In working paper #1 published in early November 2007, I proposed the following rectification:

Barack Obama
4 August 1961
Honolulu, HI
7:54:28 PM
AHST +10
27AQ09'12"

This week, I have written up two events used to test the rectified time on an out-of-sample basis. They are (1) the resignation of Samantha Power after she called Hillary Clinton a monster and (2) recent controversy over the Rev. Wright affair. Included in the update is a delineation of Obama's religious faith using Bonatti's method.

http://regulus-astrology.com/obama_update.html

The bottom line is that Saturn transited the antiscion of the Arabic Part of Servants within 4 minutes of degree when Power resigned. Saturn rules the 1st, or 8th from the 6th, death of servants, or as I discuss; their termination.

I delineate white racisim as Venus/Cancer in the bound of Mars/Cancer in both the 4 July 1776 USA chart and in Obama's figure. With Venus/Cancer in the contra-antiscion of Obama's Part of Faith, the recent Mars Cancer Ingress set off the Wright controversy surrounding Wright's comments on white racisim. The affair can also be timed by transits of Pluto (hold your breath!) conjunct Obama's Part of Faith and its antiscion.

In my book A Rectification Manual I rely quite heavily on dynamic activity to Arabic Parts as a way to tighten up rectifications. Arabic Parts are essentially customized Ascendants for specific life affairs. Dynamic activity to parts further specifies the type of life activity impacted, compared - say - to dyanmic activity to the Ascendant for the entire chart.

RegulusAstrology wrote:I proposed the following rectification:

Barack Obama
4 August 1961
Honolulu, HI
7:54:28 PM
AHST +10
27AQ09'12"

The sun to be in 6th house!? It would be in 9th or 11th, I think.

The sun to be in 6th house!? It would be in 9th or 11th, I think.

Why not? Figure skater Dorothy Hamill, pundit William F. Buckley, and General George S. Patton all were prominent in their fields, their names are known to virtually all Americans, and all had the Sun in the 6th house.

Tom

The proof of a rectification is in reading the resulting chart. But here we have to do more than just read the resulting planets in houses as they don't, by themselves, give all that much information. We need dispositors.

Dr. H, whose work I greatly admire, has previously suggested the 7:54:28 pm time to me. So let's read the chart. Go here & have a look: http://www.astroamerica.com/obama-dr_h.pdf

I have a chart with 27 09 Aquarius on the cusp. The south node is 27 54R (mean). Which, if I take Judith Hill's approach, that the south node is an uncontrolled, sucking drain (quicksand, if you will), means that Obama is a generally luckless sort of fellow. For those of you who have read lots of charts, what has your experience been, South node conjunct ascendant?

Using Placidus houses, Neptune is in the 9th, exactly conjunct the cusp. While I think Obama is running a strongly 9th house campaign & is rather lost & confused, Neptune in Scorpio would be outright deceit. There are notable squares between Neptune & Sun/Mercury. The Sun/Mercury midpoint is nearly exactly square Neptune. Lots of politicians have hard aspects to Neptune. With squares they are deluded (Tony Blair), or, with the opposition, professional liars (Nixon), but these are general comments.

If we posit Uranus as the ruler of Aquarius, we see the ruler in Leo, conjunct the 7th house cusp, conjunct the north node. Anytime we see first house ruler in the 7th, or 7th house ruler in the first (Bill Clinton), the wife comes front & center. In Bill's case, he was dragging Hillary around & as his 7th house ruler was in detriment (Mars in Libra), Hill was always one problem after another, or Bill had marital issues, take your pick. Bill & Hill work far better when they're separated.

Reverse that, and Obama becomes his wife's personal plaything. True to Leo-Uranus, she can make him appear & disappear in a flash. Certainly with the south node conjunct the ascendant & the chart ruler conjunct the north node, she's in the driver's seat. And it's plainly obvious.

If we have Saturn as ruler of the ascendant, Saturn is in Capricorn, which it rules. It's conjunct the 12th house cusp. Aquarians are quirky, Capricorns work hard, the 12th hides it all. Which means that Obama never gets credit for all the hard work he has done. Which seems true enough. People look at him & ask, what's he ever done? I've been asking that for a long time & so far as I can tell, he hasn't ever done anything.

The midheaven is 6 11 Sagittarius, the Visionary. I'd swap Neptune in the 9th for this in an instant, but the MC ruler is Jupiter & he's in the 12th in Aquarius. The general sense I have of Aquarius is that it confounds & contradicts whatever is brought to it. Jupiter brings the midheaven to it, so Aquarius makes that Vision some sort of sooper-dooper, extra special really neat, in-advance-of-all-human-thought sort of thing. Jupiter makes for a LOT of it. Then the 12th house hides it all away so that Nobody Knows. Except maybe Michelle, since the 12th, in Vedic, is the house of Pleasures of the Bed. Imagine the heavenly transport that he can give her.

