THE END OF AN AMERICAN ERA

by Robert P. Blaschke

With his early victories in the Iowa caucuses and in the New Hampshire primary, and more recently in the Arizona, Delaware, Missouri, New Mexico and North Dakota primary elections, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts has swiftly become the leading presidential contender for the Democrats, eclipsing Howard Dean who had held a 30 point lead in the polls in New Hampshire as recently as December. What happened, and who is this man Kerry? (11 December 1943; 8:03 AM MWT; Fitzsimons CO; time of birth given to Boston area astrologer, Karen Thorne, by Senator Kerry himself in 1996; location of birth from the official John Kerry web site: http://www.johnkerry.com) With a Sagittarius Sun in a gibbous opposition to a Gemini Moon, and the 17th degree of Sagittarius rising, along with a Mars-Uranus conjunction in Gemini, we see a highly mutable soul born at the retrograde station of his chart ruler, Jupiter. He also has his progressed nodal axis @ 06 Leo-Aquarius, precisely conjunct the USA nodes. Will he become the next president of the United States?

Mr Kerry is a decorated combat veteran of the Vietnam War. Befitting a man with a natal retrograde Mars, after his military service as a lieutenant in the Navy, he had second thoughts about the U.S. involvement in southeast Asia. He became a prominent member of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, throwing his combat ribbons on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in protest with other vets (most threw their medals, while Kerry kept his). Mr Kerry had risked his life to save the lives of fellow soldiers while in Vietnam, as captain of a patrol boat in the Mekong delta, winning a Bronze Star for his valor. After military service, his natal Mars stationed and progressed into direct motion in August 1973, less than two months after his first Saturn return.

Kerry was subsequently elected to the U.S. Senate in 1984 when transit Pluto conjoined his natal Venus in Scorpio, which rules his Libra Midheaven. He has since been reelected three more times as Senator in 1990, 1996 and 2002. A hunter and a windsurfer, this athletic man also rides a Harley Davidson and plays ice hockey. When transit Pluto conjoined his natal Sun in 2003, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, leaving the campaign trail temporarily last summer to have surgery. He has recovered, and his long days on the stump testify to his resilience. One can reasonably theorize that he has been deeply transformed by the recent Pluto transit over his Sun, and is now ready to assume the power of the American presidency.

Sometimes accused of being stiff and pompous, as any astrologer might understand a soul to be when born with a Sun-Saturn opposition and the Leo version of Sagittarius rising (chart ruler in Leo), Mr Kerry is both a fighter and a blueblood in the very best tradition of the American aristocracy. An insight into his electability at the dawn of the new American Piscean era is delightfully confirmed by the Sabian symbol for his natal Ascendant: An Easter sunrise service is about to begin at the suggestion of dawn; darkness surrenders the worshipers. The man is not perfect, by any means, and is known to appear aloof and condescending, and to forget the names of people whom he has met many times. This can be seen in his Capricorn Mercury which is in close square to Neptune. Another criticism of him has been his tendency to look to see who else is in the room when he is shaking somebody else's hand. Astrologers reading about this trait will laugh, knowing the proclivities of his Gemini Moon.

Transit Jupiter will conjoin his natal Midheaven on October 22nd, and Venus will be conjunct his MC on Election Day. His progressed MC is applying to a trine with his natal North Node, and his progressed Sun, presently at 19 Aquarius 54, has just perfected a trine to his progressed Saturn at 19 Gemini 47. He is a man ready to lead the nation, and who has the background and credentials to do it well. His progressed Ascendant has recently entered the Libra decanate of Aquarius; with the ruler, Saturn, natally retrograde at 23 Gemini 30 and conjunct the U.S. Mars, he would have a more sober and prudent view of when and how to use the armed forces as president than would the impetuous Mr Bush, shooting from the hip as he has with his progressed Sun conjunct his natal Mars. With Mr Kerry's Mars closely square to President Bush's natal Mars, he will give the incumbent president a good fight, and with his progressed Pluto and natal North Node in the degree of Mr Bush's Ascendant, he could very well take his job away on November 2nd.

