The Aries Ingress chart — that is, the chart for the moment of the spring equinox over a national capital — is said to augur the national fortunes for a period of some months after the arrival of the Sun at 0° Aries. How many months is a function of other elements of the chart, namely which sign is on the Ascendant or eastern horizon. With a mutable sign on the ascendant, the effects of the chart are somewhat long-lasting, with the chart considered “good” and predicting an overall period of six months. (Had a Cardinal sign appeared here, the chart would be good for three months, and had it been a fixed sign, the chart would be good for a year). The chart predicts relatively stable conditions for ‘the first half of the year’ from March to September. We’ll review in September to see what’s coming between September and March.
A Mundane, or Judicial, chart is interpreted somewhat differently than a natal chart. Describing a set of political conditions in the public sphere, and economic conditions in the typical private household, it’s read ‘in the round’ rather than by primary planetary placements.
One of the key concepts of this year’s astrology chart is that of AVERSION. Aversion, sometimes called inconjunction, signifies a lack of relationship between the ruler of a sign and the sign itself. When a planet is in a major aspect (sextile, square, trine, opposition or conjunction), that planet might be in a favorable or unfavorable relationship, doing either good or bad things to that area of a person’s life; when there’s aversion, though, there’s no direction and no guidance from the heavens; that part of life is sort of on its own, with opportunity for both big wins… and huge mistakes.
Aversion is a bit like an otherwise-competent driver falling asleep at the wheel of a moving car or truck: everything is fine, and normal, and completely under control… and then suddenly it isn’t. The car may roll safely into a ditch without injuring a soul — or it may drift out of its lane into an oncoming truck — or the driver may pop awake with a sudden, startled exclamation: “I’m driving! I’m driving! I’m awake!” It’s hard to know which of these is really going to occur… especially when we apply it to the economic and political conditions of the entire United States of America for a full six months.
The First House tends to describe the conditions of the general mass of the people, the common folk. The Ascendant is in the first decan of Virgo called a Tree Bearing Fruit, administered by the Sun but ruled by Mercury. Most people are going to be concerned with the organic issues of their lives in the next six months: where is their sustenance coming from? How do their responsibilities translate into money in the bank and food on the table? Both Mercury and the Sun are in Aries, relating to Virgo by a condition called Aversion — a distinct lack of relation: in the next six months, most people won’t really understand how their duties and responsibilities translate into money in the bank, food on the table, and access to resources and services. Similarly, they won’t really be able to follow the events that connect their personal activities to the services that their government provides. There’s going to be a lot of bureaucratic shuffling in the next six months — and it’s likely to get a lot of people fired up.
The Second House describes the conditions of the merchants and traders that make up the financial sector. The sign of Libra here is ruled by Venus, who is also in aversion from Taurus — In the news today, it’s banks in trouble, but over the next six months look for difficulties in the airline and tourism and hospitality sectors, as well as in higher education: Venus is sovereign in Taurus, so on the surface these industries are going to be stable-but-crunched, as they have been for the last few years by the pandemic. Yet it will be the economic constraints imposed by the hospitality industry that brings challenges to the financial sector — bonds and debts from airlines and hotel chains coming due, university endowments not performing to spec, or not generating enough income to support the banks. The trine from Pluto to Venus is just days away from becoming a square — a favorable relationship supporting college administrations and airline executives turning contentious, where students and passengers may have the upper hand.
The Third House represents communications, transportation, logistics, and high-technology — everything from the US Postal Service to Google; from Apple to your local Internet provider. The South Node here suggest that the industry is likely to be in trouble until late July, and possibly all the way to September. A rocky road lies ahead for this sector. The sign of Scorpio is ruled by Mars, who is also in aversion from Gemini, but just days away from forming a complex trine from Cancer — Mars gives benefits and blessings when in a trine, but rarely behaves himself in the sign of the Crab: with one hand he shields, and with the other he cuts down. Look for a lot of start-ups to go under in the next six months, and layoffs at the tech companies that please Wall Street but worry Main Street. Logistical snarls and shelves bare of products were used to having continue to be a problem. Since the third house also represents the approximately 144,000 publicly-funded school systems in the US, and the children in them, we can look for teachers and administrators to continue to get dumped on and attacked, though there will be some bright success stories in the emotional riptides. There is unlikely to be a decrease in school shootings in the next six months.
