Barack Hussein Obama -

The Belt-and-Braces President!

I don't really need to put up the chart of possibly the most historic Presidential inauguration since Abraham Lincoln; you will all have been looking at it with intense interest like me, and it appears earlier in the pages of Small World. But have you taken note of that five-minute difference between the expected time and the actual time when Barack Hussein Obama took his Oath of Office?

Not much has happened to that stunning radix with its Sun/Jupiter felicitously on the axis of this fine orator's reflex IC-MC/trop.Jupiter-Mercury/sidereal Uranus-Nodes and draconic Venus; but transpose the two charts into the Dwad and you could almost believe that delightful musical delay was carefully planned, to ensure that a) the Midheaven was removed from inhibiting Saturn and closer to the purposive Nodes and b) the revolutionary cluster of Mercury/Sun/Ceres in Aquarius, opposite a heroic Leo Mars, exactly configured the Ascendant, now in 9 of Scorpio. Neptune nearby already mythologises the man - and may well account for the blunder that confused the wording of the Oath and required Obama to retake it the following day. Belt and Braces!

A Second Bite at the Cherry

Many thanks to Frank Clifford for discovering the time of this second oath-taking: 7h35 pm on Wednesday January 21st in the Map Room at the White House. I have given you a biwheel here with the Sidereal inside and Tropical outside; it is worth reminding ourselves that the Sidereal is always very important in historic charts, and that here it reflects - with the massive Capricorn stellium - both the seriousness of the world situation and the unflinching realism of Obama's speech the day before. Although the chart as it stands is otherwise unexceptional, Sun and Jupiter reflex to the Midheaven, and once the sidereal and tropical are combined you see that same splendid Sun/Jupiter/Dragon's Head on the sidereal 7th, confirming the radical importance of both the man and the gesture, a man of great charisma, generosity, wisdom and promise with his feet set firmly on his spiritual path.

This will be an eventful Presidency: transiting tropical Pluto, now at the start of Capricorn, will make its way steadily over first the MC (already), then the Mercury and Sun, then Jupiter, and later the North Node of the sidereal Inauguration chart. Pluto is all about the 8th house, and tropically also rules the 7th. No surprises there, then! The world economy and ongoing conflicts will dominate his agenda. And don't forget the abortion issue - this is very sensitive and could cause some turmoil; the Roman Catholic bishops already have their hackles up.

Look again at the natal Quad-wheel for the new President - that Pluto is criss-crossing his draconic IC/sidereal Saturn/trop.Venus as the Saturn/Uranus works on the draconic Asc/Desc and that tropical Mars. Over the same period Pluto confronts the USA's tropical Venus/Jupiter conjunction, and Saturn/Uranus hits its sidereal Sun/Saturn, tropical Mars/Neptune 7th to 9th house squares!

The Solar Eclipse this Monday, January 26th, opposes Obama's Leo Sun, albeit by 6 degrees; sidereally this eclipse (that also hits the England and UK and Everything-1st-of-January Sun) falls only two degrees from the exact opposition to the USA's Sun in Cancer. My goodness, what a rattling of cages! Especially in foreign policy. Will he really be able to shake America out of its lethal paranoia?

The July 7th Lunar eclipse looks unsettling too, falling close to the USA Sun as the Dragon's Head passes over the Sun/Jupiter of the Inauguration; at the White House Mercury rises as Saturn and Ceres hug the critical Virgo IC. Over the next few months a lot of greedy, complacent, belligerent and self-serving people are going to be very upset. With the following Lunar eclipse the day before his birthday and Saturn back on his draconic Ascendant, Barack Obama could be in for a pretty rough ride.

Obama Keeps His promise

He has already made a start. At about 11h10 am on January 22nd 2009, two days after his Inauguration, Barack Obama signed the document that would, he assured the world, close for ever the infamous detention centre at Guantanamo Bay. The time could just be seen on the large wristwatch the President was wearing. Do please correct me if you have a documented time.

I have never considered myself an expert in Horary, but this chart looks highly descriptive of the event. We would hope for indicators of prisons, enemies and legislation; here we find the ruler of the 7th (open enemies) in the 12th (incarceration) rapidly applying to changes of circumstance, the conjoining Uranus/Saturn opposition. The Sagittarian Moon, effectively on the legislative 9th-house cusp, is nearly at its exact sextile with Neptune, the 12th-house ruler. The 10th-house Sun, the President himself, applies to the 9th-house ruler Jupiter by less than two degrees; in a fixed sign and an angular house this may mean he will crack on with the closure within weeks rather than months. It's Wait And See time!

Matters Topical & Sidereal ...

Long time no blog! - all down to the current crop of winter viruses (viri?...) and our old friend Saturn who is being more than usually attentive. Even raw garlic didn't work this time! Lo, tropical Pluto is now stomping along in his sign, too, so every one of us is entitled to our fair share of the prevailing Yuk.
Capricorn symptoms are beginning to show - today I learned of a new perk for underpaid office staff: UpTitling! In other words, if galloping recession erodes any chance of a pay rise, you may compensate yourself by assuming a posh and complicated new identity in the workplace such as Non-Executive Head of Temporary Finance Allocation or Director-in-Chief of Minor Stationery Enhancement. Just watch the rush up Snob Hill!
Also - more pleasantly - the Slow Food movement is (paradoxically) gathering pace, and a mood for fuzzy appointment-keeping. After the last frenetic 16 years of unbridled Jupiter-culture where every behavioural or conceptual negative was subverted to a positive with disastrous results, the globe really will get a chance to chill out and re-set its moral compass. The pendulum really is swinging at last; there is a prevalent yearning for a slower, quieter, steadier way of life within secure frameworks and with more realistic goals. We will learn to cut our collective coat according to our cloth.

