As I write, we are told that there are only two states in the Union whose votes count—Ohio and Florida. Our votes, for instance, in this populous state of California, don’t count in a presidential election. The candidates don’t even visit here any more.

This is very wrong. And it is just one of the many, many serious problems which are now being exposed in our electoral system. Which is one of the serious problems regarding our "democracy." Which is one of the serious problems of a corporate-ruled world.

We have very deep, profound structural problems in the U.S., which will continue after the election, no matter whether Bush or Kerry wins. GW Bush is doing us the favor of bringing them out in all their awful clarity.

Pluto, acting in transit to the U.S. chart, and in the person of GW Bush, is exposing the dark underbelly of the beast. I have written about this many times, from many standpoints, during the last four years of Daykeeper. Now I want to briefly project ahead, and then look at where we are as a nation.

The near future brings an extraordinary level of activity.

A preview tells us that we are undergoing an enormous amount of change during the next 10 years. From 2008-2011, three of the five powerful outer planets will be traveling in cardinal signs, which are the initiators of action, as well as the dominant mode in the U.S. chart.

Most important are Pluto, with a 250-year cycle, which moves into Capricorn beginning in January 2008, and Uranus, with an 84-year cycle, which will move into Aries in November 2009. We have here challenges (Aries) to the establishment (Capricorn).

Pluto and Uranus together stand for freedom. They joined in the 60’s to plant the seeds of revolution. The establishment fought change, and has continued to fight change—when they haven’t co-opted it. This is usual. Stability wants to maintain itself.

But now we finally come to the first square of the Pluto-Uranus cycle, which is like first quarter moon. It’s when the urge to grow those seeds is so great that we are able to break through to manifest them into the collective, to begin to grow and tend those plants. Nothing can stop the ultimate success of this dynamic breakthrough.

The Pluto-Uranus square lasts incredibly long this century. It begins in July 2011, and finishes in April 2015. The universe is giving us enough time to do our work.

In the meantime, the nation is experiencing many transits, progressions, and eclipses which will help us prepare for major change.

Our current progressions are bringing us into a new dimension.

The U.S. was conceived in a cauldron of pioneering activity, and it is no wonder, then, that 6 of its 10 major planets are in cardinal signs. (The four cardinal signs—Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn—start the seasons.) The cardinal signs initiate action. In addition, the midheaven and IC are cardinal, and so are Chiron, Transpluto, and Juno. Added to this national need for action is Mars, the aggressive principle, in the seventh house, where it takes charge of our nation’s relationships.

With this 2004 election, the U.S. has begun a brand new progressed Sun experience. Its progressed Sun has just moved into Pisces, for the first time, and will stay here for 30 years. Pisces is a deep, mysterious, magical, mystical creative sign. It is naturally tuned into spirit. It is the last sign, preparing to move on, and ready to surrender excess baggage and go with the flow. It can be a challenging time. People with progressed Sun in Pisces often have to sacrifice part of their egos, and often rebel against that. But the priceless creativity of that time can far outweigh the value of ego.

Surrender, change, creativity, magic, and spirituality will definitely be part of our national experience for the next 30 years. For a nation run so heavily by the clock and by the balance sheet, this will not be easy. But it can be fun. This will be part of our national change, so better we surrender to an easing of the rules, and give the creative impulse room.

Of course an establishment which has become too rigid is threatened. Where it cannot bend, it will break. Or perhaps flood, as the great waters of Pisces wash over it. And they are beginning their flood, as people move into the streets now to protest the manner of voting—if not the outcome.

Progressed Mars is stationary at 19 Libra, ready to turn retrograde by 2006. Stationary planets act powerfully, and this means that Warrior Mars has been especially dominant for the last few years (no kidding!), and will continue to be dominant for the next few.

In the meantime, the October 13, 2004 Solar Eclipse is very close to the U.S. progressed Mars, and the April 8, 2005 Total Solar Eclipse will be almost exactly opposite it.

This means that the aggressive Mars energy of the U.S. is in for deep change during 2005. It may be preparing to begin to reverse course after it gets set on its retrograde path (which will last about 80 years).

The U.S. progressed Moon is in Cancer. It will conjunct the U.S. natal Sun in January 2005. We begin then a new 28-year cycle. This is like a new moon. We plant new seeds now for national expression. Cancer is a nurturing sign, and those who thwart the nurturing qualities of this nation deny its very nature.

