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Astrologer's Notes: |
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Astrology &
Presidential Elections
Part 2 |
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by Basil Fearrington |
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This essay is a continuation of last month's column in which I address the question of whether or not we really can determine the winner of presidential elections with astrology.
Bill Clinton vs. George Bush
The state of the country in 1992 was one in which there was a celebratory mood about the success of the Gulf War but there were deep, deep problems of recession that followed the victory. The federal deficit was enormous but despite this, George Bush and Dan Quayle were re-selected to represent the Republican Party in the race for the presidency.
Bush's failure with the economy and his campaign theme's reliance upon trusting him, simply because of his incumbency, made it easy for Bill Clinton (August 19, 1946; 8:51 AM CST, Little Rock, Arkansas) to come from nowhere as a virtual unknown for a victory. When Clinton said that he wanted to make changes, the country was all ears. When he supported that proclamation with a plan that he projected and communicated well, the election was all his to lose and he went on to win a landslide, demoralizing victory over George Bush. Clinton had 370 Electoral College votes to Bush's 168, even with Bush winning in Florida (sorry, I couldn't resist the humor).
Astrologically speaking, Clinton's Midheaven was nearly on fire. He became the official candidate for the Democratic Party as transiting Pluto opposed his Moon, important because the Moon is the ruler of Clinton's 10th House. Once again, we can see how Pluto plays a role in periods of prominence in one's life, especially a person who leads a public life. At the same time, SP Moon squared Jupiter. Secondly, SA Venus=Sun, which was exact in September, 1992, highlighted 1992 as a year of popularity, especially since it was to be followed by SA Sun=Venus in December. From what we know now of Clinton's history, there was probably a background affair at work at this time in addition to his illuminated popularity. Continuing, SP Moon (again, a 10th House reference) squared his Ascendant that October, reflected later in November by SA ASC=Moon.
The big measurement for Clinton was the big Solar Arc semi-square. This is a configuration that happens in the lives of everyone between the ages of 43 and 47. Every planet and point in one's horoscope makes a semi-square to its natal position. Enormous development is possible or enormous difficulties (Michael Jackson; O.J. Simpson). Clinton's Solar Arc semi-square was exact almost on the day of the election. Still, with transiting Saturn opposing his Pluto and his unknown status, the astrology didn't necessarily support a victory. It was not something that could easily be seen before the fact but the emphasis upon his Moon, coupled with the popularity factor, gave him sound but not spectacular astrological support.
George Bush (June 12, 1924; 11:38 am EDT, Milton, Mass.) went into the Republican Convention with transiting Neptune squaring his Moon, blurring the personality. But this was to be followed by the transits of Jupiter square his Sun and Uranus - powerfully opportunistic measurements. And then, right at the election, we see Bush with SA Jup=Sun/Moon, surely a sign of happiness and reward. Right? Apparently not..
Many astrologers wrote that the Bush synastry with the Gemini Rising horoscope (of America) was so good that, coupled with the Jupiter transit, he could not lose. He did not just lose. He was trounced. Was his defeat supported by astrology or would the reality of the recession have sent him to a defeat no matter what? His defeat was a reflection of a society that was ready for new leadership and it probably did not matter who is opponent was. Clinton was the man to fulfill the promise of the upcoming transit conjunctions between Jupiter-Uranus and Jupiter-Neptune in the heavens. His vision was the right one for visionary times to come.
Bill Clinton vs. Bob Dole
Despite lingering concerns about his character and sense of morality, Bill Clinton easily defeated Bob Dole (July 22, 1923; 12:10 am CST, Russell, Kansas). Dole's presentation of himself was quite dull and lackluster beside Clinton's. The chemistry that existed between Clinton and the American public was non-existent with Bob Dole. Clinton won half of the popular vote and more than doubled Dole's total in electoral votes. They would have stopped it in the 1st round if it had been a prize fight.
The economy made great strides under Clinton and, in all probability, the American public felt that a vote for Dole would have been a vote to return to the kind of recession conditions that dominated the country when George Bush led the country. No one wanted that.
Astrologically speaking, neither candidate had the kind of astrological measurements that you would expect to see. In fact, Dole had transiting Jupiter conjunct his Midheaven just after the election (with SP Moon square Saturn).
Transiting Saturn crossed Clinton's Descendant and squared his Midheaven with his SA Sun moving into the very important, very rewarding conjunction with the Jupiter/Pluto midpoint, which is quite significant (see "Symbols of Success and Prominence" at BasilFearrington.com). I should note, with the Saturn square, that Clinton's problems really began to mount just after the election. It was the pre-cursor symbol for more serious problems to come. This is an important factor to remember in the Kerry-Bush election analysis.
