Happy Birthday Mr. President

Barack Obama will turn 49 years old on August 4th. Sorry - I am going to do a little political rant - so if you aren't into politics skip this paragraph. Yes, to all who say he is aloof he does have the lion energy of Leo the King at his core. Deal with it. I am sorry, I like the man and I think he has passed a heck of a lot of legislation while trying to clear 8 years of errors in a very short time period. Is he perfect? Has he done everything 100 percent correctly? No. He does have the problem of being human. However, he is smart and doing his best to get us back on the right track.




My diatribe over let's look at his chart on the eve of his birthday. What I constructed above is a tri wheel. In the middle is his birth chart - his natal chart. The center is his progressed chart. A progressed chart is simply a marking of how the planets have moved in his chart only since his birth. A progressed chart is unique to each person. The largest outer chart marks the transits of the planets on any particular day - these are the same for everyone living in Washington, DC in this case.



Anyone can get a tri-wheel of progression at any time to see what influence the planets are having on your life at that moment.



The first thing that I notice is that his progressed Mercury and Mars are in Libra in the 12th house. Typically the 12th house is one of withdrawal. Planets in the 12th house are often muted and turned inward. Ironically, I was born with Mars and Mercury in the 12th house in Libra - writing is easier than speaking for me and it has taken me years to express my Mars anger and drive overtly and not look for vengeance and to just seethe inwardly.



With his progressed Mercury and Mars in the 12th and in the co-dependent sign of Libra it is no wonder that his orations have been missing the mark of late. It also accounts for his extreme concern with the "other side". Libra is all about caring way too much about helping other - being co-dependent. This progression will remain in place until early next year...so those of like who like his speeches and want a little more fire will be disappointed for a bit longer.



Even Pallas Athena - the asteroid of androgynous female healing power is transiting his 12th house. So he has a lot of power bottled up in 12.



I am glad he is going on "The View" tomorrow - because transiting Mercury (unlike progressed) is in the 10th house - the house of social status and in conjunction with his natal Uranus and natal Lilith. Lilith is the asteroid who shows where we want to defy society. So he should have a good time with some of the wackier members of the panel.



So wait until next year you fire and brimstone Progressives - our Barack will be back.

The Clash of Mars and Saturn

Last week I was speaking about astrology to a group when I mentioned that there is precious little difference between Hitler's and JFK's charts... except Hitler had that bad Mars- Saturn combination going on which made him a little - shall we say. scum sucking evil. They both had the bull eye's for charisma and the ability to sway people with speech - it is just Hitler had a bad combination of Mars and Saturn which, when badly aspected is often an indication for violence. The only time when I am doing a synastry chart of two people that I really lay things on the line and say, hey be careful here, is when I see the Mars of one person badly aspected the Saturn of another. That often indicates a propensity for violence in the relationship.


Because the universe just loves synchronicity, I then was asked to do a chart for a person who then tells me he has not a clue when he was born because he was adopted twice and the state in which he was born did not put the time on birth certificates. Hmm. No time. That is an astrologers nightmare because time tells us the rising sign - the indicator of how we express ourselves in the world. It also places all the planets and asteroids in the proper houses.


Through the process of rectification we can try to find the birth time or get close to it so I asked him a few questions. Of course, he had a disrupted home life - 4th house - but I wanted to know if it was just odd or truly burdensome. The tale he told would put Dickens to shame. He was adopted at birth because his parents couldn't afford another child but his adoptive mother died when he was still a child. Then he was then adopted by an abusive family which he escaped from at 18 and never looked back. Yes, I would say that was burdensome.



When someone is suffering from limitations or burdens I often look to Saturn. Now I know you Capricorns will get all over me but I am sorry - Saturn is an indicator of restriction and boxing in - where you see Saturn in a birth chart it shows the area where people carry worry and concern or are restricted in. When doing a transit chart, Saturn shows us where we are feeling pain and burden at that time.



Had he told me a story of generally happy but changeable home life, adopted here and then suddenly moved to another house I would have looked to the quick change artist Uranus. His story was all very Saturnine, however.



When I computed the chart I noticed something else interesting. On that day, Mars and Saturn were almost in conjunction (sitting right next to) one another. Ah ha - Mars and Saturn - violence - I placed this Mars and Saturn combo toward the middle of his 4th house because the violence began when he was seven and ran the chart from there. I told him to see if the interpretation I did for him resonated in other areas to see if we had hit the hit the right timing and indeed it did. Bingo!

I am so glad he got out of that situation and has not let it shade his adulthood. He is amazingly well adjusted for having gone through that Hell. Saturn and Mars dealt him a bad hand but he overrode it....well Dickens always liked a happy ending.

The House - the angles

As promised I am going to explore each of the houses of the Zodiac. Of course, I won't go in order - what fun is order? (The darned rising air sign always acts up on me.) However, I am starting with the first house because it is the first of the angular houses - 1, 4, 7 and 10. These are houses of high importance and actually act as anchors of the chart. For instance, yours truly here has NO Earth signs in her char. Not one planet was in an Earth sign when I was born. I am all air and water with a dash of fire thrown in. Now imagine a chart with no Earth to hold it down. I should always "out there" - never focusing - either in the depths of water's mysteries or just flipping around the atmosphere. (Another reason I hate to go in order.) However, if you look at the angles - the sign on the cusps of those angular houses you see that I have pretty good anchors. Thank the universe for small favors.


