Elizabeth Dole
Zip Dobyns
During the 1996 presidential campaign, I wrote of my desire for the birth time of Elizabeth Dole, and my wish has just been granted. Marc Penfield had received her birth time from Jill Phillips, who got it from Elizabeth herself. Her time was given as 1 A.M., on July 29, 1936 in Salisbury, NC. Despite her time being given as an even hour, it might be close to accurate, since the asteroid Elisabetha is conjunct her Ascendant within one degree. Phaethon, one of the overreach asteroids, is also on her Ascendant in 4 Gemini, while Aletheia (truth) and Albertina (for Al Gore) are on her Descendant within one degree. Could we be seeing a contest between Elizabeth and Al in 2000???
Like Bill Clinton, Elizabeth’s chart has strong fire and air for verbal fluency and magnetism. She has more water than Bill with her south node, Mars, and Pluto in Cancer, Ceres in Scorpio, and Saturn in Pisces for empathy. Earth is adequately represented with Vesta, our Virgo asteroid, rising, Neptune in Virgo, the north node in Capricorn, and Uranus and the two auxiliary Ascendants all in Taurus for practicality. Her strong will is shown by a Mars-Pluto conjunction, plus four factors in Leo: the Sun, Juno (a Pluto asteroid), Mercury and Venus. Her tight Vesta-Chiron conjunction in the first house reinforces her cognitive skills and supports the Leo ambition to be a leader. Chiron, like Jupiter, is looking for the Absolute in some form. In the first house, combined with Vesta, the details of the work, it suggests that Elizabeth is identified with accomplishing something of ultimate value in the world. The Moon and Jupiter in Sagittarius add to the tendency to seek the Absolute, but it depends on the person whether we define our goal as absolute truth/knowledge, as an ideal mate (with the Sagittarius in the 7th house), as an ideal job (Vesta on Chiron, Neptune in Virgo, Saturn in Pisces), etc. Variants of the latter could be doing our work perfectly, making a job our ultimate value in life, or choosing work which makes a more ideal world. Obviously, our personal beliefs and the values determined by them will shape our choice of job and mate.
Pallas, our Libra asteroid, in the 6th house is appropriate for a job involving politics or some variation on counseling and consulting. The MC in Aquarius and Saturn in the Aquarian house also fit a career involving social causes, humanity, and information. Saturn in Pisces and Uranus, ruling the MC, in the Pisces house fit a career connected to healing or other forms of service to the world. Elizabeth was involved in Washington politics before she married Bob Dole, and her current career as president of the Red Cross fits the Aquarius-Pisces mixture. Her local MC in Washington, DC is in 17 Aquarius to strengthen her trines between Pallas and Vesta-Chiron, forming a wide grand trine in air signs. P Saturn retrograded to form a semisextile to her local MC, and P Jupiter held a sextile to it for years as an additional key to career success.
The mutable dilemma is emphasized in Elizabeth’s chart, with her close squares between Gemini and Pisces and between Sagittarius and Virgo, with the presence of the mutable planets in the configuration adding to that focus. As is commonly the case, the issue is not just shown by the stress aspects between the signs. Each corner of the wide grand cross is a mixture of the conflicted principles of ideals versus dealing with the world around us. Gemini tries to understand the ordinary world in our vicinity, while Vesta also deals with the physical world, but concentrates on working to improve it in practical ways. Chiron, on the other hand, is like Jupiter, looking for perfection. Neptune, looking for mystical oneness, is in Virgo, which is looking for physical flaws in order to correct them in practical ways. Jupiter in its own sign is looking for perfection, but in an air house is also using the cognitive side of the mind to understand the world and the people around us. Saturn is the realist, teaching us how to cope with the rules of a material world, but in Pisces yearning for the ultimate ideal of infinite love and beauty.
