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March 19, 2026

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Donald Trump and the United States

In astrology, a natal chart represents the person the chart is for; to see how two people interact we can compare the charts of the two individuals. For example, if the Suns of the two people in question are exactly opposite, one can guess that the two people see things differently in some fundamental way,

U.S. Core Planets

Many charts have what I call a core which consists of the Sun and important planets configured with it. In the case of the United States the core is Sun conjunct Jupiter and Venus, with the Moon making a wide sesquiquadrate to the Sun. For astrologers of the late Eighteenth Century this was a great combination, with the Sun conjoined with both the lesser benefic and the greater benefic (which are what Venus and Jupiter are called). This is what I call “double-plus good”. Any country with such a combination will obviously have a good future and probably be the most important country in the world. This was known early on since Ebenezer Sibly, whose chart we use, was a contemporary of the founding of the United States and his chart was published in 1787 (though set in London). Now I’m not suggesting that the founding of the United States was determined by the astrological chart — what is called an electional chart — but it certainly is a good birthdate according to the rules of astrology known at the time of the country’s birth.

You can see that the Sun (the Government) and the Moon (the People) are connected and this sesquiquadrate reflects a long standing conflict in the United States, seen as the Federalists vs the Anti-Federalist, Alexander Hamilton vs Thomas Jefferson, the Federal Government vs the States; the Electoral College represents this conflict, so that the states have a say-so in the determination of the leader of the Federal Government.

Donald Trump’s Core Planets

Donald Trump was born under a Full Moon (and he just missed being born under a lunar eclipse by a few hours) so Sun opposite Moon represents his core, with Uranus conjunct the Sun. So he is a vary Uranian character; perhaps we could call him the disrupter-in-chief, or whatever term you like for Uranus. Perhaps he is a change-agent, though not in the short term he expects. Mr. Trump is probably unfamiliar with Newton’s Third Law of Motion: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Having a Full Moon birth, where the Sun (conscious) and Moon (unconscious) are opposite one another suggests there is a conflict between the conscious mind of this individual and his subconscious mind, or perhaps the left and right brain, or the logical and the imaginative, or even the Masculine and the Feminine side of his personality. This represents a big duality and the individual will spend much of his time trying to find balance. But it is also symbolized by Trump running as a populist (Moon) and then ruling as an oligarch (Sun). This con has certainly been done by other presidential candidates, but because this Sun-Moon opposition represents this split, Trump has been able to pull off this con more impressively as a candidate than others — this is the Art of the Con.

But there is one other important conjunction in the Trump chart, important because as we will see later that it is strongly connected to the US chart. This aspect is the conjunction of Saturn and Venus. This may suggest that as a young person he did not get the love from his parents and other adults around him that he needed. This conjunction shows a difficulty displaying the Venusian (or Feminine) side of his personality. He may want or need approval from others, more so than most people, to establish in his mind his self-worth. As we will see later he has strong Mars contacts which do not help the effects of the Venus-Saturn conjunction, or in other words he has a strong Mars and weak Venus.

There are two charts for Trump. The official chart has him with zero Virgo rising; his modest behavior and lack of ego do suggest Virgo rising, but as someone with Virgo rising all I can say is I don’t believe it. The other chart, from the Trump family astrologer, has Leo clearly rising and that certainly seems to fit.

When we compare these two chart to that of the United States, they both have essentially the same contacts. With the Virgo rising chart there is even one other contact that strengthen the comparison. So the comparison of the two charts does not further one chart or the other as being true.

Now with someone as controversial as this President of the United States there are strong feelings either for or against. I’ve tried hard here not to appear to take sides but to let the charts speak for themselves.

Trump Compared to the U.S.

