Inaugural Omens
A Look to the Stars for Monday, 20 January
On the lookout for auspices and omens last week, I did something I’m generally loathe to do and turned on the tube for a bit of politico-ritual spectacle. But notwithstanding some bold bits of costuming, the most interesting auspices were to be found in the stars.
Today we’ll take a look at the '“horary” chart for noon on Monday, 20 Jan in Washington, D.C, in order to glean what we can about the next four years.
A note before we begin: I’ll be making reference to some technical astrology stuff here, but I’ll keep it accessible overall for the non-specialist reader.
I’ll also be doing my best to refrain from interjecting too much political opinion, which would only muddy the interpretive waters. Here goes.
First, a word of orientation: for those not familiar with the North Indian style of horoscope, the twelve diamond and triangle-shaped zones represent the twelve houses of the zodiac. This chart style “squares the circle,” bringing the heavens down to earth in a structured way.
And a bit more anatomy: the ascendant or first house is the uppermost diamond (marked “As” for ascendant) and the houses move counter-clockwise from there. The number in each house tells us the number of the sign (1 = Aries, 2 = Taurus, etc.), not the number of the house—but since this happens to be an Aries rising chart, the houses and sign numbers align perfectly (i.e. the first sign corresponds to the first house, the second sign to the second house, and so on).
Okay, so what stands out here?
Let’s start with the moon. In a horary chart such as this, the moon’s placement shows where the subject’s mind is focused, and fittingly the moon here sits in the 6th house of enemies, litigation, fights and obstacles. The Moon’s naksatra (star group) is Citra, symbolized by a jewel and ruled by the divine artisan Visvakarma. As a maker of intricate objects, this naksatra deity can give a detail-oriented, perfectionistic quality—and sometimes an obsessive one. This moon shows that Trump began his second presidency stewing over his enemies and the many slights he feels they have subjected him to. He’s plotting and calculating his revenge. The moon is also on the Rahu/Ketu axis, i.e. being influenced by the lunar nodes. There’s something unbalanced about his emotional state, as in his eclipse-marred natal chart (which is a whole ‘nother story).
Let’s turn to what’s in some ways the main attraction, the rising sign and its lord.
Rising in this chart is headstrong, war-like Aries, a dynamic and fiery sign. More specifically, within Aries the naksatra (star cluster) of Bharani is rising. Bharani is symbolized by the yoni (vulva/womb) and ruled by Yama, the Vedic god of death. Unsurprisingly this is a star of great intensity which foregrounds themes of life, death and painful passage. Not a comfortable or mundane place, this star’s tagline could well be “the agony and the ecstasy.” I can’t think of a more fitting phrase, really, to describe the range of emotions that Trump elicits (and he doesn’t look to become less polarizing anytime soon).
We must note that Aries’ ruler, Mars, is in a mixed condition: he’s strong by virtue retrogression (the outer planets are close to the earth when retrograde, and thus bright) but hobbled by sitting at the junction between signs (0 degrees 12’) and yet still on the side of his least favorite sign, Cancer, where Mars is debilitated. The classics say, however, that a debilitated retrograde planet ends being powerful. What with the retrogression, that power is of a renewed, revised, reworked sort: this is Trump with a twist, Trump 2.0—for better or worse. This is Trump bruised but defiant, limping but proud. A fighter who’s taken a beating but is coming out swinging, as we’ve seen in the past week’s flurry of executive orders. He doesn’t want to show weakness, but his wounds are open and he’s out of his element in the most watery of signs. This is a recipe for volatility and for overcompensation. Not the most stable of situations, but then one doesn’t need a crystal ball to say that stability is not in the cards.
Fittingly for someone being anointed as leader of what is arguably still the world’s most powerful country, the chart does features a major rāj yoga or combination for kingship. This particular yoga forms between the ascendant lord Mars and the Sun, who rules the 10th house of government. Mars as we’ve noted is a mixed bag, while the Sun is undeniably strong by virtue of being so high in the sky (there’s a reason inaugurations happen at noon). This Sun is bolstered all three benefics (Mercury, Venus, Jupiter), so he lends a good deal of strength and also a measure of dignity to the kingship combination.
