Astrology of the 2016 Presidential Election
This is the eighth in a series of articles examining clues to the winner of the U.S. Presidential elections in Aries Ingress horoscopes; today we look at the 2016 Presidential election. 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 based on what we learned in a chart to determine the winner. I am discussing the 2016 presidential election today to dovetail with my earlier article on overall 2016/17 trends. We will return to the intervening election years in the next installment.
2016 Presidential Election Horoscope
We cast the Aries Ingress horoscope set for Washington, D.C. in 2016. The Aries Ingress is a horoscope set for the moment the Sun enters Aries, the first sign of the zodiac. The Sun’s entry into the first minute of the first sign represents the start of the astrological New Year. It is a long-standing astrological tradition that the Aries Ingress horoscope predicts major events for that location or country (if set for the capital) in the upcoming twelve months.
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).
2016 Presidential Election – Aries Ingress Analysis
1. The Incumbent Party: The tenth house is ruled by Mercury, which is at 28 Pisces. Obama’s term is coming to an end, and a new era is beginning, regardless of who sits in the Oval Office. It has been my experience that a benefic on a house cusp brings success to that house. In this case, we have Jupiter and the North Node conjoining the MC.
2. The Challenger Party: The fourth house is ruled by Jupiter in Virgo, on the tenth house cusp. I have received questions about Jupiter’s involvement with the MC this year, as some think Jupiter’s proximity to the Midheaven means the challengers (the Republican party) will win. However, this has not been my experience with examining other, prior charts. A benefic strengthens the house it’s in, regardless of the house that it rules. Note that Jupiter is retrograde and therefore moving away from the MC. Even if Jupiter signified that the Republicans were about to enter the White House, the retrograde motion seems to indicate getting close but ultimately no cigar.
The closest comparison is the Aries Ingress for the 1888 presidential election, where the ruler of the tenth house is Mercury conjunct Venus in Pisces. It is said that Mercury is benefic with Venus and Jupiter and malefic with Mars and Saturn. In this case, Mercury is acting as a benefic and its presence near the fourth house cusp strengthened the challenging party’s position. That is indeed what happened; in the 1888 election, the White House switched from Democratic control to the Republican party. My conclusion is that the 2016 presidential election is similar, in that Jupiter acts as a generally helpful influence to the Democrats.
One interesting factor here is that Jupiter immediately applies to square Saturn in Sagittarius. Jupiter receives Saturn, but Saturn does not receive Jupiter. I have seen squares between two malefics hand over the election, but they were in mutual reception by sign. I am not convinced that Jupiter applying to Saturn is favorable for the Republicans this year, as Jupiter appears to be carrying water for the incumbent party in this chart.
Conclusion: The incumbent party (the Democratic Party) wins the 2016 Presidential election.
Outcome: TBD!
June 5, 2016 @ 8:38 am
Another point of the chart refers back to Lilly’s description of a planet ruling, say, the 7th, being in the 1st house. In that case, the 7th house ruler in the 1st is interpreted as meaning that the 7th house party is at the effect of the 1st: that the 1st house party controls the fate of the 7th house. That would be the same meaning here between the 10th and the 4th, and so the 10th house party would rule the 4th house party’s fate.
June 5, 2016 @ 8:54 am
Interesting observation, Lee, and an excellent point! Unfortunately, there are precious few historical U.S. election charts with this configuration, so we do not have much of a precedent. We’ll have one after this year, anyway!
Regards,
Nina
July 24, 2016 @ 1:26 am
And in the same manner the 10th house party is ruled by the 4th house party’s fate…. the ruler of the 10th is in the 4th just as the ruler of the 4th is in the 10th. I am not sure that brings any more clarity to the question!
September 14, 2016 @ 7:11 pm
Hi, Steven!
It is indeed. Also, this is a somewhat rare configuration, when we have the IC ruler conjunct the MC (or vice versa). It seems to play out in “capture the flag” style, as a student once put it. One party gets two significators and the other gets none 🙁
Regards,
Nina
June 5, 2016 @ 9:16 am
Very interesting Nina. Just a couple of questions. As a mutable/common sign rises in the Aries ingress do you examine the Libra ingress too? I also wondered if you considered the Lord of the Year/Ingress as a factor in your delineation rather than just the 10th vs 4th criteria?
