Article by Jennifer Van Bergen, USA

[Note: This article was written before the resignations of Ashcroft and Rumsfeld.]

With all that the Bush administration does or does not do, it is remarkable that no one in the progressive community has yet bothered to do an astrological analysis of the charts of its key members. Here, therefore, I remedy this appalling failure on the part of the progressive press. Whether you believe in astrology or not, this analysis should provide you with some interesting insights into the characters of and relationships between the members of the Bush crew.

I have focused here primarily on the effects of two planets: Pluto and Saturn, between the charts of Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld (and to a lesser extent, Ashcroft).[1] Remarkably, there are an extraordinary number of Pluto and Saturn contacts between them.[2]

Mythological Meanings of Saturn & Pluto

Even if you are not knowledgeable about astrology, you may know about the mythological meanings of the Greek gods. Pluto was the god of the Underworld. Pluto, also known as the prince of darkness, governs the kingdom of the dead. [3]

While the planet Pluto is a tiny body and its existence was not confirmed until 1930 (and it was recently demoted to planetoid), taking about 250 years to circle around the Sun, it is considered to be the ruling planet of the sign of Scorpio, which has been a recognized astrological sign for thousands of years. [4] Its a reasonable assignment, since the theme of both Pluto and Scorpio is the cycle of birth and death.

Pluto’s father was Saturn, also called Kronos, the keeper of Time. Saturn, the second largest planet in the solar system, which takes almost 30 years to orbit the Sun, is the most remote of the seven visible planets. It was discovered in the 19th century. According to Greek mythology, Saturn overthrew his father, Uranus, by castrating him, and then ate his children, among whom were Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto.

Jupiter, who was rescued by his mother, Rhea, made Uranus disgorge all of the other children. [5] Jupiter then exiled Saturn to Italy, where Janus gave him a home. There, Saturn introduced such widespread prosperity that his reign was remembered as the Golden Age, and the Romans celebrated this era each year at the end of December, with a festival known as Saturnalia.[6]

The interplay, thus, of Pluto and Saturn is rich with deep archetypal meaning. Pluto contacts are often ignored by astrologers as being generational influences, but as astrologer Liz Greene says, “if one takes into account Pluto’s association with certain collective psychic energies, he has potentially a very powerful effect on individual man since each person must make his own pact with these collective energies.”[7]

In my experience, close Pluto contacts between the inner planets [8] within the chart of an individual indicates some highly unhealthy and destructive propensities. A Saturn/Pluto combination is one of the deepest and darkest. I have found this combination more than any other in the charts of serial killers,[9] as well as in those of persons with multiple personality disorder, who are not criminals but whose basic sense of self has been shattered by severe early traumas. It seems as though Saturn/Pluto can work either to break the spirit or irretrievably harden it.

While a number of the members of the Bush crew contain hard Pluto or Saturn aspects to other planets in their charts, [10] none of them contain internal Saturn-to-Pluto contacts. However, remarkably, the charts of Bush, Rumsfeld, and Cheney contain numerous Pluto/Saturn contacts between them: that is, Pluto in one person’s chart connects to Saturn in the other person’s chart, or to inner planets (called the “personal planets”) in various combinations.

Pluto/Saturn contacts are not often found between colleagues, since the contacts will generally precipitate an immediate power struggle in which both people can sense that it is desperately important who wins this battle because it will decide who in the end controls the relationship. [11]

But, if Saturn and Pluto pair up, such contacts indicate, to put it simply, a criminal enterprise, each person providing a prop to one or more other persons darkest ambitions and pursuits. As Liz Greene says, “Pluto is Saturn’s only real friend in the planetary hierarchy, although, as the saying goes, with a friend such as this, one has no need of enemies.”[12]

The Gates to the Burning Ground:
The Dark Saturn/Pluto Bond

Greene writes:

“The usual quality . . . with a Saturn-Pluto contact is obsessiveness. There often seems to be a carefully organized and deliberate movement toward some self-destructive experience . . .” [13]