Dole's Jupiter-Midheaven transit was the most supportive contact between the two candidates. This election was a good example, again, of how the political realities of the time superceded the astrological symbolisms.
George W. Bush vs. Al Gore
The controversial story of this election has been told over and over again. Gore (March 31, 1948; 12:53 PM EST, Washington, DC) won the popular vote. There was controversy in the deciding state, Florida, which is "managed" by Bush's brother Jeb. The close election was given to the Supreme Court, composed of men appointed largely by Bush's father, and they decided to stop the recount and reward the election to Bush.
This election came on the heels of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. To many, a vote for Gore was just another vote for Clinton just as a vote for Dole would have been a vote for Bush Sr. The Republican braintrust did a very successful job of a media blitz in which Al Gore was made out to be a semi-crazed liar. Just as Gerald Ford was somewhat victimized in his run for the Presidency through his association with the Nixon administration, Gore was deeply affected by his association with Clinton. Many people in the country felt that the Democrats needed to be removed from the White House "in order to restore class and dignity to it." In lieu of a sex scandal and impeachment proceedings, the conservative politics of Bush looked all too good.
No politician should ever run for President with transiting or Solar Arc Neptune conjoining an Angle (or the Sun or Moon) as was the case in Gore's horoscope. This is usually a time of defeat, a time of loss and there are rarely other horoscope measurements that can offset this. Gore also had his SP Full Moon and the frustrating transit of Uranus to Mars. It was a bad time to run for President.
Amazingly, George W. Bush (July 6, 1946; 7:26 am EDT, Boston, Ma.) had NO life-significant measurements except SA Venus=Sun (popularity…..again, keep this in mind for the Kerry-Bush analysis ahead), just before his inauguration. There was nothing shown within his measurements that would give even the most remote hint that he would become the President of the United States in 2000. There was no angularity. There was no contact to the Lights. It is a most unusual astrological circumstance for a most unusual election.
George W. Bush vs. John Kerry
Much ado to the war in Iraq, this has been a year of tough, tough, moments for George W. Bush, as is usually the case for a wartime president in America. The controversy that began with the election in 2000 escalated mightily with the circumstances surrounding the war.
Conservative Media Strength
Propelled by the media, the ideological difference of viewpoints between the Democrats and Republicans is wider and, dare I say, more vicious than it ever has been. We apparently no longer simply have news reporting. Gone are the days of when Walter Kronkite served as the role model that all others followed. We now have news "from the left," or "news with a right-wing point of view." FoxNews leads the ratings war of all cable news networks. They have cleverly come up with a way to differentiate and market themselves by labeling their broadcasts as "fair and balanced," which implies that the other stations are not balanced. In reality, if you watch the station for a substantial amount of time, you will definitely see that they are not fair and not balanced. All of their leading broadcasters - Sean Hannity; Bill O'Reilly - are very strong, very opinionated conservatives who do not report news but report their opinions about the news, especially if it involves a Democrat. In fact, when George Bush made that surprise visit to support the troops in Iraq, CNN was taken out of the press pool in favor of Fox.
What's more, the conservative-dominated voices of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity lead a field of many in the country that are there to remind everyone on a daily basis that "Liberal" is a synonym for something grossly undesirable, inferior, and unwanted. Their descriptions of Liberals are just ever so slightly more respectful than that of the terrorists. They make "Libs" sound like nasty, vile, unintelligent people who are disconnected from reality. It is as if they are aliens from another planet instead of people who also want the best for America but simply have another perspective on how to go about doing it. In the conservative mindset, to be "Liberal" is the same thing as being a radical "extremist" (which you would never hear on the network news because it is an opinion, not the news) and even more, it is equated with being unpatriotic and un-American. They do an excellent job of spreading that message. You hear, over and over again, that Kerry is the #1 Liberal and Edwards is the #4 Liberal, almost as if these are dishonorable badges to wear.
This style of media journalism got its beginnings with Richard Nixon in a story that does not belong in this essay but is important to mention because it gives an idea of just how long that conservatives have been working on building their desire to influence people via the media. From the seventies to now, they have perfected the idea of using the media to support their platforms. In 2004, this influence has become unimaginable.
The conservative media strengths also include books. Conservative organizations are in the habit of buying select right-wing books in bulk (more than five hundred copies at a time). By doing so, they greatly increase the chances that right-wing books make the best-seller list because all it takes is the sale of a few thousand books in a week to bring it from anonymity to best selling notice. These books purchased in bulk are denoted on the New York Times list by placing a small dagger next to its listing. Almost every right-wing book that makes the list has a dagger.
