Starlight News Blog

It is time to drill down in more detail on the treacherous aggression and building national grief that I have long predicted for this summer. Although our trade war with China, as well as the violent incidents involving Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, are both dangerously escalating, it is really the racial/political tensions within the US that are reaching a catastrophic boiling point and are at center stage.

Transiting Pluto and transiting Uranus were simultaneously in stressful aspects to US Mars from late June through August 5. This combination intensified aggression, anger, and violence. During this period, the inflammatory racist rhetoric emanating from the White House increased exponentially. The attacks by Racist in Chief Trump against the four freshman democratic women of color, the “send her back” tweets and chants, and the racist attacks against Elijah Cummings, Baltimore, and, ultimately, several other US cities with large minority populations, all happened during this time.

On August 3 and August 4, transiting Mars (21Leo) triggered the already combustible combination of US Mars (21 Gemini), transiting Pluto (21 Capricorn) and transiting Uranus (6 Taurus, semisquare to US Mars).  This two-day configuration coincided with the brutal mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, the former being the most lethal attack on US Hispanics in modern history.  In response, the nation has been rocked with grief and is attempting to reckon with what we have become.

From July 29 through October 22, the US has been and will continue to be under very strong Saturn aspects (transiting Saturn square natal Saturn, 14Libra48, and progressed Moon square natal Saturn) which imply a period of grief, mourning, and deep sorrow, as well as an attempt to strengthen national resolve and face long-simmering problems.  The unhindered spread of a White Supremacy movement essentially aligned with the modern Republican Party, the unrestrained mushrooming of assault weapons ownership, and the vicious racist rhetoric emanating from the White House are now seen in their synergistic grotesquery, pinpointed, finally, with great clarity as the toxic stew out of which mass shootings are erupting to convulse the nation.

Under Saturn, the recent episodes of gun violence and their sorrowful aftermath have created a sense of national grief and shame and an awareness of how difficult it will be to transform the current reality. Unfortunately, naming the monster in the bright light of day is only an important first step. The next is to push harder on the compliant, complicit enablers in the Republican Party who passively support this depravity in our midst, often for their own selfish political aims. Due to Republican intransigence and Despicable Donnie’s delusional racist grievances, it may well take more painful episodes before any real change takes place, if in fact anything is possible before a change in leadership occurs.

In the meantime, the Uranus semisquare to US Mars builds in energy until September 5, and will be significantly triggered roughly between August 26 and August 29, when first Venus and then Mars and the Sun will sextile transiting Uranus. Some kind of violence is likely during that period, whether from extreme weather or another mass shooting or some other event is unclear. But what is clear is that the US progressed Moon will be waxing in square to US Saturn from August 15 to September 15, so there will be some kind of loss or sorrow that impacts Americans and becomes another national story of sorrow.

A further potentially dangerous time will come during September 18 to 20. During this period, transiting Mars will be trine transiting Pluto (no longer exactly quincunx US Mars but still close), transiting Mars will be semisquare to transiting Uranus, and then transiting Mars will be square to US Mars.  Neither this combination nor the above mentioned aspects on August 26 to August 29, are likely to be as potent as what we saw unleashed in El Paso and Dayton. But it does seem that something could be stirred up at these times.

It should also be noted that transiting Saturn will move direct and once again waxing toward US Saturn from September 19 to October 22, suggesting a re-intensifying of feelings of national grief and loss. Add to this that the transiting Node will be opposite transiting Saturn September 17 to September 27, and you have a 10-day period of likely significant national stress and upset. With the above mentioned Mars aspects from September 18 to 20 active during this strong activation of Saturn, this seems an important time to watch for trouble.

And finally, the last transit of Pluto quincunx US Mars will be active from October 2 through November 29. The first part of this, through October 22, includes the Saturn transit square to US Saturn. So again, we see the combination of violence and sorrow in the US from October 2 through October 22, whether due to a short-term confrontation in the Sea of Hormuz or a domestic terrorism event or a wild weather phenomenon or even an explosive debacle in our tariff war and a plummeting Market.

