Saturday, May 24, 2008

Michelle, Obama's Belle

There's a lot being said about the spouses of the three presidential candidates. For me, a Brit in the USA, this is a fairly new element in politics. Tony Blair's wife, Cherie came into public view quite a lot when he was Prime Minister, but before his reign we knew little of our PMs' spouses, they remained in the shadows, usually doing good and worthy works, or knitting quietly in a corner.

In the USA some past presidents' spouses have taken a prominent part in public life: Jackie Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, Hillary Clinton, during Bill's presidency, Nancy Reagan, to name the best known. So, if we were to see a President Obama, we'd no doubt see his wife Michelle in the news - a lot. She has already been quite outspoken on various matters, while campaigning vigorously for her husband.

Michelle was born 17 January 1964, Chicago, Illinois. I've searched for her birth time with no success, but did find a couple of astrologers' views on her chart, to which I'll add a few thoughts of my own.



Michael Lutin wrote about Michelle in Huffington Post back in March - "Michelle Obama: The Ultimate Capricorn". He appears to know her time of birth, but doesn't give it away. He seems sure that her natal Moon is in Pisces and Saturn in 2nd house - (or maybe he's talking about the Sun sign method of house counting?)

Elaine Douglass has a mention of Michelle HERE - scroll down to the section headed: "Additional on Barack Obama".

From Michelle's 12 noon chart, I'll concentrate only on what's sure to be accurate - not the Moon's position, for it was right on the cusp of Pisces/Aquarius at noon - it could be in either sign, and the ascendant is unknown (I want to guess Leo was rising though!) Mars lies close to the Sun, but in a different sign - I think this still qualifies as "conjunct", so Mars adds its energetic and assertive, even aggressive influence from humanitarian but rebellious Aquarius to her more staid and steady Capricorn Sun. If people see Michelle as something of a hard nut, this conjunction is probably where the impression comes from. Her personal planets all lie between Capricorn and Aries, you could say that she's a winter and early spring kind of person. There's a certain coldness about her public face, but on better acquaintance the warmth and promise of spring would no doubt come through.

As Michael Lutin said, the main transit Michelle Obama faces in the near future is that of Pluto. The transformative planet will be moving, slowly, ever closer to her natal Mercury in coming months, not actually reaching it until 2010. I will not hazard a guess how this might affect her, readers can surmise for themselves, there are 101 ways things could pan out, but affect her it will - I'd bet on that. Pluto's transits to personal planets are always felt, sometimes painfully at first, but eventually Pluto transits bring benefits - like walking through a storm, into the fresh sunlight.

No comments: