As of 8:25AM ET on Wednesday the impulsive, pioneering Aries Moon is void of course, not to enter the next sign — Taurus — until 4:39PM ET. Stick to routine tasks and avoid making mountains out of molehills of declared “crises,” as the twists that crop up during voids are often much ado about nothing.

A measure of calm settles in after 5PM ET, although the stabilizing energy of the Taurus Moon is challenged by 1) heightened emotions as it builds to its fullness tomorrow; and 2) the energizing and effective (upside) and/or angry, volatile (downside) potential of Mars, as it approaches its challenge to Uranus and Pluto (exact next week).

In Taurus, the Moon takes comfort in sensual delights: good food and drink, sweet music and perhaps a snuggle with your sweetie. Indulge. It also takes comfort in building and organizing whatever is required for material security. Draw up those blueprints and build that ark.

That counsel applies to Thursday as well. You are likely to know by now if the seeds you planted at the New Moon will flower, or if you will have to re-group. If you must ship this week, ship it Thursday before the Moon goes void Friday at 11:17AM ET, on a sober face-off between Saturn and the Moon. Chill and take care of routine concerns on Friday until the Moon enters Gemini at 8:45PM ET.

Thursday’s Full Moon yearns to preserve the material status quo, even as it is challenged by an expensive, expansive and indulgent connection between Venus and Jupiter, which will be exact on Sunday. Better to be a seller than a buyer over the next few days — note the latest auction at Sotheby’s. Volatility is also suggested during this Full Moon release and illumination, given the previously mentioned Mars-Uranus-Pluto connections.

The Sabian Symbols for this Full Moon are: “a man muffled up, in a rakish silk hat” (for the Moon at 15 Taurus) and “children playing around five mounds of sand” (for the Sun at 15 Scorpio). Sabian Symbol Blain Bovee notes this shared motif: “inclinations against prevailing winds and toward strange influences”. Briefly, we are advised to find “a creative touch that endures and renews, despite the tides of change” and keep an eye out for “….being temporarily muffled until one reaches the top…a stylish flair introducing a new fashion…openness to new worlds…detachment from disintegrating worlds, from social perception, from transient social position.” There’s much more to be found in Bovee’s wonderful book.

You are more personally affected by the Full Moon’s suggestion of illumination and release if you have a planet or angle around 15 degrees of Taurus, Scorpio, Leo and Aquarius.

And now, the news.

In case you haven’t heard, the Republican party now holds a majority in the US Senate and will control that body’s agenda for the next two years. How did this happen? “Riding a wave of anger….” reads the front page headline in the New York Times. Sounds like an apt reflection of current planetary patterns. Moon in crusading Aries and warrior Mars in practical Capricorn clashing with the disruptive Uranus-Pluto square, anyone?

In Arkansas, voters championed the underdog and elected to increase the state’s minimum wage (from $6.25 to $8.50 an hour). They also opted for a fresh, new face: a Republican senator who voted against raising the federal minimum wage in the House. That may seem perplexing, but as this article points out, ousted Democrat Mark Pryor also opposed a federal minimum wage increase, perhaps because his campaign was supported by Arkansas-based Walmart and other retail organizations.

Minimum wage increases were also approved by voters in Nebraska, South Dakota, Illinois and Alaska, even as they elected more candidates from the Party of Styrofoam. So what was the key difference between the two candidates running for the US Senate in Arkansas and other such states?

“Barack Obama has our country in a ditch, and many of his lieutenants running for the Senate were right there with him,” said Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee. “The punishment is going to be broad, and it’s going to be pretty serious.”

Man is it lonely at the top, especially as reflected in current patterns in Obama’s horoscope.  What a tortured, twisted and painful statement.  It makes me think about what I’ve written before about the U.S. horoscope, and the probability of anguish to come in 2015 and 2016, as ruthless Pluto challenges the U.S. Sun and especially the U.S. Saturn. Pluto-Saturn transits in any horoscope are often brutal against a threat of considerable loss.

When I looked at the patterns in the horoscope for the start of the 114th Congress a couple of years ago, it looked like 2015-2016 would be a continuation of the legislative bust that has been the 113th. And when I considered that horoscope again a couple of days ago, the patterns seemed more supportive for a Republican majority than a Democratic one. If that outcome disappoints you, I hope you voted for your preference yesterday. And if you didn’t vote, the complaint hotline is not in service.

