NewsScope for January 22, 2008

Republicans Settle on either McCain or Romney

Although Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson made good showings in South Carolina's hard-fought primary, the real battle came down to whether John McCain or Mitt Romney could take this critical gateway state to the South. Meanwhile, Mike Bloomberg is making exploratory visits to the Super Tuesday states of California and Texas.

John McCain's Sun in Virgo (August 29, 1936; 8:37 am; Panama City, Panama) is under the rays of transiting Saturn, testing his ability to assume the dignity and authority of a front-runner. A major configuration in his chart is a mutable Grand Cross. Transiting Uranus will be activating this configuration throughout 2008, bringing him plenty of highs and lows, unexpected victories and frustrating losses.

When considering McCain's connections to the U.S. Moon* in Aquarius, he has his progressed Jupiter at 25º Sagittarius and his natal Ceres at 25º Scorpio. Both of these placements are a mere 1/4º from making the exact aspect to the U.S. Moon, giving him a clear inside track to American security concerns. Without these vital links, McCain could not become a winning national candidate.

Mitt Romney's birth time is unknown, but his solar chart (March 12, 1947; Detroit, MI) has no close aspects to the U.S. Moon. Nor does his progressed chart. If Republicans select him for their nominee, they will most certainly lose in November. Mike Bloomberg's Aquarius Sun (February 14, 1942; 3:40 pm; Brighton, MA) is precisely conjunct the U.S. Moon, potentially making him a viable third-party candidate. However, he is weakened by having transiting Saturn and his progressed Moon and Mars in weak sectors.

The Over-Leveraged Economy

The economy is now the number-one concern of voters across America, as worsening financial news pushed the stock markets down and inspired the Bush administration to propose a major tax rebate to stimulate consumer spending. Citicorp and Merrill Lynch wrote off huge losses, while General Motors announced incentives to lure 46,000 workers into early retirement, and the housing market continued to slump.

The sub-prime mortgage fiasco is widely blamed for most of the bad news. As described here recently**, the mortgage problems evolved out of the Saturn-Neptune opposition, with transiting Neptune in the U.S. Fourth House of real estate. Neptune (when afflicted by Saturn) can inspire fraud, deception, and unrealistic hopes, and which led to expectations that the housing bubble would continue expanding forever.

Transiting Mars is currently in the U.S. Eighth House of mortgages, financial incentives, and banking institutions, where it's in a severe opposition to transiting Pluto. In financial astrology, Mars is often associated with cuts, which is the current modus operandi for the affected corporations. Mars turns direct on January 28, when the Fed meets next, and when we can expect an unusual ½ point cut in the fed fund rate.

Mars completes its opposition to Pluto on March 6, so between then and now, we can expect a variety of cost-cutting measures to come out of corporate America. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress last week that he sees no recession on the horizon, but then he doesn't see the transiting Saturn-Uranus opposition later this year hitting the U.S. Eighth House Mars, which means even deeper and more severe cuts. Factor in Pluto's pending opposition to the U.S. Venus, and the financial picture looks tempestuous.

Scientology's L. Ron Hubbard and Tom Cruise

Is Tom Cruise second-in-command within the Church of Scientology? Thomas Morton's recently-published biography of the Mission Impossible star made that claim, alongside the implausible conjecture that Tom's daughter Suri was conceived using the frozen sperm of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Scientology officials issued a strong denial, and Tom Cruise's camp is considering a mega-million dollar lawsuit.

Lafayette Ron Hubbard was born (March 13, 1911; 2:01 am; Tilden, NE) with his Pisces Sun square Pluto, giving him an emotional intensity that he applied to every aspect of his life. With his Sun in the Third House, he naturally traveled often, made his start in life as a science fiction writer, and eventually became fascinated with the workings of the mind.

Hubbard's Second House of money holds a Mars-Uranus conjunction, which is under tremendous developmental tension because of its square to Saturn in Taurus. He once said, "Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way is to start his own religion." He founded the Church of Scientology on December 18, 1953 (12 pm, Camden, NJ), when his progressed Ascendant had entered this Second House dynamic.

Hubbard's faith-oriented Pisces Sun was driven toward mystical, spiritual pursuits by the trine to Jupiter in Scorpio and another trine to Neptune in Cancer—a formation that creates a Water Grand Trine. Tom Cruise (July 3, 1962; 3:06 pm; Syracuse, NY) shares this same configuration: his Cancer Sun trines Jupiter in Pisces and Neptune in Scorpio. Similarly, Cruise has Mars square Uranus, giving him a penchant for the unconventional and controversial.

*For an astrological diary on the campaign and the importance of the U.S. Moon, see http://neptunecafe.com/campaign.html

**See September 5, 2006 and December 18, 2007.

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