After reading a short interview with Hugh Hefner in Time magazine, I became curious about his 8th house and decided to investigate.

Hugh Hefner is the famous American entrepreneur who founded Playboy magazine in 1953. He is now a film producer and book publisher; he owns a record company, theaters, a model agency, gambling casinos, and a limo service — and he also markets Playboy bunny paraphernalia. (You’ve undoubtedly seen those mud flaps with the image of a Playboy bunny on trucks in the U.S.). By the time Hefner was 40, he was worth well over $100 million.

He was raised in Puritanical fashion by Methodist parents in a typical Midwestern home. It would seem that he has fallen pretty far from the tree, though. In 1960, he founded the Playboy Club and began to live the lifestyle that is now typified by the word “playboy.” Let’s see what his chart can tell us.

Hugh Hefner, April 9, 1926; 4:20 p.m. CST; Chicago, IL, USA (41°N51’, 87°W39’); AA: Birth certificate in hand.

Hefner has no planets in the 8th house — only Chiron.

Since he was raised in a household where demonstration of affection was not allowed, perhaps the presence of the Wounded Healer means that intimate relations with other humans (of the feminine persuasion) serve to compensate for the lack he suffered in childhood. But he has the Sun in Aries (close to the 8th-house cusp), so whatever he does, he will do it his way. The Aries Sun, ruled by Mars, symbolizes intimacy based on eroticism.

Hefner has Mars in the 5th house of play, and Mars is in Aquarius, lending him detachment (as opposed to intimacy). Since Hefner brags that he has slept with at least 1,000 women, he does not appear to favor longevity in his sexual relations.

He is definitely in a Venusian business, and he has the Moon and Venus in sensitive Pisces. In our culture, the expression of vulnerability is not appreciated in the male of the species, so Piscean men tend to hide their sensitive nature. The Moon in Pisces speaks of dissolving boundaries — ignoring or rebelling against societal rules, which Hefner certainly did when he first pushed the envelope of allowable nudity in a respectable magazine. He is quoted as saying: “I never intended to be a revolutionary. My intention was to create a mainstream men’s magazine that included sex in it. That turned out to be a very revolutionary idea.”

It is interesting that he has Puritanical Virgo on the Ascendant, but that placement would certainly give him a strong work ethic.

I would certainly expect to find a prominent Jupiter in this man’s chart. Well, it’s in the 5th house, where it exaggerates the recreational aspects of sex. And he has inflatable Jupiter square Saturn in Scorpio in his chart.

Lastly, Hefner has Uranus on the cusp of the 7th, leading to unconventional relationships. But this man is beyond unconventional; he himself did quite a bit to demolish the existing conventions in the 1950s, when he first pioneered his own unique recipe for success in a male-dominated world.

 

Biographical data is from Lois Rodden’s AstroDatabank software.

Jan de Prosse is Managing Editor of The Mountain Astrologer magazine.

The January 26 solar eclipse was at 6°30’ Aquarius, exactly conjunct President Obama’s natal Saturn/Ascendant midpoint (6°41’ Aquarius). The Saturn/Ascendant midpoint speaks of self-confidence, responsibility and serious personal demands, as well as suggesting a hint of isolation and sensitivity to confinement. Occurring so soon after the oath of office, we can assume this to be one of the keynotes of his term. This eclipse was also conjunct the US Sibly second house South Node (6°36’Aquarius), i.e., “Where did all the money go?”

On February 6, a news article began with the question: “Is President Obama already feeling cooped up in the White House?” (Yes, according to the White House press secretary, his boss is “a restless soul.” (A reflection also, I think, of natal Sun square Neptune.)

Today’s Full Moon eclipse (21° Leo/Aquarius) is on the President’s Ascendant, 18°03’ Aquarius and Descendant, 18°03’ Leo. His progressed Moon (20° Aquarius) is also in this eclipse lineup. This is surely giving him a great surge of energy, as well as indicating the correctness of him going out selling his stimulus plan to the public. i.e., the Moon. There is a town-hall meeting today in Indiana, a press conference scheduled for tonight, and another trip scheduled for tomorrow to Florida.