One test of a candidate's electability is the position of transit Jupiter and Saturn above or below the horizon in his nativity. Mr Kerry, enviably, has both above; this is also a probable explanation for why the Howard Dean campaign has so badly flopped. Mr Dean (17 November 1948; 7:21 PM EST; New York NY; personal correspondence with Tracy Marks; time of birth given by Mr Dean at a Boston area fundraiser), who not only has his progressed MC applying to a quincunx with his natal Neptune, which would lead to a disappointing performance by any politician, will also have both transit Jupiter and Saturn below his natal horizon come November. This correspondent has already predicted, based on the Sabian Symbol for the rising degree in the Winter Ingress chart for the USA, in his last print newsletter published in December, that a third party insurgency might occur this year, similar to the Ross Perot movement in 1992, which allowed Bill Clinton to beat the senior George Bush with barely over 40% of the vote:
 

"The Winter Ingress chart for the USA this year (22 December 2003; 2:04:14 AM EST: Washington) has a cadent Sun in the third house square to Mars in the sixth. The will of the people in Mundane Astrology is ruled by the 11th house, and here we find Leo on the cusp and ruled by this nasty square. I would expect quite an angry year regarding the upcoming primaries leading to our next presidential election. The 24th degree of Libra is rising, and we find as its Sabian Symbol: A marvelously colored and figured butterfly is spread before the eyes; on its left side is an extra third wing. This may be an oblique reference to a third party candidate on the Left entering the race, such as Howard Dean doing a 2004 version of the 1992 Ross Perot insurgency if the Democratic establishment finds him too radical to nominate at their convention." - Earthwalk School of Astrology Newsletter; Winter 2003-04; 19 Dec 2003.

Mr Dean, who has his progressed Venus, exalted ruler of his natal Pisces MC, applying to an opposition with his natal Uranus, will not likely bow out gracefully from the primaries, as did Richard Gephardt, and go fishing in Vermont to do some soul searching about his political future. With his progressed Mars, presently at 05 Aquarius 52, and nearing a conjunction with Mr Kerry's progressed South Node, Mr Dean looks to be a menacing and challenging presence to Senator Kerry's probable nomination right up until Election Day. If a third party insurgency does indeed materialize, a reelection victory for Mr Bush will probably follow, as votes siphoned off by the Dean camp would mortally wound Mr Kerry.

The youthful Senator, John Edwards of North Carolina, who placed second in the Iowa caucuses and tied for third with Wesley Clark in the New Hampshire primary, is also a key player in this year's Democratic party equation, especially now after his victory in the South Carolina primary. Born 10 June 1953 at 7:02 AM in Seneca, South Carolina (source: astrologer Leslie Bland; from Edwards' mother at the Greenville, SC presidential debate on 1/29/04), a month after British Prime Minister Tony Blair and very close to the birth of Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, he is part of a group of souls born at the retrograde conjunction of Saturn and Neptune in the Spring of 1953. With their exalted Saturn aspecting all of the transpersonal planets (square to Uranus; conjunct Neptune; sextile to Pluto), these younger politicians will continue to be on center stage for many years to come. Mr Edwards has a 19 degree Gemini Sun in close trine with that Saturn-Neptune conjunction. While the transit North Node is presently conjoining his progressed MC, bringing him much attention, his progressed Venus is also square to his natal MC, leading this writer to suspect that potential voters will soon tire of his pseudo 'poor Southern boy' public persona, being as it has been eclipsed by his multi-millionaire trial lawyer adult reality.

This astrologer predicts, based on progressed synastry, that John Edwards will become Mr Kerry's Vice Presidential running mate. Mr Edwards' progressed Sun, at the time of this writing, is at 07 Leo 38, and is applying to an exact conjunction with Senator Kerry's natal North Node at 07 Leo 45. Additionally, Senator Edwards' natal Sun at 19 Gemini is exactly conjunct Mr Kerry's progressed Saturn. John Edwards, born nine and one half years after Senator Kerry, has a synastric nodal opposition with the elder senator, his Aquarius North Node conjunct Mr Kerry's natal South Node. When transit Saturn crosses Mr Edwards' natal Cancer Ascendant for the third time on May 30th, he should be ready, as the result of his current delegate count, to more realistically evaluate his candidacy and what would be in the best interest of the Democratic Party. This ticket for the Democrats, drawing on Mr Edwards' appeal in the South, and Mr Kerry's ability to take dead aim on Mr Bush regarding matters of national security and foreign policy, looks like a real winner at the polls in November, providing Howard Dean does not split off from the Democratic Party and run as an independent third party candidate. The Edwards wild card is the Pluto station during the summer which holds a lengthy stationary opposition to his natal Gemini Sun, within a one degree orb between July 5th and October 23rd, and which could very well put him into a '1976 Bob Dole' role, wherein he becomes the Democratic Ticket's 'VP Hatchet Man', going after the sins of the Bush-Cheney administration with an eloquent verbal vengeance.

