Inaugurations and Solar Returns: A Subtle Distinction

 ©2020 J. Lee Lehman

The US Constitution is clear:  the term of office of President and Vice President of the United States begins at noon on 20 January following a presidential election. This has been true since the 20th amendment was adopted 23 January 1933: before that, inauguration occurred on 4 March.

 

When a chart is run for noon on 20 January, the Ascendant given is 13 or 14 Taurus, leading one to the observation that the nation (Ascendant) is now always given by Venus, while the President is given by Saturn (MC). Thus, astrologers have often observed since 1933 about the aging effect of being president, which astrologically makes a lot of sense.

 

What is almost always ignored is that the precise minute of the zero degrees Aquarius Sun varies slightly from election cycle to election cycle. For most purposes, this is just not relevant - but it is if you wish to study consecutive solar returns. And this in turn has one very important impact.

 

In the astrological discussion leading up to the 2016 and 2020 elections, Deborah Houlding has highlighted the impact of the ascension charts as discussed by Masha'allah. (See, for example, her article in the October 2020 issue of the Career Astrologer). The idea behind this technique is pretty simple. In attempting to create a chart for the reign of a particular king, Masha'allah proposed the use of a mundane chart that would represent the birth of the reign. This is an older technique than doing a chart for the precise time of death of the old monarch, which would be equivalent to the inauguration time in the USA. Deborah has discussed the use of the Aries Ingress chart which occurs in election years as the appropriate chart. She has discussed this not so much as a predictive technique for who wins (although that may be at least implicit in the chart), as for describing the nature of the reign. Put into the specifics of the election we have the following:

 

Donald Trump's "reign" or ascensional chart began with the Aries Ingress chart of 2016. There is only one "beginning of reign" chart, so the 2020 Aries Ingress chart does not change his reign if he is reelected.

 

Joe Biden's reign (ascensional chart) would begin with the 2020 Aries Ingress chart - again, showing the nature of his "reign," not an explicit prediction of whether he would win.

 

If this seems a little confusing, there is a good reason. We are actually dealing with two different charts:

  

• The ascensional chart (Aries Ingress) is calculated from a traditional mundane chart of the year. 

• An actual timed event (inauguration) marks the legal beginning of a new reign.
  

The ascensional chart shows the mundane conditions under which a reign develops. And in a world in which the precise time of death of the old monarch - the traditional event marking the new reign of the next monarch - might not have been known, the ascensional chart has the advantage of always being available.

Once a reign starts, there is no future chart of the magnitude of the start of reign. Continuing to rule is not a rooted time, so to speak, whereas beginning a rule is such an event.

 

What this means is the the 2021 inaugural event chart is much more significant for Joe Biden because it would be an inception for him, while in Trump's case, the 2017 inaugural chart would still be in operation.

 

So what is the 2021 inauguration chart for Donald Trump, should he prevail? The answer is: very little. But what will be useful is another solar return of the 2017 chart - and this is where it gets interesting. Now, the couple of minutes different on the Sun position produces the following result.

Let's review: the upper left-hand chart is the inauguration from the 2020 election. The upper right-hand chart is for the 2016 election. The lower chart is the solar return of the 2016 election. The lower chart is completely irrelevant if Biden wins.

But let's compare the 2020 chart and the 2016 solar return. The 2016 chart solar return for 2021 shows a much more belligerent populace with the Moon in Aries partile conjunct the Ascendant. By contrast, the 2021 chart shows that Moon lurking in the 12th: private enemies of this administration go underground but don't go away. But with Venus ruling Ascendant and trine it, the temperature level of the nation drops.

In 2017, because there was no chance that the sitting President could continue a prior inauguration "reign," the 2017 inaugural chart applied to either competitor. 2020 is different, and it is interesting that the two charts - inauguration and solar return of prior inauguration - both seem to describe the men very well.