Strange (and Stranger) Days
It's mourning in America...
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ONE OF VOX’S SENIOR correspondents, Zack Beauchamp, wrote this morning:
The United States is an extraordinary country: the wealthiest and most powerful ever to exist in human history. But it is riven by what might be its greatest internal divisions since the Civil War. The gravity of that particular comparison should underscore both the dangers here and the uncertainty.
A gunman’s bullet has just sent the country hurtling into an abyss. The only question now is how far we fall.
Not to harp on a point that I’ve written about repeatedly for the past five years or so, viewed through an astrological lens, the United States is passing through the meat grinder of its Pluto return. In fact, we are experiencing the most heightened conditions of the 15-year transit while the planet hovers at the cusp, leading into Aquarius. Events like yesterday’s attempt on Donald Trump’s life are akin to fallout fragments of the Plutonic scramble—detritus, which is clattering about our collective mindset—looking for the exit sign.
In keeping with how unhinged the great divide is in our country now, some Republicans are blaming Joe Biden’s ‘rhetoric’ for yesterday’s assassination attempt. While some Democrats are claiming this was a staged event by Trump’s team to shift focus away from Biden, who, I guess, was hogging too much of the spotlight during the days after his disastrous debate performance.
Recently, astrologer Jessica Murray and I delved into the topic of what is essentially a national psychotic break during our analysis of Joe Biden’s natal horoscope and that of the United States. Referencing the US’s Pluto return—again—Murray added that the US’s natal chart is also currently experiencing a transiting Uranus square to the nation’s Moon in Aquarius. She explained:
“As if the US’s Pluto Return weren’t enough (systemic breakdown), Uranus, the ultimate destabilizer, is squaring the nation’s Moon (representing “The People”), exact in Aug/Sept of ’24. Uranus is the planet associated with democracy, a word/concept that is being incessantly evoked right now from all sides of the political spectrum. Though it looms large in the US birth chart, with a creative trine that has put American democracy on the world map, its current transit is fraught with anxiety. The People are undergoing shock therapy.”
Yesterday’s assassination attempt on Trump was another reminder of the volatility that is exponentially growing as we approach election day in November. As I wrote last week while considering the Mars/Uranus conjunction in Taurus (which aligns with the fixed star Algol):
Landing on Donald Trump’s chart’s midheaven, the conjunction acts as a sort of megavitamin fortifying Trump’s illusion/delusions of grandeur (midheaven). But because the conjunction will square, exactly, Trump’s Mars in Leo on his ascendant, we’re in for exaggerated acting-out to counteract the Algol/Mars/Uranus conjunction’s fallout…
An explosive conjunction like this landing on a chart’s midheaven while squaring Mars on the ascendant was a classic formula for violence. I made a guess that Trump’s reputation (midheaven) would be sullied by press leaks about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein while ignoring the exaggerated possibility of violence related to the Uranus-Mars conflation. Of course, amidst the blood and chaos, Trump found a way still to express his Martian clarion call of “Fight. Fight. Fight!” And this is exactly what the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, had presciently picked up on in the weeks leading up to his decision to make an attempt on Trump’s life.
After I’d made mention on social media about Crooks’ head being blown off by Secret Service agents—which is a recurrent theme (decapitation) around events related to the fixed star Algol—fellow astrologer Nick Dagan Best alerted me to the following. He wrote:
“Yes, the Trump shooting is signified by the Mars-Uranus conjunction on Algol (Trump’s MC), but the shooter himself was born at the strongest Mars-Uranus conjunction of this century, the summer of 2003’s very rare Mars retrograde conjunct Uranus in PIsces-Aquarius.”
It’s worth noting that Dagan Best has predicted the likelihood of Trump’s return to the White House in 2025, a topic we’ll discuss with him on the next Rage of Aquarius: The Outsider Astrology Podcast.
So violence is begetting violence which is begetting—well, who in the fuck knows what’s next. As Murray closed off our discussion about Biden and the US’s Pluto return the other day, she explained:
“I don’t, and can’t, do predictions beyond saying that this proves what we’ve been saying for decades about this phase of American history. The last swirls around the drain of the US Pluto return. Death throes are the most chaotic phase of any cycle: the most unpredictable.”
Love,
Opening collage by FW © 2024, based on: Die Toteninsel (The Dead Island), Arnold Böcklin c. 1883. Public domain.
⭐️ My new book, I Love You Jeffrey Dahmer arrives in July 2024! ⭐️
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"..who in the fuck knows what’s next." Indeed. But as to this singular event, the assassination attempt (I am tempted to call it the ass attempt but will refrain), we immediately began to see deep state conspiracy theories from both the left and the right. I naively thought this was the domain of the far right whackos and was saddened to see it from the opposite end of the political divide. As Miss Davis famously quipped, "Fasten your seatbelts; it's going to be a bumpy night."
So weird, I happen to look up Donald's chart and noticed that the waxing square of Mars and Uranus was in striking distance of manifestation and later that day there was an assassination attempt. Of course everyone is scrambling with all algorithmic conspiracies thrown into the mix so it's best to let the dust settle until there is a little more ground underneath our feet. Not sure when and if that will happen. The exact Mars conjunct Uranus happens on Monday, the day of the RNC. Good to know they have an astrologer for that date,(kidding). And as the moon waxes toward being full this coming Sunday, it happens to fall on the 29th degree of Capricorn, conjuncting the US chart's Pluto as well as transiting Pluto. Sorry for all of this data that you already know. I needed to vent. Anyghow, having said that, I am optimistic about a few things.1- sometime this month Venus will become and evening Star. Supposedly, as history notes, when Venus is an evening Star there are less wars on Earth, more peace. Another aspect that I'm looking at on the November 5th Election is the US chart will experience another Chiron return. I know you don't think much of it as previous posts reveal, but you don't have Chiron conjunct your Ascendant like I do, and even Liz Greene makes a case of it in her recent book. As for Donald and his recent mishap, his chart is quite trying with transiting Saturn squaring his Sun and soon natal Uranus. A lot of the fallout is declaring that because of this failed attempt, he will certainly become our next President. I don't think he has an easy go of it with his present aspects. Just my two cents worth.