Would this be in the highest good for the United States of America as we begin a new era with our progressed Sun entering the sign of Pisces for the next thirty years? As a Vietnam War veteran who subsequently protested against that war, Mr Kerry can be seen as a bridge between the previous American era with its progressed Sun in Aquarius, which commenced with the Fall of Saigon, and a new era with the progressed Pisces Sun. The need for bipartisan unity in the country, after many years of political turmoil and rigid stalemates, is growing stronger and a mutable intellectual such as Senator Kerry would make a much more engaging and sophisticated Oval Office occupant, and one more likely to be able to quickly repair America's damaged relationships with the international community.

The USA progressed Mars is stationing retrograde for the first time in American history on 20 July 2006 in the 19th degree of Libra. A President Kerry, the decorated war veteran, and with his natal retrograde Mars, would more fully comprehend the belief which many Americans have that the use of force by political leaders should only be called for as a last resort. Yet as the Sabian Symbol for the USA progressed Mars station, Libra 19, reveals, A gang of robbers are seen in hiding, ready and anxious to attack the heavily armed caravan just coming into sight, we are still in a War on Terrorism and need a president who will continue to decisively authorize the military and intelligence agencies to go after terrorist groups wherever and whenever the situation calls for it.

In a dangerous post 9/11 world, it has arguably been legitimate for the Bush administration to use the U.S. military against both the Taliban and Saddam Hussein, and to hunt down and kill or capture members of Al Qaeda, regardless if weapons of mass destruction are ever found in Iraq. The Iraqi dictator, armed to the teeth by the Soviets and the French during the 1980's, had become an international nuisance who defied U.N. resolutions for a dozen years after the 1991 Gulf War. Mr Bush, whose natal Saturn is conjunct Mr Hussein's Pluto within four minutes of arc, is the one to have put an end to this dictator's brutality. With his Sun sextile Mars, his progressed Mars square to his natal Sun, and his progressed Sun conjunct his natal Mars, Mr Bush has been exactly the tough Texan that the country needed to fight back after the terrorist attacks and their demoralizing effect on the collective American psyche. But this same president, with Pluto conjunct his Ascendant in Leo, has unquestionably put many off with a swaggering arrogance and a ruthless administration that borders on the paranoid, sometimes reminding one of the Nixon presidency of a Saturn cycle ago. Mr Bush is a good Christian man, and one who truly loves his country and believes that what he is doing is in the best interest of U.S. national security, but would his reelection be in the highest good for America? Major karmic forces are now looming on the horizon for him.

On 11 June 2004, under the rays of a stationary retrograde Uranus in exact square to the USA progressed Uranus, transit Saturn will conjoin the USA Sun for the one and only time in thirty years. During the last series of three conjunctions which occurred in 1974-75, President Nixon resigned over the Watergate cover up scandal on the exact day of the first conjunction, 9 August 1974. The Fall of Saigon, ending the Vietnam War, came one week after the third conjunction in April of 1975. This dreadful period of American history had most of its genesis during the 1972 Nixon reelection campaign, when on October 25th of that year the USA progressed Sun conjoined Pluto. The Plutonian paranoia and subversive dirty tricks of the Nixon administration have become historical legends, revealing an American president who had sunk to the lowest depths of control, manipulation and a misuse of political power.

This astrologer does not foresee a similar level of scandal tainting the Bush administration during the upcoming Saturn transit over the USA Sun. There will be severe criticism of him in the next few months, to be sure, for the way that he has handled the American economy and created huge budget deficits. At the time of this writing, the president has just agreed to an independent commission to be formed to investigate the intelligence agencies' claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, as this was one of the primary justifications leading up to the disputed war. Amidst all of these political controversies, however, a parallel concern for this president should be for his health, as within a week of each other in June his progressed Sun perfects a conjunction to his natal Mars, and Saturn transits over his natal Sun; the president thus entering a high risk period for either a heart attack or a stroke.

For decades, astrologers have studied the Tecumseh's Curse phenomenon, wherein a U.S. president has either died in office, or been assassinated, when elected during the Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions in the Earth element. Researching this unusual part of American history, one finds that Tecumseh, chief of the Shawnees, was politically pursuing tribal unification in 1802, at the time of the first Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in the Earth element, attempting to persuade the other regional tribes not to sell off their land to the U.S. Federal Government. At that time, the United States was rapidly expanding west of the Alleghenies into what is now western Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana.