The Fourth House represents both the agriculture and real estate sectors. Ruled by Jupiter, Sagittarius here indicates that we should devote a fair bit of attention to flocks and herds in the next six months, and to how technology and science affect our farming and the harvesting and delivery of food. Apartment prices and commercial real estate remain high for the first part of the year. However, Jupiter stands in a favorable trine from Aries for planting season, but he’ll be in aversion from Taurus by the end of May — the harvest, and the ups-and-downs of the real estate market, may go through significant shifts before midsummer: you can’t have this many people working remotely from home, and not see dramatic changes in the cost of renting office space and store-fronts: that which can’t be kept high, won’t be.
The Fifth House represents the fashion sector, entertainment, and luxury brands. Less than a month ago, ruling Saturn passed from aversion to a more gently favorable sextile which will benefit movie houses, studios, musicians, clothing designers, and TV personalities. However, we’re also days away from the end of an era, as Pluto begins the process of exiting Capricorn and entering Aquarius — this process won’t finalize until 2025, but power is going to shift distinctly away from the taste-makers and the billionaires, and toward the working-class producers of the material rewards on which those fortunes are built.
The Sixth House represents the rank-and-file of the military, the miners, and the petroleum and metal working sectors of the economy: anything in heavy industry or digging deep into the earth, is represented by what the sign here is. Aquarius is ruled by Saturn, who is next door in Pisces, in a state of — you guessed it — aversion. There’s a lot that can go wrong in all of these sectors: industrial accidents, mine collapses, wildcat strikes. But two are things that Aquarians are known for: stale gas, and rare expertise. In a few days, Pluto will move from Capricorn to Aquarius, changing from supporting billionaires to supporting working class folks — not permanently, not exclusively, because this is a slow-moving transition — but the balance of power is shifting from those who own rather decisively to those who know and do. Factories and farms don’t run without speciality labor. Oil and natural gas don’t come out of the ground without people, and they don’t get where they’re going without drivers and pipeline workers. Lots of people may issue commands for these sorts of things to be done… but they don’t know how to do these things themselves. And they may be about to find out what it looks like when orders are issued, but not followed.
The Seventh House represents the US’s foreign entanglements: its trade agreements, its allies, and to some degree its rivals and foes. The ruler of the sign here, Pisces, is Jupiter … in, you guessed it, aversion from Aries next door. This condition ends in May of this year, when Jupiter shifts to the more favorable sextile. As a result, much of our allies’ behavior will be governed by the three planets that are here: Saturn, the Moon, and Neptune, which we can summarize as limitation and imagination and fantasy. The US and its allies, for example, know that supporting Ukraine against Russia is unavoidable — even as they are absolutely certain that they must never put NATO troops anywhere inside Ukraine to fight Russians directly unless they want to lose NYC, London, DC, and other cities to a nuclear exchange. But the demographics of Central Asia both in China and Russia, mean that if Ukraine prevails, that autocracy will be on the decline for forty to fifty years — there won’t be enough people of war-fighting age for a generation, maybe two, and some of the richest farmland in the world will be able to export grain unimpeded and cheaply for decades: the US, Europe and Ukraine will feed the world and grow rich on it; Taiwan will be safe from Chinese aggression, and the US/EU alliance will be the most prosperous partnership on the planet. The thing is… what parts of that story are bedrock-true, what parts are possible, and what parts are wildly improbable... is going to be difficult to ascertain for at least six months. The Moon also represents that portion of the US population that are able to make themselves heard, politically and economically — and right or wrong, what they will care about and act on, are the US’s foreign entanglements and alliances. A great many people will feel as though we’re doing the right thing for Ukraine, and a similar number will feel it’s the wrong things; everyone will feel like they’re wriggling to escape the trap, and the opportunity, that foreign entanglements represent.
