The Election of Barack Obama as U.S. President

The success of Barack Obama in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election has caused the world to notice that some major changes are afoot. Astrologically, it certainly seems appropriate that the first multiracial American president, brought up in different parts of the globe, has been elected on the very day of the exact first pass of the Saturn-Uranus opposition.

In this essay I wish to take a closer look at this opposition, its involvement in the 2010 cardinal t-square and at what these alignments may mean in the context of Mr Obama’s election. To begin with, I would like to examine the essential difference between an opposition and a conjunction. During a conjunction, there is a fusion of energies, of themes, of archetypes. In the case of a Saturn-Uranus conjunction, contraction or collapse occurs as weight suddenly loses its supports, there is a very clear, definite termination of a process, or a reversal of a process into its opposite. Saturn contributes realistic outcomes to a Uranian process of reform; Uranus innovates what has become impractical and useless, cutting free from established norms if necessary. The most recent example of a Saturn-Uranus conjunction in modern history is that which occurred in 1988 (13 February 1988, 26 June 1988 and 18 October 1988). This occurred during the final years of the political end-game of the former Soviet Union, with President Mikhael Gorbachev’s political reforms of the USSR including glasnost (openness) and perestroika (new thinking or restructuring). The actual fall of the Berlin Wall and the remainder of the revolutions in Eastern Europe that followed in subsequent years occurred during the Saturn-Neptune conjunction of 1989 and the Uranus-Neptune conjunction of 1993. We see here an almost universal recognition that a new beginning must be made, that something very old and dying must be allowed to pass into history, that a new dispensation is being brought into being and it is unstoppable, natural and singular in its focus.

However, the opposition has a different feel to it. At the time of the opposition, two different archetypal forces oppose each other, which means they represent two opposite ends of a spectrum of possibilities. Of course, they always represent two opposite ends of a spectrum, but at the time of an opposition of the planets representative of these energies, there is a tendency to mistake one end for the other, or to identify with one end at the total exclusion of the other. I suppose one might say that the tendency is to be extreme in one’s rejection of one end of the spectrum, but also in one’s espousal of the other end.

So with the current Saturn-Uranus opposition, people are radically aligned with either a spirit of change for change’s sake, irrespective of the reality on the ground, or they are trenchantly insistent that nothing has changed, nothing will change, that things are the same old boring reality that they have always been. So while there is certainly a feeling of change in the air, and certainly a tremendous restlessness, there is a certain exaggerated quality to this, it seems to be an over-reaction, somewhat divorced from the underlying real events that are taking place. And, in a sort of holographic replication of the same dilemma as we examine smaller and smaller entities in the world during this period of history, we can continue to observe the opposite archetypal energies composing the ambient state of nature: in the U.S. election, on the side of Saturn, represented by Republican John McCain, a man in his seventies, we also had a dash of Uranus, in the inexperienced and somewhat off-centre female vice-presidential nominee, Sarah Palin. Equally, the victorious Democratic nominee, Barack Obama, representative of Uranus, with his racial heritage and young age, as well as brilliant oratorical skills and political genius, paired up with a rather Saturnian figure of Joseph Biden, in his sixties, with plenty of previous political experience.

In a sense it is at the time of this opposition that we become conscious of how we can lose our sense of boldness in demanding change for the better, for fear of losing the structures that we depend on to define our reality, or, we can lose our sense of reality altogether by throwing all our faith in new projects without examining them properly. And I can’t help but wonder if this is exactly what has happened on 4 November 2008. Mr Obama has been lionized, idealised, almost worshipped by masses of people who are willing to forget the realities of their current predicament, and the predicament of their lifestyles and their national economy, so long as the President has changed race. Economic, ecological and political conditions continue to deteriorate with increasing rapidity, yet Mr Obama has said very little about how he intends to grapple with these. To be fair, he has not yet been inaugurated and it is too early to judge his record. Nevertheless, for true change to occur at the time of a Saturn-Uranus opposition, it needs to amount to more than symbolic change, for the Uranian element must be balanced by some Saturnian hard work, realism, perspicacity and gravitas. Hopefully Mr Obama will demonstrate that he has these qualities and can use them for the public good.

