Shaun White

With the 2010 Winter Olympics coming up I thought I would take a look at the chart of snowboarder Shaun White. I don't know anything about snowboarding except that watching these guys absolutely takes my breath away. Hope his parents don't have Saturn strong in their charts. Many of these young snowboarders even knit their own hats, even the guys. And the hats are as awesome as their crazy antics.

This has been a fun chart to take a look at. I think I've learned a couple of things. It would be great to have a birth time to look at, especially for an athlete because that's where you look to understand how a person relates to his physical body and that's where we'd find the answer to Shaun's flaming red hair. Well, that and the Midheaven, and probably a few other spots. Dude's got a lot of hair...

Shaun White
b. Sept. 3, 1986 Carlsbad, CA

Sun 11 Virgo; Moon Leo or Virgo; NN 23 Aries Rx; Mercury 10 Virgo; Mars 15 Capricorn

Shaun may have been born during a New Moon in Virgo. Impossible to say without a birth time. The Moon travels really fast through the signs and anything that moves really fast is going to be important to look at in this guy's chart. New Moons are said to show a person who can start a new phase of some sort. Ego (Sun) and Subconscious (Moon) are having a meeting of the minds when these kids are born.

When I think of Virgo Athletes I'm reminded of Lance Armstrong, of course. Perfection, analytical, precision, dedicated, earthy, edge. Interesting that both athletes have taken on sports in which their feet are attached to their "vehicle". Wonder if that's a typical Virgo thing. Feet are ruled by Virgo's opposite sign which is Pisces. Often one has to master one's self by mastering one's opposite self? Sort of a symbolic version of the Charioteer and his Chariot. (Yeah, I know that in Tarot the Chariot card represents Cancer, so maybe Virgo represents the Whip).

Either way, White's Virgo Sun is conjunct its dispositor, Mercury, which makes its energy all the more strong. White's Sun is trining Mars which represents the physical body. This positive connection between the two planets that show physical vitality and physical coordination. Both Mercury and Mars in the signs of their exaltation. Pretty interesting word to use in order to describe a guy who literally flies and flips miles up into the air in loop d'loops.

Mars is also the ruler of daredevils and it rules White's North Node which shows one's destiny. Mars represents youthfulness, vitality, fearlessness, going one's own path. But, he can't do what he needs to do unless he can balance this with the opposite end of the Nodal Axis. And, Balance is represented here literally as Libra is the sign that rules his South Node and his SN is in conjunction with its dispositor, Venus.

So, what's weird with this guy is that he sort of goes beyond balance which relies on his own multiple centers of gravity. He even seems to defy gravity, or at least he seems to be able to find multiple points of gravity. What I think may help to account for this is the fact that his Sun is conjunct and trine Mercury and Mars which are both in exaltation and in the signs of their rulership. He has no planets placed in Fall or Detriment. And his chart has no final dispositors. The planets related to coordination are perfectly placed here.

So, what rules Gravity? I immediately think of Saturn but of the planets the Sun and Jupiter are said to have the strongest magnetic fields. White has these two planets in opposition to each other (wide 10 degree orb though). This opposition again shows another balancing act that the self is constantly juggling.

So, where does all that drive and focus come from? Pluto is in Scorpio as with everyone in White's generation. But in Shaun's chart it is a singleton in Fixed Signs which amps up his ability to concentrate and focus on one thing. The Pluto might also be the reason why he's standing out this year as the Sex God of the U.S. Olympic team.

Good Luck, Shaun! I know there must be some snowboarder lingo for saying that but I'm too old a fart to know what it is. Dude, totally tubular, gnarly session, uh oh, wrong generation, wrong sport, wrong me.

Wiki'd a list here of snowboarder terms. "Asspass" really caught my eye (http://www.abc-of-snowboarding.com/snowboarddictionary.asp). That's when you fall down and you're riding on your ass so fast down the slope that people can barely see you. Can relate.