Topics:  Astrology Session Discounts --Steve Jobs – a look at the constellation Orion –- Barak Obama chart and US chart for Inauguration – relevant eclipse charts.

For now, in the context of a new year, striking astrological configurations, and a new set of economic and political circumstances:

We look at natal indicators that are relevant to your present concerns.  We bring in important predictive indicators for recent and upcoming times – transits, progressions, solar returns, as well as from traditional astrology.  For those with some background in astrology, this may be a chance to have another look and brush up on some of the details.

Astrology Sessions with Joseph:

• First-time sessions of 75 minutes are $90
• Follow-ups and Updates of 60 minutes are $75
• Tutorials or Counseling session of 60 minutes are $50

Here’s how we work.:

We can meet in person at my office in Warren, RI, or we can have a phone conversation.  If we meet by phone, I would send you the charts ahead of time on e-mail so we’re “on the same page.”   Either by phone or by person, I send you an MP3 of our conversation afterwards, and then I begin to take a lasting interest in your life…

You can reach me at josephcrane@verizon.net or (401) 527-2035.

Steve Jobs

            I write this sadly onto my beloved Mac iBook G4 and in the background is my ever-present iPod presenting rather sedate music to write astrology by.  Of course I loaded the music onto iTunes before putting it on my iPod that contains all kinds of stuff.

This past Thursday the folks at Apple announced that Steve Jobs was taking a medical leave; he is the CEO, creative genius, and public image of the high-tech company. Jobs’ medical situation was found “more complicated than originally thought” subsequent to treatment for pancreatic cancer. He hds lost a significant amount of weight leading to speculation about his health.  This news was not surprising when it came. Evidently Jobs will be back in the saddle in June.  I wish I shared this optimism.

          Steve Jobs’ birth chart from Astrodatabank is given a fairly low “C” rating: he birth time is based on a vague reference in a biography of him.  Nonetheless we will use this chart until a better one finds us.

It’s a plausible chart and, with his background it’s easy to imagine that Jobs has Mercury rising oriental – leading the Sun. Although Saturn is in Scorpio, not its favorite place, it has the advantage of being in the tenth.  We detect a driven person who has been famously difficult to work with.  His Uranus/Jupiter conjunction, which could make him innovative, has aspects from Venus and the 10th house Saturn. He has made good use of this combination. 

          His Lot of Spirit is most likely in Pisces, governed by Jupiter that is conjunct the inventive planet Uranus.  Sun is definitely in Pisces.

          Because we do not know his birth time, we cannot know if the Moon is in Pisces or Aries.  On thematic grounds, an argument could be made for either.

          In a future newsletter we can go into more detail about his chart – especially if we have a better birth chart to use. 

What do his predictive indicators tell us?  At this time we are probably more interested in what comes sooner (in the next six months) than what comes later.  Therefore I wouldn’t get too dismal about transiting Saturn in Virgo opposing his Moon later in the year.  Remember we can’t be wholly confident about his Moon position.

          More troubling is the position of his progressed Sun – 26° Aries!  Recently it has opposed his natal Neptune and will soon conjunct his natal Mars.  This combination of Mars/Neptune can denote a physical or energetic weakness or a vulnerability to physical weakness. Certainly his dramatic weight loss Jobs has a Neptune/Mars quality about it.  The progressed Sun being there right now does not give me great confidence about things in the short run.

          I conclude with one modern and one ancient perspective:

          A modern astrology would note that transiting Neptune and Jupiter will be aspecting his natal Pluto.  One wouldn’t do much with except under the circumstance that Pluto is the midpoint to both Sun/Ascendant and Sun/Mercury positions – it is the former combination that may have much to do with body and one thing his health doesn’t need is an infusion of Neptune!  (Remember, though, that we can’t quite trust his Ascendant placement.)

Using the ancient system of decennials, Jobs has been in a Mercury general period this year and that eventually changes into a Mercury/Sun period.  My sense is that for him Mercury is a strong and beneficial planet (oriental, in the first) although it takes a strong square from Saturn, but that Mercury should help him get through this.

