I'm working on my mundane forecasts for the month beginning June 12. You can find these in the usual place. However, in the "Trump Watch" section (the third page of the monthly mundane forecasts), I was rather startled at what I found, and what I felt I needed to say. Here is my first draft - I encourage anyone to help find flaws in this. - The obvious flaw is that, while perhaps the description is right, the scope and intensity are wrong - that's hard to judge. I have attempted to understate. (And, of course, my personal wishes regarding Trump are hardly secret. One must be a bit skeptical when one sees in a chart exactly what one want to see.)
So... here's the first draft. Let me know what you think. (It's for the period June 12 to July 9, the term of the upcoming Caplunar. You can read the mundane astrology background in the full thread in the mundane forecasts section.)
PROGRESSIONS
Pres. Trump's progressed aspects begin a significant shift this month. Long-term patterns are already fading, while others are rising to the fore; and one critical aspect takes the lead June 23 that pushes things in a new direction.
He's still riding the long wave of
progressed Sun conjunct natal Ascendant (expiring in August). Mars aspects to Mercury and Pluto persist. A slow Venus' conjunction with his Jupiter (now in orb, and peaking in mid-2018) is the only clear bright spot for him looking forward.
Of great concern for him is
progressed Saturn conjunct progressed MC, which peaks next January. Surely only the Sun-Ascendant progression is holding this at bay, and it can't do that much longer. The long-term picture for Pres. Trump professionally and politically is dire.
And that direness strikes hard this month. With progressed Saturn-MC already active, progressed Moon enters partile conjunction with his MC June 12, then begins to conjoin Saturn June 23. Just to stir uncertainty, progressed Moon starts to semi-square his Uranus June 27. Moon-MC is exact July 8, and Moon conjunct Saturn on July 19.
Moon-Saturn progressions are some of the roughest we endure, and Trump begins to endure this as transiting Saturn crosses Washington's Cansolar MC and malefic forces concentrate on Washington in general. (See especially the Liblunar week above.) Emotionally exhausting experiences (bringing sadness, depression, frustration, resignation, even illness) commonly involve great loss of dignity, enhanced feelings of inferiority and inadequacy. Nobody wants to be a "loser" or publically disgraced, but it would be unusually hard on this president's personality. Most neutrally we can say that his security needs are stronger during this time; more broadly, we can anticipate a distinct personal loss.
TRANSITS
PLUTO squares his JUPITER just as
SATURN opposes his SUN. The former (long in play) is in orb all month, and the latter until July 17. Pluto-Jupiter is exact June 26 and Saturn-Sun June 23, just as his progressed Moon-Saturn progression begins. Then
Saturn conjoins his Moon beginning July 3, overlapping the Moon-Saturn progressed conjunction described above - and with substantially the same meaning.
This will be one of the worst summers of Donald Trump's life.
Pluto-Jupiter lifts up and casts down, in both cases performing extremely and against the odds. It has lifted him to a pinnacle, and may continue to hold him there, though his risk is a Nixonesque hard casting down on the rocks, falling so close to the Saturn-Sun transit. As Donald Bradley wrote in 1948,
Donald A. Bradley wrote:Jupiter-Pluto. No flights of the imagination are allowed by this planetary combination, which is the harbinger of the end of the old and beginning of a new cycle in the native's relationship to his career, his financial status, and the outside world. (Cf. the speedy coronation of new kings.) It is the marker of crises which make or break the native's reputation, by forcing grave issues out into the light of day, for all to see and judge.
He has a possible brief reprieve beginning June 28 with
Jupiter semi-square his Mars. This often brings needed strength and improves one's ability to compete. I think it unlikely to overcome the other severe aspects, but it likely will help him endure what otherwise seems unendurable.
This leaves
URANUS square his VENUS, already in play and lasting until June 19. Last month I wrote that there seemed no way to know whether this would be primarily personal or political in its outcome,
i.e., whether it affects his closest personal relationships or the nation's foreign relations. The first clear effect included both, as his son-in-law and close advisor became heavily implicated in the Russia investigation. I still think other shoes will be dropping, and I hope the very best for his marriage in particular. For most people, this transit means sudden love, renewal and excitement in love and pleasure, flirtations, becoming more fun-loving and experimental, with new "zing" in an old relationship; and/or starting an electrical new one. These all carry some emotional tension, and maybe domestic rearrangement. However, this month, the focus is much more on foreign affairs (see the lunar ingresses above).
Key
MARS transits, of briefer duration, help identify key hotpots for his month. Some are quite acute this month. Their exact days are:
Mars sq. r Neptune June 14
Mars conj. r Mercury June 19
Mars ssq. r Mars June 23
Mars ssq. p Sun June 30
Mars sq. r Jupiter July 2
NEW SIDEREAL SOLAR RETURN (June 14)
Perhaps the most important feature of Donald Trump's new Sidereal Solar Return is that it terminates his 2016 SSR with Moon exactly conjunct his natal Jupiter. That ends.
In its place, he acquires a new annual chart that, by angularities, is tense and debilitating and, by aspects, is potentially devastating.
