I will present an overview of Astrological Roots: The Hellenistic Legacy

Copies of the book will be available for purchase. Please R.S.V.P.

Horary Astrology Workshop on Saturday
The Arlington Center, 369 Massachusetts Ave., MA
Cost is $50

This workshop follows up the one held in September, although it is not necessary to have attended the first one to attend and profit from this one.

We will look further at the origins of horary astrology, this time surveying some of the chart samples from Guido Bonatti from the thirteenth century.

We will look at some of the psychologically-oriented charts from William Lilly, and work more with modern love and career horaries, and discuss the significators for lost items and how to find lost objects.

We will also take on the tricky subject of a chart's being radical. Unlike a natal chart or a chart for a discrete event, it is sometimes difficult to determine that the chart for a question is for the right time to answer the question. Here we look at some of the traditional criteria but also the matter of finding the present situation already represented in the natal chart, which would argue for its validity.

Once again, do let me know if you are able to come. We already have enough people so that, barring any ripening of my personal or our societal karma, the workshop definitely will happen.

As mentioned before, there are two birth times for Hillary Clinton, an 8 AM and an 8 PM.
She and a newspaper account both mention an 8 AM time, but on another occasion she mentioned that she was born at 8 in the evening. Because there are conflicting times, Hillary's chart is based on what is called "dirty data."

What to do? We can compare the two natal charts for a closer resemblance and we can also compare how the charts compare in accounting astrologically for important events of her life. Here I will present the AM chart and its plausibility. Later we can look at the PM charts and compare results. It is better to do one chart at a time and not risk of overwhelming the reader -- you -- or the writer -- me.

It seems important at this time to have a chart for Hillary Clinton: she has currently broken out into a huge lead in national polls among Democrats. Other Democratic candidates for the nomination and leading Republican candidates are all taking shots at her, since she is the candidate to beat. Many pundits and even George Bush consider her sure to get the Democratic nomination. Judging also from the disarray and disaffection from the Republicans, there's a reasonable chance she will be the next US President.

This is a striking chart, especially at this time of day. The first thing to notice -- for either the AM or PM chart -- is all those planets in fixed signs Scorpio and Leo. In her AM chart, however, these planets are in the most powerful of the houses or places, the First, and the Tenth, the place of career. This would give her an intense presence.

One astrology friend has an interesting take on particular chart -- if Hillary had all these planets in these powerful angular houses, she would have eliminated Bill -- one way or another -- long ago. One standard criticism of her marriage is that Hillary has hung on -- and allowed Bill to live -- because of her all-consuming ambition. I am not sure her ambition is more than many of the other Presidential candidates, most noticably Rudy Giuliani - but the Ascendant ruler Mars conjunct Pluto does suggest an nuclear level of intensity. (Happily, if the reader still insists that Pluto is the ruler of Scorpio, you have the ruler of Scorpio conjunct Mars! Comes out the same.)

Using her AM chart, we have the lord of the First in the Tenth, as mentioned above, but also the lord of the Tenth, Sun, is in the First. She's the kind of person who wanted to be at the top at a very early age -- and meant it. With the planets in fixed, she would handle her life like a chess master would handle the immediate and the longer-term status of the game.

Three other things about her natal chart:

1. Born AM or PM, she has the tightest of Mercury-Saturn squares. In her AM chart, Saturn would be in sect, and angular, in a strong square to Mercury out of sect but also angular. She does not possess the dourness of the last Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry, who had a powerful mutual reception between the two. She tends not to make mental or verbal mistakes but even her humor seems pre-planned. Currently she is campaigning like a football team running out the clock, and her Mercury-Saturn square puts her in her element during this phase of activity. We will see what happens when she has to take some risks, however.

2. Her Moon in the AM chart is 22 Pisces and is applying to Uranus. (In her PM chart, Moon is 29 Pisces.) Moon in Pisces is the ruler of her Lot of Spirit, and clearly helping to soften a chart that would otherwise make Margaret Thatcher seem sanguine, happy-go-lucky, in comparison. In Moon's application to Uranus, we see her basic unconventionality cohabiting with all the caution she otherwise exhibits. Using wholly modern methods, the midpoints to her Moon display the same strength of intention and ambition as we have seen above. Moon is in the gentler sign Pisces, and is the midpoint of Neptune and the Midheaven degree, which is an extremely idealistic and self-denying combination. Hillary clearly has had intentions to do good. However, the Moon is also the midpoint of Sun/Mars and Sun/Pluto. What I find striking and appealing about her thinking is that she has a good sense of how political decisions and public policy affect daily life and she is expert at seeing the connection between quality of life and government's role. (She did write It Takes a Village.) Channeling Sun/Mars and Sun/Pluto decisiveness through a Pisces Moon does give us this quality.

