The Goddess of Discord, The U.S. Chart and the 2016 Election

Eris is not the first thing people think of in terms of the astrology of the current election cycle, but Eris may hold the secret that we need to understand the strange scenario we are witnessing in the political arena.

Clearly, there appears to be some disruptive quality affecting U.S. politics of late, and it’s more than just the mutable t-square involving Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune, though that in itself could qualify for a bewildering set of circumstances. The U.S. Sibly chart is the most frequently used by astrologers. The Sibly chart has 12° Sagittarius rising, the exact territory of the above-mentioned mutable t-square. But there’s something else beneath the surface view that you wouldn’t notice unless you happen to focus on the darling and mischievous little dwarves that reside just beyond our Pluto.

The largest of these dwarves is Eris, classified as a large dwarf (sounds like an oxymoron) planet beyond Pluto, discovered and named about a decade ago. Her orbital cycle is both long — 560 years — and elliptical around the Sun. So we are dealing with a very slowly moving body whose influence over one degree of the zodiac can last up to, and even beyond, a decade. For example: Eris entered Aries in January 1927 and sat on the 0° Aries World Axis through 1929. She has slowly been making her way through Aries since then and is now passing over the Washington D.C. Geodetic Ascendant at 23°11’ Aries. She will not clear that degree until 2022, clearly affecting the 2020 U.S. presidential election. (1) Let me emphasize that singling out that degree is important because it is the degree of the Washington D.C. Geodetic Ascendant. We have never witnessed this particular event before and now it is unfolding right before our eyes.

U.S. Sibly chart using the Geodetic Zodiac
(created by the author in Solar Fire)

Koch houses, True node
July 4, 1776
Washington D.C.

So, who is this Eris? The Greeks tell us that she was the uninvited guest at an important wedding that all the other gods and goddesses attended. She was not invited because she was known as a disrupter. Eris crashed the affair when she turned up suddenly and tossed into the assembled crowd a golden apple bearing the message: For the Fairest. This sent many goddesses scrambling to claim the apple as their own. Paris was chosen to decide which of the goddesses was the fairest, and he ultimately chose Aphrodite, whose prize to him was Helen of Sparta, then married to the King. Paris shuttled her off to Troy, and when the Greeks learned of this, they proceeded to respond in the dramatic event known as the Trojan War. Helen has come down to us as “the face that launched 1,000 ships.” (Brush up on your reading with the Iliad and the Odyssey for the full story on this.)

Meanwhile, Uranus, who we know so well as the revolutionary voice of liberation and change, has been in Aries since 2011 and quite coincidentally is also about to conjoin the Washington Geodetic Ascendant. Bam! Immediately I understood the nature of the chaos that has been disrupting the Washington political scene in 2015 and 2016, during which time we’ve witnessed the Republican Party limping around like a wounded, aimless army.

Then, more recently, it has been noted that the death of Chief Justice Scalia will ultimately cause an upset in the balance of justices, including the disruption of how a justice is actually selected following the passing of a prior member. And, finally, how Washington insiders are being treated with scorn and disdain, while the outsiders are hailed as the new messiahs.

Welcome to the world of Eris and her shenanigans. Who, then, does Eris pick as her representatives? The two outsiders, of course. The uninvited guests to the good old boy party system: Trump to the right and Sanders to the left.

Let’s start with Trump. The portrait of the current Donald Trump is one of total disrupter, the uninvited guest, as Eris was in the above story. There is a fascinating amount of press and presence that this uninvited guest has claimed, regardless of how the establishment party, the media, and most political analysts are in total bewilderment about how much attention he has received and how long it has lasted. In a short period of time, he has managed to alienate and disgust large segments of the population by his words and actions, a man whose Mars rising in Leo engages in combat as sport and delights in watching his enemies perish. He was easily able to knock out the old guardians of the Republican Party in no time at all — especially the establishment candidate Jeb Bush. (Though, in his favor, there was nothing substantial there for him to challenge, either in Jeb or the other Republican offerings, as the Republicans themselves are in a state of crisis, hanging on for dear life right now.)