Mat Drudge owns the conservative web site, DRUDGEREPORT.COM. It is a site that gets more than a million hits per day!!!!! Hannity and Limbaugh base many of their shows on material from this site.
And then there is Rush Limbaugh and the couple hundred clones of his that are spread throughout the radio airwaves of America. Rush Limbaugh is an extremely successful, extremely powerful, extremely influential voice of conservatism whom many say has a direct link to the White House. In fact, just a few days ago, President Bush made a news appearance on a news show in which he said that the "war on terrorism cannot be won." The statement was obviously not very well articulated and, of course, the Democrats attacked the statement. On the day after this statement, the president was scheduled to make trips to Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and Idaho, which is quite a busy schedule. Yet, amidst all of that travel, Rush Limbaugh was able to get him to appear on his radio show for a half hour. During those 30 minutes, the president expanded his statement about not being able to win the war on terrorism and much more. That Limbaugh was able to get the president on such a busy day suggests that the president has great respect for Limbaugh and also that there must be some degree of personal friendship there between them. Limbaugh alone can make a difference in a close vote, simply because his show has become so very influential to conservatives. In fact, everyone reading this essay has heard of Rush Limbaugh but probably cannot name a single Liberal broadcaster who serves the same purpose for the Democrats. There is no Rush Limbaugh for the ideologues on the "left." And even if there was such a person, John Kerry has demonstrated that he would not be as adept in using such an advantage as the president and his staff have shown.
The top five radio station owners in the country have between 40-50 very powerful stations and broadcast over 300 hours of nationally syndicated right-wing talk per week as opposed to under 20 hours of "Liberal" talk. This gives the conservatives an enormous advantage.
The Conservatives response to the above is that the major news broadcasts are liberal; the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Washington Post "are all liberal." There is a difference though. These news stations and newspapers have opinionation only in the letters to the editor. Otherwise, they are limited by the rules of the FCC and the older standards of journalism - report the news as it is and let people make up their minds about what they have heard. Tom Brokaw would/could never say, "that stupid Kerry speech," as I saw Hannity say on television and heard Limbaugh say on radio." You won't hear that on the National Public Radio either (although you probably would hear it if there was such a thing as "Liberal" talk radio). All of the media outlets that the conservatives label as being "Liberal" report the news, not opinions and spins about the news. Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, and Fox seem to exist exclusively to tell you why "Liberals" are nuts and why you should be a conservative. And they are very successful at it, which is the point of bringing attention to it in this essay.
All of this media strength gives the Republican Party of 2004 an immense advantage over the Democrats. It is an enormous part of the political reality that John Kerry (December 11, 1943; 8:03 AM MWT, Denver, Colorado) has to contend with in running against George Bush, despite the fact that there are more registered Democrats than Republicans in the country. The Republican/Conservative machine is simply a more dominant political force in America at this time.
Liberals write books that are demeaning to the president. Michael Moore's movie certainly continues to draw attention and is being released on DVD this month, probably a rush-release so that those who did not see it in the theaters can see it at home. So it isn't like the Liberals don't have an opportunity to fight back (see MoveOn.org). It's just that the outreach is incomparable to that of the conservatives.
The tennis game of whose ideology is the best one is being passed back and forth like a missle! That is the political climate that we have today in America. The country is almost as ideologically divided within as it is divided from terrorists. But make no mistake about it - the conservatives hold a dominant position in the media war right now.
The Candidates
George W. Bush is a wartime president and they typically have a hard time in the bid for re-election. This war is so very, very controversial. The president has three burning issues connected to the war that continue to plague him:
1. There are unanswered questions about the evidence that links Iraq to al-Quaeda.
2. There are unanswered questions about weapons of mass destruction.
3. There are disagreements about the world public opinion in regards to the approval or disapproval of going to war with Iraq. Couple the reality of this confusion (which is disapproval by so many) with the fact that Bush is having a Saturn Return that squares his Midheaven and there can be cause for concern for his re-election potentials. Many men of power in history have lost their power during the time of a Saturn Return because it is an astrological phenomenon that refers to major changes of structure in one's life. For a person in power, this frequently means that the changed structure is the loss of power. The emphasized measurement presence of Saturn in anyone's horoscope means that it is time to "get what you deserve." While this could very well be positive for Bush (an enormously successful thrust of ambition taking him to a new height), the added presence of SA Neptune=Moon (bewilderment; the obfuscation of personality) to the picture (in October), just before the election, is ominous (as was the case when his father ran against Clinton). Bush's 3rd House Moon ruling his 12th suggests the emergence of a previously hidden news story that hurts his image.
