Grace & Grit - Michelle Obama part 2
Words often used to describe Michelle Obama – engaging, hard-working, intelligent, strong, powerful, persevering, elegant, compassionate. Her birth chart tells the same story. I believe that Michelle is a Capricorn (10) ascendant, which is the most important indicator in a Vedic astrology chart. This places an exalted Mars, the feisty warrior planet, and Saturn, the disciplinarian of the cosmos, as well as the illuminating Sun, all directly on top of her. These planets in the ascendant sign indicate a person’s personality and physicality.
This woman is a powerhouse, with the fiery Mars expressing itself at the highest level. Mars is often associated with war, but when well-placed like this it is about being a peaceful warrior, fighting for justice, defending rather than attacking and using her power to uplift others. At a lunar zodiac level, this is part of the Vedic astrology system that is more subtle than the traditional 12 astrology signs, Mars also rules over Michelle’s Moon. Her Moon is in the sign of Dhanishta which means wealthy in mind and spirit. Dhanishta is motivated by doing the right thing, is as fearless as a lioness, but also a little stubborn!
Progress along the path for Dhanishta is connected to selfless service to humanity, which is perfectly in keeping with Saturn as her soul significator planet. It's likely with this Moon placement that up to the age of 19 Michelle experienced a sense of feeling like an outsider despite having a fairly conventional life.
As with all of us, there are internal challenges to be overcome. With the placement of the karmic axis (Rahu-Ketu) spanning Geminin (3) and Sagittarius (9), for Michelle this is likely a continuous challenge balancing her skills/abilities and purposeful effort. Perhaps a lack of inner validation of her knowledge and intelligence or not feeling understood, which gives rise to over-studying, over-analysing, over-explaining and ultimately leaving the mind unsettled. But she’s not one to give up, Rahu in the house of enemies can overcome any challenge – external or internal!
“Don’t quit too soon” – relationship advice recently given by Michelle and a typical attitude of Capricorn (10) which is ruled by the steadfast Saturn and the planet itself aspects directly across to the house of relationships. In her Capricorn way she is very pragmatic and can’t understand why other people don’t give “realistic advice” about long-term partnerships.
Finally, the beautiful combination of the Moon and Venus in the house of speech, family and food indicates her compassionate side. The Moon is a significator of the emotional mind, think of the ebb and flow of emotions much like the tides which are also under the Moon’s control. Michelle’s chart, indicates that she is a very good listener with the ascendant sign being ruled by the Moon at the lunar zodiac level. The symbol for it is the ear – an ability to truly hear people beyond what they say as well as a personal need for quietness and reflection to honour the inner voice. Her speeches are known to be emotionally appealing as she harnesses her natural empathy and personalises her message. Given that food and speech are both aspects of the same house, this review of her podcast is extremely fitting: “The Michelle Obama podcast is the comfort food you’d expect.”