June 5, 2016 @ 2:19 pm
Mark,
In my study, I just examined the Aries Ingress for the election year, regardless of the sign that ascended. My theory is that the Aries Ingress should encompass the entire year, and every quarter of the year should elaborate on the part of the annual promise that occurs during that quarter. Since the Aries Ingress charts consistently predicted the winner of the election, I concluded that the medieval method of examining the quarterly ingresses as indicated by the Ascendant was a “nice to have,” but not necessary to make an accurate prediction.
I did not use the Lord of the Year in these predictions, but no doubt examining it would be a fascinating second layer to these charts.
Regards,
Nina
June 5, 2016 @ 9:31 am
There’s another traditional technique called ‘defense of the realm’, which uses the rulers of the ASC/DSC in any head-t0-head competition. I’ve used this in predicting the outcome of previous elections and it works. Election day sets the time of ‘battle’. The polls officially open at midnight on election day in Dixville Notch, NH. The chart has Virgo rising, Pisces on the 7th. Mercury/Jupiter are rulers. The DSC represents the ‘defenders of the realm’, in this case the incumbent party. The ASC represents the challenger(s) to the realm, which means here the GOP candidate. In the election day chart, Jupiter, representing the incumbent party rises before Mercury, which represents the challenging party. This also should indicate a successful outcome for the Democrats as the incumbent party.
June 5, 2016 @ 2:23 pm
Gary,
Quite fascinating; thank you for sharing! If you have time, can you please point me to a traditional source on this? I would like to read up on it. I have seen this method used by modern astrologers, but there is always confusion about who gets which house and why. In any case, it is quite interesting that this method seems to point to the same outcome as the Aries Ingress.
Regards,
Nina
June 5, 2016 @ 11:49 am
An interesting study thanks. My problem with it is why should the ingress chart specifically relate to an event that happens 7.5 months later. There are many things that occur in a year. Do you have the ingress charts of every US election in history ? Has this same method worked every time in the past ?
June 5, 2016 @ 2:56 pm
C Capricorn,
Yes, and yes. It sounds like you are new to the blog and possibly to my work. Here is a quick summary: I went back as far as the 1870s in U.S. elections, examining each Aries Ingress to determine whether the incumbent party or the challenging party would take the White House. Over the preceding years, I had looked up many rules in medieval Arabic texts about who would be king, and so forth, but it never mapped that well to today’s reality, since we are dealing with a two-party electoral system in the U.S., a concept unknown to Abu Ma’shar, Sahl, and Masha’allah. So I decided to empty my mind of preconceived notions and let the Aries Ingress charts speak, if indeed they deigned to show a change of control of the Presidency. Using the Aries Ingress as an annual forecast tool is a very ancient technique, so my only assumption was that the chart would show major events during the year in the locality. I examined all the charts to the 1870s and established a handful of rules, which you can see in other articles in this blog discussing these historical election charts and what can be learned from them.
The ultimate test is whether the techniques based on the past Aries Ingresses will work in future elections. So far, it’s two for two; the method correctly predicted the 2012 U.S. election winner, as well as the runoff result of the 2012 French Presidential election. We’ll see if 2016 continues the trend.
Regards,
Nina
June 6, 2016 @ 3:39 am
Both Bernadette Brady and Lee Lehman have written on the subject of contest charts derived from Bonatti’s battle charts. These methods can be applied to both sports and political contests too. The main source is Book VI of the Book of Astronomy , trans Dr Benjamin Dykes or the older Robert Zollers translation of Tractatus Sextus of Guido Bonatti’s Liber Astronomiae which focuses on this subject of Battles, Conflicts and Besiegement of Castles. Bonatti describes two types of battle: the open field battle and the castle besiegement situation.
