Ron DeSantis: Tangled Up in Pluto
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has been in the news a lot lately, and that’s the way he wants it. For a guy seeking to position himself as a possible presidential nominee in 2024, getting your name "out there" is always good. Of course It’s also important that you present a strong, uncompromising image. In his opposition to pretty much anything said by health care experts with regard to COVID-19, DeSantis has been remarkably uncompromising.
Now DeSantis is fighting with school officials in his own state over his order forbidding them from requiring students to wear masks. They say masks are the only thing that can keep the delta variant from spreading through their schools like wildfire. He says that if they would just go along with him and pretend that the pandemic is over everything will be just fine.
We don’t have a time of birth for Ron DeSantis so I’ve done a horoscope for noon on his date of birth. (Click on Ron DeSantis to see that chart.) It is interesting that he is a Virgo by Sun sign. Virgos are typically practical and quick to adapt to changing situations. However, DeSantis’ Moon is Fixed Aquarius. Aquarius has a bad habit of placing principles before reality.
The most interesting aspect in this partial horoscope is the conjunction of DeSantis' Mercury with Saturn. This is an indicator of a capable and highly structured mentality. This structured thinking allowed DeSantis to excel at Yale and at Harvard School of Law, but it has a downside. The structure that Saturn provides can become a rut that narrows the person’s thinking and limits their perception.
This narrowness of thinking is currently being reinforced by transiting Pluto which moved into a square DeSantis’ natal Mars. There is a lot of strength in this aspect. It is the sort of energy that gives desperate people the fortitude to overcome great aversity. But it also provides for an intensity and narrowness of focus that can come across and pure stubbornness. And the more the individual is pressed, the more desperate and intractable they become.
This Pluto aspect seems to have DeSantis locked into a no-win situation. Backing away from his stand against masks is going to very difficult with this aspect impacting his horoscope. It would not only be a betrayal of his Aquarian principles, it would require him to restructure his thinking, something that a person with Mercury conjunct Saturn rarely does. Sticking to his guns, on the other hand, could put a lot of unvaccinated children in the hospital, and possibly in the grave.
Pluto aspects, even hard ones, are not all bad. In every configuration Pluto promises transformation, a new you rising like a phoenix out of a sea of trouble. The problem is that, if we don’t embrace this transformation, it can be a very painful process. DeSantis will be dealing with this Pluto square to his Mars for the rest of this year and most of 2022. All indications are that this long transit is going to bring him a lot of pain with just a small possibility of transformation.
