According to the New York Times (May 12, 2016), “after an all-night debate, Brazil’s Senate voted Thursday morning to suspend President Dilma Rousseff and begin an impeachment trial against her, ousting a deeply unpopular leader whose sagging political fortunes have come to embody widespread public anger over systemic corruption and a battered economy.” The Economist tweeted, “With poor finances and even poorer politics, Brazil lurches from one crisis to another.” Economic and political crises in 2015 and 2016 make Brazil one of the biggest global risks in the world right now, “creating a chain reaction of credit downgrades, currency devaluation and political infighting that’s sucking Brazil into what economists forecast will be the worst recession since 1901” (GlobalPost.com)

The birth chart I am using for modern Brazil is based on sidereal zodiac placements and set for October 5, 1988 when “Brazil adopted a new constitution which represented a significant break from past procedure and practice. The signing of the constitution, which took place at 3:49 P.M., was timed from a live television broadcast by Antonio Harres in Rio de Janeiro.” (Campion, The Book of World Horoscopes (Second Edition, 1996), p. 99. Chart is set for the capital, Brasilia.) These below are the North and South Indian Vedic astrology charts based on this data for this particular “birth event” of modern Brazil (using Lahiri ayanamsa):

Interestingly, the ascendant (lagna or rising sign) is sidereal Aquarius which also rises in the September 7, 1822 chart for Brazil’s independence (at either 16:08 or 16:58 which is controversial; but for either of these times, Aquarius rises). Aquarius is the sign of democracy, revolutionaries, and socialist political movements. The rising nakshatra is Shatabishak, ruled by Rahu, the Moon’s North Node who signifies political plots and rebellions. Rahu not only rules the rising nakshatra of Shatabishak but also occupies it in a powerful position conjoined the ascendant.

The never-ending struggle for democracy amidst class struggle, corruption, and social tensions seems to be a key expression of Brazil’s Aquarius/Rahu activated ascendant especially as Saturn, chart ruler and significator of democracy, aspects the 1st house (the country itself) and is exactly conjoined Neptune (socialism) and Uranus (revolution and political agitations) and in a tense T-Square to Mars (conflict) and the Sun (leaders). The other 1822 chart for Brazil’s independence (16:08 time) has a zero-degree ascendant in Aquarius, which indicates a government that is “on the edge” as in under periodic cycles of extreme transformation. Here below are the North and South Indian Vedic astrology versions of the 1822 horoscope for Brazil.

The democratic-socialist left-wing Workers’ Party (WP) has been in control of Brazil for the last 13 years since January 2003, and the ousting of Rousseff, Brazil’s socialist “Iron Lady,” marks the end of an era. Hélio Bicudo, 93, an early member of the party and a former legislator who defected in 2005, describes the WP as a “party of hope…[whose] leaders got intoxicated by power.” The special interests and privileges promoted by the Worker’s Party have morphed into corruption and swallowed Brazil’s economic success. Monica Showalter in a March 7 article in Investors.com wrote about the dangers of “socialism” as it happened here: “A ruling party, even if, or maybe precisely because, it claims to be socialist, always ends up making itself the biggest and most important special interest of them all, even as it denounces a long-gone establishment, claims to embody the people, then digs in to help itself with the people’s money.”

When WP took over in 2003, the South Node Ketu was transiting the midheaven (MC) of the Brazil chart, and now it has come to the ascendant. Ketu has an effect in mundane astrology of bringing intense past karmas that radically transform whatever it touches. The MC represents the ruling authority, and Ketu transiting here near the beginning of the MP rule in 2003 could have foretold that the WP rule would end in disgrace. With Ketu now transiting the ascendant, the nation as a whole is going through an intense transformation and rebirth after a great disappointment and loss.

What’s happening per the Vedic astrology chart for Brazil is that, using lagna Vimshottari dasa with the 1988 chart, Brazil has been in the Saturn-Ketu cycle since November 2015, and this will continue through December 23, 2016. Saturn-Ketu is generally a period of great distress, economic and political upheaval, and disruption of the status quo which is further expressed by the transit of Neptune (inflation, corruption, instability) to the ascendant (from 2015, through 2016 and into early 2017). Neptune’s transit to the ascendant reveals deception and confusion, with the hope of an eventual awakening to the truth. The question is, what is the truth, as Rousseff and her supporters claim that her ousting is a grave injustice and a coup.

The Saturn-Venus cycle beginning in December 2016 should be much more harmonious and positive for Brazil in general. Until then, the Saturn-Mars retrograde transit of the 10th house of the 1988 chart is wreaking havoc in the government, or as a dear fellow-astrologer and friend from Sao Paulo, Dr. Karina Weil, wrote to me yesterday: “There is still more political heavy duty cleaning to be done during this Saturn-Mars transit and before it makes the exact conjunction in August. The former president (Luis Inacio, Rousseff’s ‘frontman’) is also under formal investigation. Both are alleged to have been in collusion to deceive the people, but for the first time, the whole nation seems to be united in the desire to see justice prevail.”

Here below is the sidereal wheel chart and July transit biwheel chart for Brazil’s new constitution chart. All the sign, house and planetary placements are the same as in the Vedic charts above, but depicted in another format, that’s all. I picked July 11 for this chart, which is the date when the exact converse nodal return will occur (read further on for more about this). At the same time, retrograde Saturn will also be transiting the midheaven, indicating the upsets and intrigues which will be going on for some time in Brazil’s government affairs:

As mentioned, there is an astrological pattern occurring through 2016 which is called the  converse (or reverse or inverse) nodal return, in which transiting Rahu conjoins natal Ketu, and transiting Ketu conjoins natal Rahu. This happens in exact conjunction on July 11 but resonates backward as well as forward through the rest of 2016, “eclipsing” the all-important 1/7 axis, thus, upsetting the apple cart and setting Brazil on a brand new path. As we observe this particular transit in the sky mirror, we are assured that the dramatic changes at hand are necessary and in Divine Order. May harmony, truth and justice forever prevail in Brazil and throughout the rest of our beautiful world.