Crisis Solar Returns for the U.S.
Crisis Solar Returns for the U.S.
Donald Trump's Ominous 2017
Solar Return
April 2017
Sidereal solar and lunar returns are powerful predictive instruments. It was primarily via Donald Trump’s solar and quarter solar returns that I predicted in May of 2016 that he would win the U.S. Presidential election, which looked unlikely at the time.
Despite his excellent 2016 sidereal solar return, transiting Saturn, the greater malefic, arrived almost simultaneously at the conjunction of his natal Moon and the opposition to his natal Sun in January 2017. Accordingly, his administration so far has mostly been a minor disaster, disorganized, ineffective, without consistent policy and largely unpopular. It has been characterized by in-fighting, scandal, the taint of possible collusion with the Russian government, strong opposition from the Democrats, and even members of his own party. Saturn doesn’t leave the immediate proximity of his Moon and Sun until October 2017, but before then he has to deal with the 2017 sidereal solar return which will surely compound his difficulties.
Mr. Trump’s solar return for 2016 had the Moon conjoined to his natal Jupiter. That made him the focus of attention to his benefit. Moon-Jupiter is extremely lucky. His 2017 solar return is essentially the opposite of the 2016 return in terms of general fortune because the 2017 solar return Moon is aspected by the malefic planets. The Moon in a solar return chart indicates the overall tone of day-to-day life, the prevailing conditions in play, the attitude of the native and especially conditions that relate to one’s person. The Moon, and to some degree the ascendant, have a lot to do with the body. The Sun represents the spirit that animates the body.
The best places for the Moon in a natal horoscope or a solar return are sidereal Cancer and Taurus, where the Moon is at home in her own sign or her exaltation. The worst places for the Moon are sidereal Capricorn and Scorpio where the Moon is in her detriment and her fall. Those placements alone suggest an easy or difficult year in general. Of course, the rest of the horoscope tells the tale, but one can get a rough idea of the tone of the year from the condition of the solar return Moon.
In Mr. Trump’s 2017 solar return the Moon is in her detriment, Capricorn. Most people who live at least into their sixties or seventies are likely to have had a solar return with a debilitated Moon several times. Those years are generally hard ones characterized by problems that relate to what the Moon signifies: body, family and home. Most of the time people weather these storms. Poorly placed Moons are most troublesome to the very young and very old. A debilitated Moon is made worse by aspects to it from the malefics—Mars, Saturn, Neptune and sometimes Pluto. Trump will turn 71 on June 14, 2017 and, while that is not very old, he is over-weight and over-stressed due to Saturn’s aspect on his Sun and Moon.
What makes his solar return extraordinary is that the solar return Moon is sorely afflicted which exacerbates the stresses symbolized by the transit of Saturn to his natal Moon. He has had transiting Saturn within three degrees of his natal Moon since December 2016 and as I’ve mentioned, transiting Saturn will remain within three degrees of his natal Moon until the end of October 2017. In addition to the Moon in her detriment in his solar return, there are five afflictions by malefics to the solar return Moon:
1. The solar return Moon in 27⁰ Capricorn 23’ is sesquiquadrate solar return Mars, 0⁰ 39’ from the exact 135⁰ contact.
2. The solar return Moon in 27⁰ Capricorn 23’ is opposite natal Mars in 2⁰ Leo 47’, 5⁰ 24’ from the exact 180⁰ opposition.
3. The solar return Moon at 27⁰ Capricorn 23’ is sextile solar return Saturn at 29⁰ Scorpio 34’, 2⁰ 11’ from the exact 60⁰ sextile.
4. The solar return Moon at 27⁰ Capricorn 23’ is quincunx natal Saturn at 29⁰ Gemini 50’, 2⁰ 27’ from the exact 150⁰ quincunx.
5. The solar return Moon in 27⁰ Capricorn 23’ is sesquiquadrate natal Neptune at 11⁰ Virgo 51’, 0⁰ 32’ from the exact 135⁰ sesquiquadrate.
