Notice the fear and sadness is in Trump’s left eye, compared to the anger in the right. It’s often possible to see vulnerability in people’s left eye and protection in the right, although it’s usually more subtle than in this photo.
Announcements:
In the last podcast, I discussed some new breakthroughs I’m quite excited about. I introduced a quadrant model called The Four Modes of Learning & Development that you will be hearing more about. I related this to a new theory for how to interpret astrological retrograde motion of all kinds, especially the movement of the nodes.
Speaking of which, Mercury goes retrograde in Libra from 10/24 to 11/12/26. I’m theorizing this is a broadly a time for reorganizational development at the level of perception and cognition. Traditionally, Mercury retrograde is observed as a time of increased communication breakdowns, technological and transportation problems, confusion, and/or reappearance of old connections or unresolved projects.
If you start tracking these short and often troublesome retrogrades, you will see the patterns are frustratingly uncanny.
Developmental Astrology’s response to these observable phenomena is, “Yes, but to what end?” That is, how is one supposed to grow through these annoyances and not play victim? Can one be more specific than “reorganizing cognition/perception”?
Yes, I can, but it depends very much on your chart, where Mercury is and who its with, and especially which house holds Libra for you. This is a good reason to have me do a chart reading for you. ;-)
So, about Trump….
In April 2026, I published an article examining three periods of potentially significant difficulty for Donald Trump over the following year. The first was in August, the second in November, and the third in January 2027. My analysis suggested that the periods would become progressively more intense.
With August behind us and the November midterm elections approaching, it’s time to revisit the first prediction and consider what might happen next.
Before doing so, I want to clarify something important about the purpose of this exercise.
Developmental astrology does not depend on the ability to predict events. Its purpose is to understand the structure of human development: the functions through which we engage reality, the domains in which development occurs, and the ways those functions can mature or become compensatory.
Predictive astrology is a more traditional application of the discipline. It attempts to correlate planetary movements with events and circumstances in the world. Whether and to what extent those correlations can support reliable predictions is a separate question from the developmental value of astrology. The realm of prediction and developmental diagnostics are radically different.
I’m exploring prediction here out of intellectual curiosity and a desire to learn. What can transits tell us with reasonable confidence? How specifically can their significance be anticipated? How many different ways might the same configuration express itself? And where does interpretation become so flexible that almost anything can be made to fit?
These are empirical questions, at least insofar as predictions can be documented in advance and compared with subsequent events. I’m interested in discovering both what astrology may be able to tell us and what it cannot.
Revisiting August
My original analysis identified August 9 as a particularly challenging period for Trump.
Saturn was transiting his eighth house, which I call Revelation in my developmental model. This domain concerns encounters with realities that expose the limitations of existing assumptions, strategies, and control.
Mars was also involved in the configuration, while significant planetary activity was occurring in the twelfth house, which I call Surrender. This domain concerns the limits of individual agency and the necessity of accommodating realities that cannot simply be controlled or overcome.
I interpreted the combination as suggesting a period in which Trump might encounter significant difficulties, particularly circumstances exposing vulnerabilities or frustrating his ability to impose his preferred outcomes.
So what happened?
The most substantial correspondence appears to have involved the continuing conflict with Iran.
In early August, reporting described growing constraints on American military options, including concerns about depleted missile supplies and disagreements over how to proceed. Trump faced difficult alternatives: further military escalation carried substantial risks, while concessions threatened to undermine the administration’s objectives.
These developments correspond reasonably well to the structural themes I had identified. The eighth-house emphasis concerned the exposure of limitations, while the twelfth-house emphasis suggested circumstances requiring accommodation rather than unilateral control.
There was also considerable public speculation about Trump’s health. In mid-August, footage showing an unexplained protrusion beneath his suit generated attention and questions. That incident does not establish a medical problem, and I would not claim that it does. Nevertheless, it contributed to a period of public scrutiny concerning potential vulnerabilities.
How accurate was the prediction?
I would call it a partial correspondence, with important qualifications.
I identified the period months in advance, and significant developments occurred near the selected date that were consistent with the developmental domains I emphasized.
However, I did not specifically predict military supply constraints, a particular diplomatic impasse, or a health-related disclosure. Nor did the difficulties involving Iran originate in August. Some were continuations of problems already underway.
The stronger claim, therefore, is not that I predicted particular events. It is that I anticipated a period of heightened difficulty involving the exposure of limitations and constraints, and that the subsequent developments were consistent with that interpretation.
Whether the timing was unusually accurate would require a more systematic comparison with surrounding periods, which is an important distinction. Things have been getting progressively worse for the president, and a prediction should not become more impressive simply because its interpreter becomes more imaginative after the fact. That’s what leads to giving more credence to predictions than they deserve.
