Weekend Entertainment Guide 7/19/24
Astrologers saw the chaos coming!
Karen Attiah, columnist for The Washington Post, said it best on X: “Astrology Twitter must be feeling very vindicated about their predictions re: Biden and Trump.”
I started following Attiah’s X account in summer 2022. At that time, Nancy Pelosi was in the news for a controversial trip to Taiwan, so I looked up Pelosi on Astro-Databank, a hoard of birth charts of public figures. Pelosi’s page noted that she had an “opponent/rival/enemy relationship with Attiah, Karen (born 12 August 1986).”
I wasn’t previously aware of Attiah, but I was familiar with her birth date, as it is my own birth date. I was born at 10:18 am, and she was born at 10:35 pm on the same day, so her chart is the mirror image of mine — same planetary placements but arranged around the opposite side of the chart. As it turned out, we’re both writers. Anyway, on to those astrologers being vindicated.
How predictions for the July 15 Mars-Uranus conjunction turned out
I don’t spend a lot of time on X, formerly known as Twitter, so I don’t know exactly what Attiah read on Astrology Twitter. Throughout the astrology world more broadly, though, we have been talking all year about how Mars, the planet of aggression and conflict, was going to meet Uranus, the planet of shock and surprises, at the location of Algol, a fixed star associated with violence, on July 15, 2024.
The Mars-Uranus conjunction was going to interact with the birth charts of both Joe Biden and Donald Trump in a significant way, so many astrologers noted the potential for Biden and Trump to experience disruptive events around that time. Sure enough, both did.
My past posts on the Mars-Uranus conjunction, some of which reference the work of other astrologers, are corralled at the following link: https://astrologybooks.substack.com/t/mars-conjunct-uranus
This week, Chris Brennan of The Astrology Podcast made a video compiling his comments over the past several months regarding the July 2024 Mars-Uranus conjunction.
Brennan noted that some of his predictions had focused on the expectation that Trump would be sentenced for his New York business records conviction shortly before July 15 (as I relayed in Weekend Entertainment Guide 5/31/24). When that came to no longer be the plan, however, another disruptive event arose to fill the void.
The July 13 assassination attempt on Trump did not stop him from becoming the Republicans’ nominee for president at the subsequent Republican National Convention. Although the assassination attempt strengthened the Republicans’ resolve to fight, it definitely haunted the mood of the convention — how could it not? As I said of Trump in Weekend Entertainment Guide 5/31/24, “Still, at the Republican National Convention, he’ll have the transiting Mars-Uranus-Algol conjunction square his natal Mars-Ascendant conjunction, which isn’t a shining indicator of happiness.”
I elaborated in Weekend Entertainment Guide 5/31/24, “I’m not sure that Biden, Trump’s main rival at this point, will be having a good day either. Biden has Sun-Venus opposite Algol natally (fixed star Algol has migrated about a degree over the course of Biden’s life), but having transiting Mars and Uranus opposite his Sun and Venus conjunction as well sounds potentially uncomfortable.”
I made that comment in advance of the June 27 debate that kicked off a storm of calls for Biden to drop out. Those calls were still happening — and still being resisted by Biden — on July 15. On top of all that, Biden then tested positive for COVID-19 on July 17.
In Weekend Entertainment Guide 5/17/24, I noted that Nikki Haley and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would both have the transiting Mars-Uranus-Algol conjunction interacting with their natal charts in a positive way. Though Haley got through the Republican National Convention without picking up any new job titles, I as a non-Republican thought she presented herself well in her convention speech on the evening of July 16. She said that Trump asked her to speak to the convention in the name of unity, and she said that Trump had her strong endorsement.
Meanwhile, in the wake of the assassination attempt on Trump, Biden finally granted Kennedy Secret Service protection for his independent presidential campaign. As reported by the Associated Press, Kennedy had been repeatedly and unsuccessfully requesting this protection for months. Kennedy therefore came out of the Mars-Uranus-Algol conjunction with a tangible win.
In Weekend Entertainment Guide 5/31/24, I looked at less prominent figures potentially associated with the Republican National Convention. As I predicted, Vivek Ramaswamy was not pulled off the bench to serve as the nominee or anything else, though he did briefly speak at the convention on July 16.
I did not look at the chart of J.D. Vance, who was ultimately selected as Trump’s running mate, in advance. Interestingly, Vance, like Ramaswamy, has the Sun in Leo square Saturn in Scorpio. However, Vance is a year older than Ramaswamy, so his Sun-Saturn square is earlier in the respective signs and therefore not getting hit by the transiting Mars-Uranus conjunction in the way Ramaswamy’s is.