Where Saturn/Pluto contacts occur within an individual’s chart, the person will be drawn towards such behaviors of his own accord. Where such contacts occur between two people’s charts, the planets will join energies and create a self-fulfilling loop, not subject to outside interference or correction. As Greene explains, Saturn and Pluto have several things in common: they both “have an association with darkness, with destruction, and with the figure of Lucifer, the Dark Prince, or the Beast who symbolizes the depths of chaos.”[14]

Pluto represents transformation, but of a devastating kind. While Pluto may lead to transformation, it is always through some process of destruction. In other words, Plutonian transformation occurs out of the bones and ashes of destruction. The Nazi purification of Germany was a destructive, transformative Plutonian process.
When Pluto joins with Saturn, the result is ominous. Greene notes that “Saturn guards the entry to Pluto’s realm for it is the [Saturnian] collapse of external values which leads eventually to the burning ground that Pluto symbolizes.”[15]

Bush’s administration, more than any other in the history of the United States, manifests the collapse of external values (such as those which are traditionally Saturnian: the rule of law, and those traditionally Aquarian: civil liberties)[16] and the seemingly irreversible progress down the dark road to the burning ground of war. While Saturn considers itself as a protector, Pluto provides the impetus and the subject: death, terrorism, war. Thus, war/terror (on terrorism) in the name of self-protection.

Saturn/Pluto contacts exaggerate and amplify experience so that “it is blown up to mythological proportions” where something of “the magical or fated quality of collective experience creeps in.”[17]

Several members of the Bush crew have touted a sense of this fated quality, declaring their missions to be from God.[18] The Leo placements of Pluto in the charts of Bush and Cheney increase this sense of self-importance or greatness and the need to dominate. The several Cancer Suns (Bush and Rumsfeld) tie the sense of identity (Sun) to the home [land] (Cancer).

The fated quality of Saturn/Pluto also occurs within the Bush/Rumsfeld relationship. Rumsfeld’s Sun/Pluto conjunction is tightly bracketed by Bush’s Sun and Saturn in Cancer, with Rumsfeld’s Pluto within a few degrees of Bush’s Saturn. The contact creates a strong sense that the relationship was destined. It is a powerful bond, not easily broken, as was shown by Bush’s unwillingness to ask Rumsfeld to resign after the Abu Ghraib revelations. Saturn (Bush) has a tolerance for, or even awe of, the acts (torture) for which Pluto (Rumsfeld) takes responsibility.

Both Saturn and Pluto are “trans-personal” planets, belonging to the outer rings of the solar system. They often involve areas outside of conscious awareness. Saturn/Pluto “seems intent upon driving the conscious personality into the burning ground with or without conscious consent and without help.”[19] Or, as Greene says at another point, “the individuals may be fully aware of [the] obsessive movement [of the contact] yet may not be able to control it.”[20]

When persons with internal Saturn/Pluto combinations resist the destructive pull of these energies and pretend that things are fine, lessons of pain and relinquishment increase. Ultimately, in order for Saturn/Pluto contacts to transform into something positive and productive, they must disintegrate what they create. Out of the ashes of destruction rises the Phoenix. People with Saturn/Pluto connections believe deeply in the rise of this Phoenix from the ashes. Its Armageddon, the Apocalypse, the Rapture, End Times. But the price for anyone within the reach of persons with such connections is far too great. Life itself may be brutally sacrificed.

In the end, persons who share a Saturn/Pluto contact will either stay far away from each other out of a subliminal awareness of the destructive forces they engender together, or, if their own personal charts drive them to covet the power of such forces, as Bush’s and Rumsfeld’s do, they will attract each other and work together to the destruction of others.

