Saturn Conjunct US Pluto |Astrology of Election Day

A Swarm of Synods.

I remember a discussion I had with an astrologer friend a few days after Thanksgiving last November, 2019. I was wondering what would happen this time around. I was remembering the last time Saturn by transit crossed America’s natal Pluto. That occurred at the beginning of the 1^st Gulf War, when America led a coalition of armies, consisting of many nations, which landed in northern Saudi Arabia and built an impenetrable wall, blocking the advance of an Iraqi army that was intent on taking its oil fields.

The army sat there, menacing, solid, a million strong, not firing a shot, while the world watched the last feeble attempts at diplomacy die out.

On Jan 17, 1991, the war turned hot.  It began with a five week aerial bombardment. Missiles and bombs effectively dismantled Iraq’s military infrastructure. The allied air forces achieved total air supremacy.  The ground invasion required only 100 hours, and it was over.

On January 17, 1991, transiting Saturn at 27° Capricorn 33’ was exactly conjunct America’s natal Pluto (July 4, 1776: Sibley chart, natal Pluto at 27° Capricorn 33’).

So, last fall our discussion returned to the events of 1991, and to Saturn’s role of a precise timer for a hot war. But that does not mean that the astrologer can extrapolate events from a previous cycle to the present. History never repeats itself. It is always different. Sometimes a Saturn transit seems to leave only a tiny ripple in the march of events, and sometimes it alters the river of time into new channels.

Yet under such a transit there will always be a Saturnian influence and a Plutonian activation in the US chart.

We talked and talked about it, and all we could come up with is that something was going to happen, but when it came, it would somehow be different, and that we would always be surprised. Well, it was different, and we were surprised.

What we are going through in America and in the world is far more powerful than a mere Saturn conjunct Pluto. There are six synodic conjunctions exerting influence mostly on America’s natal Pluto. They also affect US Mercury, Neptune, and Mars, and they last all the way through December 2020, and the Jupiter/Saturn into the next year:

1.Saturn/Pluto Synod at 22° Capricorn, trine America’s Neptune | Jan. 1-28, 2020
2. Saturn/Pluto Synod at 24° Capricorn, exactly opposed US Mercury at 24° Cancer 12’| Feb. 18-29, 2020
3. Jupiter/Pluto Synod at 23°- 24° Capricorn | Opposed US Mercury, Lasts to April 15, 24°- 25° Capricorn.
4. 2nd Jupiter/Pluto Synod  Lasts to July 10, 25° – 24° Capricorn.
5. Third Jupiter/Pluto Synod – November 5-19, 23° 22° 21° Capricorn, making a trine to US Neptune.
6. Jupiter/Saturn Synod – December 6, 2020 – Jupiter & Saturn within a 2° conjunction framing natal US Pluto. Synod exact on the 12^th Dec. 2020: Jupiter @ 26° Capricorn 32’, USA natal Pluto @27 Capricorn 33’, Saturn @ 28° Capricorn 35’. Then the Jupiter/Saturn Synod moves into 0°, 1°, 2° Aquarius.

Transiting Saturn On US Pluto: Eleven days in February

All through the year 2020 Saturn is dialoguing US Pluto. At the beginning of the year transiting Saturn was five degrees away from natal US Pluto, then by early February it was 3° degrees away, and then by February 18^th it arrived at an exact conjunction lasting 11 days, Feb. 18 – 29, 2020. Pluto (other peoples’ money) rules stock exchanges. It rules the Dow Jones Industrial Average (called the Dow for short). For many previous months, the Dow had hovered around 29,000 points, its highest in history, reflecting a booming economy. Since 1896, the rise and fall of the Dow has been an accurate reflection of where the economy is headed.

Feb. 23, 2020. Saturn by transit is exactly conjunct USA Pluto (27° Capricorn 33’)
On Feb 20^th the Dow stood at 29,219 points, On Feb. 24 it had slipped to 27,960 points. Investors were starting to panic, as this fall measured 1500 points in two days. On Feb. 28, it slipped to 25,509 points. Then it crashed. By March 23 the Dow stood at 18,591 points.

It was one of the worst economic crashes in American history. It affected the markets and financial systems of the entire world.

Fortunately, Saturn moved on into Aquarius for a few months; but it will return to Capricorn on July 3, 2020, then make its retrograde conjunction on US Pluto on August 4, then will move back to 25° Capricorn before going direct on September 29^th, and will make its final conjunction to US Pluto on the 20^th of November, 2020. What it will do to the stock market, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the economy in general, especially in early August or late in November, is hard to say, and impossible to predict, unless one is a Nostradamus.

