Presidential Politics 2012: Candidates, Anyone?

 Eisenhower inauguration, January 20, 1953

photo credit: National Archives and Records Administration

With candidates deciding (and deciding when to decide) about whether to run for President of the United States in 2012, I thought it would be fun – not to mention educational – to look at a couple of charts at a time.

This is not going to be an examination of natal charts, except where we need to do so for reference. What we’re going to look at are transits on Election Day 2012 (November 6th) and Inauguration Day.

The ‘rule’ for Election Day, should you not know it, is that elections are held on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November. Yes, it’s one of those governmental mouthfuls. Basically, if the month begins on a Tuesday…or any day from Tuesday through Saturday, Election Day falls in the following week. If November starts on a Sunday or Monday, Election Day falls in the month’s first week.

Now that we’re all ready for a civics test question on that, you may be wondering how why we would look at both Election Day and Inauguration Day. The answer there is that for some people, winning just isn’t everything. On Barack Obama’s winning election day, his transits didn’t proclaim I Am President. That his transits were much stronger on Inauguration Day suggests President Obama is less interested in the glory of winning a contest than tackling the job.

So it does depend on the person.

And if I get really good at this, maybe prospective candidates will start checking in with me before they spent all that time and energy (not to mention money) running for office.

Then again, considering the egos of some politicians, maybe not!

One thing to note right off the bat: Election Day 2012 is going to feature Mercury on station, going retrograde. That it’s doing so in Sagittarius – a sign Mercury is notoriously “sloppy” in and also the sign of law and legalities makes one wonder right off the bat whether there are going to be some legal challenges.

Is America in for another round of recounts and dangling chads? Oh, the suspense!

An election worker looking for a hanging chad on a Florida

punch card ballot (2000 Presidential election,  December

2000 - photo credit unknown)

The first politician we’re going to consider is RON PAUL (b. August 20, 1935), who being the consummate Libertarian and not bad at all at formulating a concept which will get people to talking indeed did just that rather recently.

Ron Paul - August 20, 1935 - Pittsburg, PA

(no time known)

You may have heard the ‘Ron Paul fluffle’? Taken out of context, he seemed to be campaigning on a platform which included the idea of legalizing heroin and prostitution. The reality of his specifics I’ll leave to you to research saying only that a Libertarian position is pretty much summed up as ‘less government rules: let people run their own lives and make their own mistakes - treat people as adults.’

Ron Paul, official Congressional photo portrait (c. 2007)

Ron Paul’s Election Day 2012 features nothing in particular except the Mercury station. Occurring at 4 Sagittarius, this station squares Ron Paul’s natal Mercury and his natal Saturn, which sounds like delay or disappointment. Mercury’s station trines Ron Paul’s Eris (discord). Will he be resigned to how people just continue not voting for those ideas he so believes in – or is this his listening to some giant hassle?

If there’s a problem on Election Day we would expect to see that shown across every chart we look at today an on any other day. So let’s bear that in mind and move on.

On Inauguration Day (January 20th) Ron Paul has one personal transit: Venus trine Black Moon Lilith. Venus being the ‘concreting’ of things and Black Moon Lilith being (generally) “societal denial” this suggests that the society is headed in a direction Dr. Paul (yes, he is a medical doctor) doesn’t approve of.

In the big world of transits, none of this says anything “pronounced.” If you were elected President, don’t you think it would be a giant red-letter day in your life?

This probably means Ron Paul isn’t going to be elected President. But he's often really interesting to watch.

NEWT GINGRICH (b. June 17, 1943): There’s what’s known in astrology as some ‘dirty data’ on the time of Newt Gingrich’s birth. Here’s that chart…

Newt Gingrich - June 17, 1943/11:45pm - Harrisburg, PA

(time not verified)

For good measure, here is an Aries Chart cast for the same day without the Moon. Since the Moon moves about one degree every two hours (roughly), when we don't have the time of birth it often seems sensible to simply omit the Moon from a chart.

(And yes, there are those who say omitting the Moon from political charts is particularly apt!)

Newt Gingrich - June 17, 1943 - Harrisburg, PA

(Aries Chart/No Moon - Location Not Specific)

Either way, the 4 Sagittarius Mercury station is in direct opposition to Gingrich’s Mercury/Uranus conjunction in early Gemini. Mercury Uranus being something of the ‘shock,’ ‘surprise’ or ‘innovation,’ this could seriously make us wonder.

Except for…well…in this chart we have a grand trine which is composed of two points at critical degrees: Neptune at 29 Virgo (which is Neptune weakened by being in the sign of its fall) and Ceres at 29 Taurus, a sign of being able to lead on the merit of one’s personal self worth and values being vitally important.

