The history of the 9th House: the week's news crossed with the stars.
On Tuesday, November 3, the United States holds its midterm elections: all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 35 Senate seats and 36 governorships are up. Donald Trump is not on the ballot. What is at stake is control of Congress, currently in Republican hands. The Decision Desk HQ forecast of October 30 gives Democrats an 82% chance of winning the House and 62% of winning the Senate, and the Polymarket and Kalshi markets put them at 93% and 90% for the House and 65% and 64% for the Senate. Reuters/Ipsos measured Trump's approval at 31% on October 20, the lowest of his two terms, and Democrats lead the congressional preference 47% to 35%. The first polling places open at 5:00 a.m. Eastern in Vermont (4:00 a.m. in Mexico City) and the first close at 6:00 p.m. Eastern (5:00 p.m. in Mexico City) in Indiana and Kentucky. The Senate could be decided around midnight, while the House may take days.
The week opens with the Last Quarter Moon in Leo on Sunday the 1st at 2:28 p.m. (Mexico City time), at 9° of Leo and square the Sun in Scorpio. A last quarter marks the moment to review the ground covered, and Leo speaks of leadership and of the figure that holds the attention. On Tuesday the 3rd at 2:30 a.m. (Mexico City time), the Moon enters Virgo, the sign of scrutiny and counting, so polling places open and close under a Moon that counts, measures and compares.
On Wednesday the 4th at 8:25 a.m. (Mexico City time), Mercury retrograde joins the Sun exactly at 12°10' of Scorpio, a retrograde cazimi the day after the vote. Mercury rules information and the word, and in Scorpio it reviews what lies beneath the surface. It is a conjunction that invites reading the results in full and with calm, especially because the House may take days to be decided. Mercury and Venus turn direct again on November 13.
Trump's birth chart (born June 14, 1946 at 10:54 a.m. in Queens, with Sun in Gemini and Ascendant in Leo) receives exact transits in those days. When polling places open, the Moon has just passed over his Ascendant. Saturn in Aries squares his natal Mercury in Cancer, and Jupiter in Leo squares his Midheaven in Taurus, the point of public image. Saturn tests what is said and measured, and Jupiter amplifies exposure, so both coincide with an election that works as an evaluation of his term, even though he is not on the ballot. This reading describes the climate of the sky. To know who is more likely to win, there are the polls and forecasts cited above.
On Sunday, October 25, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won Brazil's presidential runoff with 51.74% of the valid votes to Flávio Bolsonaro's 48.26%, with 97.69% of voting sections counted. The margin exceeds four million votes and gives Lula a fourth term. In the first round on October 4 Lula had finished second, with 45.16% to Bolsonaro's 47.03%, and according to the EFE news agency it is the first time since the end of the military dictatorship that the second-place finisher of a first round wins the runoff. Flávio Bolsonaro, a senator and the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, had promised to pardon his father as his first act in office.
This week opens with an election decided between two nearly even halves of the country, a very Libran scene. Venus, the planet of preferences and values, turned retrograde on October 3 at 8° of Scorpio, a day before the first round, and on Sunday the 25th at 3 a.m. (Mexico City time) it returned to Libra, the sign of balance between two sides and of choices between two options. A Venus retrograde reviews what had been chosen, and in Brazil the order of the first round was reversed: the candidate who was second finished first.
That same Sunday the 25th, at 10:12 p.m. (Mexico City time), the Full Moon arrives at 2° of Taurus, opposite the Sun in Scorpio. Taurus speaks of what we have and want to keep: stability, work, money that is enough. Scorpio speaks of what is shared and of deep change. A full moon shows what is already complete, and this one does so over a result that closes a campaign. The Moon is square Pluto in Aquarius, the planet of power and collective structures, and on Monday the 26th around 7 a.m. the Sun makes the same square to Pluto, a transit that keeps the theme of power and change alive in the first days after the count.
