Hillary Clinton’s Emails

So what’s up with the Hillary Clinton email brouhaha? Is it, as Clinton stalwarts would have it, “much ado about nothing”? Or is there some “there” there? What began in March as concerns about the possible appearance of impropriety, with Clinton deleting all emails she deemed “personal”, but which may have had resonance to individuals, companies and countries having business with the State Department and/or the Clinton Foundation during her tenure as Secretary, has morphed in the dog days of August into an FBI investigation probing possible criminal mishandling of classified material.

Is the presumed 2016 Democratic nominee in serious jeopardy, knocked off the glide path to her coronation, or is it still “all sails set” to that safe harbor? Maybe a look at the antics of Hillary Clinton’s celestial namesake, asteroid Hillary, which has been a reliable indicator of her life journey for some 68 years, can give us clues to the future.

But as always, we need to examine the issue from the perspective of the birth chart first. Born 26 October, 1947 (time disputed), perhaps the most stand-out feature of Hillary’s birth chart which potentially weighs in on this issue is an exact square between Mercury, the planet of communication (including emails) at 21 Scorpio, and Saturn, the planet of career (also representing the Presidency itself) at 21 Leo.

Here we see the source of that “cold, calculating” communication style of which Hillary is so frequently accused. Sometimes seeming more a thing of wheels and gears than flesh and blood, Hillary can come off in public, where her natural Scorpio defensiveness and privacy needs assert themselves, as aloof, detached, even elitist, as if she considers herself “above” others. We’re assured that in private, when she feels comfortable with intimates, she’s warm, engaging, considerate and thoughtful, but that’s not typically the face she shows the world (her most commonly used suggested birth time, 8:02 AM, would give her a Scorpio Ascendant as well as Sun, doubling down on the Scorpionic secrecy, remoteness and reservation).

But that square, while evocative of communication difficulties generally (and a challenge/square from her email/Mercury to her presidential aspirations/Saturn, specifically), is not by any means the last word. It’s just the most visible portion of a complex Mirror Configuration known as a Thor’s Hammer—two planets in square, each sesquiquadrate (135 degrees) a third. In this case, there are actually two points, both dwarf planets, impacting the action of the basic square from the active degree of 6 Aries—TNOs (Trans-Neptunian Objects) Eris and Typhon. It bears repeating that each point in this pattern is in exact aspect to the others, a fact which considerably ramps up the pattern’s effectiveness and intrusiveness in the life story.

Eris, named for the Greek goddess of strife and discord, and associated by dwarf planet expert Sue Kientz with the concept of “the Other”, is a fractious, divisive energy, while Typhon, named for a Greek Titan who was a storm god (and from whom we derive our word “typhoon”), represents a storm, a maelstrom, a violent perturbance in the status quo, something beyond our control which threatens to overwhelm or “swamp” us. Put it all together, and you have an image of someone whose cold and distant communication style redounds to their detriment as squabbling, conflict, argument and division, with the potential to create a tempest in a teacup whenever she opens her mouth, along with a sense that she is alien or Other, in short, “not one of us.” If you doubt the power of this combination, consider the boatloads of opprobrium foisted on Hillary by the far right, cemented into her public image by Fox News and its conservative talk radio cohorts, not to mention the firestorm over such simple, apolitical endeavors as her 1996 book, “It Takes a Village”, for which she was roundly excoriated as “anti-family”.

With this natal configuration, even given the best intentions, it’s hard not to butt heads and put a foot wrong, with everyone expecting the worst, and often getting just what they expect (as they perceive it). The miracle is that she’s been able to develop a loyal following at all, with these celestial cards stacked against her. One saving grace is Mercury’s natal conjunction with Venus at 16 Scorpio—Hillary is capable of giving one the oil, speaking in a conciliatory manner, and charming others, but it’s a private skill that hasn’t translated to the mass market, at least not so far. And however filled with potential for graciousness and cordial diplomacy, let’s not forget that the conjunction is in suspicious, manipulative Scorpio, noted for its tendency to sting and lash out, regardless of what’s in its best interests.

So that’s the backdrop, the stage setting for our current email drama. If we want to get a grip on the situation, we can look to transits, yes, and some of those, especially eclipses, do apply. On September 27, 2015, a Lunar Eclipse at 4 Aries closely conjoins the natal Eris/Typhon conjunction, activating the entire pattern for the next six months. At that point the slack is taken up by the next Lunar Eclipse, on 23 March 2016, which at 3 Libra highlights these same energies, from the Mercury/Saturn midpoint, semisquare each. This affords a full year of focus on Clinton’s inherent communication difficulties, something that’s not likely to improve the campaign’s prospects, though it’s true that Hillary will have opportunities, virtually daily, to come to grips with the issues this pattern has created over her life.

But we have other implements in our celestial tool box that can tell us much more; for instance, PNAs (Personal-Named asteroids). For there is an asteroid Hillary (double “l” and all!), and it tracks remarkably well with the milestones on her journey.

