“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst   

Are full of passionate intensity.” 

– The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats (1989)

If you feel that you’re in a tight spot and all the oxygen is leaving the room, then you’re not alone. I think we are all beginning to feel the collective sucker-punch of Pluto in Aquarius at the first degree. The purpose of this wave-like sucker punch is to get us to feel rattled within and to use our anger to fight against oppression. However, we may be signing our own executioner’s approval by wanting change so much that we are willing to throw away everything that civil society stands for. In the absence of rules and social norms, a military utopia may come into place: a society led by thugs, controlled by brutes and ruled by martial law. The stakes are high and so is my anxiety. Our drastic desire for social change, the rebellion against the system and the need to bring in the new at all costs (even if this new may be the implementation of neo-fascism) are all hallmarks of an immature Uranian transit (it’s immature because Pluto is currently at the first degrees of the transit, and as it progresses over 10 degrees, it then begins to ripen).

Personally, I woke up during the preliminary elections’ day, the 24th of November, on a sunny, Sunday morning, eager to get to a voting booth and have my say against the rise of far-right candidates in my country’s elections. I left the voting booth with a heavy heart since I could pick up on the vibe of the people around me who were talking about voting for Marcel Ciolacu. However, waking up on Monday morning felt like waking up to an alternate reality. A reality in which you confusedly find out that a random candidate who very few people knew about and whom the press completely disregarded, made it as a front-runner in the race for the presidency of Romania. His name is Calin Georgescu and he is an ultra-nationalist, independent candidate. The fact that he went under the radar with this surprising win or that he allegedly relied on social media (specifically Tik Tok) to campaign and rally the votes of youth and Romanians who live outside of the country, it not the worst issue.

As we are all trying to understand exactly who he is, facts are emerging about this man’s political past: he was close to George Simion (a thug in a neatly pressed suit who wants to radicalise Romania) and he is a staunch admirer of Vladimir Putin, to such an extent that he copied some of his photoshoots, trying to pose like him! The optimism I had in the morning when I saw that neither Marcel Ciolacu (the PSD candidate) nor George Simion (the AUR candidate) got ahead in the final round of elections was increasingly tempered. As I was researching more facts about Georgescu, I gradually became livid.

Calin Georgescu (an Aries Sun) is now up against Elena Lasconi (a Taurus Sun) who represents the USR party, a party whose set of values and motto I don’t particularly agree with but in the wake of these results I feel left with the inevitability of choosing a candidate who will represent the lesser of two evils in this situation. And the situation is dire, not only because of the shocking realisation of the political influence of TikTok, a platform which Calin apparently used to aggressively campaign for himself (an activity which is btw illegal in Romania), but also because there’s an ongoing and brutal war at the doorstep, between our neighbouring country Ukraine and Russia. Because Georgescu has directly said he doesn’t support Ukraine and admires Putin, it would be logical that choosing a candidate who is Pro-NATO should be the careful, collective next step of Romanians. However, I doubt carefulness enters into the mix, as the population is leaning more towards ‘let’s watch it all burn down’.

Now Lasconi declared that she is pro-EU and pro-NATO and definitively against Putin, and her presidency will guarantee our continued link to the EU and the military support it can provide us in case of a Russian expansion of conflict (not to mention that seeing a Romanian female president shake hands at future press conferences with the male, American president, Donald Trump will be a sight to behold). However, since people seem intent to vote by feeling and the optics of TikTok rather than making an educated choice, it feels like the outcome will be highly uncertain. To be fair, in the current and dysregulated political context, even making an informed decision seems like an impossible task as there is such an abundance of random opinions presented as facts, fake news, manipulated reports and hearsay that it makes the search for anything remotely truthful seem like searching for the Holy Grail.

There is also the added problem of gender, an issue that continues to divide Romanians and has also divided Americans in their recent elections, as we saw Kamala Harris, a Black woman lose the election to Donald Trump, an aging carrot. While, I don’t believe that neither proponent for the second round of elections in my country is fit to be a good leader or can defend any of mine or my generation’s rights and values, at least I keep thinking that Lasconi will be a mildly progressive choice by virtue of potentially becoming the first female Romanian president (about time we caught up with the Republic of Moldova with this one!). Nonetheless, even if Lasconi pushes Romanian politics into a progressive era by virtue of her gender, she may promote laws and regulations that ban any kind of social progress in terms of family and LGBTQ rights (she actually distanced herself from her own daughter on this matter) and may promote Christian and traditional values which will push us backward.

