Bush/Gore and the Question of Karma.

So I am sitting up nights as the battle of the hanging chads take place in Florida and wonder who will be our next president? As I often do in times of consternation, I look to the stars. Specially, I am combining the charts of George W. Bush born July 6, 1946, 7:26 AM in New Haven, Ct. and Al Gore, born March 31, 1948 at 12:53 PM in Washington, DC and matching them against a chart for Election Day 2000 in a Synastry chart. *I see that it all comes down to a question of karma.

This has not come to me easily – both men had pretty good astrological aspects on that day. Where is the difference? One has to win one has to lose. The only difference I can see is Karma and it doesn’t look good for Gore. Karma comes from the Hindu – Buddhist concept of reincarnation. The Sanskrit word Karma literally means action. For every action, there is a reaction. The quickest explanation of karma is: 'you get what you give'. In other words, whatever you do intentionally to others, a similar thing will happen to yourself in the future.

The one big difference I see in these charts is that Gores’ Pluto, a very karmic planet, is in a negative or difficult aspect with Saturn – another karmic planet. In fact, Saturn is the planet of Karma. Saturn is a strong disciplinarian and teaches us our lessons this lifetime. At times, this planet can be restricting and inhibiting – and when in a difficult aspect it demands a person balance negative karma– they must pay a debt. In short, Gore was paying for some karmic debt on Election Day – not a good harbinger for success.

Gore also has difficult karma in his 10th house the house of career. It is “intercepted” – that means that there are two astrological signs on the cusp of one house. When that happens, it always indicates a pause of karma. In this case, Gore has Taurus intercepting his 10th house. Aries is on the cusp of the 10th house – but Taurus comes and cuts it right in the middle. This is a sign of someone who could have taken control in the past but did not. He had a chance in a past life to take control and rule but he walked away from power. He could have influenced people for the better but took an easier, more selfish route.

Bush has no such karmic imbalance in his chart or on Election Day. Bush has no birth planets in retrograde. (The word retrograde applies, in astrology, to the apparent backward motion thru the ecliptic of a planet. As we from our position on Earth look at another planet, it appears as though it moving backwards on its path around the Sun. Astrologically, it is a pause for karma – another lesson to learn.)

I fear that this election will go in Bush’s favor. Politically I am opposed to his right wing evangelical believes. Astrologically I worry about a future president with a Leo ascendant. Our ascendants are how we present ourselves to the world – our persona. In ancient Sumerian days when Astrology was born, they paid little attention to the Sun. It was too bright and when out it blocked the astrologers’ view of the other planets and stars. You would not go into a bar in ancient Samaria and say, “what is your sun sign” you would say, “what is your ascendant?” It was the rising sign, the ascendant that took center stage in daily astrology.

An ascendant in Leo – the lion inclines a person to want to be more king than president. Leo expects, demands loyalty and fealty among his minions – and brooks little opposition. This is a bit frightening in a man whose only experience is being the government of a state that limits gubernatorial power and has a strong legislature. He needs to listen to advice of others and Leo is not inclined to listen.

Bush’s’ Midheaven, the 10th house cusp, the indicator of our career persona, is in Aries. Ruled by masculine Mars energy, Aries is all about ME. Aries has to be number one - has to be the leader and being the first sign, in essence the baby of zodiac, is prone to temper tantrums when not given their way.

With two fire signs, Leo and Arles, on prominent cusps Bush is going to be a leader who will want things done his way, right or wrong and prefer to have loyal yes men surrounding him.

Now I have to wonder, what karma did American incur to be in this position?

*Synastry is the study of relationships by comparing two horoscope charts.