Astrology of the 1884 Presidential Election

This is the second in a series of articles examining clues to the winner of the U.S. Presidential elections in Aries Ingress horoscopes. Click on the Presidential Election tag in this post to see all articles in the series. We are examining all U.S. Presidential elections from 1880 to 2016, each time adding to our list of rules to determine the winner.

1884 Presidential Election Horoscope

We cast the Aries Ingress horoscope set for Washington, D.C. in the given Presidential Election year.  The Aries Ingress is a horoscope set for the moment the Sun enters Aries, the start of the astrological New Year.  It is a long-standing tradition that the moment of the horoscope predicts major events for that location in the upcoming 12 months.

1884 Aries Ingress, 3/19/1884, 11:44:32 PM EST (-5), Washington, D.C.

Assumptions for Each Aries Ingress Horoscope

The incumbent party is portrayed by the 10th house of the “king.”  The challenger party is the 4th house and its ruler. This is because the 4th house is the 7th from the 10th; the king’s opponent. In our Aries Ingress horoscope, we examine what is happening to each candidate’s house to see who wins. The Aries Ingress shows which party wins the White House, not the specific candidate.

I use traditional planetary rulers of signs only (no Uranus, Neptune, Pluto), though all planets are shown in the horoscope.

1884 Horoscope Analysis

1. The Incumbent Party: The 10th house is ruled by Virgo, and its ruler is Mercury in Pisces, on the cusp of the 4th house. There are no classical planets in the 10th house, so we look exclusively to the testimony of the ruling planet. Mercury’s next aspect is a trine to Jupiter in Cancer stationing direct (dignified in the sign of its exaltation).
2. The Challenger Party: The 4th house is ruled by Jupiter in Cancer stationing direct, and the Sun in Aries is in the 4th house.

Conclusion: The challenger party wins the Presidential election.

Lessons from the 1884 Presidential Election Horoscope for Predicting the Winner:

1. A party’s significator stationing direct in the horoscope is an indication of victory

2. If a planet on the 4th or 10th house cusp is making an applying aspect to an essentially dignified planet or if it receives the other planet, the planet on the cusp becomes the significator of the house in question. This is true even if the planet on the cusp rules the opposite house (i.e.: the opposing party). Here, Mercury rules the 10th house, but is on the 4th house cusp and his applying trine to a dignified Jupiter. It was the challenging party (4th house) who benefited from the placement, not the incumbent (10th).

3. On the rare occasions that a significator stations direct, all bets are off; that party will win. This also occurs a century later in the Presidential election where Ronald Reagan won the Presidency.

Outcome: What Actually Happened in the 1884 Presidential Election

The Republican Party held the White House before the election, with Chester A. Arthur as President (Arthur became President when Garfield was assassinated). The Republican candidate was James Blaine, a Maine politician. The Presidential election of 1884 was extremely heated, and filled with personal attacks and political divisiveness. Grover Cleveland, the Democratic challenger, won the election, the first Democratic win of the Presidential election since the 1850s.