Will the Real Barack Obama Please Stand Up? Our President, One Mercury Cycle Later

June 5, 2009

It’s one Mercury cycle into the first term of President Obama, and not surprisingly the media have responded unconsciously by issuing several reports on what our new president is REALLY like. In particular, the feature section of May 25th issue of Newsweek was devoted completely to such assessments from several commentators and news analysts.

This gives us a chance to reevaluate him in light of his birth chart. Most of the reports describe him as being “harder” than he portrayed himself during the campaign, but I wonder if that's just the surprised response of those without the enlightened perspective that his birth chart provides.

He Is a True (Sun in) Leo.
“He has learned that he enjoys power — the capacity to shape reality in his image and by his lights.” (Jon Meacham, What He’s Like Now, Newsweek 5/25/09) The Sun outshines all other bodies in our heavens when it is above the horizon. Even in the night sky, it directs the movement of the planets with its unseen hand. The Sun rules Leo, which is the placement of Obama’s Sun. It the sign of the sovereign, the one in whose presence all other light pales. This does not mean that Obama presumes to take this royal role, but he does have that air about him. Other words or phrases that are used to describe him are (except where noted, from Meacham):

• moving as he wishes to move, the world bending itself to him
• shapes policy, even in sub-policy areas (e.g., auto maker restructuring plans)
• prefers to stand alone, not using others as policy authorities
• catlike (Christopher Hitchens, Jacob Weisberg) = Leo the LION
• He sticks out his chin when challenged, his eyes flashing, and wants the upper hand. (I saw this petulance in one of the debates with Hillary Clinton.)


He Is, According to His Chart, Designed for Power.
If there is a theme in Mr. Obama’s chart, it is the (right) use of power. Although there are checks and balances there that create caution and have at times slapped him down (his wife is one), he is built for the redirection and management of power. Key power points in his chart include:

• Sun in Leo (its rulership)
• Jupiter conjunct Saturn: This is a well-known traditional placement of great leaders. It was in the heavens when Jesus was born (by the most reliable records), which is why the three magi (read: astrologers) went searching for him. Martin Sheen (who played President Bartlet in The West Wing) has this conjunction, as does Dick Cheney.
• Mars in Virgo: This placement makes him efficient and dedicated, good with details and hard-working. It also contributes a note of humility (one of those checks and balances).
• Uranus conjunct North Node (Pluto not far away): The deep desire (and perhaps destiny) to be an agent of change.

Some of the writers’ phrases that speak to these contacts are:

• He revels in his power (in an understated way).
• He loves that all of what he’s doing matters.
• He feels his authority and effectiveness.
• little small talk, no smarminess
• wholly businesslike, “time is valuable”
• He finds crisis [to be] defining, bracing, and useful.
• He exhibits pragmatism and a willingness to change his mind when presented with new info.
• He is realistic about his decisions and the possibility of making mistakes.
• He takes “A Highly Logical Approach” (Meacham).

He Plays Well With Others.
Mr. Obama is the ultimate balancer. With the Sun opposing his Ascendant, he often seeks reconciliation as an end in itself, whether with Congress, foreign powers, or Republicans (often to the dismay of his supporters). Jacob Weisberg (Getting to Know Obama, Newsweek 5/25/09) complains about the moral hollowness of this approach, making the following points in unwitting support of this part of his chart:

• For Obama, the middle ground is the high ground.
• He seeks true reconciliation of opposite factions.
• He enjoys engaging opponents.
• He lacks a moral stance - what does he believe? Examples: He repudiates but won’t investigate torture. He supports gay equality but won’t take action (marriage or military).

He Is a Cool Cat.
We already see the feline in the lion, but that coolness comes from his Aquarius Ascendant (rising sign). But how cool is he? Aquarius, a winter sign in the northern hemisphere, can be downright cold. He also has Jupiter and South Node in Aquarius.

• He is cool in crisis.
• His economic policy is self-described as “ruthless pragmatism” (His Jupiter-Saturn also fits this characterization.)
• He cuts off meetings when it covers familiar ground
• His habit of confidence and self-reliance (coming from his fatherless childhood, says Meacham) “creates the impression of iciness”.

He is not willing to sacrifice principle for political loyalty, even though his principles may still be difficult to see in his actions at this early stage. This can be linked to his Moon squaring Pluto.

A Bushel Full of Subtlety, Ambiguity, and Contradiction
His chart is full of subtle planetary interrelationships — with contradictory energies that he is constantly forced to (attempt to) blend. With such inner challenges, it is no surprise to hear him described as embracing complexity with the sophisticated intelligence of a well-developed mind. Obama says,

“The American people, I think, not only have a toleration but also a hunger for explanation and complexity, and a willingness to acknowledge hard problems. I think one of the biggest mistakes that is made in Washington is this notion you have to dumb down things for the public.”

