This July, the world was stunned when President Joe Biden announced he was dropping his reelection bid and endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, as his successor. At less than four months before Election Day, the announcement was a seismic shock in American politics ― but not for many astrologers.
Some claim they had seen signs of this exact scenario in Harris’ and Biden’s natal charts, which is an astrological tool based on where the planets were in the sky at the time of one’s birth. They had been telling their followers for years about how Harris’ star was rising and Biden’s was falling and, in some cases, predicted the correct weekend that a dramatic political event would happen because of the full moon. For them, it had long been Joe-ver.
“Astrologers have been seeing illness show up in Biden’s chart for many years,” astrologer Catherine Urban, who made a June prediction that Biden’s health was at risk this year and that Harris might be endorsed by Biden, told HuffPost.
Predictive astrologers use multiple techniques to reach their conclusions, but a lot of their methods involve examining a subject’s birthday as well as the time and place of their birth to create their natal chart. From there, they track planetary and star movements across time and space to see how the story of a person’s life will unfold, including which moments in your career are especially auspicious.
Mo, an astrologer who co-hosts the “Fixed Astrology” podcast and asked to not share her full name because of her full-time job, predicted that Harris would be a “wartime president” in May. Mo told HuffPost that she has been seeing Harris “come to power under really difficult circumstances” as Harris has an “enemies of the moon configuration” in her fall solar return that indicates that people will be slandering her. Mo explained that this happens, in part, when a planet such as Mars or Saturn — which are associated with challenging periods in your life — is making a “difficult aspect” to the moon. “Difficult aspect” is astrology-speak for when planets create a geometric angle with each other that suggests you are going through strife.
Even if you do not believe in astrology’s power, there are many others who are compelled by the stories written in the stars. Go on TikTok and you will see astrologers’ Election Day predictions ― including which candidate might die and which will win ― rack up tens of thousands of views. As one commenter put it on a TikTok that accurately predicted Biden not winning the election: “This is my whole FYP [for you page] AND I CAN’T GET ENOUGH.”
Astrology’s influence in politics isn’t a new concept.
Urban said the growing interest in political astrology is because this U.S. election is so “high stakes” and “people often look to modalities like astrology to give us hope.”
But the practice’s crossover with politics isn’t a recent phenomenon; it’s an ancient tradition. In fact, astrologers were the first data scientists, argues Alexander Boxer, a data scientist, for his book “A Scheme of Heaven: The History of Astrology and the Search for Our Destiny in Data.”
“Mapping the emotions of the stars onto politics is the original use of astrology. And it hasn’t ever really gone away,” he told HuffPost.
When Roman emperors such as Augustus and Tiberius ruled, astrologers were powerful and dangerous because their job was directly involved in who was going to be the next emperor and how long someone was forecast to live before they died.
Astrologers have also been part of many rulers’ inner circles. Queen Elizabeth I had a court astrologer who advised her during her reign. And in the U.S., after the 1981 assassination attempt on her husband, Nancy Reagan famously consulted an astrologer to determine auspicious dates for President Ronald Reagan’s trips and news conferences.
“Astrology, I’d say, both invented and in many ways perfected the art of taking a bunch of data, which maybe by itself is meaningless, and putting it together in a very compelling story,” Boxer said.
Boxer sees ancient astrologers as the predecessors to modern-day election forecasters, like Nate Silver in the U.S. Using complicated mathematical models you are not expected to follow, both can use their tools to persuade you of their story, even when the prediction turns out to be flat wrong, he explained, “because there’s a particular seduction we have to a story told with data and numbers.”
Who astrologers predict will win in November.
So what exactly are astrologers saying about the next few months? For one, it’s a time of nationwide upheaval.
Pluto has been returning to the celestial configuration it held during the birth of the nation on July 4, 1776. This means that Pluto is moving toward the same placement in the universe as it was in during the nation’s founding. Urban explained that during this final stretch of the nation’s Pluto return, we are in a time of “massive death and rebirth. It’s a reordering of the current structure.”
She is predicting Harris will win the election over former President Donald Trump by a “narrow margin,” based on how the planets and signs in her natal chart are affecting the forecast around Election Day and the inauguration.
Both Harris and Trump have Jupiter ― the planet of opportunity, good luck and abundance ― close to significant points in their natal charts right now, but Harris is a Gemini rising, and 2024 is a “Gemini-ruled year” for her, so she gets a little more abundance, Urban said. “Jupiter helped her be in the right place at the right time.”
At the same time, Urban is predicting Trump will experience feeling “crushed” around Election Day, but his influence will not go away. “There’s some indications in his chart that show that the things that he ends up becoming known for have not even happened yet.” Urban said this is because Trump’s signatures ― or where planets and zodiac signs in his chart are located after the time of the election ― are looking “very authoritarian, and he’s already the leader of a movement. So what would happen to that movement?”
Meanwhile, Mo said that astrologers like her look at the charts of both running mates when making predictions and that Trump’s pick of Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) has not helped Trump’s chances of winning. “If Trump picked a different person with better activations… maybe we would be having a different conversation,” she said, noting that the timing in Vance’s chart is not giving “taking the helm” energy. Activation is a term you’ll hear a lot in astrology, and it’s where a zodiac sign or planet is going to be more significant because of the day, month or year you’re in.
Astrologer Lisa Stardust, who says she has been forecasting Biden to be a one-term president for years, told HuffPost that predicting who will win in November depends on the chart of Harris’ running mate.
Nonetheless, Stardust noted that by Sept. 17, she, and the rest of us, should know who will win in November. On that day, Harris’ chart is “extra lucky” because she is experiencing a lunar eclipse in Pisces “that’s going to be in her 10th house of public image, which means that that’s going to be the tipping point for her.” In short, your natal chart is divided up into 12 houses that each reveal a different dynamic of your life, and when your house of public image is in the spotlight, so is your social standing.
Astrology can have as much meaning as you give it. It’s entertaining, but don’t let it consume you.
Ultimately, you get as much from the stars as the people who imbue it with power.
Mo said that her medium can give people themes, but it cannot predict every detail of their life. “I can’t tell if you’ve had a matcha latte for breakfast,” she said. “But I could say that maybe you had a very energetic start to your day Tuesday morning based on whatever [planetary] transits you were having.”
Boxer, who does not believe in astrology, cautions people to be skeptical of November predictions because “astrology is the template of data science and, in particular, the template for how we tell stories with numbers and data and how we can easily deceive others and ourselves.”
Jess Holt, who is both an astrologer and a licensed clinical social worker in New York, said that it’s good if you use astrology to cope with uncertainty. But if reading election horoscopes “is making you feel anxious, if it’s making you feel like you have to compulsively check things all the time, if it’s making you feel despair, then it’s probably not the right tool for you,” they said.
In other words, use astrology to help you become aligned with your values, but don’t let its endless information keep you stuck, as “that’s not a helpful use of the tool,” they added.
Don’t use what the stars are telling you to get out of the work of political action. You still need to be participating in your destiny and voting, Urban said.
“There are certain things that are written,” Urban said. “However, there’s also free will, and when it comes to deciding the fate of a nation, everyone needs to participate. Everyone’s will is participating.”
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