The Eighth House represents the federal bureaucracy – tax agency, treasury, executive departments from education to energy to transportation. The Sun here, along with Mercury and Jupiter, suggests that the current US President, his cabinet, and all his experts, are devoting a tremendous amount of energy to invigorating and renewing the effectiveness of this element of government activities and services. The breadth of the American civil service, and the depth of their dedication and quality of achievements is often unappreciated: see the Michael Lewis book, The Fifth Risk, for a sense of what the federal government achieves on the regular. There’s still a sense here that Mars’ shift from the mildly favorable sextile from Gemini to the much more contentious square from Cancer represents a bureaucracy armoring for a shift from the divided legislature created in January, to more active interference by the House of Representatives through hearings and investigations.
The Ninth House represents the travel and tourism industries, publishing and higher education. With the ruler, delightful and integrating Venus here, we can expect that colleges and universities will continue to operate, that train and plane systems will continue to function, and that there will be more books published this year and more conferences and vacations will be taken in the US than has been true for several years. However, Uranus is also here, which suggests a series of surprising, immediate, and uncontrollable events will continue to take place in this sector: airline or railroad company bankruptcies or service interruptions are likely, for example, as are sudden closures of schools with declining admissions or thinned endowments.
The Tenth House represents government itself, usually the executive branch. With Mars in this sign, and ruling Mercury in a gently favorable sextile from Aries, the two planets engage in a condition called mutual reception, where one takes the place of the other — and this suggests that advice from the US military’s senior leadership is being held to heart in the federal bureaucracy; and that the counsels of experts from the highest levels of the civil service is being heard in the Oval Office. I hinted at this, above, in the paragraph on the Seventh House — an enormous amount of effort is being expended in the US on keeping Ukraine supplied with small arms, artillery, and supplies… while keeping US and NATO troops out of direct lines of fire. This involves logistics, manufacturing, import-export, and diplomatic consultation with both foreign allies and rival agencies to maintain a coalition — and it’s working. But Mars is just days away from shifting to Cancer — and the focus of US military leadership may be on a different range of problems quite soon.
The Eleventh House is the place that represents the national legislature, the state governments, and the majority party in the legislature. Cancer is nominally a placid sign ruled by the Moon, who sits in the twenty-eighth Mansion in Pisces, a position where she brings old matters to completion and celebrates them. However, as the year starts, the first of the two New Moons in Aries takes place tomorrow (the second on April 20 at 29° Aries, just at a solar eclipse) — transforming Cancer from a sleepy space reveling in old triumphs to a place of new vigor and energy — and enormous contention and battle. I’m always reluctant to describe Democrats and Republicans as “the same”, but there’s definitely a group of legislators that “straddle the aisle” to see that the necessary tasks of law-making and routine business are actually completed by deadlines. With Mars in Cancer starting on March 25… that may become trickier than in the past.
The Twelfth House is the place associated with law courts, the judiciary, prisons, police forces, and hospitals. Ruled by the Sun in Aries, there’s a strongly favorable trine from the new Sun to Leo — and the Lot of Fortune here indicates that the moment is arriving to make significant changes in this sector for the health and well-being of the country. The changes may not be to everyone’s liking, but there is a chance to make the changes and redirect the nature of these institutions on which so much depends. However, at the same time, Black Moon Lilith is also present: this is the place on the Moon’s orbit which, when the Moon conjuncts it, is farthest from Earth and where the rules and norms are most easily broken. Just because reform is possibly on its way, doesn’t mean that the reforms won’t be badly compromised… or even expire in the back of the ambulance on the way to the hospital due to improper procedure.
All in all, the story of the Aries Ingress chart for 2023 tells us a complex story, in which a great many planets are unable to help the US as directly as they’d like to — distractions abound! — and in which both human virtue and vice play a larger role than usual. Stay safe out there.
