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The First Progressed New Moon, 1967

Studying the American President’s Progressed Horoscope I have found many meaningful correspondences to his personal and public career. The following is an attempt to follow Obama’s Secondary Progressions throughout his life. I think it could help those Astrology students who, amazed by the powerful signature of the Transits in our lives, have still some doubt on the efficacy of considering Progressions as well.

To me Secondary Progressions (one day equal one year type) represent really a living backdrop to the Transits, showing the inner development of the individual and the way this is reflected in the events and encounters of his/her life.

Having used Secondary Progressions since I began reading Charts (thanks mainly to the Alan Leo’s series that started me on my path), I couldn’t do without them now. The Horoscope would not feel complete, because some of the underlying meaning of our experiences will be irremediably lost.

Barack, who was called Barry by his family, was born only six months before his parents’ marriage (February 2, 1961), meaning that he was conceived out of wedlock. This fact, together with the interracial marriages of his mother, first to a black Kenyan man, then to an Indonesian (in the fifties and sixties still surrounded by serious social taboos) would have certainly contributed to his psychological makeup and desire to help those who, like himself, don’t fit into the average social and racial mould. In his Birth Chart this is signified by the very prominent Aquarius: Ascendant, South Node of the Moon and Jupiter, ruler of his Ninth and Tenth House, respectively his connection with the wider world, his principles and his career; plus Uranus, ruler of Aquarius, conjunct his North Node of the Moon and at right angle to his Midheaven, so exerting a powerful influence on his choice of career and his potential for public success (Seventh House-Tenth House).

Obama’s Birth Moon in Gemini, conjunct the cusp of his Fourth House, or Midnight point, exemplifies the fact that he moved home many times in his life and that these frequent changes have helped him to become more flexible and adaptable, being an unsettling but also mentally stimulating position. One of the most interesting Progressed phenomena is the cycle of the Progressed Moon and Sun. We are all born at one stage or other of the Lunation cycle, with the Moon increasing or decreasing in light, waxing or waning. Progressions show us however that we are not stuck to the particular dynamic of that moment in the Lunation cycle for the rest of our lives. Moon and Sun advance in progression at their own appointed speed, on the average one degree a month for the Moon and one degree a year for the Sun. The Moon waxes and wanes accordingly, thus indicating periods of heightened and ebbing energy, times for successful outward actions, and times for introversion and self reflection, time for beginning and time for climax and endings, all necessary stages of psychological and emotional progress.

The Moon in Gemini (usually a social and light hearted if not emotionally superficial Moon) was just past the Last Quarter phase, ideal time for the birth of self reflecting individuals, more inclined to wrestle with their own inner demons rather than given to outward battle with the external world. This is considered a psychologically mature phase, that, covering the person’s childhood years, will help to make the child more thoughtful and adult like.

Obama was six years old (October 1967) when the Progressed Moon finally caught up with the Progressed Sun (Progressed New Moon in Leo), indicating the beginning of a brand new phase in his life.

And so it was, because, that year, his mother, now separated from his father and remarried, moved the family to Jakarta, Indonesia, where Barack’s half sister Maya was born.

That year not only the Progressed New Moon took place, but also the progressed Venus reached an exact distance of 120 degrees from the birth Neptune in the IX House. This aspect was already forming when Obama was born in 1961 (progressed aspects from planets are slow moving, somehow like the long lasting transits of the slow moving planets, those beyond the boundaries of Saturn). The Ninth House is often populated in the chart of people who form important connections with foreign people and countries. Neptune there at birth shows the great spiritual potential that could be triggered in Obama’s life, if he was to move to foreign lands or interact with foreign people and culture. The fact that the harmonious connection Venus-Neptune became exact just in 1967 shows how the family’s move to Indonesia had profound spiritual implications for young Barack, enhancing some of the best aspects of his Birth Chart, in particular his innate spirituality and compassion. The Seventh House cusp also progressed to the birth position of Uranus that year, signifying a profound change of attitude in Barack’s relationships and the beginning of a more individualized path. He started becoming more his own person.

To emphasize that, later that year, also transiting Jupiter reached Obama’s natal Descendant (another name for the Seventh House cusp), further proof that his relationships expanded and he began seeing and understanding more of the world. Transiting Uranus on his natal Mars on the cusp of the VIII House shows perhaps the darker side of this move to Jakarta that must have felt also as a painful uprooting from all he knew and loved in Hawaii, his birth place. Saturn in transit was however in harmonious aspect (trine) to his birth Sun, showing the positive influence and sense of security he derived from the relationship with his Indonesian step father. Usually the positive aspects of Saturn correspond to periods during which it is easier to settle down and to build secure foundations for the future.

So much for Obama’s first New Moon.

More about Obama’s Progressions and Transits’ timeline in my next post.