The Election Draws Nigh
Zip Dobyns
As we approach the quadrennial battle for the U.S. Presidency, we are engaged in the constant struggle to get accurate birth data for the candidates. We now have exceptionally complete and good data for the Democrats, including a birth certificate time for Lloyd Bentsen from the Gauquelin Book of American Charts: February 11, 1921, in Mission TX at 2:30 A.M. CST. We have a firmer time for Michael Dukakis obtained by telephone from the hospital by Francis McEvoy: November 3, 1933 in Brookline MA at 5:50 P.M. EST. We also now have birth data for Dukakis’ wife, two daughters, daughter-in-law, and campaign manager. But the situation of the Republican candidates has worsened. A family friend had given me the time of 11:05 A.M. EDT for George Bush, but he is reported to have said that he was born at 11:38 A.M. EDT. Danforth Quayle was born on February 4, 1947 in Indianapolis , IN, but we have no birth time for him. I am playing with a Sagittarius rising chart, (south lunar node on the Ascendant), but it is strictly speculative.
I found an autobiography of Bush which gives a number of dates in his life, but have only done a partial rectification. Unfortunately, both possible times have appropriate aspects from progressed angles for the events that I had time to check. For those who would like to try their hand at rectification, Bush met his future wife at a Christmas dance in 1941. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy on his 18th birthday. His plane was shot down near the Bonin Islands in the south Pacific on September 2, 1944 and he was rescued by a submarine on which he spent the next month. He was married on January 6, 1945 in Rye, NY. Barbara Bush was born in Rye on June 8, 1925, time unknown. Their first child was born in July 1946, soon after the Bushes reached Yale. A daughter, Robin, was born in Compton, CA, probably in 1949, and died of leukemia at age 3 years and 10 months, probably in late 1953. There are three more sons and their last child is a daughter who was born on August 18, 1959. Jeb Bush, the second son who is deeply implicated in the Contra-CIA gun and drug running, was probably born in the first half of 1953. I hope in time to get additional data on the family. Bush’s father went into politics in 1950 and died on October 8, 1972.
In his public life, Bush became a Chairman for the Republicans in Harris County, Texas in 1962. In 1964 he ran for the Senate and was defeated. In 1966 he was elected to the House of Representatives from Texas and he was reelected in 1968. In 1970 he ran again for the Senate and was again defeated. President Nixon then asked him to represent the U.S. at the United Nations and this appointment was announced on December 11, 1970. He took on the job in early March 1971 and stayed there for two years. In the spring of 1973, Nixon asked him to become Chairman of the Republican National Committee and he held that position up to Nixon’s resignation in August 1974. President Ford then sent him to China where he served as U.S. Ambassador for a year. On November 1, 1975, Ford asked Bush to become the head of the CIA, and his appointment was announced on November 3, 1975. The CIA was in deep trouble at the time as word of their covert activities had leaked out; their overthrow of the democratically elected Allende in Chile to install a military dictator, their assassinations of people thought to be communist, etc. In his autobiography, Bush defends the CIA and covert activities and criticizes Congress for trying to find out what was going on and to keep it under control. Bush stayed with the CIA for a year, took a couple of years off, and entered the race for the Presidency on May 1, 1979.
Additional data which might throw light on the election came from Rick Ostrander and Marian March. At the New Orleans Convention, the number of delegate votes needed to clinch Bush’s nomination was reached at 11:09 P.M. CDT on August 17, 1988. Pluto was on the Descendant within 8 minutes of longitude. (I wonder whether it is significant that in the noon chart for the Inauguration on January 20, 1989 Pluto is on the Descendant within just over one degree?) Returning to the Bush nomination chart, the Sun was quincunx and the Moon square the MC. The Ascendant was sextile Venus and in a grand trine to Mercury and Neptune. Venus was also in a close cardinal T square to Neptune and Mars. The mixture of stress and harmony aspects could suggest either losing the election or winning it and having a tough time in the office.
Quayle was invited to be the candidate for Vice President on August 16, 1988 at 2:06 P.M. CDT in New Orleans. The choice was announced to the public at 3:51 P.M. the same day. In the announcement chart, Saturn was conjunct the Ascendant within two degrees with Uranus just over a degree beyond it. Mars was conjunct the IC within two degrees in a cardinal cross: square the first house East Point-Neptune, opposite the tenth house Moon, and square the seventh house Venus. Pluto was octile the Ascendant within one degree. The Sun was trine the Ascendant from the eighth house within five minutes of longitude but also formed octiles and trioctiles to the cardinal cross. The aspects certainly fit the uproar which has followed Quayle ever since his past began coming out.
