Richard Clarke, in the profile so eloquently and beautifully expressed by Sally McDonald, has all the earmarks of a person who is strong, bold and fiercely committed to the truth. His rising sign in Gemini at 0 degrees gives Clarke the candor and the ability to speak freely and powerfully about matters close to the heart and mind. This is a thinking man, make no doubt about it. He is not glib, as many Geminis can be, not with the penetrating Scorpio Sun and watery emotional Cancer Moon. He is too sensitive and too intelligent for that. He is the real McCoy as Sally says, he means what he says and he says what he means, and doesn’t suffer fools gladly (one can only imagine the torment this man must have suffered through with Bush as President and Commander in Chief).
Condi Rice’s ascendant is in Aquarius at 3 degrees. Now normally Aquarius is a very far thinking, far reaching sign, the sign of the humanitarian, the sign of the emancipated theorist. Sometimes though it can be the sign of the stubborn fanatic, the one whose ideals do not match up with the reality of the times they live in. Rice may have been left behind somewhere down the line, encapsulated in the cold war theories she studied at college. It’s like she got stuck in an old James Bond movie from the mid 60’s and never came out again. Scorpio, her Sun sign, like Clarke’s, is a fixed sign and Aquarius is a fixed sign. These people don’t budge easily and they find it hard to give up their notions about who runs the world and why and how.
Rice’s ascendant is 3 degrees away from Clarke’s 10th house, which are both conjunct Bush’s 7th house. You see how neatly they all tie together. Rice’s sense of self (1st) is conjunct with Bush’s sense of the other (7th). Clarke’s sense of how the world views us (10th) is conjunct with her 1st and Bush‘s 7th.
But Clarke’s views don’t mesh with out-dated, out-landish world views. His Aquarius 10th is more progressive than that, and therein lies the trouble. Bush may be a cold warrior, blaming Saddam for everything and anything wrong in the world. Rice may toddle along after him, her Moon in Cancer at 18 degrees conjunct Bush’s Sun. She sees Bush as a mentor and as a strong father figure.
Clarke’s 4th house cusp is at 6 degrees of Leo, directly conjunct George Bush’s ascendant and Condi Rice’s descendant. Clarke’s sense of security, the security of his country and his homeland, is strong, proud and determined . That should have put Clarke and Bush and Rice together with a common goal, but it didn’t, not when they each had such differing viewpoints on what makes their country secure. That sense of Leo protectiveness that Clarke feels towards his home led him to take drastic steps to challenge what he considered to be an inept and ruinous course of action taken by the Bush Administration.
Rice’s Saturn at 13 degrees of Scorpio is exactly trine Bush’s Cancer Sun, showing the amount of trust she has in him. Her Neptune at 26 Libra is conjunct Bush’s 4th house and opposite his 10th house. She is very taken in by his dialogue regarding homeland security, no matter how far from the truth it may be.
But there are some chinks in the armor she surrounds herself with. Her Mercury, the most elevated planet in her chart, is at 2 degrees of Scorpio, conjunct Clarke’s Sun, Mercury and Venus, and square Bush’s Mercury and Ascendant. Surely she must be intellectually aware of Bush’s lies and distortions, and Clarke’s basic honesty, since she is fundamentally a learned individual. She is truly not as stupid as George Bush (who could be, really?). She may be very cowed by him, due to her Moon/Sun connection and her Jupiter/Saturn conjunction to him, but in her mind she must be aware of his true colors. Neptune conjunct his 4th house encourages her to put on rose colored glasses every time he speaks.
Rice and Bush both have strong connections to Clarke’s chart. Rice’s Mars at 16 Aquarius is opposite Clarke’s Pluto at 19 degrees Leo. I am aware that Pluto is a generational planet, but even so, to have a Mars/Pluto opposition is heavy duty stuff. Not everyone who passes someone with Pluto at 19 degrees of Leo will share it. Rice and Clarke do. Although her Mercury is closely aligned with Clarke’s Sun, Mercury and Venus, she has this terrible opposition to deal with. It’s as if they both trigger each other, and in the most intense ways.
Clarke’s Sun, Mercury and Venus at 6, 5 and 3 degrees Scorpio respectively, all square Bush’s ascendant at 7 degrees of Leo and his Mercury and Pluto at 9 and 10 degrees Leo. Clarke’s sense of self, his mental and emotional energies, are all at loggerheads with Bush. The do not get along and they do not meet on the same wavelength. They are not in competition with each other, they are at cross-purposes with each other.
Clarke’s Gemini ascendant at 0 degrees (which by the way is where transiting Mars was the day he gave his interview to 60 Minutes) is trine Rice’s ascendant at 3 degrees. There really is mental flow between them with both Gemini and Aquarius being air signs. The aspects all point to Rice knowing on an intellectual level the validity of Clarke’s statements and her inability to deal with it is what causes her Mars to speak out against his and so angrily too.
Bush’s Venus is opposite Rice’s Mars and conjunct Clarke’s Pluto. Quite a little triangle. The opposition of Venus and Mars is sexually exciting but sexually frustrating also. I am not saying that Rice and Bush have any sort of love affair whatsoever or even have thoughts or actions leading them in that direction, but a Venus/Mars opposition always adds some sexual fission to any encounter. Pluto conjoin Venus brings emotional depth and intensity in any encounter. Bush’s Sun and Rice’s Moon are square Clarke’s Neptune at 17 degrees of Libra. Clarke really does not buy into their fantasy world and he sees through their delusions.
Clarke, Bush and Rice come together and then fall apart. They interact in very emotional, volatile ways and their three-way relationship has spawned a lot of fierce in-fighting one way and another.
The Full Moon in Libra at 16 degrees touches several key points in the Bush chart, as will the eclipse April 19th at 29 degrees in Aries. Rice’s Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, i.e. her 3rd, 6th and 9th houses will be affected also.
I leave it to the other astrologers on board to mine the vast array of information for the coming transits, progressions and eclipses, not to mention Rice’s 9/11 testimony and Bush’s Saturn transits.