Person of the Year: Luigi Mangione

PART TWO: Although still presumed innocent, Mangione has permanently invaded America’s imagination with its veneration of vigilantes and folk heroes. What does the astrological synastry reveal?

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• PART ONE OF THIS ESSAY IS HERE. •

IN MID-DECEMBER of last year, the media was presented with a cinema-worthy perp walk that featured murder suspect Luigi Mangione shuffling along in shackles and wearing a screeching orange jumpsuit (that could have been viewed from the moon). Mangione—whose expression was eerily beatific—was flanked by a pack of comically over-armed cops and menacing FBI agents. Eric Adams scooted along in tandem with the throng—unable to sport a firearm—the New York mayor is a convicted felon. (That irony was sweet).

Two key takeaways bloomed in my brain while studying the spectacle. The first was straightforward: perp walks are prejudicial and undermine due process. This made Mangione’s public display doubly outrageous. Later I realized how my judgment was a prescient nod to what would be the Trump administration’s contempt for legal processes throughout the new year. But also, I could feel, in my bones, how—step-by-step—Mangione’s destiny was becoming permanently melded to the United States’. America loves and mythologizes outlaws—especially beautiful ones.

Let’s look at the synastry chart for Mangione and the United States. I want to highlight the most salient cross-connections to suss out what the upcoming era-defining Saturn-Neptune in Aries conjunction might portend for the country. Too, I’m keen to explore the ways Manigione is a bookend of sorts to New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. Both individuals bear the hallmarks of the upcoming conjunction in Aries that perfects in late February of 2026.

Presently, the United States is stuck in a tedious interregnum, where the fallout of the MAGA movement is beginning to offgas, making way for a brighter visionary template for the country. A course correction that will hopefully return individuals to their authority—and Americans to their sanity. The trappings of ‘hive mind’ cults, typified by the long Neptune in Pisces transit (that commenced 15 years ago), are making way for iconic figures like Mamdani and, yes, Mangione.