Barack Obama - a second term?

I first wrote about Barack Obama's chart in early January 2008, when there was no birth time available for him. Since then, verified information about his time of birth as shown on his birth certificate has come to light, and this has been accepted as a correct and reliable source by Lois Rodden's Database(visit to browse for the data of many well-known people!).

So I've set up Obama's chart for the correct time - 4.8.1961 at 7.24pm local time in Honolulu. His strong-by-Sign Leo Sun is now in the right place (not up at the top as it was for the noon chart previously used) but in the 6th house of service, and edging towards the 7th house of contact with others, and very firmly on the "You" or public side of the chart. It is best placed for meeting people, making contact, and being in touch with the needs and concerns of the "You".

Now we have the correct birth time, the orientation of the overall chart structure has changed dramatically from a vertical to a horizontal direction. Vertical charts indicate someone who seeks to get on in life and assert their own individuality; people with horizontal charts are more interested in connecting and communicating with others. They are listeners, "people persons", they have empathy and the planets which are closest to the Descendant (the DC) will suggest the way that others will perceive them. Obama's Sun and Mercury, both in Leo, are just below the horizon and are great energies for people to pick up on if they meet him or see him speak on TV. Leo is not known for it's reticence and shyness; it likes an audience to share some of that natural Leo warmth with. These two planets, placed as they are close to the DC, can both be assets. Note that Mercury is part of the Megaphone aspect pattern which I wrote about in the January posting, and Sun aspects Neptune in a linear aspect pattern. Neptune on the Balance Point of the 9th house and the highest planet in the chart indicates, on it's highest level, compassion, high ideals and forward-looking visions (I'm always more interested in the highest possible manifestation of the planets - that's what we're aiming for after all!).

On the other side of the DC, above the horizon in the 7th house, lie Uranus and Pluto. As transpersonal planets they can convey energy of change and transformation. Obama's message, which many have responded to positively, is of change. His Moon is at the bottom of the chart, close to the IC and connected to the collective. His roots and family are likely to be important to him, and he will have an easy ability to touch base with current collective feelings. The Moon is part of the Megaphone aspect pattern, and the correct birth time sets it in the lower half of the chart where it can pick up on prevailing issues and concerns of the collective.

The Jupiter/Saturn conjunction, which in my January posting I described as probably having a "push-me-pull-you" effect, now resides in the 12th house. This man is going to need some space and thinking time to solve and settle problems, whether his own personal ones or those of state, if he is elected in November (Edit 2012 - and yes, he was)

At the time of writing this he had just celebrated his 47th birthday. His Age Point is in Libra in the 8th house. Justice, fair play and retaining a sense of balance are possible background issues, but at this point in time, his Age Point is making a green learning aspect to Mars in Virgo, which is strongly placed on the 8th cusp. This will not be a quiet or restful Mars - it will want to be out there doing some good, fighting for what it deems to be right in society. Obama may well be learning how to use his ability to do this more effectively and efficiently as he makes contact with other world leaders in the run up to the November election. What is also interesting is that the Age Point in his node chart is lighting up all parts of the Megaphone aspect pattern. Pinning planets Jupiter, Venus, Mercury and Moon are all being activated from a deep level, ensuring that the mental capacity and potential of this figure are kept active, busy and well-oiled, ready for action.

Addendum and update September 2012: With the November Presidential election gradually hotting up, it seems fitting to take another look at Obama's chart and see what is happening, especially with his Age Point. At the time of his election in 2008, he was 47 and I discussed the planets his Age Point was in contact in the above paragraph.

Now things have moved on and Obama is 51. His Age Point has moved out of the air sign of Libra and into the water sign of Scorpio. No-one with their Age Point in Scorpio is going to be a pushover because they will be working with a psychological back drop of forensic determination and tenacity to support them. Obama's Age Point, as well as being  in Scorpio, is in the 9th house, bringing  issues such as justice into sharp focus. When the Age point is in the 9th house, the person can stand up for what they believe in without fear, because they have sufficient life experience behind them to back the stance they take. In addition to this, Obama's Age Point is making a square aspect to his Sun, reflecting the challenge to his authority which the challenge to his election for a second term will bring. On a personal level, his  Leo Sun is strongly placed and forward-looking. It sits in 6th house of service but also has an eye on 7th house matters of contact and communication with others. By November, the challenge of the Age Point square to the Sun has gone, and in its place is a small, hard-working semi-sextile made from his Nodal Age Point to Neptune. As I said  back in 2008: Neptune is on the Balance Point of the 9th house and is the highest planet in the chart. This indicates, on it's highest level, compassion, high ideals and forward-looking visions.

