President Franklin D. Roosevelts Chart

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PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT'S BIRTH-CHART

Dane Rudhyar

In order to bring to a more concrete focus what has just been stated, I shall present an interpretation of two birth-charts: that of a very well-known personage, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and that of a young man born on September 25, 1949 in Southern California. My purpose in studying in print these charts is not to give the kind of interpretation which would be based on a direct personal contact between a person seeking advice and a greater understanding of himself at a particular time of his life, but rather to show how a set of interpretative procedures outlined in the preceding chapter can be applied in two very different cases. We know what F.D.R.'s life has been; the young man's destiny is still largely a pattern of potentialities.

In the first instance we can have in retrospect an example of how to seek a more profound and objective understanding of the manner in which a powerful individual person was able to attune his personality to the need of the critical time in which he lived and thereby gave a personal direction to certain historical trends. In the young Californian's case it is what is ahead of us, wrapped in futurity, which is important. This time of history is certainly as critical as that in which F.D.R. rose to fame and power; but the young man is meeting the challenge of history with an obviously most different kind of personality and potential destiny. The astrologer's task in this case is to evaluate the potentiality and to help its actualization. To focus such an evaluation, a horary chart will also be presented; it was made for the time I decided to use the chart after asking my young friend for the permission to do so. It was also an important time in his life, for it was just past his 21st birthday and he was beginning a new and potentially very fruitful association.

        The Basic Character of President Roosevelt's Chart

According to F.D.R.'s mother he was born around 8:30 p.m. with the possibility that birth might have happened as late as 8:45 p.m. (according to what seems to have been the father's testimony). This was "local time" as New York State adopted standard time only in 1883.

The chart I used in my book The Lunation Cycle is the one that has most often been accepted as valid, perhaps because Saturn was just at F.D.R.'s Ascendant when he was struck with polio on August 10, 1921 (Virgo 23°3'). However I have never felt quite satisfied with the angles of this chart. F.D.R.'s father died when he was 18 years and about 10 months; and it seemed to me that the arc between the Mid-Heaven and the most characteristic Mars retrograde at 27°01' Gemini should refer to this death. Yet, according to the system of rectification which seems to be reliable in many instances in which the moment of the first breath is accurately known, this would give Gemini 8°09' at the Mid Heaven - and an apparently too early birth-time.

However, in reconsidering F.D.R.'s chart for this present essay, I was struck with the idea that the death-event may be represented instead by the arc between Pluto Leo 27°22' (nearly "stationary direct") and the Mid Heaven. This gives Gemini 16°12' for the Mid Heaven and a Virgo 18°20' Ascendant with Uranus just at the Ascendant. The angular degrees of the chart carry significant symbols and I feel that this is probably the most accurate chart. The fact that Saturn crossed the Ascendant on September 26, 1920 (and was "stationary direct" within two or three minutes of the natal Uranus on May 21, 1921) very likely refers to what may have been the basic cause of the polio attack. Just getting cold after a swim in the ocean (on August 10, 1921) seems hardly of itself to justify such an attack. There must have been antecedent causes, at least a predisposing weakness or inherited condition; various factors during F.D.R.'s official trips to Europe (1918-1919) may indeed have provided the background for the "polio attack." Strange things happened at the time in Paris and Versailles!

At any rate, I shall assume for the purpose of this study that the chart printed here is correct, and proceed with the outline of the steps I would normally take in studying such a chart.

      The Planetary Pattern:

This is quite obviously a "Tripod Pattern." Uranus at the Ascendant is isolated and occupies the most important position. Another group of planets in Aquarius includes the Sun and the Two inner planets, Venus and Mercury; and the Part of Fortune is also in Aquarius, adding to the emphasis. The third group the sextile of Saturn planets) .