On Election Day, the first polling place to open is Dixville Notch, New Hampshire. Traditionally, they open at midnight and vote Republican. The chart has zero Virgo rising quincunx Mars in the eighth house at zero Aries. The Moon at zero Scorpio completes a yod to Mars-Ascendant and forms a second wider yod to Jupiter in 3 Gemini in the tenth house and a third yod including Saturn at 29 Sagittarius. Yods typically are associated with major turning points and movement in new directions. The tension in the chart might relate to the Party in power in the country, or to the Party ahead in the polls at that time, or to the local voter preferences, or to the coming challenges which will face whichever candidates win the contest, and/or many other possibilities. The Moon is at the midpoint of Vesta and Mercury and in the third house, so the role of the media is clearly important. Pluto and Sun are also in the third house along with the asteroid Washingtonia which is just short of the IC. The heliocentric (H) positions are more encouraging to the initial voters with H Mars at zero Taurus and H Uranus at zero Capricorn forming an exact grand trine with the Ascendant. Since both Mars and Uranus are associated with change, we can hope that the trines just mean that the Party in power is moving out gracefully.
By the time the polls close in Hawaii, it will be 1 A.M. in Washington, DC. A chart for that time puts Jupiter on the MC within one degree, with the Moon conjunct Pluto and just four degrees from the Sun, approaching a new moon. ??? Astrological tradition associates the Republicans with Jupiter, and says that when it is closest to the MC they will win. But some astrologers think that since Jupiter is retrograde, that counteracts its favorable position. ??? Mercury rules both the MC and the Ascendant and is sextile the Ascendant but H Mercury squares Uranus-Saturn. The Ascendant is in the middle of the possible Ascendants for George Bush, and exactly conjunct Halley’s Comet! I have written before about Halley being on Bush’s natal Ascendant on Super Tuesday and on Inauguration day January 20, 1989. The new (self-reported) time for Bush puts his local (Washington, DC) Ascendant just over a degree away from Halley on those dates, so the contact is still there but not as close as in the 11:05 chart.
A chart calculated for noon on January 20, 1989 puts the south node of the Moon on the poll-closing-Ascendant with Juno on Bush’s new Ascendant. As was mentioned above, Pluto is on the Descendant with an orb of just over one degree. All of these aspects highlight the importance of relationships in the new administration. Both candidates are emphasizing support for families. The signs involved (Virgo and Scorpio) point to attention centered on jobs and finances, including debt. We don’t need astrology to tell us that, but Pluto that close to an angle is like an exclamation mark.
The Libra Ingress chart for September 22, 1988 in Washington, DC has Pluto on the MC within a degree and a half. Also on that Pluto and/or MC are the asteroids Rockefellia (noted for banks and oil), Herberta (named for Herbert Hoover, our famous depression President), and Athene, patron goddess of Athens. Juno and Sisyphus (who kept rolling the rock up the hill) are square from Leo in the seventh house, and Arachne (who was turned into a spider), Lucifer (possibly associated with knowledge and defiance of God’s monopoly on it), and Nipponia (Japan) square MC-Pluto from Aquarius in the first house. Saturn-Uranus form octiles and trioctiles to this massive fixed T square in addition to squaring the Sun. Hooveria is in Scorpio in the tenth house approaching an opposition to a retrograde America in Taurus in the fourth house, and ARA is also in Taurus in the fourth house trine the Sun but quincunx Saturn-Uranus.
Herberta, Hooveria, America, and ARA were all named in honor of Herbert Hoover, and I am watching them as possible keys to the economy. As Seraphita wrote in her first contribution on asteroid names which appeared in Asteroid-World, these four asteroids were named in gratitude for Hoover’s leadership in various projects providing humanitarian aid to countries that were economically distressed. U.S. citizens who only associate Hoover with a do-nothing attitude in our great depression of the 1930s are astonished to hear that in Europe he is famous as a savior. Judy Johns, an L.A. astrologer who specializes in mundane astrology, suggests that the Libra Ingress chart with Pluto on the MC might point to a terrorist attempt on a U.S. leader. I suspect that the chart points to an economic challenge this fall, but of course political violence is also possible. As one small sidelight, the asteroid Indiana is at two Pisces in the Libra Ingress, conjunct Bush’s natal Vesta and P Mars in his sixth house of work. Quayle (from Indiana) is clearly influencing Bush’s job prospects.
