After The Midterms: What Does Astrology Say?
When Americans go to the polls on 3 November 2026, they will decide the composition of a Congress that begins its work in January 2027. The temptation for political astrology is obvious: examine the sky, identify a handful of dramatic aspects and attempt to turn them into an electoral prediction.
There is a more interesting question. What happens astrologically after the voting is over?
At the time of writing, the result is not known. Republicans currently hold the presidency and majorities in both chambers of Congress, while every House seat and approximately one third of the Senate will be contested in November. This article therefore makes no assumption about which party controls either chamber afterwards. Instead, it looks at the astrology surrounding election day, the weeks immediately following it and the opening of the new Congress in January.
What emerges is not a particularly restful picture. Election day occurs during simultaneous Mercury and Venus retrogrades. Within a fortnight, both planets turn direct and Mars joins Jupiter in Leo almost exactly opposite the Moon in the commonly used United States Sibly chart. Beyond that lies something much larger: America is approaching another Uranus return in 2027 and 2028.
Astrologically, the midterms look less like an ending than a threshold.
Why There Is No Single Perfect “Midterm Election Chart”
Unlike an inauguration, which has a constitutionally defined time, a nationwide American election unfolds across multiple time zones. Polls open and close at different hours, ballots are counted under different state procedures and voting has already begun in some places before election day itself.
It would therefore be misleading to choose an arbitrary hour on 3 November and treat its Ascendant or houses as though they represented the entire country. A more defensible approach is to examine the planetary pattern across the day and then compare the slower transits with the national horoscope.
For the latter, this article uses the familiar Sibly chart for 4 July 1776 in Philadelphia. Astrologers should remember that its exact time remains disputed, which makes elaborate interpretations of its houses and angles less secure. Its planetary positions, however, provide a much firmer basis for examining national transits.
Election Day Arrives With Mercury And Venus Both Retrograde
The first thing that stands out on 3 November is not a single explosive aspect but the condition of two planets deeply connected with political life.
Mercury is retrograde in Scorpio, while Venus is retrograde in Libra.
Mercury relates symbolically to information, communication, counting, documentation, argument and the way a story is understood. Venus concerns agreements, alliances, political relationships and questions of value. Both being retrograde suggests a collective atmosphere in which interpretation and relationship are still being reviewed.
This should not be turned into the familiar astrological cliché that Mercury retrograde guarantees electoral chaos or incorrectly counted ballots. Election administration is a practical matter governed by law and human systems, not planetary motion.
The more useful symbolism concerns political meaning. Elections do not end when the numbers appear on television. Parties immediately begin deciding what the results mean, which strategies worked, who has influence and which coalitions need rebuilding. A result that looks straightforward numerically can produce several competing political explanations.
That process is particularly appropriate to Mercury retrograde in Scorpio. Scorpio does not merely want information; it wants to know what lies underneath it. Why did particular voters move? Which issues actually mattered? Who possesses leverage now?
Venus retrograde in Libra simultaneously asks another question: which political relationships still work?
4 November: The Story Of The Election Becomes The Story
The day after the election, the Sun and retrograde Mercury meet at approximately 12 degrees Scorpio.
Astrologically, a Sun-Mercury conjunction places communication and interpretation close to the centre of attention. With Mercury retrograde, the emphasis is less upon announcing an entirely new idea and more upon reconsidering information already received.
That makes the timing unusually appropriate for the morning-after struggle to define what voters have said.
One party may interpret the same result as a mandate while another sees a warning. Successful candidates may claim that particular policies drove their victories, while unsuccessful campaigns search for what went wrong. National narratives can also obscure local realities: 435 House contests do not necessarily produce one uniform political message.
Scorpio adds intensity because interpretation rapidly becomes connected with power. The argument after an election is not merely academic. Whoever succeeds in defining the meaning of the result can influence what politicians believe they have permission to do next.
13 November: Mercury And Venus Change Direction
One of the most striking pieces of timing arrives ten days after the election.
Mercury turns direct in Scorpio on 13 November, and Venus turns direct in Libra only hours later.
Two separate cycles of review therefore reach their turning points almost simultaneously.
Astrologically, this suggests that the first week and a half after the midterms may be better understood as a period of assessment than as the finished political settlement. By mid-November, messages, relationships and strategic priorities begin moving into a different phase.
That does not mean every electoral question must literally remain unresolved until the planets station. It is the political psychology that is more interesting. Parties which spent months campaigning against one another now have to decide how they will operate inside the institutions voters have produced.
If government remains unified, the question becomes how that mandate will be used. If power is divided between parties, the question becomes how opposition, negotiation and oversight will work. Astrology does not tell us which configuration voters will choose, but Venus turning direct in Libra is an unusually apt symbol for the reorganisation of political relationships once the campaign itself is over.
16 November: Mars And Jupiter Ignite The American Moon
The most powerful astrological moment of the immediate post-election period arrives on 16 November.
Mars and Jupiter form an exact conjunction at approximately 25 degrees 53 minutes Leo.
On its own, this is an expansive combination. Mars acts, competes and asserts. Jupiter enlarges, amplifies and gives confidence. Together in Leo, they can symbolically describe bold declarations, heightened leadership, large ambitions and a strong desire to act upon perceived success.
