The Trump Inauguration Chart: Rockets to Nowhere
I've unpacked the chart for Trump's Plutonic inauguration and honed in on the signatures I feel are most important.
“What a great time to be alive if you love the theatre of the absurd”.
— David Lynch (Happy Birthday and RIP sweet king)
I wanted to radio in with my thoughts on the inauguration chart, which is fraught — to say the least. This moment heralds a massive transfer of power, with our tech overlords seated in the inner Pluto cazimi sanctum. The robber barons have the ear of the king and America is now officially for sale. Elon Musk gave the most cringe Nazi salute ever. Jupiter in Gemini was represented by our bargain basement dioscouri, Logan and Jake Paul, riding the manosphere bus to DC. Finally, Melania dressed as a cross between the Benadryl hat demon and dark Carmen Sandiego — just a few of the Lynchian moments.
Astrologers have been side-eyeing the inauguration’s Pluto-Sun conjunction, or cazimi, for some time now. Depending on the astrology you practice, the chart’s Sun, representative of the leader, is either combust or within that cazimi window. I tend to defer to the Hellenistic tradition, which has an orb of 1 degree. In any case, a Pluto cazimi is a strange moment: for the planet that operates in the shadows and secrets its wealth deep in the earth, the revelatory nature of the cazimi is at odds with Pluto’s penchant for invisibility. It reminds of this moment in The Wizard of Oz:
“Drill, baby, drill”, Trump proclaimed, “for the liquid gold beneath our feet.” Pluto’s subterranean riches are not being day-traded in the good old fashioned way. They’re flowing straight into Trump’s coffers with a mere click. His meme coin, dropping the day before the inauguration, heralds a brave new era of geopolitical, corporate, and political power on sale for the highest bidder. Whatever pretence of secrecy the Plutocrats once attempted has been burned away by the Sun.
I think we can all agree that we’ve arrived at a moment where the oligarchy has been so enriched and empowered — to the point of holding the reins of the world’s most powerful political mandate — that this cazimi is almost an anticlimax. In the mix with that Pluto-Sun is the Part of Fortune, suggesting that there’s something fated about this brazen wealth transfer. As well as Trump’s inaugural rhetoric about expansion and manifest destiny. The chart’s ascendant is Taurus, which covets practical things like land, resources, and oh, the country of Canada. Its ruler is Venus, conjoined with Saturn, in the 11th house: “everyone wants to be my friend” — especially when they’re wearing golden handcuffs. Say what will you about Trump but he’s an expert at ripping the Empire's mask off. And American hegemonic domination seems to be on the menu again. Not to mention the Uranian curveballs of economic sanctions to longtime friends and trading partners.
Crypto shenanigans aside, this cazimi seed moment is happening in Aquarius, a sign that can signal class uprisings, societal upheaval, and the overthrowing of our robber barons. The guillotine itself was a Pluto in Aquarius invention. It’s one thing when the 1 percent are quietly rigging the game in their favor but quite another when they start flaunting their control of the executive levers. Perhaps our techno-feudal dark enlightenment really does need to be out in the open, in a dazzling solar spotlight, for a resistance movement to finally wake up.
Or let them eat brain rot. TikTok thanking daddy Trump for switching the lights back on, while the real power-transfer happens, sets the tone for the kind of hackneyed political theatre and misdirection that will dominate Trump’s presidency. Still, this stunt had the unintended effect of revealing to Zoomers just how propagandized and mistreated the Chinese netizens view their TikTok refugees (oh, and they’re simping for Luigi too).
If the Pluto/Sun/Part of Fortune pump-and-dump is crowning the inauguration chart, we have a fallen Mars rx in Cancer telling a much different story. It’s conjoined the chart’s much more hidden IC: Mars still seething in the basement. It is also in aversion to the Aquarius action, perhaps working at cross purposes. There’s something ultimately self-wounding about this placement — and it’s happening on a foundational level. It’s giving mutiny, internal rebellion, and disorder within the war room. This is a placement that will go to irrational extremes in the name of protection and public safety. It’s nativism on steroids. It could portend martial law, privatized security militias, birther movements, and of course the beginning of the mass deportations. I could be wrong, but I don’t think Trump actually has the follow through to go beyond a few “show deportations” — but the threat will always be there. And that’s the point.
I loled at the very Mars in Cancer coded headline, “I knew one day I’d have to watch powerful men burn the world down, I just didn’t think they’d be such losers.” Even our world’s richest men are not immune to the insecurity this placement can trigger. The recent revelation that Musk has been paying interns to maintain his legendary status in the Diablo IV leaderboard is another coin in the “Theatre of the Absurd” jar. So is Zuck Benjamin Buttoning himself into a broccoli-haired Shapiro simp, while he takes tampons out of the men’s Meta bathrooms — just for daddy. It’s hilarious to me (and oddly comforting) that the tech CEOs are just as trapped in the virtual panopticon and its clout samsara as the rest of us. Just as susceptible to the many mind viruses circulating. Mars in Cancer is a clear signal the Freudian will continue to intensify.
