A Time for Barbara Bush

Zip Dobyns

Three cheers for Fran McEvoy, one of our super data sleuths. Fran has acquired a birth time for Barbara Bush from a source who does not want to be identified. I’ve done some preliminary work with the chart, and it looks like a reasonable possibility. I was pretty sure that Barbara was born in the afternoon or evening, since in spite of a public life due to her husband’s career, she has centered her life in her relationships: home, family, and mate. Since she was born into a family with money, and married a man who provided her financial needs, I also expected a strong eighth house or Pluto, perhaps including a two-eight polarity emphasis. Another strong possibility was a fire focus (especially from letters one and five, for personal power) placed in the seventh and/or eighth houses. It might include Sun, Mars, Aries, Leo, or rulers of the signs in the first house, since she has remained dependent on her husband all her life.

A horoscope calculated for Fran’s data, June 8, 1925, at 7 P.M. EDT in Rye, N.Y., fits all of the above speculations. Both Sun and Mars as well as Leo are in the partnership houses, showing the potential for projecting personal power into the mate, and Saturn which rules a corner of the first house is in Scorpio, one of the signs of partnership. Juno, the marriage asteroid, is in Sagittarius in the first house further supporting a personal focus on marriage, with a tendency to idealize marriage or the mate or to look for the ideal mate. Jupiter, the Ascendant ruler, is conjunct the Moon, fitting the identification with home and family and motherhood. The close conjunction of the Moon with the Antivertex (an auxiliary Ascendant) is further support for the family focus.

But there are other factors which contrast with the relationship emphasis in the chart, including the Sagittarius Ascendant and the placement of its ruler in Capricorn in the second house. Barbara Bush is reported to be reserved, fitting the Capricorn, but also blunt when she does open up, fitting the Sagittarius. She has a grand trine in earth with her Virgo MC aspecting Vesta in Taurus in the sixth house of work and her Capricorn stellium in the Taurus house. She is clearly a practical, competent person who could have earned her own living and is quite capable of managing the physical world. The south lunar node in the second house suggests that one of her lessons in this lifetime was to discover her own ability to be self-sufficient and independent in handling money and material possessions. She may well have developed her ability and confidence in the early years of her marriage when she was caring for several small children while her husband was working his way up in the oil business.

As our readers probably know, the Bush’s lost one child; a daughter who died at age three of leukemia. I think that the death occurred in late 1953, but I do not have a definite date for it. Barbara has Chiron in Aries in the fifth house of children, along with Pallas in Taurus in a close opposition to Saturn in the eleventh house which symbolizes our partner’s children (among many other potentials). Mars, ruler of the fifth house Aries, is in Cancer in the eighth house opposite the Capricorn stellium. Oppositions involving Scorpio and/or the eighth house and/or Pluto with planets in or ruling the fifth house can indicate a possible problem with children. Of course, many details are possible. The parents might separate, there might be poverty, the children or the parents might have health problems which put pressure on others in the family, etc. Aspects involving Saturn and/or Capricorn indicate lessons in being realistic about duties and responsibilities. At one extreme, the parent might evade responsibility and have to learn to handle it. At the other extreme, the parent might be learning the limits of their own power; that they can’t change another human being, or live for them. The presence of Aries and Mars in the configuration is the other side of the coin. They represent personal power while letter ten represents the limits of personal power. We have to learn to do what we can and should do and then let go.

One lesson of letter eight (Pluto, Scorpio, eighth house) involves knowing when and how to let go and let someone else do his or her share. Letter eight is similar to letter ten (Saturn, Capricorn, tenth house) in that it symbolizes areas of life where personal power is limited, whether voluntarily or with a struggle, but letter eight represents the power of peers, of equal human beings, while letter ten is authority figures and the LAW, cultural or natural. The presence of Chiron in the fifth house and Pisces in the fourth house connects home and family to faith and ideals. If we over-value a part of life, we often lose it to force us to find a bigger god. Letters nine and twelve can also force us to accept the limits of personal power (or the power of money) and to put our faith in a higher power. If we have faith in God, we do what we can and then trust that it will be OK. Barbara’s Sun conjunct Ceres usually indicates a strong emotional urge to be a mother, and she has five living children in addition to several grandchildren. Though Aries tends to have one and Gemini tends to have two, her Mars in Cancer and Taurus in the fifth house can indicate a large family.

Uranus in the fourth house fits the frequent changes of residence of the family, and the placement of Neptune which rules the fourth house in the ninth house shows the potential for living in another country as they did in Beijing when George was Ambassador to China. Barbara’s local house cusps in Washington, DC do not change much from Rye, but her Ascendant is shifted back to 29 Scorpio 47, putting it right on the Ascendant of our U.S. Constitution. Other exact aspects between her chart and our Constitution include her local MC opposite the Constitution Saturn and Sun, her natal Ascendant on the Constitution north node of the Moon, and her Mercury on the Constitution Moon. I think that there is no doubt that the term of office of George (and Barbara) Bush will have long term effects on our government and on the people of our country.

