US forecast Jul 5 - Aug 2, 2020

[Jim Eshelman]

USA Mundane Forecast
for the four weeks beginning JULY 5, 2000
If you are unfamiliar with the methods and interpretations of Sidereal mundane astrology, please see my free book Sidereal Mundane Astrology. (A link to the current edition can be found near the top of the Publications sub-forum.) For standard interpretations, see Chapter 8 of the current (17th) Edition.

LONG-TERM (Solar Ingresses)
(Summarized from my original interpretation in the January 15 forecast.) For the U.S., the 12 months beginning January 15, 2020 are dominated by Uranus on Eastpoint mundanely square a Sun-Saturn-Pluto conjunction at Midheaven. This difficult year will have more challenges than blessings and foreshadows even more severe patterns in 2021. Much of what follows describes the coronavirus pandemic and civil outrage we have experienced thus far.

• Uranus: Surprises, sudden ruptures or eruption, shock, revelation, overflowing of limits and boundaries, surprise attacks, changes in foreign relations or leadership, riots and revolts.
• Sun, Saturn, and Pluto are the main story: This year will be a horrible struggle with great damage along the way. It seems astrologically inconceivable that Trump's presidency will survive the year.
• Saturn-Pluto: Hardship including catastrophic disasters laying waste to a landscape, feeling irrevocable loss or separation, an apocalyptic time, even (in the extreme) the downfall of cities and nations.
• Sun-Saturn-Pluto across Florida, New Orleans, and coastal Mississippi: Devastating hurricanes this year, after the fashion of Hurricane Andrew. Mars through Santa Barbara County sparks unusually severe fire. See the maps.
• Sun-Saturn: Sad, arduous events; death or restraint of leaders; government gridlock; restrictive, controlling, or failing government that causes or worsens disaster, fiscal crisis, structural collapses, natural disasters, events requiring government oversight and response.
• Sun-Pluto: Diverse possibilities from natural disasters to political confrontation; removing or assailing those in power, rebelling against conventions, disrespect for and disobeying the law.
• Saturn-Uranus: Bubble-bursting, harsh reality, wide pendulum swings between freedom-restriction, liberality-conservatism, liberty vs. safety, change vs. status quo.
• Uranus-Pluto: Destabilizing, revolutionary, revising, remapping, anti-establishment, antigovernmental: a spirit of revolution dismantles current systems and tears down existing structures; people ignore, challenge, or reject precedent, custom, convention, and authority.
• Sun-Uranus: Sudden, startling, explosive, surprise attacks, leadership changes, life-altering technology.

Amidst deep cultural divisions, the nation is hurled closer to a spirit of revolution. As Pluto transitions from Sagittarius to Capricorn, every solar or lunar cardinal ingress through the end of 2003 worldwide will have Sun or Moon conjunct, opposite, or square Pluto.

Arisolar (Apr 14)
Due to a dormant Cansolar, the Arisolar is the Quarter chart from April 14 to October 17. A single aspect marks it, Venus square Mars: Venus rises (0°31', dignified in Taurus); Mars culminates (1°33', dignified in Capricorn); and Venus squares Mars (1°03' in mundo). Foremost, the aspect means passion in every respect. People feel powerfully about things. In an election year, we expect inflamed passions to prevail over reason across the terrain of political engagement (i.e., the usual). More broadly, great restlessness sweeps the land, tempers burn short, and selfish wants win out over any greater social mindfulness. Venus-Mars also frays international relations with wounded alliances and even military attacks.

Cansolar (Jul 16)
The Cansolar is dormant. Moon conjunct Venus (1°35') worldwide normally would signal peace, public happiness, celebration, and protection. I fear, though, that its main expression will be accelerated social needs that weaken efforts to fight the pandemic. For the U.S., this is not a chart of great consequence.

MEDIUM-TERM (The Bridge)
Mars and Saturn are Bridge factors this month. Conditions become more threatening, hurtful, and deadly from July 9 on.

• Mars opposes progressed Capsolar Moon worldwide July 9-12. Atop normally martial combativeness, conflict, inflammation of conditions, and death, this signals a heightened state of emergency.
• Saturn conjoins Capsolar MC July 13 to the end of this period, replacing Jupiter from the month before. Therefore, in the U.S., everything reverses itself: A sense of prosperity progress, tenuous improvement of life conditions, economic expansion, and celebration turns to hardship, setback, worsening of life conditions, economic narrowing, darkening hopes, and greater death.

