At 11:34 am EDT, the Sun enters Aries — the moment, in tropical astrology, when the auspices for a city, a state, or a nation can be taken for the coming year, and a judicial or mundane astrology chart can be erected.

In most major details, this chart is the same as the chart for the Aries I forecast I posted yesterday, but the location is set for Washington, DC as the United States capital — and instead of being the chart for ten days, it’s the chart for an amount of time determined by the location of the Ascendant. With the Ascendant in a mutable sign, Gemini, the chart is good for three months until the Summer Solstice on June 21, 2022. This means that I’ll be publishing four of these judicial astrology columns this year, within a couple of days of the two solstices and two equinoxes.

Unlike a horoscopic astrology chart, interpretation of a judicial astrology chart rotates through the houses rather than through the signs: it’s more important to know what’s happening thematically in a judicial chart, than what’s happening to each rising sign.

The First House represents that portion of the population that is relatively quiet in political affairs — and with the Ascendant in Gemini, this indicates that the US is a nation deeply divided three ways. The Moon indicates that sector of the populace which is able to speak loudly in political realms, and it’s in the Fourth House — the political and economic elites, the experts, and particularly the business leadership —who will be largely concerned with manipulating the US government for the preservation of their own resources. However, the First House being represented by a double-bodied sign like Gemini indicates at least two parts of the general populace not making themselves heard: one part courageous and rashly brave, and one part more cautious and circumspect. The voices that we hear on the news and which seem to affect the flow of government are going to be more interested in preserving what the political and economic establishment already has — but it should be remembered that this group is only a third of the big picture. Don’t believe everything you hear.

The Second House stands for the financial systems — banks, hedge funds, the United States Treasury, and the apparatus of the various stock and bond markets that help keep the flow of money running in the US. With the sign of Cancer here, these systems are going to be firmly under the control of the Moon — that is, the same part of the populace that is loudest and most influential in government circles. For the first three months of the year, at least, the financial system will be the tool of the political and economic elites, rather than in the service of the nation as a whole. Be cautious about borrowing or lending, and recognize that extant systems are going to look nurturing and emotional, but will be much more friendly to the existing mercantile systems under the surface. The relationship between the Moon and the financial house is square indicating some public trouble — a few attempts at bank bailouts might not go according to plan.

The Third House of Leo ruled by the Sun, represent interior logistics, transportation, communication and the Internet. With the Sun in the eleventh house, expect legislative actions at both the national and state level to clear out some of the US’s backlogs of logistics support, designed to open up the US’s transport grid to more effective operations.

The Fourth House of Virgo ruled by Mercury represents agriculture, real estate, and the legislative minority in both Congress and the statehouses. Expertise at the national level is going to try to set and manage farm policy a little better in the next three months than it’s been managed recently — and there will be big plans, but they’re not likely to go as well as desired. Initially it will look great from the outside, but expect a fair bit of grumbling from the farm communities that are affected. Donald Trump put in place some plans to move the main headquarters of the Department of Agriculture to the midwest, to make it easier for farm owners and national-level experts to talk to one another… this might have something to do with that. Initial spring planting is likely to be dreamily successful — but let’s be cautious about making harvest predictions just yet.

The Fifth House, home to the moon, is Libra in this chart, governed by Venus. This is normally the place of the political, economic, and cultural elites — everyone from movie stars to billionaires who might want to influence how the US operates in the next three months. The nurturing networker is in the ninth house of overseas logistics, tourism and travel, and higher education, and besieged by Saturn and Mars — suggesting that the economic and entertainment elites that want a return to normal (normal tourism, normal travel, normal money-making, normal movie-and-theater-going) may find themselves reined in and limited by the agonizing powers of serious warfare on the one hand and plague on the other.

The Sixth House represents the working class and the rank-and-file of the army: industrial workers, service-providers, miners and oilmen, and the typical privates and specialists of the lower military ranks. With the South Node here, these groups are likely to face a good 12-15 months of getting spit on and worse — expect a lot of labor disputes in the next three months, but expect those disputes not to go well for the people on the lower rungs. Ruled by Mars, which is square and coming up on a conjunction with Saturn, there are real opportunities for violent suppression of laborers — and also real potential for new outbreaks of pestilence in these groups.

