What would you do if in the middle of a presidential campaign you decided that you didn’t really want to be president, that you’d changed your mind?

I suppose you could panic.

All that money, all that time, all those supporters you gathered would be let down. Who would throw in the towel on such a large endeavor?

Watching Mitt Romney’s speech early last night, early in the Super Tuesday evening, before the Ohio results were decided, I began to wonder if this man truly wants to be president.

Rick Santorum, on the other hand, clearly wants the job – wants it like a man who has spent the entire summer alone walking the Appalachian Trail wants a girl and a beer.

Astrologers are not psychics (although some may be) so I don’t know what Romney is feeling. Neither the political observer nor the astrologer in me can figure out Romney’s true motivation.

So back to the astrology books I go. Let me start from the beginning.

Moon in Scorpio

Romney has sun in Pisces and moon in Scorpio. I’d really love to know his time of birth to see his house placements. Astrotheme has a time so I’m going to take that chart into consideration.

First, moon in Scorpio. Scorpio is an intense, fixed water sign. Scorpio is known for obsession, often of the sexual kind. Scorpio, like Aries, is intensely competitive. Never think Scorpio doesn’t care if it wins – it does and it is watching the results closely.

Scorpio, like other water signs, has insight into others true motivations. Scorpio unlike its water sign siblings is somewhat paranoid and uses the watery insight into others as a defense. Extremely sensitive and extremely stubborn, it is easy to offend a Scorpio. And when this happens, the sign that is your most loyal friend can become your most dedicated enemy.

Fixed signs (Taurus, Scorpio, Leo, and Aquarius) can view life in a black and white manner. On one hand it makes for rigidity on the other hand the ability to focus and stay on message. Scorpio’s fixed nature manifests in every activity being a life and death drama. Scorpio loves and hates and others often have strong feelings in return. There is no middle ground, no medium, no tepid for this sign.

With moon in Scorpio, Romney clearly has compulsive drive. He sees your weaknesses and knows how to undermine you when necessary. At its worst, Scorpio is ruthless and vindictive.

Moon in Scorpio is enough reason for someone to run for president. It’s driven to intense emotional connections which can involve domination and control.

If Astrotheme’s chart is correct, this moon is in the 6th house, the house of work and health.

Sun in Pisces

Pisces is also a water sign, the mutable water sign. Like Scorpio, Pisces has deep insight into human nature. Unlike Scorpio, Pisces is malleable and easily manipulated.

Pisces has sometimes been referred to as the garbage can of the zodiac – it contains pieces and parts of every other sign. It’s also the sign of self-undoing.

Pisces wants to merge with others, mostly in a spiritual sense. Because of that, boundaries are rice-paper thin. While thin boundaries make for massive amounts of empathic and psychic ability, they also make for someone who needs emotional protection. Often Pisces retreats physically or mentally when life is too tough (or ugly).

The glyph for Pisces is the two fish swimming in opposite directions. To the late Linda Goodman it meant that Pisces could connect the past and future unlike any other sign. The Age of Pisces has a prophet who is associated with the fish. Pisces is the sign associated with sacrifice, the sign that truly will give up self for another.

Pisces is not rooted in the three-dimensional world like other signs and often can’t follow time requirements or other earthly activities such as paying bills and taking out the trash. Don’t expect the pure Pisces to realize he/she is late. They can’t; they aren’t really in our time zone they are actually in an imaginative other world.

Pisces is so approachable and non-judgmental that others easily reveal secrets to a Pisces. Pisces is a great counselor, listening and absorbing like a sponge.

Like a sponge, Pisces often soaks up the grime of others and may take on those traits if they do not understand what they are doing and learn to discharge that energy.

Pisces is the sign most likely to let others take over the personality.

If Astrotheme’s chart is correct, this sun is in the 11th house, the house of groups and shared ideals.

Religious Mission?

Both the political me and astrological me suspect that Romney’s true motivation is a spiritual mission. The 11th house Pisces sun says “I sacrifice for the group.”

