I’m on the Stansted Express going into London. Outside it’s cold, but on the train it’s nice and cozy. My spouse sits across from me, checking her email on her phone, and the people across the aisle are chatting in animated Bulgarian.

“We’ll be calling at Tottenham Hale,” says the intercom, in an accent that I hear as cultured, because it’s British. I like the word “calling” rather than “stopping”, too. I feel as if I should get out my calling cards as we screech into Tottenham Hale.

I also like the way “Mind the gap” is spray painted on the concrete where the train doors open. This reminds you not to fall into the space between the train and the platform.

The British are polite. That’s why it’s so comforting to be in London at this time. I’m very conscious of being in the gap, in the space before the U.S. election. I feel that I’m hurtling towards something, without being quite sure what I’m hurtling towards. All the astrologers are predicting sudden change, and I can fall into that too, when I look at the Saturn/Uranus opposition that’s exact on Election Day 2008.

The Saturn/Uranus opposition is a conflict between fear and hope, between resistance and change, between control and faith. When I was in the States last month, the dominant emotion seemed to be “fear of hope”. People were afraid to believe. Too often in the past have burgeoning hopes soured and changed to cynical conspiracy theories.

There are a couple of other aspects that look tricky on Election Day. Mars in Scorpio will be squaring Neptune, and that can mean some sort of confusing mishap. Power may take underhand forms. Could that mean confusion on the part of voters about where to go and what to do, or a manipulation of the vote? It also doesn’t help that the moon is void-of-course almost all day, so that everyone will meander a bit until after 7:05 pm EST. Luckily, polls will still be open in many states.

Another election-day influence comes from Venus. The planet of pleasure will take the role of catalyst, making hard aspects to both sides of the Saturn/Uranus opposition. When Venus is stressed, it’s hard for people to get what they want, and what they value. But this configuration could also refer to the economy, and it’s actually exact a day or two before the election. Hard Venus aspects are notorious for giving a sense of scarcity.

The Saturn/Uranus opposition on Election Day will bring on a new order, but will it take shape right away? I am not objective enough to predict, and like everyone else, I’m skittering between fear and hope. Part of me is afraid that the election will be stolen again, or that the Bush administration will orchestrate some sort of crisis and halt it. Another part of me is seeing an Obama victory as a change radiating beyond the Americas and throughout the world, worthy of the startling symbolism of the Saturn/Uranus opposition.

As notable as the Election Day chart is, the full moon on November 13 looks equally dramatic. There’s an earthy great trine – between the moon, Saturn and Jupiter – and this is stabilizing. There’s a kite configuration, with the Saturn/Uranus opposition as the spine of the kite, and this indicates that the past and the future can work together – as is supposed to happen when one democratically-elected administration gives way to the next. There’s a mystic rectangle, with the moon/sun opposition making harmonious aspects to the Saturn/Uranus opposition, giving an impetus to express ourselves more clearly and definitely.

So even if things are unclear on Election Day, I see the full moon as bringing resolution. There’s also a strong spiritual element at the full moon, with Neptune acting as the catalyst in a moon/sun/Neptune T-square. Very powerful hopes and dreams are in play at this time. If justice is denied on Election Day, I see justice coming at the full moon.

By the new moon at end of the November, these dramatic configurations are over. The energy is fast-moving, expansive, celebratory, with the sun, moon, Mercury and Mars all in Sagittarius, and with Venus and Jupiter together. It looks like November ends with a party atmosphere, almost as if the economy wasn’t in shreds.

And then things will get serious, as the new president faces drought, scarcity and corporate power-plays during the next decade.

As I finish writing this, I am again on the Stansted Express, and this time my spouse and I are heading back to our hotel in Bishop Stortford. We’ve spent a rainy day at the British Museum. We’ve seen empires rise and fall, documented carefully in stone. Now all that’s left are the stones, those delicate muscles and feathers carved from models who’ve long since decayed, as the empires themselves have.

All empires end, and the current American empire will end too. Whenever power falters, something rushes in to fill the gap. Sometimes it’s an ambitious person, and sometimes it’s an idea. Right now, it’s a dream.

It can seem like a tenuous dream. Does it depend on grandmothers tottering down to the polls and voting for the first time for a face that looks more like their own? Does it depend on votes being counted, in a country where voting is now famously unreliable? Does it depend on public opinion, in a country where the manipulation of opinion is almost a religion?

This dream seems to reside in one man, one man who is poised to be martyr or savior. But this is not so. No matter what surprises November throws at us, we need to recognize that our dreams live in our own hearts, and will endure. But as Election Day approaches, let us all hold our dreams steady, and envision a moment when the truth will be powerful and inevitable, and when it will make us free.

Index of Jenny Yates' Writings on Lesbian.com