(12 April 2015)  Hillary Clinton finally ended the pseudo-suspense today and announced her candidacy for the nomination for the Democratic Party in the 2016 US Presidential election.  Ms. Clinton made the announcement via a Youtube video that was released shortly after 3 p.m.  The exact timing of the announcement is important for astrological reasons since the timing of the launch of the campaign marks the official beginning of her endeavour to become President.  In my experience, the horoscopes of these launches reveal important information about the nature of the candidacy as well as providing clues about the eventual success or failure of the campaign.  Clearly, Ms. Clinton is the Democratic frontrunner at this point as no serious challenger has yet stepped forward.  She also stands a decent chance of winning against any Republican candidate according to recent polls.  So what does this campaign launch chart tell us about her chances?

Earlier in the week, the campaign was widely expected to be launched on Sunday, April 12th. I had looked at the chart and quickly concluded there was no astrologer on her staff since Saturn closely aspected both Venus and the Moon today.  Saturn (10 Scorpio) is generally a restrictive and limited influence in the chart and its opposition aspect with Venus (7 Taurus) suggested unhappiness or at least a relatively joyless, austere campaign.  The full strength Saturn sextile aspect to the Moon (6 Capricorn) aspect is somewhat similar and suggests a very emotionally dry or repressed endeavour.  This needn’t mean she will lose, but it is not the kind of chart one would normally want for a political campaign.  Politics in the US is typically an exercise in optimism and this is the antithesis of an optimistic sort of chart. 

On the plus side, early Leo rises in the Ascendant which is usually good for confidence and bold action.  In this media-driven world, that is usually a good thing.  Leo is ruled by the Sun, of course, and the Sun is closely conjunct both Uranus (fame, excitement, change) and Mercury (communication).  This is therefore a decent placement for the chart ruler.  The wide trine aspect from Jupiter is also helpful in this regard.   Venus is the ruler of the 10th house of status and is placed hat the very top of the chart close to the equal house cusp of the 10th house.  (=A woman in charge?)  This is not necessarily significant in terms of winning or losing, but at least reflects the high social profile of Hillary’s campaign as the first serious female candidate for President of the United States. 

Gains and wishes fulfilled (i.e. an election win) are seen through the 11th house which is untenanted but ruled by Mercury (Gemini).  Mercury is fairly well placed in the 9th house in Aries.  It’s close to the Sun which is good since it’s ruling the 1st house, and it’s also widely conjunct Mars which happens to rule the 9th house.  Such combinations of the rulers of the 1st, 9th and 11th houses are often auspicious. 

That said, the natal chart is not anything to write home about.  Let’s take a look at the transits and how they might affect these natal positions.  The huge problem here goes back to that double Saturn aspect to Venus and the Moon. Saturn will be retrograding over the next four months and will therefore actually tighten those aspects with Venus and the Moon.  The Saturn direct station is due in early August at 4 Scorpio.  This suggests that Ms. Clinton’s campaign may struggle in its early stages.  She is more likely to draw negative attention to herself as opponents may find her easy pickings as the frontrunner. Even worse, is the fact that Saturn will move into a near exact square aspect to the Ascendant from June to September.  This will simultaneously aspect the Moon (emotions, well-being).  And if that weren’t enough, transiting Rahu will exactly aspect her Moon in September. 

This whole summer season is likely to be very difficult for Hillary.  She is likely to go down in approval ratings and will suffer more embarrassments and scandals not unlike the recent email server controversy.  She already has some serious trust issues with the American public that are likely to simmer and flare up again around the time of these Saturn and Rahu transits.  It seems a stretch to think that her entire campaign could be at risk during this time and yet the transits do look quite intense.  At very least, I would think her problems will encourage more Democratic challengers to enter the race.

But by October, I would think her fortunes should improve as Saturn finally moves past its natal position in the chart and Jupiter stations in close alignment with the Midheaven in December and January. Since that will be the beginning of primary season, it bodes well for some important early victories in the primaries.  I would think her chances are good for winning the nomination in April as transiting Sun and Mercury transit the 9th and 10th houses in this horoscope. The 9th house may well become a surrogate for the 11th house of wins/gains through 11th house ruler Mercury’s placement in the 9th house.  Whether Hillary can win on election day on November 8th is another question that I will address in a future post.  For what it’s worth, this campaign chart looks unremarkable on Election Day and therefore somewhat negative on that question.  However, I do think her birth chart looks good but I would like to get a better sense of her potential GOP opponents and their astrological potential before making a clear prediction.

Weekly Financial Forecast

Stocks rose last week as US economic data generally improved and the release of the Fed minutes didn’t show a significantly different prospects for a future rate hike.  The Dow gained less than 2% on the week closing at 18,057 while India’s Sensex rose 600 points and finished at 28,879.  Most Asian and European markets also had a positive week.  This outcome was not surprising given the Jupiter direct station on the 8th and 9th.  Such planetary stations are typically time frames of highly focused energies where the inherent qualities of a planet manifests.  Jupiter is the quintessentially bullish planet and hence its station is more likely to correlate with positive market results.

This week looks more problematic, however, as Mars aligns with the North Lunar Node (Rahu) in the early part of the week.  This aspect can often signal times of stress and anxiety.  The middle part of the week also suffers from a Venus opposition to Saturn.  Given Saturn’s pre-eminent association with bearishness and pessimism, it seems likely that stocks will fall around this time.  And the end of the week is also a bit of a question mark as Mars squares Jupiter.  These two planets are not always negative but the downside risk definitely rises when these two form a close angle.  With Jupiter now returning to its normal forward motion, there may be less collective optimism for investors to tap into it here.