Data Problems: Lamm and Gingrich
Zip Dobyns
Astrology is a pragmatic subject. We learn from studying horoscopes; our own, our friends and relatives, and public figures who enact their morality plays on the stage of the world. But getting accurate data on the latter can be a problem, to put it mildly. After discussing a noon chart for Richard Lamm in the Spring 1996 Asteroid-World, since I lacked his birth time, I was told by another astrologer that she had a different date and a birth time for him. I analyzed the chart using her data in the Virgo 1996 issue of The Mutable Dilemma, only to be told by Lois Rodden that the original date was the correct one! So, please draw red lines through the August 8, 1935 Lamm chart and write “wrong data” on it. His future importance on the public stage may be as elusive as his accurate birth data, but if you live in Colorado and still want to watch him, just use the noon chart for August 3, 1935 in the spring 1996 Asteroid-World until we get better data.
For some years, I have been using a chart for Newton Gingrich, our controversial Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, which was based on the statement of a relative that he was born about 3 A.M. The latest information from the NCGR (National Council for Geocosmic Research), thanks to Fran McEvoy, is that he was born at 11:45 P.M. on June 17, 1943. That is EWT in Harrisburg, PA. Hopefully, we now have a reliable chart, but keep your fingers crossed. Data for public figures remains a challenge.
Newt, as he is not always fondly known, is definitely still in the limelight. As this is written shortly before Christmas, he has just confessed that he lied to the investigating committee about having used funds which were collected for non-profit purposes in political efforts. He said he did not fully realize the tax implications of his actions and should have had expert tax advice. He added that he did not intentionally deceive the investigating committee. The Republicans have rallied around him, and still hope to elect him Speaker of the House for the new term of office starting in January 1997. The Democrats are protesting, spurred by the many on-going investigations of President Clinton, but the Republicans hold the majority in the House and are likely to win.
So, what can we deduce from our new birth time for Newt? We have replaced a former fixed sign Ascendant (Taurus) plus Uranus in Gemini in the first house, with Aquarius, the fixed air sign of Uranus. Newt’s potential to be a rebel against authority remains, along with his support of modern technology and his verbal fluency (read—sometimes foot-in-mouth). To add to his Aquarian emphasis, Uranus moved to the IC, and any planet closely conjunct an angle becomes extremely important! Uranus opposite the MC carries the same meaning as Uranus opposite Saturn, vastly reinforcing the Aquarian potential for resistance to any kind of limits, including the law and authority figures. Yet, Saturn, our primary key to the law, remains a co-ruler of Aquarius. When we voluntarily internalize the necessary laws (of nature and society) in a conscience, we integrate these two sides of life. We can venture beyond previous limits through new knowledge IF we voluntarily accept the necessary limits which permit life in this physical world and which protect the rights of other life. Saturn’s trine to his Ascendant plus Mars in Aries sextile the Ascendant and Saturn, three keys to personal identity, show Newt’s basic inner harmony. That harmony, plus strong air and fire, support his self-confidence and willingness to say and do what he wants, convinced that he has the answers. There is no doubt about his intelligence, but we can raise some doubts about his judgment and ethics. Obviously, my personal bias is showing.
Mars is closely conjunct Pallas, the asteroid I find emphasized in consultants, including lawyers and politicians. Their trines to Venus in Leo reinforce the fire confidence and their placement in earth houses shows the ability to go beyond the fire initiation of creative action to produce results in the material world. Pluto in Leo moved into a nearly lifetime trine to the MC to add still more support to Newt’s fire-earth, steamroller potential. A long P sextile between Jupiter and Uranus reinforces his mental brilliance. The Moon in Sagittarius closely opposes the Gemini Sun for another statement of the perpetual student, natural teacher, writer, preacher, etc. In addition to the trines in earth houses, the capacity to cope successfully with the earth world is shown by a grand trine in earth signs between Ceres, Neptune, and Juno.
