As the United States proceeds on its own perilous journey, charting its course over the unpredictable waves of life in the 21st Century, the success of its passage depends on similar concerns. There is a need for a strong and able president working with an able and cohesive team. Similarly, the ship of state itself needs to be economically and militarily viable, and therefore less vulnerable to the vicissitudes of fortune. For most certainly, circumstances will always arise that challenge the leadership and the power of the nation. And, as with the ocean voyages of earlier times, success or failure in the nation's sojourn through uncharted waters depends on the pivotal interaction of its leadership and resources with unfolding events.
Astrology affords us a means of understanding the president, the patterns and characteristics of his administration, and the issues impacting the nation during any particular administration. The president’s birth chart, the Inaugural chart, and the chart of the US each give insights into the current flow of history. The progressions will show which inner characteristics will develop, wax, and then wane, and the transits will introduce the outer energies that come to meet these inner energies.
The Inaugural chart, in particular, is an incredible guide to the character and fortunes of an administration. In the Clinton Inaugural of 1997, for example, we find a chart pointing to exceptional success that tends to be experienced from an unrealistic and somewhat fantasy perspective; Sun conjunct both Jupiter and Neptune, in harmonious aspect to Saturn, Mars, Node, and Pluto. Remember when it was thought the boom would never end and surpluses would go on forever? Such is the magical thinking of Neptune in close conjunction to the Sun.
We also see in this Inaugural chart the two major time bombs that went off for the Clinton administration. Neptune, the planet of obfuscation, scandal, and illusion, reached the exact conjunction of the natal Sun in 1998, remaining for much of the year. This was the year of Monica Lewinsky and the meaning of "is". The second time bomb came during 2000, when the Clinton Inaugural Sun progressed to a conjunction with natal Uranus, the planet of sudden reversals and unexpected upsets. In November and December 2000, when transiting Neptune reached the same degree as the natal Uranus and the progressed Sun (4 Aquarius), everything reversed itself, and the Radical Right, cloaked in the person of George Bush, upended the Clinton/Gore universe.
The Inaugural chart of George Bush is no less telling. Most striking is the powerful T-square with a Uranus/Mercury conjunction at its heart, squaring Mars/Descendant on one end and Ascendant/Saturn on the other. Here we see the aggressive and impatient radicalism (Mars square Uranus/Mercury) that colors everything this administration does. In addition, the rising first-house Saturn indicates the rigid and conservative world-view through which all perspective is filtered. The setting Mars suggests anger directed at the administration from numerous quarters and the tendency for the administration to frequently act in a belligerent fashion.
Next in importance to the volatile T-Square in the Bush Inaugural chart, is the conjunction of the Sun and Neptune, as well as Neptune’s wide square with the Ascendant. This introduces a huge dose of unreality into the picture, bringing the tendency to obfuscate, dissemble, and lose track of reality. Policies are based on grandiose thinking and illogical thought processes, all of which eventually come crashing down when hit with the jarring face of reality (Saturn). Thus, the trickle-down fantasy of the all-purpose tax cuts is engendered from the same Disneyfied source as the three-month path to a rose petal-covered, democratic Iraq. The entry of Saturn into Cancer in June 2003, progressively aspecting several significant charts (see The Tide has Turned) has, for the moment, forced at least some realistic perceptions onto the administration.
There is also an emotional brittleness and pathological need for control in the Bush administration that can be seen in the strong Pluto aspects to both the Inaugural Moon and Venus. Here we find the distrustful, almost paranoid qualities, the secrecy, the need to control everything to feel secure, the resentment, and the need for revenge, all negative qualities of Pluto that can manifest when it has hard aspects to the softer, emotional energies of the Moon and Venus. There is an underlying feeling of a threat to survival and safety with these Pluto aspects that engenders a massive gathering of power in response. The administration’s intense, fearful, and all-consuming reaction to the terrorist threat is an example of this.
Interestingly, these two aspects, Pluto conjunct the Moon and Pluto square Venus, have been brought to their full power during the last year, when transiting Pluto moved to the exact square with Inaugural Venus and the exact conjunction with Inaugural Moon. The end of 2002 and the first months of 2003, during the Pluto station conjunct the Moon, saw the administration at its most manipulative and demagogic (Pluto), attempting to dominate public opinion, the nations of the UN, and the Congress, in order to achieve its hegemonic goals in Iraq. The North Korean nuclear threat was also first introduced when Pluto crossed the Inaugural Moon in January 2003. The continual scandal of deception over exaggerated and dishonest intelligence and the disintegrating situation in Iraq became a political nightmare to the administration during the spring and summer’s Pluto station square Inaugural Venus. In each of these situations, the administration demonstrated a penchant for manipulation, revenge, and rigid attempts at total control.
