Solunars by Aldebaran Sidereal Academy

USA Mundane Forecast
for the four weeks beginning MAY 12, 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 Ingress) PATTERNS
(For the longer original interpretation of the 2020 Capsolar, please see the January 15 forecast.) For the U.S., the 12 months beginning January 15, 2020 are dominated by Uranus on Eastpoint mundanely square a triple Sun-Saturn-Pluto conjunction at Midheaven. This difficult year will have more challenges than blessings and foreshadows even more severe patterns coming in 2021. (Much of this describes the experience of the coronavirus pandemic thus far.)

• Uranus: A year full of 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, feelings of irrevocable loss or separation, a seemingly 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, anti-government: 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, psychologically (and physically?) 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 of the next three years worldwide will have Sun or Moon closely 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. The Arisolar is marked by a single aspect, Venus square Mars. Specifically, 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: It signals wounded alliances and even military attacks. Even though deadly times do not usually lead to expanding family sizes, with couples sequestered at home for months we probably can expect a 2021 baby boom.

MEDIUM-TERM PATTERNS (The Bridge)

Most of the month centers on Jupiter; some of it adds Mars. The period is primarily healing, recovering, and expanding. The Bridge zones are: May 12-24 Jupiter. May 25-31 Jupiter Mars. June 1-8 Jupiter.

• Jupiter conjoins Capsolar MC all month (exact May 20) and is emphasized worldwide in every lunar ingress this month. In the U.S., expect stimulus programs to continue and expand amid efforts to get stalled economies "open for business" as soon as feasible.
• Mars joins Jupiter May 25-31 (square U.S. Cansolar Ascendant). Expect a new level of struggle and perhaps of threat (and probably a lot of restlessness and rebellion as people push boundaries for the Memorial Day weekend). A keyword is expensive.

Mars is in Aquarius with Neptune all month: Emerging Aquarian themes will dominate day-to-day headlines. Summaries of longer-term trends from outer planet sign transits are here.

SHORT-TERM (Lunar Ingress) PATTERNS

Caplunar (May 12)
The Caplunar covers May 12 to June 8, especially the first two weeks, May 12-26. Mars rises. This will be a contentious, aggressive, combative month of competing voices vying to force circumstances, with no little pain. It also will show much of the U.S. revving back into action. (Wisely? Not? We shall see.)

With Mars closely angular, we expect all of this plus a raft of other (generally hurtful) things such as fires, violence, and general damage. With contagious disease raging nationwide, this, of course, is a further concern given Mars' penchant for fever and inflammation. As Mars squares a non-foreground Mercury, much of the aggression will be with words but with an improved chance of tactical and strategic planning in meeting the current crisis. Also, there is gearing back up to action after a time of relative stillness.

Four Moon aspects supplement this. The closest (not visible in the mundoscope above) is Moon conjunct Pluto (0°06'). Nearly as close is Moon conjunct Jupiter (0°17' in mundo). These are joined by a moderate Moon-Mercury square (1°47' in mundo) and a wide Moon-Saturn conjunction (3°27' in mundo). Like last month, the focus is on recovery, healing, stipends, generosity, confidence, and community, family, and other connected action (and lots of Zoom). Yet Saturn snakes back in for the U.S.: There are sad stories of failures and the forgotten, of depleted resources and more need than can be met.

Yet, overall, the tone is either upbeat or, on its contentious days, at least highly energetic.

Three mundane aspects (not foreground) exist for Washington where there are no ecliptical aspects; that is, they are regional and not generalized to the world. They do, I think, reflect business churning back up, though accompanied by tough questions and hard facts of life. These are a partile Mercury-Pluto square, a close Mercury-Jupiter square, and a wide Jupiter-Saturn conjunction.

• 5/12: CapQ MC sq. T Mars (ongoing all week).
• 5/12: CanQ IC = Cansolar Pluto.
• 5/15: CanQ MC = Cansolar Sun, op. T Pluto (Pluto-Sun); CanQ Asc sq. Cansolar Pluto.
• 5/17: CanQ IC = T Jupiter.

Sun is on IC on a north-south line through Fargo, near Wichita, and through east-central Texas. Significant events, especially involving initiative, will occur along this line, with particular stories where it crosses Saturn (east-central Oklahoma) and Moon-Jupiter-Pluto (mostly eastern Nebraska). Moon-Jupiter-Pluto rise on a curve from eastern New Mexico and western Texas up through Minnesota. High impact Moon-Pluto hits the northwest. Jupiter flows through much of California and central Washington-Oregon (all important wine regions). Mars squares MC from southern Louisiana-Mississippi due north through central Illinois and Wisconsin.

