The Denver Presidential Debate: An Astrological View

(photo credits: President Obama - official file photograph,

Governor Mitt Romney, Gage Skidmore, 2011)

Despite all the other things which need doing at the moment, when I heard that the first (of several) presidential debates was scheduled for October 3rd in Denver, my astrological ears perked up.

Or maybe it was my antenna swiveled – I’m not sure.

Considering that the 4th is when Jupiter goes retrograde…and that the 5th is when Saturn enters Scorpio (meaning Saturn would be at 29 degrees of Libra on October 3rd) it was either ghoulish or gleeful of me to think ‘oh, let’s just give this a look at their charts!’
So we’re going to do just that – together.

As you read just yesterday (or maybe you didn’t, and if so, if you want to you can pause here to read the previous post) that Jupiter is going retrograde at 16 Gemini.

So where does that fall in President Obama’s chart? (Presidents first, sorry Governor…)

President Barack Obama

 August 4, 1961 - 7:24 p.m. AHST/+10 - Honolulu, Hawaii

Jupiter is going retrograde in Barack Obama’s 2nd house of values, self worth, self respect and resources (talents, abilities, personal wealth). Looking around his chart, Jupiter’s station does not aspect much of anything – which astrologically means this station doesn’t (figuratively) “touch him.”

But it does conjunct Obama’s Rigel – the fixed star representing our ability to learn and our obligation to teach others. That’s not unusual, as Rigel is positioned at 16 Gemini in the natal charts of everybody born between late 1940 and October 2011. Apart from that however, this does suggest that this Denver debate is a moment for the President to give us a feeling for his values and – because this debate is happening just before Jupiter goes retrograde – how he sees exercising his values and values in general going forward.

With headstrong Phaethon at 15 Gemini (the degree just behind Jupiter’s station degree) we may hear the President verbally think through some former assertions – maybe some of the things he said during campaign 2008 or along the way?

For Governor Mitt Romney, this Jupiter station falls in his first house and conjunct natal Uranus.

 Governor Mitt Romney

March 12, 1947 - 9:51 a.m. EST/+5 - Detroit, Michigan

With Rigel in Romney’s chart, we’re likely to hear him voicing what he’s learned in life and about life and through his life experiences in more personal terms than with Obama. Some will like Romney’s plain speak first person delivery…and some will prefer what is likely to be a more “philosophical sounding” Obama.

With Jupiter not quite hitting Governor Romney’s Jupiter, he’s not quite exploding through the screen. But we may sense an excitation, even a tension in the man.

With Orcus and Medusa at 19 Gemini he’s likely to speak in terms of ‘consequences’ – both his own and those he sees as national choices. In opposition to Eros, his delivery is likely to be really endearing to some and highly off-putting to others. And with this station occurring in square to Romney’s Pisces Ceres and Mercury in the 11th house there are definitely those who are going to think Romney’s logic is ‘squishy’ or coming from a place of denial, lack of understanding or magical thinking (any of which could be seen to be Pisces on the 11th house) when it comes to social/societal resources.

Pisces on 11 is a funny animal. At once you have great faith in other people even as there tends to be a lack of clarity as to who they are or what their values (and economic stances) really are.


After looking at that, then I pulled a chart for the time of the debate, locating said chart to Denver, Colorado. That chart I then located to the middle of a tri-wheel (as it’s called) with the middle ring being President Obama’s chart and the outer rung being Governor Romney’s.

 
The point of these debates being the audience…we look to the 7th house.
 

 The October 3, 2012's 7th house (of the audience) in a tri-wheel. The inner wheel

is that of the debate, the middle wheel is the corresponding area of President

Obama's chart and the outer rung is from Mitt Romney's chart.

Mitt Romney is bringing Chiron at 8 Scorpio to the table: economics. On one hand you can expect to hear a lot about debt (and war – Scorpio often speaks to war in a political chart), on another you should expect what he says to show up his vulnerabilities.

Obama is bringing Neptune to the table. Also at 8 Scorpio his emphasis will is likely to be skewed towards health care, compassion and the ongoing discussion of the difference between what people may have hoped for in his administration (expectations) and real gains on various problems which have (or haven’t) been made.

The difficulty here for Romney is that his Chiron comes from an interception in the 6th house; there is a wall between him and the “common worker” which Governor Romney has never and will never cross. Conjunct natal Klotho and square Pluto-opposition-Venus, one of Mitt Romney’s biggest public challenges is astrologically defined as a t-square.