Barbara’s chart also connects to George’s horoscope using the time of birth which he gave: 11:38 A.M. EDT. Barbara’s Ascendant and local Ascendant are on George’s Mercury and his local (Washington, DC) MC. For years, her progressed (P) Juno hovered near his IC while his P Jupiter hovered near her natal Juno in his fourth house of home and family. Barbara also had appropriate aspects for the election success in November 1988 when she inherited the role of First Lady. Her P Venus was conjunct her natal MC, asteroid P Washingtonia was conjunct her local MC, and her P local Ascendant was conjunct natal Jupiter. Among her other asteroid aspects are natal Atlantis conjunct the Sun and P Atlantis conjunct natal Mars! There will be plenty of power struggles during the Bush term of office, over banks, drugs, defense spending, nuclear and other pollution of the environment etc. Barbara also has Sita exactly on her natal Juno. Sita is the Hindu model of a devoted and self-sacrificial wife. Asteroid China is on natal Pluto and P Pluto is on natal Barbara and P Arabia. It is also in a long term trioctile to her local Ascendant, a quincunx to natal Columbia and an opposition to P Jupiter. Obviously, when George is concerned with drugs from Columbia and the Middle East Arabs who hold America hostages, Barbara shares his concern. To further accentuate the tension of our times, P Fanatica is on Barbara’s north node of the Moon and natal Winchester is on both of her Ascendants. I have found Winchester prominent in many charts involving guns. George has supported the gun lobby in the U.S. until the recent rash of killings with automatic rifles. He is now supporting a ban on importations of these assault guns which are certainly not designed for hunting animals but are increasingly being used in gang wars and drug crimes which often kill innocent bystanders.

I was very eager to see the aspects for this fall, since George’s chart and the Declaration of Independence are so conflicted. Barbara has her P Moon opposite her natal and local Ascendants all fall and into January 1990. She also has P Sun reaching a conjunction with Neptune in early December 1989. P Mars is holding a square to her local and then her natal Ascendant until January 1994, so the tension is not going to disappear. A stress aspect between Mars and the Ascendant is common with surgery. P Vesta also remains on her Sun up to January 1991, fitting both her new job as First Lady and her health concerns with her thyroid. It was also square natal MC and P Venus when Barbara had the thyroid surgery. Still, there are also protective aspects including P Pluto holding a long sextile to the local MC and Jupiter holding a long trine to it while P Mercury, which just turned retrograde the week that George was inaugurated as President, holds a long sextile to Saturn and a trine to Pallas. P Mars is also sextile Venus and P America.

Barbara will have P Venus trine Jupiter in 1991-2 as well as P MC sextile Jupiter, and then Venus moves into a trine to Vesta. It is quite possible that George will be reelected in 1992 but I would not make any forecast till we see who runs against him and what has happened to the country in the next three years. 1994 is the year in which Barbara’s chart suggests dramatic changes when three major aspects all come into orb to P Uranus: a quincunx from P Sun, an opposition from P Venus, and a trioctile from P Saturn. P Venus will also still be octile Saturn and trioctile Pallas. P Mars will have ended the square to the Ascendant but will start a quincunx to P south node of the Moon. P MC and P Sun (which hold a lifetime square) will still be in a T-square to Vesta and ending the conjunction and square to P Neptune in mid-year. Local P MC will be trine Mars and P Ceres but quincunx natal Ceres. P Ascendant will be quincunx Venus and P L Ascendant will square Chiron. There are many other aspects, but lists of aspects get pretty boring.

I have not been able to decide whether the challenges involve Barbara herself, George, or another family member. There are challenging aspects in George’s chart, but they do not seem as dramatic as Barbara’s. Since the aspects start in 1994, they will extend through 1995, so that might be the actual year of change. George’s P MC will be conjunct Halley’s Comet during both years, suggesting power issues, and his P Sun starts a square to Mercury in the summer of 1994, but that is normally not as serious as his P Sun opposite Mars in 1990-1 and opposite P Vesta from spring 1992-4. The latter aspects could indicate a change of job if he is defeated for reelection, but he also has a nice sextile from P Sun to natal and P Saturn for sustained power. P Venus also stays conjunct P Pluto into the spring of 1994. Its quincunx to Jupiter could indicate a change of home (if he is defeated in 1992) or mixed feelings on the part of the American public and lots of travel, both of which are inevitable with that job.

I have recently revised my booklet on Working with Local Space which was published by ACS. I had used the U.S. Constitution as an example and found after publication that we had been on local apparent time (LAT) rather than LMT in 1789. Though the change was not large, some of the planetary lines pointing to cities did shift. While I was reworking the book, I also took out the section on Reagan’s chart and substituted George Bush as an example. I was still using the early morning time for Reagan when I did the Local Space book, and recent evidence suggests that he was born in the early afternoon, so his insistence that he was born in the “pre-dawn hours” was just another of his lies. Bush turned out to be a good example, so I thought I would include some of the material in The Mutable Dilemma.

