Astrologer’s Diary: Political Times

One of the photo's from NASA's 'Earth at Night' series (2012)

Initially I thought of this post as a form of ‘update’ to a piece logged into the astroPPM flow as of January 11, 2011, namely ‘2011’s Fixed Star Eclipses and the Eclipsing of the US Congress’ which for a mélange of reasons likely obvious and inexplicable has been wrested from relative reader obscurity to the position of number one all-time read post here at the blog.

Mind you...all this happened without anyone so much as commenting or sending me an email. But being not insensible to interests being expressed (and well aware of the sudden swelling of noise, discord and violence around our world) lists were duly compiled, birth data was dug out, charts were cast and research was begun.

What turned up?

Something which though not entirely comfortable, is highly informative - if you consider things from the metaphysical perspective, that is.

First, a full and proper confession: I did not pull charts on every last living member of the US Congress. There are hundreds of congress people and not even a dedicated researcher such as myself was up for that task.

So what list was used? Simple: the US Congress has two houses - the House of Representatives and the Senate. If you head either chamber, you went on my list (hello, Senator Reid and Representative Boehner) with the same ‘invitation’ being extended to majority and minority leaders and their respective party whips.

(No, I’m not going for that joke. That's just too easy.)

After that came a group of congress people thought of as Those Who Stand in Front of Cameras. In other words, if you’re a member of Congress whose name has become engraved amidst the folds of my gelatinous if retentive brain merely because you show up on the news all the time, you were on my list.

To those of you who are students of astrology I will answer what is often the next question I gets asked about such studies: where do you start? My answer is generally ‘anywhere,’ though dates (or ranges of dates) help, as that will give you a time period in which to look for planetary stations, eclipses or some other ‘celestial notice’ to test against your mass of charts.

Which is what I did, with the celestial notice in question being April’s 8 Taurus Solar Eclipse, an eclipse which occurred in conjunction with fixed stars Schedir and Hamal.

- link to -

April’s 8 Taurus Solar Eclipse

(Pt. 3: Stars and Patterns)

What I found was that there was a definite split by party. While by no means a 100% occurrence...which is not to say every Republican and/or every Democratic members was affected, nor would those which were ‘hit’ by the eclipse affected identically...there was indeed a pattern: if aspected by the eclipse, Republican congressperson charts tended to be aspected by conjunction or opposition as opposed to the eclipse squaring objects in the charts of Democratic congress people.

Here are a few examples...

Speaker of the House, John Boehner (Republican)

November 17, 1941 - Reading, Ohio - Aries Wheel (glyph chart)

Speaker of the House, John Boehner (Republican)

November 17, 1941 - Reading, Ohio - Aries Wheel (text chart)

With Mercury at 6 Scorpio, the 8 Taurus eclipse was in opposition, indicating testing situations and trying interpersonal matters, all of which have to do with the ability, manner, purpose or denial of [Scorpio] profitable connections, all of which would have been in what might be called ‘oppositional focus.’

Because no time is given for Speaker Boehner’s birth, no Moon is shown in his chart. However, given its position at dawn (2 Scorpio), unless the Speaker was born in the first few hours after midnight (say, by 4 in the morning) his Moon will be in Scorpio and will also be involved in the opposition by eclipse - which would be a rough emotional ride for anyone.

Heroes and villains alike have quailed under such pressures.

Moreover, Mr. Boehner isn’t out of the celestial woods as yet. Also highlighted in his chart is Juno (the principle of ‘management’ or ‘protecting the use of XYZ through proper application of management’) at 28 Libra, a degree which brings up one’s ‘mental culture,’ particularly where integrity, honesty and willingness to try/work/make an honest effort are concerned.

This Libra Juno is going to be eclipsed by October 2014’s 0 Scorpio solar eclipse.

And yes, that will be by conjunction.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Republican)

June 6, 1963 - Richmond, Virginia - Aries Wheel (glyph chart)

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Republican)

June 6, 1963 - Richmond, Virginia - Aries Wheel (text chart)

When House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost his recent bid for re-election in the preliminary (primary) round, everyone was shocked. Everyone who didn’t have his chart, that is. Eclipses atop Black Moon Lilith are all about a ‘mass rejection’ whether that’s by others or by us. With the natal Black Moon in Scorpio anything which promotes or provokes emotions or emotionality (or emotional responses) is the venue - and with Black Moon Lilith conjunct Sabine (a point which can mean ‘raped’ but more often refers to a confinement or some sort of restriction) in the natal chart, when added to the idea that Mr. Cantor’s primary fell within the purview of Neptune’s early June 7 Pisces station, Neptune opposition Pluto (transformation) + Ceres (standing for defense) + Hebe(helping) + Deucalion (independent morality) + Child (physical children, childhood, immaturity, innocence)... that would seem to be the ‘recipe’ for voters evidently feeling Mr. Cantor was (reportedly) “too liberal” on immigration (that being the Neptune opposition) and too “out of touch” with their needs... which caused him to be ‘eclipsed’ (voted) out of office.

The charts above are less typical than some in that they have dual signals, but they are fairly typical of Republican charts as sampled...with the caveat that yes, those who would speak out (be seen on the news) would probably be those people whose charts were being eclipsed and who experienced that as passionate experiences, be they pro or con. And on the other (Democratic) side we have charts like this - the chart of Representative Nancy Pelosi, who was Speaker of the House last time the Democrats controlled that chamber:

Representative Nancy Pelosi (Democrat)

March 26, 1948 - Baltimore, Maryland - Aries Wheel (glyph chart)

 Representative Nancy Pelosi (Democrat)

March 26, 1948 - Baltimore, Maryland - Aries Wheel (text chart)

Holding to standard (Ptolemaic) 5-degree orbs for conjunction, opposition and square, the eclipse at 8 Taurus is not in conjunction/opposition with the Nodes of this chart. But it was in square to Representative Pelosi’s Pluto, just as it is in square to Pallas (dispassionate perspective) and all the many indications of variable pressures denoted by Pluto in the chart of Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (Democrat)

June 22, 1949 - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma - Aries Wheel (glyph chart)

Senator Elizabeth Warren (Democrat)

June 22, 1949 - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma - Aries Wheel (text chart)

Yet the details to all of this (interesting though they may be) are not nearly as illuminating as the idea of how distinctly charts of party members fell into pattern with each other, which makes sense if we think of how ‘like minded’ (or even relatively like minded) people would tend to gravitate towards one rather than the other party - particularly in what has come to be America’s basically two-party system.

And that leads us to the charts of the Republican National Committee (known widely as ‘the RNC’) and the Democratic Committee (known as ‘the DNC’).

Republican National Committee (RNC)

June 17, 1856 - Philadelphia PA - Noon (glyph chart)

 Republican National Committee (RNC)

June 17, 1856 - Philadelphia PA - Noon (text chart)

 Democratic National Committee (DNC)

May 22 1848 - Baltimore MD - Noon (glyph chart)

Democratic National Committee (DNC)

May 22 1848 - Baltimore MD - Noon (text chart)

One of the issues the RNC is dealing with (and which it has been dealing with for a couple of years now) is the rise of the Tea Party wing, a segment of Republican thought which seeks to change the status quo in a rather across-the-board kind of way, making its point by (among other things) working to bring about Eric Cantor’s primary defeat.