Mars is in Pisces all month. Thus far, Mars in Pisces has manifest as virulent toxicity, including rising (record) disease numbers, emotion-charged racial violence (fueling memories of historic slavery, a Pisces theme), and other occurrence of literal poisons in the news. In theory, we also expect such expressions as intensified belief-driven passions; surging into temptation; foolish risk-taking; mass migration / diaspora events; focus on the foreign, mysterious, unknown, exotic, glamorous, or theatrical; espionage, betrayal, slippery alliances, slavery-bondage themes; and science losing ground to belief. Summaries of longer-term trends from outer planet sign transits are here.

SHORT-TERM (Lunar Ingresses)

Caplunar (Jul 5)
The Caplunar - one of the most important, powerful ingresses of the year - covers July 5 to August 2, especially the first week, July 5-13. Jupiter and Pluto are mere minutes from Ascendant, Moon only 2° from them and (in mundo) Saturn only 1° further. Moon conjoins Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto within 1-2° (Moon-Saturn, only evident mundanely, is therefore unique to the U.S.).

Jupiter conjunct Pluto is closest and the main message: Jupiter 0°06' above Ascendant, Pluto 0°55' below, their midpoint 0°25' from the angle, and they conjoin within 0°35'. Nearly identical Moon-Saturn and Moon-Jupiter orbs show transition from primarily Jupiter-driven weeks - expanding, increasingly social, more optimistic, with improved quality of life - to primarily Saturn-driven times - narrowing, again more isolated and pessimistic, with a narrowed quality of life. Conditions foretold by this Caplunar mix these themes. (It is anguishing to think June was the new "good ol' days.")

Yet, which expressions of Jupiter-Pluto do we expect? Surely these four weeks will challenge beliefs, traditions, values, and the political-cultural systems that sustain them. With Moon strong, expect waves of response (and probable activism) by the people. Already, we see strong Jupiter-Pluto waves of ideological zeal aimed at reconstructing a social order, defending justice, and reclaiming liberty and democracy.

But will we see recovery, healing, and correction, turning a corner, reversing the tide? Moon-Saturn seems to limit this or, in the alternative, to make it costly. Expect undermining or reversals in politics and in the stock market, which receives a heavy blow. Another possibility is outlandishly freaky weather with deadly, expensive consequences.

Moon-Saturn foreground means hardship, sacrifice, loss, and sadness, with little to inspire celebration and much alienation and divisiveness. If Independence Day went like Memorial Day, the meaning of this chart is sorrowfully simple: Valuing social over distancing leads to greater sickness and death nationwide.

• 7/7: CanQ IC crosses ingress Neptune.
• 7/9: CanQ IC crosses ingress Neptune.
• 7/12: CapQ IC crosses t Jupiter, ingress Saturn-Pluto.

Arilunar (Jul 13)
The Arilunar covers July 13-August 2 (the rest of the month) because the next two weekly ingresses are dormant. In addition to recurring Moon aspects with Pluto and Jupiter, the chart has one theme: Venus rises (1°46') square Uranus (2° PVP).

People want to be happy - want to have fun, get out, break loose, shake off the cobwebs. This chart is a call to socialize and be happy. On the geopolitical front, it suggests significant change in foreign relations, but that front has been fairly quiet recently. Here is a demand for increased freedom in Venus matters, shifting social values, and a natural summer desire to hit the road.

Given the Caplunar, this would have dire consequences.

• 7/14: CapQ Asc squares t Jupiter, ingress Saturn-Pluto.
  7/17: CapQ IC crosses t Saturn conj. ingress Mercury; WP crosses Uranus.

Canlunar (Jul 20)
The Canlunar is dormant. Moon conjoins Pluto (0°36 in mundo) for intensity (and daily confronting our own mortality) and opposes Jupiter and Saturn with equal orbs (0°05' from their midpoint). The swing between Jupiter and Saturn themes continues all month, trying to find its equilibrium.

• 7/21: CapQ Asc sq. t Saturn conj. ingress Mercury; MC sq. ingress Uranus.

Liblunar (Jul 26)
The Liblunar is dormant. Jupiter has left the mix. Moon now squares only Pluto (1°33') and Saturn (1°35' in mundo). Gloom gathers. - This week sets us up for the August 2 Caplunar, under which we collectively get unusually bad (grievous) news.

• 7/26: CanQ Asc conj. s Mars.
• 7/27: CapQ Dsc crosses ingress Uranus.
• 7/28: CanQ MC sq. t Mars.

