Chuck Hagel for SOD

Posted on February 3, 2013 by ohioastrology

The most crucial question to ask Chuck Hagel as he interviews for Secretary of Defense (SOD), in my mind, is whether or not he’s ever been seen in a room with Chase CEO Jamie Dimon (pictures from Wikipedia).

Chuck Hagel (left) and Jamie Dimon (right)

220px-Chuck_Hagel_official_photo

Jamie_Dimon,_CEO_of_JPMorgan_Chase

This is when I’d really, really love to have time of birth on each man to know the rising sign and speculate on why the two men appear to be twins separated at birth.

But they aren’t twins, for sure, as Hagel was born ten years before Dimon (Mr. Dimon, you need to take care of yourself).

Authority

Hagel is also way unlike Dimon in that he has very little emotion (Dimon is a combination of emotional Pisces and neurotic Aries). Hagel’s perfect, really, for the SOD with sun in Libra and moon in Capricorn.

I was just telling someone last weekend how Capricorn moon makes for an excellent military commander. Someone with a Cancer moon, for example, might have difficulty explaining to a group of young men why they should risk their lives in a jungle in a faraway place for the sake of some political ideal which will pass like cigarette smoke in a hot, summer night.

To do that sort of thing, guide people into suicide and homicide through sense of mission, takes a very firm belief in authority. One must also be viewed as authority.

By the way, how does one become authority?

Authority is the by-product of government, religion, corporation and university. Anywhere you find hierarchy you find rules and authority. Unlike parallel lines that appear converge in the distance, going back far enough in history will unite these various hierarchies into a common point.

OHA Endorses Chuck Hagel for SOD

OHA endorses Libra sun, Capricorn moon Hegel for SOD. Libra is about justice and fairness (if not totally consumed with partnership) and Capricorn is about structure and authority.

The combination can provide diplomatic skills coupled with an extremely strong sense of duty. It provides practical intellect coupled with emotional detachment. It provides a strong sense of judgment and discernment. Libra can be confused through weighing of options, but Capricorn is decisive.

What more could you want in a SOD?

Moreover, the nice tight square of Jupiter/Mars (in Scorpio) with Pluto/Saturn (in Leo) makes him almost vicious. Scorpio is a detective and can sniff out your motives before you even think them.

Isn’t this important for someone defending a nation?

Neptune conjunct Hagel’s sun will not make him nicer, I believe, but simply make him believe he’s nice. Like the deluded narrator in a novel, Hagel might talk about the lovely party he held with imported caviar on fine, ancient British china.

The party goers, you learn in the next chapter, stopped at the bar on the way home complaining that all they got were some little fish eggs and worried eyes that they might break the precious plates. They will also tell some Hagel backstory, over beer, about his petty meanness. They will describe how they were served cheap wine while Hagel slipped himself some expensive vintage from the cellar.

What does “nice” help in a SOD anyway? Nice can be a weakness, right?

Libra does want to be liked but the Capricorn moon is interested in respect. Hagel probably prefers respect to popularity.

Libra does have its charm so Hagel can be very charismatic, especially with Neptune hanging about the sun in that sign. While some may hate and revile this man (the Scorpio stuff), he will also have those that love him and follow him through the jungle on a mission to kill those nasty enemies.

That’s important in a SOD, isn’t it?

Posted in Politicians - Not Ohio | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Is Your Valentine a Friend or Lover?

Posted on February 2, 2013 by ohioastrology

Ohio Astrology (OHA) pointed out last year the great error of Valentine’s Day: this holiday representing romantic love occurs in February in the sign of Aquarius which represents friendship. There is a holiday called Friendship Day which, hang onto your seat, occurs in August in the sign of Leo, the sign of romantic love.

Aquarius and Leo are opposite signs. Both deal with creative interaction with others. Leo is personal and Aquarius is impersonal.

Whoever assigned the days for Valentine’s and Friendship Day was clearly standing on his/her head.

Who gets to make these decisions anyway? Why aren’t astrologers on the Holiday Assignment Committee?

Or could it be that the Western world confuses friendship and romantic love?

Types of Love

I’ve heard from Spanish speakers how English has one word for love while the Spanish language has many words for love. This one-word-for-love thing caused great difficulty for Leonard in the Big Bang Theory when he told Penny he loved her and she could not reply but later claimed to “love” cheesy fries.

The Ancient Greeks described many types of love, I hear. According to this Wikipedia article these types of love are:

  1. Eros – passionate love
  2. Philia – love in friendship
  3. Storge – affection, used mostly to describe family love
  4. Agape “unconditional love” or “true love,” but not of the passionate kind

If I were to assign signs, I’d say passionate love is Leo, friendship love is Aquarius (the opposite of Leo), affection is Cancer and true love is Pisces.

What’s interesting in this is that Leo-Aquarius is the fire-air fixed axis. Cancer and Pisces are water signs. Water is associated with feeling and makes sense when talking about love, a feeling.

That an air sign (Aquarius) rules friendship makes sense because friendship is non-physical (as opposed to romantic love) and arises through a shared consciousness of experience or interest. I’m not saying you don’t hold hands with friends or have friends with benefits, but sexual relations are what defines romantic love.

Maybe Eros is actually the third water sign – Scorpio, also known for passionate intensity, the kind which leads to obsession and often makes the receiver of this “love” a little less than comfortable. Scorpio love-gone-bad leads to restraining orders.

So if Cancer is affection, Scorpio passion and Pisces universal love, then friendship is hanging out on a limb. In C. S. Lewis’ “The Four Loves,” Lewis, according to this Wikipedia page:

“… describes Friendship as, ‘the least biological, organic, instinctive, gregarious and necessary of our Loves’ – our species does not need Friendship in order to reproduce. He uses this point to explain that Friendship is exceedingly profound because it is freely chosen.”

Friendship is “freely chosen,” an Aquarian concept. Both freedom and friendship are scary, by the way. Your family is always your family because of the fact of birth. But friends can choose to come and go. Freedom is not always comforting.

So maybe love is watery in nature with airy friendship as the snorkeling equipment that allows us to breathe from the watery depths. “Love” can be to some (like Penny in the Big Bang Theory), a little suffocating.

Friendship Love – February 14

Friendship love seems clearly and cleanly placed in the sign of Aquarius (which will please Aquarius since it doesn’t like a mess). Let’s take a look at a person born on February 14.

Simon Pegg

You might better know Pegg as Shaun in the movie “Shaun of the Dead.” If you haven’t seen this movie, put down your phone and find the nearest Red Box or go order from NetFlix. I’ll wait.

Back yet?

Shaun is just your average bloke, hard working (although not the hardest) who, at the end of the day, spends his time with friends, including his best buddy, down at the pub (The Winchester).

