Gryphon Astrology Blog

The Jupiter-Saturn cycle is a very powerful indicator of political activity in the world. It has a strong correlation with important events in the United States, and this upcoming midterm election (on the November 7, 2006) is no exception. Jupiter and Saturn will square each other on October 25, less than two weeks before election Day in the United States. Jupiter and Saturn conjunct each other every 20 years, an event known as the Great Conjunction. Five years after the Great Conjunction, Jupiter and Saturn form a square aspect, five years after that, they oppose each other, and five years after the opposition, they square each other again. In the five years following, they form another Great Conjunction.

The Great Conjunction is considered as a time of emerging potentials that will influence the next 20 years. At approximately five-year points, at the squares and at the opposition, those potentials are tested and form crisis points where the potentials can evolve in different directions. This is probably too theoretical, so consider that the last Great Conjunction occurred in May of 2000. This helped to usher in an era of Republican rule and the general movement in the direction of conservatism in the United States. We are now at the approximately 5 year mark, at which point we are experiencing the first square that happens after the Great Conjunction. The square shows a moment of great tension, and we will see whether the Republican movement can hold onto power or not.

At the moment, it looks as though the Republican majorities in Congress are imperiled. The races are very close between Democrats and Republicans, because it is clear that whoever wins will have a very powerful impact on shaping the future of the United States, perhaps more than usual. There is an overall sense that the country is at a crossroads, and that it is time to make serious decisions about major issues like the economy, the war in Iraq, and the increasingly serious effects of global warming.

Here is the horoscope for the Jupiter- Saturn square on October 25, 2006 set for Washington, DC:

To understand what the placements in in this chart mean, we have to turn to another horoscope, that of the Great Conjunction prior to the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776. You can read more in this post on that horoscope’s meaning in light of the 9/11 attacks. For our purposes here, we know that Saturn rules the 10th house of the ruling party in the 1762 Great Conjunction. The Sun rules the opposite house of challengers to the ruling party.

So in the chart for October 25, 2006, Saturn will rule the Republican Party, and the Sun will rule the Democrats. How is Saturn? Not good. Saturn is in its detriment in Leo in the eighth house of death. Further, Leo is ruled by the Sun, which represents the Democratic Party. So the Republicans are in the Democrats’ power. The Sun is somewhat better off, having just left Libra, the sign of its fall. At 2° Scorpio, the Sun is Peregrine, thus lacking any dignity or debility. Peregrine is not great, but it is rather better than being in detriment like Saturn. So based on this, we see the Democrats have an advantage.

We also want to look at the Rulerships in the October 25 chart standing alone. Here, the Republicans are shown by the 10th house ruler of Venus in Scorpio which is combust, a fancy word for being too close to the burning rays of the Sun. This is an extremely serious debility for a planet. The Sun is the natural representative of the King, here meaning the United States president, George W. Bush. So the Republicans’ proximity to Bush is harming them; the newspapers have reported as much, showing that not many of the candidates in this fall’s elections want to be seen with Bush, whose public approval ratings are rather low.

The Democrats are shown by the fourth house ruler, Mars in Scorpio. In the early degrees of Scorpio, Mars is incredibly strong, ruling all of the major dignities. If we were to show the contrast between Venus and Mars’s strength, we would say that Venus has a strength of -5, while Mars has a strength of 11. These numbers don’t mean anything, but they do serve to illustrate the great disparity between the two planets in his horoscope. And that’s not even taking combustion into account, which would make Venus about -10 in terms of overall strength. This testimony, too, shows that the Democrats have an advantage.

However, the chart is not very clear cut. In charts where we are curious about the will of the people, such as charts preceding elections, we have to look at the Moon, the significator of the common folk. The Moon is in Sagittarius, in the 12th house. At 10° of Sagittarius, the Moon has some small amount of regard for Venus, and a bit more regard for the Sun. So the people seem to prefer the Democrats, at least slightly. However, the Moon is in the malefic and cadent 12th house, from where it cannot act. It will be very difficult for both parties to get their voters to the polls. The Moon will make only one aspect in its trek through the sign of Sagittarius. That aspect is a trine to Saturn in Leo in about 13°. Given that it will be 13 days between the square and the election on November 7, one wonders if the Republicans will not go home with a majority after all is said and done. Very much will depend on the ability of the Democrats to get out the vote this November 7.

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