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With the
recent approval of John Ashcroft to the position of attorney general,
George
W. Bush has appeased the religious right, which solidly supported him since the beginning of the campaign. As U.S. senator for the state of Missouri,
Ashcroft has consistently maintained his position on such controversial
issues as abortion, gun control and affirmative action. However, astrology
indicates that Ashcroft’s path to preserving his political agenda during
the next four years may be as turbulent as his recent journey to Bush’s
cabinet.
Rocky
Road to Bushville
Ashcroft
has undergone more success and failure in his career in a concentrated
period of time than many of us experience in a lifetime. After renouncing
a bid for president, Ashcroft campaigned for, and subsequently lost, the
open senate seat for Missouri to Jean Carnahan. Just when his political
career seemed finished, it was resuscitated when he received the call
to serve as George W. Bush’s attorney general. His appointment received
a great deal of scrutiny and was at the center of controversy over America’s
political vision.
 The
topsy-turvy motion of Ashcroft’s political ambitions can be correlated
with the movement of planets to significant points in his natal chart.
Throughout this tumultuous political upheaval, Jupiter and Saturn have
been hovering over Ashcroft’s natal grouping of the Sun and Uranus in
late Taurus and Saturn and Mercury in early Gemini. The Sun represents
the core self; Uranus, change and rebellion; Saturn structure and work
and Mercury communication. Together, transiting Jupiter and Saturn moving
over these important planets have been acting to expand and contract Ashcroft’s
political future.
Jupiter is
the planet associated with success, optimism and forward momentum. Its
recent conjunctions to Ashcroft’s Sun, Uranus, Saturn and Mercury can
be associated with his recent political triumphs. Shortly after losing
the Missouri senate battle, Ashcroft had a fortuitous meeting with president-elect
Bush in Austin, Texas. The next day, Bush offered Ashcroft the job of
attorney general. This “right man at the right time” fortune is indicative
of Jupiter at work.
However,
these accomplishments haven't come easily. Moving over the same collection
of Ashcroft's birth chart planets, Saturn has also had an impact on Ashcroft’s
recent roller coaster ride. Saturn frustrates us, disciplines us and makes
us earn every achievement and success through challenges, trials and distress.
The very public probing into Ashcroft’s voting record and personal life
and the resultant heightened dissension between left and right is Saturn
at his very best. Thus, Ashcroft's journey to the cabinet has been filled
with equal parts serendipity and struggle.
The
Necessity for Change
Ashcroft's
future looks as topsy-turvy as his past. At approximately the age of 60,
the planet Uranus forms a 90-degree square to its position in the natal
chart. Uranus, currently moving through Aquarius, will soon square Ashcroft’s
Uranus in Taurus. If the changes brought about by Jupiter and Saturn have
had the effect of expanding and contracting Ashcroft's career, the effect
of Uranus will bring about something completely unexpected during his
tenure as attorney general.
Uranus can
throw things at us that seem completely out of left field. During "Uranus"
times, completely unforeseen events crop up in our lives that we could
never have predicted and have never handled before. Consequently, Ashcroft
can anticipate the unanticipated. New political situations could arise
that are totally foreign to his experience as governor and senator, and
he may indeed create new precedents for the job of attorney general by
necessity.
On a more
personal level, Uranus forces us to redefine values associated with an
outworn sense of self. When Uranus squares its position in the natal chart,
we are asked to grow and open to new potentials, which can be unsettling
at first. More often than not, the change that is asked of us comes from
the outside and is very often seen as a threat; it is only in hindsight
that we realize that the disruptive and startling experiences actually
serve to increase our personal potential. With Uranus in progressive-minded
Aquarius squaring Ashcroft’s natal Sun and Uranus in the upcoming years,
his tenure as attorney general will undoubtably precipitate significant
personal change.
Case
Closed
As attorney
general, Ashcroft has been asked to set aside his personal political agenda
and impartially adjudicate the laws of the nation. Since change and disruption
have been the recent constant in Ashcroft’s life, circumstances may dictate
that this pledge of impartiality be taken out of the realm of the merely
theoretical and be significantly challenged in actual fact. Thus, the
opportunity is presented to Ashcroft to transcend his own partisan beliefs
and to encompass a much broader political vision–and a much broader sense
of self.
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