He signed the bill into law on March 23rd 2010, at 11:56 AM in the White House.

The chart has many interesting features, notably the presence of many dignified planets. The Sun is exalted in Aries, the Moon is in its home sign of Cancer, Mars in Leo is in mutual reception with the Sun in Aries, Jupiter is in its home sign of Pisces, and Saturn is exalted in Libra. It’s interesting that the bill concerns the health of the people, and the Moon represents both “the people” and the physical body. Not only does the Moon rule the 1st house in this chart, it is also in the 1st house, in its home sign of Cancer.

The Sun in Aries in the 10th being opposed by Saturn in Libra in the 4th is quite descriptive of the skepticism and opposition to the plan and its leaders by conservatives. The Moon in Cancer in the 1st opposed to Pluto in Capricorn in the 7th seems to indicate the tension between the people and the health insurance corporations. Uranus culminating on the Midheaven seems to indicate the radical (historically speaking) aspirations of the bill to provide health insurance as a right.

My Inaccurate Prediction

In my article, “An Astrological History of the Pursuit of Universal Healthcare” I stated:

I predict that [Obama] will make the most progress on the bill while Mercury is retrograde, and while Saturn is in Virgo, which limits a potential bill to appear in September-October 2009 or April-May 2010.

Well, I was off by about 2 weeks on the Saturn front, and Mercury is definitely not retrograde right now.  The obvious answer to why this was a bad prediction to make is that determining the success of an effort cannot be determined by one astrological factor, as the placement of Saturn was for my observations. However, most of the work for healthcare reform did take place while Saturn was in Virgo though, including nearly the entirety of the 2008 primaries and presidential race, in which healthcare was a big issue, as well as most of 2009 which featured the initial stumbles on the bill and the first healthcare protests. As I noted in the article, the placement of Saturn does not guarantee the success of an effort, it just indicates that there will be an attempt. Healthcare reform may be done, but the President realizes that he still has to convince a skeptical public. Shortly, Saturn will return to Virgo for a few months, and so it will be interesting to see what developments occur at the time that I expected a bill to arrive.

It was hard whittling down the craziest stories in politics from this past year down to five – there was all kinds of crazy going on – but somehow we managed to narrow things down to the following short list.

.

5. White House Party Crashers

The shameless and relentless pursuit of celebrity has been elevated to an art form by the resume-fluffing faux-socialite Salahi’s. On November 24th 2009, Michaele and Tareq Salahi crashed a White House State Dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. With an impressive display of cunning and gall – armed with their own camera and makeup crew – the couple schmoozed with Washington’s elite, including White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, V.P. Joe Biden, and even President Obama himself.

On the night of the party, Michaele Salahi was experiencing her Venus return in Scorpio, reflecting her role as a glamorous intruder  at the swanky affair. Tareq Salahi was having a recurrence of his natal Venus  in Taurus square Jupiter in Leo, with transiting Venus in Scorpio square transiting Jupiter in Aquarius, signifying his role as both accomplice and mastermind to the bold and scandalous con.

4. Joe “You Lie!” Wilson

On September 9th 2009, just 3 days after transiting Mercury stationed retrograde,  President Obama made a speech to a joint session of Congress about health care reform. At 8:37 pm, Obama was refuting the claim that health care reform would mean insurance for illegal immigrants. Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina blurted out a loud and angry “YOU LIE!” A collective gasp of shock and disbelief was followed by a mixed chorus  of boos and cheers. As Obama paused in disbelief, Nancy Pelosi cast a glare that could freeze fire.

In typical 2009 fashion, the speech itself was  overshadowed by the outburst in media coverage. Despite Wilson’s newfound celebrity, he was formally chastised by a “resolution of disapproval” by Congress.

At the time of his outburst, the transiting Sun was applying to a conjunction with Saturn in Virgo, making a recurrence of Wilson’s natal Sun-Saturn conjunction in Leo, a reflection both of Wilson’s dramatic grandstanding interruption, and the nature of his accusation.

3. Healthcare Town Hall Protests

Who could forget August? Congress had adjourned for the August recess after missing a deadline for instituting health care reform. Around the country politicians held town hall meetings where they were confronted by extremely angry citizens, in the process creating YouTube gold.

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin fanned the flames with her Facebook  statement that the Democrats’ health care plans involved the institution of sinister “death panels” that would render dispassionate “yea” or “nay” verdicts on whether elderly or disabled people were deserving of medical care at all. Despite being a wildly inaccurate claim, it was a notion that struck a chord with her supporters and soon took hold.

Palin was born with the Sun conjunct Mars and Saturn in Aquarius, and was therefore in sync with the hostile transit of Mars in Gemini square Saturn in Virgo that month. She has quite a history with Mars-Saturn transits, but that is for another post.

Fifteen years earlier, the Clintons embarked on their “Health Security Express” bus tour to promote their health care reform plans and were met with virulent protests wherever they went.  Transiting Mars was in Gemini again, having completed one full turn of its 15-year synodic cycle, this time square Saturn in Pisces, signifying forceful clashes with authority and marking the 2009 town hall phenomenon as a recurrence of the protests against the Clinton bus tour of 1994.

2.  Iran Election Protests

On June 12th 2009, Iran held its presidential election between the traditionalist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the reform-oriented Mir-Hussein Mousavi. Against charges of voting irregularities, Ahmadinejad was declared the winner. The world stood in awe as hell broke loose on the streets of Iran in protest of was widely believed to have been a stolen election. When the government shut down the media in Iran, thousands of Iranians turned to using Twitter to broadcast what was happening. That’s right. Twitter nearly brought down the theocracy.

The protests have  continued to rock Iran to its very core, with many commentators seemingly convinced of the imminent end to the Islamic Republic as we know it. An interesting thought, considering that the Iranian Revolution erupted thirty years earlier, in 1979, making one full Saturn return in Virgo and measuring one full cycle of beginning and endings in personal and political eras.

1. Obama “Birther” Controversy

The question of Obama’s eligibility to be President first came up during the 2008 campaign. To satisfy the nay-sayers, Obama produced his birth certificate (to the absolute delight of astrologers everywhere).