I noted in Weekend Entertainment Guide 5/31/24 that the transiting Mars-Uranus conjunction would interact with Tucker Carlson’s chart in a positive way, adding, “Meanwhile, transiting Jupiter in Gemini will be closely conjunct his Mercury. Although there has been some speculation that Carlson will leave media to seek elected office, these influences could also manifest in him speaking at the convention or getting really into reporting on it.”
Carlson indeed spoke at the convention on July 18 and claimed that he had never been to a more fun convention. With confident Jupiter transiting his bubbly Mercury in Gemini, it’s believable that Carlson was personally having fun. I’m not convinced that this was the mood of the convention overall, though.
I maintained detailed liveblogs including astrological commentary throughout the Republican National Convention on my Substack chat for paid subscribers. I will do the same for the Democratic National Convention next month. To read what’s already there, start your paid subscription now!
A smaller July 15 prediction that came true
In Weekend Entertainment Guide 7/12/24, I said of Denver International Airport:
I will point out that the transiting Mars-Uranus-Algol conjunction on July 15, 2024, is going to land on the Denver airport’s natal South Node conjunct Algol in Taurus, which is opposite its natal Pluto in Scorpio. As always, it is important to keep this kind of thing in a realistic perspective. I don’t expect that lizard people will suddenly speed in via an underground highway. However, I would not be surprised if July 15 were a frustrating day in terms of more ordinary travel difficulties.
Sure enough, The Denver Post reported on July 15, 2024:
More than 700 flights were delayed or canceled at Denver International Airport on Monday as thunderstorms rolled across the Front Range.
Arriving flights were delayed by more than an hour on average because of the weather, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
There were 701 delayed and 32 canceled flights as of 5:20 p.m., according to FlightAware. Most of the delayed flights were on United and Southwest airlines.
Perhaps effects of the alignment lingered at Denver International Airport on July 18, when The Denver Post reported that a Frontier Airlines computer system outage led to delayed and canceled flights there. A broader technology outage then continued into July 19, causing additional flight cancellations and delays at Denver International Airport and elsewhere.
Hot on Substack
, Astrological Insights: The Digital Turbulence of July 2024Lindon identifies many astrological factors potentially contributing to today’s technology outage.
, Reflections on the Mars-Uranus Conjunction of Mid July 2024Richmond, posting on July 18, recaps various events associated with the July 15 Mars-Uranus conjunction. She has a great catch on the July 15 White House press briefing as a prime example of the chaos. Embattled White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was born August 13, 1974, per Wikipedia, and I don’t even need to pull the chart to know that Jean-Pierre had transiting Mars and Uranus roughly square her Leo Sun at the time.
The White House provides a written transcript of this briefing here.
, Sunshine and Shadows: Brian Wilson through the Lens of Evolutionary AstrologyAnderson does a deep dive on Brian Wilson, the musical genius behind the Beach Boys. She notes that he has a Saturn-Uranus conjunction in Gemini square his nodal axis. In evolutionary astrology, planets square the nodes are referred to as “skipped steps.” Wilson, born June 20, 1942, also has the Moon conjunct the North Node in Virgo.
I will add that Wilson is two days younger than Beatle Paul McCartney and film critic Roger Ebert, both born on June 18, 1942. McCartney and Ebert have the Moon in Leo instead of Virgo, but they also have the Saturn-Uranus conjunction in Gemini square the nodal axis.
Vincent van Gogh and Don McLean
Singer-songwriter Don McLean described in an interview how he felt emotionally connected to Vincent van Gogh after reading a book about him. (I found this piece while researching my previous post on astrological connections between Vincent van Gogh, Donald Trump, and their respective ear injuries.) The song “Vincent” then came to McLean as he looked at Van Gogh’s painting “Starry Night.”
Interestingly, the only conjunction in the synastry between McLean and Van Gogh is McLean’s Uranus conjunct Midheaven in Gemini on Van Gogh’s North Node. McLean’s chart runs from that point in Gemini to Libra, and Van Gogh’s chart runs from Sagittarius to that point in Gemini — both men have charts where all the celestial bodies are clustered within a few consecutive signs. However, McLean’s substantial Libra stellium, which includes Neptune, opposes Van Gogh’s Aries Sun. This could make it easy for McLean to project his own emotions onto Van Gogh.
Interviewer Bart Herbison observed, “I feel like you are writing as much about yourself, sometimes, in that song, in parts of that song, as you were writing about Van Gogh.”
McLean replied, “Always. There is always something about me and what I can understand. I’ve had a lot of pain — everybody does — but a lot of emotional things, and I am a very emotional person.”
Thanks for the mention! And more than that, thank you for all this high quality content to dive into! I am fascinated by the current transits and how they are manifesting, but hope we can collectively raise the vibration as these seem like rather dark times for many.