[Jim Eshelman]

PROGRESSIONS & DIRECTIONS
Long-running progressions continue: p Mars sx. r Pluto & p Mars ssq. r Mars (contentious); p Sun-Venus ssq. (celebrity); and p Mercury sx. r Jupiter and r Uranus (surprising luck and success in business and cutting deals). -- Mercury-Jupiter leaves orb at the end of January, 2021 and Mercury-Uranus in May 2021.

Among his Solar Arc directions, d Moon is sqq. r Jupiter and d Mars sqq. r Sun, both of which will be exact near Election Day. This actualizes his natal Mo/Su = Ma/Ju 0°03' (conjunction at 28°05'/08' Leo). - Directed Ascendant sq. r Pluto, separating 46', probably has indicted his confrontation with the pandemic.

SIDEREAL LUNAR RETURN (Jul 3)
Natal Uranus is the most angular planet, 0°49' from square Ascendant. Transiting Neptune is 2°26' past Descendant. Neptune squares natal Uranus (0°08' in mundo) and also squares natal Moon (1°) and Sun (3°).

Things get weird again for a month. Neptune's transit to Uranus has been with Trump for most of his presidency, most obviously showing as a battle between truth and deception, a struggle over meaningful information, and a trickster's chaos used to keep circumstances unstable and unmanageable. (Trump's management gifts rest on a form of chaos theory, controlling events best by keeping the ground unsteady beneath his opponents.)

More broadly, President Trump is now exposed to the strongest doses of Neptune yet as it closes in on his luminaries. Transiting Neptune feels as if one were inside a hurricane, a maelstrom of unmanageable, unanchored information and conditions. Neptune's transit to Moon increases sensitivity and vulnerability; that to Sun undercuts his certainty on who he is or what goals he pursues (identity and direction being core solar ideas). He is already losing certainty about his relevance and role. By the time Neptune-Sun is partile a year from now, the remnants of his ego-certainty will be gone.

SIDEREAL DEMI-LUNAR RETURN (Jul 17)
These two weeks are a transition. Within a foggy, perhaps deceptive, surely disorienting SLR month, the Demi-SLR has positive planets most angular, but its closest foreground aspects are sharp, destabilizing, and malefic. This pattern toward a new SLR in two weeks that is more purely malefic.

This mixed outcome will be challenging for Mr. Trump, especially undercutting things he considers most stable (e.g., his "base"), yet with protections buffering the storm for now. In two weeks, the protections disappear.

Most angular are natal Jupiter, natal Pluto, and transiting Uranus (all partile). Jupiter is well-aspected. Uranus squares Pluto. In contrast, the closest foreground aspects are transiting Sun-Pluto to natal Saturn and transiting Sun-Saturn to natal Venus. Jupiter and Saturn both touch most of this.

Natal Jupiter squares Ascendant 0°51'. Natal Pluto squares MC 0°15'. They do not aspect each other. Were these the only strong factors, I would judge a positive time with Trump at his best, feeling lucky, succeeding, and gaining esteem while relying on his own counsel and impulses. Transiting Uranus square natal Pluto (the main aspect of his Solar Return) means change or upheaval.

Other aspects intensify a message of upheaval: Sun-Pluto are atop natal Saturn. Pluto-Saturn (0°02' in mundo) undercuts security and stability, shakes foundations, breaks down old structures. Sun conjunct his Saturn (0°31' in mundo), echoed in a transiting Sun-Saturn opposition (2°), increases burdens, responsibilities, and losses and is particularly harsh on anyone in an executive position. Sun-Pluto (0°05') marks a turning-point, the beginning of a new cycle and unavoidable confrontation with realities of one's life.

Saturn opposes natal Venus (0°05'), reinforced by Sun. Trump's natal Venus-Saturn conjunction is also angular. Saturn-Venus is an aspect of personal loss, something dear to him being sacrificed or taken. Those near him will report now that, on things that used to matter greatly to him, his heart is not in them.

These aspects show unusually hard emotional and practical blows.

Yet, not only is natal Jupiter most angular, its only aspect is a square by foreground transiting Jupiter. This is quite excellent. Furthermore, transiting Jupiter is more widely involved in most of Saturn's affairs in this chart (e.g., Sun opposite Saturn is exact within minutes but Sun opposite Jupiter has a perfectly acceptable 3° orb). Therefore, it seems that he has protection for now.

SIDEREAL LUNAR RETURN (Jul 30)
This SLR brings a heavy, demoralizing, costly blow to President Trump. Transiting Pluto and Saturn and natal Venus are most angular. Foreground Saturn conjunct Pluto and Mercury opposite Pluto are 2-3° wide in mundo.

Saturn and Pluto are conjunct. Saturn squares MC (0°34'). Pluto is on Eastpoint (0°03'). These signify heavy ordeal with separation and irrevocable loss as its main characteristics. Affairs come to a climax. Events fall against him.

