George W. Bush was born with the Sun in the sign of Cancer. He was also born with the sign Leo on the Eastern Horizon, his ‘Ascendant.’ The Leo Ascendant is the factor I wish to look at today. According to the Master Hilarion the Ascendant is the self-image of the individual, the way one would tend to see oneself. Of the sign Leo rising Hilarion says that this will give one a self image with Leo type qualities, a certain pride, elegance, perhaps arrogance or superiority. However, it is actually given to someone because in previous lives this individual has had difficulty feeling good about themselves.

It is not like a Leo Sun person, like former President Bill Clinton. Hilarion says that someone born with the Sun in Leo is someone who in some previous lifetime came to the rescue of a group of people through an act of leadership and courage without which those people would have perished. As a reward for this act the Leo individual is given an additional energy, physically, mentally, or emotionally. The danger of course is that this extra energy can get attached to the ego, creating pride and self-aggrandisement. Hilarion says that the Leo needs to manifest the other potential positive quality of Leo, which is kindness. Hilarion points out, however, that even kind Leos can think that the world is a play in which they are the principle actor and everything revolves around them. Hilarion goes on to say that teaching roles are good for Leos because then they are serving others at the same time that they are ahead of or leading them.

George Bush, with his Leo Ascendant, however, only thinks he’s a Leo. It is something which has been given to him to help boost him up, to help compensate for feelings of inferiority or insecurity in previous lives. People with Leo rising will therefore vacillate between thinking very much about themselves to thinking very little about themselves. The lesson to to find a balance, to see that no one is superior or inferior but we are all equal and worthy in our own right.

Ironically, Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore also has a Leo Ascendant. To me, this was why these two men were so particularly antagonistic towards each other. Basically, they are both ‘faking it’ in the sense that behind that Leonine arrogance is a basic insecurity.

In an article I wrote for my website before the election I said that I feel a bit insecure knowing that, no matter what, the next president was going to be basically insecure. I went on to say that I was a bit afraid if some bully like Saddam Hussein should call them on it. Well that might have been a bit of ironic precognition, however, I since discovered that Saddam was born with his Sun at 8 degrees Taurus. George Bush’s Ascendant is 8 degrees Leo. Taurus and Leo, both fixed signs, are square to each other. The Sun of Hussein and the Ascendant of Bush both being 8 degrees, they are exactly square to each other.

Somebody told me that George W. Bush was going ballistic with anger towards Saddam Hussein during the first Gulf War, when his father was in charge. One may observe that the fixed, stubborn, Taurean Sun of Saddam Hussein was square to Bush’s Leo self image at that time as well. Clearly there is an agenda here which predates 9/11.

Obviously there are larger forces at play here, but Astrology shows that it is no accident who ends up playing which role in the theater of world events. It shows how individual karma is being played out at the same time that it is involved in manifesting our collective karma.

Next month we will look further at George W. Bush’s chart, perhaps at the pertinent transits (what I like to call the current exams) are occurring now and in the near future.

Until then, blessings to you all,
Steffan.