"People frequently misunderestimate me." —George W. Bush

George W. Bush, Supreme Court-designated 42nd President of the United States, is one of only four men to hold the office despite losing the popular vote, an unfortunate condition made possible by the archaic rules of the Electoral College system as spelled out in the U.S. Constitution.

Son of 40th President George Herbert Walker and First Lady Barbara Bush, 'W' certainly began life with the cards stacked in his favor. A son of privilege who squandered the better part of his first 40 years in drinking, carousing, and fraternity-style hijinks with other good ole' boys, George W.'s rise to become the nation's Chief Executive was meteoric by normal political standards. Badly trounced in a bid for the House of Representatives in 1978, 'W' eschewed politics for over 15 years, with the brief exception of a 1988 stint as advisor and 'speech writer' (!) in his father's first presidential campaign.

In his own words—George W. Bush on politics: "A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls."

When not attending parties or dodging drunk driving citations, 'W' filled his time with several largely unsuccessful business ventures in gas and oil, followed by a high-profile part-ownership of the Texas Rangers baseball team which netted him millions. Then in 1994 'W' took advantage of growing voter discontent with the early liberal mis-steps of the Clinton administration to narrowly defeat incumbent Texas Governor Ann Richards, part of a country-wide conservative backlash which also propelled Republicans into a position of House leadership for the first time in 40 years. Shortly after his re-election to that office in 1998, 'W' began to set his sights on the White House.

Initially the acknowledged front runner and winner of the Iowa straw poll in August 1999, the 'W' juggernaut was temporarily derailed by the unforseen appeal of alternate conservative candidate Senator John McCain of Arizona, a decorated Vietnam POW who swept the New Hampshire primary in February 2000 and elicited a vicious Bush counterattack in several subsequent and crucial southern primaries, which eventually led to 'W' receiving the Republican Party nomination in July 2000. Polls ran neck-and-neck with 'W' and his Democratic challenger, Vice President Al Gore, culminating in the closest election in U.S. history, a disputed outcome in Florida, and ultimately the Supreme Court's intervention in favor of the Bush candidacy.

In his own words—George W. Bush on education: "Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children....We're going to have the best-educated American people in the world."

Which brings us to the present, and the incumbency of this maladroit master of the malapropism in the U.S. presidency, who now enjoys one of the highest approval ratings of any holder of the office. How to explain his appeal to the masses? A look at the Galactic contacts in his chart may help.

Born July 6, 1946 at 7:26 AM EDT in New Haven, CT, George W. Bush owns a chart more than usually sprinkled with Deep Space anomalies. The 7 Leo Ascendant, responsible for the party animal, flesh-pressing bonhomie which does 'W' so much good in the public eye as well as the smoke-filled caucus room, is sandwiched neatly between two Black Holes at 3 and 9 Leo; the Sun at 13 Cancer is exactly square the U.S. Saturn atop BH Nemesis at 13 Libra, which also conjoins the 16 Libra Moon; and his Mercury/Pluto conjunction at 9 and 10 Leo conjoin BH Cernunnos at 9 Leo.

These are probably the most significant factors to be addressed, although also of note are his Midheaven at 24 Aries exactly conjoined BH Hades, his 9 Virgo Mars exactly conjoined BH Apsu, his 26 Cancer Saturn within orb of BH Kali at 28 Cancer, his 19 Gemini Uranus opposed BH Ereshkigal at 18 Sagittarius, and his 5 Libra Neptune exactly conjoined a Quasar. Additional chart points make minor aspects to Galactics as well.

In his own words—George W. Bush on the environment: "It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."

The Ascendant/BH native can be extremely compelling, drawing others into his orbit almost effortlessly. There is a chameleon-like feel to these individuals, who have the ability to be all things to all people, and rarely reveal their true selves. Likewise with the Sun square a BH, although this placement is more likely to reveal some degree of self-dissociation, anything from failing to see oneself clearly to schizophrenia. Sun/BH individuals can be energy absorbers or energy disseminators, or often both in turn. There are enormous reserves of energy in these combinations, although releasing or accessing it may be difficult.

The Libra Moon similarly feeds into the gregarious Leonine qualities, promoting an individual who appears equable and forthright, although this appearance is often deceiving, as Librans have been known to be so concerned with leaving feathers unruffled that they speak out of both sides of their mouths at once, agreeing with whoever happens to be talking at the time. At times indecisive or noncommittal, the Moon/BH native can be exasperating to pin down. The Moon's conjunction with BH Nemesis is broad—at 3 degrees it is pushing the outer limits of the event horizon, or astrological orb of influence—but there is a quasar at 15 Libra as well, just one degree shy, which promotes pervasive manifestation of the issues raised by the Moon.

In his own words—George W. Bush on trade: "More and more of our imports are coming from overseas."

But of all these, it is the Mercury/BH connection which stands out. 'W' can be persuasive in argument, as can all Mercury/BH individuals, but has been cursed with an extraordinary case of foot-in-mouth disease, causing him to utter the most phenomenally idiotic statements with an alarming degree of regularity (a VERY small sampling of these has been interpolated throughout the text).

Some Mercury/BH natives feel invisible, as if their words have no effect or cannot be heard beyond the confines of the Black Hole's event horizon, which traps it within their own interior word. Others, such as FDR, Winston Churchhill, and Adolf Hitler, can exercise a control over the masses through their voices which borders on mass hypnosis. Thankfully for us, 'W' falls into the third Mercury/BH category—that of the bumbling, tongue-tied malaprop. How such a remarkably unsuited individual attains the highest honor his nation can bestow must remain somewhat of a mystery, perhaps one which posterity can unravel.

