May 7, 2001
Nancy Lubar Sommers, LCSW
The importance of discipline can not be overemphasized. This great virtue implies an ability to work hard despite the lure of a preferred activity. It suggests the power to delve deeply and purposefully into a chosen pursuit until a job has been completed thoroughly. And perhaps most important, it suggests the capacity to contain one's own impulses and desires, enabling compromise and pragmatism to guide a steady hand, rather than allowing an unleashed arrogance to stamp its will wherever it chooses.
Much has been made recently of the purported "discipline" of the Bush White House, and, by inference, of the Resident himself. Certainly, there are superficial manifestations of discipline to be found in the strict dress code, the timely meetings, and the lack of significant leaks. But in the areas that truly matter, the areas that count for the American people, the realms of finance and domestic and foreign policy, we find very little discipline in the current administration.
Instead we find a narrow, conservative ideology and a desire to reward large contributors. There is a chronic lack of interest in the consequences of the resultant actions. A disciplined administration would have submitted a budget with numbers that add up so that the country would not be catapulted into a deficit after working so hard to recover from the last one. A disciplined administration would have exercised some self-restraint in implementing its conservative goal of limiting government programs by first ensuring no harm would come to those affected by the transition. A disciplined, thoughtful, and responsible government would not have acted with a knee-jerk anti-abortion policy, reinstituting the "gag" rule, which causes irreparable harm in spreading AIDS as well as adding to the number of illegal abortions and resultant deaths. A disciplined, conscientious administration would have avoided the many reckless foreign policy pronouncements, too numerous to list, that have recently caused the United States to be a pariah on the world stage. No, a disciplined mind thinks things through, makes careful decisions based on a full grasp of the situation, even if it means postponement of certain favored goals. Unfortunately, our current White House Resident , with his gargantuan tax cuts, his irresponsible environmental policy, and his tendency to ride roughshod over anything in his path, is anything but disciplined.
In astrology, the planet that represents discipline is Saturn. Other Saturn attributes include a sense of responsibility, endurance, depth, conscientiousness, self-restraint, and self-reliance. Saturn often necessitates living within certain restrictions or boundaries, deferring to an outside authority. When Saturn is weak or poorly aspected in a chart, the individual struggles to learn its lessons, and is often thrown into uncomfortable situations that necessitate self-reliance, discipline, accepting restrictions, etc. These Saturn periods can be times of great crisis to someone who has not inculcated the positive attributes of Saturn into his or her own being.
In the chart of George Bush Saturn is weak by both sign (Cancer) and house placement (12th), as well as problematic in its relationships to other points in the chart (square to Moon, Jupiter, and Midheaven; semisquare to Mars; wide conjunction to the Sun). These factors suggest that Saturn transits and progressions will be especially difficult for Resident Bush, times of frustration not easily handled and limits not comfortably met. It has been well over three years since Mr. Bush went through a significant Saturn transit. Thus, we have not yet witnessed him under its attendant pressures since his arrival on the national political scene. This will soon change.
During the period from late June 2001 through March 2002, Mr. Bush will feel the effects of Saturn in Gemini transiting square his Mars in Virgo and semisquare his Midheaven in Aries. He will be forced to exercise self-restraint and discipline, bending and compromising or suffering the painful consequences. Saturn's influence will be strongest in early July and during the Saturn station from December 2001 through March 2002. It will be exacerbated in December with his progressed Moon moving into square of his natal Saturn. This latter four-month period is likely to be especially challenging and difficult for the administration.
As mentioned in Dubya's Troubled Time, June and July 2001 will also be a very trying period for the Resident-in-Chief, with strong protests against his policies and the possibility of significant disturbances and upsets on many fronts. That the Saturn transit begins in the midst of this likely turmoil suggests that Mr. Bush might do well to reconsider and amend some of his rather reckless, arrogant, and thoughtless policies. It would behoove him to bring some true discipline and responsibility to his stewardship or he will learn that Saturn can be a very harsh taskmaster.