Meanwhile, another disrupter, Bernie Sanders, appears on the political scene, this time challenging the Democrats and their establishment candidate, Hillary Clinton. He has similarly given the old guard Democrats something to be worried about. Once again, as in 2008, Hillary must fight her way to the top after having almost been assured of the nomination barely one year ago. The current Leo Venus Star Point (22° Leo) — begun in August 2015 and running until June 2016 — and the current Eris-Uranus pairing at 22° Aries, tightly aspect her natal Saturn (21° Leo). (2) What does natal Saturn want? What does Hillary want? How long can she ride both sides of the fence, catering to the billionaires who finance her and also promising to take out the billionaires who help her get the vote? Like Trump and Sanders, her Nodal axis (23° Taurus/Scorpio) is being activated, but in the challenging quincunx and square — an uphill climb.

Hillary Clinton (3)
Oct. 26, 1947
8:00 p.m. CST
Chicago, IL
Koch houses, True node

So, what is the message of Eris, Uranus, and that 22°- 23° Aries Geodetic Ascendant (for Washington) for both of these disrupters?

Donald Trump
June 14, 1946
10:54 a.m. EDT
Jamaica, NY
AA data
Koch houses, True node

Trump’s Sun is 22° Gemini, his Moon is 21° Sagittarius, and his Nodal axis is 20° Gemini/Sag. Eris has been trine and sextile them all since his rise (oh, the power of enabling trines and sextiles!). Soon, when she gets back to 23°, she will square his Saturn. He could literally fall off the podium right before our eyes. Donald will ultimately go down, but, meanwhile, what a spectacle to behold.

Sanders has natal Mars at 23° Aries.

Bernie Sanders
Sept. 8, 1941; time unknown; chart set for noon
Brooklyn, NY
Koch houses, True node

Eris and Uranus is right there on it. Bernie Sanders is also an activist, with a pure Aries Mars. Bernie’s Mars clearly shows in his Martian demeanor, but it looks so much better on him than Trump, since it is backed by wisdom and compassion. He has consistently, without wavering, continued to rouse the masses, challenge the system, and loudly broadcast his socialist reform ideas no matter how few people have been listening through the years. His message resonates with such a large part of today’s America; it’s like watching an idea whose time has come. The activation of a pure Mars in Aries — let’s see what kind of power and force that has. Some people would see his Mars in Aries as indicating someone who gets out of the starting gate at the pace of a speeding bullet, but then burns out and can’t sustain the pace. Yet, observing his natal Mars right smack on the Washington Geo Ascendant for the entire 40-plus-year history of his political career would signify that he’s been the perfect embodiment of an activist who continually reminds us that Washington needs to be shaken and awakened. His Nodal axis, like Trump’s and Clinton’s, are also the subject upon which the spotlight shines in the current transit pattern.

His Nodes at 22° Virgo/Pisces have been the recipient of the transiting nodes at 22° Virgo/Pisces, while Jupiter at 22° Virgo and Chiron at 22° Pisces illuminate the heart, soul, and compassion behind his political agenda. (An interesting side-note here is that the nodal axis of all three leading candidates are at 20, 22, and 23 degrees of their respective signs, receiving direct activation from transiting Uranus, Eris, the nodes, Jupiter, Chiron, and the Leo Venus Star Point at this time.) Another noteworthy point: All three leading candidates have Mars in a fire sign — Trump and Clinton in Leo and Sanders in Aries, demonstrating their forcefulness in engaging in intense combat with their rivals.

If there’s any doubt that the revolution is upon us, let’s just wait until the Eris/Uranus pairing plays out this year and into the whole term of the next presidency. We are only in Act I of this mystery play, with several more acts to follow.

Eris and Uranus may be affecting many of us. Look at your charts. Where is 22°- 23° Aries? How might we deal with this uninvited goddess of discord in the best possible way? What type of revolutionary changes are we in need of making? New viewpoints, habits, awareness are in store for the collective.

