Predicting the Next President: II

Election 2008: The Republicans and the USA Chart

Featuring The Sarvatobhadra Chakra

by Sat Siri Khalsa, Board Member, Council of Vedic Astrology

Sarvatobhadra Chakra is a profound and wonderful method for understanding the relations and effects of planets moving through the material plane. So far it is little known to Westerners, but it surely deserves much more exposure, and here is an example of how it can efficiently choose the winner among a group of contenders.

In the last take on Election 2008, we compared the charts of the Democratic prime hopefuls for the Presidential nomination, and John McCain among the Republicans, to the horoscope of the USA. Hillary Clinton’s chart had the edge as America’s match. So far events have not discounted, but only supported, without much drama, this analysis. Now we turn our attention to three more Republicans. From this fluid field, can we identify the Republican nominee-to-be by his stronger links to the USA chart using the Sarvatobhadra Chakra as our main tool?

The Sarvatobhadra Chakra lays out the nakshatras in such a way that the lines of energy transmitted from planets to planets via nakshatras can be seen at a glance. Nakshatras after all are said by some jyotishis to be more powerful than signs in causing events. The nakshatras are ruled by deities who have unique and efficacious powers. In the Sarvatobhadra Chakra, the 28 nakshatras (including Abhijit, the 28th nakshatra which consists of small portions of Uttara Ashadha and Shravana overlaid on its larger neighbor nakshatras) are ranged in an 81-cell grid beginning from Krittika in the northeast corner and going clockwise. The four corner cells belong to the first four vowels of the Sanskrit alphabet. The central region of the Chakra includes the signs, the tithis, the weekdays, and all the remaining letters of the alphabet. For this article, we will pay attention only to the outer rim of the chakra, where the nakshatras are arranged in order. Rays emanate from planets as they traverse these outer cells called vedhas, which are piercing, effective lines of cognition sent from one nakshatra to another in strictest geometrical precision. The vedhas travel diagonally forward or backward from any cell containing a planet. There are also vedhas running straight across the grid targeting the cell opposite. The straight-across vedhas do not show up in the central area, but only in the cell they target, while the diagonal vedhas do make trailways through all the intervening central cells that lie along their path. For this article we will not go into a more detailed examination of the varying strengths of vedhas depending on the speed of planetary motion.

Additionally, certain nakshatras take on special importance because they fall in strategic locations as counted from the Moon of the chart. In the Chakra above, the USA Moon lies in Dhanishta, so counting inclusively clockwise from the Moon’s nakshatra cell (skipping the corner cells with letters), we reach these important cells:

Keeping the above in mind, let us assess the horoscopes of Republican frontrunners Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and Mike Huckabee.

Mitt Romney's Horoscope

Mitt Romney is the smart (graduated cum laude from Harvard Law and simultaneously in the top five percent of his class at Harvard Business School), hyper-achieving son of George Romney, a prominent presidential contender in the ‘60’s. Mitt Romney’s worldly smarts are delineated by his 5th lord Mercury, insistent because retrograde (retrograde planets have high willpower but their firmness of standing is insecure) and flying high in the 10th house of career. Mercury is sandwiched between its worst enemy Mars and the Aquarian Sun. Thus Governor Romney is known for incidents of dramatic and passionate reversal of principle on many issues including as a few examples carbon emissions, abortion, hunting, gay rights. Not only does he change positions, but he then over-sells his stands: at a debate last May, Romney said, “Some people have said we ought to close Guantánamo. My view is that we ought to double Guantánamo.” Romney’s chief political profile has been portrayed as that of a salesman who automatically acts whatever role can persuade whatever audience he encounters.

With Jupiter and Moon struggling for place in the same degree in the 7th house, flanked by the planet of spirituality Ketu, Romney’s inherited religion ¾ he is a sixth generation Mormon--, adds the leavening to a dough that might otherwise fall too flat: an appearance of commitment, of sacrifice for an ideal, comes along with the Mormon allegiance that is questionable as far as the Republican evangelical’s and right wing constituencies’ embrace. Just as a financial market needs to “climb a wall of worry” to make its peaks, it may be that if Romney is to go on to become the party frontrunner, his belonging to Mormon culture may be his individual handle and asset.