Shaun also has a girlfriend who is miffed that Shaun isn’t doing well with boyfriend duties like taking her to nice restaurants. Shaun has difficulty with the rules of dating and botches the simple dinner reservations thereby losing his girlfriend.

How can he get her back?

Shaun tries the usual ineffective flowers and apologies.

Unfortunately for the world and fortunately for Shaun, a zombie takeover is occurring which will provide the lackluster Shaun and way to prove his heroic, manly abilities.

One of my favorite scenes in the movie is Shaun running through backyards with his posse and escaping to the pub to avoid the zombies. His posse includes his girlfriend, girlfriend’s best friend and boyfriend, his best friend and his mother.

As Shaun’s posse is running to their pub, they pass another posse running to their own pub. Like Shaun’s posse, the other posse also has man, girlfriend, girlfriend’s best friend and boyfriend, his best friend and his mother.

Shaun is carrying all his loves with him – Eros (girlfriend), Philia (best friend), Storge (mother) and Agape (people associated with his girlfriend).

Another major character in “Shaun of the Dead” is Shaun’s best friend Ed, played by Nick Frost. Pegg and Frost play best buddies in Hot Fuzz as well. When the rest of the world is angry with you, you can always count on your bestie. If I recall, the best buddy causes Shaun’s girlfriend some irritation in “Shaun of the Dead.” Shaun does much better in friendship than in romance.

Pegg and Frost, according to IMDB, are close friends off screen as well.

Shaun (of the Dead) has each of the four types of love in his life but struggles mostly with his romantic love (and, if I recall, some fatherly love as his stepdad was a little weird even before turning into a zombie).

Aquarius Pegg has moon in Gemini and a nice little grand air trine with Mercury (in Aquarius), Uranus (in Libra) and moon (in Gemini). Air signs definitely need snorkeling gear when dealing with watery types and watery love.

Interestingly, in “Shaun of the Dead” the refuge from zombies is the pub! Pubs, you know, serve watery substances that make us feel silly (as we do in love).

Passionate Love – August 14

The sign associated with “romance” is Leo. Leo, you know, rules the heart. Let’s look at someone born on August 14.

Danielle Steel

Who personifies romance like author Danielle Steel? While her books may not be 100 percent about romance, her dramatic Leo style could be labeled “romanticism.”

Romanticism, my 10th grade English teacher told me, is not “moon and June” but strong emotion, which can be terrifying emotion as well as passionate emotion.

What is Eros if not passionate? Is Eros simply about physical love or is Eros truly about the feeling of being alive?

Reading the Wikipedia article about her, Steel writes about more than Eros:

“Despite a reputation among critics for writing ‘fluff,’ Steel often delves into the less savory aspects of human nature, including incest, suicide, divorce, war, and even the Holocaust.”

According to this same Wikipedia site, Steel is the best selling author alive. (Checking out the Stephen King Wikipedia entry, he’s sold about half of what Steel has sold).

Clearly Steel is not about “fluff” but about the stuff of life.

Steel has sun and Mars in Leo and moon in Capricorn. It is no wonder that she writes about strong women – she is a very, very strong personality. If she were a character in a book, the last name “Steel” would be meaningful.

Moon in Capricorn has a comfort zone involving control.

Leo and Capricorn are both commanding but Leo is more open hearted. Steel may be extremely loving to those that follow her rules and extremely punishing to those that don’t.

Steel has clearly commanded a reading generation through the passion of living. That passion manifests as romance but includes the reality that comes with knowing others.

Obsessive Love – November 14

Since we’re on the subject of love, why not throw in some obsessive love, compliments of Scorpio. Obsessive has a negative connotation so maybe I should call it “intense” love or excessively consistent love.

How many people complain that the person they dated changed right after marriage? Loved baseball games, now hates them. Loved sex, now watches TV.

Although some want the intensity of the dating experience throughout the marriage, can we really handle it?

Let’s look at someone born on November 14.

Prince Charles

According to this Astrotheme chart, Prince Charles has moon at the very beginning of Taurus. Taurus is the opposite sign of Scorpio. The Taurus-Scorpio axis involves money, property, sharing and sex. Taurus is sensual and Scorpio sexual.

Prince Charles’ Neptune is conjunct Venus in Libra which creates and very idealistic sense of partnership.

That Charles waited so long to marry the true love of his life, Camilla Parker Bowles, attests to the staying power of his love. This article written in 2005 by Michael Kinsley on the Charles-Camilla marriage has always stuck with me.

Kinsley writes:

“Now, what about a prince who marries a young beauty out of his sense of duty, who waits for decades until a car crash frees him and then marries the woman he really loves — a woman whom almost everyone else in the world finds remarkably unattractive; a woman he didn’t need to marry in order to enjoy her companionship as he had for decades; a woman his family and the world didn’t want him to marry. And what about a woman who watched her longtime lover marry a much younger beauty; who married someone else herself out of some kind of bitter realism; who fell in love with a young future king but is marrying an old weirdo who very likely won’t ever occupy the throne; a woman who is inviting a lifetime of public mockery for every aspect of her public appearance. . . . Now that is a love story.”

Other Loves

Ok, so Spanish has more names for love than we do in English. Well, amigos, there are still some kinds of love Español does not cover:

  • Pet love
  • Sports team love
  • Political Party/Candidate love

Writing about politics on OHA, I think Political Candidate Love is greatly underrated. It’s amazing how angry people can be over writings about men and women who are far away in the machine of government and probably do not care one whit about us as individuals.

Love Day

OHA proposes once again that Valentine’s Day be moved to the sign of Leo in August, to be swapped with Friendship Day.

If we can’t switch days, we can at least make sure we don’t confuse friendship with romantic love.

If this holiday swap is too radical a suggestion, we can create a Omni-Love Day which celebrates all forms of love. During that day, all rules of friendship, dating, marriage and divorce are rendered null and void. You can celebrate in Vegas if that makes it easier.

OHA proposes that day occur in Pisces, which has a deep love of humanity if it can avoid being abused by humanity. The day will, of course, be accompanied by intoxicating beverages, ruled by Neptune (which rules Pisces), which greatly aid in the feeling of love for humanity.

How about March 14? Everyone in?

Posted in Holidays | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

If You Were a Coupon, What Would You Offer?

Posted on January 27, 2013 by ohioastrology

It’s quite common to hear people at the checkout with their coupons ask, “I wonder what sign of the zodiac rules coupons?” With coupon redemption in the billions annually in the US, the very nature of the coupons is a mystery waiting to be revealed.

It’s a question of the Ages.

First, what is a coupon?

According to Dictionary.com, a coupon is “a portion of a certificate, ticket, label, advertisement, or the like, set off from the main body by dotted lines or the like to emphasize its separability, entitling the holder to something, as a gift or discount, or for use as an order blank, a contest entry form, etc.”

The word “coupon” has its origin in an old French word for “cut.”

