Each of us is born into history; the birth chart its imprint. Circumstances shape our bodies, ideas, attachments, hopes and fears; so we begin, gradually gaining knowledge and losing innocence. A sense of history grows as we do. About twenty years on, we enter the greater narrative, swept up or muddling through our own trajectory.
The Outer planets, those beyond Saturn, progress through the signs slowly, relative to a human lifespan. Every generation is defined by the place and pace of the outer planets, nuanced by aspects they make to each other. The outermost, Pluto, entered Leo in the summer of 1938 and remained there until the fall of 1958. Three of the Four Presidents were born with Pluto in Leo.
Neptune entered Libra in the spring of 1942 and did not leave until the fall of 1956. Leo and Libra, 60 degrees apart, in sextile, are in the harmonious relationship of fire and air, each enhancing the others’ purpose. Again, three Presidents have Pluto and Neptune sextile, traveling through Leo and Libra.
The present and former American Presidents and current President of the Russian Federation are leaders of the same generation. Joe Biden (1942), Donald Trump (1946) and Vladimir Putin (1959) were born to the economic and emotional duress and aftermath of the Second World War. The elder and youngest were born to modest circumstances, the other to a family ambitious for every accouterment of wealth and social standing. Pluto’s deepest drives, survival and power, play out in signifiers of wealth, a sense of unique identity and the destiny to command what one desires, yet yearning always for the justifying consolation of Neptune’s visions of a perfect world, where there is no injustice, no slight and no humiliation.
Uranus moves more quickly than the other two in its cycle of 84 years, but the three Presidents share its passage through Gemini, sign of fickleness and friendship. Planets in the same element, in this case Air, support their mutual inclinations. Uranus in Gemini thus supports the qualities of a Libran Neptune – belief in dialogue and a transcendent state. Though it applies to all three, when considered by degrees, Biden and Putin have the stronger affiliation between the two planets; it is a stretch for Trump. His strongest association with Uranus, disrupter and rule-breaker, is his Sun – himself.
How do I need to adapt? What is blowing in the wind? Whispered or broadcast, what attention, images or ideas define me, or us? How do I surprise or change sides? Uranus stimulates the desire to be in the know, to cultivate friends, to play with ideas. Uranus in ever changing air. Uranus, the unreliable public.
The fourth President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, is not of the same generation as the other three. Born in 1978 his Pluto lives in Libra – in desire for justice, balance, fair play and devotion to the other. Neptune moved on from Libra, through Scorpio into Sagittarius, with its dream of free movement, truth and law. But Uranus, the rebellious reformer, is uncomfortably placed between the two, in the sign of hidden power, deep secrets and dangerous enemies, Scorpio. Altogether, a very different configuration.
All four men are linked by one place and its history: Ukraine.
Phyllis Hill Astrology 