Updates – Now in the Sky – Uranus Cycle – Profile: Obama and his “worthy opponents”

Updates: It’s three weeks past the historic 2008 elections and some of us are satisfied or not with the outcome but everybody seems relieved that we can get on with more of our lives.  For some of us, however, one needs to make a slow withdrawal and I have a contribution – we’ll look at Obama’s chart and its interactions with two people he drove crazy:  John McCain and Hillary Clinton.  The latter synastry is more interesting because as of the moment she’s getting a job with him.

          We’ve reshaped our web site somewhat and you might enjoy looking through it again at www.astrologyinstitute.com  In particular there are revised sections on astrology consultations and tutorials and you might enjoy looking at some of the back issues of our newsletter.

          But in the meantime let’s do some astrology basics: we should look at the Venus/Jupiter alignment and the Uranus cycle, then we’ll do some more politics.

Now in the Sky:

Below is a “chart of the moment” for Saturday mid-day.  I have only the visible planets featured, because our interest here is in what one might see in the sky above.

At the time of this chart one cannot see anything except the Sun – well, you could if it wasn’t cloudy out but we all know it’s there.  Before sunrise what planet can we see?  You will note that Saturn is far ahead of the Sun clockwise against the order of the signs of the zodiac.  Therefore one could see Saturn rising ahead of the Sun toward early morning.  Perhaps you would not want to get up that early – or stay up that late – to see Saturn.

What’s more interesting is what follows the Sun – Venus and Jupiter, the two benefics, close to one another and visible in the evening after the Sun goes down.  On Monday night there will be a slender crescent Moon accompanying Venus and Jupiter.  The Moon moves about 13° a day and so it would be in the vicinity of Venus and Jupiter after the Sun goes down.  Hopefully the weekend bad weather will let up so we can see the show!

Here is the chart for Saturday morning:

Note that I am using a “quadrant” chart form because it shows more clearly where the horizon and the midheaven lines are.  No, I am not about to revert to quadrant charts in my natal work.  It does become easier to note that Venus and Jupiter are rising at the time this chart came onto my computer screen.

          This format does not well conform to “reality.”  Indeed the meridian line is due south/north and that line is accurate.  However, the sign Capricorn is a southernmost sign and an accurate representation from this chart would have the horizon line not at “9 o’clock” but closer to ten, reflecting the short time it would take for a degree of Capricorn to go from rising to culminating – crossing the Midheaven line.

          Of course this chart rendered on whole signs looks like the chart below.

We see that the first house isCapricorn and the ascending degree lies within it.  The Midheaven in Scorpio is in the eleventh house, because Scorpio is eleven signs from Capricorn.  This is the kind of chart I use for my natal work, as you’ll see below.

          Now onto other fundamentals:

          I begin with a graphic ephemeris.  It divides the positions of the planets into cardinal, fixed, and mutable signs.  At the top of the chart you can see a red line for Jupiter as it begins retrograde, flattens out (at its station), then goes direct and accelerates.

          Toward the bottom of the chart is a blue line for Uranus.  Note how Saturn has a steeper slope and is going direct and crossed the Uranus line in early November.  That conforms to the exact opposition between the two planets on Election Day November 4, when Saturn was at 21 Virgo and Uranus at 21 Pisces.

You can see how Uranus is going retrograde and then flattens out and begins to go direct but oh slowly.  Here are two relevant charts.

Notice that in September Uranus was opposite the Sun.  If it were visible, Uranus would be at its greatest light, receiving the Sun’s light like a Full Moon would receive the Moon’s.  At that time Uranus is retrograde and then the Sun begins to move closer to it in the direction of the zodiac.  Then, on November 27 when the Sun gets about 100° within Uranus, the planet turns around and goes direct.  As that happens and as Uranus gets closer to the Sun, the planet appears to move more quickly.

          Here’s a glimpse of next year for Uranus.