Looking at the chart for January 3rd, 2015 at noon in Washington, DC, we see the enterprising Capricorn Sun in a close approach to potent Pluto, recently squared by Uranus. It suggests an uncompromisingly rebellious expression in the recent past, about to express itself with a newly-empowered perspective. It needs to shake up the system, and it will likely hit the ground running.

The wind at the back of its action plan is a sweeping, energetic, purportedly humanitarian Mars in innovative/radical Aquarius. It will have been revved up by a face-off between Jupiter in regal Leo. With Jupiter retrograde by then, however, there’s likely a double agenda to its expansion plan, colored by an obsessive connection with Neptunian matters of faith and fog. Said expansion plan is likely to be felt in areas concerning the media, higher education, courts and foreign affairs. Things are not likely to be as they are presented.

If you don’t  like its action plan, your consolation is that the Mars-Jupiter pattern is separating i.e., waning in its strength. It is supported, however, by an excellent, albeit idealistic rapport among Mercury, Venus and Saturn. This suggests that when it comes to applying thinking and social expression to the realization of ambition, they’re all on the same page — and this ease of expression is likely to grow stronger. The talking points are likely to be consistent.

What’s driving this bus? In the last Congress, it was a perfectionist, hypercritical Moon void of course and running wild in Virgo (which rules healthcare, btw). The void suggested little of consequence would be accomplished, earning the 113th the dubious honor of being the most “do-nothing” Congress ever.

The 114th Congress is driven by an obsessively status-seeking Moon in information junkie Gemini, where it will need to charm, entertain and relentlessly inform in its quest to be the smartest kid in the room. Or instead of an obsession with status, it could focus its efforts on the man at the top (same potential, looking at this horoscope). Instead of criticize, as we saw with the Moon in Virgo, it will go to great lengths to fulfill its need for “the facts,” however trivial they may be. As the glaciers melt. And the fossil fuels burn.

Yet as with the 113th Congress, this Moon is also void-of-course, suggesting that little of consequence will be accomplished, regardless of the revolutionary havoc and power plays the U.S. is likely to suffer. We’re in for another two years of a “do-nothing” Congress. Its lofty ambition, suggested by Saturn in Sagittarius  in the 8th involving itself with deeply personal collective values and resources, is squared by visionary Neptune, which dissolves whatever it touches. How many times will the President dissolve such ambitions by veto?

If this Congressional chart were the horoscope of an individual evaluated from a psychological astrological perspective, we’d see a strong suggestion of suppression, likely by a powerful feminine/maternal influence. Hmmmm. We’d also note the potential for sexual/intimacy fears and controls. If this were a horoscope of a proposed speculative venture evaluated using traditional astrology, we’d note a probability of destruction, by the self or other forces.

That being said, we can expect an especially empowered  and revolutionary stance from this Congress in April and May, just as patterns in Barack Obama’s horoscope suggest an intensely isolating and emotionally severe period in matters of cooperation and possibly health. There’s much that will likely be going on behind the scenes. He will make an effort to support the new paradigm, at least in polite social circles, suggested by his natal Jupiter aligned with Venus in the Congressional chart.  Actually, as this day as progressed the President has reportedly talked of

“…compromise with Republicans on trade, corporate tax reform and infrastructure spending, and promised to reach out to the leaders of the rival party.”

That compromise would be reflected by his Jupiter aligned with the Venus-Saturn “good for business” pattern in the 114th horoscope…although of course, the Moon was void during that speech, so it is likely of little consequence.

Meanwhile, he’ll note the first hit of the isolating pattern at the end of January; the second hit in April and the third hit in October.

The patterns in both of these horoscopes dovetail with the intensity of world events suggested by the seventh and final exact hit of the Uranus-Pluto square in March and a series of eclipses in April, which will trigger the highly sensitive Aries Point, the Uranus-Pluto square and the lunar eclipse we had last month. Meanwhile for Barack Obama,  he’ll need to be at the top of his game this December, which should coincide with an ambitious push as broad as the one that energizes this new Congress. An immigration edict, anyone? His executive abilities will need to be fully on display again next July and August.

We live in such interesting times. Your horoscope is especially affected now if you have planets or angles around 12-17 degrees of Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn — and especially 15 degrees of any of those signs. Consult your local astrologer for details on the upcoming potential  — perhaps from out of the blue — for change in your own personal world. Yes, I’m still offering that Mercury retrograde/shadow incentive for new clients until November 12th.

Thank you for reading this forecast.