Still, it’s been surreal to watch arguably the world’s most powerful men engaged in a supremely awkward dance as they attempt to secure their place in an ever-shifting pecking order. Who will win the narcissistic supply olympics? Trump sees relationships as purely transactional, after all. He will fire you from the throne room and humiliate you for good measure the minute you stop being useful. If there’s any “a-ha” moment, it’s the truth that no amount of money in the world is protection from the humiliating prostrations that the narcissist demands. And the favor of Trump, a Gemini, is capricious as the wind. I think this an appropriate moment to recall one of Trump’s top shelf tweets (a Mercurial medium that he has, of course, always excelled at).
Mars in Cancer is also exemplified by the sort of downwardly mobile loner who nearly assassinated Trump in July. As summed up by the always brilliant Austin Coppock, “In Cancer, Mars is staying at his mom’s house. And living with Mommy does not a proud warrior make. Just ask Norman Bates.” I do wonder about that fallen inauguration Mars and the potential for other alienated male loners, with absolutely nothing to lose, to turn on their para-daddy. The come down from the Q-anon fever dream has to hurt. And the inauguration Chiron is still just a degree from the USA’s own wounded healer placement, forming a t-square with the Moon and Mercury.
There’s a deeper, much more visceral masculine wound that I highly doubt Trump will be equipped to address. And it could prove a wild card in the 12th House of hidden enemies and self-undoing. I’m also side-eyeing that Uranus in Taurus on the Algol degree (where heads tend to roll) — just a degree off Trump’s own midheaven. This was the degree that was activated by the Mars-Uranus conjunction in July, when the first assassination attempt took place (the fist pump now immortalized on the crypto coin because this is the timeline we deserve). I do wonder how many Leo rising lives are left on Don’s punch card.
So yes, the Pluto-Sun at the apex of the inauguration chart is very loud — a reminder that Trump’s second presidency is all about him. Obviously. And how much he gains to profit/enact retribution in the next four years. But it’s ruled by a Venus-Saturn conjunction in Pisces — a striking echo of the same alignment in Trump’s own natal chart, in the sign of Cancer in his 12th house. Anyone can be bought: including his former enemies. And the potential foes lurking in the shadows? They’ve already been paid off too. Or so Trump believes.
Though the cold and highly transactional Venus-Saturn is an energy familiar to Trump, this conjunction is ruled by a highly unstable Jupiter in Gemini, whose fortunes and favours are often short-lived. It makes me wonder if a more volatile element will emerge to complicate Trump’s art of the deal. Its placement in the 11th House of alliances, co-present with Neptune, hints at the potential for deception among the broligarchs he thought were his friends. I’m sure that someone like Musk, already flashing Nazi salutes, sees Trump as a useful idiot in his longer game of ubermensch bending the world in his image. Let’s not forget that a Pluto cazimi is always a seed moment in the way power and influence are wielded — often in shadowy ways. Will a Red Caesar rise from the Pluto cazimi dust? A recent Vox article has explored some of the Sci-Fi novels and ideas that have influenced the ideologies of Musk, Zuck, and Bezos. It’s all very much Aquarius coded. As Thiel wrote in 2009, “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible”.
Returning to the Venus-Saturn conjunction, it also speaks to a sharp conservative turn in all things related to women. Venus is exalted in the sign of Pisces but Saturn has her trapped in a golden cage (an image of Daryl Hannah in Splash just came to mind). Certain Venusian values will be put on a pedestal — trad wife core, purity, glamor, and ultra-femininity — but Saturn’s conception of what is and what isn’t “feminine” will be autocratically rigid. I.E. the executive order that henceforth in America there are only two genders. Not to mention the reproductive rights that are now on the chopping board.
With Pisces, christianity and “spiritual values” may be used to Trojan horse in legislation that will ultimately be harmful for all women, including those who voted Trump in. However you slice and dice it, this chart speaks of a constraining of the feminine, though it may be marketed as an “exaltation” of higher feminine values. And let’s not forget that Venus will retrograde on March 1st. Sometimes a planetary retrograde can signal a complication or taking back of a gift that was given when the planet was direct. Will something happen to taint this victory of conservatism, populism, and unconstrained capitalism? The Moon in Libra further speaks to women’s issues being a focal point during Trump’s presidency. Though I could also read this as a deeply emotional push for perceived justice, on Trump’s part, which is a dangerous thing indeed.
There’s so much more to tease out from the inauguration chart, but I’ll leave things at that. I’m curious to know if anything stood out to you in particular? I also know this is such an impossibly heavy day for so many. Sending courage and love from frozen Montreal. <3
P.S: Parquet Court’s call to collectivism and class solidarity has been on repeat today and is absolutely a Pluto cazimi vibe.
I'm struck by the square between the 9th house Mercury and 6th house moon - the word and the deed at odds, an inability to successfully execute the message.
Guess you’re not a fan of the First Lady’s hat🫢