Some, however, were not satisfied. Even when the physical document had been independently investigated and deemed authentic by FactCheck.org, they were not convinced. They said they wanted a long form birth certificate. The state of Hawaii doesn’t issue them. They claimed that Hawaii issues certificates for births abroad, which is true except that if Obama had one it would be makred with the phrase “Certificate of Birth Abroad”. The local newspaper reported his birth. Still, they do not believe. They are the Birthers.

CNN anchor Lou Dobbs raised eyebrows in July when he attempted to legitimize debate on the “Birther” issue on his nightly cable TV broadcasts.  Dobbs persisted in discussing it, even after rival network Fox had stopped, and in July he was sent a memo from CNN president Jon Klein insisting he desist.

At the height of Dobbs’ entertainment of the conspiracy theory, transiting Jupiter was conjunct Neptune in Aquarius, while Dobbs himself was born with natal Jupiter conjunct Neptune in Libra, making this period a recurrence transit for him, one that only occurs every twelve-to-thirteen years and signifies widescale delusions and disengagements from reality.

Dobbs chafed at the directives, and in November, he and CNN “parted ways”, as transiting Saturn was making a conjunction to his natal Sun in Libra, a reflection of the ending of a nearly thirty-year era, dating back to when he began working for the network when it first started in 1980, just a few months prior to the last time transiting Saturn went into Libra and made a conjunction to his natal Sun.

Could things get any crazier? Here’s to 2010!

The eight-year cycle marks one full Venus synodic cycle. Every eight years, transiting Venus returns to within about two zodiacal degrees of its position relative to the Sun, creating a repeating cycle that links these periods together, connected thematically through related events in the world.

Richard Reid and the Shoe Bombing

On December 22, 2001, on the heels of the 9-11 attacks and the allied invasion of Afghanistan, twenty-eight year-old British citizen Richard Reid, who had converted to Islam while serving time in prison and subsequently received Al Qaeda training in Pakistan, tried to set fire to explosives stored in his shoes during a cross-Atlantic American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami.

The smell of smoke alerted people nearby, and Reid was soon restrained and sedated with a dose of valium. Once taken into custody after a forced landing at Boston’s Logan Airport, authorities found PETN with a traicetone triperoxide (TATP) detonator stored in the lining of his shoes. Hereafter, flight passengers in the U.S. and elsewhere were required to remove their shoes for inspection before boarding.

At the time transiting Venus was at 25 Sagittarius was conjunct the transiting South Node, and approaching conjunction with the transiting Sun in Capricorn. The combination of Venus and the Node identifies Reid as an agent of a larger group bent on disrupting the peace.

Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab and the Fire – Venus Synodic Return

Just before noon on December 25, 2009, towards the end of a cross-Atlantic flight from the Netherlands to Detroit, twenty-three year-old Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab – the son of a wealthy retired Nigerian banker, who six weeks earlier had warned international authorities about his son’s possible intentions – ignited an explosive device that caught fire, but didn’t blow up.

He was quickly subdued by a nearby passenger, the flames were extinguished, and Abdul Mutallab was arrested after landing.

Transiting Venus had just passed its return in late Sagitttarius, and was again approaching conjunction to the Sun in Capricorn. This time, however, transiting Pluto in Capricorn was sandwiched between Venus and the Sun, reflecting the fact that Abdul Mutallab’s actions fly in the face of his privileged background.

Birth Charts of Two Would-be Terrorists

There is another curious astrological link between these two events, and it has to do with the birth dates of both Richard Reid and Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab. Although neither has a recorded time of birth, preventing the calculation of a proper horoscope, both of their dates and places of birth are known to the public.

Reid was born on August 12, 1973 in Bromley, London, England.

On the day he attempted to blow up American Airlines 63, the transiting Sun in Capricorn was opposite his natal Saturn and South Node in Cancer, and square his natal Pluto in Libra.

The Sun’s transit touching off Reid’s natal Saturn-Pluto square on this day indicates his ill-fated attempt to murder a large number of people while ending his own life, and also reflects his part in instigating major new policy in airport security.

Abdul Mutallab was born on December 22, 1986 in Lagos.

On the day he set fire to Northwest Flight 253  as it descended toward Detroit Metropolitan Airport, transiting Venus in Sagittarius and Pluto and the Sun in Capricorn were all conjunct his natal Sun-Neptune in Capricorn, squared by transiting Saturn in Libra, reanimating the Sun-Saturn-Pluto square theme seen in the 2001 event.

Again, the Saturn and Pluto square touching off his natal Sun in Capricorn signifies his desperate attempt to make a big statement by murdering almost 300 people while taking his own life, and again it appears his actions are leading directly to more changes in airport security.

The Mars Return Link

Abdul Mutallab was born exactly fifteen years prior to Richard Reid’s 2001 shoe bombing attempt. Fifteen years happens to be the length of a Mars synodic cycle, whereby it has run through all of its phases and has returned close to the same position relative to the Sun.

Abdul Mutallab’s natal Mars at 18 degrees of Pisces is very close to where transiting Mars was on the day of Reid’s day of reckoning at 10 Pisces. While it is unknown if Reid was a direct inspiration to him, the similarities between their intentions and circumstances are eerily mirrored by the parallels in their astrology.

In October, Abdul Mutallab’s father, retired banker Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, notified the US Embassy in Nigeria that his son was missing and might be involved in Islamic extremism. Despite this warning, and the fact that Abdul Mutallab was already banned from flying in Britain, he was able to board a U.S.-bound plane with explosives strapped to him.

Umaru Mutallab was born on December 15, 1939, a week shy of 47 years before his son.

A forty-seven year interval is also one in which the Sun and Mars are at close to the same angle from each other. Both father and son were born with natal Mars-Jupiter conjunction in Pisces, although Abdul Mutallab’s Jupiter-Mars conjunction is tightly conjunct his father’s natal Mars at 16 Pisces, signifying their philosophical and ethical break.

Thanks to Patrick Watson for research assistance on this article.

