The (above) August 11 Mars Into Aries -- 5 Days included this transit chart -- where the planets are in today's skies --with arrows showing aspects.

August 16, 2020

And here's a blow up Mars' movement into Aries, back to Pisces and into Aries again.  Following is a listing of those movements, including dates.

Mars retrograde
Enters Aries August 16
Turns retrograde at 4 degrees Aries September 10
Retrogrades back into Pisces October 4
Turns forward at 21 degree Pisces November 14
Crosses forward into Aries December 23

Predictions were made for current calamities to deteriorate to crisis levels for the U.S. and career loses plus enemies for Trump.

With tomorrow beginning Mars in Aries, here's the U.S. chart showing his aspect to Cancer -- red arrow.  As you can see the U.S. chart Mercury is early in the sign at 3:26 degrees.  Thus, Mars begins to afflict Mercury by the aspect being close as soon as he enters Aries.  Mars will reach 3:26 Aries, making the aspect to the U.S. chart Mars exact, on August 31.  Notice that malefic Saturn also aspects Cancer -- blue arrow.  It is now retrograde at 2:30 degrees, but because Saturn moves so slowly, he'll be at 1:50 degrees on August 31. Saturn, the planet of suffering, adds great stress and struggles to Mars' vicious aspect to Cancer. The last half of this month promises tremendous turmoil.

United States  July 4, 1776

Mercury's significations are thereby all being harmed, with the peak at the end of this month. These include: acute illness, the respiratory system, business, and government officials.  Notable also, the combination of Mercury with Rahu in this house of calamity brings America's mystical paranoia and fear of foreigners.  Mars' significations for infections, storms and discords are also expressed by his Cancer aspect -- aggravated by Saturn.

Mars will reach 4:00 Aries on September 10, when he turns retrograde.  This means Mars will do his 180 degree retrograde turn almost exactly on top of Mercury at 3:26 degrees.  Then Mars will retrograde back over Mercury, reaching exact conjunction with Mercury September 18.  This will exacerbate all the previous harms, including hurricanes.  It won't be until October 4 that Mars retrogrades back in Pisces.

As for Trump, here is his chart with transit Mars and Saturn included -- as well as arrows showing their aspects to Cancer.

Trump

With Trump's birth chart Saturn less than 1 degrees (00:42) and Venus also at a low degrees at 2:38, Mars will begin attacking Trump tomorrow -- when Mars enters Aries.  Mars' aspect to Saturn will be exact August 18.  Venus will also be afflicted, and that exact aspect will be August 26.  Again, his career and enemies are major issues.  Then, when Mars turns retrograde September 10, he'll cross back over these two birth chart planets -- just like the U.S.

The U.S. may suffer hurricanes, and hurricane like crises of all kinds -- but Trump the chaos maker will find himself in a self created hurricane that could break him.

The interval from tomorrow until October 4 will be viewed by historians as the turning point for the wrenching health, economic and social changes the U.S. 18 year Rahu cycle is bringing -- that force the Second Progressive age to lurch ahead.

The Celestial Wheel 2002-2020©
Doug Riemer

Rod Serling's Twilight Zone first aired on CBS from 1959 to 1964 and was shot entirely in black and white.  The filming emphasized the show's twilight meaning -- the intersection between day and night.  Then color vanishes, yielding to shades of gray as the night cycle seeps in.  That is the time measurement.  The zone part describes a singular space, where at dusk the environment changes. The bright daylight is replaced by shadows, making the ordinary disturbingly extraordinary.

Often, the plot involved regular folks just happening into such a twilight zone -- and their actions and reactions to their otherworldly experiences.  As such, his view was the antithesis of science.

Author Rod Serling had a vast imagination and used his intuition about humanity to both entertain and teach moral lessons.  In a very real sense, Serling was a seer.  In his later years, Serling taught TV and radio at Ithaca College, across the gorge from Cornell University.  At Cornell, was his contemporary but absolute opposite, the great astrophysics Carl Sagan, who investigated extraterrestrial life, but of course, never found any.  And while the two men delved into similar realms, Serling was unconstrained by reality, and Sagan bound to it.  We all remember his book Cosmos, the the TV series that followed.  It was commonly known  they were great adversaries -- even as they both delved into the mysteries of life on earth and beyond.

Both died early.  Both were dark haired short men of Jewish heritage.  Both were vain.  You couldn't help seeing Sagan's ego shine through his gravel-voiced pronouncements about the universe.  In the summer, Serling would pilot his boat around Cayuga Lake visiting restaurants with lifts in his shoes.  His introductory comments before each episode were oddly similar, and the voice was raspy from cigarettes.  They were the the twins with nothing in common -- the seer and the scientist.  Each had a role in society then, and again now.

Now, we have a tremendous scientific challenge with Covus -19, precisely (scientist Sagan loved that word) Sagan's cup of tea. Only scientific reality can deal with the issue.  The virus has nothing to do with humanity.  It's not even alive.  But society has to deal with the virus's transformation of a real and normal world into a Serlingesque Twilight Zone.

So, a thought experiment is suggested here to help us understand and deal with our lives in twilight zone as real as Sagan's science.

Imagine a road trip with a mate through rural America somewhere -- anywhere -- Maine, Iowa, Oregon...  It's been a long day, and you exit the interstate to take a secondary road shortcut.  A storm is rolling in -- lightening flashes in the distance, but no thunder.   At dusk, you enter a typical small town -- perhaps Smallville like in Superman.  The welcome sign reads The biggest small town in America! You wonder whether the aging cottage motel just off main street is best, or should you stay at the brick four story Smallville Hotel with its featured restaurant?

It seems odd the traffic is so light.  And then you notice few lights are on as you drive cautiously down the main drag.  You think to ask someone walking their dog, but even more oddly, there are few pedestrians, excepting a hunched over old woman with a cane hobbling from her mailbox up to her house.  You call out to her, but she ignores you.

Well, you may as well have the full Americana experience here in Smallville, but the fading light and drizzling have turned everything to shades of gray.  Then you see the hotel, gleaming in a last ray of sunset.  It's ochre, then suddenly cranberry, and as you park, it turns to a dull brick red.  You enter an empty lobby.  There's a handwritten sign that says rooms are $50, take a key from the wicker basket and settle up in the morning.

What could be going on here?  Where are the people?  Did some disaster strike?  Why are the few we see wearing masks?

You actually don't have to go on a road trip like this, real or imagined.  That Smallville is everyone's town now -- including yours -- during this pandemic.  But you can, and should, think about what you need to do to continue your life and what this real life Rod Serling story means -- while real life Carl Sagan scientists create a vaccine.

On thing is for certain -- both men dealt in reality.

The Celestial Wheel 2002-2020©
Doug Riemer