Has the recent future ever been as uncertain as it is now? How could things have come so far, that every country in the world has gone through its own experience of pandemic lockdown, which has affected the lives of almost every individual on the planet? Governments have been put in the unenviable position of closing down the very engines of growth that they so depend on. Leaders have chosen to prioritize health over profit, even with a virus which is only mildly deadly – just deadly enough to overload hospital capacity. Those leaders who hesitated – Boris Johnson, Trump, Bolsonaro – not only saw dreadful spikes in mortality amongst the population, they also contracted the virus themselves.
So many things in society have been changed forever. Some people have discovered that they can work efficiently at home. Cities have emptied. Vast office space lies dormant. Essential workers have taken heroic roles. People have isolated. People have connected. Saturn in Aquarius shows social distancing. Jupiter in Aquarius brings hope through science and vaccines. People are struggling to survive. Vast sums of cash are being distributed.
Social Unrest
What is happening now, is a landslide. The tectonic plates are grinding against each other as the 3-stage Saturn/Uranus square kicks in here in 2021. It’s a social and economic reconstruction process, a revolution. In Russia, Myanmar, Hong Kong, the USA, India, Thailand, Nigeria – and many other countries – people have taken to the streets in protest. These protests are slowly coming to the boil and when Pluto enters Aquarius in January 2024, even greater upheavals will take place.
On February 7th 2021, part of a glacier broke off in the Himalayas, causing a torrent that buried two power plants and swept away villages killing several hundred people. This was when Saturn at 6 Aquarius was making its first square to Uranus at 6 Taurus. Climate change has accelerated the melting of Himalayan glaciers, and 2021 will bring a heightened awareness of sudden movements of earth and ice – landslides – as the Taurus-Aquarian fixed signs get activated by the Saturn-Uranus square, which takes place every 45 years.
But these sudden shifts are affecting all structures that – since the Saturn/Uranus conjunction of 1988, which started the current cycle – are reaching the end of their allotted time. (Readers may recall that 1988 was the year when US president Reagan and Russian president Gorbachev met in Iceland which was the beginning of the end of the Cold War.)
Republicans Post Trump
February 9th 2021 saw the beginning of the second impeachment trial of USA’s ex-president Donald Trump, and this in itself represents a landslide. Not the landslide that Trump claimed to the mob who stormed Congress on January 6th: “We won. We won in a landslide. This was a landslide.” No. The landslide will be the deconstruction of the Republican Party over the next four years. (Note 1)
There are several key dates for the formation of the Republican Party, which at the time was a progressive anti-slavery party which Abraham Lincoln was to lead. (Note 2)
The Republican Party. 20th March 1854, 18.30, Ripon. WI. AS 4.23 LI
In the 1850’s America was polarized between an industrialized North and a pro-slavery South. This polarization can be seen in the Mars-Venus opposition in the Republican chart square Saturn. Venus is just turning stationary direct opposing retrograde Mars, with both precisely activated by Pluto. It’s a potent and unique moment – a time of turmoil in America, with Southern states constantly threatening to secede from the Union. This period of upheaval is probably reflected by the massive conjunction of Pluto, Saturn and Uranus in Taurus a couple of years before the formation of the Republican Party. The whole economy of the South was based on over three million slaves shipped from African toiling in plantations. Clearly Uranus, Pluto and Saturn in Taurus indicated the potential destruction of the South’s economic model because of the anti-slavery movement.
The Uranus and Neptune Returns
Another significant placement in this horoscope is Uranus at 10 degrees Taurus which transiting Uranus returns to for the second time in 2020 and 2021. This reflects the disruption taking place in the Republican Party with Trump’s impeachments, the reluctance of Republicans to censure Trump, and a party at odds with itself.
This is the second Uranus return since the formation of the party. The first was in 1938, when the Republics roared back in mid-term elections after many years of losses. It is possible that this second Uranus return can lead to a reinvention and reinvigoration of the party, but if so, it is unlikely that Trump Republicans who will define this resurgence. Trump himself is destined to further disgrace, as transit Pluto opposes his Venus in Cancer – those tax returns will get dredged up – and as Neptune squares his Sun and Moon – dissolution of power and influence and undermining of the 500 business entities constituting the Trump Organization.
