John McCain

With “Super Tuesday” in the United States tomorrow, 5th February, John McCain is the Republican hoping for nomination in the US Presidential election Primaries . I would not normally take this much interest in American politics, but this Presidential election is proving to be a potentially interesting one, with the prospect of the first woman President or the first black one. We in the UK are getting our fair share of news about this, so to be fair handed and impartial, I thought I’d take a look at McCain’s chart, having already looked at the charts of the Democrat front runners.

McCain’s is an interesting chart. He was born on 29.8.1936 at 09.00 at the Coco Solo Air Base in Panama (data from Lois Rodden’s Database) Visually it reminds me of searchlights sweeping the sky. It is somewhat unusual in that it’s a completely Linear chart; none of the aspects form complete figures and consist only of lines. Such a chart indicates a Cardinal, restless motivation which will be expressed in tangential, diverse and ever-moving behaviour. This man could be highly unlikely to let the grass grow under his feet, always being interested in exploring new horizons and possibly impatient to get on towards the next goal.

The aspects in the chart have a vertical direction suggesting a strong urge towards individuality and recognition. The colour balance is an interesting one - 6R: 0G: 5B. With so much red in his chart McCain might appear tireless, always on the go and with barely enough time to recoup his energies before moving on again. Alongside this excess of red aspects, there is barely enough blue to offer him respite from the relentless state of “doing” and absolutely no green aspects at all. A lack of green aspects in a chart can indicate a lack of awareness of living in the two polarised states of “doing” (when using the red Cardinal energy) and “being” (when using the blue Fixed energy). It can also show a potential lack of “shades of grey” which the green aspects offer and which help in seeing life’s issues in a more rounded way, rather than in the “either/or” manner associated with a completely red/blue chart.

As a foil to the inherent restlessness and potentially “black/white” viewpoint, McCain does have 3 planets in Virgo - one of them the Sun - and the Moon in Capricorn, which could endow a more earthy, practical and no-nonsense approach out in the world, but the inner restlessness will always be present.

When I read up about him, I was fascinated to see that his Age Progression (1) kicks in with dramatic accuracy in 1967, when he was in Vietnam. On July 29th, he survived the fire that broke out in his plane on take off ; his Age Point was exactly conjunct Saturn and the Age Point in his Moon Node chart (2) was exactly conjunct Pluto. On 26th October, he ejected from his plane on a bombing mission, was concussed, had both arms and one leg broken, and was subsequently taken prisoner spending much of his time in solitary confinement. His Age Point was still on Saturn, but in a less tight conjunction, and in his Moon Node chart his Age Point had just edged away from Pluto - a very graphic significator of his survival of this event.

Right now, McCain’s Age Point is approaching the AC. It has gone full circle around the chart and he will be 72 in August. I can sit back and wonder “Why does he want to become President at this age?” - an age when most people would prefer to spend more time in their garden or with their grandchildren! But then one look at McCain’s energy-driven motivation, shot through and through with the restless need to be doing something, and the likelihood of no shades of grey being present in the way he lives this out, gives one reason why!

(1) LifeClock; Using Age Progression and (2) Moon Node Astrology are available from the APA Book Shop.