I try to do a judicial astrology chart at the Aries Ingress at the spring equinox each year, and make some basic predictions about the state of affairs in the US over the course of the year. Sometimes, the Ascendant of this chart is in a fixed sign, and we get twelve months of relative stability. Sometimes it’s in a cardinal sign, and we get six months of relative stability. Back in March 2022, I noted the Ascendant in Gemini, and figured I’d have to produce four judicial astrology charts this year — one in March, one in June, one in September (this one), and eventually one in December. This is the largest number of charts that a single year of judicial astrology can generate, and the result is often an eventful year. This year, maybe, has been no exception to that general guidance.
When the Aries Ingress chart (the moment the Sun crosses into Aries over a national capital city) shows a mutable sign in play, then all four of the cardinal ingresses of the year, at Solstices and Equinoxes, are in play. This means that I have to construct four such charts over the course of the year, and make some guesses about what happens between now and December 21. In other years, the main chart of March 2022 would have a controlling interest in what happens in this chart — in this case, the old charts of the spring equinox and the summer solstice hold little sway here.
The Dispositors
A great deal of the business of the chart is dependent on a complex chain of planetary rulerships, called the Dispositors. Every sign is ruled by one planet, and that planet has charge over the other planets in its dominions. In this case the chart’s ascendant in Taurus (and Uranus there) both answer to Venus. Venus is in Virgo, so she answers to Mercury next door in Libra. Ordinarily Mercury would answer to Venus as the ruler of Libra, but they’re in close conjunction, called cazimi, with the Sun — so they answer to the Sun, and the Sun answers to Venus. Meanwhile, the Moon is in Leo, which means she looks to the Sun, who looks to Venus. Over in Gemini, Mars looks to Mercury looking to the Sun, looking to Venus. Jupiter in Aries is ruling over Neptune in Pisces, but meanwhile looks to Mars looking to Mercury, looking to the Sun who looks to Venus. Saturn looks only to himself, and has Pluto for a follower.
We thus have a chart that largely looks either to a mix of the dispositorship of Venus-Mercury-Sun, or to Saturn. Saturn can be seen as the planet of slow-moving natural disasters and Nature as a whole; while the mix of Venus, Mercury and the Sun acts as a potent combination of human forces — creativity, scientific expertise, and political direction. These two nexuses of capacity don’t really overlap in the spheres of US life that they control — Venus-Mercury-Sun are largely concerned with managing outward political appearances and maintaining a degree of ordinary economic life; but Saturn and Pluto together are putting a serious cramp and tightening the constraints and limitations of the operations of government, long-distance travel, education, and public religious life.
This is a fancy way of saying that the chart shows a significant split. First, a tremendous amount of human energy is being expended in the next three months on keeping the US economy going on a lot of different fronts: agriculture, transportation, manufacturing, military operations, financial life, and technology. However, as the saying goes, Nature Bats Last: Saturn the planet of limitations and constraints, and Pluto the planet of amplified effects, are probably going to continue to make COVID and monkeypox a serious issue on planes, trains, and automobiles, and in classrooms at all levels of academia; and similar issues may continue to plague churches, synagogues, mosques and other similar institutions that can’t afford to continue to mitigate or defend against these sorts of concerns.
The Houses
Judicial charts are not much like traditional natal charts; they have their own logic. In this case, rather than start with the Sun and Moon and Ascendant, as we might in a natal chart, it’s best to start with the Ascendant and the First House. This represents THE PEOPLE of the nation, and in a democratic republic like the US, it’s the best place to begin. With Taurus as the rising sign, this suggests a populace that’s physically content, placid, and outstanding in their field (out standing in their field works, too… a population milling about like cows looking for the best grass and the best water and the best shade they can find inside the fence.) All is not calm in this realm, though — Uranus retrograde has been raising a commotion and creating challenges in this relatively placid environment, and The North Node has been rousing the hunger and desire among this population for some kind of change. The Ascendant, North Node, and Uranus are all clustered in the decan called “The Lingam-Yoni”, suggesting that questions of autonomy, personal freedom, and sexual and sensual expression in the here and now are on the table and critical issues in the next three months, with surprising and revolutionary results for many parts of society.
