Tree of Life Reading for George W. Bush

by Steffan Vanel 7/05

Dear friends,

It has been a long time since my last newsletter. There have been a lot of events I have been observing in the Astrological/Political weather but I have been so busy with finishing up the production of my latest book: Charles & Diana: The Inside Story: An Astrological-Karmic View, as well as being on a busy West Coast tour that I haven’t really had time to put something together.

I did do a Tree of Life Tarot Reading for our President, George W. Bush, at a lecture in Atlanta recently. And, as today is his birthday, I felt it was appropriate that I type it up and send it out today.

Usually I do the sample Tree of Life Reading at my presentations for an imaginary person, just opening to the energies of the people present and seeing what comes through. The first time that I did this reading for an actual person was in the middle of writing my book about Princess Diana several years ago. I got the inspiration to ask for that reading to be a view of what was going on inside of Diana, psychologically and spiritually, shortly before her death. The insights that that reading revealed were quite amazing, That reading is actually one of the last chapters in the book.

So here is a transcription of the tape recording of the reading I did for George W. I hope you enjoy the insights the cards reveal.

Blessings, Steffan Vanel

PS. Those who are interested, both the Charles and Diana and the Astrological Karma of the USA books are available from me for $19.95 plus $4/1st book, $2/each add’l shipping costs. The US book is available now and the Charles and Diana should be available soon in bookstores and from Amazon.

Tree of Life Reading for George W. Bush

Astrology illuminates the lessons and experiences the soul has agreed to work on and grow through in one’s lifetime. By viewing the Astrological transits, or movements of the planets as they traverse the sky, aspecting planets and angles within the birthchart, one can discern the influences which are coming to bear upon you now.

Astrology by itself, however, cannot show how you are doing now. It cannot show what growth you have reached by having worked on those issues and lessons for so many years already. For this interior view of an individual I use my deck of Tarot cards to perform what I call a “Tree of Life” reading. This is a reading, which doesn’t show anything about the past, or the future as is common in a more traditional Tarot Card reading. It is more of a current map of the soul and psyche of the individual.

Combining Tree of Life Tarot reading with the Astrological reading provides the individual with a more comprehensive perspective. I explain to my clients that the Astrological birthchart is the ‘curriculum’ you signed up for in this lifetime. Continuing this analogy, the transits are your ‘current exams,’ and the Tree of Life reading reveals your ‘report cards.’

As far as the mechanism by which the Tarot works Hilarion has said:

The nature of the information obtained by the reading of cards is more complex a matter than the subjects of astrology, palmistry, numerology and the I Ching which have just been dealt with.

The most useful set of cards for the purpose under discussion is that which is called the Tarot. This card arrangement, with its various suits and symbols, was given to mankind in complete form many thousands of years ago by entities from a higher plane of being. At the time of this gift, a covenant was also made by which these higher entities and those who would succeed them guaranteed to make the cards “work” in the sense of prediction for the remainder of the physical cycle of the earth.

I have visited Maurice Cooke, the medium for Hilarion, and he claims to have had actual communications with these higher beings assigned to work with the Tarot. In these communications they provided Maurice with specific information about the Tarot. They understood that the Tarot would be used for divination, but they expressed hope that the Tarot would eventually be used more for exploring human consciousness. This information affirmed that the direction of my own work with the Tarot has proceeded in harmony with the grand design of these higher beings. This is especially the case in relation to my working with the Tree of Life reading as this is a reading which is not divinatory in nature but more of a means of exploring human consciousness.

The arrangement of the Tarot cards for the Tree of Life reading is based upon the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. The Kabbalah is a system of knowledge coming, historically, from the inner teachings within Judaism. I myself have studied Kabbalah from many different perspectives, both traditional and non-traditional. In that exploration I have studied a school of Kabbalah which teaches that the Tree of Life holds the key to the deeper meanings and wisdom of the Tarot. The Kabbalistic Tree of Life itself is a map or diagram which reveals the way in which the Universe is created, from pure spirit to physical form through ten phases or emanations corresponding to the numbers one through ten. The Tree of Life also shows the way in which a human is created as a reflection of the Universe. In the Tree of Life reading I lay a card in each of the ten positions of the Tree to reveal the experience of the individual in relation to those ten principles of creation.

In viewing the Tree as a map of an individual the positions one, two, and three comprise the Spiritual triangle. Positions four, five and six, compose the triangle of the Higher Self. The triangle below that, encompassing the seven, eight, nine positions is the Lower Self or Personality. Position ten represents the Physical.

