Detail one, the most glaring, is that Mercury is in the exact degree it occupied the night of the stolen 2000 election. I assure you that the heart of any astrologer who is familiar with the 2000 chart will sink when they see this omen. The 2000 election was ripped off through making good use of Mercury in the last degree of Libra, and this is not a friendly portent. Though Mercury made a tricky stationdirect the night of the election (a retrograde ended just as the polls were closing in Dade County), for this vital planet to occupy the same degree of the Zodiac on a critical national election night is ominous.
Detail two, Mars in Scorpio is exactly square Neptune in Aquarius. This is one of those aspects to look out for. Anyone who happens to know they have this aspect in their natal chart will be familiar with what I am saying and only mildly offended. It is associated with an addictive personality, with a measure of instability, and with the propensity to take any risk whatsoever. Mars-square-Neptune people can be lovely, intriguing folks with vivid imaginations and lots and lots of ideas—until the screws are down, particularly when an addiction takes hold and a power struggle erupts. Then, break out the Lithium.
Detail three, this is all going on with the backdrop of Pluto working its way into Capricorn. Pluto is a slow-mover, and changes signs about every 12 years at this phase of its 248-year cycle. So a sign change of Pluto is big news. The last one was in 1995, when Pluto entered Sagittarius. The current change occurs through 2008, when Pluto crosses back and forth over the Sagg/Cap line (due to the movement of the Earth). While Pluto is in Sagittarius for the election, this is merely for show. Pluto in Capricorn is, among other things, about massive changes to the structure of society. It is about the consolidation of corporate and government power to a degree that far exceeds anything we have seen so far.
None of these aspects would be a problem, were people committed to awareness. Most of us are not. Most of us never get past the appearance level of politics, except to decide that politicians are no good. For most people, politics is a cursory study in what offends us emotionally. It is basically no more sophisticated than the gag reflex. To avoid this reflex, we put ourselves into a coma. We play games; most of technology is increasingly devoted to games, and we are rapidly colonizing the cyberastral world in an effort to flee from the troubles of life in the physical world.
To some extent, we relate to politics in that we have an appreciation of power. You do what the guy with the gun says; you have a healthy fear of the taxman; you pay your car insurance if you can; the dude with the most money is right. For the most part, the only people who actually become aware of how politics work become perpetrators. In that very Mars-square-Neptune way, when you become aware of it, the power is an irresistible temptation. If you are lucky, and most people are not, you encounter the limit known as karma. If you are extremely lucky, you take the lesson. Most people do not, particularly if the one thing they have on their mind is having as much power as they can. Forget that the power is transient, imaginary, and at the expense of everyone.
That Mars-Neptune square involves Aquarius, the sign of the people. Here is a clue as to the nature of the addiction. Neptune in Aquarius could be summed up as Second Life. It is the media haze, the technosphere where most of us just play games, the pretend world where idle fantasy holds more currency than reality. It is marvelously seductive because you gain, among other things, the ability to forget your life and become someone else. While this can be helpful and come as a relief for a while, while we have bodies we are stuck having some investment on the physical Earth, and we are bound to the Earth, its resources, and its activities.
