Spiritual Company Newsletter:
The USA & The New Presidency

Including a Reading for Obama

By Steffan Vanel • Astrologer • Tarot  Reader

Author of: The Astrological Karma of the USA
And: Charles & Diana: The Inside Story:
An Astrological-Karmic View

Now on YouTube: The Astrological Karma of the USA and The New Presidency

Dear Friends and Clients,

Sorry it has taken me this long to get out another newsletter. I’ve been quite busy traveling through the state of California lately. Right now I am in the Sierra Mountains near Nevada City, working my way back north to Washington State.

There was a major Astrological event a few days ago, which I had mentioned was approaching in my predictions for this year. The event was the first of three Jupiter/Neptune conjunctions in the sign of Aquarius. This conjunction occurred right on top of the Aquarian Moon of the United States.

There are two ways for Astrologers to interact with events like this. One is to look at them in advance and predict what kind of events they are likely to evoke. The other is to sit back and watch what kind of phenomenon they manifest and point them out after the fact.

Jupiter is related to positive aspiration and optimism, philosophy and religion, travel and foreign cultures. Aquarius is the sign of universal love and brotherhood.

I’ve pointed out in the past that the Aquarian Moon of the United States is relatable to the Aquarian idealism of equality and brotherhood that was present in the founding birth of this nation. I’ve also pointed out that people with Jupiter in Aquarius, people like Barack Obama, have the ability to bring together groups of people and encourage a quality of love and brotherhood among them.

Neptune is an outer, transpersonal planet, mythologically, the God of he Sea, related to unconditional love and spiritual surrender, but also to vulnerability, victimhood, delusions and martyrdom.

In my book about Princess Diana I pointed out how her death, and the global response following it, was reflective of Neptune’s entry into Aquarius. Aquarius: collective group consciousness. Neptune: A test of faith, victimhood, martyrdom, vulnerability, but also love and surrender.

Diana’s death was the first global event instantly, collectively transmitted over the new Aquarian global network of the Internet and 24-hour cable news.

Watching the approach of this Jupiter/Neptune conjunction in Aquarius we can look at what has occurred which may be a reflection of this energy.

I predicted earlier that there could be some collective feeling of surrender to an experience of equality and brotherhood within the United States. Anyone who heard the hostess of the radio show: Latino USA, Maria Hinojosa, on National Public Radio, sharing her personal feelings regarding the likelihood of the first Latina Justice to serve on the Supreme Court, feelings of faith and optimism that have been inspired in so many, many who have felt, in the past, not so welcome into the American family, was one manifestation of this energy that I’m talking about.

Today, however, there was also the announcement of the death of General Motors, as we have known it. Michael Moore has pointed out the irony that the company who first implemented the policy of ‘planned obsolescence,’ cars designed to fail in a few years so you would have to buy a new one, has itself failed. I highly recommend reading Michael Moore’s article: Goodbye GM. Here is the link: http://www.truthout.org/060109A.

I particularly enjoyed his vision for using the death of GM for a collective new birth into new Aquarian Age technology and transportation.

Michael also pointed out that the last survivor from the Titanic died yesterday. And a French airliner fell into the Neptunian Sea yesterday. These are all manifestations of collectively felt vulnerabilities and ‘tests of faith’ relatable to Neptune/Jupiter in Aquarius.

Personally, I think a very significant expression of this Astrological potential for healing and coming together with optimistic hope and love and brotherhood, potentially healing the victim/victimizer programs now challenging the human race’s capacity to come together as one family, may be Barack Obama’s speech to the Muslim community from Cairo, Egypt on June 4th.

As to what kind of energy and effect Barack Obama could bring to this very difficult issue involving relations between the global Islamic community and the rest of the world, well, that question brings me to the main subject of this newsletter: A Reading for Barack Obama.

A couple weeks ago I gave a presentation in San Luis Obispo, California entitled: Tarot & Astrology: The Missing Link. In that type of presentation I often perform a sample Tree of Life Tarot reading, usually for an imaginary person, to demonstrate the potential for psychological and spiritual insight which can be gained through such a reading.

On occasion I have been inspired to ask for a particular reading to be a view of what is taking place inside a particular person in the global limelight.

The first time I did this was while I was researching my book about Princess Diana. I asked for that reading to be a view of what was taking place within Diana, psychologically and spiritually, shortly before she died. That reading was extremely interesting and now serves as one of the later chapters in the book.

In San Luis Obispo I did this again, although this time I asked the spirits to arrange the cards so as to reveal a map of the soul and psyche of President Barack Obama.

I confess, my fear before turning over the cards in that reading was that I was going to have to reveal negative, imbalanced, dysfunctional energies within Obama’s soul and psyche. As I turned over the cards, however, starting with his actual experience of the Divine, at the top of his head, face to face so to speak, and continued down the Tree, my fear two-thirds of the way down the Tree changed to being afraid that this reading was going to be way too positive. Barack Obama had one of the most positive readings I have ever seen.