In a nation’s chart Pluto also rules tearing down things that do not work and then rebuilding them to be more effective. That is the positive side of Pluto. Sometimes it uncovers political manipulations that are so corrupt as to make the machinery of state become totally unworkable, and then forces that corruption to the surface.  The Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion the Ukraine in 1982 is a demonstration of a management so dysfunctional that things there did collapse. The truth rose to the surface, and everyone could see it. The eruption of the Wuhan virus may be a similar demonstration. It may be China’s Chernobyl.

The Astrology of the Pandemic

The astrology of the pandemic in America began when Saturn and Pluto in all January of 2020 were exactly conjunct at 22° Capricorn. In the USA chart (July 4^th, 1776), Saturn/Pluto exactly trined America’s Neptune (ruling infection, influenza) in Virgo and exactly inconjuncted America’s Mars (ruling swiftness of influenza spread) in Gemini.

Further, the conjunction was 2° out of opposition to America’s Mercury (it is Mercury that rules the lungs, and the air we breathe) at 24° Cancer, and Saturn quickly moved into an exact opposition of that Mercury. Neptune in Virgo in the 9^th House of the USA chart suggests that the infection would originate from a foreign land, and since it is in Virgo, that it possibly originated from a hospital or laboratory. That the synod loosely opposed the US Mercury at 24° Cancer implies that the pandemic virus may affect the lungs and stomach, and that being easily communicated by air, that it would be very infectious.

In January 2020, when America was becoming aware of the pandemic, there were strange reports coming out of China. Apparently there was a big problem in the city of Wuhan, China (eleven million in population). It was suffering the outbreak of a new virus. The outbreak was supposed to have originated in a market, called a wet market, where live animals were for sale, (in this case, a certain species of bat), and after the sale, they were slaughtered. Chinese officials confidently advised everyone: the virus was not transferable from human to human. Also, the World Health Organization assured everyone that it was nontransferable. There was nothing to worry about.

It was all lies. No bats were for sale at this market, and the virus was highly transferable. Apparently, the virus had escaped (negligently?) from a level 4 virology lab in Wuhan, China.

I will be analyzing the chart for the founding of the People’s Republic of China later, but at the time of these announcements and lies (Jan. 1-28, 2020), the Saturn/Pluto synod was exactly conjunct China’s natal Jupiter located in the 12^th House of that chart. Saturn/Pluto conjunct the natal Jupiter (China’s at 22° Capricorn) of a nation’s chart is a terrible time for government lying. This is a time when lies and flaws are brought to the surface, no matter how hard the bureaucrats, and their secret police, try to keep the truth hidden.

The President of the United States, believing neither the Chinese nor the WHO, banned all travel from China to the USA, possibly saving tens of thousands of lives.

The US public health services, the National Institute of Health, the Communicable Disease Center, the Food and Drug Administration are bureaucracies that had become ossified, slow-moving. And at the beginning of the crisis they were found to be wanting.

The test procedure for Covid 19 was to jam up a long Q-tip up the nostril in a way that caused great pain, and there were few of those tests available. In addition, there was a huge shortage of ventilators, gowns, gloves, ND 95 masks, and we were told any new vaccine or therapeutic had to be tested and that it would take years fabricate and release to the general public.

However, the White House stepped in, took charge, and with a massive public-private effort, was able to supply everything, including ventilators and full hospitals for use, if necessary, to the public. In a massive effort of coordination between government agencies and private industry, it came up with all the devices and medicines and tests necessary to meet the needs of the pandemic. It reformed the public health bureaucracies. This is another manifestation of Plutonian energy.

The Focus of the Synodic Swarm in the US Chart

This crisis of plague, the collapse of the economy, and a possible confrontation with China, centers in the chart of America on the position of Pluto (27° Capricorn 33’).

In January 2020, the Saturn/Pluto synod exactly trined the US 9^th House Neptune (22° Virgo 25’), and America became aware of the influenza. The synod was only 5° away from the US Pluto.

In Feb. 2020, when Saturn moved 3° ahead of transiting Pluto, and when it exactly conjoined US Pluto, the oil markets crashed due to the Saudi/Russian oil war, and the economy crashed due to its closing down.

In March, a new synod appeared. The Jupiter/Pluto synod at 24° Capricorn, opposed the US Mercury (24° Cancer), and it was 3° away from US Pluto. In May, 2020, Jupiter then moved to rest on America’s Pluto until early June 2020.

