Transits to SSR Planets

[Jim Eshelman]

Today we have a most interesting example of transits to a Solar Return planet rather than a natal planet.

About 6:30 PM EST today (1/8/21), Twitter permanently banned Donald Trump from the platform top manage the risk they felt he posed of inciting further violence.

When I had the chance, I took a look at his transits. I obviously thought there should be a key transit to or from Mercury (since it is primarily about his preferred way of communicating with the world). However, there isn't any such transit to his natal.

I did notice that today had an exact Mercury-Mars square in space. At the time this happened, Mars was 5°55' Aries and Mercury 5°45' Capricorn. But no connection to his natal chart.

However, his SSR Saturn is 6°01' Capricorn. Now, while Mercury to Saturn alone fits for "blocked communication," the bigger picture isn't quite right. It doesn't exactly feel like a Mars transit to natal Saturn.

The distinction to keep in mind is that Solar Return Saturn is a transiting planet, not a natal planet. You have to interpret it as a transiting planet. Transiting Saturn is about restrictions and demands upon him by the outside world. This is Mercury-Mars volatilizing the world's restrictions on him, rather than (say) volatizing his own survival needs (= natal Saturn).

I see this a lot but rarely have simple examples of it. Transits to natal Mars show one's own aggressions, solar Mars shows the world's aggressions toward you, and transits to the two are therefore a little different. Same with natal vs. solar Venus or Jupiter or Uranus, etc.

I thought this worth documenting to make the interpretive point. Transits to the SSR are nearly as strong and important as transits to the natal but their interpretation isn't quite the same.


We know he's going to melt down - we don't need astrology for that, but his quotidians make it clear. At the time of the ban, SNQ IC was 0°16' from natal Mars. PSSR MC squared natal Pluto.