Following the assassination attempt of Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania there are many who seem to think the image of the bloodied former president, pumping his fist in the air, the American flag behind him, is iconic enough to secure his victory later this year. That is possible.

Many astrologers have also predicted a Trump victory. The transits to his birth chart on the 5th of November 2024 are spectacular.

He has Uranus, the planet of sudden shocks and surprises on his career point, the Midheaven. He has Jupiter, the bringer of gifts and good luck, very near (and moving towards) his destiny point the North Node and his Sun.

But as always with astrology it’s difficult to predict how exactly those transits will manifest in his life. What is clear is that all eyes will be on him – and that something shocking or surprising might happen. But what?

In order to find out more I’ve looked at the US chart. And it’s the transits after the election of 5th of November 2024 that really matter.

The American Pluto cycle

This is a significant period in the astrological story of the US. During the last few years the country has had the first Pluto return in its history.

Pluto is the planet of fate and it takes 248 years to orbit the Sun. For a person the Pluto cycle often speaks of how our lives fit into a larger narrative around the time we’re in, how the flavour and the fate of the time play out through our lives and of the role we play in that story.

In the US birth chart Pluto is in ambitious and conservative Capricorn, the sign of structures, governments and authority. It’s in the second house, which is the house of confidence and finance. So a combination of these themes – authority and wealth – is clearly part of the country’s fate.

Pluto squared itself from Libra in the early 1980s – when the US rose to become the supreme power on the world stage, prompting a story around “the end of history” when political historian Francis Fukuyama argued that this was the pinnacle of historical achievement and that American liberal democracy was “the final form of human government”.

Squares can often feel uncomfortable, they force us to grow, but it can be hard. The astrology of this point in time for the US suggests the path to becoming dominant on the world stage came with hardship and struggle.

The US had its Pluto opposition just before the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 – a war that shattered the old global structures and was part the reason why the US rose up to become a superpower.

The first Pluto square during this cycle came during the 1850s, with a Uranus/Pluto conjunction. This was the lead up to the American civil war, when the country tried to sort out its own internal divisions, to find a common story that would work for a country of settlers, indigenous Americans and slaves, to forge one nation out of what was then  33 states and 10 organised territories.

The US has now had its Pluto return.

It happened during 2022 and 2023, the Biden presidency. The country was still fighting with itself, but it had chosen an establishment president, chosen tradition, stability and conservatism, over the slash and burn dictatorial vision offered by Donald Trump.

Pluto has since moved away and forward into Aquarius where it will stay for decades. Aquarius is the sign of the people, the sign of revolution. During previous Pluto transits through Aquarius kings, but also teachers, elders and experts, have been beheaded by the mob.

And Pluto is only a part of the US’s story.

Neptune and assassination attempts

The most interesting transit to me following the election is Neptune. After November it will cross the US’s IC, the point of home and ancestry, and then move into the 4th house of home and family.

This could speak of the period to come. But what does it mean?

Neptune is the planet of spirit and confusion. In its most positive manifestation it can connect us to something larger than ourselves, but it can also cause confusion, muddled thinking and a questioning around what is and isn’t real.

To have Neptune on the IC might mean not knowing what home is, it could mean losing the thread and the story that binds a country together.

The last time Neptune was on the US’s point of home was in 1862. This was at the height of the American civil war.

The civil war then ended when Neptune transited through the 4th house, but the turmoil didn’t stop during the reconstruction era that followed.

The president, Abraham Lincoln, was assassinated. Paramilitary groups from the south were a constant threat. The new president was impeached.

But it was also a period when the country was rebuilding and trying to find a new story (Neptune) about what America is supposed to be. Even though there were deep-seated problems, decisive steps towards equality were also taken.

As Mark Twain said, history doesn’t repeat itself, it rhymes. This doesn’t feel so gloomy. Could the country be heading towards a period where it manages to stabilise itself after an era of turmoil?

The next major Neptune transit was the Neptune square to the IC/MC axis in 1901. The president, William McKinley, was assassinated and Theodore Roosevelt, a massive figure in US history and the story the country tells of itself, took over.

The loss of a leader can mean a foggy, Neptunian, soul-searching period for the country. This story has now been reinforced twice during Neptune transits to the IC.

The fight for racial equality and civil rights continue to be a theme as well. Theodore Roosevelt invited African American leader Booker T. Washington to the White House. The South reacted angrily and racial violence increased.

The Neptune opposition, when the planet conjuncted the US’s Midheaven, occurred in 1942, just after the attack on Pearl Harbour which caused the US to enter World War Two.

This changed the war and ultimately changed the role the US played on the world stage. Neptune was dissolving the old version of the Libra Midheaven and out of the fog came something new – a global superpower dominating not just finance, but also the stories we tell ourselves, through Hollywood, music and pop culture.