Bush & Rumsfeld

Rumsfeld’s chart shows that he is ruthless, relentless, sadistic, brutal, and will drastically eliminate the unnecessary in his vision.[21] His Sun/Pluto conjunction, ruthless in itself, is squared to Uranus, which is a dangerous placement. Again, astrologers often view Pluto/Uranus contacts as generational and therefore undeserving of analysis. But in Rumsfeld’s chart, the planet of identity, the Sun, is in contact with both of these outer planets: Pluto’s dark forces combined with the Uranian need to be free of restrictions to pursue his experiments and innovations, no matter what, tied into his sense of self (Sun). In other words, this man is destructive and will not be stopped. His very identity is at stake.

Bush’s chart shows ruthlessness as well. His chart contains a triple conjunction between Mercury, Pluto, and Venus in Leo. This combines the sign of rulership and power (Leo) with the planets of thought (Mercury) and relationship (Venus) and with the forces of darkness and destruction (Pluto). [22] Rumsfeld’s Mercury is also conjunct the position of these three planets in Bush’s chart, contributing his intellect to Bush’s dark combo.

The Saturn/Pluto contacts between Rumsfeld’s and Bush’s charts only increases the brutality in either chart. Or, put yet another way, their own personal brutality contributes to and feeds the brutal acts they commit together.

But this is not all. The contact between Rumsfeld’s and Bush’s Suns and their respective Plutos and Saturns, connects the forces of identity and creation (Sun) in the sign of the home[land] (Cancer) with death, destruction, loss, deep pain, and grief (Pluto/Saturn). In other words, the connection provides a bridge for the energies of both Suns and the dark forces of Pluto/Saturn, fostering a massive amount of energy.

Where these exist within an individual’s chart (which is not the case here), the individual will feel these things internally, but where they are found as contacts between the charts of two persons (as here), those who are subject to, in the care of, or under the authority of these persons are in extreme danger. Where those two persons hold the keys to a superpower, the danger is worldwide.

In sum, in all the charts considered in this article, Saturn is operating destructively in various combinations with Pluto and other planets that contribute to the malignant mix. The only solution to this destructive set-piece is its dissolution and isolation of its elements. In other words, these men must be removed from power.

References and Notes

[1] Birthdates: George W. Bush, Jr. July 6, 1946, 7:26 AM EDT, New Haven, CT (AA/Quoted BC/BR, Astrodatabank); Donald Rumsfeld July 9, 1932, 5:40 PM CST, Chicago, IL (DD, www.stariq.com); Dick Cheney January 30, 1941, 7:30 PM CST, Lincoln, NE (AA/Quoted BC/BR, Astrodatabank); John Ashcroft, May 9, 1942, time unknown, Chicago, IL (DD, www.stariq.com).

[2] Bush & Rumsfeld have Sun to Sun/Pluto contacts, Mercury to Mercury/Pluto/Venus, Jupiter to Venus/Pluto/Mercury, Saturn/Venus to Mercury/Pluto/Venus. Cheney contributes an Aquarian Sun to the Pluto (Leo/Cancer) combinations, which create Sun to Mercury/Pluto/Venus. Ashcroft adds Pluto/Chiron to the Mercury/Pluto/Venus mix.

Rumsfelds Saturn in Aquarius is opposite Bushs Mercury/Pluto/Venus in Leo and trine (120 degrees) Bushs Neptune in Libra. It is also conjunct Cheneys Sun in Aquarius (and opposite Cheneys Pluto in Leo). Ashcrofts Mars in Cancer is quincunx (150 degrees) to Rumsfelds Saturn. Ashcrofts Saturn is conjunct Rumsfelds Mars in Gemini.

[3] Solange de Mailly Nesle, Astrology: History, Symbols and Signs, Leon Amiel Publisher, 1981, p. 165. (Hereafter Nesle, Astrology.)

