The Boogeymen of the Inauguration

Obama's swearing in was a Miracle both in acceptance by the U.S. of an African American Leader but also in the peaceful control of a huge crowd. This shows the angular Sun in the 10th House and angular Moon. The Sun was conjunct Mercury and Jupiter (eloquent President born of an immigrant and mixed marriage). The Moon was at the last degree of Scorpio in the 7th House (Public's deepest desires working in harmony and cooperation). Those are my interpretations, at any rate. There were problems with the music due to the cold temperature. YoYo Ma and his Classical friends apparently played to a dubbed version of their performance because their instruments couldn't stay in tune. Aretha Franklin was on Larry King saying that she was unhappy with her performance. But, damn, her hat was the finest confection that ever graced a female head, my knitting forums were going ape face over it.

There were problems with both of these aspects, the Mercury and the Moon as would be interpreted. With Mercury both Retrograde and Cazimi the Sun and with the Void of Course Moon one would expect some snafus and we were not disappointed. The Swearing In happened a bit late at around 12:06pm rather than at noon on the dot. Then the chief Justice messed up the 35(?) words of the swearing in. This was redone one Wednesday but without the Bible. So the actual "words," the Mercury element, didn't quite jell. It doesn't matter, really, but it's always difficult to know whether it's God in the Details or the Devil. I suppose it's best say a Blessing for the Virgo's before all important activities because things like this can be real thorns in the side. I think this is Obama's natal Gemini Moon square Pluto aspect in action anyway.

There was another problem, which could be attributed to the Scorpio Moon. Some Texan politican refused to okay Hillary Clinton's election as Secretary of State until the next day.

I wanted to check out the charts of the two guys who sort of put a clinker in the day's activities to see maybe what are party pooper aspects.

Both are Aquarians, oddly enough (an Aquarian keyword). Both are also Conservatives trying to cope with the aftermath of the Neptune transit to their Suns I suppose. Neptune is the planet of formlessness. It's supposed to break down one's sense of boundaries, thus its normal rulership for compassion for others. Needless to say this is not a Conservative's favorite planet. Conservatives like things to stay the same, like structure, and simple plans and boundaries.

First Boyfriend, Republican John Cornyn from Texas had to input his negativity by ensuring that Hillary Clinton's appointment as Secretary of State was delayed a day. I wanted to see what the dude's problem is.

John Cornyn
b. Feb. 2, 1952 Houston, Tx

Sun 13 Aquarius; Moon Taurus; NN 1 Pisces

Cornyn's in that limbo space between his 2d Progressed Lunar Return and his 2 Saturn Return. The second pass is not as quite as big a deal usually. They happen farther apart in years than the first return does. And they say that if you screwed up during your first Saturn Return you don't often make it to your second Saturn return. That last interpretation sounds like office folklore wisdom and I have no idea if it's true or not. Probably it's true some of the time.

Cornyn's got a Cardinal Grand Square in his chart. His Saturn is at 15 Libra and opposing Jupiter at 11 Aries. These square a Venus-Chiron at 8-9 Capricorn opposing Uranus at 11 Cancer. Right now his Progressed Sun is on his Jupiter to the degree so he's outspoken about his opinions. This is sort of a double whammy Sun-Jupiter aspect as transiting Jupiter is conjunct Cornyn's Sun. This is reflected in the Sun-Jupiter conjunction of the event chart.

I'm sorry I can't offer a reasonable interpretation of what a Grand Cross means except that a huge amount of difficult aspects will be tripped off quite frequently in a person's life due to the squares (challenges) and oppositions (opposition, need for balance). Venus conjunct Chiron in Capricorn certainly seems to bring on some loveability & fear issues that are focused outward into the social Jupiter-Saturn-Uranus squares. If someone had thought to send Cornyn a box of See's candies maybe he would have mellowed a bit. Cardinal Signs begin projects, so this was perhaps the Republicans' announcement that they intend to fight everything.

Cornyn's progressed Mercury has begun moving in Retrograde Motion in Aries since he's come in to office. (sometime around 2005? I'm not real sure about date) so he's probably going to become all balled up over a lot of mercurial type of issues concerning getting facts straight and being a pest in general.

Chief Justice John Roberts also messed up during President Obama's Swearing In Ceremony by quoting the words out of order. I thought that Obama had fumbled due to nervousness but apparently it was Roberts who mis-spoke. Later on that night I heard the news trying to replay the Swearing In and realized what a loss this was. Well, there's Mercury Retrograde for you. This one was right on Robert's natal Sun which was close to going through a Return (Solar). And Jupiter was there. And the North Node was there. And Mercury was cazimi. And the Moon was Out-of-bounds. And, boy did he screw up. So, the Sun-Jupiter-Mercury Rx conjunction really points the astro arrows at these guys.

