The Soul Path of Trump (and Why We Need Him)

Considering the enormous impact Present Donald J. Trump is having upon our country, I wanted to share with you some of what I see in his Soul Path. I’ve always believed in a loving, divine plan. If you were distressed by the 2016 election results, perhaps you’ll find some comfort in the idea that President Trump is also part of a greater plan. For those of you that fully support him, perhaps you’ll find some vindication. From my perspective, he is, indeed, here to make America great – just not in the way you might think.

Whenever I do a Soul Path chart, I look first at the position of the Sun, the Earth and the Moon in the astrological chart. For Trump, it breaks down like this:

Sun 23° Gemini 10th house

Earth 23° Sagittarius 4th house

Moon 22° Sagittarius 4th house

Next, I look at the South Node and North Node. For Trump:

South Node 21° Sagittarius 4th house

North Node 21° Gemini 10th house

Can you already see the pattern? Even if you know nothing about astrology, you can see there’s a huge focus on the Gemini/Sagittarius polarity and the 4th house/10th house polarity. Whenever we see a Gemini/Sagittarius focus, we know one of the main things being explored is “truth versus lies.” “Alternative facts” and “fake news” are Gemini concepts, especially since Gemini deals with communication. Ruled by Mercury, Gemini focuses on the little mind and the things that are right in front of us, moment-to-moment. Gemini is curious and likes variety and change. It likes to gather information and give speeches. Its symbol is the twins, and with duality inherent in the sign, Gemini can be a bit of a trickster or a "wheeler-dealer," getting you to sign on the dotted line by entertaining or distracting you. Perhaps you’ve experienced the little glitches that many people associate with Mercury in retrograde. An email disappears from your in-box. Minor miscommunications causing big problems.

Sagittarius, which sits opposite Gemini in the sky, is aiming for a bigger picture. It deals with higher knowledge and what you believe. Ruled by Jupiter, it seeks expansion and understanding through learning and travel. Its expansive nature means it's big enough to embrace diverse people, cultures and ideas. Its symbol is the archer with an arrow drawn, aiming for his mark. At its best, Sagittarius seeks Truth -- soul-affirming, heart-expanding, divine Truth. With such a big goal, it struggles sometimes by falling into religious or moral fundamentalism and rigid ways of thinking. In its negative expression, Sagittarius believes “there’s only one right way, and I know what it is!” It can also be so expansive, generous or welcoming that it becomes bloated and intoxicated. If undisciplined, Jupiter can be a fat, indulgent king, wishing good things for his people, while sitting on his throne eating imported cake.

Trump’s Sun, which represents his ego and conscious mind, is in Gemini, indicating that Trump thinks of himself as a wheeler-dealer with an ability to handle multi-faceted tasks and communicate what he thinks. With Gemini, he'll be drawn to what’s directly in front of him, the moment-to-moment distractions, the Twitter feed. For better or worse, he’ll speak about whatever crosses his changeable mind. Because his Sun is in the 10th house, this is not just something he’s meant to do in the quiet of his own home. The 10th house represents our role in the world or society. His task is to play this role for a larger audience. It also means his ego is very wrapped up in what he does, and he'll expect to be recognized and applauded at work. The 10th house is tied to questions of discipline. It seeks to build things of value, has an affinity for the status quo and has a connection to our fathers. Gemini energy flowing through the 10th house, encourages building lots and lots of different, perhaps unrelated things. Since the ego is involved, ego recognition will be a big consideration (e.g., Trump Tower, Trump University, Trump Steaks, Trump Golf Course, etc.).

All of this is happening at the personality level. To get a little deeper into what’s happening at a soul level for Trump, we can look at the chandra symbol for his Sun’s position, which is “a tunnel created by trees.” This symbol speaks of a vision being granted and a way being shown. Although the “tunnel of trees” can have the effect of causing “tunnel-vision,” this symbol is overwhelmingly positive in its ultimate end. Trump, at a soul level at least, can actually sense the way forward, though his own deep distortions make it impossible for her to live that truly or share what he senses with integrity. This "sensing" has very little to do with the myriad of things he brings up or turns his attention to, and everything to do with what has to happen or come out for real change to occur. To him, the way forward seems straightforward and clear, and it’s actually good that it does, because trickster energy is at play in Gemini. While we're looking in one direction, something else is going on in another direction. His personality is focusing on eliminating regulations and building walls, fighting what he sees as the good fight. At the same time, his soul is aware of how chaotic and confusing things might need to get for enough people to pay attention, come together and commit to real change. Old, decaying systems may need to be torn down, and that's never easy. It's the kind of task a trickster is perfectly suited to accomplish.

