
Could it be that the celebrity star power of the presidential election is actually a product of the celestial stars? Astrologer Arielle Guttman says so and, as she celebrates her 35th year in the business of star charts, horoscopes and predictions, she foresees a hard-fought election given that Republican presidential nominee US Sen. John McCain picked an Aquarian running mate. Guttman hosts workshops on political
astrology and can be reached through the
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SFR: How much can we really know about politicians from their star charts?
AG: You can know quite a lot about people from their birth charts, however, it does seem to be a feature of politicians that a certain amount is always going to remain unknown in terms of what the public knows and what they will let you know and what really is. I’ve always found astrology an incredibly good lens with which to view the inner workings of the person.
You’ve looked at Gov. Sarah Palin’s chart and tentative birth time. What initially struck you about the Republican vice presidential nominee?
My initial thoughts are that she’s highly dramatic, intensely controversial, has an incredible amount of charisma, adds luster and sparkle to the Republican ticket and its legions, especially since McCain is so lackluster. She does for the Republicans what [presidential nominee US Sen. Barack] Obama did for the Democrats. She becomes the personality, the light around which people want to rally. You can’t wait to hear what she is going to say next.
And this all shows up in her chart?
Five planets in Aquarius, including the sun and moon and Leo rising. Energetically, she’s a match for Obama because he’s a Leo sun, Aquarius rising. Leo and Aquarius are opposite signs in astrology, but they form what we call a polarity, so they’re on the same wave of energy, just on different sides of the wheel. People who have a strong amount of Leo-Aquarius in their charts are highly charismatic figures. They’re usually in the public eye, they usually generate a flurry of activity around them. Leo is ruled by the sun and the sun in our solar system is the central light around which all the other planets revolve, so a Leo ruled by the sun is naturally a personality that everyone else is going to more or less orbit around.
Is leadership usually associated with Aquarius?
Well, some of our most popular presidents have been Aquarius. Ronald Reagan was Aquarius, as was Franklin Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. The sign itself doesn’t say whether you’re going to be liberal or conservative, to the left or the right, it just means the character of who you are is charismatic, usually can find a cause to jump on the bandwagon, or lead the bandwagon and rally a force of troops. People tend to elect Aquarians to be their voice, people who don’t feel that they have a voice.
What about John McCain?
McCain is a Virgo and that’s not necessarily a sign of leadership. If you remember at the Republican National Convention, the last few moments of his speech he was harping on ‘Service. Service. Service. I’ve been in service to my country; I have served my country; I really believe in lifelong service.’ Well, he’s a Virgo. It’s the sign of service.
So as far as a vice presidential pick goes, McCain picked one with a pretty strong sign?
She’s someone who could really help him. The way I see the charts, [Democratic vice presidential nominee, US Sen. Joe] Biden is to Obama what McCain is to Palin. In other words, Biden and McCain are energetically similar from their charts, they’re yin signs, earth, water, pretty low key—this is personality structure and character. Character is always something you can read from a chart. You couldn’t always determine how a person will act or react in a situation, but if they’re true to their nature, true to their character, you can determine it. But we have free will and so don’t let anyone tell you they’re automatically going to know the outcome of any event in your life.
As far as leadership goes, is one of these two combinations stronger?
The Republicans brought forth a worthy match to the Democratic ticket, because Palin, even with her lack of experience and know-how in the bigger ball game, is going to charismatically generate a lot of excitement. However, I do think that she is steeped in controversy and I just hope that it doesn’t come out too late to really be sorry. Given what all of the astrologers have been saying about McCain’s health from his chart, it’s highly likely that he would not serve out that term if he were to be president.
Looking back on previous elections, how accurate have your predictions been?
The hand of destiny played a big part in putting George W Bush in the White House in 2000. As I saw it in the chart, nothing was going to stop that from happening. It was almost a decree that was meant to be.
But that’s not how it’s looking right now?
There is such a force of change sweeping the planet in the next three years, that nothing is going to look the same: Every institution, every political organization, every business is going to be caught up in this whole sweeping change. And if you look at the candidate that matches the energy of what archetypically the planets say is meant to happen, Obama is clearly a match. It’s not so much who is going to win, but who’s the right person for the times. George Bush matched the energy of 2001, because the event that created the cosmic event, the results of which was 9.11 and the whole War on Terror, was a very frightening, divisive, fractured astrological kind of energy, which the president matched.