HERE IS some news: Barack Obama, a senator from Illinois, is the first presidential candidate with Pluto in Virgo. I have written a bit about this placement, usually in the context of discussing Sixties charts. Pluto is one of the planets that distinguishes both a generation and a phase of history, and Virgo was indeed an interesting one, a time when thought, as in use of the brain, was more encouraged than it is today.
I feel that this is an underrepresented generation in world affairs, perhaps excluded, perhaps a little too meek and mild for its own good, perhaps a little too willing to toe or tow the company line. Also, it may teeter on the brink of fear-driven conservatism (particularly as Saturn in Pisces opposed Pluto in Virgo in the mid-Sixties).
This may not be conservatism in the political sense, though this is surely possible; it may also be a sense of reticence, unwillingness to challenge anyone or anything, or the feeling that power struggle in any form is not worth bothering with. I assure you there are many reactionaries with Pluto in Virgo, people who think the Grand Canyon and the Great Pyramid are about the same age and that climate change is caused by minority polar bears smoking crack. There are a lot of Sixties people who don’t know what they are: the right-wing nut vs. commie pinko debate seems to hum along rather unconsciously.
Obama does not seem to have these problems. As for why, we can speculate about his upbringing, his parents, and other early influences. He was raised between Hawaii and Indonesia, so he knows other cultures exist. As a mixed-race child (mother “milky white,” as he described her, father Kenyan) he surely had some extra growing up to do. He seems to be able to stretch himself across the contradictions (he has quite a few oppositions), to use diplomacy in his relationships, and to be able to genuinely experience the viewpoints of others, no matter how strange they may be.
His Gemini Moon gives him enough of a case of ADD to be able to function in the world where this is a necessity. His Leo Sun drives him to service and allows him to wake up every day feeling pretty good about himself — a plus.
Here is the chart:
He was born in 1961, when Uranus and the North Node were in Leo. His chart is very much a Uranus-Pluto conjunct chart, but the two planets are in different signs. So he has enough Virgo to appeal to the Pluto in Virgo cohort that begins in the late Fifties and enough Leo to be appealing to the eternally vital Pluto in Leo cohort as well, which we think of as the Baby Boom generation, but which really dates back to the late 1930s.
Barrack is born in a pre-sixties phase that I call the Camelot births, those which occurred during the administration of John Kennedy — an idealistic moment. The Kennedy years began within one day of Chiron entering Pisces, which Obama has exactly opposite his Pluto. So one of the main structures of his chart is a stellium in the 10th house (Leo MC, Uranus in Leo, part of fortune in Virgo and Pluto in Virgo) all opposite Chiron in Pisces. That is a lot of Chiron, meaning a lot of awareness and, due to Chiron in the 4th house, real environmental awareness that is not strapped to corporate interests.
Soon after JFK’s assassination, Uranus joined Pluto in Virgo and what we think of as “The Sixties” began, including the arrival of the Beatles in the United States just three months after Kennedy was killed (this is the subject of another article, but I don’t think the Beatles would have had the same impact had Kennedy been alive; they seemed to fill his shoes). Obama, though a Camelot baby, is pretty darned close to a child of the Sixties, which in truth was a more cynical time than we often think of; a more divisive one; a time with as much loss and failure as celebration and progress. Camelot births in some ways seem spared the cynicism that is more inherent in the charts of those born after the assassination.
Obama has the Sixties conjunction placed high up, prominently in his chart: the 10th house (with Leo on the cusp), which covers government, one’s relationship to it, and matters such as one’s personal reputation. Leo is leadership, especially on the 10th house; it is, however, remarkable that a person made it to the United States Senate with Uranus on his midheaven. He is likely to be a lot more rebellious, forward thinking and inventive than is obvious now, though he looks pretty good. He has a reputation for being irreverent, and this is his personal trademark and indeed the source of much of his charisma. He is not afraid to be a pain in the ass. Thank God for miracles.
Pluto brings evolution to the equation, and Uranus brings revolution. They work well together, but they are difficult energies for most people to grasp. If you have them prominent in your chart, you may not be able to access them; you may have to learn and it may take a while. You’re a natural if you really do things your way, and do them well.
So, politically, he’s an interesting specimen.