While Georgescu, with his intention of isolating Romania from NATO is a perilous choice, Lasconi could look good as an image but actually drag us back into antiquated family values. Nonetheless, Lasconi will maintain political links to the EU and she prioritizes education, and this is why I am leaning to give her my vote in the next round (and the fact that she is a woman is just an added benefit). While Georgescu is a man who pledges the same Christian and traditionalist values as Lasconi, but in addition: has continued ties to the far-right party (AUR); admires two infamous controversial Romanian leaders (Corneliu Zedreanu Colea, a violence-loving ultra-nationalist thug and Ion Antonescu, who infamously took part in the Nazi deportation and obliteration of Romanian jews during World War 2); vows he is a staunch patriot and will defend the country against war but also believes we should look up to the Kremlin; and lastly, believes that a woman’s role is to have babies and not to lead the country. So how is this any form of progress? Are we going to vote “against the system” with an intensity that may lead to our own destruction? Are we ready to slide back into being Russian serfs? My grandmother who narrowly escaped being forced to learn Russian in her primary school years, back in the 40s, may now be rolling in her grave (I should pay a visit just to check on her).

I don’t agree with either ultra-Christian and pro-nationalist opinions, as to a large extent I believe individuals can and should govern themselves in lieu of electing a representative to do it for them, especially since no one is able to represent an increasingly diversified population in this day and age. I am and I consider myself an international citizen, not just a ‘Romanian’, because the sum total of all my life’s experiences (lived out in Romania, alongside in Germany, the UK, Sweden and the US) creates who I am today. And many of us seem to forget that in an increasingly globalised world, talking about nationalist agendas or pushing towards separation and division is not only delusional but also against the flow of the current process of growth. History has indeed shown us that during times of massive growth and progress there is another counter-progressive movement which takes place simultaneously: such as how during World War 2 as women were undergoing immense cruelty and hardships, they also gained entry to jobs, they had access to the means of productions and they could wear more dynamic and flexible clothes to a larger extent than they did in the past. As we build the new, we also destroy the old. As a consequence, some sort of precarious and mysterious energetic balance is maintained.

Keeping all of this in mind (and my poor mind does go through moments in which it feels like it may break) I am wondering which one of them will succeed two weeks from now at the December 8th elections? In this anxiety-provoking interim, my beautiful consolation is as usual, astrology. The language of the stars and the occult, that always keeps on giving. Now to be honest, I am not completely mortified by the prospect of radical change. I know that on a deep spiritual level, what we are witnessing is the effect of Pluto in Aquarius, preparing to pull us back into the deep past before pushing us to rise up and rebel, but the logical & peace-loving part of me is still upset and confused. In the following, I want to see if I can determine the outcome of the Romanian presidential elections by looking at the personal energies of each candidate. For this I turn to their birth-charts to try to understand whom will the odds favour in the end.

Below you can see the chart of Elena Lasconi born on the 20th of April 1972 in Hateg, Romania. She is a Taurus Sun at 0 degrees, with a Cancer Moon at the 29th anaretic degree and an unknown Ascendant. I was struck by how her Sun and Moon energies, although harmoniously locked into a sextile aspect of friendship and support, are placed at the final and first degrees of the signs they represent! Not only that but what is probably the most fascinating aspect is her North Node in Aquarius at 0 degrees, a destined placement that is at the moment perfectly conjunct transiting Pluto! When Pluto comes calling on the point of your growth in this lifetime, this means that you are being led down the path of a deep mind-body-and-soul transformation. This placement also shows that with the proper support from the collective (Aquarius), Elena is destined (the North Node) to gain great power (Pluto). But it also shows that she is more emotionally more charged up (Moon at the 29th destroying degree), rather than she is able to balance her emotions under the cool light of reason and successful action (Sun at 0 degrees).

Just by looking at these placements and I felt slightly uneasy: she is indeed traditional and a nationalist (Cancer Moon), a person who replenishes the most by being at home, in her own land and culture and surrounded by what is familiar to her. Moreover, she is meant to gradually release stubbornness and self-obsession (South Node in Leo) in favour of working in the service of other people (Pluto in Virgo retrograde). She is meant to revolutionize the way she relates to others, although at times she could come across as weird in her speech or too progressive in her applications of the law, and even slightly insane in her personal life (natal Uranus in Libra retrograde; and currently affected by the transiting South Node in Libra!). Lasconi has been criticised by the fact that she doesn’t seem to understand international politics and I see this as a manifestation of having a natal Neptune in Sagittarius retrograde; this placement does make the native feel confused in dealing with global issues, in understanding other cultures and in making sense of international regulations. Nonetheless, Lasconi may also take a spiritual approach in establishing links with other cultures and countries and she is able to bring about increased trust and compassion in her external politics, especially in terms of maritime and naval trade.