On Election Day, November 3, 2020, Saturn sits on US Pluto.

On December 6, the new Jupiter/Saturn synod becomes exact, initiating a new 20 year political cycle in the USA. This synod conjuncts and frames the US Pluto. It is an important synod, the last one to be in Earth signs for centuries. In America it means a year of change, destruction of the old, and the building new structures and institutions.

New conjunctions of Jupiter/Saturn often signify a change of those who hold power. In 1961, when John Kennedy was sworn in as president, it was under the influence of a Jupiter/Saturn conjunction. The old order, especially those who had determined policy in World War II and in the Korean War and in the events of the 50’s passed out of power, and a new generation came into power. The same thing happened in 1981, when Ronald Reagan in the US was sworn in as president, and when Margaret Thatcher in the UK had her power confirmed and strengthened as prime minister. The same will happen again: Many will fall from power, and new powers will arise.

Pluto is all about power. It rules war, both economic and kinetic. It rules the factions of America, their death and rebirth. The Republican Party is a faction; the Democratic Party is a faction. In this year these organizations will undergo massive destructions and re-creations.

The Jupiter/Saturn synodic conjunction of US Pluto portends a massive upheaval in those branches of government ruled by Pluto—expects change in all the intelligence agencies, the DOJ, the military, the Pentagon.

Yet that is not all Saturn/Pluto is influencing.

Pluto rules those who, while not elected by the people, wield enormous power. America’s Pluto rules the police, the secret agencies like the FBI and the CIA. It rules the Department of Justice. Yet does anyone know the names of the top five most powerful bureaucrats who administer these agencies? Mostly not. Often, when they leave their positions, they take with them fortunes worth millions of dollars. These fortunes are garnered within a precise legal framework. Yet the garnering is corrupt. For example, a recently fired FBI director left his office with a reputed seventy five million dollar net worth. His chief assistant, who was fired at age fifty, left office with a five million dollar net worth. This wealth accumulation, while adhering to the letter of the law, is still corrupt, and the synodic lens is bringing this corruption to the surface.

Pluto sits in the 2nd House of the Sibley chart. That House, and along with it in opposition is the natal Mercury at 24° Cancer, which rules the media. It includes the newspapers, the networks, podcasting and social media. Saturn on the US Pluto, and the Saturn/Pluto synod opposing the US Mercury implies great upheaval and change taking place in the media.

Yet that is not all that Saturn/Pluto represents.

Saturn and Pluto in History

The chart for the Constitution (Sept. 17, 1787) has a Saturn/Pluto conjunction on its Ascendant. That synod defines the chief power in American government: the Congress. Congress is given the power of money and spending and taxing. It is given the power to declare war. It must approve judicial appointments. And this is where the power of party and faction dominate. But that power is sturdily controlled by the iron law of separation of powers, ruled by Saturn. Historically this configuration constitutes one of the highest expressions of Saturn and Pluto working together. It is a hallmark of freedom in American civilization.

In 1991, the Saturn transit over the US Pluto functioned as a timing mechanism. In co-operation with other armies, a US military, which had been devastated by the Vietnam War, demonstrated that it was completely regenerated. It would fight a limited (Saturn) war, using overwhelming force (Pluto), and within a few months destroy the power of a mid-east dictator. And balance of power was restored in the mid-east.

This 2020 Saturn transit over US Pluto does not seem to be connected with the military or war, or at least not yet. The president has built up the military in the last three years, exponentially increasing the power of weapon systems that we know of, and new defensive weapons are being constructed that we know very little of. He has had to replace a number of his generals. They were often competent, loyal and effective, but they did not agree with his vision. For example, he was impatient to eradicate Isis, the mid-east terrorist organization that was murdering citizens in America. He was informed that it would take years to achieve. He found generals who were able to carry out his vision in a few months. Isis as a great power in the mid-east is now eradicated.

Then he ordered a massive withdrawal of most American soldiers from Syria and other localities in the region. Again, some of his generals resisted. They were replaced. And the American presence in Syria was mostly withdrawn. So far military activity has not been a heavy focus of this synodic swarm. It may be used to quell the rioting and mayhem many cities of the US that began in late May, 2020.

The pandemic is a part of the synodic swarm. The collapse of the economy is another part. The pandemic, like all other plagues, will go away eventually. The economy will take longer to recover, but this collapse did not resemble the economy that collapsed in 2008. That was caused by an overpriced real estate bubble. Real estate was financed by never-to-be-paid-back loans, based on derivatives, based on obscure financial instruments based on nothing. It was a house of cards that had to crash, just like the house of cards economy of 1929 crashed.