So a coupon was something to “cut,” not something of value. A coupon could be a mere ticket or entry form rather than a marketing offer.

Oh, by the way, coupons are marketing.

Although the definition for coupon is broad, a Google search on the first coupon brings up a brand that sells 1.6 billion drinks of brown, carbonated sugar water (and other products) each day: Coca Cola.

Somewhere in 1887 or 1888, the new owner of Coca Cola, Asa Candler, decided to offer a “free sample ticket” for a glass of Coca Cola. Candler’s methods of distribution were magazines and mailings (very clever). According to Happy Money Saver, Coca Cola distributed 8.5 million tickets.

So let’s do the math. If I give away 8.5 million glasses of Coca Cola in the late 1800’s, at say, a cost of three cents a glass, I’ve spent $255,000.

Today, a century later, folks across the globe are drinking 1.6 billion glasses a day at the price of, say, $1 a glass. That’s 584 billion drinks a year for $584 billion in revenue.

That $255,000 was money well spent.

Candler was definitely shrewd, as the Happy Money Saver site describes.

Asa Candler

Shrewd is a very accurate word to describe the sign of Capricorn, Candler’s natal sun sign. Moreover, Candler probably had his moon in the very competitive, driven sign of Aries. American’s Top Bankers have a strong Aries streak, which may help you visualize what this moon placement does for a businessman.

By today’s standards, you might call Candler’s chart the chart of a control freak. But control freaks are the ones with the drive and ambition to see a project from vision to implementation as evidenced from Candler’s extreme success.

While Candler was considered successful during his lifetime (1851-1929), think about what this man accomplished beyond the grave – he changed the drinking habits of an entire globe. That’s astounding.

He changed the world by offering a taste through a coupon.

What sign of the zodiac rules coupons?

The idea that coupons “save money” has always been suspect to me. Sure, if I planned to buy garbage bags for $7.00 and find a coupon to save a $1, I am spending less than I planned. In this case, I agree that I “saved” money.

The issue I’ve always encountered is that coupons are for items I don’t normally use, which is exactly what Candler and coupons are trying to achieve – a product stretch.

Coupons appear a generous reduction of your checkout amount, but are truly a shrewd mechanism to affect your buying habits. Coupons are trying to change you.

When I think of coupons, I think of Virgo, the most detailed of the penny-pinching earth signs (the other two earth signs being Taurus and Capricorn). Virgo also likes dotted lines and is the sign that produces carefully-clipped coupons to the cashier, not coupons torn from ads in the car right before walking into the store.

Virgo is also the sign, to me, most likely to have a shopping list and a spreadsheet which analyzes the annual household spend.

Virgo loves coupons.

But are coupons, in their essence, Virgo?

Virgo may suggest a thousand ways that you could improve whatever it is you are doing right now, Virgo isn’t forceful.

In honor of Candler’s super-human achievement, I think I’m going to stick with his sign – Capricorn – as the ruler of coupons.

Why?

Coupons are a way to control buying behavior and Capricorn, not Virgo, is about control. A coupon throws a wrench into your buying behavior – should I buy product A that I want or product B with coupon?

Coupons create guilt – if I don’t use a coupon, I’m wasting money.

Coupons create an extra variable in your shopping experience.

Coupons create cognitive dissonance.

Coupons are your Depression-era grandmother standing over your shoulder wondering why you would pay an extra dollar for Pop Tarts when the generic brand is perfectly fine.

Coupons ask “Are you really sure you should buy a $1 bag of rice when you can buy a box of Rice a Roni for 50 cents off?”

Coupons aren’t just Capricorn, they are Mars in Capricorn – Mars inserting Capricorn into your interaction with the row of pickle jars in front of you.

You can no longer simply buy what you want. You have to understand if you are paying too much, if you have a coupon, if you have a rebate, if you have a reward.

The interaction between you and the jar of mayonnaise is no longer about you and the mayonnaise – there is now a Greek chorus of coupons singing a hymn to your interaction.

It’s the coupon devil on your left shoulder (buy the brand you like without the coupon) and the coupon angel on your right shoulder (use the coupon, save money, who would spend so much on tea?).

If you were a coupon, what would you offer?

While a coupon may be a Capricorn, each and every coupon can provide a different sign-of-the-zodiac offer.

See how this works? The zodiac provides a spinning, interacting, multi-dimensional view of core energies. A coupon may be Capricorn, in that it’s trying to change your behavior, but the coupon could be any sign in HOW it tries to change your behavior.

There is a coupon inside of each of us.

Fire sign coupons

Fire sign coupons (Aries, Leo and Sagittarius) are not shrewd coupons. These coupons make an effort to generate excitement and in that excitement may give away too much in reduction. Fire sign coupons offer way more than they deliver (a non-stick pan forever!).

Fire sign coupons are bold and colorful, the ads in the Sunday paper (“Sun” day, ruled by the sun, by Leo). Fire sign coupons can be framed and hung on the wall.

Fire sign coupons have a sense of urgency – run to the store NOW or it will all be gone. Fire sign coupons rule Black Friday.

Water sign coupons

Water sign coupons (Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces) appeal to the emotions and might not have a clear benefit to the user. Water sign coupons donate a certain percent of your purchase to charity.

Water sign coupons remind you that you are buying local, buying organic. Your water sign coupon appeals to your sense of doing good rather than your sense of saving money (instead you are saving humanity).

Air sign coupons

Air sign coupons (Gemini, Libra and Aquarius) have multiple offers as most of the air signs have a dual nature. Air sign coupons appeal to intellect – either 15 percent off one item or 20 percent off two items.

Air sign coupons make you think and provide a choice, which is great fun for Gemini and Libra. If there is no choice, there is no fun. If you see a person standing in the aisle deciding whether to buy shaved coconut or shredded coconut, you’re watching an air sign with choices.

Air sign coupons often have scratch off components to add to the sense of possibility.

Earth sign coupons

Earth sign coupons (Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn) are the shrewdest of the coupons. They appear to give away a lot but there is a hidden component, or the beginning of an addiction (free cigarettes, anyone?).

Earth sign coupons give you free Internet service for a month but the small print indicates you must pay switching costs.

Earth sign coupons get you to buy a time share, a coffee club, something that binds you beyond the coupon.

Earth sign coupons, for example, might give away a free social networking service, collect all your information and then make money on your data (which earth sign would do that??).

Better use of coupons

Before using your next coupon, you might want to ask, “What sign in this coupon?” Understand your coupon as your coupon understands you!

Posted in Nations / States / Institutions | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Boredom and Confusion – Part of the Same Continuum?

Posted on January 20, 2013 by ohioastrology

Are we there yet?

Boredom has been a topic on my mind for years. It’s something I rarely feel but hear that others experience quite often.

I’ve been suspecting that what’s called “loneliness” is often boredom and tight-knit groups over-concerned with the actions of its members are also, to me, experiencing boredom.

