THE FIRST FOUR OBAMA YEARS

Why swear the president in at noon?  High noon is the time of day when the Sun is close to its highest position in the sky and, traditionally, this symbolizes the pinnacle of power (sunlight) of the day.  This time of day on January 20 in Washington always places the Sun in the 10th house of the chart, which represents the leader of government, governmental power, and the political party in power.  This date always places the Sun in the first degree of Aquarius so the sign is meaningless because the best and worst presidents are all inaugurated when the Sun is at this position.  However, the relationships (aspects) of the Sun to the other planets are of great importance because these relationships change from one inauguration to another (and therefore, from one presidential term to another).  As we know, Bush’s second term was disastrously worse economically than his first – equivalent in many ways to Herbert Hoover’s term (the stock market crashes and banking abuses of then and now).  In fact, three of the greatest depressions this country has experienced (including the current one, which has just begun) were born during the terms of three of the worst presidents in U.S. history, all of them Republicans – Ulysses Grant, Herbert Hoover, and George W. Bush.

The best thing about the 2009 Obama inauguration chart is the Sun conjunction with Jupiter.  Inherently, this means enthusiasm, encouragement, optimism, hope, experimentation, and exuberance.  This country and our president are going to need every bit of these qualities in the next four years.  Where is the current economic depression in this chart?  Venus is the primary symbol of the stock and commodity markets, speculation, the money supply, the banking system, credit availability, rate of spending and saving, etc.  In this chart, Venus is heavily afflicted – its conjunction with Uranus heralds more banking and economic surprises, a skyrocketing money supply (all of these corporate bailouts are being financed by printing billions of dollars in paper money that has no intrinsic value), and financial insecurity, changes, and instability.  Another affliction to Venus is its opposition to Saturn, signifying economic hardships, restriction of credit, bank failures, loss of equity in retirement accounts, reduced consumer spending (resulting from job loss or cutback in hours), declining stock markets, and deflation in the short run.  However, when the banks begin to lend freely again, three influences in this chart are very unfortunate economically and potentially foreshadow runaway inflation:  Venus conjunct Uranus in Pisces; Moon square Neptune; and Mercury (ruler of the 2nd house of money) is retrograde and combust but not Cazimi the Sun.  If Mercury were Cazimi the Sun, it would strengthen the power of Mercury in the chart but, instead, this planet is greatly debilitated because it is combust (very close to and overpowered by) the Sun.

Lower real estate prices during President Obama’s first term is portended by the Saturn-Venus opposition and by the debilitated Moon (symbolizing real estate and ruling the 4th house of real estate) in the sign of its fall (Scorpio – where it tends to be expressed negatively), void of course (meaning no increase coming from it), in the term of Saturn (decline, lower values), and in the last degree of the sign (sorrow, lamentation).  Since the Moon is in the 7th house, a lot of U.S. real estate will continue to be bought by foreign individuals and corporations (especially by the Chinese and Japanese).  Moon square Neptune indicates that many Americans who must sell their home or real estate will be disappointed and may have to sell it for less than what they owe.  Indicators of a collapse of the housing and real estate market during the Bush 2nd term appear in the 2005 inauguration chart as Moon (homes and real estate) square Uranus (sudden, drastic change for the worse) and Saturn conjunct the cusp of the 4th house of real estate and homes (collapse, decline in prices and value).