Solunars by Aldebaran Sidereal Academy

USA Mundane Forecast
for the four weeks beginning July 26, 2018
If you are unfamiliar with the methods and interpretations of Sidereal mundane astrology, see my free book Sidereal Mundane Astrology. (A link to the current edition can always be found near the top of the Publications sub-forum.) For standard interpretations, see Chapter 8 of the current (15th) Edition.

LONG-TERM (Solar Ingress) PATTERNS
The 12 months beginning January 15, 2018 are unstable, revolutionary, revising, remapping, anti-establishment, and often anti-government. Here are the highlights from the Capsolar (most of which have already been manifesting all year exactly as written in January):

Pluto (0°08') & Uranus (0°42') angular. A spirit of revolution assaults current systems, tearing at iconic structures. Victory in the 2018 elections will fall to those who present best as rebels. PLUTO: High-impact events that sever connections. Mainstream and counter-establishment sensibilities clash. Leader crises, financial crises, severing historic relations. Natural disasters include hurricanes, earthquakes, floods. URANUS: Explosions (literal or metaphorical); sudden rupture, shock, surprise, overflowing normal boundaries & limitations. Disclosures, revelations, surprise attacks, changes in leadership, protests, and revolts and their suppression.

Foreground SUN-VENUS-URANUS: Changes in foreign relations are a certainty. Shifting social values, including increased liberty in Venus matters. "Culture wars" kick up more intensely for the midterm elections. The voice of rebellion is concentrated on those in the highest office.

MOON conjoins MERCURY & SATURN. Expect economic narrowing and backtracking on the recovery: recession is not unthinkable. Capsolars had close Moon-Saturn aspects in 1819, 1837, and 2008, which should concern students of American money crises. Its record for violent inhumanity is heart-stopping. Climate destabilization will escalate faster in 2018 than in previous years, with tragic, life-smashing consequences.

• Mercury + Saturn. Restrictions, delays, failures, & calamity in transportation & communication. Communication fails for technical reasons & because people stop listening to each other. Information flow is interrupted & rationed. Data integrity is increasingly doubted; cybersecurity is a greater priority than cyber-expansion. Commerce is interrupted: More newspapers go out of business, more small businesses close their doors.
• Moon-Mercury: the media remains much of the story.
• Moon-Saturn: hardship, narrowing, sacrifice, loss, sadness, with few causes for celebration. Bereavement, deprivation, disappointment, destructive assaults by people & nature; other hardship centers primarily on alienation and divisiveness. It will be a good year for undertakers.
• Saturn in Sagittarius: Internationalism, immigration, aviation, elitism, hierarchical economic separation, & missiles dominate headlines.

MARS-JUPITER: Resources are squandered, stretched past capacity. Religious evangelism and other belief-driven enthusiasm and aggression accelerate. Bigots have louder voices. In nature, as in human affairs, expect stormy weather.

Cansolar (July 17)
Moon exactly rises (0°22') in 0°16' PVP square to Neptune, part of a Moon-Venus-Neptune PVP T-square. Saturn is widely foreground. This construct primarily suggests passionate waves of populism sweeping us toward the fall elections.

Moon foreground shows powerful response by the masses feeling strongly about things, the herd’s collective will surging up powerfully from mass mind. Human-interest stories move the public emotionally to an unusual degree and children are highlighted in the news (so, for example, the current story about immigrant children being separated from their families likely will continue). Moon-Neptune reiterates extreme waves of emotional reaction, fervor, herd-mind arousal, and even hysteria accompanied by confusion, disorientation, uncertainty, and an undermined sense of security. Venus-Neptune signals intense devotion, passionate belief, compelling fantasy or role-playing, and performance art; disillusionment, betrayed alliances, perceived offenses, and diplomatic embarrassment.


MEDIUM-TERM PATTERNS (The Bridge)
July 26 to July 30 remains a SATURN-PLUTO Zone, as Saturn conjoins Capsolar Moon and Pluto squares Capsolar Ascendant. Harsh, dramatic tragedies or hardship (sometimes with an apocalyptic tone) bring profound feelings of irrevocable loss or separation. Do not overlook deadly weather events as possible outcomes. Times of Saturn's transit to solar ingress Moons or their progressions are stained with greater tragic death and hardship worldwide than average.