With the Jupiter-Moon yoga forming a dharm karm adipathi [union of lords of a trine and an angle, giving an all-around achievement impact] yoga in the navamsa, while navamsa Lagna lord Mars is exalted in the 10th house, Romney was selected as a top Mormon administrator during his missionary year in his twenties. Truly sattvic personal integrity and ethics are not the strong suit of this chart, however, with Atma karaka Sun in the navamsa third house in the weak sign of Gemini. Romney’s preferred public identity is as a savvy management consultant, which was his profession (Mercury, the business planet in navamsa Lagna magnified by Rahu’s association) from 1975 through the ‘80’s when he was chosen to launch a private equity firm that bought up client companies and brought Romney several hundred million dollars. In the rasi chart, Mercury with Sun and Mars form a very strong yoga, the union of three potent chara karaka planets, Atma karaka Sun, Amatya karaka (significator of professional success) Mercury, and Pitri karaka (for mentors and patrons) Mars. The Sun and Mars both have dikbala, or strong sense of direction, in the 10th house, while exalted Mars in Navamsa also has dikbala, all together awarding the easy exercise of dictatorial power that Romney’s leadership style as executive of Bain Capital or the Winter Olympics of 2002 or the governorship of Massachusetts have displayed. Still, for a true maharaja yoga automatically conferring huge status such as the American presidency, the power factors should lie in the first and fifth houses of a chart, not the 10th house, which is more for administrative can-do rather than for conferring such a “divine right of kings” as it takes to become president.

Romney’s chart at first look connects well to the USA chart: his power grouping of AK Sun, Mercury and Mars trine the USA Gemini stellium and loosely conjunct USA Moon. His Moon-Jupiter-Ketu cultural flag representing Mormonism waves in trine to the USA quirky Mercury-Midheaven-Rahu group that invites people with differences to stand out and stand up.

How do these factors line up on the template of Sarvatobhadra Chakra?

Here we have the USA Sarvatobhadra Chakra with Romney’s relevant planets superimposed. Starting at USA Moon, it gets a diagonal vedha from Romney’s Venus. Romney’s Venus sits in the USA 28th nakshatra of coronation. If money can buy recognition, Romney’s millions take the flag. On the other side of the USA Moon, Romney’s Mars in Satabishak sends and receives a ray to the USA Mercury in Pushya, while Romney’s Saturn also in Pushya gives a commercially compelling boost to the USA biz planet Mercury. Big business can get behind this candidate. Saturn is also sending a forward ray into Purva Phalguni, the USA Debt special nakshatra #16 from the Moon: Romney is a candidate whose conservative business philosophy strikes an anxious Chord and lends a note of security.

Romney’s Sun and Mercury in Purva Bhadrapada send straight-across vedhas across the grid to land in Chitra nakshatra where the USA Saturn is. Saturn is the Atma karaka for the USA. The planet of democracy is the soul test of this great nation, and for a chief executive, there needs to be a meaningful link to this indicator. Romney has something, with his own Sun and Mercury confronting the USA Saturn straight across. Problem is, Sun and Saturn are bitter enemies.

The most persuasive formation of Romney’s chart is the great X going through the very center of the Sarvatobhadra Chakra. This is a fascinating factor of the Sarvatobhadra Chakra. When grahas fall in the quarter-nakshatra, or pada, that borders the four corner Sanskrit alphabet letters, they are said to make a kind of primal scream. They are like shots heard round the world. These are planets that happen to lie in the fourth padas of Aslesha, Vishakha, Shravana, and Bharani, and the first padas of Krittika, Magha, Anuradha, and Dhanishta. Planets in these special padas get intensified cosmic sonic vibrations, having an extended world-affecting power that runs into all four corners and sends vedhas through the very heart of the chakra. Unless they are in these special bordering nakshatra padas, no vedhas get into these central pathways. The grahas that transit these areas send out a kind of cri de coeur that makes the world take notice, potentially resulting in world-shaking events, pandemics, famines, wars, tsunamis and so on. This is especially important for the USA, since the primal scream makes its cross at the heart of the chakra in the central tithis, a group of tithes naturally ruled by Saturn, and on the day of the week ruled by Saturn. Since Saturn is the Atma karaka of the USA chart, the planet by which all other planets measure their own tasks and performance, vibrations that arouse Saturn’s energies in any form are very stimulating to the USA. Romney’s chart has both Jupiter and Moon in the first pada of Anuradha. Anuradha borders the corner letter “i.” Thus Romney’s Jupiter and Moon invade all four corners and send primal trembles into the very heart of Sarvatobhadra Chakra. This is in addition to the normal diagonal and straight across rays from the three planets in Anuradha. Of the normal rays, there is one hitting something major in the USA chart----the backward diagonal strikes the USA Ascendant. All three grahas, Jupiter, Moon and Ketu, arouse the USA Ascendant.

