#55
Laura -- The Keel Under George's Boat
September 3, 2004

Sleuthing Laura's Birth Time
     It was August 12 that I first channel-surfed through a portion of Larry King's interview with George and Laura Bush.  By coincidence, earlier that day, I had put Laura's chart into my computer with the goal of rectifying her unknown birth time.  I noticed two qualities about Laura Bush, to whom I had not previously paid much attention.  

     First, I saw the boxy body, not so much fat but rather big-boned, stolid and square, with a large head.  Somewhere I had seen this body frame before but couldn't connect the memory.  Second, Laura was clearly dominant, with a matronly and motherly attitude toward George, who seemed happy to let her direct their responses.  It was like George was her protected little boy, even sliding lower in his chair allowing Laura to literally oversee him.  Laura took overt control to answer Larry King's stem cell research question, speaking as if she were lecturing to children in a manner that was both chiding and slightly condescending  -- like Mom knows better.  Laura said,  It's very preliminary.  I mean, I would say, the only rub is that from the talk, from what you hear or what you read, you'd think that there is a cure for Alzheimer's, you know, just around the corner, but that's not the way.  (Note: Laura's father died of Alzheimer's nine years ago.)  http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0408/12/lkl.00.html

     Two days later I channel-surfed to the interview again, catching another fifteen minutes.  I then realized who shared the same stolid body frame as Laura Bush.  This was a former client, a college teacher who was quite warm and friendly but untrustworthy, even sly.  I checked his chart to find he was born just nine days after Laura Bush.  Both had Jupiter (expansion) conjunct the Sun (skeleton) in its fallen (weakest) sign of Libra.  The client had this combination in the first house of the body, and before we met personally, he described himself as big-boned but not fat or tall.

     I juggled Laura's birth time to put her Jupiter and fallen Sun in the first house, but this configuration didn't indicate a presidential mate.  I adjusted the birth time again to place the Jupiter/Sun combination in the seventh house of relationship, from which it aspected the first house of the body in Aries.  This chart gave Laura the boxy body.  It also brought George Bush.  Here's why.

The Sun (government) rules the fifth house  of government and love affairs and is placed in the seventh house of relationship with Jupiter (husband).  Further, Jupiter rules the ninth house of luck and fortune.  These influences combine for a love marriage to a wealthy politician.      Also, when the ruler of the fifth house com- bines with the ruler of the ninth house, a tre- mendous Raja Yoga (kingship) results.  (Yogas are special combinations giving specific results.)        However, because the Sun is fallen, which gives Laura the boxy rather than tall frame, it's signification for character is also comprom- ised, just like my sly teacher client.         Laura's character is flawed by solar weakness, and because Jupiter is the husband, and the seventh house is relationship, George would be of weak character as well.  I now had arrived at an Aries rising chart, which called for a birth time between 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM.

Primary planetary cycles: Jupiter:  to age 13 Saturn:  13 to 32 Mercury:  32 to 49 Ketu:  49 to 56 Venus:  56 to 76

     The icing on the cake came when on August 27, Subscriber C.S. in Gulfbreeze, Florida alerted me to a posting on Astrodatabank that in two biographies about Laura, ...the story is the same: her father left work when the office closed at 5 PM and went across the street to the clinic.  An hour later she was born.  This narrowed the birth time search to around 6:00 PM.

     All I had to do now was find date-specific life events to determine the exact birth time, and also verify again the Aries rising chart.  However, Laura Bush's vaunted shyness and privacy limited public informa- tion.  It took a few days of sleuthing to learn dates for her auto accident, marriage and the cesarean birth of her twins.  I also plugged in August 10, the first time Laura Bush had really spoken out and outshone George.  I was able to settle on 5:57 PM -- close enough for government work.

Primary Planetary Karmas For Laura Bush 

     Laura Bush's chart can be summed up by looking at personality and goal fulfillment.