The 2020 American economy crashed when suddenly it was closed down due to world-wide plague. Once re-opened, this economy has the ability to restore itself quickly. There is plenty of Jupiter influence in the synodic swarm; it carries just as much influence as Saturn and it will ultimately exert more influence than Pluto.

Transiting Pluto, even though it arrives at a 1° conjunction to natal US Pluto in April 2021, does not get to the exact conjunction until 2022.

There is a third influence happening from the planets on the US Pluto. Let’s discuss Jupiter.

Jupiter Is Truth: Jupiter Pluto

Between 24 April and 3 June 2020 Jupiter was exactly conjunct the US Pluto. The pressure on the economy lightened; the Dow gained back half its value.  Jupiter’s influence over US Pluto will last, off and on, throughout 2020. And the first synodic Jupiter/Saturn conjunction takes place on America’s natal Pluto. That is exact on Dec. 12, 2020.

Jupiter exerts a vast celestial influence. If you could view it at night with its huge magnetic field, it would look almost as large as a Full Moon.

An essence word for the meaning of Jupiter is truth. In chaotic times there can exist a truth which people deny or are blind to. But Jupiter reveals the truth anyway.

So what is it revealing here?

A dark side of Plutonian influence is that it can seemingly foster conspiracy. In a nation’s chart Pluto  can govern its police and intelligence agencies. In the US chart, it rules the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency, the DNI. It governs parts of the Department of Justice, especially those departments that rule prosecutions. It rules the secret FISA courts, which must approve wiretapping especially of US citizens.

It is now being revealed that high officials in the FBI and the CIA and the Department of Justice have been spying on their political opponents using the powerful tools of intelligence. Thus they may have been committing felonies to further their own political agendas. The FBI itself it turns out has been manufacturing crimes. These manufactured crimes were then used to prosecute completely innocent persons. Also, the FBI illegally tried to plant secret operatives in a political campaign.

However even in their attempts to twist the law, under statutes designed as to how the systems were to be used many years ago. These laws and procedures required them to leave paper and digital trails. Their attempts were uncovered and some of this information has been released to the public, and it appears that numerous felonies may have been committed. Investigations and criminal prosecutions of these high officials have begun.

If this is all true, is constitutes the greatest scandal in American history.

How will it play out in history? We will have to follow the rolling out of the Jupiter influence to learn that.

Astrology of Election Day

The astrology of election day shows a Jupiter/Pluto synod occurring at around 23° Capricorn. Also Pluto at 23° Capricorn is a bit over 3° away from Saturn at 26° Capricorn, and that Saturn is in a partile conjunction to the US Pluto. If we stretch it a bit, and note that transiting Saturn and Pluto are conjunct by a little over 3°, then we can say that a Saturn/Pluto synod is conjunct America’s natal Pluto on Election Day, November 3^rd, 2020. If you stretch it a bit further, you can say that a Jupiter/Pluto/Saturn/ synod is conjunct Americas’ natal Pluto.

Some astrologers do not like wide aspects, others do. It is true that Jupiter and Saturn are the largest planets in the solar system, and maybe they should be given wider orbs.

Nevertheless, whether it is a synod or a triple conjunction synod that influences and activates America’s Pluto, I believe we can assume that this election will be one of the most important in American history. It will involve upheaval; we will see the fall of the entrenched powerful, the rise of newly powerful.

As far as the factions go, that is, the Republican and Democrat parties, one faction or the other will be wiped out, possibly for decades. And as I write this in June, 2020, no one can say which faction will prevail. Circumstances are simply too wacky!

Astrology of China

The chart I am using for the astrology of China is derived from the moment Mao Zedong decreed the birth of the People’s Republic of China. It denotes the founding of a single-party state controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. That event occurred on 1 October 1949 at 3:15 PM in Peking, China. This date is the coming-to-power chart of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rule of all China.

That de jure government remains in power today.

This is not going to be a full examination of the CCP chart. We will, however, be examining the effect of the synodic swarm on China’s natal Jupiter (22°Capricorn 35’), on its Moon (3°Aquarius 11’) and on its Ascendant (5° Aquarius 55’).

Jupiter sits natally in China’s 12^th House, and as such rules its 12^th House. It also, as ruler of Sagittarius, governs much of the 11^th and 10^th Houses. And, as a co-ruler of Pisces, it governs much of the 2^nd House of this chart.