Arilunar (May 19)
The Arilunar is dormant. Caplunar patterns continue as dominant for the week with only a slight tuning by the Arilunar's lunar aspects. Moon squares Pluto (0°10'), much as before, but Jupiter and Saturn are more equal: Moon squares Jupiter 2°11' ecliptically and Saturn 2°03' in mundo, with Moon only 0°05' from their midpoint. Expect more hands-on trouble management as good news and bad news balance. Focus seems strongly on business wheels turning but also there is a chance of political horse-trading that is helpful. The national mood seems harder to gauge, people being less decisive about whether they feel optimistic or pessimistic.

• 5/19: CapQ Asc sq. Capsolar Mars.
• 5/19: CanQ Asc sq. T Pluto & Cansolar Sun (Pluto-Sun).
• 5/22: CanQ Asc sq. T Jupiter. CanQ IC = T Saturn. CanQ WP = Cansolar Uranus.
• 5/23: CapQ = Capsolar Mars.
• 5/24: CanQ WP = T Uranus.

See the maps for regions especially where Jupiter-Pluto vs. Saturn cross angles.

Canlunar (May 26)
The Canlunar covers May 26 to June 2. Competing symbols appear in this chart. Moon continues to aspect Pluto and Jupiter closely, keeping focus on recovery, healing, and strong economic incentives. The story of the week, though, seems centered on Uranus square Midheaven (0°12') and Saturn square Ascendant (0°46').

Social isolation continues, recommended or enforced restrictions continue, and, with the Memorial Day weekend and warming weather, people are increasingly anxious for the restrictions to be over and to break out. The usual Saturn vs. Uranus tensions of independence vs. restriction or freedom vs. safety thrive, political gridlock reasserts itself, the stock market seems suddenly insecure, and we encounter surprise losses, economic constriction, collapsing frameworks, and inescapable harsh realities. In Washington, Sun square Mars exists only mundanely, making it unique to the area, emphasizing a tone of competition and, frankly, just being fed up.

This is the roughest week of the month.

• 5/27: CanQ IC = Cansolar Moon, sq. Cansolar Uranus (Moon-Uranus).
• 5/28: CanQ Asc sq. T Saturn.
• 5/29: CanQ MC sq. T Uranus.
• 5/30: CapQ Dsc = Capsolar Neptune, sq. T Venus (Venus-Neptune).
• 5/31: CanQ MC = Cansolar Mars.
• 5/31-6/1: CapQ MC = t Venus, sq. Capsolar Neptune (Venus-Neptune).

Mercury culminates through Santa Barbara and due north through the central part of West Coast states, from which nationally important information will emerge. Moon, Jupiter, and Pluto are angular from Louisiana-Mississippi due north through Illinois and Wisconsin, with New Orleans, Jackson, and Memphis being hit emotionally hardest, while Chicago and Milwaukee have more of Jupiter's advantage. See the maps for a full picture, especially Saturn square Ascendant through Florida and up the eastern states.

Liblunar (Jun 2)
The Liblunar covers the four weeks June 2-29 until the next Liblunar, due to three intervening dormant ingresses. This makes it one of the most important ingresses of the year. While continuing the trend of close Moon aspects with Pluto (0°21') and Jupiter (1°40') - with Saturn no longer in the mix - the loudest focus is on Uranus, especially the Moon-Uranus aspect.

Uranus rises (1°12'), Moon sets (2°03'), they are opposite in mundo within about 3°, their midpoint 0°26' from the horizon. Moon-Uranus is the premier aspect for these four weeks.

Therefore, this is the month that everything changes. Let nothing surprise you because everything is likely to surprise you, even in the always-surprising conditions to which we have become accustomed. Moon-Uranus especially means adaptation and reorientation to shifting circumstances. Expect new conditions and rapid new responses. The phrase "new normal" will be commonplace. Many of our most routine, familiar behaviors will be redesigned for the duration (aside from the new, strategic uses of technology, which, by then, may already have become old and familiar). The Liblunar is consistent with civil instability and demands for freedom, social change, and populist arousal, though I think people mostly will have other things on their mind.

June is the month the nation gets back to work, back to the office, back to more of our ordinary activities - at least, for the duration of the summer. October's Libsolar will bring a more dangerous reality; August has several deadly indications; but for June and July, the country pursues a sense of normalcy despite knowing that there are still snakes in the tall grass.

• 6/6: CapQ MC sq. T Neptune.
• 6/7: CapQ WP = T Neptune.
• 6/8: CanQ Asc sq. Cansolar Mars.