The following is a brief description of the meaning of the ten positions of a Tree of Life reading and the name of the card which appeared in that position in the reading I did for George W. Bush:

1. Kether - The Crown: This position is represented by a point symbolizing the pure Beingness of God or Divine Spirit, with neither force nor form. The card in this position indicates George's experience of that aspect of the Divine: The Hermit
2. Chokmah - Wisdom: This position is represented by a line and is the Father aspect of God, the creative, the active, the yang element of the Universe. The card in this position shows George's experience in relation to the Father and to the Masculine Principle: The Queen of Wands.
3. Binah - Understanding: This position is represented by a triangle and is the Mother aspect of God. This is the Goddess, the passive, the receptive, the yin element of the Universe. This card shows George’s experience in relation to the Mother and to the Feminine Principle: The Prince of Disks.
4. Chesed - Mercy: This position has the color blue. It corresponds to the planet Jupiter and represents one’s inner experience of one’s own positive virtues and good qualities: The Knight of Wands.
5. Geburah - Strength: This position has the color red. It corresponds to the planet Mars, and represents the experience of one’s Higher Will, of one’s martial qualities of courage, will power and discipline: The Three of Wands.
6. Tiphareth - Beauty: This position has the color yellow and corresponds to the Sun. It is the inner Spiritual Heart. It is the point of equilibrium or balance between one’s Higher/Spiritual selves and one’s Lower/Physical selves. When one rises on the central pillar of consciousness and reaches this position they can experience union with the Higher Self. This card shows George's experience in his inner Spiritual Heart: The Aeon.
7. Netzach - Victory: This position has the color green and corresponds to the planet Venus. It shows George's experience of the emotional, feeling aspect of his personality: Death
8. Hod - Glory: This position has the color Orange and corresponds to the planet Mercury. It indicates George's experience of the mental, thinking aspect of his personality: The Three of Swords
9. Yesod - The Foundation: This position has the color purple and corresponds to the Moon. It represents the experience of one’s own reflected self-image of oneself at the level of personality, of one’s Egoic Self-image: The Princess of Disks.
10. Malkuth - The Kingdom: This position has four colors, olive, russet, citrine and black, which correspond to the four elements, fire, water, air and earth. This card shows George's experience and expression in relation to daily physical life and earth plane reality: The Sun.

No single card captures George W. at this time, but all ten combine to cast a distinct psychological portrait. None of us are an individual. We are all a crowd. We all have many different facets and pieces contained in our personal puzzles. One of the advantages of the Tree of Life reading is the opportunity to survey all of the different pieces simultaneously and thereby gain a sense of what the real story is behind it all. So now I will unfold George W. Bush’s story as I interpret it, piece by piece.

So, to continue with the interpretation. First of all I would say that he has some very good cards, and some not so good cards, making him an official member of the human race.

He’s going through a lot. He has four Major Arcana Initiations happening. There are only 22 out of 78 in the deck. So four is a lot.

In his experience and expression in relation to daily physical life, in relation to his persona, the way we present ourselves to the world he is having a great time, he has here The Sun, the initiation where you can be as a child, dancing in the light of the sun, with total faith and trust and innocence. Of course George W. is totally surrounded with supportive people, what we might call ‘yes men.’ People tell him he is God’s chosen one at this time. But this is sincere and real, his experience of that light, of that support, of his ability to shine and so on. He is really good at buffering himself from things that would undermine that light, not completely however. But for example, he says that he doesn’t read newspapers etc.

This Sun card is in good resonance with the card which he has in the area of his Higher Will. In that position he has the Three of Wands. Wands are fire or will energy. The Three of Wands is called Virtue, a positive will energy to do that which is right and good and positive. So, there are people who think that George Bush is consciously doing evil. I haven’t, and this card shows that he is doing what he thinks is right.

