The Impending Vote: Astrological Weather of the Manchester Gorton By-Election
There is a unique, palpable tension that gathers in the days immediately preceding an election. The ballots are printed, the halls are booked, and the collective psyche of a community stands on a threshold. This Thursday, the voters of Manchester Gorton will head to the polls. While political analysts obsess over polling data and demographic shifts, mundane astrology offers a profoundly different lens through which to view the impending decision.
At the Wilfred Hazelwood Clinic, we approach these macro-events as massive projections of the human mind. Our lead therapist, Martyn J. Shrewsbury, began his exploration of collective behaviour at Swansea University, studying Social Anthropology and Classics. When we cast an astrological chart for the opening of the polls this Thursday, we are not looking to predict the winner with absolute certainty. Instead, we are taking the psychological temperature of the electorate, mapping the ancient archetypes that are currently shaping modern political will.
Casting the Chart for Thursday
In the rigorous tradition of Hellenistic Astrology, a discipline in which Martyn completed comprehensive training at The Astrology School of Chris Brennan, the precise moment an event begins is crucial. When the doors of the polling stations open in Manchester Gorton on Thursday morning, a specific astrological chart is born. This "electional" chart captures the mood, the hidden anxieties, and the driving motivations of the voters.
Currently, the overarching astrological weather is defined by significant tension between the desire for radical, systemic change and the deep-seated need for security. We see this reflected in the slower-moving outer planets, which govern collective, generational shifts. As the electorate steps into the voting booth, they are acting as a microcosm of a much larger, global friction.
The chart for Thursday suggests a community wrestling with the Saturnian realities of infrastructure, daily hardship, and tradition, while simultaneously feeling the Uranian urge to disrupt the status quo. The candidate who successfully captures the specific frequency of this celestial tension, the one who speaks to both the heavy reality of the present and the urgent need for a different future, is the one who aligns with the day's archetypal current.
The Jungian Shadow of the Ballot Box
Voting is rarely a purely rational act. It is deeply emotional and thoroughly psychological. Following his Post-Graduate Diploma in Jungian Studies and advanced training in Clinical Concepts with The Centre for Applied Jungian Studies, Martyn approaches the ballot box as a site of profound psychological projection.
When we vote, we are often projecting our own internal "shadow", the unacknowledged or feared parts of our psyche, onto the political candidates. A candidate might embody our unspoken anger, our deep desire for paternal protection, or our hope for communal salvation. In the lead-up to the Manchester Gorton by-election, the sheer volume of campaign literature and media rhetoric acts as a catalyst, pulling these deep unconscious drives to the surface.
A psychological astrologer, utilising the nuanced frameworks taught at the Mercury School of John Green alongside foundational techniques learned from Steve Judd, looks at the transits hitting the mundane chart of Manchester itself. These alignments ask difficult questions of the community:
- Are voters acting out of a place of wounded pride, or collective hope?
- Is the desire for a specific candidate rooted in the need to punish the establishment, or a genuine belief in their proposed healing?
- How much of the local political frustration is actually a manifestation of unintegrated personal grief or economic anxiety?
Integrating the Outcome
By Friday morning, the votes will be counted and a new political reality will be established for Manchester Gorton. However, the psychological ripples of the campaign will continue to manifest in the lives of the residents. Elections inevitably leave half the population feeling vindicated and the other half feeling disillusioned or fearful.
As an IPHM-accredited holistic practitioner, Martyn's focus at the Wilfred Hazelwood Clinic is on post-event integration. Astrological charting allows us to see that political victories and defeats are transient points on a much longer cycle. By understanding the astrological weather that drove Thursday's vote, we can help clients detach from the immediate emotional turbulence of the result.
Mundane astrology reminds us that we are participating in a story much older and larger than any single political cycle. As Manchester Gorton makes its choice this Thursday, it adds another vital layer to the ongoing, dynamic relationship between the cosmos, the community, and the deeply complex human mind.