Okay – let’s take up his chart and predictions later in another issue.  Frst let’s look at the sky.

Orion and then Winter Sky

The stars around it are Procyon (the Little Dog Star), Sirius below, the twins of Gemini to the left, and Taurus above and to the right.  All these stars are visible to you at night  -- when it’s not cloudy or too damn cold to go outside.

          The constellation Orion was named after the rather ill fated hunter Orion, who hunted with Artemis but Apollo sent a scorpion after him and he and his little dog were both put in the skies.  To the Egyptians, however, this constellation represented Osiris who was main god for them.

          The most prominent stars of Orion are Betelgeuse and Bellatrix, the shoulders, and Rigel, a knee.  All three give strong-willed activity.

Special Feature: Inauguration 2009

(I must first admit that there was no special inauguration issue in 2005.  I will let the reader form his or her own conclusions from this.)

With the Presidential Inauguration very soon, a look to a magazine stand finds one with many periodicals featuring the soon-to-be 44th President. The bookstore has Obama books as window display; the grocery store at the checkout counter has commemorative books about Barak Obama – you would think he was Brad Pitt or (around New England) Tom Brady.

In the spirit of the moment, I first present the definitive suitable-for-framing (or matting with corkboard if you prefer) natal chart for Barak Obama.

His chart for 8/4/1961 has many features we’ve discussed in previous newsletters.  Of the seven visible planets three are in angular houses, led by Jupiter in the first (which has just had a transit of Jupiter).  Moon in Gemini aspects quite a few planets, especially Mercury the ruler of Gemini.  The strong air quality does account for some of his intellectual flexibility and unruffled emotional steadiness, but the Moon in square to Pluto is a strong indicator of an inner emotional intensity that may not easily surface.

          Does this chart indicate leadership qualities?  If you look at his 10th house Scorpio you don’t get much.  Neptune there may add some charisma but 1/12th of all people have Neptune in the 10th.  Neptune becomes more important when you notice that it aspects his Mercury (many astrology roads lead to Obama’s Mercury, as befitting a really smart and eloquent person.)

          Back to leadership: the tenth has Mars as a ruler which doesn’t appear dominant, although its close trine to Saturn gives the picture of a self-containment.

          Obama’s qualities of leadership instead come from his Aquarius Ascendant and Jupiter.  They come more out of his personality or character than a real commanding presence.  Jupiter is also the ruler of his Lot of Spirit in Sagittarius.  If you set up a chart with the Lot of Spirit as the first house, Mars in Virgo would be the tenth from the sign of the Lot of Spirit.  This strengthens Obama’s leadership qualities coming from his personal make-up.

          My big question of his chart has to do with Saturn in Capricorn governing his first house.  It seems to me that there is much more we will know about Barak Obama and it may have a decidedly mixed quality.  For example, I wonder whether his similarity to Abraham Lincoln may include the latter’s tendency toward depression.

          Let’s move you – you’ve already scissored his chart from here do what you will.

          What are Obama’s personal transits like over the next several months?

It is hard not to notice transits to his Mars at 22° Virgo, Mars in charge of Scorpio, his tenth house.  Saturn had a close station retrograde during his “President-Elect” period; now Uranus comes to oppose Mars in March.  Although Obama seems like anybody but an impulsive person, I would still counsel deliberateness.  Events may surprise him and demand a far quicker response than he would be comfortable with.  Because this position is also featured in the US chart (Neptune!), a surprise for him may also be a surprise for us.

Obama also has transiting Pluto oppose his Venus in Cancer.  I doubt that he would pursue new artistic horizons except on his Blackberry.  I also do not know what being President will do for his love life.

          His decennials give us Mars/Moon from late August 2008 – just when he accepted the Democratic nomination – until autumn of 2010.  One can hope that this will result in emotional connectedness (Moon) coupled with intellectual flexibility (in Gemini).  That Mars and Moon aspect by sign may increase adaptive activity.

          Now we’ll go more into what is usually called “mundane astrology.”

          Let’s start with the “chart of the moment” – Tuesday’s Inauguration.