The third point here is Juno at 27 Capricorn. Capricorn being the sign of government and Juno being a ‘head of household’ energy, it’s not surprising that Newt was at one point the Speaker of the House (of Representatives). Then again, he ended up resigning from the legislature after proving to be one of the great polarizing figures in American politics of the day.

That ability to polarize is very Uranus/Mercury. And with Ceres at 29 Taurus with natal Mercury at 3 Gemini plus Uranus at 5 Gemini, plainly Neptune is in an out-of-sign trine with Mercury.

Neptune/Mercury is the sign of someone who lies…or, when a configuration like this grand trine is involved, the sign of someone who is seen to ‘not be who we think/thought he was.’

And this Mercury opposition transit to natal Mercury?

Well, it’s not a classic plus, although… 

This is one of those moments when you really wish you knew your data was good, as the time we have for Newt Gingrich would give us Juno opposition Moon on November 3rd and Jupiter opposition the Moon on November 10th with Juno trining Newt’s Pallas (wisdom) and Mars (assertion) on the 7th – the day after the election.

Newt Gingrich speaking at CPAC 2011

photo credit: Gage Skidmore (February 2011)

Well, gosh. Let’s look at Inauguration Day to see what that says, shall we?

January 20th has Mercury trine Mercury (ongoing affairs), and Mercury opposition Black Moon Lilith – a facing off against the denial of society. With Pallas (wisdom) sextiling Mercury on the 19th, there does appear to be some positive activity going on in Newt’s life,  thought it doesn’t seem exceedingly…Presidential.

One more note here. With the impending Lunar Eclipse of June 15 (2011) happening just a couple of days prior to Newt's birthday, we can guess 2011/2012 is going to be a very exciting (intense?) year for him, come what may. The fact that this Lunar Eclipse precedes his birthday suggests matters which originate in his past are up for discussion...we'll just have to see what happens!

At writing, MITT ROMNEY (b. March 12, 1947) hasn’t declared himself openly, though he does have an ‘exploratory committee’ contemplating another run and he’s all over the Presidential polls.

Mitt Romney - March 12, 1947 (9:51am) - Detroit Michigan

(from official biography)

What does a poll of his natal chart say?

Election Day for Mitt Romney has Mercury going stationary conjunct Romney’s South Node, in opposition to his North Node and trine his natal Saturn. 

If nothing else, this sounds rather like the transits we would associate with a candidate – as does Mars trine Sedna (personal hopes) early in the morning followed by Venus sextile Pluto (feeling empowered) mid-way through the afternoon.

But then…?

The same Neptune which will go retrograde on June 3rd (2011) will be turning direct as part of its 2012 cycle on November 13 (2012). And that 2012 station - the one just after the election? That will be square Mitt Romney’s natal Moon and Jupiter.

Add in the solar eclipse which will occur on November 13th at 21 Scorpio (trine Romney’s Sun, square his natal Pallas, and trine his natal Ceres) and it certainly looks like Romney’s life is changing in a very big way. And that he’s finding out that he doesn’t know quite as much as he thought he knew.

If Mitt Romney does become President, one guesses he will find that he's bitten off a very large mouthful. Expect he'll go gray faster than the average Presidential office-holder - which is pretty fast, indeed!

 Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts

To Inauguration Day, which is preceded by a secondary progression (internal recognition) symbolized by Mercury opposition Romney’s 6th house Moon – a rather classic picture of taking on or relinquishing responsibility.

A 3-time Pluto square Neptune transit begins for Romney on January 18th. Given its 8th house/5th house combination, it’s a real-time echo of the secondary progression.

And on Inauguration Day itself we have Venus sextile Mars (convivial interactions), Sun trine Ascendant (matters already in motion coming into personal focus) and Mercury opposition Saturn, maybe the most interesting of the three.

When these transits are run for Washington, D.C.,  this Mercury opposition Saturn occurs at 12:34pm, with the Sun trine Ascendant happening about two hours later.

Are we looking at evidence that a new President will be inaugurated come January 2013? Or is this the message of a man with the 'winning' opinion that his party chose the wrong candidate in not nominating him?


Vindication can be very, very sweet for those who in not getting a chance to win never lose, one supposes.

As mentioned, Neptune will go retrograde on June 3rd, 2011. It will go direct again on November 9, 2011. If Mitt Romney does decide to run and if such an announcement occurs around either of these days or on one which sets off his natal Neptune…astrologically that would be news worth an eyebrow-raise. Maybe even two.

As an astrologer, I wouldn’t bet my computer’s bottom digital dollar until the tickets are announced. After all, it’s the Presidential Ticket which actually wins. But we have already discovered some interesting information which says something about the lives of these three men no matter what else happens.

More to come...!