Here is a link to an old article by Bernadette Brady describing both methods:
http://www.bernadettebrady.com/Pdfs/Charts%20of%20Conflict%20and%20Battles%20-%20Bernadette%20Brady.pdf
Normally, the challenger is assigned the ASC and the defender the DESC. However, in my recent piece on the UK European referendum opening of poll chart I have assigned the ASC to the government/Remain side and the DESC to the leave campaign. I have a few reasons for this. Firstly, the UK government was actually the initiator of this referendum and determined the date of the contest. Secondly, astrologers like John Frawley assign the favourite in Sports astrology to the ASC. Throughout this campaign the betting odds have strongly favoured the Remain side although these are shortening. Thirdly, I was influenced by another idea of Bonatti when he suggested making a decision for status quo vs change. He suggested in that situation that the status quo would be represented by the ASC and the placement of its rulers and the DESC and its rulers would represent the change. This method seems to work well for referendums e.g. Scottish independence referendum in 2014 or UK EEC referendum of 1975. Possibly because these are very much status quo vs change questions.
Obviously my prediction prove wrong I will need to revisit this!
I am still researching which method is preferable for UK General elections. I think a smaller country is a much better place to test this principle since the polls all open simultaneously across the whole nation. Although, some object to opening of poll charts in principle due to the increasing prevalence of postal voting taking place beforehand.
June 6, 2016 @ 10:25 am
Mark,
Thank you for your substantive comment! The concern that I have had in using the battle or besiegement methods to determine the outcome of elections is that battles and elections are not the same thing and medieval warfare tactics don’t always map onto 21st century politics. Ultimately, though, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and if the methods work, then I am all for using them! The assignment of parties can get tricky here, and if it’s a regularly scheduled election, it can be hard to say who the initiating party is.
Regards,
Nina
July 16, 2016 @ 8:55 pm
Nina,
If you use whole sign houses with the cusps of the houses established by the ascendant degree,I think the case you make is even stronger.
Dave
September 14, 2016 @ 7:07 pm
Very interesting, David! Do you mean every house gets the same degree of its respective sign as the Ascendant? What do you think works better in that system?
Kind regards,
Nina
August 15, 2016 @ 6:19 pm
H i Nina,
I am a professional astrologer and I am embarrassed to say I do not know what you mean when you say “receives” as in Jupiter receives Saturn, but Saturn doesn’t receive
Jupiter.
Is there somewhere I can see the other presidential charts?
I greatly appreciate your assistance.
I love your theory.
J
September 14, 2016 @ 7:15 pm
Hi Lindy,
Thanks for your note. To answer your question, reception is when two planets are in major aspect, and one of them is in the dignity (usually rulership or exaltation of the other). It does not have to be mutual. So, Venus conjunct Jupiter in Libra has Venus receiving Jupiter into Venus’ domicile.
Many of the other charts live on this blog in past posts, but you can always run a specific year yourself – it’s just Aries Ingresses set for D.C. for a presidential election year.
Kind regards,
Nina
August 28, 2016 @ 12:14 pm
Have you tried the same methods on pre-1880 elections. I am not a professional astrologer in any way, but they seem to be quite predictable based on a few basic rules based on the charts of the candidates. However, my method predicts the popular winner, not winners like JQ Adams or Hayes…
September 14, 2016 @ 7:17 pm
Hi Pyrrhus,
Yes, I went back a couple of cycles into the 1870s. There is no reason you couldn’t keep going, so long as you had two parties contending.
Kind regards,
Nina
November 9, 2016 @ 8:36 pm
Anyway, as I mentioned to people at ISAR and have posted elsewhere, my strictly empirical method eliminated Hillary because of her Pisces moon, leaving me with Trump. One of the speakers at ISAR thought that Pisces should be all right for a female, but this election seems to show that the rules don’t change based on sex. No Pisces moon or mars has ever won, and the Pisces sun presidents were long ago in a rather different system.
September 14, 2016 @ 4:47 pm
I will never have a left leaning astrologer do my chart. They are not reliable
September 14, 2016 @ 7:18 pm
Madam – only the left-leaning ones?
