Obama’s Inauguration on January 20, 2009 at 12 pm.

Before we look at President-elect Obama's Inauguration chart, we need to look at his birthchart to see what qualities he brings to the Presidency. While George W embodied many of the unregenerated shadow qualities of the American psyche - the will-to-power, unwarrented privilege, pride, ignorance of the wider world, unconsciousness, hypocrisy, adolescent self-satisfaction, disrespect, self-righteousness and irresponsibility - Barack seems to embody the highest possibilities of the American psyche – free will, intelligence, discernment, respect, compassion, imagination, fairness, heart, vision, responsibility and moral character. Let's see what his chart tells us about him.

Barack's Leo Sun makes him generous, imaginative, playful, self-confident, charming, charismatic - a leader. In the 6^th house of work and service, he puts his considerable energy to work. He is not afraid of hard work. His Gemini Moon gives him his ability to learn, to talk, to communicate, to change his mind. (John Kerry's Gemini Moon got him into trouble as a 'flip-flopper'.) A Gemini Moon needs to explore, examine, talk about and understand life's experiences. They are open-minded and if undisciplined, scattered and flip-floppy. A Gemini Moon is friendly though. Barack's friendliness also comes to him from his Aquarian ascendant, which gives him an innovative vision of the world. He is the humanitarian, the global visionary, open to all types of people and cultures.

With his Sun in Leo and his Moon in Gemini, Barack was born at the last-quarter Moon. This Moon phase re-orients him away from the past to face the future, conserving the important knowledge and wisdom of the past to serve future needs. In the plant cycle, this phase corresponds to the plant that is ready to give up its seeds for the next generation.

This phase’s ‘crisis in consciousness’ indicates that Obama’s outlook on life is mature enough to know what is no longer life-giving, as well as flexible enough to welcome in new visions. If you’ve read his book, The Audacity of Hope, you’ll see that he has indeed deeply probed the validity of his beliefs, values and philosophies of life. He walks his talk.

The great astrologer Dane Rudhyar observed that ‘last-quarter Moon people are being asked, for an ultimately constructive purpose, to be part of a de-structuring process … which helps to break down whatever in oneself or one’s community or society no longer positively contributes to evolutionary progress, but instead stands in the way.’ Since this phase of the Moon entails self-reflection and consciousness, this process is one of intelligent discrimination of ideologies and beliefs for the benefit of future generations. The aspects between his Sun and Moon promote an energizing intelligence and inventiveness. He has a mind that likes to explore and learn new things, while promoting creative social innovations.

Barack’s capacity for this kind of internal reflection on life and society is also highlighted in his chart with the Saturn/Jupiter conjunction in his 12^th house, the house of the collective unconscious. Every 20 years, these two planets that indicate social issues (rather than our personal issues) begin a new cycle. In February 1961, Jupiter and Saturn conjoined in Capricorn. They began a new cycle of social development of our collective structures (Capricorn).

With this new vision of ‘what society could be’ energizing his house of the collective unconscious, he looks to the archetypal myths and legends for his answers. Both Saturn and Jupiter are ‘Father gods’: Saturn is the ancient god of ‘concrete reality’, the ruler of the Golden Age when there was peace and abundance for all. Jupiter, the king of the Olympian gods, is a god of cosmic law and spiritual vision. So Barack’s vision of society encompasses both the old and the new. He could end up being the real Compassionate Conservative – for he’ll conserve what is important to our national character while being compassionate to the people as we go through this transition.

Each country has a birth chart. America's July 4^th birthchart gives us a Cancer Sun, an Aquarian Moon and a Sagittarius ascendant. Cancer Sun speaks to our purpose – to nurture the new vision of freedom and equality that our founders stood for. We have become a beacon of freedom for the world. Our Aquarian Moon speaks to our independence, interdependence and humanitarianism. Our Sagittarian Ascendant denotes our forward-looking national spirit as well as our search for higher truth.

Obama’s chart fits well with America’s. His Venus is within degrees of America’s Venus and Jupiter. So his values (Venus) are America’s values. He loves America! He represents the best of what America can ‘grow’ – a responsible adult with a sense of play and possibilities.

His Mars is exactly conjunct America’s Neptune. America’s Neptune is the most elevated planet in the chart, indicating our love of fantasy, Hollywood and dreams of abundance and fulfillment. So Obama fits our longing and fantasy of what an American Man (Mars) could be – intelligent, charming, confident, egalitarian, discerning, humble, athletic and willing to serve the common good. He’s the stuff of our dreams, the practical idealist (America’s Neptune in Virgo).