After July 30, the rest of the month is a PLUTO Zone. Pluto represents the unlikely and unprecedented, even the miraculous; but this "unlikely and unprecedented" has become our long-term baseline. Our "quiet norm" is still marked by almost daily high-impact news that stuns the senses and halts the mind, usually involving separation, severing of connection, division, or a confrontation between mainstream and counter-establishment sensibilities.


SHORT-TERM (Lunar Ingress) PATTERNS

Caplunar (July 26)
The Caplunar covers July 26 to August 23, especially July 26 to August 3. Sun closely sets, opposite (0°15') a rising Mars, both of them square a non-angular Uranus. Mercury is on Westpoint (0°32'), also opposite Mars (1°40'). Moon is widely conjunct Pluto.

This ingress places us in a state of emergency, poised and attentive, with no chance to relax vigilance. The tone is combative, with an emphasis on surprise attack and upsetting apple carts. Sun-Mars is aggressive and willing to fight, its events commonly being fiery, explosive, violent, and destructive. Sun-Uranus heightens the chance of explosiveness (psychologically if not physically) and is at least startling and derailing. Mars-Uranus ties these together with the "surprise attack" theme. Combativeness in Washington is only one possibility: Across the nation, wildfires will surely burn, perhaps at a record pace.

Conflictual Mercury themes will be context-appropriate. Transportation accidents grab headlines, while the press surely will come under heightened attack. It seems a time of abandoned diplomacy with limited opportunities to reconcile or find peace.

On 7/26-27, CanQ IC catches two Saturns. CapQ angles catch two Marses July 27, the day of a Sun-Mars opposition in space, so that's the most combative day of a combative week. In fact, July 26-28 will be downright bad.

Arilunar (Aug 3)
The Arilunar covers August 3-9. Jupiter squares Ascendant (0°30'), and Sun and Uranus are each 3° off Ascendant and MC, respectively. Jupiter squares the rising Sun ecliptically and (much more closely) Sun squares Uranus mundanely. Add an exact Mars-Uranus square, a close Mercury-Jupiter mundane square, and the favorable tilt of the Moon/Jupiter midpoint on the meridian.

Possibilities are numerous. In fact, a basic theme of these planets and aspects is future possibility. Planets portray the psychological state of bold, decisive new directions committed to a future of expanded possibilities. Tech marvels are part of this (or, at least, expect fabulous back-to-school computer deals!). If diplomacy works well any week this month, it will be this week. Expect bold moves furthering the expansions of business (especially large corporations). We come out of the week noticeably better than we go into it.

There are no QUOTIDIAN crossings this week.

Canlunar (Aug 9)
The Canlunar covers August 9-15. It will be a sad, emotionally haunting week for the nation. Neptune is the most angular planet, square Ascendant; this always signals emotional extremes, generally with confusion and more smoke than clarity. In the foreground, Venus squares Saturn (0°14'). Moon opposes Pluto. These are marks of amplified grief and loss.

Of course, fires raging across the nation and other climate-originated terrors are among leading possibilities. Some especially heart-wrenching news about the federally confiscated immigrant children may hit the news (or something with a similar emotional force). The market probably looks more like a bear than a bull this week. Most broadly, powerful love coexists with severe loss, fun is spoiled, and there is a sense that “the party is over.” Hate, remorse, and loss of alliance prevail over kinship. People hurt emotionally.

August 9 has better portents than the rest of the week, with CapQ MC square transiting Jupiter and some Mercury. Jupiter repeats on the 13th, joined by Neptune. (Jupiter does not fit with everything else unless the Canlunar portents involve weather crises.) August 11-15, CanQ angles cross various Plutos, which is more representative of the feel of the times.

Liblunar (Aug 15)
The Liblunar covers August 15-23. The ingress chart feels like a week of frustrations and aggravations. Sun, 0°03' from Descendant, squares Neptune (1°20' PVP). Mercury opposes Mars mundanely (both much closer to the horizon than they look ecliptically). Also mundanely, Moon opposes Uranus.

If this were a personal lunar return, we might expect to show a little more ego and generally be "too big for our britches;" not divisive per se, but rather aggravating and uncooperative. That spirit probably will prevail.

Most often, angular Sun concentrates attention on a head of state, the government in general, or other local ego-hubs of authority. Aspected by Neptune, the key themes are maelstrom-like chaos and disorientation. Mercury-Mars, besides suggesting vehicular accidents and violent ferocity of the air (it is hurricane season, after all) is tactical and positioning, impeding diplomacy or even agreement. In an atmosphere of nobody quite knowing what's so, agreements are tough to reach and shouldn't be trusted if they manifest.

