Bush is The Guy

9.13.04


Bush is the guy to love or to hate, reelect or reject… and Kerry, it seems, is just along for the ride.

As I pointed out last week, the current astrology matches the popular recognition of this election as a referendum on Bush. Bush's chart is much more intensely triggered by planetary influences—including the effect of the Oct 13 solar eclipse (conjunct his collection of natal and progressed Libra planets) and several forceful Mars-related contacts—than Kerry's.

As expected, a Sep 9 Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll reveals that the post-convention Republican bounce has disintegrated into a very small margin in favor of Bush. But even more notable in this context are the results that show 81 percent of Bush supporters are 'for Bush'… and, among Kerry supporters, a meager 41 percent are 'for Kerry', while a dramatic 51 percent are instead 'against Bush'. In other words, the majority of Americans are either voting for or against Bush, with Kerry seemingly serving as the perfunctory Democratic placeholder on the ballot.

But what about Kerry? What does astrology say about him?

First of all, one quick glance at Kerry's birthchart clearly illustrates where his reputation as a 'flip-flopper' comes from. Kerry's Sun in Sagittarius is directly opposed to his Gemini Moon, a striking two-pronged symbol of someone who can appear to have two (or more) motivations simultaneously driving his actions:

(1) A Sun-Moon opposition, which comes from being born on or close to a Full Moon, often indicates a basic internal personality conflict between the conscious outward sense of ego (Sun) and the unconscious instinctive emotional self (Moon). This relates to the common perception that Full Moons bring out the hidden 'crazy' in people—or, usually private emotions, which may contradict what we know of a person on the surface, rise up and show themselves.

(2) Gemini Moons can be characterized as being emotionally inconsistent or highly variable, a reputation—sometimes fair, sometimes not—that stems from Gemini's ability to speak different languages to different audiences due to a keen verbal sense and a desire to connect socially. Someone with a Moon in Gemini, like Kerry, is eager to explain his feelings… yet despite whatever his intentions, he may easily be (mis-?)judged as insincere or hypocritical when comments and attitudes from different contexts are compared. The truth is, we are all inherently self-contradictory emotional beings; the contradictions are just more apparent with Gemini, who can't help but articulate them.

Kerry also has the foggy influence of Neptune sitting atop his Midheaven, the point in the chart representing professional achievements, outer-world reputation and sense of authority. This Neptune-Midheaven conjunction marks Kerry as someone who likely views his career as one of service, in which he is willing to make personal sacrifices out of compassion for the needs of others. But Neptune also casts a potentially misleading cloud over his actual accomplishments and successes, leaving the public with a difficult job of discerning who the professional John Kerry really is. And Neptune turns Kerry's career path into one that is less clear and direct, more prone to chance happenstance and requiring a lot of faith to make it through… this, again, in contrast to Bush, whose Aries Midheaven is ruled by Mars and forges an aggressive and self-possessed path ahead.

Quite interestingly, Kerry's Neptune-Midheaven combo, in the sign of Libra, is home to a rather fortuitous transit during the next several weeks leading up to the election. Jupiter, traditionally labeled the 'greater benefic' because of its tendency to increase and expand whatever it contacts, exactly conjoins Kerry's Neptune on Oct 13. This just happens to be the same day as the solar eclipse, which falls in Kerry's tenth house, the one associated with his Midheaven and his career achievements. By the time Election Day rolls around on Nov 2, Jupiter will have crossed Kerry's Midheaven into his tenth house… and Venus, the 'lesser benefic' and another generally favorable planet, will have joined along into exact conjunction with his Midheaven point.

That's right: On Election Day, the two most favorable planetary influences will be straddling the place in John Kerry's chart associated with reputation and professional success. Hmmm…

Now, the thing about the planets involved—natal Neptune, transiting Jupiter and Venus—is that these are three of the 'softest' bodies of astrological pressure. When describing the likely effect of planetary transits, astrologers are usually pretty sure that something will 'happen' when Mars, Saturn, Uranus and Pluto are involved. These guys are fierce, authoritative, disruptive and intensely powerful figures. However, when, as in the Kerry-Election Day scenario I've described, the transiting characters are Jupiter and Venus, it's more that a window of favorable opportunity is opened… it's more muted and less dramatic, requiring more definitive action to be taken by the individual for maximal results. And with Kerry's Neptune as part of the transited target, the good fortune might be unintelligible or confused, more spiritual than material in nature.

Still, there no denying that the combined Jupiter-Venus transit over Kerry's Midheaven in October and November is astrology's quintessential symbol of positive career growth. It unequivocally portends good luck for Kerry in expanding his professional life in an altogether pleasant fashion. It's a textbook case.

But does that mean he's going to win the election?