Five months later, in June 2005, this progressed Cancer moon will have moved in position to square the U.S. progressed Mars. Moon brings strong emotions to our energy direction, and it will be hard to hold impulses in check. This comes on the heels of two Mars-oriented eclipses, which open Mars to vulnerability. Mars could get a real come-uppance then.

Moon and Mars progressions indicate conflict during 2005, at least through June.

Transiting planets bring reform and restructuring during 2005.

Pluto may not be the big guy, and he may not even be a planet, but when Pluto transits over any sensitive point, he packs a very big punch. For the last four years he’s been plowing through the first house of the nation’s identity, and we have been thrown for a loop.

Pluto is the reformer, the renovator, the recycler. But before he can redo a situation, he must destroy what is there. And there’s the rub. Who wants themselves, their lives, their loves, or their nation, destroyed?

The elimination is no fun, and we fight it. But then, once we’re clear, Pluto usually brings us something better than what we had before.

You might have guessed by now that the U.S. is undergoing a harsh Pluto transit. Pluto has a long cycle, 250 years, so we don’t experience Pluto touching us every day. But we know it when we do.

Pluto is now at 21 Sagittarius, and moving quickly (for Pluto) ahead. Guess what? The U.S. natal Mars (here we go again) is at 22 Gemini, right now looking Pluto in the face. Power and warrior energy. What happens?

Pluto strips everything down to its essence, warts and all. There is no hiding from Pluto. We see the naked aggressive impulses of much of the U.S. in full glare. Nothing graceful about it. And we see the military, under Rumsfeld, making every mistake in the book—and some that didn’t even exist.

Pluto exactly opposed the U.S. Mars beginning in January 2004. That was when NASA’S Spirit Rover landed on Mars! The U.S. Mars is in Gemini, and that little Spirit is quite a flitty Gemini creature. January was also when Ron Suskind’s book on Paul O’Neill, former Treasury Secretary under Bush, came out. O’Neill was shocked by Bush’s passivity in government, and revealed many things, among them that Bush was planning the Iraq invasion from the time that he took office.

Pluto will oppose Mars for the last time in September 2005, which begins a stressful autumn for the U.S. Just after the Pluto hit, transiting Mars itself turns retrograde for a couple of months.

All in all, Mars’ aggressive impulses will be undergoing a very big overhaul in 2005.

The U.S. Neptune, at 23 Virgo, is also undergoing revision at the merciless hands of Pluto.

Neptune in the U.S. 9th house refers to our propaganda, our media, and the myriad of things which we export abroad. Neptune provides an open channel, in this case to the wider world. Neptune works to unify.

Neptune and Mars square, or challenge, one another in the U.S. chart. They can get along well when Mars takes its lead from Neptune, and uses its abundant energy in a creative and idealistic manner. However, when Mars tries to take charge, and use Neptune’s magic touch for grubby, self-serving goals, it finds itself continually undercut and sabotaged. The chemicals and toxins (Neptunian) which we have used with a terrible recklessness are coming back to haunt us.

Basically, then, the U.S. needs to learn to direct its Mars energy in service to the world. That’s exactly what Neptune in Virgo in the ninth house is all about. When it does this—and it has in the past—it can do wonders. So we need to look at what we’re doing wrong—so we can eliminate it. This is Pluto’s big service. It comes along and cleans out the closet.

Transiting Pluto is now stressing not only Mars in the U.S. chart, but Neptune as well. Since they are square in the U.S. chart, whenever a transiting planet affects one, it will affect the other. Thus they must learn to work together. And this year is the golden opportunity of the nation to look at feedback, and figure out how we can improve this combination.

It is a unique opportunity. For Pluto is now traveling in the first, most personal house of the U.S. chart for the first time. For the first time we can become truly conscious of the underside of the nation. It’s natural to resist seeing what has been repressed, denied, and hidden for so long, but ultimately Pluto has a drive to break through, as in a volcanic eruption.

Transiting Pluto first squared the U.S. Neptune in March 2004, when the Abu Ghraib torture story broke through. This is a blatant example of a Mars-Neptune combination gone awry, and the story is not over. There is more to dig out, and to deal with.