It's one shining positive feature is technically an experimental factor, something we have not had the opportunity to validate sufficiently: His 29°38' Virgo Ascendant is conjunct the fixed star Spica, long regarded as one of the most positive of stars - except, it is not at its most positive here, because the closest SSR angularity is natal Saturn square Ascendant (0°12') and square the rising Spica (0°44').
Historically, Spica has been associated with fame, a luxurious life-style, refinement, esteem, and alignment with the arts. From this description, I would give it a Venus-Jupiter character. Yet, while agreeing with all of these attributes, Reinhold Ebertin observed that Spica angular with malefic planets causes "a rise followed by a downfall with tragic ending."
Angularities in the SSR, besides the exact natal Saturn, include transiting Uranus (square MC 0°54'), natal Venus (< 2° from MC), and natal Jupiter (quite wide). Natal Saturn and transiting Uranus, both partile, give the sense of disruption and tension at best, and much personal unhappiness in most cases.
Where this SSR speaks most loudly, though, is in its aspects. It has three that I just discussed above, Pluto square his Jupiter (0°17'), Saturn opposite his Sun (0°38'), and Uranus square his Venus (1°20', immediate foreground). To this, add transiting Mars square his Neptune (0°07'). Look up each of these in turn. They speak of a very hard time, a downfall, personal loss, uprooting of security, and having every psychological vulnerability unearthed and penetrated.
The Mars-Neptune is the key aspect of presidential assassinations. However, it is quite background here. I do not expect this physical result. I do, however, expect attacks of comparable severity.
Other factors in the SSR are minor: Moon trines his Sun and sesqui-squares Mars, which really add nothing we don't already see in his temperament.
The angular Saturn, Uranus, and Venus, and these four transiting aspects speak most strongly about the year that begins June 14.
SIDEREAL LUNAR RETURN (June 9)
Trump's new lunar return, a few days before the new Caplunar, primarily gives highlights the Uranus-Venus transit described above - doubly, because its key features are a Uranus-Venus conjunction on Descendant and Uranus square natal Venus at MC. I will stand by what I wrote above on that aspect.
Despite this possibility for play there are severe luminary aspects lurking in the background. Moon and Saturn are conjunct in the immediate background, with Saturn just entering orb of opposition to his Sun. Though weakly placed, these are exact in the SLR and therefore have voice. It is underscored by natal Saturn closely square SLR Ascendant. Pluto squares his Jupiter (both foreground). We have seen all of this earlier: It is nearly identical with his new Solar Return. Something is about to happen that has the power to deeply wound him personally.
DEMI-SLR (June 23)
Exactly (to the day) as transits and progressions converge to show a powerful crisis, a Demi-Lunar occurs with Sun and Mercury both exactly rising (Sun within 0°05') and natal Sun widely foreground. No doubt, Trump's imperial, solar self will be the hub of events.
Saturn and Neptune are foreground, each 5-6° from angles (on opposite sides and not in aspect). These are debilitating. Were they in aspect, we would read them as suggesting abdication or removal. However, the real focus is on this Saturn conjunct Trump's Moon and opposite his Sun.
Saturn opposes his natal Sun within 0°00' with all three malefics foreground. It is hard to mistake this meaning. Remember that wall he wants to build? Well, under this aspect and these angularities, he gets his wall - and hits it hard. Person and position are assailed. Law prevails. He feels undervalued, underappreciated, discouraged, needing positive recognition and ego-reinforcement when the messages are all the opposite and ego-expression is blocked. Health is put at risk. Demands from the outside world increase in number and severity.
Pluto squares his Jupiter within 0°05'.
SIDEREAL LUNAR RETURN (July 6)
Just before the end of the astrological month, and in the midst of the worst mundane astrological pressures on Washington, Pres. Trump has a new Lunar Return that is far less dramatic, has a bit of kind relief, but still keeps up the pressure on him.
If, as I think is so, natal planet angularities are to be taken mundanely instead of ecliptically, then this is not a crisis-level chart. (If I'm wrong, then it is.) Natal Pluto is
ecliptically 0°19' from the horizon, but mundanely is so far away that it isn't foreground. I will interpret this as if natal Pluto is not foreground.
The strongest factor in the SLR is a partile Moon-Saturn conjunction. In simple terms, things are not going his way.
Moderately foreground, we find transiting Venus and Mercury each 4° from angles. This is the bit of kind relief of which I spoke. It gives a mild sense of peace, a few more kind words. In fact, people have kinder words for him than he has for them, since his Mars is widely (2°03') conjunct Westpoint.
Finally, Pluto is still partile square his Jupiter. The major transits are not letting up on their pressure.
Were we to follow the more house-driven approach of Fagan and Bradley's early years, we would read the 11th house Moon-Saturn conjunction as specifically meaning frustration of hopes and wishes, and perhaps abandonment by friends. I am most intrigued, though, by Bradley's statement in
Solar and Lunar Returns that an 11th house Moo "always seems to bring about a state of affairs where the native is required to commit himself, in promise, oath, or admission."
But that's what you get by mixing genethliacal with horary. Fagan warned against it many times, and Ken Irving once called it "optical hopscotch."