Time To Talk About Trump

"We’re all in hard labor together, being squeezed toward whatever the next phase is that wants to be born." An astro-dialectic between astrologers Jessica Murray and Frederick Woodruff.

THE CREATION AND RELEASE of Trump’s mug shot last month had the same drop-jaw impact as the photo I saw as a kid when Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the Moon back in 1969. The booking photo was the money shot both sides of the aisle had salivated for.

Trump’s indictments have redefined ‘doubling-down’ for the right and the MAGA faithful. While for the flummoxed left, there’s only bald-eyed incredulity. And we’re right back where we started in 2016: in the middle of Crazy Town.

Trump is a Gemini Trickster Supreme, a cartoon-like character that sets the brain careening toward a precipice. But admit it: You skipped the broadcast once you heard Trump wouldn’t participate in the GOP debates last month. Within our culture’s obsession with personality cults, he’s the grift that keeps on giving.

Donald’s existence confirms that dysfunctional ‘gotcha’ entertainment is the heart of modern politics. And as commentator Paul Begala once quipped, “Washington is Hollywood for ugly people.”

And if it’s true that a nation has the ruler, king, or president that it deserves, well, Trump’s the bespoke figurehead for our national psychotic break—the tip of an iceberg that’s expanded since the conclusion of the Civil War—which never resolved.

So here we are, with transiting Pluto back in Capricorn—its natal position in the US’s birth chart—releasing the final fumes of the US’s Pluto return, agitating again the ghosts related to Pluto’s second house position in the chart, which, after taking inspiration from astrologer and author Jessica Murray, I covered in detail here.

Murray is the astrological kingdom’s sharpest commentator on the larger cycles (and the stories they portend) related to geopolitical events. As Murray would frame it, these circumstances implicate each of us because we were born into this historical moment and have a role to play in the larger national drama.

With Trump’s mug shot punctuating his four indictments, this seems like a good moment to consider Trump’s natal chart, the current transits, and how his horoscope and the US’s birth chart are entwined in an ongoing saga that will extend far beyond the 2024 election. This appears to be another blow to the United States’ historical stature. And how our embarrassing impasse shuffles the power dynamics on the global chessboard.

I invited Jessica Murray to participate in a dialogue about the current political Zeitgeist. Our conversation was via email and has been edited in spots for clarity.

FREDERICK: What was your initial reaction to seeing Trump’s mug shot?

JESSICA: When you see this guy trying to look tough and defiant, you never know whether to laugh or throw up. Imagine him practicing in front of the mirror, probably standing in front of a poster of his fave movie star, Clint Eastwood, trying to emulate that manly squint. And doing his best Winston Churchill scowl. He still comes off looking petulant. Sarah Larson (from the New Yorker) says he looks like the muppet Sam the Eagle, being sent to his room.