What Romney’s Scorpio and Pisces water energy seems to have trouble understanding is that running for president is a POPULARITY contest. You might say that’s superficial but for a nation to elect a person in its top post, they have to LIKE the person first.

Romney may be having feelings of personal sacrifice and not understand that folks would rather have fun with him than worship him. Romney might not understand that he has to be liked for no reason other than the look of his face, the sound of his voice and the energy he brings as he walks in a room. If you’re liked, those that like you will justify all that you do.

Fire, which Romney lacks, is the element that is most confident and feels no need to justify its existence. Romney does have two planets in Leo – Saturn and Pluto – but having these two planets holding one’s confidence and spirit is like putting your confidence in a metal box and carrying it around. Saturn is where we lack and Pluto is where we transform. This life is meant for Romney to beef up the sense of self.

Unlike fire, water is prone to guilt. Romney’s less-than-stellar wins are probably eating him alive. Without fire, Romney may not truly feel worthy. Or he will only feel worthy if he has sacrificed himself in some way.

Romney was quoted this week in the Washington Post as saying, “I’m not willing to light my hair on fire to try and get support. I am who I am.”

While this is a perfectly rational statement, it does not project confidence, a fire-sign quality.

Pisces is spiritualism in its diffuse form that doesn’t attach to a particular organized religion. Scorpio is about religion as an emotional relating. Only when you believe exactly as I do can I trust you.

Sun in the 11th in Pisces is someone who merges with his/her spiritual group and is willing to give up the individual self. If I saw this chart without knowing the owner, I would have suspected a counselor or mental health worker. The Scorpio moon is in the 6th house of health so I would have suspected some hospital or prison work.

This chart makes me think of Ralph Nader, also a Pisces sun.

Anxiety

Mars is currently in its long (six-month) transit of Virgo, opposing Romney’s Piscean energy. This causes anxiety because external discriminating minds are challenging Romney’s non-discriminating motivations. Romney works from the gut so having to explain every word and tick is probably also eating away at his intestinal lining.

The Virgo transit squares Romney’s natal Uranus in Gemini (which squares his sun in Pisces). Gemini Newt Gingrich changes his views like a clock changes time because Gemini is like a piece of paper floating in the air, going with the flow.

When Romney changes, it’s due to anxiety. Gemini, when backed into a corner, sneaks through a hole in the wall. Pisces, when backed into a corner, becomes what you want so that you will leave it alone.

Astrotheme gives Romney a Gemini rising, which make sense to me as I watched the debates closely. Romney changes almost as much as Gingrich, it’s just more subtle. Or, as I watched it, Gingrich changed views and Romney changed personalities.

Neptune has begun its 13-year transit of Pisces so this anxiety will pass and Romney will return to a blissful state of merging with his people.

I can’t tell if Romney will be president during this time as I don’t think astrology can tell such things (although better astrologers than me may be able to figure it out), but if he is, I don’t think he’ll like it. If he hates the pestering little questions now, he will despise them later.

Like Rick Perry, Romney may begin to stutter and have the anxiety-produced blank mind. Pisces is also considered the sign of self-undoing so if somewhere deep down Romney doesn’t want the presidency, he will subconsciously sabotage himself.

Does Mitt Romney Truly Want to be President?

A spiritual, emotional person can want to be president just like anyone else. Yet, Romney’s chart makes me wonder if others want him to be president and he’s simply internalized that view.

From yesterday’s primary results, I’m sure I’ll have the next eight months to observe Romney and continue with the puzzle of what makes him tick.

Maybe Romney will do something definitive that will convince me he wants to be president, BADLY. Maybe he’ll tell Santorum to suck on his 12,000-vote lead in Ohio. Maybe he’ll tell Gingrich to go with the devil down to Georgia. Or maybe he’ll look Paul in the eye and say “get the hell out of my way.”

When people want things badly, it often shows.