Third house is at 8 36 Taurus, ruled by Venus at 1 49 Cancer exactly on the 5th house cusp at 0 58 Cancer. This is an indication of a happy, stable, fun-loving childhood where no great attention was paid schooling, and no great problems were had thereby.

Contrast this to college (9th house: Neptune) where the guy was completely lost. To the extent that Obama pulled through college at all was due to the attentions of his various girlfriends, since that Neptune is disposed by Mars in Virgo. Problem here is that Virgo/Pisces does not have "anchors" in the 7:54:28 chart, they claim no house cusps. What this means is that while college-era girlfriends could have kept Obama in school, it wasn't their primary focus. Which is shown by the DSC itself.

What we have instead for the 7th house is a wife that, while she can pull him out of the drink (the Uranus/node thing I mentioned earlier) is otherwise eternally in the background: Ruler of the 7th in its own 12th (Obama's 6th). Her focus is on O's health & welfare. On seeing he is well-fed, which means foods high in fat (she feeds him only the richest foods she can get: Leo). With an air sign on the ascendant he would not tend to put on weight, but, on the other hand, with Cancer on the 6th, he can be fattened & as it's a late degree of Cancer, may well get fat later in life.

And the 6th also tells us what the big O spends his time talking & thinking about: Health & food & how he can have more of both for himself & his subjects. Mercury is in Leo in 6, sextile & disposing Moon in Gemini in what might as well be taken for the 4th.

Because Obama is really most comfortable when he's having fun & being fed: Moon ruling the Cancer cusps on the 5th & 6th. He likes to have fun eating while at home, since Mercury in the 6th rules the 4th house cusp. I can almost see him busy at home, snacking on the danish, downing cup after cup of coffee, busy, busy, busy, buzz, buzz, buzz, like a bee in a hive.

And it's always fun to contrast the Moon side of a chart to the Saturn side of the chart. Capricorn on the 11th: A few, well-chosen friends. With Saturn on the 12th house cusp, and ruling it as well, these chosen few are well-away from the limelight.

I can go on, but I suspect the Forum has the general drift. Some of this sounds like Barak Obama, but much of it does not. Many of you will be surprised by this kind of analysis, since it is done so rarely. I regret these notes do not quite constitute a how-to-do-it method for reading house dispositors, as that would have taken me forever. And I've taken liberties with planets on one side or the other of a house cusp, as I work with a modified version of whole sign houses.

As I mentioned in a recent newsletter, Obama's birth was almost certainly published in the local newspaper (The Honolulu Advertiser?) within a few days of birth. It was common practice at the time, on the mainland, at any rate, to include the time of birth as well. I'm marooned outside of Baltimore, but if I were living on the islands, I'd march on down to the local public library & pour over the microfiche.

Dave

For those of you who have read lots of charts, what has your experience been, South node conjunct ascendant?

Traditional astrology considers the south node a malefic - restrictive like Saturn. I like John Frawley's observation that the south node is "where you get hurt." Tightly conjunct the ascendant, the native hurts him or herself.

The most blatant example is that of Janis Joplin

Jan 19, 1943
9:45 AM + 5 hrs
Port Arthur Texas USA

Her ASC is 25 Aquarius 33 and her south node is 25 Aquarius 08 (17 minute orb). Clearly this woman, who died of a combination drug and alcohol overdose at age 27 at the height of her fame, hurt herself.

Obama's SN in this chart is even tighter (9 min orb).

I found the south node within a reasonable distance of the ASC in the following charts:

Norman Mailer,

Ross McWhirter, a journalist who fought the IRA and was ultimately killed by them.

Christopher Reeves

Joe Sorintino a man who started out in life as a young law breaking thug, but became a judge

Billy Rose an entrepreneur who did well for himself

Charles Bauderline, a French artist who was, well, nuts, and died from a syphilis infection.

Movie Legend James Dean had his SN about 5 degrees from the ASC.

Obviously the rest of the chart has to be considered and people probably go through life with the SN on the ASC and hurt themselves no more than anyone else. I think it is a red flag though.

Tom

There remains a debate in traditional astrology as to the meaning of the Nodes. There are two camps.

First says North Node benefic, nature of Venus & Jupiter and South Node malefic, nature of Mars & Saturn.

Second says North Node increases, South Node diminishes. Abu Ma'shar takes this opinion, one which I agree with, giving an example of Mars conjunct South Node in Jimmy Carter's figure for which I make a double negative delineation - a malefic (Mars) is diminished (South Node). See Chapter 12: Lunar Nodes and Eclipses of A Rectification Manual.