In this chart no "grand trine" can be found, but a powerful trine aspect links the rising Uranus and Jupiter (near the cusp of the ninth House), with Neptune just behind this Jupiter in Taurus. One can also mention a rather weak, because separating, trine between Mercury and the Moon. The Tripod Pattern in any case suggests that the life should witness a great deal of growth in consciousness, if no too strong obstacle blocks the innate capacity of the individual to participate in a larger social frame of reference along lines of reform and as well self-transformation. The rising Uranus, in trine- relationship to the four planets in Taurus, is the "Signature" justifying such a statement. The planets in Aquarius, and particularly the conjunction of Venus and the Sun in the fifth House (self-expression, creativity, etc.) add to the power of Uranus. A powerful self-generated "drive" for self-transformation is evident. How it is likely to be used cannot be seen from the birthchart; and there were no doubt other persons born on that day with Uranus rising who responded in different ways to the potential situation and the "set of instructions" revealed by his birth-chart; this because of their heredity and their personal environment, and other spiritual factors which transcend the possibility of astrological interpretation. Nevertheless, within their individual field of operation, they presumably experienced in some manner the same inner subjective urge to expansion, reform and participation in some sort of social or religious field of activity which allowed them to express themselves quite powerfully in relation to what was possible to them according to their birth-environment.

It should become evident at once to the student of such a chart that something quite powerful would nevertheless act as an obstacle, or as crisisproducing factor. I am referring mainly to the broad square of Mars to Uranus and the exact square of Pluto to Mercury. The fact that the Mid Heaven is situated within the semi-sextile of Pluto to Mars, and especially that the tenth-House Mars (the most elevated planet) is retrograde, gives a great deal of power to these squares. Moreover we can see, at a glance, that the three planets in Aquarius are squaring the four planets in Taurus. The former are celestial factors within the Earth's orbit; the latter are four of the most distant outer planets. One may well think therefore of a tension between the more intimate personal factors, and the broader social and possibly spiritual and transcendent factors.

The disposition of the four Taurus planets is very interesting: Saturn and Jupiter are a natural pair of complementary factors at the social, political, or religious level; and so are Neptune and Pluto at a more transcendent or universalistic level which normally is that where the power of mutation and self-repolarization operates. These two pairs of planets are intertwined. However, the center of gravity (i.e. the mid-point) of the fourfold grouping is at Taurus 16°43&1/2 within a few minutes of arc of Jupiter. This stresses the significance of Jupiter, and of its trine to Uranus. Besides, the fourth House has a Sagittarian cusp and is therefore "Jupiterian" by nature.

The fourth House refers to the mother - or at any rate, always to the parent who has the more meaning or importance in the development of the feeling-nature of the person - and F.D.R.'s mother was a quite strong and remarkable individual.

One of the factors difficult to interpret is the elevated Mars retrograde which traditionally "rules" Aries and thus the eighth House of the chart. It makes a close trine to Mercury in the sixth House, and - as I already said - a very distant square to Uranus . A more ominous septile of Mars to Saturn should be noticed; and, most important, we find in the chart also a septile of the Moon to the center of the Jupiter-Neptune conjunction, and a bi-septile of Venus to Jupiter.

If we add to these aspects the strong quintile of the Moon to Uranus, and a near novile of this Moon to Pluto, and also an exact novile of Mars to Jupiter, plus a sesqui-quadrate aspect of the Sun to Mars, we realize that we are looking at a chart unusually rich in the type of aspects which are most often called "minor," yet which in some cases, like this, can assume a far more than normal importance - at least if the individual whose chart it is is developed or sensitive enough to respond to them. President Roosevelt's life - we now can see - evidently did respond, especially to the quite "fateful," because transcendent, septiles, and the Moon-Uranus quintile (to which we might add a near-quintile of Mercury to Saturn).

But to return to Mars: it affects the two planets which can be considered "ruling planets" of the chart, Mercury and Uranus, and it obviously occupies a very significant place in terms of the professional and public life, which is also "ruled" by Mercury, Gemini being at the Mid Heaven. The important point, according to the basic concept of Humanistic astrology, is not what kind of events are to be expected in terms of this Mars position, but rather how the person should meet professional challenges and opportunities. This is what I would have had to consider if young Franklin had come to me for a consultation, say after his father's death.