CapQ MC squares Mars & Asc squares Neptune 8/17: Aggravations tip up to toxic hostilities for a couple of days. 8/18 & 8/22 CanQ angles cross Sun, echoing main theme of the Liblunar. Also 8/22, CanQ MC opposes the nearly stationary transiting Mars.

PROGRESSIONS
President Trump continues several progressions this month, of which the foremost are these, a mix of powerfully positive and positively negative patterns coexisting:

• p Saturn conjunct p Midheaven
• p Mars sextile r Pluto
• p Venus conjunct r Jupiter (p Venus also trines r Uranus; p Sun aspects Venus-Jupiter)

However, the truly positive progressions dominate the month. Trump will seem to be under divine protection, having surprising fortune extricating him from his difficulties. At birth, he had Jupiter trine Uranus within 0°26'. Progressed Venus has just passed the Jupiter (07') and trines Uranus. Now, progressed Moon sextiles the entire pattern all month, making the exact aspect to natal Jupiter 8/4, to progressed Venus 8/8, and to natal Uranus 8/15. This may be as simple as his exultation at getting his new Supreme Court appointee confirmed, but it seems larger, a special victory.

There is a fly in the cocktail, though. Transiting Saturn aspects his progressed Moon. I will be interested to see how these different factors balance out.

TRANSITS
Until August 15, SATURN aspects progressed MOON. Practical matters do better than emotional ones. Expect him to be somber, distant, cautious, displaying wounded pride, loss, and feeling misunderstood as others seem unsympathetic. It puts a somewhat more negative spin on other concurrent astrological factors.

Pluto squares his Jupiter again beginning August 5. This has been the defining transit of his presidency, an aspect that uplifts the lowly and drags down the almighty.


SIDEREAL SOLAR RETURN
See the following for an analysis or Pres. Trump's Sidereal Solar Return:
http://solunars.com/viewtopic.php?f=20& ... 363#p15363


SIDEREAL LUNAR RETURN (Jul 24)
Jupiter squares Midheaven about 1°, and squares natal Pluto near IC. Natal Uranus is distantly foreground. This will be an unusually fortunate month for President Trump - far kinder to him than the Saturn-driven prior month. Jupiter months show gains in luck, esteem, opportunity, and prosperity.

Jupiter's transit to Pluto is best known for providing gains from separation or loss. Energies are freed from old entanglements and available for new purpose. Unwanted ties or commitments are dissolved. It could be as slight as taking a vacation - a much-needed "get away" - or a more substantial turning point. Natal Uranus weakly foreground reinforces his need for freedom and breaking his ordinary patterns.

SIDEREAL DEMI-LUNAR RETURN (Aug 7)
Echoing and mirroring the SLR's strongest symbolism, the Demi-Lunar has Jupiter closest to an angle (1°48') in nearly exact (0°15') square to a foreground Pluto. As I have written most months of Trump's presidency, this aspect either uplifts the unlikely to great heights or drags the almighty and high-placed to the ground - there is little room between. Under a powerfully positive SLR and with the best progressions we've seen, the former is more likely than the latter this fortnight. (I also credit a half-degree middleground Sun-Jupiter square with this positive tone.)

One Jupiter-themed item on the agenda - which may come to a vote in August, unless Democrats are able to delay it until near or after the fall elections - is the confirmation hearing for President Trump's appointee to the Supreme Court. If this comes to a vote, it will go Trump's way and will feel a great victory to him.

Nonetheless, there is deception and subterfuge. Also foreground is his natal Mercury-Neptune square, closer mundanely in this return than it is ecliptically in his natal. In its best expression, it will show Trump rolling out his salesman talents full tilt. Less positively, we should expect much more fiction and much less fact from him.

SIDEREAL LUNAR RETURN (Aug 20)
Natal Uranus is 0°27' from MC. Transiting Neptune is 0°22' from EP. They are about 3° from exact ecliptical square, but only 0°48' from perfect square in right ascension, heightened by this angularity.

Neptune will transit Trump's Uranus for the next year or two, and occasionally come to the angles of his return charts. This month should give us an opportunity to see what that often enigmatic aspect will mean for him.

Often the consequences of this transit are primarily psychological until it nears its climax. Altered views of reality stimulate important inner changes. In particular a dream, temptation, or lure (transiting Neptune) inspires you to make major changes (natal Uranus), maybe to overhaul your whole life. It brings exotic ideas, ingenuity, and new perspectives.

