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The U.S. Election: A Matter of Truth

Of course, to whatever extent, all elections are about truth, but that’s not the truth I’m talking about here. I am speaking of “Truth” (#249521), the name of a small Main Belt Asteroid, and a key player in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. (1)

Truth has a celestial partner in asteroid “Veritas” (#490, Latin for “truth”) and an antithesis in asteroid “Lie” (#26955), and all three form important patterns in the charts pivotal to the election.

Politically, the essence of Truth and Veritas can be boiled down to one word: authenticity. Yes, these two (and Lie) can relate literally to whether one is or is not telling the truth, but this is just the surface meaning. A fuller understanding of its symbolism includes Truth as a matter of character, the issue becoming more about whether or not the person is genuine, trustworthy, and credible, as opposed to strictly accurate in each utterance. Do they “read” as true and honest?

Judged in that light, Donald Trump has a huge advantage going into this election. His asteroids Truth and Veritas are phenomenally well placed to promote a sense that he is genuine and authentic.

For starters, in Trump’s natal horoscope asteroid Truth at 7° Virgo is in the first house conjunct the 29° Leo Ascendant, and within the Gauquelin plus sector. (2) That alone is enough to make someone appear trustworthy, candid, and forthright to others. Perhaps the most frequent quote from supporters is that Trump “tells it like it is” — that’s Truth on the Ascendant: the ability to project honesty, regardless of the veracity of what’s said. But what is especially favorable for Trump’s electoral chances is that this forms part of a cluster of Ascendant points including Mars and asteroid America, at 26° and 27° Leo respectively.

Mars/Ascendant depicts The Donald as assertive, aggressive, and yes, also somewhat bullying, blustering, and braggadocious, but decidedly a leader.  Asteroid America with Mars here allows him to both channel the rage of the American people and appear as their champion and standard-bearer.

Trump’s internal sense of authenticity bolsters his ability to project that quality, with a dramatic combination of asteroid Veritas at 1° Sagittarius on the 24° Scorpio nadir conjunct asteroid Troemper (the closest match to “Trump”) at 2° Sagittarius. Taken together, this says that in his foundation (nadir), Trump considers himself (Troemper) to be essentially truthful (Veritas), and that inner fortitude further fuels his ability to promote that image successfully.

And yet, deceit is also a central theme of Trump’s angles. Asteroid Lie at 17° Taurus is conjunct the Midheaven and is the highest elevated point in the chart.  Lie/MC suggests that Trump is more than willing to stretch the facts, dissemble, prevaricate, mislead, or downright deceive in establishing his place in the world, his social standing, his reputation, and promoting business interests. Lie is also exactly inconjunct natal Jupiter at 17° Libra, so there is a strong bent toward deception particularly in Jovian matters, including politics.

Hillary Clinton has all these points in prominence as well, but in less gratifying combinations. True, her natal asteroid Truth at 29° Scorpio closely conjoins natal Jupiter at 0° Sagittarius, a combination which should promote political trustworthiness. And it does for a significant portion of the electorate (as well as many former Senate colleagues on both sides of the aisle). But a conjunction with Jupiter is a “wonky” sort of placement, primarily accessible to political junkies and not nearly as obvious as Trump’s Truth/Ascendant, which is more available to the man on the street.

Bolstering these celestial street credentials for honesty is the T-square created by Jupiter/Truth’s square to the exact natal opposition in Clinton’s horoscope between natal asteroids Hillary and Whitehouse, at 5° Virgo and Pisces. This in itself shows a direct path to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but the pertinent question is: Has that karma already been fulfilled by her eight years as First Lady or is there more in store? The fly in the ointment on this T-square is the inclusion of natal asteroid America and TransNeptunian Object (TNO) Borasisi, both at 8° Sagittarius. (3) Truth (29° Scorpio) is rather wide of that combination, but these do impact the Hillary/Whitehouse opposition, creating an “overlapping” T-square. With Borasisi’s reputation for spreading propaganda and lies, it’s not a help here, sending a signal that Clinton is less than honest and straightforward with the American people, that she’s hiding something.

Moreover, this negative interaction is reinforced by the close natal conjunction of asteroids Washingtonia and Lie, at 21° and 22° Virgo. With it, Clinton becomes a virtual emissary of distrust of Washington, in stark contrast to her primary opponent, Bernie Sanders, who sports a Washingtonia/Truth conjunction and has the reputation of speaking truth to power and thumbing his nose at the DC establishment.