That movement to change the party from within the party is a hugely Plutonic sort of process, and with Pluto in Taurus the issue is values while Pluto’s placement in the 8th points to the ‘field of play’ being a place where values must be negotiated and joined, whether within the party or across party lines.

(Just to note: this being a chart for a worldly ‘entity’ it automatically gets a noon time, so we know the house placement.)

Being that this chart dates from 1856, fixed stars Hamal and Schedir are not at their current position of 7 Taurus - they’re at 5 Taurus, which puts them exactly in conjunction with the RNC Pluto, a combination which will tend to point to potent tenacity if a cyclic tendency to expand and contract depending on how the idea of ‘restraint’ (Schedir) is internalized and dealt with.

More important in this moment, this 5 Taurus Pluto-Schedir-Hamal was eclipsed in April and will be eclipsed again in October, pointing to an extended period of turmoil which will naturally reflect and be reflected in the work and feelings of party members.

The Democratic Party isn't going to escape turmoil either - both parties are solidly founded in Piscean Age ethics and thus will inevitably change as we move into increasingly Aquarian Age times. So we can expect more turmoil...but that turmoil is part of what might be called 'necessary evolution' - the trading of one set of considerations for another. Piscean ethics are always emotional. Aquarian ethics are always conceptual.

It's a process, one in which metaphysically, individuals feeding into (or on) a given party’s turmoil... or an industry's challenges...or the debates of one or many nations - they are all responding to the overture of our times. Political parties, being theoretical entities which operate within a realm of ideas, formulating concepts as 'product' are always going to be more wholly ‘theoretical’ than anyone of flesh and blood corporeality could possibly be.

And that would be why they...along with all things theoretical, conceptual and to some extent "not real" (like the internet) represent the means by which the influx of our times stimulate our lives...our thoughts...our perception of the world we live in.

This is what seemed so interesting to me. As we enter the Aquarian Age...

The wheel of the Aquarian Age (Aquarius rising)

   

...Scorpio - the sign which tests our security - rises to the top of the wheel. In that position, on an individual basis it represents our desire to achieve or gain enough power over our life to feel secure - though surely some will interpret that as simply the lust for personal power.

And that’s the test for governments as well. The point at the top of the horoscope wheel - the Midheaven - is also the cusp of the 10th house, a house which in the worldly sense speaks to everything which structures our life, which ‘runs’ things we then deal with (or don’t deal with). In positive mode the 10th is inspirational and motivational. In negative mode the 10th is restrictive, paranoid and suspicious.

This is the polarity we all will be dealing with for the whole of the Aquarian Age - all 2,160 years long of it. Aquarius is the sign of systems and mass collectives, of the marketplace and everything which powers our world... our thoughts... our willingness and ability to join together... or not.

And here’s the point: Aquarius is an air sign, and air signs function through considerations of thought and concept, which makes it not at all surprising that the reality of functionality which is - and which is going to be  the Aquarian Age is making itself known not just in this instance, but across societies and our world through the theories we like or don't like. Which we discuss, debate, deny, which we excuse ourselves from any responsibility for (lack of responsibility is a famously Aquarius negative quotient)...which we debate, explore, abandon, work to purify, get upset about and yes - occasionally explode and go up in smoke about. Aquarius calls our attentions to foibles so that we can take responsibility so that we have an opportunity to conjure up the type of inventiveness which gets us past our sticking points and testing times.

Note please...not their sticking points, our sticking points. Aquarius functions well only when all points in the system are engaged, properly utilized, attended to and kept current. Though Aquarius honors equality and a lack of those distinctions which under the winner/loser, ruler/ruled, rich/poor, upper/lower class Piscean Age were both common and accepted, there will come a time - probably not all that long from now - when Aquarian imperatives will provide the means by which such things as cast, gender (as identity) wealth and other such  qualities become less important than our humanity... a humanity which, to put it in Aquarian terms, we will adopt and adapt to as soon as we are truly done being inhumane - most of all to our Selves.

Not that all this will come to us as easily as breathing - which is good cause to see and grasp and understand what is going on in American politics. Yes, there is a level at which it is entirely about the laws and budgets and human beings.

But it's also about the flow of time... and when it comes to Aquarius, though Aquarius honors equality, its early manifestations are often disruptive, elitist, intolerant and far from the stuff of dreams. It takes time for us to learn that as individual as we all are, we only all gain when we all pool our knowledge, when we become willing to let go of personal priorities and cease  arguing about ownership in favor of discussing the ideas which really  count.

Which is really what politics is all about - if often challenged by.
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October’s 0 Scorpio Solar Eclipse (Pt. 1: the Map and Basics)

 A map of the path for this year's Solar Eclipse at

0 Scorpio which will occur on October 23, 2014 at 9:58 p.m. (UT/+0)

A sense of advancing plight overtook me while listening to news of desperate and desperately deceived parents risking the lives of their own children, paying fees to smugglers willing to subject others to dangerous desert crossings on their way to a United States border the crossing of which would bring only limited respite while inflaming long-postponed (and of late, deadlocked) US domestic issues.

All through the week the story kept spreading. First came the stories and photos out of Texas and Arizona showing children being housed in makeshift Red Cross-equipped quarters by a government which had neither invited them, nor which had seen any reason to set up boarding units for plural thousands of children. It was a mess - one helpfully not helped out by the US Congress, which for reasons of its own seems hell-bent on not working through the problems and business of the nation which funds their paychecks.

(Need I say how evident it seems that the U.S. Congress doesn't study metaphysics? On the other hand, I do - which would be what I've been thinking about of late...what does it mean in a greater and more metaphysical scope that any legislative body of any nation would simply take to sitting on its collective, quill-grasping thumbs?)

More to the present day reality speaking of which (politics, that is), political rhetoric ran hot and noisy with the next act in this drama - a crowd turning back buses loaded with undocumented moms and kids in California...which rather filled out the scope of the eclipse map as it applies to the United States, with the additional given that the nations from which these people are arriving are also getting eclipsed.

Plus there is the fact that this is the final North-Node-in-Scorpio eclipse we're going to have for a while, which signals a sort of cumulative effect of all the North Node/Scorpio, South Node/Taurus issues which have been building in our lives and in our lives as a product of our ability to live with/in our world, home, lifestyle, belief set, relationships, commitments (etcetera) over the past couple of years.

And this 'last of the series' is at zero, no less. As a metaphysical numerical signature, zero represents the most basic of all basics. It represents the need to start from zero and the possibility that all will be reduced to zero given our ability or inability to deal with the implications of the sign being triggered.

Which in this case is Scorpio, that 'fixed' water sign which invites us to fix ourselves, lest others 'fix our wagon' for us. (Badly, that would be.)

Considering this along with the Sabian symbol for 0 Scorpio (which I will type out here for you in a moment) I felt moved to post the October solar eclipse map. Not only is forewarned forearmed, but seeing as the intensity of what's going on at this point is the sort of thing we would expect to see during the two months immediately prior to an eclipse but not as yet...well, that suggests a level of concerted consternation (and upheavals) yet to arise from this eclipse map.