These are clearly dangerous times, in many cases made worse (white supremacism) or even manufactured (tariffs, Iran escalation) by the Thin Skinned Rageoholic in the Oval Office. In my humble opinion, he can’t be gone soon enough.

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Paradigm Shift

If it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it is a duck.  America, it is time to stop thinking of Russian interference in the election and start thinking that Trump is planning to steal the election with the help of Russia. Let us look at what we already know:

1. Criminal Trump does nothing to stop Russian interference in our elections, denies that it is happening, and jokes about the whole thing with Putin;

2. Moscow Mitch, chief Trump toadie, refuses to even consider any legislation in the Senate that would strengthen our election system and protect our Democracy;

3. It takes only a surgical intervention in a few counties in a handful of purple states to shift the outcome of an election;

4. We already know, thanks to the Senate Intelligence Committee Report, that the Russians targeted the election systems in all 50 states in 2016, so they already have a great deal of working data;

5. Most of Trump’s favorite foreign leaders rig their elections to get suspiciously big majority wins. Putin, in particular, is a master of this process and has had many unrecorded and unwitnessed meetings with Trump;

6. It is very likely that if Criminal Trump leaves office in 2021, he will be indicted on multiple counts of obstruction of justice, campaign finance crimes, and possibly money laundering and perjury charges. He, therefore, has a huge incentive not to lose, above and beyond his usual obsessive compulsion to win at all cost.

In light of all of the above, I think that we need to move beyond the idea that Russia is subverting American democracy and understand that Trump and Putin are working to their mutual benefit to steal the next American election. Trump is beyond desperate not to be indicted. That makes another four years imperative. Trump and McConnell are doing whatever they can to give Russia free access.  If they succeed, Trump will get to bypass any indictments and continue to wield unprecedented and unrestricted power. Putin will get an end to economic sanctions, as well as various lucrative financial partnerships, including oil exploration and drilling in the Arctic, thanks to the growing “benefits” of an unchallenged climate change. Eventually, if he ever leaves office, Trump will get to build his Trump Tower Moscow, financed by the Russians.

Democrats need to assume there will be lying, cheating, and subterfuge and work to preempt these as much as possible. Paper backups that can be hand counted in all the purple states are a must. They should be invoked wherever the numbers don’t match the exit polls. An aggressive war room, starting as soon as possible, is also a must to counteract all of the lies and the false narratives that belittle and slander our candidates and representatives.

In addition, we need a herculean effort to encourage as much early voting as possible, to avoid the GOP- planned disaster of Election Day with its endless lines and dysfunctional machines in the (surprise!) Democratic-leaning counties.

It is time to expand our imaginations to what is likely going on in plain sight, despite how shocking it may be. There has not yet been one line – legal, behavioral, or precedent – that Trump has been unwilling to cross. The sanctity of American Elections is only one more. If it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it is a duck.

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Unfortunately, astrologically, I find it difficult to get a straightforward read on the November 3 Election.  What is clear is that there will be massive delays, recounts, anxiety, and frustrations from November 1 to November 6, 2020, during a station of Mercury square to a station of Saturn.  It looks like a very stressful time, perhaps best described as a state of anxious suspended animation.

There is additionally a period of megalomaniacal over-reach by Trump, from November 7 to November 13.  If the election is not in his favor, it seems that this would be when he tries to circumvent the results and may think himself somewhat successful, at least initially. Both Pluto and Jupiter will be quincunx his Sun (23Gemini56) during this time.

However, the protracted transit (10/4 to 12/20) of Pluto opposite Trump’s Saturn (23Cancer49) will be reanimated from November 11 to December 20, which would seem to bring with it enormous stress, fear, and insecurity.  Difficulties are also suggested by the Saturn quincunx to Trump’s Mars (26Leo47) from October 22 to November 20 and triggered by the Mercury station from October 25 to November 6. This combination points to limits, restrictions, anger and frustration. None of this is synonymous with a win.