One way to satisfy Eris is to include her presence and perspective rather than pushing her away, whether you agree with it or not. Both Trump and Sanders have been pumped up by a citizenry who feel they have been ignored and forgotten and are hailing their leaders somewhat like gods. Clinton may have a strong following, but her fans are not exactly bowing down and kissing her feet, like the two aforementioned male counterparts. Sometimes things need to be disrupted in a dramatic fashion to point out the absurdity of it all. The stories tell us that Eris delighted in the chaos and confusion she caused for humans when she worked her magic. She enjoyed watching them being thrown completely off balance. In some stories she was paired with Ares (Mars). Their glyphs resemble one another; hers is the shape of Mars, with the arrow pointing downward. Eris and Mars do seem like a pair that one would want to give a fairly wide berth.

No matter what side of the political fence they reside on, there are literally millions of people across the country delighting right now in the disturbance of the established two-party old-guard system. The Republicans certainly didn’t invite Trump and would love nothing more than to shove him out of the picture entirely, and as this is being written, plans are underway to do just that. The Democrats did not invite Sanders, but his Mars is shining now and he is gaining strength and recognition as the process unfolds. The current three leading candidates — Sanders, Trump, and Clinton — are positioned on an interesting part of the political spectrum. At one extreme is Trump and at the other is Sanders. Hillary sits in the middle, trying to decide where she actually belongs in terms of the people whose votes she would like to garner.

Stay tuned for this rendezvous. Uranus and Eris tango around the Washington D.C. Geodetic Ascendant in the coming months, as follows:

Uranus:
June 1, 2016
September 28, 2016
March 22, 2017

Eris:
May 3, 2016
October 5, 2016
April 12, 2017
October 29, 2017

Footnotes:

(1) Author’s note: The Geodetic Zodiac is my go-to house system for analyzing anything political and mundane, and I think it works quite well in the U.S. chart. My article Geodetic Angles and the U.S. Chart (TMA, Nov. 1995) detailed some major events affecting the U.S., and in each case there was an outer-planet transit or an eclipse over the geodetic angles of Washington.
(Editor’s note: Here is an explanation of the Geodetic Zodiac from Arielle’s 1995 TMA article:
“To briefly summarize how this system works, imagine the 360 lines of longitude around the world applied to the 360° of the zodiac. Each line of longitude becomes a degree of the zodiac. The most universally agreed upon starting point is 0° longitude which occurs at Greenwich, England. Therefore, Greenwich = 0° Aries Midheaven (MC). West of Greenwich, the MC becomes Pisces; east of Greenwich it becomes Aries, and so on, all the way around the world. The Ascendant and other house cusps are derived from the local MC. For instance, the MC for 0° Aries at 51° north latitude (London) yields an Ascendant of 26° Cancer (therefore London’s geodetic angles are 0° Aries MC and 26° Cancer Ascendant) — yet the Ascendant for the same degree of longitude as the equator gives an Ascendant of 0° Cancer.”

(2) Editor’s note: The Venus Star Point (VSP) is the author’s terminology for the degree of the most recent conjunction of Venus with the Sun. Venus retrograde was conjunct the Sun at 22° Leo on August 15, 2015. The next conjunction will be on June 6, 2016 at 16° Gemini.

Here is a TMA blog on the subject.  And, Arielle’s web sites (linked in her bio below) have more information on her work.

(3) Hillary Clinton’s birth time is unknown – Rodden rating DD, conflicting or unverified. There is a discrepancy between her birth time as 8 a.m. or 8 p.m. The author is using the p.m. time herein, although it is unverified.

Bio: Arielle Guttman began her formal studies in astrology in 1974 in San Diego, CA. Based in Santa Fe for over 25 years, she recently relocated to Oakland, CA. Arielle’s work primarily focuses on private one-to-one client sessions, group seminars, and writing books on astrological subjects. Conversant in the many fields of astrology, her specialty areas are reflected in the five volumes she has written and published for the astrological community. Since the publication of her fifth book, Venus Star Rising, Arielle has been touring the country to introduce the Venus Star Point® theory, a revolutionary new astrological point that transforms a person’s chart and their perceptions of how they can function most harmoniously in life.
Contact Arielle via email: arielle@sophiavenus.com, or, visit her websites: SophiaVenus and VenusStarRising.