As a person with strong Neptune contacts — and elected under its beams — public perception has been idealistic, even verging on idolatry. Now that Mercury has completed a revelatory retrograde past Neptune, we can see more of the real man, and the media are dutifully providing a sobering reflection of our new leader.

© Terry Lamb

Lunar Illumination: Mr. Obama Goes to Town

February 9, 2009

This morning’s penumbral eclipse was not visible in locales where weather obscured it, but it is still being felt around the globe. In the United States, it has a particular impact, since it hits several significant points in both the US chart and that of our national leader, President Barack Obama. This tells me that this eclipse is one of the more important to be experienced by the nation in recent times.

Can You Say, “Stimulus Package?”
The interactions between the US chart and the chart cast for the eclipse in Washington, DC, speak to the discussion that fills the news — the economy and the stimulus package that is supposed to rescue the American people. Most notable among the interconnections is the conjunction of the US Lot of Fortune (Fortuna) to the Ascendant of the eclipse chart. Fortuna has, obviously, to do with “fortune” or money, but it also has to do with well-being or health. The health of the nation is therefore highlighted, more in terms of economic health (this being in the US 8th house) than literal physical health.

The Wound Is Being Healed.
Chiron is there too, very close to Fortuna. This suggests that a long-standing wound in the national psyche is being addressed, if not healed. These placements, found in Aries, have to do with the tendency for people in power to place self-interest over the interests of the nation.

Highlighting this factor is the location of the eclipse itself, at 21̊ Leo-Aquarius, lined up on the US Moon, the symbol of the people. The people are the linchpin in the process before us, and the people will lead the way forward. Already we can see this, as President Obama appeals directly to the public today and tomorrow through a prime-time press conference and town-hall meetings in Elkhart, Indiana, and Fort Myers, Florida. In doing so, he is making ample use of the planetary energies available to him.

Watershed Moment for Our Leader
This is something of a watershed moment for Mr. Obama, as the eclipse Full Moon opposition is aligned critically with his Ascendant-Descendant (the east-west horizon line of his chart). This can feel like a make-or-break time for him, as if he is being called upon to dig deep into his character to muster the “right stuff” for this task. He is called upon to reassess his way of relating to others, and to make adjustments — which he is doing. I believe that this has to do with his “bipartisanship initiative”, turning it into a long-term project instead of something he can use as a foundation of his approach to the legislature in the current moment.

The importance of this process to the nation is underscored by the fact that the Sun of the US chart, representing the life force of the nation, is squarely on the IC of the eclipse chart. This takes us all to our heart, to deeply question what is important to us, what makes this country thrive, and which political viewpoint (if any) we resonate with.

Given the other planetary pattern out there — the conglomerate in Aquarius — the way of the future will not be the way of the past, and the new way forward will prevail. Even though it looked last week like the Republican retro-economic plan was going to steal the stage, Mr. Obama is reshaping the dialectic quite eloquently, much to the dismay of the Republican right, which is still struggling to find its feet in the dawning new era.

I don’t believe that this stimulus package has it all perfectly correct. I’m with progressives like Novel Winner Paul Krugman, Robert Kuttner, and Rachel Maddow on what we need (so far) — to spend more on things like infrastructure and to make sure jobs are created. The government CAN do this, but it is not going to get as much bang for the buck with so many tax cuts.

The New Birth of Freedom: Obama’s First Term, Part One

© Terry Lamb 1/17/09

This article is the first part of a series of articles on the inaugural chart, that cast for the time the president takes the oath of office.

Just as an acorn carries within it the potential to be a great oak tree, initiation or birth events in human lives are the seed for the life that is brought into being. This is true of inaugurations and the terms of office that follow.

As we are constantly reminded, the inauguration of Barack Obama tomorrow will be a(n) historic event, and even the most cynical are swooning to the power of "the moment". We can see this power in the birth chart for Obama’s presidency, the chart of the inauguration.

Key to Obama’s First Term: The Inaugural Chart
The four years of Obama’s first term of office can be described by delineating the chart that is cast for the moment of the inauguration. What is noteworthy in the inaugural chart is any element which is not repeated in each inauguration. Because the chart is cast for the same date and time at each regular inauguration (that is, one that is conducted after a presidential election), the location of the Sun and the “wheel” of the chart are nearly identical in each inaugural chart. Therefore, these factors cannot be used to describe what is unique about a president’s term.

A Population Full of Hope
The most striking thing about the chart is the large cluster of planets at the top of the chart. While the Sun is always there, with Mercury and Venus nearby, the rest of the grouping is exceptional. Most of this cluster are in Aquarius. Because it is located at the top of the chart (the 10th house), it represents the head of state and can be used to describe the qualities that the population sees or projects onto him.