The gossip of families and the workplace, for me, stem from the boredom of knowing everyone’s habits. Before your Thanksgiving dinner with the family you know who will be late, who will complain about the gravy and who will be first to take a nap. You know it before it happens (oh psychic you) so there is a sense of boredom (or frustration) when it occurs.

Did you hear that Uncle Bob is having an affair?

Boredom doesn’t seem to be about being with others or being alone. Extroverts seem bored when alone and introverts seem bored when in a group where no common interests are shared.

Confusion is less confusing. Many, many moons back I created my own diagnostic label of “chronic confusion” for those that can’t make choices in life. Having confusion about marriage partners or home purchases makes sense – those are big decisions. But whether to have steak or chicken at the restaurant shouldn’t consume one’s life energy.

Tangled Christmas tree lights.

Today there are many more mental health labels, which I find confusing. Any illness relating to mental processing speed is under the label “attention deficit disorder.” We in the West have so many choices for the simplest of decisions – buying paper towels, for example, so that those plagued with chronic confusion are faced with circumstances that aggravate that illness.

Who can live in the West and not have attention deficit disorder?

Paper towels, again, come in packs of one, two, six or even more. Today there are paper towels with designs, some white. To enhance the product, some paper towels are a big square and others are smaller rectangles that can be torn to make smaller paper towels or not torn to make a regular size paper towel.

Then there are brand names and generic.

Recycled and not recycled.

Wow, so many choices! How much time in a precious day of minutes should I spend on this decision? Interestingly, men seem to spend less time thinking about these things than women, but that’s another subject.

The Wellspring of Boredom and Confusion

As a meditator, it is very difficult to explain to folks in the West why one would choose not to “do” stuff and sit quietly, reducing the reaction to external stimuli. Thirty minutes of silence taxes the Western mind and some meditators choose to do this for days or weeks at a time!

Life is about reacting to the environment, right? What else is there?

The Wikipedia entry describes “boredom” as:

“. . . an emotional state experienced when an individual is left without anything in particular to do, and not interested in their surroundings.”

The entry goes on to say that the first recorded use of the term boredom occurs in the novel “Bleak House” written by Charles Dickens in 1852.

Is it possible that this feeling called boredom was not experienced until the 1800s? Hey, didn’t life get easier in the 1800s? Hey, wasn’t that the start of the industrial revolution?

Are (were) hunter-gatherers ever bored?

Confusion, on the other hand, according to Dictionary.com, is “lack of clearness or distinctness.” Another definition is “disorder, upheaval, tumult.”

Can thoughts cause disorder, upheaval and tumult? Are thoughts that powerful?

Boredom seems a lack of reaction to the environment and confusion about excessive reaction to the environment.

Boredom looks at the menu and says all Chinese food is the same at every restaurant.

Confusion looks at the menu and wonders why General Tso named an entrée (Or was it named after him for some reason?), if General Tso’s Chicken is different from Empress Chicken (Which empress?) and if the white or brown rice is better for you (What’s the difference anyway?).

There’s one menu. Boredom and Confusion see it differently.

The Astrology

Being an astrology blog, we’ll move on to that symbolism. We don’t need it, of course, but why not have some external environment labeling fun? This additional labeling, of course, might cause confusion in some and is not recommended for all.

The third house of the horoscope and its ruler Gemini (the third sign) are viewed as the energy of the infant turned toddler who now understands that mommy and I are separate beings (first sign Aries sense of self), there are objects in the world (second sign Taurus sense of material reality) and that interacting with the external world is fun (third sign Gemini sense of stimulation).

Gemini is the mobile over the crib, turning and clicking to create stimulation to help the infant develop. No stimulation, no development.

The sign after Gemini is Cancer, the sign of mothering, milk and things oral (if you ask me). That a toddler’s first response is to put something in its mouth is very telling about how we experience reality. Gemini rules the hands and the hands feed the mouth.

Mercury is the planet that rules Gemini so the sign, placement (a house in the horoscope) and aspects (geometric relation to other planets) can describe our boredom-confusion continuum.

Mercury by sign from Café Astrology.

Mercury is the messenger god. In our psyche, who/what is the deliverer and whom/what is the recipient?

Meditation Boredom, Meditation Confusion

Those beginning meditation seem to experience the boredom – confusion continuum at one of the extremes.

Why are you sitting and doing nothing when your friends invited you to the movies?

As a meditation teacher once explained, once you sit and remove yourself from talking to the external world (in a silent retreat), the internal voice can get much louder. Confusion.

I wonder what we’re having for lunch.

Others, when they sit still for thirty minutes, wonder what they will “do” during that time.

Boredom

In daily life, boredom and confusion seem unpleasant extremes on the continuum of observing and responding to the environment.

In meditation, boredom and confusion are doors into the server room of the mind, the place where we see how the the master computer and network settings create the images on our personal computer.

Posted in Meditation | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Oprah the Confessor, Lance the Martyr?

Posted on January 12, 2013 by ohioastrology

Is it true that Lance Armstrong is going to confess to doping during an interview with Oprah?

Is Oprah our National Confessor? Can she bestow absolution on us all?

If so, line me up.

The Confessor

According to Dictionary.com, while a confessor can hear confessions and act as a spiritual counselor, the title of Confessor (as in St. Edward the Confessor) represents “one who confesses faith in Christianity in the face of persecution but does not suffer martyrdom.”

Well, Oprah is more of the colloquial confessor who is well rehearsed in performing the sacred act of absolution to authors (Franzen and James), but now has moved into the world of sports.

I wonder how long it will take for Oprah to be the confessor for politicians?

The Martyr

While I don’t know if the Armstrong confession story is true, the counterpart to a confessor (the one who confesses faith) is the martyr.

Will Armstrong play a religious drama by playing the martyr?

Lance and Oprah

When blogging on Armstrong I focused on his sun/moon in Virgo which is a way lot more than hypochondriac. Again, hypochondriacs get ill just like anyone else so this doesn’t diminish or deny one’s fight with illness.

I wonder if this is where the confession will begin for Armstrong – I have this, that and the other illness and/or allergy and I began taking this stuff which led to more stuff.

Neptune transiting Pisces is opposing Armstrong’s Mercury in Virgo so I expect a little of “I didn’t know what was in it,” if there is a confession. Virgo, by the way, is the sign of discrimination and is the picky eater in the family (everyone has one).

If Armstrong claims he didn’t know the details of something, it is difficult to believe astrologically. Virgo is a perfectionist.

Jupiter transiting Gemini is making a T-square with Armstrong’s natal Mercury/moon/sun/Pluto (in Virgo), Neptune/Jupiter (in Sagittarius) and Saturn (in Gemini).

Armstrong is nervous and worried, for sure, because worry is the food and vitamin of the Virgo mind. Worry and anxiety, I believe, are what leads to Virgo’s hypochondria.