An event map generated by the USGS for the June 23, 2014 earthquake which shook Alaska's Aleutian Islands to a magnitude of 7.9 on the Richter scale.

Speaking of which (the reference here being 'upheavals') there was an 8.0 (prelimitary reading) earthquake in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands on June 23, 2014. This is also in the solar map zone...and we are about three years out from the 13 Capricorn solar eclipse of early 2011 which preceded Japan's Fukushima quake. That Japan itself is not included in the eclipse map isn't itself surprising - nor is the fact that this recent quake occurred to the east of the former, as that's the direction eclipses 'rotate' as well.

It's all part of a singular mechanism - the same one we're all part of. 

Without knowing exactly why this next ‘eclipse season’ seems to be giving us such a clarity of foresight (or in the case of the quake, foreshock) of what’s to come, it is worth noting that the “standard” two-month ‘breaking down’ of situations (or resistance to things) we would anticipate with an eclipse occurring on October 23rd would begin on August 23rd (give or take).

Is there something about our times which extends eclipse effects? Are we merely dealing with a chaotic combination of influences?

Yes - but that doesn’t seem to cover the astrological bill, even when we take into account that this next eclipse will be positioned at 0 Scorpio - a degree which with whatever else it may be, would also be a signature for ‘karma coming due.’

As usual, we will as humans no doubt assume that karma means someone else’s karma and act accordingly - which when we talk Scorpio generally means acting badly towards the whole while purely focused on the first-person personal.

All of which makes the prospects of a U.S. election season occurring under this influence truly flinch-worthy.

And yet...and yet the point of any eclipse coming to a ‘zero’ degree is to take things entirely down to basics - which with Scorpio is going to refer not to ‘the ills within’ we saw with the Taurus eclipse exploding the myths...our myths of mythic Self...within the frameworks of fixed stars Hamal and Schedir...no, this next eclipse is going to be all about the ills we create in our own lives and all the destroying of the potentials and possibilities we set ourselves up for through not holding that which is ‘without’ (others, our cities, societies, world, planet, etc.) in as high a regard as we hold for those instinct-driven desires for personal validation and security.

The Sabian symbol for 0 Scorpio reads as follows: A CROWDED SIGHTSEEING BUS ON A CITY STREET, an image Marc Edmund Jones’ original interpretation spoke of as the fundamental human eagerness to expand one’s social horizon and to experience the results of collective achievements and new ways of life. This interpretation, which dates from 1930, probably should be thought of in more modern terms since in today’s world there’s as much ‘exploring of the world around us’ which takes place electronically as through any other means.

And that, my friends, is the hallmark of the Aquarian Age - an idea which seems more and more important to think about as we live through a stretch of years rife with the turbulence of one set of patterns evolving into another...as people and parents born under one age inevitably struggle with their children and a society which is going to naturally have some ‘phasing in/phasing out’ issues of its own - a quality we can expect will appear over the months ahead (because October's eclipse is in opposition to fixed star Mirach) in a more or less obvious forms as well as in ways far more subtle (and perhaps more painful) where life's (eclipse) processes cause us to meet up with where our 'easy going' feelings of friendship are based neither on strengths (theirs or ours) and/or our ability to 'own' how willing we all are out of human necessity to deceive ourselves.

You know...that famous 'risk now, pay later' thing?

Known for great accomplishments where sufficient personal strength to deal with frustration, 0 Scorpio seems to bring things ‘to a point’ where intensity of aim and/or focus either breaks through, breaks down or breaks under the weight of some fallacy (innocent or otherwise). Just as the immigration situation is doing in the United States, all matters 0 Scorpio threaten us with our worst (though we all would rather fear the worst about others) in such a manner that we think we can be 'defended' (most of all against being overwhelmed by our own feelings) when the real issue is about adjusting to reality/realities with the understanding that no one gets to have 100% of what they want in life.

That 100% of the want, that is the ideal - which at its best Scorpio teaches is less attractive than that which is achievable and though not ideal, validating in the fact that we have lived up to and achieved our level best as human beings. 

People often act immature in Scorpio situations. Scorpio asks that we experience our own sense of vulnerability through ‘agreeing’ to tolerate the flexing of our emotions through interactions with others...and through choosing to risk/not risk tomorrow’s gains, opportunities and growth based on how secure we are with ourselves - on the inside.

When things go wrong under Scorpio, we will always tend to blame others. And yet, just under the surface - our surface - is that thread of searing Scorpio angst which says ‘I chose to get involved.’

In the end, the biggest tests of Scorpio are all about not our defeats, but about learning how most defeats are defeats of ego, not worth - and how for some of us, only through having our ego defeated can we come to recognize that truly lasting Scorpio power which has everything to do with that cognizance of others which inspires sufficient respect that they become...and remain...conscious of us, as well as willing to respect us both equally, separately and together.
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Chart USA: Solar Return 2013

(Adapted from a stock image of the Great Seal of the United States)

For those who agree with (or who are willing to entertain) the idea that Chart USA is the horoscope which pictures the reunification of ‘a country divided’ at the end of the Civil War, there is a solar return for this chart which will occur on April 9, 2013 at 1:28 in the afternoon (EDT/+4).

 Chart USA - Solar Return 2013

 
And for those of you who are skeptical about this chart, I invite you to use it. (Check in the sidebar in the 'Corporate and Political' section for "Chart USA" postings).

Granting the huge debate about Chart USA, this is the only chart I have found which works. As esteemed astrologer Robert Hand observed, all the other charts for the United States have a void-of-course Moon. And if there’s one thing the United States isn’t, that would be a nation which is indecisive about its existence and willingness to speak its mind and act on same.

That’s not to say the US does it all right – just that it’s willing to do stuff.

Anyway…Solar Return 2013 as the Sun at 20 Aries with Mars at 21 Aries and Eris/Venus at 23 Aries exactly conjunct the 23 Aries Solar Eclipse Midheaven. Whoever is thinking this government (and nation) is going to get united and peaceful about what it’s values are, forget it. Eris/Venus is a sign of discontentment if there ever was one. The degree 23 Aries is known for confusion with the necessity (or “necessary evil”) implied here being to accept reality and deal with that.

Of course, when it comes to the United States, just what that reality is…? That would be the question.
With Mars as ruler of Aries and Mars conjunct the Sun and both in the statistically very active and potent degrees which precede all angles of any horoscope, there is a generosity which can be offset by foolishness and a need to not move ‘ahead of the pack’ (or the times) which is interestingly offset by this all happening in a 9th house which with it’s 21 Pisces cusp (with Kleopatra exactly conjunct and Kalypso/Mercury at 23 Pisces denotes a weakness which can come from too much or too little reliance on faith (that would be national faith or faith-as-in-religion)…and the Kleopatra intelligence of 'things foreign’ including foreign countries, foreign nationals and foreign beliefs.

And if you’re into the danger of all that, just think – this Pisces Kleopatra/9th house cusp and Mercury/Kalypso also applies to education in the US (i.e., the educational system). 