The are several strong contacts between Trump’s chart and the chart of the United States. The tightest aspect, at only five minutes of arc, is the Trump Neptune square the US Jupiter, indicated by #1. But since Jupiter is part of the US core, essentially Neptune is square both Jupiter, Venus, and the Sun. And the United States is strongly influenced by Donald Trump’s Neptune. Since the world and the United States are experiencing strong Neptune at this time of history, with Neptune at the Aries Point and opposite the US Midheaven, Trump is an important part of this Neptune effect. Perhaps Trump will bring a spiritual or religious revival to the Unites States, or perhaps the US will be totally confused by the action of Donald Trump. In any case, there is a strong connection.

I happened to look up this aspect in an astrology book I bought a long time ago when I was just beginning my interest in astrology. The book is The Astrology of Human Relationships by Frances Sakoian and Louis S. Acker, published 50 years ago. I want to quote in detail what the book said about a comparison of Neptune square Jupiter:

“This comparative square indicates a tendency for the natives to get each other involved in impractical, emotionally oriented mystical or religious practices, which can take the form of cults or various forms of guru worship. They are apt to encourage each other’s shiftless and indulgent tendencies. There can be mutual avoidance of discipline and necessary practical responsibilities. Both can neglect the practical handling of domestic and family responsibilities.”

Interesting also is the fact that while Trump’s Neptune is square the US Jupiter, there is also an important Neptune transit to the US Core. In 2027 Trump will have a Neptune demi-return and at that time transiting Neptune will be square the US Jupiter. Neptune squares the three core planets of the United States from 2025 through 2032 as we can see from the graphical ephemeris below; perhaps Trump is good training for these upcoming transits.

Transits of Neptune Through U.S. Core

In this case Neptune squares the U.S. Venus at #1 in 2026 and then goes on to square Jupiter at #2 in 2027 — similar to Trump’s Neptune square the U.S. Jupiter — and finally Neptune squares the U.S. Sun at #3 in 2029.

To add to the Neptune effect, Trump’s Sun is square — orb a quarter degree — the US Neptune, so this Sun Neptune energy goes both ways.

Among other things, Neptune can represent intoxicating drugs. There are three types of drugs corresponding to the three outer planets: Uranus is stimulants, for example caffeine or cocaine; Neptune is depressants, such as alcohol or opiates; and Pluto is psychedelics, such as cannabis or peyote. Trump had a brother who was an alcoholic and so Trump says that he does not use drugs (but of course he does since caffeine is not considered a drug) but for Trump the drug of choice is the United States, as represented by the US Neptune square his Sun. Trump gets high off of his relationship as President.

Perhaps this strong Neptune in Trumps’ chart square the US core explains the TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome or Trump Devotion Syndrome). The powerful stimulus of Donald Trump acts as a drug which intoxicates many Americans — they find it hard to give up this drug. Perhaps in the future we will see a support group called TA: “I’m Rachel/Laura and I have TDS”.

U.S. Compared to Trump

Trump’s conjunction of Venus and Saturn is conjunct the Mercury of the United States at #2. As was indicated above, this Venus Saturn conjunction suggests Trump did not get the love and approval that he needed as a child; thus he tries as an adult to get praise and approval from others, most assuredly from the media (as represented by Mercury) and others represented by Mercury such as his loyal followers in social media.

As another indication of this reciprocal connection between Trump and the US, notice that Trump’s Moon is opposite the US Mars at #5 in the “Trump Compared to the U.S. and the Trump’s Mars is opposite the US Moon at #3 in the same chart. Trump’s energy — Mars — strongly connects to the people of the country. One interpretation of the Mars is that it is the masculine principle or male energy or as the composer Gustav Holst called it in his magisterial composition The Planets (a piece of work all astrologers should be familiar with), Mars is the Bringer of War. The people of the US connects with the Martian energy of Trump. This is beneficial for Trump since his Venus — feminine principle — is suppressed by the Saturn conjunction.