Mercury opposes Pluto. Circumstances force him to face the music and take a stand. Events stun his mind, reframing how he thinks. Typically, one is backed up against a wall of convention or law and has to fight one's way out of the predicament. Blame lands hard.

Seeming at odds with this, natal Venus squares MC (0°34'). Venus amidst this kind of loss commonly means wondering if one paid too high a price, feeling the deeply personal impact of circumstances. This is confirmed by Venus' opposition by transiting Saturn (1°08 on one side) and conjunction with natal Saturn (1°55' on the other). Other signs of great anxiety (natal Mercury, Neptune, and Saturn more widely angular) mark the chart.

[Jim Eshelman]

But I'll take a look at Arizona

For the year (Capsolar), western Arizona has a Venus line but nothing for most of the state. Nothing for the Arisolar. The new Cansolar in a few days has Uranus through the middle of the state, reaching pretty much the whole state.

The prior Caplunar was very high-impact on Arizona. Not necessarily malefic - probably benefic-leaning - but hard to call with the high-impact. Moon-Jupiter-Pluto lines went north-south through the state with Moon-Pluto only minutes from exact and centering near Denver, then Jupiter exact a little east of there. This is the same longitude as Salt Lake City, too. I think we're seeing the Moon-Pluto primarily (and maybe Jupiter adds, "...because the president came to town").

The new Caplunar from July 5 is troubled - I'd have read it more as anxiety and uncertainty than as sickness, but sickness fits - but I'd have to do charts for exactly spots to get the real picture. Mars is not far across the border into California (about the longitude of Las Vegas). Then, for squares to the angles, we have Mercury exactly at the California border and Neptune slicing diagonally across the western (especially northwestern) corner; say, near Jerome, I suppose. Here's a picture of how the "squares" map looks.

[Jim Eshelman]

Thank you. Nothing obvious there. Not fun, but not what I would have thought would show a pandemic.

Since the very worst areas right now are almost an uninterrupted line from Arizona to Georgia (with a noticeable gap in New Mexico, which has a Sun line), I don't think it's localized. This is part of the reason, I think, that I've gotten bored with watching localized lines: Nothing is a local story anymore. Everything is a national story (or bigger). The Washington charts, increasingly, have shown all the big stories across the country. (And the recurrent Moon-Pluto aspects in every single ingress - usually to within a few minutes of exact - are making the story much the same world wide.)

I've been seeing the best results from the transits and progressions of the solar ingresses, i.e., the Bridge section (sitting atop the fact that the Capsolar is telling the whole story by itself). Then I've been seeing mostly people's emotional and herd waves in the lunar ingresses, e.g., the angular Venus for 4th of July that boiled down to "you're not keeping me from the party!" - but also the exact Moon-Pluto everywhere, all the time. The June 29 Liblunar forecast did say, "Phoenix and Salt Lake City get the strongest brunt of this conjunction."

My current expectations are that, beginning today, things actually get worse. Worldwide, Mars opposes CapQ Moon today through 7/12; then, beginning 7/13, Saturn crosses the U.S. Capsolar MC, completely reversing last month's Jupiter transit to the same angle. (The current Caplunar is too complex for me to feel I've been decisive about it, I had to go for more of a shotgun effect.)

I just think there aren't "local stories" any longer. It's all national or world.

[Jim Eshelman]

I want to take a look back at this last month to see how I did. Overall, I think I didn't do too badly - that I caught what I still think are the main themes, but not necessarily the exact expressions. Of course, the Capsolar continues to describe the year every step of the way. But I really do think that the main feature of the month has been spiking infection and death numbers amid continuing pressures to break out of isolation, with social needs the compelling pressure for most people (but political needs the most compelling for most politicians).

MEDIUM-TERM (The Bridge)
It was a Mars and Saturn month in which infection and death rates continued to set new records nearly every day. I could have left it that simple (but I wasn't willing to write that the meaning would just be "everybody dies" etc.). Nonetheless, the planets are right, the meaning is clear. Saturn coming back across the U.S. Capsolar MC beginning mid-July (and continuing through the current month) has been pretty clear in this regard.

Caplunar (Jul 5)
It was easy to see that this Caplunar was important and easy to see what the key astrological factors were. It wasn't as easy to translate that into knowing what would happen. I think most things I mentioned happened but, in such a crazy time, it's hard to say any of them was a stand-out event. I think I did correctly capture the shift in the tide from the Jupiter phase (the "good ol' days" of June) to Saturn (which continues and grows even stronger in the new month).