But his real appeal is as a husband (sadly, this was also George W. Bush’s appeal — people really thought of him as a good father and good dad, and despite his apparent psychosis, some people still do). Obama does this differently, illustrated somewhat humorously by Juno on the Aries Point. Taking the archetype of Juno somewhat literally, the marriage partner, we have someone who is a kind of archetypal husband, married to every woman. This is his true appeal, if you ask me, and it’s illustrated by several other points in his chart.
One is Venus in Cancer in the 8th house. The 8th is about bonding with others, identifying strongly with them, and what people have to offer one another. Venus in Cancer gives him a lot of appeal in this sense. We have the image of a nurturing lover who can really feel the woman he is with. And, he has this placement in the second degree of Cancer, making it an Aries Point placement, much like his Juno. True, the two planets are in a square, but one reading of that is that it increases the energy by increasing the tension.
He has all four of the first asteroids prominent, and I think this speaks volumes about him. If you want to understand these points (Ceres, Juno, Pallas and Vesta), think of them as other facets of the feminine that get lost in the debate between “mother vs. lover” as the only two possibilities available. They are available both to men, and within men, if we know what they are and give them a home. Count how many times in the day you do.
Ceres, representing the element earth, is about our connection to food, mother, and all the associated emotions that are associated with our relationship to mother and Mother Earth. He has this asteroid close to his horizon — his 7th house cusp. Mother is his primary relationship — not necessarily his actual mother, but Mother as archetype, Earth as living being, woman as Earth.
Vesta, representing the element fire, is about our sense of devotion and the clarity of intention. We know why we are doing something with Vesta in the picture, and we are willing to do what we need. He has Vesta in a close conjunction to Ceres, and also to the Moon, which is in very early Gemini. Basically, Obama has an unusual, deep, solid and more over communicative connection to what we call ‘the feminine’. This is also saying he understands women well enough not to have too many games played with his head, and to not need to play too many of them himself.
All this Taurus gives him a great voice. No, he is not Martin Luther King. But he is clearheaded and appealing. This is also indicated by his earthy Saturn in Capricorn trine Ceres and Vesta, and Jupiter trine the Moon. The potentially strange aspect is Mars opposite Pallas Athene in Pisces. Pallas is the aspect of the feminine that is the guardian. She is mental, reasoned, clear-thinking and alert — but potentially not retrograde in Pisces. So, beware, with Mars in Virgo opposite that, our man Barack is not going to tolerate any fuzzy thinking. Clarity is this guy’s thing. Barack rhymes with The Facts.
In a debate against Hillary, to be fair, she would need to have Bill with her, or at least whispering into her secret Spy Store radio headset. I would note, though, that with Juno on the Aries Point, he must beware of “the wife.” Hillary is matched for her slime potential only by Karl Rove, and she’s quite experienced, having been directly involved in Washington politics as a young lawyer since the Nixon impeachment days.
Now for the big question: Can he win? We all know the long shot involved; young guy, Barack rhymes with black, Obama rhymes with Osama, and he’s not an oil executive, a liar or a killer. But he is a Leo with Scorpio rising; these people don’t like to take second or third place, and notably, they are patient. I think he will be president — and the sooner the better. We may have to wait until 2012 because the Rear Guard still thinks it’s the Vanguard and most people don’t know the difference. But Obama does.
Aquarius Solar Returns, part five
By Priya Kale with Eric Francis
SOLAR RETURNS are always a new beginning, but a New Moon on or near your solar return is like that added cosmic touch of heaven. This is indeed a new chapter in your journey, so where do you want to go? Dream your dream and use your vision as a guide that steers you there. The fact that this New Moon occurs so late in Aquarius is also saying use your experience; let your history guide you as to what you want, and what you don’t; what you need, and what you don’t.
With a stellium of planets in your 1st and 2nd house the emphasis is certainly on you, your beliefs and everything that means anything to you. Saturn and Neptune are close to their second of three exact oppositions — and the effect is felt tangibly in your life right now. The question might be “what is real and what is not?” or “what do I really want?” The questions are worth asking, but gently, rather than with any stress. Let the opposition do the work; you just pay attention.
