In July, the world was stunned when President Joe Biden announced he would abandon his re-election bid and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor. Less than four months before Election Day, the announcement was a seismic shock to American politics ― but not to many astrologers.

Some claim to have seen signs of this exact scenario in Harris’ and Biden’s birth charts, an astrological tool based on the positions of planets in the sky at the time of a person’s birth. For years, they had been telling their followers that Harris’ star was rising and Biden’s was falling, and in some cases, predicting the exact weekend that a dramatic political event would occur because of the full moon. For them, it was already Joe-ver.

“Astrologers have been seeing illness in Biden’s chart for years,” astrologer Catherine Urban, who predicted in June that Biden’s health was in jeopardy this year and that Harris could be endorsed by Biden, told HuffPost.

Predictive astrologers use a variety of techniques to reach their conclusions, but many of their methods involve examining a person’s date of birth and the time and place of their birth to create their birth chart. From there, they follow planetary and stellar movements through time and space to see how the story of a person’s life will unfold, including which moments in their career are particularly auspicious.

Mo, an astrologer who co-hosts the podcast “Fixed Astrology” and asked not to give her full name because of her full-time job, predicted that Harris would be a “war president” in May. Mo told HuffPost that she’s seen Harris “come to power under really difficult circumstances,” as Harris has an “enemies of the moon configuration” in her autumn solar return, which indicates that people will vilify her. Mo explained that this happens in part when a planet like Mars or Saturn — which are associated with challenging times in your life — makes a “difficult aspect” to the moon. “Difficult aspect” is astrology-speak for when planets make a geometric angle to each other that suggests you’re going through struggle.

Even if you don’t believe in the power of astrology, there are plenty of others who are driven by the stories written in the stars. Head to TikTok and you’ll see astrologers’ Election Day predictions—including which candidate might die and which will win—draft tens of thousands of views. As one commentator put it on a TikTok that accurately predicted Biden wouldn’t win the election: “This is my entire FYP (for you page) AND I CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF IT.”

The influence of astrology on politics is not a new concept.

Urban said the growing interest in political astrology comes because these US elections are so “high on the agenda” and “people often look to modalities like astrology to give us hope.”

But the practice’s crossover with politics isn’t a recent phenomenon; it’s a centuries-old tradition. Astrologers were, in fact, the first data scientists, argues Alexander Boxer, a data scientist, in his book “A Scheme of Heaven: The History of Astrology and the Search for Our Destiny in Data.”

“Mapping the emotions of the stars onto politics is the original use of astrology. And it never really went away,” he told HuffPost.

During the reign of Roman emperors such as Augustus and Tiberius, astrologers were powerful and dangerous, because their work was directly related to the question of who would be the next emperor and how long a person would live before dying.

Astrologers have also been part of the inner circles of many rulers. Queen Elizabeth I had a court astrologer who advised her during her reign. And in the US, after the assassination attempt on her husband in 1981, Nancy Reagan consulted an astrologer to determine favorable dates for President Ronald Reagan’s travels and press conferences.

“Astrology, I think, has invented and in many ways perfected the art of taking a lot of data, which by itself might be meaningless, and putting it together into a very compelling story,” Boxer said.

Boxer sees ancient astrologers as the precursors to modern election predictors, such as Nate Silver in the US. Using complicated mathematical models that you’re not expected to follow, both can use their tools to convince you of their story, even when the prediction turns out to be flat-out wrong, he explained. “Because we have a certain temptation to tell a story with data and numbers.”

Astrologers predict who will win in November.

So what exactly do astrologers say about the next few months? First, it’s a time of nationwide upheaval.

Pluto has returned to the celestial configuration it had during the nation’s birth on July 4, 1776. This means that Pluto is moving to the same position in the universe that it was during the nation’s founding. Urban explained that during this final leg of the nation’s Pluto return, we are in a time of “mass death and rebirth.” It is a reordering of the current structure.

She predicts Harris will win the election by a “narrow margin” over former President Donald Trump, based on how the planets and signs in her birth chart influence the forecast surrounding Election Day and the inauguration.

Both Harris and Trump have Jupiter — the planet of opportunity, luck and abundance — close to key points in their birth charts right now, but Harris is a Gemini ascendant, and 2024 is a “Gemini-ruled year” for her, so she’ll get a little more abundance, Urban said. “Jupiter helped her be in the right place at the right time.”

At the same time, Urban predicts that Trump will feel “crushed” come Election Day, but his influence won’t disappear. “There are some clues in his chart that the things that he’s ultimately going to be known for haven’t even happened yet.” Urban said that’s because Trump’s signatures — or where the planets and signs in his chart are positioned after election time — “look very authoritarian, and he’s already the leader of a movement. So what would happen to that movement?”

Meanwhile, Mo said that astrologers like her look at the charts of both running mates when making predictions, and that Trump’s choice of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) did not increase Trump’s chances of winning. “If Trump had picked someone else with better activations … we might have had a different conversation,” she said, noting that the timing in Vance’s chart does not convey “take over” energy. Activation is a term you’ll hear a lot in astrology, and it’s where a zodiac sign or planet will be more important because of the day, month or year you’re in.

Astrologer Lisa Stardust, who has predicted for years that Biden will only serve one term, told HuffPost that predicting who will win in November depends on the horoscope of Harris’ running mate.

Still, Stardust noted that she and the rest of us should find out who’s going to win in November by September 17. On that day, Harris’ chart is “extra lucky” because she’s experiencing a lunar eclipse in Pisces “that will be in her 10th house of public image, which means that will be the tipping point for her.” In short, your birth chart is divided into 12 houses that each reveal a different dynamic of your life, and when your house of public image is in the spotlight, so is your social status.

Astrology can have as much meaning as you give it. It’s entertaining, but don’t let it take over.

Ultimately, you get as much out of the stars as you do from the people who give them their power.

Mo said her medium can give people themes, but can’t predict every detail of their lives. “I can’t tell if you had a matcha latte for breakfast,” she said. “But I could tell you maybe had a really energetic start to your day on Tuesday morning, based on whatever (planetary) transits you had.”

Boxer, who doesn’t believe in astrology, warns people to be skeptical of predictions for November because “astrology is the template for data science and in particular the template for how we tell stories with numbers and data and how we can easily mislead others and ourselves.”

Jess Holt, an astrologer and licensed clinical social worker in New York, said that using astrology to cope with uncertainty is a good thing. But if reading election horoscopes “makes you anxious, if it makes you feel like you have to constantly check things, if it makes you feel desperate, then it’s probably not the right tool for you,” she said.

In other words, use astrology to help you embrace your values, but don’t let the endless amount of information hold you back, because “that’s not a useful use of the tool,” they added.

Don’t use what the stars tell you to get out of the work of political action. You still have to participate in your destiny and vote, Urban said.

“There are certain things that are written,” Urban said. “But there is also free will, and when it comes to determining the fate of a nation, everyone has to play a part. Everyone’s will plays a part.”

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