For new readers, Local Space is the popular term for the Horizon Coordinate System in astronomy. To map a sphere (the sky), we measure around a circle and up and down from the circle. Normal horoscopes map the planetary positions by measuring around the ecliptic, the earth’s path around the sun. This is called the Ecliptic System. The Equatorial System measures around earth’s equator. Few astrologers use Right Ascension, the resulting measurement, but many use Declination which measures how far the planets are north and south of the equator. In the Horizon Coordinate System, astronomers measure around the horizon (azimuth) and up and down from the horizon (altitude). The Horizon System is used for visual observations. If a planet is mapped as twelve degrees east of north, as seen on a compass, you can go out and see it in the sky in that direction, assuming you don’t live in a smoggy, brightly lighted city. You can also calculate which cities are in line with a planet, or forming some other aspect to the planetary “line.” For example, when we bombed Libya, a chart set in Washington, DC for the moment of the attack had Tripoli on the line pointing to Mars.

Since the earth, like space, curves, the city lines have to be calculated as part of the computer program which does the planets. When our Constitution is calculated for Washington, DC, the line pointing to Pluto runs up the east coast through Philadelphia, Princeton, New York, Boston, and on across the ocean to pass over Dublin, London, Paris, Brussels, The Hague, Bonn, Zurich, Rome, Cairo, Beirut, Damascus, Jerusalem and Riyadh. The shadow of our power hangs over the capitals of many countries of the world. In Bush’s chart calculated for Washington, DC, his Saturn line follows the same route! His Mars line runs through Midland and Odessa, Texas where he began his career in oil after graduating from college. From Barbara’s birthplace of Rye, NY, George’s birthplace of Milton, MA is trine her Mercury, Pallas, Vesta and MC, sextile her Ascendant, semisextile her Jupiter, quincunx her Mars, and trioctile her Venus. I have not found the local space aspects as useful and reliable as normal zodiacal longitude, but they do offer another way to describe our world.

I have been playing with another new technique in the past few days: planetary arcs. Mark was revising the CCRS computer program, adding the capacity to define and get any kind of arc of direction where the whole chart is turned like a wheel with everything moving the same distance. The most commonly used arc is the solar arc; the distance the progressed Sun has moved from the natal Sun. I had done a little experimenting with planetary arcs derived in the same way, calculating how far each progressed planet had moved from its natal position for a given period in one’s life. One can get interesting information by noting an arc which produces many aspects from the directed planets back to the natal positions and then checking to see one’s age when different planets traveled that distance. For example, in my own chart, arcs of about 17 degrees and about 34 degrees of movement produce a lot of aspects. When my P Moon had gone 17 degrees, my first brother was born, and I was no longer an only child. Of course, my home and relationship to my mother changed. When my P Mercury had traveled 17 degrees, we were into the big depression and my brothers and I were moved from a private to a public school. Mercury rules my second house (money) in addition to its normal association with studies. When my P Sun moved 17 degrees, I had my only major surgery, graduated from high school and started college. My natal Sun is in Virgo in a T-square, and the 17 degree movement put it quincunx the south lunar node in Aries in the twelfth house. When my P Mars had traveled 17 degrees, I married. Mars is co-ruler of Scorpio on the cusp of my seventh house and the 17 degree movement put it conjunct my natal Sun and Ceres.

The CCRS program will now calculate all of the planetary arcs in addition to Harmonic, Solar, Ascendant, Vertex, and other arcs, so I tried out the new feature on the Bush charts. Since the 1994 period looked as if home and relationships were involved in the possible changes, I did the Juno arcs (our major key to mate) and put them in the outer circle around the natal chart. George’s P Juno is holding a long conjunction with his natal Moon as well as a square to natal Venus. The length of the arc aspects depends on the speed of the body used to calculate the arc. Normally, progressed asteroids move no more than a half degree a year, so aspects last longer than they do with solar arcs where the P Sun moves almost exactly one degree a year so all aspects last two years. There are many separation aspects (quincunxes and oppositions) between the directed planets and the natal planets in the Juno arc directions, but there are also a lot of trines. Barbara’s P Juno was retrograde at birth and in 1994 it will still be six degrees earlier than its natal position. This gives us an interesting converse (backwards) direction with all planets six degrees earlier than their natal positions. As in George’s chart, there are both many separation aspects and many trines. I ended up feeling very inconclusive about the picture. The stress aspects may simply indicate the inevitable stress in the job of being President and First Lady in a very turbulent time. I will include the charts with the Juno arcs to let readers see if they can figure out what might be going on. Remember that Barbara will have many of these aspects for years since her P Juno turned direct at about age 52-3 at 4 Scorpio 34 so it has hardly moved in many years. 1977 was the year that George completed his term as head of the CIA. In 1979, he began campaigning for the Presidency.

I have obviously just started to explore the potentials of this new technique. It does seem that everything “works,” that you can do anything systematic to the sky and it will still show you the same meaning in a slightly different way.

Copyright © 1989 Los Angeles Community Church of Religious Science, Inc.

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