The answer would have had to take in consideration a multiplicity of factors which we have not yet touched upon, in particular the Sun and the Moon; but from the point of view of the overall distribution and placing of the planets in the chart, the attention would have been drawn first of all to the Tripod character of the chart, and to four outstanding factors: Uranus just rising, the Aquarius group in which the Sun is surrounded by Venus and Mercury (and the Part of Fortune) the very broad and "separating" conjunction of Mars and the Moon in the tenth House, and the four planets in Taurus.

What this all totals to - when seen from a broad perspective - is transforming activity powered by deep emotions, a will to self-expression, self-overcoming and expansion, and a restless mind pulled by contrasting forces and possibly requiring sharp confrontations for its full development.

Mars retrograde is usually a puzzling factor for it can operate in many different ways. As Mars represents all outgoing activity, and this outgoing is always dependent upon some kind of muscular process - unnoticeable as it may be, except by very sensitive instruments - the fact that Mars is retrograde may affect the muscular system, though it certainly need not do so in any observable way. What it basically means is that, as a person is urged spontaneously to reach out toward, or to fly from an object which has aroused a "feeling judgment" (the Venus function) of being valuable or dangerous, something happens in that person which tends to stop him and forces him to reconsider more cautiously or attentively whether the object is really worthwhile, or to be avoided. The action which is thus delayed will probably be performed, but the performance will tend to be less spontaneous; it may be strongly colored by a psychological complex - or, as in F.D.R.'s case, it may have to be forced against natural difficulties requiring deliberateness and the exercise of conscious will-power.

This mechanism related to the retrograde phase of the Mars cycle (the briefest of all planetary retrograde phases) may not be at all obvious, even to the individual person himself, if what is involved is a psychological complex blocking the spontaneous outflow of the psychic energy or libido; yet I believe that it can always be discovered at work, however subtly. And of course, as we previously saw, Freud is the most characteristic case of such a Mars retrograde position, with a completely isolated Mars. In Roosevelt's life, the situation took on a most acute physical form, but I doubt that a study of the birth-chart alone would have led to the prognostication of his illness. The most dangerous factors, in this connection, were the septile of Saturn in the eighth House to Mars which almost suggests some "occult" force at work; and the square of Pluto to Mercury (possibly referring to a trip abroad.)

In any case, what could be deduced from the over-all pattern is that we are dealing here with a complex situation in which the outer manifestation of a strong power of creative and transforming self -expression will meet definite opposition or "tests," inner as well as outer. On the other hand, the strong Moon in Cancer and the four Taurus planets suggest a rather conservative or at least traditional background; on the other hand, the rest of the chart reveals just the opposite trend in terms of the truly individual character of the person.

It is interesting to note that the upper group of planets in spring and early summer signs of the zodiac is contained within an exact sextile of the Moon and Saturn. In F.D.R.'s case we see there the constructive power of a strong family background and heredity; yet the Mars retrograde in the House of the Father could suggest that the paternal inheritance presented some problems - whether at the intellectual level or in relation to the nervous system.

One should note also that Mercury and Uranus are in "mutual reception" (Mercury ruling Virgo, and Uranus said to rule Aquarius), and Mercury is powerfully aspected, but in the sixth House which at least partially refers to health. It refers more generally to the realization that the type of self-expression related to the fifth House usually leads to, or requires for the best results, re-training and a close attention to the results of a too emotional or too egocentric release of energy. With the conjunction of Venus and the Sun in this fifth House, such results could be expected to need being reconsidered and revaluated - especially as the fifth House is ruled by Saturn (Capricorn at its cusp) and Saturn makes the ominous septile to Mars already mentioned. And here again Saturn refers to the father, or at least the Father- Image and the ancestral tradition.

        The Lights

I believe that it is better to study the over-all pattern of the chart and the distribution of the planets in the House before one focuses one's attention upon the Sun and the Moon; but this is evidently not essential, and where the planetary pattern is not sharply defined and suggestive, one may find it easier to pay attention first to the positions and the aspects formed by the two Lights. The Sun and the Moon symbolize respectively the nature of the life-energy (i .e., its most characteristic mode or rhythm of operation) and the way it is distributed to the whole field of the personality to meet everyday demands for adaptation to ever changing inner states or outer situations. The angular relationship between the Lights describes the phase of the soli-lunar cycle at which one is born - or what I have called one's "lunation birthday" and one's soli-lunar type (cf. my book The Lunation Cycle for information concerning the 8 types).