Southern California, western Nevada, and eastern Washington-Oregon are straddled by Sun and Venus lines, so expect that summer is finally here in the costal West in all of its forms. (That also means fire season, with Mars square MC near Los Angeles and due north.) Mars and Neptune are more worrisome through New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming (Arizona, Utah, and western Wyoming have it much better). Saturn culminates through Puerto Rico. Unseasonal and unusual weather spreads through the Midwest where, with Jupiter-Pluto, an economic breaking point may be reached in the farm belt.

PROGRESSIONS & DIRECTIONS
Long-running progressions continue: p Mars sex. r Pluto & p Mars ssq. r Mars (contentious); p Sun-Venus ssq. (celebrity); and p Mercury sex. r Jupiter and r Uranus (surprising luck and success in business and cutting deals).

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. Directed Ascendant sq. r Pluto, separating 36', has probably indicted his confrontation with the pandemic.

SIDEREAL LUNAR RETURN (May 9)
Donald Trump lives this month in a fairy tale, a world of fantasy. Were he musically inclined, he likely would be fiddling. Presuming he spends his SLR date in Washington, he has little rational connection to reality. I doubt he has taken leave of his senses, but he likely has ducked off to what British soldiers used to call "French leave."

No transiting planets are foreground. However, his natal Mercury-Neptune square is foreground with natal Neptune 2° from Ascendant. Under this placement, one's attention tends to be absorbed by an idle departure from where one's responsibilities lie. Furthermore, transiting Moon, Venus, and Neptune have a very precise (though background) mundane T-square. (See the illustration above.) This enhances the theory that he's holing up in Wonderland. Transits of Jupiter opposite natal Venus (26') and Venus opposite natal Moon (37') enhance this theory.

Yet truly serious, hurtful conditions exist around him. Transiting Pluto opposes his Saturn (0°06'), known for breaking up stability, and transiting Mars opposes his natal Mars (0°05'). These (both exact nearly to the minute) portray worrisome, threatening "red alert" conditions just outside his holodeck doors.

SIDEREAL DEMI-LUNAR RETURN (May 24)
His fiddling fantasy is interrupted by the nation's hardest week of the month. Uranus rises for surprising, swiftly changing circumstances. With it, the one important foreground aspect is transiting Pluto opposite natal Saturn, a mere 0°03' wide. This climaxing transit is destabilizing, even dismantling.

Pluto-Saturn describes the current world crisis President Trump faces plus matching personal consequences. Despite amelioration from a less-angular Jupiter-Venus transit, Pluto-Saturn is a hard blow, isolating and alienating. Old, reliable structures crack, longstanding certainties are challenged, and security is threatened. He surely feels as if the weight of the world is on his shoulders.

Possibly he deals with the crisis head-on, with bold action, though other aspects suggest avoidance: Besides Jupiter opposite his natal Venus (0°19), transiting Neptune squares natal Mercury (0°55' in mundo).

SIDEREAL LUNAR RETURN (Jun 6)
Natal Neptune is the most angular planet, 0°30' from Descendant. A partile Mars-Neptune conjunction transits just above Ascendant. Transiting Mercury is half a degree from natal Mercury, both of them square his Neptune. Exactly angular Mercury-Mercury-Neptune, exact Mars-Neptune, and a little natal Jupiter: That's the new month in a nutshell.

This is an unpleasant and likely irrational month. Mars-Neptune is threatening, even intimidating. Mercury-Neptune is distorting. Mercury-Mercury, in this double-Neptune context, leans to the hyper-rational, abusing facts and words against the interests of truth.

Mars conjunct Neptune foreground is toxic, either to the body or psyche. It magnifies emotions, is anxious, fearful, anticipating danger or misfortune, stoking the perception of threat. Feeling vulnerable to abuse, attack, and betrayal, one's soft spots are exposed, any neurotic tendencies amplified. Enthusiastic surrender to temptation has fiercer consequences than usual.

The various forms of Mercury-Neptune signal confusion, disorientation, and bad choices. Deception, fanciful thinking, and impracticality frustrate his plans. He is vulnerable to being deceived and certainly willing to mislead others. Promises now made are unreliable (at best). With natal Neptune exactly angular, he is absorbed in a point of view and committed to preserving his adopted reality against all assaults.

With these strongest factors, it isn't clear what natal Jupiter, 6° above Descendant, has to offer. Usually, it means that one's self-esteem and confidence are high, that one feels lucky. I don't see that this is a good trait in the context painted by the stronger factors: It suggests he is confident and self-satisfied even though he is wrong.