When Uranus makes two returns, Neptune with its 165-year cycle has just made one. When Trump became president, there was a Neptune return in the Republican chart, which suggests that his influence coincided with a dissolution of Republican values. The moon in the Republican chart and Trump’s (eclipsed) moon are less than one degree apart at 20 and 21 degrees Sagittarius respectively – which is where the December 14th solar eclipse took place. A possible interpretation is that both Trump and the Republican Party are eclipsed at the same time.
On the Losing Side
In the years since the Republican Party was formed, Saturn has progressed into Gemini and about the time of the Obama presidency it moved to square Neptune. It’s a long term aspect, but at the 2024 election, the progressed Sun is at 14 Virgo with Neptune at 14 Pisces and progressed Saturn at 15 Gemini.
That is not a winner combination – at least not for Republican values. Saturn-Neptune combinations are related to socialism and idealistic politics. As a matter of interest, when Obama was elected, the progressed Sun of the Democratic Party (Note 3) was exactly on the Saturn and opposed Neptune in its foundation horoscope. So it was not a loser signature – not at least when there is a Black candidate with socialist tendencies.
Probably the Sun’s progression opposite Neptune make it unlikely that the Republicans will have a credible candidate who can win the 2024 election. Rather it suggests a period of decline and confusion which could take some time to recover from, and that is the legacy of Donald Trump and the seduction of populism, which has undermined the traditional values of the Republican Party.
Disruption and Change: 2021-2022
The three Saturn-Uranus conjunctions take place on February 17th, June 14th and December 24th 2021 at 7, 13, and 11 degrees Aquarius-Taurus respectively. In October 2022 there is a close pass at about 18 degrees. Therefore the main structural upheavals will be in 2021 with aftershocks, as it were, in the autumn of 2022. This relates to the process of economic redistribution that Biden and Democrats have to initiate to avoid vast unemployment and economic collapse.
In terms of the pandemic, astrologer Steven Forrest related this to the extremely rare square aspect between Eris (which is a recently discovered planet beyond Pluto’s orbit) and Pluto. The accompanying graph does show a strong correlation between these two planets and the pandemic, starting in 2020 and stretching into the autumn of 2021. As this square takes place at about 24 Aries-Capricorn, it profoundly activates the US Mercury at 24 Cancer. This too is the position of Trump’s Saturn.
USA’s Pluto Return
Probably this also accounts for the extraordinary proliferation of disinformation in the USA, most of it originating in the mendacious mind of Trump, which oppressed communication in the USA during the course of his presidency. The USA has Pluto in the 2nd house opposition Mercury in the 8th house, which shows secrets and corruption both real and imagined. (Note 4) It is fertile ground for fantasies like Pizzagate – the theory that Democrats and particularly Hillary Clinton are part of a shady group of pedophiles ruling as part of the Deep State. Transit Pluto dredges up these virulent theories, and as Pluto is poised to make its first return to The USA’s foundation chart at 27.32 Capricorn, all sorts of strange creatures start crawling out of the woodwork. The latent obsessions and anxieties of the people are exposed.
The return of Pluto to its original position takes place over the course of 2022, and will probably bring a radical upheaval, as secrets are exposed, and things long kept under the surface see the light of day. As Pluto in the 2nd house represents economic power in the hands of a plutocracy, it is very likely that large corporations – particularly the big five tech giants (Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and Google) will be the subject of anti-trust suits, which by 2024-2025 will lead to a breakup of some of these monolithic corporations. As Trump’s Saturn and Venus lie right in the line of fire of the US Pluto-Mercury opposition, he will be removed as a power factor in US politics.
How big the restructuring of the USA will be remains to be seen, but restructuring is the mission forced on the Biden administration by the pandemic and its consequences. As a new era began with the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction at 0 Aquarius at the end of last year, there is no going back to the past. Social ideals will battle with massive economic change to create new conditions for America. As Jupiter enters Pisces this year, then conjoins Neptune in April 2022 (in exact opposition to US Neptune) – idealism will prevail, and mistakes will be made. For eco-warriors fighting climate change, these will be golden days.
Adrian Duncan
February 17th, 2021
1. Biden won with 306 electoral votes, to Trump’s 232. Biden won the popular vote by about 7 million. Compared to other recent elections, this was a sizeable win for Biden.
2. Astrologers have used different charts for the Republican Party, but the predominant one, registered in Wikipedia. Is March 20th 1854.
3. The Democratic Party was founded on January 8th 1828. There is an alternative horoscope for February 17th 1801, which resonates rather well with Biden’s chart.
4. The Sibley chart for the USA is July 4th, 1776. 17.11 Philadelphia AS 12.21. SG