The Nomination Chart: Part 1: Donald Trump

I recently wrote a TMA blog titled Why Astrology Can’t Predict the Next President. One of the core arguments in that article is that astrology can’t answer every question. Astrology can only answer questions that are specific, precise, and have a limited set of possible answers.

Astrologers started asking the question, “Who will be the next President of the United States” more than a year before any candidates had officially entered the race. Astrology doesn’t work with hypotheticals. Until the candidates are official, the question isn’t valid.

To be sure, the question isn’t valid even after the candidates are official. There’s no definitive way for astrology to predict the winner of a presidential election.

That being said, astrology can now provide some insights into the election.

So, what changed?

We finally have an objective event to consider.

On July 21, 2016 at 10:19 p.m. EDT, in Cleveland Ohio, Donald Trump became the official Republican candidate in the 2016 presidential election. The moment he officially and publicly accepted the nomination represents the birth of his campaign. The chart for that event should, in theory, provide some insight into his chances of success.

When considering the presidential election, the nomination charts are the most specific and relevant charts to consider. However, they’re still not specific enough to predict a definitive winner. The nomination charts show the outcome of the campaigns from the perspective of each candidate. They don’t provide an objective chart for the election itself. We still have to consider two independent charts, and there’s no objective metric to judge the outcome.

In this article, I will consider the chart for Donald Trump’s nomination, and in Part 2, I will explore the chart for the Democratic candidate, once that candidate becomes official.

Before looking at the chart itself, we need to define what we’ll be looking at.

Here’s a quick rundown of how to interpret an event chart.

The first house represents the nominee. We’ll consider the planet that rules the First House and evaluate its condition, including both Essential Dignity (power) and Accidental Dignity (prominence). We’ll also consider any planets that occupy the First House because they further describe the condition of the nominee.

The seventh house represents the opposing candidate, but here’s where things get a bit complicated. The ruler of the Seventh House specifically represents how the nominee perceives his or her opponent. We’ll consider the dignity and debility of this planet both independently and in comparison with the dignity and debility of the ruler of the First House.

The tenth house is the prize. In this case, the Tenth House and the ruler of the Tenth House is the Presidency.

The second house relates to the nominee’s money and resources available for the campaign.

The Moon shows the action and events. Every aspect the Moon makes before it changes signs is significant. And if the Moon doesn’t make any aspects before changing signs — if it’s Void of Course — that’s also significant. A Void-of-Course Moon suggests that nothing will come of the question.

 So here’s the nomination chart for Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential Election.
Let’s take a closer look at the players.

The chart has 1°32” Pisces on the Ascendant, so Jupiter, the ruler of Pisces, represents Trump.

Jupiter in the chart is in Virgo in the seventh house. Jupiter is in detriment and has no Essential Dignity, so it’s also peregrine. It gets a score of -10 for power, which is about as weak as you can get. (1) Trump is severely damaged. He has no control over the outcome of events. All he can do is go along for the ride.

Of even greater concern is that Trump is in the seventh house of his opponent. The seventh house is angular, and planets in the seventh receive a score of +4 for prominence. This does not work in Trump’s favor. Accidental Dignity does not compensate for Essential Debility. On the contrary, it means that everyone will see how weak he is. And being in the house of his opponent suggests Trump is exactly where his opponent wants him to be.

The chart also has three malefic planets in the first house: Neptune, the South Node, and Chiron. Neptune suggests deception, illusion, and fantasy, but especially in the first house, it also suggests the dissolving and corroding of Trump. The South Node is a drain, and that drain is perhaps magnified because it’s conjunct Neptune. And Chiron represents a core wound.

Things do not look good for Trump so far. Let’s see how he views his opponent.

Virgo is on the Descendant, so Mercury, the ruler of Virgo, represents Trump’s opponent.

In this chart, Mercury is in Leo in the sixth house. Mercury in Leo also has no Essential Dignity, and receives a power score of -5 because it’s peregrine. Trump’s opponent is damaged, but not nearly as badly damaged as Trump. Jupiter is both peregrine and in detriment. In this context, Mercury is far more powerful than Jupiter.

Mercury occupies the sixth house in the chart and is just emerging from the Sun’s Beams (less than 17° from the Sun). Both of these are severe Accidental Debilities that have a negative effect on prominence. Mercury has a prominence score of -8, but keep in mind this is all from Trump’s point of view. Trump can’t see his opponent.

Strategically, this is bad news for Trump. It means he won’t be able to respond effectively to attacks or challenges during the campaign. Every attack will come as a complete surprise.

At the time that Trump became the nominee, the Democratic nominee had not been selected. But there’s an interesting connection between Mercury, representing Trump’s opponent in his nomination chart, and Hillary Clinton, the presumptive nominee.

 Trump’s Opponent is on the Back of the Bear.

In the nomination chart, Mercury is conjunct the fixed star Dubhe. Dubhe forms the back of the Great Bear in the Ursa Major constellation, and it’s considered to be a violent, destructive influence. (2)

Oh — and Hillary Clinton has both natal Mars and natal Pluto conjunct Dubhe.

This seems to suggest that underestimating or dismissing his opponent, especially if it’s Hillary Clinton, would be a huge and probably fatal mistake for Trump. It’s never a good idea to poke the bear. You could lose everything.

But losing is only a bad thing if the prize is worth having.

The Midheaven of the chart is 14°37” Sagittarius, so Jupiter is also the prize.

From the moment he threw his hat in the ring, I’ve maintained that Donald Trump has no interest in becoming president, but only wanted to run for president. I explored this in detail, while exploring the predictive triggers to Trump’s natal chart, in my article, Trump TV: The Season Finale, in the June/July 2016 issue of The Mountain Astrologer.