These are major connections, and these are the types of larger-than-life links needed for a politician to make an impression on the American psyche. But there is at least one problem with this conclusion for Romney: Hillary Clinton. Clinton’s chart has even more piercing ties to the USA. She too has Ketu in Anuradha first pada, and Saturn in Aslesha 4th pada, both entering the primal scream. Clinton also has Moon making a straight-across vedha on USA Saturn, and her Moon is significantly boosted by a mutual exchange with her natal Saturn that stands atop the USA Midheaven. These are heaps of significance we cannot avoid. And then there is that hostile vedha between Romney’s Sun and USA’s Saturn, nor is the ray from Romney’s Mars to USA Mercury friendly.

Let’s compare this with the profile of the sometime frontrunner, Rudy Giuliani.

Rudy Giuliani's Horoscope

The former mayor has the unlikely support of the Republican right wing, partly for his reputation as the mayor who cleaned up a “crime-infested cesspool”, as one Southern politician dubbed New York. Virgo Ascendant gives a penchant for putting things in their place. Giuliani is a pugnacious politician dubbed “The Holy Terror” in a headline. He was born in Sun hora, the hour of the politico planet, with a Sun that stays vargottama in navamsa and dasamsa and accounts for the formative influence of his father. Rudy’s father spent time in jail for burglary, as is seen by Sun in the dwadasamsa (story of the parents) in the 12th house of prison, and debilitated. Upon getting out of Sing Sing Harold Giuliani struggled to free himself from Mob connections, and when Rudy was 7, moved the family to a new life on Long Island and worked overtime to instill a sense of discipline and morals in his son.

Without knowing the full story of his father’s past, Giuliani moved into a stellar legal career, with Saturn emphasizing profession one house ahead of the Sun, and a conjunction of exalted Jupiter and debilitated Mars magnified by Rahu in the 3rd from the Sun. Jupiter-Mars is the yoga of the reformer, and when the planets are at extremes, exalted and debilitated, hunger and hastiness often prevail. They reside in the sign of Cancer, place of doubts, where the ever-shifting seas lead to storms of intellectual turmoil, and where the primacy of mothers, in other words, women’s right to choose, becomes a position Giuliani upholds against the full force of his own party’s disagreement.

Giuliani’s early role of prosecutor fit his zealous reforming temperament; he threw himself into cases, terrorizing lawbreakers, nailing a corrupt congressman whom he made break down and confess on the stand. He was elevated to the Reagan Justice Department and the scope of his targets expanded among the Mafia, and Wall Street. Venus conjunct Sun is a signature for a person who serves as a government functionary, especially when Ketu trining or joining Venus brings in the “flag”, or seal of public office, one of Ketu’s uncommon meanings. Giuliani put his Venus-Sun conjunction into showy raids, “perp walks,” and brash altercations powered by debilitated Mars. When he moved into politics he ran as an anti-crime crusader and, once elected mayor, became known for his campaigns to bring back a better standard of behavior (Venus the “nice”, the final dispositor of all Giuliani’s planets) on the streets of New York City, for example banning the squeegee men who would clean the windshields of cars at intersections. He also relentlessly opposed the liberal tradition of helping the needy, proposing to shut down city hospitals and turn welfare into workfare. Saturn puts its full third aspect onto Moon, turning a jaundiced eye against weakness and dependency. Giuliani’s obdurate demeanor and refusal to forge compromises or working relationships with community members along with his police crackdowns led him to become only single-digit-popular with African-Americans, as with Moon at 0 degrees, his diplomatic skills are frail.

Nonetheless, Giuliani has some kind of star chemistry keeping him rising in the polls. Like Romney, there is a yoga that almost but not quite qualifies as a Maharaja yoga. Giuliani’s comes from the Arudha Lagna, the place where image originates. His AL is in Scorpio, and the lord of Scorpio, lord of first from the AL, is joined to the lord of the fifth from AL, Jupiter, both falling in the 9th from the AL, which is 11th from the Lagna. Had this yoga been in Scorpio or Pisces instead of Cancer, it would be a real Maharaja. As it is, it still gets a lot of power by being in the 9th from and having rasi drishtis with the AL. And Rahu, by being with the lord of the AL and in the 9th from the AL, is on its biggest and best behavior.