Looked at the other way around the Mars of the United States is closely connected with the core of Donald Trump at #1, which consists of Sun, Moon, and Uranus. Trump’s Sun is at 23 Gemini and his Moon is at 20 Sagittarius, so the US Mars at 21 Gemini is at the midpoint of Trump’s Sun and Moon with an orb of less than one degree. Again, the Mars energy (or male principle) of the United States strongly connects with Trump’s core planets and so there is a strong bond between him and the people of the United States, especially the “masculine” component, which of course can exist in any gender. One example of this is his renaming the Department of Defense to the Department of War. I suppose calling it the Department of Mars would be too obvious.

This Martial mutual connection may also explain Trump’s ability to speak the silent part out loud. A good example is the US kidnapping of a leader of a foreign country. For many years the US had to invade or stage a “color revolution” to take over foreign countries, but this is the first time it was totally in the open. No need for messy invasion, it’s just one and done. The only comparison is to kidnapping Manuel Noreiga of Panama, but that at least involved an invasion for months.

Trump’s mercury 9 Cancer is conjunct America’s core, so his words (and other Mercury actions) really strike a cord with America. His mind is connected with America.

In summary, America is addicted to Trump (his Neptune square the U.S. core) and Trump is addicted to America (the U.S. Neptune is square Trump’s Sun). The country has had this addiction for at least a dozen years if not much longer. What is the solution to this addiction?

The words of an Italian philosopher from almost a century ago seem truer now: The old world is dying and the new one is struggling to be born. Now is the time of monsters.

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January 1, 2026

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Saturn and Pluto

This decade opened with a conjunction of Saturn and Pluto and will close with a square of Saturn and Pluto so let us look at other examples. Hard aspects between Saturn and Pluto are notorious for the misfortunes that befall under such a combination. Here are a few examples of various hard Saturn-Pluto aspects — conjunctions, opposition, and square — and the way the results played out in the real world.

Maine Sunk

The first example is the Spanish-American War. America went into Cuba to fight the Spanish for whom Cuba was a colony. The casus belli in this case was the explosion on board the USS Maine in Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898. As a result of the war the United States, after defeating Spain, got several colonies that had belonged to Spain, such as Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. In addition the United States had a strong interest in Cuba until 1959 and the Cuban Revolution. The United states “acquired” Guantanamo Bay from Cuba in 1903 which the U.S. is still using. In this case the United States chart was strongly impacted by the Saturn Pluto opposition with Saturn on the Ascendant of the US and Pluto on the Descendant of the US. With this lineup the important action took place away from the country — the Descendant represents the other — while the home (Ascendant) was relatively calm. Most observers use the Spanish-America War as the start of the American Empire since this war allowed the US to acquire several oversea colonies. Many Americans, such as the psychologist William James (brother of novelist Henry), steel baron Andrew Carnegie, reformer Jane Addams, and author Mark Twain were strongly opposed to this imperialist action of the United States and formed the American Anti-Imperialist League.

First Tower Struck

Compare this to the chart of 9/11. This was a perilous time for the United States. The presidential election the previous year was stolen from the Democrats by a ruling of the Supreme Court, and no one seemed too upset. There were no charge of the Democrats by the Republicans that they were “election deniers”. Then in September of 2001 two planes crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, and that event allowed the United States to invade Afghanistan and Iraq. Notice in this case that Pluto is on the Ascendant of the United States, and that is indeed where the action took place, and Saturn is on the Descendant, where the action came from. This is the reverse of the chart for the Spanish American War. I refer to these two events as the Bookends of the American Empire — that started with the Spanish American War and the events of 9/11 were the beginning of the end of that empire.

If one were to invent an astrological chart for the 9/11 event one would be hard pressed to come up with something more appropriate than the actual transits to the Sibly natal chart of the United States.

Afghanistan Invaded

Note that Afghanistan and Iraq were invaded by the United States under the Saturn Pluto opposition: the Iraq invasion, which happened a year and a half after the invasion of Afghanistan, still had Saturn opposite Pluto with an orb of less than three degrees. Note that for Iraq Pluto was right on the MC at the time of the invasion, certainly an apt symbol for what happened to that country.