Pluto still opposes his Saturn (0°15'). Transiting Jupiter opposes his Venus (0°20') but transiting Venus squares Saturn (0°58' in mundo). These are background aspects that show something of the context in which he is operating even if they do not describe the the primary influences of the month.

Jim Eshelman wrote: Thu Nov 21, 2019 7:47 pm Most of the month centers on Jupiter; some of it adds Mars. The period is primarily healing, recovering, and expanding. The Bridge zones are: May 12-24 Jupiter...

• Jupiter conjoins Capsolar MC all month (exact May 20) and is emphasized worldwide in every lunar ingress this month. In the U.S., expect stimulus programs to continue and expand amid efforts to get stalled economies "open for business" as soon as feasible.

This remains on target. Friday, an established pharmaceutical company announced an outright cure and preventive medicine for COVID-19 and, in response, the stock market opened today with the DJIA 650 up and maybe making 1,000 up before the day is over.

Jim wrote:

This remains on target.

Indeed! We Sidereal Mundane Astrologers are witnessing t. Jupiter, Big Time, manifesting throughout much of the Nation with t. Jupiter ON 2020 Capsolar MC.

As often happens, I missed the exact events but caught the energy right. This morning, Trump announced he is withdrawing the country from a third major arms control accord, probably a step toward withdrawing from the 30-year-old Open Skies Treaty with Russia. This matches the Mars rising tone (and, I'd say, the Mercury-Mars).

Mars has also been on quotidian angles for DC the last few days - since May 17, about (peaking Tuesday), with another Mars coming into orb today. I reproduce this week's quotidian crossings below. (Tomorrow's Cansolar crossings are complex, but feel like a side-issue, a secondary story, not the same stream.)

Jim Eshelman wrote: Thu Nov 21, 2019 7:47 pm Caplunar (May 12)
The Caplunar covers... May 12-26. Mars rises. This will be a contentious, aggressive, combative month... With Mars closely angular, we expect all of this plus a raft of other (generally hurtful) things such as fires, violence, and general damage... As Mars squares a non-foreground Mercury, much of the aggression will be with words but with an improved chance of tactical and strategic planning in meeting the current crisis...

• 5/19: CapQ Asc sq. Capsolar Mars.
• 5/19: CanQ Asc sq. T Pluto & Cansolar Sun (Pluto-Sun).
• 5/22: CanQ Asc sq. T Jupiter. CanQ IC = T Saturn. CanQ WP = Cansolar Uranus.
• 5/23: CapQ = Capsolar Mars.
• 5/24: CanQ WP = T Uranus.

For the outrage that broke loose in Minneapolis over the last 48 hours concerning George Floyd's death in police custody, do not miss the astro-map for the Caplunar! I give the angularities below (mundoscope positions for Minneapolis, centered on the "public moving en masse" exactly angular Moon) but the map says it quite well by itself.

28°19' (12th) - Pluto
28°56' (12th) - Jupiter
29°47' (12th) - Moon
1°31' (1st) - Saturn

Jim Eshelman wrote: Thu Nov 21, 2019 7:48 pm

SIDEREAL DEMI-LUNAR RETURN (May 24)20200524 Trump DSLR.jpg
His fiddling fantasy is interrupted by the nation's hardest week of the month. Uranus rises for surprising, swiftly changing circumstances. With it, the one important foreground aspect is transiting Pluto opposite natal Saturn, a mere 0°03' wide. This climaxing transit is destabilizing, even dismantling.

Pluto-Saturn describes the current world crisis President Trump faces plus matching personal consequences. Despite amelioration from a less-angular Jupiter-Venus transit, Pluto-Saturn is a hard blow, isolating and alienating. Old, reliable structures crack, longstanding certainties are challenged, and security is threatened. He surely feels as if the weight of the world is on his shoulders.

Possibly he deals with the crisis head-on, with bold action, though other aspects suggest avoidance: Besides Jupiter opposite his natal Venus (0°19), transiting Neptune squares natal Mercury (0°55' in mundo).

... security threatened and certainties challenged for sure:

"- 05/31/20 09:06 PM EDT
President Trump was moved to the White House's underground bunker Friday evening as protesters clashed with police and Secret Service agents outside, according to multiple reports"

https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ts-reports

Jim Eshelman wrote: Thu Nov 21, 2019 7:48 pm
SIDEREAL LUNAR RETURN (Jun 6)
Natal Neptune is the most angular planet, 0°30' from Descendant. A partile Mars-Neptune conjunction transits just above Ascendant. Transiting Mercury is half a degree from natal Mercury, both of them square his Neptune. Exactly angular Mercury-Mercury-Neptune, exact Mars-Neptune, and a little natal Jupiter: That's the new month in a nutshell.

