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Astrology
by Hand Week 40
The
Chart of John McCain
During the
last presidential campaign, only one candidate seriously challenged George
W. Bush for the Republican nomination: Senator
John McCain of Arizona. It can be argued seriously that McCain
captured the popular imagination far more than Bush has or is likely to.
This week, we are going to look at McCain’s chart. It seems especially
appropriate in view of the fact that campaign finance reform, one of McCain’s
major issues, has been debated in Congress this week.
 According
to Astrodatabank, John McCain was born on August 29, 1936 at 9:00 am EST, somewhere
in the Panama Canal zone, with coordinates given as longitude 79W48 and
latitude 9N10. The time is given as being “from memory.” The time has
a rounded-off flavor, but fortunately the house cusps are all in the middle
of signs. So, unless the time is wildly off, we do know which signs affect
which houses.
The
Basics of the Chart
McCain’s
Sun is in Virgo, his rising degree is in Libra and his Moon is in Capricorn.
While these three signs only give a general description of a person, they
do say some things about McCain that are relevant even without going to
the rest of the chart. First of all, the combination of a Virgo Sun with
a Capricorn Moon (both earth signs) suggests that we are not dealing with
a political ideologue here, but a very pragmatic individual with high
standards as to what is and is not correct. This comes from the nature
of the element earth, which in human beings is generally oriented toward
the real world and to getting results, and both Virgo and Capricorn have
quite a strong sense of right and wrong.
I am fond
of saying that there are three kinds of politicians: There are liberals,
conservatives and then there are honest men and women. This last group
seems to some to be liberal, to some conservative and others somewhere
in between. What makes them different is that they are not strongly attached
to an abstract political philosophy, but prefer to do whatever needs to
be done to get the desired results, whatever it may look like to others.
This might help to explain why McCain seems puzzling to both liberals
and conservatives. His positions on most issues are broadly conservative,
but his position on campaign finance reform seems quite liberal.
Saturn
Is His Ascendant Ruler
His rising sign which is Libra indicates a strong need for
balance and justice. This is made even more significant by the role of
Saturn with regard to Libra. As I mentioned several
weeks ago, more than one planet rules each sign. In Libra,
we have Venus as the sign ruler and Saturn as the exaltation ruler. And,
as I also mentioned a few
weeks ago, Saturn rules all air signs in daytime charts. McCain’s
was a daytime birth. Thus Saturn has two rulership modes over Libra, the
rising sign, which gives Saturn a stronger rulership over the rising degree
than Venus. This increases McCain’s tendency to be conservative, but the
ancients describe Saturn in the daytime as being especially concerned
with fair order and justice. As I say to my students and clients, Saturn
in the daytime is discipline; Saturn at night is more like repression.
Now, it is
always desirable to look at the ruler(s) of a rising degree when reading
a chart. McCain’s Saturn is in Pisces in the Sixth House, and Venus, the
sign-ruler of the Ascendant, is in Virgo in the Twelfth. On the face of
it, neither of these is exactly wonderfully placed, but let’s remember
that George W. Bush’s chart has the Sun ruling the Ascendant in the Twelfth
and he is still president.
Again, according
to medieval sources, when there are two rulers of an Ascendant, you take
the one with more rulership over the rising degree if the rulers are otherwise
more or less equal. Well, in addition to Saturn’s having stronger rulership
than Venus, these two rulers are also NOT equal. McCain’s Venus is in
the Twelfth House, the more difficult of these two difficult houses, and
it is in Virgo, the sign of its fall, which indicates that Venus does
not function terribly well. Saturn is in the slightly better house and
has no special weakness in Pisces, and in fact has some features that
actually strengthen it. We’ll talk more about that next week.
For the moment
I would like to point out something that is also true of these combinations.
Venus and Saturn are only a bit less than three degrees out of an exact
opposition (180 degrees apart). Having the two main planets connected
with the rising sign and degree in this opposition relationship definitely
introduces some instability and difficulty into life. In particular, the
Twelfth House is a place of confinement and imprisonment. Having one rising
sign ruler opposed to the other involving the Twelfth House is the best
indication in the chart of the fact that McCain spent quite a considerable
time as a POW in North Vietnam. However, as we will see next week, there
are things in this chart that indicate that he would be able to turn this
to his advantage at some point in his life, no matter how difficult it
may have been at the time.
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