Neptune Establishes Bush Agenda

Now that George W. Bush has been in office for two weeks, political pundits
are offering commentaries on his progress. He gets high marks for meeting
with Washington's top leaders and factions from both parties, but some
critics are suspicious of his religious agenda, as the tumultuous debate over
religious conservative John Ashcroft, and questions about his faith-based
charities proposal demonstrated.

From an astrological perspective, Bush's current religious impulse can be
attributed to Neptune. Neptune by transit is now nearly exactly conjunct his
seventh house cusp, one of the four important angles in the horoscope.
Whenever an outer planet transit arrives on one of the four angles, it tends
to dominate the individual life, for better or worse.

Unfortunately for Al Gore, he experienced this identical transit during last
year's campaign season. Neptune is like a smoke screen here, so that the
general public (ruled by the seventh house) saw him as being inconsistent,
with no recognizable core values. Now that transiting Neptune* is angular in
Bush's chart, no one can tell if he's pushing a religious program.

What is Bush's real attitude on his religion? The asteroid Vesta reveals his
true intentions: Vesta shows where we are devoted, and the affairs we
consider sacred. Vesta is in Bush's ninth house, emphasizing her religious
meaning. Vesta is energized by being in militant Aries, and we can bet from
this placement that Bush intends to pioneer a religious agenda as it comes in
under Neptune's hazy veil.

The Saturn-Pluto Cycle

Bush's political schedule has an eerie resonance with the Reagan's to-do
list, a collection of programs now coming back to life after eight years of
Clinton's leadership. The proposed $1.6 trillion tax cut, the rise of the
religious right, the turning over of the natural resources to corporate
interests, the nuclear missile defense shield - these socio-political
developments are actually a continuation of the policies initiated under
Reagan, and follow a natural astrological cycle.

Ronald Reagan was elected under the rays of the epochal Saturn-Pluto
conjunction of November 8, 1982. Saturn and Pluto form a conjunction about
every 33 years, and their hard aspects to each other over the ensuing years
form the peaks and valleys centered on the original doctrine. In the classic
"Mundane Astrology" the Saturn-Pluto cycle is equated to deep cultural
transformations, purgations, and resurrections.

Issues are seen in stark terms of good and evil, so that only some kind of
drastic action will suffice. Reagan's revolutionary, conservative politics
began with the Star Wars program, and condemnation of the "Evil Soviet
Empire." His defense spending built a huge federal deficit which threatened
the nation's economic stability, and wasn't rectified until Clinton came into
office.

Clinton's determination to balance the federal budget and work with the other
side balanced out the inconsistencies in Reagan's policies. It amounted to a
counter-revolution and arrived during the opening square of Saturn to Pluto
in 1993. Now Saturn is about to enter the next developmental phase as it
opposes Pluto during 2001 and 2002. Saturn is at the halfway point in the
33-year cycle, and represents the counter-revolution to Clinton's
counter-revolution.

Louis Armstrong, International Ambassador of Swing

Ken Burns' PBS documentary on jazz has created a resurgence in the genre,
with CD sales up, attendance overflowing at jazz programs, and the "Jazz"
companion book hitting the New York Times bestseller list. According to
Burns, the most influential jazz musician was Louis Armstrong, who in the
1920s changed the well-organized ensemble into a sequence of free-form,
swinging solos.

Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong was born a natural entertainer with his Sun in
center-stage Leo (August 4, 1901; 10 pm; New Orleans). Armstrong was well
known for his infectious wide grin and positive disposition that made
everyone around him feel good. His natural spontaneity and creativity can be
seen in his Fire Grand Trine, with his Sun favorably linked to innovative
Uranus in Sagittarius, and a bold, adventurous Moon in Aries.

Life would have been too easy and comfortable without the challenging aspects
to Armstrong's Moon. The Moon becomes a fighter with the opposition to Mars,
and is filled with ambition by the square to Saturn. These three planets form
a T-Square, with the fourth corner empty and waiting for a major transit to
make things happen.

Shape-shifting Pluto filled in this gap from 1925 to 1928 when Armstrong made
his most famous improvisations. His first record was made on November 26,
1926 as Pluto marched into his T-Square from the sign of Cancer. At the same
time transiting Pluto was also conjunct the U.S. Sun, giving birth to a new
form of music that captured the national spirit of personal freedom.

* In Bush's chart, Pisces is on his ninth house, and therefore is ruled by
Neptune. Reader feedback is welcome. Email: [email protected].

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