The most serious of these five are the two closest contacts, the sesquiquadrate to solar Mars and the sesquiquadrate to natal Neptune, both barely more than ½⁰ from exact. These two are underscored in two ways. First, solar Mars is square natal Neptune, only 27’ beyond the exact 90⁰ square. Second, solar Mars is mundane square solar Neptune only 57 seconds of sidereal time from exact which is less than ¼⁰. (Solar Mars rises with a sidereal time of 23h 04m 23s and solar Neptune appears in the mid-heaven with a sidereal time of 23h 03m 26s.) That both natal Neptune and solar Mars configure the solar return Moon is bad enough; it doesn’t help that the solar Moon is itself almost in the exaltation degree of Mars: 28⁰ Capricorn. Mars and Neptune together represent an insidious and deleterious force that relates to what the native cannot see coming and doesn’t suspect. Since Mars and Neptune engage the Moon, their combined natures may symbolize a problem that arises from within rather than without; that is to say, a body problem that has no obvious external cause. Mars and Neptune to the Sun would more likely be an attack from without by an opponent.
In sum, it is difficult to have the natal Moon configured with the transiting malefics, but it is difficult and dangerous to have both the natal and solar return Moons simultaneously afflicted. When both Moons are simultaneously configured with the classical malefics, Mars and Saturn, as well as Neptune, physical problems are often the result.
Donald Trump was born at the full Moon. People who have the lights in aspect to each other experience higher highs and lower lows than those who do not have it. The reason is that the lights—the most important bodies in a horoscope—receive transits simultaneously; and when those transits are malefics, a difficulty can assume the scale of a calamity.
In addition to the difficulties inherent in the 2017 solar return due to the afflicted Moon, solar return Saturn is trine the natal Mars, 3⁰ 13’ from exact, which by no means guarantees success due to the trine; but rather adds distance to what already is an uphill slog. When transiting Saturn configures natal Mars, one’s goals are much harder to achieve. In Trump’s 2017 solar return Saturn is quincunx natal Saturn only 16’ of arc from exact. Saturn is the planet of karma. When it configures its natal place, the hinge of fate is engaged such that what is owed becomes due or obligations cannot be delayed or contravened. Solar return Saturn is sextile the solar return ascendant at Washington only 13’ of arc from exact. Mr. Trump had transiting Jupiter sextile his 2016 solar return ascendant, only 7’ from the exact sextile at New York when he won last year. This year the opposite condition is in play. The sextile doesn’t make it good. It’s just like any other contact but with less power than a trine or a square. Solar return Neptune is semi-square the solar return I.C. (and therefore sesquiquadrate the M.C.), 1⁰ 07’ from exact. That makes him still more subject to conditions rather than the master of them; and finally solar Uranus—which is angular—is trine his natal Mars only 12’ from exact. That points to some kind of an accident. One may infer the nature of the accident from the other Mars—the solar return Mars—because it’s the most elevated planet in the solar return. Solar return Mars is in Gemini, conjoined to his natal Mercury also in Gemini. Mercury and Gemini both emphasize intellectual capacity and speech. A stroke or an aneurysm is possible with this type of symbolism.
The solar return speaks especially to the first quarter of the birthday-to-birthday year. It is effective throughout the year, but the first quarter is uncomplicated by the two remaining quarter solar returns and the demi-solar return that address the second, third and fourth quarters of the birth day-to-birth day year in a supplementary manner. There are three events which follow this solar return in the near term that are alarming. They include:
1. Transiting Mars conjoins Trump’s natal Saturn in longitude on July 12, 2017.
2. Transiting Mars conjoins Trump’s solar return mid-heaven on July 17, 2017. That RAMC is 8h 00m 53s.
3. Trump’s secondary progressed natal Moon conjoins secondary progressed Saturn exact to the minute on July 19, 2017.
