Note: The information contained in this post is derived from astrologer Jeremy Neal’s excellent book on Orcus. In my opinion all astrologers and serious astrological students should consider this book required reading, as despite its small size this energy packs an incredibly powerful punch. Read on to understand why I say this…
There’s a big new player on the astro-scene, and its name is Orcus. Orcus is a relatively recent discovery; a Trans-Neptunian Object found in the Kuiper Belt back in 2004. It is a very close cousin to Pluto as it has a similar size, elliptical orbit, and orbital period but the two remain locked in opposite orbital phases; visually forming a sort of Venn diagram with Neptune’s orbit representing the overlap between the two. When Orcus is closest to the Sun, Pluto is furthest away and vice versa – this has sometimes caused it to be referred to as the “anti-Pluto”.
Orcus first grabbed my attention a few years ago – I was reading Jeremy Neal’s treatise on the subject; specifically the section on its ties to McCarthyism and the witch hunts that later became synonymous with the Republican senator from Wisconsin. Something about Neal’s description immediately caused bells and whistles to go off in my head; so loudly that I actually had to stop reading mid-chapter in order to pull a chart.
Hmm, now where had I sensed this energy signature before? This M.O. just seemed so familiar…ah, yes – Donald Trump! Donald J. Trump first made it onto my radar back when he was spearheading the whole “Birther Movement” hoopla against Obama. Sure I had seen him on TV here and there throughout the 80’s & 90’s and later had an awareness of his mid-2000’s reality TV series “The Apprentice” in which he was famous for playing the role of judge/executioner as he coldly issued forth the tagline “You’re fired” from the head of chair a shadowy boardroom conference table, but Trump never made much of a blip for me until after this point in his career. Keep in mind all of this was long before his White House bid ever happened – it wasn’t until he started getting very political circa 2011 that I began to formulate any kind of real opinion on the man at all.
As I watched Donald devolve from a multimillionaire celebrity I was fairly indifferent about to arguably one of *the* most vociferous, belligerent, and frankly contemptible voices among the (IMO largely xenophobic and/or racist) Birther Movement ranks (hellooo, remember the monkey meme?!) , my disgust began to balloon to immeasurable proportions. It wasn’t just how he went about demanding Obama produce a birth certificate; it was listening to him talk out of turn about his (obviously very limited) understanding of the differences between “Birth Certificate” vs. “Certificate of Live Birth”. Listen buddy, I’m an astrologer – I deal with birth record issues all day long. I can assure you that just because a document says “Certificate of Life Birth” instead of “Birth Certificate”, this is not at all suspicious! But so convinced of his righteousness was he that he just continued along doing what he does so well, which as far as I can surmise at this juncture appears to be talking out of his ass. The real icing on the cake, though, was watching him subsequently be proven wrong only to turn around and give himself a self-congratulatory pat on the back that he was “proud [he] could do what no one else could” and get Obama to produce a birth certificate.
It was right then and there he showed me the true measure of his character. If you can’t even admit you were wrong or offer up an apology when you tried to ruin someone’s life/career/reputation erroneously and have not one single drop of remorse over the McCarthy-like witch hunt you were leading, this in my opinion smacks of narcissism and at the very least should serve as a red-flag indicator that something is indeed very wrong. So long story short you can see why – when years later when I was reading this book on Orcus and its ties to the McCarthy era – my mind would immediately say “Huh – all of this sounds very familiar. Better go look at Donald’s chart to see if we have Orcus Bingo.” And lo and behold, look what I found…!