Returning to the Inauguration chart (tentative since the actual oath of office may not occur exactly at noon), Urania is on the MC and Icarus is just two degrees past it, at the midpoint of MC/Sun. I progressed the chart to the fall of 1989 when Bush’s chart suggests a challenge to his reputation and power, and the inauguration P Moon will be on the IC, opposite Urania but sextile the rising Jupiter. P Ascendant is opposite natal and P Pluto to the minute of longitude. P East Point and P Mars hold a square to natal Sun through 1989 and possibly through the whole four years of one term but they also move into a trine to Uranus by 1990. They also stay conjunct four asteroids: Dudu (Plutonian), Tezcatlipoca (Aztec war god), Phaethon (who overreached and crashed), and Jackson (Jesse?). Washingtonia is octile-trioctile the Sun-Mars-East Point etc. combination. The network of aspects certainly looks like a power struggle with the economy centrally involved. P Ascendant reaches natal America in 1990. Natal ARA is on the Ascendant within one minute of longitude with Venus trine both. Hooveria is on Neptune with both trioctile the rising Jupiter in Taurus. The ninth house Saturn in Capricorn (lessons involving faith and morals?) is trioctile the first house Fanatica and Karl Marx in Taurus so we will still be dealing with fanatical Communists and anti-Communists.
I keep thinking that one more chart may provide the definitive clue to the outcome of the election as Carter’s kinetic solar returns did for the 1980 election. But solar returns are useless unless the birth time is really precise. Secondary progressions and solar arc directions can be used even without a time of birth. We just lack house positions and a degree for the Moon. In secondaries, Quayle has P Sun trine P Jupiter, P Venus conjunct natal Sun, and P Pluto sextile Neptune, regardless of birth time. As usual, some of his asteroids are fascinating or humorous. P Uranus stays quincunx his natal America as well as octile P Saturn and conjunct Bourgeois which is one degree past Fama. P Icarus is on natal Mars, a strong suggestion of overreach when Icarus is conjunct a fire planet, but it is also sextile-trine the lunar nodes which could mean he will win the good will or sympathy of the public. Jupiter in Scorpio could make money or sensuality or power into supreme values, especially when we add its conjunctions to Panacea (a cure-all), Eros (love), Rockefellia (banking and big money from oil), with Pele (goddess of a volcano) perhaps pointing to the power issue. Natal south node of the Moon (a lesson and then an obligation to give something that we have learned) is on Gaea (earth), Universitas, and Hooveria. Quayle did learn to study eventually after a mediocre university career, and the people of earth have been informed of that fact. He may still face lessons around spiritual values, morality, and the effective application of his intelligence. P south node remains on his natal Indiana for lessons and obligations involving his home state.
Many other asteroids might be cited, including P Nipponia on Pallas and P Tokio on Saturn, both suggesting a political role involving Japan. Natal Mercury on Epimetheus (who looked back) would fit the media investigation of his past. P Arabia on Vesta and P Fanatica just coming to it would also fit his moving into a job that involved foreign affairs, adding the Near East to the Far East locus of attention. Looking at more traditional factors, P Mars is on P Mercury in Pisces in a double quincunx (yod) to Neptune and P Pluto. Quayle might change his views on ethical issues but it seems more likely that he would change his handling of power and personal action. So we have to conclude that he might win. Or, with P Siva (the destroyer of the Hindu trinity which includes a creator and preserver) on P Juno and natal Venus, he might pull down his partner, George Bush. So far, I don’t see any obvious answers, and the opinions at the ISAR conference in mid-August were similarly divided. A majority gave the edge to Dukakis but a vocal minority thought Bush would win. Since the opinions were given while the polls still gave a sizable edge to Dukakis, it is hard to judge how many people were influenced by them. With Bush now ahead in the polls following the Republican convention, some astrologers may be re-thinking their views.