The ultimate power of Jupiter is Truth. On January 1, 2020, transiting Pluto was exactly conjunct China’s natal Jupiter. Saturn on that day was a little more than 1° away from that natal Jupiter. Later in the month the Saturn/Pluto conjunction of China’s natal Jupiter would be exact.

In any nation’s chart, Jupiter rules its foreign affairs. January 2020 was when China’s standing, credit and influence with foreign nations would drastically change for the worst. It was when China would begin to be looked upon as a pariah by almost every nation on the planet. Foreign investment slated to go into China was withheld, and companies who had located their manufacturing there began looking for ways to leave.

The world was beginning to recognize that a highly contagious virus was infecting and killing people all over the planet. China initially denied that the virus even came out of China. That was a lie. Then it claimed that it originated from a wet market (where live animals were slaughtered) in Wuhan, China. A lie later disproved. Then officials in China accused American soldiers of creating and spreading the virus. Another lie.  They smilingly informed the world that it was not transmittable from human to human, and they made the World Health Organization, which they had controlled for years, spread the same lie.

While their citizens were dying, nations around the world grew aware of the Chinese lies. And they changed their view of China.

The fateful influence of Saturn/Pluto on China’s natal Jupiter forced the Truth out. People saw the ugly, repulsive, repressive side of China. The more lies it told, the more it placed blame on others, the more repulsive it became to the world.

China closed down the world for months, destroying lives, economies and businesses. Yet it also deeply damaged its own economy. Its natal Jupiter rules its 2^nd House. People in China have to be experiencing a severe shortage of funds. Reports of starvation are leaking out of China. Why? The world is not buying Chinese products, and many nations, including America and Japan, are withdrawing their supply chains and trade. Many of its factories are closing down. The CCP maintains a strict totalitarian control of its populations, but that may not be enough. There could be uprisings. The center may not hold.

The Jupiter/Saturn synod moves into Aquarius around the turn of the year making things worse. It will conjunct China’s natal Moon (3° Aquarius 11’) in early January, 2021. In historical astrology, the Moon represents the people of a nation, and the deep unrest of its people could bring about cataclysmic change.

For millennia, the Jupiter/Saturn synod has sounded the bell for change in the status of those in power. High officials fall and unknowns often rise to the top.

China can expect major upheavals in its leadership.

On China’s Natal Moon

That the Jupiter/Saturn synod will conjoin China’s natal Moon implies a massive change of the people’s attitude about their rulers. Rebellions could break out. Massive repressions might follow. China will soon be deeply involved in its own problems. It is already losing a massive amount of foreign trade; and in its stupidity, it is destroying Hong Kong as a financial center, further causing trillions of dollars of financial ruin to its economy. Threatening its neighbors with war, like India, Taiwan, and the Philippines, and harassing shipping in the South China Sea, is not helping either.

Saturn Moves into China’s 1st Quadrant

In addition, transiting synodic Saturn is entering China’s 1^st quadrant, it is crossing China’s Ascendant in Aquarius. What came easily when Saturn was transiting China’s 4^th Quadrant, well, that is all going away. In those years theft from America of industrial and intellectual property was easy, now it will be very difficult; luring whole industries from America and Europe to China was easy then, but no more: in fact, the reverse is beginning to happen, and these changes and this influence will be continuing for the next seven years. Having Saturn enter a nation’s 1^st quadrant means for China that it will be turning inward and will be losing much of the power and influence that it presently enjoys in the world. This is a seven year cycle of retrenchment.

So there is no need for America or Europe to go to war with China. Contain China, build an economic wall around China, and allow it to destroy itself and its power in the world. Its internal problems will cause it to leave the world alone for many years.

Half Way through the Synodic Swarm

This synodic swarm will take another six months to spin itself out. As the political philosopher quoted above says, “…while history runs its course, it is not history to us. It leads us into an unknown land, and but rarely can we get a glimpse of what lies ahead.”

Today, on the Summer Solstice, and under a retrospective Mercury Rx that is moving into a conjunction of the US natal Sun, I am publishing this article.

I wished to give a few glimpses of where we have been, and possibly ways to navigate through “an unknown land”.

On the Winter Solstice, December 21, 2020, some six months from now, I will offer a analysis on what happened, “after we have lived through what we have seen before”, and when the history of this wild year has run its course. And maybe there will be a few glimpses into 2021.

 

Doug Walker