Fallout from the Uranus-Pluto Square and Saturn-Neptune Square: I Am Ready to Blow a Gasket over the Damn Election

I'm back after a three-month hiatus...has anyone missed my misanthropic, profane astrobabble?

It's just been too damned depressing to post lately. Everything out of everyone's mouths has been about the US election. I know how crucial it is, believe me. I am just sick of it, all of it. The Saturn-Neptune square may finally be over, but this aspect of collective mental illness (specifically, insanity) continues to reverberate, especially when planets in mutable signs (i.e., Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces) trigger Saturn and Neptune.

But on a Sun-Pluto square, a stressful power-tripper of an aspect, the pain has gotten so intense that I have got to get on my virtual soapbox. You've been warned. If you want to read your Sun Sign horoscope or learn what color lipstick you should wear according to your Venus sign, please go to another astrology site -- at least for today.

(Deep breath, long exhale.)

I figured that the greatest danger of a dictator/demagogue's being elected US president was four years ago, at the dawn of the Uranus-Pluto square (2012-15). After all, look at what happened in Germany during the last Uranus-Pluto square (1931-35). However, although Mitt Romney is many mean, nasty, horrible things, he's not quite a Hitler type.

And Obama held on to the presidency, the economy officially took a turn for the better, the Affordable Health Care Act took hold (at least in most states), and the world did not come to an end, as the doomsday crowd fond of taking the Mayan calendar out of context kept predicting.

Not that everything was roses and sunshine. Examples of the cruelty, brutality, fanaticism, and poor impulse control that define a Uranus-Pluto square included Syria, the Ukraine, the rise of ISIS, and Edward Snowden (who might have been a real hero had he only exposed the US government's Big Brother surveillance on its citizens instead of also revealing the secret-sauce technology that kept tabs on terrorist activity).

Still, it came as a surprise to me that it was not until this election cycle got under way, with the Uranus-Pluto square finally in our rear-view window, that the next Hitler emerged from the shadows, on our very shores.

Think I'm exaggerating? Here is a quote from a new book by Volker Ullrick, Hitler: Ascent 1889-1939: "Hitler adapted the content of his speeches to suit the tastes of his lower-middle-class, nationalist-conservative, ethnic-chauvinist and anti-Semitic listeners ... He peppered his speeches with coarse phrases and put-downs of hecklers. Even as he fomented chaos by playing to crowds' fears and resentments, he offered himself as the visionary leader who could restore law and order." High-ranking officials around the world refused to take Hitler seriously, calling him a "clown."

Remind you of anyone?

The Uranus-Pluto square of 2012-15 was what made possible the extreme disenchantment, and extremism in general, that defines a sizeable and still-growing percentage of voting-age Americans. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, and some of the concerns and criticisms of even the most bigoted, hateful members of our citizenry are valid. For example, with all the employment numbers pointing up, how many unemployed, working-age people are no longer even counted because they no longer receive unemployment benefits? What kinds of jobs are being created? Why is the term "working poor" part of the "new normal"? How does minuscule gains in income truly help a person get a leg over the runaway cost of living? And what good is "Obamacare" if you can't really use it, due to a ridiculously narrow provider network and sky-high deductible?

Under the Uranus-Pluto square, growing numbers of fed-up people became less interested in trying to fix The System, The Powers That Be, Politics, etc. and more enthusiastic about the prospect of just blowing the whole thing up, even if they did not survive the fallout from the explosion. Not surprisingly, another signature of the Uranus-Pluto square is nihilism.

Throw in the delusional, downright idiotic nature of the Saturn-Neptune square, which began on Thanksgiving 2015 and lasted till September 10 of this year, and it is frighteningly obvious that the collective has reached a new low. And the US media cannot wash its grimy hands of the phenomenon of DT (short for "distemper" or "delirium tremors"), for the media gladly gave him tons of free publicity while pointedly marginalizing Bernie Sanders, a true public servant, as a cranky, eccentric grampa -- and a horse-race election always brings in more subscribers and money than a shutout.

