…and an astrological update of the US President

President Bush recently showed his compassionate nature when he commuted the prison sentence of his loyal soldier Scooter Libby because he felt the sentence was “excessive.” He demonstrated a great deal of sympathy for the man who merely lied to protect him and decried the suffering of his wife and children. Still, I was reminded that this was the same man who, while governor, was the overseer over more executions than any other governors in recent US history. Bush explained in his autobiography that it was not his job to “replace the verdict of a jury unless there are new facts or evidence of which a jury was unaware, or evidence that the trial was somehow unfair” and therefore it was not up to him to pardon those that were sentenced to death. This is the same man that observed the wreckage of New Orleans from 5,000 feet and seems to care little for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed in his war of liberation.

The President was born under the sign of Cancer, and as such he has a tremendous compassion and desire to nurture those that he loves. Cancer is a tribal sign – loyalty to one’s own is paramount. Extremely sensitive to attack from outside, Cancer will fearlessly protect members of the tribe from that outside influence. You can read more about President Bush’s chart in this earlier article and this update, but it is significant that a stellium of four planets in Libra (Neptune, Chiron, Moon and Jupiter) all square this Cancer Sun, creating challenge in his ability to accomplish that tribal protection.

The square from Jupiter (King of the Gods) to the Sun describes the arrogance and overconfidence that Bush projects as well as the religious fervor and righteousness that describes most of his political process. His Moon/Jupiter conjunction in Libra shows that he truly seeks harmonious interactions with others, but the square to the Cancer Sun makes that extremely difficult as the conscious application of the Cancer influence is primarily concerned with protection of the tribe.

This Moon/Sun square often is illustrative of an individual whose actions (Sun) are cut off from their emotions (Moon). This is made even more difficult by the conjunction of Chiron to the Moon which creates a continually vulnerable emotional state that requires regular attention in order to heal. We know that GWB was deeply affected by the early death of his sister and it is likely that this wound has never healed. When we ignore the pain of our inner wounds they drive us in ways that are not always productive. From a recent Washington Post article:

And yet Bush does not come across like a man lamenting his plight. In public and in private, according to intimates, he exhibits an inexorable upbeat energy that defies the political storms. Even when he convenes philosophical discussions with scholars, he avoids second-guessing his actions. He still acts as if he were master of the universe, even if the rest of Washington no longer sees him that way.

“You don’t get any feeling of somebody crouching down in the bunker,” said Irwin M. Stelzer, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute who was part of one group of scholars who met with Bush. “This is either extraordinary self-confidence or out of touch with reality. I can’t tell you which.”

And in this same article Alastair Horne, a British historian who met with Bush recently, was surprised at Bush’s tranquility: “”He was very friendly, very relaxed,” Horne said. “My God, he looked well. He looked like he came off a cruise in the Caribbean. He looked like he hadn’t a care in the world. It was amazing.”

Cancer can be a difficult sign for men in general because the sensitivity of that sign is not supported in society these days, so we see a man whose inner nature is extremely sensitive and sympathetic, but whose world view (Sun square Jupiter) is dogmatic and ideological, where there are no shades of gray and if you’re not with us you’re against us.

GWB’s progressed Moon just entered Capricorn at the end of April. For the past two and a half years the buoyant optimism of the Sagittarian progressed Moon has carried him blithely through the most difficult of circumstances. The Capricorn progressed Moon bestows a far more serious approach to life, and it was in early May that Bush quietly signed a Presidential Directive permitting the President to have complete authority over all three branches of government in the event of a national emergency, basically giving him dictatorial powers. In Capricorn we seek to have control over our environment and build something lasting; the ends justify the means as they do for all of the cardinal signs. Over the next two years as the progressed Moon passes through Capricorn, Bush will struggle for recognition as a leader and will work hard to stifle anything that stands in his way.

At the same time, transiting Uranus is in the closing square of its cycle to his natal Uranus, an event that occurs for all of us around age 62 and signifies a breaking free of restrictions that are holding us back during what we fear is our last hope for a liberated life. This phase of the cycle follows the opposition at age 41 and is often the harbinger of broken marriages and new careers or retirement. Uranus is exactly conjunct Bush’s North Node, so transiting Uranus will square that point in Bush’s chart as well. In one more powerful Uranian signature, Bush’s progressed Midheaven is exactly square to the Uranus/North Node conjunction in his chart. All of this would seem to add up to a major revolutionary event that will occur for him this year, and I am betting on this to happen in the autumn when a number of challenging Mars and Jupiter events will exacerbate the restless and revolutionary fervor of the Uranian energies.