Transcript of Radio Show: The USA and the 2020 Election – Biden & Trump
Biden Chart Analysis
The Humanistic approach to Astrology, starts with the consideration of any chart by approaching it Holistically, to seek to understand the chart by first discerning what pattern the planets form with one another. The pattern of Joe Biden’s chart is called a Locomotive or Open-Angle Pattern. The planets are spread around the wheel filling in about two-thirds of space and leaving one-third empty. The Locomotive type holds to a temperament that is inherently open to growth and transcendence. It can lead to a spiritual or even mystical quality, and it indicates the ability to move beyond the ordinary and conventional, so that the individual is open to wider and deeper appreciations through what are called transpersonal experiences. The Locomotive type is highly motivated and may feel that they have a mission in life. But with the trine Aspect as the basis for the pattern, their temperament can be very flowing and inspirational, drawing people onto their path.
The leading edge of the open angle pattern is a key indicator, and for Biden it is the Moon. Not only is the Moon in Taurus leading Biden, but it is also the rising body for his chart. Those factors, plus the preponderance of water placements in Biden’s chart, makes him a true sensitive. He feels very deeply and is highly intuitive and compassionate. Not only does he feel his joys and pains more than most, but he has such empathy and compassion that he truly feels the pain and joy of others too.
The three most important placements in any chart, are the Sun, Moon and Rising Sign. For Joe Biden, his Sun is in Scorpio and it is placed in his 12th house. Scorpio is a Water Sign and is known for its passion and determination. Scorpio’s are known for their penetrating insight, and they have a pronounced ability to see through the appearances of things and uncover that which is hidden from most. Scorpio rules Unions, the processes I call Alchemical, and that we know as Birth-Death-Rebirth.
Yes, the miracle of the birth of a child, and the agony of losing loved ones will mark Joe Biden’s life…and it has. He has earned his empathy and compassion with great losses, especially in 1972 of his first wife and his daughter, Nelia and Naomi in a car accident, (but luckily his sons Beau and Hunter survived). He later loss Beau to brain cancer in 2015. We Astrologers like to tell Scorpios that they are the strongest sign; we do not always have the heart to tell them why they will need that strength.
Biden’s Sun is in his 12th house, which often leads a soul into periods of deep introspection and equally seems to ask that individual to make some great sacrifices in their life. Biden does not seek the limelight for his own satisfaction, as he prefers to work behind the curtain. Through his Sun trining his Jupiter, Biden will appear to be fortunate or lucky in his life to many, but what they are really witnessing is the return of his very generous spirit of giving to many, many others
Biden’s Moon is in Taurus in the 5th house. This means he experiences the tension between timeless values (Taurus), and the equally ephemeral nature of our mortal forms and lives (Scorpio). With both his lights in Fixed Signs, Biden will be purposeful and constant, (as much as Trump is changeable and unstable). With the Moon in the house of recreation, play and children, Biden will enjoy life, recreations, and children. The Moon in Taurus fosters a stable, constant, and calm emotional nature.
Biden’s third essential quality is the Rising Sign of Sagittarius. Biden will appear to be very direct and open, prone to telling it “like it is”, (sometimes more so than he should). We often joke that when Sagittarius is rising the person often opens their mouth only to change their foot! Sagittarius is the sign of the storyteller, and Biden is well known for his joviality combined with his frankness. It can endear him to many, and it can make others cringe as he makes yet another faux pas. But fundamentally, he sees himself as someone who is here to discover and share the truth, and he will be direct and forthright about it.
Whereas Trump has his Sun conjunct Uranus (and opposite to his Moon), Biden has his Sun opposite to Uranus. The difference is that for himself (the Sun), Trump is an iconoclast, a breaker of norms; he is the shocker and disrupter. But, with both his “lights” influenced by Uranus he is inherently unstable, there is no place of stability.
Biden is shocked by others, but is himself very stable, so he is challenged to find constructive ways to respond to those who are not stable. Fortunately, he also has Venus conjunct his Sun, and with both Sun and Venus being in a trine to his Jupiter, he is both gentle and loving (Venus) and guided by good will and a strong moral purpose (Jupiter).
The planetary ruler for Scorpio is Mars (though Astrologers will also look to Pluto as well). For Biden, his Mars is also in Scorpio, and it is in his 11th House. Mars in Scorpio makes for a passionate warrior, someone you would want on your side, but you would be wise to walk away from if they are opposed to you. Mars in the 11th house fights for social justice, for preserving and advancing the hopes and dreams of others.
The Planet that is highest in a chart, (often in the 10th house) is also significant. For Trump it is Uranus, the planet of Individuality and Freedom. For Biden, it is Neptune, the planet of Dreams, Compassion and Sacrifice. Since the 10th house is your “public life” or “office”, Trump with Uranus in his 10th house would want to be free to do whatever he wants to do; Trump is born to be an autocrat. For Biden, he would see his career as a calling with Neptune, he would be inspired by a dream and be willing to sacrifice himself for the cause.
