THE NODES AND PREDICTING THE 2012 ELECTION OUTCOME

Now that the election is over, hindsight enables astrologers who predicted the election outcome, an opportunity to analyze the accuracy of their technique. I first looked at the election in the fall of 2011, when I was writing the chapter on President Obama for my book. At the time, the front running Republican was uncertain, but it seemed to me as if all fingers were pointing at Mitt Romney, and so, I looked at both their charts to see what nodal aspects they would experience come election day.

            History is always a good guide and since both men had lost big elections, it was instructive to check this out too (these charts aren’t shown here, but they’re in my book on pages 242 and 258). In 2000, Obama lost his primary bid to become the Democratic nominee for Illinois in the U.S. Congress. The transiting nodes were at 1° Leo, aligned with his natal Mercury-Jupiter opposition. Given natal Jupiter (ruling the 11^th) at the South Node, this expressed as the loss of a dream. Romney lost his election to become Senator of Massachusetts in 1994, eighteen years ago (think one nodal cycle). At the time, the transiting North Node was at 15° Scorpio square natal Pluto at the South Bending. While there were other confirming aspects in play, this described a loss of power.

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            Fast forward to 2012, with the transiting nodes at 26° Scorpio-Taurus. For Obama, they aligned with his Mc-Ic axis, with the North Node at the top of the chart. This was square the natal North Node at the transiting North Bending, signaling a time of professional culmination. It would not be an easy fight. The transiting North Node was square natal Uranus (and the natal North Node) at the South Bending, denoting a drain of energy for the president (Uranus rules the Ascendant). [It is important to see this distinction: the transiting North Node is at the North Bending of the natal North Node; the natal North Node is at the South Bending of the transiting North Node.] 

   Transiting Neptune, now fully engaged in Pisces, had separated from its conjunction with the natal South Node, an aspect that had coincided with a sustained period of financial infighting over the country’s dismal economy (Neptune rules the 2^nd house of money, and, in a leader’s nativity, personal aspects often translate into public concerns). With this aspect over, and with assistance from natal Saturn and progressed Jupiter, energized through a sextile/trine to the transiting nodes, Obama emerged victorious.

            For Romney, the transiting North Node was conjunct his natal Moon-Jupiter conjunction, a position that would auger well, except for the fact that Jupiter rules Romney’s 7^th house, which represents his opponent—this transit appears to have helped the president. The transiting South Node was in the 12^th house conjunct the progressed Sun and progressed Mercury in Taurus, and Romney was suffering from gaffes and a perception of entitlement he projected onto less fortunate others. The aspect expressed as a fall from grace and loss of personal standing (Mercury ruling the Ascendant, and the Sun ruling the self). Transiting Neptune in Pisces made a square to Romney’s natal nodal axis, such that the planet of delusion and confusion was aligned at the South Bending, and the negative traits of the planet manifest. With the South-Bending Neptune trine transiting Saturn, Romney felt he would win. It was not to be. Transiting Saturn was square progressed Saturn and the progressed Sun, and quincunx the progressed North Node and natal Ascendant, and there was bitter disappointment that made for a difficult finish at the end of a six year long campaign. 

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           What was my prediction about the election?  Writing in 2011, I concluded that: "Given these aspects, Obama looks strong, despite a jaded and disheartened public (p. 248)." In regards to Romney: "Although the current polls have Romney winning over Obama in a two-way race (statistically they are even), when considering the progressions and transits on election day, Obama appears stronger than Romney. As transpired eighteen years previously, if Romney is running in this race, he will likely lose. (p. 262)." 

ELECTION DAY’S MERCURY RETROGRADE

With the presidential election now over, astrologers have been weighing in on the meaning of Mercury going retrograde on election day. Since a similar astrological event occurred in the 2000 election, some thought there would be a similar result – the verdict would be delayed. This did not occur and at 11.14 pm on November 6, NBC declared the winner.

            In hindsight, the meaning of the retrograde can be gleaned from each candidate’s chart and the house of Mercury’s travel. Moving direct, the messenger entered his shadow on October 18, 2012 at 18° Scorpio. This was two days after the second presidential debate that solidified Romney’s momentum  and highlighted Obama’s questionable handling of the Benghazi attack. As Mercury traversed Scorpio, it was moving through Obama’s 9^th house of foreign affairs as he faced questions about the killing of the American Ambassador and three others on September  11, 2012. For Romney, Mercury was moving through the 6th house and he was hammering home his theme of fiscal responsibility, getting rid or Obamacare, and enacting policies that would bring new jobs. The race was tightening. 

            On October 29^th, Mercury left Scorpio and entered Sagittarius, bringing a change of agenda. For the president, Libya was off the front burner and Hurricane Sandy was in the news. In Jupiter’s hopeful sign, Romney’s pollsters were running fanciful numbers that showed their candidate winning in a landslide.

