Category: Astrology in History

I love History! I think it is all part of having Capricorn on the 4th house, the one which deals with roots, home, who we are and where we come from. Capricorn is the historian of the Zodiac, the keeper of the family flames. So in honor of my Capricornian 4th house, I give you my take on famous people and events. If there is some person or some event you would like to know more about that I haven’t written about yet please let me know and I will look into it!

Quintessential Leo Chart

I have a theory that people achieve fame in their lives because they have very sharply defined charts. They do not have any wishy-washy planets or aspects. On July 29, 1929, Jacqueline Bouvier was born with one hum-dinger of a pronounced chart.
With her South Node or karmic identifier in Scorpio in the first house she lived many lives addicted to drama, and passion – she saw the barriers of life – emotionally and sexually and insisted that they were there for her to break. Scorpios love living on the edge – and coming into life with this Scorpio memory, she was not interested in settling into a “normal” life.
Scorpio also sat on her first house, the house of personality. (Those dark glasses blocking out the world are a dead giveaway for someone who is trying to keep the prying world out – a very Scorpio trick.) Her life of intensity, life and death drama – and passion started with that South Node and Scorpio first house. In the eighth house, the one ironically linked to Scorpio was her Venus, the planet of love and Pluto, the planet of death and transformation. That she had a karmic relationship with her husband’s and they both ended with dramatic, Scorpio deaths was indicative of this placement. As I said, there was nothing wishy-washy about this chart at all.
Her need for money and security comes from her retrograded Saturn in the second house, the house of money and stability. Anyone with a retrograded Saturn has “daddy issues” – and she adored her wayward, womanizing father and we can say – married him twice. She needed old men with money to fill that retrograde.

With her North Node in Taurus – her goal in this life was to find inner peace and stability that I would argue she did at the end of the life – of course, with the help of her second husband’s millions but she did get there.

D Day

Seventy years ago this month Allied troops invaded occupied Europe in one of the greatest acts of bravery ever known. The leader of the Allied troops was Dwight D. Eisenhower. After he was President of the United States, he “rejoined” the Army because he said that in 500 years, no one would remember him as President but no one would ever forget D Day.
Where were the planets over Normandy on the amazing day? 
There are so many interesting things about this chart. Look at all of those planets in Gemini, the sign of communications and the flow of information, tucked away in the ultra-secretive 12th house.  The false news reports fed to the Germans, the months of secret planning, the thousands of hours spent on reconnaissance all came to fruition on the day.
What really sends shivers up my spine was that tight conjunction of Mars and Pluto in the fire sign of Leo in the third house.  The third house is my community, my brothers and sisters, my close friends (yes, “Band of Brothers”.) Mars is the god of war and Pluto is the planet of change. This was a grueling, bitter, tragic Mars battle to rescue Europe – our brothers and sisters – from the horrors of Nazi Germany.
Anytime Mars and Pluto are together, there are fireworks. Mars with any of the external planets is a cause for worry but Mars and Pluto sadly foretold the horrors seen on the beaches that morning.
This biwheel with D Day in the center and the birth chart of the United States also tells a stunning story.  Look at our Pluto – yes Pluto again – in the eighth house right on the South Node! Pluto vibrates to the eighth house – it is the house of power and change. We were using our power to shift the balance of power and break the existing order in Europe. Not ironically, the South Node that day was in Capricorn, the stern taskmaster.
This is another one of those spine shiver-makers for me! Our Jupiter, Venus, and Sun were all in a tight conjunction in the sign of Cancer, the sign of motherly caring.  Jupiter is the sign of expansion and growth and international service with our life force, the Sun, and Venus, the goddess of beauty and love. COME ON.
We can thank our lucky stars for that day but we really should thank these men, thousands of whom gave their lives in this amazing fight for freedom. Soon that generation will be gone but their deeds should live on in history and it us to us to be sure that they do.

