Bush’s Solar Return shows the coming year to be super powerful for him. Let’s look at some of these energies.

A Solar Return is just that—the moment when the Sun returns to its home place. Sometime around one’s birthday, the Sun comes back to the exact degrees and minutes of its birth placement. This can be a day different than the birthdate, either before or after.

This is a tweak, an adjustment of the birth program for the coming year. Solar returns show where and how planets’ energies will impact us for the next year. We compare them with the natal charts to see the year’s changes.

George W. Bush’s birthday is July 6, but his 2004 Solar Return occurs on July 5 (view the chart). It occurs at nearly the same hour as his birth, which makes the configuration of the chart almost identical to that of his birth chart.

This makes the Solar Return (SR) very powerful. If you think of the SR chart as a snapshot of the transits on one’s birthday, which it is, he will have these important transits of his birth chart corresponding with his SR for a whole year, thus doubling the effects.

For instance, Mars at 8 Leo sits on the Ascendant of his SR. But Mars at 8 Leo will also be influencing his natal Ascendant for the whole year. Since his natal Ascendant itself is 8 Leo, this makes Leo Mars his most prominent planet for the year.

The Ascendant shows our personality, how we extend ourselves personally into the world. It corresponds roughly to the personal impact of the early home influences. It was the sign rising in the east when we were born, and every moment we express ourselves into our environment, we are reborn with that quality dominant. It is our rising sign, and we rise with that sign. It is the most personal place in the chart.

Bush was born with Leo rising. In some way he felt like royalty. Mercury, Pluto, and Venus rose in short order, and color that royal personality. Dominating Pluto lends him personal power, Mercury the communication of it, and Venus the ability to personally attract others. Leo is a fixed sign, stubborn, with a strong will, and we see that in him. Leo also enjoys playing games, the strategy of winning. We see that in the way he plays politics, and in his past. The only business in which he was successful was in promoting the Texas Rangers, and his career desire was to be Baseball Commissioner.

Leo is the Sun’s sign. The Sun is the motive power of the solar system, and any planet placed in the sign of Leo is strengthened, and has more vitality. We will see Bush’s Leo qualities shine out much more strongly than usual.

Mars is the God of War. Mars will dominate Bush’s personal expression this year. Mars is where we take the initiative, and assert ourselves. Bush will be very assertive during his coming year. Pluto gets along well with Mars. Pluto in his mythological role as Hades was God of the Dead, and Mars can give him many dead bodies. Thus Bush’s natal potential is again enhanced by this formidable team. Neither Pluto nor Mars has the slightest conscience, compassion, or caring about people.

Bush shows another great enhancement of his Mars energy now through his progressions. Progressions are a way of moving planets to show their development. They are slow. The progression of Sun through one degree lasts one year. Sun vitalizes whatever it contacts. Its time span is two years—one year before the exact contact, and one year after.

Well, right now Bush’s progressed Sun is at 10 Virgo, EXACTLY conjoined his natal Mars at 10 Virgo, lending it increased energy and vitality. This progression began one year ago, and will last for another year. The time of exactness is when it is most potent. It was exact on June 6, the day Ronald Reagan died.

Bush used that death extremely well as a propaganda push for his Administration.

His natal Mercury-Pluto is expert at persuasion and manipulation. Now he has this year’s Leo Mars tied to it. He will have one year to consolidate his autocracy. He said at the beginning of his term, "This job would be a heck of a lot easier if I was dictator."

In Bush’s SR, his Sun and Saturn are back in the 12th house, as they are natally. Sun and Saturn are the father figures and the father energies. This 12th house configuration shows that his advisors work behind the scenes—as usual. The 12th house is the closet.

Mercury is back in the strong sign of Leo, conjoining Mars, but it is now in the 12th house. This adds imagination, confusion, and self-deception to his thinking and his communications. His creation of fantasy will increase.

With Moon and Neptune in the seventh house of partnership, Bush will be led by other people’s fantasies. (Dick Cheney (view Cheney's chart) really fits the Moon-Neptune in Aquarius picture, with his Pisces Moon and Aquarius Sun.) Bush's Moon at 27 Aquarius conjoins the U.S. Moon, adding to the population’s identification with him. (His natal sign is already the same degree as the U.S. Sun.) He will know and express the urges of the public.

SR Mars closely squares the SR Moon’s Nodes at 9 Taurus and 9 Scorpio. This shows that this is a year of destiny for Bush, and that the theme is resources.

The Sabian Symbol for 8 Leo, which is both the SR Mars and Bush’s natal Ascendant, and is this year’s crucial degree, is:

"A COMMUNIST ACTIVIST SPREADING HIS REVOLUTIONARY IDEALS. The emotional and ideological attempt to return to a state of non-differentiation and chaos as a prelude to a new type of order. This symbol, beyond all present-day socio-political controversy, represents the activity of destructive or catabolic forces (one aspect of the Indian god Shiva) as an answer to confrontation. The old order is confronted by the youthful drive for a new order and a new sense of values. As the old order refuses to yield its prerogatives, this refusal polarizes violent revolutionary action. The first practical result of this activity appears as "chaos." Yet chaos is a state of being that calls for a new descent of the power to reorganize and differentiate. Alas, such a descent is often based on old concepts, and one witnesses a struggle for personal and dictatorial power."

Bush, and the nation, have a difficult year ahead.