A report from this morning in Indiana: “Making his case in the most dire terms, President Barack Obama said that if Congress does not quickly pass an economic stimulus package, the nation will slip into a crisis so deep that ‘we may be unable to reverse’ it.”

It’s interesting that the President’s natal Venus is at 1°47 Cancer, so transiting Pluto opposed it for the first time on January 15. (The exact aspect repeats on June 30 and November 17 of this year.) The US Sibly Venus is slightly later by degree, at 3°06’ Cancer. Pluto will perfect the opposition for the first time on March 8, to be followed by four more exact aspects, i.e, on May 2 and December 26, and then again in August and October 2010.

I realize the stimulus plan has not only been watered down in concession to conservatives, but is also complex and open to criticism from many different fronts, but I am inclined to trust Obama about the urgency of the matter. His personal Venus has already experienced the need to change in the deepest ways imaginable, while we as a country have a long confrontation with Pluto ahead of us.

Saturn stationed retrograde on December 31 at 21°46’ Virgo, within a degree of Obama’s natal Mars (22°35’ Virgo). Mars (with Pluto) rules his Midheaven at 28°53’ Scorpio. Saturn will be exactly on his Mars just once, on August 28, 2009. Transiting Uranus opposed natal Mars, ruler of the Midheaven, on June 12 and July 10, 2008, and makes the last opposition on March 12 of this year.

This suggests that Obama’s public role (i.e., signified by Mars) is very much being played out in the story of the ongoing Saturn-Uranus opposition, which was, of course, exact for the first time on Election Day. The second (of five) exact Saturn-Uranus oppositions was on February 5 when opposition to the President’s stimulus plans reached a crescendo in Washington. Republican lawmakers were very vocal in their disapproval of the plan, saying, in part, that we need to slow down the process. This of course comes after Rush Limbaugh’s notorious statement (on January 21) that he wants Obama “to fail.”

Okay, everyone, we can do better than this. Let’s try elevating the dialogue of Saturn-Uranus on to remembering the great creative possibilities inherent in seeing that we really are in this together!

Tomorrow is the big day and the symbolism of the Inaugural Sun conjunct Jupiter in Aquarius is blazing brightly over the land and being reported all over the media.

There are many polls, blogs and interviews about the vivid sense of optimism and hope felt around the country. For example (Happy Birthday, Dr. King) a CNN poll found that more than “two-thirds of African-Americans believe Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision for race relations has been fulfilled”. (This is sharply up from a survey in early 2008, when, as astrologers remember, Jupiter was in Capricorn.)

There’s a multi-media feature on the N.Y. Times web site featuring “What are your hopes for Obama?” Responses have been organized into 29 “hopes” which have both written and audio comments from more than 200 people in 14 states. (The listed “hopes”, by the way, include such topics, as Ending the War, College Tuition, Border Security, Environment, etc. You can add a comment to an existing topic, or add a new category of “hope.”)

What a great demonstration of Mercury, Jupiter, Neptune, Chiron and the North Node in Aquarius. (The Sun, with its vigor and purpose, enters the sign today at 2:41 pm (PT). Aquarius, of course, is the sign of the zodiac that relishes community and communication, and has the technological wits to pull it off for everyone.

As far as Mercury being retrograde, which many people have asked me about, I think it’s clear that the Obama administration will be going back over (and re-thinking) decisions and policies made by the Bush administration. When at its best, Jupiter in Aquarius is concerned with civil rights and human liberty. The Sun is high in the sky with Jupiter at noon tomorrow, and Mr. Obama has Jupiter in Aquarius in his natal horoscope.

Regarding his early appointments, although progressives are not universally happy with Obama’s choices thus far, I think the Aquarian concern for social justice and human rights will get some much-needed airtime. On January 5, Greg Gordon of McClatchy Newspapers wrote:

“In filling four senior Justice Department positions Monday, President-elect Barack Obama signaled that he intends to roll back Bush administration counter-terrorism policies authorizing harsh interrogation techniques, warrantless spying and indefinite detentions of terrorism suspects. The most startling shift was Obama’s pick of Indiana University law professor Dawn Johnsen to take charge of the Office of Legal Counsel, the unit that’s churned out the legal opinions that provided a foundation for expanding President George W. Bush’s national security powers.”