Transiting Mars is conjunct Armstrong’s natal Mars in Aquarius. Oprah has sun and Mercury in Aquarius so these two should get along, although an Aquarius-on-Aquarius conversation might be difficult for the rest of us to understand. It’s like hearing two people talk in a foreign tongue. It may also seem disjointed.

Armstrong’s natal Jupiter/Neptune in Sagittarius is conjunct Oprah’s moon. She probably feels a strong attraction and sense of inspiration from Armstrong.

Will she absolve him?

I think she might.

What Oprah might consider, in her role as confessor, is that there was a time when indulgences (a remission of the temporal punishment for sin after its guilt has been forgiven) were, what shall we call it, a revenue generating practice.

We’ll see how it all plays out this Thursday (January 17).

Posted in Athletes, Famous people | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Che Guevara: Model of the Revolution

Posted on January 8, 2013 by ohioastrology

If Ernesto Guevara, Cuban revolutionary, were alive today, he could be a millionaire. That is if he had embraced the 21st century concept of personal brand identity and charged royalties for all the places where his famous revolutionary silhoutette resides.

In addition to the usual places you’d expect to see the face of a revolutionary – flags, banners, posters, postage stamps, pins and T-shirts, I’ve also seen Guevara on such items as underwear and beads.

I’d like to insert a free image of Guevara here, but I’m a little unclear how that works. Instead I’ll link to this page that describes the iconic photo.

I’ve had a little conspiracy theory about Guevara since I’ve been a teenager (which is even before the prevalence of conspiracy theories). I’m convinced that Fidel (as in Fidel Castro) sent his stunningly handsome right-hand man into harm’s way (Bolivia) to make sure he (Fidel the Leo sun) could enjoy the limelight without a much sexier man (one girl’s opinion) taking the attention.

While in harm’s way trying to ignite revolution in Bolivia in October 1967, Guevara died an untimely death at the age of 39.

And Fidel had a life-long marketing campaign. Guevara is a Revolutionary Marketing Campaign Model. His look defined “revolution.”

Do you know what it normally costs to get a celebrity endorsement?

Fidel stayed at home and is still alive today, thumbing his 86-year-old nose at the US. Fidel has now been in power 54 years.

El Che

Although he fought for Cuban independence, Guevara was from Argentina and had a nickname that referred to the land of his birth – El Che.

Until now, I thought El Che was a Gemini sun. But in searching for his horoscope on Astrotheme, I learned his mother supposedly changed his birthday to hide the fact that he was conceived before his parents were married.

If this is true, Guevara is a Taurus sun / Pisces moon. The original June birthday would be Gemini sun / Taurus moon.

In these types of cases, I assume the birth date and time are approximate. But it’s fun to look and quell some curiosity about a man who left both his country and medical profession to fight “revolutions” in both South America and Africa.

The cigar-smoking Guevara was actually an asthmatic – which is why sun in Gemini, which rules the lungs, was believable. In the Taurus sun chart, Mercury is in Gemini and widely opposing Saturn in Sagittarius.

Beret wearing and cigar smoking evoked images of revolution (beret – France, cigar – Cuba) which led me to believe that Guevara was caught up in ideas and images, as air signs (like Gemini) are wont to do.

If the Astrotheme chart is correct, moon and Mars in Pisces is an impressionable idealist although sun in Taurus is a fixed, steady earth sign. Pisces provides more feeling and compassion than does earth sign Taurus which wants you to clean up your own mess.

Pisces, however, also has this terrible reputation for sacrifice. I’m wondering if El Che believed in the revolution more than its leader, Castro.

We’ll never know, as El Che died suddenly without so much as a blog or memoir or goodbye.

Revolution and Death

As long as we know the approximately month of birth, we can look at some trans-earth planets that would have been in the same sign during the May-June time period in 1928.

In this case, Mars and Jupiter had changed signs but Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto would have remained in the same sign during those periods.

Maybe that’s telling about El Che’s life – we know him only through the outer planets, planets that define generations. We’ll never really know about his Mercury (true thoughts), Venus (true loves) and Mars (true motivations).

The date of the Cuban revolution is January 1, 1959. At that time Guevara was experiencing the passing of his Saturn return.

Saturn takes about 29 years to orbit the sun and its cycle is associated with the maturation process, the overcoming of our own personal Achilles heel. In the sign of Sagittarius, Guevara lacked meaning in his early upbringing.

This is where the moon makes a difference. In Pisces square Saturn, I could see martyr images being appealing – which is funny because martyrdom stems from religious sentiment. Glancing at Wikipedia it appears Guevara grew up in a “left leaning” household.

I’m not sure what “left leaning” meant to 1928 Argentina, but I’m suspecting that Guevara had religious urges that were suppressed.

When Guevara died in October 1967, the US west coast had completed a “Summer of Love” with Saturn in Pisces opposite Uranus/Pluto conjunct in Virgo. North Americans were sticking it to the man by dropping acid and making love in a park. There was also a Civil Rights Movement in progress.

South Americans were sticking it to the man by wearing camouflage and playing guerrilla warfare.

This “anti establishment” aspect would have created a strong T-square to Guevara’s natal Saturn in Sagittarius. If his birthday was May, Mercury in Gemini would have created a grand cross.

Mercury – that rules communication. Was El Che assassinated because of his revolution-making ways or because he could reveal something confidential?

Just after El Che’s death the US lost some revolutionary leaders – Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy. Here’s an interesting, but not morbid, blog on assassinations in 1968.

Was it an age of killing the messengers?

Wikipedia lists several reasons why Guevara’s Bolivian mission wasn’t successful:

“He had expected to remain in radio contact with Havana. The two shortwave transmitters provided to him by Cuba were faulty; thus the guerrillas were unable to communicate and be resupplied, leaving them isolated and stranded.”

Marketing Model or Revolutionary Model?

According to Wikipedia, Castro ended his eulogy of Guevara with:

“If we wish to express what we want the men of future generations to be, we must say: Let them be like Che! If we wish to say how we want our children to be educated, we must say without hesitation: We want them to be educated in Che’s spirit! If we want the model of a man, who does not belong to our times but to the future, I say from the depths of my heart that such a model, without a single stain on his conduct, without a single stain on his action, is Che!”

Posted in Famous people, Politicians - Not Ohio | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Gérard Depardieu, Ce que vous pensez?

Posted on January 6, 2013 by ohioastrology

Is it true that French film actor Gérard Depardieu is moving from France to Russia to avoid a 75 percent tax rate?

Ce que vous pensez, Gérard Depardieu?

Or, in English, WTF?

Very ironically I’m currently reading a biography of Ivan the Terrible (1530 – 1584), who was truly terrible in a way almost inconceivable. Not only did Ivan the Terrible torture and kill his enemies, he killed his trusted advisors, war heroes and his own son in a fit of rage.