Kind regards,
Nina
September 22, 2016 @ 12:23 pm
Hi PatriciaCWatson,
You will find Nina has shown Republican wins in elections going back over a hundred years. Please read her posts prior to this one and you will find astrological judgements, not Left or Right leanings.
All the best,
Dirk
September 22, 2016 @ 1:20 pm
Hi Dirk,
Thank you for saying this – all of these charts are indeed analyzed with data developed from research dating back to the 1870s until today. I think PatriciaCWatson has already made up her mind long ago, however. I personally trust that veritas vincit as light dispels darkness.
Kind regards,
Nina
September 22, 2016 @ 9:24 am
Dear Nina, congratulations for your amazing work! It is not easy to do a thorough research and it is even braver to post a concrete prediction like this. It was very nice to know about your articles. I have been studying some Aries ingress and I have two questions about this particular article / interpretation:
1 – since the ancients also used the ingress in Libra to forecast the year when they had a Mutable Ascendant in the Aries ingress did you also use this other chart?
2 – knowing that horary charts (questions) and ingress charts or events can not be interpreted with exactly the same rules, could we say that – being the Moon significator of the voters/ public (in Leo) praising the Sun (general ruler of victory/ kings) in the house of the conservative party (4th) would this be a good argument for their win? Or, on the contrary, that the void of course moon would be an argument for winning the current party in office? Thank you in advance and congratulations for the courage, no matter what the result will be. Regards João Medeiros
September 22, 2016 @ 1:15 pm
Thanks, Joao! Candidly, I have made my predictions public in previous election cycles in much more public fora such as CNN and UAC, so this is relatively modest in comparison. I don’t care too much about being shown to be right or wrong; it’s just another data point in developing the Aries Ingress technique of prediction. Hopefully you’ve had a chance to look at the articles about previous elections, both here and at gryphonastrology.com. Regarding your questions:
1. Interestingly, in my research, the Aries Ingress always contained the necessary information about the White House changing/not changing control, so I did not need to go to the quarterly ingresses. I was prepared to do so, but it turned out to not be needed. It would be interesting to see if one can apply the same techniques to the Libra Ingress as well. Would be happy if someone did that research!
2. In examining the charts from the 1870s onward, I did not find that the Moon had any correlation to the outcome of the election, but again, if someone wanted to do that research, that would be outstanding.
Kind regards,
Nina
September 27, 2016 @ 10:58 am
Nina, I recently found your blog and I am extremely interested in this particular topic. My question was the same as Joan’s about using the Libra Ingress because the Aries ingress chart was not ruled by a fix sign, thank you. Could you please mention in what election years, other than 1888, we find the rulers of the incumbent and challengers switched? 2016 seems complex to me and I want to see if I get them right before you write about them on your blog. Also, in looking at this 2016 Aries ingress chart…. I was looking at this chart at the precise moment when a radio newscaster mentioned the slogan Law and Order and it made me question if that could not be what Jupiter (Law) and Saturn (Order) are representing in this chart… I don’t know, I am just the perennial student.
September 27, 2016 @ 1:31 pm
Dear Silvia,
Thank you for visiting. It is extremely rare to have the ruler of either the 4th or 10th houses conjunct the opposite house cusp. I am away from my book of charts at the moment, but believe that 1888 was the only year when this was the case, other than in 2016. If I find out otherwise, I will come back and comment, but we will be working with a tiny number of charts, either way.
Kind regards,
Nina
September 28, 2016 @ 7:37 am
Thank you so much Nina…
I was comparing this 2016 Ingress chart with the 1980 Ingress Chart because both charts are very similar in that the representing planets are the same, Jupiter and Mercury are the rulers but in opposing houses and the planets are in opposition to each other. They both are in mutual reception and both in their sign of Detriment. So I thought I would study the derived 10th houses for clarification and this is what I found:
The 1980 chart has also both planets opposing each other, but if you look to it through derived houses, I believe the challengers hold the edge because the Sun is conjunct the ascendant (10th house from the 4th). The 7th house represents the Incumbents’ 10th with no planets or aspects. In the 2016 Aries ingress chart, (very similar), but the 1st house (10th from the 4th) has Mars and Saturn in Sagittarius, Saturn making an exact square with Jupiter, (the ruler of the Challengers) and Jupiter placed in the Ingress 10th. The 7th represents the Incumbent’s 10th ruled by in Gemini but there are no planets in the tenth so it takes me back to Mercury. I believe that the Challengers will win. I welcome any comments or corrections to my analysis since my purpose is to learn this technique, and I thank you so very, very much for sharing your knowledge.