This is happening on the 1st and 7th house axis of your chart putting the onus clearly on you and by extension, on your most important relationships. Saturn sits in your 7th house, clearing out what does not belong in your life, and bringing you back to the reality and structure of your relationships. Neptune in the 1st house makes you long for what can be described as an idealistic dream. Hence, you may be living with a vivid dualism between what you perceive as a fantasy or dream, and what you perceive as reality or necessity.
The key to this predicament may reside in the fact that Neptune is now making a conjunction to Pallas, a mental, logical asteroid, meeting a planet whose logic is often slippery, elusive and in its own world (Neptune, where we all encounter our Pisces side). This will help you find the words for what up until now was a hum in your heart, indeed, one that may have been humming a long time, as Neptune takes pretty close to forever to cross one sign, in this case, your sign. Share your dreams and encourage partners to do the same. I assure you, if you try you will find a way to express the abstract emotions churning or swirling inside you. Allow your contradictions to come to the surface.
Your modern ruling planet Uranus is conjunct the North Node, implying one major factor, that is, you are the one in charge of making changes in your life. Being an air sign you are usually more guided by your Uranian instincts — intelligence, inventiveness, awareness — but your intuition is strong and your emotions and inner landscape, although changing rapidly and deeply, are the strongest magnets of the serendipity needed in your life. Uranus in Pisces is saying take chances with your feelings, with your needs, and with your creativity in all forms, particularly in love.
You are at your empathetic, sensitive, compassionate peak and it shouldn’t surprise you to find yourself amongst a host of new friends and admirers. The year will certainly provide many options when it comes to your social life. There are some pretty powerful connections that can be made this year and your world and your place in it look set to widen as a result.
We rely all too often on our logic and rationality, often as a way to cling to history. There is need now to keep open the channels of spiritual guidance, especially in this period of new activity. Spiritual can take many forms: inspiration, art, nature, movement, or the more direct forms of what we think of as relationship to Spirit. Just remember, if God can create the whole universe, He or She can manifest in any form.
We tend to focus on the external circumstances in our world, relinquishing our power to the things we seemingly cannot change and must accept. But if you slow down, in a moment of stillness you will find the answer. Whatever you want to call it “prana” or “chi” or “the universal life source” — it runs through all of us and is a power that is now accessible to you, and you need to tap into this, by choice, by small willingness. You are on the brink of new inspiration, truly, a new horizon of reality, that may indeed change your life as you know it, for better, surely for different, and happily, adding emphasis on what matters most to you.
Weekly Horoscope for Friday, February 16, 2007, #650 – By ERIC FRANCIS
Aries (March 20-April 19)
You seem to be reading a book about a love story or some extraordinary creative endeavor, but a little like Edgar Cayce used to — with the book under your pillow. This same person or thing may be dreaming of you, imagining herself into form, reaching to you from an unseen world. You may be able to feel the contact points weaving themselves into existence behind the veils of your awareness. The less you do the better; this is indeed a situation where your receptivity is more important than striving for anything external. If you want to lean into a situation and get some results, at the moment work is an excellent place to do that.
Taurus (April 19-May 20)
You’re cultivating a skill of actively relating to your sixth sense directly through your feelings. Normally we think of psychic awareness as coming from above, through the crown chakra. If you’re feeling a sense of mistrust in a person or situation, be aware of it, and proceed with your eyes open. If something feels absolutely excellent, I suggest you do the same thing. Something is working itself through your awareness layer by layer, as if you’re working with your feelings in layers of color, and through light and shadow. However the situation may develop, you’re getting an excellent tour of your perceptive abilities.
Gemini (May 20-June 21)
Don’t fall for the temptation that you “almost succeeded.” Personally I’ve never read about or for that matter experienced a great invention that did not take a number of attempts, many revisions and a great deal of re-visioning. Proceed in that spirit. Put the creative process before the results and you will get the best results and have the most fun. If you’re at an impasse, try an oblique strategy: go in reverse; do something random; look deeper; go out for lunch; everyone switch instruments. Basically, everything is an opportunity, and that’s not New Age mumbo jumbo — that’s astrology.