For example, when this furor began with the New York Times story on March 2, revealing the fact that Clinton had eschewed the government email system and used a private server at her home while Secretary of State, asteroid Hillary was at 24 Sagittarius. From there, Hillary was activating the current opposition between Typhon at 21 Libra and Eris at 22 Aries, reiterating the impact of those uncomfortable natal bedfellows by sextile to Typhon and trine to Eris. Clinton’s namesake PNA took that general energy and personalized it specifically to her, reigniting a natal challenge which had dogged her all life long. 24 Sagittarius is also rather inconveniently close to our Galactic Center at 27 Sagittarius, a point which, when activated, confers global notice or attention, not always a good thing.

Given this as the controversy’s genesis, it’s no surprise to find that asteroid Hillary is at that same degree as the issue heats up in August, but this time, it’s making a direct station. Stations indicate major turning points, and while a direct station is generally considered more favorable than one retrograde, it all depends on what the precursors have been. Hillary’s direct station on August 8 inaugurated a period of forward momentum which will not abate until four days after the 2016 election, when Mrs. Clinton’s celestial referent once again turns retrograde.

Until then it’s full steam ahead, seemingly a positive thing where campaigns for president are concerned, but the period until the next station is colored by the celestial factors impacting the prior station. In effect, the station’s pertaining conditions become embedded in the next portion of the cycle, for good or ill. Let’s take a look at how celestial Hillary finds itself at this direct station, and the implications that has for how the email controversy plays out for Hillary’s terrestrial counterpart.

Frankly, it’s a tangle. Hillary is conjoined by a large number of points, as well as focal in a Grand Cross, and not a lot of it has much positive to contribute. Let’s start with the other arms of the Grand Cross.

In opposition to Hillary is TNO Chaos at 20 Gemini. Chaos is pretty much just what it sounds like. True, it can represent the creative void from which all meaning and existence springs, but in practice, here on planet Earth, it’s usually confusion, disorientation, and, well … chaos! Things become muddled and difficult to sort out, unexpected problems arise; it’s just one damn thing after another! We’re only just beginning to get the sense that the campaign is fraying a bit at the edges—nothing critical yet, but who knows, as the FBI probe deepens, and if indictments follow? Chaos is pushing toward that end, and in opposition, it’s others who are doing the shoving.

There are square aspects to a Virgo cluster of asteroids Niobe, Whitehouse and Panacea, at 17, 19 and 20 Virgo respectively. Niobe, in short, is pride; it can manifest as hauteur, something Hillary is sometimes credited with, but it can also mean a genuine respect for and acknowledgement of one’s accomplishments. Sometimes, however, pride can intrude, it can prevent one from owning up to faults in a timely and appropriately self-deprecating manner, early on, when things can be defused before they blow up out of proportion. We’ve probably passed the “mea culpa” moment for Clinton, who continues to double down on the “I did nothing that wasn’t permitted” line.

Whitehouse, of course, is self-explanatory. It’s why we’re here, it’s why this matters, it’s what’s at stake. The square suggests this is, indeed, a crisis on that road to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. In her birth chart, Hillary Clinton sports an exact opposition from natal asteroid Hillary at 5 Virgo to natal Whitehouse at 5 Pisces; pretty impressive! It shows the Oval Office as her highest aspiration (opposition, or Full Moon phase) personally. But here’s the thing—Hillary has already been there, for eight years, as First Lady, so maybe that karma has already been paid. Is that all there is? Time will tell.

Panacea is named for a healing daughter of Asclepius, a maker of medicinal cures. She still governs drugs of all types, legal and recreational, but as a concept, Panacea represents the quick fix, the cure-all (usually bogus) which promises to gloss over all hurts and restore normalcy. Hillary seems to be trying this out with a “move along, nothing to see here” strategy, but under the microscope of a presidential campaign by one of the most polarizing figures in American political history, it’s not likely to work.

On the Pisces side of the Grand Cross we find TNO Borasisi at 19 and centaur Chiron at 20. Again, not a helpful pair. Borasisi is named for the alien sun in Kurt Vonnegut’s novel “Cat’s Cradle”, and astrologer Eric Francis associates it with lies, based on the text. (On a side note here, it should be mentioned that natally, Hillary’s Borasisi conjoins asteroid America exactly, at 8 Sagittarius, which falls on the Ascendant of the US; given the implicit connection there between lies and the country, is it any wonder that Americans reject her truthfulness and honesty?) Chiron of course represents woundings, as well as maverick behaviors. Both are certainly in evidence in the Clinton email saga, with her “going off the reservation” to maintain her own server, away from prying government eyes and future FOIA requests, and now receiving what may be a truly fatal wound due to that paranoid decision. None of this is helpful, but it gets worse.

For the points in conjunction with Asteroid Hillary are truly staggering in their implications. We’ve already spoken about the action of the Galactic Center in bringing an individual to global notice; we’ll surely be seeing and hearing a lot about Hillary in the next 15 months. The other points comprise TNO Ixion at 21 Sagittarius, centaur Pholus at 22 Sagittarius, TNO Quaoar at 26 Sagittarius, and centaur Hylonome at 28 Sagittarius. There is also a broad conjunction with asteroid Kassandra at 2 Capricorn.