Venus, Mercury and Beauty

Beauty. Peace. Power. Wonder. Joy. Compassion. What do these have in common? They are all transpersonal qualities, pure manifestations of energies which exist around us and beyond us, yet can find a conduit into the world though us. Beauty is said to be in the eye of the beholder, which places the concept of beauty in a subject/object relationship. If we see something we regard as beautiful, that surely is a reflection of something equally beautiful within us - and in that we should most definitely rejoice. Beauty is all around but is not always easy to see. Urban landscapes and inner city life can mask it; the erosion of natural environments and wild life degrade it; bad taste, bad manners and the cult of personality can deaden it.

The Italian psychiatrist Roberto Assagioli says in his book Transpersonal Development, “The fact that beauty is the essential attribute of the Supreme, Divine Being has been recognised and proclaimed by thinkers since the dawn of history, and by the great mystics and most gifted artists of all ages. . . in all that has been created there must be some vestige, some trace of this essential attribute of the Prime Creator”. And Plato says in The Republic “the aim of all education is to teach us to love beauty”.

Canova's Three Graces, National Gallery images

Beauty is generally accepted to be a combination of shapes, colours, textures, sounds, ideas and qualities which please the aesthetic senses. A piece of music, magnificent natural scenery, a painting or sculpture, an intellectual argument - all of these, plus many more you can probably think of for yourself - can be beautiful. Venus at it highest level of expression is the planet we might associate with the expression and manifestation of beauty. At this level the harmonious blending of all the components (in, for example, a work of art) combine to make an aesthetic whole. A personal favourite of sheer beauty and the expression of Venus at this high level is Canova’s sculpture “The Three Graces”. I had to return to look at it several times during my visit to the National Gallery in Edinburgh, and the astrologer friend I was with at the time was equally bowled over by the beauty and perfection of this piece. Conceptual art leaves me cold and baffled. But maybe that’s because I’m looking at it through Venus eyes; if I switch to viewing it through the expression of Mercury at its highest level I can “get it” because here Mercury is pure creative communication. But to me, alas, it’s not art. Well, not the sort I like, anyway.

In the 6th form I had an English teacher called Tom Gibson who encouraged us as students to be critical. When discussing anything new we’d seen, or read, he told us to ask three questions: What does it say? How does it say it? Was it worth saying? Tom is long gone, but his advice has stayed with me. In the pursuit and appreciation of beauty in art, music, literature, theatre and numerous aspects of everyday life, these same questions can be applied. And maybe that is all you need to know. . . . but here I’m going to let the poet John Keats have the last word quoting from Ode on a Grecian Urn :

“Beauty is Truth, truth beauty, - that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know”

Astrology as a Spiritual Path

"Transformation: Astrology as a Spiritual Path" represents the culmination of many years of research and teaching in the life work of Bruno and Louise Huber, well known as founders of the Astrological Psychology Institute in Zürich. This is the last of the eight volumes on their system of astrological psychology to be fully translated into English.

From their researches the Hubers found that the causes of psychological problems are more often uncovered through the effort of spiritual development than through handling everyday conflicts. In this book they describe the related processes of transformation as natural stages in
human development.

This is concerned not only with the personal stages of development through life, but with the evolution of humanity and the whole universe. It involves the expansion of consciousness of micro- and macrocosm. It brings about meaningful and spiritual growth, which each person can joyfully and confidently undertake.

Parts of this work have previously been published by Samuel Weiser under the title ‘Astrology and the Spiritual Path’, the translation of an earlier book by the Hubers. The present volume includes significant new material, notably in the areas of the Dynamic Quadrants, Stress Planets, the House Chart, and the Integration Chart.

The book is published in paperback, 224 pages ISBN 978-0-9547680-8-9 Cover Price: £15.00

It's available from retailers or from the APA Bookshop.

Music as torture

I heard a very disturbing item on BBC radio last week about music being used as a form of torture on inmates at Guantanamo Bay. There's probably nothing new in this "technique" - in fact the American representative who was interviewed in the item called it "coercion", claiming it was not torture.

Imagine having a song for children, sung by the Barney the Dinosaur character, played loudly and continuously - way above safe or normal decibel levels - for 24 hours in an environment you can't get away from. Or "Babylon" by David Grey (a favourite at Guantanamo apparently), heavy metal, even classical music. Is this torture? Or is torture defined as beatings and water-boarding? That was the issue being explored in the item.

My response was yes, it is torture to use music in this way. It was described by someone who had experienced it as worse than physical torture because it is disorientating and creates long-term psychological disturbances.