What might this mean especially and uniquely for Donald Trump? We know he has the daring - the gall - to pursue whatever he wants. We also know that, while he seems to change his mind all the time, he rarely makes substantive changes in his views regarding anything of great importance. However, if there is a time for a dream of a different future to grab hold of him and set him in motion, it is under this aspect over the next couple of years.

We need to watch these four weeks closely. They will tell us things about the next two years.

His Uranus is strongly connected to luminaries and very positively aspected. However, its midpoint structures implicate deception connected to failed relationships as important themes in any major Uranus transit. His Uranus is most potently at Ne/As, and also closely aspects Ve/Pl and Sa/Pl.

Background factors have a hand in what is occurring. Away from the angles are three partile transits: Pluto to natal Jupiter, Mercury conjunct natal Pluto, and Sun conjunct natal Mars. These are challenging, confrontational, and combative. He is advised not to turn his back on what they mean in his current life (and they surely mean something connected with the Mueller investigation).

In recent months we have been exploring whether transits to all Capsolar planets are valid. Inherently, these would not be locale-specific, and I began with low expectations. - Preliminary conclusions from the first months of watching is that they are indeed important identifiers for locales where the 'natal' planet was angular in the Capsolar.

t Saturn conj. Capsolar Saturn ALL MONTH (exact 8/12)
t Pluto conj. Capsolar Pluto ALL MONTH (exact 8/14)

Mars transits: None.

This is now complete. Trump's charts (under "Trump Watch") will be especially interesting to watch this month, and there is plenty of week-to-week flip-flop in the lunar ingresses - which should be valuable to see in order to get a better feel of hos seemingly conflicting co-existing charts relate to each other.

We're now in the Arilunar week. (The weaker-than-expected-but-still-good jobs report came out this morning.)

Jim Eshelman wrote: Mon Jul 16, 2018 11:45 am Arilunar (Aug 3)
The Arilunar covers August 3-9. Jupiter squares Ascendant (0°30'), and Sun and Uranus are each 3° off Ascendant and MC, respectively. Jupiter squares the rising Sun ecliptically and (much more closely) Sun squares Uranus mundanely. Add an exact Mars-Uranus square, a close Mercury-Jupiter mundane square, and the favorable tilt of the Moon/Jupiter midpoint on the meridian.

Possibilities are numerous. In fact, a basic theme of these planets and aspects is future possibility. Planets portray the psychological state of bold, decisive new directions committed to a future of expanded possibilities. Tech marvels are part of this (or, at least, expect fabulous back-to-school computer deals!). If diplomacy works well any week this month, it will be this week. Expect bold moves furthering the expansions of business (especially large corporations). We come out of the week noticeably better than we go into it.

Trump's happy transits this month: he's back on the campaign trail. He's predicting he'll be out campaigning 5 or 6 days a week by the midterm. He loves campaigning. It's a real ego boost for him, lots of attention, and lots of applause. People do what he tells them (boo on cue, threaten the media, shout down and protesters) and he gets to brag on himself with no pesky demands his proposals actually work out. And nobody brings up Mueller except to make threats against him.

Jupiter Sets at Dawn wrote: Fri Aug 03, 2018 10:43 am Trump's happy transits this month: he's back on the campaign trail. He's predicting he'll be out campaigning 5 or 6 days a week by the midterm. He loves campaigning. It's a real ego boost for him, lots of attention, and lots of applause. People do what he tells them (boo on cue, threaten the media, shout down and protesters) and he gets to brag on himself with no pesky demands his proposals actually work out. And nobody brings up Mueller except to make threats against him.

LOL, I think you're right. (Furthermore, I HOPE you're right.) In my delineation of his Demi-SLR (effective the first of the week) I mentioned his salesman skills would be out in force.

Today is Mueller's birthday. (A Cancer, like Obama. Interesting.)

Do you think his SSR causes a pivot in the investigation?

Nothing quite happened as intense as I predicted for the week that ended late yesterday, except that the emotional tone it describes has just been a persistent, quiet dread in relation to the White House.

But the week really was dominated by two quite different stories that were versions of dread and sadness related to a high-profile woman. The weeks was mostly dominated, that is, by the media flush pushing forward the release of Omarosa's book Unhinged that streeted yesterday (it was hard to miss "that terrible woman" all week) and by the last days of Ms. Aretha Franklin, who died this morning after Moon entered Libra late last night... but was in hearts and minds through most of the last week.

