Weekend Entertainment Guide 6/14/24

Donald Trump's new solar return chart included

As Gemini season continues, this week’s topics include the Perfect Rhetorical Fortress, the futility of censorship, and the uncomfortable solar return of Donald Trump.

Happy birthday, Mr. President

Former president Donald Trump, born June 14, 1946, turns 78 years old today. His new solar return chart, above, is unenviable. A lot of Geminis have really gross solar returns this year with some combination of the Sun, Mercury, and Venus in Gemini square Saturn in Pisces. Trump’s is especially bad.

When cast for his birthplace of Queens, New York, Trump’s solar return chart has 14° Cancer Rising, so the condition of the Moon is especially important. The Moon is in Virgo, locked in an icky T-square with the Gemini stellium and Saturn in Pisces. That doesn’t look great for his chances of getting re-elected this fall.

For comparison, Trump’s solar return chart for 2016, the year he was elected president, was much easier. He had a Sun-Venus conjunction in the 11th house, increasing his popularity with the collective. He had the Moon in diplomatic Libra in the communication-oriented 3rd house trine Mercury in Gemini in the 11th house, improving his ability to communicate with the collective. He also had Uranus conjunct the Midheaven on the 10th house side, reflecting his role as a disruptor. Although there was a T-square between Jupiter in Virgo, Saturn in Sagittarius, and Neptune in Pisces, it didn’t involve any personal planets or luminaries.

On the other hand, on Election Day 2024, the transiting opposition between Jupiter in Gemini and Venus in Sagittarius will fall on Trump’s prominent natal configuration of Uranus, the North Node, and the Sun in Gemini opposite the Moon in Sagittarius. Transiting Uranus will be close to Trump’s natal Midheaven. This looks like he’s enjoying Election Day.

Although many Geminis have unpleasant solar returns with everything square Saturn this year, they’ll also have the positive influence of transiting Jupiter going over their Sun at some point during the year. The duality of that experience is a very Gemini problem to have to solve. Geminis tend to spread themselves thin, but maybe Saturn’s pressure to get focused will be just the impetus they need to finally take over the world.

Here's another big question in the name of Gemini duality: is getting elected president of the United States in 2024 a good thing or a bad thing? The country has a lot of difficult problems at the moment. Perhaps not being held responsible for solving them would be a relief!

Free online events

The Soul-Centered Astrology summit, hosted by Suzanne Gerber, features 20 astrologers and releases a video lecture each day from June 10 to June 29. Each video can be viewed for 72 hours. Thanks to

Louise Edington

for the tip — her lecture on the Venus Star Point will be available June 25-27. Other speakers include Samuel Reynolds, Gemini Brett, and Frank Clifford.

Andrea Gehrz will give a free webinar on astrological remediation through Kepler College on Saturday, June 15, at 10 am PDT. Register here.

Kepler College will provide an open house about its astrological education programs on Saturday, June 15, at 1 pm PDT. Register here.

Hot on Substack

Kyle Pierce

via

Astrologers' Co-Op

, Gemini III: Games of Light and Shadow

Pierce provides a case study of code-breaker Alan Turing, born with a Venus-Pluto conjunction in the third decan of Gemini: “This decan is often home to spies, conmen, illusionists, and cryptologists—individuals for whom life and livelihood hinge on the careful concealment and selective revelation of truth.”

Frederick Woodruff

, Arnold Mindell: Life Is But a Dream

Woodruff reflects on the passing of Arnold Mindell, the founder of process-oriented psychology.

Bryan Winchell

, Saturn: A Threshold Guardian That Guides Us By Slowing Us Down

Winchell, inspired by the recent Gemini stellium square Saturn in Pisces, recounts a May 2020 journey full of steep hills and stairs.

Kent Peterson

, Adventures of a Manley Man -- Part 3

Peterson, writing from a non-astrological perspective, discusses his experiences working on Super Nintendo games for Manley & Associates during the mid-1990s. One Saturn cycle later, it’s a great opportunity to reflect on how computer graphics capabilities have grown since then.

Greg Lukianoff

, Towards a 'More Perfect' Rhetorical Fortress!

Lukianoff, writing from a non-astrological perspective, breaks down the Perfect Rhetorical Fortress, “a series of questions that effectively barricade people from having to deal with the merits or substance of an argument.” This effort to find the predictable logic underlying an emotional dynamic reminds me of my own related effort in “Rules of Combat” in Impossible Dreams: Hopes, Fears, and Expectations for Saturn in Pisces.

I think Lukianoff would also get a kick out of how Booby Prize: An Astrological Novel came to be published, which is described in the novel’s preface. I might find that story entertaining if it had happened to someone other than me. In short, I got caught in the pincers of Lukianoff’s Barricade 8 and Barricade 10, and it works exactly as well as Lukianoff described.

The truly weird plot twist is that this approach was used by an individual who was opposed to literary cancel culture in order to make me shed my fear of literary cancel culture. Well, maybe that’s the only way we’ll ever see the end of literary cancel culture — no one is ever going to succeed in talking sense into them thanks to their Perfect Rhetorical Fortress, so they’ll simply have to be viscerally beaten at their own game by someone whose feelings are bigger and stronger and scarier than theirs. I’m glad to know such a thing is possible even though it was painful for me to be personally stuck in the middle of it.

Dr Naomi Wolf

, Dr. Naomi Wolf Responds to UK Media Regulator OfCom

Wolf nails the futility of censorship:

My point is that censoring pamphlets on birth control did not stop birth control information from becoming known over time. Censoring discussion on gay men and lesbians, did not stop homosexual or lesbian relationships from taking place or eventually from being discussed. Censoring Animal Farm stopped no one eventually from reading and valuing Animal Farm.