Astrological Prediction: Twitter Will Die in the Next Couple Months
The first question to be answered in order to judge this chart is, “What is Twitter to me?”
My first thought was the 10th house, as the company or the platform owner, which would make it Jupiter. I note the Moon, lord of the ascendant, right inside the 5th house in Sagittarius, in Jupiter’s term, and applying a trine to Jupiter itself, which is descriptive of me being creative thanks to the largesse of Twitter, the corporation.
However, that’s not really what’s at stake for me, because I have already secured my creative tools in the case of Twitter’s destruction. What’s at stake for me is the network. So I look to L11, which is Mars, and see Jupiter in Aries ruling an MC in both the term and face of Mars. Twitter the company is nothing without Twitter the network.
Of course, the essential reason Twitter would die is financial ruin. Naturally, the 11th house (2nd from the 10th) also signifies the company’s finances.
So Mars it is.
In this chart, Mars is in the 12th, which speaks eloquently of the sort of Death Row energy on Twitter as the enterprise and its technology crumble around us.
Currently, the Sun is applying to Mars, signifying in this chart my own resources (2H) and neighbors (3H), which feels like a microcosm of what is keeping Twitter spiritually alive. It’s still here because WE’RE still here.
But I also note that the Sun is conjunct the Lot of Fortune — suggestive of something fated befalling it — and applying right away to Neptune, the most angular planet in the chart, which is exactly aligned with the high-energy perigee point of the Moon. We do what we can, but at the end of the day, our time on Twitter is subject to strange forces beyond our — and perhaps, at this point, anyone’s — control.
This applying square to Mars from late Pisces is, frankly, amazing in the context of this chart. While the Sun is still just 14' past a perfect square to Mars, Mercury catches up with it. That is, Mercury is in the heart of the Sun (cazimi) for this square, which I feel like has to be read as a single transit. The square is a hard aspect, of the nature of Mars itself, bringing friction or crossed purposes. Mercury is Mars’ domicile lord in Gemini, a natural signifier of technology and money, and also ruler of the IC in this chart, which can often be taken in a horary as “the outcome,” “the verdict,” or “the end of the matter.” Maybe, in some literal cases, a grave.
In horary astrology, as a general principle, the more aspects perfecting with a significator between it and the one you’re asking about, the harder it is to judge that the ultimate outcome you’re querying will come to pass. The Moon is given some slack here, because of its speed, and indeed the Moon will make an opposition to Mars before this Mercury cazimi square. But other than the Moon, this breathtakingly elegant, simultaneous transit of Mercury and the Sun is the only contact Mars makes before it leaves its current sign.
For the past seven months, this interminable transit of Mars through Gemini has described the entire Elon Musk Twitter saga and all its painful twists and turns, and now Mars is through its own term and face of Gemini and has entered the term of Saturn on its way out of Gemini at last.
Right after that happens — when Mars pierces the 1st house of this chart, representing me — with the Moon still in Cancer just past its conjunction with Mars — Mars meets Saturn, lord of the 8th, significator of death.
It gives me no pleasure to do so, but I have to judge that a “yes.” And given the elegance of the chart and the short-term nature of the question, I feel capable of applying the horary rules for timing the outcome, though my teacher and his teacher have cautioned me not to rely on this timing too closely.
Mars completes its trine to Saturn in just a hair over 8º. It is up to me to determine a sensible short/medium/long set of units, and I judge this question to require days/weeks/months as the possible timeframes. With Mars in a mutable sign in a cadent house, that indicates the death of Twitter will occur in about eight weeks, which gives us the week of May 8.
Given my teachers’ warnings about timing in horary, I will state in advance that I will still rule this judgment to be fully correct if Twitter dies reasonably soon, taking eight weeks to be a rough estimate. I’m just excited to have the opportunity to try the technique in the field.
End Note:
As I have explained at length, I use the Placidus house system in my practice, though the horary tradition in which I am trained uses Regiomontanus. My rationale for using Placidus is deeply rooted, and thus far I have been comfortable that it works for me.
However, all along, I have prayed for a chart where the cusp differences between Placidus and Regiomontanus matter, and to my amazement, this is one. With Regiomontanus houses, the 11th house cusp goes to 00º♉︎47', making its significator Venus rather than Mars.
However-again, perhaps even more amazingly, it turns out that this doesn’t matter, because Venus’ next aspect is also with Saturn. So if this turns out wrong, I will not be blaming it on my house system choice and switching to Regio like a good little horary practitioner. Rather, I simply consider it amazing that both systems of house division give a yes on this question by contact with the same planet.
In terms of timing, Venus gives us 5 weeks, so I suppose we can consider that a lower bound.