Just considering the nature of Aquarius, this archetype is already in the air. Aquarius is intellectual, intelligent, independent (freedom-loving), futuristic, progressive, populist, and interested in defining uniqueness. It wishes to work within a group membership, even as it strives to stand apart from it. Barack Obama has Aquarius rising in his chart, so it is an energy that defines his personality, especially the first impression that others have of him. The coolness of his demeanor is purely Aquarian and belies his sunny Leo side, making him seem a paradox. The people are ready for a president with these qualities, even as they are prepared to take them on themselves. Aquarius breaks with the past, just the US does by electing its first African-American president. Aquarius can be somewhat cynical, unless the planets found there “cheer it up”. In this case, Jupiter is found there and accomplishes this task.

Lack of Experience? It's Not a Bad Thing.
When we throw the planets found in Aquarius into the mix, we get a more colorful and optimistic image. Perhaps most noticeable is Mercury, which is retrograde at the time of the swearing-in. What does this mean?

First, Mercury retrograde, despite its poor reputation, is not a “bad sign”. It tells us that we are learning something we never knew before, or that there are many unknowns in what we are facing for Obama’s first four years. It also tells us that our new president is inexperienced. (However, what president has had experience being president?) In fact, there's no white knight that seems to have all the answers. We're all in on this grand experiment called life.

Is this a bad thing? No. Because Mercury is making favorable contacts to the other planets, it is not so much of a problem. In other words, our leader’s lack of experience is not a difficulty for him because he has other strengths to lead him through. In fact, his inexperience gives his approach a freshness that leads to innovation, even ingenious solutions to problems that have plagued the country for decades.

There are four other planets in Aquarius: The Sun, Jupiter, Chiron, and Neptune. The primary planet that “rescues” Mercury is Jupiter. During its retrograde cycle it makes three contacts with Jupiter, a very fortunate contact. Jupiter is the eternal optimist, and since it will contact boundless Neptune while in Aquarius, our optimism will run high, even to the extreme. We need this hope to keep us going in the coming years of challenge as we shift gears into a different, less materialistic and more sustainable future.

Healing the American Dream
In “Fiscal Therapy” (Mother Jones Magazine, Jan/Feb 2009), David Cay Johnston says,

For years now, whenever I've been invited to lecture students on how our tax system works, I have asked a simple question: What is the purpose of the United States of America? The most common answer, be it at prestigious universities, elite prep schools, rural community colleges, or crowded urban high schools, is this: To make people rich.

As he points out, the preamble of the Constitution does not mention wealth as one of its six principles for being. These principles for the American Dream — to provide freedom, society, justice, peace, commonwealth, and security — have been trampled and forgotten in the modern capitalist fervor to get rich. However, as the economy loses its frenzied luster, we have the opportunity to rediscover the American Dream, and the planets suggest that this is happening.

Chiron and Neptune, as slow-moving planets, conjoin at the same zodiac degree about every 100 years. I have discussed them previously as representing the healing of the Great Wound. Whether that wound is personal, social, national, or species-wide, it has to do with the delicate balance between group and individual. The group must be cohesive enough that its has an identity and purpose, but it cannot be so strong as to swallow up and fail to serve the individuals that comprise it. Each of us is challenged to learn a lesson about our links to others versus our unique contribution to or rebellion against them.

In this nation (as elsewhere), we are learning that we must get along with each other and come to a consensus about sustainable living, or we will damage the planet beyond repair. There are challenges now facing humankind that now require a high level of cooperation — an Aquarian function.

Now add Jupiter to the mix. It brings weightlessness and lift to our dreams, and just in time. We see the urgency and are ready to reinvent America. Just in time, the planets are opening the window on this re-dreaming of the American Dream, the rediscovery of the most sacred of our values — freedom. Freedom is born of participation (another Aquarian value) and awareness (the result of Jupiterian exploration and discovery).

Taken all together, these planets in the inaugural chart represent our willingness to reinvigorate the principles that America represents. They also show what we see in our leader, the persona our leader chooses to reveal to us, and the person we want him to be. In his speeches, remarks, and press conferences, Barack Obama has used language heavily laced with words emblematic of the Aquarian planet grouping whose energy we’ll be fulfilling over the coming four years: Hope, freedom, optimism, independence, dreams, plus many more. This is an indication that he is already fulfilling his role in the unfolding new American Dream.

In the next part of the inaugural series, see what we will experience over the next four years in all areas of national life, from the economy to war and international relations to education. Learn who the winners and losers will be, and when significant events will occur in future entries.