Burnished fields outside Benton Township, Columbia County

(photo credit: Nicholas A Tonelli, May 2010)

The dreams and commensurate lack of realities in both regards would seem to be where the US is going to have problems. Mercury in Pisces – under any circumstance – tends to exacerbate worry. So are all the concerns voiced by the government or the American people valid? Maybe yes, maybe no. Since Pisces on the 9th says you can’t just learn the basics, you have to understand the spirit of the thing even though many people will be up on dates, names and histories, understanding what that means to others is likely to be a big weak point.

Oh yes – did I forget to remind us all that the 9th house is also the house of the media and ‘information dissemination’? This should be a big year for everything from blowing things out of proportion to bad behavior on the internet creating problems in – and for – the United States.

To make this even more interesting, the 20 Aries Sun in this chart rules both the Leo Ascendant and the Leo 2nd house. This is a sign that what the country does affects its stability and security. (And that would be both its economic, international and sense of stability, inclusively.) Leo at Ascendant is very good when it acts with an eye to long term growth and a creative way of dealing with challenges (thinking of good parenting as the example here is probably apt)…and Leo at the Ascendant is very bad – even detrimental in it’s own (Sun) regard when it acts arrogantly or presumptively, as in ‘I know what’s best for you.’

Unfortunately, this Leo first-and-second house also speaks to a continuing likelihood of problematic young people and problems with how parents treat their children, too.

Still, on the 'up' side this is also a sign that important 'creations' and the whole idea of 'Made in America' may come to the fore - and become increasingly important. Even something to celebrate.

Any nation’s ‘business’ (national or with regards to its commerce) will be ruled by Saturn. And this chart presents us with a 9 Scorpio Saturn (retrograde) in the 4th house, conjunct Deucalion and – through Deucalion, the North Node. This points to a ‘wrestling’ with real estate and (Scorpio) debt on the part not of the nation, but the national populace. It also speaks to prices of issues, which may be approaching ‘fair or moral’ (Deucalion) in terms of actual value, but which are probably not what they were prior to the recession. Dealing with the idea that the real estate market will recover but probably not soar is going to be something people from all walks of life will need to (North Node) accept, and many of them will respond to this idea by saying ‘I don’t know how to.’ 

A rainbow and streams of rain filter down from clouds

over the Delaware River Valley in Pennsylvania

(photo credit: Nicholas Tonelli, July 2012)

This sense of ‘how can you say that to me?’ will continue into the world of investments. For all that the US stock market is currently way up there, there are many people who have never recovered from what they lost at the top of the market before its crash. The lesson in the stock market as a vehicle of risk is going to be one thing people are going to learn more about this year, and with fixed star Toliman and Medea at the 5th house Scorpio cusp (the 5th house is the house of all thinks risky and all risks we take) it would seem like some people are either going to be shy about getting back into the market (they got seriously scared the last time around) or they’re going to learn a big lesson through over-investing.

Which yes, suggests that at some point during this solar year there will be a major market correction.

This is actually compounded by that Leo rising and Leo on the 2nd house cusp: the stock market is notorious for correcting or simply dropping some measurable amount when Mercury goes retrograde in Leo (which it will not do this year) or when there’s a solar eclipse in Leo (also not happening this year).

What we do have is this Saturn in Scorpio and Mercury going retrograde in Scorpio during October and on into November, with a solar eclipse occurring in Scorpio on November 3rd.

This would seem to be a difficult moment for the nation. Pictured as a solar 4th and 5th house occurrence, this is likely to be something endemic or ‘home grown’ or of the nation’s own making which either makes a major shift or which shows up as a problematic weakness.

The signature here is 28 Scorpio and Toliman. 28 Scorpios is all about ‘superior power’ which when it isn’t directed towards social and societal betterment through heartfelt and open emotional support, negotiation and – to some degree – vulnerability becomes an energy which is highly problematic. Even dangerously so.

Oregon's Rogue River

(photo credit: Hamad Darwish of Medford, Oregon - October 2005)

Toliman is a fixed star which refers to ‘learning better through mastering of one’s emotions.’ This star is the foot of a centaur, with lore suggesting that this is the centaur Chiron, implying a vulnerability we can face, but which we are loath to tackle.

At it’s most unfortunate, this is likely to be a symbol of tragedy which has long range effects on the future. Scorpio is the sign of atomic power and we are likely to hear a lot about atomic issues this year (obviously that has already started with conversations about North Korea). But we should be aware that this is not just about some foreign country. While the first of Scorpio’s co-rulers (Mars) is conjunct the Sun and in the 9th house which – as above – would tend to speak to all sorts of things foreign, that Scorpio is on the 5th house and therefore below the horizon in this chart is about the US itself and something which happens (if you’re an American) in the “here at home” quadrant. And since the ‘outcome’ ruler of Scorpio is Pluto, that points to Pluto in Capricorn, here positioned in the 6th house of health, work, service (i.e., that we need to do because it needs to be done) and conjunct Facies (the million factors and facets which drive us all nuts) and Industria/Vega.

Pluto is also conjunct the Aries Moon-Amor-Photographica and Uranus complex in the 9th house.

In any national chart, the 6th house being the house of those who work for the government or for the nation puts the civil service, the military, operations like the post office, Congress and the states as members of a union (complete with their governments and civil service leagues) on the table.

The 6th house of a national chart is also its system of health care and its work force in general.

Pluto / Facies is the ongoing and seemingly endless debate about who is responsible for what and what needs to be changed. There is denial at work, and sometimes creation in spite of that. Or creative ways of destroying what could be, all as part of the desire to simply control things for your own personal end.

With the ruler of this solar 6th (Saturn) in the 4th house of the people, as much as the people may not like seeing bad behaviors in their government, they are described as being - at some level - equally culpable.

And afraid. But then, the government is also afraid. It may be afraid of the world...or how 'how the world works' is changing (emphasized by Pluto in the 6th), but they're also afraid of the people. And as all those who work for and with power do in such situations, they will tend to clutch ever tighter until they are either removed from power or they break the tiller of the boat.

Or the patience of the people.

The Japanese Gardens at Huntington Museum in Pasadena, California

(photo credit: Randy, son of Robert April 2007)

Saturn in Scorpio is patient, but not that patient. And even if things stay the way they are through this (calendar) year, Saturn moves into Sagittarius in January of 2015. And Saturn in Sagittarius is well known to be not-all-that patient.

Nor is it subtle. Saturn in Sagittarius tends to bring around a lot of 'backfires' based on shortsighted or narrow-minded thinking.

But that's yet to come. Meanwhile, here in 2013, Industria/Vega conjunct Pluto is a changing workforce and the need to change our attitudes about those who work and the quality (Vega) of the work they do.

Uranus-Moon-Amor-Photographica in the 9th house smacks of a buddy-buddy system and the whole ‘I’ll support you if you’ll make me look good’ sort of thing.’ On the whole, this looks to be a challenge to the nation as a nation to get past it’s ‘playing to the media’ as opposed to using the media properly to get information out to those who need to know what’s going on.

This is also an image of a workforce which can be at odds with its leaders or leaders joining with the workforce to better the nation’s lot. Looked at like this, the leaders would appear to posture and the workforce would seem to lose interest in working for a group of leaders who they perceive as not giving a ho-ho, snowball (or twinkie) about them.