Yeah, yeah, this is common in royalty you say (as my brother did). But in politics, royal or secular, there is usually a reason for killing. Not with Ivan – he killed simply to watch person after person experience the pain and humiliation of a tortuous death.

Right now I fear Novgorod, the metropolis of one of Ivan’s massacres, the way a local community fears the “haunted house” where a man murdered his wife.

While discussing Ivan the Terrible with my brother, he made an interesting point about how the trends of the past can be seen in current politics. “History repeats itself” is something we hear that supports this idea but why is this so? Have we not truly progressed as humans? Are we 16th century creatures with iPhones?

Why Russia?

As you may have sensed, I’m a little afraid for Depardieu. When I think of fleeing to Russia, I think of spymasters, such as Kim Philby, the Cold War British Intelligence officer who was a double agent before fleeing to Russia (then the USSR) where he resided until his death.

What makes a man go to Russia as a double agent or to avoid taxes?

While Philby needed to go to the USSR due to his double-agent hood, Depardieu could have gone to a number of other countries across the globe. He could have made the same statement by moving to the United States (Ohio maybe?) or Brazil or Uruguay or Angola or Nepal or Vanuatu.

Why Russia?

Is it possible that Depardieu is avoiding more than taxes? Why does he need to make such a grand statement in choosing Russia? Aren’t there dozens of silent methods for avoiding taxes?

Gérard Depardieu

Depardieu, according to this Astrotheme chart, is a Capricorn sun and Scorpio moon. Depardieu additionally has Jupiter, Mercury and Mars in Capricorn. As you are aware, Pluto is currently transiting Capricorn and is currently conjunct Depardieu’s sun and Jupiter.

Capricorn and Scorpio certainly keep both money and emotions close to the chest, regardless of tax rate.

Saturn in Virgo also adds earth to the chart and may indicate penny pinching but normally has a deep insecurity about not being perfect which manifests as anxiety and health problems.

There’s a nifty Neptune in Libra square to Capricorn which creates some delusions that one is being diplomatic when really one is being selfish and self-centered (I bought the power drill for you, sweetheart).

Venus in Sagittarius suggests Depardieu’s love of things (especially women) foreign, but the preponderance of earth signs tells me that Depardieu will feel more than a little homesick. Capricorn, being an earth sign, loves its habits.

Depardieu would do best living near mountains (earth) and water (Scorpio). But from the stories, I’m not sure he will truly live in Russia, just pay his taxes there.

My first sense of his motivation in ostentatiously leaving his country is that he’s demanding a respect he doesn’t feel he’s getting. Capricorn is definitely about respect and control and Depardieu’s “tax” problem is really a problem about feeling out of control – he’s going to be the “boss” of his taxes, not you.

The Pluto transit is the power-struggle exploded. I’m guessing Depardieu is fighting with other authority figures, males and institutions besides France.

Depardieu might want to understand that if what he’s truly doing is fighting external authority, he’s gone to the right place to CONTINUE that struggle. When Pluto finishes its transit of Depardieu’s Capricorn planets, he may have a new idea about money and wealth. The worst will come in about 7-8 years when Pluto transits Depardieu’s natal Mars.

In other words, the fights we have with others are often the fights we have with ourselves. Depardieu might be fighting “taxes” but may have brought on a bigger fight about “who’s in charge here.”

Depardieu might do well to in his studies of Russian history to understand the political machinations that a man like Vladimir Putin has survived versus his own problems with taxes.

Kim Philby

Philby’s Astrotheme chart shows sun in Capricorn with Saturn, moon and Mars in Taurus. Taurus is opposite Scorpio, where Depardieu’s moon resides. Philby’s sun, according to this chart, is in the 8th house, which is ruled by Scorpio.

Again we have issues of control and respect which probably is the motivation that led Philby to double agency in the first place. He could have simply been an anonymous man in the roster of British intelligence but now he is infamous.

Philby’s three planets in Taurus also suggest he simply liked physical wealth. Saturn in Taurus has the feeling of material insecurity – there is never enough. Whether or not there is true material poverty, there is a spirit of poverty with this placement.

With his Neptune in Cancer opposite Uranus in Capricorn and Saturn/moon in the same sign of Taurus, I get the sense that Philby was not nostalgic about early home life. His early home environment seems to have left him feeling he didn’t have enough which is possibly why he could leave that environment for good.

He simply didn’t like England and could have wealth and prestige in Russia.

I’ll have to add Philby’s autobiography to my reading list to understand a little better his motivations.

Is Brigette Bardot Next?

French colleague Brigette Bardot has threatened to follow Depardieu to Russia, for reasons of animal cruelty rather than taxes.

Brigette, I believe, is just blowing smoke. The woman has a lot of air in her chart (sun in Libra, moon in Gemini according to Astrotheme) and is simply coming to the dinner table and jumping into the conversation without really knowing that the table is talking about “Youth in Asia,” not “euthanasia.”

Libra sun Brigette will really dig Libra Putin, if she does pick up her pets and flee to Moscow. Capricorn sun Depardieu will find, if he really gets to know Putin, that Libra squares Capricorn.

Good luck to Gérard and Brigette .

Or as they say it in Russian – Удачи.

Posted in Actors | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Republican Fight Club: Christie and Boehner

Posted on January 5, 2013 by ohioastrology

The holidays are over so it’s time for a return to “Your Regular Life” which includes resolutions to lose weight and save money, all your co-workers returning to work and wanting the last two weeks of deliverables in one day and, of course, a return to POLITICS.

Ah, I feel some relief because I thought it might be a boring January, not that the sign of Capricorn is ever boring . . .

This round of political fighting is Republican-on-Republican. I haven’t enjoyed Republican hair pulling since the Republican presidential debates when Newt Gingrich accused Mitt Romney of being rich.

Last year a Republican was chided by another Republican for being filthy rich. Now a Republican is in trouble for not handing out the cash to another Republican.

Have the Republicans gone mad?

Will Christie change sides as did Charlie Crist? Has cavorting with Democrats (the president no less!) during a natural disaster created a political dark night of the soul for Christie?

The Fight

After wheeling and dealing to avoid the fiscal cliff earlier this week, the House adjourned without voting on a Superstorm Sandy relief package. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, according to this ABC news story, said the non-vote was “disgusting” and apparently blamed House Speaker John Boehner.

Let me first say that Ohio Astrology does not support attacks on any Ohio politician. Blood is thicker than political water, so Christie needs to be careful. Ohio was so important during the last election that Barack Obama and Mitt Romney crisscrossed the state so much Governor Kasich joked on a radio news story that the candidates ought to pay taxes.

Ok, I feel better. Christie needs to understand that Ohioans can get angry too.

Christie and Boehner

Now let’s do a little synastry, which is the astrological method of determining how well two folks get along.

