Stars to McCarthy:  Try Again

Astrology predicts Kevin McCarthy’s leadership

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” seems to be the watchword of late for newly minted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who experienced considerable difficulty wrangling his narrow Republican majority into endorsing his leadership in the 118^th Congress.  For the first time in a hundred years, the incoming members of the US House of Representatives failed to elect a Speaker on the first ballot, due to a small cadre of diehard “never-Kevin” insurrectionists who were preventing McCarthy from achieving the 218 votes necessary to attain the post he seeks.

There are 20 members in this group, some of which could be persuaded to change their votes if the right concessions are made, but at its core are five individuals who absolutely refuse to endorse McCarthy under any circumstances, one more than the four votes he could afford to lose and still be elected.  This subset, less than three percent of the GOP caucus, dragged the rest of the House around by the nose, with no conceivable compromise that could assuage them, and seemingly no end in sight.  Until a Speaker is elected, there is no 118^th Congress – members can’t be sworn, legislation can’t even be proposed, let alone passed.  Nothing gets done.

So, why is this playing out as it is in DC?  Maybe because it’s also reflected in the skies, right down to the proper nouns of the story.  With astrology as our lens, this picture of earthly dysfunction becomes crystal clear.

A common criticism of astrology is that it can be too vague or fuzzy, too open to subjective interpretation rather than objective clarity.  Well, on the level of planetary astrology, with just ten celestial markers to cover everything that exists, it kinda has to be.  Anytime you bring two or more of these together in a geometric relationship, the possibilities for outcomes are literally endless, so it’s no wonder that astrology can seem like so much wishful thinking.

But there’s an emergent field in astrology, one that also incorporates asteroids and other so-called “minor bodies” of our solar system.  And at that level, astrology can become astoundingly precise, even predictive. 

You see, there are an estimated 1.9 million such bodies in the solar system, each to receive a name.  So far, only about a quarter of that number have been identified and their orbits computed, and barely 5% of those, some 29,000, have been named.  Even so, this gives us a lot of material to work with, and when the celestial monikers line up with their terrestrial namesakes, the Above really does begin to look like the Below.

I’ve been a professional astrologer for 35 years, and working extensively with asteroids for almost twenty.  They are incredibly valuable tools in self-understanding, as well as describing current events with pinpoint accuracy.  As a start point, let’s take a look at Kevin McCarthy’s current impasse as a prime example of how the skies mirror conditions on terra firma.

Asteroids are named by their discoverer, with the final approval from the IAU, the International Astronomical Union, their governing body, and can be named for anything.  When these tiny rock chunks (which lie predominantly between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter) began to be revealed by enhanced telescope technologies in the early 1800s, there was a convention that they be named after figures from classical Greek and Roman myth, just like the planets.  But that well ran dry a long time ago, and astronomers reached out to pantheons from other cultures, as well as historical figures. 

Eventually, asteroids even began to be named for everyday objects, like Beer, Petunia, or Kitty.  Most are named for people – ordinary, everyday, specific people:  family, friends or coworkers of the discoverer; or generic first or surnames, as Paul, Barbara, Smith and Jones, applying potentially to anyone of that name; and some for famous individuals of history or pop culture.

And as it happens, there’s an asteroid named McCarthy.  In my line of work, we love to find exact matches like that.  The cosmos can be very accommodating about stretching a point, working with close matches, alternate spellings, even foreign words that look like English ones, but exact matches always show the most profound, and convincing, connections.

So, what was asteroid McCarthy doing right then, as his terrestrial counterpart found himself on the horns of this dilemma?  For one thing, it’s just sitting there.  Apparently stock still in the heavens, not budging an inch.  Having arrived at its station, it’s about to make a dramatic change of direction in the sky, a period which often (one might say, inevitably) coincides with major “turning points” for the mere mortals who resonate to it.

So what’s a “station”, you ask?  Forgive the jargon, but a bit of technical explanation is needed at this point.  I promise to keep it brief, and not too painful.

You may have noticed that I described asteroid McCarthy’s stationary status as “apparent” above.  That’s because stations (and the backward motion that follows) are actually optical illusions.  Due to lots of math we don’t need to concern ourselves with here, based on the relative positions of the Earth, the sun and a third body, any planet or point will appear to go “retrograde” (that is, backwards) at some stage in its cycle about the sun, from our perspective here on Earth.  Although illusory, these turning points signal vital changes and periods where the point in question is exerting a much greater influence on earthly affairs than typically, due to the apparent compressing of its energies into one small zone of the zodiac for a protracted period of time.