Thirdly, this is an image of the citizenry and the way it would like to see itself – that being added through this solar Capricorn 6th house being  ruled by the Scorpio Saturn in the 4th house of the national population. The ‘I don’t care about others, I only care what happens to me’ is a national problem. The national obsession with ‘lookism’ on every level is defined here as a problem.

As is mental health. And yet, with Pluto sextile Chiron (which is conjunct ‘repeated challenges’ Achernar) in the 8th house, the health – mental and that of the commerce system – is still plainly in the hands of those who care more about their power (in many cases) or what they ‘get’ from the process than in doing a good job.

 Autumn in New Hampshire

(photo credit: Bluepoint, December 2005)

If the nation is a patient, in this image we see it opting for plastic surgery and Xanax rather than accepting the reality that life isn’t paradise and that with all due respect for Billy Crystal ‘you look mah-velous!’ routine, looking good and ‘having it all’ is less important than doing good and investing quality in what you do while valuing those around you and what you have.

Neptune at 4 Pisces in the 8th here asks for humility. Conjunct Fomalhaut to the degree it says that the United States must face its fears on all fronts, internal as well as external. With Medusa at 2 Pisces with Nessus just inside the 25 Aquarius 8th house cusp, the nation can face its fears of living in a world which the US does not control or regulate all by its mega-conscious ‘I-Me’ Aries self…or it can move towards recreating the lessons which will force the US to learn to be a nation of the world through problems in this world and with the world at large.

Is there an ‘answer to the quandary’ posed here? If there is, it’s shown up by the Part of Fortune (aka Fortuna) being positioned at 26 Cancer, conjunct Pollux and conjunct Byblis in the 12th house.

Byblis is ‘defending the indefensible.’ Pollux calls for an intellectually driven choice to give something up of your own accord. Both of these symbols being in the solar 12th house describe current trends to not take on these issues, however you want to describe them…as gun control, child abuse, environmental issues, climate change, drugs, drug addiction and the effect that has on families, children and the population at large, factionalization of the population along cultural lines (including immigration issues)…

These things are not being attended to. And since Cancer is on the 11th house natal for the nation, the problem would seem to be both commercially-driven (probably profit-driven) and because the problem seems to large for the nation to wrap its (Pollux) mind around it…at least well enough to make a decision and the sacrifices which might come with that.

Radio City Music Hall in 1996

(photo credit: Rick Dikeman)

Are they going to get attended to? Only if and where people get scared enough. At that point Byblis will stop being the defending of the thing which isn't good. Or the defending of something which works for some but not for all. And once Byblis turns to its positive side, as seen in this chart it would seem the whole of the people - the citizens of the United States - will demand that things get done.

But before that...? Expect them to be too busy with their own business, their own families and the 'maintaining of their own houses.' At some level, this 12 house Part of Fortune speaks to the need for the country to consider the nation it's 'household.' And to the extent that the people of the United States don't see their nation as their 'home' and everyone in it either part of the family or a guest in the house, they're going to make things more difficult for themselves, and their government.

And conversely, the government will do things which make things harder for the general populace. (Welcome to the wonderful metaphysical world of political cause/effect!) 

26 Cancer is a degree which generally manifests as a poetic image which is great if you’re an artist and not so fabulous if you’re a nation needing to deal with reality. With Cancer on this house, the citizens of the US and some image of ‘how things used to be’ or ‘the old way’ or ‘what we were taught by our parents’ or even a wholesale, word-for-word ‘founding fathers’ allegiance is described here as a source of not just limitation but fear, qualities which the nation as a whole (government and people) have to get past if they are to move on and grow into times yet to come. By having faith in its people the US does far better than to eschew their needs, rights and the plight not just of families, but of those who don’t have families. This is a Moon-ruled image of the ‘national family’ which the government is asked to shepherd, protect and educate so that America can not so much ‘look like’ a leader, but be a nation which in leads through grappling with the realities of life. And how ‘liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ has enough practical, real-time limitations without pride and prejudice being heaped upon them.

With Circe at the Leo Ascendant, the government of the US is likely to act like one spellbound. This is the chart of a government likely to pick fights at home and abroad frankly because the driving fire-sign forces for 2013 care can get away with bad behavior.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is at  some level the real sign of a rich and powerful nation – or at least a nation which is sufficiently rich and powerful in present tense to indulge in fearful ignorance.

Whatever happens in 2013, The United States is likely to weather it. Not perhaps comfortably. Not even happily. But the crunch is coming.

Sunset in Marana, Arizona 

(photo credit: John Hunnicutt II, November 2006)

A long time ago – back when the recession first hit, I wrote a few posts about US (and world) economics. In those posts I said that for various reasons, things were not going to change substantially until 2017.

To those comments I will now add this: come 2016, just as an eclipse hits the Descendant of Chart USA, Uranus will conjunct the nation’s Sun. And that means that some of the factors involved in that change will start being felt during the latter part of 2014, as Uranus moves into orb of the national Sun.

That is when the power, the energy, the direction the US is currently headed in will shift. Whether it will do so of its own accord and peacefully, or because it is prompted to by some external force (good or bad), that remains to be seen.

But the nation will change. Or it will be changed.

It’s really that simple.

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Inauguration 2013: The Second Obama Administration

The dome of the US Capitol at night in Washington, D.C.

(Florian Hirzinger, August 2010)

In spite of the fact that the term of a President for the United States is supposed to begin on January 20th, this time around the gigantic party which is America’s Inauguration Day will be taking place on January 21st, 2013 – which happens to be Martin Luther King Day.

But the law on this subject is clear: the term of President starts on January 20th at noon. So, since the last thing the United States needs is for the country to technically be without a President for a day…(not to mention the headaches and debates which would erupt if Barack Obama just hung around ‘acting like a President' for a day between Term One and Term Two)…since the United States isn’t a nation prone to doing such things, Chief Justice John Roberts will swear Barack Obama in as President (again) on Sunday January 20th.

And then John Roberts will swear Barack Obama in again on Monday.

Aside from the fact that apparently Washington, DC is into a lot of swearing, there are those who will ask what the astrology on all this is.

I’m way ahead of you. We had Version One of this question the last time around when Obama took the oath on January 20th then Chief Justice Roberts noodled over to the White House to re-administer oath because a few words had gotten flubbed up.

Barack Obama with Chief Justice John Roberts as the 'second' oath of office is administered on January 21, 2009

(photo credit: White House, Pete Souza)

In that case, the ‘official’ swearing in was a few minutes after noon on the 20th, and that very small variance (between 12 noon exactly and the five-minutes-after-noon chart which timed the ‘swearing in’ moment) appeared here and there in the following four years as the differences between what the administration pretty much described some of the internal turmoil in the US government.

The Obama Administration takes office

January 20, 2009 - noon (EST/+5) - Washington D.C.

Barack Obama takes the Oath of Presidential Office

on January 20, 2009 - 12:05 p.m. (EST/+5) - Washington, D.C.

The tale here is told in the small shift of cusp houses, most specifically the Ascendant/Descendant line which in the noon chart was 14 Taurus/Scorpio and in the swearing in chart is 15 Taurus/Scorpio. The degrees around 15 degrees of all four fixed signs is a very specific section of the zodiac which is all about the willingness to change. Or the resistance to change. When we see Taurus/Scorpio involved in this dynamic, the Taurus side doesn’t want to feel they’re wrong and the Scorpio side is all about control and fears of loss of control.