November: A More Concentrated Configuration
The second period I identified centers on November 20, 2026.
This configuration is particularly interesting because transiting Mars returns exactly to Trump’s natal Mars in Leo, in his first house of Selfhood. This happens to each of us only about every two years. Transiting Jupiter and Ketu also closely conjunct natal Mars at the same time.
In developmental terms, Mars represents mobilization: the function through which we assert ourselves, confront obstacles, pursue objectives, and apply force.
The first house concerns Selfhood: the organization and expression of individual identity and agency. Jupiter introduces expansion, amplification, and the pursuit of significance or possibility. Ketu introduces a different dynamic, potentially involving challenges to established patterns of adaptation, detachment, or the limitations of familiar ways of operating.
The combination suggests an unusually concentrated activation of Trump’s self-assertive function. But what would that mean in practice? This is where prediction becomes difficult.
Mars conjunct natal Mars in first house does not inherently signify defeat. It might correspond to forceful initiative, intensified confrontation, increased confidence, or an attempt to overcome resistance. With Jupiter involved, the scale or perceived significance of the action would likely be amplified.
Equally, heightened assertion can expose the limits of one’s agency (Ketu’s structural reduction influence on the house of self). An attempt to impose an outcome may succeed, fail, or create consequences that exceed the original intention.
The astrological structure may suggest which functions are being activated without determining the particular events through which that activation will express itself.
The Midterm Elections
The November 3 midterm elections provide one obvious possibility for examining the transit. Democrats are expected to take the House, as the opposing party usually does in the midterms. Republicans currently control the Senate, but several races are competitive, and control of the chamber remains uncertain and increasingly interesting.
A change in Senate control would have significant implications for Trump’s ability to exercise political authority during the remainder of his term, which would fit with the November 20 transits; but there is a timing problem: the election takes place seventeen days earlier.
That does not make the election irrelevant. Its consequences could create the circumstances to which Trump responds during the subsequent Mars activation. It would predictably anger him, and Mars’ return reliably produces irritability, but that is not usual for the president.
An unfavorable congressional outcome could produce intensified efforts to assert executive authority or confront political opposition in multiple domains. Conversely, an outcome favorable to Republicans could encourage more ambitious initiatives.
Both possibilities would be consistent with an amplified Mars function, which illustrates the difficulty of translating planetary symbolism into a specific electoral prediction.
The election is therefore a useful independent benchmark, but it should not be confused with the exact November transit.
The Iran Conflict
A second possibility is renewed confrontation involving Iran. Loss of the Senate and/or House could trigger Trump to project his issues toward the war–excuse me, “excursion” executed by the newly renamed “Department of War.” Because “Department of Excursions” didn’t fit on the letterhead.
The conflict has already demonstrated the limits of military force (e.g. running out of missiles) , the complications of escalation (who would have thought they’d close the Strait!?), and the difficulty of translating tactical action into durable political outcomes (surprisingly, the assassinated Ayatollah’s son hasn’t decided to start a democracy yet).
A concentrated Mars activation could correspond to renewed military initiative, intensified confrontation, or a forceful attempt to change the strategic situation.
But it could also accompany a decisive diplomatic initiative, particularly one undertaken from a position of asserted strength.
The presence of Jupiter alongside Mars is important here. Expansion of initiative is not necessarily expansion of warfare. It may involve a larger ambition, a more consequential decision, or an attempt to establish a new arrangement.
What interests me is whether November brings a significant development in which Trump’s personal assertion of authority becomes unusually consequential, especially because he himself in a Jupiter major period, which often teaches lessons by people getting what they want and dead-ending.
That would be more directly connected to the planetary configuration than a generalized prediction that something bad will happen.
What Would Count as a Meaningful Test?
For this experiment to be useful, I want to identify the relevant possibilities before the events occur.
The primary observation period will be November 15–25, centered on the November 20 Mars return.
I will be watching for a significant, independently documented development involving Trump’s exercise of personal authority, particularly in one of three areas:
A consequential confrontation between the presidency and Congress arising from the midterm elections.
A substantial escalation, change of strategy, or major agreement involving Iran.
A significant executive initiative or institutional conflict in which Trump personally assumes a central role.
These are hypotheses about possible expressions of the transit, not three separate predictions that all such events will occur.
I also recognize that these categories are broad. A serious evaluation must consider whether developments during this period are genuinely unusual, whether their timing is close to the selected transit, and whether similar events were already occurring with comparable frequency.
Most importantly, if nothing particularly consequential happens, that result needs to count against the predictive significance of the configuration; otherwise, the exercise becomes unfalsifiable.
