Say what you like about astrology. Call it mumbo jumbo. Call it charlatanism. The fact is, the majority of astrologers who went on the record making predictions about the 2015 U.K. election got it right. And the pollsters got it wrong.
So wrong, in fact, that according to The Daily Telegraph, polling companies face an independent inquiry into how they got their results after nearly every poll failed to predict the extent of the Conservative victory.In the run up to polling day, nearly every poll predicted the electoral race was neck and neck and too close to call
Astrologers, meanwhile, saw a clear victory for PM David Cameron up to a year before it happened. Some even predicted the number of seats.
HOW THE ASTROLOGER AT CAPRICORN RESEARCH SAW A CAMERON MAJORITY VICTORY AND CLEGG LOSS
The astrologer at Capricorn Research saw the election this way. “As Clegg and Cameron have their Sun in exact square aspect, they will both be getting Pluto transits in 2015-16. Pluto will be conjunct Clegg’s Sun so this will be the major watershed of his life. A sudden explosion of some sort is inevitable here…Pluto will also be square Clegg’s Mars so the impact is likely to be destructive to his career ambitions… The most sensible reading of all this is that David Cameron will gain an outright majority at the next election and the coalition will be over, and as a political force so will Nick Clegg.”
What is really remarkable about this prediction is that it mentions an outright majority – something nobody in the media saw, even on May 7th. But that’s just the start. In an election where David Axelrod, the American election guru who advised Ed Miliband on strategy, said he had “never seen as stark a failure of polling as in UK”. And what do you know? Astrology predicted it.
PRINCESS DIANA’S ASTROLOGER DEBBIE FRANK ACCURATELY CALLS THE ELECTION – ONE YEAR IN ADVANCE
Debbie Frank was astrologer and friend to the Princess of Wales for the last eight years of her life. Interviewed by the BBC in May 2014, a full year before the election, she said ‘Nick Clegg will be a little bit annoyed with the result.” She also says here, “Miliband is losing his grip.” Frank was also spot-on about Nigel Farage in the European Election and David Cameron ‘coming right back up.’ What did the pollster say? “Too close to call.”
HOW MERCURY RETROGRADE DERAILED THE ELECTION POLLS
On Monday May 4th you read this, in The Astrologer’s Diary.
“Here we go. Another Mercury Retrograde election. The UK election will result in a hung parliament, legal disputes, results announced wrongly by the media, rival parties ‘sharing’ power at Number Ten Downing Street, stalemate and/or government shutdown as it is been scheduled for Mercury Retrograde Shadow. Sometimes more serious complications can also derail an election on this cycle. President Barack Obama claimed victory on the Mercury Retrograde cycle and faced a government shutdown over Obamacare in October 2013. Former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard was elected on the same cycle in 2010 and had to wait days to find out if she had the job. And the last UK election on 6th May 2010 resulted in a hung parliament – also held on Mercury Retrograde.”
Okay, so no hung parliament – but other typical Mercury Retrograde effects certainly came to pass. And there will be more, by the end of June, when the cycle finally draws to a close.
Legal disputes
As reported by BBC News, vote fraud investigations are being investigated by police at a number of Scottish election counts. High profile politician George Galloway also claims to have uncovered “widespread malpractice” in the battle for Bradford West, including postal voting fraud. He is mounting a legal challenge. Meanwhile UKIP voters spotted a typical Mercury Retrograde problem in Thanet. As The Independent reported, a tweet sent by Spectator columnist Isabel Hardman tweeted at 12:30am on election night that Farage may have lost, six hours before the votes were counted, was seen as very suspicious, along with the council votes landslide, but defeat for Farage.
Recounts
Both Ed Balls and Nigel Farage – two of the best-known politicians in the election – demanded recounts. Mercury Retrograde is always about the ‘re’ prefix.
Results announced wrongly by the media
As reported in The Daily Telegraph, polling companies now face an independent inquiry into how they got the election result so wrong.
Rival parties ‘sharing’ power at Number Ten Downing Street, stalemate and/or government shutdown
The Independent reported, on Saturday 9th May, “SNP landslide and Tory majority raises fears of constitutional crisis.”
DID EVERY ASTROLOGICAL PREDICTION ON THE INTERNET COME TO PASS?
This is rather like asking if every doctor in town made the same diagnosis. Astrologers who have a good track record of making public news predictions were right. A minority, not so. However, there were some remarkable interpretations from astrologers who were paying attention to horoscopes, rather than the polls, or the media. When the confusion over the election was at its height, Harper’s Bazaar’s Justine Picardie, asked Shelley von Strunckel and I (via Twitter) about our Mercury Retrograde election thoughts. Instantly, Shelley replied, “Diverse polls have been voters complaining, not saying how they’d vote. Stars say no big changes.” In The Astrological Journal, edited by Victor Olliver, astrologer Nick Grier used the March-April issue (for which he had obviously filed many weeks before) to say this: “If one looks at the Poll chart with Cameron’s chart, it doesn’t look like the chart of a man about to pick up the phone to Pickford’s.”
