Astrology Forecast: 2008 U.S. Election

Astrology Forecast: 2008 U.S. Election

April 1, 2006

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Running for President of the United States in 2008

As I noted in my astrology article on the 2006 and 2008 elections, U.S. senators usually do not go straight from the Senate to become the president. Governors do. The last politician to go straight from the Senate to the White House was John Kennedy in 1960. Lyndon Johnson, also a senator, was selected as Kennedy’s vice-president; he then became president when Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.

However, this election is shaping up to be different. Two senators—Clinton and McCain—are currently the early favorites. Either one may stumble, but the 2008 election bears a striking resemblance to the 1960 election, won by a senator. The major similarity between the two elections has to do with Capricorn and security. In 1961, the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction was in Capricorn, a sign associated with security. The 1960 election hinged on issues of Cold War security and in 1962, we experienced the Cuban missile crisis. In 2008, Pluto will enter Capricorn for the first time in a quarter of a millennium.

The Iraq War and U.S. policy regarding foreign terrorism are extremely important to voters, and governors do not have any opportunity to deal with foreign affairs. Will voters trust someone with no foreign policy experience to run the country in 2008? Pluto will be entering Capricorn for the first time in February, 2008, just as the election primaries heat up, and issues of national security will probably dominate the election. (The problem for any Democratic senator, as it was for John Kerry in the 2004 election, will be explaining why they voted to authorize the Iraq War).

As we look at potential presidential candidates, therefore, we need to keep in mind historical precedent, as well as reasons why it might not be applicable in the 2008 election. Astrology forecasts are much more effective when they are grounded in realistic possibility and awareness of context.

Looking at Bush's Horoscope

Let’s look first at some basic chart dynamics that can help propel an individual into the White House. There is a temptation to want to jump right in and start looking at transits, progressions, composites (with the U.S.), and eclipses in the horoscopes of potential candidates. But the strengths or weaknesses of the individual chart come first. Does a candidate’s horoscope contain the potential to be elected president?

If we look at the chart of President Bush, his 12^th house Sun initially looks like an odd place for the Sun if you want to be president. Sure, it might work fine for Madonna. Her 12^th house Sun gives her a Neptunian image on stage and in her music, but we don’t want a Neptunian president, do we? Somebody who has a lot of costume changes and gets everybody dancing around a mirrored disco ball by repeating the same chorus set to a synthesizer beat?

Bush’s Sun-Moon square is one window into his presidential leadership. Bush’s Cancer Sun is ruled by his 3^rd house Libra Moon. Because these two luminaries happen to be square one another, the core security needs of Bush’s Cancer Sun are in a state of tension with the social needs of his Libra Moon. Bush is very much into Libran social interaction, hence his habit of comfortably nicknaming all he meets. In a recent press conference, he addressed a reporter as “Stretch.” And yet he has an enormous need to be that private Cancer Sun, safe and secure in his shell. For all his joshing with reporters, Bush has conducted fewer press conferences than any other modern president.

Security in conflict with social needs sounds an awful lot like the times we live in. Just look at the current debate about immigration. The president truly does come to exemplify the nation he or she leads, for better or worse. We need to look closely at the horoscopes of potential presidential candidates, therefore, because a majority of the nation will bond with one candidate in a national election and that candidate’s horoscope will become bound with the nation’s.

More on Bush’s Horoscope

Marc Edmund Jones wrote in his classic Essentials of Astrological Analysis that the Sun and Moon in square aspect (as they are in Bush’s horoscope) gives “an excessive appetite for experience.” Jones noted that the dynamic tension of the Sun-Moon square could be “a highly profitable gift” of professional accomplishment. Someone with this configuration “can go far if he selects or creates his own channels through which to put it to work.” Jones goes on to cite Winston Churchill as an exemplary leader with a Sun-Moon square.

What are some other chart factors which gave Bush the strength to get elected president twice? (The 2000 election victory is debatable: Bush lost the popular vote, which makes his winning the presidency all the more remarkable).

Bush has Pluto in the first house. He has always operated from positions of personal power, going back to his birth as the eldest son in a powerful Republican family. Mercury closely conjuncts his Pluto, one of the closest aspects in his horoscope (see my article on “Bush’s Closest Aspect”). This conjunction intensifies his mental power. Bush is often criticized for being a bit dim. Academically, that may be true, but he is anything but dim when it comes to power politics. As president, he ended up being a total surprise to Democrats in his ability to wield power. When he ran for president, both in 2000 and 2004, he was an expert at spotting and exploiting opponents’ weaknesses. He has exhibited strong political nerve, another Mercury-Pluto trait.