Iraq Invaded

Franz Ferdinand Assassination

Here is an example of what happens when the Saturn-Pluto conjunction occurs near the Cardinal Axis. In astrology the Cardinal Axis — 0 Aries, 0 Cancer, 0 Libra, and 0 Capricorn — represents a point in common to everyone in the world, and so that Cardinal Axis represents the World. In this chart for the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which is the event that putatively started the First World War, we see that Pluto is at 0 Cancer and Saturn is closing on a conjunction with it at 23 Gemini. When the war was declared one month later Saturn had moved to 27 Gemini and the conjunction was much closer.

World War One Declared

Graphical Ephemeris for World War One

From the Graphical ephemeris that covers the whole period of World War 1 we see that the exact Saturn Pluto conjunction occurs in early October 1914, after which both planets go retrograde at the same time, and the final conjunction is in May of 1915. Pluto is close to the cardinal axis for most of the war. Pluto crosses the Cardinal Axis at 0 Caner at 1.

2019-2020 Graphical Ephemeris

For an example closer to the present, let us look at the most recent Saturn Pluto conjunction of January 2020. At the time I though there would be a war with Iran since the United States had just assassinated Qasen Solemani, an Iranian Major General who was in Iraq for talks on battling the terrorist association which was blamed for the 9/11 attacks. This event happened on January 3, 2020 when Saturn and Pluto were less than one degree apart. But that war didn’t happen. Rather, two months later the World Health Organization declared a pandemic and we all know how that turned out.

Pandemic Declared

In the graphical Ephemeris above we can see that the Saturn Pluto conjunction happened in early 2020 and they remained close for most of the year. In addition, Jupiter and Saturn conjoined at the end of the year, marking the beginning of the two decade Jupiter Saturn cycle, the equivalent of a New Moon in planetary cycle terminology.

The Other 9/11

Another example of a Saturn-Pluto hard aspect also occurred on September 11 and in fact the event is often called “the other 9/11”. In 1970 a socialist — Salvador Allende — was elected President of the South American country of Chile. This infuriated US President Richard Nixon and his National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger. The US/CIA attempted a coup of the government of Chile which was unsuccessful. But the military in Chile overthrew the government in a bloody coup on September 11, 1973, creating a dictatorship in Chile that lasted decades. Notice in the chart within the US chart that Pluto was near the MC of the US. Several massive changes happened to the government of the US during this period, such as the Watergate crisis (named for the Washington, DC hotel where it took place and adding the suffix “-gate” to many other crises since) and President Nixon took the US off of the gold standard, an act which still has repercussions for the US and the world more than fifty years later. This episode of Chilean history is covered in the film Missing directed Costa-Gavras which came out in 1982 and book Chile In Their Hearts by John Dinges which was recently published.

National Security Act

The start of the (First?) Cold War is hard to date exactly. Perhaps it was when the atom bombing of Japan happened, which was not necessary to defeat Japan but served as a clear message to the Soviet Union — our partner in fighting World War II — that the United States had the super weapon that it was not afraid to use. Or it could be the “Long Telegram” from George Kennan — a US diplomat in the Soviet Union — recommending isolation of the Soviet Union, or it could be when a US President expounded the “Truman Doctrine”, but I think the best choice — right in the middle of it all — was the passing of National Security Act of 1947 which created the CIA and changed the name of the Department of War to the Department of Defense. Just once Uranus cycle after that the Department of Defense name was changed back to the Department of War. For the start of the Cold War, and especially the Nation Security Act on July 26, 1947 we see that Saturn and Pluto are conjunct.

