During the 2016-2020 presidency Donald Trump, there were a lot of theories on his rise to power: the rise of brand identity; the influence of special interests; the promotion of covert authoritarian agendas; and the human tendency to follow the main ideas of the culture to fit in.

And I’d add some of my own: the power and influence of visual media, the ability to con by simply looking the part, and the sociopath’s preternatural ability to be what you want, even if you don’t know what you want.

Then re-reading Claire Rapaille’s The Culture Code where he unlocks American beliefs about elements of life, he discovered that Americans see the president as “Rebel-in-Chief.”

So true!

That’s when I realized that all the theories made sense! Trump is not the anomaly the educated white middle-class population believes – he’s the cultural norm, a norm that some segments of the population already experience. And he’s the norm for what the United States is versus what we believe ourselves to be.

Trump is our shadow.

Does that make the Democrats the light?

Dualistic politics is also the shadow. “There are two sides to every problem,” is a cliché that helps us reduce complexity to simplicity. American sports cultural adds to the duality by making politics about “winners” and “losers.”

We’ve lost our sense of being one, but we are. From air to food to water to politics, we all win, or we all lose.

Unless, of course, you are planning to occupy Mars. Then you might “win” a distant and desolate existence.

Astrological Shadow and Light

First off, we all have shadow and light: all people, all cultures. Life is (hopefully) rising above the shadow to be our best selves, but we must first know the shadow is always present.

How often do we look at our physical shadows? It follows us everywhere.

Using July 4, 1776 as the symbolic birthday of the United States, sun is in Cancer and moon in Aquarius. Generally, these are not good bedfellows. Cancer (water sign) is very emotional and Aquarius (air sign) is very rational so you have the “this is how I feel” versus “this is how you should feel (aka think).”

And born in the United States, we get to engage in this cultural riddle!

Sun is conscious self, the conscious identity. This is the light as the sun is the source of energy in our solar system and life. Sun in Cancer wants everyone to belong, in an emotional way. To feed the hungry, open one’s arms to beleaguered migrants, and offer a warm and safe place to sleep, well that’s Cancer.

Moon is reactive self, the default when we are not in comfort. As excessive comfort is addiction, for this astrologer moon rules addictions. Traditionally moon is considered to rule emotions.

Moon in Aquarius, then, reacts without emotions and goes into the thinking function. In the air signs (Gemini, Libra and Aquarius), moon does not express well. Moon is ruled by Cancer because its nature is comfort. So the addictive side of Aquarius is to be lost in thoughts and what should be versus what is empirically present.

That the United States has been a leader in technology makes sense as Aquarius rules technology, utopian ideals, and futuristic thinking. The United States was founded in the Age of Enlightenment (relative term) with a constitution that includes in one sentence “. . . we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, . . .”

We = Cancer

All men = Aquarius

Cancer and Aquarius are both “we” oriented but differently: Cancer invites you over for Thanksgiving to share a home-cooked meal by the fire with family; Aquarius builds you the perfect house (or geodesic dome) and supplies it with every technology and device needed for cooking the turkey evenly and having all of the side dishes done at the same time so the Thanksgiving runs on schedule.

Similar motivations, different outcomes.

The United States can offer both, of course.

Where both signs default and have shadow is when the other doesn’t comply with the “we” statement. If Cancer invites you for Thanksgiving and you are vegetarian and mention the terrible state of food production and turkey farms; when Aquarius builds you a crystal palace but you like camping and hunting your own food with a bow and arrow.

Cancer is protective – it’s a soft being in a shell – and it wants to protect you, often so much you can’t breathe or cross the street alone. Aquarius spreads cosmic knowledge which may take you a lifetime to understand so when you have a bruised knee, you really want a bandage and a kiss and not the cosmic laws of healing or a robot assistant.

United States’ Pluto Return

In addition to sun and moon, there are eight other planets in the chart. The furthest out is Pluto taking about 248 years to orbit the sun and relates to evolution. And that is the age of the United States! We are having our first Pluto return.

We the people know that in 1776 all people were not free. Are they free today? What is freedom?

As we return to our birth energy, it’s time to re-examine our core beliefs. As the metaphorical closet door opened for sexual expression, the doors also opened for all of the closet beliefs existing in the tree-lined streets of this country: superiority, resentment, hierarchy, materialism.

These are common themes of Capricorn where Pluto is currently transiting and where it’s placed in the United States horoscope. In 2008 when Pluto entered Capricorn, it opposed sun in Cancer and collapsed the house-of-cards housing market. Bye, bye materialism! The other Capricorn shadow traits may also go bye bye.

At 29 degrees, Pluto is leaving Capricorn for Aquarius and won’t come back for 248 more years. We won’t be here, but our descendants will. Pluto will take about 20 years to meet the moon at 26 degrees of Aquarius.

Are “we” the Cancer and Aquarian people going to travel the path of our shadows or the path of our light? The path of our light was laid out 248 years ago. In 248 years today’s Aquarian thoughts will be tomorrow’s Cancer reality.