The art of electing a time to do anything is the most challenging task for any astrologer. Over the centuries rules have been written down, but times change, new planets are discovered, and no astrological configuration precisely repeats itself, making these rules limited in value. For many dedicated astrologers today – especially those interested in horary – planning actions according to chosen horoscopes becomes second nature. In this way it is possible to use daily life as a great teacher, and every day brings successes and failures which can be learned from.
Organising through Astrology
When there is any meeting of importance, an elected horoscope is a useful tool. There are those who may say that life should not be ruled by astrological beliefs, but if horoscopes are used in the spirit of investigation rather than fear, then there are advantages to be gained. For many people, visiting the bank manager, or other authorities in society, can be a worrying experience. In this case the most important astrological configuration is to have the 1st and 7th house rulers in good aspect to each other. They have to relate, and relate well. If you are asking for money, it’s good to have the 8th house ruler making a good aspect to the 1st house ruler too. These aspect must of course be applying. Aspects that have taken place show events from the past, and aspects that have not yet taken place show events that will take place in the future.
Getting the Atmosphere
The moon also plays a crucial role, and apart from harmony between the Ascendant ruler and the desired house ruler, the Moon must also be triggering something good, if you want something good to happen. Once I casually wandered into my bank with Moon square Pluto and caught the female manager on a bad hair day. It took six months for me to repair the damage done that day. Another time I had a meeting with the tax authorities when the Moon was triggering a square between Saturn in Sagittarius and Jupiter in Pisces. They found an error in my figures, and I was presented with an enormous bill. Fortunately the Moon was void of course at the time, and I extricated myself from the situation. If you don’t want something to happen, then it’s good if the Moon is void. When property is concerned, the state of the Moon completely describes the property. If you visit a house with Moon in Taurus, it is going to be great quality, but expensive. If you visit a house with Moon in Scorpio, it will be a wreck and need restoration work. In this period (around 2001) the Moon in Scorpio squares Neptune, and there will be damp problems. When the Moon goes on to square Uranus in Aquarius, there will be disastrous news, like a planned motorway going through the house. It is almost never worth buying property viewed when the Moon is in Scorpio.
A Chart that fits
Basically doing elections just require a very good knowledge of astrology, and common sense. If you are planning something, then the chart should really reflect it. It’s no use planning a hot-air balloon expedition with an Ascendant ruler Saturn in Taurus. (You’d never get off the ground). Or a new building business with Moon/Venus in Gemini square Saturn in Pisces. (Castles in the air, creditors on the ground.) For the elected chart to be meaningful it should also make strong contacts to your birth chart, and preferably to relevant planets. If you are marrying, then make sure the chart harmoniously activates your 7th house ruler, or Venus.
An Election in Denmark
For Governments, it’s a different story. Every few years democracies must actually call an election, and great agonising is done by the ministers concerned to maximise their chances of re-election. In places like the USA the day is fixed, removing the unlikely chance of the president manipulating the day astrologically. This is however not the case in European democracies, who can call an election at any time during their rule. Denmark is a case in point. The Social Democratic government of Paul Nyrup Rasmussen had had a great run of 8 years, and things were going well for them when they – early in November – called an election for the 20th November 2001. I immediately knew they would lose the election, and for a number of reasons. I had already pinpointed the period around the 20th November as an extremely dangerous time, because Mars in Aquarius was approaching Uranus, and was triggered by a square from Venus in Scorpio on the 23rd. Squares from Scorpio to Aquarius tend to be traumatic, and with Venus in exile in Scorpio, she would suffer from brutal treatment from Mars.