 A.  Personality  
     Laura is well known for her great motherly emotional stability, reserved nature and dedication to her family.  These qualities are found in her perceptional Moon sitting in responsible Saturn's sign of Capricorn and Saturn placed in Cancer, ruled by the Moon.  When planets exchange signs, their higher qualities emerge and their lower qualities are suppressed.  For example, Saturn signifies both purity and unclean things, and the Moon is the home -- so Laura has an immaculate home.  The Moon is a significator of romance, and in Laura's chart, the Moon casts an aspect to the fifth house of love affairs.  So, Laura is dedicated and responsible in romance, which characterizes her relationship with George.  Further, because the Moon is the home and it rules the fourth house of the home and family, and Saturn is responsibility and control, Laura rules the roost.

     Laura is known for being shy, but her chart indicates this is actually fearfulness.  Violent Mars rules her Ascendant (self), and being placed in the eighth house of life and death, she is haunted by fear.  Mercury rules Laura's third house of courage, and it too is placed in the eighth house, confirming the trepidation.  That mystical Ketu is conjunct Mercury stimulates for imaginings of death and destruction and also gives an intuitive sensitivity.  These combine to make Laura afraid of her own thoughts, and she therefore is extremely careful of what and how she expresses herself.  This is why she fears public speaking and why her face is frozen -- when she speaks, only the mouth moves.  Fundamentalist religion must truly be her salvation in bringing security. 

     Laura's life experience gives her valid reason for being afraid.  On November 6, 1963, Laura ran a stop sign and hit another car, killing her boyfriend.  At that time, her cycles were Saturn with Mercury.  During her seventeen year Mercury cycle from 1979 to 1996, she was beset with a series of eighth house catastrophic events.  On November 21, 1981, Laura had an emergency cesarean to deliver her twins five weeks premature.  In 1986, faced with George's alcoholism becoming acute, Laura stepped in to make him pick up the bible and stop drinking.  In 1995 her father died.   There are likely other traumatic events in Laura's life which have not been publicized -- with four planets in her eighth house of turmoil, her life must be a roller coaster.  For example, Laura's interest in heart disease and breast cancer are well known.  These both relate to her chart.  Saturn's influence for chronic illness influences the fourth house of the breast and the heart, as well as the Moon (breasts).  The Sun is the heart, and being fallen weakens the cardiovascular system.  While relatives having these illnesses could be Laura's motivation, her personal health risk suggests she has experienced breast and heart problems herself.

B.  Goal fulfillment  
     Laura's powerful Moon in the eleventh house gives her long term goals which she fulfills.  Saturn's influence adds power and endurance in her efforts.  As the Moon is romance and aspects her fifth house of love affairs, relationship is a natural and fundamental objective.  As stated above, Laura experiences a love marriage to a wealthy politician with character flaws.  She met George in September, 1977 and married him on November 5, 1977.  At this time her planetary cycles were Saturn with Jupiter.  Saturn motivated her goal-objective Moon, and Jupiter is the mate.  

     Yet, Venus (love) rules the seventh house of relationship and is placed in the eighth house of turmoil, causing relationship loss and/or calamity for the mate.  Venus's retrograde motion delayed marriage until Laura was 31.  A woman with such a potent eleventh house Moon needs to use care in goal achievement -- she is certain to get what she asks for, even though the object of her desire may be problematical.  Well Laura got George, exactly as her chart indicated, but his solar character flaws, along with Venus in the eighth house of turmoil, put her in a marriage with a dissolute person.  Laura suffered with George's drinking and irresponsibility from their 1977 marriage until 1986, when she asserted her Moon/Saturn power and converted him from scotch to Jesus.  This change launched George on the path to the presidency, fulfilling the relationship promise in Laura's chart.  Under Laura's guidance, in 1988 he worked on his father's presidential campaign in 1989 and made his big score in purchasing the Texas Rangers baseball team.  The rest is history.

