BUSH, BLAIR, BROWN and their 12th HOUSE SUNS

George Bush was born 6 July 1946, 7.26 New Haven, Connecticut. His Sun is in the 12th House, which is a secretive, withdrawn place for the Sun to be, and strange to find in a national leader. Gordon Brown, the current UK Prime Minister, also has Sun in the 12th House, as did his predecessor Tony Blair. Very strange!

Robert Hand has some interesting things to say about Bush’s Sun. The main point he makes (coming from the viewpoint of a traditional astrologer) is that Bush’s Cancer Sun is in aspect to its ruler, the Moon, and is also in aspect to Jupiter, which is the exaltation ruler of Cancer (i.e. Jupiter is exalted in Cancer). This strengthens the Sun considerably, and the fact that both aspects are squares does not matter. So there it is!

Furthermore, Bush’s Sun is square to a Moon-Jupiter conjunction in Libra. The Moon square is separating, but it is applying in its conjunction to Jupiter, so it is pushing the power of Jupiter onto the Sun. This is another strengthening factor.

His Sun is given further prominence by the fact that it rules his Leo Ascendant, and is the exaltation ruler of his Aries MC. Being a day chart, the Sun is also the triplicity ruler of both his ASC and MC.

So despite being in the 12th House, George Bush’s Sun is pretty powerful. Of course, he still has some strong 12th House characteristics, the secrecy of his government and his messianic tendencies being amongst the most obvious.

I wondered if this sort of analysis could apply to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Tony Blair: 6 May 1953 6.10 Edinburgh, Scotland.

In this case, his 12th House Sun in Taurus is square to its exaltation ruler, the Moon, which sits prominently in the 10th House. So, though his Sun is not as strong as Bush’s, it is still strengthened to a degree. (On the other hand, in the case of Bush I would drag in something non-traditional, the fact that both his Sun and Moon are in hard aspect to Chiron, which I think in his case is a considerable weakening factor.)

Gordon Brown: 20 Feb 1951 8.40 Giffnock, Scotland

In Brown’s case, the Sun is not just in the 12th, it is also in Pisces, which isn’t easy at all if you want to project yourself as a leader. In traditional astrology, Jupiter is the ruler of Pisces (the outer planets had not been discovered then; and even so, being beyond ordinary visibility, they are a different kind of planet to the inner ones). What we find is that Gordon Brown has the ruler (Jupiter) and the exaltation ruler (Venus) of Pisces in the sign of Pisces along with his Sun. They don’t aspect his Sun, but there is a limited strengthening called ‘generosity’ due to them being in the same sign – and being in the sign of their rulerships presumably also helps. Venus or Mars (depending on the system) is the triplicity ruler of the Sun, and both are in Pisces, so here is a further ‘generosity’. Finally, the Sun is the exaltation ruler of his Aries ASC.

So it would seem to me that in Brown’s case, there are no major strengthening factors to his 12th House Sun (unlike Bush and Blair), but there are a considerable number of subsidiary favourable factors. So he’s not a complete washout as a leader –or he probably wouldn’t have got there – but it’s still pretty weak. And I think this is evident to anyone who has observed him over the years. He is much happier projecting a strong leader image from behind a wall of policy, than he is actually putting himself and his personality out there. He got away with this for his first few months as Prime Minister, but then the bubble burst. Though he may maintain a good handle on policy, as a leader per se he is already wounded and floundering, and his personality and astrology are such that it is hard to see him recovering from this.

David Cameron, the leader of the Conservatives, may be exactly the opponent he needs to drag him out of his shell. Cameron’s Sun at 15.26 Libra is within 10 minutes of a degree of Brown’s DESC/Neptune conjunction. The Descendant is where we encounter others, so it would seem that Cameron is just the job for Brown.

I wrote previously about the weakness of Brown’s Mars in the 12th House at 23 Pisces, and how Uranus will be challenging this Mars to wake up over the next couple of years. Using traditional astrology, Brown’s Mars is not quite as weak as it appears, because it is conjunct the domicile ruler (Jupiter) and exaltation ruler (Venus) of Pisces, in their own signs, and conjunct the triplicity ruler (Mars/Venus). So there is some hope for him when it comes to fighting Mr Cameron. And what his Mars is up against in the form of Cameron is the signature of that whole generation: Uranus-Pluto in Virgo opposite Saturn-Chiron in Pisces. He is up against the younger generation that has its eye on the future in a very particular kind of way, that embodies a new spirit in politics, and Brown is being challenged, through his Mars, to rise to this. And being so very 12th House Pisces, he can adapt, he can flow into his surroundings and become whatever is required of him. So it will be interesting, now that the honeymoon for both leaders is over, to see what happens over the next 2-3 years, because Brown and Cameron, who are so different, could affect and change each other powerfully.