Trump's Gandanta Moon: the Karmic Knot is Unraveling
/“I hate everyone in the White House”.
“The President seethes as advisers fear the president is unraveling. He seems to be increasingly unfocused and consumed by dark moods”. These were the headlines in a Vanity Fair article this week.
I don’t know if the sources in these articles are reliable and if this is fake news or not, but I can tell you astrologically speaking that the President IS not holding it together. As Salon.com reported this week, “even by his standards Trump is losing it”.
The spiritual science of Vedic Astrology can best be assimilated through observing firsthand how the theory of astrological principles play out in real life. One of the reasons why, I have been writing so much about Trump the past few months is because while most people hide their planets behind carefully constructed social, ethnic and gender masks – you see his planets stripped and stark naked. Watching him on the world stage is a bonanza for astrologers to study our craft and for our own self-knowledge.
Usually we talk about the houses, signs and planets and Nakshtras. However, predictions are refined by studying the degree at which a planet or Ascendant is placed, differentiating the lives of people born just minutes or even seconds apart. Specifically, the early or late 2-3 degrees of any Zodiac sign are said to be on sandhi or junction points, where a planet or ascendant is caught between two conflicting energies. The planet is said to become too "old" or too "young" and as such give erratic or extreme results.
The most turbulent and unsettling of these crossover points are where fire and water signs collide – they are called Gandanta or a tightly wound knot ( Gan means knot, anta at the end). As such, Gandanta occurs at the edges of Cancer and Leo, Scorpio and Sagittarius, and Pisces and Aries – where not only the zodiac signs but the Nakshatra signs are also transitioning.
Like any long-held knot the more you tug at it the tighter and more stubborn it becomes. However, Dashas of the planets placed at these degrees, or important transits of planets like Saturn and Sade Sati, over these points can forcefully release the knot opening the floodgates of our experiences, traumas and memories, that were securely tied up and hidden in the sub-conscious of the planet. Unless there are other planets strongly anchoring the personality, more often than not this sends life unraveling and out of control as a result.
All of us have karmic knots, indeed the horoscope itself is a map of our childhood experiences and inherited genetic tendencies. However, those with an Ascendant or planets at these Gandanta degrees, usually experience them as much more dramatic collisions with destiny.
Saturn’s transit in Scorpio Nov 2014 - Oct 26 2017
The natal chart is static and remains the same throughout life. But the planets, nodes and the Sun and moon move around the zodiac; interacting with and influencing the natal chart. These interactions are called Gochara in Sanskrit (transits in western astrology).
In Sidereal Vedic Astrology, Saturn has been in Scorpio since Nov 2014 and will finally be changing signs on Oct 26. 2017. Those of you who have your ascendant or planets in Scorpio, especially the moon, know what I am talking about when I say that Saturn has upended your life and created mayhem in the last two and a half years – thankfully he will not return for 30 years. Scorpio, the natural eighth house of the zodiac is where Saturn’s transits are most painful because during his stay in this sign we learn the lessons of the eighth house the hard way (Saturn’s way) that regardless of how much we try to control life, every life has forces beyond its control compelling us to surrender to “what is” – win or lose.
Trump’s Moon is Gandanta in Scorpio
I have written previous articles on the significance of Trump’s debilitated and moon (emotional filter/how life feels to us) in the fourth house (our roots, family and the collective consciousness of our family/ancestors).
Here we are looking more specifically at the Gandanta degree of 28.5 of Scorpio in which his moon is placed. Scorpio moon is a very willful and intensely emotional placement in general, but at this degree the negative aspect of these qualities intensify greatly. The transit of Saturn over these degrees pushes the weakness of the planet to the surface.
Astrologer Barbara Pijan Lama describes this Gandanta point as:
"Often there is throughout the life a considerable masking of this hidden weakness via denial or skillful rational management -- until the gandanta planet's period pushes the weakness through the denial barrier and up to the surface consciousness".
Although here she is not talking specifically about Trump or anyone else, you can see how powerfully this applies to Trump. I imagine he and his handlers are trying to keep the knot in place but Saturn transiting his Gandanta moon wants to unravel the knot, fully exposing his dark moods and unstable temperament that has plagued him all his life. His powerful first house with the Yogakarka Mars giving him a Rajayoga ( a planet that confers fame, success, Kingship) will offer him a lot of protection – it is hard to predict how much that will serve to keep his breakdown from the public. The protection will come in the way of Mars - War? General Kelly?).
Mixing Fire with Water
These Gandanta degrees between fire and water signs are considered especially potent because they call for nothing less than the dissolution of the personality we have so carefully built up. Much like the interaction of the fire element with the water element - water begins to boil, fire begins to extinguish and finally both elements evaporate into steam – both completely transformed, leaving no trace of the original element behind. This transformation is akin to what many mystics have described as the ”dark night of the soul”. Be born anew or be destroyed.
Saturn's Gandanta transit over Scorpio and Sagittarius will be felt most acutely between late October and early January.
Do you have planets in the last three degrees of a water or fire signs, especially Scorpio and Sagittarius, where the knot is beginning to unravel?
Where are you mixing fire with water (example, emotions with anger)? Natural phenomena like hurricanes are also formed by mixing of hot and cold air.
Look to the meaning of the planet, the house and sign and you will see what Saturn wants you to entangle and release once and for all.
Remember the knot of our mental/ psychological imprints unravels in its search for healing unresolved karma from our past, as individuals, as nation states and as a world.