King on the one hand and general on the other, Sun and Mars are two planets that see eye to eye. Both are fiery and willful. Sitting in Uttarāsadha, the star of victory, the Sun only adds to this sense of being on the warpath. Whether or not Trump starts any new foreign wars, he’s already at war with the Democratic establishment and with major swathes of the culture and the country. And as we’ll see when we look more closely at the fourth house (below), civil unrest is still not out of the question.
There’s obviously something violent about Trump’s approach. And yet the chart does suggest there’s something dharmic about it, too (this from the way this Aries chart’s three ‘dharma lords’—Mars, Sun and Jupiter—make contact with one another). To this point, if they’re honest even Trump’s harshest critics must admit that there was incompetence and corruption within the previous administration, and in that sense, some of Trump’s fury is of righteous sort. That said, given his emotional bent and the over-the-top fiery stubbornness of this Aries ascendant, Trump will go too far, and start as many fires as he puts out. There’s a real risk of scorched earth, especially where the homeland is concerned.
Speaking of war, the close conjunction of Venus and Saturn narrowly avoids a “planetary war” (when two planets occupy the same 1 degree of longitude). This nearly-confrontational meeting of Saturn and Venus occurs in the 11th house of friends and allies. We can already see how many feathers Trump is ruffling among US allies such as Ukraine, Denmark and the EU as a whole. It would seem, though, that his mouthing off on subjects like Greenland and the Panama Canal may be more strategic than it appears. He intends to shake up the status quo, to do some “re-modeling” (a Saturn-meets-Venus endeavor) of US alliances, the current state of which fails to satisfy his appetites and ambitions. He also intends to extract more money out these international allies and is likely to be successful in that much, seeing as Saturn and Venus form a dhana (wealth) yoga in the 11th. This combination also suggests that Trump’s personal friends stand to benefit financially from his reign, which comes as no surprise.
One of the darkest areas of this chart is the fourth house, which is afflicted in a close approximation of the malefic pattern called kuhu yoga (the 4th lord, moon, is himself afflicted in a negative house, while the 4th house is doubly afflicted by Mars and Sun. Only Jupiter’s aspect on the moon moderates the pattern—Jupiter may be a saving grace here). In the context of this horary chart, the fourth house signifies land, natural resources, housing and communal harmony, all of which are under a fiery form of duress in Trump’s second term. We can expect more natural disasters (and an attendant exacerbation of the housing crisis) however they’re rationalized under this climate change-denying administration. Protest and some degree of civil unrest are inevitable in the face of all this, and may be met with brutal force.
One final observation is that the inauguration took place under “visti karana,” an inauspicious half-day period that recurs a few times each month. This is a time period one would would normally seek to avoid for something like an inauguration, seeing as “visti” means poisonous, suggesting something toxic in the mix. Trump’s blatant imperial ambitions and vengeful obsessions and perhaps only part of how this toxicity may play out.
If I had to boil down my prediction for these next four years to a handful of phrases, they’d include “vengeful obsession,” “trial by fire,” “show of force,” “imperial ambition,” “painful renewal,” “opportunistic plunder” and “collateral damage.”
Not on the menu this term: complacency, stability, or smooth sailing. Nor predictability, for that matter. Things are going to be moving fast, and where we’ll end up is probably far from where anyone envisions.
And what to do? Well, if Trump were a client who was open to ritual remedies—we’re really piling hypothetical upon hypothetical here—I’d suggest he get to know Hanumān. The great and valiant monkey embodies Mars’ best qualities while remaining tempered and, crucially, service-oriented. He represents a way to channel fire in a life-affirming way.
I get that there’s an infinitesimally small chance of Trump becoming devoted to a Hindu deity, but the rest of us can invoke Hanumān to steady us for the tumult to come.
Krishna Das’ versions of the 40-verse Hanuman Chalisa chant are widely available (try this one or this one) and his harmonic sensibility is accessible to Westerners (without sacrificing pronunciation). This chant has been my companion of late and I recommend it most highly; whatever difficulties you may be facing, spiritual superheroes like Hanumān can—when approached with sincerity—help lighten the load, shake off doomy funk and lift our spirits, no matter how grim the odds.
Whoever’s in office at any given time, the kali yug isn’t ending anytime soon, folks. There’s an ocean of individual and collective karma to be played out here amidst the veils of maya. It’s good to take solace and lean in where we can.
Jaya Hanuman, Jay Sri Rām. Jay Ma Durga, Jay Jay..!