The Seventh House is Sagittarius, representing both foreign allies and foes. Ruled by Jupiter n the tenth house, there’s a sense of the US using diplomatic protocols and processes to calm down existing challenges in the wider world over the next three months. However, the Descendant is in the third decan called The Horse’s Skull: the US is likely to behave a bit like a man saying “good doggy” while simultaneously picking up a convenient and heavy stick. Jupiter is also besieged between Mercury and Neptune — there’s a sense that doing diplomacy “by the book” is going to be pulled back and forth between bad advice from civilian experts and larger forces limiting what the US government can do. For now, expect cooler and more doveish options to prevail, but see Ninth House for further considerations.

The Eighth House represents the bureaucracies of government at all levels, as well as the ongoing death rates in the US — and here we have both Pluto and the Lot of Fortune. The US is going to have to do something about its tax structure and bureaucratic processes in the coming three months, and indeed this is one of the few places where it has a lot of leeway to act: overall, its command structure for civilian personnel and process may get some kind of overhaul. However, Pluto’s presence here is less than ideal — Saturn is the ruler of Capricorn and would normally place natural limits on how quickly the government can address bureaucratic issues, but the be-ringed “Old Man of the Solar System” is inconjunct in Aquarius: Pluto meanwhile suggests “move fast and break things for the sake of getting it done.” There may be an attempt to privatize certain government functions that shouldn’t be.

The Ninth House in Aquarius is ruled by Saturn, and both Mars and Venus are here. This house represents long distance travel, tourism, publishing and writing, higher academia, foreign travel, import-export businesses, and overseas activities by American companies. Venus’s presence here strongly suggests that the US is trying to figure out how to re-open all of these aspects of its economy and political realms — while Mars and Saturn represent open conflict on the one hand and natural limits on the other. The upcoming Mars-Saturn conjunction on April 4 also strongly suggests at least one more major Covid outbreak or surge beginning in the next three months. The presence of Mars also suggests that the logistics flow of US troops and equipment to foreign shores is underway, even if they’re not likely to be put into combat in the next three months.

The Tenth House in Pisces ruled by Jupiter represents the government, specifically the executive branch — Biden, Harris, the cabinet and the various major departments of the US government. Jupiter here indicates a desire for the government to rule generously and easily — but also being outmaneuvered by some of its own experts, represented by Mercury. Mercury is in its own term, which is an indicator that many government experts are right about a great many things. However Mercury is in both detriment and fall in Pisces, indicating that the experts will be believed in some instances and not believed in others — the government may in fact be following the wrong counsel over the next three months. Additionally, both Mercury and Jupiter have upcoming conjunctions with Neptune — a planet that has a tendency to ignore and override official decrees with personal opinion more often than not. It remains to be seen how Jupiter’s love of structure and Mercury’s hope for clear communication will deal with that encounter.

The Eleventh House is Aries, ruled by Mars and currently home to the exalted Sun — a place of legislatures and state governments. Mars’s sextile position indicates that the US military’s advice to Congress is likely to weigh on the minds of Senators and Representatives alike, but that for now it’s unlikely that the military will do much more than move to a more flexible position for either attack or defense.

The Twelfth House represents the courts and penal system, the hospitals and medical system, and the nation’s secret foes. Ruled by Venus which is square from the ninth house — the very focus on re-opening travel, tourism and higher education within the US and abroad is likely to bring trouble to all of these various systems. Venus’s besiegement between the powers of War (Mars) and Pestilence (Saturn) indicates that conflicts and health issues will stalk these parts of US society — sickness super-spreader conditions in US prisons, courts trying to find a way to force a camel through the anti-abortion needle, and the US emboldening its rivals and hidden enemies as a result of obvious failures or missteps in the management of economic, political, and natural challenges. The North Node and Uranus here also stir up considerable turbulence and outrage as people seek medical treatment or legal redress, and find that material assistance is difficult to come by and challenging to accept. A revolt against these paired systems of health and law might not appear, but the conditions are ripe for trouble.

•••

Overall, more planets are above the horizon than below it, making macro-political and macro-economic conditions outweigh personal and household decisions. Ordinary people may find themselves unable to navigate the political landscape easily because they’re swayed by economic factors beyond their usual capacities. Additionally, all the planets but the Moon are on one side of the Nodal-Axis, lending the chart a fair bit of “belly of the beast” energy for the next three months — things may not actually be in crisis, but it will feel like one.

These conditions will persist until the Summer Solstice, when the chart of June 21, 2022 over Washington DC at the moment of the Sun’s ingress to Cancer will reveal a new forecast that largely replaces this one. It’s likely to be a rough and bumpy ride… but at least it’s only three months of trouble.