Saturn Calls Bernie Sanders
A few weeks ago I pointed out that Donald Trump’s decision to run for the Republican nomination for president came as Saturn crossed an important angle in his horoscope (the I.C.). (Click here to see that article.) Now I realized that we have a candidate running for the Democratic nomination who has a similiar Saturn aspect.
Bernie Sanders currently has transiting Saturn opposing its natal position in his horoscope. This is a crucial point in one of the two Saturn Cycles that I write about in my book Saturn Cycles: Mapping the Changes in Your Life. As I’ve said many times, when Saturn calls (in other words when it makes one of these important aspects to our natal chart) we are always faced with important decisions.
Saturn made its first contact with this opposition in December, about five months before Sanders officially announced his candidacy. The planets moved past this point and then turned retrograde (relative to the Earth). At the present time it is once again opposite Sanders’ natal Saturn.
We do not have a time of birth for Sanders, but a partial horoscope shows that his is a Virgo with his Sun in an expansive square with Jupiter. (Click on Bernie Sanders to see the chart.) Also, he as Mercury in a trine to revolutionary Uranus, so it comes as no surprise that Sanders has brought fresh ideas to the presidential campaign and is shaking up the competition. His liberal policies and promises to reduce the income gap between rich and poor and make education less expensive have earned Sanders the enthusiastic support of a lot of young people.
Recently, Sanders seemed to alienate some voters because of his refusal to address the case of an African-American woman who died while in police custody in Texas. With Saturn opposite its natal position he was given the choice between joining in with an emotional crowd fired up with outrage, or sticking to his talking points. Being a reserved Virgo by Sun sign, Sanders took the latter option. It remains to be seen how this will impact his liberal “street cred”.
My guess is that the excitement about Sanders’ candidacy will continue. Uranus is currently nearing his natal Mars which is his opposite his natal Venus. The aspects will be exact during the early Summer of 2016, a crucial time in the run for the nomination. This tells me that Sanders will remain a force in the campaign for the Democratic nomination up until the end.
On the other hand, in Sanders’ secondary progressed horoscope his progressed Sun is moving opposite his natal Saturn. When Saturn contacts its natal place or one of the angles it often opens doors and spurs us to fulfill all of our potential. But when Saturn makes a hard aspect with the Sun it tends to close doors and show us our limitations. So I don’t see a surprise victory for Sanders at the Democratic convention, though his strong candidacy will possibly move the platform of that party significantly to the left.
