Neptune on the Rise: Sarah Palin’s Astrology

Dear Friend and Reader:

Eyes on Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin’s reported birth time: 4:40 pm, Sandpoint, Idaho, Feb. 11, 1964. The source is the Starlight News, and I’m in the process of tracking down the pedigree. I trust the data because the chart works. To sum up: What we are witnessing right now is the Neptune Effect, one reality melting away and becoming another. Looked at another way, it’s the astrological equivalent of a hurricane semi-canceling the Republican National Convention (fortunately for them, Gustav and the holiday weekend served as a distraction from the spattering of Sarah Palin stories).

[News quiz: what was the interesting thing happening in the days before Hurricane Katrina? Answer: back when the Iraq war was still considered news, Iraq was spiraling into a new level of chaos, we had reached the 2,000 soldier death mark, and Republicans were accused of waging a witch hunt against climate change scientists. From this, it does not seem so impressive, particularly given how what happened to New Orleans overshadowed anything that developing right before — but that last week of August 2005 was quite a week.]

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin signs one of the three budget bills into law in Anchorage, Alaska, Friday, June 29, 2007. Photo by Al Grillo, AP.

First a reply to everyone who is saying that Sarah Palin does not matter; that only John McCain matters because he’s the real candidate.

Not so fast. The VP is the stand-in for the president. McCain has cancer, and in any other slightly less surreal time in history that would disqualify him from even being considered for commander in chief.

He would also be 72 when he assumes office, the oldest man in history to be sworn in (he beats Reagan by three years). This makes the vice president more important in this particular election. Note that Republican administrations have a history of the vice president being de facto prez.

For example, George H. W. serving “under” an ailing Reagan; and Dick Cheney “under” a brutally incompetent George W. She would not necessarily be McCain’s boss; McCain’s boss would be her boss.

In a matter of hours from her nomination, Palin was a liability. Aside from the fact that McCain had met her once before selecting her, nobody else besides Alaskans and Laura Bush had heard of her and the barrage has been nonstop. Note, this is what public involvement in the political process feels like. This is the rhubarb; the hue and cry; the public rumbling. Love it or watch CNN.

She is being trashed on the values that she supposedly espouses the most dearly — the sanctity of the family; sexual abstinence; honesty and integrity. We have a candidate who has characteristically run on a program of social piety revealed as someone whose family is no different than, well, dang — she’s just like us. Only I don’t throw my own kid under a bus for political purposes, and I don’t get to tell you when you can and can’t go to what doctor. I don’t legislate what your kids can and cannot know about their own bodies; that’s Sarah’s presumed job. She is living proof of how poorly abstinence only sex indoctrination works and she is thus a religious huckster. Only human of course…

Looking at her natal chart, we get Leo rising (our gorgeous beaming beauty queen, hotter at 44 than she was at 18) and that puts Aquarius on the 7th house. Aquarius is the sign with the most progressive feel, irrespective of what may be going on inside (as usual & with all the signs, there are a lot of possibilities). The 7th is the house that you could call the zone of projection (“we don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are”) or it’s the house of taking the public and putting it on like a mask. Either way, you project your 7th house. It is not the “real you” — that’s the job of the ascendant and its ruler. It’s specifically what you project outward.

This is the house of that pseudo-populist Aquarius Sun, Mars and Saturn. The Sun IS her ascendant ruler and this tells me she has boundary issues with the public; like any good performer, she blurs the distinction between she and us. Square her natal Neptune, mega ditto that, but the phenomenon involves what she tells herself. Who knows, this chart could be the chart of someone with impeccable integrity. Unfortunately that does not check out.

In the Big Sky; as we sit here, the Sun is now moving into an exact lineup with Saturn, in Virgo (this is an astrological event, happening Monday through Wednesday, and which happens once a year affecting all of us). Normally this is the kind of thing that would be “good for the government” and the discussion that is happening certainly seems to qualify. I am appreciating how detailed it is; Virgo is indeed about those annoying little bits of data that sometimes do add up to something. Sun-Saturn is about setting limits. That is another theme of the week, a limit on bullshit.

Palin herself is in a Moment of Astrology. Neptune, a very slow planet, is retrograding exactly over her Sun. Exactly as in her Sun is at 22 Aquarius 20 and Neptune is currently retrograde at 22 Aquarius 23. That is to say, Neptune is applying into a to-the-arc-minute conjunction to her Sun and it will be aligned most precisely on Thursday (though in retrospect it’s so powerful we would say it had full impact all year,not just this week). This is a transit so closely aligned and so rare that it’s the kind that astrologers use to backtrack and figure out the time a person is born; so this gleaming little event helps establish the accuracy of the chart.

I personally don’t think that she’s gonna actually get nominated, but this would suggest that one way or the other she is pretty washed up. We shall see what comes out in that wash, however — it’s been an interesting load already.

Steve Bergstein has posted a new entry to his Planet Waves blog, Psychsound. It’s called Picking Up the Pieces, and looks at how hard it is to run for president during a war. Also this edition of Talking Points Memo focusing on Ms. Palin is a short, spicy read.