And one final point, and one which I will be discussing more over the next 15 months, is that there will be a huge, impossibly difficult upheaval and misfortune for Trump and his administration from mid-August through October 2020.  The Saturn station will be opposite Trump’s Venus (25Cancer44) from August 18 to October 22, 2020, pointing to a significant loss of popularity and an increase in insecurity and isolation.  Moreover, the progressed Moon in the Inaugural chart will be conjunct natal Saturn (23Sagittarius30) during all of September and conjunct progressed Saturn from mid-September to mid-October 2020.  Simultaneously, the transiting Saturn station will be conjunct the MC of the Inaugural chart (26Capricorn13) from August 8 to November 2. The combination of these configurations points to an enormous crisis for the administration and for Trump just prior to the election. The progressed Inaugural Moon moving to square natal Mars during all of October suggests an attempt at the usual bullying and aggression in an attempt to counteract the distressful circumstances.

There is certainly the possibility that this calamitous situation will be enough to fully sour the public on the Trump administration by the time of the election. I continue to be concerned, however, with the Jupiter and Pluto impact on Trump’s Sun immediately after the election, and I think that this may be when he tries to manipulate the outcome. I am also concerned about the damage a Lame Duck Trump can do, as well as the damage a Republican Senate can continue to do over the next four years. For now, I am very cautiously optimistic despite the likely Russian interference we can already anticipate.

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As the Trump-Nazis, led by their ringmaster Demented Don, froth and scream, American Democracy struggles not to slip into a death spiral. The potent emotional tornado of viciousness and rage currently commands almost all of the national attention, both from supporters, who are enthralled and gratified by the multitude of hate crimes that define the Trump administration, and from opponents, who still retain a moral compass and are horrified.

Meanwhile, the stench of corruption that permeates Trump and his minions metastasizes, barely noticed and unabated. Corporate profiteers are making huge profits from the concentration camp beds, from the private-for-profit prisons, from the untethered environmental deregulation, and from the unholy deals Republican donors get when the thumb of the administration greases the wheels.

What was once a nation of laws, managed by a three-pronged government based on the principle of checks and balances, is rapidly disintegrating. The marriage of corporate greed and governmental power is overwhelming the institutions that we have relied on for centuries. Laws are selectively enforced by a corrupted Justice Department under William Barr; self-interested Republicans in Congress have long since sold their souls to stand at the altar of Donald Trump; and a minority of the country now rules with an iron hand in Congress and many state legislatures due to gerrymandering and the disproportionate power of small rural states in the Senate.

Standing behind all of this, and most concerning, is the War on Truth, a reality show currently starring Donald Trump and greatly enhanced by social media and cable news.  To be fair, there are still numerous journalists who continue the herculean task of getting the facts out into the national awareness, as well as those in the legal system who still stand for the rule of law. But there is also a deluge of lies and distortions permeating right-wing media, and any story that stands against Trump is labeled “fake news” and drowned with a counter-narrative that is more useful. In such conditions, it is extremely difficult to wake up the country to what is being done in our name.

In the long term, it seems likely that it will not be until after 2022, when the US Pluto return has passed, or even 2024, when Pluto moves into Aquarius, that we will see a shift away from the overwhelming precedence of conspiracy theories and poisonous partisan power struggles. Pluto in Aquarius is likely to bring with it at least two decades wherein the global focus is more on equality of wealth and opportunity and less on the intensification of corporate power and inequality of wealth (Pluto in Capricorn). It may be that the world at last comes together to deal with the existential threat of climate change hanging over it like the Sword of Damocles. Unfortunately, as is often the case in the lives of individuals, it may take a real crisis to wake people up.