The nomination chart supports this theory. The prize, being elected President, is a poison pill. Jupiter is in Detriment and peregrine, and is applying to an opposition with Chiron and a quincunx to Uranus. There’s nothing fun or entertaining about Jupiter in Virgo. Jupiter in Virgo is endless, expansive bureaucracy.

And here’s where things get tricky. Jupiter rules both Trump and the Presidency, and when considering horary and event charts, that belongs clearly in the “Yes” column (that is, to the question about the success of his campaign). Trump is literally one with the prize.

But to judge the outcome of the chart, you have to consider all of the factors. The prize is badly damaged (Detriment) and lacks power (peregrine). It would be an empty win for Trump. More importantly, the prize is located in the seventh house of his opponent.

At best, this suggests that Trump is conflicted about winning, but I think it can also be viewed in a different context. Trump won the only prize he sought: the nomination. He wants the celebrity without any of the responsibility.

And then there’s the question of money.

Running a campaign in the general election takes lots of money, and Trump can’t count on it being there when he needs it.

Oh, there’s lots of money on the table. With Aries on the cusp of the second house, Mars in Scorpio, the ruler of Aries, represents the available resources to Trump’s campaign. Mars is powerfully dignified with both rulership and triplicity, so there are some very deep pockets involved. The problem is that those pockets are in the ninth house. At best, they’re far away.

Getting the money from the ninth house into Trump’s second house campaign coffers won’t be easy. Uranus occupies the second house, suggesting chaos, disruptions, and financial upsets for Trump’s campaign. But more importantly, Mars and Uranus are quincunx each other, suggesting an even greater divide between Trump and the financial support of the party.

The quincunx between Mars and Uranus is significant for Trump on a personal level because it’s one of the dominant themes in his 2016 Solar Return, which I explored in the Trump TV: The Season Finale article. In that chart, it suggests both personal and professional disaster for Trump because Uranus is on the Midheaven of the return chart.

But what really matters in an event chart is the Moon.

Everything we’ve covered so far has described the context of the campaign, but the Moon determines the outcome. When considering horary, electional, or event charts, we have to pay close attention to the sequence of aspects the Moon will make before it leaves the sign it’s in.

In Trump’s nomination chart, the Moon doesn’t make any future aspects. Trump accepted the nomination literally minutes after the Moon in Aquarius went Void of Course, completing its final aspect, a square to Mars in Scorpio.

Astrologically, this may be the last straw for Trump. His acceptance speech was the beginning and the end of his campaign. There are no new events and nothing will come out of the campaign. And Trump’s lack of power (Jupiter being peregrine and in detriment) means he can’t do anything to influence or alter the course of things. All he can do is play the hand he’s got and hope that his opponent has worse cards than he does.

But let’s take a moment and acknowledge his acceptance speech.

Trump’s speech perfectly embodied the moment, bringing to life the energy of the Moon in Aquarius in the twelfth house exactly square Mars in Scorpio in the ninth house. Trump played up the idea of hidden enemies and unconscious fears and continued to tap into the deepest twelfth house shadows of the population. He emphasized the Aquarian idea of freedom — at least as it applies to the members of a particular group. The enemies, of course, are ninth-house foreigners and immigrants who pose a Mars-in-Scorpio dire and direct threat to our very existence. And given that it’s a fixed square, his solution is to build a wall, strengthen our borders and boundaries, and prepare for a siege.

So let’s summarize what we’ve learned from Trump’s nomination chart.

Trump as a candidate (Jupiter in Virgo) is not only powerless (peregrine), but also damaged (detriment). He’s further weakened by the presence of Neptune, the South Node, and Chiron in the first house. His weaknesses are quite prominent because Jupiter is in the seventh house, and since the seventh house represents Trump’s opponent, his opponent will have an easy time exploiting those weaknesses.

Trump’s opponent (Mercury in Leo) is also powerless (peregrine), but she’s less damaged than Trump. She’s potentially destructive because Mercury is conjunct the fixed star Dubhe. Because Mercury lacks so much prominence from being under the Sun’s beams (less than 17° from the Sun) and in the sixth house, Trump doesn’t see her. This gives her a tactical advantage because every attack will be a surprise.

The prize, the Presidency, is a poison pill. It’s also represented by Jupiter in Virgo, and given that it’s in the seventh house, from Trump’s point of view, it belongs to his opponent.

And most importantly, the Moon is Void-of-Course, so nothing else happens with Trump’s campaign. The high point of the campaign was his acceptance speech, and it’s all downhill from here.

But this doesn’t mean that Trump will lose the election.

This chart describes Trump’s campaign in the general election from Trump’s perspective. It does not describe the outcome of the election.

Objectively, this is a lousy chart for Trump. But it still has to be considered in context. In poker, a pair of twos still beats an ace high. Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic candidate, has yet to accept the nomination. And with the conventions only a week apart, her nomination chart will have many of the same challenges that Trump’s chart does.

Stay tuned for more!

In Part 2, I will consider the Democratic nomination chart, both on its own and in comparison to Trump’s nomination chart. It’s still not possible to definitively predict the winner of the presidential race, but the nomination charts may reveal what we can expect in the next few months.

Editor’s notes:

(1) The author uses the Accidental Dignity and Debility scores as described in Nicholas de Vore’s Encyclopedia of Astrology.

(2) The fixed star Dubhe is at 15°21′ Leo (in the Ursa Major constellation). Source: Astrology Weekly: Fixed Stars 2011

Bio: Kevin B. Burk is the Headmaster of The Real Astrology Academy, which provides astrological information, education, and training to astrologers and astrology students around the world. He’s the author of eleven books, including Principles of Practical Natal Astrology: Talented Astrologer Training Book 1. Read more of his articles in the Talented Astrologer Blog.