The Good and Bad of Taurus Presidents

This week saw the birthday of a President most historians repeatedly rank on the bottom of the list of most effective leaders. James Buchanan (April 23, 1791), 15th President of the United States and the man who preceded Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, was a rather doddering old man who might have been a serviceable leader in peaceful times when he could play entertainer in chief. He was incapable of holding a splitting country together and his relief was over the top when he was able to hand over the reins to Lincoln.
Buchanan was born under a Taurus Sun and his refusal to embrace change and try to fix what was a rapidly disintegrating country are some examples of shadow Taurus traits. Taurus, depicted by the Bull, is solid, sturdy, and unmovable. Buchanan wanted to enjoy the beauty of the White House and play the diplomat. He did not want to face the grim reality facing his country.
However, two other Taurus Presidents were steadfast warriors who, when committed to a goal, saw it through to the end despite the odds.  A hero of the soon to explode Civil War, Ulysses S Grant (April 27, 1822),  came to the White House thanks to his war exploits. He knew that he had to take the idea of “total war” to the enemy and executed his plans with ruthless but remarkable Taurus stubbornness. He kept one goal in mind – victory – and no one could dissuade him from it.
Another Taurus President who followed his Taurus instincts for stubbornly pursuing a goal and never looking back was Harry S Truman (May 8, 1884). (What is it with these Taurus’ and the use of S as a middle name?) He had some horrific decisions to make when from the moment he became President, made them, and never looked back. That is Taurus in action!

The Gettysburg Address – Another Lincoln Mystic Cord

“The Address” a Ken Burns special on the Gettysburg Address will air tonight, April 15 on PBS. Why they are presenting this in April when the Lincoln delivered the address in mid-November is an answer only the television gods can answer. Regardless, it made me think about that wonderful piece of American literature the astrological happenings at the time of delivery.
How wild that Pluto was sitting right on President Lincoln’s South Node when he wrote and delivered the address! He had his South Node, or past life indicator in Taurus in the fifth house. I wrote a blog entry on Lincoln and his magnificent ability to write despite his lack of education. This came from past lives spent in Taurus, ruled by Venus, the creative goddess of love and beauty, in his house of creativity and self-expression.
On the day of the Gettysburg Address, Pluto which was in Taurus then, was sitting on his Node. It was screaming at him to leave some transformational, beautiful work to history. We have not had a more mystical President than Lincoln and he was heading his instincts to create this masterpiece.
It like he belongs to the ages. 
President of the Month – James Madison

Reticent, bookish, small, James Madison was born to wealth in the Virginia Tidewater region. Like man “great people,” he has a birth chart that is so easy to read. First, his South Node in Gemini in the 7th house shows that he came from lives where he was a master at gathering and disseminating information. That is what Gemini does – keep communication, information flowing. Being in the 7th house – the house of the other person- he was someone who could mediate, communicate, and keep the knowledge moving.

What I love so much about his chart is how he “got into” his North Node – Sagittarius in the first house. Those of us (I too am a Gemini South Node) who are going to Sagittarius have to make an effort to stop gathering and moving information but honing in on our truth, our beliefs. It isn’t about quantity of information but quality. It is about focusing on information.

James Madison, using the discipline of Saturn that sits on his North Node, spent an entire summer – studying the great ancient civilizations –the Romans, the Greeks, etc. and learning what worked and what didn’t work. How Sagittarius North Node is that? He used this information in service to the United States Constitution and is one of the reasons he we call him the father of that document.



The ruler of his South Node, Gemini, is in Aquarius in the third house (the house of Gemini and communication.) It is also conjuncting the ruler of Aquarius, Uranus. His mind was like an electric bolt – oh, how I wish I could see it in action!
On a more fun note, with his Moon buried in the 12th house in the reticent sign of Scorpio but his Venus in fiery Aries we can see how he was both socially shy but attracted to the vivacious Dolley Madison.
Madison used the deck dealt him magnificently. Not bad for a little creature who looked like a strong wind could knock him over. Of course, all of his power was in his head!

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The Astrology Of Downton

The last episode of season four of “Downton Abbey” aired in the United States. (Darn those short British seasons.) Despite starting a bit slow for me it ending in full Downton splendor and it got me to thinking about the astrological makeup of the main characters. All great fictional characters have strong astrological characteristics. I mean, is there a more perfect Aries than Scarlett O’Hara?
So, who are those people of Downton? Let’s start with my favorite character and the matriarch, The Dowager. Shooting from the hip with all due and undue honesty yet able to be rather sneaky when needed, she is a good example of a Sagittarius rising with a Scorpio Sun.
Her son, “His Lordship,” being stubbornly stuck in the past and very much in love in opulence is a double Earth sign influence. I vote for Capricorn rising and a Taurus Sun.
Cora Grantham, his wife, the American who is very comfortable in English peerage has many planets, Sun and Mercury at least, in the 9th house – the house that deals with foreign travel. That Sun is in Aquarius, which gave her the impetus to move far from her roots. However, what attracted her to Lord Grantham was that shared Taurus because that is her rising sign.  Her gentle elegance and her true love for the land has to be from Taurus! Cora’s mother, is another Sagittarius rising – which is why she battles the Dowager. However, she is all Aries sun – she never backs down from, in fact searches out a good fight.
Mary has got to be heavily loaded with Leo. Her regal haughtiness, her ability to be self-centered all point to Leo rising. That fuels her love of money but her love for Downton itself and her insistence on formality and rules makes her a good candidate to be a Capricorn Sun.
Her hapless sister Edith is so Pisces. She just doesn’t “get it.”  Living is so complicated and she is so good at being victimized she can be nothing but Pisces rising. With her self-doubt and self-criticism, Edith is someone with a strong Virgo Sun.
What about some of the more colorful servants. Mrs. Patmore is all Cancer – motherly, warm and a great cook – Cancer rising with a Libra Sun that helps her balance between the upstairs and downstairs so easily.
Mr. Carson – is nothing but Virgo. Come on! He is disciplined, persnickety, and organized to his Virgo core. However, I think his budding romance with another Virgo Sun, Mrs. Hughes, will bring out his softer side no matter how deeply buried. Carson may have Virgo rising and a Virgo Sun but I think he has a Libra Moon that makes him a bit human – sometimes.
Tom is a confused Gemini rising with a Cancer Sun. He is very good at being vocal about his causes but when he lost his heart after his wife’s death, he sought comfort in her family.

