Will the Real Mitt Romney Please Stand Up? An Astrological Analysis of the Presidential Candidate.

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It’s difficult to remember a politician that is so transparent in his secrecy, has such a lack of self-definition, and who repetitively displays such poor social skills, flip flopping, and arrogance, as this year’s presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Astrology can take a deeper look into his motivation, and what may be driving his confusing, and cringe-worthy style.

Romney has Saturn in Leo in a strong position (4th house cusp). Traditionally this is the sign of a person who experiences conditional parental love. Most likely Mitt had to earn love through exceptional achievement. Further complicating the pattern is Pluto’s placement in conjunction with Saturn. Manipulation, ruthlessness, and control issues surrounding his achievement/love issues are a critical part of his family inheritance. Tremendous fear of being unloved is the motivation for achievement, but of course, no amount of achievement is ever enough to extinguish the knowledge that one is essentially unlovable.

So when Mitt’s unlikeablity makes national news, it’s certainly no news to him, and I doubt that he’s fazed by it. Achievement is now his issue, and unlikeabilty would only be a problem if it interfered with his chances of winning. Fortunately (or unfortunately for him) he long ago figured out ways around that. Buying the election has its advantages, and reminders from us about how unlovable he truly is simply serve to ignite his ambition. Interesting though that the really bad bargain he struck with himself long ago is up for revision (transiting Saturn square natal Saturn) in October. Either he will he lighten up on himself and the world, or double down in his cynicism. It’s never too late for a little personal insight, but for Romney the runway’s getting shorter.

Father issues loom large in Mitts natal chart… just what we need after eight years of W. It was at age 9 (Solar arc Saturn meets up with Pluto) that Mitt’s ideas about who he should be took hold. Interestingly, the year was 1956 when under his father George Romney’s leadership, AMC took a staggering operating loss of 19.7 million, because he guessed wrong that his company could accommodate a growing market for small cars. He was so confident of his vision that he moved the scheduled release up a year for the new model ’57 Ramblers. There were production problems and poor quality issues. It was a disaster, but during that time George Romney was known for his optimism and pep talks to his employees, as well as warnings that if they weren’t fired up with enthusiasm, they would be fired. Salaries were cut (up to 35% for execs) and operating costs at AMC were slashed.

During the same year, a corporate raider named Louis Wolfson bought 350,000 shares of AMC at the grossly undervalued price of $6 per share. He wanted to merge AMC with a profitable company to take advantage of their 3 million dollar tax-loss carryover, that would expire in 1957. He guaranteed George Romney that he would not make any changes to AMC’s management team. Wolfson’s stated goal was to make money. George Romney resisted after many meetings with him, and eventually Wolfson got into trouble with the SEC, sold his AMC holdings, and was prohibited from any future purchase of AMC stock.

It’s not difficult to imagine Mitt concluding that it might be less risky and more profitable to take advantage of a company in trouble, rather than deal with forecasting trends, unenthused employees, operating costs, profit margins, and outside threats from corporate raiders. Who knows how much Mitt knew of his dad’s challenges, but as a Pisces Sun he would have absorbed a lot of the tension and innuendo present at the time.

Romney most likely perceived his mother as complicated, passionate, religious, optimistic, and identifying very strongly with her family and her roots (Moon conjunct Jupiter in Scorpio on the descendant). She was probably never able to soothe her inner conflict with the abundance of outer security and riches that she possessed. That was probably obvious to everyone except Mitt. Anne, Mitt’s wife, is probably very similar to his mother in that regard.

Mitt’s ascendant (the style he presents that defines him) falls in the sign of Gemini which, in a superficial way, accounts for his twin positions on just about every issue. Most Gemini ascendant people have sparkling personalities, insatiable curiosity, a facility for words, a youthful appearance, and an uncanny grasp of the facts for a wide range of subjects. They’re interesting and fun to be with. But Mitt’s ascendant takes on a different tone because it is in a tight conflicting aspect with Mars in Pisces in the 10th house.

Mars in Pisces seeks to aggressively protect their right to remain private and undefined. They know that they are most effective behind the scenes, out of the public eye, alone with their thoughts and an intuitive sense of what to do next. So the political game puts Romney in a bind, and his anger (Mars) is expressed through his terse and often incoherent answers to direct questions. It’s also expressed in defiance as he peddles his nonsensical views, convinced that his “right” to remain undefined supersedes the confused voter’s need for clarity. At least for now he’s in the drivers seat. What makes it all even less palatable is Uranus in the 1st house in Gemini. While this gives him tremendous intelligence and an innovative spirit, it also makes him rebellious, self-centered, incredibly detached. and insistent upon protecting his own freedom. Uranus in the first house is someone who does things their own way, in their own time, without regard to social custom or the needs of others.

Intuitively, a strong Gemini placement understands that facts can support anything you need them to support, so his motives then become especially important. What ARE his motives? His chart would indicate they encompass acquiring a degree of control that virtually eliminates all vulnerability to the loss of his freedom, to go his own way and do his own thing. Remaining undefined and operating effectively behind the scenes are the tactics he uses (Sun and Mars in Pisces). Are those ends in and of themselves or does Mitt have a long term strategy? Being unlovable makes you want to compensate in big self-serving ways. If I can’t have what I need (Saturn/Pluto oppose Venus), I’ll get what I want. (Saturn/Pluto in Leo). Mitt wants everyone to notice that he’s a force to be reckoned with. He wants to leave his mark on the world, but the nature of this mark seems beside the point.

The Pisces Sun position is most likely to reach both the heights and depths of what a human being is capable. Saints, artists, addicts, and criminals fall disproportionately under this Sun placement.

Mitt’s natal Neptune in Libra (peace) trining natal Venus in Aquarius (justice, fairness) is encouraging, though. His potential for finding common ground, forming partnerships, and peacemaking is exceptional. Unfortunately his dealings with religion and foreign governments triggers his vulnerability, control, and “need for more money” issues (Saturn ruling Capricorn 9th house). If Mitt sees peaceful cooperation as more profitable he would most likely cultivate that path. But he wouldn’t bat an eye at violently removing profitability obstacles. He is detached enough from himself and others (Sun in the 11th, Venus opposing Saturn/Pluto, Uranus in the 1st) and ruthless enough (Saturn/Pluto in Leo) to make that an easy call.

Bottom line on Mitt – wealth and privilege have allowed him the tragic option of avoiding honest self-appraisal, denying him the gift of insight. That coupled with emotional detachment and emptiness (Venus in Aquarius opposing Saturn/Pluto in the 4th), extreme vulnerability, (Sun in Pisces) high intelligence (Uranus in Gemini, Mars conjunct Mercury), self-serving motives (Pluto retrograde, opposing his midheaven), and a personality rooted in ruthless authoritarianism (Pluto/Saturn in the 4th), make Mitt a wild horse with no rider, capable of indiscriminate damage in his quest to acquire enough of some suitable substitute for love.

One more thing… If we could see only one more year of Romney taxes, I would like to see the ones he filed for 2005. (Solar arc Pluto conjuncting natal Neptune in 2006) Those would be some interesting returns!

The Orange Juice Oracle.