With Lilith in Scorpio, we are dealing here with a wild character in terms of keeping secrets, dealing with issues of sex and sexuality and a person who doesn’t easily trust those closest to her. She may also idealise power, and prefer attaining it to the detriment of prioritizing her family life, or her roles as mother and wife. I like this placement because it shows she was born to be the leader of many and to subsume her Ego in service to the collective with that Leo/Aquarius axis. In a similar vein, we see here a lot of communication karma. Her natal Mercury is in Aries conjunct Chiron, which is not an ideal placement at all as she can be too direct and impolite in her speech. The benefit is that she quickly gets to the point. This placement of Mercury and Chiron also shows that it is painful for her to speak her truth without suffering in some way; and indeed, in political debates, she comes across as feisty and confrontational, often being crudely blunt and it looks as if on some level, this manner of expressing herself is also wounding her.

In her campaign she didn’t make large promises, preferring to focus on improving schools and public spaces, all while promoting her tagline ‘A Romania for the many, and not just for the few’. And we come now to what is the most fascinating part of her chart and what gives me hope that she will win the second round of elections, her natal stellium in Gemini, involving the planets Saturn, Venus and Mars. This stellium is currently energised in a positive way by the transit of Jupiter in Gemini! This means that she is helped in her personal relationships and in her capacity to earn money (Venus) by the God of Good Luck. Not only that but Jupiter is releasing her from specific karmic restrictions that are connected to her capacity to speak and use technology (natal Saturn in Gemini), while also giving her increased courage and vitality to tackle on hard tasks and overcome her opponents in public debates and verbal competitions (Jupiter transiting natal Mars in Gemini, the sign of communication). Despite her traditionalist, pragmatic and unripe Taurus Sun – unripe because it is placed at the first degree, so she is limited in her capacity to be herself in this lifetime, as she has to learn how to become someone for other people – Venus conjunct Saturn and North Node in Aquarius – and her home-loving, nationalist Moon in Cancer, I am very happy to see a lot of Air placements in her chart. This makes her more flexible than her fiery Aries placement and Taurus Sun would reveal. In addition, being a proponent of the Earth element means that she will take issues related to money and the environment very personally and that she will defend them, and I personally would love to see stricter environmental laws and restrictions to deforestation in place.

Seeing as she may ascend to the presidency of the country during her Uranus transiting her Sun era, and while also having her Chiron in Aries return (!) I believe that Lasconi will be able to use her personal wound related to her authenticity and personhood and recreate herself in terms of the population she will lead; thereby truly becoming the weird and wonderful, hippie Earth-mamma that her North Node in Aquarius is pushing her to be. I think we can help her in achieving this destiny.

On the other hand, Lasconi’s opponent, Georgescu was born on the 26th of March 1962 in Bucharest. He is a Sun in Aries (so a natural and slightly belligerent leader) with a Moon in Sagittarius (a placement he shares in common with Trump). He describes himself as a patriot but considering that he has a lunar placement in the least domestic and settled sign of the zodiac, Sagittarius, Georgescu is actually more emotionally attached to travelling, to his connections to foreigners, and to the philosophy and religion of a specific culture rather than to its daily habits, rites and the customs of everyday people; in the same vein as a man who promises commitment just to get you to sleep with him, and then he packs up and leaves, I see here a great potential to be ardently courted during the campaign only to be left abandoned once he reaches the presidency (and guess to whom he is ready to ‘give’ some territory?? c’mon have a naughty go) In addition to such passionate and fiery placements which would indeed position him as born public performer, I am not at all impressed by the large amount of Water I see in his chart. Born with a natal Neptune in Scorpio retrograde and a Chiron, Mars and Mercury stellium in Pisces (currently restricted and karmically bound by the transit of Saturn in Pisces), we are dealing here with a really good secret-keeper and a man whose movements can be very misleading, confusing and stealth. Case in point, how he snuck past those awaiting in line to the presidency and won the first round of the elections.