In F.D.R.'s chart the Moon is in its "gibbous" phase, about 35 degrees short of "full," or more accurately about three days before Full Moon. This means that he was born within a lunation cycle that had begun on January 19, 1882 with a New Moon on the last degree of Capricorn a degree which Marc Jones has spoken of as "the White Lodge degree"; or, less occultly, a degree of executive deliberation and control. The first New Moon after F.D.R.'s birth occurred on February 18th at 29°24' Aquarius; and it corresponds by secondary progression to the winter 1900 - age 18 - less than a year before his father's death. This was undoubtedly the start of his more individual life.

The next New Moon (at Pisces 28°47') corresponded to the summer 1929, not long before he was reelected Governor of New York, thus insuring a solid base of operation for his 1932 campaign for the Presidency. The progressed Full Moon of that 30-year long progressed lunation cycle referred to the summer 1944. Victory was at hand and the physical process of disintegration brought about by enormous pressures and responsibilities could no longer be arrested. The two main opponents in the global confrontation, Roosevelt and Hitler, who had risen to power in their respective nations at about the same time and both on the basis of economic collapse, died in the same month of April 1945.

The lunation cycle and the natal Sun-Moon relationship can be used as a frame of reference within which various astrological factors can be given special meaning. The position of the Part of Fortune very close to the Sun should be considered (cf. again The Lunation Cycle) and the position of the planets within the angle formed by the Sun-Moon relationship. As the Moon progressed after F.D.R.'s birth the first planet it touched was Uranus; which can be considered as an indication that what F.D.R. had to stress in this life is the power of transformation ( or reform) of Uranus. Before reaching the next New Moon, the Moon crossed also over Venus and Mercury. This suggests that at the end of the life-experience, the inner factors of being were to enter into play - a personal culmination of effort beyond the realm of outer events.

Obviously much can be made of the fact that F.D. R. was an "Aquarian" - too much probably if one looks at what such zodiacal type characterization has brought to popular astrology. The interesting fact is nevertheless that this Aquarian Sun stood in psychological contrast to the Cancerian Moon in the tenth House - a very strong position for the Moon. What this means can be interpreted in various ways: a strong mother whose ambition for her son may have been a dominant factor, especially during his illness also an equally strong wife. A good approach to one's public and warm response from women in public matters may also be indicated. At any rate, the individual with such a natal Moon should pay much attention to women and/or public moods in all professional matters.

Beside its already mentioned and concretely effective sextile to Saturn, the Moon forms a quintile to Uranus, and a septile to the Jupiter-Neptune, pair. A numerologist would be very interested by these angular factors 5, 6 and 7. One might add also a novile (38°53') to Pluto. This variety of aspects could be interpreted as referring to a keen ability to adapt to public situations in terms of creative, practical and super-personal or planetary values.

On the other hand, the Sun (backed as it were by Venus nearby) makes only tense aspects: a massive square to Saturn, Neptune and Jupiter, and a sesquiquadrate aspect to Mars. These aspects confirm, as it were, the meaning of the Mars-Saturn septile already mentioned. This Sun-Venus pair can also be said to form a broad Y aspect to the quintile of the Moon to Uranus. It is not the typical kind of Y-aspect which theoretically involves a sex tile and two fairly exact 150° aspects, yet Venus is in exact 150° aspect to the Moon, and the Sun forms the same aspect to Uranus - though Uranus actually forms a bi-quintile (144°) to the Sun.

These solar aspects imply definite challenges to the vitality; but the Sun also refers to the inner Will of the individual (i.e. the sense of purpose or "destiny") - provided this Will can be mobilized; and this depends mainly on the stage of spiritual evolution of the person. In the Sabian series of symbols, the twelfth degree of Aquarius is represented by the Stairway of Life's evolution which suggests the capacity to move upward to a new level of experience. Such a moving upward implies quite inevitably harsh challenges and the need to overcome them. It may evoke the possibility of an "Initiation" - a much abused term, alas! - or at a more mundane level, a forceful ambition. The elevated Mars in the tenth House can evidently be said to reveal a strong drive toward achievement, and the sesquiquadrate of Sun to Mars suggests that this drive is probably the result of an ancient Soul-past - or even of a family tradition. The symbol for the Ascendant degree fits well in such a picture, for it reveals "A swimming race"; it even fits in with F .D. R.'s illness, its at least apparent cause (a swim in the ocean) and his constant efforts at helping his muscular disability through swimming.

