presidential election 2008

A Final Word on Retrograded Mercury on Election Day

OK yes, Mercury is going to go retrograde (it will appear to go backwards in the sky) around 6 P Eastern on election night. AND the last time Mercury went retrograde – in fact the only time it went retrograde on a US election day was in 2000. (The one other time it was already in retrograde was in 1960.)

We all have nightmares of a repeat of 2000 but really circumstances don’t repeat exactly.In addition, this year Mercury will be in “mutual reception” with Jupiter. That means that Jupiter is in Mercury’s ruler Gemini and Mercury is Sagittarius, Jupiter’s ruler.

What all this means to me is that we are going to have to watch things very carefully when the votes are being counted. Mercury retrograde is very good a screwing up computers and telephones and all things that carry information electronically. With the Jupiter influence things will be in inflated and bigger.

Jupiter is also the sign of religious zealotry so I would watch for the hard religious right to be up to some tricks

Note to all Democratic poll workers – if something looks odd trust your gut and investigate!

I personally feel the only way Romney can “win” is to steal this but hey, it isn’t like it hasn’t happened before. He has a lot of zealots on his side.

The good news is that his Mercury is more debilitated than the President’s. Also, I am counting on Pluto which is in Capricorn and has been doing it’s work shaking up authority figures who are hiding secrets (Jerry Sandusky, Lance Armstrong etc.) I am counting on Pluto to bring any organized vote stealing to public view.

President Obama at 50

On August 4th President Obama will turn 50 years old. It is so depressing realizing that for the first time in your life the President is younger than you but I will have to deal with that later.

One of the big things that happens around our 50th is our Chironic return. Simply put, that is why Chiron returns to the same position it was when we were born. For the President, he has Chiron at 5 degrees Pisces in the 1st house and right now Chiron is hovering at 4 degrees Pisces. It is almost back where it was when he was born.

Chiron is where we carry a deep, deep wound. Chiron in Pisces creates a wound issue around our connection to source, God, the universe – whatever word you want to use. Pisces Chiron people fall into two basic archetypal patterns – either they firmly believe that they are the ONLY way we can connect to source – they know the actual truth or they feel unconnected to the God-source, believing they don’t know or don’t have the right to know how to be a “child of God.”

With Chiron on the first the President’s wound issue and this disconnect directly to his self assertion, his basic aggression and focus values. With his natal Mars in Virgo (Mars vibrates to the first house) he kind of has to battle the Virgo-Pisces – victim/martyr syndrome. In other words, it is easy for him to have had problems about who am I, how do I fit in here on Earth and in the whole cosmic picture. As you can imagine, it must have been hard for a highly intelligent, highly ambitious bi-racial man, raised in various parts of the world to put all of his parts together.

One left over of his learned behavior of fitting in is his desire to round off the edges, make himself invisible not to offend (Virgo-Pisces.) Let’s hope that after being kicked around by the lunatic fringe or the lunatic base I should say of the GOP, after years of trying to meet them in the middle when the middle keeps moving right, he will experience a Chironic awakening of his own power.

His North Node is Leo – the ego centric sign (and I don’t mean that in a critical sense.) His South Node is Aquarius (which is also his rising sign.) It is very easy for him to try to come to some center point to bring all people together – to find results that will be happy for all. But, Mr. President, please – that is your South node – your past karmic identification.

Embrace your Leo – embrace your Lion energy – take the return of Chiron to realize you have found your rightful place. Now roar like the Lion you need to become!

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.

Pluto – Dark and Light

As I mentioned in an earlier entry, Pluto moved into Capricorn late last year. Pluto, that cold, distant – sort-of planet, makes a huge impact on society. Because it is so far away from the Sun, it takes a long, long time to transit the solar system and stays in each sign for a good, long while. Pluto rules change and transformation and as it grinds through the solar system it makes deep changes in the areas of our lives influenced by that sign.

For example, when we baby boomers were born, Pluto was in Leo. Ruled by the Sun, Leo people want the spot light on them – they want everyone to see them shine. What better sign to birth a generation of self absorbed whiners (remember “30 Something”?) than Leo? In the early ’60’s Pluto moved into Virgo and we saw the rise of the environmental movement and huge changes in the workplace. Its recent foray into Sagittarius saw the rise of spiritualism – as well as its shadow, fundamentalism.

Capricorn rules the very structures that hold society together – our government, our banking system. The last time Pluto was in Capricorn was 1762 – 1777 – a time of great revolution here in America and abroad. The most obvious sign of Pluto Capricorn this time around was the election of our first African American President. However, for every positive there is a shadow. Right now we see that play out in the tea-baggers and those people who wish to blame our current economic woes and “government take over” of business not on the guy they supported who created this mess, but on said first African American President.

