Alberto Gonzales has ridden on the coattails of George Bush to fame and recognition. Among his achievements:

• Assisted then-Governor Bush to avoid jury duty;
• Worked against clemency in death penalty cases, aiding Governor Bush to execute more prisoners than any other state;
• Promoted the end of the Geneva Convention and defended the detention of American citizens without habeas corpus and the torture of suspected terrorists;
• Fought to keep the documents from Dick Cheney’s energy task force from being reviewed by Congress;
• Promoted the “rendition” of prisoners to countries where they would be tortured;
• Facilitated the dismissal of eight US prosecutors for political reasons, such as the prosecutor who aggressively went after Duke Cunningham’s bribery scandal.
  

click chart to enlarge. Alberto Gonzales has an astonishing six planets in Leo, including a tight conjunction between the Sun, Jupiter, Mars and Mercury. Leo is the sign of royalty, and it is not uncommon for individuals with Leo in their charts to feel a sense of entitlement and a need for admiration and adulation. The conjunction of the Sun to Mercury shows a tremendous intelligence, and combined with Mars in the fiery sign of Leo there is a need to prove that intelligence through competition. There is potential for a combative nature here with Jupiter aligned with Mars in connection with the intellect (Mercury) and the spirit (Sun). Gonzales was an honor student in high school and earned his law degree from Harvard, a tremendous accomplishment for the son of illegal immigrants from Mexico. The Sun/Mercury combination also bestows a tendency towards pride in his intelligence which often leads to a belief that one is always right, and the addition of Mars gives the aggression to prove it.

The conjunction of Jupiter to both the Sun and Mercury, particularly in Leo, shows a strong self-confidence (Jupiter) and a tendency to be self-righteous and sanctimonious. Typically Jupiter here bestows a great deal of optimism and good luck, and Gonzales has said himself that his life has been very fortunate. Still, Gonzales has a square from Saturn to the Leo stellium which has the potential to erode his self-confidence. Leo is a sign that prizes loyalty, and Gonzales has affixed his star to that of George Bush and has been loyal to a fault, but it is doubtful that he has the confidence to seek political power of his own. Bush’s Mercury/Pluto conjunction sits right on this Leo stellium in Gonzales’s chart, showing the alignment of their ideals and their intellectual compatibility but also that the power (Pluto) comes from George W. Bush.

Another effect of the square of Saturn to so many planets is to create a rigidity in the personality (Saturn creates form and structure and prescribe the adherence to rules and convention). This often results in a very conservative nature that is more comfortable with a limitation of personal freedom. A lineup of six planets such as this creates a tunnel vision and a one-pointed way of looking at life that often lacks perspective.

Like most people born in the early 1950s, Uranus, the planet of freedom, is square to Neptune in his chart. The search for freedom from conventional morality (Uranus) that this group experienced in the 1960s was confused by the Neptunian desire for escape through sex, drugs and rock and roll, resulting in a chaotic experimentation in an attempt to forge a new (Uranus) experience of life (Neptune). A more rigid personality would have worked hard to suppress this chaotic experience in an attempt to maintain a firm grasp on “reality.” Gonzales has said that his father had a drinking problem and was abusive to his mother so it appears that his childhood was somewhat chaotic, and he went right from high school into the military. We could read from this his desire to maintain that form and structure through discipline and hard work, and in fact he has often said that these are values that he learned from his family.

Gonzales’s Moon is in Aquarius, and it opposes his Leo planets. Where Leo is focused on the development of the ego, Aquarius seeks a more transpersonal expression for one’s emotions. The Aquarian moon confers a detached and idealistic emotional nature and one lacks empathy and compassion. In fact, other than Saturn in Scorpio which shows a fear of intense emotions and of rejection which can lead one to avoid emotional situations, there is no water in this chart. This is a man who is not comfortable with the more watery emotions – the loyalty that is the hallmark of the Leo stellium has more to do with an exchange of attention in order to feed the ego than true emotion and affection.

All of these Leo planets have been hit hard by the transits of Saturn and Chiron over the past eighteen months. The influence of transiting Saturn is behind him, but Chiron just began its pass over Venus, Mercury, Jupiter and his Sun as well as a square to Saturn, and it will make a station on his Mars in June before retrograding back over all of these planets. Chiron transits can be painful times if we avoid the emotional pain that is likely to arise as Chiron opens up old wounds that we thought were healed long ago. Depending on what time he was born, transiting Saturn is also opposing his Moon and creating emotional crisis for him.

This can be a painful time, but it can also be a time of great self-understanding and personal growth. It will be next January-February before Gonzales is through this intense period, but throughout this cycle his progressed Sun will be in trine to Chiron in his chart, showing that he is open now (Sun) to emotional growth and change (Chiron). Gonzales is fond of saying that the most important thing in his life is not the power of his position but the love of his family. During this next year he will need all of the emotional support that he can get.