While we’re talking about THE PEOPLE (and even though it’s out of order), we should look to The Moon in the Fourth House. The Moon represents the portion of the population that’s able to make their voices heard in political counsels — and this placement suggests that the issues of farmers, ranchers, truck gardeners, foresters and other rural communities are going to be loud and proud during this election season, almost forceful in their presentation of their concerns. It’s been a hot, dry summer without sufficient water or forage for animals — many ranches have sent cattle to the slaughterhouse early; and both regional and local communities have suffered from a lack of rain. This year’s fire season in the Western states was as bad as last year’s… but it wasn’t as bad as 2020 when more than a million acres burned. The issue of where food comes from, and what it costs, is going to be a loudly proclaimed issue in the next three months. It might not be an actual issue for you personally, but it will be a noisy discussion at the least. Be aware, and wary, of this problem — especially with the Moon square to the first house. The Sun’s rulership of Leo makes it likely that the President will side with agricultural interests against transport workers … but that may not work out as hoped.
The Second House of Gemini represents financial institutions and the whole debts-and-credits side of the economy: less the production of goods and services, and more the accounting and financing of it, from the national treasury down to the local savings and loan institution. During one of his debate comments in 2020, president Joe Biden spoke about “a K-shaped economy” — an economic system in which the majority of the gains go up to the wealthiest, and the costs and losses go down to the poorest and least able to manage. Mars‘ seventh-month presence in Gemini until March 2023 will certainly affect the next three months, so expect the third quarter of US financial performance to be rocky and full of sudden shifts and conflicts of interests. AT the same time, the Lot of Fortune is here, suggesting unusual freedom of action in indexed mutual funds, stocks, and bonds. Expect to see US regulators take down at least one significant institution for financial hijinks. The middle decan The Hermaphrodite and the third decan The Executioner’s Sword both promise a fair bit of hybridization of complex problems, and a lot of complicated sausage-making, in the financial sector.
The Third House represents communications and transportation infrastructure: highways and byways, canals, electrical grids, internet backbones, and both ports and rail hubs. Given the railroad workers’ crisis (allegedly) just averted, it seems like things will move relatively smoothly in this sector. However, ruled by an inconjunct but angular Moon, ruled by a Sun captured by an inconjunct Venus ruled by an inconjunct Mercury in cazimi with the Sun… This is a tangled web of opportunities and challenges. Nobody is likely to come out ahead, with the President seeking a win for workers but also need a win in the press; the media largely being owned by conservatives who also have financial interests in both transportation and agricultural sectors, and would prefer not to see workers’ wages rise at all… this is going to be a serious tangle. The Imum Coeli is active in the third decan of Cancer, The Overflowing Cup — suggesting a lot more wrangling in this sector, and a lot more of what we’ve already seen in terms of strikes, shortages, and inflation due to transportation problems.
The Fifth House represents media and entertainment issues: everything from CNN to the newest range of Marvel movies to the latest mini-porn starlet on OnlyFans. It also stands for the minority political party in the national legislature, and the aristocracy — the semi-visible top 10% of multimillionaires and billionaires. Venus, representing the role of women in society, is in the third decan of Virgo The Sarcophagus, suggesting that the renewed fight against women’s rights is likely to get rowdy in the next three months as the election nears — but it’s worth remembering that trying to stuff women’s rights into a coffin is unlikely to end well: the Sarcophagus in this astrological position is secretly a resurrection machine. Expect the fight over the Supreme Court’s ruling on Roe v. Wade to look pretty ugly and for women to seem debilitated in the fight, with a lot of dollars and a lot of media calling the issue a dead letter. They’re likely to be wrong.
The Sixth House here represented by Libra, is the place of the working class, the rank-and-file of the army, the miners in the pits of the earth and the machine-men on the assembly line. With the Sun here, this is the place where the current president is likely to face a great deal of scrutiny, and direct most of his attention; the Sun here represents Joe Biden himself, with an team of invisible experts represented by Mercury beside him, helping him understand in a new creative and productive way how most ordinary Americans are living these days. The first decan of Libra is called The Blindfold and Sword, and it’s strongly associated with justice — but it doesn’t mean that the President is going to be able to deliver on a promise for fairness to the working class in the next three months… only that some punishing obstacles may be in the way, and the President still has to tangle with the congressional minority, his reputation in the press, and the wealthiest parts of American society.
