An Astrological Look at Obama's Inauguration

Obama’s Inauguration on January 20, 2009

Before we look at President-elect Obama's Inauguration chart, we need to look at his birthchart to see what qualities he brings to the Presidency. While George W embodied many of the unregenerated shadow qualities of the American psyche - the will-to-power, unwarrented privilege, pride, ignorance of the wider world, unconsciousness, hypocrisy, adolescent self-satisfaction, disrespect, self-righteousness and irresponsibility - Barack seems to embody the highest possibilities of the American psyche – free will, intellgence, discernment, respect, compassion, imagination, fairness, heart, vision, responsibility and moral character. Let's see what his chart tells us about him.

Barack's Leo Sun makes him generous, imaginative, playful, self-confident, charming, charismatic - a leader. In the 6th house of work and service, he puts his considerable energy to work. He is not afraid of hard work. His Gemini Moon gives him his ability to learn, to talk, to communicate, to change his mind. (John Kerry's Gemini Moon got him into trouble as a 'flip-flopper'.) A Gemini Moon needs to explore, examine, talk about and understand life's experiences. They are open-minded and if undisciplined, scattered and flip-floppy. A Gemini Moon is friendly though. Barack's friendliness also comes to him from his Aquarian ascendant, which gives him an innovative vision of the world. He is the humanitarian, the global visionary, open to all types of people and cultures.

With his Sun in Leo and his Moon in Gemini, Barack was born at the last-quarter Moon. This Moon phase re-orients him away from the past to face the future, conserving the important knowledge and wisdom of the past to serve future needs. In the plant cycle, this phase corresponds to the plant that is ready to give up its seeds for the next generation.

This phase’s ‘crisis in consciousness’ indicates that Obama’s outlook on life is mature enough to know what is no longer life-giving, as well as flexible enough to welcome in new visions. If you’ve read his book, The Audacity of Hope, you’ll see that he has indeed deeply probed the validity of his beliefs, values and philosophies of life. He walks his talk.

The great astrologer Dane Rudhyar observed that ‘last-quarter Moon people are being asked, for an ultimately constructive purpose, to be part of a de-structuring process … which helps to break down whatever in oneself or one’s community or society no longer positively contributes to evolutionary progress, but instead stands in the way.’ Since this phase of the Moon entails self-reflection and consciousness, this process is one of intelligent discrimination of ideologies and beliefs for the benefit of future generations. The aspects between his Sun and Moon promote an energizing intelligence and inventiveness. He has a mind that likes to explore and learn new things, while promoting creative social innovations.

Barack’s capacity for this kind of internal reflection on life and society is also highlighted in his chart with the Saturn/Jupiter conjunction in his 12th house, the house of the collective unconscious. Every 20 years, these two planets that indicate social issues (rather than our personal issues) begin a new cycle. In February 1961, Jupiter and Saturn conjoined in Capricorn. They began a new cycle of social development of our collective structures (Capricorn).

With this new vision of ‘what society could be’ energizing his house of the collective unconscious, he looks to the archetypal myths and legends for his answers. Both Saturn and Jupiter are ‘Father gods’: Saturn is the ancient god of ‘concrete reality’, the ruler of the Golden Age when there was peace and abundance for all. Jupiter, the king of the Olympian gods, is a god of cosmic law and spiritual vision. So Barack’s vision of society encompasses both the old and the new. He could end up being the real Compassionate Conservative – for he’ll conserve what is important to our national character while being compassionate to the people as we go through this transition.

Each country has a birth chart. America's July 4th birthchart gives us a Cancer Sun, an Aquarian Moon and a Sagittarius ascendant. Cancer Sun speaks to our purpose – to nurture the new vision of freedom and equality that our founders stood for. We have become a beacon of freedom for the world. Our Aquarian Moon speaks to our independence, interdependence and humanitarianism. Our Sagittarian Ascendant denotes our forward-looking national spirit as well as our search for higher truth.

Obama’s chart fits well with America’s. His Venus is within degrees of America’s Venus and Jupiter. So his values (Venus) are America’s values. He loves America! He represents the best of what America can ‘grow’ – a responsible adult with a sense of play and possibilities.

His Mars is exactly conjunct America’s Neptune. America’s Neptune is the most elevated planet in the chart, indicating our love of fantasy, Hollywood and dreams of abundance and fulfillment. So Obama fits our longing and fantasy of what an American Man (Mars) could be – intelligent, charming, confident, egalitarian, discerning, humble, athletic and willing to serve the common good. He’s the stuff of our dreams, the practical idealist (America’s Neptune in Virgo).

One of the reasons so many of us look up to him is that he represents what many of us (especially women) want a man to be. And most importantly, his South Node of the Moon (where he’s come from) is conjunct America’s Aquarian Moon. He understands the people (Moon) – he’s one of us. But his Leo Sun and North Node demand that he be a leader – our leader.

His Saturn/Jupiter conjunction sits on America’s Pluto in Capricorn. And they both sit at the top of the Inaugural chart, giving this Pluto prominence. Many astrologers see that Pluto (located in America’s 2nd house of money and values) as the plutocracy of wealth that really rules America. But this year could be the year when instead of upholding the power of wealth and corporations, Obama will use Pluto’s power to transform the culture through his Saturn in Capricorn and Jupiter in Aquarius. He could just make us understand that Pluto in Capricorn also calls on all Americans to constantly transform the culture and its corporations – Jefferson’s continual revolution.

Now let's look at the Inauguration chart for Barack Obama, and see what the formative energies of his administration look like.

I might as well get the most obvious issue – at least for astrologers – out of the way. There is a void of course (VOC) Moon at 29 Scorpio until 12:29pm on January 20th. A Void-of-Course transit of the moon is a period of time between the last aspect the Moon makes to a planet while transiting in one sign and the time that the Moon enters the next sign.

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