At a recent astrological meeting I watched a presentation about Al Gore (he had just won the Nobel Prize) and much speculation about why he didn’t get elected president in 2000, even though he did. All the talk circled around his chart and progressions and transits at the time, and despite all the astrologically informed and well-meaning opinion nobody could find much definitive to say. It was observed ahead of time that the Election Day aspects were a mess, but why Bush and not Gore?

As previously mentioned in “Celebrity Astrology” the first place to look is not the chart of the leader (or the potential leader), but of the nation, then the leader. Those of us looking at the U.S. chart in 2000 were expecting a tremendous diminution of U.S. world power and reputation arriving shortly thanks to the first-ever Pluto conjunction to the U.S. Ascendant. The presidential question should have been, perhaps, who is most likely to contribute to the bringing about of such a dreadful situation? In hindsight, clearly, the appropriate person won, if not the most desirable. Sometimes you get what’s coming to you, whatever you do. This election the U.S. is at another crossroads, a progressed full Moon, meaning you’ve pushed to your outward limit, which last happened during the 1979 (hostage) crisis in Iran, and a cycle before then just as the Korean War was about to break out.

Stepping down that order from nation to leader, in 2000 we might also have looked at the relationship of the leader with the country, to see just what kind of a love affair (and perhaps subsequent hate affair) might be in store. That’s particularly shown by the composite of the national chart with the leader’s chart. Looking at that, plus transits around election time and into the first term, will yield a substantive story. In the case of Bill Clinton, for instance, the composite shows a warm Sun-Moon fire trine and Venus/Mars straddling the MC. A love affair, for sure, later to become a public sex affair with political but not popular loss. A 12th house Pluto square the Sun shows the hidden sex and personality that caused the trouble. But, fundamentally, it’s a highly elevated above-the-horizon chart, which is the norm with popular presidents.

G.W. Bush has a similar composite, with that sparky Venus-Mars right up top (but out of sign, unconsummated, forget the sex part), and most of the rest of the chart highly elevated as well. The easy support here is the Moon-Jupiter trine (outgoing, good for business). Bush didn’t need a plan; a smile would do, leaving the plans to others. It was a natural love affair and Gore’s composite had nothing to compare except a 12th house Jupiter-Neptune that could later preach “I told you so.” But again, a Pluto square, in this case to the Mercury and Mars, tells a tale of forcible plans and action taken without regard to consequences. This time, unlike secret sex, it’s from the 10th to the cusp of the 2nd so it was something that too many individuals paid for with their lives and the nation and its public with its money, reputation, influence, and world status, not so easily forgiven.

So what do we have coming up for the primaries, and eventually the final 2008 election? Among the Democrats, it’s Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, perhaps John Edwards — and among Republicans so far Giuliani, Romney, and perhaps McCain. Usually, in the primaries, you can tell who’s going to be in the final race by who’s got the Saturn transits coming into the final stretch, both to the natal and the composite chart. That’s when the real pressure is on, and Saturn is the one to show it. Folks who aren’t under pressure then simply aren’t running. Similarly, it helps to have Jupiter involved as well to give you that boost over the top. Finally, it’s significant if their degree areas tangled up with the U.S. chart’s natal and progressed, as that shows continued connection and involvement.

Judging from these factors, you can virtually eliminate Obama, Edwards, Giuliani, and McCain. Their charts have seen some stress from Saturn in Leo, but that’s over, and it looks like relatively smooth sailing for them during the final election season. That would not be likely the case if they were entering a hard-fought campaign and perhaps a set of crises as a world leader afterwards, if elected. So they will be along for the ride, as supporters.

Hillary has a Pisces Moon that will see Saturn opposition at election time, and her composite chart with the U.S. is a stellium of Virgo at the MC with a Moon at 10 Pisces, near the progressing U.S. Sun at 4 Pisces which is at progressed full Moon on the election (it’s a big deal election, indeed). The chart gets both Jupiter and Pluto near the South Node during the campaign as well. Romney natally has 3 planets in Pisces (including his Sun on Hillary’s Moon!) seeing Saturn opposition, and his U.S. composite has 6 Pisces rising (even closer to the U.S. progressed full Moon) along with Jupiter and Saturn in Virgo and a Capricorn Moon enjoying a Jupiter transit at the time. The composite has that hypnotic Venus-Mars conjunction in the 2nd, but it’s not got nearly the number of elevated planets that Hillary’s composite has, and the composite with the most over the horizon generally wins.

So it looks like a Clinton/Romney clash, though there are enough dark horses around who haven’t been looked at to make a surprise possible. The issues are all focused around Pisces and Virgo, with more than a dash of Jupiter and Pluto in Capricorn. How sophisticated the public will be in fielding them with progressed Sun still rather early in Pisces is critical. We’re still hovering at the “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice…well, go on, fool me again, why not?” level, which will put deceit and flim-flam at the heart of the election. Another big factor will be whether the Mars-Saturn conjunction of late summer has again found wider war breaking out in the Middle East (as with the last conjunction), real or manufactured. The fantasy (Pisces, Neptune) of destruction of fundamental order (Pluto, Capricorn) can sometimes totally obscure the truth, which then can make the very nightmare you’re looking to avoid come true. The often last-minute trend toward unity and resolution, painted by Saturn finally coming back within the bowl of the rest of the sky, doesn’t happen until just after the election…

P.S. (1/7/08) The above was written in mid-October, but after the Iowa caucuses in January not much has changed. Seductively attractive (he’s got the Venus/Mars conjunction) bass-player Huckabee (for whom no one has an exact time, making composites dicey) and Obama have both emerged with more attention to challenge their respective favorites, with everybody sharing a mysterious emphasis on the mid-Scorpio/Taurus axis, a show of its own (maybe not so mysterious, there being both the transiting Jupiter/Saturn midpoint and their L4 and L5 points as well, real power attractors). But neither challenger has the transits in the fall to indicate they’ll still be there, regardless of how well they do now. Edwards, whose composite Sun with the U.S.A. has Pluto on it all year, will probably be 2008’s retrospective “I told you so” Gore equivalent, for all his efforts. By the time the voters realize what he was saying, it will be too late. As for the rest, astrologically it looks like a contest of wealthy interests changing hands, with a lot of well-meaning sideliners laid low by the powers that be. Only Obama is an especial mystery, considering his popularity, as there is little conflict for him in the fall…where will he be then?...perhaps there are some things that are going to happen this spring and summer to make it all different. Remember 40 years ago, in January, how little we suspected what would become of our heroes in a few short months…The Jupiter-Saturn midpoint that fateful year hovered around the Galactic Center axis of 26 Sag-Gemini, the progressed Ascendants of both Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy…That’s where Obama’s progressed Ascendant is right now. . .

The Candidates

Hillary Clinton
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Rudy Giuliani
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John Edwards
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Mike Huckabee
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John McCain
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Barack Obama
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W. Mitt Romney
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