My rising sign - is in Libra an air sign, yes but a cardinal sign - a sign of leadership. The cusp* of the 4th house anchor is Capricorn - a cardinal Earth sign which vibrates to Saturn, the task master. My 7th house anchor is Aries - a fire sign but again it is cardinal. Finally my 10th house cusp is Moon Child - another cardinal sign this one in water. I have all 4 cardinal signs on my anchor (angular) houses. These keep me focused - give me a goal and give me the drive to succeed.

Fixed signs - Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius - are signs of strength and stubbornness and they vibrate to the second, fifth, either and eleventh houses. Mutable, more adaptable, less focused signs of Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces vibrate to the third, sixth, ninth and twelfth houses.

That is why it is important to look at the entire chart. Without strong angular houses my chart interpretation would be vastly different. Next time, I will look at one of the angular houses...maybe the first; maybe the tenth....depends on how I feel. :)

*The cusps are the signs that sit at the door of each house. Look at the small outter wheel on the chart to find them.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA

Happy Birthday America. What? You thought a country can't have a birth chart? Well, I have to admit some of them are hard to find. Some countries that have been around since before dust was invented have no real known birth time. I mean, when did Egypt become Egypt for goodness sakes? However, our chart - that of the USA - is easy because we had a defined time when people signed a document saying - we are now a nation. Those founding fathers were so organized.

The ascendant, rising sign, of America - our outward personality feature - is Sagittarius. Makes sense - Sag. is the explorer and expansionist sign. It is the sign that keeps reaching and growing. The downside of Sagittarius is not knowing when to stop speculating or taking risks that are too large and cannot be sustained. We have seen this in economics as well as warfare.



Sagittarius is the sign of spirituality - and we are often called a religious nation. It also makes us prone to the shadow element and that is the dances we do periodically with religious fundamentalists. Does it surprise anyone that when Pluto was in Sagittarius for the last 15 years we saw the rise of the religious right and the president who was wedded to them?



The ruler of our Ascendant, Jupiter, is the 7th house - the house of "the other" and is in conjunction with the Sun and Venus. So we expand to the other and make ourselves known in the world. Venus helps us spread our art and music....our greatest export are movies. Mars is also in the 7th house - and so our warrior strength is also spread around - remember the 7th house deals with other people on rather intimate levels.



Uranus, the quirky changeable guy, is also in our 7th house. We are the nation that comes to the aid of others, yet dropped the atomic bomb - twice. We are based on the great ideas of the Constitution but do things like Iraq and Vietnam. Get the picture?



It always cracks me up that we have Virgo on the Midheaven (career and social status) and Vesta, the burning heart’s desire and ruler of Virgo in Virgo's 6th house - the house of work and health. Think of it - Virgo vibrates to the 6th house, and is ruled by Vesta. We have Virgo in the house of career - Virgo is all about precise work - being the worker bee - getting the job done. Vesta is in the 6th house - so our burning heart’s desire is to work! Gee, have we been the country of the worker? Are we known to be workaholics-italics? Did we invent the phrase "work ethic"? Too bad this astrology stuff is all hokum.



Neptune is also on the Mid Heaven. Neptune gives a person their spirituality but when it comes to the physical side of things Neptune creates illusion and delusion. So again, we have that very prominent spiritual aspect that we present to the world. However, how many times do we perceive ourselves in a totally different way than others do? To many Americans we are always the good guys with the white hats. We are shocked when we realize that in many parts of the world we are considered aggressors. We just can't see it. Growing up in North Jersey, the NY Yankees were gods to me. When I go back there I always laugh at the level of Yankee mania. It was stunned when I left the area to learn that the Yankees are hated by the other teams. Remember the play, "Damn Yankees?" Well it is a bit like that - we can't believe others see is in a different light than we perceive ourselves.



Now I am not really sure if a country can have a "past life" but take a look at our South Node. It is in Aquarius in the 2nd house - the house of self worth. Our North Node is in Leo the nightly lion in the house of power in the 8th house. I am not sure the purists would like this but I think a case could be made that this shows the change in the land that became America from a more Aquarian Native American society to the world dominating Lion American Nation. I am not one to buy into the idyllic concept that Native American society was utopia but you have to admit that they existed in a more laid back - less driven society than the white men who destroyed them. Their idea of what made a person worthy and ours is vastly different and while there were many inter-tribal wars, the concept of being a world military leader was not in their modes of operation.



Our Moon is in Aquarius - ruled by Uranus - the quirky guy. So we are rather touchy people. With the Moon conjunct Athena, the goddess of war AND healing (versatile lass) so again we are emotionally attached to this warrior and good guy image. Our Moon is also attached to Ceres, the ancient symbol of Mother Earth. Mother Earth - abundance - the breadbasket of the world -- get it? These images are at our emotional core.



It is funny, our Chronic wound issue, is in Aries in the 5th house - the house of creativity. We are known for work and growth and movement. Do we give a lot of credence to creativity? Not so much - we fear we are not powerfully creative people - we are the worker bees. :)


Of course, my buddy Pluto was in Capricorn at the time of our birth - and because it is so slow moving it is just NOW returning to Capricorn again. Reread my entry on Pluto being the changer and Capricorn being the ruler of authority figures. Sadly, we also saw the French Revolution at this time and it was an example of changing authority run amuck.

So there you go America - this is who we are - one big confusing mass of work, growth, meddlesomeness and change that you just have to love. I know I do. Happy Birthday to us all!