The article is from the Winter 2009 issue of Sandpoint Magazine, and it can be accessed online here.   The magazine covers local news related to the city of Sandpoint, Idaho, which, of course, is where Sarah Palin was born.

The article itself is a somewhat short biographical piece on Palin, written by a local author named Sandy Compton who appears to have done a number of interviews during the process.

A few paragraphs in it gives an account of the circumstances surrounding Palin’s birth, including the time that she was born.

According to the article, Sarah Palin was born at 6:00 PM.

Here is the relevant section from the article:

That evening at 6 p.m., Dr. Helen Peterson, Sandpoint’s first female general practitioner/surgeon, delivered a 7-pound, 11-ounce baby girl.

This appears to be a rounded time, and while it may derive from the birth certificate, it could also simply be based on someone’s recollection, and so it is not entirely trustworthy.

Conflict With Other Birth Times Reported

Note that the birth time listed above conflicts with the two times listed by Astro-Databank.  The second time, reported by Gregg DeLaCastro as 4:40:07 PM, appears to be entirely baseless (a nonexistent Wikipedia entry), and can safely be ignored.

The first time listed, 9:43 PM, was apparently reported by someone named Thor based on some source on a mailing list.  Purportedly it was derived from a local records office through unspecified means, although since a birth certificate was never produced, it also comes off as just as baseless as the other time listed.

What all of this means is basically that this 6:00 PM time is probably the most accurate approximation of Palin’s actual birth time that anyone has come up with yet.  Certainly it is the only one that appears to have a documented source – although again, I hasten to add that the source is not necessarily the birth certificate, and thus the time may only be an approximation.

Sarah Palin’s Birth Chart

The 6:00 PM birth time gives Palin early Virgo rising.  This is somewhat problematic since, if this is only an approximate birth time, she could have been born slightly earlier, which would give her a different rising sign.   In fact, if Palin was born about 23 minutes earlier, or before 5:37 PM, then her ascendant would be in Leo.   Nonetheless, here is the 6:00 PM birth chart with Virgo rising:

Sarah Palin – Born February 11, 1964 in Sandpoint, Idaho at 6:00 PM

Big thanks to Renee Quesada from the Myspace group for the tip on Palin’s birth time.

• Update – December 23, 2009: Patrick Watson found more information on the source for the data: “The article was not written by Sandy Compton as it said on the site. And, Sandy Compton is NOT female. Instead the article was written by Marianne Love. My question was forwarded to Marianne Love and she said she got the story from a birth notice in the Sandpoint News Bulletin, which she looked at in the Bonner County Museum. Regardless, 6 pm is what it says in the newspaper. Until we get to see the actual birth certificate, we can’t be sure if 6 pm is anecdotal or rounded up or down.”

Annise Parker was born on May 17th 1956 in Houston, Texas, birth time unknown.  She was born when Jupiter was at 22 degrees of Leo. Her political career took off when she was elected a council member for the city of Houston on December 6th 1997, and was later sworn in on January 2nd 1998. This occurred while transiting Jupiter was at 22  degrees of Aquarius, exactly opposite her natal Jupiter at 22 Leo. 12 years later, Jupiter is back at 22 degrees of Aquarius opposite her natal Jupiter at 22 Leo, right as she has advanced her career to the position of mayor.

Parker’s Mars-Jupiter recurrence transit

This isn’t the end of the story however. Her election has received a good deal of national attention because of her sexual orientation. Jupiter in Aquarius is currently opposite Mars in Leo. This is significant for Parker because she was born with Mars opposite Jupiter herself, and so she is experiencing her Mars-Jupiter recurrence transit. Not only that, but Mars and Jupiter are opposed in the opposite degrees of her natal Mars-Jupiter opposition. You can see Mars and Jupiter highlighted in red in both her natal chart and the transits of her victory.

Jupiter is supposed to provide opportunities and successes, Mars is supposed to provide troubles and conflicts. Having those two forces in opposition likely indicates that the more successful she is, the more antagonism will come up against her.

While this is true for most politicians, this is especially pertinent for her as a gay politician in a country, (as well as a region of a country), where equal rights for gays has been a contentious issue.With the glare of the national spotlight, she could become a target for people who consider her sexual orientation to be immoral.

History Rhymes

The thing that sort of amplifies that worry for me is the fact that Mars is just about a week from stationing retrograde. For a while now I have been working on a very long astrological history of gay rights which I hope to publish soon. Basically what I’ve observed is that the synodic cycles of Mars have a curiously prominent role in that history. There are reasons for that which I will explain in that article, but it is somewhat satisfying to see the pattern hold up. This time period reminds me a lot of Harvey Milk’s ascent to power in San Francisco politics.

Harvey Milk was sworn in on January 9th 1978, at a Sun-Venus superior conjunction in Capricorn while Mars was retrograde in Leo. 32 years later (the recurrence period of Venus and Mars), Annise Parker will be sworn in on January 2nd 2010, at a Sun-Venus superior conjunction in Capricorn while Mars will be retrograde in Leo. I am not intimating that something bad will happen to Annise Parker, as it did for Harvey Milk, but just as Mark Twain said about history: it never repeats, but it does rhyme.

It’s unclear what the domestic political consequences will be.  After all, it hasn’t gone unnoticed that he is accepting a peace award after having just escalated the war in Afghanistan. He clearly has to strike a very fine balance in his speech tomorrow. Some interesting transit principles can be seen in action here.

At the time he was notified of the award, the Moon was transiting through Gemini, having just separated from a trine with the retrograde Jupiter in Aquarius.  Coincidentally Obama himself was born with the Moon in Gemini, having just separated from a retrograde Jupiter in Aquarius. This sort of transit, when a natal configuration reappears in the sky, is known as a recurrence transit. They need not happen in the same signs as the natal chart, but that is what makes Obama’s Moon-Jupiter recurrence transits these days all the more relevant.

Moon-Jupiter Recurrence Transit

Jupiter Stationing on the Ascendant

He has these every month while Jupiter is in Aquarius and when the Moon is in Gemini. So what made that one stand out? Everyone knows Jupiter has been hanging around Obama’s Ascendant for a while now. Obviously we couldn’t say that for every day he has had this transit, something particularly lucky happened for him. But what I have noticed is that when a slower planet is making an aspect to a natal chart, it’s when that slower planet reaches crucial phases with the Sun, (the conjunction, opposition and the retrograde/direct stations) that you can see the clear expression of that transit.

Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize not just while Jupiter was transiting near his Ascendant, but when Jupiter stationed on his Ascendant. And Jupiter is probably the most appropriate planet to represent being given an award, for promoting peace of all things.

Transiting Mars-Jupiter Opposition

Obama had a similar transit occur recently. Aside from Mars slowing down towards his Descendant, transiting Uranus stationed direct in opposition to his natal Mars on the very day of his troop surge announcement on December 1st.

He accepts the Nobel Peace Prize tomorrow afternoon on December 10th 2009 in Oslo, Norway.  Just as Obama has to walk a fine line between his calls for peace and his plans for war, Jupiter the planet of peace and goodwill is opposed to Mars, the planet of war and aggression.  This Mars-Jupiter opposition goes across Obama’s horizonal axis, perhaps indicating that some of the conflict lies within himself.

Even more interesting, as Obama accepts this award, Alfred Nobel is posthumously experiencing his sixth Saturn Return. Alfred Nobel was the inventor of dynamite. He felt so bad about having invented something so destructive that he set up the Nobel Prizes to leave a more noble legacy.  He was born with Mars opposite Jupiter.

Last week on Tuesday, December 1st at 8 pm at West Point Military Academy in New York, President Barack Obama revealed his plans to send 30,000 additional troops into Afghanistan, and to withdraw American troops beginning in July 2011. This announcement comes as Mars (the bringer of war), is becoming brighter in the night sky as it slows down toward its retrograde station in Leo, right on Obama’s natal Descendant. Mars goes retrograde on December 20 and will remain so until it stations direct around March 10, 2010.

Many people in the media and in the general population have compared the continuation of war efforts in Afghanistan to previous military blunders by the US in Vietnam and the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. As astrology would have it, these comparisons are not far off.

The Mars Retrograde Cycle

Mars operates on a 15-year cycle, based on its position relative to the Sun, also called its synodic cycle. It goes retrograde about every 26 months, in roughly the same area of the zodiac every fifteen years.

So the imminent Mars retrograde period is related to the Mars retrogrades of 1995, 1980, 1965, 1950, and so on.

Lets see what happened during those retrogrades, and if there are any lessons we can take from history about what is happening today.

.

Korean War

Mars Retrograde, February 12th-May 3rd 1950, 11 Libra-22 Virgo

The Korean War marked the first proxy war of the Cold War, where Soviet Russia and the United States faced off against each other indirectly by supporting and fighting in wars in different countries either trying to spread or contain communism. At the end of World War II, boundaries of territories occupied by the Allies were redrawn all over the world. Soviet Russia took North Korea above the 38th parallel, the US took the South. When the Soviets left North Korea, they left a well-equipped communist regime in place. When the US left South Korea, they were virtually powerless.

The Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance was signed on February 14, 1950, two days after transiting Mars stationed retrograde in Libra, emboldening North Korea’s plans for an invasion of the South, which it began to prepare for that spring, as Mars was becoming brighter in the night sky.

War did not break out until June 25th 1950, when North Korea finally invaded South Korea. UN and US forces intervened on South Korea’s behalf. This occurred at the Sun’s square with Mars directly following the retrograde period. After 3 years the war came to a stalemate, with the North and South separated at the 38th parallel.

A ceasefire was signed on July 27th 1953. There was no clear victory for either side, but one could argue at least that communism was successfully contained in this case. However, after 3 years and thousands of lives, the question of if these kinds of wars were worth fighting would reappear in subsequent periods.

Vietnam War

Mars Retrograde, January 28th-April 19th 1965, 28 Virgo-8 Virgo

On August 2nd 1964, Vietnamese ships allegedly torpedoed a US ship on an intelligence mission in the Gulf of Tonkin, known as the Gulf of Tonkin incident. In response, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on August 7th 1964, which authorized the President to use military force in Southeast Asia without a formal declaration of war.

President Lyndon Johnson was in the middle of the 1964 elections, but once he was elected and inaugurated on January 20th 1965, he officially escalated combat operations in Vietnam on the morning of January 31st 1965, just three days after transiting Mars stationed retrograde in Virgo.

As everyone knows, this conflict turned out to reveal the limits of American power to contain communism. Extreme tactical advantages could not overcome fundamental strategic weaknesses. Nearly 8 years to the day that Johnson escalated the Vietnam War, the Paris Peace Accords were signed on January 27th 1973, ending it. 8 years is the synodic return of Venus, (the bringer of peace).

Soviet War in Afghanistan

Mars Retrograde, January 16th-April 6th 1980, 15 Virgo-25 Leo

The young Soviet-backed Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was having troubles with the Islamic Mujahideen Resistance movement. So they asked Russia for help. Some Soviet leaders worried that it would become the Soviet Union’s “Vietnam”.

Soviet Russia invaded Afghanistan on December 27th 1978 as Mars was slowing down and brightening in the night sky. In the early months of 1980, something unexpected (or expected, depending on your point of view) happened. The Soviets banked on their presence pacifying the country. Instead, it stirred up nationalist sentiment against the Russians.

Russia controlled main cities and strategic locations, but the Mujahideen split up into small groups and waged a guerilla war. Despite the Soviets having the superior military and weapons, they soon found themselves significantly challenged by fighting random urban uprisings, tribal armies and sometimes against rogue sections of the Afghan army.

The Mujahideen were funded and supported by the US government and other western countries.  (Ironic, because the Mujahideen would eventually give rise to Osama bin Laden and the Taliban). It was another proxy war between the US and Russia, except this time, the shoe was on the other foot. Just as Vietnam had shown the limits of American power to contain communism, Afghanistan had shown the limits of Soviet power to spread communism.

