USA 2017 – on tenterhooks

 

 

The US goes into 2017 edgy with anticipation about what the Trump Presidency will bring. From this Thursday Dec 29^th tr Saturn will oppose the USA Mars, followed in early January by tr Saturn square the USA Neptune until the 15^th. That will be bad-tempered and feel like an aggravating setback with uncertainty and confusion swirling. Those influences return through July to early October 2017. The Secondary Progressed Moon is also (on 11am start) opposition the USA Uranus across the Inauguration, hinting at a divided population. Trump has only 48% favourability ratings at present compared to Obama’s 75% in Dec 2008.

The other significant influence this year and next will be tr Uranus square the USA Mercury in Cancer, then Mercury/Pluto, then Pluto in 2018. I’ve covered it in detail before and will append below. That will lead to heated debates with intransigence on both sides, outbursts and a fairly unstable feel, especially in 2018, as radical changes are afoot.

There will be phases of great confidence as tr Pluto squares the Jupiter/Pluto midpoint – Dec 2016, Sept/Oct 2017 – though it can also bring over-confidence, a tendency to cross the line and can lead to conflict with government or authority figures.

The February Pisces Eclipse will square the USA Uranus in Gemini, which I always associate with freedom of speech, so there may be a crisis of sorts with the libertarians at war with the suppressors.

The August Leo Eclipse whose path crosses the USA will oppose the USA Aquarius Moon, which will be highly emotional, putting stress on relationships. [See earlier post this Eclipse below as well.]

So it will be a significant though not easy year ahead.

Where it starts to get even stickier will be in 2018 with the volatile Mars/Uranus midpoint labouring under a conjunction from Solar Arc Saturn early on and a transiting square from Neptune running in 2018/19. Solar Arcs moving to aspect midpoints can have a considerable effect. Mars Uranus is argumentative, violent, revolutionary-prone, certainly a test of nerves. Saturn on Mars Uranus is destructive, injury-prone, lacking adaptability and can point to a separation of sorts. Neptune on Mars Uranus is cunning, deceitful, sneaky, feelings getting out of control leading to madness, disadvantages – at least it will be panicky. In 2018 tr Saturn will start to oppose the USA Venus, Jupiter and in 2019 the USA Sun which suggests a discouraging phase. By 2019 Solar Arc Sun is square Mars/Uranus – injury, accident, sudden change in circumstances.

Just as an additional side note: The USA Progressed Mars went retrograde in October 2006 when the housing bubble and sub- prime mortgage crisis, fuelled by credit default swaps led to the banking emergency and into the recession of 2007 to 2009. [Read Michael Lewis: The Big Short or even better watch the movie – explains all very entertainingly.] A retrograde Mars tends to sap vitality and energy, brings uncertainty about ambitions and what is wanted, and can lead to internal rather than external conflicts and arguments. It will stay retrograde for many decades to come.

 

USA: MERCURY OPPOSITION PLUTO;  from previous post.

The USA 1776 chart has only one opposition of Mercury in Cancer opposition Pluto in Capricorn – and tr Uranus started to pick up the square to Mercury mid 2016 and continues on till early 2018. Mercury Pluto is overly intense and tr Uranus throws an excitable firecracker into the mix.

Looking back on previous tr Uranus hard aspects to that opposition, it is really interesting. Oct 1973 to Oct 1974 – VP Spiro Agnew resigns faced with tax evasion charges. Watergate is raging, escalating and ends with Nixon’s resignation to avoid impeachment charges, as tr Uranus squares the US Mercury for the final time in August 1974, tugging on the US Pluto.

During tr Uranus in Cancer conjunct the US Mercury and opposition the US Pluto in 1953/54, the McCarthy sniff-out-a-commie hearings were in full swing, along with increasingly vociferous criticism of his bullying and witch-hunting tactics which led Ed Murrow to ask “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?”

On a previous occasion – April 1933 to April 1933 – President Franklin D Roosevelt declares a national emergency to come off the Gold Standard; and the Business Plot was uncovered which was an attempted coup d’etat against the government and Roosevelt’s progressive policies, by a group of fascist veterans and wealthy businessmen, wanting to ally themselves to Hitler’s Germany and Italy. At the time it was written off as a hoax but there did seem to be some wild scheme in place.

So this influence definitely attacks both the government and US democracy, either by dragging scandals into the open or letting loose hard right-wing fanatics.

