Last week-end I taught a class at the Boston Jung Institute and while preparing for it I noticed something quite amazing! I was looking at Carl Jung’s chart when I had a moment of deja-vu—hadn’t I just recently seen this chart? I had been looking at charts all week, but this chart looked strangely familiar, because it had a striking similarity to Barack Obama’s astrological chart!
Obama and Jung both have the Sun in Leo in the 6th house of work, near the descendant, and in a wide conjunction to Uranus. Many psychotherapists have significant planets near the descendant or ascendant axis, indicative of their intense working with others in the “I-Thou relationship.” And Leos are often top leaders in their careers partly because of an inner need for self-expression.
Both Obama’s and Jung’s Uranus reflect a willingness to be independent, to think differently and freely, and are highly “individuated” as the Jungians would say. They both have Aquarius rising, reflecting their cool and level-headed personas---a way of being in the world which tends to think “outside the box” and is indicative of a tendency to retreat into their minds as a defensive strategy. They also both have Venus in Cancer, suggesting a desire to nurture and be nurtured, and both have Mercury, the planet of communication, strongly placed in the 6th house of daily work and discipline.
Yet perhaps the most fascinating aspects were the ones that spoke about their families of origin. Both have Sun square Neptune, reflecting a missing/ineffectual or “weak” father presence in their lives—Obama’s father simply wasn’t there most of the time, and Jung’s father was an uninspiring minister who didn’t quite believe in the God he preached about. Both men have a Moon/Pluto aspect suggesting the deeply powerful, complex, and mysterious or unconscious relationship with their mother. Obama’s moon is in Gemini reflecting the mental curiosity and communicative ability that is part of his maternal family inheritance, and Jung’s Moon in Taurus conjunct Pluto, reflects something of the earthy, dark feminine nature of his maternal legacy. Jung admitted to never truly understanding her, and in part, the feminine as well.
With Moon connected to Pluto, a true understanding of the mother and/or the feminine instinctual life is sometimes wounded or missing, and the mother herself may “not be there” in some fashion. Many people with this aspect often compensate for this by being emotionally powerful people. The role and importance of the mother is pronounced in their lives. Obama was tutored and trained by his mother in so many ways to be all he could be, yet died too early, and Jung delved deep into the psyche to understand the nature of the unconscious, and perhaps to understand the true nature of his own dark feminine.
~Elizabeth Spring www.elizabethspring.com
Obama and Jung both have the Sun in Leo in the 6th house of work, near the descendant, and in a wide conjunction to Uranus. Many psychotherapists have significant planets near the descendant or ascendant axis, indicative of their intense working with others in the “I-Thou relationship.” And Leos are often top leaders in their careers partly because of an inner need for self-expression.
Both Obama’s and Jung’s Uranus reflect a willingness to be independent, to think differently and freely, and are highly “individuated” as the Jungians would say. They both have Aquarius rising, reflecting their cool and level-headed personas---a way of being in the world which tends to think “outside the box” and is indicative of a tendency to retreat into their minds as a defensive strategy. They also both have Venus in Cancer, suggesting a desire to nurture and be nurtured, and both have Mercury, the planet of communication, strongly placed in the 6th house of daily work and discipline.
Yet perhaps the most fascinating aspects were the ones that spoke about their families of origin. Both have Sun square Neptune, reflecting a missing/ineffectual or “weak” father presence in their lives—Obama’s father simply wasn’t there most of the time, and Jung’s father was an uninspiring minister who didn’t quite believe in the God he preached about. Both men have a Moon/Pluto aspect suggesting the deeply powerful, complex, and mysterious or unconscious relationship with their mother. Obama’s moon is in Gemini reflecting the mental curiosity and communicative ability that is part of his maternal family inheritance, and Jung’s Moon in Taurus conjunct Pluto, reflects something of the earthy, dark feminine nature of his maternal legacy. Jung admitted to never truly understanding her, and in part, the feminine as well.
With Moon connected to Pluto, a true understanding of the mother and/or the feminine instinctual life is sometimes wounded or missing, and the mother herself may “not be there” in some fashion. Many people with this aspect often compensate for this by being emotionally powerful people. The role and importance of the mother is pronounced in their lives. Obama was tutored and trained by his mother in so many ways to be all he could be, yet died too early, and Jung delved deep into the psyche to understand the nature of the unconscious, and perhaps to understand the true nature of his own dark feminine.
~Elizabeth Spring www.elizabethspring.com
