The political unknown

I got an email from a reader this week, asking, "Who do you think will win 2012 election?" Here is the response I just sent:

I'm not a political astrologer, so I don't usually offer predictions such as this. A lot of variables need to be researched -- not only the candidates' charts, but the chart for the U.S., and several other variables.

That being said, I have looked at both Obama's and Romney's personal charts. Both appear to have some challenges this fall, which is likely to play out in a very close election.

Obama is finishing up a two-year-long Chiron Return, which has corresponded with a loss of popular approval. This transit is still in effect throughout this fall, so a lot depends on how well he moves through the personal and spiritual challenges offered by this transit. If he is successful in achieving the personal growth required by a Chiron Return, I think his chances are good for also achieving re-election. The outer reflects the inner.

Still, if you had asked me a year ago, before we knew who would be the Republican candidate, if I thought it was likely that Obama could win re-election while going through a Chiron Return, I would have had to answer no.

But that was before I had a chance to look at the challenger's chart.

As fate would have it, Romney is also coming into a challenging aspect this fall -- Saturn square his Midheaven -- which usually corresponds with a time of frustrated goals and a lot of hard work for limited external reward. So he also has some hurdles to overcome if he is to pull this out. We may get some hints about how that transit will affect his campaign once Saturn goes into Scorpio (on October 5).

As an added factor to complicate this election, Mercury goes Retrograde on election day. The last time Mercury changed direction on election day, we had the whole fiasco with the Bush-Gore election and the ballot issues in Florida. So it's possible we may not know right away who is the actual winner -- it may be three weeks afterward, when Mercury goes direct, or longer, when Mercury is beyond the shadow period. At the very least, there is likely to be confusion about the election process or the outcome.

That's what I can share at the moment -- perhaps not the clear-cut answer you wanted! But this election in particular has a lot of variables that will probably make this one a nail-biter.

Blessings, Pam