Astrology of the 1896 Presidential Election

This is the fifth in a series of articles examining clues to the winner of the U.S. Presidential elections in Aries Ingress horoscopes. Click on the Presidential Elections 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.

1896 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 astrological tradition that the moment of the horoscope predicts major events for that location in the upcoming twelve months.

Aries Ingress. March 19, 1896. 9:23:26 PM, Washington, D.C., USA

Assumptions for Each Aries Ingress Horoscope

The incumbent party is portrayed by the tenth house of the “king.”  The challenger party is the fourth house and its ruler. This is because the fourth house is the seventh from the tenth; the king’s opponent. In our Aries Ingress horoscope, we examine what is happening to each candidate’s house and house ruler 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).

1896 Horoscope Analysis

1. The Incumbent Party: The tenth house is ruled by Leo, and its ruler is the Sun in Aries, making no applying aspects. The Sun has just separated from a trine to Jupiter in Cancer.
2. The Challenger Party: The fourth house is ruled by Saturn in Scorpio, retrograde in the first house. Mars in Aquarius applies to the fourth house cusp and to a square with Saturn. A trio consisting of Venus, North Node, and Mercury in Pisces is in the fourth house as well.

Conclusion: The challenging party (the Republicans) wins the Presidential election.

Lessons from the 1896 Presidential Election Horoscope for Predicting the Winner:

Nothing much is happening to the tenth house or its ruler, the Sun, but the fourth house and its ruler (Saturn) are very active. Saturn is about to be squared by Mars, with mutual reception by sign – an aspect with reception to the ruler can give victory in these charts. I suspect that this is especially true in 1896 because Mars rules the Ascendant and Saturn is in the Ascendant. As Gary pointed out in the 1892 Election comments, the first house is the tenth from the fourth: the house of victory of the challenging party. Strong benefics, Venus and the North Node, in the fourth house support the conclusion that the challenging party – the Republicans – would win, and that is exactly what happened.

Outcome: What Actually Happened in the 1896 Presidential Election

The Democratic Party held the White House before the election, and their candidate was William J. Bryan. The Republican candidate was William McKinley, who raised about $3.5M in campaign funds, the equivalent of $3B in 2015 dollars (love the Gilded Age). McKinley outspent Bryan 5:1 and sewed up the election. Source: Wikipedia.