Abu 'Ali Al-Khayyat has this to say about the South Node in the 1st house (Holden translation, Judgments of Nativities, p. 75)'

The Tail (in the 1st house) [denotes] trouble, decrease, and hindrance in all undertakings, and injury to one of the eyes.

I have heard of, but cannot put my finger on it this moment, that Bonatti also has an aphorism on South Node in 1st. I remember he does not like it.

Two Presidential nativities with South Node in 1st (whole signs) are James Polk and Franklin Pierce. Polk's aspect between the Ascendant and South Node was just over 6 degrees; he was sickly all his life. Pierce's South Node was just over 25 degrees from his Ascendant. This seems wide, but during his South Node Fidaria peirod, he suffered life threatening injuries at the Battle of Contreras during the Mexican War.

There is no question that South Node in Obama's figure is a debility. What does it signify physically? My delineation would be the potential of lung Cancer because of the South Node's placement in the bound of Saturn/Aquarius which is consistent with black tar (Saturn) causing difficulties with breathing (Aquarius - air sign) - even though Aquarius is usually and correctly specified to the shanks. I speak from experience with Saturn/Aquarius in my natal, not related to smoking, but related to toxic fumes, loud noises, and the like as an affliction to health.

Dynamically however, Obama lucky now because the transiting Nodes are in signs opposite to their natal placement. My experience is natal significations of the Nodes are flip-flipped in this condition. So his physical body is not 'diminished' now; in fact it is temporarily strengthened. He is past his South Node Fidaria period, and will not see a Nodal return until the South Node makes its Aquarius Ingress on 28 April 2017 and makes its exact return on 7 June 2017. This will be problematic for him. To be sure, the natal South Node can be set off by a host of other predictive methods, including profections and directions in the meantime, but it appears for the moment Obama escapes the problems of the South Node in his Ascendant for this election cycle.

Dave of Maryland,

You know we had this conversation about Obama when I came over to visit last year, and you must admit that your assessment is a tad biased against the man.

I did a little chart rectification of my own. Here's a more likely chart if he wins.

9:51am


Moon 28 Taurus 17 8th House
MC 5 Cancer 31
Venus 12 Cancer 10th House
Part of Fortune 10th House
Sun 12 Leo 10 11th House
Pluto 6 Virgo 58 12th House
Chiron 4 Pisces 55 6th House

From what we?ve seen so far, there?s a lot to recommend this chart. Obama?s campaign is about hopes and dreams (it is also echoed in the titles of his books), and the Sun?s soul desire in the 11th house is about fulfilling dreams. 12th House Pluto is good at quiet, behind-the-scenes leadership ? more substance than style. 8th House exalted Moon is good at listening, and also has the power to charm others and sway them to the individual?s viewpoint.

Venus is close to the MC, and it can be argued that Obama has certainly had a ?hidden Aphrodite in plain sight? behind his extraordinarily and somewhat surprising success so far. It also makes the man lazy, and able to scoot by on little effort - I agree with you on that, Dave.


Part of Fortune is in the 10th ? this makes sense for a winner. 6th House Chiron has also been an issue ? Obama is widely perceived as being less sensitive to the concerns of the less educated working class, most of whom are throwing their weight toward Hillary, because they sense the harmful power inherent in that placement.

BTW: I have S. Node within 45 minutes of the Ascendent. It has a way of screwing up one's entire life. If Obama gets the big banana, he'll be one incredibly lucky guy. S. Node on Ascendent, not likely.

But I did enjoy your asssessment. No hard feelings, I hope.

The biggest difference between the rectification I have proposed compared to others out there, including Dave's, is the Moon sign. Most others choose Moon in Taurus. I have selected Moon in Gemini.

In a man's chart, the Moon often signifies the mother, wife, and/or daughters. Sometimes one or two, other times all of them.

I rank getting the Moon sign correct as an important step to get out of the way early in the rectification process.

So what is the difference between Moon in Gemini and Moon in Taurus?

Moon in Taurus = need for money, food, real estate, accumulation of wealth; steady in approach (fixed sign).

Moon in Gemini = need for talking, writing, communicating, gossip; restless (mutable sign).

Compare these delineations to Obama's mother born Stanley Ann Dunham profiled in the latest issue of Time Magazine:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article ... 24,00.html

Highlights:

-took advanced philosophy classes in high school
-met first husband in college Russian-language class
-gave away money to beggars while living in Indonesia
-taught English at US Embassy in Indonesia
-woke up at 4:00 a.m. to teach son Obama English
-enrolled in masters program to study Indonesian anthropology,
where 230 million people live on 17,500 islands speaking 300 languages
-brought unlikely groups of people together in her home for conversation
-helped build microfinance program in Indonesia
-collected objects while traveling 'each with a story she understood'

With the exception of giving away money to beggars, which is the opposite of the tendency for the Moon/Taurus to hoard, I suggest that all other observations are consistent with the Gemini Moon.