[4] The Chaldeans of Assyria in the Middle East are usually considered the first to divide the sky into the twelve sections reflecting the calendrical relationship between the Sun and Moon. This was over 5000 years ago. Martin Seymour-Smith, The New Astrologer, Macmillan, 1981, p. 12. (Hereafter Seymour-Smith, New Astrologer.) See also, Francis Hitching Earth Magic, Morrow & Co., 1977, pp. 271-75. (Argues that the builders of Stonehenge and other megalithic sites in Great Britain of approximately the same era as the Chaldeans — knew and practiced the principles of astrology . . . long before the system was formalized by the Egyptians or the Greeks.) The signs were developed out of the constellations. According to Parkers Astrology, there is evidence that the modern zodiac was in place long before the birth of Christ. Julia & Derek Parker, Parkers Astrology: The Essential Guide to using Astrology in Your Daily Life, Dorling Kindersley, Inc., 1991, p. 18.
[5] Nesle, Astrology, p. 177.
[6] Id. In Roman mythology, Janus was the god of gates and doorways, depicted with two faces looking in opposite directions. Janus and Saturn are often viewed as the same god..
[7] Liz Greene, Saturn: A New Look at an Old Devil, Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1976, p. 188. (Hereafter Greene, Saturn.)
[8] By close contacts, I mean between Pluto and any of the inner, personal planets, such as the Sun, Moon, Venus, Mercury, or Mars.
[9] Ted Bundy had a Saturn/Pluto conjunction in Leo. Hitler had a Saturn (in Leo) square to an incredible Venus/Moon/Mercury/Mars/Neptune/Pluto rolling cascade conjunction across Taurus & Gemini. Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber, has Pluto in Leo sextile to Saturn/Sun/Uranus in Gemini. The Gainesville Killer, Danny Rolling, who is still on Death Row, has a Saturn/Sun (Scorpio/Gemini) quincunx & a Pluto/Moon (Leo/Pisces) quincunx.

[10] Hard aspects are squares (90 degrees), quincunxes (150 degrees) and oppositions (180 degrees). Conjunctions (0-10 degrees) can also sometimes be hard. Hard aspects bring out the worst energies of the planets involved. An aspect is an angle of arc between two planets around the circle of the chart that represents the plane of the ecliptic, or the apparent path of the Sun around the Earth. Favorable aspects are generally trines (120 degrees), sextiles (60 degrees), and sometimes conjunctions. How aspects are used by individuals, however, varies tremendously.
[11] Greene, Saturn, p. 191.

[12] Id., p. 141.
[13] Id., p. 142. Greene here writes about internal contacts.
[14] Id. p. 141.
[15] Id.
[16] Aquarius figures strongly in both Rumsfeld’s and Cheney’s charts.
[17] Greene, Saturn, p. 142.
[18] The hard Jupiter influence in some of these contacts also increases fanatical religious propensities. Bush, Cheney, and Ashcroft all have hard Jupiter aspects. Ashcroft has a Jupiter/Neptune square: confused in his judgment, prone to religious fervor, difficulty distinguishing real from unreal. Bush and Cheney have Sun/Jupiter squares (an aspect shared with Fidel Castro), which indicate religious excess, tendency to exaggerate, poor judgment, and unrealistic expectations. Rumsfeld has a Jupiter/Uranus/Pluto combination: rebellious, radical thinker, fanatical, critical, pious, recklessly and innovatively brutal. See Seymour-Smith, The New Astrologer (cited above at footnote 4), pp. 147-48. Also see generally, James Braha, How to Be a Great Astrologer: The Planetary Aspects Explained, Hermetician Press, 1992.

[19] Id. at 143.
[20] Id. at 142. (About individual contacts.)
[21] Seymour-Smith, New Astrologer, p. 147.
[22] Pluto in Leo is about abuse of power. Pluto went into Leo in 1938 and was progressing into it through WWII. It remained in Leo for twenty years, longer than it usually remains in a sign, through the Cold War. Of course, not all people born in those years abuse power. This depends on what contacts the Leo-Pluto makes in the individual’s chart.

About Author: Jennifer Van Bergen is a political/legal commentator, reporter, and writer on all things. See her page on Red Room (http://www.redroom.com/author/jennifer-van-bergen) for her blogs, book information, songs, and links to her other blogs and website, including JVB Astro News http://jvbsastronews.blogspot.com/ .”