In the Seventh House we start to move from the private sphere of household and personal economies into the grander issues of geopolitics and the public national conversation. Scorpio represents our foreign relations and in general our allies — and they’re both in a serious mess, and dismayed by our own personal mess. The revelation of secrets on both sides of both borders and both oceans is likely to be an alarming wake-up call, with both the South Node and the Descendant active in Scorpio II’s Double Distiller —the place where harsh realities are purified and transformed. America’s crap, one way or another, is going to have to be affected by outside forces for it to change from poison to medicine — be alert to news from foreign nations that has the potential to rock our world and wake us up from our own internal messes.
The Eighth House stands in judicial charts for the bureaucracy and the mechanism of interest — everything from how the IRS decides who pays taxes, to how those taxes get distributed to institutions and individuals as subsidies, benefits, and grants. Ruled by Jupiter (answering to Mars, answering to Mercury, answering to Venus and back to Mercury again), the issues of health care and the legal framework of The Establishment (Congress, Supreme Court, Presidency and executive departments, and all the bureaucratic agencies that spread out like a web from those central threads) are wrestling with a mix of crises (Mars), innovative solutions under high-level attention (Mercury and the Sun), and renewed care and unity of purpose (Venus). In some ways, it’s when the bureaucracy performs at its best — genuine outside threat combined with inspired and attentive, knowledgeable leadership.
The Ninth House stands for academia, tourism, long-distance travel, public religion, and the publishing industries — although primarily the first four in this chart. Ruled by Saturn and amplified by Pluto atop the midheaven, we’re being shown that Nature is indeed batting last; a teaching colleague of mine reported the sudden deaths of teenage students in her school system just a few days ago. “The Pandemic” may be over but we’re still encountering serious problems in environments where air and people mix in close relationship — or where we encounter the muddy business of mixing religious and political imperatives in back room deals, as shown by Pluto’s presence in The Throne.
The Tenth House stands for the government itself, the administration with all its glories and foibles rolled together. As mentioned under the sixth house, above, the Sun stands for the US President (as of this writing Joe Biden), and nominally this government is under his command. However, the Sun aspects it from a cadent Libra, weakening his leadership and striving against Old Man Saturn retrograde in the middle decan of Aquarius — a place of muddled idealism striving to find integrity in day-to-day actions. Saturn stands for Nature itself, and these placements imply that this government is striving to contain nature in its own chains, without as much success as one might like. Disaster, in the form of stale air, cold reality, and impractical solutions to intractable problems, stalk the current government’s ability to muster both inspiration from followers and rulership from its leaders in the next three months.
The Eleventh House here shown as Pisces, stands for the national legislature and for the state and local governments which proceed from it. Ruled by an inconjunct Jupiter in Aries (answering to Mars, Mercury-Sun, and Venus), Congress is locked in a putrid mix of zealotry and misinformation, exemplified by the dreamy and turbulent Neptune in The Cup of Blood — every local and state government, and even the nation’s double chambers of law-making, suffer from this mix of uninformed or disconnected leaders trying to rein in or even answer a crazy-eyed and opinionated faction of idealists. If you’re conservative, the wild-eyed and opinionated are a bunch of dangerous liberals; if you’re a liberal, the “crazies” are clearly conservative. Pisces is the two fish pulling in opposite directions but bound together — and that’s going to be on full display in the next three months. Legislatures really only function when there’s a clear interplay of ideas and collegial disagreement, but that’s not what we’ll see in the next three months. The dysfunction is likely to get worse.
The Twelfth House here shown as Aries, represents the law courts, the prison system, the hospitals and health care system, and the scaffolding of the law itself. Jupiter in Aries I The Two Bladed Axe acts as a junior magistrate here, under the direction of ruling Mars answering to the Sun-Mercury-Venus trifecta. There’s a strong power at work, trying to slash and burn its way through the legal process, as the wealthy and well-connected try to muscle their way through to get what they want from the medical establishment and a bunch of sophisticated barristers. However, the presence of Chiron in The Crown suggests that a bunch of the walking wounded are attempting to make some significant changes to both medicine and the law over the long haul. Will we see modest gains in the next three months? Probably, but the sparks flying in more photogenic courtrooms and emergency departments are likely to burn brighter yet.