This is an unpleasant and likely irrational month. Mars-Neptune is threatening, even intimidating. Mercury-Neptune is distorting. Mercury-Mercury, in this double-Neptune context, leans to the hyper-rational, abusing facts and words against the interests of truth.

Mars conjunct Neptune foreground is toxic, either to the body or psyche. It magnifies emotions, is anxious, fearful, anticipating danger or misfortune, stoking the perception of threat. Feeling vulnerable to abuse, attack, and betrayal, one's soft spots are exposed, any neurotic tendencies amplified. Enthusiastic surrender to temptation has fiercer consequences than usual.

The various forms of Mercury-Neptune signal confusion, disorientation, and bad choices. Deception, fanciful thinking, and impracticality frustrate his plans. He is vulnerable to being deceived and certainly willing to mislead others. Promises now made are unreliable (at best). With natal Neptune exactly angular, he is absorbed in a point of view and committed to preserving his adopted reality against all assaults.

With these strongest factors, it isn't clear what natal Jupiter, 6° above Descendant, has to offer. Usually, it means that one's self-esteem and confidence are high, that one feels lucky. I don't see that this is a good trait in the context painted by the stronger factors: It suggests he is confident and self-satisfied even though he is wrong.

Pluto still opposes his Saturn (0°15'). Transiting Jupiter opposes his Venus (0°20') but transiting Venus squares Saturn (0°58' in mundo). These are background aspects that show something of the context in which he is operating even if they do not describe the the primary influences of the month.

Jim, I heard from a trusted source (who's also a forum member here, so can maybe hop in with more details ) that Trump will be in Morristown and Bedminster, NJ this weekend.

The Bedminster chart puts t Mars-Neptune a bit further away from angles, and t Mercury is closest, 6*13' from IC.
Natal planets, in order of orb:
Neptune on DC 38' (sq MC in RA)
Jupiter on DC 3*42'
Me on IC 7*26'

I didn't check Morristown, I believe it's near by?

Yes, Trump is expected to be at his golf course in Bedminister, NJ on June 6:

https://www.nj.com/politics/2020/06/tru ... itual.html

He will likely fly in on Friday night. I live right near the airport (unfortunately) and they usually fly him in during the wee hours of the morning. The airport and Bedminister are about 30 minutes away from each other. I'll try to confirm more if I can find any other info.

Thanks. Please help me track where he is Saturday, June 6, at 2:28 AM. (For example, he may not leave Friday night.)

After it has occurred, if he wasn't in Washington I'll post a revised interpretation.

Notice that for Bedminster, the single strongest thing in the SLR for Washington is still the single strongest thing: Natal Neptune squares MC 0°03'. (Transiting Mars-Neptune no longer count. I swear he has a Sidereal astrologer on his staff and doesn't know it!)

Transiting Mercury is 2°54' before IC, natal Jupiter is 3°43' before Dsc, natal Mercury is 7°26' before IC. Natal Neptune is the most angular planet, transiting Mercury square natal Jupiter (partile in mundo) is the main aspect.

Trump's posted schedule for today lists one event, a noon briefing at the White House. Therefore, he was still in Washington at 2:28 AM when his new SLR began, even if he left later.

Not bragging, but citing Sidereal astrology's value: I think the interpretations of Trump's SLR and Demi-SLR for the time just finished captures exactly the tone of his response (psychological melt down and increasing withdrawal behind layers of increasing security) to the George Floyd events.

Jim Eshelman wrote: Thu Nov 21, 2019 7:48 pm SIDEREAL LUNAR RETURN (May 9)
Donald Trump lives this month in a fairy tale, a world of fantasy. Were he musically inclined, he likely would be fiddling. ...he has little rational connection to reality...

...[Under such a chart] one's attention tends to be absorbed by an idle departure from where one's responsibilities lie. ...This enhances the theory that he's holing up in Wonderland... Yet truly serious, hurtful conditions exist around him... breaking up stability... worrisome, threatening "red alert" conditions just outside his holodeck doors.

SIDEREAL DEMI-LUNAR RETURN (May 24)
His fiddling fantasy is interrupted by the nation's hardest week of the month... surprising, swiftly changing circumstances.... transiting Pluto opposite natal Saturn,... is destabilizing, even dismantling... Pluto-Saturn is a hard blow, isolating and alienating. Old, reliable structures crack, longstanding certainties are challenged, and security is threatened...