I'd welcome feedback on the following to, perhaps, sharpen my sense of how the Jupiter-Pluto themes should continue to be interpreted this year. - I just noticed that I specifically cited "turning a corner" healing steps and this was, indeed, the month in which we got solid news that several vaccines are in development and Phase 3 testing has begun. We haven't had the freaky damaging weather that I repeatedly see for the year (though Texas had one minor hurricane).

Jupiter conjunct Pluto is closest and the main message... transition from primarily Jupiter-driven weeks - expanding, increasingly social, more optimistic, with improved quality of life - to primarily Saturn-driven times - narrowing, again more isolated and pessimistic, with a narrowed quality of life...

Yet, which expressions of Jupiter-Pluto do we expect? Surely these four weeks will challenge beliefs, traditions, values, and the political-cultural systems that sustain them. With Moon strong, expect waves of response (and probable activism) by the people. Already, we see strong Jupiter-Pluto waves of ideological zeal aimed at reconstructing a social order, defending justice, and reclaiming liberty and democracy.

But will we see recovery, healing, and correction, turning a corner, reversing the tide? Moon-Saturn seems to limit this or, in the alternative, to make it costly... Moon-Saturn foreground means hardship, sacrifice, loss, and sadness, with little to inspire celebration and much alienation and divisiveness. If Independence Day went like Memorial Day, the meaning of this chart is sorrowfully simple: Valuing social over distancing leads to greater sickness and death nationwide.

Arilunar (Jul 13)

... the chart has one theme: Venus rises (1°46') square Uranus (2° PVP). People want to be happy - want to have fun, get out, break loose, shake off the cobwebs. This chart is a call to socialize and be happy... Here is a demand for increased freedom in Venus matters, shifting social values, and a natural summer desire to hit the road.

I'm sure this marked the time from July 13 until yesterday. (It's what I was seeing around me: our wine business grew because of it as we invented new ways for people to have safe social outlets.)

[Jim Eshelman]

As for Trump, it's also hard for me to be clear on how exactly right I was. In general, it's been the same struggles, a progressive deterioration, a panicky lashing back and fighting for himself like a wounded animal. Did I get any of that? - As with the nation, I welcome your feedback on how I did this month on Trump's SLRs and what I could have done better.

Considering how insanely disorienting it has been for the rest of us, I do like my "maelstrom" analogy for his July 3 SLR.

SIDEREAL LUNAR RETURN (Jul 3)

Things get weird again... Neptune's transit to Uranus has been with Trump for most of his presidency, most obviously showing as a battle between truth and deception, a struggle over meaningful information, and a trickster's chaos used to keep circumstances unstable and unmanageable. (Trump's management gifts rest on a form of chaos theory, controlling events best by keeping the ground unsteady beneath his opponents.)

More broadly, President Trump is now exposed to the strongest doses of Neptune yet as it closes in on his luminaries. Transiting Neptune feels as if one were inside a hurricane, a maelstrom of unmanageable, unanchored information and conditions... increases sensitivity and vulnerability... undercuts his certainty on who he is or what goals he pursues... He is already losing certainty about his relevance and role.

SIDEREAL DEMI-LUNAR RETURN (Jul 17)
I saw these two weeks as a transition toward the conditions of the next (7/30) SLR, there being malefic indications but strong protections.

Other aspects intensify a message of upheaval... Pluto-Saturn undercuts security and stability, shakes foundations, breaks down old structures. Sun conjunct his Saturn... increases burdens, responsibilities, and losses and is particularly harsh on anyone in an executive position. Sun-Pluto marks a turning-point, the beginning of a new cycle and unavoidable confrontation with realities of one's life... Saturn-Venus [in two forms] is an aspect of personal loss, something dear to him being sacrificed or taken. Those near him will report now that, on things that used to matter greatly to him, his heart is not in them.

These aspects show unusually hard emotional and practical blows. Yet... it seems that he has protection for now.

[SteveS]

Jim wrote about Trump's SLR:

More broadly, President Trump is now exposed to the strongest doses of Neptune yet as it closes in on his luminaries. Transiting Neptune feels as if one were inside a hurricane, a maelstrom of unmanageable, unanchored information and conditions... increases sensitivity and vulnerability... undercuts his certainty on who he is or what goals he pursues... He is already losing certainty about his relevance and role.

Indeed! Malefic Neptune times worry. And without a doubt he is now concerned what this Pandemic is possibly economically doing for his elections chances. He does not like what he sees. Lets see how the Reps/Dems compromise the new Stimulus Packages?