Tecumseh's brother, a shaman and spiritual leader of the tribe known as The Prophet, was killed in a skirmish by the troops of then Indiana Territorial Governor, William Henry Harrison, in 1811. Legend has it that the huge earthquake of December 1811 in New Madrid, Illinois, which altered the course of the Mississippi River, and which occurred during the Jupiter-Saturn opposition in the powerful cardinal ingress degrees of 0 Cancer-Capricorn, was actually caused by the now deceased shaman, venting his anger from the spirit plane. Tecumseh, fighting with the British in Canada against America during the War of 1812, was then killed in battle by U.S. soldiers. Legend also has it that on 11 May 1839, a Saturn cycle after The Prophet's death, a curse was put on the Great White Father, referring to the American president, by the new Shawnee tribal medicine man. A repeating historical pattern has occurred ever since.

This pattern of an American president dying in office has happened like clockwork, corresponding with the Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions occurring every twenty years in the earth signs. Former Indiana Territory governor William Henry Harrison was elected U.S. president in 1840, and died shortly after his inauguration in 1841. Then, Abraham Lincoln, elected twice in 1860 and 1864, was assassinated in 1865. Next, James Garfield, who was elected in 1880, was assassinated in 1881. Subsequently, William McKinley, elected in 1896 and 1900, was then assassinated in 1901.

Proceeding into the 20th century, we see that Warren Harding was elected in 1920 and then died in office in 1921. Franklin Roosevelt, who was elected to four terms as president in 1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944, his third election occurring during the Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions in Taurus in 1940, died in office in 1945. More recently, John Kennedy was elected in 1960, and then assassinated in 1963. Ronald Reagan, who was elected in 1980, as the Grand Conjunction moved into the air element at 09 Libra 19 in December of that year, survived an assassination attempt on his life in 1981. Did Mr Reagan break the curse? Or was he spared because the conjunction was in the air element? Will President Bush, elected in a zero year (2000) and during the last earth element Grand Conjunction, die in office?

A key shamanic question thus arises: where do curses originate and how long is their shelf life? It is this astrologer's belief that curses emanate from the astral plane and are therefore ruled by Neptune. The orbit of this planet takes 165 years to complete a revolution around the Sun, and this, logically, would be the limit of time on a curse's life span. Astute astrologers will have taken notice that from 11 May 1839, the day of the legendary curse being placed on the American president by the Shawnee medicine man, to this year, 2004, is a span of 165 years and precisely a Neptune cycle. Upon closer scrutiny, one will find that the Neptune in the 1839 Tecumseh's Curse chart was at 12 Aquarius 37, and that on October 24th of this year Neptune will station direct at 12 Aquarius 36, within one minute of arc!

What is even more bizarre is that Jupiter in the Tecumseh's Chart was retrograde at 09 Libra 44, in the precise degree of the December 1980 Grand Conjunction which occurred as Ronald Reagan was elected president. Was he spared his life, after losing so much blood that he came within a whisker of dying after being shot by John Hinckley in 1981, because of the spiritual protection of Jupiter, and the improbable coincidence of the 1839 and 1980 Jupiter positions?

By more deeply examining this year's Neptune return of the Tecumseh's Curse chart, we find that 12 degrees of Aquarius is the powerful midpoint of the USA Sibly chart Moon and Pluto. Neptune is in this degree as I write, making your correspondent feel a little creepy to be analyzing this, as you may imagine, and Neptune will return to this degree one last time for its direct station later in the Fall. You might ask, is President Bush still under the power of the curse?

I do not know, but my gut instinct and intuition say yes. In the last few years I have researched the USA progressed Sun-Mercury synodic cycle. For the first time in 106 years, on 12 September 2003, there was an inferior conjunction of the progressed retrograde USA Mercury and the USA progressed Sun at 28 Aquarius 51, in the degree of the Uranus stations of 2002-03. The last occurrence of this USA progressed inferior conjunction of the Sun and retrograde Mercury was in June of 1897 at 11 Scorpio, in the year of a changing U.S. foreign policy that preceded the Spanish-American War. America declared war on Spain over Cuba in 1898, destroying the Spanish fleet at Manila. The gist of this military conflict was that America asserted her dominion over all matters in the Western Hemisphere, and is generally seen by historians as the time when the United States truly became a global power.