Ixion is about rule-breaking, and a sense of entitlement that says one has the right to break the rules. That does sound a lot like the current situation, doesn’t it? Why the joint personal/business email address? Why the private server? Why ignore the preferred State Department protocols on email etiquette, and then roll over the new regulations that came into effect after she took office? Why delete the “personal” emails and wipe the server clean? Why not simply follow the rules, like everybody else?

Pholus’ energy has been encapsulated by centaur specialist Melanie Rheinhart as “the lid comes off!” This is a reference to the Pholus myth, where the centaur, in an act of hospitality to his visiting friend Herakles, offers him a draught of wine from a jar that is supposed to be kept in reserve for the other centaurs. These smell the wine, and, enraged, attack Pholus’ cave, resulting in a battle where most are massacred by the legendary hero. The astrological Pholus represents an explosive energy, a seemingly small cause which yields a disproportionately huge effect. Again, this is a strangely apt image for where we are with this controversy. Clinton’s stated goal in maintaining just one email address and handheld device during her time as Secretary was “simplicity”, but things have become very complicated, very quickly.

Quaoar here stumped me for a bit, so I turned to Sue Kientz, the dwarf planet expert extraordinaire (her new book, More Plutos, is a must for any serious astrology student). She relates Quaoar to game playing, including gambling, among other things. In Sue’s words,

[Hillary] took a gamble (Quaoar) by having that email server under her control in the first place. …If anything she is gambling that her breaking of the rules (Ixion) will not get her in more trouble than she already expected. She knew she would have everyone after her about Benghazi and her time as Sec State. By keeping her server she has control of her communiques. But so far her gamble does not look like it is paying off as being less trouble.

Next we see Hylonome, a female centaur: her story is a sad one. After her beloved husband Cyllarus was killed in battle with the Lapiths, a distraught Hylonome threw herself upon the spear that had impaled him, killing herself in an excess of grief. As such, she represents the self-inflicted wound, perhaps fatal. The resonance with Clintons’ email saga is staggering; if Hillary had just followed the policies in place and entrusted her communications to a State Department account, she’d not be in this position. She can rail against the political witch-hunt as much as she likes, the fact remains that she is solely responsible for putting herself in jeopardy, even if others have capitalized on her foolishness and paranoia. Hylonome is also noted for being sensitive to criticism (something Hillary Clinton evinces in spades) and a deep-seated desire to be popular with everyone.

Lastly we find Kassandra. This conjunction is a bit wide, but she’s a pivotal figure in the Hillary saga. Kassandra represents credibility—can one be believed, is he or she trustworthy and truthful? This appears to be at the crux of the Clinton campaign. A CBS News poll released August 4, 2015, just as asteroid Hillary came to station, suggests candidate Hillary has a major Kassandra problem. The poll finds that only 40% of Americans consider her honest and trustworthy, something that’s typically a prerequisite for election to high office.

There is one more point in significant aspect to asteroid Hillary at its station. That’s asteroid Achilles, known for pointing up weakness and vulnerability, which at 7 Scorpio is semisquare Hillary. The email controversy has certainly emphasized the fact that Clinton has a serious trust deficit to overcome, which her continuing actions have done nothing to help. Perhaps not coincidentally, Hillary’s natal Achilles at 16 Capricorn opposes natal Kassandra at 20 Cancer, highlighting what is possibly Clinton’s greatest vulnerability—the perception that she plays fast and loose with facts, and bends the truth to suit her purpose. The close trine from Kassandra to natal Mercury at 21 Scorpio suggests it’s easy for others to discount her testimony and doubt her motives.

What’s worse, natal Achilles is about to come under intense scrutiny from transit Pluto. On March 2, the very day the New York Times story broke, Pluto first moved to 15 Capricorn, just a degree shy of Clinton’s Achilles, and came to its retrograde station there in mid-April, just four days after Hillary’s campaign launched, after which her poll numbers began to slide, indicating a potential weakness. After resuming direct motion in September, Pluto will retrace its steps and enter the 16th degree of Capricorn on January 30, just two days before the first votes are cast at the Iowa caucuses. Pluto maintains its pressure on natal Achilles throughout the early stages of primary season, through April 5, highlighting whatever character traits may be a serious weakness or vulnerability for the candidate, at the worst possible moment for her candidacy.

It’s not looking especially good for Hillary, is it?

Alex Miller

Alex Miller is a professional writer and astrologer, whose website AlexAsteroidAstrology.com offers a trove of info on the role of asteroids in personal and mundane astrology. He is the author of The Black Hole Book (available on Amazon.com) and The Urban Wicca, former editor of “The Galactic Calendar,” and past president of The Philadelphia Astrological Society. His pioneering work with Black Holes in astrological interpretation began in 1991, when his progressed Sun unwittingly fell into one. Alex’s books and writings are available on his website. Alex can also be reached for comment or services at .