However, there are also conflict aspects involving earth with Vesta, our major Virgo asteroid, square the Ascendant and the lunar nodes. Jupiter in the Virgo house opposes Juno in Capricorn, and Neptune in Virgo squares the Sun and Moon with the latter in the Capricorn house. These configurations point to the almost universal conflict between ideals and what is possible in our material world. There are few if any people who are not conscious of how things could be better than they are. Neptune and Jupiter are primary keys to our beliefs and the ideals based on them. Juno is in the natural house of Neptune and the Moon is in the sign of Jupiter. The nodes were closely conjunct the Ascendant axis at birth but on the 6-12 sides and continuing to retrograde back into the mutable houses. A primary form of the mutable challenge includes the conflict between what we define as true and ideal and what is possible or actual in the material world. Depending on the individual, this conflict can be manifested as always wanting more than is possible and staying frustrated. A “purely” mutable configuration would simply speak or write about the problems and how they might be solved. The mutables live in the head. But if the mutables are mixed with fixed and/or cardinal factors whose dilemma involves reconciling personal desires and power with the desires and power of others, we may try to force the world to conform to our standards. Newt is strongly identified with the fixed and cardinal sides of life with Aquarius rising, Mars in Aries in the Taurus house, Uranus on the IC, and Saturn in the fourth house. With Pisces in the first house, we can add Neptune in the Libra house and Jupiter, co-ruler of Pisces, in Cancer as additional keys to personal identity. He was driven to go beyond writing and teaching into politics where he could change the world, to make it conform to his beliefs.
Newt’s chart is clearly competitive. In addition to the T-squares already mentioned, one in fixed signs and one in cardinal houses, he has a ruler of his first house in the seventh house. The feeling associated with this placement is “my power is in your hands and I have to be careful.” We can react to this feeling in six ways, as I have written repeatedly in the past; three painful and three positive. We can give the power away, which is pretty unthinkable when we are identified with Aries and Aquarius. We can try to keep it all. Or we can retreat from closeness and maintain a wall of self-protection. With an air emphasis, the latter can be done by staying in the intellect and avoiding being emotionally open, empathic or compassionate. On the positive side, we can share the power through compromise and teamwork. The fixed sides of life and individuals with strong nine and twelve convictions have the most trouble with compromise. We can have healthy competition, knowing it is a game, winning some and losing some and gaining skill and confidence in both situations since we find that we are not destroyed when we lose. Thirdly, we can help people, which reassures us that we are safe—others are weaker than we are.
Newt started as a teacher, which is a typical choice for a very mental person; a service profession in which the teacher clearly has more power than the students. But he wanted more power, to have a bigger impact on the world, and politics offered that potential. Pisces in the first house is identified with God in some form. We may try to be personally perfect, but an identification with Aries, Taurus, and Gemini makes this less likely. At the other extreme, we may feel we “are” God, with the right and power to do what we please. A mix of these which is especially characteristic with a mutable identification is to think we know what is true and morally right, so we become a preacher in some way. With the identification with Aries and Taurus, plus some Leo and Capricorn, we may try to make the world conform to our beliefs. The positive side of Aquarius wants the same freedom for everyone that is desired for oneself. But houses are stronger than signs, so Aquarius in the Aries house can reinforce the resistance to personal limits but be less concerned with the rights of others. The Republicans talk a lot about personal freedom, but they are well aware that limiting the government may just result in giving more power to the CEOs of multinational businesses, some of whom already have more power and wealth than many countries.
In addition to the almost universal conflict between ideals and what is possible, other forms of the mutable dilemma include conflicts between different values and goals. Head goals may be at war with heart goals. For example, truth carried to an extreme can be unkind and ineffective (Gemini-Sagittarius versus Pisces and Virgo). Alternately, we may act against our better judgment. An aspect which could point to the latter and which has been in effect for a good many years is Newt’s P Chiron trioctile to his Mars. With a mixture of personal factors in conflict with interpersonal and transpersonal factors, personal values and goals may infringe on the rights of others. Newt’s close conjunction of the south lunar node with the Ascendant shows a lesson involving personal action and power versus the rights and freedom of humanity (Aquarius) and closer peer relationships (north node in the seventh house). In a self-sacrificial person, the south node on the Ascendant might mean the need to learn self-protection, but the Aries-Taurus-Gemini identification emphasizes a strong sense of personal rights and power. Of course, though the chart may seem to tilt toward one of many possibilities, we only really know how the person is handling the challenges when we look at his or her life. Also, as people learn and grow, they can change how they are handling the inherent dilemmas which are part of life. They can integrate by working out compromises to make room for all twelve sides of life.
In his current progressions, Newt has had P Vesta opposite the MC in recent years for his major status change leading the Republican revolution and becoming Speaker of the House of Representatives. P Vesta (the details of one’s job) reaches the standard one-degree orb to P Uranus just in time for the new term in January 1997. Though this could mean an upset in his job, Vesta continues to hold a sextile to P Pluto which trines Newt’s MC, and P Uranus holds a long sextile to P Jupiter for additional success in his work. His P Ascendant conjunct N Vesta shows his major focus on his work and its square to the lunar nodes fits his battle over past ethics violations. P MC on Juno in Capricorn in the twelfth house opposite Jupiter can also point to issues involving power (Capricorn and MC), ethics (Jupiter and twelfth house), and respect for the rights of others (Juno).
