Here’s the chart of my great nephew, born this afternoon in Texas!
What Astrology Says About Obama’s Second Term
Four years ago, when President Barack Obama flubbed the oath of office at his first inauguration, astrologers weren’t surprised. Obama was coming into office under a planetary picture called Mercury retrograde, where the orb thought to govern communications appeared to be moving backward from the Earth’s point of view.
When Mercury is retrograde, an event that happens three times a year, astrologers believe that there are sure to be misunderstandings, crossed signals and checks lost in the mail. In any event, the burden of Merc retro was seen as a significant obstacle to the President’s ability to get his message across during his first term (perhaps no more so than during his first debate with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney).
The second term of President Obama poses a challenge to astrologers because there are two horoscopes for the event — one for the private oath of office he took on Sunday, Jan. 20 and the other for the public swearing in that took place Monday, Jan. 21 at noon. The necessity of two ceremonies was caused by the fact that the inauguration date mandated by law fell on a Sunday, which it also did for Presidents James Monroe and Ronald Reagan.
Jude Cowell, who blogs about astrology and politics at www.starsoverwashington.com, notes that in the horoscope for the private oath of office, the Sun in Aquarius at the Midheaven of the chart is at odds with the will of the people, represented by a Taurus Moon rising on the Ascendant of the chart.
According to Cowell, Americans will be stubbornly focused on their own personal financial security during the second Obama Administration and will not respond favorably to the President’s emphasis on what is good for the nation as a whole.
Cowell points out the Jan. 20 horoscope is burdened by the South Node of the Moon rising, which is considered a negative. Cowell, who is based in Georgia, notes that the South Node rising indicates “separation, restriction and loss,” though she also points out that this portent may apply to members of the administration who are losing their jobs or leaving in Obama’s second term.
With the disruptive planet of Uranus transiting the sign of Aries in the 12th house of hidden enemies of the Jan. 20 swearing-in chart, Cowell sees “secret plans” being hatched to disrupt the President’s agenda. Uranus is in a challenging position to Pluto (still widely followed by astrologers despite its demotion by astronomers) in the chart. Pluto rules secrets and the ones revealed during Obama’s second term could be explosive.
The message of this aspect: Don’t expect the birthers to go away anytime soon, even though Obama is starting his second term, and be prepared for more allegations about the President’s personal life and family.
Indeed, Cowell sees the potential for sudden disruptions and explosions during the next four years, both based on the inaugural charts and the various horoscopes for the birth of the US (not everyone believes the nation was born on the Fourth of July).
The good news for Obama and Americans in general is that the Jan. 20 inauguration chart has prosperous Jupiter rising in the first house, albeit diminished by a retrograde position in Gemini. Cowell sees the economy picking up momentum during Obama’s second term.
The horoscope for the public Jan. 21 inauguration gives more support to economic expansion since the Moon, which changes sign every two and a half days, moved into Gemini, where it sits along with prosperous Jupiter. Cowell sees Americans in a cheerful mood during Obama’s second term, most likely due to the recovery in housing prices.
Indeed, the stars are predicting better financial days for Americans but ones that could be rocked by explosive events and shocking disruptions, a la Superstorm Sandy and the Newtown, Conn., massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
As I recently noted, an asteroid named Sandy is currently hovering close to Pluto in the sign of Capricorn and opposing the Sun in Cancer in the U.S. July 4 birth chart. So keep an eye out for surprising current events and people in the news named Sandra or Sandy.
Was It Really Four Years Ago?
At the first inauguration of President Barack Obama, I made the bold prediction that hats were making a comeback. Based on the hipster hat trend, I think I was right.
Sandy asteroid?
We’ve just had a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., not long after Superstorm Sandy ravaged the Eastern Seaboard. I don’t have time to do the work, but I’m wondering if there’s an asteroid named Sandy and if it’s traveling near the U.S. Sun. Astrodienst has a clever pull-down menu where one can look for asteroids.
The Day My Car Died
My 2007 Hyundai Accent met a watery death on Sunday’s New Moon. At about 11:30 on Aug. 28, I drove into a 7-foot puddle in New Jersey and had to abandon my car. I survived the accident because I climbed up on the roof through the sunroof until I was rescued. (Thank heavens I drive around with my sunroof open, even at night!) I’ve done the astrology of my car’s life with me. I purchased the car on Jan. 27 at 2:30 p.m. in Beacon, NY. Here’s the chart with transits to the descent of the car on Aug. 28.
