One of the lynchpins of predictive astrology is the recurrent cycles of planets. Simply put, when planets return to certain areas of the sky they correspond to conditions on planet Earth. This dates way back to when Chaldean magis spied the skies from temple towers in search of the fates of Kings and Caliphs.
Transferring this to today’s political scene would place the spotlight on the world's most powerful post; that of the President of the United States.
Whether a President will reign supreme or be eclipsed is a question most astrologers, and political commentators would like to be able to answer.
High Mortality Rate of U.S. PresidentsThe American Presidency has a high mortality rate that would deter most life insurance brokers. One in five dies in office. And the event seems to occur with some regularity. Enough to give astrologers reason to examine it for planetary significance. Much has been written about this, but the research is miniscule in comparison with what is a truly principal event.
In looking for an initial pattern, America's leading astrologer of the 19th century Dr. L. Broughton linked presidential death in office to the Jupiter-Saturn alignments in the earth signs. When these two planetary heavyweights come together every twenty years, they usually occupy the same element (fire, earth, air or water) for a whole two hundred and forty years.
Therefore, when Ronald Reagan survived the assassin's bullet in March of 1981 most astrologers attributed this to the fact that the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction occurred in the air sign of Libra. Reagan's life, and Broughton's theory, were spared.
Allowing for an eerie ring of truth regarding Broughton's hypothesis, determining the volatile time window eludes most astrologers. The Presidents in question had been sworn in at the cycles’ commencement, but often died well into it— and in Roosevelt's case, nearly five years after the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction. A more accurate astrological timing measure will be required for any useful predictive application describing danger to the leader.
Neptune Could Be the Key
I'd like to put my head on the proverbial predictive chopping block with a new line of thought. I found three initial constants in the death of US Presidents. The first was a connection with a planet barely used in Broughton's time, the distant gas giant Neptune.
Singularly, the Neptune factor is the greatest planetary influence concurrent with Presidential demise. In six out of eight cases of a President dying in office, Neptune was forming a hard aspect to the same point. The odds of this happening exceeded three thousand to one. In fact every time Neptune has been in the middle degrees(16 to 17) of a fixed sign a President has died in office. Neptune moves into this sensitive area in between March and July of 2005, and in January of 2006, and then makes a return in late August and not departing until December.
President Death Date Transiting Neptune
William Harrison
Apr. 4, 1841 16 Aquarius 30
James Garfield
Sep. 19, 1881 15 Taurus 58
Warren Harding
Aug. 2, 1923 16 Leo 40
John Kennedy
Nov.22, 1963 15 Scorpio 55
If we are to use the Sibley chart for the USA (July 4, 1776, 5:10 am) this whole finding may make some sense. The Midheaven of this chart is the second degree of Libra. Astrologically the Midheaven represents the leader and administration. Each time a planet reached the middle degrees of a fixed sign it would form a 45-degree semi-square of 135-degree sesquisquare hard aspect to this Libran Midheaven. The widest orb for any of these aspects was for Franklin D. Roosevelt who suddenly died of a brain hemorrhage when Neptune had moved three degrees past the conjunction to the Midheaven.
While the recurrence of Neptune is interesting, planets do not work in isolation, but rather as an orchestration of energies. The next planet in from Neptune is Uranus. It's the “jack in the box” of startle and surprise. It could be associated with sudden death, or assassination. Uranus exhibited a definite pattern. It was mostly in mutable signs, at the ratio of seven out of eight times, during a Presidential death in office. Remarkable enough, even with such a small sample. For Presidents Garfield and Kennedy, both gunned down, Uranus returned to within the degree of the 360 degree zodiac, and was angled for the deaths of both McKinley and Roosevelt.
* Garfield Uranus 10 Vir 34
* McKinley Uranus 12 Sag 59
* Roosevelt Uranus 10 Gem 24
* Kennedy Uranus 09 Vir 49
The last planet considered in this brief synopsis is Saturn—for the ancients the harbinger of death. In six out of eight cases Saturn was in a cardinal sign for the death of a President. That is not unusual as the Sun is in the cardinal sign of Cancer in the horoscope of the USA, and in hard aspect to Saturn itself. Any appearance of Saturn in a fellow cardinal sign would simply re-activate the pattern.
During 2005-06 Neptune returns to the fatal degrees of the fixed signs, as Uranus weaves its way again through the middle degrees of mutable. Meanwhile Saturn meanders through cardinal Cancer for the first six months of 2005. While ethical considerations preclude drawing any further conclusions, the times of maximum danger for a President are as early as April-May 2005, and the middle of June 2005.
There also seems to be a conglomeration of factors coincident to April, August and September of 2006.These factors may be merely coincidental and it may be folly to believe that the stars dictate the precise fate of the kings today. But we may be even greater fools to be ignorant to their influence altogether.