September 23, 2002
Presidential Death Cycle
As George Bush fills out his first term in office, many astrologers are expecting the Presidential Death Cycle to be fulfilled sometime in the near future. The cycle is well known even beyond astrology circles, with the strange coincidence of a President dying in office every 20 years. As the legend states, the President elected in a zero year is the one scheduled to fall, and it's Bush's turn.
Traditional astrologers explain this cycle by using the Jupiter-Saturn cycle. About every twenty years Jupiter and Saturn form a conjunction, and it happens to coincide with the zero year. However, this conjunction is never the exact timer of the President's death, often off by several years. Astrology does us no favors when it can't time the cycle any better than within a few years.
When using the Scorpio Rising horoscope for the U.S. (July 4, 1776; 2:21 pm; Philadelphia), the patterns become clear. The Scorpio Rising horoscope shows the natal potential for the Presidential Death Cycle, and the planets involved by transit show the timing. Scorpio Rising itself is uniquely associated with this cycle, especially when one sees that Mars, the ruler of the chart, is located in the eighth house of death.
Mars is afflicted by a square to Neptune, found in the eleventh house of political ideology. At its best, Neptune here shows idealism, and belief in a political system that brings a better life for everyone. At its worst, Neptune here is delusional and fanatical. This "evil" side emerges during predictable Neptune transits.
Neptune and the Eighth Harmonic
Neptune is the key planet in tracking the Presidential Death Cycle. Assassinated Presidents were victims of crazed ideologues, while the ones who died more naturally, William Harrison (1841) and Warren G. Harding (1921), did so via Neptune-related diseases. Neptune's transit to the U.S. Midheaven, the point of national destiny, is the single best indicator for a Presidential death.
Neptune's eighth harmonic aspects describe the unfolding cycle. These aspects include the traditional hard aspects (the conjunction, square, and opposition) as well as the so-called minor aspects of the octile (semi-square) and tri-octile (sesqui-square). In the Scorpio Rising horoscope, the octile and tri-octile aspects take on significance because of their natal prominence.
Mars is octile to the North Node, which in turn is octile to Neptune. Then Neptune is octile to the Ascendant, creating a net of octiles. From this natal design, it's no wonder that the unfolding cycle should take place every time transiting Neptune reaches the next octile (or eighth harmonic) to the Midheaven.
The cycle began when transiting Neptune was opposite the Midheaven. That's when William Harrison died unexpectedly from pneumonia on April 4, 1841. The succession of dead presidents then led to Lincoln (1865), Garfield (1881), McKinley (1901), Harding (1923), FDR (1945), and Kennedy (1963). Ronald Reagan didn't die in office* but he did develop Alzheimer's around the time of the Iran-Contra scandal, and faded out. The next time Neptune makes a hit to the U.S. Midheaven is between February 2005 and January 2006.
The Kennedy Assassination, A Case Study
Neptune was the defining planet of the Kennedy administration. Elected on November 8, 1960 as transiting Neptune was right on the U.S. Scorpio Ascendant, JFK came into office as the glamorous, idealistic, and hopeful champion of Camelot. He aimed high, but was ultimately ensnared by Neptune's treachery, having numerous illicit love affairs, and becoming embroiled in spy games, all characteristic of Neptune's vibrations.
Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 at 12:30 pm in Dallas, Texas. While his personal horoscope (May 29, 1917; 3:15 pm; Brookline, MA) doesn't show strong indications of an attack, the transits to the U.S. horoscope reveal the problem for the national leader. Chief among these is transiting Neptune, which at the time was forming an exact square to the U.S. Midheaven.
Since Neptune's transit is so slow, it remained in close connection to the Midheaven off and on for about a year, between November 1963 and October 1964. Transiting Saturn was simultaneously opposing the Midheaven, and this doubly difficult influence brought this terrible event** to pass. Transiting Mars on November 22, 1953 opposed the U.S. Mars in the eighth house of death, activating the entire complex.
Transiting Mars was accompanied by Venus, so that Venus and Mars together opposed the U.S. Mars. Another symbol for Venus and Mars are as the lovers, and historians have concluded that John and Jackie were reconciling just before he was killed. Juno, the marriage asteroid, was right on the Scorpio Ascendant on November 22, forever fixing their image together on his last day.
* perhaps because he had an astrologer safeguarding his schedule.
** Advanced astrologers will note several other major indicators at the time, including a remarkable three-way, precise alignment between Mercury, Jupiter, and Uranus, located at 9SG45, 9AR49, and 9VI49 respectively. All three of these were connecting with the U.S. progressed Mars at 9LI44 and the Mars/Pluto midpoint found at 9AR26.
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