George W. Bush's Leo Ascendant
by Steffan Vanel 10/14/03
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