Gramm Versus Dole

Zip Dobyns

We looked at Robert Dole’s chances to win the U.S. presidency in 1996, and he seems to be a strong contender. Since writing the Pisces issue of The Mutable Dilemma, I have done more work with the January 20, 1997 inauguration chart, and the asteroids in it also support Dole. I tried a speculative time for Gramm in the last Mutable Dilemma, but I did not have many events in his life and I guessed wrong. We now have his birth certificate time thanks to Lois Rodden. Her latest Data News was a bonanza! It was full of data I wanted—so much, I haven’t had time to process much of it as yet. But since Gramm seems to the next in line after Dole among the Republican contenders, we’ll check him out and do the others as time and space permits. Pat Buchanan, Robert Dornan, and Lamar Alexander were among the “treasures” in the last Data News. For any of our readers who want to get their data “hot off the griddle,” you can subscribe to Data News for $17 a year. Write to Lois at 11736 3rd. St, Yucaipa, CA 92399.

Philip Gramm was born on July 8, 1942 at 9:32 P.M. EWT in Fort Benning, GA. In light of his ambition, I guessed Scorpio rising and Mars in Leo in his tenth house. Instead of Mars in the tenth house, he has another form of the one-ten combination—Capricorn rising. To further strengthen his identification with his career, he has Vesta in the first house and it has retrograded back into Capricorn to sit on his natal Ascendant for some years. The combination can be focused on work-related goals to the point of being ruthless. Also, the tendency toward a life of power struggles is amplified by Mars in the seventh house and Neptune, ruler of the first house Pisces, in the eighth house. As our readers know by now, putting keys to personal power (any form of letter one) in the seventh or eighth sign or house is experienced as a need for caution to avoid letting other people dominate our lives.

Very weak people can react to that feeling by giving in and trying to placate others, hoping they will like us and take care of us. Strong people (but not strong enough to feel secure) can try to keep all the power. Those with just a little strength may choose to run away from a close relationship. The more positive alternatives include giving up some of the power in order to cooperate, to have teamwork. Alternately, healthy competition can keep the power struggle constructive in sports, games, business, or fighting for causes. To be healthy, competition must be carried out within socially acceptable rules and we have to win sometimes and lose sometimes but not take it too seriously. A third alternative is to help other people, but this should be done “professionally”. If personal, peer relationships are too one-sided, they become destructive. They have to include giving and receiving.

Gramm seems to have found at least a partial solution to this power issue. Politics is a highly competitive form of “business” though I am not sure how “fair” Gramm is in his fighting. There are stories, as I wrote in the last Mutable Dilemma, of his tendency to say one thing and do another when his personal advantage is at stake. I do not know the details of Gramm’s first marriage, but his current one is to a strong and successful Korean-American woman. Her career helps her to sustain a measure of equality but her background makes her work harder for this.

Despite all his Gemini and Leo, Gramm impresses one as a bulldog with his teeth dug into his target. Saturn and Uranus, which rule his first house signs, are in Gemini in the fourth house, and the security needs of the Cancer house seem to have overshadowed the potential of Gemini for lightness. With Venus and Mercury in Gemini in the fifth house, I would have expected more lightness and humor and dramatic flair—especially when added to all the Leo in the seventh house. But in the sound bites I have seen of Gramm, he seems heavy and confrontational. I must admit, I have never watched him in anything except sound-bites and maybe they do not do him justice. But I find his views so alien and offensive, I can’t handle any more of him.

There is always the potential for projecting the parts of our nature which are in the seventh or eighth houses or signs and Gramm certainly seems to be doing that with Neptune. I have never seen a hint of empathy in him but he works hard to win the favor of the religious right. Leo or the Sun (or any form of letter five) in the seventh or eighth house or sign can add to the paranoid potential of any form of letter one there. Letter five wants approval, applause, to be noticed and admired, so these 5-7 or 5-8 combinations tend to feel vulnerable to the opinions of others and they can react with any of the six variations described above for 1-7 and 1-8 mixtures. This power issue was reinforced when Gramm was about 11 to 12 years old when his P Sun moved into his seventh house and, soon afterwards, into Leo. About seven years ago, P Sun moved into Virgo to heighten his work ambitions, and at the end of 1996 it reaches Gramm’s eighth house cusp. He is already loudly calling for reductions in taxes, government deficits, and any help to people in need other than what “pork” he can garner for his home state of Texas, so I’m not sure how he might change his current handling of those eighth house issues.