This is the official moment, and from the close conjunction of Mercury, Sun, and Jupiter, you can expect a large-scale visionary occasion.  By the time Obama takes the oath of office and begins his address, the Midheaven degree will have joined the others in Aquarius --- and of course conjunct his natal Jupiter!  This chart may also be considered a “birth chart” for a four-year Obama administration.

          The Ascendant is governed by Venus that is with the topsy-turvey Uranus/Saturn combination.   Venus is critical in a Taurus rising chart because it indicates a lot of back and forth and maybe a stalemate between the new and the status quo.  Events may necessitate full speed forward with the brakes on. More troubling is that Moon is in the last degree of Scorpio, void of course.

Perhaps they can wait a half-hour: by then the Moon will be in Sagittarius applying to Sun and Mercury at 00° Aquarius.  I wonder whether the Scorpio Moon implies some basic unsettledness among the American public or whether his administration does wind up prosecuting some former members of the previous administration.

Let’s look at any impact on the USA birth chart.  My mundane astrology – at least – tends to be pretty conventional and I sidestep all controversy and use the standard Sibley chart for the US.

On the inside is the USA chart, recognizable by its date.  In the middle are the progressions to the USA chart.  On the outside are the major transits from the chart of the Inauguration. 

Two things are interesting in the progressed chart, and one is the progressed Full Moon that was exact on Christmas Eve.  The previous New Moon was in October 1994 when the Clintons’ Health Care proposal died and the Republicans took over the House of Representatives and the “Contract with America.”  Remember then?  You could say that this is a political change as large now as then and in the opposite direction.  We shall see if this one is longer than was Newt Gingrich’s attempt to control the national agenda.

The second factor of note in the progressed chart is progressed Venus opposite progressed Mars exact on June 14.  It is difficult to know exactly how to assess this contact.  My first guess is based on the fact that Venus is in charge of the USA sixth house, Mars in charge of the twelfth.  I wonder about the effects of economic difficulties on labor (6th) as well as people on the margins of society – people who are homeless or institutionalized (12th). 

The transits are equally puzzling.  We see that transiting Saturn and Uranus are in range of the USA Neptune and both will contact Neptune this coming year. This could be a strong dose of “reality” (Saturn) and also some new opportunities to do things differently (Uranus).  However, both Saturn and Uranus are in contact with the USA Mars in Gemini!  It is hard for me not to think of consequences for the current depletion of the military.  It may also be timed for a military withdrawal in Iraq (Saturn) and some surprises in Afghanistan (Uranus).  They might also catch Osama bin Laden in southern New Jersey.

I could go on, and if I was primarily a mundane astrologer certainly I would.  But I want to close with two eclipse charts.  Using eclipse charts was an important part of the astrology of nations during the ancient and medieval eras.  You simply read the chart from the location of a capital city, in this case Washington DC.

With this massive lineup of Leo in the first house, how could Obama not win the election?  Well, it’s an easy call three days before his Inauguration.  (The astrologer of the Inauguration was convincing enough.)

But alas all good things come to an end and there is another eclipse one week after the Inauguration.  By now you will recognize many of the positions.

As you would imagine, this is less pleasant than August.  Of course we’re happy that Jupiter is so close to the eclipse position.  I wonder whether the third house emphasis has to do with communications networks and matters like the transition (if it happens) to HD television and all kinds of unknown consequences, especially to less affluent rural people.

          It’s not hard to wonder about Saturn in the 10th conjunct the Midheaven and oppose Uranus/Venus in the 4th. Saturn alone would be fairly straightforward in the light of economic malaise and diminished presence in the world – probably coupled with some major world crisis and others look to the US for leadership.

          It’s the Venus/Uranus in the 4th that is a bit confusing.  Could there be some major innovation?  The fact that Uranus is in the 4th gives me some hope for this.  With Venus there, however, the imagination takes over from reason.  Maybe the usual characters are chased from the supermarket tabloids, maybe Brittany does make her comeback, maybe there’s a stunning achievement in one of the arts.

          We will see, will we not?  Stay tuned.