New Cold War

There was also a Saturn-Pluto conjunction in 1982; this saw the start of Regan’s war in Central America: the US supported a rogue army called the Contras in an attempt to overthrow the government of Nicaragua. There was a book by Noam Chomsky called Toward a New Cold War published in 1982 whose title highlights what was happening. There was also a war between Iraq and Iran with the United States supporting Saddam Hussein who was the leader of Iraq. The United States was selling weapons to Iran (which was under an embargo because of the Iranian Revolution of 1979 which deposed the Shah of Iran who had been inserted into Iran in 1953 when the British and the US deposed the elected leader of Iran) and using the money thus gained to supply weapons for the Contras; supplying weapons directly to the Contras was prohibited by a U.S law.

Japan Invades Manchuria

When Japan invaded Manchuria in 9-18-1931, well before World War Two officially started, there was a Saturn opposite Pluto. This is not terribly obvious from the chart above, but when we look at a graphical ephemeris (below) for the surrounding period it is obvious. The exact oppositions happened in February, July, and December 1931. This invasion resulted in such things as the “Rape of Nanjing” in which case the Nazis were the good guys. Horrible things were done to the Chinese people by the Japanese. One book that covers this is The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang which discusses this incident which took place several years after the invasion.

Graphical Ephemeris for 1931

But hard aspects don’t just include the conjunction, square, and opposition. Here is a chart (below) for when Italy invaded Ethiopia, one of the many event that heralded the start of World War Two, even thought it was several years before the official start. If we look at the chart we don’t see a hard aspect between Saturn and Pluto; here is where looking at the graphical ephemeris comes in handy. This is in the eighth harmonic graphical ephemeris, which means the when lines cross it indicate a conjunction, opposition, square, semisquare or sesquiquadrate. Here we can see a sesquiquadrate occurred twice before — in May and June of 1935 — the actual invasion and once after — in February of 1936 — so the date of the invasion was sandwiched in between.

Italy Invades Ethiopia

Harmonic Eight Graphical Ephemeris for 1935

In a decade that began with a hard Saturn Pluto aspect and ended with a hard Saturn Pluto aspect, there was also one in the middle of the decade. There was a semisquare of these two planets in May of 2024, September of 2024, and finally on January 26, 2025. Less than a week before that last semmisquare occurred the second inauguration of Donald Trump, whose first year of his second term has been filled with disruption and chaos.

Saturn Semisquare Pluto January 2025

The next hard aspect of Saturn and Pluto will be coming up in 2028 and 2029; it happens three times and the third occurrence is just hours before the Full Moon. As you can see from the chart for this third Saturn-Pluto square many planets line up. One wonders what notable event will happen under this square. Stay tuned….

Third Saturn-Pluto Square in 2029

Saturn Pluto Square Within US Chart

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December 26, 2025

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Inflection Point??

On February 20, 2026 Saturn will finally conjoin Neptune, the only exact conjunction of these two planets in this cycle; this conjunction is also conjunct the IC of the United States as well as the Aries Point.

Saturn Neptune Conjunction

Saturn-Neptune Conjunction and USA

I don’t know when this triple conjunction of Saturn, Neptune, and the Aries Point happened previously, but consider that the Saturn Neptune conjunction happens every 36 years, and assume every degree gets the conjunction once, then the last time this happened was 36 X 360 or almost 13000 years ago. Perhaps the significant event at that time was what is called the “Neolithic Revolution” where humans developed agriculture and a more settled lifestyle. Of course, some people argue that everything started to go downhill for humanity after the Neolithic Revolution. But in either case, this was a major turning point for humanity.

Magnified Graphical Ephemeris Saturn Neptune Conjunction

If we examine a magnified section of a graphical ephemeris we can see just how close this conjunction is to both the Aries Point (solid horizontal black line) and the Midheaven (dashed light grey line) of the United States. It is midway between those two points which are in fact close together. So not only do we have Saturn conjunct Neptune at the Aries point, incredibly significant to the world at large (which is represented by the Aries Point since everyone in the world has the Aries Point in common) but also this conjunction is directly opposite the MC of the US — conjunct the IC — and thus the base or foundation of the United States — which is what is represented by the IC — is directly hit by this conjunction. This will certainly shake up the foundations of the United States, which will affect the whole world, but you already can see that.

