In yesterday’s post I talked about the significance of redoing Barack Obama’s oath of office and the new chart that came of it. Today I want to say a little more about the challenges in the noon chart and how the 7:30 pm chart overcomes them. The noon chart had two main problems, one involving Mercury and the other involving the Moon.
The Mercury Problem
Firstly, the inauguration occurred while Mercury was retrograde. Mercury retrograde is really not the best time for taking oaths, signing contracts, setting deadlines or making concrete agreements of any kind. Such deadlines are often not met and such agreements usually end up seeming unfinished or cannot be fulfilled on. But what can a nation do when a very important oath is scheduled during Mercury retrograde?
The solution to the don’t-sign-contracts rule lies in the nature of Mercury retrograde itself. A Mercury retrograde period is a retrospective period. It is a time when forward progress is more difficult but backward progress is facilitated. The very best thing to do during a Mercury retrograde period is to go back and fix or complete something old or to take a retrospective look at something previously unfinished. Since the first inauguration was an attempt to cement a new agreement, it’s a wonderful piece of luck and an astrological synchronicity that a mistake was made, a mistake large and clear enough to necessitate a do-over under constitutional law. The very act of having a do-over satisfied Mercury retrograde’s need to fix the old rather than initiate the new. The 7:30 PM chart IS a fix, merely by existing and replacing the noon chart.
I don’t believe that Mercury retrograde caused the mistake, but I do think that going ahead with the first chart would have been a bad idea and that doing it over not only enabled a better chart (one more suited to Obama’s vision for the United States) but also solved the issue of the presence of Mercury retrograde in the second chart. Because the second chart was a “do-over,” Mercury had his nod and wink, and we can all breathe a sigh of relief that Mercury’s retrograde status will not prevent the administration from living up to its agreements.
The Moon Problem
The second problem with the original inauguration chart, a glaring one to astrologers, was the void-of-course Moon. The Moon in a chart is called “void-of-course” when it occupies the end of a sign and will not make any more connections (“aspects”) to other planets before leaving that sign. The Moon represents feelings in any chart and its placement is always an important factor. To quote Jim Maynard’s Pocket Astrologer (a yearly planetary-motion publication every astrologer should have on them at all times), during a void-of-course Moon “it is wise to avoid making important decisions. Judgment at this time is probably faulty. New paths at this time are likely to be plagued with false starts, errors, and unexpected hassles. Contracts, promises or new laws tend to bring on difficulties. Delays and frustrations are common.”
The void-of-course Moon means that feelings are drifting, unable to connect to anything, kind of like free-floating anxiety. It yields a sensation of emotional instability during which judgment is faulty, tending to result in bad decisions. In an inauguration chart, the Moon represents the feelings or moods of the public and a void-of-course Moon suggests that under this administration the public mood would drift and be fickle, perhaps changing its mind and questioning its own judgment about having elected him. This could disconnect Obama from the public, making it hard for his administration to satisfy the people, gain their respect and hold their support for the next 4 years. A void-of-course Moon would have destabilized his administration, causing frustration for those in government and citizens alike–an administration from hell.
The second inauguration chart solves this problem entirely. By the day after January 20th, the Moon had passed into the next sign and was receiving several aspects from other planets. It was no longer void-of-course. With this chart in place, Obama’s administration will be emotionally grounded and able to connect to the public mood. The public will be satisfyable and he will be able to connect with them.
How did this happen?
How did Obama and the USA escape a chart/administration with such huge problems? In a previous article I described Obama’s current Jupiter transit to his Ascendant. With Jupiter moving through his first house, he is currently experiencing a period of fame and popularity. Anyone having Jupiter in their first will basically be lucky as long as they make use of Jupiter’s influence by acting like a Sagittarian. So the short answer to “how did this happen?” is: Obama put himself in the right place at the right time and got lucky.
Disclaimer
At the beginning of yesterday’s post I said this analysis would not be exhaustive. I do not specialize in mundane (political) astrology and I have just picked out the pieces that are of interest to me. There is much more to say on the subject, but I’ll leave that to the experts.
