.
So Portland does have a role in the USA dramatic mise en scene as a catalyst for explosive arguments. The Portland chart has a leadership North Node in Leo which their Solar Arc Sun will conjunct in 2021 – more can be expected into the next presidency with the city leading the way.
Trump hooks into the middle of the USA Mercury opposition Pluto with his Venus Saturn in Cancer. And his relationship chart with the USA has a composite Mars (opposition Moon) at the same degrees. Right down in the heart of the rancid darkness. He lights the fuse.
It is funny to hear from people who don’t live in the USA.
Here is a view from Portlanders: https://katu.com/news/local/how-do-portlanders-feel-about-the-ongoing-protests
Marjorie – in connection with Federal officers being unleashed on Portland, and now Chicago, Kansas City, and Albuquerque, would you be willing to look at charts for these groups? Department of Homeland Security (25 November 2002) and the Customs and Border patrol – originally formed 31 July 1789 as the U.S. Customs service, reformed 1 March 2003 as the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, which was the origin of ICE as well. Curiously, this re-organization occurred just 19 days before the US declared war on Iraq.
Thank you Marjorie. Seeing the charts for Portland, the USA, and Trump together like this opens a window onto a very unstable and disturbing picture – as if the news itself weren’t enough! Today’s new Moon in Cancer opposite Saturn brings a focus on the Portland Pluto. That’s descriptive of the people battling with, or hemmed in by, the law, and the secret forces of Pluto.
And then there’s transiting Mars in Aries, firing things up on and off for months. Mars turns retrograde at 28 degrees in September – aspecting Portland’s Pluto again.Black Moon Lilith is also passing through Aries, another symbol of the “outsider” or rebellion, and maybe bringing up issues around women, or powerful women? BML and Mars square Trump’s Venus and Saturn could manifest in all manner of incendiary ways, perhaps involving women and/or financial history. Plus ca change there though…..