Mercury, retrograde in Scorpio since Saturday, October 24, asks us to review information calmly before treating it as closed: the final figures, what each side says and what was promised during the campaign. Mercury and Venus both turn direct again on November 13, Venus at 22° of Libra and Mercury at 5° of Scorpio. Until then the sky favors rereading what was decided, seeing which values were chosen and what we are willing to uphold.
On Saturday, October 17, the head of US Central Command, Brad Cooper, said the Strait of Hormuz is controlled by the United States and its regional partners, not by Iran. Iran's Revolutionary Guard says the opposite: it calls the passage unsafe for ships that do not coordinate with the authority Iran created during the war. According to UKMTO, at least 12 vessels were attacked in the week ending October 16, and the container ship GFS Pride sank while under tow. Washington says an Iranian projectile hit it, and Tehran says it was a mine. Brent touched $110 a barrel on Friday, its highest level since May. Pakistan and Qatar keep relaying messages between the parties, with no breakthrough expected soon.
This week Mercury, the planet of messages and negotiations, slows to a stop at 21° of Scorpio and turns retrograde on Saturday, October 24, around 1 a.m. (Mexico City time). Scorpio is the sign of what lies beneath the surface: the hidden, shared resources and control. With Mercury nearly stationary, messages repeat, get reinterpreted and move forward very little, much like mediators passing notes without reaching a deal.
On Friday the 23rd the Sun enters Scorpio, and on Sunday the 25th at 10:12 p.m. the Full Moon arrives at 2° of Taurus, opposite the Sun. The Taurus-Scorpio axis is about who holds the resource and who controls the passage: Taurus is the oil that gets sold and the price that gets paid, Scorpio is the strait being fought over and what is hidden behind it. A full moon lights up what was in the shadows, and this week's figures (ships attacked, barrels crossing, dollars per barrel) are that light.
Mercury retrograde in Scorpio invites us to reread before we sign. That same Sunday the 25th, in the early morning, retrograde Venus returns to Libra, the sign of pacts where the October 10 New Moon was born, as if diplomacy were retracing its steps. It is a time to review the terms, measure the real cost of what is being disputed and notice what holds up once the light is on.
On Sunday, October 11, Donald Trump announced on social media an energy ceasefire "with immediate effect" between Russia and Ukraine, under which both countries would stop attacking each other's oil and power facilities. The announcement included no text of the agreement and no verification mechanism, and Moscow did not officially confirm it. Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine supports it if Russia respects it too, and asked for the details and the start date. The truce does not mean the end of the war or a general suspension of military operations.
The New Moon in Libra arrived on October 10, at 17° of the sign of agreements, diplomacy and the balance between two parties. A new moon plants something, and in Libra what gets planted is a pact. That the announcement of a truce comes the day after the lunation mirrors that seed: a newborn agreement that doesn't have a shape yet.
The New Moon sits across from Saturn retrograde in Aries, at about 10° of the sign, in a wide opposition. Saturn is the planet of conditions, limits and verification. In Aries, the sign of immediate and unilateral action, it asks for quick gestures to turn into structure. That is the question the announcement left behind: where is the text, who verifies it, and when does it start.
Libra asks that an agreement have two parties who recognize it, and Saturn demands that it hold over time. While one side declares it with immediate effect and the other asks for details, the Libra-Aries axis shows its underlying tension: the agreement that gets announced alone and the one that gets built between two. This lunation invites us to look at which pacts fall into order this week and which stay as promises.
On September 30, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced in a speech at Quantico the creation of an Office of Religious Affairs that will report directly to him and oversee the "spiritual readiness" of the troops. "Our department is putting on the full armor of God," he said, adding that the real battle is spiritual. The Pentagon memo states the office will not compel anyone to take part in religious activities, but religious freedom organizations and legal experts are already questioning whether the move respects the separation of church and state.