Russian War in Chechnya

Mars Retrograde, January 2nd-March 24th 1995, 2 Virgo-13 Leo

After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Boris Yeltsin was elected Russia’s first President on a wave of high expectations in Russia and across the world as a populist liberal democratic reformer. However, an outstanding issue of Chechnya’s sovereignty dragged Yeltsin into an unpopular war which his popularity never survived.

On December 11th 1994, Russian federal forces invaded the former Soviet province of Chechnya, just as transiting Mars was slowing down toward its retrograde station, glowing brighter in the night sky.

The federal forces went in with a far superior military, but in just a couple of months were quickly overwhelmed by the guerilla tactics of Chechen militants while Mars was retrograde. Yeltsin privately admitted that he was afraid going into Chechnya would become a “second Afghanistan”.

US Escalation of War in Afghanistan

Mars Retrograde, December 20th 2009-March 10th 2010, 19 Leo-0 Leo

We know the story. 9/11 happened. On October 7th 2001 the US invaded Afghanistan (Sun square Mars following a retrograde period).  Nearly a Mars return later, George W. Bush called  for an invasion of Iraq (which has its own astrological story we’ll get to in a future article) and got distracted by that for 6 years, leaving a mess for the next guy.

Barack Obama came into office with a wave of international support for change. Over Venus’s synodic return of the initial invasion of Afghanistan, he weighed and balanced all the options, agonizing over the worth of the war. The turning point in his deliberations occurred after visiting Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day, November 11th 2009. Mars was just two days away from his Sun in Leo. He knew what he had to do.

Finally, President Obama boldly called for 30,000 additional troops in Afghanistan and a withdrawal date of July 2011, indicating a dip in-dip out strategy. These troops are to be deployed in early 2010, during which time, Mars will be retrograde in the same part of its cycle as previous difficult wars were waged under. Instead of communism, the threat is terrorism. The policy still appears to be containment.

Now what is interesting here is that the media is comparing the military episodes listed above to Obama’s plans for Afghanistan. Oftentimes the best astrological insights can come from people who know nothing about the subject. People naturally connect the dots between certain periods of time, without knowing that they are simply pointing out the iterations of a planetary periodicity. People talk astrology all the time without knowing it.

Unfortunately in this case, this part of the Mars cycle seems to carry a cautionary message to superpowers fighting against ragtag insurgencies: David can beat Goliath. Let’s hope it all goes well.

.Thanks to Nick Dagan Best and Chris Brennan for research and graphics assistance.

.

Palin will subsequently embark on a book tour in various “battleground” and Republican-leaning states for the next two months. The book is bringing her a lot of attention and is fueling speculation of a potential run for President in 2012.

Coincidentally Jupiter is currently transiting her Sun.  What planet is related to publishing, traveling, wealth and opportunity?  Jupiter.

The Transits of ‘Going Rogue’

Palin signed the book deal with Harper Collins on May 12th 2009. She had several interesting transits going on, especially considering with what she was about to do next. Not only was transiting Jupiter conjunct her Mars, but transiting Mars was also conjunct her Jupiter. This was the first major step she took that signaled she was going to aggressively (Mars) expand her horizons, take advantage of opportunities (Jupiter). Or that she was “goin’ rogue”. The transiting Sun at that time was also square her natal Sun-Mars-Saturn configuration.

On July 3rd 2009, she announced her resignation from the office of Governor of Alaska. Just as the Sun had been between 22-24 degrees of Taurus the day she signed the book deal, now Mars was there, squaring her Sun-Mars-Saturn configuration. Whereas the Sun seemed to implant the idea of perhaps removing herself from office, when Mars came around to that same spot, she actually did.

That brings us to tomorrow, the official publication date for her new memoir. The Sun is nearly exactly opposite the degree she signed the book deal.  So it appears that what was started when the Sun was in late Taurus came into fruition when the Sun arrived in late Scorpio.

The subtitle of Palin’s memoir is a clear attempt to channel Ronald Reagan, since his memoir was entitled “An American Life”. Humorously enough, Reagan’s memoir came out just over 19 years ago, nearly to the day, which correlates with the metonic cycle of the Sun.

Sarah Palin’s Birth Time: A Maverick Offer

We still do not have a verified birth time for Sarah Palin, as you might have read in one of our recent articles about all the trouble we had in attempting to obtain accurate birth data for presidential candidates in the 2008 election.

However, you can help! Here’s how:

• Palin is traveling around the country in the next two months signing books.   Here is a list of all the dates and places she will be visiting. Do you live close to any of the places she’ll be visiting?
• If so, try to get to one of her book signing events.  Go early, as you may have to wait a long time in line, but buy a book and try to get it signed by Palin.
• While she is signing it, politely ask her “What time of the day were you born” or “what is your birth time?” She’ll likely be overwhelmed by the number of books she has to sign, but the question is so odd she may be struck by it.  Besides, she has probably fielded weirder requests, and the question is sort of innocuous, so she may be inclined to answer.

At the very least, we’ll know if she knows her own birth time or not. What is important though is that her response to the question can be recorded. If you successfully attend one of her events, get in line, buy a book, get her to sign it and ask her the question and record her response with audio or video, whether she knows her birth time or not, I will pay you the price of the book, along with a shout-out here on the PAB!  Good luck!

Now, this isn’t anything new for astrologers.  We all know that you need an accurate birth time in order to be able to cast a full chart or “horoscope” properly, otherwise you can’t use important components of the system such as the ascendant, houses, Lots, time-lords, etc.

Because of the fundamental importance of having an accurate birth time when casting a natal chart, astrologers have been actively seeking out birth data for celebrities and politicians for over 2,000 years now.   Entire businesses such as AstroDatabank have even been set up in order to procure and organize birth data for notable and non-notable individuals.

What was somewhat unique about the 2008 election was the complete lack of reliable birth data for many of the candidates initially, and the drama that unfolded during the course of the past few years as astrologers scurried about attempting to collect exact birth times for each of the candidates.  For many astrologers this turned into a roller coaster ride with many twists and turns during the course of the election, as new information came out at various points about different, often conflicting, sets of birth data for each of the candidates.

In the end we all learned to be a little bit more careful about taking certain birth times for granted, although in order to understand how this happened we need to outline how the election played out from the perspective of the astrological community.