I also looked back at how often Mercury has been retrograde for presidential inaugurations, since we know it happens three or four times a year. In the 20th century, Mercury was retrograde at nine inaugurations, the most recent being that of George Bush, Sr., in 1989. Since it was direct for Clinton’s two terms, and George W. Bush’s two terms, perhaps it is not a stretch to think of this new administration as looking back over both of these presidency’s to rethink direction and policy.

In any event, it is not a rare thing for Mercury to be retrograde on Inauguration day. It might, in fact, be an interesting (and painstaking!) study to look back at the administrations that did have Mercury retrograde, and look at what happened during those terms when Mercury went direct, and when it returned to the degree of the retrograde station (sometimes referred to as the “shadow period”).

In that line of thinking, we can watch for shifts in tone in this new administration around February 1, when Mercury goes direct, and again on February 21 when Mercury gets back to 8° Aquarius, the degree it turned retrograde in January.

In the meantime, onward and upwards, may the celebration continue and be of benefit to all!

Prior to his death in 1968, the eminent British astrologer, Charles E.O. Carter, stated that he would not delineate an individual nativity without taking into consideration the previous Capricorn Ingress horoscope. It had been his professional experience that a Winter Ingress chart that preceded the birth of an individual would show the wider societal context into which he had been born.

In a similar vein, when calculating the Capricorn Ingress as a mundane horoscope for the nation’s capital, astrologers can observe what the country is likely to experience during the next year. For the USA in 2009, here is our Winter Ingress:

Upon viewing the overwhelming preponderance of planets in the first quadrant, one immediately perceives that 2009 will become a year of survival for the United States. As the only Winter Ingress horoscope in American history to have an exact Sun-Pluto conjunction on the Cardinal Point, the depth and extent to which the United States will have to change during the next year is at the present time unfathomable to all but the astrologers who have the techniques and methods to make such a forecast.

2008 will go down in history as the year in which the worst and most vile practices of free-market capitalism were exposed by the ingress of Pluto into Capricorn. It would be educational at this time to review the Capricorn Ingress from last year in order to see just how the United States has come to its appalling realization of the drunken orgy of greed being played out through a manipulation of financial instruments such as derivatives and mortgage securities in order to obtain illusory, short-term profits:

 

The Sun conjunct a fallen Jupiter and opposed by a fallen 9th house retrograde Mars speaks volumes about the shameful degradation of ethics and morality within U.S. financial markets. The fiddler playing while Wall Street burned was clearly illustrated by the 2nd house (investments) Venus in detriment and in exact square to a 5th house Neptune (addiction to high-risk financial practices and the casino mentality).

The colossal $50 billion Ponzi scheme constructed by disgraced Wall Street financier, Bernard L. Madoff, has shocked even the most inured and grizzled market veterans. It was indicated in the rising degree of last year’s Capricorn Ingress horoscope.

Libra 13 from Sepharial’s translation of La Volasfera:

A pillar of black marble standing upon a rock, roughly hewn.

“It denotes a person of peculiar and sometimes melancholy and
misanthropic nature; apt to contract false or unprofitable relations with
his fellows and with the opposite sex. The native will make a bad match,
and will be unfortunate in wedlock, with probable separation. The
native, in centering his affections upon one object, will be liable to
disappointment in life. It is a degree of SOLITARINESS”.

The malefic nature of the fallen opposition between retrograde Mars in Cancer and a direct motion Jupiter in Capricorn cannot be overstated. This aspect can only form once or twice in a century and last occurred in the Heavens in December 1913 at the outbreak of World War I, and again in December 1960 in the exact degrees of assassinated president John F. Kennedy’s lunar nodes. (A fallen direct motion Mars in Cancer opposing a fallen retrograde Jupiter in Capricorn recurs in the Heavens after a little longer than either one or two sidereal cycles of Jupiter {11.86 years}. In the 20th century, for example, these oppositions recurred in June 1925, August 1949, May 1972, and August 1996.)