Oh and yes Mr. Bates, the self-admitted brooder who has a shady side despite being sexy as hell and often victimized by outside forces is Scorpio rising with Pisces Sun. Still waters do run deep and he is all water sign. His beloved Anna, Cancer rising, she needs water to appeal to Bates, and a self-deprecating Virgo Sun. 

Our Aquarian Presidents

In honor of President’s Day, I want to take a look at all, not just one, of our “February Presidents.” * All of these men, born while the Sun was in Aquarius, are Presidents we have remembered throughout the years. They all had that Aquarian ability to be rebellious, prescient, unique and in their own way, fascinating. 
George Washington left his stamp for his leadership and innate knowledge of how a President should act. Yes, he was the first and that alone would make him memorable but his Aquarian ability to “see into the future” and know he needed to make an indelible imprint on the office has set precedents that remain today.
Abraham Lincoln was close to being the last President of the entire United States. However, through his tenacity, genius, and vision he preserved the union and then used his Aquarian sense of compassion to call for us to come together with “malice toward none.”
Franklin Roosevelt was of course unique because he hid his paralysis from the world – but proved that a physical handicap is not a mental handicap. In a time when “cripples” were considered damaged, he guided the country through horrific economic and militaristic times.
While I am too liberal to fall for the myth of Ronald Reagan as killer of Communism in the Soviet Union, the fact that he broke the age and martial norms previously required of presidential candidates proved he had his Aquarian rebelliousness intact!
Each of these men also exhibited that maddening Aquarius duplicity. Washington, “the father of the country,” was childless. Lincoln, a man known for almost suicidal bouts of depression was still able to maintain his sanity in the midst of a nightmarish Civil War. Roosevelt, pulled people toward him with his charismatic voice yet had no emotional bond with his wife and children, and Reagan the darling of the hard religious right who was divorced and from the Hollywood they profess to hate.

Our Aquarian Presidents remain a part of the American fabric because of their ability to stand out – to be unique in some way.  Our current President, Barack Obama, has Aquarius rising. Can you get more unique and rebellious than breaking the color barrier? Oh those Aquarians – always shaking things up!

*I am taking a bit of liberty here because FDR was born on Jan. 30 but he was still an Aquarian.

President of the Month

Several clients have asked me to do more historical astrology, specifically presidential astrology so once a month I will feature a president born in that month. January gives quite a number from which to choose because Capricorn is a sign that lends itself to corporate and political leadership. Richard Nixon, Woodrow Wilson, Andrew Johnson and yes, even Millard P Fillmore were all Capricorn presidents. We know much about the first two and really, do we want to know anything about Fillmore? Andrew Johnson, however, is a more interesting of the relatively unknown Presidents. However, I would argue that Taurus was a bigger influence in his life than his Capricorn sun.

Johnson had a Taurus Moon, and more importantly a Taurus South Node. Karmically he was coming from a Taurus incarnation. Taurus is one of the most stubborn of signs. No one, not even the sturdy Capricorn Goat is as stubborn as Taurus the Bull. Johnson held fast to his beliefs even when it caused him great political disfavor and even when it brought him to being the first impeached President and just one vote away from conviction and expulsion from office. 
Of course, that Taurean energy was also a help to him. One of the reasons, if not the only reason he was picked at Lincoln’s Vice President was that he was a Southerner who refused to join the Confederacy. (It was not because he was cared about slaves but because he hated the rich Southern landowners who were in favor of war and slavery. It was for him, like for the rest of the country, a matter of economics.) 
We also see his ability to persevere in the anchors of his chart. Chart anchors are the signs on the cusps of the 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th houses and Johnson’s were all in cardinal signs, Libra, Capricorn, Aries, and Cancer. Cardinal signs are doers – movers – leaders. He needed this ability – having been born in abject poverty. In fact, there is a good deal of evidence that he was illiterate until he met and married his wife who was also his teacher. He literally came from nowhere and overcame immense obstacles to do so.

