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INAUGURATION 2001

PART 7

The "Also Running":
Ralph Nader
by Zip Dobyns

In addition to the candidates of the two major political parties, the Democrats and Republicans, the U.S. presidential sweepstakes are complicated by several other candidates.  Ralph Nader is running for the Green Party.  The Reform Party, which was founded in 1992 by H.  Ross Perot, had a schism in 2000 and its mantle, and more importantly its government money, is being claimed by two candidates.  Pat Buchanan officially resigned from his lifetime as a conservative Republican to join the Reform Party.  John Hegelin, who previously ran as a candidate for the Natural Law Party which was founded by the followers of Transcendental Meditation, also made a bid to lead the Reform Party.  Their Long Beach, CA convention in August 2000 split into two competing factions.  Pat claimed a majority of the members of the Reform Party, and they nominated him on August 11, 2000.  John’s group, which included a large number of individuals opposed to Pat’s social ultra-conservatism, adjourned to a different hotel where they declared a union with the meditators to form the Reform-Natural Law Coalition.  The Coalition nominated Hegelin as their candidate at their convention on August 31 to September 2 in Alexandria, VA.  At least one more “also-running” candidate can be mentioned: Harry Browne represents the Libertarian Party whose commitment to total individual freedom sometimes approaches the Anarchists.

I have full birth data for Ralph Nader, as usual thanks to Lois Rodden’s data bank.  Its source is Nader himself, giving it to an acquaintance from memory.  He was reportedly born on February 27, 1934 in Winsted, CT, at 4:52 AM EST.  Pat Buchanan’s data is also available with a tentative birth time: November 2, 1938, at 0:20 AM EST, in Mt.  Vernon, NY: 42 N 45’ 14”, 78 W 53’ 27”.  John Hegelin’s birth date and place are in the public record as June 9, 1954 in Pittsburgh, PA, and I have his birth time from a meditating friend as 7:13 AM EDT.  Both Buchanan and Hegelin may need to be classed as C data in the Rodden rating system.  It stands for caution.  So far, I have no data on Harry Browne.  If any readers have his data, it would be much appreciated.  The Republican candidate for Vice President is Dick Cheney.  We have his date as January 20, 1941, in Lincoln, NE, but I have no birth time for him.  Birth data for any of the people running for VP in the other Parties would be welcome!

We will start with Ralph Nader, a prominent lawyer who has been a lifetime consumer advocate and critic of corporate America.  Nader has devoted his life to fighting for safer products and working conditions in industry, and has had a real and positive impact in that area.  He is also a strong environmentalist, so his leadership of the Green Party is appropriate.  He ran for president for their Party in 1996, but with minimal results in terms of money raised and numbers voting for him.  He seems to be making much more effort in 2000, and to be having more effect, especially on the west coast.

Anna Quindlen had a good article on page 64 of the August 28, 2000 issue of Newsweek.  She suggests that Nader has built his campaign on a “big lie,” that there is no appreciable difference between the Democrats and the Republicans, and between their candidates.  She says she is mystified that this idea is accepted by many, pointing out that there are major differences on many issues.  She lists several, and I would add more, including gun control, abortion rights, affirmative action, the minimum wage, gay rights, huge tax reductions which mostly benefit the wealthy, drug benefits for the elderly, health insurance for low income workers and their children, ending any taxing of inheritances, tax money given to private (mostly religious) schools without any oversight on how it is spent, etc.

According to Quindlen, Nader’s platform includes nationalizing the Fortune 500 companies, the biggest in our country; taxing at the rate of 100% any income over 10 times the minimum wage; reappraising keeping animals in zoos; and teaching vegetarianism in schools.  Basically, he opposes globalization and the power of big business in general.  Despite the extremism of these ideas, Nader is winning converts who are disgusted by the control of big business over the government.  As Quindlen points out, there is a real danger of alienated liberals producing enough protest votes to give states to Bush which would normally go to the Democrats.  On Newsweek’s Periscope page, “swing” states which could go either way are listed as MI, MN, OH, OR, PA, and WI.  CA is the biggest plum of all, and Nader could be a “spoiler” for Gore in this state, which would be expected to be solidly in the Democratic group. Quindlen describes Nader as a purist, an “all or none” person who once told a friend that he had never married because he could not have both a family and a cause.  Reading that, I immediately expect a strong Vesta in addition to an emphasis on the fixed sides of life and letters nine and twelve.  For starters, Nader’s Vesta aspects all of his major angles.  It is in 2 Libra 50, where it is octile his MC, trine his Ascendant, trioctile his East Point (with the north lunar node and Saturn connected to it by conjunctions), and it is quincunx his Antivertex.  Chiron, our little Jupiter, completes a grand trine to Vesta and the Ascendant.

It is fascinating to note the similarity between Nader’s and Liebermann’s charts with their stelliums in Aquarius and Pisces, both having Aquarius rising and Suns in Pisces.  Both also have an emphasis in Taurus--Joe though occupied signs and Ralph with a strong Taurus house.  Both have Neptune in the seventh house and the lunar nodes across the first and seventh houses.  So, much that was written about Joe could be said about Ralph, but where Joe married, divorced, and re-married, Ralph never married, staying “married” to his idealistic causes.  I wonder about Ralph’s relationship with his mother, since his Moon is on his south lunar node in the seventh house, suggesting a lesson connected to a mother figure or grandmother that colored his ability to form a close, lasting relationship.  Nader is described as “cold,” or “like a monk”.  His Leo Moon-node potential for warmth would appear to be largely projected.  Ceres, another key to one’s mother, was in Aries conjunct Uranus, square Pluto, opposite Jupiter, and octile the Sun.  Added to the need for personal freedom shown by the first house Aquarius, the combination suggests tension around nurturing or being nurtured.