Mercury retrograde is a common phenomenon that has wheedled its way into awareness in the popular culture in recent decades, and been found to have some validity as a period where things Mercury-ruled, such as transportation and communication, tend to go haywire.  This period is based on stations.

And Kevin McCarthy (plus any other McCarthys out there) is going through the terrestrial version of his cosmic namesake’s circumstance right now.  He’s stuck.  Can’t move.  And one way or another, whether he attained his goal of the Speakership or went down to ignominious defeat, this crisis will be remembered as a major turning point in his life.

‘Still pretty general,’ you harumph.  OK, bear with me a bit longer, and we’ll put some meat on those bones.

Because asteroid McCarthy isn’t stationing in a vacuum.  No siree, not by a long shot!  What do we find right nearby?

Why, that’s asteroid Sisyphus!  Just three doors (astrological degrees) down, well within the required parameters for bodies to be considered entangled.  Sisyphus is one of those mythic-named asteroids, and its backstory is eerily similar to representative McCarthy’s current situation.  Sisyphus is also at station – in fact, it turned tail just the day before the 118^th Congress was set to convene on January 3^rd, so its ability to affect events is at its greatest right now.

And just what is Sisyphus’ story?  The asteroid is named for a denizen of Hades, the Greek underworld, who is being punished for his crimes in life by having to roll a huge rock uphill, only to have it roll back down again.  Sisyphus’ job is to move that boulder, and he gets no relief until he does, but he can’t get anywhere.  It constantly rolls back, so he constantly has to roll it up again.  Forever.  As such, metaphorically, Sisyphus becomes an image of endless, pointless repetition; wasted effort; continual struggle against impossible odds; failure to reach the goal.

Sound familiar?  By the time the dust had cleared and the deal was cut, Kevin McCarthy had failed fourteen successive attempts to be elected House Speaker, a circumstance we haven’t seen in literally a hundred years.  So human McCarthy was stuck in the same sort of endless loop that mythic Sisyphus was, at the precise time when both their celestial markers are sharing the same patch of sky.  Their energies are inextricably bound, and Sisyphus is putting McCarthy through the wringer.

Still not convinced of the efficacy of asteroids?  OK, we can keep probing (trust me, there’s always more to be found!).

How about this – directly across the sky from McCarthy and Sisyphus, half a zodiac away, we find the planet Neptune.  What’s that mean?  Well, Neptune is noted, among other things, for disappointment, disillusionment, wishful thinking, an inability to focus and produce, and difficulty discerning fantasy from reality.  Any of that apply to McCarthy’s current situation?  You betcha!

And we can go still further, filling in the gaps of the story.  About midway between these opposed forces of McCarthy/Sisyphus and Neptune, we find two more points, one on each side, as it were.  To McCarthy’s right, proceeding in zodiacal order toward Neptune, is asteroid House.

You heard me.  Yes, asteroid House, here an obvious cosmic stand-in for the US House of Representatives which McCarthy hopes to lead, and where he is currently failing miserably. 

And behind asteroid McCarthy, earlier in the zodiac, but again equidistant from the basic opposition, we find another minor body, a TNO (short for Trans-Neptunian Object, an astronomical designation that basically identifies it as hailing from the same general region as Pluto) called, wait for it … Chaos!

No, I am not making this up!

Not that it needs explanation, but Chaos symbolizes just what it sounds like – confusion, disorder, disarray, and, well, chaos!

So put it all together, and we have a geometric pattern in the sky which symbolizes turmoil and confusion (Chaos) in the House of Representatives (House), involving repeated, continual (Sisyphus) disappointments (Neptune) for Kevin McCarthy (McCarthy).  Not bad for a bunch of space debris, right?

Sure, you can chalk all that up to coincidence, if you wish.  But I’m here to tell you, as a veteran of twenty-plus years of research in this field, that there do seem to be a lot of coincidences!

[Note for the astrologically inclined:  the pattern described above is a Grand Cross composed of asteroids McCarthy and Sisyphus at 20 and 23 Virgo, opposed Neptune at 22 Pisces, with asteroid House at 24 Sagittarius and TNO Chaos at 29 Gemini; Sisyphus made its station retrograde on January 2^nd, McCarthy follows suit on January 13^th, but is already at its station degree.]