The thing is, things are getting to him. It may not be apparent in what he presents to the world, the way he interacts with the world. In the area of his mind and thinking, however, he has the Three of Swords, which corresponds to Saturn in Libra. It is actually not such a bad card but it doesn’t sound so good. It is called Sorrow. It is much deeper than a personal sorrow, however. It is the Universal Sorrow. It is what Buddha meant when he said, “Life is suffering,” which is true, as soon as you have the experience of life you are going to have the inevitable experience of death. As soon as you have the potential for joy and pleasure you are going to have the inevitable experiences of pain and sorrow. That is the way life is at this level of duality. Most of us are trying to cling to the pleasure and push away the pain. The only real peace is when you can attune your consciousness to that which is beyond this level of duality, to find a source of meaning and purpose to the inevitable pains and sufferings we experience here. However, as long as we are trying to cling to pleasure and push away pain we are not really willing or able to seek that higher connection. That is why the Buddha made this point before he said anything else. Basically, this card entails a test of faith as to why life has to be so difficult sometimes. And this is weighing on his mind. The reason I pointed out the Saturn nature of this card is because he has been experiencing transiting Saturn conjuncting his natal Saturn, his second Saturn Return. He has Saturn in the Twelfth House, which has different levels of interpretation. According to Hilarion it represents the memory of your most recent past life. Everybody has had whatever was their most recent past life, but not everybody has planets in the Twelfth House. Those who do are being particularly affected by it. Saturn in the Twelfth House shows that the last lifetime was not a happy one. According to Hilarion: The placement of Saturn in the Twelfth points to a burdened previous life, usually on marked by illness and loneliness. Liz Greene, a teacher of Psychological Astrology I’ve studied with, says that the Twelfth House represents the unconscious family “daemon” the unconscious family complex which you get somehow programmed with. My feeling is that both interpretations are relevant to the Twelfth House, that it shows the past life memory you are carrying with you, but then you incarnate in a family where that same complex of memory is being played out in the family unconscious. In my chapter about George W. I explained this in terms of the personal and family trauma which George W. experienced when he was seven, when his younger sister died from leukemia. This was when his Saturn was being triggered by simultaneously transiting Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

George W.’s Saturn is getting hit right now. Astrologers have been predicting that this second Saturn return was going to result in some heavy event in his life. I haven’t felt so. I feel the pressure is more on his unconscious. It is clearly weighing heavily on his mind, this test of faith, the suffering in this war which just won’t end, etc. I still feel that when he becomes really conscious of a heavy Saturnian effect upon his personality is when Saturn goes over his Ascendant, the Ascendant representing his self-image of himself. That is when Saturn will hit his conscious personality and everyone will recognize it. Nonetheless, his mind is already weighed down with this Saturnian ‘test of faith.’

Looking into the deeper unconscious programs, in the deeper roots of his psyche, in two primary areas he has cards indicating a basic insecurity which still exist. The positions are the inner archetypal male and female positions. He has the Queen of Wands in the masculine and the Prince of Disks in the feminine. These are both what we call ‘Court Cards.’ He has four of these kind of cards. I have a distinct way of interpreting these cards. To me they are distinct personalities, and, like every personality, they have their good and their not so good. They are usually allowed in during times of insecurity, to give us a sense of identity, strength or protection we fear that we wouldn’t otherwise have without them. Many people adapt to these characters in childhood because they allow us to survive. Sometimes they are characters which we call in for defense, but then we don’t need them anymore, but we put them in the closet, so that when the ‘chips are down,’ as it were, we pull them out again.

The Queen of Wands in his inner experience of himself as man, as father, as lover, as little boy relates to the lower aspect of the sign Aries. Aries is the sign which is on George W’s Mid-heaven indicating how he would present himself to the world. The Queen of Wands has a lot of fire and will energy and is dynamic and inspiring, but uses it to cover-up or hide her inner fears and insecurities. It is a false front, she is not as strong as she looks, but if someone were to attack her she will instantly respond with counter aggression, because it would touch on that inner fear and insecurity. Those who have read my book may remember that George W. is a Cancer, but thinks he is a Leo and pretends that he is an Aries. Remembering also that Leo rising is a self-image that has Leo qualities of pride and arrogance but it is given to someone because in previous lives they have had difficulty feeling good about themselves. They are not as strong as they look. Again when Saturn goes over that false, compensating Leo pride and arrogance is when I feel something is going to be apparently hitting George W. in a heavy, humbling way. Saturn goes into Leo on July 16. It hits his Ascendant exact on September 12th this year, a rather ominous date. I am personally staying clear of New York City and Washington, DC around that time. Of course there are many ways that this humbling can come about. Seeing this transit as being exact the day after September 11th is a bit creepy though.

To continue, in his inner archetypal relation to the Feminine Principle, in relation to his own feminine side or energy, and his unconscious hope or expectation or present experience in relation to a woman, an experience which is potentially a strong force for him as he is a Cancer, a feminine, watery, emotional sign, and as a child he was quite close with his mother. Of course he thinks he is a Leo and pretends that he is an Aries. He does have Jupiter in Libra which generally promises an eventual happy marriage, and I do think that he has that with Laura. But I don’t think he can really afford to really surrender to the emotional potential there. To avoid that, he has adapted to the personality of the Prince of Disks. Disks are earth, concreteness, perhaps material plane. The Prince of Disks is another court card, the lower aspect of the sign Taurus. He is a very capable manager of practical material affairs, has common sense and pragmatic wisdom, but he is not very emotional or spiritually aspirational. He is just very pragmatic and practical. And that is what George W. has done to cover over that feminine sensitivity and vulnerability. He has had to. I spoke about this conflict within Bush in my book in reference to the execution of Karla Faye Tucker while he was governor in Texas.