I know that Joe had a warm and loving relationship with his family, but I lack any information on Nader’s relationships with his parents.  His rising Saturn shows a father figure as a personal role model, but until we question him and/or look at his life, we don’t know whether he wanted to be like or the opposite of the father, or sometimes some of both.  As with all of the major issues which we can conceptualize with astrology, the freedom-closeness dilemma can express in many different ways.  We may want closeness and feel that our parents cannot or do not provide it.  Or we may lose our parents early.  Or we may want personal freedom and resist attempts by parents to get close.  With a Leo Moon in the seventh house, we may look in vain for a partner who is like loving mother, often without any conscious awareness of that desire in the subconscious.  We may choose to “mother” others rather than risk being possessed and controlled by others.  To fully understand people, we need their horoscopes, AND life histories of what they have done, AND a personal interview to discover the level of conscious understanding they possess.  Character (habits) creates destiny.  Only when we change our habits can we change our destiny.

Nader is the one candidate for whom I have data who lacks an asteroid with a personal name, unless he has a middle name which I don’t know.  Some of the asteroids named for other players in this political drama are intriguingly connected to Nader’s relationship to that “mother” principle.  N Monica was on his Moon, and his P south lunar node remains conjunct them for years.  N Albertine and Phaethon (overreach and a fall) are on his Ceres, and P Uranus stays on them for years.  Whatever psychological issues remain unresolved in one’s unconscious will attract other people who challenge us and push us to deal with those issues.  The Aries set of four factors also squares Nader’s local Ascendant in Washington DC, which is in 27 Capricorn 45.  P Williams (for Bill Clinton) was moving over the Aries group for several years, and it is still conjunct Nader’s local P Antivertex in 29 Aries.  We can only speculate on what Nader was feeling as he watched the libertine life style of Clinton.

P local Ascendant is conjunct Nader’s P Sun, and the latter is within one degree of a square to his P north lunar node.  P Venus is octile/trioctile the T-square of the nodes and Sun-local Ascendant to reinforce the potential for power struggles.  And, even more emphatically, the P midpoint of Saturn/south node is closely conjunct Nader’s P Ascendant from his birthplace, and they are square his N Saturn.  I interpret the Saturn/node midpoints as keys to major lessons in one’s life, and Saturn is always a key to the rules of the game and the consequences of how we have handled the rules.

Another interesting grouping includes N Williams in 17 Pisces and N Mars, P Arnolda (for Gore’s middle name), P Richard (for Cheney), and P Sophia (wisdom) in 18 Pisces.  Astrology shows issues, not details.  All of these individuals might be challenged to acquire wisdom, each in their own way.  N Pallas and N Mercury in 19 Pisces fit Nader’s involvement with the law and politics.  The progressing asteroids are moving to conjunct Pallas and Mercury, and we will see whether Gore or Cheney win the right to influence the US laws and politics.  The odds of Nader being anything other than a “spoiler” for Gore are very small.  He might end up helping Bush, though certainly not intentionally.

N George (for Bush) in Nader’s chart is in 12 Sagittarius, and his local P Ascendant is just ending a quincunx to it at the election in November.  The quincunx is typically a sign of change, but the change influenced by Nader’s action (Ascendant) could help or hinder George.  The message is precisely repeated with P George in 21 Sagittarius quincunx Nader’s P Ascendant from his birthplace.  It is that kind of specificity with asteroids that blows my mind, but we still have to wait to see what happens as the life details play out in the different lives.

There is so much material available when we add the extra asteroids, it is hard to decide what to include and when to stop.  We have noted the potential for violence in some of the previous charts, especially in McCain’s and Gore’s charts.  In Nader’s chart, one configuration includes P Albertine in 3 Gemini opposite N Tyr (Norse Mars) and Elizabeth (Tipper’s middle name) in 3 Sagittarius, square N Hela (death goddess) in 3 Virgo, with the N Part of Death in 2 Pisces and P Icarus in 4 Pisces.  Overlapping orbs form a grand cross.  N Albert in 18 Cancer is octile/trioctile the cross.  P Albert is just ending a conjunction with Pluto at the election.  As indicated in other chart interpretations, astrology can point to death as an issue if one is a spectator of it, or a cause of it, or a victim of it.  I would assume that Nader is more likely to be the spectator, rather than the cause or the victim.

I will end, somewhat arbitrarily, by returning to more traditional astrological factors.  Nader’s P Moon, which can signify the public as an extension of its principle of emotional security, home, and the baby-mother relationship, will be just ending a conjunction with his N local Ascendant and just about to start a conjunction with his P MC at the election.  The combination supports his continued impact on the public and the consequences of their reactions, which will affect his power in the world.  If his birth time is accurate, his P MC started a two-year conjunction with his N Ascendant in April 2000.  The P Moon, of course, will continue on over his N Ascendant until about the time of the inauguration of the next president.  What effect will Nader’s reaction to the election have on the public?  And on his own issues with the "mother and "father" ” principles?  MC and Capricorn signify father, among other meanings.  The Moon signifies mother, among other meanings.  The Ascendant signifies personal identity and action.  Does Nader identify himself as "parent of the world," and feel guilty if his ideas are not made into law?We will be watching, but with a reserved, emotionally controlled man, we may never know…

Copyright © 2000 Los Angeles Community Church of Religious Science, Inc.
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