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Issue # 14 - April, 2008

THE RETURN
Newsletter for Aquarius Rising Astrological Consulting

OBAMA’S CHART — OR…
WHY DO YOU NEED AN EXACT BIRTH TIME?

His Sun sign Archetypes + & -

LEO

+ The… Performer/Entertainer/Star/Dramatist; Child; Clown; Monarch/Royal Person; Diva; Aristocrat; Gourmet Hostess/Host; Epicurean; Leader/Focalizer; Romantic; Pleasure Seeker

- The… Attention Grabber; Tyrant/Autocrat; Egomaniac/ Narcissist; Spoiled Brat; Profligate; Spendthrift

OBAMA,
Who Exactly Is He?

…and why do we need his exact birth time and place to figure that out?

Good question. Astrology, like the stars themselves, has been around for a very long time — long to monkeys like ourselves, at any rate. It was here long before the Dinosaurs and before clocks and watches and history departments were invented. It could very well
have been the very thing that prompted the invention of clocks.

If we go back far enough into history, we can catch some fascinating glimpses of our ancestors’ relationship with time and the stars. Dr. Christopher L.C.E. Whitcombe is a professor in the Department of Art History at Sweet Briar College, Virginia. He has this to
tell us about the ancient monument of Stonehenge in England.

…in the 18th century the British antiquarian William Stukeley had noticed that the horseshoe of great trilithons and horseshoe of 10 bluestones at Stonhenge opened up the the direction of the midsummer sunrise. It was quickly surmised that the monument must
have been deliberately oriented and planned so that on midsummer’s morning the sun rose directly over the Heel Stone and the first rays shone into the centre of the monument between the open arms of the horseshoe arrangement.

This discovery has had tremendous impact on how Stonehenge has been interpreted. For Stukeley in the 18th century and Sir Norman Lockyer in the first years of the 20th century, this alignment implied a ritualistic connection with sun worship and it was generally concluded that Stonehenge was constructed as a temple to the sun. More recently, though, the astronomer Gerald Hawkins has argued that Stonehenge is not merely aligned with solar and lunar astronomical events, but can be used to predict other events such as eclipses. In other words, Stonehenge was more than a temple, it was an astronomical calculator.

In her book, “The Chalice and the Blade,” Riane Eisler tells us that the first calendars were designed by women to keep track of their monthly periods and due dates for births. To those ancient people, the mysterious force governing earth and sky was thought of as a
goddess, whose nurturing benevolence gave life to everything. To them, knowing the exact time of birth was a clue to the nature of the life being given when a child entered the world. And so it is to astrologers even today.

An astrological birthchart is a map of the sky as it looks from the exact time and place where you were born. The only difference between the way an astronomer views this information and the way an astrologer does, is that the astrologer is reading it symbolically as the journey of your life.

After calendars, then clock and watches, computers have made an astrologer’s job a lot easier. Accurately recording birth data and constructing a chart is immensely easier nowadays. Computers have also opened the door very wide for what we now call research
on astrology (not that people hadn’t already been observing these things for millennia.)

Does astrology work? You have to see for yourself, because, after all, it is your life we’re talking about here. It works for me. It works for everyone I know who has taken it seriously. But, still, why is it based on having an exact birth time?

In his book, The Night Speaks, Steven Forrest has this to say on that topic:

In astrology, everything comes back to one critical piece of information: where in space and time were you born? The system rises and falls on the notion that something is absolutely critical about that single moment. Why? The difference between “a fetus” two
hours before birth and “an infant” ten seconds after birth seems relatively minor. Certainly, the womb is permeable to many kinds of electromagnetic radiation – although not all, we will see. A question every astrologer has heard a thousand times is, ‘What about the moment of conception? Why don’t you do a chart for that?’ And it’s an intelligent inquiry. Conception, not birth, has the best claim on being the beginning of life.

Yet, birthcharts work. Something extraordinary must occur at that moment. Subjectively, everyone with whom I have every raised the subject agrees that ”‘the energies” around a birth are wondrous; “something” fantastic and inexplicable is occurring. But what?
And does it cast any kind of shadow through those narrow little windows we call physics and biology?

Dr. Bruce Lipton of the Standard School of Medicine thinks so. In New Orleans in 1989, he presented a brilliant talk entitled, “The Biology of Astrology.” The ground he covered was wide. For me, his most intriguing observations had to do with our immunological systems, which are as individual as fingerprints…

Lipton observed that if he put a piece of his own tissue on a fetus in the womb, that tissue would be incorporated into the child’s body. A few hours later, the newborn would reject the foreign tissue, just as one might reject a transplanted liver or heart. Thus, a
child enters the world with an extraordinary vulnerability: the immunological system is not activated. It takes a few hours to kick in… He [Lipton] suggests that, at the instant of birth, the child’s immunological system “reads” the electromagnetic environment and “calibrates” itself. He adds, that in his opinion, the actual biochemical processes which physically turn on the immune system take a few hours to unfold, but that they are set in motion when the child’s head leaves the birth canal.

…biologically, our separate identity is defined most rigorously and precisely by the nature of our immune system, and the individual nature of that immune system is determined not at conception but at birth.

So it seems the reason it’s so important to get that exact birth time, is essentially because it does make a difference. Talk about a chart made for a different time and we’re talking about another person, not you.

Even though we do know Barack Obama’s birth place and the day that he was born, while it does tell us a lot, there’s so much left out.

Quoting Steven Forrest again, from The Inner Sky,
Each astrological symbol represents a spectrum of possibilities;
each birthchart contains the roots of ten thousand personalities.

And according to Carl Jung,
The man who speaks with primordial images
speaks with a thousand tongues.

And again, according to Carl Jung,
Astrology represents the sum
of all the psychological knowledge from antiquity.

Although we know Mr. Obama’s Sun sign is Leo, there are two other symbols we need to know before we can even cover the basics of his chart interpretation. They are the signs of the moon and his ascendant. The key bit of missing information is the sign of his
ascendant, representing his individual style or social personality. It’s the sign that was dawning on the horizon at the moment of his birth.

A birthchart is made of two symbol wheels, one superimposed over the other. They’re both divided into twelve sections. The wheel underneath, which doesn’t move, represents earth and the twelve “Houses” or types of earthly circumstances, i.e. Home, Community, etc. The moving circle on top represents the sky (the zodiac). The moment and place of birth is what decides where the wheel “stops” turning. It would show where and how heavenly influences were touching Earth — and Obama.

With the exact birth time we would also know for sure which sign and house his moon is in and the house placements for each of the other planets. The moon’s sign is more difficult to track than the other planets’ because it travels the fastest, covering a sign
every two or three days. We do know that on the day Obama was born the moon changed signs, traveling from Taurus into Gemini. Judging from the following archetypes, we can only guess which matches him best. Since the moon represents the deep inner aspect of a person’s nature, we might have to know him in a more personal way to judge this; but here are those two sets of archetypes, the positive and negative sides of each. What do you think?

Taurus

+ The… Rustic; Silent One/Peaceful One; Prosperous One/Solid Citizen/Hard Worker; Self Assured One;
Sensualist/Voluptuary; Musician; Dancer

- The…Materialist; Workaholic; Glutton; Reactionary/Stubborn Mule; Leech; Skinflint; Lecher; Slacker

Gemini

+ The…Observer/Witness; Communicator/Messenger; Writer/Speaker/Researcher; Teacher;
Trickster (Teacher); Record Keeper; Story Teller/Journalist

- The…Chatterer; Prattler/Gossip/Busybody; Trickster (Cheater) Yellow Journalist; Bigot;
Windbag/Bore; Pedant; Speed Demon

I can’t help but find it rather interesting that Bill Clinton has a Leo sun sign and his moon is in Taurus. I suspect that his and Hillary’s chart comparisons would show their love relationship to be somewhat in the category of “worthy opponents.” Is Obama another kind
of “worthy opponent” for Hillary? But let’s keep going…

Knowing all of this information, we would begin the interpretation. That is by far the most difficult—and important—part of the process, a feat that requires knowing each of the astrological “bits” and how they fit together. Any astrologer’s challenge is in organizing the huge flood of information this gives us and weaving it all into the themes that accurately represent the blueprint for Obama’s mind, soul and personality. But beyond all that, it’s Mr. Obama himself who decides who he is relative to all those influences. Astrology can never determine for anyone, who they actually choose to become. The chart is just a map. It’s not
the territory.

— By Lark Bowerman

IT’S IMPORTANT TO KNOW THIS

Forget about those one-size-fits-all horoscopes. Your unique chart is constructed from your personal birth data: Exact time, date and place of birth.

In the method of Evolutionary astrology that I use, the Sun sign represents our basic sense of Identity. The Moon sign represents our inner, emotional nature and the Ascendant, or Rising sign tells about our personal style and how we interface with the world. Sun, Moon and Ascendant are called the Primal Triad and are the foundation for understanding your personal themes. I consider the chart as a WHOLE. I also very carefully study the way the symbols are arranged in order to make your personal life themes clear.

You can find more information about Evolutionary astrology on my web site or email
me and I’ll happily answer your questions.

www.aquariusastrological.com • lark@aquariusastrological.com

*Many of the astrological archetypes in this newsletter are drawn from the book, The Inner Sky by Steven Forrest or from Skymates I, by Jodie Forrest and Steven Forrest. These books come highly recommended by me as well as many others. They are also available from Amazon or from www.sevenpawspress.com.

All newsletter materials copyright © 2008 Lark & Kris Bowerman, www.aquariusastrological.com

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