Chief Justice John Roberts
b. Jan. 27, 1955 Buffalo, NY

Sun 8 Aquarius; Moon Pisces; NN 6 Capricorn

While looking up his birth data I was reminded that Roberts had a seizure on July 30, 2007. This may have a result of an illness. Interesting that at the time of the seizure, his Sun was in the process of progressing in to Aries at the time. Aries and Mars rule the brain and inflamation. Right now his progressed Sun is exactly square natal Pluto and is 7 degrees away from a conjunction with his natal Mars. Boy, I hope he's taking a lot of Vitamin C because that's an inflamatory aspect.

Additionally, transiting Neptune is at 24 Aquarius moving into conjunction with Robert's natal Mercury 26 Aquarius. He has to be careful about any drugs he's taking because they could be causing Mental Fogginess. Either that, or it could have been a Freudian Slip of a super conservative white guy. Neptune rules the subconscious memory.

With these heavy transits to his Mercury and Mars it would make sense that he's really trying to maintain right now. Robert's natal Mercury is in a t-square with Saturn and Pluto so his normally sharp, conservative mind is getting a good fogging over, that's for sure. His thinking could also possibly be getting an opening up to new and better ideas.

There are many aspects to look at. I'll end here. Hope I've got this info right.

Mercury Transit Cycles // 6,7, 13, 33, 46 years

Here's a link to "Mercury Transit Cycles" by Bruce McClure: http://idialstars.com/mtc.htm.

Read the article but I'm going to try to explain it here. The Greater Mercury Cycles are measured from off of the Inferior Conjunctions of Mercury to the Sun. This is when Mercury aligns with the Sun and Earth but passes in front of the Sun rather than around it (only Mercury and Venus can do this because their orbits are closer to the Sun's than the Earth's). A true Inferior Conjunction doesn't happen that often because Mercury is usually too high or too low in the sky above or below the Ecliptic. In order for an Inferior Conjunction to happen its orbit must cross the Ecliptic and it also must be close to its Node. This can only happen in November when it's near its Scorpio North Node or in May when it's near its Taurus South Node. The conjunctions happen more in November than in May. In November the cycle can reoccur at 6 or 7 years or at 13 years (6+7) or at 33 year cycles. In May it only happens at 13 or 33 year cycles.

There's another 46 year cycle for which both November and May transits reoccur for 100s of years. The last one happened on Nov. 8, 2006 and belongs to a cycle that began in 1776 and will end in 2604. These series of cycles are called a "Panorama" which seems to be a lot like the Eclipse Saros Series cycles.

The astrological significance for 1776 is wonderful. This is the year the U.S. declared Independence and brought on a new experiment in society which centers around free trade (well, and religion). It is also the year that Adam Smith wrote his book that redefined Economics. This was based around a strong drive to create comfort (Taurus) and quality of life (Scorpio). In the Saros Cycles, there were 6 eclipses each year during 1776 and 77 which means that the Eclipse cycles were in the middle of beginning and endings of their Series. But in addition Mercury starts a new Panorama Series this year. Mercury rules Commerce among other spiritual vibes such as messengering between humans and the Divine, is in the signs that rule Resources. In a way, Man's relationship with God has changed to one of impartial communication rather than "knowing" or "feeling" or "oppression." Well, God refuses to show me any of his angels, so what do I know of this?

Yousef Karsh

It seems like a good time to stick this guy in.

Yousef Karsh
b. Dec. 23, 1908 Mardin, Turkey

Karsh was born in Turkey, like Arshile Gorky. He was a brilliant portraiturist (is that a word?) like Gorky, but his medium was photography. Karsh also had a chart a lot like Len Cutler, the guy who invented the Atomic Clock.

Sun 2 Capricorn; Moon Sagittarius or Capricorn; NN 26 Gemini

Karsh photographed all the great and famous people of his time. His images of them are very will known and easy to take for granted. I saw an exhibit of the photographs up close and a few months ago and couldn't believe how brilliant they are in real life. He shot a very famous portrait of Winston Churchill (among others) in dramatic blacks and whites. The poses are generally extremely formal but there is always a life force in the subjects' gaze that just really struck me. Churchill sits there like a huge black coat, so large that you sort of confuse positive space with negative space, but his face is there completely human.

Karsh's Sun is the first thing to notice. It's conjunct Mercury on an Aries Point. For what it's worth he's got a Cazimi Mercury. His Capricorn Sun is opposite Pluto, though, same as the guy who invented the Atomic Clock. His eye (Sun) knew how to time (Capricorn, Saturn) the lens (Mercury) of his subject which was mostly famous people (PLuto). This sense of timing is amplified ten fold by Sun-Mercury-maybe Moon square Saturn. Timing, Timing, timing. How did he get those shots anyway? Timing, timing, timing. To add to this, there was a Solar Hybrid Eclipse on Dec. 23, 1908 4:44am. That's a hell of a Sun-Mercury-maybe Moon combination.

Karsh had an opposition of Neptune (photography) to Uranus (innovation). Neptune in Cancer opposition Uranus in Capricorn. This expands out into a boat shape with a string of sextiles: Neptune sextile Jupiter 15 Virgo sextile Mars 19 Scorpio sextile Uranus. This shows great talent in the arts and technology.