We Three Presidents
If there was a “Believe or Not” museum for astrology one of the prime exhibits would be the one showing how we’ve had three American presidents born, not just in the same generation (baby boom), not just in the say year (1943) but in consecutive months of that year (June, July and Aug). Those presidents were (in order of their birth) Donald Trump, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. (Click on each name to see the chart.)
There are a few similarity between the charts. Trump was born under a full moon, with the Sun opposed to the Moon, while Bush and Clinton were born under a quarter moon, with the Sun square the Moon (though the aspect in Clinton’s chart is wide). Both Clinton and Trump have Mars conjunct the Ascendant, (but Bush doesn’t). Both Bush and Trump have the Jupiter aspecting the Moon, (but not Clinton). However, overall the differences in the three charts seem to outweigh any similarities, except when it comes to the Nodes of the Moon.
The aspect that links all three horoscope is the conjunction of Uranus to the North Node of the Moon. In Trump’s chart Uranus is 2 degrees, 51 minutes away from the Node and applying. In Bush’s it’s also applying at only 29 minutes, and in Clinton’s it’s separating at 3 degree, 53 minutes. In Clinton’s chart the conjunction is in the Nineth House, in Trump’s it in the Tenth and in Bush’s, the Eleventh.
In my book “The Lunar Nodes” I associate aspects by Uranus to the Nodes with archetype of the Rebel. I cite several examples who exemplify this quality, like Che Guevara, Maximillian Robespierre and the Marquis de Sade. However, this archetype goes beyond just a character trait. It can also manifest as circumstances in a person’s life that are surprising, unexpected and inexplicably random. When you look at the course that took these three men to the presidency of the United States, all of them feature a lot of weird and shocking twists and turns.
Let’s start with Bill Clinton. Clinton was as small town boy who dreamed of becoming president. That’s not a unusual dream, but Clinton had the smarts and the ambition to make it happen. However, he also had some character flaws that should have made it impossible.
Clinton was a philanderer. His wife seemed to tolerate his adventures with other women but it was unlikely that the voting public would not be so forgiving. That had been proven during the 1988 Democratic primary when Gary Hart, who had been the frontrunners, was shamed into withdrawing after he was photographed in a compromising position with a young woman.
The situation looked much worse for Clinton in the 1992 campaign. A woman had come forward alleging that she had had a long term extramarital affair with the candidate. These were the kind of revelations that ended political careers, but not Bill Clinton’s. He danced around the issue, just as he danced around equally true allegations that he had dodged the draft during the Vietnam War. Clinton outlasted his opponents in the Democratic primary and won the election.
George W. Bush also dodged the draft during the Vietnam War, but he did this by joining the National Guard which, at that time, was excluded from duty overseas. And he got to fly planes, at least until his drinking and partying got him banned from such duty. But that didn’t bother George. It was his serious brother Jeb who was expected to follow in the footsteps of their father, George H.W. Bush. That left George Bush free to enjoy himself.
This party ended in 1984 when George W. Bush became a “born again” Christian. Unfortunately, that was around the same time that the oil company Bush had started went belly up. A larger company, owned by some prominent Republican donors, saved Bush from bankruptcy by buying his company. They even put Bush on their board of directors. Apparently, it was thought that having the name sake of the then sitting Vice President on your board was good for business. (An oil company in Ukraine made a similar decision some years later when Joe Biden was Vice President.)
When Bush’s new company also collapsed, he moved on to lead a consortium that purchased the Texas baseball team. This gave him enough public exposure that he could now take a stab at politics. It turned out that this was something George W. Bush was good at and he was elected governor of Texas. From there he made he made preparations for a run at his father’s old job. The party boy became President of the United States.
There’s almost no need to recount how outlandish the candidacy of Donald Trump seemed in 2015, when it was first announced. A lot of people didn’t believe Trump was serious, but as the primary season progressed it became clear that Trump’s surreal braggadocio was exactly what Republican voters wanted. The fact that Trump has also dodged the draft and was accused of (and even admitted to) sexual indiscretions didn’t seem to matter.
Even after Trump won the primary there were still some people who didn’t take his candidacy seriously. He did and said all the wrong things. However, Trump didn’t have voters, he had fans. And fans have different standards. They want to be entertained. They want to be excited. During the four years of his presidency Donald Trump gave his fans all of that. Of the three presidents born with Uranus conjunct the North Node, he was by far the most Uranian.
In the charts of Trump and Bush, Uranus and the North Node are also trine Jupiter. In Clinton’s chart Jupiter is trine Uranus but not the Node. This helped make this conjunction of Uranus to the North Node special. In fact, it’s surprising that we haven't had other presidential hopefuls born under this aspect. It might seem unlikely now since these people are now reaching their 80s but, nonetheless, there will be at least one candidate with Uranus conjunct the North Node on the ballot in Nov. 2024.
While we're at it we might consider the other two U.S. Presidents who were born with Uranus conjunct the North Node of the Moon. They are Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and Barack Obama in 2008. If you can think of two more unlikely men to rise to the presidency of the United States please let me know.