So George W. has two cards of relatively dysfunctional insecurity in the Male and Female. He has another one in his inner experience of his own positive virtues and good qualities, of his own inner beauty and goodness, of his ability to acknowledge what is the gift that life has given to him which is his gift to give back to life. Another Court Card in this position indicates that he has a basic inability to truly honor his inner beauty and goodness. He has in this position the Knight of Wands, which corresponds to the lower aspect of the sign Sagittarius. He is very noble, very courageous, and very valorous, and very aspirational, but he is very impulsive, he receives an inspiration and leaps off on his horse until he uses up all of his energy and then he collapses, and then he leaps off again and again collapses. He is kind of ‘manic-depressive.’ So he has this valorous expression of his inner beauty and goodness but it is really to compensate for his doubts and uncertainties and difficulty to clearly, directly acknowledge his inner beauty and goodness. It is like the guy who is praying to god saying: Dear God, please grant me patience, but please hurry!!

In George W.’s self-image right now, the way he sees himself, not the way he presents himself which is more the position of the Sun card, but the way he sees himself, he has the Princess of Disks. To me this is the only good Court Card, but she is the end of the line. Disks are Earth, Princesses are Earth. She is the Earthy part of Earth. She has a staff on the tip of which is a diamond, the brightest, most powerful gemstone, but the only way that a diamond can come into existence is to put it under the heaviest earth pressure for the longest period of time. And that is what has been happening to his ego, subject to different pressures of different kinds for different lengths of time. But through that a hidden diamond is slowly forming, where the hoped for result is that you can come to the place where you no longer resent or deny those pressures but you honor them.

Emotionally George W. is going thought the initiation of Death. Death of attachment to his old emotional patterns of feeling and desire and identity so that he can, hopefully, connect with the deeper inner heart feelings of his Higher Self.

In the two positions which relate to the experience of his Spiritual Life he has two Major Arcana initiations. I do feel that his sense of his spirituality is sincere. I think is a bit weird and scary but I don’t think it is a false pretense on his part. The other pressures, especially the Sorrow in his mind is putting additional pressure on his spiritual life and experience and understanding.

The two positions which relate to one’s spiritual experience are positions six and one. Position six represents your inner heart aspiration towards the Divine, towards the Higher. And position one indicates your actual experience of the Divine at the top of your head, face to face, so to speak.

In his inner heart aspiration he has opened up to the initiation of The Aeon. This card is traditionally called Judgment where it shows angels blowing their trumpets and people rising out of their graves, the Resurrection. It corresponds to the planet Pluto and to the Hebrew letter Schin, a mother letter representing the element of fire. This card represents a Plutonian fire baptism, burning away your previous identity of who you thought you were, so that you can be whom you really are.

So, in his inner heart, he is going through a lot.

In his actual experience of the Divine, at the top of his head, face to face, the place of ultimate surrender and vulnerability, he has opened to the initiation of The Hermit, which is the initiation where you must make a retreat within yourself in order to find the light within you which does not depend on any outside source for its existence or for its reflection in order for one to become aware of it. For only then do you know that it is really you and really yours. So in that place of ultimate surrender, which is the furthest removed from our normal levels of consciousness, he is trying to find his truth.

These initiations have not yet changed his other dysfunctional, denying, defensive personalities, which is where the scariness comes from. Those are the sources from which actions based on fear rather than love emanate from. A lot of the problem with George Bush is that his whole life has been largely based on appeasing the powers around him, beginning with his father.

As they have been saying, if Cheney were to die, Bush would become president. Again, Bush himself is basically insecure. Even though in his Higher Will he is trying to do that which he thinks is right and good and positive, he doesn’t trust in his inner beauty and goodness and he doesn’t have a sense of security in his inner child and faith in his worthiness to receive love. And he has numbed-down his potential for feminine sensitivity and connection.

But his spiritual faith and aspiration is forcing him to go deeper in his experience. And something is making his emotions go through Death.

Now, part of my motivation for doing this reading was because I wanted to have a sense of what Saturn might be working on when it reaches George W.’s Ascendant, to see where there is likely to be pressure. If this coming pressure forces him to go deeper into the Death, Aeon, and Hermit initiations maybe he could grow, could wake up. But if this pressure instead forces the Knight of Wands and the Queen of Wands and the Prince of Disks to dig in their heels and invest into denial it would not bode well for him. It remains to be seen what happens and how he reacts.

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