Natal Veritas makes a mixed statement at best. At 17° Aquarius, Veritas squares Clinton’s natal Venus/Mercury combination at 16° and 21° Scorpio and opposes her string of Mars, Pluto, and Saturn at 13°, 14°, and 21° Leo, making for a very complicated and contradictory T-square. At the heart of this is the awkwardness created by Venus/Mercury in square to Saturn. Clinton ought to be able to communicate with sensitivity and compassion, soothing others with the honeyed word or pleasing expression. But Saturn exactly squares Mercury, making her seem harsh, cold, calculating, and aloof. It’s also the symbol of a penetrating mind, one with a fine grasp of the facts and the ability to craft a response to a problem, but these details are often lost on a complacent electorate more concerned with who’d make a better drinking buddy than a focused leader.

Veritas doesn’t make the picture any clearer; its square to Venus/Mercury implies that there may be obstacles to Clinton expressing herself truthfully, and the opposition to Saturn suggests there may be a dearth of honesty. The opposition to Pluto conveys a possible motive for her lack of candor  — a strong desire for power and control — while further suggesting that the truth may be “opposed” to attaining these goals, and thus needs to be kept quite firmly under wraps. Mars there indicates that in the struggle for power, the first casualty may be truth.

This is not a particularly encouraging layout, if you’re a Clinton supporter. Making matters worse is what the transit sky will be up to by Election Day.

At this point we need to take a step back and discuss a relatively new phenomenon in astrological interpretation, and a new term for the astro-lexicon.  This is the concept of an “extended conjunction.” Before the discovery of minor bodies in the Asteroid and Kuiper Belts (way out past Neptune), conjunctions were relatively simple matters. Natal conjunctions were permanent, and the combined energies had a lifetime to blend and resolve their differences. Transit conjunctions were of two types — either fleeting contacts to natal points, which effected change in the native, or equally fleeting meetings of two transit bodies, causing us all to reappraise how these energies mesh in our lives.

But points in the Asteroid and Kuiper Belts often travel at similar rates of speed, meaning that, once in conjunction, they can remain locked together for weeks, months, years, even decades. This is an “extended conjunction” and, unfortunately for Clinton, there’s one forming right now between transit Hillary and transit Lie.

Yes, as of the very day the Democratic National Convention opens in Philadelphia, ostensibly to nominate Clinton, the candidate with some of the worst “honest and trustworthy” ratings in history, Hillary and Lie will be within five degrees of each other, for almost a year, until mid-July 2017. On Election Day, both points will be exactly conjunct, both about to station retrograde, and both exactly trine the Election Day Sun.

And what about Trump? Unbelievably, asteroids Truth and Veritas are coming together as well, though for mere months (September 2016 through March 2017), and by Election Day they will be exactly conjunct at 21° Gemini, tightly squaring transit Troemper stationary direct at 22° Pisces and conjoined Trump’s natal Sun at 22° Gemini.

Talk about reinforcing existing narratives!

There are many factors that cause voters to choose a candidate, and it’s not known if Clinton’s clear advantage in experience and gravitas can outshine Trump’s bluster and bravado, but the American people’s assessment of the relative genuineness, honesty, and authenticity of the choices they’re offered could be a key element in deciding who wins in November.
If that’s the circumstance, Hillary Clinton is very far out on a very slender limb indeed, with little celestial support for the case that she’s the more trustworthy candidate.

Editor’s notes:

(1) “The Asteroid Belt is often referred to as the “Main Belt” to distinguish it from other groups of asteroids such as the Lagrangians and Centaurs.” From: space-facts.com

(2) The Gauquelin plus sectors are the degrees surrounding the Ascendant and Midheaven that Michael Gauquelin, in his extensive research between 1949 and 1973, found to strengthen a planet’s influence. (For further information, here’s a recent assessment of Gauquelin’s work).

(3) For more on TNO Borasisi: astrologicaldepth.com

Bio: Alex Miller is a professional writer and astrologer, author of The Black Hole Book and The Urban Wicca, former editor of “The Galactic Calendar,” and past president of The Philadelphia Astrological Society. His pioneering work with Black Holes in astrological interpretation began in 1991, when his progressed Sun unwittingly fell into one. His work with deep space points and asteroids appears monthly at DayKeeper Journal. Alex can be reached for comment or services at glaktix@verizon.net

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