Trouble At Work: Dr. Phil Feels The Saturn Pinch

There's a bad vibe going around the set of The Dr. Phil Show these days. In the last three months, two members of the show's staff have died and two others have had medical emergencies... including the sudden and unexpected death of a young intern from a strep infection. All of this is happening during a "re-tooling" process to boost ratings, which have undergone a slow but steady decline from their peak a few years ago.

Not surprisingly, Phil McGraw's transits (September 1, 1950, 7:15 PM, Vinita, Oklahoma) reflect this. His Midheaven (public image and perception) is at 24 degrees Sagittarius, and is only now pulling out of a merciless four year off-and-on conjunction with Pluto. Transiting Uranus is currently conjuncting his Ascendant at 21 Pisces, and will be squaring the Midheaven off and on throughout the upcoming season. As for the most recent spate of unexpected deaths in the studio itself: these have all taken place while transiting Saturn has been conjuncting his natal Sun at 9 degrees Virgo. The Sun is the ruler of his Sixth House (work and daily details) and is also in the Sixth.

Furthermore, as the beginning of the new TV season approaches, Neptune is conjuncting the secondary progressed Midheaven. All of these bad transits appear to be piling up to make it a very difficult Fall season for Dr. Phil.

Two bits of good news for Dr. Phil: One, Pluto... which has caused so much trouble for him in past... is rolling into a sextile with natal Jupiter, the Midheaven ruler, and will over the course of the next few years trine his natal Sun and Moon. So, although things certainly won't be easy for him in the next few months, the long-term prognosis is good.

Secondly: you know if things go terribly wrong for him, he'll get a best-selling self-help book out of the trouble he's survived. He does, after all, have Moon in Taurus in the Second House... and if there's any placement that can find a way to turn a buck off of a crisis, that's it.

One more thing: Phil has Saturn smack on his Seventh House (marriage and partnerships) cusp. And who is that stern little gimlet-eyed woman staring at him from the audience all the time? Yup. That's Mrs. McGraw.

The World Loses Its Voice: Don LaFontaine, 1940-2008

The Voice Of A Generation... literally... has passed from our midst.

Don LaFontaine, ubiquitous voice-over artist, has died. His voice is so widespread that it has worked its way into our culture, becoming a cliche.

He was born August 26, 1940 (time unknown) in Duluth, Minnesota. I'd love to see a time of birth for him. Even without that, one thing does stand out. His Mercury... natural ruler of the voice and speech... was in dramatic Leo, fed by a tight square from Uranus in Taurus (the sign of the Singer, as astrologer Steven Forrest calls it). That, combined with the ego and drive of the Sun and Mars conjunct in modest Virgo, made him one of the strangest creatures in our modern world: the anonymous superstar.

This also brings to mind another subject that has been on my mind for some time: an obscure statistical "anomaly" that astrologers would do well to keep in mind.

All else being equal, a person is slightly more statistically likely to die within the month before or after their birthday. And this is, as you may expect, not necessarily fed by drunken accidents after the birthday party, or suicides at the thought of turning X number of years old. It just works out that way.

Or so one might think, if one didn't think that the Sun in a birth chart represents the Spark Of Life in a person, and by returning to its origin point in the chart, it passes through its own Twelfth and First Houses.

Which is perhaps why we now live... In A World Without Its Voice.

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The Strange Case Of Trig Palin (UPDATED)

"A Physician without a knowledge of Astrology has no right to call himself a physician."
-Hippocrates

"An Astrologer with a knowledge of Medicine could get a hell of a blog entry out of this Trig Palin business."
-Matthew The Astrologer

It surprises me a little that in a US Election season where health care is (as always) an issue, and a leadership candidate has a true, harrowing tale of a medical emergency to tell, that someone or other hasn't made a bigger deal about it. Alaska Governor (and Republican VP candidate) Sarah Palin has quite the story to tell around the birth of her youngest child, Trig Palin. Governor Palin is being held up by conservative fundamentalists as a shining example for pro-lifers everywhere as the mother of a Down's Syndrome child.

Or is she?

A question for all you mothers out there: you're in your mid-40s, pregnant with your fifth child. It's four weeks before the due date. You start having contractions. At 4 AM you begin leaking amniotic fluid. You are the governor of the State Of Alaska, but are attending a convention in Dallas, Texas. Do you:

A) Proceed to the nearest hospital (Dallas has several excellent hospitals, and money is no object) and give birth.

B) Go to the airport, get in a plane, and fly to Anchorage Alaska. Once there, you literally drive past Anchorage Regional Hospital and Providence Hospital (which has the highest rated maternity care in the State) and then head for Wasilia (population: about 60,000) for a total travel time of nearly 24 hours to give birth at Mat-Su Hospital.

...A small-town hospital which, by the way, has no record of The State Governor having given birth there that day. You think they'd notice somethng like that.

***

There's a rumour going around that Trig Palin is in fact the child of Gov. Palin's daughter Bristol. Bristol has been seen a lot publicly lately... "publicly" in the sense that she is usually backstage handling the baby while Governor Palin is making an appearance. And I haven't been able to find any record of Bristol talking excitedly (or dejectedly) to any of her friends about the impending pregnancy. And neither will you, mostly because Bristol Palin was out of school for almost the entire pregnancy with an alleged case of mononucleosis.

By the way: the usual recovery time for mono? Three or four months.

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Astrologically... even without a time of birth for Sarah Palin, you'd expect to see something exciting going on transit-wise for the Governor around then. Here's what was happening at the time:

Transiting Mars squaring natal Jupiter, trining natal Neptune.
Transiting Saturn quincunxing natal Venus.
Transiting Uranus: no major aspects.
Transiting Neptune conjunct natal Sun/Mars/Saturn conjunction.
Transiting Pluto square natal Venus.

Now, without the proper time of birth, we can't know the house placements and rulerships in Governor Palin's chart. But we can tell there was a hell of a lot of Neptune... shadowy, nebulous, deceptive Neptune... going on at that time. Which seems appropriate. But of course (given the verified publicly-known facts on the matter) Sarah Palin must either be lying about having given birth to Trig Palin, or is telling the truth about being near-criminally stupid about a pregnancy. Her fifth pregnancy. All very... Neptunian.

Either way, I don't think this is the political role-model American women were begging for.

Sources:

The Daily Kos.

Scienceblogs.com

UPDATE: Bristol apparently really is pregnant (either again or for the first time).  And apparently she's five months pregnant. Trig was born April 18th this year, so it is possible for Bristol to have birthed both children. Or maybe this is Bristol's first pregnancy, and she's merely a living example of what happens when fundamentalists pressure Republican leaders to take sex education out of public schools. Either way (as previously reported here,) the Big Star of The Show at Day One if the Republican National Convention is still definitely Uranus.)

Republican National Convention, Day One: An Astrological Sneak Preview

(Predicting the future is inherently tricky, especially when there's a heavy Uranus involvement. This blog entry was written Sunday afternoon, and was finished literally minutes before the announcement that George W. Bush would not be attending the Republican National Convention due to the looming hurricane situation. Or maybe Bush has an astrologer who warned him about speaking in public tonight. Oh well... the article is written and I did predict weirdness for Bush this evening, so I stand by that. He may still very well appear at the convention via satellite or something, so keep an eye on the Bush situation tonight anyway. )

The 2008 Republican National Convention starts today in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and (like all political conventions) will likely be light on substance and heavy on cheering. Sure, there will be all kinds of talk about Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, whom I don't want to speculate too much about without a proper time of birth or birth chart. All I know for sure is that, as mentioned in that blog entry... it looks to be a very Uranian election day.

(As of Sunday afternoon, the GOP convention web site still listed Sarah Palin as a speaker Tuesday, and "Republican Party's Vice Presidential Nominee" as a speaker Wednesday. Unless the Party decides that Ms. Palin has achieved full rock star status, I really doubt they're going to have her deliver two speeches two days in a row. Now that would be Uranian.)

I found myself looking at the transits for Day One, and noticed some very interesting things happening with George W. Bush. He's scheduled to be the keynote speaker tonight. Although I don't have a precise schedule, it seems likely he'll be speaking at about 8 PM local time. In a previous entry, I discussed the possibility that President Bush was drunk at the Beijing Olympics. There are similar things happening with President Bush astrologically today, with some interesting additions around 8 PM (St. Paul local time) specifically.

The major transits in place:

-Transiting Moon and Mars will be sextiling the natal Ascendant/Mercury conjunction in Leo, tending to make for a certain feistiness on George's part.

-Transiting Jupiter is opposing the natal Sun. Given the 12th House placement of the Sun, this can be a time of overindulgence in vices... much as was going on in Beijing. In addition, the secondary progressed Moon is almost EXACTLY squaring the natal Moon, making (once again) for emotional volatility. And remember... the Sun is the ruler of Bush's Ascendant, thus likely having an effect on visible, public behaviour.

-Transiting Saturn, now joined by the Sun, is still conjuncting the President's natal Mars. Mars is the ruler of Bush's Midheaven... his career and public image. Had you noticed that Bush's public appearances are down (and not terribly Presidential either) the last couple of months? The addition of the transiting Sun is likely to amplify this. For bonus points, Saturn is also conjuncting the secondary progressed Sun.

But now here are the transits happening for Dubya specifically in the 8 to 8:30 PM range tonight:

The transiting Ascendant starts at 17 degrees Pisces and moves into a conjunction with Uranus at 21 degrees. In the course of a half hour, the transiting Ascendant will square the President's natal Uranus, secondary progressed Uranus (at 21 and a half degrees Gemini). The transiting Midheaven will be at 24 degrees Sagittarius, opposing Bush's Uranus, secondary progressed Uranus, and secondary progress Midheaven in short order. In addition, the transiting Moon will be conjunct Bush's natal Neptune, and exactly conjunct the secondary progressed Neptune.

All of this makes for a fairly heady, emotional mix for President Bush this evening. Politically speaking, he's pretty much done. It's not like he could run again even if anyone  wanted him to. But as far as passing the torch to John McCain, tonight's speech is important. And given the President's personally stressful transits, I'd be a little worried if I was on McCain's team.

Now, I'm not predicting that George W. Bush will stumble on stage drunk or anything. But by the looks of it, his keynote address for the evening is likely to be... interesting. The kind of "interesting" that Fox News will likely gloss over and/or treat like it's The Gettysburg Address.

Other, more independent observers, are likely to have a different take on the matter.

Greeting Cards From The Mutable Signs Of The Zodiac

Gemini:

Virgo:

Sagittarius:

Pisces:

Greeting Cards From The Fixed Signs Of The Zodiac

Taurus:

Leo:

Scorpio:

Aquarius:

The Winner Of The 2008 Presidential Election Is...

John McCain has just announced his choice for his Vice Presidential candidate. It's Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska. Prior to today, Sarah was best known as "the potential candidate for VP that McCain might go with to look hip and trendy," as if presidential politics was a game of poker in which a white female trumps a black guy, or something.

(Forgive my cynicism, but I don't think anyone observing American politics from the outside for as long as I have can avoid being cynical.)

There doesn't seem to be an official time of birth for Ms. Palin around anywhere yet. What we do know is that she was born February 11th, 1964 in Sandpoint, Idaho.

Although it's always dangerous to speculate about such things without an accurate time of birth, here's Sarah's major transits for Election Day.

Transiting Mars square natal Mars
Transiting Jupiter square natal Jupiter
Transiting Jupiter sextile natal Neptune
Transiting Neptune square natal Sun-Mars-Saturn

(A natal Sun-Mars-Saturn conjunction? Sounds Republican to me!)

Admittedly, it doesn't look terribly happy for Ms. Palin.

The truth is though, I've been more or less deliberately avoiding doing too many calculations in an attempt to figure out who is going to win the upcoming election. And that's certainly not due to a lack of interest. That's not even due to the relative lack or reliable birth data.

I think astrology can tell us the outcome of the election, but not in the usual sense.

You see, transit-wise, the big news this upcoming First Tuesday In November this year is the exact Saturn/Uranus opposition in Virgo/Pisces, with Uranus retrograde. Transiting Venus is throwing in a square from Sagittarius to liven things up a little.

Uranus rules, among other things, electronics and relatively-novel technical processes. And this election, up to one-third of all ballots in the election are not going to be counted by squabbling bands of Democratic and Republican scrutineers, as the process has gone in past.

This election, up to one-third of all the ballots will be "counted" by Diebold voting machines. You know, the efficient, Uranus-ruled devices that 34 States have already been officially notified drop votes unpredictably and that can be relatively easily hacked.

The winner of the next US Presidential Election? I'm predicting a landslide... for Uranus.

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