     There's another potent force in Laura's chart that enabled her to catch George and also later control him.  Laura has four planets in the eighth house of life and death, making her full of life, which is power.  This configuration also stimulates a tremendous sexuality.  So, when Laura met George, she turned on the temptress, bringing him to the alter just three months later.  George is a horny fellow, and he took the bait, and she got what she wanted, as her powerful eleventh house Moon promises.  (Note: sexual power is different from sexual attractiveness. Laura's boxy and bottom-heavy figure does not reduce her sexual power.)

Laura's Compatibility with George
     Compatibility analysis is essential for this Forecast.  It reveals how Laura relates to George and how she influences his career 

     This became a very odd endeavor when I compared their charts, below, to see how their planets overlapped and/or aspected each other.  Because they are nearly the same age, the slow-moving Rahu, Ketu and Saturn are in the same signs for both charts, but this doesn't mean much.  After all, everyone born within a few months of each other would have these dispositions.

      The primary planetary connection of substance is Laura's motherly and motivated Moon in mutual aspect with George's Mars.  (Her Moon aspects George's Mars, and his Mars aspects her Moon.)  Mars in George's chart rules the tenth house of career and the fifth house of the mind, and it is placed in the 2nd house of truth and food quality.  Mars brings an impulsive and undisciplined mind and alcohol.  Laura's job, then, has always been to stabilize, ground and guide George, as she first did in his born again conversion to Jesus in 1986.  The secondary planetary connection is Laura's responsible Saturn just 1 1/2 degrees from George's Ascendant (self), which again stabilizes George.

     George's Mars in the second house of domestic harmony ruined his childhood happiness.  Always wild and unruly, George was fiercely disciplined by his mother and fought with his father.  George consequently felt unloved.

In Barbara Bush's chart, first-born George is signified by Jupiter, and the Moon is the mother.  These planets conjoining indicates a close relationship between Barbara and George.        However, Mars throws an aggravating aspect, suggesting Barbara was a smothering mother with whom George fought.      Saturn also aspects Jupiter and the Moon, making Barbara a cold, strict and ruthless matriarchal figure.        That both Mars and Saturn aspect Jupiter indicates that Barbara was extremely harsh with George, forcing him to learn by knocking him down and then forcing him to get up and try again and again.

     Laura's motherly control is much softer than Barbara Bush's influence, suggesting that with Laura, George is guided by a strict but kind hand.  Laura is the loving mother George never had.  Laura's sexual power is another key to their relationship, although George must mistake passion (which may be degraded in some way) for a loving expression of their union. 

     Given that Laura's chart brings her a love relationship with wealthy politician, she picked him for those qualities, not because they are simpatico, have any mutually attracting planets.  In a very real way, Laura uses George for what he is, not who he is.  Similarly, George depends upon Laura's emotional strength and grounding and motivation for achievement.  He allowed Laura to reel him in, and he too uses her for what she is, not who she is.  Essentially, this is a marriage of convenience.  Laura gives George what he needs in order to be grounded for achievement, and George gives Laura the powerful politician called for in her chart.  As George is a natural actor not restricted by truth or character, Laura's steady encouragement molded him into the consummate politician.

     They may believe they truly love each other in a healthy detached way, but the truth is that they can only love each other to satisfy their needy personalities.  This, together with their fundamentalist Christianity, shaped a no-holds-barred political philosophy ostensibly formulated on religious values.  In reality, the philosophy is for personal gain  -- Laura to fulfill her lifelong goal of being married to a wealthy politician and George to prove his value to his parents.

Laura's Chart And George's Reelection Prospects
     Because a couple's karmas a linked together, looking at Laura's chart and planetary cycles reveals how well or badly George fairs.  We've discussed how Laura gets a wealthy successful politician, but also that Venus placed in the eighth house of turmoil causes relationship loss and/or calamity for the mate.  (Note: as Venus is also daughters, Laura has to keep her unruly twins in line as well.)

     As shown, Laura entered her tumultuous twenty year Venus cycle in August 2003, which dovetails with the beginnings of George's Iraq problems.