One of the reasons so many of us look up to him is that he represents what many of us (especially women) want a man to be. And most importantly, his South Node of the Moon (where he’s come from) is conjunct America’s Aquarian Moon. He understands the people (Moon) – he’s one of us. But his Leo Sun and North Node demand that he be a leader – our leader.

His Saturn/Jupiter conjunction sits on America’s Pluto in Capricorn. And they both sit at the top of the Inaugural chart, giving this Pluto prominence. Many astrologers see that Pluto (located in America’s 2^nd house of money and values) as the plutocracy of wealth that really rules America. But this year could be the year when instead of upholding the power of wealth and corporations, Obama will use Pluto’s power to transform the culture through his Saturn in Capricorn and Jupiter in Aquarius. He could just make us understand that Pluto in Capricorn also calls on all Americans to constantly transform the culture and its corporations – Jefferson’s continual revolution.

Now let's look at the Inauguration chart for Barack Obama, and see what the formative energies of his administration look like.

I might as well get the most obvious issue – at least for astrologers – out of the way. There is a void of course (VOC) Moon at 29 Scorpio until 12:29pm on January 20^th. A Void-of-Course transit of the moon is a period of time between the last aspect the Moon makes to a planet while transiting in one sign and the time that the Moon enters the next sign.

Astrological wisdom says that nothing prospers during a VOC Moon because the time will be misspent or the task will be done incorrectly and need to be redone later. This "loss" may be caused by an inattention to details or missed information. But I don't know if I agree with that age-old belief. After all, the Moon goes void-of-course every few days. And it is our choices that determine whether or not we make things happen. It just means we have to be vigilant.

The Moon in this chart represents the people. So this VOC Moon forces 'we, the people' to pledge ourselves to continue to engage in and participate in our government and not go back to expecting our leaders to 'do the right thing'. As we will see, Obama is either here to provide us with an 'example' of the type of engaged person each of us can become or he will have to take on our collective projections of 'the savior'. He's already attracting that kind of projection. It is up to each of us to withdraw the projection and introject his example of being a responsible citizen.

That's the choice we really face – do we expect government to take care of things for us or do we participate in our government and take control of what they do. We have to create our democracy, or else the plutocracy of the wealthy will continue to make the rules.

We look at the nature of the final aspect leading into the VOC Moon to see what collective emotional state might be present during the VOC Moon. The last aspect to the Moon in the Inauguration chart is a square to Neptune.

The Scorpio Moon in this chart symbolizes the People and it says that we are on guard, trying to understand the hidden workings of this meltdown in our institutions. The square to Neptune in Aquarius indicates that we're not certain our highest ideals will be served or that we even have a firm grip on how to make changes that will work. All we know is that we want things to change! The Scorpio Moon in the 29^th degree forces the issue: we change or we die!

The good news is that Barack has this aspect in his natal chart and hopefully has learned to work with it. This aspect in his chart tells us that he inherited his high ideals from his mom. Psychologically speaking, she might have felt lonely or even victimized and so she looked to her son for some kind of redemption, and he took on the burden of sacrifice and suffering and powerlessness that teaches us higher wisdom. It makes astrological sense that Americans have projected that need for a redeemer on Barack as well, but we'll have a chance to STOP doing it during his administration if we listen to his message not only of hope, but of personal responsibility.

So if Barack Obama takes the Oath of Office before 12:29 pm (EST), the VOC Moon might indicate that all our 'hopes' will go through a period of disillusionment before we re-define what needs to get done. If, however, he takes the Oath after 12:29 pm, the Moon will have moved into Sagittarius, indicating the ability to learn from our past mistakes and open up to 'think outside the box'.

If President Obama is inaugurated during the VOC moon, 'We, the people' will need to choose to transform our own relationship to government. Will we take responsibility and keep an eye on what the government is doing? Or will we sit back, expecting Obama's team to do the work and end up watching big business continue to exert control of our resources. Obama really can't do anything to make the changes our country needs to make if the people don't help him fight for those changes.

When January 20^th was chosen as Inauguration Day, it guaranteed that any Presidential Inauguration chart would have an Aquarius Sun – the cosmic stamp of a free and forward-looking nation. (I wonder who their astrologer was?)