The Passionate Prince

One person working as hard as ever to improve the quality of life not only of us here in the UK but all over the place, is our Passionate Prince - Charles, Prince of Wales.

The recent BBC documentary was very interesting and quite intimate - above all it illustrated for me yet again the importance of applying Sidereal charting to public figures. Yes, all the passion in his heart and the hunger for regeneration belong to his tropical Scorpio nature, and this drives him on ... but his role, the objects of his obsession, his principles are all shown elsewhere. Over and over again he stressed the importance of bringing beauty back into people's lives, the importance of balance - "It all comes back to balance." Here is the voice of the Libran Sun which is his at not just one but two levels, the Draconic (principles) and the Sidereal (role.) Instead of tropical Leo rising (conjoined by Reflex Sun and Chiron, branding him consciously a maverick Prince) there is Cancer moving him to actively care for the people whose world he can help to change. This caring nature goes very deep - in the Dwad Cancer is the sign of the Sun, sextile Uranus and trine Jupiter, constantly thinking of new ways to enhance environment and society. However this late Cancer Sun is squared by an opposition of Moon and Saturn across early Taurus-Scorpio marking his constant awareness of being son of the Queen and the unavoidable frustrations, present and future, inherent in that position. Mercury in Capricorn in the 4th pinpoints his preoccupation with the Built Environment; Chiron on the Ascendant again - the environmentalist and mentor - ensures that he will always, in his mind, be his own man.

The KleeneX Factor!

Topping the Christmas chart this year is (as planned no doubt by the musical movers and shakers) the winner of X Factor 2008. I don't usually watch this as it involves, to my untutored ear, much caterwauling; but this year I made the effort and was astonished at the quantity and liquidity of high-profile blubbing that went on at every personal set-back and every triumph, irrespective of gender!
Much of it centred on mentor Cheryl Cole, whose capacity for empathy set off fountains of self-pity and gushing gratitude from the stage; and ah, yes, a fruitful rummage in Wikipedia revealed a birthdate of June 30th 1983 - Sun Cancer trine Moon in Pisces nearly all day! Chief blubber was the eventual winner - now Hallelujah-ing in an unexpected duet/duel at pop-chart numbers 1 and 2 - Alexandra Burke. This is surprising in a Earth girl born 25th August 1988 under a Virgo Sun and a Capriquarian Moon ... but if you wind that Moon back to late Capricorn where T Jupiter was heading, at 1h10 am, she gets Sun at the IC and Cheryl's degree of Cancer rising right opposite a setting Neptune! I wonder...

What I really wanted to point out though was that as soon as she turned off the tap and started singing she turned into the Diva. And Divas are Solar. And underprivileged Virgoan Alexandra, stepping into her chosen, desperately desired role, is a Sidereal LEO.

Dragon Doodling

Let's top this off with some astrological froth! I love messing about with words, anagrams are great fun, and lately instead of counting sheep I've been rearranging some favourite phrases. Here are two of them.

First, Dragons Head -
- from which we get: Grand Shoe Ad, So Had Danger, Hard Aged Son, Rash Aged Don, Shaded Organ, Ah! Dread Song! and best of all, And Hears God! There are probably more.

Next (logically), Dragons Tail -
- which kept me awake for hours instead of sending me to sleep, because they just kept on coming! - Dagon's Trial (how apt!), Lasting Road (of course), In Gods Altar, Doing Altars, God Ra Last In, Last Adoring, Star Loading, Into Lad Rags, A Nod At Girls, I Roast Gland, ...Or Its A Gland..., Gloria Strand (are you out there, Gloria?), Altos In Drag (that would be our lot), Storing Lada (that would be the Top Gear Garage...), Glad On Stair, Aldo Staring, Roasting Lad, Rt. Diagonals, O Glad Strain! (please note the opposite of Ah, Dread Song!), A Lads Trigon, Grit On Salad (very S.Node!), Anodal Grist, Gain Old Star, In a Gold Star, Do a Starling, Trigonal Ads, Daring Altos, Gonad Trials, Atonal Grids, Dr. I Sang A Lot!, I Stand Largo, Load A String, Gads On Trail, Old Gas Train, ...As To Darling ..., Goats In Lard (the mind boggles!), Saint Or Glad, L.A. Trains Dog, Darts In Gaol, Also Trading, Losing A Dart, Lost Again, Dr.!, Ada Lost Ring, I Lost A Grand (even more S.Node!!!), I A Strong Lad, A Strong Dial, Dial Art Song, Land Gas Riot, So Garland It! Stain Old Rag, and for the Welsh-speaking Draconic astrologer, Tal Draig Nos! which means ginormous night dragon.

Email me your own anagram favourites!