Saturn-Neptune Almost Exact Conjunction

In July of 2025 the Saturn and Neptune conjunction got within a quarter of a degree of exact and both went retrograde at the same time and thus the conjunction was never exact. In the magnified view you can see how both planets turned retrograde in unison.

Saturn-Neptune Almost Exact Conjunction

Saturn-Neptune Conjunction 1989

The last time this conjunction happened was in 1989. That year the conjunction happen three times; the most interesting was the third, on November 13, when Jupiter was closely opposite the conjunction. This Jupiter-Saturn opposition marked the midpoint — Full Jupiter so to speak — of the twenty year bi-decade that is the Eighties/Nineties. The fall on the Berlin Wall, which heralded the fall of the Soviet Union and other Communist Countries in Eastern Europe, happened on November 9, 1989. This supposedly marked the end of the Cold War (that had started at the end of the Second World War) and according to some this also marked the End of History (see The End of History and the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama which was published in 1992). This also involved a big change in the Western powers (see Cold War Triumphalism edited by Ellen Schrecker and published 12 years later). The United States took victory laps after this happened and President Clinton even managed to determine who the leader of the newly-born Russia was, as a cover story entitled “Yanks to the Rescue” shows. One can easily imagine the uproar if the Russian President was accused of helping an American win the Presidency!!

“Yanks to the Rescue”

Let us look at some other examples of hard aspects between Saturn and Neptune:

U.S. Off Gold Standard

An August 15, 1971 speech by United States President Richard Nixon was a big event for the world economy, but most did not realize how big for many years after. This event is considered the end of the Bretton Woods System that was established after World War II, named after the town in New Hampshire where the agreement was reached. After this statement by President Nixon, dollars were no longer convertible to gold. Among the many ramification was that money was made not through making actual things but through financial manipulation. In the long run, this decision by Nixon shifted power from industry to finance, and so what was capitalism of the Sixties and Seventies is not what capitalism is now.

Nixon Shock Speech

When we look at the chart for August 15, 1971 we don’t see anything specific. But looking at the graphical ephemeris around that date reveals something interesting.

Nixon Shock Graphical Ephemeris

Saturn and Neptune made three oppositions — indicated by 2, 3, and 4 — once before and twice after the speech whose date is indicated by the center line. In addition, the Jupiter Saturn opposition (much like the Jupiter-Saturn opposition which occurred almost twenty years later at the fall of the Berlin Wall) occurred twice before the speech and once after.

But there is also Pluto crossing the Cardinal Axis at 0 Libra — indicated by 1 — and also conjoining the MC of the United States. The period of 1972 and 1973 is known in the United States as the Watergate crisis, which ultimately saw the only resignation of a US President in history. That event is certainly appropriate for Pluto on the Midheaven of the US; at the time many expressed disbelief at what was happening to the government of the country.

The “Great Recession” was a meltdown of the financial markets in 2007, 2008, and 2009. Unlike the Great Depression of 1929, which had an exact date — Dark Thursday (October 24, 1929) — when the stock market fell greatly after booming for much of the decade, we don’t have an exact date for the Great Recession. But by looking at the graphical ephemeris for that period we can see what happened.

The Great Recession

Saturn was opposite Neptune three times right before the “Great Recession” at 2, 3, and 4. In addition Pluto crossed the Cardinal Axis as it enters Capricorn, indicated by 1. Thus Pluto is square the MC/IC axis of the United States. This is similar to the Nixon Shock, where there was also Saturn opposite Neptune and Pluto making a hard aspect to the Cardinal Axis and the US MC. The midpoint of these two events was the conjunction of Saturn and Neptune marked by the fall of the Wall.

Notice that the event of note doesn’t always happen at the time of the exact aspect. It did for the fall of the Wall, but for both the Nixon Shock and the Great Recession there was a time delay. Thus whether or not a significant event happens close to February 2026 or is delayed months is something we will see. Stay tuned….