All t-squares are read counter-clockwise (in zodiacal order). And the rule with a t-square is that if you can’t get past the ‘t’ (in this case the intercepted Chiron) it doesn’t matter how high you hold that ‘goal’ (in this case Venus/Eos in Aquarius), you’re going to get tossed back to ‘Go’ with no collecting $250 (or in Romney’s case, maybe $250,000 dollars).

With Eos (dawning)/Venus in the Aquarian 10th, Governor Romney plainly thinks that everyone can indeed found and build a fortune. The problem – as defined by his chart – is that a.) he doesn’t recognize his own roots in established money (Scorpio here equaling inheritance and support) and his lack of real connection to hard core work.

Pluto/Circe in Leo opposition Venus/Eos in Aquarius is either a total denial of income or the blessings of having been born (Eos) into wealth. IF this configuration wasn’t a t-square…or maybe even more importantly, if it wasn’t pictured as the ‘t’ being intercepted, Governor Romney might have worked his way through the process to proving himself ‘one of the people.’

As it stands, that will probably never happen. A t-square is hard enough. A t-square with the ‘t’ intercepted? That’s an incredibly difficult things to master.
However…looking ahead, there is a solar eclipse at 11 Scorpio coming up in November 2013 – and another solar eclipse at 8 Scorpio during April 2014. If Romney is elected, these eclipses will truly show up his strengths and weaknesses.

And if he isn’t elected?

Let’s just say this is a really, truly challenging set of eclipse transits for Governor Romney. In a sense I would hope he was elected or doing something really truly tough just so that would absorb the energy.

Meanwhile…the audience? The actual audience is represented by Industria-Mercury-Saturn/Pandora. With all this positioned in Libra (and the 7th house) the ruling influence is Venus and Venus has just entered Virgo, putting it in conjunction with Regulus and Achilles.

Woe be to the politician who doesn’t just talk about ethics, but walk an ethical walk. The public isn’t feeling particularly tolerant: they’re ready to (Achilles) slay anyone unwilling to acknowledge the walk all the political talk forces upon others.

One other note here: Regulus/Achilles is also a very plain reference to soldiers and the military. In Virgo, this is both the work of the military, the safety of the military and the care the country owes its military both in terms of benefits and health care and choosing to send the US military into harm’s way.

The public is willing to listen to whatever these two men have to say. They ready to size up their choice. Contrary to what some may think, this chart validates the audience as a group of people who care about the facts - and that the candidates are honest and forthright. Saturn/Mercury as the audience against Romney's Chiron says he has to be vulnerable, particularly on subjects he's said he doesn't want to talk about. His whole litany of 'we aren't discussing my taxes, we aren't discussing abortion and contraception, we aren't discussing Bain Capital...' those are all Scorpio subjects, which is another version of an interception in the 'responsibility/obligation' 6th house. Romney has plainly said 'I don't have to talk about those things and I'm not going to.'

That doesn't mean that the audience still doesn't want to know and that on this occasion at least, they are going to judge Romney - in part - by whether he does or doesn't discuss those matters they want to hear discussed.

Obama, on the other hand, has to be his factual self, not his poetic self. His Scorpio Neptune against the audience Mercury/Saturn gives him a chance to own up to successes, failures and human(e) considerations, including a few facts many Americans don't want to hear, but which are nonetheless true.

The question with Obama thus becomes 'will he brave disgruntling some in the name of being honest about where the country is and what it needs to do?'

The big fun in writing a blog like this is in looking at the signatures and trying to see what is going to be clocked in as specific reactions to an event. Astrology gives us a chance to look ahead. This is Obama's 'no drama Obama' Scorpio Neptune against Romney's fractious-yet-veiled (intercepted) Scorpio Chiron.

Saturn is at 29 Libra: this is make or break time for both men - and for public patience. Evidently the number of  people who haven't yet decided who to vote for are few. With Libra being a cardinal sign...with Saturn at 29 degrees of Libra...it seems rather unlikely that things coming out of this debate - at least from the audience perspective - will end up settling the election ahead.

Such are my thoughts of the moment. And now...we wait and see!

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Whatever your political affiliation, if

you're eligible to vote in the upcoming election, 

 go out there and vote! 

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