In the US chart in the near term, we are in the midst of a very strong activation of US Mars (21Gemini23), from June 18 through September 5, and again, with somewhat less intensity, from October 2 through November 29, 2019. During the former period, transiting Uranus is semisquare to US Mars, while transiting Pluto is quincunx US Mars. During the latter period, transiting Pluto is quincunx US Mars. I have previously speculated how this intensification of US Mars tends to bring with it a more militant posture in the US government.  And indeed, during this time, we have already seen an increase in aggressive rhetoric, threats, and even some belligerent action in the Strait of Hormuz between the US and Iran.

But it has additionally become clear that the over-heated and vile racist rhetoric at the core of Trump’s presidential campaign and the upsurge of Trump’s racist policy agenda at the border, with the census, and with his effort to change the citizenship test, as well as the furious and distressed response to these words and deeds from many across the country, also comes under the increased Mars energy. Although this building confrontation has not yet becomes violent, it feels like a burgeoning partisan-based racial civil war. 

And finally we have seen an upsurge of fires, explosions, earthquakes, and power outages during this period that also may be attributed to an increase in Mars activity.  The current week through Friday, July 19, late on July 28 and through much of July 29, and generally from now through August 4, are some of the times to watch for these energies to be activated.

The other extremely important planetary configuration of the summer is the long station of Saturn that will simultaneously impact both Trump and the US chart. For President Deplorable, the Saturn station sesquiquadrate his Ascendant (29Leo55) from July 28 to August 23, suggests some sense of loss and possibly some health complications that slow him down. At almost the same time (from August 4 to October 13), Saturn will be opposite Venus in the Trump/US composite chart (14Cancer25), suggesting stress between Trump and the country and likely some loss of popularity.

In the US chart, we find the transiting Saturn station will sit in a square with US Saturn (14Libra48) from July 29 to October 22, suggesting a loss of prestige, power, and respect for the US that may impact the economy (Saturn rules the second house). And of particular concern, we find that the US progressed Moon will be square to US natal Saturn from August 15 to September 15, pointing to sorrow and grief in some segment of the population. With this aspect following on the heels of the transit of Uranus semisquare to US Mars through September 5, it is quite possible that some explosion, violent event, military engagement, or natural disaster will lead to significant loss and upset in the US in August and early September.

And one final point to note is that in the chart of National Security Advisor John Bolton (dob 11/20/48), the transiting Saturn station is square to Bolton’s Neptune (14 Libra18) from August 6 through October 11. Given that he is the ideological source of some of the most aggressive and belligerent policy toward Iran, it seems likely that his ideological neoconservative claptrap will run straight into the painful wall of reality regarding Iran during this period with devastating consequences.

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Thank you all for letting me know the last discussion was blocked. I hope tonight’s debates are clarifying. Happy posting.

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We are witnessing the unraveling of American Democracy by a madman. While Donald Trump defiantly stampedes precedent, legal frameworks, journalists, and critics, it is the underlying crazy that is even more frightening.  All indications are that Donald Trump’s understanding of himself and the world is based entirely in delusional thinking – either paranoid or grandiose. In other words, American policy, both foreign and domestic, is no longer grounded in reality but in a form of psychosis.

The investigation into the Russian attack on our election is seen by Trump as a bunch of angry Democrats out to destroy his presidency, and so, by definition, it is a political hit job and cannot be taken seriously.   Desperate men, women, and children fleeing violence and poverty and seeking asylum at the Southern border are seen as murderers, rapists and thugs out to harm us, and are thus put in cages and treated abysmally. Our allies and trading partners have all been branded as trying to humiliate and cheat us, inspiring punishing tariffs and broken trade agreements. The intelligence community is belittled and discounted, described as political enemies of the president attempting a “coup”. The press is deemed the “enemy of the people” for seeking the truth. In fact, it is the truth that is the enemy of Donald Trump’s delusional reality.