The above are measurements that reflect difficulties, challenges and obstacles and they go right up to the election. However, just after the election, transiting Jupiter moves in to make contact with the Bush Sun and Moon. Will this be a celebration of having been rewarded with a second term in office? Will it represent the relief of getting all of the stress out of his life? Or, will this Jupiter contact be as diminished as was the case with his father and Bob Dole?
Additional astrological measurements against Bush include the position of transiting Neptune right now. Historically speaking, outer planet transits to the area of the zodiac between 13-18 degrees Fixed have repeatedly reflected misfortune (yes, assassinations, too) for American Presidents. If you use the popular, Gemini Rising version of the horoscope of the United States, the Neptune transit upon the Midheaven pulls no punches in suggesting a loss for the party in power. But we have no guarantees at all that this horoscope is authentic, despite the fact that many astrologers have done great work using it.
Most astrologers did not expect George W. Bush to make it this far (due to the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction phenomenon and the proven symbolisms that refer to a presidential death in office). But here we are at the end of his term and he has weathered very difficult astrological terrain without any threat to his person or to his Office. Perhaps George W. Bush is above astrological measurements! Maybe he is so well-connected through his family ties that he is simply above it all.
John Kerry's rise to become the Democratic nominee was fueled by Pluto transits to his Sun and Moon, always a measure of prominence for a public person. Kerry has a most impressive list of measurements throughout this campaign: transiting Jupiter square Sun (rewards); transiting Jupiter conjunct MC: (career expansion); SA Venus square MC (popularity); SA Sun=MC (the illumination of the career; glory; success). These measurements are reflected in the horoscopes of his wife and daughters (see Basil Fearrington.com). The Venus-Midheaven measurement doubles the emphasis on the Midheaven because it rules Kerry's Midheaven. To have this contact with SA Sun=MC right at election time would appear to be most fortuitous, especially in comparison to Bush's measurements. But they are followed by the very difficult transit of Pluto opposed Saturn and this could very well reflect hard, tough times after having lost the election.
The contrast in measurements between Kerry and Bush is decisive. Bush's measurements are dominated by heavy planets - Saturn and Neptune. Kerry's measurements have a different "flavor" with the Sun, Venus, and Jupiter. Does this mean victory for Kerry? It would certainly seem to indicate just that but not necessarily. As was the case with Dukakis, perhaps these measurements simply reflect a time of reward and prominence in Kerry's life because he is running for the presidency. They show popularity and success but the process of having been selected to run for president naturally includes popularity, etc. Bush's Saturn Return square to his Midheaven is a much stronger, much more forceful measurement than anything that Kerry has. However, it could forcefully end his career in politics.
The Decision
If we go by astrology alone, with his illuminated Midheaven, John Kerry should win this election. Vedic astrologers are saying just the opposite and I have seen Tropical astrologers who have cited other measurements as being favorable to Bush. Many predictions for one candidate over the other are a manifestation of the astrologer's desire to see a certain candidate win. Any symbol at all that is positive in the astrologer's candidate of choice becomes emphasized. What all of this tells us is that there really is no solid decisive way of using astrology alone to predict the outcome of a presidential election. At least half of all astrologers who speculate about the outcome will get it wrong. The political and world realities have to be incorporated into the analysis in much the same way that the analysis of one's personal horoscope has to be incorporated into the reality of the person's life. For those who cite the Bush Jupiter transit in November, please refer to his father's measurements in the loss to Clinton. In every election examined where there was an arc involving Venus (Clinton), that candidate won (Clinton and G.W.Bush). But is this good enough to overcome the reality of the conservative media strength?
Minus the lens of astrology, it is hard for me to see George Bush losing the election because the Republican Party has more power in the media to influence a larger number of people; the Republican Party is more strategic, more Machiavellian, if you will, and I believe that there are more states in America who would rather keep things as they are right now than move on to new leadership and a more progressive vision. While progress always wins out over tradition, it is hard to see Kerry's progressive vision for America being victorious.
The political reality of the country says that George W. Bush will be re-elected. The astrology suggests that John Kerry will win. I think the political reality is the dominant issue right now.
Copyright © 2004 Basil Fearrington
All Rights Reserved
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Basil Fearrington,
Astrologer
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Basil Fearrington is the author of "The New Way To Learn Astrology." He has been a professional astrologer for 22 years.
Basil's articles have appeared in the leading astrological publications around the world. He was the Inaugural Chairman for the MilleyDome project in Johannesburg, South Africa and taught astrology there for one year.
Basil has twice been a faculty member of UAC and spoke at Astro 2000. In addition to his work in astrology, Basil is a professional musician who has toured with and/or recorded for artists such as Stevie Wonder and George Benson.
He was on a team of composers who did the music for a network show called "New York Undercover." The same team won a Grammy award in 1980.
bfearr@aol.com
www.basilfearrington.com
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