A fun spin on serious cosmic stuff! Wendell C. Perry has 40 years experience studying astrology and how it impacts personalities & relationships. He's written two books & published articles in astrology magazines. He's happy to share this website so that you, too, can have fun with astrology to help you in everyday life!
This is the time when people look back at the old year with both fondness and regret and starting thinking about what the next year will bring. Astrologers have a certain advantage when it comes to that last part. We can look at what the planets are doing during the coming year. The problem it that, for 2019, they aren’t doing all that much.
Some people might argue with that opinion but when I’m doing mundane astrology (the astrology of current events) I tend to use a limited palette. I depend a very few, tried-and-true techniques. I consider major transits, which is to say transiting aspect between the four slowest moving planets: Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. I also consider aspects those planets will be making to the horoscope of the country under consideration (usually the U.S.A.) and the horoscope of the sitting president or leader of that country (Donald Trump in the case of the U.S.)
When I say aspects, what I generally mean are angular aspects: conjunctions, squares and oppositions. Other aspect, like trines and sextiles also have influence but when it comes to making things happen and changing the course of events, it’s the angular aspects that are most reliable. And, when I’m considering these aspects I use a limited orb. The orb is the distance from exactitude that is considered the limit of the aspects effectiveness. I favor an orb of just one degree.
At the moment, 2019 looks like it could be a very bumpy year. We are in the midst of a government shutdown with no end in sight, the stock market is sputtering, the Mueller investigation continues to grind on and the Vladimir Putin seems intent on restarting the cold war. It’s no wonder that our President seems to be a bit glum.
Back in June I wrote an article about secondary progressions in the horoscope of President Donald Trump. (Click here to see the article.) In particular, I discussed the conjunction of his secondary progressed Venus to his natal Jupiter. Jupiter in Donald Trump’s horoscope is trine his Uranus, an aspect associated with extraordinary good fortune. Trump’s progressed Venus was activating that lucky aspect for most of 2018.
If you forget about all the investigations in to his businesses, charities, presidential campaign, transition team, sex life and presidency, 2018 was a pretty good year for Donald Trump. It started off just before the first of the year when he got his tax bill passed. The economy continued to soar and unemployment was way down. He firmly established his control over the Republican Party and he got two conservative judges appointed to the Supreme Court. On top of this he was able to renegotiate new trade agreements with Mexico and Canada and, around the time that this secondary progression was exact, Trump held a historic summit with the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un.
As I predicted, the New Moon of Dec. 7 led us into an eventful but sloppy two week period. The highlight was the televised meeting between President Trump, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer that turned in to a comedy show highlighting Trump’s intransience. It was just what you might expect from Mars conjunct Neptune (the aspect that dominated that New Moon chart,) a lot of aggression and posturing going nowhere.
The government shutdown that this meeting was designed to avert was, of course, not averted, despite the best efforts by McConnell and Pelosi. I had predicted this, based on the Mars to Neptune conjunction. This aspect has a way of turning the cleverest plans into mush. Trump’s quick-change from proudly taking responsibility for the shutdown to blaming it on the Democrats also smells of Mars conjunct Neptune.
What I didn’t expect was Trump’s recent announcement that he wants to pull U.S. troop out of Syria and Afghanistan. However, this is also very much in keeping with Mars conjunct Neptune, since it seems to be a military maneuver utter detached from the realities on ground in both countries. Trump’s sudden change in direction has left many in the military in a Neptunian daze and probably had something to with the resignation of General Mattis as Secretary of Defense.
On Sept. 26, 1940 a group of people in southern France were hurrying on foot across the mountains that separated that country from Spain. Among them was a German intellectual named Walter Benjamin. In later years Benjamin would become somewhat famous for his writings on subjects ranging from politics to art criticism, but on that day he was just another Jew fleeing the Nazi occupation of France.
By this time of his life Benjamin had probable grown used to bad breaks. Though a brilliant student, he had been unable to secure a teaching position at any German University. He had married and had a son, and yet he and his family had lived with his parents until he was 38. Then, in the divorce settlement, his wife got to stay in the house and he was forced to move out. He had published widely in various German and French publications but was always short of money. Finally, he was among the first German Jews to emigrate to France after the rise of Hitler only the have the Nazis march into Paris and chase him out of his refuge.