Donald Trump is a veritable Orcus-Palooza – Orcus is less than 3 degrees away from his Sun while being conjunct his North Node by less than 1 degree, too; a strong astrological marker the energy of this celestial body is indelibly entwined in his DNA for better or worse. But that’s not the whole of it – Trump was born on an eclipse; making Orcus simultaneously opposite his Moon and South Node. As he is a Leo Rising he gets triple bonus points for having Orcus conjunct his chart ruler (the Sun) as well – this combination of factors serves as an astrological trifecta that denotes Orcus’ energy as very prominent in his personality. The Sun, Moon, and ASC/chart ruler provide clues as to the dominant notes of our character and when they are all tied up with the same celestial body that planet’s energy will loom large in our life. Add in the fated Nodes to the equation and that cosmic energy will align with your destiny; again, for better or for worse.
What are some key themes of Orcus energy? Per Jeremy Neal, some keywords include (but are not limited to): “Integrity, authenticity, implacability, ruthlessness, loneliness, isolation, ‘dark night of the soul’, alienation, meditation and prayer, spiritual depth, determination, diehard, unbreakable, detached, merciless, inhumane, cruel.” He makes a point of saying that constructive expressions of this energy *are* possible, but they are also extraordinarily difficult for a human of ordinary consciousness to manifest and require a strong spiritual slant in order to do so. Intriguingly, Neal also mentioned Orcus’ capacity for immense wealth; something that may be sought in lieu of the incredible spiritual wealth it does seem to offer the potential for on the other side of the coin. Since we already know DJT clearly is *not* an ascetic, I do have some concerns about his ability to express the higher potential of Orcan energy – especially when combined with that troublesome word “integrity”. On p.98 of his book, Neal points out that “A consistency of integrity is based upon applying a rigorous standard of behavior, even to one’s own detriment.” – I have not seen this from Trump; a man who vociferously calls someone else out to produce a birth certificate and yet won’t produce his own tax returns when called upon to do so during his very own presidential bid. To say this is a troubling sign would be an understatement.
But wait; there’s more. It gets better, because if you read the book on Orcus you will also note Neal draws ties between Orcus and Nazi Germany – in light of this information, I don’t think those who are alarmed about Trump having white nationalists in his cabinet are overreacting in the slightest. Again, please keep in mind this book was written long before DJT ever threw his hat in the American presidential ring and Neal himself does not make this association; he merely objectively states what his (very thorough) research has unearthed about Orcus. It was my own personal feelings and connection to this archetypal energy that had me making the link and I certainly have no wish at all for it to appear as if I were putting words in his mouth! Personally I have yet to come across anyone else in the astrological community covering the Orcus angle of Donald Trump, and I only made the connection as a result of Neal’s incredibly insightful and impeccably-researched magnum opus. I’m not saying that no one else has made this correlation; rather what I merely attempt to convey is that from what I’ve seen to date most astrologers appear to be focusing instead on Trump’s Uranus, which is two degrees further away from his Sun/Nodes than Orcus and thus not as strong an influence. On a fundamental level, Astrology 101 tells us the closer to exact an astrological aspect is, the louder it “talks”. Therefore it is my opinion that excluding Orcus from consideration and interpretation would prove a grave mistake in this case.
I also found it interesting to read about Orcus’ ties to crime & punishment, now finding it an eerie “coincidence” the name of Trump’s VP is Mike Pence, which sounds an awful lot to me like the word “penance”. Peas and carrots, it would seem.
The cherry on top of all of this, though, is the fact Donald Trump’s presidency coincides (not surprisingly) with America’s Orcus Return. I came to this realization upon reading p.154 of “Orcus” wherein Neal cited the USA’s Orcus as being at 9 degrees Virgo. Currently, transiting Orcus is just about on top of it as we speak. The translation: If anyone wants a good astrological view of Orcan energy and how it works/what it is all about, they need look no further than the USA over the next 4 years; specifically at the Trump Administration and its behaviors/policies. America may indeed be on the threshold of its much-publicized Pluto Return, but first it has to get through Orcus.
01/11/17
PS: And for goodness sake, even if you aren’t an astrologer go buy the book and just skip over the technical parts! Especially if you are American or just want to better understand the energetic essence of what the USA is dealing with for the foreseeable (political) future, this is a must-read!
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