The most common form of the mutable dilemma involves frustration because the ordinary world is never ideal, but this is relatively easy to resolve by enjoying the process of moving toward the ideals. A more difficult form of the mutable dilemma is uncertainly over what an individual believes, trusts, values, and wants as an ultimate goal in life. Resolving this requires serious analysis to clarify beliefs and set up a value hierarchy, to decide what can be trusted, where to find meaning, etc. Other forms of the mutable dilemma include a lack of faith in anything beyond the material world. This can result in anxiety and depression. Alternately, the individual may experience conflict between different values—for example, truth versus kindness versus effectiveness. Elizabeth’s P Saturn retrograded while P Neptune and P Jupiter moved forward so they have maintained an exact T-square for years, showing the need to integrate ideals and coping with the world. From what I have read about her, not having her own children was one of her unattained goals, and a lack of emotional warmth from her husband is also described as a disappointment in her life. She has compensated for the partial denial of satisfaction on the personal, emotional level by throwing herself into her careers.
Elizabeth played a leading role in the 1996 presidential contest, supporting the candidacy of her husband, Bob Dole. Though it is not likely that any major political party will nominate a woman candidate for the top job in the near future, it would be possible to choose one for the Vice Presidency, and Elizabeth Dole could be in the running. I progressed her chart for November 7, 2000 to see whether it suggested a prominent role in the next presidential election, and it looks as if she will be highly visible, dealing with power issues. Her P Ascendant will be conjunct Pluto through 1998 into 2002. During the height of the fall 2,000 campaign, her P Moon will conjunct her P MC and her N Roberts, one of the asteroids for her husband, Bob Dole, suggesting a shared effort in the campaign. If she is the VP candidate, Bob could be supporting her as she supported him in 1996. P Roberts is retrograding in 9 Aries, with a quincunx to P Juno, hinting at potential changes in her relationship with her mate. P Roberta, the other personal name asteroid for anyone named Robert, will be in 26 Cancer, conjunct Pluto and quincunx P north lunar node to repeat the previous message of potential changes in Elizabeth’s relationships with her husband or other important people in her life. P Elisabetha, her own name asteroid, will be in 19 Gemini opposite P Jupiter to repeat the same message. Aspects to factors in the partnership houses, 7 and 8, can be expressed as either cooperation or competition. Obviously, politics involves both as candidates are aided by their supporters while they compete with rivals. P Elisabetha will also sextile her P local MC at the election in November 2000, and P Moon will move into a conjunction with the P L MC and a sextile to P Elisabetha by the inauguration of the newly elected officials in January 2001.
P Stevin is on Elizabeth’s Descendant, which could mean Steve Forbes as a rival or as the Republican presidential candidate with Elizabeth as running mate. I have not yet had time to check Forbes’ chart for 2000, but he indicated in 1996 that he planned another run for the top office in the U.S. N Stevin in 11 Scorpio completes a grand cross in fixed signs and mutable houses in Elizabeth’s chart. As our readers know, I interpret the midpoints of Saturn and the lunar nodes as important keys to areas for lessons, growth, and a contribution to the world if we learn what we should. Elizabeth has Saturn/north node in 12 Aquarius, almost conjunct her MC, pointing to a lesson involving freedom and power, and ethics. Her Saturn/south node in 11 Taurus and Mercury in 11 Leo complete the grand cross
The fixed signs point to lessons in handling possessions, appetites, and power. The mutable houses point to lessons in knowledge, beliefs, and ethics. Forbes’ main contribution to the 1996 campaign was his proposal of a flat tax, a way to increase the already huge disparity in our country between the rich and the poor, a guaranteed way to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. The Republicans might reason that having a woman on the ticket, especially one associated with a humanitarian organization, could soften their reputation as the Party of the rich and heartless. The fixed cross in Elizabeth’s chart could be handled by going along with Forbes’ plans at the cost of some twinges of conscience, or she could engage in a power struggle with Forbes, trying to modify his blueprint for the country.
Elizabeth’s P Uranus remains for years on her P Saturn/ P south node with a T-square to N Juno and N Stefani, another version of Steve. P Stefani is retrograding in 0 Aquarius trine P Phaethon, showing the potential of Steve’s overreach in his beliefs, values, and ethics — 9th to 12th houses. The third version of Steve, Stephania, is natally in 13 Gemini and progressed to 7 Cancer, where it is quincunx N Stefani and square P Mercury and P Sun at the election in 2000. The cardinal signs in fixed houses are typically associated with some kind of power struggle, and politics is one of the appropriate forums for that, though fighting members of one’s own team can pose problems.
