Happy New Year, Donald—An Update on the President’s 2018 Solar Return

[Editor’s note: we are delighted to publish this article by Alex Miller, with thanks to Alex and his website, Alex’s Asteroid Astrology, an incomparable resource for asteroid-related astrology. There you’ll find in-depth astrological analyses of breaking events, as well as the astrological meanings of many mythic named asteroids.]

As 2019 dawns, what does the New Year have in store for The Donald? He’s just passed the halfway mark of that stunningly horrific Solar Return, with almost six months still to run on his celestial sentence, and no “get out of jail free” card in sight!

But it’s not just the embedded factors in that chart which threaten Trump’s personal sanity and our collective safety—the cosmos continues to apply serious pressure to crack this nut, and much of it is coming in the next few months. Two eclipses and two planetary stations vie for the honor of the ultimate Trump Takedown, increasing presidential stress levels to the breaking point. But the coup de gras may well be the antics of his celestial referent, asteroid Troemper.

To begin at the beginning: the year starts off with a bang on January 5, with a partial Solar Eclipse at 15 Capricorn. From that degree, the eclipse hits off a Grand Cross in Trump’s natal chart, opposing an exact conjunction of asteroids Nemesis and Bilk at 16 Cancer and squaring two pairs of celestial bedfellows—asteroids Russia and Mueller at 12 and 13 Aries, and Chiron and Jupiter at 14 and 17 Libra. How literal can the cosmos get?

Nemesis is about divine retribution, karmic payback for prior misdeeds, knocking the offender off his or her pedestal and bringing a huge dose of reality, in the form of any number of blocks, obstacles, or frustrations to ambition, upending the current situation and cutting the individual down to size.

Bilk refers to crimes or fraudulent behaviors, particularly of a financial nature; paired with Nemesis, the suggestion is that these constitute a grave danger for the native, snares which threaten ultimately to undo him. Typically these pitfalls are self-devised, or at minimum self-generated by past behaviors, and seem most directed towards those who are prideful or boasting of their accomplishments, which they attribute to themselves alone and not the assistance of others, or the intervention or benevolence of providence.

Now, who does that sound like?

So who or what do these misdeeds involve, and who or what is going to rectify the cosmic balance? Enter asteroids Russia and Mueller. The Russian investigation, with its attendant obstruction of justice charges, will be brought in for a landing by Robert Mueller, seemingly within a few months. The eclipse energizes these points, bringing them into prominence and resetting their effects, in essence allowing natal potentials to express fully and unreservedly.

And pause just a moment here to marvel over the staggering precision of the cosmos, in bringing together these two factors of Russia and Mueller so vital to the Trump biography, the investigation and the investigator, more than 70 years before their importance could be guessed? With these points activated by the eclipse, we’ll likely see a conclusion to the Mueller probe into Russian collusion sooner this year rather than later (current rumors suggest Mueller’s report could be released as early as February).

And what will be the outcome of this activation? That’s where Chiron and Jupiter come in. This pairing has served Trump well in his political career thus far. It allowed him to portray himself as the political maverick, the outsider, the candidate who follows the beat of a different drummer, the out-of-the-box choice, the exuberantly nonconformist rebel who can heal what ails our political system.

The problem is, Trump has pretty much played this out over the course of the past three years. Fewer and fewer people are buying that interpretation; it’s lost its gloss. All that remains now of Chiron and Jupiter is its most basic downside—a massive political wound, something that cannot be healed, and only retirement from the field of engagement will stop the pain. Eclipses will reset current circumstances, often in dramatic, 180-degree-turnaround style, and this one should put paid to the myth of Trump the Redeemer, revealing Trump the Outcast.

So the first Solar Eclipse of the year sets the stage for one of the biggest political reversals in American history, a plummet from the heights so complete and devastating it puts Icarus’ plunge into the sea to shame. And all the crucial factors are bound up in this pattern, all activated at once.

This is followed hotly by the total Lunar Eclipse of 21 January 2019 at 0 Leo, exactly opposing asteroid Askalaphus at 0 Aquarius, itself conjunct asteroid Pecker at 27 Capricorn. Askalaphus is named for the gardener of Hades, who informed on Persephone’s dietary habits during her enforced sojourn in the Underworld. Zeus had ruled that the abducted Persephone could leave Hades’ realm if she had never tasted the food of the dead, and Persephone figured she was home free, since she had disconsolately refused all nourishment after Hades had kidnapped and ravished her. But with her bags packed, halfway out the door, Askalaphus came forward with the revelation that he had seen her walking in the garden one day, pluck a pomegranate, and eat six seeds. Zeus determined, therefore, that she must divide her time, spending six months a year below ground.

So Askalaphus is noted as the tale-bearer, the revealer of secrets, the one who upsets the apple cart with the introduction of information that turns the tables and exposes others to the ramifications of their actions. Trump has been singularly unlucky with this sort of thing from the get-go of his time in office; the question now is, what remains to be revealed?

Of course, Pecker in Trump’s life has two meanings: the euphemistic one, as a symbol of the male member, his use of which has gotten him into trouble before; and a quite literal one, in the form of longtime Trump confidant David Pecker, head of American Media, publishers of the “National Enquirer”, who ran interference for Trump on bad publicity for decades, but is now cooperating with federal investigators in at least one Trump-related probe So an eclipsed Pecker (besides conjuring images of Viagra prescriptions) could indicate that there is another shoe to drop in the long and sordid saga of Trump’s philandering, or that there is breaking news of another kind involving other stories the “Enquirer” hushed up to assist Trump’s political fortunes, in addition to the payoff to Playboy model Karen McDougal, which has been ruled a campaign finance violation.