At the Treaty of Paris in 1898, Spain ceded Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines to the USA for $20 million. There is a distinct similarity between this foreign policy decision by President William McKinley and the ones made by President Bush, such as his War on Terrorism and preemptive military engagement policy, justifying the use of U.S. military forces to go on the offensive (USA progressed stationary Mars) and hunt down and kill terrorists such as Al Qaeda members before they can strike again and inflict further harm on innocent American citizens. President McKinley, who, as is Mr Bush, was also a Tecumseh's Curse president, as mentioned above, was re-elected in 1900 to a second term and then subsequently assassinated in 1901, the year of the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in the Earth element at 14 Capricorn, opposing the USA Sun at 13 Cancer. Is there a similar karmic price to be paid by Mr Bush?

Applying C.E.O Carter's Nativity Rule: It is a cardinal rule that no direction can bring to pass what is not shown in the nativity. Exceptions to this are virtually non-existent. (The Principles of Astrology, London, England: Theosophical Publishing House Ltd., 1925, p.160), we find that Mr Bush's natal Sun is sextile to Mars and that his secondary progressed Sun is applying to a conjunction with that natal Mars, thus qualifying as a priority progression. Also applying Carter's Law of Excitation: If at the time that a progressed body is in aspect to another by direction, either of these bodies forms an aspect by transit with either of the two directional bodies, then this transit will excite the direction into immediate operation. (Ibid.); as the progressing Sun conjoining his natal Mars is about to perfect (on June 6th - just five days before Saturn transits the USA Sun on June 11th - and just eight days before Saturn transits Mr Bush's Sun on June 14th) we would thus calculate the dates when either transit Sun or transit Mars form 8th harmonic aspects (0-45-90-135-180) to either the natal Sun-progressed Mars square at 13-15 degrees of Cardinal, or to the progressed Sun-natal Mars conjunction at 9 degrees of Mutable.

Thus, transit triggers (exciters) for this progressed-to-natal Sun-Mars activity in Mr Bush's horoscope are comprised of either the transit Sun or transit Mars passing through 13-15 degrees of the cardinal signs (which would form transit conjunctions, squares or oppositions to the natal Sun-progressed Mars square); or from 28 degrees of the fixed signs to 0 degrees of the mutable signs (which would form transit octiles or trioctiles to the natal Sun-progressed Mars square); or 9 degrees of the mutable signs (which would form transit conjunctions, squares or oppositions to the progressed Sun-natal Mars conjunction); or, lastly, passing through 24 degrees of the cardinal signs (which would form transit octiles or trioctiles to the progressed Sun-natal Mars conjunction). This latter degree area would simultaneously trigger Mr Bush's vertical axis, being as his natal MC resides at 24 Aries 12, and his natal IC at 24 Libra 12, and his natal Mars is in exact trioctile to his Midheaven, and is octile his IC.

As his progressed Sun nears conjunction with his natal Mars, and the transit of Saturn over his natal Sun occurs eight days later on June 14th, the key critical dates coming up for Mr Bush, between now and the end of 2004, when he is in a very high risk zone of heart attack, stroke, or violence against him, are:

A) February 17-19 B) February 28 C) March 19-21 D) April 3-4 E) April 13 F) May 19-20 G) May 28-31

H) June 14 I) July 5-6 J) July 16 K) August 8-10 L) August 21-25 M) September 1 N) October 6-8

O) October 17-20 P) November 2-3 Q) November 20-22 R) December 1 S) December 23-26

These dates are the transit-to-natal or transit-to-progressed 8th harmonic aspects involving the Sun and Mars, fulfilling both C.E.O. Carter's Nativity Rule and his Law of Excitation, and your correspondent's published work in Volume I - Progressions of Astrology: A Language of Life. This writer believes that both the May 28 to May 31 time period and the June 14th date are the two most critical for him, coming as they do so close to the exact progressed conjunction on June 6th of Mr Bush's Sun to his natal Mars, and so close to the transit of Saturn over the USA Sun on June 11th, and to his Sun on June 14th.

During the former four day period, transit Mars conjoins his natal Sun, transit Sun squares his progressed Sun, transit Sun squares his natal Mars, and transit Mars squares his progressed Mars; whereas on the latter date, transit Mars octiles his natal Mars, transit Mars octiles his progressed Sun, and Saturn transits in exact conjunction with his natal Sun. Additionally, on June 14th, transit Pluto is also exactly conjunct Mr Bush's South Node. Astrologers have consistently found that when a soul leaves the body, Jupiter is present at the death, either by transit or by secondary progression; this year Jupiter stations direct in conjunction with both Mr Bush's natal Mars and his progressed Sun. Only God knows what will happen, so this writer will leave it there.  

by Rboert P. Blaschke - All Rights Reserved