In addition, the Gemini Moon's placement in the 4th house is consistent with Obama's frequent moves as a child because of his mother's restlessness.

Finally, the 4th is the father. So the need for information and restlessness is an influence on Obama's father. Near the age of one, Obama's father abandoned his family to get a PhD in economics at Harvard. This was a restless action taken because of the need for information and learning.

I believe all of this evidence supports a Gemini Moon.

I rest my case.

I just need to comment on something I noticed.

Moon in Taurus = need for money, food, real estate, accumulation of wealth; steady in approach (fixed sign).

The ?need for money? and ?accumulation of wealth? sound like ?Taurus = 2nd House?. The ?signs = houses? idea is normally rejected by the medieval astrology crowd. Now ?accumulation? sounds very much like Taurus ? but it?s an accumulation of tangible objects that contribute directly to Taurus? comfort and sense of security. Situated early in the zodiac, Taurus is a rather simple sign with basic needs. Accumulating and possibly hoarding wealth seems too future-oriented and abstract for Taurus, and requiring too much extra effort. Maintaining 'here-and-now? material comfort is more the Taurus style. That fits well with fixed earth.

Yes, Obama surely must have Moon in Gemini.

Sunny Dawn wrote:6th House Chiron has also been an issue ? Obama is widely perceived as being less sensitive to the concerns of the less educated working class, most of whom are throwing their weight toward Hillary, because they sense the harmful power inherent in that placement.

Can you elaborate on that? I generally ignore Chiron since there seems to be little corroborating data and conflicting opinions on what it represents.

I lean toward the "wounded healer" theme, and it works in my personal chart, especially with the Yod. To me, that placement makes him the best representative for the working class instead of Hillary "I'll tell you the details of my social security plan/universal health care plan after I'm elected because you're too stupid to understand it" Clinton.

Sunny Dawn wrote:BTW: I have S. Node within 45 minutes of the Ascendent. It has a way of screwing up one's entire life. If Obama gets the big banana, he'll be one incredibly lucky guy. S. Node on Ascendent, not likely.

I don't see that. In a natal chart I see the Dragon's Tail as the comfort zone everyone runs too, it's where people might try to shirk away or take the easy way out. That isn't inherently troublesome, but I can see where it has the potential for causing problems.

On progressed and transit charts, the Dragon's Tail seems to indicate bad news or general misfortune when it is in conjunction.

that chiron in the sixth as disdain for the uneducated working classes is being manifested this weekend, he was caught doing some "racial profiling" -- obama in indiana, though i don't see why they believe hillary more sympathetic to working class interests -- she doesn't resonate with my inner Wobbly

and i am still of the opinion that hillary's mc is 25/6 leo, not early virgo, and that the eclipse of 16 august will collapse her campaign

hillary and obama have conjunct midscorpio ascendants -- his at 17 effectively endorses keeping her in the 12th house -- the primaries 22April will be very interesting

Based on personal experience, I tend to see Chiron as more of a wound than a healer. I tend to look for trouble in the house where it lands. Maybe this makes me a pessimist. I know this means that I'm differing from the currently accepted perception of Chiron, which I see as a little too euphemistic.

BTW, I like the analysis of BO's mom as a Gemini type, and the argument for a Gemini Moon based on her attributes. I would be curious to know what Obama's sister's moon is. Although children can have very different perceptions of the mother, Obama's sister seems strongly identified with her mother (she chose the same career). So I'd like to see a Moon archetype for her related to Gemini in some way (an air sign, Virgo, or Sag). It would lend more support to this theory (even though it would blow my rectification).

Regarding the Node. I know the current Western vogue is that N. Node is what we are working toward, and S. Node is a default for the lazy and a suggestion of past lives. I don't agree with it. I tend to view the Nodes from a Vedic perspective. Ketu is a body without a head, a life without direction. You don't want it on the Ascendent, period. Even those with a strong life purpose may find that something chops off their head and ruins it when Ketu sits on top of the Ascendent. Also from a Vedic perspective -you don't want it on the Ascendent in the rasi because then it occupies the Ascendent in every single one of the divisional charts.

Rahu never tires of his quest to again taste the ambrosia. When that lands right on the Descendent, it can cause a constant craving for relationships with no real satisfaction. When Rahu conjuncts Chiron, I have seen on two occasions a constant craving for healing in people who died prematurely. The thing they needed and wanted more than anything, they could not get.

I'm reading David Railey's The Soul Purpose right now, and I'm pleased to see that he doesn't go along with the current Western "S. Node bad, N. Node good" approach. He gives examples of people using the themes from their S. Node far more powerfully than their N. Node, suggesting that it can go either way, a perspective I find more carefully considered and easier to validate than a "past life".

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