In the meantime, we are left with sound bytes such as this, on international terrorism: "We cannot let terriers [sic] and rogue nations hold this nation hostile [sic] or hold our allies hostile [sic];" and again, on campaign platforms: "They said this issue wouldn't resignate [sic] with people. They've been proved wrong, it does resignate [sic]."

Another factor common to Mercury/BH individuals is one which 'W' seems to have in spades—a dogged, doglike focus on a particular issue, an inability to let go of it or view it in an alternate light, and a simplistic, black-or-white perspective which allows of no greys or shading. 'W's now-famed "Axis of Evil" speech and the ubiquitous references to "the evildoers" in the aftermath of 9-11 are prime examples of this tendency. Indeed, it is in the crucible of 9-11 that the Bush administration, and 'W' personally, have found their political niche, their raison d'etre, and the emotional excuse for their oil war in Iraq, mooted long before 'W' came to power. This alone is probably sufficient to explain 'W's popularity in the circumstances, as at times of stress or external threat the nation's population naturally rallies around the leader, overlooking even obvious faults in a need to find comfort and security in a common identity, which the leader symbolizes.

In his own words—George W. Bush on personal ethics: "If you don't stand for anything, you don't stand for anything."

There is a strong focus on power and its acquisition in this chart. All the 'power planets' of Mars, one's personal power; Saturn, the power one exercises through the position one has in society; and Pluto, globally recognized power, conjoin Black Holes, in the case of Mars and Pluto, exactly, and Saturn within a two degree orb.

These energy-suckers revel in the acquisition of power as a source of energy, as a locus or nexus of lifeforce and emotion, and the native who owns these placements but is unable to feed their insatiable desire is a frustrated individual indeed. As Commander-in-Chief of the sole remaining Super Power, 'W's Black Holes must be well satisfied. We can also thank this secretive, knowledge-is-power BH Pluto for the administration's attacks, under the guise of patriotism and domestic security, on American Civil Liberties and the creation of Poindexter's supercomputer database collating all electronic data available on the public.

Big Money follows BH Pluto as well; 'W' spent nearly $70 million in the 2000 Republican primary season alone, where he was largely unopposed after crushing McCain in March and April. Millions more were raised and spent in the General Election, and to date 'W' has already outstripped the much-maligned Clinton record for fundraising, helping Republican candidates across the country to build up impressive war chests. This BH Pluto is responsible also for the $25 million windfall from the sale of the Texas Rangers when 'W' opted out of the private sector and into politics in 1994, as well as the close ties to phenomenally wealthy oil, gas and banking concerns such as Enron.

In his own words—George W. Bush on the budget: "It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it.... A surplus means there'll be money left over. Otherwise, it wouldn't be called a surplus."

Neptune's position conjunct a Quasar is also very telling, both for W's early involvement with the oil and natural gas industries, as well as his drinking and alleged drug use. Neptune rules all these areas, and the Quasar conjunction promotes pervasive manifestation, though for some reason, perhaps its relative isolation in the chart, to which it is not strongly aspected, the manifestations were all somewhat negative.

Unable to make a success of his oil-related business ventures and a slave to the cocktail hour, 'W' gave up drinking after a particularly boisterous fortieth birthday party in 1986, in part in response to a self-described "gradual spiritual awakening" (another Neptune arena). Ultimately, it was the pull of power and more energy for the Black Holes that flipped the switch. Says 'W': "Drinking began to compete with my energy. I'd be a step slower getting up." At this point, that same Neptune is very visible in the quasi-Messianic overtones of his public utterances on the "War on Terror" he has created and promulgated.

The Midheaven's exact conjunction with BH Hades at 24 Aries is interesting in light of 'W's career path. Much energy expended to little gain, as with his unsuccessful oil endeavors, is one typical outworking of the BH/Midheaven individual. So is the windfall success of the Texas Rangers sale. Ultimately, though, the BH/Midheaven seems to have found its depth in the acquisition of power through the political arena; it remains to be seen if this increased energy flow for the BH will result in permanent changes in the American way of life for which 'W' is responsible, or at any rate which occurred under his administration's aegis (and the changed climate in the country after 9-11 is certainly an indication that this may be the case) or, as with his earlier career attempts, will it all amount to so much wasted effort?

In his own words—George W. Bush on certitude: "I think if you know what you believe, it makes it a lot easier to answer questions. I can't answer your question."

Whatever the outcome, whatever the duration of his incumbency (and all three men who previously found themselves in this position of winning the presidency despite losing the popular vote went on to head unsuccessful, one-term administrations), whatever mess or blessing he leaves us with, it can generally be said of any president that we get what we deserve, what we voted for. This isn't the case with 'W'; we didn't vote for him. We just got him.

As 'W' himself put it: "One of the common denominators I have found is that expectations rise above that which is expected."

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Alex Miller-Mignone is a professional writer and astrologer, author of The Black Hole Book and The Urban Wicca, former editor of "The Galactic Calendar," and past president of The Philadelphia Astrological Society.

His pioneering work with Black Holes in astrological interpretation began in 1991, when his progressed Sun unwittingly fell into one. Alex can be reached for comment or services at alixilamirorim@aol.com.