3. Often it is the case that the malefic out of sect is the planet that causes the native the most difficulty -- here it is Mars in this day chart. This, I suspect, brings us to a harsher cutting quality that displays as having a temper and being temperamental. That Mars governs her Lot of Fortune raises the stakes. A lethal amount of aggressiveness, however, is conditioned by the fixed quality of her chart and the presence of Saturn with Mars, bringing on discipline, or at least allowing her to wait for opportunities. Again, Bill is still breathing.

4. This gives us a good chance to take on relationships and marriage. For Hillary, Venus would be the same in Scorpio with a square from Mars in either her AM or PM chart. In her AM chart, however, Venus would be the ruler of the 7th house Taurus in a chart with Scorpio rising. One factor particular to her AM chart is the placement of the Lot of Marriage, derived from the distance between Venus and Saturn in a woman's chart. In her AM chart, the Lot of Marriage is in the Tenth and very close to Saturn and also Mars. This certainly fits an intense and ambitious marriage, perhaps at the expense of their emotional connectedness. This also helps explain why she stayed with him.
At this point you may be feeling pretty convinced that the AM chart works perfectly for Hillary Clinton. However, we also need to check the chart out for the "accidents of the native," as William Lilly would call it. What are the qualities of this chart that would account for some of the major events of her life? There are indeed many to choose from.

1. When she married Bill, her solar arc Sun conjunct Jupiter was only one month away, as her progressed Sun went from Scorpio to Sagittarius. This seems relevant to a marriage that would have political dimensions. One week after she married Bill, Uranus transited her Sun. Neither exactly depicts getting married -- both depict a major career crossroads that would turn out well for her. These would also be the case for a PM birth, except the timing is closer for her AM birth time.

2. Fast-forwarding to 1992, when the country became introduced to her. Through the generosity of many conservative pundits, her character -- or a negative version of it -- was permanently etched in the nation's consciousness. What was happening by transit? Only Pluto on her Mercury and Ascendant, squaring Mars and Pluto! Otherwise she was just fine. (The ancient method of decennials gave her a Moon/Mars period: Mars guarantees not to show her more pleasant side.)

3.Fast-forward again slightly to the autumn of 1994, this was when her health-care plan withered on the proverbial vine. Her decennials replaced Moon/Mars with Moon/Saturn, which should have gone better for her. Oddly, Jupiter was crossing the Ascendant at this time, which would have had most astrologers predicting success -- this may be an argument for using a PM chart, since this was a dismal time for her.

One feature of the AM chart stands out at this time, however. This political calamity turned out to be, in retrospect, her road to Damascus, from an astrological point of view -- her progressed New Moon was in October, 1994. This, more than any other astrological event I can think of, is about starting over. It is no accident that her latest health insurance proposal was given in the light of events thirteen years previously. (If you are curious, the progressed Full Moon is early 2010.)

4. What about her romantic summer of 1998? The reader may recall that this is when Bill acknowledged his "inappropriate relationship" and was later impeached. At this time Hillary faced what should have been a public humiliation but she emerged more popular than she had been. In either the AM or PM charts, Sun would have been facing a transiting square from Neptune and an opposition from Saturn -- but planets together are a recipe for depression and personal weakness. By solar arc on the AM chart, the summer of 1998 also had a solar arc Moon square Mars. Again, Bill lived, probably because the transits to her Sun gave her occasion to pause and reconsider the effect of homicide on her political future. Hillary's increasing popularity is linked to transiting Jupiter on her Moon -- for many for the first time, people could see Hillary as a more complete person and not just Margaret Thatcher having a bad day.

Her decennials for her AM chart give us Moon-Saturn, which seems to fit quite well with her situation. 5. Ah, 2008. Here is a biwheel: her natal chart is inside, the outer planets on November 3, 2008 are on the outside.

Election 2008 is only a year and a few weeks away. The transits to her chart for that time are remarkable: Neptune is opposite Saturn and square Mercury is very complex and, from the point of view of a Presidential candidate, quite troubling. This has an unravelling feel to it, especially as it her strength (Mercury/Saturn) that is compromised. On the other hand, you may note that Mars is exactly on her Ascendant. Both, taken together, have the feel of somebody staggering across the finish line, like the recent Chicago marathoners competing in temperatures in the high 80's. But would Hillary win the 2008 election? Her solar arc directions give us Jupiter square her Sun in December; her decennials are at this time Mars/Jupiter. The great benefic Jupiter is in sect and in its own sign Sagittarius but is occidental to the Sun and not angular. Jupiter's strength probably does indicate that she could win in 2008 -- giving a better outcome for her than Rudy Giuliani's Jupiter does for him; his weaker Jupiter probably signifies some kind of final disappointment.