When he was inaugurated as Lincoln’s Vice President, Johnson appeared to be intoxicated and made quite a spectacle of himself (where was CNN when you needed them?) The “spin” that was put out by the administration was that he was ill and had taken some medicine but rumors always persisted about his alcoholism. We will never know for sure, however, with his 6th house (health and healing) opened by Pisces which is known to have escapism and alcoholism as a shadow aspect and Pisces’ ruler Neptune being in a tight conjunction with Saturn – he was certainly predisposed to loneliness and the need to escape his problems in some fashion.

Happy Birthday Mrs. Obama

I know I have done a riff on her chart before but several people asked me to review Michelle Obama’s chart for her fiftieth birthday.

While she is a “late” Capricorn Sun person, you know how boring I find Sun energy astrology so let’s look at her rising sign.  Ah! Another it is another earth sign! Mrs. Obama’s rising sign (also called ascendant) is in Taurus. Symbolized by the Bull, Taurus is steady, stubborn with a kiss elegance of Venus. Because Venus rules her ascendant, it is the ruling planet of her chart.


Venus appears up in her 11th house – the house of social and group activities – and is zero degrees Pisces and right on her Pisces Moon. Now, I wonder what artistic ability the first lady might be hiding from us.  Venus in Pisces is a classic sign of someone with some kind of musical, artistic, etc. talent. Perhaps hers expresses in her fashion sense and her elegance but who knows – we might be seeing some other kind of artistry coming from her someday.  (She has two retrogrades in her 5thhouse – the house of creativity so it may take a while but it is there!)

Venus on the Moon in the deeply caring sign of Pisces expresses when we see her hugging people and meaning it. She does not give political hugs or handshakes! Her concern and her love of people comes innately.  I look for her to continue to work with groups of people long after she is out of the White House.

The Affordable Care Act

I have had several friends ask me about the horoscope of the Affordable Care Act. The past few months have been a little scary for those of us who believe that one should not go broke because of illness. There was the bad roll out and then the piling on of the radical Right and a clueless media that just loves a dramatic story even if the facts get in the way of their ratings.
I cast a chart for the time President Obama signed the bill into law because that is in essence its “birth.” 
There are many things about this chart I find interesting, even ironic but two of the big items that jump out at me are the 10thand 6th houses.
First, Pallas Athena, the warrior goddess who was also the patron of hospitals and healing (a woman for all occasions I say) is retrograded in the 6th house –the house of health. Note to President Obama, do NOT sign a health care law under this planetary alignment! A retrograde means the energies of that planet are going backwards. So it was almost as if all of Pallas’ good intentions would be thwarted… or at least harder to reach fruition.
In the 10th house, the house of government and the “social consciousness” we have quite a collection of planets.  I can’t take my eyes off the conjunction of Uranus and the Sun. Uranus is rebellious energy – quick starts and stops – just off the charts energy. On the other end of the 10th, we have a Chiron and Neptune conjunction. Neptune is all about lofty spiritual ideals that have a heck of a hard time dealing with the realities of day-to-day living. Chiron is a deep wound issue and in the 10th represents our fears about society accepting us. Both of these bodies are in Aquarius, ruled by that rebel Uranus. Nothing is easy about these placements.
What gives me hope of long-term success is Jupiter, in the sign of Pisces – of compassion and caring for all, shooting up like an arrow in the middle of these conjunctions. Jupiter is the planet of expansion, hope, and understanding – of finding our philosophical truth. America is the last “first-world” country to offer universal health care – the time for us expanding into the rest of civilized society is overdue and helped by Jupiter.
Jupiter will carry the day for the ACA in the long term but the value of this act remains hidden until long into the future.

P.S. If you are into irony take a look at retrograded Saturn (the symbol of the old way – the task master – the people who say you must do things like they always have been done) opposing the Sun/Uranus conjunction. To me it looks like the Right trying to lasso the rebellious, change energy of Sun/Uranus to prevent it from working into society. However, I guess that is what they have been trying to do for five years now!