Need I say more?

In any case, the ‘day after oath’ (Return of Oath, Oath Part Deux) didn’t seem to have an ‘active’ part in the administration at all. EXCEPT…except if we think of how President Obama seemed to very much be his own man in the midst of All Things Governmental. Obama’s very consistent perspective on how things work – the applied necessity of functionality is very much a Sagittarian concept, and by a day after the inauguration, the Moon was already half way through Sagittarius.

The very aura of ‘getting perspectives on problems’ which the world has heard the President talk about (and many have criticized him for, calling Obama “professorial”) is very Sagittarian, Sagittarius being the sign of learning, whether we’re learning whether or how things work, or learning from someone who is teaching us, or even encouraging us to reconsider.

One more item to note about this Sagittarian Moon is that in 2009, House, Ixion and Pholus were all at 15 Sagittarius, conjunct the Moon of this ‘secondary Oath’ chart. If you missed the post which precedes this one, that will spell out why I’m citing this here – with one addendum which came to me after the ‘Accountability: Running with Astrological Scissors’ post went up.

That note is about entitlement. Ixion is very much about entitlement (read the piece linked to in the Accountability post and you’ll understand why I say that). My point here is that Pholus-Ixion seems to “spell” accountability where Ixion-Pholus seems to “spell” entitlement…which has been a BIG buzz word in life, money and politics for quite some time now.

Gee…would that be pretty much ever since Ixion and Pholus hooked up? Yes, it would.

One note on Ixion as entitlement, however: as displayed in the Ixion story, it is the person who ‘accuses’ someone else of being entitled who is more than likely coming from a position of entitlement. If this were happening in a water sign (or with Neptune tied into the mix) we would call this emotional projection…the longing for someone else to ‘fix’ your problems or to ‘be’ that person you want them to be. But as this is all about fire signs (Pholus and Ixion are both in Sagittarius, right?) the issue is more akin to the idea of deflection, which particularly in astrological terms is ‘I don’t want to look at my stuff, I’d rather criticize you and your stuff.’

A photo from the January 20, 1953 inauguration of President Eisenhower

(photo credit National Archives and Records Administration)

Okay. So now what we’ve trotted through a few of the astro-facts about Inauguration 2009, let’s consider Inauguration 2013.

The most basic of factors is this: the power of any U.S. Presidential Administration as a seated governmental entity, is regulated by US law. Which is handy for us, as that means that whatever time President Obama takes the oath on Sunday and Monday, those charts may be ‘modifiers’ of the noon Sunday (January 20th) chart and therefore interesting to look at, but the ‘legally mandated’ chart (January 20th at noon) is the chart to look at, first and last…with the caveat that we did learn a lesson about those ‘subtle shifts’ (noon versus five minutes after noon) from the Obama Administration: Part One adventure.

14 Taurus/Scorpio (the noon chart) is a more resistant degree than 15 Taurus/Scorpio. Fifteen degrees of all four fixed signs is the ‘cross-quarter’ degree. But in being the first degree of the second half of the quarter, fifteen degrees of any fixed sign is where we move on. Or where we at least know we should move on, which is where we get into modifiers and exotica. I have a friend with a Sun at 15 Taurus who plainly knows in his heart-of-hearts that he shouldn’t be ‘locked in’ by family tradition, that life is about growth and change and moving on. But he has a really hard time with it, and that Medusa is conjunct his Sun is the sign of how scared he is of the purgatory he would have to go through not through what others do, but through what he'd have to deal with in changing his own standards and learning how to be secure purely as an individual.

Plus there is this mid-Taurus fixed star...It's name is Menkar, and it has a grungy reputation for delivering hard lessons in the area of who one 'sides' with - which is an interesting idea if you apply it to the Ascendant of an administration. The tendency is to go with what's easy. Or to believe lies and base your life on them (Sun) or to act on them (administration's Ascendant).

And this does point out an important pair of facts.Our natal Sun is our natal Sun. It represents not just the ‘tool box’ with which we come into the world, but the lesson we will continue to learn, even to the point of reinventing the lesson or unconsciously seeking out new challenges so that we can keep on learning. My friend (bless his heart!) is going to spend his life experiencing and creating situations which in the short or long run teach him that he has to be secure with, and trust what he knows is right in himself. For a national administration, this asks that the administration stand for what is right, whether it's popular or not. Whether it's comfortable or not. Whether it makes everybody happy or not.

Our Sun is always about us and the path of growth in our life: his Sun is his path of learning just as yours is individual and about your journey. Each life is different because reading the Sun in any chart is not 'just' about looking at the sign or degree the Sun is positioned in.

But that's a start. And when we talk about the United States, that question starts which the ol' 'which chart is really the US chart?' question. I've written about that at length (just look in the sidebar in the politics section) and believe America is an Aries nation - a nation which is forever learning the meaning of its existence, a nation which is going to go through repeated lessons on the difference between assertion and aggression and what a 'national consciousness' really is - or means, allows or signifies.

Beyond that, there's also this matter of administrations. And since the United States has chosen to legally bind itself to administrations which begin on January 20th, there's no whifling there. Despite the fact that synching a 365.2422 day Earth orbit around the Sun to a 365 day long calendar creates a situation where zodiac signs shift subtly from year to year, in looking from 2013 to beyond the year 2050, there isn’t a single year when January 20th isn’t Aquarius.

But that little fact does bring an interesting tidbit up for contemplation. Because the United States has a four-year election cycle, that does sync the presidential election cycle to the Earth/Sun vs. 365-day calendar. That "extra" 0.2422 day which every four years adds a Leap Year Day to our modern daily calendar also works to keep administrations locked in at 0 Aquarius.

So what does that mean? The Aquarian Administration Sun means that every United States presidential administration will be bound - legally and politically - to a ‘life’ centered on learning lessons about and through all things Aquarian: the economy and economics, social and societal trends, the marketplace, infrastructure and power grids and everything by which goods or people or money or information moves...equality and egalitarianism, elitism, anarchy and the altogether E Pluribus Unum ideas of individuality...the administration's role in helping the U.S. earn its rewards in this world through finding its place in the world and making a contribution to that world.

This may in a nutshell explain a lot to you about the United States and the apparent inability of its administrations to leave well enough alone. And it brings up and begins to make clear the difference between the administration and the nation, which is probably well worth thinking about.

Of course, it may also explain why America will survive in spite of problematic administrations. After all, they are not the same thing as the nation. And since they aren't, it also begins to explain why there will be times when all the good governing in the world isn’t going to get the nation headed in the right direction. 

A nation and its government, astrologically, are two different things. Yes, they interact. But they’re different things.

So getting back to the inauguration, all we have at time of writing for this incoming Administration is the one chart which is designed by law, that being a chart for Sunday, January 20th, 2013 at noon in Washington, D.C.

Obama Administration 2

January 20, 2013 - noon (EST/+5) - Washington, D.C.