The first three cards were all Aces. His experience of the Divine: The Ace of Wands – An outrush of fiery will energy in its most dynamic form.

His inner archetypal relation to the Masculine, his inner experience of himself as man, as male, as father, as lover, as little boy, was the Ace of Disks, the capacity and willingness to make a new beginning in the most concrete of levels.

His inner, archetypal relation to the feminine, in relation to his own inner feminine, what C.G.Jung would call his ‘Anima’, as well as his inner unconscious hope or expectation, or present experience, of feminine energy outside of himself, was the Ace of Cups: an outrush of emotional energy in its purest form like the Holy Grail itself.

The quality of his Higher Will, his Mars position of courage and will power and discipline, in effect, what he really wants or attunes to in order to know what he should or shouldn’t do, was the Two of Cups: Love, emotional harmony and balance and a positive feeling of Love.

His Inner Heart aspiration toward the Higher, toward the Divine, was the Six of Wands: Victory, a balanced, fiery, will energy creating an aura and sense of victory.

And, his self –image was the Two of Wands: Dominion, also a balanced, fiery will energy creating an aura and sense of dominion.

His emotions at the level of personality, however, were the Four of Wands: Completion, a balanced stable will energy, but contained within the limits of a circle, in kind of a ‘holding pattern.’ Balanced and stable, but somewhat rigid.

The mental thinking aspect of his personality was the Five of Cups: Disappointment, an emotional disappointment because of the feeling that the potential of what could be there is not being fully lived or realized.

Personally, I do trust that Obama is a true sincere visionary. The positive cards in the highest positions of this reading confirm this for me. But it has to be tremendously disappointing for him to try to implement this vision within the governmental/corporate/social realities in the present status quo of consciousness of this nation at this time.

This theme is continued when we look at the card representing Obama’s experience and expression in relation to daily physical life, what we would call in psychology his persona. The card was the Eight of Swords: Interference, corresponding to Jupiter in Gemini. Jupiter is the planet that wants to do that which is right and good and positive. Here it is interfered with by little mental thoughts and doubts and uncertainties and insecurities, creating a kind of mental static.

No doubt, trying to implement some truly altruistic visionary energies through the apparatus of the Democratic Party, with Republican opponents, is bound to manifest a good deal of mental static. No wonder, as well, that Obama is emotionally a bit ‘on hold.’

The last card to look at was his inner experience of his own positive virtues and good qualities, his inner experience of his own inner beauty and goodness, his ability to acknowledge and honor the gift that life has given to him, which is his gift to give back to life. Here he is going through the initiation of Adjustment, traditionally called Justice.

This is the initiation where you have no choice, where you must face the Goddess of Justice, who insists that you place every thought, every feeling, every action on the scales of Justice, for each one to be weighed, balanced, judged and assessed as to where is it really coming from. Is it coming from your love and your faith in yourself and life and God, or is it coming from your fear, and your lack of faith in yourself, and life,, and God. It is an intense reckoning, having to be honest with oneself. But in that reckoning you are brought to a deeper self-awareness.

This is a place of transformation resulting between the conflict between Obama’s vision and aspiration, and his capacity to manifest that vision in concrete material reality.

In this reading, I am sorry to disappoint my fellow left wing radical progressives, who are painting Obama as simply a willing lackey of the corporate status quo. As I have said in the past, there is a lot about Obama which irritates my personal political viewpoints. But I trust in the basic integrity of the man. After this reading, I trust that more than ever.

Another thing I have said in the past is that the American Sagittarian Ascendant, with its penchant to see oneself as honest upright and morally strong, whether true or not, is not limited to the right wing. Americans can be ‘across the board’ obnoxious. I sometimes feel that the left wing is as addicted to having enemies and to continuing to exist in a state of critical resentment and hate as the right wing.

Admittedly there is so much to validly resent and criticize in the corporate greed and manipulation we are up against. I also admit that my personal political policy beliefs are closer to Dennis Kucinich than Barack Obama.

But, one, Dennis Kucinich is not likely to become president any time soon, and two, at some point we have to continue to have our views but to open to a less critical and negative energy state. Obama is the best chance we have to, at least, move the country into a more humane state, so much more humane than we had to endure during the Bush years. A humane state where progressive ideals will no longer just be voices in the outer fringes of the political wilderness.

Again, as I’ve said before, the intense Pluto/Saturn square hitting the charts of the US, Obama, and Joseph Biden in November, and again, with Uranus as well, in February of next year, are going to be a danger and a test for this nation. And we are all responsible for what kind of energy we are adding to the mix, as to what the overall result will be.

Maybe we are not the Ku Klux Klanner whose racist hatred can be the overt danger, but are we helping the overall atmosphere with love and compassion and forgiveness, or are we adding to the overall vibrations of hatred and resentment in our personal expressions?

This is obviously tricky, a challenge for us all. Let’s do the best that we can. I think the stakes are pretty high.