The solar eclipse of August 12 fell at 20° Leo, the sign of leadership, pride and whoever steps to the front. This week Jupiter, the planet of faith, doctrine and belief, returns to that point: it crossed the exact degree on October 3 and stays very close all week. What the eclipse opened as a theme of personal power now expands into the terrain of what we believe and who gets to define it.
On October 6, the Moon also passes through 20° Leo and gives that axis an emotional body: faith lived as identity and as pride. Leo seeks recognition, and when Jupiter amplifies it, personal conviction can feel entitled to take up all the space, including that of institutions.
On October 10, the New Moon in Libra arrives, at 17° of the sign of the scale, the law and the balance between parties. Libra is the question this news leaves open: how to live our own convictions alongside the neutrality we owe to those who think differently. A new moon plants a seed, and this one asks for clear agreements about where personal faith ends and where the public begins.
In Argentina, the dispute over economic and political direction inside Javier Milei's government deepened this week. On one side, the "Karinist" old guard, Karina Milei and cousins Martin and "Lule" Menem, holds onto the scheme of power it already knows. On the other, recent arrivals like Cabinet Chief Diego Santilli and Deputy Chief Ignacio Devitt, closer to presidential advisor Santiago Caputo, are pushing a different strategy heading into 2027. Milei himself avoids getting involved: "Politics doesn't really suit me," he said in a recent interview.
On September 28, Mars enters Leo, a sign that seeks the spotlight, recognition, and holding on to the place it has already earned. On October 3, Mars forms an exact opposition to Pluto retrograde in Aquarius, the sign of collective structures and the transformation of the established order. That Leo-Aquarius axis is quite literally the tension between whoever defends their individual place and whoever pushes for a change of system.
In the Argentine government, that tension has a face: on one side, the old guard that already knows how power gets managed, and on the other, the recent arrivals pushing a different strategy toward 2027. Neither side wants to give ground, and the president himself chooses not to referee the conflict directly.
Pluto in Aquarius has spent years transforming structures that seemed fixed, and this exact opposition with Mars marks the point where that transformation turns into open friction. It brings the dispute fully into the light, without resolving it just yet.
Over the past week, Russia has intensified its "gray zone" operations against NATO across Europe: drone strikes on rail lines, sabotage and incursions aimed at wearing down European support for Ukraine without crossing the line into declared war. Analysts warn that the risk of a miscalculation forcing a direct NATO military response grows by the day, while Ukraine responds with long range strikes on Russian territory and Europe keeps ramping up weapons shipments.
On September 26, the Full Moon in Aries arrives, exactly opposite the Sun in Libra. Every full moon lights up the tension between a sign and its opposite, and this axis is fairly literal: Aries is individual drive, unilateral action, one's own territory. Libra is the agreement, the diplomacy, the balance between two sides. This lunation landing right as Europe debates how to respond to an escalation without tipping into open confrontation mirrors that axis with real precision.
The ruler of this full moon is Mars, which rules Aries but is weakened as it transits Cancer, squaring the Aries-Libra axis. Mars in Cancer acts by protecting its own territory, the home, whatever feels threatened, without fully exposing itself to open force. That's exactly the logic of hybrid warfare: sabotage, drones and covert incursions instead of a direct declaration of war.
This full moon also forms a conjunction with Neptune, the planet of fog, of what can't be clearly seen and what either side can deny. That's, once again, the exact nature of gray zone warfare: attacks neither side openly claims, a real threat advancing wrapped in ambiguity.
This past weekend, Dario Amodei (Anthropic) published an essay asking the AI industry to slow its pace of development because of the risks it carries, including loss of control over the systems themselves, AI-enabled cyberattacks and economic disruption. Sam Altman (OpenAI) and Elon Musk (xAI) publicly agreed with the argument, and OpenAI and Anthropic announced they will allow independent audits of their models.
On September 10, Uranus began its retrograde phase in Gemini, the sign of the mind, communication and fast thinking. Uranus rules innovation, technology and sudden breaks, so its direct passage through Gemini brought exactly what we've seen all year: an almost euphoric acceleration in AI development.
