Predicting the outcome of elections is a fairly thankless job. With or without astrology, you’ve got about a 50-50 chance of getting it right, enough chance to look foolish if you’re wrong and enough to be called lucky by skeptics or detractors if you’re right. That said, I’ve been looking at the charts of the respective candidates again and find myself still convinced that Bush will win it all on November 2 — or at least take the oath on January 20. This confirms my position stated last year that Bush would win reelection although I am providing a more systematic analysis here for the first time.
While Kerry’s chart has some nice transit hits on election night (that Venus Jupiter conjunction straddling the MC is hard to miss), Richard Houck made the point of giving special consideration to planetary stations, something that Bush and Cheney have more of around election time. Houck’s basic idea was that planetary stations are the most powerful form of a planet’s energy. When they station by transit, that is the time when they can express themselves most clearly and forcefully. But even more than transits, however, progressed stations contained the key for predicting key life events such as elections.
One of the problems of interpretation however is that while stations are powerful and usually accompany life changing events, the astrologer still has to ascertain whether the station will make the event positive or negative. For example, Nixon resigned just one month before the direct station of secondary progressed Pluto, arguably the most political planet. Nixon also lost the 1960 election just two months before a tertiary progressed Saturn retograde station. He won his 1972 reelection just three months after a tertiary progressed Pluto station.
Jimmy Carter was sideswiped by the Iran hostage crisis just one month before his secondary progressed Neptune retrograde station. He lost the 1980 election two months after the tertiary progressed Pluto retrograde station. Aside from natural qualities of the planet involved, retrograde stations are more likely to bring setbacks, while direct stations bring favourable circumstances.
George Bush Sr. won the 1988 election two months after the tertiary progressed Pluto retrograde station.
This time around, Bush Jr. has a couple of very nice progressed stations. He had a tertiary progressed Jupiter direct station back in April 2004 at 25Scorpio58 (Lahiri). This came a little early for the election but it still is helpful because it’s conjunct his Ketu 27Sc29 and opposite his Uranus 26Ta03. Even more, transit Pluto has just stationed direct near that point at 25Sc37. Maybe that Jupiter energy will now be unleashed for the campaign once the convention gives him a boost. Apparently, the most recent poll has him up a few points, so perhaps that Pluto-Jupiter energy has already taken root.
Bush also will enjoy the fruits of the tertiary progressed Venus declinational station at 18N57 in early November. For those who may be unfamiliar with declinational stations, they occur with approximately the same frequency as regular longitudinal stations (this tertiary progressed Venus declinational station happens about once every 10 years) and describe the situation when a planet changes its direction from moving north to moving south or vice-versa. I have found them to be just as useful as regular stations. While it’s usually good news whenever a person has a Venus station, it’s usually a lot better if the station occurs near a significant point in the birth chart. In Bush’s chart, this 3P Venus at 18N57 is very close to his Ascendant declination at 18N30 and so should be seen as another helpful energy for him in November.
And as we know, Bush will experience (as opposed to enjoy) that Saturn station/return right after election day. Some people see this energy as negative, but I don’t, especially in light of the other forces at work. Saturn is placed in the first house in a nakshatra that it also rules and is placed in the 10th house in the D10 career chart. His ascendant falls in a nakshatra ruled by Saturn. And his entire political career has occurred during his Saturn dasha. On balance, Saturn is Bush’s best friend and so its station and return will most likely bring favour.
VP Cheney has a similar pattern of progressed stations at election time. He has that transit Uranus direct station on his descendant just after the election. Some astrologers have interpreted this as a change in employment and general life situation, but I’d rather see it as just a shot of much-needed energy. Hopefully it won’t kill him.
Cheney also has a tertiary progressed Mercury direct station 3Ta57 in January 2005 just before the inauguration. What’s especially significant here is not only it is the more favourable direct station, it falls exactly on his MC at 4Ta56. This clearly shows advancement in career and social profile. And Cheney is running Venus-Mercury dasha at the time, thus giving the Mercury station extra referring power.
By contrast, John Kerry’s chart already enjoyed a tertiary progressed Uranus station back in January 2004 when he won the Democratic nomination. This occurred at 20Ta19 near his descendant. In my view, that energy has largely been spent.
John Edwards has a tertiary progressed Pluto direct station at 01Le04 in June 2004 but again, that energy is most likely reflected in his winning the VP nomination in July. So it’s also largely spent energy.
In conclusion, the predominance of these stations in Bush and Cheney’s charts clearly demonstrate a Republican victory in November. While Bush will prevail this year, he still has Tecumseh’s curse to contend with, not to mention a nasty Mercury dasha that begins in early 2006.