A Mars in Pisces is a weak placement for a man involved in leadership in politics, as this makes him quite passive, easily dominated and chameleonic. He runs a good chance of charming his voters only to disappear at the slightest threat from other leaders with stronger placements. He does have Jupiter at 0 degrees in Pisces, loosely conjunct his natal Mars, but with Chiron thrown in the mix, this tells the story of a man who willingly pursues competition but in fuzzy way, only to be disappointed by the result and become emotionally distraught. The transit of Saturn is restricting his Jupiterian aplomb, bringing him with his feet on the ground but it may also reward his zeal and idealistic thinking. It needs to be said, like I mentioned in the previous article on making sense of the results of the American elections that a natal Jupiter in Pisces carries the Archetype of the Saviour, who could end up sinking the ship it tries to rescue the crew from. This is a man who may create political drama just so he can swoop in and save the day, as he needs the hero narrative to feel he is doing his job. But the drama he may create knows little boundaries as it is placed in Pisces, so he may indirectly produce some unexpected collateral damage that would take years to remedy, if at all.

Now Neptune in Scorpio is a generational marker and it would be unfair to judge him just by that, but to my mind I’ve always had a massive ‘ick’ in relation to this placement of Neptune because (and in its lower vibration) it is connected to the mass proliferation of pornography and the increase of networks of paedophilia. Furthermore, a man born with a Pluto in Virgo conjunct Lilith, could very well go on a witch hunt when he comes into contact with educated, well-organised and financially stable women (much like he is doing at the moment with Lasconi, as he only seems to slander her and refuse to answer direct questions related to his policy at present).

The core point of tension in their charts is given by their nodal axis. They happen to share a reversed nodal position (much like Jake Gyllenhaal and Taylor Swift did at one point, even in the same astrological signs). While Lasconi is a North Node in Aquarius/South Node in Leo, Georgescu is a North Node in Leo/South Node in Aquarius. Personally, I dated a South Node in Aquarius and my experience was that he was incredibly emotionally detached from most things in his life but he was a very good communicator, who managed to charm his colleagues and spin such wonderful tales of his own morality while also undergoing a secret double-life as a degenerate. Obviously, not all people born under this placement share this description in common (see the example of Jake Gyllenhaal or Ryan Gosling) and I obviously have some more healing to do and clear up some resentment in my love life. However, there is an inherent weirdness which the native will struggle to cover up, as his destiny is to grow into his Ego, to become a leader, a star and to inspire others through the power of the role-model. He also has Saturn in Aquarius loosely conjunct the South Node, and this means that he is a man who struggled with a lot of limits in his lifetime, especially poverty and a difficult past marred by restrictions. But this placement also shows that his comfort zone is materialism, stoicism and often it can also show cruelty. Keep in mind that he can be less progressive than Lasconi, especially since pressure can make him revert into this cruel and cold comfort zone of having his Saturn conjunct the South Node in Aquarius. By the way, do you know which other famous leader had this Aquarius energy that really put us on the world map? Nicolae Ceausescu 🙂

While I love independent people, I’m not sure if we want a person who is unaffiliated to a group to lead us. Because frankly we are a group, and we need a team-player. Electing him would mean that a large amount of power will gradually become concentrated in the hands of one person, as he may start to support laws and regulations that benefit him and him only (low-vibrational, Aries Sun behaviour). Judging by his placements he flexibly adapts to winning circumstances, so after he wins, he may surprisingly reveal to all that he was indeed supporting a specific political party all along (Mars in Pisces).

The whole purpose of creating political parties is to divide the power of representatives and create space for debates in the balanced practice of democracy, but it seems somebody forgot this important reasoning in the current polarizing climate. I don’t know if it’s important to mention that as long as we live in politically unhinged times, it is important to stay aware of the middle-line, and to quote the late and great Johnny Cash ‘to walk the line’; the sooner we realise this, the quicker we can resist manipulation and being pushed into extremes. Metaphorically speaking, we need a calm plan to exist a building on fire and not a charming man who walks solo and promises he will jump into the fire to save us all. History had its share of charmers who reached political success with their passionate speeches, to disastrous effects. So, by choosing him we won’t be sliding smoothly into the future, a future free of the elite group of PSD-PNL boys, but rather we would be sliding back into 1939 Europe.

Your choices are powerful and they do have consequences. Make your vote count and make sure that it is yours. I have to admit that I was also confused about which candidate to choose, but seeing the astrology it is now clearer to me whom I should vote for. No matter whom you decided to support in the end, the important thing is to show up on the 8th of December now more than ever. On that day, the Moon will be growing (waxing) in the sign of Pisces; it’s the first quarter so a relatively balanced energy, and since Saturn & Neptune will be aspecting the Moon (our collective unconscious), this means that whomever we will choose on the day will be the leader of a number of incoming, karmic lessons for the next cycles. Let’s choose consciously and spiritually.

With universal light,

Lexi