Blessings,
Steffan Vanel

Cairo Postscript

I was not able to complete and send out this newsletter before the Cairo speech and that has therefore given me the opportunity to add a few notes here.

I have been reading, observing, the range of reactions to Obama’s speech. In doing so I feel similar sentiments as when I was researching all of the different reactions to the legacy of Princess Diana after her death. My comment then, as now, is that all of the various reactions to Barack Obama’s efforts in his speech reveal more about those commentators than about Barack Obama.

There are two strongly significant Astrological configurations at play right now on a deeper collective level. One is the Jupiter/Neptune conjunction in Aquarius, with its potential to initiate a new quality of compassionate brotherhood throughout the entire human family.

Those who felt truly inspired by Obama’s efforts to promote healing and peace, including his proposal to work towards the elimination of all nuclear weapons on the earth today, are resonating with the potential of this planetary configuration.

The other Astrological configuration at play now is the series of five Uranus/Saturn oppositions occurring presently over a two-year period. These oppositions represent a tension between Saturn, i.e.: the conventional, status quo, structure, authority, limitation, responsibility, duty, etc., and Uranus, i.e.: the unconventional, sudden change out of the blue, freedom from old patterns which have outlived their purpose, the unusual and different.

I’ve paraphrased this conflict in the past as: Freedom vs. Responsibility, and have stated that what we need is a healthy integration of these energies.

I’ve also noted in the past how Barack Obama’s Astrology chart makes him particularly capable of facilitating such an integration. Until these energies are integrated, however, they are going to set themselves up as conflictual. Those who prefer to align with conflict will align themselves with this opposition rather than open to the potential healing in the Jupiter/Neptune conjunction.

Something else I have noted in the past is that this Uranus/Saturn tension is hitting the tension in the Mars/Neptune Square in the US chart, the square which gives us the penchant for the victim/victimizer program, and delusionary incursions of violent aggression.

I noted this tension upon this Mars/Neptune Square as manifesting in the Saturnian and Uranian approaches to the War in Iraq, as represented by John McCain (Saturnian: willing to stay for a 100 years) and Obama (Uranian: pulling us out as soon as possible).

What I haven’t written about recently, however, but I feel is very much at play now, is the effect of the Mars end of this square of tension being in the sign of Gemini. Here is what I wrote in my book about this component of the Astrological Karma of the USA:

Re Hilarion: There is.... a tendency for the afflicted Mars in Gemini to be mentally or verbally combative or abusive. The strife and pugnaciousness of the afflicted Mars will, if in Gemini, tend to make the person seek out situations in which verbal spats and abusiveness will manifest.

This mental, verbal contentiousness is definitely a significant characteristic of our society. In his book: The Sibling Society, author Robert Bly argues that we Americans have lost a capacity for true respect for any kind of higher authority, or even a willingness to embody a quality of authority or wisdom. By maligning or shirking authority as adults, we have in effect become a society of ‘siblings’. As I see it, we are a society of clever, critical, self-styled ‘pundits’, who are infatuated with our own cutting edge intellectual disdain and commentary. It is clear that the belligerent nature of these traits is directly attributable to this difficultly aspected Mars in Gemini, and its “tendency.... to be mentally or verbally combative or abusive”.

When I watched the video clips of the vicious attacks on Obama from the Conservative commentators on the Fox TV network during The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart’s parody of their statements, and when I read the attacks from the Left within Progressive media outlets, I felt both sides as being so addicted to the pugnaciousness of that critical Mars in Gemini that the potential positive inspiration of the Jupiter/Neptune in Aquarius remains something they can’t afford to allow to influence them.

I am, personally, understanding and sympathetic to many of the specific comments coming from the left. I am definitely not in support of all of Obama’s actions, such as the continued use of drones in Afghanistan and Pakistan, resulting in many civilian deaths. I’ve pointed out in the past that the Astrological placements within Obama’s chart which give him the capacity to integrate Uranian and Saturnian energies is also why he will at times waver between progressive and conservative energies. It is something he is working out personally, and something we are working out collectively.

I am glad, for myself however, that I did this reading for Obama. Now I feel that I can trust that he really is coming from a sincerely, positive, spiritually aligned place in himself. He deserves our love and support and our constructive criticism.

I feel that if the collective negative energies, left and right, which are likely to flare up in September, especially in November, and several times between 2010 and 2015 result in removing Obama from office, one way or another, I think the world will have lost its best chance to transition into the New Age peacefully.

There will be two more potentially healing, visionary conjunctions of Jupiter/Neptune in Aquarius in July and in December. May we make best use of them in opening our hearts beyond the victim/victimizer programs, before, and as the next wave of heavy trials start to hit.

Blessings,
Steffan Vanel

PS: If you would like to know what aspects of your own Astrological Curriculum are being triggered at this time, or how your ‘Tree of Life” looks now, or just some quick answers from the Tarot for difficult decisions, give me a call: (206)903-9538 or send an email: steffan5515@yahoo.com Peace. S.

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