The symbol for the Part of Fortune (in Aquarius and in the fifth House, at 13°27) is also revealing: "A train entering a tunnel." It suggests a strong will to pierce through obstacles, even if it be in defiance of nature. The square between the planets in the fifth and eighth Houses fits in well with such a symbol, for these seven planets in fixed signs tend to indicate not only a capacity for a "regeneration" of personal egocentric urges, but great perseverance and a fixity of purpose.

Progressions

It is not my purpose here to attempt a study of secondary progressions. As I have stated in The Lunation Cycle and The Practice of Astrology, the "progressed lunation cycle" and its 30-year cycle provides the most general and best frame of reference for all progressions. In F.D. R.'s case the progressed New Moons divide his life as follow: from birth to 1900 - from 1900 to 1929 - and up to his death in 1945. At 18 the young Roosevelt presumably was entering college; in 1929 (age 471/2) he had sufficiently overcome the effect of illness to have been elected Governor of New York state in 1928 - his new political life had begun, after an impressive comeback. Mars, which became direct (by progression) in 1885, had moved over the natal Moon in 1927-28, thus correlating accurately with the new ambitions and successful effort. The effort took place during the "seed period" (the last three years) of the progressed lunation cycle which had begun in 1900.

The progressions of the Moon over the four angles of the chart, especially the Ascendant, are often very significant. We find the progressed Moon crossing F.D.R.'s Ascendant in the spring-summer 1915 (he had already been given the position of Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1913) and in the fall of 1942, less than a year after Pearl Harbor, and at a time when the progressed Sun and the progressed Mars were moving in close square formation - a difficult time for the United States. What is even more significant, from the Humanistic astrology standpoint is that the passage of the progressed Moon through each House normally emphasizes the realm of individual experience upon which it is advisable for the person to focus his attention. However, one has to interpret the meaning of the Houses in a consistent and logical manner, realizing that the Houses constitute twelve successive phases of a cyclic process - this process referring to man's inherent capacity to consciously experience life and its constant modifications, within himself and in relation to the outer world. Each House represents a specific field of experience. Passing successively through these fields and responding to what they bring to the consciousness an individual person gradually becomes aware of himself and his world, and learns to adjust himself to, or control (which may mean to upset!) the sources of these experiences, i.e. his inner and outer environment.

When F.D.R. became the President of a nation in economic chaos and confronted by the possibility of a revolution, his progressed Moon was passing through Taurus. During his summer 1932 campaign it was moving over his three Taurus planets, especially Jupiter and Neptune, and through his natal eighth House. When he assumed power and he wielded it at once in an imaginative and striking manner his progressed Moon had entered the ninth House. He surrounded himself with farseeing minds using new principles of social and economic value.

He prepared for his second term while the progressed Moon was in the tenth House and returning to its natal place. The progressed Moon was in his twelfth House when Japan struck at Pearl Harbor; the President had to face the "karmic" result of a long cycle of diplomatic fumbling which had begun with the Presidency of another Roosevelt, F. D.R., the man with the "big stick" policy who completely ignored the portents of Japan's victory and angered the rising nation which never forgave that President's intervention at the Peace Treaty. And evidently F.D.R. was also then reaping his own Karma - the challenging results of his own ambition and his feeling of destiny.

In any complete chart-interpretation one has, of course, to study the cycle of the other progressed planets; but the Moon is the only planet whose progressions can complete a cycle during a natural human life. It is for this reason, if for no other, that its progressed cycle is so basic, especially in terms of the progressed lunation cycle, because the Moon should never be fully separated from the Sun as they constitute a fundamental polarity - the symbolic basis of all life on this Earth. The movements of progressed Mercury can, however, be very significant, for this planet often changes direction twice during a lifetime. In F.D.R.'s case, progressed Mercury turned retrograde in 1895-96 (adolescence time), and became direct again in 1918 when he went to Europe after World War I. In 1924 progressed Mercury reached once more its natal place, as progressed Venus was entering Aries. This very likely refers to the time when it became evident that the future President had mentally conquered his illness and was gathering his forces for a new life.