Initial Dearth of Birth Data, Speculations Abound

In the late fall of 2007, when the primaries were in full swing, we didn’t have confirmed birth data for almost anyone.  By confirmed birth data I mean actual copies of individual birth certificates in hand, thus providing us with indisputable proof of a person’s birth date, time and location.  For the most part all we had were unconfirmed rumors and reports of certain candidate’s birth times floating around.

On January 6th, 2008 I published an article detailing who we did and did not have confirmed birth times for, as well as some of the problems with the birth times that were currently in use at that point.  Here is the tally of all of the data at that point, when there were still a number of candidates in the race (note that the following times are not necessarily accurate as of now):

• Hillary Clinton: 8:02 am (Birth time was rumored and disputed.  No birth certificate.  Source of the time: Frances McEvoy.)
• Barack Obama: 1:06 pm (Time widely used, but no one knew for sure.  No birth certificate.  Source of the time: Frances McEvoy.)
• John Edwards: 7:02 am (Time widely accepted, although with some discrepancies and no birth certificate.  Source: anonymous campaign staffer & mother.)
• Bill Richardson: 11:35 am (Source:  birth certificate.  The only birth certificate available at that point.)
• Joseph Biden: 8:30 am (Source:  Apparently acquired by someone during his presidential campaign in the 80’s, but no birth certificate available.)
• John McCain: 9:00 am (Widely accepted and used since the 2000 presidential campaign, but no birth certificate.  Source:  Campaign staffers in the 2000 race.)
• Mitt Romney: 9:51 am (Widely used, but no birth certificate.  Source:  Frances McEvoy.)
• Rudy Giuliani: 2:30 pm (Widely used, but no birth certificate.  Source:  apparently from his mother.)
• Mike Huckabee: no time at all.
• Ron Paul: no time.
• Fred Thompson: no time.

That is where we were at as of early January of 2008.  We only had one confirmed birth time, which was Bill Richardson’s, who dropped out of the race shortly thereafter.  We didn’t have confirmed times for anyone else, but just reports from astrologers who purportedly spoke to certain candidates, family members or campaign staffers and got birth times from them.

At that point I raised some concerns about the source of the birth times that were being used for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Mitt Romney, since they were all from the same person – the late astrologer Frances McEvoy, who died in December of 2007 as I was writing the article.  The problem with McEvoy as a source for all three candidates was that she had purportedly spoke to and gotten the birth times from each directly, although she had apparently done the same thing with John Kerry prior to the 2004 election, and the time she gave for him later turned out to be wrong.

Some astrologers have a tendency to “rectify” or back-form birth times based on studying events in a person’s life and then adjusting the natal chart accordingly.  They then use the rectified birth times in order to make predictions.  Unfortunately these rectified times sometimes get picked up by other astrologers who assume that the birth times are verified or accurate.  In reality they are basically just educated guesses that rely entirely on the skill of the astrologer and the types of techniques that they employ in the rectification process.  The problem with this approach is that while there are some astrologers who are pretty good at rectification, there are many who are not.

I had some suspicions that this might have been the case with McEvoy – that she may have rectified the birth times that she reported – but since I did not know her personally and she passed away as I was researching the issue, I had no way of knowing for sure.   No one did.  So, for the most part, astrologers continued using the times derived from her for much of the early part of 2008.

As the race tightened, the field narrowed down to three candidates:  Obama, Clinton and McCain.   McCain’s 9:00 am birth time had been in use for several years at that point, so everyone felt pretty confident about it.   There were still questions surrounding Obama’s, although the 1:06 pm time was generally used, with much discussion over whether or not his Moon was in Taurus or Gemini, since the sign change occurred only three minutes prior to the purported birth time.  Hillary’s birth time was the most sketchy of the three, since there were several different conflicting times and sources for her, whereas for the other two there weren’t many sources to begin with.   All of this was to change over the course of the next few months though.

Obama’s Birth Time Revealed

The largest astrological conference of the decade, the United Astrological Conference, took place in Denver, Colorado between May 15-20, 2008.  There was some buzz going around before the conference that an astrologer named Joni Patry had obtained a verified birth time for Obama, and she was going to announce it during the conference.  By this time it was becoming clear that Obama was going to be the Democratic nominee, and the mystery and speculation surrounding his actual birth time had reached a fevered pitch.   All eyes were on Patry when she proudly announced at the conference that she had obtained his birth time from an unnamed campaign staffer, who got it from Obama’s campaign manager:

7:11 pm, with Aquarius rising, she said.   News spread from the conference like wildfire, especially since the time she gave was totally different from the 1:06 pm birth time from Frances McEvoy that had been in vogue up to that point.   It was just in the nick of time too, since there was a panel on the very last day of the conference which was focused on the election, and each astrologer on the panel was expected to make a prediction about the final outcome of the election.  So, a few days later, at the end of the conference, using the 7:11 pm time for Obama and the 9:00 am time for McCain, each astrologer on the panel unanimously predicted that Obama would win the election.

However, a few weeks after the conference ended the Obama campaign released a copy of his birth certificate to the public, and it had a conspicuously later birth time of 7:24 pm on it.   There was something perplexing about the fact that Patry had been given a slightly wrong birth time for Obama from someone, yet it was still close enough that it didn’t make a huge difference since the rising sign, Moon and MC were all still essentially the same as the 7:11 time she had announced.

As perplexing, albeit minor, as this was, the sense of relief that astrologers had over finally having a confirmed and accurate birth time for Obama was enough to cause everyone to quickly forget Patry’s announcement and move on with studying the election.  There were still some questions about the authenticity of the newly released copy of the birth certificate, since it was a digital reproduction rather than a scan of the original birth certificate, but this never seemed to turn into a major issue (the “Birther Controversy” that happened a year later in the summer of ‘09 doesn’t count).

Enter Palin, McCain’s Birth Time Revisited

In late August McCain announced Sarah Palin as his running mate, which was problematic since no one had really heard of her before, and so there weren’t even speculative birth times floating around for her at that point.   All we had for Palin was a birth date and location, but that was fine because we already had birth times for three of the main players: Obama, Biden and McCain.   And those were pretty solid, right?   Wrong.