I’ve blogged about both Christie and Boehner here on OHA. Now let’s imagine Christie and Boehner on a date.

Christie has sun in Virgo (conjunct Pluto) and moon probably in Sagittarius (but could be in Scorpio). The outward exuberance of his fighting and his corpulence suggests Sagittarius.

Boehner is sun in Scorpio and moon (conjunct Neptune) in Libra.

This may come as a bit of a shocker, but Boehner is the one more worried about relationships in general. Boehner is probably very hurt by this attack (or any) although Scorpio will rarely let you know how sensitive it is. At least until there is a chance for a return of that energy (aka revenge or retribution).

Virgo is picky and Scorpio is strategic. Virgo’s first response to most of life’s external stimulus is to find the fault, the gap or the irregularity. Scorpio, being a fixed sign, is more patient in assessing any given situation.

Boehner does have some Virgo in his chart as well – Saturn conjunct Mars. Ouch, that’s Virgo at its most aggressive nastiness. If and when Boehner chooses to return the verbal barbs, Christie is going to hurt.

Boehner’s Saturn/Mars is conjunct Christie’s sun/Pluto. These two will never, ever be friends. I rarely feel 100 percent confident about any horoscope because we can rise above our personalities, but I’d bet the Superstorm Sandy relief package on this one.

The fighting absolutely will continue although Boehner’s Libra moon/Neptune will do it both more gracefully and Scorpio sun will chose behind the scenes.

If Christie’s moon is indeed in Sagittarius, then he is accident prone both in literally and figuratively. Christie may want to be careful of political “accidents” as a result of attacking Boehner in public.

Sagittarius moon likes its fun and one of those “accidents” could revolve around what Sagittarius moon does in its spare time.

Christie and Boehner also have interesting Neptune/Mercury synastry with each’s Neptune on or near (conjunct) the other’s Mercury.

According to Café Astrology:

“When Mercury in your chart forms an aspect to your partner’s Neptune, empathetic, spiritual, deceptive, or confusing communications figure strongly in your relationship. What type of interaction depends on the aspect that joins Mercury and Neptune, as well as the individuals involved.”

What do marriage counselors do when the face a couple who have deep-seated power struggles and continually distort and misinterpret each other’s communication?

Does the counselor suggest calling it quits? Do they try to mediate when they see each would be better off and much happier if they just moved on and found more compatible partners?

Christie for President?

I still don’t think Christie will ever do well running for President of the United States. While his outbursts against members of his own party are fun (very fun) to watch, a campaign of critical outbursts will get boring very quickly. Expressing righteous indignation is easy; building a better plan, not so much.

If I were an evil political astrologer (and I swear I’m not), I’d suggest the Republicans stick behind their man Boehner. Boehner is a more solid, strategic individual than Christie, especially in a party that promotes conservative values.

All politicians provide for their constituents and supporters, regardless of party; what’s different is how the payouts occur and how they are labeled. Payouts can arrive as charity, welfare or bailouts.

The person who said “Don’t get mad, get even” probably had a Scorpio sun or moon. Boehner is a Scorpio; he acquiesced, he did not surrender.

Posted in Politicians - Not Ohio | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Through Capricorn to Aquarius – The Current Pluto Cycle

Posted on December 31, 2012 by ohioastrology

At the end of the calendar year it’s a good time to talk again about cycles. I hope talking about cycles doesn’t bore you since at some time or another it will come back into conversation again . . .

The idea that we “end” one year and “begin” another is largely in our minds yet does still loosely follow the earth’s natural cycle of seasons. The “end” of the Gregorian calendar year is the start of winter, when much plant life in the northern hemisphere goes dormant until spring. It’s a good time to “end” if you ask me.

My Wikipedia search of the Gregorian calendar states that by the Assyrian calendar it is year 6762. If Assyrians had had computers, programmers might have been busy 4,762 years ago fixing the Year 2000 glitch.

Remember the Year 2000 glitch when computer dates were programmed as 19XX and the switch to 2000 would have produced the result 1900? The fear at that time was that computers would go mad and catastrophe would occur.

Funny, our fears also come and go in cycles and often occur at the “end” of the year.

The Pluto Cycle

A fear occurring now and one that is real to me is the US fiscal “cliff.” We fear “another” recession, as if we were through with the current one. Our economy is stumbling and can’t take another blow so we continue to live on a financial high wire.

Pluto began transiting Capricorn in 2008 (date ring a bell?) and will be in Capricorn until 2024. Pluto is far out there and takes about 248 years to orbit the sun. That’s one long cycle.

Two hundred and forty eight years – people don’t live that long and can’t tell you what it feels like to experience a Pluto cycle.

But nations do.

Guess which nation is about to have a Pluto return, the time when Pluto returns to the same zodiac sign (and degree of that sign) when the nation was “born?”

The United States.

Using the 1776 horoscope as the “birth date” the US will experience its Pluto return in early 2023 in about 27 degrees of Capricorn.

Soon after Pluto will enter Aquarius. The “birth date” of the US Constitution occurred when Pluto was in Aquarius (and it took awhile for certain Aquarian ideals to come to fruition such as the end of slavery and the right of women to vote).

Capricorn and Aquarius

I’ve been wondering how Pluto will evolve from Capricorn to Aquarius this time around for my country. Today while driving to work, I heard a news story that included the word “egalitarian” which piqued my interest as Aquarius is associated with egalitarian.

The news story was about MOOCs – Massive Open Online Courses. According to Wikipedia, MOOCs are “online courses aimed at large-scale participation and open access via the web.” The portion of the news story I heard included concern that professor jobs would be eliminated.

Professors out of work (Capricorn) and egalitarian education (Aquarius) – I heard the Pluto transit here.

Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, the planet of structure and form, which expresses through rules, hierarchy, authority, traffic lights, gravity and an overweening air of seriousness.

Aquarius is ruled by Uranus, the planet of enlightenment, which expresses through inspiration, idealistic forms, rebelliousness, inventiveness, vision and stubborn insistence on one’s eccentric habits.

In reading this critique of MOOCs, I can’t help but see an underlying tension of Capricorn and Aquarius. If I were some alien character on Star Trek who fed on astrological symbolism (and I swear I’m not), I couldn’t ask for a better article than this.

Got MOOC? Blog

First of all, the blog uses the word “prestige” or “prestigious” six times. Prestige is a Capricorn idea as it relates to reputation, status and respect. Prestige tells you where I stand on the social ladder.

An interesting paragraph from the article:

“Now, not surprisingly, comes the news that institutions are looking at ways to “monetize” the MOOC. Knowledge is free, but credits and credentials cost money — and prestige costs even more. That’s how the economics of higher education really work, and the MOOC movement is unlikely to make a prestigious credential more egalitarian despite the current fervor for the “free” part of the online courses.”