Transits

I believe that it is rather senseless to interpret progress ions and transits as if they referred to the same level of significance. It is true that once a birth-moment is given, the positions of all the planets during the entire life of the person are also given, and thus the relationship of these positions to the natal positions on any day is also implied in the birth-chart. Nevertheless the transiting positions of the planets (including Sun and Moon) are theoretically the results of the observations of the celestial environment by the mature person; they are outer events, thus they logically should be correlated also to "events" in the person's life. They represent the relationship between an individual and his planetary and social as well as cosmic environment; which in most cases means first of all the pressure or impact of this total environment upon the person - even though the person's responses do affect, in ever so slight a measure, his planetary environment, and, in some cases, quite strongly indeed, his social environment. This effect of the individual upon society in terms of transits should never be forgotten. For instance, a President may have transiting Saturn over his natal Sun when he takes office, and this refers to the man experiencing a massive increase in his responsibilities, in working hours, in the protocol and public aspects of his daily existence. But it means as well that the man's Sun is relating itself to the world's Saturn; that is, his purpose of destiny is impressing itself upon all that Saturn represents to his nation and to mankind.

Secondary progressions have a very different character. They refer to the completion of the process of gestation at the psycho-mental level during the three months following the nine months of intra-uterine development of the body (biophysiological level). A whole solar cycle has to be completed since the moment of conception; thus a twelve-month period. The body has normally to be developed during the first nine months within the dark, protective and closed environment of the mother's womb; but the mind (or what I have called specifically "intelligence," i.e., the power of consciously adjusting to the environment through processes of interchange) requires that the organism operate in at least relative independence in an open environment, giving to it as well as receiving from it (if only through breathing, vocal sounds and simple gestures).

What the secondary progressions thus represent (on the basis of one year per day of actual living after birth) is the process of unfoldment of potentialities latent in the human organism, but needing the relationship with an open environment for their development or actualization. In a more general sense these progressions refer to the process of germination of the seed of a plant. The seed (the birth-chart) contains in potentiality what the full-grown plant will, or rather may, become. The process is essentially an interior one in that it demands, in a sense at least, nothing from the exterior. By contrast the transits refer to the interaction between the basically permanent (or archetypal) structure of being (the birth-chart) and the cyclic patterns made by the rhythm of the ever-moving and dynamic components of the solar system which our senses perceive, the planets. There may be as yet unperceived components, but they are not parts of the language of astrology, just as the word, neutron, did not exist as a word until atomic physicists needed it to characterize some until then unperceived element.

The concept of "transit" in astrology should not be entirely limited to what happens when some moving celestial body passes over the degree of the zodiac on which a natal planet or an angle was located. Such an event only serves to bring to a focus a cyclic process. Such processes can be defined in two ways. There are simple cycles, which I have called "cycles of positions"; and complex ones, called "cycles of relationship." The time it takes for a planet to return to its natal position defines its cycle of position. The cycle produced by the successive conjunctions of two planets moving at different speeds - for instance, the cycle defined by the succession of New Moons, or of conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn - is a cycle of relationship. Both types are transit cycles, and important for the interpretation of a chart. What is to be considered in connection with cycles of relationships is the place at which the successive conjunctions. occur.

In the case of the lunations, nothing too significant may be indicated; yet, if a New Moon falls exactly on a natal planet or angle, this planet or angle is usually dynamized - and the indication may be more important if the New Moon is a solar eclipse. What the planet or angle signifies should be intensified. The opportunity, or need, is indicated; but the individual is not obliged to meet it. Indeed most human beings are always eager to avoid confrontations, if these will tend to upset the status quo.