In the Inaugural chart, most of the planets are above the horizon, clustered in the houses of government and collective ideals. The planets this year are mostly in the last three signs of the zodiac (Capricorn, Aquarius & Pisces), where they are channeling universal energy! The Moon is in the very last degree of Scorpio, while Pluto and Mars are in Capricorn. The Sun, Mercury, Jupiter, North Node, Chiron and Neptune are in Aquarius. Venus and Uranus are in Pisces. The only planet beneath the horizon is Saturn, which is opposite Venus and Uranus. So Saturn, which rules governments and corporations, is the linchpin of the chart. Saturn in Virgo is forcing us to be more thrifty, more health-conscious, more in touch with who we really are and what we’re supposed to do in this world. Saturn forces us to face reality and create new structures to make the changes we envision.

The cluster of planets in Aquarius at the top of the chart sings out with hope. Jupiter with the Sun brings good luck and Neptune, Chiron and the North Node speak to healing our vision of a just society. Even Mercury retrograde helps this administration go back over what has been ignored. (So, for those of you who think that Obama won't go after the Bush administration need to have patience. First Obama needs get his economic agenda enacted. Then he'll go back and examine any war crimes.)

The Ascendant, the sign coming up over the horizon at the time of the Inauguration, tells us what the outlook of this administration will be. The Taurus ascendant and Scorpio descendant tells us that the issues for all presidents are money and resources. But this year, Taurus also assures us that the Earth and her problems and resources will provide the leading edge in this administration’s thinking. We have to be good stewards of the Earth. Global warming, resources, values, money all take center stage. As a Taurus I applaud it. If we kill the Earth, we kill ourselves.

On Inauguration Day, Obama has his progressed Moon and transiting Chiron on his Aquarian ascendant. He will feel like – and we will see him as - the healer, the mentor, the guide of heroes. A heavy load if misunderstood. Let's share the burden and be our own heroes. He is much better suited to be the 'first amongst equals' than our 'savior'.

Obama's personality might heal our National Consciousness – our sense of ourselves as well as others sense of us. He could heal the American psyche (he already has) and lead it to a more encompassing consciousness. We not only have to re-think our energy needs, we must grow our consciousness to do it. We need to ask questions about our national character as well as questions of where we need to put our energies to work. What values are really important to us as Americans? And how do we re-create America so it supports us in our hopes for the future?

The role of healer is a big role to fill, but we need President Obama to do it. And it seems like he might just pull it off. He and Michelle are taking part in a national day of service the day before the Inauguration, on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. They will lead by example, as only a good man and a good woman can.

The chart of this administration also has the signature Uranus/Saturn opposition that came into play for the first of five times on Election Day. This opposition, which promotes awareness, resonates back to the 60s, when these two planets plus Pluto opposed each other in the same signs. We are in the beginning of the next phase of that 60s revolution and we’re being called upon to take that original vision forward and make something concrete out of it. The many new ideas that came out of the 60s will move front and center in our society, replacing the old corporate mentally that is crumbling before our eyes.

But there are added factors in this chart. Uranus, the principle of awakening, is in Pisces, where it awakens us to our spiritual purpose. With Venus alongside it, it wakes within us a compassionate spirituality that is all-inclusive. Now we have to find ways to live out this vision in our lives and our work.

Saturn, the principle of form and focus, authority and limitation, is in the opposite sign of Virgo, where it demands practical results and self-knowledge. The asteroid Ceres in Virgo nurtures our sense of competence, discrimination and self-discipline so we can teach others to excel. Combined with Saturn's energy, they will encourage us to create solid, realistic foundations for the reforms we need, especially involving our health system, our food industry, our workplace conditions and our commitment to service.

This important opposition is the energetic signature of the ability to form a bridge between vision and reality. Both sides of this opposition trine or sextile Mars in Capricorn in the 9^th House, so expect new business, labor and environmental laws to emerge from this administration, especially when Pluto transits out of the 8^th house of rebirth and into the 9^th house of law and higher wisdom in 2010.

If Obama can convince people that the changes he proposes make sense and are practical solutions to our problems, he will move his agenda forward. For our part, we the people need to educate ourselves on the issues, act locally and bring our unique talents into the community. It is no coincidence that the Obama administration is using the Internet to encourage people to take part in the important issues we are facing. This Inauguaration chart demands our participation like never before. This is truly the People's Inauguaration.

A Note for the Spring: we need to watch the Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune conjunction to America’s Moon and Obama’s south node this May and June. It will be a very healing time for the country and our sense of common purpose. President Obama will be an important part of what transpires. After that, 2010-2011 will be stressful and tumultuous as we struggle to overcome inertia and strong opposition from the corporate community, but that's when the real test of our determination will probably come.