In September a birth certificate for John McCain suddenly surfaced online, and the birth time that it listed was 6:25 PM, which was way off of the 9:00 AM time that astrologers had used for him for nearly a decade at that point.  If accurate, then his chart would have been much different than the one that every astrologer had based their predictions for the election on up to that point.

Unfortunately it wasn’t really clear if the birth certificate itself was in fact legitimate.  I tried to track down the original source for it, and it appears to have first been posted on a discussion forum on a website that was setup for the specific purpose of questioning whether John McCain was eligible to become president due to where he was born.

While it is well within the realm of possibility that a group of people with a specific agenda were able to gain access to McCain’s original birth certificate, the partisan nature of the website raised questions about whether or not it could be a forgery that was created in order to support a somewhat dubious argument about McCain.

By this point there were only weeks to go before the election, and suddenly the birth data for one of the key players was in doubt.

So What Did Astrologers Learn From the 2008 Election?

Eventually the election came and went, and some astrologers got their predictions about it right, while some got it wrong.  Many questions still lingered though.  Had Francis McEvoy simply rectified the birth time that she reported for Obama?  What about the times she gave for Clinton and Romney?  Why was the time that Joni Patry reported for Obama 13 minutes off?  Is the birth certificate that surfaced for John McCain legitimate?

The fact that these are still unanswered questions a year later underlines the point that astrologers need to be more careful about taking birth times for granted when a verified copy of the birth certificate is not available.   If the type of astrology that we practice relies on this information, then our predictions are only as good as the data that we use.

And that is the lesson that the dramatic saga of the 2008 U.S. presidential election, with all its twists and turns, taught the astrological community.  There may never be another election quite like this one again in the future,  but let’s let this example be a cautionary tale of the crucial foundations upon which we rest our predictions, and the dangers that arise in taking unverified data for granted.

.

.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, September 23, 2009 beginning at 7:24 p.m.

Ahmadinejad’s visit comes on the heels of his recent controversial remarks, stating he would “cut the hands off” of any invading nation, and once again denying the existence of the Jewish holocaust during World War II. His advocacy of Iranian nuclear rights, while popular back home, is also disapproved of by leading nations.

Considering his usual bluster, Ahmadinejad’s U.N. speech itself had a more gentle tone than the hype surrounding his arrival in New York, especially relative to the extremes displayed earlier that day by U.S. President Barack Obama’s conciliatory but strong-handed address that began at 10:21 that morning, and Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi’s ranting invective, which began at 11 a.m. sharp, lasting 96 minutes.

With the General Assembly gathered with the intention of addressing the global warming crisis, the day’s high-profile speeches served as an unfortunate distraction from important business, and the Iranian president’s lack of oratory fire and brimstone was perhaps most successful for being less obtrusive to the matter at hand.

Transiting Mercury retrograde and Saturn were conjunct Ahmadinejad’s natal Jupiter and Venus in Virgo, opposite transiting Uranus retrograde in Pisces, reflecting both the mood surrounding his presence in the United States, and the more even tone of his U.N. speech.

The transiting Sun had just ingressed to Libra, square transiting Pluto post-retrograde in Capricorn, an overall indicator of the day, world leaders congregating for the purpose of preventing disaster, caught in a storm of chest beating and national posturing.

Couric interview

His television interview with CBS’ Katie Couric, broadcast that same day, was also somewhat contrary to his scrapbook of recent vitriol, in that he deflected Couric’s question about his holocaust denial:

Couric: You have consistently denied the Holocaust happened. You have called it a lie. And I’m just curious, I have some photos – dead bodies from a German concentration camp taken by the associated press. Mr. President is this photo fabricated, is this photo a lie?

Ahmadinejad: There are many historical events, similar historical events. Why is this one in particular so important to you?

Couric: Because you’re denying it happened.

Ahmadinejad: But in World War II, 60 million people were killed. Why are we just focusing on this special group alone? We’re sorry for all the 60 million people that lost their lives, equally. All of them were human beings. And it doesn’t matter whether they were Christians or Jews or Buddhists or Muslims. They were killed. So, we’re sorry for everyone.

However, Ahmadinejad’s critics were hardly deterred by his decision to behave himself during his visit abroad, and delegations from several prominent nations walked out in protest immediately prior to Wednesday’s speech.

Anticipating Saturn’s Libra ingress

Ahmadinejad’s political troubles exploded last summer, after being declared the winner of a competitive presidential election on the morning of June 13, 2009.

The announcement was contested by opponents who rioted in the streets in the weeks that followed, prompting a government backlash that has since resulted in untold numbers of arrests and executions.

With revolution in Iranian air again, many astrologers have already pointed to the obvious Saturn return in Virgo, where it was transiting thirty years ago during the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Last week’s article about Jimmy Carter’s presidency touched on this briefly, in mentioning the hostage crisis.

When transiting Saturn makes its Libra ingress at the end of October 2009, it will be making its 29-year average return to a zodiacal zone that has consistently marked points of turmoil and radical change in the country’s politics. Outlined below is a timeline of the seven previous transits of Saturn to Libra and how they correspond chronologically to some key events in Iranian history.

First Russo-Persian War Begins

January 15, 1804

The first Russo-Persian War began when Russian forces, led by commander Pavel Tsitsianov, attacked the Persian fortress at Ganja, Azerbaijan on January 3, 1804, seizing its citadel twelve days later on the 15th.

The war finally ended with the Treaty of Gulistan, which was signed on October 24, 1813, in which Persia lost a significant portion of territory, marking the end of the reign of khans in the region, who now lived under Imperial Russian rule.

A second Russo-Persian war occurred during the 1820s, ending with the signing of the Treaty of Turkmenchay on February 22, 1828, which cost Persia all territory north of the Aras river (modern-day Armenia and Azerbaijan).

Transiting Saturn in Libra stationed retrograde on the day Ganja was captured, having only made its ingress to the sign in November 1803, the same month Tsitsianov’s troops began their journey to Ganja from the city of Tiflis (November 20th).