Patrick Arundell wrote, some time ago: “The Conservative Party will not do as badly as some would like to think. The Liberal Party will almost disintegrate after severe losses and will be forced to fight for its very survival. It will wave goodbye to Mr Clegg. The Liberals will not be a serious fighting force in British politics for many years to come. It is highly likely that during the Year of the Sheep, Ed Miliband will lose the leadership of the Labour Party.” For that prediction, I think Arundell can be forgiven for getting his UKIP forecast – about several seats – wrong. At least, at time of writing. Mercury is retrograde, after all.
Over at Deborah Houlding’s astrology website Skyscript, an entire group of astrologers discussed the election, using horoscope techniques from the Middle Ages. Most were correct. Also using ancient techniques was Peter Stockinger, who made his prediction back on January 14th, some four months before election day. Peter referenced an ancient astrology book, for his thoughts on Cameron, noting: “A man of the people of the house of the acceder, or of his own rank will rise up against him and he will suffer grief from that – then he will be victorious over him.” Now that just has to be Ed Miliband. Peter concluded, “With this final judgment taken into consideration, it seems highly likely that David Cameron will continue to be the UK’s Prime Minister after the election in May 2015.”
Adam Smith , astrologer and author, used different techniques again, back on September 29th last year, to predict: “If the UK’s slow recovery continues, people may simply look to the bottom line and vote for Cameron as the least-worst option.” Astrologer Barry Goddard went on the record some time ago, to write “If he (Miliband) was about to become PM, I would expect to see some more major transits down the line, but they are not there…” All of this is looking a very long way indeed from those infamous ‘neck and neck’ polls which so confused the media and the public, prior to Election 2015.
An Indian astrologer using the pseudonym Arthur Dent (taken from The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, wrote this incredible prediction on 5th May. “There is an ongoing buzz about the upcoming elections in the United Kingdom. I do not know much of the UK political scene but decided to check if the question could be answered by astrology…For the heck of it, I will try to work out the number of seats that the Conservatives will win. This is the toughest area for me and indeed perhaps for any astrologer.” Mr Dent concluded, “The Conservatives will win between 300-325 seats.” They won 331 seats.
Perhaps the last word should go to Marjorie Orr for this poetic astrological description of the beleaguered Mr Miliband: “Ed Miliband has transiting Pluto conjunct his Solar Arc Neptune which looks flattening; a low energy, droopy transiting Uranus square Mars/Neptune; and a downbeat transiting Saturn conjunct Sun/Jupiter in May.” She also concluded, back on April 2nd, that the Conservatives looked far better than their rival parties.
HOW ASTROLOGY SAW “HUGE NUMBER OF WOMEN” IN PARLIAMENT
I am one of those annoying astrologers who won’t make a prediction unless all the charts are timed. Ed Miliband still lacks a timed horoscope and as it’s so crucial to know the angles (decided by the clock time of birth) for elections, I just wasn’t prepared to make a forecast. Two months ago, though, I was happy to look at the United Kingdom chart as a whole, set for its ‘birth’ in 1801. It showed, as I wrote on this website, “What else is new about this election? The huge amount of women who will hold power. In fact, it’s all going to look a bit like Blair’s Babes. The ghost of Tony Blair’s babes returns with these results.
The 1997 election saw more women elected to the House of Commons than ever before.” In fact, the horoscope was exactly right. We now have the highest number of female MP’s since 1997. This is how The Daily Mail saw it: “Historic election night sees record number of women win seats in Parliament – with almost a third of MPs now female A third of MPs are now women after today’s historic election results.
It is the highest ever representation of women in the House of Commons. Ed Balls and Jim Murphy among men to lose seats to female candidates. Harriet Harman has also stepped in to become acting Labour party leader.” The prediction was made using the ‘baby planet’ Vesta and its unique position in the United Kingdom chart. Vesta has always symbolised groups of women for obvious reasons. What is really interesting about all these predictions is that each astrologer had her/his own technique.
HOW LIZ GREENE PREDICTED THE SCOTLAND-UNITED KINGDOM SHIFT TEN YEARS AGO
An incredible piece of forecasting by bestselling author and astrologer Liz Greene saw a shift in the Scotland-United Kingdom relationship ten years ago, based on the Pluto in Capricorn cycle, which at the time Greene wrote the article, was still three years away. Astrology stands the test of time on the internet and it speaks for itself. And this is brilliant astrology.
“The nature of the United Kingdom itself may need to be redefined in more flexible and creative ways, with new approaches from and toward the individual entities – Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland – which comprise it…It is possible that a renewed sense of independent identity may require changes in existing bonds and treaties with other nations.” You can read more work by Liz Greene at Astro.com
DID DAVID TREDINNICK USE ASTROLOGY TO OBTAIN A LANDSLIDE?
David Tredinnick, the politician who made the front pages for his support of astrology, was returned at Bosworth despite an anti-astrology campaign by the local Lib Dems and some media. His original views (on the N.H.S. and astrology) given to The Astrological Journal made it clear that he believed a horoscope was a useful tool for health. So did it also give him the advantage in this election, despite the predictable barrage of insults and name-calling for his views? Maybe the U.K. media should start their post-election coverage by interviewing David Tredinnick – not to mention astrologers – about why this election vindicated their beliefs in such a remarkable way, when every polling company in the land got it wrong. But of course, it’s all mumbo jumbo isn’t it!
Jessica Adams Twitter @jessicacadams