I think the chronic-yet-growing dread and these two events are described by the chart described below. (And, yeah, there continued to be fires everywhere and, until this morning, the market has been stair-stepping downward for the exact days of the ingress. This morning it started stepping back up.)

Jim Eshelman wrote: Mon Jul 16, 2018 11:45 am Canlunar (Aug 9)
The Canlunar covers August 9-15. It will be a sad, emotionally haunting week for the nation. Neptune is the most angular planet, square Ascendant; this always signals emotional extremes, generally with confusion and more smoke than clarity. In the foreground, Venus squares Saturn (0°14'). Moon opposes Pluto. These are marks of amplified grief and loss.

Of course, fires raging across the nation and other climate-originated terrors are among leading possibilities. Some especially heart-wrenching news about the federally confiscated immigrant children may hit the news (or something with a similar emotional force). The market probably looks more like a bear than a bull this week. Most broadly, powerful love coexists with severe loss, fun is spoiled, and there is a sense that “the party is over.” Hate, remorse, and loss of alliance prevail over kinship. People hurt emotionally.

Trump's new SLR hits tomorrow, and might already be effective today. See below: I think we need to watch these two weeks very closely for insight into how his Neptune transit to natal Uranus may work over the next two years.

Here are the dates the actual transit is within 1° ecliptically. (This SLR is a preview.)

2019 Apr 26 to Aug 18
2020 Feb 24 to Apr 20
2020 Aug 28 to 2021 Feb 20

Exact on 3/22/20, 10/4/20, and the disgustingly obvious date of 1/20/21.

Jim Eshelman wrote: Mon Jul 16, 2018 11:47 am SIDEREAL LUNAR RETURN (Aug 20)
Natal Uranus is 0°27' from MC. Transiting Neptune is 0°22' from EP. They are about 3° from exact ecliptical square, but only 0°48' from perfect square in right ascension, heightened by this angularity.

Neptune will transit Trump's Uranus for the next year or two, and occasionally come to the angles of his return charts. This month should give us an opportunity to see what that often enigmatic aspect will mean for him.

Often the consequences of this transit are primarily psychological until it nears its climax. Altered views of reality stimulate important inner changes. In particular a dream, temptation, or lure (transiting Neptune) inspires you to make major changes (natal Uranus), maybe to overhaul your whole life. It brings exotic ideas, ingenuity, and new perspectives.

What might this mean especially and uniquely for Donald Trump? We know he has the daring - the gall - to pursue whatever he wants. We also know that, while he seems to change his mind all the time, he rarely makes substantive changes in his views regarding anything of great importance. However, if there is a time for a dream of a different future to grab hold of him and set him in motion, it is under this aspect over the next couple of years.

We need to watch these four weeks closely. They will tell us things about the next two years.

His Uranus is strongly connected to luminaries and very positively aspected. However, its midpoint structures implicate deception connected to failed relationships as important themes in any major Uranus transit. His Uranus is most potently at Ne/As, and also closely aspects Ve/Pl and Sa/Pl.

Background factors have a hand in what is occurring. Away from the angles are three partile transits: Pluto to natal Jupiter, Mercury conjunct natal Pluto, and Sun conjunct natal Mars. These are challenging, confrontational, and combative. He is advised not to turn his back on what they mean in his current life (and they surely mean something connected with the Mueller investigation).

We're still in the Liblunar week and, boy, it isn't Donald Trump's favorite week of the year. Today, Manafort was convicted on 8 counts and Cohen plead guilty to 5 counts, directly implicating Trump in open court. The Don has to be seethingly melting inside.

I think the Liblunar interpretation is representative of this. It says it's all about the president, is a chaotic maelstrom, and intensifies the president-focus and the negativity with Q contacts today.

Trumps new SLR has been coming on rapidly, and we still need to see it play out. Partile transits to his natal in the SLR include Pluto to his Jupiter, Mercury to his Pluto, and Sun to his Mars, besides the dominant theme of Neptune to his Uranus.

This month has come and gone. Feel free to assess and comment how we did. (My opinion: So much was right, so much was another variation of what we see every month, and there's so much we don't know about so it's hard to say. I will continue working on getting cleaner, squarer direct hits.)

In particular, I think the Caplunar rightly caught the unprecedented attacks of Trump on the press. The "fake news" assaults reached an entirely new level in the last four weeks, leading to the decision by over 100 major newspapers to publish coordinated independent editorials in defense of a free press.