What does this have to do with astrology? Music and its creation relate to the planet Venus, which is the manifestation in form of relationships of all kinds. In the case of music, it's the relationship of the notes, the intervals between them and the emotions and qualities which are conveyed. Shakespeare's opening line in "Twelfth Night" is "If music be the food of love, play on." Venus, like all the planets, operates on different levels of conscious awareness - asleep, waking and awake. At the awakening level, Venus can express aesthetics, creativity and art; at the fully awake level higher qualities such as beauty and a perception of the divine. To use music as a form of torture is so far removed from its roots as to be obscene and profane.

More than the misuse of Venus is involved here. Venus/the use of music is the method, but the intention is fuelled by the lower manifestations of Pluto. This transpersonal planet, which can lead us from the depths to the heights in personal journeys of growth and understanding is here being expressed on the lowest, most asleep level of its energies. Pluto asleep is power for change and transformation used externally rather than internally. In short, forcing one's will on others, megalomania, manipulation and destruction.

The singer David Grey spoke out strongly against the use of his music as an instrument of torture, and the issue of whether musicians whose work is likewise being abused could sue. Sadly and wrongly, it seems that the only grounds they would have for this would be for payment of royalties rather than the immoral and inhuman use of their creative works.

Next time you're choosing to listen to music, whether it be by David Grey or Barney the Dinosaur, remember that someone somewhere is probably also listening in. But they don't want to, and the music is loud, and goes on and on. . . .

Our valuable National Health Service

The National Health Service (NHS) in Britain was 60 years old this week. It was first rolled out as a service on 5th July 1948 at Park Hospital, Manchester. The chart is set up for noon; there's no way of knowing when the NHS was actually "switched on"! The BBC are featuring different aspects of the growth and development of the NHS in their news bulletins all week.

The NHS is said to be the envy of the world, yet it has also come in for much criticism over the past few years. My own experience of it as a patient and parent is mixed - very good in parts, somewhat lacking in others, but taken overall, a highly professional service which we should celebrate and cherish. It was created by Clement Atlee's Labour government after the Second World War; up until then, all health services had to be paid for. You can read about its history here.

What clues does the chart give about the NHS? The shaping/motivation is Dynamic, indicating a flexibility, the urge to change and move on and the ability to adapt to changes along the way. This is true beyond doubt. The NHS has embraced technology and the life-saving techniques now available in hospitals and health care would probably seem like pure sci-fi to the nurses and doctors of the early days.

The colour balance in the chart is 4 red: 1 green: 3 blue. Red dominates, in the form of the Efficiency triangle, suggesting the NHS has always been an active, hard-working entity. This could be reflected in the long hours that junior doctors work, and the long shifts worked by nurses. If this were the chart of a person, I'd be wanting to explore the lack of green aspects. These bring awareness, the gathering of information and ability to think, ponder and use ideas. The chart is short changed here, with the emphasis on red/blue aspects. These together give a more either/or approach - things tend to be seen in black and white with few shades of grey, and it may be that the NHS has had to tread water furiously at times, just to keep going. The introduction of performance targets doesn't allow much space or time to be "green". Patient care and quality people time can suffer here.
The stellium of Moon, Mercury, Venus and Uranus are all part of both the red Efficiency triangle and the red/blue Ambivalence figure and suggest a blend of creative ideas laced with a need to care. In the Efficiency triangle these planets oppose Jupiter, holding in tension the active "doing" energy ready to be released by Mars at the apex. Mars will deliver the goods in the form of the service itself and the hard work that is required to maintain high standards. Jupiter is the somewhat lonely tension ruler of the chart, but is an important significator of the ability to learn and gather wisdom through first hand experience.

There is one linear aspect, the one-way red square between Sun and Neptune. This speaks to me of the ideals of the NHS, the original premise on which it was founded - to offer health care free for all with there no longer being the need to pay. Yet Neptune is comparatively isolated and relies on the caring Cancerian Sun being awake and aware, always with an ear open to heed the selfless and compassionate ideals of which Neptune might whisper.

With no time of "birth" to work with, it's impossible to say exactly what might be taking place in the NHS chart's Age Progression. However, in general terms we do know that age 60 puts the hand of the LifeClock slap bang on the 11th cusp. In terms of planetary cycles, age 60 heralds the 5th Jupiter return, when transitting Jupiter is conjunct natal Jupiter, so a re-evaluation of all that has been learned and experienced to date, together with moving forward into a new cycle of growth could be possible. Age Point entering the 11th House signals a more discriminatory approach to contacts, friends made, and ideals shared. The harvest of all that has gone before can be enjoyed, but the way forward is with greater sensitivity and a more refined choice of the contacts made.