Several things stand out in this chart, and the first is another similarity-but-difference between this chart and that of the 2009 inauguration, which I will again post here (to make things easy).

Obama Administration 1

January 20, 2009 - noon (EST/+5) - Washington, D.C.

 

In the 2009 Chart we have the Sun and Mercury both at 0 Aquarius. This is a degree which is all about the need for balance, a capacity for leadership, great insight and a concern for humanity – which is exactly what Americans (and the rest of the world) would like to think the United States is all about. Apparently those who designed the inauguration were all about this idea.

This 2009 chart also has Sun/Mercury conjunct Juno (equaling ‘trials regarding discipline’) and Jupiter, Tantalus and Bali. Taken together – and remembering that all astrology is a polarity of positives-and-negatives, this goes in one direction towards the temptation (Tantalus) to be happy (Bali) with what you already know (Jupiter)….and in the other direction towards excessive (Jupiter) temptations (Tantalus) to please yourself (Bali).

Personally, this makes me think of the Administration’s internal battles and the division between Congress and the people which seems greatly based in the electional process and the polarities (or extremes) of positions currently being fostered and appealed to in the United States. Aquarius in positive modality is about ‘building consensus and a powerful mainstream interaction’ and the negative is all critique and extreme views which are outside the mainstream.

The 2013 Inauguration chart again has Sun conjunct Mercury, but with the Sun again at 0 Aquarius, Mercury is at 2 Aquarius, a degree known as a plus in the relationship and relating realm balanced against some of the Aquarian tendency towards situations which seem confusing until in a moment, they clarify.

Another important difference: in the 2009 chart, Mercury was in front of the Sun (higher in the chart). This is an indication that the idea would rule. As indeed it did. Sensible or nonsensical, this last four years in the United States has had the theory of the thing being put forth as operational fact. And especially when we mix in how this came to us (with a little Pholus/Ixion or Ixion/Pholus in the mix) that drove people not to the nation’s edge but to extremes of positions on governance.

Some say ‘as go nations, so go populations.’ Do Americans as a ‘people’ take their cue from administrations? That’s an interesting astro-political question which I haven’t gotten to. So for now I’ll say ‘I’m not going there’ and leave it at that. (Check with me when the next administration rolls around. After another four years of thinking I may have an answer.)

In any case, this time around, Obama Administration: Part Two has Mercury following the Sun. This should indicate a slight (very slight) ratcheting down of ‘purely theoretical rhetoric.’ But it also amps up the possibility of more surprises and out of the blue announcements or information. Some will be brilliant and insightful. Some will just be bizarre.

This is also a very clear indication that the underlying conversation (or thought process) is – and should be on “things Aquarian”: social/societal systems, power grids, the internet, computers, software, electronic communications, science, economics, the economy, the functionality of the marketplace, free speech (and whether there are any limits on it), intellectual rights and the general concept of the nation as its own society (and the functionality of that) juxtaposed against the United States as one nation among a host of nations on this planet, all of which – in the Aquarian sense – need to be considered equally and as equals if all are to be free to function.

In Aquarius, ‘power games’ are the name of the game, often quite literally. 

Also worth noting is the fact that instead of Tantalus, Jupiter, Juno and Bali as the modifiers of this Sun-Mercury (as we had the last time around), we have Nemesis. Nemesis is the quality of being willing to stand up for the unpopular thing….and/or realizing you were warned and did the dumb thing anyway.

Which way do we think this will go? Aquarius being one of the co-ruled signs, we look to both Saturn and Uranus to get a sense of the plus or minus involved.

In the 2009 this chart, Saturn was in the 5th house (a bad place for Saturn) and Uranus was in the 11th house (of national income and economy) conjunct Venus, in Pisces. Together, this gives us a pretty good picture of the sullen, nasty (Saturn/negative) atmosphere which seemed to permeate the government over the past four years and how in spite of vacillations and (Uranian/negative) unpredictability, we did manage to get some innovations (Uranus/positive) in place and ended up doing better than expected (Venus in Pisces/positive).

Until then…along came Hurricane Sandy, late in 2012. As a perfect example of ‘the unexpected,’ Sandy well exhibited the power which evolved as the November 2012 Solar Eclipse at 21 Scorpio, an eclipse which set off a lot of points in the Administration 2009 chart.

There’s a sextile to Mars, indicating what the Administration had being (Mars) doing needed to change, and that the Administration had an opportunity to recognize and prove its value on the governing-governance level (to itself and the nation, and its people).

In squaring Chiron and Neptune, Hurricane Sandy would seem to have been a ‘karmic’ pointing out of national vulnerabilities and areas where the United States needs to deal with things which though ‘working okay’ are actually outmoded.

The trine to Uranus is the surprising and shocking quality of how things can (Uranus) change so quickly and the enormous power of (Pisces) water both on a physical level and as concerns the emotional repercussions thereof.

There is an inconjunct to an Aries Eris which, intercepted in the 12th house refers to difficulties with realism.

The opposition from the eclipse to Sedna in Taurus speaks of ‘threats,’ damage and confrontations with national comfort and security being a sign...a metaphysical signal. What is it a signal of? Given that this is Sedna in Taurus we're talking about, the concept would be about how necessary it is to let go of thinking that going forward, things are going to be as they were. They aren’t. And the government, or the nation...and the people of the United States...they all can only suffer by thinking that ‘holding on' to whatever or however security has been defined is a good idea. Sedna teaches that holding on is a huge impediment to the success and ultimate security and satisfaction which can only come through letting go.

Call it a lesson in 'growing up.'

Link to post: The Sedna Conflict 

The sextile to Saturn – and that Saturn is in a grand trine with Mars and Sedna - speaks of an opportunity brought with this eclipse (and the hurricane) to reinvigorate a system which had gotten too hell-bent on comfort instead of productive progress.

So what about this time around? Understanding that administrations new and newer always build on what came before, this 2013 chart is heavily left-sided and in terms of full-fledged planets (using the term astrologically) more ‘above’ the horizon than below.

This denotes an administration which is going to be active in its approach and which is going to be public – or made public through the media. Jupiter being positioned in Gemini speaks to ‘a lot of talk’ and a lot of information going on ‘beneath the surface’ (the horizontal axis representing that “surface”). With the Ascendant – the “aperture” our outlet of a chart – in Taurus we look to Venus as ruler of Taurus and find it in the 9th house of information dissemination.

But it’s not alone. Venus is conjunct Pluto, Juno, Vega and Tantalus, a recipe for what is known in the media as ‘the shaping of the message’ or (to use another slogan) ‘controlling the news cycle.’

Yet this is also pressure from the media and the press – and foreign nations. Diplomacy between the US and foreign countries and interests can be expected to be of great concern in the next four years.

Education and the ‘business of medicine’ is another topic described by this Ascendant/9th house tie.

The Ascendant is again 14 Taurus/Scorpio. Is that always true? No, though there do seem to be patterns. This is the third Administration to have this 14 Taurus/Scorpio Ascendant/Descendant line, though certainly not the last. Running forward through the years, this “12 noon, Washington, D.C on January 20th” inauguration cycle has 14 Taurus and Scorpio showing up with every administration until the year 2089, when the Ascendant/Descendant for this date will move to 15 Taurus/Scorpio.