But he not a starry-eyed idealist, he is a very (as we astrologers like to say) watery person, with his Sun, Venus, Mercury and Mars in Scorpio, and his Jupiter in Cancer. Biden is sensitive and realistic, and he is motivated to care for and nurture others. He may wish he were less sensitive, but truly Biden’s sensitivity is his strength.
Trump Chart Analysis:
I always begin to examine a chart by looking at it holistically. After all, an astrological chart is a Sky Map, a picture of the planetary positions, as seen from a specific place on the Earth, on a certain day and time. What we should do first is take a step back and look for the overall message of the chart. When we do this what emerges is the pattern of the chart, and it reveals the first indication of the type of person we are examining.
Donald Trump’s pattern is called a Bowl or Hemispheric shape, with all planets lining up on one side of the chart, and the other half remaining open or empty. The bowl pattern implies a great degree of self-containment, but often desiring recognition; here we find a soul that is moved or affected more by external circumstances than by internal factors. Because of this pattern, Trump frames his life by a strong sense of mission, a sense that he possesses something (the filled bowl), but that he equally lacks or needs something, (the empty space). He will be driven, purposeful and feel that he has a destiny to fulfill. Because the pattern is fundamentally based on the opposition, the temperament formed is dualistic; Trump will have an “all or nothing” psychology, he will see the world as divided in two, into “us and them”.
The critical or high focus part of the Bowl pattern is formed by the leading planet or edge of the bowl. In Trump’s chart, that leading planet is Uranus in his 10th house of career, public life, and purpose. Uranus is the “Awakener” and brings about change through shocks and upsets. Not only is it his leading planet, but it is also the uppermost planet in his chart, and most significantly, it is next to his Sun and opposite to his Moon. If you want to understand a very great deal about Trump, you only need to understand this influence of Uranus and these other two features: that his Sun is in Gemini, his Moon is in Sagittarius, and he has Uranus conjunct his Sun and opposite to his Moon.
Gemini is an Air Sign, known for its intelligence, curiosity, adaptability, and restlessness. Gemini rules the mind in its capacity to consider things from more than one point of view or perspective, to perceive the world through multiple “lenses”, to assume multiple positions in order to consider which view or views seems most meaningful, revealing or exceptional. When applied in right ways, Gemini is our faculty of Intelligence.
Geminis love to “stir things up”. They can hold one position and then swing to the opposite position without skipping a beat. Geminis are often “high-strung, nervous types” with a constant need to take in and push out information. Their avidity and thirst for information, and their insistent need to share these multiple thoughts can push the envelope of reason to that razor’s edge that lies between genius and insanity. Keeping up with and following the stream of consciousness of some Geminis can be fascinating, but sometimes frustrating and fruitless; oftentimes with Trump, it will be pointless.
Being born at the Full Moon, Trump has his Moon in the opposite Sign of Sagittarius. The Moon rules the emotional life, the emotional needs, the ingrained and unconscious habit patterns of reactions/interactions and will reveal how a person will act or react without thinking. (And though we humans like to think of ourselves as mindful, intelligent and self-aware, we actually live a great deal of our lives on “autopilot”, so that when something happens, we will often react without much thought at all).
The Moon in Sagittarius is very free-wheeling, open and outspoken, so that it leads to a person who will feel and speak with little or no restraint. There is basically no filter at all. Whatever is in their feeling-thinking in that moment is what you are going to get.
The opposition of the Sun and Moon, (the two principle indicators of our Male and Female natures), will create a critical conflict and imbalance between the Thoughts and Feelings for Trump. The result will be a pulling and pushing within himself, often leading to wider (and wilder) swings between cold intellect and emotionality. If the spiritual-psychological work of accepting and integrating his male/female halves is not achieved, he will be subject to extreme restlessness, impulsiveness, and impatience.
This combination of Gemini and Sagittarius could be harnessed and balanced if other factors in his chart were to bring in some restraint and grounding. There are some factors in his chart that could help Trump. However, the principle planet affecting both his Sun and Moon is the planet that rules the “earthquakes of life”, Uranus.
The conjunction of the Sun with Uranus means that Trump will stand out, and never blend in. His life will be unusual, full of exceptional moments that break through boundaries. Born to rebel, he would have been independent and defiant as a child, and he would have developed a view of himself as not subject to normal rules or expectations. He can exhibit brilliance and flashes of great insight, but he will at times be equally unable to restrain himself from distractions and erratic behaviors.