The background stories about Quayle continue to appear, from the choice of the National Guard to avoid service in Vietnam to a possible flirtation with Paula Parkinson to poor grades in school and persuasion to gain admittance to law school to an inflated resume which claimed two years of experience in a job he actually held for two months. The use of family influence to get in the Guard was not needed since the record shows that there were openings when Quayle applied, and some evidence suggests that Paula is a highly unreliable witness. But many people still feel that Quayle is not qualified to be a “heartbeat away from the Presidency.” He is also implicated in the Contra-CIA guns and drugs affair. According to Rob Owen’s testimony before Congress, Quayle’s office was used for meetings with Contra leaders and U.S. government intermediaries during the period of the Boland Amendment when this was illegal. Quayle denies this though he acknowledges that Owen had previously worked for him. John Hull, among others, still claims U.S. citizenship as one of Quayle’s constituents in Indiana. His ranch in Costa Rica was a major resource for the Contras and CIA in their exchange of weapons for drugs. Hull is a primary figure in the Christic lawsuit. The latest revelation is his use of the public relations firm that also worked for Noriega and other dubious power figures.
With the owners of the major media (including Quayle’s grandfather, Pulliam, in his day) a part of the ruling elite of the U.S., only a limited amount of information has appeared in the establishment press, but liberal (or just honest and brave) reporters manage to get some items printed from time to time. For example, the Wall Street Journal had a front page article on August 8, 1988 about Miguel Recarey Jr. who ran America’s largest health-maintenance organization for the elderly. Recarey got millions from the U.S. government for sub-standard care of the elderly. He was invited repeatedly to the White House during Reagan’s terms of office. He had ties to a variety of underworld bosses and fugitives along with Contra leaders and former CIA personnel, and he gave generously to politicians who reciprocated by defending him when officials questioned the adequacy of his health services. One of his defenders who called officials in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was Jeb Bush, George Bush’s second son who lives in Miami. Recarey was finally charged with a variety of misdeeds, but curiously he was given an early tax rebate of 2.2 million dollars, allowed to keep his passport, and freed without bail. Needless to say, he did not show up for his trial. He left 222 million in unpaid bills and is reported to be in Venezuela but the local U.S. Ambassador says he doesn’t know anyone by that name.
Mostly, I keep up with what’s happening through the alternative press and the Christic efforts to inform the citizens of the U.S. The probability that Quayle and Bush were involved together in the CIA-Contra supply provides us with another reason for his choice as running mate. It might also help protect Bush against any threat of impeachment if the full story comes out while he is President. (Of course that is dependent on his bring elected.) Unless both Bush and Quayle were removed at the same time, few would want to trade Bush for Quayle. The issue is probably academic since I can’t see any threat in Bush’s chart that is serious enough to remove him from office if he does win it. Nor have I ever been able to see North in jail. His chart (subject to an uncertain time of birth) shows stress but also fame and money. He is still a hero to many people.
One of the most bizarre Bush stories comes from the August Political Report of Ron Paul, a Libertarian newsletter writer who is also an M.D. Paul describes a secret Order called Skull & Bones which is said to have been founded in 1832 and to be based at Yale University. Paul quotes Rosenbaum in Esquire as stating that Skull & Bones specializes in “converting idle progeny of the ruling class into morally serious leaders of the establishment.” Paul writes that “Each year, 15 students at Yale are chosen by the Order for initiation. But the Order is no typical Greek organization. It inducts you into America’s power elite, including banks, corporations, and the permanent government. When a student is inducted, he receives a check for $15,000. For the rest of his life, he is assured of a high-paying, high-prestige job.” p. 2.
Members are said to be under oath to reveal nothing, so I’m not sure of the source of Paul’s material, but he describes a weird initiation which includes being plunged into a mud pile and beaten to symbolize death, then carried in a coffin full of human bones in a room full of Satanic symbols. Initiates have to swear total secrecy and reveal all personal secrets which can then be used to maintain internal control. Bush’s father is said to have been a member, and other famous members of the Order are mentioned, including arch conservative writer William F. Buckley, Jr. Buckley is said to be the only person to be a member of all the elite U.S. organizations; the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Bohemian Grove and Skull & Bones. Bush will not confirm or deny that he is a Bonesman.
Another interesting Bush article appeared in the Wall Street Journal on August 18, 1988. The potential of bias is certainly present since the writer, Alexander Cockburn, is a far left liberal who appears regularly in one of my alternative sources, the L.A. Weekly. It is to the credit of the conservative Wall St. Journal that they print him occasionally. In the August 18 column, Cockburn describes four different versions of what happened when Bush was shot down during World War II. Bush gave one version in his autobiography and a different one in an extensive interview. A New York Times article gave another version, and two gunners in the plane behind Bush’s plane who had a clear view of the action contradict all of the preceding. They did not see any flames and saw only one small puff of smoke when Bush’s plane was hit. They did not see any other crew member bail out as the navy report claimed. They think that Bush bailed out prematurely and let the other two crew members crash with the plane when he might have landed it and given them all a chance. We can all wonder whether we would have had the courage to stay with a damaged plane but in his autobiography, Bush makes the point that his fellow crew members that day were close friends.