September 28, 2016 @ 8:45 am
Dear Silvia,
Hmm, I don’t really see similarities between this chart and 1980. I would point you to 1888 and also 1884, if you want charts that share more characteristics with 2016. In my research, which planets ruled the 4th and 10th houses did not seem to make a difference to the outcome, nor derived houses. If you are looking for another view on this method, I have an article in the Oct/Nov issue of The Mountain Astrologer that details the steps.
Kind regards,
Nina
September 29, 2016 @ 6:29 am
Good morning, Nina, and thank you again for taking care to respond to my question… I am kind of confused now because you are referring me back to the charts of 1884 and 1888 as being similar to the 2016 election and in your article for the 1884 you mentioned that this chart is very similar to the 1980 chart, which is what made me study to begin with… specifically in paragraph number 3.
Did I miss something here?
September 29, 2016 @ 6:00 am
According to the system of astrology you practice so successfully and convincingly, does Mercury the ruler of the tenth suffer any impairment by proximity to the South Node? Thanks for your opinion.
September 29, 2016 @ 7:13 am
Nina, I sent the message without finishing my thought. Is it because Jupiter is retrograde in the 2016 instead of station to direct like in the 1884 chart?
October 17, 2016 @ 6:23 am
Dear Nina, thank you very much! I found your arcticle in THE MOUNTAIN ASTROLOGER and translated your results in German. I wrote an article about the election and your results in my blog http://www.astromind.de/astrologie-artikel/wer-gewinnt-die-wahl-in-den-usa.html
Kindly,
Sylvia Grotsch
October 26, 2016 @ 7:08 pm
Dear Sylvia,
Thank you for your interest! I read German, and want to thank you for reproducing my technique very faithfully in that language, so, thank you! Please let me know if you have any questions about the technique.
Kind regards,
Nina
October 29, 2016 @ 1:12 pm
Mercury is very weak….conjunct SN and combust. So I’m not convinced… 🙂
November 9, 2016 @ 5:52 am
Hi Nina, do you have any ideas, why your theory failed yesterday? We all are very surprised …
Greetings,
Sylvia
November 9, 2016 @ 5:59 pm
This Aries ingress chart did not work because it failed to follow the basic rules of Mundane Astrology.
The Ascendant of this chart is in a mutable sign (Sagittarius) and if we follow the rules of Mundane Astrology we would realize that this chart forecast is only good for 6 months.
Ascendant in Cardinal sign 3 months, Mutable 6 months, Fixed 12 Months.
Cheers
November 9, 2016 @ 6:08 pm
Sylvia and all,
The potential was there for the incumbency ; but, as is seen with chart reading, people do not always do the self-work to manifest the potential of the chart.
November 9, 2016 @ 7:35 pm
Hello Nina,
can the democrats still stay in power-or maybe the lord of the 4th conjunct the 10th and the Node, actually gives more power to the opposition, hence the win?
November 10, 2016 @ 12:07 am
And now?
The Dems have been shellacked. Does the chart show this possibility?
November 10, 2016 @ 7:03 am
I have enjoyed reading this entire blog. I am but a dilettante beginner. What indicators in a chart would speak to election technology…Uranus? What indicators would show with fraud..Neptune? (Princeton Univ Computer experts showed that they only needed a minute alone with the Diebold computers to insert a malware program that destroys itself upon termination at the end of voting, and machine outcomes are predetermined and undetectable.) Since Many “blue” states turned “red”, another question arose. Is there any signification that could predict a form of termination of “election” result by the contender before actually being confirmed in the Presidency. In this case the ‘Challenger” has serious lawsuits pending, (one on Dec 18th) a few fraud cases, and a rape case. I am a retired educator/psychologist. Anyway. I am fascinated by your blog. Thank you so much for your brilliant and open hearted exchange with other excellent professionals. I apologize if my questions are too elementary to be entertained in this forum.