Incidentally, Saturn the enforcer, arbiter of punishments, is also bound up in this eclipse, conjoined from 11 Capricorn. Neptune, which brings disillusion, confusion and disappointment in its wake (and also rules imprisonment), is sextile the eclipse and trined Nemesis/Bilk from 14 Pisces. That plummet-from-the-heights asteroid Icarus is also embroiled; at 14 Capricorn, it could precipitate more rash, reckless acts which add fuel to Nemesis’ fire and further imperil Trump’s future.

As they say, stay tuned…

The next cosmic tag-team to rain its body blows upon the 45^th President of the United States is Saturn and Pluto, which make their retrograde stations within days of each other in April 2019. Pluto turns at 23 Capricorn on April 24, and Saturn follows its lead on April 29 from 20 Cap.

Saturn’s station also incorporates an opposition to and activation of natal Nemesis/Bilk, adding a flavor of official censure, being held responsible for one’s actions, especially in the financial realm, with punishments to be meted out as deserved. It will now head back over the ground of the Grand Cross, energizing each point in turn, lending its particular brand of harsh reality and “no way out”-ism to the proceedings. Saturn takes guff from nobody; it is strict, by-the-book, and letter-of-the-law, all areas where Trump is historically weak. For a man who thrives on wiggle room, Saturn offers none. Saturn will travel back as far as 13 Capricorn before it resumes direct motion in September; its station then will exactly square Trump’s natal asteroid Mueller, representing the Special Counsel Saturn has deputized as his chief enforcer in this matter.

But even given this, it is Pluto which poses the greater threat. Again, we can but wonder at the timing of the cosmos, for at this critical juncture, so vital to Trump’s career, where does transformational, powerful, devastating Pluto focus its energies in Donald Trump’s chart? In exact opposition to an exact natal pairing at 23 Cancer of Saturn and asteroid Karma!

In and of itself, this combination speaks to the fact that career matters (Saturn) for Trump are inextricably linked with Fate (Karma). There’s a reason Donald Trump is President, against all odds, and Saturn/Karma has much to do with that. But what this conjunction also says is that, at some point, there will be a price to be paid for decisions made and actions taken in the attaining of that career.

And Pluto stationing exactly opposed Saturn/Karma says, that time has come. Pluto delves deep, revealing secrets, exposing scandals, rooting out corruption, and impelling change, willingly or not. The more you try to resist that change, the harder Pluto pushes back, the more pressure is applied, the more pain is extracted. Transformation and change is inevitable; the only question is how much will you endure first before accepting it?

Pluto will be excruciatingly thorough in its performance review of Trump’s acts regarding career, and the wheels of Karma will grind very finely indeed in meting out exactly what Trump deserves for his prior deeds. If he’s been aboveboard, responsible and fair in his dealings, no problem. But this is Donald Trump we’re talking about. And this is not going to end well.

All that is bad enough, but the cosmos isn’t finished with The Donald. Not by a long shot. It’s truly astounding to see and report this, but as all this celestial drama and karmic payback is playing out, where does asteroid Troemper find itself? Right in the thick of it.

I get goosebumps of predatory delight when I look at this, and imagine the meat grinder Trump will find himself in over the course of 2019. Because asteroid Troemper is transiting the same zodiacal zone as Saturn and Pluto, and also coming to station—at 27 Capricorn—on 22 May 2019. Due to movement slowing by all three bodies as they approach and complete their retrograde stations, Troemper will be within five degrees of Saturn, highlighting criticism, reprimand, punishment and penalty, continually from March 9 through May 2. Its exact conjunction occurs, perhaps appropriately, on April Fool’s Day. This transpires at 19 Capricorn, energizing the Nemesis/Bilk and Chiron/Jupiter conjunctions once more.

Troemper then moves out of orb of Saturn (but not out of jeopardy, as Pluto awaits ahead, just down the celestial pike) for a few weeks, but its own retrograde brings it back into orb with Saturn from June 22 through October 29, with another exact conjunction on July 27, and a third, after both have resumed direct motion, on September 27 (at 15 Cap and 13 Cap respectively, both highlight the entre Grand Cross; the final exact conjunction exactly squares natal Mueller!). That represents an extended period of harsh criticism, censure, being held responsible for one’s acts and called to account, and the meting out of appropriate reprimands and punishments.

Troemper’s pas de deux with Pluto is even more devastating. Coming into a five-degree orb of conjunction on March 22, Troemper remains locked in embrace with transformative, pitiless, devastating and overwhelming Pluto for fully four months, until July 27, the very day when Troemper conjoins Saturn for the second time. Troemper’s exact conjunction with Pluto occurs on another day of resonance for Americans in particular, April 15, tax day, and one suspects that the bill coming due then will be more than Trump is prepared to pay. This union occurs at 23 Capricorn, further emphasizing Pluto’s exact opposition to natal Saturn/Karma, lending a personal touch in real time.

As with Troemper/Saturn, there is a second extended conjunction of Troemper and Pluto, from October 3 through November 15, with a second exact conjunction on October 27, at 20 Capricorn, once again opposing Nemesis/Bilk.

And did you note Troemper’s retrograde station degree of 27 Capricorn? That “just happens” to be the degree of the US natal Pluto! Unbelievably, Troemper is coming to rest exactly where the nation holds its leaders responsible, at the core of their power. So we have here a triple threat of Plutonian energies—a precise transit to the natal chart which highlights career, an extended transit conjunction in the sky which promotes transformation and destruction, and an exact hit to the national power center.

Again, this doesn’t end well, for The Donald. But for the rest of us? Happy days are here again!

Opening artwork uses an original photo by Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

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 .