Abbas Mirza killed at Mashhad

October 25, 1833

Abbas Mirza, the Persian crown prince of the Qajar throne, a national hero who had tried in vain to moderinize the Persian army in the last years of the first Russo-Persian War, died in battle at Mashhad, on October 25, 1833.

When his father, Fat’h Ali Shah, died almost exactly a year later, Abbas Mirza’s son, Mohammad Mirza, inherited the title and was coronated on December 16, 1834.

Mohammad Shah’s reign lasted fourteen years, before his death of gout at the age of 42. In that time, there were many uprisings and revolts throughout Persia, and the Shah himself, bent on avenging an earlier failure, led an ill-fated attempt to seize the city of Herat from British control.

Transiting Saturn had ingressed to Libra less than two months before Abbas Mirza’s death, the single event that made his son’s rule inevitable.

Baha’u'llah declares himself Messiah at Ridvan

April 21, 1863

Baha’u'llah, a member of the Babi faith sect, was arrested with other followers in a supposed plot to kill the Shah in 1852, two years following the execution of their leader and founder by firing squad.

After a brutal four months in prison, he was exiled from Iran and moved to Baghdad, where he regrouped the Babi community over the next decade.

On April 21, 1863, in a Baghdad garden he called “Ridvan” (paradise), Bah’u'llah declared himself to his followers to be “he whom God would make manifest”, founding a new religion that would become known as the Baha’i faith.

A religion in the broadest sense of the term, its central doctrine is the belief in the spiritual unity of humankind, that through time all religions have brought god’s messengers to humanity in different forms. Continuously persecuted in Iranian society since their inception, harassment of Baha’i followers escalated following the 1979 Revolution, and has been reportedly more severe since Ahmadinejad’s rise to power four years ago.

Transiting Saturn had ingressed ingressed to Libra six month earlier, and was now retrograde and headed to a Virgo regress, where it would station direct 40 days later.

Tehran Street Riots During Tobacco Fatwa

January 4, 1892

The first evidence of the growing power of Shia clerics as anti-colonial defenders of Iran, a religious fatwa was declared against the government selling national tobacco interests to a British company, turning into a full-scale riot on January 4, 1892.

The event was an important precursor to the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1911, during which time the country became a Constitutional Monarchy, with an elected parliament serving under the Shah’s rule.

Transiting Saturn made its ingress to Libra just prior to the riots breaking out.

Reza Khan Forces Prime Minister’s Resignation

May 22, 1922

Reza Khan (pictured far left), who rose from poverty to lead the Cossack Brigade, led a British-backed bloodless coup of 3,000 men against the Bolshevik-friendly constitutional government on the night of February 20-21, 1921, during which time Saturn was retrograde at 22 Virgo.

Khan proposed a pro-British journalist named Zia al-Din Tabatabai to take over as Prime Minister. However, on May 22, 1922, he forced Tabatabai out and replaced him with a rich plantation owner named Ahmed Qavam al-Saltane, who himself was forced out by Khan, who took over the job himself on October 26, 1923.

Now adopting the name Pahlavi, he was coronated the new Shah of Iran on April 25, 1926. A modernizer who took steps like making “Iran” the country’s official name (having usually been called “Persia” in the west) on March 21, 1935, and banning women from wearing veils on January 7, 1936.

However, he was forced to abdicate by British and Russian forces on September 16, 1941, after having sold oil to the Nazis. He was replaced by son, also named Reza Pahlavi.

During the time Khan replaced Prime Ministers and was consolidating the army that would help lead him to the crown, transiting Saturn had made its ingress to Libra seven months earlier, and was now retrograde and headed for its Virgo regress.

Prime Minister Haj Razmara Assassinated

March 7, 1951

Tides turned again for Iran when, shortly after the Shah’s wedding to his second wife, Soraya Esfandiary, on February 12, 1951, Prime Minister Haj Razmara was shot dead by an assassin while attending Mosque on March 7th.

Razmara had been against the demands of factions to nationalize Iran’s oil industry, but with him out of the picture, opponent Mohammed Mossadeq of the National Front party was appointed the new Prime Minister on April 29.

Mossadeq would be forced out of office on August 19, 1953, in a CIA-backed coup, in order to retain control of the nation’s oil supply, a move that would remain a major sore point in Iranian-U.S. relations and helped inspire the 1979 revolution and hostage crisis.

On the day of Razmara’s killing, transiting Saturn had made its ingress to Libra three months earlier, and was now retrograde and headed for its Virgo regress.

Iraqi Forces Invade Iran/Persian Gulf War Begins

September 22, 1980

With the now deposed and exiled Shah of Iran dead from lymphatic and liver cancer on July 27, 1980, and the American hostages still being held in Tehran, Iraq’s leader Saddam Hussein saw a chance to act against his Shia nemesis, Ayatollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of the 1979 revolution.

Although border skirmishes had erupted on September 4th, the Iran-Iraq war fully began with Iraq’s invasion on September 22nd, beginning a bloody conflic that would last eight years, with little political gain. On that first day, Iraqi bomber plains took out Iranian air force bases around the country. Soon, combat degraded into using WWI-style tactics like trench warfare and chemical weapons.

Transiting Saturn made its Libra ingress just as the invasion began, having just passed conjunction with the Sun in Virgo.

Conclusion

Saturn’s transit through Virgo into Libra has coincided with some curious turning points in Iranian political history, from at least the days of the Qajar dynasty, to the Pahlavi dynasty, to post-revolutionary cleric rule. From invasions to assassinations, the nation’s political pulse seems to be tied closely to its cycle.

Saturn makes its first ingress to Libra in October this year, stations retrograde on January 13, 2010, makes its regress to Virgo on April 7th, and then makes its second Libra ingress on July 21st, where it becomes locked into a conjunction with Venus and Mars during the month of August, along with an opposition with Jupiter and Uranus in Aries.

Granted, it doesn’t take an astrologer to know that the country’s present political mood is far from calm or confident. But given what is outlined here, it is fair to suggest Iran is likely to again be vulnerable to similar upsets and changes during the periods listed above.