There is also a danger of excess. Jupiter does not automatically make Mars wiser; sometimes it simply makes Mars bigger. Confidence can become overconfidence, assertion can become theatrical and a political actor can interpret momentum as permission to go further than circumstances actually support.
What makes this especially important for American mundane astrology is its relationship with the national chart.
The United States Sibly Moon is at approximately 27 degrees Aquarius. The Mars-Jupiter conjunction in Leo therefore falls almost exactly opposite it.
In mundane astrology, the Moon is traditionally associated with the populace, mass sentiment and the changing public mood. Mars and Jupiter opposing that Moon gives the period after the election an unusually energised quality.
That energy need not belong exclusively to one political side. It could describe celebration, mobilisation, protest, intensified public argument or competing claims to a mandate. The important symbolism is amplification: whatever people feel about the outcome may not remain quiet.
This is why the chart should not be reduced to a prediction that one political camp enjoys the transit and another suffers it. The American Moon belongs to the country as a whole.
Mars Is Already Entering A Much Longer Story
There is another detail that changes the interpretation of that Mars-Jupiter conjunction.
Mars enters the shadow of its forthcoming retrograde on 5 November, just two days after the election. It will eventually station retrograde in January 2027 and retrace part of its path through Virgo and Leo.
This suggests that the first burst of post-election political energy may not develop in a perfectly straight line.
Plans initiated in November can require revision. Strategies that appear obvious immediately after the results may look different several months later. Political actors may find themselves returning to arguments that seemed settled during the first rush of confidence.
The combination is interesting: Mars-Jupiter says move boldly, while the developing Mars retrograde cycle says that action itself is entering a period that will eventually require reconsideration.
That tension may matter more than whether the initial mood is triumphant or disappointed.
The New Congress Opens Under Another Strong National Aspect
The new Congress begins on 3 January 2027. By then the immediate electoral drama will have passed, but the astrology remains unusually charged.
The Sun will be at approximately 12 degrees Capricorn, almost exactly opposite the United States' natal Sun at approximately 13 degrees Cancer.
That is a striking signature for the opening of a new legislative term. The natal Sun can symbolise national identity, executive purpose and the conscious direction of the state. An opposition places another solar principle directly across from it.
Congress is constitutionally separate from the presidency, so the symbolism is almost visually appropriate: institutional authority facing institutional authority across an axis.
How that manifests depends considerably upon the political composition voters produce. A Congress controlled by the president's party faces different strategic tensions from one in which one or both chambers are controlled by the opposition. The astrology does not tell us which of those arrangements will exist.
It does suggest that questions of institutional balance and national direction remain central after the campaigning has ended.
Jupiter will also still be in late Leo, close to opposition with the United States' Aquarius Moon. The public dimension of the November astrology therefore remains very much alive as the new Congress takes office.
The Much Bigger Story: America's Uranus Return
The most important astrology after the midterms may ultimately have little to do with one election.
The United States was founded with Uranus at approximately 8 degrees Gemini. Uranus returned permanently to Gemini in April 2026 and will reach the degree of America's natal Uranus during 2027 and 2028.
Uranus takes approximately 84 years to orbit the Sun, so a national Uranus return belongs to a genuinely generational rhythm. The United States has encountered comparable returns around the Civil War era and during the Second World War period.
Those historical parallels should be handled with enormous care. They do not mean another civil war or world war is astrologically scheduled. Similar planetary cycles do not reproduce identical events.
What the repetition does suggest symbolically is that the country is entering another period in which established ideas about freedom, communication and political organisation can be subjected to unusual pressure.
Gemini makes information especially important. The contemporary United States is already negotiating rapid changes involving artificial intelligence, digital media, political communication and the fragmentation of shared information environments. Uranus tends to disturb established systems and accelerate technological or intellectual change.
From that perspective, the 2026 midterms may eventually be remembered less as a conclusion than as one political event occurring immediately before a much larger national cycle becomes exact.
So What Does Astrology Say About Life After The Midterms?
It does not tell us which party will control Congress.
That belongs to voters.
What the astrology does suggest is that the political meaning of the election may take longer to settle than election night itself. Mercury and Venus are both retrograde when voting occurs, then turn direct together ten days later. Mars and Jupiter subsequently meet in Leo while opposing the United States' natal Moon, amplifying questions of public reaction, leadership and mandate. Mars simultaneously begins a cycle that will require political energy to be reconsidered rather than simply projected forwards indefinitely.
By the time the new Congress convenes, the Sun opposes America's natal Sun and Jupiter remains opposite its Moon. The relationship between governing institutions and public expectations therefore remains symbolically prominent.
And beyond all of it, Uranus approaches its return.
At Wilfred Hazelwood Astrology, this is perhaps the most useful way to approach electoral astrology. A chart should not become a substitute opinion poll or a celestial endorsement of one party. Elections arise from millions of individual decisions, and astrology cannot legitimately remove those choices from the story.
What it can do is describe the character of the period through which those choices will subsequently have to operate.
On that basis, the astrology after the 2026 midterms looks neither settled nor quiet. It suggests review followed by renewed movement, a highly activated public mood and institutions entering a larger period of national redefinition.
The ballots will answer who won the midterms. The more interesting astrological question may be what America does with the answer.