Aquarius in Politics
Many people see the sign of Aquarius as an enlightened and humanitarian, and it can be, but is also far more connected with the right-wing than the left. Mars in Aquarius is especially extreme, mostly to the Right, so the Mars/Uranus conjunction was undoubtedly going to show a dramatic swing in this direction. The split between left and right in democracies tends to be almost exactly 50/50 … it’s the whole principle of democracy. Aquarius shows a spirit in people which hates government interference. No-one is going to tell an Aquarian which school their kinds should go to, or which hospital. Venus or Moon in Aquarius might just lean towards socialism because of caring idealism, but Mars will certainly not. On the other hand, planets in Pisces are generally very socialistic in spirit. They ask why should the elite prosper, when there are so many others in need. Indian astrologers often take a different approach, associating Saturn with Socialism, and Jupiter (free enterprise) with Conservatism. This is however modified by sign position. Jupiter in Pisces inclines towards socialism, for example.
The Election Chart
When watching an election astrologically I prefer the dynamic approach. What is the chart for the start, what is the chart for the close… and how have the planets moved in the meantime. The first rule Paul Nyrup Rasmussen the sitting Prime Minister broke was holding an election just before the Sun changes sign. Generally the Prime Minister will have an affinity with the Sun, and if it changes sign, then there is a likelihood that the country changes Prime Minister. With the Sun at 28 Scorpio at election start, there is a picture of a man exhausted by the task and soon to be replaced. Being in the 12th house does not help. Ideally an election should be called with the Sun strong and getting stronger, and at a time of the year when it will be in the 11th house if possible.
The Moon in Elections
Neither is it a very good idea to have the Moon changing sign during the course of the election, if you want to hang on to your job. This shows a swing in the population from one feeling to another. With the Moon changing from Capricorn to Aquarius, the people wanted to exchange depression for experimentation. Those boring old socialists needed to be replaced by a completely new government promising a new atmosphere of change. The government that won most votes – Venstre – were more successful than they had been for 80 years. For them it was a revolution, and as the results came in they celebrated in style on an old passenger liner in Copenhagen harbour. Actually, just knowing that the Venstre party had planned to sit out the election on a ship was an astrological clue. With the horoscope for the close of polls showing the Moon entering Aquarius and conjoining Neptune, it was clear that the winner should be on the sea. Taking the symbolism even further, the prediction is that this government will be at sea , and that they will be mired in problems and misunderstandings that will undermine their ability to actually get anything done.
The Ascendancy of the Extreme Right
The particular dilemma of the new Prime Minister – another Rasmussen by the name of Anders Fogh Rasmussen – is that he needs an extreme right wing partner, the Danish People’s party, to get his policies enacted. Predictably, this party – whose acclaimed policies are to keep Denmark pure and untainted by especially Muslims – struck a chord in the hearts of supposedly enlightened Danes, who bought the idea that a Denmark without foreigners would be a nice place to live. Which means meatballs instead of shawarmas, and wrinkled vegetables in supermarkets.
Parliamentary Signatures
It is generally possible to identify each individual party in an election horoscope by an astrological signature. The extraordinary expansion of the Danish People’s party – about 20% of the population voted for it – is shown by the Mars/Uranus in Aquarius. With Mars approaching Uranus, we can expect to see this party going to truly unusual extremes, and creating a very unstable element in the government. It shows a wildly unpredictable party which will probably ultimately bring the new government down. The planets in Scorpio show the socialist forces arrayed against the conservative forces. The leader of the Social Democrats – Poul Nyrup Rasmussen – is the fading Sun. Next to him is Mercury, possibly the leader of the Social People’s party Holger K Nielsen, who had worked closely with the Rasmussen. I had the great honour of sitting next to him in the steam bath at Frederiksberg swimming pool on the very day of the election. (Such is the relaxed nature of the Danish political scene. Politicians are just people). Without his glasses he felt his way around, seemingly resigned to the steamy soup of his own fate, with the polls showing serious losses.