When Uranus turns retrograde, that revolution stops looking outward and starts looking inward, putting what's already been built under review before moving forward. Two days after that station, it's the industry's own leaders asking to slow the pace and open themselves up to outside audits, the exact corporate version of that inward turn.
Gemini also rules networks, circulating information, and thought that replicates itself without pause. The pause coming from the very people who run those networks, instead of being forced on them from outside, is a fairly faithful picture of what Uranus retrograde in Gemini asks for: reviewing your own pace before someone else does it for you.
This week it emerged that Justice Alexandre de Moraes personally edited, according to metadata from his phone, the final version of a 131 million real (about US$25 million) contract between his wife's law firm and Banco Master, the bank that collapsed in Brazil's biggest ever banking fraud. His colleague on the Court, Andre Mendonca, made the file public, and now both justices are seeking sanctions against each other for abuse of authority.
Mercury in Libra seeks balance and the fair word between two sides, and this week we're watching that get tested in its most literal form. The Court, the very symbol of the scale, fractures into a public conflict between two of its most powerful judges, each demanding sanctions against the other right when shared judgment should come first.
Venus in Scorpio rules the money shared behind closed doors and the bonds of trust that never get shown in public. A millionaire contract signed by a judge's wife with a collapsed bank, and a relationship so close that the banker asked him whether he should flee the country, is exactly that territory: power, money and loyalty tangled together in the shadows.
On September 10, the New Moon in Virgo arrives, the sign of the exact detail. What exposed this scandal was exactly that, a technical piece of metadata revealing who last edited the document. Virgo brings truth to light through the meticulous detail, right before the lunar cycle renews itself.
On August 30, the Kremlin spokesman announced that Putin will only meet with Trump and Zelensky to sign a final deal, never to negotiate one. He said Russia remains open to talks, but that no conditions currently exist to resume them, and he linked the lack of diplomatic progress to the continuation of military operations.
On August 31, Venus enters its retrograde shadow, the stretch before a planet begins to slow down ahead of turning back. Venus rules agreements, alliances, everything two parties pact between them. A peace process being declared stalled right at this threshold is no coincidence: deals still halfway closed now enter a season of review, not clean forward motion.
The Moon moves through Aries all week, a sign that prioritizes its own needs with energy and without asking permission. You can see it in the posture of setting terms from only one side of the table and expecting the other side to simply accept them, instead of sitting down first to build a fair agreement together.
On September 1, Mars in Cancer forms an exact square to Saturn retrograde in Aries: the urge to protect what's ours (Cancer, home, homeland) collides with an old, rigid force that refuses to move (Saturn retrograde in Aries). That's the frustration underneath it all, a war that keeps going because the diplomatic path stays blocked.
Days after drawing 270,000 people to a free concert in Guadalajara as part of the 2026 World Cup celebrations, Alejandro Fernandez revealed he lives with depression and anxiety. The 55 year old singer asked anyone suffering in silence to seek professional help and let go of the stigma around mental health.
Mercury cazimi with the Sun in Virgo, on August 27, is the clearest the mind can get: whatever becomes obvious that day tends to be exactly what the lunar eclipse in Pisces the next day asks us to feel and release. This story is that pattern in real life: the clarity of naming what you feel (Virgo), one day before the emotional body (Pisces) finally lets it out in public.
Virgo also rules service and care, not only for yourself but for others too. Using a moment of massive public success to ask for help, and to open the door for others to ask too, is Virgo and Pisces working together: precise words in service of collective compassion.
The South Node in Leo, active during the August 12 eclipse, speaks to the fall of solar figures: that moment when a star lets go of the mask of invincibility and chooses to show up as they really are. Fernandez has spent decades in the spotlight, and this time, instead of holding up the role of someone who never tires, he chose to lower his guard in front of his audience.