(27 October 2012)  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.

Transits for Monday 29 October 2012 9.30 a.m. New York