Turning our attention back to this year’s Winter Ingress, one is also struck by the rising Mars to which the Moon makes her first application. It goes without saying that the incoming administration of President-elect Obama will have to be decisive, competent and courageous, all Martian virtues. The MC in any mundane horoscope represents the leader of the country. Mr Obama is the fortunate recipient of an exact trine of Venus to the Ingress Midheaven and he is sure to earn the affection of the populace through his even-tempered handling of one crisis after another.

The Moon in exact sextile to the Ascendant signifies that the public will cooperate with each new proposal put forward by the Obama administration in order to tackle the troublesome economic problems now facing the country. Each application of the Moon tells, in sequence, the story of the year to come. Starting with that sextile to Mars, the new administration will get off to a good start with its bold and decisive governmental programs to help stabilize the middle and working classes.

Unfortunately, however, she next applies to a square with a fallen Jupiter and the money from declining tax revenues in a recession will not be there in the Treasury to finance the enormous cost of the social and infrastructure programs being quickly legislated by the new Congress. By the end of the year, that lunar square to Jupiter will have produced deficit spending at levels unheard of in American history.

The American banking system, shown by the second house in this Ingress horoscope has its ruler, Saturn, stationary retrograde and inconjunct to Neptune. This implies that there are additional structural weaknesses in the economy that have not yet fully come into view. Beyond the subprime mortgage meltdown of 2008 lie two additional financial crises awaiting the American public in 2009.

These are the Alt-A and option ARM loans that are about to cause additional massive defaults and foreclosures similar to what we have seen in the subprime market. The former were foolish loans made with alternative documentation – such as reduced borrower income and asset disclosure; while the latter were loans made with initial low teaser rates that then rolled over into much higher interest rates with a significant increase in one’s monthly mortgage payments after a two-to-five year period. The value of these two additional categories of controversial mortgages is estimated at $1.6 trillion; whereas the subprime market is estimated at $1 trillion.

As we gird our loins for 2009, a year that according to its Winter Ingress horoscope will produce survival conditions in the USA unseen in its 233-year history, one must take comfort in the fact that the economic transmutation of America brought about by its upcoming Pluto return is being guided by higher spiritual forces that will not allow the nation to perish.

However, extreme stress levels amongst the populace should be anticipated during 2009 as millions of additional Americans fall prey to unemployment, lost health care benefits, defaults on mortgages, and all of the other trials and tribulations to which our society will be subjected. This may result in an epidemic of spiritual escapism as a response to natural denial about the severity of the economic collapse occurring in our midst. If these mental coping tactics then fail to work, alcoholism and substance abuse may follow, as portrayed by the rising degree for this Capricorn Ingress chart.

Sagittarius 25 from Sepharial’s translation of La Volasfera:

Three cups of wine standing upon a table in the form of a triangle.

“It is the index of a mind that is given to excessive indulgence and undue
enthusiasm in matters of a spiritual and mental nature; one who will
follow out his projects regardless of consequence, impelled as it were
by a species of mental intoxication. The substance and form of this
symbol is allied to the higher nature, but should the carnal appetites
gain an ascendancy over him, he will in all probability degenerate into a
debauchee. Moderation should be his watchword even in spiritual
things. It is a degree of EXCESS”.

As if we needed more evidence, last week’s Full Moon brought a few daring new players on to the front pages in a continuing display of the general upheaval, corruption, downfall of all we’d like to believe in. Pluto in Capricorn rocks!

Sordid though it is, since the news has touched many big political names (i.e., Jesse Jackson, Jr.) and even gotten our not-as-yet-President Obama to have to defend himself, I figured it was worth a look. (And, dear readers, I’m committed to finding more uplifting stories the next time I write!) For now, I’d like to try to objectively see some of the astrology at work.

Although we don’t have birth times, both individuals have planets caught (shall we say trapped?) by the mutable grand cross between Sun, Mars, Moon, Saturn and Uranus that was the striking pattern of Friday’s lunation.