For those who wonder when the world will ‘settle down’ will be, this may be your answer. 14 Taurus has a mystical and polarizing quality (very typical of the degrees which precede fixed cross-quarter points) and 15 Taurus is a degree which is more about listening and working thoughts through based on what you’ve already learned.

This very slow shift of rising/setting degrees is an interesting one when we look back, too. It’s a bit off the subject, yes. But what the heck – in for a penny, in for a dollar bill, right?

Tracing this sequence back through inaugurations and administrations, 14 Taurus holds until we arrive at January 20, 1989 – the inauguration of George H.W. Bush. At that point the Ascendant-Descendant of the ‘legally mandated, change of power’ Administration chart moves back to 13 Taurus-13 Scorpio, a trend which holds all the way back to 1897 (when William McKinley became President), when it again becomes 14 Taurus/Scorpio.

President Barack Obama on the phone in the Oval Office with

Haitian President René Préval

(January 15, 2010, Pete Souza)

This becomes even more intriguing when we consider that the years described, 1897 to 1993 (which would include the GHW Bush years) generally outline Pluto’s transit through half the zodiac (Gemini through Scorpio, though Pluto was already at 11 Gemini in 1897)…and the generalized ‘industrial age’ in American and pretty much around the world. 13 Taurus being a degree known for being about ‘righting wrongs’ (and yes, probably committing a few so that they can be righted) also brings a whole list of concepts to the fore…things like slavery and civil rights, women’s rights, the greater cycle of industrialization and the accompanying costs of pollution, and various kinds of abuse, particularly child abuse. For almost a hundred years societies around the world ‘looked the other way’ to some extent, valuing work product and societal commerce more than human cost.

At the end of the 1990’s people again were willing to talk about the subject.

Obama Administration 2 also has a Scorpio Saturn in the 6th house. This is not Saturn in its most dedicated form, but also not a Saturn in a sign or house which is likely to create or arouse as much resistance as Saturn in the 5th (the first Obama Administration). As last time around Saturn was in Virgo, denoting jobs and health care, this time around Saturn’s position in Scorpio suggests debt and all things fiscal-and-financial (the banking system, the investment system, the federal reserve etc.).

Aries is again intercepted in the 12th, but this time both Eris and Uranus are in this sign. Uranus in the 12th can be fearful and Uranus intercepted in the 12th can be either quashing fears or the quashing of individual actions or abilities to do as they please. The fear of loss of rights and the need to prevent the 12th house mass-consciousness to be affected by violence or imposition of harm from without seem indicated.

The Eris part of this configuration will be set off in a moment of volatility by the Lunar Eclipse of October 2013 (at 25 Aries). Considering that lunar eclipses are prompt but not long-lasting, this is an event, not a turn of any tide. Far more important in that regard is the Solar Eclipse of November 2013 at 11 Scorpio. This will hit the Administration’s Saturn and Descendant, indicating a major turn of events.

With Saturn trine to Chiron in Pisces in the 11th house of the second Administration chart likely subjects would be Piscean: oil, gas, pharmaceuticals, religious faiths/factions, prisons, emotional health and upheavals which affect same.

But don't kid yourself. Anything which could stir the Administration at an emotional level or provoke a national emotional reaction...including anything which could cause the nation to have to look at its own behavior (and feel how it feels about that) is on the list here.
 
With Saturn involved from the 6th house, there is an element of Congressional and/or civil service and/or military quality to this eclipse effect, and with 27 Virgo on the cusp of the 6th house the indication would seem to be about ‘a mentality’ and/or functionality. The sextile from this eclipse to Pluto-Juno-Venus-Vega-Tantalus in the 9th house is a clear opportunity to better things but with all five elements in Capricorn, there must be concrete actions involved. The Pluto/Juno/Venus/Vega part of this speaks to governing the ‘self’ (Juno) and with Venus/Vega always seeming to indicate the ‘power of persuasion’ and how what you can do isn’t always what you should to, this sounds a bit like some sort of limitation or discussion of limits.

If we look at the cusps all around the wheel of this Administration’s chart we see only two houses with first decanate (action oriented) numbers on the cusps. Those houses are the 3rd and the 9th, and that suggests – again - that overseas affairs will be a functional strong point for this administration. It also would seem to point to taking action in the area of the courts (perhaps through nominating Supreme Court Justices). And because these early-number cusps both carry on to a second house (Capricorn being on the 9th and 10th houses and Cancer being on both the 3rd and 4th houses) national infrastructure is also likely to be a conversation.

But most of all, what this seems to say is that President Obama’s second Administration period is going to be about laying groundwork for what will happen in the years ahead. As such, while we probably can expect much discussion and debate on many topics, the drive of this Administration is likely to be on basic functionality and aims. It is not therefore so much about what they will do as what this administration will leave the country in a position to do which to them, probably counts.

There are, of course, reams of comments one can make on this Obama Administration 2 chart. I'll just toss one fact in...because I got to thinking about it the other day.

Question: is Congress astrologically a separate entity from the Administration itself?

Answer: probably yes. Why? Because Congress is elected on a schedule which is not synced with Presidential elections. Senators, for instance, serve six years, not four years. So their terms don't sync with Presidential elections at all. Plus their terms are staggered so the whole of the Senate is never being elected at once, which is totally different from the House of Representatives, which does get elected as a body (everybody in...everybody out - maybe.)

What this says to me as an astrologer is that "the administration" is really something of a specific reference to the Executive Branch (the President, Vice President and Cabinet, etc.) but more generally to what will be accomplished during the four year period that the given Administration is empowered.

Moreover, Congress should be treated as two entirely separate bodies.

I haven't even begun thinking about the Supreme Court yet.

The United States Supreme Court

Back row (left to right): Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen G. Breyer, Samuel A. Alito, and Elena Kagan. Front row (left to right): Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, Chief Justice John Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg

(photo credit: Steve Petteway - October 8, 2010)

Well, until just now. I'm guessing there is a chart which represents its "establishment" (giving us a 'Supreme Court natal chart,' if you will). But more interesting perhaps would be the Davison joint time/space chart to be constructed using all the members of that august body. This sort of chart is the only thing which to this astrologer's thinking could account for how the 'personality' of the Supreme Court seems to change even when only one seated judge is replaced.

And yes, if we had all the charts we could also 'construct' a Davison chart for each house of Congress, and thus for the Congress as a whole during any given term.

The reason why we look at such things is so we better understand our world. When we think of, or when you now hear someone refer to 'The Obama Administration,' you're going to know that really does refer to the Executive Branch in particular, but more to what gets done in the United States between Presidential elections. Knowing that - hopefully - will empower you and allow you to listen to the fractious goings on in our world with a keener ear and a better perspective.

The more we know, the better off we are, right? 

Obviously there are two charts which are yet to be 'clocked-and-cast' and yet to be thought through. One would be the actual time of President Obama taking the Oath of Office with Chief Justice John Roberts on Sunday the 20th, and then the 'public Oath chart' which will be timed out by events on January 21st.

I'm not sure everybody wants to hear about those, but if you do, let me know and I'll make sure I write a post or two on the subject. 

Otherwise - Happy Inauguration Day!
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