We are currently at the end of the Saturn station on the US Sun (late September through October 25) that has brought with it the specific charge and investigation of White House aids criminally outing a CIA agent. We have also seen Bush’s polls sink to around 50%, their lowest since before 9/11. The administration’s deceit and manipulation that resulted in the war in Iraq has been largely uncloaked, and awareness of it has now permeated the mass consciousness, tarnishing the Bush presidency forever. As the Saturn station neared completion in late October, allied nations finally pledged to loan a minimal amount of money and troops to support the war, but the offers fell far short of what had been promised by the starry-eyed War Chief and his henchmen six months earlier. Meanwhile, violence in the ongoing guerilla war against the US occupation continues to escalate, and the administration is at a loss as to how to stop it.
Thus, the burden upon the country and its Chief Executive, described by the Saturn transit to the US Sun, is now deeply entrenched, becoming more chronic than acute as it slogs us onward until its final broadside in June 2004, when Saturn crosses the US Sun for its final pass. In the meantime, the last crossing of Pluto to the Inaugural Moon and opposite Bush’s progressed MC/natal Uranus is just beginning in late October, and will run through November 2003. This suggests a combination of the administration feeling agitated and threatened, mirrored to some degree in the American population at large (Pluto to the Inaugural Moon), and Bush himself being overwhelmed by numerous sudden, upsetting and critical events (Pluto/Uranus/MC combination). In addition, the current three-month Uranus station in opposition to the Iraqi Sun/Mercury conjunction, especially strong after Uranus goes direct on November 8, is stimulating rebellion, violence, and an intense desire for freedom in Iraq. This scenario can only intensify through November 2003.
From mid-November 2003 through the end of the Bush term, there are three very significant aspects in the Inaugural chart. These offer another layer of understanding, as well as confirmation of what we see in the coming aspects for late 2003 and 2004 in the US chart and the chart of George Bush. From mid-November 2003 through early July 2004, the Inaugural secondary progressed Ascendant will move to an exact square with natal Uranus. These two are already square in the natal chart, with an almost 6-degree orb. Thus, this progression will be felt most acutely. We can expect a great deal of stress, tension, and turbulence for the administration during this period, with many sudden upsets and reversals, and possibly some unexpected resignations of White House staff amid great dramatic events. The fact that this progression comes under the continuing shadow of the Saturn transit to the US Sun suggests that these unexpected and stressful events will generally be very troublesome and not go well for the administration. The fact that this progression is also somewhat concurrent with the transit of Pluto opposite the US Mars and several triggers of Mars progressions in Bush’s chart suggests further that many of these upsets will relate to war, violence (including violent demonstrations), and aggression, as well as Bush’s sudden and forceful response. And finally, we should always remember that the powerful Inaugural Uranus strengthened by this progression is the indicator of Bush’s very radical agenda, which he has been very willing to relentlessly push despite opposition.
The second significant Inaugural aspect over the coming year is the transit of Neptune square the Inaugural Ascendant, completing the natal 8-degree-orb square. Running from March through early July 2004 and again throughout January 2005, it suggests an administration in disarray, confused, and quite possibly in the grip of wildly unrealistic and emotional reactions to events. The potential for ideology triumphing over pragmatism here is great as is the potential for scandal and its accompanying obfuscation, deceit and trickery.
The third aspect worthy of note in the 2004 Inaugural chart is the transit of Saturn stationary on the Inaugural IC from late September through early December 2004. The converse progressed Inaugural Sun (26Capricorn32 by the election), the Inaugural MC/IC axis (26Capricorn/Cancer42), and Bush’s Saturn (26Cancer30) will simultaneously receive the same potent and very difficult Saturn station throughout the height of the presidential campaign and the election. This suggests profound feelings of failure and despair for the administration at this very crucial time. Moreover, the Bush 12th-house Saturn return indicates a potent personal inner crisis for the White House Resident when outer reality (Saturn) and inner grandiose, evangelical fantasy collide. It is hard to imagine the administration wining the election under these planetary configurations.
In sum, the Bush Inaugural chart indicates a combination of extreme aggression, a radical agenda, and an inability to grasp reality coherently due to wild, pseudo-religious scheming and grandiose thinking. This lethal combination has already left us with a debilitating quagmire in Iraq, which is siphoning off blood and treasure into a bottomless pit, and a reckless and unsound fiscal policy that is mortgaging our future. The final year of the Bush administration will continue to see these basic themes play out, but with the caveat that Saturn will be overshadowing the entire production, making it harder and harder to ignore reality. Already we have seen Saturn’s steady gaze deflating the administration’s lies and distortions, essentially dragging the Chief Cowboy and his Gang back to the ranch for a while. But the wild ride is not over and could get very rowdy in the first five months of 2004. After that, it may be all downhill for the Bush administration.
