The presidential race is coming right down to the wire now. Polls show
Mitt Romney with an average 1% lead in the national popular vote but
Obama continues to enjoy a slight edge in terms of the electoral
college. As expected, Obama did come out on top in the last debate.
As I suggested in the previous week's post, the respective campaign
charts showed that Obama's chart was being strongly influenced by
benefics Mercury and Venus. By contrast, Romney's campaign chart was
under a difficult Mars aspect. It was intriguing to see how well
these campaign charts appeared to coincide with the debate outcomes.
I would expect Obama to have a fairly good week this week, especially
around Wednesday and Thursday. On those days, the Moon transits
sidereal Taurus where it will conjoins his natal position. If we look
at his relocated chart for Washington, DC, we can see how his Moon
moves to the 1st house. What's important to note here is how the
current transit of Taurus will highlight to favourable trine (120
degree) aspects with Jupiter and Venus. Jupiter (21 Taurus) is also in
Taurus where it is exactly trining the Midheaven (10th house cusp).
The Midheaven is connected with status and public profile and this
Jupiter aspect tends to benefit those areas of life. The Moon transit
will tend to underline this influence and bring it out more strongly.
Similarly, Venus (9 Virgo) will be trine his natal Moon (10 Taurus)
which is a favourable influence often associated with positive social
contacts (with the population) and general happiness. The transiting
Moon will also punctuate this transit and tend to make it stronger in
its effects in the middle of this week. Natal Jupiter (7 Capricorn)
will also help to bring out the more positive sides to these Venus and
Moon transits since they will form a rough grand trine pattern where
each planet is separated by 120 degrees.
I'm not sure where this boost for Obama will come from. Perhaps it
will come from improved poll numbers. Or perhaps hurricane Sandy will
somehow work to his advantage. The storm is expected to severely
damage the Northeast. Such disasters can be politically significant,
as George Bush knows all too well. While he benefited enormously from
the 9/11 attacks after his visit to Ground Zero, his administration was
pilloried for its weak and incompetent response to hurricane Katrina.
If Obama tours the damage and shows him in a strong and compassionate
leadership role, then that could work out positively for him. Mars may
be a helpful planet for him this week as it is his 11th house ruler
(Scorpio), and it will be exactly conjunct his equal 11th house cusp
(24 Scorpio). The 11th house represents gains and opportunities. But
since Mars is involved here, that may suggest gains (11th house) may
come from conflict and destruction (Mars). This is likely overstating
the natural qualities of Mars, but it is a plausible enough scenario
given the approaching storm.
So there is some evidence to suggest that Halloween won't be all that
scary for President Obama. The planets may well have some treats in
store for him.
Meanwhile in the markets last week, stocks generally declined on more
reports of slowing corporate earnings. US stocks fell by almost 2% as
the Dow closed at 13,107. The Indian market also lost some ground as
the Sensex eased back to 18,625. This negative outcome was in keeping
with expectations as I thought the dual effects of the Sun-Saturn
conjunction and the entry of Venus into Virgo would likely dampen
enthusiasm for risk. Venus is debilitated in Virgo and its entry into
sidereal Virgo on Tuesday coincided exactly with the largest decline of
the week.
This week could see more downside in the early going as Monday's Full
Moon is often bearish. In addition, we can see that Mercury forms a
difficult square aspect with Neptune and Venus aligns with Saturn.
Gains are perhaps somewhat more likely heading into Thursday's
Venus-Uranus aspect.