As our readers know, guessing details such as the preceding is totally speculative. We will not know the identity of the Republican candidate for the presidency until the spring of 2000, and his choice for the vice presidential candidate may not be announced until the convention in August. All we can say at this point is that Elizabeth’s chart would fit the preceding scenario.
A variety of other aspects, including additional asteroids, support continued prominence for Elizabeth. I was especially intrigued to find several asteroids named for queens aspecting traditional planets and angles. P Sheba is on Elizabeth’s N MC and her P Sun is trioctile a natal conjunction of Sheba, Karma, and Damocles in 23 Aquarius. P Karma is conjunct N Saturn/south node, highlighting her lessons for several years. P Queen’s in 21 Capricorn is sextile N Hatshepsut in 20 Sagittarius. P Hatshepsut in 27 Sagittarius conjuncts P north lunar node and is quincunx Pluto, plus three asteroids in 26 to 27 Cancer: P Roberta, P Bellona (a war goddess), and P Libitina (a death goddess). The combination could describe the political competition or imply danger to Elizabeth’s partner. P Chiron is making a station quincunx N Queen’s. N Kleopatra in 14 Libra is trine N Stephania and N Kansas, the home state of Elizabeth’s husband, Bob Dole. P Kleopatra in 1 Scorpio conjuncts P America and P Rockefellia, pointing to the support of wealthy Americans. N Nefertiti, wife of Akhenaton, is in 10 Libra conjunct Dunant, one of the founders of the Red Cross, and sextile Mercury. P Nefertiti in 14 Scorpio is semisextile Jupiter but square N MC. N Penthesilia, an Amazon queen in the Trojan wars, is in 3 Virgo conjunct N Washingtonia for our nation’s capital, with P Mars and P Parvati, wife of Siva, within one degree of the group in 3 Virgo. For additional emphasis, P Venus and N America sextile and N north node and P Icarus trine the stellium in early Virgo. P America trines N Mars from 22 Scorpio. Democracies are not supposed to have queens. Jackie Kennedy was our nearest approximation, and I did not have the extra asteroids during her reign.
Elizabeth’s local Ascendant in Washington, DC is in 10 Gemini so P Victoria will continue to conjunct it into 2001, and her P Antivertex is also conjunct P Victoria. The asteroid was named for England’s Queen Victoria, but could also point to victory for Elizabeth. The P local Ascendant in 2 Leo is on N Parvati, the wife of Siva, N Ganesa, the elephant-headed god I am watching to see whether is can represent the Republican Party, and on P Gingerich for the Speaker of the House of Representatives. N Gingerich is conjunct N Roberta and P Stephania. P Ganesa in 28 Leo is on P Hybris (hubris) and sextile-trine the P lunar nodes. As usual, many more asteroids could be mentioned, but we can save them until closer to the election when we have more information on the possible candidates.
The mixed positive and challenging aspects in Elizabeth’s chart are typical, and are the reason it is usually difficult to make firm predictions. Stress aspects can indicate failure to achieve one’s goals, but they can also mean getting what we want and having a tough time handling it. Elizabeth could be just playing a role in the Republican campaigns in 2000, stumping with her husband in hopes of increasing her chances for greater influence in time. She might be picked as the vice presidential running mate even if a Republican other than Steve Forbes wins the nomination for president. If she is the VP candidate, she might win or lose the election. What is not likely is that she will retire to the sidelines, out of the public eye. Elizabeth’s Ascendant/MC midpoint of 8 Aries carries the meaning of a conjunction of those two major angles, so her P Sun in 8 Libra on that midpoint axis is similar to having it on the angles, an indication of personal prominence. On election day, Elizabeth’s Quotidian angles, which move about a degree a day, circling the chart in a year, will have strong aspects, with Q MC on her P Ascendant and L QMC on her L P Ascendant. In time, her P Elisabetha will reach her N Vesta for a new phase of her work in the world, but that will not occur until some time in 2006. P Elisabetha will continue to oppose P Jupiter for many years as part of the mutable dilemma, showing her continuing efforts to integrate her good, rational mind with her ideals involving her close relationships. In the meantime, we can continue to monitor her chart.