This opposition makes 5 exact passes between now and July 2010, and the last of these occurs across the cardinal points of 0º Aries / 0º Libra, contributing to the powerful cardinal t-square alignment of mid-2010. This t-square alignment will be focussed on the missing point of what would otherwise be a grand cross, 0-3º Cancer. Horoscopes with significant points in this part of the zodiac will be greatly caught up in the turmoil of what will be happening only 20 months from now. Mr Obama’s Venus is placed at 1º48’ Cancer, and it seems it is his very image, his skin-colour, all the values that he represents and that people project onto him, that will be a crucial focus of the crisis that is coming in the next few years. In more cynical moments, I fear that he will be used to sell something very dark, very powerful and very destructive, and that his extraordinary charm and beauty of character and presentation will assist in the process. More optimistically, perhaps his very multiracial identity will serve as a symbol of peace and co-operation which will help inspire a true revolution of our social and community structures, values and our shared capital.

Mr Obama’s Venus itself is conjunct Uranus in the chart for the U.S. that I have been exploring recently, that for the Yorktown Surrender (17 October 1781, 10am, Yorktown, Virginia, USA). Uranus is at 2º52’ Cancer in this chart, and will also be centrally involved in the 2010 cardinal t-square. I have written about the symbolism behind Uranus in this horoscope in a previous blog entry: placed in the eighth house, it seems to be associated with the evolution of the financial core of the U.S. economic system, with innovations in corporate law, with increasingly instrumental manipulations of the dollar, with globalization and international trade and even with the lucrative trade in African slaves. As we currently read obituaries to market capitalism following the implosion of the derivatives markets and ponder the possibilities of another New Deal to help with the mess, we witness yet more of the Uranian quality of American capitalist elitism and ruthless exploitation of the people in a $700 billion bailout to banking corporations, with no regulatory controls attached. This is nothing other than theft, of breathtaking scale, right in the precincts of government, and which the majority of Americans opposed in opinion polls. This is the dark side of Uranian energy, utterly refusing to be fettered in any way, shape or form, completely unregulated, but devastating in its ruthlessness, inhumanity and callousness. And it is this Uranus that will be at the cross-hairs of the 2010 alignment, with Mr Obama’s Venus in the same position: will he sweeten the deal, will he sugar-coat the bitter pill of austerity, or will he radically reform and co-opt the power of the U.S. oligarchs and corporatists, forcing a new economic policy on a more fair and pro-social platform? This is one of the burning questions that will be considered over the coming months.

The cardinal t-square is in my view the most significant and exact alignment that we will be facing since the conjunctions of 1988 and 1989 (with the Jupiter opposition in November 1989). Assuming he survives until then, it will be the defining moment in Mr Obama’s presidency. Prior to that time, the other very significant alignment which will key into Mr Obama’s horoscope is the Jupiter/Chiron/Neptune conjunction at 26º Aquarius, opposite his own natal Uranus at 25º Leo, which occurs in April/May 2009. This may be a time when we get to see how much of his ‘change’ we can actually believe in, and also how deeply and creatively he can embody the popular yearnings for optimism in a time of ecological and spiritual pain. We see intimations of genius in this man – this seems to a be a worldwide impression, not only within the borders of the U.S., judging by the popular media and reactions to his election as President. Hopefully by April/May 2009 we will begin to get a sense of how he will use this genius, and for what ends.

At the time of his inauguration as 44th U.S. President on 20 January 2009 at 12 noon in Washington, D.C., his Saturn will be sitting on the M.C., the Sun and Mercury will be transiting conjunct his Jupiter, he will be only days past his 4th Jupiter return, and Pluto will be opposing his Venus - this certainly speaks of the success of a man of coloured skin in achieving the top political job in the world, and perhaps in these transits it is appropriate to see how his Venus, conjunct the U.S. Uranus in Cancer behind it, represents his racial appearance, but also a defining moment in American and world history when we can start to see an end to racial discrimination, the commodification of human beings that is inherent in it, and the reshaping of a world community that has reawakened to the unity of our ancestral past and the common burdens of our planetary future.

© A37
Nov. 2008