I was plenty nervous about the election of 2000, with Mercury stationing retrograde on that Election Day. I am plenty nervous about this one, as well -- not only will the Moon be changing signs, so early returns may not reflect the ultimate reality, but the Moon itself will end up in Pisces, a sign that calls reality itself into question. Mars will be in the last degree of Capricorn, just past US Pluto; in the days leading up to the election, this may not manifest in literal assassination, but character assassination. Authority in general, and government in particular, is ruled by the sign Capricorn. As a cardinal earth sign, Capricorn will fight to hold its ground so it can ascend, but Mars is not known to be gentle and reasonable.

I hope I will be proved wrong in my fear that even if the much, much, much lesser of two evils wins, and even if it is by a landslide (a possible read of Mars on the cusp of Aquarius), and the US Supreme Court is saved from turning into the next Third Reich, this will not be a sweet victory by any means -- just a four-year breather until a smarter, saner demagogue appears on the political scene.

Sun Square Pluto: Control Freak Central

Greetings, my astrologically inclined lovelies and uglies:

Has everyone recovered from the Sun-Uranus conjunction? I know I haven't! Are you taking a not-so-minor detour underground, or to the Underworld? Are you wearing a mask that conceals your true self so well that even you have forgotten who you really are? Are you wondering why the hell so-and-so still hasn't gotten back to you, or perhaps deciding that only you will determine when to give so-and-so some peace of mind? Are you writing or receiving a ransom note? Are you perusing a BDSM manual or making an appointment to visit your friendly neighborhood dungeon? Are you obsessing about death? Will your hands never be clean? Are you absolutely certain the stove's been turned off? Congratulations! You are right on schedule for the Sun-Pluto square, exact 3:41 p.m. EDT.

If you are a regular visitor to this anti-horoscope site, in which Pluto rules and all other planets drool, you should know by now that you are not alone in these difficult feelings and scenarios. Being an astrologer does not exempt me from tough planetary aspects. I own an injustice collection that I am unable to auction off on eBay, a ever-lengthening line of people and noncorporeal abstractions that I would love to dispatch -- not in terms of putting to death, mind you, but somehow cleanly and efficiently remove from my brain, heart, and soul. Pluto is my customary mask, as it's on my natal Ascendant (i.e., my face and my front door). And placed in Virgo, every day I have to fight against its OCD and control-freak tendencies. Unfortunately, I tend to overcompensate by giving Others Who Shall Remain Nameless far too much power (since Pluto is conjunct my Asc., it opposes my 7th-house cusp). As you might imagine, this behavior does not fill my Pluto with joy, for from its necessarily subjective 1st-house perspective, its powerful energy shouldn't be used or abused by anyone except for...me.

Pluto is many things, but it is rarely what it appears to be. Unlike Mars, it tends not to announce itself as a strong, strutting, bellicose kicker of asses. Pluto has more sexuality in its pinky than most planets have in their entirety, yet often comes across as a geeky, if somewhat unsavory, alien. Pluto seethes behind its Clark Kent or Retro Librarian eyeglasses and bides its time, keeping score of accumulating insults and indignities, before eventually detonating, with scant or no warning, like an atomic bomb. This is unhealthy on so many levels, and can be boiled down to lack of trust (in itself as much as in others) and fear of being vulnerable and open in communication. An argument need not mean the end of a relationship, or of the entire world -- but Pluto sees only in black and white, feels only in extremes, and stubbornly holds on to the view that to ask for help not only is an admission of weakness, but an open invitation to get run over.

On this Sun-Pluto square, I urge everyone reading this post to reflect as honestly as possible on personal issues of control and resentment, and how they are getting in the way of honest communication and your own integrity. A square hurts so much mainly to get you to do something to stop the pain -- but if you know that that "something" will only serve to numb you out or cause harm to yourself or others, please try to find something else, including asking the right person(s) for help.