Again, even this challenging set of factors could have been combined with grounding elements to modulate and stabilize his nature. But in Trump’s chart the energies of instability (and chaos) are magnified by Uranus because it is also in opposition to his Moon. Trump will look upon feelings (and women) with great distrust because they are for him so unpredictable and unknowable. He will be dismissive of and not in touch with his feeling nature. The result is that Trump will swing wildly between his restless intellect and insecure emotions. His thoughts will lack real empathy and compassion; and his emotions will be uninformed by reason. Trump will be capable of some moments of brilliance, but he will lack empathy; he will put on a display of sentiment, but he is truly uncaring. Trump will remain divided within himself; he has remained throughout his life a very unsettled and unstable individual.
Many commentators have assumed that Trump’s demeanor is purely an act, and that he employs his “principles of chaos” as a strategy, shocking his adversaries to achieve his ends. What his chart reveals is that this is no act. Trump is unstable by nature. He is simply unpredictable because he cannot control himself.
The planetary ruler for Gemini is Mercury, which for Trump is in the sign of Cancer. Though he will consider himself to be a man of reason, possessing a great range of ideas and knowledge, and that he comes to his facts and opinions via his superior intellect, much of his thinking and decision-making is unconsciously influenced by his emotions. He will believe that he is being “reasonable” when he in fact he is often being blinded by his emotional biases.
But much more troubling is that he also has his Mercury squaring his Neptune, the planet of Dreams and Imagination. Neptune is also, when misapplied or misunderstood, the planet that rules fantasies, delusions, and deceptions. Mercury squaring Neptune, if you can master yourself, can be wonderful and make you a great storyteller, it is gift for painters and poets, allowing one to slip beyond the boundaries of reality for inspiration.
But when combined with the inherent instability of his chart, Mercury square Neptune means that Trump will say anything, and mean nothing. He will make something up and turn around and say the opposite. And then he will probably turn around again and say some third thing. He will employ “smoke and mirrors”; he will claim to speak plainly and accuse others of being untruthful. He will sow doubt and confusion, he will often promise and not deliver. He is probably not to be believed or trusted much of the time.
One of the more challenging aspects a person may have in their chart is a hard contact between Venus and Saturn. Trump has his Saturn conjunct Venus, which means he experienced only conditional forms of love as a child. Rather than being loved truly, he was exposed to “love” that was given or withheld as a tool for reward or punishment. This is not love, this is the abusive power wielded by an authoritarian parent, most likely his father. Moreover, when Saturn makes this hard aspect to Venus, the child is exposed to the devaluation of women by their father.
Without significant help to heal this wound, Trump would have no true experience of healthy “self-love”, nor would he be capable of genuinely loving another. He would need others to love and admire him to fill the aching hole in his soul. But he would be unable to show real love to another. Trump can only take from others; he has no love to offer. He would be ungenerous, uncharitable and treat others as “objects”, as he can be the only "subject" in any relationship.
This aspect in a chart may indicate and form the conditions for developing “narcissistic personality disorder”. It has been noted that many of the actions and over-reactions that Trump has displayed in his public life seem to conform to the classic behaviors associated with what is called narcissistic personality disorder.
In short, these delineations from Trump’s chart point to an individual who appears fundamentally unstable, often untruthful, and with a heart that is broken and incapable of love.
2020 for Biden and Trump
When considering the astrological conditions in anyone’s chart for a year, I will look first to their progressions and then look at their major transits. What is remarkable about the two candidates for office this year, is that they are at the same stage in the progressed Sun/Moon cycle. They both are in a “New Moon” phase, (Biden’s was in May 2019, in Aquarius and in his 3rd House, Trump was September 2019, in Virgo and in his 1st house). That is quite a coincidence. A seed has been planted for them both and is now germinating; for Biden it is focused upon questions of Reason and Intelligence, and for Trump it highlights Personality and Presence.
What is also interesting is that the Planet Pluto is lining up in both their charts. For Biden, he has Pluto making a sesquiquadrate (90 plus 45-degree aspect) to his Saturn in 2020 and 2021. The message is that he is facing difficulties in working to transform his personal understanding of reality to deal with the disruptive changes in the world. What he will need to do is to work steadily and patiently towards progress and transformation within himself, and that way he can also meet the need of the times.
For Trump, as I have pointed out for some time now, he is facing several challenges from Pluto. I have called these transits his “test of power”. Pluto is still Inconjunct his Sun, (from 2019 through 2020), and he also has Pluto Opposite his Saturn in 2020. It is quite interesting, that the mirror of this transit, Sun Inconjunct Sun, happened for Trump in 1991 and 1992, when he went through his first and then his second bankruptcy, and it happened again with Pluto opposite his Sun in 2004-2005 and his third bankruptcy.
The Pluto to Sun transit is forcing Trump to question his sense and source of power. A normal person might become disenchanted with their position. For Trump, he is once again being confronted with his (lack) of understanding as to the nature of power and authority. He is experiencing, time and again, that he does not have the power he thinks or thought he had (or should have). An ordinary person might just let it go or walk away from their role which is no longer working for them.
