The 2 charts for Obama's Inauguration

In my vlog on Saturday I discussed the Inauguration Chart for President Obama, using the date of Monday’s public ceremony. A number of people responded but what about the official swearing in on Sunday, maybe that is the correct chart to use?

I think it’s an interesting one. There are 2 charts here, and I think they both represent different things. It’s a bit like the chart for the USA itself. Usually we use the Sibly Chart, based on the Declaration of Independence on 4^th July. But the governmental declaration of independence took place 2 days earlier. It read: “That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, Free and Independent States.”

So we could see the earlier chart as having an emphasis on Congress and the governing of the USA, and the later Sibly Chart as having an emphasis on the people, on the nation as a whole.

And I think we could see these 2 swearing in charts in the same way. Sunday’s official swearing in says more about Obama’s relations with Congress, and Monday’s is more about his relations with the people. I was looking at the Moon as the people (standard in a mundane chart), so Monday’s seemed more appropriate to me. Should have explained myself at the time!

Monday’s chart has a trine from the Sun to the Moon, showing a President who is in harmony with the aspirations of the people. With Moon being conjunct Jupiter, it also suggests a people who believe in their President. 

And the Sunday Chart? Here we can see the Moon as the members of Congress. It is Angular, in Taurus and in a tight and applying square with 10th House Mars in Aquarius. So surely a theme of struggle, of fight (Mars) between the progressive ideas (Aquarius) of the President (10th House) and a Taurean Congress: conservative, anxious about money. By saying 'progressive' I mean wanting to move into a different future - for better or for worse.

And Saturn in Scorpio, opposite the Moon and Ascendant. A long drawn-out, purging, painful struggle. In which reality and common sense are attempting to prevail over what feels like a fight to the death by people who feel genuinely threatened. 

In both charts we see Sun-Mercury square Angular Saturn, a President who is having to struggle to get his ideas accepted, against Saturn in Scorpio, not a pleasant or very hopeful place to be.

All this at a time when Uranus-Pluto is hard-aspecting the American Sun. This seems to describe the political crisis in Congress, in which it is harder than usual  for the Democrats to get any laws through, due to the intransigence of a small section of the Republican Party. Over the New Year the country was brought to the point of ungovernability by the inability of Congress to reach agreement on a budget. Obama has to negotiate this crisis, and the Sun trine Moon in the Public Inauguration Chart suggests that the people will be on his side in this battle. And there will be an outcome, a sea change in American politics in the next few years as Uranus and Pluto do their work on the American Sun. What the astrology doesn't say is which way it will go.

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PS I am undecided about the meanings of mundane charts. Should I go with the traditional list below (can’t find where I got it from) or should I modify it? Venus below, for example, doesn't make a lot of sense to me; I prefer the meanings of the women of a nation and money, particularly our values around it. And what about foreign relations, surely one would expect some sort of 9th House participation? Particularly, say, around attitudes to foreign countries and their cultures?

• Sun : Supreme authority in the State (the President/Prime Minister/Chancellor). Eclipses often signify the death or displacement of the head of state. National character and identity, major events, overall Weltanschauung.

• Moon : The population, the popular mood; national security needs, basic necessities, women's issues, agriculture.

• Mercury : News media and the Press, literature, all schools leading up to higher education; the post office and means of communication; political speeches, opinion polls, transportation.

• Venus : Sufferers, disease, arrogance, defeat in war, death, anger, jealousy

• Mars : The armed forces and police; violent crime, war, industrial concerns; when associated with Uranus may cause explosions, terrorism; with Neptune, treachery. Divisive elements in society.

• Jupiter : Clergy and churches, religion, judges, law and court system, higher education, prosperity, publishing, banking, insurance; the 'upper classes'; philanthropic institutions (especially in association with Neptune).

• Saturn : Property, the system of government, institutions and bureaucracy, economy, conservatism, infrastructure, law, control

• Uranus : Administration, revolutions, progressive or radical movements, countercultures; power in its physical sense - electrical and nuclear, new technology, innovation.

• Neptune : The arts, glamor, hope, idealism, covert actions, socialism; hospitals, charitable institutions; the navy. Under affliction associated with muddle, fraud, crime, scandal; brewing and alcohol, drugs; chemicals, footwear.

• Pluto : Financial or political power, factions, oligarchies, big business, nuclear energy, mines; criminal detection, but under affliction the criminal underworld, death, catastrophes, dictators.

• Ceres : Native needs to feel loved and nurtured, the reproductive issues of an adult woman, pregnancy, family bonds and relationships. Deals with grief, worry, negative emotions and places of perceived imprisonment.

Houses and Signs

Carter also associated each of the houses and signs with different aspects of politics and the state as follows:

• 1st House-Aries : The nation as a whole, its self image and how it projects itself to the world.
• 2nd House-Taurus : The economy
• 3rd House-Gemini : Education; periodical publications; the post office, radio and transport; communications in general; science.
• 4th House-Cancer : Land and housing; agriculture; the opposition in parliament
• 5th House-Leo : All forms of national pleasure and entertainment; sports, general amusements; Society, children
• 6th House-Virgo : The 'working classes'; left wing organisations; public health. The armed forces and civil service.
• 7th House-Libra : Foreign affairs generally; war as well as treaties.
• 8th House-Scorpio : Financial relations with foreign countries; public safety and crime.
• 9th House-Sagittarius : The law; religion; philosophy; and science.
• 10th House-Capricorn : Heads of state; government; national prestige.
• 11th House-Aquarius : Parliament, especially the lower house. Local government.
• 12th House-Pisces : Prisons, hospitals, homes for the aged; philanthropic societies; secret societies; monasteries and institutional religion.