A more frightening development was the death of the 51 year old census worker who was found with “FED” on his chest. That is anger at it’s worst, most irrational and tragic. Anger among people short on facts and shorter on judgement – fueled by vested interests who are out to keep their piece of the pie safe – can create situations where vigilantism and domestic terrorism reigns.

Pluto will remain in Capricorn for another 10 years – that is a long time to stir up anger. With a wise leader, we will come out the other side with great reforms to make these “big guys” more amenable to the needs of those they are to serve. With fools in charge all bets are off and uncontrolled anger can lead to many tragic circumstances like the death of the census worker, Bill Sparkman, or worse.

Let’s hope that we remain as smart as we were at the polls as we were in November 2008.

3rd Presidential Debate

Tsk, Tsk, John McCain – you didn’t read my blog and you let that anger sneak out just as I predicted. Your “that one” comment, referring the Senator Obama, while ignored by the corporate controlled main stream press, was one of those debate errors that will live in infamy. It also cemented in the minds of many of us what we have believed for a long time – that you hold your competitor in some contempt.

As we turn our eyes toward Hofstra University and the Oct 15 debate, we see many of the same dynamics as we did in the first debate. Basically, there aren’t a lot of aspects floating around these two men so it should be another bland debate.

The strongest aspect Obama has is a conjunction between transiting Saturn, his natal Mars and progressed Sun all in Virgo and all in the 11th house – the house of social contacts and group activities. This is going to give a lot of force and structure to his passion – he will be able to clearly outline what he wants to get across to people. The caution here is to keep the fires tamped down – don’t be too preachy, too picky. With his Moon semi square transiting Uranus – he will have to work hard to keep his famous cool as he will be burning with nervous energy.

Senator McCain has transiting Saturn squaring his Venus at the time of debate. His hopes for appearing youthful and open will be dashed – as he will come off more pedantic and grandfatherly than his handlers will desire. And with Moon square his natal Sun and his Mars square transiting Uranus his emotions, his anger can all boil over to make him come off not only grouchy but desperate and harsh.

Obama needs to stay cool, add a touch of levity and play out the clock!

Saturn – Uranus – The Past and Future of the Presidential Election

On election day 2008, Uranus and Saturn will be in exact opposition to each other. That is, they will be directly across from one another on their path around the Sun. The choice has been written in the stars – old and new across from one another. Which way will we go?

Saturn is all about tradition, and doing things by the book – all about form and structure. Uranus is new, electric and represents upheaval and change. I don’t have to tell you which candidate is represented by each do I? The fact that we have the elder McCain, and the young, unique Obama as our choice seems to have been written in the sky!

To add some mystery to it all – Pluto is making a move in Capricorn. Actually Pluto moved into Capricorn briefly this year but quickly retrograded back in Sagittarius where it will remain until after the election. Pluto is the harbinger of slow but deeply felt transformations and because it moves so slowly around the Sun, it stays in a sign for years, sometimes decades. When Pluto was in Sagittarius we saw the rise of spirituality around the world – as well as fundamentalism. (To everything there is a positive and shadow aspect!) With Pluto moving in to Capricorn we will see changes in those structures that control society – government and the financial infrastructure to name two.

I saw one of the best albeit unwitting explanations of this Pluto-Capricorn placement in the commentary section of the October 7, 2008 edition of “The Nation” Magazine written by William Greider. “Our country is at a rare and dangerous juncture. The old order is crumbling, and virtually all centers of power that govern us have been discredited by events.”

The last time Pluto was in Capricorn we had the American and French Revolutions… does that tell you something about Pluto power?

But Joan, you say, you told us Pluto has moved back in Sagittarius so what is all of that talk about Capricorn? Well, I did say that – but I said it was just retrograding back for a short time. In fact, I believe that dip back into Sagittarius manifested as Gov. Sara Palin being named as VP nominee by John McCain. It was a life line tossed by the McCain campaign to the religious fundamentalist groups who are currently in control of our government. Hopefully the rope will slip from the hands on both sides.

There is no doubt, Pluto will bring change to governmental and societal structure and change is always painful. We are going to have to fasten our seat belts tightly as everything we once believed in and trusted is shaken to the core. This won’t be fun.The choice is ours – in our fear do we follow Saturn back to an even more restrictive and authoritarian government or do we hold on to Uranus and have it guide us to a more open, exciting and humanitarian government?