Another blatant example of the destructive use of the Mars-Neptune combination are the poisons and toxins which we use in warfare—and with our soldiers.

Pluto squares Neptune again in December 2004, just as it is finishing its opposition to Mars. From the time Pluto turns direct in early September, through the end of 2004, much will be revealed.

When we include the U.S. progressed Neptune, Pluto will continue its square to Neptune through September 2007. During this entire time, we are learning about our mistakes—one might say, as "missionaries."

With our progressed Sun in Pisces, we can also be much better attuned to the underdog, the less fortunate, and the suffering of humankind.

What about the U.S. government?

Saturn speaks to governmental authority. The U.S. natal Saturn is in a very authoritative place indeed, the tenth house of taking charge. Saturn can sometimes be difficult there, because you think you must always be right, or someone will topple you from your throne. Self-righteousness can be a terrible handicap.

Saturn has a 30-year cycle. It entered Cancer, the most important sign for the U.S., in June 2003. It is now traveling through the U.S. 8th house of hidden things, and across the U.S. Mercury, which is the national consciousness, as well as in opposition to the U.S. Pluto, in Capricorn, in the 2nd house of resources.

Saturn is the bookkeeper. It is boundaries. It shows us where we must tend to business, and it may give us rewards when we do. It surely punishes us when we don’t. With Saturn, we face stone-cold reality. There is no escape. It is the Law.

Saturn now transiting the U.S. Mercury and Pluto is showing us what, at this time, is the reality of our consciousness of U.S. power. We are seeing that if we compare our perceptions to those of the rest of the world, they don’t hold up.

Again, what do we do about it? How do we re-form and re-shape our consciousness so that we can be more aware of what is happening?

The 2nd and the 8th are energy houses, and it is our thinking about energy that is most important now. Can we see that—for survival itself—we must change our mode of hogging and wasting energy? Can we figure out consistently sustainable ways of working with earth’s energy on a broad scale in this nation? Saturn asks us to do this—at a governmental level.

Saturn conjoined Mercury in September and opposes Pluto now, in November. It continues back and forth over this space through June 2005, with hits in January and in May.

Reshaping U.S. government is a major project during this 9-month period. It is essential that we, the people, give our input to this process.

The U.S. can be a world server.

With Saturn in Libra in the 10th house, the U.S. has the potential to eventually be a leader in a sustainable, just, and harmonious way of life.

Saturn returns to its home base in Libra in the U.S. chart during 2011. This return is occurring just as the first fervor of the Uranus revolutionary spirit impacts the nation, in July 2011. The turbulent times of 2011-2015 will be the energy on which Saturn begins its new cycle. We will have then a tremendous opportunity to change the mode of governing in the United States.

Soon after, at Winter Solstice 2020, Jupiter and Saturn—the two big guys in the sky who run earth life—will join for their 20-year conjunction in the first degree of Aquarius. This is an auspicious beginning for a new 800-year cycle.

Pluto will then be in Capricorn, about to return to its birth position in the U.S. chart, and preparing to embark on a new 250-year cycle of working with energy and resources.

Times have recently have felt very dark in the U.S. This is what Pluto does—takes us to the depths of the awfulness so that we are forced to see it. We face death. It is at that moment that we can begin our catharsis.

There is light ahead. The years we are experiencing right now, 2004-2005, are allowing us to see the old ugliness. And thereby to begin to forge new and better ways.

This rebuilding is a process which, however, takes time. We must have patience with the process, hold the light, and continue to work for the good.

It is heartening to remember that all of this change is occurring with progressed Sun in Pisces. Pisces can allow change, surrender, spiritual connection, and compassion as can no other sign. It is the last of the signs, and thus completes a 360-year cycle of progression. Purification is its essential work.

These years of 2004-2005 open up a very new chapter in U.S. history. We are laying the groundwork for the revolutionary times ahead of us, with a subsequent new start (airy and civilized) in history.

Numerology supports this timetable. E.g., 2005 is the last year of a 9-year cycle for the U.S. It’s time to finish things up.

In 2006, we start a new 9-year cycle, and we begin to do things in a different way. That year, remember, is when the U.S. progressed Mars for the first time becomes stationary retrograde, further indicating a new approach for the nation.

We have much spirit help in this process. Of all the signs, Pisces is the closest to spirit guides.