Solar eclipses are not necessarily fateful omens if they occur on one's birthday, or on some natal planet. They simply stress the fact that Sun, Moon and Earth are in exact alignment, and that the Sun's energy is therefore, as it were, channeled through the Moon. In ancient occultism it was stated that the most mysterious "seventh Ray" of the Sun - the Sushumna Ray - goes to the Moon. It produces, one may assume, "occult" transformations - perhaps "redemption from the past," a karmic process. It may vitalize the form of the past, only to eventually shatter it. At least the first effect can be a kind of ego-glorification.

In September 1931 there was an annular solar eclipse on F.D.R.'s Ascendant. He. was undoubtedly preparing himself from Albany for the Presidency. Another - a partial one - came very close in September 1942 when he was preparing the country for a war he most likely felt inevitable if not necessary. He died just after a New Moon in his eighth House; Venus and Mercury, both retrograde, were contained within the fiye-degree arc separating the Moon from the Sun. The Ascendant was at Virgo 100, according to some data, with Jupiter retrograde rising close to F.D.R.'s natal Uranus. Neptune, also retrograde was squaring, from the first House, Saturn about to pass over his natal Moon. Mars was about to leave his sixth House forming, from the seventh House of the death-chart, a T-cross with the tenth House Uranus and the first House Jupiter.

One of the important transit cycles is that which is defined by the successive conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn. The House (and sign and degree) in which these conjunctions occur at 20-year intervals can give very interesting indications. F.D.R. was born not long after such a conjunction (April 1881) which fell in his eighth natal House. The following one occurred in November 1901 in Capricorn at the end of his. fourth House, a year after his father's death and while he was in college. Another took place on September 10, 1921 just after his polio attack at Virgo 26039', thus in his first House. The last one was three times repeated in 1940-41 when Hitler was overcoming all European armies; and that one touched his Saturn, Neptune and Jupiter once more in the eighth House (about every 60 years Jupiter and Saturn return to their natal places). Thus the eighth, fourth and first Houses were emphasized in F.D.R.'s life, insofar as social-political factors within his personality were concerned.

In the case of President Kennedy the JupiterSaturn conjunctions of his life fell (according to Campanus Houses) in his twelfth (1921), his seventh (1940-41) and just past his fourth House cusp (1961-Capricorn) - an interesting problem of interpretation.

Once we have noted these turning points in the development of the complementary functions represented by Jupiter and Saturn we can then consider the transits which these planets make as they cross the other planets and the angles. The Jupiter cycle of positions lasts less than 12 years; the Saturn cycle, about 29&1/2 years. The former has been associated with financial matters, but also with the growth of the "social sense." The Saturn cycle is very interesting inasmuch as it lasts close to the period of a progressed lunation cycle.

In analyzing the simplest division of these two cycles of positions one naturally thinks of the passage of these planets through the four quarters of the birth-chart. These quarters - at least in such a connection, but also with reference to the cyclic motion of the progressed Moon - can be given the following meanings:

First Quarter: "Growth in essential being" (in three phases: first, second and third Houses)

Second Quarter: Growth in faculties

Third Quarter: Growth in power and opportunities, essentially through relationships

Fourth Quarter: Growth in influence

I have stressed here the positive factor of "growth"; but any phase of a cycle can turn negative. If the transits through the third quarter have been connected with a negative approach to, and/or a failure in relationship, the fourth quarter can represent a decrease in influence, perhaps an empty feeling of frustration and ineffectual protest or rebellion.

When Roosevelt was stricken by illness Saturn had entered the first quarter of his chart (first, second and third Houses). What the illnesses brought him was indeed "growth in essential being." Saturn had previously entered his fourth quarter (1913) when President Wilson appointed him Assistant Secretary of the Navy; this was the climax of his first ascent along the path of political power. Very likely his personal development at that stage would not have been adequate for greater responsibilities. Thus when Saturn crossed his Ascendant the stage was being set for a new cycle of growth. The stage-setting may somehow have begun on October 1920 when Saturn crossed the Ascendant of the chart I am presenting here. On May 21,1921 Saturn was "stationary direct" at Virgo 17°58', and in August the crisis reached the plane of physical shock .