I’m not trying to write a defense of Bush here. I am just trying to examine some of the chart factors that got him elected so that when we look at potential 2008 candidates, we’ll have some idea of what it takes to get elected president.

Bush’s planets are in a bundle chart pattern. That is, all of his planets are within a 120° trine. This gives him incredible focus. Getting elected president requires staying focused on the goal. In his presidency, Bush has shown himself to be incredibly able to stay “on message,” at least up until recently when transiting Saturn started crossing over his Ascendant and 1^st house. Here is what Marc Edmund Jones wrote about the bundle pattern:

“…the bundle temperament identifies the most concentrated rather than the broadest spread of self-realization…a tendency to self-fulfillment in an unusually selective ordering of his own affairs…this individual always or at least potentially is the creator or proponent of an exclusive and well-integrated world within which his own competence or superiority may have a constant manifestation of its powers. When such an exceptionally personal world is created by a person of real stature, it may have an enduring impact on the whole course of history.”

Bush’s bundle pattern is in the Eastern hemisphere of his horoscope, putting him in the driver’s seat of his own destiny.

In looking at the horoscope of President Bush, we should not think, “Oh, a winning presidential candidates needs a bundle pattern, a Sun-Moon square, or a Mercury-Pluto conjunction.” These helped the current president get elected. They were sources of strength which served Bush well in close elections. But other candidates have different strengths.

Political Foundations for Astrology of the 2008 Election

It is important to have a realistic view of the political playing field when discussing the astrology of the 2008 U.S. elections. ABC News has come out with the first installment of the 2008 Invisible Primary Ratings. The Invisible Primary, according to ABC News, is the “jockeying for supremacy in the contests to be positioned to be the major party presidential nominees between now and start of the actual caucus and primary voting.” These ratings try to rank the potential 2008 primary candidates in each party according to 19 different qualities—everything from support staff to money potential. ABC News boasts that the initial 2004 Invisible Primary rankings had John Kerry in first and John Edwards in second. They ended up being the top and bottom of the Democratic ticket.

The ABC News Invisible Primary rankings puts two senators, John McCain (a Virgo Sun) and Hillary Clinton (a Scorpio), firmly in first place of their respective parties. LBJ was our most recent Virgo president. Scorpio presidents include Teddy Roosevelt--and Warren Harding. Senator George Allen is second behind McCain. Allen, a former governor, is a Pisces; we have to go back to Grover Cleveland in the late 19^th Century for the last Pisces president. Gemini John Edwards is second behind Clinton. ABC News notes the fact that no senator has been elected president since John Kennedy in 1960. However, the only Southern governor with any chance—according to ABC News—is Virginian Mark Warner (a Sagittarius, like John Kerry), and he is not really a governor any more, having been term-limited out of office last year.

You can see horoscopes for Clinton, McCain, Edwards, Allen, and Warner by clicking here. Birth times are only available for McCain and Edwards. Clinton’s birth time is conflicting and unverified. Allen’s and Warner’s horoscopes are set for noon. I will be discussing these candidates horoscopes in detail in my newsletter. Using individual horoscopes, composite horoscopes (with the U.S), and analysis of what the nation is looking for in a leader, I will be making some forecasts about what’s in store for 2008.

With the two front runners so firmly in place two years before a primary or caucus vote is even cast, the rest of the pack is simply waiting for the front runner to stumble so badly they get knocked out of the race. Gary Hart was the prohibitive Democratic favorite in 1988 until an extra-marital liaison surfaced and he quit the race, allowing Michael Dukakis to win the nomination. Edmund Muskie was the favorite in 1972 until he broke down in tears in New Hampshire over a scurrilous news story. He was soon out of the race, allowing George McGovern to be the eventual nominee.

Astrology of the 2008 Presidential Candidate:

A candidate running for president in 2008 will try to position herself or himself as the un-Bush and attempt to exemplify the opposite of those qualities that voters have come to dislike in President Bush—especially if Bush’s poll numbers stay low. Bush has a penchant for secrecy, stubbornness, and false optimism (although, in fairness to his supporters, these same qualities are viewed by some as security, determination, and hope). Voters may seek a more open, curious, and flexible candidate to solve the dilemma of continued U.S. military presence in Iraq. This would point to a candidate with some combination of a strong Aquarius, Gemini, Mercury, or mutable signs. We have to leave out the zodiac houses in our model astrological candidate because we don’t know the exact birth times for most of the potential 2008 candidates.