The July 1, 2011 Eclipse and Hurricane Irene
Does anybody remember at UAC in Denver when astrologer Shelley Ackerman analyzed the July 1, 2011 eclipse chart and compared it to New York City’s chart and predicted “mass migrations” because of weather? I do.
Of course, I thought her prediction would manifest immediately so I stayed out of New York City in the days that followed that eclipse, including the July 4 weekend. As I drove to work today and watched millions of New Yorkers heading out of the city because of storm-related evacuations, I made a note to self: Eclipses are usually active for up to six months after they occur. Anyway, bravo Shelley!
Hell in a Handbasket
If there’s anybody out there looking for a celestial explanation of why hell is breaking loose this week, I offer two possibilities. The first is the increase in solar flare activity this week, which is supposed to culminate on Thursday. The other is the fact that transiting fiery Mars is Cancer is creating a “cardinal grand cross” that also involves explosive Uranus in Aries, destructive (particularly for wealth) Pluto in Capricorn and restricting Saturn in Libra.
As followers of astrology know, this lineup is hitting both the birth charts of the US, where stocks are in a free fall following Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the nation’s credit rating for the first time in 71 years, and the UK, where unemployed hooligans are running amok in the wake of the government’s austerity measures.
Kudos to Nancy’s Starlight News blog for pinpointing Aug. 5 as a day of reckoning for the US. That’s the day that S&P took away our vaunted AAA rating.
I’m not surprised to see a downtown on Wall Street corresponding with Neptune’s retrograde back into Aquarius, which began Aug. 4. The New York Stock Exchange chart is a Taurus and Neptune moving forward in Aquarius helped inflate stock valuations, in my opinion. But Neptune is tricky. I think its last pass in Aquarius could deflate equity prices down at the corner of Broad and Wall. We’ll see.
Donald Trump’s Real Birth Time
Several astrology blogs, including AstroDataBank, list 9:51 a.m. as the time that New York real estate billionaire Donald Trump was born on June 14, 1946. However, when Trump released his birth certificate in a nod to the “birthers” who believe that President Obama was not born in the US, it revealed a 10:36 or 10:56 a.m. time of birth. The handwriting is too small for me to make out in this image. Maybe one of Astrology Mundo’s eagle-eyed readers will let me know which one it is.
Assuming that 10:56 is the time of birth, Trump has a 0 degree Virgo rising. Given his prominent hair, now dyed brightly red, I would have chosen a Leo rising for Trump. But the new chart has Mars in Leo quite close to the Ascendant, so that works for me. Loaded Second House of Wealth also seems to confirm the new birthtime. Any thoughts, astrologers?
What Time Was Kate Middleton Born?
Just came across this Associated Press story on what British astrologers are saying about the compatibility of Kate Middleton and Prince William, based on their birthdays. The prince’s time of birth is well known; he was born at 9:03 p.m. in London on June 21, 1982. I’m wondering if anyone out there in the blogosphere has a reliable time of birth for Kate, born Jan. 9, 1982.
Uranus Leaving Pisces and Japan’s Tsunami
I work in the news business and monitor wire services as part of my job. I also have become a bit of a Twitter junkie, following news feeds from around the world. In fact, my Twitter habit has cut into the amount of astrology blogging I do, but that’s another story.
As an astrologer, I expected some earth-shaking event(s) in this last degree of Uranus in Pisces, primarily because it is making a square to the Nodes at 28 degrees of Sagittarius and Gemini. But nothing prepared me for the earthquakes and tsunami today in Japan.
As the clock counts down to 7:52 p.m. Eastern time, when Uranus officially enters Aries, I fear the worst, because officials of the Tokyo Electric Power Co. have lost control of the reactors at the Fukushima plant.
It seems quite likely there is going to be a nuclear meltdown in Japan. I find this ironic because Japan is the only country in the world to have been hit with nuclear bombs, courtesy of the US, I might add.
I have lived through the nightmare of the September 11 World Trade Center bombings. I was about two miles away in an office tower in Midtown Manhattan. Certainly, Japan’s nuclear meltdown won’t affect me personally the way 9/11 did. However, Uranus is conjuncting my South Node in Pisces so I feel connected to the cataclysm in Japan. Maybe it’s a past life thing.
It’s fitting with Uranus in Pisces, the last sign of the zodiac and one that is associated with religion, that a popular hash tag on Twitter (a social media tool ruled by Uranus) is #prayforjapan. I will.
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