On Tuesday December 9, the day before his birthday, Illinois Governor Blagojevich was arrested on extensive charges of conspiracy and soliciting bribes. Reading from a stunning 78-page document, the stalwart federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald mentioned a few specifics of Blagojevich’s alleged behavior, and noted that the conduct “would make Lincoln roll over in his grave.”  (1)

Blagojevich was born on December 10, 1956 in Chicago. (2) His natal Sun is at 19° Sagittarius, which is now being squared by Uranus, heightened by its (November 27) station direct at 18°44′ Pisces. (Uranus, of course, wakes us up, sometimes rather uncomfortably; I did read an early headline on Huffington Post that the Governor was “blindsided” by the arrest.)

The Moon was in Pisces the whole day of his birth; if he was born at noon, the Moon would be right at 21° Pisces and exactly squared by this Full Moon. Whatever time of day he was born, the less-than-savory possibilities of a Pisces Moon are part of the story: An article from the online New York Times refers to a long time colleague describing the governor’s behavior in recent months as no longer merely “callous” but “into something closer to panicked or delusional.” (3)

Blagojevich has a strong Mars in rulership in Aries: “Whatever else may have come apart within Mr. Blagojevich in recent months, one quality, unabashed ambition, has been a constant, his colleagues and his critics say.” (4)

Transiting Mars has been conjunct Blagojevich’s Sun in the past few days, and as of this morning, public statements say that he’s not going away without a fight, although that stance is bound to change quickly.

Psychologically inclined astrologers may note that Blagojevich had a progressed New Moon in April 2008 at 11° Aquarius, conjunct Chiron at 12° Aquarius. Blagojevich has Uranus opposite Chiron natally, and this 29- year cycle in his inner life seems to have begun with a very public exposure of wounds asking to be healed.

Another grim newsmaker this week is Bernard Madoff, star of a huge story in the financial world. Madoff, the former head of the NASDAQ, is chairman of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, which he founded in 1960. On Thursday December 11, within 24 hours of the Full Moon, he was arrested by the FBI and charged with fraud. As we would expect given the tenor of the times (not to say Pluto’s dalliance with Mercury on the world axis), this is no small matter, but is alleged to involve $50 billion – the largest investor fraud ever blamed on a single individual (!)  and  “what may be the largest Ponzi scheme in history.” (5)

Madoff’s natal Neptune (which can signify deceit, fraud, and general nefarious activities) is at 18°37′ Virgo – the Full Moon was all over his Neptune: Uranus, at 18° Pisces, is opposite Madoff’s Neptune, and the Sun conjunct Mars in Sag and the Moon in Gemini squared the planet of illusion and subterfuge. Talk about a front page worthy ‘snap-out-of-it’ moment! (Remember, as mentioned above, that Uranus is especially strong due to its station direct at 18°44′ Pisces on November 27.)

Born in New York City on April 29, 1938, Madoff is a Taurus Sun, the sign of money and finance. (6) The Moon moved from Aries into Taurus that day. Very late that night, Venus also moved from 29° Taurus, both in rulership and at a critical degree, into Gemini.

Not to pick on planets in detriment and fall (I have one myself and so far have managed to stay out of this kind of trouble), and without knowing times of birth, there is something to note about the condition of key planets for each gentleman. Blagojevich has Venus in Scorpio and Jupiter in Virgo – both benefics are in detriment (and Saturn in Sagittarius is not too happy in Jupiter’s sign either). Madoff has an uncomfortable Saturn as well – in its fall in Aries. Without awareness and hard inner work (which can be shown by other planets helping or assisting) poorly placed planets can signify real areas of trouble in a life. Saturn brings necessary limits and boundaries; when impaired it may signify a struggle with discipline and judgment – as if the inner mechanism to hear life saying “no” – and recognizing when to stop – is not quite connecting.

Both men have North Node between 26°  – 28°  Scorpio, which has something to do with the reality that sharing resources, wealth and power may be a good direction to head in this life. This is a curious idea, as Pluto conjunct Mercury at 1°  Capricorn has brought them both into prominence for what appears to be a spectacular blind spot regarding that notion. Here’s to the Full Moon keeping us all on track!

Footnotes:

(1) New York Times

(2) Wikipedia

(3) & (4) Both quotes from this New York Times article

(5) New York Times

(6)Wikipedia