Trump’s Moon on the other hand, which reveals something about his emotional state, as well as his subconscious mind, is in Sagittarius. At its best, it makes him capable of feeling the big picture - that soul-affirming, divine Truth, as well as the most direct path to reach it. A 4th house Moon is a sensitive one, in both good and bad ways. Although it can sense that big picture, it’s also easily pulled down, sucked by the tides into the heaviness of everything subconscious. The danger here is for fundamentalist ideas that actually have nothing to do with Truth to take hold and be carried out.

Much of Trump’s distorted sensitivity developed at an early age in his childhood home, likely in response to the influence of his mother. The 4th house is literally our home, our childhood, our mother and our ability to nurture and be nurtured. I would venture a guess that he either strongly identified with his mother or felt a strong need (perhaps projected by his father) to reject all the positive things she represented - probably both! As a result, he has a very narrow and shallow understanding of feminine energy as merely sexual or weak. Whatever resonance he felt for his mother and his own feminine nature has been pushed into shadow. In either case, there is something lodged in Trump’s subconscious around this, like a splinter. The good news is, with Sagittarius guiding his Moon, we know that at an emotional or subconscious level, at least, there are forces at work trying to show him the way out of this deep distortion.

The chandra symbol for Trump’s Moon is “blackbirds flying out of a pie.” This symbol speaks of darkness seeking release at the right time and place. I’d like to share the full reading of this symbol with you (from Inside Degrees by Ellias Lonsdale), as it seems particularly relevant:

"Darkness seeks release by the right vessel, at the right time, in the right place. You must be able to contain the darkness and to form it into an exquisitely sculpted-out seething chaos, and then discover your willingness and ability to reverse field, to give over the very thing you took as your own. This comes the hard way, by enduring the ravages of living in a volatile chaos almost as victim and then seizing command of your own vessel. Until you do it, the darkness leaks out around the edges and fosters the worst all around. Usually, triggering so much subtle destruction and indulgence in the negative it brings you up short, and triggers the final reckoning and the huge release, sending darkness on its way and opening a space for light to flood through and start a new cycle, where the old had seemed to be decadent and established for the duration."

Although this symbol is rather dark, it’s bursting with potential. We all know the way we’re doing things doesn’t work. Our systems are fundamentally unfair and fail to serve the greater good. We need a revolution in the way we think about everything. Trump, with his "me-first, America-first" philosophy represents the shadowed beliefs our country and culture have been built upon. They are the old ways of doing things, based on a very narrow understanding of masculine energy. Bullying, fighting, threatening and taking by force are deeply embedded in our culture. Our free-market economy is built upon the idea of every man for himself, where only the strongest prevail.

Those ways of thinking cast a very large shadow. The belief in American exceptionalism is an attempt to disown that shadow. To see it clearly, however, all we have to do is look back. Look at how this country was formed and what happened to the Native Americans who were living here when the immigrants arrived and started moving west. Look at our history of slavery, and how hard people were willing to fight to retain power over others.

The positive potential in the symbol, however, is that Trump may actually turn it around, in some sideways, shadow-walking way. If he swirls in the chaos and the victimhood and the darkness long enough, the greater part of him is ready to reject it. All that he’s proclaimed may suddenly be revealed to him for what it is. No one can know what level of destruction will need to ensue before that moment when he’s pulled up short, but the potential is clearly there. My feeling is, it’ll go as far as we all need it to go.

Looking at the Sun and Moon symbols together, we see that Trump is a man with a positive soul vision and intention, whose subconscious is trapped in the collective darkness, especially around feminine ways of doing things, which tend to be more inclusive, nurturing, relational, etc. With a completely subconscious connection to a larger plan, coupled with a belief that he is the only one who knows how to get there, Trump is a vessel for releasing all the subconscious darkness that needs to be released, starting with himself. Yes, this may get ugly, as we’ve already seen. There is chaos and a tendency to bring out the worst in everything and everyone. But if we stick with the symbols to the end, we see that there’s a huge release and a way for a new cycle of light to come through. Old ways will perish. Those greedy, egocentric ways of thinking and living that Trump so beautifully demonstrates for all of us need to end.