Cancer (June 21-July 22)
You don’t need to go on faith alone, though as you’re seeing a little goes a long way. You also don’t need to determine your opinion about a situation based on what is plainly visible or supported by the apparent evidence. Better things are happening than you can yet imagine, though it may be some time before you have a sense of the whole picture. At the moment take things one step at a time, and take an active role in giving yourself the gift of appreciating your life. No matter how exciting the future may be, this is the moment you’re alive, and that is saying a lot.
Leo (July 22-Aug. 23)
The idea is to give people the space to consider their commitments without fearing for a moment that they are considering reneging on them. This is a truly meaningful freedom to give one another, the freedom to think and feel what is right, and to experiment with what is possible. If more people gave one another this space, more of us would be certain that the people in our lives are acting out of heartfelt desire rather than duty. I suggest that you give yourself the same space, which will likely remind you how deep your feelings go once you take a moment to reflect.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
Mercury is now stationing retrograde in your opposite sign, Pisces. This offers you a depth of insight into the feelings and needs of others, a direct empathy that is accessible through your own emotions, feelings and perceptions. You may feel closer than you’ve ever been to someone you care about deeply, and yet unable to cross the distance entirely. This will come in time, but for now let what feels like the space between you remind you of how much space you’ve covered, how close you’ve become, and how real your feelings are. Practice that awareness as a devotion. Feel the gradual mingling of your lives on the soul level. Feel the pulses of your lives beginning to synchronize.
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23)
Your glimpse of the future is pouring through your heart, soul, brain and body. Take it with you. Love is about faith. Nothing can reassure us that it’s true or real. Faith is an individual experience, but it’s one that creates an atmosphere of strength that others can draw upon and grow merely by bearing witness to. Faith heals the world as surely as fear drives it to the brink of nonexistence. Indeed, faith is the special form of trust that makes love possible. From there it is just one gentle step to freedom. And though this may have come to you as a vision of what may be, the mere notion that it’s possible means it can be true right now, and can guide you the rest of your life.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
Would it not be beautiful to cycle in and out of balance, in and out of awareness? You can do it, but you must replace the cycle of your consciousness sleeping and awakening with another reality. That could be shifting from companionship to solitude as a conscious and even daily act; it could be remembering and honoring your past as a devotion that helps you stay in the present; it could be applying all your life energy to some moments every day of experiencing the reality of another as fully and as deeply as humanly possible. All that matters is that some form of alternation awareness replace the troubling cycle of awareness and the lack of it.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22)
Yes, it all comes back to you. Yes, the fate of the world — that is, the world you see, and know, and believe in — is in your hands. Rare have been the opportunities to make a difference, much less to turn patterns woven into centuries of history to your favor, and that of everyone around you. Today you have the strength to break free of everything your parents taught you, and everything their parents taught them. Today you have the strength to live steadily in your original instructions, your seed idea, your true dharma. This involves not forgetting all that you’ve discovered is not true, but rather, remembering it.
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20)
Understanding of another person’s situation is rushing through like so much blood, air and water, as natural as anything can be. You don’t need to say anything, but you certainly can. You don’t need to ask, but you are free to. What you may want to do, though, is to open up as wide as possible to the experience of connection as your defenses will allow you. If you notice one of those defenses, greet them by name, and take full responsibility, and let them pass through you. Defenses cover something much more beautiful — that’s their main job. You no longer need them, but you can let them point you to the truth they contain.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19)
Slowly you are crossing the little gap between awareness and denial. This may feel like a negotiation process within yourself; granting yourself permission to accept that you’re really safe, remembering what you forgot, accepting what you had rejected, and feeling what you refused to feel. This is about admitting feeling safe, and all the more safe for being aware of that safety. You no longer need to consider awareness of your security as an invitation to disaster. The truth is, at this point of your life, it works quite the other way.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
What an ominous time for you, what an impressionable moment. You are wide open and it’s as if you’re embodying the whole world in your daily experiences. You contain the people you love inside you, which is why your feelings are so vital now, and why you need to be truly careful the way you let your fear guide you. Spoken simply, your fear can guide you toward or away from people; it can become an excuse or an opportunity. A Course in Miracles puts it beautifully: lack of faith in love, in any form, attests to chaos as reality. Ah, and faith in love attests to sanity and joy.