Another thought entirely. On the USA 4 July 1776 chart (I use 11am), the Progressed Mercury went retrograde in December 1994 – the rough interpretation of this is going mentally off track, not thinking straight, not speaking out. In Dec 1994 the Senate started an investigation into the Whitewater scandal – questions arising about real estate investments by Bill (then President) and Hillary Clinton and associates. One conviction resulted but the Clintons were deemed to have no criminal evidence against them.

That Progressed Mercury goes direct in late November this year. Whether this means more of the same will come out into the open to be spoken about more clearly. Or it ties the matter up securely I’ve no idea. But good to keep an eye on. What’s for sure, if the past repeats itself, is that 2017 won’t be one in which the US ruling elite (or pretenders thereto) will cover themselves in glory.

The USA Solar Return for July 2016 (ignoring natal chart start time) has a hugely emphasised Uranus – on the point of a T square to Pluto opposition Moon Venus; and on the focal point of a Yod to Jupiter sextile Mars in Scorpio. Such a Uranus covers a spectrum of – erratic, rebellious, innovative, fated changes, disruptive, trail-blazing, socially explosive, reformist, lawless, fringe activism, progressive. Plus the focal point Saturn in self-righteous, rigid-thinking Sagittarius in square to Neptune opposition North Node Jupiter in Virgo – so neurotic, fearful of failure, up and down.

 

THE GREAT AMERICAN SOLAR ECLIPSE: from Nov 11 2016 post.

The Great American Total Solar Eclipse on 21 August 2017 will be seen across the USA, falling exactly on the midheaven through Houston, Texas, down through Mexico and due north up through Canada.

Set for Washington, DC, the Leo New Moon is 9^th house conjunct Node Mars also in Leo trine Saturn in Sagittarius trine Uranus in Capricorn – so a Fire Grand Trine; formed into a Kite by Uranus opposition Jupiter which is in turn square Venus opposition Pluto – a Cardinal Grand Cross.

The New Moon will be conjunct Trump’s Mars and Ascendant as well as (maybe) opposition the USA 1776 Aquarius Moon (depending on start time).

An eclipse conjunct Mars tends to stoke up anger, so can be argumentative if not violent, accident-prone and overly stressed. At that point Trump has another of his wild confidence tr Pluto square his Jupiter and a feeling-unloved tr Saturn conjunct his Moon – so he’s likely to be over-reacting.

A Fire Grand Trine tends also to be supremely confident, taking risks without much thought of what comes next, inducing selfish and ego-centred impulses. Burnout can be a problem.

On the absolutely best reading, this could be a magnificent entrepreneurial plan to Make America Great Again (sic). Though Mars Saturn Uranus tied into the Eclipse is worrisome, especially with a buccaneering Uranus opposition Jupiter.

Previous Eclipses in this Saros series make interesting if worrying reading with some events happening earlier than August and some the following year, as is customary with Eclipses which tend to cast a shadow in both directions.

1998/9 – Clinton impeachment, Dec 98 to Feb 99.

1981 – Attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan in March.

1963 – Assassination of JFK in November.

1945 –August: Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs dropped. Death of FDR (by natural causes) in April.

1927: The Pineapple Primary (= hand grenades) took place in April 1928 in Illinois, during the administration of the notoriously corrupt Chicago Mayor “Big Bill” Thompson, whose re-election had gained the financial support of mobster Al Capone. In the six months prior to the primary (ie. 1927) there were 62 bombings in Chicago and 2 politicians killed. 500 federal marshals were drafted in by the Attorney General to protect voters on election day. ‘Underlying the violent campaign was the lucrative Prohibition-era bootlegging trade, a corrupt city government, politicians with ties to organized crime, and a deep-seated and bitter political rivalry between several of the Illinois Republican candidates.’ (wiki)Calvin Coolidge, was in the White House, a Republican president since 1923, small-government conservative, supported racial equality, relatively scandal-free after predecessor Warren Harding less than stellar performance.

1927 also saw various natural and man-made disasters of historic proportions – St Louis tornado, Vermont floods, Pittsburgh gas explosion. In 1928 a California dam fails with 400 dead, Florida hurricane kills 2500.

1909: Assassination attempt against President William Howard Taft while on a visit to Mexico. He was Republican anti-African-American, said in his inaugural address he wouldn’t appoint them to federal jobs; anti-conservationist, protectionist; broke with many of his predecessor Theodore Roosevelt’s policies. Democrat Woodrow Wilson won the following election.

So certainly this Eclipse presages violence in one form or another.