Those who have mastered the art of flattering the Narcissist-in-Chief and encouraging his grandiosity are given gifts and support no matter how contrary to the national interest or steeped in congressional disapproval they may be. Russian sanctions are diminished, while Putin’s agenda gets a fist bump; Saudi Arabia gets a cache of weapons to further destroy Yemen; the North Koreans get fawned over in glitzy meetings; and even White Nationalist domestic terrorists get a free pass for their racism and xenophobia.  In short, what was once a narcissist’s pattern of petty, selfish grievance, bullying, and self-aggrandizement has morphed under the pressure of the White House into a full blown psychotic break from reality.  Essentially, every policy emanating from the Trump White House can be seen as either feeding the ravenous and grandiose megalomania of the narcissist or conceding to the paranoid ramblings of his fragile ego.

On the astrological front, there is some good news.  Using the strength of the planet Jupiter, the planet of success, expansion, and optimism, we can pinpoint the periods when Trump’s crazy is given free reign and when it will be limited or even denied. As of May 31, we are at the end of perhaps the longest and most potent period of Trump successfully maximizing his power, during which Jupiter has opposed his Sun and crossed his Moon and his South Node, from mid-February to May 31. There is a similar but shorter period from October 14 to October 29, 2019, when the same Jupiter aspects return for a final time. A further potentially problematic period from the perspective of Jupiterian expansionism may be from August 14 to September 30, 2020, when the Jupiter station is quincunx his Uranus (unilateral and erratic action) and square his natal Jupiter (expansion of power).

Another planet that is a crucial part of the current narrative is Pluto. At present, Pluto is making a two-year quincunx to Trump’s Sun which is bringing with it a fierce struggle for survival and intensifying of his paranoid and power grasping tendencies. When Jupiter is also active, it strengthens and enables the megalomania, as we have seen over the past few months.  This first crossing of Pluto quincunx Trump’s Sun (22Gemini55) from February 10 to May 26, 2019, has run almost concurrent with the Jupiter transits. This combination pretty much describes him running roughshod over everything.

Pluto returns to quincunx Trump’s Sun from December 16, 2019 to January 15, 2020, and finally for a long, slow crossing from July 12 to November 13, 2020, during which the fight will be fierce for his survival – probably both political and legal. During much of this time, there will be significant Saturn influence to thwart him, with the Saturn station opposite Trump’s Venus (August 18 to October 22, 2020) and the Pluto transit opposite Trump’s Saturn (October 4 to December 23) which is probably enough to crush a total power grab. Saturn will also be quincunx Trump’s Mars from October 22 to November 20.  The most dangerous period will be from November 7 to November 13, 2020, when Jupiter and Pluto will again be simultaneously quincunx Trump’s Sun, suggesting some attempt at megalomaniacal overreach to crush all opposition. We can hope that Pluto continuing its pressure on Trump’s Saturn through November and most of December and Saturn’s continuing quincunx to his Mars through November 20 will be enough to prevent these efforts.

And finally, the period just before the election, from September 1 through November 4, is likely to be a very wild ride. I expect extremely aggressive, unprecedented actions by the administration, massive and angry demonstrations, and intense legal pushback to stymie Trump’s efforts. The most consequential configuration in the Inaugural chart – Mars (24Pisces21) square to Saturn (23Sagittarius30) with both in minor hard aspect to the Moon (9Scorpio22) – will be activated by both the Inaugural progressed Moon (conjunct natal Saturn, conjunct progressed Saturn, and square to Mars) and by transiting Uranus (opposite Inaugural Moon, semisquare Mars, and sesquiquadrate Saturn). These multiple configurations suggest extreme drama resulting from wild overreach by the administration. Remember that the Uranus station will quincunx Trump’s Uranus with Jupiter square his Jupiter from mid-August through September, pointing to unilateral and grandiose action.  It seems likely to me that we will ultimately defeat this vicious assault on our nation once the dust from the election settles, but at significant cost.

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