Conan O’Brien is a popular late night television host in the US, he has always enjoyed success in life from the years of his earliest adulthood.  However he has gone through some challenges recently, and I endeavor to highlight and possibly make sense of them through his Vedic horoscope.  O’Brien’s birthtime (April 16, 1963; 1:48 pm, Boston, Ma, chart below) has been determined to be accurate as taken from his birth certificate, so results should be pretty reliable.

First off, he is Leo rising (sidereal), generous and extroverted, and he’s even got the “wild head of hair” which Leos seem to have.  Being a performer certainly can use the Leonine qualities as an asset to get ahead.

The ruler of O’Brien’s Leo ascendant (the Sun) falls in independent and forward-pushing Aries (which is the Sun’s exaltation also).  This means that his ascendant ruler is exalted, which is one of the basic success indicators in astrology.  Further, the Sun is in the ninth house, which is considered the best placement for any planet.  O’Brien’s comedy style could be considered to be impetuously Arian, being very spontaneous, excited and frenetic.

I think O’Brien’s quirkiness of style can also be attributed to his Sun being afflicted in a few ways.  First of all, the Sun itself is relatively early in its sign (6 degrees), and its disposing planet Mars is itself debilitated in Cancer, which is itself disposed by a debilitated Moon in Capricorn.  The underlying Capricornian disposition to O’Brien’s main chart features points to some of his self-deprecatory style of humor, and also of some of his career obstacles that he has encountered.

The Capricornian influence also points to a very strong work/success ethic all throughout his life, which has allowed him a very solid form of success.  In fact his first years on the Late Night with Conan O’Brien were very iffy, always under the threat of cancellation by the network.  But in the third year the show started to take off, which points to Capricorn’s delayed-success motif.

Conan’s loss of the Tonight Show spot to Jay Leno, was not necessarily due to lack of talent or ability to get ratings but he seems to have been the victim of legal maneuvering.  Since Leno’s resumption of the Tonight Show ratings have not shown any improvement over O’Brien’s tenure at that spot.  I attribute this set back to his career to the debilitated nature of his natal Sun, which on the surface appears to be quite auspicious.

Looking at his chart in various ways:

From the Moon (Chandra lagna), the ruler of the tenth house is Venus, which is in the third house (associated with performers) and conjunct Jupiter giving rewards and his bubbly quality.  The Sun as the eighth house ruler in the fourth house indicates some very powerful and at times intimidating influences in his early life most likely from his parents (his mother was a lawyer and father a doctor).

From the Sun (Surya lagna): the tenth house ruler Saturn is in the tenth house, which is powerful but Saturn is very late in the sign indicating some of the quirkiness to his reputation and how success was “blocked” from him to an extent.  Again there is a debilitated planet in the fourth house, Mars, indicating some possible issues with parents and developments that spring from his early years.

If I take a look at his dasas (Vedic predictive periods), his career life seems to be right on track with his chart cycles.  As I said earlier, O’Brien enjoyed success early in his life, high school forward; but his television career coincided with the advent of his Jupiter dasa in 1986.  (shown at left). It was relatively soon after the commencement of the dasa that O'Brien became a writer on Saturday Night Live (1987).  Jupiter’s cycles coincide with good fortune and growth and his stature certainly flourished with his involvement with Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, and then his first show Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

Fast forward to 2009; Conan was enjoying great success at NBC and was offered the coveted Tonight Show spot being vacated by Jay Leno.  At this time Conan is in the maha dasa of Saturn and in the sub dasa of Venus (shown at right), and transiting Jupiter is also on his Moon.  Saturn moderately well placed and in the tenth house from the Moon; and Venus is not a very strong positive influence in his chart.

As a matter of fact , O’Brien’s Venus sub dasa starts very close to the premiere of his Tonight Show run (6-1-2009); it was very uncanny  timing.  Sadly, Venus’ mild to non-existant strength in his chart reflected the lower ratings and ultimate cancellation seven months later.

Looking closer still, the sub-sub dasa running at the time of the cancellation in January 2010 was that of the Sun (below), which is mentioned previously here as seeming very good but basically afflicted.  This was a not-good time in his astrology and you could say things went south for his career, not permanently of course because he has just started a new show on TBS.

As I can see it, O’Brien’s course looks relatively stable until about 2012 when he enters a Sun sub-dasa (heretofore mentioned with its problems) and transiting Saturn will be in opposition to his Sun.  He could have a few things going for him with Jupiter also conjuncting his Sun, but the 2012 time frame could be seen as a sort of plateauing action.

In the US here we are about to have our mid-term elections, a non-presidential election cycle.  This year polls and pundits are predicting major losses for the Democratic Party and probably losing control of the Senate and House of Representatives.

Some might point to an uninspiring first two years of the Obama administration to blame, others might say (apologists mainly) that two years was not enough to turn around the excesses and abuses of the preceding eight years of the Bush Administration.

To be fair I could say that the Obama Administration has looked very similar in form and function to Bush’s: run by Washington insiders and benefiting a small sector of financial elites at the expense of the lower, middle and upper classes of Americans.  The trend did not abate (but accelerated) of the vast open ended wars and the curtailment of personal freedoms at home; jobs and manufacturing continued to migrate to other nations, and foreclosures and the poverty levels continue to increase dramatically.

