Astrological Meanderings: April 2019

Tuesday 16 April 2019

Voting Day in Jakarta

Indonesian elections, including presidential, take place on April 17th 2019. Polls open at 7am and close at 1pm. Given the tensions that have been building up surrounding these elections, I thought it might be interesting to draw up a chart for the start of voting in Jakarta. This chart is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: start of voting in Jakarta at 7am on April 17th, 2019

With Taurus rising, Venus is the ruler of the chart. This planet is in Pisces and involved in a very tight T-square in mutable signs with the Moon and Jupiter, the latter at the apex in the eighth house. This is a volatile configuration but not necessarily violent. However, Pluto is active in the ninth, aspecting Venus by sextile, the Sun by square and the Moon by trine. Again, this is not necessarily violent but does suggest a transformation and this would favour the challenger, Prabowo. The Sun represents leadership and Sun square Pluto suggests a change here.

Of course, these planetary positions should also be considered in relation to the chart for Indonesian's independence (shown in Figure 2).

Figure 2: Indonesia's Independence Chart

In Figure 3, I've superimposed the election chart on the Independence Day chart with the latter positions on the outer ring. The result is rather confusing but the most noticeable feature is that Pluto on election day is right on top of Mercury, the ruler of the Independence Day chart, in the eighth house. Additionally, Election Day Mars sits rather ominously on the Ascendant. All this is not so good of course. The Independence Day Sun in 5°18' of Capricorn is square to the Election Day Uranus in 2°53' of Aries, again suggestive of an upset (as a win by Prabowo would be).

Figure 3: Election Day and Independence Day charts combined

Lastly, we should look at the progressed Independence Day chart to see what's showing up there. This is shown in Figure 4:

Figure 4: Progressed Independence Day Chart

I've marked in some of the salient features. What strikes my eye is the conjunction of the progressed Moon (representing the voting public) with natal Neptune. This suggests that the voting public are confused or are being deceived about what is really going on. The progressed Moon is also in a sharp quincunx with the Sun (representing leadership) and reflects the current political tensions. Independence Day Venus mediates this Sun-Moon tension. Election Day Mars is opposite the Independence Day Moon. 

Whether these charts and planetary interactions simply reflect the current tensions or whether they presage more, I don't know. There's not long to wait however, before it becomes clear.

ADDENDUM: it's now Friday May 3rd 2019 and the presidential election result seems clear enough but there will be no official announcement until later this month, probably around May 22nd. The supporters of the losing candidate are not happy but have been told to restrain themselves until the official announcement. What will happen then is uncertain.

FURTHER ADDENDUM: looking back on this post I don't know why I didn't choose the 1945 Independence Chart which is the one that Indonesia recognises. See my earlier posts: