NATIONAL
ELECTIONAL ASTROLOGY
“What Time Were You Born?” has become the new “What Is Your Policy Stance?”. Here’s how the stars have played a role in politics.
WORDS BY VALERIE BUVAT DE VIRGINY | DESIGN BY LILA JOHNSON
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here may be only two houses in Congress, but in astrology, it’s all about 12. Past presidents have had their own personal astrologer in the White House, and when one considers the countless advisors guiding these leaders’ every decision, there is good reason to see why they have looked to the stars for answers. One of the most closely-guarded secrets of the Reagan presidency was their scandalous relationship with astrology. The Reagans were notorious for clearing their major decisions with San Francisco astrologer Joan Quigley. Prior to becoming president, Reagan was elected as the governor of California and is rumored to have been sworn in at 12:10 a.m. for astrological reasons. Though hidden behind their political stances, the Reagans’ controversial attachment to the zodiac led them to become enigmatic figures. The idea that the first family could take astrology so seriously was seen as an embarrassment and a danger. According to the Los Angeles Times, Carroll Righter, an astrologer who read the Reagans their astrological charts daily, confirmed that President Reagan never publicly revealed his exact birth time as a precaution against letting people read his exact charts and perhaps control him. Astrologer Shea Malloy spoke more on the role astrology has played within the walls of the White House. “When a religious champion like Ronald Reagan is involved in astrology, this begs the question, how does astrology play a role in political affairs? The answer is probably nothing, but an astrologer understands the importance of timing.” Malloy went on to explain that true astrology is a very precise tool, unlike the popularized version of astrology that is seen in apps such as Co-Star, which focuses on
personality types and sun signs. Electional astrology is a different branch of the discipline, as the practitioner decides the best time for a certain event to take place based on the astrological auspiciousness. “Electional astrology is found on all sides of the political spectrum,” Malloy said. “There is a popular saying, ‘Millionaires don’t use astrology—billionaires do.’ The art of timing is of the utmost importance in the business of money and power. Things can shift in a matter of degrees and a matter of minutes and there is a mathematical formula around it.” But the caveat of electional astrology is that it only optimizes the timing for an individual, not a nation, which is something that Malloy agrees with. Malloy believes that Synastry, a technique that would allow an astrologer to compare one natal chart (that of the U.S.) to another (that of President Biden) to create an overlay of the two, would be beneficial to the Biden-Harris administration.
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“The United States’ sun is a Cancer and is very rooted in the past, with a strong foundation with family. In using Synastry, you will see the effect a leader will have on the country and what the end result will be of their influence,” Malloy explained. Ultimately, astrology does not have the final say in political matters— the individual making those decisions does. In astrology, one can only see the potential of the energy being given to oneself and it could manifest itself in different ways. What an astrologer can ultimately do to predict the timing is to present their reading of energies, which brings Malloy to believe that Joan Quigley did not explicitly tell President Reagan what to do; rather, she just gave him options. Electional astrology has been a long-kept secret of the elite and the Reagans were hardly the first residents of the White House to have sought guidance from the stars. But as astrology becomes increasingly romanticized and normalized, it is important to note that astrologers are different from psychics, as they do not directly predict exact events of the future. Spiritualism in the U.S. exploded during the Civil War, which explains the folklore around the Lincolns holding spiritualist seances in the White House to contact their deceased son Willie. Astrology seems to be a habitual recurrence in the White House. President Theodore Roosevelt mounted his horoscope on a special chess board located in the Oval Office. When asked about it, Roosevelt stated, “I always keep my weather eye on the opposition of my seventh house Moon to my first house Mars,” indicating that Roosevelt himself was a self-proclaimed expert astrologer. Something that Malloy has learned through her practice is that the placements of the houses are everything in astrology. Ascendants change approximately every 2.5 hours and the moon switches every 2.5 days, so time moves quickly in astrology. “Looking at President Biden’s chart, both the United States and Biden have a Sagittarius ascendant, but Biden has a Scorpio sun, Scorpio Venus, and Scorpio Mercury all in the twelfth house, giving him hidden Mars energy,” Malloy said. “Mars is above Biden’s Saturn and Saturn is known as the ‘tough teacher,’ meaning that every action he takes is going to come back and bite him in one way or another through the influence of Saturn.” In terms of the astrological future of the Biden-Harris administration, Malloy noted that there has been a trend of contemporary presidents being elected during a nodal eclipse moving through the first and seventh houses, which is a major indicator of someone stepping into their power.