A Third Test in January
The original April analysis also identified January 24, 2027, as another significant period.
By then, Mars will have moved farther through Leo, continuing its transit of Trump’s first house, while Saturn remains in his eighth house.
This creates a useful opportunity to compare two stages of the same broader process.
November emphasizes the exact return of Mars to its natal position, with Jupiter closely involved. January presents a later phase of Mars’ movement through Selfhood against the continuing background of Saturn’s eighth-house transit.
If these periods correspond to distinctly different developments, that may help clarify the relationship between precise planetary contacts and longer-term developmental pressures. If they do not, that is useful information too.
Prediction, Interpretation, and Intellectual Honesty
One of the problems with predictive astrology is that symbolism can be remarkably accommodating, especially after the fact.
Mars may signify conflict, courage, initiative, aggression, or decisive action. Saturn may signify restriction, responsibility, discipline, loss, or consolidation. Jupiter may signify expansion, opportunity, excess, or overconfidence.
All of these associations can be meaningful. But their flexibility creates a serious interpretive problem. If almost any event can be explained afterward, what exactly has been predicted?
This is one reason I distinguish developmental astrology from traditional predictive practice. Developmental astrology concerns the underlying structure of human functioning and the ways that structure can mature. It does not require that we know what will happen next Tuesday.
Nevertheless, studying transits may help us understand how developmental pressures unfold over time, what kinds of circumstances activate particular functions, and how different expressions of the same underlying structure become possible.
For me, the value of this experiment is not in demonstrating that astrology can predict political outcomes with certainty. It is in becoming more precise about what the symbolism actually warrants. That makes it worth doing, besides being fun.
August offered some interesting correspondences, though not an unambiguous predictive success. November offers another test, with a more concentrated planetary configuration and several consequential possibilities already visible.
We’ll see what happens.
The point is not to make astrology right. It’s to find out how right it can be, about what, under what conditions, and how good I can get at it. ;-)
A Few Specific Predictions
Having established the broader and firmer likelihoods, I want to risk a few more specific predictions. These go beyond what I think the astrology can confidently establish, but that’s precisely why they’re worth making.
My strongest prediction is that between November 15 and 25, Trump will personally initiate a significant expansion or assertion of presidential authority that produces immediate institutional or international resistance. I expect the initiative to be unusually consequential, rather than yet another episode of inflammatory rhetoric.
Second, I predict escalation rather than accommodation in the conflict with Iran. Specifically, I would expect a new ultimatum, military initiative, or significant threat intended to force a change in the strategic situation.
Third, I suspect that whatever major initiative occurs in November will produce an unintended setback or expose a limitation of presidential authority by December 15.
Finally, I predict that the January 24 period will be more about confronting consequences or constraints than initiating new action.
These are deliberately stronger claims than the planetary symbolism alone warrants. They could all be wrong. And if November passes without a clearly identifiable, consequential development, I intend to count that as a failure of this predictive experiment, not search for a minor event that can be made to fit.
That’s the point of making predictions in advance: to give reality an opportunity to disagree, which is how we learn.
Even More Specific: Democrats Take the Senate
I’ll go a step further and predict that Democrats will win control of the Senate in the November 3 midterm elections.
To investigate this possibility, I really geeked out. I compared Trump’s Election Day transits with those of Chuck Schumer, the current Democratic Senate leader, and John Thune, the Republican majority leader.
Schumer’s chart shows considerable activation of his tenth house of Authority, along with transiting Rahu approaching his natal Jupiter in the second house of Continuity. This could correspond to an expansion of institutional responsibility and influence.
Thune’s chart (which I had to rectify as his birth time isn’t known) presents a different picture. He is undergoing a rare inverse nodal transit, which is often correlated with sudden changes, and in his 8th house of Revelation no less, which tends to be associated with transformation via the loss of control. Jupiter enters that 8H nearly on the day of the election and Ketu is already there, activating containing his natal Moon and Rahu in Leo. Within my developmental framework, these configurations suggest significant pressure on established structures and potentially consequential changes in his relationship to institutional authority, especially against the inflated and arrogant shadow of Leo.
Taken together with Trump’s own transits, I find the contrast sufficiently interesting to risk a concrete prediction: Republicans lose their Senate majority, and Democrats take control. I would not have made this call without seeing Thune’s inverse nodal return. I also didn’t think Trump would win in 2016, but later learned his Jupiter major period began eight days after he won. If I had known that….
So the GOP Senate loss is a considerably stronger claim than predicting a period of difficulty or heightened assertion. It has a clear, independently verifiable outcome, and I am making it before the election.
If I’m wrong, I’m wrong. That’s part of the experiment.