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            Election day came, and with it Mercury’s station. For Obama, the station occurred in his 10^th house and he won. Days later, as Mercury re-entered his 9^th house of foreign affairs he would once again face questions on Benghazi and whether he covered-up the truth in order to win re-election. For Romney, the station of Mercury occurred in his 7^th house, the house not only of marriage partners, but anyone with whom we have a close relationship with. This would include supporters, who came out in jubilant numbers, expecting a win. But Mercury in Sagittarius is in detriment, and for the Romney camp this symbolized inaccurate beliefs that he had the numbers to win. So certain was he of victory he had no concession speech; when the results rolled in he was ‘shell-shocked.’ In the following days, as Mercury retraced its steps in Scorpio, the truth emerged: Romney’s pollsters had made optimistic and erroneous estimates that had no basis in fact. The mainstream polls they called biased, turned out to be correct.

THE NODAL RULERS IN ACTION

In the October 31^st blog “The Rulers Conflict” I made three predictions based on recurring aspects between Pluto and Venus, the current nodal rulers. On November 3^rd, the two planets would perfect the first hard aspect since the nodal sign ingress, and based on what happened on the two previous dates of contact, I thought that the election, a hurricane, and Israel, would be in the news.

            Of course, with the presidential election on Nov 6^th, that was hardly an insightful prediction. What was interesting was the Republican thread at each contact. With the quincunx, the GOP was asking questions about the killing of the American Ambassador in Libya; with the trine, Romney received a bounce after his stellar first debate. On November 3rd, in the waxing days of campaigning, he and his team foresaw a decisive win, which was not to be.

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            There was hurricane activity around the quincunx and the trine, but superstorm Sandy, blowing ashore on October 30^th, landed before the square. However, on November 3^rd, weather forecasters were warning about a coming bad winter storm, bringing high winds, bitter cold and deep snow – which arrived on November 7 and 8^th, adding further injury to an already devastated region.

            In regards to Israel and Hamas, which now stand on the brink of war, the first signs of trouble occurred on the trine, which followed in the wake of Obama’s perceived UN snub of President Netanyahu occurring on the quincunx. The current conflict can be traced to November 10^th, when Israel and Hamas began firing rockets at each other. The delay, a week from November 3^rd when the square formed, suggests  that one side gave careful thought about what was to come (it is still unclear to me who fired first). With Venus set to sextile Pluto on November 29^th, there is an opportunity for peace.

            On December 24^th, Venus and Pluto will semi-sextile each other, and I would expect more news from the Middle East, more Republican soul-searching, and more bad weather. On January 16, 2013, Venus and Pluto will conjunct, bringing to a close one set of themes, and initiating another. Pay close attention to what happens during the conjunction, for that will set the stage for coming events that will transpire with the ensuing Venus-Pluto aspects over the course of the year, up to the next conjunction. 

HURRICANE SANDY AND THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ECLIPSE POINT

The late-season hurricane formed in the Caribbean in the last full week of October. It skirted the Florida coast on Thursday night, with the eye 200 miles out to sea. I live near the ocean and the wind was whipping, shaking trees and rattling windows. Friday night, I headed for the beach and gawked at the 10-20 foot waves. By now the hurricane was well to the north, but still out to sea, and yet to make its leftward turn. The weekend passed and the storm slowly chugged on as residents in the most populated region of the country prepared to hunker down. 
                 The eye hit landfall at about 8.00 pm on Monday October 28, at Atlantic City, NJ. Twenty hours later, the damage has been incalculable. Currently, thirty-three people are dead, over seven million are without power, and the estimated economic loss is $20 billion.  With a wind span of over 1000 miles, the hurricane merged with two other cold weather systems, and has been called the storm of the century.

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            What was happening astrologically? Even non-astrologers were fearful of the effect of the full moon on the height of high tide. In New Jersey, the eye came ashore two hours after the lunation, and one hour before high tide. Levees were breached and the flooding was massive. Neptune, the planet symbolizing the ocean and massive quantities of water, is retrograde at 0°24 Pisces, strong in its own sign. It is in its degree of station, essentially standing still and exerting an influence much stronger than usual. Mercury, the planet symbolizing wind, is also about to station. At 0°37 Sagittarius, Mercury is in detriment and within minutes of exact square to Neptune. More importantly, both planets are in hard aspect to the solar eclipse of May 20, 2012 at 0°20 Gemini. Mercury is opposite the eclipse point, while Neptune is square it. Eclipse degrees are sensitive and remain sensitized over time; when they are aspected, large scale events happen.