Giuliani’s relation to the USA Sarvatobhadra Chakra packs a lot of power too. When we look at it fairly, we see it is better than Romney’s effort. Like Romney’s, Giuliani’s chart has grahas running into the central scream lanes, and the same two planets as Romney, Jupiter, in the 4th pada of Aslesha, and Moon, in the first pada of Magha.. Not only that, the ordinary diagonal vedhas of these planets build sidewalks, so to speak, on either side of the central thoroughfare. Giuliani has rays shooting from his exalted Jupiter to the USA Moon, and from his Moon to the USA Ketu. This makes a more powerful design than does Romney’s Sarvatobhadra Chakra.

Giuliani is in Rahu dasha, and his chart features a vedha running from his Mars-Rahu conjunction in Pushya onto the nakshatra that symbolizes guilt or debt in the USA Sarvatobhadra Cakra, Purva Phalguni. This 16th nakshatra from the Moon in any chart shows an area of fear, and pangs. Thus we can see Giuliani rising to the occasion of the 9/11 disaster and having the right vibration to rally the American spirit. The ray from the Giuliani Mars and Rahu onto the USA 16th nakshatra from Moon shows his place as spokesperson for continuing aggression against terrorism that strikes an answering martial, fear-based ripple in the American psyche. Giuliani has been described as a super cop.

The former mayor’s Sun sends a straight across vedha to the USA 27th nakshatra from Moon, where Giuliani’s Ketu also is situated, in Abhijit. This makes Rudy the man who understands the national interests and has the demeanor of a strong leader, a person of destiny more so than Romney.

As for whether the mayor can not only capture the nomination but also the ultimate office, Giuliani’s chart lacks a strong tie to the USA Atma karaka Saturn. There is a ray from the candidate’s Saturn to the country’s Saturn, but this brings no new gift to the union. Rudy’s Venus has a nice vedha onto the USA Ascendant, but that same Venus sends and receives rays to the USA Ketu in the USA coronation nakshatra. Venus/Ketu is not a good mix, either for Giuliani or for Romney. For Giuliani the woman problem is there natally, with Venus combusted by Sun and in a close trine to love-blocking Ketu, and it gets reappears on the national screen with this mutual arrow to and from USA Ketu. Still, the current transits with Jupiter in Mula nakshatra, which happens to be Rudy’s #10 or Karma nakshatra, and Jupiter from Mula sending a straight-across vedha onto Giuliani’s Sun, make it likely, unbelievably, that he will be the Republican standard-bearer.

Mike Huckabee's Horoscope

Checking on Mike Huckabee, who has been surging in popularity and threatening Romney and Giuliani in Iowa, we find the folksy Baptist minister and former Arizona governor has a Sarvatobhadra Chakra that resembles Giuliani’s.

There is the same vedha from the candidate’s Jupiter to the USA Moon, and for Huckabee there is a triple ray from Ven, Mars, Sun to the USA Ketu in the coronation nakshatra. There is a tenuous link of Ketu to USA Saturn. There is a Moon-Saturn combination of Huckabee’s stuck onto the USA Ascendant and sending piercing rays straight across to the USA Moon. This chart of Huckabee’s however has nothing in the central alleys of the screaming letters, as there are no planets in the padas bordering the corners. Huckabee may be a corrective for the more strident Giuliani, and a way to X out Romney, but in the long run he probably will not, judging from Sarvatobhadra Chakra, be a lasting factor in the nomination contest. The ray from USA Ketu will undercut Huckabee’s Sun-Mars-Venus group in Magha that gives him his basic character force.

However, the vital particular indicators that show a victory now, in this time and these circumstances, are muddied. The 5th house and 5th lord of a nation’s chart show the party in power at any given period. The 3rd house and 3rd lord show the opposition party. The USA 5th house is Aquarius ruled most strongly by Rahu, so the Republican nominee should have a strong connection to USA Rahu at 16:52 Cancer. This point falls in Romney’s 3rd house, near Saturn, opposed by Venus, and receiving rasi aspects from all the malefics. One last point to check is the USA dasamsa Sun, which should have a significant link to the candidate’s rasi or dasamsa. USA dasamsa Sun is at 14:52 Capricorn, which indeed is conjunct Romney’s rasi Lagna lord and dasa lord Venus at 15:25 Capricorn. This accounts for Romney being in the mix! But as for a victory signature, it is not good enough---Venus has Rahu in its sign, and so Rahu its agent trumps Venus. Venus and Sun are enemies; Rahu and Sun are separative, ruling out the sought-for office. As Gertrude Stein might say, Q.E.D.