Mercury Retrograde And Election Madness

I’m encouraging anyone reading this to vote by mail this year if possible, or vote early at the designated locations in your precinct.  Why?  Mercury will turn retrograde on November 6th this year.  Yes, right on Election Day.  Anyone working with astrology for very long knows what can happen when the ‘god’ of communications, commerce, and routine travel stops and begins to move backwards.  All sorts of imagined and unimagined mishaps can go wrong in the middle of an election when this occurs, and it has only happened once before.  Guess when?  When George Bush Jr. questionably won against Al Gore not that long ago.  So here we go again!

Election Day in Honolulu 8 PM AHST

On this particular Election Day Mercury will be retrograde in Sagittarius in trine to Uranus also retrograde in Aries, and squaring Neptune and Chiron in Pisces, both retrograde.  What this potentially means is a lot of upsets, surprises and excitement surrounded by confusion, lack of clarity, and downright chaos.  Distortions of all types are possible.  Resulting disillusionment is possible.  So the more of us who quietly and sanely fill out our ballots and put them in the mailbox the better!

Could this Mercury retrograde have anything to do with the results of this election?  Look back at the first time George Bush Jr. got elected and make your own conclusions.

Obama on Election Day

Romney on Election Day

There’s a lot of buzz even in astrological circles about who will win.  I’m purposely staying out of that fray.  A recent blogger, Jamie Partridge, listed all the astrologers who say Obama will win, and all those who say Romney will win.  Check it out for yourself, but right now it’s still about 2 to 1 in favor of Obama.

What I’m more concerned with now is what is happening to America?  First I’d like to quote Matt Taibbi a very astute national affairs commentator on our election madness, and then I’d like to briefly look ahead at what America has to go through astrologically speaking until 2015.

First Mr. Taibbi in his recent article “Blame the Media” (Mercury again):
“What we Americans go through to pick a president is not only crazy and unnecessary but genuinely abusive.  Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent in a craven, cynical effort to stir up hatred and anger on both sides.  A decision that in reality takes one or two days of careful research to make is somehow stretched out into a process that involves two years of relentless, suffocating mind-warfare, an onslaught of toxic media messaging directed at liberals, conservatives and everyone in between that by Election Day makes every dinner conversation dangerous and literally divides families.

Politicians are much to blame for this, but we in the media have to take responsibility for the damage we do to the American psyche in the name of election coverage.  At this very moment, there are people all over the country who are stocking up on canned goods and ammo for the apocalypse they believe will come if Obama is re-elected.  For the broadcast business to be successful viewers need to be not merely interested in our political melodramas, they have to be in an absolute state about them—emotionally invested in the outcome and frightened not to watch what happens next.  And any person who’s been subjected to 720 consecutive days of propaganda is not likely to take the news well if he gets the wrong result, whether it’s a victory for Obama or for Romney.  By that point, the networks have spent two years finding new ways each day to convince him that the world is going to disintegrate into some commie or Hitlerian version of Mad Max, to keep him coming back and watching ads.”

He goes on to suggest that our campaigns be limited to six weeks and have free TV access for both candidates.  He also wants it to be illegal to publish poll numbers.  “Think about it:  Banning poll numbers would force the media to actually cover the issues.  As it stands now, the horse race is the entire story.”

I remember one early morning years ago taking the bus from Dublin to the airport and being the only person on the bus.  I got into a conversation with the driver who was from Slovenia, a small but beautiful Eastern European country.  He told me that in his country each candidate got equal campaign funds to keep things fair, and that the elections were fair in his country. He thought our country was sort of nuts in the way we conducted our political campaigns.  I sadly had to agree with him.  I, for one, will be relieved when this final frenzy to the finishing line is over for another two years before we start it up all over again.

USA on Election Day

The concern I really have is for the future of this nation where I was born.  Certain cycles are in place that portend of even greater upheavals and implosions than we have lived through since 2008, and these will concern the very heads of state themselves as well as the energy and purpose of America as symbolized by the Sun in Cancer. There are also cycles involving our nation’s Moon in Aquarius (the common people & public nature) which look quite challenging. Here’s the run-down of specific dates when the most intense periods will run their course.

Transit Uranus semi-square the Moon:  June 18, 2013
Transit Uranus (retrograde) semi-square the Moon:  August 16, 2013
Transit Pluto semi-square the Moon:  January 27, 2014
Transit Pluto opposite the Sun:  March 14, 2014
Transit Uranus semi-square the Moon:  March 28, 2014
Transit Uranus square the Sun:  April 17, 2014
Transit Pluto (retrograde) opposite the Sun:  May 17, 2014
Transit Pluto (retrograde) semi-square the Moon:  July 9, 2014
Transit Uranus (retrograde) square the Sun:  November 8, 2014
Transit Pluto semi-square the Moon:  December 2, 2014
Transit Pluto opposite the Sun:  January 5, 2015
Transit Uranus square the Sun:  February 2, 2015
Transit Pluto (retrograde) opposite the Sun:  August 17, 2015
Transit Pluto opposite the Sun:  November 1, 2015  (Note that Pluto opposes the Sun FIVE times.)

I’ve kept things as simple as possible citing only the Sun & Moon involved in the basic Uranus/Pluto square aspect that every astrologer is discussing intensely now.  The aspects to the Moon are particularly troubling because semi-square aspects are aspects of great pressure either to over-come some obstacle (waxing) or to release and let go of a past cycle (waning).  The Moon representing the people shows this pressure applied on either side, both waxing from Uranus and waning from Pluto, beginning in the summer of 2013 and extending to the end of 2014.

Pluto in America’s chart now enters its ‘Immanent Phase’ meaning that in a few years Pluto returns to where it was at this nation’s birth after 248 years of a complete cycle.  This final phase is where endings and the seeds of new beginnings are mixing.  Pluto in the natal map is opposite Mercury implying that the nation was born out of a power struggle of gigantic proportions involving differing ideologies.  This struggle is back again in full force as the old ends and the new begins.

So whoever is elected President of this nation will be dealing with great transitions of primarily endings before what is to come emerges.  Given the chaotic confusion of this Election Day on November 6th, the strange fate of the head of the helm will be determined in a most disturbing manner.  The does not bode well for a bright and tranquil presidency as more sobering matters loom ahead after the madness and frenzy of one more election cycle.