As I write often, I watch the midpoint of Saturn/south lunar node as a key to major lessons, and Saturn/north node can also mark an area of life which requires attention. Newt’s N Saturn/south node was in 17 Aries 59, just ten minutes of longitude from his N Aletheia, the goddess of truth, and P Saturn/south node is still conjunct Aletheia within one degree. The lesson could be excessive bluntness or deception and both are possible at different times or in different situations. In an interesting repetition of the focus on truth, P Aletheia is currently sextile N Sun and P Sun is trine N Aletheia as Newt confesses to past ethics lapses hoping that the ethics investigation will end and he will only be subject to a mild reprimand.
Another interesting theme in Newt’s chart is the emphasis on asteroids associated with excesses in some form. Bacchus and Dionysus were the Roman and Greek names for the same god who was associated with drunken and drugged revels as part of their religious rituals. N Dionysus was on Newt’s N Sun and N Bacchus was on his N Saturn. Daedalus, the father of Icarus, was very clever but a bit of a con-artist. N Daedalus in Newt’s chart was on the midpoint of Mercury/Uranus as well as on the north node of Mars which was on Mercury within one degree. Icarus, who flew too close to the sun and crashed, was in 28 Pisces conjunct Ganesa, the elephant-headed god which I am testing as a key to the Republican Party. Icarus is in the last four signs of the zodiac for most of the period of its very irregular orbit, but when it gets into the other eight signs as it is traveling closer to the Sun, it moves extremely quickly. In Newt’s life of just over 53 years, P Icarus has moved 80 degrees to a conjunction with N Saturn and Bacchus in 17 Gemini. The north node of Mercury was also in 17 Gemini when Newt was born, and though the Icarus-Bacchus-Saturn conjunction could symbolize a fall from power, I think he is sufficiently bright and persuasive to talk his way out of it. Still, the asteroids do show the threat. N Phaethon, another crash victim when he overreached, was in 28 Gemini, past the one-degree orb I use for the new asteroids to allow a conjunction with the Sun, but within a square to Neptune. P Phaethon, like Icarus, comes inside the orbit of earth so it can be retrograde when near the Sun. It is current retrograding conjunct Newt’s N Sun. Another asteroid with a related meaning is Hybris (hubris), which in Newt’s chart was opposite both Mercury and Daedalus and square the East point in Pisces. Laverna, the goddess of thieves, was in 4 Virgo, completing a mutable grand cross. P Fanatica is now in three Gemini setting off the whole cross within one degree orbs. Asteroids are fascinating.
We have not yet discussed the two asteroids for Newt’s names: Newtonia named for the famous scientist but feminized as the astronomers used to do with asteroids which were named for men but which had “ordinary” orbits. The asteroid Gingerich has an extra ‘e’ in the middle, but it seems to work for Newt, as is common when names sound alike. N Newtonia was in 10 Cancer 54 conjunct Clintford (which may work for Bill Clinton) and ASCII for Newt’s love of computers. P Dionysus has been conjuncting N Newtonia for some years. N Gingerich was retrograding in 27 Scorpio at Newt’s birth with a trine to Jupiter. It turned direct before moving far, and for years has been trine Jupiter and also trine N Icarus and Ganesa. Newt’s strong partisan leadership is credited by many for the return to power by the Republicans in Congress, though his extremism is also blamed in part for Dole’s defeat and the reelection of Clinton to the presidency. In recent years as he took over the leadership of the Republicans, P Newtonia has been in late Cancer, moving over Jupiter and trining N and P Gingerich and N Icarus and Ganesa. It is still trine Ganesa and sextile Neptune and Ceres. Regardless of our personal opinions about him, Newt seems likely to stay prominent for some time to come. In fact, with his P Newtonia moving into Leo within months and his P Gingerich moving into Sagittarius somewhat later, he may increase his fire drive to lead or push the world toward his version of utopia. With his P Sun reaching his Descendant in March 1998, Newt may widen and/or increase his impact on the world, if that is conceivable. In March 1999, his P Sun will be firmly in the seventh house, which can indicate interaction with an increased number of people or changes in relationships with others. In the same month, his P MC will move into Aquarius while still trine Ceres and Neptune. Newt is currently one of the most feared and/or disliked politicians in the U.S., but I suspect he still has the hubris to hope that he can change those opinions and run for the presidency. Time will tell, and I hope that this time we have accurate data!