          Now we get back to politics…

You will notice that by the time the Sun has caught up with Uranus, the outer planet has moved four degrees, which is the distance of that planet from year to year.  Finally next spring it will appear to slow down and go retrograde in the early summer and by then Uranus is at the last degrees of Pisces.  This also means that the following year Uranus will move four more degrees and enter the sign Aries.  And when that happens we’ll report it!

Profile: Obama and his “worthy opponents”

Many factors doomed John McCain’s presidential candidacy this past autumn.  One thing that seemed obvious is that Obama’s success as it seemed to him was very difficult for McCain who had personal trouble with him.  So here is a synastry chart with McCain’s planets on the inside and those of “That One” on the outside.  It’s a real feast for the astrological eyes.

One might notice that in different circumstances they might have gotten along very well – any Jupiter/Moon combination gives the possibility of an emotional connection.  Obama’s Jupiter at 00° Aquarius is very close to McCain’s Moon, and McCain’s Jupiter opposes Obama’s Moon.  (The nature of the planets – like Jupiter being a benefic – is more critical than the kind of aspect between them.)

          However, note that because McCain was born at sunset, he has Sun opposite the Ascendant – with Obama’s Pluto very close to both positions!  In a presidential election, the candidates’ Suns and Acsendants are very important, because the candidates are on strongly lit personal display and many voters will vote identification and not policy.

          Obama’s Pluto functioned as bringing out the worst in McCain’s demeanor and presentation and strongly stifled his ability to express his better qualities.  Obama’s Pluto made his seem demonic to McCain, which brought out McCain’s least attractive qualities.

          There’s another factor – McCain has an opposition between Saturn in the first and Venus in the seventh, which is a hard-edged combination.  Obama’s Mars was exactly on McCain’s Venus and opposite Saturn.  This brought out less of McCain’s calculated (Saturn) amenability (Venus) and more of his personal insecurity.  It was interested that such a charismatic politician as McCain could come across as unattractive as he did.

          Now onto another of Obama’s “worthy opponents”, and one who is getting a job with him – Hillary Clinton.  Now let’s see what she does to him, by putting Obama’s chart on the inside and Hillary’s on the outside.  What follows is another feast for the astrological eyes:

Where do we start?  And how does this portend for her working for him?  Fortunately for both they have charts with many planets in fixed signs but this also means that their respective planets have many contacts with each other.

          We can begin with Barak Obama’s Sun in Leo, which happened to be very close to Hillary Clinton’s Mars/Pluto combination – Mars also governs Hillary’s Ascendant, Sun, and other first house planets.  Barak is going to have to be very un-Leo-like with Hillary: no recitation of common ideas or heroic fantasies, instead an acknowledgment and use of direct personal and political power.  Hillary will insist!

          The same interpretation goes for Obama’s rhetorically adept Mercury in Leo and Clinton’s Sun in Scorpio.  What is the conflict between Leo and Scorpio?  Leo always wants to be on the side of goodness and Scorpio knows better, knows its own un-goodness.  The same goes for Obama’s idealistic Jupiter in Aquarius, on the other side of his chart in the first house.  With Hillary it’s no heroism, glitch, or idealism – work and pragmatics. 

          On the personal side, however, we see Obama’s Mars in Virgo in opposition to her Moon in Pisces – his danger is that with all the possible difficulties with her Scorpio and Mars/Pluto, Obama will miss attempt to steamroll her in defense and miss out on her emotional sensitivity and compassionate (really) nature.

          The possibility of a more personal connection lies with his Venus at 02° Cancer in exact trine with her Sun in Scorpio.  My sense is that two very ambitious politicians will have to get through a lot of conflict first before they can genuinely like each other.

          That’s enough politics for now.  I have really enjoyed reporting on the presidential and vice presidential candidates, changing birth times notwithstanding.  Next month I hope to have a literary and historical treat before we go back into the world of politics and mundane astrology in time for the inauguration in late January.