Donald Trump: The Bull and the Virgin

I was watching Donald Trump defend the assassination of Soleimani, the Iranian General, and it seemed to me, as it often has, that Trump didn’t care whether what he said was true or not. You know that feeling of solidity, of integrity, you get when you are careful to speak truthfully – and I don’t just mean factual truth. I mean emotional truth also, I mean being true to who you are in all its nuances. It is such an essential quality on a human level for all sorts of reasons, self-discovery and good relations with others being 2 of them. It seems to me that Trump is missing that quality, that inner ethical sense; it is, I suppose, beyond who he is.

I think that for Trump, there are certain beliefs about America, emanating from his character as a warrior-businessman, that he has always remained true to. Like the unfairness of the US trade imbalance with China. And he has done something about it. Iran is another case in point. He has remained true to his belief that the nuclear deal with Iran was rubbish, and through the assassination of Soleimani, he has started to prepare the ground for new talks. One doesn't need to agree with his belief to see that he has, nevertheless, remained true to it over a period of years.

At the same time, he doesn’t care an awful lot about his means to those ends. In particular he doesn’t care about having truthful relations with other people. That is why he is being impeached at the moment. He leant on a foreign leader to try and undermine a political opponent at home, completely illegally. Thuggish business tactics. Alongside that, however, he has beliefs he cares about so strongly that he is prepared to become President to fight for them. 

Trump is a Gemini, and their relationship with the truth is an interesting area. In my next piece I want to look at this in the cases of different political leaders: Trump, Johnson, Corbyn and Blair. But for now, I am just looking at some broader outlines around Trump.

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When he was younger, it was mainly about himself and his own Empire, though even then he would voice his beliefs about America. Other countries relying too much on American money for their defence was one of them, and I think he was right.

And even now, there is a large element of self-interest and vanity in what he is doing, to an extent that is comical. But people voted for him, and will probably vote him in again, because they sense that he has genuine convictions, with a lot of practical experience as a businessman behind them.

It is Trump’s underlying beliefs that people often miss when they comment on him, because he is in many ways such an unsavoury character, and because they are opposed to him politically. And most people will continue to be unthinking in this matter whatever I say, and will probably think I must be a Trump supporter. But I am getting used to it: because by and large we seem to want to remain unconscious, and to see whatever suits our prejudices.

So in moving from businessman to President, Trump has made the move from Capricorn as worldly achiever to, in principle at least, Capricorn as responsible leader in the community. He is not a Capricorn, but this sign describes well his archetypal evolution. His career point (MC) is in Taurus (money), ruled by Venus, which in his case is conjunct Saturn, the ruler of Capricorn, and both sextile the MC. So there is the drive for wealth (Taurus/Venus) as achievement (Saturn). These 3 planets/points have proved very sensitive to transits, they describe his career well.

Liz Greene makes an interesting point about Taurus in her book ‘The Astrology of Fate’, where she suggests mythologies for each of the signs. And for Taurus she talks about King Minos and the Minotaur, a monster created by the king’s greed, and the need for Taurus to tame the bull within, instead of being ruled by its instincts. 

And I think we can see this conflict in the very public Taurean MC of Trump. He is clumsy and ungainly, he is like an animal that doesn’t know how to be human. There is little interiority in him, hence his disregard of the need for truth in human relations. And there is this tremendous drive such as most of us do not have, and it is now directed at something bigger than just himself, which Liz Greene suggests is the Taurean lesson.

Now here is an interesting one: in August 2016, as he was campaigning to be President, his Progressed Sun moved out of Leo and into Virgo. So life was taking this Gemini away from his self-building and, in his case, self-aggrandisement (natal Asc Leo, Prog Sun in Leo) into a place of service, a place where who he is and his self-importance are not the priority. Virgo is the Virgin, she is pure, self-interest has no place in her sign. And then last June, his Progressed Moon moved into Virgo also. This guy is getting a lesson in humility, though it may not be that obvious.

And then in Feb 2021, just after his second inauguration (I think his Neptune transits will carry him through the election), his Prog Asc moves into Scorpio. This may not be easy for him. He will be taken to the Underworld for the remaining years of his life. It could be another lesson in humility, particularly as he inevitably becomes a lame-duck President in the last part of his second term. And as Neptune finishes with his Sun and Moon, leaving him high and dry, without the political power he had become familiarised to.