            In addition, in declination, Mercury at 23S09 was on its way out-of-bounds. Planets outside the defining limits of the ecliptic, are, according to Paul F. Newman, extreme, wild and magnified. And there, out-of-bounds, Mercury would find Mars (23S46), adding energy and fuel to an already potent mix. Also in declination, Pluto, the planet of death and destruction was parallel the North Node, and the dark planet manifest outwardly on the physical plane. At the time of the event (and perhaps timing it), Jupiter, retrograde and in detriment, was on the event Ascendant opposite Mars in Jupiter’s sign, on the Descendant, which expressed as extreme vitality and energy that was without balance, temperance or moderation.

            Having lived through at least six major storms since living in Florida, I feel for those with without electricity or water and with damaged houses and flooding. This isn’t an anomaly though. As New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said, ‘We get the storm of the century every two years.’ Climate change has brought extreme weather.  And yet, not one word during this whole ugly presidential campaign about global warming, or an ocean that is 5-9° warmer than normal. 

THE RULERS CONFLICT

While astrologers are primed to watch for lunations, we seldom notice when the nodal rulers are in hard aspect with each other. Typically, this times a significant event, especially when the aspect touches a point in a natal chart.

On the last day of August, the nodal axis ingressed into Scorpio-Taurus, making Pluto the ruler of the North Node and Venus the ruler of the South Node. In the U.S. chart, Pluto is in the first house affecting the people, whereas fast-moving Venus rules the 10^th and the country’s leader. The nodal rules have been in contact twice since the nodal ingress at a degree impacting the U.S. Jupiter, ruler of the Sibly chart. Typically, a theme (or themes) emerge at the time of each contact. We can use the information from one contact to derive projections about upcoming contacts.

On September 12, 2012, Venus was at 6° Leo quincunx a stationing Pluto at 6° Capricorn, placing the two nodal rulers in a contact of frustration. In the U.S., Obama denied snubbing Netanyahu at the U.N.; in Libya, the U.S. Ambassador and three other Americans were murdered; and in the Atlantic, what would become hurricane Nadine (which lasted 21 days and was one of the top five longest-lived storms in history) was named a tropical storm.

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Nearly one month later, on October 9, 2012, the second contact between the rulers formed, with Venus at 7° Virgo trine Pluto at 7° Capricorn. Around this time, Israel conducted a military strike against the Palestinians, killing one, wounding nine, and damaging a mosque and a water tower. In response, Palestinians fired rockets, but caused no damage. In U.S. politics, five days after the first presidential debate, Romney began to rise in the polls. In the Atlantic, tropical storm Patty formed, which would soon become a hurricane.

The first square between the nodal rulers will occur on Saturday November 3^rd. Given previous history, I would expect the news to feature: Israel, the presidential election, and hurricanes. Specifically, I expect war mongering from the far-right eager to show support for Israel.  I am beginning to suspect that the meaning of the impending Mercury station will be a delay of the election: the vote and/or final tally will not take place on November 6^th as scheduled. Finally, a hurricane will be front-page news: another storm could be forming, or alternatively, Hurricane Sandy could endure far longer than expected. In summary, the rulers of the nodes are drivers of events, and when they are active, stuff happens.

THE FULL MOON AND THE BENDINGS

Long before Hurricane Sandy burst out of the Caribbean heading for the U.S. Capitol eight days before the presidential election, the November Full Moon promised a significant event. Why? Regardless of what time you use for the U.S. nativity, the natal lunar nodes are at 6° Leo (É) and 6° Aquarius (Ê). The Full Moon at 6°46 Taurus-Scorpio was then oriented square the nodes at the bendings. Simply, planets conjunct or square the nodes, manifest. The Sun at the North Bending portends outwardly apparent action from our leader, and the Moon at the South Bending signals loss or sacrifice for the general population. In addition, the transiting North Node at 26° Scorpio is trine natal Mercury, sextile natal Neptune, and sextile natal Pluto, suggesting destructive (Pluto) wind (Mercury) and chaotic water (Neptune).  The Sibly Moon at 27° Aquarius is at the North Bending of the transiting nodes (a double-whammy) and a strong indication of an outer event affecting the people.

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For some time, the group president has been desperate for a website. Since I know nothing about website development, and actually paid someone to do my own, naturally I volunteered (ah, the delusion of the transiting Sun approaching to conjunct natal Neptune). All right, I was infused with the recent confidence of creating a blog and figured I could do it. Despite the quincunx between transiting Uranus and natal Neptune, I did! On the day of the Full Moon, the website went public. It’s too soon to see the response, but I had fun (natal Neptune in the 5^th). I would love to hear others' experiences of this lunation. 

ROMNEY'S RESOUNDING DEBATE

            In his first presidential debate, challenger Mitt Romney dazzled voters with an inspiring and hopeful performance. Down in the polls, for weeks pundits claimed the election hinged on the debates. Could Romney pull himself out of the grave he had dug? He could. He emerged triumphant and resurrected.