Politically Charged: How candidates have responded to the ominous astrology of the coronavirus

With Politically Charged, a monthly column by QueerCosmos astrologer and Well+Good Changemaker Colin Bedell, you’ll get a look at what’s happening in the 2020 election cycle, not through the lens of any specific issue or party or scandal, but rather through the energy of the universe. 

This month, the COVID-19 pandemic has rightfully demanded our attention and changed our behaviors. In light of that, learn about the astrology of the coronavirus (meaning the cosmic transits that are occurring alongside its rise), plus how presumptive presidential candidates are responding. 

Throughout the past two months, news about the erupting COVID-19 pandemic has consumed the news, our attention, and our lives. And from an astrological perspective, the fact that the coronavirus’ eruption into the global conscience continued as Saturn entered Aquarius on March 21 is also compelling. See, astrologers extensively explored the Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn that formed on January 11—the same date as the Chinese government reported its firth death from the novel coronavirus—as a cycle that would create both international-system destruction and the opportunity to rebuild these systems with greater clarity, responsibility, and values that are more life-sustaining for the world in which we live. Turns out, we were onto something.

The Saturn-Pluto conjunction set the framework for Saturn entering Aquarius, which is about communal loving, progressive thinking, and shared humanity. As far as how this translates to the astrology of the coronavirus, it began a worldwide conversation on the collective’s inextricable connection across countries through this pandemic.

Domestically, COVID-19 swirling during Saturn in Aquarius provides for confronting imminent loss throughout a prolonged period of uncertainty but also having the vision to understand there will be life on the other side of this pandemic—and we might be wise to take steps to change how that life and culture may look. This collective experience is accelerating America’s thinking on the limitations of a market-based, for-profit health-care system while considering a need for emergency economic relief for vulnerable populations.

And so we can see here how the Saturn-Pluto conjunction highlighted the United States’ unfortified arenas—from its economy and employment to its health-care system and more. Pluto in Capricorn fractured what needed to be exposed, and then Saturn provided an invitation to legislate and implement new economic models, health-care institutions, employment needs, and more.

Aquarius energy wants to remind us that many of the luminaries who have proved helpful in the emergency-response systems are local government leaders who now have skyrocketing approval ratings. But with calls that responses to the coronavirus are likely to be central to the November presidential election, let’s review the 2020 presidential candidates’ responses to the crisis, using astrology as a lens.

How presidential candidates have responded to the astrology of the coronavirus

Donald Trump

Presidential incumbent Donald Trump grossly underestimated the severity of COVID-19, creating a false Gemini version of the truth and declaring promises around the American government’s competence toward containing a virus it couldn’t possibly in actuality. President Trump’s Gemini natal aspects could afford him the chance to uncomfortably persist earnestly in the uncertainty of this pandemic, but instead he delivered inaccurate certainty about having the situation under control, which ultimately made for a situation of stronger severity.

But in true Gemini dichotomous style, he does seem to defer to Capricorn Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Diseases, on extending physical distance until at least April 30. Trump also signed the $2 trillion stimulus package after a remarkable show of bipartisan support.

Joe Biden

As for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, just days after primary wins in Illinois, Florida, and Arizona, former Vice President and Scorpio sun sign Joe Biden has to contend with growing fears of cultural irrelevance as the physical distancing guidelines implore the senator to stay bunkered in Delaware. In the closed-door Democratic debate on March 15, Biden took a determinate Scorpio approach and advocated for “results, not a revolution.” He called on the federal government to fund treatment and testing for the coronavirus, highlighting his Scorpion focus on the immediate circumstances that need to be addressed.

Honorable mention: Bernie Sanders

Senator Bernie Sanders, a Virgo sun sign, debated adamantly for a fully socialized health-care system, only as a visionary mutable sun sign could, though it became clear that the masses weren’t with him. So on April 8, Sanders dropped out of the Democratic race, saying he could not “in good conscience continue to mount a campaign that cannot win and would interfere with the important work required of all of us in this difficult hour” while the pandemic grips the nation.

In February, transiting Pluto formed a tough square to Sanders’ Mars retrograde in Aries, which may have provided more opposition and conflict in his campaign. These cosmic events also happened while transiting Uranus in Taurus squared Sanders’ wounded Chiron and Pluto, creating an energy of strife, completion, and conflict. But what’s key to know here is that it’s likely we haven’t seen the last of Sanders in the scope of this election cycle, even though he won’t be a presidential nominee. His Mars retrograde return occurs this summer and fall, which I take to mean that he will contribute to shaping the political conversation, even if not as a Democratic nominee.

And, election aside, though astrologers may have seen the Saturn-Pluto conjunction coming, we, like everyone else, never knew how COVID-19 would erupt. So in this prolonged state of uncertainty, could we also be surprised by holding a vision that rises above polarization, returning to collective decency, and creating structures that allow for democratic principles of life, liberty, and happiness by affording access, inclusion, and opportunity for all? Let us hope so.

Want more Politically Charged? Here’s why it matters that Mercury was in retrograde during Super Tuesday.