The author is correct in that “prestige” and “egalitarian” are not peanut butter and jelly. Prestige involves hierarchy and egalitarian involves dissolution of hierarchy. She’s clearly stated that “prestige” is quantifiable by money. Prestige is not an ideal, but a practical, purchasable reality.

While the author passionately explains that online courses lack human interaction, she also plainly states that when you pay for education, you are paying for the “prestige” of a degree:

“Beyond the question of whether the MOOC movement will actually improve learning, some advocates also see MOOCs as a way to help make higher education more affordable. While affordability is certainly a worthy goal, there is no evidence currently that the offering universities will broadly transcript MOOC credit at vastly reduced rates so that students can earn prestigious degrees more cheaply. While much of the hype about MOOCs has focused on the fact that they are “free” to the general public, in fact, what tuition really pays for is the credit that accumulates to a degree. While a few universities have talked about monetizing MOOC credits, a systematic plan has yet to emerge. Universities who spend tens of millions of dollars on their brand management will hardly give away their credits cheaply — or allow institutions they consider inferior to make money by charging for transcripting credits derived from their “free” MOOC offerings.”

The clash of Capricorn and Aquarius here is that Capricorn wants to have the diamond while you have the cubic zirconium. Diamonds could be cheap, I hear, but they are deliberately controlled to have high value (wait, don’t we have a free market economy?). If diamonds didn’t have high value, they would lose their meaning for many.

Aquarius is saying that we should mine all the diamonds we can and let them be the beautiful and precious stones and affordable at the same time. The low price of the diamond, for Aquarius, does not reduce its intrinsic value as a diamond.

What Capricorn loses with Aquarius is the feeling of being better because I have a diamond and you have cubic zirconium. Snobbery is laundry off the guard rails of hierarchy.

Capricorn and Saturn wouldn’t disappear if diamonds were cheap. Saturn would still identify a diamond as a diamond and cubic zirconium as cubic zirconium. They are still two different chemical compounds.

Likewise, we all want Saturn to tell us if our medical doctor has a degree from a university rather than a degree purchased through the mail.

Through Capricorn to Aquarius

Whether or not education becomes more egalitarian, this current discussion around MOOCs may be the seed of where Pluto through Capricorn is leading us.

Capricorn and Saturn idealize the past where Aquarius idealizes the future. As Pluto drills through the economic stratum, many have a desire to return to the past – the past of high home values and excessive credit (Pluto in Sagittarius).

No sign is good or bad – the zodiac is egalitarian . . .

We’re experiencing a collapsing economy for a reason and Aquarius will pick up the pieces to begin the next 248-year US Pluto cycle. Pluto in Capricorn will mean different things to different countries based on their natal Pluto placement.

Maybe in 2024 diamonds will be so inexpensive that “no finger will be left behind.”

Posted in Planets and signs | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Shinzo Abe, Where is Your Mars?

Posted on December 26, 2012 by ohioastrology

Japan has elected a new prime minister today – Shinzo Abe – as Mars moves from Capricorn to Aquarius.

Since mid-November, Mars has been in Capricorn, passing over Abe’s natal Mars in Capricorn. Mars enjoys the sign of Capricorn because Mars moves forward in one direction and Capricorn supplies the goals.

Competition and goals go hand in hand.

Lisa Simpson was once was asked by another character what her “ambition du jour” was that particular day. Very Capricorn.

Tracy Flick of the movie Election is also a nice cookie-cutter Capricorn character. Flick is ambition personified and finds friendship only in older, authority figures. She manages to squash all of her opponents.

Back to Abe, who isn’t a Capricorn, just has Mars in that sign. But to survive the role he’s taken, I hope that Mars is in the first or tenth house (we need time of birth to know). Otherwise Mars will be fighting other planets in Abe’s charts as well as his foes.

In other words, Abe, to survive, better bring out his inner Lisa Simpson or Tracy Flick.

Abe has sun in mutable earth sign Virgo but has a loose (very loose) T-square in his horoscope with Mars in Capricorn, moon/Jupiter/Uranus in Cancer and Mercury/Neptune in Libra.

Abe is one picky, picky dude. He’s obsessive-compulsive exacting and can be driven made by simple lack of symmetry. If I were an evil astrologer (and I swear I’m not), I’d suggest his opponents face him wearing mismatched clothes and lopsided haircuts. As Abe shakes off an attack of nerves the opponent can win the battle.

I’m seeing a lot of Cancer moons in world leaders; as with others, there is some sacrifice of family life for the role. With Abe, Uranus and Jupiter conjunct moon in Cancer means that family life has been both a blessing and curse, a source of warmth and a source of confusion, at times steady and at times unpredictable.

There’s not much fire in Abe’s chart unless he has a fire rising sign. Lack of fire is lack of energy and enthusiasm – when the crowd needs inspiration Abe will probably offer homework.

Think Mitt Romney, if you can remember back that far to the recent US election. Romney, with his lack of fire, had an “enthusiasm deficit.” Watch for that deficit to move to Japan (a new export?).

Mercury and Neptune conjunct in Abe’s chart suggest poetic and writing ability which is a nice aspect to have to soften the Virgo fine detail. Neptune on Mercury might be poetic, but if you need to know where someone was last Friday at 10 a.m., you want what’s called a “fact” versus “poetry,” if you get my drift.

And you might want to ask where Abe was last Friday since he has Saturn conjunct Venus in Scorpio. Abe will be having a Saturn return so might have some issues in his love life. Hopefully he wasn’t at a love hotel last Friday.

The personal/family issues crop up so much in political charts I’m guessing that’s part of what drives men to politic – Either a lack of love or belonging in other relationships or to have more opportunities for partners.

This Saturn return for Abe means his tight knit group of friends and supporters will become even tighter, like a noose, in the way of cults. Cults are warm and fuzzy until you step outside of the boundaries. Abe’s commitment to some group, whatever it is, is very serious. It might be beyond the political realm.

Uranus is now transiting Aries creating a grand square with all of Abe’s cardinal signs. I can’t imagine his time in office being anything but constant strife and struggle.

Looking at the Wikipedia article on Abe, it appears he was prime minister once but resigned. I haven’t read up on why he resigned but with the Virgo and cardinal signs in plethora in his horoscope, he might simply be too nervous.

Uranus will be in Aries until 2018, quite a ways out from today.

Will Abe’s Mars in Capricorn take over the wheel? Will transiting Pluto in Capricorn ignite all that is ambitious and ruthless in Abe?

How will Abe’s beauty-seeking Libra adjust to lobbing off enemy heads? Will the Virgo sun get an allergic reaction to the dripping blood and retreat to bed? Will that Cancer moon panic and change its mind?

Mars (in Capricorn) opposite moon (in Cancer) gets what it wants. But with so much cardinal energy in his chart, the question really is whether Abe knows what he wants.

Posted in Politicians - Not Ohio | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment