NewsScope for January 15, 2001

Showdown over Security Tight for
Bush Inauguration

Faced with mass demonstrations and the risk of violent disruption, the Secret Service will be fully deployed on January 20 when President-elect George W. Bush is inaugurated. Opponents are gathering over a wide range of political causes, including Bush's stand on the death penalty, corporate welfare and anti-abortion, and especially over the legitimacy of his right to be president.

Traditionally, the swearing in ceremony is scheduled for 12:00 noon. Political astrologers use the inauguration horoscope to make forecasts on the first term, and this one shows a general atmosphere of hostile conflict, including the tension around the actual event itself. The dominant indicator for this is Mars, which stands out by being angular and close to the Seventh House cusp, and from its difficult aspects to Uranus and Saturn (see last week's NewsScope for more on these Mars links).

Mars stands out for another reason, and that is its zodiacal location in the middle of Scorpio. At this point Mars is exactly square the U.S. Midheaven (using the Scorpio Rising U.S. horoscope). Whenever Mars makes a hard aspect to the U.S. Midheaven, the day's news events tend to be exceptionally fierce and confrontational. That this link-up is taking place as the foundation moment for Bush's term indicates danger ahead.

Nixon's 1973 inauguration is the closest parallel. In that chart, Mars and Saturn were also opposite each other, and the inaugural ceremony featured 60,000 protesters against the Vietnam War. That moment projected trouble across Nixon's term, ultimately resulting in his resignation. While we cannot say that Bush will leave office early, the dynamic tension in his inauguration does foreshadow widespread, tumultuous discord.

The Tianamen Papers

James Lilley, the U.S. Ambassador to China during the 1989 Tianamen Square uprising, confirmed last week the validity of secret papers smuggled out of China that describe the top level debate over declaring martial law. The Red Army crackdown killed thousands of student protesters and resulted in a power shift among the ruling Communist Party, ultimately leading to Jiang Zemin becoming the new President.

China's horoscope for October 1, 1949, 3:15 pm in Beijing* reflects the 1989 events clearly, and further describes an ongoing power struggle between hardliners and those seeking reform. At the moment, China's Aquarius Ascendant  is being activated by hopeful, secretive Neptune. Mercury, the natural ruler of documents, has joined the slower-moving Neptune just as the so-called Tianamen Papers are being published in English.

China's horoscope was hit hard last June by the powerful Jupiter-Saturn-Uranus configuration. Since then, China scholar Andrew Nathan received and translated smuggled documents revealing the inside story of the democracy movement, including the claim that 100 million Chinese were protesting in major cities throughout China by mid-May 1989. Last Tuesday, China officials denounced the Tianamen papers as forgeries.

The complete Chinese version of the Tianamen papers won't be published until April, but the English translations translated back into Chinese are already in circulation and being widely discussed. Revolutionary Uranus is now squaring China's Venus, located in the Ninth House of publishing. Simultaneously, transiting Saturn, the planet bringing reality checks, has stopped at the Fourth House cusp, the foundation point of the Communist regime.

Calista Flockhart Adopts

Hollywood celebrities were gaga over Calista Flockhart's decision to adopt a baby boy born on New Year's Eve. The Ally McBeal star doesn't have a man in her life at the moment, so decided to adopt, reported the National Enquirer. "I'm completly enchanted and awestruck," she said.

Calista Flockhart was born a Pluto-ruled Scorpio (November 11, 1964; 9:06 am in Freeport, Illinois) with her Sun conjunct dreamy, imaginative Neptune. With free-spirited Sagittarius on her Ascendant, Flockhart finds being single a natural state. Last week, her image changed dramatically as Ceres, the asteroid denoting motherhood, transited across her Ascendant. Ceres makes this crossing every four years, and one may reasonably ask why she hasn't become a mother during previous Ceres transits.

The urgency to take life-transforming action can be seen in the transit of Pluto, which is now squaring her natal Pluto. Since Pluto's orbit is highly elliptical, different generations experience Pluto's opening square to natal Pluto at very different ages. Pluto is closest to the Sun now, and so those born in the mid-1960s are the youngest generation to undergo a life-death struggle to understand the soul's innermost calling.

Transiting Uranus, the ultimate mover toward taking independent action, is exactly squaring Flockhart's natal Sun. The synchronized combination of Ceres and Uranus is often motivation for being a single mother.

*Source: Charles Carter, An Introduction to Political Astrology