The next square from Neptune to the IC and MC came in 1981/1982. And would you guess what happened then? There was an assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan in March 1981, a few months into his presidency.

The story of the rise of the US on the world stage also continued at this point in time, Neptune had allowed to country to create a story around being the world leader, a shining beacon of freedom and liberty. The “American dream” was to become the world’s dream. What does it stand for? It’s a dream that focuses on the individual, it’s built on the narrative of the pioneer who went from farmstead to incredible wealth. You can do it too, the dream whispers. But very few can.

There seems to be an interesting narrative here, the threads being the creation of a story that lifted the US up on the world stage, but also the loss, or threatened loss, of a leader. What happens if we look even further back in time?

Neptune takes 165 years to circle the Sun, this is only the second Neptune cycle for the US. What about the one that came before?

Slavery and Neptune

The previous Neptune square to the IC/MC axis from Capricorn was in 1821 during the so called Era of good feelings, a time of nationalism and a consolidation of the federal government’s power.

The era ended in 1825 with Pluto crossing the IC and the political conflict between slave owning and the free states becoming a simmering tension that would eventually erupt into the civil war.

The previous Neptune/Midheaven conjunction occurred early in the US’s history, around 1779. This was during the American Revolutionary war, which continued after the declaration of independence (the birth of the country). The fighting went on for several years and it was only in 1783 that the British acknowledged the sovereignty of the United States. When the war was over, an independent, but unruly country rose from the ashes.

The previous square from Libra was in 1737 when, for the first time, the majority of the enslaved population had been born in the country. A significant slave revolt in South Carolina was crushed. And activist and writer Benjamin Lay condemned slavery in a pamphlet printed by his friend Benjamin Franklin.

Another significant event during the Libra square was the so called walking purchase when colonial authorities swindled the Lenape people into giving up a large part of their land.

The previous Neptune/IC conjunction occurred in 1698, a few years after the Salem witch trials.

Around this time English merchants were allowed to take part in the slave trade and the number of Africans being taken to the colonies increased significantly. This was part of the rise of the British empire and would massively enrich Britain.

The meaning of America’s Neptune cycles

The first Neptune cycle from the late 1770s to the Second World War was one of a country defining its own story, of becoming a sovereign nation and finding its place in the world. Part of that story is the fact that the country is built on colonised land and built mostly thanks to the hard labour of immigrants and enslaved people.

The US’s own natal Neptune sits in Virgo, the traditional sign of the servant in the 9th house of the foreigner.

What do those who serve need? Many look for a strong leader, because they don’t know how to lead themselves.

The second Neptune cycle, which we’re in now, started during the Second World War and brought US supremacy on the world stage. The country wanted to serve the world and bring to it the story it had built around freedom and wealth and power. Not everyone in the world wanted to be part of that story and far from everyone inside the US were part of that story. The tensions and rifts that have been there since the country was founded hadn’t been examined or healed.

The US had its Neptune opposition, the halfway point of Neptune’s journey around the chart, around the time when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. And the it had just elected Joe Biden as its 46th president – an old man, past his prime.

Is the story becoming old? And will it start to change as Neptune crosses the American IC and moves into the 4th house of home?

One potential outcome of this transit could be the birth of a more inward looking US, ruled by the strongman many in the country crave. It could mean US retreat from the world stage, at least for a while.

The other threads and themes from previous Neptune transits to the 4th house might be there too – the trauma and legacy of slavery, the internal split between the values of the south and the north and the assassination or loss of a leader.

The US is a country that has had a history of being at war with itself. Not every country has that, but it’s there in the American DNA.

The IC, the point of home, is in Aries, the warrior and the pioneer. There is always someone chanting “fight, fight, fight”.

But Aries can fight for something good too and part of the American story is figuring out what that is and what it looks like. It’s a country that can serve, heal and nurture with so many placements in Cancer, the sign of the mother, in the 7th house of the other.

As Neptune crosses the US’s 4th house again over the next twelve years it gives the country a chance to find a story that is good and healing.

But the next president might come to define that story and the narrative. And if his name is Donald Trump, with his natal Sag Moon and Gemini Sun/Uranus forming a T-square with the American Neptune and Sun/Uranus on the US Mars in the 7th house that story might have a lot to do with “us vs them”.

Those placements at their worst can speak of propaganda, fanaticism, of wanting to get rid of all opposition and anyone who disagrees with the chosen story.

That is one way of consolidating the country and finding a unifying story, which is what has happened during previous Neptune transits to the 4th house.

Photo by Luke Stackpoole, Hrt+Soul Design, Boston Public Library, Brandi Alexandra on Unsplash.