Every now and then you read about rumors that Obama will not seek a second term or that he acts bizarrely at the White House at times; but things do not seem to be well with the Democratic Party in Washington, DC.  Hilary Clinton, who supposedly could replace Obama on the Democrat ticket, was strangely out of the picture in the last week running up to the election.

If I take a look astrologically at what is going on; Election Day November 2 shows the following:

1. Jupiter and Uranus are rather close to each other, which would seem to indicate a change is in the winds.
2. The wide aspects of Saturn and Pluto to Jupiter and Uranus would also seem to push the envelope about how good the change is.
3. Neptune will be making a station on Sunday, November 7^th, which is removed about a week from the election but close enough to be of a delusion-creating influence.

Otherwise there is nothing astrologically that says “conservative takeover” per se on the day people will be going to the polls (and if you believe that voting tabulations mean anything or not.)  Indications do point to a tangible “change incited from dissatisfaction” influence, and possibly a not-entirely-deserved-swooning reverie on the part of conservatives from Neptune turning direct the next week.

Then I looked ahead to the date of when the new congress will begin its session and some significant things popped up.  The House and Senate both start on January 3 after each election.  January 3 this year will be highly significant in terms of astrology because this is the date of an eclipse of the Sun, and a powerful one at that as I highlighted in my book Mounting Challenges.

The exact date of the eclipse will be January 4, 2011, which I cited in my book as the final crowning influence of a series of major configurations that have been occurring for the past year or so; and which this eclipse will manifest its results over the next six months or longer.

A solar eclipse is a rather malefic (powerful) event because the Sun representing the light, energy, and consciousness of the spirit is temporarily “snuffed out” creating a lost-in-the-woods kind of effect, but ultimately it opens the door to new energies.  Eclipses usually punctuate the beginning and ending of significant worldly affairs, so it would seem to point to the 112^th US Congress will be pivotal in some ways.

I think we have to keep in mind that the same financial interests who run and put into office their presidential candidates also do the same for the congressional seats.  The Republican/Democrat divide is largely an artificial situation, whereby both sides are so extreme from each other that they do not work well at all, and serve to keep a political entity supposedly closer to the people (a congress) in a constant state of polarized paralysis.

A real “democracy” would consist of more parties than just the two.  Today any independent party that manages to come up and be a contender has to deal with a system that is rigged to work just with Democrats and Republicans and usually fails.  It is a fixed system, and nothing really is going to change except for some reshuffling of the party designations of the positions and some of the legislative leadership.  The Democrats and Republicans do not differ much in what they produce, but they definitely have different spins on their rhetoric.

Each side has their unique straw man arguments; i.e. Republicans have extremist moral positions and favor the rich, while Democrats supposedly hate big business and are Marxist, etc.  This is good enough for the simplistic debate in the media today, and with an audience that is overworked and stressed out, surfeited in a steady diet of intellect-numbing entertainment and distractions.

However I am sure and I am hoping that a few true statesmen (and stateswomen) on both sides of the isle will emerge from this new election.

Nevertheless, with this US Congress officially starting business literally under the shadow of an eclipse of the Sun, it could be interesting indeed.  The fact that it is an eclipse does not create any good feelings in me either.  While there probably will be a White House against the Congress supposedly; a lot of key legislation may be coming down the pike having to do with any amount of critical issues: cap and trade legislation, privacy, bailouts and stimulus packages, and more.

The election happening close to a Neptune station and the swearing-in occurring at the time of an eclipse could point to possible problems with disputes, confusion, and errors in the vote counting process; a situation happening more and more these days.

Yes, it could be a weird one.

(Chart to be posted soon)

Astrology of Market and Currency Fluctuations

Recent declines in stock markets in the US and Europe are coinciding with the larger patterns in the astrology of this year.  As previously written about here and in my special report Mounting Challenges, 2010 looks to be a landmark year astrologically, which corroborates the story told in markets the world around.

Last week’s 1,000 point drop in the New York Stock Exchange was perfectly coincided with aspects of Mars contra-paralleling Pluto and Jupiter contra-paralleling Saturn on Thursday, May 6.  Parallels are when planets become equidistant from zero degrees declination, basically an opposition on another axis.  Also these kinds of aspects reinforce the more commonly known aspects that are coming into exact alignment this year.

On Monday this week, the 10th, there was a strong surge of violence in Iraq resulting in at least 114 deaths and 300 injuries at last report.  Sectarian violence has been increasing in the wake of bitterly contested election on March 7, 2010.  As to who really incited the attacks, Sunni or Shiite factions, or even the US military itself is debatable; however the astrology of the event is clear enough.

On this day as indicated in SWN, the Sun formed a hard aspects (sesquiquadrate, or 135 degrees) to Pluto, and then a parallel to Mars. From the predictions page: "The stops may be pulled out with regard to energy, motivation, and application; the envelope may be pushed at all levels.  Some may succeed in something incredible, while others only to have it blow up in their face.  Mental, emotional, and physical breakdowns are possible, as well as mechanical/technological." Read more...