I was interested to note that the two asteroids with variations on the name “Philip” were just outside my one-degree orb in aspects to Gramm’s local angles in Washington, DC. Gramm’s natal Philippina was in 23 Taurus 24 and his Washington MC is 24 Scorpio 41. Philippa was 2 Cancer 23 and his Washington Ascendant is 3 Aquarius 32. His time looks as if it was precisely recorded, but if it were one minute earlier, these aspects would be exact. I would not change the chart but would keep in mind that the angles might be a fraction of a degree earlier.

We also have two variations on Robert: Roberta and Roberts, for Gramm’s main rival. I was intrigued to find that they each had a harmony aspect in Gramm’s natal chart. Roberta was 26 Scorpio 35 in a sextile to Neptune while Roberts was 24 Cancer 6 with a trine to Gramm’s local MC and a sextile to his Philippina. Does that mean that the contrast between the two men will help one or both of them win votes from their own constituencies? They are certainly currently functioning as bitter rivals. There are also two possible names for the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Newton Gingrich. Newtonia has the “feminized” ending that was once common when asteroids with “ordinary” orbits were named for men. Gingerich has an extra “e” in the middle but seems to be working for Newt. Unlike the relationship with Dole, Gramm and Newt are friends and allies. Gramm had natal Newtonia in 28 Taurus 10 closely trine his Ascendant. Natal Gingerich was in 11 Leo 42 closely trine his East Point. The aspects to Gramm’s angles would be even closer if his birth time was one minute earlier, but the potential for cooperation is clearly there in Gramm’s chart. Both men were professors before they entered politics.

There are many other interesting asteroids in Gramm’s chart, including Icarus on his Uranus, Hel (death) in 28 Virgo so P Neptune holds a lifetime conjunction with it, America on Mars and Aten on Venus to add to the ambition, Washingtonia in 11 and Williams in 12 Virgo so both are quincunx Gramm’s East Point, and Hillary conjunct the Saturn/south lunar node midpoint for some kind of lesson. Also in the “lesson” category, we can add Belisana (a war goddess) on the south node opposite Siva (destruction) on the north mean node and both asteroids square Saturn. The patterns keep repeating the power issue—the need to learn to compromise, to develop empathy for others.

In the last issue of The Mutable Dilemma I mentioned the fact that Gramm will have his P Sun square N Saturn for the 1996 election and square P Saturn for the 2000 election. I expressed the hope that these aspect meant that his ambition was unrealistic and likely to fail. Of course, they could mean winning the office and having a tough time with it as has been the case with Clinton. It is interesting that P Philippina has been moving over Saturn for several years. It will end the one-degree conjunction just a few months before the election but it will still be square the P Sun. P Roberta will oppose P Philippina to the minute of longitude at the election and, obviously, will also square Gramm’s P Sun. The contest between the two men is clearly shown. P Roberts will be in 21 Leo conjunct P Chiron and octile Jupiter which might mean Bob Dole getting Gramm’s heart’s desire. Or, maybe I am just indulging in wishful thinking. I don’t like Dole but Gramm is worse. P Philippa will be in 21 Cancer on P Guernica where it is octile-trioctile the combined nodes and Belisana and Siva. What a combination for a battle! Guernica carries the idea of military attacks on non-military targets. P Hillary at 8 Taurus is quincunx P Roberts but trine P Sun—a mixed picture which will no doubt be clarified after the event. But the really puzzling pattern is a grand trine involving P Williams in 3 Libra, natal Uranus, and Gramm’s Ascendant in Washington. The picture is certainly not total harmony, since P Williams is also quincunx P south node and octile P Venus, but how it will manifest in the details of Gramm’s life is open to question. The quincunxes would fit Bill and Hillary separating from Gramm (and the rest of the Washington establishment if he loses the election). But the trines may mean what I suggested for the Dole-Gramm relationship; that the contrast between the individuals increases their desirability in the eyes of their respective constituencies. P Williams is on P Mason-Dixon which could point to the black vote remaining Democratic and the “old” south whites becoming even more Republican.

As always, when we talk about details, we are guessing, but isn’t it fun?

Copyright © 1995 Los Angeles Community Church of Religious Science, Inc.

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