During 1928 Saturn entered by transit the second quarter of F.D.R.'s chart; and he was elected Governor of New York. His Administration began on March 4, 1933, immediately after Saturn crossed his natal Sun. It reached the Mid Heaven in June 1943 - a year of conferences between the chiefs of State. The concept of the United Nations had already been formulated. As already stated, at his death Saturn was about to cross his natal Moon.

The transits cycles of the faster planets, Mercury, Venus and Mars can also be significant, even though they recur frequently. Some astrologers make a great deal out of Mars' transits; every one, it seems, has some favorite! For others, Saturn, Jupiter, or Uranus are the most important factors. It is far more valuable to think of each transit cycle as significant only in terms of the function which the transiting planet symbolizes. When Uranus reached F.D.R.'s Venus he became Assistant Secretary of the Navy. It moved over his Sun in January 1915, while Saturn crossed his natal Mars, and Jupiter his natal Mercury; Venus being also at the Nadir of the chart. This should have been a very basic turning point, but I know of no special event mentioned in his biography. He was then 33. This may have referred to a very personal, perhaps an emotional, matter - perhaps even something that could have led to his illness later on. The transit of Uranus over the natal Sun is nearly always an indication of some inner crisis of transformation, or of an external turning point in the personal and! or public life; yet there may not be any definite outer event connected with the transit. Uranus began to cross F.D.R.'s Taurus planets in May 1936, as the campaign for his second term of office began; it ended in March 1942 with Uranus's final transit over natal Pluto - the dark days of Japanese conquests. F.D.R. died before Uranus reached his Mid Heaven.

Neptune crossed his Ascendant and his natal Uranus during late 1936 and 1937. These were crucial days when Hitler had risen to power and was testing the will-to-fight of France and England, when Mussolini had revived a pseudo "Roman Empire," when the Civil War in Spain was challenging the "Free World" and Japan was conquering China. This was, in a sense, the start of World War II; just as World War I had actually begun with the Balkan Wars of 1912.

Opinions vary concerning the value of the transits of the Moon's Nodes; but there is no reason why they should not be considered. They correlate with "eclipse seasons" which may affect planetary groupings in the birth-chart. When the transiting nodes correspond with the natal horizon and the meridian, basic changes in consciousness and in the public life often indeed are experienced. The North Node was conjunct F.D.R.'s Ascendant in April 1923, which I presume marked his recovery, for he was able a year later to present the name of Alfred E. Smith to the Democratic Convention in New York. It had come to the cusp of the fourth House as World War I ended (October, November 1918). It reached F.D.R.'s Descendant in August 1932 during his campaign for the Presidency. It was once more at the Ascendant and conjunct Uranus - significantly indeed just as the Pearl Harbor tragedy occurred (December 1941).

One can even find value in progressing the Part of Fortune; (1) but, as I have used such progressions, I calculate the progressed Part of Fortune with reference to the natal Ascendant (i.e. by referring the progressed Moon and the progressed Sun to this natal horizon). One can also calculate it by considering what is called the "progressed horoscope" which was popularized by Allen Leo. Personally, I prefer to retain the angular structure of the natal chart as a permanent lifelong frame of reference. The motion of the horizon and meridian are no doubt also significant, and the are various ways of calculating their positions year in, year out. One can also use "primary directions" beside the "secondary progressions." There are indeed so many techniques that can be used! And now the "cosmobiological" system of Ebertin - and before him of the Uranian School of Germany - is being widely spread.

All these systems, if logically and consistently developed and carried out, can find their place in a very detailed study of charts; but their mastery demands a very long period of study and the variety of often contradictory information they provide can be, and indeed usually is, very confusing - just as the mind of a person can be confused by his ability to express his thoughts in several languages. What is essential is to know what one is looking for; i.e. what astrology is to be used for - and to focus one's attention upon that. If one wants to deal with precise outer events, this is one approach. It is not the approach of Humanistic astrology. This approach is purposive rather than analytical. It does not seek to know what will happen, but to understand the meaning of what has happened and to know how best one can meet present situations and the turning points or crisis of growth which one can see taking shape in the future as the - result of the rhythmic development of the potentialities inherent in the individual person.

1) For a study of The Part of Fortune, I refer the reader to my book The Lunation Cycle.

Person Centered Astrology