A chart for the day Bush was shot down (time and place only rough approximations) has Mars closely conjunct Neptune in early Libra and very widely square Saturn in Cancer. Ceres, Jupiter and Sun are conjunct in Virgo sextile Saturn and semisextile Pluto. Mercury conjuncts Chiron later in Virgo and squares Juno in Gemini, which is widely conjunct Uranus. The Moon in late Aquarius is in a double quincunx (yod) to Venus and the lunar north node. The combinations fit emotional stress with a high focus on the issue of faith (it could be present or missing and a problem). A separation from relationships is possible with the yod. The Sun was exactly on the Ascendant of Bush’s chart when it is calculated for the 11:38 time that he has given out, and Jupiter is just over a degree away, so that supports the chart with nine Virgo rising.
Our CCRS astrology program is in the process of an unusually extensive revision and one of the new routines being added is a “rectification assist.” It will permit one to display a potential chart on the monitor screen and keep changing the time (or other variables) to explore possibilities. Both natal and progressed positions are displayed, with a small ‘p’ to indicate the progressed planets or angles. You can also have the screen version sent to the disk file and printed out any time you think it worth while. You can also print out the four angles (MC, Ascendant, East Point, and Antivertex) and the Moon, both natal and progressed positions, for any of a series of event dates in the person’s life. The computer divides any birth time interval you give it into 60 equal parts and calculates the angles and Moon for each of them. If you know the time within an hour, you get the Moon and angles for each minute. If you have no time in the 24 hour day, the computer calculates the Moon and angles at 24 minute intervals through the day. You can also use the new routine to pick a chart in electional astrology when you are choosing a date and time to take some future action. There is also an astrological clock that lets you see exactly what is going on in the sky at any moment so you can watch the angles and planets change minute by minute.
With all the above help, it still takes time to rectify a chart and time just disappears through my fingers. I have done progressions for several of Bush’s major events for both possible birth times and am leaning toward the later (11:38) time but am still far from sure just as I have been leaning toward thinking he will be elected since I discovered the prominence of Halley’s comet. If he was born just a fraction of a minute earlier than the 11:38 his P Moon would be on his Descendant on Election Day which fits taking on a new public role. P Moon will trine P Venus and Pluto by the Inauguration. He would be coming into the new office with several quincunxes involving progressed angles which would fit a time of change. Also, projects started with quincunxes often prove to be of short duration. P Ascendant is square P local MC and quincunx natal local MC. P local MC is also quincunx Vesta and P Mars in the work house while P local East Point is quincunx natal MC. P Venus is also quincunx P Jupiter in the fourth house fitting a change of residence but that will occur regardless of the outcome of the election. Shifting the birth time back just a fraction of a minute would also keep the P MC in orb to an octile with the Sun and a trioctile with Uranus. Leaving the time at 11:38 gives a P MC trine to P Antivertex as the only classic aspect (and the Antivertex is certainly not classic) but there are noviles and septiles to the P MC. Still, the weakness of the aspects to the P MC keeps the accuracy of this time in question along with the outcome of the election itself.
With all the Dukakis family charts, we should be able to judge whether Michael will be moving to the White House in January, but the aspects look so mixed, I am reluctant to be dogmatic about the prospects. The two Dukakis daughters have more conflict than harmony aspects, and Baker (Bush’s campaign manager) has more harmony aspects that Estridge (Dukakis’ campaign manager). (Parenthetically, Judy Johns, an expert on mundane astrology, has studied the charts of presidential candidates back to 1900 and claims that the person with the most stress aspects has always won.) I have done tertiary and minor progressions, three types of arc directions, and four variations on solar returns for Dukakis and for both birth times for Bush. In the majority of the charts, it seems to me that Bush has the edge. In the end, after all of our techniques, we still have to wait and see.
Andrea Dukakis; November 10, 1965, 6:33 A.M. EST, Boston, MA
Kara Dukakis; November 4, 1968, 10:44 P.M. EST, Boston, MA
Lisa T Dukakis; January 23, 1956, 9:35 A.M. EST, Scituate, MA
Susan Estridge; December 16, 1952, 5:15 P.M. EST, Lynn, MA