Obama’s Pastor Problem and Neptune

He’s got another pastor problem. With the selection of Rick Warren, founder of the prejudicial Saddleback Church and author of The Purpose-Driven Life, to do the invocation at his inauguration, President-Elect Barack Obama has stepped into the religious battle fray once again.

It’s not just progressives who have decried his selection; many closer to the center are also uncomfortable, as Reverend Warren’s stances against gay rights and in favor of the highly contentious Proposition 8 Marriage Equality Ban have become less and less mainstream.

There’s a pattern here: Remember Reverend Wright? Now, I think that Wright’s comments at the church lectern were taken out of context, but his comments at the media lectern were certainly not. They were at the least vitriolic — not those of the friendship Obama thought he had developed over the years.

It’s Neptune Again.
What is it, astrologically speaking, that has Obama on the wrong side of the religious leadership issue again? I’ll say it’s the Neptune in his chart. If you recall, he has Sun in Leo square his Neptune. Now, when he was born, it was four days past the square, but that means that Neptune would transit his Sun four times over the first two years of his life. The last time, Neptune was stationary direct exactly square his Sun for six weeks. This coincides precisely with the period of time that his parents were together before their divorce and his father’s return to Africa.

Clearly, this is about Obama’s relationship with his father. Without the benefit of a fully present and available father past infancy, young Barack had to make one up himself, and he did. However, this was not easy for him. He is still dealing with this issue.

Obama would clearly have idealized his father, then perhaps felt frustrated for his father not being there for him. He might have imagined what life would have been like with his father and almost certainly visualized it as better than it could have been.

In the mysterious way that archetypes are connected in our psyche, Neptune defines both imagination and religion (or maybe this isn’t so mysterious). The father archetype is partially defined by the Sun. The father is so important to us because he helps us define our expressive nature, the true self as represented by the Sun in our chart. When Neptune and the Sun commingle, there is confusion — many imaginings about a father who is in some way clouded in the child’s vision.

There is no doubt that for many the pastor of the church serves as a father figure. So, Obama’s selection of Reverend Wright and then Reverend Warren, in whatever capacity, is colored by his undefined relationship with his father.

Will This Continue?
Barack Obama is not known to back down on a decision once it is made. His fixed angles push him in that direction. I don’t believe he will change his mind about the selection of Rick Warren for the inaugural invocation. However, I believe that he has come to see the down side of the choice, and perhaps he will be more cautious about allying himself with someone who is as closed-minded as Warren in the future.

Will he make more, similar mistakes? Inevitably so, but we can hope that this will be confined to areas peripheral to leading the nation, as it has been so far. Ultimately, Neptune contacts lead us to clarity. Obama certainly has developed that in many areas. If his selection of Rick Warren reveals a blind spot, he has shown that he will learn from it much more than we have.