Astrology by Hand Week 36

More on George W.

Last week, we talked about our new president and his Twelfth House Sun. We asked the question, “How could he become president when he has something in his chart which is so unpresidential, namely, the Twelfth House Sun?”

There are two possible answers. The first is one that most modern astrologers would give. Most of us believe that with wisdom, patience and understanding, one can overcome the negative effects of almost any astrological indication and live out only its best and highest possible manifestations. People do this all the time. But a Twelfth House Sun usually indicates a “behind the scenes” kind of person. There is nothing wrong with that. There is really nothing to be “overcome.” But we are still left with the question of why someone with George W. Bush's chart would even want to be in the limelight.

This leads to the second possibility. Could there be something in the chart that suggests that Bush might want to be out in the public eye even if there are Twelfth House qualities that he might still exhibit? I believe that there is. But to show you how this might be the case, we are going to have to get into a somewhat more complicated level of astrology than we did last week.

Last week, we talked about a single factor, the Twelfth House Sun. As everyone who studies astrology knows, astrology doesn’t work because of single factors any more than a sentence in language contains meaning because of only one word. It is the relationship among the words that makes a sentence, and it is the relationships among astrological factors that make statements about the person.

What makes Bush’s chart interesting is something called “reception.” And this in turn is based on another idea, “rulership.” We need to take up rulership first.

The Signs and the Planets, the Connection

Each sign is associated with planets that are said to “rule” that sign. It is actually more accurate to say that such a planet “takes care” of whatever may be associated with that sign than that the planet “rules” the sign. If you have studied any astrology you know that Mars rules Aries, Venus rules Taurus, etc. This is what those of us who study traditional astrology call “domicile rulership.”

Some of you may also know that planets are exalted in signs. This is another kind of rulership. The sign in which a planet is exalted is one where the planet can best express its energy—even better than it does in the sign it rules. The Sun is exalted in Aries, the Moon in Taurus, etc. The exaltation of a planet in a sign gives that planet exaltation rulership over that sign. Just to complete things, here is a table of the domicile and exaltation rulers of the signs.