Because his Sun and Moon are in opposition to each other, there’s a huge tension between who Trump is on the inside and who he is on the outside. Another strong tension exists between masculine and feminine ways of doing things. Perhaps this was something embedded in his psyche growing up in the 1950's. With so many planets in the 10th, 11th and 12th houses, we know Trump is here to do something big on a big stage, and that he's entirely split or strung up in duality. Pluto and Mars in Leo in the 12th house represent a karmic history of war, violence and self-centeredness. Venus and Mercury in Cancer in the 11th house are asking him to embrace a softer way of thinking, loving and caring for others. They're asking him to find a way to dream more nurturing dreams. I'm not sure if this is something Trump is capable of doing himself, but his actions on a larger stage may help us all dream these more nurturing dreams. Saturn in the 11th house is asking for healed, masculine energy to step up and integrate Cancer’s softer side in a big way, so that the positive attributes of Saturn – discipline, fortitude, integrity – can be used to build something real that considers and cares for everyone.

There’s much, much more we could explore in this chart, but I’m going to jump ahead to the last point I usually read – the North Node, which is a great indicator of direction. It’s like an arrow saying “head this way.”

Trump’s North Node is at 21° Gemini, with the chandra symbol of “wine casks retrieved from an old shipwreck.” The reading of it is as follows:

"Having known all along, now finding that you are on the beam, and bringing something starkly craved which you bear a limitless supply of. Myriad complications arise, issues of ego. You are too blatant, too brazen. The tortuous journey of stepping away from gifts and wonders until you can be light and free with them. Soul testings for an advanced destiny, to be optimally relevant and effective. Being shown in every possible way that you cannot afford a drop of self-intoxication. When you know great and vital things from the dawn of time, you must be stripped bare and skillfully flow in a fluent grasp of the moment's chances. This is a vast destiny ripening and becoming vintage; to approach with anything less would be glaringly disruptive."

This symbol suggests that Trump is an old soul being tested right now in the most torturous of ways. It also suggests he has exactly what we need in limitless supply, even if what we need right now is dark and chaotic. Despite all the ego issues and complications, there’s the potential for him to step away from all that he’s focused on. Perhaps that means his own materialism, ego and distorted masculine ways of doing things. If through the trickery of Gemini, his blatant, brazen tactics bring the nation to a place where everyone is invested, communicating, claiming what’s right, and supporting each other, he will have been “optimally relevant and effective.” This is not a straight line, of course, but there seems to be a certain potential in the randomness of him. It’s like he’s saying “look here” one minute and then “look there” the next, drawing our attention to all the places we’re stuck and in shadow.

Because of the deep wound to his sense of self-worth (Chiron in the 2nd house), Trump needs constant attention. Ironically, this is what suits him for being seen on such a large stage and makes it possible for him to act everything out for us. Mercury, as the ruler of his North Node, shows us the doorway he must walk through in order to reach all this potential. His Mercury is in Cancer in the 11th house, which tells us he needs to be loved and nurtured by large groups in order to fulfill his soul destiny. If he gets enough love, he may find a way to integrate that sensitive Moon of his with his strong, masculine Sun. He’ll mature like the wine casks in that shipwreck. I have no idea what this means for him personally. Unfortunately, the love Trump seeks in his audiences isn't real love. It's an ego-based distortion, and he's swimming in it. As he moves along his personal trajectory of seeking love (perhaps in all the wrong places), however, we’re all going to be along for the ride.

For that reason, I personally will be working hard to practice compassion for President Trump. He is a product of our money- and fame-driven culture – a man who doesn’t know how to nurture or be nurtured. He's a deeply wounded man. Every time he does something that makes my heart cringe, I try to quietly thank him for showing us this problem and making it almost impossible to miss. If it’s shadow stuff, I try to find where it still lives in me and work through it. We all have work to do. As more and more people do that work, there will be more kindness and compassion in the world. It's that simple. The truth is, we need someone to wake us up, either gently or through a dark journey. That someone appears to be Trump.