Pluto opposite Trump’s Saturn for 2020 is perhaps as challenging, if not more challenging as Pluto to his Sun. Saturn is the planet of reality and constitutes for an individual what you think will or cannot change. But Pluto brings transformation, it brings death (and the possibility of rebirth), and Trump is faced with events and circumstances that keep showing him that his reality is not what he thought it was. For Trump, he can no longer run on a strong economy, he cannot force people to ignore the pandemic that is killing their family and friends. He is unable to address the divisions within the country because his source of power comes from playing one side against the other, and the greater Reality of America’s reckoning with it past is something that he cannot understand or allow.
But he does not have the power, not personally as he would see or understand it. Our Constitution is based on representative governance; the people have the power. Leaders are here to lead by inspiration, by setting an example; they serve and sacrifice for the greater good. Given Trumps’ nature, he is not fit to lead. In our system a leader’s power comes from the consent of the governed, and Trump has lost most of the people because he has sought to rule by fear and division. Now his lack of support, and his loss of power reveals that his only hold over his supposed political allies is through fear, and this is forcing a reality check that he cannot grasp.
This point is really being brought to bear with another double-transit to Trump’s chart, Uranus squaring his Pluto, and Uranus semi-square his Sun. This is formed by the fact that in Trump’s chart, he has his own Sun semi-square to Pluto. This natal aspect indicates that Trump was fated from birth to learn the lesson about the Will (Pluto) and the Self (Sun). We must all learn this fundamental lesson, that Power does not come from the Self; Power flows through the self to the extent that one has achieved self-mastery and equally respects the sacred center of every other. Then, whatever power comes to and through that person will be determined by whatever position they hold. Whether you are the head of a family, community, company or country, the power you wield is not yours, it is only to be used to serve the source of power, and never yourself.
Pluto teaches that the only thing you are here to master in this life, the only thing you are here to control, is yourself. Trump does not understand that his lack of self-control, his disrespect and denigration of other sources of power, reveals that he is incapable of managing himself let along leading a nation. Unfortunately for America, it has brought us to a very perilous and painful period, and many, many lives have and will be lost that could have been saved.
Looking to Biden, another major transit in Joe’s chart is Neptune moving into his 4th house. Given that Neptune is in Biden’s 10th house of purpose and mission, and the 4th house is the source of your roots and foundations, this will be quite an important time in Biden’s life. Neptune is the “Universal Solvent”, as it dissolves the boundaries between layers and realms to reveal the Unity of the Universe. What this means for Biden is that he is being asked to dissolve or let go of his old sense of ancestral and cultural roots and move into a more Universal sense of being Centered in a greater understanding. Experiences will help Biden to create a wider and more inclusive foundation; this year is a time when Biden will reimagine and go deeper into the truth of what lies at the root of one and all, and then draw upon that to channel these feelings in his public life.
And finally, it is quite interesting that both Trump and Biden have Uranus squaring their Pluto’s in 2020. However, since their Birth Charts indicate very different experiences of the test of Pluto, (Trump has the difficult semi-square of his Sun to Pluto; Biden has the very supportive trine of his Sun to Pluto), each has had a very different experience of Pluto in their life; each has faced the test of the Will and Self-Control in quite different ways; and, they will react to this challenge very differently as well.
Given that anyone with these zodiacal degrees of Pluto is going through this, this transit of Uranus squaring Pluto is very much a generational experience. For all who were born in the early to mid-1940s, it will be a period when what they have built up by their use of their will is tested and disrupted. Sudden changes brought about by Uranus will take the form of social and economic upheavals that are beyond anyone’s control, forcing all to consider how and what to preserve, but also to face what must change in their private and public lives. Some will be able to rise to the occasion, some will cope as best as they can, and some will certainly fail.
For Trump, given his temperament and nature, this square to his Pluto will just intensify his frustration and his defensive reaction and impulse will be to be even more extreme in his attempts to manipulate others and use his powers in self-serving ways in order to preserve what he has. Given the other major transits he is faced with, it does not seem likely that he will prevail as events will shatter the illusion that he is in control.
For Biden, given his positive Sun/Pluto arrangement, he is more in touch with the lesson of Pluto, that the only control you will ever have is Self-Control or Self-Mastery. He will choose a response rather than react to events. He will not try to control, manipulate and divide; he will seek to remain self-masterful and encourage others to do the same. He will understand that real power comes from individuals joining into associations, and groups joining with other groups to maintain and secure their common purpose. He will remain centered within himself, and serve the source of his public power, the people.
True power comes from the people; and when a people are united, when they find their common purposes and equally celebrate their diversity, when they are strong, sensitive, and centered in their wills so that they will never trespass upon any other, they will never be defeated.
Let America be what it was meant to be, “Out of many, we are one!”
