It’s been a long time since I have posted here, though if you want to know my views on current news and politics, you can always follow me at my Substack, Quiet Bonnie Speaks Out.
Today, though, I saw in the news that the U.S. Department of Justice has announced that it will stop seeking to terminate the visas of international students, and has restored the visas of students who had had their visas canceled for extremely minor infractions over the last few months.
This is good news. I’m a student myself, though not an international one, and I have been worried about my classmates from other countries and for all international students generally, because the more I read about the visa and green card system in the United States, the more I realize what a vulnerable situation it is to be an international student here.
My question today was, can we trust that the Trump administration will stick to the decision that was announced today, and stop targeting students? After celebrating the decision, I suddenly noticed that it came from DOJ and not the State Department. So there are two concerns here: One is that the Trump administration is consistently inconsistent–Trump changes his mind more often than the Midwest changes its weather. And the other concern is that the different departments may not be talking to each other; DOJ isn’t in charge of visas, State is. So what’s really going on? The short answer is, we have to pay attention and try to keep on top of the details.
This would be a good topic for us all to research in all the normal mundane ways. Today, however, I thought I would try looking at it with an elaborate spread using, in part, the tools from My Living Astrology Chart by Theresa Reed and Carrie Paris. I cast the chart of the day using Time Passages on my phone and then placed the planets on the My Living Astrology Chart board. Then I pulled a tarot card from the Wild Unknown Tarot and cast a charm, as well, for each sign of the Zodiac, asking in each case, how does this aspect specifically affect international students?
I’m sharing the photo but it would take me all day to write about every single card, charm, and aspect. But here are a few things I note:
- The card at the bottom of the deck is a position I always pay attention to, and in this case it’s Justice. As in “Department of,” but also, this indicates to me that justice itself is the issue here. Are students being treated justly and will they be treated justly going forward? That’s really the question that’s been on my mind.
- Our planet is rotating all the time. At the moment when I looked at this situation, Aries was at midheaven from my point of view here in Wisconsin. We currently have a pileup of planets in Aries, the Moon and Mercury conjunct, and Neptune close by as well. Chiron is also in Aries. The Moon conjunct Mercury makes me think of messages being reflected, Aries makes me think of fighting energy, and Neptune being there too makes me think of disinformation, illusions, and dreams–and then the card I drew was the Seven of Swords, a card I associate with lies, deception, and misinformation. The charm I drew here was a soccer mask, which makes me think of ICE appearing masked, and of the need for protection.
At the same time, this is all at midheaven, where it’s in plain sight. So we have misinformation appearing in plain sight–used by the administration to send a message that has been meant to scare us. As always, this administration realizes that it cannot impose random acts of martial law on all Americans (it doesn’t have the money or personnel to do so on such a large scale) so it chooses a few particularly vulnerable people to use to make its point. This is WHY it has been revoking visas without cause and without notice. The absolute “in plain view” nature of it has made it obvious to courts as well that this is arbitrary, capricious, and most of all that due process has not been provided–and that’s why there has been so much judicial push-back. Will the courts prevail? - That brings us to the Hierophant, who appears here in Taurus, and as you probably know, we’ve had Uranus in Taurus for several years now. And currently the Sun is here, so this house, like Aries at midheaven, is very much in view–more so, really, because the Sun is here for about a month and as I noted above, Aries will move throughout the day as the Earth rotates. Trying to pull a charm for this position, I wound up with my grandmother’s whole charm bracelet, which has a turtle and the year 1957 on it. To me the Hierophant may represent a university or school, but also can be the government itself, or a court specifically. It’s interesting to see the year 1957 come up–Brown v. Board of Education was decided in 1954 and in 1957, the issue of school integration was still a major part of American life. The turtle here is making me think of SCOTUS’ words at the time, “all deliberate speed.” To me Uranus in Taurus combined with the Hierophant seems to point at federal funding and the shakeups of federal funding of universities that we have been seeing in the news. The Trump administration has spoken out against DEI, and DEI is closely connected to integration–both are meant to address or redress past injustices and inequities in education. The Trump administration, as we know, refuses to acknowledge that there has ever been such a thing as injustice or inequity in education, and it is pushing schools at every level, with every form of pressure it can come up with, to prevent the history of systemic injustice and all the related history from being taught. This part of the story is still playing out, and the question again will be, will the courts prevail? Universities will be fighting the administration on this for months if not years to come. I think based on this reading that it will continue to be a huge, top of mind (I hate that expression but I’m looking at it at the top of my chart here!) issue.
- Let’s look at the south and north nodes, or our new eclipse axis, in Virgo and Pisces. For Virgo at the South Node, where things are released, I pulled the Fool. For students who are graduating, yes, these fools are being released out into the world! (I mean fool in the most loving sense! of one who has faith.) The charm I pulled here is a chess piece, and also, in the moment of my chart, Virgo is in the second house: money, values, how you make a living. For all students, literally, this period of time might be associated with money issues, and where to look for strength here is to carefully position oneself, as if you are playing chess, and recalling that Jupiter is in Gemini, bringing luck to your associations with other people and to your ability to use your brain and communicate. Students, use your education and analyze your particular situations and your particular positions with regard to everything that is going on. Change does not affect everyone equally; it affects you in a particular way depending on your particular context. Analyze it. Think it through. And act accordingly.
For the Pisces end of this axis, where the north node is, we have Venus conjunct Saturn. It’s as if Saturn is sitting there sternly, awash in the misinformation and dreaminess but also the ideals of this sign, looking across at the release of all the Virgo stuff in the south node and shaking his head, but Venus is also there, saying to Saturn, “but this is about justice.” I don’t think Saturn is opposed to Venus’ ideals–after all, they are conjunct here, not in opposition to each other. But what I do think is that this sure looks like a revolution funded on shoestrings and poetry–and positionality. Look at the card there, the Four of Pentacles, and how it looks in the Wild Unknown–it’s drawing lines from one to another. To make the most of your resources, be in a good position for doing so. - Pluto in Aquarius in this spread appears in the 7th house here, with the Moon card and a Sun charm, as if it’s going to exert its presence most on students during eclipses, and most through their collaborations and partnerships. Students, pay attention to those eclipses and pay attention to who you are partnered with, from your university to your employer to your friends and family. Also, it seems to me that there will be Internet outages that will sometimes leave us without the always on access to our friends that we are used to having. Keep it in mind. Tech doesn’t always work. It can be broken. Outages aren’t always quick. Be ready for that if you can.
- Why is the Devil showing up in the 5th house here? In Sagittarius, with an arrowhead. Welp. The Devil can be a good card when it’s calling for advocacy and making deals that are to your advantage. This can be a card of making sure that you have legal representation if/when you need it too. However, I just also note that I saw a lot of the Devil appearing before the beginning of the pandemic and through the early months of it. We have an administration in the U.S. that is defunding health research and health tracking of statistics. Students, don’t forget about infectious diseases and the need to protect yourself from them.
I think these are the main things to keep in mind from this spread, but feel free to look at it more closely and examine some of the aspects that I didn’t discuss here! I’d be happy to hear your continuing analysis in the comments.
Also, apologies for not reading this post aloud–I’m hoping your browser will do so if needed. Please let me know if you really prefer for me to read it aloud myself–I’m a little overextended at the moment but I can prioritize reading these posts aloud if there are requests for me to do so.
Quiet Bonnie 