Mercury and Mars and poor Venus
Mercury may also have represented another government alliance party – the Radicals – under the leadership of the plain speaking Marianne Jelved. Certainly Mercury square Mars would indicate the rather fiery dragon she sometimes can be. Next to Mercury was that other faithful supporter of the Social Democrat government, the Central Democratic leader, Mimi Stilling Jacobsen, who was Venus. And what a disaster it was for her and her party, who lost all their seats in Parliament. It’s not good to be Venus, when you are in Scorpio. Jupiter is probably also the actual Conservative party. Its position in Cancer shows their traditional values. For the first time for many years they won fewer seats than Venstre, and now have to face the ignominy of seeing the right wing People’s party have more seats than themselves. Maybe the Jupiter/Venus trine shows the Christian Democrats shifting there loyalty to the Conservatives now.
The Predictive Method
So this is one method for working out the results of elections. Instead of sticking to a set of rules regarding Ascendant and Midheaven rulers, and whether they represent to government, opposition and their respective leaders, the astrology student can actually identify the main actors and what they are doing, by associating them with planets. Traditional rules simply do not work in this case, for the ruler of the Ascendant (Jupiter) is exalted, whilst the ruler of the Descendant, traditionally the Opposition, is not particularly strong, and more to the point, Saturn is retrograde conjoining the Descendant – hardly a good sign for the opposing coalition of right wing parties. The horoscope for the close of polls is favourable for the Opposition, though, because the Ascendant ruler has moved into the 7th house, showing the people throwing their support behind the Opposition.
Horoscopes for Leader
See chart of Anders F. Rasmussen
Generally it is a risky business trying to predict an election result from the poll horoscopes. It is also a good idea to look at the charts for the protagonists. Looking at the horoscope for the winner, Anders Fogh Rasmussen (Venstre), it can be immediately seen that he has a classic “conservative” horoscope, with his Sun in Aquarius squaring Jupiter on the Descendant in Taurus. This shows a concern about state control of personal resources, and early on his career he wrote a book about the “minimalist” state, because he is completely convinced that people and businesses function best without interference. With Neptune transiting this Sun/Jupiter square until 2003, his theories will be put to the test. The affect on his Jupiter in Taurus could be similar to the Dot Com bubble of May 2000. Many of his financial ideals will pop, but in the early euphoria, a lot of yuppies will make a lot of money.
Time and Place
Happily for Fogh Rasmussen, his opponent called the election when there was a stellium in Scorpio square a stellium in Aquarius, and this clearly favoured his own Scorpio rising and Aquarius sun. Indeed the close of poll Moon was only one degree from his own Sun. And Jupiter was exactly on his Uranus. As an astrologer one can only throw one’s hands up in the air at the bad astrological planning of the Social Democrats!
Downfall
It may be some consolation for the fallen government that the new Venstre government will run into serious problems. With their leader’s progressed Mercury retrograding into 29.59 Pisces as he takes the reins of power, he is going to get very confused. As he strives to master the details of a move towards the right, he will become overwhelmed by his own idealism and perfectionism, symbolised by his ruler Mars in Pisces, conjoining Venus and squaring the Moon in the 8th. Apart from a series of financial scandals evoked by the Neptune transit (watch his finance minister!), the eclipse cycle of 2002 will join the Saturn/Pluto opposition to throw his government in crisis already by June 2002. It’s his desire to handle all the details himself that will be his downfall. Saturn will fire the warning shots as it conjoins his Moon next July, then Pluto will finish things off by the end of 2004. One can theorise a lot about what the Mars/Venus conjunction means in Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s horoscope – and in many ways it shows a soft, idealistic and, dare it be said, socialistic side – but whatever secrets he may have are sure to surface at this time. He is almost certainly a man with the very best of intentions, but some of these intentions will be identified as weaknesses. It will be difficult for him to take the pressure in 2004. Assuming private matters do not threaten his position, then problems could arise with accounting details or something connected with housing policy. The Pisces influence in the 4th is a reminder of his penchant for water events – he was acclaimed leader on the passenger liner Sjælland . With a new policy to create a houseboat culture over the next few years in Copenhagen, perhaps his government will come unstuck because of a scandal or bad planning in this area?
Adrian Ross Duncan: December 2001