The work day is driven by the intensity of Moon in Scorpio, seeking depth and substance in its quest for world domination. It’s aided and abetted by a smooth connection to dreamy Neptune at 4:47PM ET. Easy connections to other planets continue into Thursday, with a buoyant alignment with Jupiter at 7:23AM ET, followed by another to the Sun at 2:45PM ET, suggesting balance.
Thursday evening, however, is marked by a meet-up between the Scorpio Moon and Mars at 6:22PM ET, suggesting focused and penetrating action re: that Scorpio need for mastery. Moon then immediately goes void, not to enter the next sign — Sagittarius — until 5:14AM ET on FRIDAY. Chill on Thursday evening.
Of note today (Wednesday) is Mercury, which leaves Cancer for Leo at 8:47PM ET. This shift, along with the ingress of Venus yesterday also into Leo, is certainly contributing to the spotlight currently shining on Governor Mike Pence of Indiana. Pence is apparently one of three candidates — along with Newt Gingrich (written about in Monday’s updated forecast) and Chris Christie — that Trump is considering for VP.
Pence has Venus and Mars at 0 and 3 degrees of Leo, respectively. Both will be receiving a brief dose of popular buzz this week, courtesy of transiting Mercury and Venus — and also the Sun, when it enters Leo on Friday. Hmmm. Pence’s horoscope comes equipped with pixie-dust and snake oil, similar to the stashes we see in the horoscopes of Trump, Christie and Gingrich. How so?
Surely we must be now talking about Neptune, since we are talking about pixie-dust and snake oil. Yep. Pence has Neptune square to his regal, “get away with murder” Venus-Mars in Leo. Trump has Mercury (the way he needs to think; communication) square Neptune. Gingrich has Sun and Moon square Neptune, along with an obsessive aspect between Neptune and Mars. Christie’s Neptune is in a self-contained bubble with Mars and Jupiter in a defensive pattern known as a Grand Trine.
Neptune is an essential ingredient in any creative vision. Too much of it can be hard to manage. Hillary Clinton has one aspect to Neptune in her horoscope — a “soft” aspect to Neptune from Mars. It pales in comparison to the level of Neptune in these other horoscopes. If she had a strong Neptune, perhaps she’d be seen as more inspiring or visionary. Barack Obama has Sun square Neptune — more problematic, suggesting challenges in figuring out exactly who he is. But it also explains why he successfully ran his first campaign on one word: HOPE. Speaking of hope, do you think Bill Clinton — the man from Hope, AR –might have a heavy Neptune influence in his horoscope? And of course the U.S. has Mars square Neptune in its horoscope…
While we’re looking at similarities among these Republican VEEP prospects, consider that both Trump and Gingrich are Geminis with Moon in Sagittarius; Christie is a Virgo, likely with Moon in Sagittarius; Pence is a Gemini with Moon either in Cancer or Gemini, probably the latter. What’s the big planetary pattern that’s been at play over the past bewildering couple of months? A T-square among Saturn in Sagittarius, Jupiter in Virgo and Neptune in Pisces, with the Sun, Venus and Mercury in Gemini occasionally dropping in to turn the T-square into a Grand Cross.
Back to Governor Pence, whom Trump took on a trial run as a prospective running mate yesterday. In the words of the Washington Post’s James Hohmann:
One of the bigger knocks on Mike Pence when he was in the House, whispered privately among some leading lights of the conservative movement, was that he comes across as inauthentic and a little phony. As a former radio host, he still sometimes talks with a bit of an affect and he’s prone to hyperbole. Lavishing over-the-top praise on Donald Trump over recent days in an effort to become his running-mate will only cement this perception.
For example, Pence declared last night that, “Trump understands the frustrations and the hopes of the American people like no other American leader in my lifetime since Ronald Reagan.” This is a laughable comment when you consider that he endorsed Ted Cruz on April 29—just 10 weeks ago!—ahead of the Indiana primary. If Pence actually believes the above to be true, why didn’t he endorse Trump then?
A good question, and welcome to the lessons taught by the Mutable Signs: Gemini, Sagittarius, Virgo and Pisces. Here’s the blurb I wrote about them back in June, along with the Mutable Grand Cross. Mutable Signs are also called double-bodied signs. They are changeable and adaptive. Some might say they are evasive and/or totally two-faced. Hillary Clinton’s Moon in is Pisces. Perhaps people who have called her evasive – and worse in that vein — are responding to the potential for fluctuation a Pisces Moon suggests.
Hohmann continues:
…Temperamentally, the even-keeled Pence is in many ways the un-Trump. A favorite line, which he has repeated ad nauseum for years, is that he’s a conservative, but he’s “not in a bad mood about it.”
And that’s exactly why so many Hoosiers are stunned by Pence’s uncharacteristically fiery remarks on Trump’s behalf. “That’s the most exciting I’d ever heard or seen the man,” Lyle Enyeart, a Pence supporter, told the Indianapolis Star last night. “Man, what a ball of fire there.”
So what else is going on in Pence’s horoscope to reflect the potential for a sudden surge? His Jupiter at 24 degrees of Scorpio, where Mars has been sitting for almost two months now, energizing his need for expansion and reward. Not only that, but he just had the third expansive hit of transiting Jupiter to his Gemini Sun last month.
We don’t have a birth time for Mike Pence. Data: June 7, 1959 Columbus Indiana. Even without an exact birth time, I’m not convinced he’s the “attack dog” running mate Trump says he wants, as he apparently told the Wall Street Journal yesterday. The horoscopes of Christie and Gingrich suggest they would make more effective snarling canines. Without an exact time confirmed for any of these candidates, we can’t speculate for sure, but of the three, Gingrich’s horoscope seems hotter going into 2017.
How did I end up on this long political track?
UPDATE as of July 14th: Contrary to what he told the WSJ, Trump said in a subsequent interview that he was NOT looking for “an attack dog.” Fine, then choose Pence. Right now rumors and other alleged leaks report that Mike Pence WILL be his VP pick — here it is on the NYT — while still acknowledging that with all the mutable energy in Trump’s horoscope, not to mention the prominence of his bewildering and potentially duplicitous Mercury-Neptune square, maybe it won’t be Pence who finally makes the cut when the VP pick is scheduled to be announced Friday at 11AM ET. Next week, when Trump accepts the Republican Party nomination, the Leo Sun will meet up with Pence’s Venus (apologies — in an earlier version of this post, I said that would happen on July 15th). OK, the NYT didn’t really cite those astrological observations in its reportage. Then again, it did refer to Trump as “mercurial”…and he is a Gemini, ruled by Mercury…
UPDATE: Trump announced on Twitter that Pence was his pick — around 11AM ET on the 15th.
Let’s talk about Pokemon Go, the app that was launched in a week in of tech buzzy/superpowered planetary patterns among many planets, on a day with Moon in playful Leo. What did you launch last Wednesday, July 6th? This game, which mixes real life and virtual reality, is going gangbusters in U.S.; Nintendo’s stock is through the roof. There’s so much press about it that it feels like the game has been around since forever, even though it’s only been a week.
With all that’s going on in the world, it’s understandable that people would welcome an escape, especially one that makes the “real world” seem more fantastic. I’d argue that the U.S. is especially receptive to anything that paints the world as a magical place, given transiting Neptune currently making contact with the U.S. Ascendant. Neptune-Ascendant phases can be surreal, disorienting, bewildering. Here are some thoughts…and here are some others…on Neptune in the U.S. horoscope now.
Astrology can also be a magical experience. What’s going on in your horoscope? Here’s the 411 on personal consultations. We will have an excellent discussion together.
Thank you for reading this forecast.