November 10, 2016 @ 3:08 pm
Nina–I so appreciated your article in MA. I wondered if the method has another reference when a radical like Trump, who really belongs to no party? Also, it is confusing since Hillary really did win….the popular vote.
November 10, 2016 @ 7:27 pm
Hi Nina… I believe that the only error here was that you thought Jupiter was more beneficial to the incumbent for its presence in the tenth, but I also remember that it is a requirement of this technique that the planets are in aspect and Jupiter is in an exact square with Saturn… I believe you were correct, just that Jupiter benefited the incumbents more because it represented them. The technique is fascinating though.
November 10, 2016 @ 8:59 pm
Ms. Gyphon,
Could you please direct me to the articles where your prediction have been published: USA Today, Reuters, Chicago Tribune, and the Associated Press as stated in your Bio. Unfortunately, when I visited each site and searched your name no such articles appeared, nor did queries for astrology predictions return any results.
Your response would save me time in contacting each individual publication to verify your claims.
Best Regards
November 13, 2016 @ 11:43 am
As a comment I will like to know why more than 90% of the online predictions for the 2016 Presidential election have failed? I think that something definitely went wrong and none of you Astrologers are explaining this. All I get is the “sound of silence” in terms of comments about this issue. I follow my horoscope daily and now I am not going to follow it ever again.
November 20, 2016 @ 8:33 pm
http://www.skyscript.co.uk/ingresses.html
A general rule in traditional astrology is that if the ascendant of the ingress chart is a mutable sign the chart remains valid for six months, and the Sun’s ingress into Libra should be used for the remaining half of the year.
so switch to the Libra and see who wins now?
November 21, 2016 @ 11:44 pm
Are you planning to post anything?
November 22, 2016 @ 9:03 am
I would be interested in knowing what the Aries ingress for 2020 shows. I took a look at it, but I’m afraid I’m not well versed enough in this techniques to come to any conclusion.
Regards
November 23, 2016 @ 12:37 pm
Hi, Nina, I reasd your article in The Mountain Astrologer and was curious how you would “read” the Ingress chart given the outcome. Very illuminating to me as a student of astrology as to the nature of predictions. Best, Luke
November 28, 2016 @ 8:31 am
Brilliant work, Nina! I am thinking of your analysis in relation to the upcoming recount, spearheaded by the Green Party. If they do find evidence of fraud, then it’s possible that the position may go to the candidate who won the popular vote – Clinton. Obviously this scenario is far from materialized; however, it is not outside the realm of possibility. It may be a longshot, but it could account for Jupiter’s retrograde motion from the Midheaven. As you’ve stated: a benefic, like Jupiter, strengthens the house it’s in. But the retrograde status may make it work in an unusual, and wonkey, fashion.
December 5, 2016 @ 6:46 pm
As the Electoral College has not yet voted, we may not have seen the true outcome of this election yet. There could also be other surprises in store related to the Jupiter Saturn square, and the rulers of the 10th and 4th being at each others doorstep. Perhaps we’re entering a new era and need to adjust our astrological perspectives accordingly.
Nina, I would also love to read a debriefing from you. I so appreciate your clear and thorough intelligence.
2017 Letter to My Readers - Nina Gryphon
January 29, 2017 @ 7:04 pm
[…] got the 2017 U.S. election forecast wrong. Strangely, I didn’t feel especially upset about being wrong; it happens sometimes, and as […]
December 19, 2017 @ 9:04 pm
Notice how 1st Lord Jupiter is retrograde, debilitated in Virgio, and is on the same degree as Saturn. Also, Saturn’s 10 house aspect falls exactly on Jupiter.