What Astrology Says About the Future of the United States

There have been some pretty interesting and contentious history of astrologers forecasting for the United States.

Astrology has become increasingly popular in recent years, but depending on who you ask, it’s a science — or fortune-telling. L.A.-based astrologer Nina Gryphon has extensively researched and written about the sometimes controversial astrological forecast of the country. 

Mundane astrology looks at the astrology of the world and larger movements happening in countries, Gryphon says.

“The U.S. is very unique astrologically because it’s really the first country that we know of that even has a birthday.” –Nina Gryphon

“The U.S. is very unique astrologically because it’s really the first country that we know of that even has a birthday,” she says. “… because the United States was the first country where there was a start date, we can think of it as a starting off this trend in astrology since the late 1700s, of looking for charts that represent countries.”

Even before what is widely considered to be the country’s birthday — July 4, 1776 — Gryphon says there’s a whole series of events that could also be considered the beginning of the United States, such as the Boston Tea Party, the first Congress in 1774 and the start of the Revolutionary War.

“Astrologers look at each of these charts, realizing that not all of them may have the same degree of importance or description of what eventually becomes the U.S., but they all relate to each other and so they may share certain characteristics they may be useful in some ways,” she says.

“At the end of the day though, I think the Declaration of Independence is very unique because it’s a little bit analogous to the birth of a child … that’s why astrologers generally look at July 4, 1776 as the … generally accepted date,” she says.

Perhaps the first chart ever to be set for the United States is by Ebenezer Sibley, a Freemason in England who published a chart for the U.S. not too long after the Declaration of Independence.

While it has been heavily criticized because of conflicting and confusing astronomical calculations, Gryphon says what’s interesting about the Sibley chart is that it contains elements that have made it useful in predicting major events in American history, for example there was an important configuration going on at the time of 9/11. The chart had the former planet Pluto in Sagittarius, which is a longer transit, but it was opposite Saturn in Gemini.

“So it’s a Saturn-Pluto opposition,” she says. “These two planets are considered very heavy, they create big changes in nations and changes that tend to be traumatic like wars. The Sibley chart highlights this. If you had been using the Sibley chart, you would have definitely said something really big, something really traumatic is going to happen in the United States in 2001.”

The Pluto Return and COVID-19, According to Astrology

Pluto is completing a planetary return, returning to the same position it was in when Declaration of Independence was signed. The idea behind Pluto returns, which happens every 240 years or so, and what it means for the U.S., Gryphon says, is that whatever was promised at the time of the U.S.’s inception comes around again. “So for example if at the beginning of the U.S. we were dealing with issues of do we want a monarchy or do we want a democracy, maybe we’re dealing with some of those issues again today, in a 21st century kind of way,” she says.

Gryphon says this Pluto experience is one of the reasons why the impact of COVID-19 in the U.S. has been so devastating. “I think that one of the important elements to consider is that the Pluto return won’t last forever. We have a few more years of it. But when it comes to COVID, I think that 2020, 2021 are probably going to be the most intense years for us as a country.”

There are aspects happening at this moment, which were also present during some of the previous major pandemics, like the 1918 Spanish flu or the 2009 swine flu, she says. “There’s an aspect between the planet Saturn and the planet Uranus, and what’s interesting is that whenever the two of them meet, there’s always something going on in the world in terms of like a new epidemic or new disease,” she says.

Listen: L.A.-based astrologer Nina Gryphon talks about the astrological forecast for the U.S. 

But the stars say there is good news on the horizon.

“That aspect fortunately ends in December of this year, and so I am cautiously hopeful that means that 2022 will be significantly better and then there are other things coming up later that that show an improvement on that front,” she says.

There are larger planetary cycles meeting in a harmonious way that may predict better times ahead after the difficult years of 2020 and 2021.

Gryphon says the late French astrologer Andre Barbault, who in 2011 predicted the pandemic using planetary cycles, called this period “a splendid relaunch of civilization.”

“Even though things seem kind of grim and difficult, the second half of this decade seems really positive [and] very optimistic,” she says.