The one thing which may undo the “mutable” candidate is the extraordinary times in which we live. Pluto’s entry into Capricorn in 2008 will darken the tone of the election, and openness may not be so much prized as derided. This is not the 1970’s when Carter could defeat Ford by being a centrist Democrat and promising post-Watergate honesty in government. Depending on events in the next two years, it is possible that voters may simply want strength, and victory will go to the candidate with the most powerful horoscope which links most deeply with the national horoscope.

I think a combination of openness, flexibility, and strength will carry the day in the 2008 election. Mars, Saturn, and Pluto will be keys to the election. The candidate’s composite chart with the U.S. will show the bond with voters and whether the nation perceives a candidate as being open and a good communicator.

It may come down to this: Who will voters want more, a candidate who is open, flexible, and a good communicator? John McCain and John Edwards (see horoscope) would be candidates whose horoscopes reflect those qualities. Or will voters want a candidate with a lot of Mars-Pluto power, such as Hillary Clinton?

John McCain (see horoscope) is a Virgo Sun war hero, having spent five years as a Viet Cong prisoner of war. He is already positioning himself as the un-Bush through his campaign theme of “straight talk.” With a Mercury-ruled Sun sign, McCain seemingly enjoys an easy repartee with reporters and with the public. He has the openness and Virgo flexibility that Bush does not. The question is, will this end up seeming more opportunistic than genuine?

In addition to openness and flexibility, Republican candidates will need a strong Neptune to be able to attract loyal Bush conservatives as well as mainstream voters (most of whom have soured on Bush, according to recent polls). John McCain has a strongly fortified Neptune—it is opposed by Saturn and squared by Jupiter. One can already see him using Neptune to his advantage. See my recent blog on April 4, which discusses McCain’s horoscope in more detail and specifically explains how he is using his strong Neptune.

Hillary Clinton (see horoscope), is a Scorpio Sun with enough power in her horoscope to go from First Lady to New York Senator to the leading 2008 Democratic presidential candidate. After eight years of a Cancer Sun, will the country be ready for another water Sun sign—a Mars/Pluto-ruled water sign—in 2008? The nation does not necessarily experience presidential “element fatigue”: from 1977 through 1993, we had three presidents in a row with air signs; also, earth sign LBJ was followed by another earth sign, Richard Nixon. Click here for a more detailed discussion of Senator Clinton’s horoscope and its potentials.

Distressed Denim and the U.S. Horoscope

A president gets elected because the nation is looking for a leader in a particular time. What are the times in which we live?

Fashion is one way of gauging the zeitgeist of a nation. Just think of 60’s fashions and what they represented in terms of the counter-culture movement and sexual freedom. Or 50’s fashions and post-war conformity. As noted in an earlier astrology blog on March 11, fashion today is trending towards a darker, more apocalyptic vision. This may be related to the forming Saturn-Neptune opposition. Neptune is fashion and Saturn darkens or casts a shadow. The late 1980’s conjunction of these two planets gave us Batman-mania, safety pin jewelry, and the first stirrings of the heavy goth look. So in 1992, the nation elected a sunny Leo, Bill Clinton—riding to victory to Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow)”-- to counter all the downbeat realia.

What we are seeing now, circa 2006, is “distressed” denim (a fabric inextricably bound with the fabric of the nation), skulls, Megadeath and Harley-Davidson logos, shaved heads, rips, tears, and punkish fashion attitudes that cost a whole lot of money to maintain (see an interesting denim fashion review in the L.A. Times). A lot of this surely has to do with the distressed psyche of the United States.

Anyone running for president in 2008 will be throwing his or her hat or bonnet into this ring. The winner will either address the nation’s distressed psyche by pulling at the threads and unraveling it further or trying to patch the rips and tears. FDR's first election victory in hard times 1932 was a triumph of optimism. On the other hand, scowling Richard Nixon defeated the upbeat Hubert Humphrey in 1968, one of the most tumultuous years for the U.S. in the 20th Century. It can go either way. It all depends on the candidate's bond with the nation.

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